-Chapter XVIII-

On a normal day, Yong Hye loved her Urban Studies class. Even though it had a name that suggested long, boring lectures about urban areas and their characteristics, most of the class is spent learning about the gangs occupying her city. Their social orders, the people known to be associated with them, even their affect on the local economy.

And usually, Yong Hye was one of the few people actually paying attention. Granted, the professor had a very monotone voice, which made it difficult for anyone, particularly college students, to stay awake when he was talking.

But not today. Yong Hye had caught herself nodding off a few times, the earliest being fifteen minutes into the class.

She had woken up early to have breakfast with her mom, then go look at a potential wedding venue. Why her mom booked the appointment so early in the day, Yong Hye didn’t know, and when she asked, her mom had only responded with, “I wanted to beat the crowds,” which was an odd answer, considering the appointment seemed to have coincided with a convention breakfast, that, oddly, her mom seemed to know a lot of people at. That alone completely exhausted Yong Hye, even though it had been pretty early in the day. And she didn’t have any time to go home and rest before class, so she had to fight the urge to lay her head down on her work space and let herself drift off.

But it was getting harder with each passing minute.

“And that was when there was a change in leaders,” the professor, Professor Kang, was saying.

Yong Hye glanced at the room’s clock. Forty more minutes left.

She groaned inwardly. It was going to be a long forty minutes.

She rested her head on her arms, deciding that she was strong enough mentally to be able to stay awake, and, more importantly, pay attention.

And the next thing she knew, she was jerking awake as the professor announced, “And that leads us to Ok Ho Seung.”

“,” Yong Hye breathed, sitting back up straight. She looked around, immediately grateful that she could see the same people that she walked into class with still in their seats. She looked up at the clock. There were now ten minutes left in class. “,” she said again, looking over her notes. She had essentially missed thirty minutes of information. That probably meant she’d have fifty minutes of homework to do now because of her short nap.

Readjusting herself, Yong Hye refocused on Professor Kang, wondering what had woken her up.

“He was born on a small farm about an hour from here, but moved here for business school. What we know is that he dropped out of college in his third year of college, and didn’t show up again until about seven years ago, but he wasn’t the same Ok Ho Seung that had entered business school,” Professor Kang was saying. “He didn’t really show up again anywhere until about seven years ago, when Yang Bo Dan, the leader of the Yang Group, disappeared. People didn’t think much of it at first, since, as we’ve previously discussed, Yang had a thing for disappearing from society for lengthy periods of time. It wasn’t until Ok started making appearances where Yang should have been that people got suspicious. Yang’s body was eventually found, and Ok officially took over as leader. Some people believe that Ok had Yang killed, if he didn’t kill him himself, but that’s never been proven.”

There was something about this topic that stirred something in Yong Hye. She wasn’t sure what it was for a minute, but then…

Ok.

“My last name is Ok, does that mean anything to you?”

Taecyeon.

What were the chances that her friend, with the last name of Ok, and who she had caught attending a gang meeting, would be related to this Ok?

Probably better than Yong Hye would like.

“Otherwise, unfortunately,” the professor continued, oblivious to both the inward struggle in Yong Hye and to that most of his students were snoring away. “Not a lot is known about Ok. He doesn’t seem to like drawing attention to himself, which, for him, is a good thing, considering his profession, but it has definitely proven annoying for law enforcement, as they can’t pin him to nearly anything, or catch him, for that matter.”

He moved on to a different topic, leaving Yong Hye confused about how she felt. On one hand, she was glad that she didn’t have to listen to her professor to discuss a possible relative of her best friend as a dangerous criminal, but on the other hand, she wanted to know more. She wanted to know whether or not Taecyeon was related to Ok Ho Seung. She just couldn’t help herself. As a journalist, she wanted to know.

The rest of class, Yong Hye tossed the same thoughts around in her head. Once they had been dismissed, Yong Hye stuck around a little while longer, waiting for everyone else to leave before she approached Professor Kang.

He was shuffling papers around on his desk when she walked up, and before she could say anything, he sighed and said, “I haven’t even looked at essays yet, so don’t ask.”

Yong Hye shifted her books in her arms. “This isn’t about our essays, sir.”

Professor Kang looked up. “Oh, it’s you, Miss Chae. In that case, don’t worry about your essay. Yours will probably be one of my favorites. As usual.”

Yong Hye bowed politely as a thank you for the compliment, and said, “I was actually wondering if you knew anything else about Ok Ho Seung…” She tried to sound like she was just curious, but she sounded shaky to herself. It wasn’t very often that she asked her professors anything, let alone anything about a topic she was just interested in.

Professor Kang sighed in thought. “Not really,” he answered. “We know that he’s alive and has a lot of money, but he seems to actually run a tighter ship than Yang Bo Dan did when he was the leader.”

“Anything about his family?” Yong Hye tried to sound nonchalant, so she added, “It seems odd to think that anyone with a family would want that sort of life.”

Professor Kang thought again and said, “There was a story that came out a while ago saying he had a wife, but that quickly disappeared. As for any other family, I don’t think anyone knows. I would go so far as to say not even his own followers know if he has a family.”

“Oh,” Yong Hye nodded. “Thank you.”

Professor Kang nodded and gave her a small, rare smile. “Have a good day, Miss Chae.”

“You too, sir.” Yong Hye bowed again, and turned to leave.

She had made it about ten feet when Professor Kang called, “Miss Chae!”

She turned, curious.

“I heard that you and Taemin are engaged. Congratulations.”

Yong Hye gave him a wide smile and bowed, yet again. “Thank you, sir.” She turned away again, making a mental note to kill her loud-mouthed mother. 

Thanks for reading/subscribing~!

I'm REALLY sorry for not updating as much. I've been trying to focus, but everytime  try, a new plot manages to worm its way into my mind, and it's really distracting.

This story's almost done, I just have to decide how I want to end it. 

I'm currently working on the spin-off, and it's gotten...interesting. It won't necessarily be a full-blown sequel, but these characters will be popping in from time to time in that story.

Here's to hoping I can actually sit and write something, instead of just thinking of something new...