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momobani · 4 months

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ADDICTED

THE WAY I hate YOU - chapter 5A - 5.3k

&team Nicholas x fem!reader - arranged marriage AU

SERIES MASTERLIST

Sum: you somehow make your dreams come true.

Warnings: swearing, mention of food, NICHOLAS (just him as an entity lol), smut (MINORS DO NOT INTERACT), oral sex (male receiving), penetrative sex, unprotected sex (be safe pls!)

Soundtrack rec: Addicted - Monsta X

Taglist: @nichoswag @seokka0o @sseastar-main @hyuckslvr @ssshasssh @wtfisgoingright

A/N: honestly i have nothing to say for myself. that's it lol.

It’s been around four months since you’ve gotten married and you notice a definite change in the air between you and Nicholas, though if you were being honest, it’s very likely that it was just you dealing with the aftermath of all those random dreams you’d had about him.

You could believe that but Nicholas’ actions were telling a very different story; you didn’t want to be delusional but you could swear he was watching you, dissecting you or something, his lingering gaze making you flush and turn around to stare back, as if challenging him to commit to a stare off, but he would simply feign ignorance and go about his day.

You’d been quieter lately, minding your own business, each of you volunteering to do house chores alone rather than together - you went for groceries today, looking at the list Nicholas sent you after work. You came home to the smell of him cooking something mouth watering.

You hum a greeting to each other and you almost go to your room, but you realise that it would be weird to actively avoid your husband. It was somewhat awkward now but if you tried to get away, it would become worse. And if there’s one thing you hated, was making an awkward situation more awkward.

Instead, Nicholas pulls out two sets of cutlery and plates and puts them on the table; a silent invitation for you to eat together. He seems to do it without a second thought.

You pour some water in a couple glasses and place them on the table as your contribution after putting away the groceries.

It’s getting really warm in your kitchen despite the open window and Nicholas shrugs off his sweater, leaving him a thin, white vest that shows off the bulk of his shoulders and arms. You do a double take - since when was your husband this beefy? Like you knew he was pretty strong but like this was different. Had you not noticed?

He catches you staring and you think that he smirks to himself as he turns back to the pan. Your theory is confirmed when he asks you:

“Liking what you see, Mrs Wang?” the smirk evident in his voice. Your brows furrow together.

“Have you been sneaking out of our house and sleeping at the gym lately?” you sass back, trying to stay unaffected.

But you were awfully, obviously, severely affected.

And Nicholas noticed that too.

“No, you just don’t spend a lot of time looking at me when I’m not wearing clothes.” his words cause a flurry of anxiety to shoot through your veins.

He knew, he knew, he must do, he must have read your mind and seen exactly what you’d been fantasising about. The images flash through your mind and you shift at the dinner table, feeling wound up tighter and tighter, uneasy in your seat.

There’d been days when you would just take care of how you were feeling yourself, locking your door whenever he was out and just giving yourself all the pleasure you needed to make your uneasiness go away. But it was starting to become harder to ignore.

You realise that you’re quiet for too long. “Y’know I think I actually see you without clothes far too often.” you say, still trying to keep up a front. “I’m starting to think you like the attention.”

Nicholas stops stirring. “Oh?” he asks, clearly bemused even though you can’t see his face. “So you admit I have your attention?”

“Why would you want it?” you mutter but he doesn’t hear you over the noise of the kitchen. “Only on weekends.” you reply.

“Wow, YN. You wound me.” he says sarcastically. “What about the week days? Am I not riveting enough during the week?”

Unfortunately for you, he was far too riveting, every single day you saw him and then the times you were away from him too, and when he occupied the empty spaces of your mind.

“I’m busy during the week.” you lie. “I don’t have time to think about you or what you’re wearing or doing, I need to focus-”

“So I’m a distraction?” he asks, finally stopping the heat and taking the pan away. You can’t think for a moment - was it because he was right? Or was it because you were distracted by the way his muscles tensed as he carried the pan to the table?

Your brain finally betrays you and you snap.

“Yes, Nicholas. Because you’re fucking distracting and I don’t need distractions.” you huff. You might have sounded harsher if it didn’t all come out as a strained whisper-shout.

You’re nearly trembling and it strikes you with fear because how could you be so affected by him? How could you feel so tense and adrenalised from just a random conversation?

How could you want him this much?

You hadn’t even voiced it in your own mind, but now it hits you with a blistering clarity.

You wanted him so fucking much.

To touch him, to feel him, to say his name as if he was actually yours. You didn’t know if you were falling in love with him, that question was too difficult for you to face right now, but you were definitely falling somehow - flailing even, swept off your feet as he pulled the rug beneath it when you were least expecting.

You don’t wait for him to reply, thinking you probably over stepped and sounded ridiculous and not to mention rude. You get up with a screech of your chair and leave.

“Hey, YN, wait!” Nicholas comes after you, catching your wrist and pulling you back gently. “What’s going on?”

You hate the weight of his eyes, their concern burning a hole through you but you force yourself to look up for just a moment. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that. I’m just a little tense, don’t mind it.” you try to extract your hand and go but he doesn’t let you go yet.

“You should eat something.” he says and you let him pull you back to the table.

You sit in silence, starting to eat so it doesn’t look like you’re avoiding a conversation. You’d failed your initial goal, the awkwardness settling over you like a blanket.

You should have just avoided him because now all you could think about was him as you ate.

He sat across from you so all you needed to do was raise your eyes to look at him.

To look at the way he picked up the glass of water, bringing it to his lips - god, his lips - sipping for a moment then deciding the thirst was overwhelming and tipping back the glass and his head, the majesty of his neck on full display as he swallowed and his Adam’s apple bobbed once, twice-

Then he looks right at you, at your hungry eyes and seems to see right through you.

“YN, what’s wrong?” he puts the glass down.

“I told you, I’m just tense. I’m sorry for taking it out on you.” you say neutrally.

“Don’t bullshit me. I know you better than that. Something’s bothering you. You can tell me. Am I not your friend?” he asks earnestly, almost hurt.

You sigh. “Yes, Nicholas, you’re my friend.” you say. “But you’re also my husband.” you say as if that explains everything. It leaves him more confused than ever.

He doesn’t say anything else, waiting for you elaborate and after a while you do.

“You were right.” you begin. Nicholas frowns comically.

“Now I know something’s definitely wrong.” he mumbles. “What was I right about? I feel like I would remember such a momentous occasion.”

His comment makes a smile threaten to break out on your face. Trust Nicholas to only take that away from what you were about to say.

“Remember on the island, that night we couldn’t sleep. You were talking about how eventually we’re going to have needs and we won’t know what to do about it.” you explain. “I think I’m getting there and it’s really frustrating.”

Nicholas is pensive for a moment, as if he’s really thinking about a solution. It’s kind of funny to see him take this conundrum more seriously than most other things.

“That makes a lot of sense.” he concludes finally. Now it’s your turn to be confused.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you’ve been avoiding me lately,” you feel a pang of guilt. “And you’ve been quiet and grouchy and…” he trails off.

“And what?” you press, feeling far too exposed from Nicholas’ observations.

“And you’ve been looking at me as if you want to eat me.” he says. “You’re not slick, you know.”

Fuck. Shit. Fuck. Fuck. So he’d definitely clocked it.

“R-right.” you say, your embarrassment making you stutter. “Let me leave with my pride.” you get up again, abandoning your plate. Bringing this up had been a bad idea.

“That’s it?” Nicholas asks after you. You stop. “You’re not going to ask me what I think about it?”

What would he think? And why does he want you to ask?

“Do I want to know?” you think out loud. “Fine, what to do you think about it?” you say turning back around expectantly. Nicholas gets up and walks up to you, not quite closing the distance between you. You almost step back on instinct.

“I think we shouldn’t just leave it alone.” he says looking at you. His eyes are searching your face, as if looking for the slightest hint of reluctance. You’re sure he won’t be able to find any.

“So you want to talk about it?” you check.

“Yes.”

“And what are you going to say about it?” you ask, suddenly sceptical.

“I think we should try having sex.” he says as if it’s no big deal. You blink. You must have heard him wrong. “YN?” he asks when you don’t say anything. “Is that not what you were talking about? Because if it’s not then this is so fucking embarrassing-”

“It was.” you reassure him. “I just didn’t expect that.”

Nicholas tilts his head. “Then what did you expect? For me to say no?” he steps closer. Your body reacts immediately, a shiver crawling up your spine. Ugh, he hadn’t even touched you and you were freaking out. “For me to turn you down when it’s been on my mind too?” he steps further. You feel anchored to the floor for the moment.

“It has?”

He nods. “Especially that day.” he says. “I heard…” he hesitates. “Nevermind.” he concludes.

You’re almost too embarrassed to respond. “Whatever you heard, ignore it.” you daren’t look up and meet his eyes.

“How can I?” he demands suddenly. Your eyes snap towards him. “How can I ignore the way you said my name like that?”

His name? You swear you hadn’t even let that slip, unless-

Your dream. You must have been sleep talking too.

You wait for the ground to swallow you up but it doesn’t. Instead, Nicholas’ eyes pierce into you.

“Why so shy now, YN?” he asks, condescending. “After moaning my name, you act as if it never happened.” he continues. You can’t tell if he’s angry or amused or both somehow. “Are you that proud? Or are you ashamed of what you want?”

“No.” you almost cower under his stare but will yourself to keep standing straight.

“Then why do you keep doing this?” he sighs, deflated. “You used to say exactly what you meant, but you never do anymore. What happened? Why can’t you just tell me what you want?” he looks at you, almost desperately. “Please? Tell me what you want.”

You realise that you’d gotten much closer in the span of a few seconds, the two of you subconsciously moving until you’re almost backed into the wall. You can feel the heat radiating off his body.

You stay stunned for a moment. You weren’t used to being asked what you wanted. Your whole life had been you being told what to do, how to be, your choices being manipulated at every turn. Indeed, you’d been taught not to ask for anything because you already had everything, so what more could you possibly want?

What did you want?

Nicholas’ eyes hold yours persistently, compelling you to speak.

What did you really want?

“You.” you breathe. “I want you.” you mumble, heart starting to race.

You think you imagine it, but there’s a certain twinkle that appears in his eyes, a smugness that can only be the result of being proven correct. It sends a thrum of excitement buzzing to the pit of your belly.

“You want me to what?” he continues, closing in on you, eyes growing hungrier. Somehow his energy makes you grow more confident. Or desperate.

“I want you to kiss me.” you say, betraying yourself.

“And?” You hesitate. “Oh, c’mon, YN. I can see it in your eyes. Tell me.” he says, voice low.

“I want you to fuck me.”

“That’s better.” he praises, mouth hovering close to yours with a smirk. “So you were thinking about me, hmm?” he doesn’t give in to you just yet, keeping his face close but lips just out of reach, his nose brushing against yours. “Were you imagining me fucking you dumb?” but it’s not a question; he’s informing you of your thoughts in case you’d forgotten.

“Maybe,” you whisper, feeling a wave of goosebumps when one of Nicholas’ hands snuck up to your waist, fingers finding your skin in the gap between your clothes.

“Interesting.” he replies, sliding that same hand up your skin and taking the fabric of your shirt with it only to let it drop. Fucking tease. “I was thinking about it too, wondering about what was underneath that little sleep shirt of yours. Or what you did when you locked yourself in your room.”

You tense up at the mention of your room. Had he seen or heard anything else?

“Oh?” Nicholas asks without withdrawing even a millimetre. “I was only guessing but I guess I was right.” he teases. “I can totally imagine it; your fingers just aren’t enough, are they?” he continues, having a total field day making you squirm with just his words. You shift slightly as if to prove his point.

“You sure talk a lot, Nicholas, are you sure you want to do this?” you sass back, ready to hit a nerve. And you surely did because Nicholas draws back, assessing you for a moment silently. You stare back expectantly, finally gaining some confidence in your actions.

He doesn’t say another word.

Instead, he pulls your body forward, flush against his and catches your lips with his. You’re semi-expecting but it still takes you a split second to kiss him back properly, eyes falling closed. You hold on to his shoulders for stability and let him deepen the kiss.

The kiss was searing, way too hot and desperate, and you could feel his intent. You knew that you wanted him but you were certain that he wanted you too now. There was an undeniable chemistry between you, a magnetic pull that couldn’t be torn apart so easily.

You can feel yourself starting to burn up, need starting to crawl under your skin. You stifle a moan when his tongue starts to play with yours, the sound reverberating straight into his mouth. It only seems to spur him on and push you up against the wall, hands grabbing at the back of your thighs to prop you up in his arms. The motion spreads your legs to accommodate his figure between them, his crotch pressing right into your clothed heat. You can feel him growing hard against you while you make out vehemently, the sensation driving you crazy immediately as you feel a familiar ache take hold of you.

As much as you love what you’re doing now, your desperation only gets stronger and you feel like you might explode. You practically claw at Nicholas’ vest, trying to get his attention but also get the damn thing off. He gets the message and starts to pull it off, breaking the kiss with a gasp so he can whip it off, all while still keeping you propped up. When he presses up against you again, you can feel the heat of his skin even through your own t-shirt. He slows for a moment, as if giving you a chance to speak, or catch your breath, mouth touching yours softly before moving to its side and then to your cheek.

“Should we go?” he breathes between kisses. You nod languidly, too lost in the haze that’s taken over your vision.

“Yeah,” you manage, somehow incredibly breathless.

Nicholas doesn’t let you go, but opts to carry you off. You grab onto him tightly and let him walk to his room, the closer of the two in your house. It’s a second until you’re lying on his bed, his weight on top of you while you start to shed layers of clothes. You don’t even think to be self-conscious about your very bland and boring underwear since you’re too busy sucking face with your husband.

It starts to sink in as to what you’re doing and that Nicholas had made it clear he was at your disposal, your brain starting to wake up to the endless possibilities of what you could do. It had been a while and you wanted to do a lot, your greed eating away at you. You break away for a second, mind made up on what you wanted first.

“Nico?” you say. He hums in response while moving down to nose at your neck while you catch your breath. “I wanna suck you off, please?” you add for good measure, though you were sure he wouldn’t need that much convincing - who would?

He does straighten up to look at you though, suddenly wide awake. “Really?” you almost laugh at his hopeful expression.

“Yeah, now move.” you practically overturn him so he lands on his back. You crawl on top of him, kissing him one last time on the mouth then migrating down, neck, chest, abs until you get to his clothed member. He does nothing but stare down at you in fascination, his eyes clouded with lust. You loved that look; it was exactly what you were trying to achieve.

“Surprised?” you ask, trailing a finger lightly down the protruding hardness in his boxers.

“A little, but I’m excited to see this side of you.” he admits, tongue swiping over his lower lip.

“Hm, you haven’t seen a damn thing yet, sweetheart.” you assure him.

“I know you’re not bark and no bite, so show me, YN.” he prompts.

You slide the material down, making sure it drags across his skin, to reveal his cock, all too hard and red, before you take his length into your hand, letting the waist band snap back. Nicholas barely flinches at the contact but you don’t miss the micro-flutter of his eyes.

You lean in, swiping a hand over his tip to collect any precum to use as lube, sliding your closed fist down the length of his dick before taking his tip into your mouth. He’s girthier than average so you definitely feel the tiniest stretch, but it only registers for a second while you adjust your stance and run your tongue over his head, tracing different shapes over his slit. It seems to be working because Nicholas’ abs relax and contract as he sucks in a shaky breath, body responding to your touch.

You gain some confidence and start to jerk him off with your hand while keeping his tip in your mouth, spit starting to drip out and down his shaft, while you switch between sucking and using your tongue, watching his face contort in pleasure while you work him towards an orgasm. He can’t seem to contain himself anymore and sighs quietly, a near moan escaping his lips while you start to take him further into your mouth and down your throat. You’d warmed up by now, ready to make his head spin.

You try your best not to gag as your head bobs up and down, eyes closing for a moment to enjoy the sensation. You could swear your pussy was leaking by now but you resist the urge to touch yourself - you’d waited this long, so a while longer wouldn’t make a difference. You look back up at him after a moment, meeting his eyes, making sure he was still watching you as you slowly slid him out of your mouth to take a breather. His eyes are unmistakably glazed over but he’s fighting to look back at you.

You keep pumping your hand while your free hand comes up to wipe the spit that gathered at the edges of your mouth.

“That good?” you ask, already knowing the answer from the way Nicholas’ chest falls and rises as he pants, mouth agape.

“Really fucking good…” he mutters, voice hoarse with pleasure. He clears his throat half-heartedly. “Should have done this way earlier,” he starts to straighten up, which confuses you. “Because I swear I might die if I don’t fuck you right now.” he doesn’t give you a moment to process even though you’d already frozen just from the way he was looking at you.

Then you’re on your back, one of Nicholas’ hands around your waist keeping you flushed against him. You can feel his hard cock against your thigh and you can feel your hole react, clenching over nothing with need.

“Drama queen.” you mumble just before he catches your mouth with his again. It feels all too good to kiss him again, skin to skin, completely lost in the way your body fits against his.

You chase his mouth when he pulls away again.

“Let me get protection-”

“I don’t mind it without,” you say before having a change to overthink. Nicholas just blinks at you. “I just finished my period,” you say for clarification. He sighs in relief. “I’m clean so if you are too, then forget it.”

“I’m good too but are you sure?” he asks, clearly sceptical but you can’t help but find the little tinge of hope in his voice entertaining. Nicholas was a man after all.

“Yeah, we’ll just use condoms next time.” you shrug, then mentally hit yourself. Your words hang in the air.

‘Next time’?

Would there even be a next time?

Maybe in your head, there was already a next time, then a time after that, and a time after that again-

“Alright,” he replies, a half-smirk appearing on his face. The amusement in his voice is obvious while he pushes you up to the pillows so you can rest your head there.

The two of you adjust until your legs are spread wide enough to allow him access to your dripping cunt. You can’t tear your eyes away as you watch Nicholas line himself up to your hole, the head of his cock teasing your folds, spreading your arousal around.

You moan loudly in relief, throwing your head back and melting into the bed, when you feel him finally slide in, stretching you gently inch by inch. You can’t stop your body from arching into Nicholas, hands finding purchase on his biceps for stability. He hoists you up by your hips a little in response, grabbing one of the spare pillows to lodge under your back so you can keep this angle as he bottomed out.

You almost choke on air as you feel him deep in your guts, his length filling you to the brim. You have no words, looking at him dumbly as he starts to rock his hips into yours gently. The slide of his cock against your walls feels far too good for you to disturb this quiet pace. Instead, sounds of your pleasure tumble out of your mouth, uncensored and too loud to your own ears.

But you can’t help it.

You’re so far gone, so fucked out that every wall you put up, every facade you kept up, everything comes crashing down. Nicholas’ head drops to your shoulder, his breath hot on your sensitive neck while he grips your hips tightly for leverage. He’s mostly sighing quietly, a few contained hums and moans reverberating through his chest and into you.

“Look at you, Mrs Wang,” he murmurs, obviously teasing. “Such a mess for me, hmm.” he kisses the spot just under your ear and it sends a light shiver to your spine.

You can’t even form a coherent sentence to retort with. You barely squeeze his arm in response, trying to quieten your moans down because clearly it was going to your husband’s head.

“What’s that? Nothing to say anymore?” he continues, driving his hips into yours with deliberate precision. It’s as if he knows that you need more already but he wants you to say it.

“Please,” you manage, nails digging into his skin.

“Please what, baby?” he hums, one hand snaking up your torso to play with your chest.

You whine from the sudden stimulation. “Harder, N-nico, please.” you let out pathetically. You don’t recognise your own breathy voice with the way its laced with need.

“Harder?” he questions, raising his head to smile at you. You look at him closely for the first time in a few minutes and notice his lips are flushed and swollen, so you can only imagine what you must look like. “Alright.” he agrees then pulls away, large hands lifting you up slightly so he can toss the pillow away. You don’t really see it flying off in your peripheral vision because you’re too focused on the way Nicholas wraps your legs around his waist securely and presses you into the bed.

The pace he starts is gruelling and knocks the wind out of you as he begins fucking you into the mattress, cock buried in your cunt and barely sliding out. You yelp in surprise but then groan at how amazing it feels, the head of cock hitting that one spot continuously until you think you’re going to black out. You cling on to Nicholas however you can while his hand curls around your cheek and the back of your head to keep your eyes on him while he rearranges your insides.

You start to feel an orgasm starting to build up despite the lack of attention on your clit and you wonder if you could just reach between your bodies and-

“Are you close?” Nicholas interrupts your only, albeit partially formed, thought in a while.

“Yeah, close…” you pant.

It’s enough for Nicholas to slow down and then pull out completely and you whine in confusion.

“Turn around, c’mon.” he says, helping you sit up and scramble around until you’re on your knees. You can feel Nicholas’ body practically on top of yours, gently pushing you down until you’re resting on your elbows, ass up in the air and he lines himself up again with your hole. You moan quietly when he slides back in, the change of angle refreshing but just as mind-numbing. You’re not sure how long you’d last propped up like this but it doesn’t matter when Nicholas starts fucking you from behind.

You bury your face in the mattress, the soft sheets under your cheek while your husband pounds into you, rocking your whole body with the force of his thrusts. It’s possibly the roughest anyone’s ever been with you but you were enjoying it more than you’d ever admit.

There’s not much activity happening in your brain, but your body certainly knew it - this was the most mind blowing sex you’d ever experienced and you didn’t know if it was just because it had been a long time since you’d slept with anyone or because Nicholas was that good, or maybe even because you were married and you’d definitely see each other in the morning.

You moaned into the bed, your voice muffled but still loud while Nicholas wrecked your pussy, his own moans getting louder as he buried himself deeper with every thrust if that was possible.

“Fuck, i-it feels so good, Nico.” you babble, hands fisting the sheets underneath you.

“Yeah?” his voice thicker and gruffer than you’d ever heard it before. “You like my cock so much, baby?” he teases you.

“Yes!” you whine in approval. “Love your cock so much…” you reply, feeling like you’re melting into the bed. “Nico, I’m close,” you manage.

“Me too, baby, c’mere,” he pants. One hand snakes around your body and finds its way to your clit, his fingers starting to rub circles gently.

“Put your hand around my throat,” you say suddenly, head swimming with pleasure.

“Damn,” Nicholas hisses. “I didn’t know my baby was so nasty.” he chuckles, but complies, helping you rise up so you could lean back on him while his hands worked your body into a frenzy. “You’re such a pretty slut for me, YN.” he whispers in your ear. “Letting me fuck your tight little pussy raw.”

You didn’t know why but his words made you whine even more, hole clenching tightly as your orgasm finally hit, shaking your body to the core. The pleasure was too immense, your hands clinging onto Nicholas’ forearms for stability, though you knew he wouldn’t let you fall, the muscle enveloping you sturdy.

You’re not sure if you screamed or moaned, swore or cried Nicholas’ name but you were sure that you might get a noise complaint if your neighbours were home.

The next thing you know is that you’re on your back again, Nicholas above you as he spreads your legs and buries his cock into your sopping cunt as your walls still spasm from the orgasm, extending the waves of pleasure running through your body.

This time you can feel him chasing his own high, head hung low and resting on your shoulder as he grunts quietly into your skin, which shines with a thin sheen of sweat. Your hand makes its way to stroke the back of his neck, fingertips light on his skin.

“You fuck me so well, Nico, feel so fucking good.” you praise him, making an effort to move your mouth between moans. “Want your cum so bad, come on my tits.” He doesn’t say anything but hums in acknowledgement, a stray cracked moan escaping his lips as you can feel his cock twitch inside you.

Nicholas pulls out of you swiftly, large hand wrapping around his leaking cock and pumping until he comes with a groan, thick ropes of cum colouring your chest.

He seems to be barely holding on and keels over on the bed next to you, matching your heavy breaths and staring up at the ceiling.

“That was very necessary.” you comment when you finally catch your breath.

“Oh yup, incredibly.” he agrees, nodding.

You lie there for a minute, coming down slowly as your head clears and your heart stops hammering in your chest and it dawns on you what you just did and who you did it with.

It didn’t make sense suddenly; Nicholas was so good in bed - you knew that anything you’d had until now paled in comparison. He could most certainly have anyone he wanted, so the question rang through your mind: why would he end up with you?

“Let’s get cleaned up,” Nicholas touches your hand gently, pulling you away from your thoughts. “Unless…” he trails off. Your pussy reacts before your brain and you can’t help but smile a little.

“Round two?” you suggest, thoughts becoming a foreign concept once again. Nicholas grins back at you.

“Round two.” he says, closing the distance between you and kissing you again.

a/n: thanks for reading, feedback is always appreciated <3 so yeah that happened, things are about to get complicated for YN yay-[gunshots]

#&team #andteam #&team nicholas #wang yixiang #nicholas x reader #&team x reader #&team fics #&team smut #&team scenarios #andteam smut #momobani.writes

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momobani · 10 months

Text

THE WAY I hate YOU - Series Masterlist

&team Nicholas x fem!reader - arranged marriage AU

[strangers to spouses to lovers]

Sum:

As the heir of your family’s company, your life had been lived with strict rules. Now working in the company, you thought you could try and enjoy the one aspect of your life that your parents hadn’t tried to control - dating. That is until they force you into an arranged marriage to the son of a business tycoon you had never met before.

Introduction and chapters below!

[UPDATED 21/12]

Series warnings: swearing, sarcasm [so much that I’ll put a warning for it??], negative portrayal of parenting [it’s arranged marriage y’all], suggestive, smut [later chapter]. Individual chapters will have warnings attached.

Current word count - 67.1k

A/N:

Tbh I couldn’t stop obsessing with the plot but I wasn’t sure who to write it for initially, and I even considered leaving it as an insert and tagging it with a lot of fandoms but I thought it might not read as nicely if it was that vague, so I ended up choosing Nicholas. (More like he kept materialising in my head as I wrote the plot lol). I didn’t see much in the &team tag in terms of longer fics, though there are some mvps in there churning out this and that [great job y’all!] So I sort of wanted to contribute.

The vision I have for this is to be at least 8 chapters, but I find that I can never really guesstimate how much I’ll write in the end.

I’m really excited to put this out, I hope you enjoy if you do read it, feedback is always appreciated <3

Also, not that you really need the disclaimer but I’ll tack it on for legal purposes - this is a work of total fiction, y’all need to use your imaginations.

If anyone wants to join a taglist, please let me know so I can do that for you!

~~~~~~~CHAPTERS~~~~~~~

1. UNNATURAL DISASTERS [10.1k]

2. SPEAK NOW OR FOREVER HOLD A GRUDGE [13.1k]

3. WILSON! [16.3k]

4. FIRE BRIGADE [11.4k]

5. GROUNDHOG DAY [10.9k]

5A. ADDICTED [5.3k]

6. TECHNICALITIES [TBA]

7. DOG YEARS [TBA]

7A. WISH [TBA]

8. RESET [TBA]

momobani masterlist

#&team #&audition #&team nicholas #wang yixiang #nicholas x reader #&team x reader #&team fics #&team imagines #&team scenarios #momobani.writes

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momobani · 9 months

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Distraction - &TEAM K - 1.2k

warnings: smut (MINORS DNI!!!), afab reader, oral (fem receiving), fingering, established relationship

a/n: while i’m busy, i thought i’d bring something out of the vault that’s been sitting around completed. enjoy <3

Boredom doesn’t begin to describe how you’re feeling right now. You had a lot of work to do, your schedule horrifyingly full despite it being summer time off for most people. You’d rather be doing anything else than dealing with your uni work.

You sigh loudly, plopping your pen down on your desk and leaning back in your chair. You could use a break although you’d been working less than an hour.

“Something bothering you, babe?” You hear behind you.

You swivel your chair slightly to find K coming toward you with a plate of freshly cut fruit. You smile at his sweet gesture when he puts it down on your desk and gives you a quick kiss on your temple. He leans on the armrests of your chair while you look up at him.

“It’s just hard to keep going.” You confess, a frown making its way to your lips. “It’s not exactly the most interesting content.” You elaborate.

“I’m sorry it sucks, baby.” K sympathises. “Can I do anything?” He asks, leaning in so you’re nose to nose. You sneak a quick kiss on his noise and shake your head.

“It’s okay, I need to deal with this myself.” You say. “Thank you, though.”

“How about a little motivation?” He hums. “A little reward for making it this far?”

You’re sceptical for a moment - there’s a mischievous glint in his eyes and you’re not sure what he has in mind.

“Alright, if you’re offering.” You raise your eyebrows, almost sure this was going to end up in a prank.

Except it doesn’t.

Before you even finish your sentence, K is on you, kissing you deeply. Your brain takes a moment to process but your body responds immediately to his touch. You cling to him as he leans down to your level on the chair, practically towering over you while you make out. He breaks the kiss to get on his knees in front of you for better access and you spread your legs to accommodate his large frame.

You’re panting slightly from the kiss as you watch K run his hands up and down your legs, squeezing gently on your bare skin. Your pyjama shorts come off momentarily and he throws one of your legs over his shoulder while propping the other over the armrest of the chair.

Your body temp is rising in anticipation, a faint ache starting to make its presence known in your core. K holds your eyes captive with his while he leans down to ghost his lips over the flesh of your thigh, kissing lightly and making his way closer to where you want him. You lick your lips, conscious of your growing desire.

You’d been quite busy lately so you hadn’t gotten to spend too much time together and it had been a while since you’d found yourself in a situation of this calibre. It only made you want K’s touch more but you knew better than to ask him to hurry; if you did, he would definitely draw it out just to be annoying (his favourite hobby).

He finishes with a quick nip on the skin of your inner thigh before bringing a thumb to trace shapes over your underwear. You shift slightly, trying to get more friction but it only makes K smirk up at you.

“I’ve barely touched you and you’re already squirming.” He observes smugly. “Whatever will I do with you, my dear?” He asks rhetorically.

You pout slightly. “Forget I did that?” You say hopefully. K considers it for a moment.

“Nah, but I’ll be nice today.” He says, moving his thumb and starting to work your clit over the fabric of your panties. You’re not sure what he means, he’s always nice, but you’re in no position to complain.

You sigh contentedly as K strikes up a steady pace, continuously teasing you until all you can think about it him ripping away the remaining layer on your body. Your squirming gets more obvious and K chuckles at your impatience.

“Look at you, baby, are you that desperate?” He asks but doesn’t wait for an answer and grasps at the waistband of your underwear to slide it off you. You assist by lifting your hips, so grateful that he wasn’t going to play the cat and mouse game today. “Now be good and stay still.” He instructs.

Your legs spread of their own accord again, displaying your dripping folds to the man in front of you. He drinks you in, eyes growing hungry as the corners of his mouth quirk up and he dives in, mouth attaching to your pussy. His tongue swipes up and down your folds to you clit and back, tasting you with a satisfied hum as his eyes close and he savours the taste.

The image fries your brain and you’re left mouth agape, fighting for your life because your soul left you body as soon as his tongue made contact with your skin. You keep your eyes open, watching as K’s eyes find yours while he starts to fuck you with his tongue, a zap of pleasure shaking you to your core. You can’t help but melt into the chair, deflating into the cushion as your boyfriend keeps tonguing at your hole.

His hands roam your legs, kneading and gripping onto you for stability while his mouth works miracles on your cunt. You find yourself sighing and gasping gently, hips starting to grind into his face by themselves even though he told you to stay still. He pulls away, as if to give you a warning look but you don’t pay attention because all you can think about is how good he’s making you feel.

For a moment, K stills your hips, his large hands gripping your legs to stop your movement before lowering his head down to your pussy again. He chooses your clit as the next victim, attaching his mouth and sucking lewdly, tongue somehow making its way into your hole again - how big is his mouth anyway? But the thought doesn’t land because the action makes you squeak loudly, back arching into K.

He makes you into a whiny and incoherent mess easily, adding a finger to your needy hole and pumping it in and out steadily while he continues to pleasure your clit. You’re beyond voicing anything except whimpers and moans, a mixture of profanities and K’s name all over again until you feel your walls start to tighten incredibly.

He must feel you’re so close because he picks up the pace of his finger and stills his mouth over your clit, letting his tongue do all the work. In a matter of seconds, you come undone, body shaking with the strength of your orgasm, mouth hanging open and throat dry as you gasp loudly.

Your brain feels like mush now, as you start to calm down, K’s finger slowing down and gently pulling away after a few moments. You notice his lips are swollen and his mouth and chin are all wet but he’s grinning up at you.

“Like your reward?” he asks cheerfully. You, on the other hand, are blissfully on another planet but you nod automatically.

“Yeah,” you croak. “I did. Thanks, babe.” you manage before feeling the full weight of your exhaustion.

“Let’s get you to take a nap, you don’t look so good, sweetie.” K suggests, already lifting you out of the chair.

You suppose you were getting a bonus reward from your very caring boyfriend.

a/n: thanks for reading, feedback is always appreciated <3 just a little something because i'll won't be updating my series for at least 2 weeks.

#&team #andteam #&team smut #andteam smut #koga yudai #&team k #&team kei #&team k smut #&team fics #momobani.writes

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momobani · 9 months

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Wilson!

THE WAY I hate YOU - Chapter 3 - 16.3k

&team Nicholas x fem!reader - arranged marriage AU

SERIES MASTERLIST

Sum: most people would die to stay in their honeymoon phase, you on the other hand might die from being in the honeymoon phase.

Warnings: swearing, sarcasm, mention of food and alcohol, Nicholas (i feel like his existence is a warning in this one, you’ll see what i mean), mentions of sex

Soundtrack rec: Hold Me Tight or Don’t - Fall Out Boy

Taglist: @nichoswag @seokka0o

A/N: i personally was having a delightful time writing some of this, like more than usual lol that i went overboard with the word count, i hope you enjoy it too <3 (again ft some fun cameos! don’t take it seriously lmao)

This is so not how you had imagined spending your Friday night.

The hot pot machine bubbled quietly in the middle of the table while you tried to simultaneously pay attention to what Nicholas was saying and fight a piece of meat that just kept disappearing below the surface of the broth.

“So, what do you think?” Nicholas concludes. He’d just finished his side of the debate on which apartment you should choose to live in. The two of you had been meeting to organise your lives and had finally come to make a decision for where you’ll live.

You finally manage to snag that piece of meat and bring it to your plate quickly.

“Well, I agree about how much nicer it would be to have a laundry room but I’m not too hot on the location.” you reply.

“What do you mean?” he asks. “The location is perfect!”

“What’s so perfect about it?” you inquire, looking down at the tablet between you. The map just showed it was some distance away from your current apartments, although closer to the supermarket you went to and the boba cafe you liked.

“It’s pretty central to where we need to go,” he says, flicking through the photos again. “and there’sabasketballcourtafewblocksaway.” he speedily finishes. The slew of words don’t quite hit your ears in real time and your eyebrows scrunch together as you try to decipher what your husband just said.

“There’s a what?” you ask.

“And there’s a park so nature, yay!” he grins, trying to move on but you weren’t born yesterday. You raise an eyebrow combatively - he either tells you or you’ll veto this entirely. Nicholas sighs. “There’s a basketball court nearby and it’d be nice to play with my friends. Happy now?”

“What really is happiness?” you hum in thought, avoiding sinking into a philosophical blackhole, instead thinking about his revelation about the court and to some extent, the park. It might be a way to get Maki to come over to yours and hang out - you barely got to see him lately and you wanted to see how he was doing.

“Hey, save the existential crisis for later and tell me if I can play basketball or not.” Nicholas pouts over a piece of tofu puff.

“I’m not about to choose an apartment based on that. Give me better reasons.” you shrug, coming down with a verdict that you were sure Nicholas wouldn’t like, but you weren’t about to just indulge him.

“Okay, let’s review; our own laundry room, underground parking, central location,” he lists, taking a moment to think between each one. “reasonable mortgage - hmm?” he wriggles his eyebrows the way you think those old school teleshopping people would but right now it feels more like the way a shady conman might. “Oh, and the park and the court.”

You purse your lips, weighing up the pros and cons. The place you’d chosen had some of the same perks - in terms of parking and location but there was no laundry room, just a machine in the kitchen and you didn’t love that. You mentally added the boba place to Nicholas’ list and the possibility of persuading your little brother to visit you so he wouldn’t forget you exist.

Unfortunately, it made logical sense to pick the place with more perks and better price for value, but the whole thing sounded like Nicholas was fishing for a way to avoid you at home.

On second thought, maybe that’s how you should consider it - it might give you opportunities to be independent of each other and not be constantly stuck together. You clear your throat and munch on a piece of rice cake for a moment.

“Fine, let’s take that one. I like doing laundry.” you say whatever nonsense that comes to mind. Nicholas is suddenly far too happy to pay attention to details.

“Really?” his eyes are wide in surprise. “Okay, we better move fast then. I’ll send them an interest inquiry right now.” he forgets about the food and starts tinkering away on securing the apartment for you.

You watch him, busy hands and roaming eyes. He pushes up the sleeves of his olive shirt - a comfy and clearly beloved cozy sweater - and focuses. You notice the details of his existence; his tense forearms, the tongue that swipes across his lips unconsciously, and the chain that hangs around his muscular neck.

Sometimes it was hard to understand that you weren’t really strangers any more.

You’d been married for two weeks already and had been seeing a lot more of each other than you thought you would before you lived together. There’d been several family and business dinners that had needed your presence but you went to each other’s places to eat occasionally while you looked at new apartments or planned your move.

So much for strangers.

Nicholas was your husband now and you were his wife. It had already happened and you just needed to get used to it.

“YN?” you snap out of it, realising that you’d been spacing out while looking in his direction so he probably thought you were staring at him.

“Yeah?”

He gives you a once over and goes back to his tapping on the screen. “Nothing, just checking you were still breathing.”

“I am.” you confirm, taking a deep breath in and exhaling. “See?”

“Yeha.” Nicholas barely responds because he seems to have made progress on the inquiry. “And done. We should hear from them soon.” he smiles, pretty proud of himself.

“Cool. Now we just have to somehow pack up our lives and smush them together in one place.” you say.

“Don’t stress, it’ll be fine.” Nicholas says dismissively, getting back to his meal.

“Let’s hope so.” you mumble and do the same.

You had lived by yourself for a little while now, so living with someone else again all of a sudden was going to be a bit of shock to your system.

The two of you had agreed to have your own rooms and your own space within the apartment, essentially cohabiting like roommates because nowhere did it say in any document you actually had to sleep in the same bed like a married couple would.

You were married legally and in name only, as far as you were concerned.

You drew up rules to keep the peace, basic things like keeping it clean, respecting each other’s space, and minding your own business, but you weren’t too worried about it. You were a great roommate, even if you did say so yourself.

The apartment was secured over the weekend and you were free to move in from the following Thursday onwards.

Several days later, your apartment was all packed up except for the bare minimum living essentials, which would come with you later. You helped the movers put your stuff in their van, telling them that they’ll meet your husband at the apartment while you hung back and sorted things out there.

It’s sluggish to put the last few items in a box and double check your suitcase. You get a text from Nicholas that the movers have finished and are away already and you realise you’re moving slowly subconsciously; you didn’t want to leave yet.

You didn’t want to accept that you weren’t going to be the way you were any more.

There was an echo of your footsteps that resonated through your now empty apartment, the space far too barren for your liking. In some ways you were glad, because you’d been able to negotiate which of your furniture you would keep and which you had to sell on since you had no need for it.

Your precious couch and coffee table had survived and you were taking it with you, whereas Nicholas was bringing the dining table and chairs from his place with your somewhat enthusiastic approval. (The dining table was tastefully furniture to die for.) Your bedroom stuff had survived for the most part since you weren’t going to share any of it, but apart from that, you had to sell several things.

You looked over your shoulder one last time at what used to be your place, before closing the door with a quiet click for the last time. It felt solemn; like the end of an era, so of course you were feeling a little sentimental.

The drive to your new apartment was marred by heavy rain pouring down, the forecast for sunny clear skies completely wrong, so you drove slowly, putting on a sad ballad to match the mood. You were going to miss that place; it was somewhere you’d learned a lot about yourself, had your real taste of independence in and one that you cherished a lot.

You get to your new front door, apartment 520* mounted in pretty gold letters against the dark emerald lacquer of the door.

It felt like a betrayal when you entered the passcode for the first time and opened the door.

“Surprise!” you heard a yell as soon as stepped into the hallway. You jump slightly, suddenly snapped out of your thoughts. “Hey, roomie!”

Nicholas was standing there grinning, all alone, blowing one of those annoyingly brightly coloured party blowers. The noise scratched a very specific part of your brain, and not in a good way. You moved to shove your shoes off.

“Not exactly a surprise since we agreed to live here together, but okay.” you say shrugging and drag your suitcase into the corridor.

“I guess,” Nicholas says. “but I just wanted to get one of these.” he holds up the party blower.

“Great.” you move past him and look around for your furniture. You spot the stuff in your room and your couch is deposited randomly with your coffee table but what surprises you is that Nicholas’ stuff isn’t here yet. “Did something happen to the dining table, or?” you ask.

“Ah,” he hums, thinking for a moment. “well, I’ve still got a few things to move since I was using Fuma’s van and it didn’t fit everything, so I sort of sacrificed the table. Sorry.” he finishes sheepishly. “Besides, isn’t it classic to eat on the floor the first night you move in somewhere new?”

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a thing or not, I guess we’re doing it on the floor.” you say.

“Huh?” Nicholas seems startled for a moment. “Doing what?”

“Eating, duh.” you say. You wonder why that would have confused him; surely he wasn’t thinking you two were going to- oh my god, did he? No, you were just tired and imagining stupid things. You shake your head, “Whatever. I’m ordering. What do you want to eat?”

And so you did eat on the floor on your first night in your new apartment, ignoring the perfectly good couch and sitting on a random blanket like an indoor picnic.

It wasn’t all bad but there was a certain awkwardness being there, a little like the first time you’d met Nicholas. You just hoped you could get used to the apartment like you were getting used to him.

“No. I simply refuse.” you state as you stir your morning coffee. Nicholas sighs deeply, hunching over the kitchen counter.

“But it’s a really good deal! We should go.” he argues. Instead of a debater, he sounds more like a kid trying to convince their parents to do something. You shook your head.

“I have things to do, you go if you really want to.” you say. Nicholas looks dubious - it’s the first time you’ve seen that expression on his face.

“Mrs Wang-” you’re about to interject at the name calling but he doesn’t let you. “did you just tell me- your husband- to go on our honeymoon alone?” he asks, scepticism rising with every syllable.

“You’re right. That sounds pathetic.” you concede. “Go with your friends. Make it a dude-bro-cation. Take Jo and Euijoo and…” you think hard, trying to remember names. “Fuma!” you snap your fingers, having remembered another one of Nicholas’ friends.

“Don’t hurt yourself if you don’t know.” he says sarcastically.

“Hey! I met them one time,” you can’t help the defensive pout that you feel like came out. “and you have a lot of friends.” you mutter.

“Not the point, YN. I’m not going without you.” Nicholas says. “This is practically a direct order from management, a.k.a the parents! And they’re offering to pay for everything.”

You sip your coffee, thinking.

Your parents had dropped this bomb on you last night, telling you to go on a honeymoon while you were having dinner at your parents’ house. Both sides offered to pay for everything like they did with the wedding and call it a honeymoon for the two of you.

It sounded fair enough.

You just didn’t feel like going though.

You could go on vacation whenever you wanted to - you made enough money by yourself that you could splurge - but going now and officially calling it a honeymoon? It felt silly, like the cherry on top of this whole crazy arranged marriage business.

“It’s just a vacation, why make it sound so - I don’t know.” you think out loud.

“YN, please don’t make me beg you.” Nicholas’ shoulders slumped. “It’s a free vacation, for crying out loud! Who says no to that?”

I would, you thought. You didn’t know what the situation in Nicholas’ office was, but in your office, department, part of hell, whatever you wanted to call it, you had to stick around if you didn’t want to be left behind or get your ass grilled by everyone else.

You were already scrutinised enough for being the boss’ kid, but disappearing to go on a holiday with your husband just when the merger was really getting underway? You would get roasted con fuoco.

“You know what, I will beg,” Nicholas resolves, getting up. “I’m getting on my knees, I’m not above begging.” he announces before sliding off his slippers. It’s almost comical and you think he’s joking but he starts to bend down.

“Okay!” you exclaim, putting a stop to his buffoonery. “We’ll go on our stupid honeymoon.”

You decided that whatever happened at work was better than having to hear him begging and bugging you about going until you agreed.

“That’s more like it.” he stands up straight, grinning. “I’m no fancy lawyer, but I know how to win in these situations.”

“You sure do, but do you ever think you’ll win your dignity back?” you say to him before leaving for your room. You leave him gapping after you in your kitchen.

“Who needs dignity? I’m going on vacation!” Nicholas calls after you, just before you close the door.

The PA system crackles overhead and you fasten your seatbelt, getting ready for takeoff.

Nicholas sits besides you, neck pillow already in place, as well as a fuzzy wolf sleeping mask placed over his forehead, the image of a travel diva personified in your husband. Of course he would be so extra for like a three hour flight.

You ignored him while you got comfy, pulling on your cardigan when they started to blast the AC down on you.

“So, how remote is this island anyway?” Nicholas asks, sending one last text before switching his pone to flight mode. You pause to remember details on what you’d read.

“Hmm, I’d say a lot. Something about limited signal and wifi.” you answer, shrugging. You’d fought tooth and nail about where you were going on vacation- no, honeymoon- and you’d compromised on the island since it had a beach, which is one thing you both wanted.

Suddenly the air around you swishes. Nicholas whips around to look at you, desperate.

“Are you sure about that?” he says with all but the zest of John Cena’s original delivery.

“Yes,” you say, silently edging away from him. “there’s this thing called ‘research’, ever heard of it?”

“Don’t patronise me.” Nicholas pouts, sitting back. You crack a smile.

“Ooh, big word for wittle Nichowas.” you chuckle, starting to think this vacation might actually be a good idea. You were going to watch your city-boy husband practically lose his mind in the jungle; it was going to be great.

“Can’t you speak nicely?”

“No.” you say.

“You are so incredibly frigid.” he shoots back.

“Aha, I was born this way.” you take the opportunity to reach a quick hand and pull the fuzzy sleeping mask over his nose and mouth, snapping it lightly. He splutters slightly as he fights the wolf off his face.

“Do you have a sarcastic reply to everything?” he huffs, putting the mask back in its place before you decided to redecorate his accessories.

“Probably. Guess we’ll find out.” you hum, reaching into your pocket for chewing gum. You take a piece out then offer the pack to Nicholas, who also takes a piece in the most begrudging way. You smile to yourself, chewing as the plane takes off.

This was going to be interesting.

Upon arriving, you felt two things:

Firstly, the sweet smell of not answering work emails for ten days, and secondly, the colossal, mind-melting, soul-snatching humidity. It was horrific. As if you could practically taste it if you stuck your tongue out (you didn’t, though it crossed your mind).

You’d shed your cardigan, stuffing it into your carry-on bag and Nicholas had unbuttoned one more of his shirt’s top buttons.

You make it out of the tiny airport, if you could call it that and not a helipad, and follow the signs to the shuttle bus that would take you to resort where your hotel was.

After getting off the bus, your clothes sticking to your skin from the heat, you finally see the hotel up a short path. There was a lot of what you presumed was jungle or rainforest just outside the resort and it loomed majestically overhead behind the light chainlink fence that seemed to be placed there just for the thought of having it.

“I could totally run away and live off the land, Robinson Crusoe style.” You muttered to yourself.

“What?”

“Intrusive thought. Nevermind.” you snapped out of it, continuing to walk.

“Oh god,” Nicholas groaned miserably. “this island is literally in the middle of ass fuck nowhere!”

You didn’t know what he was whining about, you’d both picked this place. “Your point?”

“We’re completely marooned - there’s like no signal, no wifi…” he complains while hoisting his phone up in the air as if it was the Lion King.

“Don’t tell me you were actually planning on spending your vacation just watching TV in your room all day?” you throw a semi-judgmental glance at your husband over your shoulder.

Nicholas pockets his phone silently and adjusts his shirt slightly from sticking to his body. You side-eye a couple of girlies that walk past you and gawk at Nicholas, obviously staring at the way the white fabric outlined the defined lines of his torso. You ignore the image and bulldoze forward to the hotel’s entrance.

“Well, not all day, but now I can’t do it at all.” he says, disappointment evident in his voice.

“Boo-hoo, the whole point of vacation is to chill. You can still do that perfectly fine.” you point out.

“I like chilling,” he huffs. “Netflix and chilling, but now there’s no Netflix. Do you not see this may be the end of humanity as we know it?” he asks dramatically, eyes wider than a conspiracy theorist’s.

“Hmm, not quite the crisis you imagine.” you reply. “Fortunately, there are these magical things - books - which have survived many millennia, and they seemed to have worked just fine for our ancestors.”

“So what I’m hearing is, our vacation is, in fact, doomed.” Nicholas states as you walk into the hotel lobby, breathing in that delicious, stale air-conditioned air. You stop to bask in its coolness, breathing out in relief.

“Your vacation,” you correct. “I’ll be paying my respects to my ancestors by reading.”

“Ugh, well we can’t stay here. What are we going to do for ten days?” Nicholas asks. You wonder if he even heard what you said, but in his current state, you somehow doubted it.

“You got a better idea?” you raise your eyebrows.

“I’ll build a raft, we can swim off the island.” he suggests. You’re about to lay down the most sarcastic, hard line of the century but the sound of thunder rumbling stops you.

It was the loudest rumble you’d ever heard in your life and you suspected the lightning that preceded it might have struck not even several meters out of the door you’d momentarily walked through. The thought almost made you faint.

“If you walk out of that door, Nicholas, so help me god.” you warn, wheeling your suitcase further into the building and away from the windows.

“Noted.” he replies sheepishly, following your lead away from the windows, almost scrambling after you.

Needless to say, it starts pouring torrential rain after that and while you check in, you can see the rain drops hammering violently on the window panes behind the concierge desk.

The lady there hands you a small card holder, telling you the keys are inside and you can’t really hear much else of what she says to you but it sounds like the standard if-you-need-anything-ring-the-phone mumbo jumbo so you thank her and go.

Little did you know, she’d warned you.

You get up to the correct floor in search of your rooms, looking around while you navigate the soft-carpeted hallways.

“One four three.” you mumble, trying to find the right number. You stop at the end of a corridor and take out the key card. You buzz the door open and push it forward. “Wait a minute-” you walk in several steps and circle back, thinking you’re losing your mind.

“What is it?” Nicholas walks in, relaxed pulling in both of your suitcases.

“I think there must be a mistake,” you say. “The suite only has one room. I thought we’d asked for two?”

“Really?” Nicholas takes a few steps in, sweeping his eyes over the place and sure enough there is only one room. “That’s weird. Let me check with Jun-ge, he’s the one that booked our honeymoon.” Nicholas fumbles around with his phone for a bit, trying to find a signal for a minute.

You vaguely remembered meeting Jun at your wedding; he was one of Nicholas’ big bro types at the company but you had no idea if he’d known about your marriage being arranged or not.

Nicholas finally gets the phone to ring and the line crackles when it’s picked up on the other end.

“Hello?” you hear Jun answer when Nicholas puts the phone on speaker. “Nicho, what’s up?”

“Hey, Jun-ge, quick question, do you remember booking our honeymoon suite?” he asks tentatively.

“Yeah, is something wrong?”

“Well, uh, we got here and it’s got just the one room, didn’t I put a note to find two rooms?”

“You wrote ‘honeymoon suite’ and that’s what I got.” Jun replies, obviously not sensing that that was what was wrong with the whole situation.

“Yes, Jun-ge, but I also wrote two rooms on the note, right?”

“Dude, two-room honeymoon suites don’t exist.” you can hear Jun chuckling on the other end of the line. You were starting to regret not booking the rooms yourself.

“Oh.” Nicholas says dumbly. “Okay, that’s cool, thanks Jun-ge.”

“Alright, kid, don’t have too much fun!” Jun laughs before hanging up. You look at Nicholas, attempting to hold your glare but you reckon it slips out regardless.

“You wrote what in the note?” you ask, voice steadily quiet.

“Two rooms.” Nicholas avoids your eyes and scratches the back of his neck, with the guiltiest look on his face.

“‘Honeymoon suite’!” you state, jogging his memory. “You couldn’t just leave that out, could you?”

“Yeah, my bad.” Nicholas admits.

“Right, well,” you walk into the actual bedroom part. There’s a super king sized bed that takes up most of the room, and it looks very comfortable. “I’ll gladiator fight you for the bed.”

“That’s not very civilised of you, YN.” he muses. “Rock, paper, scissors-” Nicholas thinks he can take you by surprise, yelling out RPS unexpectedly, but you throw out your hand as a reflex,

“Shoot!” you finish, giving him a paper to his rock. He groans at the loss.

“Best of three!”

You roll your eyes before playing again, throwing out scissors this time intuitively. Nicholas threw paper and then sunk to the ground.

“Hah!” you grinned at your victory. “You should have taken your chances in a fight, but I think I would have won that too.” you shrug, faux sympathy coating your voice. Karma’s a bitch, but so were you. “Enjoy sleeping in the bath.”

“Bath?” Nicholas snaps up and runs off to check.

Indeed, there was no couch in the suite, only a dinning room set up in the small living space, complete with a TV mounted to the wall and a grand bathroom that separated from the master bedroom. Besides a generously spacious shower cabin, there is a huge white bath in the middle of the bathroom, practically the size of a jacuzzi and though giant by nature, Nicholas would probably fit in it.

He comes back to find you getting comfortable sitting on the bed, legs crossed gloatfully as you watched your husband lose his mind and it was only day one.

“Fine. Be cruel. I’m fine. It’s fine.” he says, sounding less than convinced.

“Is it though?” you smirk, loving the way he’s trying to stomach the loss but failing.

“Yes. Totally. Fine.”

You don’t press it further but lie back on the bed, letting the mattress swallow you up. Vacation wasn’t so bad after all. You might not have Netflix, but you had a personal drama king right in front of you.

You didn’t get to do anything for the rest of the day since it was storming outside but you had dinner down at the restaurant and eventually went to bed, or in Nicholas’ case, to the bath.

The next morning, you wake up naturally, blissfully rested and stretch with all the grace of a cat. You slept like a rock on this gorgeous bed and you really had to thank Jun for booking this particular room.

You get up, quietly, and pad over to the bathroom, the door still closed. You pause, then knock on lightly. “Nicholas?” you ask.

There’s a sleepy groan on the other side of the door, and then a thud. You panic for a second.

“Hey, I’m coming in!” you warn and work the handle. You find Nicholas in the bath in his pyjamas, blanket half-thrown off and the pillow lying on the floor. That explains the thud. “You okay?”

“Hmm,” he grunts, eyes still closed. He shuffles slightly, pulling the blanket and curling up on his side.

“Alright, well, good morning to you too.” you mutter and leave.

A while later, a disheveled Nicholas emerges from the bathroom. It must have been the smell of coffee that got him moving because you’re about to drink your first and hopefully only cup of the day.

“About time, Sleeping Beauty.” you glance at him. You note he most certainly is not a happy ducky in the morning; there’s a deep frown on his face and his posture is giving an uncanny resemblance to a deflated balloon animal.

“Hmm.” he responds with another grunt. You weren’t sure when exactly, but some time between last night and this morning, your husband seems to have been replaced with a cave man. The two of you hadn’t crossed paths too often in the mornings, so it was kind of news to you to see him like this.

You sigh and put your coffee down, getting up to go to the pot and pour him a cup. Nicholas sits down stiffly in the opposite chair and you deposit it in front of him. Instead of trying to make conversation with a prehistoric species, you go back to your book, but you see he drinks the coffee.

Twenty minutes later, you swap the location and find yourselves downstairs having a late breakfast (you refused to call it brunch), munching on whatever to start your day.

Nicholas looks more like himself now, but you can sense the obvious discomfort from the way he keeps trying to massage his neck and shoulders discreetly, or stretches to try and work the muscle there. He’s wearing a loose fitting, linen button up and every move seems to expose a lot of skin but while you’re trying to ignore it, it doesn’t mean everyone else is.

People who are sitting at the neighbouring table are throwing occasional slightly suspicious glances. There are some not so discreet wives checking your husband out and not minding their own and even some pretty waitresses smiling as they pass by. You roll your eyes as one in particular can’t seem to look away as she brings you a plate of fruit.

“What?” Nicholas notices that you’re making a face. He himself seems to be oblivious on the other hand.

“Nothing. Eat your strawberries.” you say quickly, keeping a poker face. You could almost see the smug look that would appear on his face if you told him people were checking him out, so you stayed quiet.

“Right.”

Back upstairs, Nicholas perches on the vanity table on one side of the room while you rummage around in your suitcase looking for some clothes. You’re aware of how he’s shifting awkwardly and you stop and turn to him.

“I’m listening.” you state. Nicholas doesn’t say anything for a moment, his tongue poking the inside of his cheek and then the other side.

“Please can I sleep in the bed?” he asks finally.

“Hey, you lost fair and square.” you go back to looking for your swimsuit. Nicholas tilts his head.

“I’m not hearing a ‘no’.” he hums.

“No.” you say for good measure. “Happy?”

“Not at all.” he replies. You think he’s going to give it a rest but then a second later he speaks again. “Fine, if I have to sleep in the bath, then give me a massage.”

“Why me?”

“Because you’re here.” he says like it’s obvious. “Ooh, better yet, buy me medicine and rub it on my shoulders.” he smiles, hopeful. You knew what he was doing but despite that, it was working.

You scrunch your forehead, the idea less than appealing to you. You look from Nicholas to the bed, then to Nicholas again, weighing it up in your head. The bed was big enough, you were just going to have to stay on one side. You didn’t want to cause permanent damage after all. (It might scar you for life to massage medicine over his shoulders. And you guess it could do something to his posture or whatever.)

“Ugh,” you spit out. “alright. You can sleep on one side of the bed.” you specified. “I’m not giving you the whole thing.”

“Pleasure negotiating with you, Mrs Wang.” Nicholas grins and disappears before you can tell him off for the name calling.

You get dressed, slipping on your one piece swimsuit and throwing on some shorts, and take your book down to the pool. The weather had cleared up completely compared to yesterday’s torrential downpour and the sun is shining brightly. The pool itself is located in a slightly more sheltered area and it doesn’t look like there was any damage from the rain.

You smile to yourself and find a nice lounge chair to camp out at. You adjust your sunglasses and open your book again to continue where you’d left off.

“Are your ancestors proud of you yet?” you hear a voice ask before you feel a weight settle near your legs on the lounge chair. You don’t look up at Nicholas, before replying.

“I don’t know, maybe you should go ask them.” you retort.

“Oh, I will,” he says. “in like hopefully seventy to eighty years.”

You hum in response, not particularly feeling like playing along right now. Nicholas shuffles about, and you finally look up.

Big mistake.

You find him unbuttoning his shirt and shrugging it off his frame. You blinked twice, trying to tear your eyes away from him.

“Look after this, please.” he says after a moment, indicating to his discarded shirt. It lay half folded next to your bare leg.

“Sure.” you mumbled. You watched as he threw you an acknowledging half smile and got up. You couldn’t help yourself for a moment; you stared after him.

It was ground breaking actually.

You’d not really given it much thought since your predicament was rather serious - life sentence married to a man you didn’t love and all that - but you had eyes and you noticed that your new husband was actually quite hot.

Who would have thought?

You clocked the well rounded muscle of his shoulders and back and his toned biceps, and though you avoided really looking (as in, you didn’t pull your shades down), the modest set of abs that graced his torso.

“How novel.” you observed out loud then went back to your book. You didn’t need to ogle at your husband; you weren’t a horny teenager any more. Moreover, this information changed nothing in your life whatsoever. You were still shackled together and sinking to the bottom of the ocean.

You hear your name being called some time later.

Putting your bookmark in place, you look up to find Nicholas resting on the edge of the pool, his arms crossed and chin resting on top.

“Yes?” you inquire, taking off your sunglasses to see him better.

“Can you help me get out?” he asks, looking a little shifty, glancing side to side but there’s no one in your immediate vicinity. Just some people down the other end. You figured it was probably lunch time so it was quiet.

“Huh?” you’re confused at the request.

“It’s the deep end. I’m tall, but I’m not that tall.” he admits sheepishly. You guess he must be embarrassed to ask you for help.

What doesn’t cross your mind is why a) he didn’t go to a shallower part of the pool, b) he didn’t cross to the opposite side and use the ladder!, or c) someone of his stature would struggle getting out of a pool.

You get up and walk to the edge, extending a hand to him. Nicholas takes your hand in his wet one and you start to pull.

Except you’re pulling but it’s not working. In fact, the world is suddenly tilting and you’re diving head first into the pool, gravity and Nicholas taking you in with him. You would have yelped but you close your mouth on instinct as you go down so you don’t get a mouthful of water.

The coolness of the water engulfs you suddenly and you struggle to orientate your way up to the surface again. You break through with an angry gasp for air.

“Wang Yixiang!” you sputter loudly, venom filling up your veins. You hear his laugh somewhere nearby and you wipe your eyes, trying to locate him. He’s a foot away, also drenched, wet hair hanging in his face but smiling widely.

“Here, Sergeant!” he gives you a silly salute and you start toward him, eyes full of vengeance.

“Come back,” you demand after he starts swimming away from you.

He’s not particularly fast and you manage to grab his hand and yank him back toward you. There’s a lot of water resistance but you’re adrenalised to you manage to get him to change direction.

“Hey, c’mon, don’t be mad.” he says, well aware that today might be his last day as an alive person. You ignore him and do your best to try and dunk him. It doesn’t really work because he uses your strength against you and the two of you just spin around. You’re off balance and trying to just tread water even though here Nicholas could stand up, which was quite unfair. He stills suddenly. “Oh my god, look!”

“Not falling for that one, dude,” you say, thinking he was trying to distract you from trying to dunk him.

“No, really, two o’clock, it’s that man, uh, what did he do again?” Nicholas wracks his brain for a moment.

“My two o’clock or yours?” you realise he’s being serious and you think to check.

“Yours. The man with the moustache, we met him at the wedding.” You think back and try to place the description. You’re floating so you manoeuvre around to be able to glance in the right direction.

Sure enough you spot the person Nicholas was talking about. You saw him but he hadn’t spotted you yet.

“Shit, it’s the tyre guy.” you say.

“Right, that’s the one.” Nicholas agrees, as if the answer is now clear to him.

“You had no idea who that man was, did you?” you ask.

“Not a clue,” he admits. “I was grasping at straws. He seemed familiar.” And you realise that it had worked.

Yet, also it was that man; what was he doing here? Was he on vacation too? From what you remembered he was some business partner on your parents’ side. Your father had introduced you once before and then once at the wedding.

You freeze, forgetting to tread water.

Nicholas seems to notice you stop moving and grabs your waist, holding you up so you don’t start to sink. Your hands come up between you as a buffer and slap gently against his chest but you ignore what’s going on in front of you, deep in thought.

Why was he here of all places? Was it a coincidence? What were the odds of that happening?

What if your parents had sent him here to spy on you? That was possible right? Surely they wouldn’t do that though, you’d agreed to go on the honeymoon, that was enough, wasn’t it?

Wasn’t it?

You close your eyes, feeling like your sanity was slipping away; it sounded like the type of thing they’d do. Just to make sure you were behaving.

“Hey, YN, what’s wrong?” Nicholas squeezes your waist, trying to get your attention. You snap back to reality, seeing his concerned face a few inches away from your own. You hand’t noticed how close you were so you let go of Nicholas, breaking out of his grip gently.

“Nothing,” you say as you swim toward the nearest ladder.

You were definitely annoyed, your parents couldn’t just leave you alone, could them?

After your early dinner, during which you constantly looked over your shoulder in case you spotted the tyre man, you go back to your room to continue reading. You hadn’t run into that man after all, but it was only a matter of time.

Nicholas takes the opportunity to shower first after being in the pool, not that you were picky or going to fight him for it.

The door of the bathroom opens some time later and he emerges with a towel around his head and one around his waist. You try to mind your own business but he’s rummaging around his own suitcase for ages, so damn loudly, might you add, humming and hawing at what to wear.

You glare in his direction, but his back is to you, and all you see is the excess droplets on his skin snaking their way down his back-

“You having a good time there, Mrs Wang?” he turns around and catches you staring. Your eyes narrow at the name calling and you decide he does it to get a rise out of you, so you don’t give him the satisfaction.

“I would have a better time if you had the capacity to make faster decisions.” you retort, looking down to your book as he straightens up.

“No can do, you’d rather me wear clothes in bed, wouldn’t you?” he asks inquisitively.

“If you dared do otherwise, you would find yourself in a very comfortable chair-” you pause. “in the lobby.” you finish curtly.

Nicholas raises his hands innocently, giving you a quiet ‘okay’ before going back to the bathroom to get dressed. A minute later you hear the hair dryer come on and another minute he’s back to bug you.

“Didn’t you finish that book yet?” he asks, trying to see the cover as he went past.

“No, I started this one an hour ago.” you say.

“What?” he stops in pure shock. “How many books did you bring?” he exclaims.

“Ten.” you look up, giving him a tight lipped smile. “One for each day.”

Nicholas looks at you in awe, shaking his head. “YN, you really are something.” he says. “But this cannot be. Your eyes will glaze over, we’re watching TV, c’mon.” he prompts you to move over a little where you’re leaning against the headboard of the bed.

You shuffle slightly to the right, but don’t let go of your book even as he grabs the remote and switches on the TV. It’s a decently sized flat screen mounted on the wall in front of you, adjacent to the small dinning table.

Nicholas hops on the bed beside you, mimicking your stretched legs, crossed at the ankles. The noise starts to distract you only because he’s channel flipping for a minute before he settles on something.

“Perfect.” he mumbles and puts the remote down. You glance up at the screen and see the film name.

“Really?” you ask, closing your book with a loud smack. “You’re going to watch Cast Away while we are on a remote island on vacation?”

“No,” he replies. “We’re going to watch Cast Away while we are on a remote island on our honeymoon.”

“Yes, because that makes all the difference.” you mutter. You give in regardless since the movie keeps playing and you may as well pay attention.

It’s kind of a long film but it’s not bad. You do at one moment overthink it and imagine what you’d do if you were in the same situation - you were halfway there anyway on this island - but you stop yourself because that kind of thinking was not a good idea. It would scare you unnecessarily.

It gets to the part where Tom Hanks is trying to get off the island on his raft and loses his beloved friend, the volleyball. You watch as he yells, trying to stay afloat. It made you a little emotional and you look away for a moment only to notice Nicholas is watching intently, his own eyes glassy and lips tight.

It fascinates you for a moment to see him like that since it was a wholly new side to him but you will yourself to look away, reaching to the bedside and pulling a tissue out of the box, handing it wordlessly to your husband.

“Thanks.” he says under his breath and you hum just as quietly.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, just thinking about the wifi signal.” he sniffles. “I miss it so much.” he admits, raising a fist to his mouth. You nod, as if understanding, when in reality you’d basically popped the champagne when you found out there was no wifi.

After the film finishes, it’s starting to get late so you pop off for a quick shower, wanting to get the chlorine off your body before sleeping.

You brush your teeth and put on a t-shirt and sleeping shorts and get to bed. Nicholas joins you after brushing his teeth and turning off the big light.

“Right,” you say, getting Nicholas’ attention. “Here is a line, it’s invisible but it exists, so stick to your side of the bed, please and thank you.”

“No problem. You won’t even know I’m here.” he nods obediently. “So shall we get to bed, Mrs Wang?”

You stop fluffing your pillow at his silly question and turn to give him a stink face.

“You’re never going to stop calling me that, are you?” you ask.

“Nope, not until death do us part.” he shows you a toothy grin.

It suddenly occurs to you that while you had shared your reasoning for giving into the marriage, Nicholas so far hadn’t really commented on the topic. You frown. Why hadn’t he mentioned that yet?

“That’s weird.” you say, continuing on your train of thought.

“Not really, it’s pretty standard for marriages.”

“No, not that.” you shake your head. Starting to overthink it.

“What then?” Nicholas asks as he lies down on his side.

“Don’t think I didn’t notice there must be something in it for you to agree to this union.” you say sceptically.

“Pfft. Union. You make it sound so formal.” he replies sarcastically. You notice he isn’t offering any insights.

“Well, we are legally bound together, unfortunately. I suppose it’s serious.” you reason.

“Yeah, so serious. Like donkeys pulling on a cart.”

“Don’t change the subject.” you quip. “I don’t know what it is you want, but I will find out and hold it over your head like a guillotine.” you warn, annoyed at the sudden suspicious toward the man now in your bed.

Was this a defence mechanism - getting suspicious as soon as someone got close to you?

“Can’t wait, ma cherie*. I hope your revolution works out.” Nicholas sighs, turning off the lamp on his side.

“Impeccable attempt at humour, mon ange*.” you roll your eyes before reaching to your bedside lamp. “And by the way, donkeys pull their own damn carts.” you say, flipping the switch and turning your back to him.

You fall asleep faster than you expected but it certainly has its drawbacks.

For one, every once in a while you wake up because Nicholas has somehow managed to roll to your side of the bed and is hogging your area with his giantness, limbs splaying all over you, waking you up.

You manage to shoulder him off you gently, using your strength to roll him back to his side and it seems he’s a heavy sleeper because he doesn’t wake when you end up pushing him away with your knees.

You go back to sleep, satisfied that he’s far away enough from you that you can sleep in peace, only to wake up the next morning feeling incredibly warm and suffocated.

That’s because Mr You-Won’t-Even-Know-I’m-Here has a vice grip on you; one leg thrown over yours and one heavy arm thrown over your waist while his face is tucked into your hair, as if you were one of those long, huggable body pillows.

You open your eyes and reach for your phone to check the time. It was 9-ish so you decide that’s enough anyway. You were going to wake him up.

“Nicholas?” you say, voice croaky. You shuffle slightly, managing to drop his leg off of yours but the arm stays around your waist. “Nicholas?” you try again, patting his bicep gently. This time he stirs slightly, a low hum rumbling in his chest. You feel the vibration on your back and think you’re making progress.

It’s difficult but you shimmy out from under his loosened grip and sit up while he automatically rolls on his back, eyes still closed.

“Unbelievable.” you shake your head, looking down at his sleeping figure, before getting up. He looks way too peaceful and it makes you a little mad. You make no effort to be quiet since he was still out cold and probably won’t wake up for ages so you get ready for the day, make some coffee and sit with your book.

Some time later, your husband finally decides to open his eyes and you look in his direction when he sits up and stretches, yawning like a cat.

“Ah,” he exhales gruffly. “this bed is dope, oh my god.” he comments. “Did you sleep well?” he asks nonchalantly. You send a death glare in his direction, making him shrink back slightly.

“I would have,” you start through gritted teeth. “if you weren’t trying to strangle me.”

“Huh?” he has the nerve to look genuinely confused. “Did I do something?” he asks, meek all of a sudden.

“I don’t know if anyone has ever told you,” you get up, getting closer to the bed. “but you are a heinous koala when you sleep!” you say pointedly, before going into the bathroom to get some sunscreen out of your makeup bag.

“Nuh-uh,” you hear Nicholas call out. He has the audacity to disagree. You’re back out in a split second, listening expectantly. “Apologise to koalas, that was uncalled for.” he finishes. You’re taken aback; you thought he’d call bullshit and say you’d imagined it.

You huff but ultimately concede; the creatures had never done anything to you personally. “Sorry, koalas.” you mumble and sit in front of the vanity to apply sunscreen on your face.

“Listen, I’m sorry,” Nicholas says, getting up. “I know I’m practically an ogre in the mornings, but I can’t help it.”

“At least you’re self-aware.” you reply. “I’ll tolerate it for eight more days, but you’re on thin ice.”

“Alright.” he says, closing the bathroom door.

The next few days, the weather improves significantly and the two of you end up going to the beach or chilling by the pool. You even go to do this snorkelling lesson with an instructor and swim near some coral reefs, enjoying the beautiful crystal clear ocean.

You also end up going to a spa for some random treatments out of boredom and a massage, which you weren’t too hot on but Nicholas begged you to join him since he didn’t want to go alone. (That and he said that you wouldn’t go because you were comfortable being a tense control freak. So of course you had to prove him wrong by sticking around. It was worth it.)

Another day you end up going out in a boat and fishing with some other guests at the resort. You had to admit, you were definitely having fun despite not having wanted to even go on vacation. Going fishing wasn’t something you’d ever thought about doing, yet here you were.

It’s then that you run into the tyre man for the first time.

Fishing; you should have known that’s where you’d meet the middle aged businessman.

“Mrs Wang!” you hear a hearty voice greet you when he spots you. You almost grimace - you wished you’d told people to keep calling you by your own family name. Nicholas seems slightly startled next you while he holds his fishing rod.

“Hi, Mr Lee, what a surprise!” you say, lying shamelessly. You’d been expecting to bump into him before he left. “How are you doing?”

The man stops next to your spot at the rail of the boat, his own rod in hand and some bait in a bowl in the other. A woman joins him and you remember that’s his wife, whom you’d also met at the wedding. You greet her politely too.

“Ah, well, we’re just out for some relaxation. You know how it is, can’t be cooped up in the office all the time.” Mr Lee replies. He doesn’t seem suspicious and you sense it could be possible that this was a coincidence and not a conspiracy. But you intuition doesn’t let up.

“Right, of course.” you nod along. “We’re just here on our honeymoon.” you say, nudging Nicholas beside you.

“Aha, really wanted to spend this special time in a special place.” he adds smoothly.

“As well, you should. You’re young and in love, you shouldn’t waste away in an office.” he commends you. Was he testing you? Why mention love at all? What did he know?

“Very true.” you say. “So, how long are you staying?” you ask casually.

“Oh, um, until Thursday.” he says, and you latch onto the slight air of awkwardness when he says that. You were staying until Friday, which was a little too close to your liking. “We really like it here but there’s no place like home, right?”

“Indeed,” you smile artificially. “Well, we should let you go. Enjoy the rest of your trip, we’ll see you back at home, Mr Lee. Mrs Lee.” you say politely, greeting each of them in turn.

“Yes, thank you, we will. Y’know, there is a special event being held by the hotel on Wednesday, you should come along.” Mr Lee says. You wonder for a moment if that was bait. If it was then you were going to make him think he could hook, line and sink you.

“Oh really?” you say, exaggeratedly fascinated. “Well, I guess we’ll have to think about it. No promises though; you know how hard it is to leave the bedroom on your honeymoon.” you drawled with a straight face.

You hoped he would give that direct quote to your parents and make them as flustered as he looked right now.

“Right, see you.”

And with that you exchange some more polite nods, and separate, the Lees terrorised and Nicholas wide eyed to your left as he cast out his fishing rod.

“YN, I gotta hand it to you, you’re really scary sometimes.” he says so only you can hear him.

“Only sometimes?” you reply, putting the bait on your line. “Guess I should work harder then.”

“Remind me to not get on your bad side again.” he says.

“Oh buddy,” you sigh. “after using me as a body pillow, you have a reserved spot and VIP access.”

The next couple of days, the humidity is unbearable and if it isn’t, then it’s the heat.

You’d been trying to sleep, but it was just too damn hot and the air con wasn’t doing much to help it. You’d shed any blankets and just had sheets instead, but even those got thrown off.

Eventually Nicholas pokes you hesitantly in the middle of the night.

“You sleeping?” he whispers. You shift, then answer.

“I was trying to.” you reply.

“YN, it’s really hot, can we take off our clothes?” he asks. Perhaps the question would have flustered you if you weren’t completely baking right now. You don’t open your eyes but you nod.

“Yeah, I don’t want either of us passing out from excessive heat.” you agree and shrug off your shorts but realise that you needed to get up and put on a bra or cami since there was nothing under your t-shirt. “Damn it.” you mutter and get up, in search of something to wear.

You settle on a thin camisole and hop back into bed. Nicholas has shed his shorts and shirt and is lying, just staring at the ceiling in his underwear, his hands behind his head. You don’t let your eyes linger, mostly because they’re too tired and you want to close them again.

You read the clock on your phone, finding it was just past 4 in the morning. You sigh and lie back down.

Neither of you seems to be able to fall asleep again, the dawn light getting more intense past your curtains.

“You awake?” Nicholas asks, shifting slightly.

“Yeah.” you say, turning to face him. You spot the silver chain around his neck and the way it reflects the early morning light.

“What if we’re married for a long time?” he asks in the darkness. “Like for years?”

You wonder what sparked that thought. “We’ll just have to deal with it.” you reply.

“Yeah, but eventually we’re going to start having needs.” Nicholas glances at you. “Like I’m going to want to sleep with someone and you’re going to want to sleep with someone. Then what? Do we sleep with other people? Do we sleep with each other? How do we get around that?”

The whole train of questions catches you off guard, however with even a second of consideration, you realise he’s raised a very valid concern. What would you do? It made you realise your marriage was more doomed than you’d thought.

“You’re right. It’s a hard question that I don’t have the answer to.” you lament.

“Right,” he says, pausing for a while. “I guess, for me, I wouldn’t want to sleep with other people - I’d feel like I was cheating on you even if we agreed to go out and do that.”

“Really?” you’re genuinely surprised at the revelation. “You would feel like that even though you have no feelings for me?”

“Well yeah, we’re married and all that. And we’re friends right?”

You find yourself nodding in the darkness. “Yeah, I guess it wouldn’t feel nice to do that to a friend.”

“Would you sleep with someone else?”

You take a moment to think. “Probably not. I’d keep thinking about you, waiting for me at home, in our house. I wouldn’t be able to do it.” you tell him honestly.

It strikes you that this was possibly the deepest conversation you’d had so far, fittingly left for the middle of the night.

“‘Our house’.” he repeats, tasting the words and letting them float up above you and into the early dawn gloom.

“Strange, right?” you muse.

“So, what are we concluding on the topic?” he asks, looking at you.

“The jury’s still out.” you shrug, unconvinced.

“So diplomatic, Mrs Wang.” Nicholas laughs quietly.

“Will you stop calling me that?” you yawn.

“Nah, it’s fun. You get so worked up about it.” he tells you.

“So you like raising my blood pressure?” you inquire.

“Well, if we’re going to be married for years, I gotta find a way to entertain myself, don’t I?”

“You are a menace.” you state, no force behind your words.

“Thank you. Right back at you.”

“Hah, I got news for you. This town is only big enough for one menace, and if it’s gonna be one of us damn it, it’s gonna be me.” you say stoically, but burst out laughing a split second later after hearing yourself back. You were feeling goofy; it was 4am. Nicholas finds it equally funny and laughs with you.

It was then that you felt like you were finally comfortable around each other, at least enough to be staying up until morning, laughing about bullshit while lying around in your underwear.

Because that’s totally the sort of thing married friends did, right?

You wake up, barely conscious and notice your arm is slightly trapped. Then you realise why; you were tucked into Nicholas’ side, your head on his shoulder, hand on his bare chest, feeling his steady heartbeat under your fingers. It would have been a surprise and you would have scrambled off, but your limbs were too tired and too comfortable for any excessive movement.

Your eyes close again, and you let yourself drift off even though you had half the thought about what kind of dramatic reaction Nicholas might have to find you in that position after you’d given him a mouthful about being a koala. In your defence, it was his arm around you keeping you smushed together.

The next time you wake up, you’re lying on your back, Nicholas still right next to you. You get up quietly, starting to get ready for the day.

You’d agreed to go to that event thing the Lees had told you about because you’d mentioned to Nicholas that this could be some kind of ploy by your parents and you wanted to investigate. There was ice cream and booze so he didn’t need much convincing really. (Neither did you, if you were honest; you could use a bit of both).

Just as you’re putting the finishing touches of your makeup, Nicholas stirs and yawns loudly before sitting up. He spots you before the vanity, basically ready and checks the time.

“Jeez, why didn’t you wake me?” he asks, swinging off the bed and hurrying to the bathroom.

“I’m sorry, did you just hear yourself?” you call out to him. “Wake? You up?” you cap your mascara and get up, walking over to lean on the bathroom doorframe, arms crossed. You see Nicholas scrambling about, large form folded over the tiny sink, to brush his teeth at a furious speed. “I would rather go wake an actual sleeping lion up.”

“Fwine, bwut you clould at weast teth am aalarm.” he says through a mouthful of toothpaste.

“I’m not even going to dignify that with a response, dude.” you walk away, letting him struggle with the mint foam.

When you get down to lunch (it was far too late to even attempt calling it brunch), you find that the event the Lees mentioned was going to start in just over an hour (it really was late thanks to your middle of the night joint existential crisis).

After you finish eating, you make your way to the large garden of the hotel where the thing was going to take place. You were walking in blind pretty much, having no idea what on Earth was going on.

There are at least ten or so tables set up and about twice as many guests, mostly couples by the look of it, seated within the area. There’s a small square mat or something of the sort in front of the tables, supposedly like a makeshift stage. Was this going to be some kind show?

You spot the Lees just as promised at one of the tables and you start to look for another place to sit, but they notice you and call you over.

“Shit,” you mutter, automatically reaching to your side to find Nicholas’ hand.

“Double shit,” he says, taking your hand and lacing your fingers, and you look back at him. “look.” he motions to a poster propped up on an easel.

You feel like you’re about to find some harder expletives when you read the words written in big bubble letters:

COUPLES CONTEST

“Oh my-” you can’t even finish the sentence.

You’d just walked into the adult version of those awkward middle school events that teachers would try to entertain students with.

“We could still leave?” Nicholas suggests quietly. You want to agree but Mrs Lee is smiling from across the garden at you, sipping on her drink.

“Too late.” you conclude and start walking to the half-filled table.

“Well, you don’t know they’re spies for your parents.” Nicholas mumbles unhelpfully. “We might just hang out politely.”

You reach the table and greet the Lees. You take a seat closest to Mrs Lee and Nicholas away from both of them. You felt like you were acting like protective buffer between him and them.

“Oh YN, I just got off the phone with your mother-” Mrs Lee gushes to you immediately. “you remember we’re both part of that book club?” she says, as if it’s explanatory that she would be close to your mother. “Anyways, we were talking about how maybe you should join too, it might be fun. You could make friends with the other ladies there,” she suggests, “and between you and me,” she leans closer as if the men at the table can’t hear you. “it’s where we go to get away from our husbands, but shh!”

You’re having a multitude of reactions under the surface (including searing rage towards your mother, wanting to sink into the ground out of awkwardness, and disappointed smugness that you were right that they were in cahoots with your parents) but you give her a polite chuckle and smile.

You know she was just trying to be her version of friendly, for some reason that being recruiting you into some kind of married-women-who-don’t-want-to see-their-husbands exclusive club, so you don’t get too mad.

“Well, I do like reading, but I think I think I like my husband more.” you reply, lightly rejecting the offer. You turn to look at Nicholas, giving him an ‘I-told-you-so’ face while he sighs contemplatively. You were also hung up on the fact that this woman called your mother more than you did, so who knows what other wack ideas she might have.

“Darling, I don’t think Mrs Wang wants to go to that stuffy book club.” Mr Lee cuts in awkwardly. “Besides, these two are much younger than us, they should go on dates and enjoy themselves instead of boring themselves with books.”

Oh boy, this was going to be a long afternoon.

You had a lot to say but you weren’t going to utter a single syllable. Nicholas looks down helplessly, and you guess he’s trying to keep himself from laughing.

Fortunately, at that pause in your conversation, you spotted two people walking up to the square ‘stage’. They looked like hotel employees, judging from their Hawaiian style shirts, one with a loud tiger print and the other with a large flower pattern. They were carrying microphones and tapped on them to check they were working.

“Hello?” the flower guy said. His voice came out through the modest speakers set up on either side of the segregated area. He seems satisfied and so does his friend. “Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our monthly couples contest!” he paused for a polite round of applause. “My name is Boo and I will be one of your MCs today.”

“And I’m Hoshi, your other MC this afternoon. We have a great few rounds of fun lined up for you and an exciting prize for the winning team.” the guy with the tiger print continues.

“That’s right,” Boo says. “there are three games where each of our teams will compete head to head in an attempt to do the impossible - be the best couple!”

“Firstly, if you take a look around, you will find our lovely assistant Dino coming around with some name tags; please take one and write your names on them.” Hoshi says. You did notice a guy in a regular employee shirt walking around and depositing said name tags on each table swiftly.

“Alright, to start off, we have a game that will test your communication skills.” Boo announces. “The game is called ‘scream in silence’; here are the rules…”

You listen carefully as he explained it, even though you had seen this game played before. It was fairly simple so you thought you and Nicholas might do well at it. You just couldn’t believe you were trapped in a middle school dance on your honeymoon.

“Okay, firstly, we’re going to need to split you up so that we can get through the game faster. Each of us will conduct a round and tally up the scores for you.” Hoshi takes over. Two of them split up the crowd into two and ask for the first teams to come to two chairs facing each other set up by Dino on each side of the area.

You get split up from the Lees (thankfully) and end up sitting on Hoshi’s side of the garden.

The game starts and you watch as one person out of the couple starts trying to mouth the correct word to the other as they both wear a pair of large noise cancelling headphones. It’s pretty fun since people are really awful at lipreading.

You’re the third couple in your half of the crowd and you sit down in the opposite seat to Nicholas, the two of you putting on the headphones. It almost blows your mind how much you couldn’t hear through the headphones, and that was before Hoshi turned the music on. He held up the first word.

“Lawn mower.” you said, trying your best to enunciate to Nicholas. His face immediately scrunches up, squinting at you from seven feet away. “Lawn mower!” you repeat.

He mouths something that looks a lot like “Slower!” back to you and you shake your head, sure it was wrong. He tries again but you cut him off, starting to feel yourself becoming competitive.

“La-wn mo-wer!” you try to break it down but he seems more confused. “Pass!” you shake your head.

“Fishing.” you say as Hoshi shows you the next word. Nicholas blinks at you.

“Kissing?” he replies, frowning at the word. You weren’t sure how you managed to lip read it but you were sure that’s what he was saying.

“No, fi-shing!” you attempt to break it down. “Fi-shing!” you were starting to get frustrated, your voice rising in decibels. “Fi-shing!”

“Missing!” Nicholas tried again. You sighed.

“Pass!” you requested again. The next one was a phrase and it made you hesitate. “I love you.” you called out, just focusing on reading the phrase and not thinking about it. You felt so flustered saying it out loud, your face warming up and blood pressure rising. You didn’t think you’d ever actually say those words, especially not to your husband.

Nicholas shook his head and shrugged. “I don’t know.” you think he said. You steeled yourself, growing frustrated again, mostly with the appearance of the phrase and the way it mocked your situation.

“I love you.” you tried again, saying it louder this time, as if he would hear you.

“Above you?” Nicholas said. You looked up, rolling your eyes at his denseness.

“I love you, you bastard!” you screamed out, lying aggressively, noticing that people in your group were pissing themselves with laughter.

Nicholas paused for a moment, mouth slightly ajar as the cogs turned in his head. The eureka moment came finally and he clapped his hands together. That got your attention and you perked up expectantly.

“I love you!” he yelled back. Hoshi gave you an approving sign, telling you you secured a point.

“And the time is up!” Hoshi declared, raising a hand and doing a slicing action at his neck to let you know since you couldn’t really hear him. You were more than happy to take those humongous headphones off and return to your seat. “That’s one point for YN and Nicholas!” he says while there’s a scattered round of applause.

You go sit down and try to ignore what just happened. Nicholas does too, watching the game ahead of you.

There’s only one other couple in your group that manages to score a point, one Hanbin and Hao, who were just as tragically terrible at the game but very cute while they played it.

“And that’s the first round over,” Boo announces. “Let us tally the scores - oh my! This was not your lucky day every one, but we do have two couples who scored and are therefore in the lead.”

“Don’t be discouraged everyone, it’s still all to play for.” Hoshi says. “The next game might be somewhat easier. It’s a game to test your couple chemistry; the peppero game!”

You sit there trying to discern what that actually constitutes.

“What is the peppero game?” Nicholas whispers to you, just as confused. There seems to be an excited buzz around you though because apparently people know what that is or think they might do better at it than the other one.

“Don’t look at me, I’m just a corporate lawyer.” you whisper back. You never thought that some random game may become your greatest intellectual obstacle.

It’s when Boo calls up the first group and explains the rules that it sinks in. You watch as each couple takes a peppro stick snack and holds it between their lips, starting to munch on it from both sides, slowly making their way to meet in the middle. The objective is to have the smallest length of peppero stick remaining at the end.

“So that’s the peppero game.” Nicholas says, dumbfounded.

“You shouldn’t have asked dumb questions.” you scold him quietly.

“I can’t help it sometimes, okay?” he hisses back.

Once the first group is finished and the MCs take measurements, they don’t disclose the results before calling the rest of the couples up. You and Nicholas reluctantly step up and face each other. Boo comes around and offers you the pack of peppero and you pick one out, holding it up.

You have to get quite a bit closer to Nicholas and his hands comes up to rest on your shoulders to hold you in place as you bite on one end and offer him the other. Due to his struggles as a giant, Nicholas has to lean in a fair distance to make it work and you try your best to rise to your fullest height.

“And begin!” Hoshi calls out, getting the game started. You take tiny bites of the snack, forced to stare at your husband up close because your eyes could go nowhere else.

Your mouth focuses on not dropping the stick but your eyes focus on Nicholas; there’s the colour of his eyes, they way his eyelashes become more prominent when he blinks at you, and the way you can see your own reflection in his eyes as you get closer.

Nicholas looks you straight in the eye, your noses just shy of touching and you accidentally bite down harder on the stick, severing it cleanly.

“Ah,” you breathe, realising your mistake. “Sorry.”

He lets go of you and takes the stick between his fingers, examining it. There was a lot left, at least 3cm or so.

You wait for the rest of the couples to finish and hand in your pathetic peppero remnants to Hoshi, who immediately makes a face.

“Oh guys,” he says then raises the mic. “well we know who definitely lost the game. Sorry, you two.” he smiles apologetically.

“Now that everyone has had a go, we can reveal that there was actually a penalty for the losers.” Boo says, basking in the crowd’s laughter.

“Oh lord, here we go.” you mutter. Before you can leave, Boo stops you.

“I’m afraid you’re staying, guys.” he says. “This game was supposed to check your couple chemistry and sadly you had a less than favourable result.”

“Since we don’t want to send you away feeling crappy about it, the penalty is simple and sweet; kiss and makeup for losing the game.” Hoshi tells you.

You have a serious déjà vu back to your wedding where a crowd was watching the two of you kiss. It makes your stomach twist with eminent embarrassment. Not again, you think.

“Oh come, don’t look so glum!” Hoshi continues. “Cheer up, let’s give them a hand everyone!” he encourages a round of applause but in your mind it gets worse.

You’d avoided looking directly at Nicholas but you found him watching you expectantly and you turn to him, leaning in to initiate the kiss. The faster you did it, the better. He seems to catch on and leans to peck your lips half-way. Your mouths barely touch but you did it and smile in what you hope appears a natural way.

You look out to the crowd, seeing they’re looking back at you awkwardly. Judgmentally even.

“Now what was that?” Boo questions. “That might have been more pathetic than your peppero, you guys.” he taunts you gently.

“Aren’t you newly weds?” Hoshi asks, surprisingly observant of the wedding rings on your fingers. “This is your honeymoon, you gotta have more passion than that!” he says excitedly, as if he was the one getting kissed. You glance at him, finding something in his eyes that may or may not suggest madness. You were also starting to think he might have a voyerism thing.

“Hey, this is peer pressure!” Nicholas attempts, trying to get you out of the MCs grip.

“It’s for your own good, bro, we’re trying to save your marriage.” Hoshi says to you, microphone not quite picking up all of that.

“Just a quick kiss,” Boo pleads. “or we’ll feel like we failed you.”

You can’t help but laugh at his logic. It’s clear that they’re just trying to have fun so you give in, stepping up to Nicholas again, who gives you a reassuring nod.

You lean in again, eyes closing, willing yourself to tune everything out. One of his hands comes up to cup your cheek, holding you steady as your lips mold over his. You kiss your husband for the nth time; you were losing count but you were well aware that it was a finite number that you could count on your fingers.

Ignoring everyone seems to help because you relax into the kiss and pull yourself closer to him intuitively, imagining you were back in that tunnel where you’d tried kissing the first time. It was hard to deny it, but Nicholas was a good kisser, whether he had been before you met or it was just that you’d practised together, and this kiss was no exception.

It was good.

Dizzyingly good.

You pull away gently, feeling that you needed air, your heart beating faster than usual. The two of you look at each, unsure when you should really pull away. There’s a momentary silence and then a loud round of applause and you figure that’s a good cue to really separate and hurry back to your seats.

“Wow, now that’s what you call a kiss!” Hoshi hollered, smiling widely. “Thank you for being good sports, and good luck on the next round.”

You wanted to call it irony.

That’s what the strangest moments in life contained. You’d been pushed into an arranged marriage with a man you didn’t love, yet you had grown closer despite your circumstance, to the point where physical acts of affection were exchanged between you in public and you weren’t ready to die on the spot.

So you did call it irony; the fact that you’d been so ready to resent Nicholas from day one but had become friends with him instead. Did friends kiss like that, you wondered. Married ones did, you supposed.

There was a part of you that wished you didn’t feel the way you just did: as if you wanted to kiss him again. It was bothering you a little, a tiny voice in the back of your head, telling you that no matter what face you tried to pull and pretend to be angry that you’d had to kiss him, you were deep down glad you’d gotten to kiss him again.

It felt like you were starting to develop a bad habit; the way one piece of chocolate sometimes becomes another, or one episode becomes three, and five more minutes of sleep becomes an hour. You made a note to avoid kissing him for a while, in case you started to spiral.

It wasn’t a crime to want to kiss your husband but in your case, it could become dangerous.

For now, you told yourself it was probably just liking the physical intimacy that you’d been missing in your life and nothing more. Purely one of those pyramid needs things you’d read about.

You can’t dwell on it too long because Boo announces the final game.

“We’ve tested your communication and your chemistry, now it’s time to test how well you know each other in a couple quiz!”

“That’s right, this is simply a game of knowledge about your other half, shouldn’t be difficult, right everyone?” Hoshi chimes in.

The thought occurs to you that you might be slightly disadvantaged this round since you’d met not that long ago but also weren’t a ‘real’ couple so to speak, but then you remembered the few basic notes you’d swapped between yourselves and change your mind - you might be better equipped than the other couples.

Boo and Hoshi get each couple to write down five questions and their answers on a different piece of paper and invite each couple to do the quiz in front of everyone for fair judgment.

You don’t need to tell Nicholas what kind of questions to write down because it was obvious - the stuff from the memos you’d shared. Was it cheating? You wouldn’t think so; technically nothing could have ever stopped other couples from doing the same thing as you. Besides, you were certain other people aimed for questions they were certain their partner would know.

It was so obvious, it was practically an unspoken rule of the game.

As expected, most couples do very well, only missing one or two answers, or if there was more, probably because they knew each other way too well and had a wider margin for mistakes and overthinking.

You sat around waiting for your turn, but you ended up going last out of the whole group. You and Nicholas took to the floor, picking up the A4 whiteboards supplied by the MCs and getting ready to answer the questions.

You did Nicholas’ questions first.

What was his favourite meal? You could have answered that just from living with him for a few weeks but you knew the official answer.

If he could eat one fruit for the rest of his life, what would it be? It was so easy, you rolled your eyes as you wrote it down.

What style of dancing had he practiced during high school? Your pen started moving before Boo even finished asking the question.

What was the name and brand of his favourite cologne? This one annoyed you slightly because it wasn’t something you’d explicitly talked about but you had noticed in your shared bathroom at home.

And finally, what was his birthday and star sign? You gave them the sun, moon, and ascendant just to be sure, memories from your memos.

You finessed the challenge, giving the audience in front of you a smug finger gun and wink because of them had really struggled with answering their spouse’s questions. While you’re up there, you spot the Lees giving you a subtle thumbs up and you smile at them, genuinely for once. You’d almost forgotten they were there and also spying on you for your mother.

You hoped they would relay everything they saw today and get her off your back.

It was Nicholas’ turn to answer your questions and you’d really tried to keep them as simple as possible, asking things like your own star sign, hometown, favourite school subject back in the day, favourite colour (were you in kindergarten? today you might as well be), and your coffee order, which was one of the first memos you’d given Nicholas.

He aces it just like you did, and you’re a little proud of him for remembering even this much about you.

“Well, you saw it here first folks, we have another perfect team.” Hoshi announces. “We’re going to ask our other top scorers, Hanbin and Hao to get up here for a tie-breaker.”

Uh-oh. You started to panic at the prospect of more questions and especially because they would be of the unseen variety.

“You did so well that we’re going to need to get some bonus questions in there, stuff that will make you think on your feet.” Boo informs the four of you. You’ll go first since you’re already sitting there. “We’ll do three questions each.”

This time you’d both write an answer down on the whiteboards instead of the hosts fact checking on the piece of paper.

It was in that moment, that you accepted you’d already lost. There was no way you’d beat anyone when you’d known each other for like two months.

“Nicholas, what is YN’s favourite time of day?” Boo asks. You think carefully about what Nicholas might say and try to write an answer down to match it.

You think simply and thank whoever that it was an easy question.

You both hold up your answer and check. A wave of relief washes over you.

Nicholas had written 4am on his board, matching yours. It was an obvious one since you’d stayed up that late just this morning.

Nicholas manages to get another question right (it was about your job title, which almost makes you laugh because could they have picked better questions for you?) but misses the third one because it was simply impossible for him to know.

“We’re going to get a little spicy now for the final one, if that’s okay.” Hoshi begins. “Where on her body, does your wife like being kissed?”

“Please do keep the answers moderately PG.” Boo pleads you before you write. Your heart is racing because you know this will be wrong.

You write ‘cheek’, hoping it’s generic enough to get you the point, but Nicholas writes ‘neck’ and you throw him a glare. He shrugs innocently.

“Oh no, what a shame!” Hoshi exclaims. “Very close to perfection, but not quite. Now, let’s see if YN can match or better your score.”

You’re asked about Nicholas’ shoe size and you think hard, trying to remember if you’d ever seen an actual number. By some miracle, you guess the correct number after taking a little longer to answer the question.

“Right, so far so good.” Boo says, leading up to the next question. “What is Nicholas’ love language?”

You freeze.

Not good, very not good.

You wracked your brain, trying to figure it out on the spot. In the end you write ‘physical affection’ because of the way he never leaves you untouched in bed and hope for the best. Nicholas turns his board around and you sigh at the ‘acts of service’ scribbled there.

“Oh disaster strikes again!” Hoshi squeaks. “YN, you have one more question before we hand it over to your competitors.”

“We’re going for another spicy question, as is customary.” Boo continues. All you hear is ‘game over’ in your head, flashing in big red letters. “If given the chance, what is the freakiest public location Nicholas would want you to partake in the act of coitus?”

You felt like throwing yourself down a flight of stairs.

Translation - where does he want to fuck?

Low key it was a super personal question but also awkward since you were in a group setting, even if you were all adults here.

You had no idea, so you just wrote down the first thing that popped into your head: ‘balcony’.

“And now, the big reveal…” Hoshi trails off dramatically. You’re so over this and just want to go back to the comfort of your hotel room and hide from the world until you left the island.

You turn the boards and your suspicions are confirmed. You lost.

Nicholas had written ‘conference room’.

For a moment, you think about why he wrote that and then it sends you spiralling; you could have easily answered that question with just an ounce of thought. The war room, of course. Why didn’t you think of that?

“Ohhh, so close yet so far!” Hoshi says. “I’m sorry guys, but that’s three out of six for you, if Hanbin and Hao can get four or more, they win. Thank you for playing, good job!”

You thank the MCs and sit down, watching while Hanbin and Hao got question after question right. They won the round so easily, that it was laughable.

“Welp, at least we tried.” Nicholas nudges your arm.

“Sorry I messed up.” you say.

“It’s fine, it’s not like we knew any of the answers.” he says simply, absolving you of blame.

In the end, Hanbin and Hao are the overall winners because they had managed a point in the scream in silence game, a good score in the peppero game and a complete sweep in the quiz. Their prize is pretty fun too - a free twenty-four hours renting a yacht around the island.

“Congratulations! Now, a speech from our winners, please guys, say a few words.” Boo asks.

Hao seems too stunned to speak so Hanbin takes over, a big smile on his face.

“Woah, well we didn’t expect to do so well. We only got married in April and we’ve been too busy working to get a vacation, so it’s really amazing to get such a nice surprise. Thank you for playing everyone and thanks to our wonderful MCs!” he wraps up nicely and you applaud, smiling as they both sat down.

“Lovely!” Boo says when the clapping dies down. “Right, everyone, just before we go, we do have one more thing to announce. We have a runner’s up prize too; a romantic dinner and stargazing experience for two.”

“Sounds like a treat, right?” Hoshi chimes in. “We can now reveal that our runner up couple is…YN and Nicholas!”

You hear your names being called and you find yourself confused.

You had scored in the first game, completely failed the second, but managed to get runner up in the third, so it did in fact add up, but it still felt strange.

“Congrats, you two. See us afterwards so we can fill you in.” Boo instructs. “Well, everyone. Thank you for a delightful afternoon. We hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as we always do. We’ll wish you a pleasant evening and another congratulations to all our winners! This has been Boo…”

“And Hoshi! See you later, folks!” they finish in unison. You had to hand it to them, they’d been very fun hosts and you had had a good time despite thinking you’d be stuck making awkward small talk with the Lees all afternoon. (You were almost sure that being separated from them had been the stroke of luck that had saved your day.)

“I can’t believe we actually won something. What a weird day.” Nicholas muses as the crowd slowly disperses.

“There are stranger things in life, are there not?” you reply, tempting him into a philosophical discussion.

“Nope, no more thinking. We got a dinner to claim.” he smiles.

In some ways it was fitting that your last night on the island would be so special.

The dinner you’d won was really amazing and you enjoyed the food thoroughly on the balcony of the largest restaurant in the resort.

You could see the stars between the clouds when they became clearer as the night grew darker. It was worth any momentary embarrassment you’d felt yesterday while competing in the couple contest.

It was getting late by the time you finished your meal so you decided to go and get some sleep since you’d be waking up early tomorrow for your flight home.

By the time you left the restaurant, a dark cover of dense clouds had converged in the sky and hid the stars from you as you slowly strolled back to the hotel.

“Aren’t you glad we came?” Nicholas asks suddenly. He’s moving with some energy despite having mirrored the way you stuffed yourself with food. You, on the other hand, were half a step behind, feeling the weight of your decisions, you had no intention of eating again for at least another day.

You thought for a moment, assessing the collection of good times you’d accumulated over the past week and a bit, then considered for a moment how the hell you were going to deal with getting back to work. Somehow, all the fun you had outweighed your incoming stress.

“Yeah, I’m glad we came.” you admit. Nicholas is smiling when he glances at you, a little proud he convinced you probably.

You seem to have spoken too soon because in the next split second you feel a series of rain drops falling on your face and then a rapid succession which gets starts to drench you before you can even react.

“Shit, you really know how to jinx things, don’t you?” Nicholas comments, squinting as the rain gets harder, but you see him smiling. You’re in the middle of a narrow street and nowhere to take cover.

“You started it!” you reply, infected by his smile. You raise a hand to shelter your eyes from the rain as you look around. There was no one else out.

“Come on!” he grabs your hand and starts running, dragging you behind him. Your legs start moving against your will and you follow him, hoping you’re headed in the right direction since it’s difficult to see in the rain.

The heavens open up torrential rain on the two of you but as you run in between the rain drops, your hand secured in Nicholas’, you can’t help but laugh when he does.

You felt so liberated for a moment.

You didn’t think about work, or the fact that the only reason you were here was because your parents had decided to derail your life, you just ran, as carefree as a kid, splashing through puddles, ruining your sundress and sneakers.

You thought about how you’d only ever seen this happen in movies; how it was some big romantic moment where the leads run and laugh and look all in love as they get drenched, but the reality was that it was exhausting, even if still a little fun, as you tried your best not to lose Nicholas in the curtain-like rain.

It only takes a minute to get to the hotel and you burst through the doors, startling the nightshift staff at the desk and you chuckle at their stunned then relieved faces.

You’re both panting, you more than Nicholas since clearly only one of you worked out, and you will your lungs not to explode as you catch your breath.

Nicholas turns to you, face lit up despite the end to your night. “You look like you just swam here.” he says, bringing a hand to your forehead to move the wet strands away. You pause for a moment, surprised by how tenderly he brushes his finger tips against your skin, pushing the hair away.

“Yeah, well, you look like a wet dog.” you retort sassily despite being short of air. It was true that you both did, drenched from head to toe and to the bone.

“Okay, I’ll acknowledge it, let’s go shower before we catch a cold.”

You get back to your room, feeling a little guilty that you’d been dripping all over the hotel’s plush carpets, but you had no choice.

“You can go first.” Nicholas says, already unbuttoning his soaked through shirt.

“What about you though?” you ask, taking off your shoes. “You should dry off at least, you might get cold.”

“I’ll be fine, just go.” he insists. You’re about to let it go but he sneezes, trying to cover it up with clearing his throat.

“Fine, my ass.” you sigh. “Okay, this is a simple problem so there must be a simple solution.” you say and think for a moment.

You have an idea when you spot the wolf sleeping mask peeking out of Nicholas’ toiletries baggie.

“How about this:” you start. “you take a bath and wear the mask while I take a shower? That way we both get warmed up.”

“You’re so determined to make me return to that bath, aren’t you?” Nicholas shakes his head but agrees. “Alright, I know my place by now, Mrs Wang.” he finishes by throwing off his shirt, then trudges to the bathroom, swiping the mask in passing.

You wait for a minute, hearing the water running and the sound of a belt buckle hitting the floor.

“Okay, you can come in now.” Nicholas calls out a moment later.

You creak the door open and close it behind you, eyes sweeping over the scene to make sure he was wearing the mask. Nicholas was sitting in the bath obediently, his broad back to you but you could see the mask was over his eyes.

Satisfied, your hands got busy removing your dress and underwear quickly, leaving them to hang and dry. You padded across the bathroom and hopped in the shower, starting the water.

Neither of you says anything, a less awkward silence than you thought hanging between you but you barely notice because you rush yourself to finish as quickly as possible. You stop the water and open the cabin door, stepping out so you can reach a towel off the shelf.

You glance in Nicholas’ direction in paranoia and freeze when you notice the mask is sitting on the ledge of the bath. In the process, you drop the towel, which in turn makes a moisturiser fall on the floor with a thud and the noise makes Nicholas turn around.

You lock eyes, his widening in panic.

“Ah!” you both scream when you realise what just happened, Nicholas throwing himself to face forward and you scrambling to throw the towel around yourself.

“What are you doing!” you huff, incredibly flustered as you clutch the towel to your body.

“What are you doing!” he demands, just as freaked out.

“Why aren’t you wearing the mask?” you ask, picking up the fallen moisturiser. Damn your self-care diligence.

“I was washing my hair, I had to take it off.” he explains, sitting rigidly with his back to you.

“Oh,” you get it now. “fine. Nevermind.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to turn.” he says, clearly a bit embarrassed.

“Whatever, it doesn’t matter.” you shrug, forgetting he can’t see you.

“Nice tattoo, by the way.” you hear the smirk in his voice and you close your eyes. How did he manage to see that of all things in a split second?

“You better forget what you saw, or else.” you warn him.

“I’ll try but no guarantees.” he replies. That was good enough for now.

“Okay. I’m going now.” you open the door. “I hope you prune up like a raisin.” you say over your shoulder and shut the door.

You wanted to shrivel up too; become but a speck of dust, not because of embarrassment necessarily, but more like because you didn’t like what you were thinking about. There was a fraction of a second when Nicholas’ eyes widened, that you felt like you wanted him to keep looking.

You shudder at your own deprivation, blaming your busy schedule for not going out and hooking up with more people. Now you were a mess at the slightest incident.

You just hoped at least Nicholas would forget…

*apartment 520 cuz it sounds like ‘i love you’ in chinese and i couldn’t miss an op. also ‘ma cherie’ = my dear/darling and ‘mon ange’ = my angel literally in french

ALMOST FORGOT TO ADD THIS!!!! for all your meme needs <3

A/N: thanks for reading, feedback is always appreciated <3 I gotta say, i felt just a little unhinged writing some of this, Nicho's too much y'all, i'm not normal about this man. i hope this chapter gave you whiplash cuz same <3

momobani masterlist

#&team #andteam #&team nicholas #wang yixiang #nicholas x reader #&team x reader #&team fics #&team imagines #&team scenarios #momobani.writes

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momobani · 10 months

Text

UNNATURAL DISASTERS

THE WAY I hate YOU - Chapter 1 - 10.1k

&team Nicholas x fem!reader - arranged marriage AU

SERIES MASTERLIST

Sum: You didn’t know whether you believed in love at first sight, but you most certainly believed in resentment at first sight.

Warnings: swearing, sarcasm, negative portrayal of parenting, mention of food and alcohol

Soundtrack rec: It’s the end of the word - REM [it’s that chorus yo]

A/N: the first chapter omg, it feels like the start of something ~new~ hehe, please refer to the masterlist for more information and the bottom note for more, enjoy <3 I feel like I should also mention this is plot heavy and slow burn, you’ve been warned!

You weren’t the superstitious type.

No, no, you really weren’t but you thought that something wasn’t quite right when you spilled your coffee across the paperwork piled on your desk.

You chalked it up to being clumsy.

Tripping over your own feet on your way to a meeting? That was just the carpet in the conference room not being heel friendly.

But by lunch, you were convinced today was your unlucky day.

After the cafeteria ran out of your favourite side dish just before your turn, you wrote it off as a Really Bad Day.

And oh how right you were.

It was nearly the end of official working hours when you knocked on the door of your parents’ office, barely pausing before entering. You didn’t know what they wanted, but they had mentioned vaguely a new project so you figured they wanted to discuss that.

“Mom, Dad, you said you wanted to see me…” You trailed off as your eyes fell on the cluster of people within the room. The old mahogany coffee table was bare except for several cups of what you assumed was tea and two black folders.

You drank in the scene for a split second - your parents, uncle and head of the legal department where you worked, and four strangers - three men in suits and a woman also in business wear - were seated on the couches of the meeting area of the office.

“Ah, YN, you’re here, finally.” Your father greeted you first. You stepped into the office, shutting the door behind you, brain working at light speed trying to read the situation. Business meeting, definitely business meeting. But why didn’t anyone tell you about it? And why did your stomach feel all tight and queasy?

Something wasn’t right - you felt it intuitively.

“Hello.” You said tentatively, impeccable manners rising out of the back of your throat like bile.

“My friends, let me introduce my daughter and eldest - Miss YN/LN. She works in our legal department.” Your father addressed the guests sitting in the room. You nodded politely and gave a small smile. You had almost reached the couches and were getting a better look at everyone’s faces.

“Hello, it’s nice to finally meet you, Miss L/N.” The eldest man of the three clad in suits greeted you. You saw that the other two were slightly younger, one young enough to be his son, around your age-

Oh god.

“YN, this is the Wang family of Wang Enterprises.” Your mother quipped up, clearly noticing the air of dread on your face. You were starting to formulate an idea as to what was about to happen and you didn’t like it one bit.

“Nice to meet you all.” You said automatically, not a single thought going through your head. You were starting to feel the fear grip your nerves. This couldn’t be happening. You always thought they were just bluffing, like many other psychotic parents all around the world-

And yet, it was.

“The pleasure is most certainly ours.” The older man continued, smiling. He must be Mr Wang, President of the company - you weren’t familiar with their company so you couldn’t be sure. “Miss L/N, I’d like you to meet my son, Yixiang, err - Nicholas - stand up boy.” He snapped at the younger man to his left, who rose before his father could bark out the command.

He turned so he was finally facing you and you felt like you’d been splashed with cold water.

The man standing before you seemed fierce, serious, just like you expected the son of a business tycoon to appear, his features sharp and his eyes sharper still. His face was unreadable as he tipped his head in a polite nod before sitting down again.

But his intense stare wasn’t what made you freeze out; you’d dealt with plenty of suit-clad, stone cold men in your life, most of them just upstairs in their offices. No, it was the dawning of how focused everyone was on you - six pairs of eyes hyper fixed on the two of you exchanging a tiny nod.

Suddenly you missed the coffee spilling across your desk from earlier - that feeling of imminent disaster was better than this current one.

“We were just discussing which papers the two of you needed to sign in order to complete the transaction before you get married.” Your father said.

And there it was.

Ambush.

Complete and utter merciless carnage.

“Sorry?” You asked, hoping that you had just misheard.

“Before you get married - there’s paperwork that needs signing so that our two companies can start our merger-”

“What?” You couldn’t manage another, different word.

“She meant, ‘I beg your pardon’.” Your mother chips in for you to the stunned faces of the Wangs.

“Merger? Since when?” You were too shocked to remember how to act properly. Shame for all the years those prim and proper ways were drummed into you.

“Since a while ago, my dear. You didn’t think you were handling every important case in the legal department, did you.” You father laughs heartily, obviously trying to defuse the situation. That’s not what you had in mind though. The guests shift awkwardly.

First the merger being sprung up on you, then the marriage thing - why didn’t they give you a proper warning - hell not even that - they should have actually asked you if you wanted to get married before literally selling you off to the presumably highest bidder.

On second thought, it was obvious why they hadn’t told you - you would have fought them immediately if you’d known, maybe even did something extreme, so they’d just cornered you so you couldn’t.

“Yes, so here are the contracts, Miss L/N.” Mr Wang motioned to the third man, who reached for the leather binders, opening the two of them and setting them side by side to reveal crisp white paper, no doubt spelling out your future in fine black ink. “Feel free to suggest any edits after reading them-”

You felt dizzy.

You looked over at your parents, their faces expectant and dare you say it, eager. You were trying to place where you’d heard of Wang Enterprises before, or if you had, trying to gauge who on Earth these people were and why you were so readily being pushed into the arms of their son. They must be important enough, surely. You hoped that your parents weren’t cheaper than you thought. It would definitely add insult to injury.

You heard the silence and realised it was your turn to say something.

Your eyes scanned the room, finding that your so-called husband-to-be, was the only one not looking at you. You could see the back of his head, following his line of vision to the contracts that sat in front of him.

“Excuse me.” You said and turned to leave. You walked to the door shakily, putting effort into every troubled step, one foot in front of the other. You reached for the door handle, cracking it open, when a hand pushed it closed. You snapped to look at your father, his face deadly serious while his hand remained on the door.

One of you was going to have to budge.

“YN, sit down and read the contract. Don’t embarrass us.” He hissed, teeth clenched. You were probably out of earshot but you were sure only bats could pick up this frequency anyway.

You couldn’t believe it.

You were steered back to the couches, more like wrangled, and sat down in the empty spot next to Nicholas. He glanced at you from the corner of his eye then pretended he wasn’t looking when you glanced back. Right now, he was the least of your problems.

One of the leather document folders made its way into your hands and you had to sit there and read the contract.

You were so far out of your mind right now that the words just seemed like words on the page and not a smidgen made any sense to you since your lawyer brain couldn’t kick in. You sat just mimicking concentration, when you were just reading the words without taking any of it in.

It was a hard pill to swallow, the more you thought about it. Your own parents pulling the rug from beneath your feet. It felt deeply disrespectful-

You’d been a good daughter; always doing what they told you to the extent you could stomach it as a human being with flaws and free will. And the worst part is that you hadn’t had many objections over the years since they just wanted the best for you - good grades, good education, good extracurriculars and a good job, granted it was here under their watchful eyes so that one day you could take over.

It had been okay, because it had been good for you, you were grateful for everything you had, no matter how much you wished you could do something else and be someone else.

However this - this was crossing some invisible line in your mind.

No matter how tough and composed you were, you’d always had a soft inside and deep down you were a hopeless romantic and dreamed about falling in love one day - it felt like the one thing in your life that was yours alone, the one thing maybe your parents wouldn’t touch.

You wanted so many things, to find someone by yourself and to settle down naturally, not that you’d really set out on doing that. Hell, even Shrek had more romance in his life than you ever had.

But now, they were taking that away too.

There was a quiet buzz of conversation while you read the contract, minutes feeling like hours. You didn’t think there was anything particularly glaringly bad except for the part where you had to enter this ‘union’, so you put it down unceremoniously.

“I think our legal department should look over it one more time,” You looked over to your uncle, whom you’d pretty much ignored since you came in. He was your boss as well as your uncle, and as an uncle he’d always been on your side. Seeing him with the rest of them, mouth tight-lipped, felt like a betrayal. “Perhaps there are alterations to be made, in particular section 4-” that was the section about your union.

“Our legal department has revised it, YN.” Your father cut in. “This is the final draft. It is ready for signing.”

Yes, but you weren’t ready to give in yet.

You’d tried to buy time to persuade your parents in a more orderly way, but that clearly wasn’t going to happen. Time for Plan B.

Throwing a tantrum.

You never did this, no matter how much people would expect you to be a spoilt brat and whine about everything under the sun just because of who your family was, but desperate times called for more desperate measures.

“I will not be signing today.” You said curtly, standing up, knowing fully that someone would try to bar you from leaving again. “Good day.”

It was a split second after you took a step that you felt your wrist being grabbed. You thought it would be hard to throw a tantrum, to be a brat, and yet with the anger that was rising up in your system, you found it incredibly easy.

You whipped around and glared at your father.

“How could you do this to me?” You demanded. “Why are you being so archaic?” You snatched your hand away from your father’s grip. Oh, this was definitely going to be a scene.

“Sit down and sign the papers dear, it’s for your own good.” He said, and it would have sounded dismissive if it wasn’t for the obstinate look on his face. It shot disappointment into your stomach, because you wouldn’t have thought your parents would do this to you.

“You mean your good.” You countered. “If you make me do this, I’ll never forgive you.” You said, lowering your voice, just as obstinate. Well, you were his daughter, you had to get it from somewhere.

“Don’t be dramatic. Sit. Down. And. Sign.” He told you, scarily calm even though you could see the vein in his necking starting to pop. You needed to expand your focus; your dad was a dead end.

You thought quickly and your eyes landed on Nicholas.

He was still sitting in the same exact position, still as a statue. Now that you thought of it, you had a bone to pick with him; he was here first. He’d known all about it. He’d read the contracts before you and wasn’t objecting for some reason.

“No.” You said, looking past your father. “And you-” You raised your voice, addressing the wax figurine sat on your parent’s couch. His ears seemed to prick up at your tone, clearly inferring that you meant him. “How can you just sit there and say nothing?” You accused.

It wasn’t about making a scene anymore. It was about trying to get to the bottom of this.

“This is your life too, how can you just let them tell you what to do like that?” You were well aware you weren’t one to talk, feeling like a hypocrite in your own heart. Finally, he looks up at you, his sharp eyes softened, his mouth opening as if to speak. “Well? C’mon, fight, damn it. Say something.” You continued to push and instigate him, your resentment toward him growing by the second.

Before he could say anything, your father cut in.

“That’s enough, YN!” He raised his voice, not that it was unusual. “I told you to sit down-”

And the knock on the door stops him.

You breathe a sigh of relief at the timely distraction-

Except it got worse.

The door cracked open and your heart shattered as your little brother came in.

He seemed confused and curious as he poked his head through the door, not quite coming in but not quite staying in the safety of the outside.

“You wanted to see me?” He said timidly, noticing the tension in the room probably and seeing the adults were talking.

There was a tightness in your chest - you knew your parents had planned this. You could make no mistake about it; they had called him here with a purpose.

It was a threat. It was psychological warfare with your little brother as ammunition.

If you hadn’t lost it yet, you were definitely going to lose it now.

Your fists clenched, nails digging into your palm.

Before anyone could do anything, you took several brisk steps toward the door, smiling at your brother.

“Hey, Maki, sweetie, we’re having a meeting. Listen, can you get some of my business cards? I totally forgot them in my office. Okay? Thanks, buddy.” You practically ushered him out of the office, trying to raise as little suspicion as possible. He barely had room to say ‘sure’ before you practically pushed him out. You caught your breath as you shut the door behind him and put your back to it, facing the rest of the room, as if standing there as a barrier.

Your parents seemed combative if you could read them across the room, then almost smug.

You were livid.

It was a real betrayal.

The bottom line was that they had dared to call your brother here, to dangle him in front of you as a threat that if you didn’t go through with this, he would be their next target. You couldn’t let them do that to him. Better me than him, you always said to yourself, every time there was some new thing your parents wanted you to do. They must have known that you always tried to shoulder everything for the both of you so he could grow up and be free.

You had one last resort.

“This is duress.” You had to attempt to argue your way out of it. Your parents were too stunned to speak and the others seemed uncomfortable, Mr Wang and his lawyer clearing their throats. You took it as a little victory. “I bet you’re regretting sending me to law school now, aren’t you?”

You could swear that you saw Nicholas’ mouth twitch, as if he wanted to smile, but you were far from focused on him.

Your father practically sneered. And your mother blinked rapidly.

“So what if it is? Pray tell, dear, what are you going to do about it? Sue your own family? Unlikely.” Your mother said.

You had been too focused on your father being unbearable to really get mad at your mother too, but you were catching up.

“Family?” You couldn’t help but scoff, disgusted. “Family doesn’t threaten each other.” You announced dramatically, reaching the end of your fuse.

You walked back to the table and picked up the contract, pulling a pen out of your blazer pocket and clicking it angrily. You scribbled your name on the dotted line, your blood boiling as it zipped through your veins.

You went to reach for the other contract, which you found being handed to you sheepishly by Nicholas, the look in his eyes nothing short of shock. You took it wordlessly and scribbled your name there too, shutting the pen in the folder and tossing it on the table.

“I look forward to our cooperation.” You said coldly, looking at the Wangs and settling on Nicholas, who now stood up, accepting the hand you offered him and shaking it. He seemed as if he was about to speak but decided against it again.

You ended formally, a polite nod-

It was a business deal after all.

You swept out of the room before anyone else could say a word, letting the heavy door slam after you to make a point. You couldn’t wait for the chaos to unfold after your behaviour, no doubt incredibly unpopular with your in-laws-to-be but perhaps even more so with your parents.

You sped to the corridor, trying to keep yourself from keeling over from the pressure in your chest, when you almost ran into someone.

It was Maki, several cards in his hand as he looked expectantly at you, clearly noticing something was wrong.

“Thanks, kiddo, but the meeting is finished. Run along, now.” You smiled and ruffled his hair before leaving.

He was the last person you wanted tell about your current situation. What he didn’t know, won’t hurt him. You’d seen first hand that your parents didn’t want to protect him, so you’d have to do that instead.

Even if it meant sacrificing the last remnants of your freedom.

Several days later, you had a date.

A wedding date. And it was incredibly soon, merely weeks away.

You were still furious with your parents, but with time came clarity and you remembered why you had conceded after all. It wasn’t for them; it was for your brother’s sake.

And then several more days later, you found yourself being interrupted at work.

You found the young master of Wang Enterprises standing at your open office door, the two of you looking at each other blankly as he forewent the knock he had prepared, knuckles resting against your door.

“Hi.” He said. You were surprised suddenly since you hadn’t heard his voice yet. It was deeper than you expected, carrying some gravity even though he spoke softly.

You couldn’t lie, you were a little annoyed he just showed up uninvited.

“Hello. What brings you here?” You put the marker to your glass board down. You were drawing up some conditions to a contract your uncle had assigned you.

“I wanted to introduce myself properly.” He replies, putting a hand in his pocket. He wasn’t wearing a suit this time but a white shirt and slacks with a jacket over it.

“Come in, then. Don’t just stand there.” You instruct, motioning to the chairs in front of your desk. He sits down and you do too, abandoning your glass board and getting behind your desk.

“Here; a peace offering. You forgot this the other day.” He says, reaching into his pocket and bringing out a pen. You’d forgotten how you’d dramatically snapped it into the folder. You gave yourself a mental pat on the back for that one.

“Thanks.” You accept it and put in on your desk, on top of the sea of papers. “So, you’re the guy I’m marrying?” You hum. You were ready to accept this guy was probably a jerk, most of the men your age within your circle were horrible playboys, spoilt to the bone, so you were not letting one action sway you from analysing him critically.

“It seems to be the case.” He shrugs, then reaches into his pocket for something else. “I bought you this, maybe it’ll make things more official.” Nicholas presents you with a small box. It was obviously a ring.

Your heart sank.

Never had you thought that you would feel this way when a man came to you with a ring. Yet, here you were.

“You show up here with a ring, after not saying a single word to me.” You state, letting the box sit between you where he’d placed it.

“I don’t believe I was given a chance to speak.” He says pointedly. Was he right or did he sound entitled? You were trying to pick apart what he meant.

“I suppose not.” You get up, heading to the other side of the room, unable to override your manners as a hostess. “Coffee?”

“Please.”

You focus on doing something with your hands, trying not to spiral. You can see people outside your office window, curious faces and craning necks trying to peek in. You shut the blind. Then the door. It takes a slow minute to make the coffee and you bring it back to your desk, a mug in each hand.

After a sip, you decide to open the box, feeling that with the coffee, the air of awkwardness is starting to dissipate.

You don’t know what you’re expecting when you open it, but it’s not this.

Inside is a gold ring with what looks like a diamond, but it looks too round to your eyes, and too rough and not something you’d wear.

You decide to be honest. “It’s really not what I would have picked out. And honestly, if I show up wearing this, my friends would all think something’s wrong.” Although, something was wrong, in all fairness, you thought - you were marrying a stranger against your will.

“Alright, noted. You don’t actually have friends, you don’t need to pretend for my sake.” He says, almost as if he’s trying to banter with you and break the ice. You try to protest the comment but he carries on. “I’m not stupid, I didn’t think I’d crack it the first time. So how about this - we go pick one out together.”

You considered it for a moment. Did he have an ulterior motive? Or was this practical? You had deadlines all week but nodded.

“Fine, but next week, I’ll be buried in here until Sunday.” You inform him, closing the box.

“I hate to remind you but our wedding is in how many days, chief?” He raises his eyebrows, waiting for an answer.

“Shit, you’re right.” You frown, frantically looking at the calendar on your wall. Nicholas chuckles.

“Oh man, hearing that for life? I could get used to it.” He jokes. You glare at him. So he was the funny type, was he?

“You know, you do this really annoying thing, have you ever noticed?” You ask. He’s taken aback, almost disgruntled, as if that’s the first time he’s ever heard someone suggest he’s annoying.

“Do what?”

“Speak.” You give him a curt smile, letting the sarcasm flow freely. His eyes narrow, but he’s bemused.

“So you’re not as uptight as you look.” He comments. “Fine, next week.”

“Or we can just forget the ring. Or I can buy my own.” You suggest, not sure you wanted to start your life sentence so early on.

“Ohhh no way, jeez, I will not have it said that I am cheap bastard, we’re getting you that ring, end of discussion.” He fires off rapidly.

“Whatever.” You pause. “Is that everything?” You ask, thinking about the pile of paper looking up at you as you sit dumbly.

“I need your number.”

“Huh?”

“Ma’am, we’re getting married and I don’t even have my fiancee’s contact details.” The word ‘fiancee’ rings in your ears, like an emergency siren going off in your head, or worse like a death knell (but only because you were still feeling dramatic).

“Sounds like a you problem.” You say but reach into your desk and pull out a business card. “Here.”

“Thanks.” Nicholas accepts it, pocketing the piece of paper. “Now, I’m done.”

“Thank god. Now, shoo please.” You say, ready to get back to your business. That and you were starting to consider asking him about dangerous topics, such as, well, why the hell didn’t he protest the marriage in the first place-

“Thanks for the coffee. I’ll call you.” Nicholas says, leaving.

“Text me!” You call after him. You hated phone calls; it was fleeting and easy to forget what the conversation had been about. That and you always wanted receipts, just in case.

He ended up calling you anyway, despite what you said.

It was Saturday and you’d done your best to finish up for the day in the office, your estimated occupation-until-Sunday basically completed ahead of schedule. Not because you were desperate to meet him or anything; indeed, it was the anxiety of the upcoming nuptials weighing heavy on your shoulders.

You agreed to meet after work, Nicholas having been in his office too even though it was the weekend and the both of you were in positions to take weekends off. You inferred he must have some hustle and if so, you wondered if it was enough to make you really respect him. So far, you hadn’t gotten a solid impression of him, perhaps because he was a little hard to read still.

You all but throw your crap in your bag and take off, feeling agitated already.

You’d tried to talk to your parents over the past few days, to try and point out how ridiculous this marriage was, when they could probably get away with just doing the merger without involving the two of you.

All you got was some condescending glares and patronising lectures on mutual risk taking between companies. You rolled your eyes when they weren’t looking and called it a day, refusing to speak to them further even if they asked you about coming home for dinner some time and bringing Nicholas along.

When you get to the parking lot of your building, you’re greeted with a relaxed Nicholas leaning on the hood of his car. He was perched against the side of his flaming crimson Ferrari Portofino and you stopped a few feet in front of him.

“You ready to go?” He inquires. His arms are crossed, stretching his white button up over his arms, the sleeves rolled up his forearms. You deduce he might have been wearing a tie but it’s long been discarded and the first buttons undone. So he likes to be comfortable the second he leaves the office. Hmm. Interesting.

You were thinking and paying attention but your eyes were starting to sting from the brightness of his car.

“Are you a fireman?” You quiz, ignoring his question. “Why is it so…so red?” You’re reduced to squinting at it, as if to prove your point.

“Hey! Don’t knock the Rrari. She’s a beautiful car.” He seems to jolt into life at your comment.

“That is not a car, dude, that is a firetruck.” You state.

“Shh, stop it.” Nicholas appears scandalised by what he was hearing. He turned to the car and patted it gently. “It’s okay baby, the crazy lady doesn’t mean it.” He said soothingly.

You had been somewhat favourable to letting him drive, but after that display of well, whatever that was, you were set against it.

“Anyways, I’ll drive.” You turn to find your car, expecting him to follow. He scrambles after you, maybe because you’d caught him off-guard, and he awkwardly clears his throat, trying to pretend he didn’t almost trip over his own feet.

“So, how’s work?” He asks as you get to your parking spot.

Your car is the complete opposite to his obnoxiously red Ferrari; a sleek black Jaguar XF, touted as a stealth car, the type that can speed through the night undetected. Well, it was quiet, that’s all, just like you liked it.

“You don’t need to make small talk, Nicholas.” You inform him as you unlock the car and climb in. You tried to ignore how weird his name tasted on your lips. He sits in your passenger seat, and suddenly your car feels fuller than it ever has before.

You didn’t drive others around; you hated anyone invading your personal space like that - your car was like a mini-sanctuary. But the thought of being seen in the firetruck had convinced you to just stomach the invasion for a little while.

“Well, we barely know each other, we should try to talk and get to know each other,” He says. “Not that you seem particularly riveting.” He mutters, probably thinking you can’t hear him over the engine. But that’s the thing about your car; it’s quiet and you do hear.

“Did you just call me boring?” You ask, pulling out of the parking lot, voice steady.

“Hm- no.” He hesitates for a second too long and you scoff.

“Sorry that I don’t find our situation something to bond over. You know, maybe you should think about that - we’re practically trapped in a horror film.” You drawl, already slightly pissed at his attitude. He was treating this whole thing as if he was hanging out with a pen pal or something.

“Alright, YN. Why don’t I think about it?” He says suddenly, his voice ringing clear in the confined space of your car. “Should I think about how we’re being thrown into a stranger’s arms and told to ‘stay’ obediently like a dog? How about the fact that you looked like you wanted to die the second you walked into that office?” He sounded just as fed up as you felt, which is what you couldn’t understand - were you not on the same page anti-the marriage? What was his deal? And why was he making it sound like you should have been happy about it? “Hmm? Should I think about how my life is practically over and I’m not even thirty yet?”

“I don’t understand you.” You cut in. “Why didn’t you do this the other day? If we’d both fought back, maybe we could have stood a chance.” It was, of course, mere speculation that you might have avoided this fate.

“Why?” He echoes, crossing his arms again, shuffling back in his seat. “Because there’s nothing that can save us when it comes to the well-being of the company. Am I right?”

It was a familiar concept - putting the company above yourselves - yet, it only made you want to fight harder.

“Screw the company.” You said, concluding the topic. You drove in silence for a while, just focusing on the road and trying to ignore the way Nicholas was present in your space.

You thought about how your life would be from now; never attending events alone, always on the arm of a stranger who you were expected to just like automatically, never getting to drop the facade of young Mrs Wang and never getting to be just YN again.

You needed a way to preserve yourself, or at least the essence of yourself. And you needed the privacy to do so. You’d already been told the two of you were expected to live together in a new apartment, the false image of domestic bliss thrust upon you by your parents. But that didn’t mean you had to get along behind closed doors.

“Do you cook?” You ask him suddenly, starting to voice your train of thought. Nicholas seems surprised by your voice, probably since he seemed to be dozing off.

“Huh? Yeah, I do.” He says, his brain buffering for a moment.

“Do you clean?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Good, so do I. More self-sufficiency, less staff, less gossip.” You say, drawing up the image for him. “And most importantly no prying eyes.” And no control.

“I guess. I somehow doubt that you were going to allow others to do house work for you though, am I right?” He replies, glancing at you as you make a turn.

“Correct. I’m a firm believer of the ‘if you want something done properly, do it yourself’ philosophy.” You say.

“Good to know.” He trails off, not really knowing what to say to that. Most people don’t.

It’s just as well because you’ve arrived at the shopping centre, your car parked perfectly between the lines in the space available. You get out of the car and pop your trunk, reaching for the pair of boots you kept there for when you didn’t want to walk around in heels. You slipped off the offending black pumps and threw on the Doc Martens, finally comfortable.

“You keep spare shoes in the car?” Nicholas asks, just watching you to the side.

“Yeah, what about it?” You lock up.

“Nothing, I respect the fashion forwardness of being comfy.” He shrugs. It wasn’t what you were expecting so you just nodded.

The two of you wound up on the first floor of the giant construction that was the shopping mall, staring up at the four floors that towered above you.

“This is going to take a long time.” Nicholas observed, looking at the map and the selection of jewellery shops to choose from. Something clicked in your brain as you looked at the list.

“We need to cover more ground.” You agreed. “Okay, I’ll take the first and second floor. You go up to the third and fourth and see what you can find. If you find something take a photo. Meet back here in an hour. Let’s move.”

You were so used to doing things analytically and strategising the most efficient way of doing something. Now it was finally coming in handy outside of work and you weren’t doing it just ‘cause you liked to. Funny how the world makes sense again, even for a moment.

Nicholas was speechless, blinking dumbly at you.

“Aye, aye, Captain.” He gave you sarcastic salute to match and you scowled. “‘Kay, bye.” He turned on his heel when he saw your glare.

The hour goes by quickly, which is surprising considering you were not enjoying this in the slightest. Every shop you went into, the shop clerk would look at you with sad, sympathetic eyes, like oh poor thing, she’s got no man to buy her a ring so she’s vicariously living through the shopping experience of searching for one, boo hoo. Not to mention how totally exhausting walking around was. You were fine walking normally but for some reason, adding shopping to the equation seemed to seep the life out of you.

Nevertheless, you took photos diligently, ring after ring until the shine of gold, silver and precious stones was imprinted on your eyelids. There was in total at least thirty that you had a look at but only about five that really caught your attention and you could see yourself wearing.

You wandered back to the meeting spot you’d agreed on, only to find Nicholas munching on something, spacing out. When he noticed you coming, he stuffed the last bite into his mouth and chewed faster, as if trying to get rid of the evidence.

You sighed as you came to a halt in front of him as he sat on a low bench.

“If I was your defence attorney, I’d let you just rot in jail.” You said.

“What?” He says, mouth still full. He finishes chewing and gulps, Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. “Sorry, did you want anything?”

“No, oh my god. Are snacks all you ever think about?” You asked. He rolls his eyes.

“Why yes. That and world peace.”

“Save that for a press conference.” You retort. “So report. Did you find anything?”

“Indeed, I did, Sergeant.” He doesn’t give you time to protest the nick name. “I narrowed it down to three options but there is one clear front runner. I found it by accident actually.”

You could guess how, looking at the scrunched up paper snack bag in his hand.

“When you stopped for snacks?” You say, not particularly questioning him.

“When I stopped for snacks.” He confirms.

“Good.” You nod. “I have five and there is one that I’m a little biased towards, but we’ll see. I’m open to suggestions.”

“Alright, this is the one I was telling you about.” He says while scrolling through his phone, then showing it to you. “The snack ring.”

You thought you were having a breakdown or something because your brain refused to cooperate; what you were looking at made you confused and think you were experiencing a severe case of deja vu.

The ring you were looking at had a silver band, with tiny leaves of diamond entwining a vaguely hexagonally shaped aquamarine stone. It was elegant but sturdy and beautiful and-

“This is the one you picked out?” You quiz him, keeping a poker face.

“Yes?” He said, as if uncertain of his choice after all. “What about the one you found?”

Now you were at a cross-roads; do you lie and agree to the ring, not mentioning the one you found, or do you stoop and inflate his ego and tell him the truth?

You hesitate for a moment, thinking, but ultimately click your phone open and hold it in front of him. “You’re looking at it.” You say, suddenly finding the adjacent fake plant really fascinating.

Nicholas looks at your phone and then down to his, and then back up again.

“Yah, no way.” He gasps, then smiles. “You’re fucking with me.”

“Oh I can assure you, I am not.” You insist. “I most certainly would not fuck you or with you.” You mutter. He doesn’t seem to hear the last part due to his concentration on the photos.

“Then I guess we have a winner.” He decides, getting up. “Let’s go.”

When you enter the shop, the clerk’s eyes light up with recognition, clearly having seen the both of you here separately merely a while ago and now again but together.

“Hi, what can I do for you today?” She beams. You look at her enthusiastic smile and wonder if it was about her job or about seeing a supposedly happy couple looking for a ring together. She seemed a bit younger than you, probably a little naive if you could guess that by the way she was all but giggling at the two of you.

Guess love makes anyone a fool.

Maybe that’s why we all want it so badly. To feel crazy, to feel something-

“Hey, we were wondering, could you show us the ring on display outside? The little blue one.” Nicholas says effortlessly.

“Of course! Just a moment.” The clerk scuttles to the display and unlocks it with the set of keys hanging off her belt. She brings it over to you swiftly, and you stop short.

It looked so much better up close where you could appreciate the details and really see the beauty of the design. Your heart was definitely saying yes to the ring, but your head was pulling back the reigns.

Did you really want to waste such a beautiful ring on a meaningless marriage? Something so lovely to represent something so fake and hopeless?

“Do you like it?” Nicholas turns to you, genuinely asking. He seems absorbed by shopping, like he has no other second thought. You make time by pretending to really look at it and appreciate every thing about it, but really you’re just going through that internal struggle.

The clerk perks up when she sees you quiet.

“It’s aquamarine*; it’s supposed to provide harmony and balance and ensure a long and happy marriage.” She says, perhaps trying to encourage you to say yes. Or trying to sell it. Either way, you feel like you should say yes.

So you do.

“Yes, I like it. Let’s take it.” You smile, and you realise that you don’t have to force yourself to as much as you expected.

“Perfect. Let me wrap it up for you.” She says and starts to tinker away. “So how did you two meet?” She asks nonchalantly. You know she’s just trying to be friendly and do her customer service by making conversation but in that moment you just wanted to curtly tell her it’s none of her business.

Luckily, one of you seems to be a natural customer. (Or in this specific case, liar. Then again, who were you - the lawyer - pointing fingers at.)

“Ah, we met at work.” Nicholas replies.

“Oh really, office romance, huh?” She smiles, totally eating up the bullshit Nicholas was putting down.

“Got the office part right.” You mumble under your breath. Neither of them hears you thankfully, continuing their clerk-customer pantomime.

“Yeah, I totally charmed her in the copy room and by team dinner, she was practically begging for me to ask her out.” The laugh that comes from Nicholas’ mouth is light and breezy and you want to smack his arm for the blatant lies but you contain yourself.

“That’s right,” You say instead. “Really couldn’t resist the way he used the hole punch. And oh man, don’t even get me started on his staple placement.” You gush, smiling comically. Now it’s Nicholas’ turn to give you a look, the letters ‘WTF’ practically written on his forehead.

The clerk clearly isn’t paying attention to the exact content of your comment because she just chuckles and smiles to herself as she snaps shut the box and slides it into a tiny baggie with one of those ribbons on top.

Nicholas whips out a card and pays for the ring, and you clock it’s not just any old credit card; it’s a black card.

You’d done your research on Wang Enterprises and it seemed about right. If you could sum it up, you would say that it was definitely the Wangs who held the cards in your merger. And that was putting it nicely.

“I wish you a lifetime of happiness and harmony.” The clerk tells you, sliding the bag towards you with a smile.

Fanciful, you think but smile and thank her politely and the two of you leave. When you get to the parking lot, the thoughts are overwhelming and bothering you.

“What?” Nicholas asks out of the blue. You’re surprised he picked up on your mood as you start the engine of your car.

“Did you see the way she looked at us?” You huff. “It’s like she believed our stupid facade and now she’s going to go about her day, believing in love or whatever. I feel shitty for lying to her.”

“Technically, we didn’t lie to her. I mean we did meet at work. Minus the copy room and the staples.” Nicholas reasons, clicking his seatbelt.

“You can’t live your life off of technicalities.” You counter.

“Well, that’s not very ‘working in our legal department’ of you, is it, YN?” Nicholas teases you. “We’re supposed to make the best of technicalities, aren’t we?”

For a moment, you’re a little agitated because what he said was annoyingly close to what your uncle always taught you - he’d told you that the best weapons in a lawyer’s arsenal are loopholes. You’d never forgotten that piece of wisdom, but hearing it in a different shape and out of Nicholas’ mouth was odd.

You sigh. “You’re right. I can’t believe I’m saying it, but you might make a pretty good lawyer if you tried.”

Nicholas gasps, suddenly offended. “How dare you? Take it back.”

You don’t know why or how, but that seems to ease your overthinking and you even crack a small smile.

You drive back to your office, mostly to drop Nicholas to his car but you feel the need to go back upstairs and organise your schedule for the next couple of weeks since you have so much to prepare for the wedding.

You’re about to say goodbye and Nicholas offers you the bag with the ring.

“It’s yours.” He says. “Take it.”

“Wow, what a romantic proposal.” You deadpan. Nicholas raises his eyebrows, clearly bemused.

“Would you like me to get down on one knee and pop the pretty question?” He asks.

“Oh no, god forbid.” You take the bag from his outstretched hand.

“Aha, that’s what I thought.” He hums. “By the way, my parents are inviting you to dinner this week.”

“Wonderful.” You say emotionlessly.

“Is everything that comes out of your mouth sarcasm?” He asks.

“No,” You pause for a split second. “My repertoire includes but is not limited to cynicism, satire, and constructive criticism.”

“Constructive?” Nicholas scoffs. “Are you sure?”

“Goodbye, Nicholas.” You say, turning to walk away.

“Don’t forget, dinner at chez parents.” He calls after you. You don’t turn but wave a hand in acknowledgement.

You got the memo that dinner was on Wednesday night, Nicholas calling you and somehow managing to catch you just when your mood was good. At least it was until the phone call.

So you rallied the troops, well, your parents and Maki and made them clear their evening plans for the day. Your father didn’t miss the opportunity to tell you to be on your best behaviour, while your mother couldn’t help but nag you on what to wear. Something something, ‘dress and heels’, something ‘that colour makes your face look too big’, something-

You stopped listening.

And you wore a skirt and top just to piss your mother off.

You arrived at the Wangs’ house just on time, punctuality running deep in your veins and DNA. You were on house arrest tonight, back to your parents’ so you could come and go together so you let yourself be pushed and pulled around like playdoh, molding to your parents’ wishes because you had no other choice.

It was surprising to see the Wang residence for the first time.

You were expecting a house for some reason but instead it was a fancy apartment in a high rise building. The elevator ride didn’t take long, and you finally got to the nineteenth and final floor; of course it was the penthouse. Why wouldn’t it be?

Mrs Wang opened the door, greeting you all cheerfully. You smiled back, your face muscles screaming in protest already. You should have warmed up with all the polite smiling you were about to do tonight.

Judging from her reaction, your parents must have done some heavy damage control, following your outburst at the signing meeting. Definitely.

Nicholas popped out of a room and said his greetings, shaking your father’s hand, and then Maki’s since your mother had already been swept inside by a chatty Mrs Wang. His eyes landed on you finally and you quirked an eyebrow at him.

“Shocked I came at all?” You asked him once the others were out of earshot. He helped you with your jacket and hung it on a rack. You stepped back, not liking the way his fingers had brushed your shoulder, sending shivers down your spine. Must be all the nervousness making you hypersensitive.

“Shocked you weren’t dragged in here, kicking and screaming.” He grins.

“Well, it’s still early. I could make a run for it.” You shrug.

“Then you should at least try the appetisers before you go.” He leads the way to the living room.

You bow politely to Mr Wang, trying your best to seem meek and harmless. He seemed more convinced than you would have thought, perhaps it was the way that Nicholas was standing way too close to you. What was his problem?

You ignore it and you sit down next to Maki, who’s sitting quietly and letting the adults talk as usual. You felt sorry for him. He was a spirited and fun kid, but he was always getting put in these situations and now that you were older and independent, you couldn’t even keep him company and be his buddy. At least today you could try.

“Hey,” You nudge his foot with yours. He smiles but it doesn’t reach his eyes. You felt awful, all of a sudden. “What is it?” You whisper.

He shakes his head half-heartedly. “Nothing. You should go talk to Nicholas.” He says, looking past you to your fiancé, who’s busy dealing with drinks. You hadn’t noticed even one staff member yet, thinking that it was probably because the Wangs were worried you’d act out again and didn’t want to be embarrassed in front of them. You wouldn’t blame them if that was the case.

“Yeah, well, kiddo, I’m talking to you.” You insist. “I have a lifetime to talk with Nicholas, it’s you I don’t see very often these days.”

“Okay.” He seems to want to say something else and you nod at him encouragingly. “Do you really like him?” He asks, face completely innocent.

It occurs to you that you hadn’t interrogated your parents on exactly what they’d told Maki. He’d sent you a congratulatory text one day, obviously when he’d found out you were getting married. You’d been swamped with work and freaking out in your spare time so you felt even worse because you hadn’t found a way to sit and tell him yourself that that was the situation. But now, you were worried.

You might have let him know the truth that it was all forced if he’d pushed you even a little, but your parents probably gaslit him into thinking god knows what.

“What do you mean?” You fish around for more, trying to see what he knows or doesn’t.

“Mom and Dad said you’d been dating Nicholas for a while, but you didn’t tell us about it until you were sure he was the one.” He replies. Your parents’ lies coming out of your little brother’s mouth hit you like a ton of bricks.

You were nauseous in an instant, your worst fears confirmed.

They really had lied so hard to him. But why? You wouldn’t have been mad if he knew it was arranged but you just didn’t want him thinking you agreed because of him - that was your burden to bear.

“Well, I-” You were thinking of what to say, when you felt someone squeeze in on the couch beside you.

“What are you guys drinking?” Nicholas asks, methodically upbeat and you allow yourself a rare moment of being grateful toward him.

“Maks?” You hum inquisitively.

“Cola, please.”

“Make that two, thanks.” You add.

“Alrighty, coming right up.” Nicholas leaves just as quickly as he’d come by but it’s enough to disrupt your conversation with Maki and get you off the hook from giving him a concrete answer.

“I can’t believe the kids these days still like cola.” You chuckle lightly, swerving to change the topic, no matter how nonsensically you do it.

“You know you’re not ancient, right?” Maki reminds you. “And I’m not a kid anymore.”

“You’re sixteen so can it, junior.” You warn him, no force behind your words. “When you’re my age, you’ll see what I mean.”

“Oh my god, okay boomer.” Maki laughs and you’re relieved. Much better than a few minutes ago.

“Shall we be seated at the table?” You hear Mrs Wang address the room. “I hope you’re hungry!” She laughs, and you’re suddenly sure where exactly Nicholas gets his laugh from.

You sit down at the dinning table, somehow ending up between Nicholas and Maki, grateful that they wouldn’t have to talk too much since you needed to relay the intel you’d gathered to Nicholas in case he said something to Maki.

The food itself was excellent, as you had expected, finally seeing the first staff member in the house. But you were too set on making a good impression; the impression of having been subdued and put in line by your parents, the picture of obedience, to truly enjoy the meal.

Mrs Wang seems to be the life of the party, continuously and constantly laughing and smiling about this and that. She seemed to be much too delighted when Nicholas got the two of you a glass of wine each. You’d been the only adults not drinking so far and you felt like you had to partake not to seem rude. Your fathers were already a quarter of the way through an expensive looking bottle of sake, just as you’d expected.

“It’s so lovely to see that our Nicholas has charmed you and you’re getting on so well, as expected of our sweet boy!” Mrs Wang gushed. She was sitting across from you and you smiled, almost choking but not saying a damn word because you thought you might come back to the hole punches and staples if you did and that was not approved today. (Or any day for that matter.)

Nicholas however basks in the bullshit, smiling proudly at everyone else and then smugly at you when no one was looking. You narrowed your eyes at him but behaved.

“It’s just wonderful how lovely our children seem together.” Your mother chimed in with the gushing and you really had to concentrate on holding down your dinner.

So you decide it’s a good time for an interim meeting.

You nudge Nicholas’ leg under the table. “We need to talk.” You mouth at him. He seems confused but gives you a minuscule shrug.

You take a sip of wine, hoping to use it as a prop for your performance. You sigh loudly, doing your best impression of being a little warm, subtly touching your cheeks and neck.

“Something the matter, dear?” Your mother immediately zeroes in on your actions.

Bing-pot. They say that children knowing how to manipulate their parents is a true sign of being grown up.

You hadn’t expected her to be sincere in her inquiry so her clipped tone definitely tracked. It was more of a panic demand for knowing to prepare for disaster if it should occur.

“Oh, no, it’s nothing.” You try to brush it off politely. “I think I should just get some fresh air. Excuse me.” You announce exaggeratedly.

“Nicholas will take you to the balcony.” Mrs Wang suggests, leaving no room for argument.

“Of course, right this way.” Nicholas puts on his best gentlemanly face, and you’re impressed he’s got it in him, though in all fairness, you were still strangers. You didn’t know what he was capable of, and he didn’t know what you were either.

You make your way out of the large open plan living room and dinning room to the corridor and to the glass door, where Nicholas leads the way, opening it and stepping out.

It was getting dark already, dusk setting in on the city, the sky a deep blue overhead. From here you could see the millions of lights and the skyline, the tiny cars moving like ants beneath you.

“What did you want to say?” Nicholas asks, shutting the door behind you in case someone overheard. You wouldn’t have counted on him to be discreet but he did it.

“I found out that my parents lied to Maki about us getting married.” You tell him. “They told him we’d been dating for real and wanted to do this voluntarily.”

“No way, they did?” He all but gasps in disbelief. “Poor kid.”

“Yeah.” You sigh, feeling a little heaviness in your chest.

“Tell me something. What made you agree to our marriage?” Nicholas asks. You look out to the city, the lights shining brightly below you.

“I had to think bigger picture.” You confess. “You met Maki. He’s my little brother. I thought that if I shouldered everything my parents wanted from us, he would be free.”

“Wow.”

“What? If you had siblings, wouldn’t you do the same for them?” You turned to look at him in the semi-darkness. The wind was blowing, Nicholas’ hair getting messed up as his eyes darkened while he gazed at the horizon.

“I’m an only child. That’s beyond my imagination. My experience on earth is being the crown prince of the empire blah blah blah.” Nicholas laments. “But it’s cool you did that for him. I’m sure he’d appreciate it.”

“I don’t want him to know actually. Can you keep it a secret? Pretend we actually like each other in front of him. I don’t want him to worry.” You hated to ask Nicholas anything, to plead with him and feel indebted, but for your brother you swallowed your pride and did it.

“Is that why you called me out here? To get me on board with your lies?” He looks at you, meeting your eyes. You couldn’t tell if he was angry or what.

“Please. He would get hurt if he knew the truth, my parents wouldn’t hesitate to tell him I did it for him. I don’t want him to blame himself because it’s not his fault.” You talked honestly with Nicholas for what felt like the first time. It was weird.

“Okay. But he’s not stupid, he’ll figure it out eventually. I’m surprised he didn’t pick up on it already.”

“I’ll tell him when he’s older and he’ll understand.”

“I know, YN. Let’s go back.” Nicholas says. You hate to admit it but his understanding made you grateful to him yet again. This was starting to become a recurring theme and you didn’t like it. You were still mad at him for his lack of protest although you could see why he hadn’t bothered.

It was like trying to fist fight a typhoon-

Completely impossible.

You made it back to dinner and got through the rest just fine. The two of you were cooperating and trying to seem like everything was better than it was.

While you were sitting on the couches waiting for dessert, you noticed that Maki and Nicholas were standing at the window, looking out to the city. The moon was out now, shinning brightly from above. It looked like Nicholas was showing Maki where certain things were located.

They looked like they were bonding, which was perhaps ironic since even you and Nicholas hadn’t become close yet. Not that you were expecting to be really.

You catch all the parents talking about the contracts and you feel that you need to make your stance on the situation, your fighting spirit not extinguished even now.

“I’d like to apologise for my rudeness the other day in the office. It was unruly of me and I should have handled it better. I am sorry about that.” You say. Your parents are on edge and suspicious and oh, they know you too well. “But I will not apologise for the way I feel toward the marriage. I will however comply with what must be done. We have a contract after all.” You conclude.

“Thank you, Miss L/N.” Mr Wang says, not particularly bothered by your second statement. Did he even hear what you said? You weren’t going to press it, not when your parents were throwing daggers in your direction and you knew you’d get an earful when you got home.

The rest of the evening went by quickly. Dessert was also brilliant and you made a note to ask Nicholas for the recipe. As a final toast, your father and Nicholas’ father addressed the merger, talking about how you needed to proceed.

Now that the merger was happening, it meant that your companies would be the targets of scrutiny and would be unstable for a little while, and no doubt that every competitor would be holding their breath, waiting for you to slip. The indoctrination your parents had bestowed you with on keeping up appearances and looking strong for the company image stuck in your head when you heard it - you two are the faces and future of the company - the lovebirds that will “put us forward into a new phase of our enterprises”.

You had to look like you are united.

You wanted to curl up into a ball and cry. It simply wasn’t fair, but you knew with your privilege, no matter how bad it seemed, you just had to suck it up and keep going.

So that is what you planned to do.

You looked at Nicholas, his eyes lively as he made conversation with your father, wine glass in his hand, and tried to imagine actually being friends him.

Would it be so impossible to put aside your resentment?

A/N: Okay one down, many to go! I wasn’t going to release this today but honestly I’m in a goofy mood so I thought I’d chuck this out into the deep end and see if it floats or sinks. I’m pretty happy with their dynamic so far, it’s a lot of fun to write tbh, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did lol. I’ll reiterate that if you want to be added to a taglist, please let me know so I can do that for you. So thank you for reading, feedback is always appreciated <3

* For the curious cats - the meaning of aquamarine from trulyexperiences/.com:

“Aquamarine evokes the purity of crystal blue waters, and the relaxation and feeling of calm that the sea brings. Spiritually, aquamarine is associated with trusting and letting go. In ancient times, aquamarine was believed to be the treasure of mermaids. Sailors used the stone as a talisman to bring good luck on the open waters. The gem was used as a symbol of protection and fearlessness too.

These days, the stone is viewed as one that can bring about happiness and protection to all who travel near water, over water or by water. It is also representative of clear communication straight from the heart.”

From firemountaingems/.com :

“Today, aquamarine is still thought to bring protection to those at sea and is a popular gift among ocean travellers. On land, it is believed to have soothing effects on couples, helping them to work through their differences and ensure a long and happy marriage. That power makes it an excellent stone to give on anniversaries.

It is also considered to be the stone of courage and preparedness and is believed to help maintain balance and order. Aquamarine is often used as a "good luck" stone, thought to bring feelings of peace, love, joy and happiness to those who wear it. There is an energizing quality to aquamarine that provides harmony and balance.”

momobani masterlist

#&team #&audition #&team nicholas #wang yixiang #nicholas x reader #&team x reader #&team fics #&team imagines #&team scenarios #momobani.writes

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momobani · 8 months

Text

Fire Brigade

THE WAY I hate YOU - chapter 4 - 11.4k

&team Nicholas x fem!reader - arranged marriage AU

SERIES MASTERLIST

Sum: as you settle into married life, you learn a lot about what it’s like to share your life with someone else.

Warnings: swearing, sarcasm, mention of food and alcohol, they’re both cranky goofs in the morning idk, allusion to questionable parenting?, depiction of drunkenness

Soundtrack rec: You’re So True - Joseph Arthur (Shrek OST) [there’s just something about this song, i can’t pin point it, just listen. i can just see a montage of their moments together as this plays haha]

Taglist: @nichoswag @seokka0o @sseastar-main @hyuckslvr @ssshasssh

A/N: i know it’s been 84 years, i’m sorry but life was hectic - for some reason my note keeps getting eaten by tumblr (fu!) but basically - life = hard, nicho -> nico (as per his own request on weverse lol), enjoy <3

Being back in your new apartment was strange.

It felt like you’d never moved in in the first place before your honeymoon. You cleaned up a little after you returned, going grocery shopping together for the first time instead of singularly getting your own food and sticking it in the fridge.

At the cashier, you almost asked to pay separately but then you realised how weird that would sound because you were so obviously involved and like who does that really? Nicholas whipped out his card before you could unzip your purse so you let him pay this time.

At least you drove there and back, happily abandoning the firetruck (Ferrari) in the underground parking, much to Nicholas’ pouty dismay.

You still had several days off, mostly because there was a weekend when you returned and you’d strategically planned your time off to encompass that without burning your vacation days unnecessarily.

You had to admit, sleeping in in the morning was nice.

In the morning you took time to watch some TV, sipping your coffee in front of the screen. You decided that you really needed to catch up on some work related stuff because you were going back to the office on Tuesday and you’d better be prepared.

So you spread your papers out on the kitchen table, opened your laptop and got stuck in. It was fairly quiet in the apartment and you thought Nicholas was probably still sleeping.

It’s a surprise when he walks through the front door some time later, a little sweaty and wearing basketball shorts and a sleeveless tank top. There’s a water bottle in one hand and you immediately know exactly where he’s been and what he’s been up to.

“Hey,” he greets you, depositing the bottle on the counter. “what are you doing?”

“Working,” you say, only glancing up at him. “what’s it look like I’m doing? Writing a novel?”

“Well, it could be but I doubt a novel-” he wanders past you and peeks over your shoulder. He gets kind of close and you can feel the heat radiating off his body. “-requires a contract for the sale of pharmaceutical supplies.”

“Y’know, you’d be surprised.” you reply.

“You still have days off, why do work?” he asks, genuinely confused. You again imagined what kind of utopia Nicholas’ office must be if he really doesn’t get it.

“It’s not a big deal, it needs doing ASAP anyway. Mind your business, dude.”

“Fine,” he raises his hands in surrender. “but I invited company, I didn’t know you were working.”

“It’s fine, I’ll move.” you say, marking where you’d left off and starting to sort things.

“Okay, but we might be quite loud. The guys are coming over.” he explains. “Are you sure that’s not going to disturb you? We can hang out in my room instead.”

“It’s alright, I’ve lived with pack animals back when I decided to have an authentic college experience.” you shudder, remembering the shit you’d been through. You wanted an experience, and oh boy, did you get one. Between the constant revolving door of strangers invading your apartment to the loud roommates you had, you’d really gotten used to noise.

“Sometimes I really wonder what kind of life you’ve lived.” Nicholas muses, looking at you curiously, as if you were an animal at a zoo exhibit.

You shrug just as your buzzer goes off. Nicholas presses the button that unlocks the downstairs door. You take the first pile of papers and crap to your room, realising you’re going to need two trips to get everything.

You put the first pile in your room but accidentally knock the first stack of maybe twenty pages down.

“Shit,” you mutter, crouching to pick it all up. You shouldn’t have taken the big clip off it.

By the time you come back for the second pile of stuff and your laptop, your doorbell goes off and Nicholas opens the door.

You watch as a group of dudes roll into your apartment, all in their uniform of shorts and t-shirts or tank tops. You recognise their faces from meeting them at your wedding, but you couldn’t match all the names you knew to the faces, except maybe for Jo, who had got the first-come-first-remembered privilege.

“Oh, hey!” one of them notices you and greets you too as they come in. He has a big smile and several ear piercings. You try to place him to a name, he was either Yuma or Fuma but you can’t be sure. The rest of them notice you too and all offer you various greetings.

“Maybe this a good time for proper introductions.” Nicholas suggests. “Guys, this is my wife, YN. YN, these are the guys.” he says unhelpfully. You raise your hand in a wave.

“Hi,” you say. “you must be fire brigade.” you smile. The room full of confused faces almost makes you laugh. Nicholas does ask them to introduce themselves individually though, probably his attempt to dispel your sarcastic take.

So the guy who greeted you was Yuma, not Fuma, who’s ironically standing next to him in a cute Pokemon t-shirt. There’s also Euijoo, who you recognise as Nicholas’ best man, Jo, who shyly gives you a tiny wave, and Kei beside Jo, which makes the two look like twin towers. Make that triplet towers, since Euijoo was next to them too. You wondered if their clique had a height requirement or something because most of them were giants.

“It’s nice to meet you all,” you say, finally gathering your things and taking your exit.

“We’ll save you some meat!” Nicholas calls after you.

“Thanks.” you say over your shoulder.

You’re halfway through the corridor when you hear the exclamations fill the room. It reminded you slightly of teenage girl behaviour and you thought it was funny.

“Wow, you guys are getting on better than we thought!” you hear possibly Euijoo say.

“Dude, you didn’t say your wife was so hot!” you think that’s Kei’s voice.

“Kei, you were at the wedding?” Yuma chimes in.

“Yeah, but he was too busy flirting with everyone else to notice.” a deeper voice comes in, probably Fuma.

“Well, I had to entertain myself somehow, the whole thing went on for hours.” Kei replies.

“Yeah! It’s not Kei’s fault he was born a pathological flirt.” Euijoo says in solidarity.

“Bro, never talk about another man’s wife if you want to live.” Nicholas warns, only half joking. You can’t help but crack a smile as you close your door to their ridiculousness.

You kept working, the noise level mostly okay since you were a fair distance and closed door away, but occasionally you could hear their excitement, loud laughter and yells travelling through the apartment.

You wondered when it got incredibly loud, what they were doing, howling at the moon or something? Who knows, it was a group of grown men; who really understands the mysteries of dude-bros hanging out together?

Some weeks passed without incident, your lives finding routine sleeping, eating and working, as you manoeuvred around each other every day. Despite you being worried about living with a roommate again, for the most part you led your lives separately but not completely severed from each other.

You went to work at your respective companies then came home and occasionally had dinner together, sometimes you even watched TV together or did your recycling. There were days when one of you went grocery shopping and asked the other if you needed anything, days where you cleaned the whole apartment, splitting off chores so you could be done quicker.

You were lured into a false sense of security, you had to admit.

And being relaxed didn’t hurt, but accidents did happen.

Like the day of the most important meeting of the calendar quarter.

You were meticulous, setting your alarm, preparing your materials and picking out your attire. Going to bed the previous night was smooth sailing and you conked out with no anxiety in your chest for once.

The morning you had your monster shot coffee and a crispy yet perfectly soft inside bagel while you reviewed the notes you left in the margin of the document drafts. You cleaned up, purposefully leaving the small of stack of papers on the counter where you would see it before leaving the house and take it with you, while you got dressed.

While you did your hair, you did happen to think of something more to add, so you wandered to the kitchen, your hair half-pinned up with clips while you styled it.

Except the pile was gone.

Your jaw dropped open. How could it be gone? It was right there not even fifteen minutes ago. It can’t have just disappeared, could it?

Panic started to rise in your chest as you looked around the kitchen; maybe Nicholas moved it so it wouldn’t get dirty on the counter. You deduce he’s been in the kitchen since you’d left because there’s a washed bowl on the rack beside the sink that you didn’t put there.

You don’t find the pile after a minute of looking, opening drawers, cabinets, scanning the tables and whatever else there was in your kitchen.

There was simply one conclusion - your papers were gone.

You could hear Nicholas was in the bathroom and you decide to just ask him instead.

“Wang Yixiang!” you yell, trying to get his attention. Not a moment later, the door of the bathroom is thrown open and hasty footsteps echo down the hallway, the perpetrator probably horrified of your tone.

Nicholas bursts into the kitchen, still in his pyjama bottoms and a hoodie with nothing underneath; he did that a lot as a random habit of his that you’d noticed. There’s a spattering of shaving cream on one side of his face and the razor is still in his hand. You had no idea what he was shaving off though; he never seemed to have anything on that stupidly handsome face of his.

“I’m sorry! Whatever I did, I’m sorry!” he says hurriedly before he’s even entered the room. He was clearly on the verge of freaking out at you calling his government name.

“Did you happen to see a pile of papers that was on the counter?” you ask, cutting straight to it.

“Papers?” he seems confused at the idea.

“Yeah, I left a contract here, it was a small stack and had notes in the margin and tabs, but now it’s gone.” you say, starting to feel yourself grow desperate.

Nicholas thinks for a moment, clearly unsure of what exact you’re talking about. How could that be though? He’s the only other person who could know what happened to it.

“Hmm, let me see, I came to get cereal, got the milk out the fridge, then I hit my elbow, ate the cereal and after that I took out the trash since it’s trash day- oh no.” you look at each other in horror, then to the empty trash can beside the counter, brains putting in the missing pieces.

“Oh my god.” you breathe out. Then it hits you for real. “It’s trash day!” you exclaim, feet already moving of their own accord. You had to find that contract before it got taken away.

“Don’t you have a copy?” Nicholas calls out, razor discarded while he stayed on your heels.

“No! I told you, there was notes in the margin, and they’re super important and I have to have it with me today.” you were practically running down the corridor after you’d exited your apartment.

The two of you reached the elevator and you pressed the button, anxiety starting to make you sweat.

“No time, stairs!” You announce, head spinning already, and turn when the elevator doesn’t come. You take two steps but Nicholas grabs your wrist to stop you.

“Are you crazy? We live on the tenth floor!” he snaps, holding you hostage. Before you can rebut, the elevator dings and the door opens. “See? C’mon!” you let him drag you in there, almost jumping out of your skin when you see your reflections in the mirror pane opposite the door.

Your hair was flying in all different directions, half of it styled, the other forgotten, while Nicholas paled as he swiped at the remaining cream on his face with a hoodie sleeve.

“Just so we know what we’re dealing with here, hypothetically, if you didn’t have this contract…?” he says, trailing off.

“The world won’t end but I may as well walk in there wearing a rainbow wig and a big, red clown nose and kiss this deal goodbye.” you describe. “Then I’ll have to answer to my parents, board of directors, and the entire department will be on my ass by the end of lunch because ‘nepo baby’ managed to fuck up the one job she had.”

“They call you that?” Nicholas asks. You look away, counting down with the numbers of the floors that go by.

“Yeah, they do. Even though I have to work hard like them, it is my parents’ company. They’re right though, I’m not even sure what I’m capable of if it wasn’t for my parents making me work there.” you hated that you’d gotten to this subject, especially right now.

“You still worked hard though, getting to where you are tod-”

“C’mon!” you ignore what he’s saying when the elevator finally dings as it got to the first floor and you drag Nicholas out as soon as the door opens.

You race toward the garbage storage space, heart thumping loudly; if Nicholas could just remember where he left the bag, in which container -

You open the door and find the garbage collectors already on the scene, rolling the large metal containers toward the street, where their truck was waiting.

“Where did you throw it?” you ask desperately, looking around and seeing that some of the containers hadn’t left the premises yet. Nicholas looks like he’s about to faint.

He doesn’t say anything but points in the general direction of the containers that are already sitting near the truck. You gulp thickly, realising what that meant. Somehow, it doesn’t disgust you and you act without thinking.

“Excuse me!” you call out, trying to get one of the men’s attention. “Hi, sorry to bother you, but is it okay if we have a look at the trash? We threw away something important and it might still be around.”

The man hears you, turning around, giving you a once over, most definitely confused at your request. He considers it for a moment, then shrugs.

“Knock yourself out.” he says.

“I’m sorry, what?” Nicholas asks you as you drag him toward the containers. “Tell me we are not dumpster diving.”

“Oh, but we are, roomie, we are.” you hum. He stands still in shock. You throw open the first container and flinch at the explosion of smell coming from the numerous black trash bags.

“Are you deranged or something?” Nicholas shrieks when the smell hits his nose.

“Listen, here:” you whip around to glare at him. “I am getting to that meeting with my contract, if it’s the last thing I’ll ever do. Now, dig, gremlin, dig!” you say through gritted teeth, turning back to the container.

“You know what, don’t answer that. You must be.” he corrects when he sees you grab hold of the side, step up with your leg, and pull yourself up so you can reach inside the container.

Now, normally you’d be so grossed out that you might have thrown up by now, but seeing as you could envision the embarrassment, tirade of disappointed faces of your parents, and sneering jeers of your colleagues, you started feeling up the trash bags without a second thought. You were going to worry about everything else later.

Desperation makes even the most cowardly of dogs brave.

“What are you waiting for?” you bark back at Nicholas, who was just standing behind you, blinking dumbly. “Get in there and start looking!” you instruct. That seems to do it and Nicholas rushes over to the side of the adjacent container and flings it open, gagging at the smell but obediently rummaging around the bags.

There’s a tense minute while you try and feel your way through the container, looking for anything that might indicate paper on the inside, but you’re struggling to find anything.

“Y’know,” you vaguely hear Nicholas grunt as he feels up a garbage bag. “I was just starting to like you but nevermind, I think I hate you.” he says as he squeamishly pushes away yet another bag.

His comment doesn’t make you stop but it strikes a nerve. You knew he was probably talking shit because the two of you were practically knee and elbow deep in trash - in a reversed situation, you would too - but you were a little mad at him for not being more careful in the kitchen, and worse at yourself for ever leaving anything in there in the first place.

“Trust me, the feeling is mutual.” you reply, just as huffy as him.

You keep digging but find nothing, your world suddenly becoming bleaker and bleaker. You had already decided to call in late for work and try to remedy the situation before the big meeting later in the day. You could think of some of the stuff that was written, but you’d lost some of the most important details. Not to mention your concentration and preparation had all been flushed down the drain.

“Hey, we’re going to have to get going now.” you hear the garbage man say behind you. You glance over your shoulder and he seems like he couldn’t care less about your situation.

“Yes, right, sorry. Just a second.” you plead, desperately reaching into the container in vain.

“We’re already behind schedule, ma’am, I’m going to need you to step away from the trash.” he replies. You realise you’re being a nuisance but you can’t help it.

“YN, c’mon, just give up, we can’t find it.” Nicholas materialises next to your container. He sounds tired and hopeless, just as you feel.

“But…I,” you attempt, heart sinking. You know they’re right, you need to go.

“C’mon,” Nicholas steps up to the container and holds out a hand to help you get down. Your shoulders slump but you let him pull you to the edge and practically lift you out of the dumpster, his strong arms wrapped around your waist as he guides your feet to the ground again. “Sorry for the trouble.” he mumbles to the garbage man.

You’re too numb to say anything so you just sort of nod politely at him as Nicholas steers you away and back into the building.

“Ugh, I stink so bad.” he groans, voice cracking. You wait for the elevator and when it comes, your neighbours file out, doing a disturbed double take at the sight and smell of the two of you. You don’t care about keeping up appearances right now, your dejection running too deep.

What were you supposed to do now?

After a moment of silence when you get into the elevator, you feel Nicholas look at you, hesitating at probably how hostile you must look right now. You were fuming, mostly at yourself.

“I’m sorry.” he says gently. “I really am.”

You soften ever so slightly but can’t help the tenseness in your voice.

“‘Sorry’ doesn’t bring back the notes, but thanks for trying to find them.” you say curtly, coldly even. You know it was an accident but it still made a mess. “I’ll make do with what I have.”

You get back to your apartment, Nicholas heading straight to the bathroom but you stop him.

“The smell won’t come out with water.” you warn.

“Then what do you propose?” he asks, genuinely curious.

“Vinegar.” you state. “We’ll dilute some with water since it might be too strong and clean the smell off before showering.” It was an old home trick for getting rid of smells; vinegar was practically a miracle worker.

And you do.

Armed with a cloth each, you stand in your bathroom trying to scrub yourselves clean from the essence of trash that crawled on your skin. It had permeated your clothes so those had gone straight into the washer, leaving you in your underwear.

“Can you get my back?” you ask Nicholas, when your arms fall short of reaching behind you with the cloth.

“Sure.” then his hands are in your hair, moving it to sit over your shoulder, while one rests there to stop it from moving back into the line of vinegar. He swipes the cloth over your skin, quickly reaching from the waistband of your underwear to your shoulder where he lingers. “You’re so tense, jeez.”

“Whatever, just keep go-” he doesn’t give you warning before starting to massage your shoulders.

You groan out loud as he teases out a knot in the muscle immediately. There’s a flush of embarrassment in your cheeks at the noise that just escaped your lips but Nicholas doesn’t seem to care as he keeps kneading your shoulders with his large hands. You contain most of your noises but a few quiet sighs leave your mouth as he works your shoulders.

“Can I move these?” he asks, tapping on your bra straps. Your brain has already shut down so you just nod.

It was unexpected and even though your first instinct was to stop him and tell him to quit it, your body had its own opinion on the matter, shutting your mouth and relaxing under his touch as he slipped the straps off your shoulders.

Your eyes flutter closed at one point, your body swaying in the direction that your husband applied some pressure to your back. You could feel the heat of his body next to yours, the warmth of his hands on your skin as he massaged your shoulders.

“Feel better?” he muttered, mouth but a few inches from your ear, as he finished up.

“Much, thanks.” you sigh, coming back to reality. You do feel a little more warm in your cheeks than you should but you show no reaction. You reach for your straps but Nicholas beats you to it, sliding them back up your arms softly, his fingers grazing your skin and leaving a trail of goosebumps.

“Okay, now shower before you kill someone with that hair.” he chuckles, lightening up the mood.

“What about you?” you turn to look at him. He shrugs, the bulk of his bare shoulders rising and falling.

“I have nowhere to be, don’t worry about me. Just get that smell out of your hair.” he instructs before vacating the bathroom. You’re left staring after him.

You’d been mad at him just a smidge about the contract but he’d managed to ease his way back into your good graces with an apology and a massage. You guess it made sense; Nicholas was your friend now, and if any of your other friends did the same thing, sure you’d be a little mad but you’d forgive just as easily.

But there was something about the way none of your other friends would have done what he did, touch you like he did, stand close like he did.

You banish the thought and scramble into the shower, aware of the ticking of the clock before your meeting.

You wondered why you’d agreed to come to family dinner at your house alone on Friday night. You should have really dragged Nicholas there so he could suffer with you, although of course, the hope was that with his presence, your parents would lay off you and focus on him, their precious, angelic son-in-law.

He had let you know he’d made plans with the guys and offered you an alternate to family dinning, which you’d regretfully declined because you knew that your mother would never just let it go and would instead invite you to several consecutive family dinners and/or events to make up for the loss.

You really were better sacrificing yourself for one evening than signing yourself up for a plethora of others.

Regardless, you should have known better than to hope this would be a marginally pleasant evening. Without Nicholas there, your parents, mainly your mother, had taken to grilling you over entrées. And the main course. And you predicted dessert.

“Are you being good to Nicholas?” your mother asks. “Have you been cooking and cleaning enough around the apartment?” she continues without pause.

“Yes, mother.” you say. You weren’t lying, it’s just that you had an agreement to share everything fair and square with Nicholas, including all the chores, bills (mortgage too, naturally) and other expenses.

“Are you sure?” she continues. “He’s got no reason to be mad at you, has he?” she inquires, her eyes unnaturally wide.

“No, mom, he doesn’t.” you say, regretting your decision to drive because now you couldn’t at least drown out some of the nagging with alcohol.

“Then why didn’t he come along for dinner? You invited him, didn’t you?”

You almost roll your eyes but hold back because she’s watching you. If she looked away more often, you’d probably get a headache from rolling your eyes. (Growing up under her roof, it had been the most common cause of your headaches. That and tension headaches.)

“Yes, of course I did, but he made plans way before so he couldn’t cancel.” you explain for the tenth time.

“Well alright then, I suppose.” your mother concludes.

Finally, you think.

The whole scene was eerily starting to resemble an episode of Gilmore Girls and you were in the role of Lorelai, fending off your mother.

She was practically treating you like devil spawn and Nicholas as if he was their own son and you had stolen him away and trapped him into a heinous marriage. You half wondered if you had dinner alone with the Wangs, was that how they’d treat you too? You could only guess they weren’t incredibly fond of you either from the way you’d initially refused to marry their perfect son. Clearly, parents, your own or other people’s, didn’t seem to like you very much.

Your father and Maki were also at the dinner table, minding their food, and possibly fearing for their lives. You knew what they were like; if they were chewing, their ears seemed to close off.

By the time you got to the main dishes, you’d fielded questions about Nicholas from your mother, and the apartment, but also work questions from your father, which you skilfully managed to not go into any detail on, lest he pick up on something being wrong at work.

Maki helpfully tried to steer the conversation away too, asking random questions about the company, which your father was more than happy to answer because his youngest was taking an interest in the family business. You were grateful to Maki but you worried this might give your parents the green light into throwing him in there with you.

Your father was plenty capable.

He’d probably also hear about how your meeting had gone in the office - there’d been a lot of back and forth (which you’d instigated) to avoid getting to anything too serious while you still hadn’t recovered details of the contract you’d lost.

It had resulted in scheduling another meeting some time later, giving both parties time to reconvene and finalise their sides of the deal.

By the time you finished the main course, your mouth was dry from all the bullshitting you had to do. As soon as you finish your portion of dessert, you figure it’s time to jet.

“So, I should get going and go home, y’know, to the husband you picked out for me.” you start only half-sarcastically. “Thanks for the dinner,” and the shakedown, you think. “could I take some dessert for your beloved son-in-law? He likes this kind of thing.”

“Well, YN, I’m glad you’ve learned what he likes.” your mother says. You wait for her to finish her sentence before having any hope of even a tiny compliment. “You may take some home, but next time just bring him here for dinner, instead of taking home scraps and left overs, it’s embarrassing. As if you can’t afford a full meal.”

“Mom, I told you, he really had plans and I did beg him to come.” you fib, hoping it sells.

“Alright, alright, I believe you.” she concedes. “But you shouldn’t beg your husband for things either, it sets for an awkward relationship and it’s embarrassing.” she continues.

You should have known something mildly positive would be followed up in this manner. You sigh and wait for the house keeper to bring you a box for the dessert.

You get up and get your things by the door, then hug Maki goodbye and ruffle his hair, whispering a quick “Hang in there, kiddo.” to which he just looks at you blankly, dimples popping. You felt bad leaving him there with the hyenas (your mother). “You poor thing.” you lament, patting his arm, as you put on your shoes.

“Drive carefully,” your mother says after you say your goodbyes. “and don’t forget you have that charity event in a couple of weeks. You have to go with Nicholas.”

“Yes, I know. You told me several times already. It’s in my calendar.” you take the box of dessert and open the door. “Goodnight.” you call and leave before anyone can say anything more.

As soon as you get inside your car, you let out a frustrated grunt, hitting your steering wheel with the palms of your hands, releasing a sound that would compete with wild animals. You just needed to get that out of your system because there was only so much pent up frustration you could take.

Once you calm down, you start the engine and go on your way. The dessert sits in the passenger seat as you precious cargo as you drive through the night, windows down, playing some songs you’d curated specifically for after family dinners.

You sing along because the roads are empty and no one’s around to hear you sing like a strangled cat. It’s the exact catharsis you needed, expelling all that energy while the moon hangs full in the sky, so you’re in an improved mood by the time you walk through your front door.

After you kick off your shoes, you go to the kitchen, slippers smacking loudly against the floor as you walk. The sound of your arrival must have alerted Nicholas because he appears while you’re getting a glass of water after depositing the dessert in the fridge.

“You’re back earlier than I thought.” you observe, putting the glass down with a ‘click’ on the counter.

“Yeah, the thing with he guys didn’t last as long as we thought so I came back early.” he explains, plopping down to sit at the counter. “How was dinner? You seem disgruntled.”

“Excellent observation.” you frown, thinking of the best word to describe the ordeal. “It was rather disagreeable.” you attempt.

“Oh? That is most unfortunate, Mrs Wang. Something happen in particular?” he listens attentively.

“Your mother-in-law says hello and sends her regards. Need I say more?” you raise your eyebrows at him. He’s wearing a loose grey t-shirt and looks sleepy already, which you note is odd because if you had learned anything about your husband, is that he was, by personal preference, nocturnal.

“Ah, lovely.” he nods in understanding. “Sorry, I let you fly solo.”

“I wasn’t totally alone, Maki was there, but he can only say so much.” you say. “Anyways, I got you something.” you remember to bring out the dessert from the fridge again.

“Ooh, what’s that?” Nicholas perks up at the sight of the box. You almost laugh at his sudden rejuvenation.

“Dessert. The one with the strawberry sorbet.” you hum smugly when his eyes light up.

“Wah, that’s great. Is it my birthday?” he smiles as you open the box and offer him a spoon. He seems to change his mind in a split second and his face falls, suddenly becoming serious. “Are you trying to poison me?” he interrogates, face full of suspicion.

You tilt your head sarcastically. “Totally. Tis part of my elaborate scheme to become a young widow.” you deadpan and start to take away the spoon but Nicholas stops you and accepts it. “Trust me - if I was going to poison you, you wouldn’t know about it.” you add, gulping down the rest of your water.

“Well, that’s reassuring.” he hums while looking at the contents of the box.

“Bon appetit!” you give him a toothy smile and breeze past him.

To say that mornings with Nicholas were a pain, would be a gross understatement.

From what you’re seen on your honeymoon, your husband was most certainly not a morning person, but you had yet to see in detail just how grizzly the situation could get.

It was kind of ironic because Nicholas was a well put together guy; he knew what he was doing, worked hard at it and did it without a fuss. He seemed like the ultimate catch - young, rich, tall, handsome (others would say sexy too and you would agree, objectively only of course), funny, smart, polite, respectful, well mannered - but of course, nobody’s perfect and it didn’t take a genius to work out that mornings were Nicholas’ weakness.

For the most part so far, the two of you had differing schedules and you barely ran into each other in the mornings, mostly taking turns in the bathroom if anything and giving each other a heads up if you were particularly in a hurry that day or the next day or whenever.

Today however, you had a meeting of the boards of directors for your two companies. It was mostly oversight for the progression of the merger and a chance to hear from the heads of the companies to brief you on the vision for how the merger should go. Your and Nicholas’ presence was without a doubt mandatory and possibly even the highlight since everyone would be talking about you two.

You woke up like clock work, a couple minutes before your alarm and stretched out like a cat before getting up to hunt for coffee (your cavemen ancestors would be shocked). You walked past Nicholas’ room and heard his alarm going off, relieved that supposedly he’s awake.

Supposedly.

The coffee machine whirs quietly as you prepare two cups since you figured Nicholas would want coffee too, but you don’t hear his door opening or in fact, any noise from his room. You pad over to the corridor to listen out and pick up the sound of a second alarm. It sounds promising so you don’t think too much of it and go back to drink your coffee.

It’s been ten minutes when you decide that something is wrong with Nicholas.

You leave your half drunk coffee and his untouched one on the counter and go knock on his door.

“Yo, Nico, you awake?” you call out. You strain your ears to hear a response, leaning onto the door itself. You hear an unmistakeable groan. “I know you’re alive and in there, now get up!” you shout, hoping the louder the message, the more likely it is to get through to him.

You leave to finish your coffee but when he still doesn’t get up, you roll your eyes and stack your cup on the pile of dirty dishes waiting to be put into the dish washer.

“That’s it.” you mutter, determined to make him shift. You fill a glass with cold water, stopping by the freezer for ice and then make your way back to Nicholas’ room.

You were starting to worry that you were going to be late for that stupid meeting since it was already a quarter to eight.

You bang on his door almost violently. “Wang Yixiang, get your dumb ass up or else!” you call to another groan of what sounds like ‘go away’. Your blood pressure spikes and you snap. “I warned you, I’m coming in.”

And you yank the door handle and enter the room.

You find Nicholas in just pyjama pants, sprawled face first in his bed, blankets and sheets tangled up like a war zone while he hugs an extra pillow and a wolf plushie sits on the opposite side of the bed against the headboard. His hair is a mess and splays all over his face and pillow as he still dozes despite your loud attempts at intervening.

You hesitate for a second because he looks so peaceful, then you remember that you have somewhere to be.

“This is a warning shot.” you say and dip your fingers into the water to grab hold of an ice cube.

You launch the ice cube unceremoniously and it plops onto Nicholas’ bare back. He jolts at the contact and a low moan sounds from the back of his throat. Your eyes widen as you feel a wave of queasiness wash over your lower abdomen.

What the fuck did you just do? Did you press the wrong button? Is he malfunctioning? Does he need to go for an MOT check like a car?

The noise sent you reeling and you wanted to run away but the ice cube did nothing. It just sort of slid off of his back and he shuffled a little, getting comfortable again. You sigh and nod to yourself. You hoped it wouldn’t need to come to this.

“Right.” you say. Without another moment to lose, you hold out the glass over Nicholas’ bare torso and tip your wrist so the water comes spilling out.

The water splashes all over his back and it sends Nicholas flying up with a piercing screech.

“What was that for!” he yelps, shaking off the water off his back and reaching for a blanket to wipe it off. You would stay to have a full conversation about this, but you’re already on your way out.

“You’re late.” you chastise. “And if you’re late, then I’m late. Now get up or I’ll come back with a bucket.” you warn as you sweep out of the premises.

“You know you’re meaner in the mornings!” he calls out after you.

“Thanks!” you reply over your shoulder.

Needless to say, you usher Nicholas into your car ten minutes later, him almost dressed as he finishes buttoning up his shirt and does his tie in the car, then styles his hair in the passenger seat using your overhead mirror. You try your best to avoid a pothole but manage to run straight over it by accident. Your car jolts and Nicholas groans in frustration when his hair swishes in a different direction.

“You couldn’t let us be fashionably late.” he mutters.

“I’m never late. Fashionably or otherwise.” you inform him. “Get used to it, hubby; you roll with me now.” you say as you manoeuvre the steering wheel.

“Alright, got it, Sergeant.” Nicholas holds up a hand as if swearing an oath.

“Next meeting, we might even make it on time.” you sass back as you pull up to work and exhale.

This was going to be a long day.

Before you could blink, it was the last day of the calendar quarter and you were dreading it because it’s the day that you and your uncle gather to have coffee and talk about work, less in a boss and employee way and more of an uncle-niece thing. It was the first time you’d ever felt apprehensive to talk to your uncle since he’d had a part to play in your arranged marriage and you were still disappointed in him.

You’d always been closer to your uncle than your parents as far as you could remember. Probably because he didn’t keep you on a leash and command you around but respected your independence. He’d even tried to stop you from going to law school unless it was definitely what you wanted. You had no idea why he’d done that at the time (you were still in high school), but after a few years, you now appreciated the gesture.

Now, you weren’t so sure what he was going to be like after letting your parents push you to Nicholas. You still remembered his face that day; impassive as if he didn’t care about you at all. There was a still a lingering feeling of betrayal when you thought about what your uncle had done.

You took your normal route to company rooftop, your coffee mug hot in your hand as you made your way outside.

Your uncle was waiting at your usual table, the tiny one at the end of the row closest to the edge of the rooftop balcony. From there, you could see out to the city and watch the sun set. It was just after work hours officially ended so the cafe at your company had closed already but you each bought a mug from your offices and sat down.

You walk up to the table as briskly as your coffee would allow you and sit down in the empty chair.

“Hi, uncle.” you attempt. He half-smiles, his fond demeanour unchanged as always.

“Hello, YN.” he replies. “Are you ready for a chat?”

The question hangs in the air, for some reason, you feel it entails more than your usual this and that about work.

“Sure.” you say, cautious.

You end up telling him about some of the finalised negotiations you made this quarter and catching him up on some of the cases you’d been assigned. After a while, it feels natural and you confess that you’d messed up a little with that contract but you don’t tell him it involved Nicholas.

In fact, you don’t mention Nicholas at all and try to move on as if there was no massive elephant in the room. It’s definitely starting to annoy you, skirting around the subject but you try to stay steadfast despite how it irks you.

Your uncle figures it out anyway.

“Something bothering you, dear?” he asks, voice totally unintrusive.

“Not really,” you lie, but your eyes shift to your half-drunk coffee. Your uncle sighs and puts his mug down.

“Listen, YN, I’m not a fool, we should talk about it.” he says. “I know you’re probably displeased with me for pairing you up with Nicholas, but you’ll just have to find it in your heart to accept it.” he continues. “I am not expecting your forgiveness, although I would be relieved to hear it. What was done was for your own good. I hope one day you’ll be able to see that.”

It hurts to hear the same rhetoric from your uncle as it came from your parents; the whole ‘for-your-own-good’ thing made you want to pull your hair out, yet you realise that coming from him, it feels all the more painful.

“I understand that you’ll keep giving me a cold shoulder and I’m okay with it, I suppose, but I need you to remember that everything is temporary.” he meets your eyes. You sense something odd for a moment when he says that, but you don’t react. “Besides, you might even end up liking Nicholas, he’s a good boy.”

That seems to spur you into action.

“Uncle, it’s not about that.” you reply adamantly. “Nicholas is great, he’s really not the problem. The problem is that you still let my parents dictate such a huge decision in my life - I trusted you to not do such a thing. You’re better than that.”

Your uncle pauses for a moment. “You agreed eventually, didn’t you?” he asks simply.

“Well yes, but it was because I was scared they’d do something to Maki. You know they would pick on him if it wasn’t for me.” you argue.

“YN, your parents are complicated people, but they’re not quite as evil as you believe them to be.” your uncle says gently, the way you try to talk to little kids and rationalise a situation which they find stupid (and usually have a right to find as such).

“Well, you’re related to one of them, you kind of have to say that.” you remind him, rejecting his philosophy.

“I’m saying it because it’s true. Try to understand them a little more. Alright?” he pleads.

You look at your uncle and see that he’s trying - he’s trying to be the bridge in this family and you have to give him something to work with.

You nod reluctantly, not because you agree with him or want to understand your parents, but because you wanted to go easy on him for the sake of not creating issues in your family as a whole. Sometimes you couldn’t have compromises and you needed to be more patient and the bigger person.

You knew where he was coming from; of course people are complicated and do things for complicated reasons, including hurting their loved ones. You believed that it was possible that it could be true they weren’t so bad but also true that some people just weren’t nice, weren’t kind, weren’t understanding by nature.

In that line of thought, it wasn’t even about the specificity of your situation. It was that you knew there’s truly nothing completely black and white in the world - your relationship with your parents had always been full of greys, differing shades of blurriness contorting your feelings towards them for your whole life.

You put the topic down quietly and resumed chatting about this and that, the whole thing weighing you down just a bit before you concluded and bid your uncle goodbye, going home immediately after that, although you’d planned to stay longer.

“Fuck overtime.” you hum as you get into your car.

The rest of your evening is fairly quiet, you cook dinner for yourself after Nicholas sends you a text about a haphazard night out with his friends and to not wait up for him. It’s completely fine by you since you really needed some time alone to stew about everything; your conversation with your uncle had sent you spiralling.

Were you being unreasonable? Should you be less angry at your parents for setting you up with Nicholas? You’d meant it when you said he was great, not that you’d say that to his face ever and watch it become smug and delighted.

The thought passes as quickly and fleetingly as it had come. You were dead set in your bones to resent your parents because what they did was wrong - it was about your autonomy as a person and they’d violated that on some level. You acknowledged your agreement only to the point of technicality - yes, you’d gone through with it willingly despite hating the situation.

That was then. Now it was a couple of months later and the extremity of the feelings had died down and you were occasionally forgetting their misdeeds, so your meeting with your uncle had served as a reminder that you shouldn’t forget or really forgive it just because nothing awful had happened. Or at least yet (you knew nobody was insured about anything).

It gets late around midnight before you hear your front door unlocking.

You were just sitting on the couch, watching TV, a rarity in your busy life, when you hear several sets of footsteps stumbling into the house. There’s hushed voices shushing after a particularly loud noise.

“Nicholas?” you call out, switching off the screen and getting up to check out the situation.

“Honey, I’m home!” Nicholas yells loudly before even seeing you. The tone is shrill and very alarming and makes you freak out immediately.

In the hallway you find a quartet of men, your husband amongst his friends, the fire brigade. Nicholas is standing- no- leaning on Kei, clearly out of his mind, as well as a complementary identical Euijoo and Fuma, the latter supporting the former in his arms. Their clothes all seem to have the marks of some drizzle and you deduce that it must be raining outside.

You make a face, taking in the scene. “What the fuck is wrong with him?” you ask generally to the presumably slightly sober parties, already knowing the answer. There are a couple of guilty looks exchanged between Kei and Fuma.

“He’s drunk.” Kei admits sheepishly.

“I figured, how bad is it?” you ask.

“Baby, what are you talking about?” Nicholas interjects, eyes glazed over as he leans his head on Kei’s shoulder. “I feel great!” he grins. There’s a wildness in his eyes that makes you worry. You don’t even spare a thought on the name calling.

“He had a bit.” Fuma offers but he seems uneasy to elaborate.

“How much is ‘a bit’?” you push for details, sceptical.

“A glass.” Kei says.

“Of what?”

“Tea.”

“What kind of tea?” you interrogate, already knowing the answer.

“Long island ice tea.” Kei mumbles, lowering his eyes to the floor.

“You let him drink what!” you exclaim, outraged. “Of all the things you could have had, how on Earth did Nicholas end up having a cocktail with four types of alcohol in it?” you shriek.

You look at Nicholas, who has been clinging to Kei, hanging off him like a little koala. Euijoo cringes at the volume of your voice as he seems to doze off on Fuma’s shoulder.

“We’re sorry. It was kind of an accident.” Fuma says, clearly ashamed.

You had never drunk with Nicholas before, save for the tiny bit of wine at his parents’ and the sip of champagne at your wedding, so this was a serious shock. Was your husband a serious lightweight? Did you even know him? Clearly you had only scratched the surface of Nicholas trivia if this had never come up till now.

“Yeah, he’s not really built for alcohol.” Kei says apologetically.

“But it’s okay, we’ll take care of him, and Euijoo.” Fuma adds quickly.

You look at the way Euijoo is basically sleeping in Fuma’s arms, surprised that Fuma can hold him up so well when Euijoo is a few inches taller. Kei on the other hand seems to be struggling with Nicholas’ affection - while you were talking, there was an attempted piggy back that Kei had to gently fend off. On closer surveillance, Nicholas seemed to be a clingy drunk with a bad case of grabby hands.

“No, it’s fine.” you find yourself saying. “I’ll take care of him, I did marry this mess. He’s my responsibility now.” you tell the elder two. You couldn’t imagine the ruckus they would collectively make so you decided it was better that you just take over.

Kei’s eyes light up in gratitude while Fuma seems even more guilty while cradling Euijoo’s head to his shoulder.

“Are you sure?” Fuma asks, his voice full of concern. You nod reassuringly.

“You guys can go, I’ll make sure he’s okay.” you insist. Despite meeting them for the third time today, you most certainly were strangers and you didn’t really want them hanging around your house, even if they were Nicholas’ friends.

“You’re a badass, YN, thanks.” Kei gushes while guiding, more like carrying, Nicholas to the couch. You give him a nod of acknowledgement while standing between the hallway and living room.

Euijoo seems to stir, clearly having some kind of sonar or telepathy or something because as soon as Nicholas is a few feet away, his eyes open and he looks around as if he lost something.

“Noooo,” Euijoo whines, trying to follow. “don’t take my bestie away…” his attempt is curtailed by Fuma, who pats his back gently.

“Nico’s home, Joojoo, don’t worry about it. You’ll see him tomorrow.” Fuma explains. “Sorry about this, YN.” he says to you when Kei comes back. Euijoo seems dissatisfied with the current chain of events but pouts about it quietly.

“Right, he’s all yours.” Kei says before going to stand on Euijoo’s other side and take some of his weight off Fuma. “Let’s get you home, buddy.” he puts one of his arms around his shoulder and the three of them start to make for the door.

You open it helpfully and stand aside, letting the two older men half-carry, half-drag Euijoo away.

“Thanks for bringing Nico home in one piece.” you say as you bid them goodbye.

“Good luck.” Fuma gives you a ‘fighting’ gesture with his closed fist in solidarity.

“Thanks, I think I’m going to need it.” you bid them goodbye and close the door, bracing yourself for what lay ahead.

In the living room, Nicholas has managed to stay where Kei left him, splayed all over the couch like a pancake, staring upwards. You round the couch and assess the situation; he’s very much out of it, eyes unfocused and mouth ever so slightly opened as if he was fascinated with the colour of your ceiling.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” you begin. You decide to get some water and painkillers for the inevitable hangover he’s going to get in a few hours.

There’s a moment of silence while Nicholas shuffles, sitting up but still leaning into the shape of the back of the couch. He seems to register you talking to him, which by the time you stand in front of him with the glass of water, makes him animate suddenly, his body switching gear.

“YN!” he says, as if shocked.

“Yes?” you offer him the glass but he doesn’t seem to notice.

“Let’s go dance outside!” he exclaims, his face bright with excitement. He starts to get up but seemingly feels dizzy since he flops back down on the couch, clutching his head. You blink at him, unable to understand the thought process. The request was neither here nor there, really.

“We can’t.” you say simply. “It’s raining. See?” you point toward the window where the drizzle seems to have escalated and the drops are sliding down the glass.

“Yeah, well it rains inside too.” he mumbles when you put his suggestion down.

“Y’know, I’m not sure it does.” you hum, amused at the comment while you place the glass on the coffee table.

“But the shower,” he insists. “it’s inside rain.” he says. You purse your lips, biting back a laugh at how convinced Nicholas seems that the shower is really rain.

“Okay, alright.” you say, nodding to yourself. “Let’s get you to bed, you need to sleep this off.” you start to lean down to take hold of his arm.

“I don’t want to sleep.” he whines immediately. Instead, he takes hold of your arm and looks up at you with big eyes. “I’m hungry.” he pouts.

“Okay, what do you want to eat? I’ll make it for you.”

“You will?” his eyes light up with delight. “I’ll eat anything you make.”

The way that alcohol seems to keep its chokehold on Nicholas suggests to you that you should probably opt for something that will ease the problems that would follow.

“Hangover soup it is.” you state, trying to shake Nicholas off so you can get to the kitchen.

When he doesn’t let go, you sigh and tug him up by the hands so he stands up. You help him stumble across the room to the kitchen part and sit him down at the counter where he slumps immediately and rests on his crossed arms, looking up at you, the dopey look resting on his face.

You start to gather the ingredients, which thankfully your fridge contained because you’d been shopping yesterday, but that’s when the babbling starts.

Nicholas seems to have found some new energy because once his mouth opens, it doesn’t seem to close.

“Is that beef? Oh my god, it is, I love beef. Are you going to cook the beef? ‘Cause I know this killer recipe for a beef stew and you just have to try it. I used to have it as a kid but my parents never made it for me, it was always this nanny I had and she was awesome. I really miss auntie, YN, I really miss her. She was the best. Are you going to make the beef like she did? Maybe you can get the recipe from her, oh! You should meet her, she’d love you!” and as much as you wanted to listen to everything, your brain sort of switched off when he got on another tirade as you started slicing the cabbage and other veggies for the soup.

He starts to run out of steam by the time you get to putting the sauce you prepared on the beef and the cabbage and he just sort of leans on the counter, face in the palm of his hands and watches you.

Then comes more absurdity.

Nicholas giggles distinctly and smiles to himself.

You only react out of concern, putting the lid on the pot. “What is it?” you ask.

He shakes his head bashfully and doesn’t say anything but continues smiling.

“Fine, don’t tell me.” you mutter, putting the broth to the beef and adding the cabbage. You’re starting to feel a little paranoid; was he laughing about your cooking? You knew you weren’t a Michelin chef, or even as good as he was in the kitchen, but you weren’t that bad, right?

“Hmm, I’m happy.” he says, fingers squishing his own cheeks.

The statement takes you by surprise.

“You’re drunk.” you correct, unsure what to make of it.

“Don’t you wanna know why I’m happy?” he leans forward, as if trying to get your attention.

You shrug on reflex. “Happiness is fleeting and overrated.” (as is alcohol within your system).

“Boooo! Why are you like this, huh? You’re so cute, you should be happy too!” he insists. You side eye him but let him continue. “My cute wifey should be happy, like me. Let’s be happy together!” he laughs, as if he just solved the world’s problems.

You stare at him, slightly horrified because a) who the hell was he calling his ‘cute wifey’ ‘cause that sure as hell wasn’t you, and b) how would you be happy together when you were living in a loveless marriage?

“Nicholas, I don’t-”

“No! Stop it! I won’t hear it, I want everyone to be happy. End of discussion.” he babbles, clapping his hands together once, as if he’s hitting a slate.

You’re baffled - you’d forgotten what it was like to talk to drunk people.

You hate the way his words pierce through your thick skin and land somewhere soft where it hurts. You knew he was drunk, but he must be drunker than you thought.

If anything, his declarations made you sad because who knew what the future holds? You didn’t dare fantasise these days, for fear that if you did daydream, everything in your life would fall apart and you really would spend a life time with Nicholas instead of finding the love of your life. Would that bring you the happiness you’ve been brainwashed to expect in life?

Despite yourself, you held on to the belief that whoever it was, this figurative love of your life person, they were out there and you might still have a chance to find them even if you were or had been married to Nicholas. The thought was a sick and twisted hope as you prepared the soup, quietly hating yourself for thinking it while you were just hanging out with the man that was for the present circumstances, your husband.

You couldn’t reason with the guilt; its grip was too strong but you were a romantic at heart and nothing that had happened between the two of you had been romantic, at least in your view. Being forced to marry each other wasn’t exactly romantic, was it?

Your soup is finally ready and you turn off the heat, bringing out a bowl. Nicholas has been lying on the counter, his cheek against the cold surface while he sits in one of the tall chairs surrounding your island. The clang of the lid seems to shake him and he straightens up then stares at you suddenly with a newfound focus. You start to think there’s some dirt on your face.

“You’re so pretty with your hair like that.” he notes, as if it just occurred to him. You almost spill the soup in your hands as you process the random compliment. You don’t think much of it though, because this is how you wore your hair almost every day so it was definitely some unconscious thought fuelled by that wretched cocktail.

“Eat up.” you instruct, putting the steaming bowl in front of him. He grins at it, as if it was his first born child. You make a mental note to never bring alcohol in the house.

“Thanks!” he says happily but instead of digging in, he starts to pat his pockets.

“What are you looking for?” you ask, sure you were going to have to solve this one.

“My phone,” he says, searching his pockets to no avail. “but I can’t find it.”

You sigh heavily and reach to your right, picking up the device and holding it out to Nicholas. It had been sitting on the counter the whole time, but how could you expect his drunk ass to see it?

“Ah! Great.” he says and takes it, holding it up to the bowl. “I have to take a picture, my cute wifey made me a meal.” he giggles. You want to scowl at the new nickname but the goofy way he says it makes it hard for you to fight a smile trying to break through.

“Watch it or it might be the last meal I make for you.” you warn, no force behind your words.

You let him eat, just relieved that he’s not saying any more weird things. His battery had run out a while ago so he hadn’t been so bad when he was just resting on the counter. You were already thinking ahead about how you were going to get him to sleep. Drunk people tended to get sleepy after a while so why hadn’t he yet?

The conundrum bothers you while Nicholas finishes eating.

“Are you ready to go to bed?” you test the waters tentatively.

“Nah, I’m not sleepy,” he says while a yawn follows.

“Oh thank god.” you sigh in relief at the yawn. His brain might be saying he’s not sleepy but his body sure was; you just had to wait for his brain to catch up.

“What?” he asks.

“Nothing.” you say quickly. “Well, let’s get you to your room, I won’t make you sleep.” you lie.

It’s barely a trek to his room but you definitely struggle through the hallway because Nicholas for some reason thinks that he’s the size of a tiny lap dog and you practically carry him to bed. You almost manhandle him to lie down, his body falling limp onto the mattress and you pull the blanket over him before he gets any ideas of getting up.

“Hang on a sec,” you tell him, going to get the water, painkillers and a bowl in case any of the iced tea or stew makes a reappearance. “Alright, do you need anything before I go?” you ask.

“There is one thing,” he says after a moment. “come closer.” he says quietly. You worry he might try to snuggle you to death but you indulge him, perching on the edge of his bed. You lean closer, listening. Nicholas looks up at you. “I have to play Mario Kart right now, YN. It’s life or death.” he pleads.

You straighten up immediately, your blood pressure wavering.

“Oh, it’s life or death, alright.” you mutter. “Might kill your dumb ass if I ever catch you drinking again.”

That seems to change his mind pretty quickly and you can almost see his non-existent tail curl between his legs.

“Alright, if you need anything, just shout, I’ll leave the doors open.” you tell him. “Goodnight.” you start to get up but he catches your hand before you can step away.

You’re surprised and think he must have thought of something so you turn, watching him expectantly.

“Don’t go.” he says in a small voice. It was possibly one of the lowest decibels you had ever heard him talk at.

“Why? Don’t you want to sleep?”

“I don’t want to be alone.” he admits quietly. His voice makes something lurch in your chest. You gulp, considering his request.

“Okay, I’ll stay until you fall asleep.” you promise, sitting back down.

Nicholas nods and cozies up in his blanket, still not letting go of your hand.

You watch him for a moment; his eyes are closed and his chest is falling and rising steadily as if he’s already asleep but you know better from the python grip of his hand around yours. There’s something peaceful though in his expression despite that, the same tranquillity that had made you hesitate before waking him up some time ago.

His words echo in your mind and for a second you let your heart break a little because you knew that you were luckier - you had Maki, but Nicholas was the only heir in his family. You were older but you didn’t exactly remember a time that you didn’t have Maki in your life. You wondered what it was like to grow up alone, missing the presence of a sibling.

After a few minutes, Nicholas seems to drift off, his hand loosening but still wrapped around yours. You want to untangle yourself and go but you worry about waking him, so you slide to the floor and sit against the side of the bed instead, predicting that he’d move around in his sleep and you best avoid that or he could wake up from that too.

What you don’t expect is that you drift off too.

You wake up in the middle of the night for a second but it’s only to shift around, your brain not registering that you’re sleeping on the floor in someone else’s room.

The next time you wake up is in the morning, you can tell by the light in the room, but you’re no longer on the floor. You’re lying in a bed, a blanket thrown over you that you’d been snuggling into. You inhale the smell of the pillow and blanket you’re cocooned in and your eyes snap open.

You forgot this wasn’t your bed.

You flail about with desperation as you sit up and notice that beside you and the cute wolf plushie positioned next to your pillow like a guard dog, Nicholas’ bed is missing its Nicholas. You glance at the clock on the bedside table and do a double take; it’s around eight, on a weekend, and Nicholas was already out of bed?

“Did the sun rise in the west?” you wonder out loud, flicking off the blanket and getting up.

When you open the door of his room and pad into the hallway, you can already hear the distant clattering around in the kitchen. You smooth a hand through your hair and make your way there.

If it wasn’t for the time of day, the image you were seeing wouldn’t be out of the ordinary; Nicholas did spend time in the kitchen cooking too, knowing his way around confidently. Yet, what you were seeing makes you suspicious.

Nicholas notices you coming and gives you a sheepish greeting.

“Morning, you hungry?” he asks.

“Uh,” you let your brain buffer. It felt like a trick question. “I guess.”

“Good, I made breakfast.” he turns back to put the finishing touches on the meal while you sit down at the counter, hesitatingly.

On closer inspection, he does seem hungover - his movements are a little slow and his slouch is visible unlike his usually good posture, but otherwise, there’s no sign of last night’s drunken Nico.

You’re presented with a cup of coffee from your machine, just the way you like it, then a plate of fruit cut up and arranged neatly and finally a pretty large stack of pancakes with a little chocolate sauce that spells out ‘sorry :(’.

“I really am sorry.” Nicholas adds for good measure, twiddling his thumbs opposite you at the counter.

You can’t help but smile at the pancakes a little because they really were cute.

“You’re forgiven.” you say. “Just please never consume alcohol ever again, thanks.”

“You got it.” he promises.

more memes!!! chapter 4 edition <3

A/N: thanks for reading, feedback is always appreciated <3 yn finally met the fire brigade! yes i know i didn’t write in taki and harua, that was deliberate, it’s not that i don’t love the babies, it just doesn’t make sense for them to be in this chapter haha, they will appear, i promise. also the vinegar thing is true - it’s good for getting rid of smells, just fyi.

#&team #andteam #&team nicholas #wang yixiang #nicholas x reader #&team x reader #&team fics #&team imagines #&team scenarios #momobani.writes

48 notes · View notes

momobani · 10 months

Text

SPEAK NOW OR FOREVER HOLD A GRUDGE

THE WAY I hate YOU - Chapter 2 - 13.1k

&team Nicholas x fem!reader - arranged marriage AU

SERIES MASTERLIST

Sum: You have no choice but to work hard on planning the wedding of your nightmares. That and actually attending said wedding.

Warnings: swearing, sarcasm, mention of food and alcohol, suggestive (if you squint), implication of antagonism

Soundtrack rec: Can’t Help Falling In Love - Kina Grannis

A/N: another long one, I’m starting to worry about the length of this whole thing, oops haha, hope you enjoy anyway, look out for some fun cameos <3 also happy Nicho day since it’s already the 9th over there!

The ticking of the clock was starting to bother you.

You’d arranged another meeting with Nicholas in order to deal with various bits and pieces for the wedding preparation and the thought of having to do all of it kept buzzing around in your head all day as you counted down the hours where you had to face the cold, hard reality.

You were agitated all day and then angry at yourself for losing your mind like this, and all over a man. It was truly ridiculous. Granted the situation was bigger than the both of you, you felt like despite that, all your focus had gone to Nicholas. He was the person you were going to marry after all.

It hit five and you knew the office would start emptying. You had a half hour before you had to meet so you went to get something to eat, only to find yourself reaching for coffee instead. You didn’t think you could stomach anything concrete right now.

After a while you went down to the lobby to wait for your guest, although if things went as planned, Nicholas would soon no longer be a guest at your company but part of the group as your husband.

You had to stop for a moment and imagine it; him walking down the same hallways you did, finding him sipping coffee on the roof when you went up for your break, him wearing a lanyard with your company name on it-

Except, it was probable that he would stay in his company and never show up in front of you.

The idea was a relief to your overthinking.

You definitely didn’t want to see your husband at work - it was maybe the one place you’d be able to ignore the fact of your being tied together.

You sighed, shelving the thought and looked around. It was time so where was he?

In the mean time people milled about, shuffling through the doors and out so they could go home, while you sat still, observing.

It was a while until you saw a familiar head of hair poking out above the crowd. Then Nicholas emerged from the sea of people and walked towards you. You were perched on the arm of a couch in the foyer, legs crossed at the ankles.

“You’re late.” You said when he was close enough to hear you. He had been almost smiling at you, a friendly expression on his face, but it fell flat as he checked his watch.

“By five minutes.” He states. “I think you might need to call the police, actually.” He says on second thought. You weren’t in the mood for this. Not with the way you’d been wound so tightly all day.

“Whatever, let’s go take care of business.” You turned and lead the way up.

In five minutes you had reached your destination. You were feeling a bit better because you were going to one of your favourite places in the entire building. Just the elevator ride there was enough to get you excited.

“Why did you want to meet here again?” Nicholas asks sceptically as he scans his surroundings.

“Because, this is the war room; it’s where the best and most intricate schemes are concocted. Any plan made here achieves victory and demolishes the enemy.” You explain, gesturing around yourself in one of your company’s many conference rooms.

Indeed this one had become somewhat of an emergency bunker throughout the years. Your legal department had seized control of it even before you got into university, so you’d grown to dream of being part of its intensity and hustle. Your uncle had let you sit in on last minute meetings during the most gruelling cases they had to handle for your company.

Nicholas is silent for a moment, a little taken aback. You realise you must have been speaking quite vigorously, your eyes wide and fired up.

“Okay…that’s terrifying that you think our wedding has enemies that need demolition.” He says, hand reaching to scratch the back of his neck. “But it sounds like the success rate of this room is high, so let’s stick with it.”

“I’m so glad you can see reason.” You hum and sit down in one of the chairs on the corner of the large rectangular table in the middle of the room. Nicholas sits on the adjacent side so the two of you are facing other around the bend of the corner. “I’ll start.”

“I’m all ears.” He says, opening the notes app on his phone. You were impressed he was diligent enough to take notes, even though it was the bare minimum in your opinion.

“Welcome to my guide on speed running wedding planning.” You say. “Sponsored by Pinterest and fuelled by caffeine.” You take a moment to glance at your own notes, your paper notebook heavy in your hands. “We’ve already got the engagement ring but we’ll need actual wedding bands too.”

“I’ll jot that down and keep an eye out.” He replies, tapping away on his screen.

“Right. Guest list - and by that I mean make sure the people we actually want there, can make it.” You say. “No offence, but I think your mother must have taken care of that before the contracts were even signed.”

“True, if we don’t watch it, it’ll be business partners only.” Nicholas comments.

“In terms of invitations, we can take care of that at home. I’ll check with Maki if he can help us too.”

“Asking your brother for free labour? Cold, YN, very cold.” He clicks his tongue.

“Who said for free? I’ll feed him and he won’t even realise I’m exploiting him.” You shrug.

“My bad, just sibling things, huh.” Nicholas sighs. “Anyways, next.”

“Venue.”

“That’s going to be the hardest one.”

“Bold of you to assume I didn’t do my research as soon as I found out I’m getting married.” You say pointedly. “We’ll pick it out together though.”

“No objections.” He nods.

“Outfits.” You list. You pause while Nicholas writes it down.

“Got it. The dress is your problem, I have no say in it.”

“Damn right, you don’t. I’ve already booked an appointment. We’ll each take care of our own.” You say. “That includes entourage.” You clarify.

“Right on. I’ll have to get my boys together.”

“Okay. Catering; my friend Jay can take care of that, and I think he might be the best option since everyone else will be booked out by now. I already mentioned it to him. Just need your confirmation.”

“Fine by me. Just send me the bill.” Nicholas replies without looking up.

“Ohh, cool guy, aren’t you.” You quip. Before he can respond, you move on to the next item. “Photographer. Might be a little hard to find since they’ll be booked well in advance.”

“Hmm, my friend Jo is pretty good at artsy stuff, I’ll see if he’s interested in taking photos.”

“Not bad, but if it doesn’t work we’ll have to rush to find a professional.” You point out.

“On such short notice? No one will want the gig but it’s not a problem.” Nicholas says.

“Why?”

“Y’know for a rich person, you sure don’t know how to motivate people.” He hums, clearly satisfied that he’d made you ask a question.

“Cynical. I like it.” You reply, not missing a beat.

You went through a couple more minor details like agreeing to go to cake tasting, selection for dinner sets and crockery and picking out general decor. You arrive at the bottom of your list, though granted it was a very fluid and growing list - gifts.

“Let’s tell people not to give gifts, hmm?” Nicholas suggests.

“Agreed.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I’d feel guilty since it’s a bullshit wedding.” You speak bluntly.

“Thanks for taking it seriously, I guess?” Nicholas says.

“What? I’m getting us organised, aren’t I?” You retort.

“You’re always complaining about the marriage.”

“Me? When? I mean I think about it but I don’t think I actually complain to you personally.” You feel suddenly agitated that he said that to you - as if you were spending every moment telling him how much you hated this. You weren’t. You were thinking it, but you didn’t voice it.

“Fine, you don’t. It just sucks.” He concedes. “This whole situation sucks and we’ll probably end up killing each other.”

You were a little ashamed to admit you considered that last part for a split second, then snapped out of it.

“I couldn’t agree more, but this is business. This is life.” You snapped your notebook shut. “Anything to add?” You asked, attempting to conclude your meeting.

“Nope.” He pops the sound and pockets his phone. “But I have to say, it was kind of anti-climactic.”

“What was?”

“Being in this room. No battles were strategised and no enemies were smote.”

“Would you like me to smite you just for funsies?” You ask. “It can be arranged.”

“Wouldn’t you like that?” He has the audacity to chuckle. “But I must decline. I actually have a scheduled smiting at 7.”

“Then I’ll see you for venue hunting.” You say nonchalantly and turn to leave, expecting him to follow.

You walk Nicholas to the elevator as a curtesy and wait until he goes down, the two of you looking at each other blankly, the state of doom passing over each of you, as the doors slide shut between you and you’re left alone.

You sigh in relief and fix your attention on getting home for the day, the image of Nicholas in the elevator ingrained behind your eyes.

Since it was going to take a long time, you had agreed to each take a day off to devote to finding a venue.

You had lost a coin flip over a video call on who was going to drive so you were waiting at the entrance of your apartment complex, for Nicholas to show up. You’d put on sunglasses in an attempt of disguising yourself against gossiping neighbours.

You heard the roar of the Rrari before you saw it as it sped toward you after making a turn into the complex. The car stopped right in front of you and Nicholas rolled down the window.

“Get in loser, we’re going shopping.” He says, leaning his elbow on the window frame. Your brows furrowed in confusion.

“Did you just quote Mean Girls?” You asked.

“Yeah, I always wanted to do that.” He grins. You make your way to the passenger side and slide in, shocked at how low the car actually is.

“What’s with the shades?” Nicholas asks as he manoeuvres out of the complex. “Are you a vampire or something?”

“Maybe, but mostly I’m embarrassed to be seen in your firetruck.” You reply, trying not to move too much because the leather seats made a really annoying amount of noise, like the rest of this stupid thing.

“Eh, we flipped a coin, just sit there and enjoy being in a nice car.” Nicholas shrugs.

“Aha, right. Should I hold the siren? Oh no, we forgot the hose.” You say, feigning regret. Nicholas sighs, gripping the steering wheel.

“You’re not as funny as you think you are.” He says.

“Well, I must inform you - the fire brigade is no joke, sir.” You sit back, satisfied at irking him.

“Are you done?”

“We’ll see.” You hum, looking out at the road in front of you. Nicholas doesn’t say anything for a while, but he notices there’s something shining on your hand.

“You’re wearing it.” He says, pointing to your ring.

“Kind of have to, don’t you think?” You reply. “We went to all the trouble of getting it, I may as well wear it.”

“I was just saying.” He shrugs and shuts up.

The first venue is the furthest away and it takes you almost an hour to get there. You mostly drive in silence but you decide to plan a little more while you’re together, you holding your notebook open and using your phone to search things up. It just meant you didn’t need to meet more than you had to and waste time when you both had work to deal with.

You studied Nicholas as he drove; sometimes he kept one hand on the wheel and one against the window, elbow leaning on the frame. At red lights you’d notice him touching his lip, as if deep in thought, wrist draped over the wheel and his expensive watch hugging it snugly. He turned on the AC since it was hotter today, his sleeves already rolled up his forearms and you noticed that he kept everything around room temperature.

At one point he catches you watching him and his mouth twitches but he says nothing. You hated unspoken interactions like that - you’d rather he confront you head on, ‘cause god knows if that just inflated his ego or something - what if he thought you were checking him out? You did not want to give him the satisfaction.

If anything, you were sizing him up like boxers do to their opponents, except you were sizing him up as a future husband.

When you arrive at the venue, the sun is high in the sky and it’s starting to be sweltering for late spring. You shrug off your cardigan and leave it in the car as you leave.

It’s surprising to see the venue itself; it was the botanical gardens in your town, complete with a large sum of land all around the main green houses and actual gardens. There was a great hall designated for events on the other side of one garden, the gravel stone path leading straight to the large wooden doors of the building.

As you walked down the path to meet your contact - one of the staff members - you felt like you already knew what the outcome would be.

“What do you think?” You asked Nicholas before you neared the doors. He was looking around, taking in the layout and observing the area you were in.

“I’m not sure.” He says, not taking his eyes off your surroundings.

“Me neither. But I’m not feeling it.” You confess. “And it’s way far out of the city.”

“That I’ll agree with. Let’s just look around a little more.” He suggests. You nod and keep walking.

You do meet with the staff member who tells you about the grounds, the services they offer and most importantly the price for renting. It’s not a staggering amount but for the fact that neither of you seems to be infatuated with the location, you tell them you’ll think about it and get back to them.

You go back to the Rrari and set the navigation to take you back to the city. Somehow you knew you wouldn’t be coming back here.

The next venue is one of the grand hotels in your city. Perhaps it’s the familiarity or perhaps just the general atmosphere, but you’re feeling much more favourable to this one.

So far, so good. The inside on the other hand is bigger than you expected and you can envision the decor far better than you did at the botanical gardens.

“This one’s definitely going to be a finalist.” You comment as you leave the hotel. Nicholas hums in agreement.

“We don’t have much choice anyway. There’s only two venues left.” He says.

“Well, that’s what we get when our parents decide to blindside us.” You frown, thinking about how there’s less than a month to your wedding.

At the next venue, you’re greeted by a family friend of the Wangs, ready to show you around. You’ve arrived at city hall and you greet the man waiting for you, making short introductions. He explains where everything is and how the wedding would proceed in this venue.

Inside city hall, you find the main hall is probably large enough to host the official part with most if not all guests you knew were definitely coming. You’d been assured there would be a lot of no-shows who sent congratulations in the form of cash. You speculated that those would probably be your companies’ biggest competitors who just so happened to not make it.

Your guide left you two for a while to have a look around.

“I don’t like it.” Nicholas states immediately.

“What?” You turn to look at him, confused. “It’s great, why not?”

He shrugs. “I just don’t like it. That’s all.” He insists. You scoff in disbelief.

“You’re gonna have to give me reasons why. You said it yourself we don’t have much choice, we need legitimate reasons to cross things off the list.” You argue.

“Can’t you just drop it, YN?” He says, his voice hardening. You hadn’t heard this from him before. If anything, it made you want to push him more. You were in the same sinking ship, you had to at least be honest with each other.

“No, not really.” You reply. Nicholas closes his eyes for a moment, as if collecting himself, then opens them again.

“Because,” He sighs. “My parents picked this one out. I don’t want to give them the satisfaction of picking the venue. They already picked out who I’ll marry, I don’t want to concede more.” He explains.

The explanation tracks, but you couldn’t understand why he didn’t just tell you? You of all people would completely understand where the sentiment was coming from.

“Fine, let’s just leave then.” You say, turning to walk back outside. You hear his footsteps behind you, and know Nicholas is following. You have to stop and wait for the gentleman who showed you in before, making sure not to rouse suspicion as to why you wanted to leave so quickly.

You take the opportunity to talk. “That back there,” You say, referring to your almost argument, if you could call it that. “We can’t keep doing that. We have to at least tolerate each other. Like colleagues.”

“Oh wow. My new favourite coworker.” Nicholas replies, clearly annoyed. “Anyway, you were the one who wouldn’t let it go.”

“Well, I wouldn’t have pressed if you’d just told me. When it’s something like this, we should be honest with each other.” You continue. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re equally fucked.”

“Do I have to tell you everything, hmm?” Nicholas demands. “We’re strangers, YN. We already agreed we’ll pretend for your brother’s sake and look good at events too, but you’ve made it fairly clear you want nothing else to do with me, so why should I have anything to do with you?”

You hate to admit it, but in some ways he was right. You’d already settled what the transactional deal was - mind your business unless you needed to be in the public eye (or Maki’s).

You’re about to say something else but you spot the man from earlier coming back, his Hawkeyes already on you, probably sensing some discord already. You’re certain from your stance that the two of you pretty much look like you’re beefing, even from afar.

“Cut the crap and smile, he’s looking.” You warn Nicholas, who didn’t notice yet.

“Let him. It’s not the wedding yet. Who cares?”

You roll your eyes. “The continued validity of your black card does, now laugh like I said something funny.”

He doesn’t quite laugh but he pretends to put a smile, teeth showing as if he just chuckled.

“Is he coming this way?” He asks through his teeth, smile not wavering. Your eyes dart towards the man, who was indeed making his way to you.

“Yup.” You adjust your hair, filling the seconds before-

“So, what did you two think?” The man asks, looking between the two of you.

“Um,” Nicholas seems to be caught on the spot.

“It’s lovely, but it might be too small for us.” You cut in, pretending to be sorry. The man nods in understanding, clearly sympathetic that you just couldn’t make do here. “Yeah, it’s a shame.” You add for good measure.

“Indeed. Well, I hope you’re successful soon.” The man smiles. “Nicholas, do pass my regards to your parents.”

“Will do, uncle. Thank you for showing us around.” Nicholas replies, suddenly calm and collected again, the poster child of politeness. It was a familiar switch, one that you also made on the daily.

The two of you leave, getting back into the clown car. (You were calling it that, not just because it was red, but because it was tiny on the outside and spacious on the inside.)

You were thinking about what you’d been talking about before, the whole tolerating each other thing. You realise that maybe you’d been too harsh on him, even though there was still a smidgeon of resentment reserved for him in your heart.

You were indeed both on the Titanic, destined to go down together.

“I can practically hear you thinking.” Nicholas states as he revs the engine.

“Congrats, you’re a telepath.” You say as you stare out the window. The sun is slowly making its way across the sky, taking away the day with it. Nicholas ignores your reply.

“If it concerns me, then tell me.” He says.

You breathe in and out, contemplating what to say.

“Let’s at least be friends. I’m sure a lifetime will go by much faster like that.” You surprise yourself with that suggestion.

“Fine, but it’s not forever. C’mon, have some imagination. Ten years tops.” Nicholas says. “And that’s worst case scenario. Neither company will need us to keep this relationship for longer.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that if I were you.” You counter. You had too many trust issues with your own parents - they wanted to keep their place in society, no matter the cost. You were their most prized bargaining chip and if they already had you married into the Wang family, then why would they ever let you out?

“Listen, I’ve decided I’m doing this thing where I try to be an optimist.” He glances at you for emphasis.

“Well, quit it. It’s not helping.” You sigh. “And you’re not very good at it.” You mutter.

“Hey, I’ll have you know, there’s nothing I’m bad at.” Nicholas counters, his voice filling with gusto. You don’t say anything, just to rile him up a bit. “I mean it, I’m very capable.”

“Alright, Mr Very Capable, are you capable of stopping for lunch?”

“It’s my best skill, actually.”

You had barbecue since it was the first thing that you thought of, sitting outside one of those outdoor tent restaurants and hiding under the shade of the umbrellas above you. Nicholas grilled the meat and he turned out to be pretty good at it, staying true to his previous statement of capabilities.

After that, you made it to the final venue. It was just outside the city centre, a nature haven hidden within the city. The grounds were home to a lake and gardens, as well as the actual events hall where the wedding would take place.

You checked out the building first, wandering through and finding that it was light and breezy inside, refreshing even, and that would be important since you were having a summer wedding.

“I’m pretty sold on it already.” You whisper to Nicholas as your guide takes you through the back way so you can see the gardens.

“It’s either this or the hotel, right?” He whispers back. You nod, feeling suddenly pretty upbeat. You hadn’t felt like you’d made any progress since seeing the hotel, but now you were so close to figuring even one thing out, it shot a boost of serotonin straight to your brain.

You were left alone to explore the rest of the grounds, following the path that snaked through the gardens and lead to the lake.

“I think we should take it.” You say.

“Right? It’s better than the hotel. More festive.”

“Yeah, and it’s the only actual wedding venue.” You add. “God, it really is only just three weeks away, how crazy is that.” You comment. The sense of impending doom was rising in your gut.

“That’s too soon. And to think everyone we know will be there, looking at us and whatnot.” He shudders, clearly horrified by the scenario.

“And we still have so much to do.” You felt like keeling over already.

“Yeah, that and we need to make at least half of the guests believe we’re actually doing this for ourselves. We should star in a Mission Impossible reboot.”

“We’re going to have to practice that, there’s no way to just wing it.” You think out loud. It was true - it would be far too easy to spot the fakeness of your rapport. The competitors were one thing, but the boards of directors in both your companies, the shareholders and any outstanding investors had to be convinced.

“Why don’t we start practicing now? We’re here together anyway.” Nicholas suggests.

“Fine, start off basic.” You say.

“Okay.” Nicholas nods and extends a hand, palm facing up. You try not to think too much and put your hand in his slightly larger one. You never knew that holding hands could be so mechanical, although in all fairness, you still weren’t totally comfortable with each other.

“Am I holding too hard?” You ask, feeling like your nerves were affecting your judgment.

“No, it’s fine.” Nicholas says. “Okay, ready for another step?”

“Sure.” You say, not sure where it was going.

Nicholas lets your hand go, then shuffles closer to you awkwardly, and you guess what he’s going to do. He tentatively puts an arm around your shoulder and you’re suddenly really close together. His arm is heavy on your shoulder but not uncomfortable. Because of the angle, you’re drawn to lean toward him slightly as you walk, head almost resting on him and your arm snaking around his waist so you don’t kilter off balance.

You’re close enough to smell his cologne now and you realise that you’d already smelled it but didn’t know it was Nicholas. Despite yourself, you note he smells good.

“We’re doing pretty well.” Nicholas observes. “Is this okay?” He asks, adjusting himself so you don’t have to lean that much but he’s leaning toward you too.

“Yeah.” You mumble, starting to think about what else you might need to practice to make seem natural. It dawns on you that you’re going to have to kiss, at least once at some point. You’re not sure how you feel about that so you suggest something else. “What are we going to do about our first dance?”

You’ve reached the lake by now, some large trees shading you from above. You stop by the shore and untangle yourselves.

“Do you dance?” Nicholas asks, completely serious. You burst into laughter at the mere proposal of such a thing.

“Do monkeys fly?” You control yourself as to not snort. Nicholas thinks for a moment.

“Well, some of them do, depending on what counts as ‘flying’.”

“‘Kay, that was a bad example. Point still stands though; I don’t dance.” You explain.

“Have you ever tried it?”

“No, jeez, why would I?” Your forehead scrunches in confusion. Nicholas tilts his head.

“YN, I do find your existence a pitiful one.” He pretends to be empathetic.

“Takes one to know one.” You retort, giving him a tight smile.

“So what should we do then?” He continues. “We could just slow dance - that’s the easiest thing to do, don’t have to think about it much.”

You see the reasonableness and nod. “It’s just swaying to the music, right? I think I can manage that.”

“What about without music?” Nicholas asks, stepping closer. You don’t fight it when he puts a light hand on your waist, barely touching you, because it’s a good point - the music isn’t the thing that will get you to feel confident. You reluctantly rest your hands over his shoulders and relax, trying to ignore how you can feel the taut muscle under your fingers. “Okay, like this; I’m going to count one and two slowly, sway to each beat.” He explains. You nod, preparing to start. “One, two…” He counts you in and leads you to sway left first.

At first, it feels awkward, but by the fourth or fifth time, you start getting the hang of it. It’s like a scene straight out of Dirty Dancing, dancing in the middle of the forest, except you’re right by the lake.

Nicholas’ hands stay ghosting over your waist, not putting on much pressure, just enough to guide you vaguely. It feels like you’re way too close all of a sudden, merely inches between you, but that was the proximity you would have on the day, so you may as well get used to it.

“Good, I think you can do it now.” He clears his throat while the two of you let go of each other.

“Great, thanks, Professor.” You look out to the lake, watching how the afternoon sun reflects in the water. “Should we go book the venue then?”

“Let’s do it.”

A few days go by, your sluggish office life draining you out as usual, but you keep yourself busy by coordinating wedding preparations with Nicholas - he chooses the dinner set and dining decor while having you on video call, while you go deal with the menu and sit down with Jay to brainstorm.

The two of you come up with a feast but you worry that Jay’s catering business isn’t off the ground completely yet and it might be difficult to complete the order for the whole wedding. He reassures you several times that it’ll be totally okay and you have no choice but to just trust him.

You don’t end up dealing with the invitations yourselves since your parents have that covered and you’d want to bet that they’d sent for the order before even getting the two of you engaged.

“There’s a ridiculous amount of money I’d bet on that being what happened.” Nicholas says as you drive the two of you to your cake taster session.

“It just saves us time, even if they were being cocky by ordering before we met.” You reply, keeping your eyes on the road.

“Hey, we should be grateful they didn’t do anything crazier.” He points out.

“You mean crazier than making us get engaged the first time we met?” You ask.

“Touché.” Nicholas concedes.

You park a block away from the cafe where the cake tasting session is taking place. It’s in a fairly quiet neighbourhood and not too far away from your apartment.

You greet the staff at the counter and get seated, anticipating the sugar coma you’re about to inflict on yourselves.

As soon as the first cake appears, your brain shuts down and you go into autopilot. It’s as if you’re getting drunk and blacking out because there is very little you remember from the actual session. You know you picked one in the end, being lucky that you both liked a few of the same cakes and you call it a day. Guess you’ll have to be surprised when you actually eat it in a couple weeks.

“I’m in a goofy mood.” Nicholas says, yawning when you get back in your car after placing the order for the cake.

“It’s all that sugar; I can feel it rotting my brain.” You frown, kind of annoyed about the after effects of trying so many different cakes. You’d only had a bite of each but it all piled up and now you wanted to lie down and sleep it off.

You get to Nicholas’ apartment complex and turn into the underground parking lot, stopping near the exit. When he doesn’t say anything, you look over at him in your passenger seat. He’s spacing out, staring straight ahead.

“You know how we were talking about practicing stuff?” He says suddenly. You have a flashback to the lake and nod.

“Yes?”

“Well, I’m not sure how to bring this up, but I think we should practice kissing.” Nicholas continues.

“We still have time. I’m worried about it too, but do we really need to make a big deal out of it?” You ask, hoping you can gaslight yourself into believing what you said.

“I don’t think you’re quite grasping the situation here, future Mrs Wang.” He turns to look at you.

“Ew, never call me that again, please.” You say automatically, making a face.

“Yah!” Nicholas takes it personally, his face spelling out offended.

“You know what I meant.” You roll your eyes.

“And you know I’m right.” He retorts. You had to admit, it was an area of anxiety for both of you, so you better do something about it before it got worse.

“Ugh, fine, let’s practice.” You say. “But not in my car.”

“Alright, we’ll find somewhere else.”

You get out of the car and follow Nicholas in the most ridiculous hunt for a private place in history. There’s a long tunnel-like corridor leading up to the front doors of the apartment building and nothing there. It’s secluded and quiet.

“This okay?” He asks. You take off your sunglasses (brought today for sun protection purposes) and look around, finding no one.

“Yes.” You nod. “Right, let’s try it.”

You try not to be too awkward but it’s hard not to be, the two of you hesitating to lean in, unsure of where to put hands and where to look or when to close your eyes. Your lips finally touch briefly and you pull back.

“Too light.” You comment. Nicholas nods.

“Again.” And this time it’s easier to lean in and kiss. You break apart again, unsatisfied. “Too stiff.” He names the problem.

You kiss again and you place a gentle hand on his shoulder for balance because you’re scared you’re going to fall over. This time it’s much better but still not quite right. You feel Nicholas’ hands snake around you, low on your waist.

“Paws contained in the northern hemisphere.” You warn, only pulling away enough to speak.

“Sorry, noted.” He says, quickly bringing his hands up higher. Your mouth makes its way to his again, and you finally relax into the kiss. You don’t think any more, letting your back hit the wall of the tunnel and your arms cross at the back of his neck.

You finally fall into some sort of rhythm and kiss several times for good measure, although you’re not sure which one of you doesn’t pull away first. It feels almost natural after a few seconds, the kiss tasting just as sweet as the cake you ate earlier. Your heart starts to hammer in your chest, the whole situation totally new to you - kissing a stranger in a random place, and dare you say it, not hating it?

One of Nicholas’ hands makes its way to your neck, holding on to where you jaw and neck connected, fingers barely touching your skin, during one last kiss and you pull away, ever so slightly breathless. You inch away from each other, arms sliding off of each other, and avoiding eye contact.

“That was good.” Nicholas says.

“Adequate.” You say, clearing your throat. He seems offended again.

“Really?”

“No, it was good.” You confess. You ignore the way Nicholas smiles proudly to himself and glance at the exit. “So I’ll see you later. I’ll text you when I pick out a dress.”

“Okay, good luck.” He hums, putting his hands in his pockets. “See you.” You walk away, knowing he was just waiting for you to go before he went inside.

So why did you still feel his eyes on your back when you got to the end of the tunnel?

You woke up with dread filling your stomach.

It was the day you went dress shopping and you had to succeed or otherwise you’d be a total laughing stock at your own wedding.

“How did I end up here?” You mutter to yourself as you stare up at your ceiling.

You dragged yourself out of bed, and then eventually out of your apartment in its already half packed up state; you’ll have to move soon anyway even if you hadn’t yet found a place with Nicholas, you may as well get a head start.

You took a cab to the dress shop and found your two best friends already there, waiting for you. Jay and Yunjin were standing out front, talking amongst themselves and looking around. Yunjin spots you first and waves at you. You smile, happy to see them both for the first time in a long time.

“Hey, girlie, what took you so long?” She asks you when you get up close. You give each of them a speedy hug, relieved to have them there with you.

“Short answer or long answer?” You ask.

“Surprise us.” Jay says.

“The crippling weight of being alive.” You reply. Yunjin nods in understanding.

“Valid. Now, let’s go find you a dress.” She clamps a hand over your shoulder and steers you toward the door.

“We have to wait for my mom.” You add.

“Of course, what were we thinking? We cannot proceed without the dragon lady.” Jay shrugs as you enter the shop.

The three of you had known each other for a long time, going to school together and even college, your friendship always steadfast. You also knew each other’s families well, so they were familiar with your parents.

“YN!” You hear as soon as you walk through the front door. It was a jump scare, no doubt. You turn your head right and find your mother sitting on one of the foyer couches.

So that was terrifying.

“Speak of the devil.” Yunjin mumbles.

“Mom…” You attempt. “You’re here already.”

“Well, yes, dear. I am the mother of the bride, I most certainly must be punctual, even if the bride is not.” She replies, getting up.

“Awesome.” You purse your lips in an attempted smile.

“So nice to see you, Mrs L/N, how about we go browse some dresses?” Yunjin cuts in, ready to sweep your mother away. Your heart swells with affection suddenly, thankful that your friend is trying to lighten your burden. Your mother could be a handful sometimes.

“Why, that would be great, Yunjin, at least someone here is enthusiastic.” She comments pointedly, the jab thrown through a side eye in your direction.

“Right, we’ll go meet the staff members.” You say and split off with Jay trailing you.

You get introduced to the lady who’s going to help you with the fittings and find a dressing room where a slew of dresses is already being gathered by another staff member at your mother’s beck and call.

“I think you should search too before your mother thinks she’s the one getting married.” Jay suggests once you see the first three dresses being propped up on hangers.

“Good point.”

You start walking the aisles upon aisles of beautiful but expensive wedding dresses, the sea of white, ivory and cream blurring as your eyes swept over the shop.

You pick out several dresses, unsure exactly how they would pan out since you had no idea which one would suit your body type. For a moment, it’s fun because you’re just enjoying being there with your friends, commenting on straps, ruffles and embroidery.

It’s fun until you start trying them on and have to listen to all of your mother’s even slightest critiques. It’s too frumpy in the back, there’s too many layers on the skirt, there’s too much cleavage, then not enough skin showing, you’re not a nun.

Your head is spinning by dress number seven and you feel like fainting.

Yunjin seems to sense your overload and sweeps away your mother again for another hunt around the racks.

“Mrs L/N, why don’t we go have a look for the bridesmaid dresses?” You hear her ask. Your mother seems to agree and you sigh in relief as you watch the two of them move away. You catch Yunjin’s eye and send her a grateful air smooch, your hand barely coming up to your mouth.

Yunjin was going to be your maid of honour so you’d tasked her with handling all things bridesmaid since you had your hands full with everything else.

You’re left standing in a spaghetti strap mermaid gown with a silk-like finish but there’s something incredibly awkward about it when you look in the mirror. Jay sits patiently on the little couch and lets you process what you’re seeing, but you sense he wants to say something.

“C’mon, spill it, what are you thinking?” You quiz him, looking at him in the mirror, then turning to face him.

“You really want to know what I’m thinking?” He checks first, sceptical that you want to actually get a shot of truth. Little did he know, that’s exactly what you need right now. Trying on all these dresses makes you feel like you’re stuck in some kind of parallel universe, where nothing is real and there’s no escape from this nightmarish place.

“Go ahead.” You jerk your chin, challenging him.

“Well, I didn’t think you’d go down like this.” He confesses.

“Gee, thanks bestie.” You say, just as disappointed as he sounded.

He clicks his tongue. “That’s not what I meant, YN. I just always thought you’d want to be in love when you got married.” He clarifies.

You sigh, stepping off the platform in front of the mirror. “I did too, but clearly I’m never meant to fall in love.” You shrug helplessly. Jay shakes his head, sympathetic.

“Maybe love’s not for people like us. You can’t have everything, right?” He muses. “But I’ll say, if you do end up divorced some day, and I’m not married either, then why don’t we marry each other? A bit of a Monica and Chandler deal.”

You know Jay means that with the utmost affection, your friendship making you close enough that you wouldn’t take it the wrong way. You give him a tired but fond smile.

“Sure, I’ll think about it.” You say. “Thanks, it’s nice to know you have my back.”

“Hey, I said if I’m single.” He insists playfully. “Who knows what will happen.”

Your mother and Yunjin come back, bearing more wedding dresses instead of bridesmaid ones. Of course they got derailed.

“Darling, you have to pick something nice out, regardless of the circumstances of the wedding.” She tells you, ushering you back to the dressing room.

“I don’t want to waste a good wedding dress, though.” You mutter in protest. It didn’t matter if she heard you or not. The result was the same.

“You should pick the dress well so you don’t regret it. You’re going to stay married a long time.”

Yeah, in your head, you think but don’t say it out loud.

The next hour goes by fruitlessly and you try on at least ten more. It’s when you lose count that you find something that sparks your attention.

You find yourself in a sweetheart neckline ballgown with layers of tulle covering the silk chiffon dress and creating off-shoulder straps, and tiny leaf vine embroidery cascading down the dress, as if it could match your ring. The skirt isn’t obnoxiously puffy and the whole thing is much lighter than some of the other ballgown type of dresses you tried.

Its colour is a slight off-white; perhaps a silver or metallic tinge to it and you’re fascinated by the way the fabric falls over your body. It barely swishes but is still mobile enough that if you spin, the dress will twirl with you.

“YN, you look like you walked straight out of a catalogue.” Yunjin stares at you, wide-eyed in disbelief.

You take a good look at yourself and imagine yourself walking around in that all day. It might be a bit much but it would definitely sell the whole wedding.

“Then I guess I’ll take this one.” You say, finishing the thought. Yunjin thinks you’re replying to her and she gives you a big smile and nods.

“You better, Bridezilla.” She jokes.

Your mother is silent you notice while Jay is too stunned to speak. He manages to raise a thumbs up to you and you know now that if your friends, who’d see you get married in sweatpants and still love you are sold, then you are too.

“Mom, this is the one.” You say, pouring just a little smugness in your voice since your mother’s favourites had so far been the mermaid gowns you’d brazenly tried on and then ignored.

“Right. If it makes you happy, dear.” She says, too tight-lipped to mean it.

As if you care about my happiness, you think, looking her in the eye through the mirror.

You just hoped that a dress you liked would make this whole misadventure at least tolerable, but you were going to find out soon.

The first thing you hear is your phone buzzing violently on your night stand.

The second is the sound of doors slamming in your apartment.

You barely open your eyes before you realise there is a very real invasion going on outside. You knew exactly who it was so you just turned around and snuggled into your duvet more. The world could wait five more minutes.

“YN!”

Or maybe not.

You sigh, anticipating the owner of the voice bulldozing your bedroom door in three, two, one-

“YN, darling, get up!” Your mother calls. You regret telling her how to get into your apartment; rather a recent development since you were going to move out soon anyway and you were definitely not going to give her the combination for you and Nicholas’ place when you got it.

“I’m awake.” You say as she sweeps through your room and opens the blinds. You just lie there, staring up at your ceiling.

“Really?” She asks. “Because if you are, then act like it, young lady. Up. Now.” She demands. “It’s your wedding day, do you want to sleep through it?”

She wasn’t serious, was she? Of course you’d rather sleep through it and wake up to find it was just a bad dream.

“Um,” You say out loud. “No?” You sound unsure to your own ears.

“Now’s not the time for jokes, honey. We have a lot to do.”

“Oh joy.” You clear your throat and try to steel yourself mentally.

Four hours, three professionals, two coffees and one very stressed out parent later, you stood completely ready in your dress, all dolled up - make-up, hair and whatever else there could be. You looked in your mirror to barely recognise yourself; it was you but like a parallel universe you where you were this photoshoot-ready bride-

“This is weird.” You say to your reflection.

Your entourage had arrived not too long ago and had also been running around your apartment, getting ready while Yunjin and Jay tried to coordinate everyone. Well, everyone being them and two more bridesmaids, Minjeong and Ningning.

You were so relieved to see your friends all of a sudden - it was so much better knowing that they were there with you when you were about to do one of the hardest things in your life.

“How are you holding up?” Minjeong came up behind you while you looked in the mirror. You nodded, trying to smile but you couldn’t quite make it yet. She took your hand and patted it reassuringly. “You can do this. We’ll be right there next to you.” She said. You squeezed back, trying not to lose your shit already.

“YN, here’s the bouquet.” You hear behind you. You find Ningning offering you the small bundle of flowers, which you accept gratefully.

“Thanks, you guys.” You say, addressing not only the two of them but everyone that was in your room - Yunjin was wrestling with Jay’s bow tie by the door.

“Right.” Jay says, his tie finally done. “Are we ready to roll?” He asks you in particular.

“No time like the present.” You say.

You get into your own car with Jay driving, while your mother sits beside you and Yunjin shotgun, and you feel oddly calm. As if it was merely the calm before the storm.

It doesn’t take long to get to the venue, the sun already high in the sky. You’d agreed to arrive by three o’clock for a four o’clock start. You wanted to make sure there was enough time for everything since you were going to aim for making it a dinner and then call it a day after a few hours of partying.

Once you arrive, you get swept up by various people and taken to some dressing rooms within the big hall itself. You barely catch a glimpse of the decoration but from what you saw, everything looked immaculate.

Your father and Maki are waiting in the dressing room when you and your mother enter. They both seem really happy to see you, albeit a little shocked, especially on Maki’s behalf. He looks at you wide eyed as if he doesn’t recognise his own sister.

“Is it bad?” You ask, standing up a little straighter. He shakes his head quickly.

“No, it’s just, you never wear stuff like this. It’s cool.” He says. You crack a smile.

“Well, yes, kiddo, wedding dresses aren’t exactly an every day clothing item.” You say, inspecting his tie. He’s wearing a suit today and for a moment you’re overwhelmed because your kid brother looked so big all of a sudden. You don’t resist the urge to fix his tie, fussing over him because you need someone to fuss over that wasn’t yourself.

“Nicholas is here. I just saw him outside.” Maki adds, looking at you expectantly.

Right, Nicholas.

There’s a wedding going on, and you needed a fiancé for that. You hadn’t heard much from him except for occasional text updates to tell each other where you were up to in terms of schedule.

“Okay, I’ll go see him, we need to take photos anyway.” You nod. “Can you do me a favour? Bring Mom and Dad to the back of the hall in twenty minutes. We’ll take family photos then.” You instruct him. He gives you a quick nod then ushers you to leave.

“C’mon, don’t make your husband wait, I’ll handle Mom and Dad.” He insists.

You slip out of the room and make your way down the corridor, your heels clacking quietly on the stone floor underneath. You’re not certain which door it is that leads out but you open the three that you find in turn and finally find the right one at the end of the passage.

You open it to find a large room that has been set up for a proper photoshoot, some chairs and flowing white sheets of tulle that hang from the ceiling and the metal poles that are keeping up the background of the makeshift studio. There are several people milling about, all strangers to you except for Nicholas.

He’s facing with his back to you but you can recognise him more easily now, mostly by his height and stature and hair. He hears the door open and close and turns around in his spot next to the camera set up.

He stops short when his eyes land on you. You stand there, hesitating. He’s all done up too, in his crisp white shirt and black tuxedo, hair styled up for the first time since you’d met him. You had to admit, he looked like a life size version of those little grooms on top of the cakes.

A few heartbeats pass, just light silence and a staring match between you before you walk towards him, closing the distance. His eyes never left you, watching you as if you’d disappear if he looked away.

It was definitely an ego boost to see him tongue tied even for a moment. You’d chosen a good dress it seems.

“You’re early.” You comment when you get near enough.

“So are you. Eager to marry me?” He hums playfully. You almost laugh at what passes for a joke between you.

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want to hear the answer to.” You shoot back, no force behind your words.

“I’ll try my best. Anyways,” he pauses to turn around and tap the tall man standing next to him on the shoulder. “This is my friend, Jo. He’s our photographer today.”

The man gives you a shy smile and nod. “Nice to meet you.”

You smile back. “You too. Thanks for coming in and doing this. I know it was a bit last minute.”

“It’s nothing, especially if it’s for Nicho-kun.” He insists. You nod, endeared by the sincerity.

“Eh, that’s our Jojo.” Nicholas laughs affectionately and pats the taller man’s shoulder. “So, shall we get started?”

You listen carefully to Jo’s guidance, telling you to sit on one of the chairs while Nicholas stands next to you and you adjust yourself for the photo.

Sitting here now, you were starting to feel nervous again. There was hardly anyone here, just a few staff members walking about, depositing and picking up this and that, but you were already on high alert.

“Okay, here we go… and smile.” Jo says, looking through the camera, finger ready on the button. You try your best to smile nicely. The camera flash startles you but it’s not as bad as you expected.

Jo straightens up, unfolding his large frame from where he was at the camera’s level. He looks at you two, pursing his lips, unsure of what to say.

“Um, don’t take this the wrong way, but you guys look like you’re being held at gunpoint.” He says sheepishly.

“Oh, is that not what this is? I thought this was a hostage situation.” You sigh, patting down the fabric of your dress in your lap.

“Just try to relax.” Nicholas chimes in behind you. You can practically hear the eye roll in his voice. “It’s just a photoshoot.”

“Think good thoughts, guys.” Jo says encouragingly from behind the camera.

Nicholas takes a deep breath. “Hmm, deep friend chicken, beer-”

“I’m gonna need something stronger than that.” You mutter, low enough that Jo doesn’t hear you.

“It’s not the end of the world, it’s just an arranged marriage.” Nicholas mumbles beside you. You’re not sure who he’s trying to convince more - you or himself.

“And hell is just a sauna.” You say through gritted teeth, attempting a more enthusiastic smile.

Flash.

The rest of the shoot goes by quickly, especially when family members start pouring in. By that point, Jo tells Nicholas to sit down beside you so you can be the centre of the photographs.

Nicholas’ parents are first on the scene, followed by your family and the rest of your motley crew of best friends and bridesmaids. There’s a flurry of activity while you just sit there, smiling the whole time, mentally checked out while you smile and laugh and greet everyone. At some point Nicholas’ friends all converge and take a photo with you but you barely remember any names or faces in the moment.

What you do remember is that Nicholas calls Maki over to be in the photo with all of his friends and you feel a pang of gratefulness to him for including your little brother. You pull him to your side and make him stand there, nearest to you.

It’s almost four by the time you’re finished and you’ve been informed that guests are all seated by now. Now it was the real go time; you had to walk down that aisle together and say those very scary and very official sounding words and sign a legally binding document that would hang over your head for god knows how long.

You get a moment to freshen up before you leave, your entourage crowding you with various make-up brushes and hair tools to fix any misplaced strands of hair.

“Guys, I love you, but please stop. It’s not getting any better than this.” You raise your hands, trying to put some space between you and your friends. Yunjin caps a lipstick and nods.

“You’re right; you’ve peaked, sweetie.” She shakes her head sympathetically.

“And you’re too good at trolling, sweetie.” You retort but can’t help the smile that comes to your face.

“Okay, we’re being called up front, guys.” Ningning informs the group, returning from her talk with a staff member.

“We’ll see you in a bit. You’ve got this!” Minjeong reassures you, giving you a quick pat on your cheek. You nod, biding the girls goodbye, and clutching your bouquet. It was small and made of blue flowers to match your ring, but right now it felt like a burden.

Jay remains since he was going to escort you to the aisle. He’d had to fight some staff members who were going to show you to the meeting spot with Nicholas. You felt like you needed a moment alone but simultaneously were relieved Jay was there to hopefully stop you from doing anything stupid.

Like running away.

You’d considered it. For a good minute, you had envisioned kicking your heels off and literally legging it to the nearest car and flooring it to some place far away, never to return in this life time. Hell, you didn’t even need the car if you were being honest; you would have settled to just go on foot, Runaway Bride style but the thought soon depressed you because you realised you didn’t have half the gall that Julia Roberts’ character does when she ran.

“Hey, YN. Stay with me, talk to me. What’s going on?” Jay senses you spacing out, possibly picking up on your runaway reverie.

“I’m just thinking.” You gulp, throat dry.

“Bestie, it’s not too late. I can fake an emergency, I don’t know, say someone died or something. Just say the word.” Jay replies, completely serious.

You laugh at him, at his ridiculousness. “It’s okay, I’ll survive. The sooner this is over, the better, but thanks.” You tell him. He raises his eyebrows, giving you an opportunity to correct yourself if need be. You shake your head.

After a minute, a staff member tells you to make your way to the foyer where you were going to meet Nicholas. It was all so incredibly scheduled and weird, but you followed instructions as you got them, sad to part from Jay when you reached the big doors of the hall. He slipped through a side door into the actual hall to join the rest of the wedding party.

“You look like you need a nap.” You hear behind you. Nicholas joins you at the doors, tux and hair pristine even though he was just walking.

“More like a drink.” You say. It had already been a long day and you were only half way through.

“I’ll second that.” He smiles, almost apologetic.

“Let’s think for a moment. So we go in, do the official stuff then we’re supposed to mingle before dinner is served. Did I miss anything?” You recount all the steps you’d listed.

“Dance.” He adds. Shit, you’d forgotten that one. “Let’s do three. Then we can just walk around and talk to people.”

“But I don’t want to talk to people. What if they figure out this is a sham?” You complain. Nicholas’ lips draw in a tight line, showing off his smile line even though he wasn’t smiling.

“That’s not gonna happen because you’re going to use that big lawyer brain of yours to say cheesy bullshit and throw them off the scent.” He reassures you. Your brows furrow at the suggestion.

“And what are you going to do? Huh?” You counter.

“Stand there and look pretty, obviously.” He gives you a confident grin.

“Fine, I’ll do the talking so you don’t get us into trouble.” You sigh, conceding.

“See? Your do-it-yourself philosophy really is the best.” He says, hands forming an ironic thumbs up.

“Watch it, or I’ll fake food poisoning and disappear on your ass.” You warn him.

“Well, you’ll need someone to hold your hair back and I’ll volunteer.” He shrugs.

“I have friends who can do that.” You say.

“Yeah, but I’m your husband. I outrank them.” He hums smugly.

“Aha, keep telling yourself that.” You say finally. You were signalled to go in.

“It’s time.” You say. “Let’s do this.”

Nicholas nods, offering you his arm. You curl your own arm around his and hold his forearm, trying to make it seem like it was the most natural thing in the world.

The doors swing open and there’s a sonic boom of applause and laughter and congratulations being thrown in your direction. You start to walk, a little wobbly in your heels so you lean on Nicholas ever so slightly so try and stabilise yourself. He doesn’t seem to mind and lets you set the pace since you were having some trouble.

The path to the officiant was straight and about thirty metres long, only some of the length of the wide hall where your guests were seated around tables. You’d chosen this layout since it would be so much more convenient for dinner later and still leave a large space for a dance floor to the other side of the hall.

You’re so conscious of every single pair of eyeballs glued to you, you start to feel nauseous. Your face is stuck in a permanent attempt at a smile, varying in its degrees of success as you put one foot in front of the other.

You glanced momentarily at Nicholas to find him smiling completely naturally and politely acknowledging and accepting everyone’s congratulatory remarks and everything. It almost annoyed you how good he was at that - why was he so good at it? Was he that good of an actor or was he just enjoying the attention?

You reach the end of the path where an older gentleman waits with a tiny book in his hands. The officiant is also wearing a suit and he looks more like he’s about to do a funeral service than a wedding, but you try to rationalise that he must just be a marriage commissioner and nothing more.

Your bouquet is handed off to Ningning while Yunjin hands you a wedding band; a simultaneous hand over going on with Nicholas and one of his friends, Euijoo, you think if you remembered correctly.

You exchange rings while the officiant yatters on about this and that and marriage blah blah blah, sickness and health and whatever else there was, but honestly you’re just paying attention to Nicholas. You let him put the sleek silver band on your finger, his hands steady but barely brushing yours, then you slide the band over his finger, suddenly too aware of how close you were.

You sign the document that the officiant offers you in one of those black leather folders and you don’t even bother reading one word written on the piece of paper - the first and last contract you’ll ever sign without reading. Nicholas signs off too and gives it back to the officiant.

For the sake of looking good in front of everyone, you remain close, holding one hand each between you while the officiant finishes his little spiel. You look down for a moment, unable to meet Nicholas’ eyes because you knew what was coming, but you force yourself to straighten up again.

To your surprise, Nicholas lifts his free hand and brushes a piece of stray hair away from your face, the action gentle and precise, as if this has happened a million times before. You can’t tear your eyes away from his face, searching for some answer as to why he did that. But of course you know - everyone is literally watching you.

Perhaps you deserved oscars, maybe then at least you would have recognition for your hard work.

The way you said your ‘I do’s was near perfection and standing there looking all nice and married was pretty good too, even if you did say so yourself.

The officiant pronounced you husband and wife; a starting gun going off before a race, and you had to start running, clueless as to where you were headed or when or if the race would ever end.

“You may now kiss.” He finishes, clearly happy to have done his part and be off the clock.

Your eyes met Nicholas’ and you tried to communicate - just like we practiced, you wanted to say.

He takes the initiative and brings his free hand up to your chin to guide your mouth to his, while you lean in. You do your best to ignore the whole world and focus on Nicholas - aware of his hand warm in yours, his fingers against your chin, the taste of his strawberry lip balm.

The kiss is neat but sweet and just enough for a classy wedding. You pull away, embarrassment warming your cheeks because you did not want to imagine how many people just saw you kiss someone, you felt so exposed even if it wasn’t intimate or didn’t mean anything in particular. The crowd goes wild anyway, the applause ten times louder than before.

You thought there’d be some few minutes before the party really started, but your guests were invited to the dance floor and your realised you were more doomed than you thought.

“You look like you’re starting to freak out, please don’t.” Nicholas manages to put his mouth to your ear and warn you as you make your way to the other side of the room, with the million guests behind you, all finding a spot to stand and watch you.

To others, it might look like he’s just saying something sweet to his wife since it’s pretty loud in there, but to you, it was a shock, his voice that close and his breath sending shivers over your body because you were particularly jumpy right now.

“Please welcome, for the first time, Mr and Mrs Wang!” You hear someone’s voice through a microphone and you almost cringe. You glance over at the source, noticing one of Nicholas’ friends has control of sound system.

Since it’s your first dance, no one else steps up to the floor but the two of you, your dress swishing around you as you stand sort of in the middle, waiting for the music to start. A slow solo acoustic guitar comes through the speakers, and Nicholas pulls you close gently.

You recognise the song quickly as you sway, a beautiful cover of Can’t Help Falling In Love, and you can’t help but think how ironic the song choice was. You almost wanted to find whoever chose it and ask them how they came up with that one. Real novel of them. You almost swore out loud because all the odds were in your favour today - you were going to convince everyone and their mother that you were in love.

You sway just as you practiced, staying close just to sell it off as romantic even though you were mostly like that because it disguised how incompetent at dancing you are. Nicholas keeps one hand in yours and the other on the small of your back, gently guiding you as you swayed.

It’s not difficult, you think but just as the bridge is over, Nicholas surprises you.

“Spin.” He says and lets go of your waist, using your motion to help you spin while his hand guides you from above. The connection between your brain and your feet seems to lag a little but since he’s the one practically marionetting you as a dancer, you trust him to help you while you just move your feet.

You spin more gracefully than you think and end up in his arms again so he can subtly steady you while you stare, no - almost glare - at him with wide eyes. You remember people are watching and perk the corners of your mouth up in a small smile.

“I’m officially backing out of the third dance we agreed, one more - take it or leave it.” You say under your breath, leaning in to his neck so no way can see you’re mouthing off.

“Fine, but in that case, you’re doing another spin later.” He mumbles back, angling his mouth near your ear.

“Fine.”

“Good.”

“Good.” You take the last word as the song finishes. The guests clap politely and you thank them, inviting everyone else to the floor to dance too.

You make your way to where your friends are hanging around the sound system. They greet you happily, congratulating you, hugging you and fussing over you. You laugh, relieved and happy to see them again. You make some brief introductions to Nicholas before you swiftly go find your families.

Nicholas’s parents, your parents and Maki are standing together not too far from where they had been while watching you dance and you spot them easily.

“There they are!” Your father laughs heartily when he sees you coming. They all seem to be very merry, wine glasses in hand sans your little brother who stands awkwardly by all the adults.

“Congratulations, my dears!” Mrs Wang is the first to flock you, hugging Nicholas and then you while your own mother waits her turn.

There are a lot of nice remarks thrown around and a lot of happy comments about the marriage but you just zone out, listing most of it as white noise.

You hold out your hand to Maki and give his a squeeze, reassuring him you’re okay when he looks at you expectantly. He smiles, dimples popping cutely and it gives you a sudden boost of energy. If he looked satisfied, then you were glad you were doing this whole show.

The next hour goes horribly slowly as you make your rounds to talk to practically every person at the entire wedding and your eyes glaze over with the amount of faces that you see. Your face hurts from smiling, your head from all the noise, and your feet are killing you from the heels.

Nicholas seems to see you’re not in top form and keeps a steadying hand around your waist, not just for balance but for the sake of looking like you wanted to be close. He on the other hand seems to be holding up, smiling politely and making conversation with ease as each new passerby stops you for a few minutes.

It’s all business partners and extended relatives you never talk to but somehow wound up at your wedding. It was horrifying - it was like an introvert’s worst nightmare.

Except, it always gets worse when you think something like that.

You’ve just said goodbye to some director - was he from your company or Nicholas’? - when you hear your name being called. You freeze, your heart palpitating.

It couldn’t be.

No, why would it?

But it could be.

You turn to the source of the voice and almost stumble.

“Oh god, who invited them?” You mumble, your hands growing cold all of a sudden.

Nicholas seems to hear you and follows your line of vision, clearly confused. He finally sees them; three women about your age, dressed in various business casual outfits. They’re standing a fair distance away but start to close in on you, the way vultures circle overhead, and you know they’re here for a conversation.

You feel like you’re about to throw up, your hands starting to tremble but you take fist fulls of your dress to try to stand your ground and seem pleasant as you wait to greet them.

“Friends of yours?” Nicholas asks quickly.

“Not in the slightest. More like cockroaches I went to university with.” You reply, trying to fight off the flood of memories whirling around your head.

“Oh.”

“These people are vicious, I wouldn’t be friends with them if we were the last people on earth.” You hiss quickly before they could get in earshot, starting to smile as you finish your sentence so you could turn and greet them.

“Hey, you came.” You say lamely, trying to be normal, casual, whatever you could muster beside the absolute disgust you felt at seeing those people again. Why wouldn’t they just leave you alone? Was years of law school not enough? You’d lived in the same dorm for a long time, their parties disrupting your entire life while you slaved away, trying to finish your degree.

“YN! Of course, we did! We wouldn’t miss it for the world.” One of the girls gushes, smiling widely, pristine teeth blinding you. You remember that smile, the one you’d seen too many times over the years, always there to greet you when you felt humiliated, usually when grades came out and you’d underperformed because you hadn’t slept.

“Thanks, it’s nice to see everyone. It’s been a long time.” You say, trying to stay polite. It was hard. You wanted to scream. There was years of pent of frustration with these people.

“So, is this your husband?” The second asks, making absolutely no effort to hide the fact that she was checking Nicholas out, ever so brazenly. Well, who fucking else would he be, you think. Your accountant?

He clears his throat and gives them a curt smile.

“I am he indeed.” He says, reaching an arm to put around you, his hand coming down to rest on your bare shoulder, where your dress doesn’t cover your skin. You felt the action might seem almost possessive but in that moment, you thought it was the right call.

“Well, you’re very handsome. It’s a bit of a surprise, really. YN, you never even told us you had a boyfriend.” She continues, also smiling politely. There was evil in her eyes just like before - this is how she always spoke. The indirect attempt at insult. This time it was making it seem like you couldn’t land a handsome man. She may as well have been calling you a loser like a kindergartener would.

“I-uh-” You look for the right words but your voice feels too small. It made your stomach twist - this was just like back in college.

“For sure, it’s a surprise. Never thought you’d be the first one of us to get married, darling.” The third one chimes in, the three of them chuckling pleasantly at you. They’re giving neither of you room to speak. As usual.

“Well, actually, we were dating in secret for a long time.” Nicholas declares, taking control of the conversation. Your brain was going haywire. Shit, why would he lie so elaborately? What if you couldn’t keep up?

“Really?” The first one hums.

“But the wedding does seem a bit fast. It’s not a shotgun wedding by any chance, is it, YN?” The second one smirks, looking down to your belly.

Something in you shifts.

How dare she insinuate that? And so what if it was? Why shame someone for that? What century were you living in?

“Oh my. Mommy and Daddy would be quite scandalised.” The third one giggles and lifts a hand to her mouth, as if to laugh in the most lady like way; the way high society teaches ladies in your circle to behave.

You were exhausted.

“Actually no, we’re just so in love that we couldn’t wait, right Nicho?” The words roll of your tongue, and you pair it with what you hoped looked like a loving glance in your husband’s direction. He meets your gaze and smiles, eyes shining.

“Of course, my love.” He says sweetly. You were relieved he was playing along; clearly Nicholas had good sense and was good at socialising. In a split second you’re happy you had a come back but you feel his hand come to your chin to keep you looking at him while he leans in. Oh god, why was he leaning in? Wait - he was about to-

Your body reacts before your brain processes what’s going on and suddenly you lean in too on instinct then you’re kissing Nicholas. You’re kissing him in front of those cockroaches and it feels so gratifying; your own personal revenge. Since when did you get so comfortable kissing Nicholas? Regardless, it’s a rush of adrenalin and your heart is going wild.

If someone had told you a few years ago that this situation would happen, you would have laughed. You wouldn’t have ever bothered with standing up to or wasting breath on these bitches, but now that you were here, it felt like you were floating.

You pull away and the smile that falls to your lips is real for once. In revelling at your little victory, you barely think to turn and see their reactions. As expected, they’re standing silently, a little stunned and uncomfortable.

It was a thing of beauty.

“Anyways, ladies. It was nice to see you.” You say, feeling more confident. “Call me if you ever get married, we’d love to send you a gravy boat.” You say cooly, not giving them room to retort before steering Nicholas away.

It felt golden to get the last word, and you had a feeling you’d never hear from them again. Not unless they wanted a gravy boat, possibly one of the most useless kitchen inventions known to man.

You walk away, Nicholas’ arm still around you while one of yours circles his waist. The two of you can barely contain your laughter until you’re far away enough to let it out, snickering like little kids.

“‘If you ever get married’.” Nicholas laughs. “That was sick.” He compliments you, and you almost high five but notice some people are giving you looks. It would be a little strange to see newlyweds high fiving each other at their wedding.

“I don’t know where that or the gravy boat came from,” You finish laughing. “But thanks.” You say earnestly.

Nicholas gives you a tiny head shake. “No problem.”

“But I will say, I think we should only do that in front of roaches and/or otherwise specified vermin.” You suggest.

“Agreed. Code vermin, it is.”

Eventually your wedding came to a close after an incredible dinner and some more partying, and you were allowed to go home. You left in the same car but went your separate ways when the driver dropped you off at your apartment.

You splatted down on your bed, still in your wedding dress and stared up at your ceiling just like that morning.

It had been about twelve hours but you were suddenly different; not just YN anymore, but a Mrs Wang tacked on to that somehow. It was the beginning of a new chapter and you’d have to adjust.

Nicholas would too.

You didn’t know each other very well yet, but the way that Nicholas supported you when you needed a hand was genuinely kind and made you see him in a different light.

Maybe you could be friends after all…

A/N: thank you for reading, feedback is always appreciated <3 i wasn’t really planning on uploading this purposefully on Nicho’s birthday but hey, nice coincidence i guess. i also wanna say thanks for the warm welcome to &team tumblr, everyone’s been really nice <3

momobani masterlist

#&team #&audition #&team nicholas #wang yixiang #nicholas x reader #&team x reader #&team fics #&team imagines #&team scenarios #momobani.writes

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momobani · 4 months

Text

Groundhog Day

THE WAY I hate YOU - chapter 5 - 10.9k

&team Nicholas x fem!reader - arranged marriage AU

SERIES MASTERLIST

Sum: the one where even coffee can’t save you.

Warnings: swearing, sarcasm, a smidge of angst, mention of hospitals, implication of dysfunctional families, mention of wanting/not wanting kids, mention of food and alcohol, very suggestive stuff (smut separate chapter), mention of sex

Soundtrack rec: Close - Nick Jonas, Tove Lo

Taglist: @nichoswag @seokka0o @sseastar-main @hyuckslvr @ssshasssh @wtfisgoingright

A/N: please excuse the months of radio silence, sorry this took an age but i had to let this one cook properly, also life won’t leave me alone lol, it’s been hard lately, but hopefully this will get back on track at least a little <3

okayyy so there’s a bit of a formatting situation that needs explaining: basically the smut will be in a separate post linked within the chapter so that minors can just not interact with it and also the chapter doesn’t become 30k or some shit

You should have expected it really, at this point.

You should have known you would be running late. Well, not you specifically, but your husband.

“I told you to be ready by 2pm so we could leave.” you remind him as he runs around frantically, shirt still unbuttoned while he does his belt, toothbrush in mouth as he searches for a tie.

You lean on the doorway and roll your eyes when he waves a hand dismissively in your direction.

You decide you need to intervene.

“Go back to the bathroom, I’ll get you a tie.” you usher him away from his closet. He hums something that sounds like a protest but obliges and disappears.

You puff out your cheeks in thought, scanning the options Nicholas had laid out in the drawer of his closet.

If you were your fashion diva husband, what would you do?

He was wearing a light blue button up and black slacks, which were very simple, so the tie should bring something to the outfit. Your hand hovers over a silver tie with a tiny squares but settles over a dark blue paisley one instead.

It would look better with his suit jacket, you think as you pluck your selection from its little cubby hole.

You find Nicholas in the bathroom, toothbrush put back neatly in the little boba cup you used for both yours and his. He’s buttoned up the bottom three buttons but started focusing on his hair as if he just couldn’t settle on one thing to fix at a time.

“Step back.” you say, squeezing in between the sink and Nicholas so he can keep doing his hair while you work on his shirt. He glances at you as if questioning if you really wanted to do this but you ignore him.

You finish his buttons first, fingers nimbly popping the buttons through the holes while still holding the tie in one hand. Next, you reach up and pop Nicholas’ collar, threading the tie around his neck and bringing one end down the opposite side.

Your hands move without effort, looping the tie into a knot and tugging it tighter so it goes into place. You notice Nicholas hasn’t put on cologne yet because he smells neutrally clean like the soap in your shower. You also notice that he’s finished doing his hair and is just looking at you as you work his tie. You stare determinedly at the tie and not up at him but you feel his eyes burning a hole through you.

Nosy, you think.

You leave the last bit for him to adjust and step away.

“Thanks.” he says, tightening it accordingly. “How do you know how to tie a tie?” he asks, genuinely curious.

You were about to walk out of the bathroom after inspecting your lipstick in the mirror but his question catches your attention. You look at him for a moment.

“Who do you think did Maki’s until he learned to do it himself?” you say before walking out.

The thought sends you back suddenly. You remembered when you were a teenager and Maki was starting middle school, he had a uniform with a tie. Instead of going to your parents or the nanny that would sometimes take you to and from school, your tiny bean of a brother came to you, holding out his tie with a pout.

So of course you looked up how to tie a tie on the computer that sat in the living room, following the instructions on a Sunday afternoon as the sun set behind you. You practiced a million times, trying to get it perfect so Maki wouldn’t get laughed at by the other kids, that you were sure you could tie a tie in your sleep even to this day.

You just hadn’t done it in years, but being married to Nicholas meant doing all sorts of things.

Like running amber lights.

You’re driving instead of him toward the charity event your companies were participating in, and you just want to make it on time. Your parents had already started asking if you were there yet, your mother especially blowing up your phone. You tell Nicholas to turn it on silent, discarding it to the depths of your bag. He obeys, popping it in swiftly.

You’re almost there, mostly because you did run a couple of amber lights, and also took a shortcut through some small streets.

“We should be careful when we get there, a lot of people will be looking at us.” you say. You’d been thinking about how to bring it up, the fact that due to the nature of a public event like that, you needed to be on your best ‘married’ behaviour.

“Okay, Code Vermin it is.” Nicholas agrees. “Though, I doubt anyone will care about us, it’s a big event.”

“Regardless, I don’t want to give my parents any reason to lecture me.”

“Got it.”

When you arrive, you hand over your car to a valet (a charity event with valet parking? lifestyles of the rich and famous much? you could never reconcile the way that rich people did charity work while flaunting off their own wealth, but it didn’t matter since you were one of those rich people and you had to participate in the lunacy; leaving it would mean blowing up your entire life if you were honest) and make your way in, your arm casually draped around Nicholas’ own.

As you walk into the venue, the parade of familiar faces begins. You switch into polite greeting mode and walk by, smiling and nodding and making small talk with whoever stopped you.

The cause of today’s charity event was funding and equipping the new children’s hospital in your city. Since your companies largely dealt with pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, you were key figures in the very fabric of the event.

Your mother spots you from fifty feet away and laser beams you in the back of the head until you feel something irking you and finally turn around to see her practically glaring at you and Nicholas.

You automatically tug on his arm slightly to get his attention as he finishes chatting with some senior director of the hosting charity itself. You excuse yourselves and you steer Nicholas in the direction of your mother.

“Get ready; the wolves are hungry today.” you mutter, smiling at some people you passed by.

“About time, YN!” your mother hisses immediately when you’re within earshot. She switches her demeanour when she turns to greet Nicholas, smiling fondly at him. “Hello, Nicholas. Lovely to see you again.”

“Nice to see you too, Mrs L/N.” Nicholas says smoothly, extending his best son-in-law greeting smile.

“I was just wondering, when are your parents coming?” she continues as if you’re just an ornament or part of his outfit. You had to admit, you were a little grateful she liked him more because it meant he would take most of the heat today, although it made you feel guilty toward him too.

“They should be here soon, I can call to check if they’re okay?” Nicholas offers politely. Your mother shakes her head gently.

“Don’t worry about it at all, dear, no need to bother them. I’m sure they’ll be here soon.” the response gives you whiplash but there’s truly no space in your heart for surprise because of course she wouldn’t mind your in-laws being late; everyone else got a free pass, but you, you were the bane of that woman’s existence as far as you were concerned. “Well, I’ll let you two go, the auction will be starting soon, so get some good seats if you can.” your mother says.

“Auction?” you ask. This was the first time you’re hearing about an auction, though it was probably because you’d filtered everything you knew about this event out of your mind in order to stay focused on your work load.

“Yes, YN, there’s an auction of art pieces, which will be one of the sources of donation. Please pay attention, hmm?” she smiles tightly at you and you feel a smile spread across your own face. It was ironic but it came naturally, the bitterness just about disguised in its artificiality.

“Yes, Mom. We’ll get good seats.” you say. “Enjoy the event.”

It was the automatic good-daughter-response that had been pre-programmed into your microchip since the matrix decided you had to be born into this family out of all the other families.

Your mother seems satisfied and steps away to make conversation with someone else while you and Nicholas slowly make your way through the large hall and find the seating area set up for the auction.

“You need me to oil your hinges, Ex-Machina?” Nicholas asks sarcastically, leaning his mouth closer to your ear, as you register into the auction and are handed a numbered paddle by the clerk.

“No, that’s quite alright, dear.” you raise your eyebrow for emphasis. Nicholas rolls his eyes.

“Pardon my mistake; that was clearly Stepford Wives but make it ‘daughter’.” he says but still holds out his arm and you stroll to your seats in a manner that cannot be described otherwise than ‘nicely’.

“And you married into the dysfunctionality.” you remind him. “Godspeed.” you add.

In a few minutes, the event begins, most people finding their seats but a few stragglers sitting down just as the auctioneer stepped up to the podium.

“Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to today’s main event.” the man begins. He’s wearing a clearly uncomfortable tux and a pair of those Mickey Mouse type of white gloves, even though clearly he’s not the one handling any of the pieces. “If I may introduce the first piece we shall be showing today…” and that’s when your brain hits the snooze button and you tune the world out.

You sit silently and listen to the numbers that are being called out as each painting, photograph print or sculpture is bought out. It’s mostly modern art from somewhat local artists but the calibre is higher than you expected. It all goes by very quickly, you think. You stare blankly, in a somewhat dissociative state until one of the final pieces is brought out.

It’s a photographic print of the silhouettes of what looks like two parents and a child between them, holding each of their hands as they walk away somewhere, presumably into the proverbial sunset. You hadn’t raised your paddle once yet since there was nothing you really wanted but something about the photo makes you reconsider.

You think how ridiculous it would be bid on it since you had nowhere to put it at your apartment, so you don’t react.

“I like this one.” Nicholas whispers to your left. You’re snapped back to reality. You’d almost forgotten he was sitting there since you’d both been so quiet the whole time. “We should get it, it’s cute.” he continues.

“Is it?” you ask.

“Yeah,” he turns to you briefly. “it reminds me of my parents and I. Whenever we spent time together, I mean. Which wasn’t much, but still.” he shrugs.

You let his words sink in.

The auctioneer is done explaining the origin of the photo by way of introducing the photographer. The photograph is named ‘Another Place’ and you suddenly understand what you were feeling.

Just as the auctioneer starts the bidding, you feel Nicholas wrap his hand around yours and raise it as you hold on to the paddle. You’re a tiny bit startled since you weren’t thinking about the object in your hand at all and you didn’t actually think that Nicholas would bid on anything. You look at him momentarily but he keeps facing forward, focused.

It’s strange.

You don’t think to remove your hand from the paddle and just hand it to Nicholas. Instead he holds on to your hand while you let the echo of the voices in the hall fill the cavities of your head.

The photograph wasn’t cute. At least not to you.

In your eyes, there was something inherently melancholic about it.

As if the photographer was missing something.

The name confirmed it for you more than anything. You could interpret it as homage to the happier times spent with loved ones like your parents, like Nicholas thought, but you could equally interpret it as wanting to go back to or imagining what could have been in another place or time.

It makes a small part of you ache a little.

The bidding doesn’t skyrocket so Nicholas keeps on raising your hand until the other bidders fall flat. They don’t seem to want the photo as much as your husband does.

“Going once, going twice…and sold, to the young gentleman over there. Number 88.” the auctioneer makes a note of your paddle before they switch to the next item.

“Sorry, did you just buy that print?” you blink rapidly, feeling as if you missed the whole thing.

“Yeah, but if you really hate it, I’ll keep it in my office.” Nicholas promises. You shake your head, still unsure of what transpired. You didn’t have space at home but you’d probably make some if you tried.

“It’s fine. We’ll keep it.” you say.

The rest of the auction passes by in a blur, and then you’re going to find the photograph so you could claim it.

You stand to one side while Nicholas handles all the paper work and signs the check. Meanwhile, you look at the photograph some more, noticing that the child’s silhouette seems to be standing closer to the father but has its head angled toward its mother, as if looking up at her.

You wonder if that could be you one day.

It seemed unlikely, since you didn’t necessarily feel like it was your calling.

That and you were married to Nicholas currently.

Then it occurs to you that you have no idea what he wants in life. What if you get stuck together for a long time? Then what happens? Do you try to make each other happy and what does that even mean? Could you give him what he wanted if he ever did want anything? Would you be enough for him? Would he be enough for you?

“Ready to go home?” his voice breaks through to you with the clarity of shattering ice.

“Yeah, let’s go.” you nod, doing your best to look like you weren’t just living through an existential crisis for five minutes straight.

You find yourself reaching for Nicholas’ arm on your own, holding on with both hands because you weren’t sure you could make it out of the hall without stumbling or stuttering otherwise. You needed stability just in case your legs decided to give out from the burden of your thoughts.

Nicholas gives you a soft smile when he catches your eye and it feels like the most natural thing to return it, even if deep down you were still shaken.

But just for a moment, it was okay.

You didn’t have the answers but it was okay.

It’s a Wednesday morning, just before noon, and you have no intention of picking up your phone when it rings on your desk as you wrestle with a box of paperwork except, you glance at your phone and read the caller ID.

Maki’s name is on display and you drop the stack of papers back into the box, hand flying to the device.

Your little brother rarely called you out of nowhere, especially not when he’s supposed to be in school.

“Hey, Maks, is everything okay?” you say hurriedly. You feel your stress levels rising as you wait for him to answer.

“Hey, will you come pick me up from school?” he asks on the other side of the line. The request strikes you as very odd. He sounds okay but you obviously couldn’t be sure over the phone.

“Why? What’s wrong?” you press.

“Just come pick me up.” he says. “Please? And don’t tell mom and dad.”

You shake your head in disbelief. “Yes, I’m coming. Stay there.”

You were about to have a meltdown. You were so worried about what on earth could have possibly happened for him to call you in the middle of the day and ask you to come pick him up. Could he be feeling sick and didn’t want to tell you? What could it be?

You grab your jacket and bag and make your way out of the office, letting one of your colleagues know you were stepping out for an emergency. Well, you didn’t know it was an emergency but you just said whatever would get you out of that office quicker.

You have to look up Maki’s school’s address since you basically had never been there and then drive in a way that would put the main characters of Fast and the Furious to shame.

You throw your car in the nearest visitor parking spot and leg it to the reception of the main building. The school looks like a typical high school, except this is where all the smart, rich kids went and your brother was no exception. The kids all had crisp and perfect uniforms, the teachers looked impeccable too, and the buildings themselves were all but shining when you entered.

You talk to the receptionist lady and explain that your brother had called you and she lets you into the foyer where there’s a seating area and several offices nearby.

You knock on the door that the receptionist lady told you to and enter.

“Hello?” you poke your head in. You spot Maki sitting in one of the chairs around the table and open the door further, relieved to see he looked alright.

“Are you Maki’s guardian?” the teacher sitting across the room says.

“Yes, I’m his sister. Hello.” you say politely.

“Hello. Please come in.” the lady says, gesturing with her hand. She doesn’t seem so stern but you feel like you’re in trouble for some reason. You slip into the chair next to your brother.

“Is everything okay?” you ask, unable to take the tension any longer. The whole drive here, you felt like you were going to faint.

“Yes, everything is fine. I just needed to call a parent or guardian in since Maki fell asleep in class this morning. It’s not the sort of thing we take lightly around here.” she informs you.

You blink, thinking your ears failed you. Fell asleep in class? You swivel your head toward your little brother, who has subconsciously shrunk a smidge, which isn’t really possible since he’s not exactly a tiny child any more.

“You fell asleep in class?” you repeat, addressing Maki. He nods quietly. “And you couldn’t tell me this over the phone?” you sigh. You ignore the teacher is there for a second. “Do you know how worried I was?” you demand. For a moment, you think you sound like your parents so you tell yourself to cool off and take a step back.

The teacher clears her throat gently. “You see, miss, it’s not really a problem per se, we just needed to let you know and see if there’s anything going on at home that might have been the cause.” she clarifies. “We also think it’s best to send students home when they are not in their top form.”

“Right, I see.” you hum. “There’s nothing I’m aware of that could be the reason.” you say. You cannot discern the mix of relief and annoyance with the situation. What could he have been doing instead of sleeping and how could it have made him so tired that he fell asleep in class? At least it wasn’t worse, you said to yourself.

“If students are unable to pay attention, then we find it best to give them some time to step away and come back when they can. Maki hasn’t done this before, so we won’t make a big deal out of it, it’s purely procedural that you were needed here today.” the teacher reassures you.

“Yes, thank you. I’m sorry about that.” you apologise on Maki’s behalf. “It won’t happen again, right, Maki?” you question him.

He nods, staying very quiet and very obedient. It was a world away from the vibrant, loud and mischievous Maki you knew. He must be really tired then, you decide.

“Right, well, thanks, Miss. I think we’ll get going now.” you say, standing up and grabbing a hold of Maki’s backpack, which he was wearing the whole time he was sitting down. You pull him up by the bag, the way a mother cat carries around her kittens by the scruff of the neck, except when you pull him up to stand, he kind of towers over you a little since he’s growing up into a giant.

The two of you leave the office but Maki informs you he needs to get some stuff from his locker, so you follow him through the corridors to find it. You try your best not to have horrible war flashbacks to your own time in high school as you walk further in. By the time you reach it, the bell rings signalling what you assumed was the lunch break. The noise feels like a punch in the gut.

Suddenly the hallways are flooded with students, teenage boys running around and milling about like tiny ants in a colony, except most of them are like a head taller than you, which makes it doubly terrifying. You feel awfully out of place and old if you were being honest, even if they were not that much younger than you.

Maki rummages around his locker for a moment before you find two boys coming towards you. You think you’re blocking their lockers so you think to stand over on Maki’s other side but he notices and waves them over.

“Hey, you guys, did we have math homework?” he asks them. You stand awkwardly to one side but nod politely at the kids.

Your brother’s question gets ignored as the two boys fixate on you and one of them particularly stares at you in awe. You should have just waited for him outside. It makes you feel even more awkward and you clear your throat, directing the noise at Maki so he does something. He gets the hint and introduces them as his friends Taki and Harua.

“Hi, aunty, you’re so pretty!” the one introduced as Harua, who was staring at you, gushes. The corners of Taki’s mouth droop down and he smacks Harua on the back of the head, dubious.

Maki stops short and gives Harua a stank face. “Dude, bro, that’s my older sister!” he corrects.

But it’s too late.

The word ‘aunty’ echoes through your mind. It sends you reeling, mouth agape. You imagine your head unscrewing from your body like a lightbulb or one of those lego men and floating into outer space all while explosions and bombs go off in the background, very much in a poorly made, greenscreened fashion, all accompanied by a full orchestral and choral rendition of Verdi’s Dies Irae. You choke on spit just a little but purse your lips in order not to cough like crazy.

Harua pales impossibly and you think he starts quaking like a newborn Chihuahua.

“It’s okay, kiddo.” you reassure him. “I suppose I am on my way to becoming a fossil.” you mutter to yourself, only half-sarcastically.

“S-sorry aun- I mean noona, I- noona, sorry.” Harua stutters out and lowers his head a little, and you worry he might just burst into tears.

“Don’t worry about it.” you try your best to seem friendly but you’re not sure it works. Instead you try to make Maki move faster. “I have to get back to the office, sweetie, hurry up.” you tell him.

It seems to do the trick because Maki grabs one last textbook and shuts his locker. Harua seems completely mortified so he barely looks up at you as he and Taki bid the two of you goodbye and you leave.

Once you’re sat in the safety of your car, you exhale laboriously.

“Quit it, will you?” Maki asks. “Harua didn’t mean it, he just got confused. You don’t look like an aunty at all.”

“Gee, thanks.” you deadpan. “I didn’t even say anything, you didn’t have to go there.” you mumble as you start the engine.

“Noona, c’mon, doesn’t Nicholas tell you you’re beautiful all the time? Don’t you know it by now?” Maki shakes his head in disbelief but you know it’s directed at you, not Nicholas. You wanted to tell him, as a matter of fact, no, Nicholas did not say such things nor did he need to.

“‘Kay, first of all,” you pause. “I know my worth isn’t tied to my appearance and I don’t necessarily need to hear it from other people, although compliments can be nice. Secondly, insecurity still happens, regardless of what anyone says. Alright?” you explain. “The two states can co-exist. I know I don’t look like an aunty, but it was still shocking.”

“Okay, got it.” Maki raises his hands in defeat.

You’re driving but you realise that you don’t know where you’re going.

“Wait a sec, where am I taking you?” you question Maki.

“Please don’t tell Mom and Dad.” he begs, giving you puppy eyes from your passenger seat. You hadn’t thought about that yet but you don’t say that. “Just drop me off somewhere. I won’t do it again, just this once, just don’t tell them.”

You think for a moment. “Tell me why you fell asleep and I’ll consider it.”

“I stayed up all night studying.” he says. You scoff loudly.

“As if, lil bro, you think I was born yesterday?” you say, making a turn without thinking.

“I’m serious! I did stay up all night studying since we had a test…” he exclaims.

“A test?” you prompt him to keep going.

“A test I didn’t study for.” he finishes, talking in tiny. It finally clicks and you nod.

“Right.” you say. “Did you at least take the test?”

“Well yeah, but-”

“Good, just don’t do that ever again.” you warn. Maki nods enthusiastically. “Fine,” you concede. “you can stay in my apartment until it’s time for you to actually go home.”

“Yes!” Maki cheers. “Thanks, noona, you’re the best!”

You get home and while you’re in the elevator, it occurs to you that this was the first time Maki had actually visited you here. You just hoped that there was nothing weird there that might make him think something was off about you and Nicholas.

You had been pretty successful in quashing his suspicions, not that you thought he had any since he hadn’t expressed anything in a while, so you really needed to keep up the facade. It might be hard considering he was going to stay in the apartment for a few hours.

You make a mental note not to let him see your separate bedrooms; that would be hard to explain.

You punch in the code to your door and open it, ushering your little brother in before following.

“Here’s some slippers.” you bring a spare pair out of the shoe rack and plop them in front of Maki.

You rush into the living room to make sure that it was at least somewhat clean but you’re startled by a wild Nicholas that’s standing with his back to you in the kitchen area. He’s cooking something at the stove, a pair of massive headphones on and you swear under your breath.

You skirt around the edge of the couch and make a bee line toward your husband. He seems to notice you in his peripheral vision as you practically run at him, making him jump out of his skin and drop the pair of chopsticks in his hand with a clang against the surface of the stove.

“Shh!” you hiss at him, putting a finger in front of your lips, glancing back at the foyer. Nicholas slides the headphones off his head, letting them hang around his neck. He looks more confused than you’ve ever seen him before. “Maki’s here!” you whisper.

“What? Why? What’s going on?” he whispers back, alarmed at the new information. You shake your head dismissively. No time to tell the whole tale.

“I’ll tell you later, but he’s here so act normal!” you conclude just as Maki makes his way through the door.

“Oh hey, Nicholas hyung!” Maki’s face lights up when he sees your husband and you feel a little strange - your brother never greeted you like that.

“Hey, buddy, how are you?” Nicholas switches up immediately, seamlessly, as if the shock of your arrival had never happened. He meets your eye for a second before properly looking at Maki, who deposits his backpack on the couch and comes to sit at the counter.

“Y’know, normal.” Maki shrugs. You narrow your eyes at your little brother.

“Not normal, you don’t normally get kicked out of school.” you scold him slightly.

“You what?” Nicholas does a double take. Maki seems annoyed at you, as if you said the wrong thing. Well, you weren’t about to lie to your husband about something petty like that.

“Eh, noona makes it seems worse than it is. I swear, I didn’t do anything bad.” he pouts.

“He fell asleep in class.” you tell Nicholas, as if he had any authority in the situation. Nicholas visibly relaxes.

“Oh, the way you were talking, I thought it was something serious. I used to fall asl-” Nicholas starts to say but the way you glare at him changes his mind. “I mean I never did that, that’s really, yeah, that’s not good.” he trails off, bringing a hand to massage the back of his neck.

“Anyways, I’ve decided to let Maki stay here until he needs to go back home.” you say. “Is that okay? I didn’t think you’d be home actually.”

“Yeah, stay, it’s cool. I got home because my meeting was cancelled.” Nicholas replies, but is looking at you without blinking and you know something’s up by the way he keeps glancing at the hallway.

“Okay, great.” you pick up the hint and turn to Maki. “We don’t have a lot to do here, Maks, but you can just watch TV for a while, right?” and you all but lift him out of his seat and steer him toward the couch.

“Yeah, I like TV-”

“Awesome, knock yourself out.” you seat him at the couch and turn back to Nicholas, walking back across the room.

With the background noise of the TV, you don’t think Maki will hear you if you whisper.

“What?” you all but mouth when you’re close enough. Nicholas’ eyebrows raise so high they might ascend to the heavens above (your ceiling).

“Don’t you think he’s going to get suspicious?” he whispers back. “What if I say something dumb and he realises this is a sham?”

You knew it was a real risk to let them hang out unsupervised for a long period of time but without you there for damage control, Nicholas was just going to have to deal with it.

“I’m sorry, I promised him he can stay. You can figure it out. Just don’t talk about me or us.” you instruct. Nicholas nods, realising there’s no alternative.

“Fine, just hurry back.” he pleads.

You definitely weren’t sure you wanted to leave the two of them alone. Would the house burn down if you did? Could they handle it? This was inevitable, really, it was going to happen at some point.

“Right, if he starts to get annoying, just threaten to tell my parents.” you forgo the whispering, moving toward the hallway.

“Oh? Kay?” Nicholas frowns, not quite understanding.

Maki senses you’re about to exit and turns around to listen.

Shit, he’s watching.

You turn back to face Nicholas and he almost runs into you. You give him a slight smile. “Call me if there’s any problems.” you say sweetly, as if you’re not risking shattering the fabricated relationship you were thrown into. “Now, lean down.” you mutter.

Nicholas lowers his head innocently and you lean in, planting a swift kiss to his cheek, making up the charade. If he’s surprised, Nicholas doesn’t show it because he straightens up and acts like it’s the most natural thing in the world.

You don’t dwell on it and turn to Maki next.

“Listen to Nicholas, okay?” you warn. “Be good.” you say, directing it to the both of them.

“Yes, Mom.” Maki drawls sarcastically. Your mouth drops open at the tone, then again, you didn’t have to wonder where exactly he picked it up from (you, most likely). You stick your tongue out at him as you walk away, Maki mirroring you almost instantly.

You glance at Nicholas, who’s kind of standing still in shock at the display of sibling affection, not quite sure what to do with himself.

“This house better be intact when I come back.” you call behind you as you walk out of the door. You really hoped everything would be okay.

The entire time you were at work, you were anything but focused. You had minutes of good concentration before your mind wandered to how your husband and your brother were getting along. There was a few times where you even picked up your phone with half the mind to call and check but you realised how maniacal that really was so you put the device down on the other side of your office while you worked so you wouldn’t be tempted to slide into control freak mode.

As soon as the working day finished, you rushed out of there, ignoring the sound of your coworkers still tapping away on keyboards, clipping and filing papers together, or the wistful sighs of those stuck doing overtime.

You willed yourself to still follow road safety, in a carefully executed exercise of self-control, instead of mimicking your earlier attempts at cosplaying Vin Diesel behind the wheel.

The familiar sound of the password unlocking the front door finally came as you yanked open the handle and swished through the corridor quickly, kicking off your shoes haphazardly in the process and padding across the floor barefoot.

There was noise coming from your living room which you’d heard about a half-way through the hallway and you’re fascinated when you enter and find the boys sitting on the couch, controllers in hand and still oblivious to your arrival.

They were playing video games.

You breathe a sigh of relief. That’s pretty neutral and doesn’t require any intellectual conversation.

“Yaaa, where you going, lil dude? That was never a short cut!” Nicholas chuckles, eyes still glued to the screen.

“It is too!” Maki argues. “Just ‘cause you’ve never heard of it, hyung.” you can hear the cheekiness behind his provocation.

“Hey, I don’t need to know stuff to be good at this.” Nicholas insists.

You look closer at the screen and finally put two and two together; they’re playing Mario Kart.

You can’t believe it - you’d been worried about nothing. And as a bonus, your husband now had a video game buddy, as it seemed. You decide to clear your throat and enter the room.

“Hey, I’m back.” you say. “What did you guys get up to?” you quiz nonchalantly. They both greet you, almost a little surprised since clearly they weren’t paying attention to you coming in.

Great, a thief could have walked in and out and nobody would have heard a damn thing.

“We just hung out. Nicholas hyung made lunch then we played video games and well, that’s it.” Maki says, lifting the controller in his hand as evidence. You nod.

“Great, good, awesome.” so you were hyperactively checking your watch for no reason. You were glad to know it was a great use of your time (not).

“Maki’s really good at this game, YN. Why didn’t you tell me? I would have invited him over sooner so we could play.” Nicholas comments.

“Well, if it’s about video games, Maki, you can always come around.” you say, only slightly strained at his forgetfulness - it was only a few hours ago that you were freaking out about your brother possibly figuring out he’d been lied to. Well, not lied to exactly, just … left in the dark about the nature of your marriage.

“Really?” Maki seems really excited to hear he’s got a free-for-all to your house at any time. “That’s great, I’ll come on weekends so we can play, hyung!” he says and for a moment you feel a swell of emotion overcome you; you hadn’t seen Maki this happy and excited for a long time. And he certainly didn’t get this animated when he was hanging out with you. It made you feel like marrying Nicholas wasn’t so bad after all; it had its silver lining.

“You guys hungry?” you change the subject. “I’ll make dinner.” you say, leaving your bag on the couch.

“I can make it, if you want.” Nicholas offers over his shoulder.

“No, no, you made lunch, it’s okay, keep playing.” you reassure him. You just needed a minute to yourself so cooking would suffice.

“Alright,” Nicholas agrees but he keeps looking at you, as if he noticed the look on your face. You meet his eye and turn away quickly. You didn’t want him to think you were feeling weird about stuff since you weren’t. Much.

“Maki, call home to let them know you’re here.” you call over the noise of the video game. It was getting late, about the time he’d go home from school.

“Okay,” he groans quietly but does as you said obediently. You felt like you were nagging all of a sudden.

You wondered if you’d been replaced as the favourite sibling now that Nicholas was in the picture. Were you jealous of your husband? What a dumb thought.

You shrug to yourself and wash your hands.

Sometimes you did wonder why you bothered waking up at all on your days off.

It was more of an instinctual thing; it was your body clock waking up for you, telling you that you just had to keep doing that thing where you opened your eyes and then dragged your body out of bed, regardless of whether you had work that day or not.

So you do, you get up, and your natural routine of getting coffee first thing takes you to the kitchen where you spot Nicholas already at the machine, brewing the first lot of the day. He’s still in his pyjama pants but has not been bothered to put on a shirt yet, his hair all tousled and fluffy from sleep.

“Morning.” you say. You pick out a mug from the cupboard and situate yourself next to the machine, to wait for the coffee to be ready.

“Hey,” Nicholas responds. It’s surprising since it’s morning and you usually tend to get communication via strange noises from him at this time of day. You glance at him for a moment, trying to discern if something’s different but you just watch his back muscles as he reaches for the milk from the fridge. It’s harder than you’d like to admit to take your eyes away and focus on whether the coffee is done yet.

The machine does its usual whirring and whatnot but you can’t figure out why it seems to be taking an age. You stand with the empty cup but tense up when Nicholas materialises behind you, reaching over your head to get the box of cereal in the cupboard above you. His bare skin comes into contact with yours and makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

His body is warm against yours and it’s overwhelming.

You realise you’re holding in a breath you didn’t know you’d sucked in, only letting it out when he stepped away. You purse your lips and try your best not to mind that, whatever it was.

But you do mind. So much.

Your eyes wander back over to Nicholas as he fixes up his bowl of breakfast. He’s not doing much but you just watch him, mesmerised for some reason. It’s weird for sure; it’s not the first time you’d seen him without a shirt, so what on Earth was going on?

You tear your eyes away but you’re incredibly aware of his every move. He glances at you, as if he can feel your nervous energy permeating the air in the kitchen, but doesn’t say anything.

You forgot you were waiting for that damn coffee machine, you fingers tapping against the counter, eyes shifting around. You look at the numbers on your digital clock - had they changed at all since you came in? Was your mind playing tricks on you? Maybe it was just too early in the morning.

“YN?” you hear behind you and you whip around, almost too fast, only to be shocked at how much closer Nicholas was than you thought he would be. He doesn’t say anything else, but assess you, trying to read you. “Are you okay?” he asks, looking at you with concern.

“Yeah.” you breathe out, inaudibly.

Except it’s a lie.

It’s not okay. You can’t seem to focus on anything but Nicholas and the tension between you, thick and intoxicating, a fog that you could cut through with a knife. You hate it; it’s too hot and stuffy all of a sudden and you feel your chest rising and falling with every breath.

Nicholas takes a slow step toward you, and then another and you attempt to step backwards but are blocked by the edge of the counter against your back. And then you’re standing too close, closer than explainable, close enough to see the colour of his irises in detail or the soft skin of his cheeks or the slight parting of his lips.

You weren’t proud of it but for a moment, you considered closing the space between you and kissing him. It was completely primal, this urge that came from nowhere in particular, an impulsive thought that could be converted into action if you just lost control for a split second.

But you didn’t decide to lose control.

Nicholas did.

And you followed, falling into him like a domino.

You think it seems almost natural, reasonable even, when Nicholas leans down and smashes his lips against yours. So natural that your arms curl around his shoulders immediately, grabbing hold to keep you locked together as you kiss intensely, mouths moving in sync as if you’d rehearsed this exact scene a million times.

There’s a vague beeping noise somewhere in the background, and if you were paying attention, you would have spared a thought that it was your stupid coffee finally ready, but nothing could permeate the bubble the two of you were in.

Nicholas swipes a paw to your left at the empty mug, his own abandoned next to it, and sends them flying off the counter. You don’t even hear the crash of ceramic against the tile floor because his hands are wrapping around the back of your thighs and he’s lifting you up to perch you on the counter, his mouth never leaving yours.

You shuffle to accommodate him standing between your legs, wrapping them gently around his waist, keeping him flush against you. Your nighty rides up your thighs, revealing your underwear underneath and Nicholas’ hands make the most of it by running up the sides of your legs, gathering the material and slipping under to hold your bare hips.

There’s not a single comprehensible thought in your head while you make out with your husband, except for maybe you liked having his tongue down your throat a little too much. That and your awareness of what you were feeling between your legs, exacerbated by the way your hips moved against Nicholas’. He was only wearing pyjamas and you could definitely feel something there.

You can’t keep your hands still, your fingertips eager to touch every inch of his broad shoulders, reaching to his back and then finding purchase in his hair as Nicholas detaches from your mouth only to skim over your cheek and jaw on his way to your neck. You’re breathless while he pays special respect to sensitive skin of your neck, kissing it hotly and biting down gently, the intent of leaving a mark clear in his actions.

You all but melt at how good it feels, relaxing in his arms. A low moan escapes your mouth while he’s busy finding your sweet spots. Then another.

“N-nico…” you can’t help the breathy stutter that your throat produces. It seems to catch his attention because he hums against you, acknowledging your reactions.

Without a word, you kiss him again, guiding his mouth back to yours with one hand. He catches your wrist with one of his hands and holds it there while the other reaches down between you. You’re just about aware enough to know that he’s pulling at the strings on his pyjama bottoms. You shimmy further to the edge of the counter in response, reaching down too, fingers clumsy toward your underwear but before you can do anything-

Everything disappears.

You startle awake, half-jumping out of your skin with clarity that you’d been dreaming this whole time.

You straighten up, lifting your head up from your desk, recognising the familiar decor of your office. You feel almost dizzy and completely dazed from your sleep. Moreover, there’s an uncomfortable heat radiating from your skin, as if you’ve spent too long in a sauna or taken a shower that was far too hot for far too long.

You swallow thickly and sigh, shaking your head.

You had to calm down, it was just a dream. Nothing to worry about. None of that happened, everything was okay.

Everything was-

“Are you okay?”

You all but scream when you hear Nicholas’ voice behind you.

“Wh-when did you get here?” you stammer, turning around to glare at him. You watch as he picks up a folder off your shelf, opens it and deposits a stack of papers inside.

“I was here? The whole time?” he informs you looking back at you, scepticism on his face. “We’ve been working for hours, you must be really tired.”

“Oh,” you try to calm down. “right.”

“Right.” Nicholas says. “So how was your nap? I didn’t wake you, did I? You seem surprised.”

“I, uh,” you pause to think. “had a scary dream.” you finish and get up. Scary might be an understatement; those kind of thoughts? About Nicholas? Definitely terrifying.

The safest thing your brain could think of doing right now, was getting a cup of coffee. That should wake you right up, and you hopefully you can put this whole thing behind you.

“I’m sorry, that sucks.” he hums sympathetically, picking out another folder from the shelf. You glance back at him while you start making your coffee. It��s really strange seeing him in your office - he tended to stay at his own at Wang Enterprises. But what’s stranger is that no matter how much you wrack your brain, you cannot remember what it is that you were working on right now.

What kind of nap made you forget hours of past events?

You’re lost in thought as you pour the coffee, staring into space.

“Woah! Hey!” Nicholas exclaims. “Watch it!”

You snap out of it just in time to lift the jug before the cup overflowed. Your heart is racing from the sudden scare and you put it down quickly.

“What the hell is going on with you, YN?” Nicholas asks, already by your side, taking your hands away from the counter and inspecting them in case you burned yourself. You look at him blankly and shrug.

“I must have overslept.” you say lamely. He rolls his eyes, seemingly annoyed but you can tell he was just worried. When had you started to read him so well?

“I’ll say.” he mutters, letting your hands go then scanning the table to check for any spillages. You were in an office after all; coffee spillages were the most common hazard. “Do you need a wake up call, Mrs Wang?” he quizzes, leaning closer to inspect your face.

“This feels like a trick question.” you blurt out loud. He was still up close, not making a shift away even when he chuckles at your response.

“Gosh, YN, you’re such an over-thinker.” he says. “We should work on that.” he hums, still looking at you intently.

“How?” you mumble, still drowsy.

“Like this…” he trails off, stepping closer to you. You’re starting to feel a sense of deja vu and it’s because his face is literal inches from yours. Maybe it was because of your dream, but somehow you were desensitised to him being in that proximity and didn’t try to create any distance between you.

You almost start panicking, but it’s more of a dull afterthought. “Don’t think.” he whispers, lips hovering over yours.

It’s too late to think, you note.

You move, catching his mouth with yours, reaching up to hold his cheek for balance.

And then you’re stumbling back, Nicholas guiding you toward your desk, lifting you to sit on the edge, papers flying as you swipe a hand back to make space.

Was it sleep deprivation? Was it complete and utter lack of self-control? You had no idea, but you didn’t need to be told twice about not thinking; all you could comprehend right now was how badly you wanted to keep kissing Nicholas. Nothing else mattered in that moment.

He seemed to share that thought because he made no effort to de-escalate the situation despite you two being in your office, in broad daylight, with presumably all your co-workers outside.

If you were using your brain, you’d worry what they would think if they found the two of you - the daughter of the chairman and her husband from the merging company - behaving like a couple of crazy teenagers during office hours.

But you weren’t using your brain.

You were using your hands, pulling at Nicholas’ tie to undo the loop and throw it to the side. Your fingers found the buttons of his shirt easily, popping each one from top to bottom, then sliding the garment off his shoulders. One of his hands had made itself comfortable squeezing your thigh, shoving your skirt up to expose your leg.

Your hands wander up and down his torso, trying to memorise to feeling of every inch of skin, as if it was the most important thing in your life. His hands rest in your bunched up skirt, thumbs playing with the skin just covered by your underwear and you just want him to get rid of it already.

But he doesn’t; instead he keeps teasing the skin around it, fingers meandering over your thighs and hips. You whine into his mouth in protest, hoping he gets the message.

And you wonder if he might have if it wasn’t for the distant beeping sound that gradually became louder and louder.

You open your eyes with gasp when you finally wake up.

The beeping sound is loud and clear and coming from your nightstand. You smack your phone to snooze the alarm and sigh.

This time you’re in your bed, the ceiling of your room above you, and early morning sunlight streaming in through your window.

You’re panting, chest rising and falling rapidly, way too hot and sweaty under the covers. You thrash around wildly, as if fighting your blankets until you’re sure that this is definitely reality and you’re 100% awake now.

So all of that…all of it, was a dream?

You clamp a hand over your mouth to muffle the panicked squeak that almost escapes you. You have to sit up and attempt to calm down.

It wasn’t real, none of it was, thankfully, none of that had occurred in real life, you tell yourself. It was all in your imagination.

“It’s not real.” you whisper out loud.

So why did it feel so real, if it wasn’t?

There’s real heat radiating off your skin, a slight sheen of sweat over it and your covers are a mess and there’s a very real ache in your core, one that you wish you couldn’t feel right now. You reach down and find your fears confirmed with the slick that you find drenching your underwear.

For a hazy moment, your brain jumps to the image of Nicholas smirking at you, amused at your circumstances if he found out.

He’d never let you breathe if he knew.

Then your brain jumps to the image of him lapping it all up with his tong-

“No!” you exclaim. “Stop thinking, just stop.” you will yourself, massaging your temples with two fingers. You hurry to get up and try to snap out of it, chugging the water you’d left on your nightstand. As you drank, you realised how parched you were - you needed to rehydrate after that horror episode.

You needed to take a shower too but you decided to make a cup of coffee first, since caffeine was the next best thing if you didn’t want to start your journey to alcoholism at 7 in the morning, though it may be justified after what you just experienced.

You glance in the mirror before leaving the room, seeing the ratty, oversized t-shirt you slept in crumpled but falling to just underneath your thighs. Now that you think about it, you should have known it was a dream because you definitely wouldn’t wear a nightdress that nice to bed.

You smooth over your bedhead a little and shrug; the faster you get coffee, the faster you can wash this whole nightmare away.

You poke your head out of the door first, listening out for any movement.

There’s quiet sounds coming from the kitchen, so Nicholas was definitely awake. Before you? He must have meetings or something. You decide to brave it and just get in and out.

You creep up the hallway and practically sneak into the kitchen in your own home since you didn’t want to alert him to your presence. He’s got those giant headphones on with his back to you as he cooks something in a pan at the stove.

You felt a bit exposed in your little t-shirt and damp panties but you knew he’d seen you in less, in fact, he’d seen you na-

Do not go there, you willed your brain. Now’s not the time to remember embarrassing shit.

You get to the kitchen and Nicholas notices your movement, turning to greet you.

“Morning.” he slides the headphones down to rest on his neck. He looks at you for a moment and you think this is it, he knows, he’s a mind reader, but then he turns back to his food without a word.

“Hey.” you find a mug and get to the coffee machine. You knew you could practically do this in thirty seconds flat, so you moved as if you were running late for a meeting (it was simply a hypothetical situation but it wouldn’t hurt to practice it like a drill).

“You want?” Nicholas asks, tipping the pan towards you to show its contents. He’s frying eggs.

“No, thanks.” you say quickly and snap the button on the machine. You can’t help but tense up as if he’s going to say something more. Could he tell what happened? Could he sense there was something wrong with you?

“‘Kay,” he says. “Can you get me a mug too?” he asks, keeping his eyes on the eggs.

“Sure.” you grab one as the machine whirrs. So far, so good. You were acting normal. Totally unsuspicious.

The machine finishes its thing and you pour the cups, putting sugar into yours by habit. Your stomach growls so you decide to get some toast too even if that means staying in the kitchen longer.

You busy yourself on the other side of the counter but look up when Nicholas moves to pick up a coffee cup. He picks it up and takes a sip. You realise it’s the one you poured for yourself with the sugar. Why didn’t he notice? He usually didn’t have sugar in his. Actually he usually had an iced Americano but that’s a whole other thing in itself.

“Something wrong?” he asks when he finds you watching him.

“That one had sugar in it.” you say.

“Oh.” he looks at it, as if he would be able to tell by looking at it. Dumbass. “Sorry, here.” he hands it back to you and you take it, putting it on the counter.

Normally you wouldn’t care about sharing mugs since you were married - like technically - but you weren’t strangers, that’s what you meant, but right now you looked at it, thinking about how his lips had been there and that yours would be too-

Your toast resurfaces and you almost keel over in relief. Time to get the fuck out of there.

You throw the bread on a plate and attempt to scat, bumping into Nicholas, who had silently moved to your other side, raiding the fridge. Luckily, you hadn’t picked up the hot coffee yet, or you would be wearing it right now.

Nicholas is just as startled to find you up in his grill, milk carton forgotten in the fridge as he lets the door fall shut.

So you stay for a split second, a Mexican standoff.

The eerie deja vu begins again and this time you’re determined to call the shots. You could not allow yourself to just fall into his arms. Not that he had any clue about all that, of course. But you did, your body did and it was starting to react as soon as Nicholas was near you.

At the risk of your own demise, you make the first move.

“Your eggs are burning.” you lie and watch as his eyes widen and he rushes back to the pan. In the meantime, you snatch the cup and plate and run.

You make it to the safety of your room and rest your back against the door, exhaling deeply.

Oh god, that’s bad. That’s very, very, truly not good.

You’re having weird thoughts about your husband, but then again, who were you really supposed to have those thoughts about? Jake from accounting? That guy Sunghoon across the hall? Heesung from your tort law class? No.

It kinda checked out that you were somehow into Nicholas - at least on a subconscious level. He was something else entirely. He’d just made your brain short circuit and you had no idea why.

Well, you did. He was Nicholas. He was your husband.

And you could totally have sex with him, since that’s what married couples did, even fake ones such as yourselves probably did. You had to think about it - could you bring this up to him? It’s not like you hadn’t talked about it before.

You’d have to establish boundaries - it’s not like you were in love with him - it would be like a friends with benefits thing at most, nothing to freak out about.

Your husband was stupid fine; a total smoke show, who could really blame you for thinking like that? It’s a miracle you held out this long, right?

It was true you’d lasted this long, but you also had your pride on the line - you weren’t the type of person to beg or to ask for anything, so how could you even consider asking him if he wanted to have sex with you?

You knew you should just forget about the whole ordeal and move on.

So why couldn’t you?

Another day, another bullshit situation waiting to happen.

Work was slow and you were more than ready to leave since you’d had enough of office noise and the never-ending pile of paperwork that seemed to arrive in your email inbox every five minutes like clockwork.

You wanted nothing more to leave but there was still some time left in the work day.

Your email pinged as if on cue, and you sighed before clicking on the icon on your computer screen.

You stopped short. This was totally unexpected.

It was from the people you were negotiating with over the contract you’d lost. They had sent you an email containing a copy of the list of things you’d lost with the meeting notes. They had also requested a meeting next week to go over the revised stuff. The most shocking part of all was perhaps that it was all serious; it was definitely not some kind of passive-aggressive attempt to humiliate you, as there sometimes was in corporate relations (you would know, your legal team was often the one who started that sort of thing, you weren’t proud of it).

You emailed them back immediately thanking them and confirming the date, then apologising profusely that you’d lacked on your end. You hesitated for a moment, but asked why the sudden reminder of the details from the first meeting.

The email wooshed away and for a while you forgot about it.

You were packing up your things to leave when the reply came.

“Dear Mrs L/N…blah blah blah…” you muttered. “…your husband got in contact and explained that there was a logistical mishap with your papers and got the edits off of us…” you sit and stare at the screen.

Your what had done what now?

You took a moment to process.

According to them, Nicholas had found their contact information and told them that there was a problem with your notes, and they just gave them to him?

What had he done? Surely no one would do that, right? Even for their wife? And why would they have allowed that? What could he have possibly said to them to make this happen?

Probably just told them his full name with a flash of that charming smile and voilà - they probably fell to their knees and begged him to take the edits. Regardless, he’d got them…for you.

You were a little winded, if you were being honest. You’d had so much anxiety over what had transpired with the contract, that you’d tried to block out most of it until you had to actually work on the matter.

But Nicholas had tried to help you behind your back. Why didn’t he tell you? Probably because he knew you’d never let him to do that for you, yet it was probably the nicest thing any person had ever done for you. Saved you more humiliation and strife so you didn’t have to endure it.

He really did that for you.

You felt like crying and screaming but like in a happy way for once.

You couldn’t wait to go home and- and what?

If you saw Nicholas right this very second, you couldn’t trust yourself - you’d probably do something dumb like hug him or kiss him. Or both.

You had to make it up to him, to thank him.

So you did the only thing you could think he would really love.

…

The warmth that wafted through your apartment was far too strong for this to become a surprise but you kept cooking, making dish after dish, still on a high over what Nicholas had done for you.

People didn’t tend to do a lot of nice things for you, at least not genuinely and with good intentions - usually it was because of your money - so when someone did, you always remembered and internalised it. It made you want to do good things too.

It hadn’t escaped your attention that between you and Nicholas, the language of gratitude and affection was food, so it wasn’t difficult to pick out your thank you gesture.

The front door beeped open and you heard the shuffle of slippered feet coming toward your kitchen.

“My god, it’s a sauna in here! What are you doing?” Nicholas exclaims when he comes through.

“I’m fulfilling our beautiful kitchen’s purpose.” you state. “Did you have dinner yet?”

“Nope, I’m starving.” he says, already eyeing the dishes on the table as he washed his hands.

“Good, sit down. I made it for you.” you say, turning back to the stove, mostly to avoid Nicholas’ inquisitive eyes.

“And to what do I owe this pleasure?” he asks, sitting down.

You turn and look at him. For a moment you think about how to phrase it, your tongue poking out your cheek.

“Thank you for getting the contract back.” you say earnestly. You watch as recollection appears on his handsome face, and he nods modestly.

“It’s alright; it’s the least I could do.” he replies. You smile fondly at him.

“What did you end up telling them? I really am dying to know because I know you definitely didn’t tell them the truth.” you chuckle. Then you hesitate. “You didn’t, right?” you start to sound panicked.

“No, of course not.” Nicholas reassures you. “I just told them our dog ate the contract.” he gives you small shrug. You think you misheard him. He must read into your reaction because he rushed to correct himself. “I’m joking! I just told them it blew away through an open window. It’s totally plausible, airing out offices and such.”

You sigh in relief. “Alright, even I could believe that. Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.” Nicholas hums. “Now, tell me all about this feast.”

CHAPTER 5A - ADDICTED (smut MINORS DNI)

also memes!!!!!

a/n: thanks for reading, feedback is always appreciated <3 welp things are finally getting real for YN lol, hope that helps. also fun tmi - i looked at a photo of nico and went ‘hey husband’, then the next one of euijoo and went ‘hey husband’s husband’ lol, might explore this dynamic more tbh

#&team #andteam #&team nicholas #wang yixiang #nicholas x reader #&team x reader #&team fics #&team imagines #&team scenarios #momobani.writes

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