A few days later, Alia received a message from Yoongi.

Yoongi: Hey, how are you? So, my father has been driving me crazy about you ever since the wedding. If you have some time this weekend, would you like to meet up?

Alia: Yeah that sounds good. My mother has been driving me crazy as well.

Yoongi: How does Saturday night sound? Pick you up at 7?

Alia: Deal.

Alia: Wait, how do you know where I live??

Yoongi: I have my sources… ;)

Alia laughed at his message. She guessed that it wasn’t exactly a big secret. Information like her address would be easy to find out for someone as well connected as his family. She let it slip to her mother over dinner that she was meeting Yoongi at the weekend and her mother almost dropped her spoon in delight, even though she tried to hold it in. “Thanks great honey. Make sure to wear something nice. I have a lovely dress that I bought just last week, I think it would lovely on you.” Alia resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

Her mother couldn’t understand her aversion to all the fancy gowns that she practically lived in, even at home. She preferred to wear comfortable clothes, rather than stuffy dresses which made it hard to sit or walk like a normal person. She also hated how much money these designers charged for a simple piece of fabric, which in her opinion, was not worth the money. She also knew that the dress had most likely been bought on purpose, her mother often pretended that she bought the dress for herself, but with their height difference of almost a foot, it was obvious that her mother had bought the dress specifically for her.

Yoongi sat at the dinner table with his parents, soft classical music playing in the background. Meals were usually a quiet affair in the Min household. His father ran his family like he ran his business, with an iron fist. His mother was a quiet woman who was happy for her husband to run things, while she indulged in her hobbies of painting and piano. Yoongi cleared his throat, gaining the attention of his parents. “I’m meeting with Park Alia this weekend.” He said, keeping his tone light. His mother beamed at him, “She’s a lovely girl. Her mother is a good friend of mine.” She said happily, gazing at her husband who was looking at Yoongi intensely.

“Why her?” he asked gruffly. “We met at the wedding. She seems nice, and I’m sure she meets your requirements.” Yoongi said back, keeping his tone cool. His father had a short fuse, and Yoongi’s temper could be just as bad when pushed. His mother often compared the two of them to bulls. His father nodded once before returning his attention to his meal. “It’s about time.” he said as he continued eating. Yoongi released a quiet breath, thankful that his father hadn’t complained about his choice in Alia.

After dinner, he spoke to his father’s assistant who had confided in him that after seeing the two of them interacting at the wedding, his father had ordered a complete background check to be done on Alia and her family. Yoongi had managed to get a copy of the report, disgusted at the level of detail his father had requested. The report had almost every piece of information about Alia and her family. He even had copies of her report cards from school. He had barely glanced at the report before throwing it into the shredder, not interested in prying into her private life in such a manner.

That Saturday night, Yoongi arrived at Alia's home at exactly seven pm. He stepped out of his sleek, silver sports car, following the butler into the living room where Alia and her mother were waiting for him. He smiled brightly at them both before presenting a bunch of flowers for each of them. Alia’s mother blushed slightly while Alia tried to hold her laugh in as Yoongi introduced himself to her mother. She could tell her mother was completely smitten with him. After a brief introduction, Alia pulled Yoongi from the house, telling her mother that they had reservations at a restaurant and couldn’t be late.

Yoongi waved off the butler and held the passenger door open for Alia, making her chuckle at him. She buckled her seatbelt as he slipped into the driver’s seat, looking like he was born to drive the expensive car. He sped out of driveway and headed out to the motorway. “I think our plan is working already.” Alia said over the quiet music coming from the speakers. “Really?” Yoongi asked, one hand on the steering wheel, the other resting lazily on his leg. “Yeah, my mother is obviously smitten with you, and my father hasn’t mentioned marriage once since I mentioned that we were meeting up.”

Yoongi smiled, “Same here. I think my mother is just happy to see me with someone to be honest.” Alia chuckled. “I’m sure there are always girls, and guys, around you Min Yoongi. I heard you even have your own fan club.” Yoongi chuckled, feeling a little embarrassed. “How do you know that?” he asked, glancing over at her, happy to see that she wasn’t fully dolled up like a lot of the other girls he knew. She still took pride in her appearance, she was wearing makeup, without being over the top, her hair was nicely styled, and her black trousers and blouse looked smart, but comfortable.

“I may have googled you after the wedding.” She admitted with a laugh. Yoongi chuckled along with her, surprised by her confession. “Really? So what does google have to say about me?” he asked curiously. “Min Yoongi, born in 93 making us the same age. Your father runs one of the biggest IT companies in Asia. Your mother has been making a name for herself lately with her paintings. You are set to take over your father’s company but you have interest in music which you’ve always wanted to pursue. You have a massive fan club with more members than most idol groups, your Instagram has over two million followers even though you’ve only posted about ten things. There was a rumour around six months ago that you were dating a very attractive swimsuit model from China.  Should I keep going?” she asked with a grin.

Yoongi shook his head. “Please don’t. It’s so embarrassing.” He said, his eyes glued on the road in front of them. “The thing with the swimsuit model was just a rumour by the way.” he added, hoping it didn’t put her off the idea of continuing their plan. He pulled into the car park of a small restaurant. He pouted as she opened the door and got out. “You were supposed to wait for me to open the door for you.” He said, nudging her with his elbow when she walked around to his side. She chuckled, “Ok fine, don’t pout. I’ll wait next time, alright?” she said as he led the way to the restaurant. The waiter opened the door, immediately greeting them and leading them to a small, private room at the back of the restaurant. Yoongi held out her chair for her before taking his own seat.

The waiter placed glasses of water in front of them and handed them each a menu. They quickly made their decisions and placed their orders, the waiter leaving, closing the door behind himself. Yoongi picked up his phone, music flowing through the speakers in the room a few minutes later. “So you already know so much about me, I need to find out some more about you.” Yoongi said, leaning back in his chair. Alia smiled, “Not much to tell to be honest. Oldest daughter of the Park family. My family expect me to marry someone who will take over the company in the future. No boyfriend, a lot of pressure to get married. I’m currently working in a publishing company because I have a passion for writing.” She shrugged. “That’s about it.”

The waiter brought in their drinks, before leaving them alone again. “So how did you get the idea of the two of us pretending to date?” Yoongi asked as he sipped on his drink. She shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably because my mother went on a complete rant at me before the wedding about how I'm getting old and that it’s time I stopped avoiding all of the blind dates and picked someone or she's going to pick for me. I think the fact that my younger sister is so willing to date makes her more frustrated with me. The difference between me and my sister is that she never keeps a guy for more than three months whereas I can’t find one at all. Most of the guys in my family’s social circle are all stuck up idiots.”

Yoongi chuckled, “I hope I’m not included in that.” She smiled at him. “Do you think I would have made this proposal to you if I'd thought you were like that?” she countered as she took a sip of her own drink and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Good point.” They waited as the waiter brought in their food, both of them thanking him before starting to eat. “So, no second thoughts about this?” Yoongi asked. Alia shook her head, “Nope. How about you?” she asked. Yoongi shook his head. “Nope. I think it’s a good idea. My mother is pleased that I’m finally dating someone and you meet my father’s requirements, so I think I might actually get some peace for a while.” She smiled. “Exactly the same in my home. My mother just about cried when I told her we were meeting tonight. I think she thought that I was going to die alone or something.”

Yoongi chuckled at her blunt words. most of the girls he was used to dealing with never spoke so bluntly. They always spoke like their parents had instructed them too. Always acting like perfect little wives instead of real people, which is why Yoongi had never had any interest in any of them. If he was going to have to spend the rest of his life with someone, he wanted it to be someone that had their own personality, someone who wasn’t afraid to speak their mind. He wanted someone that he could have a real conversation with, and not someone who would just mindlessly agree with him because that’s what they thought he wanted to hear. Unfortunately, those types of girls were hard to come by.

Even though he hadn’t told her, he had known who Alia was before he had sat next to her at the wedding. He hadn’t sat beside her with any ulterior motives, but her reputation for being different from the usual spoiled brats around him had spread amongst his friends. She was strong willed, and wasn’t willing to play the role of a perfect housewife just because that was what expected of her. Curiosity had fuelled him to strike up a conversation with her to see if she was as her reputation suggested, and he had not been disappointed.

“I’m sure it’s not that bad. I hear you’ve had more than one marriage proposal over the past few years, but you’ve turned them all down.” Yoongi said, the small piece of information from his father’s report on her stuck in his mind. “That’s because all those proposals came from guys that didn’t even know me. They were just proposing because their families had told them to.” She said, sounding annoyed by the whole thing. She bit her lip before continuing. “I know it’s stupid, but I want to date someone I actually connect with. I don’t want my marriage to be a business deal.”

“It’s not stupid.” Yoongi said, his voice low and full of understanding. They exchanged a look, taking each other in. Yoongi was the first to break eye contact. “So, we should come up with some kind of game plan.” He said, shaking Alia out of her thoughts. “Y-yeah, we should.” She agreed. “We should come up with a good story, and make sure we iron out all the details so that our families don’t get suspicious.” He said. Alia nodded. “I’m not sure how long we can keep it up, but if we play our cards right, we should be able to get out families to lay off for a few months at least.”

Yoongi nodded, his expression suddenly turning serious. “We should agree that if one of us meets someone that we like during this time, we can call this off. It would be hard to explain what we’ve got going on here if one of us finds someone while we’re pretending to date.” Alia nodded, “Agreed. If one of us meets someone, we can ‘break up’ without causing a scene or a scandal with our families.” Yoongi smiled at her. “Let’s get planning.”