2.

Park Sanchol entered his daughter’s room followed closely by his personal assistant, Gong Minzy and his future son in law, Kwon Jiyong. His eyes caught sight of his daughter lying in the bed.

“Dara, sweetheart!” Mr. Park extended his arms.

“Appa!” Dara leaned into his embrace. “You came.”

“Of course I came. You know I wouldn’t stay away once I heard my baby girl was hurt.”

Dara smiled, but then she caught sight of Kwon Jiyong hovering by the door and her smile quickly turned south. “Eh, why are you back?” she asked.

Her father looked at whom she was speaking and his eyes widened in surprise. Jiyong only stared back at Dara. So she remembered her father but not him? What game was she playing at?

“I came to bring your father,” he answered.

Dara turned to her father. “Appa, that punk said he’s my fiance. He said I chased after him and caused you to force him into an engagement with me.”

Mr. Park raised his brows and cleared his throat. “He said that to you?”

Dara folded her arms like a stubborn child and nodded once.

“She said she doesn’t want to marry me anymore,” Jiyong informed a surprised Mr. Park.

Mr. Park looked from one to the other, then took a closer look at Dara. She had one brow cocked as she glared back at Jiyong.

Well this was unusual. Dara never ever showed defiance like this before. And she would never call anyone a 'punk'. She was always so soft-spoken, shy even. And against Jiyong? This was the man Dara had told him she wanted to marry. Mr. Park had given an apartment building in a very good neighborhood to Jiyong’s parents to seal the deal.

“Uhm, sweetheart. Are you feeling okay?” he asked.

Dara turned her frown on her father, waiting for an explanation.

“Do you know who he is?” Mr. Park asked, pointing to Jiyong.

Dara nodded, repeating the name the man who called himself her fiance had told her earlier. “Kwon Jiyong.”

“That’s right,” Mr. Park said slowly. “Kwon Jiyong, the love of your life?” That was the description Dara used when she told him she would marry no other but Jiyong.

“Ha!” Dara huffed. “Love of my life? Then how come I don’t remember him?”

Both Mr. Park and Minzy stared, trying to reconcile this Dara with the Dara they knew that was helplessly in love with Jiyong. Mr. Park looked over at Jiyong. The latter shrugged his shoulders.

Mr. Park turned back to his daughter. “Dara, how old are you?”

“Twenty-four, why?”

“Where do you live?”

Dara rattled off the address of their home.

“Where do you work?”

Dara rolled her eyes, something she’s never done to her father in the past. “Appa, why all these questions? I work for Park Enterprises as the VP of Public Relations. Oh and by the way, appa, I’d like an office to go with that title. I don’t know how you expect me to oversee Public Relations when I don’t even have an office in the building.”

Three sets of mouths dropped open. Jiyong recovered first and smothered a laugh. Minzy cleared while Mr. Park narrowed his eyes. The reason he had never given Dara an office officially was because the position was only a glorified title. A title he gave her because, first, she was his heir, and secondly because she wanted to be near Jiyong, who was the real person running the PR department. The title only gave her pretense to meet with Jiyong over lunches and dinners so that he could 'report' to her. It also gave her a presence in the company even if in name only. In reality, aside from a select few, all of his employees thought Jiyong was head of PR and had no idea of Dara's title.

“Minzy,” Mr. Park began. “Would you go find Dara’s doctor? I’d like to speak with him and get an update please.”

“Right away, sir.” Minzy left and Mr. Park pulled a chair up next to his daughter’s bed. Now that he paid more attention there were some peculiarities to Dara. The way she was talking, how she held herself. Even her smile, strange as it sounded, looked slighltly different.

“Tell me what happened to you that you ended up here,” Mr. Park asked curiously.

Dara proceeded to tell him of how she had been home and went downstairs to get a drink. She turned the corner into the kitchen and ran into one of the maids causing Dara to fall. The next thing she knew she woke up in the hospital with a headache.

“Who was the maid? I’ll fire her,” he demanded.

“You will do no such thing. It was an accident. Besides I’m fine as you can see.”

Mr. Park raised his brow. This reaction was not typical of his daughter.

Jiyong too noticed the subtle changes in Dara and it made him want to laugh to see the surprise on Mr. Park’s face. She never questioned her father’s decisions. This new Dara seemed to have no problem speaking her mind. But it was odd that she remembered her father but didn’t remember him. Was she faking it perhaps? But that wouldn’t make sense since she was the one that wanted this arranged marriage in the first place.

Jiyong walked up closer to the bed, his hand in his coat pocket. He pressed the record button on his phone before he spoke. “Dara, if you’re feeling up to it my parents would like to come see you.”

She blinked once, then twice. “I told you, Idon’t know who you are,” she said, finally. “I don’t love you, I’m not marrying you, and I certainly don’t want to see your parents, whoever they are.”

“Dara, the engagement is already set. The announcement is already out.” Mr. Park could not believe his daughter was claiming not to want Kwon Jiyong after all he’d gone through to secure this arranged marriage for her.

“Can’t we unannounced it? Tell them I changed my mind.” She waved her hand in the air in motions that were not typical of her.

Jiyong wanted to laugh. She was spoiled like the old Dara but nowhere meek and quiet like the old one. “Well I certainly don’t have a problem with cancelling the engagement,” Jiyong stated.

“Then it’s done,” Dara stated, looking pleased with herself.

“Are you sure you won’t change your mind? You can’t go back and claim you don’t remember any of this,” Jiyong stated.

“As if I would,” Dara smirked. Jiyong smirked right back at her as he secretly ended the recording.

*