Ji Yong’s POV

It was a small meeting room, with one medium size round table and 5 chairs around it. The lights are brighter compared to the dim lights at the jazz bar downstairs. The walls are painted nicely in cobalt green. At the corner of the room, there are coffee and tea pot along with candies in a jar. Amused, I wonder why a jazz bar ever needs a meeting room.

Daesung was standing near the table. His shocked face greeted me, “Ah, hyung, you’re here.”  If that was a statement or a question, I didn’t know.

“Yeah, wouldn’t miss it for the world.” I shrugged and then decided to walk to where he was. But Daesung met me halfway.

“Care to explain? Why am I hearing about this meeting for the first time tonight?” I asked him when he finally beside me.  

“I don’t know that they really are coming tonight.” He whispered to me while we kept walking to the table.

“I don’t follow…” I didn’t know why, but I was whispering to him too. We sat on the nearest chairs with our backs facing the door.

“I’ve told you before that SM and YG still insist to meet you, haven’t I? So, I resorted to an ultimatum.” He looked at me as if I understood what he’s been talking about, which clearly I didn’t.

“And what kind of ultimatum is it?” I prodded him to give me more explanation.

“I made an abrupt call and told them that you are here tonight. I want to make the impression that they are actually going to meet you. I simply said that if they couldn’t get here in 1 hour, you won’t be interested in their offers at all. Since I already knew that the traffic would be hell tonight, I thought they won’t be able to come here on time. It will save us a lot of energy and time to get rid of them.” he explained it all to me without a pause.

While I was processing his explanation in my mind, he continued, “Our plan was to get rid of them, right hyung?” he asked me with a determined look on his face

“Ahem…” Daesung and I jerked our head in unison towards the voice. There I saw her standing at the door. I felt the urge to smile; her startled look earlier when I told her implicitly that I’m Kwon Ji Yong amused me. But then when I remember Yong Deuk’s answer after I asked him why she’s having a meeting with Daesung, I suppressed the smile.

She’s one of them.

“Should I wait outside or…” she motioned towards the door.

“Aah, I’m sorry. Miss Park Bom from YG Entertainment, am I right?” Daesung stood up. She nodded and walked towards us.

Park Bom. Spring. I like it. No, I don’t like her.

“Miss Park, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Kang Daesung, Kwon Ji Yong’s manager at the moment.” He shook her hand vigorously and flashed his angelic smile to her.

Then Daesung continued, “Please excuse his uncivilized appearance, but I assure you that this is Mr. Kwon Ji Yong, the man of your pursuit. Hyung, this is Miss Park Bom from YG Entertainment.”

“Park Bom. It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Kang and Mr. Kwon.” She gave us her business card and then Daesung motioned her to have a seat across of mine.

“Ji Yong, please. Don’t be formal, it’s not like this is our first greetings, isn’t it? And the pleasure is all mine.” I waved her business card playfully. Although she’s trying to hide it, I could see her slight pout. In seconds, she then changed her face into a serious look.   

“So, you’ve met her before, hyung?” Daesung asked me when he sat on his chair. He was busy flipping through his papers, which probably didn’t have anything to do with this meeting. Thank God, he’s not paying attention to the tension between me and her. I bet he’s thinking hard on how to reject her. Poor Daesung. He’s too kind, blessed his soul.

“We had a brief encounter outside.” I winked at her. She looked annoyed at first, but then gave me a forced smile. She still looked pretty anyway.  

“Would you like anything to drink, Miss Park?” Daesung asked her politely. He didn’t realize that his question put some redness on her face.  She must be remembering the drink incident earlier. When our eyes met, I was almost burst into laugh.    

She shot a don't you dare laugh-look at me between her embarrassed smile and then she finally managed to say, “No, I’m okay. Thank you, Mr. Kang.”

And there was an awkward silence after that.

Daesung looked at me as if he was begging me to do something. So, I just did it my way, “Okay, let’s get to the point, shall we? What do you want?”

She cleared , wore a back to business expression on her face, and said, “Well, Mr. Kwon...”

I couldn’t resist to cut her business-like tone, “Just call me Ji Yong, will you? And in return, can I call you Bom-yang? I’m guessing that you’re older than me, but you don’t look like an ahjumma, then I don’t know for sure, so I think...” 

She interrupted me, “Call me as you please, JI YONG-SSI.” And I couldn’t help the smirk on my face when I saw her frustrate look.

She continued, “First I would like to express my condolences to both of you. I’m wishing you peace as you grieve the loss.”

.

.

.

Silence filled the room again for I felt like forever until Daesung said to her, “Thank you, Miss Park. Please do continue.”

So she went on, “I’m here to represent YG Entertainment. We would like to work with Ji Yong-ssi…”

“Tch…work WITH you or work FOR you?” as my mood turned gloomy, I didn’t care how rude it may sound to her.

She seemed unfazed with my words, she explained, “At YG, no matter who you are at the company; singers, actors, stylists, producers, managers, trainers, or even support crews, all of us work hard together and support each other like a family. To answer your question, we want to work with you. You are a talented musician, no doubt about that. We offer you our assistance in recording your music, doing promotional works, managing your schedule, and there are other things that we are planning to do…” enthusiastically she showed me all of the colourful presentation slides on her Tab.  

Although I enjoyed the way her face suddenly lit up, I had to reject her. Right here, right now.

“I don’t need your help.” She was a bit startled when I shoved the Tab away to her direction.   

After a minute or two, she surprised me by calmly said, “If you say so.” She put her Tab back into her bag. I saw no disappointed look on her face.

That’s it? Isn’t she supposed to beg me to accept her offer? Or is she playing some reverse psychology trick on me?     

While I was puzzled by her reaction, suddenly she said, “Can I ask something?”

I looked into her eyes, trying to understand what her game is, “Sure…”

“When was the last time you did anything related to music, Ji Yong-ssi?” she looked back into my eyes as if she was challenging me.  

“None of your business, Bom-yang.” I told her flatly with a deadpanned look on my face. As I tried to suppress my irritation, I gave her my half-hearted cheeky smile. Her question surely stung my pride.

“If I ask as a fan of your music, would you answer my question?” she clasped her hand and then move her upper body slightly toward me. I sensed a very subtle aegyo from her voice, which I almost couldn’t resist, not with her doll eyes looking at me like that. I don’t know what will happen if she use her full-force aegyo to me. I’ll be doomed.

I looked at her intently and said it firmly, “You’re not a fan.”

I was so glad that my voice didn’t betray me.

We stared at each other until she retreated, “Very well, Ji Yong-ssi.” Her voice back to serious tone and said, “I’ll bother you no more. It’s clear enough for me that there’s nothing I can do when you’ve already set your mind on rejecting our offer. But, do you mind if I invite you over to our headquarter office? I promise you, there will be no talk about business while you are there. But you might be surprised when you find out that you actually have something in common with people at YG.”

Her statement intrigued me, “And that is…?”

With a confident look on her face, she said, “The love and passion for music.”

I almost blurted out a sarcastic reply like, ‘Oh, wow really?’ instead I said, “I’ll consider it, Bom-yang.”

She smiled, “Thank you, my staff will arrange it. Now, I’ll excuse myself. I’m sure you must have a lot of things to do, Ji Yong-ssi. You’re a very busy man, after all.”

Touché.

She turned her attention to Daesung, “Thank you for this opportunity, Mr. Kang.” 

“You’re welcome, Miss Park.” The three of us stood up. Then she shook hand with Daesung and I. I admitted that I held her hand longer than it was supposed to be just to irk her. As her revenge, she held, no, crushed my hand so tightly that will definitely broke my fingers. She’s a strangely strong girl.

Realizing that Daesung was looking back and forth between me and her, I released her hand. She gave me a playful smirk before she walked to the door.

Just when she was about to open the door, she surprised me again by saying, “By the way, Ji Yong-ssi, I may not a fan, but I love your Youtube video titled ‘Forever With You/We Belong Together‘.”

There was a mixed feeling between proud and curious when she mentioned my old video, particularly because of the songs itself were not released in any of my albums.  

“I like your rap style in it. I’ve been wondering when you will make songs like that again.” With that last remark, she left the room.

“Hmm…so, she did the homework after all…” once again I couldn’t help but to smile, the widest one ever since Kang Jo-ahjussi’s death.

*****

A/N:

Hello readers! I know..another late update. But I do hope you still want to read my story. Let me know what do you think of this chapter, kindly drop some  comments, okay...

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