Love Contract / Mark Lee

Chapter 29

(Bold in English, everything else is korean)

Areum had woken up thirty minutes ago but had been staring at the ceiling for fifteen minutes. She decided to post something on instagram to get her mind off of the big day.

Mina woke up to find Areum on her phone. She gasps.

"We talked about this. No phone. It's bad for your eyes and you need to focus on looking your best for this wedding!" She said. Areum rolled her eyes.

" I was gonna post our pictures from yesterday on instagram." She said. Mina shook her head.

"Well it can wait." A voice said. Mina jumped onto Areum's bed, grabbing her arm.

"Relax Mina it's just me." Mrs. Jung said. Areum rolled her eyes.

" What are you doing here?" Mrs. Jung sat down on the chair by the door.

"I want to talk to you." She said. Areum shook her head.

"If it's an apology for keeping a secret from me my entire life, it can wait. I have a wedding I have to get ready for." She said.

"Areum please." She said. Areum looked at her and sighed.

"Mina could you give us five minutes?" She said. Mina stood up.

"I'll be in Hyeri's room." She said. Areum waited for her to close the door before getting up. She started to make the bed.

"You can talk, I'm listening." She said. Mrs. Jung sighed.

"I know you probably hate me right now. And I deserve it. But I just wanted to say how grateful I am to have you. Without you, the wedding, or even the company alignment wouldn't be a thing." She said. Areum rolled her eyes.

"You came here to talk about how you're using me for the companies success?" She asked. Mrs. Jung sighed.

"I'm not using you. A-and I came here to thank you. For not calling the contract off. You're grandfather would be proud of you, Armrest Areum," She joked. As soon as that stupid nickname was heard, memories started flodding through her brain. Areum turned to face her.

"You don't get to call me that. Only he does. He called me that because I would always go stand next to him and he used my head as an armrest. And it just so happens to sound like my name. He made that up and not you. So you don't get to call me that." She said. She nodded.

"But I'm serious. He would be proud." Areum threw the pillow on the bed.

"I know he would he proud. But would you?" She asked. Mrs. Jung hesitated. Areum scoffed. She went to go fix Mina's bed.

"Areum it's not like that." She said. Areum spun around.

"Then what is it like? What does it feel like to have a mother who loves you? Who is proud of you? Who stares at you like you're the best thing that has ever happened to them? How is it like? Because I don't know! I can never talk about trips to the nail salon with my mom or girls day out or going to see a movie with her. I wouldn't know what it's like because you were not there!" She said. Mrs. Jung sat down.

"Instead of loving myself or caring for my health I would always ask myself the same question. And I still wonder... how is it that you can love everyone in this family except for me," she whimpered.

"A good mother would have cared for me, even if I wasn't the child she wanted to take home that day. A good mother would remember my birthday or even my highschool graduation. A good mother.... I don't know what a good mother would do actually, because clearly you've been a bad one." She said.