Full Circle Chapter 5
After the dining duo had finished lunch and Jaejoong had pouted his way into Isabelle letting him give her a ride, they made their way back to the main office, and went their separate ways from there. Isabelle still had a lot of work to do, and Jaejoong was needed by his band. So, after a quick goodbye, Jaejoong left Isabelle to her mountain of papers and headed to the studio, while Isabelle reluctantly went back to work.
Hours passed, and Isabelle slowly worked the humongous pile of papers down to a small stack. Now she just had to drop a few off here and there and she could start to put her life back together. At about six, she had dropped off the majority of the load and headed to the hospital with the last few papers before she would have to start on the funeral stuff.
When Isabelle got to the hospital, she was saved the trouble of hunting down her family doctor, Dr. Han, for the next set of papers as he was on his lunch break, and had just come back from the downstairs cafeteria. As expected, he knew about the accident, and was more than helpful to Isabelle concerning the medical forms.
"I'm sorry about your loss, Mrs. Lee," he said, "How are you holding up?"
Isabelle sighed.
"I could be better. Right now it's just hard, doing everything by myself, y'know?"
"I understand. This is a stressful time for you, though you seem to be handling it better than some others that I've seen. But I want you to schedule a checkup soon, just to make sure you're not breaking down without realizing it, alright?"
Isabelle nodded. Dr. Han knew what he was doing, so it was best to listen to him. She thanked the doctor for his help and concern, and made her way back to the lobby, where she unfortunately ran into the biggest headache of her married life, Lee Hyori.
Hyori was another actress that Jun Ki had worked with off and on, which wasn't the problem really, but Hyori had become obsessed with Jun Ki, and absolutely loathed Isabelle. Since the day she found out the two were married, she had done everything she possibly could to make Isabelle so miserable that she would leave Jun Ki over it.
"Hey, Bellie!" She squealed. Isabelle hated it when Hyori called her that. The annoying habit had started when she was pregnant with Chin Ho. Hyori had been telling everyone that she was just getting fat, and eventually had everyone on the set using the new name.
"So, Bellie, where's your husband at? Did he leave you for someone prettier, more talented, and infinitely richer? Or maybe he's out with some secret lover?" Hyori taunted, batting her sickeningly long fake eyelashes. It had become a habit of hers to imply to Isabelle that she had been having an affair with Jun Ki, but Isabelle knew better.
"You missed one hell of a party while you were away. Last Friday we had a great time together...."
Isabelle had to fight back tears at Hyori's last statement. Friday was the night of the accident. Isabelle could only take so much crap at once, and this woman was about to push her over the edge. She whipped around, glaring through her tears.
"I don't believe you. I never have, and I never will. And if you had been with him Friday night, you'd be in your grave by now, take my word for it." Isabelle hissed. Then she turned and marched out of the hospital, leaving a very confused Hyori behind her, determined not to let her see the tears about to fall.
Once outside, Isabelle headed to the corner, intending to catch a cab, but ended up catching a passing jogger when he nearly ran over her. The pair stumbled to a stop, the jogger holding Isabelle so she wouldn't fall, but the shock of the collision sent the unshed tears streaming down her face.
"Twice in one day? I might start to think you're following me." Came a voice from above her. Isabelled looked up to discover that it was none other than Jaejoong keeping her from crashing to the ground.
"We really have got to stop meeting like this." He was smiling, but after one look at Isabelle, he knew something was wrong.
"Woah, hey, are you ok?" he asked, pulling Isabelle upright. She nodded, wiping tears from her face. "What happened?"
"The biggest pain-in-my-ass of an actress happened." She growled. "That woman has hated me for years. She just won't give me a break! Just because she had a thing for my husband doesn't mean she has to go out of her way to be rude."
"What woman?"
Isabelle sighed. If she told Jaejoong, and Hyori found out, she'd never hear the end of it. It was best to leave names out of it.
"It doesn't matter, it's over." She told him. Jaejoong frowned. Obviously this was a bigger deal than Isabelle was saying, but if she didn't want to tell him, he wasn't going to press for information.
"So, what are you doing out here?" She asked.
"I like to go out for a run every now and then. Where are you headed?"
"I was actually about to go get my stuff from Mr. Park's house. I think it's about time for me to go home." She admitted. Jaejoong could tell from her apprehensive expression that she wasn't exactly looking forward to going back to her own house.
"Do you want some help with anything? I can give you a ride if you need one, or just, y'know, keep you company for a while. It doesn't look like you're very excited about going back." He offered. Isabelle smiled sadly, shaking her head.
"That's very kind of you, but I think this is something I should do by myself. I have to get used to being alone." She said. Jaejoong reached into his jacket pocket and found a scrap of paper and a marker. After scribbling on it for a few seconds, he handed the paper to Isabelle.
"Look, you do whatever it is that you have to do, alright? But nobody should ever have to be alone. Here's my number, call me if you need anything. If you need a ride, or someone to talk to.....or if you need someone beat up." He joked, grinning again. "Seriously, Call me. I'll be around." he said before he jogged off down the sidewalk. Isabelle put the paper in her pocket and called a cab, wanting to get the next part over with as soon as possible.