Chapter 2
A Pyrrhic VictoryThe fancy French diner had opened recently in Seoul. In addition to charging obscene prices, the place prided itself on selectivity and privacy, with the result that the rich and famous had quickly descended upon it like a hungry pack of vultures.
Jinki sat at one of the corner tables hidden from plain view by an oriental partition. Across from him sat Jonghyun. While elegantly slicing into his steak, Jonghyun continued his idle chatter from their car ride to the restaurant while Jinki listened on in silence, uncomfortably toying with his fork.
“LA is really fun! The weather is much better than in Korea.
“I met lots of celebs when I was there. A couple of them even sing under my label now. Do you follow these artists?
“I mean, I was kind of sad that I couldn’t become a singer myself, but what can you do right? People are racist. So I changed my strategy, and now I’m pretty successful!”
Jinki nodded along and hummed yes’s and no’s with an awkward smile. He wanted to leave. Every cell in his body strained to run away, and yet he couldn’t. Just like he couldn’t bring himself to bolt out of the car, even though he could barely look at Jonghyun. In a weird way, it felt like he was paying his penance. Jonghyun had sought him out after all these years and had miraculously found him, and now they were bound by an insane inheritance scheme. It must be God’s way of telling Jinki that he had to endure it all, so Jinki sat quietly and listened, even though his body remained tense, ready for flight.
In a daze, Jinki took inJonghyun’s face and mannerisms and voice with an air of wonder. It was as if Jonghyun hadn’t changed at all. Or rather, it was as if he had returned to his former self. He was different in those last weeks they were together—desperate, pleading, gloomy. But before then, he had been the same friendly, chatty person that he was now, always encircled by a group of laid-back friends, never a moment of awkward silence.
***
“Nice to meet you, I’m Kim Jonghyun, a junior.”
Jinki, who had just awakened from his faint, felt mildly disoriented. He didn’t know how to respond to the boy with the explosive blonde hair.
“You ran into me this morning, remember? Fell off the wall and landed on me?”
“Oh my gosh! Yeah, sorry, I forgot, I just—I’m so sorry about that! I’m a little clumsy and it was my first time jumping off a wall and it was much harder than I thought it would be and—” Jinki frantically tried to explain.
“You’re cute.”
“—What?”
Jinki blinked and stared at Jonghyun. The latter stared back, taking in Jinki’s sleep ruffled hair and pink cheeks with a gentle smile.
“...Nothing. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you, Lee Jinki.”
“...Meeting me...?”
“I heard you sing last weekend at the school festival. Your solo, that is. It was breathtaking.”
“Oh! Oh, that...”
Not quite knowing how to take the abrupt compliment, Jinki stared down at his lap and twiddled his fingers, a longstanding habit.
“I’ve been thinking about it a lot.”
“Er...oh...uh...thanks, I guess.”
Jonghyun chuckled. “Jinki, is it okay if I call you that? I’d call you sunbae, but it makes us feel too distant, don’t you think?”
What Jinki wanted to respond was, “Aren’t we strangers?” But he held it back and nodded hesitantly.
“Jinki, your voice keeps playing in my head these days, so I wrote a song for you. I hope...I’d really like it if you’d sing it for me.”
Jinki stared at Jonghyun’s puppy-dog like expression blankly, and thought to himself, “Oh...ok, then. That’s not weird at all.”
***
“So what have you been up to?”
“What?”
Startled from his memories, Jinki could only blink in confusion. Jonghyun smiled apologetically.
“Sorry, it seems like I’ve been doing all the talking.” Then as an afterthought, “Also, I...sorry I sort of kidnapped you. You probably don’t want to be here—”
“—Oh no, I—”
“—But I didn’t think you’d agree to see me if I’d just asked. It’s a little stalkerish, I know, but I thought a lot about you in the past few weeks as I was planning to come back. It’s like I couldn’t help myself.” A wistful smile. “I could never help myself when it came to you, you know that.”
Jinki’s mouth felt dry. He took a sip of water as his mind frantically searched for words, any words, that he could say in response.
“Sorry, that was a little too revealing. I’m a mess. You can leave, if you want; sorry I—”
“I became a nurse.”
“What?”
“I went to nursing school after you left. Well, I mean, I did random things for a bit, because my test scores were too low for a university. But one of my odd jobs was preparing food at a nursing home, and I liked talking to the old people, so I decided to become a geriatric nurse, and—why are you smiling?”
“Haha, sorry, I’m not judging. It’s just that I suddenly remembered that...” Jonghyun paused thoughtfully, “No, nevermind.”
Jinki eyed the smiling Jonghyun suspiciously.
“Wait, what?”
“...Ok, but you can’t get mad if I tell you.”
Jinki nodded hesitantly.
“I...uh...I sometimes used to have fantasies about you. In like, a skimpy nurse outfit. And I’d corner you, and you’d be kind of shy, but that just more, so I’d push you against the wall and pry open your le—”
“Yeah ok. I got it.”
“Just sayin’.”
Jonghyun smirked at Jinki’s flushed face. When Jinki finally dared to peer up at him, he sent an obnoxious wink. Jinki laughed, forgetting his embarrassment a little.
“Finally.”
“What?”
“You smiled.”
“Oh.” The smile fades. “Sorry, I’m not upset at you or anything. I just never thought I’d see you again. It felt like it would be for forever, when we parted.”
“Yeah. Yeah it did. That felt like the worst day of my life,” said Jonghyun, smile bitter. “Although...you seemed to have been okay?”
Jinki didn’t want to admit that he’d gone home and cried for a long time. He didn’t want to admit that he’d moped around for weeks, barely able to stomach food. And he definitely didn’t want to admit that he thought about dying sometimes, so he just shrugged.
“It was a long time ago.”
“Yeah.”
After a few moments of silence, Jinki felt awkward enough that he blurted out, “I never knew your family was so rich.”
“Hmm. Yeah, I guess I never told anyone.”
“Oh.”
Jinki scraped his fork against the bottom of his porcelain plate as he thought about what to say next. He stopped himself, when realized the sounds were less than classy.
“I...I’m surprised your father let you go to our high school. It wasn’t really...famous or anything. So I never even suspected...”
“Yeah, but that was when I really wanted to be a musician, and our school had great faculty in the music department. I guess my dad figured I was still young, so we sort of struck a deal where I’d try to make it on my own, and if I failed, I’d go down the path he set for me. Fancy business school, and all that. But I guess in the end, I got my way. Or maybe he got his, since I turned out to be a businessman after all.”
Jonghyun let out a self-deprecating smile, and Jinki wasn’t quite sure what to say.
“Say, if I had told you back then that I was secretly rich, would that have changed your decision? Would you have gone with me?”
Jinki’s heart constricted. What a heartbreaking question he asked.
“Who knows. We were so young,” Jinki replied, voice quiet, flat.
“...Sorry. I didn’t mean to sound so bitter. It’s not a big deal anymore.”
“Yeah...”
“And besides, you’re rich now too, I guess.” A sardonic smile.
Jinki opened his mouth to retort something, but nothing came out. Instead, he felt a deep sense of shame descend upon himself, as if he had done something very wrong. And actually, he knew he had; maybe the time had come to atone for it.
“Sorry, that came out wrong too. I’m happy for you, is all. It must be fate that you ended up caring for Dad. And of course he’d want to leave everything to you—who can resist the Lee Jinki charm?”
And with that, Jonghyun returned to his easy going chatter about this and that. He asked about Jinki’s nursing experience, about how Jinki ended up working with his father, and about everything in between.
But he never once returned to the topic of the will or their past. And Jinki was perfectly fine with that.
***
By the time they finished lunch, the sun had disappeared behind the clouds and a chilly breeze had picked up. Jinki shivered a little as he exited the warm, French restaurant.
Jonghyun looked at him apologetically. “Sorry Jinki, I really should give you a ride home since I pretty much kidnapped you. But the board of directors say it’s urgent to have this meeting, so I’d better go.”
“No, it’s fine. The subway’s pretty close.” Jinki rubbed his hands together and puffed some hot air into them. “Is...is the company okay? I imagine things might be a little hectic right now.”
Jonghyun shrugged nonchalantly. “Well, nothing’s really changed in terms of management, so the company’s still running. But I guess a lot of things are uncertain because of, well...”
“Because I have the stocks.”
“Because my dad used to make all the major decisions, so people aren’t sure if I’d be as good or if the stock value’s going to drop like crazy. Other companies are thinking of bidding to takeover.”
“But it would help if you had all the shares?”
Jonghyun smiled at Jinki’s worried face. He noticed another shiver run through the older man’s body, so he unwrapped his scarf and threw it over Jinki’s neck, pulling the other closer in the process.
“Listen, I’m really glad dad left you everything. It’s like we’re bound together now, you know? And I really missed you.”
Jinki’s cheeks invariably reddened again, bringing out a chuckle from Jonghyun.
“It’s nice to know.”
“What?”
“That I can still make you blush.”
“...You should go now.”
Face redder than ever, Jinki grabbed onto the scarf and turned to quickly walk away, quietly disappearing into the metropolitan throng of people.
Behind him, he could hear Jonghyun yelling, “I really did miss you!”
***
Jonghyun picked up the incoming call as he slipped back into his car.
“Did you get him to sign the contract? The press is going to be all over this if he doesn’t sell you the stocks. You know LG’s going to take advantage of any negative press coverage and make an offer.”
Jonghyun contemplated his answer for a moment as he stared at the window. He thought about how much Seoul had changed as the city landscape whizzed by.
“Don’t worry. He’ll hand them over.”
How do you know for sure?
“He’ll hand them over,” Jonghyun repeated, voice firm. “And he won’t ask for a penny.”
The large driver looked at Jonghyun from the rearview window after he hung up the phone.
“You’re sure this Lee Jinki’s that easy to manipulate?”
Jonghyun shrugged as he began leafing through corporate files.
“Sure. Now he knows I’m rich. Why wouldn’t he fall for it?”
***
“Dude, hyung, you’re rich now!”
In their small apartment, sitting across the table from Taemin and slurping up kimchi stew, Jinki finally felt relaxed.
“To think you pretty much own a company now! That’s amazing! We can hire our own cooks, and I’ll never have to eat ramen-flavored kimchi stew again!”
Jinki rolled his eyes. “Yeah I’m rich now. I didn’t say I’d share it with you, brat.”
Taemin pouted. “That would be heartless. I’ve stuck by you all these years man. You’ve gotta give me a little something.”
“Okay, I’ll set aside a little money for your wedding with your little girlfriend. What’s her name, Naeun?”
“Hyung!” Taemin blushed furiously. “How’d you even know!”
“Che. Saw you guys holding hands from the balcony.”
“Dammit.”
Jinki snickered as he watched Taemin frown. “It’s okay. She’s pretty.”
“Right? Isn’t she!”
“Haha, yes.” A pause. “And now for the bad news.”
“Wait what? What bad news?”
“I’m not taking the money.”
“Ha?”
“I’m not taking it. I haven’t got any use for it.”
“You’re kidding me. How do you not have use for money? You’re pretty much living paycheck to paycheck!”
“It’s just...I wouldn’t feel right. It’s Jonghyun’s. He should be the one taking over the company, and I shouldn’t mess it up for him.”
“Jonghyun? Who the —sorry—who the hell is that?”
“Mr. Kim’s son.”
“Kim Jonghyun? Why would you care—oh wait, that name sounds really familiar. Wait, Kim Jonghyun? Like...you aren’t talking about...your ex, that Kim Jonghyun, right?”
At Taemin’s incredulous stare, Jinki hunched over his bowl of stew and adamantly avoided the younger’s gaze.
“Maybe.”
“Oh my god. I should’ve recognized him! But it’s been so long and I was so young back when you guys broke up and...he’s back in Korea, isn’t he? It was all over the news! Did you see him?”
“...Maybe...”
“! Did he threaten you?”
“What, no!”
“Then why are you handing the money over?” Taemin screeched.
“I...”
“Don’t tell me it’s because you feel bad about dumping him a million years ago so it doesn’t feel right to take his dad’s money.”
“I...no...well, okay, a little bit...”
“Oh my god. Don’t tell me you still have feelings for him!”
If anything, Jinki seemed to shrivel into himself, his face desperately trying to take cover beneath the thick scarf he insisted on wearing, even inside.
“...Dude, I’ve never seen that scarf before. Is that his scarf?”
“...Maybe...”
“. . .”
“Taemin!”
“Hyung!”
“Look, it doesn’t matter, okay?” Jinki’s voice was quiet now, a little pensive, a little sad. “The scarf just smells familiar, that’s all. It made me remember some things.”
“Things that you spent so long trying to forget!” Taemin protested.
“Anyway, I won’t see him again. It’s over. I was stupid, and I let him walk away—”
“—But that was because your parents talked you out of it—”
“—It doesn’t matter. I wasn’t strong enough,” said Jinki, face expressionless. “You know, we always thought that if we just loved each other enough, we’d be together forever. And you know part of the reason he left for the states was because his dad didn’t want him involved with me either, although I didn’t know his dad at the time. He wanted to protect us, so he wanted to whisk me away. He’s brave like that.”
“Hyung...” Taemin’s voice trailed off, not sure what to say.
“And he’ll always be too good for me, because I’m a little coward who’s scared the world will judge the hell out of me and who can’t even stand up to a little pressure from my parents. The least I could do is give him back his money, which he lost because of me in the first place, so he doesn’t have a hard time with the business.”
“Hyung,” Taemin whispered, voice a little choked up. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“Maybe not,” replied Jinki with a rueful smile. “But I’d like to do something for him, you know? For once, for the last time, I’d like to make up for things a little bit. And then maybe we could both move on with our lives.”
***
From: [email protected]
Sent: Fri, Nov. 15, 2013 10:52 PM
Subject: THE INHERITANCE
Dear Mr. Choi,
I would like to give all my shares and the mansion and everything else from the will to Kim Jonghyun. Please do whatever is necessary to make that happen.
Thanks so much!
Lee Jinki
From: [email protected]
Sent: Fri, Nov. 15 2013 10:53 PM
Subject: re: THE INHERITANCE
Dear Mr. Lee Jinki,
You are making a huge decision with great impact. I caution you to consider the ramifications more thoroughly. I would also insist that we discuss this in person, as e-mail can be highly misleading. I personally do not believe this is a wise decision; as I stated previously, I believe Kim Jonghyun will be willing to pay an adequate amount for your shares rather than go to court. Please reply with times you are available. I can meet you at my office tomorrow, Saturday the 16th, from 7:30 am until 10:30 am. I am afraid I have filled the rest of my weekend schedule with other client meetings.
Regards,
Choi Minho
From: [email protected]
Sent: Fri, Nov. 15, 2013 11:30 PM
Subject: re: THE INHERITANCE
That’s too early for a Saturday. I will be free Monday, all day. But preferably not too early.
From: [email protected]
Sent: Fri, Nov. 15 2013 11:31 PM
Subject: re: THE INHERITANCE
Dear Mr. Lee Jinki,
I will schedule you in for Monday, Nov. 18th at 1:00pm. Please confirm you will be available.
Regards,
Choi Minho
From: [email protected]
Sent: Fri, Nov. 15, 2013 12:13 AM
Subject: re: THE INHERITANCE
Yes. You should sleep, it’s very late. Good night! =)
***
In a tall corporate building somewhere in downtown Seoul, Choi Minho sat at his desk in his large office and rolled his eyes.
“Very late, my ,” he muttered.
But as he continued to stare at the smiley face disdainfully, a yawn sprung up on him and his eyelids began to feel heavy. Sighing, he exited from the email and began packing his things.
It’d be nice, he thought, to sleep in on a Saturday, free from bizarre, irrational clients who wanted to give away billions of dollars for free.
***
At 1:30 am, Jinki found himself tossing and turning beneath the covers. It had been an impossibly long day, and he knew that part of the reason he scheduled their meeting for Monday was that he wanted the weekend to himself to think things over, undistracted.
In the quiet, dark room, his cell phone suddenly buzzed and lit a beacon of light. Squinting, Jinki picked it up from his night stand and stared at the text from the unrecognized number.
Jinki, it’s Jonghyun. Are you free Sunday? I don’t have meetings, so I thought we could catch up some more. Would really like to see you again!
Jinki studied the text for another good ten minutes with furrowed brows before finally heaving a sigh and tossing the phone aside.
He’ll deal with it tomorrow.
***TBC***
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