Later the next day, Eunmi made her way to Jiho’s family home. She was nervous and had to continuously had to wipe her hands on her dark blue jeans. She wasn’t too sure why she was nervous, but she just wished that she didn’t have to be put into the situation she was in now.

She stood in front of the large wooden door as her driver drove away – to wait for her around the corner until she called him. With one large intake of breath she pressed her delicate finger on the doorbell, and waited quietly for the door to open. Several moments later, the door opened to reveal a woman with perfectly quaffed hair and a very expensive looking suit. Eunmi felt her cheeks grow hot, as she felt under dressed. She as wearing a pair of dark skinny jeans with a dark burgundy blouse with a black trench coat, and she silently cursed herself for deciding to wear her beat up converse sneakers.

“Kang Eunmi!” Jiho’s mother exclaimed. “Welcome. Please come in!” She continued as she waved Eunmi into her house with a grand wave and a warm smile.

Eunmi calmed down slightly at how welcoming Mrs. Woo was. She bowed as she walked into the house and removed her shoes, following his mother. She followed her down a hall and into a grand living room where Jiho and another man – presumably Jiho’s father – was seated. She looked over briefly at Jiho and bowed low at his father before taking a seat on the same couch as Jiho and faced his parents. His mother was smiling while his father looked somewhat disinterested.

“So, how is school?” His mother asked still looking at her with a bright smile. To her left she could hear Jiho sighing and shifting on the couch.

“It is going well thank you.” Eunmi replied with a tight smile. Her scabs were pulling at her lip and it was making it hard for her to move . She had used her best concealer and hid most of her bruising, but depending on the light you could see the purple and green hue, that was slowly ebbing away.

“Well then…” Jiho’s mother began but was cut off my Jiho.

“Let’s just get on with it, I’m sure she has to study.” Jiho said sarcastically with a raised brow towards his mother. Eunmi looked over at Jiho with a slight look of surprise.

“Right, you are totally right.” Replied his mother as she stood up, walking towards a small table at the other end of the room. She pulled open a drawer and retracted a large white envelope. “I just wanted to go over the contract with you, so that you can have some say in this marriage also.”

She sat down and pulled out the thick contract that had bother her and Jiho’s name printed on it. Below Jiho’s name, was his messy scrawl of a signature. Eunmi sighed as she lightly chewed on the inside of , and looked over at Jiho briefly.

“I would like you to read the contents before you sign in and of course, if there is anything that you would want to change, please tell us.” His mother replied with a warm smile. Eunmi reached over and tried hard not to wince, but no matter how hard she tried, Jiho caught her and quickly reached over to grab the contract for her instead.

His mother looked at him curiously as he handed the contract over to Eunmi with a sideway glance, before sitting back down on the couch and crossing his arms over his chest. Eunimi inclined her head towards Jiho before briefly scanning the pages. Everything suited Eunmi, but there was still something nagging inside her. She cleared looking up at Jiho’s parents.

“Everything seems perfect, it’s just that–” She began but was cut off by the entering of one of the miads.

“Mrs. Woo, a Mr. Kang Dongmin is here to see you.” She said with a bow and left the living room.

“What?” Jiho exclaimed as he looked over at Eunmi, who was frozen on the spot, all the blood had drained from her face, and suddenly her bruises stood out on her face, causing his parents to gasp.

Eunmi, sat frozen from fear. She was not supposed to be at Jiho’s house. She was supposed to be at the library. She looked over at Jiho, who shared the same horrified look on his face.

“Quick hide her!” Came a harsh whisper from Jiho’s mother, and before Eunmi could register what was happening, she felt a sharp tug on her wrist and she was suddenly gone from the living room and running down a hall way behind Jiho, who still had a firm but reassuring grip on her wrist.

From a distance, she could hear the commanding voice of her father, and she couldn’t help but cringe and cower at the sound. She tensed up as Jiho brought her around another corner and up a grand flight of steps into another corridor and finally through a large door. He threw her into the room then entered and closed the door, standing behind it catching his breath and looking at Eunmi. She stood in the middle of his room looking down at her feel, looking tense and scared.

“It’s ok – he wont find us here.” Jiho said trying to sound reassuring, but he noticed it didn’t do anything to Eunmi. “What… what would make you feel more safe?” He asked.

She looked up at him then, with large tear filled eyes. She just shrugged and looked back down at her feet. She ignored her surroundings and then crouched down into a ball, hugging her legs, in the middle of his room. Jiho looked desperately around to find something to comfort her, and then his eyes landed on his cupboard. He walked over to her and grabbed her by the arms to make her stand up straight. She looked at him confused for a slight moment before she as forced to follow him once again. He brought her across his large room to two large double doors.

“This is a classified location, that you can never tell anyone about. Got it?” He asked and she nodded in agreement.

He opened the doors to reveal his closet that still had some clothing remaining. Eunmi furrowed her brow in confusion. What was so classified about a closet? It was only until he lead her into the back of the closet that her eyes shot up in surprise. Deep in the closet at the furthest end, was a small hidden nook with a bunch of plus pillows and a window that looked out to the back of the house. It was a small nook, but it was big enough for two people to fit inside. He gestured for her to go in first and she did so, squeezing to the furthest end.

Jiho sat beside her and began to arrange the clothing so that they were well hidden. Eunmi watched and couldn’t help but feel her tension ease from her body, bit by bit. Jiho was actually trying to make her feel comfortable even though he didn’t know her.

“I don’t want you do to it.” Eunmi said after several minutes of silence.

“Do what?” Jiho said looking at her. She was looking out of the window, but then she turned to look at him.

“This marriage. It doesn’t benefit you in anyway. Why do you want to go on with it so badly?” She asked him. Jiho looked at her for several minutes then down at his hands. Truth was he wasn’t so sure why he wanted to do it, but he did know that he wanted to help her.

“It doesn’t matter if it benefits me or not. It benefits you.” He said with a shrug as if that was the answer that Eunmi was looking for.

She shook her head. “I’m not looking for pity if that’s what your getting at. I can do fine on my own.” It was now her turn to look down at her hands and pick at her nails.

“If you think I’m doing this because I pity your situation, you’re partly wrong.” Jiho said as he looked over at her slightly annoyed. She looked up at him, surprised by his honest answer. “Look, when my mother first asked me to do this, I flat out refused her. I just agreed to tickle her fancy and go to dinner to meet you so she would shut up. But then everything changed.” He said as he looked down again.

“Look – just sign the damn contract. I don’t mind marrying you.” He said with a sigh, as if he didn’t want to reveal his mixed up feelings.

“You will.” She replied frankly as she looked out of the window, feeling her heart ache. As much as she wanted to marry someone as handsome and willing as Jiho, she knew it was too selfish of herself to do so.

“What is that supposed to mean?” He asked. Eunmi turned back to him and sighed.

“Men like you are never single. You’re in your prime, why would you want to be stuck with a father in law who beats his own child?” Eunmi replied, but then instantly regretted her words. Never in her life had she revealed her secret, and yet being around Jiho made her so comfortable that it slipped.

“I don’t care if I am associated with him. Everyone has secrets, and this’ll just become ours instead of just yours.” He replied.

Eunmi remained silent as his statement sunk in, that was a luxury that she had always wished she could share with someone.

“And what is ‘men like me are never single’ supposed to mean?” He then said as if the first half of what she said had just sunk in. She looked at him with a sad smile.

“Are you going to tell me that your single? That you don’t have a girl or several girls eating out the palm of your hand?” She said looking at him with narrowed eyes. “Men as handsome as you, always have women nipping at their heels.” She looked at him as he shrugged off her correct assumption. Instead he looked at her with a smirk.

“You think I’m handsome?” He said as his smirk split into a side smile.

Eunmi watched as his cat like eyes turned into small crescent moons in amusement. She stared at him momentary in amusement, and then scoffed before she allowed herself to smile. It was a small one, and it tugged at her scabbed lips, but it was nonetheless a geuine one.

Now it was Jiho’s time to stare at her. His smile dropped as he heart skipped a few beats, and he could no longer deny that he was indeed attracted to her. He had never felt his heart beat in such a way before.

“To be honest, I don’t mind marrying you because you are my type – you check all my boxes.” Jiho confessed, and he watched as her face turned from a smiling one, to a redden embarrassed one.

“Yah! Don’t play me–”  she began but then Jiho leaned in and quickly wrapped his hand on . When was about to protest, he urgently put a finger to his thick lips in a hushing gesture. She stilled in his hands and listened carefully to her surroundings, and sure enough, she heard the faint footsteps of someone walking around in the room outside the closet.

“Jiho? Jiho–ah?” Said the faint sound of a woman. She heard the creak of the closet door opening and then Jiho leaned, peaking through his shield of clothing only to exhale loudly.

“Mom! Next time be less discrete!” He shouted as he let his hand drop from Eunmi’s face, and let it linger for a few seconds in her lap before removing it.

“I knew you’d be hiding in your nook.” Said her cheerful tone, and then the shield of clothing was whisked around to relieve Jiho’s mother crouched down smiling at the two of them. “Your father dropped by to give his formal apologies for the time he – or rather as he put it, you – wasted, in regards to the wedding.”

“Sorry about that.” Eunmi said as she inclined her head and look down at her hands.

“Oh no worries, I told him that my Jiho was very interested in you, and that it wasn’t a waste what so ever.” She said with a knowing smirk.

“Mother!” Jiho exclaimed, as she closed his eyes and let his head fall back as he rubbed his face. “She doesn’t want to marry me, so just drop it.” He added.

“Even after you showed her your top secret nook?” His mother mockingly joked, and winked at Eunmi, couldn’t help but smile a sad smile.

Eunmi watched how the two of them interacted and she couldn’t help but wish that she still had her mother around to joke around like she did with her. Eunmi sighed.

“Fine, I agree to marrying you, if you do not mind.” Eunmi said quietly as Jiho looked at his mother. She looked down at her lap and couldn’t help but feel a small sense of relief.

“You’ll do it?” Jiho said, sounding more excited than he should have. Eunmi nodded, looking up at Jiho through her lashes.

Jiho’s mother looked over at him with an odd expression. It had been a very long time since she had seen Jiho this excited or happy about something. She too then felt a form of relief as she could now fulfill her best friends dying wish. She smiled and bit her lip, trying to suppress her tears of joy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hazaah! I long-ish chapter! Sorry I have no updated in a while, I feel horrible and have all these awesome ideas
in my head but I just cannot seem to find time, with school and work and tutoring and teaching. GAH.
TIME WHERE HAVE YOU GONE?!
Either way, I will try my hardest to update once a week, but I cannot garentee that 100% becuse next week is
MIDTERM'S, and I have this HUGE Lingustics exam that I'm killing myself over. D:

This being said, I hope that you enjoyed this update, I know its kinda boring and blah, but i promise in the next
coming chapters, some fluff and maybe some szzzzmut will happen? Who knows ;)
The last plole releavled that ya'll wanted , so...
YOU SHALL GET!

Love you all, and have a great night/week <3
-A

P.S To all my Canadian readers, HAPPY THANKS GIVING!

P.P.S
BLOCK B WIN AGAINST GD. YES BBC'S YES. They deserved that award so bad <3
GAH I LOVE THEM!!