— Chapter 38 —
"Aaahh, it's good to breath the Canadian air again" Haneul stretched her arms as they arrived at the airport in Canada.
"It's my first time coming here in Canada" Jisung muttered yet Haneul heard him
"You've got to be kidding me. I thought you once lived here?" Jisung froze as he thought of an alibi. Haneul squinted her eyes and he immediately chuckled nervously
"What I meant was it's my first time in forever coming here in Canada. I missed the uh- the air. Yeah!" He scratched his head while Haneul knew something's wrong with him but she just shrugged it off.
"We'll take the taxi?" Jisung asked and Mark shook his head
"I had contacted our driver. He's 5 minutes away from here, let's just wait for him to arrive" They waited for a bit and the driver finally arrived with Mark's limousine.
"Woah, how many cars do you guys have?" Jisung asked with wide eyes. Mark chuckled and Haneul shook her head
"Probably around 15? 16? Plus 4 here in Canada. One for each of us siblings" Mark responded as the driver took their luggages and placed it in the trunk.
The three hopped in the limo, Mark sitting on the front with the driver and the two sat at the back. Once the limo started, Jisung got even more excited. He really wanted to go to new places and Canada is new for him.
"You okay Ji?" Haneul asked and Jisung hummed and nodded. Haneul smiled at him because he looks like a kid who's excited to see a new place.
But that made Haneul wonder. Why would he be excited when he spent his childhood here? That's what she's gonna find out later.
~
When they arrived at their house, Jisung was shocked to see a normal house instead of a mansion.
"Woah, you have a small house here in Canada? I mean it's not that small, but smaller than your house in korea"
"Yeah, mom and dad wanted to buy a smaller house since it's only a vacation house for us. When we were kids, we used to live with our aunt's house while she was in Europe. Aunt's house was also a mansion but smaller than ours in korea." Mark explained
"And also, when Aunt came back from Europe, mom and dad decided to buy a small house for us to live in for awhile before we go back to korea" Haneul continued and Jisung nodded his head.
"You never sell this property after your parents died?"
"No, we wanted to keep- wait a second.. how did you know that our parents died?" Jisung's eyes widened again
"U-uh, I asked Haechan hyung months ago" With this, Haneul's suspicion was added. But she thought that she was thinking nonsense again.
"Well yeah, we decided to keep it. Let's go inside and wash up, Mark's gonna prepare for dinner"
"You don't have maids here?"
"We have but there are times that Mark wants to cook for us but just one time since he's always lazy when he's here in Canada." She said and told the driver to help them with their luggages and went inside the house.
🕯️
[The next day (evening)]
Haneul, Mark and Jisung got ready for the meeting held at the most expensive restaurant which was also a hotel at the top floor located near the beach. Haneul didn't know what the meeting was all about but Mark said that he'll handle everything.
As they exited their house, they hopped on Haechan's car this time since Haneul wanted to use it. The driver then drove them to the restaurant, and upon arriving there, Jisung saw a bunch of American men and women.
"H-Haneul, can you help me with my english if somebody talks to me?" Jisung asked and Haneul got confused
"Uh why? I thought you know how to speak English?"
"Oh. Uhm, actually, I kind of forgot how to since it's been awhile since I came here" he chuckled nervously again and didn't had the guts to face Haneul.
"Keep standing near me alright guys? I don't want anyone to get in trouble" Mark said as they stepped on the elevator and pressed the number of the specific floor where the meeting was held.
"I know how to speak english Mark, no need to worry and also, I can take care of myself" Haneul said and Mark shrugged
"Whatever you say"
The elevator door opened and they walked towards the people gathered in a long table.
"Good evening Mr. Jones. I'm Mark Lee and I'm Thomas Lee's brother. This is my sister, Jessy Lee and this is Andy Park, my sister's personal assistant" He greeted the owner of the restaurant who was also the person who gathered them for a meeting.
"Oh hello Mark! I'm glad to meet you and your sister. By the way where's Thomas?"
"He's in Korea, he can't come since he still has alot of important meetings and had to deal with other situations back in Korea. But don't worry, we're here as his substitute so the meeting can go on"
"Glad to hear that. Before we start the meeting let's eat shall we?".
~
"So I wanted to announce that I wanted to have a collaboration with all of you and help your company grow even more. I will deal with the Lee Technology, Choi Corporation, and SYH industry first as they're all from Korea. "
"I had heard that Lee Technology once had a major problem that almost made them go bankrupt. What happened back then Mark?"
"Well, a rival of ours, which is the Lim Corps, made our lives a living hell. They would put on a stunt on us and wanted to bring our company down. Fortunately, we had dealt with all of those problems."
"Why would they bother you?" One of the company owners asked
"Because they wanted to be at the top instead of us. Lim Corps was one of our shareholders with just only 5%. But then, Mr. Lim was furious with the decision of removing their rights of our company so he decided to rebel us and find a way to make his company grow bigger than ours"
"So how's your company doing right now?"
"Thankfully, it's all good. Well, Thomas had a hard time on catching up but with the help of our cousin, they managed to bring the company back to normal, but also, it lost 5% of it's old income"
"Well, don't worry Mark. I will help your company grow bigger. Now let's discuss on how we'll work things out."
~
"Thank you all so much for coming today, I hope you're okay with all of the decisions we had made, but if you have any questions please message me through my kakaotalk account. Thank you again and be careful on your way home". They were dismissed and they all bid their goodbyes to each other.
The three had exited the restaurant and their driver immediately picked them up. It was a very tiring meeting for them to be honest. Mark had to explain alot of their company for their new shareholders.
"I wanted to stop by at our favorite pizza place. Can we Mark?" Haneul said and Mark looked at the time, it was still 11pm so he agreed and told their driver to take them to their favorite pizza place.
Upon arriving there, they saw the same man who was running the place. It's been years and he's still working. Haneul excitedly got out of the car and ran inside
"Baekhyun-ah! I missed you so much!" Haneul ran towards him and hugged him very tight.
"Oh Haneul! What are you doing here? When did you arrive?"
"We arrived here yesterday, we came here for an important meeting that Taeyong had to attend but he had alot of other important issues in Korea so he sent us here as his substitute".
"Oh alright, hey Mark! What's up man, it's been years since we last saw each other!" They gave each other a bro hug and did their friendship handshake
"Uh, who's this kid?" He asked as he looked at Jisung who was standing beside Haneul
"That's Jisung. He's one of Taeyong hyung's employee, a friend of ours and Haneul's personal assistant"
"Oh? Jessy has a personal assistant? Wah, I'm hurt. Why didn't you call me instead so I could have another job with higher pay"
"Who says I'll pay you?" Haneul said and Baekhyun attacked her and headlocked her as they laughed loudly, luckily there were no costumers inside because Baekhyun was about to close the place.
"Sit down guys, I'll prepare the usuals for you" he said and went to his kitchen. The three sat on a four-seater table and waited for their food to be served.
"Who's that? Is he your cousin Haneul-ah?" Jisung asked and Haneul shook her head.
"That's Baekhyun. He serves the best pizzas in the whole city. We always came here for pizzas that's why we became close with him. And also, fun fact, Baekhyun had a crush on me when he first saw me" She flipped her hair and Mark laughed.
"Oh, I see. How old were you when you met him?"
"I think I was around 10? 11? But yeah, when I was in middle school."
"I missed eating Baek's pizza tho" Haneul added and Mark agreed.
"Pizzas are ready! And also your favorite frappes! And for you Jisung-ah, I prepared a chocolate milkshake with whipped cream on top, drizzled with chocolate syrup. Enjoy eating!" Baekhyun placed their food and drinks on the table as they began to eat.
"Wah, it's still the same yummy taste. Why haven't you opened another branch hyung?" Mark said and Baekhyun sighed before sitting beside him.
"I planned to stop this business next year. I wanted to pursue my dream as a model, that's why I didn't open another branch"
"You're image will perfectly fit as a model hyung. You're really handsome" Jisung said (yes he is Ji, I agree 💯)
"Oh, you're fluttering me. Thanks Jisung" They smiled at each other and they continued their conversation until midnight.
— tbc.
2 days to go and it's Christmas! Another chapter is published for y'all!
word count: 1725 words
date published: 12/23/22
_NCTEAXT_