Chapter 4.

Jonghyun

There had been something undeniably attractive about the young girl, he wouldn’t push that. He’d smelt her the second his mother had parted the curtain to retrieve him for the night’s dinner. The scent was a pleasant mix of rosemary and mint, filling his senses to the brim.

The second his aurous eyes set on her figure, he felt emotions brewing deep in his stomach.

I hate her.

Yes, that’s what it was.

As he neared her and her, rather pretentious looking, mother, he let his eyes travel over her. To him, she looked so young. He could tell by the way she wouldn’t look him in the eye that she was just as unhappy with the arrangement as he was.

Words were exchanged, greetings and introductions, before they made their ways to the dining hall.

Onew, a chef he’d come to be secret friends with, came out with the food, introducing it and clumsily tripping over something he couldn’t see from his spot on the way out of the room, making the smallest of smiles touch his lip. He glanced to his side and saw the amusement flicker through his betrothed eyes, before it was gone again.

He occasionally listened to the chatter among his own and her parents, glancing at her from time to time. He’d catch her gaze a few times, and the both of them would look away. It was like a game, almost. It amused him. Still, he could feel her immense discomfort.

As dinner neared its end and they stood from their seats, Jonghyun took a moment to straighten his coat before following the others to the entertainment room.

Their parents continued their idle conversation while Jonghyun lost himself in the growing darkness outside. The night sky would've consumed his thoughts entirely if Rinka's father hadn't of piped up.

 
"I believe it's time we take our leave for the night." he said as he stood up. Jonghyun and his parents rose as Rinka's family prepared to leave for the night.

His parents exchanged goodbyes with hers and as Mr. Kim kissed Mrs. Tekarimoto’s hand, Jonghyun called past them," Have a goodnight, Miss Rinka."

 Rinka turned to him, their eyes meeting for the first time since they met. Her deep, almost emerald, eyes met his gold ones as she called back," Goodnight, Oppa."

Jonghyun knew he and Rinka shared a similar discomfort or rather, a sense of foreboding, about their situation. Something had to change... but what? What could be done?

He shook his head.

Doesn’t matter, something has to change, he thought to himself.

Rinka

“Rinka, for god’s sake child, would you be still?” Mother demanded of me and I scowled in discomfort as she poked me in the hip once more with a sharp needle.

“Sorry,” I grumbled, crossing my arms over my frilled bosom.

“Now just stay there. I need to go get more pins.”

She stood and walked away from me, and I sighed, picking up the ruffles of the dress so I could walk to the window.

It was a cloudy day, not cloudy enough to rain but enough to swallow the sun and surround me with pleasant air as I unlocked the latch and pushed open the tinted window.

I could barely see the outline of the sun behind the clouds. This was as close as I could get to it. If the light were to directly touch me, I’d burst into flames at contact.

Sometimes I longed to lie in the grass and let the rays soak into my skin while I relaxed and just…Let go. But that was an impractical thought. There was no such thing as leisure for my kind.

No sun.

No flowers, no grass.

No life.

Dinner was awkward that night. My mother was off to who knows where and thus it was only my father and I.

We ate in silence.

Now, given that my mother tended to be…a controlling sociopath, my father and I weren’t close. It wasn’t that we didn’t love each other; it was just that things got in the way.

So we sat there in a disgusting, tense silence until he finally cleared his throat.

I looked up, giving him my full attention. “Yes?”

“This marriage. What do you think of it?”

I had been waiting so, so long for someone to ask this question. To ask me how I felt about this madness.

And now that I was confronted with it, I didn’t really know what to say.

“I…I don’t know.”

“I realize that…Your mother and I aren’t the people you want to be. You want to love, and you want to be free. Believe it or not, your mother was just like you.”

At my obviously doubtful look he chuckled awkwardly. “She didn’t want to marry me. She was a spit-fire, Seqria. And beautiful. I was smitten the first time I saw her.

“She wanted to go out and live her own life. She thought it was wrong, what the vampires were doing to this world. But enough about that, what do you think, Rinka?”

I looked down into my food, gnawing on my lip in thought. “I don’t like it.”

“I figured you didn’t.”

Once more, I must’ve had a look on my face because he let out a boisterous laughter that quiet honestly, warmed me to the core. “I’m not as stupid as your mother makes me out to be, love.”

“A-Ah, no I just,” I began, but he shook his head.

“I’ll tell you what Rinka,” And I watched him as he stood, brushing his suit jacket smooth.

“No one here can stop you if you decide you want more than their wishes. Not your mother, not the council, not the Kim’s, not me, and certainly not Kim Jonghyun.”

And then he left the room.

xXx

Just. Kill me. I'm starting to get to the point where I ditch this story and start a new one. (bad habits die hard.) 

BUT I WILL FIGHT!!!

As Matodroid, my lovely beta, would say: "UMMA FIGHTING!!!"

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