I stir around impassively with my spoon in my hot cocoa. The scrambled eggs Teresa made for breakfast taste delicious, but I have little appetite.
Almost a week has passed since the incident at Yeosang's birthday party. I haven't heard from Sunghoon since then either, which is merely fine with me because aside from not wanting to marry him, I'm extremely embarrassed about what happened between us.
"Are you sick, dear?" my mother asks anxiously when she notices that I have barely touched breakfast, thus snapping me out of my gyrating thoughts.
Surprised, I look at my mother across the long table. "No," I reply, shaking my head and clasping my cup with both hands to warm my chilled fingers. "I just don't have that much of an appetite," I add, sipping my still-hot cocoa.
"Dolores," my father interjects into our conversation. He puts his open newspaper on the table in front of him and looks at me instead.
I hate him. I hate it when he says my name. I hate it when he looks at me. I hate hearing his voice.
"I was on the phone with Sunghoon last night." "Oh," I make, nervously shifting back and forth in my chair. "What did he want?"
"He wants to spend time with you this afternoon," my father informs me casually as he turns the pages of his newspaper. Every now and then, he lifts his eyes and looks at me. "Ethan will drive you to his house after lunch today."
Sunghoon wants me to come to his house to spend time with me? All by myself? Without my father?
"I don't want to spend time with him," I speak my thoughts out loud. My father slams his fist on the table. Both my mother and I flinch in shock. "You're not going to misbehave again, do you hear me?" my father immediately growls, as if he was merely expecting me to speak against.
I look at my intimidated mother sitting next to my father with her eyes downcast, staring at his clenched fists. I don't want her to be afraid because of me.
"Yes, of course I will behave, Father," I assure the middle-aged man in a low voice, now lowering my gaze as well.
I wonder what Sunghoon has planned for today. After all, we barely know each other and he doesn't know what my interests are.
"What do I have to look forward to?" "He didn't say, but of course you should present yourself on your best behavior and put on something pretty," my father says with an affirming nod.
Of course.
I'm always supposed to dress pretty, smile nicely and say as little as possible. For my father, I'm nothing more than a puppet whose strings he just has to pull so that everything goes according to his plans.
"Then I'd best go find something to do," I say, taking a last sip of my cocoa before looking at my father. "May I be excused?" He nods without lifting his gaze from the newspaper, which by now he's holding open in his hands again in front of his face.
Once in my room, I open my closet doors and remain standing in front of it, pondering. Since I like to wear dresses, I decide on a white dress with lace. With it I wear a long-sleeved cardigan, also white, to hide the bruises on my wrists.
Right after lunch, which I also didn't touch much of, Ethan drives me to Sunghoon, who lives a bit away from Madrid.
There is a dead silence in the vehicle for the entire hour-long drive. I usually listened to music on such trips, but since my father took my cell phone away from me and broke it in his rage, this option is eliminated anyway.
After an hour, we finally reach Sunghoon's large, fenced-in estate. It's almost twice the size of the mansion I live in, and I wonder what a single person needs so much space for.
Ethan stops in front of the gates, which are guarded by two security. "Name?" one of them, a tall middle-aged man with a full bald head and a black suit, asks brashly. "Dolores Rey," Ethan says boredly.
The balding man pokes his head into Ethan's rolled-down window to catch a glimpse of me. I smile briefly at him, not knowing what else to do, but he pulls his head back out with an unchanged, serious expression and signals to his colleague that he can open the gate.
The slightly younger man with a full head of hair and a black suit types in a code and shortly thereafter the gate opens automatically. "Thank you very much," Ethan says, driving through the gate as he rolls the window back up.
"What an unfriendly bunch," he sighs shaking his head, obviously not seeming to have planned to say it out loud.
"Sorry, you didn't hear that," he adds quickly, giving me a quick glance through the rearview mirror. "Every single word," I reply with a laugh. "But I totally agree with you, Ethan."
Ethan loosens the tie on his neck a bit before laughing as well. "I'm relieved to hear that," he replies.
As Ethan stops the car on the large driveway and I get out, the front door opens and a woman who can be in her forties at the most awaits me with a scrutinizing look.
With a wave, I signal Ethan that he can drive. He returns my wave with a nod before making a U-turn on the large driveway with the light-colored stones and drives off.
"Good afternoon, I'm Dolores Rey," I introduce myself politely and smile at the woman who is obviously Sunghoon's maid. She returns my smile, but the smile is put on. I can tell by her lackluster blue eyes, which reflect more of a dislike for me instead of joy.
"Mr. Park is still in, well, female company just now. But I'll inform him of your presence," the maid informs me, looking at me mockingly.
I dislike her spiteful manner, but what displeases me far more is the fact that Sunghoon seems to be enjoying himself with other women while portraying me as a bad person for kissing another man.
"Where is he?", I ask his maid, trying not to let on that I am furious. "I will inform him of my presence myself." The maid nods and points to the shiny staircase. "Up the stairs, second door on the right," she informs me, winking.
Hastily, I climb the stairs and open said door without knocking. But on the other side, something quite different awaits me than what the maid told me, or as I understood it from her clearly deliberately confusing words.
It is not Sunghoon sleeping with another woman, but Sunghoon sitting in front of his bathroom mirror with a black smock around his shoulders, having his hair styled by a woman who is at least in her fifties.
"Have you ever heard of knocking?", Sunghoon wants to know. His brown eyes scrutinize me briefly before he averts his eyes from me and sighs in annoyance.
"Thank you, Elizabeth. That's enough." Sunghoon rises from his chair and removes the gown to hand it to Elizabeth. She nimbly packs all her utensils into a large suitcase before leaving the bathroom.
"I'm sorry," I say, embarrassed, lowering my eyes. This is getting off to a good start. But it's all the maid's fault, who spun it like Sunghoon was just doing some naughty things to a woman who isn't me. Not that I would have liked to be in her place, but it's the principle.
"Your maid made it sound like something else was going on up here right now." "And then you got jealous," Sunghoon states with a sly grin on his lips.
He walks up to me and stops immediately in front of me. My breath catches in my throat as we're so close, my cheeks heating up as I think back to the situation almost a week ago.
"No," I reply shaking my head and clearing my throat as a lump has formed in my throat. "So I'm allowed to do anything else with another woman?", Sunghoon wants to know. His brown eyes sparkle at me in amusement while his lips are formed into a grin.
"Am I allowed to do anything else with another man?", I ask him the counter question and cross my arms in front of my chest. Sunghoon eyes me briefly before shaking his head.
"You're cute," he says. A slight smirk plays around his full lips. "Why do you keep saying that?", I want to know, rolling my eyes. The last time we saw each other, Sunghoon told me the exact same thing. Namely, that I'm cute when I get upset.
"Because." Sunghoon replies, taking another step closer to me. My cheeks are glowing by now and the heart in my chest is pumping faster. He does this on purpose to provoke these very reactions in me and to amuse himself with it. So I take a step back.
"You want to spend time with me and I'm already bored," I say after taking one deep breath through that nose to calm my excitement a little.
" I have something great planned. You're going to love it," Sunghoon promises me and walks past me to leave the bathroom. "Come with me."
I follow Sunghoon down the big staircase, where I glance at his maid, who looks at me spitefully. For a short moment I have the uneasy feeling that this woman is jealous of me. However, I immediately discard this absurd thought.
"We are going to visit an art gallery," Sunghoon informs me. My eyes widen and I look at Sunghoon, who has obviously put real thought into this.
"When we met in person, I picked out your interest in art. I hope my idea isn't totally off base." "The idea is... Good," I retort.
In truth, the idea isn't just good, it's perfect. Or at least it would be if we had met under different circumstances. It's been a long time since I last went to an art gallery.
"We should go," Sunghoon informs me, glancing at the silver Rolex around his wrist.
A/N: The actual line of yoongi is "Ice on my wrist i'm the nice guy." But yea i changed it a lil bit so the title matches this chapter and yea i knoooow TMI.