The plan was actually quite easy. Jiwon needs a husband – or at least someone who’ll pretend to be her husband to appease her parents – and Junmyeon needs a wife – or someone who’ll stand at the altar with him so he doesn’t turn into a laughing stock, really.

It’s still looking quite vague but they had time to go into detail. When the initial idea was fully clear to the both of them, they started talking about the things that led to all this mayhem.

“I’ve wanted to ask this since a while ago, Ms. Yoo. Why are your parents so adamant in marrying you off?” Junmyeon turned in his seat, his body now facing his companion. “Is your company facing financial troubles?”

“Excuse me?”

“Sorry, I mean nothing bad by that last question. It’s purely out of curiosity.” He immediately explained. Truly, he just wanted to know the reason why the woman was being pressured to get married. In usual cases between well-off families, business interest is almost always on top of the list.

Jiwon sighed as she started telling her story. She already made up her mind to enter into an agreement with this man, so she somehow felt compelled to at least give him a narrative.

“My family’s business is fine. It’s been around for decades, and I’m quite confident in saying it’ll be around for a long time. The marriage thing is my parents’ way of averting some kind of misfortune that is supposed to cut my life short.”

“Misfortune?”

“Yeah. Sounds absurd, doesn’t it? There’s this old shaman that my mom believes in who said that I was going to die if I don’t get married by the time I’m 25. God, it sounds even crazier when I say that out loud so I avoid telling that to people.”

“I didn’t know marriage can save people from early death,” Junmyeon tried not to sound too amused but failed.

“That makes both of us. I bet it’s just a scam, though. But that doesn’t mean I can persuade my parents to let go of this matter easily. They’re scared they’ll lose me.” And that fear was blinding them from seeing that their only daughter is already feeling caged and suffocated.

“Well if they’re really that scared and desperate to get you hitched, then why’re you still unmarried until now?”

“Huh. Thought you’d figure that one out by now,” Jiwon teased as she tilted the rearview mirror towards her to fix her hair. “It’s because I ran away. I’ve been overseas for eight years. I just came back today, as a matter of fact.”

Junmyeon could only nod. It all makes sense, considering the fact that he had not met the lady in any of the social and business funct