Eyes Full Of Stars || Park Sunghoon

8 ¦ Are we clear?

With a racing heart, I enter my father's office, scowling at the screen of his computer monitor, which is reflected in the round lenses of his reading glasses.

"Teresa said you wanted to see me," I say in a shaky voice. Immediately, my father lifts his gaze and looks at me across his screen before rising from his office chair and setting his glasses aside.

Since the incident three days ago, my father has avoided running into me. He had my food sent to my room and even when Sunghoon was there for dinner last night, my father didn't force me to be there. He probably fears what he calls my inappropriate remarks, which are unpleasant to him for only one reason. Namely, because they correspond to the truth.

"You embarrassed me in front of Mr. Park and made me look absolutely bad," my father says in a seething voice, coming toward me with his fists clenched.

Frightened, I back away a bit.

"You have no respect for your father and I can't let you destroy everything this family has painstakingly built over decades!" He says it as if I have long since ceased to be a part of this family. And yet he continues to exploit me to get the money he so desperately needs and prefers to his own daughter.

It takes all my courage to stand up for myself because I am afraid of what my father is capable of doing. But I cannot and will not give up my own life without a fight. I want to decide for myself when and whom I will marry one day, where I will live, and whether I will leave home.

"You're the one who brought everything to ruin with your sick games and deals!", I reproach my father, and I'm actually not even finished, but before I can say anything else, my father's fist flies at me unchecked and hits me in the face.

I immediately go to the ground, where I remain motionless due to the shock and the throbbing pain on my cheek. Tears run down my face.

Never in my life has my father dared to hit me. But since that does not satisfy him yet, he reaches out with his foot to kick me hard in the side a few times. Whimpering, I cringe and contort my face.

"You are a disgrace to the whole family," my father reproaches me. "Starting today, you will obligingly do what it takes to save this family from ruin. You will complaisantly behave as you should, I don't want to hear one more backtalk or your snippy responses from you. Are we clear?!" I nod barely noticeably.

Paralyzed with pain, I stay on the floor. I am unable to move, unable to scream, unable to cry. I just stay there motionless, not understanding why God is punishing me like this.

More tears run down my aching face and I close my eyes, pressing my lips tightly together. "Get up," I hear Teresa's voice and let our maid help me to my feet.

My gaze is fixed on nothing as Teresa leads me out of my father's office. I realize there is no way out of this situation. No matter how hard I try to fight it, I'm still going to marry Sunghoon.

I should stop fighting it and instead accept that I have lost. I am alone and I tried to fight against the rest of the world. The attempt was doomed from the start.

"I'm so sorry for what you're going through," Teresa whispers softly as she spreads cooling compresses on my chest and I hold a cooling pad to my aching cheekbone.

Although I really like Teresa, I say nothing. The shock of what my father did to me runs too deep. Now I also understand how my mother must feel. After all, to this day, my father has most likely punished her for every time I talked back, and she just let it wash over her to protect me from his wrath.

Only now that I have experienced firsthand how it feels to be powerless do I understand why she submits to his will. My father always treated me well, but why didn't she take me by the hand and run away with me? It would have saved us a lot of suffering.

"Is there anything else I can do for you?", Teresa wants to know when she has distributed all the compresses. "I'd honestly like to be alone," I say, my voice no more than a low whisper.

I'm not capable of more than that. Teresa nods her understanding and rises from the edge of my bed, whereupon she leaves my room.

I contort my face in pain and begin to sob bitterly. It even hurts to cry. How is it possible that my life has turned into pure hell in such a short time?

The worst part of all this is not even the forced marriage to Sunghoon, but much more the behavior of my own father. It scares me that a person I idolized so much as a child is capable of treating me so cruelly both psychologically and now physically.

I don't even want to imagine what he would be capable of if the deal between him and Sunghoon were to fall apart because of my inappropriate behavior.

For a while I just lay there and stare at the ceiling until my tired eyes eventually fall shut.

A/N: He deserves to be in Jail