CHAPTER 9: D-DAY

 

 

D-Day. In the military world it meant the day of an important operation or battle. The most famous being the Normandy invasion during the World War 2. That day, the operation was to step to the enemy’s land. In a way, today was a D-Day for me. Today I would get wed into the enemy’s family and fully step into the den of the big bad wolf. This was the official beginning of my mission. I had waited for this, but then again, I felt terrified in a way. If the mission would end in a failure, I might have to stay in this gang forever, or in the worst scenario, get killed.

It had been a week since I had left the underground tunnels. I had been living in the fancy, luxurious world of the rich for a week, trying to learn the needed etiquette and adjust into these people’s way of living, careful to not expose I was indeed on a mission, as an undercover bride. I did have some mixed feelings, though. I always tried my best not to become attached to anyone – they were, in the end, my enemies and I’d might have to fight them some time later. But the saying does go ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’. So, I had become relatively close with Miyeon and the rest of Myungjun’s unit. Except the groom himself. He had indeed started to act a bit more carefully around me for a few days after I snapped out at him after the dinner with his father. But after taking it easy for a short while, he had started it again. This time, instead of playfully annoying me, his remarks and sighs had become more nasty and vicious, like he genuinely enjoyed being mean to me. I just tried to withstand it, trying to convince to myself that the mission wouldn’t last for too long. I’d see Yikyung at the wedding and she’d probably take some action after that. Hopefully.

I winced at the sound of a blow-dryer. I was sitting on a chair of the same salon that I had got my hair cut and dyed in last week. I had been up since 7am, doing a last-minute check on the wedding dress and my shoes, I had gotten a quick facial and now I was being “pampered” by the hair stylists and makeup artists buzzing around me like bees around a big and smelly, delicious flower. I didn’t really enjoy this but Miyeon had been pressuring me the whole evening the day before, making sure that I’d look perfect on my wedding day. You only get married once, she had said. I couldn’t agree nor disagree since I actually had no clear idea about my future. The thought scared me a little bit. I might stay in this gang for the rest of my life was Myungjun’s wife or I could escape with the help of Yikyung and remarry someone in the future… maybe even Eunwoo. I couldn’t help but to let out a very silent, barely audible chuckle.

I was getting the final touches done as Miyeon stepped into the salon. Her eyes widened as she saw my reflection from the mirror and she smiled while walking up to me.

“Who could have believed the ugly duckling can become a swan?” she asked with a chuckle.

“Pretty much everyone in this world”, I snorted. “I think everybody knows that idiom.”

Miyeon shrugged her shoulders. She was wearing a knee-length pastel pink, short sleeved dress with some lace decorations on the upper part and a long, black overcoat that kept her warm in the breezy February morning. She was classy as ever so it felt almost weird to think I was actually today’s star.

“Alright, miss”, the makeup artist finishing my powder said, flashing me a sweet smile. “You’re all finished.”

I took a deep breath staring at myself from the mirror. My hair was tied up into a cute, braided chignon that had some flower decorations, my makeup was perfectly natural yet still had some visible shades of pink, and the wedding dress seemed to fit me just right. I glanced at the high heels that I had left near to the salon’s door. I had come here in sneakers – they weren’t visible under the dress’ long hem, anyway. I had my doubts whether I could survive the whole day wearing the heels.

“You look worried”, Miyeon said. “Understandable. But don’t worry, Myungjun didn’t seem any better.”

I sighed and turned to look at the girl. “Is he still angry?”

We had gone through one of our daily quarrels in the early morning, but this time Myungjun seemed to be a bit tenser than usually, since he had just told me to shut up and rushed out of the apartment. I hadn’t heard of him since.

“Yes”, Miyeon said. “He was basically boiling with anger when I told him his cheeks looked puffy. But he’ll have to control his anger later, he can’t act up in front of his father. So don’t worry.”

I nodded at her. It was actually relatively nice to have someone to talk to. Without Miyeon I would’ve probably been twice as nervous and worried as I was. Besides, since she kept me busy, I hadn’t had the time to actually get horrified yet.

I heard a quiet beep and glanced at Miyeon who grabbed her phone from her coat’s pocket and flashed a cocky smile at me. “Bin said your drive is arriving in 15 minutes.”

I rolled my eyes and bit my lip. “My last minutes as a free woman.”

“Exactly, so enjoy the freedom”, Miyeon chuckled. “I have to go quickly now, Minhyuk is waiting for me!”

I watched my friend – or at least a friend substitute – head out of the salon and I was left alone. In all my nervousness I managed to do what I had been planning on doing today – to call Eunwoo. To pamper my friend, I decided to make it a video call. I missed seeing him and the unit too.

“Hi, what’s up with the video call – oh.”

Eunwoo’s reaction was priceless. He stared straight into the screen with wide eyes and a surprised expression. I couldn’t help but to chuckle a little bit.

“Wow”, he proceeded to say. “Is it really you, Aeri?”

“It is me”, I replied. “Are the others there too?”

“Yeah, they – “, Eunwoo got to start, getting interrupted as I saw my beloved little sister jumping to the screen. I couldn’t feel happier that moment. My smile was probably wider than ever.

“Unnie!” Chanmi whooped and smiled widely. “I missed you so much!”

“Is it Aeri?” I heard Jinwoo’s familiar voice ask. Soon he and Sanha walked to Eunwoo too, and he had to hold the phone further from himself to fit all 4 into the screen.

“Aeri, you look so beautiful!” Jinwoo stated, clapping his hands. “I guess the other gang hasn’t done anything too bad for you.”

“Nothing too bad? They’ve changed everything about her!” Chanmi threw her opinion in.

“What are you talking about? Noona looks amazing”, Sanha finally opened his mouth and I was almost surprised to hear him talk that brightly. He had been very quiet and reserved last week. “Whoever he is, the groom is lucky.”

I let out an awkward laugh and glanced at Eunwoo, and I could see a quick gleam flashing in his eyes, showing that he was indeed feeling bad behind the smiling face. I wanted to hug him but little could I do through the phone’s screen.

The time flew on wings as I was talking with my unit. If I could’ve ignored the fact that I was just a short time away from getting married, everything would’ve seemed normal, like the marriage contract never existed. Before I could even guess, I saw a familiar, white Mercedes-Benz parking in front of the salon’s glass doors. Letting out a sigh I had to end the call and with shaking hands, I put the phone away and fit the high heels into my feet. They fit perfectly but they didn’t feel right. I took one last glance at my reflection before grabbing my coat and stepping out of the salon. D-Day might have started hours ago, but the actual operation started now.

 

About half an hour later I was walking in circles in a small, luxuriously decorated room that was full of mirrors. Like the room’s designers thought the bride would love to see her reflection, no matter where she looked. Maybe it was true for some brides, but for me it was just stressful. As I finally heard a knock on the door, I was about to gasp from the suspension. I already knew who was behind the door – Mr. Kim, Myungjun’s father, looking friendly as ever. It felt a bit weird he was the one walking me down the aisle but I had no one else to do it, he was the most natural option.

“Good morning, Aeri”, the man greeted me with a warm smile.

I bowed at the him. “Good morning, Mr. Kim.”

“You can call me father from now on”, he stated and ordered his hand at me.

A bit hesitantly I wrapped my hand around his arm and took one last deep breath. I felt the room rotating around me and as the wedding march started playing, the sound echoed in my ears. For a second I thought I would pass out, but luckily I managed to stay on my feet. I probably held onto my father-in-law with a lot of force, but I didn’t care. He probably knew I was horribly nervous.

As we stepped into the big hall I felt my stomach twist and turn. There were a lot of people. Understandable since this was indeed the wedding of the chief’s – or CEO’s, as he liked to call himself – only son, but not only that. It was also the wedding that would unite two gangs together. At least for now…

There were so many lines of long benches that the people were sitting on, and everybody’s eyes were on us, me and my father-in-law. I tried my best to walk with the same pace as him, but I felt like tripping all the time because of the high heels. My feet hurt already. How would I survive the whole day?

My eyes found Myungjun who stood at the altar. He looked manlier in a strange way. It might have been because of the fancy suit he was wearing, or the way his hair was styled upwards instead of the usual slight waves that covered his forehead. But in reality, I knew what made him look manlier – the expression he had on his face. He didn’t look angry anymore, but he was dead serious with a slight wrinkle between his eyebrows. He must’ve been battling with himself deep inside, trying to keep his expression as neutral as possible. Not to show the dislike or the frustration I knew he was feeling. I felt like the wrinkle between his eyebrows withered a little bit as we walked closer to the altar – my appearance must’ve not been that bad, in this case.

I nodded slightly to Mr. Kim as he left me next to Myungjun. I glanced at the boy as he offered his hand for me to take. His look was completely blank. I at least tried to look happy amidst the boiling water of mixed feelings inside me. Myungjun had said it himself last week – since he was the heir of a big company, the media would follow us, and for the public we were actually in love. And now he was the one who was about to ruin the image. I managed to pinch the boy’s arms slightly as we were marching towards the altar.

“Ladies and gentlemen”, the priest’s words echoed all around me as he started speaking. “We have gathered here to unite these two people in marriage. Their decision to marry has not been entered into lightly and today they publicly declare their private devotion to each other…”

I listened to the words in a trance-like condition, denying every word he said in my mind. Private devotion? More like public hatred, at least if Myungjun would have been asked. I started to get immersed to my gloomy thoughts and the priest’s speech just flowed through me, not leaving any memory of it behind.

“Marriage is a sharing of one’s responsibilities, hopes, and future. It takes special effort to grow together, survive hard times, and be loving and unselfish”, the priest’s words continued. I glanced at Myungjun, who, at this point looked just tired. Like he had grown tired of the whole process. In a way, it scared me. After a short silence, the priest turned to look at the boy and raised his chin a little bit. “Kim Myungjun. Do you vow to take Lim Aeri to be your wife, to love and be true to her in both good times and bad, and to have her from this day forward, until death does you apart?”

I noticed myself gulping. I was almost completely sure I saw a trace of hesitation in Myungjun’s eyes. Would he refuse and say no? I knew he was loyal to his father but he could also be very erratic and do unexpected things. It felt almost ironic that for the last week I had been wishing for the wedding to never happen, but now that I was unsure of what Myungjun would say, I was actually very worried. It would have so many negative effects, on both of our gangs. I stared into the boy’s eyes, like I was trying to force him to say yes with mind control.

The boy raised his glance and looked into the priest’s eyes. “I do.”

I felt my heart skip a beat in relief as I heard him speak. In the following seconds I started feeling dizzy again as the priest repeated his words, this time for me. As the room was rotating all around me, as my vision started to get blurry, I heard myself mouthing the life changing words. “I do.”

I was barely in my senses when it was time for us to exchange rings. Myungjun placed the ring on my ring finger very effortlessly and easily, but my hands were shaking and weak so it took me a while to actually put the ring on his finger. I could feel him staring at me, looking a bit judging. Like he was disappointed in my behaviour. Honestly, it made my hazy thoughts clear up a little bit and I almost felt angry. He had no right to be judging me like that, he was the one that had been sulking and snappy for the whole day.

“Before these people I now pronounce you husband and wife”, the priest declared. “You may kiss the bride.”

Now I’d get my revenge for the whole morning’s misery. I was sure Myungjun hadn’t exactly thought about the fact we’d need to share a kiss on our wedding day. I sure had. Earlier I was freaking out about it, worrying about the fact that I’d share my first kiss with a guy I didn’t like at all. But now that I was very pissed off and angry at the boy, it felt like a perfect surprise and punishment for him. Something he couldn’t expect from me.

I raised my other eyebrow at him, staring at him coldly, before grabbing his necktie and pulling him into a kiss. I could hear the wedding guests letting out surprised sounds and some amused laughter. Good. I felt myself smirking against Myungjun’s lips. He sure seemed surprised as he was about to take a step back the moment our lips touched, but he gathered himself quickly and it almost came as a surprise for me that his hands found my waist naturally and he responded to the kiss. To the guests, it probably looked like a quick but sweet, full-of-love kiss. I flashed the boy a quick, poisonous glare as we backed away from each other. It was a message to him, an order to behave the way he should. And he seemed to take the advice, as a wide smile spread on his face and he grabbed my hand as we turned around and walked down from the altar, heading to the doors of the wedding hall.

My feet were hurting from the standing and walking with the crazy heels on, and I realized I was squeezing Myungjun’s hand quite strongly as we stepped out to the freezing February day. There was an enormous, classy limousine waiting for us, with decorations that said “Just married” all over. Myungjun let me enter the car first, and as he sat next to me and shut the door loudly behind him he turned to look at me with wide eyes.

“Are you trying to make my hand fall off?” he asked, still sounding a bit snappy.

“Well you were trying to ruin the wedding”, I grunted. “You didn’t look happy at all.”

He let out a deep sigh and seemed to lose his good posture with it. “I’ve had a bad day. It has nothing to do with you or the wedding.”

I crossed my arms. “Sure. There was media in the wedding hall, right? How is the public going to react to you looking grumpy at your own wedding?”

“You’ll see about that”, he let out a quiet, tired chuckle.

I was slowly getting tired of the fighting so I decided to just let it be and ignore the boy for the car drive. We were headed to the gang’s headquarters, where the actual wedding celebration would be held at. If I was lucky, I’d be able to sneak to the apartment and get some a comfortable pair of shoes. I was already feeling nervous, thinking about the fact Yikung would probably approach me during the party, as risky as it would be. I closed my eyes. I needed the nerves of steel now. The last week hadn’t been exactly comfortable, but comparing to this moment and onwards, it was just children’s play. I side-eyed at my newly pronounced husband. Please don’t find out about my mission. It would be dangerous for both of us.

 

The big hall the wedding celebration was held at was decorated in such a beautiful way I couldn’t have believed for myself to see some day. And to think it was my wedding – as fake as the wedding actually was. There were numerous round tables with numbers, and guests were slowly but surely finding their own seats. There was a red carpet in the middle of the hall, leading to a long table that had seats for three – for the newlyweds and the in-laws, which meant only Myungjun’s father. As we headed to our seats along the red carpet, I could spot Miyeon, Bin and Minhyuk sitting around one of the tables. I couldn’t hold back a wide smile as I saw Bin and Minhyuk motioning at me, implying that I looked good. Then my eyes found the one person that I had, in a way, waited to see, but then again, started to waken the anger inside me. Hwang Yikyung. She was sitting with some other people who I presumed were Myungjun’s father’s close subordinates.

“Is she your previous chief?” Myungjun asked quietly as we walked by the table.

“Yes”, I replied just as silently. “The one who hates me.”

Myungjun chuckled almost inaudibly. I could feel Yikyung’s burning gaze following me as we walked to our table and sat down after greeting Myungjun’s father with a nod. I felt my feet screaming thank you as I sat down and got to rest a little bit. I really needed another shoes.

I have to admit – as beautiful and fancy the hall was, and as sophisticated everything looked, this was by far the slowest, most tiring and the most awkward party I had ever attended. Most of the guests seemed very stiff, they were some businessmen with their partners, and the conversations everybody was having were very boring, and for me – completely gibberish. My eyes were constantly wandering to Yikyung or Miyeon who was busy keeping the boys in control.

At some point it was time for the wedding waltz. I heard the music starting to play in the hall and a spotlight lighted up, marking the area for the dance. I glanced at Myungjun who hadn’t yet really put up with the happy husband act. He looked at me a bit awkwardly as he got up and ordered me his hand. I grabbed it and let him lead me to the dance floor, even though my feet were hurting. Still, I tried my best to keep a smile on my face. As soon as we started dancing, I leaned a bit closer to Myungjun, making him raise his eyebrows in a questioning way.

“Could you smile?” I asked quietly. “You still look horribly stiff.”

I could feel his muscles relax a little bit. “Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for my smile.”

I rolled my eyes and as a wide smile spread on Myungjun’s face, I could finally relax myself. The fight was over. From that moment I kind of knew he’d take his role more seriously. I don’t know how, but I just knew. And I was right. The smile didn’t wither at all. After a short while we were surrounded by dozens of other pairs dancing and I almost felt like a princess in a fairy tale.

After the dance we had to go through so many boring conversations about politics, business, money, and the corporation, but as a counterbalance we got to eat a lot of delicious food. At some point Myungjun disappeared somewhere and for a short, fast moment I was left alone. Then I felt someone place a hand on my shoulder from behind. I immediately knew who it was. I turned around to see my chief, a snake in friendly disguise.

“You seem to enjoy being with the enemy”, Yikyung pointed out with a hint of a laughter in her voice. “You’ve adapted well.”

“I’m just doing my job”, I replied quietly enough so that nobody else could hear.

“Can I trust you?” the woman chuckled. “You like it here, don’t you?”

I sighed. “I’m loyal to my gang.”

“I’m not so sure about that anymore”, she stated, crossing her arms.

I felt offended. She was the one who sent me out of the underground tunnels, made me leave my gang, to marry into an another gang. And now she blamed me for doing my mission well? I started to feel a bit angry but I knew any sign of dislike here would start a fire, everybody would become suspicious. I was supposed to be my previous gang’s heir and the apple of the eye for this woman. Which I totally wasn’t in reality.

“Aeri”, I heard a familiar voice call me from behind.

I had never felt that happy to hear Myungjun’s soft voice. He stepped next to me, placing his other hand to my waist gently. He glanced at Yikyung and bowed at her quickly. “The car is waiting for us.”

I had no idea what he was talking about but I wanted to get away from the woman staring at us with a noticeable fake smile on her face. “Oh, right”, I nodded and turned to look at the woman. “We must be on our way.”

The woman didn’t reply, just nodded at us coolly, and I let myself to be walked away by Myungjun. He didn’t let go of me until we were outside the hall.

“She seemed to be bothering you”, he stated simply.

“Kind of”, I replied, shrugging my shoulders. “But thank you anyway. What care were you talking about?”

“The car to the airport”, he said chuckling a little bit. “We’ll have our mini honeymoon in Jeju.”

Oh. I had completely forgotten about the fact newlyweds usually did have their honeymoon after the wedding. It seemed a little bit weird for us to have, though, since we weren’t actual lovebirds but just slaves of a contract. Well, at least we’d get to relax a bit.

“But”, I suddenly said. “I haven’t packed anything.”

“Do you think I have?” he asked. “This was a surprise gift from dad. I guess there will be some clothes and necessities there.”

I pouted a little bit but the fact that I’d get a nice little holiday was honestly so overwhelming I couldn’t complain. We were about to head out of the building as we heard Myungjun’s father calling for us.

“Are you leaving already?” he asked with a smile on his face.

“The flight leaves at 7pm”, Myungjun replied. “It takes a while to get there.”

The man nodded and turned to look at me. “Aeri. You look absolutely beautiful today. I hope you’ll have a nice honeymoon.”

I nodded. “Thank you, Mr. Kim.”

“I told you to just call me father!” the man chuckled. “I hope you’ll start doing that once you return.”

I smiled at him before Myungjun helped me wear my coat, and we said quick goodbyes to my father-in-law before heading out of the building.

 

After two hours of sitting in the taxi, then an hour of waiting in the airport, and finally after an hour of sitting in the airplane, we finally arrived at Jeju International Airport, from where we took a taxi to the hotel we were going to stay at. When we got up from the taxi, I was already so exhausted I could’ve just sleepwalked into the suite. The hotel was quite big, and from what I saw, it also looked pretty high-end. Just the type of hotel I had imagined us to live in, just the type of Myungjun’s father’s.

As we stepped out of the elevator in the 9^th floor, I kicked the heels off my feet. I’d had enough of walking with them on my feet, I was feeling so sore from standing and being on move for the whole day. As Myungjun placed the key card against the door’s lock, I was about to just rush in and go lay in the bed, and I was in such rush I let out a surprised yelp as I felt Myungjun’s arms wrapping around my waist and then suddenly he was carrying me in the old-fashioned, bridal style I had only seen in movies. I stared at the boy in shock and had my doubts as he, with a wide smirk on his face, carried me into the room.

“What are you doing?” I asked, raising my other eyebrow stalely.

His smirk just widened once got into the room and closed the door behind him. He took a few more steps before letting out a playful chuckle and dropping me to the ground. He started laughing and must’ve thought he for once got me, but once he looked down at me and noticed I was pulling a wry mouth and actually held my knee with both of my hands, he seemed to immediately regret his doings.

“Are you alright?” he asked hastily, quickly kneeling down next to me. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

I glared at him and let out a groan before placing a powerful punch on the boy’s chest and then actually getting some words out of my mouth. “Well, you did.”

“I feel the pain now too…” he sighed. “Let me help you.”

He wrapped my arm around his shoulder and held my waist with his other hand, helping me get up and leading me towards the king size bed. As he helped me sit down the fact actually hit me. There was only one bed. I glanced around in the room for a while and Myungjun seemed to notice my worries. He smirked and kneeled in front of me.

“I’ll let you decide”, he said with a soft voice. “You can either sleep on the floor, or on the bed with me…”

“Well…” I replied, trying to make my voice as velvety as his. I leaned closer to him and grabbed his necktie the same way I had at the wedding. I leaned in even closer before smiling. “Do you want to get beaten up? Now shut up and get me something cold.”

Myungjun chuckled as he got up. “I will, wait a minute.”

While he was searching for something cold to put on my hurt knee, I rolled up the dress’ hem enough to see if there were any visible signs – there wasn’t, luckily, but I was sure there’d be a huge bruise by tomorrow. I sighed and shook my head. All for Myungjun’s entertainment.

 

A little bit later, I had managed to cool down the pain on my knee with an ice cold Pepsi can and found a pyjama to wear from the suite’s closet. I was sitting on the edge of the bed, scrolling through my phone. Myungjun had said he’d be enough of a gentleman to let me have the bed, and he had taken a pillow and a blanket with him to sleep on the sofa in the living room/kitchen combo the suite had. I glanced at the clock. It was already 11pm, and taking into consideration I had woken up before 7am, I felt exhausted. I sighed and fell on my back on the bed. It was super comfortable and I could feel myself sinking into the mattress like it was a cloud.

“Hey”, I heard Myungjun’s voice from the bedroom’s door. I got up enough to glance at him. “I’m really sorry about your knee.”

I shook my head. “It happened already, no can do. Let’s just forget about it.”

“Alright then”, he replied, nodding at me. “Well, good night.”

“Night!” I wished him and as he disappeared into the other room, I crawled under the blanket to feel warm and cosy. I stared at the ceiling. Today had been a rough day, but not even close as rough as I had thought it’d be. I had managed to end me and Myungjun’s fights at least for now, I had survived the wedding and the horrible party after it… I had done pretty well. I couldn’t help but to smile at myself. Who could have known I’d feel this satisfied after the wedding that was for an arranged marriage?

I drifted off to the dreamland very quickly and comfortably. For the first time in a while, I didn’t get lost and see nightmares.