The elevator doors closed once all the passengers had shuffled their way in, leaving Youngjae squished into a corner. Arching his back to try and prevent the wrap-around railing from digging into the small of his back, Youngjae stared at the slowly ascending numbers and urged them to move more quickly. At floor three, two business-suit clad employees stepped off and- with a collective sigh- the remaining passengers shifted further apart from one another to create some breathing room. No longer needing to contort himself, Youngjae straightened his back out and attempted to discreetly use the elevator's reflective doors to adjust his suit.

     "Black blazer, black shirt, black pants, black shoes- oh, maroon socks, very nice!" Grimacing at the sarcastic running commentary Daehyun had given while Youngjae was getting dressed in the morning, Youngjae carefully smoothed the lapels of his blazer. You would think that after he had graciously allowed Daehyun to spend the night throwing up in his hotel room toilet bowl and sprawling out on the bed- leaving Youngjae to sleep in an arm chair- the young man would be a little more grateful. But no, he had simply thrown a jacket- one of Youngjae's- over his shoulder and, still half-asleep, staggered out the door. They had run into one another again at the hotel's lobby, where Daehyun was attempting to convince the desk attendant to call him a taxi; naturally, it had been Youngjae that ended up both calling and paying for the vehicle.

     It had been too long since Youngjae had last seen Daehyun. In the space of a few months, he had completely forgotten just how insufferable his best friend could be, and it had led to Youngjae letting his guard down. From now on, he would have to put into place enough precautions to prevent his life from being tugged around by Daehyun's whims. Hopefully, that would also help keep Daehyun on a short enough leash that he wouldn't be running around causing trouble, because Youngjae just knew that he was the one Daehyun would call when things went wrong; and, against his better judgment, Youngjae would come to the rescue. It was what the two had been doing since they first met in middle school.

     Tugging on his blazer to straighten it one last time, Youngjae turned a little to the side to make sure everything looked right. Although it had been a last minute outfit put together under harrying circumstances, he had managed to make it look at least somewhat decent. The doors opened to his uncle's floor, and Youngjae stepped off with a slight nod to the other passengers that would begin a downward journey.

     "He's expecting you, so just go in." Either Ms. Nan was really a Mr. Nan that had just hit puberty, or the voice that greeted Youngjae did not belong to the secretary. Turning to look at the desk, he was surprised to see that it was Himchan, rather than his uncle's secretary, who occupied it.

     "What on Earth do you- What are you doing here, Mr. Kim?" Still in Daehyun-mode, Youngjae had to quickly correct his tone and word choice before he accidentally offended Himchan. The switch was easily picked up by Himchan, but he chose to forgo questioning who had riled up the usually pleasant Youngjae so much. "Is Ms. Nan not feeling well today?" Youngjae continued making small-talk, not sure if he should stay here and talk with Himchan or just head straight into his uncle's office- he didn't want to offend either man.

     Himchan shrugged his shoulders and adjusted the lens-free pair of glasses he wore. He had overheard Seulki talking with Ms. Baek about their personal tastes in men, and the subject of spectacles had come up. Although it had been Ms. Baek who completely melted at the thought of a bespectacled gentleman- leading to Himchan whipping off the glasses whenever in her presence for fear of drawing unwanted attention- his assistant editor had, reluctantly, also shown interest in a man in glasses. She had also mentioned the she had a thing for bald men with nose piercings, but by the way she so deliberately looked at the crack in Himchan's office door he was using to spy on their conversation, he was almost certain she had only said so because she knew he was eavesdropping.

     "Mr. Kim?" Blinking, Himchan refocused on Youngjae- who was still standing hesitantly in the middle of the lobby- and smiled sheepishly.

     "Sorry, just got a little lost in thought," Himchan apologized, reaching over and pressing the intercom call button. Although he had assured Youngjae that nobody was in with Mr. Kang at the moment, it would apparently take a statement directly from the man himself to get the boy to move. "Youngjae- right sorry- Mr. Yoo is here to see you... sir." It was quite the transition, going from head-honcho of the Editorial department to subservient secretary, and Himchan wasn't exactly making it a smooth one.

     "Let him in," Mr. Kang responded from the other side, and with that Youngjae began making a bee-line for his uncle's office.

     Behind him, the elevator doors opened once again and a woman stepped into the lobby- Youngjae could tell by the click of her heels on the floor. Glancing over his shoulder to see if it was Ms. Nan, he was once again surprised by the unexpected visitor to this usually lifeless floor- Ms. Lee. Himchan, too, was startled by Seulki's sudden appearance, and judging by the look on his face he was apparently trying to come up with a convincing excuse for why he was playing secretary instead of working.

     "Mr. Kim," she began, and Youngjae practically threw the door to his uncle's office open, trying to get as far away from what was sure to be an ugly scene, "what exactly do you think you are doing here?"

     "Ms. Nan and I were talking this morning, and she mentioned needing someone to fill in for her. I told here I wasn't doing anything, and... and I was very wrong to do so." His attempts to come up with an excuse ruined, Himchan sullenly walked around the secretarial desk and faced Seulki- he was the taller of the two physically, but as Youngjae watched he felt as though Seulki dwarfed Himchan. How she, an assistant editor, had managed to wrap him, the senior editor, around her finger was beyond Youngjae, but he didn't have the guts to question it. Whatever relationship the two had, Youngjae did not want to get in between them.

     Seulki sighed and rested her hands on her hips. "If you didn't want to work on the manuscript then you should have just told me. I'd have been happy to make some time to go over it myself."

     "When? After hours? I don't want you having to stay here any longer than you need to, Seulki." Although he had been all goofy smiles earlier, Himchan had arrived at one of his rare moments of seriousness. "You already take one twice as much work as anyone else," he continued, watching as Seulki's face slowly changed from an annoyed expression to a pleased one. Sometimes, it really paid to know your employees well.

     "I don't have to take on extra work for me to be doing twice as much as anyone else, Mr. Kim, when there are people in our department who aren't doing much of anything," Seulki reminded him, determined not to cave entirely. Returning to his usual self, Himchan grinned guiltily. "And why are you wearing those glasses? They don't suit you, and I know you don't have a prescription." The tone of her voice expressed quite clearly that Seulki very well knew why Himchan was wearing glasses- or that she at least had a pretty good suspicion- but was feigning ignorance. Better to pretend she had no idea than to encourage Himchan's insufferable behavior. After pulling off the leopard-print frames- why he had thought that kind of design would be a good idea was beyond Seulki- she turned to head back into the elevator, but was stopped when Himchan suddenly looped an arm around hers.

     "What do you-"

     "I can't see without my glasses!" Himchan protested, waving his free arm in front of him as though he couldn't see where he was going. "You're going to have to lead me back downstairs, now," he insisted, refusing to let go of Seulki's arm despite the infuriated look she was giving him.

     "I don't care how farsighted you are-"

     "Nearsighted, actually," he corrected, smirking a little.

     "I don't care! Just let go of my arm before Mr. Kang or Youngjae-" when Seulki turned to see if he was still there, Youngjae turned his back on the pair and pretended as though he was just about to head inside and hadn't seen a thing- "sees and gets us both fired!" Although she had come upstairs with the intent of dragging Himchan back to his office, Seulki was now the one being pulled along by Himchan, who still had his arm linked together with hers at their elbows. "Mr. Kim-"

     "Why are you calling me that? You never call me Mr. Kim."

     "Because Youngjae is-"

     Youngjae never found out what he was, because Seulki's voice was muted when the office door shut. He could still faintly hear the pair arguing, but the heavy wood smothered the words themselves. Standing to greet his nephew, Ji Suk tried to similarly dampen the smile on his face. He didn't know much about Mr. Kim, but the few times he had been given the pleasure of meeting with the company's senior editor, he had never failed to be amused. The man could be childish at times, but there was a reason he was able to single-handedly run one of the company's busiest and most demanding departments.

     After shaking Youngjae's hand and exchanging pleasantries, Ji Suk took his seat and gestured for Youngjae to make himself comfortable as well. "Unless there is anything you'd like to discuss, I think we should get right into the financial statements for this month," although there were still two more days left in March, Ji Suk wanted to explain how the company's finances worked before handing the paperwork over for good.

     "I was wondering where Ms. Nan was today. Is she feeling alright?"

     Clearing his throat, Ji Suk suddenly became very busy with shuffling through the stack of papers on his desk. "Ms. Nan? There was something that needed to be taken care of outside the company today, so I asked if she would be kind enough to handle it for me."

     "Her name is Yoo Chohee." That, as well as the name of the town she supposedly lived in, had been all the information Ji Suk had given to Ms. Nan before sending her out to track down Youngjae's mother. He hadn't given her an age, address, profession, or place of work- he hadn't even told her what the woman looked like, claiming that his sister-in-law had most likely changed too much over the past twenty years for his description to be useful. "I don't want you to approach her or tell her who you work for. I just want to make sure that she's alright." His instructions, too, had been frustratingly vague.

     Fortunately, Ms. Nan was not some bimbo that had been forced to work as a tea-serving secretary because she was unqualified for anything else. She had a brain, just like most of the employees at the company, and after doing some digging she had been able to successfully track down a Yoo Chohee. Whether or not she was the Yoo Chohee her employer was so eager to find would be determined as soon as she was able to press through the crowded marketplace. Although most people had responded ambiguously with things like "I think I've heard that name before" or "I believe she lives around here", the closer Ms. Nan had gotten to the local fish market, the more solid answers she was given. Eventually, he had been told exactly which stall the woman named Yoo Chohee owned, and even what time would be the best to go looking for her.

     If this was the best time, then she didn't want to be around when the worst time came.

     Trying to avoid stepping on toes with her stilettos- a completely impractical shoe that she would have changed out of had Ji Suk given her a little more information on where she would be going- Ms. Nan inched her way through the crowd that was milling around the front of the market area. Fortunately, the further back she got the thinner the crowd became, until eventually Ms. Nan was able to walk comfortably. Letting out a long sigh of relief, she took a moment to adjust her hair and bag, then began scanning the hand-painted signs of each stand. When she came across one advertising fish, Ms. Nan stopped and looked around for the owner.

     It wasn't hard to find her.

     "Ten dollars."

     "Ten dollars? I can get it so much cheaper at the super market!"

     "You wouldn't go to eat at a restaurant and then complain that the food is more expensive than what you can buy at food stands on the street, so why are you complaining that my fresh fish are more expensive than the freezer-burned ones you can buy at any old super market?" The owner's voice remained calm, but she was obviously a little annoyed that the customer was attempting to argue with her. However, after a moment of bargaining over the price, she did indeed cave and let the fish be sold for eight dollars. Glancing down at the price sticker, partially covered by ice, Ms. Nan was somehow unsurprised to see that eight dollars was, in fact, the actual price. Whether the woman standing before her was indeed the Yoo Chohee that had formerly worked for a company like Nalgae or not, she certainly knew her way around business.

     That was the big question, though- was this Yoo Chohee? As more customers milled around Ms. Nan- the stand was quite popular- the secretary pulled out her cell phone and began flipping through the pages of apps she had in search of her camera. She would take a picture of the woman, being sure to be discreet so that she didn't give herself away, and send it to Mr. Kang. Perhaps she had grown older over the twenty years the two had been apart, but that shouldn't stop him from recognizing Chohee if he saw her in a picture- if it did, Ms. Nan intended to protest that this sort of task had not been in her job description and would get on the next bus back to Seoul.

     When she held up her phone to snap the picture, the possible Yoo Chohee appeared momentarily in frame before dropping to the ground. "Mrs. Yoo!" she exclaimed, accidentally letting her suspicions about the woman's identity slip as she stuffed her phone into her bag and rushed forward. A few other customers had taken noticed of the woman's sudden collapse and pressed closer to try and help the woman get back on to her feet. Ultimately, though, it was Ms. Nan and the neighboring stall's owner that helped Chohee- the more she looked at the woman, the more Ms. Nan believed that she had found Youngjae's mother- to her feet and into a small back room that had been partitioned off from the rest of the market. The entire place smelled heavily of fish, and Ms. Nan worried at the stench- coming from the crates stacked against the room's walls- would only cause Chohee to swoon once again, but the woman appeared unbothered by the smell. Waving off the helping hands that gently lowered her onto a folding chair someone had set up for her, Chohee began explaining to her neighboring vegetable stall owner why she did not need his- or anyone else's- assistance while a young woman brought over an ice pack to place on the growing goose egg on Chohee's head.

     The woman was younger than Ji Suk chronologically, but physically she looked incredibly aged. Her skin was noticeably paler than normal, and at the moment held a slight green tinge to it, as though Chohee were feeling nauseous. Someone else had noticed this as well, because a metal bucket Ms. Nan assumed was normally used for transporting fish had been placed at the woman's feet. In between gripes about how everyone was fussing about her like she was an old woman, Chohee's body would shake with a deep cough. It was obvious to anyone watching that she was not feeling well, and was much worse off then she would let on.

     "I'm alright!" She finally snapped, waving off the young woman with the ice pack and swatting at another hand that reached over to steady her. "I am fourty-six years old, not ninety! Thank you for your concern, but I am capable of taking care of-" before she could finish speaking, Chohee was suddenly overcome by coughing. Instantly, she was swarmed by the concerned people around her, some of whom were talking about taking her to the hospital.

     Taking advantage of the gathering of people who obviously knew the woman well, Ms. Nan tapped on the shoulder one of the men who had crowded into the small room, but was unable to get close enough to help take care of Chohee. "Excuse me, but her name wouldn't happen to be Yoo Chohee, would it?" It wasn't the most subtle wording she could have chosen, but under the circumstances the man was more concerned about the woman who had just fainted than the woman who was asking him questions. Vaguely, he nodded his head and hummed a positive agreement. "What happened that made her collapse like that?" She felt like a reporter for some gossip magazine, not a secretary checking up on her boss' sister-in-law.

     "She's sick, but the doctors here can't figure out what the disease is. If she had enough money to go to a hospital in Seoul, they might be able to take care of whatever is eating away at her, but..." the man gestured to the cramped storage room they were currently huddled in, not needing to put into words what the both of them could see with their eyes. Obviously, the woman was unable to afford a good doctor. "That's why her son went into the city-" though the son's name wasn't mentioned, she knew that Youngjae was an only child and thus the only one the man could be referring to- "he wants to get a good job so that he can pay for his mom's medical care. He wants to be able to pay for her to go to a hospital and get diagnosed, and to take care of her while she's getting better so that she doesn't have to support herself. He's a good kid with a big heart, but I don't know what he plans on doing without a university degree."

     "Become the CEO of one of the country's most prosperous companies," Ms. Nan thought, suddenly seeing why Youngjae had so suddenly appeared at the company after a twenty-year absence. Although he had never met his uncle before and most likely didn't even know the first thing about running a company, he had shown up on Nalgae's doorstep because he had seen where the money was.

     "I don't know whether I should distrust or admire him for that," she concluded, watching as Ji Suk slipped a heavy overcoat on. After making sure Chohee was in good hands, she had gotten on a bus to Seoul and made it back to the company just before everyone was getting ready to leave. Although Ms. Nan had tried to quickly make her way to Ji Suk's office in order to deliver her report on Chohee's condition, she had been stopped along the way by Ms. Lee, who had insisted on giving a lecture about taking employees away from their work. After promising to never again allow Himchan to fill in for her, Ms. Nan had been able to slip away and reach the CEO's office just as he was getting ready to leave for the day. Thankfully, things had gone well today, and he was more than happy to talk with Ms. Nan while he packed up.

     "I admit that it may seem suspect that Youngjae is only here because of the money involved in running a company of Nalgae's size, but I know my nephew-" Ms. Nan couldn't help but wonder just how true that statement was, considering how short a time Ji Suk had been in contact with Youngjae- "and I'm certain he wouldn't do anything to hurt the company. He's an honest man, and he wouldn't have come here if he didn't fully intend to run the company to the best of his ability," smiling at Ms. Nan, Ji Suk crossed over to his desk and began filling the open briefcase sitting atop it with various files. "And speaking of his ability, I would appreciate if you kept his lack of formal education between you and I," he added, turning to look meaningfully at his secretary.

     She bowed slightly. "Of course, Mr. Kang. You know I wouldn't breathe a word about it to anyone," she assured him, straightening her back. "I do have one question, though," she hesitated until Ji Suk waved her on, showing that he was willing to listen. "Although Youngjae intends to take care of his mother, it isn't certain that he will be able to accomplish his goal of becoming CEO before Mrs. Yoo's health declines even further. Knowing this, I have to ask- what do you intend to do in the mean time?"

     Ms. Nan had expected a moment of hesitation for Ji Suk as he thought about how to proceed with these delicate family relations, but his answer was quick and to the point: "Nothing." Stiffening, Ms. Nan waited for the elaboration she could tell was coming. "I can't do anything for her; not without jeopardizing Youngjae's already tentative standing with the board. She is still a very sensitive subject at the company-" Ms. Nan didn't exactly approve of the way Ji Suk was dehumanizing his sister-in-law by referring to her as nothing more than a topic of conversation- "and if I were to openly help her it could send a wrong message to the shareholders. If you recall, they managed to usurp Hyo Sung because of that woman- I won't let them do the same to Youngjae."

     "Sir, with all due respect-"

     "I did not ask for you to give me your opinion on how I handle my family relations, Ms. Nan." Snapping his briefcase shut, Ji Suk emphasized the warning in his voice. "I merely asked for you to inform me on how those relations are doing. Now, if you'll excuse me, I don't want to keep my ride waiting." Ms. Nan stood at attention as Ji Suk strode out of the room, then slowly sank into the nearest chair when the doors closed behind him. Getting involved in the politics of a wealthy family had not been in her job description, either.

Author's Note

I feel like I'm not digging deep enough into the stories content and am just kind of skipping along the surface. Going back, I've realized that I just kept looking at chapter 13 (which was SUPER long compared to my other chapters, hehe) which was why I thought I was making them too short, but I do still feel as though I'm not revealing enough details... Hopefully the next chapter will be better! ^-^

((On a happier note, the story is now at 175 pages and counting! ^-^))