My Perfect Lady

Though grudgingly, she obliged.

Jim took in a deep breath.

"Miya," he then said calmly, "Breathe."

She looked up at him nonsensically. When Jim gave her a stern look, she began to take in slow, deep breaths.

"Now," he began again, this time wishing for patience, "Tell me why you think that the stake of my deal is Hunter Corporation."

This took her off guard. She hadn"t expected him to ask her that. Nevertheless, shrugging, she replied:

"It"s just an a.s.sumption. Earlier, I thought maybe it was rich people"s way of working, interfering in others" personal stuff. But then, I remembered that a few months back, it was in the papers that the Chairman of Hunter Corporation might be considering retirement. If he was, then you"d succeed, but after you, there"s no one in line. The dots connect, it made sense. Without making your breed look senseless, of course. So I a.s.sumed your father…"

Jim raised a brow in question.

"My breed?"

"Eh. Rich blokes, I mean."

Jim gave her an exasperated sigh. But he couldn"t help but be slightly impressed. For the umpteenth time, he realized she was smart.

"Well done, Miya," he said in a congratulatory tone, "Really. You have almost half the situation figured out."

Miya grinned at the praise. Then a confused look pa.s.sed on her face, and she looked at him intently. Jimmy immediately recognized her indecision.

"What is it? You don"t have to hesitate." He said rea.s.suringly.

"Well… it"s just, you know, kind of a personal question."

He was interested.

"Go ahead."

"Um, how do you feel about it? Marrying someone you don"t know anything about? I mean, doesn"t it scare you a bit?"

And then, Jim was instantly mischievous.

"When the package is this pretty," he smirked, "what do you have to be afraid of, my dear?"

Miya"s jaw dropped. This guy wasn"t taking her seriously, at all!

"Would you stop talking like that!" she said flabbergasted, and Jim smiled despite himself.

"On a serious note though, what do you want to know about me?"

Miya fell silent. Could she just say the truth?

Jim read her quiet too. Why was she so hesitant right now?

"Speak your mind, woman. You don"t know how to hold back anyway."

She rolled her eyes at that.

"I just… it"s just that, it"s not you. I mean… Okay, the truth is, I don"t care. I mean I know you"re not a bad person, but I really am not interested in finding out more about you. But I"m not the one who needs to get married here. For you, it should be different. I"m just saying, it makes me uncomfortable that you don"t care whom you marry. For all you know, I could be a murderer!"

…Aren"t you one already?

Jim sighed.

"Miya… is that better, or worse than being a thug?"

Her face dropped.

��I am not a thug! And for the record, being a murderer is way worse."

"Is that from experience?"

"You…!"

She had half a mind to stuff the pillow behind him in his face, but the young master raised his hands in apology.

"Okay, okay. I"m sorry. But if you"re not a thug, then who were those people that we fought off?"

Miya sulked.

"Just a bunch of people who didn"t like me. And I"m not a thug, okay?"

"Hm. People who shoot people they don"t like? If I may ask, why didn"t they like you?"

"I won"t tell."

"Of course."

"I would have, but then you branded me a thug."

"Aw, come on. I"m sorry. Besides, we"re best friends! Tell me."

"I don"t want to. And you"re not my best friend. You"re mean."

Surprisingly, the words hurt Jim.

"You really think so?" he asked her with concern. Miya couldn"t bring herself to say anything nasty to him just out of pure spite.

"Of course not," she snapped, irritated though, "If you were, I wouldn���t be talking to you."

Jim smiled satisfactorily.

A minute of silence pervaded between them, and Jim watched her carefully. Thankfully, she had got her wounds bandaged. But she was still in the same ragged clothes. After the events of the day, she looked tired and weak, and all colour seemed to have drained from her already pale face. It hadn"t crossed his mind before, but it looked like the lady hadn"t rested for even a second.

He sighed.

"Miya," he said softly, "Do you want to lie down?"

And she was immediately on alert.

"Why?" she said with a positively horrified face, "Why do you want me to lie down?"

Jim slapped himself thrice internally.

"I-I meant you should rest a bit, you look all beat up!"

She frowned, suspicious, but didn"t say anything.

"Why do you have to get married before midnight?" she blurted out suddenly, and it took Jim by surprise. He then shrugged nonchalantly.

"It"s the condition. Married before I turn 31."

"Oh."

Miya fell into thought.

She gave Jim a close look. She had agreed to sign the papers, yes, but she still couldn"t believe that all of this was happening. Part of her was convinced it wasn"t a big deal. Part of her knew that her life was no more going to be under her control.

"I don"t want to live with you," she said mournfully, almost as if she were a nerdy child who had been expelled, "It just –"

"Miya," Jim said calmly, amused by her unhappy face, "You won"t. I promise. It"s the same house, but it"s never a surety that anybody would meet anybody else there. You could be at one corner of the Hunter manor your entire life, and n.o.body would ever know. Unless you want them too, of course."

His words gave her hope.

"Really?"

"Yeah. And I swear I"m not even home most times. And I have so much backlog of work from the past month… Don"t worry, I won"t b.u.t.t into your business whatsoever. You promise me the same though?"

Miya was doubtful that such a house really existed, but nonetheless she gave him a half-smile.

"Alright," she promised, and her heart was at peace.

As long as she didn"t have to deal with these upper cla.s.s people everyday for the next one year, she was almost sure she could pull it off. It would be like changing apartments. And she needed to change hers anyway, now that the police had found their way through.

She told herself it would be okay.

"Miya?"

"Yes?"

"Will you sign the papers now?"

She looked at him fixedly, at his nervous expression that he was fighting to conceal, and slowly nodded a yes.

Jim almost danced.

Ten minutes later, the room was filled with three more people. One was Mr. Park, second the short guy from before, and third, a tall, thin man of almost Jim"s height and build. Their presence felt dominating to Miya, and she averted her eyes. Jim welcomed them in.

"This," he began, looking towards the shorter man, "Is Thomas. He"s the registrar, so we"ll be able to register the marriage. This," Jim looked at Park, ��as you know, is my butler Mr. Byeong Park. And that," he turned to the new guy, "is my friend Hartley."

"Best friend, Jimmy, best friend," Hartley chuckled.

"Whatever," Jim replied.

Miya looked at this new blonde guy with interest. It seemed as if she had seen him somewhere before. That lazy, casual smile he had…

"And this, people," Jim called out again, this time pointing at Miya, "Is the bride-to-be! Miya."

Miya immediately turned red at his words. She had the instant urge to punch this Hunter in the face too. Could he not have made a normal introduction? Bride-to-be, her a.s.s!

She gave everyone a tight smile. Hartley checked her out shamelessly, and when he was satisfied that she fit their "perfect" bride plan, he winked at Jimmy. Jimmy obviously was rude enough to ignore him.

Hartley, however, was the first to move among them all. With an outstretched hand, he walked towards Miya.

"Well, h.e.l.lo there, gorgeous young lady –"

And suddenly, he froze. Miya shot him such a filthy glare, Hartley was dumbstruck. He forgot what he was saying, while Miya greeted rather angrily, "h.e.l.lo." She barely touched his hand while shaking them, and then resolutely looked away.

She did not like such blatant liars.

Hartley, on the other hand, walked back and stood silently in a corner, disoriented. Jim let out a silent laugh.

When the doc.u.ments were ready, and everyone was hovering over the bride and the groom, the procedure began to take place. Miya signed a separate agreement with Jimmy Hunter first, one that stated the terms of their one year marriage, her compensation and the following divorce. Jimmy then gave her the receipt of the 50,000 dollars that he had deposited in her bank account. Miya was surprised at this, for she had completely forgotten about that conversation where she had claimed to run away with his money. She shrugged uncomfortably.

When the preliminary contracts were formed, it was the turn of the marriage registration. Jim signed the paper without even a second of hesitation. When he handed it over to Miya though, she faltered.

Did she really want to get into this?

"He saved your child"s life," her internal voice was back again, "He saved yours too. He took a bullet for a stranger, woman. If you don"t do this, how would you ever return that kind of favour?"

Miya sighed resignedly. She couldn"t argue with that.

Then shutting all her thoughts for two seconds, she signed the sheet.

And just like that, she had turned into a married woman.

A loud cheer echoed in the corner where Hartley stood, as he came bouncing to Jim and gave him a bear hug, almost falling over Miya in the process.

"It"s 11:55, bro!" he cried out, "You made it, Jimmy! Oh f***ing h.e.l.l, you made it!"

Jim couldn"t control his smile. The relief that ran through his veins was like marijuana hitting him hard. He returned Hartley"s embrace.

Then Mr. Park"s cool voice broke through the cheer, and he scolded, "Get your lazy step back here, young man!" He was looking at Hartley, "We still need your signatures, you"re the second witness! I already did mine."

Hartley bit his tongue and then rushed to sign the paper. On the side, someone talked about getting Miya"s doc.u.ments completed and pa.s.sport updated, and the cheer carried on.

Miya sat in the midst of it all, completely drained of energy. Her attention only drew back when she heard the clock strike midnight.

She looked at Jimmy, lying before her, with a satisfied smile on his face. He looked peaceful.

"Happy Birthday," she said quietly.

Jim had been feeling almost intoxicated from relief, when her quiet voice took him by surprise. He got up, and moved closer.

"What?"

"I said, Happy Birthday."

It seemed like hours.

Jim stared at her for a long time. Her black eyes seemed so entrancing, he was bewitched. A deep feeling stirred in his belly, discomforting him, but he kept it at bay and dipped his head, motioning her to come nearer.

Miya wondered what the young master needed now. She got up and leaned in towards him, when Jim caught her hand. He pushed forward slightly, and then slanted his head to plant a kiss on her left cheek.

"Thank you," he said, suddenly out of breath.

She froze.

Behind her, a loud cheer erupted. The gang was elated as they shouted:

"Happy Birthday!"

The fateful day had finally come to an end.