Jisoo checked the time on her phone for the third time as she got off the elevator, her lips curled into an amused smile. It was only four in the afternoon, which was why she was so surprised to get a call from her boyfriend, telling her that he’s out and about.

“What’s with him?” She murmured to herself as she reached the Jo Malone boutique, she quickly spotted his striking figure standing by the display shelves.

“Oppa,” She spoke as she approached him, Shownu peeled his gaze from the display, and smiled.

“What’s up? Should I be worried?” Jisoo jokingly said as she laced her fingers with his, she noticed that there was a pile of boxes already on the counter.

“Something came up, I needed to get supplies.” Shownu replied as he nodded towards the counter, Jisoo’s brows went up.

“Do you see anything you like?” He grinned before kissing her cheek, Jisoo snorted before going over the scents, she grabbed a bottle and walked towards the cashier, she looked at the items Shownu got. It was a bunch of room diffusers and candles, all in the same scent.

“What’s…all these for?” She asked him as Shownu took out his wallet, he was about to reply when Jisoo saw his secretary walking towards them.

“Miss Han,” He greeted her with a polite smile, Jisoo nodded back, taking notice of the Nespresso shopping bags he was carrying.

“Should I have these delivered, sir?”

“No, I’ll take them myself, leave them in the car. And, you can go.” Shownu said as he handed his car key to the male, the latter excused himself and left.

“What about early dinner? Are you up for that?” Shownu turned to her as he got the shopping bags, Jisoo mentally grimaced when she saw his total.

“Supplies. It’s always better to stock them.” He said with a grin as she hooked arms with him.

“Okay, strange. But, dinner sounds alright. I still have this report I need to finish, I have a feeling abeoji will grill me on it.” She murmured as she leaned her cheek against the side of his arm, Shownu let out a small chuckle.

“Chairman Han wouldn’t dare.” He said teasingly.

“Don’t buy his good guy act, oppa. He’s only nice to you. He probably prefers you over me.” She rolled her eyes, the older male laughed and shook his head.

Samantha let out a groan as she dragged herself off the bed, she glanced to her left and scrambled for the room’s remote control, she randomly pushed a couple of bottoms and the curtains slid across the glass panels.

“Oh.” She blurted as she realized it was nighttime. Or it looks like it. The girl slid down from the bed, she pulled her hair up in a loose bun with a silk scrunchie and padded out of the room. She grabbed her laptop from the living room area and headed straight for the kitchen, she put on her Airpods as she walked to the fridge, she took out some eggs and cold cuts.

The Shilla Seoul had about fourteen VVIP rooms for important clients, but what the public didn’t know that it had a floor reserved just for a lot more important clients, or stakeholders. Or, if you had one of those fancy and pretentious Hyundai Black cards. She headed back to her laptop while the bacon and ham thawed.

Samantha waited for the email to load, she grabbed her phone and started blasting Olivia Rodrigo’s Brutal as she browsed her mail.

“The Ceylon Ahns.” She murmured as she read through her potential client’s file, she huffed and pored over the family’s portfolio.

“One son. Ahn Bohyun. 1988.” She hummed to herself, the girl stretched her arms and glanced at the windows again. Im Soojin still wasn’t in the mood to ponder over her sudden reassignment, she knew she should have told her brother that she was flying home. But that took too much energy, and Changkyun would surely ask questions and have people come pick her up. And, if their family’s people knew that she was home, she’d go through usual onslaught of questions about her joining KangSan Group again.

She looked up the Ceylon son and came across his Instagram page, she was about to look through his account when something in her Spam folder caught her eye. Oh, and yes, she put all her KangSan email in the Spam folder. 

Soojin leaned on the counter as she clicked on the link, the girl suddenly sat up that she almost fell from the bar stool she was sitting on. She scrambled to her feet and stared at the screen again.

“W—Wedding?” She breathed as she zoomed in on the image, she could recognize her father and his receding hairline from anywhere, and of course the woman beside him.

“What the ?!” She blurted out as her jetlagged brain finally made sense of the date below the digital invitation.

Soojin slowly inhaled, she shut her laptop close, tossed her Airpods away and headed straight back to the master’s bedroom.

“I am too groggy for this.” She muttered before burying herself under the blankets again not noticing that her phone already had a couple of missed calls.

“He left his office?” The young man looked up from his desk, his secretary nodded and checked his watch.

“He also moved the Loen meeting, director. And, Samsung been pressured to…they have been rejected again.”

Kang Baekho, director of YooMin Group tilted his head, intrigued. While it wasn’t new for his older cousin to have big companies like Loen Financial and the mighty Samsung Group tremble in fear or grovel while trying to appease him, it was still amusing to hear about it every time. Not a lot of people were aware but the Sons, the family behind YooMin Group owned stocks and shares of different companies across the globe, their seat of power was in Korea. While YooMin was known because of the company’s chains of plazas and hotels (Lotte Holdings), the family also owned achunk of Samsung Technologies. One would say that YooMin’s connections was insane, but the oligrach clan remained elusive and low key over the years.

“Isn’t that the deal with Loen in a rushed timetable?” Baekho raised his brows, his cousin leaving the office suddenly was a surprise.

“Yes, but from what I heard vice president Son seem to be in a rush earlier.” His secretary explained as he presented some folders to him and slowly set them on Baekho’s desk.

“Something must have happened then.” Baekho hummed to himself as went through the documents, his secretary nodded and slowly looked away.

“What’s this?” He spoke again, he put the folders down, confusion clear in his face.

“I said I would take the Jamsil project. Why is it not here?” Baekho questioned as pushed the documents away from him, some of the papers landed on the floor with a thud.

“Yes, director Kang. I just got word this morning as well, did you not get the email?”

“No. I was out dealing with the Yeouido issue.” Baekho muttered under his breath, his temper showing. His secretary picked up the papers from the floor.

“The board has decided to leave it with vice president Son, sir. Since that project was already on his desk weeks ago and~”

“I was the one who proposed to have the Jamsil branch renovated, and now he gets to take the credit?” His slammed his palms on the glass top of his desk, the other male looked away.

“As usual, they prefer their golden boy.” Director Kang let out a shaky breath, the male stood up from his seat.

“That arrogant bastard.”

“Sir, they are still expecting to you to oversee~”

Baekho walked towards the double doors and left the office, his secretary exhaled and arranged the papers on his desk.

Soojin went through the files she printed from earlier, she had already finished three sandwiches and two whole apples, but she still couldn’t focus well. She’d been gone for so long; she didn’t know how to approach the companies her bosses were asking her to.

And there was also that tiny little matter of her father remarrying. She didn’t have a problem with her parents finding love again, they’ve been divorce for years. However, her father was marrying a woman that was only two years older than her.

“I’m trying to be open minded about it. And I should be.” She mumbled as she twirled the pen in her fingers. She didn’t bother to look up when she heard the door click open, footsteps echoed from the foyer before she felt a presence with her in the kitchen. Her eyes went to the bags that landed on the countertop with soft thuds. Soojin looked up to meet the newcomer’s gaze.

“Oh.” She blinked at him, Shownu sighed in reply as he shrugged of his coat and draped it on one of the chairs.

“Why didn’t you call? I had to find out from my driver.” He said chidingly as he headed towards the sink put the dishes away, Samantha didn’t reply and she hopped towards the shopping bags, she let out a small sigh of relief as she took out the coffee maker and some coffee pods.

“I didn’t see the point to,” She replied as she opened one of the Jo Malone bags, she took out one of the candles and quickly lit it.

“You all will find out eventually.” Soojin finished, Shownu faced her.

“I haven’t told anyone yet.” He said to her, Soojin was smiling at the amount of candles, room diffusers and coffee he brought over.

“Good, thanks.” She said in reply, she plugged in the coffee maker and looked at him, Shownu was still leaning against the counter, his palms pressed on the marble top. He was eyeing her pensively, Soojin scrunched her nose before prancing towards him.

“Thanks for the supplies too. You’re the best. And I used your card, I couldn’t find mine.” She mused as she hugged him, Shownu scoffed before returning her hug and kissing the top of her head.

“You just used mine because if you used yours, Changkyun would find out.” He said, the girl laughed and pulled away from him.

“I’m here for work, and I’m afraid…it will take me quite a while, Son Hyunwoo.”

“So, you plan on staying here?” He asked as he handed her two mugs, Soojin shrugged and started making them coffee.

“I need to get my bearings right first before transferring home. They asked me to open an office here, I’ll have a colleague join me in a few weeks.” She stated as she offered him a sandwich, he nodded back and took the plate from her.

“How bad?” He asked as he sat down, Soojin rolled her eyes.

“Three clients. I only am familiar with one.” Soojin sat across him with their coffee, he nodded while chewing, a signal for her to continue.

“The Ceylon Ahns. They have one son, he’s currently the company’s vice chairman. Ahn Bohyun. You know him?” She asked as she took small sip from her coffee.

“Not really. But Hyungwon might be familiar with them.” He supplied before eating.

“Hyunwoo-ah,” She spoke, despite being a year younger, Im Soojin never addressed him properly and refused to use his nickname. It was always Hyunwoo, or Son Hyunwoo for her.

“Hmm.”

“She’s only two years older than me. Five years older than Changkyun.”

Shownu paused in midchew, he put his sandwich down.

“If I didn’t check my Spam folder, I wouldn’t find out.” She said in a sweet tone, Shownu grimaced and pulled his mug towards him.

“I see staying here is the better choice.” He murmured, Soojin’s forehead furrowed, and she crossed her arms.

“That woman probably has a tighter than mine.”

“Im Soojin.” Shownu sighed and put his sandwich down, the girl made a face at him before slumping on the countertop.

“I want to be openminded about it, be accepting and all that crap. But,” She shuddered, Shownu let out a laugh.

“Sometimes we shouldn’t really buy that “it’s love” thing, it’s borderline creepy.”

“Hey, how about you join us for polo this weekend? It might take your mind off things, and you know, have your brother see you.”

She simply sighed in reply.

“I know you haven’t played in a while.” He poked her arm, the girl eyed him warily.

“And, Jisoo would love to see you again.”

She craned her neck to meet his gaze, she had a teasing grin on her face.

“I almost forgot how disgustingly in love you are.”

Shownu rolled his eyes, Soojin laughed before sitting up. She looked around the room, her eyes staying on the windows for a short moment.

“Hey, despite that, it’s good that you’re back. And it might be a good idea to sit down and have talk with your father.”

“Okay, you may leave now.” She staed, Shownu ignored her comment and continued eating.

“So, polo this weekend. Should I send a car?” He said as he finished his coffee, Soojin checked the time before nodding at him.

“I can drive myself. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Shownu smiled softly before speaking.

“What is it?” She hissed as she walked him to the door, Soojin helped him to his coat and the male faced him.

“Well, look on the bright side, butterscotch.”

“What bright side?” She rubbed her eyes, she really needed to get more sleep.

“You don’t have to call her “stepmother” or use formal tones with her.”

“What?”

“Just call her “unnie”.” Shownu grinned before bolting out of the room, Soojin glared at his retreating figure.

“That er.”

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