Bound Monday, March 29, 2010

B O U N D

CHAPTER ONE:

"Hello Mrs Horvejkul, breakfast’s ready. We also have a surprise for you waiting downstairs."

I glared at Yubin, who was standing by the door, in utter annoyance.

She responded by pointing her index at the shiny, expensive ring, which was sitting very beautifully on my ring finger.

Mother had warned me to never take it off. In her words, I should be "proud" that I now officially belong to a handsome young man, whose excessive wealth and fortune could easily secure the future of my kids and I. Honestly, we might not be as rich as the Thai millionaire's family, but we were well off to start with. I couldn't comprehend how my future wouldn't have been set had I not married Nichkhun.

"I'm excited that you are getting married to Khunnie. I knew one day you'd be together."

Yubin is my sister six years older than me whom I wish at times didn't exist. Unlike poor me, she married the man of her dreams. Yubin was not forced into a stupid marriage. She married her high school sweetheart just last year. If only Khun had an older brother around her age, I probably wouldn’t have to suffer.

"Everyone knows of the cruel agreement made by our parents," I stated the obvious.

"Oh, come on, cheer up. You like him, you just don't know it yet."

I shot another glower at the sneering Yubin. "Are you kidding me? You have no idea how much I wanted to run away from the engagement party."

It was a horrible experience. The realisation of getting engaged to Khun was finally getting into me, and I freaked out. I am going to marry him; the significance of the bold statement finally hit me.

At my words, her taunting smirk immediately fell off. I finally was able to shut her up and kicked some conscience into her brain.

"Sis, it's gonna be okay," she said seriously, with concern and guilt written on her usually mean face. “Love will find its way.”

I would have laughed at the disturbing corny sentence coming out of her. I would have videotaped her saying those words and used it for therapeutic purposes whenever I would get angry and upset in the future. After all, laughing at Yubin would make my day. However nothing about the engagement was a laughing matter.

"No, it's not," I insisted out of pure frustration.

"Remember, you used to have a crush on him."

I made a ‘are-you-kidding-me?’ look. “That was ages ago, and I must have planted my brain on the knees.”

“Oh, what was taking you girls long?” the familiar voice of our mother’s spoke as soon as Yubin and I stepped into the dining room.

I was ready to greet my parents when I noticed a familiar figure joining and enjoying the meal, sitting opposite my baby brother, Yungjae (who was just as annoying as Yubin) and right next to my mom – in short, my seat. I could identify him straight away from his dark auburn-dyed hair and fair complexion. No, in truth, I just knew of his presence even without looking – there was just something about him that always gave me that unpleasant aura. There was no mistake that it was none other than my dreaded fiancé.

"What are you doing here?"

At my seat, with my family.

If I knew my mother would send me a menacing scowl which could send shivers down my spine upon the rude question I had asked Khun, I would have thought twice, shut up and feigned a stupid smile.

"Honey, don't be rude.”

"I'm here to have breakfast with my fiancee's family and send her to school," Khun replied, with a huge fake smile plastered on his face.

"Oh Khunnie is so sweet," of course, came my mother's admiring response. "Khunnie is trying his best, don’t you see that?”

“Sorry,” I said in response. “It’s just that, he’s sitting on my spot... That’s why I got a little sensitive.”

Kinda, but no, not really. It’s his very presence that is making me lose my appetite.

“Oh sorry, Sunye,” Khun said to me, immediately standing up.

Switching to gentleman mode, he ushered me to the seat ever-so-gently and even placed the napkin on my lap.

“Yah, whatever happened to you old sarcastic self? Stop being so nice to me, I know you don’t mean it,” I said frankly, the moment I went inside his beauty of a Lamborghini, which was sitting prettily at the porch of my house.

His erratic behaviour over breakfast made it seem like he was abducted by the aliens and then transformed into one of them. It was out of this world.

He rolled his eyes and much to my relief, became normal again.

“My mother gave me a long, torture of a lecture when she saw pictures of me kissing some random girls at the club last night. Now I have to make up for it.”

I laughed at his confession. “Okay, that makes sense.”

“Do my parents know?” I asked again.

“Yes, did you not see how charming I was acting towards your mother just now? And funny thing is, your mother quickly defended me. Good thing the pictures were from last year and she noticed it.”

"What time do you finish school?" He asked as we arrived at the grounds of Seoul High School.

I sighed in disbelief. "Don't tell me you're picking me up."

"Mother's orders."

"It's okay, you can just lie. I'll get Youngbae to send me home, or something."

He had a lob-sided smirk on.

"That gay you have a crush on?"

"For one last time, he is a friend... Wait, why do I even bother explaining? ... And are you serious? You look way more feminine than he does. If he's gay, then what are you? Ultra gay?"

He resorted to rolling his eyes, after having found no witty comebacks to counteract mine.

"It's alright, I'll just pick you up," Khun insisted. "Who knows if the crazy woman has people to spy on us. And I want to continue being in your mother’s good books."

I sighed, again. This time, with the white flag shamefully raised.

"Fine. See you here at 3. If you're late by even a minute, you'll have to buy me ice-cream."

"Unlike you, I'm a very punctual person, thank you very much."

With one last eye roll at him, I hopped off his car and started walking to my class. It wasn't a pleasant journey. People were staring and whispering at me, not caring even a single bit that I was very aware of them gossiping about me.

Everyone must have found out about my engagement to The It socialite, Nichkhun. These people had no lives. Why couldn't they mind about their own businesses and not butt into others' personal lives?

Labels: Bound, Chaptered, Khun, Sunye

7:43 PM