My Ace

Chapter 17 ♣️

After getting Taeyong settled in a seat, Yeri put a teakettle on for them.

"So..." Mark said. "This is Yeri, Yeri this is Taeyong."

Yeri smacked him. "From what Mark's told me, you're one of the lovers?"

Taeyong furrowed his brows. "You know about us?"

Yeri nodded along. "Yes... it seems like Mark only told the truth to one of us." She glared at him. "Have anything to say for yourself?"

"This isn't a real engagement," Mark started. "Yeri and I don't like each other in any way remotely close to how we act for show."

"It's just for our parents..." Yeri added. "More so arranged, but our parents didn't really do the arranging."

"Why would your parents be happy with that?" Taeyong asked.

"Yeri's mom is the Head of Red Velvet, and my dad is the owner of a big company in Canada," Mark admitted shyly. "They were old friends from college, Yeri and I went to the same school, and we decided pretty early on we would marry just to suit them. "

"And they didn't know about the arrangement we came up with," Yeri added.

Mark sighed. "We've spent years working on it, and everything is set to reach the end soon... But I don't think I can go through with it anymore..."

"But if Mark gives this up, this far into it, his parents would disown him. He wouldn't be welcome back. Not only would we have been solidifying our company's bonds, which is great for business, but my mother would pin all the blame on him which would leak to the press, which would fall back to his parent's company, which means they would be furious with Mark."

Taeyong sat with the information they were telling him for a bit. Yeri got up and finished the tea in the silence. "So you're screwed, Mark."

Yeri and Mark exchanged a quick look. "Not necessarily... There was an idea of a potential solution for Mark."

"I think I could satiate my parents to some extent by... well, uh, marrying someone else of a similar status to Yeri...?"

Taeyong stared blankly at Mark.

"If Mark married you," Yeri cut in, once it was obvious that Mark was avoiding the main question, "things could turn out better. And he wouldn't have to leave you guys."

"So if you stay with Yeri," Taeyong thought out loud, "you'll be unhappy, you'd have to leave us, and you'd be stuck in an arranged marriage for the rest of your life. If you didn't, you'd have to marry me just to stay with us, and ultimately shove marriage into the rest of our boyfriend's faces when most of them can't get married."

"And it would have to be soon," Mark added. "My parents want me married before my next birthday."

"Ten months, right?" Yeri asked.

Taeyong bit his lip. He was supposed to be dating Mark, but he didn't even know the younger's birthday. Not even the month. "Mark... I like you- a lot... but this is something we need to discuss with everyone. For once, I can't be the end all be all with this."

~~~

Hey guys! Hope everything is going well. How are you doing? Is everything okay? Any good news recently?

I've been meh. My water broke so we've been dealing with that while unpacking. On top of homework on homework. Haven't had much stress free time to write.

As always,

Stay Wondeful Y'all!! I