case 01

chapter 10: a step forward, a step back

Since college, Johnny always had a well-kept, not-so-well-kept secret: the unfortunate reality that he didn’t come from money.

But Johnny wasn’t Wendy, who wore her financial status, or lack thereof, like a badge. He thought he had put on a convincing façade. He was regularly garbed in luxury brands –samples from the retail stores he worked part-time at– and was often wining and dining –with the help of cleverly acquired discount coupons– at some of the best restaurants. But when Wendy started her own part-time stint at the store across his, Yuta noticed his entire wardrobe was just of that one brand, and Jaehyun ran into him at a five-star place paying with his coupons. Of course, at the time, Jaehyun just whipped out his black card. Johnny always wondered how that would have felt – being so loaded with cash that he’d never be able to feel the value of each dollar leaving his pocket. If it were him, he would have had a heart attack paying for an eight-course meal out-of-pocket. A fatal heart attack.

So, when the topic of not just the store he used to work at, but the whole ing building, came up with regards to Boa and Yunho’s division of assets, Johnny felt his heart lurch.

Seulgi tapped on the grainy, poorly-printed photograph of the department store. “Ashin Atrium,” she said, turning to the boy sitting at the end of the dining table, “your mom or your dad?”

“Oh,” Sungchan said, his brows furrowing to accentuate the dilemma in his mind, “that’s going to be a tough one.”

No , Johnny thought to himself. It was the third night in a row that Sungchan had crashed at Johnny’s –by extension, Jaehyun and Yuta’s– apartment to aid him and Seulgi in their mediation proposal. In other words, he was assisting in debating whose lucky hands the Ashin Group’s multitude of assets should end up in. While Johnny had gasped and gaped at the market value of what the conglomerate owned, the kid had yet to bat an eyelid, and Johnny wondered if it was the natural effect of him being born with the fortune of never having to lift a finger to earn his billions. Lucky bastard.

“Why?” Seulgi asked, tilting her head. “We were able to get through the office buildings and apartment complexes pretty quickly.”

“Yeah, because in those cases, the land wasn’t of significant value beyond the numbers.” Johnny stopped himself from rolling his eyes. Sungchan folded his arms, deep in thought. “Ashin Atrium is built on ancestral land, so Dad’s never going to let it go. But it’s also Mom’s favorite out of all the assets, so she’s not going to back down, either. They’d forgo mediation and just fight it out in court over this one asset alone.”

“Well,” Johnny said, shaking off his remnant shock at the asset values, “why not convince your dad to hand it over to your mom? Let us get some brownie points, eh?”

Sungchan eyed them suspiciously. “Are you guys trying to scam my dad?”

“You’ve been calling your dad a scam for the past three days,” Johnny pointed out.

“So much for trying to be impartial,” Sungchan scoffed. “I always knew you lawyers were only going to look out for yourselves.”

“Hey! Watch your mouth!”

“I always told you guys not to judge a book by it’s cover. He looked so sweet and unassuming at first – should’ve known what a brat he is.” Yuta emerged from the bathroom, a face mask mummifying his face and his wet blonde hair in a messy bun atop his head. He shuffled into the kitchen and pulled at the refrigerator.

Sungchan scrunched up his face in disgust. “I wouldn’t even want to judge you by your cover, Mr. Nakamoto. Are you sure you’ve been on the covers of High Society?”

Yuta whipped his head around, completely aghast. “Excuse me?” he gaped in shock. “Johnny, Seulgi, let’s kick this er out. Screw the mediation. I want to take this er to court for defamation.”

“I second that,” Wendy called, trudging through the corridor. It took a while for anyone to make out that it was her, and not a laundry basket that had grown a pair of legs. “Just because you’ve crashed for three days, Sungchan,” Wendy set down the basket with a guttural groan, “doesn’t mean that you can start putting your laundry in the hamper. You don’t live here.”

Jaehyun looked up from his television program, eyebrows crossed. “Neither do you.”

“Shut it.” Wendy threw him a warning look and he raised both hands up in willing surrender – she was doing their week’s worth of laundry, after all. It had been starting to stink.

Sungchan wrinkled his nose. He’d seen all kind of friendships, but that had to be new. “You guys are ing weird.”

Before Wendy and Yuta could retaliate, Johnny snapped his fingers in front of Sungchan’s face. “Hey, hey,” he called. “Focus. Department store.”

Sungchan turned back to the two overstressed, overworked lawyers. “Honestly, I don’t know. Want to toss a coin?”

“Seriously?” Johnny gaped. “And you accused us of being a scam.”

“Okay, here’s an idea,” Seulgi said. She picked up a highlighter and started sketching across the documents. “We can split the building, but not the classical way – since his dad wants the land, he can retain ownership of the building and give his mother leasehold interest at a low deposit, so she can manage and earn full profits from the department store operations.”

Johnny slowly deliberated the thought. “It’s not a bad idea, but don’t leasehold interests expire after a certain number of years?”

“Yes, but we can set an impossibly high number, for example, ninety-nine years,” Seulgi suggested. “Anyway, when either pass, Sungchan will inherit everything – land and building. It’s a temporary arrangement, but it’ll satisfy both.”

Johnny and Seulgi divert their eyes to Sungchan. “Well,” Sungchan nodded, “I’m not sure if it’ll necessary satisfy my parents, knowing their characters, but it’s the most palatable idea.”

They exchanged high-fives and happily placed ticks on their checklist. Yuta peeked over Seulgi’s shoulders, eyes briskly scanning through the documents.

“Aren’t you guys supposed to try to win her 70%, though? Operational rights and land ownership are pretty far off in terms of asset value,” he observed astutely. Johnny and Seulgi both sat up straight, eyes widened. Yuta recoiled defensively. “What? I’m a businessman!”

“You also used to think algebra was a luxury brand,” Jaehyun said, lying on the sofa.

Sungchan doubled over in laughter as Yuta dove at Jaehyun.

Seulgi stood in the corridor, hearing her erratic breaths in her ears. She attempted to convince herself that it wasn’t her breathing crazy, but there was no one in her vicinity. She harrumphed, as though clearing would help to clear her mind.

A hand settled on her shoulder, and she was giddy enough to jump up in fright. “Nervous?” Johnny asked. It was more of an observation, but she knew he was being polite.

“A little bit,” she said, trying to smile. Seulgi also wasn’t too proud to admit that there were moments when she, too, had a case of stage fright. In many ways, the four walls of meeting rooms and trial courts were her stage.

Sometimes, she forgot that they were also his.

Johnny stretched a long, seemingly unending limb over her shoulders and pulled her to his side. They were well past the stage of being too close for comfort. They met when they were eighteen, on some breezy autumn day in front of their law school, when she was trying to find her lecture hall and he was a tall, overexcited freshman trying to make friends with every soul he laid his eyes on. Upon discovering that they were late for the same class, Johnny had swept her into a big, bear hug. Times had changed – they had changed, but Johnny was still as warm and reassuring as he was the day they met.

“Me too,” he chortled. “If this tanks and we get fired, do you want to start a law firm with me? We can split ownership – fifty-fifty.”

Seulgi snorted. “That sounds like a much easier route to making Partner than this.”

“Ack, you’re right,” Johnny grimaced jokingly. “Why didn’t we think of that earlier?”

He balled up a fist and held it towards her. She bumped it, a smile hinting at the corners of her lips. People said that law school was a jungle crawling with enemies, but in Johnny she found a comrade who braved through that jungle with her, sticking around even after more than a decade. Perhaps, they hadn’t changed.

Another fist joined theirs, and they looked up to see a grinning Sungchan. “Not forgetting the real star of the show, are you?” he chuckled.

“You’re the one who’s late,” Seulgi pointed out.

“Fashionably so,” he replied wittily. “I was double-checking the proposal one more time. Wouldn’t want to be scamming my own parents, like a couple of lawyers I know.”

They laughed. Johnny thumped him on the back, and the three of them headed through the glass doors. With one last exchange of looks, they burst into the meeting room at the end of the hallway.

The cold, steely glares in the room were diverted to them. Ahn Chilhyun, Yunho’s lawyer, eyed Johnny and Seulgi from top to toe. “Ah, Changmin,” he said silkily, “I didn’t know your firm had such… flexible working hours.”

Yunho shook his head. “I knew coming today would be a waste of time.”

“And you said they were your best, Changmin,” Boa added. Johnny and Seulgi could see Changmin’s frown deepen distinctively.

“We’re sorry for our tardiness,” Johnny said gallantly, dropping into a bow. “But there’s someone who we thought would be very helpful in the decision-making process.”

 And here we go. Johnny and Seulgi stepped aside, like they were parting the Red Sea. Yunho and Boa quickly got to their feet.

“Mom, Dad.”

Yuta and Wendy held their breaths, nervously clutching each other’s hands behind their backs. In front of the mirror, Wendy’s statuesque client –and hopefully eventually Yuta’s– twisted and turned. Yuta would have felt the sweat on his palms – if he hadn’t already felt the sweat on Wendy’s.

After taking what felt like the longest, most dramatic pause, Sooyoung announced: “This is it. This is my dress!”

The entire store exploded into a customary round of cheering and clapping. Chenle and Renjun were waving their hands, beaming with youthful excitement. Yuta and Wendy would have been jumping up and down, shrieking like they had just won the world’s biggest lottery, if the cues of age –not really, they would’ve still yelled the way they would in their teens– and professionalism hadn’t held them back.

Choi Minho stepped forward, wrapping his arms around his sister and offering her his congratulations. Wendy saw his eyes skim over the price tag before he quickly recoiled and cleared his throat.

His eyes darted towards the door. Probably where he wanted to go, if it weren’t for his sister, Wendy knew. “Give me a moment, I need the bathroom,” he said politely. He made a swift exit, and Wendy hoped the numbers hadn’t sent him retching and reeling.

Wendy watched Sooyoung swish and sway her dress, admiring her reflection her mirror. The thought of telling Sooyoung the truth was nipping incessantly at her mind again. If the positions were switched and Wendy was in Sooyoung’