AAE -- Wishes Of The Heart

Chapter 124

written by LoveCR2 -- 2005

edited by All-About-AAE -- 2018

 

"Until someone stops Young-Mi, she is the Queen of MBS now, and can do anything she wants" -- Jo Cho-Jeh

 

 

JIN FAMILY HOME, SUBURBAN SEOUL...

 

"Love you, too... Bye..."

 

Kui-Sung puts the phone handset down on its base and gets up from the couch to speak to his wife, who is busy in the kitchen, preparing their dinner...

 

"So what did Sun-Mi have to say?" Jin-Suk asks.

 

"They just arrived in Santorini, the weather is perfect, and Min-Cho Atwater's cousin Kim Su-Ji will stay with her while he travels for business," he relays his fifteen-minute conversation concisely.

 

"Nothing about her condition changing?"

 

"She didn't mention it, and I didn't ask," he replies. "You know she doesn't like when people pry."

 

"How is it prying? She's our daughter, for God's sake!" Jin-Suk exclaims, interrupting her work to point her finger scathingly. "You should've put me on the phone -- I'd have set her straight!"

 

"You'd just have ended up arguing, that's all. For now, it's best we leave her be," Kui-Sung advises from experience.

 

 

But Jin-Suk isn't ready to give in so easily... "What if we just go to visit her?" she asks.

 

"I offered to, but she said that since she's on leave-of-absence from work, it makes more sense for her to travel here," he relates his rebuffed attempt. "Sun-Mi claims that she's all right and there's no need to worry about her."

 

"How can we not worry?" Jin-Suk retorts. "That girl's just as stubborn as ever. You'd think after a building almost gets dropped on her head, she'd have some sense knocked into her."

 

"Let's just give Sun-Mi time to think things over; she usually comes around," Kui-Sung defends his daughter.

 

"Really, you still dote on her too much," Jin-Suk criticizes as a thought comes to her... "Do you think it's because she found out about Young-Mi and Director Yoon?"

 

"Not likely. When I spoke to Min-Cho Atwater, I specifically asked him to hold back any news from Seoul for now," Kui-Sung tells her. "He agreed to keep Sun-Mi isolated -- no internet or phone -- so she can rest until she recovers."

 

"But eventually she's going to find out," Jin-Suk sighs. "I can't believe how things have come to this."

 

"What happened, just happened," Kui-Sung states fatalistically. "No one could have foreseen it."

 

"I mean the problem between Sun-Mi and Young-Mi," she clarifies. "Out of all the eligible bachelors in Korea, why did they both have to choose the same man? And now as sisters, it only makes things more complicated... I have a bad sense about where this might go."

 

"Why? Do you have doubts about Young-Mi?"

 

"She's like a different person since living at the convent orphanage. It's too bad she had to fall for Director Yoon... I know you favored him for Sun-Mi, but I don't trust him," Jin-Suk describes her concerns. "If he truly loved Sun-Mi, how could he turn around and betray her like this, even if she was the one who broke up with him?"

 

"Does any of that matter now?" Kui-Sung argues. "What they decide is out of our hands. As long as he's willing to stand by his word, take responsibility and marry Young-Mi, I'll accept him."

 

"And if not?"

 

"Then someone is going to get punished, big time!" he threatens, slamming his right fist hard into his left palm.

 

 

CENTRAL ATRIUM, MBS YEOUIDO HQ, SEOUL...

 

"Dammit, I asked you never to call me at work!" Young-Mi whispers angrily into her mobile, looking around to see if anyone is within earshot.

 

She steps back, into one of the third floor atrium's quiet corners, screened by a column, so she can converse unobserved...

 

"What shit is it now, that just can't wait?!" she complains, frowning as she listens...

 

A few seconds later, she warns, "No, you can't come to the house, to collect your 'reward'... If anyone sees you, they might suspect me, too, and if that old bat catches us, it's all over! Do you want to ruin the whole scheme with Director Yoon, just because you have an itch in your pants to satisfy?"

 

She pauses again to listen, with a contemptuous scowl on her face...

 

"Yeah... of course I still looove you," she answers with a mocking tone, before dismissing her caller... "Look, I'm running late. I'll text you the time and place... I'm hanging up... and don't call back!"

 

Irritated, Young-Mi snaps her mobile closed and swears to herself, "You bastard, Bae In-Soo... next time, shove it up your own ass, and I'll tell you how good it's supposed to feel!"

 

 

As Young-Mi stalks off across the atrium, two heads peer out from behind the column to watch her back...

 

"Did I just hear what I thought I heard?" Cho-Jeh gasps in amazement.

 

"Isn't Young-Mi with Director Yoon now? Could she be two-timing him?" Jin-Soo asks, stunned. "That's what it sounded like."

 

"It sounded like more than that to me," Cho-Jeh replies. "Like Young-Mi isn't the person she seems to be at all."

 

Jin-Soon ponders their new insight, "If that's true, what should we do about it?"

 

"No one will believe this -- especially now that Young-Mi has Director Yoon's backing, and everybody looks at her like she's some kind of saint," Cho-Jeh speaks with dismay. "Being Sun-Mi's friends, they'd suspect anything we say as helping her get back at Young-Mi."

 

"Then at least, shouldn't we tell Sun-Mi?" he suggests.

 

"Sun-Mi still hasn't recovered," Cho-Jeh reminds him, "I don't know how she'd react to this. I know I'd blow a gasket, if I were her!"

 

"What about that Atwater guy she's with?" Jin-Soo searches for alternatives.

 

"Him? What does he care about Director Yoon?" she nixes the idea. "Besides, I'm getting suspicious about him, too. Every time I call Sun-Mi, her mobile goes to voice mail, and she never calls back. I think he's deliberately keeping her isolated."

 

Jin-Soo grumbles, "Then, we just sit and do nothing?"

 

"What can we can do, until Sun-Mi gets better?" Cho-Jeh concludes unhappily. "Until someone stops Young-Mi, she is the Queen of MBS now, and can do anything she wants..."