“You know, you two are not lovey dovey enough,” Chanyeol’s comment reached the pseudo-couple as all of them were walking up a particularly steep hill - his voice cheerful and light as usual.

Eden grunted, “Yeol, not you again.”

“I’m saying the truth, you two are just not lovey-dovey enough,” he commented again.

“Chanyeol,” she turned back and glared at him, “if you can’t shut up, I’m going to kick you off the hill so that you roll down,” she snarled and rushed upwards.

“Always a joy,” Chanyeol chuckled as he reached beside Yifan. “I really hope you don’t mind me teasing her a lot though. We’ve been friends for way too long that the boundaries are a little dim between us.”

Yifan smiled awkwardly as he walked up the hill. Eden had reached quite far away from them, almost at the three parents.

After her incident in the office, Yifan’s mother (and her parents) decided that she (and himself) needed some time away as the event was too traumatic, even though Eden kept repeating that there was not trauma left on her. Yifan suspected that claim for the way she reacted and cried until her face was all puffy. He only knew that because she greeted him the next morning while she pressed ice-packs on her face. As an actor, he knew that ice-packs on face only meant one thing - to reduce facial swellings.

So, the couple was (forcefully) dragged on another trip in the countryside, again, with the parents. This time, Chanyeol tagged along since Eden’s parents insisted. Yifan deducted that Chanyeol is the most trusted family friend since Mrs. Zhou seemed to adore him. Henceforth, the six of them arrived at a countryside; this time in a hilly region.

“Why are you not affectionate with her?” Chanyeol asked.

Yifan found that it was a particularly awkward question to come from someone who is a close friend of Eden. He looked at the other tall guy, “I guess it has to do with how we ended up in an arranged marriage?” Yifan answered with a partial truth.

Chanyeol’s jaw dropped, “Have you ever gone out on a date with Eden?”

“Kind of?” Yifan tried to remember the time when they both hung out by themselves, while their parents decided on a family dinner. The parents thought they were on their date while all they did was stare at the space in front of them while sipping on wine as they sat side by side.

Chanyeol didn’t say anything but put his arm around Yifan’s shoulder and patted while they walked forward together. Yifan has started to learn that Chanyeol is actually a very friendly person, who is complete opposite of him. Chanyeol launches into other people’s bubble just to make friends with that person. He talks - nonstop - and sometimes ask questions that are uncomfortable to answer but it is most likely because his definition of personal privacy is different from others. That made Yifan realised why he easily became friends with Eden, the seemingly cold person. He just followed her around like a attention seeking pet.

“Is there anything you don’t know about Eden?” he asked so suddenly as they were walking through a small wood.

Yifan nodded, “a lot,” he did not want to say that but Chanyeol had been making conversation constantly and he felt the need to respond.

“Well,” Chanyeol frowned slightly, “Eden likes spicy food. Really spicy food. The ones that will blow you head off. That peppercorn from Sichuan is her favourite.”

“Sounds like she likes to torture herself.”

Chanyeol laughed, “She does. You should be familiar with her sleep schedule by now.”

“Sort of?” Yifan lied.

“I tell her to get more than 4 hours of sleep a day but no, that kid likes to torture herself because she needs to work.” Chanyeol continued, “And never give her ice cream. There’s something about ice cream that puts her stomach off balance. Only yogurt.”

“Anything else?” Yifan asked.

“She hates bugs. She really really hates bugs,” the wide-eyed boy started laughing hysterically. “Do you know how I found out?” Yifan shook his head. “She offered to help me in the lab, because I was working as a teaching assistant back in uni. And, we had to go through a zoology lab to get to the lab I was working. She found a cage of locusts, and went totally crazy. I thought she was going to die.”

Yifan laughed knowing how Eden can screech when she is terrified.

“You know, I’m really glad she chose you,” Chanyeol spoke so suddenly that Yifan was caught off-guard. “Zhou Ye is quite difficult to reach out to but she’s not as cold and terrible as she acts.”

Are you sure? Yifan noticed himself asking that but he didn’t say anything. He is quite sure that Eden and him will have a business-like relationship even until they time they get divorced. He doesn’t know what made him think that way but he was quite sure of it.

The six of them went for a walk, had early dinner that Eden’s mother cooked, and then all of them proceeded to gather around the fire pit outside on the balcony of Eden’s mom and dad’s holiday bungalow. They all rented one each during their stay.

“Oh, we don’t have firewood, can you three go and pick up some firewood from the wood collecting point?” his mother urged them. The three youths obliged and picked up flashlight since it was starting to get darker outside.

Along the way, Chanyeol kept talking to Eden, mostly trying to annoy her just to get reaction, and also complaining about how she is not affectionate with her husband and that Yifan would dump her if she keeps acting cold.

“Park Chanyeol, if you keep up with that topic, I’m really going to have to punch you,” Eden snarled and threw him a murderous glance.

Chanyeol snickered and walked in her direction to bump his shoulder with her (more like her head), to make her sway sideway towards Yifan’s direction, who was walking beside her. “CHANYEOL!” she warned the guy, which made him laugh even harder.

They got to the woodshed, where dry firewood were kept in a secure hut and started collecting the driest wood they could find. All of them were engrossed in collecting one and then throwing it into the wheelbarrow they were going to bring.

“Zhou Ye, look what I found,” Chanyeol called. Yifan and Eden, who were picking up firewood, side by side, looked up. Chanyeol walked towards Eden, with stretched out hands as he was holding something. Yifan frowned and focused to look at what he was holding.

It was a giant locust staring at Eden with its bright eyes and made a sound.

“MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Eden let out a blood curdling wail and immediately lurched herself towards Yifan. If he does not have strong lower body strength, they would have been knocked onto the floor. “MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” she kept screaming as her hands helplessly flap around her before they found security around his body. Then, she planted her face on his chest as she screamed, “PUT IT AWAY, PARK CHANYEOL!” and hugged him tight before she started to sway him around, using him as a shield between herself and the death-inducing locust.

Chanyeol started cackling in laughter, looked at Yifan and winked before raising his eyebrows at Eden, who was hugging him tightly trying to get away from Chanyeol and locust. Then, he put his thumbs up at Yifan, who did not know what to do as he did not want to physically push around Eden while wanting to make sure she was okay.

Once the locust was released, Eden decided to unleash her wrath on Chanyeol as she chased him down across the field towards the bungalow the three older people were waiting at. Yifan pushed the firewood ladened wheelbarrow and witnessed the scene of Eden screaming mild curse words at Chanyeol as she chased him around, saying how she would kill him with her bare hands while the tall guy ran away, teasing her even more to provoke her.

The rest of the night passed peacefully (except that time while they were starting fire and Eden's mother asked why Eden wailed because she could hear it from the bungalow and then laughed when Chanyeol explained that he scared her with a locust). They all sat around the fire to keep warm from the temperature, which had started to drop. Eden’s parents talked about their youths, Yifan’s mom spoke about the time how her mom and herself became friends, and once the night got deeper, Chanyeol pulled out the guitar he borrowed from the ground keeper’s office (Only god would know how he managed to charm the guy since the guitar looked very good) to entertain the rest of them.

Chanyeol sings decently, which surprised Yifan. He has similar deep voice as Yifan but his voice is more mellow and richer while Yifan’s voice has a slight raspy edge to it with lesser vibrations. Eden smiled and listened to her friend sing as she nodded her head along to the melody.

That night, after they all had returned to the bungalow they were staying at - Yifan was on the sofa near the bed while Eden took forte on her bed.

“Eden?” he called her name, wondering whether she was asleep. She hummed as a response. “I have an idea.”

“What is it?”

“If we’re going to play the husband and wife game well in the long run, we need to know each other more.”

“True.”

“Do you want to tell me a little about you? The facts that you think a husband should know?” he asked, slightly wincing since he knows that Eden could flat out refuse him if she feels like it.

Eden hesitated for a while before replying, “Of course, I will. Teamwork is essential in any type of game.” Yifan couldn’t see her in the darkness but he could feel that she was smiling, slightly. “Where do you want me to start?”

“From the beginning.”

“Okay…”

That was how they both spent their first night talking about themselves until Eden fell asleep before him as she listened to him speak to her, which was the first time that it happened. That was also how he found out another fact of Eden, which was amusing for him as it was very unexpected.

Eden snores.

~~~

[Author's monologue:] To the commenters, who said they like Eden - I love you all.