"Mom, I'm going out for some work," Sung-ho tugged his phone from the table and hurried further towards the exit but soon he felt someone's grip around his wrist.
"Are you getting on for seeing Sun-Hee?" mother(Mari) whispered, dreaming for the expected reply but it was not the same with him.
"I have so many works other than hanging out with her," letting out in annoyed utterance and yanked her hand in the air.
"What is wrong with you? Why do you treat her like you don't feel loved?" Mari raised her voice a little which stopped him in his way but he didn't appear to pay any compassion to her phrasing but walked away from there.
Walking of there, he ran his hands through his locks and picked up his phone to dial Sun-hee contact.
"Hey, Can we meet up for some time?" no greetings, no well beings, he straight came to the topic which made Sun-hee a little mad as she was already fucked up by the misbehaviour of Mrs Jae.
"Why? I guess I'm busy right now," she didn't wish to see him so denying his request was the only last thing to do, she was about to cut off the call but from the other side, she heard him screeching.
"DON'T YOU HAVE FIVE MINUTES TO TALK, OKAY LETS CLEAR EVERYTHING RIGHT HERE,"
Sun-hee heart ached to hear him in so much anger, she couldn't think of any way to make him calm down so she accepted to go with his saying.
"Don't be like that, I'm coming," she said and hung up the call, trying to catch a cab to reach him she waved her hand to stop a cab to take her to the given address.
After almost one hour, Sun-Hee reached to him and found him reading a book, playfully she grabbed the book from his hands which made him annoyed.
"Give it back, Sun-Hee," he muttered and got up from his seat to grab the book from her holding but Sun-Hee was in the mood to play around with him so she walked to the other side of the table.
Chuckling at his struggles, she looked at him for a few minutes and praised his presence, which made her lose and he snatched the book from her.
"So, You read books of Jin-Ae, I have to say she is good at writing and if I'm not wrong, she is the daughter of Mr Seo-jin, the famous businessman in the country. But her mother is very annoying." Sun-hee let out harsh words about her mother but praised Jin-Ae, for her writing skills.
"How do you know about her family?" shocked by her words, Sung-Ho looked for the source by which she came to know about Jin-Ae.
Letting out a long sigh, she explained all the happenings of today's to Sung-Ho and told him about her mother's behaviour which she found so weird.
"So, you gonna work there?"
"Yeah, as a part of the internship just for few months, I don't how I would tolerate that lady,"
Sung-ho was trying to win the wars of thoughts, those were going in his head after her utterances.
But soon Sun-hee pulled him out of his thinking and raised a question about today's meeting.
"What was it by the way? Why you called me here?"
But by her sudden question, he again seemed to lose in his thoughts over today's meet up.
"Tell me?"
"I am sorry, I don't want-" their attention was diverted to her phone ringing so Sung-ho couldn't complete his phrase.
"Hold on,"
"Why it has to be now?" Sung-ho cursed the person who called her at that moment under his breath but still managed to show a normal expression on her face.
Lasting for her to get over the conservation on the phone, he started reading the book from the same page where he left.
"I'm sorry Sung, I have to go right now, see you soon bye, love you," she uttered those words in a hurry but the last two words amazed him.
"But-"
"Next time, bye," grabbing the bag, she rushed towards the way to grab a cab to reach the company as she received a call from her senior from the company.
_______________**
At the dining table,
I was enjoying the food until my papa broke the silence at the dining table.
"Jin-Ae, you remembered your childhood buddy Tae-Hyun?" Seo-jin asked out of blue, at the sudden hearing of his name, I choked up in the midway of eating.
"I knew her reaction," Jae muttered under her breath.
"Slowly Little," my brother patted my back and handed me the glass of water. Gulping the water, I looked up to meet his stare, those were on me for the whole time.
"Yeah, I know him," putting up a fake expression in front of him I said.
"Do you know he gonna sign a big project with us?"
I could smell the burn that mom tried to heat up in front of him in the office.
"That's so good," I was so good at acting and faking my feelings so I appreciated him and soon I was done with my dinner and in hurry, I tried to got to from there because I didn't want to argue over the same topic every time with them.
"Jin-Ae, sit and talk with us. Every time you don't have to avoid our talks," although mom never asked me to talk today she seemed to enjoy the moment.
"What is it?"
"I wanted both of you to spend some time together and-" I cut him off before he could finish up his words as it was unmistakable that he was going to our marriage so that they wouldn't face problems in completing the upcoming project.
"I have already told you that I am not interested in marrying him, yeah I agree he is a nice guy and I really like him but just as a friend, it's not what you are imagining in your mind and forging synthetic scenarios over nothing," I took a deep breath after making myself clear in face of all and as I bucked up after staring at the ground for a good minute just to resist them, I found that all of them were staring at me as if I have done something that hurt the feelings of them. And yes I did for my parents because I never liked the way they expected me to do.
I had my own choices, my ways to get things done.
Whenever I agreed to converse reasonably they took everything above my reach which ended me like I was bothering them. As I stood against, I guess every child would do the same for fighting for their selves.
"Is it important for you to go against us every single time when we just want you to live happily so that you don't face any struggle after?" Forgetting about the presence of my parents there, I came off to be lost in my thoughts but papa's word hit me hard that a feeling of guilt took over me.
"I am just trying to say that I don't want to marry someone whom I don't love. Do I have no right over my life?"
After that, I glanced at the couple who was sitting right beside me but they never behaved like a couple, no romance, no care, only ignorance of each other's feelings.
Noticing their smiles, my face light up. I know the reason why my brother was sitting silently because he wanted me to speak up for myself.
"What is wrong with your behaviour? Can't you agree with us for once, is that so wrong for you?"
My parents were not like all other parents who spend some time with their kids, embrace moments of love with them but it was not the scene with mine. Having dinner together was the only time when the whole family came to sit and talk with each other but every time those talks ended up with someone's disappearance from there. When I was in primary school, they started forcing things and asked me to behave politely with everyone so that their image of being famous and having a well-behaved family would come up in front of the camera.
My brother was forced to take commerce when he wanted to study medicine, being a son of an SEO Organisation, he had to look after his family business and he ended up being a future CEO of this organisation. He did everything and struggled hard to make them understand his life and his choices. But to his bad fortune, he opted for their saying and weakened his inner self.
This wasn't plentiful for them and now they expected me to marry Tae-Hyun, I endorse that he is a good guy but why do I have to marry him when I love somebody's else. I never wished to mistreat his feelings and I didn't have feelings for him.
"JIN-AE?" I knew who would scream so I just stayed silent and glanced at her for a second. Putting my hands on the dining table and a sound echoed in the dining space and all of them were stunned by my actions even my brother.
"I WON'T MARRY SOMEONE WHOM I DON'T LOVE. THAT'S IT I AM DONE FIGHTING WITH YOU BOTH. GOOD NIGHT," I turned around and wandered in hustle towards my bedroom, I knew that I didn't have to howl at them but why they never understood my feelings, why did they fell flat as a parent?
"She is passing over her ends nowadays."
"She thinks too ahead of herself in front of elders rather of esteeming our opinion she yelled at us," papa said and went away from there without having his dinner. I yearned for my family to be a happy one but every time this chaos came up and weaken our feelings.
"Please make her understand, Ji-hoon. She shouldn't put on like that with her parents," Ari proposed to him to go to her and try to get her to this understanding.
"I don't think she has got to appreciate others point of view. She is enough mature to know what she is doing," Ji-hoon let those cold phrases out of his mouth, whenever she made an effort to speak to him, he anyway left away while scrolling through the phone.
"Why do you always regale me like I'm unwanted here?" her heart shattered whenever he dealt with her like an unloved person in his life.
"I love you," these were the words, she expressed after his departure.