“I don’t think we’re what you call friends anymore, so I don’t know your taste. What do you want to drink?” Namjoo asked walking into her home leaving Junmyeon to follow.

“I just followed in my father’s stead,” Junmyeon stated.

“You could have done something else.” Namjoo commented grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge.

“You, too,” Junmyeon shot back when Namjoo turned around to hand the water over. Turning away from his observing eyes she sidestepped him to walk into what she couldn’t even call the living room. Making herself comfortable on the floor she popped open her can of beer and noisily opened a bag of chips.

“You’re here to say something.” She said staring at her old collections of DVDs. Favorites from when she was younger.

“What do you do?” Junmyeon was inquiring about her job.

Glancing at him through the corner of her eyes she annoyingly told, “You should know.”

Junmyeon shrugged. “I was busy combing through Daehan Corporation’s legal department.” Walking over he sat down by Namjoo, “Believe it or not, I know nothing about you now. Like you, it’s the first time I’ve seen you in five years, but I’m not here to nitpick.” He shifted a little so he could face her, “You asked for my help.”

“I did not,” she shot then paused momentarily, “I was talking about the funeral.”

“Min Jaehyung, your father’s Vice CEO that stepped up, has been selling stocks over the span of a year. Your father’s loyal men? They’ve been coerced with better paying jobs and benefits. All that over the slow span of a year while your mother was dining and living in luxury, believing the company’s affairs were being taken care of. All that while your father lay in bed sick,” Junmyeon pounded. “Right now, with your mother gone their shares are sitting in thin air. Your company is being flipped. In just half a year, you’ll be declaring bankruptcy.”

“No, that’s not true,” Namjoo shook her head.

“My father said you walked out,” Junmyeon reminded. “I’ll tell you what will happen next if you decide to sit still. The board members will be gathering to have a conference about your parent’s shares. Whether to split them or sell them in hopes of persevering the company’s life, which is doubtful even now. There is no other hope. It’s whether there will be a successor or Min Jaehyung walks off stealing your family’s money.”

“How can that bastard…” Namjoo started cursing but Junmyeon held up a finger silencing her.

“There was a reason I went through Daehan’s legal department,” Junmyeon continued. “Daehan sells metal goods, supplies construction companies with materials, and exports abroad. On numerous occasions, Min Jaehyung has received payment for large number of orders but has yet to ship the supplies. An invoice is dated from a year and a half ago when your father just got admitted. Two other invoices are from earlier this year. There has been another instance where an employee got injured on site. Min Jaehyung has made no comment about this and has taken no initiative to give the family compensation. The family’s lawyers have sued Daehan for a dangerous work environment in the factories. Factory employees have started protesting for an improved work environment and updated work uniforms. Again, Min Jaehyung has failed to communicate with the media.”

Namjoo’s face twisted. She didn’t know this Jaehyung guy, but what she’d heard from her mother when he was appointed in her father’s place was that he was a gentleman, smart and cunning. Her mother would trust him with her life.

“I don’t want to hear about it anymore,” Namjoo cut Junmyeon off.

“All right, they’re all bad news anyway,” Junmyeon nodded. “Other than tarnishing Daehan Corp’s reputation, I think you need to hear the last one.”

Placing a hand against her forehead she mumbled, “I have a headache.”

“SJ Group…” Junmyeon began, but Namjoo’s hand slipped from her head and she stared at him.

SJ Group was now led by Yoon Pyunghwa.

Yoon Pyunghwa had been or was still Chanyeol’s step-cousin depending on what their relation was.

“What about SJ Group?” Namjoo inquired more interested.

An expression of satisfaction at her interest made Junmyeon cunningly grin. “SJ Group as you know is a construction company. I’m not sure what is going on, but I’ve found evidence that they’ve received an overload of metal supplies from Daehan Corp. This couldn’t have slipped by Min Jaehyung, so…”

“That means he gave it to them for a lower price than what they’re worth,” Namjoo finished.

“Exactly,” Junmyeon nodded. “He’s ruining your father’s company. A number of essential Daehan employees are turning over to SJ Group. At this rate, your father’s company will really be left with nothing. SJ Group will have what’s left of Daehan Corp. Min Jaehyung will never make up for his crimes if SJ Group opens its arms for him. And,” Junmyeon stared her hard in the eyes, “you’ll live this way the rest of your life.”

Namjoo’s lips tightened.

“Your father’s hospital bills are accumulating up to thousands right now,” Junmyeon harshly pointed out, “you won’t be able to support him. I want you to think very carefully, Namjoo. Daehan Corp. literally raised you. I know you may not care about your family’s wealth, but your parents undeniably worked hard for it. You have abandoned them. Right now, your mother is dead. Your father is on life support. They need you. Are you going to continue abandoning them? If you continue to live like this forever, then let your father die first.”

The hands on her lap curled up into fists. She had never dared to go back home. Sinful memories still freshly lay there. She hated herself. She abhorred her fortunate life. She wasn’t done punishing herself yet.

“I can’t…” she mumbled.

“Stop! Please stop!” The agonizing cries of her once best friend filled her head, as if she was in the room right next door. “Someone help me!” Her crying, her sobbing. All terror. Namjoo had hid in the closet listening and watching. She had done nothing.

She hated herself.

She hated herself.

She hated herself.

“Namjoo!” Junmyeon grasped her shoulder to reel her back to reality. Gasping in a breath Namjoo realized she had blanked out. She must have looked dazed as if she was going through a crazy rush of emotions for a moment.

She wished she could strangle Yoon Pyunghwa and then she’d kill herself.

“What is wrong with you?” Junmyeon asked.

A lot was wrong with her. She had turned her back on everyone. She had left her mother to die alone. She had left her father to bear his pain by himself. She had refused to be by their sides. She was still hurting them.

“Listen, Namjoo. You can still do something for your father. Don’t walk away, please.” Junmyeon begged. “Whatever you walked away from, here’s your chance to right it all.”

Lifting her eyes up, she looked into his eyes.

Calmly, gently, as if he understood her agony he encouraged, “I know you didn’t walk away for nothing. I know something happened, so you had to leave. You said we used to be friends, but we’re not anymore. Ok, I’ll be your friend. You know I’m on your side. I’m your lawyer. So, listen to me. You have to go into the company and kick Min Jaehyung out.”

So many things running through her mind. Dead mom. An unresponsive father who may one day wake up to a bankrupt company, discovering he’d lost it all while he was asleep. An old friend who will never look at her again, because Namjoo couldn’t make up for her mistake. What to do? Where should she start? Would going into the company even help her at all? She didn’t want to touch the money, the property, or walk into her old home.

Most of all, she didn’t want to look Yoon Pyunghwa in the eyes anymore.

Namjoo was just a pathetic case.

But…Junmyeon had a point. She didn’t hate her parents. She knew they worked hard for that company, especially her father whom many years ago had come home with gifts for her every day. His little girl, his only child. Her parents had loved her unconditionally. They hadn’t chased her back home when she left wounded. They had let her make her own decisions. She wouldn’t betray them like she had Park Chanyeol.

She hated herself. She hated her father’s will. She hated the company with all her guts, but she would not, would not let someone steal her father’s hard-earned money.

“I’ll get rid of that bastard,” Namjoo fisted a hand again then looked at Junmyeon, “you said you’ll help me? I want to crush Yoon Pyunghwa. How do I do it?”

“Of SJ Group?” Junmyeon frowned confused why she would go as far as that. Without asking he said, “Technically, the company isn’t his. He had a cousin whose father was the rightful owner. Oh, that’s right. You went to school with him.”

“Park Chanyeol?” Namjoo asked.

“I believe that’s him,” Junmyeon said.

Namjoo felt her head heating up from all this thinking. It had been a while since she worked her brain so hard. “I want to know where he lives.” She added, “You said his father was the rightful owner, but now the company belongs to his cousin, why?”

ǂǂǂǂǂ

Not back from wherever she went yet, so Chanyeol hand washed their laundry and spent the entire morning hanging them up to dry. Everything had to be done by hand like the old days since he was poor. His small home lacking a washing machine, but had every other utility needed for survival.

Just a few years ago there was someone to clean his room for him, wash his laundry, fold his clothes, make his meals, dust the house, and someone to make sure there was a roof over his head. Anyone would agree that this was too much of an exaggerative change. Park Chanyeol did not think so.

He grew up doing things with his two hands. He grew up believing there was no one to rely on. Always by himself, because no one would ever love him the way he loved himself. In the future, he would still have to do things himself, with his own two hands.

After doing the laundry he rinsed the back porch with the soap water and sat down to eat a piece of bread. The scent of fresh laundry overrode the humid air. Tired, he lay down complaining to himself about the hot weather. For several minutes, he lay with eyes closed and envisioned a future with a dog running across the lawn. Perhaps a Chow Chow because he thought they were cute and fluffy and huggable. There would be steam rising from food cooking on the stove and flowing out of the kitchen window. In the kitchen, his pretty wife would be humming a tune while preparing a sumptuous meal while he tended the lawn. It wasn’t Yeorum. She wasn’t wife material. Chanyeol could picture her face almost vividly yet it blurred in his head because he really didn’t want to know who he was imagining.

Opening his eyes, he stared up at the clear blue sky before noticing a figure from the corner of his eye. Immediately sitting up shocked he stared back at Kim Namjoo standing in his doorway. Clutching the top in his hand to his bare chest he suddenly recalled he’d gone topless while completing the day’s chores. Slipping the shirt on as Namjoo invited herself in he stood to face her.

“Didn’t know you live so close by,” Namjoo noted peering around his wet yard. Looking at him, “We’re literally neighbors.”

He was shocked, somewhat surprised to see her on his property. Part of him was faintly embarrassed, but he didn’t dare show it.

She didn’t step as far as his laundry line. “You’re not going to offer me a glass of water?” She waited a beat then asked, “Still don’t want to talk to me? I already know who you are, Park Chanyeol.”

Hearing his name from struck a chord in him.

“What are you doing here?” Chanyeol stiffly asked with a hint of no welcome.

“SJ Group…”

“Sorry, but you’ve got the wrong person,” Chanyeol immediately cut her off.

Unaffected, Namjoo continued, “Why is the son of Yoon Pil Sun and the direct heir to SJ Group doing here?” this time she touched a shirt hanging off the laundry line. “Lee Yeorum has been busted for being involved in a meth trade twice. She’s a druggie who’ll never be able to escape her addiction. Why are you with her?”

“Shut up, don’t talk about her,” Chanyeol spat. “I don’t know who you think you are, but you need to leave.”

“You disappeared before we graduated high school.” Namjoo recalled. “Was it to revert to your old ways?”

“I don’t need to tell you anything,” he coldly said. “Leave.”

“Was the high life too tough for you?” Namjoo asked. “You couldn’t stand the way you were treated…”

“Do you think I care about what some measly high schoolers did to me?” he stepped forward to stare into her face. “I’m not going to spend my days living in the past. I told you to leave.” He took her arm ready to drag her to the exit, but Namjoo pushed him off.

“I’m not leaving, because I’m not done,” she argued.

Chanyeol sharply inhaled, his eyes hot on her. He didn’t want to listen to her anymore, whatever it was she was going to say. Everything related to her was irrelevant to him.

“SJ Group is being run by Pyunghwa,” Namjoo started, “why not you?”

Pressing his lips together he refused to speak.

“Why?” she asked with more emphasis. “He’s your cousin, he has no right to the business unless stated by your father before he died. So what the hell are you doing here living like this?”

“What does that have to do with you?” Chanyeol asked.

“It has everything to do with me, because right now Pyunghwa is about to snatch everything from my family,” Namjoo angrily spat. “And if, just if Pyunghwa took that company from right under your nose, you need to do something.”

Before the signal shot to his brain he already snorted as if she’d told some lame joke. Namjoo glanced up at him incredulously.

“What Pyunghwa does has nothing to do with me,” Chanyeol said.

“It has everything to do with you! That money is yours!”

Chanyeol shook his head, “You’re wrong.”

Staring stubbornly back at him, Namjoo determinedly said, “I’ll get you to go back. You will go back.”

He stared after her as she turned to leave. He wouldn’t go back. He would never go back. There was no reason to.

He was wrong, because Namjoo persisted. The following morning as he left to go eat he discovered Namjoo outside his door just sitting there on her phone.

“You made up your mind yet?” she asked, but he just glanced at her and walked off.

The next day Namjoo literally camped out in front of his house. She had takeouts beside her including varieties of beverages and even a bag of snacks from 7-Eleven. When he peeked outside she was still there just eating and chilling as if she had nothing to do.

Chanyeol refused to cave. He wouldn’t let Namjoo try to persuade him. There really was no point in going back to being Yoon Pil Sun’s step-son. He hadn’t run away because Namjoo and her rich friends tormented him. He had run away because being rich just didn’t suit him. Being pampered day in and day out was suffocating. There were always eyes watching. Chanyeol could never do anything to his heart’s content. Privacy didn’t exist for him. He had felt oppressed, especially when it came to Pyunghwa and his father.

But what would Namjoo know? She grew up that way. Pampered, always looked after, and with money stuffed down her pockets. They weren’t alike. So what the hell was she trying to get him to return for? What good would it do for her? Because it would do none for him.

ǂǂǂǂǂ

“There is indeed something fishy,” Junmyeon had shared with her. “Considering SJ Group is such a well-known family-owned business, you’d think the legal owner would have left behind some kind of statement regarding what goes to whom, who will be the next successor and so on.”

“Like a will, like my father,” Namjoo finished.

Junmyeon nodded, “Yoon Pil Sun was a meticulous businessman. He was tidy, superbly organized. You could even find invoices dating from the early 1900’s in his department. But after he passed, his brother took his seat before passing it onto his son, currently CEO Yoon Pyunghwa. And it’s not as if Yoon Pil Sun died immediately. His death was a slow one, so he should have been able to prepare a document.”

“So, what are you getting at?” Namjoo wondered. “That Pyunghwa’s father stole the company from right under their noses?”

Junmyeon shrugged, “There’s no evidence.”

Namjoo debated silently to herself. “Then what now?”

“You take over Daehan Corp. You’re the heiress, you have the full right. Then fire Min Jaehyung,” Junmyeon spelled out for her. “If you want Pyunghwa out, you need someone to replace him. Just like an assassin keeps his code not to disobey his morals, companies in the business world are bound by morals, in right terms, the law. You can’t illegally take the company from Pyunghwa or remove him from it. To play fair, you need to fight him out. Your best bet would be placing Yoon Pil Sun’s son, by right of name, on his rightful seat.”

And Junmyeon had checked. Yoon Pil Sun had never disowned his adopted son. Park Chanyeol was still very much in the family. Namjoo was determined to get him on that high pedestal. The young lawyer was correct. Pyunghwa had taken the company. Chanyeol’s father would not have died without a will, which Namjoo could only assume was hidden somewhere. Park Chanyeol had been robbed of his riches and he didn’t even know. Or maybe he did. Whatever the case, Namjoo would find out later.

She was back in front of Chanyeol’s home. She would protest. She would annoy the out of him until he caved. And she would win.

Today, Chanyeol did not poke his head out of his house. Namjoo knew he hadn’t left. She’d been sitting in front of his house since her shift ended last night. She’d watched the sun whisper into the sky, the morning clouds roll overhead as light came to day. Namjoo nearly nodded off when footsteps awoke her. Looking up she saw a female in a short shirt, thin tank top, with straight long hair. Her face boasted street smarts, but she did not appear like crack addicts who suffered bruised eyes, hallowed cheeks, and cracked lips or trembling hands. She was full-bodied, packed with curves in the right places, and wore a natural hue of makeup that accentuated her features properly.

“Who are you?”

Dusting her pants, Namjoo rose. “Lee Yeorum?” The woman narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Smiling, Namjoo held out her hand, “I’m Kim Namjoo.” When the woman didn’t accept her hand Namjoo withdrew. “I would like to speak to Park Chanyeol. If you would do me a favor of calling him out.”

“Who are you?” taking the defensive now, Yeorum observed her with distaste.

Namjoo had to think carefully about the next one. What to say to set Yeorum off so that Park Chanyeol would come out?

“His girlfriend. The other night he came to my house and we…” Namjoo couldn’t even finish before her scalp was on fire.

“! Don’t ing lie to me! Chanyeol would never!” she shrieked pulling Namjoo’s hair, nearly yanking it out of her head. Pumped form the pain Namjoo screamed, stirring the commotion she wanted. Then footsteps and she was separated from the other woman. Her head throbbed but when she came to Chanyeol stood in front of her, his broad back protectively in her view.

Yeorum hissed from the other side as Chanyeol exclaimed, “What are you doing?!” His shoulders tensed flustered, realizing he was defending the wrong woman. He turned to face her the next moment, again exclaiming, “What are you doing?!”

When their eyes met, Namjoo smugly grinned.