3. Would You Kiss Me?

Loud music boomed to greet Ronald when he entered the building which was bathed in colorful light and filled with lots of people. Ronald had to hold back his annoyance when he had to break through the lots of people who were prancing happily to the rhythm of the beat which was turned on loudly there. Ronald's thick eyebrows knit together, showing how depressed he was with the atmosphere at that time.

"Ronald! Right here!"

A voice that Ronald recognized made him quite relieved because he didn't have to bother looking around like a lost child anymore. Four meters from where Ronald was standing, more precisely on the edge of the dance floor, Louis---his best friend--was waving at him from one of the tables filled with three other men. Ronald smiled a little while his feet steadily walked towards them. The other three men immediately turned their heads when Louis shouted Ronald's name. They looked as excited as Louis waiting for Ronald's arrival.

"Hey, long time no see, Ronald."

"Where have you been all this time?"

Ronald was greeted with a flurry of questions from William and Smith when he sat down with them. But instead of answering, Ronald chose to give a high-five first. When Ronald also high-fived with Noah---one other man, Noah joined in asking, "The more importantly, how could Lois force you to come here? When you always reject our invitations, huh?"

Louis who was sipping his whiskey choked. He lowered his glass and glared disapprovingly at Noah's words. "Hey! I told you before, he wanted to come here by himself! I never asked him nor forced him, okay?!"

Seeing Noah squinting, looking still in disbelief, Louis continues to ramble on about the real truth. He and Noah even had a small argument. Ronald just laugh at them, who had always loved arguing, while William and Smith shook their heads in unison.

"Louis is right, Noah. I called him and asked where he was." Ronald finally opened his voice. He accepted the glass of whiskey that William handed him before continuing, "When he said he was here with you guys, I offered to join in, and he agreed." After the explanation was finished, Ronald immediately took a sip of the whiskey.

Louis immediately showed Noah a triumphant look in his eyes. Noah just snorted and chose to ignore it, preferring to reply to Ronald's words, "Was your pops allowed you here? Or ..." Noah narrowed his eyes again with a meaningful smile, "Don't tell me that you ran away from him, Ronald?"

Noah is the type of person who is very suspicious and often cannot believe it right away. But this time, his suspicions were right on target. Ronald almost choked at the question.

Ronald laughed strangely while he lowered the glass from his mouth. Of course it was embarrassing to admit that, so he quickly shifted the subject, "By the way, how's your company, Louis? Everything's going well?"

Ronald's efforts were not in vain. Louis, who was easy to work with, immediately understood Ronald's eye signals. Ronald looked at him be like, "Save me from Noah's questions!". Louis nodded in understanding and immediately answered loudly, "Of course it's fine! Becoming a CEO isn't that hard, Ronald! Hahahaha!" He also laughed loudly at the end of his speech.

Succeed! Louis' words succeeded in luring Noah out of his question before. Noah switches to responding to Louis instead of continuing to interrogate Ronald, "It's hard for your company, I bet. A CEO still has time to spend every night at a nightclub? Unbelievable." Noah shook his head.

William and Smith laughed together with satisfaction this time, while Ronald only smiled a little. Among them, only Louis that had already become a CEO and officially inherited his family's company. Even though Louis looks frivolous and silly, this man is actually good at running a company. Ronald, Noah, and William even got a lot of help from his company, especially in getting big projects with important investors. While among them, only Smith that has a different profession. He chose to become a composer who has more free working hours. That's why Louis doesn't accept Noah's accusations earlier, because actually, the one who spends mord time at nightclubs is Smith, not him.

Smith had intended to avoid Louis, so he quietly excused from there. He tapped William and Ronald on the shoulder, while winking indicating that he would join the dance floor. William snorted and waved his hand telling him to leave, while Ronald nodded and smiled a little.

After Smith left, Louis and Noah apparently still argued sometimes. Ronald finally just talked with William. As usual, they talked about the development of their respective companies or about women. Even though Ronald wasn't really interested in the last topic, he still wanted to listen to William's stories about the woman that he was courting.

Meanwhile, at the bar in five meters from their table, two women were seen toasting their first whiskey at that night. In three big gulps, the whiskey in each glass was gone. They both grinned in satisfaction then.

"This isn't too bad, right?" The woman who asked this was Suji. She glanced at Kim who was sitting next to her with a mischievous glance.

Kim didn't reply. She prefers to thrust her empty glass at the bartender to refill it. Kim really wants to get drunk this night.

Seeing her friend like that, Suji giggled proudly and patted her shoulder. She also handed the glass to the bartender. In between that, Suji's eyes involuntarily glanced towards the west. Her gaze fell on the two men sitting at the table closest to her and Kim. Suji smiled knowingly. So on, she just stood there staring at the handsomeness and strong masculine aura of those men. Suji didn't even realize that her whiskey glass was full, making Kim, who realized her best friend's strange behavior, frowned in confusion.

"What did you see, huh?" Kim finally joined in staring in the same direction as Suji. She looked around.

"Seeing opportunity in narrowness," muttered Suji later. Her eyes were suddenly clouded by a cradle of fantasy. She seemed to be getting drunk.

Instead of understanding of that words, Kim was even more confused.

"This sucks!" Then, Suji suddenly put down her glass with a bang and got up from her chair. Kim was surprised by her friend's sudden movement, especially when she saw Suji's gaze, which now looked full of determination. "The men need us, Kim! Come on!"

"WHAT?!"

Kim is late. She didn't have time to digest what Suji meant or reject when Suji grabbed her hand by force and pulled (read: dragged) her towards the two men that Suji had been targeting before.

Kim held her breath. Suji was crazy! Before they got to the club, Kim had warned Suji to not to invite any boys when they were already at the club. Suji really likes to call her male friends to join them whenever they're having fun here, and Kim don't really like that. But, Kim doesn't know whether Suji's actions now are right or wrong. Suji did keep his promise to not to call any boys, but this woman instead came to random men without Kim's consent. And of course this one is so worse than the first point!

Unfortunately, when Kim managed to release Suji's grip from her hand, they had arrived beside the men's table. Kim sighed.

"Hello, guys! Just the two of you? Can we join in?!"

With a confident smile, Suji asked without any awkwardness. The man who looked up at her was a handsome man with blond hair and blue eyes. Suji was stunned to see him. Meanwhile, the other man looks very serious on his cellphone and doesn't look up at all. Glancing at him, Suji frowned disapprovingly.

"Hey! Em ..., we're not alone actually, but you can join, guys! Come on!" Louis smiled enthusiastically welcoming Suji's arrival. This man is indeed very friendly and too friendly. Since Smith, William, and Noah are having fun on the dance floor, Louis doesn't mind accepting new people.

Suji who got the approval immediately rushed to sit beside Louis. She then turned to Kim who looked reluctant and glared fiercely at her best friend. "Why are you still standing, Kim?! Come on, sit down!"

"Yes! Sit beside Ronald! You don't mind, Ronald?" Louis asked.

'What? Ronald?' Kim, who had previously rolled her eyes in another direction, was suddenly stunned to hear that name. She blinked briefly before slowly turning towards the man that sitting in front of Louis. Kim squinted, she even bent down to be able to recognize the face that was looking down at the cellphone.

"Yeah, whatever."

Kim glared. Her heart seemed to stop beating for a moment when the deep voice finally sounded.

She knew that voice! That's Ronald J. Gavel! Her boss!

While Kim quickly looked away again, Louis smiled smugly and once again called her to a seat.

Cold sweat rolled down Kim's forehead. How come nothing is going well today? Kim might still be able to contain her feelings of her diagnosis this morning, but she couldn't be fine when she met her bos in this place! What should she do? Did she just run away?

Kim subconsciously bit her fingernails. She muttered various kinds of swear words to Suji without a sound. Suji doesn't seem to recognize Ronald because they work in different divisions. It's rare for employees in other divisions like Suji to recognize Ronald even though Ronald is the grandson of their CEO, it's because Ronald never talked about his background and hardly ever showed himself around John J. Gavel. But still, Kim would completely blame Suji for trapping her in such a dire situation like this!

"Hey, it's okay. Sit here."

Kim held her breath.

That sound!

Ronald just spoke.

Kim once again blinked while she glanced tentatively at Ronald. That man looks at her. However, his expression was so normal, not like Kim who was beyond shocked. Ronald handsome face was straight as usual and his smile was absent, but Kim was sure she had heard a hint of friendliness from Ronald's voice just now. Yes, just a little. And maybe, that's why Kim finally wants to sit beside him---of course within a safe position.

While Ronald chose to be busy again staring at his cellphone, Kim secretly glanced at that cold man.

"So ... Mr. Ronald doesn't recognize me?" she thought. She then swallowed hard. "I know the rumor that he doesn't memorize the faces or the names of his employees at all, but is that real? Can I be more relaxed now?" Kim kept asking herself.

Gradually, Kim relaxed her vigilance and worries, this was also because Ronald didn't seem interested in looking at her anymore and wasn't even interested in anything around him. Kim was finally able to breathe more regularly. Then, she had a drink with Louis and Suji and occasionally chimed in on their conversation. Louis, who likes to talk about anything, immediately gets along with Suji, who also likes to talk about everything. In the end, Kim couldn't talk anymore because she was too tired. She chose to remain silent but still sipped the whiskey in her glass. After a while, Kim's vision clouded. All right, she's getting drunk now.

"Hey, Kim! Me and Suji are going to the dance floor. Is it okay if you sit here?" Louis asked Kim who was half conscious. "Ronalds with you, okay?!"

Kim turned her head. She saw Suji engrossed in holding Louis' arm like they were officially dating. Kim snorted when Suji showed her a mocking smile, and that belike, "You suck, Kim! Look! I've succeed to hook this handsome man!"

"Yeah, just go!" Kim said curtly. She waved her hand telling Louis and Suji to leave, then she poured whiskey into his glass and downed it all. No one knows how much of that fluid has entered her body. Kim even didn't care.

Without Kim realizing it, Ronald had actually been glancing at that woman. In fact, he just uses his cellphone as an alibi. Does Ronald know Kim then? Abviously, yes. Ronald had memorized Kim's face and Kim's name since seeing her in their division room this afternoon. Ronald couldn't even believe that the memory still stuck in his head when his brain was always diligently filtering out unimportant things all this time.

"Ugh, shit! I'm drunk!" Between drinks, Kim growls.

Ronald now looked at her perfectly and started to put his phone away. His gaze was completely fixed on Kim. "Yes, you're drunk."

Kim stuttered when Ronald's strong hand suddenly pulled the whiskey bottle which she was about to pour back into the glass. Kim looked up annoyed.

"You're drunk, so stop."

Ronald's face when he said that was still very flat without expression. His voice was cold and sharp like a threat. But if Kim would usually look down in fear, this time she actually smiled scornfully. "Hey, Ronald!"

You can be sure that Kim was 100% drunk! If not, she wouldn't have dared to point at Ronald's face like she was now.

Kim's forefinger, which was right in front of his nose, made Ronald blink in surprise. He never even imagined that he would hear the snapped from Kimberly Park, which is his own employee. However, Ronald chose to stay silent waiting for what Kim would do. In the dim light, he involuntarily smiled a little.

"You, Ronald!" Kim snapped again. His brows furrowed fiercely. "You know what you did wrong now?!"

Ronald was silent for a moment. "No," he replied then.

Kim chuckled. "You don't recognize me, Ronald! You should recognize me! I'am your employee!"

A small chuckle escaped Ronald's mouth. He had to try really hard to stay cool. "Oh, really?" he replied again.

Kim looked even more upset. His forefinger finally lowered, but he still maintained his fierce gaze on Ronald. Kim's honey-brown irises were slowly sinking into Ronald's jet-black irises. The previously laughable atmosphere before suddenly turned intense. Neither Kim nor Ronald took their eyes off from each other. Kim didn't know what Ronald was thinking though, nor did Ronald know what Kim was thinking about. And then, Kim started to say,

"Hey, Ronald. Would you kiss me?"

***