My Perfect Lady

Hm… It must be the wife.

He smiled satisfactorily, and sighed in peace.

Park"s face screamed murder.

"Jimmy Hunter!" he almost yelled again, but the boy paid the old man no heed, and actually dared to smile at his call. Park had half an urge to drag the man up by his collar, or maybe pull his ears. But he was old now, and his body didn"t have the strength to take on youngsters like Jimmy Hunter anymore. He considered kicking him into the pool out of agitation, when another idea struck him.

It was the one Miya had used back when they were at Jimmy"s apartment and he had been dead drunk.

Mr. Park folded his arms across his chest, and announced loudly, "The Chairman is signing away the Hunter Corporation to one of your cousins, Hunter."

His reaction was instant.

Jimmy Hunter sat up straight, yelling out "What!" in horror. His action, however, was too sudden and when he jerked up to sit, he sent Miya rolling over his body, and down into the pool.

Jim"s vision was blurry, and his head spun. He looked up at Park in confusion, severely unhappy, when horror filled his face.

His wife!

His wife was in the pool!

"Miya!" he shouted, immediately standing up as he saw the splash in the water, "My wife! She"s drowning! Park, save her!"

Mr. Park was ready to roll his eyes.

The pool was barely four feet.

What the f*** was Jimmy doing?

The young master however, had fallen into a frenzy. He spared only a second"s worth of a glance at his butler, and then jumped into the pool himself.

"I"ll save you, wife!" he declared, before he flew in.

Mr. Park was so annoyed, he wasn"t sure which one of the two he wanted to smack the most.

Meanwhile Miya, who had been snoring dreamlessly till then, was surprised when she got rolled into the pool. The situation caught her unprepared and she ended up breathing in the water. She almost choked on it in the first few seconds too, but was quick to stand up and pull herself together.

She was gasping, and coughing when Jim reached the girl in one giant stroke.

"I"m here!" he shouted, "Breathe, breathe! I"m here! Do you need CPR?"

Miya"s head hurt from his loud voice, and she frowned while coughing out the water. When Jimmy forcefully held her face and turned it towards himself, she was immediately annoyed.

"No!" she retorted angrily, and pushed her wet hair out of her eyes. Her vision was clear now, but her head was heavy. It hurt.

Jim quickly let her go. Then wiping the water off his own face, he breathed deeply. His head hurt too. And they were both drenched.

"Do you pee in this pool?" Miya then asked in extreme agitation. Horror filled Jim"s face.

He quickly jumped before her and put a hand to her mouth. With wide eyes, he said, "Quiet! Ben, Ben! He"s here!"

At once, Miya"s anger flew to the wind and her jaw dropped. Because the huge man was standing directly in front of her and blocking her vision, she peeked around him and saw with a dropping heart the furious face of Mr. Park. And behind him, stood Ben, with an extremely worried look on his face.

"F***," she cursed.

Jim nodded fervently, still standing before her. Then very quickly, he peeked at Park as well.

"H-He"s very angry," Miya reported, "Do I smell bad, Jimmy?"

Jim concentrated.

"Yes," he said finally, "You reek very badly of alcohol."

"F***," she cursed again, almost hitting her head, "You too, Jim."

They turned quiet, before Miya whispered under her breath, "Why did Mr. Park bring Ben? This is bad, d.a.m.n it!"

"Stop cursing!" he urged as well, and quickly removed the tie tied around Miya"s head and shoved it inside his pocket, "Why is my tie on your forehead anyway?" Jim asked.

"I don"t know!" Miya shot back in a low voice, "And is that important?! What do I do? I don"t want Ben to see me like this!"

"I think he already has, dear."

"Don"t dear me! d.a.m.n it!"

"Stop cursing! He saw me too!"

Miya considered drowning herself in the water, when she suddenly recalled the minor, unimportant detail.

"You put the tie around me!" she said in retort.

"I did?"

"Yeah, I said my head hurt! It still does…"

"Mine too."

"Then you wrapped it around my head. You said it would help!"

"It"s not important, Miya! Look, here"s what we do. Pretend to faint, and I"ll kick up a fuss –"

"What?"

"Yes, I"ll kick up a fuss that you"re not okay, and that you fainted, and then we can create a distraction. We will be able to run off this way –"

"Jimmy?"

"Yes?"

"You"re 31, d.a.m.n it!"

"And do you have a better idea, woman?!"

Mr. Park"s eyebrows twitched.

The Junior Hunters didn"t realize it, but their chatter wasn"t a whisper anymore. In fact, he could clearly overhear it, all the way from where he stood. Before the girl could retort to Jim"s banter, Park cleared his throat. Then in one thunderous bellow, he hollered:

"OUT! BOTH OF YOU, NOW!"

His voice made Ben shiver, and the boy was immediately scared. Park was quick to turn to the child and comfort him kindly, in complete contrast to what his demeanour had been a few seconds before.

Jim and Miya froze. Then cursing the situation a thousand times, Jim turned around and held the missus"s hand. His head was throbbing painfully, and he hated it when Park caught him in this state. Meanwhile Miya only remembered then the minor note that she had made in her mind, on the night when Park had carried a drunken Jimmy back to his apartment.

Mr. Park hated drunken messes.

She had witnessed it first hand, how scary he became with Jimmy back then.

Even she had chosen to side with the old man, and had abandoned the young master to face his wrath.

d.a.m.n it, now she was in the guilt too!

For a second, she felt bad for Mr. Park, and for creating so much trouble so early on in the morning. But then she saw the scared face of her son, and her heart twisted painfully. She was a horrible, horrible mother!

Miya would have leapt out of the pool, and to her boy, when Jim refused to let go of her hand and dragged her back inside the water.

"You stink!" he told her quietly then, "Don"t go near Ben! You want him to know you were drinking?"

Miya shook her head, but worry was written all over her face.

Jim cleared his thoughts, and focussed on the situation.

"If it"s any help," he said, "I wish I could trade places, no lives, with Ben. He"s in a much better situation than we are in! Park is going to yell a lot! And it"s very annoying when he blasts off."

"I don"t want you to trade life with my son," Miya responded grudgingly.

That made the young master raise his brows.

"Why?" he said sceptically, "Am I not good enough for you?"

Miya huffed.

"Do you want me to be your mother?"

"You"d do alright."

Park was done consoling the boy. And he was done hearing those two punks. They were flirting with each other even now!

Furious, he turned around and hollered, "I said OUT you both! NOW!"

Jim jumped into action right then. He lifted the missus up, staggered on his foot, but managed to put her out of the pool. Then Miya held his hand as he climbed back out himself. Once outside, they both resorted to staring fixedly at the floor.

Park could barely contain his outrage. But because he had yelled a second time, Ben was almost on the verge of tears now. Mr. Park hated that, but he restrained himself because of the child.

"Miya," he said through gritted teeth, "To Ms. Storm"s room, now!"

As soon as the words left the butler"s mouth, Miya gave her son a forlorn look, but didn"t dare to defy the fuming man. She ran out of the vacant guest bedroom and in the direction of Becky"s room.

Jimmy was left alone.

Park wanted to smack the man"s head, but he decided he cared more about the little boy. So seething, he hissed, "Young man, you"re grounded."

Jim was instantly rebellious.

He was not going to be grounded before a five year old!

"Why?!" Jim demanded. He had not been grounded since he was thirteen!

"You need to ask?" Park"s glare was murderous, and he looked pointedly at the two bottles lying directly behind Jimmy, but clearly in his own line of sight.

Jim almost cursed aloud.

F***.

Absinthe. He had chosen absinthe to get drunk on. That was f***ing illegal in Country I.

Quietly, he mumbled to himself, thankful that Ben was half covered by Mr. Park and couldn"t see the bottles.

"Why only me? Why not her as well?"

Park"s sharp ears picked up the indignant question of Jim"s, even though he had murmured it to himself.

"She"s already grounded, in case you don"t remember," came the old butler"s short reply, "The Chairman did the honours himself. She appeared in your clothes before him, I heard?"

Horror filled Jim"s face once again, and he thought his head was going to blast.

d.a.m.nit!

He had totally forgotten about that! But –

He was a grown man! He could not be grounded! And he could not let the wife be grounded as well!

Because the Hunter family, thanks to the Chairman, had a pretty sh*tty rule of grounding. They didn"t lock him up at the house and refrain him from going outside.

Instead, they sent him to the main branch of the Hunter Corporation and told him to work for 47 hours straight. And all the work that he was given was financial paperwork!

Jimmy hated paperwork!

He used to do it when he was a b.l.o.o.d.y intern!

But… that was what had happened to him every time he was grounded before.

Well… he was C.E.O. now. The Chairman wouldn"t threaten him with that garbage work again, right? And under the threat of not signing the Hunter Corporation to him too…

But, wait.

If he was sent for that, and with Miya too since she was under the same punishment – now that didn"t sound so bad.

Somehow, Jimmy"s heart thumped.

For now, the idea of being grounded with her didn"t seem so bad.

Mr. Park clasped his hands together, when he noticed the lost look on the young man"s face. And when Jim smiled lopsidedly to himself, Park hissed again, "To your room, boy. You have a meeting with the Chairman in an hour. Before that, I want to have a word with you too."

Jim nodded dreamily, and turned around, not too worried for now.

He did wink at Ben before leaving though, and showed him a rapid thumbs up so that the child would not be troubled.

Somehow, Ben pressed his lips, and gave Jimmy a slight nod. His lips curled into a half smile too.

Jimmy walked out of the room, strangely relieved – his head still in a buzz.

Ben, Ben. And Miya.

He certainly had a lot of work to do.