Immaculate Spirit 69 :

He was going to sit on her bed when he reminded himself that they were being watched and opted to seat on the carpet instead using the bed to prop his back. Fis.h.i.+ng his laptop from his bag, he turned it on. Albeit he was here on false pretenses to protect her and her family, he was always a practical kind of guy and was determined to work on their project.

Seating beside him and firing up her own laptop, she finally decided to speak.

"Where did you learn our etiquette rule?" She asked curiously.

"I looked it up on the internet while we were coming here. I like to be prepared when meeting people." He said absentmindedly, busy looking through his computer.

"It was good thinking on your part. I think my mom likes you, it's the first time that she allowed one of my male cla.s.smates to study with me in my room."

"I think you must have told her already that I am helping you in our cla.s.s so that's why she likes me. She wants to see you succeed and if I can help you achieve that, she will like me."

Looking at him thoughtfully, she wanted to argue that it was not like that because he was not displaying her mother in the best of light but she could not. He was right. Every parent wanted to see their children succeed but in Korea that feeling was magnified. In their culture, if NYung were to failed in her study, it would reflect poorly on her and their status would drop in their circle.

She knew since the first time that she met Nathaniel that he was a smart and mature student but he was still continuously surprising her with his knowledge, or in that case his insight. Knowing the compet.i.tivity of Columbia she knew she was bound to meet smart young people but she had seen how much of an oddity her friend really was, even compared to other young geniuses in their cla.s.s.

Even if he was naturally gifted, he was backing it up with a t.i.tanous amount of work. He had an eagerness to learn and to progress that could only be described by the word inspiring. He was giving no c.r.a.p about rumors or people talking bad behind his back, he was true only to himself and if people didn't like it, it was their problem not his. They had fun while they were together but she could sometimes see him all alone and he seemed to be okay with that. He was cheris.h.i.+ng friends.h.i.+p but did not need it to be happy with his life.

"NYung are you even listening to me? Stop daydreaming, we have work to do!"

"Oh sorry, I am here! I was just thinking about something. What were you saying?" She apologized sheepishly.

Getting to work, NYung began giving her ideas right away. Even if she could not compare to Nathaniel just yet, she was catching up fast and could be considered a genius in her own right. That was fine by him who insisted to work only with her because he did not want to team up with somebody who would just benefit of their work without doing anything.

They were working for almost one hour when he felt his secure phone vibrating in his pocket.

"Do you have water NYung? I'm a little thirsty." Nathaniel asked.

"Of course! Sorry I should have asked."

"Don't worry about it"

Watching her leave, he hastily got his phone out to read the sms that he had received. As he expected, it was Amal with the information he requested. Looking through the files sent about NYung, he could see that a lot of what he extrapolated turned out to be true. The part about her being third time champion in archery was not surprising as she had already told him about that.

Nathaniel found out that she was indeed a fighter. She was a black belt in Hapkido. Hapkido was a martial art created after WW2 and was specialised about self-defense. That form of combat was about explosiveness with the use of powerful kicks and strikes and about control with the use of many chokeholds and use of pressure points to immobilize your opponent. Nathaniel never learned or even fought against someone using that particular form of combat but looking at the description, it sounded quite redoubtable. She also managed to graduate from high school with amazing grades which did not surprised him. Looking through the files on her, he could not understand why people wanted to kill her.

Pa.s.sing to the next files on her family it started to get interesting. Her grandfather was the creator of a huge multinational company who were fabricating pieces for smartphones and computers. The fortune of her family was estimated at around 5 billions dollars. He kept reading until he found something interesting. Her father was the one who was supposed to be replacing her grandfather at the head of the company despite the fact that he was the second born. Her uncle would not inherit the company unless something happened to her father.

You did not need to have a master degree to understand what was going on here. It seemed like the elder brother wanted to lead the company instead of his younger brother. He did not know enough about Korea to say if the fact that the younger son inheriting the company was common or not but nonetheless it did not come without hards.h.i.+p. Feeling someone coming to the room, he hastily put his secure phone away. He now had the information that he needed.

"Nathaniel? Would you like to eat with us tonight?" The mother of NYung asked, with her daughter behind her.

"Of course, It would be my pleasure." He answered with a delighted smile.

"Great, dinner will be ready in fifteen minutes. You will meet my husband, he is curious to get to know you."

"I'm curious to knowing him as well." Nathaniel responded with a glint in his blue sparkling eyes.