“Choi Jinri, move! Jongin is going to jump!”

The coach’s voice reverberated through the indoor riding arena as Jinri heard the sound of a horse cantering not far behind her. She immediately took her reins and signaled her horse to move towards the center of the arena, casting aside her attempt to perform a perfect 5-meter loop.

Jinri couldn't help but admitting that Jongin was one of the best students in their horseback riding class. His steady sitting position, relaxed posture, coupled with his calm gesture made his almost-perfect performance looked effortless. No wonder that Jongin's show jumping stage always left everyone in awe.

Everyone cheered and clapped after Jongin and his horse jumped over a series of obstacles, but Jinri felt more annoyed. How could he make 1.5 meter fences seemed like speed bumps on the road?

“As expected from the Prince of Kim dynasty,” Jackson remarked as he moved his horse closer to Jongin's.

“I should’ve said so when you won the national fencing competition last summer. As expected from the Prince of Wang dynasty,” Jongin cheekily impersonated Jackson.

Jackson chuckled, “You know what; just join the South Korean equestrian team already. You're too great.”

“Don't do that,” Jongin waved his hand in denial.

“Yah, I am serious here. Perhaps it suits you more than being a businessman.”

Jongin tilted his head. “Let me ask you this: do you think Wang Chairman will let you become a professional fencer instead of his heir?”

Jackson hummed before he gave a definitive answer. “He won’t.”

“Exactly,” Jongin smiled knowingly.

Jongin got off from his horse near the entrance of the stable. A stableman greeted him and took the rein of Jongin’s horse, leading it to its cage. Feeling stuffed by sweat, Jongin took off his helmet and felt the wind blew through his wet hair. He walked towards a bench across his horse’s cage where he sat to take a rest.

The students have the option to head home directly after the practice and they don't need to look after their horse. Their yearly tuition has covered everything, including health insurance and their expenses for extracurricular activities. Jongin, however, preferred to stay longer. He always wanted to give his horse a treat at the end of the day, whether it was only a bunch of carrots, a handful of sugar cubs, or merely a series of pat on its head.

He usually did his routine by himself. Whenever he felt lonely, he would start a conversation with Kibeom, a stableman who took care of his horse. They would talk about this and that, mostly about horses, school, and Kibeom’s work. Jongin might not confess about this to anyone, but talking to “commoners” — those outside his elite circle — made him forget about his family background and the weight that came with it.

Therefore it was beyond surprising for Jongin when someone other than people in the horseback riding class suddenly approached him and asked whether they could share the bench.

Jongin eyed the girl in confusion before saying, “Sure, if you want.”

Jung Soojung took a seat next to him and put her hands on her lap. Silence engulfed the two as Jongin were busy dismantling riding equipment attached on his body. He looked at ease as he took off his gloves and stretched his neck, while Soojung kept moving her head around, as if looking for someone.

Soojung ended up observing him as he was touching a round-metal-thing attached to his boot’s heels—Soojung didn’t even know its name or its use. Seconds went by and Jongin suddenly looked up, sensing that Soojung was staring at him.

“Do I bother you here?” Soojung asked cautiously.

“Why would you bother me?” Jongin raised his head to meet hers, “you are not even talking.”

Soojung forced an awkward smile, but Jongin just smirked and went on with what he was doing.

She began to question her decision to sit with him while there were many empty benches around her. Perhaps her recent conversation with Sehun had made her wonder too about why she and Jongin acted like strangers around each other. Was it because they did not grow up together? Or was it simply because they never had any real one-on-one conversation?

“What’s that?” out of curiosity—and boredom—Soojung threw the question as her index finger pointed at Jongin’s heel.

Jongin moved his leg, making his right heel slightly facing her. "This? It’s called spur. It helps us in signaling the horse to move forward, or to run faster.”

“It hurts the horse, doesn’t it?” Soojung frowned, her face saying ‘why do you use it’.

“This type won't hurt. The dangerous type is the one with rowels. You know, the sharp one,” Jongin crossed his legs, “I only use this for show jumping, though. Chicago needs a little force to encourage his adrenaline.”

“Chicago?”

“Ah—Chicago is my horse’s name,” Jongin pointed at the cage in front of them, “That’s him. Right in front of us.”

Soojung widened her eyes as she got up from her seat. She moved towards the cage and stared inside, looking at the horse which at that time was getting brushed. It was the first time Soojung encountered a gold-colored horse with shiny blonde hair at school. She had previously only seen Jinri and Jackson's horses, which were brown and white, respectively.

“You don’t seem to suit this type of horse,” Soojung made her comments as she glanced at Jongin.

“May I ask why?”

“Your image suits better with dark-colored horse. Especially a black one.”

“Yah, are you saying that because my skin is tan?” Jongin blurted.

Soojung chuckled. “You said it. Not me.”

Jongin shrugged it off. He took off his blazer and put it on the bench, wearing only a white collared oxford shirt. He brought a bag of sugar cubes before he joined Soojung, who seemed very excited with the horse now grinning over her head.

“Chicago is not mine, originally. It was Taeyeon noona’s,” said Jongin as he patted the horse on his neck, “Mine was black. Just like what you imagined.”

Jongin poured the sugar cubs into the horse’s feed bucket near the door. Just like a father who was proud of his son, he slightly smiled when the horse began to eat. Soojung watched the horse along with Jongin, unconsciously smiling too as she saw the horse munching on the sugars, making a loud cracking sound.

“Where is yours, then? You don’t keep it here?”

Jongin showed a faint smile. “He died six months ago, succumbing to colic."

“Oh, I am sorry,” Soojung lowered her voice tone and bit her lower lip, “what was his name?”

“Chicago.”

“You bluntly named this horse after your old one?” Soojung raised her eyebrows in disbelief.

“No, his name is originally Takuya. But somehow I keep calling him Chicago, so…,” Jongin shrugged, “I guess we are attached to the things we grow up with, after all.”

Soojung squinted her eyes. “You have this ‘thing’ with Chicago, don’t you?”

“So you catch it, huh?” Jongin chuckled, “I like how it's pronounced; 'Shi-cah-go'. Doesn’t it sound more sophisticated than New York or LA?”

She tried to pronounce the word in her flawless American accent. “Sure, I get what you mean."

"You do? Good," Jongin bit his lower lip, pausing. He stole a glance at Soojung's side profile and looked down at his feet.

"I think I particularly like Lake Michigan... and the museums. They are great.”

Soojung raised her eyebrows as she looked at his direction. She never expected Jongin to be a talker after all.

“Well, Lake Michigan is nice, especially in summer," she remarked.

“What I really like there is, I can walk from the downtown for some minutes just to chill by the beach, " Jongin tilted his head, "But, no offense to the city where you were born, though. New York is cool, but I just don’t like the rush.”

“San Francisco,” Soojung’s lips curled slightly. She crossed her hands.

Jongin bent his face closer to Soojung's, his forehead frowned. “Pardon me?”

“I was born in San Francisco. It’s in California, not in New York,” Soojung said. Her face told Jongin that she wasn’t too content by the fact that he got it wrong.

“Oh, sorry,” Jongin pursed his lips and tilted his head downward. “I thought that—”

“It’s okay, it’s not a big deal anyway,” Soojung cut him off.

She turned her attention back to the horse in the cage, ignoring Jongin’s unfinished sentence that hung in the air. Her eyes stared at the horse as it crushed the crystallized sugar with its big teeth. Jongin remained next to her with his hands behind his back, his fingers wriggling as he tried to look for words.

“Have you seen Sehun today?”

Jongin turned his head abruptly. His eyes went blank for a second. “Didn't you meet him at the driving range?”

“Why would I visit the driving range?” Soojung asked back.

“Aren’t you doing golf as your extracurricular acti..vity…” Jongin's voice trailed off when Soojung started to throw him an uneasy look, “Bummer. I am wrong again, aren’t I?”

Soojung only raised her brows in response.

“Okay, uhm… let me guess. Model united nations?”

“Tennis.”

“Ah, so you’re into sports. I thought you’re more like an academic type,” Jongin .

“Hey, I thought you’re more like a 'sociable' guy, but I guess I’m wrong,” Soojung cracked a light laugh, “Come on. Everybody knows that I’ve been in tennis club since sophomore year.”

'Well," Jongin ran his fingers on his hair, oblivious to the pair of eyes that stared at him. "I guess I don’t belong in ‘everybody club’ then."

She grinned at his witty remark. “Does it mean you are not in ‘sociable club’ too?”

He squinted his eyes. “Well… I am more in the gray area. You know, that small space between the sociable and unsociable club? I am there.”

Soojung chuckled, her eyes flickered. “So you know how to debate. Impressive.”

“I didn’t have any intention to impress you, but, thank you,” Jongin nodded his head in curtsy, “Anyway, if you’re looking for Sehun here, you’re just wasting your time. He’s probably heading home already.”

“I am waiting for Jinri, not him,” she corrected him.

Jongin tilted his head. “So why did you ask about Sehun?”

“Just felt like asking,” Soojung grinned, “Sorry about that. I can be so random sometimes.”

“I don’t mind. I am rather blunt myself,” Jongin said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“I figured,” she commented, “I don’t need to live in the 'gray area' to notice that, you know.”

Jongin eyed Soojung conspicuously. She stared back at him and let out a light laugh. “What?”

“No… nothing,” Jongin smirked as he slightly shook his head.

Soojung gave him a questioning stare, but Jongin looked away and broke their eye contact first. She pursed her lips and let it pass. After all, their first “real” conversation was not that awkward at all. For her, at least, it was rather interesting.

"Anyway, I have an appointment with my father," Jongin said as he turned to walk back to the bench. He observed her reaction from the corner of his left eye. "I should get going now."

“Oh, okay,” Soojung nodded plainly.

Jongin opened his equipment bag, taking out a white cloth that was already stained with dirt. He wiped away the dust from his gears before he put them back into the bag. Still on her feet with her arms crossed, Soojung just absent-mindedly stared at him until he zipped the bag and slung it on his right shoulder.

“Bye, Soojung,” said Jongin as he picked up his blazer from the bench and brought it on his hand.

“Bye,” Soojung smiled when their eyes eventually met. She waved her right hand briefly.

Jongin smiled before he turned his back on her and walked towards the equestrian locker room. Not long after he was gone, a girl walked from his direction and approached her bench. Soojung confirmed that the girl was Jinri when she waved her whip in the air excitedly as she saw her.

“Did I hear that right? Jongin said he was chatting with you earlier,” was the first thing that Jinri said when their eyes met.

“He told you that?” Soojung seemed surprise.

“I bumped into him on my way here. I asked whether he has seen you and he just told me so,” Jinri grinned, “Getting to know each other, huh? Being sneaky?”

“You’re fussing. We just chatted a bit. Nothing’s wrong about that, right?”

“Of course no. Except that you slightly blushed when I brought it up,” Jinri gave her an amused smile. Soojung cupped her cheeks in reflex.

[][][][]

The curriculum states that senior students have the privilege to spend every Friday outside the school and recommends them to study more by taking the lessons directly from the company they are affiliated with. It means to strengthen the students' knowledge, not just in theories, but also in practice.

Some of the students really took things seriously, such as taking an internship. Some of them became observers of the business operation. Some others just got their own room and desk at the office, with particularly nothing to do.

Jung Soojung knew exactly that she belonged to the latter.

The headquarters provided her with everything she needed; her own “office” located two levels below the top floor, a private telephone line access, an intercom, and a small pantry full of rich teabags and snacks. Since her first arrival at 8 a.m. until almost lunch time, only his father’s secretary had came to visit her and asked for what she needed.

When Soojung asked about what she could do, the secretary said, “CEO Jung only wants you to adapt to your new surroundings. He said you are not familiar with this situation yet and that’s what you need to learn.”

Then when Soojung asked if she could walk around the headquarters, the secretary answered, “Please just stay inside your office for today. CEO Jung is currently out for business and he will be back soon. You can ask for anything you need through the intercom and I will send it right away. Anything else?”

Soojung just smiled politely and told the secretary to leave.

Perhaps if she had brought more than one short novel from home, or if her cousins had been at the office, or if his father had not gone out for business, she would not have been this bored. Up until near lunchtime, all she did was playing solitaire and re-reading her novel for the nth time. She even lost her track of tea and biscuits. What—her father thought she was not familiar with this office? Hell, she had been here in and out since she still dreamed of being a princess in kindergarten.

That was why she couldn’t hide her excitement when her private line suddenly rang. First day at the office and she was already given a task to handle? Marvelous.

“Good morning, Jung Soojung speaking.”

“Good morning, Junior Director Soojung. I am a representative from Oh Trading.co and I would like to offer an afternoon tea invitation.”

She rolled her eyes as she heard the familiar voice. “Yah, Oh Sehun. I had a big hope and now it’s all shattered.”

The man on the phone suppressed his laughter. “The way you greeted me was very funny; polite and sweet. I have no regrets for having called you through your office line.”

“You brat,” Soojung scoffed, “Why are you calling me at this hour? Don’t you have anything to learn at your office?”

“Well, I am currently reading the visions of my father’s company, but I am getting bored," Sehun lowered his tone of voice into a whisper, "It’s kind of lame."

“Well, what’s more boring than sitting at your office with zero thing to do but looking outside your window and seeing the roads 40 floors below your feet?” Soojung said as she pushed her back against her leather chair.

“Soojung, believe me. It’s better to do nothing than learning something you can’t even stand,” Sehun insisted, “Anyway, there’s a particular reason why I call you.”

“What is it—the afternoon tea? Because if it is, I will—”

“That was a joke, Soojung. For God’s sake, can’t you even grasp it?” Sehun scoffed, “It's about our English assignment for next Monday.”

“Oh, the Romeo and Juliet one?”

“Uh-huh. I am thinking about getting it done at Jongin’s house. Tomorrow, after lunch. What do you say about that?”

“Why Jongin’s? Can’t we just gather at yours?” Soojung suggested.

“My Mom is making a big reunion gathering at my house tomorrow. It won’t be pretty for you and Jongin to get stuck with the elders somehow, will it?” Sehun explained.

Soojung hummed. “Well, I guess it can’t be helped. Okay, we’ll meet there.”

“It’s settled then. You know the address, right?” Sehun intended the question as affirmation.

“It doesn’t matter. Mr. Hyunshik will take me there tomorrow. Safe and sound,” Soojung twirled the phone cable with her fingers, “So, I’ll see you around 2 tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Jongin’s place. I’ll see you there.”

They hung up.

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