Joshua

Ever since the launch of Wed Game, the company’s stock has gone way, way up. My great idea has given Hong Pharmaceuticals so much great publicity, which led to many new investors and many foreign agreements. I was on international news sites!

People are calling me an icon. People are calling Hong Pharmaceuticals “revolutionary” because of its “progessive” ideas about marriage.

It’s kinda funny to be honest.

The whole thing is a publicity ruse, and everyone’s just eating it up like wild animals.

I didn’t expect people to be this gullible. When I pitched the idea to the board, I was fully expecting to fight for it and hear them criticize me and my wild decisions. Much to my surprise, I didn’t have to fight anything. They accepted the proposal and launched this huge marketing campaign about it with the Hong Pharmaceuticals logo plastered all over it. They build a whole website for it, and even bought out an entire island where the competition would take place.

And it paid off, because the company brand is skyrocketing, and Wed Game is all everyone is talking about.

Too bad it’s all gonna be rigged.

All of this is for one person only, for Chaeyoung, my future wife.

I can hardly wait until it’s all over. When she wins the game, I’ll hold her hand, face the camera, and announce to the world that she will be my future wife. Everyone will love her and cheer for us on our wedding. The company will not be able to interfere.

And I’ll marry her and declare to the world that I will love her forever. It will be so romantic!

But Chaeyoung does not seem nearly as enthusiastic as I am. When I told her about my idea for Wed Game, she seemed downcast, and told me she’d do whatever she needed to do for us.

I guess she just has more of a conscience than I do about rigging a nationally televised game show. I hate seeing her like this and launching her into this tirade of a game show.

But it’s too late to back out now. The company’s in too deep, and the media is already buzzing around this like busy bees. Besides, even if it’s not the ideal way for us to get together, it’s still a way.

“I can’t wait until the end of it, when you and I have our internationally broadcasted wedding,” I tell her. “The world will cheer for us and our Cinderella love story. The company will prosper. And we’ll live happily ever after.”

“Why does your company have to be part of our happily ever after?” she replies. The bitter undertone catches me off guard.

“Because the company will give us everything we could ever want or need,” I answer. “The company will fund your dream wedding, and we’ll be able to buy anything we want.”

“I only want to be with you, Joshua,” she answers. “I don’t want the luxury or the fanfare.”

“And I don’t either.”

At that, she raises her eyebrows, giving me a face like that’s the most ridiculous thing she’s ever heard. “You don’t want luxury or fanfare? Joshua, you’re literally broadcasting a large-scale game show on television that will decide your future spouse. You came up with that idea. You obviously feed off publicity and gaudiness…”

“What are you saying, then?” I reply curtly, feeling called out and offended. “I thought you loved me.”

“I do, but…”

“Those don’t sound like the words of someone who loves me.”

She opens to say something, but holds back her tongue. “You’re right, I’m sorry,” she hums. “I know you did all of this so we can be together. I should be grateful.”

She leaves shortly thereafter. Although she apologized and we moved past it, that conversation still leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

I distract myself from it by focusing on the arduous task I have to do now: go through the two thousand plus applications and pick out the competitors.

The company gave me a quota of two hundred. They offered to pick and choose the competitors for me, but, if my whole rigging plan was to work, I can’t give them any power over the choices. I had to insist on being the one to sift through all the applications and pick and choose the ones I am interested in. Otherwise, who knows if they’ll put Chaeyoung’s application through?

I eye the large pile of papers in front of me. Each paper has photos and quick summaries about each applicant. I go through them quickly, trying to find Chaeyoung’s profile. Her’s is the only one that matters in the end.

But I can’t help but linger on a couple of profiles here and there because something struck me about them. There’s one guy, Mingyu, who is just objectively hot. I put him in a makeshift yes pile, thinking his hotness would make more people watch Wed Game.

There’s also Nagyung, the pretty heiress, the one who inspired me to start Wed Game to begin with. I put her in the yes pile too. She’d make for great footage when she talks about how her dad’s company is failing and she needs to get married to me to save it. Everyone loves a good sob story!

A few other good-looking people here and there make it into a growing yes pile when Chaeyoung walks in again. I try to flip all the profiles over before she could see. I don’t want her to get hurt, but it’s too late.

“Choosing my competition?” she asks.

“You have no competition, Chae, you know that.”

She tuts and walks over toward my yes pile, looking through all the faces one by one. I look away and bar my teeth, feeling like I’ve been caught cheating or something.

“Too many hot people,” she declares. “Here, let me add some for you.”

She goes through the no pile and picks out about a dozen different profiles of unattractive old people. She places them in the yes pile.

“That’s better,” she says.

“Okay,” I concede.

“Promise you won’t take them out?”

“You have my word.”

She smiles. The smiles gives me hope that we’ll be okay after all. Even if this stupid game is causing a bit of friction between us, I still love her more than anything. The hot people in the yes pile could not live up to even an ounce of her perfection in my eyes.

I cannot wait to marry her.