Chapter 2: Young and Reckless
Sora followed the Chairman into her office and closes the door behind her. The Chairman sat down on one of the sofas, while Sora was still standing.
“Exactly what were you thinking back there?” he asked.
With a dumbfound look on her face, Sora murmured, “Back there?” as she tries to recall back the moment. “You mean with my bruise here?”
“I meant when you were driving carelessly on the road, Sora.”
Sora gasped and bit her lower lip. She was shocked and said “You saw me? But, it wasn’t my fault! It’s all because of that reckless driver cutting in in front of me! I could have made ―” before Sora could finish, the Chairman cut her off. Inside, she was fuming thinking back how the reckless driver caused her to miss the last set of lights and not to mention made her into the center of attention on the street looking like a crazy woman. She swore to herself that she better not encounter that driver again or else she’ll have to make them eat the dust from her car.
“Sora-ah! You should know better than to drive so fast on the road. Did you even think about the safety of others? With that kind of driving behaviour, what makes you different from that reckless driver? You should know very well not to make your parents worry,” the Chairman paused and stared at Sora with a concerned-look on his face. He then let out a sigh, “You are my only daughter, you know? If you drive so carelessly like that, you might get into accident and I don’t want to be the one to send my own daughter to her own funeral!”
“Appa! How can you say that to your own daughter?” Sora talked back with her eyes widened from what her father had just said.
The Chairman, her father, looked at Sora again with raised eyebrows.
“If you don’t want me to say things like that then you should have driven carefully instead, like when you first got your driver’s license. Back then, you drove so slowly like an old ahjumma because you were afraid of losing your license,” said her father with a chuckle.
Sora pouted like a little girl in front of her father after his teasing. Then Melissa knocked on the door and came in with the Chairman’s coffee.
“Chairman Kang, your espresso,” said Melissa while placing it on the coffee table and looking at Sora to check if everything’s okay.
“Thank you Miss Kim.” Sora’s father then took a sip of his espresso and asked “…by the way Miss Kim, do you know if Miss Kang here has any appointments this afternoon?”
Melissa checking her Galaxy Tab and reverted, “Miss Kang only has a meeting with Director Choi at three o’clock this afternoon.”
“Well, then Miss Kang should have plenty of time to accompany her parents to lunch then…” said Sora’s father as he looked at his daughter.
Sora couldn’t refuse when her father gave her his loving fatherly smile and all she could do was happily accept his invitation.
*** ( Meanwhile ) ***
VROOOOOM! SCREECH! The stratus white Aston Martin Vanquish drove down into an underground parking and drifted right into a designated parking spot that has a metal plaque on the wall with the surname “Park” imprinted on it. The car door swung opened. A man with a pair of Ray Ban shades, wearing a dark navy blue blazer over a white shirt inside, with a pair of light grey trousers and cappuccino coloured leather shoes stepped out of the car. He tossed the car keys up and down while whistling to the tune of “Mr. Simple” as he walked towards the building entrance.
He entered a private elevator and pressed the button to the top floor of the building then texted: “I’m here.” When the elevator doors opened, he walked towards a large room with sanded glass windows. Before entering the room, he lightly brushed his blazer and flatten his sideburns with his hands.
He puts on a smirk as he pushed open the glass doors and entered the room. It was a large office room, with white marble flooring and large high ceiling glass windows – which allowed a full one hundred and eighty degree view at the heart of Seoul and Han River. A man stood by the glass windows with both his hands in his side pockets, stared at the wide city landscape outside. He was wearing a grey dress shirt under his white vest with a pair of white chinos and black leather oxford point shoes.
“Are there any scratches on it?” the man slowly turned his head after asking.
“Aw, come on hyung…how could you think so lightly of me on my driving skills?”
“I’m not worried about you, Donghae. I’m more worried about the other drivers on the road. Some drive very recklessly, you know? The ones who think they can drive when they clearly cannot,” said the man as he walked back to his desk and sat down on his chair.
Donghae had already taken one of the seats in front of his hyung’s desk and was comfortably leaning backwards on the chair.
Pointing at his hyung in agreement, he said “now that, I have to agree with you hyung,” Donghae then started doing all his hand gestures as he continued “just like on my way here, how is it possible for a driver to go 60 km/h in a fast lane on the freeway? I really don’t get it!” while shaking his head in frustration.
His hyung on the other hand, looked at Donghae as he was slightly annoyed by Donghae’s finger pointing gestures. It’s considered impolite to point fingers at people in Korea, especially to those who are older than you. But he let it slide as they’ve already known each other for many years and are like close brothers. He then looked away and started browsing the web; checking out the latest news in Korea on his iPhone.
“But…there was someone that I saw just now, whose driving skills aren’t that bad,” said Donghae suddenly, to which diverted his hyung’s eyes from his iPhone as he looked at Donghae. He was surprised and curious as to whom this person was; since Donghae hardly compliments on another’s driving skills.
“She drove an SL-65 Mercedes, although it’s not as good as your baby downstairs, but she was just swiftly dodging through all the cars. If you play it in slow motion, it’s like a female-version of Keanu Reeves dodging bullets in the Matrix movie.” His hyung smirked by the thought of Donghae’s description of the scene, but his smirk quickly disappeared when Donghae chuckled and said, “Too bad I cut in in front of her with your car, or else she would have made it through the last set of red lights.”
“You better not have caused an accident with my car. You should drive more carefully on local roads as there are many pedestrians,” remarked his hyung who’s not finding it funny at all. “In the future, I’m not going to place any more bets with you on my car. Not going to take any chances of you getting into an accident with it.”
Donghae’s jaw dropped to his hyung’s remark and stuttered, “bb…bu…but hyung! How can you say that?”
“Besides…don’t you have a car of your own, Donghae? The last time I saw you, you were driving a red Audi R8.”
“Yeah, but my ―” before Donghae can finish, a paging tone coming from the intercom interrupted their conversation. His hyung pressed the speakerphone button and it was his hyung’s secretary, Miranda paging in.
“President Park, your driver will be waiting for you downstairs, outside the lobby in ten minutes and you have a voicemail in your inbox.”
“Alright, thanks and by the way, please tell my driver that there’s no need to wait for me outside the lobby. I’ll be heading out on my own shortly.”
“Yes sir,” noted Miranda.
“Donghae, please hand it over.”
“Hand what over?” Donghae asked with a smirk on his face, while his hyung is playing the voicemail on the intercom.
“My car keys, Donghae,” while the voicemail played “Jungsu-ah, it’s omma. Do you have time to come over for dinner tonight? I have bought things to make some of your favourite dishes. Please call me back as soon as you’re free. Bye honey.”
“Hyung! Can I come over for dinner too? I miss your eomeoni’s cooking!” Donghae asked excitedly. Then Park Jungsu gave Donghae a look to tell him to keep quiet for a bit, and signaled Donghae to give back the car keys by reaching out his hand.
Donghae still reluctant to hand over the car keys and was spinning the keys around his finger while Park Jungsu calls his mother back. He gave Donghae another stare, but Donghae just ignored it and kept playing with the car keys.
The call went through and Park Jungsu said, “Eomeoni, it’s me, Jungsu-ah. I’ll come over at around seven-thirty, if that’s alright or it is a bit late?”
“No, not at all, Jungsu-ah. Just take your time, I just want to see you and make sure you’ve been eating properly on your own. I’ll see you later tonight then,” his mother responded happily to her son, who’s always busy with his schedule.
“Oh and Donghae said that he misses your cooking and would like to join us too. Would that be okay?”
“Hi Eomeoni! It’s me, Donghae! I miss your food!” Donghae said loudly in the background so that Park Jungsu’s mother can hear him.
“Oh? Donghae-ssi? Of course! He’s more than welcome to come over for dinner. Omma will make bigger portions for the both of you then. See you boys later!” his mother replied happily.
“Alright, we’ll see you later tonight then. Bye.” Park Jungsu ended the call as he starts to gather up his belongings while Donghae still playing with the car keys and this time tossing the keys up and down again. On the second toss up, Park Jungsu instantly grabs his car keys in mid-air and said “I’ll take my keys back, thank you!” He started to walk off while Donghae from behind chases after his hyung as he calls out, “Hyung! Wait for me!”
Park Jungsu and Donghae headed downstairs to the underground parking. “So what happened to your car?” asked Park Jungsu as he’s trying to continue their last conversation before his secretary interrupted.
“Aish…my abeoji confiscated my princess just because I said the wrong thing at our company’s annual dinner last Saturday,” explained Donghae.
Park Jungsu chuckled and asked, “Donghae-ah, aren't you the PR manager for your father's Architectural firm? Don't you need to be good at what to say for that post? You should really think before you speak or else you’re going to get yourself and others around you in trouble,” Park Jungsu responded as he unlocks his Vanquish and puts on his pair of Ray Ban sunglasses.
“I do…hyung! But just not at the right timing. That’s all!” said Donghae as they both got into Park Jungsu’s car.
“Well Donghae? Where are you off to then? Interested in grabbing lunch together?” asked Park Jungsu as he starts his engine with a press of a button and plays “Sexy Free and Single” on his stereo system.
“Sounds good to me, I’m all up for it!” Donghae responded happily with a wink and both drove off out of the underground parking.
“Exactly what were you thinking back there?” he asked.
With a dumbfound look on her face, Sora murmured, “Back there?” as she tries to recall back the moment. “You mean with my bruise here?”
“I meant when you were driving carelessly on the road, Sora.”
Sora gasped and bit her lower lip. She was shocked and said “You saw me? But, it wasn’t my fault! It’s all because of that reckless driver cutting in in front of me! I could have made ―” before Sora could finish, the Chairman cut her off. Inside, she was fuming thinking back how the reckless driver caused her to miss the last set of lights and not to mention made her into the center of attention on the street looking like a crazy woman. She swore to herself that she better not encounter that driver again or else she’ll have to make them eat the dust from her car.
“Sora-ah! You should know better than to drive so fast on the road. Did you even think about the safety of others? With that kind of driving behaviour, what makes you different from that reckless driver? You should know very well not to make your parents worry,” the Chairman paused and stared at Sora with a concerned-look on his face. He then let out a sigh, “You are my only daughter, you know? If you drive so carelessly like that, you might get into accident and I don’t want to be the one to send my own daughter to her own funeral!”
“Appa! How can you say that to your own daughter?” Sora talked back with her eyes widened from what her father had just said.
The Chairman, her father, looked at Sora again with raised eyebrows.
“If you don’t want me to say things like that then you should have driven carefully instead, like when you first got your driver’s license. Back then, you drove so slowly like an old ahjumma because you were afraid of losing your license,” said her father with a chuckle.
Sora pouted like a little girl in front of her father after his teasing. Then Melissa knocked on the door and came in with the Chairman’s coffee.
“Chairman Kang, your espresso,” said Melissa while placing it on the coffee table and looking at Sora to check if everything’s okay.
“Thank you Miss Kim.” Sora’s father then took a sip of his espresso and asked “…by the way Miss Kim, do you know if Miss Kang here has any appointments this afternoon?”
Melissa checking her Galaxy Tab and reverted, “Miss Kang only has a meeting with Director Choi at three o’clock this afternoon.”
“Well, then Miss Kang should have plenty of time to accompany her parents to lunch then…” said Sora’s father as he looked at his daughter.
Sora couldn’t refuse when her father gave her his loving fatherly smile and all she could do was happily accept his invitation.
*** ( Meanwhile ) ***
VROOOOOM! SCREECH! The stratus white Aston Martin Vanquish drove down into an underground parking and drifted right into a designated parking spot that has a metal plaque on the wall with the surname “Park” imprinted on it. The car door swung opened. A man with a pair of Ray Ban shades, wearing a dark navy blue blazer over a white shirt inside, with a pair of light grey trousers and cappuccino coloured leather shoes stepped out of the car. He tossed the car keys up and down while whistling to the tune of “Mr. Simple” as he walked towards the building entrance.
He entered a private elevator and pressed the button to the top floor of the building then texted: “I’m here.” When the elevator doors opened, he walked towards a large room with sanded glass windows. Before entering the room, he lightly brushed his blazer and flatten his sideburns with his hands.
He puts on a smirk as he pushed open the glass doors and entered the room. It was a large office room, with white marble flooring and large high ceiling glass windows – which allowed a full one hundred and eighty degree view at the heart of Seoul and Han River. A man stood by the glass windows with both his hands in his side pockets, stared at the wide city landscape outside. He was wearing a grey dress shirt under his white vest with a pair of white chinos and black leather oxford point shoes.
“Are there any scratches on it?” the man slowly turned his head after asking.
“Aw, come on hyung…how could you think so lightly of me on my driving skills?”
“I’m not worried about you, Donghae. I’m more worried about the other drivers on the road. Some drive very recklessly, you know? The ones who think they can drive when they clearly cannot,” said the man as he walked back to his desk and sat down on his chair.
Donghae had already taken one of the seats in front of his hyung’s desk and was comfortably leaning backwards on the chair.
Pointing at his hyung in agreement, he said “now that, I have to agree with you hyung,” Donghae then started doing all his hand gestures as he continued “just like on my way here, how is it possible for a driver to go 60 km/h in a fast lane on the freeway? I really don’t get it!” while shaking his head in frustration.
His hyung on the other hand, looked at Donghae as he was slightly annoyed by Donghae’s finger pointing gestures. It’s considered impolite to point fingers at people in Korea, especially to those who are older than you. But he let it slide as they’ve already known each other for many years and are like close brothers. He then looked away and started browsing the web; checking out the latest news in Korea on his iPhone.
“But…there was someone that I saw just now, whose driving skills aren’t that bad,” said Donghae suddenly, to which diverted his hyung’s eyes from his iPhone as he looked at Donghae. He was surprised and curious as to whom this person was; since Donghae hardly compliments on another’s driving skills.
“She drove an SL-65 Mercedes, although it’s not as good as your baby downstairs, but she was just swiftly dodging through all the cars. If you play it in slow motion, it’s like a female-version of Keanu Reeves dodging bullets in the Matrix movie.” His hyung smirked by the thought of Donghae’s description of the scene, but his smirk quickly disappeared when Donghae chuckled and said, “Too bad I cut in in front of her with your car, or else she would have made it through the last set of red lights.”
“You better not have caused an accident with my car. You should drive more carefully on local roads as there are many pedestrians,” remarked his hyung who’s not finding it funny at all. “In the future, I’m not going to place any more bets with you on my car. Not going to take any chances of you getting into an accident with it.”
Donghae’s jaw dropped to his hyung’s remark and stuttered, “bb…bu…but hyung! How can you say that?”
“Besides…don’t you have a car of your own, Donghae? The last time I saw you, you were driving a red Audi R8.”
“Yeah, but my ―” before Donghae can finish, a paging tone coming from the intercom interrupted their conversation. His hyung pressed the speakerphone button and it was his hyung’s secretary, Miranda paging in.
“President Park, your driver will be waiting for you downstairs, outside the lobby in ten minutes and you have a voicemail in your inbox.”
“Alright, thanks and by the way, please tell my driver that there’s no need to wait for me outside the lobby. I’ll be heading out on my own shortly.”
“Yes sir,” noted Miranda.
“Donghae, please hand it over.”
“Hand what over?” Donghae asked with a smirk on his face, while his hyung is playing the voicemail on the intercom.
“My car keys, Donghae,” while the voicemail played “Jungsu-ah, it’s omma. Do you have time to come over for dinner tonight? I have bought things to make some of your favourite dishes. Please call me back as soon as you’re free. Bye honey.”
“Hyung! Can I come over for dinner too? I miss your eomeoni’s cooking!” Donghae asked excitedly. Then Park Jungsu gave Donghae a look to tell him to keep quiet for a bit, and signaled Donghae to give back the car keys by reaching out his hand.
Donghae still reluctant to hand over the car keys and was spinning the keys around his finger while Park Jungsu calls his mother back. He gave Donghae another stare, but Donghae just ignored it and kept playing with the car keys.
The call went through and Park Jungsu said, “Eomeoni, it’s me, Jungsu-ah. I’ll come over at around seven-thirty, if that’s alright or it is a bit late?”
“No, not at all, Jungsu-ah. Just take your time, I just want to see you and make sure you’ve been eating properly on your own. I’ll see you later tonight then,” his mother responded happily to her son, who’s always busy with his schedule.
“Oh and Donghae said that he misses your cooking and would like to join us too. Would that be okay?”
“Hi Eomeoni! It’s me, Donghae! I miss your food!” Donghae said loudly in the background so that Park Jungsu’s mother can hear him.
“Oh? Donghae-ssi? Of course! He’s more than welcome to come over for dinner. Omma will make bigger portions for the both of you then. See you boys later!” his mother replied happily.
“Alright, we’ll see you later tonight then. Bye.” Park Jungsu ended the call as he starts to gather up his belongings while Donghae still playing with the car keys and this time tossing the keys up and down again. On the second toss up, Park Jungsu instantly grabs his car keys in mid-air and said “I’ll take my keys back, thank you!” He started to walk off while Donghae from behind chases after his hyung as he calls out, “Hyung! Wait for me!”
Park Jungsu and Donghae headed downstairs to the underground parking. “So what happened to your car?” asked Park Jungsu as he’s trying to continue their last conversation before his secretary interrupted.
“Aish…my abeoji confiscated my princess just because I said the wrong thing at our company’s annual dinner last Saturday,” explained Donghae.
Park Jungsu chuckled and asked, “Donghae-ah, aren't you the PR manager for your father's Architectural firm? Don't you need to be good at what to say for that post? You should really think before you speak or else you’re going to get yourself and others around you in trouble,” Park Jungsu responded as he unlocks his Vanquish and puts on his pair of Ray Ban sunglasses.
“I do…hyung! But just not at the right timing. That’s all!” said Donghae as they both got into Park Jungsu’s car.
“Well Donghae? Where are you off to then? Interested in grabbing lunch together?” asked Park Jungsu as he starts his engine with a press of a button and plays “Sexy Free and Single” on his stereo system.
“Sounds good to me, I’m all up for it!” Donghae responded happily with a wink and both drove off out of the underground parking.