I smiled at her to be polite, but inside was a mixture of fear and rebellion, fury.

She knew damn well it wasn't my decision to come here. 

"Come sit with us, sweetie." A ruby red nail beckoned me towards the two couches facing each other in the middle of the room.

I approached and sat down facing the two, a stoic brunette male with peppered hair and a blank stare behind round glasses, and a sophisticated, younger-looking woman with an air of elegance and pride. She smiled, and it seemed familiar.

The man's eyes, glaring me down with a mix of curiosity and disinterest, were a familiar aspect, too.

Watching both of them from the opposite couch, I finally pieced everything together.

"Our son has told us a lot about you, Hana," The woman chimed, and I recognized the tone in her voice as she sneered at me, her eyes contrasting the facade of her smile with a gaze of hatred. 

"Felix," I provided, beginning to notice the similarities. Mrs. Lee's voice was like his, but was tinted with manipulation, he must have gotten his smile from her, but it wasn't cunning and sly. I could see that his large, expressive brown eyes were from his father, but Mr. Lee, watching my every move, was stoic and emotionless beside his wife.

Felix was everything but nothing like them.

"Did he tell you much about me, Mrs. Lee?" I questioned directly, feeling bold under the dancing shimmers of the crystal chandelier, which made Mrs. Lee's eyes sparkle as she answered.

"Yes, he's told us very much about you." Her smile dropped with her polite facade as she sat back, glaring at me. "Too much."

I raised an eyebrow in question.

"He's told us that he..." Mrs. Lee paused, looking over to her husband, which prompted a disappointed shake of his head. She took a deep breath and sighed before turning back to me, giving me a once-over before spitting with disgust, "...𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶."

Frankly, I felt offended by the way that entire sentence played out. But as she furrowed her brows, feigning pity as she shook her head at me, I realized that that was probably what she was going for.

I ignored it, politely folding my hands in my lap and giving a forced smile. "He told me this as well, and the feeling is mutual—"

"𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 is a distraction," She interrupted, taking a glass of champagne from the coffee table between us and bringing it to her lips. After taking a sip, she continued, "He's a boy, he doesn't quite know what he feels or wants yet... He wanted to intern at that... little radio station. And although his excitement was quite adorable," she held a hand over her heart before tearing it away and dropping the act of caring, "We wanted him to focus on his studies."

"But... you changed your mind?" I inquired, eyeing Mrs. Lee as she nodded with regret. 

"He begged and begged to work there for a summer, saying music and radio was his passion or something like that," she waved a hand dismissively. "So we compromised, right, honey?" She glanced at her husband, who had picked up the book he was reading before, too enveloped between the pages to do anything but nod absentmindedly.

As her husband turned the page, obviously bored by this whole situation, Mrs. Lee explained. "We told him that he could intern at the station if he focused on his academics, and although we wanted to send him back to Australia to attend a more prestigious academy," She sighed once again, "we settled on a school here in Korea, which he is now attending remotely.

"But Felix must have forgotten our agreement." Giving me another look as she ended her little vent of how much of a pain it was to let Felix follow his dreams, she scrunched her nose, raising a hand to circle the air in my direction, encompassing my whole being. "This is 𝘢𝘣𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘶𝘯𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦, right darling?"

"Yes, love," Mr. Lee droned, his eyes glued to the book as he was apparently forced to sit through his wife's lecture.

I wasn't sure if "Absolutely unacceptable" was referring to the recent development of my relationship with Felix, or my appearance. When Mrs. Lee, throwing me yet another look, muttered words with clearer context, I deducted that she was attacking the latter.

In other words, this bitch just called me ugly.

Biting my lip to stop myself from saying something I shouldn't, I took a deep breath and made an attempt to be respectful. 

"Mrs. Lee, as one of Felix's co-workers, he is doing incredibly well at the radio station, and I'm sure the same can be said about his studies. So with all due respect, I don't believe its necessary to—"

"Oh, sweetie, you don't get it, do you?" Interrupting me and tilting her head to look at me, Mrs. Lee smiled once again. 

"We don't want you near our son, darling."

I choked on air at those words, and the forced politeness in her tone did absolutely nothing to soften the blow. "E-Excuse me?"

Pointing a red-tipped finger in my direction and circling the air with it once again, she stated, "Whatever your relationship is with him, whatever you 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 you feel towards him, it's a distraction and we would like it dissolved."

"Dis... Dissolved?" I repeated, all instincts of being respectful gone. "You want me to 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦 my relationship with Felix?"

"Yes." Reaching down to take the glass of champagne again, she sipped at it daintily. "It's for his own good, he needs to focus on his academics so he can take over the family businesses."

Felix's words at the amusement park came to my mind, the sadness in his eyes and the disappointment in his voice. 

He had asked me to promise that I would never leave him, because this is what he was afraid of.

"Does Felix know what you're doing?" Did her husband even know? His legs were crossed as he sat beside his wife, drowning a book, maybe to distract himself from her ridiculous antics. Or did he not care — did neither of them care — about their son? 

"What?" Mrs. Lee blinked at me, the glass freezing mid air in front of her lips, playing dumb, innocent, and I repeated my question.

"Does Felix know you're threatening his friends '𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥'?" I fumed, trying desperately to control my voice.

Did they not care about what I had seen in his eyes that night, the desperation in his trembling voice when he asked me to stay by his side? "How many times have you done this to him...? How many times have you broken his heart '𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥'?!"

The noise made me flinch as Mrs. Lee aggressively set her glass down on the coffee table. "That's enough, Miss Young."

But I didn't back down. "He thinks it's something he's done," I pressed. "He thinks all of his friends hated him and left because of 𝘩𝘪𝘮." I glared into her eyes, her defiant gaze faltering and filling with regret for only a moment as she processed my words. "...But it was all because of 𝘺𝘰𝘶, wasn't it?"

Her hand slammed down on the coffee table, making even Mr. Lee jump behind his book. Mrs. Lee's eyes shut tight, and she tried to control herself. "What is it that you want, Miss Young? Money?" She opened her eyes and glared back at me, the regret chased away and replaced with determination. "How much?"

"I don't want your money, " I spat. "I want you to care about your son, I want you to care about Felix's feelings, his passions—"

"It dosen't matter what you want," Mrs. Lee cut me off once again, her voice sharp. She was becoming exasperated with me. "Whether you want money or nothing at all, you 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 stay away from him."

She took a deep breath, calming herself, restoring her nonchalant facade.

"You'll stay away from Felix, or he will be sent back to Australia to attend the academy we originally wanted for him."

Mr. Lee placed a hand on her shoulder, acting without prompting for once from his controlling wife. But he didn't contradict her words, he said nothing. He didn't say a single thing to defend his son.

I was appalled. 

He stayed completely silent as his wife continued, "We would hate to tear Felix away from working at the station. It's what he really wanted, and we had a compromise. But that is what will be done if Felix continues to be distracted by his relationship with you and others around him."

I felt like I couldn't breathe, and my hands curled into fists as they rested on my lap. 

Mrs. Lee smiled again at my frustration, the manipulative sparkle coming back to her eyes, aided by the glitters thrown across us by the chandelier. 

"The decision rests on you, Miss Young. You wouldn't be so selfish as to choose your relationship with Felix over his dreams, would you?" She motioned to Agent Wang, who had been standing by the wall. He stepped forward away from the wall to approach us, and Mrs. Lee motioned towards me, a sign to take me back.

"I'll give you a while to think about it, Miss Young."