Don't Go

Chapter 11

Jihae

"Taehyung ah!" Jimin called us when we reached the front door of Taehyung's parents' gigantic house.

"Taehyung, your parents' house is huge!" I exclaimed while staring at how fancy the house was. More and more guests kept coming with their classy clothes.

Rich people.

"Taehyung, are you sure I deserve to be here?" I asked. My arm that was holding Taehyung's suddenly hardened as I was insecure and worried about how unfit I was to this kind of people.

"Don't worry about other people. You're here with me," he said.

"Why didn't you guys tell me that this is a fancy party? Especially you two," Mijoo said while pointing to Jimin and Taehyung. "Look at me. I'm a peasant."

Jimin held her hand and said, "You're a princess to me though."

Uh... ok.

The four of us entered the house and the hall was full of people socializing fancily and I wasn't even surprised. These people were obviously different from where I lived. These are high-class people... whom I doubted would accept people like me.

Taehyung seemed to notice my worries. He held my hand tightly and said, "I won't leave you alone and you don't even have to speak if you don't want to."

Taehyung and I were seperated from Jimin and Mijoo because there were a lot of people who recognized Taehyung and wanted to have a conversation. I didn't even once open my mouth to talk. I just simply smiled and nodded when Taehyung introduced me as his fiancee.

A few hours had passed and the guests seemed to be leaving one by one. Jimin and Mijoo were still in the house though. I could see them chatting with whom I recognized as Taehyung's grandparents.

"Taehyung ah!" A woman called Taehyung from afar, which made both of us turn around. I froze when I saw who called him.

"Oh, eomma."

Brace yourself, Lee Jihae.

Taehyung's mom hugged his son tightly, then she kissed his cheeks a couple of times. "Eomma misses you so much!"

The woman noticed my presence as she turned to me. To my surprise, she was really kind and welcoming.

"You must be Lee Jihae!" she said while smiling from side to side. "You're Taehyung's future wife, right?"

I bowed, then I nodded. She hugged me and told me how beautiful I was.

"Thank you, Mrs. Kim."

She caressed my hair. "Call me eomma," she said while smiling, causing me to smile also.

"Eomma," Taehyung said, "where's abeoji? I can't wait to introduce Jihae to him."

Mrs. Kim's smile faded. "Your father is in his study with his business partners," she said. "In the mean time, you two should sit first. Eomma needs to meet with some ahjummas."

She patted my back before she went socializing with the other women her age. Not long after that, the party was over and there were only me, Taehyung, a few maids and staffs, and also Jimin and Mijoo who were getting ready to go home.

"Oh, you're going home?" Mrs. Kim asked Jimin.

"Yes, auntie. We'll be going now. Thank you for the food," Jimin replied with a grin.

"Alright, then. Take care," she said while patting Mijoo's back, which I later found out that Mrs. Kim was once a violinist, causing them to get along.

A door was opened a while after Jimin and Mijoo went home. It was Mr. Kim's study. The living room was located next to his study so we could see a figure of an old man with two younger ones went out while shaking each other's hands.

The three of us—Taehyung, Mrs. Kim, and I—stood up.

"I-I..." I said nervously.

Bow, Jihae, bow!

I immediately bowed to Mr. Kim and introduced myself. "Good evening, Mr. Kim. My name is Lee Jihae," I said and smiled.

No response.

He just scoffed and went to sit down beside his wife.

Oh, no.

I looked at Taehyung and he gave me that "don't worry" look. We sat down on the sofa across Mr. and Mrs. Kim.

"Hello, father," Taehyung said with his English. Oh, I was actually surprised. He rarely spoke a word in English. I eventually found out that Taehyung's parents spent so much time in the states that they talked to each other, including to Taehyung, in English.

"What do you want?" Mr. Kim replied coldly.

Taehyung put his arm around my waist. "This is Lee Jihae, my fiancee."

His dad frowned. I could see how disappointed he was because of how ugly and middle class his son's fiancee was.

"As long as the woman you'll be married to isn't from the family that we know," he said, "I don't care."

Okay, honestly? I didn't care. I didn't care what his dad thought of me. I was used to being looked down by people that I wasn't even close to, so why would I care?

But Taehyung did.

He frowned and his voice started to get higher. "How long do you have to keep acting like this?!" he said. "I've been in love with Jihae for more than 5 years now. Why can't you let me marry the woman that I actually care about?"

There was silence a couple of seconds before Taehyung continued.

"I know I haven't always been the perfect son to you both," he said, "but I need my dad."

Mr. Kim shrugged. "You're a disgrace to this family."

Taehyung not to seem surprised by what his dad said, but I could see how deeply hurt he was.

"When was I ever a pride in this family anyway?" he said. "All you've wanted is for me to be you!"

"That's where you're wrong!" his dad said. "All I've wanted is for you to have a good life. Something that you will never have if you marry this poor girl."

Ouch. So that's where Taehyung's past behavior came from.

"I don't care about being wealthy," he said. "I care about being happy."

"Wake up, boy. Being happy won't get you anywhere in this world," he said.

To my horror, Mr. Kim continued, "Why don't you choose someone like Choi Hyemin or Tadashi Kaori?"

Taehyung's parents knew about Kaori?

Taehyung grabbed my hand and said, "Let's go."

When we were about to leave, Mr. Kim yelled, "Come back here, Kim Taehyung!!"

Taehyung stopped for a while and said, "Before you accept the fact that I'll be marrying to Jihae, I'm not going back to this house." Then, we left.