Pleasure Seeker | pjm

I toss my clothes across the room as I rummage through one of my packing boxes trying to find my best pair of black-cropped ankle-grazing trousers. I mutter profusely under my breath as I delve deeper and deeper into the abyss of clothing.

This is the last thing I needed on a Monday morning. I start my new job today and at this rate I’m going to be late. I sigh in exasperation as the damn trousers have yet to surface.

I stop momentarily as I sit on my bedroom floor. I look around the bleak and empty room filled with cardboard boxes and it dawns on me this is my new life. I’ve just moved to Seoul from the UK, I’m a fresh graduate from Art College and I’ve managed to bag an amazing opportunity as a designer for one of the biggest design houses in South Korea. A small smile creeps onto my face as I look once more at my surroundings.

My new apartment is chic and minimalistic. The interior is neutral, which allows the inhabitant to jazz it up however they like without too much conflict from the provided interior.

I snap out of my daze as my eyes land on my alarm clock. I’m definitely going to be late. I leap up from my seated position and dive back into the box tossing items of clothing every which way in an attempt to locate my trousers as soon as possible.

Somehow my strange and messy attempt to find my trousers pays off and I grab a hold of the material as I yank it from its hiding space, shoving my legs into the trouser legs and pulling them up my petite frame. I fasten the button and pull the zip up effortlessly and I’m thankful that I’m now dressed.

I walk over to my full-length mirror to admire my completed outfit only to be disappointed at my appearance. My once perfectly straightened hair is now tousled, my baby hairs are either sticking up at awkward angles or stuck to my brow from my sweaty forehead. This is disastrous. I roll my eyes into the back of my head as I walk to my en-suite bathroom, the lighting in here doesn’t do any justice for my already dishevelled appearance and I almost want to blubber at the sight.

I was singled out as the next best upcoming designer at the London Awards Show for Young Designers and here I am looking like a complete disaster. I comb my hair out and dab my forehead with my towel. I turn to look into the mirror, and I’m pleased with what I see, I look like a relatively normal human being and I’m happy about it. I chuckle to myself as I realise, I’m the farthest from normal as you can get, all you have to do is ask Lucy – my best friend – and she’d tell you I’m as whacky as you can get!

I touch up my makeup where beads of sweat from my earlier excavation had surfaced and caused craters in my once perfectly seamless makeup. I walk back into my bedroom and pick out a pair of black heels and slip them on my feet.

Lifting my head up I notice the bombsight that is my room. It looks like a warzone. Somewhere children would thrive and build forts or play tag, somewhere as a child I would have loved to play. It’s chaotic!

I would have unpacked over the weekend like I had planned if only my luggage had arrived on time. My luggage was supposed to arrive on Friday afternoon, which would have given me ample time to unpack and organise myself over this weekend. However, the shipping company I trusted with delivering my possessions had other ideas.

A series of disasters struck me over the weekend, from the moment I got a call late on Friday night informing me that my luggage was shipped to a completely different location – and by completely different, I mean a different country all together – to the driver going on strike when it arrived here in Seoul on Saturday, meaning my luggage wasn’t delivered until late last night, and even then it was a struggle as the company for compensation to me had to hire an external chauffeuring company to just get my luggage to me. An upside to it all was that I didn’t have to pay as much for my shipping for all the trouble that happened.

I sigh as the revelation of having to unpack when I get home hits me. It’s definitely going to be a long day. I glance down at my watch; it’s 7:48am. Shit!

I’m going to be late. I grab my coat off of my bed and scurry off into the kitchen to grab my pre-packed handbag on one of the bar stools. I already put a granola bar into my bag last night knowing I’d most likely be leaving in a hurry.

I get off the bus and cross the busy street. It’s now 8:20am and in 10 minutes my day officially starts. I approach the tall, shiny, futuristic building and it takes everything in me not to let my jaw drop. The building must be at least 50 stories high, its exterior is covered in glass and accented with metal, making the building a shiny beacon. As I approach the front doors a concierge smiles and bids me good morning as he steps to the side and opens the door for me. I smile and reciprocate his greeting, bowing my head as a thank you.

The entrance lobby is plush and gorgeous. A simple minimalistic design allows the artwork hanging from the walls to stand out. This really is a design studio. I walk over to the reception desk to announce my arrival.

“Good morning, how may I help you?” Behind the desk is a pretty middle-aged lady; she smiles at me and I notice her kind features, the company has really taken every little detail into consideration, she makes a perfect receptionist to welcome people.

“Hello, good morning. I’m Jasmine Cheah. I’m a new employee for Mr Kim’s design studio.” My voice is a little breathy as I gather my thoughts. This place is incredible. I’m in awe.

“Hello Miss Cheah, Mr Kim is expecting you. It’s the lift on the left over there,” she stands from her seat and gestures with her hand in the direction of a lift situated on the left side of the lobby. “Mr Kim’s studio is on the 20th floor. I will notify his secretary of your arrival.” Her continuous beaming smile never once faltering from her face. She’s very well trained. “Thank you.” I bow my head at her as I make my way over to the lift.

The interior of the lift is deliriously good – as far as lift designs go – a large mirror takes up the back wall and extends to the ceiling. The buttons are embossed and illuminate when pressed. The traditional oriental patterns on the walls accented with gold, give a luxurious feel and the black and cream marble flooring gives a clean and polished look. This is a high-class studio and everything about the interior screams it too.

I arrive at the 20th floor, an automated woman’s voice announces my arrival and as the doors open a team of people greet me. I stand still in the lift wide-eyed at the sight. “Welcome to Kim Associations.” A tall man with an attractive boxy smile greets me. He’s incredibly handsome and I’m taken aback. He walks towards me his arms outstretched; I awkwardly step out of the lift towards him as he clasps my shoulders with his big hands. I glance down at his hands and notice their long thin structure – they’re incredibly beautiful hands; crafted by an artist, the softness yet boldness of his hands makes me imagine that everything he touches turns to gold – except me.

“Hello, Ms Cheah. It’s so nice to finally meet you in person. My representative Chiu spoke so highly about you when he attended the London Awards Show in London last spring.” His voice is deep and even. It sends a shiver down my spine.

“Thank you, Mr-” I falter, as I don’t actually know his name.

“Mr Kim.” His name rolls off his tongue like liquid gold and I feel slightly stupid that I didn’t realise that the God-like man standing before me is in fact the owner of this whole building let alone this studio. I blush and lower my head, if it was just the two of us, I think I could quickly recover from the embarrassment but the whole department was standing behind him.

“Don’t worry Ms Cheah, I wasn’t expecting you to know who I was, we’ve never met before.” I raise my head to look at him once more, his kind words making the embarrassment more tolerable.

“Come, let me introduce you to the team.” He releases my shoulders and instead glides one hand around to the middle of my back as he gestures to the first group of employees.

I kindly smile and nod my head along as a greeting, giving small ‘hellos’ and ‘nice to meet you’ comments here and there. All the employees are well presented, from their appearances to their manners. They’re all gorgeous people.

After the introductions are over with, all the members of staff disappear back to their desks. It’s a spacious open office. The big windows surrounding the office let in large amounts of natural light making the area look friendly and somehow healthy.

“This is your desk; I hope that it is to your liking.” Mr Kim gestures towards a large desk with its own MAC desktop and office phone, the stationary is perfectly and neatly placed. There is even a little cactus on the desk to make it feel homier.

“I hope you don’t mind; I thought the desk needed a little something.” Mr Kim gestures to the little potted plant and I smile adoringly at it. “I love it, thank you so much Mr Kim.”

“No worries, I will check up on you later in the day, in the meantime my secretary will deliver you a list of clients that our previous employee Lee managed. If you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to ask.” With that Mr Kim leaves back to his office which is up a spiral staircase, it’s a glass office which allows anyone and everyone to see him and more importantly for him to see us.

I walk around to my side of the desk and place my handbag in the bottom left and drawer. I take my coat off and hang it over the back of the chair. I switch the monitor on and take a seat – the chair is cushioned and soft, the back perfectly moulding to mine allowing me to sit up straight. I stroke the dark wooden desk, the varnished wood smooth and unblemished runs perfectly underneath my fingertips. This is luxury.

“Um, hi.” I swivel around in my chair to be greeted by another tall good-looking man; I recall briefly being introduced to him. He’s wearing a bright pink shirt and I instantly smile. “Hello.” I greet him.

“Hi I’m Jin. I’m your neighbour.” He neighs like a horse as he says the word neighbours causing him to laugh hysterically. As he laughs, he sticks his hand out to me as a greeting. His laugh reminds me of a windshield wiper and it instantly sends me into a fit of giggles. I take his hand and shake it gently in mine.

“Nice to meet you Jin, I’m Jasmine.” I quickly calm myself down as I notice a few eyes darting towards me.

“Don’t worry about them, they’re just jealous that they’re not laughing with us.” Jin rolls his eyes at his statement, causing me to let out another series of giggles.

“I know we’ve only just met, but would you like to come out to lunch with us?” Jin gestures to two girls sitting across from us, I look over and notice them both smiling at me. I kindly accept their offer and meet the two other girls – Ji-Hye and Chloe.

The day goes by pretty quickly and before I know it, it’s almost 4:00pm. Lunch was great, we went to a Korean BBQ place just around the corner and I got to meet my colleagues a lot better.

Jin is incredibly handsome and also completely and utterly gay. He’s a big drama queen and loves the attention. He also happens to only be 24 and had a similar experience to me. His talent was spotted by one of the company’s representatives except he was here studying in Seoul.

Ji-Hye is pretty, except she wears a ton of makeup, she grew up in the States and is quite westernised with her fashion style. Another big thing I’ve come to know about her is that she’s one of the loveliest human beings and has a leopard print obsession.

Chloe is sweet and very shy. Some might call her plain, but I think it adds to her charm. She seems very innocent and doesn’t talk much, she’s very intellectual and when talking to her I almost feel as if I need to be on my best behaviour or I’ll get told off.

The main topic of conversation was about clients, nothing personal only that there are some pretty famous clients that come to the studio and some are friends with Mr Kim. My Korean is a little scratchy at times so some of the conversation was lost to me. I do believe that they talked about a certain client whom all of them were absolutely in love with for his good looks and charm. I silently nodded my head as I listened to them.

I also learnt about Ji-Hye and Chloe’s crush on Mr Kim. I don’t blame them either. He’s a good-looking young man that is single, owns a reputable business and can sweet talk, and charms anyone.

I snap back to reality when I hear my name being called. “Mr Kim?” I stand from my seat and slightly bow at him, how long has he been standing there?

“I hope I’m not disturbing you?” He looks around the office and I notice his eyes hover over both Ji-Hye and Chloe, both of whom are staring at him in awe. I slightly turn my head and notice Jin on the other side of the office holding some proofs staring in this direction too.

“No, not at all. How may I help?”

“I just wanted to check how you were getting along?” He reverts his eyes back to mine and I instantly blush.

“Perfectly fine, I’m enjoying myself immensely.” I’m telling him the absolute truth. I’ve really enjoyed my first day. I’ve not only made some incredible friends but the work is good and I’ve contacted most of my clients already.

“That’s great, that really is. I do hope that you will tell me if there is anything I can do to help.” I smile and nod in response, thanking him as he smiles back at me. Damn, he is a good-looking man. I wander how old he is?

Thankfully before the words escape my mouth involuntarily, Mr Kim’s secretary rushes up to him and mentions something about a Mr Park arriving for an emergency meeting. I recognise the name from somewhere but before I can comprehend the situation, Mr Kim is walking away with his secretary towards the lift.

Suddenly, the lift door opens and out walks the most gorgeous man I think I’ve ever seen, closely following him are two men dressed in black – security. He’s tall, not as tall as Mr Kim but tall non-the-less. He’s stylishly dressed in a mid-grey suit that has been perfectly pressed. His hair looks soft and voluminous; his ashy brown hair with a hint of blonde is perfectly moulded and frames his face wonderfully. His face is stunning, his beautiful features are delicate yet striking and his lips are just something else – perfectly pink and plump and make my full lips look like a thin line.

I watch as the man known as Mr Park effortlessly glides across the office floor meeting Mr Kim. For a split second I am convinced that Mr Park and I connect eyes and instantly look away, sitting down in my seat so that I can hide behind my computer monitor.

Mr Kim walks over to Mr Park and embraces him in a firm handshake, it’s different the normal ‘hello, nice to meet you again’ it’s a handshake that good friends have. They know each other.

I eye them as they walk over to Mr Kim’s office, and it suddenly dawns on me who Mr Park is and where I’ve heard of him before.

I’m so focused on the two men that I don’t notice that both of them are now in his office and they’re both looking directly at me. I know this because I can hear Jin talking about it in the background and that’s when it clicks. Mr Park is the one they were talking about at lunch, when I couldn’t quite understand them.

And right now, Mr Park is in Mr Kim’s glass office pointing right at me. I freeze for what feels like an eternity before deciding it is time to go. I look away and pack my desk up for the day. Putting my coat on and grabbing my bag I take one last look up at Mr Kim’s office before heading for the lift and notice the drop-dead gorgeous man still looking right at me, and it makes my knees weak. It takes all the strength I have to break eye contact with him as I wobble my way out of the office behind Jin, Ji-Hye and Chloe.

That man isn’t human, he’s deadly and I’m proved right when I step into the lift and look up – he’s still staring but this time I notice the smirk on his face, not once has his eyes strayed away from me and I’m left feeling a little uncomfortable. Who is Mr Park and what’s got him so captivated?