summer break. minjeong really misses the summer she had years ago when she was just a reckless teenager enjoying the summer break, it was the only time when she would be away from her parents’ eyes to spend the whole summer in her other friend’s beach house. that was when minjeong wasn’t following rules, her mother would have had a if she had seen how minjeong had been like the whole month. it wasn’t like her mother had zero knowledge though, but at least she wasn’t in the front seat watching minjeong training her liver with all those expensive, strong booze. you can only be eighteen and nineteen once in your life, so why wouldn’t she at least give it a go like her other friends? there wasn’t anything to worry about anyways.

looking back at her situation now, minjeong doesn’t know whether she should be laughing or crying about what she’s going through right now. she’d like to make herself feel better that this is adult life, she needs to accept what is like and accept the fact that she’s no longer the young reckless teenager who has just learned the taste of alcohol and parties such as such. she’s going to be involved with her family’s business once she graduates from college, hence, spending her summer working and learning about the company are all that she has been doing so far. she has to learn it in order to be able to handle it. which is quite , by the way.

sometimes minjeong wonders if all the kids from other companies are doing the same thing as her right now. and for some reason, she can’t help but also think of how karina is spending her break right now. she remembers the girl told her that she wasn’t going to do anything related to the family’s business at all, in fact, she’s going to travel and party around as how the summer break should be.

minjeong hasn’t heard from karina since the break is starting. since the day karina was at her house and got minjeong told her to leave abruptly just because karina provoked her about why wouldn’t minjeong pursue piano as a professional when she knows exactly why minjeong can’t do that.

minjeong knows it was such a childish way to handle the situation, she knows she should’ve handled her emotion better – she knows karina didn’t have the ill intention or wanted to rub salt into minjeong’s wound. but she would never find herself saying it was wrong of her, minjeong would never apologize to karina for the behavior – when minjeong wasn’t even wrong in the first place.

right now instead of a vacation with friends whom minjeong isn’t even very fond of, she’s flown to another different part of the country – to attend a conference along with her parents and siblings. minjeong has to pretend to be interested in every of these business talks and puts on her best acts because her family reputation is everything, said her mother. minjeong has grown fond in involving with the family business but never with the idea of going to conferences or any formal events just to make connections in this industry. minjeong is never one to like the act of faking up a smile or being friendly with anyone. she just doesn’t like people in general. it bores her out even more because there is nothing interesting here; no one talks about anything besides business, money, and business.

she looks around to find a clock on one of the walls in this humongous hall and eventually finds a digital one. it is read that minjeong has to at least endure another hour of standing and conversing around before it is suitable for her to leave without her parents can think it is rude for her to leave too early. minjeong is going to just stand still and shows her face, she isn’t going to interact with any more people. she has enough. when the waiter walks past her, minjeong asks for a flute of champagne to occupy herself while casting her eyes around the room. it’s her third champagne for the night, and she’s feeling quite tipsy but still manageable.

minjeong stands in silence and only smiles when someone walks past her, she’s still going to smile for them even though they aren’t talking. can’t make a bad impression, she doesn’t want to hear people gossiping about the daughter of the kim construction. without even realizing it, minjeong has finished the flute of champagne, but the time is still ticking very slowly. minjeong grumbles under her breath, cussing how the time didn’t even move even a bit. this has to be the longest hour of her life, she’s going to die standing here in the corner. her mind is anywhere but in this room, minjeong doesn’t even notice someone has been standing beside her. she only knows it when a hand wrapped around her waist in a manner that deserves a kick from minjeong, but minjeong doesn’t kick that person – she just yelps in surprise instead. “what the ?” she curses, glaring at the new person who now has a stupid grin on her face, “what are you doing here?” minjeong whispers as if she’s afraid that someone would hear them. well technically, she should be. her parents are somewhere around the corner and minjeong definitely doesn’t want to see her with this person whose family is their supposed rivals.

“i’m doing a family duty, what do you mean?” karina’s eyes opened wide, she is giving minjeong a look that shows the oblivion knowledge regarding minjeong’s question.

minjeong sighs at karina’s answer, she doesn’t mean to ask that. yeah, she was about to but she’d eventually figure it out because of course, karina isn’t here to hang out. who on earth would want to hang out in this deadly place? they must be losing their mind. “i mean why the hell are you wrap