JiMina Collection

More Than Gold ~ Part 6

     Jimin groaned for the thousandth time. He had been too scared to leave his room, just in case he ran into the girls on their tour of the castle. Jimin couldn't believe this was really happening to him. The girls were here. There was no stopping his father from selling away the future of his own son.

  It was for the sake of his father that Jimin tried his hardest to remain polite when first meeting them earlier that day. Something as simple as that proved to be an incredibly hard task. They had just met, and already the girls were practically throwing themselves at him. Some of them fanned their eyelashes towards him at a rate of approximately 3000 blinks per minute. Others chose to mention to him just how incredibly rich their families were. Jimin just smiled and nodded subtly every time. To think he had to marry one of these materialistic women made him feel sick to his stomach. Jimin felt his mind wander, focusing on how his life was much simpler only hours ago.

     That morning, he stood at the castle windows and watched as the carriages pulled up to the gates. His eyes bulged as he saw the sheer amount of luggage each girl brought with them. Some girls had three carriages all to themselves, with two of them full of their belongings. Jimin cringed; it felt too much like they were moving in permanently. Even he didn't own that much stuff. 

     If it was possible, he felt even worse when he saw them up close with his father. Jimin spent little to no time around girls, yet he did know that the thick white powder caked on their faces was a statement of wealth, status, and beauty. He did not like it at all, to say the least. Jimin swore he had inhaled some of that makeup as the girls stepped forward to curtsy. It was just that thick. Furthermore, call him self-conscious, but Jimin felt horribly short next to these women. It wasn't because the women were taller than him, but rather the fact that their hair towered above them all. Each wore their hair piled high above their heads in intricate curls and braids bejeweled with pins and other trinkets. If he felt short before, he felt even shorter now.

    The sick feeling in Jimin's stomach grew as they walked down the line. Each girl was more materialistic than the last. His life literally flashed before his eyes. He would spend his entire life trying to please someone as money-hungry as his father, whose identity will have been determined by the end of the month. Jimin scolded himself. He wasn't raised to mope and complain like this. But then again, he practically had to raise himself. He could mope all he wanted.

     Jimin knew love was a lie. There was only greed in the world, and he hated it. Jimin's mother left them for someone else. She never loved him or his father. Jimin never felt any love from the King either. Over the years, Jimin read countless stories about love and its so-called beauty and immutable magic. However, absolutely nothing in his books actually happened to him in real life. No loving parents. No 'soulmate'. No 'spark'. Nothing. Those were all figments of fairytales. Jimin could only come to one conclusion: Love wasn't real. The next month to come would only prove that theory even more. It didn't matter if Jimin loved who he married. According to his father, all that mattered was the wealth in her pocket. Jimin learned from a young age that he didn't need love to survive. And yet a part of him longed for something he had never known.

     Jimin paused, disgruntled. That came out of nowhere. Furthermore, it was completely unwelcome. He was shocked out of his thoughts as a girl with particularly pungent perfume came up to him to curtsy. Oh, the smell was so much worse than he thought it would be. Once again, he nodded politely towards the girl, then kept moving towards the end of the lineup. Jimin thought he was going to doze off a couple of times, but the encounters with each girl was interesting enough, and not in a good way. Smile, nod. Smile, nod. It felt like eons had passed before they neared the end of the list. Jimin peeked over the Duke's shoulder and was glad to see only a couple more names left on the list. Jimin almost crumpled with relief, soon he could escape.