Zweiundzwangzig

“Firstly, let me tell you a little bit about Kim Jongin.”

Park Chanyeol made himself comfortable on the couch and gestured for me to sit down. Nervously, I plopped myself down on the couch next to him, yet made sure to keep myself perched on the other end of the couch away from him.

Chanyeol glanced over at me, clearly having noticed my obvious attempt to keep myself away from him, and he rolled his eyes yet chose not to mention it as he proceeded on to telling me about my future husband.

“So, to sum it up, Kim Jongin is a psychopath.”

That I’m aware of. I answered sardonically in my head.

“He’s my half-brother.”

Yes, I know. You told me that earlier.

“And his father remarried my mother, who then had me when Jongin was about 8 years old.”

Chanyeol paused for a second, and in those few seconds, it suddenly dawned me that I had no idea how old Jongin was, and before I could even stop myself, the question came tumbling how of my lips.

“How old is Jongin now?”

Chanyeol’s skeptical and surprised look was of expected as he raised one eyebrow and let out a disbelieving little chuckle.

“You don’t know how old your future husband is?” The question sounded ridiculous even to my own ears, and I glanced away from Chanyeol and bit my lips.

“I…don’t know anything about him.” Was my short reply. There was another round of silence before Chanyeol let out a sigh.

“He’s 28 this year.” I hated the pitying tone in Chanyeol’s voice, “Don’t worry, he’s not 50 or something.”

I pursed my lips together and glanced downwards at my feet.

“Then…” Despite the feeling of embarrassment crawling deeper into my skin, I decided that it’s either I ask now or never find out, “How about his parents?”

Chanyeol gave me another look, yet he made no witty response and proceeded to answer my question.

“My parents are in China right now,” I didn’t miss the stress on the words ‘my’, “Father and mother’s moved permanently to China, and they’re managing some companies over there…though, Father’s given the title of the CEO to Jongin a few years ago, so technically, Jongin’s the boss now.”

“So…they’re not dead?”

Chanyeol turned to give me an incredulous look.

“And what makes you think they’re dead?”

“Well, rumours.” I muttered, thinking back to the first day at work where Yuna told me how Jongin’s parents were supposedly ‘dead’.

There was another few minutes of silence before Chanyeol cleared his throat.

“And one more thing, I’m not sure if you know yet, but you’re not the first “victim” to be locked up here in his penthouse.”

My eyes widened at this new information, and I snapped my head around to stare at Chanyeol, whose lips twitched upwards at my shocked reaction.

“What, disappointed that you’re not his ‘one true love’? Well, don’t be, because out of all the girls he’s had a thing for in the past, you’re the only one to have survived this far.” The sour attitude Chanyeol had before when he was talking about Jongin suddenly disappeared, and suddenly, he began laughing as if this was the funniest thing in the world.

As if the fact that Kim Jongin was out here ruining other people’s lives was something worth laughing about.

“Let me see,” Chanyeol wiped tears of laughter from his eyes, “The longest relationship he had with the other girls was maybe…a month? But they were all relatively easy girls. Innocent, yes. But all too innocent and falls in love with him way too easily. Long story short, my cruel half-brother lost interest in them and basically dumped them.”

Biting my lips, I glanced away from Chanyeol as I began wondering if I’ve been acting the wrong way all this time. Should I have pretended to fall in love with Kim Jongin? Then would he had lost interest in me and let me go?

“Don’t worry, even if you acted like you’ve fallen in love with him, nothing will change. You…you’re a bit different.” As if he could read my mind, Chanyeol answered the question in my heart, “There’s just something about you as a person that would really attract Kim Jongin-“

Suddenly cutting himself off his words, Chanyeol’s eyes widened as if he had just gotten a brilliant flash of idea.

“I know what the problem here is.” Chanyeol sat up straight and his eyes gleamed, “Call me a genius, but I think I finally found the key to making Kim Jongin hate you…hey, come sit closer to me.”

Frowning, I could feel myself getting increasingly defensive as I only edged even further away from Chanyeol, and Chanyeol tilted his head as he stared at my face blatantly before nodding his head.

“That’s right, it’s that aura you give off. That attitude you have right now. The hint of fire and power in your personality shadowed by an overcast of fragility and delicacy.” Moving closer to me, Chanyeol backed me up to the corner of the couch and trapped me beneath his long arms as he stared more into my eyes, “Like right now, even though you seem so weak and timid, but the strength in your eyes that stare back at me, it’s amazing. No doubt Kim Jongin would want to keep you at his side.”

My breath hitching, I found myself unable to breathe as Chanyeol continued staring at me as if I was some sort of rare species. Just when I thought I would pass out from the breath I’ve held in for too long, Chanyeol finally backed away from me, and I let out a sigh of relief.

“I’ve figured it all out.” Chanyeol clapped his hands and grinned at me, ignoring the uncomfortable aura surrounding the two of us and continued on speaking as if nothing had happened at all, “What we need to do here, is give you a personality change.”

I paused, then shot Chanyeol a quizzical look.

“What do you mean, a personality change?”

“What I mean is,” Chanyeol smirked, “It’s time for you to become a tota