Untitled Love

Love or friendship

At lunch time, Tina messaged everyone to join her and Rose also got a message "Everyone is invited for lunch at Maple Tree restaurant" .

She felt bad about her best friend acting like a normal person to her.Everyone went to Maple Tree restaurant, which was across the company road.Rose got up from her seat and looked around.

She didn't see anyone, nor Nav and Tina.She was stressed because of her friend. She went to a restaurant and saw Tina, other colleagues, but not Nav.

" Oh, everyone is here already, huh???"Rose said.

"Yeah, we are waiting for you. Why are you late?"

"Ah...I had some problems to fix, so, but I didn't see Nav."

"Ahmm...ahmm...Rose talking about Nav" everyone said at the same time in a loud voice.

She didn't care about them and looked into Tina's eyes and Tina said

"Oh...I forgot to tell Jack to call him to a restaurant. Jack was saying that they had got problems at the restaurant, so Nav went early."

" Really" Rose said, and felt relieved.

"Happy friendiversary", everyone screamed, saying that, and Rose was full of surprise.

"Whattt?"

"Yeah it's been 20 years already."

"Yeah, but did you plan all this till the morning?"

"Ahhh...Dont you like it?"

"I do a lot. I feel so lucky to have a friend like you"

" Let's cut the cake and make a toast."

Rose and Tina cut the cake and David opened a bottle of soju.

Everyone enjoyed it a lot.At the end of the celebration, suddenly everyone looked at Tina's face and the entrance of the restaurant.

Rose also looked at the entrance. She saw Nav there standing.

Tina had already been there and she was trying to say something in his ear, but he only looked at Rose's face, so Tina pulled his hand and took him outside.

Everyone was looking at Nav $ Tina, so Rose distracted the others ,"So how was the meal?"

" It's delicious." A few people said that and few started to get back to work.

Few minutes later,

"It was amazing," David said.

"Ahhh...It was...hahaha" Rose replied with a fake smile.

"Gosh. It's already 20 years. How could you guys manage to stay this long time as best friends?"

"You know....we are meant to be best friends for the rest of our lives."

" That's good,good."David smiled and replied.

They went outside and Nav & Tina were talking something.

Rose told David to go alone. She would come back in a few minutes and enter the middle of their conversation,

"May I know what is happening here?"

"Ahmmm...Rose, you're here...did everyone leave?"Tina said.

"Yeah they did, but first answer my question. What are you two talking about here?"

"She told me not to attend the celebration lunch...." Nav said.

"....But why?Why did you do that?"

"I thought you would feel awkward with him."

"Nooo....why would I? before you told me that Nav was not coming because of Jack's call, but now?"

"No, that part was real, but he was about to come after that, but I stopped him from coming."

"It would be better if he was there with everyone......" Rose replied aggressively and left the conversation.

"No wait listen to me....." Tina was telling her to stop but she didn't stop .

After work, Tina tried to talk with Rose but she didn't speak.They both got off work at the same time, in Rose's car, but didn't talk to each other.

3 days passed and Rose was still not speaking with Nav and Tina.

Nav tried to talk with her but she ignored him too.

Tina said "Tomorrow is Jack's Birthday. Nav & I had planned to give him a surprise.You have to come..you know...that..."

"Nav and you planned what??hahaha..since when were you so close huh???I didn't even notice that.."

"Hey , hey, hey Rose, stop....Why are you being so childish?Jack and I have been working together...You know it's already 1 year...from that point I asked her to make a plan.... That's all."

"Ahh...okay, I will come."

It was Saturday and they got back from work early. The day of Jack's birthday came and the four of them went on a long trip.

They took Jack to a child-care home where he was raised.Jack is an orphan.Jack was fully surprised he went there after a whole 10 years.

The kids from there were preparing to celebrate his birthday.

When he entered from the gate, more than 100 balloons were flying in the air and "Happy Birthday Jack" was written there.

He was told to pop-up the balloon and a bunch of flowers fell on him.He was so happy everyone wished him "Happy Birthday".

The mother of a child-care home had prepared Jack's favorite dish since childhood.Everyone sat in a circle around the round table.Mother brought Galbi, which means "rib," can technically come from pork and even chicken, but when you just say "galbi" sans modifiers, thick slabs of meat marinated in a mixture of soy sauce, chopped garlic, and sugar and grilled over a proper fire.Jack took a bite and "Ahhh...I can't forget the taste of your food..."

"Lets eat" mother said to everyone and they started to eat galbi and other side dishes.

They were so happy.After eating food, they looked around the house. There were huge changes.When, 10 years ago, Jack came there , there was no swimming pool, no big playground, no internet for children. Now they could attend music and sports classes, whichever they wanted. A huge projector for programmes, a weekly pocket money facility, the system had changed a lot.Seeing that, Jack became emotional and cried secretly behind the huge tree which was in the backyard of the hostel but suddenly someone saw him while crying, "Are you okay??"

"Yeah I am good, it's just dust in my eyes so......yaa.."

"Are you sure?"

"I am"

He looked behind him and saw Monika, who was his first love.

"Oh...Monika??"

"Ahhh...David..."

"Long time no see....what are you doing now, days??"

"I have opened a restaurant in a partnership, and I am charged for a restaurant...."

"Obviously, you are the one who should be, as you're no 1 chef in our city..."

"Ahh....you still remember..."

"how could I forget that?"

" OK.....and what do you do??"

"I teach children here, I help with their studies and also am managing director."

"Wow!!!really?"

"Yes.Its already been 2 and half years.....I thought I would meet you....."

" I am here after 10 years ....You know I left a child-care home when I was 16. Now I am celebrating my 26th birthday here with mother Annie and my children & my friends", Jack said in a smooth mild voice.

"Happy Birthday Jack..."

"Thank you...", he replied with a slight smile on his face.

"Mother Annie told me that your friends are taking you here for your surprise birthday party, so I stayed here to meet with you...I feel so happy now."

"Thank you for staying here for me.....", he smiled again .

"No worries, I am here on my own."

"Where is Ace? How is he??"

"We didn't last long. I couldn't move on and I thought I would only hurt him, so I left him...I mean we brokeup."

"Couldn't move on???You were the one who didn't listen to me and left without a word and now you are...."

"Lets forget that past....How about your Jasmine??Is she still...."

"Oh god!!! That's what I was trying to talk about before..."

"I mean is she upset with me??"

" Do you know the truth?and you still left me....??"

"I will tell you in detail. Come to my cabin. Let's have some of your favorite citron tea." They both headed towards Monika's cabin.

Monika made citron tea and they both started their conversation with the amazing taste of citron tea.

"I came here 3 and half months after breaking up with you.When I came here for the job interview, mother Annie told me everything about you, how you ended up with jasmine, and everything....."

Almost 3 years ago, when Jack was working for a food manufacturing company, he had a colleague who was kind-hearted and helpful.He had worked for that for around one & a half years.At that period, Jasmine helped him with everything and Monika was also aware of that. Jasmina also had a boyfriend whose name is Troy from another country, which was in the southern part of Asia, and they were in a living relationship.In her country, living in a living relationship is like a crime. They can't live in a living relationship before marriage, but Troy was against that. He always tried to tell Jasmine that she didn't have to worry about being in a living relationship which Jasmine never wanted to be. He always went against the emotions of Jasmine.She was like a victim of her relationship. She wanted to leave this toxic relationship, but in a few days, Jasmine's parents were planning to come to Korea to visit their daughter from India, and Troy was focused on marriage, but Jasmine wanted to be a top chef.So Troy was planning to tell them what was happening. Between Jasmine and him & asking her parents' approval to get married.She was extremely afraid that he would tell everything to her parents and if they agreed with his words, she would end up with him forever .So, she asked Jack to help her to get out of her toxic relationship.Jack became Jasmine's fake boy that she was cheating with Troy. They both planned to show up in front of Troy as a cheater.They wanted Troy to make sure Jasmine was cheating on him.Troy saw them in a park kissing each other and Jasmine claimed that he was getting fooled and that made him hurt his ego, so he left as soon as he saw that and they succeed in their plan.

On the same day, Troy had sent every voice and video that he had recorded of Jasmine and Jack to Monika.Monika didn't try to listen to Jack's words because she was already not happy with his friendship with Jasmine, so she also had left Jack.

"But we met around November, which is around 8 months ago. At that period you didn't mention anything to me about you. You just told me that you're dating Ace.You two were together."

"Yeah, we were together until that day, when we met with you, we had already broken up.I had already told him that I could not move on and I couldn't use him to forget you, so he understood my situation and agreed."

"That means that was your last day with him??You could have told me that day."

"What would happen if I had told you everything that day??"

"We .....we can get back together and live happily now..."

"What!!!?You're single?"

"Yeah you are my first and will be last..."

"We can live happily now.... we are still young enough to patch up....." Monika replied with a shy face and a slight smile on her face.

"You are single too??......"

They both laughed.Both were so happy they were back together again after almost 3 years.They both wished to be each other's for a long relationship.