Mr. Lee

1. Treaty

When you had first found out at the age of 9, you had immediately ran to your trusted bestie Binna to tell her the news. Instead of the excitement, you had felt upon learning the secret, she had been shocked and scared. Typical Binna. You had always been curious, adventurous, dying to become a part of the business and begging your father and Binna's to let you in on it. But the answer was always the same: "Hell no". Binna had no desire whatsoever to take any part in your father's businesses. The less she knew, the happier she was.

And that fact that you were currently eavesdropping on both of your dads made her feel quite uncomfortable. 

'It sounds like they're having an argument,' you whispered at her with your ear still to the door. Binna waved her hands nervously for you to shut up, afraid she'll be caught. You weren't that worried. None of your fathers' employees would ever dare do anything to harm you, and since you were your father's only child, he'd never truly punished you.

The shouting at the other side of the door became louder. It was clear the argument between your fathers was serious. The sound of glass shattering rang in your ear. Probably your dad smashing his glass. He was known for his temper. Binna's father was the more reasonable one of the two. But this time...

This time it sounded like Binna's father had been the one at fault. This was unusual since he rarely ever made a mistake.

You pressed your ear harder to the door, narrowing your eyes in concentration. But the words were too muffled to make up anything from their conversation.

'Unnie,' Binna whispered, and you glanced over. She was biting her nails and wiggling her knees nervously. She wanted to leave. You rolled your eyes at her.

A sudden noise in the hallway almost made you jump and you quickly pushed yourself away from the door just in time.

'Eomeoni' you heard Binna whisper as a figure appeared at the end of the hallway. It was indeed Binna's mother. You instantly knew things were bad. Very bad.

Binna's mother was rarely ever involved in any business. Her main job was to raise Binna and you since your mom had died very early on. Binna's mother was felt like your mother too, although she clearly favored her own daughter over you.

'What are you girls doing?' Eomeoni hissed at us. Her face was very pale and her eyes looked extremely worried. Clearly, things were very very bad.

'Eomeoni, what are you doing here?' you whispered your question at her. Binna's mother nervously fidgeted with her bag. It was clear where Binna had gotten her nervous traits from.

'Your father called me in,' she answered shortly. 'Now leave before they hear you!' she hissed at us, using her clutch to smack us over the head before we quickly scurried off.

'What do on earth do you think is going on?' You asked Binna, racking your brain. You both sat down in the lounge. There were four employees present in the lounge, and they all looked as nervous as Binna. This was unusual. Very unusual.

Normally the lounge would be littered with employees by this time of night. They would be drinking, laughing, and telling stories about the deals they had made that day or the deliveries they had done.

'I don't know. I don't wanna know,' Binna said looking around nervously at the employees. You knew she noticed the lack of and the unusual behavior of the employees.

You heard voices and footsteps and the next thing you knew, the doors to the lounge flew open. In the door opening there stood a tall and handsome man with dark hair. He was surrounded by bodyguards. You and Binna instantly dove under the couch.

'Keep them all at gun point,' you heard the voice of the man demand. You could see feet moving and heard some yelps and punches. Your heart was racing in your chest. This was serious.

'Kal, Chong, with me,' the man's voice demanded. There was more walking and a door opened. You recognized the sound immediately. It was the door to the hallway that led to your fathers' office.

Panic was now growing in your heart. What if he would hurt them? You had to get to them. You had to do something instead of hiding here, cowering underneath a couch.

You started to crawl. A hand grabbed your leg and you swirled around. It was Binna's, her eyes pleading with you to keep still, stay where you are. You kicked her hand away. There was no way you would sit back. No way.

You kept on crawling, looking left and right. You could see three of your father's employee's hands on their heads as the bodyguards of the man who had just entered held a gun to their heads. They were unmoving. Quiet. One of the employees had a nose that kept bleeding. Another's eye was thick and ever-swelling. The bodyguards had their backs turned to you.

As silently as you could you crawled towards the still open door that led to the hallway. One of the employees spotted you as you accidentally made eye contact with him. He quickly started coughing loudly, a move to distract the bodyguard and to cover up the sound of your movement. His action gave you just enough momentum to sprint through the open door and into the hallway. 

At the end of the hallway, you peeked around the corner.  Oddly enough there were no guards outside and the door was slightly ajar. On your tiptoes you walked inched towards the door, straining your ears to listen.

'Obviously, you've lost your minds,' a voice spoke dully. You guessed it was the unfamiliar man's voice.

'Mr. Lee, we didn't know...' Binna's father cried but he was cut off.

'I don't care if you knew or didn't. The fact of the matter is... You. Fucked. Up,' the man hissed. 'You broke the treaty,'

'Mr. Lee, my partner, he just...' your father pleaded.

'SILENCE!' the man thundered.

'I have never known the Buja clan to be such a petty low bunch of snakes,' The man spat We had a treaty. You broke it. Now what would you do if anyone broke your treaty with them, hm?' the man asked.

It was silent for a second.

'Answer me, when I ask you a question!' the man raged. You could hear my father wince and Binna's mother started to cry.

'You would've killed them wouldn't you?' the man said scarily calm. 'If I had done what you have to me, you would've put a price on my head and have me eliminated,'

Silence fell again which was only disturbed by Binna's mother's cries.

'But I won't be so harsh,' the man said suddenly. 'I will spare all of you,'

'Thank you,' Binna's father cried out. You could hear a thud, the clear sound of him falling to his knees, as my father and Binna's mother started to thank the man over and over again as well.

'DON'T THANK ME YET!' the man raged. 'You think you get away this easy?! Are you that dumb?! Of course, I will make you pay,' 

You could hear everyone inside wince at his outburst.

'But I will not kill any of you. I hate bloodshed and our treaty is far more valuable than that. If I were to eradicate your clan, it would mean war and a lot of financial losses on both sides, mine too,' the man said with a bored voice.

He sighed.

'No, I unlike you value our treaty. And I would like to make sure you'll never break it again,' the man said in a dangerously quiet voice.

'Anything sir,' your father said.

'Anything we can do,' Binna's father said.

It was silent again for a second, with the only sound you could hear was your heart beating in your chest.

'Fine,' the man said. 'Give me your daughter,'

Your heart felt like it stopped.