You Would Never Know

XXIV | This Is Not the Epilogue

"Point your toes; breathe in and out slowly while focusing on your core."

We stayed in that position until we moved to the next one, "Beautiful! Keep it up. Keep moving with fluidity." Taking steady breaths, I listened to her instructions. "We're reaching the end of the session, ladies. Hold on a bit."

We waited a few seconds until she ended her countdowns before relaxing fully and coming down from the machines.

I fanned myself with my hand as I shook my head in disbelief. "Are you in your right mind, Oahn?"

Diana, beside me, was lying on the floor in a starfish position while looking at the ceiling and exasperatedly saying, "Let's never do this again." We laughed at her state a bit, and then Oahn excused herself and left the room for us.

"Dali, help me get up." I chuckled at her state and helped her get up. Her hand was still locked with mine as we walked to our next stop. "Now that we've got the chance, we could talk about everything and anything all at once."

"I'm all ears." I replied.

We got undressed in the changing rooms, and it was painful as our muscles were sore from the hardcore Pilates. We helped each other wrap our towels after taking a warm shower and then entered the sauna and took a seat on the bench.

"This is literally the perfect place for us to spill our hearts out without anyone hearing the messed-up things we talk about." She stretched her neck while she spoke.

"You were saying something about you and Kye." Just by mentioning that, she rolled her eyes and said, "We broke up for the millionth time; don't ask how we had the time to break up so many times because even I don't know."

"Again?" By now, their on and off switches should be broken.

"Yes, again. And to make matters worse, mom and dad want me married as soon as possible; they gave me exactly three years to get engaged and get married."

"To be honest, that's a generous amount of time."

She hummed, also impressed, but still, the expectations overwhelmed her.

"I thought of properly introducing Kye to them, but with the way we're on and off, I just buried the thought. I hid my parents' wishes from him and hid whatever we have between us from my parents, and when he found out while I was on call with my mom, it turned into a huge fight.

Harsh words slipped out of our mouths. By the end of it, I impulsively said that we should break up, and he agreed, but a few days ago, I went and apologized, and we made up, but I still haven't introduced him to my parents, and I know my indecisiveness is weighing on him, but I just can't.

Nothing is making it easy for me to decide. My unstable love life on one side and mom and dad on the other side, and I'm here stuck in the middle, trying to finally make it right, but something tells me I'm closer to ruining everything than satisfying everyone."

"I hate to be the person who says this, and I'm sure many did before me, but time is ticking. Eventually you will make a decision, and most probably it won't satisfy everyone, but what's more important than that is satisfying yourself."

This has been a reoccurring issue in their family; her parents desperately wanted her to get married, totally forgetting about their daughter's needs.

In a world like this, marriage is power, and saying no to it or avoiding it is considered a weakness for the clan and the naivety of the heir. Being affiliated with fellow powerful families brings you a new and higher status.

Whether she's close to her family or not, if they grow impatient with her, they'll start pulling strings like freezing her accounts, restricting her from having a say in anything work- or family-related, or even banning her from entering the company's building. The worst of all is disowning her, but that wouldn't benefit them since she's their only child, basically their only heir, and that's probably the only upper hand she has.