The Chos’ mansion was on the other side of Seoul, in the parklike surroundings of Hyehwa.   Siwon, no longer transported by a luxurious car, elbowed through the crowd of subway commuters with his backpack slung over his shoulder.  Thinking back on the conversation he and his father had had barely two days ago, he still couldn’t believe he had been stripped of his privileges as a member of the Kangsol family overnight, instead being demoted to serving the YT Corp. family’s heir, Cho Kyuhyun.  He’d had just those two days to grow accustomed to the idea , and then he was thrown out into the wilderness that was South Korea’s capital city, the doors to the house he’d grown up in closed forbiddingly.

He glanced at his cellphone .    At least his father had allowed him to keep that, a memento of what was swiftly becoming a different life .   It was ten past two. He still had twenty minutes.

A bus passed ;  Siwon looked up just in time to avoid being splashed. The late summer rains had left huge puddles.  He resisted the urge to bend over and check his reflection. He shrugged. Perhaps it wouldn’t be until he’d start working that signs of pedestrian life would show.     

The Cho family mansion was a white concrete, hanok - inspired construction near the parks .   A rose climbed up and peeked over the high wall that surrounded it .   Siwon walked up to the main gate and pressed the bell.  An older woman’s voice crackled through the intercom;  ‘Who is there ?’  He was about to say ‘Choi Siwon’’, but , as he still felt his father’s betrayal, decided to drop his family name . ‘Siwon’ , he said gruffly, ‘Cho Kyuhyun’s new servant ?’   He couldn’t bring himself to add the other man’s appropriate title , as he himself had been ‘young master’ only a few days ago.   ‘Wait there. I shall inform the master of your arrival’, the voice told him.   So he waited.

After what had seemed like an hour the gates finally opened , but instead of Siwon being beckoned inside a tall man wearing a suit stepped out from behind the front door , followed by an elderly man as well as a woman and several servants.  Just one glance at the suited man told Siwon that this was the young master he was supposed to serve.

‘You may approach’, said the older man who was the young master’s father , Cho Yoojin.   Trying to retain a respectful attitude, Siwon walked toward the party assembled on the steps.

‘’Kneel’, Cho Yoojin commanded him. Turning to the servants, he said ‘You know who this is. Treat him with a little more care than would become the rest of  you. ‘    .

Siwon followed the order reluctantly, sinking himself on the cobbled path to the steps.  Finally, the young master spoke , cold eyes glaring down at the man whose subservience was pledged toward him.  ‘So from today, you will be my personal servant. I expect you to be my shadow in all affairs I choose to engage in. ‘  

‘Yes’, said Siwon.

‘Yes Young Master’ said the woman,  his mother.

Siwon grumbled. ‘Yes Young Master’. What a stuck-up bunch, he thought.