4 Jung

There was tension in the house of Lee that night when the head of the family held an urgent meeting inside his study with his most trusted men. As the main stockholder for most of the automobile industrial companies in Yeohwa, the man should not have any worries but that night he was restless for his other business was in jeopardy.

Lee Family’s other business was to export weapons, mostly to conflict induced countries like those in Middle East and Africa; although the biggest income would be from the Europe where the countries bought high end weapons from South Korea illegally for their espionage purposes. Yesterday, one of Lee Family’s cargos was intercepted by the police with the courtesy of a mysterious fellow known only as the Ungnyeo. It rattled the head of the family and apparently, the other three families suffered the same disturbance from the Ungnyeo in their business. In time of dread such as this, the usual rivaling Families would gather to find a solution to their common problem. And that was why the head of Lee family gathered his men in his study that night. He was not expecting any trouble in this meeting with the other families in the city but he wanted to make sure that the Lee Family was protected from any disturbance that might occur.

After a long meeting and making sure that everyone knew their part in worst case scenario ended, the man went to his car which had already waiting for him in the porch. When the man entered the car, his daughter was waiting for him inside.

“Sorry it took so long,” said the man, “I wanted to make sure our family is protected if the talk goes sideways.”

“I understand,” said the daughter.

“You don’t have to come, though.”

“I insist, Father. I want to see the new head of the Jung’s family.”

The man nodded and told the driver to go. The luxurious Hyundai drove along the night roads to a very expensive hotel near the beach with three cars following them as guards. The exclusive hotel was owned by the strongest family in the city, the most feared one among others.

When the head of the Lee family stepped down the car, he was greeted by exclusive security guards in neat suits and they led him and his daughter to a hidden elevator at the back of the hotel. It took them to the 28^th floor where it opened straight into a huge ballroom.

An open bar stood at one side of the ballroom where a few people were enjoying some alcohol and then there were sofas on the other end, creating an unofficial path leading them to an elegant double door. It was painted in blue like the walls, the curtain and all the furniture in the room. When the man about to open the door, he stopped and looked at his daughter.

“Sunny,” he said, “this is a peaceful talk in order to find a solution for our common problem. Do not say anything unnecessary. Not even when the owner of this hotel says something incredibly rude or stupid even. She could be unreasonable. We don’t want to risk anything.”

“Yes, Father,” his daughter nodded and stayed still when the man opened the door.

Inside the room, there were already six people sitting on a long table, two from each family. Sunny followed her father and sat on the empty chairs. She tried to be calm but she couldn’t resist stealing glances to the girl sitting at the end of the table.  The girl was slender, beautiful with no word to describe it and had eyes like they could freeze anything that comes into her vision. She was sitting low on her chair, in a lazy manner, as if she could care less about the meeting. She was the new head of the Jung’s family; Jung Jessica.

There was a young man sitting to her left side and it seemed like he would be the one doing all the talking for the Jung’s family because he cleared his throat as soon as Sunny and her father sat down.

“Since everyone is gathered, I would like to officially greet everyone. I thank you for your time and to host tonight’s meeting, my name is Jung Hyuwan and I would be the representative of the Jung Family.”

**

“Is it true that Jung Jessica killed her own father?” asked a young man as he sipped his martini on the bar.

His name was Choi Insuk, a muscle man for the Choi family, and he was sitting by the bar, drinking. Next to him was a member of the Kim’s family, the daughter and the heir, Kim Hyoyeon.

“The official statement said that her father died of pneumonia,” said Hyoyeon. “But who knows.”

Hyoyeon was wearing suit that night, fitting to her perfectly curved body, and it attracted Insuk in a dirty way. “You know, if we didn’t come from the different families, maybe we could get together sometimes.”

“Yeah? Then I’m glad that you’re a Choi. Because I wouldn’t want to hang out with you.”

Insuk scoffed. “Well said, Kim Hyoyeon. Well said.” Insuk turned around, facing his back to the bar. There was a guy that attracted his attention. The guy was sitting on a sofa, looking straight at Hyoyeon. “Hey, Lady. Do you know that man?”

“Hm?” Hyoyeon turned around to see who Insuk was talking about. “Ah, him. One of the Lee family’s small thugs. A few of his men made a scene in my bar the other day, my boys had to straightened them out.”

“Well, I think he still has some bones to pick with you.”

Hyoyeon smiled. “Let him try.”

**

“The Ungnyeo,” said the representative from the Kim family spoke, “interfered with my money truck and we lost a relatively small amount; about two million dollars. It was not a big deal but it would be nice if we could get rid of this so called vigilante so my men could move in peace.”

“This could be a sensitive decision,” said the head of Choi family, “because I think that this Ungnyeo wants to expose us all, lure out the bad seed in the government and even in the police that we had bought. We can’t jump into his trap.”

“But if we let him roam around free, sooner or later our business would be in danger,” the representative of the Kim family said.

“So I think the solution is to hire a third party to handle this guy, no?” asked Hyuwan.

Everyone nodded in unison.

“Somebody cheap, preferably. Hire a talented assassin would gather too much attention from the other unwanted parties,” said the head of Lee family.

“Hmph.”

Everyone turned to the end of the table. Jessica just scoffed in mock to the head of Lee family.

“Excuse me?” he asked.

“Is the Lee family running out of money? I can lend you some,” said Jung Jessica with a smirk on her face.

“What?!” Sunny gritted her teeth. She was angry, she couldn’t take the insult but apparently her father could. He raised his hand to stop her from saying anything else.

“It’s certainly a good opinion to hire a rookie assassin,” said the head of Choi family, “like he said, we don’t want unnecessary attention from the other underground group. We have enough trouble as it is.”

“In that case, I have a perfect one,” said the representative of Kim family. “She works for us but not one of us. We could deny her if she should try any funny stuff.”

Hyuwan nodded. “Suggestion well received. Anyone?”

“We need to know this person first, don’t you think?” asked the Choi family.

“Well, I can’t personally introduce you but you will see the action this person brings on the news, I think, very soon. And when you see it, take it into consideration.”

**

Hyoyeon saw the guy on the sofa stood up and walked to her direction. Insuk cleared the area, knowing that there will be a small brawl coming. He decided to watch from the side, not too far though, only enough to avoid flying bottle if there should be one.

The guy suddenly pulled out a small sword from his back. It was short but thick with some sort of a trigger on the handle. Insuk knew what it was, he saw one back when he visited the black market gun dealer in Kuwait, a gunblade they called it. The guy forced the sword’s handle into Hyoyeon’s face which the girl quickly grabbed it with her bare hand. When she did, the guy pulled the trigger. An explosion occurred, quite huge that the open bar got blown in half and the bartender was pushed against the cabinet and fainted.

Insuk reeled a few steps back in surprise. Hyoyeon was a goner, he thought, with a blast like that, she wouldn’t survive. But he was wrong. Hyoyeon was still on the exact spot where she sat before, one hand holding the gunblade a few inches from her face. Apart from the messy hair and half of her suit burned by the explosion, Hyoyeon was unharmed. She was smiling instead and in a blink of an eye, the girl kicked the guy on his chest, sending him flying across the ballroom. He coughed up real badly after the blow.

Hyoyeon took off her ruined suit and realized that the sleeve of her expensive shirt got blown away as well. She took it off too and left only her bra intact. With much composure, the girl walked toward the downed guy. Hyoyeon put her fingers around the guy’s neck, lifting him up and slammed him against the window, making a huge crack on it.

“Don’t…,” he said.

“You started it,” Hyoyeon shrugged.

Then the double door opened. Everyone in the room came out and was amazed by the scene they were witnessing.

“Drop him!” said Lee Sunny.

Hyoyeon turned to Sunny. “He started it.”

Sunny pulled out a gun and pointed to Hyoyeon, “I said let him go.”

“Hyoyeon!” said the representative of the Kim family. “Stop it and let the man go. Your father would not want to hear about this.”

Hyoyeon smiled, “I don’t want to.”

“I’ll open fire!” Sunny threatened the half girl but then suddenly her gun became so cold it was painful to her skin. It was burning cold she had to let it go.

“Gah!” Hyoyeon retracted her hand and dropped the guy. Her hand was in pain, freezing pain. The skin was turning blue, frozen, and she couldn’t move a muscle. After an excruciatingly long ten seconds, her hand went back to normal. Feeling the blood streaming in her veins again, Hyoyeon let out a deep breath.

Then, Jung Jessica walked out from the meeting room. “I don’t like violence in my hotel. I don’t appreciate it. Go away all of you before I change my mind.”

Everyone turned to her. No one said anything, they were either too confused or too scared. With no words uttered, everyone moved to the elevator. Each of the family’s representatives took different elevators.

Sunny left her gun in the ballroom, too scared to pick it up. “Father,” she said, “was that her? Was all that her doing?”

Her father said nothing. He didn’t know what to say. While in the other elevator, Hyoyeon was trembling in fear and she never felt any fear in her life before. “What was that? What happened?”

Jessica sighed and yawned. “I’m tired, I’m going to sleep. Clean this up,” she said to Hyuwan before retreating back into the room. “Oh,” she stopped, “bring me that gunblade.”

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