mon, 29th march — 8:48 am

//

“Mm. Tried that.”

Slash.

“Rejected on that one.”

Slash.

“FIVE WON an hour!? Definitely an NO.”

Slash.

I wanted to give up, but I knew I couldn't! Oh, wait! I need to stop thinking these things! I wasn't a quitter!
I pushed my glasses up and once again, I was searching through the jobs list on the back of the newspapers.
“Oh, look!” Ji Yong chirped, pointing at an ad on the newspaper he has holding.

Did I mention Ji Yong was helping me?
That boy wastes a lot of his time on me...

“One-thousand won an hour!”
“Hmm...” I looked over his shoulder. “What's the job.”
“Oh, umm!” Ji Yong looked at the ad closely... then his face dropped. “Nevermind...”
“What was it?” I asked him curiously.
“Unless you want to clean toilets in a nursing home, you don't want to know.”
“Lovely.” I muttered sarcastically as I went back to my job search.

A colourful ad caught my attention. “Hmm... Vet assistant? Oh, look! Twenty-five thousand won per day!”
“But, don't aren't you scared of dogs?” Ji Yong replied simply.
“Ah... good point. But the pay is so high!”

I groaned and fell back on the floor with my hand on top of my forehead. “Why does life have to be so hard!”

“AHA!” Ji Yong jumped up from the floor and grinned. “I found it!”
“What? A job that pays good money?” I replied, still let on the floor.
“Nope. The—”
“If it's something else,” I cut him off. “I honestly don't care”

“AHA!” Ji Yong once again exclaimed from out of the blue.
“What?” I spoke, sitting up from my position. “You found something else?”
“YEAH!! It's perfect!”
“What is?” I stood up and walked up to him. 
“A JOB!” He pointed at another ad on the newspaper. “It's perfect!” He repeated.

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//

“Just—”

“No.”

“listen–”

“NO.”

“but–”

“NO!”

“but you’re–”

“Kwon Ji Yong!”

What was he thinking? There was no way in the world I'd be a 'pretend wife' to some man and act like a fool for thirty days.

“____!”

“No means NO Ji Yong.”

“But–”

“NO.”

“It’s Choi Seung Hyun!” He exclaimed, grabbing one of the free weekly fashion magazines from the coffee table and pointing at the front page to the picture of a striking eye-candy man in a suit.

“I don’t even know the guy!” I protested. “Besides… I don’t want to be some guy’s ‘pretend girlfriend’…” I muttered quietly to herself. “There’s no way I’m going to do it.”

“____, I promise it won’t be as bad as you think it is!” He practically pleaded to me, going down to his knees.
“But I haven’t met him. I don’t even know who he is!”
“But at least you’ve seen him, right?”
“What part of ‘haven’t met him’ don’t you understand?” I gave him a sceptical look.
“I mean ‘seen’. You know, on TV? In papers? 'Girly' gossip fashion magazines? Hell, that big flawless face of his is on billboards all over Korea!” He replied seriously, quirking a brow at her.

“…No…”

“NO!?” Ji Yong’s eyes widened in surprise. “I’m sure you’ve seen him. You probably didn’t know it was Choi Seung Hyun. At least the WHOLE population of South Korea must've seen him, with his face pretty much plastered everywhere.”

“Mm. You’re probably right… but I’m still not doing it.” I plopped down the couch with my arms crossed.

I could tell the man was trying to take a different approach “You talk as if you’ll get it. How do you even know they’ll pick you?”

I blinked at him. “I never said they’ll pick me. But then all the more reason not to do it. They won’t choose me anyway.” I shrugged carelessly.
“Oh. So you just don’t want to be rejected again?” Ji Yong questioned playfully.
But instead got the most ice deadly glare I could possible pull from me.
“Nice try.” I chuckled sarcastically. “'No' means 'NO', Ji Yong. Do I have to tell the you the second time?”

End of conversation.
That was it.
I was drawing the line and putting my foot down. Those words were final, and we both knew the case was closed.

Ji Yong sighed in disappointment but–

Snap!

He flinched as if something hit him harder than my punches would've... which, I must say is rather painful.

“WHY DIDNT'T I THINK OF IT BEFORE!!”
I jumped from his sudden outburst.
“HOW COULD I BE SO FREAKING STUPID!”

“What are you talking about?” I questioned him, shocked and curious at the same time.

“Ha. This could very well work on my favour...” He let out a deep chuckle. “And might just persuade you to do it.”
“Oh really?” I gave him a look. “Shoot.

“Money, honey.”

And for some reason, the 'Lady Gaga' song started playing in my head.

//

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..
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“Why didn’t you tell me in the first place!”

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tue, 30th march — 10:32 AM

//

BANG!

Our eyes watched as the door across the room violently flung open. We entered the main room, just as a woman came out from the other one.

Despite the way she slammed the door, she managed to remain and compose her seemingly elegant self. My eyes widened from what I seen. 
Damn, was she stunning! With the classy silver dress that accentuated her perfect curves and the priceless white jewellery she was wearing. Her hair was blonde, and to my eyes it looked natural.

But I knew better.

That woman stopped for a moment to take a deep breath, then after a few seconds, began taking a few small footsteps, but with each step seemed to move faster and faster. Until, she was suddenly running. Running until sprinting across the room.

She shook her head in unbelievable disappointment, burying her face with her two pale palms.

Did she come out from the ‘judging room’?

Oh goodness. 
My eyes stared back at the woman in astonishment and in utter shock, but this time, for a different reason.

WHAT THE–?

Was she…crying?

“What kind of person is this…Choi Seung Hyun?” I muttered to myself.

And before I knew it, she ran out the door where Ji Yong and I entered.

Ji Yong gave me a nervous but positive smile and ushered me to sit on one of the blue ‘waiting chairs’ whilst he signs me up and collect a card number, but being the nervous wreck I was then, I couldn’t move one bit. Not even a muscle.

“____, just sit down.” He nudged me, turning his head to where the seats where.

‘RUN’
‘RUN’
‘RUN!’

Was the one word that kept repeating my head.
‘RUN LIKE A COWARD!’

This was a bad, bad, BAD idea.

Why the heck was I HERE anyway?

“I give up.” I muttered under my breath. “Ji Yong! We’re going!”
“But, ____, you’re number…” He flipped the number card, “Ninety-seven! You can’t just give up now.”
“Have you seen the state of that woman then!? She was crying!” I protested.

I wasn’t a coward. I was just…scared.

“But…”

It was obvious that Ji Yong couldn’t think of any more excuses, but from the look of his eyes, I knew he wanted me to do it. So badly.

But then, he smirked. “I thought you needed the money?”
“I don’t need it that much.” I snarled, motioning my head to a woman that was now looking at the both of us in distaste.

“Two-hundred and fifty thousand won per hour.” He smirked, re-telling the mantra.

All I could do was sigh. He was right, I needed it. 
Desperately needed it BADLY.
I groaned in defeat and reluctantly sat down to the nearest chair.

But if stunning Miss Elegant-Wannabe-Blonde didn’t get it… the chances of me, dorky ____, is

ZERO. NULL. ZIP. OH. NIL. NOUGHT. ZILCH.
Again, WHY THE HECK WAS I EVEN THERE?
Thinking about it, I closed my eyes and tried to relive a flashback.

*

“I know being some rich famous guy’s 'pretend wife' must be so hard and all, but I guess you might’ve wanted the two-hundred and fifty thousand won an hour!” Ji Yong said as he shrugged nonchalantly, waving the ad in the air.

But inside…
…I guess you could say he was dancing like a mad man.

“...What...?” I asked, gob-smacked by the amount of money the job had to offer.

Hell, I didn’t even make t-hundred and fifty thousand won for doing a month’s work from my old crappy job.

Instantly, I snaffled the newspaper off of Ji Yong’s hand and read the ad.

‘PAY: 250,000 WON PER HOUR – Will increase!’

Boy, was it something to be utterly astounded for.

*

Damn… I just had to listen to him. Stupid Ji Yong and his manipulating persuading ways.