It started like any other Tuesday. Cha Eun Sang was yet to throw herself into the whirlwind that was her usual daily life, after the long weekend away. She had been a lot more pensive when she had come back, which was noticed by Kim Won but he had allowed her the privacy to work herself out of the funk. That was why she could take Sunny to school that morning. Usually she sent him with the chauffeur but since Kim Won had left early with a message for her to come to work later, she had decided to drop Sunny at his school before going to work. She felt a little uncomfortable to catch other mothers staring at her but she assumed that it was because she rarely came to the school to drop Sunny off. She smiled politely but only got stiff nods in acknowledgement. But the teachers knew her well….at least the principal and a few teachers assigned to Sunny’s homeroom for sure did….from the regular parents-teachers month end reviews. And she caught them staring at her too however, they were courteous enough to mask it as soon as their eyes met. She could have sworn that as soon as she had turned her back, they had their heads together, whispering and gossiping.

A little confused and unnerved, she hurried into the car and directed the chauffeur to take her to work. But the moment she stepped inside the office, she could feel a subtle tension in the air. People greeted her politely and bowed but there was something in their expression….a question…a doubt perhaps. And some even had a sly half smile that danced on their lips. Cha Eun Sang felt her heart race at the prospect of some unknown crisis that seemed to brew. She hated not knowing but she was too high up in the food chain to show her irritation and fear openly. So she held her head high and kept her shoulders straight, fighting the urge to turn around and scream at them to come out and tell her why she was the subject of their amusement. She shared the elevator ride with a bunch of senior executives. They were a little better behaved than the lower ranked officials but there was a stiffness and coolness to their greetings. She could feel the curious looks, exchange of meaningful glances behind her, though they maintained deathly silence the entire time they were in the elevator. Cha Eun Sang hurried towards the Chairman’s office but was brought to a halt by the urgent words of his receptionist, who informed her that Kim Won was in a closed door meeting. Cha Eun Sang flopped down on a cushioned guest chair outside the office and picked up the newspaper that was lying on the side table.

The receptionist jumped out of her chair and rushed over to her side, bowing deeply, “I am sorry. I was supposed to throw that away. Please allow me to do so immediately.”

A little freaked out by the overreaction, Cha Eun Sang asked, “What are you talking about? This is today’s, right?”

The petite girl nodded and wrung her hands in frustration, “I was told to get rid of it. The PR team must have brought a few with them before they went in for the meeting. I am sorry.”

By now Cha Eun Sang was truly alarmed and instead of relinquishing the newspaper, quickly scanned the headlines for any government policy announcements that could jeopardize the company, then she jumped to the financial section and tried to focus on different pieces of unrelated articles, racking her brain to see any of those impacted the company. She cursed under her breath for failing to grasp what the grave issue was.

The receptionist spoke up in a tiny voice, feeling a well of sympathy for her nervous and anxious state,   “Madame, it is……..in the society pages.”

Cha Eun Sang looked up incredulously at her, dumbfounded and clueless as to how anything in the society pages could cause such kerfuffle. She had completely withdrawn from the ‘society do’s’ after Kim Tan’s passing and now, only attended a handful of parties. She never even looked at the society news anymore. The only exception was the day before, when she had glanced at it to see the beautiful pictures and gushing accounts of Lee Bo Na’s wedding. She had sent a text to Lee Bo Na, teasing her that she certainly had got coverage, if that was what she had wanted, by hosting such an extravagant wedding, adding that she could have achieved the same if she had eloped with Yoon Chan Young instead and had a secret wedding. That way, she could have saved her parents all that money. Now, she hastily flipped over to the society pages and saw the pictures and the headlines underneath.

There was one picture of Choi Young Do and Yoo Rachel, her arm entwined with his, looking picture perfect like a couple in an official portrait. The other one was of Choi Young Do, Sunny, who sat leaning against him (Thankfully, whose face they had blurred out with modified pixels) and Cha Eun Sang……sitting on that bench. The frame had captured the perfect moment when the adults had shared a smile as they looked at each other over Sunny’s head. The piece underneath was titled, “Possible mergers- pros and cons”. Cha Eun Sang muffled an indignant cry of despair as she tried to make sense of the words that made up the article. Cutting words jumped out at her as she tried to focus while her cheeks heated up and constricted with tears of humiliation. The article coldly laid out the benefits of each liaison, making it clear that Choi Young Do stood to gain proportionately higher if he married Yoo Rachel. The article pointed out that inevitable awkwardness that would ensue if scions of two Chaebol families lived under the same roof, one playing ‘father’ to the other. It detailed the conflict of interest that might rise, given the stakes that each family had in other’s business. Corporate manipulation, insider trading, takeover attempts, undue influences in the boardroom were cited as possible fallouts of such a high profile merger. Rachel Yoo, on the other hand, was projected as a possible asset to the Zeus group with her proven track record as a business woman and the sole inheritor of her mother’s business. It was touted as a ‘free and clear’ deal, which was preferable to the complications of getting a ‘readymade family and fractured business’.

The door to the office opened and Cha Eun Sang jumped to her feet. The PR team solemnly filed out and bowed to her as they walked past her. Cha Eun Sang kept her head slightly bowed, holding the crumpled newspaper in her hand, torturing it to death, unable to meet their eyes. Kim Won’s personal assistant strode up to her and bowed, “Madame, the Chairman would like to meet you, if you are ready.”

Cha Eun Sang breathed in deeply and managed to move her leaden legs, following him into the office. Kim Won looked up at her stricken expression and said cheerfully, “You are here! I just sent for you. Were you waiting to see me? Good. Did you drop Sunny off at school?” Cha Eun Sang still stood near the door, her lips pursed and her eyes bright with anxiety. Kim Won waved towards the guest chair in front of his massive desk and invited warmly, “Sit down. I have a very important project for you. You got to do your best. You can’t fail at this. But first we need coffee.” He nodded to his assistant, who quietly left the room and closed the door behind him.

Kim Won saw her bowed head and the embarrassment writ large in her frame, as if she wanted to disappear from everybody’s view. Suddenly the years melted away and he remembered her standing the same way, in the wine cellar of the Kim Mansion….a long time ago. Only this time Kim Won was going to be a little more invested than the last time. This time she was his family and he owed her all his protection and support. This was the least he could do to make up for the love that she had lost. He called out softly to her, “Cha Eun Sang, don’t be afraid. I trust you. You have always done the right thing, even if it has caused you immense pain and suffering. Be brave. You can do it.”

Choi Young Do had received an urgent message from his father’s personal assistant, demanding his presence at his father’s office at 1 o’ clock. It was made clear that no excuse was to be tolerated for his absence. Choi Young Do had frowned in displeasure and had felt a bitterness in his mouth at the very prospect of meeting his father. He took a shower silently fuming over the control that his father had over his daily life. Even though he tried to lead a separate life from his in spite of living in the same building, it bothered him to no end that Chairman Choi knew that one stern word from him could have him drop everything and run to do his bidding. Money….it was all about money and control. Choi Young Do often wondered if his father did it from time to time, just to test if the shackles were still in good shape. He dressed impeccably as he always did. The unflappable poise and perfect grooming was a veneer for the vat of acid that was his heart and the fumes of resentment that clouded his mind. There was a soft knock on his door. His slight displeasure at being interrupted turned into mild surprise to find David holding a tray of coffee and a minimal breakfast outside his door.

David seemed ill at ease as he greeted him stiffly. His posture showed that he was not used to doing the ‘room service’ duty, though in the past, he had brought up food or things to the suite when Choi Young Do had desired privacy from random staff. In fact, David had the passcode to his suite. Apart from David, only two discreet housekeeping staff were assigned to clean Choi Young Do’s suite. But it was the first time, when David had taken it upon himself to, proactively, bring something up to the suite. Choi Young Do stood aside to let him enter and watched with bemusement as David tried to play the part of a trained wait staff as he laid out the food and beverage on the coffee table in the correct setting. Choi Young Do waited till he finished before he casually walked over to the table. He sat down and looked at the carefully ironed and folded newspapers that were laid out next to the coffee cup. He noticed that the most popular mass circulation newspaper was on top of the two financial ones. He smirked thinking that David had missed the fact the financial ones were usually on top. But instead of pointing that out he started to pull out the financial ones from the heap.

David spoke in a low but insistent voice, “Director, forgive me if I am out of line here and I do apologize profusely if I have failed you by doing so but please read the society pages first.”

Choi Young Do’s eyebrows rose up at such a flowery speech from a reserved man like David. But before he could say anything, David executed a formal bow and took his leave. Intrigued, Choi Young Do quickly rifled through the pages to find the society page and immediately saw the pictures. He groaned aloud and cursed loudly. He quickly read the article and got angrier by the second. He alternately scoffed, cursed, growled and called names as he perused the presumptuous, intrusive and outright insulting article that violated every code of ethical journalism. He glanced up and memorized the name of the journalist who had written the article, quietly vowing to destroy him. He wanted to set fire to the newspaper to vent his anger but settled instead on ripping it to shreds. His first sane thought as the red haze of anger dissipated from his mind was for Cha Eun Sang. He wondered if she had seen the article and the pictures already and what state was she in. He could guess that she was embarrassed and humiliated. He wanted to assure her that such mudslinging was how those paparazzi made a living. That she shouldn’t take such things to heart. That he was going to make sure that the worm, who had written those words would be punished. That he was not going to marry Yoo Rachel despite what the article said. He wasn’t going to marry anyone! For one second he paused to think if he had ever imagined marrying even Cha Eun Sang. He wanted her…..that was for sure. He wanted her to want him. But did he ever imagine being married to her? Marriage was a distant dream. He dreamt instead of freedom. He wanted to be the master of his destiny and the sole designer of his future. He wanted to free himself of his father.

Cha Eun Sang sat down gingerly as Kim Won looked on with gentle concern. The poor girl’s life was the envy of many rich and poor girls and yet she lived a life fraught with unhappiness and pressure to keep up appearances. The worst aspect was that the rich girls were generally brazen about negative publicity, weathering any storm with the security of their family inheritance but Cha Eun Sang’s middle class roots had instilled in her an innate desire to be always on the side of modesty, living a low profile, ‘untainted-by-scandal’ life. Kim Won had put her in the limelight again, pushing her to take on a more public role as he had struggled with his health. From all that he could see, she was making good progress, holding on her own, managing a few key responsibilities that were slowly transferred to her. He had also got Choi Young Do back into her life despite his knowledge of the contentious friendship that Kim Tan had with him. He had practically forced them to work together, hoping she would draw inspiration from his business acumen, perhaps a little more easily than learning from stodgy, deferential, white haired senior employees. He saw how effective a leader and decision maker Choi Young Do was, when he was in hospital and he liked what he saw.

Cha Eun Sang spoke haltingly, not caring if her tears got the better of her, “I am sorry Hyung…..I am so sorry. I should had been more careful. I knew this was going to cause a scandal. I should had watched Sunny more closely. I should had stayed away from Choi Young Do in public. I should had….just stayed away from him. I had forgotten that people are always watching. I am so sorry for creating this mess.”

Kim Won watched her break down in quiet sobs as she buried her face in her hands. There was a knock on his door which signaled that his assistant had arrived with the coffee. He quickly got up from his chair and walked over to the door. He opened the door a smidge and blocked the younger man’s vision into the room with his towering frame. He reached out with both hands to pick up the two steaming cups of coffee and softly told him that he was not required right then. He turned, walked over to desk and set down a coffee mug in front of her and another next to it. He hesitated for a second before he pulled out the other visitor chair and sat down next to Cha Eun Sang. He gently and hesitantly placed a comforting hand on her back as he assured her in the softest voice that he could manage.

“Why are you sorry? The pictures are nothing by themselves. It is the insinuation in the article that paints the pictures in a different light. It is a way they make money, fabricating stories and building on lies. Somehow an illicit affair is easier to hide than a genuine friendship. A friendship is shorn of the guilt that comes with an affair, so people forget to be careful. It had to happen one of these days. And truth be told, I am tired of the whole ‘covert affairs’ thing we have got going with Choi Young Do. He is a good friend, a generous and helpful one. Why must we hide our association with him? You need not feel guilty. And I already have people looking into this to mitigate the fallout, should there be any. They are professionals, who are experts at handling such things. Leave it to them to manage this.”

Cha Eun Sang looked up with a questioning look but Kim Won’s expression made it quite clear that he had already put a lid on any further discussion about this. He instead reached out and grabbed a file that was lying on the desk. He placed it in front of Cha Eun Sang and said emphatically, “This is the our old wound, refusing to heal completely despite all the patch work that we have done from time to time. It is the old labor union issue at our Busan factory.” Cha Eun Sang felt a cold wave go down her back at the mention of the name. This was where Kim Tan was headed when his private plane had crashed. She looked at the dog-eared and voluminous file with trepidation and displeasure. Kim Won watched her expression and said gently but firmly, “You might as well make friends with it because now…..you own it.”

Cha Eun Sang blurted out with shock, her eyes blazing, “What? I hate this factory! And you know that!”

Choi Young Do got there ahead of time but spent the extra time sitting in his car in the parking garage as he sent David on an errand to get him a coffee from a shop across the street. Choi Young Do mentally rehearsed all the answers that he could think of to each possible line of attack. But knowing Chairman Choi, one could never be fully prepared. When he didn’t get his way, he knew that he could use other underhanded methods to knock his high flying son a few pegs downs. He was just a pawn in his schemes to expand his business empire. To the rest of the world he played the proud father to a successful son but in his mind, he owned him like one owned a show dog or a race horse. Choi Young Do felt restless and stepped outside the car. He straightened his jacket and pulled out his cuffs from under the sleeves. He took a deep breath and walked towards the elevators, his confident strides making up for the anxiety that his heart felt. He walked up to his father’s assistant’s desk and the overly made up, bleached blonde in a tight and unseemly short skirt suit took immediate notice of him. Choi Young Do dispassionately wondered if Chairman Choi was screwing her as well as she picked up the phone and let him know that Director Choi had arrived. Choi Young Do could overhear his father bark an impatient and rude response to send him through in her ear, which made her flinch. Choi Young Do, for one second, felt pity for her as he opened the door to his future office.

Chairman Choi had his head bowed over an open file though it did not mean that he was actually reading the file. It was one of his power games to make somebody wait and sweat as he took his own sweet time to deal with him. It used to be nerve wracking for Choi Young Do but the same old game had become a mere irritant now. He kept his mouth shut and simply waited. Now that was a game he was getting very good at. Chairman Choi clucked noisily and sighed overdramatically even though he didn’t even look at his son, still standing near the door like an ordinary retainer on his staff.

“Choi Young Do, what is up with you and your mother? I thought I had got rid of the weak link in this family when she left. Why must you cause me embarrassment, huh?” His voice sounded calm but exasperated. Only Choi Young Do knew better so he ignored the theatrical preamble and waited for Chairman Choi to make the first solid move.

Chairman Choi looked at his strapping son and mourned that he had failed to mold him into a more obedient and pragmatic individual, though not for lack of trying on his part. He knew that it was all in the genes…..his mother’s quiet rebelliousness had taken root in that boy but he knew a thing or two about how to break a wild horse. As long as he held the bridle tightly, he could rear but couldn’t get away. It was time to saddle him for once and all. He leaned back in his chair and decided that he was going to enjoy the spirited fight since he knew the outcome already. He always won.

He made a show of looking outside the window as if in deep thought as he murmured, “A summer wedding will be perfect! A little hot for an outside affair but we can always bring in the greenery inside and turn a floor into a perfect spring garden” he cast a cursory look at his son as he continued like he was asking him to be present for a weekend family dinner, “Just clear out a week next month. It shouldn’t take longer than that. Anything more than a week is a waste of time. I will let Daisy’s father know after I have looked at my calendar. You have to work around that. Now, just keep a low profile and wait till we make the formal announcement.”

Chairman Choi still had his back to Choi Young Do and didn’t see the look of alarm and downright shock that despite all his preparation he couldn’t keep from his face. Choi Young Do’s mind went into overdrive, trying to repress the frustrated scream that was trapped there while frantically searching for a way out. He barely noticed the obvious, and rather uncouth, relish with which Chairman Choi continued his monologue, “That two bit maid’s daughter is the shame of that family! She caused such a scandal with Kim Tan and now this! I don’t know why Chairman Kim doesn’t just pay her off, keep the child if he must and remove her from the family register. Now he has been left holding this hot brick of a scandal again. He should had seen this coming. After all, a girl without a man, without money and without a solid family background is like a loose cannon. I must say that she has aspirations though. Too bad that she has nothing else.”

Choi Young Do blinked hard and offered up a rather lame protest, more on reflex than anything else, “She is not interested in me. We are just….friends…friendly.”

Chairman Choi turned around to look at his son, who seemed to have recovered some of his faculties after the surprise of the first round. He listened with an expression of borderline impatience as his son continued, “There is no need to panic over this. I will make sure that the newspaper prints an apology and retraction. It will be in tomorrow’s print. I assure you that no other damage control…wedding etc. is called for.”

Chairman Choi smirked and advanced towards his valiant but terribly ill-equipped son, “It is not about you or….her. It is about Zeus, me and Daisy’s father. Do you know how