“You’re a hit!” says Soo Hyuk walking into my apartment as if he owns the place. He has a bag of chicken in one hand and flowers in the other. He’s followed by the usual suspects. 

I welcome them in and we settle down and catch up on old times. No one mentions Sung Joon but I can tell by the way they keep glancing at each other that someone wants to ask about it. After covering every other topic on the planet a silences falls between us. I see them exchanging glances again and I figure, why not get it out of the way?

“Go on, spill it.” I say, attracting their attention. 

“What do you mean?” says Jong Hyun, glancing at his hyungs again.

“I know you want to ask me about Sung Joon, so go ahead. Let’s get it over and done with.”

“Where did you get that idea from?” says Young Kwang, laughing awkwardly.

“Gee for an actor you are bad in real life situations.” I tell him, jokingly. 

“Okay, fine.” he says, pouting. “Have you spoken to him since you came to Seoul?”

“No.”

“Why?” asks Woo Bin. 

“I have no reason to.”

“That song you sung before your debut - that was for him wasn’t it?” asks Soo Hyuk. 

I look down at my hands. I knew they would pick up on it. If they did, then he probably did too. I nod, still not looking up at any of them. 

I hear someone, I think it’s Woo Bin, sigh. 

“How long are you planning on avoiding him?” he asks. 

“I’m not avoiding him. There’s no reason to see him and I haven’t yet found myself in the situation where I’m face-to-face with him.”

“Maybe you should call him first.” says Jong Hyun. 

“He stopped contacting me!” I say, getting worked up. “He made all these promises in London and then one day poof! He disappears into thin air and I don’t hear anything from him. I don’t know how things work in here in Seoul, but in Australia if your so called ‘boyfriend’ stops answering answering your calls and replying to your messages, it means he doesn’t like you anymore.”

“That’s not true.” says Young Kwang. “Maybe he has his reasons.”

“Then when he found out I was here he should have contacted me.”

“He wants to. He just doesn’t think he has the right to.” says Woo Bin. 

“He’s right.”

They all look at me shocked that I had said that. 

“Maybe we should go.” says Jong Hyun, breaking the silence. “Sorry if we upset you.”

“It’s fine Oppa, I’m not upset with you guys.” I tell him, “But.. he doesn’t know you guys are here does he?” 

“No no no. Of course not.” says Young Kwang standing up. The others follow suit and we say our goodbyes before leaving. 

They were right about me being a hit. I rose to fame faster than I could have imagined and before I knew it, I was making appearances on so many variety shows and interviews - not to mention magazines and commercials. A year after my debut I was asked to appear on the variety show We Got Married. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do it at first but my manager thought it would be a good way for my fans to get to know me better so I agreed. 

Naturally, I had no idea who my ‘husband’ was going to be, but being a fan of the show I was excited. I didn’t look at the internet for the few weeks leading up to the first filming because I didn’t want to know who my husband would be. I wanted to be really surprised on the day. 

I rock up to the first filming eager and excited. I greet everyone and introduce myself to the PDs. They tell me that my husband will be coming in 30 minutes and to film some establishing shots first. So I sit in the cafe waiting while the film me. It’s all very natural. Then they call cut. I hear someone say the husband is here and the director tells me to wait 10 minutes while they do his establishing shots. 15 minutes go by and they’re ready for me again. 

I sit at the table looking at the glass in front of me, not wanting to look up and see who my husband is just yet. I hear his footsteps coming from my left and i turn my head to the right. I hear his footsteps slow down and I decide to stand up before looking at my virtual husband. 

“Hello,” he says. “Are you my wife?”

“Hello.” I say, turning my head. “I think so.” I look at my husband carefully and my eyes widen in shock. 

No way. 

My virtual husband’s eyes widen as well. But only for a split second before he composes himself again. He reaches out to shake my hand. 

“It’s nice to meet you.” he says, “My name is Sung Joon.”

I can’t believe what I’m seeing or hearing, for that matter. He gives my hand a squeeze, reminding me of the cameras. 

“Oh. It’s nice to meet you too.” I say, as he comes around to sit at the other side of the table. “I’m Jae.” 

My hands are shaking as I sit down. 

How can this be? Of all the celebrities in South Korea, why did it have to be him?

I look into his eyes and the memories from London come flooding back to me. I remember how it felt to be in his arms and to be kissed by him. I remember our Skype sessions and phone calls. I remember how my name sounds on his lips and how he said ‘I love you’. I can feel tears start to form in my eyes and I force myself to hold them back. Sung Joon must have noticed something because he starts talking and asking me questions. 

“So, uhh - Jae-ssi.” he says, “I guess we’re married now, huh?”

Married?! I knew doing this show was a bad idea. 

I take a deep breath and gather myself. “I guess so” I say, looking him straight in the eyes. He looks away. “I’m a huge fan of your dramas, Sung Joon-ssi.”

I see him flinch a bit at my words. “Uh, yeah. Thank you. I’m a fan of your songs too.” 

“Thank you.” I say, not meeting his eyes. I can just imagine what the MCs in the studio are going to say. They’re going to think we’re so shy about being each other’s partners. I brush it off, thinking I have to be professional about this. I can’t let my feelings for him get in the way. So I straighten myself up and look him in the eyes. He looks taken aback by my sudden change. 

“So, Sung Joon-ssi, why did you decide to come out on WGM?” I ask him. I see him shift in his seat. He looks like he’s made up his mind now too. 

“I thought it would be a good experience for me. I am at the age where I can think about marriage now. What about you, Jae-ssi?”

I hate the way he says my name. 

“Same. At first I wasn’t going to do it but my manager and the PDs here convinced me.”

“Did you know that I was going to be your partner?”

“No. I didn’t look at the internet for weeks so that I wouldn’t know. I know they try to keep it a secret but sometimes it gets leaked, you know?”

“Yeah. It wasn’t though, because I didn’t know it would be you either. I actually kept checking to see if any articles came out about it.” 

An awkward silence falls between us. I decide to break it. I also decide to make him a tad bit uncomfortable. I knew I would probably regret it later but hey, this is variety right? It needs to be entertaining. 

“So, have you dated before?” I ask him, leaning forward in my chair. At this time a waitress comes out and places Iced Coffee’s in front of us. I don’t remember ordering, but I assume the production crew did. 

“I have.” says Sung Joon, looking me straight in the eye as if he knew what I was trying to do - and he wouldn’t take it.

“And there was no one worth marrying until now?” I say, taking a sip of the coffee. I feel the cold flow down to my belly. I see his eyes flicker. I mentally high five myself. That must have hit a spot. 

“There was.” he says. “But it didn’t work out.” 

There was? Who was it? Probably someone he met while “dating” me. I knew I never should have gotten involved with him in the first place.

“What about you Jae-ssi? No one worth marrying in your past?” 

“No.” I say, without hesitating, looking him straight in the eye trying to show him that he is nothing to me now. 

We continue the small talk and before long the PDs tell us to wrap it up. We finish the first filming without too much trouble, laughing where appropriate and smiling as if it was the happiest day of our lives. I thank all of the staff and I turn to get into my car when I feel a hand on my elbow. I turn around and sure enough there’s Sung Joon, eyes darting around to see the reactions of the staff around us.

“Can we talk?” he says. 

“Sorry Sung Joon-ssi but Jae has another schedule to go to now.” says my manager. He lets go of my arm and I get into the car, not saying a word and not meeting his gaze as I sit down and my manager closes the door. As soon as we drive off I place my head in my hands. Just my luck. 

“What was that back there, Jae?” my manager asks me. 

“What was what?” 

“You weren’t you back there. There’s something between you and Sung Joon isn’t there?”

“Was it obvious?”

“It was to me. But that’s because I know you. You’re like my little sister. Why else would I make up a fake schedule to get you out of there? You were clearly uncomfortable in his presence.” He’s right. I was uncomfortable. I should have gone into acting instead of variety. I thought I pulled off the excited newlywed act pretty well. But I couldn’t go past the eyes of my manager. He’s been around me since I started training - in that short time he was able to read me like a book. 

“I know. Thanks, Oppa.”

“Are you going to tell me what’s up with the two of you?”

“Do you remember I told you about a guy I met in London?” I tell him. 

“Yeah.”

“That guy is Sung Joon.”

“What? The guy you came to Seoul for?”

“Yeah. I didn’t think I would bump into him so soon in my career. I knew we would meet eventually but I thought it would be at like an awards ceremony or a movie premiere. Somewhere lots of other celebrities would be. Not on bloody WGM.” I say, letting out my frustrations. 

“I’m sorry, Jae. I shouldn’t have pushed you to do this.”

“It’s fine, Oppa. You didn’t know about this.”

“We can still pull out you know. Just tell them you can’t do the show because you have too many other schedules. It should be fine since no episodes have aired and you’ve only done the first filming. The episode won’t air for a couple of weeks.” 

“No. That would be unprofessional of me. If I do that they might suspect it’s because of Sung Joon and word will get around.”

“True.” he sighs and shakes his head. “I’m really sorry Jae.” 

I reach over and give his shoulder a small squeeze. “It really is okay Oppa. Now can we get something to eat please? I’m starving.”

A/N: Sorry it's taken me so long to update - I actually have half this story written out. I wrote a one-shot and ended up continuing it - so I've been trying to divide my time between this story, that story and well, my life. Lol.

Please stick with me though I will finish this. Promise!

xo