#since1765
 

Jung Sik Dang Restaurant

City of Seoul – Gyeonggi Province

“Are you kidding me dad?” Kwon Jiyong cried out through gritted teeth after almost choking in his drink. “An arranged marriage in this day and age?! Please tell me this is a joke!” 

This had got to be the worst news Jiyong ever received on his birthday. The family was gathered in the posh restaurant to celebrate his 28th birthday. He was glad that his grandfather wasn't here as they discussed The Great Pact once more.

“I never expected you to permanently end things with Audrie. You've been dating her for six years! I always thought you would eventually marry her, and so I never discussed The Great Pact with you. Now that you're single, and on your 28th year of age, we have no choice but to follow the elders' will.”

Jiyong ran his palms through his head, crumbling in the stupidity of the current reality. He drank his wine in one gulp, angry.

“And marry me off with a stranger?! I'm sorry dad but I refuse! I do not believe that the faith of the republic relies on this ridiculous arranged marriage!”

“Jiyong's right. Gramps has gone cray on this,” his sister Dami came to his benefit, also shaking her head in disagreement. “Gosh, I can't believe our generation can still be affected by such shamanistic customs.”

“I agree with you both,” admitted Jiyong's dad. “The elders' beliefs about the gods' punishment is absurd at best. You don't have to believe the myths like they do. The Lord knows I don't! But your Gramps may die from this. He can't die angry at you, at us.”

“So why me?! Why not noona?”

“Yah! Don't pass your misfortunes on me!” Kwon Dami screamed out, slapping the back of his head.

“The Gyeonggi province has to offer a son this time. It has to be the Kwons' son,” explained his father.

“And what if I am not eligible?” said Jiyong.

To which his father answered, “But you are!”

“Audrie and I--”

“Have broken up for good, so you say,” this time, it was Jiyong's mom who contributed to the conversation. What she said had so much weight. Everyone in the table knew that she celebrated the most when the day he and Audrie broke up for good came.

“What makes you so sure Audrie and I are totally over? We'll get back together again, I'll make sure of that!”

Will we? Really? Even Jiyong only half-heartedly believed what he just said. He poured himself another glass of wine, and drank it again in one go. The discussion was wearing him out, and he could tell he'd go home drunk and troubled tonight. This was his worst birthday since he met Audrie.

“I hate to tell you this son, but...” Mr. Kwon carefully said, as if uncomfortable to talk about what he would say. “...do you honestly believe Audrie will take you back after everything that has happened?”

Jiyong was silenced. Of course she might not. But that didn't mean Jiyong couldn't try. He's tried and won her over numerous times in the past. What made it different this time? Uhm, how about the fact that this is our 536299th breakup? Jiyong didn't know why he had to say what he would say next. He just knew he needed to explain himself.

“I did not cheat on her, okay? I. Did. Not,” he firmly declared to his family. It was like preaching to the choir.

“Not according to the hooker.”

“Shut up noona!”

“Mom, Jiyong's disrespecting me!”

“Enough!” shouted their mom, pounding the table with both hands, shutting them both up.

“Sorry,” the two Kwon children silently muttered.

“I'll find a way. I'll find the next of kin available,” Jiyong stated, finding a new ray of light. “If I have to talk to all sorts of shaman historians, or travel all over Korea, just to find the other eligible sons, I would!”

Mr. Kwon dismissed him, shook his head and answered, “There's no time! You have to marry by the eve of the Lunar New Year of 2016 or--”

“Or what dad? The war will come?”

“No. Your grandfather will be angry.”

“You disobeyed your father. Why should I pay for that?”

“Because I am ordering you to!” shouted the ever so calm Kwon Younghwan. Jiyong's dad has lost it this time. He could tell that his father still harbored guilt for violating the pact himself.

“But honey, we said we would never force our son to do this.”

“If you can honestly tell me you can get Audrie to marry you before the Lunar New Year, then you'll be ineligible, and I'd let you disobey your elders.”

Once the father of the household yelled in wrath like that, no one really stood a chance. Not even their mother. Jiyong couldn't believe that this was happening to him. He knew that right now, he was fighting a losing battle.

Mr. Kwon continued, “But if you two do not marry…”

“I REFUSE TO MARRY SOMEONE OTHER THAN AUDRIE KIKO DANIEL!” Jiyong barked furiously, the alcohol discounting his respect for his elders.

“KWON JIYONG!” Mother Kwon cried out in shock, holding her chest. She looked at him and his father, then screamed, “MY GOD, STOP THIS NOW, YOU TWO!”

Jiyong pacified himself. He bowed his head for a while, thinking. After a few moments of silence, he looked up and said, “I'm sorry mom and dad, but please let me be a disobedient son just this once.”

He stood up and grabbed his things, bowing goodbye to his parents and sister.

“Thank you for the birthday dinner.”

“Jiyong!” his mom called out, but then he was gone.

***

Kim Residence Garden

City of Jeonju – North Jeolla Province

“But dad, why should I suffer when you got away from this stupid marriage arrangement?!” Taeyeon screamed at the top of her lungs, forgetting to level her voice in front of her parents.

This time, Grandpa Kim was asleep and out of earshot. Their relatives were also gone, and so Taeyeon said all her pent-up feelings from the events that transpired earlier.
 

“Because I met and married your mother by the age of 27! The Great Pact gives us offsprings the freedom to choose our own partners. You knew very well the time limit, and yet you never took it seriously!”

“It's the 21st century for crying out loud! And besides... I... I have...” Taeyeon struggled for words, mostly because she didn't wholeheartedly trust what she was going to say.

“...I have B-Baekhyun.” Did I? Really? Taeyeon doubted. Then, she just flat-out lied. ”I'm in love with him.”

To her surprise, her father blurted out a loud laugh. He had gone hysterical for a few seconds, then said in full sarcasm, “Don't humor me Kim Taeyeon. You can't possibly believe you'd marry that teenager?!”

“Kim Seungwoo, don’t say that!” warned her mother. But it was too late.

“I knew it!” Taeyeon cried out in disbelief. She stood up from the couch and confronted her father. “You lied to me dad! You said he had your blessing!”

“Lower your voice young woman, and sit down!” called out her mother, and so she sat down again, but this time close to tears.

“And I do bless him! But only as your boyfriend! As a pastime.”

“Oh my god,” she cried, covering her face and finally breaking out in tears. “I can't believe I'm hearing this now. This is so unfair!”

“You are 27 years old for Christ's sake!” his father continued, and this time, Taeyeon sensed real anger and disappointment in his voice. “We've watched you hop on from one man to another for years like a fox! When are you ever going to learn?”

“So you think I'm a ?” she asked beneath her hands, her voice muffled and broken from crying.

“Your father did not say that!”

“Hop on? Is that what you think I'm doing?” she wiped her tears and found the courage to look up, but the tears still came out. 

“How about that I'm just searching for happiness? Dad, did you ever realize that you and mom gave me such high standards for a relationship? It's because of what you have that I hop on from one man to another. I want romance, a fairy tale, a happy ending. I want what you have. Is it so wrong to search so hard for that perfect love story without being called a ?!”

“We are going off tangent Kim Taeyeon,” Mr. Kim realized, softening at the sight of her tears.

Taeyeon's mom tried to calm the situation, and said, “We don't have to decide on this now. The elders said the wedding has to happen on the eve of the Lunar New Year. Until then, you can think about it.”

“There's nothing to think about mom. I will not do it!”

“THE HELL YOU WILL!” shouted Mr. Kim once more.

“I'D RATHER MARRY BYUN BAEKHYUN THAN AGREE TO THIS PREPOSTEROUS ARRANGED MARRIAGE!”

“THEN YOU HAVE MY BLESSING FOR THAT!”

“Wh-what?” Wait a minute. Blessing for what, exactly? Even Taeyeon's mom was stunned at her husband's announcement.

“Fine. Go. If you can get that young man to marry you by Lunar New Year, go ahead. I will not stop you.”

To hear her father to finally acknowledge Baekhyun as her potential husband only meant things were already down. His father was asking her the impossible. For the first time in her life, she will be asked to do as she detested, and she couldn't believe it was happening. The tears finally stopped upon this realization.

“But if he does not marry you then…”

“I'm sorry dad, I'm sorry mom,” she cut him off, standing up once more. “I respectfully disobey just this one time. Thank you for the dinner. I'll drive back to Seoul now.”

Without hearing the next things they would say, she rushed out of their house and drove herself back to her own home.

***

SBS Inkigayo Backstage

City of Seoul – Gyeonggi Province

In GD&TOP's SBS dressing room, the YG staff was in full business mode for the Zutter stage.

Two days after the bomb of a news was dropped on him, Kwon Jiyong still lived in disbelief and denial. Even his work couldn't take his mind off what happened on the night of his birthday.

War? Famish? Ludicrous. Totally dumb! How can the gods put such responsibility to mere Kwons! Gosh, my elders are so full of themselves!

Yet why did he feel th