Excuses passed his mind, but his mouth constricted unable to get the words through. Sehun ended up tossing his head back. “Forget it! Come out when you’re ready. We’re going to the manor.”

Stalking out of her room he headed down the stairs without waiting for her. She could keep the flowers or throw them away. He could care less.

When Namjoo finally came down he couldn’t helping shooting a frown at her. Saying nothing he pulled the door open and went outside.

“Why do you keep doing that?” Namjoo asked.

“I’m not doing anything.” He grumbled.

“Yes, you are.”

“I said I’m not.” He retorted halting and turning to her.

Namjoo bumped into him. Complaining, she pinpointed, “See, that.” She pointed a finger toward the space between his brows, “You keep frowning at me.”

Huffing he pivoted away and continued striding toward the manor ignoring her.

“Geez,” Namjoo mumbled following close by. “Did you have a bad day at work or something?”

He couldn’t believe her. After her tantrum that morning she was acting like she hadn’t thrown him off. She couldn’t even be thankful for the flowers she was going to throw away.

He was never going to get her anything again.

“We were about to come get you,” his father grinned from the dining table. “Come sit down. The food just got here.”

The old man made sure to push the tastiest dishes closer toward Namjoo. Most of them meat which made him recall the incident yesterday when he’d stolen the plate Hwayi had given her. Quick as that irritation fired up his nerves again.

“Sehun, what’s wrong?” his mother asked sitting down.

“Nothing.” He stiffly murmured. Even Namjoo was cluelessly looking at him like she’d done nothing.

“It’s so nice having a meal as a whole family,” his mother happily stated. “It would be wonderful if we did this for a long time. Being grateful and happy that we’re alive and together.”

Why did he feel like she was calling him out for his grumpy farce?

“Your mother’s right,” his father chimed in. “There’s a daughter-in-law and a baby on the way. These are times we should all cherish.”

At this Namjoo awkwardly smiled and shifted in her chair uncomfortably.

“So, we were thinking, your dad and I,” his mother started, “let’s have the wedding soon. We should start preparing. It’s best to have Namjoo legally in the family before the baby arrives. That way it’ll be beneficial for the baby to be included in the family tree.”

He coughed into his hand, “What?”

“Your aunt has made some good points yesterday.” His father agreed. “To have the wedding ceremony as soon as possible. We can have a small one and hold a bigger event when the baby arrives to celebrate his birth.”

“Isn’t this too soon?” Sehun questioned.

“What’s too soon when you already brought her home?” his father asked.

“Well, we,” he hesitated in order to find a reasonable excuse, “it’s inconvenient.”

“Nothing is inconvenient about a wedding,” his mother pointed out. “Don’t say anymore. Your father and I will handle everything. You just continue taking good care of our soon to be daughter-in-law.”

She smiled lovingly at Namjoo who suddenly couldn’t swallow her food.

ꞜꞜꞜꞜꞜ

“I can’t do this,” Namjoo paced her room like a dog chasing its tail. Whirling around on him, she adamantly refused, “I’m not marrying you.”

He stared at her from the doorway. “Of course, we aren’t.”

“Do you know what your mom showed me today?” Namjoo’s eyes went crazily wide. “A baby blanket. A baby blanket!”

“She’s just excited.” He defended.

“For a fake baby,” Namjoo shook her head like he’d forgotten. “You better think of something before they begin taking action. I’m not going to ruin my future chances because of you.”

“Like I would put my future in jeopardy, too.” He rolled his eyes.

Namjoo hissed at him. “Then go away, why are you still standing there?”

“You do know I called earlier?” he asked.

“Maybe.” She angled her head to the side to avoid his gaze.

“Then answer next time.”

She listened to his footsteps fade down the hallway before finally looking to verify he was gone. Hurrying to the doorway she poked her head out calling after him, “At least close the door!”

Shoving the door shut she returned to sit on the bed. If she held out a little longer and avoided the wedding, she would get her money and be out of here as fast as lightning. Though the thought of living in a nice house was attractive, Namjoo did not dream of becoming a part of this family.

She still wanted to return home, be back where she belonged, where she felt most comfortable. She did miss her mom and Moonbi and the noise of the night club. Soon she would return. A month wasn’t that much time.

Namjoo was confident she could bear the weight of it.

Rolling onto her side she stared at the flowers Sehun had randomly gotten for her. Wrapped in decorated plastic. Too pretty to be thrown out. She would deal with them tomorrow. Right now, she was too tired to care. Yawning, Namjoo shut her eyes.

Several hours later when she woke up the lights were still on. The time on her phone read 2AM. Groaning Namjoo sat up discovering a little late that she hadn’t showered or changed. Grabbing some clean clothes, she headed down the hallway to the bath and scrubbed herself clean, brushed her teeth, and dropped her old clothes off into her room.

No longer tired Namjoo glanced at the flowers on the bed. This late at night and no one was up. Most of the lights in the house were switched off. The only glow came from tiny nightlights plugged into outlets down the corridor.

Tiptoeing down the hall in search of the light switch Namjoo flicked it on. Blinking wildly when the room lit up. Since she was the only one up and no one to ask, she might as well prowl around. She quietly cackled at the thought of finding some secret gateway outside.

Along the end of the hall Namjoo opened a storage closet crammed with random household belongings no longer in use. Namjoo dug through boxes of textbooks, fiction, clothes that never made it to the donation drive, a brand-new backpack, dirty hiking boots with dried dirt clinging to the soles.

Sighting something white Namjoo curiously picked it up and held it up to the light in the ceiling. A collage of some sort that some artist had drawn of a couple. Over-sized heads and incomplete shoulders that disappeared at the bottom.

Sehun and his girlfriend she supposed. Namjoo hadn’t inquired much after the girlfriend, but if Sehun was desperate enough to avoid marriage to Hyena and use her while waiting for Jin’s return he probably loved her to the moon and back.

“You better hurry up because I want to get out of here,” Namjoo mumbled. Putting the picture away Namjoo plucked her way through a mess until she found what she wanted on the upper shelf; a vase.

Blowing dust off Namjoo backed out of the closet and went to the bathroom to give it a thorough wash. Filling it with water she put the flowers in and left it on the bedside table satisfied. Turning the lights off Namjoo went back to bed.

In the morning Sehun left after breakfast like usual. The second weekend of being stuck here was hurriedly arriving. Namjoo planned to stick in front of the tv the rest of the afternoon while mentally concocting a list of things she wanted to do. Beg or not she would achieve at least one item on her list and that was to get outside of the manor.

Not even one commercial run had started when Cleaner Jin came down the hall. “Madam would like to see you.”

“Again?” She blurted. “But she just saw me yesterday.”

Cleaner Jin merely stared at her. “Madam asked you to go over.”

Giving up Namjoo shut the tv off and went upstairs to change into something appropriate. Cleaner Jin was aimlessly moving around in the lounge tidying the stack of magazines on the table when Namjoo came down. None of which Namjoo bothered touching. She couldn’t help feeling like the house cleaner was keeping her in check.

On the way to the manor Namjoo wondered what Madam Oh wanted. Yesterday she seemed like she’d said almost everything that needed to be said. Did Namjoo need to sit in on another lesson about why the marriage had to proceed?

Every time the word marriage was brought up her stomach became queasy.

Spare me she pleaded when she entered the manor. Further down the hall she heard voices. At the opening of a sitting room she spotted Sehun’s mother. Accompanying her was none other than prim and proper Kang Hyena.

Skidding to a halt Namjoo about wheeled around to escape.

“Namjoo!” Hyena called out.

Squeezing her eyes shut to prepare herself, Namjoo turned around exaggeratedly smiling from ear to ear. “I didn’t know you were here.”

“I thought Hyena might want to join us.” Sehun’s mother piped up. “It’s always nice to have another eye be the judge.”

Namjoo’s eyes swung back and forth between them. “For what?”

“We’re going shopping, darling.” Sehun’s mother excitedly beamed walking toward her.

“We are?” Namjoo asked as the woman put a hand at her back urging her forward.

Led to the vehicle waiting out front, Namjoo slid into the backseat followed by Sehun’s mother like a cow being driven to the slaughterhouse.

From the other side of Sehun’s mother, Hyena leaned forward to peek at her. “We’re going to have so much fun, Namjoo.”

All Namjoo managed was an anxious laugh.

This was going to be a nightmare.

First, they went to a baby outlet. Sehun’s mother spent majority of the time mulling over cribs, baby carriers, baby pushers, everything baby. In contrast, Namjoo’s eyes turned gigantic upon seeing how expensive everything baby actually was. Maybe she would just skip birthing in the future and adopt a teenager.

“Look at this!” Sehun’s mother happily showed off a baby rocker. “These days you young ones have it so much easier with all the new technology. Back in the days, I had to rock Sehun to sleep every night it was exhausting.”

“Was he a difficult child?” Hyena inquired.

“Oh yes, he definitely was. He was such a hard child to please.” Motherly smiling she looked over at Namjoo who desperately tried avoiding her eyes. “That means your child will be just as fussy.”

“Oh…yea…”

Ignoring her, Hyena pushed on, “How was Sehun, auntie? I want to hear everything about him.”

“He’s everything difficult in a child you would imagine,” Madam Oh went on. “He threw tantrums whenever he didn’t get anything he wanted. He cried and screamed all the time. You just had to please him or else he’d be angry all day.”

Rolling her eyes to the corner of her lids Namjoo thought that was just like him.

“He sounds adorable,” Hyena squealed.

Namjoo frowned at the girl.

“Let’s get this first,” Sehun’s mother suggested touching a white convertible crib with an upholstered cushion arch.

“What?” Namjoo spat.

“Yes, auntie, it’s not necessary.” Hyena opinioned shooting Namjoo a look.

“But it is,” Sehun’s mother kept looking at only her. Namjoo’s stomach was going to roll. “It’s important to start preparing now. Don’t worry about anything. Your father and I will prepare everything for the baby.” Touching her arm as if that was all the assurance Namjoo needed, she continued, “Take it easy. All you have to do is be healthy and happy.”

Oh god…this was not good. Not good at all.

Namjoo stood on standby while Sehun’s mother called over a store clerk to make her order of the crib.

“It must be great,” Hyena commented in a voice low enough so that only she could hear, “to be spoiled by auntie and uncle. If I had any pride at all, I would take care of this myself and not be a burden.”

“It’s all done.” Madam Oh approached them with a receipt.

Hyena beamed cheerily. “I’m so glad that went well.”

“I’m so excited,” the older woman was barely shaking from contentment.

Namjoo’s insides were seriously going to hurl because Sehun’s mother was so genuine. About a wedding that wasn’t going to happen. About a nonexistent baby. A fake bride.

Second stop she was dragged to a wedding dress outlet where Madam Oh proudly proclaimed loud enough to the entire store that Namjoo was the bride to be, could they please try on dresses?

“Yes, this way, please.” A store clerk led them to a selection of sparkling to silk dresses, long, short, mid-length.

“See what you like,” Madam Oh encouraged. “Have you looked through the magazine I gave you?”

“Well…” Truth be told Namjoo had not touched it on her own except when they sat together to browse through it.

“It doesn’t matter. We’ll see if there’s anything you like here. There are many other stores we can visit if you’re not happy with the dresses.”

“It’s not that I’m not happy with the dresses…” Namjoo quietly muttered. “Do we have to do this now? It can’t wait for…I don’t know…next month?”

“Oh, silly. It’s never too late or early to look around. It will take time to find something you love. This is your only one wedding you’ll ever have.”

Namjoo doubted that, but it wasn’t like she could say so.

“What do you think Hyena?” Sehun’s mother asked looking at a delicately embroidered dress that shimmered crazily under the lights. “Isn’t this just beautiful?”

“Yes, it is, auntie.” She perked up although her face said otherwise.

“What do you think? Let’s try this on.”

At Sehun’s mother’s beckoning, the store clerk led Namjoo into the back to help her into the ball gown embroidered dress. The chapel train spread around her feet prettily. Awed by her reflection in the mirror Namjoo gently the beaded applique that spiraled down to the layer of tulle that completed the chapel train.

She’d never worn such a beautiful dress before. Only imagining her wedding in her head, the walk down the magnificent red aisle with church bells tolling, a groom waiting to exchange lifetime vows and a ring with her. A grand dream that came off holier in her head than reality.

It was only now that Namjoo discovered this was some kind of farfetched princess dream she could never achieve with the life she lived. The sheer thought of being trapped here with Sehun and his family was frightening. She did not mean to live this kind of life even if it was the best she might have.

But Namjoo did not know these people. They did not know her or her true background.

Their statuses in society ranged as far as heaven and earth.

Namjoo couldn’t do this.

She wanted to go home.

This talk of a wedding was beginning to scare her. At the pace his mother was moving Namjoo feared his parents might really speed the marriage up. Her only purpose here was to drag out time, was it not?

Spinning around Namjoo hurried toward her clothes nearly tripping over the dress in the process. Irritably lifting the lower end of the dress, Namjoo dashed toward her outfit and rummaged her pocket for her phone.

In her wild dreams she never thought she’d have to do it, but she went into her recent calls and hit Sehun’s number.

For a while she listened to his ringtone. Cursing when he didn’t pick up. Forced to hang up, she tried again. This time she didn’t get through to him either. And he was making a big deal about her not picking up!

“Where are you?” she texted. “I need you. Come rescue me!”