Yul looked at his watch for the umpteenth time as he sat in the café that they arranged to meet at.

 

“Taeng, they are twenty minutes late and counting. Are you sure they are coming? Or have they changed their minds?”

 

“I’m sure they’re on the way! My boss text messaged me an hour ago!”

 

Taeng was sweating buckets. Yul did not like late-comers. He closed his eyes and prayed fervently for his boss to arrive soon. His prayers must have been answered because he saw Tiffany entering the café with a very gorgeous-looking girl when he opened his eyes.

 

Oh, thank God! They’re here!

 

He leapt to his feet and waved his hands wildly. Tiffany saw his violent wave and headed to their table briskly. Yul stood up politely when Tiffany arrived at the table.

 

“Hi, I’m Tiffany and this is Jessica. I’m so sorry to keep you waiting.”

 

Tiffany and Yul shook hands. They assessed each other by the hand shake and both were satisfied with the firmness of it. They smiled politely at each other.

 

“I’m Yul, nice to meet you. It’s alright we didn’t have to wait very long.”

 

Yul then turned to the brunette and offered his hand.

 

Jessica stretched out her hand lazily and held his hand with her fingers.

 

“Jessica Jung.”

 

They shook hands (that is, if it even counts as shaking hands) briefly. Yul was polite enough not to show his displeasure at the way Jessica shook hands. It was a half-hearted hand shake. More like a finger shake than anything in fact.

 

Taeng shook hands with Jessica and then turned to Tiffany offering his hand as well. She looked at him strangely but shook it anyway.

 

OH YEAH! SCORE! I TOUCHED HER HAND TODAY!

 

Taeng could barely keep his smile off his face. He grinned dorkily and had a dazed expression on his face. Yul groaned inwardly and subtly jabbed his friend with his elbow as hard as he could. Taeng snapped out of his euphoria and looked apologetically at Yul who was glaring knives and daggers at him.

 

“Right, so I suppose this is when we discuss details? We are very grateful for your help, Yul. We might already have to trouble you this weekend but you can treat this like a part-time job. We’ll pay you by the hour.”

 

Yul looked extremely offended. He inhaled deeply to calm himself before speaking. “Ladies, I do not intend to accept any form of payment. I’m here because I agreed to help Taeng. That’s what it is. I’m not a social or anything like that.”

 

Tiffany smiled and Taeng swooned under her charms again. Yul, however, was seemingly unaffected by her crescent moon eyes.

 

“Of course… of course, I hope you are not offended by our offer to pay you. We assure you that we do not see you as a social . We do feel terribly indebted to you and we want to make it up to you in whatever way we can,” Tiffany replied smoothly, soothing Yul’s displeasure.

 

Yul relaxed in his seat. “I understand that you want to pay me back in some way but I do not help people for that reason. Rest assured that I’m doing this of my own free will and I do not require any reward in return.”

 

He noticed that Jessica has been very quiet all this while and turned to her. “Are you the person who needs a fake boyfriend?”

 

Jessica nodded her head.

 

“I have to tell you one thing about myself. I do not like to lie. I know that it’s going to be difficult avoid lying if I were to help you so I hope that you can do most of the talking.”

 

Jessica looked as if she were about to explode.

 

“Would you excuse us for a moment?” Jessica asked politely, reaching into all the years of grooming in social etiquette she had gone through since she was a little girl to keep from blowing her top. She tugged on Tiffany’s arm and dragged her friend to the washroom with her.

 

~~~~~

 

Once they were inside the washroom and the men were out of earshot, Jessica turned to Tiffany and ranted.

 

“Oh my gawd! Yul is such a pompous ! There’s no way I’m going to pretend to be his girlfriend! Who does he think he is, talking to me this way? If he doesn’t want to lie, he shouldn’t be helping me in the first place!”

 

 

Tiffany folded her arms and leaned against the wall with a do-you-have-a-better-idea look on her face.

 

“This is the best I can do on such short notice, Jessi. It’s him or Yoong.”

 

“Argh! My life ! I’m Jessica Jung, daughter of a multi-billionaire media mogul and I have to choose between a pompous and a freaking player?!”

 

Jessica stamped her feet in frustration and pouted. Tiffany found the whole situation absurdly funny all of a sudden. Tons of women would swap places with Jessica in a heartbeat and here she was, ranting about her y life. She threw her head back and laughed.

 

Jessica shot her a what’s-so-funny look and sighed in exasperation. She felt as though nothing was going right for her. She pinched her nose bridge and closed her eyes, trying to come to terms with her y reality.

 

“Yul isn’t that bad, you know. He is undeniably good looking and fit. He has a really good hand shake as well, a sign of a confident man. I suppose he may be little too rigid, but he’s all you’ve got if you don’t want to end up engaged to Yoong,” reasoned Tiffany.

 

“I can’t act all lovey and dovey with he-who-can’t-lie,” said Jessica sarcastically, rolling her eyes at the thought of it. “I’d end up stabbing him with my stilettoes.”

 

“Well,” said Tiffany, shrugging her shoulders, “it’s your call. You asked for a guy, I got you a guy. You said no connections, voila, no connections. As a bonus, he’s even tall, dark and handsome. Beggars can’t be choosers, Jessi.”

 

Jessica knew that she had no other choice. Tiffany was right. He was the best she got. With her shoulders slumped in defeat, she heaved a heavy sigh and put on a beautiful fake smile before strutting out of the washroom and returning to their seats.

 

~~~~~
 

Tiffany apologized for taking a while to come back. Jessica remained mute and expressionless. Yul’s impression of Jessica was getting worse by the minute.

 

This woman is so rude and spoilt! What am I getting myself into?!

 

Using all his powers of self-restraint, he maintained a neutral look on his face as Tiffany and Jessica took their seats.

 

“So as I was saying, your first appearance will be this weekend at the opening of a new club in town.”

 

“Did you say a club? I thought I was only supposed to convince her family that we’re dating?” questioned Yul. He did not like going to clubs either.

 

“Well, it would be too suspicious if you were to appear at her family dinner out of the blue. People tend to believe in rumours more than anything else. Many people from Jessica’s social circle will be attending this event and they will see you with her. The plan is to set their tongues wagging and have the news reach her family’s ears from there.”

 

Yul saw the point in her explanation. He could not refute the fact that rumours would always be taken as the truth much faster than truth itself.

 

I promised Taeng, so be a man, Yul. Be a man.

 

“Alright, your point is valid. I will do what is necessary. Can you provide me with some background information on Jessica? I need to be able to answer at least some of their questions.”

 

Tiffany smiled and handed Yul a file.

 

“The two of you met at a café and you happened to initiate a conversation with Jessica. You two hit it off with each other and started dating for the past two weeks. You can use this café as part of your story, so that you would not be telling a complete lie.”

 

“Wow, you are so bright Boss! Brighter than gems!” gushed Taeng, looking completely mesmerized.

 

Tiffany laughed lightly. “Taeng, please call me Tiffany when we’re not in the office. It’s really weird to hear you call me Boss here. I’m not the typical rigid superior in the office.”

 

Taeng saluted and nodded his head vigorously. “Yes Boss! Er, I mean, Tiffany!”

 

Tiffany smiled and took a sip of water. Two seconds later, Jessica erupted into laughter and whacked Tiffany’s back so hard that she spilled the water on herself.

 

“Ya! Jessi! Watch what you’re doing!” Tiffany scolded her whilst wiping her face and blouse dry with a napkin that Taeng immediately offered.

 

“Y-Your… P… A… is… s-so… f-f-funny… HA HA HA HA HA!”

 

Jessica laughed till she was red in the face before finally calming down again.

 

Yul looked at her and sighed inwardly.

 

You can do it, Yul. You can do it.

 

~~~~~

 

A plane descended from the clouds and touched down smoothly onto the runway. A tall and impishly good looking man smiled at the girl whom he had chatted up and subsequently made out with during the eight hour flight. She gave him her name card and he slipped it into his jacket but made no move to give her his.

 

“Hey, what about your name card, baby?”

 

“Ran out of it, sorry. I’ll call you tomorrow and we’ll have dinner together, sound good?”

 

The girl smiled happily and nodded.

 

“It’s a date then, see you tomorrow, babe.”

 

He leaned forward and pecked her on her lips before walking down the aisle to the plane’s exit. As he walked into the terminal of the airport, he reached into his jacket and tossed the name card into the first bin he passed by.

 

Good enough for in-flight entertainment but not good enough for a dinner date.

 

He smirked to himself as he walked towards the immigration counters.

 

~~~~~

 

Sunny was pulling out all the stops at her interview. Her resume was impressive enough but she wanted to make sure that she clinched the position. She had been looking for such a position for some time now and was absolutely delighted when a headhunter had approached her and offered her an interview for a job that fitted what she was looking for so well.

 

Ring…

 

One of the interviewer’s mobile phone rang in the middle of the interview. The interviewer picked up the call apologetically. When he heard the voice of the caller, his eyes opened wide and he immediately mouthed the word ‘Yoong’ to the rest. That caught the attention of all the interviewers and the interview was momentarily put on hold.

 

Sunny couldn’t help but wonder who it was that had such an effect on them.

 

He nodded and nodded before ending the call.

 

“What did he say?” they asked.

 

“He’s back in town but wants to keep his return under wraps for now. He’s coming in tomorrow.”

 

The others groaned.

 

“Does he ever take a break? We need a break even if he doesn’t!”

 

One of the interviewers realized that they were still in the middle of an interview. He nudged the rest and the interview resumed. Sunny impressed them with her eloquence and power to persuade as well as sell almost anything. When the interview was done, they all nodded their heads in satisfaction. Their headhunter had indeed struck gold this time.

 

“Sunny ssi, we’re glad to inform you that you do indeed fit our bill very well. It will be our pleasure to have you on board our team. Can you start work tomorrow?”

 

Sunny smiled her classic sunny smile that had clinched many a deal for her in the past two years.

 

“It’s my pleasure to join your team. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

 

~~~~~

 

The tall, impishly good looking guy strolled leisurely into Seventh Heaven. He headed straight for the VIP area, smiling and saying hi to the bartenders and other familiar faces along the way.

 

“Young... Hyun... I’m back.”

 

The two tall guys leapt to their feet and gave him a huge bear hug.

 

“Good to have you back, Yoong. I was getting bored out of my wits with Hyun here.”

 

“Hey, speak for yourself. All you do is ogle at girls when you’re here.”

 

“Ogling at girls is definitely way better than ogling at gogumas.”

 

“YA! Don’t insult gogumas!”

 

“GUYS… guys… stop it already. Come on… let’s celebrate my return from a very successful business trip. I clinched the deal and signed on the dotted line. I’ll make millions from this!”

 

“Definitely cheers worthy,” said Young exuberantly. He raised his hand and signaled for more bourbon to be brought to the table. The drinks arrived in no time and they raised their glasses and cheered.

 

“So, Yoong, what’s this I’ve heard about you getting engaged?” asked Young worriedly.

 

Yoong shrugged nonchalantly. “My family wants me to be engaged to project a more stable image for the company. Of course they had to pick the Jung family for their power over the media. So I’m supposed to go to this family dinner in a week’s time and get myself engaged to Jessica Jung.”

 

“WHAT?! JESSICA JUNG? You’re one week away from being engaged to the crème dela crème princess! Should I congratulate you or kill myself? Who’s going to come out and play with me after you get engaged to her?”

 

Yoong smirked and shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

 

“I’m not settling down so soon, Young. Rest assured that I plan on getting myself out of this mess.”

 

“Oh yeah! That’s the Yoong I know so well.”

 

Young grinned widely and clapped him on his back whilst Hyun simply shook his head disapprovingly.

 

~~~~~