“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

Knock knock.

“Who is it?” Eunji called out sarcastically.

“Your fairy godbrother!” Yonghwa answered with a shrill tone from the other side.

“Go away!” She replied with the same tone of voice.

“No can do!” Yonghwa said cheerfully, “Now open up!”

He heard the sound of rustling and annoyed muttering. The turn of the doorknob told him that she had unlocked the door, but didn't bother to open it for him.

“Aww, Eunji...Don't you love me anymore?” He asked playfully, making a flourishing entrance into her room. Eunji threw a pillow in his direction which missed the target miserably.

“You're siding with them. You're the enemy,” she stated as a matter of factly. She rolled over in her bed and turned back to her laptop. Yonghwa noted that she was watching Music Core, and CNBLUE was performing. He would never know what his sister sees in them; their music was pretty mediocre to him.

“Hey, it's not the end of the world, princess. It's just a company dinner—”

“A company dinner slash matchmaking service for every unmarried person that's going to be there. I know how these things work...and I hate them!”

“And so what?! I had to go through tons of those, more than you, and I'm still y and single. It's a common thing that rich people do to their kids, more like a tradition that an actual need of you to get married.”

Eunji looked skeptical, “Appa seemed really eager to get me out of the house, considering the fact that I'm his only daughter...”

“He wants you to get out of the house to go to college, not get hitched. He's just doing this to show you off to other rich, snobby people because they have nothing else better to do but to display and auction their children off like horses.”

Eunji knew that being the male heir was much more stressing and burdensome, but despite that as he said this, he still had a bright smile and a cheer in his voice; one of the traits of the Jung family was to always remain positive and optimistic. If not, then you better do a good job in faking it.

“Just keep being picky and difficult, the guys will give up on you soon enough. You're not worth that much effort anyways,” Yonghwa stifled a squeal when Eunji nailed him with another pillow, but she was smiling and he knew that her mood had lifted. He had done the job that he had came to do.

Now to escape before he became anymore of a human punching bag.

“Eomma wants you to get ready now. And you know she'll come up here and dress you up herself if you'll wait until the last minute again.”

Eunji sighed heavily as Yonghwa closed the door and left. He was right; it wasn't the end of the world, her parents might push her to do this but ultimately they couldn't force her in a wedding dress and shove her down the aisle. It was her choice, and her choice would be no one because there is no way she's getting engaged before she even has a job yet.

She smirked to herself; she would like to see anyone brave enough to pursue her once she got through with them all.

“There you go,” her mother cooed, pinning the delicate diamond studded hair clip into her curls. Eunji felt like if she moved too much, she would ruin her hair. Or her makeup. Or the seashell pink mermaid dress that she forced into.

Whatever the case, she knew that if she wasn't careful, she would ruin or break something.

You might as well as force me into a corset, to really complete the torture, Eunji thought resentfully, staring at her reflection in the mirror as if it was another person.

Her head felt heavy. She felt as if the heavy diamond dangling earrings was dragging her down. The matching necklace seemed like it was restricting her airflow, and with the amount of makeup she had on her face...she might as well wear a mask and get it done with quicker.

Eunji stood up with a groan. She had sat for four hours in that chair while stylists tugged and pulled on her hair and the makeup artists took their sweet time painting her face.

This is a company dinner but it feels like I'm going to walk the red carpet.

She winced when another thought entered her mind.

If this is just for dinner...I can't imagine my wedding day.

Another reason to blow this event and make sure she gave the clear signal to every bachelor that was going to attend:

Jung Eunji is not interested, thank you very much.

“Jung Eunji! Where are your Louboutin pumps? The white one with the lace design.”

I hid it because I knew it matches this ugly excuse of a dress. “Third shelf, to your right.”

She turned experimentally in her dress, and noticed with despair that the mermaid style of it was restricting movement to her legs. That meant that running away from her suitors would be out of the options, as well as attempting to kick them in the family jewels, should they be stupid enough to try anything.

Her mother had produced her high heels with a satisfied smile, placing it down at her feet and looked at her expectantly.

Eunji stared at them as if meeting an old enemy.

“Well hurry up and put them on! We don't have all day,” her mother fussed, and Eunji had no other choice but to slip into the four-inch stiletto heels and inched her way downstairs.

When she descended down, taking one delicate step at a time, her father and brother was already waiting at the entrance. The servants were already holding their coats, preparing to send them off.

When her father saw her, he nearly spat out the whiskey he had been sipping. He quickly coughed to hid his mistake.

“You look...very nice, dear.” And Eunji knew he had said that only because her mother was right behind her, and he was wary of his wife.

In another case, when Yonghwa saw her, he nearly had an epilepsy.

“I thought I told you not to get ready at the last minute?” He was trying so hard to hold back his laughter...Eunji wanted to punch him, because he wasn't trying hard enough.

“I did,” she hissed, once they were outside and walking to the car that was ready for them, “I went to take take a shower as soon you left but when I got out, a whole army of them were outside waiting for me.”

“Them...? Ah,” he realized, “The stylists and makeup artists. That would explain the cars parked outside since noon.”

“They were waiting since noon? Dear god,” Eunji rolled her eyes skyward, “she's taking this way too seriously. Was she like this with you? I can't remember.”

“Nah. Appa didn't let her bother me so much about it since I was still learning the ropes of the company back then, and he didn't want anything 'distracting' me.”

They got into the car, and the siblings fell silent in the presence of their parents. While they made small talk, they avoided talking about the elephant in the car.

The rest of the car ride went by relatively peacefully, and soon they had reached the main entrance of this fancy hotel with the French name that Eunji could never pronounce. Her parents had urged her to take French in school but she defied them and took Japanese instead. It was always nice to rebel against your rich parents, who were used to things always going their way.

She took no notice of the magnificent hotel as they were led into the ballroom that would double as a dinner hall. While Yonghwa was led away by their father to talk business with the gentlemen, their mother had wandered off to gossip with the other wives and mistresses--thankfully leaving Eunji to her own devices.

What she was more interested in was the food.

The only good thing about these dinners was that it was always held as a buffet, so she didn't have to wait around to be served by the staff.

She was lucky, the buffet table was mostly deserted of people. The guests here were more interested in mingling about, and only the youngsters like her were hanging around and piling food onto their plates. Eunji wasted no time in taking one and heading straight for the dessert section. She was in the mood for something sweet.

“Try the cheese tarts. Don't take the ones with fruit, I'm pretty sure they had been refrigerated for a few days now.” A male voice behind her said. Eunji didn't bother to look at the person, but to make a statement, she grabbed both cheese tarts and the fruit tarts.

“I'm not picky with food. I'll eat anything that's edible,” she said and finally turned around. He was about her brother's age...Eunji couldn't put a finger on it but she knew that she had seen him somewhere before--

“Jung Eunji-ssi...right? I'm Jonghyun, I was at your birthday party a few months ago.” He grinned, and offered her a glass of red wine.

She accepted it gracefully. Much better than those bubbly champagnes they were serving around.

“Yeah...the 'birthday party'. More like, the coming-of-age party. Even though it was my nineteenth birthday,” she muttered under her breath.

Eunji studied the man silently, “You're Yonghwa-oppa's friend? Business partner?”

“Friend, from college. Business partner too actually but we hate that term.”

“I understand,” Eunji nodded sagely, “so are you like the heir of another company or something?”

Jonghyun laughed, “Something like that. A smaller company, but still under your family name. So sorta like an employee. But we hate that term too.”

“You hate anything related to business, like oppa.” Eunji grinned, “Jonghyun-ssi, I think we're gonna be great friends.”

They clinked their glasses mockingly, before Jonghyun asked her with a little curiosity in his voice, “So it seems like you hate business as well...what exactly are you doing at a company dinner? Are you going to be working there like your brother?”

“Oh, god no,” Eunji cringed at the thought, “I'm being forced here because my mother thinks that I should get out of the house more and 'mingle'.”

Yonghwa came over then, having heard Eunji's last few words.

“Yeah right, like you don't 'mingle' enough. You have more friends on Facebook than I do,” He turned to explain to Jonghyun, “It's our mother's dream that she would meet the love of her life, her soulmate, her other half--”

He choked when Eunji dug her nails into his arm.

“--at these types of functions.” Yonghwa glared at her, pinching her arm childishly in retaliation. “Not that anyone would be crazy enough to like you, you little beast.”

She stuck her tongue out at him, and before a war could break out between the siblings, Jonghyun interrupted them by announcing that the guest of honor had arrived.

“Guest of honor?”

“The owner of a former rival company. Appa managed to close a deal with him, so this is like a celebration party as well. Ah, look, there he is.”

The three of them turned to look at the commotion happening near the entrance. She couldn't see or hear anything with so many people surrounding the supposed guest of honor. There was even a camera flash or two...really, is he like a celebrity or something? Unbelievable.

Eunji imagined the guest to be a middle-aged, maybe portly man with a mistress hanging onto his arm. He would have graying or even balding hair and he would look absolutely stuffy and pretentious, treating everyone as if they were not worth the dirt on his shoes. Eunji chuckled at her own mental picture.

But then the crowd cleared, and she caught a glimpse of the man of the hour--

And all traces of that mental image was thrown out, as she caught sight of the owner of her father's former rival company.

He was...breathtaking, to say the least.

Not overly handsome or gorgeous, in the model sense, but he was very pleasing to her eyes. His features were exactly her type: Stylishly parted hair. Smiling, monolid eyes. A straight, aristocratic like nose. A graceful mouth that was pulled back into a wide smile, revealing a row of straight, white teeth that could be absolutely perfect except for the sharper than usual incisors, making it seem like he had fangs. That somehow made him even more endearing in her eyes. His jaw wasn't perfectly sculpted either, but it was sharp and defined enough and it suited him very well. His skin was nearly as smooth as hers, and Eunji had always prided herself for her own amazingly soft and flawless skin.

The man was simply beautiful. He was clad in a simple black suit and tie, but even then he managed to outshine everyone in the room.

She snapped out of her daze when she felt two pair of eyes burning into the back of her head.

Jonghyun was watching her with amusement, while Yonghwa looked at with suspicion. Eunji couldn't let him know that she found his business partner attractive or she'll never hear the end of it.

“That's the owner? He's...so young.” She hoped they thought she had been staring because she was surprised, and not because of...well, the other reason.

Jonghyun seemed to buy it but her brother knew her better, and didn't look as convinced. “He had been the legal owner since he was a kid. His dad died when he was young, and he's the only child.”

“Seems weird to leave a million-dollar company in the hands of a kid.” Eunji mused, but the father must have known what he was doing...because years later his company was still standing strong under his son's name.

“Appa's calling me,” Yonghwa groaned, “Oh wait...he's calling the both of us.”

Eunji looked up in horror and realized he was right; their father was gesturing both of them over. She looked down regretfully at her tarts that she hadn't had a chance to eat.

“It'll still be here,” Yonghwa rolled his eyes, and offered her his arm because it was the proper thing to do.

She had her eyes lowered respectfully when they approached the group of rich, powerful men. Eunji noticed with despair that the guest of honor was there too.

She bowed, when her father introduced her to them.

“My daughter, Eunji. She's currently studying in the Seoul University of Arts and Culture, majoring in the performing arts.”

“Oh President-nim, I would have thought your daughter would take up business and continue the family tradition,” a wrinkly old man with beady eyes and a mustache commented. His tone of voice was smug and meant to offend, without being to obvious about it.

But Eunji didn't grew up in high society without picking up a few things.

“Tradition is important, sir. But I'm proud to be the family's first to venture into something else other than business; my mother was a journalist, as you may know. She had quite a high social standing and an incredible reputation.” She replied smoothly, and saw that Yonghwa and her father was subtly smirking.

“Yes, I remember,” the man sneered. Her mother was a famous journalist, always being the VIP of any important events—it was how she had met her father.

She was feeling good about successfully defending her career choice; it was a sensitive subject for her, as if she was the black sheep of the family just because she wanted to do something else other than work at the family company like the rest of her cousins and relatives.

“Minhyuk-ssi,” her father spoke up suddenly, “I would like you to meet my daughter, Eunji.”

And her gaze was drawn to the tall, handsome man that she had dreaded to meet. Eunji noticed that he had been appraising her since she had told off the wrinkly old man...and he looked impressed. Eunji felt herself getting flustered, and she quickly lowered her eyes and bowed to hide her red face.

People had always said that she had the most lovely eye-smile that they had ever seen...but looking at this man, she would say that she was of no competition at all. His eye-smile made her heart beat a little quicker, and Eunji wondered what was wrong with her.

“Annyeonghaseyo,” she said quietly. She had never been so meek or so shy; something is seriously wrong with her.

“It's nice to meet you Eunji-ssi,” his voice was soft and pleasant and unlike any of the men here, it didn't radiate arrogance or was trying to draw attention to himself.

“You've met Yonghwa,” her father patted his son on the back, and Minhyuk's gaze was drawn to her brother. He grinned and shook hands with him.

“Hey, hyung.”

Eunji was stunned. They seem so familiar...so they already knew each other beforehand?

“Minhyuk-yah, you trying to up me or something? You're looking more dolled up than usual.” Minhyuk only laughed in response. Even his laugh was melodic to her ears.

Yonghwa stood behind her now, and swung his arm casually around her shoulders, “You're prettier than my baby sis. Have you eaten yet? No? Why don't you take Eunji to the buffet table? This girl can eat a house.”

What. Is. He. Doing?

Eunji wanted to turn around and glare at him, but that would be too obvious. She squirmed around slightly, trying to send a message to her brother that he was so gonna pay for that later, but Yonghwa was having too much fun messing with her to care.

“Of course, I'll be happy to.” Minhyuk smiled obliviously at her, and offered her his hand. Eunji mentally braced herself before taking it and letting him lead her to the buffet table.

He's holding my hand. Why am I so worked up over this?

“Minhyuk!” Jonghyun greeted when he saw them. What? So they all knew each other and didn't bother to tell her? Bastards.

“Hyung,” he responded, and gave her an apologetic glance, “Why don't you go ahead and eat first while I catch up with Jonghyun?”

Eunji shrugged, not really minding. Her plate of tarts and glass of wine was still there, and she took them and silently retreated to an isolated part of the room.

Yum...

The rich, chocolate mixed cream cheese tarts were exquisite, although Jonghyun was right in that the fruit tarts tasted a bit wacky from being kept in the fridge for awhile. Still, it was delicious and it satisfied her sugar craving. A waiter came around and refilled her wine glass, and she sat there alone comfortably sipping wine and playing with her phone.

She heard the announcement of the dance floor being open, but she paid it no mind. She couldn't dance to save her life, and her mother had stopped trying to push her to dance with strangers once she saw that her daughter had two left feet.

In actuality she could dance if taught properly, but she just doesn't like dancing. And it was easier to convince her parents that she couldn't dance rather than she preferred not to dance.

If you keep acting unapproachable, how will you meet someone?

Her mother always nagged whenever they attended these types of social functions. It was like she was convinced that twenty years later Eunji would end up living alone with twenty cats or something. Which is ridiculous because she doesn't even like cats. If anything, she was more of a dog person.

And who was she to judge? She didn't meet Appa until she was in her late twenties, Eunji inwardly grumbled to herself.

She was startled out of her thoughts when a chair was pulled out beside her. She dreaded to think it was her mother, but it was someone she hadn't expected at all.

Minhyuk was smiling down at her, his own glass of red wine in hand.

“Hi. We didn't get to talk properly earlier.”

Eunji looked at him uncertainly. Yeah, they didn't talk much then but she was not so an interesting person that he would purposely seek her out...right?

She nodded stiffly in response, and stared straight ahead, not knowing what to say or do in this situation. Minhyuk didn't seem offended by this, and simply sat there comfortably. He didn't try to make conversation, and for that she was thankful.

The problem is, that Eunji was never good with awkward silences.

“Did my mother put you up to this?” She blurted out without thinking.

Oh great. My big mouth.

He looked mildly surprised at her outburst, but responded with a light chuckle, “No...but it's curious that you would suspect so. I find you interesting, Eunji-ssi.”

Eunji gaped, unsure if she should take that comment as a compliment or an offense.

“Doesn't the other people here interests you as much, Minhyuk-ssi?” She snarked, turning away from him coolly and taking another sip of wine.

“No, not really,” he replied bluntly, watching with amusement as her expression froze on her face. Eunji's struggled to find a sassy comeback for that, but all that came out was a weak, “Huh?”

“You're interesting, Eunji-ssi. From the moment I saw you in your princess dress and too heavy makeup that doesn't look like it suits your face. I think I like you,” he confessed pleasantly, his tone was even and casual, as if talking about the weather.

“You don't even know me.” She said after a moment of silence.

Minhyuk shrugged, “That's true. Let's get to know each other then; Yonghwa says you're free this weekend. Go to lunch with me,” he practically ordered with all the confidence and swag of a young millionaire.

Eunji blinked once. “No,” she said with a finality.

That didn't seem to faze him even a bit. “Fine then. Go to dinner with me.”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Just...no.”

“That's not an answer.”

She glared, “I don't like you. Therefore, I will not go out with you.”

“As you said, you don't even know me, so how can you be sure you don't like me?”

Eunji gritted her teeth in annoyance. She couldn't believe that she had ever find him attractive. He may be a beautiful man on the outside, but on the inside, he's the most infuriatingly persistent person on the planet. Everyone in this room had been conned by his clean, well-mannered behavior, but now Eunji knew better.

Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice...mermaid dress or not, I will kick you where the sun don't shine with my four inch stiletto heels.

“Listen pal, I have no intentions of dating anyone right now. And if you talk to my brother, he will tell you that I'm not very good dating material anyways so you can just forget it and walk away, okay?” She smiled cheerfully but her eyes were shooting daggers at him.

“I'm sure that's not true,” he said somewhat soothingly. He was probably thinking that she had low self esteem or something, which cannot be farther from the truth. One doesn't study performing arts without self confidence.

“My previous ex-boyfriends have said otherwise. Seriously, just save yourself the trouble and find another person to harass. Have you met Yonghwa-oppa's secretary yet? She's quite the looker,” Eunji nodded at the direction of a tall, buxom young woman in a tight, cocktail dress. Minhyuk glanced at her...for all of a split second before he turned back to her, looking unimpressed.

“I'm wearing five layers of makeup and the stylist made me wear fake hair.” Eunji was getting increasingly desperate right now.

His lips quirked at her attempt to put him off. He finds it strangely endearing. “Yonghwa keeps posting your pictures on KakaoTalk. I think I've seen you in your pyjamas, eating peanut butter straight from the jar.”

Eunji's face burned at the revelation. Now she remembered why Yonghwa had his phone out when he had came across her having a midnight snack in the kitchen. The traitor...he had been taking pictures of her and showing them to his friends.

She was going to kill him.

“I can keep doing this all night. And I know where you live, so don't bother hiding from me.” He leaned back into his seat, stretching his long legs and crossing his ankles together. His posture just screamed that he wasn't planning on leaving anytime soon.

Eunji's eye twitched at this. “You're not very attractive right now,” she shook her head as if disappointed in him.

He only grinned in response, “Was I attractive to you before?”

You were the most beautiful person I've ever set eyes upon, the voice in her head betrayed her.

“You were hideous. You are hideous. Seriously, your appearance matches your personality right now.”

He barked out a laugh, and Eunji wondered what it was going to take to get him mad.

“Then I'm the Beast to your Beauty. Won't you kiss me and turn me into a prince?” He said smoothly, and the sheer cheesiness of it made her smile unwillingly.

He looked a little surprised at his easy victory.

Damn you, face. Why do I smile so easily?

“That's the frog prince, dummy. Know your fairytales,” she rolled her eyes at him.

“You're right. How stupid of me to not know that,” he answered sarcastically, and she silently chuckled to herself.

This is bad. I'm enjoying his company.

“Do you believe in true love?” He asked suddenly, catching her off guard.

“Aigoo, why are we talking about this?”

“I'll keep talking about the subject of love until you agree to go out with me.”

Love?! Whoa, hold on there...

“Let's talk about the subject of 'like' first, okay? Let's not bring up the other L word.”

“Why not? Do you have commitment issues?”

Eunji spluttered, “No! I just...I don't know you, okay?! This topic is way to intimate for a first conversation.”

“Then go out with me, so we can have our second conversation over lunch. Or dinner, depends on you.”

This time, she didn't bother hiding her disbelief and annoyance. She ran a hand over her face in agitation and groaned.

Minhyuk tsked at her, gently reaching over to remove her hand from her face. He laughed when he saw her smudged makeup.

“Okay, now we're even. You look hideous too.”

Eunji stared at her hand in horror, smeared with eyeliner and lipgloss and glittery pink eyeshadow. She turned to Minhyuk grimly, “Is it bad?”

He removed a handkerchief from his pocket and gently swiped near her eyes. She blushed when he went to wipe the lipgloss clean off her lips.

“There. You look better now that one layer of makeup is off.”

She grumbled, and refused to look at him.

“Are you still going to be stubborn? I can be stubborn too,” he leaned forward, grasping her chin to tilt her head towards him. Now they were face-to-face, only, his eyes were not on hers but instead looking intently at her lips.

This is inappropriate. This is too much PDA. Is he going to--

His other hand came up and to Eunji's bewilderment, he gently swipe at her bottom lip with his thumb. She was stunned at the contact, and was unable to pulled away because her entire body felt numb. Minhyuk lingered there for a few seconds, before drawing back abruptly and smiling as if nothing had happen. Eunji caught the shiny lipgloss stain on his finger.

“Looks like I missed a spot.”

Her lips still burned at his touch. Eunji gulped nervously,“...okay.”

Minhyuk nodded, “Okay.”

“No...I mean,” She sighed heavily in defeat, “okay.”

He looked utterly lost and confused, “Hm?”

Eunji pursed her lips at the words she was about to say.

“Are you going to make me spell it out? Okay, I'll go out with you.”

There was a moment where did nothing but stare at her blankly, but then a smile slowly began to form on his face, and she couldn't help but smile too. 

“One date. That's all I'm giving you.”

He smirked, as if to say, 'Oh really?'. She narrowed her eyes at him, as if to say, 'Yes, really.'.

Minhyuk nodded then, agreeing without putting much of a fight. He wasn't bothered with his one date ticket; he would have plenty of chances to convince her on their first date. But he was curious about one thing, “What made you change your mind?”

Eunji's lips tightened into a straight line, “I've seen what you're capable of. You're good, mister.”

A good tease. Geez, I thought my heart was going to explode back then.

Minhyuk looked like he had just won the lottery, only if he had really won the lottery, Eunji doubt that he would look that gleeful. He is a millionaire, after all.

“Thank you. You just saved us both a lot of time,” he downed the rest of his wine in one gulp and stood up, brushing off his already impeccable suit and adjusting his shirt cuffs.

“I'll pick you up on Saturday. And we're having lunch.” He shot her his eye-smile and left as suddenly and silently as he had arrived.

Eunji stared at his retreating back. Her mind was working to catch up over the odd conversation that had transpired.

So, that just happened.

“What just happened?” Jonghyun asked. They had been eavesdropping on the conversation for a while now.

“A miracle just happened, my friend!” Yonghwa patted him on the back, looking more exuberant than he had ever seen him.

“Why? Because our Minhyukie got a date?”

“No! Because my sister got a date! Ahahaha!” he cackled, “I'm loving this so much...although I'm gonna kill Minhyuk later for bringing up KakaoTalk.”

Jonghyun hummed, “Sure, if your Wonder Woman of a sister doesn't kill you a first.”

At this, he paled noticeably.

Oh.

Right.

“But hey, don't worry,” Jonghyun nudged him with an elbow, “they say true love can tame even the wildest beast.”

“Yeah...I hope—hey! Are you calling my baby sister a beast? For your information, only I get to call her that!”

“Oh really, oppa?”

The two men froze. There was a dark and menacing aura behind them that was radiating with a strong and undeniable killing intent.

They exchanged panicked glances.

“Run!”

A/N: More actual interaction between our Ms Bennet and Mr Darcy this time. Honestly though, I got carried away with this chapter. Had to forcefully stop myself from writing up till 10k words, but the sudden ending turned out crappy. :P This doesn't have a lot of plot to it and I'm pretty annoyed. 

Initially I had a completely different idea for this chapter and I already wrote like 5000 words for it...but I hated it. I couldn't find Minhyuk's voice and the story was all too complicated for a single chapter. so I rewrote it and it came out...well, better than the previous one. (I hope) ㅋㅋㅋ