The next morning was as worse as last night. Dara was sitting in her car with her forehead pressed down on her steering wheel as she thought back to what her lawyer said.

“I’m sorry Dara, but your father’s right. Everything done is legal and the signature on the certificate is valid. You’re technically married to Choi Seunghyun.”

That last sentence made her want to scream out of frustration. She thought everything would be okay after she got her lawyer to sort this mess out and she would be able to tell her father to go screw himself, but none of that is possible. What annoyed her the most was she had no recollection of who Choi Seunghyun was. She tried to remember her childhood when she could’ve possibly met the boy but it was almost impossible since Dara erased almost all her childhood memories from her mind in order to forget her father. It was also useless to find any picture because her mother had burned all their photo albums out of anger when her father left them. Everything came back to her father being at fault and it just made Dara angrier because of how selfish he was being. It made no sense that all this was possible, yet it was.

In the middle of her breakdown, her phone vibrated from an incoming email. It was her lawyer telling her that she should call Seunghyun and set up an appointment in order to talk things out. Her mind was all over the place and now she had to call the man that was now her “husband.” She prayed that he wasn’t a creep or a psycho, but with her luck she didn’t put it past her. She looked at the number she saved in the morning, courtesy of her father, and took a deep breath before pressing call. The phone rang for a while until someone finally picked up. Dara was expecting a normal voice to pick up, sounding almost annoyed, but his voice was nothing she was prepared for.

The man answered with a “hello,” that seemed to echo in her ears. His voice was gentle but so deep that Dara immediately made the unusual connection to velvet. She was quiet until he spoke into the phone again asking who was calling.

“Oh, um. Hello this is Sandara Park.” Dara even did a little bow in her car as a reflex even though she knew he couldn’t see her.

“Oh your Ahjussi’s daughter?” She guessed he was referring to her father.

“Yeah, I’m guessing you found out about our um… situation?”

“Yes.”

“I set up an appointment with my lawyer and he said it would be best for us both to be present and sort things out. I was calling to ask you if you were okay with that?” She hated how unsure and small her voice sounded.

“Sure.” Dara was getting annoyed at his one word responses.

“Uh okay. I’ll text you the address, you do live in Seoul right?” It just occurred to Dara that Seunghyun could have been living on the opposite side of South Korea.

“Yes, I do. Will 7:00 be okay for the meeting?” Finally a complete sentence.

“Yes, that sounds fine.”

“Alright, then goodbye.” He hung up without waiting for a response from her side, and she couldn’t help but find him to be so rude. She knew he couldn’t be a nice guy since her fate would never allow her some sort of happiness in her life.

Dara found herself to be nervous to meet Seunghyun. She stressed over how she looked because a part of her didn’t want him to be disappointed when seeing the girl he’s technically married to. Dara wasn’t an insecure girl, but she was still somewhat affected by others’ judgements. It was her nerves that led her to be 30 minutes earlier to their appointment. She sat in front of her lawyer, who was a man she’s known for a long time. She called him Samchun out of love and viewed him as the father figure in her life. He could sense her uneasiness and kept telling her to calm down.

“How can I be calm, I don’t even know how he looks like or what does!”

“You don’t know who Choi Seunghyun is?”

“Am I supposed to?” He gave her a disappointed look.

“He’s the co-founder and CEO of one of the biggest architecture firms in the country. Also known as the youngest CEO. You’ve never read about him in the paper?”

“… I don’t care about architecture! But that is impressive, how old is he?”

“I believe he just turned 30 this year.”

“Oh wow that is young. Can I see him? Is he creepy looking? Is he a psycho?” He laughed at her sudden eagerness.

“Ok now you really need to calm down. But, sorry I’ve never seen him either. He’s always been very private about his life, so it’s his partner that is more known to the public.” Dara deflated at her Samchun’s answer and slouched back into her chair.

“Where is he anyway, so rude showing up late on the first meeting.” Dara made a point of looking at her watch but she was too nervous to focus on the actual time.

“He still has 10 minutes, plus it was you that came in too early and is now bothering me.”

With a dramatic gasp and a hand on her chest, Dara replied “How can you think of me as a bother? I’m offended.” He only responded to her with a knowing look which made Dara giggle. Her giggle was interrupted midway when there was a knock at the door.

“Come in,” Dara quickly sat up and fixed her blazer and hair while keeping her eyes on her Samchun’s desk. When she looked up to meet Samchun's eyes, they seemed to look very amused. Dara was confused but couldn’t really do anything about it since Seunghyun stood next to her chair as he bowed to Samchun. She forced herself up to look up at him and was struck when he looked down at her at the same time.

He certainly did not look like a creep. The man was attractive, model attractive and she would know since she spent her days with them. He was tall and dressed well with his black hair slicked back. But his most appealing features were his eyes. They were so dark and intense it almost seemed as if they were smoldering. She kept staring at him until she heard a cough coming from the direction of her Samchun. Dara broke the eye contact as she looked over at him, who was now looking more amused than ever. She realized she was just caught checking this guy out, and for sure her cheeks were now forming a blush. She kept her eyes on the wall behind her Samchun as Seunghyun took the seat next to her.

“Hello, my name is Choi Seunghyun.” He bowed once again to Samchun, who returned the action.

“I'm Yoo Hee Yeol, I’ve been Dara’s lawyer for about 6 years now.” Dara didn’t realize they were both looking at her until the silence became too heavy. She looked away from the wall and right into Seunghyun’s eyes once again, which was a mistake because she forgot what she was going to say. Then suddenly she felt a nudge on her feet from under the table, and knew who it was.

“Oh, sorry I’m Sandara Park but you can call me Dara.” Seunghyun gave her a little nod but then turned back towards Hee Yeol. Dara didn’t understand why she was acting like this, even if he was attractive, it didn’t make sense. She dealt with attractive people for a living! While Dara was in her own little world Hee Yeol was giving Seunghyun the summary of what their situation looked like. She finally came back down to Earth when she heard her Samchun say the words “live together for a year.”

“Excuse me?!” Her outburst was sudden and once again both men were looking at her.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell but what do you mean live together for one year?” Hee Yeol gave her an annoyed look since it was obvious Dara wasn’t listening to him for the past couple of minutes.

“I was saying that even if we were to go to court to get a request for a divorce, the judge would order you guys to live together for one year and ‘work it out.’ But because you two are a special case, it would just be easier for you guys to just send in a statement that says you will be living together for a year, but if things still don’t work out, a divorce is necessary.”

“There’s no other way?” Dara never imagined having to live with the man. She couldn’t handle just being in the same room as him without embarrassing herself.

“I’m afraid not.” Hee Yeol gave them both a sad look because he knew their circumstances.

“We don’t actually have to live together right? We can just lie and say we are.” Dara was looking for any way out.

“I wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t necessary. The court sends over people randomly to check on couples who have the same mindset as you. If they find out you two aren’t living together, it’ll just prolong the process even more.” Hearing his words Dara sat back into her chair and covered her face with her hands. This whole thing just kept getting worse.

“Alright I just need you to sign this document, and then you can go.” He pushed a paper towards their direction and Seunghyun leaned forward to sign, and Dara followed afterwards. Seunghyun then stood up and said goodbye as he turned around to leave. It was just Dara and Hee Yeol left in the room.

“I’m really sorry about all this Dara-yah. I know you don’t want all of this.” Dara could only give him a sad smile because if she said anything else she knew tears would start falling. She bowed goodbye and left the office. Seunghyun was waiting for the elevator as she began to make her way towards it as well. Dara noticed that Seunghyun had not said a word other than his greetings, she was curious to how he felt about all this.

“Hi” Seunghyun, gave her another small nod. The elevator doors opened and he motioned for her to enter first, while he followed. The small space made the silence almost deafening so she decided to make conversation.

“So… the weather is getting colder huh?” As soon as the words left she wanted to take them back. Seunghyun gave her a look as if he was saying are you seriously talking about the weather? But he actually said “Yes, it is December.” Dara wanted to kill herself, and decided to stay quiet for the rest of the ride down. When the elevator doors opened to the lobby, Dara did a quick little bow as she all but ran out. However, she stopped midway when she heard Seunghyun call after her. When she turned around to face him he asked “would you like to grab some coffee? I think we should talk about our living situation.” That was the most Seunghyun has ever said in the short span of time she’s known him. She was confused on whether he really asked her or she was in her own world again. But, the look on his face made it clear that he was waiting for her answer.

“Oh, sure, coffee sounds good.” She turned back towards the door as he was now beside her completely overwhelming her with his presence. 

I hope you enjoyed it! Let me know what you thought down in the comments below! Thank you for reading.