It was already late at night when Jamie had woken up from her sleep. She was disoriented at first, expecting it to be daytime and Allie still snoring the day out under her covers on the bed opposite to hers. But what greeted her was an unfamiliar room illuminated by a lamp light beside the bed she was tucked into, which definitely doesn’t smell like her bed. And then it hit her.
“Oh, I thought it was just another nightmare.” she mumbled groggily as she recalled what happened to her earlier that day, or in maybe yesterday since she can’t actually make out what time it was.
She sat up on the bed, no really remembering how she had ended up under the covers when she was sure that she had just laid on top of it from sheer exhaustion, physically and mentally. She made a mental note to ask Siwon if he had done the deed and never to do it next time.
She looked around her for a moment before deciding to get out of bed and rummage her soon-to-be-husband’s refrigerator for something to eat. He did say he’d make dinner but maybe didn’t bother waking her up after seeing how exhausted she was. She doesn’t want to admit that, but that was actually thoughtful of him.
The apartment was empty and silent except for the humming of the appliances. The living room was dark, dimly lit by the light coming from the balcony, the thick curtains being shoved aside. There was light from the kitchen and Jaime easily made her way without mishap towards it expecting Siwon to be there. But he wasn’t.
She didn’t know why, but she was a bit disappointed. Which she though was ridiculous because no single soul should be up in the middle of the night except if they are insomniacs or someone like her that has still a different body clock than the rest of Korea.
She made her way to the refrigerator, eyes getting caught by the note on the refrigerator.
Aghassi, I made pasta. If you wake up in the middle of the night and gets hungry, go and get a grub. See you in the morning! Siwon. J
She smirked shaking her head a bit. “What a dork. ‘Aghassi’? Why in the world would he keep calling me that?” she asked herself and opened the ref, taking some food out, just a loaf of bread and a jam, giving a look at the pasta wrapped up. She wanted to have some but too lazy to heat it up.
She ate in silence, opening drawers here and there to check where things are. She’s not a good cook but she liked to experiment on the kitchen, Allie being the judge. And speaking of Allie, she haven’t called her yet to tell her what happened.
“Oh, I don’t have a phone.” Jamie groaned. “I need to buy a phone soon.” she noted.
“You can have one of mine. I won’t mind.”
Jamie jumped up in surprise. “Jesus Christ!” she exclaimed, clutching her chest, her heart loudly thumping.
“Yah, don’t use the Lord’s name in vain.” Siwon reprimanded softly, walking towards the refrigerator. He took a box of milk and poured some into a glass.
“You nearly gave me a heart attack!” Jamie accused, to which Siwon apologized rather cheekily. “You went out?” she asked, seeing that Siwon was still in his jeans and shirt earlier, minus the hooded jacket and large sunglasses.
Siwon took a gulp of his milk before answering. “Yeah. I went to meet my group mates.” he said.
Jamie smiled. Which caused Siwon to raise a brow confusedly. “What?” He asked.
“Oh, sorry!” Jamie grinned. “You got milk on your lips.” she pointed out. She fished a paper towel and handed it over. “Here, clean it up.”
“Thanks.” Siwon cleaned his face.
There was silence for a minute, but it wasn’t the same awkward one like earlier. They were just standing there, looking at nothing, both leaning over the counter a few feet apart, Jamie with her bread and jam and Siwon with his milk. Quiet ironic seeing that it was a little bit past midnight.
“So…” Jamie trailed. “Well, you did tell me that you are an idol, right?”
“Yeah.” Siwon answered, not really knowing where the conversation would go.
“Well, have you told your friends about us?” Jamie asked.
There was something about mention hem as ‘us’ that give them feeling that even though the wedding was still in two days, they were actually a couple now. No matter how ridiculous the circumstances are.
“Err, yeah. That was why I was out with them.” Siwon replied.
“And what did they say? Does that affect your work or something?” Jamie was genuinely concerned. She knows the feeling of being in that situation where everything you’ve worked for, or in her case wanting to work hard for to earn, will be ruined just because of meddlers, whether they be parents or whoever.
“Yeah, it does affect a lot. The good news is my fans still doesn’t know about any of this, only our families. And my friends. And my manager. My management company has no idea too and letting them know is my next step. I just hope they wont go as far pulling me out of the group, though there is a little bit hope to that since if my fans knew about the marriage, I’d be catapulting down the entertainment ladder faster than you can say oops.” he lamented.
Jamie could see how devastated Siwon was at the thought of losing his career. Even if it was not entirely her fault, she know that she is a part of it if it was actually going to happen.
“You really love what you’re doing.” she said.
Siwon looked up at her, “Oh, yeah. I love my work. I mean it’s hard, but I love doing it.” he smiled wistfully.
Jamie smiled. “How about we talk to the parents and force them not to make the marriage public?”
“What?” Siwon was dumbfounded.
“Well I’m just thinking.” Jamie shrugged. “We’re both not ready for this marriage but our parents are insisting on it. So we do the marriage thing, but not publicly. In that way, our parents will have what they want, you get to keep your career, and I get to live normally.”
“It’s not that easy.” Siwon pointed out.
“I know. But if we do manage to convince them, then everyone will be happy. Though maybe they’d still insist on us living under one roof, we can still do that. It’ would be just like having a house mate.” Jamie shrugged.
“A house mate which is actually married to me legally.” Siwon added, mulling over the proposition inside his head.
“Yeah, kind of like that. It’s a win-win situation. You get to keep your life, I get to have a life, the parents get what they want out of life. In which I only mean having to merge two companies through marriage.”
“It’s ridiculous but you’re right.” Siwon replied thoughtfully.
“I know.” Jamie smirked.
“Vain, are we?” Siwon scoffed playfully.
“Only when I deserve to.” Jamie answered. “So what do you say?”
There was pregnant pause.
“I would say that you’re still crazy because of jet lag but honestly, you make a good point. Let’s give a try.” Siwon grinned.
“Yeah. If we lose, at least we lose fighting.” Jamie finished off her bread and washed her hands. “I need to unpack my things. And a shower. Mind if I use your bathroom?” she inquired as Siwon put his glass on the sink.
“No, it’s fine.” Siwon answered. “You’re going to unpack? It’s the middle of the night.”
“I’m still on Western Time. I won’t be able to go back to sleep even if I wanted to.” Jamie sighed.
“Oh, right. Anyways, you can really have my phone for the meantime. Just give it back once you buy yours.” Siwon stated as the two of them trudged for their rooms. He proceeded to his room and came back after a moment, handing a silver-colored phone to Jamie.
“Thanks for this. And everything.” Jaime said sincerely.
“You shouldn’t be thanking me for anything. We are unfortunate people to be dragged in our parent’s ridiculous ploys.” Siwon sighed.
“It’s not that. I meant thanks for understanding. I’ve been a prick the whole day, snapping at my parents in front of you guys, snapping at you. But you still agreed for me to stay with you after seeing that side of me.”
“There’s always a good side to everybody, I just happen to see your cranky side.” Siwon grinned to lift the mood.
Jamie smiled sheepishly. “You can say that. And to show my good side, I’ll try my hardest to convince our parents to agree with our decision. The least I could do for you is to preserve the life that you had worked so hard for.”
“Don’t say it like you had actually wanted this to happen. And besides, I’ll also be hindering the life you want to have by agreeing to this marriage. So I’ll do my best too. We are in this together.” Siwon let out an encouraging smile.
Jamie did the same. “It’s good to know that we are on the same page, Choi Siwon.” she held out a hand for a handshake.
“Yeah. It is good to know. I’m looking out to making this thing work with you, Song Jamie.” Siwon shook Jamie’s hand.
. . . . .

“Not make the marriage public? Whatever do you mean by that?” Jamie’s father asked, wide-eyed.
Jamie and Siwon are sitting on the restaurant with their parents. It gives a déjà vu feeling but this time, the two of them were more confident and trying to get hold of the situation.
“Sir, what we are proposing is that we make the marriage ceremony solemn. There would only be our relatives and such. We don’t need a grand ceremony really, and since both of us are still not that comfortable with each other, we thought that it would be easier for us to do things quietly.” Siwon stated with a calm expression.
Jamie couldn’t help but to be amused by his hands, they were moving too much as he spoke. But she ignored them.
“What Choi Siwon-sshi is trying to say is if we make it as silent as possible, then we’ll get to have to live our lives normally after it.” Jamie said bluntly.
“You just want to go on with your career as if nothing had happened, right?” Siwon’s father said, looking intently at his son. “How long have you been planning this? And you dragged Jae Mi into this too!” his tone was calm but the accusation was clearly in it.
“Dad, I did not.” Siwon tried to explain.
“I proposed it to him. It’s my idea, sir.” Jamie cut in, holding Siwon’s father’s gaze. “To be frank, sir, I do not want to be married to your son. And if I’m just not being a good daughter, I would have been back to New York yesterday, the wedding be damned.” she stated coldly.
“Jae Mi!” her father exclaimed.
“But since I am being a good daughter, I will pull through with the wedding. But do you know what happens after that? You are aware of Siwon being an idol and having tons of fans. I do not want to deal with other people’s unreasonable hate. I still want to live my life, to do things I want to do. And if just because of  this darn marriage everything I’ve worked for will be gone like the wind, then I expect you  to be ready for hell in Seoul. Courtesy of me.” she warned.
“But Jae Mi, every girl in the world wants a good wedding. Why would you settle for less just because of what other people think?” Jamie’s mother chided gently.
“I would have thought about that if I had actually consented to this marriage.” she replied, not looking at her mother since she know she’d crumble.
There was silence around the private room.
“So, what do you propose we do?” Siwon’s mother broke the silence. “If you said that you had actually proposed the idea to my son, then I suppose you already have a plan.”
The other three parents didn’t say anything which Siwon and Jamie took as a sign for them to lay out their plan.
“Well, we did agree to do the marriage with only a handful of people. Those who only know about the situation. I do not want to be a hypocrite so I will admit that the way I see it, this is mainly for my own good more than for Jamie’s.” Siwon stated seriously. “But nevertheless, we did agree on these terms.”
“And who are these people that we are about to invite?” Siwon’s father asked.
“Well, I told my group mates about it. My manager. They are all who knows.” Siwon answered.
“That is a handful of people who would be willing enough to keep it quiet. But I believe I mentioned something about the wedding to one of my closest friends.” Siwon’s mother added. “If it’s okay, I’d bring them up to be your sponsors. I’m sure they’d understand the situation.”
“Thanks, mom.” Siwon replied gratefully.
“A colleague from both our companies will be invited to this wedding too. If we make it too quiet then suspicions will be raised if we suddenly became too close with each other’s companies.” Siwon’s father said.
They all agreed to who were about to be invited to the wedding and decided to have it done by an official at the Choi residence. The mothers wanted to at least to have the wedding on a chapel or something but then both Jamie and Siwon disagreed to it, though they did not explained why.
“Even though we agreed for you to have an almost ‘secret wedding’, I hope you understand that you’ll still be married, in the eyes of the law.” Jamie’s father looked at the two pointedly.
“We do. And we are determined to make it work and make the most of it.” Siwon nodded his head.
“Whatever that means.” Jamie added nonchalantly.
“But there’s one more thing.” Siwon’s father said.
“What is it, sir?” Jamie asked, more polite this time.
“You are not allowed to have a divorce.” he answered.
“What?” both Jamie and Siwon shrieked.
It was Siwon who managed to calm himself down first. “What made you think we’d do that? We are not even married yet and divorce is already brought up.”
“We are just covering all of the bases. You both admitted that you are against this marriage, so we are only making sure that you will not jeopardize the marriage. We agree to your wishes concerning the wedding, then agree to our wishes concerning the marriage.” Siwon’s father stated firmly.
“I agree. You have your terms met, then it is only fair for us to have ours.” Jamie’s father added. “It’s called compromise.”
Siwon went silent. Jamie suddenly found the window on the corner of the room to be irritating and sent death glares towards it.
“I believe we have a deal.” Siwon’s father stated.
The mothers had let out sighs before bidding goodbye with their husbands. They sent sympathetic smiles towards their children, but Siwon and Jamie know that there was another message hidden behind those looks saying, ‘You asked for it.’
After Siwon and Jamie were left to their own, the silence was like an uncomfortable blanket suffocating them.
“Well, we have our point taken.” Siwon shrugged, slumping on his seat.
“Yeah. But not without having another thing added to the already messy mess.” Jamie huffed.
“Let’s just take it this way. We get to be married without anybody else knowing other than who already knows. It’s as good as we can get. At least we can live out our lives almost as normal as we want it to be.” Siwon tried to lighten things up.
“Yeah, we did get what we wanted. But in what price? With no divorce we’re practically tied to each other forever.” Jamie still didn’t let down.
“Is that such a bad thing?” Siwon asked indignantly. Jamie give him the look. “On the other hand, I don’t really want to know.” he added. “But I guess there’s nothing else we can do.” he said solemnly.
“For now.” Jamie huffed.
Siwon looked a Jamie disbelievingly. “Why do I have his feeling that your up to something I don’t want to be part of?”
“It doesn’t matter, Choi Siwon-sshi. We’re bound to be stuck together until we managed to find a loophole with this compromise.” Jamie stated.
“I think I should start praying for your soul more than mine.” Siwon muttered. He sighed when Jamie shot him an evil smirk resembling Heechul’s. He’s bound to have a bouncy marriage life, of that he was sure.
. . . . .

a/n: so yeah... here's an udpate... thanks for reading and please anticipate the appearance of other SJ members,, they're coming!!!