It was college summer break to Yoon Eunbi. She was so excited about the summer holiday because her elder sister Yoon Eunah is getting married. The wedding was arranged by the elders of the family. Yoon's family owns a famous dairy factory in South Korea therefore her parents arranged a marriage to Yoon Eunah with one of their business colleague's son, Lee Young Soo. Lee's family runs a star hotel business in South Korea.
The day before the wedding ceremony at Mr. Yoon's house:
Mr. Lee's family came to Mr. Yoon's residence to have dinner. When Mr. Lee's family reached at their future in-law's residence Mr. & Mrs. Yoon greeted them with a handshake.
While they walk into the house Mr. Lee asked, "May I know why are you so anxious, Mr. Yoon are you all right?"
"I'm fine thank you for your concern Mr. Lee. It's just the thoughts of the wedding are making me feel rather anxious." Mr. Yoon replied.
"As a parent I could understand your worries. However, please try to calm down because being anxious all the time is not good for your health. Also, the marriage will be held without any barriers, so please cheer up, and loosen up Mr. Yoon." Mr. Lee comforted him with a warm smile.
"Mrs. Yoon, where is Eunah?" Mrs. Lee suddenly asked as she sat down on the sofa in the living room.
"She is in her room," Mrs. Yoon replied and asked Eunbi to bring her elder sister to come and meet her future parents-in-law and fiancé.
Eunbi nodded her head and went to call her elder sister, Eunah. She knocked at her sister's room door and waited. "Eonni, are you there? Please open the door."
There was no reply from her, so she twisted the doorknob and entered in, "Eonni, what are you doing here? omma asked you to come and meet your future parents- in-law and fiancé-" she stopped informing and looked around the room. After not finding Eunah in her room she looked everywhere in the house but Eunah was nowhere to be found, and even Eunbi tried to contact her by her phone number but she couldn't reach her.
Eunbi was panic and went to inform it to her parents. The elders were discussing about the marriage ceremony in the living room when she walked in to tell her parents about Eunah's disappearance. At that moment, she was too scared to go to her father and tell him first, thus she went to her mother and stood behind her.
"Where is Eunah?" her mother asked her.
Eunbi leaned down next to her mother as she was sitting down on the sofa and whispered in her ear, "omma, I need to talk to you in private." her mother cleared her throat, "excuse me Mrs. Lee, I'll be right back in a few minutes."
Mrs. Lee nodded her head.
She took her mother to upstairs to Eunah's room. As soon as they entered Mrs. Yoon noticed that Eunah was not in her room. She asked Eunbi again with stern face, "Where is Eunah? Is she in the bathroom?"
"No, omma, eon… eonni ran away from the house."
"What?" she hits Eunbi's arm, "It's not the time for prank. Tell me, where is she now?"
"Omma, I'm not pranking," she said and picked up the folded paper from the study table, handed it over to her and asked her to read it."
Mrs. Yoon opened the letter and began to read it.
Dear Omma and Appa,
"I'm sorry to you guys, I had tried to say that I was not interested in this arranged matrimony. But I couldn't. I know parents have the rights to choose their child's life partner and you guys have always chosen everything best for me. But you guys had never asked me whether I was happy or not with what you had chosen for me. I had accepted it even though I didn't liked it it's because I had faith that you guys always chose only good for me. But I couldn't accept when it comes to marriage. It's my life and I'm the one should decide who my life partner is. Because I'm the one who is going to spend the rest of my life with that person as his wife. And the worst part is I don't like him at all and he is not my ideal type. I have dreams and desires of my marriage- I wanted to date a guy, fall in love with him, and understand his character before getting married. But how could I marry a guy when I don't even know anything about his character and who always runs after money and business? I think you guys have arranged this marriage because of business. I have no idea how to stop and escape from this marriage hence I decided to run away. I am really sorry Mr. Lee Young-soo I never had a chance to express my decision to you about this marriage, and please marry a woman who truly loves you.
I am extremely sorry again, omma, appa. Take care of your health. Please don't try to find me and don't worry about me I can take care of myself."
With love,
Yoon Eunah
"How could she do this to us?" Mrs. Yoon shouted repeatedly as tears welled up in her eyes and it spilled down her cheeks, "how could she do this to us? How could she do this to us?"
Her shout drew Mr. Yoon and the guests' attention. Therefore, they rushed upstairs worriedly.
Eunbi hugged her mother to console her, thought that it will calm her down but it didn't work, because it was a great humiliation for a parents which Eunbi couldn't able to understand that from their point of view.
"What's wrong with you, why are you shouting?" Mr. Yoon asked.
Mrs. Yoon showed the letter to him.
After reading the letter, Mr. Yoon slapped his forehead and sat down on the bed lifelessly. "How could she do this to us? Where did she learn it to do like this? How could she think that we arranged this marriage for business purposes? Only parents know what is good and bad for their children. Are there any parents in this world who try to spoil their child's life? Why did she decide to ran-away? Tomorrow is the wedding ceremony- I don't know how I am going to tell this to the invited guest that the marriage was called-off because the bride ran-away on the day before the wedding ceremony. Did she know how I dreamed about her wedding? I had planned her wedding to be one of the best in my friends and family circles, for that I had invested lots of money for the wedding preparations. Money is not a problem as money comes and goes but once we lose our self-esteem, and pride in front of other people it is very hard to regain it." He burst out emotionally to his wife and held her hands, "honey, let's assume that she was dead and forget everything about her from this moment."
Mrs. Yoon shoved his hands hardly and gave him a fierce glare, "Don't you have a conscience? She is our daughter how could you say this to me?"
"Yes, I have which is why I'm regretting it at this moment to have her as my daughter. I will not forgive her for being such a selfish girl. When she doesn't care about us then why should we care about her? From now on, our only daughter is Eunbi so let's stop worrying about her and move on." Mr. Yoon said sternly.
The situation became worse Eunbi and her mother never thought that Mr. Yoon would say such words. How it will be possible for a mother to assume her child is dead when her child is still alive. As a mother, she needs her child and as a wife she needs her husband too. Eun-bi consoled her mother, "omma, stop crying stay strong don't take appa's words seriously everything will pass away, he's fly off the handle."
"We are extremely sorry Mr. and Mrs. Lee; it's our mistake to not being a strict parent to that selfish girl. We gave her lots of space which is why she took advantage of us or else she should have respected our words and desires, and she would have not failed to do her duty as an obedient daughter to her parents." Mr. Yoon held Mr. Lee's hands, "I'm extremely sorry for pushing you in such an embarrassing situation. Please help me Mr. Lee I don't have the courage to tell the invited guests that the wedding has been called off because of my daughter."
Mr. Lee tried to console Mr. Yoon but he was also worried and disappointed as him.
Everybody in the room was immersing with pool of emotions except Young-soo. He used this opportunity to express his thoughts to the elders and of course he has full rights because he's the main victim of the run-away bride. "I request all of you to stop worrying because worries never solved anything there is a solution to each and every problem. I have an idea hope it will save both of our family's pride and our self esteem. Please don't call off the wedding. This wedding will be held tomorrow but, not with Yoon Eunah." He passed for a few seconds as everybody looked at him with bewilderment. He cleared his throat, took a deep breath and without any hesitation he boldly asked, "Mr. Yoon, may I marry your younger daughter, Yoon Eunbi? Trust me, Mr. and Mrs. Yoon, I promise you that I will take good care of your daughter."
Eunbi was agitated with Young-soo's idea.
"We trust you, Young-soo. But my question is how it could be possible because we are not doing a secret wedding. We have invited all of our friends and families to the wedding. We have to answer the invited guest about the reason why the bride was changed. How would you deal with that? Moreover, it is very tough to make the changes in a very short period. The wedding is not one day party it's your future too." Mr. Yoon explained.
"Yes Young-soo what Mr. Yoon said is right, marriage is not like a business to make changes immediately by implementing plan B as soon as the plan A fails. Don't rush in such things, it's your life, please try to understand, my son." His father explained.
"I know the value of the marriage, dad, as well as the value of the pain when the marriage has not gone through as it was planned. I'm damn serious it is possible to hold the wedding tomorrow with a few changes."
Young-soo's mother joined the conversation and asked him, "Can you please tell us how it will be possible, son?"
"Mom, we can hide the truth about Eunah, and tell some fake story to the invited guests."
His father crooked his eyebrows, "Fake story about what?"
"Yes, dad a fake love story in between me and Eunbi," without wasting the time he started explaining the story in brief with a flow- "My parents planned an arranged marriage to me with Yoon Eunah. But they don't know about me and Eunbi were secretly in a love relationship for more than a years. Even Eunah, doesn't know about us. I accepted for the engagement because we don't have guts to express about our love relationship to our parents. Therefore, we decided to break-up. However, after the broke-up we don't know how to avoid meeting each-other in some certain crucial situations like when it comes to a family meeting or get-together. It made both of us to push into awkward situations. When the wedding day came closer and nearer it became more awkward than before. To make an end to the awkwardness finally two days before the wedding we decided to discuss about our love relationship to, Yoon Eunah. After hearing about our matter she promised to help us to discuss about this matter to our parents. She convinced both of our parents. After getting the approval from our parents we told the elders that we are willing to marry each-other. They nodded their heads and accepted to tie the knot on the same date of the wedding which had been planned for me and Yoon Eunah."
After finish narrating the story he asked the elders, "now tell me, it is possible or not?"
"I think it'll work but before that you wanted to know about Eunbi's decision? Without knowing her decision you can't manage anything," Mr. Lee said.
Young-soo walked near to Eunbi, held her right hand with his, knelt down in front of her, looked straight into her eyes and boldly proposed her without any hesitation. "Yoon Eunbi, would you agree to be my wife?"