Icy like diamonds || Ryeji

Chapter 1

Ryujin wished that the announcement came as a surprise, but it hadn't. Nothing about it was unexpected. Actually, there was something rather unexpected but it wasn't that she would be pushed into an arranged marriage.

While other girls might have spent some time of their life dreaming of the day they would marry whoever they loved, she knew better. For marriage was nothing but a business transaction in her family. So it had been for generations and so it would continue to be with hers.

In all truth, the only surprising factor in this situation was that she would be marrying another woman.

Her parents had known for years that Ryujin was exclusively attracted to women. She had informed them of the fact right after finding out herself. Back when puberty had barely scratched her, let alone hit her.

At the time, they were slightly taken back but Ryujin wasn't one to change her mind or be bothered by their disapproval. And eventually, it became something that hovered above them all, everyone knowing it was real, but none of them mentioning it. Which was fine with her.

It's not like she would want to talk about relationships, love or sex with her own parents. As far as she was concerned, they could carry on ignoring it for as long as they lived.

But she knew one day this would happen, that they would arrange a marriage for her to partake in. She never even bothered to argue against it. It would be a waste of her time and energy. The Shins were not people who changed their minds. Herself included.

Her parents had her flying over from Paris, where she had been living since she was a prepubescent child, with news of a marriage. Her marriage. Honestly, it had taken a lot longer than she expected it to.

Then again, she had just become an adult in South Korea, having turned 20 in their age system just a month prior. Perhaps that was why the marriage had come at this moment.

Although, she knew some arranged marriages would be announced or planned years before the two were expected to elope. That's what she had always hoped for. So she could at least get to know the person before it all went down. But this is fine. Either way, she's stuck with whoever it might turn out to be.

All she had been told was that it involved a woman and that they shall be living together for six months and then tie the knot. Ryujin hoped the knot tied would be marriage and not a drastic attempt of escaping a hell created by whoever she was forcefully engaged to.

In all honesty, it had never crossed her mind that her parents would respect her sexuality enough to find her a woman to marry. She always assumed she would be marrying a man and have to figure out a way of having a mistress or something of the sort. Or maybe fall into celibate but she was very happy to know that was not the case. She just hoped the woman wasn't completely ugly. Not that it mattered though. Any woman was already better than a man.

South Korea seemed foreign. Mostly because she had left at the age of 11 to study abroad and had hardly any contact with the culture ever since. Ryujin would visit occasionally but it didn't happen often enough.

She entered the building, with her own bodyguard which was slightly excessive, if you ask her. Not that anyone did ask her though. Ryujin could feel the stares all around her, no doubt wondering who she was to be entering with such confidence and with someone escorting her through the lobby.

Her eyes never left the path she had to take. There was no reason to. They could stare all they wanted, she honestly wasn't bothered nor did she care. Truth was, people stared at her an awful lot. For various reasons but most commonly because they found her attractive.

It was that simple. Some might think she's conceited to think that but it's a fact. Why would she deny it for the sake of fake humbleness? People found her attractive so they would stare. It was human nature.