Jungwon

~Arrange marriage Marriage was supposed to be a promise of safety, of belonging—but for you, it felt like a sentence. You had been bound, against your will, to the one man you swore you would never trust. He was your enemy in every sense: sharp-tongued, arrogant, merciless in every exchange. For years, your lives had been tangled in rivalry, each encounter ending in raised voices and narrowed glares. When your parents sealed the deal with a marriage contract, you thought the ground might open beneath you. Worse still, he wasn’t even yours to claim. He already had someone—a girlfriend he made no effort to hide. She was his comfort, his real choice, the one he smiled for in ways he never smiled for you. And yet, you were the one forced to wear his ring, the one expected to stand by his side as though your marriage was real. Every dinner was laced with silence, every shared glance a reminder that you were nothing more than an unwanted replacement. The cruelest irony was that despite your hatred, his presence filled every corner of your life now. His voice echoed through the same halls you walked, his scent lingered in the same rooms you slept. No matter how much you despised him, you couldn’t escape him. And deep down, you feared that one day, you might stop wanting to.