Suho leaned his elbows on the reception desk, waiting for the consultant to give him the schedule for the new massage therapist Dr. Min had referred him to. Today, the doctor had shared the good news that they'd finally achieved their first noticeable progress in the current rehab cycle. He was now officially allowed to drive without the risk of crashing due to a sudden flare-up of pain. Suho had noticed it himself too — his knee had been bothering him less and less. Truth be told, he'd already been driving himself to work for several days. But since Dr. Min insisted he follow her instructions strictly, he'd had to park as far from the entrance as possible. Suho suspected the woman would be genuinely upset if she found out how irresponsibly he'd been behaving. That scolding about the alcohol alone was something else…
Still, his car was waiting for him in the parking lot. He planned to stop by the bakery for some strawberry shortcakes, then head to the river. Today, he and Jia had scheduled a "business meeting" by the Han River. Suho smirked, remembering how they'd come up with a plan together to pry Jia out of her managers' clutches.
"They've packed all my free time this month with photoshoots," Jia had complained when Suho suggested meeting up again. They'd been talking exclusively on the phone for a week and a half by then because their schedules kept conflicting.
"Even Sundays?"
"Especially Sundays. Since I don't have university, they scheduled an outdoor shoot. We'll be running around fields for about five hours until the muhlenbergia finishes blooming."
Suho sighed heavily. He'd never really thought about how busy Jia was, balancing her modeling career with university. He couldn't even imagine how many hours she sometimes had to spend in studios just to get a few shots.
"Oh, actually, next Thursday I have three hours blocked out for personal matters," Jia said, loudly flipping through her planner on the other end of the line. Suho waited patiently, still holding out hope he'd get to see her before winter hit. "Yeah, Manager Soo already cleared it with the company. I think if I work quickly, I could finish up even faster."
"Personal matters," Suho thought. It seemed like the agency kept a close eye on everything Jia did, even controlling her free time. Suho found that kind of treatment outrageous, but Jia seemed to take it for granted…
"Alright, so we're planning our business meeting for Thursday?" Suho clarified, glancing at his watch. His lunch break was almost over, but hashing out the details felt more important than eating.
Over the past week, Suho had learned a few things about Jia: first, she liked to plan everything; second, if something in her schedule got canceled, it usually happened at the very last minute, leaving no time to do anything interesting; and third, despite how busy and tired she was, Jia still reached out to him and called whenever she had a spare moment.
That last point held a special place in Choi's heart. The thought that she found his company interesting left him intoxicated.
He glanced at his watch. Forty minutes until their scheduled time. Outside the rehab center's windows, the sun was slowly setting, trees casting long shadows over the flower beds. The end of September was bringing good weather, but soon they'd be facing a long autumn and the biting wind that seeped into your bones with the high humidity.
After receiving the printout with his new session schedule, Suho turned toward the exit, but he hadn't even taken a step when something small crashed into his bad leg at full speed. Suho immediately realized it was a child and held back the curses rising in his throat along with the waves of pain spreading from his knee up his thigh.
The girl who'd run into him lost her footing and fell to the floor. She looked about five or six. Her long, disheveled hair covered half her face, and the hem of her party dress was stained with something green. Suho was taken aback for a moment, but quickly recovered, reaching out his hand to the little girl.
She shot him a displeased, piercing look and started getting up on her own, brushing imaginary dust off her knees with her little hands.
"Yeong-ah!" a loud woman's voice rang through the lobby. Suho turned his head toward the sound, spotting a woman in a dark business suit.