Please remember that all bold text is English, and all bold and italic text is German.

{Chapter 2}

It was only the first day of filming We Got Married, and Livia was already annoyed with the cameras. There weren’t a whole lot of them, but they were everywhere, it seemed. They were in the van that her company had provided to her as a ride, they were at the place she was dropped off at, and now there were a few following her around as she walked down a busy sidewalk.

They were trying to get as many different shots of her as possible without making it look too over-done, and Livia had to give the cameramen their props. Not only was it winter, and really cold, but the sidewalk was teeming with people who had better things to do than to know when their walking right into someone’s shot. They were extremely patient, telling people to move with bows and apologies, asking Livia to walk this way and that way, shooting over and over again until they were sure they had got the right shot, and even waiting for clouds to move out of the way of the sun in order to get the right lighting.

It was impressive, if annoying. Livia knew that the only reason they were doing this was because it was the first day; the first meeting between the new couple, and they wanted to make everything as dramatic as possible. Livia guessed that the first episode was the one they spent the most time editing. She knew that it would get better, that she would get used to them, just as she would hopefully get used to her “husband.”

“We need you to open this,” a woman, one of the producers, told Livia after taking care of a few “walking away” shots. She held up an envelope for Livia to see. “It’s in Korean, and if you need us to help with the language at any time, we will, provided that your husband isn’t around. If he is, then that’ll be his job.”

“I should be fine,” Livia answered, shivering against the cold. What she wouldn’t give to be snuggled into a hoodie right now. If it had been up to her, that’s what she would have worn. She was twenty-five, and the high school idea of getting dressed up for everyone had faded away long before. But her company knew her well, and had stylists over to her place early in the morning to dress her, so the hoodie had been left at home. Instead, Livia was battling the cold in a thin, fashionably loose blouse and tight jeans, which wasn’t very good protection against the cold and the wind.

“Alright,” the producer continued with a smile, oblivious to Livia’s discomfort. “Let’s get the shot set up, then.”

While cameramen scrambled, Livia waited, wishing that she had one of their jackets. She needed some kind of distraction, and her phone provided it when it went off. She pulled it out quickly, and found a text message from Nattie:

                “Fighting!

                Good luck!

   Good luck!”

Livia smiled. Her sister had remembered that today was the first day of shooting, and had thought to send a good luck message to her older sister in the three languages Livia spoke. The German surprised Livia, as Nattie, despite living in the country until she was eight, had never fully grasped the language. Being homeschooled until moving to America had been detrimental to her German skills and had left the younger sister just as good at German as Livia was at Korean, if not worse.

Livia replied with a quick “thank you” in each of the languages, turned her phone on silent and slipped it back into her pocket. She didn’t want to have to shoot something again just because her phone went off.

“Ready?” the producer asked. The cameramen had stopped running around and were on standby.

Livia nodded, and the producer continued, “Okay, turn towards the street and look as though you’re waiting for a car or a bus. I’ll hand you this,” she raised the envelope again, “when you do that.”

Livia did as she was told, and the envelope quickly appeared at her side. She tried to act like she wasn’t expecting it, which was more difficult than Livia would like to admit, but she managed.

She opened it and read the message as well as she could out loud. “Your husband is waiting to have coffee with him. Or will you have to wait for him?”

“Does that mean I’ll have to ask people if they’re my husband? In a coffee shop?” Livia wondered aloud.

“Mark that for translating later,” Livia heard the producer say, presumably to an assistant standing nearby.

Livia gasped and whipped around to face the woman. “Oh, I’m so sorry!” Livia bowed. “I didn’t know I had switched to English.” Livia had gotten caught up in her nerves and had let speak before she really thought about what she was saying. If she hadn’t heard the producer’s comment, she would have probably continued to mumble away in English, or worse, German.

“It’s fine,” the producer told her with a slight bow of her own. “It’s part of your charm, and we are prepared.”

“My charm?” Livia asked to herself as she turned around again, away from the cameras and producer. She had, since officially moving to Korea, considered her English-prone mind to be a disadvantage. Suddenly, she found herself hoping that her husband was as prepared for her language changes as the program was.

“Okay,” Livia sighed, pushing her thoughts away. “So I’m looking for a coffee shop…” She began spinning around, looking at the buildings around her.

She quickly spotted a coffee shop a few buildings away, and there were two things that tipped her off that this particular coffee shop was the one she was looking for. One, it was covered in decorations, particularly streamers, and above the door was a banner that Livia could only just make out that was declaring, “Congratulations on your marriage!” The second reason was because just outside of it was yet another camera, ready for action.

Ah…” Livia said, trying to make it sound like it wasn’t obvious for the show’s sake.

Livia walked over to the shop and entered, trusting that the cameras all got their respective shots.

Inside the coffee shop, there were only two cameras, and Livia, seeing the size of the place, was glad that they didn’t try to get more in. Even though it was a decent sized shop, there were customers, making the place feel a lot smaller. Some of the patrons were eyeing her and the cameras curiously, wondering why they were making such a disturbance at their regular coffee stop.

Livia had been hoping that it would be blatantly obvious who her husband was when she walked in, but to her annoyance, it wasn’t. It looked like she was going to have to talk to people after all.

Livia heard the door of the shop open and close behind her, and suddenly the producer was at her side. “A hint,” the producer whispered. “Ask him how Bbankku is.” With that said, the producer left, and walked to side of one of the cameramen, becoming a part of the background for the first time since they had started shooting.

“Bbangkku,” Livia whispered to herself, looking around the store as though hoping that someone would be a wearing a “Ask me about Bbangkku” shirt.

Unfortunately, no one was.

Livia looked for any man sitting alone, and though there weren’t a lot of them, there were more than Livia would have liked. She figured that she could eliminate seniors and children, as the show wouldn’t be that cruel to her.

That left a few men in the shop. Still more than Livia would prefer, but it was down to a manageable number.

The first man she walked up to was sitting at one of the tables, reading a newspaper. He looked to be a little younger than Livia, which made her a little nervous. She didn’t want to be a lot older than who she was paired with. Plus, he looked a little familiar. It took her a second to place him, but then recognized him as Donghae of Super Junior.

Suddenly, Livia was very nervous. She wasn’t a major idol like he was, and definitely wasn’t a household name like he was. Those who happened to know who she was in the music industry didn’t know much about her, which was one of the reasons she was doing the show. Plus, considering she had only debuted recently, she was still starstuck when it came to celebrities, and Donghae was certainly one of them.

“Excuse me,” she said quickly and quietly, getting him to look up from his paper. Once she had his attention she greeted him politely, which he stood and returned.

Livia didn’t know how to continue. She knew that she was already turning red, she was so starstruck, and honestly, she would have preferred to just look at him for a while, as this was probably as close as she was ever going to get to him.

But Donghae was giving her an odd look, and she suddenly remembered where she was, what she was supposed to ask, and that there were cameras capturing every minute of this.

“Um…how’s Bbangkku?” she asked sheepishly.

“Bbangkku?” Donghae asked, obviously having no idea what she was talking about.

Livia turned the reddest she had so far. She had just managed to embarrass herself in front of one of the most well-known idols in the business, as well as everyone in the shop, and whoever saw this episode of the show when it aired.

She laughed trying to play it off. “You obviously aren’t my husband, then,” she said. After apologizing quickly and profusely to Donghae, she walked away. She happened to look at one of the cameramen just then, and the look on his face told her that not only had Donghae’s presence been staged, but that he was also very amused by the situation.

Positive that things couldn’t get any more embarrassing, Livia moved on to the other men sitting alone. Some of them were idols that she recognized—she ended up having quite a long, nice, English-based conversation with U-Kiss’s Kevin that she was sure would end up edited out of the show—but some men she didn’t recognize and was sure they were just passersby just looking for a simple cup of Joe.

After going through the shop and having no luck, Livia figured out that she was going to be waiting on her husband to arrive. She decided to take advantage of the wait and get some coffee. She asked if anyone from the crew wanted some, and though they all declined, she wasn’t deterred from getting herself one.

She concentrated as she ordered, trying to remember the correct Korean terms and distract herself from the cashier who was playing with her hair whenever the camera happened to point in her general direction.

After she had ordered, she moved away from the cash register to wait, as well as allow the man behind her to place his own order.

She went over her receipt as she waited, making sure she was getting what she had asked for, since that cashier had been very distracted. A few other customers joined her as they waited for their own orders to be ready.

Her and another man’s order numbers came up at the same time, and, after a quick, polite debate, they figured out whose was whose.

As she was walking away, she saw the cameras and remembered her purpose for even being in the shop, and realized that the man she had just talked to was the only one in the shop that she hadn’t talked to yet, probably since he had just walked in.

She turned back around to look for him. He was at a corner booth, taking off his jacket. He looked to be Livia’s age, and looked vaguely familiar.

Her heart racing with nervousness, she approached him and tapped him on his shoulder just before he sat down.

When he turned around to look down at Livia, the girl didn’t even let him register who he was talking to before she asked, “How’s Bbangkku?”

“He’s good,” the man answered automatically, smiling a little.

Then; both of their eye’s widened. Apparently someone had told the man that his new wife would ask him that, so they both knew and understood the meaning behind that simple question and answer exchange.

Before either could say or register anything else, however, loud wedding music came over the shops speakers. Both Livia and the man looked around, embarrassed, turning red.

Once the music stopped, Day Day bowed to Livia and introduced himself. “I’m Day Day, rapper for Dalmatian.”

Livia returned the bow and offered her introduction in return.

There was a few seconds when the two just stared at each other, registering that they were, at least in the confines of the TV show, married.

“D-Do you…” Day Day stuttered, unsure of what to say. “Do you want to sit down?” he finally managed.

Livia nodded, letting out a small giggle. She was nervous, yes, but Nattie had been right. This was exciting. 

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