Chapter 11: When We Were...

We left the party and went off in my car. It felt a bit odd to just run off with a stranger, but somehow, it felt comfortable to be with her. She looked every bit like an heiress, but her character bespoke of her otherwise.

“Where would you like to go?” I asked her.

“You decide,” she said. “I just want to be anywhere but there.”

“Why?”

“My father’s sole purpose of propping me there was so that I could meet some eligible young men who would someday be his son-in-law.”

“Am I one of them?” I asked.

“I’m not sure,” she said. “Should I call him to check if you’re on his list?” she smiled.

“I think you’d better not,” I said. “I would be on his list, alright; the black list.”

“Why?”

“Do you know who I am?” I asked her.

“Well… you must be rich enough to be at that party. And from the way you’re dressed, you don’t seem to be out of place. Why would you be on his black list?”

“My father… godfather… Chairman Ahn.”

“Right… I really don’t know who he is,” she said. “What sort of industry does your godfather dabble in?”

“Let’s say we do quite a bit of imports and financing…” I said.

“Oh…”

“The illegal kind,” I added.

“Oh…” she said, this time in a softer tone.

“I was only invited because they were afraid of him,” I said. “And he sent me there with the same purpose as your father’s.”

“To find you a guy?” she said, suddenly.

I looked at her, and realized that for once, I had struck gold. Not only was she not afraid of my background, she had enough guts to joke about it. My face cracked into a smile, and soon, we were laughing together.

“I know where we should go,” I said decisively.

“It had better be good,” she said.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “For you, only the best will do.”

[Sierra’s POV]

Music: Alex - 기다리게 해서 미안해 (I’m Sorry To Keep You Waiting)

It was a baseball park, and there was a batting range where people would come to practice their batting skills with the machines. I was in a dress and high heels, but I just kicked my shoes off and hiked up my dress. He took off his blazer and tie, and rolled up his sleeves.

He took out 2 metal baseball bats from the trunk of his Lamborghini; I didn’t want to imagine what else he did with those bats. I was a little shocked when I found out what his family did for a living, but I was still here, walking behind him as he led me towards the batting range. Something about him called out to me, as if we shared the same soul, a common pain in life.

“Watch closely,” he said as he prepared for his first hit.

He was inside one of the booths or cages, whatever you call them, and I was standing behind him, watching. The ball shot out from the machine, and I guess he wasn’t ready, because he had to duck before the ball hit him in the head. He swore in Mandarin.

“You speak Chinese?” I exclaimed in Mandarin.

He turned around and stared at me.

“Did you just say that in Chinese?” he said, and just then, another ball shot out and hit him on the back of his head.

He yelped, and rubbed his head. I opened the gate and beckoned him out before another ball flew over to give him brain damage.

“You speak Chinese?” we said in unison, and laughed.

“My mother’s Chinese,” he said.

“So is my mother,” I said.

“Wow…” he exclaimed.

“This is weird…” I said.

“Very…” he agreed.

“What are the odds?” I smiled.

“I guess that was why we clicked,” he said.

“You think so?”

“Don’t you think we click?” he asked.

“A little,” I smiled.

“A little?” he raised an eyebrow.

“Sorta…” I laughed.

In the end, we spent the rest of the day sitting on a bench nearby, discovering the other things we had in common.

Jae Wook and I barely know each other, but as I did with Han Kyung, I felt a connection with him. Would things end well for us this time?

[Han Kyung’s POV]

I never saw it coming. We had so much good times together that it was hard to believe that it would end just like that. We used to spend every waking moment together. I went to a private boys’ school near hers, and I would always meet her after school and we would spend the day together. Sometimes she’d come to my place, and sometimes we’d go to hers’ since none of our parents were ever around. Sierra was a little luckier since her brothers were around pretty often. I know that she missed her family whenever they were out of town, and I never begrudged her of her time with them even when it meant me spending my day alone.

In my mind, she was the one. We were still young, but I knew that I wanted someone like her by my side for always. I was planning to arrange a meeting between her and my father, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be. 6 months into our relationship, she started to avoid me. I followed her one day and managed to catch her alone.

Music: Alex – 화분 (Flower Pot)

“What’s wrong Sierra?” I asked her.

“What do you mean?” she said innocently.

“Why are you avoiding me?” I asked directly.

She sighed, and refused to meet my eye.

“Is there someone else?” I asked.

“No…” she said.

“Then what’s wrong? Your brothers?”

“No…” she said.

“Your father found out about us?”

“Ani…” she shook her head.

“What’s wrong? Did I do something wrong?” I said.

I was pleading for her to talk to me. I was almost in tears. I’d never felt so deeply for anyone like I did to her. So why didn’t she return my feelings? Isn’t that how it’s supposed to work?

“I can’t do this anymore,” she finally said.

“What do you mean?”

“I know what you do whenever you can’t meet me. I can’t sit at home knowing that you’re endangering your life.”

“You knew this was what I did from the beginning,” I reminded her.

“I thought you just sat back and watched. I didn’t know you were involved physically.”

“What’s the difference? I have to start out like this, to earn the respect of my followers.”

“I can’t deal with it. I still can’t adjust to hearing you want to beat someone, anyone up, just because they offended me or you. I need a normal guy.”

“Define a normal guy, Sierra,” I said.

“I want someone who leads a normal life like me,” she said, she was close to tears now.

“Someone with a trust fund and a chauffeur?”

“That’s not what I meant,” she said.

“Someone who goes to an elite school, who plans to attend an Ivy League university in the USA? Someone who will inherit a multibillion dollar conglomerate when his father dies?”

“Stop it, Han Kyung… stop it?”

“Aren’t I getting closer to the point?”

“It’s not about money and status,” she said.

“Then what? Tell me! What do you want from me? You want me to give up the mob? You want me to break away from my father?” I said, raising my voice.

“I can never ask you to do that,” she said, softly.

“Then what can I do to keep us together?” I asked.

Tears were streaming down my face now. My legs felt so weak that I just decided to get on my knees and kneel before her.

“Get up, Han Kyung,” she said, tugging at my shirt, urging me to get up on my feet.

“No… not until you tell me how. How can I keep you?” he said.

“You can’t,” she said, her voice almost a whisper. “Dui bu qi (I’m sorry),” she said.

“No, Sierra… Don’t do this to us,” I said, latching on to her arm.

“I have to go,” she said as she started inching away from me, pulling her arm out of my grasp.

“No…” I said; my hands now sprawled on the ground from trying to hold on to her.

“Dui bu qi…” she said, and left.

[Sierra’s POV]

Music: Alex – 화분 (Flower Pot) ~ continued

The day I left Han Kyung there in the street, kneeling and begging for me to stay, I had left him behind as just a figment in my imagination. Only my brothers knew what he had meant to me. To the rest of the world, and I have to remind myself this every single day, we never met under those circumstances, we were never together, we never dated, and we were never in love…

******

Celebrity Tidbits

If you have noticed, I'm using quite a few of Alex's songs to set the mood for my scenes. FYI to those who don't know who Alex is. He is the vocalist for the Clazziquai Project, a Korean band. He is well known for singing 'She Is', the theme song for the hit drama series, 'My Name is Kim Sam Soon', with bandmate, Horan. He recently recorded a solo album and appeared on the hit reality series We Got Married on MBC. The song '화분 (Flower Pot)', originally by Loveholic was a song he also performed on the show when he had to leave his 'bride' Shin Ae to focus on his solo album.

I've always found Alex's voice to be sexy and filled with expression. His songs never fail to touch me, particularly my first choice in the beginning of this chapter, '기다리게 해서 미안해 (I’m Sorry To Keep You Waiting)'. Do buy or if you can't get his album, download it, and listen. You won't be sorry ^_^