11

"He is not going to call you"

I feel a smile coming on my face as I put the phone back in my pocket "You should focus more on the road than what I do"

She grips the wheel tighter "Old habits die hard"

I sigh, sitting more upright as she says "When do you think Baek will have a place to stay?"

"He can stay for as long as he wants"

"And what if he finds out about you and Geon Woo? You said if yourself, he is already suspecting something is going on between you though he is not exactly sure what it is, neither am I"

"Simple. I will try making my meetings with Kim Geon Woo far away from my place"

She scoffs "You seem pretty cocky don't you? You really think you can keep this up?"

"It is not a matter of keeping it up" I reply "It is a matter of having a good result at the end of it"

"Are you even considering Baek Ji Daewi at this point?" She asks "You invite him to your house and then stay far away, like he is a leper?"

"You can stay with him then if it bothers you so much"

"What?"

I turn to her, blinking "You can always keep him company in my house"

"No Eul Yi Song"

"Noona"

"He is your responsibility now" She says "You want me letting you have certain freedom? Then you must act like you have actually grown up"

I stare at her for a while, a small smile coming on my face again as I say "You will eventually go meet him if I cannot. Simple basic theory"

"So that's all you're going to do? Manipulate people into doing what you want?"

I face the road this time "The world is like that Noona, and so is the business world. That is why I did not end up doing it. I know what I am and what I can do with power so I left it for something that gives me peace instead"

She says nothing there.

When we reach the company, she parks the car in the garage as guards swarm around me.

I adjust my glasses as we head into the building, Noona given certain orders as I just walk into the elevator.

She joins me minutes later as I bring out my phone and check.

No missed calls or messages.

"Have you tried calling or texting him yourself?" She asks.

"That would defeat the purpose wouldn't it?" I say "He seems to only want me for sexual pleasure while it's obvious I want more, and though we've agreed to keep it that way, I can't help but hope he would somehow breach the rules of our contract"

"Fake contract" She says as the elevator rings with the door opening.

We walk outside, now on the last floor of the building as I pause, a familiar figure coming towards us.

"Eul!"

Hoseok's face as he comes towards me is that of all pure smiles and energy and when he has me wrapped me in his hands, kissing my face, I break out from my trance to say "Oppa"

He laughs "Look at you. What have you been up to hmmm? Are you finally having fun?"

"What are YOU doing here?" I ask.

"Coming to see the man that made me, what else?" He asks as he turns to Noona "I see your personal bodyguard is still here"

Then he turns to me "Didn't you promise to tell me when she's becoming a bother? I never did like how she treated you"

"Someone had to step up and care for me after my Mother died" I say.

He gasps, his hand on his chest "Well isn't that a low blow? And I might not be a woman but I certainly would not have treated like you had no brains to do any...."

I bow "It is nice to see you Oppa, I must take my leave now"

When I am up again, I am pulling Noona by the hands to Father's office as I hear him shout "Don't forget to call me! I miss you!"

We enter the man's office, the familiar sight pleasing me as she says "The nerve of that idiot"

I don't answer her as I move to Father's office table, staring at a picture of Mother, with me on her laps as she says "He is not here. He is downstairs playing golf"

I don't have to look to know that it isn't golf "I thought he got rid of that habit of his"

"It is a good thing. This is his least deadliest hobby. No one bleeds this time"

"Not if they get close to him"

I take up the picture, staring at the ever permanent blank look on Mother's face as I say "Do you think I would be the same?"

"What?"

"You, are righteous and good, I suppose you must have gotten that from your Father, Hoseok must have gotten his carefree attitude from his own Mother but I am somehow a combination of a woman who tries killing her daughter then ended up killing herself and a man who envisions his daughter as his wife because it gives him some sort of deluded peace"

"You're different"

I turn to her "How so?"

"Ask anyone"

"They don't know me" I reply "They all believe I am a star person. An embodiment of perfection, but they are times that I feel the need to remove their heads from their bodies but I do not"

"Eul Yi Song"

"And there are times that I wonder what they would if they realized that my whole life was planned out so that I could turn out like my Mother? Not that I don't love the woman, she was good enough, she just should have never held a knife"

"Eul Yi Song!"

She is now grabbing me, a wild frantic look on her face as she says "Get a hold of yourself. You've been okay all this time. You've been stable. Nothing is going to change that"

I laugh "If you have not noticed, things are beginning to change. I am wondering if the world would take notice. Can we go meet Appa? He must be worried about me"