"Life is about give and take; you know this better than anyone; the deal is clear, either you take an in, or war it shall be.
"It's indeed give and take, so why do I feel like the only one who gives without receiving anything in return?"
"Because th...
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"What are the odds? And you better say what I want to hear."
"I can sell you deception if that's what you want to hear; it sells at higher prices."
It was a calm morning, considering the storm that had literally and figuratively hit the city the night before. The sun shone and warmed the large room that had previously been filled with the coldness of lacking emotions and selfish decisions; the large glass wall received the affectionate touch of serene nature and illuminated Taehyung's opaque expressions. It made his face glow with a golden hue that had retrieved from his age a year or two by forcing him, with gentle frustration, to shed his tie and undo a few buttons of his white shirt in an attempt to let the air conditioning relieve his pent-up anger.
The night before, unlike his day in progress, was anything but calm, a raging tornado that he wished the meteorologists had predicted; he felt at a loss, not knowing where to put the buckets to prevent the flood from swamping his house; he thought he would find escape and safe shelter from his father's tyranny in Katarina's welcoming embrace, as it has always done, but he seemed to have forgotten that frequencies are not immortal and people's patience can only take a few cracks.
And Taehyung was well aware that Katarina had reached her limits. Couldn't blame her either; she had all the rights.
It wasn't a first for his father to humiliate the woman, reminding her how much of a low-life she was. It was no secret to anyone who knew Taehyung up close that his father had never intended her to be his daughter-in-law, let alone marry her off to his only heir, he would rather keep his eyes open as they throw dirt on his coffin than give her a chance to share the wealth he had worked so hard for.
Taehyung had been busy wrapping up loose ends; he had attended a meeting to finally close the deal Jungkook had been working on with Congressman Mr. Cha. After a war that had brought the man heavy casualties and some volition-inducing threats, he had finally acceded to Taehyung's demands and signed the agreement that would provide Taehyung with state protection and open many colossal doors.
Taehyung had expected that his father would appreciate his efforts and, why not, praise him for his hard work at least once in his life. But he had forgotten that his father had his ways of finding cracks in Taehyung's castles, had forgotten that he could build a fortress of gold and it would still look like cheap pinchbeck in his father's eyes.
However, and despite the awareness of the abovementioned reality, he had not anticipated that his father would take advantage of his absence to bring Katarina to him and convince her to become his next promotional tool.
Katarina was a Russian North Korean refugee who had sought shelter in Paju; a normal case of a fugitive fleeing unbearable living conditions. It took her several attempts and hours of prayers to a mystical creature whose existence she could not confirm to cross the borders, and even more difficult obstacles to reach Seoul; the woman had survived various kinds of exploitation before she could reach Seoul, and when she did, all life could offer her was a shitty job in an even shittier bar in Gangnam.
