CH# 1
RIVALSA/N: The dialogues in italic represent English Language while the normal ones represent Korean, throughout the story.
“Son, come over here please.” A timid voice called out to the young man standing beside the window, looking below at the busy road ahead of him.
The petite man jolted in surprise as he had not realized that his Father had woken up, he had been so lost in his thoughts and the whirlpool he had been going through for a few days now. He turned around and looked up at the fragile looking figure, something which did not settle well with the younger man as he had always seen his father as an invincible person but now… lying on a bed draped with white linen sheet and an oxygen mask around his mouth had the reality crashing upon the younger.
He heaved a long sigh before taking those few steps to reach his Father’s bed and took hold of a fragile hand with both of his own.
“Dad the doctor said you need a lot of rest; please don’t try to exert yourself. If you can’t sleep then I can call the doctor and he can give you sleeping pills.” The younger boy said as he noticed his father trying to pull himself in sitting position.
The old man didn’t bother replying or giving any indication that he might have heard what his son has blabbered out just a few seconds ago. When older man had heaved him in a sitting/laying position then he pulled off the oxygen mask much to his Son’s surprise.
“Dad!! Don’t do that!” The boy somewhat scolded his old man.
The older laughed seeing his son fussing over him just like he used to fuss over his son when he was a child.
“I am fine Neil.” The father tried to reassure his son. “I have something important to tell but that mask was getting in the way.”
The boy named Neil still looked a little doubtful that taking off the mask was a good thing or not but the pouting look he received from his father had him sighing in defeat.
“Fine. But you only have 10 minutes to say whatever you have to tell and then I wanna see the mask back at its original position. Okay?” Neil tried striking a deal with his father making him laugh at that.
“Ah… you are turning in a fine businessman now.” The older man praised his Son.
“Well I learned it from the best,” was the cheeky reply he got back.
The father and son laughed together at their silliness until Neil tapped at his wrist watch to remind his Dad that the clock was ticking away. The old man rolled his eyes at his strict son.
“Neil for some time now I had wanted to expand my business in other countries, as I am sure you know.” The elder of the two started and gaining a nod from his son he went on. “Well, I had made some progress in Europe already but now I want to enter the market of Asia as well.”
“Oh… I never knew you wanted to expand the business to Asia. But why is that Dad?” Neil asked in confusion. Surely his father should have said something to him before; he had been with his Dad in every step when they started their business in Europe so what was so different this time?
“Well….” The older man’s voice trailed away, making his son’s eyebrows to rise up in suspicion.
“Dad?!”
“You know your Mom is American and when we got married she made me promise her that I would never return to my own country for her sake, right?” Neil’s Dad threw in another question rather than answering his son.
“Yes Dad I know about that.” Neil replied wondering why suddenly their talk has turned from business to personal life.
“Our business is blooming so rather than exporting our things to Asian I thought we might as well develop our market there.” The older man seemed to be stalling and Neil being the patient person he was just nodded and waited with his curiosity climbing Mount Everest at the speed of light.
“That is a logical idea.” Neil agreed but he had an aura of cautious air around him since he knew there was more to come.
“So I thought that if we talk about Asia then what better place to start the business than my home country, right?” The older man asked with his face shining with happiness.
“You mean South Korea?” Neil asked just to be sure, even though he knew his Dad was Korean from the very beginning. This was the very reason why Neil’s Korean was as fluent as any other Korean person, who was actually brought up in Korea.
“Of course son.” The older guy confirmed with a beaming smile on his face.
“But I don’t see why you didn’t tell me about this earlier.” Neil brought up the subject which was continuously nagging him.
“The thing is son… I did all of this in secret because I knew if your Mother found out then she would flip and think that I am starting my business there so I could move back to my country.” The old man explained his dilemma to his mature and understanding son.
“That is true.” Neil agreed with his Dad. “But why are you telling me this now?”
“Oh yes, now that we are nearly on the same page…” Neil’s Dad paused and smiled a little goofily. “I already have offer from six major companies of Korea who are willing to be our partner for our business and well… I kind of have a meeting set with them in three days from now but as you can see-” The old man paused and gestured around the hospital room he had became a prisoner of since two days ago “- I am not exactly in the position to go there myself so naturally I want you to fill in for me.”
“I thought you were leaving for France in three days?” Neil accused his Dad as he came to realize the bluff his old man has pulled on the whole family just so they won’t find out about his little dream, but in reality Neil couldn’t bring himself to actually blame his Dad since he knew how paranoid his Mother gets whenever she hears anything related to Korea out of her husband’s mouth… except for Korean language, Thanks God for that!!
“But I already explained why I wanted to hide it in the first place.” His father defended himself with an embarrass laugh.
“I was only kidding Dad,” Neil too laughed along his father. “But Dad you know I have never handled a business meeting on my own. What if I mess up?”
“Oh Neil! I know you can do it.” The older man said with confidence lacing his words. “Mr. Jung would fill you in about everything you need to know. I just want you to meet with all six of Companies CEOs and then we would make a deal with only one of them since you know I don’t like to put trust in more than necessary people… You have great judging ability, go ahead and meet them then see which of them are more sincere and trustworthy.”
“Okay Dad, I will do it for you.” Neil agreed and smiled at his father who had a proud grin on his face.
“Thanks S-” The old man had started saying when…
“Mr. Lee!” a stern voice reached the ears o
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