A/N: Here in the States, it's Mother's Day tomorrow, so Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there in the world! I'll be with my grandmother :)

Not sure if this chapter will leave you with more answers or more questions.

More to come, of course. Enjoy :)

"Keep your eyes closed."

"Why? Don't tell me your apartment's messy already."

"Of course it is. There's boxes everywhere."

"Oh? I thought you would have everything put up. You've lived here for two whole days already."

"Very funny. Open your arms."

"What?"

"Not your hands. Your arms." Ga Eul felt Yi Jeong stretch her arms out further in front of her, and a moment later she felt something settle in her arms, something long and furry and—

"Milo!" Ga Eul exclaimed, nearly crushing the cat as she hugged him. "Why didn't you tell me he was here?!"

"Because I wanted some attention for myself."

"You haven't a changed a bit."

"I suppose you're talking about my good looks?"

"I was talking to the cat."

Ga Eul laughed at Yi Jeong's annoyed look.

"I can send him back, you know," he said.

"Why would you do that?" Ga Eul asked, setting the now-squirming cat down. "Isn't this a bribe?"

"A bribe?"

"To get me to come live with you."

She walked past him to survey the gray and white décor, metallic and modern.

"Is it working?" he called after her.

"I'll think about it."

The large, open front room had a large kitchen area on one end with white and black marble counter tops and a large island, a huge silver double sink, and expansive black cabinets with sparkling crystal knobs. On the other end of the room sat a black Steinway grand piano opposite a wrap-around dark gray leather couch in front of a 90" flat screen and around all of this, along each wall, were built-in shelves, some of which already showcased pottery and other works of art.

Besides this, the apartment had two bedrooms plus a study. Ga Eul entered what was slowly becoming Yi Jeong's bedroom and passed over to the floor-to-ceiling window that looked out over the dark city at night, the lights from the buildings below sparkling like a million tiny fireflies. At ground level, the infinite stretch of homes and skyscrapers made her feel small and insignificant, but up here those same buildings were smaller than her fingertips on the windowpane.

"So what do you think?" Yi Jeong asked. She heard him sit down on the king-sized bed that took up a lot of the room.

Still staring out of the window, Ga Eul answered, "I think I know why rich people buy penthouses."

"Because they can afford them?" Yi Jeong chuckled.

When she turned around, she saw him lying on the bed with his hands tucked behind his head.

"No. Because you're above everything up here. It's easy to feel like you own it, all of it. You're on top of the world."

Yi Jeong said nothing, his gaze searching her. Maybe he was thinking about what she had said. Maybe he was just looking at her. Sometimes it was hard for Ga Eul to tell.

He moved over and patted the spot next to him.

Ga Eul approached the bed and laid down next to him, turning on her side she she could see his face.

"Come closer."

She slid in closer to him and was just about to lay her head on his shoulder when she found herself being flipped onto her back until his entire weight rested on top of her.

She expected him to kiss her then, but he didn't. Instead, he propped himself up on his arms and stared down at her face.

"What?" she asked when he didn't say anything after a long moment.

"You know something?"

"What?!"

"Calm down. Shhhhh." He pecked her on the nose. "Now I am."

"Now you are what?"

"Now...I am...on top of the world."

Because he was with her? Ga Eul smiled. She thought she might melt.

"Because I'm on top of you. Get it?"

"You should have stopped at 'world,' Sunbae. It was much more romantic...Sunbae...Sunbae, I have to go."

"You can't go if you can't get up."

"Yi Jeo-"

The lights outside Ga Eul's taxi flew by in a shimmering blur, like golden drops on a watercolor. The colors of the night bled into her tears and blended into the murky darkness. The night had turned out nothing like she had expected it to.

A few hours ago she had been waiting outside of her house for Yi Jeong to come pick her up for the party. Now she was burning up in a stranger's scratchy wool coat—alone—in the back of a dingy cab that smelled like mildew and tobacco. She had no phone. She had no Yi Jeong and no idea what she had done to deserve the past hour of her life.

Three Hours Earlier

Yi Jeong settled comfortably into the backseat of his family's black sedan and gestured to his chauffer to start driving.

The past few days had been a blur of activity. First, there were the preparations for his exhibition, which had been moved up a week. There had been a huge board meeting on Friday with all the members of the museum's board of directors plus some additional meetings before that with high-ranking stockholders and families who made generous annual donations to the museum. In the midst of this, he had somehow been able to get settled into his apartment and get together a gift for Jun Pyo and Jan Di, which he was to present to them tonight at the party.

Tonight was also important because he was taking Ga Eul to an event in Korea for the first time. Her parents would be there also, along with Jan Di's family. Thankfully, his grandfather had been called away on some business to another city and would not be in attendance that evening, although somewhere in the back of his mind Yi Jeong knew that was just postponing the inevitable. He had run through so many competing scenarios of himself introducing Ga Eul as his girlfriend to his family that he wasn't sure which was the worst one any more. In one particularly dramatic version, he imagined his grandfather sending him to Australia to live with his mother's parents until he got his head straightened back out.

No, he wasn't going to think about that. He just needed to stick with the plan he had been formulating over the past year or so. Everyone liked a good Cinderella story. All he had to do was get the media on his side.

It seemed to be taking longer than usual to get to Ga Eul's parents' house, though admittedly Yi Jeong drove a lot faster than his driver did. When Yi Jeong looked out the window, though, he realized that he was in another part of town, quite near the museum, actually. Although it had been several years since he had driven through Seoul on a regular basis, he did remember quite distinctly where Ga Eul's family lived, if only because he'd had to walk several blocks there on a night that felt like forever ago and yesterday all at the same time.

"Ah, excuse me, Mr. Shin, I think you took a wrong turn," Yi Jeong called to his driver.

"I am sorry, Young Master. We have to stop somewhere first."

"I don't need to stop anywhere. Just get me to Chu Ga Eul's house. We're running late to the engagement party already."

"I am sorry, Young Master."

Mr. Shin didn't look him in the eye.

Something wasn't right.

"Mr. Shin."

They turned another corner, and the museum came into view at the end of a long street.

"Mr. Shin, turn this car around immediately."

"I am under instructions—"

"You are under my instructions!"

The car slowed down, then halted at a traffic light.

"My apologies."

"To hell with your apologies!"

Yi Jeong tried to unlock the door and make a run for it, but the locks wouldn't budge.

Damn childproof locks.

"I can put you through hell for this," he said when the car started moving again.

His driver said nothing but turned the car into the museum parking lot where Yi Jeong saw several large men, bodyguards most likely, standing around outside of what he knew to be his grandfather's car.

Yi Jeong should have come to pick her up already. Ga Eul frowned as she glanced at the time on her phone. He was fifteen minutes late, and Yi Jeong was never late.

Initially, she had been grateful that he hadn't arrived because it gave her more time to finish curling her hair before slipping into her dress. Yi Jeong had picked it out after all—a short powder blue cocktail dress with an elaborate silver floral design on the top.

She still hadn't had a chance to talk to him about what she had overheard in the dressing room on Friday, but she had only seen him briefly the day before when he took her shopping and that hadn't seemed like the appropriate time.

She had her thumb hovering over his contact in her phone when a text message came in from him.

Ga Eul, sorry for being late. Ji Hoo is going to come pick you up. I have come down with a really bad virus, and I don't want to get you sick or any of the other guests. I will not be attending the party tonight. Please go and have a good time and give Jun Pyo and Jan Di my congratulations again. Don't come by my apartment. I am at my parents' house. Going to rest now. Yi Jeong

Ga Eul pressed the call button only to hear the continuous ring of Yi Jeong's phone until it finally went to voicemail. She hung up and dialed him again. At the start of his second voicemail message, Ji Hoo's familiar white SUV appeared in front of her gate.

Well, at least she was grateful for that. Otherwise she would have to take a taxi seeing as how her parents had left earlier with Jan Di's parents.

Maybe Ji Hoo would have more information, she thought as she navigated her parents' cracked walkway in silver stilettos, almost tripping from digging her heel into one of the small cracks.

By the time she had reached the car, Ji Hoo had already gone around to the passenger side to open the door for her.

"Hello, Ji Hoo Sunbae." She greeted him with a smile and climbed in. Honestly, she was glad it was Ji Hoo who had come to pick her up instead of Woo Bin. Not that she didn't like Woo Bin, but she felt a bit awkward knowing such personal details of his life when they had never been that close. She knew Ji Hoo a bit better from visiting him and Jan Di at the clinic, and she had always felt comfortable in his calm presence.

"Do you know how Yi Jeong is?" he asked once they were heading down the road.

"I just got a message from him saying he was sick. Did you know about that?"

"Yes, I got a message from him too. It must have been…half an hour ago."

"That's odd. I wonder why he messaged me just now."

"Maybe he didn't want to worry you."

Ga Eul frowned. It could be. He must have been really sick to miss this party. She wished she could go to him, but he was probably resting like he had said, and it really wouldn't do for both of them to be absent on this important night. Still, it struck her as odd that he wouldn't call her.

"Maybe," she muttered.

Now inside the museum, Yi Jeong found himself escorted briskly to an all-too-familiar office on the third floor, top right corner. He had struggled against his captors at first but had finally decided that it was just as well if he got all of this over with, whatever his grandfather had to say to him. It was time to think with his head instead of his fists, he reminded himself as the office door swung open and he was faced with the familiar scene of his grandfather poring over a pile of papers on his desk.

He knew the old man had noticed him come in, but all the same his grandfather didn't look up until Yi Jeong had sat down brusquely in the padded leather chair to his grandfather's left.

Like hell he was going to bow.

His grandfather appeared unperturbed by Yi Jeong's lack of manners.

"Yi Jeong, how good of you to join me. Don't worry. I already sent our well wishes and regrets that we could not attend the engagement party, along with a very generous—"

"Why the hell am I unable to attend?"

The elder So flicked his disapproving gaze up to Yi Jeong but momentarily and continued, as though Yi Jeong were a child throwing a ridiculous tantrum, in the same level, informative tone, "There's a very important matter that we need to discuss—one that concerns the future of the museum. Ah, yes, Seong Jae, thank you for joining us." Yi Jeong turned in his chair to see one of the stockholders he had just had lunch with a few days before enter the room.

He stood up and bowed politely, swallowing his anger for a moment, and the older gentleman returned the gesture. He had liked Yi Seong Jae-had actually enjoyed talking to him-unlike most of the businessmen he would be in constant contact with for most of the foreseeable future. He could tell the man had an actual appreciation for art, which he assumed stemmed from his daughter being an artist. He supposedly had met her years before at one of his very first exhibitions, so the man had said, and Yi Jeong had feigned remembrance though he had no recollection of that. Why would he? Even had she been strikingly beautiful, she would have been one beautiful face in a long, frenetic series of beautiful faces passing by him, entering and leaving his mind without a trace, without any reason or invitation to stay there. Except for one face.

Except for the one reason he needed to leave. And he needed to get back his phone, which had been confiscated on his way in.

"I was so glad that you remembered my daughter," Yi Seong Jae was saying as they both sat down and Yi Jeong began tapping his fingers impatiently. "She has been an admirer of your work for many years."

Yi Jeong gave him a forced smile.

"Of course. Please send her my regards."

"And to think that her paintings will be displayed at your new exhibition. I wanted to thank you both for being so generous."

Yi Jeong nodded politely.

Yi Madeleine. That was her name. His grandfather had been raving to him about her work, and he had seen a few of her paintings, which were quite gorgeous, though he hadn't seen her. Not yet. Not that he remembered, anyway.

He knew she had been raised in France but had come back to Korea to study at Shinwa University, and rumor had it that she only painted landscapes, never people. He kept meaning to ask Ji Hoo and Woo Bin if they knew her.

"There has been a change of plans, Yi Jeong."

Yi Jeong turned his attention back to his grandfather, who was now clearing away his desk.

"About the...exhibition, you mean?" Yi Jeong said carefully.

"About many things." His grandfather clasped his hands together and top of his desk and looked him in the eye. "Yi Seong Jae has been on my case for years now." He gave a generous smile to the gentleman on Yi Jeong's right, which Yi Jeong found odd because his grandfather hardly ever smiled.

"I told Seong Jae that you had agreed to move forward with this new phase of your life...and that is why I suggested that there was no better time to announce your engagement than at the opening celebration of your exhibition next weekend."

Yi Jeong's heart missed a few beats, and a cold chill descended over him that sure as hell wasn't the air conditioning.

"I'm so-" he began.

"I can just see the headlines!" his grandfather exclaimed, and Yi Seong Jae let out a hearty chuckle. "So Yi Jeong and Yi Madeleine: The Art of Romance."