A Risky Deal - Nachaeng

(CH.1) sighting

Im Nayeon has been a determined and hard-working person all her life. As the heiress of a rather huge Korean fashion company, she had been pushed into embodying these personality traits ever since she was little – success expected from her in everything she did.

She even had several nannies at the tender age of 2 months who were only employed to teach Nayeon to speak Korean, Chinese and English as quickly as humanly possible. So, by the time the only child of the Im household was three years old, she was already trilingual – getting tutored in Math and Culture before even starting pre-school.

Therefore, graduating on top of every class, as well as her studies abroad weren't a surprise to neither Nayeon, nor anyone else really. Nonetheless, her passing Business School at Harvard University with the highest marks by a woman within the past 5 years and her parents not even attending the graduation ceremony had been the first time in her life when Nayeon had felt disappointment. She had worked her butt off for several years to make them proud – only to realize that her parents didn't even care, because she was Im Nayeon and this was expected from her, because it was the plan they had made for her even before she entered her mother's womb. She was an Im, and she was obliged to succeed.

Naturally, like a real Im, Nayeon had swallowed everything down and eventually became Seoul's youngest co-manager – running the Im-fashion-company alongside her father for some years before starting her own company as well, because she felt like working 12 hours every day wasn't enough. Her father pushed by telling her how he built the company by working overtime for 10 years and somehow Nayeon felt like she owed him. Because besides all the harsh drills - Im Nayeon had led a luxurious and wealthy life, where she never had to worry about anything else but reaching the standards of her parents by being a well-educated, well-behaved, good mannered, beautiful and successful daughter.

And Nayeon was all that, never doing anything thoughtless – always careful to be decent and unimpeachable.

So, it turned out anything but expected when her father had called her into his office this morning, only to tell her two little sentences, which Nayeon wasn't able to forget all day.

You seem tense. You should loosen up a little.

Nayeon swirls the olive in her martini glass and silently shakes her head. Usually, her father spoke in a very formal tongue – so for him to voice out these words in front of her, and in a workspace of all, was very uncommon for him. It made the whole speech weight even more and it made it all the worse that Nayeon had no idea what he was trying to say to her.

Never in her entire life had Nayeon heard her father tell someone to do anything else but work hard – and certainly not to 'loosen up'. It confused her so much that she felt like she needed a drink - even though Im's don't drink. Not in public anyway. But maybe that was the kind of loosening her father hinted at.

"Can I get you another one?"

Nayeon felt another presence beside her – much too close for her liking and the way he leaned back into the bar counter and somewhat slurred his words a little, made her cringe inwardly.

She averted her feline eyes, which only had a faint tad of make-up on them tonight and scanned his appearance. He was dressed classy – the black suit flattering all the right places, his smile bright and his eyes soft – but Nayeon still silently shook her head.

"No, thank you. I was just about to leave."

His eyes narrow a bit as he smooths his tuxedo – momentarily looking down at his shoes, or maybe he's looking at her bare legs as her skirt moves up a little bit when she slides down the stool.

"Next time, then?" he tries again – and Nayeon sights because this is exactly the reason she doesn't want a boyfriend. Not that she needs one or owes anyone an explanation as to why she doesn't have one.