"Would you help me out this once? I thought that we were best friends. I am not asking you to do it for free. You are going to get paid, and it would be the easiest money that you ever made," Min-jung said as she tried her best to guilt trip her best friend, Lee Nana.
Min Jung had just received a mail from her boss informing her a client needed her service. But, she was currently out of the country against the strict instructions of her boss. After hours of pounding her head against the wall, she called her best friend, hoping she would act in her stead. The plan was foolproof because the client did not know who his girlfriend for the night would be.
"What you're asking me to do is very difficult. I am in a relationship, remember? What would happen if Ji-tae finds out?" Lee Nana asked, with fright in her voice.
"Who would tell him?" Min- Jung asked.
"Nana, if the roles were reversed, I would gladly jump in for you. The booking happened last minute. My job is on the line. Please, help me."
Lee Nana responded with silence. Her relationship with Jim-Tae was too precious to risk for her best friend, and even the offer of easy money was not sweetening the deal.
"You know what?" Asked Min Jung.
"Think about it. I can not force you to do anything that you do not want to. But, please, save me," With that, she hung the call.
Lee Nana was left in the silence of her room after her best friend ended the call. She needed as much money as she could lay her hands on right now, and Min Jung knew. That was the only reason that she would dangle that carrot in front of her.
But she did not want to be a fake girlfriend for a rich man, even if it seemed like an easy job.
What if Ji-tae found out? What would she tell him? she asked herself. She looked around the small room she shared with her father, and her eyes fell on the last picture they'd taken before her mother's death.
He had spent all he had and had gone as far as going to loan sharks to get money for her mother's treatment, but it was a waste of effort.
Her breast cancer had metastasised to other organs in her body, and there was nothing they could do.
Now the loan sharks were on their neck. Should her loyalty be to her boyfriend or her father? Though her father would be furious if he ever got to know she got involved in something like this, but who would tell him?
Min-jung said all she had to do was pretend to be the rich guy's girlfriend for a week, and the pay would be enough to clear the debts they owed. Besides, Min-jung had reassured her there would be no intimacy. All she needed was to act as his girlfriend.
And as luck would have it, Ji-Tae was currently out of town on one of his business trips and wouldn't be back anytime until the following month, which made things much easier for her. If Min-jung didn't tell, there was no way Ji-Tae would ever find out about this travesty she was contemplating. And, of course, there was no way the rich guy would tell either since he was looking for a fake girlfriend.
Lee Nana made up her mind to accept the job. She needed the money. Maybe if she threw morality to the wind this once, she could save her family from debt. All she had to do now was cook up a good story for her father so he would allow her to travel and accept the money when she returned from her trip.
"I will do it, but you have to promise me you won't say this to anybody. The rich guy won't know my name or anything about me since I'm covering for you; I'll be you. And finally, you'll have to come up with a good lie I can tell my father," Nana said immediately after Min-jung answered her call.
"Wow! I knew you'd agree, but I didn't expect it to be so fast. Ok, I heard all your conditions. You could tell your dad you want to visit me for a week, that I've got a job for you if he asks for details, has he call me. By then, I would have made something up," Min-jung said happily.
"Trust me, Nana, everything will be fine. It'll go smoothly," She said reassuringly.
"I hope so. But you'll have to tell me about the rich guy. I need to know what I'm getting into. Who is he? What is he into? Why is he single? what does he like?" Nana asked curiously.
"You ask too many questions. I'm not allowed to know too much about my clients, but I'll tell you the little I know. His name is Kim Tan. He's in his early thirties, drop-dead gorgeous, and rich. Lastly, he has trust issues, so you'll have to be very careful," Min-jung said, reading from the card her boss had sent her.
"Trust issues? What kind of trust issues?" Nana asked curiously.
"You ask too many questions. Please don't ask him too many questions when you meet the client. And, as for your question, I know nothing about his trust issues. It is not in my place to know. I do my job and leave. So please do me this favour, Do the job and leave. Don't ask personal questions," Min-jung said, warning her calmly.
"Yes, boss. Do the job and leave. I got it. When do I meet him?" She asked with mock politeness
"In a week. You'll spend a week with him to be comfortable around the client, know the names of those around him and then attend a family wedding with him; mind you, this wedding is why you're going there. So do your best to be the ideal girlfriend," Min-jung said. She had no doubt Nana would do it right.
"Yes, ma'am. When do I receive my money?" Nana asked, wanting to get that out of the way.
"You'll get an upfront payment today so you can go shopping; he's a rich guy, so you must know you can't wear those outdated clothes. No offense," Min-jung said as Nana hissed at her in annoyance, making her chuckle as she dropped the call.
*******
Nana looked into her bag. She kept getting the nagging feeling that she had forgotten something important.
"Why are you all over the place?" Her father wondered aloud.
"You're only going to visit your best friend, Min-jung. I am sure that she does not need you to be perfect,"Β Her father said, watching her from the doorway.
"I'm not all over the place. I'm just ensuring I have everything I need for a week."
Then, she turned to him and asked. "You would be alright on your own, yes?"
"Of course. You have nothing to worry about. Please make sure you have fun while you're there, but be careful. Take care of yourself and call me first thing in the morning and last thing at night..." Her father said, trying hard not to show he was worried about her.
"Who is now getting worried? I'll be fine. I'm a big girl, remember? I'll be ok. Just take care of yourself," She said, straightening her clothes as she stood up.
"I'm ready to leave now," She hugged him as he went outside with her. He watched her until she boarded a taxi and left.
The taxi stopped her in front of an old pristine white, which stood beautifully in the vast expanse of land covered in carpet grass. The picket face contrasts with the building, and one would have thought anyone who chose to live in such a mansion would want to be hidden from the rest of the world. The building looked like something out of a movie.
Nana stood by the gate with her luggage, unsure what to do next. She raised her head and saw the curtain move. "Hello?" She called out as she pushed open the gate.
She stepped inside the compound and walked towards the building, and she noticed the fine sports car parked in the garage just close to the house. Nana knocked lightly on the door, but there was no response. She knocked once more, but there was no response.
That was when she decided to look around the compound to see if there was any sign of life. As she stepped back, the door suddenly flew open.
Startled, her bag fell from her hands. Nana quickly fell to the floor to pick up the contents of the bag while silently cursing herself for being so clumsy. While on the floor, Nana could see the legs of the man she had come to visit. She did not doubt that he was wondering how someone so clumsy was sent to him from the agency.
Nana took deep breaths, hoping to calm herself down. While Tan just stood there watching without offering any help.
He had just stepped out of the bathroom when he heard the sound of the taxi engine, and he had been very curious to see what his guest looked like.
He had spied her from his window. He hadn't expected her to look so beautiful. He had hurriedly dressed up, almost tripping as he wore his pants. Seeing her up close, he realised she was even more beautiful than he had thought from afar.
Her blonde hair was a tousled mass of spiralling curls that flowed over her shoulders, and it perfectly suited her skin tone, which was milky with a hint of rose. She had brown eyes. which were currently heavy, the colour of cloudy seas, and was carefully accented with mascara and liner.
She cleared her throat lightly to get his attention, but he seemed distracted, which was a good thing as it gave her time to recover.
"Hello, I'm Min-jung," She said, smiling brightly as she extended her hand for a handshake.
He felt embarrassed to have been caught admiring her so openly, "Uh, Yea. Please come in," He said roughly as he took her small soft hand in his own. He felt his skin tingle as he made that little physical contact with her.
He couldn't understand his attraction to this lady. How was he to live with her for a week and stay emotionally aloof if he already was feeling this attracted?
She stepped inside the house, not brushing her body against his. She looked around the living room, "You have a lovely house," She said, trying to make light conversation
"You're welcome, and thank you," He said with a polite bow.
"My name is Kim Tan, but for our arrangement, you can call me Tan. I'll show you to your room so you can freshen up and catch some rest. I'll expect you to be down by 8 pm for dinner, so we can make some plans while we eat. Come with me," He said, not giving her time to respond to everything he had just told her.
"Dinner? Who's preparing it?" She asked curiously, looking around, as it seemed they were alone in the house
"You'll meet my househelp later on. She stepped out a while ago," He said, continuing in his stride.
"Your room will be next to mine. I hope you don't mind. Since we can't share a room, I thought our rooms should be this close in case anyone came around," Tan said apologetically.
"It's not an issue, I understand," She said, smiling back at him, praying the door to her room had a good lock.
Immediately she entered her room, and she waited for a minute by the door to make sure he was either in his room or had moved away, then she turned the key in the lock. She closed her eyes and slipped to the floor.
What the hell was she doing here in the home of a stranger she knew nothing about?
She looked around the room; it was a room fit for a princess. She walked to the bed and lay on it. The king-sized bed was well spread, with a lovely flowery bedspread smelling like lavender. She supported her head with one of the pillows on the bed... She needed to think about the next step. She'd call Min-jung and her father after resting for a while.
**********
Kim Tan paced around his bedroom with a glass of red wine in hand.
He had always prided himself on being a reasonable man, but his action in the last hour was anything but reasonable.
It was understandable that he couldn't stand the idea of being under the same roof as his ex-girlfriend. But this was much worse because his ex-girlfriend, who had dumped him, was marrying his cousin in a week and everyone in the family expected him to be at the wedding.
They wanted him to prove he had nothing against the couple, they wanted him to be at the wedding laughing in his usual good-natured manner, and they wanted him to act like he wasn't angry or hurt. They wanted him to pretend the lady getting married to his cousin wasn't the same lady he had proposed to two years ago, who had turned him down in front of everyone.
He had the right to be hurt, hateful and angry. But he'd be damned if he let anyone of them see it. It was for this he had called the 'Hire A Girlfriend Agency.' He had asked for a girlfriend. He hadn't cared about the price then, and neither did he now. He had asked for the exact opposite of his ex-girlfriend.
Ever since the breakup, he had tried his best to avoid women; many of them had kept pushing themselves on him. But he had been able to stay emotionally aloof.
He did not need a girlfriend; he didn't want one personally. He just needed one for this wedding. He'd pay her well and let her go immediately after it was over. It was a stupid thing to do, but he would do it to save face. That was what he had told himself when he set out to hire one.
Yet here he was, thinking about how pretty his hired girlfriend looked. He hadn't factored being attracted to his hired girlfriend into his plans... but maybe he could break his two years old celibacy before the end of the week. He didn't have to be emotionally involved to have sex, right? He could be attracted to her without emotional attachments.
He looked at the clock as it struck 8 pm. He had never been so eager for dinner as he was right now. He stepped out of his room and went to the dining area to wait for her.
**********
Nana opened her eyes, she didn't remember where she was at first, and then it hit her. She sat up immediately and looked around the room; it was dark. She remembered seeing a bedside lamp somewhere. She switched it on and checked the time on her wristwatch. It was 9:50 pm. She gasped in surprise; she had missed dinner.
Why hadn't he woken her up? She lifted her hands to her face and closed her eyes. This was the wrong way to start. How was she going to apologise to him? She had even failed to call her father and Min-jung. She brought out her phone to make the call and noticed it was out of service. Just her luck, she thought.
Just as she stood up to open the door and step out of the room, she heard a sound coming from a door at the other end of her room. At first, she wanted to run away from it. Generally, strange noises from strange doors usually signified danger.
Nana's fear was heightened by the fact that she had not noticed the door earlier when she had entered the room. She moved to the door to place her ears on it and make out the sound. But just as she got very close to the door, she missed a step and fell right through it.