"Wonwoo hyung, can I tell you a secret?"

Wonwoo looked up from his book. Mingyu was useful to have around at the convenience store they worked at part-time, as the younger man did a lot of the work more enthusiastically than Wonwoo ever would, but right now Wonwoo just wanted to read. "I am kind of busy here?"

Mingyu pouted at him. "But I'm not doing anything." True, the two of them were alone in the convenience store right now and most of the shelving and inventory work was done. No customers also meant free time. "I have personal problems I want to talk about."

Damn Mingyu, Wonwoo was already getting to the suspenseful part of the mystery novel he was reading. He sighed as he slid a receipt in between the pages of his book before closing it. "Just make sure it's more interesting than this book."

"Oh." Mingyu chewed on his bottom lip. "I guess it's pretty interesting. Remember that guy with pink hair who came here last week?"

"Uh-huh." Love problems, huh? Wonwoo was already bored. "Your boyfriend."

"He's actually my teacher."

"Huh? Okay." Wonwoo had been so sure Mingyu was going to confess that his boyfriend was in elementary school or something, the guy looked young. "I thought he was younger than you."

Mingyu laughed, a shy smile spread across his face. "Isn't he the cutest?"

"Yeah, he's cute," Wonwoo agreed.

"He is mine," Mingyu countered possessively.  "And he's actually my husband already. We had an arranged marriage."

"Huh? You're kidding."

A bunch of awkward wedding photos on Mingyu's phone says otherwise.

"What the , people actually do this ? I thought this only happened in dramas," Wonwoo said in disbelief as he swiped through the pictures. "Are you rich or something?"

Mingyu shook his head. "No, but…"

-

"Can I get a part-time job?" Mingyu asked timidly over dinner one evening. "There's an opening at that convenience store nearby."

"Sure." Jihoon swallowed his rice before continuing: "Why'd you have to ask me though? Am I your parent? Am I adult supervision?"

"Oh. Yeah." Mingyu was an adult now and could do anything without parental consent, but for some reason he felt like he just had to ask for Jihoon's permission. "Do you have a printer though? I need to print out my resume."

Jihoon nodded. "I have one in my room."

They go to Jihoon's room after hurriedly washing the dishes. The room is mostly neat, aside from a pile of paper on the desk that Mingyu itched to organize. It's a boring room in Mingyu's opinion, mostly black and white and basic furniture.

"Oh cool, you've got a bean bag!" Mingyu plops down onto the black bean bag on the floor, stretching his arms out comfortably.

"You just got excited about a chair," Jihoon remarked from where he's seated in front of a desktop computer.

Mingyu was about to protest about bean bags being so much cooler than normal chairs, but he sees a row of figures in front of Jihoon's monitor and he gets up to look at them over Jihoon's shoulder. "Hey, you collect toys? I like gunpla and remote control cars. You like the X-men? I didn't know you were this cool!!" Mingyu babbled excitedly.

"Yeah, uh, thanks I guess," Jihoon mumbled, turning to the screen which showed that the computer had finally booted. His ears were noticeably red as he held out his palm. "The file you wanted to print out?"

Mingyu hands him his flash drive and sits back down on the bean bag. "You'd be the most popular teacher ever if you told your students!"

"No way. Then they'll be all chummy and won't respect me as their teacher." Jihoon scrunched his nose. He stared at the row of toys thoughtfully. "I used to have more but they kind of cluttered up my room. I donated the others to an orphanage."

"Why?! Those look like collector's items though!" Mingyu looked at him in disbelief. These items looked like hardcore collector geeks would still buy them, as they were well-taken care of. Jihoon sure wasted that opportunity to earn money, what was he even thinking… Then it hit him. "Are you an orphan?" he blurted out.

Mingyu had never seen Lee Jihoon laugh before, and it was like Jihoon didn't laugh his whole life and managed to hold in all his laughter to let it out now. He laughed with his head thrown back, his eyes squeezed closed and his hand slamming down on the desk surface repeatedly.

Mingyu pouted at him. "What's so funny?"

Still laughing, Jihoon opened his eyes to look at him. He wiped a tear from the corner of one eye, his guffawing finally reduced to chuckles. " 'Are you an orphan'?! Where did that come from?! Just because I donate to an orphanage, I'm an orphan?! Can't I so happen to have a co-teacher who volunteers at the orphanage and he asked for donations?" He starts laughing again and Mingyu feels his cheeks turn red.

"But, you donate such expensive stuff! You could've sold those!" Mingyu reasoned. "And your parents weren't at your wedding," he added quietly, regretting it immediately. That was such an insensitive thing to say.

Thankfully, Jihoon didn't look offended. "My parents are very much alive. I told you, they're busy."

"Wouldn't they do everything to see their son get married?" Mingyu's parents sure were happy that they had an occasion to dress up for where they could eat good food.

"No. Not them," Jihoon answered nonchalantly. "Their company is more like their child than I am."

"Huh, your parents own a company?!" Mingyu hadn't heard about this before. "Why didn't my parents tell me?!"

Jihoon shrugged. "Your dad was my dad's coworker. I guess they knew each other before the family company became successful, so it's probably not that big of a deal to your dad."

"Oh." That didn't make much sense to Mingyu. Wasn't someone's background the first thing parents look at when their children got married? But his dad had told him Jihoon was 'an old colleague's son' so Jihoon was probably right. "Then, you needed to get married for inheritance?"

"No." This time Jihoon did look offended. "I have a job. I can earn my own money."

Mingyu thought that was cool, Jihoon was so independent and confident in his own abilities. He was still curious though. "Then why..?"

Jihoon ignored him, instead laughing at Mingyu's ID picture on the monitor. "Why were you so happy to have your picture taken?"

"Hey, my mom said I was handsome in that," Mingyu argued. Then he sighed. "So you don't want to tell me."

Jihoon pursed his lips and stared at the screen and for a while the only sound in the room was the printer. "It's stupid," he says quietly after a while.

"Yeah?"

"Well, I had a normal family before business started picking up for my parents. They were never home, so my grandma brought me up most of my life." Jihoon looked thoroughly embarrassed and uncomfortable, fidgeting in his seat.

"And then??" Mingyu asked impatiently.

"She's at a retirement home back in my hometown and wanted me to get married before she dies. So I had 'someone to take care of me'." Jihoon's face was pink now. "I can take care of myself but I know I'll regret it if I don't at least grant her last wish after all she's done for me, so I called up my parents to get them to arrange a marriage."

MIngyu thought about that for a while. He's actually so touched by the story that he wants to pull Jihoon into a hug for being so selfless.

"Told you it was stupid," Jihoon mumbled.

"It's not stupid." Mingyu grinned at him. "It's actually a better reason than getting married for money."

Jihoon looked down at him from his swivel chair. "You think?"

Mingyu nodded.

"You're weird," Jihoon told him, but he seemed happy. The tension from his shoulders went away and he leaned back to his seat. "I would be pissed if I had to get married just because someone's grandma is dying."

They spend some time laughing at the awkward wedding photos on Jihoon's computer, the feeding-each-other-cake shots being the most awkward of all the pictures. It feels comfortable being able to laugh with Jihoon about stupid things like this, but not comfortable enough for Mingyu to feel like he's stayed in his room for too long.

"Well, good night then," he says before getting up from the bean bag.

"Good night, Mingu." The guy he didn't even know could smile until a few weeks ago gives him the cutest eye smile he's ever seen in his entire life, and Mingyu feels at ease with him somehow. Jihoon sees him out the door which was weird because they lived in the same house, but also kind of nice and gentlemanly.

"Good night." Mingyu waves his resume at him before he headed off to the direction of his room.

"We can get divorced the moment my grandma dies," Jihoon called.

Mingyu didn't know how to feel about that.

-

"That's it?!" Wonwoo asked in disbelief. "His grandma was dying so you just had to marry him?!"

Mingyu nodded, a sheepish grin on his face. "Isn't he the sweetest? He's so selfless."

"That reason is as selfish as any reason to have an arranged marriage. I'd be pissed if I was you," Wonwoo decided. No one in their right mind would be okay with their lives getting changed drastically just because someone's grandma was dying.

Mingyu looked offended. "Why do you think that? Isn't it the most selfless thing to change your whole lifestyle and marry a complete stranger for someone else's happiness?"

"He may be have made a few sacrifices, but think about it. You have absolutely nothing to do with it and your whole life was messed up like that."

Mingyu frowned at him. "My life isn't messed up. I like being with him even."

"You just got used to it. And didn't you say you had personal problems and that it's related to this?" Now Mingyu looked confused. Wonwoo felt a little guilty for making the poor kid actually stop and think, but decides that he was just looking out for him as the older one. At least the story was kind of interesting. But then the mystery novel… "Are you done now?" he asked, wanting to get back to the book as soon as possible.

"Not yet."

Wonwoo sighed defeatedly and retracted his hand from his book. "Well? And what was that about him being rich?"

Mingyu nodded. "His parents own Lee Music. That music store?"

Know? Wonwoo bought his first guitar back in middle school from one of their branches, and also the drum set he saved up for back in high school. Occasionally he stopped by and stared longingly at the instruments displayed at the window. From what Wonwoo knew, it was a company that owned a bunch of shops nationwide that sold all sorts of instruments, both locally-made and imported. They also have a music label under them housing several popular acts. "What the , you married such a big-shot? You should inherit that damn company if he doesn't want it! Then you can make me an idol or something."

Mingyu laughed at that. "You'd look awkward dancing. Hey hyung, I haven't even told you my problem yet!"

Oh yeah, stupid Mingyu kept getting sidetracked. "Well, what is it?"

"My friends know I have a boyfriend named Jihoon and they want to meet him, but of course I can't let them know it's our teacher!"

Wonwoo already didn't like where this was going but he stared at Mingyu's eager expression anyway.

"I know you're very lame, but can you pretend to be my cool and handsome older boyfriend?"

Wonwoo regretted not continuing to read his book in the first place.