“Yah.” I felt someone punch my shoulder and I jerked upright from my bent over position from writing in my diary. Sehun eyed my book. “Are you really doing homework at the dinner table?”

I nodded my head lying. “Yeah. Well, I have to stay on top of my game okay?” I placed my pen inside the page I was working on and then shut the book closed. “Besides, we’re in a private room. No one can see what were doing right now.” I placed the diary in the new purse that Sehun had bought to match with my outfit that I was wearing that day.

“Don’t say that.” Sehun unfolded his napkin and placed it on his lap.

“Say what?” I said following his actions.

“That we’re in a private room and no one can see what we’re doing right now…” Sehun looked at me, giving me a charming smile. “You’re giving me ideas.”

I gave him a look, clenching my teeth. “Aish, yah so nasty…” I scooted my chair a bit further from him shaking my head. “You try anything and I will walk out of this.”

He gave me a look as he scooted closer to me with his chair. “Walk out in front of your sister? Whaaa…Please do. I’d love to see the look on her face for THAT.” I found myself in a stare down with Sehun.

“How do YOU know if she’s going to react at all?” I asked widening my eyes as much as I could.

“Well, she’s your big sister and if she’s anything like mine…They are all loaded fireworks waiting to burst at the wrong time.” He tilted his head widening his eyes as well. 

“You’ve only met my sister once…” I scooted in closer to try and get in his face to tell him I was subtly winning, though my eyes were starting to sting at this point. “How do you know if she acts like that?? Huh? What if it’s actually the opposite? What if SHE fears ME??” Lie. Obviously I fear her more than God’s wrath sometimes…

Sehun smiled coming a bit closer to my face. Our noses now touching. “Who would fear you Jagi?” Jagi? As in Jagiya!? I felt my heart drop to the pit of my stomach and I blinked furiously loosing the contest. Did he just call me Jagi!? Like…what?! After carefully drying the tears from my eyes, I saw Sehun on the side laughing. I punched him on the shoulder.

“YAH! When the heck did you start calling me that?” I scooted over closer to him and kicked him on the shin, doing no damage. “When did we start calling each other those kinds of pet names?!”

Sehun bent down rubbing the spot where I kicked him, still laughing. “Since today.” He suddenly stopped laughing and sat up straight, as if the switch from “child” to “businessman” was flicked on. “We need to give the impression to your sister that even as your fake boyfriend, I am good to you.”

“So, what, I still have to act couply around you even if my sister knows the truth?” Ugh, but I thought this dinner we could put our guards down just once…Isn’t that why I told my sister? So I DIDN’T have to act out this couple charade in front of her?

“Well, yes because I want to show her how convincing we could be…. That we could pull this off with no worries from her.” Sehun started straightening out his own plate setting. “I mean, its my fault that I’m putting you in such a stressful situation, and since your sister is the only  family you have here…I don’t want her to worry about you so much knowing that you’re in good hands.” He kept his gaze on the plate rather than my face. “I mean, she has you, the twins, and herself to worry about, being the oldest and all, you know? At least, when she sees me taking care of you, hopefully she can have one less thing to worry about.”

I opened my mouth to say something and then closed it. You know, I’ve never heard him talk so…sensitively before. It sounded so…sincere. It was as if he was really my boyfriend who cared about my well being… Maybe I should thank him—

“Good acting huh?” Sehun slouched down, smirking at me from his depressed position. “Did I convince you?”

I looked at him in a confusing manner. “What?”

Sehun took his phone out from his pocket and started looking at it as if he was going to ignore the question. “That whole thing about caring for you and all… It was just a practice round. Of course we could act normal around her.”

My jaw wanted to drop. Wow, and to think he was beginning to become something and get nice words from me. “You little…” Before I could pounce on him to choke the living life out of the man, there was a knock on the door following the entrance of a familiar face.

“Oh, annyeonghaseyo…” Soo Yeon entered dressed up with her full makeup done…A look I haven’t seen in a while. She stopped midway looking at the scene before her: I was still standing over Sehun, hands wrapped around his neck; Sehun’s hands were on my wrists trying to push me away. “Am I interrupting something?”

“Anni! Aniyo!” I unwrapped my hands around his neck, now placing it around his collar. “Just straightening out his tie… That’s all!” I pulled on his tie straigthening it. Sehun grabbed my hands and then stood up pulling me with him.

“Annyeonghaseyo Soo Yeon-ssi.” Sehun gave a low bow, putting his hand on my head, pushing me down with him. When we both straightened out, I gave him a good smack across the back of his head.

“My my my” Soo Yeon laughed taking her seat at the table across the two of us. “That’s some skin ship that you two have there.” She motioned us to both sit down. We both sat down, scooting the chairs farther from each other, hitting the ends of the table. Skin ship? Ha. Should I tell her that we’ve progressed more than this? Aka lips to lips contact? If anything, we we’re going backwards on the skin ship spectrum now… We went from kissing to physical hits instead of the opposite. We’re this comfortable with each other now and we just met how long ago?

“Uhm, Soo Yeon-ssi…” Sehun nervously cleared his throat handing her a menu. “You can order whatever you want. Dinner will be on me.” I chuckled rolling my eyes. Acting all goodie-goodie to my sister…

“Oh really? Gomapseumnida.” Soo Yeon bowed her head a bit, and started to look through the menu without a minute to waste. I could see her tongue peek and moisten her lips with each page she turned. I blankly stared at my own menu….Okay, so what now? The three of us made small chat about what was good at the restaurant, but after our orders were taken…silence.

“So, tell me…” Unnie crossed her legs looking at the both of us. “How did you two meet?”

“Do you want the lie or the truth?” I asked. Sehun kept himself from chuckling a bit taking a sip of water. Soo Yeon looked confused. “Well, I mean I know you always want the truth…but do you want the real life truth like... 'cross my heart and hope to die if I say a lie'? Or the—“I put up little quotation marks with my hands.”—‘truth’.”

“The real life truth pre-'model' days." Unnie copied the quotation marks I used with her own fingers. 

“I met her in the library” Sehun lied before I could tell her the REAL truth. “I was there to donate some books for a charity event and she bumped into me with her coffee while she was heading out.” Sehun looked at me. “From there, she offered to pay for the cleaning bill…But, after she found out she couldn’t pay me back right away, she bought me Ramen.” Wait a second...

Soo Yeon nodded her head. “So then, how did you keep in contact with her?”

“Yeah, how did that go again??” I crossed my arms and looked at Sehun who seemed to be enjoying this little charade of his.

“You came in contact with me when you had enough money to pay me back for the suit remember? Then we had lunch together at the same convenience store and kept in touch since.” Sehun suddenly smiled then grabbed my hand. I tried to pull away, but damn he had a strong grip… Why the heck was he lying about how we met? I mean, what was bad about the way we met? The fact that we met at school because he was dating my teacher—Ohhhhhh okayyyy… Okay, I get it now…. Trying to seem innocent and pure for Unnie, huh?

“So, okay you two started out as friends…” Soo Yeon seemed to believe everything he was saying so far. “So, how did it end up like this.” She pointed out that our hands were still clasped together, and we pulled away at the same time.

“A favor for a favor” Sehun said before I could tell her the truth. “You see, my parents are trying to arrange me to marry another company’s daughter to merge profits. But, as a true man with morals, I believe that I should be able to find a wife on my own. And since I helped Soo Jung get one of her designs in the summer collection…well, the rest is what I’m pretty sure your sister has told you now.”

Soo Yeon nodded. “Why my sister though?”

Sehun looked at me. I looked at him. “Yeah, why me?” I asked out loud. “I mean, I bet you have many beautiful model friends to help you out don’t you?”

“Well yeah.” Sehun admitted without a pause of breathe. “But, I don’t need a model to—“

Soo Yeon gave him a look. I gave him a look. “Aren’t I played to be a model in this fake relationship of ours?” Sehun nervously laughed.

“Oh, yeah right…but I mean…well…” Sehun scratched the back of his neck.

“You like my sister don’t you?” Unnie fired out of the blue. I almost choked on the breath of air I was inhaling through my mouth. What the heck was she saying?! Why was she bringing this question out when I told her this was strictly business?! The anxiety from earlier on was returning..

“Well, yes, no, I mean…—“ Sehun started to look a little jumbled. He started to loosen the tie around his collar.

“You chose my sister as an excuse to casually date her low key, didn’t you?” Soo Yeon’s mouth was spitting fire now. She had him in the bag, and all I could do was sit here and watch him crash and burn…Is that how I looked when I got the same treatment from her?

“Look, Soo Yeon-ssi… Let’s just make one thing clear, okay?” Sehun straightened up, the “child” to “businessman” switched flicked on. “If you’re worried about your sister getting hurt in this kind of charade with me, I just want to promise you that I will do everything to keep her from any kind of harm whatsoever. I understand that what we’re doing isn’t the morally correct…  And if anything goes wrong, I will take the blame for everything.”

Silence. Not a word from Soo Yeon. Not a word from me. Did he really mean that? Was he really going to take the blame for everything? I looked at his eyes…he had the same serious eyes when he first talked to me about that story of the “one sided love” thing. He must be serious then…

Soo Yeon nodded then spoke up. “I’m glad to hear that. But, you didn’t answer my question…” She leaned forward as if she was enticing us to hear her words. “Do you like Soo Jung?”

I looked at Sehun and waited for an answer. Was he going to lie and say “yes”? Or was he going to say the truth and say—

“Yes, I like her.”

Author's Note