95. Josh's Promise

“Are you really going to the orphanage?” Ashley was sitting on the sofa in their room when Josh came out of the bathroom.

Josh nodded lightly, “Yes.” Then stepped over to the closet and started picking out his suit.

Ashley woke up moments ago to the noise of water in her bathroom. While still not fully awake from her sleep, she thought she heard it wrong and left it alone. But the sound of running water continued and finally woke her up completely.

All she knew was that there was no one in the apartment. Josh didn't even come home and only dropped her off at the basement. And even though Josh had said he would pick her up to go to the orphanage, her preconceived notion was that he probably wouldn't keep his word—like he always had in the past. But, even if he did, it was still early in the morning and there was no way he would be there already. 

That strangeness of course made Ashley quite scared.

The sleepiness that still lingered and her consciousness that wasn't fully awake influenced her to think of all of the nonsense things. Between a ghost or a thief, one of them formed into a wild prejudice for no good reason in her head.

To be sure, accompanied by courage and dexterity, she knocked on the door and slightly snapped as she said, “Who's in there?!”

Of course her question sounded stupid and ridiculous.

But Josh, who was inside, answered without any curiosity as to why Ashley would ask such a question.

“Yeah? Why Ash?”

When she heard Josh's voice, her suspicions and fears automatically faded away.

Ashley didn't answer and didn't say anything afterwards. Leaving Josh's question hanging. She glanced at the desk clock on the nightstand next to her bed to confirm again the actual time. 

Seven o'clock. And Josh was already in the bathroom without her knowing when the man came and entered.

There was an urge in her to burrow under the covers again and sleep it off a little longer. But the realization of Josh's presence under the same roof made Ashley just roll over and her sleepiness completely disappeared.

Josh's attitude and habits had always been selfish, and had only gotten worse after their return from Paris. If he didn't come home in the morning to shower and change into his work suit, then Ashley would find him suddenly fast asleep next to her early in the morning. Sometimes Ashley would wake up at the crack of dawn when Josh walked in to the sound of the main door, and sometimes she would realize his presence when he just plopped down next to her.

Ashley certainly felt very uncomfortable—even though Josh hadn't done anything to her. But it made her would always rush out of the room and sleep in the living room after waking up to Josh’s presence. But after a while, her body became too tired and sore, so she pretended not to know and continued sleeping in her own bed.

And in the midst of such a situation, it was actually Josh who was cold to her first—just because she was angry with his girlfriend for sabotaging their vacation.

Then when Ashley took turns being indifferent and ignoring him, he didn't take it well and ended up revealing the whole tragic story with his girlfriend.

Ashley has no problem sympathizing with Josh and his girlfriend's situation. But tracing what has happened between Josh and herself, Ashley just realized that Josh is the only one who always demands understanding from her. Meanwhile, she had never asked for anything and also had nothing tangible to gain—other than the preservation of their reputations.

Finally, she got up from the bed and sat on the sofa by the window of the room while deeply contemplating the whole thing.

The location of the orphanage run by her family's foundation was quite far away. It was a two to three hour drive. But that didn't mean they needed to get ready this early.

But Josh that coming out of the bathroom and looking completely intent and excited to go to charity that day, just made Ashley even more confused. 

“You can get ready,” Josh glanced at Ashley. “I might not be able to drive fast due to lack of sleep. We should leave early so that we can travel at a leisurely pace.”

She heard Josh explain himself something that Ashley didn't ask or want to know.

One other thing that she could finally conclude, was that she could not easily understand what Josh was doing.

Because no matter how much Ashley thought, that morning, she didn't expect him to actually keep his word. Either maybe it was because he was tired of being entangled in various problems, or he just wanted to act well in front of Ashley’s family to steal the sympathy that he had lost.

Besides, Ashley was actually tickled by curiosity whether it was okay for Josh to leave his sick girlfriend. And whether the girl really allowed Josh with full awareness and a wide heart, because in a way Ashley was worried that Josh's absence near her would provoke her emotional instability again. Ashley certainly didn't want the demands made by her mother to be the reason the girl did such a terrible thing again.

But somehow Ashley felt it was better to swallow her curiosity and leave it at that. Because it was none of her business anyway. And she didn't need to share her worries too much to be obvious.

“Hello, Miss Ashley.” Mrs. Yoon, the manager of the orphanage, was ready to greet Ashley in the courtyard when their car entered the area and parked. Then when she saw Josh beside Ashley, she covered her mouth, and corrected her words. “Oh, I'm sorry. I shouldn't call you that anymore. You're married now.”

Ashley smiled awkwardly. “You can call me anything, Mrs. Yoon.” She then turned to Josh to give him the brief information that Josh needed to know. “This is Mrs. Yoon. She's the head of this orphanage.”

Mrs. Yoon then bowed to give her respects to Josh.

“I've been here even before Miss Ashley was born. I'm very old now, but Madam Song still won't let me go.” 

“You still look so young, Mrs. Yoon,” Josh said with a little pep talk.

Mrs. Yoon laughed crisply at that. “Come on in, I've prepared some snacks. We can have a little chat while waiting for the big madam to arrive.”