Chanyeol's POV

"Are you sure about this?" D.O asked, looking at all our faces.

"It sounds like a good plan in theory, but your dad isn't the most reasonable man," Sehun added. "No offense."

I shook my head, not taking any offense at all. "I have to try. It's the last thing I can think of. If this doesn't work, then I really have to marry Minji."

The boys and I looked at each other again. Fear, hope, anxiety. We were all thinking the same thing: this has to work. It was our last chance.

"So everyone knows the deal?" I said finally and looked at Suho. "You know what you have to do?"

Suho nodded with hard eyes. "You got it."

*****

I was pacing back and forth my room, unable to stay still for longer than a few seconds. This was it. Tonight was the night.

I looked at my watch, 5:13pm. Why is she late?! My sister said she would be home by 5pm. I grabbed my phone out of my pocket, ready to dial her number when I heard the front door open. I ran out of my room and looked down from the stairs to see my sister walk in and a tall, handsome man following in after her. This must be the guy. Minji arrived at the same time, being the last to enter the house.

I rushed down the stairs. "What took you so long?!" I exclaimed.

"Well geez," my sister laughed. "I had a safe trip, thank you for asking."

I just gave her an impatient look.

"Chanyeol, this is my fiance, whom you haven't met yet." My sister lazily introduced us and she directed our maids to take her bags to her room.

"It's nice to finally meet you," he said, giving me a firm handshake,

"You have no idea how long I've been trying to meet you," I laughed, welcoming him into our home. "I've heard a lot about you."

"Isn't oppa good looking?" Minji smiled.

"He sure is," my sister replied. "So..where's umma and appa?"

"They went out for a little bit," I answered. "Is everyone caught up on the plan or..?"

"Your sister filled me in on the details," he said. "I'm sorry to hear about the situation."

"It's alright," Minji said, giving him a smile and then one at me. "You know how parents can be."

"Alright, enough catching up," my sister announced. "We need to head to the living room and plan out the final points before umma and appa come home. Minji, you called your parents to come over right?"

Minji nodded and checked her watch. "They should be here soon."

The four of us walked to the living room together to try and make a fool proof plan for when the parents arrived. I hoped with all my heart that this was going to work.

*****

Soojin's POV

"Oh. My. Gosh." I said in awe. "That...makes so much sense!"

Suho laughed. "You act as if you discovered the world's biggest secret or something."

"You have no idea," I said, excited that I finally understood the Japanese invasion to the fullest. Suho's phone rang, and he gave me a look. "You can answer it. No big deal."

"Hello?" Suho answered. "Yeah...Yeah...I know! Dude, I know! Okay....okay! Bye!"

"Feisty much?" I laughed at Suho's side of the conversation. "Who was it?"

"Um, Kai is just being an idiot." he said, turning his attention back to my history book.

*****

Chanyeol's POV

"What is the meaning of this? And who are you?" my father exclaimed, looking at my sister's new fiance. Soon after my parents arrived, we had them sit in the living room. We were waiting for Minji's parents to arrive, but my dad was starting to get impatient. So we decided to start before we lost his attention. I was impressed with my soon to be brother-in-law, he kept his composure and didn't let my father's hostility get to him. We were going to get along just fine.

"Appa," my sister started. "We need to talk."

"Honey, what is it?" my mom asked worried, eyeing the stranger in her house. "Did something happen?"

"Nothing happened umma," she answered. "But something is about to."

"This better be good," my father warned.

"Appa," my sister began. "This is about Chanyeol and Minji's engagement."

"Not this again!" he shouted. "You may not know, but Chanyeol had already agreed to go through with the plan! There is no backing out on your word now son. Your sister can't save you."

"Appa please!" my sister started to get frustrated. "Just listen to me! Can you just hold off on comments until I'm done talking?"

"Honey..." my mother gave her husband a warning. My father cleared his throat and regained his composure, unwilling to listen. But he was faced with both women of his family, there wasn't much he could do.

"Now, as I was saying," my sister continued. "We all know about Chanyeol and Minji's arranged marriage. And we're all aware that no one is happy about it except you and Minji's father. Now we all understand where you're coming from appa. It's for business, a uniting of two powerful families, an alliance you may even call it. But for a father to disregard his child's feelings about the whole thing, I'm really disappointed in you appa."

My father cleared his throat once more, color rising in his cheeks. He knew he was wrong since the beginning, he was just too prideful to admit it.

"You said that there isn't anything that can be done. It's the deal that you had made with Minji's father - which for goodness sake, this is 2014 appa, what were you thinking?" I stifled a laugh at my sister's sass and immediately shut up once I got a glare from my mother. "But if it's a marriage you want, it's a marriage you'll get."

"Thank you dear," my father smiled in victory. "I'm glad you see it my way."

The front door opened with two new guests, Minji left to go greet her parents and lead them into the living room.

"Dear, what's going on?" her mother asked. "Why did you need us to come here?"

"Son?" Minji's father exclaimed in surprise. "I thought you weren't supposed to come home for another few days!"

"Son?" my father repeated in shock.

My sister, her fiance, Minji and I looked at each other with a twinkle in our eyes. This was going to work.

"Appa," my sister continued. "The marriage you're going to get isn't Chanyeol and Minji's. It's going to be mine and Minji's older brother."

"O-Older brother?" my mom stammered, unable to believe the words she had just heard.

"M-Marriage?" Minji's mom added. "Son, you're getting married?"

It was his turn to finally speak. He took a step forward and gave a deep bow to my parents. "Ahnnyounghasaeyo," he said brightly, throwing on a big smile. "My name is Kang Minkook and I have asked your daughter to be my wife."

"What?!" all four parents shouted at the same time, unable to process the news.

Minji and I looked at each other and tried to hold in our laughter. Even if the situation was a serious one, we couldn't help but be entertained.

"Appa, Mr. Kang," my sister calmed everyone down. "Your youngest children are just that. They are young. They are still in high school. You cannot seriously be thinking that it's a good idea to make them get married to each other. They are too young to understand what marraige entails, let alone old enough to be able to figure it out on their own. Quite frankly, as the head of your respective households, I am deeply disappointed that you two would make such an arrangement. Are your children nothing but playing cards to be dealt when you have nothing else to offer? Is the success of your business so much more important than the well-being and happiness of your own children?"

The two dads avoided eye contact and looked ashamed. We were winning.

"We all understand that a public announcement was foolishly made. So the public is waiting for a marriage," my sister continued. "So I guess what I'm trying to say is, let that marriage be mine and Minkook's. Let us, the older siblings, seal the deal for you. You may find it hard to believe, but the two of us are actually in love. I didn't even know he was Minji's older brother until the day after our holiday party."

"Is this true?" Minji's mom stepped up. "Is she the girl that you've been seeing?"

Minkook nodded with a smile. "And I plan to keep seeing her."

"Appa?" my sister turned everyone's attention to my father. Who was deep in thought. Confusion, rage, embarassment. All of the mixed emotions were written all over his face. But it was what he was going to say next that would decide where the rest of this night was going to end.

He cleared his throat. "Well..." he was searching for the right words to say. "I am ashamed to say as a father, it took me this long to see the truth." he faced me with tear rimmed eyes, a sight I haven't seen since I was a little boy. "I'm sorry Chaneyol. My son, will you ever forgive me? I know I haven't been the best father to you, but I hope that you know that it is only because I love you son. I love you so much and I only want what's best. I guess...it just took me a while to see that maybe you know better than I do what the best thing is for you."

Tears started to rise in my own eyes. He has never said such heartfelt words to me before, not since I was a little kid. I didn't move from my spot in the living room. I just stood there, waiting for more to come.

"Well, what do you think?" my dad asked Minji's dad, who was also deep in thought.

All seven faces turned to his direction, waiting for him to speak.

"Is it true?" he finally spoke, looking at Minji with sad eyes. "You don't want to marry Chanyeol?"

Our eyes darted back and forth, unsure of what was to come next. I didn't know about Minkook, but my parents, my sister and myself knew that Minji in fact did want to get married to me. I held my breath, waiting for her response.

"No," she answered. "I don't want to marry Chanyeol oppa." I looked at her with surprised, yet grateful, eyes. Did she really just say that?

"Sure, I like Chanyeol oppa," she continued. "I think everyone knows that. But it's too soon. I'm only in my 2nd year of high school, I can't get married. And besides, who knows, maybe someone better than Chanyeol oppa will come along."

I smiled at her effort to lighten the atmosphere. I knew it was a way for her to cushion her pain temporarily. But it didn't matter, I couldn't express how grateful I was for her to say all of that.

Minji's father just nodded in understanding, none of us sure if he actually did understand. "I'm okay with the new marriage plans if you are Hyunshik."

My sister gasped in delight and turned her entire body to face our father, waiting expectantly. This was it. We were so close.

My father continued to contemplate the situation and looked up at me. "Alright," he nodded. "Chanyeol and Minji's engagement is off."

Right then and there, I couldn't have been more happy, more exhilerated that I was at that moment. I grabbed Minji and gave her a big, bone-crushing hug.

"Thank you Minji, thank you," I repeated, not planning on letting her go soon.

"Oppa.." he struggled to say. "You're hurting me."

I quickly let her go. "Oh sorry," I smiled, continuing to thank her in my head.

Our parents were now surrounding my sister and Minkook, asking for details about their relationship as Minji and I watched.

"Go," she said.

"What?" not sure of what she meant.

"Go," Minji repeated. "Don't you have someone to see?"

The smile on my face grew so wide, I thought my cheeks were going to fall off. I gave another tight embrace before announcing that I had to leave. I ran as fast as my legs could take me.

Soojin, just wait a little longer.

*****

Soojin's POV

"Wait, can you explain that again?" I asked, bringing my face closer to the textbook as if I was able to absorb the information better.

Suho laughed. "Again?"

I nodded seriously, ignoring his laugh. "Slower this time."

He laughed again and readjusted himself in his seat, preparing to reteach the information to me when my phone rang. I held up a finger to stop Suho and answered.

"Hello?"

In a fraction of a second, my body had shut down. In a fraction of a second, I had forgotten how to breathe. In a fraction of a second, time froze. In a fraction of a second, my world came crashing down into a deep fiery pit of hell.

"Is everything okay?" Suho asked, concerned. He noticed my sudden cold, blank exterior.

"I...I need to go home." I managed to say, still not moving. It was Jina on the phone. She had already hung up, but I kept holding the phone to my ear.

"What?" Suho started to panic, looking at his watch. "Already? We still have--"

"I NEED TO GO HOME!" I shouted, starting regain control over my body. "I need to go home, I need to go home, I need to go home!"

I frantically tried to get my things together, but ended up just creating a bigger mess. The tears were flowing from my face, I couldn't see. I couldn't hear anything but the beat of my heart and  ringing in my ears.

"Soojin!" Suho cried, starting to get really worried. "Calm down! What's going on? Are you alright?"

"MY MOM IS DEAD!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, another wave of fresh tears making their way out of my eyes. Everything froze. Even Suho couldn't move, unable to comprehend the four words he had just heard. I was running out of time. I grabbed my wallet and ran out of the house, not caring about what I left behind. I had a plane to catch.

*****

Chanyeol's POV

Come on, come on, come on. Open the door! I repeated, pressing the doorbell of Suho's front gate over and over again.

Soon the front gate opened and I was shocked to be greeted by Suho.

"Dude! It worked! I'm engagement free!" I beamed, looking behind him. "Where's Soojin? I have to tell her!"

Suho put a hand on my chest to stop me from advancing forward. "Soojin isn't here."

My eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean she's not here?"

"She just left a few minutes ago," Suho said with eyes that even a poor person would want to give all of their money to.

"What do you mean?" I asked again. "I told you to keep her here until I was done!"

"She went home," Suho said, with a devastated expression.

"What the hell, did something happen?" I asked, starting to feel nervous. Why did I feel like he was keeping something from me? What happened?

"Soojin went home," he repeated.

"Yeah, I get that," I answered. "But I'm asking why you look like someone just died?"

"Because someone did!" Suho shouted, anger starting to rise.

"H-Huh?" I stuttered. Suho rarely gets this worked up. But did he just say that someone...died?

"Soojin's mom...she just passed away..." Suho said, blinking away tears. "Soojin is on her way home, back to the States."

"W-What?" There is no way this was happening. Soojin's mom? Mrs. Lee? No....no no no no...

I turned without another word and bolted towards Soojin's house, with nothing else in mind but that I had to get there and fast.

Soojin....Soojin...

A/N:

NOOOOOOOO!~~~
my heart breaks as i conclude this chapter..the feels T-T
i hope you like this chapter! a lot is happening in this one, please enjoy~

don't cry my readers, i don't write to make you sad lol
a couple readers correctly guessed the ultimate plan!
give yourself a pat on the back, you detective you hehe
(you'll really enjoy my next fanfic Safeguard then! keke)

please continue to support, thank you so much~
subscribe, comment, upvote. i'll love you forever :)

today's gif time is dedicated to the wonderful leader of exo :)
i swear, the longer i stare at him, the more good looking he gets..
he honestly has a heart of gold <3

much love, thatxmusic