Girl, Get up.

Chapter 10

Minji sets her bags down. She looks around the room to get the feel of the new environment. So this is going to be her new room. She eyes the interior and goes over to the bed. She sits down and just stares at herself in the mirror on the wall. This is it. This will be her life now. There's a knock at her door, she looks away from the mirror and sees her Uncle Jin looking at her. His hands are still holding on the door handle.

"Hey, Bear. I hope the room is up to your standards. I know it's different from the one you had in Korea but I hope you can turn it into something you don't mind coming home to every day." He smiles at her. He asks her permission with his eyes if he could come in. Minji nods her head and motions for him to come sit beside her.

"It's great, Uncle. I love it! Thank you" She looks around the room and sees an easel at the corner of the room. She walks over to it, the part of this room is full of art supplies. Sketch pads, paint, pencil, charcoal, you name it. Minji gapes at the sight and looks at her Uncle, confused. Her Uncle smiles and walks over to her, he puts his arms around her shoulder

"Shh. Don't tell your parents, it'll be our little secret. Just do your best out here so they don't have to come over and visit and see it" He says as smiles at her, Minji hugs him tight and tells him a thousand thank you's.

"Thank you, Uncle Jin. This really means alot to me." Minji says, she looks up at him with glassy eyes.

"I know, Bear. You should rest up, We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow. I want you to meet some of my business partners out here. Their daughters are about your age and will be going to the same school as you. I hope you can make friends with them." Jin says he studies Minji's features and sees sadness in her eyes.

"It's going to be alright, you don't have to feel alone here, Bear. I just want you to be yourself around me and while you're out here. You don't have to hide" Jin tells her. He understands how Minji feels, he's dealt with his brother-in-law for a while now. He knows that the expectations he wants his children to have are ridiculously high. That's why he offered this agreement with his sister and his brother-in-law back then.

FLASHBACK

Once Taehyung entered high school, their family had a meeting about what's ahead of his future. They were on a conference call and Jin noticed Taehyung's sad eyes as he listened to his parents dictate on how his life is going to be, they didn't even give him a chance to say anything. He couldn't stand it, so he interjected in their meeting and asked Taehyung if he wanted to come work at his company instead. Since Jin's company is a subsidiary to Mr. Kim's company. it works out and it'll give Taehyung an out from his parents expectations. Taehyung looked like he was contemplating. His parents talked and said it would be a good idea to learn about the other side of each company.

Just as Taehyung was about to answer, a knock could be heard from the door. Jin could see little Minji, her shirt was stained with paint, her face and hands also covered in charcoal and paint. It looked like she was fighting for her life with the art supplies. Minji sees her uncle on the computer screen, she waves her hands enthusiastically and greets him brightly. She proudly holds up a paper that she was holding and shows him a painting that she has just done. Jin smiled and told her that it looks beautiful and said that he didn't know that they had an artist in the family. Mr. Kim gets up and walks over to Minji, he excuses himself and Minji and closes the door behind them. Before they left, Minji left her drawing on the table for her older brother and Taehyung came over and picked it up.

Jin sees Taehyung smile at the drawing. As Jin was about to say something, Mr. Kim walked back into the room. He saw that Taehyung was holding on to Minji's drawing and grabs it from him and rips it out. He looks at Taehyung and tells him to stop encouraging his little sister on this nonsense. He needs to step up as a big brother and be a proper role model for them. Taehyung's gaze hardened as he looked at the paper his father had just torn up. Jin, understanding the situation, asks his sister and brother-in-law if he could speak to his nephew privately.