Seungwan’s barely been back in the country for a year, but it seems like her parents have already gone ahead and assumed plans for the next five years of her life, because Seungwan has absolutely no clue how she’s landed herself in the situation of sitting in the middle of the plush couch in her family’s living room, staring blankly at her parents, who are positively beaming with excitement.

“He’s very filial and a gentleman! Try it out, Seungwan, maybe it’ll work out.” Her father pushes gently, and Seungwan sinks back further into the couch. She kind of wishes it would just swallow her whole so she wouldn’t have to deal with this.

“I don’t think it will, Dad. No one goes for blind dates anymore.”

“We’re just a little worried for you. You’re twenty-seven and you’ve never dated anyone.”

“Twenty-seven isn’t old,” Seungwan says, somewhat defensively. Unbeknownst to her parents, she’s also dated a couple of people while she’d been in medical school in Canada, but Seungwan holds back, because she knows breaching a topic like this will only open a Pandora’s box of questions that she really doesn’t want to get into. It’s not like any of those relationships had lasted long, anyway.

 Her mother frowns sympathetically.

“Just this once, Seungwan?”

Seungwan holds in a sigh. It’s been more than a few years since she’s properly spent quality time with her parents. It feels wonderful to be back home after nearly a decade, and the least she can do now is to fulfil her parents’ wishes for her, especially everything they’ve done to support her.

Even if it means going on blind dates that are definitely not going to work out. Not that her parents need to know this piece of information.

“Fine.”

 

*

 

It goes terribly.

Not that Seungwan expects anything more, but then again, she really wishes that at least the time she’s taken to dress up and put on makeup had been worth the effort. Despite the short few hours that the date had taken, Seungwan’s already drained beyond belief—a combination of her terrible work schedule before that, awkward silences and Seungwan’s inherent problem of rambling about the oddest of things. Grimacing at the memory of herself rambling on about her job at the hospital, Seungwan pushes the unwelcome reminder to the back of her mind as she makes her way down the corridor to her apartment, heels clicking on the floor, and she sighs. Keying in the passcode, the door swings open with a soft beep, welcoming her into the warmth and comfort of her home. Somewhere within the apartment, there’s a soft meow as a familiar fluffy black and white cat trots up to her, winding itself around her legs, purring.

“Hey Mittens!” Seungwan brightens up almost immediately upon the sight of her beloved cat.

“I need to take off my heels. I can’t do that if you’re all twisted around my legs.”

Mittens meows back in reply, gazing up at her. She gets her heels off eventually after much struggle and traipsing around her cat, and only then she scoops Mittens up into her arms, making her way to the living room, dumping her purse on the dining table before plopping down onto the couch, cradling her cat.

“I just had the most terrible day, Mittens.” She starts, but Mittens merely stares at her owlishly, limp in her arms. He’s surprisingly generous today, because he’s letting Seungwan hold him for more than a minute as compared to his usual meows of protest and wriggling out of Seungwan’s grasp. Seungwan’s almost convinced he already knows she’s had a hell of a day. “Imagine getting out of a 16-hour shift, having to dress up for a blind date and then having your date disappoint you.”

Mittens meows again.

“I can’t believe he had nothing to say. I’m talking about one-word responses here, Mitts. Who does that? ‘Gentleman’, my .” She mutters, just as Mittens decides that he’s had enough. He’s squirming out of her grasp, eliciting a small noise of complaint from Seungwan as he pushes himself off her. He makes his way into the kitchen, tail waving in the air, wholly unaffected by Seungwan’s apparent be.

“I knew you were being too nice for it to be true,” Seungwan mutters, but she’s following him anyway, patting him on the head as she fishes for the bag of cat food with her other hand. Mittens is purring again, butting his head against her knee as she bends down and gives him his dinner. With a tired sigh, Seungwan stands up with a wince, and heads into the bathroom.

 

*

 

As it turns out, her parents are somewhat of a liar, because Seungwan quickly finds herself with another three more blind dates lined up within the span of the next two weeks.

“Mum, I’m busy! None of these dates have worked out.” Seungwan whines as they settle in at the dining table for dinner.

“You’ve only been on three, my dear.” Her mother says gently, and Seungwan grumbles under her breath, stabbing her fork into a piece of roasted potato. It’s not often that she has time on the weekends to spend at her parents’ house, and while Seungwan is generally enthusiastic about being with her parents, their recent meddling with her love life has admittedly made Seungwan a little more reluctant to visit.

Just a little.

“Are you planning on arranging blind dates for me until one of them works out?”

Her mother pauses. “Well, it’s either that, or when my contacts run out.”

“And how many contacts do you have left?” Seungwan raises an eyebrow.

“Oh, fifty or so, I think.”

Seungwan blanches. She kind of really wants to migrate back to Canada. Maybe take another doctorate just for the sake of it, so that she doesn’t have to come back for another year or so, and maybe they’d forget about the whole thing.

“Fifty?” She squeaks out, and her father smiles.

“Or you could tell us your preferences, we could narrow it down for you.”

Seungwan shakes her head vehemently.

“Would you prefer a doctor? Since you’re a doctor as well, maybe you’ll have more to talk about.” Her mother suggests, and Seungwan’s shaking her head again.

The last thing she needs is talking about her work after work hours—as much as she loves her job at the hospital, it’s not exactly something Seungwan’s willing to dwell on for longer than necessary. It also doesn’t help that almost her entire family is comprised of well-established doctors and specialists.

“So, you’ll go on the one next week?” Seungwan’s father asks, and she glances at him. He looks so hopeful, a small, tentative smile on his face, and suddenly Seungwan’s complaints die on the tip of her tongue.

She swallows.

“Yeah, of course.”

 

*

 

“This is stupid, I don’t know why I keep doing this.” Seungwan plops onto her couch, fresh out of the shower after yet another terrible date, towel draped over her head as her hair drips water. She places yesterday’s leftovers into the microwave and sets the timer, leaning against the kitchen counter as she watches her supper warm up. She’s well aware of how pathetic this is—having leftovers for supper because she’d left early on a date that just wasn’t working out. Not that any of them have, anyway.

“Because you’re too nice of a person and you don’t want to upset your parents.” Joohyun’s voice deadpans from over the phone, and Seungwan rolls her eyes even though they’re on a phone call.

“It was a rhetorical question.”

“I know.” Seungwan can almost hear the mirth in Joohyun’s voice.

“Not helpful, Joohyun.” Seungwan whines.

“Well, you could put up an ad, I’m sure someone would be willing to do it for enough money.” Joohyun suggests. The microwave beeps, and Seungwan sandwiches her phone between her ear and shoulder, moving to remove the container from the microwave. She makes her way to the couch in her living room, stepping around Mittens carefully, who follows her like a shadow.

“I can’t do that.” Seungwan sighs, and Joohyun lets out a soft ‘oh’.

“Right, I forgot you’re the heir to all those hospitals.”

“Don’t remind me.” Seungwan groans, and Joohyun chuckles.

“What about Seulgi?” She suggests gently, and Seungwan pauses, chewing on her food as she considers this. Beside her, Mittens sniffs the container, intrigued.

“Probably not, she’s not a very good liar.”

Joohyun goes quiet, and neither of them speak for a while as Seungwan eats.

“Well, I know someone who might be able to help you.”

Seungwan sits up a little straighter. “Who?”

“Park Sooyoung. Remember her?”

 

 

*

 

Seungwan fiddles with her phone, eyeing the door nervously as she waits. The café she’s chosen is relatively empty with only the noises of the coffee machine and soft clinking of cups filling the space. Then, there’s a startling jingle as the glass door swings open, and a vaguely familiar, tall woman walks in, wearing a red cashmere sweater and jeans. It takes a few moments to locate Seungwan, and Seungwan swallows as she makes her way towards her, heels clicking. Sooyoung settles into her seat and flashes a small, polite smile at Seungwan, who returns it with practiced ease just as the waiter approaches.

“So, what’re you getting?” Sooyoung is first to break the silence, and Seungwan glances down at the menu, even though probably she’s read through the entire thing front to back more than five times.

“Just a latte,” Seungwan says, and Sooyoung nods amicably, humming under her breath as the waiter notes down her order.

“A matcha latte for me.” She turns to the waiter, who nods and leaves with their menus.

“Not a coffee person?” Seungwan smiles, and Sooyoung chuckles.

“Not today, no.”

They both fall quiet, and Seungwan interlaces her fingers together nervously, chewing on her lip. She should probably say something, given that she’s the one who reached out to the taller woman in the first place. She clears quietly, and Sooyoung’s looking at her expectantly.

“So, uh, you probably heard from Joohyun that I need a little help.”

“Mhm.”

“I’ll need you to be my fake girlfriend for just one night. I’ll pay you five hundred thousand won, like I promised.” She continues, and an amused smile ghosts Sooyoung’s lips.

“You must be pretty desperate if you’re offering me that much money.”

Seungwan sighs, leaning back against her chair. “Let’s just say I’m sick of being forced to go on ty blind dates.”

Sooyoung gives an empathetic smile just as their orders arrive, and they both murmur their thanks. “Parents?” She asks, and Seungwan nods, grimacing.

Sooyoung hums in acknowledgement, taking a sip of her matcha latte. “You know, I didn’t think we’d meet again under such circumstances.”

Seungwan huffs out a laugh. “Me neither. It’s been a while.”

“’A while’ is a little bit of an understatement.” Sooyoung says, but there’s no venom in her voice. “I assume you’re a doctor now?” She pauses. “You know, since you posted that you went to Canada to study medicine and all that on your Instagram.” She adds somewhat hurriedly.

“Yup. I came back earlier this year, I’m working at one of my parents’ hospitals now.”

It’s weird.

It’s not like they’re strangers, but Seungwan supposes they’re not familiar enough to be considered friends, even if they did talk and hung out in the same group of friends in high school. They’d only known each other through Joohyun, and in an odd way, it feels almost like déjà vu. Except they’ve both matured from their awkward teenage selves, and Sooyoung looks even more beautiful than Seungwan remembers.

“Are there any rules that I have to follow?” Sooyoung prompts, and Seungwan blinks.

“Uh,” She furrows her eyebrows. “I don’t think so?”

“So, I can kiss you and all that?”

Seungwan’s eyes widen, and Sooyoung fumbles, flustered. “I mean, because we’re supposed to be girlfriends and I’m assuming we should be as convincing as possible, not because, you know, that I want to take advantage of the situation.”

“Oh.” Seungwan mumbles, and she can feel her cheeks heat up. “Yeah, you can. Just… not the lips.”

Sooyoung sighs in relief. “Okay, great.”

 

*

 

“Okay, uh—so we met in high school and were friends, but developed feelings for each other in university but I was away in Canada so we waited until I came back to start dating, and then only in the past month we became official.” Seungwan turns to Sooyoung. “Right?” She offers what she hopes is a cheerful smile, but judging by the look on Sooyoung’s face, she’s probably not doing a very good job.

“Yes. Are you okay? You look really nervous.”

To her credit, Sooyoung looks confident—something that Seungwan is decidedly not. Dressed in a simple floral dress, Sooyoung looks almost too relaxed and at ease, and Seungwan really, really wishes she has her composure.

Seungwan grimaces. She’s about to lie to her parents about her entire love life and play pretend for at least six hours about something she has barely any knowledge about, will probably trip up somewhere and expose both herself and Sooyoung for lying within one year of coming back home after being gone for more than half a decade.

Seungwan’s pretty sure she’s screwed.

“Not really,” She squeaks out, and Sooyoung frowns, patting Seungwan’s shoulder somewhat awkwardly in an attempt at comfort.

“Listen, it’s going to be fine. I’ll take the lead, and then you can add in whatever else. I can do the talking, if you’re okay with that?”

Seungwan nods weakly, and Sooyoung offers her a warm smile before taking a deep breath and pressing the doorbell.

 

The wait is agonising.

Standing at the door to her parents’ home, Seungwan’s pretty sure she’s going to puke, and she forces the queasy feeling down, gripping Sooyoung’s hand tightly. The taller woman shoots her a reassuring smile, and Seungwan lets out a shaky breath just as the door swings open to reveal Seungwan’s mother, who immediately hugs her daughter before pulling away. Her smile only brightens as she takes Sooyoung in, and Sooyoung’s bowing respectfully before offering her hand in a handshake, which Seungwan’s mother takes.

“Hello! I’m Sooyoung, nice to meet you!” She smiles, and Seungwan’s makes a mental note to thank Joohyun later, because Sooyoung looks absolutely at ease. The perfect blend of confident, polite and respectful, which by Seungwan’s hunch, already places the taller woman in her parents’ good books.

“Yes, yes! We’ve heard about you from Seungwan. Please come in, make yourselves at home.”

Stepping into the home, Sooyoung grows quiet, eyes wide with awe as she takes in the high ceiling, marble floor and spacious layout, complete with a set of marble stairs leading up to the second floor.

“Whoa.” She mutters under her breath, and Seungwan scratches the back of her neck.

“I know, it’s a little… extravagant.”

“Joohyun was right,” Sooyoung turns to her, and Seungwan gives her a confused look. “You are rich. I thought she was joking.”

Seungwan chuckles. “Well, yes. When did Joohyun tell you this?”

Sooyoung shrugs. “It came up in our conversation a couple of months ago. Besides, you know how it is with Joohyun, it’s hard to tell when she’s joking sometimes.”

At this, Seungwan huffs out a laugh. “I’m telling her you said that.”

“Oh God, please, no. She’s going to kill me.” Sooyoung groans, but she lets Seungwan lead her to the living room, where her father sits on the couch, engrossed in the drama playing on the television in front of him.

Seungwan clears . “Uh, Dad?”

Her father turns around, and almost immediately, his face lights up when he spots Sooyoung, and his gaze flickers to their intertwined hands. Scrambling to his feet, he approaches the both of them, and Sooyoung bows again, offering another handshake that Seungwan’s father takes with a big smile.

“Sooyoung, right?” He confirms.

“That’s me.” Sooyoung grins, and he chuckles.

“Dinner will be ready in a bit, why don’t you two head to Seungwan’s room first? I’ll call the both of you down when it’s ready.”

“I can help you out,” Sooyoung offers quickly, but he shoos it away with a wave of his hand.

“Nonsense. You’re the guest today, I can’t possibly make you do that. Go on ahead, we’ll be fine.” With that, he makes his way into the kitchen, leaving the two of them in the empty living room. Sooyoung glances at Seungwan.

“We don’t have to go into your room if you don’t want to.” The taller woman says quickly, but Seungwan just shrugs.

“It’s alright, there’s nothing much to it.” Seungwan glances at the kitchen. “Besides, it’ll be weird if we stay here.”

She leads Sooyoung by the hand up the stairs, the white, fuzzy carpet soft beneath their feet. To her credit, Sooyoung stays a respectful distance despite their still-intertwined hands, and Seungwan turns left into a familiar door. It opens with a soft creak, and only then Seungwan lets go of their hands. Sooyoung lingers at the doorway, quietly taking Seungwan’s room in, hands crossed behind her back.

“That’s… a lot of awards.” She finally says, and Seungwan follows her gaze to the shelf above her study desk, lined neatly with numerous academic awards and prizes. She lets out a nervous laugh.

“Well, my therapist did say that I’m an overachiever.”

“To be fair, you were very good at studying, even back in high school.” Sooyoung shrugs, and Seungwan hums in acknowledgement. It wasn’t uncommon for Seungwan to emerge as the top scorer for every exam, and while Seungwan had her nose buried in books and practice questions for the most part, Sooyoung had lived a largely different life during their high school days. Sooyoung is by all means smart and had no problems acing her tests, but unlike Seungwan, Sooyoung was relatively more well-known, and spent most of her days lounging in the classroom after school with her friends rather than at the library alone. Which, in retrospect, was probably a smart decision on Sooyoung’s part. It’s thanks to Joohyun and Seungwan’s other best friend, Seulgi, that Seungwan’s even had a social circle in high school to begin with.

“I’m assuming you don’t live here anymore?” Sooyoung asks, eyeing the plain mattress that sits on the bed frame.

“Nope. I live nearby, though.” Seungwan pauses. “For convenience.” She adds, somewhat unnecessarily, and she winces. She’s definitely off to a great start at socializing. To her surprise, Sooyoung just nods in acknowledgement, unbothered by the strange remark.

Silence settles between them, and Seungwan’s leaning awkwardly on her desk, watching Sooyoung silently as the taller woman glances about the room. She bites her lip, mind racing to come up with a conversation topic, and just as Seungwan’s about to open , she’s saved by her father’s announcement of dinner being served. Breathing out a sigh of relief under her breath, Seungwan offers her hand out to Sooyoung with a nervous smile.

“Shall we?”

 

Dinner goes surprisingly smoothly. Seungwan’s parents are throwing questions at them almost immediately, but Sooyoung receives and answers them with such grace that leaves even Seungwan in awe.

“So Joohyun’s the one who brought you two together?” Seungwan’s mother asks, and Sooyoung lets out a soft chuckle.

“More or less. We were planning a surprise party together for her birthday last year, and from there I realized Seungwan was really nice and I wanted to get to know her better. It was a little hard at first because of the time zones, but I really appreciated that she always made the effort no matter how busy she was.” Sooyoung gives a shy smile, and her hand comes up to cover Seungwan’s on the table, interlacing their fingers together easily. “I didn’t think I actually stood a chance, but… here we are.” She grins.

Seungwan nods, smiling. It’s almost scary how good Sooyoung is at this whole thing. Nothing she’s mentioned so far has been discussed nor planned, and she’d be damned if her parents weren’t convinced of their relationship. Not that her parents have any reasons to doubt the authenticity of it in the first place, but Seungwan’s not one to leave anything to chance.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what do you do for a living?” Seungwan’s father prods, and Seungwan’s about to come to Sooyoung’s defence that money doesn’t exactly matter here, especially not when they’re this well-off, when Sooyoung beats her to answering the question.

“I’m a veterinarian, sir.” She says, pride seeping into her voice.

“Oh, you’re a doctor as well!” He beams, and Sooyoung laughs.

“Yes, I suppose so.” She agrees, earning both amused chuckles from Seungwan’s parents. Sooyoung hadn’t been exaggerating when she’d said that she’d be the one doing the talking. It’s definitely a good thing, because Seungwan’s pretty sure she would’ve royally screwed up at some point by now if the roles had been reversed.

 

They wash the dishes together after dinner despite Seungwan’s repeated offers to do it herself.

“It’d be more believable if we did the dishes together. Besides, your parents made really good food, and I feel bad for lying to them.”

She tacks on a pout for good measure, and Seungwan sighs.

“Fine.”

It’s silent between them once again with nothing but the sound of running water; but this time, the silence is a more comfortable one.

“Thanks for coming up with all that.” Seungwan says quietly. “I could never have managed that myself.” She adds, earning herself an amused smile from Sooyoung.

“Don’t mention it.”

Between the two of them, it doesn’t take very long at all to do the dishes, and Seungwan soon finds herself on the couch with Sooyoung’s arm around her shoulders, pulled close to the taller woman. She lets herself lean onto Sooyoung, who gives her a honey-sweet smile in return as she continues swapping stories with Seungwan’s parents with terrifying ease. Through their conversations, interspersed with Seungwan’s own comments, Seungwan learns that Sooyoung lives not too far from her own apartment, and that she likes listening to 90s music. She also learns that Sooyoung is a little bit of a hopeless romantic, if her fabricated stories on the fly are anything to go by.

 

Thankfully, time passes quickly, and it’s nine in the evening by the time they bid their goodbyes. Sooyoung bows again as they leave the house, holding Seungwan’s hand tightly.

“Thank you for coming, Sooyoung. It was a pleasure to meet you!” Seungwan’s mother says warmly.

“Thank you for inviting me!” Sooyoung bows, and they exchange their goodbyes before Seungwan’s leading Sooyoung by the hand and out to the streets, where her car waits. The moment they’re gone from her parents’ line of sight, she lets go, heaving a sigh of relief. “That went a lot better than I expected.”

“I’m assuming it was a job well done?” Sooyoung follows closely behind her as Seungwan unlocks her car, and she slips into the front passenger seat. The car doors slam shut, and the engines purrs as Seungwan starts the car.

“Oh, definitely.” Seungwan replies. “I can drop you off at your apartment.” She offers, and Sooyoung smiles.

“That’d be great, thank you. It’ll save me a ten-minute walk.” There’s humour tinging her voice, because they’d initially met at the train station close to both their apartments, since Sooyoung had an errand to run before meeting Seungwan.

“Oh! Before I forget,” Seungwan pulls out her phone, tapping here and there on the screen and fiddling with it for a good few minutes, before she speaks again. “I sent you the money.” She explains, just as Sooyoung’s phone pings softly with a notification. The taller woman checks it, and nods in confirmation.  Pocketing her phone, Seungwan steps on the gas and they pull out into the main street.

Neither of them speak, and it’s a long while before Seungwan decides to break the silence.

“Hey, uh… I’m sorry if this is rude and you can choose not to answer it, but… if you’re a veterinarian, I’m guessing you earn enough to not need to do this?” She winces as an afterthought. “Sorry, that was rude. Please just pretend I didn’t say anything.”

To her surprise, Sooyoung merely waves the apology away, seemingly unperturbed. “It’s fine, it’s a valid question. I’m unemployed now, and my rent is due.” She shrugs. “Five hundred thousand won for six hours is better than anything I could’ve hoped for.”

“Oh.”

“I am actually a veterinarian, if you’re wondering.”

“I never doubted that.” Seungwan says quickly, and Sooyoung gives her an amused look.

“I left my previous workplace a few months ago, and it’s been harder to find a job than I’d initially thought.” Sooyoung elaborates, and turns her attention to the road in front of them.

Seungwan raises an eyebrow. “Why’d you leave?”

“Toxic work environment.” Sooyoung says simply, and Seungwan nods in understanding.

With that, they fall back into comfortable silence once more, letting the lull of 90s music playing on the radio fill the space between them.

 

 

Fifteen minutes later, they arrive at Sooyoung’s apartment building, and Sooyoung unbuckles her seatbelt.

“Thank you for tonight, Sooyoung. You’re a lifesaver.” Seungwan says earnestly.

“Don’t mention it. I hope everything works out for you.”

“You too.” Seungwan smiles.

“It was nice meeting you again, though.” Sooyoung pauses. “The blonde hair suits you very well, by the way.”

Seungwan glances down at herself, touching her hair self-consciously, heat flushing in her cheeks. “Oh. Thanks,” She mumbles, embarrassed.

“Right, I’ll get going then.” Sooyoung opens the door, slipping out of the car. She bends down again, and their eyes meet.

“Goodnight, Seungwan.” She grins, and Seungwan bids her goodnight before the door closes shut, and Seungwan watches as Sooyoung makes her way into the building, the sound of her heels clicking muffled through the door.

 

*

 

“What?”

“It’s just that your grandmother and aunt want to meet her too! I mentioned it to them in passing and now they’re very insistent on meeting her.” Seungwan’s mother says over the phone, and Seungwan groans inwardly.

“Mum, Sooyoung’s very busy. I’m not sure if she has the time.”

“Well…”

At the uncertainty in her mother’s voice, cold dread fills Seungwan’s veins. She’s pacing around her living room, with Mittens’ gaze following her every step as he lounges on the couch. This can’t be good.

“They've already arranged to come over for dinner next Saturday. I couldn’t say no, you know how they are with their demands.” Her mother sighs, and Seungwan pinches the bridge of her nose.

“So, I have to bring Sooyoung over next Saturday?” She confirms, and there’s a hum of agreement.

Great. Fantastic.

If she wasn’t screwed the other day, she is now.

“I’ll try.” She mumbles, and there’s a cheerful thanks from her mother before they bid their goodbyes. The line goes flat, and Seungwan turns to Mittens.

“I should’ve stayed in Canada, huh?” She says, and Mittens merely offers a soft meow.

“You’re right, I should contact Sooyoung.”

Mittens meows again.

“I promised her it was a one-time thing, though.”

There’s a soft sneeze from her cat, and Mittens doesn’t respond, instead turning his attention to grooming his paw.

“Fine, fine. You’ve made your point.” Seungwan grumbles, and she’s typing on her phone, heaving a sigh.

 

Hey, it’s me. I know I said it was a one-time thing, but long story short, I need your help again next Saturday. I’ll pay you again, I promise!