#so we’re doing one in class and (calmly (with civility)) discussing our opinions

[mars-ipan]

class is spicy today :]

[drmmyrs]

The Way I Loved You (Poppy x MC)

Soo bear with me since I think this might be a long series. This part is mostly just establishing the story so there is little to no fluff yet.

But stiiill, let me know what you guys think and I’d really appreciate feedback/constructive criticism. Hope you enjoy and if not, thanks for reading anyways :)) 

tag list: @whackawriting @samanthadalton @crazzyplays @uselesslesbianfr (ithis is my taglist I thiiink, but if you wanna be added or removed just let me know)  

Pairing: Poppy x MC (Bea)

Word Count: 1650

Warning: Little swearing (at least for this part)

A/N: This is from the part before Poppy and MC were paired for a project

Bea had been at Belvoire for two months now, but she still wasn't used to waking up on a queen-sized canopy bed fitted with luxe sateen sheets in a bedroom which probably cost more than her family's house back at Farmsville. She glanced at the clock–11:30 am. She still had some time to spare before her first class. How people managed to wake up early on this luxurious bed made of clouds, she didn't know.

After a few more minutes of daydreaming, Bea begrudgingly pulled herself out of bed. She was preparing her outfit when the smell of heaven wafted through the bedroom door–bacon and pancakes. Like some kind of puppet on strings, Bea let herself be led by the delicious aroma to the kitchen where Zoey was expertly pouring pancake batter on a pan.

"I didn't know I was roommates with a master chef," Bea jested.

Zoey turned around at Bea's voice, and as she saw her, a smirk crawled up her lips.

"Well, don't you look sexy." Zoey eyed Bea up and down with an amused look on her face.

Bea glanced down at her outfit and saw that she was still in her pajamas. "Whatever Zo, not everyone can rock designer outfits even in bed."

"Hey, I'm not complaining. Besides, Spongebob PJs do have a certain charm."

Bea rolled her eyes while smiling. "So, what are we having for breakfast?"

"I'm pretty sure it's lunch. And aren't you supposed to be in class, like, right about now?"

"Nah, my Tuesday classes aren't until one o'clock."

Zoey stared at Bea. "Babe, it's Wednesday."

Bea's eyes widened at Zoey's words. "No, no, no, Professor Roberta is gonna kill me."

Bea rushed to her room and hastily changed her clothes faster than she thought was possible. She contemplated going to class au naturel, but ultimately decided against it. Bea was not ugly by any means without makeup, but in a sea of extremely contoured cheeks and false eyelashes, having no makeup was basically social suicide, especially since Poppy was in that class. Ugh, great. Of course, I'm late to the only class I have with Poppy.

When Bea thought she was presentable enough, she sprinted out the door but not before grabbing a handful of pancakes and shoving it to her mouth, looking like a chipmunk in the process. The T is gonna have a field day if someone saw me like this. Bea slowed her sprint to a stride as she swallowed the last of the pancakes.

Bea arrived in class forty-five minutes late.

"Look who finally decided to join us," Professor Roberta said in disdain.

"Sorry Professor, won't happen again."

"I'm sure it won't. And since you decided to join us so late, you're gonna have to work with Ms. Min-Sinclair over here for your community service project."

Oh hell no.

Sure enough, Poppy was sitting alone, glaring at her, and Bea could almost swear she could see smoke coming out of her nose.

Bea hesitantly sat down beside Poppy.

"Look Poppy, let's be civil about this and finish this project fast so we–"

"We're not going to do anything, Farmsville. I will ace this project and you will stay out of my damn way."

"Like hell I'm gonna let you take all the credit."

"Is there a problem here?" The professor glowered at Poppy and Bea.

"None professor, we were just calmly discussing the details of the project," Poppy responded with a fake smile.

Bea rolled her eyes. Kiss ass.

Once the professor was out of earshot, Poppy sharply turned to Bea. "Be ready on Friday, we're going to a foster home in Middletown."

"Middletown? But that's like an hour away!"

"I don't see you coming up with better ideas," Poppy hissed.

"I–I–"

"I thought so. Do not be late, Farmsville. I don't want you taking more of my time than you already do," Poppy said with a glare before she grabbed her Chanel purse and strode away.

***

Back at her dorm, Bea was resting her head on her hands on the dining table when Zoey arrived.

Upon seeing Bea, Zoey immediately took a seat beside her and placed her hand comfortingly on her shoulder. "Aww, babe. Was Professor Roberta that mad?"

Bea turned to face Zoey. "No, but it was much, much worse."

Zoey raised her eyebrow.

"I was paired with Satan for our project."

"Poppy?"

Bea nodded. "She even wanted to do the project in Middletown. Middletown. That's like an hour away! I mean surely there has to be another community that needs servicing that doesn't require an hour drive with Poppy."

Zoey pretended to think thoughtfully. "Hmm, maybe she finally found a way to get rid of you permanently?"

"I'm serious, Zo." Bea glared at Zoey.

Zoey laughed. "Okay, okay, sorry. But do bring holy water just in case."

Bea groaned and stood up from the chair before ambling to her bedroom. "I'm going to bed."

Before Bea was able to shut the door, Zoey called out after her. "You'll survive, babe! Give her hell for me."

***

Just a few minutes after Bea got back from her classes, she heard the sound of consecutive horns outside which she immediately knew were from Poppy. No one else is obnoxious enough to disturb an entire dormitory. With a sigh, Bea grabbed her things and trudged outside.

When Bea got outside, Poppy's Range Rover was parked at the curb. Bea walked to the passenger's side and opened the door.

"Be a dear will you and don't touch anything, I don't want your filthy hands staining my car."

Bea rolled her eyes. Hello to you, too.

The first few minutes of the drive were silent except for the light rain that started drizzling on the windshield, that is, until Bea asked Poppy, "why are we going all the way to Middletown anyway? There's probably some–"

"Remember that time when I asked for your opinion?"

Bea just glared at Poppy.

"Me neither. So, shut up, Hughes."

"How about you take a day off from being a bitch, Poppy. Seeing that you've had your whole life being just that," Bea rebuked.

The entire car ride was spent with both girls hurling insults at each other that it was honestly surprising that Poppy didn't kick Bea out of the car in the middle of the road.

After one looong hour, they finally arrived.

"Don't get in my way, Farmsville," Poppy warned as she approached the house and rang the doorbell. After a few moments, a middle-aged woman opened the door.

"Poppy! What a pleasant surprise. Come on in." The woman gestured them inside.

Hang on, how does she know Poppy?

The woman led Bea and Poppy to a couch and asked them if they wanted something to drink, to which both of them politely declined.

"So, Brenda. How is the family?" Poppy was wearing a smile that might actually be... genuine?

Bea stared at Poppy in shock. Not only were they on a first-name basis, but Poppy was actually nice to someone that doesn't involve sucking up.

"They're doing great! Thomas actually just got promoted recently so we're gonna take the kids somewhere nice sometime next week."

"That's amazing, send Thomas my regards."

Okay, what the hell is happening?

After a few more polite conversations, Brenda turned to Bea. "You haven't introduced me to your friend yet." Brenda extended her hand to Bea. "I'm Brenda."

Bea wore her biggest smile as she shook Brenda's hand. "Bea. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Poppy cleared her throat. "Actually, we came here for a community service project, and we were hoping that we could throw the kids a small party and maybe at the same time we can do a photography shoot that can be shared to prospective families. Do you think we can do that?"

"Oh, certainly! I'm sure the kids would love that."

"That's great to hear. Where are they anyway?"

"They're actually out there playing with the toys you sent them. Come on, I'll lead you to them." Brenda stood up and walked towards the back door.

Poppy started to follow her but turned around when she noticed Bea was still sitting down.

"If you're just gonna sit there like a half-wit, do us a favor Farmsville, and do it far away from here."

Still in disbelief, Bea stood up and followed Poppy and Brenda to the yard where Poppy was greeted enthusiastically by five kids. She watched as Poppy played with them with such kindness and compassion that she couldn't help but smile as most of her anger towards the blonde was replaced with warmth and some other indescribable feelings. After a few more games where Bea was basically manhandled by Poppy to join, all of them went back inside exhausted. As it was already getting late, Bea and Poppy said their farewells to Brenda and the kids with a promise of returning on Sunday for the party and went back on the road.

Bea had so many questions she wanted to ask Poppy but the look on Poppy's face implied that she probably won't be answering any of those. A few minutes later, there was suddenly a huge downpour of rain that Poppy had to park the car. Bea then received a text from Zoey, and as she read it, a look of dread flashed across her face.

Poppy frowned upon seeing the look on Bea's face. "What is it now?"

"There's a typhoon. We're stuck here."

***

Bea and Poppy managed to find a decent hotel nearby where they decided to stay until the typhoon passed.

"Two rooms, please. And make them as far away as possible," Poppy said to the receptionist while handing him her credit card, giving Bea a glare at the last sentence.

And here I thought we're finally making progress.

"I'm sorry Ms. Min-Sinclair, we only have one more room available for tonight."

[wegotjiminsjams]

Drama Llama 3

Chapter : 3

Jin X Reader

Word Count: 2829

Genre: Angst, fluff, humour (maybe?), enemies to lovers

You were so restless after seeing the mail that you couldn’t sleep the entire night. Usually you wouldn’t care much if you were late by 5 or 10 minutes but you made sure you left half an hour early so you had enough time to convince Mr. Lee to change your partner. When you reach his office you are surprised to see Jin who is already there. You are somewhat offended that he is here to discuss the same thing, he has been the one annoying you! How dare he have a problem with you!

 Before you could even ask Mr. Lee, he says,”I know what brings you here Ms.Y/n, I have already discussed this matter in detail with Jin, it is essential for both of you to learn to get along with everyone as not all situations are going to be favorable to you”, and he adds,” My class starts in 10 minutes Ms.Y/n , at least  you won’t be late today”.

As Mr. Lee is about to walk out of his office, you burst out, “Oh so what problem do you have with me? You are the one being rude and annoying, even if you were the last person I had to pair up with for an assignment I wouldn’t! Mr.Lee I want to do this assignment alone if I can not have another partner!”

Mr. Lee is about to say something but Jin cuts him off  “ Look at your arrogant self! Back at it again like everyone’s dying to be paired with you! I have no interest either! I am doing this assignment on my own and that is what I was discussing with him before you got here!”

“Enough is enough! I have been nice and tried to reason with the both of you, but if you haven’t understood let me make this clear one last time, you Ms. Y/n and you Mr. Seokjin, if you want to pass this class, will work together or face the consequences”.

 Mr.Lee bursts out clearly annoyed with the both of you, you had managed to get the calmest professor you had ever seen agitated.

 “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a class to take and you both have a class to attend if you remember”, to which you both apologize and head to class.

 You decide to meet in the cafe after class to discuss on how to make this work now because you weren’t given a choice.

Seeing you both enter with Mr.Lee, the whole class could guess what would have happened. You go take a seat next to Sooyoung and start complaining about how Jin wanted a change of partner when he is the one who has been annoying and rude. 

To which Sooyoung responds,” It would anyway work in your favour Y/n, why is it affecting you so much?” , which is very unlike Sooyoung because she usually listens without questioning much.

 This puts you in deep thought and you barely listen to the class.You look at Jin, who is already looking in your direction which makes you very embarrassed. You think about how your discussion would go in the cafeteria and if you both could even reach an agreement. You’re still lost in your thoughts when the bell rings.

 Crap! It’s time to interact with the devil himself. You take a deep breath and head straight to the cafeteria to get done with it. 

Once you enter the cafeteria you realise you are going to need major amounts of tolerance to deal with Seokjin’s annoying ass, so to avoid any forthcoming headaches you go to grab a cup of coffee first. Once you do you look around and find him already waiting at an empty table. He’s looking at his phone and hence doesn’t notice you and only looks up when you plop yourself opposite to him. 

“Aah! The princess is here” he says in a mocking tone “Shall we begin?” 

“Don’t call me that!” you retort

“Why? Would you prefer ‘Your Highness instead?” he says continuing to mock you.

It hasn’t even been five minutes and you’re already done with him. But you’re surely not going to let him have the last laugh. “Infact yes, I would much rather prefer that” you say “Besides let’s just get down to business I don’t want to be here any longer than I have to” you say before he can cut you off. 

“I don’t want to be stuck with you either okay” he continues “And yes let’s just begin with it. So do you have any suggestions on whose work we should study and elaborate on?” he asks

“I did have a few ideas” you say hesitatingly. Since you don’t know if you and Seokjin will be able to work together you think of playing it safe by choosing the most common choice, so that later on even if he doesn’t do his part you can manage on your own along with the abundance of information available online. If you choose someone who is not so popular you may not have enough resources to fall back on. 

“Well..go on..” he says

“How about Shakespeare?” you say. “His work has been studied extensively, we will have lots of information available on his style and method, it will be easier to analyse and bring out his essence.” 

 As soon as you say those words his face sours “You are so predictable! Really? Shakespeare? For God’s sakes Y/n we’re not in eighth grade” he says “Professor Lee would laugh at our juvenility” 

Extremely humiliated by his statement, makes you want to just punch his ridiculously handsome face. He always thinks so highly of himself, he thinks he is the only one with valid opinions and you just want to throw him off his high horse, but you realise what he said is kind of true, choosing Shakespeare is kind of juvenile and fighting with him is going to lead you nowhere, so you take a big sip from your coffee, fight the urge to tell him off and calmly ask him “Well if Shakespeare is so juvenile whom do you suggest we take?” 

For a moment he is utterly astonished that you did not yell back or say something insulting and instead spoke to him in a calm voice. He eyes you suspiciously for a few seconds before saying, “I think we could go with Sophocles, he is one of the prominent ancient Greek playwrights, his tragedies are in a way relevant even today and his masterful use of irony could be really useful when we perform our satire” he says thoughtfully

This time it’s your turn to scoff “And you say I’m predictable. Seokjin he is one of the most prominent playwrights, there is so much already done on him, what can we bring new to the table that hasn’t already been done?” you say “Won’t Professor Lee find this Juvenile too?” you say with slight smirk on your face. 

Seokjin seems to mull over your words and when he opens his mouth to speak he is surprisingly nice. Huh. So maybe he can be mature too sometimes. 

“Actually you know what Y/n you are right! We shouldn’t play it safe, we should take someone different, so that we can truly learn something from this experience” he smiles and it’s the first time he has directed a genuine smile towards you and you can’t say you aren’t surprised but also really glad that maybe he isn’t so bad after all. 

“Well how about Elizabeth Carey? She was the first English woman playwright and there isn’t much study on her compared to the other two, so this way we can add in more of our own analysis and interpretation.” you say “Plus it would be lovely to focus on how during that era a woman came to write a play” you add on. 

Seokjin has a thoughtful look on his face, “Hmm, this does mean more library work, but it also means it will be all the more rewarding!” he says excitedly “I think this is a good start” 

You can’t help but grin at him,“I can’t believe we agreed on something.” 

��Me neither” he chuckles, “You’re not as arrogant as you seem” he says and by the look on his face you can tell he says this with no malice at all. 

This makes you laugh, a genuine laugh and not a mocking one. “But you are exactly like you seem” you say 

“..And that is..?” 

“A big jerk” you say jokingly 

He knows you’re joking and that this time you don’t actually mean it but he still pouts and you can’t help but notice his plush pink lips. Were they always this pink and plump? Wait! Why are you suddenly thinking about his lips? 

You pull yourself out of your reverie and look at Seokjin, he’s still pouting at you. 

“I’m only joking” you say “But this doesn’t mean I hate you any less Seokjin” you give him a big smile. 

He gives you a smile that could easily rival your own “Same here Y/n, same here”   

“Let’s discuss what we find after class tomorrow y/n, seems like we’ll be able to do this assignment after all,” says Seokjin as he packs his stuff and gets ready to leave.

“Seems like Mr. Know it All is not so difficult to work with,” you say as you leave.

You go home surprisingly not upset about your day like you usually are. You are in a positive mood so this would help you focus on your research and you want to put in all the effort you can because Seokjin is the kind of person who is very thorough with his work and you don’t want to seem arrogant or lazy by doing the bare minimum so you decide to dive right into your assignment when your phone starts beeping continuously.

“Y/n, How did it go with Seokjin today?”

“Did you both get into an argument again?”

“Do you think you would be able to work together?”

“Is he really a jerk?” 

You decide to reply to her before she explodes your phone with hundred more texts.

 “Woah Sooyong, Calm down! It was not as bad as I thought it would be. We decided to put aside our differences and work together. He doesn’t really seem that big of a jerk”.

“Lol Y/n, I knew you would warm up to him! No one can resist that charming face of his!”

“No Sooyoung, you have got it all wrong, We are just trying to be civil,” you wonder what is up with her because she usually goes along with what you say. She has never called Seokjin charming or handsome before.

“Y/n, are you so oblivious to everything? The whole class keeps talking about the sizzling sexual tension between you both  and how wonderful a couple you two would make, the extremely good looking, sassy couple”, to which she adds, “Many of them think you both are already dating.” 

You wonder what is up with Sooyoung! Where the hell is all this coming from?!

“Ugh Sooyoung, he is still very arrogant! I don’t care what others think! We both aren’t dating and he is the last guy I would date!” you are very annoyed and you thought you wouldn’t get riled up at the mention of his name anymore, you were very wrong. How could there be such a huge misunderstanding!

“Sooyoung, let’s not talk about Seokjin like this anymore!” you decide to keep this topic off bay and focus on your assignment for now. 

 And before she can reply you send in another text, “We’ll meet tomorrow, I have got work to do, bye” you say ending the conversation.

 The conversation you had with Sooyoung makes you realize that you have to do everything you can to make yourself disappear from everyone’s watch so you go to class on time and take a seat at the very back. Seokjin enters class just a few seconds before Mr, Lee could and takes a seat right next to you and you can already hear everyone whisper to each other.

“Hi Ms. Y/L/N, so let’s discuss what we found, I found…” 

Before he spits out another word you cut him off rudely, “Sshhh Seokjin!” you say looking around the class and seeing everyone’s eyes on the both of you,“Not now, Mr. Lee is about to start! For a Know It All it may not be important to listen to his lecture, but for me it is”. 

Seokjin notices you looking at the people around you , he is completely taken back because he thought you both were doing fine, now you seem too embarrassed to even speak to him in front of anyone. He would normally argue with you but this time he decides not to make a scene because he knows Mr. Lee will not take any of it and will probably fail you both if he sees you arguing. And then Seokjin will have to answer to his father, which he knows for sure will not go well. 

Seokjin just storms out after class is over. You run calling after him,”Seokjin, Seokjin...”

“We had to meet in the cafeteria to discuss our assignment…” your voice trails off as Seokjin keeps taking faster strides. 

You finally catch up to him and lash out again, “Really??? What is it this time? What annoyed you? Just the way I look?”

“Oh so your arrogant self won’t even consider that they did something wrong?! You were the one  who ignored me when I was just trying to discuss our assignment! Now you are acting as if  I have a problem? So discussing an assignment also hurts your pride now Y/n? Or just speaking to me in front of others does? Maybe I should take notes on how to approach the Lil Ms. Arrogant Princess because she rather give importance to her pride than to the work at hand?!” Seokjin spits everything out in one breath like he rapped a verse.

“I am trying my best to work with you, you are only making it more difficult for the both of us”.

“Sorry Seokjin for the way I reacted in the morning but for a second stop being so judgemental. Mr. Lee already has an eye on us and talking when he’s about to start his lecture isn’t gonna help us. That’s why I cut you off”. 

It’s best to keep what’s actually on your mind to yourself, Seokjin will probably think it is stupid and dismiss the matter.

“Now shall we get to work, Mr. Seokjin?,” you say as calmly as you can because you don’t want to raise his temper.

As you both are discussing your findings over coffee, you see Hoseok walk towards your table, “Hey guys, I saw you two arguing earlier, were y’all having a lovers’ spat?” he asks cheekily. 

 Seokjin’s ears turn red out of embarrassment and he looks at you, you have an unreadable expression on your face.

“N-nooo, hobi...w-we were just discussing our assignment, actually, we are done! Y/n l-let’s continue tom-tomorrow, shall we?”

He barely manages to speak which is very unlike the confident Seokjin you have always known. He sprints out of the room with Hobi and you are left with a dumbfounded expression on your face.

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

You are no longer left wondering if what Sooyoung said was true! It was actually the only thing everyone has been talking about ever since your first encounter with Jin. So much for not wanting to be noticed anymore! 

Moreover it leaves you thinking why did Jung Hosoek from your class, who also happens to be Jin’s only friend question what were y’all doing?! What exactly has this self centred jerk told his friend about you?! 

The more you think you both are making progress the more problems appear! All you can think of is the doom that awaits you tomorrow. How are you ever going to get yourself out of this mess!

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

“Yahhhh! Hosoek-ahhh what were you thinking? Oh wait, you weren’t!! What was the need to do that in front of y/n?” Seokjin bursts out angrily.

 “Jin you know I was just joking!” Hoseok lets out a laugh.

“You know this is not funny! What will Y/n think?”

“There she is again! Occupying your thoughts!” Hoseok can’t help but laugh at your miserable situation.

“That’s it! No more of this nonsense! She is just my partner assigned by Mr. Lee. We are working together! That’s all there is to know!”

“Well I guess you are just saying this to yourself ”.

“Hosoek-ahhhhhh! Enough!!” Jin was not having any of it! “Now we have to figure out how are you going to explain to Y/n what you just did!”

[gwynne-fics]

Silver Lining

chapter thirty-seven

Won and I are over with, the text said, interrupting his morning and throwing it in a completely different direction. I feel like a woman scorned. Do you want to help me?

Young-Do slowly smiled and ignored Vice President Han’s presentation. Our old place for lunch?

I’ll be there at noon.

Young-Do put his phone away and tried to pull out the last thing that Vice President Han said. “What is the manager’s opinion as to why the property is losing money?”

“He believes the branding of the Zeus umbrella is too difficult to maintain. It is a small hotel in a rural area. He can’t pay his people the required salary without asking for help from Zeus. He believes the lower cost of living will make up for the deficit in pay. The benefits are too high and not competitive for the area.”

“What is your opinion?”

Vice President Han looked mildly uncomfortable and Young-Do knew he would need to promote Director Na soon. She lacked the fear that was present in some of the older employees. “We might be paying him too much,” she said, “and he might be lazy with his marketing. The board would like you to reconsider your stance on President Cha’s efficiency software. We would like you to go to her and ask if this property can be a test population.”

He tried not to sigh. “It is still in development. She has made her desire not to sell or market it very clear.”

“If you can’t get her to part with it or share it with us, you should look into divorce. We can’t do business with someone who won’t compromise.” Young-Do slowly turned his attention on Director Kwon and raised his eyebrows. The dinosaur was one of the last vestiges of his father’s leadership.

“I didn’t put it in our business agreement because the information we had on it was obtained illegally. I have no intention of divorcing Cha Eun-Sang. Not when marrying her increased purchasing faith in our umbrella after my father’s corruption scandal. I agree, having access to that software would change a lot for us but it hinges on her belief it wouldn’t be used against the employees. Put together a solid proposal on how we could seek to avoid it and I’ll bring it to her.”

“It is naïve of her to believe she can maintain control over her product once she starts selling it—“

“President Cha has no intention of selling it. This discussion is over. What’s next?”

He ignored the murmurs that went around the room.

“We could try for the placebo effect.” Director Na was the only one with any courage to speak up. “All of our management software already comes with its own internal reports. The reason President Cha’s software is so attractive is that it does all the analysis for us. We could tell the manager of this minor hotel that we’re installing efficiency software, send a team in, and make them think they are being watched. We’ve got a good statistics team that Vice President Kang runs. He could analyze the next quarter against this past one.”

It was a good idea. “It needs more oversight.”

Young-Do was grateful that Kang Ji-Hyuk was the one to bring that up. “We need an outsider to report back on their observations. I can put someone in place to do that before we start watching the statistics. We need context.”

“I agree,” Director Na said and Young-Do nodded.

“Put together the proposal and have it on my desk tomorrow morning. That’s everything on the agenda. Do we need to talk about anything else?” When no one came forward, Young-Do stood and bowed to them. “Thank you for your time.”

A chorus of, “Thank you, President Choi,” echoed through the room before he left and went back to his office. He searched the news for Jeguk and tried to figure out why his old tutor wanted to ruin her lover. He ran a search of her name but there was no pending scandal or pictures involving a mistress.

Jeon Hyun-Joo did not have a temper. It had to be big if she intended to ruin Won.

Young-Do told Hyun-Shik he was meeting a friend from college for lunch and to block off two hours for him. He didn’t bother with his car but chose one of his motorcycles that he kept at the hotel. It allowed him to zip through the streets and avoid traffic. He did want to keep this meeting as private as possible.

There were people who knew about his relationship with Hyun-Joo. He’d rather none of them tell Eun-Sang. He didn’t want her to misunderstand him.

Hyun-Joo smiled when she saw him enter the simple restaurant. She stood and gave him a kiss on the cheek before retaking her seat. They ordered their usual and he fought to keep from smiling. “Noona. What did he do?”

Her expression darkened. “He’s not violent like your father but the crimes are similar. He put a slush fund in my name. I already gave evidence to Hyo-Shin and he’s investigating. Today is my first day free of that entanglement. Won got me fired two weeks ago.”

“Do you need a place to live?”

She shook her head and reached into her purse. She handed him a usb and her card. “I put all of my money into a protected account he didn’t know about. It’s enough to get me and a small business off the ground for a year.” Then she handed him a folder. “This is a proposal based on one of the things on that usb. You’re my first pick, Young-Do. If we can do business together, I would be grateful.”

“I’ll look at it and contact you when I can.”

“I saw your wedding announcement. She’s very beautiful. Won hated that you beat him to her. I’m glad you did. Kim Tan is a nightmare. How is marriage?”

Young-Do shrugged. “She’s Hyo-Shin’s ex-girlfriend. I didn’t know.”

Her lips curled in a familiar smirk. “You two always did have the same taste.”

“Noona.” It was almost a whine. It wasn’t like Hyo-Shin didn’t know that he’d been with Hyun-Joo when Young-Do recommended her to tutor him for both the civil servant and bar exams. He also knew what kind of a teacher Hyun-Joo was when it came to young men. He had no complaints and it hadn’t bothered him at the time that she’d use the same techniques on Hyo-Shin. They were so close they talked about it frankly.

He didn’t know if it was weird or not. All that mattered was that they were both legal when it happened. Young-Do was nineteen and struggling with his business classes. Hyo-Shin was twenty-one. Hyun-Joo was only six years older than Young-Do and five years older than Hyo-Shin.

“You need to forgive him. You will be happier once you admit the truth that everyone sees but you.”

He looked away. “I can admit my father is a bad person. He deserves to be in prison for corruption.”

“He deserves to be in prison for nearly killing you.” She put her hand on his and he tried to breathe calmly. “Hyo-Shin called me to the hospital on the second day. We were so afraid you would die. He had so much faith you would come out of it.”

Young-Do had to squeeze his eyes shut to stop the tears. “I’m embarrassed you had to see me like that, noona. I don’t think I can forgive him. I had nothing when I woke up. I had no father, almost no company, and no friends. You were with Won and you know how hard it is for me to make friends.”

“You had Hyo-Shin.”

“I really didn’t. Please, I don’t want to talk about this. Let’s go over your proposal.”

Hyun-Joo flinched and looked sad for a moment. He knew she cared about him but he also knew they weren’t friends. The very nature of their relationship and the way it began made it impossible for them to be equals. She would always be the woman who taught him everything he knew about sex. She drew her hand away.

“Do you at least get along with your wife? Is she kind to you? I’ve heard that…I’ve heard a lot of things. I want to hear it from the source.”

“I’m not introducing you to Eun-Sang in this context,” he tried to joke. “We are well matched, noona. We’re both working hard to make our marriage work. I have no intention of divorcing her or doing anything to activate the fidelity clause in our prenuptial agreement. We’re business partners and it’s working.”

If he was honest with himself, which he never was, he would have to admit he was happy.

“Alright. I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Let’s go over my proposal.”