Chapter 175 - Dont Ask Me If I Love You 8: Heart Laid Bare (1/2)

”Mr. Kim? Mr. Kim?”

Peter felt a sharp jab in his rib and he flinched. Annoyed, his eyes zeroed on his editor who was sitting across from him, wearing an equally annoyed expression on her face.

”What?” the writer snapped.

”What do you mean what? I have been talking here for a long time and you were not listening to me,” Jun Kim answered with a false laugh as she nervously looked around them to see if there were people who can hear them.

Ever the professional, Jun refused to call him by his given name when they meet up for business.

”If you want me to listen to you, why don't you just call me Peter Choi like you always do? You're always saying Mr. Kim, Mr. Kim— I thought you were talking to yourself.”

”Haha, funny,” Jun Kim muttered as she frowned at her friend. ”We're outside so this is business. You were the one who chose your pen name so why are you complaining now?” he asked, referring to Peter's alias, Anter Kim. ”Anter” was a mix of his and Anjee's names while Kim was a common family name in Korea where they lived.

”Yeah, yeah,” Peter muttered, choosing to ignore the comment and to start cooperating.

He'd give anything to be able to go back home right now. For hours since he came to this restaurant to discuss the book he just wrote, he had been restless and hadn't stop looking at his watch from time to time.

Ever since that day when he had nearly made love to Anjee, the latter hadn't shown up at his place. She didn't even pick up his calls which made the writer depressed. Since Anj had a habit of popping at his house, Peter hoped that she would do that again and so he had holed up at his place. If it weren't for the fact that he had to discuss the book with his editor and Jun Kim knew that they wouldn't be able to do that at the writer's house for Peter had a habit of spacing out when he's at home and not working, the writer wouldn't have been dragged out of the house to this restaurant.

”So what were you saying?” Peter prompted as he picked up his fork and started stabbing the steak in front of him.

Usually he would be eating with gusto, but at his present state, with his emotions running rampant, the chunk of meat didn't have its usual appeal.

”I was telling you that I've finished reading Pathos,” Jun said, referring to the manuscript Peter wrote. ”I think…”

”It's different?” Peter supplied the word since the editor seemed to be lacking it.

”Yes, it's different but,” Jun's eyes sparkled as she recalled the story which she had finished editing the previous night. ”But in a very good way.”

With this, Peter's brows rose. Jun Kim was an editor, but she's one that didn't give out compliments easily. Saying that the book he had written was different in a good way was something.

”It's the first time I've seen you write something with a romantic theme,” she said. ”Even the beginning of the story wherein the baby was abandoned and she was picked up by a prȯstɨtutė, it was heartwarming and yet heartbreaking at the same time.”

”Really? I guess so,” Peter commented, but he wasn't really interested.