In the wee hours of the morning, the three of them went back to the city together with the help of Lucas' men. Samantha and Daniel had been sent home and Becca was also escorted to her apartment.
It was already 8 am when they arrived and Daniel had to go to work after he quickly changed his clothes, leaving Samantha alone in the cliffside villa. He was hesitant to leave her there but there were pressing matters to be dealt with at Cho Corporation.
Samantha decided to clean the house to get her mind off all her worries before she prepared to meet Hannah at the Busy Bean Café. Her best friend had been trying to reach her since yesterday but they haven't gotten the chance to talk yet. While getting ready, she had received a text from Daniel.
~
Daniel: [ Everything okay? ]
~
Samantha smiled upon seeing that Daniel was trying to check in on her, it had only been a few hours since he left the house. She tapped her screen to send a reply.
~
Samantha: [ No. =( ]
~
Just a few seconds after she had sent her message, she received a few consecutive texts from Daniel.
~
Daniel: [ What's wrong? ]
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Daniel: [ Where are you? ]
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Daniel: [ I'll go to you. ]
~
Typing in her reply, Samantha felt brave at that moment so she decided to be cute.
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Samantha: [ Someone stole from me. ]
~
Daniel was in the middle of a meeting and when he received Samantha's responses, he got worried.
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Daniel: [ Who did? ]
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Daniel: [ Stole what? ]
~
At that point, Samantha had already giggled for what she was about to reply. She wanted to back out but she had already started it so might as well just go for it.
~
Samantha: [ You. ]
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Daniel: [ Me? What? ]
~
She hesitated before she sent her reply. Her finger hovering over that 'send' button before she closed her eyes and tapped.
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Samantha: [ You, Daniel Cho. You stole my heart. ]
~
Right after sending, Samantha threw her phone on the bed and she screamed as she buried her face on the pillow.
"How shameless, Samantha! You are a grown woman! How could you flirt like this to the CEO of Cho Corporation?!", she cursed herself.
Meanwhile, in a meeting room at Cho Corporation.
Daniel anxiously waited for Samantha's response and as soon as he received it, his eyes focused on her texts.
An audible chuckle was heard from him after reading Samantha's words. His chuckle made the presenter in the front freeze as he thought that the president had something to comment; the rest of the members of the meeting were also waiting for Daniel to say something.
Assistant Ahn who was sitting beside him, called his attention. "President…"
Daniel glanced at Ahn and noticed the other eyes looking at him. He cleared his throat and composed himself.
"Proceed.", he ordered and the presenter breathed again before he continued his presentation.
Daniel clenched his teeth as he tried to keep himself from smiling like a fool. His woman had just made him smile like an idiot in front of his employees. The members of the meeting saw his change in expression and all of them got curious about who their boss was messaging as it was rare for him to smile like that.
~
Daniel: [ Very cheesy. ]
~
Samantha hurriedly picked up her phone to read Daniel's response and her blush became redder when she saw his text. "OMG! How embarrassing! He really thought it was cheesy!"
She covered her face with her hands and cursed herself some more, "Of course it was! Shameless Samantha!"
Her phone beeped signaling another message.
~
Daniel: [ But I like it. Keep at it.]
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Daniel: [ I indeed stole your heart. And for that, you must make me pay. Make me your prisoner and keep me shackled for life, my wife. ]
~
When Samantha read his other messages, her heart fluttered. "You are more shameless than me, Daniel. Asking to be shackled. Tch!", she spoke out loud but smiled after anyway.
…
Busy Bean Cafe.
"How was your trip by the way? I thought you were going to stay there for a week?", Hannah asked as she took a sip on her coffee.
"There wasn't much to do there, so we decided to come home early.", Samantha kept the incident hidden from Hannah like Daniel had told her to. The only people who knew were the people present there plus Lucas and Liam. What happened wasn't something that Hannah should know about.
"What about you? Anything interesting that happened while I was gone?", Samantha probed.
Hannah gulped before she lied, "Nothing much. Just like usual." Hannah didn't know why she couldn't admit to Samantha about her and Seo Joon. It's not like they were doing something wrong but her relationship with her bestfriend's brother was something new and she was still feeling shy about it.
"Mhmm.", Samantha sounded. Although Hannah didn't mention anything about her brother, she somehow had the feeling that their relationship had progressed.
"So... S! Tell me, when are we going to go dress shopping?", Hannah asked eagerly.
"Shopping for what?"
Hannah had a 'duh?!' expression, "For your wedding dress, silly! Have you decided who you're going to wear? Maybe... Monique Lhuillier? or perhaps... Vera Wang?"
Samantha paused and pondered, she had said 'yes' to Daniel about 3 weeks ago but because they were busy with their move to the cliffside villa, she had never started any plans for their wedding. And now that Hannah had asked her, she started to feel pressured.
"Isn't it a bit early to do that?", she asked.
"What do you mean early? Okay wait... have you both decided on the date?"
Samantha sipped her coffee and shook her head timidly.
"Umm... I guess you need to do that first. Do you have a preference on what month?"
Samantha shook her head again.
"Okay... Do you at least plan to get married this year... or...", Hannah had gotten anxious over her bestfriend's responses.
Samantha pursed her lips before she responded, "Um... do we need to get married this year?"
Hannah didn't know how to answer her question. She was just about to ask another one when they suddenly heard a commotion from the counter.
"Where's your manager?!", a high-pitched voice woman demanded.
"Ma'am... I'm sorry, I will just make you another one. You don't have to pay for-", the staff apologized but the customer was still mad. She picked up the tall cup and threw it over the counter and the contents spilled and splashed some on to the staff's arm.
"AAAH!", the staff yelped in pain as her arm got scalded.
Hannah turned her head, "What's happening?!"
Samantha noticed the customer's familiar face and she immediately remembered, 'Is that Hazel? What is her problem this time?!'