When Jinli walked down the stairs, the first thing Daehyun noticed was the ring that was no longer on her finger. “What happened to the ring I gave you?”

            She tried to act deaf, pretend that she was busy looking for things and not paying him any heed. “Jinli.” He walked up to her. Dammit. She turned around, widening her eyes to indicate her attention. Daehyun grabbed her wrist. “Where’s your ring?”

            “Oh, I dropped it under the bed. I’ll look for it when we come back.”

            “Put it on. Stop playing games, Jung Jinli. It doesn’t suit your age.”

            “I said I lost it. We have to see your father. I will find it when we get back.”

            Daehyun gave a sardonic laugh. “I’ll go look for it.” By now it was too late so she could only watch him walk upstairs, cursing his observance. Since when did he care so much about what she did and didn’t wear?

            He walked downstairs a few minutes later and she was slightly satisfied to see his face clouded over. “Under your bed, was it?”

            “Was it not?”

            He walked up to her and was so close he was breathing down her neck. “Grow up, Jinli. We’re married. You can’t just take off your ring and call it a day.”

            She stared at him and found it impossible to stay calm. “And you cheated. This marriage was never a marriage, and it’s now over. Give me those papers. I’m going to mail them on the way when we go to the hospital.”

            Daehyun took in a deep breath and a shadow of a smirk danced across his lips. “I shredded them.”

            “Shredded them?!”

            He clapped his hands over his ears. “Gosh darn! Your voice can get quite shrill when you’re angry. I feel like my eardrums have imploded.”

            “How can you shred those papers? Do you really think shredding those papers would make the divorce invalid? It’s still going to happen. I know what you’re doing. You enjoy toying with people. You think it’s funny, seeing me like this, right? Well we can go to your mother right now and explain how you should be married to Hyosung and not me.”

            “Can you not?”

            “Not what?” She glared at him.

            “Let’s not get too worked up about this, okay? My father is still in a critical condition. Let’s work things out ourselves.” He took a deep breath. “I’m asking you for this favor, please.”

            Jinli clenched her jaw and stared at him. “Let’s go to the hospital. We will talk this out.”

***

            Mr. Jung was awake when the two got to his room. Jinli felt a pang of guilt when she saw how both of their eyes lit up to see the two of them come in. “You’re here!”

            “Of course. Dad, are you feeling better?”

            Mr. Jung nodded and patted his wife’s hand. “It’s all because of this old lady here that I was able to wake up. All night, I could hear her cursing me in my head. ‘What do you think you’re doing? How dare you leave me alone all by myself? What am I going to do about the kids if you just leave? Get up, you old man! Get up so you can finally do something useful in your life.’ It was quite an admonishment.”

            Daehyun’s mother blushed and Jinli felt a sadness go through her. This was what marriage should be like. Not what she had. Her mother-in-law smiled and took Jinli’s hand. “Promise me, you’ll stay with Daehyun and turn him to be as sweet as his old man.”

            Jinli swallowed and stole a look at Daehyun. He was talking intently with his father. She smiled awkwardly instead. “I’m glad to see that dad is getting better.”

            At the end of the visit, Mrs. Jung turned to her. “Your father insists that I stay at your house while he’s at the hospital. I hope I wouldn’t be interrupting your couple moments?” She asked the question slyly.

            She quickly shook her head. “N-no, of course not.”

            But Daehyun picked up her hand and shook his body cutely. “Moooom, what if I say no?”

            Jinli stared at him but his parents chuckled. “This will be more incentive for your father to get better. The sooner I’m out of the house, the sooner we can hold a grandson, right?”

            The hand Daehyun was holding was uncomfortable and she wanted to drop it but his parents were watching. Jinli smiled, trying to pretend that she was embarrassed. “Mom, would you like for us to take you home now?”

            She stole another look at her husband and smiled. “Can I go now?”

            He nodded. “Come back tomorrow?”

            Jinli watched the two of them exchange goodbyes and wondered when she would ever get something like this. Daehyun was next to her and he looked at her. “My parents aren’t normally this loving. Trust me.”

            “I figured,” she mumbled back. “You learned nothing from them.”

***

            Jinli stepped into the house and immediately felt relief wash over her. It was devastatingly awkward in the car, with his mother hinting at grandchildren and Daehyun’s vague responses. He had dropped her off first before going to his parents’ to get his mother’s luggage.

            She walked into the guest room and sank onto the bed only to pop back up. “Crap,” she muttered. If Daehyun’s mother found out they weren’t sleeping in the same room, she would definitely know something was up. Jinli sighed and started to pack her things, taking them in her arms as she moved down the hallway to her old room. Entering was a different experience.

            Daehyun had left her closet empty and it looked like he still only slept on his side. She stared at the bed and thought about the times before when she had tried to make this marriage work. Jinli gave a brittle chuckle and threw her blanket haphazardly onto the bed. Well, today he can screw himself for all she cared.

            That night, when Daehyun finally came into the bedroom, Jinli stood up. “We need to talk about this marriage thing.”

            “There’s nothing to talk about. We aren’t going to get a divorce.”

            “Why, Daehyun? You’re going to be miserable. You love Hyosung, did you forget?”

            “My parents,” was all he said.

            “So what? Blame me. Say that it’s my fault. Say that I am infertile, anything. Do it for your own happiness, and do it for mine.”

            “How about we come up with a contract?”

            “A contract?” she stared at him. “What?”

            “We’ll be married for two years, one and a half more to go. For my parents’ sake I want to let them think I’ve tried a little more. Then we’ll divorce. Meanwhile, we can learn to be friends, okay?”

            “Friends? So does this mean that you’re getting all the benefits? You get to another woman and still put up the façade of a good son?”

            “You can do whatever the heck you want yourself. I don’t care.”

            “Fine. We’ll do this. See if you can last for the next eighteen months. But you better use protection because I swear if you ever get her knocked up, you will have a lot to explain.”

            Daehyun rolled his eyes and pulled back the covers. “Whatever.”

            A voice in her head was screaming at her, telling her it was a bad idea but it was a mix of wanting to challenge him, and wanting to see how far this game would go that kept her hand going as she signed. “There. You signed your own death certificate,” she told him when she was done.

            Daehyun smirked. “We’ll have to see.”

            Sleeping next to Daehyun again was awkward. She was used to having her own space but now, she held herself rigidly, knowing that if she moved, she’d hit him. His breathing wasn’t even yet so he must be awake. Jinli was getting tired and shifted a little. Her arm hit him. “Oh sorry,” she whispered. He grunted in response and she shrank into herself.

            Screw him and his stupidity. She herself was stupid for even agreeing to that dumb two year contract. She basically turned her sham of a marriage into a business deal instead. She should just file for divorce now and leave him in the dust. The thoughts ran through her head as she tried to avoid admitting that deep down, she wanted this to work.

            Outside, there was the distinct sound of footsteps walking past the room. The shuffle stopped seemingly right by the door and they both knew who it was. A few moments passed before the figure moved along. Ten minutes later, they heard the sound of someone pressing their body to the door.

            “Oh for Heaven’s sake,” Daehyun muttered angrily. He threw off the blankets and sat up. “Don’t ask and just follow what I tell you to do.”

            Jinli muffled her yelp of surprise as he got on top of her. “Place your hands on the headboard and when I tell you to, start .”

            “What the hell?” she tried to push him off but he had settled quite comfortably between her legs. Their position was obscene to her and his request even more ludicrous. He had placed both his hands on the mattress and began to rock, causing the bed to hit gently against the wall. “Stop it, Daehyun! We’re not going to pretend to have when your mother is outside listening,” she hissed.

            He leaned his head down and whispered into her ear. “That, my sweet, is precisely why we’re going to do this.” He grabbed her arms and yanked them above her head, causing her to cry out. “Good job. Keep doing that.”

            It was downright humiliating, made worse by the forced moans that came out of . She wanted to cry as she closed her eyes and tried to block out his low growls in her ear. The bed was slamming into the wall by now and Daehyun bit her earlobe and groaned before finally stopping. He smirked, seeing how red her face was after what he had done. The moment he got off her and rolled over, she closed her legs, wanting to forget the feeling of his very obvious pressing against her.

            “That should make her happy,” he muttered. Sure enough, it appeared as if his mother had already left, satisfied with what she thought she heard.

            Jinli kept quiet, and tried to breathe. Her heart rate was still too high for comfort. A few minutes later, she heard Daehyun slip out of bed and turn on the showers. Knowing what he was doing and who he must be thinking of, only made her more embarrassed and angry. She didn’t mean anything to him and she was sick of hoping that she did.

***

            Seeing Mrs. Jung in the morning only made her cringe. After mumbling a greeting, Jinli skirted around the kitchen, wanting to quickly prepare breakfast and escape. In her hurry, she knocked over the pitcher of orange juice.

            “You okay, dear?” Jinli jumped. Her mother-in-law smiled kindly at her. “What’s wrong?”

            Jinli hastily grabbed a towel and started soaking up the liquid. There were footsteps on the stairs and she looked up just in time to have her eyes meet Daehyun’s. He was fixing his cufflinks and smirked at her, completing understanding her distress.

            He came into the kitchen and kissed his mother on the cheek. “Umma,” he greeted her. Then he turned to Jinli with what she wanted to think of as a malicious smile. He grabbed her around the waist and brushed his lips against hers. “Jagi.”

Jinli forced a smile on her face and pointed at the bowls set up at the dining table. “You should eat before you go.”

            He saw that there were only two places set up and raised an eyebrow. “Are you not eating?”

            “I- had something,” she stammered.

            Daehyun’s mother pursed her lips. “You need to take care of your body! You need to keep up your nutrition.” She said this pointedly and Jinli cringed. Her mother-in-law looked at her empty neck and leaned in. “It would make me very happy if you wore the necklace I gave you on the wedding day.”

            Jinli colored, knowing she was referring to the fertility necklace. To rub more salt into the wound, Daehyun came up to her and caressed her waist. “Don’t worry, Mom. We don’t need that to conceive. I’m more than up for the job.” When the elderly woman beamed at the two of them, Jinli hated Daehyun even more.

            As she saw him out the door, she walked onto the porch and closed the front door behind her. “Daehyun! What the hell were you doing?”

            He turned to her with a disinterested look. “What?”

            “Don’t pull that crap anymore. Did you see how happy your mother looked? She thinks this is going somewhere.”

            “Isn’t that the point?” He arched his eyebrows and smirked at her. “Jinli Princess, you agreed to this. We might as well do it right then. Go brush up on your acting skills and learn to separate your emotions from your actions. It’ll be a fun ride.” He blew her a kiss and took out the paper they had signed last night. “You signed this, remember? No backing out.”

            Jinli stared at his back as he walked to his car and corrected her previous thought. She really, really hated Daehyun.

This is honestly one of the most messed up chapters in this story, and I admit it.

This was the part that I had the hardest time trying to figure out how I wanted things to go. I didn't expect people to hate Daehyun so much so originally I was okay doing this. But now I feel like it would almost seem like a disappointment. But I guess I do want to go for a certain balance, a certain emotion that I'll be capitalizing on later.

I'm sorry to those who I have disappointed. I do hope to show you a better side of Jinli and just to write the story. It's going to be a long one... I can feel it. The crux of the story is just starting. But one obstacle needs to another and now I'm trying to balance the rest of the story so it's not fully cliched or just too long and dragged out.

Thank you all for your support, and #ForeverWithBAP