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The Kings BrideOnce they had finished their meal in complete silence, it was Jongin and his father who excused themselves as they were getting messages from the office and had to be back. The two older men shook hands and talked about setting up another meeting for them as it had been so long since the last one. Jinhee and Jongin on the other hand just stared at each other, giving a slight bow before he and his father went into their car. Once it pulled away, Jinhee's father wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into a tight side hug which hurt more than comforted her.
"Dad, I don't know about-"
"It's a good match, I promise. Would i ever do anything that wasn't in the best interest for you? Beside's you're getting too old to stay single. Do you have any idea how much the rest of the family was bugging me to get you married off?" Her father chuckled and waved down a taxi and he guided her inside.
"But I don't even know this guy. How am I supposed to marry a stranger?" Jinhee whispered and caught the odd glance from the driver in the rear view mirror.
"Fine, after a year of marriage, if you still do not want to be with Jongin, then I will allow you to separate from him. I will try to talk to his father about it and see if we can come to a conclusion." He watched his daughter light up at the idea of a divorce. "But, you have to promise me that you're going to try. Put in a real effort." Jinhee rolled her eyes and agreed. Then they changed the subject and laughed the rest of the way home but there was always that nagging feeling in the back of her mind that what just happened, didn't seem right to her. In the car with Jongin and his father, the atmosphere was incredibly tense and their driver must have thought they were on the verge of war with the way they ignored each other and sat on their phones answering emails.
"Father I was thinking-"
"That's your first problem." His father chimed in and Jongin turned to look out the window so he wouldn't get scolded for rolling his eyes. "Don't question a good thing when it's handed to you. She's a nice girl and has a highly respectable job. Think of it like a business transaction and just sign on the dotted line when the day comes."
"It's not your life that you're signing away though. I'm a young man, I'm supposed to be having fun and working as hard as possible to build up the company. How would it look to our investors if I suddenly got married and then spent way too much time trying to care for this 'nice girl', who by the way, isn't even my type." Jongin spat back out and his father grew tense in his seat.
"I know all about you type of girl. I've seen the pictures of you stumbling around by the clubs with cheap looking women hanging off your arms." His father reached over and slapped his sons arm which shocked Jongin but there was no way he was going to fight back.
"The way you're acting now lost us a contract because you showed up hung over to a meeting, how does that make me look?" The two men were glaring at each other, and although Jongin wanted to defend himself, his father was in the right. He had been going through a rough patch recently but that was only because a few months back he had broken up with his girlfriend who he had kept a secret from his family. For her privacy, it would be better if he didn't bring her up at all so instead he went back to staring out the window at the passing people on the sidewalks.
"You will marry this girl, spoil her rotten and settle down. Become the man I know you're capable of being." His father gave him one last whack on the arm before answering a call. Jongin felt a deep anger building in his chest but there was nothing he could do about this. He was indebted to his father for giving him an incredible job with all of it's perks.
Once he was dropped off at his apartment, which had three bedrooms, two large bathrooms and all the latest tech from his own company; he grabbed his gym bag and headed right back out again. He needed to work out this anger and vent to his best friend who also happened to be his personal trainer. The gym he was a member of was a very swanky gym that only allowed in the rich and the famous which made it easy for him to find some alone time. He had messaged his friend, Chen, before he arrived and thankfully he was already there and could fit him into his schedule. Chen was a well built man who had a cat-like smirk always painted across his face. He was always cheerful and optimistic which balanced out Jongin's need to be miserable all the time. He went over the situation again and Chen whistled when Jongin pulled up a picture of her on instagram.
"She's really cute." Chen said as he swiped the phone from him and swiped through the rest of her timeline which was mostly made up of her traveling pictures and some charities she volunteered at. "Cute and a humanitarian, you fit the jack pot."
"Jack pot? Look at her! She looks like a child playing dress up." Jongin snatched his phone back and Chen just laughed.
"All I'm saying is, maybe this is a really good thing for you. It's time for you to grow up and maybe you can move on from-"
"Don't say her name." Jongin said as he pushed out another rep of crunches while Chen held down his feet.
"Fine. But for once think about the other person before speaking. It sounds like she was blind-sided just as much as you were. Don't blame her for something your dad's decided to do." Chen slapped Jongin's thigh and helped him stand up. "Ready to get ripped?" Chen joked as he pulled up Jongin's shirt and revealed the well toned abs underneath. Jongin slapped his hand away and Chen laughed. "Maybe she's the lucky one too. You guys are like the Ying-Yang symbol."
"What does that even mean?" Jongin and Chen walked over to the pull-up bar to work on his shoulders and back.
"Well you're cold and blunt with a heart of gold, she's sweet and gentle but maybe she's a freak in the sheets." Chen winked and Jongin glared at him.
"I will never share a bed with that...girl." Jongin shuttered at the idea and finished up his work out. Jinhee made it back to her apartment and let out a heavy sigh in the silence around her. She kicked off her shoes and the kettle before flopping onto her tiny bed that had piles of books all around it. Many of them were for research and studying because she refused to be behind on new kinds of treatments for the children. But the one of her bedside table was a magical girl manga that had been her obsession since she was a child and it brought her comfort before ending a terrible day. Once the kettle finished, she made herself a tea and sat on her bed, reading her manga and trying to drown out the rest of the world which was hard because every couple of hours she would need to answer a handful of emails and make a few calls to make sure everything was going alright on the nurses rounds for the night. The only good thing she had going for her was that she worked early the next day so she would be too busy to think about Jongin and their stupid engagement.
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