There is no duty we so much underrated as the duty of being happy.

-Robert Louis Stevenson

Her footsteps are light and yet her heart is heavy as she makes her way to her betrothed. It is too soon… too soon and there’s no turning back. It is a duty bestowed upon her by her father. She is thankful that her face is still hidden from everyone including her groom. She raises both her arms and moves them a bit closer to her so that the sleeves of her hanbok would totally cover her face, not minding if the action causes her view to be obscured.

“You can’t marry him, Soojung-ah! You don’t love him!”

She whirls around toward the person whom the voice belonged to.

Kai is standing on the middle of the aisle, his face red and contorted with rage.

Before she could even react he walks toward her and pulls her by the wrist. He pulls her away from her groom.

“K-kai, what are you doing?” she hissed.

Suddenly she feels a hand gripping the wrist of her other arm. She turns around and looks up to the formidable face of Choi Minho. His gaze bores into hers; his eyes are flat, cold and expressionless. Krystal almost shivers from his freezing gaze. Then he breaks eye contact with her and his expressionless eyes turns toward Kai.

“Let…go…of…my…bride.”

The words were spoken calmly, but one couldn’t deny the harshness with which they were spoken and the hostility brewing underneath those words.

“You’ll only make her miserable, hyung,” Kai’s eyes softened a bit and his expression turns pleading. “I don’t want that to happen. Not to her.”

Krystal feels as if her heart is being torn into pieces as she looks at Kai. She could feel tears welling up her eyes.

“She is given to me and she will soon be my property. I will do to her as I please and it is none of your business, Jong In,” Minho answers, his voice as harsh as ever.

Brute! Krystal screams in her mind.

“Then I guess I’ll have no choice,” Kai softly says.

Krystal hears a clicking sound and she looks down to see what made the sound and her blood stops cold. She stands frozen, watching as Kai raises his hand with the pistol and aims it at Minho’s heart.

“I have no choice but to kill you.”

The gun goes off with a loud bang and shrill screams fill the air as Minho falls to the ground.

…………………………….

Someone is screaming and it pulls Krystal up from the darkness where she lies. It seems distant at first then slowly it becomes louder until it fills her head. She raises her hands to cover her ears but her arms feel like they are made of lead. They are so heavy she couldn’t lift them. The screaming continues, chilling and irritating her at the same time. She wants to open her eyes to see who is screaming and why but her lids feel heavy.

Gradually awareness returns. She feels the air passing through her open mouth, drying her already parched mucous membranes. hurts. She wheezes and begins to realize that the screaming comes from her hurting throat. She is the one screaming.

The sound of knocking makes her jolt and in an instant she opens her eyes and sits up on the bed. The screaming stops. All she could hear now is the soft hum of the air conditioning. The cold air hits her face, immediately cooling the beads of perspiration that has formed on her forehead.

“Soojung-ah?” she hears a muffled voice coming from the closed door of her bedroom. “Are you all right? Were you screaming?”

She quickly springs out of the bed and runs to the door. She opens it and rushes into the arms of Kibum.

“Oppa…” tears begin to fall from her eyes. Did it really happen? Or was it all a nightmare?

“Shhh…,” Key rubs her back. “It’s okay. I think you had a bad dream.”

She nodded. And although she still feels afraid, she loosens her hug on Key and steps away from him.

“I guess so. Sorry for scaring you,” she wipes her tears with the back of her hand, feeling a bit embarrassed now. How can she be such a baby?

Key cups her face with his hand. “It’s all right.”

She squints to the closed windows behind her cousin. The early morning light is already coming through the crevices between the walls and the windowsill.

“What time is it?” she asks Key.

“Around five in the morning, I think. It’s still early. Go back to sleep, Soojung-ah.”

She shakes her head. “I can’t.”

She retreats farther into the bedroom. “See you later, oppa,” she waves once before closing the door, leaving an astonished Kibum standing outside.

………………………………

Krystal walks through rows and rows of green tea leaves, enjoying the feel of the cool air on her face. She inhales deeply and the fresh scent of her surroundings somehow starts to calm her.

She begins to think of the nightmare she had hours before. It was so vivid she had thought it was real. Although