BOOK 1: The Heir Series; Choi Seungcheol

1: HER

Taerin took an overall glance at the event taking place a few meters below where she is standing. She can feel butterflies fluttering in her stomach due to excitement and nervousness. The whole place is glammed up in all ever-glamorous decorations, all shining from formality and glitz.

Everything is perfect.

She steadied her breathing, smoothing her dress under her sweaty palms. She is wearing a red velvet V-neck tube long gown that molded her perfect curves and is reaching the floor like a pool of red flame. She just wanted to wear flats, but her stylist ignored her and instead shoved a pair of killer high heels.

Taerin sighed as she tries to hide the creases forming on her forehead. Her stylist gave her face a rest by applying natural-looking makeup on her despite her fiery outfit tonight. Her hair is tightly kept in a tight elegant messy bun.

She knew that in no time, she'll look pale and pinched due to her wretched nervous nerves but beautiful and elegant enough to draw attention and multiple gasps from her very own guests.

She was never been new to this kind of thing but that never failed to spare her from insecurity. From what to wear tonight and how to behave, she is insecure and doesn't know what to do. Yet how can she ask for advice on this matter? She herself must know these kinds of things from now on. After all, she is the one and only heiress of a multi-million-dollar wealth.

She took a deep breath as she starts going down gracefully and elegantly as she could on the grand staircase, going down in the pool of people whose attention is all on her.

How to run away fast is the only thought on Taerin's mind as she can start feeling all stares on her. She knew that she was only being elegant, graceful, and tame because of the heavy role she was placed - that is to please her mother and her Aunt and keep them proud of her after her father's tragic death.

Her perfect social smile, which she had practiced for a long time is plastered on her face and ignores all the negative thoughts in her mind. Starting tonight, she will no longer be the child who loves to stay in bed and read various books. She will now be a lady, ready to face her fate and reality.

She has to focus on something - that is to accept the reality that she will be married after a few months. Fate - that was her fate for being an heiress.

Before, she was just an ordinary girl with so much insecurity. Though she might grow up in a well-off family, her mother, Minjae, owns a clothing line under her own name that stays strong in the fashion industry which then expanded into the jewelry industry which is now under her own hands, and her father, Eunwoo was one of the very well-known engineers in Korea.

She still lived a happy and simple life despite all the wealth they have. Taerin graduated as summa cum laude majoring in fashion design. Then, she made her parents proud, their smiles never living on their faces. Until one day, a tragic accident met her Dad's way.

She lost her Dad in a most painful way. Yet that painful tragedy made a new door of opportunity open for her.

She and her Mom met her father's only sister - a half-sister to be exact. Eunice Dominique, half-Filipino half-Korean. That's why her Dad named her Dominique - in honor of his long-lost sister.

She learned that her Aunt owns various hotels in the Philippines. Her Aunt is a very wonderful and beautiful lady, just like her Mom. Even though aging comes their way, their undeniable beauty still shines. And now that her Mom and her Aunt who are both widowers are both old, she needs to follow in their footsteps.

Her Mom has her as the only heiress, but her Aunt needs an heir to take care of her businesses which she can't handle alone.

Since Taerin and her Mom owe Eunice so much, she can't afford to go against her wishes. She knows what she needs and how afraid her Aunt is about losing her own business that was built by her late husband, Ronaldo Buencamino. She understands that her Aunt needs her in order to achieve it.

That is why she is ready for anything she wishes. Even though in exchange for it is her future and her freedom.

And, she also dismissed all the thoughts and wishes about love. She knew that fairytales don't exist in the real world. Fairytale is for books and reality is reality. She learned it all four years ago.

So it won't hurt to marry someone she doesn't have feelings with. She doesn't care if she marries a stranger. Besides she is not after the love and she doesn't even believe in forever. Taerin doesn't need promises since she already had enough of them.

Her heart is now cold as ice and as hard as a brick wall. No one can ever hurt her again.

As she reached the final step of the stairs, she disperses all the meaningless thoughts crowding her mind. Past is past. She is not the same person as she was four years ago. She is long gone. Long dead.

She is now the new Taerin Dominique Kim, 20 years old, the sole heiress of Dominique Couture and Buencamino Group of Companies.

And to the man whoever she's going to marry, it will be such as shame that she would never ever give her heart to anyone - not even to him. Since no one will ever mend the broken pieces of her heart.

That man from the past may come back, but he will never erase the wounds he made inside her.

Taerin may be a cold and hard heiress but she is also heartless.