Present

I thought it’d be a dream come true but that’s not how it turned out. Sure the deal sounded good at first; I just had to fly to Seoul and meet the son of the CEO of my father’s biggest rival, then in return I get to meet my favourite band and live independently anywhere I like for a year (which my dad will pay for). Seems great right? Well it was. At first.

 

May 22^nd

“Yoona!” a voice shouts, tugging me away from the peacefulness of my dreams and into consciousness.

“Oh my gosh, what do you want?” I yell, face buried in my pillow.

“Dad wants to see you in his office, apparently he has a present for you,” I recognise the voice now, it’s my older brother Junmyeon. “Maybe he’s finally giving in and letting you go to Japan or the US or wherever it was you wanted to go?”

I sit up and look at him curiously. His eyes show no signs of disloyalty and his smile is sincere like always. That’s the thing about my brother; he’s never given me any reason to hate him. Even when Mum died he stayed strong and helped out with everything he could. Some might say he’s a role model, personally I just find him annoying. After all, no one is perfect. You just have to find their flaws.

I shrug, “Who knows? Wait. Are you sure he hasn’t told you anything?”

His eyebrows pull together as he momentarily thinks, forming a crease between them to appear. “Now that you mention it he did say something about a trip. I think…” His words trail off as he walks out of my room, making sure to close the door behind him. “Oh and get ready quickly, he looked impatient!” I hear him call from outside the door before his footsteps take the place of his words and eventually there’s silence.

 

Present

Now that I think about it his words make sense. There was nothing behind Junmyeon’s words to suggest the trip was to anywhere specific or that it even involved me. But that didn’t stop me from jumping to conclusions.

 

May 22^nd

I run down the stairs, taking them two at a time, too excited to care about being careful. As I reached the bottom I broke into a full-out sprint until finally the door to my father’s office came into view. I burst through the door, grinning broadly as I walked over to the seat opposite my father at his desk.

“Ah Yoona, I seen your brother gave you the message,” he says, gesturing to the corner where Junmyeon sits quietly.

Noticing our father’s actions he offers a small smile and a wave before walking over to sit next to me.

“I didn’t know he wanted to speak to you too,” I say puzzled.

Junmyeon opens his mouth to speak but my dad raises his hand to cut him off. “Actually I called him in here after he left your room so he had no idea. I need him to be here though because I require his assistance with something.”

“Oh… Okay…” I mumble fidgeting with one of the desk ornaments.

“Anyway, back to the matter at hand! As you know you recently turned eighteen years old and you’re legally an adult.” He pauses momentarily waiting for me to give him a sign to continue, which I do. “So after some thought I’ve decided to rethink my stance on allowing you to live abroad on your own-“

“Really? You’re not kidding? Yay!” I smile widely at him and begin to thank him before being stopped yet by his raised hand.

“You didn’t let me finish. You can but I have a condition that you have to meet beforehand.”

“Which is…?”

“Dinner.”

“With who? And where?”

“The son of the CEO of Park Industries.”

“But why? You hate the Park family! And wait a moment… Isn’t their company in Seoul?”

“That’s why Junmyeon is here. If you agree, he’ll you.”

“So let me get this straight. I do this and I get to live wherever I want on my own for a year? And all I have to do is take Mr Park’s bratty son out to dinner?” I pause long enough for him to confirm what I had just said with a nod, “Deal.”

My father claps his hands together, clearly satisfied with how smoothly the agreement went, “Great. Then you better start packing immediately, your flight is tomorrow evening at 6:15pm. Don’t be late.”

“Tomorrow?” I exclaim incredulously, “Why tomorrow?”

“It’s the date the Parks and I agreed on while we were discussing it last month.”

“Last month?” I shout.

“Keep your voice down. And is there a problem with tomorrow? I know it’s short notice but it’s necessary. Junmyeon, can you also help your sister pack?”

“Yeah, okay! And don’t worry sis, you’ll love Seoul!” he reassures me pearly white teeth gleaming as his lips pull up into a smile. “Just you wait!”