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chapter 57: ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
seonghwa almost drops the spoon he was using to feed jihyun when a group of noisy teenagers barged in the ward. hongjoong is abruptly woken up from his sleep, frowning at the boys.
"you won't believe this!" mingi exclaims, earning questioning looks from the siblings as well as the half-awake korean big minion.
"han mina got arrested!" wooyoung screams at their faces, causing the older boys to shush him and he does with a couple of whispered 'sorry's.
"are you for real? she's actually....out of my life now? no more nuisance?" jihyun asks, having mixed feelings at the moment.
"yes, ji! you can take sit for your finals in peace, no worries whatsoever!" yeosang cheers and the boys cheer along with him. jihyun wipes away a fake tear, dramatically falling back on her bed. "finally!"
the boys laugh at this and hongjoong is about to close his eyes to continue his sleep but the ward door opens, revealing a formally-dressed old couple; mr and mrs park.
seonghwa rolls his eyes, cleaning up the empty food containers and plastic bottles. "jihyun, my dear!" her mother cries out, coming closer to hug her but seonghwa puts an arm out before she could even reach her daughter. he looks at her with a straight face, speaking monotonously. "she broke her ribs, hugging her could further injure them."
mrs park coughs awkwardly, stepping back one step to stand next tk her husband. jihyun looks at them with a boring look, seemingly waiting for either of them to speak up. she knows that they could've made it yesterday but chose to attend a company meeting instead so she's wondering why they even bothered to come today.
"what brings you here, father, mother?" jihyun asks with a way too obvious fake smile but it doesn't seem to bother her parents one bit as they sit down on the chairs seonghwa and hongjoong had previously occupied.
the boys scramble around, all except seonghwa wanting to leave the ward to give the family some private time but mr park raises his hand at them and shakes his head. yeosang looks down the entire time, not wanting the couple to recognise him and acknowledge him as one of jihyun's friends. he didn't want san to get all riled up all over again, though after this san would probably be elated.
"you all can stay here. we'll be leaving in a bit anyways. i just have something important to tell jihyun and then we'll be on our way." he states and it took everything in seonghwa to not lash out at him. the fact that he actually told his sister that they only came for a reason other than pure concern for their daughter's well-being just has his blood boiling at the highest temperature.
hongjoong sees this and places his hand on seonghwa's arm and looks at him with an expression that seems to say 'no, don't' and surprisingly seonghwa listens to him, calming himself down.
"your marriage has been called off. mr kang said his son didn't agree so there will be no marriage." he states and the boys all look at yeosang with wide eyes, the boy only looking straight at san with a defeated smile.
"i've thought this through and i... i realised i haven't been the most understanding father and i'm sorry for that. i will try to be more understanding of you and seonghwa from now on. you'll still have to work under me but, i won't marry you off to someone you don't know or love. i know it's bad that i only snapped out of it after something bad happened to you but i'm trying. i care about you and i will do anything to protect you and seonghwa." he takes a hold of jihyun's hand and this time she actually sees the sincerity in his eyes.
"i'll respect your wishes from now on and i'll— we'll both try to spend more time with you two, as family. not anytime soon though, unfortunately. we have business to attend to in italy and i trust you to take care of your sister, okay?" he looks over at seonghwa and seonghwa nods, giving a small smile.
"now children, we have to rush for our flight. once everything is settled, i promise you two we'll spend more time with you and treat you better, okay? take care, jihyun, seonghwa. you all take care too, okay?" mrs park briefly looks at the group of boys, specifically hongjoong who's the closest to her.
the couple stands up, each giving both their children a kiss on their forehead before leaving. seonghwa looks at his sister with a pleasantly surprised expression. "so....that just happened." jihyun smiles softly, looking up at her brother. "let's hope he really meant it, yeah."
"sorry to break that sibling moment but uh did he just say.....your marriage has been called off by the other company? does that mean yeosang didn't agree?" jongho questions, looking back and forth between yeosang and jihyun.
"i..i'm confused too. yeosang, you called it off?" jihyun looks at the boy who has been fiddling with the hem of his shirt. "y–yeah, i figured you didn't want it so i told my dad i didn't want it." he speaks softly. "you didn't have to do tha–"
"no, jihyun, i had to. san deserves you so much more and i can tell how much you love him just from the way you look at him. you two belong together and i don't want to ruin in for you." he smiles sadly at his best friends.
"it's okay, yeosang. it's totally okay to be single. no shame because everyone here is single; well except for jihyun and san, i guess. well not technically but like they're kind of a thing already and like they're probably gonna be something more after fin–"
"mingi, shut up." just those simple words from seonghwa is enough to make the tall boy shut his mouth almost immediately, resulting in the group laughing at him.
this is it. jihyun thinks to herself. this is just how i wanted things to be. she watches her friends laugh and joke around and she couldn't help but feel extreme happiness now that she's finally free from the burden in her life that went by the name of han mina. and she's finally starting to warm up to her parents. she prays that it'll be like this forever, the perfect life, as some would say.
