She stood outside the Kim residence, watching the large property, thinking how one day this will be her house. It was a strange thought, imagining her and Joonmyeon married with children. She continued walking towards the entrance, putting on her best smile.

Hye was the fourth daughter of the Lee family. She was the ‘unwanted child’ of the couple who deeply wished for a male heir. Despite this, her parents had come to love her just as much as her other sisters. But sometimes she saw a sparkle when they looked at her, a small hint of disappointment. All her life she had devoted herself to please her family, to erase that crushing sparkle. She wanted to show them she could make them proud of her. She studied hard; graduated first place in high school; made sure to be a role model; ignored herself and her personal wishes, dreams, and feelings. She was so good at suppressing everything she wanted, she basically became a mannequin, a puppet, a robot programmed to please everyone else but herself. Therefore, when her father had told her the plan of joining their family and the Kim’s companies together, she had accepted the arranged marriage without a doubt. Her sisters tried to convince her to think about it carefully (none of them had accepted those kinds of proposals before), but she said yes. This was her duty.

The doors opened, and she was greeted by one of the maids. Hye asked after Joonmyeon. He was in the main study room. The maid told her to wait in the living room while she went to call him. But Hye knew this place inside out, and she wanted to surprise Joonmyeon. So, she went on her own.

It had been her mother’s advice to occasionally visit Joonmyeon and spend time together. This way they would be able to get to know each other thoroughly before their engagement was announced, and they began their official relationship. Hye did everything she could to make Joonmyeon like her, and she tried to like him as well. This would ease things for them in the future.

As Hye approached the studio’s door, she saw it was slightly open. Joonmyeon’s voice could be heard from the inside. He was laughing. Hye didn’t want to intrude him so, she stood outside waiting for him to finish. Soon enough, though, his conversation grasped her interest and she listened attentively.

“You know I can actually cook, Jongdae taught me. We’ll see who is the best this Friday… Although I might let you win just because I love you so much.”

Her eyes widened at his last sentence. Did Joonmyeon just say he loved someone? She had never heard him say it before, not even to his own father.

“All right, don’t forget this Friday evening! Seven PM at Jongdae’s place. Yes, I love you too. Bye Xing.”

He repeated it, so easy as if it was meant for him to say it. And the name sounded so familiar. After scrolling through her memories, she recalled it could be shorter for ‘Yixing.’ She didn’t want to jump to conclusions but it was unavoidable, the thought ‘Joonmyeon is gay and in love with his chauffeur’ was inculcated in her mind.

Suddenly the door opened, and Joonmyeon looked at her with the same wide eyes. “Hye, Hi!” he greeted her.

Hye glanced at him trying to find anything that could give her a hint of misheard things. There was nothing, Joonmyeon looked sober and fine. He had said those words consciously. Trying to disguise her astonishment, she managed to reply his greeting in a calm and tranquil tone.

“You scared me for a bit,” he said, frowning his eyebrows, “How long were you standing here?”

She saw a transient nervous expression on his face. “Just now, I was about to knock,” she lied.

“What are you doing here by the way?” Joonmyeon asked more calmly, “Has something happened?”

“I thought we could go out and eat lunch together.”

Joonmyeon thought about it for a second before accepting. As they were making their way to the restaurant, they talked about trivial matters: college, family, friends, the weather. Even if she was chatting as normally as ever, she couldn’t stop thinking about what she had heard. Hye wanted to say something, but at the same time, she wanted to see it with her own eyes. Maybe this had been a prank or something between the two men. She needed more proof to confirm it.

Once their lunch was over, they went back to Joonmyeon’s house. Before he got off the car, Hye asked him if they could hang out this Friday night.

She observed Joonmyeon as an apologetic look formed on his face. As she expected, he hesitated and said, “I’m sorry. I have a thing to do with my father. Maybe some other time?” 

This reaffirmed some of her suspicions, he lied straight to her face. Joonmyeon would hardly ever spend time with his father, and now he used him as his excuse. Even if he seemed sorry, she doubted he meant it and wondered how many times he had used his well-hidden acting skills. In the end, she says it was alright, suggesting that maybe next week they could do something instead.

At seven o’clock Friday night, Hye was hiding in her car a bit away from Jongdae’s apartment. She had been waiting for about half an hour. So far the only ones she had seen were Jongdae, who dropped off Joonmyeon at the building entrance and then left again, while Joonmyeon went inside the apartment complex.

She didn’t feel happy intruding Joonmyeon’s private life. She knew she wouldn’t have liked it if he did the same. However, her curiosity was killing her, and even if it went against her morals, she did it anyways. If her suspicions were correct, this could change everything yet nothing for them.

Hye saw someone who she immediately recognized as Yixing, walking towards the entry. He had come, just like Joonmyeon had told him to. Yixing showed up at seven. They were really meeting together at Jongdae’s place, and apparently without the house owner. It wasn’t a joke. It wasn’t a prank. It was real, especially when she saw Joonmyeon opening the door for Yixing, the broad smile he wore and had never shown her, and the way he hugged him tightly, not as friends, but as something much more. What was she going to do about it?

For a while, Hye just stared into the building’s entry even after the couple had left. Many things went through her mind about what she had seen. Her assumptions were correct. There were two possibilities of what she should do now. Both with the possible outcome of living a lie for the rest of her life. Maybe this was fate’s way of telling her to do the right thing, the thing she had always been afraid to admit, to pursue, but deep down wished would come true, even if it was in vain.

After much deliberation of what to do, Hye contacted Joonmyeon. Instead of calling him (or more like not wanting to interrupt him) she texted him saying: “Joonmyeon, please come have brunch with me tomorrow. I need to talk to you. It’s urgent.”

Then Hye glanced the building one more time, before driving back home. For the first time in her life, she felt expectant at the thought of seeing Joonmyeon.