My Perfect Lady

He walked towards the young master"s bed and then sat at the edge of it. "I guess a congratulations is due, now that you are to be a married man?" he asked.

Jim raised his brows. "You were eavesdropping?"

"Learnt it from you."

Jim gave him a broad grin, and then lay back on the bed, satisfied. He had expected it to happen, but the actuality of the situation felt like drugs to his brain. It was relieving.

"I guess there"s no chance of you letting me smoke, eh?"

"Not in this condition, sir."

"Even if I tell you I"ve had a hard day?"

"No."

Jim looked at Park grudgingly, and then sat back up, albeit with a little difficulty. He turned around and glanced at the bed.

"It"s so hard, lying on this bed," he remarked. Park didn"t reply. After a moment though, he said gravely: "We"ll have to watch the girl, Jimmy."

Jim"s expression immediately turned serious. He nodded.

"You know you"re my only confidante, Park," he then said in a neutral voice, "And that I"d forgive you most things. Tell me though, this time, how did you f*** up so bad?"

Mr. Park"s gaze steeled.

"You know it isn"t my fault. I warned you against it since the very beginning."

"Two men," Jim breathed, "Two men from her past. Scare her, but zero violence. One bullet, directed at me. How hard was that to understand, my friend?"

"And you think I didn"t give the exact same orders?"

"Then why weren"t they followed?"

Mr. Park"s face turned foul.

"Because you"re a naïve fool, Jimmy Hunter. And the next time you order negotiations with a thug, make sure you learn something from your father."

Jim"s face blackened at the words. If there was one man in the entire world who could say this without facing dire consequences, it was Byeong Park.

"What actually happened?" Jim asked coldly.

"After I sent you the preliminary investigation report on her," Park began, "I received a "Contact them all" text from you. I had to make some insane connections, but we found out about the men who were a.s.saulted by the girl. As it turned out, there was never any record, because her fight was always with rogues. They wouldn"t approach the police, because they for one, were all wanted. The reason for these fights, I couldn"t find out. Now, I used a third party to get all these thugs together, as you had wanted.

By then I received your further orders, that you wanted only two men, the least harmful ones, to pop out of nowhere and scare her a bit. I told you then, fifteen times at least, that it was a bad idea. These were criminals. They don"t have rules."

"Didn"t I also say to stuff them with so much money, they wouldn"t dare defy me?"

"That"s the difference between you and your old man. He for one, doesn"t think that money alone makes the world turn. It"s money and power, Jim. That was your lesson number one. Yes, I offered money to two men, but revenge turned out to be more gratifying to them than the cash. And this girl has a lot of enemies, Jim. The two must have contacted others who turned up as well."

Jim"s face was so dark, so twisted, he seemed like a monster. In all the years of his doing business, he had never been betrayed by those who took his money. His mind went back to that Robert guy, who had first appeared and sworn at Miya.

Wait…

Now that he thought about it, the man had tried to hold her hand, but Miya had been the one to kick him first. Maybe it wasn"t the thug"s plan to not follow orders. Maybe, Miya had just p.i.s.sed him off by attacking outright.

Jimmy"s face turned colder. His eyes were steel, his gaze cutting. How the f*** had he made such a stupid decision? Why the h.e.l.l did it not cross his mind that the woman could turn out to be that demonic a fighter? Just like that, he had a.s.sumed that the frail, tiny girl before him would be scared by the appearance of her enemy. How did he not think, that she might have defeated all her enemies single-handedly in the past? He had naively a.s.sumed that Miya must have been a third party in the a.s.saults reported against her, that she must have gotten her enemies attacked through someone else.

Park was right. He was a f***ing fool.

Jim remembered Miya"s b.l.o.o.d.y face, her scarred arms and feet, and how she had ripped off her sleeve to cover his wound. Guilt roiled within him.

But what he had done was necessary.

The next part of his plan was simple and dramatic. He was to step in, of course and defend her – in the process get shot at. The bullet was to graze his hand, and the goons were to leave. He had seen it happen in third grade movies, and had known it would work with her. What he absolutely couldn"t forgive though, was the shot that was aimed at the kid instead of him.

"One of them shot at the boy," Jim stated, and a flicker of emotions ran across Park"s face. He hid them well.

"I know," he said, "That"s what can"t be forgiven."

Jimmy sighed, unable to get rid of the rising suffocation in him. If the kid had been hurt, he would never have forgiven himself. In the end, what he had planned had indeed happened, but only because he got lucky enough.

"I told you to at least use fake guns," Park said faintly, aware of the tumultuous emotions that would have been rising within the young man.

"I would have," Jim sighed, "But I figured she"d know. Now I"m happy I didn"t. You should have watched her fight, Park. If she ever knew this sh*t of a plan was mine, she"d bury me so deep under the earth, even you wouldn"t be able to find me out."

Despite himself, Mr. Park chuckled.

"She"s an interesting woman, I"ll admit that. She practically ripped the arm off the bodyguard sitting beside you in the car."

"What"d he do?"

"Stopped her from wrapping your wound."

Jim smiled.

"I"m just glad things didn"t f*** up bad enough for us to be unable to fix them," he breathed, "The best thing is, she"s agreed to the proposal." Mr. Park didn"t respond.

"How could you," he began after a while, "be so sure that she would agree to marry you if you pulled off this goo plan successfully?"

Jim rolled his eyes.

"It was lousy, I"ll admit," he said, "but it wasn"t goo. Well, I knew she"d agree after a small incident. When I went to her house, um… something happened. She was rude to me. Later, I needed a change of clothes, so I handed over some money and told her to get me ice cream as well –"

"What is it with you, boy, that you ask for ice cream wherever you go? Have you no control?"

"Oh come on," Jim said exasperatedly, "Forget that. Listen to this. Now, the clothes she got with my money. The ice cream, which was black currant by the way, she got on her own. She said it was her treat, as an apology for earlier."

Mr. Park"s eyes glinted. The first question that came to his mind was pure gold.

"Why did you need a change of clothes, Jim? What happened between the two of you?"

"Noth – "

Jim stopped midway as he noticed the mischievous glint in Park"s eyes and his teasing smile. Jim blushed so furiously, he resembled an apple.

"Wh-What are you looking like that for?! It"s nothing of the perverted sort, you creep!"

Mr. Park laughed.

"I know. You"re not capable enough in that area."

Jim was offended. He wanted to howl and say, "Not capable enough? You should have seen my crotch, old man and how devoted a fighter she is! Had she found out, Heaven knows how many kicks my bottom would have suffered."

He however said no such thing and continued indignantly, careful to avoid Park"s bait, "Do you want to listen to the story or not?"

When Park nodded, Jim began again, "When she did that, and then when I read the investigation reports, I knew this plan had an 80% probability of success. It"s simple really. She doesn"t like owing people. She got that sweet for me, even though her last month"s financials say she has zero savings and three known creditors whom she hasn"t paid yet. Now if I ended up taking a bullet for her, I a.s.sumed I could talk her into repaying my debt by accepting my offer. As luck would have it, she agreed to it even without me coaxing her again. Had I threatened her instead, she"d have just responded to it via. violence. But as long as she felt responsible, she"d go out of her way to make amends. I figured that"s just her character. Her history says so."

"It"s a flaw," Mr. Park remarked. Jim didn"t respond. There was one thing more that was troubling him though.

"Park," he said, "How"d it go with the police? How did you rope them in?"

Park gave Jim a "Really?" sort of look and then shrugged.

"Why"d you think I"ll contact the police? That"s an unnecessary fuss. I sent your bodyguards dressed as policemen. Why did you need them, anyway?��

It was Jim"s turn to return Park"s look.

"To have her run from her house, of course. I couldn"t send goons up there, not when she covers her track so well. She"d definitely have known something was off."

The two men breathed, and Jim fetched himself a gla.s.s of water. He struggled to drink it, with his arm hurt, but he managed after sometime. He then began again.

"Here"s the next set of instructions, old man. I need you to find those men again. I know they are in hiding, but they"re all grievously hurt, so they shouldn"t be hard to locate. And then, I want them doomed. They have to pay for shooting at a child."

Park nodded.

"Also, now that Miya has agreed to marry into the family, dig deeper into her. I want her every detail exposed to me. She"s sort of nice, but also a dangerous woman. We can"t have her snooping into the house without knowing her full history."

Park nodded again, this time with a slight smile.

"You like her, don"t you?" he asked suddenly.

Jim was surprised. He didn"t expect the old man to say those words, but when he did, Jim didn"t lie. Miya"s worried face flashed before his eyes, when she had scolded him for getting hurt.

"I guess. She has beautiful eyes," he replied.

"Aren"t you afraid she"d find out the truth?"

"I won"t let her."

Park nodded solemnly at that, slightly disoriented at Jim"s soft expression. And right then, in his heart, he knew the truth.

Things were going start f***ing up soon.

Jimmy was his father"s son after all.