What was a minute?

            Numerically, it was simply sixty seconds. 

            Realistically, it was the amount of time a young man used to run down several blocks in order to avoid the wrath of his girlfriend for being late for their date again.  It was the amount of time a rebellious young lady used to search her house key that was misplaced in her handbag after a long night of drinking and wild partying.  It was the most significant minute in a high school student’s life as she took the courage to confess to her crush.  An intern with the worst luck to work overtime on a beautiful Saturday finally got his break to enjoy a soda pop over the, otherwise insignificant, one minute.  Every second in that minute became equally and lovingly precious when the son hugged his fragile mother for the first time again in ten years. 

            One minute – or sixty seconds – was a fleeting moment of possibilities.

            In Kim Soeun’s case, this fleeting moment would make or break her.  Oh Sehun or her privilege to live literally depended on the outcome of it.  ‘There must be a third way.’ She bit the bottom of her lips bitterly.  Then suddenly, her mind travelled back to that one tutorial session when Jaerim was the teaching assistant for one of her mandatory business courses during one particular semester.

***

            “I don’t mind being lectured by Jaerim sunbae every day.” A young woman whispered dreamily to her friend as she leaned forward on the desk and rested her cheek on her palm.

            Soeun rolled her eyes at the delusional girls who happened to sit in front of her.

            “Ladies,” The charismatic voice called from the front got the gossiping girls’ attention.  “Did you have a question?”

            “Sorry.” The daydreamer apologized.  She and her friend’s faces flushed in utter embarrassment.

            “Let’s get our focus back to the discussion at hand, shall we?” He flashed a winning smile that would make any girl’s knees melt.  “And leave other socializing after class.”

            Unconsciously, she also straightened her back in case he thought she hadn’t been paying attention either.

            Jaerim walked behind the visual and audio stand again and clicked to the next PowerPoint slide.  “So, how should you sell your product to third world countries such as Nigeria?”  He raised the question for the class.

            The entire class fell into silence at the question.

            However, something else was bugging her while the rest of the class struggled to come up with a clever response.  She raised her hand.

            “Soeun-sshi.” He sat on the edge of the table and gestured her to continue.

              “Isn’t it unethical to try and grab money from the third world countries?” She challenged.  “I mean, people there are living under the poverty line, and I’m not talking about the relative poverty line – these people are under the absolute poverty line.”

            Some students nodded in agreement and a few even raised their hands, trying to feed after it.

            “So?” He retorted easily with a smile.  No hint of defensiveness in his demeanour.  In fact, the twinkle in his eyes seemed to indicate that he welcomed the challenge with open arms.

            She opened , but then closed it soon after.  Her cheeks burned up in embarrassment even though she was certain that someone as smart as him shouldn’t have missed her point.  “Um…The corporations…” She was struggling to find the right words.  Then, it came to her as clear as the blue sky.  “The corporations could donate their products instead of robbing money out of those without much.  Charity work can be seen as a marketing technique to improve and sustain their corporate image as a community-involved and socially responsible organization.  If corporations go ahead and try to manipulate the poor into buying, then that’s just giving capitalism a bad rep.”

            “That’s indeed a good point to consider.  But, ‘manipulate’ is a bit too strong of a word in this context.” Then he invited the rest of the class into the discussion.  “Okay, let’s put things into perspective.  Let’s start with the third countries such as Nigeria, and then from the standpoint of the corporation looking to venture into this market.”

            Not just his voice, but the mere presence of him commended the undivided attention of others.  He has the disposition of a leader among the mass of intellects.  Though, the way he moved naturally about the room have others convinced that he did not realized the greatness he possessed.

            “First of all, what do you think Nigeria’s reaction would be if the corporation decides to donate enough widgets so that each citizen would have at least one widget?” He threw the scenario out there.

            “Well, assuming if it’s not something useless, then the citizens of Nigeria would be very happy about it.” One of the guys in first row answered without much deliberation.

            “Yes, it’s not something useless.  It would be difficult to assume their reaction to be otherwise isn’t it, Chanyeol-sshi?” He acknowledged Chanyeol’s assumption.  “Now, everything else stays equal, we are no longer putting up a charity show.  Instead, we are selling each widget for one dollar?”

            “Er…they won’t be so happy…?” Chanyeol scratched the back of his head and smiled sheepishly. 

            Some people broke into a hearty laugh at the cheeky response.

            “Yea, I supposed they won’t be.” Jaerim let out an exaggerated sigh.

            “But if they buy it, then they might feel a sense of success and entitlement.” The girl with a pair of thick glasses frames mentioned meekly.  Her voice was almost like a chipmunk.

            “Okay…Would you please elaborate, Sojin-sshi?”

            The glasses girl’s face turned beef red.  She was usually very quiet even though a heavy portion of the class’s grade depended on class discussions.  Her shock came partly from having to explain things further in front of a huge group of people and majorly from the fact that the campus’s poster child, Song Jaerim, remembered her name – her tiny existence.  “Um…I-I –”

            “I think Sojin-sshi wanted to say that the citizens would achieve a different kind of satisfaction than if the widgets were given to them that easily.  It is similar to the sense of accomplishment of getting a good grade after studying so much for it.”

            Soeun wanted to groan in annoyance at the guy who sat at the far end from the meek girl, playing the role of a knight in shining armour.  Perhaps, the meek girl was thankful that someone had spoken on her behalf.  However, if it was anybody else, she would secretly curse the guy for stealing her idea so openly.

            “‘A different kind of satisfaction.’  Yes!  That’s the phrase I was looking for.  Thanks Minwoo-sshi and Sojin-sshi.” Then he turned his attention to the rest of the class again.  “And there’s another important thing to consider…”

            Soeun’s heart skipped a beat.  She thought he had paid particular attention to her for a split second when his words trailed off. By now, she started to make some sense as to where this was going.  The immediate logic of it made plenty of sense to her, but she still could not ignore this nagging feeling that was tapping her pulse.  She wondered if it was her competitive side that was surfacing, but she did not want to give him the satisfaction that she knew the answer and was slowly being convinced by his words.  Thus, she stayed silent, waiting for an opportunity to strike down his argument.

            “Is it because company could only donate necessities and not luxury products?” A bright girl from the back put her educated guess out in the open enthusiastically.

            “Exactly, Sunny-sshi.” He smiled.

            Soeun sulked in her seat, regretting that she did not make that comment instead – she could have been the one he smiled at.  Her competitiveness had gotten the worse of her yet again.

            “Well, corporations could hand out luxury products such as Gucci handbags for free, but it is probably not the smartest move.  There is a high chance of backlash with such strategy, especially in such market.” He continued.  “Anyways, luxury plays a huge role with this different sense of satisfaction.  Also, this point helps us transition nicely into the corporation’s perspective…”

            Through each passing minute, she sank further and further down the line of defeat.  She could not find the opening that she was desperately searching, for he had meticulously led the discussion and covered all the bases without dampening his core argument.  Despite her reluctance to be submitted to defeat, she could still clearly see that even words such as ‘ingenious’ or ‘brilliance’ could not be used to describe the perfection of this man.

            “I have gone on a trip to Ghana a few years ago, and I notice that a few dozen people would sit around this tiny house just to watch these colourful pictures motion across the TV screen through the window.  I was curious what caught their attention and so I moved in closer to the crowd, but you know what I found instead?  Apparently, these few dozens of people were shared owners of the TV set and because I was not one of these owners and a complete stranger, I was not welcomed to prologue my stay to watch some free TV.”  He smiled wistfully as he remembered about the trip.  He chuckled.  His glistening pairs of dark-chocolate orbs were on the class again.  “Most merchants there package their products differently from those in South Korea – most, if not all, products are in smaller packages.  For example, cigarettes were sold individually instead of being a pack; Coco Cola were sold in mini bottles; even matches were taken out and being sold as individual sticks than in a match box and etc.”

            The class got quiet, awed by the stories.  Before this tutorial session, they have never imagined that products could be sold in such fashion.  They were long comforted by the bulk-way of purchasing in their country.

            “So, corporations doing businesses in third world countries do not have to be deemed as evil.” He continued. “In fact, besides actual crimes as dictated by the countries’ laws, there isn’t much of an ethical issue when the standard of living for the people actually improved as a result of these corporations taking interest in doing businesses in these nations.  So, if we can pull ourselves out of our fixated point of view, then we can see that there is always an alternative for a win-win situation…Is there something wrong, Soeun-sshi?”

           “Huh?” She was snapped out of her thoughts.  The few dozen of eyes of the entire classroom were now on her.  Pushing aside the feeling that something was amiss, she responded, “No.  I…I agree with your point.”

***

            “Tic-toc, tic-toc…” Jaerim mimicked the sound of a clock.  “Time is slipping by.”

            She shut her eyes in frustration.  Despite that she had never completely accepted that argument nor could she have yet to find the way to refute it, she did learn from that particular class that there was always an alternative that could create a win-win situation.  She clenched in a fist.

            “Ten, nine, eight, seven…six…five…four…three…two…on—”

            “Give me the knife.” She demanded the devil.

            Amusement tugged on the corners of his lips.  “Your wish is my command.”

            In an instant, the knife exchanged hands.  Ignoring the shock on Sehun’s face, she lifted the knife up, examining the sharpness of its blade.

            Sehun cowered back and pleaded for his life, much in contrast to his predator-like manner earlier.

            She took a couple of steps back, distancing herself from the young man that she thought was angel just a few days before.  Suddenly, she pointed the sharp blade at the emptiness towards the desk, which confused the young lad.

            If Jaerim was surprised, then he must have quickly recovered from it because Soeun could find no trace of it.  Instead, his smile grew wider.

            “I choose option C,” Her grip tightened. “Slay the evil.”

            “Soeun-ah, you’re more interesting than I’ve given you credits for.  But, still naïve.” He spread his arms and threw his head back.  “Alright, go ahead.  Be sure to slice right through my throat and don’t stop even when the blood started gushing out – make sure I die completely.”

            Focus, she told herself.  She refused to fall for his traps.

            “Come on, Soeun.  It just takes one stab and the rest should follow through naturally.”  Then he added encouraging, “I promise.”

            Her hands shook more and more for each step that she took.  She felt as though she became immobilized when the sharp blade was finally just a few short centimetres from his neck.

            He did not flinch one bit.

            “Song Jaerim,” She shut her eyes tight for a moment before revealing them again, refused to let any tear to fall down her cheeks.  “Just what is so alluring about you that have made me fall for the likes of you?  You didn’t cast any magic on me, right?” 

            She shook her head and smiled bitterly.  Slowly, she lowered the knife.

            Jaerim might have looked at her with curiosity with the way his head tilted slightly at one angle.  However, his eyes did not show anything.  If anything, perhaps there was a brief moment of contempt.

            “Unfortunately, I don’t believe you’ve done any of that.”  She laughed.  “How much easier this would be if I had believed that you have done just that?”

            He remained silent, perhaps out of simple courtesy.

            “Though, I won’t give you the satisfaction.”  She announced.  Her voice was voided of any emotion.  She smiled confidently.  “Today, none of us will be stained with another’s blood.”

            She charged at the great scenery of the capitalistic downtown of Seoul.  Millions of glass shards rained down the city like diamonds, reflecting the beautiful sunlight.

            When she was young, she heard from her occult-loving cousin that people who committed suicide would relive their death every day until their actual time on the earthly realm lapsed. 

            As she fell, she wondered just what kind of image she would see for the next fifty to sixty years.  Would she see her reflection as she ran towards the window?  Or, would Lee Boyoung's shadow follow her?  Which of these images would scare her less?  Which would hurt her less?  She had always been afraid of dying, so it did surprised herself a little that she chose to die today, just to save her last ounce of dignity.

            Then, she felt something feathery glided gently across her face.  When it passed, she opened her eyes and was taken in awe by the great, beautiful, gray wings that glistened slightly like silver under the blue sky.  She smiled in relief and reached her hand towards his.

            Perhaps, she had mistaken him for a devil when he was really an angel in disguise.

            Or perhaps, it was all just an illusion once again.

            Though, whatever the truth was, she was glad that she got to see his finest form before she hit the ground, saying goodbye to her home forever, not that there was much to be missed.

***

            The perfection of his face, with a mischievous smile playing on his handsome features was the first image that overtook her mind when her eyes fluttered opened.

            “Good morning, my sleeping beauty.” He greeted with a gentle smile.

            Now completely awoke, she shot up from the bed immediately.  Chill ran through her spine.  She was back in this never-ending maze again.  Though, this time she might finally be a resident truly fitting to this place.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Author's Note:  Should have updated this a while back, but have been busy as usual and I'm getting sick every now and then because of the weather.  Sometimes, I wish I live in Southeast Asia because I heard the weather there is great.  

Meanwhile, with regards to this chapter:  

1) The classroom conversation is based on an actual discussion that one of my classes have (I believe it was an international marketing course).  I believe around 80% of the content (actual lecture stuff) is here, just that I have taken liberty with the characters, conversations, etc.  Lol, I actually forgot how that class discussion had actually ended. XD  Anyways, sorry for making you learn even though you're here to read for fun.

2) Hm...this chapter is a bit of a turning point (what kind of turning point?  I'm not telling, but I'm sure you are smart to figure it out), even though it's nowhere near even half of the story.  Which btw, this story is probably going to be long and with a companion story too just to make the entire story fuller (with more layers and dimensions), but hopefully not annoying (as soon as this one particular character shows up).  It's only a companion story in the sense to provide more background info/back stories for the characters in this story via one-shots.