You Were My Love

Scene 50 - China

When Hae Wong had finally parked his car in the private section of the underground parking lot, he took a final glance at his father's text message before reaching to Jum Seung's office.

[This is getting way out of hands.

You really should have answered my calls.

You leave me no choice now.]

He knew this meant real, big trouble.

His father never made empty threats.

He felt a cold shiver run down his spine.

As his thoughts drifted on his relationship with him, memories popped up in his mind.

Ever since he was a young kid, his father had taught him how to play a lot of various strategy games.

Diplomacy, chess, Go, Yut Nori, ...

Level increased as he grew up.

As years went by, he trained him to different kinds of tactics, instructed him on stratagems, sharpened his wits on manoeuvres.

And Hae Wong liked it as a kid.

He liked it a lot.

Because those were moments when he would get to spend real father and son time with an otherwise absent, extremely busy head of the family.

Then only, his strict, cold, intensely demanding old man, for a few instants, would feel like a real dad to him, rather than a patriarch, a boss, or a commanding stranger.

Each time they would play those games together, would he soften and get warmer towards him.

Especially when learning how to play a new one.

Surprisingly enough, now that Hae Wong came to think of it, Jum Seung would be very playful when he coached his son on vantage grounds and gambits.

No doubt what he was doing was actually carefully molding his sharp abilities.

But at least, while instructing him on playing according to, or aiming at various plans and programmes, he acted like a real dad to him. Or something close to it. The closest Hae Wong had ever experienced.

Thus, thanks to his father's teachings, even before his teens, Hae Wong quickly became very skillful on negotiating and forming alliances.

Years later, when he had to deal with his first professional aims, he could easily outwit his adversaries and unhatch traitorous plots.

He could find no match for his shrewdness, or his brilliant intrigues towards his goals.

When the time came to find a career goal, his father had skillfully guided him towards public-oriented matters, and used his personal and work assets to get him to the highest position from the start.

Thus he had finally started in politics – a logical path given his education and his personality – and he was gifted at it.

He very soon was able to achieve the delicate balance between cooperation and competition.

All of which would eventually enable him to conquer dominance over his "collaborators," or "colleagues," or surrounding adversaries.

First it got Hae Wong proud.

Proud of himself, of his skills, of his abilities.

Proud of the endless attention and support he was getting from his father and his allies.