Zahra Taylor-Yoo's life is going great. She's been living her dream. She wanted to travel after graduating before her family could lock her down with work at their company. Living in South Korea, she's got a great job working at a design studio, a c...
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I'd been in Korea for about two years now. Life was good. My work was going well. I was living my dream, but as the two year mark came closer, my mother began calling more and more. They were ready for me to come back home and take my position in the company.
They didn't really understand that I was on the cusp of something great here. I loved designing. Fashion had always been my first love. According to my mother I could design clothing anywhere. She didn't get that here, I was studying under someone great and being surrounded by the kind of creativity that kept me grounded in my vision.
I wasn't completely alone here. I had my best friend So-Hyun and my boyfriend Da-Won. With them here I never felt alone.
Not to mention my step-dad, Yoo Hyun-Wook, who came back home to Seoul at least three to five times a year. Much of the time he was here, it was for work but he'd always make sure to spend as much of it with me as well.
My mother never would've guessed, that marrying a South Korean man would set her daughter up to fall in love with his home country.
I loved my step father. He and mom had been married since I was 5 years old, so he didn't feel like a step parent but instead my actual father, and he treated me as such. So much so that he gave me his surname as well allowing me to become Zahra Taylor-Yoo. I was their only child and thus the object of most of their attention.
Even now, with my mothers constant nagging to come home, dad always encouraged me to keep going with my dream, that he would help me out with mom.
Mom was back in New York City holding down the fort at corporate headquarters, while dad was here in Seoul finishing up on the establishment of the company's expansion here.
Mom was a killer when it came to business and dad was like her number one general going out and helping with the expansion. So far they had already expanded from New York to Los Angeles, Paris, and Tokyo. Seoul, South Korea was their new location and they were just about finished the expansion here.
Here in Seoul, without their constant hovering, I didn't have to live as Taylor-Yoo. Instead I could drop the Yoo and live as a plain old boring Taylor. I didn't reveal my background to anyone and instead lived quietly.
I worked in the design studio under that name as well, starting from the bottom and working my way up.
So-Hyun knew that my family had a big business back in the US but she never asked me to go into much detail. Even Da-Won knew my family as small business owners.
Da-Won is great. I feel so comfortable around him. Sometimes he behaves as if his world revolves around me. His family also owns their own business. He says it's just a small family run operation.
He brings up our future often, detailing about children and marriage. I love that he openly says that he sees us having a future together.
I hadn't gotten around to telling my family about our relationship yet. I knew my family would be accepting. I just wanted to have a little more time in my own little space with him.
