"WHAT THE HELL...?!"

He stared dumbfounded at the wedding invitation sample in his hand. His name was embossed next to a buddy's name! He, Choi Seunghyun, only twenty nine years old, who was having the time of his life playing the open field globally was getting married to Go Hara and he didn't even know it!

"This is not happening!" His voice vibrated through the four walls of the one-acre mansion.

"Tabi, my son, you're home!" His mother greeted him happily once she saw him.

His mother, Mrs. Choi was still the epitome of class and grace despite her age. She was a simple lass from Busan when his father married her. She'd come a long way from her humble beginnings to becoming a well-respected society maven.

It had been three years since his father died, that's why all her attention was focused on him--- a circumstance that he considered more of a curse than a blessing.

"Mother, what's the meaning of this?" He asked her angrily as he held the scented paper in front of his face.

"Nothing." She said innocently. "That's one of our design options for your invitation to your wedding with Hara."

"Hara is not even my girlfriend, Ma! So, how the hell this wedding happen?"

The old lady shrugged and slightly pouted her lips. "Haven't you heard of arranged marriages, son?"

"In this day and age?" He exclaimed. "You've got to be kidding me!"

, not Go Hara of all people! She was practically the most insufferable he'd ever known. Just a thought of her makes him feel sick.

"Son, I'm doing this for your own good." She explained. "It's high time your happy-go-lucky ways be put to a halt. You're already twenty-nine years old!"

"Happy-go-lucky?" He asked. "How can you say that when one of the biggest luxury liners ever built-- thanks to me-- is sailing in the North Atlantic as we speak? I also brought a twenty percent increase in profit since I became CEO of Choi Industries. I may be a lot of things, Ma, but I'm not a slacker!"

She shrugged. "That's not what I meant."

"Then what it is?" He asked in a frustrated voice.

"Sometimes you're just not acting your age, son. Some of your friends already have a child or two. You, on the other hand, still party like an eighteen-year old. And those women...those women of yours are driving me crazy!"

"I worked hard. I play hard. As simple as that, Ma."

Silence.

The sheer discomfort of the moment made him want to storm out of the mansion and disappear from the face of the earth.

"We already planned everything. I and Hara's father's decision is final." She declared with an authority tone. "You and Hara are going to get married in two months!"

"Over my dead and rotten body!"

"We'll see." She shrugged.

"What do you mean by that?"

"You will never get a single cent from me if you don't marry her." She simply dared him with poise.

Her statement irritates him more. "Mother, I can spin my own web. Give my inheritance to charity. I don't care. Just quit treating me like some sort of sacrificial lamb!"

From there, her mother start to cry in front of him. Complete with a Vivienne Westwood handerkerchief in her hand, she daintily dabbed her eyes.

Seunghyun groaned in sheer frustration. Aaah, the waterwork, my favorite part of any serious conversation.

"I almost died when I get birth to you and now, you will just disobey me?" She said as she wiped away her tears.

Seunghyun knew the story. His mother labored for twenty-two hours before delivering him into this world. It is true that she almost died when he was born that's why she didn't get pregnant again.

"Ma, this is foul!" He complained. "You know I hate seeing women in tears."

"I can't stop my tears from flowing, son." She said while shaking her head. "I gave you everything you wanted while you were growing up. I rarely asked favors from you but why is it hard for you to grant it."

"Ma, this is my future that we're talking about here! How could you arrange me to a marriage with a person I don't even love?"

"She became your girlfriend once."

"She was never my girlfriend in the true sense of the word." He argued. "I didn't love her!"

His mother raised her head. Damn, but she had a curious look on her face that he so hated to see during their many confrontations.

"You're a woman, Ma." He said in a bored tone. He could already guess her next words. "You can't possibly understand it even if I tell you---."

"Did you have with her?"

"Ma.." He said in exasperated tone. "If you want to talk to me about the birds and the bees, you're twenty-five years too late."

"Well, if you did, then all the more reason you should marry her," She reasoned with the same incorruptible grace. "You need marry her for what you have done to her."

He had to bite his lower lip to keep himself from grinning. Hara was no angel and she was certainly no saint in the ual arena. But he didn't have the audacity to tell his mother about those things. It was illegal.

Long silence between them.

"Son, I will be very happy if you decide to marry Hara." She said as she tightly embraced him. "Please, Tabi..."

I am officially a dead man.

***

“I can't believe you're getting married in three days, hyung!"

Seunghyun groaned as he drank brandy straight from the bottle. He and his cousin Jiyong were lounging in the den of Jiyong's