SEOUL

Saturday 31th of December

Sandara and Jiyong were already back in Seoul as they both had to attend a New Year Eve Party.

Their little escapade to Cape Verde had been short but worth it. They got to know each other better and Dara realized that they had more things in common than she thought. Jiyong knew what it felt like to want to free oneself from a society in which their path was already written. He understood the will of creating a new and different kind of life. He was tracked to become a politician like his father, though he had long aspired to be a soldier. His loving but dictatorial parents had pressured him to complete his military service and come right back to Seoul to persue his career in politics. When he and Sandara had talked about it on their second evening in the island, he happened to talk freely about the internal crisis he had on how he intended to live the rest of his life. In a way, they understood each other.

But it was Dara’s future they spoke of when, after drinking Champagne, they sat together on the beach far from every body that might disrupt their conversation.

During their vacations there,  Jiyong would wake up early in the morning, by six o'clock, without making much noise while getting ready and he would to do his daily workout. However, he would wait for Dara to get up so that they would have breakfast together and so that she wouldn’t wake up because of the noise of the shower. In the morning they would visit some famous places around the island, before going back to the yacht in the afternoon to enjoy the sun and dive in the water. One morning, Jiyong took her to a small village that was located inside the Volcano’s crater. Sandara had never been more impressed. It was frightening and at the same time breathtaking. Dara had visited a lot of countries; she had her own favorites of course, yet she had never seen anything like Cape Verde.

At night, they would walk along the beach or go downtown to find a bar and listen to local singers singing morna. However, they didn’t get as close as Jiyong expected. Everytime he tried something to get closer to her, she would take a step back and find a way to escape from him. Once, while they were seated on the edge of the yacht, fishing just like Jiyong told her they would, she had rejected him in a way no woman has ever done. As Sandara was very concentrated on trying to catch something, Jiyong couldn’t stop looking at her. The moment she noticed him looking at her, he tried kissing her on the lips. As he tried getting his face closer to hers, she panicked and pushed him overboard. When Jiyong realized what had just happened, he didn’t know how to react to that. The girl have pushed him overboard in order to prevent him from kissing her. But Sandara eventually jumped in the water, joining him and splashing water to his face, trying to ease the tension that had built up.

Whenever Jiyong looked at her, he compared her to a deer that just came out of a wood, just by perceiving her vulnerability and her sensitivity. The woman he had spent a few days with, apart from everyone else, was nothing like he had imagined. The first time he met her, she seemed too full of herself, as if she knew the effect she had on men. But the more they talked to each other, the more he understand how lost she was. She was pressured between who the society wanted her to be and who she wanted to be. She had a bookish notion of romantic love and he was afraid that he going to desapoint her. 

And now they were back to their hometown. Back to the cold weather of Seoul. As soon as they stepped on the Korean territory, Jiyong’s phone wouldn’t stop ringing. He  had spent the whole trip back to her apartment on the phone with people working for him. Apparently he went on vacation at the wrong time since everyone at the city hall was going crazy over the New Year Eve party that will be held tonight at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarter.

Unfortunately for Jiyong, Sandara was not going to his party tonight. Her parents had chosen the party held by Samsung over political festivities, and she obviously had to go with them. Her parents were trying to negotiate a deal with Samsung so that their screens would be implemented on Hyundai cars. It was an important deal for both companies. These days, everything was going smoothly for Hyundai Industries as they shipped a good part of their production to other countries, including the Chinese market. Also, their cars were about to be at every corners of Seoul. Apparently, Kwon Jiyong had made a deal with her parents, so that there would be a sharing network of electric cars around the capital. People could easily rent those public cars at a low cost and it would prevent Seoul from being too polluted.

When the chauffeur announced they had arrived in front of her building, Dara had gotten out of the car, quickly saying goodbye to Jiyong, as he was still on the phone with his secretary who was updating him on all the work he had to do before tonight. Dara realized that these five days with him on Cape Verde were exceptional. He was a busy man that didn’t have time to go on vacation as much as he wanted. These five days of vacation were the only ones he was going to get before a long time and yet he had decided to spend these with her, far from everyone else. 

As she was about to step inside the building, she heard the door of the car open and close. Turning around, she saw Jiyong running towards her with his phone in his hand.

“Sandara wait!” He said, as he got closer to her. He put his hand on her cheek before adding: “I guess I’ll see you next year?” He said with his too ravaging smile.

Dara simply nodded before replying to him with a smile. Jiyong seemed pleased with her answer and kissed her cheek before stepping back and putting the p