Jinyoung rose early on Wednesday morning and almost forgot why until he checked his phone and saw twelve text messages and two emails from Jisoo. She’d sent them to him at three in the morning last night, and all of them were reminders for him to wake up early and wear something nice to the meeting. 

Right. He was going with her to meet Julie Kiyoko, Embrace’s managing editor. 

After that night at the carnival, Jisoo had sent him an online social media profile that she had made specifically to fool Ms. Kiyoko into thinking they’d been dating for a while. She had also forced him to pose for pictures at the carnival to have something more recent to show her. She had also texted asking him for a selca she could use as a fake background for her phone. He took one with the front-facing camera on his phone and sent it to her, but then she complained about the lighting, so he decided to ignore her until morning just to annoy her.

After a trip to the bathroom for all his morning rituals, he dressed himself in the least offending outfit he could come up with, which ended up being a navy blue suit he had worn just once, when he presented one of his research papers at a symposium last year. He switched the white button-down out for a black shirt to tone down the formality and decided it would do. The Oxfords Nawon had bought him were his only pair of formal shoes, so he settled for those. But he reminded himself to buy a new pair once Jisoo paid him. 

When he opened the emails she’d sent to him, one was a very long, detailed written account of their fake relationship. A script of sorts for him to stick to when Julie inevitably asked him things like how they met (through school), her favorite color (purple), and who wore the pants in their relationship (her, but he was definitely going to negotiate that later.) There were also some fictional embellishments describing non-existent dates they’d gone on. She had also completely glossed over the part where they hate each other. Altogether, though, he was actually a little impressed at how much planning had gone into this. And her writing was as good as ever. 

Jisoo told him to meet her one subway stop away from the Jeon & Sky Publishing offices so that they could be seen walking to the building together. He spotted her standing by the turnstiles. She was wearing a pale pink office dress, and her hair was curled. She was busily typing something on her phone. When he was close enough, she looked him up and down.

Navy blue really was the iest of the suit colors, but she’d be damned before she admitted to herself that Jinyoung actually looked good. Jisoo tried to justify her thoughts by conceding that all men looked good in a suit. 

“What took you so long?” Jisoo asked before she could allow herself to think about that anymore. This was no time to lose her head. Jinyoung looked annoyed at her.

“At least I’m here, aren’t I?” he said, trying not to get distracted by how soft her curls look. “By the way, I’m going to start giving you daily reminders that you haven’t even paid me yet.”

“I haven’t even been hired, yet,” Jisoo said. “And don’t say that around here, someone from the office might hear you. Let’s go.”

Jisoo and Jinyoung rode the elevator up to the third floor and the same girl from last time led them over to a waiting area. The receptionist was a good deal friendlier than Jisoo remembered her, even going so far as to offer her and Jinyoung water and placing a small bowl of rice crackers on the table in front of them. A sugary smile in Jinyoung’s direction, however, solved that mystery. 

Jinyoung reached out and took a handful of the rice crackers. Jisoo had been hurrying him all morning, so he skipped breakfast. He put one into his mouth and took a look around the office. So, this was where Jisoo wanted to work. He’d seen her reading the magazine before, during lunchtime in high school, although he personally wasn’t too familiar with it.

Still, it was a far cry from the kind of work environment he’d imagined Jisoo ending up in: all harsh lighting, phones ringing, and people who looked a good deal more cutthroat than he expected romance writers to look. Then again, thinking back to that smug look Jisoo had given him in the principal’s office all those years ago, maybe she was exactly where she was meant to be.

Popping another rice cracker into his mouth, he looked over at his “girlfriend.” Jisoo was sitting still with her spine as straight as an arrow and twice as tense. He noticed she was holding something in her hands, pressed tight between her palms like a rosary.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“It’s a lucky charm,” Jisoo said without looking at him. He noticed her mouthing something to herself quietly. She was trying to control her breathing.

“Why are you so nervous?” he said. “I thought you said they liked you.”

“They do like me,” she said, turning and narrowing her eyes at him. “It’s you I’m nervous about.”

Jinyoung scoffed. “Why?” he said, grabbing another handful of crackers from the bowl. “Let me guess: you’ve considered the possibility that I’m only doing this to sabotage you?”

He’d meant it at as a joke, but he watched as all the blood drained from her face. Her expression was ashen and grave.

“Park Jinyoung,” she said in a low, threatening voice. “I’m not kidding. If you’re only doing this to sabotage me, I swear, I will—”

Jinyoung stuffed a rice cracker into , muffling her voice.

“I’m joking,” he said, though he was offended that Jisoo really though he would try to keep her from getting hired at her dream job. “You really think I’m the type of guy who would try to hurt your chances at advancing your career? You think I would do that? Thanks a lot.”

Jisoo wanted to snap at him, but she was too busy chewing the rice cracker. After swallowing, she turned an insulted expression at him.

“Yeah? Well, your middle and high school record doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence,” she said, crossing her arms.

“What are you talking about?” Jinyoung said, genuinely confused. “I never tried to sabotage you in middle school.”

Hearing him deny it, however, only made Jisoo even more annoyed. “You called me Kim Peachu in front of the entire class,” she said. “That was day one! Right from the start, you were trying to humiliate me in front of everyone.”

Jinyoung gaped at her and then laughed only because he couldn’t believe she was still holding that against him.

“Wasn’t that was your nickname, though?” he asked. He distinctly remembered stopping by the fruit stand by Kim’s Peaches and Plums and hearing some of the neighborhood children call her that. He thought she would like it if someone at her new school knew her nickname. But Jisoo kept her arms crossed. It wasn’t her nickname, it was just the name that the other kids used when they were calling her stupid or simple. 

“What? No. It wasn’t,” she said. “What, did you talk to the neighborhood bullies where I lived to find some dirt on me before I transferred?”

“No, course not!” he said, growing exasperated. “Jisoo, I was just trying to be friendly. I honestly thought that was your nickname. I didn’t know you hated it. You’re being a little immature, that was years ago. Is that really why you’ve hated me all these years?”

“Keep your voice down,” she said, seeing the receptionist hurrying over. Jisoo quickly put on a smile and tried to pretend everything was fine. The receptionist told them that Julie Kiyoko was finally out of a meeting and could speak with them in the conference room. As they were being led down the hall, Jisoo leaned in and whispered to Jinyoung.

“Remember, you agreed not to let what happened back then get in the way of this,” she said. 

“And it won’t,” Jinyoung said. “Not unless you let it.” Jisoo narrowed her eyes at him again and was about to argue, but the receptionist turned back to see that they were still following her