Mari finally snapped out of her reverie the moment they got back to Seoul. She and Chanyeol didn’t speak much to each other again, having found comfort in the stretched silence. Something shifted between Mari and Baekhyun, however. She couldn’t quite place what it was exactly, but the comfort in his presence increased tenfold. He, too, had gone quieter the moment Mari and Chanyeol were bombarded by staff and assistants, his red hair disappearing from the crowd.

As much as it hurt to have him away from her, Mari couldn’t do anything about it. She knew their relationship had barriers from the first place. Both of them couldn’t take the risk of someone finding out about their affair, so she had to get accustomed to the fact Baekhyun was always lurking at the corner while Chanyeol remained glued to her side without a word. He stood there silently, watching warily, but when his eyes landed on hers, they would soften.

No words needed to be said. Mari could read the expression in his eyes-the understanding, the reassurance he wasn’t going anywhere, and his silent support meant everything to her.

The newly married couple was having their makeup retouched in the studio. The rest of their appointments had been lessened by Jongdae and rescheduled for the UPC interview. UPC was one, if not the biggest network that always had celebrities as guests from their talk show led by Im Boram herself. She even had Evelyn as her guest plenty of times, long before her career went down the drain.

While Mari was zoning out in her seat, trying to get used to the amount of hands fixing her hair and retouching her makeup in the brightly lit room, Jongdae scrolled through something on his tablet. “This interview is highly anticipated. Ever since it was announced you both would come on set, the hash tag has been top trending for five days now,” he looked up to Mari with a scrunched nose. “Mostly, they’re curious about you. You don’t even show up on Google searches. Expect that there will be a lot of questions directed your way about your life and how you met Chanyeol. Knowing live interviews like this, they’ll grill you.”

“Grill me?” she raised an unimpressed brow, ignoring the way Chanyeol shifted in his seat beside her. They both wore matching clothes with the same silver color scheme, a stunning pair to his platinum hair and her icy pale skin. Underneath the harsh fluorescent lights and bold red lip she wore, Mari could feel her aura had changed. Maybe it was because she wore designer clothes whose price she didn’t even want to find out, or maybe it was the wedding ring that symbolized their empty promises to one another that made her terrifyingly numb that morning. “Don’t they have respect?”

“They probably took your background into account, but they also need to appease the media no matter what. It’s nothing personal, just the world of stardom they need to cater to.”

“We’re also going to have to act really sweet,” piped Chanyeol, admiring the way his hair has been gelled back to reveal a glorious forehead that didn’t even have a single pore. Perfect, handsome, smart, and successful—he looked exactly the way the world expected him to be, and Mari wondered how she looked beside him. “Like two lovers drunk on their ‘magical nights’ from their honeymoon.”

She took note of the way his lip curled in his distaste, sarcasm dripping from his words. When the stylist finished curling her hair into elegant waves and hair sprayed them beneath her chest, Mari snorted. “Perfect.”

It was a good thing their stylists didn’t speak English (Jongdae made sure), so their conversations couldn’t be decoded. They only stared back at the couple with wide eyes at their fluency, Chanyeol carrying more of his accent, but spoke clearly anyway. When they left along with Jongdae who was nervously adjusting his tie, Mari forced a smile.

It was show time.

She laced her hands through his, beaming up at him and showing her pearly whites. Chanyeol gazed back down at her more softly this time, although his tight grip on her hand said otherwise. He wore a crisp silver dress shirt along with simple black slacks, while Mari wore a silk dress the same shade, accentuating her curves, but she remained modest with the jacket studded with diamonds. With one last glimpse from a floor length mirror, Mari nearly gasped. She’d expected it, yet the shock still came.

They did look good together. Too good, actually, that she felt something dark stirring in the bottom of her stomach. Her vision blurred for a moment and she almost stumbled, the crown of her head bumping for a moment against Chanyeol’s shoulders. His eyes darkened at her nausea, an arm wrapping around her waist to steady her.

She wanted to tell him off, make a snarky remark not to touch her. However, she wobbled again in her heels, so she let his arm stay. For now, she needed someone to lean on to. Deep down, Mari knew she couldn’t do this by herself, and her heart beat only accelerated when Im Boram stood up from her seat at the same time the director gestured for them to go.

With one last intake of breath, they walked to the studio, where the lights weren’t just bright. No, they glared at Mari, reminding her of the consequences of popularity. She looked away for a split second before Boram turned to the camera, “Good morning, citizens of Seoul! I am Boram, your one and only talk show host in the latest and juiciest news brought to you directly from Star Talk!” she announced with a flair of her hands. Immediately, a recorded clapping of an audience resonated from the studio. The only thing Mari was thankful for was that they technically weren’t in the image yet, the camera still panned to Boram. “I see that we’re still trending even after five days. You guys are that eager to meet them, huh? I can’t blame you, even I’m ecstatic to meet the star crossed lovers themselves—everyone, let’s welcome Park Chanyeol and his beloved wife, Fujiwara Mariko!”

The camera panned to them. The lights flashed harder. Her feet ached from her heels, and her waist shook from Chanyeol’s touch. Boram was beautiful; all youth and enthusiasm evident from her face free of lines, the soft baby pink painted on her lips highlighting her friendly aura. But Mari didn’t feel welcomed at all. Her eyes were empty and devoid of emotion despite the glitters at the corner of her eye. It reminded her of the first time she met Chanyeol, where she could see absolutely nothing else but only beauty.

Mari tried to change her grimace to a smile as they sat at the white leather sofa made specifically for couples. Her hip was pressed to Chanyeol’s, his scent so intoxicating that it bothered her. In fact, it irritated her. The smile on his face looked so natural as he waved to the camera, looking almost genuinely happy if Mari didn’t know better. For a moment, Mari wanted to point out how deceiving he was when he realized it wasn’t just him. No, beautiful people really could entrance others easily with their charisma, giving them power and using that as a shield from their bleak, empty lives downtrodden in despair.

Mari wanted to throw up.

“My, my, aren’t you both glowing!” Boram giggled to herself, even though nothing was hilarious at all. For the sake of keeping up images, Mari forced another smile, even leaning closer to Chanyeol until her shoulders brushed under his armpit for faux proximity. “It’s such an honor having two powerful presences in my show. I actually think I’m struggling to breathe,” Boram added while fanning herself, and another recorded sound of laughing played.

“Thank you so much for inviting us here, Boram. It’s also our pleasure to have been the good morning news for the citizens of Seoul today.”

“Oh, how they’ve awaited this day,” she gushed at Chanyeol’s remark, crossing her legs on top of one another as she leaned forward in her seat. “So, Chanyeol, we’ve basically watched you make your company grow from when you were in your mid-twenties. Your beloved people witnessed you grow from a young man into now a happily married adult. I must admit that I actually felt a little nostalgic at how fast time flew. One moment you were receiving international awards and making us proud, and now you’re married! We’re so happy for you, but we can’t believe you grew up this fast!”

Chanyeol shook his head to himself, a small smile on his face as if he couldn’t believe it as well. “I know, it feels like time flew by so fast. Especially when you’re in love,” he whispered the last part, turning to croon at Mari. Unable to help it, she looked up at him under her lashes, lips quivering not out of butterflies in her stomach, but because she couldn’t recognize the person staring at her. Even his words seemed like he was being controlled by a ventriloquist as he continued, “A minute could feel like an hour, and an hour could feel like a second.”

“You’re so sweet, I’m blushing!” Boram cheered from her seat, which made Chanyeol rumble a deep laugh. She turned to Mari with a smile, holding a small, white envelope in her hands. Mari studied the material for a split second, picturing either a photo or letter inside. Something about the way she held it while tapping her finger every beat told Mari that Boram had something hidden in her pocket, and she didn’t like it.

As to not cause suspicion, her eyes drifted upwards to Boram’s awaiting smile. “Mariko, as you know, your husband is quite the figure in our country. Pretty much everything he does is followed by the media, so his marriage news came as a surprise to us when we didn’t even know he was dating. You must be really special if he did everything he could to keep you away from the media.”

Mari bit back her tongue, stopping herself from telling Boram she didn’t like being addressed by her first name by strangers. She tipped her head to the side, smiling at Chanyeol and pointedly staring at the bridge of his nose instead. The last thing she wanted was to look into his eyes, afraid she’d see nothing but a reflection of herself in its abyss. “It was difficult for us at first to date considering his fame. I’m not fond of attention, so we really had to be careful of everything we did so as to not have our privacy be invaded.”

“I see, I see. Is it because Japanese people are more reserved?”

Mari’s head snapped towards Boram, the inquisitive and almost challenging tone in her voice picked up by her. She breathed through her nose, mimicking Boram’s crossed legs and standing up straighter, taller. The sudden change in demeanor made Boram blink for a split second before she settled back to her equally forced enthusiasm. Mari flicked her hair over shoulder, “Regardless of my race, I think no one likes having cameras shoved in their faces. My relationship with Chanyeol is something special between the both of us. Our intimacy is not to be shown to the world.”

“Do you feel uncomfortable being here?”

“No, you’re a great host and you already make me feel so welcome,” she lied, chuckling softly through her teeth when Chanyeol gripped her hip a little tighter. He must’ve felt the tension in the air at her defensiveness as well, warning her to take it easy. “I was a little nervous since I’d never done public interviews before, but this was expected when I married someone like him. Now that we’re married though, I don’t mind the public knowing about us,” she covered her face with her hair, thankful that her irritation at this woman gave her warmth to her cheeks that could be interpreted as shyness. “I understand Chanyeol is a handsome and loved man here in Seoul. However, I want everyone to know he’s mine.”

“You’re cute when you’re jealous, but you don’t have to be,” grinned Chanyeol, going as far as leaning forwards to brush his nose against hers. Mari’s nails dug into her palms, every muscle in her body screaming to move away, yet she didn’t. She allowed Chanyeol’s minty breath to ghost over her face, his eyes crinkled into half-moons at her. “I took an oath to love you for the rest of my life. There’s no one else but you.”

“I am absolutely swooning. How did you two meet? And what would you say was your most memorable moment together?”

“Our parents have been friends for a long time. I’m four years older than her, so we didn’t meet until we were in our twenties. I remember coming back home from college to find my Mom sitting in our table, eager to show me something, then she showed me a photo of Mari,” Chanyeol looked down at his lap as he reminisced, “I was so tired that day because I was also working as a manager in our company, but when I saw the photo—” his glossy eyes drifted over Mari, “—I knew I’d fallen in love. I’ve never seen a woman more beautiful and elegant than she did. She had this warmth from her eyes visible even through the photos, and that’s when I knew, I wanted to meet her.”

“So it was love at first sight?”

“Definitely, yes. I believed I loved her, but she proved me wrong so many times, because I had no idea a man could fall in love with a woman more than once,” he bumped his forehead on top of hers, eliciting an uncomfortable and almost muted laugh from Mari. No wonder she believed him when he said he wanted their relationship to work out. He was so smooth with his words, romantic in his actions, passionate with his touch—Mari no longer questioned why she’d fallen for him in the first place. He acted expertly; perhaps she could believe him again. “You still make me feel like I’m on top of the world.”

“You guys are honestly the sweetest couple I’ve had on set, and such an unexpected relationship too! Who would’ve thought it would be a Japanese heiress that would steal our nation’s pride’s heart?”

“I am extremely lucky to have met a man like him. I don’t know what I would’ve done without him,” Mari whispered back softly, slowly leaning away for air. Chanyeol, who was equally as uncomfortable as she was, let her have her space.

“Can you share your most memorable moments with us?”

“I...have a lot,” she admitted, stealing a wary glance his way. “Our relationship hasn’t always been easy. Like any other couple, we’ve had our ups and downs, but what mattered most was how we worked through those difficulties. I think that’s the most essential part of the relationship, the willingness to fix things and choosing to love them despite their flaws. That was when I fell hard for him, when he stayed and remained kind to me even through our hardest times,” Although a miniscule movement, Mari noticed the way his brow raised at her, aware that everything she said was nothing but the absolute truth. She didn’t want to think back to those days she mooned over him, but she had to let him know. It was the only way she could let go of him, and in turn receive closure from the fairytale she was forced to believe in. “My life has not always been easy, yet Chanyeol always stayed there by my side. I guess my most favorite memory of us was when I was studying for my exams in the local library while he had paperwork. We didn’t talk much, but I don’t think words needn’t be spoken when I knew he understood me.”

“What else did you two do in the library?”

Mari turned to Boram’s expectant eyes. “You’re probably expecting a much more dramatic scene, but I can’t think of a time that I loved him harder than I already do aside from that. Maybe it was the simplicity and normalcy he gave me that I otherwise wouldn’t have gotten from my normal life. The fact he could make me feel stable and strong in such hard times made me realize that yes, I do love him, and I would do anything I can to make him happy as well.”

“That’s very beautiful,” she nodded to herself, although the disappointment shone all over her face. Clearly, she wanted something more scandalous. After all, there should be more to the love story between their nation’s beloved and a Japanese heiress. What Boram didn’t know though, was that that something more was indeed scandalous, but not in the way she wanted it to be. “You guys have an admirable, healthy relationship. But has there ever been a time that you wondered or felt maybe it wasn’t worth it? Has he ever been so difficult that it felt like it was just easier to give up?”

“Sometimes, giving up can be a lot harder than staying. Humans tend to stay even when it’s tough, simply because it’s what we’ve known, and the consequences of letting go could be different,” Mari spoke from experience, her shoulders and heart growing lighter with each confession. She could feel Chanyeol burning holes through the side of her head, so she kept her gaze directed to Boram. Mari was afraid of what she would say if she looked him in the eye. “He...wasn’t always an amicable man, but I know he’s doing his best. That’s enough for me to keep going on.”

“I’m glad you are each other’s strength during tough times. It makes me wonder though, Miss Mari, how were you able to cope with your Mother’s death and still proceed with the wedding?”

Mari froze.

“Excuse me?”

“Chanyeol here told me before the interview you’d been a little erratic because your Mother died not long ago,” Boram offered a sympathetic smile, opening the envelope and opening a signed Polaroid of her Mother. From the multiple screens behind the cameras, Mari’s breath stilled inside her when she saw her Mother’s photo zoomed. The whole nation could now see her smiling face.

Boram sighed, “Fujiwara Yoriko was a stunning supermodel. She was extremely adored by your Father, although don’t you think it’s a little unfair for her fan club that you didn’t even properly announce her death? Was there something behind her death you didn’t want people finding out?” she continued, leaning back in her seat with her brows drawn together in thought. “Your family has always been mysterious. In fact, your Mother was a famous woman in Japan, but you were never spotted with her. Would you say you have family problems?”

“I don’t have expectations from you, yet you’re still disappointing,” Mari scoffed. Chanyeol cleared his throat beside her, his hand coming up to rest on her elbow when she flicked his touch away, narrowing her eyes at the stricken host. “I am neither a talk show host nor a celebrity. I’m not someone who posts their whole life for the world to see. Let me ask you Miss Boram, why exactly do public figures share so much of their life to everyone? Is it for fame, for power?”

“In a way, yes, and also to connect with people.”

“To connect, you say,” Mari laughed dryly, “Let me make this clear for you. I don’t need to do any of those, because money, power, connections—I had those long before I was born. The fact people like you want to exploit my privacy simply because you want this show to trend all for money and fame, then that’s highly pathetic and not honorable at all. My Mother died, but I don’t think it’s unfair her fan club didn’t know about it. She is still my Mother and I respect her. Her death is not something that I’d gladly announce to the world, not because I’m hiding anything, but because I want to mourn her in private. Now, which part of that is so hard to understand? What exactly do you know about me to even concur that you know my family better than I do?”

“I-I didn’t think—”

“Exactly, you didn’t think. You open your mouth and just yap to increase your view count,” Mari hissed. The crewmen gasped behind their cameras, the director even whisper-yelling at them from the curtains at the side of the stage. Chanyeol stared at his lap with wide-eyes, his lips trembling while Mari glanced at the staff. “This is live, right?”

“Mari, stop.”

“I suggest you stop before I make a fool out of you,” she whispered to Chanyeol. Mari didn’t try hiding the ferocity in her eyes anymore, and her husband visibly swallowed in defeat. His lip curled upwards in distaste, but he didn’t say anything more. Resisting the urge to scoff, she stood up, wiping away the imaginary dust from her skirt, her back tall and straight. “To everyone who’s watching this, I’m sorry to have soured your morning. Please don’t believe everything you see on the Internet and assume you know the real story behind things based on talk and some photographs,” she looked at Boram, whose jaw had dropped open. “As for you, I kindly ask you never invite us again. I can’t believe I cleared my schedule for this interview and you did nothing but waste my time. Thank you for the wasted opportunity.”

Without another word, Mari left the room. She heard Chanyeol’s footsteps rushing behind her, but Mari walked so fast that she whizzed past people, her hair flying back. Her heels click-clacked against the ground in a frantic manner, click-click-click, while her breaths came out irregular. Inhale, exhale, deep breath in, a shuddered breath—Mari shut her eyes.

Everyone made way for her. Rage and hurt must’ve b