Not For Sale
Description
Arranged marriages are far from unheard of. They can be found in movies, books, shows. A couple in a Baroque portrait? Their relationship was probably conjured up by both parties' relatives, and they either fell in love out of condition or didn't at all. Right, arranged marriages were plentiful back in the 1700s and earlier around the world.
They exist in fiction and the past. (And some present-day cultures, of course.)
But in modern Korean society? To say that would be a bit of a stretch.
Yet here we are, living together in a penthouse just for the two of us. What did our parents call it? "An opportunity to bond with each other in order to substantiate the final decision as to whether or not this engagement will go through." In less bureaucratic words, it's a marriage trial run. We're both hellbent on failing it.
So hellbent that we will completely disregard the little "what if" question floating idly in our minds as we get to know each other and "bond". It has to happen naturally if we're cohabiting for six months, after all—bonding, that is. So by the end of this, the best we can hope for is friendship. No tentative break-ups or public scrutiny (because, of course, one-half of the engaged couple just happens to be a cuffed up guy at the top of the social pyramid) are foreseen in the best case scenario. Because the best case scenario is that we don't get married, which also means that our parents can't see an amicable relationship between the two of us, which also means that friendship probably shouldn't occur either. So the best we can hope for is...
Foreword
Arranged marriages are far from unheard of. They can be found in movies, books, shows. A couple in a Baroque portrait? Their relationship was probably conjured up by both parties' relatives, and they either fell in love out of condition or didn't at all. Right, arranged marriages were plentiful back in the 1700s and earlier around the world.
They exist in fiction and the past. (And some present-day cultures, of course.)
But in modern Korean society? To say that would be a bit of a stretch.
Yet here we are, sitting in front of each other with tense postures, tense air, in a tense situation. There's no eye contact between us, let alone conversation, but we still remain deaf to the words exchanged by our avaricious parents. Yes, avaricious is the right word to describe them. Avaricious and conspiring.
Their avarice and conspiracy are going to be the end of what we know as normal.
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