Valerie stepped into the apartment later that evening after a few hours of sitting quietly at a nearby cafe, still looking lost, confused and still quite bewildered by Chanyeol's proposition. It's been five minutes since she had stepped into the shared apartment yet she haven't moved from her spot at the front door. Chanyeol's words were still ringing in her ears and it's been going on replay in her head even after she left the office.

"I need your help for this, Val. You don't want your dear boss to end up married to someone he wouldn't care less now, would you?"

The young PA groaned in her hands, finding herself going weak once more with Chanyeol's pleading. Sure, she's done and helped a lot of things for her boss; even things that doesn't involve work and business, but this would be the first for the young boss to drop his pride and ego and plead for help from his helpless assistant. Feeling her head throb, Valerie sighed and closed her eyes momentarily to get herself together.

"Val?"

Snapping her eyes open, she was met with a worried look from her housemate and best friend who is standing in between the kitchen and living room with a bowl of ice cream in her hand. She forced a smile on her face and greeted the girl. "Hey, Minyoung."

Her housemate her ice-cream covered bottom lip and tilts her head at her friend. "What are you doing there? You've been there for like five minutes now."

Looking around, Valerie grinned sheepishly before finally stepping into the house and striding towards the living room. "You okay? Did something happened at work?" Minyoung asked, following her steps and taking a seat with her on the couch.

"Everything's fine, Min." Valerie says although the tone in her voice indicated the opposite. Being friends with the other since high school, Minyoung knew something was seriously bothering her friend despite the other trying to hide it, and she was going to get it out of her no matter what.

Valerie knews this fact too, so she sighed and turned to her best friend with a small smile. "I'll tell you later, okay? First, I need a shower and some decent food. I'm hungry."

Minyoung sighed and nodded her head, knowing that there was no rushing when it comes to Valerie Kim. "Fine," she sighed as Valerie got up from the couch. "Should I order Chinese?" she asked as she grabbed her phone from the table.

"Chinese sounds great right now." Valerie hollered back before disappearing into her room.

Taking a deep breath, the female dumped her handbag on her bed and grabbed her towel from the rack before proceeding to the bathroom, anxious to get her mind cleared up with a warm shower.

Valerie

"So, are you going to tell me what happened?"

I dropped the chopsticks into the empty box of Chinese takeout and turned to Minyoung with a satisfied smile. "My tummy feels good," I told her with a chuckle and she shook her head with an amused smile on her face.

"Idiot," she muttered before nudging my thigh with her leg. We were seated on the floor in the living room having done with dinner while watching Mamma Mia on TV.

"I swear, Pierce Brosnan is hot." Minyoung snorted at that and took a sip of her coke before turning back to me.

"Stop being evasive and start talking, woman." she hissed and I sighed in defeat.

"Fine, fine, fine." There's no why I can win against this girl. "Well, Chanyeol asked for a favor today." I began and she raised a brow at this.

"What kind of favor?"

I pressed my lips together and released another heavy sigh. "He needed my...help in something."

"Which is?" she was getting impatient. She suddenly let out a gasp so loud that it made me turn to her in surprise. "Oh my god, don't tell me he's secretly a mafia leader and he wants you to cover up for him?"

"What?"

"Oohh... did he get one of his one-night stands pregnant and asked you to arrange a way to get rid of both the and the baby?"

I glared at Minyoung. "You've got to tone down on the dramas, Cha Minyoung." I scolded her but she merely shrugges.

"So, what is that he wanted that got you on edge? He's not asking you to marry him in order to escape from an arranged marriage or something, right?"

I chewed onto my bottom lips nervously at this, making her eye me suspiciously.

"Uhm, not really," I muttered under my nose, making her groan.

"Speak louder and clearer, ."

"Hewantsmetoactashisgirlfriendinfrontofhisfamily."

Blink.

Blink blink.

"I'm sorry, what did you just said?" I groaned and got up from the floor, picking up the rubbish and she followed me to the kitchen with a frown on her face. "Seriously, Val... I really didn't. Or at least I think I didn't." she muttered and I turned to her with a surpressed sigh.

"I'm pretty sure you did, Min." I accused her and she rolled her eyes at me.

"No, you were talking too fast! I swore you said something about acting as his girlfriend or something." 

I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned against the kitchen counter, waiting for her to absorb what she had just said. She blinked stupidly at me for a moment before she let out a sharp gasp. I swear her jaw's going to reach the floor, I thought as I surpressed my laughter.

"Y-You... are you serious!?" she freaked out immediately and I let out a silent groan as I proceeded to move about the kitchen. "Valerie!" 

"What?" I groaned.

"Did you agree? Tell me everything!" she insisted and dragged me to sit at the dining table. "My gosh, this is close to my assumption!" I heard her mumble excitedly to herself.

I muttered curses under my breath since she pushed me too hard onto the chair, causing my to hurt at the hard contact. She ignored me though and patted my thigh excitedly, urging me to tell her everything. "Oh my god, Min! Calm down, will you?" I exclaimed, growing irritated at her behavior.

I let out a hiss when she hit my arm and demanded that I start talking.

"Fine. He came into the office all moody; not the usual 'I didn't get laid last night moody' but like something was bothering him. Then later, he called me into the office and told me to come with him to his sister's wedding next weekend. But that's not all."

"He told you to pose as his girlfriend." she annoyingly added and I glared at her. "Continue!" she urged me with a glare and I sighed. 

"Yes, he asked if I could act as his girlfriend in front of his family. Apparently, his mother and grandmother has been asking him to come home and has been introducing him to their friends' daughters. But you know our VP... he doesn't do relationship. So he lied to them and told them he's seeing someone."

"And that someone is you?"

Sigh. "No, it's not me. He-" explaining this is harder than I thought! "He didn't say much about his made up girlfriend to them but they believed him - sort off. But next week he has to be at the family villa for family gatherings and then the wedding, and he has to introduce his girlfriend to them."

"Which is you, right?"

"Keep up, will ya?" I finally exploded, taking a deep breath to calm myself after. "Yes, he asked me to pretend to be his girlfriend or else he'll get into trouble."

Minyoung pressed her lips together for a moment and I could literally hear the gears in her brain work. "Why don't you just do it?" she suddenly asked and I gasped at her.

"I don't want to help him lie to his family!" I said hotly, flailing my hands in the air as I spoke. 

"But you want to help him." she guessed and I gulped.

"Is it that obvious?" Minyoung gave me a look and I sighed. "Fine, yes. I do want to help him, but I don't think lying to his family is a good idea."

My best friend and housemate gave me a sympathetic look that made me want to punch her face instead of digging a hole and burying myself in it. "You're in quite a sticky situation, Val." she pointed out the obvious and I rolled my eyes.

"No ." I muttered and she giggled.

"Whatever it is, my dear Valerie, I'm sure you'll sort it out like you always do. Just do what you think you should do."

"But he's my boss, Min..." I whined, feeling my head throb again. 

"Did he give you time to think about it?" she asked and I nodded solemnly.

"I have to come up with an answer soon since he's expected at the villa in two days."

"Well then you better start making decisions, , cause time is running out."

She's so not helping me right now.

I ended up not seeing Chanyeol the next day. I actually forgot that he has a meeting to attend to in China and will be back later that night with Jongin, leaving me in the empty office with Sora. I was able to feel relaxed without him breathing down my neck but I knew I still needed to come up with an answer soon. Chanyeol is expected at the villa tomorrow, and I need to be there with him if I actually agreed to help him. Even though I think that lying to his family is a bad idea, I know I would still do it if I really intended to help him. Chanyeol is a man I admire and he had always been kind to me.

This is so complicated. 

In the end, I decided to consult Sora for help. I had to wait until she was back in the office, and half an hour later she strolled into the room while whistling a tune under her nose which actually surprised me. "Where've you been?" I asked casually as she sat down behind her desk.

"Doing some errands for Jongin, of course." I sat up straight at this, catching her offguard. It took her a while before she finally registered her own words. "Oh my god," she groaned under her nose.

"Gotcha. Now spill," I smirked. "Since when did Mr. Kim become Jongin?"

Sora sighed at this. "Since we're currently seeing each other. But there's nothing serious going on. I told him that I like him and he returned my feelings, but we haven't made anything official," she told me before narrowing her eyes at me. "And what about you? Since when did you start dating Mr. Park?"

I momentarily choke on my saliva at her words and she gave me an unamused look from behind her desk. Once I managed to calm down, I decided to ask her about it. "How did you know?"

"Jongin. It was his brilliant idea," she scoffed and shook her head. "I don't know what the guy is thinking but at the very last minute, I think you're Chanyeol's best choice."

"You do?" I asked warily.

"Yeah. You know our VP well, for one. And you guys get along well with each other. Remember, I was just telling you yesterday that you guys have chemistry together. Clearly it means that if you guys were to date, you'd look beautiful together. Too bad it's all pretend though."

I sighed. "So bottom line is you think I should do this?"

"I don't think you've got anything to lose, to be honest."

I gave her a mocking glare. "Don't make me list them down, woman." Sora simply laughed at this. Just then, an email pops into my mailbox on the laptop and I hurry to open it when I saw Chanyeol's email address.

Could you pick me up from the airport tonight? I'm not up for driving after all these meetings. We can also talk then if you want.

I leaned back in my seat with a sigh. What should I do? 

Author's note:

07.01.15 Edited.