•I don't own the Heirs

•I am sorry for uploading late and thank you for all the guest reviews too. I am doing a double update to make up for the late update :D

A New Companion

Mr Seo opened the door for her and Ji Ah took in his ruffled appreance. He looked nothing like the person she had last seen when she met him. Untidy hair, unguarded face and an unconfident posture.

He widened his glazed eyes at her, as if touched. "Are you heree to drinkk withh me?"

"Aniyo." She said nervously. "I..I came to..to talk about school!"

"Sschool?" Mr Seo furrowed his brows, and looked away with a somber expression. "She wantss to build a sschool too."

"What?"

He didn't reply, but turned his back to her and moved inside the house. She followed him worriedly through the dark; he had the lights dimmed, maybe to make it feel like night. Ji Ah resisted trying to hold him when he stumbled.

They moved into the living room and he flopped down on a double sofa. Ji Ah looked for the switch board and turned on the lights one by one. He winced, placing a hand over his eyes, while Ji Ah grimaced at the soju bottles scattered on the table, along with a glass, too big for something like soju.

He moved, grabbed a fresh bottle and broke its seal clumsily. Ji Ah scowled at him. Just yesterday he had been reprimanding her for drinking and now he himself was drinking like a drunkard.

She snatched the bottle from his hands before he could pour the alcohol into the glass.

"What are you ddoing?" He tried to glare at her, but it lacked the usual intensity of his gaze, so it didn't effect Ji Ah.

"You were upset yesterday because I drank carelessly. And now you are drinking like this?" She felt quite brave because Mr Seo was drunk right now.

"You can jooin me." He offered, as though bribing, while greedily eyeing the bottle clutched in her hands.

She scowled again. "I am an underage. You can be jailed for providing alcohol to an underage."

"Jail can be bettter." He muttered, looking away, his eyes glazing over again.

Ji Ah softened. She placed the bottle on the far end of the table, away from him, and sat down on the sofa closer to him. "What is wrong with you Ahjussi?"

She knew she was crossing her limits, as she wasn't on that friendly or intimate terms with him, but she couldn't help herself. Here was a man who saved her from hell, could she not even comfort him?

"Exactly!" He suddenly cried, and Ji Ah jumped in her seat, moving away from him apprehensively.

"Exactly, what is wrrong withh me?!" He fixed her with a look that Ji Ah could only decribe as child like. "I have done wrongg thingss." He slurred, clutching his head between his hands.

"What have you done?" Ji Ah asked, remembering the wrong things she had done. Was he like this because of the things he had to do to cover up for her?

He picked a notebook from beside him and threw it at her. She caught it instantly. "Here is a lisst of things of what I have done and what I have nott done."

Ji Ah flipped open the notebook, and caught an elegant handwriting on the very first page.

1. You are too cold.

2. You are too distant.

3. Too posessive.

4. Too jealous.

5. Too controlling.

6. Stalker.

7. You give lots of gifts, but very little time.

8. Always cancelling plans.

9. Always busy with work.

10. Stalker

11. Your mother threatened me.

11. You never care about my emotions.

12. You don't like my dreams and ambitions.

13. Stalker

14. You threatened my secretary.

15. You insulted my friends.

16. You insulted me.

17. Stalker

18. You looked down upon me.

"She ssaid she will add more when she remembers them." Mr Seo said, staring at the soju bottle desolately.

Ji Ah finally realised what it was all about:

He had a break up.

"If she can't remember them now, then they are not worth remembering." She said, moving back to the sofa near him.

He suddenly lunged for the soju bottle, but Ji Ah was quick to grab it and hid it behind her back.

"Alcohol isn't the solution." She scolded him.

"Then what iss?" He fell back on the sofa, sprawling his arms like he had been shoot down. "Sshe wass the fourthh woman I had dated, and the one I reallyyy liked-- no loved! She leftt too."

Ji Ah moved to roll the bottles off the table, before sitting down on it. "Are all the reasons she has written for break up true?"

"Ssome of them are. Ssome aren't." He spoke after a pause, staring at the ceiling, and looking like a fallen soldier.

"Then instead of drinking your head off-- I mean, instead of drinking like this, you should work on fixing the things that are true, and sorting out the misunderstandings."

"She would still not return." He said hopelessly.

"How can you know when you haven't even tried." Ji Ah smiled reassuringly at him. "I don't know much about relationships, but I do know that you need to sort out your misunderstandings and fix the things that get in between your relationship, to keep them forever. Otherwise people drift away."

He turned his head to look at her, and she stood up.

"Where can I find a pen?" She asked him. He blinked at her in a daze for a moment, then motioned toward a shelf on the other side of the sofa set.

Ji Ah grabbed the pen, and clicked it once, before moving back to the table.

"We need to see the things that need to be fixed, and the misunderstandings that need to be sorted out." She said, looking over the notebook, imagining herself a detective trying to solve a complicated case.

He clumsily moved to a sitting position, and peered at the list once.

"Were you really too cold with her?" She asked him, already guessing the answer though.

He looked like a person who was convinced of his innocence, as he frowned at her. "Jusst a little. When she made me jealous."

"If you have an issue, you should sort it out by talking. Being cold just creates a distance between two people." Ji Ah had always seen couples and noted them. She herself never had a romantic relationship; Her father never allowed it.

Mr Seo gave her a pained look once before throwing back his head, and slumping against the sofa. "I never talkedd to her. I alwayss turrned coldd. That iss whyy she hatess me now."

"I am sure she doesn't hate you." Ji Ah didn't sound sure.

"Park Ssoo Mi hatess mee. Park Ssoo Mi hatess me. Park Ssoo Mi hatess mee..." He began to chant.

"She doesn't hate you!" Ji Ah said louder.

"Park Ssoo Mi hatess me. Park Ssoo Mi hatess mee..." He continued, indifferent.

Ji Ah sighed wearily. He was very unlike himself when he was drunk.

And she was very unlike herself too while he was drunk.

What if he confronted her tomorrow about showing up at his place and prodding into his personal life?

"Park Ssoo Mi hatess mee. Park Ssoo Mi hatess me..."

Ji Ah closed the notebook and stood up. "I think-- no, you really aren't in your right mind. You should rest now, Ahjussi."

He was too lost into his world to acknowledge her. "Park Ssoo Mi hatess mee. Park Ssoo Mi hatess mee..."

Ji Ah gave him a pitiful look, then slipped past him towards the hallway that lead to the entry door.

But she had barely crossed over to the hallway when he suddenly snapped out. "Where are you going?!"

Ji Ah jumped and whirled around. He was staring at her with troubled and bewildered wide eyes.

"I will see you tomorrow." She said.

"She will be hatingg mee moree by tomorroww." He widened his eyes even more.

Ji Ah scratched her head. "She will not be. Tomorrow, we will fix all your mistakes, and sort out the misunderstandings between you two, one by one." She tried to smile at him.

"You will helpp?" He gave her a hopeful look.

"Ye!" Ji Ah gave a big smile, while knowing very well that he would be scolding her tomorrow instead of asking for help. She shouldn't have come.

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Ji Ah was prodding the piece of beef in boiling water with a fork--What was the point of going through all the trouble of cooking when you couldn't even taste the taste-- when her phone rang again.

She placed the fork aside, and picked up her phone from the counter, declining Young Do's call for the fourth time in a day.

He was making her more uneasy about going to school than Kim Tan already did.

Ji Ah made a mental note to ask Kim Tan as to what was the issue between him and Young Do, whenever she got the chance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ji Ah locked her apartment door and made to move away when she spotted him. She stopped there.

He was often sitting there, at the end of street, toward the closer curve, staring at the sky. During the day, he would be staring at the road ahead. Although one thing would be constant: the frown on his face.

Ji Ah wasn't the one to approach strangers so easily, but now she found herself walking over to him. Maybe it was because he seemed younger than her, and less intimidating with his thin body and short height.

"Urm.. it is beautiful. Isn't it..?" She said awkwardly, gazing at the sky, while standing beside him, faintly remembering the night she had gotten drunk in front of Young Do.

The boy didn't look startled, but he did eye her warily, likely thinking why was this girl talking to him?

Then he went back to staring at the sky.

Ji Ah fidgted a little on her feet. "Do you live around here?"

She knew he did. She was just trying to make a conversation.

He looked at her again, this time a little annoyed, but he nodded silently.

"Oh I live here too." Ji Ah said, smiling pleasantly, and gesturing toward her apartment.

He glanced at her apartment door, then back to her, before moving his hands.

Sign language. Ji Ah recognised instantly because she had learned it at a campaign in school once.

"I know" he signed."I have seen your here before."

"Ohh.." Ji Ah now understood why was he always quiet. "Erm.. I am going for a walk after dinner. Will you join me?" She offered, hoping to make a friend.

He turned away from her. "I will not be having dinner tonight."

"Why?" She asked. "Do you not feel like eating?"

He didn't sign anything and just turned back to the sky, and Ji Ah realised what he meant.

She should had been quicker, because she had those days too when she was not allowed food because she had disobeyed her father. She wondered if he were also not allowed food tonight or he just didn't have it.

She abruptly remembered all the food stacked in her freezer. It was a waste for her to eat it boiled when someone else could enjoy them better.

"Do you want to eat with me?" She said cautiously, already guessing that he was going to refuse.

He looked at her, frowning deeper.

"Maybe you will feel like eating if you ate with someone." She said, pretending that she didn't know.

He looked hesitant, like he wanted to say yes, but didn't know how.

"Come in." Ji Ah said, and moved to her apartment door to unlock it. She was trying to make it easy for him.

He eyed the street with a few people here and there, then with reluctant movements, he stood up and walked over to her apartment. Maybe he was also hesitant to trust her. Like who was this girl offering to eat with me out of nowhere. Nonetheless, when Ji Ah went inside, he followed her.

She immediately went over to the freezer, while he checked out her small apartment curiously. Ji Ah hissed upon remembering that she had no spices at home.

She turned to him. "Wait here, I will be back in 5 minutes."

He gave her a confused look, but she hurried out of the apartment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ji Ah placed the sizzling steaks on plates, then sprinkled some coriander on it, and then placed one plate on the counter in front of the boy whose name she still didn't know, and one in front of herself.

He stared at the steak in his plate the same way Ji Ah had done when she had had steak for the first time in Seoul.

"Eat a lot!" Ji Ah beamed at him, slicing the knife into the tender meat, breathing in its enticing aroma and trying to taste it through the scent. She had cooked one for herself too because it would have seemed bizzare for her to eat the boiled beef while he ate steak in her own apartment.

He looked up, gave her an astonished look, then quickly grabbed the knife and fork and began working on cutting the steak.

They ate in silence. He was so engrossed into the juicy steak that he seemed to have forgotten about her existence altogether, so she didn't bother him.

Ji Ah smiled wistfully, remembering how she had devoured a steak in a restaurant when she had first come here. How long ago was that? A year ago? Two years ago?

No, that was just 4 or 5 months ago.

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Toraffles: Thank you for such a detailed review, I really appreciate it. I checked your story too, and you seem like an experienced writer.

Na Ri had to do stupid things to be able to be here. There are many times we do things on impulse then we later think what even made me do that?

I had this plot idea in my head and I wanted to make this into an original work, but Na Ri only suited in this Heirs universe.

I know I am overdoing with ye,ne, eo, but I just can't get the feel. i feel like I am writing an american novel or something. ye, ne, eo keeps reminding me that I am supposed to be into the Heirs.

Hahaha, the interesting scene you mentioned: It's not that Young Do's chest was peaceful or something, its that NA Ri felt peaceful there. It wasn't how it was, it's how she felt.

Once again, I really appreciate your review. That's the longest and detailed one I had. Thank you.

~Fawns