Leaning back in her seat, Hei-Ryung stretched her arms out over her head and yawned until her jaw began growing sore. Whether it had been walking with Youngjae or meeting Daehyun she didn't know, but something from the previous day had been the spark she needed for lighting a fire under her and getting to work. Sleep had come in brief pockets, broken up by long stints of writing in the notebook she kept by her bed, and now that morning had come she was giving up on trying to catch a few z's. From now on, her focus was strictly writing. For the first time in what felt like a life time, Hei-Ryung felt the unquenchable need to write, and she planned on taking full advantage of it.

     Just as soon as she finished brushing off the sleepiness that came from getting only an hour or two of shut-eye.

     Yawning again, she tapped her fingers against the worn surface of her keyboard and waited for the computer to finish booting up. It, like her, was having a struggle getting into the swing of things after such a long break. "Come on, time to get to work. We've been lazing about long enough now," Hei-Ryung hummed, reaching over and gently patting the side of her monitor. "Let's go, up and at 'em!" Forcing herself to sound more energetic than she felt, Hei-Ryung eagerly typed in her password, then waited for the computer to think about it and bring up her desktop. Although she had been working steadily through her writer's block, Hei-Ryung had never been satisfied with what she was producing. All the mechanical, emotionless words she had strung onto page after page had hardly been the kind of writing that first got Hei-Ryung interested in the art form in the first place. It was bland and boring, and now that Hei-Ryung felt she had something more to contribute she couldn't wait to get rid of the old and start working with all the new ideas that had come to mind during the night.

     Or so she had thought. Opening up the word document aptly named "Untitled", Hei-Ryung began highlighting the text found there and was about to hit the delete key when she hesitated. Perhaps the writing was ugly and not up to snuff, but it was still forty pages that she wouldn't be able to get back if she went through with deleting it all. Which would be fine if all her new, wonderful ideas came to fruition and she was able to make up the lost work in a timely manner, but suppose that she started writing and ended up exactly where she had begun- then what? She would be out a week's worth of work, and would have to struggle to make it all up quickly enough to give something to Seulki for the editor to peruse through. Wouldn't it be better to just keep what she had now and try to incorporate her new ideas into the old writing?

     Pursing her lips, Hei-Ryung thoughtfully ran her finger along the edges of the delete key, trying to decide which path would be the least painful. Then, as she was beginning to lean towards keeping the writing, her finger slipped and pressed down, hard, on the delete key. Within a moment, everything she had been struggling to complete was gone. Blinking in surprise, Hei-Ryung felt her blood run cold as she stared at the clean white page that now sat in front of her. Of course she could always hit undo and bring it all back, but... no; no, she would start from scratch and turn these ideas into a story all their own.

     Breathing in deeply, Hei-Ryung brushed aside her previous anxiousness about starting over and focused on organizing her thoughts into a first sentence. She wanted to create something meaningful to the title- Always Remember Me- but at the same time she didn't want it to be insufferably cheesy. A little cheddar in a person's writing never hurt anyone, and in fact tended to accentuate the flavor of the book, but if you dumped the whole block in there you ended up with a sticky, gooey mess. Nachos were fine as a snack, but you didn't want to present a big bowl of them to your editor- she'd complain that it gave her heart failure. You also couldn't make it too sweet, because she would complain about a tooth ache. Or bitter, since nobody would go anywhere near it. There had to be a fine balance struck between all the different flavors an author had at their disposal, and it was often this balance that made or broke a writer.

     "I sound more like a chef than an author... and since this isn't a cook book I should probably stop thinking in cooking metaphors," Hei-Ryung thought, shaking her head to get rid of the thoughts that had begun cluttering around in there. She wasn't here to make a snack, she was here to write a book.

     So, without further distractions, Hei-Ryung flipped open her notebook to the first page and began reading over her previous plans for starting the book. Chewing on her bottom lip, she casually flipped through the pages and began to take notice of a dilemma. It appeared that her sleep-deprived self from the previous night had wanted to start the story strong by introducing the conflict from the very start, but hadn't been sure how to do so. Should she begin with the motorcycle crash, the catalyst, or the hospital, where the conflict was to be plainly introduced. Tapping her fingers on the desk, Hei-Ryung wished that she had chosen between the two earlier, so that she wouldn't have to deal with it now and could just get to the fun part of writing. All this planning was such a pain and really the joy out of the writing process.

     A motorcycle crash- all of it happens so fast that there isn't much time for the characters to react, but that didn't mean the writer could slack off and leave out details. Every sight, sound, and thought had to be painstakingly addressed, so the reader felt they were reading a second of time that had been capture, slowed and dissected; the perhaps final moments of the character they've only just now been introduced to. As it was at the beginning, Hei-Ryung wouldn't be able to call upon past 'memories' from earlier in the story to aid her attempts to present the calamity of nearly losing your life. The amount of work she would have to put into it would be enormous.

     The hospital- a place where you're surrounded by white-washed everything and absolute silence, while doctors and nurses shuffle noiselessly past you and try to avoid making eye contact. They've worked here long enough to know which patients are going to come out alive and which aren't going to see another day, and after seeing him, they know which category he falls into. They've all been around death so much that you would think they'd know how to comfort others when it comes knocking, but the ceasing of another human's existence is something you can never grow used to. It's impossible to make someone feel better about losing someone forever. So they become callous and ignore the problem- leave it up to whichever poor surgeon was given the task of trying to change fate, though in the end they all know that-

     "Stop," Hei-Ryung told her herself, turning to stare out her window at the image of early spring, which would hopefully dispel the darker ones of a time Hei-Ryung would rather forget. "Just stop." Sighing, she watched the last snatches of sun rise begin to fade into the sky. Variations of pink and purple danced in and out of awareness as the sun rose higher in the sky and began to blue-wash it all. Everything was losing its mysterious, misty aura and becoming more concrete as the light hardened. This was the real world, and she needed to cast it- both in present and in past- aside for now.

     Taking in a deep breath, Hei-Ryung returned to her work and began typing away. She would start with the motorcycle crash.

     When the elevator doors opened to his uncle's floor, Youngjae was greeted by the warm spring sun, which had found just the right spot to momentarily blind him. Squinting against the sudden brightness, he lifted one hand up to shade his eyes and stepped off the elevator. His uncle's secretary was currently taking a message, but managed to find a long enough pause in her note-taking to look up at Youngjae and acknowledge that she had seen him. Smiling brightly, she held up one finger and mouthed that she would be done in a moment, before hurrying to catch up with the message. Nodding his head, Youngjae leaned against a corner of the secretarial desk and waited patiently for her to finish.

     After hanging up the phone with an obviously memorized salutation, she turned to Youngjae and smiled once again at him. "You've certainly been coming here a lot recently," she pointed out conversationally, shuffling aside a few papers to try and find the buried intercom system. Unsure of how to respond, Youngjae hummed a quiet agreement and nodded his head. "I hope that you're enjoying getting to see your uncle, even with all the stress you two must be under because of this whole CEO business. You're not just his heir, after all, you're his nephew, and considering you two have never met until now, I would hope that you two are making the most of the reunion," she continued, chattering away with a permanent smile on her face until she had unearthed the intercom system. With one long, slender finger, she pressed down on the call button.

     "Mr. Yoo is here to see you, sir," she announced, trying to keep a straight face- apparently calling the CEO's nephew "Mr" was humorous for her.

     "Send him in."

     "You can go ahead, now," she told Youngjae, as though he hadn't heard for himself what had been said. "Do you want me to bring in anything for you two to drink while you're here?" She added, already standing up before she had even finished making the suggestion.

     "I'm fine, but my uncle might want something," Youngjae told her, one hand resting on the office door's handle. "And... how do you know so much about my uncle and I? We haven't exactly been very public about our plans," he added, unable to keep himself from attempting to satisfy the curiosity that had been building since the woman started talking.

     With raised eyebrows, the secretary rested against her desk and thought for a moment. "I bring Mr. Kang lots of tea and have two ears," she finally responded, coming over to join Youngjae at the door. "Shall we?" She gestured to the door, and without any further discussion on the matter Youngjae opened the door and let the both of them in.

     "Would you like me to bring you anything to drink, sir?" She offered after giving Youngjae and Ji Suk a moment to shake hands and greet one another.

     "I could use a nice cup of tea." Gesturing for Youngjae to take a seat, Ji Suk remained standing as he spoke his his secretary. "Green, please," he clarified as she began bowing her way out of the room. With a smile, his secretary nodded her head and committed the request to memory, then closed the door behind her and left, presumably to make the tea.

     Ji Suk settled down into his seat. "I'm glad you were able to make it here today," he told Youngjae, folding his hands on the desk and smiling at his nephew. "I had been hoping that we would have a little more time before the decision was made, but it appears that someone has suggested the board members convene early." His expression momentarily darkened as he recalled the look of triumph on the Pigeon's face when he announced none-too-casually that the board's "meeting" would be occurring earlier this year, to allow for some of the members to go on vacation before the rush of "common tourists" began heading out. As usual, it appeared that Bi Dul had known the perfect combination of buttons he needed to push to get what he wanted.

     "You're retiring already?" Youngjae exclaimed, catching onto the implied concern. "They aren't forcing you to retire, are they?" He then added, growing increasingly distressed.

     "I'm not retiring just yet, and they aren't officially going to do anything to make that change. Granted, that doesn't mean they haven't been trying other ways of removing me," Ji Suk assured his nephew, chuckling humorlessly as he nodded to the stack of travel magazines he had meant to take out to the recycling. "At least I don't have to pay for the subscription myself," he sighed quietly, leaning back in his seat. "No, they aren't attempting to formally accomplish anything, but I wouldn't be surprised if they had a good idea about who they planned on voting for by the end of this meeting."

     Youngjae was obviously confused by the finer dynamics of the business world, so Ji Suk buckled down and prepared to explain everything to his nephew. "Think of this as a preliminary of sorts, though not a formal one. In fact, if you were to ask any of the board members about it, they would say that it was just a get-together between friends to talk fishing and catch up on one another's lives- never mind that few of them even know the names of anyone on the board. Between the hyperbolic accounts of whopper fish and humorous anecdotes about their families, they will be talking business, though. Considering the excitement building up around the matter of who will take over the company after I retire, I imagine that this will be the number one topic among the conversations that 'didn't happen'. They're going to be picking sides and making sure that they're on the winning one. Thank you," he interjected when the secretary came back with his tea. After gently resting the steaming up onto a coaster she'd had the forethought to bring, she turned and hurried back out the door. As she passed him, she briefly winked at Youngjae.

     "I bring Mr. Kang lots of tea." Recalling what she had said not too long ago, Youngjae smirked incredulously and leaned back in his seat. He hadn't even noticed that she was there until his uncle actually addressed her, so there was no way of knowing how long she had been standing there listening to all the inner workings of the company. Finances, scandals, alliances, business deals; this secretary could know more about Nalgae than he, the possible heir to the company, did. "You have to trust your secretary more than anyone else at this company," he thought, shaking his head in disbelief at just how much power that one low-level position held.

     "Youngjae? Is everything alright?" Ji Suk asked, his tea cup hovering just in front of his lips. Snapping out of his thoughts, Youngjae quickly nodded and returned to attention. Ji Suk smiled in amusement at his nephew's overly-formal behavior and sipped at his tea, then returned to their previous discussion. "Our side is not the winning one as things stand now, and all the members are fully aware of this. A few of my friends on the board have given me their word that they will do their best to lobby for votes on our behalf, but under the contingency that we give them something to use. Without any leverage, they're going to be hard-pressed. You need to impress the board before that meeting takes place, or you might never get another chance." Sensing that Youngjae had a question, Ji Suk paused and took another sip of tea to give his nephew a chance to speak.

     "Nothing is official, though. Couldn't I change their minds after the meeting?"

     "Nothing is formal, but I assure you that within days of the meeting every relationship they've formed and every deal they've made will be solidified and very official. Perhaps you could change their minds if you offered something sweeter, but it would be an extraordinarily difficult task. The board members are loyal people, even if those loyalties don't necessarily lie with me. It would be a struggle to get them to change their allegiances once they've given their word." Youngjae nodded thoughtfully. "We don't need them to give us their word, though. We just need them to not give Bi Dul their word. I'm not asking for you to gather enough votes to win the title just yet. All I need you to do is keep enough doubt in the members' minds that they won't readily give their vote to Bi Dul. Frankly, I would be happy if everyone left the get-together neutrally divided between both sides. We don't have to win, we just have to keep him from winning."

     "Mr. Kang, sir?" The secretary's voice crackled over the intercom, unexpectedly breaking the tension that had gradually been building. A little put out that the atmosphere he had been working so hard to create was shattered, Ji Suk leaned over and pressed down on the intercom button.

     "Yes?"

     "The magazine called back and is wondering about the interview you requested for Ms. Kang. They need a time and a date, as well as a location for it to take place. Do you have any preferences?"

     Interview? Youngjae vaguely remembered his uncle mentioning something about having scheduled an interview for Hei-Ryung, but he had been under the impression that it was a little more set in stone than this. Glancing over at his uncle, he noticed that the man didn't seem very concerned about coming up with the requested information.

     "Just go along with whatever is most convenient for them. Ms. Kang does nothing but sit around her apartment all day and brood, so I can't imagine that anything we schedule for her will be a disruption she can't afford to handle," Ji Suk responded aloofly. Inhaling sharply at the little regard his uncle held for Hei-Ryung, Youngjae tried his best to keep how disgruntled he was off his face. Ji Suk remained unaware of his nephew's annoyance and fluidly transitioned back into what he had been about to say before they were interrupted. The atmosphere he had so painstakingly planned out was gone, though, so he had to adjust his delivery of the proposal he had for Youngjae.

     "I hadn't meant to introduce the interview quite like that, but life is full of unexpected things. As Ms. Nan-" this was the first time Youngjae had heard his uncle refer to her by name, and it took him by surprise a little- "said, Ms. Cha is scheduled for an interview. I imagine that it will be sometime next week, since the magazine seemed very interested in making this a part of their next publication. However, if Ms. Cha puts on an encore performance of her demonstration at the book signing, I imagine they won't be nearly as eager to help her make a second debut into the public eye." Rubbing his temples, Ji Suk regretted having brought up the signing event. He was still hearing from Kyoto about receiving compensation for the expenses they had agreed to because of the expectation that it would be worth it in the end. Their plan to spend a little extra and make it up with profit later failed, however. Very few of Ms. Kang Kae Yeon's books sold due to the catastrophic conclusion. Now, their manager had been pestering the office with threats of pursuing legal action- empty threats, as Ji Suk very well knew, but that didn't make them any less of a nuisance.

     "In order to avoid any further headaches, and to make sure you are able to show some sort of progress with her, I've decided that we need to take things a step further with Ms. Cha." Considering how his uncle had been talking about Hei-Ryung earlier, Youngjae was certain that he was not going to like what was coming next. "Ms. Nan should have the specifics arranged by the time you're ready to leave, and I've already requested that she give them to you. Although Ms. Lee will provide assistance, I would like for you to take charge of informing Ms. Cha of the interview and ensuring that she make's a positive appearance. Merely telling her how important it is for her to succeed has proved unsuccessful in the past, so I have decided that, in order to ensure things run smoothly, you will inform her that a quarter of Ms. Lee's current earnings will be permanently cut if the interview is anything but perfect. I think that sounds serious enough, don't you agree?"

     Youngjae's mouth fell open in disbelief. "Is that even legal?"

     "No, but considering that Ms. Cha doesn't associate herself much with the real world I'm assuming that she does not know that. Technically speaking, we cannot diminish Ms. Lee's pay without a legitimate reason. Ms. Cha, as far as I know, does not understand that technicality, though, and will take it as a very real threat," Ji Suk explained. Calmly sipping his tea with his pinky unconciously extended, Ji Suk showed no signs of being fazed about deceiving Hei-Ryung.

     Shaking his head, Youngjae stood to leave. "I'm not going to lie to Ms. Cha about something like that. Do you have any idea how much that would hurt her? She would never forgive herself if she thought that she had hurt Ms. Lee!"

     "Which is why she will go to the interview and peacefully answer the questions asked her instead of acting up like a child. I am out of ideas on how to force Ms. Cha to grow up and realize that she isn't living in some fantasy world where she can do whatever she feels like, so if threatening the people she cares about is the only option left then we must exercise it," he didn't raise his voice, but Ji Suk was obviously frustrated. Setting down the tea cup, Ji Suk gestured for Youngjae to return to his seat. Begrudgingly, Youngjae complied, though he remained sitting stiffly at the edge of his seat, prepared to leave at a moment's notice. Exhaling slowly, Ji Suk straightened his back as well and leveled his gaze at his nephew. "If we don't do something soon to show that you are able to make an improvement to this company, then we're going to lose the chance. The majority of the board is already convinced that you and Ms. Cha are the two stooges of this company and are intent of making a mockery of it, and letting Ms. Cha throw another temper tantrum is only going to deepen that belief. We need to put this girl on a leash and make sure she doesn't do anything to detriment your image any further!"

     Youngjae idly wondered how much of the conversation Ms. Nan was listening to from her desk, because he was certain that his uncle was now loud enough to be heard even though his monstrous office doors. Ji Suk, too, had taken notice of his temper getting the best of him, and self-consciously sat down- as he became heated, he had also gained elevation. Both men remained silent for a long moment, digesting what had been said and contemplating what still needed to be addressed.

     Ji Suk was the first to break the silence with a quiet sigh. Then Youngjae spoke: "I'm not going to manipulate Ms. Cha and put her on a "leash", as you so eloquently stated. She is just as human as you or I, and deserves the same respect. She is not a means to an end; she is a person."

     "Then make me the villain. Tell her that all of this is my idea, or even blame the board. Tell her that they're tired of being made to look like fools because they are allowing an assistant editor to waste their time with an author who can't even say her own name. Tell her whatever will make you feel better about threatening her, but go through with it. Ms. Cha is a means to an end. For the greater good, we must ignore her extremely sensitive feelings and use her. I don't like it any better than you, but I've been a business man longer and am used to the bitter taste these sort of dealings can leave. We must do whatever we can to get you through that door and into my chair," as he finished speaking Ji Suk took another sip of his tea, then held the cup in front of his face for a moment to inhale the calming scent of the brewed caermellia sinesis leaves.

     When he had finished collecting his thoughts, Ji Suk set the cup down and geared up to conclude his argument. "In the end, this will all be for the best. Not just for you and I, but for Ms. Cha as well. She cannot live like this; nobody can live like she is without losing their minds, or at least losing everything else. If she doesn't change, she will lose her job, her home, and everyone she cares about. And yes, it's a difficult change to make, and the process may be painful for her, but in the end it will have been for the best. Perhaps she won't be thanking you now, but when she's able to leave her apartment without an and live her life without someone coddling her, she will be more than grateful for what we've done. So please trust me when I say that this is the course of action we must follow," his tone turned pleading as he folded his hands on the desk and leaned towards Youngjae, hoping that his nephew would agree to follow through with the plan.

     And, as much as Youngjae hated to admit it, he had little reason to do otherwise. His uncle had a point. Hei-Ryung was unable to function at some of the most basic of levels, and it was a real problem. Most people thought that she was crazy and refused to have anything to do with her because of the difficulties she tended to inflict on others, whether intentional or not. Even she wasn't okay with the way she was living, considering she broke down sobbing every time her issues got the best of her or she thought too much about them. She wanted to change, he had seen it when they were out walking, but she was too scared to make that change on her own. And he did need to show that he was capable of running a business and managing the employees... "I'll visit her in a few days and tell her about the interview. Ms. Nan has the information, right?"

Author's Note

I UPDATED! *throws confetti* After seven long months, I've finally updated! My most profuse and heart-felt apologies for selfishly keeping everyone waiting for so long, it was really irresponsible of me. However, I have the next four chapters planned out and ready to go, so I should be able to update relatively regularly from now on. School is keeping me extremely busy, but I'm going to try and update every Saturday/Sunday from now on (today was an exception, since it's winter break- I meant to take advantage of the break more and get a ton of writing done, but I got sick and spent most of it sleeping *pouts*) I'll try and write/update chapter 15 tomorrow, but after that I have to return to school. (Which really stinks, because I swear I have never been as excited for a chapter as I am for chapter 16!)

Once again, I'd like to apologize for being such a lazy author this whole time, and I hope that all my wonderful subscribers that have stuck with me throughout such a long dry spell will continue reading. I'm very sorry! Especially since this isn't really all that great of a chapter. This and chapter 15 are more for laying the foundation for chapters 16/17, so they unfortunately won't be very interesting. I'll try and keep 15 short, since there isn't really all that information to cover, hehe