Jin's Mistake • KSJ

Twelve

The next four weeks were an adjustment. You'd returned to the Yoo family home after your brief time away at the spa to find all your things had been moved to Seungho's room. You shouldn't have been surprised, but you hadn't mentally prepared yourself for that.

Beyond just the items from your separate bedroom, the majority of your belongings from your parent's home had arrived as well. Stacks of blue moving cartons were neatly arranged along one wall. It felt as if they were signaling the finality of the situation.

"Will they ever let us get our own place?" You dug through a box of shoes, trying to ignore your akwardness.

"Someday. My brothers and their wives moved out eventually claiming they needed privacy to start a family." Seungho shrugged as he sat on the bed.

"That's not going to happen for a long time." He nodded in agreement and leaned back onto his elbows watching you remove each pair.

"How old are your brothers?" You realized he'd only spoken of his siblings once. His brothers had been at the wedding but his sisters had not, still away attending university.

"Jaeseok is thirty three, Chansuk is thirty, I'm twenty six and my sisters, Minjae and Jaemin are twenty three."

"Twins?" He nodded confirming, you wanted to ask if any of them were close but he changed the subject.

"I can sleep on the floor if you're uncomfortable. No one is going to burst into our room in the middle of the night and find out."

"Don't be silly, it's going to have to happen at some point I'll get over it. Just keep your hands to yourself." You smiled trying to make a joke but his eyes held yours in a way that made you keenly aware of his body on the bed you would now share.

"I can be attracted to you and still control myself." You blushed at his admission and turned back to your task letting silence fall between you.

~

His mother spent the next few days fawning over the two of you as if you were really in love, and she wasn't fully aware the marriage had been arranged. You both indulged her with hand holding and a discreet hug or two when she was around. By the end of the week touching Seungho casually didn't make you nervous. You slept side by side without issue, although at times you woke, his warm arm or leg, a shoulder brushing yours.

His father was another story, not indulgent like his mother. No longer away on business his small shrewd eyes assessed you constantly. He was quick to silence you at meal times if you spoke too often with a glare that dried the words in your mouth. There was cruelness to him that reminded you of your uncle Kyulee except he didn't place a facade over it. He seemed to take pleasure in ridiculing you or rolling his eyes at conversation you tried to make.

Seungho was an expert at avoiding his wrath, his mother knew exactly what she was allowed to say if he was around, but you couldn't seem to prevent yourself from falling into his traps. He could chastise you nearly to tears for simply asking polite questions about his health or day.

The second week his twin sisters returned from school, their last year at Seoul University. They weren't identical, but everyone treated them like one person, mostly just referring to them as the twins. They were completely disinterested in you, any hope you had for being close to them dissipated with their cool disinterested stares.

"Don't let them bother you, they've been away at school their whole lives. I doubt my father knows which one is Min and which is Jae, he didn't want any more children after I was born. My mother visits them frequently but aside from that you'd never know they belonged to our family." Seungho had pulled you away, his hand around your waist after the chilly introduction.