Changmin continued walking as if the world was his. His mind was up in the clouds and he was happily humming a song. Caught in his oblivious little world, he hadn’t observed a small pit in the middle of the path he’s walking on. He fell forwards, arms flailing on his side. Sooyoung jumped just in time before the poor boy plummeted to his doom. Changmin fell, and fell, and fell, and fell. The pit doesn’t seem to end. He screamed over and over but his screams just reverberated to the dank walls of the earth.

“YAH!” Changmin screamed at Sooyoung. “Are you even listening?”

The image of Changmin falling into an eternal abyss dissolved and Sooyoung realized she was still on the stupid boy’s back, half-listening on his wicked plan to destroy her life, arms holding on for dear life, all thanks to her stupid ankle. The girl rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath.

“Yes.” She answered flatly.
“What was the last thing I said?”

Oh. You said you will have us tie the knot and live as a happy couple away from the prying eyes of the stupid public just so you can have my wonderful genes to which you will pass on to your future spawns claiming that the intelligence and good looks that they will possess came from you, when in fact it was from me. Then you will have me as your personal slave, feeding you with my exquisite cooking and I’ll go kissing the ground where your humongous feet would walk on so that you will thank me for being the wonderful little wife that you expected me to be. In other words, you have already sentenced me to a life of ultimate suffering that if I were a masochist, I would probably be kissing your toes from sublime bliss.

But that was all in her head, what came out of is a simple “I’m sorry I wasn’t really listening.”

Changmin gave out a sigh and continued. “Look, I know this came out as a shock to you---”

Oh no, it didn’t. In fact, I was expecting it all my life. Eat my sarcasm, you doofus.

“--but it’s only for a short while. I’ll be staying in your place and it wouldn’t look good for two unmarried people to stay in one house--”

Then, why don’t you look for another house?

“--so of course, we have to say that we got married. Besides it’s not as if this would be forever. When everything settles down into place, we’d go our separate ways.”

Silence.

Changmin took the silence as a ‘let me think about it’ and heaved out a sigh. He sensed that they’re already on the edge of the woods as the clumps of trees were already thinning. He passed through the last clump of trees and finally stepped into the sunlight. He blinked his eyes as the afternoon sun bathed them in a warm glow.

“Sooyoung?” He asked softly.
“Hmmm...” Came the even softer reply.
“I ... I thought you were sleeping.” He started walking towards the cottage.
“...”
“I’m sorry I pulled you in to this mess. “
“...”
“It’s just that, I don’t know where to run anymore.” The defeated note in his voice didn’t escape Sooyoung’s ears.

Silence.

“I do.”
“Excuse me?”
“I mean...” she paused and blew her fringe away from her eyes. “It must have been fated, y’know, how you ended up here in the first place.”

“You mean...?”
“Yeah.” She tightened her hold on to Changmin’s chest. “I accept your ‘proposal’.”

Changmin smiled widely and gave out a merry laugh. He skipped happily as he passed by his parked (and totally useless) car, through the picket fence, towards the porch, and to the front door of the cottage.

“Hey, hey slow down!” Sooyoung was laughing along with him.
“Thank you! I…” he stopped in front of the door to gasp for air. “…would really love to kiss you right now.” He said in between breaths as he put Sooyoung down.

She was trying her balance on her left leg but failed to do so when she heard what the tall boy said. She fell to the floor with a soft thud.

“Ow.”

Changmin’s face turned beet red right after he realized what he just said.

“I said, I would like to, uh, kishuraynaoforacceptinmyproposal. Yeah, thank you!” He stammered as he tried helping the poor girl stand up on her good leg.

“This is really something for you, isn’t it?” Sooyoung asked with a smile. “You must really love your Siwon-hyung that much.”

Changmin yapped at himself when his cheeks get warm. He then offered silent thanks for the fact that Sooyoung just nudged off what he just said a while ago. “Err, yeah. You can say that.”

He slung Sooyoung’s arms on his shoulder and held her waist as he helped her walk inside the house.

“So, does anyone know about this plan of yours aside from the two of us?” Sooyoung asked as Changmin helped her sit on a pile of cushions.

“No. I told you it was a spur-of-the-moment decision.”

“Everything?” Sooyoung stretched her foot as Changmin gathered some more pillows to rest her feet unto.

“Yeah.” He picked up a pillow on the far corner of the room and placed it on top of the pillows he had compiled. “So, uh, I guess you can say that this is a little secret between the two of us.”

“Do you have plans of saying this to anyone? I mean, aside from the two of us.” Sooyoung groaned a little when Changmin raised her swollen feet and placed it on top of the pile.

“I actually want to tell this to Kibum but decided not to. He can’t say no to Siwon-hyung.” He heaved out a sigh and continued. “Hyung is nice. He is willing to give up his happiness for others. In fact, he is too nice for his own good that I have to resort to this.”

“Oh. So, I can’t say this to my friends either, right?”

“Actually, you can.” He stood up and walked towards the shelf. “It’