Not Intended | CHANBAEK (BOOK I)

Turning Pages

Nothing was clear anymore. Every belief and "fact" that Baekhyun ever thought he believe in to be right had essentially fallen right at his feet. There were stages to its downfall beginning with denial. After minutes and minutes of drunkenly trying to deny the initial assertion that Chanyeol was who Kris said he was, Baekhyun began to panic.

Dragging Baekhyun from the bar and away from watching eyes, Kris hauled him back to the car where he continued to refute with every "evidence" he could think of against the notion that Chanyeol was his fiancé.

The fact that Chanyeol never worked outside his house was Baekhyun's biggest argument as to why Kris was "lying", but Kris--in his defense--explained. As he drove them home, he told Baekhyun the facts to the situation, leaving Baekhyun to sit and blankly stare at the passing blurs of scenery.

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"He prefers working at home, so he has people who do all the secondary heavy duty things back in the city... All product designs are made by him. For the most part he works alone, but he collaborates with others when he sees it fit to. Working at home helps him think better, which is part of the reason why he decided to buy a house not even remotely close to where the company building's at."

"So he's the CEO..."

"Yeah. He's just a little unorthodox."

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Baekhyun's ears were half listening to Kris' words, but no matter how hard he tried to keep his attention firm, he couldn't help but mentally give in to his inner turmoil.

For all the weeks and days that he had personally suffered from guilt, worried about the honesty that his relationship with Chanyeol was based upon, he felt utterly stupid in that moment to finally realize that Chanyeol had known from the very beginning.

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"This marriage of yours was actually set up a little near to a year before you two were actually informed about it. I don't know if you're aware of it, but the entire feud and competitiveness between both of your sides have resulted into intel and products being stolen from both parties. Your company steals from our company. We steal from yours. In the end, we both win info, lose info, gain profit, and lose profit. It wasn't a very stable situation so your parents, as well as Chanyeol's, figured that the best way to solve this is by merging the companies. You've heard about the merge, right?"

"Yes..."

"Companies can always merge together, but there'd still be an invisible wall separating both parties. Your marriage with Chanyeol would pretty much strengthen and solidify the union, if you know what I'm saying. If you two got along, then hell, we'd all be forced into playing nicer with each other."

"So I'm basically a pawn..."

"I wouldn't...use that word."

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After denial came anger.

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"I'm not sure if you knew about this, but you do know that your family's company hasn't been doing so well, right?"

"What?"

"We didn't know about it until everything was set. It's not that you're doing bad. It's just that we've been doing a lot better than you these past couple of years. It's not problematic. We'd still gain intellect from your side once you two get married--"