Even though it's not Tae Yeon's first time in Zeus, she still marvels at the grand arching of the ceiling, the pretty chandeliers that dangle from said ceiling; too relieved at avoiding an unpleasant encounter to care about the fact that Young Do can see her appreciating the lobby like a girl in a candy store.
She may have long since grown tired of the social events that accompanied the life of a socialite; but that doesn't mean she's forgotten how to appreciate beauty when she sees it.
The employees bow to her as they pass, then to him, and when it happens for the fourth time Young Do finally quips, "Who's hotel is this again? Who should you be greeting first?"
Choosing to save the stammering employee from facing his wrath, she shoves him into the elevator as it opens, apologizing with a wave of her hand before the doors slam shut and she loses sight of her.
"I'm wondering if you need a reminder of who's hotel this is too," Young Do says.
Tae Yeon just flips him off, sinking back against the cold walls of the elevator as the number for the highest floor lights up.
Safe for now flits through Tae Yeon's mind.
Then, soon after, I'm going to kill Go Min Kyung.
The room's opened with a swipe of Young Do's key card and he gestures for her to enter. "Ladies first."
Tae Yeon complies, but not without commenting. "No use using manners now. I already know what a jerk you are."
Young Do's suite is bigger than the room her and Min Kyung had stayed in during their brief time at Zeus; yet hardly more lived in.
It has the same coloured beige walls, only bare. Where their room had had 'tasteful' art hanging on the walls, Young Do's are stripped naked causing it to feel cold and not personal at all.
He drapes his blazer over the back of a chair close to the door – probably placed there for that exact purpose. He moves towards the sitting area, sitting down and stretching his legs out on the coffee table. Tae Yeon follows him, stopping momentarily to take in her surroundings.
"This is it," Young Do says as he lazes back and stares at her bemusedly, gesturing widely to the room as if he's the king and this is his castle. "Does it meet your expectations?"
The small motorcycle figurines on the desk catch her eye, and she grins. "Almost. I expected you to have more pictures of yourself."
"I change them often. You happened to visit whilst the new ones are still being developed."
She moves towards the fireplace, electrical screen in place of actual firewood and traces where it juts out from the wall, creating a makeshift shelf.
It's decorated with more small figurines, including one that looks like an exact miniature replica of Myung Soo and she laughs – the mind-blowing relief of escaping school unseen causing her to not care about being so open in front of someone so potentially dangerous.
There's a room service menu on there too, and she looks questioningly at Young Do who cocks an eyebrow in return.
Hands clasped in his lap, he hasn't stopped watching her since she entered the room.
It's concerning how it's become so normal that Tae Yeon doesn't even mind all that much.
She waves the menu in his direction. "You live here, but you still need a room service menu?"
"You can't expect me to remember everything," he shrugs. "Besides, I don't make a habit of eating food from this hellhole."
Tae Yeon places it back where she'd found it. "Your black bean noodles are good, even if they're pretentiously presented."
"Pretentiously presented?"
"If you have to question my comment, clearly you've never seen them," Tae Yeon defends.
"When did you have time to pass judgment on our room service?" he inquires.
"Min Kyung and I stayed here for about a week. The whole time we lived off room service. That was enough time to pass judgment," she makes the small figurines dance along the shelf for a while before returning them back to their place. It's dusty, as if room service hasn't in fact been here for a considerable amount of time. It's not really surprising, if Tae Yeon lived in a hotel room too she probably wouldn't be so eager to have people roaming around her room all the time either.
"I had no idea you and Min Kyung were so serious."
Young Do's now completely sprawled across the sofa, feet propped up on the ends.
Tae Yeon must imagine the note of jealousy in his voice.
"Min Kyung's never been serious about anything in his life," Tae Yeon rolls her eyes.
Fingers continuing to trail along, she reaches a framed photo, positioned purposefully in the frame to only show Young Do and the woman besides him. The minute she gingerly picks it up, the stare on her back intensifies noticeably.
Tae Yeon rises to the bait.
"You look like her."
"I'll have you know I think she'd be offended at being likened to a scary teen," Young Do says; but his words are lacking his usual bite.
The fact that the woman is no longer around – Tae Yeon might not have heard all that much about Young Do, but she hasn't heard anything about her – and that Young Do's father had been engaged to someone else less than a year ago hangs heavy in the air; making her skin itch.
He's anticipating her asking about it: she can tell. So she skates around asking what happened, decides not to be that girl.
The tips of her fingers skate over the woman's outline, tracing it over the glass. She can see the soft shape of Young Do's eyes in her, the delicate curve of his lips. All the hardness and meanness in his features must have been inherited from his father. Looking at a Young Do too young to fully understand the weight he'd have to shoulder one day, all happy smiles and carefree stance – it made Tae Yeon's heart pang.
"Is she safe?" she asks instead, and just about glimpses his nod in her peripheral vision.
"That's good," Tae Yeon comments, placing the photo frame back carefully where she'd found it. Good doesn't begin to cover it, not when her absence could have far more depressing circumstances, but Young Do nods again anyway. "She's beautiful."
"And you?"
It takes a moment for her to register he's asking a question and not complimenting her.
"What?"
The carpet in his living room is black and probably costs more than Tae Yeon's apartment, Tae Yeon thinks as she makes her way across it. Knowing Young Do's flair for extravagance, it's actually rather plain.
Sitting down on the sofa opposite him, all expensive leather that's slippery under her fingers and not at all comfortable, Tae Yeon can tell Young Do doesn't view this as a home either.
"I wasn't calling you beautiful," he clarifies. "I meant are you safe? From whoever it was you were avoiding?"
Tae Yeon shrugs, deciding not to elaborate on a subject Young Do definitely did not need to know about. She settles further back into the cushions so that she's no longer threatening to slip off onto the floor. "Hide from a tiger in another tiger's cave, right?"
"He's worthy of being a tiger?"
"Not particularly." Tae Yeon's mind flashes back to the car she'd seen outside the school, the face that had popped into her mind at the sight of it. "Tiger's a bit of an exaggeration."
"Who was he?"
Tae Yeon purses her lips. "Isn't it rude to pry?"
"He has to be quite scary if you had to resort to asking me for help."
The material of the chair is soft under her fingers, she glides them over the arm rest so as to avoid his eyes. "Someone who I have no interest in associating with; and who doesn't seem to that."
"But you must have been interested at some point," Young Do insists. If it comes down to him stubbornly answering questions and her stubbornly not answering; she's sure she'll win. "If he has your phone number."
"I didn't have a choice. In knowing him or in him having my number. Unfortunately, Min Kyung and I don't have the same standards for friendship."
And Tae Yeon was most definitely going to give him hell for it later.
"And your standards are too high for me to meet them?" No matter what Young Do tries to disguise it as, Tae Yeon can recognize it as a genuine question.
So she gives it the genuine thought it deserves.
All in all, Tae Yeon's most definitely kept worst company than him. People less sincere with their words, who compliment her and speak with less conviction, people more hungry for power so their conversations with her come across as overly desperate.
None of them has she considered friends, however.
Genuine friends, she can count on one hand.
There's the Jeguk group - sans Young Do - which makes four. Eun Sang with her blinding sincerity; so much so she can almost understand Tan's stand-offish behavior where it concerns her because it would be almost too easy to manipulate her. Bo Na with her bubbly personality, and although she gets incredibly excited about materialistic things like shopping and boys - so do most teenage girls. At least Bo Na still has her wits about her. Chan Young who's able to withstand both an overjoyed Bo Na and put up with an irritating Tan without resorting to punching the latter in the face like Tae Yeon has urges to do sometimes. Then Myung Soo who's older than her but the closest thing to a little brother she's ever had - all eager with big smiles and bigger camera lenses.
Of course, the oldest one is saved for last. Min Kyung's been there for everything she's ever had to suffer through. The times sad enough that she craved intimacy like air and he was more than willing to supply her with it. The times she was sick and refused to go to the maids and he'd held her hair as she puked.
Of course it works both ways - Tae Yeon applying medicine to the bruises he sports more often than not. Tae Yeon insisting on a two room apartment so that Min Kyung always had a place to stay.
Tae Yeon forcing him to go to school even when in the face of expulsion, explaining why Min Kyung was now so insistent that she attend Jeguk.
Both of them clinging to each other under harsh hospital lights as she assured him he would be alright, as he promised that even if he wouldn't be she'd survive.
So, logistically, there was more than enough room for Young Do.
She's had to keep company with worse, and is used to his personality. Except she's too stubborn and her pride is too bruised to try.
Plus, she knows that Young Do's still waiting for the opportunity to exact his revenge and having to worry about that is too tiring.
So she gives him a dumb answer instead.
"I'll come back when the pictures of you are on your walls again, and then I might reconsider."
Young Do turns this over for a while. "I don't know, I'm competing for least welcoming home. I'm afraid the decorations might sabotage my chances."
The bare walls and lack of serious personalization speaks volumes about how Young Do regards this hotel room. It's not permanent for him, not somewhere he thinks he'll always be.
Not somewhere he wants to be.
Tae Yeon knows what that feels like.
"I'll show you my mother's house one day. I'm not sure you can beat that." It was unwelcoming to the point the postman often didn't dare approach it; instead choosing to leave their mail halfway down the driveway so to avoid coming into contact with the mistress of the house.
"Not even a hotel?" his brow quirks.
She sucks in her breath from between her teeth. "It's a close call."
Young Do's suite might be competition with its lack of decoration: but even with her mother's delicate porcelain ornaments and extravagant paintings, expensive piano in the living room the most homely thing there – it looked more like a museum than an actual home. There's a tense silence hanging in the air that no expensive clock chiming could disguise, although it was better than when her mother tried to make conversation.
It was a place dreams went to die.
Tae Yeon voiced this out loud which made Young Do laugh. It made him look younger. A lot more like the boy in the photograph.
"You're right. We could have been good friends," she allows.
If things had gone differently. If they'd met under different circumstances. If he'd done to Min Kyung's school instead of Jeguk.
Most importantly if Tae Yeon's mother wasn't Tae Yeon's mother and willing to propose on her behalf at the first handsome rich boy that she saw.
"Not more?" Young Do was pushing it, and judging by the massive grin on his face, he knew it too.
She mimed throwing up onto his expensive carpet.
"Why couldn't we be?"
Just then there was a beep and the door swung open, relieving Tae Yeon from having to give a genuine answer. Not when she was certain of the answer and also certain of how personal it was. Young Do glared over Tae Yeon's shoulder at whoever the intruder was and she exhales.
Two close calls in one day.
"Do I not deserve privacy anymore? What if you'd caught me in a compromising position?" He barks, legs swinging wildly so they're placed firmly on the ground. It's to make him appear more intimidating; but Tae Yeon still can't shake the image of young, naive Young Do so it doesn't quite work.
Tae Yeon isn't afraid to voice this.
"Like what? Grooming your eyebrows?" She mocks.
Whoever it was cleared their throat awkwardly. She doubts its anyone too important by the way he's still slouching. "Sir, the President has asked me to check if you're fulfilling your kitchen duties."
"Of course I am," Young Do said matter of factly. As if he wasn't blatantly not in the kitchen.
Living in a hotel suite may have been depressing; but Tae Yeon felt more sympathetic towards the employees that had to put up with him day in and day out.
"The fact that you're not in the kitchen suggests otherwise."
At least this one seemed to have a bit of bite.
Young Do stands with a scowl, and Tae Yeon follows suit; smoothing out her skirt so it falls neatly over her knees. When she turns the secretary from the other evening bows to her immediately.
"Oh, Miss Kang. I didn't know you had company, sir."
"Is there a photograph of her in the staff room with a sign underneath telling everyone to kiss up to her?"
"I hope not. My hairs a mess."
The secretary's mouth quirks into a subtle smile and Tae Yeon thinks not everyone from Zeus are that bad.
"Sir, your duties call," he insists.
With a great sigh, Young Do begins to trudge towards the door; the way he's dragging his feet making it obvious he doesn't want to. "I'm afraid I can no longer grace you with my presence."
She mirrors his sigh, and follows him. "I think I'll manage to survive."
"Do you need a car to escort you home?" He asks as they exit, door locking instantly behind them. His secretary's still there, eyeing him carefully. Tae Yeon gathers this isn't the firs time he's tried to ditch.
"I can handle a bus." It's a lot more tempting than the though of Min Kyung glimpsing her in a Zeus car anyway.
"Miss," the secretary bows as they move towards the elevator.
She returns this whilst Young Do just pays him dismissively on the back. The look he's given shows he's long since used to Young Do's shenanigans.
You'd probably have to be, to work here long term.
Metallic doors slide open in front of them, and just as Young Do's going to usher her inside; they reveal a man with glasses and a pinched face that tugs at Tae Yeon's memory.
"Choi Young Do, how many times have I told you-"
It's only when he starts speaking does she recognize the angry voice, and bows to politely interrupt his tirade.
"President Choi. It's nice to see you again. I'm afraid I must apologise, I've been keeping Young Do from his duties. Time got away from us, and he was just escorting me to the lobby on his way to the kitchen."
President Choi blinks a couple of times in surprise, then quickly recomposes himself.
"No problem, I didn't know he was entertaining you."
She sidles up to Young Do so that they at least look like friends, hands brushing each other as she smiles.
"It's a very tiring task," Young Do mutters. Tae Yeon pinches his wrist so that he winces.
"I'm sorry. I'll be leaving now. It was nice to see you again, President Choi. I apologise if I caused any hassle."
"No problem," he says. Which is the exact opposite of what he'd been about to say before her interruption. Young Do's absolutely radiating smugness. "We must have dinner together sometime."
"Of course." Not if she can find a way to avoid it.
He leaves them then, apparently satisfied with their friendship. He must really want to secure China. Which means that Tae Yeon's almost entirely repaid Young Do's favour. Getting him out of being yelled at aside.
As the doors slide closed, Young Do and her exchange a look.
"That should be enough to please your father for the forseeable future."
Her mother's pleased, his father's pleased: for not friends they're sure doing pretty well.
He snorts in amusement, and they both stand there, watching the numbers on the LCD screen decrease until they reach the third floor, with the kitchen.
"I guess I'll see you around, Tae Yeonie," he says as he leaves, sparing her a glance and a dazzling smile.
It doesn't take much to figure out the reason he's so pleased is because he thinks he can exchange this favour for something more valuable.
As if he thinks she'll let him.
"I look forward to it oppa."
The doors close and she sighs.
Seen together by almost everyone important.
So much for not getting attached.
"What the hell are you doing outside my house?" is the first thing that comes out of her mouth as soon as the call waiting tone cut off.
Tae Yeon really hopes she doesn't sound as desperate as she pretty much is.
"Do we have a psychic connection or something?" Young Do's voice drawls down the phone.
"Almost. You see, it's just my house has this magical thing called security cameras."
Which was correct; but not the reason that she knew Young Do was currently stood outside of her mother's house. In fact, she was hoping that the maids didn't pay attention to the cameras - as per usual - so that her mother wasn't aware of the rich attractive single chaebol standing on her doorstep literally waiting to be invited in.
Instead, she'd had to deal with a fairly amused Min Kyung. Amusement was quickly becoming his default emotional setting.
"What do you want?"
"Always so cold towards me," he gasped.
"I wonder why."
"I said I was sorry-"
"So you said," Tae Yeon continued as she picked lazily at her nail. The half bitten stumps that replaced long elegant nails drove her mother absolutely up the wall - which made the habit so enjoyable.
"I just thought you wanted to know that eyebrow boy is outside your house."
The nail ripped off. "What?"
"Your house as in your mother's house. He's been loitering around outside for roughly ten minutes now."
"And you didn't think to shoo him away?"
"What am I," Min Kyung snorted. "Pest control?"
"Something close to it," Tae Yeon began to doodle in the margins of her book, the overhead lights blaring down at her in the library.
"He's been contemplating ringing the doorbell. I thought you might not want that to happen."
"Obviously you didn't think enough for you to stop him from doing so."
The doodles began taking the form of motorcycles, and she drew a helmet to match.
"As if he'd listen to me. He's your boyfriend, he's your problem."
"He is not, my boyfriend," her pen drew crosses over the eyes of the motorcycle rider.
"As much as I'd love to argue this with you; you should probably stop him. It looks like he's finally gathered he balls to ring the doorbell and summon the demon."
With that he'd hung up, which lead to Tae Yeon's current phone call conversation.
"Then come out and meet me."
"I'm not there. The maids called me and asked if I knew why a strange angry looking kid was outside," she said dryly.
"You have a habit of masking acquaintances with strange angry kids?" Tae Yeon could imagine the look of mockery on his face.
"I thought you'd met Min Kyung."
This was met with silence, apart from the crunching of the gravel in her mother's driveway under Young Do's shoes. The prospect of him closing the distance between him and the doorbell panicked her.
"Come eat with me."
"Are you asking me on a date?"
The last date Tae Yeon went on involved going to a club, drinking until her words became sloppy, and then engaging in a very intimate activity with the guy.
This didn't meet that definition.
She doubted Young Do had ever been on a 'normal' date.
"You obviously wanted to see me for some reason. I'm not home. Let's go eat somewhere."
Please get out before my mother sinks her claws into you and drags you into hell.
"Okay, meet me here."
He rattles off an address then, which Tae Yeon scribbles into her notebook. Sighing at the loss of study time, she packs her bags and leaves.
Tae Yeon wasnt entirely sure what she had expected. By all means, Young Do was the exact stereotype of a rich heir. Stuck up, self-entitled, used to demanding things and having them given to him; dining in the finest restaurants am having no luxury spared.
So this, the small shop squashed on the side of the road with posters advertising various soft drinks on the walls as well as plain paper with customer's scribbles - seemed very strange considering Young Do was sitting in the middle of it.
"I didn't think this was your kind of scene."
"What did you expect, half naked girls and crystal chandeliers?"
Tae Yeon considers the hand scrawled notes on the wall and spots what looks suspiciously like Myung Soo's handwriting declaring Rachel as the love of his life.
She hums in assent. "Partly."
"The food's good and the ahjumma always calls me handsome. What's not to like?" Unlike when he'd been in his suite, back rigid at the appearance of his father's secretary; regarding almost everything with distaste ( or regarding what the suite stood for): here he was completely comfortable, lips drawn in a lazy smile.
"You brought someone?" Someone who Tae Yeon assumes is the ahjumma Young Do was referring to. Her mouth is nice with eyes that lift happily, wrinkles coming from smiling rather than just old age.
"Ahjumma, this is my friend Tae Yeon." Tae Yeon waves when her name is mentioned and the ahjumma's eyes sparkle.
"Friend? Is that what you call it nowadays?"
Young Do at least has the manners to duck his head awkwardly whilst Tae Yeon just continues to smile winningly.
"Ahjumma it's not like that."
"Sure, sure. I'm just glad you're not alone anymore," she's not convinced in the slightest.
"I'll have my usual please." Deeming it a lost cause, Young Do sighs and orders.
"And for your pretty friend?"
Tae Yeon continues to bat her eyelashes and giggle, convincing the ahjumma even further of her convictions. Just because Young Do was nice to her doesn't mean she has to make it easy for him.
Especially if it means the ahjumma will bring it up everytime she sees him.
"Black bean noodles please," the ahjumma pats Young Do on the head - he pretends to mind a lot more than he does , and then she disappears.
"I hope she doesn't present them too extravagantly."
Tae Yeon muses the smile on his face and how happy he seems to be here. "Me too."
Her fingers traipse over the etchings in the table, initials crudely written in black pen.
"How do you know about this place?"
"We used to go to school down the road."
It's obvious that the we is referring to him, Tan, Bo Na, Myung Soo and even Rachel.
"Ah, I wondered where the influx of snooty looking children was coming from."
It's hardly an exaggeration, there were pinched face children wandering around everywhere. It was almost too easy to imagine him and Tan as one of them.
"Funny."
He talks about middle school for while, and unsurprisingly it's just as Tae Yeon imagined. Young teens trying to outdo each other and pretentious mock cocktail parties in an attempt to win friends. Young Do tells her that its one of those parties that lead to Rachel and Tan's engagement.
She'd gone to a private middle school, but not one in the same league as theirs. Min Kyung had been in the year above her, but was always around. Without the social stigma of being in different wealth classes or not having on season shoes - it was overall a lot more enjoyable.
Especially when Min Kyung snuck out early and into her classes, claiming that as her best fiend it was his duty to translate any difficult Korean.
It had been harder when they started middle school and she attended an all girls institution; although she'd managed to secure Min Kyung a place at the sister school across the road.
Then he'd dropped out and she'd moved so she supposed it turned out right after all.
Young Do continues to enlighten her on more of Myung Soo and Bo Na's more interesting diva moments even as they make their way through their food. Her leg accidentally catches his in the shin under the table, until eventually they're full out kicking each other even as Tae Yeon laughs at Myung Soo and him dying their teacher's white shirt bright pink.
The noodles are filling, and she probably won't need to eat dinner - she'll have to text Min Kyung later to do his own food.
"You know considering all the effort you put into convincing me you didn't like him, you sure seem to be with him a lot of the time. Even playing footsie," speak of the devil and he shall appear. Tae Yeon lands one more swift kick at Young Do's knee, an then ticks her feet under the chair.
More than half of her mind wants to shout at Min Kyung because she's still more than pissed about him feeling at liberty to hand out her number to his asshole friends. She restrains herself instead to say dryly, "Min Kyung I thought I told you; no matter how many times they do it in dramas - stalking in real life is creepy."
The asshole just kisses her on the cheek instead, ruffles her braided hair and seats himself beside her; helping himself to her food. Tae Yeon feeds him, purposefully missing his mouth so that she smears sauce on the side of his face.
He retaliates by trying to wipe it on her cheek.
"So you're the infamous Min Kyung, I've heard a lot about you." And just like always, Min Kyung's managed to distract her from everyone else: including Young Do who's appraising him the same way he appraises her on the first day. Mind already ready to categorize him as needed.
"Well, eyebrow boy, unfortunately asides from the information in that newspaper article: I've heard next to nothing about you," the way he suck in noodles makes a particularly loud slurping noise that makes Tae Yeon hit him upside the head.
It shouldn't matter. Tae Yeon shouldn't feel embarrassed, she's had to deal with his insistently bad manners at far more important events. That doesn't stop the bad feeling as he makes obscene noises just to irk her.
"Probably because I've made a habit of pretending the assholes in my life don't exist."
Deciding that she's probably full enough anyway an that there's no hope of her detaching Min Kyung from her plate; she relents and slides it over to him. He thanks her by trying to press a sloppy kiss to her face. The back of her hand does a good job of batting him away.
She doesn't bother asking how he found her here - when it comes to Min Kyung she usually doesn't want to know.
The answer's usually the same vague thing anyway.
"That hurts my feelings."
Unlike usual when someone joins her and Min Kyung, it doesn't feel like Young Do's intruding.
The thought unnerves Tae Yeon.
"I thought I told you to play nice," Min Kyung adds through a mouthful of noodles. She slides him her drink and he takes a massive sip.
His table manners really aren't that bad; good enough to be invited back by her mother. But he loves the thrill of embarrassing her.
It would put her off hanging out with him; but its a mutual thrill.
"How are you so sure I wasn't talking about you?" Tae Yeon quips.
It's Young Do's turn to bark a laugh now as Min Kyung remembers he's in the doghouse. Tae Yeon doubts he'd forgotten, but had instead pretended otherwise.
"I said I was sorry." He actually swallows his food before speaking this time. It's sad how that's what tells her he's being sincere.
Tae Yeon's hands clenched and unclenched. "Whatever."
"You seem to be very good friends."
"Like I'd want to be friends with this hoodlum." Min Kyung grins, teeth stained with sauce.
"Hoodlum?" Young Do questions.
"I prize myself on being said hoodlum, thank you very much," the plate's cleared and Min Kyung shows what little manners he has by arranging the chopsticks neatly on it.
"It's quite rewarding isn't it?" Young Do tilts his head and trust him to get along like best friends with Min Kyung.
Just as Min Kyung's about to make what is undoubtedly going to be another dumbass comment, a phone tone cuts him off.
It's familiar to Tae Yeon, but Young Do still watches interestedly as Min Kyung retrieves the phone from his pocket and reads the message. Tae Yeon can bet on its contents.
"Hoodlum duty calls," he says. The look on his face is still as bright as ever, but she's known him long enough to be able to tell when he's actually feeling grim.
Which can only mean he'll end up crashing on her sofa again, Tae Yeon staying up until four in the morning to make sure that he gets there.
That's best case scenario.
Worst case - is not worth thinking about.
But second worst case is him coming home with bloodied knuckles and numerous other bruises.
"Oppa-"
"No. Don't give me that innocent bullshit either because we both know you only pull the oppa card when there's something you want."
And just as always, Min Kyung can see right through her.
The chances of him not going off to do something incredibly stupid is slim - it's weird how she hopes its just racing against some rival - but it was worth a shot.
"I-"
Min Kyung cuts her off, standing and stretching his arms above his head. "It was nice making your acquaintance Tae Yeon's not-friend; you seem to be acquiring a multitude of those you know. Please make sure she gets home safely." He actually offers Young Do hand to shake, which Young Do does, looking carefully at Tae Yeon.
Then Min Kyung's waving a goodbye to the ahjumma who's resurfaced from the kitchen to serve the old man - the only other patron; and planting a kiss on Tae Yeon's forehead.
"Love you, bye."
It's accompanied by a flick on her ear, and Tae Yeon knows she's going to restating up late to weasel some sort of explanation out of him, and is going to be exhausted tomorrow morning.
"You two seem very adorable."
Young Do is the exact opposite of how Tae Yeon feels, looking pleased with whatever conclusion he's drawn up and Tae Yeon's not bothered enough to come up with a smart reply to knock him of his high horse.
She chooses to kick his shin again instead.
"Shut up and eat your noodles."
"Then the contract with Qiang Group is done?" The documents on his desk are good, confirmation of the plans that they've been preparing for for over a year now.
It's all coming together, and his secretary can easily see that the President is ecstatic.
"Yes Chairman, they're happy to supply us with materials for the hotel in Beijing." The signed contracts are on his desk and he's never wanted to frame a document as much as these. Proof that expansion was well underway. Secretary Joon continues to talk, relaying what the rest of the Zeus board have been speaking.
Keep a close ear, relay anything of importance. It had taken a lot of training to get a secretary to that stage. "The support of a Chinese company will definitely boost the favourability of Zeus against other foreign hotels."
"The united contributions of three companies will be sure to be beneficial. The continued support from international companies will also be useful," President Choi explains, and he knows that the secretary understands what he is implying.
He's sure both of their minds flash to Young Do's arm around the same Chinese girl.
"Of course."
When he leaves, President Choi sifts through the papers to ensure everything is in order. "Choi Young Do, let's see if you're actually worth the title you're to be given."
Typed up on my phone so forgive any spelling errors because I had it done ages ago and thought if I don't post it now I might never get round to it. I also might die camping in the forest tomorrow and it would be a shame.
Pretty much a filler chapter that sets up for stuff meant to come later - and the next chapter's probably my favourite one after the one where Tae Yeon drops the bomb on Young Do.
Two updates in one week should make up for ditching for ages OTL