Chapter 21- Kim SooJin the heiress

You and Me : The life of an Executive

They had barely made an escape from there. After declaring what they had to, SooJin practically excused herself, leaving her baffled father behind. She had faith that her father was smart enough to get home on his own. If there was going to be a battle royale as a result of what she and her chinggu had just announced, she wanted to be as far away as possible from the carnage. It was selfish, she knew, but thinking back to when she had to make a decision between to tell the truth or continue on with the lie, she realised that she had so many problems of her own that she needed to deal with.

“Excuse me…” She had said weakly as she rushed out of the dining room past Tan.

Won himself didn’t know what to do with himself and after a second, he too said, “Excuse me, I’ll get going first abuji…” And he was out the door after SooJin.

He rushed to the foyer where the car that they had arrived in earlier was already waiting. Apparently that guy, what was his name? Seungri? Had pulled the car over to the foyer when he had seen SooJin. Now the real question was, why hadn’t they set off yet. At that moment the back door open. “Get in.” SooJin gestured. Not knowing what else to do, Won did as he was told.

“Drive.” SooJin instructed monotonously. This time even Seungho decided not to give any attitude.

There was a long silence before Won had regained enough of his senses to speak. “Excuse…But why did you wait for me?” He was more timid than the usual timid.

SooJin sighed as she rubbed her temples and then without any warning she started kicking the passenger seat, surprising SeungHo. “Aaaarghh!” She cried. “I knew no good was going to come out of this.” She said, more to herself than anything. “I should have stuck to my guts. Kim SooJin you idiot.”

“Erm… I shouldn’t intrude but can we all calm down? I still have to drive here…”Seungho interjected from the driver’s seat.

“Ah, mian…” SooJin raised a hand and gave SeungHo a sheepish smile, who nodded in return. “Ah..by the way, what was your name again?” She had only realised that they never really got his name.

“Oh?” SeungHo wasn’t expecting that. “Oh…” He smiled a smile that mimicked SooJin’s earlier on. “SeungHo imnida…Lee SeungHo.” He said.

“Ah… kurae? SeungHo sshi… Nice to meet you…” SooJin smiled. “By the way, your age?”

“Ah…I’m a 89 liner…” He answered simply.

“Yah… then I’m your noona then… Just call me SooJin noona then.” SooJin declared.

“Huh?” SeungHo was as surprised as Won was and both were wondering if she had lost her mind.

“I mean, since you’ve been spying on us…” the choice of words made SeungHo wince. “…I assume you know more about us than the general public.” SooJin smiled. “Let’s get closer…”

“Excuse me but why has it suddenly become a meet and greet session?” Won couldn’t stand it anymore. He would be lying if he said he didn’t feel a pang of jealousy after seeing SooJin trying to get closer to SeungHo.

“Ah…I almost forgot. Call him your hyung, since we’re same aged friends. And to answer both of your questions that I’m sure you guys are thinking of right now, no, I’m not crazy. I’m stressed and I’m usually this friendly.” She gave a meek smile. “I didn’t think I should leave you there. After all, both of us are probably in hot soup right about now, from both of our dads.” Won knew that she was talking to him. “If you hadn’t come out at that time, I would have told SeungHo to drive off anyway…” The cheeky smile on her face made Won chuckle. “And since your father was nice enough to provide with a ride, might as well make the best of it.” She sighed and leaned back in the cool leather seat.

“I think we should probably stay away for a little while, let the both of them cool down for a little while and to let us collect our thoughts.” SooJin said, seemingly aloof. She sighed deeply. “I don’t know how it got to this point…” She muttered to herself.

“Erm…excuse me…Where do I take you guys to?” SeungHo interrupted right at that moment, dragging SooJin out of her line of thoughts.

“Oh…mian…Just take us home please…” She gave him a weak smile.

After that the car was filled with awkward silence. SeungHo was busy driving the car, Won was staring out the window as the city lights passed by. Meanwhile, SooJin was lost in her own thoughts, even though she was looking out the window.

This awkwardness continued on for a while before a sharp ringing sound startled everyone, including SeungHo who thankfully, other than jump up a little, kept the car safely in its lane.

SooJin dug around for her phone and pulled it out. She answered it and Won could hear the person on the other end of the line. It sounded familiar for some reason.

“Oh, WooHyun ah?” She said, sounding tired. She then listened and the more she did, the more wrinkles appeared on her forehead. Then all of a sudden a sharp gasp escaped and she looked like she was in disbelief. “What?!” She exclaimed, making SeungHo jump. And Won sat in attention, wondering what was going on. “But how can I… I mean…Noona is in the middle of something right now.” She said in a hush whisper even when Won could actually hear.

Slowly, her voice started getting lower and lower until the two men could not longer hear what she was saying. And by then both of them were intrigued about what was actually being said. Another reason they were curious was the distressed look on SooJin’s face. At one point, Won thought he could see tears well up in her eyes and his heart almost stopped at that. He began to worry about what was going on because it must be serious if she was acting that way.

Finally, after a while of hushed whisper, SooJin sighed deeply and announced, “Seungho ah, take us to the market.”

This announcement shocked both of the men but both of them said nothing. SeungHo simply nodded and Won on the other hand leaned back in his seat. He did not feel the need to ask because he had a feeling that he was going to find out anyway.

And just like that, they spent the next 10 minutes in silence, each minding their own business. SooJin was glad but mortified at the same time. It was the worst one yet and it might be a declaration of out right war; do as I say or you lose everything.

SooJin didn’t want both of that to happen. She didn’t want to do what he said but she didn’t want to lose everything either. She just had to hope that her grandfather would give it up soon. She could only hope.

Around 10 to 15 minutes later, SeungHo pulled up to the market and even before the car had completely stopped, SooJin pushed the car door open. She walked out into the busyness of the market leaving the men staring after her, dumbfounded. But it didn’t last long though. Won came to his senses and got out to go after SooJin.

“What the hell am I supposed to do?” SeungHo said to himself. After a while, he decided that he just had to park the car and wait for them and if they weren’t back after 15 minutes, he would go after them.

Meanwhile, Won was busy dodging the crowd. He had an idea where SooJin had headed off to. The market was usually crowded and filled with people, he knew that now. But for some reason, on that night, the deeper he got, the more dense the crowd. The crowd was usually dispersed all around but it was different on that night.

And as he got closer to the Crystal Daisy, he saw that there was a huge crowd surrounding the area and there was a blue and red light filling the space. As he pushed past the barrier of a crowd, he could finally see that the light came from a police car and there were several police officers talking to SooJin.

He walked up to them and the policemen gave him a nod of acknowledgement before returning to their conversation. “So miss, are you sure you don’t want to press any charges?” A tall, well built officer asked SooJin.

At that point SooJin was hugging herself to keep warm and that’s when Won realised that she had stormed out of the house without her coat. And he was cursing himself for not lending her his own coat. But his mind was busy processing what was going on. Charges? Why would SooJin press any charges? “Yes.” SooJin said affirmatively. She seemed adamant with her decision and that nobody was going to convince her otherwise.

“But miss…this is some kind of damage…” The other officer, a stout and paunchy man said, gesturing to the Crystal Daisy.

Now that the officer mentioned it, Won’s attention was finally drawn to the front of the Crystal Daisy, or whatever was left of it. The glass front was smashed to smithereens and was none existent. Inside, the interior was splashed with red paint and it looked like a tornado had hit the inside of the place. A surge of anger filled Won and he started clenching his jaw. Who would do such a thing? He turned to look at SooJin, wondering why she chose not to do anything.

“No.” SooJin reaffirmed and Won had to exercise all of his self control to stop himself from protesting and calling a lawyer to sue the people responsible or better, to put them behind bars where they belong. But at that moment, Won had no idea who he was dealing with. Not yet anyway.

In the end, the officers had to give in and they walked away, shaking their head in disbelief. It was a first for them too. They were wondering how a person could be so dumb to not do anything. But what they don’t know is that SooJin had a reason. That reason being that even if she did something, it would be no use because her opponent had control over most of law enforcement. Second of all, she was already tired. She would rather just go home and sleep for the time being.

Despite all of that, she suddenly had an urge. And before Won could say anything or even question her, she turned to him and said, “Do you want to get something to drink?” Won was taken aback by the sudden request. He was still deciding whether she meant something to quench their thirst or whether she meant something else. Not even waiting for his answer, she walked on ahead of him.

Somehow Won felt like it was something that he just had to get used to. Sometimes she would do as she pleased and there was no stopping her. He himself was still new to the feeling of being treated that way. But somehow, SooJin made him want to follow whatever she wanted him to do. And he wondered since when has she had this strong an influence on him.

He kept checking his watch. It was almost past the 15 minutes that he had set and he began to move restlessly back and forth at the front of the market. He was getting weird stares from the passersby but he didn’t care. If the Chairman knew that he had lost them, he would be done for. He doesn’t know what will be done to him, all he knows is that he does not wish to find that out. And so he had decided that he would go after them. He kind of knew where they were headed anyway, since he had been following them around before.

“Kurae. Just go in and get them, get them home. Then the rest is the boss’ problem.” He said to himself. He walked hurriedly through the crowds and at one point he had bumped into an old man carrying some vegetables. “I am sorry, Iam so so sorry…” He apologised hurriedly and thankfully the man was alright and he didn’t drop anything. But he did however, give SeungHo a dirty look, as if to say, “How rude.”

He skillfully and swiftly dodged the countless market goers and just as he was about to move past a snack place, he caught a glimpse of a familiar shadow walking swiftly past him. He stopped dead in his tracks and sighed deeply before making an abrupt u-turn to go after Won and SooJin who had just went past him.

When he finally caught up to them, they ignored him completely. “SeungHo ah…” SooJin stopped abruptly, looking around for SeungHo. And when SeungHo appeared next to her, she simply said, “Oh, there you are.”

“Oh…here I am…” SeungHo replied. He was getting tired and all he wanted to do was go home and sleep. But apparently, SooJin had other ideas.

Imagine his surprise when SooJin suddenly asked him, “SeungHo ah… Do you know any good place to drink around here? A stall maybe?” He couldn’t believe what he was hearing and for the most part, he had a huge headache too, as if he had been on a rollercoaster at the fair. Not only was he abruptly supposed to be close to two people who he could only dream of calling his equal, but all of a sudden one of them was asking him a random question of where it would be best to have a drink.

Dumbfounded by the question, he unknowingly answered, saying, “Uh…I mean there is a stall a few blocks away…” He roughly pointed to somewhere to his right. “Somewhere… over there…” he pointed.

“Well, let’s go then…Lead the way…” SooJin had said, and SeungHo had to make sure that he had heard that correctly.

“Ye?” He said, not sure if he should.

“Noona-ga…is craving for some soju…So can you and your hyung just do this with me for one night?” Maybe it was that puppy dog look on her face, but SeungHo just nodded nervously.

“Cha…” SooJin clapped her hands together. “Let’s get going…” The smile on her face could not mask the teary look that she had.

Thinking that something must have happened, SeungHo obliged without another word. “What could have possibly happened?” He thought to himself as they walked past the crowds.

“And oh, can we just walk over there? I really need the fresh air…” SooJin said from behind him and SeungHo stopped abruptly and walked away from where he had parked the car.

“This is going to be a long night.” He thought to himself as they braved the chilly night.

She hugged herself tightly as they walked. In one night, everything had gone south and all she wanted was to numb her mind. Some might say that she has lost it, but so what, she had a right to do so. When under stress, soju works best in her opinion. It was the same case when her breakthrough movie nearly fell through. But at the time, she was drinking with the MSG gang. Now, she was venturing into new grounds.

But since she has been through a roller coaster ride anyway, she didn’t see why she shouldn’t try something else that was new. As these thoughts were running through her mind, she felt a sudden warm embrace. Snapping out of her thoughts, she looked to see that Won had taken off his coat and put it around her.

She felt a weird kind of feeling, almost like a warm and fuzzy one and she gave him a small smile of gratitude. She tugged his coat closer to herself and although it was the coat that she had seen her cousin wear countless times, there was something different about it. She breathed in and she suddenly realised that he had a sharp almost citrusy scent and she decided right then and there that she liked it.

They walked in silence the rest of the way with puffs of smoke coming out of their mouths. SooJin was once again trapped in her thoughts. She had tried so hard to keep the secret, but the commotion that had happened that night, there was no way that she could cover that up. It was a magnitude that could potentially land Crystal Daisy on the news and it was better that he knew about it now before all of her secrets was splashed on tv screens all across Korea.

Yeah, this is the right thing to do. She tried to convince herself of that, but she couldn’t help but feel knots forming in her stomach. “I wonder if they would believe me…” SooJin thought to herself. But it doesn’t matter anymore, she has to tell them now. Since they were all in it together, they might as well be straight with each other.

“Are you okay?” Won said suddenly and it surprised her more than it should have. “Oh? Um…yeah…” She lied. “Just a lot on my mind…” She added.

“Well, what was all…” Won gestured to the location of the ruined Crystal Daisy with a nod of his head. “…that about?”

SooJin sighed deeply and pulled his coat closer to herself, almost to the point where she was engulfed in it. “I’ll tell you soon okay. I just need some liquid courage to make it through.” SooJin was surprised by how frank she was being.

Won seemed to be taken aback. “Oh…okay…” He said reluctantly. SooJin was thankful that he didn’t push it. But at the same time, she was worried about how he would react when she told him the entire truth, and of course there was her biggest secret. “Liquid courage, please help me…” She said to herself, her teeth chattering from the cold.

The stall was through a back alley and if you weren’t familiar with the place, you might miss it. For SeungHo on the other hand, he might have gone there once maybe twice of maybe more times in a week. However, he never thought that he would be sitting there with the future heir of a company and the CEO of a company,

Since they both had higher social status and are older than he was, SeungHo automatically had his hands on his lap. Usually he would drink himself silly whenever he was there but on that night he barely finished one bottle.

His noona and hyung on the other hand, they were a different story. His hyung, had finished one bottle and was well into his second one. His noona was on a whole other level. He had never seen anyone drink as much as she has in that short amount of time.

SooJin sloppily poured herself another glass of soju. “Oh, careful there…” SeungHo helped her pour it instead.

SooJin gave him a cheeky smile. “Komawo…” She grinned and Won who had started getting a little tipsy also smiled. Although he didn’t realise it then, he smiled partly because he thinks that SooJin looks cute when she’s drunk.

“Oh, why did…did…I bri…bring you guys here again?” SooJin put her index finger to her temples with a glassy look in her eyes.

Won hicoughed. “Oh…that…” Won wagged a finger as he tried to remember. “Oh! Crystal Daisy!” Won exclaimed happily.

“Ah! Right!” SooJin grinned herself silly.

“So! Where do I start?!” SeungHo wished that they would lower their voices. Even when there was not a lot of customers, the ones that were there began to turn their attention to their table. Fortunately enough, SooJin’s voice dropped to a whisper and she gestured for both Won and SeungHo to lean in to the middle of the table.

“You know what?” SooJin started. “What happened back there…” She was strangely lucid. “That’s been a long time coming…” SooJin concluded giggling like a little girl.

“Huh?” Won said, not quite understanding.

“Well…”SooJin raised a drunken hand and blinked a few times because her vision was starting to get blurry. “That…” SooJin giggled again. “That’s…because…be…because…it already happened!” She exclaimed, making SeungHo jump. “So many times…” She said in a whisper and SeungHo could smell the alcohol on her breath.

“Too many times…” Tears start to well in her eyes and unlike the past few times, she really did begin to cry. “There was the vandalism…” She sobbed and both the men didn’t know what to do. “Then there was the false accusation…and now there’s this!” She exclaimed and sobbed at the same time.

“Do you know who did all this?” She said in a hushed whisper. Then he gestured for them to lean in closer again. “Choi Jisung. “ She said and both of the men pulled back, wondering what it was that the chairman of Manse group has anything to do with what had happened.

“Yes…” SooJin’s eyes were dry and she was just laughing, almost maniacally. “The chairman of Manse group …he’s the one who is trying to destroy my life.” She laughed again.

Both of the men stared at her like she was crazy. And when she had calmed down a little, she gestured them to come forward once again. She downed another shot of soju. She wiped the remaining tears in her eyes and also the snot from her nose. “You know the best part?” The two men looked at her questioningly. “My grandfather. My grandfather is trying to ruin my life.” What she had said left them in a state of confusion. It was only what she had said after that had changed both of their lives forever.

“The chairman of Manse Group is my grandfather!” She exclaimed, laughing like a child. Both of the men gasped in unison and pulled back, with their hands to their hearts. In their defence, anybody who had to hear that announcement would most definitely have a heart attack. Just the thought of sitting across from the heiress of the biggest and richest company in Korea can make anyone go into cardiac arrest.

And as if that revelation was not enough, she had to reaffirm it one more time. “I’m the heiress to the great Manse Group!!!!” Anybody within a mile could have heard her and the two men would not have been surprised.

Ellie: Here’s the next chapter and I hope you enjoy… Feedbacks are much appreciated and thank you for supporting!

 

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aibhara #1
Chapter 37: woah.. I couldn't stop reading your story.. It's really good..
I really like the plot and how you solve their problem..
Thank you for this wonderful story authornim..
Hope you could post the last chapter someday..
ChoKwanGi #2
Chapter 36: i can't open the links but I am sure she looks gorgeous. Thanks for the update. till next :)
gigiright #3
Chapter 35: thanks for the update
ChoKwanGi #4
Chapter 33: i waited for this update, thanks a lot. i hope you are well. and hope to read more updates soon! fighting!
ChoKwanGi #5
Chapter 32: am still reading and enjoying it. please continue like 10 chapters :) this is a breathe of fresh air actually.
oh, btw am not into K-pop though. sorry
liulishi #6
Chapter 31: Happy new year...🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Thanks for update...
liulishi #7
Chapter 29: love iiiitttttttt....yeah..update...
thank you...
fighting
liulishi #8
Chapter 27: finally you update this again... ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️💙💙💙
Thanks
Anyway... stay safe and take care Authornim...
Warrawr
#9
Chapter 26: I hope you continue this and update quick. Great story.