+ + +

"Can I get you a coffee?"

"I'm fine. No thank you." Kiu said in response.

"Are you sure? A bagel? Cookie? Can I get you anything? It's on me."

Kiu shook his head again. The older man sighed and fumbled with his pocket, fishing out his wallet as they reached the cash register.

Presently, they were at Starbucks — a local coffee shop chain that was infamous for overpriced beverages yet somehow popular nonetheless.

The black-haired high school student waited quietly as his companion completed his order. He was mostly silent. It did not take very long before the man returned with a coffee cup in one hand and a ceramic mug in another. The adult immediately passed the warm mug to Kiu.

"Hot chocolate," he said.

"...Thanks."

+ + +

Soon afterwards, they found a relatively secluded table to sit at.

The older man immediately opened up the conversation.

"Your parents aren't coming?" He asked.

The man kept an upbeat tone of voice, but it felt unnatural to some degree — almost forced. It was extremely subtle, but the man seemed nervous. It sort of made sense, since Kiu figured that the man had some fairly high stakes riding on this conversation. The black-haired boy didn't quite feel the same way, and in fact he wasn't particularly excited to be here today. However, this meeting was professionally obligatory.

"They'll be joining us through teleconference," Kiu replied, taking a sip from his beverage.

It was too hot, and he blew gently at the surface of the mug.

"Should we get started anyways?" The man asked.

"We are still early. The meeting time is 3:00 PM."

"Ah... right."

The adult seemed dispirited by the flat rejection.

Earlier, Kiu had shot down most of the casual banter that the man had attempted to initiate, leaving an awkward amount of silence between the two of them. Of course, Kiu wasn't bothered by silence in the slightest. However, the stranger was clearly unsettled by this tense atmosphere. Despite the fact that Kiu was only seventeen years old, he was a nightmarishly difficult conversationalist to deal with.

"...How has school been for you, lately?" The man struggled to break the stalemate.

"It's been fine," Kiu replied.

There was nothing else said.

The conversation promptly ceased, and the older man wanted to die a little on the inside.

+ + +

Eventually, Kiu's PD¹Personal Device rang, and he connected a three-way conference call. As was typical, his mother was exactly on time. Kiu's father was five minutes late.

"Mr. and Mrs. Lee, thank you for taking the time to join us," the man leaned over on the table and spoke into the PD's hologram.

"Likewise."

"Your son is also with me on this side of the line."

"Vice-Provost Adams, I apologize in advance, but I cannot stay for more than 20 minutes. I have another appointment immediately after this." This was Kiu's father speaking. "Do you think you can wrap this up quickly?"

"Ah yes, of course... of course."

"We would like to extend our apologies that we could not make this meeting in person." Kiu's mother voice was cheerful despite the formality of her speech.

"Yes, it is totally understandable. It is the University's fault for trying to schedule this on such short notice, although we hoped to urgently speak with your son before the admissions cycle closed. You have my sincerest apologies."

The man — Vice-Provost Adams — nodded a few times and pulled open a few folders of files.

"The University Admissions Committee was extremely disappointed when we did not receive an application from your son. In fact, we were shocked. At first, we wondered if there was a mistake."

"Well, if you did not receive an application, then surely my son did not apply." Kiu's mom had a slight teasing voice in her response.

"But... the National University a consortium of 29 top ranked research universities in North America — including Harvard University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and many others. Furthermore, your company has over 6 billion dollars in assets invested in holdings held by the National University. Ignoring the intellectual property, research collaborations, even the endowment alone..."

"Are you asking us to divest from the University?" Kiu's mom joked.

"Of course not! The University is extremely grateful for your continued support."

Vice-Provost Adams hastily attempted to recover from such a horrifying notion.

"If you ask me, I think Ms. Xi and my son should divest," Kiu's father grumbled from the sidelines. "I pulled my assets years ago. In fact, I don't even know why we are having this meeting. It is a waste of my time."

"Dearest Hugh, let us be polite. Vice-Provost Adams has been a staunch ally of our corporation for decades. I — for one — appreciate the relationship."

"We are not married anymore, June, in case you forgot."

Vice-Provost Adams coughed and interrupted the slightly sour exchange that had arisen on the teleconference.

"Let us not get side-tracked. As you both know, I am a man of business, and I was hoping to pursue a negotiation by calling this meeting." He added extra emphasis on the word 'negotiation' to draw everyone's attention. "We have little time remaining for this short informal chat, but the University would like to convey our open willingness to discuss the matter of your son's university application."

"Go on."

"Briefly, what could our University offer to entice your son to apply to our institution? We can provide special accommodations, waive all tuition and fees, course/credit requirements, and even allow for a special arrangement for your son to continue working full time at your company. Our only request is that your son participate in the joint research working group once per week and sign an exclusivity agreement. We can also provide a sizable stipend."

"Six million dollars." Kiu's father tossed out haphazardly.

"Hugh!"

"I'm joking."

"Seriously though," Kiu's mother had an exasperated expression. "I'm not sure why you need us on the phone. Kiu makes his own decisions. You should be directing all of these inquiries to him, not us."

"If only you could help convince your son..."

"I'm against it!" Kiu's father interjected.

"Yes Hugh, we all heard the first time."

"My goodness..."

+ + +

A few minutes and a couple headaches later, the Vice-Provost hung up on the teleconference, and his hands were shaking slightly. Evidently, it had gone rather poorly. Kiu's father ended up shouting and his mother had politely excused herself from any involvement.

Kiu almost felt sorry for him.

"That didn't seem to go very well," he said sympathetically.

"Damn."

Kiu took another sip from his mug, which was now close to empty.

"You're not going to change your answer, are you?" The man asked, almost desperately.

"No." Kiu shook his head. "As I said when we first walked in, I'm not interested."

"Could you tell us why? Maybe there's something we can work with? Anything at all?"

"Sorry."

The older man sighed once more, emotionally defeated.

"This doesn't have something to do with your sister, does it?"

The high-school student paused for a moment and thought carefully about his response.

"Well, you're not wrong. Even my mom — she might look friendly, but out of all of us, I think she's gotten over it the least."

"The University took extensive measures to rectify that issue. I think you know as well as anybody that the University had no role in that incident. However, we have dedicated millions in philanthropy to help address that problem on an international scale. The National University has a close partnership with your family, and the heart-breaking news pained us just as much as it did for you."

"I know it's not the University's fault."

"Still, you should be aware of the fact that attending the National University is objectively best for your future career. You already have eight ongoing collaborations with our faculty. Intellectual property law prevents you from transferring the research funded at our university to a different institution, which means you can't file those patents. That places you at a disadvantage. I would rather see us as collaborators than as competitors."

"My condolences."

"Damn, you're all being irrational."

"I'm sorry. You can pass along the message to Bill that I refused for personal reasons. There are no hard feelings. This isn't a decision that I'm changing."

"Well, I tried my best. Thank you anyways, Kiu."

"You too. Thank you for the hot chocolate. It was good."

"Right..."

 

∎