CHAPTER 5

My breath clouded as it left my lips. Even my thick coat couldn't protect me from China's winter. Snow crunched under my boots as I followed mother along the pavement toward the brick building, which harbored the most luxurious wedding store in the west. Chan trailed closely behind, my constant shadow. Another of my father's soldiers made up the rear, behind my sisters.

Revolving brass doors let us into the brightly lit inside of the store and the owner and her two assistants immediately greeted us. "Happy birthday, little one," she said in her lilting voice.

I forced a smile. My eighteenth birthday was supposed to be a day of celebration. Instead, it only meant I was another step closer to marrying Jungkook. I hadn't seen him since that night. He'd sent me expensive jewelry for my birthdays, Christmas holidays, Valentine's days, and the anniversary of our engagement but that was the extent of our contact in the last thirty months. I'd seen photos of him with other women on the internet, but even that would stop today when our engagement would be leaked to the press. At least in public, he wouldn't flaunt his whores anymore.

But as long as he had other women to screw, he'd hopefully not think about me in that way.

"Only six months until your wedding if I'm correctly informed?" the shop owner piped. She was the only person who looked excited. No surprise really, she would make a lot of money today. The wedding that marked the final union of The two mafia was supposed to be a splendid affair. Money was irrelevant.

. 166 days until I'll be his forever. Eunji gave me a look that made it clear what she thought of the matter, but she kept her mouth shut. At sixteen and a half, she had finally learned to reign in her outbursts, mostly.

The shop owner led us into the fitting room, Chan and the other man stayed outside the drawn curtains. Lisa and Eunji plopped down on the plush white couch while Mother began browsing the wedding gowns on display. I stood in the middle of the room. I'd be a married woman soon. 

I could feel the eyes of the shop owner and her assistants on me and squared my shoulders before I joined my mother., the shop owner approached us and showed us her most expensive gowns.

"What kind of gown would your future husband prefer?" she asked pleasantly.

"The naked kind," Eunji said, and my mother shot her a glare. I flushed, but the shop owner laughed as if it was all too delightful.

"i bet?" She winked.

 Jungkook was as much as a stranger to me today as he had been almost three years ago.

***

The wedding would be held in the vast gardens of the Bangtan mansion in Italy. Everyone was already abuzz with the preparations. I hadn't set foot into the house or even the premises yet, but my mother kept me up-to-date, not that I'd asked her to.

The moment my family arrived in Italy a few hours ago, my sisters and I huddled together in our suite in the  Hotel in Milan. Jungkook's father had suggested we live in one of the many rooms in the mansion until the wedding in five days, but my father had declined. Three years of cooperation and they still didn't trust each other. I was glad. I didn't want to set foot into the mansion until I had to.

Father had agreed to let me share a suite with Lisa and Eunji, so he and mother had a suite for themselves. Of course, a bodyguard was stationed in front of every one of the three doors to our suite.

"Do we really have to attend the bridal shower tomorrow?" Lisa asked, her bare legs swinging over the backrest of the sofa. While Eunji provokes byher words, Lisa used her body for that. She'd turned fourteen in April, a child that used her tentative curves to get a rise out of everyone around us. She looked like a teen model

It worried me. I knew it was her way of rebelling against the gilded cage that was our life, but while Father's soldiers regarded her flirting with amusement, there were others out there that would love to misunderstand it.

"Of course, we have to," Eunji muttered. "Ru is the happy bride, remember?"

Lisa snorted. "Sure." She sat up abruptly. "I'm bored. Let's go shopping."

Chan wasn't enthused about the suggestion, even with another of my father's bodyguards at his side, he claimed it was almost impossible to keep us under control. Eventually, he relented as he always did.

***

We were shopping in a store that sold "seXy outfits" that Lisa desperately wanted to try on when I got a message from Jungkook. It was the first time he'd contacted me directly and for a long time, I could only stare at my screen. Eunji peered over my shoulder in the dressing room.

 "'Meet me at your hotel at six.- Jungkook.

' How nice of him to ask."