CHAPTER SEVEN

When Soojung was informed that she had to go to a photoshoot for a new family portrait, she was more than happy to go, knowing that she’ll get to spend some time with them. Afterall, they haven’t been all together in so long. But what was supposed to be a family day was slowly becoming more and more like a day for the married couples.

While waiting for their mother to come, she sat a modern cabriole sofa all dolled up in her black Versace dress. She looks over her right side to see Jaejoong talking to Catherine’s four month baby bump and on her left side were Jessica and Donghae, flirting and giggling at whatever they found funny. She purposely sighs loudly to have some of their attention turn to her but to no avail.

“Hello? I exist too, you know.” She tells them loudly. Her siblings and in-laws finally look at her way as they chuckle by the sight of her pouting a bit. “Don't make it too obvious that you didn’t miss me at all.”

“Have you eaten, my love?” Her brother asks her. She just nods, a little upset that he’s kind of changing the topic. “You have? We were about to have lunch after this.”

“And you didn’t tell me? Whatever, I’ll eat again.” The youngest Jung exclaims. Still bummed out, she then proceeds on saying, “How come you guys never inform me about anything? Even I wasn’t informed about this photoshoot until yesterday.”

“Darling, it’s not like that.” Catherine tried to cheer her up as she walked over right next to her to hug her with one arm. “Your brother is supposed to be in Singapore right now but ultimately cancelled so we just thought that it’s the perfect time to have a family picture since you’re here, you know?”

“Catherine, don’t mind her. She’s just being a little sappy because she has no partner for this shoot.” Jessica jokes, though it was lowkey true, causing the people around to laugh. “Shall I call Jongin?”

Pouting, she turns the other way when her brothers started to as well. She finds it very annoying how her whole family always brings up the fact that she’s still single, though the mention of his name does make her smile slightly. She doesn’t reply to their constant teasing, nor to her sister’s suggestion of inviting him, mainly because she does secretly want her to invite him. Sure he may not be a part of the family, but she might as well invite him to have someone with.

Her smile then grows bigger after hearing her name called by her two most favourite toddlers who have just finished get reading for the shoot. Dressed up in a cute little white dress and mini-tuxedo, Doyeon and Jaesung, Jessica’s daughter and Jaejoong’s son, ran up to her arms. Delighted, Soojung hugs them both very tightly and kissed their chubby cheeks. Because of the lip marks that she had left on their cheeks, she got scolded at by her siblings, but that doesn’t even mattered to her since the children kissed her back.

The matriarch of the family soon comes out nicely dressed as well and upon seeing her, Soojung immediately pushes her siblings as they have come to sit beside her so that their mother could sit there instead. “Mother, please come! Sit beside me so they won’t be able to. They’ve been bullying me for being single.”

“Oh, you really should get a boyfriend though.” In disbelief, Soojung watches her mother as she sat beside her with a small smile. “Shall I call Jongin?”

“That’s exactly what Sooyeon said!” Amused, Donghae had his mouth wide open.

“Please do.” Soojung mumbles, turning her attention to the photographer who was giving instructions to the family. Little did she know, her mother actually heard her and a little idea flashes on her mind.

“Why do I have to go that meeting of yours?”

“I’ve told you already, Soojung. I have to go to Singapore for another business meeting, and if I don’t fly tomorrow, I’ll have to miss out Jaesung’s birthday party next week.”

“You know that I have no interest when it comes to those things.”

“Which is why Sooyeon’s coming with you.”

“Why does she have to come with me?”

“Exactly. Why do I have to come with her?” Jessica’s head suddenly pops out between Soojung and Jaejoong, startling the two of them.

After the family portrait photoshoot that turned up quite well, the family headed straight to have lunch in a restaurant not too far from the building where they had the shoot. With its Italian interior décor, small but lovely garden and their exquisite food, the restaurant was one of the Jungs’ favourites. In fact, they always go there when they were complete, that is if the weather’s fine of course since it was an outdoor restaurant.

Not only was it Soojung’s favourites, it holds a special place in heart. One of her earliest trip when she was young was to Milan, and whenever she in that restaurant, she always get reminded by her father. At 22 years old, Soojung feels like a little kid as she ran past her family so she could enter the restaurant first. However, just when she was about to enter as the guard opened the door for her, she suddenly stops and quickly turns to her family behind her.

“Oh my god, can we… Can we, uhm, not eat here?”

“Why not? I thought you liked it here?” Donghae asked, looking a little disappointed. He had grown to love the restaurant as well.

Instead of answering, Soojung just turned to look back inside the restaurant and the rest of them followed. There sat Jongin, looking quite nervous for whatever reason, sitting alone in a table for a group of more or less ten people. Before she could even speak again, the kids have already run inside, catching Jongin’s attention and eventually finding out that they were there. Even Doyeon recognizes the boy, even though she has seen him once, by calling him ‘uncle from the party’.

“I guess Seoul is a really small place, huh?” Soojung hears Catherine say when she passed by her. She just couldn’t seem to believe that he was there as well that she had to slap herself slightly so she could remind herself to relax.

“It’s so nice of you to come here, Jongin.” Mrs. Jung says when the boy bows slightly at her.

Confused, Jongin couldn’t help his eyebrow to raise, but later laughs anyways, “Oh, but you called me and asked if it’s okay for me to join... Have you forgotten auntie?”

“Mother! Why would you do that?” Soojung questions in embarrassment. “He might have something much more important to do at this time of the day!”

“Well, the fact that he’s here just shows that he doesn’t.” The older lady winks at her youngest daughter, before embarrassing her even more. “Plus, didn’t you tell me that you wanted me to call him?”

With her jaw dropped, Soojung could only let her family giggle as she felt his eyes on her. She wasn’t sure what she liked more: her past relationship with her mother when she didn’t have the time to spend with her, or her now very close relationship with her when she liked to embarrass her in front of the guy that she likes including the whole family. They even purposely left out the chair right next to Jongin, an indication that she sit there.

“Did my mom really call you?” She mumbles, not wanting to interrupt the conversation Jaejoong was having with the waiter while he ordered for their meal as she was sitting right next to him. “I bet you have another thing to do. I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. I’d rather be here anyways than be on campus.” Her eyes widens after he mentions his school but he was quick to say, “You mother did say something about you wanting to see me, or is that not true?”

“Well, I’m not going to say it’s not true. But seeing you here may or may not have cheered me up a little bit.” She tells him, glancing at him but quickly looking away with a small smile.

“I hope it’s the first one.” He utters, looking at her directly.

While the group was waiting for their food to arrive, Doyeon’s eyes were focused on the guy that her favourite aunt was with. Even when she’s not looking at him, she seemed to liked his company a lot. Doyeon was getting upset since her favourite aunt won’t play with her. She would have showered her with kisses by now, but Soojung was busy chatting up with the boy. Even Jongin himself noticed the little girl staring at him. Compared to Soojung, he wasn’t really good with children so he just smiles at her, but the confusion on her face didn’t fade away.

“Mommy, who is this uncle?” Doyeon asks out loud. Though the question was for Jessica, everybody turned to her.

“Darling, don’t you remember? This is your uncle Jongin.” Soojung answers happily. “We met him at the party last time.”

“Yeah, I do. But why is he here?” She continued. “Are we related to him?”

“Your auntie just wanted to see him.” Jessica answers. She then felt someone step on her foot, surely it was Soojung. But that didn’t stop her from explaining to her daughter. “You see, he’s quite close to our family. He was, afterall, you auntie’s former fiancé.”

“Fiancé?” The little girl repeats the word which was somewhat new to her. “What is a fiancé?”

“It’s a word you use for a person you’re about to marry.”

“Auntie is married?”

“She isn’t. She didn’t get marry in the end.”

“Oh…” Doyeon simply mumbles until she remembers something. She then suddenly turns to Jongin, startling him a bit. “You’re the prince charming my auntie told me about!”

As if her day couldn’t get more embarrassing, Soojung felt her cheeks redden once again. She has lost count of how many times it happened, honestly. While she tried to shut her favourite niece up by shushing her, the boy beside her was anticipating what the girl was about to say. “Really? What did she say?”

“Doyeon, there’s ice cream here. Shall I order one for you-”

“Auntie reads a lot of books to me. She read a story about a princess once so I asked my auntie if she has a prince and then she told me that she does and that she really wanted to get married to him but wasn't able to, but it’s okay because she loves him and that she has faith on him... I think.” The small but talkative girl tells him in one breathe with her eyes shining. It was so obvious that she really liked saying stores and it just showed by how excited she looked.

Amused, Jongin fought the urge to laugh, knowing that Soojung is probably dying on the inside, but he did look at both Donghae and Jessica to praise their daughter. “Your daughter is very bright. She’s quite honest.”

“They do say that kids never lie.” Jessica proudly responds before winking at her blushing sister.

Soojung, who had been hiding her face with her palms, quietly utters, “Why didn’t anyone tell me it’s ‘let’s embarrass Jung Soojung’ day today? I could have prepared myself.” If she was having difficulties to face Jongin before, she was sure as hell she won’t be able to look at him in the eye the whole lunch. “I should just go to the toilet and kill myself or something.”

“Don’t. You have to attend a conference tomorrow.” Jaejoong calmly replies, taking the threat as a joke. If Jaesung wasn’t sitting on his right, Soojung would have smacked her brother.

“A conference? Is that the one in Gangnam?” Jongin suddenly asks.

“Why, yes it is. Are you coming too, Jongin?”

“Indeed I am.”

“Great. Soojung can just go with you.”

“Oppa!” A surprised Soojung couldn’t help but to smack his brother this time around.

“What? Sooyeon doesn’t want to come, or does she?” Both of the siblings looked over Jessica, who furiously shook her head. “See? You have no choice, Soojung. You’re the company’s representative for today. And don’t ask mom to go there instead. She secretly hates listening to those things.”

Sighing, the girl knitted her eyebrows. It’s not like she wanted to be there either anyways. She has never liked being stuck on meetings while some dude talk. She’d probably just fall asleep if she attends. “Are you being forced to attend the conference as well?” She mumbles to Jongin.

“Actually… I volunteered to be the representative myself. As the CFO-” Soojung finally looks at him again after hearing what he said, though he hasn’t completely finished. “-of the company, I thought that it’d be great if I was there.”

“Do you… Do you actually work for your father’s company now?” She asked eagerly, her big smile that grew from ear to ear when Jongin nods happily.

“I couldn’t have done it without your support, Soojung.”

“Aww, I really didn’t do anything though!” A suddenly cheerful Soojung exclaims. She was about to hit him lightly for that cheesy comment, but ends up pulling the strand of her on the back of her ear. “But hey, I’m very proud of you.”

Forgetting that they had the Jung family around them, Soojung and Jongin stayed gazing at each other’s eyes for quite a time that Jessica had to clear to try and let them remember that they weren’t the only ones in the room, though they were just ignored. She then tried to tease them by telling everyone that they should just change tables and leave the two alone. They did end up moving to another table, but that didn’t even stop the two.

“So… are you going to come to the conference in the end?”

“Since you’re coming, yeah.”

“Great, because it’d be boring without you.”

As soon as he finished his last class in his university, and basically his last class ever, Jongin struts his way to his father’s office where his mother was as well. While looking at his report card that had excellent results, his parents glanced at their son at the same time in suspicion. He hasn’t spoken a word since he entered and just calmly placed the card on the table, but with that smug grin on his face, they already know that he’s boasting about it.

“Are you sure you didn’t cheat?” His father asks.

“Father, you would have known if your favourite son cheated because my professors, who made the last four years of my life a living hell, would have told you.”

“Favourite son? You’re our only son.” Mrs. Kim says in confusion. She then quickly turns to her husband to say, “But he does have a point though.”

“Exactly. That, and…” Jongin points to his head. “Why would I even cheat when I’m very, very clever?”

“Says who?”

“My grades, father! Look at my grades!” The boy points at the card excitedly. “I was so close on being the top in my class, but whatever. I can’t wait ‘til I tell Soojung about this later. She’s going to be super proud of me that she’ll love me even more.”

“Why are you certain that she still loves you? She may be dating another man by now.”

“Stop scaring me, mother. I’m quite certain that she does, since her niece indirectly told me so.”

The older couple could only exchange looks by the cockiness of their son. Actually, it has been a long time since Jongin showed that much of confidence. It was strangely nice for them to see, as he lo