One year later

I had finally finished my Korean classes and was fluently able to speak the language with confidence. I called my halmonae often to practice. She was so proud I finally learned the language, and loved hearing from me. I had to admit keeping in touch with her had been great! I had missed her so much, I felt bad that it was only now that I kept in touch.

I finished getting my teaching license, so that I could be an English teacher in South Korea. I sent my application to several schools hiring in South Korea, and finally got hired by a Hagwon(private school) to teach English at an academy in Seoul. The Hagwon even provided me with an apartment and my plane ticket to travel. My parents were reluctant at first, but were excited that I was going home to our mother land. Neither of them had gone in many years, but knew this was a good opportunity for me. According to the email I received from the Hagwon, I would be making enough money to live pretty comfortably out there. It would be the first time I was living completely independent, and the idea thrilled me.

Today would be the last day working for Heather, and I was already feeling emotional as I got ready for work. After Jin left, I transferred back to Heather's company under Skye Inc. It was a bit awkward at first. People still gossiped about me, but I didn't care anymore. It was none of their business what happened that day. Taehyung and Jungkook had moved back to South Korea shortly after Jin left, so I only had Heather. Fortunately, Heather promoted me and I was now her assistant. People treated me differently, now that everyone knew Heather was also my friend, not just my boss. I loved my job, but I needed to go to Jin in Korea. Only Heather knew he had proposed, but since I lost my engagement ring I had no proof of it. Jin's mother made it very clear, I was not to see Jin again andds she changed Jin's number before they left.

•••

After arriving to work, I strolled towards my desk in front of Heather's office. Since it was my last day, I needed to clean out my desk and make sure the new assistant Heather hired was fully prepared to take over my job. The new girl, Eleanor was a fast learner, and I was confident she would do well as my replacement.

I went to lunch and joined Heather in the employee cafeteria.

"I'm gonna miss you so much girl!" Heather confessed sadly as she took a bite out of her salad.

"Me too! I can't believe I'm really leaving!" I said eating the delicious gourmet chicken I ordered.

As I ate, I thought back to the times Taehyung kept in touch over the past year. He was my only source on the progress Jin was making in his recovery. Taehyung had video called me a few months ago, excited that Jin had finally called him by his name and acted almost the way he had in the past. He put Jin on the video call and when I saw his handsome face, I lost my breath. He still looked just as handsome as he did before, but he didn't look at me the same as he used to. He looked at me like a stranger, his eyes cold and unfocused. I smiled and waved saying "hello" to him. He just faked a smiled and asked Taehyung if he was talking to his girlfriend.

Ouch that hurt.

Taehyung awkwardly laughed, "No Hyung that's your girlfriend!"

Jin laughed as if Taehyung had made a silly joke, "Hi, I'm Jin are you Taehyung's girlfriend?"

I couldn't say anything and just smiled back awkwardly. I had really hoped after months he would have at least remembered my face.

"Noona, I'll call you later..." Taehyung said hanging up before things got even more awkward.

"Back to reality Cora!" Heather snapped her fingers in my face.

"Oh sorry." I had completely zoned out.

"I hope Jin gets better soon, it breaks my heart seeing you like this. Finally my best friend was going to have a wedding, which I would be the best maid of honor of course, and then that stupid bitch had to go and ruin everything!" Heather said annoyed as she aggressively poked at her salad.

"Sue pled insanity so she's actually imprisoned in an asylum, but she's gone that's all  that matters." I said, recalling the verdict in the courthouse the day I testified against her.

The Judge actually said she suffered from "affluenza" from being insanely wealthy. Basically growing up wealthy meant she didn't know the difference between right and wrong. It was a bullshit verdict that was made because the Judge was payed off.

"Sue's father sold us back most of the stocks she took and now my company is slowly recovering. I've had some talks with my father and financial advisors on what to do if something like this were to happen again." Heather said, her forehead creasing in worry.

Money was everything to her and her father, sadly sometimes more important than family and friends. I had never seen her so stressed since we had college entrance exams.

"I can't believe she blackmailed the board to sell their stocks to her." I was amazed at the gall Sue had to do such a thing.

"She hired private investigators to track all the board members and find out their secrets to blackmail them. Apparently several of them were having affairs." Heather said disgusted, "Well, I'm excited for you and I hope Jin and you can go back to how things were before."

"I'll miss you Heather!" I cried, realizing this was the last time I would get to have girl talk with my best fiend for a while.

I had never been away from her since we were in High school.

"Me too!" Heather said seeing me cry, she started crying too.

After we finally stop crying and comforting each other we went back to the office to work. To my surprise there was a decorative chocolate cake waiting for me at my desk. With a smirk, Heather called everyone over and made an announcement.

"We're here to say farewell to my best friend and a great worker. You'll be missed Cora, but we wish you best in your future endeavors!"

Everyone cheered, we all get a slice of cake and the day ended on a happy note.