Prologue

With the cool wind blowing the fair brunette’s hair, the sun rises beautifully. Jessica gazes outside of her window and can’t help but feel exhilarated with the thought of the Autumn season coming into view. Her favourite season out of all of them. The gorgeous golden-brown leaves falling and swaying with the wind. The weather is neither too cold nor too hot. However, despite the idea of having such good weather to start her morning, the anxiety that has been building since yesterday has come back, creeping in.

Jessica’s father, who has always been married to the family’s company, suddenly has an inclination of wanting to see his only daughter. Come urgently, he demanded.

Notwithstanding the fact, Jessica works in the main headquarters as the only heiress to the company his dad has empired for many years. The rare occasion in which they saw each other was only when business meetings were conducted between the CEO and herself. Many would say Jessica was her father’s favorite. And many would also say, she was favored due to the fact she was the only child of Kimon Jung. In the end, the utmost attention she used to receive from her father changed in a form of luxuries. Luxuries he would ask his attendant to give to her.

Why?  for once, as his daughter, his partner in crime, she knew for a fact that he started drowning himself with work when her mother died. He lost himself as the thought of not even his money could save her. So, he worked harder, thinking that the legacy he will soon pass to Jessica will never cease to exist, and shall continue to make her happy. That’s what he thinks. 

“Miss Jessica, we’re here.”

Train of random thoughts completely dissociated Jessica from what’s happening in reality. She forgot she was on her way to see her father after a month.

“Thank you, I’ll be staying after meeting with my father. You can go back to the mansion.” 

Jessica is not usually an anxious person when meeting her father. But something just feels so odd. Is this about the company rising from the bottom? Based on NYTimes, the context of the company was quick to take a position on the leaderboard, close to overthrowing her very own as well as the 2nd best, AOMG Production. Was this the reason he wanted to see her so urgently? Her deep line of thinking once again detached her from the real world. Coming back to reality, she found herself facing the CEO’s main door. She knocked three times before introducing herself.

“Father, it’s me. Jessica.”

She then heard a clatter behind the closed doors as a steady red light appeared on the doorknob. Just like that, the door hinged open.

“How I’ve missed you, my lovely daughter? Look at you looking as beautiful as ever. Have you been keeping up with the boxing classes I started you with when you were in high school?”

“It’s the usual, father. Work, self-care, socializing—as you have suggested maintaining the balance in my life.” she replied solemnly.

He relinquished an anxious sigh as he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his Parnian Executive Desk.

“I know that I have been a partially neglectful parent towards you and it’s such a shameful thing for me to call you here for this reason...”

Jessica's father was hesitating to bring up whatever it is he wanted to discuss with her. She knows very well to read his body language. They may have been distant from each other for the past 8 years, but she knows when her father goes through a tremendous dilemma when something heavy has been weighing him down.

“Father—no, dad. It’s okay, if it’s something that’s probably going to save something in our life, then I’ll listen.”

He stared at her firmly before giving up the stack of paper he had in front of him. 

“Here, this contains all the data we could collect from that one company who has been passing the other Vieux riche.”

Lee Enterprise. A nouveau riche company that has just risen from the bottom of the fashion food chain. Jessica walked toward her father and grabbed the stack of paper before taking her seat.

This is not much for a newly made company. Usually, they won’t have that much power to hide most of their background as they have only ascended.
One thing for sure is, that they have built connections amongst the other nobility. Probably outside their main market.  The best area to make connections with, if you’re in fashion marketing, is a production company.

Their weakness. 

Out of all the other companies, they own under their consortium board, production management is not one of them.

“What exactly do you propose that has been bothering you to this extent? ”

Despite the anxiety slowly escalating, Jessica shifted her gaze to her father who returned her gaze, almost as he was staring into her soul.

“The board put this idea in my head as tackling the weakness of our company could strengthen our position. This means, a partnership with a fellow company who has our weakness and needs our strength.”

For some reason, the anxiety that has been bothering Jessica started to make sense. This is when she plays a big part in her role as his direct descendant.

 

“An arranged marriage.” she muttered as if she knew this moment was coming right from the very beginning. 

 

At that time, she didn’t know what to do or expect for the future that she had been anticipating.