“I’m Gwanjin. Nice to meet you.”

“My family are just regular workers.”

“Have they never said they’re proud of you?”

“Wow, you’re so smart! I’m impressed.”

“Here, don’t cry. You are amazing. Don’t let their words affect you.”

“My school is having a dance…Would you like to go to the dance with me?”

“I see…”

“Hahaha.”

“Why don’t you want your family to see us?”

“Hye, you have the most beautiful smile I have ever seen.”

“Here hold my hand, it’ll be less cold. Are your cheeks cold as well?”

“Why are you so stunning?”

“I think I’m hopelessly in love with you.”

“It’s that really a good enough reason for us not to be together?”

“Wait for me, I’ll get you the kingdom you deserve.”

“Is it true? You accepted the arranged married with Kim Joonmyeon?!”

“You’re willing to be unhappy for the sake of your family?!”

“He doesn’t love you! I have seen how he looks at you.”

“No! I don’t understand. For god’s sake, you love me.”

“I would treasure you a thousand times more, and you know it.”

“I got accepted to college. After my graduation, I’m moving to the U.S.”

“Come with me, please.”

“Hye… Goodbye.”

Her eyes shot open. Hye sat up and could feel her heart beat erratically. Her breaths were short and heavy. Sweat beads ran down her forehead. The dream always tricked her to believe it was real. She could hear his voice, his laugh, see his smile, his face, touch his hand, hug him tightly. Even if she had forced herself to forget her secret past, the memories wouldn’t leave her subconscious. And whenever they came back it was painful, unbearable, a nightmare.

Yixing and Joonmyeon were on their way to the place Hye had told Joonmyeon. It was Saturday, and even though Yixing was technically free, he had offered to drive him there. Sure, Yixing didn’t like the idea of his boyfriend meeting with someone else, but when you barely have time to see each other you take what you get. Besides, whenever they waited in front a red light, Joonmyeon would hold his hand. It had its perks.

Last night, Hye had told Joonmyeon to meet her urgently. He knew she was most likely exaggerating, and her issue would be something so minimalistic as ‘what dress she should wear’ to a party that wasn’t until months ahead. She had done it before sometimes. The first time he had hoped it would be Hye telling him she wanted to call off the engagement. It didn’t happen.

“What do you think she needs to talk about so urgently?” Yixing asked.

“Nothing important. I’m telling you, this is just an excuse because Hye wants me to spend more time with her,” Joonmyeon said and sighed.

But then Joonmyeon realized something. Ever since he got together with Yixing, a little over three weeks ago, Joonmyeon had rejected some of the invitations Hye had sent him. In the past, he would have forced himself to see her every day or so. Now it would just be whenever they crossed paths (as in the amusement park) or when she came to his house. He had even stopped answering her calls sometimes. If in fact, this time she was serious, and the problem would be about them not spending time together, he will just have to tell her college was consuming his time. It was partially true.

“What would you do if she wants you to meet her frequently?”

Joonmyeon heard Yixing’s hidden sadness in his tone. It was all unfair. While he and Hye could meet whenever they wanted, none judging them nor impeding their relationship, no hiding, no worries of being caught, he and Yixing couldn’t. Three weeks had passed, and they only had had two long meetings in privacy. The car rides were nice, but it wasn’t much. It was all unfair, yet it was what they got themselves into.

“I-I don’t know. Maybe hope she buys the idea of me being too busy with college.”

“We can always hope.”

The car ride continued for ten more minutes until Yixing parked the car outside the restaurant. Joonmyeon squeezed Yixing’s hand before exiting the car, telling him he loved him and he will be out soon. Yixing said he loved him too.

As Joonmyeon walked inside the restaurant, he noted it was pretty empty. But Hye had reserved a private room for them. It seemed like she wanted them to have an intimate moment. Joonmyeon cursed inwardly and hoped she didn’t scheme something up. He opened the door to the room and saw Hye already sitting there, waiting for his arrival.

Their brunch went by quickly. None of them felt particularly hungry, but they still force themselves to eat. Hye had still not said why she called him there. Instead, she spoke about her family and the preparations for the engagement party.

Joonmyeon just listened and occasionally talked when she asked for his opinion about something. Honestly, he couldn’t care less about what kind of napkin folding they should have. It was all irrelevant for him, and he felt he had been right about Hye tricking him into meeting her.

They had just finished drinking their teas when Joonmyeon stood up, ready to leave. But Hye stopped him and said she needed to say something important. Joonmyeon sat down again, sighing.

“I saw you and Yixing,” Hye said.

“I know, we met at the amusement park last week.”

“No, I saw you and him at Jongdae’s apartment last night.”

Joonmyeon’s eyes widened. He didn’t remember seeing anyone on the building entrance watching them. How could she know? Nervousness overtook his being, suddenly he felt ill and sweaty. What should he do? How much did Hye know? He looked at her and saw nothing. There wasn’t a trace of anger, shock, sadness or hate. She was expressionless, and it frightened him to the core. For now, Joonmyeon figured that for he should just deny everything.

“You must be mistaken. I was with my father.”

Hye sighed and took out her phone. She scrolled through it, stopped and showed Joonmyeon the display. It was the surveillance camera footage of him and Yixing when they hugged at the entrance, then it transitioned to them leaving together (hands intertwined) a few hours later.

“Can’t deny it now, huh?”

Joonmyeon felt even more sickened. Yes, it was careless of them to behave like that, but he never expected someone to actually care about them being there. Jongdae’s apartment complex was isolated enough from snobbish people who knew him and expected drama. That’s why he hadn’t worried too much. So, it didn’t cross his mind that someone would get proof against them, specially Hye. What was Hye even doing there? He tried to come with a lie that could save them both. It was a friendly hug, they were meeting for a guy’s night with his other friends, holding his hand because he was cold. It seemed useless but worth a shot.

Then Hye continued talking. “I heard your conversation with him on Monday. That’s how I found out about this,” she said while pointing at the screen.

“Why the were you spying on me?” Joonmyeon asked her with disdain in his voice.

It was unbelievable that she took the liberty to trespass his house, as it was hers, to intrude his privacy; to eavesdrop his talk with Yixing; to hide like a rat and spy them; even to go as far as to get the surveillance footage. More than feeling frightened about her future actions, he felt indignation, contempt, and hatred towards the woman, who had his and Yixing’s fate in her hands.

“Careful with that tongue. You wouldn’t want my fingers to slip and send this to the wrong person.”

Joonmyeon didn’t bother to hide his fury. His face muscles tensed, his eyebrows were pulled down together, his lips were narrow, and his gaze was bitter. “What do you want Hye? Money? It can’t be that you already have it. And you’re already marrying me soon, so?”

Hye looked at him intensely. After a short silence, she said, “Tell me everything Joonmyeon. How did you fall for a man instead of me?”

Joonmyeon sighed. He didn’t want to but, what could he do about it? At the moment, the ball was on Hye’s court, so he compelled.

“I’ve known him for fifteen years…” Joonmyeon said and started narrating everything that happened between him and Yixing until now.

Hye held her poker-face under the account of events. She looked at Joonmyeon and didn’t utter a single sound of disgust or anything like that, she listened attentively and whenever she asked questions her tone was calm.

“So, that’s the real reason you were together the other day?” she asked when Joonmyeon had told her the part about their date.

“Yes.”

Joonmyeon was still angry, but at the same time, he felt uncertain about Hye’s motives behind all of this. Where was she getting at?

“I almost feel sorry for dragging you with me.”

Joonmyeon clenched his hands into fists and let the remark go. He wrapped up the story by telling her she basically had snooped the rest of it.

“So, you’re telling me you are in a relationship with him despite we being together?”

Joonmyeon shook his head. “You and I are not together, it was planned for us to be it once the engagement was announced,” he said coldly.

“What were you gonna do next? Two-time me? Marry me and have him as your lover?”

“I-… Maybe, I don’t know. But we love each other too much to be apart.”

“What if I expose you guys now?”

Joonmyeon thought about it, what would he do? Runway? How could he get away from the chaos Hye would bring them? Even if Joonmyeon didn’t have the answers, all he could think of was not leaving Yixing despite the turmoil it would cause. “Then I’ll fall down with him.”

Hye finally reacted. She erupted in laughter. It wasn’t a mocking one nor a maniac laugh, it was just a laugh as if she had heard the best joke ever. This wasn’t the reaction Joonmyeon had expected, and it made him uncomfortable.

Hye cleaned the tears that formed in the corner of her eyes. “I’m sorry Joonmyeon, but this is too comically. I can’t do this anymore… You really love him.”

Once she stopped laughing, she grabbed her phone and showed Joonmyeon the screen. She scrolled through it and then she deleted the video.

Joonmyeon didn’t know what to do. This was all so weird. Why in the world had Hye just done all of this if she was going to delete the video?

“Do you enjoy torturing people?” Joonmyeon asked her in disbelief as he felt the tension on his face loosen up.

“Not really, but you kind of deserved it. One for trying to fool me, and two, don’t think I forgot how you were so rude to me the first times we met together,” she said. “I really thought we had progressed this whole time, I never realized you were actually faking it and were in love with someone else.”

“Well, I am. Very much indeed,” Joonmyeon said bluntly.

“You know, I don’t love you either. I don’t think I’ll ever do.”

Her words surprised Joonmyeon. He had been sure of Hye’s feelings toward him, but apparently, it was all wrong. Even the Hye he had seen now was very different from the usual image she displayed.

Then Hye started telling Joonmyeon the story of she fell in love with an ‘unsuitable’ person. How all her life she felt burdened by her family and accepted the engagement to make them proud. How she was heartbroken after Gwanjin left. How she didn’t have the same courage as Joonmyeon to go after the man she loved. And finally, how she had pretended, every single time they saw each other, that she liked Joonmyeon.

Hye laughed again and said it was so comically to see that they somewhat were in the same position. Two people who deeply loved each other were forced to be separated; while two who didn’t like each other were forced to pretend it and had to marry each other. Joonmyeon understood her and laughed as well. Destiny surely was mocking them.

Hye grabbed her purse and got out an USB stick. She gave it to Joonmyeon and told him it contained the original footage from the surveillance camera.

“Thank you. And I’m sorry for being impolite earlier,” Joonmyeon apologized.

Hye smiled at him. “It was also my fault for testing your limits.”

There was a moment of silence in which both thought about what they’ll do now. How could they fix this whole mess?

“Joonmyeon, I don’t care at all if our engagement is canceled. Honestly, I really wish it would. However, I won’t be the one calling it off. I gave my word to my parents, I can’t let them down,” she said.

Joonmyeon looked at her and nodded, he knew she wouldn’t do it.

“You won’t either, will you?” she asked him.

Joonmyeon sighed again. He wanted to do it now that he knew Hye won’t feel vengeful nor hurt by it. But the reality was far from saying a simple ‘no.’ One of the impediments was his father, who wouldn’t allow it. But even if he did ignore his father’s commands, and he knew the old man wouldn’t tell anyone the real reasons behind everything, someday an outsider was going to find out. And they would bring a scandal to the family business, gossip about him and most likely hurt and put Yixing through a lot. This was the biggest reason he hesitated. It was a whole more complicated than just refusing. It was the punishment of being the Kim heir.

“No… I don’t know how to do it without, you know, eventually unleashing a scandal.”

Hye looked at him with pity, she also knew Joonmyeon won’t be doing it. That’s why even if she hadn’t said anything to him, the outcome would have been the same. “I guess we’ll have to live with it for now… On the meantime, I don’t care what you and Yixing do together. I won’t say a word about you guys. And I’ll try to not bother you much onwards,” she said as she smiled at him.

Joonmyeon smiled back. As weird as it sounds, he thought he was lucky he was going to be engaged with someone like Hye (even if he definitely didn’t want to be it). But the thing was that, if it had been someone else, he was sure things wouldn’t have ended this way.

He looked at the clock and saw that it was a little over 1 PM. Yixing had been waiting for him for three hours now. He stood up and said, “Thank you Hye.” Before he left the room, he hugged her. It was the first time he felt glad in her company.

“It’s nothing, at least one of us deserves to be happy in this façade,” she said.

When Joonmyeon got outside the restaurant, he ran into the vehicle and his boyfriend. Yixing hesitated at first, but in the end gave in.

“That took a long time… But Myeon, aren’t you afraid Hye will see us?”

“She knows, Xing. She knows.”

Yixing felt his heart almost jump out. If Hye knew about them, Joonmyeon shouldn’t be hugging him right now. “Why aren’t you freaking out?!”

“Because it’s alright, for now, it’s alright.”