Chapter 01

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"Yah, dork. I sent your marriage registration papers already. Can't you send back even a half-hearted "thanks" these days?"

N Cha Hak Yeon twitched at the screen, which stared back at him in the form of his elder sister's rude text-message. He would have flung the cellphone to the farthest corner of the sofa, rolled over and be done with it, but a disconcerting thought crossed his mind as he registered his noona's words.

Raising one knee from where he lied on the plush sofa, Hak Yeon typed across the keypad, frowning and suspicious.

"Where did you send them to?" he texted in reply.

The return message beeped back at him in record time. Less than twenty seconds, he'd say.

"Passed the envelope over to your newest manager. Told him to pass it over to any one of your dongsaeng. Wait... It hasn't reached you? Aaa. I suppose not then."

By that time, Hak Yeon was already scrambling off his lazy lounge and grabbing his jacket from the floor.

Chances were it was too late, and he strode across the room with a neutral expression on his face and gritted his teeth just to keep the act long enough not to explode on innocent victims.

XxXxXxX

"You're sick?" Ravi prompted and Ken was briefly distracted as the rapper passed by, downing water straight from the bottle and glancing at the envelope in his hand.

Blinking hard, Ken swiveled to look all over the room. It was a healthy suspicion to have, to suspect for the possibility that there was a hidden camera somewhere.

Then again...

To hell with it.

With the large brown envelope, Ken tottered to Ravi and sidled up close, until they were pressed shoulder-to-shoulder and the rapper was pausing to look apprehensively at him.

"This letter is for Hakyeon-hyung," Ken whispered conspiratorially. "I opened it because it was calling me to."

"What it says?"

Of course, there was a mutual, if un-spoken, understanding between them that this was actually illegal, not to mention dangerous--considering their Cha Leader had the tendency to strangle the life out of people he liked, much less those who crossed him...

"It's a bunch of documents." Ken explained somberly, deciding that Ravi should read them himself, in case the rapper would simply think it was his daily dose of jokes. "Try to calm down."

Once the papers switched hands and Ravi had taken enough amount of the details in to understand the gist of VIXX's N Cha Hak Yeon's current situation, Ken listened to the quiet intake of surprised breath from the rapper, his expression changing from a frown to mild wonder, and finally a low whistle and a raised brow.

"Hakyeon's name is on them." a soft, familiar voice suddenly chimed in from between them at the back of their heads.

"!" Ravi cursed, Ken jumping nearly out of his skin as they both swiveled around. "Aa hyung! Normal humans have footstep sound. You almost killed us!"

Leo blinked, undisturbed and clearly not feeling guilty.

"Hakyeon might kill you." he pointed out.

"Coming back to that," Ravi scrunched up his face. "What do we do?"

"You think it's a hidden camera? This might be another show to screw us over with." Ken suggested, somewhat hopefully.

But still, how the hell to react in the first episode that threw papers of marriage registration belonging to one's leader in the face?

"I don't know." Leo said. "Give the envelope to Hakyeon, either way."

"Uh..." they both shuffled their feet.

"Hyung, you go." Ken tried. "Hakyeon-hyung will never hurt a strand of hair on your head."

"Never." Ravi emphasized, holding out the envelope to Leo with both hands and a straight-backed bow.

"We are the only ones who ever punched each other though." Leo reminded them.

Aaa. Ken and Ravi looked at each other. The huge, emotional and physical fight which had ended up with Cha Hak Yeon ignoring Jung Taek Woon and surprisingly ended with Jung Taek Woon taking the initiative to make peace first.

But that was a different matter altogether, and from the proactive measure it was obvious Cha Hak Yeon had been in the right, even if somewhat drastic.

"So from that incident, you know how scary he can be, hyung." Ken implored, and did his best to make his eyes as puppy-shiny as he could, attemping to take advantage of Leo's weakness for anything adorable really.

It worked.

Without another word, Leo Jung Taek Woon grabbed the envelope with a look that said he was irritated to be given this task but that he couldn't turn it down. He then strolled away from them without glancing back.

Ken bent down rubbing his chest in relief, and exchanged a high-5 with Ravi.

XxXxXxX

Switching to the next video, she picked up another slice of cucumber and nibbled on it, eyes glued on the screen despite the slight dissatisfaction still lingering in the pit of her stomach.

"Hakyeon doesn't hate you." Hyeri-unnie had told her that. "He just doesn't like the fact that it's not his own decision. Not willingly, anyway."

And she understood. She felt the same. She knew he understood that as well. And so he was polite. She couldn't point out any rudeness coming from him, but somehow, just somehow... His good manners were aloof. Distant. Cold?

There was civility, yes, and it was genuine, but definitely no warmth. Not even a trace of it.

The reason she felt her husband was a robot instead of a proper human guy.

Is he acting his part in Error? Soo Bin tsked at the screen, which shone bright with VIXX's official music video Rock Your Body. The slice of cucumber in her fingers was cruelly bitten and chewed. And she went for the next victim on the plate.

Ahhh I'm annoyed. How come he's smiling more real dancing in there than around our families? Is it really torturing him to be married to me? Come to think of it, he even smiled better when we were filming for the drama. Aish...

Three rapping knocks on the door from outside the bedroom stopped her train of rambling thoughts.

"Soo Bin-ah, your husband is here."

Simple as that, the door clicked open and none other than VIXX's leader was standing right in the doorway to her bedroom.

Soo Bin nearly swallowed her tongue.

Omo! Yah what is this! Dressed in her large t-shirt that was too short and a little shabby from years of favored use, Soo Bin scrambled off the sofa, clumsy and horrified at the giggles coming from her manager as the evil woman retreated and closed the door.

N Cha Hak Yeon simply stood and stared, and as Soo Bin remembered his usually impeccable manners, she turned to him with a small frown.

"Oppa, aren't you supposed to quickly apologize and turn around?"

To her surprise, he smiled.

The smile was light, nearly invisible, but she thought for the first time there was a flicker of warm amusement in it.

"I usually did that because there were other people around. I don't need to, right now. It's just me and my wife."

Soo Bin blinked.

"Are you playing around?" she asked, carefully.

"I wish."

Ouch.

Soo Bin inhaled and reminded herself that she liked his honesty, in her mind known as Ha Dong Jae moment.

He walked in further, closer, and Soo Bin stood awkwardly as he inspected her bedroom with its girlish furnishing before he stopped to stare at the tv-screen which still blared with VIXX's official music videos.

"I am trying to get to know you better." Soo Bin bravely confessed.

Cha Hak Yeon frowned, and with his hands buried deep in his jacket pocket, standing clad in perfect fashion sense compared to her in a childish excuse of a pajama, Soo Bin's heart skipped many beats.

Other girls might look at him now and think he was hot, but in their situation he was scary. Soo Bin wanted to squeeze her eyes shut and scream murderer in the house.

Except that when he turned from the tv-screen to her, there was guilt on his face.

"We should go on a date." he said.

"W-why?" she didn't want that.

"Because you don't have to learn about your own husband from videos."

"But I don't mind."

"Soo Bin-ah," Cha Hak Yeon stood towering in front of her, and as she blinked rapidly, he leaned down close enough to make her step back. "Are you afraid of me?"

"No." it was too quick.

He laughed. Loud, and clear.

"What. I'm the cutest, most harmless leader in the industry." he smiled directly in her face then, eyes full of mischief.

It was the cheerful air she'd seen him wear often around his group members. In videos.

"But you're not my leader. And I know you hate this marriage." Soo Bin pointed out.

"Hate is a strong word. I don't hate it. I just haven't come to like it yet."

"You think you ever can? I'm nowhere like Girl's Generation's Seohyun-unnie."

Cha Hak Yeon laughed again.

"You did learn something, from those videos."

Of course. She'd learned from those videos that N Cha Hak Yeon of VIXX thought of Girl's Generation's Seohyun as his ideal girl, that he could be ahjumma-like talkative and hyper to the point of overwhelming the rest of VIXX, that he was a good spender, that he danced really well, and that he cared a lot about his group members and always considered their fans.

"We don't have to interact more than what is comfortable for you." Soo Bin informed. "Other than family gatherings--"

"--I've spent the last two weeks thinking about this," he interrupted. Soo Bin watched him as he raised his hand to run his fingers through his hair, dyed blond since even before their wedding ceremony, and thought that he seemed frustrated more with himself than anything else, as he made a mess of his own hair. "We should either make it work, or bring into it the next drama cliche by discussing a contract about it. This marriage."

Make it work? Could they?

For one, Soo Bin had not had much thought at all about marriage, prior to this arrangement by their families. And while she didn't really dislike Cha Hak Yeon, there was definitely no fondness enough, either.

And even as she had not had much thought about it before, she knew marriage was a thing too huge to be given less than 100% percent of efforts into.

"Do you think we can make it work?" Soo Bin tried.

"I'm confident I can make you love me," Cha Hak Yeon smiled. "But I'm not sure if it would be love for a brother, or a lover. You're still so young."

"I'm not. I'm twenty-two this year." a bit miffed, Soo Bin frowned.

He looked surprised.

"I thought you were nineteen."

"Oppa, aren't you the one feeling very old?"

"That's true, lately." he laughed.

She wanted to tell him that he looked somewhat less energetic in the latest videos she'd watched, compared to those recorded in the past, but she held her tongue on that one and asked instead,

"Are you worried about breaking the news to your agency?"

"I'd be lying if I say I'm not. But like my noona said, there's nothing in the contract that prevents me from getting married, so it's not a real worry." he looked at her intently, and snorted with a grin. "Your eyes might hurt from some unwanted spotlights though, once we declare our status."

"Maybe." Soo Bin pressed her lips into a thin line.

The thought of being attacked by VIXX's horde of passionate fans had given her nightmares.

"Our Starlights are good kids. But if the spotlights get too bright for your eyes that they begin to water, I will protect you," Cha Hak Yeon pulled out a sunglasses from inside his jacket, and plopped it onto Soo Bin's head, before pulling it down onto her nose-bridge that she found her sight to be comfortably dim. "Like this."

There was still that huge doubt in her head, her heart, but the gesture felt warm, and Cha Hak Yeon coming over tonight was the first initiative he had taken alone without any of their family members tagging along trying to make the two of them closer.

Now touching the rim of the sunglasses with her fingers, Soo Bin smiled.

Because she had also learned from those videos, that VIXX's N Cha Hak Yeon was a worthy leader, and that was good enough for a start, to at least put some trust in him.

XxXxXxX END of Chapter 1.

Author's Note: Do bear with any blunders I make. Constructive criticisms are much welcomed! Yes? No? Thanks for reading, anyhow (: