"Mama! Mama! You're back!"
"Hi, baby. Did you have a good day with Ms. Pak?" Your son jumps into your arms, hugging you like he will never let go again.
"I did, we went to the park and we got ice cream!" he yells.
"Oh my, it sounds like you had quite the day, Iseul. Say 'goodbye' to Ms. Pak." He immediately bolts from your arms giving her a hug.
"Thank you for watching him on such short notice. Your paycheck will be every Friday and also, I am giving you a pay raise since he is going to be starting school soon. I would like to offer you a full time, live-in nanny position. Please consider it and call me if you would like to discuss it further. We will see you Monday." Ms. Pak nods and gives a string of 'thank yous". Iseul puts his backpack, grabbing your hand and squeezing it, letting you know he is ready to leave. You load your son into the back of your silver Santa Fe and buckle him into his car seat.
"Iseul, What do you want for dinner?"
"Can we get McRonalds?! I want french fries!"
"Yeah, sure."
You order him a McNuggies meal and a Large Wack. You should have stopped at the store beforehand so you could avoid eating fast food for the third day in a row.
You pull into the driveway of the still unfamiliar home. You had been living here for almost a year and every time you come home it still doesn't seem like your home. The home was a bit bigger than you would like it to be, simply because you want to clean as little as possible and it was just Iseul and you living there. It was close to your parents and far enough from that low life, scum sucking, piece of trash, that hopefully won't be able to find you. One more year. One more year and he will be out. He nearly killed you, which almost made you lose your son, and he only got five years in prison.
God, what am I going to do? I can't run forever, I can't put both of us in danger either.
You hug Iseul, trying to hold back tears that have started to well up. Iseul soaks in the affection, and looks up to you.
"Mom, why are you crying?" he pouts.
"Oh, I'm just so lucky to have been blessed with such a wonderful kid." you smile, messing up his hair. "Now, let's get you in a bath and get ready for bed. It is already late." You chase Iseul up the stairs. He lets out a yelp of excitement trying to get to the bathroom first.
"Haha! Mom, I won!" he shrieks.
Now that your little ball of energy is fast asleep, you have a moment to yourself. You don't even know what to do with time to yourself. Tomorrow you have a meeting with Glam at noon, but other than that, you have all day to spend with Iseul. It is 10 pm already, but staying up and relaxing for another hour won't hurt any. You feel your phone vibrate.
"Hello."
"Hello, may I speak with a Ms. Soo-Min Gho, please?"
"Speaking."
"Hello, I am sorry to call so late. This is Jaehee Kang, Assistant to Director Jumin Han. I hope that I haven't disturbed you."
"Oh no, not at all. Is something the matter?"
"No. Director Han has asked me if you could come in for a brief meeting tomorrow around 5 pm. Is that something you would be able to fit into your schedule?"
"Um… yeah. I think that will work. I have a question though. Would there be any possibility of my son joining me? It is my nanny's day off and I will not be able to find another sitter in time. He is quiet. You won't even know he is there."
"Yes, of course. That will not be a problem with this meeting being so sudden. I am certain Director Han will not mind."
"Thank you. I will be there tomorrow at 5 then. Have a good night."
Great. You already know the kind of looks and silent judgement you will receive with a four year old child and no wedding ring. You go into the kitchen and pour a glass of red wine.
This will be fun.
You down the wine as quickly as possible, before setting the glass in the sink. The stairs look like a mountain. Why does there have to be so many stairs? You wash your face and brush your teeth while completing your nightly hair routine, pulling the thick, blond waves into a messy bun and plopping into bed.
"Mama! Someone is at the door!" Iseul shouts from the other room.
"Coming! Honey, please go upstairs, mommy has a very important meeting, okay? If you need something please let me know." You pat his head and he starts up the stairs.
"Mrs. Choi, thank you for coming. I am so excited for the collaboration. You really didn't have to make the trip out here. I could have came to the office." You chime, opening the door. She has two tall, intimidating bodyguards with her.
"No, no. Thank you for letting me do this and inviting me into your home. It is lovely by the way. So quaint. Besides, I heard from Assistant Kang about the situation with your child and I didn't want him to be pent up in a stuffy office for most of the day." She hugs you, entering your home.
Is she going to hug me every time I see her?
"I have some things set up in the kitchen if you would follow me." You lead Glam into the kitchen, when you start to hear a familiar noise crashing down the stairs.
"Mommy! I bleedin… I need a sticky!" Iseul shouts, jumping down the last 2 stairs.
"I will be right there. I am so sorry, I will be right back." You clean Iseul's cut and promptly place a dinosaur bandage over it, finishing off with a kiss to the scraped knee.
"Be more careful sweetpea. Go on and go play." You tussle his chocolate hair and it a tiny push in the direction of the stairs before sitting back down across from Glam.
"He is sweet. How old is he?" she chuckles.
"He is four. He is definitely a character. So, here I have a few of each type of pearl that I have in my inventory at the moment. I'm sure you are familiar with the different types. For this collection I figured we could do something high-end. For that I thought we could work with South Sea Pearls and Tahitian Pearls."
"That sounds wonderful. South Sea Pearls are by far my favorite." Glam is looking through the catalog trying to find the colors she wants.
"Again, thank you so much for coming all this way. I look forward to our next meeting." you smile, escorting Glam out the door.
"The pleasure was all mine, dear. Tell your boy goodbye for me." She exits, getting into the car parked in front of the house. You close the door behind you, lightly slamming your forehead into it.
Well, there goes 2 hours of my life I can never get back. This collection better sell well.
You get Iseul packed up into the car and begin your drive into the city for your meeting with Director Stick-in-the-mud. Half way into the drive you look into the rearview mirror and see that your little tyrant was fast asleep.
"I should have known." you giggle to yourself.
You reach the parking structure for the office, dreading the walk to there having to carry the small, yet dense, comatose child inside.
Your arms and back are on the verge of breaking by the time you reach the top floor. Luckily there aren't many people here this late. The elevator dings which wakes your sleeping child.
"Where are we?" he mumbles.
"We are meeting with a very important man. I need you to walk now okay?" you kiss his forehead letting him down onto the ground. The secretary isn't at the desk.
"Ms. Gho. It is nice to see you again. Who is this little guy?" you hear from somewhere behind you.
"Assistant Kang. Hello. This is Iseul. He is a bit shy and he just woke up so he is not the most sociable right now. Where should we wait for Director Han?"
"Please call me Jaehee. I will walk you in. Please follow me." She leads you to large frosted glass, double doors opening them slowly.
" , is here for you."
"Yes, please. Send them in." Jumin is sitting on the couch of his office. He stands to shake your hand, stopping before he can reach your hand. His eyes widen at the sight of the small child standing behind you.
"Who might this be?" Jumin says with a smile, crouching down to the child's level.
"This is Iseul. Shake his hand. It is alright." you reassure your son. Jumin reaches his hand out for a handshake. Iseul complies but quickly returns to the safety of his mother.
"Wow, you have a strong shake there. You would make a great business man someday." Jumin smiles, rising back up. He gestures over to the chairs in front of his desk. You take a seat placing the boy in the chair next to you, giving him a small T-Rex toy to play with.
"Thank you for meeting with me on such short notice. I am sorry if this was any inconvenience to you."
"No, not at all. I appreciate the flexibility. What can I do for you Director Han?"
"Please, call me Jumin. We will be working closely for the foreseeable future, so there is no need for such strict formalities. How old is your son, if you do not mind my asking?"
"He just turned four."
"I have heard that age can be quite the challenge."
"It can be difficult, he is more curious and clumsy than anything else." You say, hoping that he will soon get to the point of the meeting.
"Yeah! I got an owie today. See, it is a twicewatops sticky! That is my third favorite dinosaur but, T-Rex is the best" Iseul blurts out, raising his toy into the air.
"Ah, yes. The T-Rex is the most superior of all the dinosaurs." Jumin gives the boy a big smile.
"Sorry, he just has a lot to say. Hun, you can't just interrupt people when they are talking." You son pouts and goes back to playing with his toy.
"He is quite the charmer… So, the reason I wanted to meet with you is to just go over a few things with privacy, security, and requirements I have for the monthly meetings. Until the whole collection is released please do not post any pictures, or name drop on social media. For security measures, we are hiring a coder to help with the security of your website, he will reach out to you when he is ready to start the project, likely within the next month or two. Our monthly meetings on profit and sales, I expect a full report, on paper, with estimated sales for the next three months." Jumin starts his demands.
The meeting finally ended after an hour and a half, mostly idle chit chat. It seems that he is trying to keep you longer. You look over at the couch your son has migrated to and he is fast asleep again.
"Thank you for your time, Ms. Gho."
"Soo-Min, please."
"Yes, thank you for your time Soo-Min. It seems that he finally tuckered out."
"Yes, he is a ball of energy that will go until it can't go anymore." You start to pick him up trying not to wake him. He needs the sleep.
"Would you like some help taking him to your car? Where did you park?" Jumin asks.
"Oh no, that won't be necessary. I can do it on my own, nothing I am not used to." You sneer.
"Alright then. Have a good evening." Jumin escorts you to the door, giving you another grin before closing the door behind him.
"Interesting, woman." Jumin says to himself.