“Ouch!”

The voice and the sound of heels forcedly stumbled against the floor made Donghae instantly look up in the direction only to witness a woman struggling with her heels. Finding that she was alright, he simply continued reading the magazine back. From the corner of his eyes, he saw the woman walking (while continuously stumbling) to his direction and he chose not to care about it since he didn’t know her. That was until the woman stopped walking right in front of him.

He questioningly looked up to the woman and blinked when he found the woman was quite familiar. Then something clicked in his mind, which made him remember why he was there in the saloon in the first place. His eyes widened as he looked at the woman’s face for a few seconds and ended up staring at her from head to toe in disbelief and awe. He didn’t even realize that now he was standing, still had his eyes glued on her.

“You....H-Hana?”

“Of course,” she rolled her eyes, sounded annoyed not because of him but because of the stupid heels she was wearing. A goofy grin immediately climbed on Donghae’s lips after knowing that he wasn’t wrong, that the beautiful woman in front of him right now was really Hana, his girlfriend. Opss, his fake girlfriend.

“Oh my God,” He continued staring at her from head to toe in disbelief. “Wow...” that was what he could say at the moment, too mesmerized by the beauty in front of him. Choi Hana that he had known all this time (in one day, to be particular) was so different than the Choi Hana in front of him right now who looked like a ing goddess. It was clearly obvious by the fact that he had even mistaken her as someone else earlier. She looked very stunning. Her plain straight black hair had been dyed to a light brown color and her new hair now was tamed into elegant curls which bounced as she walked. She had light and natural makeup on but still it made her look prettier than before. Talking about her dress, she was wearing the dress below which simply turned her into an elegant woman, exactly like what Donghae wanted.

And her heels, it was 4 inches which made Hana unable to properly balance herself even when she wasn’t walking.

“What do you think about your girlfriend’s transformation, sir?” asked the staff whom Donghae hadn’t realized was there together with them all this time – because his eyes had been fixing on Hana the whole time.

“Good! I like it. You did a good job,” Donghae commented, smiling and looking at the staff briefly before he continued staring at Hana, still with an awed expression.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Hana grumbled, blushing a little because of his intent stare.

Donghae blinked as if he just woke up from a dream then smiled almost in a shy manner. After making payment, they strode out of the salon with Hana kept stumbling because of the high heels she wore. She cursed under her breath.

“Are you okay? Can you walk?” Donghae asked in concern.

“What do you think?” she asked sarcastically and reached down to remove the heels from her feet.

“What are you doing?” Donghae’s eyes widened at her unexpected, weird action.

“I’d rather die than walking with these heels. I wonder who created it,” she mumbled under her breath and walked away to the car that was parked right in front of the salon, barefooted, her hand holding the heels.

Donghae stared at her speechlessly for a while before he chuckled as he made his way to his car.

“Seriously, you really look different. I feel like I’m with someone I don’t know right now,” Donghae stated when they were in the car which was driven by him.

“Really? Do I look that different?” she reached up and touched both of her cheeks.

“Neh. I even mistook you as someone else when you appeared in front of me just now.”

“You don’t know how surprised I was when I looked at my reflection on the mirror earlier,” she said in amusement. “I think I’ve owed you even more because of this makeover. This dress, these heels and the whole makeover are so expensive, for sure,” she continued, now sounding guilty.

“It’s okay. Just assume it as a bonus for agreeing to be my girlfriend,” he simply replied. “Now, let’s go to the mall to buy a few more dresses for you.”

“What? I don’t think we need more dress―”

“We need it,” Donghae cut her off. “We should be prepared. I can feel that you will need to pretend to be my girlfriend more than once.”

“What?! I thought I have to do that only once?” she retorted.

“I never say that.”

“But you never say I’ll have to pretend to be your girlfriend more than once,” she argued.

Donghae sighed. “Don’t you remember what was written on the contract you signed? You will have to pretend to be my girlfriend whenever you need to until the contract ends.”

She turned silent once she remembered the content of the contract. “I think I’ve misunderstood,” she muttered regretfully. “I shouldn’t have agreed to this. Ah, I’m so stupid.” She ran her hand through her hair in frustration.

“You can’t withdraw from this plan after you signed the contract” he reminded her.

“I know!” she scowled and pouted and quietly smacked her head repeatedly, showing her frustration to herself. Donghae who saw her action quietly chuckle in amusement.

Once they arrived at the mall, they started shopping for Hana’s dresses. However, that didn’t go as smoothly as Donghae thought when Hana kept stumbling because of her heels. Luckily Donghae held her (or rather, she was gripping his arm). If not, maybe she was dying out of embarrassment right now for falling on the face in front of many people. Even the way she walked in heels made everyone that passed by her looked at her in amusement while holding back their laughter. And Donghae who walked beside her, couldn’t help but feel embarrassed as well.

"Aishh jinjja! Why didn't you buy dresses at the boutique earlier? They are selling dresses too," Hana said, feeling worn out just by walking.

"I did look at all the dresses while you were gone. And they aren't my taste," Donghae replied casually.

"Tsk! It's not you who would wear it though," she mumbled under her breath in annoyance.

Once they got inside one of the stores, they started choosing clothes and dresses for Hana. They spent almost two hours in the same store as Donghae kept objecting every dress Hana chose for herself. In the end, they ended up buying five dresses and all the dresses were chosen by Donghae since Hana’s choices were all outdated – that was what Donghae said.

“Don’t you think you bought too many dresses?” Hana said once they walked out of the store.

“I told you that you’re going to pretend to be my girlfriend not once but many times, right? There’s no way I would let you wear the same dress over and over,” he replied.

“But still, those dresses are all expensive, like too expensive. I know that you’re rich but for you to spend that much for me is...I don’t deserve it,” Hana argued.

“I bought these dresses not for you but for you to wear it. That doesn’t’ mean these dresses are yours,” Donghae looked at her mockingly.

“Really?” She heaved a sigh of relief. “I thought you bought them for me. Thank you. I was so worried if I owed you too much.”

Donghae chuckled. “You’re weird,” he commented then glanced at his watch. “Let’s go back home. There’s a few hours left till the time we go to my parents’ house. You need to practice wearing the heels once we got home,” he said and glanced at her feet that stepped in a weird way because of the high heels. He fought back the urge from laughing.

“Stand straight and walk,” Donghae instructed, standing in front of her but a bit far from her.

Hana, who had a book on her head, did like what Donghae instructed her to. She walked slowly and carefully while making sure that the book on her head wouldn’t fall down and after taking a few steps, she found herself unable to balance herself and ended up stumbling, making the book on her head practically fall down onto the floor.

“Mwoya~ You’re doing it twenty four times already and you still can’t walk properly with the heels?” Donghae looked at her in devastation.

“I’m sorry. Give me one more chance,” she grinned apologetically at him.

Donghae rolled his eyes. “You said that for a millionth times already,” he mumbled as he watched her trying to walk again with the book on her head. His eyes sparkled when she could walk more far than she did before without causing the book on her head to fall. That was until she tripped on her own feet, causing her body to fall backwards and Donghae who saw that immediately caught her in his arms. And their hearts ended up beating faster once their eyes met each other.

Getting back to his senses, Donghae cleared his throat and helped her stand up like normally back and Hana quietly thanked him once she stood on her feet back.

“Let’s try again,” Donghae changed the topic and they continued with their ‘how-to-walk-in-heels’ lesson. Hana got better and better at walking in heels (not that good but better than before) and Donghae decided to end the lesson and practice to let Hana take a rest for a moment before they headed to his parents’ house.

“Ah, I’m so nervous” Hana said when they were in the car, heading to Donghae’s parents’ house. “Is your dad okay? He isn’t fierce, right?” she asked nervously.

Donghae chuckled at her question. “Don’t worry. He’s the calmest person I’ve ever met.”

“What about your mom?”

“Uhmm...she’s kind but a little bit picky. She also can get suspicious easily. So you really have to act well, arasso?”

“That’s what I don’t want to hear,” she said in panic. “Ottoke? What if she doesn’t like me? What if I made mistakes? Do your parents even