The Party (I)

Dressed in a navy suit, Min-soo sat in the back of the car and looked out the window at the countryside. He called it the countryside, but this was only relative to the high level of development in Korea.

He had seen his fill of empty countryside in his past life. Australia was a wide and wild land, although with plenty of dangerous fauna, its beauty was unparalleled.

But Korea had its charms too.

What was once a small, country house on the outskirts of Sejong City, it had been renovated and expanded quite a few times over the years and now the Lee family home looked nothing like its past incarnation.

It took inspiration from its humble origins and expanded upon it. It held a simple, quaint elegance, was the easiest way for Min-soo to describe the Lee family home. It was very different to Min-soo's own home.

Especially the fact that this Lee family actually used the surrounding lands for farming. Growing vegetables and raising cows, in fact the entire estate was self-sustaining. Those that knew nothing about this Lee family would assume they were some wealthy farming family, but that was far from the truth.

Like a shining beacon, the Lee family home sat atop a small hill, whether it was man made or not, Min-soo could not tell. But it clearly accentuated the beauty of the homestead. A small stream ran down the side of the hill in a meandering path, it was a few metres wide and was lit up from beneath with various colourful lights that formed the shapes of different aquatic animals.

It was designed in such a way that only those looking out from their cars as they travelled up the only path to the mansion would get the best view. It was clearly meant to impress and indeed Min-soo was no exception.

For a family that did not particularly like to show off, when they did, it seemed they would pull out all the stops. Lee Ji-eun was clearly very important to the Lee family. If someone was stupid enough to still insult the Lee family after all of this, then they clearly either had a very big sense of ego, or were incredibly stupid. Most likely the latter.

Fortunately, Min-soo had yet to meet these cannon fodder characters straight out of some bad novel. He highly doubted he would do so at such a prestigious event as tonight either. Whether it was his or Ji-eun's Lee family, they were not made up of idiots. Even if they were, it would have long been beaten out of them. Such was the price of wealth and social standing.

As the car came to a stop, Hyun-woo opened the door and Min-soo got out of the car. He straightened up his suit and putting on a charming smile, Min-soo took a good look around him. They were stopped halfway up the hill and the rest of the journey up into the house would require the guests to walk.

It was a peculiar choice, but Min-soo could hear no complaints from the other guests around, after all, the path followed the stream up and it gave an even better and closer view of the light show.

The other guests also noticed his arrival and a few friendly ones gave him a light wave, while a majority who only knew him by name politely nodded. Min-soo returned their greetings and was about to head up the path when he heard someone call out his name.

Turning around, it was someone he had not seen in quite some time. In fact, it was his first time seeing him after arriving in this new world. But the person in question featured quite prominently in his memories.

Kwon Beom-seok, a bona fide genius and mechatronics student at Seoul National University. They were old school mates, from primary school to university, Min-soo had never been able to escape from this guys' academic prowess. Topping every class, every single year, for more than 12 years, the old Min-soo had taken a battering to his confidence and could never really stand the guy.

However, Min-soo now felt the guy was rather harmless, after all, he was not a show-off, except on the odd occasion when you got into an academic debate with him, but that was merely his competitive streak showing. It was a rather minor flaw in the larger scheme of things, if it could even be called a flaw.

The only consolation the old Min-soo had was the fact that he had more money than Beom-seok. This was not because their family was not wealthy, but for the fact that his parents were highly religious. Being the good Christians, they were, they embarked on many philanthropic endeavours, from trying to improve health outcomes to solving drinkable water in developing countries in Asia and Africa.

As a result, Beom-seok was forced to live a frugal life while the money his parents made from their technology company was siphoned off to charity. Some magazines and newspapers would occasionally call them the 'Gates of Korea', likening them to Bill and Melinda Gates.

Min-soo and Beom-seok were never particularly close, in fact, Min-soo had always tried to keep his distance, in part to protect his own ego, but Beok-seok for some unknown reason continuously stuck to Min-soo like a barnacle.

At first, the eight-year-old Min-soo, had done what all those of that age did and bluntly told him to go away and leave him alone. However, Beom-seok had given no heed to it and continued to follow him around school. Eventually Min-soo had become annoyed enough that he finally confronted him and asked him why.

Of course, as an eight-year-old the method was rather crude, and it involved a little pushing and shoving. Beom-seok while sniffing and with a booger hanging from his left nostril simply shouted, "Why can't I?"

Stumped, Min-soo was unsure how to answer and merely hmphed and ran off. Ever since then, he never asked him again and just accepted it. It had become some strange unspoken friendship, for lack of a better word to describe their relationship.

Of course, over the years as they matured and became better at expressing themselves, they were at least less awkward with each other. After all, they had spent so long together, for better or worse.

Min-soo put out his hand for a handshake but unexpectedly he was pulled into a hug by Beom-seok. Min-soo did not think their relationship was that close, but whatever, if it had been anyone else, then Min-soo would have shoved them away long ago.

His personal space was still quite important to him. Surprisingly, Min-soo felt Beom-seok start shaking. Beom-seok was about six or seven centimetres shorter than Min-soo and so his head was buried in Min-soo's chest. To those observing, it appeared rather intimate and a few raised their eyebrows.

Min-soo gave them no heed as he asked Beom-seok, "What's wrong?"

Beom-seok with a few tears on his face looked up in shock, "Who are you? You're not Min-soo."

"What?" Min-soo asked in surprise.

"You're not Min-soo. The Min-soo I know would not ask me that. The Min-soo I know would not have allowed me to hug him for so long. So, who are you?" Beom-seok interrogated.

"What? Come again? Beom-seok are you drunk?" Min-soo asked feigning ignorance.

Seeing that this was not a good place to make a big fuss, Beom-seok with a suspicious gaze, stared into Min-soo's eyes as if he was trying to find something. His brows furrowed further and he shook his head in confusion.

"Hmm. You've changed. But I like this Min-soo better." He finally stated with a smile.

"Yes, I've changed. Not everyone gets out of a coma exactly the same." Min-soo said with a wry smile.

At this point, Beom-seok's eyes widened in shock as he let go of Min-soo and pointed at him, "You? You were the one from the prominent family who fell into a coma as a result of Kang Dong-hyun?"

Upon hearing this, the other guests around gasped in shock too. This was news to them, big news. There had been whispers floating around, but nothing concrete. Min-soo felt no compelling need to hide this, especially now that Beom-seok had guessed it.

"Yeah, sadly Seo-jeon is still in a coma." Min-soo gloomily confirmed.

Another round of gasps from the onlookers. This was even bigger news, not only had the heir to Antares been left comatose but also the much doted upon Princess. Two members of such a prominent family had been rendered comatose by the President's son.

No wonder, the Kang family had been having so much trouble recently. Everyone had been rather surprised at how quickly things seemed to be falling apart for President Kang and it appeared there had been someone pulling the strings behind the scenes. But now it all made sense.