Chapter 42: "... I Just Got My First Kiss."
"I'll just settle for princess proud, then. So tell me, why do you want to knock yourself out so bad?" Brad asked.
Grace ignored him completely, and without glancing his way, she stood up to go inside. She came out with two extra bottles of scotch.
"Since you can't afford it, you can keep that one. Just don't touch these ones," She said, pointing slowly to both bottles she had placed on the ground before sitting down.
"So why are you here?" Brad asked, looking at her curiously.
"To drink. Or are you blind?" Grace asked as she opened one bottle and took a long gulp.
"I'll like to be alone, so kindly excuse me," She told him, turning her back to him completely before she started talking to herself.
"Jin, Ki, and Yong... You're all evil bitches!" She said, holding her heart which was still aching because of the conversation she had heard. She had seen them all leaving a while ago, and she had felt like walking up to them and challenging them, but she couldn't. She was Ann Peters at the moment, not Jiang Grace. So this was the best she could do... Talk to herself.
"I loved you all regardless of your faults and shortcomings. To think you all thought so low of me and didn't even have the guts to tell me how you truly felt," She murmured, allowing the tears she had held back earlier to flow freely.
"I'm better off without any of you. Screw you all! You all suck!" She yelled loudly, grateful once again that she wasn't in her own body at the moment.
She sat back and gave a loud belch after gulping down another round of scotch. "Excuse me," She managed to say to herself before giggling.
She never would have done something as mannerless as this in her own body. It kind of felt really good to be free, even though she prayed it would only be for a short while.
She could do anything she felt like, be whatever she wanted, and go wherever she wanted without her mother breathing down her neck.
"I really think you need to slow down. You're going to have one hell of a hangover by morning," Brad suggested when she took another gulp.
"You're still here?" She asked in surprise before turning to look at him for the first time that evening. She frowned when she saw his face.
"Wang Tae-Joon?" She asked, blinking rapidly.
"I told you to stop drinking, but you wouldn't listen. Now you are seeing things," Brad hissed and snatched the bottle away from her. This time she didn't protest or resist.
The face before her wasn't very clear, everything was blurred, but he sure did look a lot like Wang Tae-Joon. It was his fault she was in this predicament, after all. If she hadn't gone on that blasted date with him, none of these would have happened. She would have still had her perfect life... Okay, maybe not so perfect. Zoe, her own sister, preferred Ann to her, and her friends had only been pretending to love her. She thought as she sighed wearily.
"You're really not Wang Tae-Joon?" She asked again, shaking her head as though that would make her vision clearer. Maybe she was seeing his face because she blamed him for everything.
"Yeah, I'm not. My name is Brad," He told her with a charming smile.
"Of course! That boring Tae-Joon would never wear an outfit like this," She said, looking him over.
"Neither would he be at a place like this by this time," Grace said with a smirk as she continued in her long monologue about Tae-Joon.
"I guess he is your ex? I figure he dumped you is why you're here getting drunk?" Brad asked when she stopped to take another gulp.
"Ex? I can never date that obnoxious pig. And dump me? Oh please! He is far beneath me. It will be too much of an honor for him if I date him," She said, lifting her chin in a proud way.
"I see. So why are you so angry with him and seeing him when he isn't here?" Brad asked curiously. She seemed like a very proud person, and he was glad to know the name he had given her fits her perfectly.
She also seemed to have a problem with everyone, and even though he wanted to leave, he couldn't bring himself to, he always felt drawn to strays, and the lady in front of him seemed like a stray to him. She made him want to help her fix things up.
"It's a long story. One you wouldn't believe if I told you anyway," Grace said with a sigh. Her body was beginning to shut down of its own volition, and she tried fighting it back.
"Try me," Brad challenged.
"I'm tired of talking. Tell me about yourself. Why are you up here by yourself?" She asked, struggling to keep her eyes open. Her muscles suddenly felt very relaxed, and she couldn't see the possibility of walking out of the club by herself, not that she was going to tell him that anyway.
"I came this way to search for my aunt. She has been estranged from the family for a long time since she eloped with a stranger she fell in love with," Brad said.
"She eloped to the club with a stranger?" Grace asked in a really slurred voice, making Brad chuckle.
"I think it's time for you to go home to wherever you live," Brad advised her.
"Or I can come with you. Come to think of it. I've never done anything daring in my life, I've never danced in public, I'm yet to have my first kiss, and I haven't done anything out of character," She said, making Brad look at her with a frown.
"You really should go home now," He said with all seriousness. What if it had been another man here with her? One who wouldn't mind taking advantage of a vulnerable lady? He couldn't leave her here. He had to make sure she got to wherever she lived safely.
"What are you doing?" She asked when Brad suddenly stood up and started pulling her up.
"I'm taking you home," He said as he lifted her. Because her legs felt like jelly, her knees buckled, and as he quickly bent to catch her up, their lips brushed.
"I think I just got my first kiss," Grace said with a sleepy sigh before dozing off.
"No. No, you can't sleep now. Wake up!" He told her, slapping her cheeks gently, but she seemed really knocked out. He groaned and cursed his luck as he kept trying to get her to wake up.
He should have left earlier, he had allowed his weakness for strays to keep him there, and now he had himself to blame. He was stuck in a strange country on the rooftop of a club with a lady he knew next to nothing about, not even her damn name.
He had only one option. He would carry her downstairs and get a cab to his hotel. If by the time he got there, she was yet to wake up, then he would either get a room for her or share his room with her.
He wasn't looking forward to the latter option. He had never spent a night in a room with a lady who wasn't his sister without doing anything. This would be the first time, and he wasn't sure he was going to like it.
As he lifted her into his arms and carried her out of the club, a reporter who was feeling down on luck and was trying to cheer up at the club saw him carrying out Grace and quickly took a picture.
The reporter smiled broadly as he thought of the headline "Recently Engaged CEO Wang Tae-Joon Already Having An Affair?" This was surely going to be a hit!
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone