"I"m back!"As if the threats never happened, Minhyun"s anger disappeared, replaced by gentleness.
The young girl skipped into the room, unaware of the tension within the walls. Minhyun sat down and gestured for her to sit in the spot beside of him.
She obeyed and played with the utensils while waiting for the food to be served. Minhyun"s hand lean against his palm as he looked at Yoona with doting eyes. He"d never met such a carefree person before. She had the power to draw people in with her innocence.
The chefs walked in with platters filled with food. After hearing about Minhyun"s surprise guest, they quickly arranged for additional plates to be served. While in the kitchen, they overheard Minhyun"s threats and knew about the severity of their situation. They had to provide the best food to the new miss.
Today"s menu consisted of Full-blood Wagyu Tenderloin with a side of fresh greens and soup. The chefs placed the dishes in front of the two children, bowed slightly, before returning to their stations.
Before taking a bite, Yoona clasped her hands together into a prayer. She shut her eyes. "Thank you for the wonderful food and my new friend. Amen!"
She wasn"t religious, but it was a habit she picked up from her father. Before, coming to the mansion to stay with her mother, she had lived with him in an apartment.
Yoona picked up her utensils and tried to dig in. The key word was tried. Due to her lack of knowledge in utensil use, she was unable to hold the knife properly to cut her steak. Minhyun worried for her safety. The knife was sharp, the blade decorated with smaller sharp edges to grab the meat. He didn"t want to risk the potential of her getting hurt.
Minhyun chuckled nervously. "I"ll help you." He took the utensils from the hand. With the knife in his right and fork in his left, he cut the tender meat into small chunks for her to enjoy. After he was finished, he gave the knife to one of the workers, before placing the fork back into her hand. "Here you go. Now you can eat without any problems."
"Thank you Mini," she said in awe. "That was so adult-like. Really really cool."
He nodded while the left corner of his lip lifted up. The praises made him want to cut a hundred steaks. "You"re welcome."
Since he was older than her by three years, this was the least he could do.
Yoona enjoyed her meal. When she bit into the tender meat, the flavors would burst in her mouth. Of course, the taste had to be splendid due to its price-tag of two hundred dollars, but she wasn"t aware of the money. She evaluated it the same as any other dish.
"So Yoona," Minhyun began.
Like a chipmunk, her cheeks were filled with food. "Yes?"
"Tell me more about yourself."
Although they spoke in the garden, Minhyun knew very little about the girl in front of him. He wanted to know more. He was far more interested on learning who "Yoona" was than learning about the business a.n.a.lytics of his father"s company. This was the first time he showed such curiousity.
Streams of questions whizzed through Yoona"s mind. What should she say? There were so many things she wanted to tell him! She was excited to share stories about her life to her friend.
"Well," she began. She started with a basic introduction. "I"m six-years-old, I attend Golden State Elementary, and I like puppies!"
So she attended school like most kids.
Minhyun couldn"t help but feel curious about her experience in school. Due to his genius nature and status as an heir, he was not allowed to attend regular school. His father did not approve of the education system in Korea. He said that the students in Korea were below him and the teachers weren"t smart enough to teach. Instead of allowing him to have teachers, father demanded that he self-teach himself. Every month, he was given a new set of textbooks to learn from and was tested at the end to see the amount of knowledge he retained. The tests were usually around 3 - 4 hours long for each subject, created by the smartest brains of his father"s company.
This studying method made Minhyun independent. The exact traits his father was building him up for as the next heir.
"School? Tell me about school," he asked. He leaned closer to her with curious eyes.
Different memories of her school life played in her mind. "Well, I just graduated from kindergarten and since its summer, grade one hasn"t started yet but in kindergarten, I was in the b.u.t.terfly cla.s.s. There"s around thirty other friends in the same room as me. We do a lot of stuff like learning Korean, playing games, and reading books! I liked kindergarten. It was really fun."
Minhyun couldn"t believe it. Thirty different kids like him in the same room? That was a dream come true! It was hard for him to meet thirty people while living in this house. To imagine a big friend group made his brain dizzy. To think that another happy world existed outside of these walls. He wanted to quickly escape.
Once he turned twelve, Minhyun"s father promised to enroll him to an academy in New York. He was counting down the days until then. As the top school in the world, prided in educating the world"s wealthiest students, it was the only school worthy of his t.i.tle.
"Wow," he commented. "That"s sounds like so much fun."
Yoona nodded in agreement before stabbing her fork into a piece of meat. After placing it in her mouth and chewing, she began to speak. "Yeah it is! I remember one time, my friend Donghyuk was playing tag with the rest of us and he fell into a big puddle. He was the color of poo t"ill the end of the day. Stinky like one too."
Little giggles escaped from her mouth as she recalled the incident. It was one of the funniest days of her life.
While she was laughing, Minhyun stood there in silence. His eyebrows were furrowed while in deep thought. He found Yoona"s story funny too, but there was a single aspect that he didn"t understand. What was this "tag"? Any child in the world would know of the game, but he had no idea. Minhyun didn"t grow up playing with others. He spent his time studying and reading.
"What is tag?" He asked.
Yoona widened her eyes and she raised her hands up in the air. "You don"t know what tag is? What kid doesn"t know tag?" For a moment, Yoona thought that Minhyun was playing tricks; however, his eyes showed no mischief.
"I-I don"t know what it is."
When she realized, he truly did not know, a grin appeared on her face. She jumped out of her seat and hit his shoulder hard with her hand.
Minhyun grabbed his arm. "Ow!"
"Tag you"re it!" Before the other workers could reprehend her for hitting their master, the young girl ran to the end of the table. She stuck out her tongue and shook her bottom. "Catch me if you can Mini."
A smirk danced on his lips. After her taunting, he quickly understood the rules of the game. He was supposed to touch her with his hands. Ignoring the warm steak on his plate, he ran after her. The two went into frenzy as they tried to catch one another by running in circles around the tables.
One of the maids was about the feint. The young master was running around. He could get hurt! There were antiques and other valuables in the room. Nonetheless, none of them had the heart to stop the two kids from having fun. Minhyun was enjoying the game too much.
After the two finishing their game and the cold lunch, they continued to play for hours. Minhyun showed her around the house, introducing her to the different rooms. With another person, his mundane daily activities became more exciting. The monotone house brightened and he never realized how colorful his surroundings were.
While they played around, his threats spread throughout the other workers. By the end of the day, everyone knew not to mess with the young master and the little girl. No worker dared to call the boss about the special intruder. Minhyun was going to own the company at one point. To make him an enemy was wishing for death.