To Love and To Be Loved

Blurb

A dysfunctional arranged marriage founded on the grounds of friendship, business, and love. What happens when the love is regrettably one-sided, and infidelity comes crashing the complicated and miserable whole ordeal of a narrative?

Prologue

Kim Eunae had lived her whole life with Jung Jaehyun, her best friend whom she had always fought the world with. They had known each other since they were little, and from then on, had become each other's rock.

There were a series of ups and downs along the way to maturity. A couple of crestfallen setbacks that broke them almost irreparably, and a hundred more unforgettable breakthroughs—every single of which successfully molded them into the person they had become.

It was not long enough when she found herself falling in love with him, silently admiring him from a distance. And with all the things that the world had thrown at them, nothing could seemingly break what they had, until a marriage proposition wreaked havoc in their lives and turned their worlds upside down.

The twists and turns of how her world turned inside out left her in deep shambles and desperately grasping on the very thin thread of life. The fairy tale she had always dreamt of living just seemingly turned into the most horrifying nightmare she was never prepared to battle.

And the same person, whom she had always thought would save her unexpectedly became the lone monster she never knew she had to battle.

Suddenly, Eunae was left to choose between to love or to be loved.

Chapter01

[TW]: mention of mental disorders/illness

"Eunae, come on now, you turtle head. We're going to be late!"

"Oh crap! Wait! Hey—I said wait!"

It was 6:30 AM.

The dazzling sun was just barely painting the whole horizon of the above and coloring the lives of the awake, yet here they were, already sprinting to the bus stop with heavy bags slung around their shoulders and sweating with disheveled hairs.

Their short lower limbs desperate to take bigger steps than what their feet could ever feasibly make. Their lungs loudly howling to get a snag of air to fill their close to empty air sacs.

This was the normal routine Eunae and Jaehyun had ever since they entered high school. Jaehyun, her best friend, would always drop by her house to fetch her just so they could go to school together. He would cross pavements after pavements, roads after roads, brave the unpredictable weather be it a pouring rain or a scorching heat of the sun. Jaehyun would go in great lengths to reach her house, and most of the time, he would be even early enough to catch her fumbling on her uniform.

This had been part of his routine ever since her father walked out of her life four years ago.

The pillar of her household and the man whom she had always looked up to had an explicit affair with his colleague, leaving Eunae and her mother hanging up in the air with broken hearts and broken dreams.

Bringing with him all their family fortunes, he coldly turned his back on them as they helplessly grasped on the very thin thread of life, wondering how they could even possibly continue on living with nothing but a roof above their heads.

Devastated was an understatement on what Eunae felt upon hearing the news directly from her mother, who came home with a tear streaked face on a cold rainy night.