Chapter 2 - Request Denied

President Yang scowled at his secretary. This was a couple of days after the wedding. They were currently in President Yang's office in his home, discussing about important matters. When his secretary said he had someone in mind for Kwon Ji Yong, President Yang was extremely excited to hear it. However, at the mention of her name, his face dropped in disappoint and disbelief.

"No! It's absolutely unacceptable." He said again. "My niece?" He questioned while shaking his head. "No, absolutely not. Nobody knows what type of girl she is. You've seen her at the wedding, socializing."

His secretary raised an eyebrow. "Socializing? She cowered behind you until you introduced her." He says.

"Exactly." He nodded. "Her personality is too timid. Compared to Ji Yong's strong personality, she could be eaten alive. How is that a match?"

"President Yang, you didn't see the way he looked at her. He was curious about her, and it takes interest to be curious. Kwon Ji Yong hadn't even seen her face."

President Yang sighed and held the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger. "I have to think long and hard about this."

His Secretary nodded and bowed before he made an exit from President Yang's office. With an inhale and exhale, President Yang picked up his office phone and dialed a number that he knew by heart. He smiled the moment he heard her scolding voice on the other side.

"Wow, my dongsaeng knows how to call me." She joked.

"Noona." President Yang smiled into the phone. "How's your health?" He asked.

She scoffed. "Don't call and act like you care about me. What do you really want to ask?" She said coughing.

He waited for her coughing to subside before speaking. "Noona..." he said dragging it out.

"Spit it out already." She snapped.

"I was wondering if I could set Nabi up on a date?" He shrugged.

"Sure." She easily replied.

"He's a good guy, very succe.....wait, you said 'sure'?" He asked.

"Yes. Set her up. She needs to start living her life a little instead of taking care of me." She replied clearing her throat. "Make sure he's able to support her emotionally, mentally and financially. These past few years haven't been kind on my daughter."

"He's one of the three." President Yang smiles. "But she's an amazing person. I'm sure she can handle it."

"Yes. She can handle more than what she looks like she can. If she gets hurt because of him, just know I will kill you." She said seriously.

"Yes Noona." Knowing his older sister's temper, he had to agree. "Thanks noona." He smiled into the phone. "Take care of that cough."

When he hung up, he sat back in his desk wondering how he was going to do this. He knew right away that Kwon Ji Yong would turn the offer down. Without even a second thought about it. He didn't know his niece well enough to predict what her choice of opinion was going to be on the matter at hand. It was a tough decision. The scandal wasn't real this time. It's going to be different from how Choi Seung-Hyun and Bae Jang Mi's relationship became what they currently were. There was an actual scandal that happened at the time but it was easier to get those two together than it was with Kwon Ji Yong or Nabi. President Yang needed to make up something serious for them to believe. He would need the help of his lovely secretary.

"Secretary Yoo, please come to my office." He said into the phone.

A Few Hours Later

"You want me to what?!" Nabi shot out of her chair.

President Yang's expression didn't change. "I want you two to date. For fake."

Nabi looked at Kwon Ji Yong who had been staring at her the whole time. Her expressions were offensive to him. She made it look like dating Kwon Ji Yong would be the worst possible thing to happen to her. He noticed how her eyes brimmed with tears as she glared down at her uncle. Kwon Ji Yong knew the idea was crazy, but he was still offended by her reaction. It made him question himself as a man. He knew for a fact that he wasn't as manly as other men in Korea but he was still a man. And his pride was being damaged, just by one look from this girl.

"You know why I can't do that uncle." Nabi says.

President Yang shurgged. "I'm not asking you two to date for real. I just need a distraction away from the company. The company could shut down because of this. I just need time. You two dating and causing other news letters to look at you two will do that. It will get me a lot of time."

Nabi looked at Kwon Ji Yong and then back to her uncle. "Uncle..."

"Your mom said she was fine with it."

Nabi scoffed. "What?" She snapped. "After everything I've done for her?"

Kwon Ji Yong watched as Nabi shut her eyes tightly. He could feel how disgusted she was with the idea of dating him. Even if the relationship wasn't real. She inhaled and exhaled before finally making eye contact with President Yang.

"Fine. But if this goes down hill, I'm calling quits." Nabi says before leaving her uncle's office.

President Yang shrugged and then faced Kwon Ji Yong. "What are your thoughts about this whole thing? Why haven't you said anything?"

Kwon Ji Yong shrugged. "I'm not going to do it."

"Why not?" President Yang asked.

"How bad is the problem that you have to look at options like this?" Kwon Ji Yong answered his question with a question. In all honesty he was blocking Nabi off because of the way she looked at him in disgust. "You won't even tell us what the problem is but expect us to go along with this?"

President Yang's facial expression didn't falter. "You think I'm asking you for fun? Because I have all the time to be setting everyone up to date and make it fake as well. I'm running a company here. I don't have time to be putting couples together."

"President Yang, maybe we should find someone else." If the situation wasn't so serious, Secretary Yoo would have laughed at President Yang's speach.

"No. There was a reason why we chose the two. Ji Yong-ah is well known around here. Dating someone who isn't well known should do it. Right?" He said talking to his secretary.

"I'll think about it. As for now, I have an album to put together." Kwon Ji Yong stood up and bowed to President Yang and Secretary Yoo before leaving his office.

Kwon Ji Yong made his way to the studio he was in before being called in by President Yang. The situation seemed messed up to him. He couldn't understand what the company was going through for President Yang to turn to an answer like this. For someone in the company to date for fake, just to draw the attention away from the media.

He couldn't put too much thought into it at the moment. He saw Teddy sitting at the computer with a set of Beats on. His head nodded along with what ever beat he was playing with.

As Kwon Ji Yong walked in, he sat at the desk with his laptop on it. He sat in front of it and worked his magic on writing and composing music. He never had a problem with writing new songs. He always had his head filled with them. When it came to naming the title of this album, he was stuck. The title had a deadline and he couldn't figure out what he should name the title of his new album. He wanted it to be catchy and cool like his other albums. He couldn't figure it out.

"Ji Yong-ah, listen to this." Teddy says breaking Kwon Ji Yong's concentration on writing lyrics. "Tell me what you think."

Kwon Ji Yong slid his chair next to Teddy's chair, and looked at his computer. Teddy gave him the headset and he pulled them over his ears. The beat that played was easy. It's good. His head subconsciously moved to the beat. It was hard to explain what exactly was good about the beat. It was somewhat catchy, fast and yet it seemed slow and smooth. It was getting really good.

"This is amazing." Kwon Ji Yong says. "I think I could use this for the main song."

"Doesn't it match up well with your lyrics?" Teddy asks. "The one about..." Teddy drags on before looking at Kwon Ji Yong's computer screen. "You're writing a new one." He got up out of his office chair to look at Kwon Ji Yong's computer. "'Red?' What kind of title is that?"

Kwon Ji Yong shrugged. "I like it."

"You're describing a girl." Teddy says scrolling down the screen filled with words.

Kwon Ji Yong rolls to his laptop and shuts it. "Hyung, it's just lyrics. I'm working on it." Kwon Ji Yong stands up and takes his laptop and holds it closely to his chest. "The beats are good. Good job hyung. I'm going to work on the rest at home." Kwon Ji Yong says backing up and out of the studio doors.

"Why is he being so secretive about his lyrics?" Teddy asked the air before going back to his computer.

....

Nabi arrived to her apartment. Her coat drenched with rain water. She was almost half way home when God decided to have a down pour during the late nights in Seoul. She sighed, shaking off her coat and kicking off her soaking wet heels, she walked into her apartment. She pulled out her phone that lay protected in a small zip block bag, and smiled at the drieness of it. She could kiss the inventor of zip blocks but wasn't sure how long zip blocks were around nor who it was that invented such an amazing thing.

Nabi rushed to her room with the phone between her right shoulder and her ear. She was afraid that she'd wet the carpet if she ran too slow, so she waddled fast to the bathroom. She was stripping out of the wet clothes as she did so.

"My daughter! How was the first day at work?" Nabi's mom says cheerfully on the other end.

Nabi scoffed. "Mom don't act innocent!" She scolded as she ran to the bathroom to fill the tub up with warm water.

"What?" She said but clicked her tongue as if she remembered. "Ah~, I'm guessing your uncle introduced you to him?" Nabi rolled her eyes at her mom's innocent tone.

"Mom..." She said ready to scold her.

"Don't 'mom' me. Now, I told you I'm fine. You need to stop worrying about me." She says sweetly.

"How can I not worry about you mom?" Nabi whined. "You're literally all I have."

"That's not true." Nabi's mom tsked her on the other end. "You stop it. You've lost all your friends because of me." She says clearing her throat.

"Mom that doesn't mat..." Before she could finish, her mom cut her off.

"Is he cute?" Her mom asks.

Nabi paused and thought back on him. She couldn't really put too much detail in him, since she only saw him briefly. After that, it went blurry due to her watered vision from being too emotional. He had a face that looked average, but it was the way he carried himself. He had a power in the way he sat, the way he walked and especially in the way he made people feel just by being next to him. Nabi couldn't pin point just what it was about him that was so attractive. It could've been the way he entered the room, maybe the way he spoke, or it could've been the way he stared at her, whatever it was, she had no idea. Nabi felt like his appearance didn't match his attitude. She didn't mean it in a bad way. His appearance made him look soft but it was something about him that made her feel respectful towards him. Despite his out look and all. Even his hair color wasn't in it's true form but pink matched him well. Nabi couldn't help wonder what was wrong with him that made him so.....perfect.

Nabi sank into the warm water and sighed. "Yeah, you could say he's cute. He's just not my type."

Nabi's mother scoffed. "Not your type?" She scoffed again. "If Joo Won isn't your type, than nobody is your type. You're probably gay and I don't even know."

Nabi chuckled. "How can you even consider Joo Won and I into terms of dating. Yes he's not my type either. We grew up together and I've seen him pee his pants more than once when we were in Kindergarten. And I'm not gay mom!" She said feeling the need to explain herself. "After I take a warm shower, I'll come over." She sighed.

Nabi's mom shook her head knowing that nobody could see her. "Your uncle gave you that apartment because it's near the company. It's in your contract with him. You coming over often will waste time and money. My house is too far from your uncle's company. So stay there."

"But mom.."

"I don't want to hear it, Nabi. I love you and I'll see you sometime this week."

Before Nabi could reply, her mom hung up. Her mother was always the center of her stress. She worried deeply about her mom, yet she was glad that her mom was healthy. Yet it frustrated her to no ends about how stubborn her mom was. She made one heck of a mother. Nabi knew whatever her mom says is the law. And Nabi's the one always trying and always failing to break her mother's law.

After showering, Nabi got dressed and sat on her bed, looking at the boxes that filled her room. She had no idea what was in all of them. All she knew was, she hadn't opened those boxes since packing and leaving America. She sighed and lay in the warmth of her cotton fabric.

Her mind subconsciously went to the deal between her uncle and herself. The one that involved Kwon Ji Yong. She had no idea who he was. From what she could tell, he seemed well known. She didn't know what for. She guessed his specialty was probably singing. However, her earlier statement still stood true. He had power to him. It wasn't until now that she actually figured out what it was about him that made him stand out from anyone she's ever met in Korea. Confidence. It's confidence. He held himself high with confidence. It made Nabi sigh.

"If I could only have half the confidence he does." She said to herself before falling asleep.

.....

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