My Ace

Chapter 19 ♣️

Chaos.

That was the only way to describe the rest of the meeting.

Some people, like Jaemin and Jeno, were downright pissed, and wanted Mark to go fuck off for lying to them about being available. Others were slightly more willing, like Donghyuck or Jisung, who were sympathetic about his situation and wanted to help fix things.

Mark's heart cracked seeing Chenle crying. He wanted so badly to go comfort the younger, but his fear that Jeno and/or Jaemin would punch him was too much.

Taeyong was the one who got everything orderly once again. "We need to hold a vote on how to proceed." Taeyong cleared his throat. "Can Mark marry me, and by extension all of us, or let him break things off and return to..." Taeyong's eyes met Mark's. "Let him return to Canada at his family's wishes? Neither Mark nor I will vote. That leaves the other twenty one to decide."

Jungwoo stepped forward. "I just sent the poll to the group chat. It's anonymous, so no one will know what you choose."

~~~

Taeyong gave them the rest of the day to decide. Anyone who hadn't cast their vote by then, would not get another chance.

Mark sat with Jungwoo and Jisung in his apartment. Jisung was angry, but he sympathized with the situation enough to vote for Mark to stay.

Jungwoo very quickly confiscated Mark's phone, so he wouldn't constantly check and obsess over the votes already cast.

"Why did your parents send you to Korea in the first place?" Jisung eventually asked while they binged a show. It was a bad attempt to take their minds off of the situation, and the silence between them was suffocating.

"For college." Mark ran his hand through his hair. "I've known Yeri since I was young, but we became close during college- and that's when we came up with the idea. The original plan was for me to go back to Canada after college, but I really liked it here."

"You can't just tell your parents you don't want to go back? Tell them some bits of everything? Say you found someone else?" Jisung asked.

Mark shook his head. "As annoying as they are, I still love them. Especially my brother. If I went against their wishes they would blacklist me from ever seeing him again, possibly even blacklist me from going to Vancouver altogether."

"They'd really go that far?" Jisung asked.

"I love them, I just don't know if they've ever quite shared the sentiment the same way." Mark turned off the show. "My brother was the golden boy. When he was born, their lives were complete and whole. My parents struggled for five more years. They had three miscarriages, and when they finally made it full term, they had a stillborn. My biological mother was young and naive and didn't want a kid so young. So they bought me off her that day to cover up the issue they were having. All that mattered was their image. Due to getting through full term, they couldn't go home without a kid." Mark let out a long sigh. "Growing up, they constantly made me feel like they'd rather have their twenty thousand than me. I wouldn't put it past them to erase me from the their records and remove me from the family registry without feeling an ounce of guilt."

Jungwoo hugged him tightly. "Your parents sound like assholes."

"They can be, but I love them. All I've ever wanted to do was to make them proud. Another reason why the marriage with Yeri would have been so perfect." Jisung grabbed Mark's hand and squeezed it gently as Jungwoo pulled himself away for a moment. "I could finally do right by them in a way they wanted for once."

"I'm sorry, Mark," Jisung said. "You should've talked more about that, explained your reasoning for everything better. Everyone would've empathized so much better."