“Hello my name is Jeonghwa~” Minki said, remembering to hold his shirt to his chest, like he had seen his noona do back in Busan, when he bowed, “please treat me well~”

Watching the older boy stand and bow, Minki mentally went over the list of things he had to remember to pass off as a girl. This would have been so much easier if her had actually had a girl to tell him what to do, but because no one else knew about this then he had to make do with his own observations and pray that it was enough.

~

“Hello, I am Zitao. Please call me Tao. I am from China so my Korean isn't very good.” Tao said, bowing to the slight figure across the table.

His companion let out a light giggle, “neh Oppa~” she said cutely.

Tao could see there was something off about her. Something in the way she walked and held herself. And the way she had applied her make up was...interesting. It was almost as if she were a guy pretending to be a girl.

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, Tao couldn't shake it. It just seemed to fit for some reason. But why would his company have set him up with a guy?

“How old are you?” Tao asked, concerned, guy or girl, his new “girlfriend” looked like she was a middle schooler.

“I'm 17 in Korean years, 16 internationally,” the 'girl' said, and once again, Tao caught a flash of something strange. This time it was the voice, the tone and pitch seemed a little off...

“Are you actually a girl?” Tao blurted out, “I mean...”

The 'girl' laughed, but her eyes were scared, “what do you mean Oppa? What else would I be?”

“Look, I have no idea what's going on okay? My company told me that I had to date a girl for publicity's sake but then they went and sent you. Why?”

“Because I managed to convince them I was a girl,” the figure opposite Tao said, finally dropping the act.

Tao was gobsmacked, “but you're make up is terrible. How could you convince anyone like that?”

The café rang with the sound of the boy dressed as a girl's hand impacting with Tao's face.

-SceneBreak-

Minki giggled nervously as people started staring at them. “Come on Oppa, lets go somewhere else~” he said, hoping that no one else would guess he was actually a boy as he dragged Tao from the café.

Not far from the café was a park Minki had glimpsed once as he was been driven around Seoul with s so he headed there.

“Look,” he said, shoving Tao down onto a bench and standing over him threateningly, “My name is Minki and I'm the magnae from Nu'est, we had our debut a couple of weeks ago. But we need to stand out more. You know the feeling right? So I was going to pretend to have a girlfriend. But I've never dated anyone before and I can't actually date a girl now because she'd only want me for my fame. So when I heard that your company was looking to get you a girlfriend I applied and somehow made it through. You're in the same position as me so you should understand. I need to be known. I refuse to let people move on and forget about me. You're like this too aren't you? Isn't this why we're idols?”

Tao could do nothing but nod his agreement. He understood everything the blond boy in front of him was saying. It was why he had agreed to let his company set him up with a girl in the first place.

“What we both need is a scandal. And the easiest one to recover from is a dating scandal. So this is perfect for both of us.” Minki continued, slightly calmer now that he saw his hyung was listening to him, “We can pretend to date each other and I'll make public appearances with you while dressed as a girl and it will be fine. Only we'll have to find some way to make sure no one else finds out I'm a boy. Is my make up really that bad? I tried to look up how to do it on the internet but if you could tell...”

“Uhh, I know someone who can help us,” Tao said, “She's under JYP but because we're from the same country we're close, plus she friends with other people from my company. And she knows how to keep shut.”

“Brilliant, so you'll do it?” Minki said, relief obvious in his face.

Tao shrugged, “you're helping me out too, and this way I don't have to be scared about the girl actually falling for me.”

Minki laughed. His normal laugh, not the one he put on when he was pretending to be a girl. “Call your friend then, I need a make over.”

-SceneBreak-

Tao's friend turned out to be Jia from Miss A. She met up with them at a norebang she knew of that was close to the park.

“Okay so let me get this straight,” she said once the pair had explained everything to her, “you two want to pretend that Minki ah is Tao's girlfriend so that you can both have practice dating but it's only pretend and you need me to help Minki ah pass off as a girl.

Tao and Minki exchanged looks. “Yes.” Minki said simply.

“Okay then well lets get started by fixing your make up and the way you hold yourself and your walk and then we're going shopping.” Jia said, pulling out her make up bag and getting a strange glint in her eyes.

Tao suddenly felt extremely grateful that he was not in Minki's place.

-SceneBreak-

Later, in the evening, Minki flopped onto his bed exhausted. It had taken Jia only an hour to show the boy how to properly apply make up and then another two were spent on posture and walking. Then came the shopping.

Minki had been forced into more dresses and skirts and skinny jeans and girly tops and jackets than he had ever seen before. Jia had also bought him three pairs of heels and two pairs of boots and told him that he had to learn how to walk properly in them. Thankfully she also let him buy himself some flats to that he wouldn't break an ankle while he was still promoting. Everything else she insisted on paying for.

“What's this?” a voice broke through his thoughts and Minki sat up to see Baekho rifling through one of the bags.

“Presents for Umma and Noona,” he said automatically, “They've been nagging me to buy them pretty things from Seoul so I went shopping today.” quickly he grabbed the bags and shoved them into a wardrobe before Baekho could comment on how much he had bought.

“Okay well dinner's ready and we have a radio program after so you should hurry up.” Baekho said, letting the subject go.

“Ahh, yes, I'll be right out.” Minki said.

Later that night, when asked about dating on the radio program, Ren shyly admitted that he was seeing someone but refused to give out any details. Baekho commented that he thought the magnae had bought to much stuff for his Umma and Noona and the members tried to tease more information out of him but Ren held firm. s were not going to meet his girlfriend.

It was the beginning of something that would change Minki, Tao and everyone close to them. For the better or worse remained to be seen.