After dinner and some light conversation with dessert, it was time for the relatives to say their good-byes and return to their homes, all except for one family, Young Min and his mother. They were going to stay for the night before starting on their 5-hour long drive home the next morning.

Mrs. Song, who was unaware of the bet her two youngest children had made, was trying to figure out the sleeping arrangements to accommodate the two extra people. With all four of her children and their spouses, it was a full house. But she wasn't annoyed; in fact she had missed the house being this loud and rambunctious since Jae Kyung had gotten married and moved out.

At the moment, Mrs. Song was thinking of putting all the girls together in two of the bedrooms and all the boys in the remaining two; that seemed the most logical way to split them. Joong Gi entered his old bedroom where he found his mother setting up an extra space to sleep on the floor.

"What are you doing, Mom?" he inquired.

"With my sister and her son staying over, we have to rearrange the room to accommodate them. So you'll be sharing this room with your older brother and Soo Han," she replied.

"Mom, you don't have to do that. Jae Kyung's room is free. She and Jun Hyung are spending the night outside," Joong Gi informed with a smile that was just a little too excited at the prospect of his sister's suffering.

Mrs. Song stopped setting up the bed and looked up at him suspiciously. "What did you do?"

Joong Gi put his hands up in defense. "Hey, it wasn't my fault. She lost the bet. But it works out now, Aunt and Young Min can take her room."

After hearing that her troublesome younger cousin would be sleeping in her room, Jae Kyung threw a fit. "You better not touch anything, Kim Young Min!" she warned.

Young Min innocently blinked at her. "What are you talking about Noona? You don't trust me?" Jae Kyung was fuming; she knew of her cousin's true devilish nature underneath that angelic façade.

"Don't worry, Jae Kyung," Young Min's mother assured, "I'll keep an eye on him." But Jae Kyung was far from assured as she turned to Jun Hyung with narrowed eyes. "This is all your fault," she muttered through her teeth before heading outside towards the shed to dig up the tent.

"Dude, I hope you have something good planned because right now, I don't see this going well for you at all given Jae Kyung's mood," Joong Gi teased as he saw their exchange before laughing to himself in amusement.

Seung Hun stood nearby with a worried look as he watched Jun Hyung trudge after Jae Kyung. Something good planned? He didn't want to think of what that could mean, not with his baby sister.

Some might say Song Seung Hun had a sister complex with the way he was so overprotective of Jae Kyung. He wasn't that way with Ji Hyo, but the difference between his two sisters was that Seung Hun distinctly remembered the day Jae Kyung was brought home from the hospital. He was 11 years old and had already developed a sense of responsibility as the oldest child. So when Jae Kyung arrived, he took on a greater role in her upbringing than with either Ji Hyo or Joong Gi. With that over-protective nature, and a bit of jealousy towards this new male who had entered so suddenly in Jae Kyung's life, Seung Hun employed a plan of his own.

"Soo Han," he called to his son. "How would you like to go camping?" Soo Han brightened up with an eager smile. "Then how about you go join Jae Kyung Noona outside and sleep in the tent?" he suggested. Soo Han nodded and ran outside to find Jae Kyung, leaving Seung Hun smiling to himself in satisfaction. He felt assured knowing that whatever Jun Hyung might have had planned had to account for a small child in their presence.

Outside, Jae Kyung had found the tent in the shed and was in the process of figuring out how to set it up. The last time she remembered using the old thing was years ago, when she was in elementary school. She and her siblings had planned to spend the night one summer, pretending to camp, but it ended up raining with heavy thunderstorms that day, so they instead set the tent up inside.

While Jae Kyung stared at the mess of material on the grass with a puzzled look, Jun Hyung and Soo Han sat a small distance to watch. "Hyung, shouldn't we help Noona?" Soo Han asked Jun Hyung.

Jun Hyung shook his head with an entertained smile. "If she needs help, she'll ask. Until then, let's just see how far she can get."

Jae Kyung struggled for a good ten minutes, getting nowhere, before she gave up and hesitantly approached Jun Hyung. "I…need your help," she quietly muttered.

"What was that?" Jun Hyung asked, putting his hand up to his ear.

"I need your help," she stated a little louder.

Jun Hyung smugly smirked and stood up. "Okay, I'll help my wife. You can sit back and relax."

Jae Kyung joined Soo Han on the grass and watched Jun Hyung look at the rods in front of him before he started putting different pieces together, using logic and a few directions that were inscribed into the material.

"Hyung is really good at this," Soo Han remarked in awe.

Jae Kyung scowled. "Why is he so good at everything?" she muttered bitterly to herself. He had proved to be more athletic than she initially thought at kickball earlier and now he was able to figure out how to put the tent together, one that he didn't even have clear directions for.

"It's all done," Jun Hyung said as he stepped back and looked at the final product, a large 6-person tent.

"Yay!" Soo Han exclaimed as he jumped up and ran inside to explore the interior.

"Not bad," Jae Kyung mumbled before she too joined Soo Han inside.

Jun Hyung scoffed at her lackluster praise before he followed after to inspect his work from the inside. It was very roomy, which would be necessary given how Jae Kyung slept. She would probably end up taking one half of the tent while Jun Hyung and Soo Han slept on the other side.

With the tent set up, the three set up their sleeping bags and pillows inside. Even though Jae Kyung offered to sleep next to Soo Han, he instead insisted on sleeping next Jun Hyung, knowing from experience about Jae Kyung's sleeping habits.

But while Jae Kyung attempted to sleep that night, all she could do was toss and turn, and the sound of her continuous shuffling was preventing Jun Hyung from falling asleep. He finally sat up and glared over at her. "Yah!" he loudly whispered, trying not to wake the sleeping Soo Han. "Stop moving and just sleep!"

Jae Kyung also sat up with a troubled sigh. "I can't, knowing that Young Min is sleeping in my room. I just know that he's going to do something to it," she replied.

"Really? That's what you're worrying about?" he scoffed back.

Jae Kyung gave him a dirty look. "I can't sleep like this. I have to prepare a counterattack," she said to herself before stepping out of her sleeping back and leaving the tent.

Jun Hyung chose to ignore her as he lay back down and closed his eyes, willing himself to sleep. But a few minutes passed and reopened his eyes; curiosity was getting the better of him and with a sigh, he left the tent to look for Jae Kyung.

He found her near the shed, hovering near the outdoor faucet. She was filling up water balloons and hoarding them together in a bucket. "Really? This is your counterattack?" he mocked from behind.

Jae Kyung jumped slightly and ended up spilling some water on herself. "Did you have to creep up on me like that you creepy creeper?"

Jun Hyung crouched down next to her and picked up one of the still-deflated balloons. "You're so childish," he remarked.

Jae Kyung grabbed the balloon out of his hand roughly. "Why are you here anyways?"

Jun Hyung sat down on the grass more comfortably as he continued to watch her fill the balloons. "I had a feeling you might be doing something stupid, and turns out I was right. Plus, I'm not exactly comfortable sleeping outside. Why the heck did you force me to join you anyways?"

"Well, I would say it's because misery loves company, but for you, it's more like what goes around comes around."

Jun Hyung rolled his eyes in response before staring at her silently for a while, as if trying to figure something out about her. "You know, I don't get it."

Jae Kyung continued to fill the water balloons. "Get what?"

"You said the reason for needing this contractual marriage was so you could escape your family. But after meeting everyone, from your brothers and sisters, to your aunts and uncles, and even your second cousins, I really don’t understand why you would want to get away from them." He rubbed his palm on his cheek as he recalled Aunt Gem Ja's painful pinch. "Except for one," he muttered to himself.

Jae Kyung's expression turned somber at the sore subject that always brought down her mood. "You wouldn't understand," she bitterly muttered. 

Jun Hyung was proud and conceited, and from what Jae Kyung could tell, very capable with a well-planned out future taking over his father's company. She on the other hand, was a recent college graduate who had basically wasted four years of school to end up where she had started, lost and unsure about what she wanted to do with her life. If she confessed to him that on top of that uncertainty, she had an inferiority complex to her successful older siblings, he would only scoff at her for being so weak-minded.

"Try me," Jun Hyung challenged. Normally he wouldn't care to pursue the topic, but he couldn't sleep. So he might as well fill the time with something.

Jae Kyung stared at him, contemplating on whether she should "try him". She knew she couldn't tell him directly in words her problems; she had a hard time admitting it even to her best friend, Min Jae. So she decided to go with a very close analogy instead.

"You know how baby birds, before they mature and grow up into adult birds, are taken care of and fed by their parents? They chirp and whine for food and rely on their mother and father to shield them from rainy weather. Then, there comes a day when they have to learn to fly, and leave the nest, which generally requires a lot of pushing and encouraging from their parents. Except, there are some birds that don't need to be pushed. They just up and fly on their first try and they end up soaring really high. Then there are those birds that no matter how hard they try, they just can't seem to get off the ground at all. All they can do is…pathetically jump and just watch from below while their brothers and sisters reach for the sun." Jae Kyung's voice drifted to a soft whisper as she desolately stared at the space in front of her.

Jun Hyung was quickly able to put together the analogy between the baby birds and Jae Kyung and her siblings. "So basically, you have an inferiority complex with your brothers and sister," he bluntly stated.

Jae Kyung pouted at how he had so easily deprecated her problem with his condescending tone. "There's more to it than that," she defensively argued.

"Yeah, like what? I mean, from what I can see, even if you're not as successful as your siblings, your parents will love you just the same."

Jae Kyung scoffed at his reply. "You were the one who said not to judge a book by their cover, yet here you are doing just that. You think everything is as simple as just having a happy family where you goof off with your siblings and your parents coddle you no matter what?"

Jun Hyung's expression hardened as her words struck a nerve, because that was exactly what he wanted, and it seemed to be handed on a silver platter to her.

"When you're constantly surrounded by perfection, it makes your own flaws stand out more. And my parents, all they do is smile and say, 'It's okay, you're trying. So even if you fail, we'll always be here to catch you'. But…I can't always live with that constant safety net underneath me. I have to prove that I'm capable of providing for myself, right?" She turned to Jun Hyung with a pleading look, as if asking for his concurrence.

Hearing the desperation in her voice, Jun Hyung's expression softened. But if he was being completely honest with himself, what she had said was applicable to him as well. Reflecting on his recent past, he had behaved recklessly without guilt because he knew his wealth and background would atone for it. But when his own safety net had been threatened to be taken away, particularly in the form of disownment from the one thing he treasured most, family, only then did he buckle down and attempt to prove his worth. Yet here she was doing just that, but also wanting that cushion to be removed. Seung Hun's words from the day of their wedding echoed in his mind. Jae Kyung is a strong girl. She always keeps a fighting stance on the outside, but inside, she’s still a vulnerable little girl. He was starting to think there was more to Jae Kyung than her childish antics and stubbornness.

Jun Hyung had been silent for a long while and Jae Kyung felt self-conscious as she awaited his answer that never came. She cleared awkwardly before turning back to fill up the last few water balloons. She chastised herself for admitting as much as she had to him; he would probably use it against her one day. "So, what about you?" she asked, wanting to direct the focus away from her.

Jun Hyung cleared his head of his rampant thoughts before responding. "What about me?"

"There must be something more to your reason for needing this contractual marriage," she pressed on. "You said something about getting back in your father's good graces, but did you really have to get married to do that?" She finished tying up her last water balloon. "I mean, it's not like you were going to get kicked out if you didn't," she jokingly added.

But what Jae Kyung didn't know was that that was precisely what would have happened if he didn't get married. And the fact that she had brushed off the possibility so easily made Jun Hyung's defenses about his own problems rise up, in full force. How could she ever sympathize with him on how it felt like to be threatened with disownment when she herself had just confessed to how suffocated she felt by her coddling family? She may have let herself become an open book, but Jun Hyung wasn't going to expose any of his vulnerabilities to her. Mixing business with personal matters always proved to be detrimental, and what they had was strictly business.

Resuming his hard expression, Jun Hyung abruptly stood up, making Jae Kyung eye him in perplexity. "It's not any of your concern," he coldly answered before heading back towards the tent.

Jae Kyung scoffed in annoyance at his retreating back. After pouring her guts out to him, that was his response? She felt her irritation growing and without thinking, stood up to throw the water balloon in her hand at Jun Hyung's back. The balloon popped and resulted in a splashing sound as the water dripped down his back and drenched his shirt.

Jun Hyung stopped dead in his tracks and turned his head to examine his back. His attention went to Jae Kyung who stared back with a satisfied smile. "You did not just do that," he growled.

Jae Kyung shrugged with an innocent smile. "Sorry, the water balloon just slipped out of my hand. But at least now I know it works," she replied with a laugh.

Jun Hyung narrowed his eyes before he started approaching her. Jae Kyung quickly stopped laughing and cautiously eyed him. "What are you doing? Don't come any closer!"

Jun Hyung's lips curved into a crooked smile as he neared the bucket of water balloons next to Jae Kyung. "What goes around comes around. Those were your exact words," he answered.

Jae Kyung's eyes widened and her body started moving before she could even think. She leaned down to grab the bucket of water balloons, but found it too heavy. So she opted to grab as many as she could before making a run for it, away from Jun Hyung.

Jun Hyung grabbed a few water balloons himself and started running after Jae Kyung, throwing a water balloon as he did. He hit her shoulder and she cowered as the cold water dripped down her shirt. "Aish!" she screamed. She turned around to throw another balloon at him, which he was able to block with his arm.

The two continued running and throwing, the awkward tension that had formed between them after such a personal conversation, quickly subsiding. The noise woke the sleeping Soo Han in the tent, who groggily stepped outside of the tent and witnessed the sight of his Noona and Hyung chasing each other and throwing water balloons at one another. He quickly became alert as he ran towards them. "I want to play too!" he whined. He found the bucket of water balloons and after grabbing a few, joined in on the water balloon fight.

Laughter and general horseplay ensued as alliances were made and then quickly broken among the three. Only when there were no more water balloons did the three finally fall down on the grass to catch their breaths.

"That was fun!" Soo Han exclaimed. He sat up and looked down at his clothes that were drenched. "But now I'm all wet," he said with a pout.

Jun Hyung also sat up. "You've got good aim, kid," he complimented Soo Han, ruffling his hair and eliciting a giggle from the child.

"Aigoo," Jae Kyung said with a big sigh as she forced herself upright. "We should change out of these wet clothes before we catch cold." She stood up and held out a hand to Soo Han to pull him up.

Jun Hyung followed suit after the two. Soo Han held out his free hand to him to hold, which Jun Hyung took with a smile. And like a happy family, the three made their way back towards the house.

While Soo Han quietly entered the room his parents were staying in to get a change of clothes, Jun Hyung and Jae Kyung entered her own room. But as soon as they did, Jae Kyung's mouth dropped at her posters that had been vandalized. Except all the graffiti had been strategically done on one member of SHINee, her bias Minho. She walked towards her favorite poster a solo shot of Minho, where his beautiful teeth had now been out and a mustache drawn on his face.

Her attention quickly turned to Young Min sleeping in her bed, a smile on his face as he still hugged the black marker in his hand. She grit her teeth as she contained her anger from being released in a physical manner. With her water balloon plan now nixed, she instead took the marker in his hand and drew her own masterpiece on Young Min's face. She smiled at her work once she was done before placing the marker back in his hand.

Jun Hyung came out of the bathroom in her room, having changed into dry clothes, and witnessed the sight of Jae Kyung grinning at Young Min. He saw what it was that made her happy and he disapprovingly shook his head at Jae Kyung's childish vindictiveness before leaving her room. He met up with Soo Han in the hallway and together, the two returned to the tent outside.

"Hyung," Soo Han called to Jun Hyung while the two lay next to each other in their sleeping bags. Jun Hyung turned his attention to him. "I thought you were a scary person when I first met you. But you're just like Noona. You're both really fun." His eyes started drooping close. "Hyung, I really like you and I'm really glad you married Jae Kyung Noona," he managed to utter before his eyes shut and he fell asleep.

Jun Hyung stared at Soo Han's sleeping face with a troubled look. What would Soo Han think of him when he and Jae Kyung divorced? More importantly, why did he care, when this marriage ploy was purely business.

The tent shuffled with the entrance of Jae Kyung, who took up her spot in her sleeping bag on the other side of the tent. "Are you sleeping?" Jae Kyung whispered after a moment's silence.

"No," Jun Hyung replied after some hesitation.

"About the conversation earlier," she reluctantly began, "can we…pretend that it never happened?"

Jun Hyung didn't answer for a while as he contemplated her request. "Yeah," he finally answered. There was no reason to give her a hard time about it, especially when acquiescing went along with his "no mixing business with personal matters" methodology towards their contractual marriage.

Jae Kyung breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks...Good night," she said before turning on her side and attempting to sleep.

"Good night," he quietly replied, not audible enough for her to hear.

While he lay there, trying to sleep, Jun Hyung couldn't help but think back to the conversation she had just asked him to forget. That moment when the usual headstrong and impulsive Jae Kyung looked so helpless and vulnerable, he actually had the strangest urge to reach out and comfort her. But that compulsion was fleeting, because as soon as the tables turned and the attention was on him, his cold exterior returned.

Besides, what would she know of his affairs? His demanding father that always held high expectations was nothing like her encouraging and supportive parents. And his distant older brother that never had the time of day for him was nothing like her fun and reliable older siblings. She would never be able to understand him, and therefore he kept his defenses up. Things were just easier that way.

Author's Note

Have you guys seen Yo Seob's Valentine's Day gift to his fans? I totally wasn't expecting it: Although I

February 15, 2013, 9:43 PM