“Kim Jongdae. Nice to meet you too, Baekhyun-ssi.”

When Jongdae just stands still there, Baekhyun tilts his head, “you can… sit,” Baekhyun says and points to Jongdae’s chair across him.

Jongdae smiles, “I’m sorry, Baekhyun-ssi. I’ll just make a phone call first.”

Baekhyun nods and leans back to his chair.

After he’s outside the restaurant, Jongdae pulls out his phone and call his secretary. “Chanyeol? Where are you?”

“I’m still at office. Just done with my works. Are you going back to office?”

“No, I just need you to check something for me. There’s a file my mom sent me this afternoon on my desk, can you look for it now?” Jongdae bites his lips; he’s a bit worried because of his bad feeling.

“Oh, sure. Wait.” Jongdae hears some rustles from the other line before he can hear Chanyeol’s excited voice again. “I found it. Are they… the candidates? For your blind date partners?”

Jongdae is silent for a while before he answers his secretary. “Yeah.”

“Oh,” Jongdae closes his eyes when he hears Chanyeol’s excited voice falters. “There’s one man and two women here.”

“Really?” It’s a bit shocking to Jongdae. “Why would mom set me up with a man?” he voices out his thought. He remembers it very well that all candidates for Joonmyun hyung are girls.

“My thought rather… why would your mom set you up with the girls? She knows you’re gay.” Chanyeol says matter-of-factly.

Jongdae sighs, everyone in his family knows he’s gay but that doesn’t mean his family would freely permit him to marry a man. “That’s because we need some new generation, Chanyeol-ah. Offsprings. Who’s the man? Is it Byun Baehyun?”

“It’s Byun Baekhyun. And the other two are Krystal Jung and Kim Namjoo. Wait, aren’t you supposed to meet him?”

“Yeah, whatever. I’ll call you again later.” With that Jongdae hangs up his phone call and walks back to his table.

.::.

Jongdae wipes his mouth with napkin. “I’m sorry. For making it seems like a business dinner instead of a date.” During the meal they mostly talk about business, world issues, or weather even though Jongdae honestly won’t mind if they talk about themselves. But Jongdae also won’t admit that Baekhyun is a nice person to chat with. “And I also want to apologize if I’m being rude or impolite, but I think I need to know something. What— where do you think this would lead to?” Seeing Baekhyun who doesn’t seem to catch what he said, Jongdae tries to use his hand to point himself and Baekhyun. “Our relationship? Is it just one date or are we…” Jongdae hesitates, “going to another level?”

“Like marriage?” When Baekhyun sees Jongdae slowly nods, he shrugs. “That’s what our parents want. I don’t mind though.” Baekhyun then grins, “Jongdae-ssi, how about we do the Q&A session? I heard some rumors about you.”

Jongdae smirks and crosses his arms over his chest, “so eager to get to know me, Baekhyun-ssi?”

“Well, we’re on blind date, so why not?” Baekhyun extends his hand to Jongdae for him to ask first.

“You said earlier that you don’t mind with this arranged marriage thing. May I know the reason?”

“I have no reason to not agree to this. We know, for people like us marriage isn’t about love anymore. And you’re a Shinha, after all. Who would refuse it?” Baekhyun shrugs, face showing cold expression.

Jongdae stares intensely at the man in front of him, who quickly avoids his eye contact. Baekhyun looks cold but Jongdae can see right away that it’s only his mask. “Would that be your question?”

“No.” Baekhyun takes something from his bag and shows Jongdae a bundle of paper along with Jongdae’s postcard-sized photo that is clipped to it. “I read your profile and your preference is also written here, by the way.” Baekhyun points at the paper. “But that’s not my question. I’m curious about your school. We were at the same junior high school, but then you move to public school for high school. You even enrolled in local university. Why did you do that?”

“Such a private question already.” Jongdae usually doesn’t like to talk about this topic with a stranger, moreover with a person from the same social status as him. But this time Jongdae will just answer it just so he can get over this blind date things. “I want to know the life of people who weren’t born in the family like mine. I want to know how they live their lives. And I want to see if I could have friend,” Jongdae pauses and once again smirks while staring at Baekhyun’s eyes. “I want to see how they see me for  who I am, not for who my family is.”

Baekhyun huffs his cheek. “But it’s not my fault that I know who your family is, that our parents set us up on this date.”

Jongdae chuckles, “I didn’t say it’s your fault. I wasn’t even talking about you but why did you feel so offended?”

Baekhyun groans, “It’s not your turn to ask. Wait, it’s your turn. Okay, I’ll answer, I’m not offended.” Seeing Jongdae who stifles laughs happily, Baekhyun just blinks his eyes at the sight he beholds. He clears his throat and Jongdae tries to stop his laugh, “It’s my turn. There’s a rumor saying you sell drugs in Hongdae. Is that true?”

“I do not.” Jongdae replies after he calms down.

Baekhyun furrows his eyebrows. “That’s it? You will not explain your answer?”

Jongdae sighs, “I used to play around Hongdae a lot, at a bar named Drugs.”

“Woah, I thought you went Seouldae? Why Hongdae?”

“You asked too much.” Jongdae checks his wrist watch. “I need to go now. See you later, Byun Baekhyun-ssi.” Jongdae stands up and leaves Baekhyun who gapes at him in disbelieve.

.::.

Jongdae stands in front of an apartment door. His hand reach the lock, hesitating to punch the codes even though he remembers the pass code very well. After a whole minute of having mind battle, he decides to unlock the door. The smell of familiar kimchi jjigae immediately fills his nostril and it makes Jongdae automatically walks to the kitchen.

“Kimchi jjigae?”

“Yeah,” the man in the kitchen answers without turning around, like it’s a common thing having Jongdae around in his apartment.

“I bring tteokbokki.” Jongdae raises his right hand when the man turns to him, showing a bag of tteokbokki then raises his left hand with a pack of beer. “And beer.”

Jongdae puts the tteokbokki and beers in the kitchen table. “I also want to discuss about the candidates.”

“Seriously? You want to discuss about your marriage with your secretary?”

“You’re my best friend too, Chanyeol-ah,” Jongdae pouts. “And it’s past office hour.”

Chanyeol only chuckles. He serves the kimchi jjigae then rests his palm on the table, leaning closer to Jongdae. “So, how’s the date?” He then notice the paper on the table. “Did you go back to office to take this?”

Jongdae walks to the sink and washes his hands. “Yeah, I did.” He takes two pairs of spoon and chopstick, gives each to Chanyeol. “The date was… well, I didn’t make any accident?”

“Will you meet the other two?” Chanyeol asks while pouring the tteokbokki to a clean plate.

“I don’t understand why mom choose Soojung. She’s like a dongsaeng to me; it feels weird because we grow up together.”

Chanyeol opens a can of beer and puts it near Jongdae; he opens another one and drinks it himself. “What about Kim Namjoo?”

“I know Namjoo and her family. They are kind and Namjoo is a sweet and innocent girl.” Jongdae bites his lower lip. “I don’t think it’s right to choose her, I’d just end up hurting her.”

“Just like how Joonmyun hyung ended his engagement?” Chanyeol asks solemnly.

Jongdae nods. “Hyung didn’t know about his preference back then. He barely thought about love and ual preference all his life. Not until he met Sehun. That’s why, when Joonmyun hyung knew he prefers man he asked Irene noona to cancel their engagement, he didn’t want to hurt her.”

“Then what about Baekhyun?”

“He’s in this for business.” Jongdae shrugs. “Honestly, I also think the marriage is for the business.”

Chanyeol examines all the profile’s candidates. “Hmm, if you want to choose based on the business that will advantage you the most then…” Chanyeol slides Krystal’s profile, then Baekhyun’s profile, and the last Namjoo’s profile in front of Jongdae who sits across him.

Jongdae chuckles. They both know that the Jung family business is one of the biggest in South Korea. Not as big as the Bae (Irene Bae) and the Kim (Shinha) but definitely much bigger than the Byun. “If we want to rank them by their willingness, probably…” Jongdae moves Krystal’s profile to Namjoo’s side. “Baekhyun, Namjoo, then Soojungie. I bet Soojung wouldn’t want to do this.”

“If you want to choose based on your preference, then…” Chanyeol takes the two girls’ profile, “only Baekhyun.”

Jongdae purses his lips. But before Jongdae can speak his protest, Chanyeol extends his hand which holds the spoon, “if,” Chanyeol makes sure Jongdae gets the word he emphasizes, “you want to choose someone who you would likely fall in love with,” Chanyeol taps Baekhyun’s photo twice, “you should choose this person.”

Jongdae groans. “It’s about business, Chanyeol. Business.” When Chanyeol’s response is only his soft chuckles, Jongdae ignores him and fishes out his phone. “I’m going to call Soojung.”

There are some missed calls from Soojung, so he assumes that Soojung already got the news about this arranged marriage. He immediately calls her and she picks up after only a few beeps with a loud screeching “Yah!”

“Hello, Princess. Why did you ‘yah’ me? I’m your beloved oppa.” Jongdae smiles, Soojung is like his younger sister. Since he doesn’t have any sister, so he thinks Soojung as his younger sister.

“I couldn’t reach you. Why didn’t you pick up your phone?” Soojung whines.

“I’m busy, Soojung-ah.”

“I heard the news over the dinner. What is it? I’m going to marry you?” Soojung asks in disbelief.

“Hey, calm down a bit. I have two other choices.”

“Really? Oh, thank God!” she exclaims in English.

“You don’t want this, right?”

“Of course! Uh, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to reject you, oppa. But imagine it, it will be weird, isn’t it? So can you please talk to my mom about this, please?”

Jongdae chuckles, “okay, don’t worry about that.”

After he hangs up the phone, Jongdae goes to the guest room in Chanyeol’s apartment to change his clothes. Since Chanyeol’s apartment is like the second home for Jongdae, he leaves a lot of his things there. That night the two best friends are having movie night just like the night they always spend together.

.::.

Exactly a week after the blind date, Byun Baekhyun shows up in Jongdae’s office when the latter is having a Skype meeting.

“Oh, Yixing-ge. Do you mind if I call you again later? I have an urgent matter right now.” Jongdae says in his perfect Chinese.

“Don’t worry. I think I’ll visit you in Seoul next month.” Yixing smiles and waves his hand over the web cam.

Jongdae glares at Baekhyun who already sits and crosses his leg in the sofa in his office. Baekhyun smiles –too sweetly for his liking– at him and Jongdae just rolls his eyes. “Why didn’t you call me earlier that you’d come instead of barging into my office while I was in a meeting?” Jongdae sighs, “why did Chanyeol even let you in?”

“Because if I ask you to meet me, I’m afraid you’d not come and I don’t want you to leave me like before. And, I told Chanyeol-ssi that I’m your future husband,”

Jongdae’s eyes widens. “What??”

“Oh, I said that I was willing to wait while you’re in a meeting but I want to wait inside your office.”

Jongdae rolls his eyes, “yeah, whatever. So, what brings you here?”

“My mom said the date is already set.” Baekhyun lets out a soft laugh, “it was like a dream date, my mom said. They, I meant our mothers, really want us to get married.”

“What date?”

Baekhyun blinks, “Marriage date. Mom also told me that you rejected the other candidates.”

Jongdae nods. “So?”

“So…” Baekhyun pulls out a bundle of paper. “I prepared this for us.” He passes the papers to Jongdae.

Jongdae furrows his eyebrows. “Marriage contract? Whoa, you’re well-prepared, huh.” He says flatly.

“Of course.”

Jongdae scans the contract and hums in approval. “I’ll read it later. But I think you forget to add one important thing here.”

“What’s that?”

Jongdae looks up and stares at a confused Baekhyun. “Something like ‘mind your own business’?”

“Aren’t we going to do business?” Baekhyun smirks, that’s enough to make Jongdae feels annoyed at him. And Jongdae usually isn’t one who easily gets annoyed.

Jongdae sighs because he knows Baekhyun understands his words. “Your own stuff, your own problem. I don’t think we should get involved into each other’s problem. And also about privacy. Can you take care of that?” Jongdae taps his finger on the contract.

“Sure.” Baekhyun grins. When Jongdae gets up from his seat, Baekhyun immediately follows him. “Do you think we can have lunch together?”

“No.” Jongdae quickly answer. He puts the contract on his table and brings the other document with him.

“Why not? You’re not going to have lunch?”

Jongdae turns around to face Baekhyun. “I’m going to have a lunch meeting with an important client.”

“Okay, we’re heading out together. You’re so not going to leave me behind again.”

Jongdae rolls his eyes. “Whatever.”

.::.

It’s a nice Friday morning when his mom knocks his room. Jongdae is fixing his tie; he’s getting ready to work.

“Let me fix it for you,” his mom says when she sees Jongdae is struggling with his tie. “I heard a good news from Mrs. Byun,” she pats her son’s shoulder when she’s done with his tie.

“So fast.” Jongdae tries not to let out his sarcasm in front of his mom.

“You know, I just want to make you happy, Jongdae-ya. And I believe you’ll be having a happy life with Baekhyun,” she smiles.

Jongdae smiles; he knows that his mother always want the best for her sons. He loves his mom, really. “Thanks, Eomma. I know you always choose the best for me.”

“So,” Mrs. Kim tries to stop smiling, “I also heard that you’ll go to a date with Baekhyun tomorrow?”

“Eh??” Jongdae doesn’t remember anything about the date for tomorrow. He is quite sure that Baekhyun didn’t even bring up about the date when he barged into his office last week.

“Why are you that surprised?”

Since he doesn’t want to disappoint his mother, Jongdae nods, “ohh the date… right… I think…”

“Aigoo, don’t forget about your date or he will be sad.”

“Yeah mom.”

.::.

When Jongdae gets out of his car and walks to the lobby of his office building, Baekhyun calls him. “So you will pick me up tomorrow 11 am, right?” Jongdae hears from the other line.

“Hello to you too, Baekhyun-ssi,” Jongdae tries not to let his anger out. Byun Baekhyun already told his and Jongdae’s family about them getting married when Jongdae hasn’t even said any word of agreement. It’s true that Jongdae has told his mother that he wouldn’t choose the girls. Baekhyun also  has come to him with a marriage contract but that doesn’t mean that Jongdae would choose Baekhyun. He hasn’t sign anything in that marriage contract. Jongdae sighs inwardly and decides to just ignore Baekhyun doing as he wants.

Baekhyun chuckles, “we should at least convince our parents that we’re serious for this. So you’re coming tomorrow, right?”

Jongdae grits his teeth. “You can’t just make a decision and expect me to go along with all your plans.” He pushes the elevator button a little bit too hard.

“I just make things easier for you, Kim Jongdae-ssi. I know you’re a busy man. So, that’s why I came to you with the contract ready, well, almost. And I told our parents about us also I said that we’re going to have a date this weekend. Yeah, I’m sorry I forgot to tell you beforehand but I guess you already heard everything from your mother this morning.”

“But did I ever say—” Jongdae stops; he suddenly realizes that he’s quite loud in the elevator with some of his employees there. “Did I ever say yes to this… deal?” he speaks with a hushed tone now and calmer this time.

“Are you going to say no?”

Jongdae pauses for a little while to do quick thinking and let his employees walk out of the elevator and leaves him behind since his office is in the top floor of the building. It’s not that Jongdae doesn’t have other choices; maybe he can come up with other solutions but Jongdae has already prepared this consequence once he accepted the offer to take the position. He would accept his mom’s choice for his partner. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow at 11.”

missmun's (long) notes: so, Seouldae is Seoul National University (Jongdae's uni) and Hongdae is Hongik University? and also Hongdae means a popular area around Hongik Uni, ...uh, maybe? I've never been to South Korea. there will be more explanation about Jongdae in Hongdae in next chapter.

also, i want to confirm, Baekhyun is bottom here and the story is focused on ChenBaek for now, to those who expect more SeHo, i probably will write about them separately.

and i'm so sorry i was away for a while, i was kinda distracted by... another fandom, not a k-pop though, it's uh... marvel :D hope you enjoy this chapter, and happy holiday!