pt.one/
Twenty years ago
Seoul, South Korea
April 1st
—
"Brother! Let me play with the pocket watch please. Brother! Brother, please!" She didn't realize but her breath stank, bad, and she was way too close to Park for his liking.
"Kotoko! This watch is all I have that you don't. All I have which is mine. Leave me the fuck alone you insufferable wrench." He growled harshly so all could hear. Kotoko flinched back insulted.
There was a hard smack to the back his head and he looked up to see Jin Ahn angrily looking back at him.
"Don't talk to your sister like that! She's only five Park! You're her older brother—"
"This is mine. Mother gave it to me I don't want her to break it."
His mother walked out from the kitchen with her apron. "Jin don't hit my Annie, he's just a little softie for mama." She walked up to Park and pinched his small cheeks. "I'm right here darling. Why do you need such sentimental things when I'm right here?"
Min Ahn smiled at his mother sweetly trying to hide the pain is his heart. She knew why, they all knew why yet no one said it aloud. No one dared for Min Ahn's sake. She was the only person for who he still smiled for. Kotoko fumed with jealous that her brother didn't look at her that way, with admiration. She knew he loved her, but not as much as Mother. It was "Aomma wants this, Aomma wouldn't like that". Such a mommy's boy where as Kotoko just wanted her brother to herself.
His father mumbled an apology to his son, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.
Soon the little altercation was in the past, Mother started mumbling into the void about how she hoped it didn't rain the next day, as she wanted to go out for her birthday.
"Can't I just hold it? I won't break it I swear—"
"Keep your clammy tiny hands away from my watch or I'll break off everyone of your fingers Kotoko, I'm not fucking kidding."
"But I—"
"I'm not repeating myself you dense runt. I'll give you anything else, everything. I'll buy you your own watch if that's what you want, an expensive one even. Just stay the fuck away from my watch." He spat menacingly so that only she could hear.
"B-but Brother—"
"I wasn't asking," he growled.
Kotoko bit her tiny lips and let her fringed bangs cover her face in shame. "Yes brother."
"Good. Now read a book or watch some American program. English is fundamental for your future." She stared at her brother as he moved to help his mother in the kitchen.
Everyone pretended like what took place never happened but not Kotoko. She was a stubborn girl and she didn't know exactly how yet, but somehow was she going get her hands on that pocket watch.
No matter what.
"Not all of us are geniuses, Park."
—
"No." He snapped his eyes open and forced himself not to think of what happened that day. He couldn't show weakness at work, in fact he couldn't show weakness anywhere. He was the king of the jungle, the leader. Vulnerability wasn't a luxury he could afford to have.
"Mr.Ahn, the people from marketing need your opinion on the model for the new product commercial, and the logistical team says our profit and ARP are thirteen tenfold points higher than expected, which means—"
