A New Beginning
After dropping Ho-jung off at her home, Su-ji returned to her own house and went looking for her mother.
"Mom."
"Hm? Su-ji. What is it?"
Even after coming home, Hwang Ji-hye was still going over the electronic approval documents for EST Fashion, the company she ran. Her desk was piled high with reports she needed to review and assign instructions for by hand.
"......"
Just as she had discussed with James beforehand, she should have asked for his number, but she simply could not get the words out.
I need his number before we can even get started...
"Why are you standing there without saying anything? If it isn't urgent, tell me later. I'm busy."
"Well..."
"Well?"
"C-could I have a number, please..."
"What number?"
"The magician's. The one you said you met on the plane..."
Whirr.
She turned away from her computer monitor and faced Su-ji.
"...The magician James?"
"Yeah."
"You want to meet him?"
"...I am a little curious."
Su-ji still could not meet her mother's eyes and looked away in embarrassment.
"Pfft. And here I thought you were acting all uninterested that day..."
"Just tell me, okay? Please?"
"I figured you'd be like this, so I quietly took a look at the chairman's jacket and pulled out his card, didn't I?"
"I get it, so stop teasing me~."
"You're in such a hurry. Hoho. Give me your phone. I'll put it in for you."
Su-ji started to hand over her phone, then gasped and snatched it back.
"!"
No, no! If she enters James's number here...
Her saved contact would surely appear. Worse, if the messages she and James had exchanged so far were exposed, everything would go up in smoke.
"I said give me your phone."
"N-no, it's fine. Just write it down for me. Whether I give him my number is something I need to think about, right? I was just going to call from someone else's phone and make contact."
For something she had just thought of on the spot, it was a surprisingly solid excuse.
"Oh? So the little heiress from a rich family has standards?"
"No, that's not it!"
"If you're going to call from someone else's phone, you can just use mine."
"Huh?"
"Right now."
Before Su-ji could stop her, she pressed the call button immediately. Then she switched it to speakerphone and set it on the desk.
"Now, go ahead and talk."
"H-here?"
"Yeah. If you call him behind my back, I think I'd be too curious to stand it."
She wants me to talk to James in front of Mom...? At this rate...
While Su-ji worried, the ringing stopped and a man's voice came through.
-Hello? Who is this?
"Ahem."
Su-ji cleared her throat and, pretending not to know James, said, "Hello. This is Kim Su-ji. We met a few days ago."
Please... please understand.
-Oh... ah...
You're supposed to act like you don't know me!
-The number... um, just a moment.
James immediately picked up on the strange tone in Su-ji's polite speech and quickly used magic.
Coordinate check. Action.
He could locate Su-ji any time through the traces of mana he had previously engraved on her, and using those coordinates, he could see who she was with.
...Clear.
Hwang Ji-hye of EST Fashion. Her mother was watching her with a playful smile. He could also tell, from the phone resting on the desk, that their conversation was being shared on speaker.
-Ah. I see. This is James Kane.
Su-ji let out an inward sigh of relief and continued her performance in front of her mother.
"Would it be possible to meet for a moment?"
-I should probably check my schedule first.
Su-ji already knew James's future schedule inside and out.
What schedule? Just say you'll meet me!
-Looking at my schedule... I have an important engagement in Las Vegas sometime soon. If it's before then, I should be able to meet you.
"Las Vegas?"
You never said anything about that!
As though he had read her mind, James went on to explain his upcoming plans.
-It's an important gathering with the members of the Las Vegas VIP Club. I'll be there to strengthen ties with friends I already know and introduce myself to new members as well.
Those words were meant not for Su-ji, but for her mother.
"Ah... the VIP Club..."
-More than that, I'd like to meet Chairman Kim...
"T-the chairman?"
-Let's have this conversation when we meet tomorrow. I'll reserve a good restaurant for dinner.
"......"
Watching Su-ji, Hwang Ji-hye silently formed the answer with her lips.
YES.
"...Yes. Understood. Send me the time and place."
-Then I'll see you tomorrow.
After the call ended, she shook her head and said, "Our daughter is going to get led around by the nose at this rate..."
"W-what are you talking about?"
To her, the whole conversation had felt wildly one-sided.
"When the other person checks your schedule, you should have checked theirs right back! You make it sound like you've got all the time in the world and can meet whenever you please. The youngest daughter of the EST Group sounds awfully light on her feet."
"Ugh. You told me to say yes!"
"I meant say it after you'd had your say. What were you planning to do, just keep going 'yes, yes' like that?"
"...Tch. How was I supposed to know that?"
"And what if you ask to meet first? You should have made him say it first!"
"...Ah."
"You've never dated anyone before, so your instincts are all off. Forget about being a haughty heiress, kid."
"......"
Even after her mother's scolding, Su-ji had no retort. In truth, while dating James she had been slowly realizing that she cared more deeply than she wanted to admit, and it was partly true that she had been getting led around.
"I'll send you the message when it comes, so go on out. Mom's got plenty to do."
"...Wait a second. Let me at least get the number."
Su-ji glanced at the number she had just dialed from her mother's phone and set it down. She had to act like she was seeing James's number for the first time.
"Honestly, you're all in a flutter."
"I'm not in a flutter. I just want the number!"
"And then you're going to go straight outside and call him again, aren't you?"
"......"
"You said you were still thinking about whether to give him your number just a moment ago?"
"...I was just planning to memorize the number!"
As though she had heard enough of Su-ji's excuses, her mother waved her away with the back of her hand. Su-ji spun on her heel, stormed out, and slammed the door hard behind her.
Bang!
......
Even after Su-ji had taken out her frustration on the door, Hwang Ji-hye kept her eyes on the monitor. That did not mean she was uninterested in her daughter's new meeting, though.
A love so fierce it feels like it could burn everything down is necessary in life too.
She considered Su-ji's romance to be one of the many passing connections that came and went in a person's life, but that particular connection was already on its way to her home.
Buzz.
She had to look away from the monitor when a text arrived on her phone.
[XX Building Pavilion. 6:00 p.m. Something else has come up, so I won't be able to pick you up. I'll drop you off on the way back instead.]
"Hah. So you want to keep up the high-handed back-and-forth to the very end? I can't let him have that kind of face."
She wrote back in Su-ji's place.
Tap.
[I'm sorry, but could you come here even if it's a little late? Please push the reservation back a bit.]
* * *
Buzz.
James looked at the text that had arrived and checked the same coordinates from earlier. She was waiting for a reply after sending the message.
"Why are you doing this to me?"
He had already set the meeting time, so there was no excuse left to make.
[I'll move the reservation to 7:00 and head to your home. Please send me the address.]
Not long after, her home address arrived, and James was left to find a means of transportation.
"Man. I was hoping I'd have the car by now..."
What he had said about not being able to pick up Su-ji was not a power play. It was because he did not have a vehicle he could use to go get her.
"Should I just pull out the pickup truck and drive it over?"
But James's car had American plates, which made it an illegal vehicle in Korea.
"Maybe I should rent something separate?"
The only option left was to rent a car.
* * *
Vroom.
A sleek sports car with a deep, low growl entered a high-end residential district.
After getting out of the car, James checked the time and felt relieved.
"Phew. I barely made it on time."
Renting the vehicle had not been the problem. Matching everyone else's schedule had been.
Click. Click.
They had already arrived before James reached Su-ji's house, and now they were photographing him.
"So he's really meeting the EST Group's daughter?"
"...Chief Park seems to know everything."
"That's what's so strange. How do you even know the route changed...?"
They were TY Telecom secretary's office staff moving under Park Jin-tae's instructions. They had been supposed to head to the restaurant at six, just as James had originally texted, but when the schedule changed, so did the location. Because of that, James also had to arrive when their preparations were finished.
......
James ignored the TY secretary's office staff snapping photos of him and lifted his phone.
Beep.
-Yes? Hello?
James had to ask even though he already knew the answer.
"This is James Kane. Is this not Kim Su-ji's phone?"
-Ah. Mister James. This is Hwang Ji-hye.
"Good evening, Chairman Hwang."
-Chairman Hwang sounds so stiff...
"Then what should I call you?"
-Mother?
Someone might call another person's mother "Mother," but in practice, using the more intimate form of address required a fairly close relationship. In particular, when a man called the mother of a woman he knew "Mother," it usually meant he was involved with that woman.
......
-Is "Mother" too much?
"Not at all. I'm not very used to Korean, so I thought you were telling me to call you that."
-Hoho. Mother is fine too.
"Still, wouldn't 'older sister' or 'miss' be better?"
-Oh my!
"When I saw you last time, you looked about the same age as your daughter."
Her delighted laughter came through the receiver.
-Hohohohoho.
James knew very well what made a middle-aged woman happy.
"I've arrived at your house now."
-You have?
"Should I call you sister?"
-Hohoho. Sister? Honestly... hohoho. I'll tell Su-ji to come out.
* * *
In fact, Su-ji had already finished getting ready a while ago and was about to go outside and wait.
"Don't go out. Stay here. Men are supposed to know how to wait."
"......"
"If you rush out the moment you make plans and stand there waiting, he'll think that's how it works every time from now on."
"But we already set a time..."
"Ah-ah. Do what I say. I'll make him wait at least thirty minutes at the front door."
"...Okay."
So even when the appointed time was nearly here, she was still sitting on the sofa, staring at the clock, when her mother came out looking thoroughly pleased and said, "Go on, get out there. James looks like he's waiting."
"Huh? You said you'd make him wait at least thirty minutes."
"That's no way to treat someone. Think how boring it must be for the person waiting outside."
"......"
Muttering at her mother's inconsistent instructions, Su-ji went out.
"One minute it's this, the next it's that... you really do whatever you want..."
Creak.
When Su-ji opened the door and stepped outside, she saw James leaning lightly against the sleek sports car, his arms folded.
......
Su-ji froze for a moment at the sight of James looking so different from usual. Even the way he glanced sideways at her after looking straight ahead was cool enough to make her chest tighten.
...Why does my man look so good today?
"...Hello? Kim Su-ji?"
Only after James's awkward greeting did Su-ji manage to unfreeze and greet him back.
"Nice to meet you? James Kane?"
"Pfft."
"Heh."
Snap. Click.
The office staff's cameras captured the two of them exchanging awkward greetings and smiling shyly at each other.
"Wow. They're really dating."
The sweetness of it was apparent even from far away.
"Yeah. If one of them were a little less attractive, I wouldn't even be jealous..."
The two of them fit the phrase "beautiful man and woman" all too well. And both of them had plenty besides their looks.
"A man who drives a sports car and is a world-famous influencer."
"The youngest daughter of the EST Group..."
Then James opened the car door for her, and Su-ji lifted a hand as she accepted the escort, making the scene feel like a string of painted images.