Kris’ POV

…buzz…buzz…buzz…buzz…buzz…

Taking off my work glasses, I rub the bridge of my nose and looked at the object causing such distraction.

*Sigh* nine morning and I’m already getting bombarded with messages.

Inwardly sighing myself again, I grabbed the phone, pressing my thumb against the unlock button.

15 messages

As I scrolled through them all, scanning the contacts I received them from, a certain name in particular caught my eye.

Clumsy Mei

4 messages. All coming one after the other.

So she’s finally replied…after ignoring my text last night.

Clumsy Mei

Oppa. Explain.

…

Clumsy Mei

…I mean, how could you set me up like this?!

…

Clumsy Mei

Since when did the two of you knew each other so well anyway?!

…

Clumsy Mei

Explaaaaiiiin~~ >.<

“What are you chuckling to yourself about?”

“Huh?”

Whipping, my head to the door, I was surprised to see a certain woman who smiled knowingly at me.

“Ma?”

“I knocked on a few times, but seems like someone’s too distracted to answer”

“Sorry, I-”

“It’s ok. It’s good to see you happy here”

…happy? ...now that she mentions it, when I had first agreed to come here to Korea, I can’t exactly say I was particular fond of the idea.

I’ve always been the filial son who allowed ba to trust everything upon me. I just wanted him to take it easy, lay back and relax more. But this only meant that all the workload and stress would be transferred to me.

Of course ma, herself knew I wasn’t particularly happy coming here…maternal instincts, she calls it.

Now that I’ve been here for quite a while, I can honestly say it’s not as bad as I thought. Besides, with all my bestest friends here, there’s nothing I should really be complaining about. Not to mention how, in this place, I have met someone very dear to me.

And thanks to that someone, I can enjoy my time here whilst leisurely playing matchmaker.

Ma made her way in and took a seat on one of the sofas. Not to be rude, I too made my way over and sat down, opposite her.

“…how come you came back so fast? What about ba, is he ok?”

“You’re ba is in very stable condition. Still the occasional hospital visits, but he’s taking it easy at the comfort of his own home.”

“That’s good”

“Yeh, he’s well enough to be out and about with that hearty laughter of his, so there’s nothing to worry about”

Her eyes travelled down to the phone in my hands, refusing to let the original topic slide by “…girlfriend?”

What?!

Her eyes had a curious, motherly tease to it, although she wore that usual neutral-demure look on her face.

“No! It’s not like that!”

“Yi Fan, there’s no need to hide anything from ma. The employees had been talking about how you’ve been getting along with a certain girl recently. Now that’s something rare to hear. I heard she comes to the mall to visit you often.”

Those nosy workers. Do they really not have anything to do, than to gossip all day?

“Ma, it’s really not like that. Hyeyi’s a really nice girl and I love her, but only as a little sister…that’s all there is to it, nothing more”

Wow, I really want to cringe at my own words right now. That sounded cheesy even to my own ears. What the hell had gotten into me to say that?

Of course I had to keep my composure though. As she takes in every word I had said, she stares into my eyes, seeking for any signs of dishonesty.

Even when sighing, she maintained her posture, keeping her back perfectly straight.

“…well that’s a relief”

Wait…relief? …what does she mean by that?

Raising her head back up, she looked me directly in the eyes.

“Yi Fan” her voice suddenly turned serious, strict. A tone that had always frightened me a little when it came from my mother. But unlike the other times, her voice sounded much more gentle to my ears. “The reason why I’m here…I need to talk to you about something important”

Ok, why do I have such a bad feeling about this?

Without saying a word, I sat there staring into her eyes, urging her to quickly break the news.

“…you know what your ba’s health condition is like, he may be stable right now but we never know when his heart could act up again” she shifted from her seat and sat right beside me “…look, your ba may have devoted his whole life to the company …but if anything, his last wish…is to see you…” both her hands reached out and held onto mine “…our son, settle in a family of his own. As a parent, he would never want to miss the opportunity to be there on your big day.”

Big day. My big day.

I knew it.

So this is what it was all about.

It’s already time.

I had years to mentally prepare myself for this. Yet it feels as though all those years of preparation have completely gone to waste when faced with reality.

Arranged marriage, huh?

I already knew this would be happening…just not so soon.

But it’s not like a can back out. If this is ba’s last wish, I might as well just carry on with this role of the perfect son.

Mentally taking a deep, deep breath, my hands slipped out from underneath and were placed on top of hers, assuringly.

“…ma, I…understand”

Her eyes widened. She looked genuinely shocked. Shocked that I had accepted something like this so easily

Seems like she was prepared to talk me into it, if things got difficult

 “…so who’s the girl?”

Tears gathered in her eyes but she held them in well as she softly smiled, gratefully patting my hand.

.…

For almost an hour straight, ma calmly explained to me how things have been planned.

I still don’t who this girl is. All I know is that she’s the daughter of one of my ba’s close friends/business partner.

And I only get to officially meet this soon-to-be-fiance of mine just a few days before the actual engagement party…I guess this works out better for me though.

Without much of a response, I just mindlessly nodded along to her words.

After she was done talking, she raised her wrist, presenting herself a clear view of her watch.

“…I need to get going now” her eyes returned to me “…just don’t worry about anything. All you need to do is turn up to the meet up and everything else would be sorted out” she smiled, giving my hand another pat before standing up. “Take care, remember to not overwork yourself”

“I won’t…see you later”

“Mm, I’ll take my leave now”

I watched as she walked over to the door, pulling down on the handle, before turning back to me.

“…Yi Fan, this little sister of yours, we would love to meet her. It’s great to hear that met someone so precious to you here…if you’ve taken such a liking to her, I’m sure your ba would grow very fond of her as well…you know how he always wanted a daughter. He may be getting a daughter in law soon, but it’s not exactly the same is it?”

“…about that…I’ll speak to her about it.”

“Please do, I look forward to meeting her”

“…erm, sure…I’ll try and arrange something”

She smiled, pleased with my answer. “I’ll leave it to you then. Right, I really need to go now. Bye”

“Bye”

…wow, introducing clumsy to my parents…? Well that’s a thought that never crossed my mind. Though, I’m not too sure if it’s a good idea to introduce them to each other.

I slumped down, further into the sofa. Laying my head, back a smile to myself just thinking about it.

I can already imagine her being favoured by ba a lot, maybe more so than his … ‘daughter…in…law…’

…daughter in law…

Those words sound so foreign as it rolls off my tongue.

The fact that I’m getting engaged soon just feels so surreal.

Marriage…an arranged one at that…it probably won’t be as bad as it sounds right?

…buzzzzzzzz…

Still lifelessly laying there, I turn my head to peer down at the phone that had slipped out my hands and is loudly vibrating against the black leather.

A call…from Kai

Well.

First thing first, I should sort these two lovebirds out.

Sitting up straight, I cleared my throat and accepted the call.

…at least they should get the happiness they deserve.

“Hello?”

“…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author’s POV

Two amazingly attractive males sat in the café, sipping on their drinks, drawing in attention from all four corners.

“…so you confessed?”

Kai took another sip from his drink and nodded in response.

“That’s good” … *hopefully that would at least drill a solid reminder into her head* … “So, what do you plan on doing now?”

Kai stopped drinking and looked up at Kris, placing his cup down onto the table.

“There’s not much I can do now, but give her time to think about her answer...two weeks…that should be enough time, right?”

“Two weeks? That’s more than enough time…too much, perhaps…don’t you think?”

Kai deeply sighed, like he was lost for ideas.

“Well there’s nothing else I can do about it…hyung, I’m gonna be away for two weeks. I thought it would be perfect time for her to think things over.”

Kris straightened up, alarmed by the sudden information.

“Whoa…wait a minute, you’re going away…for two weeks?”

The latter nodded slowly

“There’s a world renowned dance competition coming up. This thing is, it takes place in New York. And as a dancer, you must be absolutely insane to let an opportunity like this slip by.”

“I can understand. It’s good to see you can set your priorities wisely…so when do you leave?”

“In 2 days”

The older male, mouth dropped.

*This kid, how could he only say this now…wait, this isn’t all that bad actually-*

“Does clumsy know?”

Kai shook his head. “I only just told my closest friends the news a day ago. And other than them, only you know of this”

Kris nodded thoughtfully and took another sip of his coffee, “Well if that’s the case, then…can I ask that you not tell her about this?”

“Huh?! H-how come?”

“No particular reason~”

His nonchalant answer had the younger lad raising a suspicious brow but he knew that this hyung wouldn’t do anything bad…or would he?

“Don’t worry. Just trust me on this one, I’ll handle it”

Kris inwardly smirked to himself. *I’ll have to talk to her about this first*