Have you written that speech?
What speech.
Oh no no no, you don't get to play that with me, missy.
Damn it. Well, no I haven't….
It's not writing itself, you know
Your wedding is not until October though. I still have plenty of time.
Run it through me first please
No way! That defeats the purpose
Do not try to embarrass me!
Look, if there's one thing I know, it is that nothing ever embarrasses you.
And I mean NOTHING! With a capital N-O-T-H-I-N-G.
Jun Pyo's ditching me that one time kind of embarrassed me a little.
Well, I don't know about you, but count your blessing, honey.
Imagine having to deal with his mom for the rest of your life.
Shudder.
You're right.
I might have called it quit halfway and ran away and joined an African tribe or something.
Make it funny then.
As if.
Ask Jun Pyo if you want a funny speech

Now you're mistaking funny for embarrassing.
How he manages to avoid being a social pariah for so long is truly inspiring.
Btw what's up with my fiancé and your boyfriend?
Going around being secretive and shite.
I want to smack them silly for acting stupid like…like IDK like some sort of detectives in a b-grade drama.
And here I thought his acting manly and tough would turn you on.
Only in the bedroom, darling.
Eewww….

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'How is the series going?'

Ga Eul raised her head from her scribbles on the notebook she kept open on the meeting table in front of her. She was sitting in her chief editor's office, running through her progress on the three part series of the upcoming artists and the galleries who supported them.

The room was small but tidy, with minimal decoration adorning the white wall. Hardly a personal touch could be found in her boss' office. It was almost as if she didn't have anything interesting outside the work life, which of course, couldn't have been true. Her boss, whom she sometimes jokingly called Bosslady, was one of the most interesting personalities she had ever met. How else would you describe someone who once took it upon herself to run a marathon in a Wonder Woman costume just to complete a bet and wrote the experience down for the magazine. As hard as she made everyone work in the office, she worked herself even harder, and that ranked highly in Ga Eul's opinion.

'It's coming together nicely,' she jotted down some more points on the paper. 'The first installment is finished. I am almost 80 percent with the second one. Actually, I am meeting someone from this new gallery tomorrow. I will send his contact to you. He should be the last one, I think, since I have enough material already to complete the series.'

'That's good.' Jung So-In watched her junior editor in careful observation. 'How are you holding up at home?'
'What do you mean?'
'Last time you had that maniac coming after you. Are you OK now? You're still staying with So Yi Jeong?'
For a lot of reason Ga Eul felt nothing but deep thanks to her boss' choice of words. She nodded and smiled at her.

'Everything is fine,' she said, but after a moment pause added, 'so far.'
'That's good.' Her boss looked a bit distracted. 'Is it serious? Between you and So Yi-Jeong, I mean?' she absentmindedly rolled the golden color pen in her hand.
A bit surprised at the question, Ga Eul looked at her questioningly.
'I'm not prying,' her boss reassured her. 'Do you know that my family used to be quite close to the So clan? Not so much anymore, obviously.'

Any mention of Yi Jeong at the office usually sent Ga Eul into hypersensitive mode and perpetual bad mood, but this bit of information from her boss only managed to raise her curiosity.

'Yup,' Jung So-In met her gaze, 'I came from a long line of pottery artist, you know. Well, at least up until my great grandfather. My grandfather chose to rebel though, working for the media, followed by my father, and then myself.' She paused. 'I guess it's safe to say the relationship started to unravel around that period of time. They despised the media.'

Watching Ga Eul's surprised expression, she laughed heartily. 'I know, I know. It's stupid, right?' Her eyes glinted mischievously, 'I think it's due to their propensity to end up in the gossip column. The lots of them were playboys, you know.' She shrugged, 'Anyway, I personally think it's hypocrisy. They still come to us when they need something from the media. All of them do.'

Chewing this bit of information, Ga Eul's mind wandered briefly. She wasn't paying attention when the object of their conversation slightly shifted.

'Ga Eul?'
'Yes?' she shook her head and focused her attention back to So-In.
'I said, how is it?'
'What is what?'
'Your relationship with Yi jeong.'
'Oh, it's OK, I guess….' She trailed a little. 'It's too early to tell, really. Why?'
'Just wondering.' A minute trickled down slowly as So-In regarded her junior carefully.
'You know the family is still very conservative, right?'
'What do you mean?'

'I mean they are still very much living in nineteenth century when it comes to allowing their women to work. No, I'm serious, up until her marriage to So Hyun-Sub, Yi Jeong's mother was working for her family's finance company. She gave up her career pretty much straight after the wedding since her husband's family preferred her to stay in the back ground like a traditional Korean wife.' She stood up and walked to the water dispenser at the corner of the room, filling her empty glass with the cold water before she came back to the meeting table. 'That, we think, and So Hyun-Sub infidelity, of course, that kind of broke her spirit.' She sighed and watched Ga Eul surprised expression. 'Oh, don't give me that look. It's almost public knowledge. The only reason why very little if not at all made into newspaper is because the So family was, still is very influential. So Hyun-Sub's wandering way is very much well known. But talking about his family is out of the question.'

Ga Eul wondered, not for the first time, what kind of childhood did Yi Jeong grow up in? It did not sound very appealing to her at all.

'Anyway, what I'm saying is,' So-In continued her story, 'you should probably make it clear about what you want from him before making a bigger commitment. I mean, it's probably nothing, you know. After all, this is twenty first century and he had spent a lot of years abroad. That should count for some improvement in anyone's world view, right?'

'I suppose,' Ga Eul mumbled. So many things she didn't know about the man she called her boyfriend, so many layers she needed to peel to get into Yi Jeong. After a few more getting back and forth about the series of articles she's writing, she gathered her notebook and pens and took her leave from her boss' office with the promise to conduct the last interview the day after.

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#

There's a vast difference between watching a detective show on TV and actually sitting through an investigation. You can watch an hour long episode on TV depicting a police squad, or a private detective uncover a case in just a matter of days. Sometimes, they even have the perpetrator thrown to jail in a matter of a few appearances in courts, with the jury always seem to agree on one vote.

And yet. And yet, it had been, what, weeks since the murder occurred, and it was only now that Woo Bin claimed how he thought he had some breakthrough on the case. A breakthrough he said he was reluctant to share with the police because it would probably affect some social aspect of the So clan and that was why he needed to talk him through his findings before calling for some official help.

They were sitting in Woo Bin's office, shifting through some papers Woo Bin's people had given them. He termed all of them classified. Yi Jeong could see why it was probably not very good idea to share the information with outside world. Let alone had his girlfriend, who worked for the media, seen the pages in front of him.

'The way I see it,' Woo Bin started, 'we have been approaching this case from the wrong angle the whole time.' He lighted a cigarette and offered one to Yi Jeong who hastily accepted. He had been itching for one since he got a call from Woo Bin that very morning. A busy day at the museum made him delay his meeting with the mafia prince to late in the afternoon. After following his friend in lighting his cigarette, he took a long drag and filled up his lung with the addicting chemicals before breathed them out again.

'Remember you said that you couldn't think of any incident involving yourself which merit this kind of revenge? And I thought, well, that's probably only your opinion. And so I did some research on that. But as you said, I couldn't find any lead. And that is strange. Obviously, someone, somewhere, wants to cause you harm. Or wants to Ga Eul harm, which in turn will come back to you.'

Yi Jeong shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He didn't like where this was going.

'Well, remember last time we had dinner at Jun Pyo's place and Ga Eul was talking about her parents?' Woo Bin blew a smoke ring to the air and glanced at him.
'I guess…. I don't really see what this have to do with her parents…..'
'No, of course not. But it made me think, you know. I thought, well, what if this case started with your parents….' He trailed as Yi jeong sharply raised his head. 'Well, you know your father…'
'Hmmm…'
'Anyway, so I asked my people (trusted associates, don't worry about it), to look at your father's affair in the past three years.' He paused. 'That is given the fact that these incidents only really started recently, you know. It's, how should I say it… it has been enlightening.'

Yi Jeong cursed under his breath.

'Here,' Woo Bin reached for a separate pile of folders from his desk. 'I've been reading all the reports these past couple of days and these two caught my interest. You will see why.' He handed Yi Jeong the first folder from the pile.

'Look, I know, you have a difficult relationship with your father and I understand this won't be easy for you. But I think it's easier to hear from me than from anyone else.

This one. About four years ago, your father had a relationship with a mistress of quite a powerful business man. I think he didn't know that the woman was attached to someone. They broke up after some time. Anyway, the business man found out about this and he tried to end his relationship with his mistress. She, however, was a little miffed since she knew that he had quite a few mistresses other than her as well, and decided to do a little revenge by sending all the photographs of his various mistresses to his wife.'

Yi Jeong scrunched his nose as Woo Bin shook his head in distaste.

'Yeah, I know, I know. Anyway, it wouldn't be too bad if his wife had not been the original heiress of the company and was still the biggest shareholder. And so, you can imagine how that ended up.' He read his notes. 'They split up, and in the process they split the company as well, and he lost custody of his children. Looking at his latest business ventures, I'd say he does a lot of shady deals with his new company.'

'Damn.' Yi Jeong rubbed his chin.

'Yeah. That just goes to show, you know, your biggest enemy is probably the one you sleep with.' Woo Bin looked up to see his friend narrowing his eyes at him. 'Not Ga Eul, obviously, Jeez.'
He crushed his cigarette and reached for his cup of coffee. 'This stuff here makes me thirsty,' he said before proceed to finish his drink in one go.

'The second one here,' another folder was handed to Yi Jeong, 'is frankly depressing.'
The folder was pretty thick, Yi Jeong noted, as he took it from Woo Bin's hand.

'The thing about these cases though, is that it's probably something that wouldn't even register in your father's journal, if he had any. They are the same as any other relationship he had before. It's what happened afterworld, after he left, that left a devastating trail.'

Yi Jeong opened the plain looking black folder in his hand curiously. Quickly his eyes scanned the first page, eyebrows knotted tightly as his mouth formed a straight line.

'Yeah, like I said, depressing.' Woo Bin commented. 'This happen a couple of years ago. Your father met this girl in a club, you know the drill. He didn't know though, that she's the youngest child, the only daughter of a crime lord. Only he doesn't front himself as a crime lord, you know. He has a shipping business or something, but we know what goes behind the screen.

Anyway, she's only 20 at the time.'

Again, Yi Jeong threw another curse under his breath.

'Yeah, like I said, depressing. Anyway, he broke up with her after a few months. The thing is, she actually fell in love with him. Like, seriously in love with him. I mean, don't ask me why, people have horrendous taste.' He shrugged as Yi Jeong gave him a finger.

'And when he broke up with her, it hit her hard. Now, she was diagnosed as manic depressive a few years before that and this thing basically opened a whole can of worms. She tried to commit suicide, but luckily she was found before it was too late.' Woo Bin drew a long sigh. 'She spent a month in an induced coma, and has been living in an institution for the past two years. '

Yi Jeong looked at a picture of a young girl smiling at the camera. She looked younger than her supposed age of twenty, with bright smile and shiny eyes. She was wearing preppy clothes like a college student. In fact, not that much different from how Ga Eul dressed.

Behind that picture was a more recent one of her. She looked emaciated, with too large eyes in her skinny face. Gone were the smile and the shiny eyes.

'To be fair, though,' Woo Bin said, 'none of this ever made it to your dad's knowledge. I mean, he probably thinks that this was just one of his long lists of conquest.'

The cigarette on Yi Jeong's hand had long been forgotten.

'Shit,' he threw the folder on the table and sat back in his chair; his head throbbing as he closed his eyes. 'Fucking shit.'

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