Before You Go

Miss-in-Denial

Minjeong tries not to stay in one place for too long. She never had a reason to, and maybe it was a way to cope with the fact that she never felt like she belonged.

She doesn't even remember a point in her life where she felt like she had anyone she could rely on, and Minjeong felt like it was best to not get so attached to people to save herself from anymore disappointment.

Minjeong had a family.

She doesn't remember much about her father, but her older brother, Jonghyun, told her that they had a pretty good father figure in their life, until he passed. Minjeong doesn't even remember what his voice sounded like, and the only recollection of her father's face was from that one picture that she kept tucked in her wallet.

Her mother took it hard when their father had passed. She became a drug addict, ran away with different men, and only returned home when those relationships went to bust.

Jonghyun had raised her for a majority of Minjeong's life due to their lack of parents. They used to live in a trailer community because that's all that they could afford then. Jonghyun had been working two jobs while Minjeong was pushing through her sophomore year of high school.

Then, Minjeong was alone.

Jonghyun left to pursue his music career, running off to London with his buddies to form a band. There was no sustenance with his plans. It was impulsive and had no guarantee for success. And yet, Minjeong was abandoned by the last person she could rely on, just as easily as their mother had done to them.

Minjeong wasn't mad at her brother for wanting to chase his dreams. With everything that's happened to them, all the things they've endured, Minjeong understood the need to leave this life and finally do something for himself.

And that's exactly what Minjeong had been doing.

It's hard to do. Moving from place to place to start a new life. Especially when she was still a minor.

New York wasn't exactly somewhere Minjeong had planned to go. It wasn't an ideal lifestyle with her financial state, but she had happened to run into one of Jonghyun's childhood friends before she had left Boston.

Minho was much more successful than her brother was. He was a software engineer at this point of his life, and very successful. Minjeong doesn't know him too well, but she was familiar with him from when she was younger.

He offered her a job.

Minjeong doesn't think it's a real job, and that he just took pity on her after finding out that she was completely alone and abandoned. She had to beg him not to turn her in to Child Protective Services for being an abandoned minor.

Minho convinced her to move to New York. He told her to live in his New York home while he was off to Japan for three years for a tech project. Minjeong was basically getting paid to house sit, while her brother's rich friend went off to another continent.

It was quite unnecessary of Minho to do this for her. He even helped her enroll into a school, before he had left, which she appreciated very much.

"This house is huge!"

Minjeong plopped herself onto the long leather couch, blankly staring at Ning Ning who looked around the mansion in awe.

"Who is this man?" Ning Ning squinted at a photo, taking the frame from one of the shelves. "Is he your brother?"

Minjeong snorts, "no. My brother is not as successful and good looking as Minho."

Ning Ning put the frame back on the shelf, twirling around to join Minjeong on the couch. "So who is he?"