355 Friends?

Katherine sat with her grandfather and aunt in the living room with a cup of hot cocoa in her hands. Styles and Amelia already retreated to their rooms for the night, leaving Katherine to have some privacy with her family. 

"How are you feeling now? You should have rested more instead of going out. What if you got sick again?" Grandpa Young lovingly chided. Since Katherine had called in sick yesterday, he had been calling more often to check on her. He had wanted to come and see her, but Katherine told him not to or he might catch the cold.

It warmed her heart now that she had other people apart from Damien and Styles who worried about her. This was what a family was like. They visit you when you're sick and scold you when you misbehaved. 

"I only went to have dinner with… um… my former boss," she lied. She didn't just have dinner with him that night—she even had dessert… in the fire exit of all places. She swallowed the guilt and formed a small smile on her face. "I'm fine now, Grandpa… There's nothing to worry about."

"Good. Good," he said. Next to him, Deborah Young placed the teacup on the table and turned to Katherine saying, "You and Chairman Park seemed to be very close." That was all she had to say. It was as if she was implying for Katherine to confirm the obvious. Which boss would carry their subordinate like that looking so intimate? But she wasn't against it. In fact, it thrilled her to see how close her niece and the Chairman of Crown Resort Group were, knowing that Young Corporation would definitely benefit from their relationship.

Deborah had a smile on her face that didn't mask her curiosity. She carried herself with confidence and had this air around her that Katherine couldn't help but to compare her aunt to Cinderella's stepmother–only she didn't look evil. Wearing a sophisticated business attire, it reinforced her image as someone with power and wealth, who had everything under control as she appeared calm and collected. 

There was something strange about her that Katherine couldn't quite put her finger on. It was weird how she couldn't read her aunt very well, causing her to put her guard up which boggled her. 

"Aunt…" Katherine hesitated, unsure of what to tell Deborah. How was she supposed to answer? Should she confirm her aunt's suspicions or deny it? Honestly, given everything that's going on, it wasn't the right time to announce her relationship with Damien to her family yet. She didn't have any excuse nor had she ever thought of one in case she ever needed to explain her relationship with Damien to her family. Her eyes flitted towards her grandfather and saw the faint amusement dancing in his eyes. She met his stare, and as if he had seen her discomfort, he cleared his throat.

Just when Katherine thought her grandfather would help her let go of the matter, he then asked another question which wasn't so different compared to her aunt's. Not wanting to disrespect him, she faintly smiled and told him part of the truth, "We've been seeing each other lately. We've been good friends after all." 

She lied again, but there was no way she would speak of the whole truth. This was a safer choice. But she wasn't totally lying… She and Damien were indeed friends, right?—friends with benefits? What was she—a teen? She made a mental eye-roll at herself. There were no labels in their relationship right now, and she didn't think they needed to have "the talk" to define what they were. 

It was pretty complicated.

"That's good. Being friends is good," Deborah Young remarked. "I'm glad you're adjusting to your new life very well and I hope that you can spend more time in the company. You've called in sick for two days in a row and you have two days more to rest. I hope you can come back healthy on Monday."

It had only been a week since she came back, and she had only been in Young Corporation for three days. She hadn't really done anything productive inside the company yet as she was held back a lot because of Shadow. With so many things going on in her life, it wasn't a surprise that she got ill yesterday.

"I apologize, Aunt Debbie," Katherine muttered the name her aunt insisted last week—since they were a family. "I'll get plenty of rest over the weekend and report to work on Monday."

"You take your time to heal. Manager Price will understand," Chairman Young said. 

Deborah Young lifted a thick folder from the coffee table and handed it to Katherine, "That reminds me… Michael Price sent this for you."

"What's this?"

"Some files about the projects that your department is working on. He came to my office today, and he asked how you were. Later, he came back with these. He said you can study them when you can while recuperating so you'll be ready when you come back."

"Oh… that's nice of him." Katherine briefly looked at the folder and made a mental note to thank him tomorrow. "Thank you."

"You need to rest, Pumpkin. We'll take our leave." Chairman Young got up with Deborah, and Katherine followed them to the foyer. Katherine pulled him in for a bear hug and whispered, "Thank you, Grandpa… I'll call you soon."

"Mm. You take care."

"You and that young man Damien Park look good together. What do you think about him?" Deborah Young asked in a soft voice.

"I…" Katherine swallowed.

Deborah lightly chuckled, "Oh, don't mind me. I'm just teasing. My daughter Caroline is younger than you but she has no boyfriend yet although she goes on dates often." She rolled her eyes with a smile on her face, making her look friendly as she spoke. "I hope you can settle down and find someone you like. You're not getting any younger, sweetie."

"I'll keep that in mind, Aunt Debbie." Katherine lightly bowed to her as Deborah patted her gently on the arm. She watched the two leave, and then she was alone again. She had no idea why she felt so stiff around her aunt. She could only guess it was because she was never really close to her when she was young. The short meeting was quite taxing for her, but she was glad to see her grandfather.

Entering her bedroom, she checked the time on the clock by her bedside table and saw that it was eleven in the evening. She wondered if Damien had replied to her text messages so she whipped out her phone, but there wasn't any notification. 

Katherine contemplated sending him another text message, but as her thumbs hovered over the text box, she didn't know what to send. He must be occupied at the moment, considering he had so many things to catch up on. If she sent another text, it would only disturb him and he wouldn't be able to concentrate. 

Exhaling out a long sigh, she locked her phone and placed it on her nightstand before she covered herself with a blanket. Just that morning, she had pushed him away, and he was still very understanding about it. And yet an hour ago, they more than made out in the dark stairwell. She let her lust get in the way and allowed herself to be pleasured when she shouldn't have.

'What are you doing?!' her inner voice scolded her, and she gripped the blanket that's covering her body, guilt visiting her once again now that she was alone and in deep thought. However, now she didn't know what to answer. "Yes, Katherine. What the hell are you doing?" she mumbled to herself.

Curling up into a ball, she grabbed a pillow and hugged it as she drifted off to sleep, shutting her inner voice out of her mind.