Chapter EIGHTEEN: White Flag

Kang Mun Seong felt nervous but excited as she made her way to her new office at the university. She had arrived in Hong Kong two days before, and spent the weekend organizing her things in the faculty apartment she had been given near the campus. It was a bit cramped and the decoration dated, but that was okay. It was her own space and she was going to make it work.

Plus, being busy kept her from overthinking her last encounter with Wang Yo. Wang Yom the prick, who had shown up at the airport and said all the right things and didn't try to hold her back...instead claiming he was going to win her heart back. But Mun Seong wasn't quite sure that was possible, but he might as well try… part of her was curious about what an interested Wang Yo was like.

Well, she was about to find out.

Upon opening her office, she was greeted by a huge floral arrangement sitting on top of her desk. Vibrant red and purple flowers with touches of yellow and white.

"It arrived for you earlier, Miss Kang." Jen Zhao, her teaching assistant said, popping out from behind the flowers and handing her a small, sealed envelope.

Inside, there was a brief handwritten note: Good luck on your first day. Love, Wang Yo.

It was Yo's handwriting too, which meant he had personally written it and sent it to Hong Kong in time for her first day.

"Secret admirer?"

"Not secret, just recent." Mun Seong smiled, giving into the temptation and pulling her phone out to text Yo. To her surprise, there was already a message from him.

WY: Did you like them?

MS: How did you know where my office was before I did?

WY: Won found out for me.

MS: Stalkerish much?

MS: …

MS: They are beautiful. Thank You.

WY: Good luck today. 3

Mun Seong gasped when she saw the heart emoji. Yo hated all those cutesy things. He had told her so himself when they had started dating.

"What's wrong?" Jen asked, concerned.

"Nothing, just the mighty falling." Mun Seong smiled, closing the messaging app without answering. Let him suffer a bit.

That marked the start of Yo's wooing strategy. On Monday mornings, she always got flowers. On Wednesdays, it was usually some sort of food-related treat: chocolate, fruits, her favorite snacks from Korea. And on Fridays, an actual letter.

The first one had been a confession on how he had missed her letters when she stopped writing to him when he was in the military, but that he had been too proud to admit it, and that he still had all her letters.

Sometimes he wrote about the past, and their moments together. He also wrote about the things he had loved about her but never told her, the things he wished they had done together, or just shared memories. Other times he asked her how she was doing, what she liked or disliked about Hong Kong.

He always signed off saying he loved her… but so far she had left him wondering if she would ever say it back…

-00-

Four months later…

Slowly, Hae Soo rose from Seol's bed and turned on Seol's night lamp which casted countless stars into the walls of her room, making sure not to wake her daughter as it had taken her almost an hour to get her to sleep. Lately, Seol had these days where she would be out like a light, and others when she refused to go to bed unless a large list of demands was fulfilled (glasses of water, stories told by both her parents, a stop by the bathroom, more water, that Soo sang her a lullaby, and so on).

Quietly, Soo closed the door to her daughter's bedroom and stretched, moving toward the living room where Wang So sat. A pile of documents was scattered all over the table in front of him and some on the couch he occupied. A deep notch had formed between his brows as he read something on his laptop.

Still, at the sound of her footsteps, he looked up and smiled. "Did you get her to sleep?"

"Yeah," Soo smiled back. "Do you want to be distracted or should I take myself to bed as well?"

"No, please! I beg you, distract me." So answered, already clearing some papers next to him so she could sit. To his surprise – and delight – she ignored the empty space next to him and sat on his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck and giving him a long, playful kiss.

Giggling when they broke apart, Soo said, "You looked like you needed that."

"I did." So hands played with her hair and moved down her back.

"What are you working on?" Soo rested her head against his shoulder, making herself comfortable.

"We have to submit our final proposals before the board in a week, and I'm trying to figure out how I want to spin this."

"You don't sound very excited about it."

"I have my doubts."

"You would be good at it," Soo said with conviction. "You're good at managing people, and have an awesome brain for strategy."

"Thank you, sweetheart. But there's also the fact that if I do this and win… well, there are mountains of work involved. Lots of time I would have to spend away from you and Seol-ie. And when I think about that, I'm not sure I want to do it."

"Well… You know I'm on your side no matter what."

"That's the only thing keeping me sane." So said, trailing kisses all over her face.

"Mmm, it sounds to me like you need a bit more distraction." Soo said, straightening a little, and changing her position to straddle So's legs.

"I like how you think," So said, holding her as he stood up with Soo in his arms and began to stride toward their room.

"You know, we had a perfectly good couch right there."

So ignored the comment. Even if Yo had finally moved out, it would be a while before he stopped associating that couch with his brother. Hell, maybe he just needed to bite the bullet and tell Soo they needed to buy a new house… but that would be later… right now they were about to get very busy.

-000-

The hot shower had done wonders to ease Yo's aching muscles. He had taken to spending a lot of time at the gym since Mun Seong left, as the physical exhaustion helped him fall asleep at night, rather than staying up and pining after her.

He missed her more than he ever thought possible. It was like he had lost a limb or something, which was very odd because it wasn't like they lived in each other's pockets – which just went to show him how much he had taken her for granted. He was, like she had told him before, a prick.

But he was working hard on righting those wrongs.

Over the last few weeks, Mun Seong had started answering his letters, texted him back more often than not, and they had even had had some long talks on the phone. It had started when she called him, about two months after she left, asking if he could find some documents for her – some medical records and the last renewal of her passport - and send them to her in Hong Kong.

Next thing he knew, he was on a plane to Hong Kong to deliver them himself. Mun Seong had been surprised but hadn't put him on the next plane back to Seoul. Instead, they spent the weekend together sightseeing, hanging out, and talking.

These days, he made his way to Hong Kong every other weekend just to spend a few days with her. It wasn't perfect, and sometimes it was awkward, but it was worth it.

But now, he had other issues to contend with: namely, the selection of the new president of the Taejo Group. He had to submit his final proposal in a few days, but he knew it was all moot. He didn't have his mother's support anymore, which left him in a vulnerable position...and that was even if he still had any supporters left. If Mu won, Yo was fairly certain he would be fired from the company.

Part of him almost wanted it. It would give him more freedom to spend time with Mun Seong, and as he had his own investments and money that weren't tied up to the company, he would be fine. But another part of him hated losing.

All he could do now was to write up the best proposal he could and see where things landed. But first, he needed a drink, Yo thought. Not procrastinating at all, he made his way to his fridge, smiling at the drawing of Mun Seong and him that day they had taken Seol to eat those awful, awful burgers.

Soon after Mun Seong left, he had found it on his office desk. It was his niece's attempt to cheer him up. When he moved to this new place, it had been one of the first things he had set out.

-000-

Wang So dropped a kiss on Hae Soo's lips as he walked in late one night a few days later, and quickly washed up while Soo re-heated his dinner, sitting next to Seol who was busily coloring something, all her 72 colors spilled onto the table.

"What are you doing, Princess?" So scooted closer to his daughter and gave her a side hug, kissing the top of her head.

Seol snuggled for a second before resuming her coloring. "It's a drawing for Uncle Yo." She answered, humming to herself in concentration. "He has a lot of toy soldiers in his office."

"I know. He used to let me play with them when I was your age," So said and grew quiet, then a little broody.

Soo shrugged. She noticed that he had been like that as the day for the board meeting approached so she left him in his thoughts; instead, Soo focused on getting Seol ready for bed.

As he sat at the table, not really tasting the food, So kept thinking of his brothers and those toy soldiers. Of how it had been growing up together and what had drove them apart...and not for the first time wondering if it was all worth it.

Suddenly, he stood up and grabbed his keys. He had some places to be. "Soo-yah!" He called out. "I forgot something at the office. I'll be back."

-00-

The Headquarters of the Taejo Group was quiet as Wang So made his way up to the C-Suite, where there was still a light on in one of the offices. This was not surprising as the board would meet in the morning to hear out the proposals and elect the new president of the company.

"Finalizing stuff for tomorrow?" So said from the door of his brother's office, where Yo sat behind his massive desk. His coat and tie were long discarded, and his shirt-sleeves were rolled up.

"Someone has to," Yo said without lifting his gaze from the papers in front of him. "I might not have a job after tomorrow, but I don't like to leave stuff unfinished."

"Responsible as always. Do you think it's a big-brother thing?"

Yo shrugged. "What do you want, So?"

"I was remembering some things earlier. Like that time when we were little and you were doing your homework and Jung and I were playing hide-and-seek. I went to tell you I couldn't find him, and we spent an hour looking for him, only to find him asleep under father's desk."

"Only you would play hide-and-seek with a toddler," Yo shook his head. "I had to stay up until midnight to finish my homework, because you and Jung insisted on helping me but you two just started jumping on my bed while I tried to work. I can't believe you remember that; you must have been six or seven."

So shrugged. "Or that time you gave me a flashlight and your Gameboy and locked me up in the closet when I was, like, five? You told me to stay quiet and that you would be back, but you took forever and I ended up falling asleep and drooling on your school shirt."

"I was surprised when I opened the door and you were just sprawled all over the floor. I always wondered why you didn't start to make a ruckus."

"I knew you would be back. And I knew you were hiding me because mother was in one of her moods."

Yo's expression darkened at the mention of their mother. "This has been a fun trip through memory-lane, but what's your point?"

"We were close once," So said, finally coming into the room and sitting in front of Yo. "You were my favorite person in the world back then."

"Yeah, well, nothing was ever the same after Mother hurt you." Yo looked away and So's eyes widened. It was the first time anyone in his family referred to his mother's attack as something other than an "accident". Even Baek Ah called it so. "You were in the hospital for weeks, and then Father sent you to live with our aunt. And you seemed to prefer hanging out with Mu afterward, anyway."

"I didn't really. I didn't know him very well back then. He was, like, sixteen and very serious. I kept wishing you would visit me at the hospital."

"Don't be silly. They wouldn't have let me in." Yo went back to his documents, not really reading them anymore.

That's when he heard a soft, metallic thud on his desk and looked up to find a two inch tall toy soldier, much like the ones behind him, holding a flag. "You came anyway."

"What-"

"I couldn't remember for the longest time. I was either out of my mind with pain or loopy from the meds at first...so I thought I had just dreamed you were there. I didn't even notice this was on my bedside table at the hospital until I was discharged, and I've kept it hidden ever since. I thought I had stolen it from you and that you would be mad so that's why I never gave it back. But you put it there, and you said it would kept me safe."

Yo picked it up, turning it over. He hadn't seen it in over twenty years. "Did it?"

"I want to think so. Our aunt took good care of me, I was safer and eventually happier living with her and Baek Ah." In fact, he had gone over to his aunt's house before coming to the office, to dig through the few boxes he had stashed there from childhood in order to find this keepsake.

"Then I'm glad."

At the same time, the elevator dinged and opened its doors to reveal a very tired looking Mu. "Good, he's here." He said, "I need to tell you two something."

-.-

The atmosphere in Yo's office was hostile. The two eldest Wang Brothers were not happy to be in each other's company, and So wondered if they had EVER been close, like he and Yo used to be...or if they had been put at each other's throats since birth.

Knowing his parents, So could guess.

Still, he needed to make them listen to him.

"I don't want to be president of this company," So said as an opening. It was enough to get Yo and Mu to stop glaring at each other and to turn towards him.

"What're you talking about?" Yo demanded.

"I don't think any of us grew up dreaming to become the president of the Taejo Group, to be honest. I don't know about Mu, but Yo wanted to be a fireman when he was little."

"Really?" Mu asked, surprised.

"That's not the point," Yo snapped, but his cheeks turned a little red so Mu guessed it was true. "You've been working for months to earn the position, just like the rest of us!"

"I did what was expected—and I did it only to punish Father for a while. But I don't really care for the job. I don't think any of us do. If it weren't for Father pushing for one of us to be named president, I think we would've all been happy to keep working together. We're good at it."

"You can't run a corporation as large as the Taejo Group without a president, So," Mun said, using the Oldest Brother tone.

"But we did it. We took decisions as a council for two years when Father had the heart attack, remember? Under very dire circumstances and with a lot less experience, we successfully ran this company."

"It was necessary at the time," Mu countered.

"It was the most profitable period this company had seen in almost fifteen years. It went down when Father came back as President and pushed us to our current positions."

"Is that true?" Mu asked, turning to Yo who also served as the CFO.

"Yeah. Father never let me put it in the quarterly reports though. How did you know, So?"

So didn't answer. Instead, he countered with another question: "Why do you think he did it? For some reason Father thinks the best way to run this company is if we're at each other's throats all the time and doing things his way. But we're doing just fine doing things our way. Each of us is good at something. Mu is good at being the public face of the company, keeping up the morale and soothing investors. I'm good at long term strategy and daily operations. And Yo is better than anyone at keeping track of every single won that enters and leaves the company."

"I like math," Yo said defensively.

"And you're good at it. And sure, we could all do each other's jobs, but would we do them as well? I hate talking to investors. I'm competent at math, but I don't have a spreadsheet for a brain like Yo does."

"Not to mention the amount of work involved for a single person," Yo said, toying with his favorite fountain pen. "I always thought it wasn't very time efficient."

"Exactly! This company consumed our father's life. I don't want it to consume mine. I want to be there for my daughter, I want to know her and I can't do that living the way father did. And, sure, I could take my money and leave, but this is our legacy."

There was a silence. Mu was a family man who resented the time he had to spend away from his children as his responsibilities grew. Furthermore, his wife had recently been diagnosed with cancer, and he wanted to be there for her.

"Say we agree..." Mu started. "Father will never allow it. There's a reason why he'a always pitted us against each other: survival of the strongest."

"That's wrong though," Yo said pensively. "The actual evolutionary rule is 'Survival of the fittest.' Fit and strong aren't always the same thing."

"Yes!" So said enthusiastically. "And we don't need Father to agree," So added. "The three of us, plus Jung, are the biggest shareholders of the Group. Eun's grandfather and Baek Ah's parents can be reasoned with."

Yo nodded. "Father couldn't make us back down if we wanted to move forward together. They would at least have to listen. But we would still need to convince every other member of the board."

"Baby steps, Yo, baby steps."