The hand hit Jooheon’s face hard, it completely caught him off-guard. When he came home his father walked towards him with a serious face, but that was nothing knew considering the man always had the same facial expression.

“The fack?” Another slap to the back of his head.

“You should stop with that too, son.” It always surprised Jooheon how his father could look and speak so calm while it was obvious he was boiling on the inside. His father signed at Jooheon to follow him while he walked towards his working room. While following his dad, Jooheon started to get goosebumps. There were only two scenarios when his dad wanted him in his working room: 1. He wanted Jooheon to learn something about the company or inform him about something, or 2. He had some serious business to discuss with Jooheon, as in that Jooheon did something wrong.

And Jooheon’s gut screamed it was the second option.

“Sit down you.” Jooheon’s father hissed. Jooheon sat down in the chair in front of his father desk, too afraid to look into is father’s eyes. His dad sat down on his leather chair, he slammed one of his cabinet drawers open, took something out of it and threw in on the desk. “Explain this.”

Jooheon looked at a little plastic bag with closing strip, filled with some white powder. It was the first time Jooheon saw the packaging. He looked up at his dad, confused and not knowing what was going on. “I’m sorry but should I know what this is?”

His father slammed his fist on the table and fury was reflected in his eyes. “Don’t you even think of talking your way out of this! You little ! How dare you acting so innocent, lying in front of the one who has always been there for you!” Normally Jooheon would have laughed in his father’s face because the words I’ve always been there for you were not even true for 1%, however, Jooheon was way too confused to start making fun of things.

“Father, I seriously swear I do not know what you’re talking about.”

“ENOUGH!” His father sniffed his noise loudly and let out a frustrated growl. “Good, act like you know nothing, I guess it’s easy to act dumb for someone like you. So I’ll make my story of it and I don’t care what you’ll say is true or not. You got your chance.”

Jooheon still had no clue of what his father was talking about, so the only thing he could do was look at his father in his confused state.

His father chuckled. “Can’t believe I raised such a coward, but don’t worry, you’ll learn how to be a man soon. But first the story.” His father opened the drawer again and took out another little plastic bag. Jooheon’s eyes opened at what he saw. That’s facking weed. He looked shockingly at his father. “No, dad, you cannot be serious. Why would you even think I wo-”

“Shut it, you punk! I told you, you wasted your chance and now it’s too late to crawl back.”

All Jooheon could do was stare into his father’s eyes, hoping he would see that this had nothing to do with him. But Jooheon knew that was not how his father worked, he never could read the feelings of other people’s faces. The old man had always been too occupied by his own point of view, never even realizing that the world through his eyes was not the only world that existed.

“As I see it, you got plenty of money with a dad like me. I always give you what you want, you get some monthly cash and if you need more you’ll always get it without questions asked. So, you are not dealing. There really is no goal in that, you already have enough money and if you were caught it would mean you’ll never be able to become a CEO and I know you’ve got interest in that. However, I think this would’ve been the better scenario because now I’m only left with one story.”

The next words hit Jooheon even harder than the slap he received a while ago from his dad and something inside of him started to burn. “You are a worthless junky.”

If there was one thing that Jooheon hated the most, it would be drugs. That filthy stuff would up everyone that took some. It could change an angel into a blind demon, Jooheon had seen it himself and Jooheon swore he would never want to see someone that close to him change because of drugs ever again. But of course his dad didn’t know that, he never knew a single thing that was going on in Jooheon’s life.

Jooheon abruptly stood up, causing his chair to fall over loud on the floor. “YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME?! REALLY?! FACKING REALLY?! What do you even take me for old man? Where the fack did you get this from eh?!”

“That big mouth of yours is a real problem.” His father’s voice was now so low, Jooheon knew this was a sign that his father was on the edge of losing control but Jooheon didn’t give a damn. “Don’t you know how worried I am, how worried you mom is? We-”

“MY MOM?! Where?! Did she come back? O. M. G. You should’ve told me! Then I threw a welcome back party and made sure she would leave again from this hell!” Jooheon scoffed.

“Your mother was a weak woman who could not handle the life she chose for!”

“No, you’re wrong! Mom chose the good life when she left you! The only mistake she made was leaving me behind with you thinking I would live happily!”

Those words were the last his dad needed to snap, he stood up from his chair and walked towards his youngest son. He slapped Jooheon’s face with all the power he had, grabbed Jooheon’s hair and pulled him back to his chair.

“How dare you talk like that about me! I gave you everything while your mother just left! Listen up Jooheon, do you want to be part of the company?” Jooheon nodded, still feeling pain all over his face. “It won’t happen if you act like this.”

His father looked out of the window, like he was thinking about what to do next.

“Listen, Taeyeon said she caught you coming home drunk on a weekday. I don’t mind you going to parties all weekend long and you can grab a drink at night during the week but you should not embarrass yourself by becoming completely drunk. And now I noticed you’re taking drugs. You’re such a waste of space. Luckily your scores at school are still high, so that means you did not completely lose control. But I, as a father, need to make sure you’ll stay in the right place.”

“Dad, I’m sorry. I did not mean to hurt anybody, I’ll make up for it.” It still bothered Jooheon that he had to say this considering he did nothing wrong but he knew his dad would not be changing his statement. Jooheon did not want to receive a beating from his dad, no, he had gotten those enough in the past. If he didn’t want things to get worse then he should just give up.

“Oh, you’ll definitely will make up for this. You know Jooheon, a few months ago a friend came to me with an odd offer. I did not spend much time on discussing it, also because my friend said the offer was not valid yet. A few days ago he texted me saying the offer is open but I did not respond on it. However, considering I can only make you obey me when I threaten with the company I think you’ll like this deal. You, Jooheon, can save our company. I also have the feeling this will be the only time you’ll be usable to me.”

A big smile appeared on his face and Jooheon knew that what was coming next wouldn’t make him happy because the smile on his dad face reflected dominance, victory and sadism.

“This is not open for discussion, it’s a ‘yes, you do it’ or a ‘no and I throw you out and disinherit you’. Understood?”

Jooheon nodded, he felt nervous as hell and held in his breath.

“You are going to marry the son of Mr. Im, not directly, but it will be somewhere in the next year after you graduate.”

Jooheon was frozen on his chair, still looking into his dad’s eyes. It took a long while before the words his dad spoke were processed into his brain.

Marriage?!

“That’s it. If you are still here tomorrow I’ll assume you take the offer. But don’t think you can deceive me. You can leave now.”

Jooheon’s mind was blank but his body was automatically standing up and moving towards the door. But before he closes the door he hears his father’s voice one more time.

“Oh and Jooheon? You’re mother left you, because she didn’t love you enough. Keep that in mind before spitting in my face again.”

He just closes the door, moving towards his bedroom, his mind still blank.

Marriage?!

Jooheon let out a shivering sigh and his heart starts to beat faster, sweat forming on his forehead. He opens his bedroom door and when he looks into his room he gets startled.

His stepmom was standing in the room, looking at him with a sly smile.

 “Oh my poor Jooheonie, are u okay?” Her voice full of satire. “You shouldn’t let drugs linger around the house like that. Stupid you!” She walks towards Jooheon, giving him a big fake smile before pushing him aside against the doorpost.

In normal situations Jooheon would’ve killed the , but his mind and body did not seem to be in a good state right now. He closes the door and lays on his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

And slowly it starts to hit Jooheon hard, all of the things his dad said to him. If he did not agree to this offer he would end up with nothing. There would be no place to go considering his dad would be capable of threatening to fire Kihyun’s mom if they would take him in, and Wonho’s parents never wanted other people inside their home for God knows what reason.

A sobbing sound came out of Jooheon’s mouth and tears started to roll out of the corners of his eyes.

She did this!

Jooheon clenched his pillow in his fist and let out a frustrated chuckle.

“I’ll make sure I get the out of here.”

…

The day after, Jooheon waits in the living room until his father gets home. He didn’t tell Kihyun and Wonho about the marriage yet. But he knew once everything was settled he would need their help the most.

Finally, at 23:30 hears the door open and his father enters.

“Good, I  see you’re still here.”

“Yes father, I am. Your words yesterday made me realize things have to change. Can I know who exactly I am marrying?”

“Glad to hear that and you’ll meet him soon. Don’t worry.”

“I graduate in July, that’s 8 months from now. You told me I would marry after that, right?”

His father stared at him with a cold gaze. “Yes is yes, you’re not getting a deal or a delay in marriage even if you fall in love with someone else in the coming months. You’ll marry him.”

“Of course I’ll do, dad. I always thought marriage as something between people who were bound to be together, people who knew each other and cared for each other. I want to feel that when I marry. So wouldn’t it be logical if me and my future husband would live together before the marriage? I mean, you and Taeyeon also lived together for half a year before you married her.”

His dad smirked. “Why would it matter what for marriage you have?”

Now it’s your turn, Jooheon!

“Because you don’t want me to divorce at one point in my marriage right? That would be like losing profit. Besides, I want a strong marriage.”

“Tsss. Fine, whatever you want son. But let me tell you this, I meet that boy every couple of weeks and from the moment I hear him say that you treat him like then you’ll be done. Understood?”

Jooheon smiled brightly, looking straight into his dad’s eyes.

“Awesome, I can’t wait to meet him!”.

Jooheon turns around and walks to his room, covering him inside his warm blankets, ready to fall asleep peacefully.

You’ll be out of here in no time Jooheon.

Yo everyone! ♥ 

I realized I only updated 1x past week, sorry, I had a pretty busy weekend otherwise I would've uploaded this one earlier :( 
But I already started on the next chapter, which will be for Thursday/Friday! 

Are you guys excited for the next chapters?! Just a few more and they'll meet each other *oooeewh* 

Hope you all are still alive after that video Starship uploaded of our boys today (I'm still dying tho). Gosh, why do they always look so good ♥.♥ 

&As always: not a native speaker so let me know if something is not understandable!