It had started out as a marriage of convenience--for both of them. His family would gain a wealthy new investor, and hers would finally achieve recognition from the elite “old money” families by being connected to his. They didn’t have to love each other and they were perfectly fine with marrying each other for their respective families. He didn’t have anyone special in his heart, and neither did she--at the time.

Their snow-white wedding took place on a beautiful spring day, with the sun shining brightly and flowers blooming all around. There was a gentle breeze and birds chirped melodies into the air. It was perfect, and it was emotionless.

Each said “I do” without a care for the commitment they were technically agreeing to. He knew he would be too submersed in his family’s business to worry about love or anything anyway. She thought she would be too busy studying and hanging out with her friends to meet anyone worth her while.

And so, they were each taken by surprise when Cupid’s arrow struck them in the heart and complicated their lives.

After that, there was no going back.

The sun rose on the fourth month of their loveless marriage. Slowly, they had grown fond of each other, but neither close nor intimate. They were simply friends.

They had a simple, boring, daily routine: he would get up early and make coffee for the both of them, and leave for work with maybe a bit of toast in his mouth, while she would wake up slightly later and prepare for school, making lunches for the both of them and dropping off his at his office before she went to class. After school, she would either spend some time with her friends, study at the library, or go straight home to work on homework. He would return home, tired from a hard and busy day at work, to see her cooking dinner in the kitchen, and they would smile platonically at each other and chat politely until the food was ready and they sat down to a warm but distant meal. Afterwards, they would retire to their respective rooms, because neither cared to awkwardly share one room and one bed, courteously bidding the other good night, and would not see each other until morning.

That was their life.

It all began to change one fateful day when he had gone out for lunch with a client. Said client had just left and he himself was preparing to return to his office as well when something familiar caught his eye in a nearby cafe. He squinted closer before inhaling suddenly; it was her. And she wasn’t alone.

She was sitting and laughing like she had never laughed around him. Her companion was a handsome young man, probably a classmate, and that was all. None of her regular friends were with them; it looked like they were on a date.

He dialed her number and watched as she picked up and answered, “Youngjae?”

“What are you doing?”

“Huh?”

Youngjae began to move closer but remained invisible to her roaming eyes. “I said, what are you doing?”

“I’m...having lunch with a friend. What’s going on?”

He was close enough now to see her left hand and was surprised by what he saw. She had moved her ring from her fourth finger to her first and turned the diamond inward so that it looked like she was wearing a simple gold band that could be anything from a friendship ring to a random piece of metal, but not like a wedding band.

Oddly, this angered him. “A friend, is he? Doesn’t quite look that way.”

He saw her eyes widen. She began to search her surroundings frantically. “What are you talking about? Where are you?”

“Why so agitated? It’s just a simple meal with a friend, right?”

“Youngjae!”

He smirked as he saw her “friend” looking very confused and worried. “Your ‘friend’ seems worried for your sanity. Eun Ae, listen. You are the wife of one of the most successful businessmen in Seoul. I know you didn’t want this marriage but now that you are in it, you have to keep up appearances. As my wife, you are always followed. It doesn’t matter that you’re still a student in university; the tabloids are just waiting for you to slip up and do something scandalous. If they see you flirting like that with a man other than me, you can be sure that it will be tomorrow’s headlines. Your actions could hurt not only my business and family, but yours as well, because you are now my wife. Do you understand?”

She hesitated but finally said, “Yes.”

Youngjae exhaled in relief. “Good. I’m not stopping you from spending time with your friends, even other men, but at least be discreet about it, okay?”

“I understand. I’ll leave right now.”

“Separately.”

“Okay. By the way, where are you hiding?”

“Me?” Youngjae chuckled as he looked up at his tall business building. “What are you talking about? I’m here at my office after having lunch with a client.”

She arrived home, calling out “I’m home!” to what she assumed was an empty house. To her shock, Youngjae appeared and said with a smile, “Welcome home.”

“W-what are you--what about work?” He was never home this early. Ever.

“I didn’t have too much to do today so I thought we’d go on a date,” he replied casually.

“A-a date?”

“Yes, a date,” he repeated as if she were a little child who didn’t understand. “Because I can almost guarantee that someone saw your little date with your ‘friend’ so we need to do something to counter that. And I can’t believe you even hid your ring.”

Eun Ae’s eyes automatically flew to her ring finger where she had replaced the ring after leaving the cafe.

“Do your friends not know you’re married or something? Or were you really trying to have an affair?” Youngjae seemed amused.

“No!” she blurted. “My friends know but Jongup--” She gasped and clapped her hand over , cursing herself for slipping up. She didn’t want Youngjae to know about Jongup because she knew that now he was going to ask someone to do a detailed background search on her new friend and maybe threaten him to leave her alone.

“Jongup, hm?” Youngjae looked thoughtful.

“Please! Don’t--don’t do anything to him!” she begged. “He’s really just a friend! I’ll make sure I never go out in public alone with him anymore! Okay?”

Youngjae just looked at her. “Maybe you shouldn’t have become friends with him in the first place,” he said, raising his eyebrows.

“I know but...” She tugged her hair helplessly. “He’s just so nice and sweet and funny and he’s pretty much the only guy who doesn’t judge me or use me for my money or fame.”

Youngjae felt an odd squeezing sensation at her words. “Well then, shouldn’t you want to protect him? By getting involved with him, you could bring the entire media down on him.”

“I...I didn’t think of that,” she whispered fearfully. Tears swam in her eyes.

“Yes, I know you didn’t, but now you know, so if you must be friends with him, keep it in school. And even then, be very careful, because I assure you that there are reporters keeping tabs on you at the university.”

“This is why I hate being rich,” Eun Ae muttered. She sighed and finally dropped her backpack on the ground, putting on some slippers before walking into the kitchen in search of a snack.

“Don’t forget, we’re going on a date,” Youngjae called after her as he trudged upstairs to change. “Be ready to leave in ten minutes.”

It was truly a perfect day, the sun perfectly shining, and they were the perfect couple, laughing merrily on their perfect date, perfectly dressed in their perfect clothes.

It was all perfect. And so it was fake.

He asked her where she wanted to go but she said she didn’t care, so they strolled down the street past cars and parks and shops, until her eyes finally alighted on something interesting.

“Youngjae. Can we go in there?” She looked at him with shining eyes, trying to contain her excitement.

He laughed and nodded. “Whatever you want.” He casually took her hand and she visibly stiffened.

“Eun Ae,” he hissed out of the side of his mouth with a forced smile, “act more natural. We’re on a date, for goodness’ sake.”

“But we’ve never gone on a date before!” she reminded him with a strained laugh.

Youngjae suddenly remembered how relaxed she was with Jongup and forced himself to say, “Then...pretend I’m Jongup or something. Okay?”

She took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay.” She smiled at him, still stiff, but slightly more relaxed.

Why?

They walked amiably, swinging their linked fingers, looking for all the world like any beautiful couple enjoying a beautiful day together.

It was a beautiful facade, and one that somehow managed to fool everyone.

They reached the dainty little flower shop and Eun Ae grinned happily. “Isn’t it adorable? Jongup told me about it when he found out how much I love flowers and gardening so I was really excited when I saw it.”

Why?

“You like gardening?” he asked in surprise.

“Yeah, haven’t I told you?”

“No,” he said, “you haven’t.”

“Oh.” She frowned. “Well, I do.”

Youngjae simply nodded and led the way in.

A bell tinkled as the door opened and shut and they walked in, awed by the beautiful bursting blooms of color all around the tiny shop. Eun Ae ran in, carelessly pulling her fingers away from Youngjae’s, her skirt flowing, her hair trailing behind her like an afterthought.

“Hello!” an elderly woman’s voice called out. “Welcome! How may I help you?” A short, frail-looking old lady with a kind smile and strong eyes waddled out from behind a huge basket of red poppies.

“Ah, halmeoni!” Eun Ae bowed quickly, and Youngjae followed suit. “You have such beautiful flowers!”

The old lady chuckled. “Thank you, dear. Actually, my grandson helped me grow many of them. He should be here soon. I’ll introduce you.” She noticed Youngjae standing awkwardly in front of the door and beckoned him over. “Come here, come here! And who might you be? Oh, are you her boyfriend?”

Eun Ae stopped admiring some yellow buttercups and looked at Youngjae, blushing. “Ah, no. He’s my...um, my...”

“I’m her friend,” Youngjae quickly supplied with a smile, though on the inside he felt a sharp pain. Why was she so reluctant to call him her husband?

“Only her friend?” the old lady said shrewdly. “But you’re such a handsome boy!”

“Oh, no, I’m nothing special,” Youngjae denied with a bow. “But thank you very much.”

“So polite! If you don’t take him soon, someone else will steal him away!” she told Eun Ae who simply bit her lip, still red, and looked down bashfully.

“Alright, well I’ll leave you two for a while. I have some flowers to bring out.”

“Would you like some help?” Youngjae offered but the old woman waved him away.

“Shouldn’t you be helping her?” The old lady grinned at him, gesturing in Eun Ae’s direction, before laughing and walking away.

Youngjae walked over to Eun Ae and looked at the flowers in front of her. According to the handwritten tag, they were called scarlet pimpernels, despite the fact that they were clearly bright blue.

“Aren’t they beautiful?” Eun Ae sighed blissfully. “I love flowers.”

“Do you...” Youngjae hesitated. “Do you want to plant your own garden?”

“Huh?” Eun Ae looked at him with wide eyes.

Youngjae said hastily, “I mean, we have a huge yard and it’s pretty empty and I just thought it might look nicer if there were some plants.”

She smiled softly. “Thank you. I’ll do my best to make it the prettiest yard in the whole world!”

Youngjae chuckled, feeling relieved. “How ambitious.”

“I’m confident in my abilities!” She giggled as she skipped down the aisle, stopping every so often to sniff and gaze at some sunflowers, or magnolias, or daisies.

Youngjae watched her with a smile and thought, She’s so cute.

And then he thought in surprise, Whoa. Where did that come from?

Truthfully, he had always thought she was beautiful because she was. It was a fact. Everyone thought she was beautiful.

But cute? That implied something more.

Youngjae was quick to push those thoughts out of his head. She was beautiful and that was that.

“Ooh, look at these beautiful lilies, Jong--” Eun Ae cut herself off before she finished the name.

They both knew whose name she was about to call.

Youngjae pasted a grin on his face. “It’s okay. I told you to pretend I’m him, right?”

Slowly, she made her way back to him and bowed. “I’m so sorry. That was really rude of me. I-I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” he reassured her. “No need to apologize.”

She straightened and look at him with sad and regretful eyes. He never wanted to see those emotions in her eyes again, especially because of him.

He shook his head. “It’s fine. Really.”

“Youngjae.”

He looked at her.

“Why did you tell that halmeoni that you’re my friend?”

“Aren’t I? I thought we were friends, at the very least.” He tried to laugh.

“But Youngjae...aren’t you my husband?”

He smiled self-deprecatingly. “Ah yes. Well, you didn’t look like you really wanted her to know that.”

“Really?” she said softly, mostly to herself. “I looked that way?”

“It’s okay, though,” Youngjae dismissed. “Because it’s not like we married for love or anything. I’m sorry for that, by the way. I don’t need love, but I think that now you want it, right?”

“But Youngjae...everyone needs love.”

And before he could reply, the bell rang again and someone entered the shop.

“Jongup!” she gasped, immediately running to him and forgetting Youngjae.

Why am I just so invisible to you?

“Maybe you’re right, Eun Ae,” Youngjae muttered to himself wryly and he turned to face the one person he never wanted to see again, “but I sure as hell can pretend I don’t.”

A/N: This was supposed to be a oneshot but then I thought it was going to be too long so now it’s probably going to be a threeshot.

Anyways, I hope you like it! It didn’t turn out as sad and angsty as I’d planned...but it’ll get there, I think, lol. Poor Youngjae. TT_TT

Questions, comments, concerns? Talk to me! I’m super friendly! :D

I think I'll stop adding these author's notes at the end of each chapter for all my stories. They're annoying, right?

© Copyright 2013 by skyblaze208