Gangnam, Seoul - 08:34AM
Minji's POV
I had already forgotten how hot Gangnam could be, since I was used to the cold of Europe; that weather was now strange to me, I thought while taking off the coat I was wearing that morning. I walked between the people who were walking from one side to the other, focused on their mobile phones, or in entertaining conversations. I straightened my hair and put on my face my Ray-Ban Aviator, to then head to the exit of the Gangnam airport, where I saw a black Mercedes waiting for me.
"Good Morning, Ms. Kim." The driver greeted me politely.
"Good Morning, Seungyoon." I said as I got into the car that had a great temperature thanks to the miraculous air-conditioner.
"God! Since when is Gangnam so hot?" I grumbled, dropping my belongings on the seat.
"Since always, Miss. The weather here is always hot." I heard Seungyoon say as he flashed me a small smile.
"I'm sorry to ask, but how is your father?"
"You're right, I have forgotten how things are in here." I said calmly as I accommodated myself better on the seat.
"He's fine, he's in Busan with my family."
"That's great, I really like Mr. Kim. Where should I take you?" He asked, looking at me through the rearview mirror.
"To my new apartment, Seungyoon. Just follow this street, and I'll give you directions for the rest of the way."
The man nodded and drove away from the airport.
Looking out the window of the car and seeing the streets of Gangnam, I could remember very well the time I lived there, and what an amazing time it was. I knew that city like the palm of my hand, after all, I wasn't always this Minji who only thought about work; I had already enjoyed a bit of what life had to offer, in fact, not a bit, a lot. My thoughts wandered to the memories of all the things I had done, but that was all in the past, the immature and irresponsible Minji was no longer here.
"Turn left at the next corner." I said to the man who was following my directions perfectly.
We finally arrived to the building where I was now going to live in. Seungyoon quickly got out of the car, striding to my door and opening it.
"Thank you." I thanked him with a smile.
Seungyoon has been my driver ever since I was younger and lived with my parents. He was a man of a certain age, but still very helpful by the way.
I walked into the main lobby of the building, where the employees quickly went to their work places. It was funny how they behaved in my presence. People were usually 'scared' of me, maybe because of the rude and arrogant manners that they thought I had, but I had no intention of making them believe otherwise. Nowadays to be respected, people had to fear your presence.
"Good Morning, Ms. Kim. One of our employees will take your luggage into your apartment. It's the 308, the only one on the penthouse."
I didn't say anything, only nodded and walked to the elevator. Upon reaching my apartment, a red haired young man entered right after me, putting my luggage in my room, stacking it perfectly.
"May I help you with anything else, ma'am?" He asked.
"You can leave." That was the only thing I said.
The apartment was big, an enormous area with a contemporary and sophisticated style, filled with white and brown furniture. On the walls, there were some light and dark colors, and paintings with beautiful drawings. Everything was the way I liked it. I walked to the living room, where I lay on the couch, taking off my high heels that were hurting my feet. I let my body relax on top of the couch for a few moments, the trip was long, or rather, life was being too hard. Then I got up again and went to the big balcony of my apartment.
From there I had the amazing view of the skyscrapers of Gangnam and its beautiful coastline. This was the advantage of living in a penthouse. From above I could see the busy traffic of that hour, people walking from one side to the other, cars driving tirelessly, and I could hear honks and people talking loudly. At least it wasn't worse than NY. I heard the annoying sound of my phone, and walked into the living room, grabbing the small device from the table. The number was unknown to me, but it had the Gangnam area code.
"Hello?"
"I would like to speak with Minji Kim, please." I heard a very familiar voice sound from the other side of the phone, and I couldn't believe it.
"Who's this?" I asked with slight doubt.
"An old friend, and a very hot one as well." I smiled, it was impossible not to know who it was.
"Shin?"
"You didn't forget my voice, am I right, Kim?!" I could swear that she was smiling.
"How could I forget, right?" I said with a smile on my face.
Shin Ryujin was none other than my childhood best friend. By her side, I committed the craziest things in my life. We were inseparable friends, we were always together, for everything. Ryu was always my rock, she was with me in the most difficult and complicated moments of my life; some people even used to say that we had something more than friendship, since she never hid that she liked women, but we definitely never had anything besides one kiss after a wild night. But our plans made us travel different paths, and it's been several years since I last saw her, and I confess that I've missed her a lot.
"I heard that you returned to Gangnam today, and I'm calling to know where you live!" She said laughing.
"God, Minji, I miss you so so much!" Her voice sounded a little melancholic.
"I miss you so much, too, Ryu. How did you get my number?"
"It's a secret, I have my sources." She said smugly.
"Okay, come see me, I'm living in my apartment in Cheongdam."
"Is that your way of showing that you're a millionaire?"
I couldn't help but laugh, Ryujin was always joking, always smiling. Being around her was synonym of fun and good laughs.
"Obviously not, but you know that I've always wanted to live here, and now I can." I said a bit smugly.
"You are such a bitch. I'm going to finish some things here, and then I'll meet you there. I want you looking really sexy." She said, to then hang up.
While Ryujin didn't show up, I took a nice whirlpool bath. I was tired from an exhausting day of travel, after all, going from Paris to Seoul wasn't that much fun, because of jet lag.
It was almost dark when I heard the sound of the door-bell. I got up from my comfortable bed and went to answer it, it was her.
"Oh my God, Kim, you look so hot!" She exclaimed as she hugged me tightly.
I laughed in her tight embrace.
"I'm glad you didn't lose your awesome personality. You look beautiful!" I said, hugging her tightly too.
"Come on in, make yourself comfortable."
We talked for hours in the living room of my apartment, Ryujin told me everything that happened after I left. She graduated in advocacy and was now working in one of the best law firms in Gangnam; and I would of course try to persuade her to come work for Kim Industry. She told me that she dated Hwang Yeji for a few years, who was our third inseparable friend from the old times, and I wasn't surprised, it was no secret that Ryu and Yeji were in love with each other since college, but Ryu's slutty way always screwed things up.
"I can't believe you let Yeji leave!" I grumbled, taking a sip of my drink.
"I couldn't do anything, she swears I cheated on her, but I swear that I didn't!"
"You swear?" I asked doubtfully.
"I swear, Minji, the blonde was really hot, I admit that, but I didn't stay with her." She grumbled sadly.
"And why does she think that you did?" Ryujin got up to fill her glass with whiskey again.
"Let's just say that she saw a picture of me kissing a girl." She said really fast.
"You said you didn't stay with her!" I exclaimed, throwing one of the pillows at Ryujin.
"I didn't! I didn't have sex with her, Minji, it was just a kiss, and it wasn't even that good."
"Still... Yeji was an amazing girl."
"I know, stop reminding me of that, I've been thinking about her for years."
"That sucks... I loved seeing you two together."
"She was the best girl I've ever been with, but let's not talk about it. I don't want to get sad. But what about you? How's your life going?" She asked, sitting on the same couch I was in, laying her head on my lap.
I never opened up like this to anyone, people only knew the necessary about me, and their opinion of me was that I was an arrogant, closed and unhappy person. This was all due to the fact that I lived my life in function of my company. Maybe being the owner of a multinational at such a young age made me too hard, having no time to enjoy what the world had to offer me, but today I couldn't care less about it, today was different, today I didn't have to have the choice to say yes or no, it was yes or yes, and only one person could make me be the Minji of my high school time, and that person was Shin. I told her everything that happened since I left Gangnam, every detail that no one else knew, only her.
"So that means that today you are the owner of a multinational? You're millionaire and you're single, and you live for your work? Oh my God! I never imagined that you could be so powerful! I thought you were going to be the black ship of the family!" Ryujin said laughing.
"Sort of." I let out a weak laugh.
"I probably would have been, but I had no choice, Ryu, someone had to take care of the business, and that person was me."
"But what about Yoon-ah? Jiyoon?"
"Yoon-ah doesn't want to do anything in life, but we already knew that for a long time, he's responsible for a branch office in NY. And well, Jiyoon is too young, she can't be the boss, but maybe one day, who knows.
"Wow, so you are the boss? Instead of your father?"
"Exactly, he decided it this way, and here I am." I smiled.
"You probably don't even have time to breathe, how long has it been since the last time you had sex?"
"Oh my God!" I huffed, getting up. I was certain that my face was red.
Ryujin got up and walked in my direction. "Oh c'mon, Minji?! I'm your friend. We both know everything about each other! So tell me, how long since you went out to have fun?" She asked insistently.
"I don't know, Ryu, I can't remember." I said, walking away from her.
"Dammit, Minji! You sound like an old person. Go change, because we are going out tonight, we have to make the old Minji breathe a little bit." She said, taking a last sip of her Whiskey.
"What?" I asked, surprised.
"Exactly what you heard, we are going out to celebrate your return!" She said, holding my hand.
"No, no... no way." I said, letting go of her hand.
"Why not?"
"Shin, it's too late for that."
"How old are you? 12? C'mon, Minji, stop it. You definitely don't have a life outside the company, I can see it in your face!" She exclaimed, putting on her jacket.
"I can't go out to party, Ryu, tomorrow I'm going to be introduced in a meeting with shareholders as the president of the company, do you understand?"
"So? You used to be more agile, Kim, you don't need to get drunk. Let's just go out, dance and meet new people, you are in need of it."
"No, Ryu, I'm going to stay, let's reschedule for another day, who knows, maybe in one of the next weekends." I said, sitting on the couch.
"You have 20 minutes." She said decidedly.
With that woman, there was no way to say no, Shin was stubborn like a mule, when she insisted on something, no one could make her change her mind. After a lot of begging, I went to my room to get ready, hearing her shout from the living room for me to wear something casual and not formal clothes. I laughed in the same instant, but chose something that I was used to, a black tight skirt that reached just above my knees, a white silk blouse, and black high heels. I let my hair loose, it was wavy, and I put on light makeup, only highlighting my eyes, and a bit of red lipstick on my lips.
"Shall we go?" I asked, and she stared at me.
"Where are your casual clothes? God, do you look like a businesswoman 24/7?"
"Ugh! Leave me alone, Shin!"
"I will, only because you look like a very hot businesswoman with those clothes." I laughed at her.
"Now let's go, I'm going to take you somewhere wonderful!" She said excitedly.
We went in her car, and Ryu took me to dinner in one of the most expensive restaurants in the coastline of Gangnam. And I thought that the night was going to end there, everything was very pleasant, until she had an idea.
"Dinner was great, but the night is only starting now!" She said as she started the car.
"Where are we going?" I asked, fearing her answer.
"To have fun, Minji! Let's recall old times." She said with a grin.
"Wait... wait..." I started speaking, but she tried to shush me, unsuccessfully.
"Dinner was lovely, we talked a lot, don't you think it's enough for now?"
"Don't say anything, Minji, just confirm me something, you are still a lesbian, right?" She asked, and then bursted into laughter.
"Why do you want to know that?" I asked, a bit embarrassed by her question.
"Yeah, by the look on your face you still are. Thank God, for a second there I thought you had lost the fun in life." She said smiling,
I didn't say anything, wherever Ryujin was taking me, I would just have to accept it. We drove past some streets and remembered the old times, all the fun we used to have together with Yeji. That talk provided us with some good laughs, they were indeed good times. And it was then that we stopped in front of a huge, sophisticated and bright establishment that had a neon board where it was written 'Imperium'
"What is this, Shin?" I asked as stared at the place.
"It's fun, Minji! Fun! This is the best club in Gangnam, trust me." She said excitedly.
"Club? Ryujin! I have an important meeting tomorrow morning! I'm not that Irresponsible girl anymore!"
"We won't be long, okay? It's only so you can get to know it, you will love this club, come meet 'Imperium'." She asked, getting out of the car.
This girl is crazy, I thought as I got out of the car.
There was a huge queue at the front, this club was apparently very well known. I don't remember it existing when I lived here. We walked in slow steps in that queue, Ryujin was more than impatient. I saw her searching her pockets, looking for something, her phone I imagined.
"Do we really have to stay here? I'm too old for this." I grumbled.
"Minji, stop acting like an old person, you're only 25 years old!" She scolded me, and went back to giving attention to the little device, totally ignoring my complaints. She spent less than 2 minutes on a phone call.
"Who were you calling?" I asked, staring at her.
"A friend who will help us."
It didn't take long for us to see a very elegant blonde woman at the entrance. The woman gave us a small wave and then called us over there. We passed in front of all those people, who were staring at us in a non-friendly way.
"Hey, Sooyoung!" Shin greeted, hugging the woman with golden hair.
She looked to be around 35 years old, she was tall, with a long face with strong traits. From what I could tell, Sooyoung, like Ryujin had called her, had a lot of money.
"Ryujin! What a pleasure to see you here again!" The woman said excitedly.
"The pleasure is all mine, I love this place!"
"I'm really happy, dear, you know that you are one of my VIP customers."
Ryujin smiled and stood beside me. "Sooyoung, I brought a friend to meet 'Imperium' This is Minji."
"Minji? Minji Kim?" Sooyoung asked.
"Yes, do you know me?" I asked, extending my hand to her.
The woman shook my hand in a pleasant greeting. "Everyone in Seoul knows you, Ms. Kim, you're an important businesswoman, right? It's an honor to have you here in 'Imperium'."
"The pleasure is all mine, it's a very interesting place."
I saw the woman smile. "You haven't seen anything." She said mysteriously.
"But come on, I'll pick a great place for both of you! You two came in the right day, our main attraction is here today. I guarantee that you girls won't be disappointed."
I looked at Shin who had a smile plastered on her face. I had never entered a place like that before, I wanted to leave, but something in me screamed for me to stay. I could regret this later, but only later.