tue, 30th march — 12:59 pm

//

“Ji Yong!” I whispered to the man next to me. “Did you see her!?”
“Who?”
“The girl with the clipboard. She looked really familiar…” I tapped my fingers lighty on the seats’ armrest. “...from high school— oh, snap!”

Ah, crap!

“Ji Yong!” I whined, tugging unto his sleeve until a part of his bare shoulder was visible. “Let’s get out of here!”
“I told you already, we’re going to stay here until you finish the audition.”
“But–”
“____.”
“It’s ‘her’!”

Ji Yong paused for a second. “Her…as in…”

“Yeah…” I nodded.

Who is ‘her’, you may ask?
It started in high school, when…

“Alright ladies! Listen up! Something came up! Mr. Choi has a very serious business to attend to so we are going to continue this tomorrow, same time, same place.”

Whines and groans roamed the room.

All that waiting…
FOR NOTHING?
And worse…
I had to come back tomorrow?!
The day’s getting worse every second! As if it never does…

“WHAT!? All this waiting for nothing?! You have got to be kidding!” My sudden outburst had made me the center of attention, which made me extremely uncomfortable. Damn my big mouth.

For a moment, the woman with the clipboard’s eyes widened in pure shock.
“____!? What are you doing here?” She questioned in pure astonishment with a malicious mocking smirk.

Okay…so maybe shouting wasn’t the best idea.

Dammit.

-
-
-

tue, 30th march — 1:27 pm

Ring. Ring.

The sounds of the café’s bell filled my ears as I walked inside. I walked up to the bar and sat on one of the stools, keeping the semi-permanent scowl I put on from twenty minutes ago.

“The nerve of that woman!” I hissed, attracting the person's attention sitting next to me. “How DARE that Jin Ah!?”

I growled as the events from ten minutes ago flashed in my mind.

*

“____?! What are you doing here!?”
“What does it look like I’m doing here?” I hissed at the girl.
“Geeky little ____ want to be Choi Seung Hyun’s pretend girlfriend?!”

She laughed.

“Well, well, well, ____! And here I thought you were smart.”

She taunted.

“At least smart enough to know not to want people that are ten leagues away from you.”

She mocked.

“Wait until people in campus get a load of this! Little Miss Perfect ____ thinks she has a chance with Choi Seung Hyun.”

*

“Damn her…” I cursed.

Jin Ah was a . Full stop. And I just stood and let her talk crap about me.
Pathetic, right?
That was until…

*

“Oh!” She stopped and looked at Ji Yong. “You must be in on this, right Ji Yong?”
I immediately shot Ji Yong a glare. “What did she say?”
Ji Yong gulped, scratching the back of his head. “Um...uh...___... I can explain...I”

“You, what?” I looked at him with disappointment.

He sighed, “Seung Hyun and I are…good friends….” and finally admitted.

My eyes widened. “You what?”

“Oh, Ji Yong. I don’t know why you bother bringing her at all. She’s the ‘perfect candidate’ you were talking about right? I should have known.”
He narrowed his eyes at the dark eyed woman. “____’s acting is flawless.”
Jin Ah only gave a snort of laughter. “More like her ‘foolishness’ is flawless.”

I clenched my fist.
So tight that my knuckles were about to bleed.

I swear, if she doesn’t shut up in…

“As if Seung Hyun would ever choose someone like her…”
Ten…
“…I mean just look at her…”
Nine…
“…she’s not suitable for the job…”
Eight…
“… as if she can act at all…”
Seven…
“Oh wait, she wouldn’t need to!”
Six...
"She's so UGLY..."

ONE!

BAM!

And… well…

Let’s just say Jin Ah WILL NOT be calling out ‘next’ and names tomorrow… and perhaps even the next week or so...

*

“And stupid Ji Yong. ‘Good friends with Choi Seung Hyun’ he says.”
The person’s eyes immediately turned to me, with a small smirk on his face.
“Stupid Ji Yong.” Again, I cursed. “‘Way out of Choi Seung Hyun’s league’ she says.’ No thank you sir! I don’t need the money THAT much! ... okay okay maybe I do!” I sulked.

He raised one of his eyebrows.
He must think I'm insane… talking to myself like that.
And the weirdest part was I didn't even notice him until I felt his eyes poking through me like a pitch-fork. And his full face was literally staring at directly at me.

“'She wouldn’t need to act.'” I mocked Jin Ah's high pitched screechy voice.

The person's eyes became dangerously uncomfortable, and I couldn't take it. I slightly turned my head, only to find…

…

The most…
…gorgeous guy I had ever seen in the twenty years I've been living, starring at me as if I was a madman–woman…

I blushed.

Whoops.

“Eh... Sorry about that.” I apologized.

Not sure WHY I did it though. Heck, why was he staring at me in the first place anyway? I never asked for an audience.

I watched as he smiled charmingly down at me.
“Seems like you’ve got a lot in your mind.” He said in the most iest deep tone I had ever heard.

I could only nod.
Oh hormones!
Cough.

He then smirked at me.

I examined his appearance and took in his fine features.
He had a great physique from where I was looking at. His face structure sharp and defined. The most captivating deep, dark eyes I have ever seen. 
His lips…mm…
His dark hair was messy, but that only added to his attractive boy–ish look… and he had this aura… that told everyone he wasn’t one to be played with…
All in all… he was pretty…
…y.

Though, strangely... He seemed familiar.

I turned my attention back to the hot man next to me.
“Would you pretend to be someone’s girlfriend for money?” I asked unknowingly.
“What?”
“I’m sorry.” I smiled sheepishly.
“Well I wouldn’t pretend to be anyone’s ‘girlfriend’ for any amount of money.” He replied after taking a sip from his cup.
“Don’t you think…” I began. “Choi Seung Hyun is pretty…stupid.”

I could’ve swore I saw some liquid from his mouth splutter out.

“How…?” He said, in a rather offended tone.
“Well, it’s pretty stupid that he’s hiring some stranger to be his so called ‘pretend wife’ for thirty days just to fool his parents…err… family and probably business partners.” I paused for a moment, only to find the man’s eyes fixed intensely at me.

I tried to control my cheeks from reddening but I was sure I was doing a pretty bad job of it.
“Anyway…my point is, he’s pretty stupid because he put an ad in the newspaper… I mean, wouldn’t his family see it? And know what he’s up too?” I slowly explained making sure he knew where I was getting at before giving him a small triumphant smile.

But…

Instead of giving me a faltered look like I expected him to have… His lips tugged up into a small —yet arrogant, smirk.
Seeing his unexpected expression, my smug smile quickly disappeared, my face became blank.

I blinked a few times.

“Well…” the strikingly handsome stranger began confidently, taking a small sip from his cup of black coffee.
“I wouldn’t say he’s entirely that stupid…” He paused again to look at my still perplexed face and… still pink cheeks... As his smirk broadened… so did the pink tint on my face. “Because... The newspaper Choi Seung Hyun put the ad on was one specifically made for wanted-job ads. For middle-classed people in Seoul, which the Choi family are not...” He continued. “…And there’s no way anyone in the Choi family would ever need to go looking in such a newspaper and so would never see it...”

… It did make some sense.
Just a bit.
Kind of.
“They could…” I replied back quietly.
“True. But that’s very unlikely.”

I frowned and pushed up my glasses again. It was quite the habit when I was irritated.
“Well, he’s a coward. In my point of view.”
“Hmm?” His face went back to the same expression to when I accused Choi Seung Hyun of being ‘stupid’. “How could you talk about a person like that whom you have never even had an encounter with?”

I went quiet for a second.

“He just…is…”
“How?” He asked firmly. “How is he a coward?”
“His scared…”
“Of what?”
“His parents.”

It was then the slightly annoyed look from the man softened.
“His afraid his girlfriend isn’t good enough…”
He looked away.

“…and seriously, he’s pulling this whole stunt just so he can be with her… If he really loves her, he wouldn’t give a crap to what his parents think. He’s a grown man and needs to learn how to live his life…”

All of the sudden…

Our 'friendly and easy' conversation filled with heavily tension. I was sure I suddenly felt uneasy as if I had wronged someone… but what I didn’t understand was why…