Till Death Do Us Part

"Jyeon, take her hand." Jyeon's mother picks up his hand by the wrist and forces it into mine, stopping me from venturing into the open doorway of the ballroom where she's standing guard for our arrival. I squirm, hating that we are always forced to interact this way, pushed together, and made to act like young sweethearts. My face flushes with heat and I chew on my inner lip.

"Yes, mother." Jyeon does as he's told, his blank tone and non-reaction, sliding my tiny hand into his and holds it loosely. His obvious coldness in his manner, like always, since we got into our young teen years, and my heart sinks. His skin contact and warmth don't remove the chill from the air between us and I look away from him, gazing at my feet in downhearted depression. I cannot remember the last time he looked upon me affectionately or gave me any kind of kindness even though I've known him since I was born.

"Sohla, lift your chin, smile. You two look beautiful together, as always." She chirps at us, tweaking his bow tie and smoothing his lapels before turning to me and fixing a strand of my hair.

"Yes, mother." I do as I'm told, lifting my face up to meet Jyeon's mother's eyes on mine. Calling her the title she prefers, given one day I will be her daughter in law. I try to correct my posture and stand tall because I know she hates my slouching. She's stern as a mother figure and doesn't tolerate slackness.

"Where's your brother, Jyeon?" She turns back to him, irritation in her tone evident and then glances over us at the hallway that's filling with guests arriving.

"Following. He'll be here shortly." Jyeon doesn't move, just awaits her approval before we get set free to join the others inside.

"That boy. You need to get him in hand. You're older and should be showing him how to behave."

"Yes, mother." Jyeon answers robotically, knowing fine well his brother is not a handful at all and his lateness will definitely not be his fault. He's a sweet and caring boy who looks after me continuously, even though he's a year younger. I miss him right now, standing here with this awkward tension.

"Okay, go inside. Remember to keep Sohla on your arm. All eyes are on our future heirs. Enjoy your birthday." She leans in and air kisses him and then finally let's us move past her. My body sagging slightly with relief, and I catch Jyeon giving me side eye.

"I hate that dress."

It's all he says to me. Looking down at the overly childish, sequin dress his mother bought for me and although I agree, it wounds me to the core. My heart aches and I swallow a knot that forms in my throat, nodding his way without showing him that his words always hurt me. He leads me into the crowded room with reluctance and our appearance causes minor reaction from the guests.

Some rush forward to say hello, some smile and raise glasses, but the whole affair is completely fake. I grin and bear it and play the part of young rich daughter of the Kim family, knowing my place well.

"The big sixteen.... Your parents are really going all out for this one." Bryant, Jyeon's best friend slides between us from behind, shoving me aside while unlatching our hands. "Don't worry, I'll save you both from forced romantics. Your parents really like to shove it in everyone's faces that the Parks and the Kims will be continuing their joint supremacy by marrying off their kids to keep their corporation undented."

"Please tell me there's an escape route." Jyeon relaxes his stiff posture, loosening up his naturally wide shoulders and quickly darts a glance around for his father or other watchful eyes. I find myself drawn to watching his mannerisms, that over the past year or so have changed from awkward child into more of a bro type of demeanour. He's grown taller, filled out and his naturally handsome dark looks have lost their puppy fat. Next to a smaller and fairer Bryant, Jyeon is mysterious and suave and is starting to look a lot like his father.

"Bide your time. Hang out here for an hour or so until the old folks get drunk and push off to their VIP lounge upstairs, and then we young uns can get a party started." Bryant winks, moving to stand in front of us and turns to face us. Eyeing me up and frowning with instant dislike.

"Sohlly bolly .... What are you wearing? You look like a ten year old in that." He disapproves as much as Jyeon does and I glare back.

"I didn't pick it..... Jyeon's mom did and I'm thirteen, not ten." I stick my tongue out at him and slap him on the shoulder. Sassy initiated from deep inside when away from the watchful eye of the seniors and Bryant leans in and pinches my cheek. Grinning at me before rubbing my head and messing my hair. He's always been like an older sibling that loves to rile me at every opportunity.

"Oooh, attitude, missy. And here I thought all these lady lessons you were getting had culled the tomboy spirit and turned out something tolerable." Bryant tries to poke me in the face, and I slap his hand away with instinctive impulses.

"Stop it." Jyeon elbows me and nods towards the far right of the room where my own parents have turned this way. My eyes following his gaze and I catch my father's cold and intense stare. That I'm behaving in a manner he doesn't approve of.

"Yeah, Sohlly. Your dad will send you away to reform school if you don't behave. Listen to your husband." He jests at me and then sticks his hands in his pockets and looks at his feet when Jyeon glares coldly, right at him. Visually shutting him down and making it clear he doesn't find that term amusing.

Jyeon hates this whole arrangement, although he's never verbally said it to me, or around me. Ever since we were told, when I turned eleven, that our future had already been mapped out and we would be officially engaged when I turn seventeen, he's turned aloof and cold towards me. What used to be a warm and sometimes fun sibling relationship turned sour and he avoids me now when not forced into close proximity.

I can feel his efforts to keep us apart. The lack of emotion when he's close and the rebellious aura when he's made to take my hand. He's obedient to a fault though and would never refuse what's expected of us. Our family decided when we were born that they would put us together for the sake of our company, to keep the shares and money as one, even when our parents are no longer here. Jeon will obey.

"Where's Yoonie, anyhow? Isn't he late to your formal soiree?" Bryant changes the subject fast and looks around for him, taking the icy hint. "It's not like him to be AWOL when there's cake."

"He got side-tracked by my grandfather. He's twelve now and that means he's expected to start shouldering some responsibility of being a Park son." Jyeon moves to a passing waitress and picks up two fruit cocktails, handing one to me first and the other to Bryant, before picking up his own and we stand cradling them.

"Sixteen and on the juice..... being rich sucks. The housekeeper's kid had a blow out sixteenth at a skateboard park where half of them had to be carried home because they smuggled out half their father's liquor cabinet. How come we have to wear tuxedo's and hang out with your family's business associates. This isn't a birthday party, it's a social engagement to create beneficial contacts." Bryant has always been a little bit rough and ready, not suited to high society life and I giggle at him. He is the most annoying person I know, but he's fun and Jyeon acts half human when he's around. Despite appearances, I really like Bryant.

"You're shocked by this? I'm sure even my twenty first will benefit my father in some way. It was never about his eldest son's birthday." Jyeon's tone is bitter, and he raises his glass to his mother across the room who has now taken her place among the glamorously dressed grown ups who are swarming around the hall nearer the band.

This is the lifestyle I'm accustomed to so it's nothing new or intimidating, and I'm bored.

"Hey.... Did I miss anything?" Yoonah slides in beside me and immediately pushes his arm through mine and leans his head against my shoulder despite my being a foot taller than him still. He's slower to hit puberty than Jyeon ever was and still looks like a cute little tanned and pudgy Park boy. All big brown eyes, and pouty lips, and he has a softness that melts your heart. This is the baby brother of my life, even though I'm an only child and I adore him more than anything in the world.

"Your brain?" Bryant jests and pokes him in the forehead.

"I'll always be smarter than you, even without a brain, Bry!" Yoonah jests right back at his brother's best friend, used to these quips and jokes from him.

"Dad's coming, stand up." Jyeon slides his arm around my back, out of sight, and pushes his brother off harshly, so he flinches away. Always aware of how we should behave and present ourselves because our lives depend on it when it comes to our parents. He yanks me closer to his side, away from Yoonah, and then let's go of me completely. His hand falling back by his hip between us, but my stomach still tightens at the contact.

Deep down I have always had some kind of feelings for Jyeon which are undefined and his brief touch when it happens makes my insides flutter. I don't know why as he makes no effort to have any sort of relationship with me anymore.

"You all look very nice tonight." Mr Park saunters to us and pats his eldest son on the shoulder. He's an intimidating, tall, and muscular man, who doesn't look like he's in his fifties, but more of a handsome thirty. Jyeon takes after him fully, with black hair that looks nice styled up, or messy over his forehead and somehow boyish, deep darkest brown eyes, and sallow skin.

He stands like he's the master of the universe, with a perfectly straight posture, and has an intimidating quality about him, especially when dressed in a black tux. If Jyeon ends up like him as a full grown man then OLO Corporation needn't worry about having a commanding CEO at the helm to continue our family's joint legacy. Smart, with killer instincts, and despite the classy and smooth appearance, Mr Park is known as a demon in business and should never be crossed. Jyeon is his mini me.

We all nod and smile, and I immediately shrivel to that nervous girl who starts fixing her appearance whenever he appears. Mr Park is not someone who seems warm and loving when you know him well and despite being my father's best friend, I have never really built any kind of bond to him.

"Sohla? Sohla, darling?" My mother beckons to me from across the room and I exhale with relief, seeing my beautiful saviour looking for me to introduce to whatever women and girl are standing by her and curtsy quickly. An escape route so I can dodge Mr Park and his suffocating energy.

"My mother wants me." I make my parting nod of respect his way and walk off at speed, loosening my limbs while escaping from whatever Mr Park was wanting and slide into my mother's awaiting outstretched arm. The one soft and welcoming human in my life. My mother is the only reason I'm still sane. She married into rich and never started that way, so has retained the kindness and adorable personality of the preschool teacher she used to be. I love my mother beyond words.

"Darling, this is Lily masters and her daughter Olivia. They're from England and over here on family business. You two are the same age and Olivia could use a little companionship for the next two weeks. I thought it would be nice to introduce you."

I smile brightly at the sweet, freckled, red head, who's beaming at me with a wide toothy gap in her teeth. She's a little round in figure and much shorter than me but seems genuinely nice and bubbly. It's rare in this society to find girls I get along with, so I am always looking for that girlfriend, envious of Jyeon's' friendship with Bryant. Most are afraid of my family name and power and some just want to use me to get close to Jyeon. Every girl under sixteen in this city all like Jyeon, because he's good looking, rich, and has a powerful future ahead of him.

"How do you do? I'm Sohla Kim. It's nice to meet you." I mind my manners and reach out my hand for her to take, smiling brightly and am met with her own mother's beaming smile, so like her daughters. People tell me I am a mirror image of mine, we are so alike that one day we will be twins.

"Ahhh Sohla, you're the little one who is set to marry Jyeon Park, right? Olivia was so upset to learn that the handsome boy she met at golf practice last week was already taken. I can see why though; you look very much like your beautiful mother."

Her words freeze the blood in my veins and my face stiffens even though I keep my smile in place. Hating how it's all I am never known as, wherever I go. I'm not Sohla Kim, the pretty brunette with bright eyes, a warm, good smile, and a decent IQ. I'm Jyeon Park's bride to be, overshadowed even as a child, and it's all anyone ever cares about. I am worthless because I'm a girl and Jyeon is the Prince of this city, because his family are ranked as the fifth richest in this country.... I mean ours is too, but he's a boy.

"Yes, that's right. They have grown up together and we see Jyeon as our son already. Our families are very close. It's only natural we chose him to keep Sohla happy as an adult." My mother pats my back and gives me a squeeze and I am aware of the other girl's bright and happy face now turning sour as she eyes me up and down. I have seen this look on girls many times before. The nasty turn. Once they know who I am and my relation to Jyeon, all friendliness dies.

In our world girls are raised to seek out the richest and most influential son to marry and make their families proud, while benefitting their wealth and status. It's almost an obsession for some and Jyeon would happen to be in the platinum variety of future son in laws. No one marries for love anymore, it's all about money. And it's an immense personal failure and blow to a girl's self esteem to not bag the Jyeon's of our world.

"Must be nice to already have your future set and laid out. You can put your feet up and just focus on staying pretty and healthy." Her words bite, her tone fake and high pitch cheerful. The other woman is still acting kind, but her words don't fool me even if they pass under my mother's naive radar.

"I'm not going to be a stay at home wife. I have shares in OLO Enterprises as the only child to my family. I intend to pick up my position at my father's right hand when I finish with school and my studies." That inner indignation that has always lived within me shows face, my tone a little condescending, and my mother clears her throat awkwardly. She is too soft in nature, but I am my father's child under this sweet face.

"Yes, Sohla takes after her father in the brain department. She's the top of her class and very academic. Her father has high hopes that one day she's the vice president by Jyeon's side." My mother gushes proudly, being the one of our family who always struggled with school and lessons despite ending up as a teacher. But I am bilingual in four languages, have a photographic memory when it comes to most subjects and won awards in mathematics at a very young age. I'm not stupid or incapable. I'm ambitious and want to stand in our family company one day, doing something important for its future.

"Not just a pretty one then. How nice for you." Lily Masters seems to develop a pinched expression and her coolness is overbearing. Even my mother picks up on it and gestures a passing server for some glasses of champagne as a distraction method. I stand tall and proud by her side and catch Olivia glaring at me. The kid is ugly and stupid. Jyeon wouldn't look twice at her, even if she was the kid from the richest family in this country.

"Mother, Jyeon is looking for me, I have to go over there." I point out towards my group who are now several more teens from Jyeon's friendship circle and Yoonah looks lost standing aside while they talk. Looking for an out now the true nature of these women is on display. I don't waste time on this kind of fake.

"Oh, yes. Go on then and don't keep him waiting. Tell him I'll come and wish him a happy birthday soon, my darling." My mother lightly hugs me and sends me on my way. I walk proudly towards my little Yoonie to save him from isolation and catch the sight of the Park's and my father heading my mother's way. All three smile at me with genuine affection and pass by without interference.

"Ahhhh. Sohlllllllyyy bollly. Here you are, my sweet chicken. You look cute." I'm grabbed around the shoulder with a muscular arm and hauled into a wide chest while my face is pinched and struggle to get out of Avery Wyatt's annoying grip. Struggling and squirming while he pokes at me and pulls me around. He crushes me and laughs heartily at my protests. Another of my self-appointed big brothers.

"Avery, stop it." I push at him to no avail because he's a sixteen year old powerhouse who has the body of a much older man on steroids. "Let me go, you brute." He has no cares about where we are or how to behave and as usual is the fooling around and chaotic energy in Jyeon's group. He's dumb as hell, but has a good heart and an overbearingly touchy feely way of showing affection.

I'm yanked out of his arms and pulled against a warm hard and wall like body, straightened up so fast it makes me dizzy and I lose my footing. Caught by the person who has just pulled me over. I turn just enough to catch Jyeon eyeing me over my shoulder, and he doesn't look impressed at all. He pats down my dress, gestures with a chin nod at my hair and pushes me off of him coldly.

"Go fix yourself. My mother will go ape shit if she sees you guys acting like kids. Your finishing school classes are seeming pointless lately." His expression is sour, and I scowl at him, sneering in an unladylike manner.

"I am a kid! I'm allowed to have a night off from being a flat and boring lady while I'm still only a child!" I pout back at his frosty tone, the urge to kick him in the shin mighty today with how cold and superior he's being. This is how we are sometimes, and I think he hates that he does not intimidate me in the slightest.

Jyeon narrows his brow, his handsome face seemingly more mature when he gets all serious and sulky and I bite on my lip, anger rising because he can always make me feel so crap with very few sentences.

"Can you try not acting like this for my birthday. I don't want to babysit. I do it all year round." He lets me go and pushes me slightly away, slicing my heart with his words and I swallow the sudden urge to cry. Hating him for always making me feel like a nuisance child around him, when he used to be the one who carried me on his back and put band aids on my cut knees. Jyeon used to be the one to lift me over fences, hand me food, take care of me, and protect me from everything in the world.

If I was never pushed onto him in this manner then maybe we would still be close, and he wouldn't constantly be separating us with his glacier mountain that he's put between us.

"Don't worry, I'll take Yoonie and stay out of your way. We can hang out together and you'll only have to babysit yourself." I swing away and grab Yoonah's hand, aware of the wide eyed baby way he's watching us with that little crushed expression. He hates when we bicker and is too sweet and soft to ever know how to intervene. For a twelve year old, he's more like a kid half that age at times and I pull him with me protectively. Using him to get away from Jyeon and simmer my bad mood caused by that arrogant attitude.

"She's turning your brother into a little cry baby who follows her around like a puppy." I hear one of his friend's voices as we walk away and curb the urge to turn round and shout something insulting back. Pulling Yoonie, who follows without any resistance and head towards the buffet. Aware of eyes on us, so I stand taller and prouder and push down the immature and bolshy me.

"Shut up. Yoonah is fine, and she cares about him like he's her own kid brother. Leave them alone. She's doing me a favour by taking him away. They're closer in age than we are so it's natural he wants to be around her more than me." Jyeon's voice soothes my temper a little and I get a reminiscent glimpse of how caring he used to be. Before responsibility and hormones hit him.

Being sent to a public all boys school to focus on his future hardened him, but occasionally the deeper him shows face, especially if someone insults his little brother. He will never stand back and hear one bad word about Yoonie. Or me, at times. Jyeon is the only one allowed to be an ass to me as he doesn't allow anyone else to be.

I glance back at Yoonah's crestfallen expression, having heard them call him a cry baby, and give him a bright smile and pat him on his head lovingly. Putting on my brightest expression.

"Come on, cutie. Let's get you some chocolate cake and ice cream. Then we can go eat it in the greenhouse and watch the fairy lights on the fountain." I tug him along, glad to see the sadness break and he beams and speeds up his walk to follow me to the food.

"I'm so sorry, Sohla."

The familiar man's words fall on deaf ears, and I stare blankly at the pictures set up on the flower altar, consumed with nothing but numbness and emptiness, as though I have lost all sense of everything and exist only in a black hole. There's no oxygen in this space, no air, or breeze, no sensation except stifling heat, and oppressive, claustrophobic surroundings. It could be a bubble for all I know, a lifeless and empty bubble holding me prisoner in this atmosphere-less existence.

Not hearing him, I continue to look ahead. Fixated. Taking in the rows and rows of white flowers of every kind, laid out perfectly to nestle their images so respectfully on top. A wall of white to counteract the darkness of the room. Candles burning to each side of the loving faces, illuminating subtle smiles with ethereal glow, and yet it all feels so ugly and wrong. They shouldn't be here.

I don't respond, unable to move, or breathe, and gaze emptily at the two shining faces staring back at me as though devoid of all ability to move. My heart aches physically, inside my body, and my stomach hurts with splicing pangs, yet nothing comes out, and my face is bone dry. I've lost the sensation of my limbs so that I no longer feel attatched to my own body and stay as I am, lifeless and still without blinking, unaware of how my legs shake to keep me upright. I have no concept of time or how long I have stood here. Only that I don't know what I'm supposed to do now.

"Thank you for coming. It means a lot to see you here." Jyeon's mother's voice flitters around behind me. Strained and low as though she's been crying endlessly. Talking to all who come by to show their respects and yet I can't turn around to see her. She pulls the voice away from me and mutters some other words of comfort, and thanks, and it fades out to the same eery nothingness of before. Locked on and focused only on dark brown eyes, the flawless complexions, and warming smiles of the faces I want more than anything to climb out of that frame and exist in my reality. I want their voices, their laughter, even their anger. I need to have them reach out and touch me just one more time.

"Sohla.... We need to move. It's time." Jyeon's voice comes through this time. A gentle touch on my elbow as he delicately tries to break my trance, and I'm pulled out of my own head. Startled into sense by his breath lingering by my right ear, tingling my nerve endings so I shudder. The husky safe tone of the source of support this past week, and I turn my face and blink at him. Dazed in my surreal surroundings. Seeing nothing but a blurry image before me and yet his presence is wanted compared to everyone else. He's been Jyeon of my childhood. Jyeon that I missed to the point of despair without ever knowing it. The dependable and caring Jyeon who was with me for every milestone of my youth. The soothing voice and mature words. The kid who would take my hand and help me keep up with all the boys he hung around with, without ever letting them use my gender to diss me.

"I can't leave them here. They don't belong here." I utter breathlessly, whimpering, staring hopelessly into those dark eyes which mirror my own pain and sadness. Jyeon's heart is broken too, maybe not to the same depth as mine, but we share a pain that has held us together these hours and I've come to depend on his presence to get through this today. He's been grieving in a silent and strong way, never showing me how truly broken he is so that he can instead be what I need to stay standing. Without him nearby, tending to me, and sticking close, I would have collapsed hours ago.

"I know. You can't stay here though. You haven't eaten all day and you haven't moved from this spot to drink or rest. It's late, you need to come home with us. Please." Jyeon slides an arm around my shoulders and attempts to move me, but I hold firm. Inwardly breaking down with the thought of no longer having them with me, of having them there when I go home. If I go, then they will lay here without me for God knows how long. This is really, truly, the last moment with them, the last physical connection and then they're really gone. Just thinking of walking away steals my breath away and closes my lungs.

And home? Where is that and what is that now? Is it a building of brick and mortar which holds my every memory since birth, or is it the place where my parents went? How can I go somewhere that doesn't exist anymore? I'm alone now. There's isn't anyone there that I want to go home for. It's just a word, an empty meaningless word without them there to warm its core.

My heart erupts into a fireball of agony, and the tears, which have held at bay for the last seven days, break through as my face crumbles. I sob out loud, in a gasping and agonising way, searching for air as my legs give out and Jyeon pulls me into his arms to catch me before I fall. Cradling me close and rubbing the back of my hair as my emotional floodgates crack. He sinks with me to accommodate my body weight, so we end up crouched together.

"I want my mom....... I want my mom, Jyeon. Bring her back to me. My dad.... my dad, Jyeon... How could they? Why? Why did they leave me? Give them back to me. Please.... just give them back. I'll do anything. I'll be good, I won't argue.... I'll do whatever they say, whatever you say. Please, just help me." I wail and sob senselessly, and cough and wheeze, trying to get the words out that break my soul in two. My brain a scattered chaotic mess and each word falls out of my mouth, rambling of its own accord. My whole world crashes down around me as every part of me gives up the fight to stay in control and he gets my full outpouring. The realisation that this here are the final moments with my parents, and connection between me and them in the real world will never exist again. Their bodies will be ash by morning and nothing but my broken heart will hold them near. I haven't got it in me to let them go. I'm only sixteen years old. I need my parents still. I'm just a kid.

"I would if I could, Sohla. I swear. I would do anything to give them back to you." His words are forced through his own emotional trembling and wavering voice. Holding back his own need to cry too because that's who he is. Jyeon squats down with me so we both end up on the floor properly. Me in his arms and curled up tight, clinging to him, while he hovers and balances to keep me close. His knees on either side of my body so I'm encircled in his protective space. Letting me cry it out while he rests his cheek on top of my head, pats my back, and sways me side to side as though I'm five years old once more. Cuddling me like he used to when I had fallen, distraught with a grazed booboo, or was crying over spilled ice-cream, or someone had been mean to me.