She quickly ran back outside to her brothers and the repossessors. "I'll have the money. I'll have it tonight!", she said drawing a skeptical look from all those around her. "You will?", Jin questioned. "How?" Ae-Cha waved him off before continuing. "Give me 4 hours." They exchanged looks before the man in front of her spoke. "I'll give you 3. I don’t know how you expect to get it, but that’s all the time I can give you." Ae-Cha nodded.
"Ae-Cha. Tell me how your-", Jin started before she took off.
She knew that if she told Jin, there would be absolutely no way he'd let her go. He'd be against it completely. She ran out of their view before quickly dialing the number on the card. She didn’t want Jin to overhear their shameful conversation or anyone for that matter. She grew nervous as the ringing continued before someone answered, causing her heart to nearly stop.
"Hello. S. Sly Enterprises. May I ask who's speaking?"
Ae-Cha didn’t know if she should give her name out or how this was supposed to work. It'd been easier if he'd just given her his personal number, but she'd guessed he'd only gave it to people who did business with him on a more personal level or something. "I-I need to speak to Seung.", she replied before she heard the typing of computer keys. "He appears to be in a meeting at this moment. Would you like me to leave a messa-"
Ae-Cha hung up. She didn’t have time to wait for him to get back to her. She needed to speak with him right now. She looked back down at the card and decided she'd have to go to the address displayed at the bottom. She looked to the street, seeing a bus coming before quickly running towards it. She ran as fast as she could, but the bus was faster than she was. She stumbled over her feet, falling, but getting back up, screaming for the bus to stop, which it did.
The doors to the bus opened, letting her on. "Thank you.", she said before searching through her purse as the bus continued on. She couldn’t believe it. She must have dropped her bus card and not only that, if she did have her bus card, she had no money on her. Her heart was beating furiously in her chest. What was she supposed to do?
"It’s alright.", the bus driver told her.
He must have picked up on her trouble. "Just take a seat." Ae-Cha quickly thanked him as she was grateful. She continued looking down at the black card in her hand. Her dignity was really about to be thrown out the door, stepped on and shredded. But, she had to do what one had.
When the bus pulled to the nearest bus stop to the place, Ae-Cha shot off of the bus, thanking the bus driver in the process. She ran up the street before coming to stand in front of a big building, the word "S. Sly Enterprises" stamped onto the front. The building looked just as nice as the card and apon walking inside, she realized it looked better than the outside.
Spotting the attendant in front of an expensive looking laptop and on the phone, she quickly ran up to her. The attendant made eye contact with her before holding up a finger, signaling for her to wait. "Alright. I'll let him know." She then hung up the phone before turning to face Fantasy. "Can I help you?" she asked, eyeing Ae-Cha's state.
She could tell she was a mess. Her pants dirtied up from her earlier fall and her eyes reddened from her tears. "I need to speak to Seung." The attendant nodded before replying. "He's in a meeting right now. He won't be finished for a couple of hours or so-"
"Please. I need to talk to him right now. Please", she interrupted.
"Ma'am. There's nothing I can do. You'll have to wai-"
"Please, let me speak to Seung! Just let me speak to him!"
The lady was tempted to call security before Ae-Cha spoke once again. "I have to speak with him! My family is on the line! If I don’t speak with him..", she dropped to her knees in tears, causing the attendant to sympathize with her. "I can't let this happen.", she said barely above a whisper, but the lady at the desk could still hear every word. "My brothers.. My mother.. Why is this all happening to us?"
The attendant stared at the sobbing girl on the ground. She had to be going through something intense. She knew she couldn’t turn her away. She calmly picked up the phone before dialing Seung's extension. She knew that it was strictly against rules to interrupt a business meeting, but she supposed that this one time would be considered urgent.
"Yes sir. There's someone here to see you."
Ae-Cha's head snapped up at her. "It's urgent. I-Yes, sir. I'll send her up right away." The lady once again looked at Ae-Cha before giving her a gentle smile. "He'll see you now.", she said causing name to thank her. "Just go down that hallway,", she pointed to her right. "There should be an elevator to the left. Take it up to the 7th floor and go to the 5th room on your right. There you'll see Mr. Sly's office where the meeting was being held."
Ae-Cha nodded, memorizing everything she was told before looking at the employees name tag. "Thank you so much, Hana!", she said before quickly heading off in the direction of the elevator. When she made it to the 7th floor, she turned to the right and walked down to the 5th door before seeing men and women dressed in suits filing out of the room.
She looked to all of them before her eyes finally landed on the man she needed to see. He was leaning against his desk, arms folded and an eyebrow raised. "Yes?", he said, looking her over. Ae-Cha stared at him a little longer before taking a deep breath and walking up to him. "I..", she started.
Seung let a smirk grace his lips as he looked down at her. It seemed as though he already knew what she was going to say. Ae-Cha put her pride and her urge to just walk out aside. She had to do this. "I.. I'm.. ready..", she said, looking him in the eyes. "Oh?", he replied. "and may I ask what made you come to this decision?" He was going to juice it for all it was worth.
Ae-Cha's heart was beating wildly. She didn’t want to do this. She wanted to run away, but.. "Repossessors came.. They want to take the house from us.." She had to hold back her tears. "My mother wouldn’t be able to survive this..", she continued. Seung remained looking at her. "How much do you need?", he questioned.
"It's $160,000 for the house, but I'm sure if I can just get half..", she trailed off.
She put her head down. She hated asking for money. This was more than he had even offered. She wanted so badly to cry. After this man was done with her, he was going to toss her aside and look at her as just another whore. No doubt she would look at herself that way. The feeling was eating away at her. Her heart seemed to be arguing with her brain, but she knew what was going to be done in the end.
"Alright.", he said.
Ae-Cha looked up to see his face only centimeters away. She barely had time to think before he landed a kiss on her lips. She began to panic as he let his hands grip her waist. She quickly removed his hands and began backing up. "W-wait. Right here?" Seung looked her in the eyes. "Of course. Where else?", he said before advancing on her. "Wait-", she tried as Seung backed her up to the wall.
She couldn’t speak as he reclaimed her lips, allowing his right hand to slip up her shirt. She wanted to scream as she tightly closed her eyes. This didn’t feel right. This was so wrong. But, before she knew it, she no longer felt his warmth. It disappeared and she began to hear a chuckle. Slowly reopening her eyes, she saw him looking down at her with a smirk once again. She stared back at him confused.
"You were really going to go through with this.", he said.
All she could do was stare at him in confusion. "You don’t have to offer me your body for the money.", he continued. "I have a better proposition." Ae-Cha, still trying to calm down from the situation, questioned, "What do you mean?" She was somewhat relieved that she wouldn’t be sleeping with Seung, but then somewhat skeptical of what else he could have wanted from her.
"Marriage."
Ae-Cha furrowed her eyebrows together. "Marriage?" Seung nodded. "Marry Me." She knew he had to be messing with her, now. She had to repeat his offer to be sure she heard right. "You want me to marry you?" Seung nodded again. "It seems as though you really like for me to repeat myself." Even at the hospital she'd made him repeat himself.
Ae-Cha gave him a look of skepticism. "But, you barely even know me." This was so much to take in. Why was he this way? Seung never took his eyes off of her. "I'm not marrying you for love. Think of it as a business deal." How could she think of something like this as a business deal? "You said half of 160k. I'll give you triple. 480, but lets cut it a clean 500." Her mouth nearly dropped at his offer. "That should take care of the house and the medical bills for the time being."
She didn’t know what to say. She was speechless. 500 thousand? For marrying Seung? But, why when he could have anybody else and was she really ready to give her hand to someone she barely knew? She honestly didn’t know what to say.
Seung stared back at her quiet form. "Do we have a deal?" It wasn’t really hard to just say yes or no. Ae-Cha kept eye contact with him for a little bit longer before speaking. "Okay.." She had no other choice.
"You're to move in by Friday."
"What?!", Ae-Cha exclaimed.
She was torn up inside. This was all so sudden and happening so fast. "You don’t expect us to be separated if we’re married, do you?" Ae-Cha shook her head. "But.." Seung lifted her chin. "For it to be convincing, you'll have to move in." Who was he trying to convince and why? Ae-Cha didn’t know what to do or say. This was all so strange, but she couldn’t just downright refuse him. She needed the money. If this was a dream, she wanted to wake up right, now..

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