“So, tell me about this guy… what’s he like?” I sat across from Yuri in a private room. Outside I heard Taeyeon listening to music, so it seemed awfully quiet in the secluded room.

    “He’s... “ Yuri paused, her eyes looking down at the floor as if she was deep in thought. “tall and handsome. He’s a successful business man; in fact he’s an heir for his family business.” Yuri described him with glowing eyes. By the time she stopped talking, I noticed that she was making eye-contact with me.

    “Oh, I see…” I nodded, “What’s his name?”

    Yuri smiled and shifted her head, “Choi Siwon.” She seemed less upset and more at ease now.

    “Could you explain the scenario again to me? So he’s in an arranged marriage and will be getting married to another woman in a few days. But you’re currently dating him? So how does he feel about this?” I didn’t want to throw a bunch of questions out at her at one time, but as I spoke, more questions filled my mind and I felt the need to ask them.

    “So… Siwon and I have been dating for a year and four months so far. But recently, he’s been set up in an arranged marriage with the daughter of another family who will be merging companies with Siwon’s family’s company. From what I saw, it didn’t even seem like she was interested in the arranged marriage, but for some reason she agreed to it and Siwon is kind of trapped.” Yuri’s smile turned into a frown. “I’ve talked to Siwon about us and I’ve urged him to try to get out of this arranged marriage, but at times it seems as if Siwon is brainwashed and doesn’t know how to think for himself. I keep urging him and he tells me that he’ll handle it, but I get the feeling that he’s just telling me that to calm me down…”

    I took notes as she spoke and looked over the details. By the descriptions she was giving, it seemed as if Siwon was being brainwashed or even threatened into this arranged marriage. And what didn’t seem to make sense was why the fiancee would agree to the arranged marriage if she didn’t even love Siwon. Was the problem more complex than it actually seemed?

<3

    I entered the building of Siwon’s company and peered around. The company looked like a typical office building. I walked up to the front desk where I saw a woman sitting. “Excuse me?”

She looked up from her computer and met eye contact with me, “Yes, how may I help you?”

“Uh, hi… I’m looking for Choi Siwon.” I hoped that the way I’d said that didn’t seem too creepy or anything…

“Ah, what’s this in reference to?” she replied looking back at her computer.

“I need to talk to him…” my eyes scanned around for some other reason. “I’m his old friend. I wanted to talk to him about our high school reunion…” I wondered if that fake excuse would be good enough.

“Ahhh, okay…” she stood up and gestured, “You have to take that elevator over there, up to the fourth floor and when you get out of the elevator, walk straight to the door at the very end. That’s his office. ”

“Okay, thank you so much!” I smiled at her and walked to the elevator.

As I walked to the elevator, I noticed that the elevator door was already closing. I guessed that I’d have to take the next lift… While I waited for the elevator, I saw from the corner of my eye a woman walk over to wait for the next lift too. She looked so classy…

The elevator door opened and I walked in first. She walked in after me. I pressed the button for the fourth floor and noticed that she was about to press that button too. When she saw that the button was already pressed, she stepped back. I peered at her again. Could she possibly be…?

The elevator arrived at the fourth floor and we both got out. I watched as she walked straight to Siwon’s office.