Anton Yeong was tired of hearing his foster mother repeatedly asking him to find a girlfriend. For days, following Andrea's visit, Yeong Soon has been coming to the office and asking for any progress.
He contemplated how to handle the issue at hand when he heard some clerks in the office chatted about this TV series where an heir contracted a wife to receive his inheritance.
The clerks were immediately suspended the next day due to their unproductive minutes. Still, what he overheard enlightened him and he began eyeing for candidates. He started checking profiles of actresses but found them lame or worse, vain. He wished it could be somebody who cared less about his status.
When Yeong stayed overnight at Yanmei's apartment, he recognized she was the best contender. Fist of all, she was not interested in men. Second, she was not affected by his presence. Third, she was not lacking money nor was she in need of power. She would not care to take advantage of him.
His fake relationship with Yanmei worked fantastically. It gratified him to see his foster parents contented, especially since his mother had always liked Yanmei. Even as they traveled to Beijing, his mother was fully convinced they were in a real relationship.
It became more assuring when Yanmei attended to his wounds after the fight with Lu Fang. Although her request to end the act did not sit well with him, he dismissed it, having no intention of terminating the agreement, at least not just yet.
Since then, Yeong noticed Yanmei had not been addressing him as a girl. Also, she wasn't as loquacious towards him as she used to. Whenever they were together; she was often a safe distance away from him.
On their last visit to an offsite operation of Lu-Wei Enterprises, Gao Rou came along with them. He was surprised to see her talking casually with him, smiling and laughing. Yet, lately, when they were together, she was silent most of the time.
Gao Rou was clearly attracted to Yanmei, but how does she see him? How come she was entertaining his advances? Could she really be a lesbian? Why was she enjoying Gao Rou's company and not his? These were the questions that played in his head.
Following their return to Korea, he noticed that she drowned herself with work. Although she still spent time with him and his mother, it was never the same.
When he witnessed her speaking with Gao Rou a few times on the phone, his blood boiled. Here she was, saying she was busy, yet entertaining a man on the phone.
When he confronted Yanmei about it, she denied it saying, "I don't know what you are taking about Yeong, we are simply friends. I mean, we have been hanging out a lot due to our pretend relationship, it doesn't mean I like you... I mean, I would never like you!"
Her words kept running through his mind. He told himself, 'Is Gao Rou better than me? Am I really that unpleasant for her to say she would never like me?'
Every time she was on the phone, Yeong immediately suspected it was Gao Rou that on one occasion after they had dinner with his mother, he brought it up again while driving her to her apartment.
"Do you like Gao Rou?"
He saw her turn to him in annoyance and replied, "I told you were just friends."
"You sure talk a lot -"
"Excuse me, we did not speak that often at all. You simply assumed it was him. Like all the time!" Yanmei replied with her hands folded against her chest.
"Why are you upset?!"
"Who wouldn't be upset? Even when I was on the phone with a client, you yelled at me three days ago saying stop procrastinating, Yanmei and get to work!"
Yeong started maneuvering faster as the tension inside the car heated up. He saw her hold tightly on her seat. Obviously, he frightened her.
When they arrived at her apartment, Yanmei took a deep breath and said, "Yeong, let's stop this act. It's not going anywhere -"
"So you can be with Gao Rou?!" He interrupted. He was still unresolved from their earlier conversation and hearing her suggestion made him completely agitated.
Almost immediately, Yanmei's eyes and face turned red. Before he knew it she screamed out loud, "I don't like Gao Rou! I like you! Don't you get it? I can't keep pretending to be your girlfriend because I already like you!"
Just as she finished, she urgently covered her mouth with her hand. He saw her eyes grew wide and before he knew it; she opened the door and rushed inside the apartment building without saying goodbye.
It was beyond what he had expected. That night, he never slept. He was constantly thinking back to what Yanmei had confessed and told himself, "so she is not into women, after all."
He decided he would speak to her the next day, but unfortunately, Yanmei avoided him. Even if they were in the same building, she managed to be somewhere else when he was in her office. Whenever he would ask for a report, one of his assistants handed it to him.
He tried to ask her sister to talk some sense into Yanmei, but Andrea did not follow-through.
When Yanmei did not come to work one day, he called her non-stop but she would not answer. He went to her apartment and started roaring on the door relentlessly.
"Yanmei, I know you are there! I asked the concierge, and they told me you never left. I also tracked your phone, I know you are inside…. Now, let me in!"
He was at it for nearly an hour while calling her phone and that of her sister.
Seeing Andrea call him back, he quickly answered, "Did you speak to her? Ask her to open the door, now!"
"Yeong, please calm down. You are scaring her!"
"Am I scary?!"
Yes, you are and you've always been… Now, please. Calm down!"
Yeong walked in circles a few times, settling himself then went back on the phone asking, "What did she say?"
"She said she likes you."
Yeong went back to the door and kept banging on it again., "Are you supposed to hide from someone you like!"
"Yeong, stop it! I can hear you clearly. You are already startling her," Andrea tried to reason with him. "Yeong, do you like Yanmei?"
"What? I don't know. How am I supposed to know?"
"You sure act like it. You are very irrational right now. Your emotions are getting into your nerves. Her absence has been stressing you. I'm telling you, you like her too."
"Ahhh!" Yeong screamed. "I am so upset right now!"
"Only important people can have that effect on you, Yeong. I'm telling you, you like her too…Let me tell you what you are supposed to do."
"What?"
"Kiss her! Find out if it gives you any exciting feeling. That's how you find out!"
"You mean without courting?"
"Yeah, why not! You can court her after - "
"Wait… did Lu Fang kiss you without going through courtship?"
Crickets***
"Andy?"
Crickets***
It took a few seconds for Andrea to answer him, "Yeong. Something is wrong with the line. Speak to you soon."