"Best friends: it's a promise, not a label."
— Anonymous

"Your…wife…?" Kim Jongdae repeated, unsure if Baekhyun's words entered his ears correctly. "Your wi—wait! Your wife?" he exclaimed seconds later with eyes like a deer in the headlights. The famed Casanova then peered over Sehun to look at Ara with the same inquisitive expression. She was equally surprised—just not in the same way he, Yixing, nor Chaeyoung were. Ara remained quiet without a single word of protest, but it was the shock and horror in her dark lenses that confirmed Baekhyun's unexpected claim.

"You mother ing bastard…" the entertainment director breathed out as he looked back at the Lothario, lips parted far apart.

Baekhyun sighed softly, lowered his head, and bit his bottom lip as he shut his eyes. . He cursed mentally. He didn’t intend to make such an announcement—especially not in this setting—but he did. He unknowingly yielded to jealousy, and it was too late to take it back.

Releasing another breath, he raised his head and met everyone's gaze aside for his mistress's. "It's a long overdue introduction, but I'd like you to meet Seo Ara, my wife," he clarified, summoning silence—an awkward one for most and a painful kind for others.

Without warning, Yixing laughed and sank back on his cushioned seat, eyes glued to the ivory tablecloth.

All the pieces had finally settled into place.

"You were right," he began, his tone composed and even, "I shouldn't have bothered. I already lost before it even started." He then set his alluring eyes on the no-longer-a-secret Mrs. Byun and flashed a smirk of surrender, "Zhang Yixing, eliminated."

Tapping both index fingers on the hard wood, the young CEO stood up with a deep breath. "Well, if you'd excuse me, I think just booked a round or three with Johnnie Walker Blue," he announced and signaled to Jongdae to do the same.

"And I guess I, with Remy Martin," Jongdae added, referring to his choice of liquor. Then, without waiting for a response, he and Don Juan left the table before the unforeseen drama could fully unfold.

Similarly, Secretary Oh rose to his feet. After witnessing the remarkable connection between the married couple, he had taken it upon himself to give Baekhyun a little nudge in the right direction—in the direction of the intriguing Seo Ara—and now that he had, it was time for the Lothario to take the reins, and navigate through the mess by himself. "I'd like to excuse myself as well. It looks like the three of you have a lot to discuss," he stated, his aloof expression once again the prominent feature on his face.

Chaeyoung quietly stood up moments after the three men made their escape. Her eyes were glazed over, but the desire to murder was highly evident in her tightly fisted hands and livid aura. It was something Baekhyun had seen far too many times with far too many women, but the remorse in Ara's gaze was what mattered to him at the moment.

"Chae…" Ara called cautiously, but the now-former mistress simply walked off without a word, leaving a silenced husband and wife.

|| …………… ||

"Aren't you going after her?" Baekhyun asked, his voice clear and steady. He and Ara had been sitting in the same spot for a little over thirty minutes, just listening to their individual thoughts. He expected his wife to chase after her best friend the second Chaeyoung left, but Ara showed no signs of intent to follow since then.

His wife glanced at her watch then set her eyes back to the black horizon. "Not just yet," Ara answered, cool and composed. "Chaeyoung needs to blow off steam and calm her mind. There's no use in talking to her as she was when she left," she explained, knowing her words would just flow through one ear and out the other if she chased after her surely fuming best friend.

"But did you really have to make such an announcement now?" she continued, turning her less-than-amused gaze to her husband. In a way, she was relieved the cat was out of the bag, but the way it clawed itself out was not how she wanted it to happen.

"I—" Baekhyun started, but without bothering with his response, Ara set her dark lenses on the Movado timepiece once more, and waited for the moving hand pass the 60-second mark.

Then, with a troubled sigh, she rose to her feet. "I'm gonna need a few shots of Patron after this," she mumbled to herself before heading in the direction her best friend took.

Baekhyun gaped in disbelief. Don't tell me—you were timing Chaeyoung the whole damn time? He thought as he stared at his wife diminishing in the distance. He had been wrong about her so many times that he was starting to wonder if now was the time to finally give up guessing—and start embracing the fact that Ara was like no other woman he had met before.

"Seo Ara. Seo Ara," he called with a half-smirk, letting his tongue memorize the shape of her name, "Will you ever cease to amaze me?"

|| …………… ||

Sandals in hand, Ara quietly made her way down to the shore, stopping just some distance to left of Chaeyoung, and waited patiently for her best friend to initi