Chapter 5 - The Set Up

Kwon’s Mansion, Gangnam-gu - 8:06PM

Jiyong and Taeyeon froze at the unexpected statement.

You two have my blessing, and will be married within 6 months.

This was absurd - his mother would never approve of Taeyeon. Not only did she have a career she did not respect, but she had no links to anyone important. Perhaps he was unaware and Taeyeon was in fact related to someone higher up? He casted the thought off in his head - she had already explained her family’s occupation earlier that night.

Jiyong then had an epiphany - his mother didn’t approve of the marriage. She must have sussed out that this was a fake relationship and Taeyeon wasn’t the woman he loved. He had to play along, and beat her at her own game for a chance for his freedom. He would have to make her deny his marriage to Taeyeon to escape her clutches.

“Of course,” affirmed Jiyong, with a forced wide smile plastered on his face. “I’m glad I have your blessing mother to marry the woman I love.”

Taeyeon was rooted to her seat. The last minute had completely bewildered her. She would have to be married to this guy who she had only just met twice? Before she could speak however mother Kwon had stood up.

“I’ll be taking my leave now, an associate of mine is having a charity auction tonight and I’m scheduled to attend,” she stated. The maid closeby led her out of the room, leaving the two young adults behind - the male with his head in his hands on the table whilst the wide-eyed female slowly regained colour in her face.

“What is this? I don’t want to get married to you!” shouted Taeyeon at him, anger seeping through her skin.

“Quiet! She might overhear us,” shushed Jiyong, grabbing Taeyeon’s shoulder to pull her closer towards him, with the other hand against to prevent any further outbursts. “We’ll discuss this in the car.”

The two quickly left the mansion and entered Jiyong’s car again. He started the engine and they passed through the gated entrance.

“So what are you going to do? I’m not getting married to you!” cried Taeyeon. She was livid at the prospect - she was a young woman with many possibilities for love still! Her future would not be taken away from her like this.

“Look, I understand what my mother’s trying to do,” explained Jiyong. “She knows we’re not actually seeing each other but she can’t prove it. The proposal for us to marry is just so I’ll admit that I’m lying to her.”

“So we aren’t getting married then?” questioned Taeyeon nervously.

“No, I told you anyway that marriage is the last of my priorities,” sighed Jiyong. He placed his elbow along the car window, resting his head in his palm. “We just have to keep this up for a bit longer, please Taeyeon.”

She shook her in response, indicating her disagreement. “I can’t do this. It was okay to lie to them for one night but I won’t go any further than this,” refused Taeyeon. “And I certainly don’t want to pretend to be in a relationship with a snobby jerk like you!” Taeyeon saw a look of hurt which flittered across Jiyong’s face and immediately felt bad. She was definitely angry, but she felt guilty because the insult was a bit too much. That thought however quickly changed when Jiyong spoke.

“Look, I just need you to pretend for a while. What do you want from me? I’ll give you anything you want!” he shouted in frustration. He ran his left hand through his tussled hair in an attempt to calm himself. “Tell me what you earn. I’ll add two zeros to the end of it.”

“You can’t buy me with money!” fumed Taeyeon. She would not allow herself to be dragged into this farce any longer. Her self pride was worth way more than whatever Jiyong could pay her, even if it was a very attractive offer. “What would my friends and family think of me if they knew I was in a pretend relationship? They would be so disappointed in me that I allowed myself to be used like that.”

Jiyong gritted his teeth - Taeyeon would be hard to convince. He would have to find another method to motivate her to help him.

Taeyeon then felt a vibration emanating from her handbag.. She reached in to pick it up and saw the caller ID - it was Tiffany. She saw that she had some missed calls that night as well.

“Hey Fany,” answered Taeyeon, placing the phone beside her ear. She shifted her body to face away from Jiyong so he could not hear her conversation.

“Taeyeon! Your mother called me and she said waiting outside our apartment building,” informed TIffany.

“My mum? Are you or Seohyun not at home?” replied Taeyeon, watching the man next to her. He suddenly seemed to perk up as he tried to overhear the phone call . “I’m still on my way back.”

“Seohyun came to pick me up after work and we’re stuck in traffic so we can’t open the door for her. Are you closeby?” explained Tiffany.

Taeyeon sighed upon hearing the news; tonight was not a good night to visit. She felt she had dealt with enough today. Her mother did like to visit without announcing ahead of time. Her reasoning was a relationship between daughter and mother did not need to be so fixed and she should be free to visit the girl she raised for 26 years.  

“I’m on my way back now, we’ll be arriving in…” Taeyeon placed the phone down looking at Jiyong.

“5 minutes. We’re nearly there,” stated Jiyong clearly. His mind was still running through the possibilities of how he could persuade the fair woman beside him.

“5 minutes,” Taeyeon finished. “We’ll be there soon, I’ll call her myself to tell her that.” Taeyeon hung up and started to call her mother.

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Apartment complex, Seodaemun-gu, 8:41PM

The refreshing breeze of the night greeted the two as they stepped out of the fancy white Bentley car. The sounds of businessman again could be heard on the Friday night. The roaring laughter of the drunken men could be detected faintly in the empty street. Pale yellow street lights illuminated the narrow street, the beams of light cutting through the darkness of the night.

Taeyeon held up the skirt of her red dress as she ran towards the door of her apartment complex to find an elderly woman holding a large brown woven bag. The woman’s face lit at the sight of Taeyeon.

“Oh you’re here!” celebrated Taeyeon’s mother, placing the bags down as she gave Taeyeon a wide hug. The two wrapped their arms around each other, enjoying the tight embrace briefly before they separated. “Wow, you look so beautiful tonight. What was the occasion?”

“I missed you mum!” answered Taeyeon joyfully as she reached into her purse to withdraw her keycard. “I was just having dinner with some jer-”

“WIth me,” finished Jiyong joining the two elated woman. He quickly pulled Taeyeon close to him by the waist, intending to show their intimacy towards the mother. “It’s nice to finally meet you mother. I’m Kwon Jiyong, the man who is currently courting your beautiful daughter. It’s obvious now how Taeyeon got so pretty.” Jiyong quickly flashed his killer smile, before moving his head to lightly kiss the startled Taeyeon on her forehead. Her face suddenly creased at the action, staring disapprovingly at Jiyong.  

“Oh my, what a handsome young man!” blushed Taeyeon’s mother. “Taeyeon always hides her dating life from me.” She turned to address her daughter with a stern look on her face.

“Mum! He’s not my bo-” denied Taeyeon hurriedly.

“We’ve been together for a while now but our Taeyeon is too shy to tell people about us,” interrupted Jiyong with a light chuckle. “I wished she would tell more people about us. I want to show our love to everyone, and meet all her friends and family.”

Taeyeon almost choked upon hearing him speak. The sweet words coming out of the charismatic man were astounding her. She took a look at her mother and was about to renounce his previous statements until she saw the e