08.

“Is your father in his right mind? What era does he think he’s in? You can’t possibly be going through with it right?” Baekhyun handed Jinae her hundredth tissue.

“I don’t have a choice Baek,” she sniffed and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. Baekhyun scrunched his nose in disgust. Was she even a woman? “If I don’t agree he’s going to marry Jinsoo off.”

“There has to be some sort of child’s rights violation there. Can’t we report him or something? Omo, Jinae. Use a tissue please! Why am I sitting here passing you tissues when you’re just going to use your body parts?” Jinae glared at him before forcefully snatching his arm and running her snotty face against the length of it. Baekhyun shrieked at the top of his lungs and ran for the bathroom. She managed to get a few evil chuckles out before she slipped back into a pitiful cry.

He returned to the lounge room muttering profanities under his breath, choosing the seat furthest away from the snotty mess he called a best friend. “It won’t work Baek!” she wept. “They hailed him the King of Loopholes when he practiced as a lawyer. How do we compete with that?”

Baekhyun sighed helplessly. He didn’t know what to say. This was Areum’s territory; she always knew what the right way to comfort someone. He reached out, intending to pat her head softly but once she raised her head and he caught sight of her blood shot eyes and the booger slipping down her left cheek, Baekhyun quickly retreated. 

“Are you just going to marry the guy then? What if he’s a erted creep?” Baekhyun frowned. He didn’t like the idea of Jinae being touched by a strange man. He knew the whole situation was wrong on so many levels but he couldn’t think of even one half decent, plausible solution.

“How am I going to go through with this, Baek?”

“I don’t know, Ae… But if decide you want to run, I’ll be your getaway car. I’ll smuggle you out of the country. I’ll even come with you if you’re scared of being alone.” Jinae sniffed at the sweetest thing Baekhyun had ever said to her. A smile crept onto her face.

“Baek, you’re the best.”

“I know.” She almost laughed at his playful cockiness. It was a relief she didn’t have to cry about her worries alone.

“Guys! Open up! We’re here and we bought ice cream and fabric dolls and scissors for some voodoo magic, you feel me?”

At the sound of Jakyung’s voice, Jinae broke down in another episode of wails. Horrified by the escalating sight before him, Baekhyun raced speedily to the door to let the two girls in so that could take over the reigns and relieve him of Jinae duty. 

It was bright Monday morning, a giant contrast to Jongin’s mood. Although he had spent the night in restlessness, when the sunrays finally seeped through the openings of his curtain he couldn’t find the will to rise from his bed. Flashbacks to last night relentlessly filled his consciousness. He remembered how much his chest ached when she cried and how the guilt engulfed him when she asked if all this was because of her poor upbringing. He remembered how she returned his embrace despite undoubtedly hating him for his cowardice. He wished she had hit him or yelled at him. It would have made him feel better to know that she was angry instead of miserable. But you don’t deserve to feel better.

Jongin lay frozen for another hour until his mother forcefully pulled him up and made him clean himself and dress for work. Staring into the mirror, he found he had a hard time recognising his own reflection. Three practically sleepless nights had taken its toll on his appearance. Meat appeared to hang from his face, his darkened eyes drooping with lifelessness. No doubt his colleagues would have a thing or two to gossip about this morning. Jongin suddenly wished make up was a socially acceptable conduct for men.

He arrived at his office early. There was no point sitting around at home staring into nothingness. He carried himself through the building with as much conviction as he could, nodding briefly to familiar coworkers and actively avoiding conversation to spare his small energy reserve. He was nearing his private office door when his secretary called out to him.

“Sir, a lady came to see you claiming she had family matters to discuss. I told her to book an appointment but she firmly insisted that she wouldn’t leave until she spoke to you so I sent her inside.” Jongin’s shoulders dropped. He didn’t want to deal with people today. He thanked Minji and proceeded to enter his room, unable to guess whom his guest may be.

The metallic click of the door caught onto Jinae’s attention hard. This was it, the moment of confrontation. She suddenly regretted listening to Areum’s advice and coming here. She should have gone to work instead. Manager Lee would definitely fire her for today’s tardiness. Would she have to be a jobless, dependent housewife then? Omo, no. Please no. Anything but be like omma.

“Excuse me, Miss. My secretary tells me you have family matters to discuss but I’m afraid I don’t recognise you.” Jinae felt her blood drain to her feet. She had been so busy talking to herself she failed to notice the man had already made his way to her side.

“Miss?”

…

“Miss, if you have nothing to say I think you should leave. I’ll have my secretary you out.” Jongin left her side and headed for his desk phone. Jinae knew it was now or never. Filling her lungs with air to their maximum capacity, she shot up from her seat.

“Wait! I’m Jinae, Hwang Jinae. I’m here to ask you to cooperate with me and object to our parents’ arrangement.” Hwang? This was the girl? Jongin turned. Jinae was not a sight for sore eyes. He noticed her clearly swollen eyes and her chapping lips. There was even a small leaf tucked away under the fringe of her hair. Apart from her nicely pressed clothes, this girl was a disheveled mess. It gave him some comfort to know that she was as equally distressed by their situation as he was. That comfort was quickly replace by dejection and guilt when he recalled why he couldn’t back out of the prearrangement.

“Jinae-sshi. I understand what you are saying. More than that, I feel the same way myself. I don’t believe this is the best reason to marry someone. However, I believe it’s best that we listen to our elders and see their decision through. There is always a reason for everything,” Jongin struggled to maintain eye contact. He felt like a criminal. To put it bluntly, he was going to marry this girl for her money.

Jinae stared at him incredulously. “Are you the family dog?”

Jongin was taken aback. “Excuse me?”

“I’m asking if you see yourself as the family dog! Are you just going to sit where they tell you to sit and eat when they say you can? Be a man! Why are you willing to marry me, a girl you’ve never seen before in your life?” had a mind of its own. “Could it be that there’s something wrong with you? How can you look like that and have a job like this with such an impressive family background but still succumb to an arranged marriage? Can’t you find a wife for yourself? Do you have a criminal past? Do you have socially unacceptable tendencies? Or could it be that you... don’t function properly down there…?”

If he weren’t so tired he would have found her speculations amusing instead of palpably offensive. He was running particularly low on patience today. He interjected with a low growl, “Jinae-sshi, I see no reason to call this off. I have my reason for agreeing with my parents and I’m sure you’ll find yours because it seems your parents won’t be changing their mind. The sooner you come to terms with our predicament, the better it will be for you. If that was all then I will see you again at dinner on Wednesday.”

“Are you being serious right now or am I supposed to wait for a punch line?”

He had had enough of this girl and her imagination. “Jinae-sshi I have work to attend to so I really can’t entertain you any longer. Please save me from a headache and get out.”

Rude! Jinae didn’t want to marry him, not one bit. “Jongin-sshi, hear me out please-“

“I really do not have the time, energy or interest to indulge you right now. I’ll have Minji walk you out.” With that he buzzed for his secretary.

Jinae whimpered softly as she dragged her feet out of Kim Metal Management. No wonder appa picked him. They’re both the same level of workaholic; won’t even let me finish my sentence! She disliked him already. She’d come to negotiate but felt like she was almost groveling instead. She did not want to spend another day with that man, let alone everyday. If I can’t make the son back off, I’ll resort to disgusting the socks off his parents instead. That consoling thought put a menacing bounce in Jinae’s step within seconds.

 “Jin Omma’s Florist! This is Jakyung speaking.”

“This is Oh Sehun, I came in on Saturday to arrange some table pieces for the Hwang Enterprise charity ball.”

“Oh yes! Can I help you Sehun-sshi? You’re not calling about a cancellation are you?” Jakyung had already planned out all the things she would buy with the hearty cheque that would come with this order.

“No, of course not. You suggested you would bring in a couple of samples for me today to present to the board, but I’ve unfortunately had to arrange a meeting offsite. I can come to you later today if that’s alright with you?”

“Areum has left already. If you give me your location, I can just send her straight there. She’s already out anyway; it’ll be a waste of a drive if she has to come back. And it’ll save you the trouble!”

Areum pulled up by Seoul Garden, hastily gathered the box of floral arrangement samples and entered Best Western Hotel. Despite Jakyung’s brief instructional text, Areum managed to find the quaint conference room Sehun was using. As instructed, she waited outside for the meeting to finish.

But Areum was never good at waiting. Her curiosity got the best of her and, before she could stop herself, she was already staring at Sehun through the small window in the door panel. There he sat in all his glory, staring attentively at the middle-aged speaker, receptively nodding every now and then. Areum gawked at his perfect jawline and his prominent Adam’s apple, his fists periodically clenching before slowly relaxing. She found even that bizarrely attractive. How she wished she were the one he was paying all his attention to.

“You’re drooling.”

Embarrassed, Areum juggled her container box with one hand and reach up to clean her chin with the other but found no evidence of drool. “Yah!” she hissed at the intruder.

He shrugged nonchalantly. “If I didn’t speak up, you would have started to drool anyway. So,” he turned and made eye contact with her for the first time. “What do you find so alluring about Oh Sehun?”

How did he know?

“Of course you were looking Sehun. Unless you have a thing for 50 year old men…”

Areum cleared . “I don’t know what you’re talking about... But I guess that man in there is quite attractive. Do you know him?”

“Quite well actually.” The man grinned, his cheeks rising up and almost touching the brim of his tan fedora. He appeared incredibly at ease in his pale orange button up and caramel khaki shorts. What bothered her was that he looked so familiar. Where had she seen his face before…? It struck her.

“Omo! Do Kyungsoo?!” Kyungsoo wanted to sigh. Couldn’t he have one normal conversation with a girl without her becoming a tongue-tied, gushing, incoherent mess? “You look so much better…” Here we go... “…on TV. Why do you look like this? I thought your skin was meant to be flawless. This is so anticlimactic!” Areum puffed her cheeks and frowned.

“Yah!” Kyungsoo didn’t think of himself as overly cocky, but never did he ever expect to hear that come out of . “Why are you judging me, you ahjumma? Who even wears gumboots out nowadays? Are you a farmer? You won’t stand a chance with Sehun looking like a cow’s nanny!” Kyungsoo mentally nursed his hurt ego. Obviously his natural skin was not as dewy as the make up artists make it out to be but he didn’t think his complexion was anything short of clear or smooth.

“Why are you getting so angry? Did you expect me to kiss your feet or something? I’m 25 not 15, I’m not going to fawn over you just because you have a d*ck. Please get over yourself!” Having watched the way Do Kyungsoo had carried himself on ‘Come to Play’ and ‘Running Man’, Areum didn’t expect him to be such a childish narcissist. The things celebrities do to please a camera. How fake. If only all good looking men could be like my Sehun. Her stomach fluttered at the last thought.  

Hearing the muffled commotion outside, Sehun adjourned the meeting and walked the other party to the door. He opened the door just as a flushed Kyungsoo screamed, “YAH! DO YOU WANT TO DIE?!”

“Areum-sshi! I see you’ve met Kyungsoo,” Sehun said through gritted teeth as he stepped in in between the two and glared at his friend.

“You know her?” Kyungsoo blurted.

“Why are you harassing her?” Sehun whispered. He turned back to Areum. “Kyungsoo is an old friend. I’m sorry for keeping you waiting. Please come inside.” Areum nodded with a smile and headed through the door. Kyungsoo moved to follow suit but before he could take his second step, Sehun had firmly palmed his face.

“Not you. Go find somewhere else to play, Kyungsoo.” Kyungsoos mouth was agape. In a dramatic manner, he clutched onto his chest and faked a whimper, but soon balled his fists when he saw Areum stick out her tongue at him from behind Sehun. 

“Fine. I’m too cool for you anyway.” With that he his heels and strode unfazed down the hall.

Sehun shook his head and ushered Areum inside, apologising on his friend’s behalf. To his relief she was readily forgiving and still eager to show him the samples. It didn’t take long for Sehun to select the two designs he liked best to take back with him. Sensing their meeting was drawing to a close, Areum fired as many questions at him as she could. She pretended to have interests in studying abroad so she could hear his anecdotes and opinions on New York; and she even pretended to like swimming and fishing because he mentioned he did.

Areum’s attempts to flirt went completely unseen by the usually perceptive Sehun. He found her high giggles to be dorky and took her surprise and curiosity in all that he said to be genuine interest.

The progression of their conversation made Areum confident. Laughing, she reached out to innocently grab a fistful of his bicep but was left hanging when the unaware Sehun moved his arm to check his phone. He turned back to see her hand floating in midair. Awkwardly laughing louder, Areum faked large stretching motions with her arms, wanting the ground to swallow her whole.

“Areum-sshi, this has been a lovely chat. I’m afraid I need to head back to the office now. If you have any further enquiries about studying in New York, don’t hesitate to give me a call.” Areum tried hard not to frown. She hadn’t had enough time with her eye candy yet.

She rose and gathered her belongings. Putting her weight onto one leg to buck her hip to the side, she gave him her best suggestive grin. “Have a good day then Sehun-sshi,” she tried to imitate a purr at a lower octave in hopes of sounding ier and reached out to give him an unprompted hug. She let go quickly and dashed out of the room before she could develop a nosebleed, managing to keep calm until she entered the elevator.