When Tamim entered the staff office, she was greeted by the principal and her parent's right hand man.
'What was he doing here?' she thought.
"Miss Tamim, your attention is needed at home. Mr Choi here has come to get you"
The principal told her.
She looked at Mr Choi who didn't seem to exhibit any emotions. Mr Choi followed behind her to class to get her stuffs and on their way she had to ask.
"What's wrong? Why did they send for me now?" Tamim said impatiently looking back as she walked as Mr Choi always stayed behind her to show the level of position she held as his boss.
One of the things her parents made sure to discipline their workers about.
"It seems to me that there might be a meeting about the companies" Mr Choi said making sure not to spill as much as he knew.
He liked Tamim because she never treated him the way her parents told her to. She treated him normally as her equal each time they were alone so he couldn't help but be loyal towards her but not too loyal as she wasn't the one who employed him.
"But why then do they need me if it's business?" Tamim questioned.
Mr Choi then move slightly faster and whispered into her ear.
Tamim paled and the hair on her body stood in attention. She responded to the shock quite angrily and stormed the class to pack her stuffs. She was so angry that she kind of forgot to hide it from her bestie.
The drive home was tensed and it felt as if the air in the car suddenly went higher than a few Celsius even though the AC was on.
They got home and Tamim opened the car's door angrily and was about to alight when Mr Choi spoke.
"Miss Tamim..?"
"What?" She answered angrily not bothering to hide her anger.
"You might want to hide that your anger"
"Why?" She answered sharply.
"Because I don't want to lose my Job?" Mr Choi answered rhetorically.
She at first creased her eyebrows and then realized it. She was not supposed to know yet but he had told her still.
"I'll try" that was all she said before she jammed the door of the car.
She entered the house only to find none of her parents in the living room except the maids who were cleaning up and it seemed to her that they had company earlier as the plates were more than needed.
She guessed they must have gone upstairs to their room and went there in search of them.
Their door was slightly open as they were not expecting her to come early or so she thought.
"What are we going to do, Jae?" Jun hee said facing her husband. She was found of removing the 'k' in his English name so it sounded more Korean, it sounded like bae too so he accepted it as his pet name.
Tamim inched closer to peep into the room, she saw how scattered the room was with papers here and there. Were they in debt?
That's impossible, her parents never needed a loan and she doubt they'll ever need so what happened?
"We have to tell her sooner or later" Jun hee said sounding more worried than ever.
"They've given us one week to decide, we can't lose this neither can we lose her. Jae I think we've bitten more than we can chew" She continued.
"We've done a lot of things without asking her but this time it's her life. Jun hee I think that's enough of what we've done to her" Jake replied his wife.
Then it dawned on Tamim. Was Mr Choi serious when he said that someone managed to trick her parents into giving them their companies?
How is that possible? They were very careful people which is why their slate was clean.
"I don't think Tamim would agree to this marriage" Jun hee finally said.
"I think so too" Jake replied.
'What marriage? I thought they were duped...' Tamim thought hard, perplexed at the turn of events.
"But we don't need to ask, we never had to. She's our daughter, our perfect daughter right...?" Jun hee said with desperation evident in her eyes as she grabbed her husband.
"But this is for a lifetime June, this is different and we wouldn't be here in the first place if you hadn't rush to sign the documents because of its enticing offers. I did tell you to check but you never did now you want us to force our only 16 year old daughter into a marriage with a foreign man..!!" Jake replied with disgust.
"The group was from overseas, how was I supposed to know and also this is for her own good!" Jun hee shouted.
"Can you hear yourself?" Jake paused, "Michyeosseo??" He added.
(Michyeosseo means are you crazy?)
"Should we lose the company then? Should she stay with us and live in penury then or marry the rich man and leave her parents in wealth?...tell me a better option!" Jun hee shouted back.
Tamim decided that it was enough that she eavesdropped and left for her room. She locked the door, took off her uniform and soaked herself in the bathtub.
The warm bath did nothing to calm her but it was good for her tensed muscles..
She had a week to decide to marry an unknown man who possibly is old and fat and perhaps a pervert or maybe a pedophile who's eyes is only on little pretty girls. She had no idea who her suitor was and it just scared her more.
She rubbed her temples, she's overthinking this. She always thought that there was a price for a perfect life and she thought she already was paying for it but it seemed she was wrong.
Her whole life was the price, she herself was the price... it dawned on her.
She was the price for perfection.