Author's Note: So after working on original stories, I have also been helping my mom rearrange her room. We pulled up carpet, exchanged furniture, and watched football. We really have no lives outside of work and the house so spending time with her even if it meant getting dirty was fun. She told me she asks me to do stuff because I don't fight with her. It's really weird sometimes.
Also! Give me some more story ideas. I will watch any drama you refer and see if a story comes to mind. I need to find some more shows to watch besides variety shows.
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Young Do walked on to campus with a light heart. His mother had moved into his house so he wouldn't be alone now that his dad was being held in a cell. His classes had been confirmed for the business route at his university. Now all he had to do was go to class and behave (his mother's words).
He watched all the upper classmen walk around like they owned the place. They were all too busy to notice any of the freshmen anyway, even the rich ones. Young Do found his way to the business building. Even after his father's arrest, he was still interested in the business. He wanted to take over the company. There wasn't much else he could do.
He had a few minutes before class started so he could kill a little bit of time. He wasn't exactly nervous. It just reminded him of high school except this time he could choose his schedule. He could take as many or as little classes as he wanted. Of course he took the required number of courses to survive being a full time student. He had taken an English, math, history, science and a couple of others just to get them out of the way. He had to take at least three foreign languages to be considered well-rounded for his company.
He looked up just in time to watch two people walk towards the business building. He recognized the first one. Jimin was hard to miss, especially now that she had color in that long hair of hers. Besides the watermelon colored stripes, she had an orange bandana tied around her hair that matched her outfit. She looked exactly the same.
But who was the guy walking with her. He had seen him before but couldn't place him. The hair looked familiar but he still couldn't place it. They were in deep conversation as they walked into the business building. Young Do walked as fast as he could without running. He hit the door really hard, hard enough that it was going to bruise when it stopped stinging.
Students were filing into a massive auditorium classroom. Young Do followed them and sat in the back. He saw Jimin sitting at a table at the front of the classroom. Her companion was sitting beside her, their heads pressed together as they kept quiet about whatever they were discussing.
"Welcome to Business Tactics 101. I have taken a huge step and asked a couple of colleagues of mine to come talk to you about how to start preparing a business-like mind. Shin Jimin is a former student of mine who has gone on to become one of the best financial planners I have ever met. She had become close friends with an heir to the biggest construction company. Please welcome my special guests Shin Jimin and Song Woo Bin."
The name wasn't lost on Young Do. Anyone who was anyone knew the name Song Woo Bin. He wasn't just an heir and major stockholder in his father's company. He was also the mastermind behind one of the most expensive buildings in seoul. His wife was a revered artist and they had four beautiful kids that were sometimes splayed out for the Korean world to see. They had a perfect life.
How in the world had Jimin met up with him? She had left and moved to Daegu. How had she had gotten into one of the best universities in korea and become high ranking was beyond him. The person he remembered was gentle and composed without a mean bone in her body. She wasn't someone who was nasty enough to make decisions for a big company.
But her experience in the last few years said otherwise. She had grown up being friends with Kim Won, and he was as prickly as they come. Everyone they knew was curious how that relationship had worked out. She never called anyone oppa unless she was completely comfortable with them. She had to know him for a very long time or trust him completely for it to come about.
How in the world had she met Song Woo Bin was beside him. He knew of F4, and anyone who didn't was lying. They were even more prestigious than Jeguk Group. Led by the illustrious Goo Jun Pyo, they were four men who literally ruled the Seoul hierarchy.
Song Woo Bin was the oldest of the group and the second to get married. He was not only heir to the largest construction company in Korea, but he was also the mastermind behind one of the most cost efficient galleries in the country. His wife was a doctor turned world class artist and they had four beautiful children. Their family was known as the sturdiest one in their little group. How in the world had Jimin met him?
She started speaking and he was drawn in immediately. There was a reason everyone wanted Jimin in their company. She was quick witted and shrewd. She had an excellent eye for details that no one else saw. He couldn't count how many times she had fixed his footwork on the judo mat.
As she spoke, there wasn't a breath in the room. That was the magic behind her. Everyone was entranced by the way she spoke. It was very direct and calm, like she was in complete control of everything. There was something in her eyes that told them all she wasn't playing around.
When she sat down, Woo Bin took her spot. He was just as eloquent as she was, turning to her every now and then to reiterate a point she had made earlier. He had the same tone she did while talking; commanding and straight to the point. There was no reason to sugar coat anything that was going to happen to them in the future. They needed to know. They weren't going to hold anything back from them even though they were only freshmen.
When they wrapped up their lecture, their normal professor ended class and told them if they had any questions to come up now. Jimin was very proactive with the young men and women who came to talk to her. She looked them in the eye and answered directly but nicely.
Young Do stood and waited as patiently by the door as he could. He wanted to speak to her but didn't want to interrupt her in the moment. It was still so real to see her standing before him when he hadn't seen her in years.
At that moment she looked up and made eye contact with him. The gentle smile he knew was finally directed at him. Luckily everyone finished their questions and filtered out slowly. Woo Bin and Jimin packed up and said their goodbyes to the professor before slowly coming up the ramp.
"I didn't know you were in this class," Jimin said as they stopped beside him.
"Mr. Yoon thought it would be a good idea for me to take some introductory class early on. He thinks it'll make me want to do business," he replied.
"Maybe it's a good idea. You are heir to Zeus Hotel Company after all," Woo Bin said.
He remembered his manners and that Woo Bin was older than him. "Hello. I'm Choi Young Do."
Woo Bin smiled. "Song Woo Bin. Jimin has told me so much about you. I was slightly surprised to find out that you had grown up together. She is too kind to come out of our world, but she adapted really well."
He looked at his watch. "I'm meeting my wife for lunch. Jimin is coming along. Would you like to?"
Young Do looked at Jimin. She wasn't telling him he couldn't go, but she wasn't asking him to go either. She sighed at him and led the way out of the classroom. He couldn't help but follow. Woo Bin's car was waiting for them at the gate of the school. They climbed in and sighed, thankful for the heat that beat out the cold.
It was quiet as they rode to the restaurant Woo Bin was meeting his wife. Young Do had never seen the woman. She rarely had pictures taken because she was camera shy. No one knew why, but Woo Bin had honored her wishes and had kept her out of the limelight even when her artwork was selling like crazy.
"So…" he started just to break the silence, "how did you meet?"
"Oppa is the same age as Won Oppa with Won being a few months older. We met in college. We were in the same study group in one of our classes and just naturally grew closer," Jimin answered. "His wife was hard to get along with at first, but that's simply because she didn't know me and I didn't know sign language."
"Sign language?" Young Do wrinkled his nose.
"My wife is hearing impaired. She uses sign language to communicate when she's not wearing her hearing aids," Woo Bin explained.
Young Do didn't get any more information because the car pulled up to a very expensive bistro. Woo Bin slid out first then held his hand out for Jimin. She took it and slid out. They released each other immediately and waited for him to get out of the car. Young Do looked at the restaurant even he had a hard time getting into. Jimin had traded up since leaving.
Woo Bin lead them to the far front side to a man and woman with four kids sitting the very last booth. Two kids played between them in the seats as two more sat on their laps. Young Do realized the man was So Yi Jeong, son and heir to the So Art Gallery and So Art School. Jimin really was friends with all of F4.
But the astonishing thing was the woman sitting on the inside of the booth. She wasn't completely Korean but had enough in her to make her features extremely exotic. Young Do realized if he hadn't been recovering from Cha Eun Sang, he would have talked to the woman. Her eyes were an odd golden color that had to be completely natural. Her hair had multiple colors in it and he wasn't all too certain that all of it was hair dye.
"Sorry we're late," Woo Bin said as he dropped a kiss to her forehead. He then scooped up the toddler closest to him. "Rin Ah," he cooed shaking her gently until she laughed at being held over his head.
"What took you so long?" Yi Jeong asked.
"The students wanted to talk. We didn't have much of a choice but to answer their questions. It was the reason we were there after all," Jimin replied. She motioned for Young Do to sit down. "This is a friend of mine. Choi Young Do of Zeus Hotel Company."
The woman across from Young Do looked at him. "I'm sorry to hear about your father. I hope you're doing well."
He was slightly shocked that a complete stranger would ask about him, but what shocked him most was how dull her voice sounded. It was muted as if she couldn't breathe as she spoke. He couldn't help but look around.
"She can't hear her own voice so she doesn't know how to differentiate the inflections in her voice. It's why it sounds so muted," Yi Jeong answered without any prompting. Young Do stared at him. "We're used to everyone asking about Eri that it's just second nature. It takes some time to get used to it."
Woo Bin sat down and slung his arm across the back of the booth. Another one of his kids crawled over everyone to sit in his lap. "So tell us something about Jimin that we don't already know. Like what are her hobbies besides judo?"
Young Do looked at Jimin and wondered what she hadn't told them. She was usually an open book, much like she was right now. If she didn't want him to say anything, she would have closed off her expression already. As it was she was staring at him and wondering what he was going to reveal.
"She can play the piano. And I don't mean peck at it either. She can play. I've never heard a more sorrowful version of "Ode to Joy" than the one she played," he said. She wrinkled her nose at him then licked her lips. It was her tell that he had just told something embarrassing. "She has a habit of frying everything. Kim Won brought home some sweets from overseas and she fried it before eating it. I wanted to gag."
"You shouldn't have been in the kitchen when I was making it," she argued.
He poked her in the ribs. "If you keep eating that crap, you're going to get fat."
"That's only if I stop judo. And I have no plans to stop judo. My life would be boring if I did that."
"And it's not now?" She made a face and shook her head. "What have you been doing anyways?"
Young Do missed the nervous looks the F4 members tossed at each other, but Jimin kept her expression. "I was transferred to a new company. I'm getting paid nearly three times more than what I was at my last company. I'm almost able to pay off my student loans and buy my mom a new house. Since my dad died, she had to put our house in Daegu up to pay for the funeral costs and outstanding debt."
He frowned at the thought. "I didn't know your dad died."
She nodded as she stirred the coffee that was set before her. "Yeah, he died about a year ago. From a heart attack. It's been hard on mom, but she refuses to move back to Seoul. She says she's happy so I don't bother her too much."
"You seem very close to your mom," Yi Jeong said. Young Do turned his head to look at him. "She never talks about her family. She just says it's not important and goes on her way."
"I wasn't as well off as the rest of you. My mother was a hotel maid and my father was an accountant. I ran around like a normal kid. I could have attended Shinhwa High School or Jeguk. I chose Jeguk. My closest friend was heir to Jeguk Group and I fought with the heir to Zeus Hotel. It was a normal high school experience."
"How did you survive in Jeguk? We heard it's worse than Shinhwa," Woo Bin asked.
She shrugged. "It was a high school. I went and kept my nose out of anything that had nothing to do with me. It helped that Oppa was always there to make sure no one was two stupid. Though I'm two years younger than him age wise, school wise I'm only a year younger so we were able to do more things together."
Young Do was surprised that she hadn't talked about him or Kim tan as much as he thought she would have. She had only been around him since he had been born. He remembered that she used to babysit him when his parents had gone out. It was why he had felt so betrayed when she had left when he was nine.
Jimin looked at her watch then let out a slight curse. "I have a meeting I need to be in, in fifteen minutes. I have to go. Eri, it was wonderful seeing you again. We have to get together for dinner some time."
"Wait for me. I've got to head to the hotel to wash dishes," Young Do said.
He got up and followed her out the door after saying goodbye to the other three. This time he didn't miss the worried looks on the older three's faces. Something was going on and they all knew what it was.
"I've got to go here. I'll talk to you later, Young Do." Jimin hailed a taxi and within two seconds was gone.
Young Do watched the departing car and wondered what was going to happen, and would he come out of it in one piece when he was already barely hanging on by a thread?