#ANYWAYS THANKS AGAIN FOR THIS ANZU I HOPE YOU'VE BEEN WELL IN THE MEANWHILE <3 <3 <3

[stillresolved]

“ i want to know what love is to you. ” ( to: aeri )

@goldenheirs / "i want to know..." prompts

A SCOFF. “What is this supposed to be, philosophy class? We’re not in university anymore.” Do forgive her for her imprudence there, Ma-ri; she was in the middle of a sketch when she was interrupted and no one wants to be on the receiving end of Kang Aeri’s temper. Especially when she is in the middle of creating. She was like that too, back when she was a student in the classes outside of her major. Whatever the professor was saying always came second to her doodling, soon to be a masterpiece. Who are they to interrupt the makings of a foundation to timelessness?

Nevertheless, Ma-ri is family now, even if Aeri pities the girl. For crying out loud, Ma-ri is engaged to Bel, of all people. The golden goose with the ego of a peacock. It’s one thing to be oogling him over SNS, but another thing to have to put up with him…for life. Aeri would rather jump off the top of the Kakao’s headquarters, thank you very much.

This being said, she sets her pencil down and leaning back in her chair, crosses her arms. “What, having marital trouble with my brother now? And here I thought you two were living the fairytale happily ever after.” Of course that’s just Aeri rattling off whatever dispatch has been saying about Ma-ri and the oldest Kang’s engagement. In other words, exaggerating the truth, as usual. 

“Well it’s definitely not whatever the fuck is happening in that…cesspool.” Love is an interesting word to describe the familial ties within the Kang family. Maybe somewhere, deep down, there is love– loyalty to one’s own kind. It just ends up…twisted, shattered, and corrupted the closer to the surface it gets. 

So yes, maybe there is love. But certainly not the kind Aeri seeks out.

“Someone who isn’t fucking exhausting to be around,” she starts though, legs crossing. Better to start with something specific than vague, right? That’s the way most of her sketches start out anyways. AERI the designer doesn’t begin with broad strokes. It must always begin with a specific vision of some part. “If I have to walk eggshells around you for everything I do, it’s not worth it. I’m not giving up my life for just anyone.”

Worth it. Maybe that’s the answer Ma-ri is looking for ultimately. For all the cynicism that runs through all the Kangs, Aeri…well she wouldn’t call herself an idealist or optimistic, but she is confident. Hopeful. 

“I wouldn’t be where I am in my career if it wasn’t for my fiancée. I used to think she was the most aggravating person ever.” Devora Diana Song, Aeri is referring to. Although surely Ma-ri knows her, if not at least from the less than savory tales the golden goose has probably recounted about the CEO of the Chosun Ilbo Paper. Aeri considers that fact, alone, to be the cherry on top of all the reasons to come around to her fiancee– if it pisses off her brother, then it is worth pursuing. 

But maybe Aeri should’ve realized all along. Even when Devora was aggravating just by existing, Aeri could never keep her eyes off of her. From the pedestal the Kang family has always expected Aeri to stand on, she was always watching Devora. They were always looking at each other, instinctively know that inevitably gravity would pull them towards one another. Soulmates, one might say, but Aeri has never been one for romantic ideals. She glances outside the window, into the sun.

That’s what love is, isn’t it? Enduring. Patient. Inevitable.

( And yet maybe, just maybe, there is a vague thought, she has. That perhaps this is not the first life in which she and Devora have crossed paths. In the vaguest of…flashbacks? Premonitions, there is a picture of them together, under different circumstances, one where the guilt racks on Deva’s back and Aeri’s hands are callused from years of servitude– )

A far off look. Aeri shakes her head. “Anyways, if you really have to ask someone outside your relationship for love advice, maybe you shouldn’t get married. Pity, since we would’ve finally been getting a someone with common sense in the family–”