Eyes Full Of Stars || Park Sunghoon

1 ¦ The Deal

Finally, Sunghoon loosens his grip and I pull my hand to my body, where I enclose it protectively with my other hand. His lips form into a wry smile and I think I catch a spark of satisfaction in his eyes before he sits back down on the sofa.

"I seem to have something wrong with my ears today," Sunghoon says with amusement, shrugging his shoulders in a playfully innocent manner. As he does so, he laughs...

My father joins in his laughter. He really tries to gain the necessary sympathy points with Sunghoon by all means in order to secure the financing of his company. For that, he would go over dead bodies and, the best example, sell his daughter. But what kind of person is Sunghoon, who apparently proposed this offer in the first place?

I still stand rooted to the sofa. Sunghoon's cold eyes meet mine. "Sit with me," he invites me, tapping his hand on the empty seat next to him.

For a brief moment, I catch myself looking at the open door. Sunghoon follows my gaze and seems to know what I'm thinking about. Knowing it would be pointless, however, I throw the thought of running away right out the window and instead sit down on the sofa next to the young man wearing a black suit.

"Why don't you tell me something about your company," my father says with interest, sipping his coffee. As he does so, he doesn't take his eyes off Sunghoon, who places his fingers intertwined on his lap.

"Well," Sunghoon begins, and for a brief moment I feel like I see an emotion light up in his eyes, but it fades abruptly before I get a chance to analyze it.

"You must know that my grandfather is originally from South Korea. There he met my grandmother's brother. Together they worked out a concept and from that a small business was born. They quickly realized that they had a better chance of their business succeeding in Spain. So my grandfather moved here, to Madrid. Here he also met my grandmother and as it happens... they fell in love. My father took over the company after my grandfather passed away from an illness ten years ago. Even then it was clear that one day I would take over the company. Five years ago, my father and I had a serious traffic accident. I survived seriously injured and was in a coma for three weeks; my father died at the scene of the accident."

Sunghoon does not make a face as he talks about his dead father.

"My uncle ran the company until my 21st birthday, so I had time to finish my degree and prepare for the management position as much as possible," Sunghoon continues, adjusting his black tie. "I then legally took over the company 2 years ago, as my father had wished."

"I'm sorry for your loss, that must have been really hard for you", my father says and clears his throat. He's not sorry for anything. He's just glad to have found someone to get him out of the predicament that was his own fault.

He has always been concerned with the greatest possible profit. In doing so, he didn't even stop at scams and ripped people off, which even meant bankruptcy for two companies.

In the end, however, my father got what he deserved. His last fraud was exposed and went straight to the press. As a result, all of his former business partners seemed to have taken a closer look at their dealings with my father and sued him. I don't know how much he owes these people. What is certain, however, is that it is not just a few thousand euros.