~ Flashback ~

 

Walking into the five-star restaurant in Gangnam made Min Young felt self-conscious. Everywhere she turned to and everyone she saw was basically wearing high-end branded clothes where they paired them with their branded accessories. It seemed like she was the only one wearing those clothes picked up from stock-clearance sale in those back alley shops.

 

“We’ve here to look for Mr. Wang.” Jackson told the receptionist when they were stopped at the entered. The receptionist then ordered a waiter to lead to the designed table reserved for them. Both Jackson and Min Young just followed closely from behind.

 

When they reached the end of the hall, the waiter stopped and opened the door for them. Min Young jaws were dropped and formed a big ‘O’ shape. She had never stepped into such high-end restaurant, what more about dine in it. Seeing how precisely the room was decorated, she wondered whether she had entered wonderland or was she simply dreaming!

 

Mrs. Wang who noticed Min Young’s petite figure stood up and went over to welcome her. “Thanks for coming, Min Young. Oh my, do you mind me calling you Min Young or address you as Ms. Han?”

 

“Min Young will do, Mrs. Wang.” Bowing to her, Min Young felt better after being called by her name. Formality made her felt uncomfortable.

 

“Come and have a seat next to me.” Mrs. Wang happily led her to their seat. Min Young obeyed without any hesitation.

 

Jackson then took a seat next to his father. Stealing glances on his watch, he wondered where his buddies were where they had promised to come. If they didn’t appear in another ten minutes, a calamity would fall upon him. Praying hard in his heart, he hoped they would be there as soon as possible.

 

 Min Young was checking out the menu with Mrs. Wang when the door cracked open. A man entered the room casually before he greeted his uncle and aunty politely. “I’m so sorry for being late, uncle and aunty Wang.”

 

Finding the voice familiar to her, Min Young raised her head. When her gaze met him, he froze at where he stood. He stared straight into her eyes and that made her felt uncomfortable.

 

“Min Young?”

 

The way he called out her name correctly made every heads turned. All of them were surprised to see him approaching Min Young and acted so strange. Min Young just sat at her place and followed his every move and stopped when he stood in front of her.

 

“Don’t you remember me? I’m Mark Tuan, your senior at Arcadia High School where you had your student exchange program.” Mark made a quick introduction and was hoping desperately that Min Young could recognize him soon. Sadly enough, she didn’t. She checked him out from head to toes, but failed miserably in recalling who he was.

 

Shaking her head, she said solemnly, “I’m so sorry, but I really have no idea of who you are. And I’ve never been to the United States before.” She bowed her head lightly as a sign of apologizing.

 

Mark looked at her wide eyes and disbelieved. “Are you sure you didn’t know who I am?”

 

Nodding her head, Min Young replied, “I guess you must have mistaken me for another Min Young.”

 

“No, listen to me, Min Young,” Mark held her hands and knelt down just to have an eye-to-eye contact. “Min Young, it’s me even though we might not have met for about a decade. You loved to call me your knight in shining armor when I helped you out whenever boys got in a fight just for your sunshine smile. And do you still remember that the promise we made where we’ll only marry one another when the time arrived?”

 

Her knight in shining armor? Had she ever called someone like that? It was so cheesy and seriously no matter how hard she cracked her head, she still couldn’t get a glimpse of information about her stay in the United States, what more about a guy named Mark Tuan!

 

“Min Young, it’s me!” Mark called out but Min Young sensing that the atmosphere started to tense up, she tried to pull her hands away without being too obvious. Even before she succeeded, Mark held on tighter to her hands.

 

At last, it was Jackson who went over to them and grabbed Mark on his shoulders. “Stop this, Mark. You’re scaring the out of my colleague here. Come and have a seat first.” He then got Mark to sit next to his father.

 

Just then, four men entered the room like the flower boys in the drama ‘Boys Over Flower’. They bowed and greeted the elderly Wang swiftly before they had their focus on the girl sitting next to Mrs. Wang. Every one of them went aww seeing the beauty in front of them. All wondered how Jackson could forgo such gift from god.

 

Once again Min Young had that silly look on her face. The shock she had with Mark hadn’t subsided yet and now came the handsome foursomes that joined them. So, this was not a family gathering as she had imagined while she was sitting in Jackson’s car. Instantly she could feel her cheeks hot and turned red. Gosh, it was way too embarrassing!

 

Mrs. Wang faced Jackson and gave him a stern ‘you owe me an explanation’ look. Jackson just replied her with a smile. He then ushered his buddies to fill up the empty seats. Min Young just followed their movements through the corner of her eyes, as to not being obvious that she had been charmed by them.

 

“Aren’t you going to introduce us to this lovely lady we have over there?” One of them, which in Min Young’s opinion looked the cutest and youngest voiced out.

 

“Come on, bro, don’t be shy. We are all waiting.” The rest of them continued to .

 

Rolling his eyes, Jackson gave up and looked at Min Young. Realizing that she was being the center of attention, she looked down and played with her fingers. While he was clearing his throat and getting ready to introduce her, Mrs. Wang chipped in and did it herself.

 

“Min Young, they are Jackson’s buddies-in-crime. Starting from your right is Park Jin Young and Kim Yu-gyeom or Jr. and Yugyeom as they preferred to be called that way. Both of them just graduated and now are still searching for a job. Next to them is our lovely PI, BamBam. He is a Thai and our Jackson got to know him when they were checking out a fraud case in your company’s Hong Kong’s branch. Please don’t be fooled by his young age because he is a very talented and skilled PI. Last but not least, Youngjae. I guess you guys know each other because he is the Assistant Manager in your Retail Department, don’t you?”

 

Min Young nodded her head to the respectively person when Mrs. Wang introduced them to her but she stopped dead when she came to Youngjae. He too looked at her, surprised. And the next word that came out from was way too unexpected.

 

“Jackson, is this the girl that you said she can’t differentiate between copy and coffee?”

 

Jackson put up an evil smirk hearing Youngjae’s exclamation while Min Young dared not raise her head because her mind had suddenly filled with that embarrassing episode in her life. If that wasn’t enough to make her feel self-conscious, the next question from BamBam made her felt that her day indeed had turned upside down.

 

“Jackson, isn’t she the girl that covered you with kuaci shells when we were attending a concert in Malaysia?”

 

All this while, she had been praying hard that he would not recall that encounter they had back in Malaysia. Now that BamBam had mentioned it, all she could see was gloomy clouds above her head, waiting for the suitable time to pour down at her. But then again, she was not the culprit that covered him with kuaci shells. She had in fact helped him by blowing away those kuaci shells on his shoulders. So, instead of being apologetic, she should hold her head high. And that was why she didn’t look disturbed or ashamed when Jackson stared at her.

 

“Can we have a peaceful dinner? Would you guys stop humiliating my guest?” at last, after being in silent for such a long time, Mr. Wang opened his mouth and stopped the mess.

 

Instantly, everyone had their mouths zipped. Mrs. Wang smiled proudly at her husband. She knew he would always be there to put every situation under control. And now he did it once again by protecting the girl from being bullied by Jackson’s buddies.

 

Throughout the eight-course menu dinner, Min Young tried her best to stay cool though she knew that Mark still had his eyes on her. She answered politely whenever Mrs. Wang asked her about herself and her mother. On the other hand, Jackson enjoyed the companion of his buddies and had their men talk. Things seemed to be fine till Mr. Wang opened his mouth again.

 

“Min Young, is your father Han Min Seok, the founder of Global Funtasy?”

 

“My father’s name indeed is Han Min Seok, but unfortunately he had already passed away when I was a baby. And my mother seldom mentions about my father and she will always keep mum about him whenever I ask her about him.” Min Young replied honestly. Though she wondered why Mr. Wang shown his interest on her father in which she herself too clueless about, she figured out that maybe she could get some information about her father then, even though it was from a third person and not from her mother.

 

Nodding his head as he understood her situation, Mr. Wang took out his phone and started to search for something. And when he had finally found it, he shown his phone to Min Young and asked for confirmation. “Is this your father?”

 

Taking a good look at the picture, Min Young nodded her head when she recalled seeing that picture once when she helped to clean the house not too long ago. Her mother told her that was her father before she kept the old photo away from her.

 

“Do you know my father, Mr. Wang?”

 

“Are you sure he is dead?”

 

Nodding her head frantically, Min Young said yes.

 

“I see.” Mr. Wang his silent mode again having said that.

 

Min Young who was hoping for a piece of information about her father sighed. She knew once Mr. Wang had shut his mouth, it would be hard for him to open it again. Still, she was happy that someone knew who her father was and perhaps one day she could know more about him from Mrs. Wang. She smiled when she thought of the possibility.

 

All the way home, Min Young could only gasp in surprise recalling all the dramas she had throughout the dinner. Mark claimed they had a promise of marrying each other when they were adults. BamBam recognized her as the girl that covered Jackson with kuaci shells back in Malaysia. And last but not least, Mr. Wang claimed that he knew her father.

 

So, did she really go to the United States when she was younger? Did she miss out something in her life? And would she be able to find out more about her father? Many thoughts came into her mind. In the end, all she could conclude was that she had a full of surprises night, and that was all thanks to a guy called Jackson!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ahnyoung guys…^^

Okay, about the part of kuaci shells…I wrote this based on my experience attending final of AF9 (a program like SuperstarK) where the guy sitting in front of me gave a deadly stare when I was helping him to get rid of those kuaci shells on his shoulder in which he and his friend misunderstood I was the culprit…mind you, kuaci is one of the favorite junk food for Malaysian…^^

So, may I know what do you think about this chapter?

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~Love, 9394DOKAI~