The Ultimate Dream
Chapter Three
*
A friend and a foe

*

Dong Young-bae. Also known as Taeyang.

"Ss-sorry guys," Yuri stuttered as she recognised the man that was metres away from her. "I've just remembered there was something really important that I have to do, if you see Hyun Joong oppa, or Yoona, tell them something came up and I had to go," The two men have her strange looks. "Please," she pleaded. "I really do have to go,"

"Okay," Seulong gave in. "Just be careful Yuri,"

"I will oppa," she hugged him goodbye. "Thank you so much," she uttered to both men before scurrying off to escape Dong Young-bae.

He saw her run from the ball room. It was like she had seen a ghost, although he was sure that she hadn't spotted him yet. It was just his luck that he had stumbled across a major entertainment company in Seoul and even hired, that he was requested to attend tonight's event. Hoping to catch her, he followed her out the doors and ran into the snow.

Outside in the cold, Yuri shivered from the snow that currently fell to cover the grounds of Four Seasons Hotel Garden. 'Y-you're just imagining things Kwon Yuri. It's just your imagination,' she stuttered to herself. 'It's not real. It can't be. He left you years ago. He has no reason to come back. Not for you anyway.'

"Kwon Yuri!"

'That's not his voice,' she muttered to herself. 'That's not his voice calling your name. It's all just your imagination Yuri'

"Kwon Yuri!"

There it was again. 'It's just your imagination. Keep walking to your car Yuri.'

Suddenly, a hand grasped her elbow and before she knew it, she had been turned to face Taeyang.  "Kwon Yuri," he whispered with a smile. "It's been a long time."

How dare he march up to her family company's ball and fish her out! "Well I wonder who’s fault that is! I don’t want to see you. Leave me alone!" she shouted at him, a little too loud that the doorman looked their way.

"No!" Taeyang replied with just as much force. "You are talking to me tonight whether you like it or not. I have things to explain to you," he hissed. "Don’t raise your voice any louder, the doorman is looking our way. I'm sure you don’t want to make a scene," he added on.

"Let me go, you're hurting me." she hissed back while sending daggers at him through her eyes.

"Not until you promise to listen to what I have to say."

*

"Oppa!!" Tiffany squealed in delight as she led Hyun Joong to her family. Kim Minjun, the second eldest of the family, turned around to face the voice of his younger cousin, Tiffany Hwang. It was only then that he noticed the younger's fiancé to her side, Kim Hyun Joong. "Eh! Hyung! It's been a while since I've last seen you! How are you doing?"

Minjun was suddenly man tackled by the latter. "That," Hyun Joong began to explain. "was for not coming even bothering to say 'hi' to me," Laughter erupted from the two as they finally pulled themselves into a friendly embrace, only to be interrupted by Tiffany's clearing of .

"Minjun oppa! Hyun Joong oppa!" she pouted. "I'm still here! Take your bromance someplace else at some other time, but I want my fiancé back!"

"Aish, I don’t know how you put up with her," Minjun pointed at his younger cousin.

"I'm going to ignore that last comment." Tiffany retorted.

The two friends let each other go from their embrace, and Hyun Joong retreated back to his spot beside Tiffany. "I haven't seen you guys in so long. Where's Jay? I sent him an invitation, but I don’t think we ever got an RSVP back,"

An eyebrow of Minjun's shot up at Tiffany. "You didn’t tell him?"

"Of course I did!" Tiffany rolled her eyes and turned to face Hyun Joong. "I already told you that oppa couldn’t make it tonight because he's overseas running inspections on each and every single hotel in the States and Australasia." She hesitated for a moment before continuing, not sure whether or not it was on her grounds to tell him the real reason for Jay's absence. "And…. he's trying to get Jessica unnie back."

Park Jaebeom, Jay Park was the only biological child of Kim Won Hee, a kind woman who had unofficially adopted 4 other boys after the passing of her late husband into the Park Household, and more recently, into the family company. Kim Minjun, sometimes known as Jun.K was the eldest of the new boys, followed by Ok Taecyeon, Jang Wooyoung and Lee Junho. After having met the boys at preschool, WonHee's son had formed strong friendships with all other boys. As their friendship hit the early years of middle school, familial situations almost tore the group apart. Kim Minjun's parents had moved overseas to Switzerland, and Ok Taecyeon's to the United States. Without a second thought, WonHee had managed to convince both sets of parents to let their sons stay under the Park roof. Jang Wooyoung was already an orphan who had been boarding at school, and Lee Junho had been abandoned by his father at a young age, and was also boarding at school. With the sudden death of her husband, it made sense to WonHee that she had to adopt these boys, for her, for her son, and for the future of the boys which had seemed bleak. 

Tiffany Hwang had also moved into the Park household after WonHee had reconnected with her long lost half sister Yoon Se Ah, and her daughter, Tiffany. She had decided to move back to South Korea, in order to be closer to her roots, and her mother  had decided to stay in Hawaii with her husband, where she had spent her life after she had been rescued by locals on a boat around Japan when a tsunami had hit the country the same time as WonHee and her sister had been there on a family holiday. Despite Jay being the only 'real' cousin of hers, she regarded the other four as cousins like Jay, despite being of no blood relation at all.

As the eldest of the 5 siblings and the official heir of Park&Associates, Jay had the heaviest workload and was often overseas managing the company's operations in Hospitality. The constant travelling to and fro out of Seoul had caused strains on his relationship with Jessica Jung, a journalist and writer based in Seoul. Lately, she had been sent by her company to New York to write about the food scene there from a Korean perspective.

Hyun Joong contemplated for a moment, then nodded his head. "I thought I felt a weird vibe between the two when I last saw them…"

"Oppa," Tiffany turned her attention to Minjun. "Where's Taecyeon, Wooyoung and Junho? I thought they said they were coming, are they not?"

At the mention of their names, the latter two yelled out to their cousin as they made their way from the doors of the ballroom to where the small group stood. "We're right here!" Wooyoung yelped.

"Sorry, had some last minute stuff at work to finish before we came, Noona," Junho began to explain.

"HYUNG!" Wooyoung yelped again in happiness at the sight of Hyun Joong, jumping on him for a hug with Junho. "Where have you been lately! You haven't come over to visit us and play in so long!"

"Yah!" Tiffany interjected before Hyun Joong could respond. "You two need to grow up already. Not everything is about playing,"

Hyun Joong and Minjun both chuckled at the trio before them. "He's been stuck with this annoying one," Minjun pointed at Tiffany, causing laughter from Hyun Joong.

"It’s just been really busy at work lately. And we've had to start wedding preparations, so I haven't had time to come over. But don’t worry, I'll be over more often when we're married," he pulled Tiffany to his side. "Where's Taec anyway?"

"He'll be here soon. He called me before and said that the meeting with the directors took a little longer than expected," Minjun replied.

From out of the corner of his eye, Hyun Joong spotted Yoona coming towards him. "Yoona!"

"Oh! Oppa, Yuri unnie had to leave, she had something important to attend to," Yoona said as she neared Hyun Joong. "Though I'm not sure what exactly.."

"Yoona!" Tiffany squealed to get her attention, caught Yoona's hand in hers, and led her closer to the group. "There's some people I want you to meet. These boys here are my cousins, although there are 2 missing, one of them should turn up soon," she continued to introduce the boys to her fiancé's younger sister.

"Yah, Fany ah, why haven't we met Yoona-shii earlier before?" Minjun complained with a pout. Despite being one of the older boys, he really did have a childish personality.

Yoona laughed at the playfulness between Tiffany and her cousins. "It's not Tiffany unnie's fault. I moved out of house before oppa and unnie met. And I don’t work at Kim Enterprises, so it's no surprise that our paths haven't crossed yet,"

"You should all try to help me convince her to move back into our house guys," Hyun Joong said. "And Yuri too," he added. "But I think I should get going and mingle with the rest of the guests tonight. Have a good one, and I promise I'll come over to the Park household to visit soon,"

"Oppa, I'll come with you," Tiffany volunteered. The two of them left the small group, arms linked and a picture of partnership, love and lust.

"Yoona-shii," Wooyoung started. "Should we drop honorifics? Fany and your brother are about to get married after all, so that makes us family..kind of ish anyway,"

"Of course! Minjun oppa, Wooyoung oppa and Junho oppa!" she pointed at each of the guys and they shared a laugh.

A familiar figure coming through the doors of the ballroom caught Junho's eye. "Ok Taecyeon!" He called upon realisation that it was one of his adoptive brothers, and good friend. "Over here!" he said as he waved his hand for the new arrivals attention, directing him towards the small group.

Ok Taecyeon. He knew he was late. What made it worse was that he was late for an event run by his cousin's fiancé. Man, Tiffany was going to give him one heck of a grilling if she saw him. But it wasn’t his fault that the meeting with the directors took longer than expected! Yes! He would tell her that so she wouldn’t get mad at him. Women who were about to get married were rather sensitive, he found out in these past few months. Especially with men.

"Taecyeon ah," Minjun said as soon as he neared the group. "Meet Hyun Joong hyung's and Yuri's younger sister,"

Time seem to have stopped for Taecyeon as the woman in front of him spun around to face him, almost a familiar figure he thought. Like a shampoo advertisement on television, her hair long brown hair whipped around in slow motion, and her pale pink dress swished enough that it revealed her slender legs.  A grin from ear to ear appeared as he realised just who it was that stood in front of him. "Yoona-shii!"

Yoona furrowed her brows. Did she know this man standing in front of her? "I'm sorry, but you are…"

'Crap,' Taecyeon thought to himself. He was still wearing his sunglasses which he had worn to protect his eyes from the paparazzi that had cued outside along with their massive cameras. Without another thought, he whipped off the eye protectants and placed him in the pocket of his suit. "Remember me now?" he grinned. He watched her as her brows un-furrowed and a smile formed on her lips.

So she did remember him from this afternoon after all.

Confused at what was going on, Wooyoung and Junho stood closer to Minjun. "Hyung," Wooyoung spoke up. "What's going on?"

"How do they know each other?" Junho chimed in.

In the background, they all heard someone announce that it was time for people to make way to the dance floor for a slow dance. "Ughughgugh," Junho playfully shivered, earning laughters from them all. "Slow dancing."

"Come on then, off to the buffet table it is," Minjun hurried Wooyoung and Junho off with him by the shoulders. "It seems like you both know each other," Minjun then turned and whispered to Taecyeon. "Fill us in on the details later." And with that, he walked away after his brothers heading for the buffet table, leaving alone Taecyeon and Yoona at the edge of the dance floor.

*

"I didn't mean to leave without a trace," Taeyang began as Yuri sat in the passenger seat of his sports car. "I really didn’t. That wasn’t the plan,"

Looking out the window into the Han River, she avoided his gaze. "But you left without a word anyway."

The hate in her voice and words killed him. "I'm sorry. I know I was wrong, I know I shouldn’t have done that. I should have told you what was going on, but there was no time left."He heaved a sigh before beginning to explain what happened as she still refused to look into his eyes. "That day," he recalled. "I got a call from my parents. I was just about to leave the house to go on our date, but I was informed that we had to leave the country. And quick. They were framed and under fire by the government for their involvement in the nuclear testing15 years ago. We had to flee that very afternoon. I couldn’t bring myself to call you and tell you I was leaving the country. Your grandfather was just admitted into hospital. You didn’t need to be told I was leaving on top of that."

Anger flared in her eyes as she whipped around to finally look at him since getting into his car. "So you thought you would make the decision for me? Did it ever cross your mind that I was old enough to make decisions like that myself? Did it?!"

"It was your first year into university and you had a heavy workload. On top of that, your grandfather just been admitted into hospital for a heart attack. I didn’t want to add on any more worries for you!" he raised his voice.

"Yet you did anyway. Grandfather passed away a few months after you left. I had to hold the family together. I was left to my own devices when Hyun Joong oppa isolated himself and Yoona lost her liveliness. I was left to defend for myself and you weren't there for me like you said you would be!" Tears threatened to flow as she remembered the time after her Grandfather had just passed away. The house was a mess, its livelihood and energy taken along with her Grandfather. Hyun Joong had to take over the reins of the company, and Yoona had her college entrance exams to study for. "Why are you back Taeyang? Why are you suddenly waltzing back into my life after disappearing for five years?" she paused. "Why are you doing this to me now?" Barely a whisper, he heard her last question loud and clear.

"Because I'm back for good. And I want you back in my life. Starting now."

She couldn’t believe that he was back after such a long disappearance. However, no part of her felt happy that he was back. The only emotion that was going through her was hate. She hated that he was back and that he expected her to fall back into his arms. That was not going to happen. Not after what he did to her all those years ago, leaving without a trace at a time she needed him the most. "Taeyang-shii. Take me home. I don’t want to hear any more of this crap." And just like that, Taeyang was shut out of her world, the softness that was present in her voice in the last few seconds, vanished.

*

Taecyeon was thankful that his hyung had steered his brothers away, leaving some time alone for the two new friends. Remembering that a slow dance was about to start, he placed a hand around Yoona's waist and linked his other hand in hers, bringing her close to him, hips touching and her head leaning on his broad chest. The sudden intimate touch shocked her.

"How's your wrist?" he asked completely oblivious of her shock, as they began swaying their way towards the middle of the dance floor, dodging couples from the left and couples from the right.

She was surprised how comfortable she was with him already both mentally and physically, despite only having met him this afternoon. Yoona looked up at him , peeling her head away from his chest. "You know, normally, a man would ASK a woman if she would dance with him," she commented, ignoring his question.

He chuckled as she said that. "Well," he pretended to look deep in thought, then looked back into her eyes, gaze serious. "American style," They both laughed. "You haven't answered my question yet. How is that wrist of yours?" he turned serious.

"It's better now," she smiled at the thought of today's incident. "Thanks again for this afternoon, Taecyeon-shii,"

Ok Taecyeon was the one who had saved her from Lee Seung-gi this afternoon. She recalled how he had caught her eyes, which were pleading for help to be set free from a man whom she did not know. Swiftly, he had pulled Seung-gi's grasp off her, and pulled Yoona behind himself instead, blocking Seung-gi's reach for her. "I may not know who you are," Taecyeon had began to say seriously to the man. "But please leave this lady alone. It's obvious she doesn’t want you near her, so please respect that." And with that, he had turned around and led Yoona away, his hand on the small of her back.

"You do realise you've already thanked me five times today already, right?" Taecyeon asked her, breaking her thoughts this afternoon. She was silent and if it weren't for the fact that she was still swaying to the soft music with him, he would have thought she had fallen asleep.

"So you're hyung's younger sister," he spoke softly after a few moments of silence. "which also makes you Yuri's cousin. Why is it that I've never met you before until today?"

"Yuri and I moved out before Tiffany unnie and oppa met. And I don't work in the corporate world unlike oppa and Yuri," she explained to him. After moving out of the Kim household, Yuri had found a job as an advertising director at Park&Associates for their Hotel chain, which the Jay Park and his family owned. "You boys better be taking care of Yuri at work," Yoona added.

He laughed. "It's her that's taking care of us. She's good at her job, and I don’t think we could ever find anyone who is more suitable for her job at our company. You have nothing to worry about,"

*

Hey guys! Hope you all had a happy Christmas and New Year! 
Rather long chapter this time... do you guys prefer shorter ones, or longer ones?

Don't forget to comment - you'll make me super uber happy :))