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Lee Yoon Sung always kept careful control over his emotions.
After all, his entire childhood had been spent with a violent alcoholic to whom emotions equaled weakness and, therefore, required punishment. Unfortunately, those punishments became even more severe after his mother had seized her opportunity to escape the situation – even when it meant leaving her young son behind to take her share of the abuse, as well as his own.
Therefore, Yoon Sung learned to hide his feelings well in order to escape the increasingly severe beatings that would happen during that terrible time.
Fortunately, training in the martial arts helped him to keep his physical and mental balance, even in such an unhealthy situation. Thankfully, it was also the one activity that his father approved of - even encouraged - as manly enough.
“Good!” the man actually grunted as he sat in front of the television and held his everpresent bottle when the young Yoon Sung had worked up enough courage to ask him about lessons. “Finally something worthwhile from you. Go on, then. Learn to fight. If we’re lucky enough, maybe it will even wipe away the influences of that pathetic weak woman who gave birth to you. You might actually become a real man someday. Don’t expect me to pay for it, though. Figure it out yourself!”
It was the most his father had ever said to him that the boy could remember.
He did not really care, though. After all, Yoon Sung had already learned the harsh lesson that the less his father paid attention to him, the better. The most important thing was that he now had permission and was allowed to train as much as he liked - as long as he could pay for the lessons himself.
Unfortunately, that was also quite the problem since the boy did not have any money or anything valuable of his own. In fact, his father was almost always too lost in his drink to think about the needs of his only child. Therefore, Yoon Sung was too skinny because he never got enough to eat and the hand-me-down clothes that he received from the kind neighbors never correctly fit his lanky form.
Sometimes, he was able to run errands and do odd jobs for the people in the neighborhood, though, in exchange for meals or small amounts of money. That way he was at least able to eat and buy a few of the things he needed.
Of course, on the rare occasions whenever his father was actually sober enough to notice that the neighbors were paying attention to their situation, Yoon Sung had to pay the price in a different way. It was always the kind of way that left bruises, too. Yoon Sung never cried, though. After all, he had learned that his treatment would only be worse if he did.
Fortunately, however, the Master of the local dojo was also a kind man, and he was soon able to figure out Yoon Sung’s difficult situation for himself. After all, it was impossible not to see the threadbare clothing, hungry eyes, and visible bruises. Despite all that, however, he could also see the passion in the boy who always seemed to be looking wistfully at his classes through the window. Therefore, one day, he invited him in.
“Are you willing to work hard and train even harder?” he asked him.
“Yes, Sir!”
When the boy eagerly agreed to the conditions, the Master hired him to work around the dojo in exchange for tuition.
Consequently, Yoon Sung pushed himself, both at his job and his training, and quickly rose through the ranks in order to eventually become an assistant instructor in the dojo himself.
An unexpected, but extremely welcome, benefit to his training was that Yoon Sung was soon able to protect himself against his father’s drunken assaults.
“After everything I’ve done for you. This is how you dare to treat me! Where is the respect for your elders? Stay out of my sight, you ungrateful brat!” The man had wheezed breathlessly on the last occasion when his son had been able to hold him at bay, almost effortlessly, after the man had insisted he give him money for another bottle and then attacked him when he refused.
In fact, once the elder Lee realized that he could no longer physically control the boy, he chose to ignore Yoon Sung completely. After that, the young man became a ghost in his own home. All in all, even though it was a depressing situation, Yoon Sung realized that was far more preferable than the alternative of how he had been treated in the past.
When Yoon Sung was in his last year of high school, his father finally succeeded in drinking himself to death. Since he had left nothing behind to support his teenage son, not even a home, Yoon Sung had to rely on his hard won skill set to continue to teach and earn the money that he needed to survive. His Master, who had become genuinely fond of the industrious young man, took pity on him and offered him the use of a small storage room at the dojo where he could stay until he finished his schooling.
Fortunately, it was also Yoon Sung’s persistence and martial arts skills that brought him to the attention of Chairman Yang in the first place.
After all, his Master and Chairman Yang had been in military service at the same time together and assigned to the same unit. Even as a young man, Yang had liked to maintain rank and social status. However, he made a rare exception for the man who had once saved his life from an accident on the training fields. In fact, his gratitude and their friendship, continued through the rest of their adult lives - despite the Chairman’s usual class prejudices.
Eventually Chairman Yang found himself in need of a suitable candidate to join his closest circle and become his right-hand man. He needed someone dependable and loyal who could fill all of the roles that such a position required: secretary, bodyguard, and trusted confidante. He had initially hoped that one of his grandsons would be right for the position - and thus could also be groomed with all of the necessary knowledge and skills in place in order to step up and take over the Haneul Group when the time came.
However, he soon found that situation to be completely hopeless and was forced to look elsewhere.
When he complained about the matter to his old friend, and asked for advice, the dojo Master already had the perfect candidate at hand: Lee Yoon Sung. When the Chairman finally met the quietly controlled young man for himself, he was also duly impressed. Therefore, he offered him the position and to sponsor him at University in the meantime. Of course, however, he had to pass a series of tests and trials first.
“Let’s see if you have what it takes to succeed,” the Chairman prompted.
"I do!" Yoon Sung promised - and he did.
In fact, he passed the Chairman's tests easily. After all, his entire life had been the perfect kind of training for just such an opportunity.
Yoon Sung had finished his education and been well established as Chairman Yang’s dedicated assistant for a couple of years by the time his employer had decided to marry for the third time. Consequently, he was present at the wedding when the Chairman’s oldest, but extremely immature playboy of a grandson, was physically brought to his knees and made to apologize for his outlandish behavior by the mere slip of a girl he had introduced as his fiancée.
In fact, it was at such a surprising sight that for the first time in years, Yoon Sung felt his carefully controlled emotions begin to slip.
After all, he could not help but to be impressed when it became clear that the young woman had been well-trained. However, he still had his keen teacher’s eye and could also see that even though her moves were strong, her technique was a bit stiff - as if she had not kept up with that part of her education. He wondered why that was and knew that there must be a story there - especially she seemed to be such a natural at the arts, otherwise.
Even more importantly, he also could not help but to wonder why someone like her would be with someone like Kang Hyun Min in the first place - especially since she obviously disapproved of his behavior. After all, that was the kind of person he was. In fact, his current stunt was not particularly surprising - except for the fact that nobody knew who the woman was. Plus, even though Yoon Sung had noticed immediately that she was quite pretty, the young woman was still obviously not the man’s usual model and society type. That bothered Yoon Sung - for some reason that he could not immediately identify - quite probably because it had been a very long time since he had let anything bother him in any kind of emotional way.
Instead, he always dealt with any issues that arose in a rational, logical, and forward manner.
Regardless, Yoon Sung still felt uneasy about the particular situation that unfurled right in front of him.
After all, for as long as Yoon Sung had known the man who was so close to his own age, Hyun Min had been given an impressive monetary allowance while he also lived in luxury and leisure at Hanuel House, drove expensive sport cars, and entertained many beautiful women.
Nevertheless, Yoon Sung, who had always had to struggle for everything himself, had never been jealous of the man or wanted anything that he had. Envy was simply an emotion he had not allowed himself to feel.
At least, not until that moment when he had seen the unforgettable fiancée take down the spoiled young man so effortlessly.
In fact, for the first time, Yoon Sung actually felt the kind of interest stir within him that he had never given himself permission to feel before - mainly because his life had been hard enough without bringing another person into such difficulty just to suffer with him. Therefore, he had never allowed himself to do so.
Consequently, he found with that new unexpected spark of interest that he actually looked forward to what he logically assumed would be the Chairman’s next assignment for him. After all, he knew that the older man would definitely ask him to investigate and find out everything he could about the unknown girl in question and her supposed relationship to his grandson - especially since the Chairman had very strict expectations about the future of his family.
Since Yoon Sung could not wait to know more about the fascinating young woman himself, he wanted to begin his research immediately. In fact, he really wanted to know where she had gone when she left with Hyun Min.
Does she have a family of her own? Or is she spending the night with him? he could not help but to wonder.
Nevertheless, despite his surprising feeling of discontent at that last thought, Yoon Sung knew that the matter would have to wait. After all, he had to attend to the Chairman’s needs first - before the man left for a short honeymoon with his new bride. That was what he had been hired to do, and he simply owed his employer too much for it to be otherwise.
Therefore, he clamped down on those surprising emotions again while he reluctantly let the mysterious young woman go. After all, he knew her absence would only be temporary...in one way or the other.
Despite his best efforts at trying to remain disinterested, however, he still had to admit that she would remain foremost in his thoughts until he saw her again.