Min Kyung sat sipping her coffee, her eyes trained onto the computer monitor in front of her. She has been following the stocks, tracking the pattern of the little dips and climbs. She has been fairly lucky consistently in following the trends and predicting the potential losses and gains. She will be the first to tell you it's just luck, but others will recognize a true sharp intuitive mind. She is a business woman: a lethal combination of instinct and good sense and the gall to act on them.

Her fingers started their quick taps on the keyboard as she searched the web. Every now and then she would pause and jot down notes on her ledger. Her brows were knitted in concentration, her toast sat forgotten beside her as she tackled her morning business. Truth be told, she has been scouring online a bit more methodically, waiting for any scandalous news to break courtesy of her uncle. After the charity ball, she half expected to be the headline per the media's tendencies to go for sensational journalism. But perhaps her attorney was able to pull some weight around after all, and get an injunction to limit further attention and the ensuing slander from progressing, and keep her current situation under wraps for the time being. 

There was a discreet knock on her door and her assistant walked in followed by Yeon Woo.

"Please have a seat, Attorney Go. Eun Jae-ssi, please bring us some coffee or tea if Attorney Go prefers?" Min Kyung said, turning to him.

"Coffee is fine, thank you." Yeon Woo waited until the other woman left before addressing Min Kyung. "I'm glad you are still in town." He took the seat next to her on the small round table, where various newspapers lay neatly folded.

"I'm staying just another day, I think, and then will return back to Boseong.” She sat down and began reorganizing newspapers and magazines in a pile to keep her hands busy. 

Yeon Woo knew her primary residence is in the country, that despite her social status, Min Kyung much prefer living quietly in the countryside of Boseong, close to where the plantation is. She kept an apartment in town for those times she needed to be front and center in dealing with the minutiae of running a business.

They waited until their coffees were served along with various pastries and cut sandwiches on a rolling silver cart. Her assistant bowed and left discreetly, allowing the two to finally speak in relative privacy.

“I must admit I have been dreading waking up to see my face plastered in all these newpapers the last few days.” She said, taking a dainty sip of her coffee; it is still piping hot, black, straight up the way she likes it. Her preferences stay simple, no nonsense much like herself.

“I have outlined our case and provided documentation; the presiding judge is reviewing the case as we speak. In the meantime, it is in our advantage that the judge imposed a full media non-disclosure within the context that the case is still in the preliminary process. However you will need to be present in court next week once we have the court date meeting set.” Yeon Woo placed his coffee cup down and reached for several forms in his leather Grosvenor briefcase. 

“I’ve requested the judge’s consideration to provide us a few days’ notice in advance when they've determined the next court date. It will allow you to plan your trip back to the city without rushing. Look this over please and sign the addendum, Ms. Song.”

Min Kyung took the papers and began skimming. She knew the contents of the legal matter by heart, but re-reading them still brings with it a stabbing pain.

Yeon Woo did not miss her sharp intake of breath. He studied her openly over his cup of coffee.

Min Kyung wore her façade well, honed by years of being a business woman in a male driven world where any sign of uncertainty is a sign of weakness. But in front of Yeon Woo she let her mask slip a little, as evidenced by the frown marring her beautiful delicate brows, in the grim set of her lips, once lush and full now set in a hard line. Her hair fell forward from the shell of her ears, as she thumbed the pages a little more roughly, her emotions escaping from her. He almost reached out to tuck it back behind her ear to keep her face visible to him, but caught himself in time.

He hid this momentary lapse by clearing his throat. He sensed her distress and felt driven to ease it somehow. He knew reading about the contents would still be distressful no matter how the words are wrapped in legal terminologies; illegitimacy still carries with it a well-worn stigma even in this century in a country that remains bound by age-old traditions.

Min Kyung set the paper down with a sigh. Her eyes held that faraway look Yeon Woo will come to know very well. He realized how expressive those eyes are, and if he pay close enough attention, he can discern the emotions she kept buried inside.

“I want to tell you that this is an archaic belief, one that should not carry any merit nowadays.” He said softly, treading lightly, mindful of her feelings. “This day and age, illegitimacy should not bear impact on one’s worth as a person.”

“Perhaps not, Attorney Go. But consequences from that fact remain far reaching, even in our so called modern world.” She turned to him then, “I can survive the repercussions within the business, if that is all there is to it. It is just business after all and the nature of any business is, it can be rebuilt even if it were to crumble in pieces. But I will not let our name, my grandmother’s name, be smeared in the process.”

“We have the paperwork to show everything was done within the proper boundaries of the law. You have the right of succession; the inheritance belongs to you. You are your grandmother’s rightful heir.”

“If it were cut and dried, I would have no need for your services, would I?” she responded, not unkindly. Her voice is tinged with a bitterness one Yeon Woo is all too familiar with, having lived his own tumultuous history.

“Your father is the first born, and as his child, you, by default, succeeded him. He had no other children and you carry his name. In all custodial matters, you are the rightful heir. But there is always a technicality that can be played to turn one’s hand. And your uncle has been hard at work disproving your legitimacy. That is in part where our difficulty lies. DNA testing will give us an advantage indeed, but will also murky the waters.”

Yeon Woo explained that with her grandmother and father being deceased, her uncle will have to supply the DNA to prove and support her familial connections and bloodline. He will need to be mandated by the court to provide his DNA since her uncle will likely not give a sample willingly to make things easier for them.

“Even with the DNA matching to show the probability of relationship, the issue still remains regarding the succession.” He paused to look at her. “Your uncle is stating that because of the illegitimacy, though you may indeed be your father’s child, the right of inheritance belongs to him since you would fall outside the parameters of succession. His attorney posited that your right to claim the inheritance occurred after the estate has already been well established.”

There was a lull in their conversation as his words sunk in.

“I was only 4 or 5 when my father brought me home to the big house. I didn’t understand why we had to leave our own home. Grandmother looked so strict, so tough. And she had always looked at me funny when she didn’t think I noticed her watching. I thought she didn’t like me. I wasn’t like other kids, you know. I was too skinny, too small for my age, too quiet, she said. And blamed my mom for not feeding me enough , not taking care of me enough. I was young enough to resent her for that. Little did I know she would be my strength.” Her voice trailed off.

Min Kyung is quiet for a while. Her thoughts harkened back to one of her first memories as a child, laying in bed, alone in an unfamiliar place, the rain beating a loud tattoo. The room seemed so large, so dark, so very scary. Her mother was gone; her father almost nonexistent. She felt abandoned then. Grandmother Song came in then and laid down next to her, enveloping her in her warmth; her voice humming a soft tune to calm her. It was then that she truly felt loved by her grandmother; it was then too she learned to love her back.

She heard Yeon Woo speak, his voice gently breaking into her reverie. “She was a formidable woman; I suppose it would follow that she loved you in her formidable fashion too.”

She nodded, “She was a difficult woman, all who knew her knows this to be true; she's hard to please, even harder to get close to. But she loved me, you see, unconditionally. I miss her, thorns and all...She wasn’t perfect, but I wouldn’t change her for anything...”

She turned to him, “You must miss yours, too.”

Yeon Woo was caught unawares. His thoughts have been travelling to his own memories of his grandmother too upon hearing Min Kyung speak of hers.

“Yes, but how…”

He is not often rendered tongue-tied. He looked at her, the question apparent in his eyes.

“I just recalled some articles I read a long time ago.” She shrugged, unwilling to say anything further; his past is not hers to bring forward. 

“My grandmother wasn’t as strong as yours was," he said, "but she had the strength and fortitude to raise me by herself, too. She was strong enough where it mattered, when she needed to be.”

Yeon Woo met the eyes that stared back at him boldly and saw understanding reflected there. It was not often he sees this from another person, without the added pitying looks people are quick to give.

He sees empathy in those eyes, and emotions that seem to mirror his own. And a  feeling quite unfamiliar begin to sweep into him.

“You and I are not that much different it seems, are we?” she said.

No, we aren’t, he mused. I think we’re more alike than I thought possible. His eyes kept his gaze forward, still caught by hers. And for a second or two, a sense of camaraderie passed between them.

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