[a/n ⁠— it's supposed to be published last week, but I was out of town and I didn't have time to edit it properly. So here we go. It's a bit long, but it's my treat. Enjoy]

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So, Yixing told her to sleep on it. He told her not to think about it and took a rest instead. Like seriously, how could she not think about it and sleep on it when her future was at stake here?

Jisoo was lost for words. She was shocked and shaken and mostly felt betrayed by her parents when they decided to leave her in the dark while choosing what was, they thought, the best for her life. They didn't even include her in the talk itself, for God's sake, and she was the one who would be in this marriage ship, not them!

She tossed and her bed all night, trying to think where it all had gone wrong. Why did it come to this? Why didn't this thought be on her mind when his family was in front of the door? Why was she being too naive?

Alright, let's take it back from the beginning. It's supposed to be date only. Yes, of course, she knew that it would end in a marriage if it all went right, she just didn't expect that the marriage would take place this soon. And what did her mother say about it last night? Right away? For Christ's sake, she had not dared to imagine how soon that 'right away' would mean.

Jisoo rolled her body to pick up her cell phone on the nightstand. She checked her work schedule on the calendar and saw almost all the dates marked red at least until next month. She had to travel abroad twice until the end of this month to give talks on seminars. She would have a trip to the US for a week or two next month to collaborate on projects with other researchers at Brown. There would be another research travel too on November and conference invitation in Taiwan, and some other travels for the next six months. All that was not included in the schedule where she had to supervise the graduate students' independent studies and theses, advise the doctoral students, administer Qualifying Exams for graduate students again (she already had four exams scheduled until early next month), along with all the paperwork for her research, refereeing papers, writing reviews and journals, IRO stuffs and everything...

Ugh. She was jampacked by her job, it's very unlikely to drown herself in preparing for a marriage. She didn't even think twenty hours were enough to make a day, to begin with.

It's not that she didn't want to marry Yixing. She spent four hours of the last evening being bewitched by his illogical magnetism, she was allured by his charm. The way he treated his mother, the tone of his voice when he spoke to her and all the elders were so respectful, they said the man who served elders like that was total husband material, and it's probably just everything any woman could ask for. But still, it's not enough. 

All that she knew was that she was captivated by him, but she was sure if she didn't like him that way. Well, not yet. This was back when she was crazy over those boy groups in her teenage years, and how she loved Kai from EXO and his charm and everything.

Like, it's Kai, and he's bad. His face was bad, his smile was bad, and moreover his dance. And she was badly in love with him. Her feeling for Yixing was exactly the same as what she once felt for Kai. And yes! With that same feeling, of course, she would love to marry Yixing, like how she used to dream of marrying Kai in her future imagination. But then again, if she did marry Yixing, what would make her believe that this was only for her ideal because she wanted to marry someone she adored? Because in reality, she had a lot of things she wanted to do and had to do, and marriage was simply not one of them.

Not now.

"You look like , Cousin," Sehun commented as he got into her room. 

Jisoo was lying on her chest on the edge of the bed when Sehun found her, one hand drooping under the bed and the other hand hugging the pillow. She refused to come down from her room this morning, even when the maid told her that everyone was waiting for her to have the family breakfast together, Jisoo didn't budge on the bed. A maid trailed behind him, brought a tray of breakfast and put it on the nightstand. Jisoo turned and moved to sit when Minseok followed shortly after and closed the door after telling the maid to leave them.

"Sehun, can you give us a moment, please?" Minseok requested, which Sehun nodded in response before making his way to leave the room. He sauntered the room to the side of her bed and moved the bed tray onto Jisoo's legs so she could start having her breakfast. "Eat."

Jisoo took the spoon to taste the tofu soup broth without a word. Her face was lethargic, and she didn't have any appetite to eat, so she put away the tray after eating a few mouthfuls.

"You didn't see it coming, did you?" 

She shook her head, "No. Well, yes, I did. But I didn't expect it would be 'right away'. I wouldn't be this distressed if somebody warned me about this beforehand."

"Well, on the other side of the story, I talked to mom and dad this morning," he informed, which got Jisoo's attention right away.

"What did they say?"

"Nothing much. I see that you're probably shocked by the proposal. Seeing how you reacted last night, I knew you knew nothing about this. So, I ask them to think about it through. But you know, the thing about the Zhangs is that their visit last night was not merely respecting Grandpa's invitation. Did you see all those gifts and pieces of jewelry?"

No, she didn't. She was too occupied to even be aware that those things existed.

"They came here to propose you, through the family. Apparently, they had a talk with dad about this last week, and since their fortune teller has seen your compatibility with Yixing, they decided to marry you off."

Fortune teller? Really? And what did he say?

"Wait, I don't understand." Jisoo held her hand up. "The Zhangs family came here to propose to me, by not asking me but asking dad instead?" 

Minseok nodded with a hum.

"Whose tradition is that? I'm the one who's going to marry their son, why did they ask dad when he will have nothing to do with the marriage?"

"Apparently it's their family's tradition. That's why it would be a little bit complicated to call off the wedding since everything was a done deal with the elders."

Jisoo scoffed irritatedly, it's just too unbelievable. It's unbelievable enough to know that their parents wanted them to get married soon, and now there's a fact that calling it off was impossible. Her head spun in an instant, it was too much to handle she couldn't think straight.

"I suggest you talk to Yixing if you feel it burdens you a lot. Maybe you both can sort it out." Minseok prompted. "But, do you want to hear my piece of mind?"

She turned to look at her brother and nodded, "What?"

"I know I'm not much of a help for you, nor I can offer you the best way out. Yixing and I got along well during our study, but I don't really know him that well. But, you know, after last night, I have this feeling that he's a good man. You can see how much he treasures his mother..."

Of course, no one at the table missed a moment when Yixing took some food for his mother before he touched them for himself. Or when he would give away all his ears while listening to her speaking. Not to skip the part that smiles never left his face to all that.

"Yeah, I could see that," she said.

"And you must have heard people say this. A man who treats his mother like a queen..."

"He would treat his wife like a princess." she finished it for him.

"Right. You might not know many things about him now given the situation, but Yixing is a good man to me. So, I think you might want to give him a chance."

She leaned on to rest her head on Minseok's chest, where he wrapped his arms around her to hold her close. This was the time when she wanted to cry for missing him so much. His words were so deep that they grew the melancholic side of her. Though he was a caring person, he never held her like he was right now. Even when they had their talk years ago, he didn't hold her like this. This felt more intense like he was afraid to lose her, but at the same time, it gave her so much hope and encouragement. Something that Jisoo never expected would be given out to him.

"I think I'll just talk to Yixing. He probably wants to put it off as much as I do."

"Maybe he does. Though seems to me that he likes you a lot from last night."

Jisoo scoffed. She pulled away from her brother's arms and scooted aside to take a piece of paper on the nightstand, showing it to him. "Oppa, his ultimate type is a y woman. That's totally not me." 

"What is this?" Minseok took the questionnaire that Yixing had put some time to fill it and read the answers thoroughly. He laughed quietly at some of them, but then gave it back to Jisoo when he was done reading them. "Well, I don't know about that. But if someone makes his time to fill out something like this, he definitely likes you."

She was a bit offended here. "Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" she asked, to which Minseok replied with a soundless laugh and a shake of his head.

"By the way, my flight is at one. Will you send me off?" Minseok scooted over to slide off from the bed and stood by her side.

"Of course. I'll just tag along then, my flight is in the evening. I think I'll just stay at the airport until then."

"Call."

Jisoo just got out of bed as soon as Minseok left his room. She took a hot shower to refresh her mind, thinking about what might happen if she accepted or refused Yixing's family proposal. It's just too much to take, if she decided to marry Yixing, there would be a lot of things to sacrifice. She might not be as free as now because she had to balance her life with her new family later. A lot of time would be wasted because after marriage she would not only take care of herself. Yixing might be someone independent, maybe he wouldn't make her do the laundry, make breakfast or dinner, prepare his clothes, or anything, but she would become a wife anyway. Doing the house chores was an instinct she would do as a married woman. And Jisoo wasn't sure she was ready for all that.

She called Yixing as soon as she finished taking the shower while tidying up her suitcase for traveling tonight. Yixing didn't answer the phone immediately, her first call was missed, so she tried again. Once the second call was answered, the background sound was rather noisy. Jisoo had to wait for a while when Yixing yelled a little for she held the phone while he was looking for a quieter place. It was almost a minute later the noise disappeared and was replaced by silence.

"Are you busy?" Jisoo asked him as she seated herself at the tip of the bed.

It took a couple of seconds for him to reply after doing whatever he was there, "Um, yeah, a little. I'm in the company factory right now, that's why it's a little bit noisy." he explained. Jisoo raised an eyebrow, reminding herself that this was Sunday, and couldn't stop thinking how Yixing was still working on the weekend.

"So, are you okay now?" he probed about a moment later. Their last interactions didn't go smoothly last night, because Jisoo was too panicky and she mostly half-yelled and whispered to him irritably at the same time, incoherently bursting out with emotion because she was too shocked by what his mother had conveyed. So, yeah, she felt much calmer now.

"Yes, I am. But still, we need to talk. Can we meet today?" She changed the hold of her phone to her other hand to zip her suitcase and put it outside her room, while Yixing was humming across the phone, hesitating.

"I'm sorry, but can't it wait until Tuesday?"

"No, it can't." she frowned at his reply, "I have to fly to Hong Kong tonight, and I'll be there until Wednesday. So we need to talk today before I leave."

"What time is your flight?" he asked.

"Wait." She walked up to her desk to check on the itinerary, "It's 8 pm."

"I'll see you at the airport then. I have some things to do right now, so I'll probably be there around four or five. Will that be okay?"

"Yes, that's fine. I'll be in the Asiana Executive Lounge. You can find me there."

She ended the conversation without further ado because it seemed that Yixing was doing something and she didn't want to bother him any longer. After getting ready to leave, Jisoo put her laptop, kindler, and some print-out papers that she had to read into her favorite white Saffiano laptop bag. Then she put on her off-white trench coat and replied to Minseok who had called out for her from downstairs after zipping up her ankle boot. Her parents were sitting in the living room when Jisoo came down, right on the same couch where they had confronted her last night. And there, by the alcove, Jisoo spotted the gifts that Minseok had mentioned from the Zhangs. It had a set of teacups and pots, dragon and phoenix cakes, fruits, and a set of jewelry which she only took in a glance.

"Will you sit down?" her father beckoned, it sounded like an order rather than a request. Knowing what kind of tone it was, Jisoo sauntered to the room to sit next to Minseok on the couch across from her parents and grandparents at their sides.

"Aren't we late?" Asked Jisoo to her brother, poking on her watch to point out the time.

"We have about fifteen minutes to talk it out."

"Make it five then." Now she tended to say that to her parents. She folded her arms on her chest, being rebellious like she was, and rested her back on the couch while her eyes set on her father's knees, refusing to look at them in their eyes.

"Well, I know you're mad about this. But can you see this in a brighter view? We do this for you."

Jisoo scoffed in response, which got an elbow on her waist by Minseok. Jisoo was an obedient child. Since childhood, she was taught how to behave properly in front of an adult or older people. She was not a dissident child either, but today was different. Since she was supposed to be angry, Jisoo didn't care if her attitude offended her elders. Heck, she didn't care about anything at all.

"Jisoo, Honey. The Zhangs' proposal is very good news, don't you think?" her mother jumped in, "You know how hard it was to find someone who is matched for you. You've met twelve of my friend's sons, and no one of them worked. Yixing is the first and the only one who doesn't mind you being who you are right now."

"Yixing looks like a very nice man to me." now her grandmother got involved in the conversation too. "He has this, what should I call it, a virtue that young men these days don't have. He's a man with manner, someone like him is very rare nowadays."

She breathed in hearing one by one all the people present at the conversation began to mention Yixing's features. Hearing this, there was a little guilt in her head because her attitude now made it seem as if she didn't respect Yixing as a man. Of course, she knew that Yixing was a good man, he was just as good as that, and she could see it without needing to know him for a long time. But the problem wasn't that simple.

"Tell us why you object to this proposal, Jisoo." his grandfather asked. Damn, even his grandfather intervened to comment. Jisoo was always speechless when she heard the collected voice of his filling the room. "Looks like something is bothering you. Because all I know, you seem like you like him too."

"I do like him," Jisoo said later. "It's just, the timing is not right." She finally said it.

"Jisoo, you're twenty-six. You're twenty-seven next January, this is the right age for you to get married."

"That's the problem, Mom. I'm only twenty-six, going on twenty-seven. Who gets married at twenty-seven these days?" she defended.

"Most of my friends' daughters were married before thirty."

"That's because none of them works eighty hours a week and is responsible for three departments in the office!!" She groaned and threw her hands into the air exasperatedly before slumping back to the couch. She pressed her hand on her forehead, eyes closed. She didn't expect that she would use that card against her parents. She didn't want to sound arrogant, but she was so frustrated that she blurted it out unconsciously in the end.

"Please, understand me. This is my dream, and I worked so hard to be who I am today. And I can't make this marriage an obstacle to what I want to do in the future, which is a lot. Yixing can wait if he likes, and it's okay too if he doesn't. If he really likes me, I'm sure he will understand."

The atmosphere turned into silence. For a moment no one spoke, everyone was deep in their thought. Jisoo had no idea how to express all her worries because she just knew, that as soon as she told them everything, her parents would find a series of rebuttals to break off her demands. She knew them too well for that. That's why she kept silent, at least what they needed to know was that this wasn't about Yixing. It's about her life, and it's everything for her.

"Alright e