“So, first rule,” Eden’s voice appeared and Yifan was startled. He was quite distracted by his own thoughts. “Mr.Wu?” She repeated and he blinked his eyes in confusion before looking at her, “are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he smiled as his eyes scanned down the file she presented, “I had an all nighter while filming so I was quite out of it.”

Eden’s lips pursed and her eyes narrowed a little. She was wearing a soft pink suit with a navy blouse underneath, looking prim and polish like always. Today, she decided to tie her hair up into a small bun but one could see wavy strands poking out from it. It contrasted greatly from her extreme polished outfit but somehow, it worked. Yifan had not carefully looked at Eden carefully until now - she is quite pretty, wide square-ish forehead that narrowed down smoothly to a narrow chin, prominent nose that slightly curved outward, and her lips are evenly shaped and voluminous. Her eyes are always wide and alert, not to mention the fact that they are always scanning everyone like an eagle.

“Mr.Wu?” She repeated again and raised one of her eyebrows at him.

“First rule,” he repeated hastily to cover up the fact that he was indeed distracted. They were both in a VIP room of a restaurant, which her secretary booked,

“Our marriage will last two years from the date of registration,” she recited, “all of the assets that we possess will remain rightfully ours. All of our future earnings will be under our-”

Yifan decided to interrupt, “Isn’t that a general knowledge?”

“You’ll be surprised how people change with time, Kris,” she merely smirked as she looked up from reading the paper.

“You don’t believe other people, do you?”

Eden smiled, “No.”

“I can’t believe I’m meeting myself in a female form,” he quietly spoke to himself as he scanned the file.

The contents in their contract were simple. They will get divorced in two years. The house that they will be living in had been arranged by their parents, with a few options, before they decide on which one they want to settle down in. No intimate physical contact, unless when needed. (Yifan laughed at that portion, which Eden gave him an unimpressed look.) Neither have a say in their personal relationship with others nor the work they do, unless it affects the reputation in their careers.

“Is that a jab at me?” He asked.

“Adultery affects both ways, Mr.Wu. There might be times you can slip up,” she replied calmly as she ticked off the fact on the paper, marking it as discussed.

Yifan shook his head. He couldn’t believe this girl. Their contract covered everything. At the end, Yifan understood that he will remain as he is currently except that he would have to pretend that he was married to her in front of the public and their parents.

“This is like playing house, grown-up version,” Yifan spoke, amused, as he signed on the paper.

Eden’s laughed, clearly delighted at his joke, “I hope it’ll be fun. I’m looking forward to work on this project with you, partner,” she stressed on his title as she offered him a hand. Yifan took it and shook it firmly.

They are now accompliced in a project that is drawn to deceive everyone.

~~~
 

“Do we really have to do this?” Yifan groaned as he was pushed from behind along the corridor of a hotel by his manager, whom he calls as Manager Zhang; a guy who is decently plump with a friendly face, which made him an ideal target for Yifan to tease, sometimes cruelly, and pull pranks on when he’s bored out of his set when it was not his turn to be in front of the order.

“Angela’s order,” Manager Zhang spoke solemnly as he pushed him forward, “she’ll kill me if you do not attend this. Watch out for me, too, Yifan. I also want to get married to my girlfriend soon. I need this job.” He joked.

Yifan let out a huff as he put on the suit jacket that his stylist offered. He was on his way to a press conference, the one where his director hosted, to let the public know that he’d be marrying soon.

“Besides,” Manager Zhang continued as he gave Yifan the set of questions that the press will ask him at the event, the standard procedure of journalism in Asia, “Eden will be there. It won’t be that bad.”

Yifan’s eyes widened, “she WHAT?” His voice was louder than he intended to let out, which garnered a few glances from people around him, who were as busy as bees, trying to get the event to run smoothly.

“Eden Zhou,” Manager Zhang repeated, “is attending. I thought Angelica told you.”

“NO SHE DID NOT!” Yifan huffed in annoyance. “Why is everyone not telling me things and do them as they please,” he grumbled. It had not been a few days when his mother announced that she had purchased a three-storeyed house in the suburb for the newly-weds. According to her, it is in a nice neighbourhood, surrounded by farms, parks, woods, and water reservoir. Yifan’s insides curled up at the thought of being away from the city but it might be a good idea since it means that he’ll finally be away from overbearing stalker fans, who can sometimes be worse than paparazzis.

Throughout the whole journey to the double ed door that hid him away from the reporters, Yifan kept frowning. He was annoyed, really annoyed, by everyone.

“Hello,” a soft, familiar, crystal clear voice greeted him. Yifan looked up to see Eden, who was dressed very differently from how he had seen her before. It had been a couple of weeks since they had met each other. They both lied to their parents that they had been meeting regularly when in fact they decided to bury themselves in their work.

“Eden,” he smiled at her as he scanned her from head to toe. She was wearing a pale pink lace dress with a drop shoulder dress, which cut off elegantly at her knees, paired together with a white closed-toe stilettos. She wasn’t wearing any glamorous jewelry, except for a dainty diamond earrings that dangled nicely from her ears and her hair was pulled to the side with a weave. “You look very nice today,” he complimented her.

Eden looked down and smiled a little, “Thank you. You look very nice today too. I like your suit,” she pointed at his jacket. She shifted a little to stand by his side and he found it quite cute that even with a really tall stilettos, the top of her head only managed to reach just below his earlobe.

“You’re quite short,” he decided to , as he was feeling quite amused, and also to break the tension between them.

“I make up for the lack of height with my personality,” she grinned as she gracefully served him with a comeback, which made him laugh.

“Ready for the press conference?”

Her shoulders rose as she took in a deep breath, “As long as I don’t get bricked by your fangirls, I believe I will be fine,” she replied as she looked at him.

“Okay, everyone!” The event coordinator clapped to garner attention before she muttered something into the microphone attached to her head, “I’ll send them over. Okay, you two,” she pointed at both Yifan and Eden, who were staring blankly at her, “ready?”

They both nodded gingerly.

The coordinator frowned, “Aren’t you two missing something?”

Yifan looked down at Eden and she at him before shaking their heads in unison. The coordinator let out a exasperated sigh before roughly grabbing their hands and link them together. Yifan could feel Eden tensing up as her palm came in contact with his. For him, being in contact with others is no longer something that shocks him since he always have to be in contact with girls for his work. Eden, on the other hand, behaved like she was very wary of skin contact. She wasn’t looking at him but through his lateral vision, he could see she was battling within herself to not pull her hand out from him.

His hand gripped her tightly for a brief moment. She got his message and looked at him. “Hey,” he leaned in a whispered slightly, “you’ll be fine.”  She let out the breath she held in and nodded without looking at him.

~~~

“Yifan!” Most of the reporters greeted him cheerily since he had always been noticed for his pleasant interview sessions.

“So, tell us. How did you two meet?” One of the happy-faced reporters asked as he looked at the couple on the stage, sitting at a long desk side by side each other.

Eden looked at him, clearly shocked. Her expression was panic-stricken. It was quite amusing to see the usually composed person panic like this. Yifan smiled and mouthed, “let me take care of this.”

He smiled, “We’ve actually met each other quite a few times at family events, haven’t we?” She nodded gently. “Our parents know each other, especially her mother and mine, they’re very close so… they tried to introduce us to each other. We get along very well so we met up quite often and eventually started dating each other seriously.”

“But your fansites say they have not seen irregular activities in your schedules, except for that one time you were trapped in a restroom after a night out,” another reporter quipped.

‘Damn,’ Yifan underestimated his fansites. He should have known better since they always watch him like a hawk. “When there’s a will, there’s a way,” he replied in the most charming way he could possibly come up with, while adding a wink.

“This is for Bai Xue,” another reporter added, “how does it feel like dating Yifan?”

Eden smiled a little before answering with one word, “Stressful.” The entire hall laughed at her answer. She waited for the laughter to die down, “I was just joking. He’s a great man, just as how he is famous for. Quite peculiar but a great man nevertheless. I feel very lucky that I get to meet someone like him.”

The question and answer session was going smoothly, with the two sides taking joy at the questions that are thrown at the couple and other side laughing in glee when the two gave standard answers that weren’t exciting to the least.

Until -

“Your dating news come all of a sudden, Yifan,” a man’s voice appeared. Yifan looked in the direction where the voice came from and found a man with a permanent frown, whom he remembered that he’s from one of the famous tabloid newspaper house that is actually famous for releasing accurate news regarding celebrities lives.

Yifan was ready for brutal question that will put him in a tight position. “Is this a shot gun wedding?” The crowd started chuckling uncomfortably at the sudden question. He opened his mouth to answer that question but Eden took over unexpectedly.

“I’m surprised that you think I’d be that mindless, Mr.Reporter,” she answered, her voice was calm but the coldness and steeliness were definitely, which hushed the laughing crowd down. “I can definitely assure you that this wedding is definitely not shot gun.” She smiled as she ended her sentence.

After the awkward encounter, the Q&A session proceeded with a few more easy questions before he concluded. There was also a photo session involved, where the reporters made both Yifan and Eden pose in somewhat intimate positions, where he had to drape his arms across her shoulders and pulling her tightly to his side and another pose was where they had to do a cringe-worthy, yet wildly famous forehead kiss where their foreheads touched. Eden, surprisingly, obliged.

“Thank you,” Yifan told her once they had reached to his van, after escaping his fans, who were all gushing after her, surrounding her while ing gifts in her hands. Eden looked at him as she sat on the seat by his side, the aisle separating the two of them.

She fondly looked at the bouquet of roses she got from one of the fans, and smiled, “It is my duty, Kris Wu.” Her answer was short and meaningful. He understood that she had taken the mission seriously; to act as a filial wife of a star, who is in love with him.

“I’ll see you at the engagement party,” she left after saying the words, to quickly jump into her car via the entrance of his van.

“WAIT WHAT?!” Yifan’s was left hanging.

His mother must have planned something without telling him. Again.

~~~

[Author's monologue:] I don't know what the reactions are like but I really hope you guys are enjoying this as much as I do while writing.