The insides of my stomach were crumbling at an alarming speed as my twin brother smiled joyfully at me with his glass of champagne raised in a toast, and his free hand securely holding the waist of his intended bride tightly to his side. The room erupted in excitement as everyone raised their own glasses in congratulations.
I too raised my glass, and smiled back just as brightly. The intensity of my heartbreak was overwhelming, but my smile didn't falter even for a second since I was determined to keep my brother oblivious to the fact that, I was hurting terribly from the inside right in front of him.
I had to keep my secret. So I swallowed my scarred emotions, took several deep breaths to steady my breathing, then hugged and congratulated him for his engagement to the only woman I had ever loved in my entire life.
"We are now waiting for your turn Minho" Kristal joked happily as I brought her closer and wrapped my arms around her in a tight hug. My heart almost failed me as I fought so many different emotions that came from being so close to her.
"Huh marriage isn't really my thing sweetheart, so don't you hold your breath" I joked back and everyone in the room laughed because all they knew about me, was the side I allowed them to see. The spoiled Playboy, who only partied around and changed women.
It didn't take too long for everyone to really get into the party and start getting drunk. The room came alive with laugher and chatter as the real celebrations started.
"Congratulations Jeon" I told my brother once again as the two of us stood alone in the middle of our living room with our champagne flutes in hand, and bright smiles on our faces. Mine was pretentious of course, but it didn't matter because it was working just fine.
"Thanks Minho" my brother beamed and shifted his gaze to his fiancee who was now standing across the room from us. She seemed happy too as she entertained some of our guests with some small talk.
Jeon looked really happy as he stared at his wife to be. It was the kind of happiness that emitts waves of joy you can spot from miles away and as I watched him glow, I became overcome with the same familiar guilt that had haunted me for years. The kind of guilt that I was getting more and more certain was going to be the death of me.
Our situation was horrible, I was in love with my brother's fiancee and he had no clue whatsoever of my feelings towards her. I intended to keep it that way because I never wanted to hurt him ever. But my heart still broke each time I was anywhere near her, I wanted her so bad it hurt. But Jeon is my brother who not only played the role of big brother but also practically raised me.
I know that sounds weird considering we are laterally the same age, but when you have millionaires for parents who care more about the companies they build than actual parenting, you end up growing up too fast to take care of yourself. Just in our case, I got to keep my childhood and Jeon was the one who did the growing up so that he could look out for me as the big brother.
That's why I decided a long time ago that I would never tell him how I actually felt for Kristal. And even though, I knew that I was never gonna get rid of my feelings for her, it was still okay, because my brother deserved the best from me and that was honestly all I could give him in return for all that he gave up my sake.
So that night I got drunk. Nobody raised eyebrows at me when they saw me because it was not unusual for me to consume alcohol in large quantities. But what they didn't know was that, this was something else for me. It was drown all my sorrows into alcohol type of drinking and by the time the party was over, I was stinking drunk and crying my heart out from the floor of one of the downstairs bathrooms.
I pulled myself together after my tears stopped coming and then dragged my sorry ass up the stairs to my room. I was struggling to walk of course, but my tolerance to alcohol is something I could proudly call commendable, because I managed to get myself up there all in one piece.
My luck run out as soon as I reached my room however, because instead of getting myself on the bed, I suddenly lost my footing and crashed head first on the floor and then passed out.
I fell in love with the beautiful island of jeju from the very first day my family moved there when I was barely a teenager. The place is surrounded by such awesome scenery that enjoying something as breathtaking as a sunset over the ocean, was what we did from the comfort of our own backyard. It was simply a wonderful place to live and I was one of the lucky people who had the pleasure of calling it home.But what got me to really fall for it wasn't just it's natural beauty, it was the heart warming people that made everything even more special.I know this to be the most important thing because, I am that black kid whose family moved from one country to the next for most of my childhood and so I can easily testify to how difficult it can be for anyone to
Jeon and I sneaked in through my bedroom window one night when I was really wasted from some wild party and didn't want my father to find out that I was out partying instead of preparing for a very important presentation for the board meeting the morning after.I can't say I remember where the said party was held or whose it was for, but what I do remember is that immediately my brother switched on the light, our father was standing right by the door waiting for us like the freaking undertaker with a baseball bat.We froze in place with both our eyes wide open like deer caught in headlights as he stood there glaring at us. It was like he was the gladiator and we were the unlucky bastards who were about to get our butts handed to us.The whole thing wasn't f
I could never overstate how happy I felt when Jeon asked to walk me home after that coffee.I know it was irresponsible of me to just accept such an offer from someone who was pretty much a stranger to me, but as he stood up and smiled down at me politely, I realised that I didn't need any other reason to agree to his request other than the obvious one.I couldn't deny that I was totally smitten by him and If by any chance he somehow turned out to be some kind of a Korean version of Jack the ripper, I still wouldn't mind being murdered by someone who was so bloody gorgeous.As we walked along in silence, I couldn't help but steal a few glances at him just to confirm if he was really native Korean or not.
I woke up to the most beautiful sound of classical music that was coming from somewhere downstairs and I didn't need to go down and check on who had suddenly invaded my home and turned it into some sort of major concerto to know that jeon's fiance, Kristal had graced our humble abode with her beautiful presence that morning.Although it was most likely that she came in during the night and slept over like she usually did on weekends when her man wasn't caught up with some unavoidable meeting or important project or whatever it is company heirs did on busy weekends. Though I honestly wasn't too sure either since I was pretty much passed out for most of the night from my usual weekend partying.But how she came in, didn't really matter because now I had to figure out how I was going to navigate through yet another day of watching
The lovely smell of brewing coffee was simply the most intoxicating scent to me that I couldn't wait to get a cup for myself as I sat waiting for it at the same coffee shop where I had met jeon several days back. I do admit that this was probably the most pathetic idea I had ever come up with in my life, but that knowledge didn't stop me from going by the same coffee shop a few more times than usual with hopes that I might miraculously run into him again like it happens in movies. But that was my seventh time there, and I was yet to realize that Hollywood dream.After a few minutes of waiting anxiously for my coffee, a boyish looking waiter came and served me my espresso for which I thanked him with a polite smile. But it turned out he wasn't exactly the smiling type, because he didn't bother returning it, instead he just bowe
A sudden feel of soft feminine hands on my bare skin was all it took to pull me out of my deep slumber and even before I could understand what the hell was going on, the hands in question had curled up around my waist in a tight hold and pulled me closer to a naked body that lay underneath the sheets.It only took that much time for me to come to my senses because, I was too tired from overworking myself trying to help my brother out on some work he had been keeping untouched in his room for weeks. And yes, I know am a snob when it comes to anything work related, but it was obvious that he was in dire need of help considering he had his normal job to do and also had to deal with the new construction of a department store on the beautiful island of Jeju. I usually don't bother with Jeon when it comes to his job because he is on
I don't know how long I stood there staring at him from across the street. I was really looking forward to seeing this man again and I didn't even know how much until he was right there in front of me, looking just as gorgeous as he did the last time I saw him.He was dressed in blue jeans, a grey head sock and an orange coloured sweater that was way too big for him. The mixture of colors was actually horrible and anyone else would have looked like a fashionless bimbo in that outfit, but he somehow managed to pull it off and actually looked quite handsome in it. He was sitting all by himself at one of the tables out on the Terrance with a steaming mug of some hot beverage that I couldn't make out from where I was standing and his attention totally fixed on his laptop screen like his life depended on it.
In the few weeks following the Jeju project's commencement, work pilled up at the office so much that, even I had no choice but to spend all my time moving up and down with a thousand things to do. so the one Sunday I managed to get off work was such a blessing to me that I gladly decided to just sleep in and lazy around for the whole day.Unfortunately for me however, that Sunday just happened to be the same day Kristal decided to start up with her wedding things. She had received a message from her wedding planner the night before, informing her of the arrival of her dress and jeon's tux. Apparently they were supposed to go there for a fitting as a couple. But since Jeon is a certified workaholic, he was no where in sight that day, leaving me to suffer his fate because I was the walking, breathing replica of him.
I took the liberty of driving Mia out of the hassle of the city's unrelenting crowds and took her all the way into the outskirts to show her my favorite eating place in the whole of Busan.It is a small old fashioned restaurant built on the island of yeongdugu and it's really cozy and uncrowded and have the best view of the sea with a few flowers and trees dotted about to provide the best shade for their outdoor sitting area.My friend introduced me to the place once after we had drunk ourselves half to death at his uncle's funeral and needed a place to get some hangover soup. It didn't disappoint and I had been coming over ever since whenever I needed some alone time to think things through or mostly to just run away from my dad whenever he was pissed enough at me to want my head on a pike.We took our seats on the outside table of course because nothing could ever take Mia away from the pleasure of breathtaking views, be it snowstorms or catastroph
If anyone were to ask me why I fell in love with Mia, then I would tell them that it is all in the way she fails to blend in with the unneccesary fuss for perfection that is always related to my world. Instead, she's a scattered mess of a girl who prefers to dress up in ripped jeans, oversized sweaters and pumps than all the designer dresses, priceless jewelry and high heels there is in the world. She would choose spending her entire day sitting out on the beach or drinking coffee in a cozy cafe with her head buried in a book than go out to some fancy event flaunted with celebrities. In fact, I think that sort of thing would only appall her than it would excited her really which is why I suspected that, she would definitely find my oversized house with it's numerous servants, very overwhelming indeed. And so I decided that before she steps out and finds out that we have quite a few uniformed staff running around the house, I should prepare her a surprise as a
After preparing my bath, Jeon left me to my own devices and went downstairs to see to our breakfast. I waited till he was completely out of the room before getting myself out of the covers and went into the bathroom.Once there, I brushed my teeth, took that bath as quickly as possible and then changed into my favorite blue shorts and one of Jeon's t-shirts. It was a black round neck and definitely a designer brand by the looks of it, but it was also a few inches too big and it ended up swallowing me whole together with the jean shorts I wore underneath it.I stepped out of the room as soon as I was done and started off to find the kitchen and hopefully find Jeon in there too.The second floor hallway, with it's super expensive decorations was vacant and terribly quiet, signaling that there was no one else around on the entire second floor except for me. I walked down the carpeted floor in slow steady steps, taking my time to marvel at the beauty of
The next morning, I woke up to some lovely sound of classical music coming up from somewhere downstairs and a smiling Jeon as he lay next to me with one of his hands running through my hair and the other serving as a pillow for his head.He smiled at me after I opened my eyes, moving his hand from my hair to caress my cheek with such gentleness you'd actually think I was made out of the most fragile glass and might shutter into tiny fragments at the slightest pressure. "Good morning darling, how was your night?""It was fine." I answered shyly, feeling a little self conscious since I had just woken up and could have easily had drool smeared all over my face. I instinctively pulled up the covers to hide my face from him even though he'd had all the time in the world to look at me throughout the night.He laughed at my silliness, reaching his hand over to try and remove the sheet from my face. "What are you doing? Don't you want me to look at you?" He teased
I came back home from Kristal's place just a little after midnight and entered the house discreetly through the back entrance in an effort to avoid running into the two love birds just in case they were still up and doing God knows what in the middle of our living room. But just halfway down the hallway that led to the stairs, I caught a glimpse of my brother through a slightly opened door to Dad's study, sitting comfotably behind a pile of paper with his gaze totally fixed on a flickering laptop laid out in front of him on the desk.He seemed so taken with whatever was plastered across that computer of his that he barely heard the sound of my footsteps as I pushed the door wider and stepped inside the oval shaped office. His eyes sparkled through his rimmed, reading spectacles as he scrolled down on it, furrowing his brow more and more with each blink as if he was reading about the end of the world.I fought the urge to roll my eyes at him even though I didn't quite s
Jeon's father stood before us with a blank face that almost passed as bored. Infact, he looked kind of distracted like his mind was somewhere else entirely even though his whole body was there, standing right in front of us.He also didn't look anything like the super stern father Minho always painted him out to be. But then again, I wouldn't know him as well as his son did and so maybe, just maybe there was a chance he could suddenly change his mood and then have me thrown out of the house without so much as a second thought.It was very possible considering I was a total stranger to him and there was a chance he was a type of man who didn't like having strange, foreign women in his living room, dressed in practically nothing and holding on to his precious, hardworking son like their lives depended on it.I hoped to God with everything I had that I was just overreacting because I was already feeling kind of out of place as it was and adding a raging parent to t
Later that evening, Jeon took me out to have dinner at some expensive looking restaurant somewhere in the city.It was a beautiful place with twinkling lights hang up everywhere and chairs set out on the green lawn that overlooked the gorgeous han river. It was really quite breathtaking and I would have loved it very much if it weren't for all the curious glances we kept getting from everyone around and people actually openly fussing about who we were to each other from the moment we stepped out of the car.It turned out that my boyfriend was much more popular in his city than I first thought, he was something more of a major celebrity actually. Infact, he might as well have been a BTS member with all the crazed publicity we were getting from just a simple act of going out to eat at a restaurant.The whole experience was as tiresome as it was irritating."Okay love am going to have to ask you this, were you ever in a band at some point in your
My brother came back home with a trophy by his side. A beautiful girl who'd stolen his heart whilst he was trying so hard to mend it back to normal after I had done something terrible to it and left it broken beyond measure.She was stunning, a goddess clad in a sleeveless white dress that brought out the perfection of her soft dark brown skin with her thick curly curls left to fall down all the way to her shoulders like a cascading waterfall. Her smile was divine, a clear indication of her love for my brother who also kept his eyes on her like she was the only thing that mattered to him in the entire universe.She walked inside the house with her hand on his arm but let go of him almost immediately after she made it halfway into the living room. I watched her from up the stairs as her eyes grew wide and her mouth opened up slightly in quiet amazement.Her awe was understandable since our house has always been admired by many people for it's unique a
After we got off the plane, we went outside to get us a cab home only to be met by my driver, standing by the black limo and dressed in all black like he was some kind of bodyguard from some gangster movie. I didn't need to guess much about what had gotten into him to know that it was probably my brother who had put him up to it.Minho is a prankster, Marveling at making fun of me at every turn or messing up my perfectly laid out plans whenever he got a chance for his own amusement. And so this was him again, at another attempt of making me feel awkward because he knew I didn't want to scare Mia off with all that unnecessary luxury.I took a long sigh and brought Mia closer to my side as we walked over to the car. The driver got our bags from me, put them away in the back and then opened the door for us with all the formalities of a contract driver."Welcome home Mr Kim and you too miss." He spoke politely with his hands pressed firmly on his sides as if he was