Chapter 6:

Dara awoke at 4am. She exercised, showered, and was now sitting at the computer in her room with a fresh cup of coffee. She was dressed in a pair of comfortable pair of leggings and a t-shirt, her hair up in a ponytail. A pair of reading glasses perched on her nose.  It was a habit of hers to be up early. She spent this time checking on the stock market, money reports, and skimming through the world reports. This morning, in addition to her regular routine, she also checked on the status of the Kwon family group and what activities they were up to. By the time she went down to breakfast at 7:30am she had a fairly good understanding of what holdings the company had and what their net worth was. She was also quite impressed with what Jiyong’s grandfather had accomplished.

“Good-morning Grandfather.” Dara greeted her grandfather as she sat down at the table and poured herself another cup of coffee and filled her plate. He was reading the morning paper and Dara discussed the headlines with him for a short while before her grandfather set the paper aside and asked her how her time with Jiyong had been the night before.

Dara’s hand paused as she was about to put some fruit on her plate. “Uh… it went well,” she said, hoping her grandfather wouldn’t see that she was lying. But it was not meant to be.

“Really? Is that why you two left separately last night?” he asked.

Dara rolled her eyes. She should have known her grandfather would find out.

“Remember your promise to me,” he reminded her, and Dara sighed and nodded.

“Yes sir.”

He took a card from his pocket and placed it on the table. “That’s Jiyong's address, and his phone number. I expect you to go over and apologize…”

“Grandfather!”

He held his hand up, silencing her with a look. “How do you expect me to take you seriously as a businesswoman if you can’t keep your promise?”

Dara’s shoulders sagged and her eyes lowered. “Fine. I’ll go see him.”

**

Jiyong was surprised when he received a call from Dara. He was even more surprised when she apologized for her behavior from the night before.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” he asked, and he swore he could hear her fuming on the other end. A small smile began to form on his lips. He was certain her grandfather must have put her up to this.

“I said I’m sorry for walking out on you last night,” Dara repeated.

“Ah. I see. And what about that other thing you did?” he asked, referring to her sticking her tongue out at him.

“You deserved that, for getting on my nerves,” Dara stated.

“You’re lousy at apologizing.”

“Oh my god,” he heard her mutter, and it made him smile. “Fine,” she said, sounding like a sullen kid, her voice gruff. “I’m sorry for doing that as well. Happy?”

He couldn’t help but grin, especially when he heard her huff on the other end of the line.

“Apology accepted,” he said, and then added, “I apologize for teasing you as well.”

Dara pulled the phone away from her ear and stared in shock at it for a moment before replacing it to her ear. Jiyong was asking her what time she was leaving.

“My flight is at 2pm.” And then in a voice so low he barely heard her, she said, “Would you like to go to an early lunch with me?”

“What?” He thought that surely he must have heard her incorrectly.

Dara shut her eyes tight and controlled her urge to yell at him. She took a deep breath and said in a calm voice, “I asked if you would like to go to an early lunch with me. My grandfather would like the two of us to spend some time together before I leave.”

“Mmm…” Jiyong found himself grinning from ear to ear. “I don’t know… I mean its such short notice…”

“Ah, really?” Her voice picked up suddenly. “Well that’s fine then. I’ll talk to…”

“I accept!”

“Huh? What?” Dara asked, confused momentarily at what he was accepting.

“I’ll go to lunch with you,” Jiyong said smugly. “Will you pick me up?”

“Don’t you have your own car?” Dara asked, sounding irritated again.

“For someone asking me out on a date you sure are grumpy.”

“I’m not asking you out! This is just lunch.”

“Same thing,” Jiyong said. “So what time are you picking me up?”

There was silence, and then he heard Dara’s voice saying quietly, “Can you please just meet me there? I don’t want to come to your house, and I have to leave immediately after to go to the airport.”

Something in her voice made Jiyong take pity on her and he stopped teasing her. His voice was low and sincere as he spoke. “Give me your address. I’ll pick you up and drive you to the airport afterwards.”

“You don’t have to. I can just meet you,” she said.

“It’s fine with me, Dara. Besides I think we’ll need the time to talk,” he said seriously. His tone of voice and use of her name made Dara feel strangely and she nodded as she gave him the address of their family’s home and then hung up.

**

“You don’t have any suitcases?” Jiyong asked, as he held his car door open for Dara to get in.

“I didn’t really bring anything other than my passport.”

He didn’t say anything until after he had settled behind the wheel and drove away from the Park mansion. He glanced over and saw that she was staring out the window. She was dressed in faded jeans and a plain black fitted shirt. Her hair was down loose around her shoulders. She looked different from last night, younger, more like what he remembered her from high school, but still beautiful.

“So when did you find out about this engagement?” he asked, and she turned to look at him briefly.

“Officially? Yesterday – a couple of hours before we were to meet for dinner. But my cousin Teddy had let it slip on the plane ride over.”

“And you were just thrilled, I bet,” Jiyong commented.

“About as thrilled as I imagine you were to find out the wonderful news.”

The two were silent for a while, each lost in their own thoughts. Then Jiyong asked curiously, “Do you want to marry me?”

Dara laughed. “Seriously?”

Jiyong slanted her a look. “You know, that’s what I remember most about you from high school. Every time I saw you you would give me that look like you couldn’t stand me.”

“That’s because I couldn’t,” Dara said, drily. She sensed him tense up and heard him expel a long breath of air. “It was because I was jealous of you,” she explained, and turned to look out the window again.

Jiyong’s gaze snapped toward her. “You were jealous?” he asked, incredulous. So she really did like him?

“Not in that way you dope,” Dara said.  “I was jealous because of who you were and who you continue to be, the heir of the Kwon family group. You’re picked to be the one to lead your family’s business, and yet you were wasting your time fooling around and skipping class. Meanwhile I was working my off to prove to my grandfather and my father that I belonged in the family business. But instead I was told that I couldn’t do that. That because I’m a girl I’m more suited to be the wife of a CEO instead of a CEO. Do you know how irritating that is?”

Jiyong took in her words, surprised to find out what he thought was Dara looking down on him all those years was really her being jealous of his position. “Well if it’s any consolation to you,” he confided after a while, “I was always a little envious of your achievements and how easy they came to you.”

“Easy?” Dara laughed. “Ha! I worked hard for those achievements, mister. And if you were really envious you could have remedied it by applying yourself a little more in your studies and a little less in chasing after all those girls.”

“Oh, excuse me. If I can remind you, it was “I” who was the one being pursued, not the other way around.”

“Whatever,” Dara said, but there was a hint of amusement in her voice. “God I hated the way some of those girls drooled over you. Geez, didn’t they have any pride?”

At this, Jiyong laughed out loud. “And this is coming from the girl who had a gazillion fanboys chasing after her?”

“I did not,” she retaliated, trying to think back and recall if she had fanboys.

“Of course you would say that because you were oblivious to all of them. You weren’t known as the Ice Princess for nothing.”

She turned her head to look at him. “How do you know of that nickname?”

Jiyong chuckled as he shook his head at how oblivious this girl was. “Everyone knew you by that name, Dara. You walked through the halls with your nose in the air not noticing any of those poor guys that drooled after you.”

“I did NOT walk around with my nose in the air! And why are we talking about high school anyway?” she asked, changing the subject. “We should discuss what we’re going to do about our situation now. How do we get out of this betrothal?”

“I don’t know,” Jiyong answered seriously. “I sort of promised my grandfather I would give you a chance, mostly because I was feeling guilty about being such an incompetent grandson.”

Dara rolled her eyes. “I never knew you could be so easily swayed. At least I got something that I wanted out of my promise to my grandfather.”

“Oh? And what’s that?” Jiyong asked. “Me?”

Dara reached over and punched him on the arm. “No, you moron. I mean a chance to work in my grandfather’s company!”

**