Siwon sat impatiently at the private dining room in Seoul’s luxury country club waiting alone. He looked at his watch which indicated that he was already half an hour late and yet no one was in the room. He hated waiting but this was his parents and her parents’ arrangements and he could do nothing much about it. Out of boredom, he took out his phone to check and found a message from his buddy in the US. He chuckled upon seeing the message. It was Taec telling him he wanted to quit for the 100^th time already.

“Dude. This lady is offering me 5 times more than what you are paying me. How can I not take the offer? Seriously! It’s tempting and her office is lavishing!” Taec text.

“If she’s offering in the job package as well, I will gladly let you go.” Siwon texted back. Taec had been working hard at Siwon’s father’s New York office for some years already. He was good at his job and true enough, every time he got a better job offer from another company, Taec would end up rejecting it out of respect and loyalty to Siwon and his dad. Siwon had heard the same stories for years already and every time Siwon agreed to up his salary package, Taec would still accept at a way smaller percentage than what the other companies offered.

“Yes, is in the package. She’s hot but you know very well I don’t mix with work anymore. I need my brain and to work separately!” Taec text back.

Siwon let out a loud laugh and text “Hang in there, buddy! Hang in there!” He knew very well why Taec had this new rule of not mixing work with ual pleasure. Ever since Taec had dated 2 girls subsequently at his work place and though he was not two-timing them, he found himself in a tight situation once when the 2 girls got into a catfight drama in his office because the ex-girlfriend still had feelings for him and the new girlfriend was obviously pissed. Taec was a senior manager and that scene didn’t look too good with the higher management and his subordinates. Siwon told him not to worry about such things since the Chairman of the CM group and Siwon himself had his back.  But Taec swore never to date any girl in his work place since then. Siwon could also never understand Taec’s lovelorn feelings over a stranger girl he kissed years ago. He remembered ever since passing Taec that guestlist from Lush, he really went all out and called all the girls listed on the guestlist just to find that girl. He hadn’t found her since obviously but he got lucky in convincing a few girls whom he suspected was her to meet him. Siwon remembered seeing one hot Pan-Asian girl who met up with Taec at a café in New York. After the date, Taec came back disappointed because she wasn’t the girl he was looking for.

“So what? She’s hot! Are you not gonna ask her out again?” Siwon asked.

“Nope. Why should I? She’s not that girl.” Taec was only focused on one goal. That one nameless girl he kissed in Lush. Well, at least after a year, he kinda gave up and moved on to date some girls at his workplace but the relationships didn’t last mostly due to Taec’s workaholic ways. Siwon had always advised Taec to not take relationships too serious since he was still young and there were plenty of fishes to sample before one should decide to settle down. Siwon was never going to settle down until he found the right girl and to this date, he still hadn’t found one that could get him off his free and easy bachelor ways. The problem was now it seemed his parents were serious about an arranged marriage to happen in the near future.

 “Oh god. Am I that early?” Siwon heard that irritating familiar voice of a woman just when he finished texting Taec.  

Choi Sooyoung was the only daughter of the other big Choi family that was not blood related to his family but they were in close relations because the 2 Mr. Chois were close friends and business associates for years. She was Siwon’s fiancé when he was just a toddler. Their parents had match- made and planned their marriage since the day Sooyoung was born. She was a chubby little thing when she was a kid but now she was all tall and too skinny. She was pretty but probably because Siwon had seen her since young, he never felt that attracted to her. They bickered when they were kids and even till this date. Their parents kept denying the fact that they hated each other and kept insisting they would be all so in love once the marriage goes through.

“I’m surprised myself too. If they don’t arrive in 10 mins, I’m leaving.” Siwon responded to Sooyoung who got ready to sit down opposite him, throwing off her fur coat to show her y curves in a long black dress. Siwon stole a glance but wondered to himself why he never had a hard-on whenever this y pretty fiancé of his looked this good. He would date her if she wasn’t Choi Sooyoung, he would.

“Hey douche. I’m not covering up for you if you leave.” Sooyoung warned. She didn’t understand why her parents were so bent on this marriage of theirs. She never took it seriously until recently when her parents started discussing on their wedding plans to go with the business merger plans. She would never date a douchbag like Siwon who was famous for his playboy ways and how he serial dates models and actresses. Now it seemed that things were getting worse because it seemed they might just head straight to marriage in a few months. As much as she and Siwon opposed to the marriage, their parents still had full control over them and unless they decided to live independently as paupers, they had to obey their parents’ wishes. It was during this time that Sooyoung had to think of plan B to avoid this marriage.

The parents finally arrived and Siwon and Sooyoung knew very well this meeting was going to be about wedding arrangements and the big business merger plans. Siwon and Sooyoung played along with all the shop talk and didn’t raise much disagreements knowing things would never go their way anyway.

When they were almost done with dinner, Sooyoung asked to be excused to speak to her Siwon oppa in private in the next room. The parents were surprised but were glad the kids wanted alone time and let them. Heading to the smaller private room next door, Siwon asked “What’s this all about?” He always felt goosebumps whenever Sooyoung called him “Oppa” in front of their parents because when they were alone, she usually called him “Douche”.

“Listen. I have a plan. A plan that might just work to stop this unwanted marriage of ours.” She was almost whispering.

“I’m all ears!” Siwon paid attention.

“Since you didn’t like the 1^st plan of us marrying and then you cheating on me and we end up divorcing, I was thinking that the only way to convince our parents to cancel this marriage is when one of us finds a better candidate to marry.” Sooyoung raised an eyebrow.

“Did you find someone richer and more famous than me.. and who’s willing to marry you?” Siwon asked, hoping for a yes. He knew most of the rich chaebol bachelors and so far none had shown interest in marrying her since everyone knew she was betrothed to Siwon and their families wouldn’t allow it anyway.

“I wish! But no, it’s you that I managed to find a suitable candidate for.” She said.

“Are you crazy? I don’t want to marry you but that doesn’t mean I want to marry someone else now!”

“What if she’s hot? And apparently, there is a line of chaebols asking for her hand in marriage now. If you get her to accept you, our parents would never dare to oppose that marriage.”

“Really? How hot is she? And who is this chaebol family that our parents dare not oppose to? All the chaebol families are aware of our marriage and business merger plans to not dare come between us.” Siwon was curious and doubtful at the same time.

“It’s the royal princess! Haven’t you seen her on TV? Look, our parents will never dare oppose to a royal marriage and the business merger may still go on due to our fathers’ close friendship.”

Siwon remembered briefly how the royal princess looked on the front page of the papers that all his chaebol friends were talking about her exotic beauty. He started to smile at this new plan. He would be competing with some of his friends and he loved competition. Seeing that Siwon was starting to like her new plan, Sooyoung added “I already sent your bio-data and proposal to the royal office.”

Siwon looked surprised at first but then he nodded at his fiancé or soon-to-be ex-fiancé, “For once, I am proud of you.”