9th of November, 2016 - final day of shooting.

‘And…. CUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’

The PD and writers screamed at the same time, while popping the champagne. It was time for the after party. After 9 long months the ddongi couple left we got married and their final day of shooting was over.

Eric had smiled and told the staff they ‘had worked hard’ as dance singers always say. He realized Solar hadn’t said anything yet and after looking at her he had seen the tears welling up in her eyes.

Solar looked around and saw all the people who she got familiar with in the past 9 months. After looking at the PD she saw Eric and her mind went back to their first meeting. She remembered being really impatient at that time. When she had recognized Eric’s voice she had been incredibly unsure of what to expect of their fake marriage. But after a few weeks of filming she found herself comfortable with Eric and she had even developed a little crush on him. This crush had grown over the amount of time, but being the proud lady that she is, she never honestly confessed to him. Now it would be too late, after we got married they would never see each other again, the tears started to well up in her eyes.

Eric, on the other hand, didn’t think of this at all. He had texted Solar every day, promising her that even after the shoot they would stay good friends. True to his promise the days after their last shoot he would text her, questioning her if she had eaten and/or was sleeping well.

~

20th of December. 2016

Eric closes the front door of his apartment and drops down on the couch. He switches on the tv and sighs loudly when the first thing he sees on TV is MAMAMOO’s final performance. He had tried to contact Solar as much as possible after the shooting but Solar had hardly responded to him because she had been so busy with touring and afterwards her comeback. ‘Care about me a bit to please.’ He begs out loud. ‘You have become more beautiful, you didn’t get a boyfriend, did you?’ He asks, looking at Solar’s eyes, smiling at him through the screen.

Solar had just finished filming music bank and was finally allowed to go to the dorm. At the dorm she goes straight to bed and sees the picture of Eric and her from when they were in Dubai. She smiles. She opens her phone and looks at the text messages that Eric had sent her. She knows that it wasn’t fair to not reply to them but it was incredibly hard to speak to him. Every time she saw Eric on stage she couldn’t control her beating heart.

It doesn’t take long before people are knocking on Eric’s door. All embarrassed, he quickly turns off the tv and goes of to the door. When he opens it Henry and Amber are in front of him, holding two six-packs of beer while smiling.

‘You must be tired! Let’s have some fun tonight!’Henry says. Amber nods enthusiastically.

‘I don’t really want to hang out with a couple on my free night, sorry.’ Eric says. ‘Are you still sulking about being divorced?’ Amber asks, hitting him against the shoulder while walking into his apartment. Eric rubs his shoulder. ‘That hurt.’ He complaints. ‘We all know your heart hurts more than her hitting you.’ Henry says, only adding salt to the open wound. Eric sighs loudly but they just ignore him. ‘Ok, let’s drink.’ He decides.

Solar sighs and starts youtube on her phone, she decides to watch some old clips from we got married. By accident she clicks on the ‘my ears candy’ with Eric. She flushes bright red when she remembers the performance. What she doesn’t know is that the MAMAMOO members are looking at her from the door opening. ‘Yaah Yong sun, don’t you think it is time to stop sulking?’ Whasa shouts. ‘Yaah maknae, just shut up!!!!’ Solar shouts back. ‘If I want to sulk I sulk. The company made sure I would never meet him again.’ The MAMAMOO members look at each other and walk out of the bedroom. ‘Time for action, ready to call Amber?’ Wheein asks. The other two are nodding and Wheein start calling Amber.

All three of them are startled when Amber’s phone rings. ‘Don’t you dare pick up. It is American friends time atm.’ Henry warns her. Eric laughs, looking at his friends drunk faces. He probably looks hilarious to though…

‘I am going to pick up~!’ Amber yells, her voice full of aegyo (only when she’s ing drunk). ‘If you do it, I will kiss you! Right in front of Eric!’ Henry warns her. ‘NOOO!’Eric yells, in his Atlanta accent. Amber doesn’t care and takes out her phone, hitting Henry against the cheek before he is able to kiss her.

‘Wheein!!!! WHAT’S UP?!’She screams. Eric is startled of his mind, hearing the name of the person calling. He takes out his phone, no messages from Solar, maybe it isn’t about him?

‘I am like, really, really, reaaaaaaaaaaaaa-ly~ drunk right now. But please tell me whatever you want to say.’ Amber says, laughing like a madman afterwards. Henry is still lying on the ground from her hit, laughing like an idiot.

Wheein starts laughing when she hears Amber’s drunk voice. She looks at the bedroom door where Solar is and sees that it is closed. She puts the phone on speaker and allows the others to hear Amber’s drunken voice. They are also laughing at her. ‘Alright Amber unnie, is Eric nearby?’ ‘Yeaas~~~~ How did you know???’ After hearing Amber’s answer Weein is in doubts if she should continue the phone conversation, She is sure Eric has to be drunk too.

‘It’s for you. I thought you were innocent but secretly you were playing around with the other MAMAMOO members weren’t you!’ She screams. Eric chokes on his beer from the accusation. ‘I am not!’ He screams. ‘You are.’ Henry says, finally getting up to sit on the couch again. Amber passes Eric the phone. Eric takes it.

‘Wheein. I am really sorry but I am kind of drunk. Do we really need to have this conversation right now?’

‘Eric Oppa, we have a little dilemma.’

‘Is it a dilemma I can solve in a drunken state?’ He asks, kind of interested now.

‘Well it’s about Solar…’

‘I am listening with all of my five ears.’ He says, realizing his Korean sounds like a 6 year old.

‘Oppa really? With all five ears?’ He hears the members of MAMAMOO laughing.

‘Yes. If it’s about Solar or if Solar is talking to me it is like I create more ears, brains, and all of that stuff so I can understand everything she says and remember it forever.’   Eric says. ‘ING GREASY!’ Henry and Amber shout at the same time. They quickly stay silent when Eric sends them the ‘shut up or I’ll kill you’ expression.

‘Funny, Oppa. Let’s get serious now. Solar hasn’t been herself since you two stopped filming. She has been down and a little bit depressed. The company thought it was better if you didn’t contact each other so she could focus on her career.’

‘She didn’t tell me anything… honestly, I used to send her messages every day but because she hardly replied I thought I was an annoyance to her so I kind of gave up. Is there anything I can do to make her feel better? I don’t want her to feel bad, especially not because of me!’

‘Well, we were hoping we could arrange a meeting between you and Solar without the company knowing.’

‘Sounds good! I am actually preparing for a comeback right now so my only free day will be the 25th though…’

‘We are free on the 25th too so maybe we can arrange a meeting far away from our company.’

‘I’ll look into it tomorrow. If you guys can make sure you get her to the place I want her to come to. I feel like I have something in mind, but I am not sobered up yet so…’

‘Alright we will do that. You can get my number from Amber Unnie. Thank you, Eric Oppa.´

‘Babo, I am the one that should be thanking you. I’ll send you a message tomorrow. Goodnight!’

‘Goodnight Oppa! Sober up!’

The next morning, Eric wakes up with a terrible headache. He has no idea what time Henry and Amber actually left and his head is hurting too much to remember what actually happened. He jumps into the shower some time after and then quickly and skillfully prepares some hangover soup. He stares at it before eating. ‘This is her favourite…’ He says. His eyes suddenly become 4 times bigger. ‘THE 25TH!’ He yells, in English. He immediately regrets doing this because his head still hurts like hell. He quickly takes out his tablet and looks up the place he was thinking about of going with her. It was officially his plan to go there while they were still filming we got married but before he knew it their happy times had already been over. He quickly sends the address to Wheein. ‘I’ll leave it to you dongsaeng ah.’ He says, quickly preparing to reserve a table for the restaurant.

Wheein receives Eric’s text and smiles. ‘Unnieee~~ I want to go out on the 25th. You have to be available and I won’t take no for an answer!!!’ She shouts to Solar. Solar is stunned and can only nod in acceptance. She doesn’t know what they have planned for her but a day away from the company and their dorm hopefully takes her mind of Eric.

~

25th of December. 2016

That morning Solar gets up from her bed and wakes the other members of MAMAMOO. She is so excited for this day because after almost three months of tours and their comeback they finally have a day for themselves. She decides to make her members her famous ketchup rice.

‘Unnie good morning!’ the members says. ‘Morning girls.’ ‘You look happy today.’ Whasa says. ‘Yes, of course I’m happy. We finally have time for ourselves.’ the girls laugh and starts preparing for their evening out.   

The moment Eric enters the café his friend whistles. ‘That suit looks nice bro!’ He says. Eric shows him a thankful smile. ‘Thanks, I need to win Solar’s heart back one way or another. So this is step 1 of my plan!’

‘No worries bro. I made sure no other guests are coming tonight and I brewed her favourite coffee, as you asked of me. I also got the piano and the flowers ready for you.’ His friend says, winking. Eric is about to get on his knees from thankfulness. ‘You are going to make me cry, dude. If I get rejected, please get wasted with me.’ His friend laughs. ‘I will, bro. But after the things Wheein said I don’t think you have to worry so much.’ He assures Eric. Even though Eric is still nervous, he feels slightly better from his friends encouragement. I wonder how she’ll react when she sees me…

The girls have taken Solar to the address that Eric had texted Wheein. The members made sure that Solar is dressed in a beautiful dress, just like the one she was wearing when she met Eric. The restaurant is cosy and also looks nice. Solar thought it would be packed tonight because it is christmas time but the whole restaurant is empty. She looks around and sees a waiter behind the bar and the host coming up to them. ‘Good evening ladies, if Solar-sshi please could follow me.’ Solar sends the host a look of confusion and with a little bit of encouragement from the other members she goes after the host.

Eric starts panicking when he hears his friend talking to Solar, telling her to watch her step. He immediately gets why because obviously she is wearing heels. His whole body gets struck with a tingling sensation when he hears Solar laughing. Her cheerful, genuine laugh, that makes you wonder if she is really a beautiful idol from a girl group or just that girl from lunch that he fell in love with in high school. He’s not sure if he’s happy, or scared. The moment he hears his friend offering Solar a seat he realizes it is time to start his surprise. He quickly takes out her tea in one hand and with his other hand he hides the bouquet of flowers behind his back. He has planned to come up naturally, handing her over the tea and then to take a seat in front of her. That is, if she doesn’t kill him before he is able to do so. He takes a deep sigh before walking up to Solar.

Solar had been taken to a big room where a piano is standing close to the window. From the window she is able to look over a nice garden with a pond, decorated with beautiful fairy lights. The inside is also nicely decorated and it looks almost like someone could propose to her. ‘Could I get you something to drink?’ the host asks. ‘Yes a tea please.’ She waits for the other members to come into the room so that they can have their dinner.

‘Your tea madam.’ Solar hears, she looks up and sees the man standing who she had been dreaming of since they ended the shooting.

‘Eric….’ she says and he puts the tea on the table. She is still looking at him and feels a little bit of anger flare up inside her. how could he just stand there and let me look like a fool! The first thing she does is hit him against his chest.

‘Babo, babo, why are you here? Why do you keep coming back when I need to stay away from you.’

Eric immediately takes this opportunity to grip her thin wrists with his strong hands. ‘I won’t stay away from you. Especially not if your company wants me to. The only one that can tell me to leave you alone is you yourself. If you want me to go, you are more than welcome to say so. But I want you to be honest with me.’

‘I… I….’ Solar can’t find the words she is looking for and she doesn’t want Eric to leave. It is the opposite of leaving. She wants him to stay, she wants him to stay forever.

‘I take that as a, I want to be here and I won’t go. We will be eating lots of meat tonight so I am sure you don’t want to leave?’ He says, in a playful voice.

She can only nod, she knew Eric would understand her lack of words and she takes her place back in the chair.

Eric had actually panicked when Solar had gotten mad at him and in his panic state he had dropped the bouquet of flowers to the ground. Scared to get a big scolding, had he showed them to her. Luckily, Solar is still as dense as ever and didn’t notice. He sighs in relief when the korean barbeque food comes out. Even though it isn’t really romantic, it is the food that Solar likes the most. And if Solar likes it, that will naturally make it romantic, doesn't it?

‘So… tired after the comeback?’ He asks, cursing himself in his mind for sounding so awkward. Why is it so awkward?! I am ing up so badly here!

Solar is taken back by the question Eric asked, she had expected him to ask something else. But after knowing how Eric is, it seems like he is nervous about something. To not make it anymore awkward she decides to answer his question. ‘Yes it was tiring but it was a lot of fun. How are you doing? I heard you were planning on a comeback.’

Eric smiles. ‘That means you did search my name on the internet, right? And I thought I was the only one…’

Solar’s eyes widen and her cheeks get redder with every minute. ‘Yes, I looked you up, because…’

Eric takes a piece of meat and forces Solar to eat it. ‘Because…?’ He asks, smiling like a lovefool.

She ate the meat that Eric gave her and couldn’t help but finding this was the best meat she had ever eaten. ‘Because… Do you really want me to say it?’ she asks with bright red cheeks.

‘No.’ Eric says. ‘If you did, you wouldn’t be the Yongsun I knew anymore. And that would mean something terrible.’ He admits.

Solar can’t help but to put her hands before her face. What eric has said made her really shy and she felt a fluttering in her stomach.

‘You are being so embarrassed today. It feels like we are meeting for the first time again. Want me to escape you from a prison again, after dinner?’ Eric asks, hoping that he finally said something that could make her laugh.

Solar laughs at what Eric said about escaping from the prison. ‘I only want to be freed from prison by my prince.’

She laughed for me! FOR ME! I was the only one to see it. I still resent her for smiling at my friend first though, making me insecure and all that stuff….

‘I can be a prince.’ He says. When he looks at Solar’s scoffing face he snaps his fingers. ‘Don’t believe me? Check it out.’ He says and he quickly dives under the table and snatches the flowers of the floor that he had dropped earlier.

‘My lady.’ He says, in greasy English, while presenting the flowers to Solar.

Solar had to laugh at Eric’s silliness. ‘My lord! What are the flowers for?’ she asks Eric.

‘I knew you would go into acting mode like you always do.’ Eric says, winking at her. ‘My dense princess, obviously us men need to give flowers when we get the opportunity to eat with such beautiful ladies like you.’

Solar laughs. ‘You are a greasy prince, but I will accept your flowers.’ she takes them from Eric and smells them. She smiles a little when she sees it’s the flower she loves the most. Eric had remembered it.

Eric notices her smile. But he doesn’t only notice that. He also sees she didn’t eat a lot yet which makes him worry naturally.

‘It seems that my lady is not digesting very well. Let me play you a song to help you with that. Any suggestions?’ He asks, while taking his seat behind the piano.

Solar looks at Eric and she doesn’t know a song that she wants to hear. ‘No my prince, I don’t have any suggestions, play me something you love.’

‘I have been asked that question before, I believe.’ Eric says. He is so far away from Solar that he cannot properly see her reaction but he decides to start with his cheeky self instead of going romantic mode immediately. ‘I will though, surprise you a bit.’ He says while starting the intro of ‘Taller Than You’. Playing the playful melody on the piano.

Solar couldn’t help but to laugh at the song Eric had chosen. She claps along with everything he sings to.

Seeing Solar eat excitingly as she listens to his song he goes on with it until she has finished her whole plate. This is when he lets his fingers travel all the way over the length of the piano to introduce the next song. Automatically, the lights dim down to change the atmosphere. Even though it is not their song, it is the first song he sang her.

Actually after our first meeting

Saying I like you

Isn’t something easy for me

If I don’t contact you first

I’m afraid of missing you

I type out the text, hesitate a bit, then delete it again

I keep repeating this process over and over

If my love for you gets any deeper

It will only result in getting hurting

My fears are filling my mind

This is the truth

Praying with all my heart, the person I’m yearning for

I believe that person is you

Solar had tears in her eyes when Eric sings the song. All the memories from their first meeting comes back and after that her whole married life with Eric played before her eyes. She stands up and walks to the piano.

Woo… I’m in love

Woo… I’ll fall in love

Never feel any more fear

As long as I’m with you

The world is so beautiful

You are so beautiful

When the song is finished she looks him in the eyes, it seems like they have a staring battle going on. But actually the only thing that they see in each other’s eyes is love. Love that warms you  when the other smiles, love that will give you butterflies in your stomach when the other looks at you. But above all, love that will last forever.  

Eric gets up from behind the piano and smiles at Solar while taking her small hand in his. ‘Yongsun, was our fake marriage nothing to you? Because to me the times we spend together, were the moments I was the most happy in my whole life.’ He says.

‘Eric, the same counts for me. When we met I didn’t know how to react, but after some time you just found your way into my heart.’

Eric has never felt this happy before. Honestly, Solar isn’t really the person to speak her mind genuinely because she is just a very shy person with a lot of insecurities when you get to know her. Because he knows, he wasn’t expecting a lot. He is actually expecting her to leave, out of his life, and to never come back again. Honestly, this is the moment he feels embarrassed and this is the moment he should be courageous.

‘I love you.’ He says, in English. Way to embarrassed to say it in Korean.

Solar laughs. She knows Eric is to embarrassed to say it in Korean but she can understand these three English words very well. ‘Saranghae.’ She says.

The look at each other and smile.

The couple’s moment is being interrupted by the MAMAMOO members who had been watching them the whole time. Wheein had something behind her back and when she was close enough she took it from behind her back. It was a hockey stick with a mistletoe bound to it, she holds it above Eric and Solar. ‘Unnie~~~ you know the tradition!!’ The members scream, fangirling afterwards.

Solar yells and screams at her members in all her embarrassment and Eric can only laugh, glad for the chance the other girls are giving him. Knowing Solar’s shy feelings he grabs her by the arms and turns her towards him. He makes eye contact with her and only when she closes her eyes he kisses her on her forehead. All the members scream from the lack of skinship. ‘WE WANT MORE! WE WANT MORE!’

Solar quickly opens her eyes. She is a bit disappointed that Eric had only kissed her on her forehead and not on her lips. She does something no one in the room could expect her to do. She crabs Eric by his collar and pulls him closer. ‘If that is what you call a kiss, I’m wondering what you would call this.’ And she kisses him full on the lips. All the MAMAMOO members fangirl in excitement and Eric’s eyes widen by 5 times. When Solar lets go of him he is still completely shocked for a few second before grinning from ear to ear. ‘That is what I call ual harassment Solar-ssi.’ He says, before wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her closer. ‘You sure you want your members to see me going all crazy for you and what you just did?’ He asks, in his most manly kind of voice.

‘It isn’t ual harassment if you like it.’ Solar says.

The members have to laugh about Solar’s boldness and can’t stop fangirling over this amazing couple. It is so bad that they had to take a seat because otherwise they will pass out from the nosebleeds this couple gave them.

Eric moves back with a surprised face. ‘Damn girl!’ He screams, again in his Atlanta accent. He loves how Solar can be such a bold derp sometimes. ‘Before we go there. Just tell me you want to date me again.’ He says, trying to hide how nervous he is to hear her answer.

Solar looks at him ‘Wasn’t that kiss an answer on its own, but yes I would love to date you.’ Solar says.

Eric smiles. ‘Hyung! Dim the lights. This kiss is one I only want Solar to remember!’ He exclaims happily.

_________________________

afterword:

So this is the first time we wrote together and it was so much fun!! ^^ We decided on a lazy saturday that we should write some one-shots together, with our favorite couples. So stay tuned for more! You can find them either on my page with Lolapetoeta as co-author or you can find it on her page with me as co-author.

We had some much fun and were fangirling through writing this fic.

So hope you liked it and see you soon~\(^_^)/