"Good morning, Eden."

"Good morning, Kris."

The two voices would greet each other from opposite rooms before they headed down to their breakfast table, where their menu is set for them. The pseudo-husband and wife couple will always eat their breakfasts, if Yifan was home in the morning, while they are all occupied with their work; Yifan on his phone replying to endless emails and messages to his assistants while Eden enjoys her leisurely read on her tablet.

As soon as they have finished their meals, both of them would get up, pick up their respective work bags, throw on their coats and bid each other their greetings. Once they have disappeared, the housekeeping staff would come in, do her work of cleaning the house and cooking the meals for the two and leave it on the table for them.

Their routines are faily simple, much like other couples of their ages - except their lives aren't.

Yifan's schedules are vastly different from Eden. While Eden spends her time in her room, dealing with incoming and outgoing mails, Yifan spends his days on sets under the scorching lighting sets and act his parts in various projects he chose to work on. Sometimes, he would disappear for a few days and then come back again, not that Eden minded even though Yifan told her of his whereabouts. Their mutual agreement is to not interfere in each other's lives.

However, he sometimes forgets that their lives have to come together.

[Hypnos Tech would cordially like to invite our brand ambassador Mr.Wu and his spouse to attend the launch of the latest technology of virtual reality gaming arena.]

The pretty invitation letter fell onto his lap during his visit to his management studio office. He looked at his director in a frown, "Miss Cheung, what is this?" he picked it up and scanned it carefully, "they want Eden to come with me?"

Yifan didn't hear any response from Angela so he looked up and saw her staring at him in disbelief, "Aren't you a married man?" she spoke cooly as she adjusted her swivel chair and faced her computer, "of course, they are going to invite her. It'll be a great event. I'm sure Eden will be interested since her company had been heavily investing in virtual reality entertainment these days."

"How do you know these things?" Yifan laughed as he carefully put the invitation envelope into his bag.

"Yifan," Angela sighed, "I have to know everything for you. I am partially responsible for your life."

Yifan chuckled, "All right. I'll tell Eden and see if she's free." He stood up and got ready to leave the office. 

"Tell Eden to wear atheleisure!" his director shouted after him before he closed the door, "I'll send a stylist down!!"

"What is this?" Eden's eyes flickered up to look at him from a seat at the ining table she were sitting at to intensely type e-mails, with a small bowl of fruit by her side, a sight Yifan had gotten used to ever since they moved in to the new house. He had already given her the envelope. She asked him the question as she studied the invitation carefully.

Yifan walked over to the refrigerator to take out a bottle of iced water, "Invitation for virtual reality gaming arena. They want me to come to the event because I'm the brand ambassador."

"Uh huh," Eden nodded as she continued to read the invitation, "I'm also invited, too?" she pointed at her name on the invitation letter. Yifan nodded. "You'd be fine with it, right?"

"Are you fine with it?" he asked her, half-worried that she might be terribly bored after the first half hour. A lesson that he learned when he was dating secretly a few years ago. There was a girl who hated his gaming habits yet stuck with him for quite some time just because he is a famous actor and that she was secretly dating such icon. It gave her a thrill and that gave him the peace of not having to worry about her wanting to show off. Ironically, she dumped him for being too famous and is always surrounded by beautiful actresses and models. 

Eden pursed her lips, "Yeah, count me in. It'll be fun to check the company out and maybe invest in them." Yifan frowned as he drank water from the bottle he took out from the fridge. 

Once his thirst was quenched, he wiped his lips with his finger tips, "Okay. Let's go to the event together this weekend." 

That weekend, Yifan found himself walking through a sea of screaming fangirls on the side of a red carpet. Eden was beside him, her usual stoic face was replaced by a smiling one as she waved to the crowd and bowed her head polite with a nod. 

"You're so familiar with being a celebrity," Yifan poked fun at her in a whisper as they stood side by side at the photo op section of the event, "look at you waving and smiling at other people." 

Eden blinked her eyes and he saw that she rolled her eyes during the blink. She smiled, "Or do you want me to keep a stoic face and earn you a title that you married someone just because of money?" Yifan laughed and put his arms around her as they turned forward to greet the press. 

"You always have a comeback, don't you?" 

"I'll take that as a compliment," Eden spoke through her smile. 

"ZHOU YE!!!!!" an enthusiastic, but unmistakenable voice boomed across the hall just as they entered the event hall. It was Chanyeol, walking towards them in wide strides, his arms outstretched to hug Eden just as he closed in. Eden put up her finger in front of her and stared at him, her eyes stern and steely. 

Surprisingly, that stopped Chanyeol and his expressions changed from overly happy to something that was appropriate to visit a friend who is sick. But, Eden smiled at him and reached for his hand to shake it, "What are you doing here? I don't think this is your type of thing?" 

Chanyeol laughed, "Not really. One. It's a launch of a game arena. Two. I'm one of the people in the team who developed this." 

"You never told me." 

"Do you want me to tell you every single little detail?" Chanyeol spoke with a smile while looking at her pulling her face, his eyes filled with adoration.

All of a sudden, Yifan started to feel like he became a third wheel between a couple who just quarrelled. "So," he obviously tried to break the awkwardness, "what did you have to do for the project?"

"I'm just that guy who had to make sure all the participants, the beta tester, do not suffer after effects from the VR(Virtual Reality) game. It's pretty intense," Chanyeol started to explain, "it's very realistic and can induce epilepsy so a lot of research went into this gaming." 

"Wow," Yifan awed. 

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please?" a guy stepped on the stage, dressed in athleisure appareal, much like almost everyone in the room. He continued talking about how he was happy to launch this gaming arena, his childhood dream. The arena works in a way that everyone who wish to participate must wear a VR headpiece, which is, in turn, connected to a small wire network, which are attached to their limbs. The player will move around in the stimulated VR world, played in real time against each other. 

"Please welcome our Ambassador, Wu Yifan!!!" the guy on stage introduced him to the crowd, which startled him. 

He smiled confidently and walked up on the stage. With a bow, he greeted the crowd and spoke a little about what he knew of the technology and how excited and honoured he is to be invited. Yifan scanned the crowd and saw a few familiar faces of his friends, Luhan, Zitao, and Yixing, who all waved at him to greet him. 

"So, have you chosen your team mates?" the guy suddenly asked. 

Yifan blinked, in shock, "I beg your pardon?" 

The guy laughed, "Your team mates. You are going to be one of the people who are going to participate in the first game of the arena. Are you ready?" Yifan nodded absent-mindedly, "Who's your team mate? I guess your wife would be the one?" 

"I guess?" he answered; his reponse was unconvincing. How would he survive in this game by having Eden on his team? 

Yifan looked at Eden, who was standing in the crowd. He is a competitive person by nature no matter how people had downplayed the fact in the past. He played competitive basketball and tried to make it as a professional. Even though this is just a game, he felt the need to win it just to match his media-touted title, Young Master. 

"Are you sure you can win this thing?" Yifan whispered the question to Eden as they were being helped into their VR gear by the staff. Eden smiled weakly, her face pale, "I'm not quite sure." Yifan was appalled. 

"I have your back, Zhou Ye," Chanyeol's voice appeared on Eden's side. He was also wearing a VR gear, of its LED bulb blinking in Yifan's team colour, red. Chanyeol instantly understood Yifan's puzzled look, "Three people per team and I thought it'd be better for me to join you guys since Zhou Ye is here." 

Great, he now has a giant human with body coordination of a baby and a short, thin and frail-looking person who doesn't look like she has ever stepped out of her office. 

"Good luck," his opponent team mate, one of his rival actors, mocked. It irritated him. 

The game has started. It was truly amazing how the game works. He felt like he was in another world. The game is a fighting game, where guns are involved. Each person will have to take the opponent down. His character, himself, is equipped with gun and their team task is to infiltrate another team's base and press the buzzer to claim the base. It is not a war-style but more on the line of secret agents trying to fight each other, just like in the movies. 

Yifan in a deep breath and prepared himself to get beaten to the n-th degree for he truly has terrible team mates. 

However, Eden proved him wrong. 

As soon as the game had started, she and Chanyeol had made sure Yifan, their team leader, was protected by circling around him and took down everyone who tried to assasinate them. Since real life body motion translates to the movement in the VR game, Yifan could see how Eden and Chanyeol works together as a team. There was one guy who tried to shoot Chanyeol from a distance, which Eden took down. There was another girl who tried to ambush Eden but Chanyeol cleared her off with a precise gun shot in the head. Their movements were swift and precise, and their gunshot accuracy was extremely high. What impressed Yifan the most was how Chanyeol and Eden's team work is way better than everyone, as if each knew other's weakness and supplements it. Chanyeol's weakness is his occasional ignorance of his surrounding, which usually garners attention from long-range shooter, which happens to be Eden's expertise, while Eden's weakness is close range combat from other player, which Chanyeol takes care of with his precise accuracy. They also made sure their team leader, Yifan was unharmed in every step of way throughout the game.

With a team as strong as this, it was no surprise that Yifan's team won. 

"Surprised," Eden's mocking voice greeted him as they took of the VR headsets. 

Yifan nodded. Sometimes, a man needs to pay his virtues when it's time. "How did you.." 

"University paintball club. Captain," Chanyeol cut off his sentence by pointing at Eden, "Vice-captain," he pointed at himself. She looked up at his face and laughed before her right arm stretched out with a fist and bumped with his. "Great job, Captain," Chanyeol chuckled. 

Eden beamed, "Naturally." Her cocky voice was more of a fraud. "Shall we go and have milk shake after this to not break the tradition?" she suggested. 

"I prefer tteokbokki place," Chanyeol responded, "let's get Yifan in too. We have a new recruit." Eden laughed and nodded. 

Just as the three people enjoyed tteokbokki at a humble Korean restaurant, which Eden booked out the entire restaurant to prevent fangirls from flooding the place, Yifan has started to realise that his pseudo-wife actually has a lot more talent than he actually gives her the credits for.

~~~

[Author's monologue:] I hope you enjoyed the update! It sometimes feel quite bizarre after writing updates because the comment section is much quieter compared to my other fics with bigger reader crowd. Nevertheless, I'm glad you guys are reading this and commenting!