Jiyong came home from work that day with an expression that Soojung recognised. His jaw was tense, his eyes were narrowed, and he was wearing a frown.

"What's wrong with you?" Soojung asked him, she herself had just returned from another terrible date. He had been a lower-class, but the type that kissed the asses of the upper class. Soojung had found it difficult even breathing the same air as him.

"It doesn't ing matter how legitimate we become, how educated we are, what ing schools or universities we go to, those upper-class people will never, ever consider us as equals. We will always be the lower-class who are meant to scrub their ing floors and wipe their ing asses," Jiyong ranted. 

"So, I'm guessing the interview Seunghyun got for you in his dad's office didn't go so well."

"No, as soon as Mr Choi's secretary saw my class on my job application, she threw me out of the office and told me to stick to sweeping floors."

"I'm sorry Jiyong."

A moment of silence fell between the two siblings, before Jiyong broke it.

"I graduated four years ago Soojung, and I'm sweeping floors in the same lecture halls I used to sit in. Do you have any idea how ing humiliating that is, that me, a guy with a ing degree can't even get at least a ing office job."

"Jiyong, don't lose hope, with your brains, you'll definitely get a job somewhere."

Another silence fell.

"Where have you been doing today," asked JIyong, wanting to change the subject.

"I had a date," replied Soojung.

"What was he like? Do I need to beat him?"

Soojung laughed, "He was a phantom."

Jiyong made a disgusted face, "Where did you find a bastard like that?"

A 'phantom' was an insult used amongst the the lower-classes to describe a lower-class person who tried to act upper-class.

"Maybe you can ask Seunghyun if there's any more places for you to find a job," continued Soojung. She fought the blush about to crawl her way to her cheeks as she said his name. Ten years later and she still couldn't truly look at him.

"I can't keep asking him, he's got his own to do."

Suddenly, a knock came on the door.

With it came hell.

*****

Jiyong was silent the entire day of his father's funeral. He didn't speak a word, not even to Soojung.

Jiyong and Soojung's father had died as a result of a mining explosion along with seven hundred other lower-class miners. Because many of these mens families were poor, and hardly any bodies (including Jiyong and Soojung's fathers) had not been found, the families had decided to spend on a funeral althogether. The siblings were currently gathered in a large field with guests and the families of the other dead lower-class men.

Soojung looked towards her brother's blank expression; then she noticed a tall figure amongst the crowd walking towards them.

"Jiyong, look, Seunghyun's here," Soojung tried hard to make her hoarse voice light and cheerful, but it only bought more tears to her eyes.

Jiyong looked towards where Soojung was indicating, his expression turning stony.

"Why are you here?" He asked his best friend.

"Jiyong, what are you doing?" said Soojung when she noticed that Jiyong's first words today were hostile and full of contempt.

"I'm sorry about your father, I came to pay my respect," Seunghyun said carefully, aware of how murderous Jiyong looked and sounded.

"Respects?" Jiyong scoffed, "You dare come here, in a suit that probably costs more than the money my dad earned in his entire lifetime when it was your precious father who killed him."

"Jiyong, please stop it," begged Soojung, aware that people were beginning to look at them.

"No Soojung, let him speak," Seunghyun said calmly.

"Your precious daddy is supposed to be Minister of Defence, yet whilst he's out ing new everyday and arresting innocent lower-classes, he doesn't even realise that so many of us are living in poverty, or that the conditions they're working in aren't even safe."

"What my father does I don't agree with and has nothing to do with me."

"Do you know what health and safety professionals are saying. They're saying the explosion could have been prevented, and that the government, including your father all knew about it yet didn't lift a finger to do anything. Because to you people, we're just things you can get rid of anytime you want."

"What do you want me to do?" asked Seunghyun.

"I want you to leave."

*****

After the funeral, Soojung turned in Jiyong. She was angry and upset with him.

"Why did you do that to your own best friend?" she said to him.

"I don't want you to speak to him anymore, the people he's connected to are no good for either you or me," replied Jiyong, "things are going to start changing around here Soojung, so you can either be with me or against me."

"Why would I see him again, its not like he was my friend."

"Don't try and pull the ing wool over my eyes Soojung, I see the way you always look at him. Even today at the funeral, its obvious you have feelings for him. Well its about time you got rid of them, you're not ten years old anymore, you're a grown ing woman. You should start acting like one, you should realise that you and him will never be a thing. You're both from completely different worlds," Jiyong was beginning to shout.

"Oh yeah, thats funny. You and him were not from completely different worlds when he got you that ing job interview. Its not his ing fault they didn't hire you," now Soojung was yelling.

"You stupid girl! You're deluded to think that they would ever give the two of us jobs equal to them. I'm just going to be sweeping floors for the rest of my life, or maybe if I'm lucky I might end up working in a mine and dying like dad did!"

"Shut up Jiyong!"

"And you will most likely become a ing , or if you're lucky you might become a ing upper-class CEO's mistress!"

Jiyong did not expect to be slapped by Soojung, "You ing take that back," she said venomously. She was no longer shouting.

"Why should I take back the truth just because you don't want to listen to it," replied Jiyong, then he sighed before saying softly, "You have to choose, its either him or the only family you have left." 

Jiyong held Soojung's eye for a moment, before backing away towards the door to go to the pub and drink away his sorrows.