Junho sat straight up in his bed, blanket wrapped around his head and shoulders, tufts of hair sticking up every which way. “I did it!” he shouted, ing his fist in the air. “I joined the Wu Ying Jie Fanclub Bar!” Abruptly, he lay back down, eyes glued to his laptop.

Nichkhun, who was reclining on Wooyoung’s bed, frowned. “I still can’t believe she wasn’t interested in me. I even practiced some Chinese phrases to say to her! And didn’t Taecyeon say that she kept talking about me?”

“Yah! Why are you sitting on my bed? She liked me the best, anyway. She said I was her favorite brother-in-law.” Wooyoung came through the doorway.

Unperturbed, Nichkhun stayed where he was. He tilted his head. “Maybe I wasn’t charming enough? Was I too casual?”

“You idiot.” Wooyoung came to sit next to him. “You’re her brother-in-law, too.”

It was at this moment that Junho decided to reenter the conversation. He popped up in his blanket burrito again to declare dramatically, “I don’t know if I can ship Taecgui anymore.”

“Taecgui? Is that Taecyeon and Gui Gui?” Wooyoung asked, confused.

“Obviously.” Nichkhun scoffed and turned to Junho. “Why would you not, er…ship them anymore?”

“It’s hopeless! Just watch.” Junho waved them over, and the two clambered onto his bed to sit beside him. “Okay, so sometimes they’re cute, but other times, Taecyeon ruins everything.” He went back to the first episode for their benefit.“Look, he’s not even excited to see her at all. It’s so rude! At least she looks happy to see him. And look how pretty she is, too!”

---

---

“I’m home!” Taecyeon paused in the arch of the doorway, one hand on the wall, to pull off his shoes. He shuffled into the living room in his slippers, only to find three of s sitting on the couch, Junho still wrapped in a blanket, laptop plugged into the television, and a full-screen video of episode 10 of We Got Married on the screen, paused at the part where he and Gui Gui were at the traditional Korean market, fangirls staring at them. They all turned to glare at him.

“Trust is like an eraser? I wanted to give her one more chance?” Nichkhun sounded offended.

“Whoever does wrong says sorry?” Wooyoung scoffed. “How would that even work?”

“What’s wrong with breakfast?” Junho wailed. “It starts your day off right!”

“You shouldn’t feel happy when she has misfortune! That shouldn’t even happen if it’s your fan, much less your wife!” Wooyoung lectured.

Nichkhun bemoaned Taecyeon’s lack of romanticism. “How can anyone consider ‘Let’s make the best of it’ to be an adequate confession? Could you make it any more obvious that you don’t like her?”

Wooyoung frowned. “I don’t see why you don’t like her. She’s so charming.”

The barrage of complaints flying at him made him feel as if he were under attack. “What is going on?”

Wooyoung continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “This, though,” he shook his head, pointing at the screen, “This takes the cake.” He unpaused the video, and the fan said loudly, “You deserve better!”

They all winced. Instinctively, Taecyeon looked behind him, trying to shield Guigui. He felt vaguely unsettled when she wasn’t there.

Junho paused the video again. Mood serious, he said solemnly, “Thank goodness you didn’t translate that part.”

The others nodded in agreement.

Taecyeon sputtered. “Of course I wouldn’t have translated that!” He paused. “She’s probably not the only one who thinks that, though.”

Three pairs of eyes shot to his.

“Taecyeon-ah…” Nichkhun said slowly, “Please tell me that you’re not one of those people.”

The big man looked away, uncomfortable. “I’m paired with Suzy and Yoona. The sophisticated types. The most popular girls in school. Guigui…she’s the class clown. And anyone can see that she likes me more than I like her.”

He felt remorse as soon as he spoke the words.

Wooyoung pinched the bridge of his nose. “You can’t be serious.”

Defensively, Taecyeon said, “So what if I am? It’s just a show. It doesn’t mean anything!” Even as he said it, he knew it to be a lie.

Nichkhun leveled a look at him. He raised a finger. “First of all, that ‘just a show’ is how I met my girlfriend. Second,” another finger went up, “Weren’t you paying attention to her introduction? Guigui is an actress. And apparently a much more professional one than you.”

“What he means to say,” Wooyoung said almost pityingly, “Is that she probably doesn’t actually like you. She’s acting.”

Taecyeon scoffed. “Yeah, right. Have you been watching the show? She’s completely gung-ho about the couple thing!”

Junho cut in. “You mean when she said that she didn’t want to date you in real life? Or when she said that she only thinks about you when she hears about 2PM? Or when you proposed and she didn’t hug you afterwards?”

Stunned, Taecyeon fell silent. She didn’t...what? He felt the same sense of disorientation as he had earlier, only stronger this time.

Lost in his own world, the resident fanboy mused, “I was talking to someone in the forum chat, and they said that Kim Jonghyun of SHINee would have really good chemistry with her. They’d be so funny. He would play pranks on her, but she would get revenge, and at the same time, he’d totally fall for her. Or Lee Joon from MBLAQ. He’d be pretend narcissistic, and then she would say, ‘I’ve never heard of it,’ and then he would be kind of mad but challenged at the same time, and then fall in love with her. But then someone else said they’d be good with someone more reserved, like Seulong hyung. And then someone else said that they should just have an episode of Kwanghee hyung and Guigui noona shopping together and bickering slash bantering. That was probably the best idea.”

“I can see her with anyone but Taecyeon, really.” Wooyoung frowned. “Except maybe Nichkhun.”

“Hey!” The latter protested. “She said she likes me best.”

“No, she said she wanted your face on Taecyeon’s body.” Briefly, he acknowledged the man (whose body was) in question. “Nice job on walking away when you saw that clip during the press conference. Very smooth. Definitely shippable moment.”

At this point, Taecyeon felt confused and more than a little bit angry. “STOP! Why are you all acting like this? You’re my members. Aren’t you supposed to be on my side?”

“Not when you’re being an idiot.” Nichkhun came up to him and slung an arm around his neck. Looking into Taecyeon’s face, he said, “It was the part where we said she didn’t actually like you, wasn’t it? Felt like being punched in the chest?”

Reluctantly, Taecyeon nodded.

Nichkhun continued. “Well, the good news is, you might still have a chance. We just thought you needed a wake-up call.”

Junho piped up, “Guigui noona does seem to like you.”

---

“Okay, brother,” Wooyoung steered Taecyeon into his and Junho’s room. “We’re here to help.”

He passed him off to Nichkhun, who sat him down on Wooyoung’s bed. “First, research. It is good etiquette—and good wooing strategy—to find out more about the person that you’ll be working with. Guigui didn’t know too much about 2PM, but since she’s been on the show with you, it’s obvious that she’s started listening to our music and watching your dramas. Now you’ve got to return the favor. Junho is going to give you some basics.”

Taecyeon stifled a grin as he saw Junho. They were really going all-out to help him. Junho was wearing a huge pair of Urkel-style glasses, and he had scrounged up a pointer from somewhere, which he now used to point to the powerpoint presentation on his laptop screen.

“One of the important things to know is that Guigui noona is actually a sunbae. Even though she is the same age as you, hyung, she debuted on TV in 2005, when she was sixteen years old.” A young Guigui smiled cheekily from the photograph on the slideshow. “In 2006, she debuted as a singer slash actress in the group Hey! Girl. They did a drama with the boy group Lollipop. Because of this, she is frequently paired with Wangzi.” Briefly, a screencap of Guigui about to kiss a kid with messy hair flashed onto the screen, only to be replaced with a picture of a handsome guy wearing sunglasses. “Wangzi is known for being exceptionally handsome; his stage name means Prince.” Taecyeon’s fists clenched and unclenched. “In 2009, noona left Hey! Girl to concentrate on acting. Since then, she’s acted in many dramas. Her great chemistry with male leads has spawned many popular ships. Taecgui, however, is not one of them.” He looked pointedly at Taecyeon.

“Apparently, no one writes fanfiction for you two.” Nichkhun whispered.

Junho cleared his throat. “Ah-hem!” He paused for dramatic emphasis until Nichkhun nodded and made a motion as if to zip his lips. “The most recent one was with George Hu.” He pointed at a picture of Guigui, hair flying in the breeze, propped up on her elbows and looking perfectly beautiful, gazing at another man. “There were rumors that they were actually dating, and that another actress came between them. Noona’s management denied these rumors, though, and said that noona and George Hu were just friends.” He leaned closer to Taecyeon. “The one you really have to worry about is Aaron Yan from Fahrenheit. They’ve done a drama together and appear on a lot of shows together. Their pairing is the strongest, followed by the GuiWang pairing. To be honest, I would have gone over to the GuiLun side if it weren’t for that fact that you’re my groupmate. Guigui noona even joked in an interview that since he took her first on-screen kiss, he should take responsibility and marry her. And Fahrenheit is so famous that they even have fans here!”

He stepped back, pushed his glasses up, and took a deep breath. On the screen, a slide with the words “Conclusion” cued up.  The pointer in his hand snapped up sharply. “Guigui noona acts in dramas in both Taiwan and China. She has a lot of fans, and is close with many celebrities. As a television personality, she is also a variety show darling. In conclusion, Guigui noona is basically IU for Taiwan, and everyone loves her.”

“IU, eh? No wonder she liked me the best.” Wooyoung grinned, thinking of his girlfriend.

Nichkhun looked as if he was about to say something again about how Guigui was supposed to have a crush on him, but thought better of it and sat back, a disgruntled expression on his face. Instead, he said, “Can we focus, please? Part Two of Project Help Taecyeon Be a Better Husband: Suggestions for Improvement. One: Stop being so condescending to her. She’s smart and talented, and deserves as much respect from you as she’s giving.”

Junho chimed in. “Two: Stop with the random spouts of Korean. You’re called the ‘murmur couple,’ but it’s mostly just you. Sometimes you repeat your words slowly, but you still don’t explain what they mean. Guigui doesn’t randomly speak Mandarin, and when she does, she explains it.”

“Along those lines, her English might not be as good as yours, but that doesn’t mean she’s stupid.” Wooyoung grimaced, remembering his own struggle trying to learn English for Dream High. “Since you’re in Korea, you’re on steady ground, but imagine if you were in Taiwan. Remember when you were in that cave café and she spoke super quickly in Chinese? And you didn’t understand any of what she was saying? That’s how she probably feels, except that everyone around her is speaking Korean, and she only has you and her translator ‘unni’ to help her. And she stopped to translate for you once she realized what she was doing.”

Junho said gently, “You’ve gotta treat her more nicely and stop acting like it’s just work.”

“Part Four,” Nichkhun announced, “Encouragement. Despite how annoyed I was when you weren’t paying attention to me when I was explaining my gift, watching the episode, I thought it was cute how 4-D you two both got when you were smelling the ivy.”

Junho smiled. “I thought your skinship was cute. It was really natural.”

Wooyoung added, “Especially when you helped her wipe that eyelash off her cheek at the pool.”

---

After giving him a few more words of encouragement and advice, the three aspiring cupids left Taecyeon to mull over his next steps. Guigui was back in China for filming, and their Wonderland shoot wouldn’t be for another month. That seemed too far away. In the meantime…he thought about the leather bracelets he had seen in a shop the last time he was at the Korean traditional market. With her. He smiled at the thought. He’d have to sneak out. Maybe he could have their names engraved onto them…

---------

A/N: ...And that's how Taecgui's couple bracelets happened.

Umm...I hope you like it? *Shields head with hands*

Also, oh my goodness, there might not be a lot of Taecgui fanfiction on here, but the ones I've been reading are super good. You should check those out.