*

Mnet Countdown Prerecording

City of Seoul, Gyeonggi Province

At past eleven on a Thursday morning, Kim Taeyeon was the first to arrive in the Mnet Studio. She’d been waiting for fifteen minutes, only with a manager and their stylists as company. While talking to the stylists, she suddenly felt someone poke the back of her head strongly.

“Awwww!” she cried, immediately looking back only to see a rather angry Tiffany Hwang.

“You careless, careless girl,” Fany hissed, gesturing her to come over so they could talk in private.

Taeyeon was more than excited to see her best friend, because she’d been itching to discuss something with her. Once they were out of the staff’s earshot, she immediately held her arms with two hands.

“Fany! Oh my gosh, thank God you’re finally here!!!”

“The girls saw you and—”

“It rained. It freaking rained,” Taeyeon declared with so much emphasis. Ever since the Ceremony of the First Mating, she’d been dying to share the odd events and memories from that night.

“Huh? What do you mean it rained?”

“In the middle of summer, it rained in Itaewon, with the thunder, lightning and all.”

That was only one of the many strange recollections she had from the ceremony. She woke up hungover on a Sunday morning, fully dressed and cleaned up in an indoor village bedroom. The last thing she remembered doing in the event was drinking, eating, talking, laughing, and peculiarly, dancing and singing, all night. She could have sworn she slept beside Jiyong on the blanketed grass, soaking wet with the rain, only to find out they slept on separate bedrooms. Amidst her many questions to her elders, Grandpa Kim strictly told everyone that what happened in that garden should stay in the garden. From that weekend onwards, she did not get any chance to speak with Kwon Jiyong about it, as the young man already flew to China for a series of tour stops.

“No it didn't rain,” Tiffany said, raising her eyebrows at her. Now they both sat down in one of the dressing room chairs. “How could it rain when it was near 40 degree Celsius in Seoul last weekend?”

“But it did!”

“You said so yourself that you got very drunk and you lost consciousness. You probably just dreamt this.”

With so much frustration, Taeyeon even stomped her legs in tantrums. “Ugh, why won't you believe me Steph? I'm telling you, it rained! Jiyong and I were drenched in the rain, and we even danced Lion Heart. Look, my phone's broken.” She even held her useless phone up to level with Fany’s face. Her friend ignored it and just shrugged.

“The elders probably gave you some shamanistic tea with hallucinogenic powers. You had delusions, or you were just delirious,” Fany still dismissed.

“Why is it so hard to believe that it rained that night? Maybe you were asleep already, so you didn’t know. Maybe the weather sites just didn’t report it. Maybe—”

“Let’s say that it did rain in the middle of summer. So what?” asked Tiffany, finally considering that yes, maybe it rained, and if did, why did it matter so much to Taeyeon.

“The elders said we'd easily recognize the gods’ blessing…” Taeyeon carefully explained, finally expressing into spoken words the very thought that she’d been ruminating the past few days. “They said that if a sign came, then the marriage was meant to be. If something out of the ordinary happened, the heir and the heiress were indeed the chosen ones to save the republic…”

Even as she expressed it in words, it still sounded so ludicrous. Taeyeon initially laughed about it when she was only thinking of it to herself. But now, she was dead serious, because the more she ruminated, the more she was inclined to believe that the rain was a sign. The sign. To her surprise, Fany hit the side of her head gently.

“Fool!” she screamed at Taeyeon. “Seriously, a sign? So what now… you want this marriage to happen?”

“Ouch! I’m just saying!” Taeyeon defended, fixing the part of her hair that Fany messed. “It’s really odd though… what if it’s really a sign… I don’t know Steph, but it’s been eating me up ever since!”

Why is it bothering me so much? Why am I letting something as natural as a rain create doubt in my mind?

“Forget about the rain, because you have a lot of explaining to do,” Tiffany redirected, which captured Taeyeon’s attention. “You and your dear fiancé partied with the other SNSD members that night.”

“What?! How?!” asked Taeyeon, utterly flabbergasted at this information. She knew there was an important part of that night that she forgot, she just didn’t find out until now. “We were in an undisclosed garden in suburban Seoul…”

“Via Facetime,” explained Tiffany.

Very quickly, the once compartmentalized memories have been unlocked, and Taeyeon had vivid flashes of her dancing and singing with Kwon Jiyong, with the SNSD members’ voices in the background. Oh shoot… what will I tell the girls? All of them have probably been texting and calling her since Sunday morning, but she never got to them with her broken phone.

“There you are,” they heard Sunny say from the door. Taeyeon’s heart dropped at the sight of the members entering the once empty dressing room.

“You party drunkard,” teased Sooyoung.

Pretty soon, the girls threw their questions at her, one by one, then at the same time, until she was bombarded with the same types of inquiry.

“What was that night about?”

“Why were you in tradition clothing?”

“Was that really G-dragon?”

“Explain Kim Taeyeon.”

Taeyeon wanted some mental telepathy with Tiffany at that moment, because her smart friend probably had a good excuse for her. She wished, more than ever, for Tiffany to save her. But it seemed her silly thoughts about the rain ticked of Fany that she just eyed her with a This is all yours type of look.

“Err...” was all she could say.

“What the heck was happening that night?”

“It was G-dragon, wasn’t it?”

“Why were you two together, alone?!”

“Uhm... well...” Taeyeon kept stuttering, and as she watched seven pairs of curious eyes on her, her mind worked its hardest in a long time. An idea finally clicked. “I was invited to a costume party... and G-dragon just happened to be there. So was TOP. Actually, Fany was invited too but she couldn't come.”

“And we weren't invited? What is this party?” inquired Hyoyeon, sounding a little insulted.

“I would have heard about it,” Yuri commented, frowning. “Was Seungri or Youngbae there?”

“Errr... Maybe… I don’t know, I didn’t see them. It was one of my cousin’s college friend’s party.” Now that’s too specifically complicated, crap. “Her crowd started hanging out with Big Bang's beginning this year.”

“Wow, what a small world. Were there other celebrities?” asked the dumbfounded Yoona.

“No. I only remember seeing GD&TOP.”

“So why did you two bond?” inquired Seohyun, laughing maliciously. “You seemed to have become close, singing and laughing like that.”

“He was dancing like a fool too,” commented Sunny, and the girls giggled when they recalled how a drunken G-dragon looked.

“I don't even remember hanging with him. I was too drunk. All I remember was being with my cousins all night,” Taeyeon lied.

She was impressing even herself with her quick fabrication of lies. Tiffany kept on sighing and shaking her head behind the other girls. Taeyeon could sense Fany’s disappointment that she just told the biggest lie she’s ever concocted to their six best friends. Meanwhile, the girls kept asking questions about G-dragon, and she expertly managed to make up the answers. By the end of the conversation, it seemed that they have bought in everything she had said.

Right after their seventh win for Lion Heart, Taeyeon and Tiffany rode the group van with the girls. The two of them sat in the very back so that they could whisper to each other in private.

“Frankly speaking, you'd eventually need our friends’ help. With your situation, you need a whole lot of help. Why did you just lie to the girls?” Tiffany asked, her voice filled with disappointment. She was really expecting Taeyeon to finally ask for help.

“If I can help it, I wouldn't involve them in this at all. This is a huge burden, Steph. I don’t want to inconvenience anyone of you. I wouldn’t have involved you in this if Jiyong didn’t force me to.”

Tiffany studied her best friend for a long time, and she couldn’t help but feel a little bit betrayed. Kim Taeyeon have mastered the art of putting up walls around her so that she couldn’t be penetrated. Even with Fany’s candor and cheerful affability in their decade-long friendship, she still hadn’t cracked the hard rock that was Kim Taeyeon. 

“You're too proud sometimes boo,” she honestly stated, smiling bitterly at Taeyeon. Sadly, she just held on her face and sweetly laid her head on Taeyeon’s shoulder. “But oh well, at least you have me. You’ll always have me, Tae. No matter how proud you are.”

Silently, Taeyeon thanked the very bubbly Stephanie Hwang. If this woman didn’t come in her life, she would have an even lesser light in her already bleak outlook. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that Stephanie was one of the very few lights in her life.

Before unloading the vehicle to go to her own apartment, Fany reminded Taeyeon, “We have our first excursion with GD&TOP on Tuesday afternoon. I suggest you get this meant-to-be illusions out of your mind, okay? You can't afford to get carried away with the traditions, especially since we’re spending so much time with Jiyong.”

With that, Tiffany kissed her and left. Taeyeon was the last to be driven home. In her solitariness, all she could ask herself was… What does being carried away look like? Still in denial of course, she didn’t know that it meant believing Kwon Jiyong was indeed her fiance, her protector, her husband-to-be… a partner… and a destined and god fated soulmate…

*

Seoul National University

District of Mogu-do, Gyeonggi Province

Tuesday has arrived, and Big Bang’s GD&TOP, as well as SNSD’s TaeNy, were travelling inside a conspicuous Hyundai sedan.

The four of them were disguised in all ways possible to avoid recognition. Their only three-hour break for the week would be spent in the quest to find an escape to the The Great Pact. Jiyong was the designated driver of Seunghyun’s cheap vehicle. The entire drive was spent in silence, with only a few small talks between him and Seunghyun. The two ladies in the backseat were asleep the entire time. Taeyeon’s mouth was hanging open, but instead of laughing, Jiyong only fel