SEOUL TOWER – GANGNAM,

Friday 12th of October

There she was again, standing in a room full of men trying to show-off their wealth and women gossiping on “who wore it the best” and who made the unforgivable “fashion faux pas”. Sandara was already used to attend those cocktail parties with Seoul’s elite, however she has never gotten used to listening to those boys who thought they knew everything about anything when in fact the only reason why they were acknowledged and invited to the soirée was because of their parents’ status. Status was also the only reason why Dara was so willing to fake it in front of those people. In her world, everything worked through connexions and conversationalization. In her world, she had to pretend to be interested in these people, and what they were saying. 

“I feel like this BREXIT thing happening in Europe may be a good thing. It will for sure provide us-”

“Dara! There you are! I just turned my back for five seconds to greet someone and then I couldn’t find you anywhere.” Said Seung-hyun, cutting-off attorney Kim’s son.

Dara turned around, looking for the voice that just called her name. It only took her a few seconds to spot her classmate walking towards her, his eyebrows furrowed as he noticed that she was actually talking to someone. Noticing the awkward atmosphere that was slowly building up between the two men, she took a small sip from her Champagne flute before slightly smiling to Seung-hyun. 

“Well, I saw you greet this girl so I thought you would want some privacy… and honestly I’m not really into watching you looking for a girl mate to get laid tonight.” She lowered her voice as she said the second part of her sentence, not wanting to embarrass herself or her friend, knowing very well that in this kind of place it was inconceivable to say such remarks aloud.

“However, here is Cheolsoo, I think you already met him. He is attorney Kim’s son. We were having a great debate on European politics, right before you interrupted us.” She quickly added, making sure that Seung-hyun saw her roll her eyes while talking. Hopefully he would get what she was trying to tell him: get me out of here.

Sandara wasn’t narrow-minded, she loved sharing ideas and opinions with people, but she couldn’t handle the ones who insisted on talking about topics they didn’t understand at all. Some people, because they had googled BREXIT once just for the purpose of a school presentation , though they handled the topic and could go around saying bullsh*t about it. Everybody who know Dara, know that she spends every holidays in Europe. She knows everything about the history of european countries, and has even been invited to the Korean ambassy in France once. It meant that she didn't have much patience with people who blabblered about things they didn't know anything about.

“Well, I’m sure that must be some very interesting topic.” Seung-hyun courteously said to the other boy before facing Dara, “However, I was looking for you because I have someone you need to meet.”

Seung-hyun politely bowed to Cheolsoo and apologized for taking his classmate away from him, before walking towards the balcony with Dara. She felt relieved. She wasn’t very comfortable talking to Cheolsoo because she knew he had a crush on her for quite a long time already, and if her parents came to know about this piece of information, they would try to get them together right away. Cheolsoo was the son of attorney Kim, one of the most famous attorneys in Korea. That man was very powerful and actually worked pretty often with her parents. 

Dara was beautiful 21 years old woman, studying Foreign Business Strategies at Seoul National University. But she wasn’t engaged nor in a relationship at the moment, and the only reason why her parents made her take this degree was because they hoped she would meet some rich boy, start dating him and then he would propose to her. Actually, Dara wasn’t against the idea of getting married to someone she would love or at least appreciate. She knew it was just how things worked in her world… a few girlfriends of her were already engaged, and her little group of single-ladies friends was getting smaller every years since she turned 18. But she couldn’t stop herself from wondering what would happen after settling down with a man… Buying a house? Taking care of her hubby? Having children? Then she would get older and older, less appealing for the opposite , as the years would pass by… She would end up having nothing to talk about with her husband; while their children would be old enough move out. Well, Dara couldn’t believe there was nothing more than that to life. She had more expectations.

Dara came back to her senses when she felt Seung-hyun’s hand slip off her back to shake another man’s hand. She raised her gaze to meet with a tall blond haired handsome man. Discretely looking at him up and down she noticed he was wearing a navy suit, complimenting his skin tone, with some simple but classy Salvatore Ferragamo loafers.

“So, here is my classmate I was talking to you about… Her name is Park Sandara. You might have already heard about her parents, they are the major shareholders of Hyundai Industries. Dara, please let me introduce you Kwon Jiyong. He graduated from law at our university 3 years ago and his father is-”

“I know. His father is Kwon Seoyuk.” She said, smiling politely at Jiyong. “I went to your seminar on public and private international law the other day. I couldn't help but notice that you were very inclined towards the Liberal Democratic Party.”

“Well, I hav