"Yunah you will be seducing and getting married to the Hwang son"
The nasty words from our own father bounced around like a Ping-Pong in my head from the moment it left father's lips, followed by a million questions by a million strange voices in my head- How?
How can you comfortably make such a decision? How can he say that to his own child? How can suddenly he decide to just use Yunah, his last child as a pawn in whatever sick game he and his rivals were playing?
Wasn't ruining my childhood enough?
Our car jostles from climbing over a speed bump, causing my rigid body to sway side to side, bumping my shoulder against the car's side door.
My little sister is sitting as stiff as a board in the car right next to my mother who wouldn't stop chattering, going on and on endlessly about Yunah's innocent 'bunny-like beauty' and how it would capture Jaehyun's attention.
Hwang Jaehyun.
The first son of the brutal Hwang clan, the very clan of my own clan's nightmares since childhood.
Everyone one of us, from the head to the very tail of our clan structure have been trained to hate the Hwangs. I personally have been tutored all my life to hate Jaehyun, to compete against him, to spend my entire life's blood fighting against him…only for my own father, the head of the Chois to turn around and approve a marriage between his own daughter the Hwang's son? How dare father?.
The dimly lit car jostles again and I hear Yunah's tiny sniffle. "Why?" my mother asks her with that cheery tone she wouldn't stop using, I make sure my head the other way- I don't to hear my sister cry, I don't want to see my sister cry.
"Mother, I don't want this, I hate this so much" Yunah says, she sounds like she had a stuffy nose, voice wobbly from all the crying.
"Don't cry, your father and I have been together since your brother was born, marriage is nothing to be scared of" mother says with a giggle, her overt happiness starting to grate my nerves like sandpaper on a hot day. Irritated, I shut my eyes and lean into the seat.
"I want to marry a person I love…you and father don't love each other" Yunah says, absolutely devasted and heart broken.
"Yunah…my baby, there is no such thing as love in our world, there is only people who use one another" mother said, still giggling like a young girl sharing an exciting secret, I look at Yunah and shake my head, signaling to her to keep shut, to give it up for now, mother won't be able to process anything.
Mother is drunk, and the smell of alcohol coming from her is still very strong- it being the only way that I can tell that she doesn't want this. That she doesn't want her daughter to be married off like this, yet she can't defy her husband.
"Oppa, I don't want to marry him" Yunah had burst into tears the second we were in the confines of her room after father's summoning. "I would rather die than marry him" she had said, sobbing into her palm, "You won't die or marry who you don't want Yunah-yah, don't cry anymore…I'll handle this…trust me" I had said to comfort my sister.
The car comes to a stop in the underground parking lot of TaeYang Hotel. The grande hotel being the place that has over the years, hosted mafia families masquerading as chaebols- this being the grande space where we all pretend to be good people while plotting the demise of the next person.
I step out of the car first, playing the Alpha before I open the door for my sister and mother. It doesn't take long before father's car joined us, he had chosen to come with the child he loves, my older half-sister.
Choi Yubin, my half-sister is an alpha female and the first child of my father and his first wife. Her mother's inability to produce another child after Yubin led to my father's arranged marriage to my mother…and that is the reason my mother gets treated like a fill-in, instead of a human.
"Oppa, Yubin unnie is here" Yunah whispers to me as we both watch father leave, ignoring us, while Yubin approaches us with slow calculated steps and an aura that can not be competed against. She stops in front of us and we bow to say our greeting.
But instead of responding to our greetings, Yubin eyes Yunah, "why are your eyes red?" she asks with her signature coldness, "well…uh…" Yunah tries to explain, "She was a bit ill" I cut in and Yubin tilts her head to look at me like dirt.
"Did no one teach you that omegas don't interfere in Alpha's business?" she asks me and I held her cold gaze, trying to act unaffected. "Yubin-ah" my mother says with a giggle, taking her by the elbow to divert her attention.
"Take your hands off of me Mrs Kang" Yubin says and my mother steps back in shock, "business has been going bad but what are you doing? You can't even raise two weaklings right, how dare you laugh when you should be crying" the young alpha says to my mother with a bone chilling iciness.
"Is there even hope for this son of yours?" Yubin scoffs at me, "Noona, stop it, that's enough" I say, and she flashes her red alpha eyes at me, the show of superiority silences me, and makes my heat weak omega to bow, whimpering in my throat in submission.
"Yunah, you must not fail this family or else!. Jaehyun chose you" Yubin says to Yunah.
"I didn't just choose her. I bid the highest for her" Jaehyun's familiar voice says from behind us and I turn my head hard enough to get a whiplash.
Hwang Jaehyun.
Hwang Jaehyun bought my sister?