Catch up: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

Gigi stood in surprise thinking as unbelievable a twist as it may be, Jay was about to kiss her when he collapsed onto her shoulder.

Less than half an hour later, she’s sitting in the hospital anxiously waiting for Jay to wake up.

“Jay,” she starts seeing his eyes flatter open, “You passed out so I brought you to the hospital”.

The doctor shows up with the results. He lacked sleep, ate irregular meals, and had too much to drink to sum it all up. Is something stressing him out? He pushed himself too hard so his brain decided to shut down. The doctor goes on to ask if he’s been experiencing any stomach issues, a topic that jolts Jay out of his stupor.

Right, Gigi! She was telling him her stomach had been bothering her that evening.

“She has stomach issues, can you run tests?” he anxiously asks, part demands from the doctor. Gigi looks on in surprise. She tries telling him it’s just gastritis but Jay knows what he’s going on about. She should get tested.

“No, I had CT scans done recently. It’s just gastritis,” Gigi tries assuring him.

She had CT scans done? Now this is odd, why? The doctor also cocks his head waiting for her response. People don’t do CT scans merely for a little stomach pain or cramp unless there’s a reason.

“But how did you know I had a bad stomach?” Gigi addresses Jay.

“I saw you take medicine often at work,” he tries deflecting.

The doctor suggests they both run tests. These people are odd, might as well check them out.

When done, Jay suggests accompanying Gigi home since his car is there anyway. Pausing at the entrance at her hesitation, he tells her he’s a good person.

Gigi looks at him. He may be a good person but is it possible for her to trust someone and start over?

“I have a boyfriend. He’s your subordinate and I’m in an awkward situation because of what happened today. I bet he’s thinking about this a lot right now so…” Gigi looks away.

“Then tell him to be more thoughtful. Tell him to always treat you more thoughtfully and carefully,” he hails a cab for her, sincere in all the words he says.

He likes her but he won’t do anything she doesn’t want him to or put her in a fix. She only needs to say “no” so, before then, Mino will need to be a lot more thoughtful.

“And as for you, I hope you take your time thinking about it positively. I promise choosing me will be a good choice. I know it’s difficult to prove, but I’m a really good person”.

Gigi looks on speechless for no one has ever treated her like this before. Jay opens the cab door assuring her he won’t go in so she need not fear.

Does he take a second cab and have the driver follow behind hers to ensure she gets home safely first? Yes, he does. Gigi throws a few furtive glances at the car behind along the way.

• ◘ •

She didn’t sleep a wink all night. He didn’t even bother getting into bed.

Hearing the alarm, Gigi starts getting ready for work. She gets a message from Ernie saying he’ll drop off some coffee for her since she’s on his way to the restaurant.

Gigi is appreciative, traffic is so bad yet here is Ernie driving all the way to bring her coffee.

Jay sees them talking outside the building as he’s on his way inside. His eyes once again zero in on Gigi’s smiling face as she interacts with the other man who’s allegedly her first love.

Helen picks up on her brother’s mood, warning Gigi and Mrs. Y that the General Manager is in a terrible mood, and better stay clear.

Mrs. Y glances at the enclosed office across from them, he doesn’t look any different. But Helen assures them he’s not happy and not feeling well.

How does Helen know? Gigi won’t spill the beans but she just doesn’t see how these two siblings resemble each other. She’d never have guessed.

When Mino comes into the office, the atmosphere gets heavy.

He warns the other man to never lay a finger on her again

“Why act up if she was going to walk on eggshells? This is why women need to be stomped on every three days,” Mino spits out to no one in particular as he smokes on top of the company rooftop.

“This is a no smoking area,” Jay’s voice is heard from behind startling the other man. “Office relationships are banned at U&K. Most people don’t know but it still exists no matter how outdated a practice it may be because it affects work”.

Just like how Mino acted today inside the office when he saw Gigi. Jay had been keeping an eye.

Enough with the stupid rules, Mino demands to know if Jay is stalking his girlfriend. Or is it mutual?

“Not everyone becomes an adult with age. Or becomes a man. Women are unhappy when they date a boy instead of a man so for Gigi’s sake, they should break up,” Jay informs Mino who’s utterly taken aback.

Break up? Isn’t Jay out of line?

“Then let’s say it’s because I like her,” he tells Mino who’s rendered as speechless as possible. Either way, Jay takes a couple of steps closer to Mino, he should never lay a finger on her again.

What time is it? Jay grabs Mino’s arms to check the wrist with a watch in a judo maneuver. He didn’t hit her, right? And he’ll not threaten her again, right?

This encounter must’ve done something to Mino for later when Gigi came to find him, she was taken aback at the fact he seemed to let go so easily what happened the previous night.

Gigi wonders if they will not break up over it. Has something changed?

On his end, Mino is preoccupied thinking that he doesn’t have anything on Jay yet. Jay had claimed he saw Mino’s handling of Gigi on his way to the company warehouse.

“Did you go home last night?” Gigi asks him breaking through his mental conversation.

Huh? Mino recalls dropping off Sue at her house yesterday, her kiss on the cheek as a good night. He’d met her after Jay beat him, sharing his woes with Sue who’s always been cute but became irresistible last night.

“Of course. Where else would I go?” he said a bit defensively.

Gigi’s convinced something’s up otherwise he wouldn’t let it go like this.

She resolves this time she won’t let people take things easily from her

She was called into a meeting so she can’t grab lunch with Mino but he should take Sue to have something good, Gigi’s treat.

Handing him her credit card, she asks him to take Sue somewhere really nice. Oh, such a shame Mr. K called her for a meeting!

While she puts into action her plans of getting Mino and Sue together, Gigi doesn’t have that great of a lunch herself. Not that she expected anything of it what with Mr. K being who he is but neither did she anticipate him throwing her out of the team.

The team that is to lead her proposal.

Meanwhile, as Mino orders the most expensive bottle at a prominent restaurant, Sue can’t help but see him in a new light. This is the most decent man Gigi has dated to date. Even though he’s paying for every expensive choice with Gigi’s credit card.

• ◘ •

Gigi left first for the office after that disappointing lunch. She’s determined to fight, the question is how?

Her phone pings, and she sees a credit card transaction posted for a ridiculously high amount. What the…

She’d lived a terrible life because she didn’t know how to fight. Gigi resolves to learn how she needs to stop letting shameless people take things from her.

She won’t let anyone take anything from her this time.

In the office, she gets a message from Jay asking what happened to the proposal she told him about.

Jay had gotten wind of Mr. K making some proposal that bypassed him and going straight for Mr. Abusive (who happens to be some distantly related cousin of Mr. K).

Gigi responds that she’s working hard on it, thank you for following up. She resolves she has to do it on her own even if Jay is more than he looks and can be an advantage.

He asks her out to dinner assuring her it’s not a date so she should give him a chance.

• ◘ •

Later in the evening inside Jay’s car, Gigi asks if he can tell her what this is about.

“I don’t think you’ll ask for help but, still, I want to be helpful. There’s no price,” he clarifies.

“It’s uncomfortable when you act this way,” Gigi tells him.

Why? Does she want there to be a price? How about she just accept a free favor? He doesn’t want to be repaid for what he does willingly. It’s not easy to meet someone like him.

They get to the judo studio, and the chicken delivery guy along with his friend (both Jay’s friends) are already there grappling.

The men rush over to greet Gigi, she’s beautiful. The chicken delivery guy is Dani, his friend is Simon, and they’re both Jay’s friends from college.

Dani asks if she likes judo because he happened to be on the national team’s reserves for Taekwondo but likes judo too!

Jay hands her clothes to get changed into. The surprised Gigi does just that and the next thing you know Jay and Simon demonstrate flipping an opponent in one go as Dani explains the technique.

Grab and flip. Position the foot. Flip!

Why won’t he flip? Jay instructs her to yell louder. Again! With all her strength!

And there goes Dani on the floor. He gets up excitedly, she did it! She did it! Both do a happy dance.

Jay steps in the middle pushing the overexcited Dani away, and gets to the practical part. He’ll be her partner.

It’s not easy flipping him but Gigi resolves to do just that. That’s why she got on the mat.

Judo is all about push and pull. Use your opponent’s strength when you don’t have one, Jay advises. Of course, it’s okay if you can’t fight someone directly. Ask someone who can fight for you for help, someone like him.

Frustrated, Gigi lets out a small exhale, grabs him by the collar, and, with all her strength combined in a surprise move, throws Jay on the ground.

She did it! She really did it! They both lay on the ground, Gigi smiling with excitement.

“You had your guard down a little, right?” she turns to look at him. Jay places a gentle hand on hers, she did a good job.

On the side, Dani turns to Simon. Didn’t Jay tell him not to go too easy on her? He sure flipped a little too easily just now.

tbd

“Thank you for tonight,” Gigi tells Jay as he walks her to her front door.

He reminds her not to forget to shout since she’s capable of fighting well. Gigi smiles at him recalling his words earlier.

Once you’re on the mat, focus only on one thing.

That’s what she needs to do. That’s how she will face Mr. K and the recent threat to have her removed from the team heading her proposal.

The next day, Gigi hands Mr. K a new version of the proposal based on the points he made during their meeting yesterday. She goes far enough to apologize for her behavior yesterday.

Mr. K reluctantly hands her “his” proposal that somehow bears Sue’s name along with his own but not Gigi’s. What, is she surprised? It was originally his idea but now the director will move it forward and there’s simply no room for her name.

Can he at least give her a chance?

Sure, he might consider doing so if she integrates her new proposal with his.

Helen is incensed in the break room after the interaction she witnessed. She gets even more astounded when Gigi reveals his proposal is basically hers with only a few word tweaks.

“So he was just trying to get you off the team? Wow, he’s the worst. How can he work with that terrible mind? How can you stand looking at him?” Poor Helen would like to punch him.

But Gigi isn’t giving up. Judo after all is all about push and pull. Mr. K underestimated her, he yielded his sleeve.

Judo, really? Helen would much rather not think of Mr. K in uniform, it’s a distressing visual.

Actually, Gigi already has a plan and it all involves the supervisor of the proposal, no one other than Mr. Abusive himself.

It’s time to get one evil person out of the game

Everything after seems to go smoothly, the promotions and reports of the new initiative are clever, well-planned, and well-executed. So smooth, in fact, that Mr. K claims to have suggested using Mr. Abusive as the face of all promotions (it was actually Gigi’s suggestion with intentions Mr. K will come to know real soon).

Finally, Gigi sees Mr. Abusive heading to his business trip, the trip that ruined his career in her past life.

Ensuring the past life repeats in the current one for the terrible man, Gigi takes it upon herself to get him riled. It doesn’t take much effort, his pathetic personality is always on the brink of agitation.

She calls him while he gets seated on the plane. Mr. Abusive is annoyed with someone like her being able to reach his number, how the heck did she get it?

Gigi informs him that he’s capitalizing on a proposal that was originally hers and that she’ll file a complaint.

Sure enough, that gets Mr. Abusive super agitated. After hanging up, he calls over the stewardess demanding why someone is sitting next to him.

Does she know who he is? Why is there someone sitting next to him? He enunciates every word as though speaking to an idiot.

“Are you ignoring me now? I don’t believe this. Seriously? This evil little assistant manager thinks the proposal is hers because she wrote it. Now a mere flight attendant is ignoring me?” He uses the magazine in his hand to smack her on the head. She should think about why she gets paid.

All the while, a phone is filming the entire scene.

He finally takes the seat he doesn’t want, calls Mr. K, and very loudly demands that the other man take care of Gigi. Why the hell is she still working on it? So that’s why she went on about making a complaint. He yells that Mr. K should tear that clueless thing to pieces!

Mr. Abusive is in his own world of being wronged and annoyed that he’s completely clueless about the agitation of the other passengers who are wondering why this rude man is on the plane.

He tries picking another fight with another flight attendant who was picking up the tissue he used and discarded on the aisle floor. The manager of the business class crew comes in to take care of the director himself (and save his poor crew members).

However, Mr. Abusive is pissed. When the flight crew manager tells him his seat must be upright for takeoff, he gets up and smacks him on the head with the magazine.

The man attempts to inform him that assaulting a crew member is illegal but Mr. Abusive claims he’s just holding the magazine, the man just “bumped” into it. He smacks him again, and again, and again to make his point.

He then turns to the other passengers and starts yelling at them, why are they doing this to him? How dare they!

Meanwhile, breaking news hit the television screens and the internet that evening. Executive A of U&K caused a commotion on a plane. He had appeared on a variety show and built an amicable reputation until a video was taken and posted on social media.

A shocking truth gets revealed that changes everything

In the following weeks, Mr. Abusive was fired, and the successful proposal that he and Mr. K stole to profit from Gigi was a flop because of his role in it.

Listening to the news up on the rooftop on a late afternoon, Gigi can’t help but feel satisfaction. She flipped her opponent rather successfully. She did it!

Happy with a great view of the sunset and some peace of mind for the moment, she puts on BTS. As she bops with the song, she feels a presence next to her and jumps startled.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” Jay apologizes. He came to tell her Mr. Abusive would be dismissed and Mr. K would be disciplined for stealing her proposal.

Gigi nods with a smile. Oh, she knows.

Jay starts to leave when Gigi makes to stop him in the process dropping her music player. Jay bends to pick it up at the same time she does.

“BTS, I like them too,” he comments.

“To be honest, I want to listen to Dynamite right now, but I can’t find it,” she admits.

“Dynamite is great. I like Spring Day though,” he replies with a smile.

Oh! She also likes Spring Day!

The smile fades from Gigi’s face. She suddenly recalls Jay’s odd behavior, his odd words, his unexpected concern for her stomach, and his warning about people’s behavior changing.

Did he say Spring Day?

Jay’s smile also disappears. Did she say Dynamite?

BTS released Dynamite in 2020 and Spring Day in 2017.

Currently, it’s July 10, 2013.