TWO

“Hey, give me back my paper. You sucks! Emily! Give me back my paper."

Emiliy burst out laughing, running down Oxford's long university hallways. Today is the last day of June, that means it's the last day to submit paperwork before summer holiday officially starts tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, Emily actually played with her, and took away her paperwork which should have been submitted fifteen minutes ago.

"Emily please, Mr. Joseph will cut my summer holiday time if I am late to submit the paper," shouted Calistha pitifully.

Everyone who passed her gave her a strange look. But she ignored them all and focused only on Emily who was very nosy today. She was busy laughing at her at the end of the hall.

“I just wanted to make you exercise Cals. Come here, I'll give your paper back."

Calistha snorted in her place as she walked briskly towards Emily. Her chest was like being hit by a high-scale earthquake due to the mad roar. That damn Emily really sucks.

"Thank you."

Emily deliberately teased Calistha when the girl just snatched the paper without saying a word. But of course it was normal for Calistha to do it. Which human will thank you after the paper has just been stolen.

"Hopefully Mr. Joseph still accepts my paper," sighed Calistha in frustration.

Last night she had worked hard to finish her paper so that this afternoon she would not be late in collecting her task at Mr. Joseph's desk. But this damn girl just complicates things, and throws her whole plan into chaos.

"Mr. Joseph can't possibly refuse you, doesn't he really like you." Emily said lightly as she put her arm around Calistha's shoulder.

The two of them walked hand in hand towards Mr. Joseph's room which was on the first floor while humming lightly. Actually only Emily was humming, while Calistha, she was still covered by clouds because of Emily's actions a moment ago.

"I don't know, I'm not sure. Do you think my father's big name will affect him?"

"Of course. In fact, you don't even have to bother working on that paper because you are the daughter of Jacob Im, a super-rich businessman from South Korea, with various assets, and blah blah blah..." Emily chirped loudly until several students turned their heads towards her.

But Calistha chose to ignore it and kept walking towards Mr. Joseph's room on the first floor. The girl next to her was quite unique. In fact, she never thought that she would have a friend like Emily. But at least the girl has a kind heart, besides her annoying and weird as well as nosy. The girl did not approach Calistha just because Calistha was the daughter of Jacob Im. The girl is friends with Calistha because they both are suitable as friends. Calistha's personality which is a bit closed and also quiet fits Emily's personality which is very outspoken and also noisy. But even though they have been friends for more than three years, Calistha still can't open up her whole life to Emily. So far Emily has only known a small part of her entire extraordinary life. But for Calistha it was more than enough, because she never wanted to drag her best friend into her very complicated life.

“Cals, would you like to join me and my sister on a vacation to the Scottish countryside? We planned to spend two weeks of our summer vacation at nana’s house helping her harvest the grapes. Do you remember the story I told about my grandparents who owned a one hectare vineyard?”

"Yes, I remember it," answered Calistha short. Of course she will always remember that because every day Emily never stops telling the success of her grandparents who succeeded in starting a winery business and also the best wine in Scotland. Unfortunately this time he had to refuse Emily's invitation again because her father obviously wouldn't allow her to go anywhere during summer holiday.

"So? Do you want to join us?”

"I'm sorry Emily, I..."

“Yayaya… I know. You will definitely reject me again. I already memorized your answer Cals. You've rejected me three times, this is the fourth." Emily said sullenly.

Calistha looked guilty at Emily as she clasped her hands together in front of her chest, apologizing. She really will never be able to go anywhere during summer holiday or on other holidays because her father is too worried about her situation which is far from her father's reach.

“I'm sorry Emily, my father didn't allow me to go too far. And this summer maybe I'll go back to Seoul, or I don't know, I don't really know my father’s plan. To be honest I'm also bored with my life, Em.”

Emiliy patted Calistha's shoulder lightly while showing a concerned face to her best friend. Being the daughter of a rich man is sometimes not always fun, because Calistha is one real example who actually feels unhappy with the wealth she has. It all happened because Calistha's father was too protective and always put bodyguards wherever his daughter was. Even among the students passing by on the Oxford campus today, hidden various kinds of bodyguards who always watch over Calistha for twenty-four hours. Most of them chose to disguise themselves as campus residents or students so that Calistha would not be uncomfortable with their existence. But still Calistha knew that most of the students on the Oxford campus were not real students.

“Maybe next time we can spend our summer vacation together. Now hurry in, Mr. Joseph must have been waiting nervously for you in there." Emily teased mischievously while blinked her eyes.

But Calistha chose to ignore Emily's joke and immediately disappeared behind a brown wooden door that read "Mr Joseph Ph.D". This afternoon she had to quickly settle her business with the young lecturer, or he would find an excuse to make her repeat his class next year so that he could act as flirty in front of her as usual.

-00-

Calistha stared blankly at the luxurious house in front of her as she stepped lazily into the terrace of her house. At Oxford she felt very lonely. In fact, her life used to be much more enjoyable when she lived with his grandmother in Seoul. Unfortunately her grandmother died when she was in her late fifteen years, so she had to return to her father to live a very boring and monotonous life like this.

"Miss, Mr. Jacob would like to speak to you."

"What? My father is here?” asked Calistha in disbelief at the door. Her father had not come to Oxford in a long time to visit her who was lonely here. Looks like the last time her father came was at Christmas last year. Even then, her father only stayed for two days to do a perfunctory dinner and present a beautiful bracelet that was currently beautifully wrapped around her wrist.

"Yes, Mr. Jacob just arrived ten minutes ago."

"Father!" Ignoring her maid's voice, Calistha immediately walked in while calling for her father. She may be childish by shouting like that, but you will know how it feels if you live life like Calistha.

"Welcome home. Why are you shouting like that?” asked the father calmly, folding the newspaper.

Calistha immediately jumped into her father's arms as soon as she found him sitting quietly in the usually empty living room of her house.

"You haven't been to Oxford in a long time, I thought you had forgotten about me."

"I'm sorry, there's been a lot of trouble at the company lately."

"Okay, I really understand that problem. We'd better talk about something else, because I don't want to waste my father's precious time here just talking about company matters."

Calistha then sat quietly beside her father while waiting for her father to say something. She felt something different from her father this afternoon. Like there was something her father wanted to convey, and it was very important.

"Today, you're coming back to Seoul with me."

"Are you serious, father? Is it safe there?” asked Calistha, furrowing her brows.

She still remembers how terrible Seoul was three years ago, before her father transferred her to Oxford. That night a group of masked men broke into her house and nearly killed her and her father. Fortunately, her father's confidants immediately acted quickly to protect her and her father before bad things could happen to her. But still she was traumatized. Sometimes she can't sleep if her father doesn't contact her in a one day. Even though her father was very, very busy, with a lot of crazy work, but the old man still tried to make time to contact her beautiful daughter. At least that's the only thing he can do to his daughter to show that he really loves his daughter.

"For now it's pretty safe. There I would like to introduce some of my colleagues and show you how my business has been going. Aren't you going to be my heir in the end?”

"Hahh..." Calistha unconsciously exhaled heavily while looking at her father sadly. Talking about her inheritance, property, and future responsibilities always makes Calistha restless. Somehow she never wanted all of that. It seemed too much to spend alone. If she could, she just wanted some of her father's property related to her current major, communications. One day she wanted to develop her father's television station company and make it the only line of business she would focus on.

“Father, can I just own your television station company? I don't think I'll ever be able to run another company because I've always been interested only in communications.”

"As father's daughter you can't just hold one company, you have to lead many of my companies."

"But, I can't." said Caalistha frustrated while ruffling her hair. She was really upset that her rare encounter with her father had to end like this. She should have put it to good use, by taking her father to the movies, or to the London Eyes, as her friends had done five years ago. Well, it was really, really late. But every now and then she wanted to feel what it was like to go out to have fun with her father like a normal child.

“You can definitely do it because you are daddy's daughter. In the past, I couldn't either, felt unable to carry out all the problems left by your grandfather."

Even her own father considered all these responsibilities as a problem. Then what about her? She considered it a disaster!

“Okay, so how long will I stay in Seoul? Is it during summer holiday?”

"I actually plans to take you to stay in Seoul for good."

"What you mean, father?" Calistha asked cluelessly as she leaned closer to her father. This time she really hoped that her father would not make her have to stop studying in the midst of her nearly finished study period.

"You're not going back to Oxford again."

"Then what about my studies?" asked Calistha half shouting. She seemed to have to forget all her sweet dreams about spending a beautiful day with her father, because in reality they ended up like this.

"You don't have to go on anymore. The knowledge you have gained in these three years is more than enough to take control of my company. There is something more important that you must learn. And you can't learn that here."

"What? What else do I have to learn father? I want to live a normal life,” said Calistha half whispered. It felt really tight and painful when she knew that soon her life would turn out to be more terrible than all the lives she had ever felt so far.

“You will find out as soon as you arrive in Seoul. And as for normal life, I'm sorry you'll never get it,Calistha,” said the father firmly before finally leaving Calistha alone with all the sadness raging in her heart.