Whisper Of Death

Chapter 1 | Something unexpected.

Hello angels! This is my second book on this platform and I can't wait for everyone to read this story! I am writing this ahead so I won't be overloaded with most of my stories! I am so excited for this story and I am so so so so not ready for everyone to read this... Please make sure to check my other story A Dark Secret out too and leave a comment!

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                                                                                      05/03/2020

Florence exhaled deeply before she lifted her head slightly up to peek over at the reaction of her best friend, Minjun. His expression was more than shocked. His eyebrows furrowed with the sad look in his eyes showed how devastated he was upon the news he was hearing. Florence wasn't surprised as he was. She did figure out that her father would have done something to just get rid of her. She was glad that it wasn't as worse as she would always have imagined. 

Minjun's eyes were widened as he looked at Florence. She could see that he was skeptical and she didn't blame him. Florence was that kind of a girl to always joke around with him. It was her way of ignoring the external pain that she was surrounded with... Minjun shook his head and laughed as he put his hand on the table, trying to laugh about her bad joke but his smile faded away as soon as his eyes landed upon hers who seem to be almost tearing up.

He was in disbelief.

"Are you serious?" Minjun asked in a low voice, still very confused. Florence couldn't bare to look at her best friend and looked down as she again, exhaled sharply to release the heaviness from her chest. She nodded her head slowly while she gazed at her hands that were slightly shaking out of fear. Every time she closed her eyes, she would think back of the day when her father told her that she was going to be married to someone who she didn't even know.

A total stranger.

                                                                        {FLASHBACK, 01/03/2020}

"Florence, good you are home."  Waylon said as he looked down at his daughter. Confused and a bit surprised Florence looked up to her father who seemingly showed interest in her whereabouts. Waylon made a gesture to Florence for her to sit down on the near couch that was placed right in front of him.

She was hesitant at first. Her father wasn't the caring person he always claimed to be in front of his family or friends. She never knew when this has changed and she never knew why. She was born in America and soon after that, she moved with her parents to South Korea for her father's business. Her mother... Her mother wasn't around anymore.

She did as her father indicated her to do and sat down on the couch. She awkwardly smiled at her father , hoping that he might have a soft reaction towards her but there was none. He stood up from his chair and  stood right front of her. She gulped down at the intense glare he gave her and she couldn't help but to feel anxious. 

"Florence, sometimes you have to do things that you don't like." Waylon started off his sentence and looked at her. She furrowed her eyebrows and confused listened to him, and tried making sense what he meant with his words. Waylon put his hands in his pockets as he let his shoulders rest. His lips parted as he let out a sigh. 

"But it is for the family and for me." He said, trying to get to her in a emotional way. She wasn't sure what to expect. Her father was very unpredictable. Her anxiety built up by each second when her father didn't speak but just glared at her as if she wasn't his own flesh and blood. She just waited for her father to explode the bombshell on her. 

"I want you to get married to Lee Jaemin." Her father said, making Florence gasp out of shock. She looked at him shocked and lifted her eyebrows up before shaking her head, showing her father that she didn't agree with this. She didn't wanted to get married to someone she didn't know. Marriage was already a big fear for Florence. The fact of being loved scared her but being married to someone she didn't know was worse for her. 

"I don't even know who he is. I can't get married to someone that I don't even know." Florence protested against this insane idea of her father. Her father scoffed as he shook his head and came a bit closer, making Florence gulp out of fear. 

"You are truly a brat. You have had everything from me. It is time that you should get married and make your own family." He said angrily as if Florence was a huge burden to him which she knew she was. His soft tone was now vanished as if the idea he introduced wasn't Florence's choice at all. 

She had no choice in this matter.

He would do what he liked to do. Even if that meant to marry her off to someone she would truly not like. He didn't care about her future nor her happiness. 

"Father..." Florence spoke out quietly, hoping that he would change his mind but her hopeful eyes quickly looked away when he deathly glared at her with his clenched jaw. He didn't even wait to for her to say something. He turned himself around, making his way towards the door so he could leave the room and walk towards his study room. 

Florence exhaled sharply, biting her underlip to prevent herself from crying. She couldn't imagine how her life was taking this kind of a U turn. 

"You are getting married on 6th of March. I will leave money on your desk and go find yourself a dress."  He said and walked away. Florence was still so shocked that she barely knew how she wanted to react to this new form of torture. 

She didn't even had time to realise or make the choice of marriage. Her father made that choice for her as if it wasn't her life or right to live. The wedding was already this week. She couldn't even have time to process all of this, making come to accept it somehow.

She breathed out as she silently started to cry. She looked up, wishing that her mother could have been still alive. Her mother would never allow this to happen. She would never let Florence to get married to someone she didn't know.

'I wish my mother was here...' Florence thought, not even daring to mention her. If her father would have heard her, it would have been the last of her. She couldn't do that. Her father would have lost his senses and hurt her again like he did last time when she mentioned her mother.

                                                                          {END OF FLASHBACK}

"He can't do this to you." Minjun clenched his teeth as he started to get tensed up. He shook his head frantically as he held onto her hand gently. Florence shrugged her shoulders as she stared at her best friend, someone she would always rely on, someone she would always call a brother, her family. 

"He surely can and that's why he is doing this." She said and the thought of her getting married made her feel sick. Minjun stared at her in disbelief, not understanding why she would let her own father do this to her.

"You can get away from this place. You can come and live with me, with my parents!" He exclaimed, making some people look up from their tables as they were disrupted from their breakfast. Florence widened her eyes and pressed her palm against his mouth to make him be more quiet. 

"Stop it. Everyone is staring at us." Florence whispered in a manner of almost shouting at him. He rolled his eyes as he moved her palm from her mouth. He had an urge to bit her but he didn't. He was mad at her but he also knew that this wasn't going to bring her anywhere. It would just make her more anxious, more upset.

"Okay... Okay. I am just so worried about you." He express his concern to her and Florence sighed out. She was worried too. She had no idea who Jaemin was a person. She only knew what his occupation was which was a private agent but she could barely say that too Minjun. 

His job was strictly mentioning that no one was allowed to, apart from his family which Florence was in a way now. She was going to be his wife and the word 'wife' scared her more than anything. How was a wife supposed to act in the first place? What if she was a bad one? There were so many thoughts that were going through her mind that her head started to hurt. The headache was getting worse the more she was thinking about her situation. 

"I am scared of what my father will do once he finds me. I don't trust him. He scares me and I don't want him to hurt you or your family." Florence quietly spoke. She still had no idea how her father was as a person. The maids raised her. Her father was never around. She simply used the word 'father' for him when she didn't even see him as that. He wasn't worth for that title.

"But-" "I will marry him and I can always divorce him if he is a true asshole." Florence smiled lightly as she interrupted his sentence in between. Minjun didn't like the idea of it at all. The idea of her getting married to someone who probably wouldn't care for her at all. 

"Can we just go and find the dress?" She suggested when a long silence break took over their table, making everyone else at the coffee shop happy to know that they could receive some rest as Minjun's way of expressing himself was quite loud and let's say, expressive.

Minjun sighed out, still feeling the nagging feeling inside of him, trying to eat him up. It didn't sit right with him and knowing that she wasn't happy about it just made it ten times worse for him. He wanted her to be happy. She deserved more than anyone he had known in his life, even more than himself. She had gone through so much that at least a bit of happiness should have been given to her. 

"Okay..." He whispered softly as he started getting off from his seat. Florence looked at him and weakly smiled.

"And... could you walk me down the aisle... My father won't be at the wedding-" "Yes, in a heart beat." Minjun said, becoming slightly angry that her father didn't even think that her wedding was something important. He would send her off like she meant nothing to him. He never understood why her father had this type of resentment against her.

Florence was a sweet, kind hearted girl. She had never done someone bad, no matter how much that person had hurt her. She was too kind to actually stand up for herself, knowing that she could hurt someone's feelings in the process of it. Minjun was sure that she agreed to this marriage to please her father more. He knew that Florence hoped that he would one day be proud of her and accept her as his daughter, and that was the most heartbreaking thing he had ever seen.

A daughter trying to prove her worth to her own father.

Florence smiled sweetly at Minjun before they stood up and walked to the exit of the coffee shop. She sighed out, knowing this could be one of her last days with him. She had to be a obedient wife and if her husband didn't like her relationship with Minjun, she was afraid that she had to actually distant herself from him. It would do Minjun good, at least his blood pressure would remain under control, she knew how much he worried about her and she didn't like it.

"Will you continue to work at the hospital?" Minjun suddenly asked which caught her off guard. She hasn't thought of that. She barely had time to actually think about this. Her father truly gave her just a few days to prepare for this big day and he wouldn't even attend it himself. 

"I will... I have too." She said, not wanting to lose her job as a paediatric nurse at the Seoul hospital. Her heart ached to know that if her husband didn't approve it,  she might have to listen to him. That's what scared her the most. 

"What does he do?" Minjun brought up, making Florence swallow her saliva down harshly. What was she supposed to say? She didn't wanted to lie to her own best friend. She always hated to do that. She looked away from his gaze as she focused on the road while they were trying to cross the road carefully and safely. 

"He is a police officer." Florence lied and felt herself heating up as she spoke the lie out. Minjun frowned at her expression and shook his head.

"You do know that I can tell when you are lying to me?" He asked a bit offended, making Florence quickly look up at him. 

"I am not!" She exclaimed as she looked at him in disbelief.

"Well, you are always looking away when you lie to me or to anyone." He addressed and Florence chuckled. The nervousness was clearly heard from her voice and Minjun was by now truly convinced that she was lying to him, even though he didn't understand why.

"I am trying not to die when I cross the road." Florence stated, making him think twice to why she looked away when in reality, she wasn't thinking about her safety. She was truly trying to lie to him and she was failing. Minjun sceptically looked at her but didn't say anything. 

"Hyung, I think this suit will fit you the best." Jinwoo said as he looked at his older brother, Jaemin. Jaemin scanned the suit before he nodded his head. He wasn't fussy when it came to his clothing. He didn't have any intention to look good. This marriage was a business purpose and he was doing it for his family. 

Florence King meant nothing to him. 

"Or this? It's so hard to decide." Jinwoo rattled as he couldn't decide which suit would look the best on Jaemin. He held two up in his arms as he looked from side to side. Jaemin annoyingly sighed before he shook his head out of frustration.

"Listen, I don't have time for this, Jinwoo. I need to get back to the institute and you are just ruining my time here." Jaemin said harshly, making the youngster look up at him a bit shocked. He sighed out and rolled his eyes.

"Dad gave you a day off. Why would you go to the institute?" He asked a bit bitterly, annoyed that his brother only thought of work and never truly tried living his life, knowing that his wedding was tomorrow, he truly didn't care. There was no excitement written on his face as the conversation was brought up the entire time. 

It was a sudden choice but his parents were sure that Florence was a good girl, even as foreigner, she would make a good wife to Jaemin. Jinwoo believed in that. He believed that Florence would be a good change in his life. His brother needed it, even if he would never speak or show it. He needed someone in his life that would question him most of the time, even if he wouldn't like it. 

This change would change him as a whole person and Jinwoo hoped that it would be for the best. 

"I still have some work left to do before tomorrow comes." He said as he curled up the sleeves of his white blouse. Jinwoo looked up at his brother slightly shocked that he had mentioned the 'wedding' for the first time. He would never really use the name for it. 

"You can do it after your honeymoon." Jinwoo teased Jaemin, knowing very well that he feared that the most. He didn't wanted to be alone with her at any costs. He would try to avoid her as much as he could. 

"Yah! Behave yourself." Jaemin scolded his younger brother before he looked away with his flushed, red cheeks. He looked at him angry but Jinwoo wouldn't fall for his angry expression. Even though, Jaemin was very much off a cold person, he had his times being a person he denied to be. Jinwoo knew that his brother was good person. 

"I would want to be an uncle by the end of this year." He continued to tease. Jaemin widened his eyes as he came closer, raising his hand, threatening to slap Jinwoo for his remark. Jinwoo laughed loudly before he quickly backed away from him.

"Should we do number one for one child or two for twins?" He asked, angering Jaemin even more. Jinwoo held the two suits up while Jaemin tried coming towards him to finally put an end at his ridiculous behaviour. 

"I am going to kill you." Jaemin spat out. Jinwoo gasped as if he was hurt by his comment and held his chest.

"But you are a private agent, this goes against your policies, sir." He continued. Jaemin frustratedly groaned out before he looked away from his younger brother. Now that he had gotten a reaction out of him, there was no way that Jinwoo would stop.

"Two is better." Jinwoo said and walked with the suit out from the changing room so he could go and pay for it. Jaemin sighed out as a small smile creeped around his rosy lips. He looked at his own reflection in the mirror and wondered how tomorrow was going to be.

He would be lying if he had said that he didn't wonder how Florence looked like. He did wanted to know what kind of a person she was but from hearing the stories his mother was telling him, he was convinced that there wasn't something bad about her at all. 

He sighed out, not wanting to think about her. He still had one day to not bare that kind of responsibility. The responsibility of a husband.