Bidayatan Jadida (بداية جديدة) –  New Beginnings

Chapter 2

 

 After Yamina’s meeting with Alberto finished she climbed into another taxi and made her way to Jasmine Merlohe’s, AKA Jazz, aka her BFF, studio apartment on the other side of Paris. In Paris, there are 20 different neighborhoods which are called arrondissements. When Yamina first moved to Paris about ten years ago she learned that Paris’ arrondissements are named according to their number, which corresponds to an administrative district. This is something very different than her home country/hometown, Malaga, Andalusia, Spain. The Parisian neighborhood districts spiral out from the center in numerical order with the suburbs being called the banlieues. The areas to the west of the city (Neuilly, Boulogne, Saint Cloud, Levallois, Versailles) are the most desirable which isn’t where she was headed. She was headed to the 13ème - Place d'Italie. The 13 ème is a multi-cultural residential neighborhood which includes Paris' Chinatown and the ultra-modern Bibliothèque François Mitterand.

 

Yamina likes this part of Paris. It is less Anglo (white) due to being home to Paris’ Chinatown that consisted of not just Chinese French, but Vietnamese French, Cambodian French, and a small Arabic French enclave as well. It wasn’t that she didn’t like white people, but she was a woman of color and felt more at home when various ethnicities surrounded her. Thirteen ème was her third home. If L’Artist hadn’t insisted that she had an image to uphold she would have bought an apartment in this part of Paris instead of the more gentrified neighborhood she lived in. As it was whenever she could she spent as much time in Jasmine’s part of Paris than her own. She felt more relaxed in this arrondissement than her own.

 

            Soon the taxi pulls up to Jasmine’s address. After paying the cab driver, Yamina gets out of the taxi and walks into Jasmine’s older apartment building. Since the building was one of the older buildings in Paris there was no lift, so she has to walk up three flights of stairs before she can reach her destination. Yamina didn’t mind. She preferred it as she likes to work out her body as much as she could. As a matter of fact, despite no longer having scheduled dance practices at L’Artist to attend she quickly developed her habit of dancing at least 3 hours a day in the morning, four days a week. Of course, this was nothing compared to the 12-hour dance days that had once been routine for her. Even with the decrease in dance practice, her body appreciated it and she had managed to maintain her tight figure that had been at time hellish to achieve and maintain.

 

Jasmine’s full name is Jasmine Bérénice Marlohe. Yet don’t let her name fool you, despite having a very French name she is a full-blooded culturally raised Cambodian woman. She had immigrated to France when she was 14 years old and has lived in Paris for the past 9 years now. Now at 23 years old, she is settled in France with no desire to return to the poverty and hunger that she had left behind in Cambodia. In a matter of minutes, she was at the front door of her best friend’s apartment. Dress in fitted yoga pants and a thin workout shirt that had the Spanish word amor shaped in a heart, Jasmine greeted Yamina with a hug and a smile.

“Hey, Mina! How was meeting?” Jasmine asked as she stepped back opening her door to her apartment wider to allow Yamina to cross over the threshold and enter into Jasmine’s space. Jasmine is tall for an Asian girl standing at 5 ‘8” tall. When Yamina had been in Gravity 6 she had been the tallest member as the other group members who were all of the various Asian ethnicities had been shorter with the shortest member being 5’3 to the tallest being 5’6”.

“It went well. I found out that Alberto had reached out to C.P. Ngo on our behalf and he is super interested in becoming our new representation. Al said the meeting is set for the next day after our show.”

“I knew there was a reason I liked him, you know besides being able to cleanly untangle you from Francoise, who is a bastard by the way.”

“Agreed, but he is a bastard that we have no ties to any longer. All the papers have been signed, notarized and will be filed at the French courts tomorrow.” Yamina flopped down on to Jasmine’s love seat. Despite it being no later than 3 in the afternoon she was tired, and her day wasn’t even half over. The thought soon entered into her head that if she was still with Gravity 6, she would be in final rehearsals for what was to be their largest Parisian concert in celebration of the 7^th anniversary of their debut and 10 years of being a group. A wave of sadness fell over her heart. Flashes of better times with Honey, Suga, and Angel fluttered in her mind’s eye and the bright and happy hopes they once shared in their old dorm in the late nights when they were so hyped that they couldn’t sleep whispered in her ears.

“Hey, it’s okay you know.” Jasmine came behind Yamina and leaned down and gave her a back hug, wrapping her tan arms around Yamina’s shoulders, placing her head on her shoulder next to Yamina’s while rubbing her hands up and down Yamina’s upper arms.

“I know. I just wish it could be different.”

“You are too sweet and nice sometimes. It will be detrimental to your health one day.”

Yamina signs, “You are probably right, but I wouldn’t want to be heartless, judgmental and cruel. That life never worked for anyone, at least not for long.” She turned her head and kissed Jasmine on her cheek. “Thanks for being here for me.”

“No thanks, necessary. You’re my BFF and have saved my life more times than you realized.” Jasmine said in all seriousness as she released Yamina from her hold. If their paths had not crossed that fateful day four years ago Jasmine shuddered to think of where she would be today. Jasmine shook her head to loosen the dark thoughts that wanted to take over her mind. “Well, I know this isn’t a rehearsal for a grand 7th anniversary but a new start. Are you ready?”

Yamina and Jasmine had successfully managed to secure a spot in an underground hip-hop and R&B concert in one of the dopiest clubs in Paris two months ago and both of them had tireless worked to put together a show that would let their fanbase know that Yamina wasn’t going anywhere, despite whatever roadblocks Francoise chose to throw their way. This of luck was thanks to Jasmine. Although Jasmine had been working professionally in the French music business since befriending Yamina she was still heavily connected to the Parisian underground hip-hop and r&b scene and performed at venues regularly across Paris and had even put out a mixtape or two with various degrees of success over the years of her work. Now it was truly time to get serious.

“More ready than I’ve been a long while. Let’s go.”

After grabbing a couple of large liters of water, Jasmine and Yamina left Jasmine’s apartment and walked to their practice studio two block away to do a final rehearsal for the beginning of the next chapter of both of their lives.

 

^*&*(#@

Seok-Jin, also known simply by his friends and fans simply as Jin, was soaked in sweat and his mind felt numb that he was hard-pressed to remember the next choreography that they were rehearsing. He knew part of the problem was he was having a bad case of jet lag. Thank goodness their Paris concert was in three days so there was time for his body to adjust to the what felt like a dramatic time change. He loved Paris and wanted to enjoy their time here, especially since Bang-shi had arranged for BTS and its team to explore Paris while they were here.

“Alright, everyone. Let’s take a break. We will do one more run-through of the last two songs of the concert then call it a night.”

Jin almost laid down right where he was in exhausting, well almost.  He had enough pride to make it down to the end of the stage and sit down at the edge. Taking some deep breaths, he worked to clear the fog from his brain and the fatigue from the muscles of his body. He loved his career but there were times he wished for a break so his body could rest.

“Here.” Bottle water was into his line of vision. Looking up he sees Jungkook smiling at him as he held out the water towards his hyung. When Jin takes it from him with a tired smile Jungkook moves to sit next to him.

“Are you going to be okay, Hyung?” Jungkook asks a little concerned. He had never seen his brother so tired from jet lag.
            “Yea, I should be. I should have rested more before we started the tour.” Jin takes a big swallow of water and that seems to help. Allowing the cold water to refresh his body Jin looks at his baby brother from another mother and saw the smile and happiness on Jungkook’s face.

“Excited much Kookie?” Jin laughs.

“You have no idea! Tomorrow night I get to go to a Paris nightclub to watch one of my favorite artists perform.”

“You did luck up. I wonder how Yamina arranged it since she only just got from under her management company last week. Do you know if you will be able to meet her and Jazz after the concert?”

“Manager-nim said he would see what he could do. I hope so, although I have no way of actually having a conversation with her. Her English is limited like mine and I know no Spanish nor French.”

“It may not be so bad. Rumor has it Yamina is a huge BTS fan. Just meeting each other would probably be a big deal for both of you. At the very least try and get a picture with her.”

Before Jungkook could answer, Jimin and Namjoon came over to sit with them. Jimin sat to the right of Jungkook and Namjoon to the left of Jin.

“What are your guys discussing,” Jimin asked as he gulped down some water and looked curiously as the others.

“About tomorrow night’s club concert” Jungkook answers. “I researched the club the concert is at. It is supposed to one of the hottest clubs in Paris for hip hop and R&B emerging artists.”

“Explains why Bang-nim was barely able to get tickets,” Namjoon commented. Namjoon was excited to be able to go to this concert. Honestly, he was the most excited of the guys that were going. Although he managed to hide it fairly well from the others if you didn’t count Yonggi. Yonggi being his best friend knew him too well. But he couldn’t help it. It wasn’t often that he got to do something normal like attend a concert – that he didn’t have to perform at.

“See if you can get some footage of the concert. I am curious how they are going to do the show.”

“I’ll try Jimin,” Jungkook said as he scrolled through his phone. “I am looking at Yamina’s twitter account and it is lit up. When I hit Google translate almost all of the comments to her last twit are positive. Most people are upset that they weren’t able to get tickets. The show was sold out in one day of it being announced two months ago.”

“Woah, that means Bang-shi had the tickets all this time,” Jin said his eyebrows going up.

“Jungkook, Yamina just went live on her Instagram,” Namjoon said, turning his phone to the others. Jungkook fumbled with his cell pulling up his Instagram app. In a matter of seconds, Yamina’s gram filled his screen. Jimin looked over Jungkook’s shoulder and Jin with some interest looked over Namjoon’s shoulder.

The screen filled with what looked like an old loft studio and there was drummer, keyboard player, a guitarist, a violinist and a DJ setup. After a little bit Yamina came into view. She was dressed in beautiful dark wash jeans a thin rose gold embroidery jacket that was Asian inspired; A pair of rose gold shades perched on the top of her head and dainty feminine jewelry lay against her neck and hung from her ears.

“That WAS her in the hotel lobby today, JK!” Namjoon said looking at Jungkook.

And then she spoke.

“Hey, Jazz how long should be waiting for the notification to go out before we start?” Yamina said as she looked off-camera towards Jazz. Her English had a thick Spanish accent with a mix of what Namjoon assume was her Arabic accent as well. It gave her a unique and hypnotic sound to her voice.

“It went live 2 minutes ago, give it another minute,” Jazz answered back in French as she came into view behind Yamina putting her arms around Yamina’s shoulders and laid her head on her shoulder as well.  They were being cutesy best friends at the moment. “Hello, everyone! We’ve been reading the comments and know that everyone is excited about the show and we are too. We just finished our final rehearsal and to give you, our loyal fans, a taste of what is about to go down tomorrow night at midnight we thought we would perform a song…or two or three.”

“A Gram exclusive. A song that was cut from the set due to time and other things but that we love this song A LOT. Are you ready, Jazz? Guys?”

“Let’s do it.” Jazz said as she jumped in excitement.

“This song is called Beautiful Mess.”

And the music started, and the most beautiful song accompanied by the most beautiful voice begin to float from the speakers of their phones. Yamina and Jazz had written a new love song.

“Woah, Yamina sings?! They only ever let her rap in Gravity 6.”

“I see why her vocals are killer. Her vocals would have overshadowed Honey. And Honey was the focal point of G6” Namjoon said. Namjoon was transfixed. Thousands of hearts and just as many comments floated as Yamina sang her heart out. He couldn’t take his eyes away from her face as she emoted an emotion so thick it was palpable in the air. Yamina Banu Sulaym was a true performer. And Namjoon had just fallen completely into her eyes. Is this how our fans feel when they watch our videos? Like they are falling into our being? Damn, how beautiful can one woman be?

After Yamina ended Beautiful Mess, they effortless went into a song from Jazz’s last mixtape where Yamina had a feature on the song Global Heat, a strong dance hip-hop song that paid homage to 90s American hip-hop with lyrics of fire that a listener was hard-pressed to not dance too. Then finally ended the live with another new song that was full of ual innuendo and heat titled Netflix and Chill. Although the song was sung in French and Spanish from the hip movements and body rolls and heated looks toward the camera with an occasional lip bite a person did not have to be fluent in either language to know what the context of the song was about.

“Damn.” Was all Jimin, with his mouth gaping open, had to say when the Instagram Live went off.

That was Namjoon’s thought exactly.

 

&*%$@

 

            Yamina almost fell asleep during her last taxi ride of the day. After rehearsing for four hours and then doing an impromptu Instagram Live “concert” that had almost a million people watching she was finally on her way back to her apartment. It was almost ten p.m. when she exited the taxi and made her way into her building. As it was an upscale apartment there was doorman that ensured that only the residents of the building entered and any of their approved guests. As it was late, the doors were locked and Yamina had to enter her personalized code into a keypad to have them open. Once she heard the beep, she pulled the door open and made her way across the marble floor. She waved as she passed the doorman’s, Franco, desk in greeting. But Franco called out to her, stopping her in her tracks and she walked toward his desk.

            “Mademoiselle Banu Salaym,”

            “Hello, Franco.”

“I know they are on the approved list and that they asked I not tell you that they were here, but I felt I should tell you.”

            “Who? Jerome is here?” Jerome was away filling a movie in the Paris countryside and wasn’t expected to come back until the end of the week.

            “No Mademoiselle. Your family, your father, mother, both of your brothers and your sister in law with the baby. Oh, and your grandparents”

            Yamina’s eyes widen in surprise. “Seriously?”  Franco nodded his head yes. “Okay…thanking you for letting me know.” Lord Jesus, please help me. “I guess I will head on up.” Yamina continued on her way, entering the elevator and rode it up to her floor. She leaned against the elevator wall and rubbed her temples as she waited patiently for the elevator to open at her floor. She hadn’t expected her family to come to Paris. It had been eight months since she had last seen them Paris. Were they coming to her show? That would be equal parts awesome and terrifying all at the same time. In honesty she would be happy to see them, she truly loved her familia but they could be smothering at times and completely drove her up the wall for large chunks of the time, well more specifically her brothers had driven her up the wall. But she understood that they did it in love and due to her choice of career she only had to deal with their love in spurts which worked well for everyone involved.

The elevator dinged then the doors opened and Yamina exited onto her floor. Walking down the hall she pulls her house key from her purse and entered her condo.  The first thing she notices is that the entire condo was lit up with every available light on, except for her bedroom light and one of the guest bedrooms. As she took her shoes off in the foyer and put them in the cubby holes she had for shoes, she could hear the music of her childhood playing along with the delicious smell of her traditional Bedouin and Arabic food. As if on cue the music changed to her favorite song, the song that no matter what no matter how depressed she was, once the music played and she started dancing it made her happy and that she loved to dance to it. The song was Baed Annak.

The fatigue of the day fell away and in her bare feet she moved into the dining room that was an open space that connected to the kitchen and started to dance, her footwork effortless as were her hips drops, hip tensions, undulation, and omnis. Her first love, belly dance, came alive to the music flowing through her body and blood effortlessly. Her mother, sister in law, and grandmother saw her first and came to join her as she moved around the room dancing around the furniture to the music. Her brothers, father, and grandfather soon joined the ladies on the outskirts. Her brother Ali even picked up Yamina’s dubak that sat in the corner and begin to play to the music giving it a semi-live feel. Despite the song being about a lost love the upbeat feel and tone of the song always energized her hips and soul. It breathes life into her.

            When the song ended, she smiled as they clapped and the music changed again to a Wael Kfoury song, Waet Lbensaki.

            Yamina takes a moment to take in her family as they surrounded her. Her grandparents, Yasmin and Micah, are the official matriarch and patriarch of her particular branch of the Banu Sulaym Bedouin tribe in Morocco. There were still members of her tribe that lived in the Moroccan desert and they continued to live and preserve the ancient ways. Her grandparents made sure that her father, Rashid, their third son, and her mother, Samira, sent her to visit those family members every summer. So, Yamina spent her first ten summers living among those kin and learning the ancient ways. Although she had not been extremely thrilled about that at the time, she now treasures those moments of camping and surviving in the Moroccan desert as the Bedouin had done for thousands of years.

Although her father’s family was Bedouin, her mother’s, heritage and culture were Algerian; Berber to be more precise. It was amongst this background that Yamina’s character developed. Against the backdrop of a culturally rich Arabic household where she was taught the Prophet was the most important spiritual guide, there was and her worldview begins within that context. However, to complicate matters Yamina was the only child in her family that was born in Europe, in Malaga, Andalusia, Spain where her family emigrated to two years before her birth and where the family, for the most part, was still based.

As a North African family, it should also be noted that Yamina’s family came in all different skin tones, there were differences that if you took a glance at the family one would not assume, they were family members. Samira, her mother, was a very light skin Berber woman that could easily pass for an exotic looking white woman and when she tanned maybe Italian. As for her father, Rashid, he looked like an Arabic movie star with his rich tan skin and distinctive yet very pleasing Arabic features. This mix in his skin tone and features was due to the blending of his father’s fair skin tone and his mother, Yasmin’s, rich dark ebony skin. Yamina’s brothers fell in the shade range of her father and Yamina was fortunate enough to be born with her grandmother’s dark ebony skin and many of Yasmin’s features. Her grandmother was one of the most beautiful women to walk the face of the earth, her exotic features were striking and had ensnared many men’s and women’s hearts over the decades and to be honest even still to this very day. And Yamina was no less stunning than her grandmother.

“Still a gorgeous dancer, Habibi! How is my grandbaby?” Her grandfather asked in his melodic Arabic. He came and kissed her on both cheeks and gave her a good strong hug that she returned.

“I am great, Papi! What are all of you doing here? Are you here for the concert?”

“They don’t let old geezers like him into cool and hip places like that.” Yamina’s grandmother, Yasmin, answered before Micah could answer.

Yamina laughs as she goes to hug her beloved grandmother. “That’s okay, I still think my grandfather is cool.”

“Well, granddaughters are allowed to think so. In answer to your questions. Daniel is here on business and as well as Ali and we all just decided to tag along and have a family vacation.”

“I am glad you came; I’ve missed you soooo much!” Yamina states as she continues to go around the room and hug her family; her father; her mother; Ali; his wife Mariam; and Daniel. Mariam and Ali’s son is in his baby carrier sound asleep. Even amid all the chaotic noise that came with being in her family, he managed to stay asleep. He took after his uncle Danel.

Yamina wasn’t just saying she missed her family because she that she thought they wanted to hear that but she was genuinely glad they were here, despite there being a large probability that they would drive each other to the limits of their patience.

“Did you eat baba?” Yasmin asked, “I cooked for you. Did you realize your fridge is bare?”

Yamina laughed, “Yes, Jdda. I won’t be able to go grocery shopping until later. But thank you for fixing something to eat.”

“Already handled baba, your mother Samira and I went grocery shopping. And I promise to make plenty of Arabic dishes for you to eat later.” Yasmin promised as she held Yamina’s face between her hands.

“As happy as I am to see you, Mariam, Micah, and I need to head back to the hotel,” Ali said. Micah was Yamina’s sleeping nephew.

“Already?!”

“Munchkin,” Ali said with an exaggerated sigh, “I have work tomorrow, But I’ll see you the next day after your show.”

 “By the way, we watched your Instagram live. You nailed it.”  Mariam said as Ali picked up the baby carrier and still managed to give his little sister a hair ruffle, causing her hair to go into all directions. Brothers could be such a pain.

Mariam just shook her head at Ali’s silliness and gave her nsab a hug at Yamina’s front door.

 “Mom, Dad, Nana, Daniel are you staying here?”

“If you don’t mind, baby?” Her mother said as she made her way back to the kitchen, Yasmin was already there preparing a plate for Yamina so Samara busied herself getting her something to drink.

“No mama. You and Dad can sleep in my room and Jdd and Jdda can sleep in my guest room. Daniel and I can share the air mattress here in the living room.”

“It’ll be just like old-time,’ Daniel teased. “Just try and keep your feet off my .”

“Hey! No one tells you to roll onto my side!”

“I never roll over to your side. YOU roll over to my side!”

“Wld and bnat. It is too late in the night to start that! Come eat.” Yasmina’s mother said.

“Okay, Mmi!” Yasmina said. “Brat,” she growled at Daniel as she walked Ali and Mariam to the door. Daniel just grinned at her mischievously.

 

 

*****

 

Jasmine made her way back through the neighborhood from the studio that she and Yamina had rehearsed at to her apartment. She was looking forward to vegging for a little bit in front of her AppleTV and watching some Netflix. For a split second, she thought about calling Charya, her male “friend”, but decided against it. She did need to rest not have all night. As she came closer to her apartment, she quickly noticed an expensive familiar Mercedes parked outside her building. Before she could switch directions all four car doors opened, and four muscled men of Cambodian and Chinese descent stepped from the vehicle and waited for her approach.

Damn! Jasmine thought. She recognized them immediately, they were enforcers for the 14K Triad. Her gang brothers. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves and made her way towards the car. She hadn’t been expecting a visit from them so soon.

“Little Sister, we’ve been waiting for you.” The tallest of the men greet Jasmine. His name is Chen Lei and he looked like the identical twin to Taiwanese actor Chris Wu. Dressed in a suit he was just as y.

“Hi, Brother Lei.” Jasmine bowed towards the men in greeting. “What brings you out to my part of town.” She quickly glanced around at the people moving through the streets taking note of people, of police that drove down the street. It just appeared as if Lei and his group were the only 14K around. In truth, her neighborhood housed a large part of Chinese and Cambodian families was the entrenched 14K territory. At least every family in her arrondissements had a family member that was a member of the Triad or they knew someone who was in the Triad. And Jasmine was no exception. Jasmine’s ties to 14K ran dee., very deep

“Brother Samang requests that we bring you to him.” Lei opened the back door of the Mercedes and gestured for her to get into the vehicle.” Jasmine bites her bottom lip in hesitation. If Samang sent for her there was no way she could avoid it. If you valued your life you did what the leader of the France branch of the 14K wanted. Without saying a further word, she entered the vehicle and Lei and his men did the same and off they went. So much for a Netflix night.

****

The 14K (十四K) is a triad group based in Hong Kong but active internationally. The last Jasmine checked it was the second largest Triad group in the world with around 25,000 members split into thirty subgroups. They are the main rival of the Sun Yee On, which is the largest Triad. The 14K is responsible for large-scale drug trafficking around the world, most of it heroin and opium from China or Southeast Asia which is their primary business in terms of generating income, but Triad is also involved in illegal gambling, loan sharking, money laundering, murder, arms trafficking, ion, human trafficking, extortion, counterfeiting and, to a lesser extent, home invasion robberies.

Jasmine entered the Triad of no will of her own. Her mother was a madam in one of 14K’s e houses in her home country of Cambodia and her father was a low-level member of the Triad at the time. After the murder of her father by the Sun Yee On when she was six people within the organization who knew of her family origins expected that she would enter into the trade herself like her mother. Her exquisite beauty even as a young child, her lineage and that her family was poor pretty much guaranteed that would be her life’s path. However, that changed when she was 10 years old and it was discovered she had a gift for fighting – that her hands were deadly weapons. By the time she was 13 years old, she was winning fights in underground organized fights that the Triad hosted for local and foreigners to gamble on. In a way, you could say that Jasmine had fought her way out of a life of ion. Her skills in fighting allowed her to leave her village in Phnom Aural and go and live in larger Cambodian cities such as Pursat, Phnom Penh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Pakse, Laos, Thailand and finally in Paris, France. Despite the havoc the Triad at times created in some ways, it had saved her life as well.

After about 15 minutes, the Mercedes pulled up to the restaurant that Jasmine was well acquainted with that was one of many fronts for the gang’s illegal activities. The architecture of the restaurant was inspired by the traditional architecture of Cambodia and for a moment Jasmine felt a little homesick, but she quickly pushed it away.  Stepping out of the car she allowed Lei to lead the way. Up until this moment their ride had been quiet, but Lei looked back at Jasmine as they entered the establishment, “Jazz, you did good tonight. I was proud of you.”

Jasmine smiled genuinely at Lei. Despite how extremely dangerous Lei was and could be, he had always been kind to her. “Thanks. And thanks for setting this up for Mina and me to perform at the Club.” The club that

“Franchoise is a bastard. It’s a shame that Mina got entangled with his company.”

They walked through the restaurant and made their way to the private rooms in the back. Lei stopped at the third door on the right. Lei stopped Jasmine before he opened the door and motioned for her to stay where she was. He entered the room closing the door behind him. After a minute or two the door opened, and Lei motioned her inside and the other three men stood guard outside the door. Lei led her further into the room.

“Brother Samang, Sister Jazz is here.”

There was a large round table in the center of the room, at the center sat Brother Samang and to his left and right were his first lieutenant and second lieutenant.

When Jasmine came into their view, she deeply bowed in respect to her Triad leaders and waited for further instructions.

“Welcome Jazz. I am glad that you could come?” Samang says as if Jasmine had had a choice. She almost snorted in response.

“I glad I could come. It’s been a while since our last conversation.”

Samang gestured to the chair that sat directly in front of him. Lei moved to pull the chair back and Jasmine took her seat. She felt the smooth touch of Lei’s fingers caress her back as he pushed her chair towards the table. She glanced into Lei’s eyes before quickly looking away to face Samang. Lei quietly resided to the background.

“Have you eaten Little Sister?”

Jasmine shook her head no.

“Then eat. I have ordered all your favorite dishes.”

Jasmine looked at the dishes that covered the table. At that moment her cell dinged notifying her that a text message had come through. She ignored it for the moment. She filled her plate with all the various foods that were a mixture of Cambodian, Chinese and French dishes. The fabulous smells coming from the food reignited her hunger and her stomach appreciated it. It was way better than the instant noodles that she had planned to eat earlier.

Samang, his lieutenants and Jasmine talked small talk, however, the reason for this meeting was laid out on the table. This was a family meeting.

“Jazz, the Memorial Day is coming for your father’s death anniversary in a few days. Have you forgotten?”

Jasmine put her chopstick down slowly swallowed her food. Her father, Noreaksay Marlohe, had been Brother Samang’s childhood best friend and first lieutenant and both had joined 14K when they were 13 and had slowly been rising the ranks of the Cambodian branch of the Triad when Noreaksay was murdered in cold blood by a rival Sun Yee On member. Her father had been 27 when he died. His birthday and his death anniversary were the same days. He would have turned 44 years old this coming weekend.

Noreaksay affectionally called Nore by Samang, his family and Triad brothers, had been sharply intelligent, loyal, and lethal. Yet, with his daughter, he was a gentle as a rabbit and just as cuddly. And Jasmine had loved her father. She has never loved a man as much as she loved her dad and the day that she and Samang had buried him a large part of her heart and spirit died and was buried with him. She had been six when he died.

“No…, I haven’t forgotten Uncle. I…Just…”

“Jazz, it’s been four years since you last visited his grave, its time.” Samang sighed. “I miss him too. These last 17 years have been just as hard for me as for you. He would be so proud. He IS proud.”

Jasmine lifted her eyes to look at her Uncle Samang, the sadness radiated and softened Samang’s heart even more. “I won’t have to see my mother, will I?”

“Not. Only if you chose too.”

“I don’t.”

Samang pulled a red envelope from his suit jacket and slide it across the table towards her. “I took the liberty to book your flight. You and I will be flying out Thursday at 6 pm. That will allow you time to settle any issues that may arise from your meeting with CP Ngo. Pack light. I will make sure anything you need will be taken care of when we get to Phnom Penh. I’ll have Lei pick you up and bring you to the airport.”

Jasmine accepted her plane ticket and slide it into her jacket pocket. She wasn’t surprised that he knows of Yamina and her’s meeting with the CEO DiVarsity. The man knew EVERYTHING that went on within the borders of his territory. There was only one thing to say, “Thank you, Uncle.”

He smiled and they began to eat and talk about their Triad family and her show tomorrow night. After another hour Samang dismissed her to go back to her apartment and rest, escorted by Lei.

“See, it was harmless,” Lei remarked as they rode back.

Jasmine smirked.

“Who texted you earlier.”

Jasmine had forgotten about the text. Pulling out her phone she saw that it was fro Yamina.

“It’s Mina. She said her family came to see her and ambushed her tonight”

“Ahhh… the same as you.” Jasmine paused and looked at Lei who just stared back at her.

“Yeah…the same as me.” But their families are nothing alike.

 

 

 

Author note:

 

Hello Everyone! Thank you for reading this update. This took such a long time to write, but I am pretty happy with it. I have missed writing so much and I am glad that I have taken it back up. This is my first BTS fan fiction and I excited to see where the characters will take me.

I just want to make a disclaimer on here that I am not of Arabic, Cambodian, Hawaiian, Pilipino, Iberian or Korean descent so I am having to research a lot about these various cultures and languages that I have reflected in my OC backgrounds and the BTS members. Which is so much fun and I will learn a lot. Although with the Iberian culture I know a little about it since I am Latina by way of Puerto Rico. I say that to say that any cultural errors that I make are completely my own and I hope to represent each of the cultures respectfully and honorably as each one is so unique, vibrant and beautiful.

 

Happy Reading! UsagiGirl11

 

Glossary of terms

 

Arabic (Moroccan)

Bnat – girls/daughter

Dubak – An Arabic percussion hand drum

Jdda ­– grandmother

Jdd – grandfather

Mmi – my mother

Nsab – In law (female)

Nsib- In law (male)

Wld – boy/son

 

 

Spanish

Familia - Family

 

Korean

Hyung – honorific for older males