pairing - chanyeol x reader x baekhyun
description - Who would want to be married off to a man they barely knew? Who would want to be married to a man who resented your very presence? You didnât love him, your heart belonged with another, but how could you love someone who had hurt you so much?
series - part 1 part 2 part 3
Everyday you spent with Chanyeol were unbearable. The days were long and monotonous and the fact that he hardly ever seemed to be there didnât make it any better.Â
Every morning you woke up, either to find that he was not there, he hadnât returned from the night before, or that he had left before you had even woken up. In the evenings when you came back from work you came home to an empty apartment, the food had already been made by the cook who came in everyday, and the place had been cleaned by the cleaner who came in every afternoon. There was nothing that needed to be done, except for work. The situation had given you the opportunity to become immersed in your work, and your thoughts. The latter was not necessarily a good thing.Â
Your mind was clouded with emptiness all the time and there was hardly ever any change to you routine. When there was, it wasnât good change either.Â
You had been called out by Chanyeolâs mother several times since the day of your marriage. She was a wretched heartless woman, and stays at the Park family home were even more unbearable than staying in your own apartment. Despite having an army of servants to do her bidding, the awful woman always picked on you. Whenever you went to their house you were expected to dust, cook and clean, apparently it was a coincidence that whenever you went, most of the staff were on holiday or had gone out to run errands. Atleast in your own apartment you could do as you wished, within the certain perimeters that had been set.
You would never be good enough for them. They couldnât criticise you for your parentsâs company, familial connections or wealth, so they criticised you for everything else. They mocked your appearance, lack of close friendships, way of talking, the way you cooked, the way you cleaned and your capabilities.Â
You were sneered upon and teased for not being able to get a sustainable, high up job in your parents company. You had been working in the family business ever since you graduated from high school, balancing the university work load and the endless tasks your fatherâs persistent subordinates gave you. When you had graduated from university you had expected to get a good job in the company, a job deserving of the heiress of the company to have. However, your father instructed for you to be given a useless job, it was a lot of work, a lot of work however the job itself was one that barely paid and could easily be done by someone with minimal skills.Â
You had been infuriated when you had received this notice, you were a graduate of Seoul National University, every exam you had taken had been a hundred percent and you were in the top one percent of the entire country. To your fathers dismay, you had inherited his remarkable intelligence and then some. Even if he gave you one of the top positions in the running of the business people couldnât say it was favouritism or that you didnât deserve it because you did. But he didnât, instead you were given a lowly position and were often ordered about by your superiors who were jealous of you for being the CEOâs daughter.
Chanyeol had been given a rather different position, in his own family company he held the role that you had desperately wanted yourself, he was in-charge, the boss, people looked up to him and admired him, he always had his plate full, but in this case, with things that mattered. And if that wasnât enough, as soon as you had married him he had been given the job of overseeing new business matters in your own parents company, meaning that he was above you in the hierarchy. People couldnât imagine the humiliation you faced whenever he came into your department, and you, his wife, were obliged to give him a ninety degree bow.
All of this hadnât been a secret and his family knew about it and they never passed an opportunity to trouble you for it. His sisters were the worst, he had two younger sisters and a female cousin that lived with them. The female cousin was alright, her name was Eunbyul and she rarely ever asked you to do anything. However, his sisters made up for it. They were mean and calculating, one slightly older than you, and the other just a teenager, about seventeen years old.Â
Whilst Chanyeol seemed to have inherited his fatherâs dashing looks, his sisters didnât seem to inherit anything from their outwardly beautiful mother, apart from her nature. Their appearance wasnât anything out of the ordinary and they seemed rather plain. You, on the other hand, had rather striking features, large eyes and a beautifully set facial structure, it made people look again. You had been a target of jealousy your entire life but you couldnât remember the last time it was as bad as this.Â
The two sisters felt as if they were above you in every way and could not understand for the life of them why you were more intelligent, pretty and pleasant. Chanyeol went with you once and they immediately stopped, but when they saw how he treated you, they grew bolder and had no problem in troubling you in front of him, and he just turned a blind eye.Â
You had felt as if you were all alone in this, you had no friends, your colleagues despised you, your family treated you as if you were dirt, and your husband pretended that you didnât even existed. How brilliant. You almost felt as if you should end this, but the only way to end it was a truly horrible way indeed.Â
People donât realise how difficult it is to be in a situation like this and how people feel until theyâve done it alone, and it feels as if thereâs no hope, the world feels grey and devoid of colour and it feels like no one can help you. That was what you felt like on most days, but there was one person that made you feel a little bit better.Â
Chanyeol had previously mentioned that he had a brother who had married a girl against the wishes of his father, you hadnât paid much attention to this fact until you had actually met her. Her name Seolhyun and she was one of those people that was greatly liked by everyone and made everyone smile. She was beautiful as well. She had previously been an announcer in one of the top news broadcasting companies in Seoul, before she married Chanyeolâs older brother, Park Changsub. She was the one friend you had and the only person who understood what you were going through, well, partly.
Changsub wasnât like Chanyeol, he had married for love, against his parentâs wishes. He adored Seolhyun, always putting her needs first, making sure she wasnât violated and harrased by his siblings and parents, that she had the freedom that you were denied.Â
Their home was a distant, but stunning riverside apartment, overlooking the Han river. You had visited several times and each time felt like the first. The apartment could not be described as anything less than beautiful, from its high ceilings to its marble floors, it was one of the most lovely homes you had ever visited. It was your happy place, in a world that seemed desolate and hopeless, you often came here.
They had been so kind to you, the complete opposite to the way the other people in the family had treated you. Changsub was polar opposites to Chanyeol, he wasnât cold and stand offish, but instead, he was compassionate, caring and gentle. He did not at all seem like the jealous older brother you had imagined, you had imagined someone seeking revenge after being pushed out from the line of succession in favour of his younger brother, but no, Changsub had seemed almost relieved.Â
You often came to visit them, as much as your schedule would allow. It also felt nice to not be a burden for once. Seolhyun herself didnât work anymore, it was one of the many sacrifices she had to make, whilst Changsub tried his best to ensure she could maintain her freedom and way of life, there was only so much he could do without being completely being cast out of the company. This had resulted in Seolhyun being left alone at home most of the time, with only the maids for company. This lead to insane boredom, there was only so much shopping one could do, which made her very happy whenever she saw you. She used to have other friends, she had told you, but when she had married Changsub, she had to be cautious about who she was seen with, one wrong move and she would come under severe criticism. She had told you that this lead to her friends becoming wary with her, eventually leading to the break down of most of her close friendships.Â
You felt happy that you were both able to forge a friendship with each other but often had to keep it a secret as you werenât sure how Chanyeol would react. As long as these visits were able to last, you felt as if you might just be able to make it through this.Â
It was a chilly Thursday evening. The sky was dim and clouds hung low, it was almost impossible to see where you were going and you were just about to call your driver to pick you up.Â
That was when you heard the screech of a cars breaks right next to you. You peered inside, trying to make out if it was someone you knew, and were quite startled when the windows suddenly rolled down and you came face to face with the man you had thought was the least likely to care about your whereabouts on a night like this.Â
âGet in!â he said, stepping out and guiding you to the other side. He flung open the door and gave you a light but still forceful shove inside. He slammed the door shut and made his way back to the drivers seat. He placed his hands on the wheel, gripping the material hard, massaging it with his fingers, as if he was thinking about what he was going to say next very carefully.Â
âThereâs a family gathering next week, everyone will be there,â he paused and frowned at you, âMy mother told me to ask you to come so you could meet the rest of the family but you donât have to, like you can say youâre ill or something,â he finished his half mumbled sentence.Â
You knew that Chanyeol wanted you to say no, but you couldnât help it. His mother would probably be mortified if you turned down her offer, only softening if Chanyeol stuck up for you, which was very unlikely to happen, and also, you did want to meet the rest of his family. You wondered if you find someone else that you could strike up a friendship with, you felt like you needed as many allies as possible in this family. You actually knew about this before and Seolhyun had told you it would be a good idea to go. She herself had never been invited to these gatherings as she and Chagsub were practically outcasted by the rest of the family, she had always wished for the opportunity to go but it wasnât meant to be.Â
âIâll go,â you replied to Chanyeol. You earned a glare from him as he turned back to his steering wheel, starting the car rather roughly and turning onto the main road.Â
âI have to drive the both of us down, itâs nearly five hours away,â he said, expecting you to change your mind after that, but you were a determined person and had made up your mind now. You knew that he could easily just fly there or take the train, he was only doing this to convince you not to go.
âI donât mind,â you replied calmly.Â
He scoffed as he turned back to the wheel, mumbling something inaudible.Â
The journey was going to be a struggle, but maybe there was some light at the end of the tunnel.
