Luhan’s smile crinkled the corners of his brown eyes.

"So, you’ll be able to turn me into husband material and find me a wife in less than a month?"

For several seconds, Subin sat confused. She stared at him. At his stylishly cut brown hair all tousled and mussed from a night spent sleeping on his desk. At his handsome, smiling face waiting for her response.

Realization hit. Hard.

He wasn’t asking her to be his wife. Luhan wanted her to find him a wife. Her shoulders started to slump, but she straightened and pressed her lips together instead.

"You okay?" he asked, his eyes narrowing with concern.

No. She wasn’t okay. She’d just had her hopes raised, her dreams dashed and her heart broken, all in the space of a few seconds. But instead of telling him the truth, she hid her feelings the way she always had. Subin blinked back the tears stinging her eyes and nodded. "Allergies. You know how it is at this time of year."

He nodded. "You can do it, right?"

The last thing she wanted to do was turn Luhan into husband material for another woman. Not when she’d been in love with him herself for… well, years. Meeting men in Seoul was difficult. She’d tried and failed. But working with Luhan, she’d found the kind of man any woman would want;  dedicated, honorable, appreciative. Not to mention drop dead gorgeous. He liked her, respected her, depended on her. They’d been together for six years. How many of her friends could make the same claim about their boyfriends or significant others? Sure, he never seemed to notice she was anything more than his assistant, but she got to spend time with him and could dream of a happily ever after.

But no longer.

Now she truly would grow old alone. No doubt she would die in a dark, dank apartment with only eighty-seven cats for friends and cupboards full of tapioca pudding. Of course she was allergic to cats and hated pudding, even the chocolate kind.

"Subin?"

His voice jolted her. "I, um, don’t know how long it will take."

Liar. Luhan was already husband material. He only worked nonstop because he’d never found the right woman to make him want to forget the office. His single status had given her hope and fueled her fantasies about him. About them.

"I have to be married by the end of the month or my mother will lose the farm."

He didn’t want her. He didn’t want marriage, not really. He wanted to help his mother. And though Subin respected his sense of responsibility, he was breaking her heart. "I know," she said. "I read the letter."

"You will help me, won’t you?"

Just say no. She had agreed to be his wife, not find him one. Subin started to speak, and then stopped. What could she say? She’d never turned down one of his requests in the six years they’d worked together.

"Something’s wrong with me." The vulnerability in his voice squeezed her already aching heart. "I’m asking you to do the impossible, aren’t I?"

Yes, but not for the reasons he thought. Subin had devoted herself to him. Instead of acceptin