Work Text:
It had taken him another few weeks to arrange for his move to the United States, more precisely, to where a certain Kang Kwon Joo was studying for her graduate degree.
His father had been apoplectic when he had announced his plans. His mother had attempted to mediate and prodded him for his reasons. While his mother had been delighted by his news - embellished for their benefit - his father had gotten even more furious.
He was not at all concerned that his father would cut him off as he had threatened. He had his own money, investments and businesses, and even if he was not as wealthy as his father, it was simply a matter of time. Not to mention that his father’s words could only be empty threats. He was his father’s only heir, after all.
Still, to make life less difficult for his mother, he had attempted to mollify his father by agreeing to continue to fulfill his role in their company even while he was in the US. For any major meetings and such, he could always fly back home. He also tried dangling the potential of building business connections and market overseas in front of his father as a tactic of persuasion.
While he knew his father was no where accepting of his move, he had still sent him off at the airport, so he knew it was just a matter of time until he came around. And even if he never did, it would not affect an iota of his own decisions and feelings. His mother was happy for him and that was all that mattered.
Once they had managed to identify her, things had moved at a much faster pace. A private investigator in the United States had been retained and he now had access to updates on her life, her schedules and latest photographs. He also had a file on what could be publicly gleaned on her life from childhood up until the day she had left their country in recent weeks.
She had been so near. That knowledge had twisted his heart. The distance from his penthouse to the apartment she shared with her parents was only less than ten kilometers, a distance he could run in an hour.
In the more than three months since she had first appeared in, then vanished from his life, he had come to have a better grasp on what it was that he might be feeling and wanted.
The additional knowledge that she was the recipient of one of the scholarship grants their company offered cemented his belief that she was destined for him. It was serendipity.
He had gone through life eschewing emotional connections with people, his mother the only exception. Unable and unwilling to bond, he had nonetheless flourished under his mother’s loving nurturing. Even his father was someone he could easily dismiss from his life, if the crunch came.
As a child, he had exhibited a degree of problematic behaviour, but his mother had been quick to seek help with his condition. While he would not say that anything had been cured, the worst of his impulses were certainly curtailed and channeled into less harmful avenues. Learned the necessity of curbing certain tendencies in order to be a law-abiding, functional member of society.
As he had grown older, however, he had also learned that when one was as privileged and intelligent as he was, one was allowed many liberties and trespasses not afforded others. Nonetheless, his mother had remained a tempering influence and if for nobody else, he did attempt to downplay his own ruthlessness for her benefit.
Yet, despite this fundamental lack, Kang Kwon Joo had managed to, in a matter of minutes, touched and reached something within him. Sparked a need. To evoke the hunger of wanting to build a connection with her. To be desirous of her presence in his life. For him to be in hers. To hold her in his arms. To make her his, to cherish and love.
Feelings impossibly alien yet no less precious.
And now she was half way around the world, leading her life, oblivious to his existence and feelings. That would not do.
When he came to recognise the need she inspired, he realised there was only one path opened to him.
What would be the use of all the wealth and assets that were his birthright were it not for the advantages conferred to him in his quest for what he desired? Forbearance, after all, was only for people without means, not him.
There were no persuasive reasons for him to have to wait for her return. She would not come to him. But he could go to her. With the resources at his disposal, it could not be easier to just relocate and seek her out. So, he did just that.
The night she appeared to him, cicada songs had filled the balmy evening air in Ulsan city. When he stepped off the airplane at the John Wayne Airport, Orange County, Fall foliage was peeking from the treetops, welcoming him to mild South Californian weather.
He had travelled extensively across the American continent while he was studying in the US and had visited California a few times, but this would be the first time he was scheduled to stay for longer than a month or two.
He was anticipating the thrill of being in close proximity to her, and had deliberately chosen an apartment within short walking distance to hers. The only problem was the fact that as a graduate student surviving on grants and scholarships, her housing options were limited and that had in turn highly restricted his choices. But he had made do.
Once they were together, he would get a better place and persuade her to move in with him.
He was wired with excitement at the thought that he would be able to see her again in the flesh soon. That evening, to be exact.
She had an evening shift at a cafe not too far from her apartment - and by extension, his - and he intended to be there while she was working. He was looking forward to her reaction at seeing him. Would she acknowledge the fact that they had met, or simply pretended she could not remember ever seeing him before? He knew which he would bet on.
***
It was a lovely early Fall evening, so she had decided to walk to her part time job, in lieu of biking there, as she usually did. The news she had received that day had buoyed her mood considerably.
The private scholarship she had from Sungwoon Group had increased the amount of aid dispensed, and while it would have no immediate effect on her current schedules, it would help considerably down the road, when she would need to devote more time to her research and thesis. She had also hoped to be able travel for a bit while she was in the US.
Her evening shift at work had begun uneventfully enough. The nightmare, however, made an appearance at the end of their usual dinner rush.
She was tidying the counter, her back to the front door when a customer strolled in, their arrival signaled by the tinkling of the bell above the entrance. A co-worker was manning the counter, so her task continued uninterrupted.
When the voice making an order reached her ears, she unconsciously froze. She seldom, if ever, forgot a voice once she had heard it for more than a few minutes. The deep, silkily husky voice with a steady timbre tugged at her memory, putting her on edge. It sounded exceedingly familiar but also peculiar.
The man spoke with a posh American accent but the underlying tone was a bit odd, as if he also spoke another language, one she was extremely well versed in. When her mind conjured up a face to go with the voice, she tensed even more.
She breathed in deeply. It could only be a coincidence. She had encountered a number of her countrywomen and men here, tourists, professionals, business people, students and migrants. It would not be beyond the realm of a freak happenstance that had Mo Tae Gu visiting the cafe she worked at, thousands of kilometers away from their home city in South Korea.
She calmed herself as best as she could, received the order from her co-worker and proceeded to fulfill it. Her hands were a bit shaky but she prepared his drink without any mishap, and walked over to the take away counter to pass it to him.
He cut a striking figure in a black knitted sweater and khaki slacks. She passed him his drink, thanking him after letting him know that his order of food would be along shortly. All the while, she dared not look him in the eye.
She turned away quickly but before she could move away, he spoke in Korean, his words laced with a tinge of challenge, a smirk girding the, “Kang Kwon Joo-sshi, have we met before? Are you from South Korea too?”
She realised then that him being there was no mere coincidence. She looked straight up at him and replied in her accented English, “Your order will be along soon, thank you.” She then went back to her waiting tasks.
She heard more than saw the smug smile he threw her way.
He stayed the rest of the evening, occupying a small table by the corner, a laptop in front of him. He only left when it came time for the shop to close.
All through her shift, she struggled to pay attention to her tasks, the feel of his scorching gaze a heavy weight. Her ears could not but focus on him, and his excited, marginally elevated breathing and heartbeats.
When the time to close the cafe came, relief suffused her. She needed to think in the privacy of her own space, small as it was. She completed the remaining tasks automatically, glad to be done for the day. She still had a mountain of reading waiting for her, and had wanted to use the weekend to start on them.
But here she was, developing a mild headache. All because of the bane that was Mo Tae Gu. His presence here was highly concerning. She did not think she was wrong to assume he was here because of her. The implications were frightening.
Her tracks were well covered. How did he manage to find out where she was? And for what reasons?
Was he so humiliated by her refusal, what, from three months ago that he was still seeking retribution now? Was he that kind of man? That worried her. She needed to tread very carefully.