The Kims and the Parks weren't just business partners, their relationship was built on friendship. While Jack Kim and Alice Park were growing up together since their teenage years, Jennie and Rosé were practically friends since they were babies.
The two families had been spending Christmas eve together since years ago, where they would take turns to host a Christmas dinner. It was indeed just a casual dinner, filled with the warmth of wine and laughter, but lately, the dinner had found a new meaning since the merger of the companies was getting more urgent.
This year, it was the Parks' turn to visit the Kims. Alice looked nervous. As the conversation of a merger had become something that the two families actively pursued, the once trifling matter of her marriage with Jack had now turned into a serious possibility.
Even though their parents hadn't asked for their opinion yet; it was just 'a possibility', they said, but the two heirs knew better. Both had been involved in their family businesses for years already; and they had come to understand the importance of the merger in order to expand. There was no other possibility, they needed the marriage as soon as possible.
For Alice, the marriage wouldn't be exactly a marriage that she had been dreaming of, but it also wouldn't be a marriage of convenience as people often described. She was glad that Mr. and Mrs. Kim loved her like their own daughter and Jennie treated her like her unnie.
If one day, God forbade, Jack would do something that would potentially hurt her, Alice was confident that she had his family on her side.
Also, while it was true that Alice found Jack annoying, but never once had he treated her poorly. She had seen him being jerk to the girls he was dating, yet, the worse thing he'd done to Alice was teasing her for her braces.
This dinner would be important. Alice was ready to accept any arrangement. Now it was up to Jack to decide where the tie of the Kims and Parks would progress.
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