In the Running | 𝘑𝘦𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘢 𝘍𝘢𝘯𝘧𝘪𝘤

01 | polar opposites

No one messes with her. No one would even dare.

She knew she was a force not to be reckoned with. If she was a boat, she would be designed to be unsinkable — made from the best material, crafted by the greatest architects and engineers. If she was a skyscraper, she would shadow over everyone — tall and solid and never topped. She was indestructible.

She was Jennie Kim, the youngest of the Korean Kim dynasty but... the most ruthless, the most intelligent, the one who was determined to inherit it all. You see, whenever asked what her parents do, she would simply say they were in the textile industry. But, polyester and cotton are not enough to take the Kim family to where they are now.

Textile, oil, mining, real estate, telecom, hospitals... you name it, the Kims have it. Her father was the sole heir to the Kim dynasty. He married her mother who just so happened to be the daughter of the Taiwan tycoon Gou Liu who held most of the major real estate in the business district of Taiwan and a major player in the Taiwan stock market, and manufacturing heiress (and model) Park Eun Jung. Her parents had businesses all over Asia.

Jennie has an older brother - Heechul - who was currently studying in Stanford. He would have been the heir but he was more of the STEM type. On the other hand, Jennie was set on taking that empire and growing it. Their parents were quite traditional and were mostly still set on Heechul on inheriting the business.

But, Jennie was a fighter and was slowly proving herself to be worthy of becoming the next head of the Kim businesses.

She studied in the most prestigious high school in South Korea — Seoul Prep. She has been in the student council since the freshman year. She was a prodigy with the violin. She was also a member of the pep squad before her senior year. On the weekends, she was volunteering; she usually worked for old and poor people at the home. To add to that, she was also doing so much extracurriculars – bake sales, prom committee, student council. Not to mention that she had the second highest grades in the school; the person running for valedictorian was some dude who was just naturally smart and as Jennie says "had no life outside textbooks."

No one would dare compete with Jennie Kim. Besides, no one would ever try; she was the richest and most ruthless bitch in here.

For her final year, Jennie eyed the presidential position. No one dared to run against her. She knew she would win against anyone anyway.

She was Jennie Kim and there was nothing that could get beyond her.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

"Lisa, can you grab the laundry from the washer?" Lisa's mother said in her poorly constructed Korean. Lisa and her mother had been living in Korea for over eight years but Lisa's mom still struggled to speak Korean with proper grammar.

Lisa sighed and put down the grilled cheese she just made to make her way to the washer in the other side of their apartment.

For eight years, Lisa and her mom lived in Korea. Her father and the breadwinner of the family passed away nine years ago which forced the Manobans to seek for a new source of their livelihood.

With the little money they inherited, they migrated to Korea where Lisa's mom was offered a seamstress job in a Korean fashion brand and she was offered a sports scholarship in a small school for track.

Lisa begrudgingly took the clothes from the washer and folded them into her laundry basket. She was always helping out with the household chores even though she hated doing them. Her mom never let Lisa do a part-time job so Lisa decided to help out her mom in other ways.