Eyes Full Of Stars || Park Sunghoon

1 ¦ The Deal

"Thank you very much, Mr. Rey," Sunghoon replies. Obviously, he seems to believe my father's feigned sympathy.

"Thanks to the hard work and your financing at a time when my uncle was still running the company, we've come back to the top. Things definitely couldn't be better for the company. I have my people for everything, and they can reach me 24/7 if there are any problems. Meanwhile, I have a lot of free time except for a few meetings and interviews. For this reason, I have considered moving to my grandfather's hometown after we get married," Sunghoon casually reports.

My father, who is taking another sip of his coffee, chokes and begins to cough slightly. "You want to move back to Korea?" my father inquires, his head flushed, loosening the tie around his neck. Shocked, I look back and forth between my father, my still silent mother, and Sunghoon.

"Seoul, to be exact," Sunghoon confirms, nodding and looking at me. Tears well up in my eyes and I look to my mother, who keeps her head lowered, obviously struggling with tears as well. I cannot and will not marry this man. I don't want to move to Seoul either.

"No," I say, shaking my head vigorously. "Dolores," my father says in a warning voice.

Again I look to my mother, who by now is returning my gaze in panic. I love her and I don't want her to get hurt. But if she can't stand up for her only daughter, who would rather marry a foreign man to be spared my father's wrath, then I'll just have to stand up for myself.

"I don't want to move to Korea, I don't want to get married either. I have a life here in Madrid. All my friends are here and I was planning to start my art studies at Universidad Francisco de Vitoria this summer."

Upset, I jump up from my seat next to Sunghoon, who tilts his head a little in my direction so he can look at me. "I won't let you take that away from me! And I certainly won't let you marry me off to a complete stranger against my will!"

"Dolores!" my father roars angrily. "Do what you want, I'm out. I'm not going along with this!", I say firmly and storm out of the room.

"DOLORES!!!", I hear my father yell from behind me. "COME BACK IMMEDIATELY!" his heavy footsteps chase me into the hallway and just as I'm about to yank open the front door and run out, he grabs me roughly by the upper arm and drags me back.

Sunghoon and my crying mother follow my father into the hallway. While my mother tries to soothe my father, Sunghoon stands by with his arms folded in front of his chest and watches the action, not a frown on his face.

"Let go of me," I urge my father, trying to free myself from his strong grip. "Is it fun to humiliate me like this in front of our guest?" he asks angrily. "LOOK AT ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!"

Startled, I cringe and slowly lift my gaze to look into my father's bloodshot eyes. "You can't force me to marry a man I neither know nor will ever love," I reproach my father. Doesn't he himself realize how absurd it is to ask such a thing of his daughter?

"I'm your daughter... in case you've forgotten, you damned egotist," it slips out before I can think it over. Suddenly, I feel a burning pain on my cheek and my head flies to the side.

My father has just slapped me across the face.

Sobbing and quivering my lower lip, I grab my throbbing cheek. "I'm sorry, that wasn't okay of me," my father admits his mistake directly, but I'm sure if he's just doing it to not look worse in front of Sunghoon than he probably already does.

However, when my father turns to Sunghoon, he is still standing there impassively with his arms folded behind his back, just watching what is going on at close range.

"You must forgive me for the inconvenience, Mr. Park. I hope that my daughter's behavior will not harm our business" "Your daughter's behavior will not harm the business," Sunghoon replies unintrested after a moment's consideration.

Tears run down my cheeks. Why? Why is he doing this? Doesn't he see how much suffering he is causing me? Or is that exactly the reason why he wants it all the more? Is Sunghoon a sadist?

"I suggest we talk about all the other details right now in your office" My father nods in agreement. "Teresa!" he finally calls over the middle-aged woman who has been working for our family for as long as I can remember. She even lives in a separate part of the house so she can be there for us around the clock.

She hurriedly comes running over and stops in front of my father and me with her head down. "Escort Dolores to her room and make sure she doesn't do anything stupid" Teresa nods and with a quick gesture of her hand asks me to follow her.

Realizing there's no point in arguing against it, I follow her. I will never get out of here. My life is officially over before it even really started. I'm going to marry a man I don't love, which means I'll never have a chance to get together with Yeosang.

I'm going to move to Seoul, which in turn means I'll lose track of my friends, and I can forget about the university studies I was going to apply for next summer, too.

It's over. It's all over.

A/N: Hi Guys, so what do we think about this first chapter?