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━━━  " 📂 " ‍..⃗. ༉

𝙍 𝙊 𝙈 𝘼 𝙉 𝘾 𝙄 𝙉 𝙂

! chapter fifty-five ─── ʚĭɞ

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"Hwang Miyeon." As soon as the girl pushed the front door open she jumped out of her skin, looking up to see her mother and father stood under the archway that seperated the kitchen from the living room.

It was the first time she had properly seen them together, and she froze in her footsteps. She had barely seen her father at all, and her mother had been gone for days on end as usual.

Standing up straight, Miyeon gulped, thinking that it was most likely about her grades - but what exactly, she'd did really well. But taking in the appearance of her parents, her father in a new crisp suit and her mother in a pink pencil skirt, blouse and a coat hanging over her shoulders, Miyeon began to form an idea of why exactly why they were waiting there.

"Your father has a meeting with potential investors. I've had Eunjoo lay out an appropriate outfit. I need you back down here and looking presentable in fifteen minutes." Yujin instructed, watching as Miyeon struggled to quickly take her shoes off. ""Well hurry up then."

"I'm going.. I'm going." Miyeon hurried up the stairs and into her room, sighing when she saw the clothes. It wasn't exactly the type of clothing, but it was just together that you knew that the night was really important.

And the Hwang girl really didn't have any energy for it. Either way, she pulled the skirt on, the black shirt and the coat the matched the skirt, putting on the heeled boots and doing her makeup, ending up downstairs just in time.

"Good." Yujin looked her daughter up and down, before stepping forward so she was directly in front of her daughter, hiding her from her husband. Silently, Yujin rather harshly brushed her fingers through her daughter's hair. "You better be on your best behaviour, otherwise the rules will get worse."

Miyeon nodded, unable to do anything else as Yujin stepped away, taking the lead with Sangwon as they got into the car, Miyeon sitting silently in the back. It was like she wasn't even there, her present only physical and not at all active. Her parents acted as if she wasn't there, parking outside of the restaurant and barely saying a word to her as they walked in, greeting the people that they were meeting with.

"Nice to meet you, sir." Miyeon had her practically award-winning fake smile on as she greeted one of the men. "I'm sure you'll be glad to meet my mother, Yujin." She pulled her hand away from the man after shaking his, turning to look up at the woman behind her. "Mom?"

"Oh." Kwon Yujin stared down at her daughter, then glanced up at the man, who was watching the woman with a rather blank expression.

"Mom?"

"Oh.. yes, hello." Yujin stepped forward, greeting the man and following her husband to sit on one side of the table, Miyeon sitting down on the other side of Sangwon.

The dinner was full, and Miyeon was there purely for appearance only. People were more likely to invest if they thought the company was run by a happy family man. And she knew how much trouble she would be in if she didn't behave, and so she acted like a perfect daughter, dutifully answering questions.

"So, Miyeon, the previous dinner I met your father at you weren't there - how was your time in New York?" The man rather suddenly directed a question at Miyeon, and panicking slightly, the girl glanced over at her mother, whose eyes were conveying a rather simple message - don't fuck this up.

"It was a really nice experience.. I.. well it was a good place for healing and moving on." Miyeon cleared her throat, taking a sip of water and avoiding her mother's eyes.

"You see, a friend of hers passed away. You may have heard of him.." Miyeon squeezed her eyes shut, shutting out what the woman was saying. "Of course, I simply couldn't believe the news when I heard he had passed away."

"Miyeon, were you close to this boy?" Miyeon's eyes fluttered open once again, looking over to her parents to see how she should answer.

Her father was talking rather happily to the investor's wife, no idea about the conversation happening beside him. But it was her mother who was rather interesting. She was twirling a piece of hair around her finger, and had taken a drink of her wine, looking over at the investor as she wiped away the smudged lipstick.

"I.. well.. yes." Miyeon admitted, and Yujin's head snapped over to look at her. "In fact I was a close friend of his. And it's possibly because of my mother that he died."

She hadn't even needed to think properly about it, her mind putting the pieces together by itself. The days completely missing, the undone button, the shock on her face when she had seen the investor, and now this.

"Miyeon, what do you mean by that?" Yujin's tone was incredibly dangerous, an edge to it like that of a knife.

"Well mother, I mean exactly what I said." Miyeon stood up, her food only half finished. "I apologise for the intrusion." She wasn't talking to the investor, but rather his wife, who smiled up at her.

Something shuddered inside of her, and she felt awful for those sat beside them - her father and the wife of the man her mother was hearing on him with.

" Miyeon. Sit down." Yujin said, glaring up at her daughter, Sangwon and the wife watching in confusion.

"No, thank you." Miyeon replied, walking over to her mother and leaning down, lowering her voice to a whisper. "If you had any sense of decency you would stop what you're doing. You're a married woman. Don't forget that mother."

And with that, Miyeon stalked out of the restaurant, only making it a few streets away before the shuddering pain erupted again, and she moved to the side of the street, sinking down into a crouching position, clutching her legs.

Deep down, since she had seen that button, she had suspected it. But now that it was a reality, and she had no idea to deal with that.

But with that playing on her mind, Miyeon pulled her phone and tapped on a contact, moving it up to her ear and sighing as the person on the other end.

"Would you mind coming and picking me up? I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important."