CHAPTER 5: Lotto/Louder

            It was 8 in the morning and the room was filled with warm light that embraced you. It felt nice, even if you slept on the sofa: the sofa felt nice, the ambiance of the room in the morning was nice, the whole place was nice. It was too peaceful that you forgot the not so good things that happened yesterday.

            Your eyes fluttered open as you sat up and stretched from the sofa. You grabbed your laptop on your side by the coffee table and surfed the net to check for any updates on social media.

            As you were browsing on Facenote, a certain headline in bold of an article caught your attention.

            EXO’s Chanyeol Held a Secret Wedding?

            You were just scrolling down the feed but you stopped to check this one. You clicked on the link to view the whole post.

            EXO’s Chanyeol Held a Secret Wedding? Along with the other members and SM staffs. At 3’o’clock in the afternoon, some have caught and took pictures of what seems to be the wedding of a well-known international idol group EXO member, Park Chanyeol. In the picture, he was caught wearing a white suit and beside him was his newly-wedded wife. Though the picture is blurry, it can be made out that this is a wedding scene with the two couples at the center and the other members captured in the picture as witnesses or groomsmen of the event. Questions are, who is this girl? Is this wedding for real? Or is this just some plot for their next comeback? A few who have witnessed the event have said that the SM staffs and crew were there and they were filming the scene. Is this something that fans should worry about? It could just be a shooting for the group’s comeback. Stay tune for more updates.

            At the middle of the article, there was the blurry picture. Good thing your face didn’t show as much because you were facing Chanyeol and captured in side view. Though, that wasn’t the important part. There was a leak. The information leaked.

            ‘I thought SM would be smart enough to keep things like this from coming out before the said release.’, you pondered as you bit your lip in worry. ‘I need to tell Chanyeol about this…’

            You stood already but changed your mind. You can’t talk to Chanyeol. You can’t even approach the guy. You plopped yourself on the sofa once again, leaning your back on it.

            You sat promptly as an idea came to mind and you reached out to get your phone. ‘Oh, I should tell Moon Ji instead.’

            The moment you unlocked your phone, MoonJi already has a message for you.

            ‘Good morning, ___-unnie. Don’t worry about anything. It’s all part of the plan.’

            “Oh.”, you uttered. So I guess there’s nothing for me to worry about. The agency has it all covered.

            You grabbed onto your laptop once again and the site with the article you checked minutes ago popped out on your screen. You decided to check the comments of the article, if it had any. It did and it was over a hundred too soon even if the article was posted just 3 hours ago.

- Yeah, it’s just their next comeback story but why Chanyeol-ah? Chanyeol’s gonna pretend marry some girl? T-T

- Their next cb has a wedding concept on it? It could like their winter cb’s, like the dramatic ones. Anyway, looking forward to it!

- That girl is so lucky! So jealous! T-T

- What if it really is a wedding? There are no news that they’re planning a cb though and they just did a month ago. This doesn’t seem like their repackaged album because it’s a whole different concept.

- Good point^

- If this is a real wedding then T-T WHYYYYY CHANYEOL-AHHHH. WHY SO SOON AND WHO’S THAT GIRL??? WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL US???

- NO!!!^ T-T

            Most of the comments were filled with envy and agony from the fans. If you were not the one being married to the idol, you bet you’d feel the same way but of course, you’d try to be more understanding because it’s someone you idolize, someone you support more than ever.

            As you browsed through hundreds of comments because you had nothing better to do, your phone beeped. The name “Trish” popped out of your phone screen with a message.

            ‘OMG. I can’t believe you’re actually married to him. I saw that article and it seemed like it was really you. How are you now? Are you with him now? Do you live in the same house? Can I call you?’

            You typed in a message to your best friend right away.

            ‘Wait a bit. I’ll call you. I’ll just get off the apartment to get some breakfast.’

            You decided to get some breakfast as you heard your stomach growl. You were definitely hungry. If you wait for a few more minutes, you’d probably hear your stomach sing the whole song “Growl” of EXO along with the choreography.

            You picked up a hoody and some jogging pants from your luggage. You haven’t really sorted your things out yet since you don’t know where to put your things at the moment now that there’s an awkward boundary between you and your newly celebrity husband. You went to change on the clothes you got, wore some plain comfy slippers and headed out.

            Chanyeol was wide awake hours ago. He just passed time at the bedroom, checking his SNS and listening to music with his headphones on. He jumped out of the bed when he overheard a thud outside. He recognized it was the door and he went out to check if it’s you who came out or someone came in.

            “Uhm, lady….”, Chanyeol started to look around. Great, he refers to you as lady because he doesn’t remember your name. What a great start as a newly-wedded couple.

            What’s her name again?, Chanyeol scratched his head as he went to the kitchen. “Lady I’m married to, are you here?”

            I guess she’s the one I heard.

            Chanyeol opened the fridge for food. There was none.

            Man, I’m hungry. We need to get groceries.

            His attention was immediately diverted when his phone rang. He ran to pick up his phone in his bedroom. It was Baekhyun who calling him.

            “Chanyeol-ah, did you saw the article?”

            “Good morning, what article?”

            “Secret Wedding?”

            “Oh, yeah. Yeah, of course, I saw the leak that our label usually does.”

            “Did you see me? We were all mostly blurred out. They could have taken a nice picture to post in the article.”

            “Ugh, yeah. That’s the main issue here.”

            “Heh, did you see the comments?”

            “Yeah, it was as expected anyway. Some fans are asking me on Instapic already if I did get married.”

            “So did Mrs. Park saw it too?”, Baekhyun’s voice changed into a teasing one. “Is she there with you? How was your first night?”

            “Cut it out, Baekhyun-ah. I don’t know if she saw, she probably did since she’s a fan right. Oh, and she’s not here with me.”

            “Where is she? Did you not made her happy last night?”

            “Ya!”, Chanyeol was starting to have a bad morning, he wanted to hang up the phone this instant.

            “Hey, is that a way to talk to your hyung?”, Baekhyun raised his voice to show authority.

            Chanyeol sighed, “Okay, I’m sorry but stop with the teasing, hyung.”

            “So where is she?”

            “I really don’t know. She left a few minutes ago. We don’t even talk.”

            “Well, you guys should talk you know. It’s gonna be weird and awkward if you don’t.”

            “I know but it’s not like we have to.”

            “Whatever, Chanyeol-ah. You two are gonna have to at some point.”

            “I hope that point of time never comes.”

            “Wow, harsh.”

            “Okay, talk to you next time,  hyung.”

            “De, bye Chanyeol-ah, greet Mrs. Park for me.”

            “De.”

            Oh, I forgot to ask hyung about her name. He remembered he didn’t have to ask. He just had to look at the handouts that MoonJi gave them yesterday.

            “Oh, it’s ___.”, getting what he needed, Chanyeol decided to browse the pages further. “Might as well check this and find something I could use.”

            Chanyeol walked toward