Warning: Super long chapter, mostly about the past

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“Umma, appa!” I shouted excitedly as I threw open the front door to our mansion and quickly pulled the pale metallic pink key, which was my very own, out of the lock while kicking my shoes off, “Guess what happened today!”

I quickly put down my bag with my stuff for Taekwondo down and blinked my eyes rapidly a few times, still with my new black belt clutched in my left hand. “Umma? Appa?” I question with a frown upon my face. It was unusual that when I announced I was home, they wouldn’t rush to the door and engulf me in their hugs. “Maybe they’re still at work? But today’s umma’s day off I thought…” I muttered aloud, then wandered forward towards the kitchen.

I reached for the handle of the sliding door to the kitchen, then I realised something wasn’t right. My parents never kept the door of the kitchen closed, unless my mother was cooking a surprise for me. And I couldn’t exactly hear any cooking noises coming from inside, so my frown only deepened.

I then slid open the door and stared at the scene before me. I saw my mother and father laying on the ground, with my father still holding my mother in his left arm, almost protectively, and a fruit knife pointed towards the window in his right hand. I was too scared to approach their bodies on the ground. I dropped my new black belt which was my pride, and dropped to the ground.

“Umma…? Appa…?” said a voice that sounded so foreign, so far away to me. It took me another full minute to realise it as my own. When had my strong, firm voice changed into something so weak and flimsy? I didn’t know myself. But they said shock can change someone, and I was guessing it was that.

“Wae…” I couldn’t even cry at that point in time, “You promised me that we’d celebrate the day I received a black belt in taekwondo…” I felt so selfish for saying that. I almost felt like I was telling them to delay their death. Then finally it came to me the logical thing to do in that situation. “THE PHONE! WHERE’S THE PHONE AGAIN!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. I felt truly useless in that situation. I didn’t even know where the phone was in my own home, because the maids and butler usually fetched the phones for me.

“Then where are the maids and butler? Even the chef and gardener? Where are they?” I blinked a few times, asking myself. I was wondering if they were in on all of this, until I caught my father shifting slightly from the corner of my eye. I whipped around to stare at my father whose face was covered in blood.

“Hwayoung? Is that my baby Hwayoung?” He weakly said through half-lidded eyes, dropping the knife he had still been holding, and starting to attempt to force himself into a sitting position which obvious, literally and figuratively, was killing him.

“ANI! APPA! STAY STILL! LIE BACK DOWN ON THE GROUDN! I’LL GO GRAB MY CELLPHONE AND CALL AN AMBULANCE HERE!”

“Ani… Stop… Hwayoung…” He weakly said to me, though he did give up on dragging himself back up, and just lay on the ground as he talked to me, “It’s too late anyway. What time is it now?”

“4pm?”

“Ah. They came in at 3:30. It’s too late. I won’t make it. The ambulance won’t come in time, even if it’s CEO Lee who’s dying. I’m sorry Hwayoung, but your mother’s a goner. I can feel her breath or heartbeat anymore, even though she’s in my arms right now. But I want you, my good and dutiful daughter to listen to me. Don’t waste your breath and time calling the ambulance and police. When you pick up the phone, dial IAI-0-PROBLEM, okay? 42407762536. Tell them what’s happened. Tell them that you’re CEO Lee Dongsun of the LEESHINE corporation’s daughter, and that he’s been murdered. Also tell them just these two extra words if they ask you for further information for their investigation. ‘Blue Triangle’.”

“But appa! They’re not going to be able to save you!” I yelled at him desperately, not understanding any of what he was talking about ‘IAI’ and ‘Blue Triangle’, “And 42407762536 is an 11 digit number! Are you even sure it’s real!”

“I’m sure it’s real. And they’re not going to save me Hwayoung,” He said, then paused to cough out blood, “They’re going to avenge me.”

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Haneul blinked a few times.

“Wow.” She just said as she tilted her head slightly to the right curiously, “Then what happened?”

“Well…” Hwayoung just said, then went back to talking about the past again.

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“And we are here today, to mourn for the loss of CEO Lee Dongsun of the LEESHINE Corporation and his beautiful wife, Vice-CEO Shin Hana. The two will surely be missed dearly to all of those who had worked with them, their family and friends. It was a tragedy that they were killed while a burglar broke into their house and saw the owners of the house were still home, panicked and killed the innocent man and wife. Let us have a minute of silence to mourn their death.”

I slowly closed my eyes and prayed that my parents were well in heaven. “Please, God. Let my parents have peace in heaven, and treat them well. They were good people. Amen.” I ended my prayer as I heard the priest speak up again, announcing that the eulogy was to be read out by me.

I walked up to the front, placed my speech which was neatly printed out in size 15 font on the podium and gazed out at the crowd of people who were gathered there. It was quite a sizeable crowd, and I estimated there to be about 200 people there. “Fake, fake, real, not even bothering to fake it, fake, fake, fake, real, real, fake.” I thought to myself in my head, judging people’s sadness. I could tell some people were just here for manners, others here because they actually cared, and even more others here because of how famous my parents were. I finally realised that I had been silent for too long just staring out at the crowd, so I awkwardly coughed and started to recite the eulogy I had written for my parents.

“The passing of a father is hard to deal with. Losing a mother, equally as hard, or even harder, depending on each person. But losing both? It’s unbelievably hard to bear with, I’ve heard. The only reason why I’m not speaking from experience, is because I still cannot believe it. The truth hasn’t sunk in, if that’s how you would express this feeling.”

I stopped to take a deep breath, while closing my eyes, and when I opened them again, I saw the people in the crowd who actually cared look at me with pitiful eyes. I then continued my eulogy, “Now, there is no way to express how much I loved my parents in just a few short minutes, so I think I’ll have to do my best to tell you all. Of course, like every child, and especially as I am an only child, my parents were, and still are, the greatest loves of my life. Well, at least for now. My parents were firm Christians, but still open minded, and were willing to forgive people who had sinned, or were able to accept homouals. The two of them were always busy with work, but they always tried to make time for me nonetheless. I loved this aspect of them, so, so much. They always found time to shower their daughter with love, even though their everyday was so jammed pack and full of schedules. They were both hard working people, too. My father started the LEESHINE Corporations from scratch, with help and support from my mother.”

I paused again, and sighed when I saw some people were actually yawning in the crowd. Some tried to also hide it, but they were clearly falling asleep. I sighed once again, then continued again to conclude my eulogy, “My parents were good people. Both of them. And if you were good to them, I’m sure they’re watching over you right now. I’m sure they’re watching over me too, right now. And I hope God will make a place for them in paradise. They both truly deserve it. Thank you.” I concluded and bowed to the people who were listening, and then walked away from the podium, and walked to my front row seat. I face my head downwards again sadly, because somehow after reading out (more like reciting out) my eulogy, it felt like I’d finally acknowledged their death. For the first time in the week since their death, I felt tears pricking my eyes.

“It’s okay.” I heard my Aunt Eunjung say, and pat my back soothingly while brushing my hair away from my face, “As you said before. I’m sure the two of the are watching over us right now.” She smiled a sad smile at me, then turned back towards the front to listen to the priest again. I tried to listen to the priest who was concluding the funeral ceremony, but I really couldn’t. My mind kept drifting to what my father told me before he finally stopped speaking and died.

After the funeral service, a lot of my aunts and uncles came up to me, and urged me to stay with them instead of my Aunt Eunjung. But I knew that they were all just after the money my parents would have left behind, whereas Aunt Eunjung actually cared about me. She was the only adult relative that I had that didn’t want to take care of me just for the money. I would’ve gone with my cousin Doojoon, except, you know. He was too young to take care of me at the time, but I didn’t like his parents anyway.

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“Hang on.” Haneul said, suddenly butting into the story.

“Yes?” Hwayoung asked, with confused eyes.

“Doojoon. As in Yoon Doojoon is your cousin?”

“Yeah? Why?”

“Ahh… My cousin’s Jang Hyunseung. That means our cousins know each other.” Haneul blinked a few times, then said with a laugh, “Small world isn’t it? Continue anyway.”

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Later that night back at the mansion I used to share with my parents, my Aunt Eunjung tucked me into bed, turned off the light then closed the door with a simple “Goodnight.” But I couldn’t get to sleep at all. These people. The ‘IAI’. Were going to avenge my father. I didn’t understand what he meant by that at all. So, I set out to find answers the next day.

I remembered the number my father told me. It was IAI-0-PROBLEM. I had dialled the number already, and I decided to experiment with the number. I tried IAI-0-ENGLISH, but it didn’t work. Then IAI-0-MEETING, IAI-0-CRITICL. They all didn’t work. But I persevered, and tried several other combinations, and finally on my 11^th try with IAI-0-REQUEST, I got through.

“Hello, IAI request desk at your service. May we ask who this is?” I heard a female voice coolly ask from the other end of the phone. I paused and realised that it finally worked. “Hello? Hello? Is there anyone there?” I heard the same female voice ask, this time with a tinge of annoyance.

“Ah. Yes. This is CEO Lee Dongsun’s daughter.” The words stumbled out of my mouth. I don’t know. I couldn’t see the woman who was speaking at the other end, but I could somehow sense that she had tensed up slightly.

“Ah, yes. Lee Hwayoung? We at the IAI are on your request for an investigation already. You called a week back, yes? We believe that we are close to finding the culprits, so just sit tight and wait, okay? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be hanging up n-…” I heard the woman speak in a very soft tone reserved for young children who were 5 or 6. It only irked me that she was talking to a 13 year old that way. It didn’t matter if I was newly orphaned, nobody talked to Lee Hwayoung that way. But I kept my cool and just talked to her in an even voice cutting her off midsentence.

“No. That’s not what I called for today. I would like to meet someone from the IAI as soon as possible.” I said, trying to keep my voice is firm and even as possible.

“Ah, but I’m not sure that possible. You see you don’t exactly have a high enough cl-…”

“No. I needto see someone. Soon. Send someone to that French styled café near the Han River this afternoon 5pm. Tell them I won’t leave until I see someone. Good day to you.” I said, then promptly hung up, deciding I’d give them something to think about.

I looked at the time on the big old grandfather clock we had. It read 4:07pm and I decided to get ready to go to the Han River. I grabbed my small satchel bag which contained my Guess wallet which still had a few hundred thousand won in it and my mobile phone, a big puffy jacket which was lined with faux fur since it was early November and it was starting to get chilly, my small Swatch watch  and put on my suede gumboots then headed towards our big garage. All the staff who were previously hired were still working for us, for their contract was until the end of the year and it was only November. It turned out that day an imposter acting as my father told them they were all given a day off, so of course they gratefully took it and left the house that day. I called on the driver Tony to drive me to the Han River.

When I stepped out of the car, it was already 4:47, and I decided to grab a chocolate croissant from the café I was supposed to be meeting with someone at. As I entered, I spotted a guy who looked about a year older than me, just watching me carefully. I decided to grab two instead.

After I paid for the two chocolate croissants, I walked cautiously over to the boy who was watching me, and sat down at the seat across from him. I handed him the chocolate croissant and just said, “You’re early. And the chocolate croissants here are really good, you know?” I then just smiled at him and went on to reassure him, “Don’t worry. It’s not poisoned. You can go on and try it.” I finished, then pulled my chocolate croissant out of the paper bag and bit into it.

After I finished my chocolate croissant, I realised he was still staring at my face. “What? I’m so beautiful you have to keep staring?”

“You wish.” He scoffed, and I noticed that his voice was quite deep. He’d probably just hit puberty or something, “I know someone much more beautiful than you.”

“Yeah. I wish.” I said, then laughed and reached out my right hand to him to shake, “Lee Hwayoung’s the name. What’s yours?” I politely asked with a smile on my face.

“Nam Woohyun.” He said while cautiously reaching his right hand towards my hand and shaking it.

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“Woohyun!?” Haneul said with wide eyes, “You met Woohyun?”

“Yeah.” Hwayoung said with a small smile playing on her lips, “The first person I ever met from the IAI was your very best friend. Coincidental, is it not?” She said, then seemed to drift back into her memories.

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After he finally decided to eat the chocolate croissant I had bought him, we went outside to sit on a bench by the river. I was the first to sit down on the bench, while he seemed to look around a bit cautiously, then decided to plop himself down.

“Good. We’re good, Hwayoung. There are no bugs around, or at least not that I can detect.”

I smiled at him, “So you’re a spy, huh?”

“No. Not a spy. An agent,” he said to me with a faraway look and a goofy smile on his face, “as my friend would say.”

“Ah, I see.” I just said and smiled to him, “So. Can I ask questions?”

“Yeah. Sure. Go ahead and shoot… Just not literally, please. It may cause attention to be drawn upon us.”

I laughed at his silliness, which I later discovered he was completely serious about, “Well. First of all, who are you guys, the IAI?”

“Ah.” He said and nodded with a smirk upon his face, “Good first question. We, the IAI, are the ‘International Asian Intelligence’ Organization. Basically all the Asian countries decided to come together to form one super intelligence organization. Well, most of the Asian countries anyway. And most of this world doesn’t know of our existence. We like to keep ourselves a secret that way.” He paused, then turned to me and asked me, “So how did you find out?”

“Have you not heard?” I asked softly, “My father was the CEO of the LEESHINE Corporation.”

“Ah, yes. I’m sorry to hear of your losses.” He said softly, as if realising he mentioned something he probably shouldn’t have, “Well, why do you ask anyway?”

“Because I want to join.” I firmly said.

He raised an eyebrow at my statement, “I’m not ‘the higher ups’, but I can tell you now, the answer’s a simple no. N. O.”

“Waeyo?” I asked and glared at him, “Why would it be a no?”

“Because we go to people, not the other way round, missy. Only one person in the history of the IAI came to the IAI and not the other way round. And I think the chances of you being the second is smaller than the thickness of my best friend’s pinky and knowledge of emotions.”

“That doesn’t mean much to me, just saying. I don’t even know who your friend is, what he or she looks like, or how much knowledge they have of emotions, but I will find my way in. Just you wait, Nam Woohyun, one day I’ll be your colleague.”

He blinked a few times at my confidence that I’ll get in, “Well. First, you need to be highly qualified, or at least have raw talent before we take you in for training. Tell me all the qualifications you think you have that’ll make you a valuable addition to us. And second, my friend’s a she.”

“Well…” I trailed off then thought hard, “The day my parents were murdered, I earnt my black belt in Taekwondo.”

“Not bad.” He murmured, “But my friend earnt her first black belt when she was 7. Keep going.”

“Right, and I recently had my IQ tested, and the people who tested it said I have an IQ of 148, which I’m assuming is rather high?”

“Yes, it is.” He nodded, “But my friend’s is 173. Keep going.”

At this point in time I was beginning to get annoyed that he kept comparing me with ‘his friend’. “I can speak Korean, obviously as we are conversing in it right now, English and French fluently, and I can speak conversational Japanese.”

“Ah… That’s quite good. It’s useful, definitely, if you want to come join us.” He said while nodding, which made me happy that he was finally acknowledging my abilities, but he just had to ruin it and say, “My friend can speak Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese all fluently, and knows conversational German, Italian and Vietnamese.” That made me lose it.

“WHO’S THIS FRIEND YOU KEEP TALKING ABOUT!? IS SHE THAT BEAUTIFUL, TALENTED, SMART AND STRONG ALL AT THE SAME TIME? IS SHE REALLY THAT AMAZING?” I yelled at him, which caused some couples playing around to stare at us, and I heard murmurs saying things like “That boy doesn’t know how to treat his girlfriend properly”, “That girl. Being so jealous at such a young age” and “So cute. Young love.” It annoyed me to no end, as I had zero romantic affections towards a boy I just met.

But he didn’t seem bothered. He just laughed and calmly said to me, “Yes. She’s that amazing. She’s the most amazing girl in the world, and her name is Jang Haneul. Anyway, I think you’re qualified enough for us to take you in for training.” He started to get up, “I’ll enquire about it for you to Miyoung the base manager when I get back to the base, okay?” He said with a smile, then suddenly dashed off and ran into an alleyway before I could ask him anything else.

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“So… That’s it?” Haneul said to Hwayoung and then sighed, “I see. So you came here to pay your gratitude and contribute your talents. And that Woohyun.” She said and chuckled, “He’s never said that I’m the most amazing girl in the world to my face before.” She laughed a whole hearted laugh and Hwayoung just stared at her face and realised that she was quite pretty, just like Woohyun said.

“You know. You really are beautiful, Haneul, just like Woohyun said.”

Haneul looked at Hwayoung, then laughed again, “Why thank you, Hwayoung. It's the make-up, isn't it? Well, I don't think so, but thank you anyways... Now let’s get going before Miyoung gets annoyed and impatient at us for making her wait such a long time, shall we?

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A/N

I feel like I'm almost neglecting Haneul's past like this, but my readers, fear not.
I will definitely write about her future... soon... yes... soon... just sit tight, and wait C:

And i just wanted to point out that from now on all my 'flashback' or 'memories' kinda thing will be written in first person C:

That's all for today~

AND WOW. I MANAGED TO UPDATE TWO DAYS IN A ROW :O
Let's see if  can keep up this streak tomorrow, hey?