She was led to the waiting room at the press conference venue at 8.30am by the PR officers. She looked around to see if Khun was around but it seemed the Thai Royal family was in another waiting room. The press conference was set to start at 9am and if she wasn’t able to catch Khun and work on a plan, there was likely no hope in savaging the situation. The wedding would go on and she would be part of the Thai royal family in a matter of days. After having been locked up in her room with all kinds of communications gadgets taken away from her the previous night, Yubin felt helpless. Since she couldn’t contact Taec and Khun to find another plan, all night she sobbed in silence, almost giving up. She thought about Taec and felt worse. If marriage with Khun was inevitable, Khun and she may get along well in helping each other see their lovers but she knew it would be tough knowing how their families might go all out to stop them.

The Korean royal family was finally led to the press conference and Yubin finally caught sight of Khun who was already seated in the middle of the conference table. The King and Queen of Thailand were also seated and she was ushered to sit next to Khun. He only managed to give her a sad smile which Yubin took to be most likely “There’s nothing we can do now.” The press from Korea and Thailand as well as international press representatives were all present there and waiting for the BIG announcement. Cameras were all focused on the good-looking royal couple and Yubin and Khun were forced to smile for the cameras.

----

Taecyeon arrived in his office and checked with his secretary on any work he needed to get started on.

“Sir, President Choi has vet through most of the reports while you were away. There’s nothing much for you to follow up on actually.” Ms Lee informed.

“Siwon?” Taec was surprised. Siwon never touched his work, even if he had a right to and the Siwon he knew was never this hard-working in taking over his work while he was on leave.

“Yes, sir. The reports are all on your table ready for you to check through and to be filed. That’s all.”

Taec went to his desk on did a thorough check and found that Siwon did a good job at vetting the reports. He was wondering how there was such a sudden change in his flamboyant president’s working attitude just within that week. Taec also had his resignation letter ready, should Siwon was not going to accept his best friend’s 'girlfriend-snatching' confession.

“Ms Park, I would like to see the President when comes in, can you let him know?” Taec made a call to Siwon’s secretary.

“Mr. Ok, President Choi is already in the office. And he is expecting to see you.” She replied.

“ok, I will go over now.” Taec was once again surprised at Siwon’s early office presence.

When Taec got into Siwon's office, he was greeted by a friendly Siwon. It was the usual buddy hug and big smile.

“I missed you, buddy!” Siwon confessed. “How was your trip? Good?”

“Ermm, it was good. Yeah…” Taec was not sure how he was going to start confessing about his rendezvous with Yubin.  He decided to switch subject for the moment.

“How about you? How was your trip? Everything went well in Japan?” Taec asked instead.

Siwon hesitated for a moment before he shook his head. “Not really.. Things got complicated.. We are trying to work out some issues now.”

“What happened?” Taec had to ask.

Siwon was not sure about how he was going to explain the whole marriage proposal causing fathers’ fall-out and unexpected with Sooyoung in a nutshell even though he always didn’t have a problem sharing all his crappy situations with Taec. He thought about that morning when Sooyoung woke up in his suite and how she just ignored him and left his suite without a word, even when he apologized and insisted on working things out. He had been calling her but she never picked up his calls. Soon he gave up and plunged himself into work. He checked with his father on the business merger outcome and found out that Choi Holdings had decided to put on hold the plans. Now he had been working hard to come out with a better merger management plan to make up to his father and find a possible way to convince Mr. Choi and most of all, Sooyoung to forgive him. He wasn’t sure if he was in love with Sooyoung but he was sure he wanted Sooyoung to be back to her old self with him, even if it meant her treating him like a douche-bag again.

Siwon was about to start his whole complicated story when he realized that Taec was concentrating on the news on the big TV screen in his office and took the remote control to increase the volume. Siwon turned to the screen as well, gradually engrossed as well.

“Yesterday upon the surprise visit of the Korean Royal King to the Thai Royal Palace, everyone was anticipating a possible marriage announcement between the Korean royal princess and the Thai royal prince. Let us head to the press conference in Bangkok now.” The newscaster reported.

Siwon was confused and curious at the same time since he hadn't heard anything about the Thai Prince as a rival in Yubin’s hand in marriage. Yubin didn’t look too good in that press conference as well. Her smile seemed forced and so was the young Thai prince. Siwon looked at Taec and wondered why Taec was as curious as he was now. In fact, Taec looked a little too serious to him.

“Today I am proud and happy to announce the upcoming marriage of my second son, Prince Nichkhun and the royal princess of Korea, Kim Yubin. The wedding is set to take place on….” The Thai king announced.

Taec watched on in shock, thinking, Why is this happening? This is not supposed to be happening! It can’t be. They were not supposed to be marrying! What is happening, Yubin? Baby, this can’t be happening!

“I’m sorry…” Taec and Siwon watched as the Thai Prince suddenly stood up and continued “I apologize for the interruption, father. I am afraid I have to reject this marriage arrangement. I apologize to the Royal family of Korea as well. I am in love with someone else and am not deserving of your daughter. I am sorry and I will take full responsibility in my actions today if I have caused any disrespect to you and your country.” As Khun made a 90 degree bow to the Korean family, amidst the shocked and confused atmosphere at the press conference, even Yubin looked surprised.

Taec had his hands over his head and let out a loud sigh of relief. He was so grateful to Khun for doing the right thing but he was feeling guilty as well that Khun was taking all the blame and not having Yubin take any part of the blame when she was also not in favor of the marriage. He knew Khun did it to spare any embarrassment for the Korean royal family. However, this could mean Khun was going to face serious consequences of his actions and it would be hard for Steph and him to reunite in the future.

Taec was lost in thought and soon Siwon couldn’t help but notice Taec’s unusual reaction to the news.

He asked Taec curiously “Am I missing anything?”

And Taec knew it was time to make his own big announcement.

A/N: How will Siwon take the news?