We sat there in the kitchen for a long time now, just staring at one another. Most likely trying to see who would lose out first.

“Look stop.” My neighbor finally spoke.

“Why?” I retorted.

“What? What do you mean why?” He looked dumbfounded.

“Look. Yesung we are not getting anywhere with your ignorance and stupidity. Now, explain this situation.”

“My Ignorance and Stupidity!”

Uh oh. He looked at me crossly. I think I just made him mad.

“Let’s call your sister.” He suddenly suggested.

“My sister? Why?” Okay, now I was the one left dumbfounded.

“You’ll see,” he smirked, and with that he dialed my sister’s phone number. After holding my silence for another 5 minutes, I finally gave in to my curiosity, “Okay, why did you call her?”

“You really want to know?” Grrr. He still had his infamous smirk on his face, which I wanted to slap off his face so badly.

“Of course I do,” I relented.

“Okay.” Good, he finally agreed. “Go to the living room and look at the picture above the fireplace mantle, and then come back and tell me what you see.”

I eyed him suspiciously. What was this guy up to?

“Okay,” I nodded and did as he asked. I walked into the living room only to see a couple in the picture.

I rolled my eyes, “Tch. He made me come here just to look at this. He must be crazy.”

As I was about to turn around, something caught my eye. I looked back at the picture. There was something seriously odd about this picture. The guy in the picture looked awfully familiar, almost like…wait! What? Why did he look like….? I trailed my eyes to the girl in the picture. Wait. Holy! No way! Was that me? Is that me? But then why was I smiling so lovey-dovey in the picture with Yesung? And why the hell was I wearing a wedding dress and him a tuxedo? Why?

I turned around to see Yesung with a grave lopsided smile on his face.

“Bbuh….wha….?” I spluttered, while pointing to the picture.

“Wow. And you called me stupid. Took you long enough to realize.” He walked up to me.

“When did…..? I don’t remember….I never would….Oh, you get what I mean, don’t you?”

“Yeah, sure,” Yesung rolled his eyes, “Look at the left corner of the picture.”

I peered at the corner of the picture just like he said, and read the writing on it aloud: “Congratulations to the Best New Couple, congregated in…what?!!”

“BEST NEW COUPLE!!??!!?” I screeched, and I had every right to. “When did we even…..we’re not even friends!” That was it. My waterworks were coming through. Wrong time for its magic though.

“You’re not gonna cry, are you?” Yesung panicked.

“NO!” Gosh, not in front of him, no!

Ding. Dong.

Great. That was the doorbell. Just what I need. Who could it be? And then it hit me. My sister. Just great. Wonderful. Well, at least now I can tell her to cut this prank out. Yesung went to open the door for my sister, and the two walked in the living room where I was still stuck sorting through my thoughts. I noticed my sister repeatedly glancing at the picture. Hmm. Fishy.

My sister sat down on the loveseat and sighed, “So not fair.”

I edged closer to her; I needed information. Something was wrong, because I could feel it in my guts, and I needed to know what exactly.

“What’s not fair, oh dear sister?” Oh, that earned me a glance. Okay, maybe that was sugar-coating it too much. But hey, at least I didn’t say, ‘oh sweet angelic sister’.

“It’s not fair that you and Yesung have such a nice marriage and are…”

“WHAT!!??!!?” I screeched. When did we go from being a couple to being married? I looked at the picture again and sure enough I was wearing the bridal gown in it, while Yesung was wearing a tuxedo in it. I turned to Yesung who was quietly standing in the corner. So, he was in on this too, huh? He was trying to play some game on me just to get back at me. Well, this one was a pretty good move on his part, but too bad I was gonna have to wring his pretty little neck after this.

This is all your fault! I telecommunicated with him, hoping he got the message. But he just silently stared on.

“Would you stop interrupting me?” My sister, Seo Young, looked irately at me, “Just because you and Yesung are a perfect match, you don’t have to rub it in on someone wh—,”

“What are you talking about?” I interrupted her again. “What do you mean, a perfect match, and married?” I gave her the blankest stare I could give.

Seo Young looked up at me, “Whaa..?” She looked back and forth between me and Yesung, who still hadn’t said anything.

“Oh, I get it!” She suddenly started laughing with a look of recognition on her face. “You two are fighting—what, is this like your first couple fight?—and called me to intervene, so you two could make up. Well then, you got the right person.”

Was she drunk? What the hell was going on? And why did I have this headache… “Oh my god! Did I get drunk last night, and cause an accident?”

All the heads in the room suddenly turned to me. Whoops. Did I say that aloud?

“Aish, sis!” Seo Young looked at me with a look of discontent. What’s with her and giving me weird looks?

“Look,” she said, “I’ll be right back.” And with that she got up and left the room. Like I am going to go anywhere. This is my house after all. Which made me look around and realize that something was off. Well, except for the big picture on the mantle [which I had already noticed, mind you], something else was amiss. I quickly scanned the room, and looked at all the foreign surroundings. This wasn’t my house; this wasn’t where….

“It’s not my house either,” Yesung finally spoke. Oh, so he can speak.

“Yah!” I yelled at him, “Did you—,”

“No, I didn’t kidnap you or drag you half-way across the country.”

“You’re probably—,”

“No. This is not a prank.”

“Well, do you—?”

“No, I do not know anything. I’m just as confused as you are.”

“Fine.” I huffed, “Do you know where—?”

“No, I do not know where we are. Like I said, I don’t know what’s going on. Though this place does look kind of familiar.”

“I bet you—,”

“Yes, I also have a headache. You’re not the only one with it. I hope all we did—,”he flicked a glance at the picture, “—was just drink.”

I noticed his gaze at the picture. Did we have a framboise in Vegas, which is like 4,000 miles away from home?  Nevertheless, “We need to—,”

“Talk. I know.” He interrupted me again. I gave him a stupefied look. Can this guy read my mind? Just then my sister walked in.

“Here,” she handed me a book, “Oh I see you two are talking to each other.” She patted me on my shoulder, then said, “Remember, you two are married now. There will be a lot more arguments and fights to come. No use denying your marriage now. So make up and be good to each other, kay?”

I gave her a look, and if looks could kill, believe me she would be a goner.

“What’s this?” I asked her.

“Some advice you always gave me when I was having marital problems.”

“Huh?” Boy, was this a really weird dream. I opened the book—which was a photobook—and as I did, a picture fell out and fell on the ground. I bent down and picked up the picture only to see something was written on the back. The text read:

      “To our beloved wife and husband,

              May they be blessed in this communion”

I hadn’t seen this picture before, so I flipped it over and looked at the photo. It was Yesung and me standing at the altar and kissing as a seal of promise. I looked up at Yesung shocked and slapped myself real hard. Ouch, that was painful. Okay, so not a dream.

“We’re married?” I trembled with renewed shock, “You’re my husband?!”

******************************************************************************

“AAAAAH!!! Aaaaahhhh!!!!”

“What? What the hell is going on?” My sister, Seo Young came out to see what all the commotion was about. Yep. That was me screaming. I was on my third lap around the house, flailing my arms and screaming my head off, while Yesung was watching me with his arms crossed.

“How long has she been at it?” Seo Young asked Yesung.

“Since she found out we’re married.” He answered nonchalantly.

“That long, huh?” she replied back, which earned her a strange look from Yesung.

“AAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!” I yelled even louder. They needed to be reminded of who really was in turmoil here. I continued to run like crazy around the house, determined to let my anguish, confusion, and frustration out.

~~~~~~~~~~2 hours later~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I grumpily drank some hot water, while Yesung sat across from me at the kitchen table.

“You really are an idiot.” He flicked my forehead. I grunted in disagreement. This . I couldn’t speak, because due to all that screaming I had temporarily lost my voice, coupled with a sore throat.

“Seriously. How could you run around screaming like that? What about the neighbors?” he continued nagging. I gave him a look, because frankly speaking, I couldn’t speak.

“If anyone should scream, it should be me.” Boy, this guy talks a lot.

“You think you’re the only one who’s upset about this arrangement.” He huffed. Sheesh, if he was a wolf, my little piggy house would have blown away.

“Hey,” he suddenly grinned, “I’m kind of liking you not speaking. At least then you’re less of a fool.” I kicked him in the shin, simply because he deserved it.

“Tch. You’re still a big old oaf without a brain,” He said as he looked me up and down.

Suddenly, my voice came back, “You’re seriously going to sit there and talk nonsense about me.”

“Ooh. She talks.” He pretended to be amazed, which earned him another kick in the shin.

“So what’s the deal,” I asked, “Why aren’t you surprised?”

Was he in on this, or not? I had to find out what was going on.

“Well, first of all, I am. I’m just having a late reaction.”

To that, I had to snort. “Riii~ghht. Late reaction. Anyways, so what do you think is going on?” I had to ask him for his opinion.

“I’m not sure, actually. But I do think that perhaps our friends are behind this and pulling a prank on us. Though, I’m surprised your sister is on in it too.” He began rubbing his temples. “Oh my head is killing me!”

“Oh! Mine too! I think last night I might have had too much to drink.”

“Seo Young made some hangover soup before she left. I think we should drink that.” 

“Good idea,” I said as I went to get the soup from the kitchen. Surprisingly, like instinct, I knew my way around.

We both drank the soup—more like gobbled it down our throats—in silence.

“Man, your sister makes the best hangover soups,” Yesung praised after he finished.

“Pfft,” I said while slurping the last bits, “That’s only because half the time she’s coming home drunk. It’s a wonder her husband can manage her.” Which reminded me…

“Speaking of husbands…,” I started, “What are we gonna do about us?”

“Wait!” Yesung suddenly got up and walked away.

“What? What?” I got up too.

“This.” He got out his phone as he came back. It looked new, considering I hadn’t seen it before.

“Really?” I looked at him in disgust, “Is this the time to be flaunting off your new cell phone?”

“No. The date. I can’t believe this!” He exclaimed. “My birthday was yesterday!”

“Your birthday?” Okay, now I was confused. “Your birthday isn’t till another…”

“Look.” He freaking shoved his phone in my face. Rude much.

“OH. MI. GOSH. I can’t believe this!” I almost jumped out of my chair when I looked at his phone.

“I know right. This is unbelievable! I missed out on my birthday.”

“”No! You idiot. The freaking home screen.” I practically clutched the phone in my hand, refusing to let go.

“What? Oh that.” He said referring to my picture as the background on his phone. “That’s not what’s important.”

Did I mention that it was my picture?! Like my face. Mine!! On his home screen.

Before I could scold him further for improperly using my picture, again my picture, he grabbed the phone from my hand.

“Look. Don’t you see what this means?”

“Yeah, that you took my goddamn picture without my permission and—,”

“No, I mean yesterday was my birthday, and so we probably spent it with our friends. They probably threw me a birthday bash or something and pulled some sort of birthday prank on us, like a hidden camera.”

“Birthday prank? So all of this—,” I waved my hand around us, “—is a birthday prank pulled by our friends?!”

He grinned. “Most definitely.”

Oh, they are so dead.