Chapter 3

Her words freeze the blood in my veins, and my face stiffens despite keeping my smile in place. Hating how it’s all I am ever known 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 is 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 already see Jyeon as our son. 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 squeezes me, and I am aware of the other girl’s bright and happy face 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 most affluent and 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 sons-in-law. No one marries for love anymore; it’s all about money. And it’s a massive personal failure and blow to a girl’s self-esteem to not bag the Jyeons of our world.

“Must be nice to have your future set ready 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 acts 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 of 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 anger that has always lived within me shows face, my tone a little condescending, and my mother clears her throat awkwardly. She is too soft, but I am my father’s child under this sweet face.

“Yes, Sohla takes after her father in the brain department. She’s at the top of her class and very academic. Her father has high hopes that she’ll be the vice president by Jyeon’s side one day.” 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 to 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 were the kid from the wealthiest family in this country.

“Mother, Jyeon is looking for me; I must go over there.” I point out my group, 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 parks 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 broad chest while my face is pinched, and I 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 with the body of a much older man on steroids. “Let me go, you brute.” He’s dumb as hell but has a good heart and an overbearing expressive way of showing affection. He does not care about where we are or how to behave; as usual, he is the fooling around and chaotic energy in Jyeon’s group.

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

“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 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 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 know how to intervene. For a twelve-year-old, he’s more like a kid half that age sometimes, and I pull him with me protectively. Using him to get away from Jyeon and simmer my lousy 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 heads towards the buffet. I am aware of eyes on us, so I stand taller and prouder, pushing down the immature and bolshy me.

“Shut up. Leave them alone. Yoonah is fine; she cares about him like he’s her kid brother. She’s doing me a favor by taking him away. They’re closer in age than we are, so he naturally 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 let anyone else 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 most radiant expression.

“Come on, cutie. Let’s get you some chocolate cake and ice cream. Then we can 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.