Hello everyone! I hope you guys had a great week and that you enjoy this chapter!

Thanks so much to Sandy for being awesome and helping me.

To Melimelo: you'll find out a lot more about them as a couple! So's family is more of a mixed bag this time around! Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter FOUR

Present Day

So's first instinct was to call Park Soo Kyung, the head of the legal department at the Taejo Group, and ask him to recommend him the best, shark-iest custody lawyer money could buy. But too many things weren't adding up yet. And he needed to have all the facts before he did anything. His daughter was at stake.

Thinking of the little girl he had met that morning calmed him down a little. Seol seemed to be a happy child, happier than he had ever been as a kid; he had always thought Soo would make a wonderful mother, and Seol's confident behavior seemed to confirm that.

"Letters." So scoffed. "Like I would've really let my daughter go if I had known." Or the only woman he had ever loved, for that matter.

On the other hand, Soo wasn't really one to lie, even to spare his feelings. She had always been ruthlessly honest with him; it was one of the things he had loved best about her. And she hadn't even attempted to deny that Seol was his; she had acted like he already knew that.

With a sigh, So decided to wait a little before contacting a lawyer. He knew where Soo lived and worked, and he would make sure to keep tabs on her. She wouldn't disappear on him like she had before. There was still plenty he had to get done.

Picking a place to start, he began making calls.

"Yeah?" His cousin answered distractedly.

"Eun, I need the name of the realtor you used to find your office space."

"So-hyung?" His cousin asked, confused.

"Yes." So answered shortly. "Just call her and tell her to call me immediately. I need to buy a house. Today."

"What?"

"Just do it." So hung up, and moved to the next call on his mental list.

-000-

Six years ago

"So, what were you studying?"

Hae Soo looked up from the menu she was perusing. After Soo had finished applying the makeup she had personalized for So, she had made him wash his face again and then explained step-by-step how he could do it himself. It took him almost three times as long as it had taken Hae Soo the first time, but Soo was a good teacher: she was patient and taught him how to correct the mistakes he made.

Then she had even trimmed his bangs. "Trust me, my friend and I do this all the time." She had grinned, holding up a large pair of scissors they used at the store to cut up packages and prevent counterfeit.

She admonished him on always taking the makeup off ("Or it will ruin your skin!"), recommended a few removers, wrote down the formulae for the makeup she had made and told him which stores could make it for him once he ran out. Then she packed everything in a paper bag and wouldn't take his money when he asked how much he owed her.

"I made it with stuff I had in my house, don't worry. And the store lets us take the brushes and stuff that are faulty—which mostly means they got scratched during transportation—so we can't sell them. And the manufacturer won't take the products back because they don't want to pay for transport and destruction...so they just send more."

"Well, at least let me buy you dinner, since you wasted your afternoon on me."

So half expected her to say no, but Soo just shrugged and said, "That's fair, but I pick the place."

"Okay?"

"Good, just let me change and we'll be off."

So waited while Soo changed and then locked the store. She stopped at a nail salon still open a few doors down, and left the store's keys there with the woman who managed both places.

"Do you like noodles?" Soo asked afterward, as they walked down the street, Although it wasn't that late, the daylight was already fading and it was turning cold.

"Sure. I'll eat anything."

Soo smiled and began chattering. As he had learned during their conversations at the office, she didn't need much incentive to do so. Only that now she wasn't talking about whatever gossip and little scandals that were cropping up at the office.

Soo started telling him about the street and the people she worked for. And then somehow, she had told him she was planning on going back to school next year. Which brought them to his question of what was her major.

"Um. Chemistry."

So let out a low whistle. "Never would have guessed."

"It's not my natural inclination, believe me. Just what I thought would be the most helpful for what I want to do."

"And what is that?"

"I want to start my own line of cosmetics and skin care products."

"But you already know how to make makeup," So said.

"I know," Soo went back to her menu. "But I figured that if I wanted to get an internship at a reputable company and learn the ropes, chemistry would give me an in and some hands-on experience. It's one thing is to do it for myself or friends, but standardized techniques, quality control, lines of production and channels of distribution? That's not easy. Not to mention contacts!"

"You really thought this through, uh?"

Soo smiled, and paused to place her order when their server came. "I blame my cousin Myung Hee. I wanted to be a makeup artist first but she began giving me all these books about women who had changed the cosmetics industry over the years—Helena Rubinstein, Estée Lauder, Elizabeth Arden, they aren't just brands but real people who had a vision—and I don't know; It made me want to build something."

So smiled at her, amused by her animation and charmed by her conviction; and Soo found herself blushing. Wang So—on top of money, status and a fairly good brain—had a killer smile. It wasn't fair, really.

They kept talking. Soo told him about her cousin Myung Hee and moving from Busan to Seoul when she was sixteen. So didn't talk about his family, but he did mention his best friend and cousin, who was completing an arts and musicology degree at the Sorbone; how he had been famous in his unit during conscription because he was a neat freak and his commanding officer always put him in charge of supplies. So had graduated from Seoul University and had also gone to graduate school in London until recently.

They drank a couple of beers each, ate their noodles and split the last piece of chocolate cake the restaurant had. By the third time their server had asked if they wanted something else, Soo realized it was time to call it a night.

Stepping outside while So paid, Soo shivered in her jacket. She hadn't planned on staying out this late and the temperature had dropped quite a bit.

Suddenly, something cold landed on her cheek. It couldn't be, she thought. It was still early in the season. But she held out her hand and sure enough a snowflake landed in her open palm.

"The first snow of the season." So said at her back, holding out his hand as well. "Isn't it early?"

"Who cares? It's beautiful!" Soo answered, grinning as the snow began to fall a little faster.

So looked down at her: some flakes had started to catch in her dark hair, her cheeks were turning rosy with the cold, and her eyes were shining with delight. "Yes. Beautiful."

She was.

-000-

Present Day

By midnight, Wang So was exhausted. He hadn't stopped all day. Eun's realtor had shown him three houses and one apartment before So found something suitable. He had his secretary make arrangements for cleaning and furnishing the place. He asked for the essentials. Decorations could come later, he thought.

There were two very angry messages from Yo in his voice mail and a concerned one from Mu. Belatedly, he remembered the Chinese investors and the myriad of things he had pending in the office, but he found that he couldn't give a fuck.

Exhaustion won over and he fell asleep, still dressed, on top of his covers. Next thing he knew, he was being shaken awake. "Wang So?" His older brother Yo kept asking, shaking him none too gently.

"What?" So asked, coming awake all at once.

"What? You have a meeting in thirty minutes, and you haven't even showered!" Yo fairly roared. He was already dressed and with his trusty old briefcase in hand, ready to head out to the office. That meant it was 8:00 sharp; that was the hour Yo always left for work.

"I'm not going to work today. I'm busy." So rolled away, deciding that he could use a shower before he started to pack his things.

"After the stunt you pulled yesterday, you're ditching work today?"

"I'm busy," So said again, beginning to strip. If it bothered Yo—who could be quite prudish all things considered—so be it.

"Yes! You are busy! Busy with all the fucking meetings you blew yesterday. Do you know how much extra work you caused?"

So shrugged, infuriating Yo. "Wang So, what the fuck is going on?"

There it was, the big brother voice. So hadn't heard it in a while, and told him so.

"Never mind that. I repeat myself; what is going on? Does this have anything to do with that woman you were chasing yesterday?"

So frowned for a moment. "You've got eyes all over the company, don't you hyung?"

Yo refused to answer. Instead, he threw his arms up and left, slamming the door in his wake.

So shrugged. He had put out plenty of fires caused by both his older brothers and their inability to work amicably with each other; they could cover his ass for once.

Author's Note:

From next chapter:

"Moving out? Since when?"

"Uh, about 4 PM yesterday, I bought a house."

"You what?"

"Jung, try to keep up." So said, curtly.

"Does this have anything to do with the girlfriend of yours that moved back to Seoul?"

"How do you know about Hae Soo?"

"Eun freaked out yesterday after you called him, and conference called me and Baek Ah about how you were acting weird. Baek Ah told us you had ran into an old girlfriend." Jung explained then frowned. "Hae Soo you said?"