“Seungyeon-ah, what do you think about getting married?” Her mother had asked.

It was not the first time for her parents to discuss about marriage with her. She would be twenty-six that upcoming July, an age where a woman should really considering about her future love life.

However, she could sense it was different this time. There was the feeling she concluded from the concern look on both her parents. She reckoned what that could be.

“What do I think what, Omma? I don’t really understand.” She said, adjusting herself more firmly on the couch.

“I mean, don’t you want to get married soon? You’re already twenty-six, Child. If you delay it any longer, it would be difficult when you’re pregnant later.”

She nodded upon hearing her mother explanation, but knew that there must be something more behind. It was not just about the risk of middle-age pregnancy.

“Of course I do have the thoughts of marriage, but I already have a lot to be handled on my hands right now, Omma. The company, I can’t leave it yet. Though Sunggyu said that he will still allow me to work after we get married-”

“No, Child. No. I don’t talk about Sunggyu.” The mother suddenly cut her with something that left her taken aback.

Not Sunggyu? She thought. Then, who else? Her parents knew clearly about her relationship with her five years boyfriend.

“Om-ma, what does it mean?”

“Seungyeon-ah, your father’s business colleague has a son who is around your age. A few days ago, he came to your father and proposed for you to be their daughter-in-law. What do you think?”

This was ridiculous. She knew her parents well. They were not that type to do a matchmaking thingy for their child, especially not to her since they already approved Sunggyu since the first time she brought him to meet them three years ago. There must be something she didn’t know.

“Omma…Appa…what is this? What had happened? I’m sure this is not just all about marriage. Please tell me what exactly is going on here.”

On the other side, her parents too knew her well. She was an obedient child but could be really stubborn in times. There was no way she would just give in to that kind of nonsense.

For the first time since that conversation of them begun, her father cleared his throat and finally said something. “You don’t have to do it, Child. I know you don’t want-”

“Yeobo!” but again, her mother cut it off. Her eyes were wet with the devastating emotions.

She started to feel headache in the moment. As she brought her thumb and index finger massaging the bridge of her nose, she thought that she really needed some explanation before she exploded.

“Omma, please let me know what is going on now, for real.” She pleaded, getting really frustrated.

Her mother’s tears fell running down her face.

“S-Seungyeon-ah, the company will probably encounter a bankruptcy…a-and there’s a possibility of your father will live behind the bars if we can’t pay the debt.”

.

.

.

It felt like the world just stopped spinning around for her. Everything around her appeared to collapse. What nonsense was her mother talking about? It couldn’t be happening.

Her father owned a construction company, working on the field of designing, architecting, and building things. It was not that big, but they were quite well-known for the good works they had done.

At the beginning, she didn’t have any interest on working there. But, since there were only the two of them as the inheritors, and Seungjin was way too far from even enrolling to university, she gave up her dream as a translator and took major of economic so she could help on the company.

She felt like being played out. That entire thing she knew, they were doing fine, always, all the whole time. She worked in the company as the executive director. If there was something happened on their financial, she must have been ones of the people who got to know first. But how could on this earth she didn’t know a thing about it? This must be not true.

“Omma, this is not true, right? This must be a lie, right?” A sarcastic smile plastered upon her face as she said it. Her mother didn’t give her any answer and continued to cry instead. She then turned to his father.

“Appa…this is a joke, right?”

But her father only stared at her without telling anything, his eyes sentencing sadness, guilty, and apology.

“No, Appa.” She insisted. “Don’t look at me like that. This must be a joke, right? If it’s true, then I must have known about it.”

She was refusing to acknowledge all those sayings of her parents. But even as it, her mind started to make their own logic, of that was why her father always sent her out to the project location lately when she obviously knew it well that on those days they usually held important meetings. He was hiding it well from her.

“B-”

Then, another logic hit her again as she was to ask what did that issue has anything to do with her being married. It meant…

“Omma…was it, that person…will help us if I…marry the son?”

Did she feel being sold by her parents?

She did.

Even if she knew that they were not, never, that kind of parents, she still couldn’t help thinking so. It was like being trapped in between two tight walls, paralyzing her breath, and her heart felt like it would explode any time soon.

Her mother took her into an embrace, patting her back. “Our daughter, I’m sorry. We are really sorry.”

She uttered, showing that she too felt sorry for her, that she too didn’t want it to happen.

“We are not forcing you. We won’t force you to do something that will make you unhappy. But, can you please consider it first? You really don’t have to do it if you don’t want to, really. But…well…I’m sorry. I was panicked-I can’t stand the image of your father will have to…I’m sorry, Seungyeon-ah…”

For the first time in her life, she felt really torn, like somebody tried to cut her body into pieces. Even when she decided to put away her dream, she didn’t feel that broken hearted. There were a lot of things going on her head. The company her father treasured much, her family’s future, how her father could end up being jailed, and…her own self. She remembered Sunggyu, the one who had been so patient, putting his self in her pace for the past five years.

She thought that there must be another way to solve that problem, they could loan some money to fix whatever it was. But then, her father must have thought about it too, and the way he acted at that moment, gave an indication that it couldn’t be helped by simply doing that.

Then, the choice came only for two, her father or her love life.

If she chose one, she lost another.

Then, which one was the more important one?

Even when she tried to deny it, the tiny bit inside her heart had known the answer for sure.

***

The conversation they had the night before making her stay awake through the whole night. She tossed restlessly on her bed, feeling really impatient. She didn’t know what was going on but she definitely would find out.

The very first thing she wanted to do when the sun rose was to go to the company and checked all the documents available. At five in the morning she got up from her bed and paced around the bedroom for the next one hour while gripping hard on her cell phone. When the clock on the wall hit number six, she immediately punched Secretary Eun’s contact, being cocky with her thought.

Politeness can be damned. I don’t care she’s still sleeping or this is weekend or whatever. I’ve been patient enough within these hours. Moreover, I’m the boss here.

It took several seconds before she was greeted with a sleepy voice of the young lady.

“Secretary Eun, I’m sorry for calling you this early,” oh yes, she still remembered courtesy. “I know this is Saturday and supposed to be a day off but I need you in the office by nine. I won’t accept a ‘no’ for the answer except you can send someone to show me all of our documents including the secret ones, which I’m sure there’s no one like that. So, see you three hours from now.”

She ended the phone call without bothering to hear to her employee’s response. She would get her way done with that important matter.

When she was down for breakfast Yang Ahjumma was in the middle of moving around to put foods on the table, while her mother and father were all smiles talking affectionately with their youngest child.

She knew it was mask.

They proceed with their morning routine in quiet. Because the lack of sleep, her dark circle went down so much Seungjin laughed that she looked like a sick panda. The problem also made her forget about the necklace her gave. He asked her why she didn’t wear it. She told him sorry and promise to do so after done breakfast. He smiled an eye smile, oblivious to the things going on between his sister and parents.

She really took the necklace upstairs after finishing breakfast. Her mother showed up in her room when she was about to wear that shiny thing.

“Let Omma helps you with that,” she said and Seungyeon handled it over.

She put it on her.

“Seungyeon-ah, about last night-”

She cut her mother off. “Omma, don’t worry. I will think about it. First, I need to know the details of the problem and then I can make the decision.”

Park Misun, her mother, took her hands and clutched it for gratefulness of her thoughtful daughter. “What I’m about to say is, you really don’t have to do it. I and your father love you so much, there’s no way we will send you away like that. Just like what you say, we will find the solution, right?”

She nodded and smiled weakly.

She really hoped that there would be other ways.

***

As she reached the company and settled in her office, Secretary Eun had been waiting a heap of files on the side table. It recorded all the company financial spending and details of the projects they had been handling for the year. She examined each of it carefully, trying to find something peculiar. As the result, she found out that they spent really big amount of money for their previous big project. The strange thing, the amount of expense they paid out to buy the project materials was doubled from the usual one. How could she didn’t notice it before while there was clearly a mark of her stamp there.

She had no other choice than to disturb the day off of another loyal employee of their company, Manager Choi.

***

The entire day was spent like that, examining files and hearing the explanations from their accounting manager. He refused to say a single thing to her at first; he said he had promised her father to do so. However, just like her father, the stubborn DNA ran in her self. If she was determined to do something, she would get it done.

It was a mental break down for her. She thought she would be better after knowing the whole situation, but she felt worse than she already was.  The thing that depressed her even more was how the problem just slipped through her track. She was supposed to be the one responsible for that kind of deal on her company.

She skipped her lunch and canceled her supposed to be lunch date with Sunggyu that day. She didn’t have appetite with what was going on. She needed to rack her brain, for God’s sake, to find the solution. She observed more files, checked their financial condition and everything. The more she did it, the more Manager Choi’s words sank into her head. She thought of what her mother told her, could it be the only solution she had?

***

She had got everything required and had been thinking for a whole while. She made her decision based on the circumstance. She couldn’t just stand still watching everything fell apart.

When she arrived back home after clearing her mind by strolling around near Han River, she headed straight to her father’s study. She knocked, and just as she expected he was there.

“Take a seat.” He said.

He was on the couch, piles of documents scattered on the table in front of him. She positioned her self on the single couch across him.

“I think I know why you are here now,” he said, “right, Seungyeon-ah, I heard that you asked Secretary Eun for our project files this morning. Why?”

His soft tone of speaking made her felt like she was caught cheating on an exam or doing something prohibited.

“Ne, Appa.” She answered. “I need to know the whole problem so…so I can help.”

The look on her father’s face turned into a terror upon hearing her words. He knew her too well to sense where the direction of their conversation was.

“By doing what? Accepting that marriage proposal?” He took off his glasses and put it on the couch. “I know you too well, child. I know what you’re thinking right now. But no, I won’t let you do that. This is my faux pas and I will be the one who solves it. You don’t have to worry.”

She inhaled, finding the right words to say. It was hard for her to say what she wanted to. As equal as forcibly pulling a part of her heart out.

“Appa,” she started, “Manager Choi had told me all the details I need. I don’t see any other way.”

She was told that with their current condition, it was impossible to get loan. There was trouble with the previous project, the materials provider demanded for double payment for according to them they had sent the materials but the company didn’t receive any of it. Didn’t have any choices, they paid it as demanded because the provider’s side somehow had the receipt note with their company stamp.

It turned out that they loaned some money back then and had yet to pay the debit used to buy the failed materials. Also, they needed to get more money soon to be able to continue the current project or the client would sue them.

Meanwhile, the stockholders suddenly turned their backs on them, leaving the small amount of her father and her part of share that didn’t even exceed forty-five percents, though they were the biggest stockholders there.

They were in a tight squeeze.

Seungyeon found the whole situation as fishy. She definitely would investigate it further but needed to put it aside for the moment. The important point was to make sure both her father and the company safe.

“No, Seungyeon-ah, you don’t need to step in this whole mess. This father will-”

“Appa!” she snapped without her concern, out of the pressure. It was hard for her to take that decision, but it was the right thing to do at the moment. “I’m not stupid. We really don’t have any other choice. Think about our employees, they have lives, they have family. And think about our family too. We won’t bear to see you-I might as well just die.”

It took her father a moment of silence while he looked at her with pain.

“No, Child. You listen to what-”

“No Appa! You are the one who should listen to me now. I…” She inhaled sharply, as if preparing her self for a nightmare came alive.

“I will accept that marriage proposal!”

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A/N:

This is the chapter 2. My holidays had been ended since weeks ago so it takes longer for me to write and post again. Comments are much appreciated. Enjoy.