Dingo

Pride.

Jeongyeon liked memory games, or anything that required memorization. She played with her older sister’s toys, since her parents didn’t have enough time to pay attention to her. Most of these toys jogged her brain at an early stage. She placed the shapes in their correct slots with precision, organized blocks from size to a specific thickness, flipping cards to find which ones were the exact partners, and even math related games.

She was a quiet kid, she barely got any attention from anyone, but she still managed to do what she had to do.

It was obvious to her that her mother and father concentrated on her two older sisters more than her. Making her feel like dead weight most of the time. But they still provided for her, she had everything she needed. The only thing that was missing was attention from them. She knew as soon as then that it was all that she needed.

Her sisters were tolerable. None of them insulted her nor put her down. Which was odd for her, but she didn’t mind the civility of things. It was still different because none of them made the effort to form a bond with her. It was all acknowledgments and simple greetings when they crossed paths at school and even in their own home.

She liked to believe that she was mature enough for her age. Maybe too mature.

At seven, she stopped crying about trivial things. Like scraping her knee or getting scolded by her mother. She trained her mind in a way that emotions could be controlled. She had the power to switch them on and off like a light.

The price she had to pay though, was her empathy. Because of the lack of it, she wasn’t able to make friends at school. Then again, she weighed the pros and cons of having interpersonal relationships. If there really was a great benefit of having friends or not. It was school, she just needed to pass subjects, not fuck up and graduate.

Seemed simple enough.

It was too easy, she believed. From elementary to middle school she was able to become the top student of her batch. Always having perfect scores in exams, always knowing the right answers and was always above everyone.

She even dipped her toes into extracurricular activities, such as literary clubs and sports.

Chess was her favorite out of all of them. Since it was easy to memorize people’s patterns and how they played the game, it took her seconds to figure out what was their next move each time. Maybe even setting a record of beating her opponent in two moves only.

But because of that, the president had to politely ask her to choose a different club since she was ‘too good’ at it. Which didn’t make sense to her, didn’t they want their club to win in these games? Why did they have to kick her out?

However, she wasn’t the type to argue, or let her pride take over. She simply agreed and decided to look for another one.

As a joke, they told her to join the ssireum club in their school. Which, to their surprise, she agreed to. It made Jeongyeon believe that if she was able to have a strong mind, then she needed a strong body as well. Again, she aced the club, taking the school to different parts of Busan in several categories.

She was their top player and it only felt right for her to mock the people who thought she wasn’t capable of doing it. She seemed to enjoy putting people in their place. Being a star student and a great athlete was definitely a way for them to know who was the real deal there.

Middle school was easy for her, her first year in high school was even easier. Though the occasional bullying did come her way, she felt like it was just a waste of time to let people like that try to scratch on her pride. She had too much of it, already learning to counter them when they tried to say something loosely at her.

And again, she dominated in every category. Sports, studying, and other extracurricular activities. She was considered the best.

It didn’t take long for her parents to notice Jeongyeon’s performance in school. They only started to realize that she had an extraordinary brain with raw talent. Stating that all of this could be a great benefit to them.

One night, her parents mentioned that they were invited to a dinner with some important people. She didn’t know who invited them, but it seemed like it was a huge deal since her parents kept fussing about what she had to wear for it.

Her parents were both real estate agents, definitely the best in Busan, so it was no surprise that they would be graced with the company of pretty rich and important people. It just didn’t make sense as to why they pushed for Jeongyeon to join them and not her older sisters. They usually went alone.

As they arrived in the most expensive hotel in town, Jeongyeon seemed to notice the amount of men in suits that were surrounding the area.

“All red, all black,” she said quietly to herself as they drove past the crowd that were trying to walk into the venue. Her mother shushed her as they were about to leave the car, dragging her along while they tried to gracefully enter the building.

Then her parents pulled her to the side and fixed her attire at the last minute. “Jeongyeon, we need you to make a good impression tonight. There are a lot of guests here and they expect us to be the best and we know you can be,” her father said as he watched her mother fix her hair.

“Try not to sass anyone in the process,” her mother added in a monotonous tone. “If they find out that we have an overachieving daughter, for sure they’ll look at us highly.”

“What a stupid reason,” Jeongyeon thought to herself. Which was true, it was incredibly stupid and there was no good reason for her to be here. Unless they really just wanted to boast to their friends that they believed they were better than everyone. It was strange. But she might as well indulge them, it had been a while since she was out of the house and actually spending time with them.

Even if it wasn’t sincere.

As they entered the grand hall, her parents had already found people to schmooze with, presenting her with all their buttery, fake words about how much they loved her and how proud they were. It made her sick.

She didn’t want to be known as just that. She would have at least loved words that felt sincere. But as she listened to them, none of them were. They really were there to fish out compliments and praise.

After a round of her parents gaining enough ego from business partners, they brought her to one part of the hall where it seemed to have more security than ever. Jeongyeon was a bit taken aback with how many of the men in red and black were in.

She kept her head low and followed obediently behind her parents. Then they stopped to talk to this man filled with scars on his face, who wore the most expensive looking red blazer and had jewelry on him like he dipped himself in gold. He must be the host of this party.

As usual, her parents started to talk to him with fake words of praise, saying that they admire his work ethics or some shit. Jeongyeon decided to zone out when she knew it was just going to be the same thing over and over again.

But when they were about to introduce her, the woman next to the expensive looking man, released a small gasp and that genuinely surprised Jeongyeon.

“We need to get her to meet our daughter,” the woman said in excitement as she looked behind them, looking for the mentioned girl.

It was obvious that her own parents were shocked at how this woman cared nothing about what they said and mostly placed all her attention towards her.

Asking Jeongyeon questions like what grade she was in, how old she was or if she had any friends. Obviously being unprepared for the line of questioning, she stumbled on her words and stuttered when she tried to think of something good to say.

She was the smartest student in her school, why was she having a hard time answering simple questions like this? She could easily say she had some friends, but for some reason the words couldn’t come out.

Suddenly, a shorter girl in a red dress appeared. She looked shy, as if she didn’t want to be there at all. But she held a small smile, did a courtesy in front of everyone and then introduced herself.

Son Chaeyoung.

She looked younger than her; but with the way she looked, she could be mistaken as an elementary student. Her hair was long, it looked like it reached near the end of her spine. Too demure for her taste.

Jeongyeon's mother tried to speak again. “Madam Son—“

Mrs. Son raised her hand and cut her off. Which surprised Jeongyeon even more. Her mother hated getting cut off. “Jeongyeon, you should get to know our daughter. I’m sure you two have a lot in common,” Mrs. Son said with a glint of excitement in her voice.

With that, the Sons escorted her parents somewhere else to discuss whatever they needed to talk about. But the dumbfounded, and very offended look on her mother’s face was priceless. She was starting to be thankful to be there tonight.

“So,” Chaeyoung started, hands behind her back and started bouncing on her heels. “You were forced here too?”

Jeongyeon raised her brows at the statement. “That’s a strange way to start a conversation.”

Chaeyoung shrugged. “It’s normal. Plus, I can tell that you are.”

There was something that ticked her off with what the small girl said. She didn’t like to sound predictable. “And what makes you think that I was forced here?”

Chaeyoung didn’t answer. She simply gave another lazy shrug and started walking away, towards the side of the room where all the finger food was. She didn’t bother checking if Jeongyeon followed her or not and was busy scanning the selections.

Her eyebrow twitched. This was one pretentious little girl. Jeongyeon huffed and quickly walked towards her. “Are you naturally this rude to your guests?”

Chaeyoung stuffed something in her mouth, then gave a face of disgust, pointing at it like she was taking mental notes not to touch it again. She didn’t spare Jeongyeon a look.