Empire of the Ring

It was a relaxing afternoon, and Youngho was calculating the month's profits.

'Clink!'

'Man, something's breaking again. It must be Leon!'

Young kids would get themselves involved in a lot of troubles and Leon was no different. Worried if Leon might have gotten hurt, Youngho opened the door of his study but it was Zeynep who made the noise.

"What are you doing?"

"Huh? You were in the study? You should've made sounds or something. I broke it because I was trying to get it from where I couldn't reach."

Youngho was blamed for nothing. He regretted opening the study's door. Zeynep had broken Leon's honey jar, now honey was all over the kitchen floor.

"You could've used a chair or something. Are you not hurt?"

"No, can you go to Leon? He's been nagging since he's hungry."

Leon could not stand being hungry and since honey was what usually soothed him, Zeynep was hurriedly trying to get honey for him and made the accident. Since Fatima had left her Leon for the time being, Zeynep was in charge of feeding him.

Youngho hurried and went up to the second floor with a nursing bottle after filling it with warm water. Being hungry, Leon was now throwing a tantrum and struggling.

Leon who sucked on the bottle, soon, threw it away realizing that it was water. As he was about to cry, Zeynep sneaked in the room and quickly put the special honey manufactured for Leon. Usually, honey could be fatal to babies due to the natural bacteria but this was safe for him.

"Injection of tranquilizer, done!"

Zeynep proudly turned around.

"You should give him some food too. You're only giving him honey?"

"Look at him, oppa. He's focused on licking honey around his mouth. This is how I gain time."

It was true. Leon had forgotten about his hunger since he was busy sucking on the honey around his mouth and on his fingers. Zeynep had put some in his mouth and the rest of the honey around his mouth. She was earning time to make him some baby food or milk.

To Youngho, it was an innovative way of feeding a baby.

Thinking that babysitting was not for everyone, Youngho was impressed with how Zeynep was so good taking care of babies. There were no babies on the farm that had not gone through Zeynep's hands.

Leon, who was now full, was making different sounds with his mouth in Zeynep's arms. Since he could now walk and even run and made all sorts of troubles, the best way to keep him out of trouble was to hold him.

He looked at the two for a while and something popped up in his head. He had not told Zeynep yet that his new freighter was named after her.

"You know I've been to America recently."

"Oh, Yeah. You traveled through the Mediterranean and came back to the Black Sea, right? What about that?"

Zeynep had a suspicious look on her face.

"The new freighter's name is Zeynep 1. Usually, girls' names are used for ships."

"Oh, I know. I told you. You could use my name on big ships."

She said it so casually as it was nothing special. Youngho thought that she was letting him go easily.

"Then can I name other ships as Zeynep 2 and Zeynep 3 in the future?"

"Yeah, well. That's fine but you should do me a favor later, okay?"

Youngho did not like that he kept a condition since with her personality, Zeynep would not ask for a small thing.

"What do you want to do that you're not telling me now?"

"It's a secret."

She smiled and left with Leon in her arms, which drove Youngho nuts in curiosity.

Usually, when he was curious, he couldn't even sleep sometimes. It was a kind of torture for him. Besides, it if was related to Zeynep, he had to find out what it was.

***

Choi Sunkil's voice on the phone was extremely excited.

"Mr. Lee! I've got an order. A shipper is willing to request his cargo to us. Since our ship in on the bigger side in the Mediterranean, it worked to our advantage!"

"That's great news. You've done a great job, Mr. Choi."

It was only a short-period contract for six months but this order would be the stepping stone of the business of Arirang Shipping. Choi Sunkil had been putting his efforts to get an order from an Italian shipping company and he had flown to Italy and he finally sealed the deal.

"You're welcome. It's all because of your support. Also, the shipper that put cargo on our ship from New York wanted to sign a regular contract with us. It looks like we won't come back with an empty ship."

"Is that so?"

Last time as they were about to return to Amsterdam, Youngho had delivered an urgent cargo from New York and it seemed the same shipper liked the service. The freighter shipping took only about one more week than air transport but it cost a tenth of the price or air shipping.

The tramp liner's best strength was in its fast shipping. Usually, air transport took about a week and marine transport took about thirty to sixty days. That was why tramp liner which was customized to shipper's requests was a shocking deal.

Choi Sunkil was doing amazing since he did not overlook a chance to get customers by reaching to the previous, one-time customer. It was because he regained his strength. Now, all of his family now gathered in Batumi and lived together. His strength came from his family. If he could show his achievements to his family, he would do anything to satisfy them.

Youngho wanted to use him and take a further step for Arirang Shipping.

The shipping industry was now suffering due to too many ships in the time of bad recession. On top of that, the shipping cost was terribly dropped but the oil price had increased. It was the worst time for shipowners, which meant that it was the perfect timing if one wanted to buy out ships since the ships were sold at such great prices at the moment.

Since he could use shipping finance, he did not have to have a great amount of cash at hand. Youngho would be able to expand Arirang Shipping if he could increase the number of ships he owned now. He decided to discuss the matter with Park Youngsun and Choi Sunkil together.

***

Youngho tried to find out what Zeynep had in mind and inquired to all people who were close to her on the farm but there was no way.

He was worried that her adventurous side might be controlling her drive again. Even Fatima said that she had no idea what her little sister was up to. Since Youngho cared a great deal about his little Zeynep, whom he had raised carefully, it was draining him. However, whether she knew about Youngho's concern or not, she acted as normal and kept spending time with Park Seoyoung, Park Youngsun's daughter, who now became her best friend.

Youngho even assigned more private guards for her, and finally Jongil brought up the issue.

"What's wrong with you these days? You act like someone who wants to go to the bathroom bad. She's fine and she can take care of herself. Leave her alone."

"No, it's not that. I'm sure she's up to something huge. I'm just guarding her because she's about to get herself in trouble."

"Man, you're just sick. I'm sure it's nothing."

Jongil shook his head as he could not bear to watch his friend anymore.

"She wants to ask a favor but it's a secret. Wouldn't you be curious?"

"Dude! Is that why you're obsessed about her? You can just do her a favor when she asks."

"You just don't get her. Would you be saying it's a secret if it was nothing like you said? She's claiming it before she makes trouble because I would say no if I knew about it ahead of time. You should be watching her too. You know she's a wild child."

Jongil clicked his tongue. It was natural since he did not have a daughter. Zeynep was like a precious daughter to Youngho.

Youngho heard someone knocking on the door of his study in the evening time.

There was no one in the house who would knock on his door before coming in. However, he did not have any guests who would visit him at this time. He curiously asked who it was.

As the door was slightly opened, Zeynep came in smiling brightly. Youngho felt as if his heart almost dropped.

Zeynep visiting him at this hour smiling? It was not a good sign.

"Hey, come have a seat."

"Okay, oppa. Did I interrupt your work?"

'Yes, you have. Very much! My heart is racing now.'

"Well, the sun is going to rise from the west since you came in politely and now you're reading my countenance."

"Humph, humph. Hahaha…"

She smiled again.

Now, Youngho's arms were covered with goosebumps. He knew that the time that he had been waiting for had finally come.

"You're here to reveal your secret to me, right?"

Zeynep looked surprised.

"Hehehe…"

Her smile was indeed suspicious.

"Oh, please. Are you going to drain me out? Just say it already."

"In fact…"

For the next twenty minutes as he listened to Zeynep, Youngho got up from his chair several times and sat back down again. It was because he could not possibly calm down.

Although she was making many excuses to convince him, it was something impossible for Youngho to accept.

She wanted to leave Youngho's bosom.

She wanted to go to study design in France. The little girl who only asked for gifts whenever Youngho came back from business trips now wanted independence.

"I don't want to leave you oppa. You're like my father but there's time for studying too. I need your permission. Pretty please?"

Youngho felt like a father who was sending her daughter away to marriage.

If he refused to let her go, she would be furious. He needed to find a happy medium since he could not send her alone. He said that if she could study design at Goethe University in Frankfurt where her aunt and uncle and Szechenyi were for one year, he would give her independence. It was a trick to turn back her mind since her dream changed frequently. Also, she would have to go to college anyway next year. If she stayed with other family members in Frankfurt, Youngho thought that she would be protected.

Since he did not have any connection in France, there was no way for him to watch her. What if she gets in trouble when she was all alone by herself? Youngho could not even imagine that.

Freaked out, Youngho now began his operation to convince her to stay in Baku.

He gave her control of the Cessna airplane unprecedentedly and took her to Arirang Farm in Kazakhstan whenever he traveled to there. He was trying to appeal to her with the fact that the descendants of the Kingdom of Serbia needed her.

His efforts seemed to be successful until the spring arrived.