BAEKHYUN

Baekhyun’s eventful day eventually ended, and he arrived home at around eight in the evening, To keep his mind off things for a bit, he decided to do some laundry.

Lee Nabi, acting director of Inha Corp. That cold yet feminine voice suddenly occupied his mind while separation his clothes into two groups. If he didn’t have such an embarrassing meeting with her, he could have heard even more of that voice, and he would have been locked in his bedroom right now … thinking about the entire conversation in a different light.

She was so attractive, and she could have been even more attractive if she didn’t have such a sour personality. As much as he hated to admit it to his raging hormones, her type of woman is the type that he disliked the most.

Domineering. Cold. Arrogant. Know-it-all. The reason for this is the same reason he’d been living his life a certain way. Domineering equals pressure. Arrogant equals pressure. Know-it-all definitely equals pressure.

But damn … was she pretty. Baekhyun tried to shake the thought off while tapping the washing machine like drums. “Okay, let’s do this. Shut up brain.” He muttered to himself but before he could even start tossing his dirty clothes into the machine, one of the helpers and their butler, Hwayoung, came into the room and stopped him. 

“Sir Baekhyun, what are you doing—oh my goodness, I’m so sorry, don’t worry about them. Let Haesoo do it for you.”

Baekhyun only laughed. “Mrs. Kim, calm down. Haesoo didn’t do anything wrong, I can do my own laundry, don’t worry about it. I’m used to it already, you guys relax.” He assured them, even nodding at the other helper who looked terrified as she frantically separated the clothes by colour. 

Hwayoung frowned. “Sir, but still—”

“Haesoo, I got it. Mrs. Kim, don’t worry about it, please. You guys go ahead, have some rest or something. I’m sure you’ve been working all day.” He snatched the basket from the helper again and eyed Hwayoung meaningfully before proceeding with that Haesoo had already started. The helper bowed multiple times before bidding goodbye and walking away. 

“You matured a lot since you left, Sir Baekhyun,” Hwayoung commented with a gentle smile. 

Baekhyun sniggered at her. “That’s a compliment, right?”

Instead of answering verbally, Hwayoung placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing him for comfort. She had always felt like a grandmother to him, and he never minded that. He was never close to any of his real grandparents before they all passed. “We’re very glad to have you back, Sir. Don’t ever be shy to come to us if you ever need anything, okay? Have a good evening.” The old lady beamed before taking a step back to bow properly and bid goodbye. 

“Goodnight.” Baekhyun mouthed softly as he watched her walk out. 

Once he was alone again, he begins tossing his clothes in. When his eyes caught the shirt he was wearing today, he noticed the very small stain on his chest. It was the sauce from the burrito he was having at ten in the morning—which he now claimed to be the worst decision of his life ever after what had happened.

“Oh god damn it, you idiot loser ratbag son of a !” He hissed in the air and started cussing under his breath a few more times. He was fully aware that he wasn’t the most professional executive person ever. Heck, he never even wanted to be that kind of person.

But why … of all the things that could happen today and of all the people that could have witnessed what happened today … why did it have to be an attractive woman?! It was bad enough that he acted like a total jerk the entire time because of his untimely humour, why did he have to—

“Sir Baekhyun—oh dear, is everything okay? Are you okay?” Both Butler Hwayoung and the other staff, Haesoo rushed back in within a second.

“Ah, I’m fine, I just—I just got my—” He looked around him, trying to find a good excuse. “I got my hands caught in the door of the machine, but it’s fine, I didn’t close it that hard. I tend to—I tend to verbally abuse inanimate objects when they hu—hurt me and … and the ma—the machine hurt me so I’m … I’m hurt.” He managed to make up one eventually. Fully aware that it was the lamest excuse ever, he just awkwardly smiled at the two woman who looked at him in confusion.

“Sir, are you sure I can’t do this for you? I’m more than glad to do it.” Haesoo asked.

“I’m sure. You guys go ahead and rest. I’m fine. I promise.”

For the second time, he was left alone by the two staffs. “Okay, clear your head. Just don’t think about anything at all.” He whispered while calmly tossing the rest of his first load of clothes in the machine. “See, you’re almost done. Clear head, calm surrender—"

I am here to discuss marriage prospects in the name of business, and an even simpler way to say it, a good old-fashioned arranged marriage.

Baekhyun pressed his lips tightly together while shaking his head. He forcibly shut the door of the machine clothes and hurriedly pushed start before rushing out.

A good old-fashioned arranged marriage.

A good old-fashioned arranged marriage.

A good old-fashioned arranged marriage.

Still shaking his head intensely, he grabbed a glass of water for himself. Whether he had his eyes closed or not, the scene replayed in his head vividly. The way she looked at him with determination. The way she said, “You seem a little shaken, so I will give you some time to think about it.” Before leaving just like that, as if nothing serious was ever said.

After that meeting, he never really managed to focus on work for the rest of the day. Everything was happening so fast. Business-related marriage is his biggest pet peeve when it comes to being a part of his family. He had always hated the idea of marrying someone that he didn’t know well for the sake of making business. They weren’t from the royal family for God’s sake. They didn’t have a bloodline to preserve. This is all for the business, for the money … for creating an empire.

The absurdity of it all, he found hilarious.

He recalled the many times that he witnessed his brother go on dates for this reason. And he remembered the many many times that he expressed to his brother just how much he hated that kind of conglomerate tradition.

And to watch this Lee Nabi, no matter how sophisticated and attractive she may be, say it so ever casually like it was nothing to her. To witness her propose such a thing to a stranger only days after this the same stranger watched her beg pathetically only to get dumped by some guy on the streets … it was just on another level of unbelievable.

The simple answer to such proposal was hell no. He was never going to do such a thing. He may at business-related ideas, but he knew that there were other ways to save their company. He wasn’t going to resort to merging with some other company and be married. It was never going to be an option for him.

He admired everything about his late brother … but he would never admire him for conforming to this tradition for all those years of his short-lived life. He had always wished that his brother was at least able to date people whom he had personally chosen for himself, not by their parents. Even Baekbeom’s first girlfriend, Lee Yura, was from a conglomerate family too. That relationship, though lasted briefly cause of the scumbag Byun Jinwoo, would have never been approved by their parents in the first place if the woman were to come from a regular family.

Baekbeom … never experienced any of that before he died.

And Baekhyun … was never going to allow himself to experience any of that.  

To attempt to shake the negative thoughts off his mind, he decided to walk around and tour the house a little bit. Although he knew the house like it’s the back of his hand, it had been a very long time since he saw every corner of it, and he wanted to see if anything had changed. 

And of course, his feet naturally took him towards his brother’s bedroom. A trembling smile lifted the corners of his mouth as he peeked in. Nothing had changed, they kept it the same way and he was glad that they did that. He was about to go in when he heard voices coming from his brother’s balcony. The sheer curtains allowed him to see two silhouettes outside. When one of them coughed, he immediately concluded them to be his parents. 

His heart melted to realize that they still hung out here, just like the earlier days when Baekbeom just passed. Some things just never change. As quietly as he could, he went in and walked towards the balcony but hid behind the wall to peek. 

“It’s not easy for me to be doing this to him too, Gayeon. I remember Baekbeom telling me that he would take care of the company himself and he wanted Baekhyun to do whatever he wanted to do with his life, and we’d support him on anything.” His father sighed, a combination of guilt and frustration in his tone. 

Baekhyun’s mother breathed in with sniffles and he assumed that she was crying. “I know. Baekbeom told me the same thing and that’s why it hurts me that we have no other choice right now. What do we do, honey?”

“Well, I just had a talk with the founder of Inha Corporation and they were offering help. Im Sooha told me her daughter apparently already spoke with Baekhyun this afternoon but for some reason I haven’t heard anything from him. By help, they mean they wanted to go through with the pla