Nikka hummed merrily as he waltzed into his flat and dumped his rucksack onto his sofa. He was in a good mood despite just coming back from a busy day at the office. As he undid his tie and stripped off his navy blue suit, he cheerfully sprang to his room where he kept his laptop on standby. Excitedly, he his laptop and waited for it to start up.

He couldn't wait to Skype Mirei.

Just a few hours ago, Nikka had received the delightful news that Mirei was coming back home early. Richard had informed him himself that Mirei had been told the news almost a week ago and that she was scheduled to fly out tomorrow. At first, Nikka was annoyed that no one had notified him that Mirei was coming home but, his earlier irritation ebbed away when he realised that he didn't have to wait another six months before he saw her again. He was going to see her tomorrow.

His smile widened as he thought, Mirei was coming home to where she belonged.

When Nikka's laptop finally started up, he noticed that he had forgotten to close some of the tabs he had been working on previously. On his browser were many articles and YouTube videos on 'We Got Married', the South Korean reality show.

Over the past month, Nikka had been watching every episode of WGM to observe how Mirei was doing. At first, he had been so shocked to see Mirei taking part in an intimate reality show that, forced strangers to act as a married couple. He found the concept of the show bizarre and he wasn't at all thrilled that Mirei, of all people, was pretending to be married to some idol he couldn't even remember the name of.

Nikka scowled as he saw Mirei's onscreen husband's face appear next to hers. The last time he had seen Mirei or spoken properly with her, was when he left Seoul four months ago. She had explained to him that she was fake-dating that man-child, Chanyeol, because he had busted her cover. And just a month ago, he suddenly found out that Mirei was fake-married to someone else. What on earth could have happened to have led her to get involved in a fake marriage?

It had driven Nikka up the wall not knowing.

Straight after discovering Mirei's sudden debut into South Korean entertainment, Nikka had done a lot of intense digging to find out what could have happened. After toiling through article after article and watching video after video, Nikka was able to connect the dots on what possibly may have led to Mirei's involvement in WGM. He knew that Mirei wasn't stupid and he also knew that she wouldn't participate in a reality show if she had the choice not to. After all, she had her cover to maintain and by joining WGM, she was compromising it.

Nikka discovered that the person responsible for getting Mirei involved in the show was someone called Suji Lee or Lee Suji, as the South Koreans would call her. Suji was Lee Sooman's daughter, who also happened to be the CEO of SM Entertainment. Nikka had wanted to meddle at first but decided not to, in fear of implicating Mirei further. He had learned that Suji was an influential person because of her father and it didn't take him much to discern that Suji didn't like Mirei at all.

Nikka knew that Mirei had been fake-dating Chanyeol because of their complicated situation. And he also found out that there were many rumours circulating amongst the fans that Suji and Chanyeol were secretly dating. But this misunderstanding was cleared up when he watched an interview of Chanyeol with some of the other EXO members who explained that Suji was not his girlfriend. On another interview, however, Suji had expressed her interest in Chanyeol, which made Nikka nervous for Mirei, who was caught in between the two.

Providing that Suji found out that Mirei and Chanyeol were 'supposedly' dating, Nikka had a gut feeling that Suji had planned to split Chanyeol and Mirei up by forcing Mirei to go on WGM. But little did she know the futility of her efforts since their relationship wasn't real to begin with.

Nikka closed his tabs on Suji before he proceeded to open Skype. He had researched a lot on Suji and found that she was quite the diva with a squeaky clean record but he knew that she had a skeleton in her cupboard. Nikka had planned to send her a taste of her own medicine if anything bad had happened to Mirei, which was why he had kept her number just in case. After all, a little blackmail never did anyone any harm.

Nikka's excitement grew as Skype finally loaded. Since the EXO members had already left for the US, Mirei should be alone at the dorm. It was finally safe for him to call her through Skype. He waited in anticipation for the line to connect.

"Hello?" he heard Mirei's silky voice say.

"Mirei!" he shouted excitedly. He searched the screen and saw that hers was still dark. "Sorry! Were you sleeping?"

Mirei sleepily replied, "Nikka, do you have any idea what time it is right now?"

"Sorry!" Nikka apologised quickly, "but I just got the news from Richard. He says that you'll be coming home soon!" He searched her expression as she her nightstand, illuminating his screen. He couldn't help his grin from growing wider at seeing Mirei's face after so long. "I've missed you, you know. Why didn't you tell me?"

Nikka watched as Mirei rubbed her eye. "I'm sorry, Nikka. There was just so much going on over here..."

Nikka frowned slightly. Mirei still hadn't told him about WGM and he didn't forget the fact that she had been ignoring his messages and calls up until now. He was slightly wounded that she had cut contact with him for a while but, seeing her in front of him now made him forget his earlier qualms.

"It's such good news that you're coming home!" he continued to say excitedly. "The footage you sent over was such good quality. I think I heard Richard say that you did well for a rookie. I think you might even be the prime candidate for that promotion--"

"Nikka--"

"And you know what? You've missed a lot of drama at work over the past couple of months! You know George, yeah? Apparently, he got caught having an affair with Katie from HR--"

"Nikka--"

"And Darren from Tech was so upset! He and George had a full-on fist fight in the staff room so now--"

"Nikka!" Mirei shouted.

"Yeah? What?" he asked innocently. "I was just getting to the good part."

Mirei looked at him steadily from across the screen. She was hugging the heart-shaped pillow that he had given her when he left Seoul. Her voice was low, "Nikka... I'm not coming home."

Nikka blinked. "What?" His voice had gone up a notch. "What-what do you mean you're not coming home?"

"I've decided," Mirei said firmly. "That I'm not going back to the UK."

Nikka couldn't process what he was hearing. He started to laugh, "Haha, Mirei," he said with forced humour. "Very funny. You got me. So, stop joking like that--"

"Nikka, I'm serious" she replied, her eyes fixed on his. "I'm not going back."

Nikka was speechless. He looked deeply into her eyes, trying to figure out why she was saying such things.

Mirei sighed. "I owe you an explanation."

"You owe me more than that!" Nikka heard himself shout as he finally found his voice. "What the hell's going on Mirei? What do you mean you're not coming back home?"

Mirei averted her gaze as she took a deep breath. "Before the EXO members left, Kyungsoo..." she locked eyes with Nikka, "proposed to me."

"What?!"

"I know" Mirei replied with a small smile, "I was like that too." She traced her finger around the letters stitched on the heart-shaped pillow. "And I've been thinking about it ever since."

"What did you say?" Nikka asked her hurriedly. "Surely, you said 'no'?"

Mirei responded calmly, "I told him that I'll think about it and he's given me a month to answer."

Nikka's mind was working overtime as it tried to process the shocking news. He felt dizzy as thoughts raced through his mind at high speed. "You can't get married!" he exclaimed. "What about your family? Your job? Your life, here? In the UK? You're just gonna abandon all that for some guy you met six months ago?" his voice trailed off as he finally asked, "What about... me?"

Nikka gaped at Mirei desperately as he urged her to make the right decision. He didn't want her to marry him; he never wanted her to leave the UK in the first place. Why did this happen? How did this happen? It