Chapter Eight:

"Agh!! I knew it was them," I insisted as we walked into my house…err…our house.

"You can’t be sure of that. We don’t even know who it could be," Yesung denied wholeheartedly, taking his shoes off before walking into the foyer.

"I’m telling you it’s gotta be them. I mean who else would be so callous enough to set us up like that. I bet they knew we hated each other really bad, so they resorted to this. It’s like the stuff of the dramas."

"I highly doubt it," Yesung looked at me with an arch of his eyebrows. But, what did he know? For all he knew he was probably some puppet in some grand master plan. Heck, for all I knew I was some puppet in some grand master plan.

We walked into the master bedroom, with me huffing all the way, as I couldn’t figure any of this out. I plopped myself on the bed. This whole everything—whatever it was—was tiring and stressful, and I still wanted my hot bath in a Jacuzzi with a nice book. I looked at Yesung and sighed. I mean yeah he wasn’t no David Beckham, but seeing how he is already married (I’m talking about David Beckham here), I guess fate didn’t want to be on my side and I ended up being stuck with Yesung. I guess it could have been worse, and I could’ve woken up next to a stranger. Count my lucky stars. But that wasn’t why I was sighing. I was sighing because really we were getting nowhere. The mystery just kept getting deeper, and I wasn’t sure if we were digging our grave, or climbing out of it, or whatnot. But, nevertheless, I was pretty sure (that’s pretty with a capital ‘P’) that our parents were somewhat behind this whole charades, if we can call it that.

"I’m telling you, I knew I should’ve suspected them from the get-go. I mean, who else?" I sighed once again.

Yesung looked at me with a frown on his face, and crossed his arms, "Okay, seriously. What is up with you and your dad?"

"He is NOT my DAD." I stressed out.

"Okay, fine." He rolled his eyes, "Your STEP-dad." He tried to mimic my way of pronunciation.

"Eww. Don’t call him that." I winced and grabbed a pillow to cover my face with. Again, he rolled his eyes. Seriously, this guy needs to see an eye doctor.

"Why not?" He asked, as he sat down next to me. "Why do you not like him?"

"Okay, well…" I started unsure of whether to tell him or not. "You know we just don’t get along."

"Yeah, why?"

"Well…he’s not really my dad."

"Yeah, and you’re not really his daughter, but that doesn’t stop him from trying and loving you."

"Yeah, but he only does that to get on my good side, so he can be with mom, and get her approval."

Yesung sighed. I could tell he was starting to lose his patience. "What you need is help, and maybe some Dr. Phil."

I glared at him. "First of all, Dr. Phil is American. Not even Korean. And is he even a real doctor?

He grinned, "I don’t know, but his wife is hot."

I scoffed. "Again, with your liking married woman. Is this some type of with you, because you need to stop."

"Alright, back to you. Why can’t you accept him? He’s not a bad guy you know."

"I don’t know. I just don’t like him, okay. I mean him and my mom have been friends for years, even before they got married, and one day my dad just up and leaves without so much as a word, and the two get married. I don’t know, sometimes I think that ahjusshi is the one who caused my dad to leave. I can’t help but to blame him." I explained, tucking the pillow under my chin.

"But your dad…I mean step-dad…okay, okay ‘ahjusshi’," he corrected himself, while rolling his eyes again, after I glared at him, "only got married to your mom 5 years after your dad left." He tried to mollify me.

"Yeah, yeah, and it has been hell ever since."

"Maybe if you gave him a chance…"

"I know. But there is also the fact that I kind of have a crush on your dad." I mumbled into the pillow, but Yesung heard and started scooting away from me on the bed. He gave me a look.

"What?" I asked.

He continued to stare at me weirdly, "Now, look who is the one who likes married people."

"Ugh. Not like that." I threw my pillow (and source of comfort) at him. "I mean like I wanted him as a dad, and all. Your dad is cool, unlike you."

"So you wanted me as a brother?"

"No, my plan was to send you away to boarding school for like 10 years, so you would be out of the picture."

This time he scoffed. "And my mom? Ya know she’s married to my dad, right?"

"Yeah, she was the problem in my plan."

"You really have a weird imagination. And brain. Try thinking straight, next time." He flicked my forehead.

"Yah!" I yelled at him.

"Whatever, let’s go to sleep now." He stood up and began walking to the door. But before he could leave, I stopped him.

"Hey, about dinner tonight. What did you think about what they said?"

"About what?" He asked confused.

"About the inheritance, of course."

He smirked and leaned against the wall, "Actually, I’m more interested in what you think?"

"Well," I said and got off the bed, before firing off my theories like ammunition, "I bet the two couples planned this together, and suddenly decided to put us together. And do you know why?" I pointed my finger towards Yesung.

"Please. Humor me."

"Because they knew we wouldn’t agree to any of this." I expressed with my hands and began pacing across the room. "They knew we would never get along and wanted to combine their companies and further expand their business, maybe even combine their families. OUR families. And to think I trusted them. How could they betray my trust like this? And they even had the nerve to talk about babies. In our faces, like they were innocent." I crossed my arms and scrunched up my face. "How shameless."

"Okay. Okay. Stop." Yesung looked at me weirdly. "You do know this is our parents you’re talking about, right?"

"Yeah, so? They’re trying to ruin our lives here."

"Yeah, that’s why they are called parents. But, seriously, did it ever occur to you that maybe, oh I don’t know, that they didn’t do it!" He stressed out.

"Oh come on. It’s exactly like in the dramas. Where they try to arrange two unsuspecting people together into some unholy union. Except our parents went the extra kilometer or so."

"You mean an ‘arranged marriage’?" Yesung asked.

"Yeah, exactly that. Is that what they are calling it these days?" I turned around towards Yesung and asked him, to which he just rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Except," I continued, "Its ‘forced’.

"More like we were tricked into it." Yesung simplified.

"Trickery. Debauchery. Chicanery. How could they?" I pounded my fist against the palm of my hand with each word.

"Alright. I get it. It’s not hard to see that you’re upset here. But, since I am the only voice of reason here, I gotta tell you that maybe you’re wrong here."

I gave him a blank stare.

"Oh what am I saying," he chuckled, "Of course you’re wrong. Like always. And I am more than happy to tell you that."

I huffed, crossed my arms again, and sat back down on the bed. "You’re really no help, you know that. It’s almost like you’re enjoying the whole thing."

"It never fails to bring a smile to my face seeing you so miserable." He said matter-of-factly making me scoff in return.

I shifted on the bed a bit and laid across it, with a dramatic sigh. I stretched out my arms only to feel something on the bed. I picked up the cloth piece only to realize it was the uniform I had carelessly left on the bed.

"Let’s just be happy that our parents didn’t get upset about us being late." Yesung said.

I scoffed again, "That’s because they thought we were making babies, or something. And you just led them to believe that."

"Better that then being skewered like a shish kebab," he sheepishly said rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yeah," I agreed absentmindedly, turning the uniform in my hands and silently inspecting it. It was then that I noticed the uniform had some inscription on it. I took a better look at it to see my name on it along with the classification ‘part-time helper’ underneath it. On top of my name were the words, ‘Shilla Hotel’, in its signature form.

"How did I not notice this?" I said absentmindedly.

"What?" Yesung asked, as he came over to where I was sitting.

"Its my maid uniform from Shilla when I was working part-time there." I answered showing him the the hotel's symbol and my name written on there.

"Oh that. Hahahaha! I still can't believe that! That was legit hilarious." He started laughing at that fact, probably imagining some weird things again. I glared at him until he stopped.

"Okay. I am done laughing. For now." He smirked, before walking to the door. "Let's just get some sleep. It's been a long day for the both of us, and I don't know about you, but my head's still aching. Must be the continuing aftereffects of whatever drug we took."

"Drug?!" I exclaimed looking at him incredulously.

"Yeah, well haven't you seen the hangover?"

"Yeah, but what does....Oh my god! You think that's what happened to us, don't you?!" I shouted standing up. Did we get drugged?! That would make sense.

"Well yeah, either that or we got really drunk. But I am betting it was something strong." He explained. "I mean how else would we have gotten into this situation. I mean its not like we woke up in another dimension of our world. This isn't the 'Twilight Zone' you know."

I ignored what he said, because an idea popped into my head. "Well if we got drugged then we just have to find who drugged us. And to do that we have to know what we were drugged with. Maybe we can trace it back to the perpetrator." Who knew I was so smart?

"Huh. That's not a bad idea. I like where you're going. Okay, tomorrow I'll call the doctor. See if he's available. Maybe he can get something for my head too. Its killing me," he groaned with a hand on his head.

"Yeah, mine's too." I said mirroring his actions.

"Well then, goodnight." Was the last thing before he left.

After he left, I washed up, and safely put away my maid's uniform. It was evidence, afterall. Looks like I might be taking another trip to the hotel asking about my shift there. However, it seemed that I had much bigger things to worry. Something I should have thought of right away. It wasn't until I was snuggled cozy and warm in my bed, ready to drift off to dreamland, when the thought came to me. It suddenly occurred to me that I could be pregnant with Yesung's baby.

May the Lord help me!