Dancing To Your Tune

Backed In The Corner

Ayan had been stuck in his room for last seven hours drawing the latest chapter of his webtoon. Hours had passed by quickly but he hadn't made much progress with the story because a certain skirt wearing boy wouldn't leave his thoughts. What was it about Akk that fascinated him so much? Maybe it was his clumsiness? Or it could be just how pretty the older boy was? Ayan had realized he was gay when he had fallen for his college professor. It had been a messy relationship and even messier break up. He hadn't dated anyone after that simply because he didn't have energy and time a relationship would require. He wasn't keen on being vulnerable with anyone anymore.

A relationship with Akk would mean trouble at his job if they broke up- no- scratch that when they broke up because a relationship no matter how solid was bound to end one day. Ayan shook his head, he was getting ahead of himself. He didn't even know if Akk was single. By looks of it he was definitely dating someone. A certain someone to whom he sent his skirt pics. Ayan groaned in exhaustion, he still couldn't get those pic out of his head. Why did Akk had to look so delectable in those? He got up and trudged to take a cold shower. Hopefully it'll clear his head.

November came with loads of challenges for both Akk and Ayan. It had been two weeks since Akk's meeting with his parents. Gulf had messaged him last night scheduling to meet up today at a cafe. Akk had wanted to say no but thought better of it. Maybe he could get Gulf to reconsider the wedding. Both know of them could mutually agree to not get married. His parents wouldn't be able to force him anymore if Gulf didn't want this wedding either. Akk reached the cafe lot earlier than planned and spent the time steeling his nerves.

Gulf arrived right at time and offered a smile as he shook Akk's hand, "Shall we order something before getting to business?"

"Sure."

After placing their orders, Gulf turned to Akk, "So what do you do, Akk?"

"Uh....I'm producer at Haverhill. It's a publishing company."

"Oh, that's awesome."

"Thanks. So, um....about the m-marriage..... " He didn't know how to finish his sentence.

"Oh yeah. Our fathers are college friend or something. They're going through business merger of some sort and our marriage is their safety pin."

"Do you want to get married to me?"

Gulf leaned back in the chair and ran his eyes over Akk, "You clean up pretty well."

Akk chuckled nervously, "I-"

"But you aren't my type."

Akk's eyes widened in surprise and elation, "Oh okay."

Gulf hastily offered an apology, "I didn't mean to offend you."

"It's fine. So you don't agree to this marriage either?"

"What I want isn't important. It's all up to my parents. They've given me an ultimatum so I have no other option except agreeing to this sham."

Every word felt like punch to his gut, "But you s-said I'm not your t-type?"

"Well, we can always see someone on the side, right?"

Akk was getting frazzled with every word, "What do you m-mean?"

Gulf sighed, "We both are in same situation. This arrangement isn't something we want but can't refuse because of personal reasons. So what other option do we have? We get married to get them off our back." Gulf leaned forward, "And for ourselves, we can have an open marriage."

"O-Open marriage?" Akk couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Yeah. If you're in a relationship right now, you can continue that. Or if you want to date or hook up with someone, I won't mind and same goes for me."

"You want to cheat on me?"

"That's all you got from this?"

"What else am I supposed to get? How can you be so nonchalant about cheating?"

"Cheating? Why is it cheating when we both are on the same page?"

"Still it's not right."

"Oh come on, don't be so-"

"Why can't you just reject-"

Gulf interrupted him, "Why don't you do it then? We both have our reasons for not defying our parents. Don't push it on me just because you're a coward."

The conversation wasn't really going anywhere. Akk understood what Gulf meant but he couldn't condone cheating. That's just messed up.

"I'll give you some time to think. You can let me know when you reach some conclusion." Gulf walked out of the cafe without another word.

Akk sat there for few minutes desperately hoping for a solution to spring out of thin air. Even if he said no to Gulf's preposition, he would still cheat on him. He didn't think he'll be able to survive a life like that. He numbly made his way to office. Things were pretty hectic at the moment because of a huge scandal one if their artist had gotten into. The artist was charged with drunk driving and as if that wasn't bad enough he was with his girlfriend at that moment who happened to be married to his producer. You can imagine the kind of chaos it had generated.

The company as well as the webtoon was getting serious backlashes. They had to cut ties with the artist, terminating his contract and as for the producer he ended up resigning and is current filing for divorce. Since the webtoon had been taken down from the website, readers have been divided in their opinion. While many believe it was morally wrong of the artist and are against the webtoon being published anywhere, there are some who believe what artist do in their personal life is none of their concern. They should be allowed to enjoy the webtoon.

(What do you guys think? Is it right to boycott the work of any artist because of their personal life? Do let me know in the comment section).