“My name is Chanyeol, Park Chanyeol. Nice to meet you!” the tall guy spoke with the forever smiling face as he took seat on the couch of the newly wed’s living room. His Chinese accent sounded very foreign to Yifan’s ears. "Yifan. Wu Yifan. Nice to meet you, too!" From the first glance, Yifan guessed that he’s the type who cannot stay still even for one minute. Ever since he had entered the house, he had tripped over the shoe rug bumped into the corner of the couch in the living room before taking seat.

“Why does she call you Fruit?” Yifan asked in curiosity. He still couldn’t figure out how the nickname Fruit came about. Maybe it could also be that he guessed the person to be a girl. If the person were a girl, he could have checked her out.

“Zhou Ye?” Chanyeol asked, his eyes widening. The guy has an extremely sincere face that is akin to a child’s. His eyes took a glance at Eden, who excused herself into the kitchen area to get a glass of fruit juice for him, “Back in uni, my friends call me Yeol, and Yeol-mae means fruit in Korean. Eden took a class in Korean one semester and found out about it. Since then, she calls me Fruit. Probably to make me feel like a little girl.”

“Serves you right for calling me Zhou Ye while flailing all over the campus,” Eden returned from the kitchen and spoke reproachfully as she placed a glass of orange juice in front of the guy.

“Everyone knows you’re very bossy!” Chanyeol retorted before he took a huge gulp from the glass, “he doesn’t know it, does he?” His eyes looked at Yifan meaningfully.

Eden glared at Chanyeol, “Don’t you dare.”

“Let me try to make sense of this,” Yifan had started to become clearly curious about the two’s relationship. He reckoned that Chanyeol might probably be one of, if not the, closest friends of Eden. The way Chanyeol acts around Eden is unrestrained and straightforward, while Eden seemed to have changed into another person in front of Chanyeol. “Where did you two meet?” Yifan asked.

Chanyeol blinked, “Isn’t that what I’m supposed to ask? I’m the guest.”

Yifan laughed at the question and opened his mouth to answer. Eden interrupted, “We met through parental arrangement. You know the drill with my mom and dad. We met, we like each other, and decided to marry. That’s it. Now, tell me, why were you not at my engagement party and the wedding? You’d better have a valid answer before I kill you.”

“Always the spoiled sport,” Chanyeol chuckled as he put down the empty glass in front of him, “One more?” He looked at Eden with eyes that resembled Rourou when it wanted a treat. Eden rolled her eyes and got up to re-fill the glass in the kitchen.

Chanyeol cleared his throat, “I’m from Seoul, South Korea.” Yifan’s first doubt about his accent was solved at that. “I met Zhou Ye when I was studying here for my med degree.” Yifan was surprised by the fact that despite the clumsy behaviour, the guy is actually a smart, and capable man.

“Why do you call her Zhou Ye?” Yifan asked again. It still is strange to him to see a guy, who is a human giant, like himself, calling Eden, a small person as Master Zhou. Considering how his pseudo-wife has a leadership and charismatic aura naturally, he still couldn’t get his head around Chanyeol calling her that.

Chanyeol laughed heartily, “Should I tell him that?” He asked Eden, who came back from the kitchen with another glass of juice.

“I can’t stop you now. Can I?”

“No,” Chanyeol grinned, “Bai Xue used to ran an underground gambling ring while she was in uni.” Yifan’s jaws dropped at the unexpecting answer. He looked at Eden, who just shrugged, as if it wasn’t something urgent. “I was a 3rd year student and she was the fresher when we met. She started hustling as soon as she got into uni.” Chanyeol continued.

“In my defence,” Eden spoke gloomily, “it was so boring in first year. The classes were so easy.”

Chanyeol retorted, “It’s not like you stopped doing it once you got busier. Anyway, she started this gambling station almost anywhere there’s some kind of entertainment; varsity football, netball, golf, wrestling. You name it. She’s probably there.”

“Doesn’t she get into problem with school because of that?” Yifan asked.

“She has a way to manipulate people,” Chanyeol laughed again, “and people didn’t report her because she plays it fair and square and never cheats. She’s honest but also a little manipulative and cunning at times.”

Eden snorted beside him, “My new husband will now think I’m a mobster lord. Way to go, Fruit.”

“Can you stop calling me that?” Chanyeol grumbled, “Call me Yeol like others. Fruit sounds so girly.”

Yifan interjected, “It does. I thought you were a girl and was kinda looking forward to meet you.”

Chanyeol’s finger jabbed in the air at Yifan, “See? If you keep calling me Fruit, I’m going expose the most embarrassing things about you.”

“Fine,” Eden snapped, “Yeol, it is.”

“Or Dr.Park,” he sniggered before drinking another gulp of juice. The way Chanyeol manages to sound so happy for the entire time surprises Yifan.

“In your dreams,” Eden spoke disapprovingly at her friend’s preference of name.

The conversation continued on and Yifan found out more about Eden through Chanyeol’s non-stop jabbering. Eden and Chanyeol met during university at one MMA style fight club, which was illegal in university at that time. Chanyeol was dragged there, against his will, by his friends who wanted him to get away from his revisions for the mid-terms. Eden was there being the bookie, accepting the bets.

Unbeknownst to them, the university security knew about the event illegally happening there and decided to raid it while it was happening. Unluckily for Chanyeol, he would be expelled from university if he had been caught there. Luckily for him, he bumped into Eden. As soon as she saw him looking flustered and helpless, she grabbed his wrist and tugged him along as she dashed through the entrance door. Both of them ran until they felt like they were safe enough.

That was the start to their friendship. Over the years, Chanyeol and Eden had became close friends. “Mostly because he followed me around like an attention-seeking dog on the campus screaming Zhou Ye while his arms flail around him as he ran,” Eden added with a laughter when Chanyeol was explaining the friendship to Yifan. He reckoned a tall human tower following a short, but intimidating-looking, girl while calling her Master must have been an interesting sight to a lot of people.

“Yeol, you still haven’t told me about why you had missed my wedding,” Eden asked as she peeled the skin off from a pear. The three of them were sitting in the living room again, after having a nice dinner, prepared by Eden, which also surprised Yifan for she can cook very well.

Chanyeol tore off a piece of pear casually from the fruit she was holding, “I was on a mission. I was in this underdeveloped area in Africa to provide health services and educate them on health and hygiene for about 5 months.”

“You never told me that,” Eden scorned as she sliced the pear.

“YOU DIDN’T TELL ME YOU WERE GETTING MARRIED EITHER! WHEN I WENT, YOU WERE STILL HOPELESSLY SINGLE!” He argued and then his back stiffened, “I hope you don’t mind us being childish about this,” he apologized as he looked at Yifan. Yifan shook his head gently. Watching the two friends bicker over something pointless is oddly amusing, it reminded him of old married couples.

Eden’s face darkened, “At least send me an e-mail, idiot! You’re always glued to your phone!!”

Chanyeol started laughing, “You think I live in the area where wi-fi is abundant, don’t you? THEY ARE STILL USING DIAL-UPS!” He spoke exasperatedly, “Dial. Ups. That static noise drives me wild. WILD!”

The two bickered back and forth over the topic of how he couldn’t appear at her wedding. In the end, Chanyeol gave up and apologized Eden, who seemed like she did not want to give up.  It seemed very natural to him; them bickering and Chanyeol ending up surrendering her, which looked like he did not mind doing that. Before Chanyeol left the two of them, he pulled out a gift from his backpack, which was a beautifully crafted wooden box which had intricate aboriginal design carved on it. "My mother probably told him about the new address. He must have landed in the city just a few days ago," Eden spoke fondly as she put the box on a shelf in the living room, "he still looks very tired." Her voice sounded chiding but it was apparently that she was clearly concerned.

As soon as Chanyeol left, Eden went back to her solemn and composed mode. She calmly cleaned up the fruit tray, and went up to her bedroom after bidding Yifan with a goodnight.

It is so bizarre to Yifan that Eden could switch personalities just like that. She reminds him of himself. Yifan has always been told that he has two different sets of personalities; the one which he shows in front of the fans - quiet, warm, and caring but slightly vacant at times, and the one which he reserves for close people, the slightly crazy and hyperactive ball of energy.

The marriage is going to be interesting with two people, who have different sets of personalities.

~~~

[Author's monologue:] I know it is not action packed like the previous stories I have written in the past, but I really hope you guys are enjoying it.