Chapter 3 Meet Daniela

A girl took out a worn-out piece of paper from her bag. She read once again the notification letter she had received from the campus. She looked carefully at the schedule to go to the campus administration officer to make sure she was not mistaken.

She knocked hurriedly on the door. Inside the administration room, her neutrals stared straight at the administrative officer who was busy struggling with documents.

The officer closed his folder of documents as she sat facing him, for a moment there was a sense of awkwardness hanging over her.

"You can't just drop students out!" the girl shouted irritably in the middle of the conversation.

"Then finish paying your tuition fees immediately. The college has relaxed its policies in favour of students like you, students who don't follow the rules. However, you are still stubborn, delaying the payment of tuition fees with various nonsensical excuses. It's possible that you've been spending your parents' tuition allowance on extravagance."

The girl squinted her eyes.

"Sir, your accusation is wrong. Don't lump me in with other students. I'm experiencing financial difficulties at the moment, not deliberately delaying the payment of tuition fees let alone using them for extravagance."

"Then find a way for you to pay it off, Miss. The college has been kind enough to give you some time off but you're still not following through."

This time he pursed his lips.

"Now the college has a new policy for students like you. There is an extra time to pay tuition fees for the next three weeks. After that there will be no more tolerance!"

The girl's blood began to boil.

"Alright sir, I'll pay even before the three weeks!" she grumbled.

Glancing at her watch, she decided to stop arguing with the college administration officer and rushed out of the room.

Remembering her promise to come to The Yonhap News office, outside the campus the girl immediately stopped a taxi that was driving. Sitting in the taxi her thoughts were mixed.

"What do I do now to pay off my tuition fees?!" she screamed.

With confident steps and a smiling face, the young girl who had arrived at the Yonhap news agency building entered the room of Margareth, her boss.

She thought that maybe today Margareth would praise her for her success in presenting interesting articles that could satisfy the readers of The Yonhap News in the past few months.

"So that's the only option you can give me, Ma'am?" he asked, trying to satisfy his curiosity.

"Yes, right now you only have those two choices, dear. You must be willing to let your position be replaced by another freelance journalist or you can be promoted to a permanent journalist, but of course with terms and conditions."

"Can you explain, Ma'am?

"The conditions are that you must write bombastic articles for the headlines of The Yonhap News for at least the next three months. Articles that have never been published, new and fresh themes, even those that readers have never imagined before will certainly be even better, dear." Margareth said at length.

The girl's eyebrows came together with a furrowed forehead, 'Is he out of his mind?'

"But I've been a freelance journalist here for a long time, I've given you a lot of news coverage that has been published in the newspaper. The readers have been responding positively to my writing, but you're going to give my position to those interns so easily?" she snapped and bit her lip in anger.

"I know, dear, but you must also understand our readers need high-quality news coverage and thoughts. Moreover, our newspaper and online news portal will soon transform by starting to target young people, well even though I know you're young too. I don't know, whatever it is, you have to make a choice soon, remember your time limit is not much and the bad news is there are no other options for you, dear. Sorry I'm going to a board meeting, call me if you still have any questions." Margareth said as she left the girl who still showed a look of indecision on her face.

Her hands were clenched tightly. 'I have misjudged you all this time. I thought that you had sided with me all this time. You made a fatal mistake by threatening me and managed to make my day even more chaotic.'

The girl decided to take a break by visiting one of her favourite places.

Inside the Starfield library, which is located inside a mall, Coex Mall and Convention in Gangnam District, Seoul, Louise spent her afternoon. In the library, which has an area of about 2800 square metres, there are 3 bookshelves as high as 13 metres with a collection of books and magazines of approximately 50 thousand, really spoiling Louise's eyes who are known to be bookworms.

Being upstairs instead of reading one of the book collections stored on the shelves, Louise's attention was distracted by another object. The figure of a tall girl standing between the bookshelves managed to steal her attention, even though there were many library visitors passing by at that time.

Her eyes kept glaring at the girl with the bright red scarf while occasionally making the exact same movements as the girl as a form of distraction.

However, it turned out that the girl could sense that she was being spied on. Putting down the book she was reading at random, she hurriedly took a thousand steps.

Seeing that her target had disappeared, she immediately threw the book she was holding among the pile of books scattered on the table and gave chase to the girl.

Feeling unsafe, the girl ran at maximum speed until she reached the underground floor.

Louise accidentally nudged a chair lined up along the edge of the bookshelf that made her body wobble, the girl vanished in circulation.

Luckily, Louise's senses were still able to recapture the girl's figure at the mall's exit.

In her pursuit, she had to be willing to struggle with the hot sun and pass through narrow alleys that made her steps no longer free.

The girl's fast and wide strides made it difficult for Louise to keep up.

Louise started to get out of breath and realised she had lost track of the girl.

With disappointment welling up in her chest, she kicked the pebbles scattered on the road and broke the branches of the trees that had fallen.

Not long after, his auditory tunnel picked up the jingling sound of coins scattering on the ground.

Suddenly, from a narrow alleyway, the woman he was looking for appeared, "What are you doing with me? Why are you chasing me? Are you a policeman catching a thief?"

Louise laughed with rounded eyes.

The girl was standing right in front of her with a defiant look on her face.

"No, it's because I've seen you before, at the Onnuri church during Lucas' sister's mourning procession."

"Really? How come I never realised it?"

"Yes, because we haven't met face to face, I could only look at you from afar back then. That's why I wanted to see you again but you ran away and prejudiced me, I'm Louise."

"Daniela."

"I think you have a special relationship with the Lucas family. I could feel it when I was there."

"Yes, you're right, that special relationship that would never have crossed your mind, Madame."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Do I have to explain that much to you? What business is it that you need to know about it anyway, huh?!"

"I-It's because I'm also Lucas' best friend, is that wrong?"

"Yes, of course, you don't have to know the personal relationships between individuals because to me it's very private, Madam. Are you getting the hang of it?"

The girl with the red scarf walked away without even looking back at Louise.

'Hmm... what's wrong with that girl?' wondered Louise.