[September 5th: Imperial Hotel; Tokyo, Japan 10:05 AM]

“Yunho,” sighed Nini into the phone. “Say something.”

 

Silence.

 

“Look,” she began with an exasperated sigh. “I know this is a lot to take in all at one time. And, I know you feel a little overwhelmed, but you need to say something.”

 

More silence.

 

“Come on,” she begged desperately, the worry and concern her voice becoming more and more evident with every syllable. “Talk to me.”

 

Yunho sighed deeply, and within the sound, his worry and stress lingered.

 

“I,” strained Yunho softly. “I…don’t know what to say.”

 

“Oh, Yunnie,” Nini answered, her voice full of something akin to a mix of pity and sympathy.

 

“What should I do?” he whispered.

 

“What does your heart tell you?” she breathed.

 

“I’m afraid,” he answered. “What if…what if he…?”

 

“Yunnie,” she sighed disappointedly. “Is that why you’re so hesitant to tell him?”

 

“Min will understand,” she offered. “You know he will. No matter what happened between him and them, you know he still loves them…don’t you?”

 

“Min loves you. And, he understands you better than anyone ever will,” she continued when Yunho didn’t answer. “He’s known how you’ve felt from the very beginning…and he accepted it without question. He doesn’t doubt you, your decisions, your feelings, or your choices in life anymore. He will understand why you have agreed to try.”

 

“But,” came Yunho’s strained voice once more. “What about….”

 

“Yunnie,” she interrupted sternly. “Stop.”

 

“You have to let this fear go,” she advised lovingly. “You have a chance to make things right, to fix that which was broken so long ago, don’t let your self-doubt ruin the future you’ve always wanted.”

 

“Will…will you help me?” Yunho questioned hesitantly. “When I tell him…”

 

“Yunnie,” she sighed again, her voice changing from worried and loving big sister to that of a disappointed and saddened friend. “You know I would do anything for you two…but, I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

 

“What you need to tell him, what you will have to honestly discuss…” she whispered hesitantly in a morally conflicted and nearly stifled tone of voice. “Is private.”

 

“It’s not my place to…” she added before suddenly taking an intake of breath.

 

“I can’t,” she answered again, heartbreak lacing her trembling voice. “I’m already too involved.”

 

“I won’t be able to handle it,” she sighed softly. “I’m sorry. I can’t be there for this.”

 

 

[September 5th: Imperial Hotel; Tokyo, Japan 11:59 AM]

 

“I’m sorry,” apologized Jaejoong as he peeked from under the arm across his eyes up at Nikki sitting on the edge of his bed looking at him worriedly. “I…shouldn’t have.”

 

“It’s alright, Jae,” she answered, straining a smile, as she rubbed his bare shoulder worriedly. “I understand.”

 

“Here,” she said gently, reaching out and grabbing the glass of water she had placed on his bedside table earlier in the morning, with a sigh. “Sit up and drink this.”

 

“I don’t think I can move,” replied Jaejoong, with a slight salacious smirk tugging at the corner of his lips, as the soreness and fatigue of the night before weighed heavily upon him and his mind drifted to what happened last night.

 

“Yes you can.” she encouraged, tugging on his shoulder persuasively. “Come on.”

 

Sliding his arm from his eyes, he took in Nikki’s form slowly. Dressed in one of his light pink nightshirts and white pajama bottoms, and wrapped in a fluffy white Imperial hotel robe, she smiled down at him encouragingly with a tinge of uncertainty hiding behind her kind and loving eyes that had never been there before.

 

“Come on,” she prompted again. “Jae.”

 

“Ok,” he breathed out.

 

Dropping his hands to the soft mattress beneath him, Jaejoong slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position on the bed as the warm blanket that had been nearly his only comfort slid down to his waist. As the cold air of the room hit his bare skin, and his mind registered the fact of how carelessly all of his clothes were thrown on the floor the night before, hit him, he immediately pulled the cover-up to his throat in embarrassment and glanced up at Nikki.

 

“Oh Jae,” she clicked her tongue with a humorous tone. “There’s no need for such modesty. It’s not like I’ve never seen you .”

 

“Come on, now,” she encouraged, offering up the glass of water to him. “Drink.”

 

Taking the proffered glass, he smirked almost knowingly at her before taking a sip. The water was still cool, despite the fact that it had been sitting out for several hours, and the feel of it as it cascaded down his throat felt heavenly.

 

“And,” she added as she reached in the front pocket of her robe and retrieved two small pills. “Take these. They’ll help with your hangover.”

 

“What are they?” he questioned as he reached up and watched her drop the pills into his open palm.

 

“A Nikki special,” she chuckled. “They’re from back home. Trust me, they’ll help.”

 

“How would you know?” he laughed slyly. “You never drink.”

 

“I never said never,” she smiled as she urged him onward. “Now, come on. Down the hatch.”

 

Popping the two pills into his mouth, Jaejoong took several gulps of water to help them go down as he watched Nikki look at him with a something akin to happiness flickering in her eyes.

 

“There,” she smiled as Jaejoong pulled the glass from his lips. “That wasn’t so hard now was it?

 

“No,” Jaejoong chuckled mildly as he handed the nearly empty glass back to her.

 

As she leaned over to replace the glass on the nightstand, Jaejoong reached out and lightly touched her cheek with the back of his slender fingers as he gently grabbed a strand of her noticeably damp hair lovingly.

 

“It’s still wet,” he teased. “You should really dry it before you get sick.”

 

“It’s…fine,” she answered as she straightened back up, pulling the strand gently from his light touch, and looked him with a smile. “I never blow dry my hair anyway.”

 

“Why not?” he questioned, slightly amused, as he looked at her curiously.

 

“It’s bad for you,” she answered. “It’s better to let it air dry than to burn it to death.”

 

“It stays softer that way,” she added knowingly.

 

Jaejoong inwardly smiled at her answer. He’d never thought about it, but what she said made a little sense. He blow-dries his hair all the time and it always ended up feeling like straw while hers was always so soft.

 

“Did you sleep ok?” he questioned softly, as his mind errantly flashed a memory from the night before and he tried to shake it away by clearing his throat.

 

“After, I finally fell asleep,” she answered. “Yes…”

 

“More importantly,” she added. “Did you sleep ok? You were pretty drunk last night.”

 

At her words, Jaejoong dropped his face into his hands and rubbed gently.

 

Junsu is going to kill me… thought Jaejoong worriedly.

 

Feeling his anxiety immediately, Nikki reached out and gently rubbed his slumped shoulder in reassuring circles with her thumb.

 

“Jae?” she questioned gently.

 

“I’m sorry, Noona,” he said softly. “I really ed up last night.”

 

“It’s ok,” she answered hesitantly as her heart began to feel a little heavy. “There’s no need to apologize.”

 

“But…” he stammered softly.

 

“We all have our weak moments Jae,” she dismissed softly as she glanced at the empty spot in the bed beside him “And, last night I…”

 

“Well,” she sighed. “I was yours.”

 

 

 

[September 5th: Tokyo, Japan 1:35 PM]
 

“Has there been any word?” questioned Director Choi as he looked over his desk at Secretary Kang.

 

“No, Sir,” she answered worriedly. “Mr. Kim has not contacted us since yesterday.”

 

“,” grumbled Director Choi.

 

“Would you like me to call him, Sir?” she offered hesitantly. “And…”

 

“No,” he quickly interrupted with a dismissive wave. “Lady N’s instructions were very clear. It’s his choice. He has to come to us willingly, uninfluenced. We are not to interfere.”

 

“Do you really think he will come tonight,” she questioned softly. “After what happened yesterday?”

 

“God…I hope so,” he sighed as he reached up and rubbed his throbbing temple.

 

 

[September 5th: Imperial Hotel; Tokyo, Japan 3:48 PM]
 

 

“You’re really going to go?” questioned Nikki as she reached down to clear the plates from the table and looked up at Jaejoong sitting across from her.

 

“I gave them my word,” sighed Jaejoong softly.

 

“But, still…” she sighed. “Jae, look if you really don’t want to do this, you know you don’t have to.”

 

“After everything that happened to you yesterday,” she said softly as she glanced down at her hands and nibbled her bottom lip. “I don’t know if you should go.”

 

“I…I don’t know,” she stammered in a hushed whisper. “If I can take seeing you that way again.”

 

“I wasn’t going to,” admitted Jaejoong softly. “But after what you said last night...You’re right. I have to stop avoiding the truth about how I feel.”

 

“I have to own up to what I did,” he continued, his voice sounding far more pointedly than he intended, as he looked up at her and saw a flicker of knowing flash across her deep green eyes. “I can’t keep running from it.”

 

“And, if I blow off this opportunity,” he said hesitantly. “Simply because he may be working with Haze…that’s what I will be doing, running.”

 

“I’m proud of you Jaejoong,” replied Nikki with a smile.

 

“How come?” chuckled Jaejoong, slightly surprised by her words.

 

“Even though this hurts, and you are uncertain,” she answered gently. “You’re still going to go through with it.”

 

“I promised you I would always try my best, didn’t I?” he answered as the thought of a conversation they had several months ago popped into his mind.

 

“Yes, yes you did,” she smiled as she turned towards the kitchen with an arm full of dishes.

 

When she returned from the kitchen, Jaejoong suddenly frowned at her. He knew they were avoiding the elephant in the room, the obvious yet subtle tension between them that stemmed from his actions last night, and he hated how he suddenly felt so awkward around her.

 

“Noona,” he breathed out worried. “Are we going to talk?”

 

“We are talking,” she chuckled lightly as she reached down and grabbed her empty glass from the table.

 

“I mean,” he sighed. “About last night.”

 

“Let it go, Jaejoong,” she answered, shaking her head dismissively. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

 

“But,” he stammered hesitantly. “What we…I did…”

 

“Jae,” she said sternly, as she placed the glass on the tabletop harshly with a loud bang, and looked up at him with imploring eyes. “It’s done. Just let it go, ok?”

 

“I just don’t want this to come between us,” he sighed as he looked up at her with a surprised look. “Ruining what we have, our friendship?”

 

“It won’t, ever,” she reassured as her eyes softened. “Just forget about it and let’s move on, ok?”

 

“You want us to pretend like it never happened?” he forced out almost silently.

 

“God, yes,” she breathed out slowly.

 

 

[September 5th: Haze Media; Tokyo, Japan 7:02 PM]
 

 

“What is it?” shouted Director Choi anxiously as he glanced at the clock on his desk and then up to his office door to see Secretary Kang peek around its unforgiving wood.

 

“Director?” she flinched. She knew that today had been one of the most stressful days of his career, how worried and concerned he was about not only his own future but the future of the company, and how irritable he had been because of it, but she had to interrupt.

 

“What?” he nearly growled.

 

“Mr. Watanabe is on line three,” she said with a knowing smirk. “He says it’s urgent.”

 

“Thank you,” he grumbled before snatching up the receiver and putting it up to his ear. “What!”

 

“Director,” stammered Akio.

 

“I’ve got no time for hesitating Watanabe!” he ordered. “Spit it out!”

 

“It’s Mr. Kim, Sir.” stammered Akio nervously.

 

“What about him?” answered the Director, his heart suddenly jumping up into his throat.

 

“We’re on our way,” he replied.

 

“To where?” questioned Director Choi anxiously. “The airport?”

 

“No, Sir,” he answered, the sound of his voice changing from nervous to lightly hopeful. “To the company.”

 

“He’s coming here?” questioned Director Choi incredulously.

 

“Yes, Sir!” answered Akio happily.

 

“Thank GOD!” exasperated Director Choi. “Thank you for telling me, Watanabe. I will let her know immediately.”

 

“Thank you!” he repeated as a sense of relief washed over him. “Thank you. Thank you.”

 

“I did nothing, Sir,” replied Akio. “Thank his sister. She’s the one that convinced him.”

 

The Director couldn’t help but smile.

 

 

 

[September 5th: Haze Media Inc., Penthouse Suite; Tokyo, Japan 9:01 PM]

 

“You may go in Mr. Kim,” said Director Choi gently as he opened the doors to the Lady N’s private suite. “She’s waiting for you inside.”

 

“Thank you,” answered Jaejoong softly with a gentle nod as he stepped through the doorway and walked further into the room.

 

Scanning the softly and dimly lit palatial room, Jaejoong nervously looked for any sign of the mysterious woman known to all of the worlds as the Lady N.

 

“There’s no need to be afraid,” came a soft, gentle voice, as Jaejoong’s eyes landed on the classy silhouette of a beautiful woman dressed in a slick, full-length black dress and a lushly veiled hat standing in front of the floor to ceiling crystal clear windows that looked over the magnificent Tokyo skyline. “Come in, Jaejoong.”

 

Taking several steps farther into the room, Jaejoong eyes never left her gentle form as he tried to access as much as he could of the woman that no man had ever truly known.

 

“Please, ” she commanded softly, never turning her eyes from the breathtaking view before her, as she lifted her hand and motioned him to join her. “Come here.”

 

With a hesitant step, Jaejoong crossed the breath of the main room and joined her quietly. Standing beside her, he couldn’t help but try to glimpse a look at her face through the thinly veiled lace obscuring her eyes and softly wondered why she felt the need to hide from the world. Not acknowledging Jaejoong’s close proximity to her, the Lady N continued to stare out over the Tokyo skyline. Compelled by her silence, it wasn’t long before his eyes followed hers and he began to admire the view quietly standing beside her.

 

“You wanted to see me,” he said hesitantly, after what seemed like an endless bought of silence, as he took in more of the unbelievable view from her private suite.  

 

“Tell me Jaejoong,” she questioned softly as she motioned with her delicate hand towards the skyline before them. “What do you see?”

 

“Buildings, lights, clouds, people, cars,” he slowly began to ramble off. “The moon and the stars.”

 

“Is that all you see?” she questioned softly.

 

He gently pondered her questioned for a moment, seemingly not understanding what she expected him to say before he answered her once more.

 

“Life,” he sighed gently.

 

“That is not what I see,” she answered as she smiled softly.

 

“What do you see?” he questioned with a gentle sigh.

 

“Family,” she breathed as she tilted her head to one side and glanced up at Jaejoong. “A world full of my family.”

 

“They may not be of my blood, I may not even know what they look like, know their names, know the people they love, know what they do for a living, know their dreams and fantasies, or know even something as simple as their favorite color or food,” she elaborated slowly after turning her face back towards the twinkling skyline. “But we are all bound, all bound by hope.”

 

“And that makes us family?” Jaejoong questioned softly.

 

“Yes,” she smiled.

 

“The hope that we all share, what we want, what we need, what we want out of life, the love that we long for and crave, the joy that this life can bring, all of it,” she continued. “Binds us together as we stumble through our lives in search of our own unique happiness.”

 

“Hope is what drives us to keep going when all seems lost. It’s what pushes us forward when our future seems bleak,” she continued lovingly. “And it’s what helps us get through the pain that lingers on and on, every minute of every day.”

 

“Hope, Jaejoong,” she added lovingly. “Is not only the tie that binds us all as one love, one family, but it’s also through the hope that we can find the happiness we all seek.”

 

“What is your hope my Lady?” questioned Jaejoong almost immediately. He had no idea why the question had come to mind and yet it was out of his mouth before he could stop himself.

 

“I hope for a great many things Jaejoong,” she answered with a smile. “I hope that my family will live a long prosperous life. I hope that I never falter in my endeavors to leave this world far better than when I found it. I hope that one day I will be able to look back at my life when I am old and grey and be proud of what I’ve done. What I’ve accomplished. I hope to live a life of no regrets, a life that, when it’s all over, I can say I did all that I set out to do; and so much more.”

 

“But,” she added gently. “What I hope the most for…is that I will be able to leave a mark on the people I touch, the people I love, so that, one day, they too can find the happiness they seek…”

 

“For many years,” she admitted softly as Jaejoong continued to listen to her. “I have stood by this window and watched the world from my ivory tower and wondered about those below. These lights that you see before you, the lights that change to darkness during day and once again become alight with possibilities as the sun sets, are not just errant happenings in an ever-changing, ever contradictory world. They are the pieces of a great puzzle, the puzzle in which all are connected.”

 

“When we look out over the city, we do not see the inherent complexities of life,” she continued. “We see lights looming in the darkness.”

 

“We do not see, for instance,” she smiled as she lifts her hand and points to a lighted window in a building on the right. “That young man, just there, with his face buried in his texts book as he burns the midnight oil hoping that one day he can be a great doctor.”

 

“We do not see,” she continues again as she points at another window in a building to the left .“That old woman just there, who spends her days and nights alone in sadness only to find joy once again when her children take the time to visit her.”

 

“We do not see,” she continues once again as she points at another window in a building a block away. “That lovely middle-aged couple just there who are so tired and worried how they are going to pay the rent next month, that they’ve never noticed their youngest daughter is sneaking out to meet a boy every night.”

 

Does she really just watch these people all night? thought Jaejoong warily.

 

“You sound like a voyeur,” chuckled Jaejoong softly.

 

“Merely exaggerative examples, Jaejoong,” she answered with a tinge of amusement in her voice. “My point is that this world is selfish. We don’t see the world for what it truly is. We are self-centered creatures, only caring about our own lives and our own futures. And though we may project a sympathetic heart and offer a sympathetic ear, we are innately only truly concerned with ourselves.”

 

“We do not see the struggles those around us suffer. We do not see their hopes and dreams,” she sighed. “And we do not endeavor to undo the mistakes of the past for the betterment of all.”

 

“And yet,” she smirked. “We all hope for a better life, a better world.”

 

“Ironic, isn’t it?” she questioned as she glanced back up at Jaejoong. “That we can be so self-centered, never seeing our own commonalities that make us all parts of the same whole, and yet deep down inside we are all exactly the same?”

 

She has a point. thought Jaejoong as he turns toward her slightly and simply nods in agreement.

 

The room falls quiet, save for their gentle breaths heaving in and out softly, as Jaejoong mulls over the Lady’s very philosophical outlook on the world. He has never met someone like her that thinks about the world as she does, yet he cannot understand what all of this has to do with him. Did she really spend an exorbitant amount of money flying him first class to Japan simply to impart some words of wisdom? Why is she talking about hope for the future? The errant fantasies of the masses? The dreams of the world? And, what does this got to do with their contract?

 

“Hope is born from dreams, Jaejoong,” she spoke once more, as if somehow answering his own inner monologue, as she turned to look at him once. “And yet, without hope we can never see those dreams full filled.”

 

 “Sometimes,” offered up Jaejoong softly. “It’s far more foolish and far more painful to hope than it is to dream.”

 

“What makes you say that?” she questioned softly as a knowing smirk tugged at the corner of her lips.

 

“Dreaming of something that cannot be, something unobtainable,” he answered. “Hurts far less than hoping for it comes true and finding that it never will.”

 

“Do you have an unobtainable dream, Jaejoong?” she prompted lovingly. “Something that you do not dare to hope for, simply because you could not bear the pain should it not come to pass?”

 

“Don’t you?” he questioned softly. “Don’t we all?”

 

“I did once,” she answered. “I dreamed that someday I would have the world at my feet. Not for glory sake or for vanity sake, but all for the sake of others. So that one day, I could stand upon this world proud of who I was and give back to the world all that it had given to me. To bring joy and happiness to those around me, to touch the lives of those in need, and give up on this world all the joy and love I hold deep in my heart.”

 

“And thanks to someone very special, I now can do all of that and so much more,” she added with a grateful tone. “He helped me realize my dream, and set me on the path that has led me here –standing upon my ivory tower, the world at my feet, with money beyond counting and the ability to do all the good that I have hoped to do, all my life.”

 

“How did he help you?” Jaejoong immediately questioned, curious beyond belief.

 

Turning away from Jaejoong, the Lady reached down to a small table beside her that Jaejoong had not noticed before, and plucked a piece of paper from its top.

 

“The same way I am going to help you,” she answered as she turned and offered the papers to Jaejoong with a smile. “With a gentle push.”