After savouring the tea in the white porcelain teacup, I carefully placed it down on the nearby coffee table. The warm rays of sunlight seep into the room beyond the thinly lit windows. I glanced at my watch. The person who was to come was over five minutes past the promised time. I was bored to death and was meaninglessly looking around the room filled with antique furniture. My patience was running thin, I grabbed my handbag that lay near my feet and stood up. All of a sudden my phone started to ring.

“I’m sorry, I have to cancel the appointment because something came up. You can go ahead and have a meal if you’d like. I’ll keep in touch.”

The man on the other side of the phone didn’t have the faintest sincere apology in his voice. But even to my own surprise, I didn’t feel the slightest discomfort from the way he talked. I was rather grateful.

“No, it’s alright, and thanks for calling.”

The man was silent for a moment because of my awfully calm words. After a few seconds, he hung up saying a simple goodbye. I walked to the door, the staff who stayed outside the room greeted me with an awkward smile. Among them, an elderly manager pulled along a large silver suitcase and stood beside me.

“Ma’am, a taxi will arrive soon.”

“Oh okay, thank you, sorry for troubling you.”

“Please come back again, and have a nice day.”

The manager’s attitude was extremely polite. I felt burdened with the people lining up behind me, but for the sake of my dad’s face, I waited for the taxi without saying a word. After a few minutes of standing there, a taxi arrived in the open yard. I  got myself into the vehicle pulling the suitcase with me. After settling down, I pulled my long hair up to a ponytail and dialled my dad.

“Is it already over? How was Executive Director Kwon?”

His tone was authoritative enough to kill the hilarity of the situation. 

“He stood me up. He informed me that something came up and can’t come because of it. Now I’m on my way out of the restaurant.”

I told him while having a hard time holding back my laughter.

“What do you mean by stood up?”

“Yes, I don’t know if you have been in contact with him, but he said he couldn’t come. Anyway, just as you said I kept my word, so now you have to keep your promise. Mom’s shop, what are you going to do?”

“… I gave you a good opportunity, and you got stood up? If he said that he couldn’t make it, you could have arranged an appointment next time! Did you know how hard it was to snag that opportunity!”

His raised voice and the bustle around the surroundings were heard together. I was expecting this kind of reaction, so I spoke as calmly as possible.

“I know, but I tried my best. Did I stand you up? no right, I’m innocent here, and I know you will do something about this issue. I’m on my way to the airport right now. Please, dad, do me a favour and solve this mess.”

“How long are you going to rot in that little company?”

“Well, right now I’m in my sixth year as an architect, and since I passed the architecture exam, I’m thinking of changing jobs around next year. Like you know, even though that place is small, I have learned a lot of good skills from there.”

“Tsk, you only know how to talk back to me like that. Just call me back when you get here. I transferred the store deposit this morning.”

“Thanks, dad.”

“There won’t be a second chance. This is the last one, alright?”

Please god, I hope this will be the last time. I sighed and said yes before hanging up the call. When the call ended I saw the unfamiliar number which I got a call a while ago in my recent call log. I pressed down and deleted it. I placed my phone beside me and stared at the passing scenery through the car window.

When I was a kid, my parents got divorced. My mom was an heir to a mid-sized construction company while my dad was a talented young manager. They both fell in love at first sight. However, by the end of 1997, a financial crisis struck South Korea and drove my grandfather’s company into bankruptcy. No one could save the company. Construction companies that failed to survive the IMF management system eventually disappeared and faded to the back of history. However, I remembered that time as a crisis of family breakdown, not of an economic crisis. 

Eventually, I became the daughter of a highly educated father and a ruined entrepreneur. My mom, who couldn’t become the heir to her company, and my dad, who wanted to become the successor of that company, were an unmatched pair, so the end was self-explanatory.

After seeing a series of family dramas, the conclusion I got myself into is that my father just wanted to be the son-in-law of my grandpa’s company. During the springtime of 1999, my dad divorced my mom. He remarried the daughter of the head of a leading trading company, who was three times divorced. He just married my mom for the money and fame.

Of course, after becoming Daryl’s son-in-law, the family admired dad’s skills. They announced that they had accepted him into the family, taking into account that he was highly educated and his achievements in construction. They gave my dad approval due to the various self-fabricated stories from the youngest daughter of that house, who was thoroughly infatuated with my dad.

I was lost in my train of thoughts and unknowingly the taxi had arrived at Incheon Airport. I was dropped off at the international departures entrance, I hung my handbag on one shoulder while pulling the suitcase with me towards the entrance. As soon as I entered the lobby my phone started to ring.

“Yes, sir, I have just arrived.”

“Oh, we already checked in our luggage and went over to the duty-free shop. Come to MHK Prestige Lounge. If you need to buy something, you can have a look around the duty-free shop.”

“Is everyone here?”

“No, only those who are new to the business. I was excited, so I came as soon as the ticketing started. Since it is all about winning the Red Dot Award, CEO Shin pays the money.”

I laughed along with him.

“Thanks to Lim, we get to eat soybean paste. Then, I’m going to look around the cosmetics section for a little bit.”

“Okay, come as soon as possible. There aren’t many seats left. Why are there so many people? I never thought there were this many rich people in Korea.”

I hung up and stood waiting in the prestige line. After checking my ticket, an assistant came over to help accompany me to the luggage drop-off area. Fortunately, I arrived earlier than I expected, and had some free time to myself before boarding the plane. 

The architecture office I worked at was called SIN. Not because the CEO’s surname was Shin, but because he used the character 宸 (sin), meaning ‘god’, to say he was the god of the architecture office. I know swaggering. I dared to ponder that CEO Shin, who considered himself as a god, at least knows the significance and meaning of the word ‘god’. 

After entering the duty-free area, I had a look around the endless rows of stores. I bought the lipsticks my mom asked for, creams and solid perfumes I had always been eyeing. When I arrived at the lounge after paying for the cigarettes Lim Soo-Wan had asked me to buy, there were only 40 minutes left until departure.

I grabbed a coffee and some cookies and sat down face-to-face with a fellow co-worker who was slurping ramen. As the director said, the lounge was rather noisy. The atmosphere wasn’t luxurious like I had thought; instead, there was commotion everywhere around me. 

“You should eat it on the plane, aren’t you eating too much? How about taking it?” I said.

“Aah, it’s not much actually. Please eat as much as you can Ji-Eun. We’ll be on the plane for 12 hours…”

“Yeah that’s kinda true, I’ll bring something to eat.”

“By the way, if you go outside and turn the corner, it’s a first-class lounge, right? As I was passing in front of it, I saw people from SR Industrial Development. It seems to be like they are from the executive level, are we also on the same plane? That’s where we ride? The Red Dot Best of the Best this time.” 

He blurted out with excitement.

SR Industrial Development was the only company to dominate in the construction business industry among a sea of thriving conglomerates. It is the best construction company of all the other construction companies. Leading conglomerates shouted for shared growth with small and medium-sized enterprises and committed a frivolous act of passing the profit margin below 3% in subcontract transactions, but SR was not one of them. SR Industrial Development, a subsidiary of the Seoryang Group, was able to establish itself in the industry thanks to the first chairman, Kwon Ho-Seop. He made efforts to guarantee a reasonable and fair unit cost of delivery and directed all of his power into developing SR Industrial Development. Ironically, SR grew significantly with the help of small and mid-sized companies and in the end, reached a position that overtook the holding company.

Of course, everything is a publicly known façade. No one other than the person involved knew how dirty they had been.

“It may not be. The original lounge is used by passengers boarding at the same time.” I said.

By the time the boarding announcement for the flight to Germany rang out, I had finished two cups of coffee. It wasn’t until ten minutes before takeoff that I and four other male coworkers, including the director, went down to the boarding gate with duty-free shopping bags. After checking the ticket, I walked inside through the dedicated entrance and tried not to look back at the heavy footsteps that followed.

We followed the flight attendant and took our respective seats. We tried to pretend to be casual, but we couldn’t hide our excitement.

Your dad deposited the money under his company name. What happened? you said you were going on a business trip, was it?

I got a message from my mom. After replying to her explaining the situation, I lifted my head to look at the people who were approaching.

“I’ll take you inside.”

Four men in suits came in with the particularly tensed-looking flight attendant. They passed by exuding a heavy presence and disappeared directly into the first-class seat. Three spaces were separated by curtains. All I saw was the back of the men’s heads and the nervous faces of the crew members, who were closing the curtains. 

“Aeroplane seats are exactly typical of the Pyramid dynasty.” Director Ko said, sitting next to me and taking another welcome drink with a grim expression.

“As the director said, they are from SR. I saw some cuffs a little while ago.” I said.

“Is that really Kwon Lee-Hyun? It’s my first time seeing him in real life. I’ve never seen someone like that before.” Director Ko said in awe.

“Is it that great to see him in real life?” I asked.

“Search it up on Google. You’ll know what I mean.”

I pressed my fingers against my aching temple and turned my gaze towards the window. I could search it up as Director Ko said, but I was unwilling.

It wasn’t like we were going to see each other twice. I wondered what kind of a golden connection my dad took to bring Kwon Yi-Hyeon to that place, but I won’t be given a second chance.

My gut said it is for the best that I didn’t meet him. Just thinking about accidentally encountering him was terrible. I didn’t reply to my mom’s constantly arriving messages, I switched my phone to aeroplane mode.

Finally, the 12-hour flight began.