I woke up to the familiar warmth of the sun on my face. Today was a Monday. That meant I’m supposed to be at the building by nine for a meeting with Taecyeon Oppa and the executives of the company to discuss the plans for our summer collection for 2011. I’ve finished my portion of the designs for the collection and I’m pretty sure Taec has finished his portions too…whatever. It’s our company so deadlines can be extended just for us. At the meeting we’d probably be discussing the budget for advertisement, models, and how many of each design we should produce…the boring stuff as usual.

I’ve already gotten used to the routine since three years ago when I got back to Korea. After they murdered mom and dad, Uncle Shin dad’s best friend business partner sent and scattered Taecyeon Oppa and I in North America to keep us safe from being tracked down by the enemies. For the five years I was in Canada, I’ve kept in touch with Taec, who was in the States. We’ve basically built the brother-sister relationship that nothing can tear down…although we still make fun of each other sometimes. Uncle Shin made us learn and train in all sorts of martial arts so that we could protect ourselves, he also sent bodyguards with me to school and made them blend in as classmates. Uncle Shin has been taking care of the underground business for my parents until oppa and I have returned to Korea. He’s still our mentor who gives us advice even though he is now retired and living in Japan with his family.

 While we were in North America, we’ve studied design arts and now own our own label. People think we’re most successful and legal business people ever, but this fashion label, O.K. Fashion, is just a cover for our illegal business. I don’t even remember why my brother named it O.K. Fashion in the first place…our designs are more than ‘okay fashion’ it’s like ‘in style fashion’ or ‘best fashion’ something everyone wants.. We basically make the trends.

I grabbed the folder with my sketches and designs in it and walked down the stairs of our mansion that mom and dad left for us. When I passed by the main living room though, something felt weird. It was quiet. Way too quiet. Usually it would be quiet until the maids come in at noon, it’s only 7:30 AM but it was quieter than usual. I looked around the living room. The ticking of the old grandfather clock that had always comforted me wasn’t there. I walked over to the wall where the clock was standing. It seemed to be broken… I guess I’ll ask one of the maids about it later on tonight. I trailed my finger along the smooth red wood. Come to think about it, this clock has been here for a long time, even before I was born. My fingers trailed over a few dents on the side of the clock. I found something engraved in the wood.

Within a day you catch the clock pause, you will experience at one point, the slowing of time.

            In the whole hour and a half meeting with the department heads and budget planners, I noticed two things. No one noticed that the CEO Ok Taecyeon was not paying attention and everyone approved of our designs again. They say our label will make it to the top again. And this whole time the meeting was running, I was sitting beside Taecyeon watching him play Tetris on his phone.

            I kicked him under the table when the department heads have settled everything. He looked around for a second, like an idiot, and then dismissed everyone, telling them to keep up the hard work.

            “Secretary Lee, are the models and stylists here for the next meeting yet?” Taecyeon asked. Every meeting he calls with the models were never about the fashion label. It’s probably about another trade.

            In a few seconds the models and stylists piled in the conference room. A total of 10 people came in and sat down.

            “Okay so for the fashion show in Seoul the following month, we’re gonna have to have all of you in at least one outfit and some of you would have to change before getting on the runway again. For the finale we’re gonna have myself and Jia walk down first, then Jay and Lena walk down after.” Taecyeon started off because the secretary was still close by.

             “What? No! Jay’s too short to stand beside me!” I had watched the secretary walk back to her desk before I goofed off.

            “What! No! I’m a good 4 centimetres taller than you!” Jay talked back.

            “So you’re saying 173 centimetres is a good height for a guy. You should look at yourself when you’re standing beside the guys. You’re the shortest one.” Fei, my bestfriend and favourite stylist, said. The girls laughed along. Fei does our hair and makeup for shows and photoshoots. Its not that I don’t know how to do my hair or makeup but Fei is a professional, no one can beat her with hair and makeup. Junho would be our other stylist, he’d be mainly doing the guy’s make up when needed.

            “Shorty.” Min said in english.

            “Hey!” Jay whined. “That’s bullying!” everyone just laughed.

            And that’s how close the twelve of us were. We could laugh at each other, call each other names, make fun of each other, and we’d never take offence to it, ‘cause we know its just teasing.

            “Okay then, Nichkhun replaces Jay in the finale.” Taecyeon said. “Khun’s taller.”

            “Whoohoo~” Nickhun cheered.

            “Shut up. God made me this way. I can’t help it.” Jay said.

            Taec being the tallest of the guys chuckled. “Okay back to business. The Dragon’s gang called for a trade.” Us being one of the biggest suppliers in Seoul have a handful of trades to do. “There are gonna be police close by. They’re already suspecting drug abuse blah blah blah and those happening in the trading area. I asked GDragon to switch the trading area but it looks like he doesn’t want to risk the unfamiliarity of another gang’s territory around Seoul.”

            “So what you’re saying is that we should be careful? Don’t you say that everytime?” Junsu asked.

            “It’s different this time. The cops have this plan all laid out to catch us. So the only thing we can do is lay out a plan to outsmart the cops.” Taecyeon explained. “So we’ll have to outsmart them.”

            “Kay, so here’s the plan. The main light source in the alleyway will stay the same as the trading spot.” I told them. “But we’re gonna trade them the stuff earlier than the usual time, that would probably throw off the police. On the North end of the alleyway, we’re going to have Min and Junsu at the end by the French restaurant with a car ready to go anytime. On the South end, we’re gonna have Suzy and Khun in another car, also ready to go. Junho you’re going to have a car at the end of the hidden path three quarters of the way towards the North. The police shouldn’t know about that path.”

The usual trading spot with the Dragon’s gang was in a dark long alley with only one light source in the middle. A few metres away from the middle of the long alleyway would be pitch darkness. We would be using our senses other than sight.

            “Lena and I will park our car at the south end and pretend to be going to the French restaurant. We’ll hold up any cops if we run into any trouble. With our status, they won’t suspect anything. Jay, Chansung, Wooyoung, you’re the usual traders. Oh and keep your earpiece on. The guys in the cars, tell us when you see the police going into the alleyway. If anything fails, get the hell out of there run to the hidden path and hop onto Junho’s car. Everyone meet at the French Restaurant.” Taecyeon continued.

            “And if you see the police talking to us, have one of the guys come get us, saying something like ‘Oh you guys are here? You said you parked your car why are you taking so long, the others are waiting.” I added. “If the cops ask you too, say that we were celebrating the completion and approval of the Summer Collection ’14 …And…I think that’s all…do you guys see any loop holes that we missed?”

            “Damn…you guys really are siblings…you covered everything.” Junsu sat back stunned by the on the spot planning. I guess Taec and I have some sort of way to communicate without words. 

Woohoo :] that's the first chapter...so how was it?

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