SOUTH Korea was one thing to get used to but the whole ride through China and the flight to South Korea was nerve-wrecking for her. Their bus was stopped so many times that it was causing her to cling to him whenever soldiers went up to their bus to check people out. She thought that even after going this far things were going to end up with her back in her parent's home and as a pawn in someone else's crazy chess game.
She had half expected people to ask them all sorts of things but since the members of their tour group were mostly people in the same case as her, they were trying not to talk about something that could get anyone in trouble. The “couples” took as many pictures as they can. Others were more lovely-dovey than Shiyuan and her. But he set the tripod well so that most of the shots that they took included both of them. He was so photogenic that the pictures looked like they could fit in a photobook. It was as if he was putting together memories and selcas of their “couple trip” to make her visa believable.
“You don't have to do this.” she had whispered to him once, he was going to take a picture of them almost kissing. He smiled when she said that and they had to repeat the shot. It was hard for her to have his face so near to hers that she looked away at the last minute. The pictures came out with more cute innocence than she expected. He gave her a phone that he used to take selcas of them.
“Once you are registered in my family, you would have a residency number. That would make things easier for you. We have to get out story straight. So how did we meet?” he was so enthusiastic about it that she couldn't stop him from coming up with their story. “Do you know my friends met their wives outside of Korea. One of them is married to a Filipina. The other three are engaged to her friends. I'll tell you their love stories one of these days. I would have to tell you about my group mates in Super Junior later. There are so many of them. I want to tell you so much about me but let's just say we had a whirlwind romance here in China so that it wouldn't be surprising that you don't know a lot about me.” his eyes became sad for a moment. “I just broke up with my girlfriend. She ended up dating someone in New York.”
She didn't know where the feeling of sadness over his love life came from. She held his face and was surprised when there was a camera flash. The lady who she met in the hideout took the picture. They ended up laughing and getting another picture out of that. Shiyuan had been fleeing a heartbreak. She was fleeing a war-stricken country. Somehow those pictures were showing a bit of the happiness they have been trying to put out there to make their lives a little less depressing.
IT was hard enough to go through but when they landed in South Korea, there were tons of women and teenagers waiting for them. They had banners and posters with Shiyuan's face in them. She read the name and it was different from the one he gave her.
“Your name isn't Shiyuan, isn't it?” she had asked him when they finally got into another bus. This one had the symbol of the NGO that he was affiliated with.
“Shiyuan is my Chinese name. Siwon is my Korean name. Are you going to give me your real name, Hana?” he teased her. He had spoken most of the trip but mostly it was to ask her if she needed anything.
She grew quiet again when he asked her that. “We have to get to know each other more. The more I know about the real you, the harder it would be for them to figure out that this is a marriage for convenience.” She was still afraid about this whole marriage thing. She was not going to feel okay until it was out of the way.
“I still don't want to marry you.” she was insistent on this.
“Then your visa would be void in three months.” he said matter of factly. She paled when he said that.
“I can't...go back that soon. I have so much to do here.” was all she could say.
“We'll get things sorted out as soon as we get back home, my home at least. You have to meet my parents.” She knew that was a big deal in both Koreas. She didn't want a lot of people to recognize her or know of her. She had a mission to complete in South Korea and being someone's wife would greatly affect her plans.
“Are you sure that is a good idea? I don't even know what you do for a living.” she had an idea that he was some kind of actor but somehow it didn't fit in his persona. She assumed there was something more that he wasn't telling her.
“I do that for a living.” he pointed at a big screen that flashed a concert clip of a group of men singing. Just as the bus took a right and she could see the screen completely, Siwon's face flashed on the huge screen. “You are an idol?” he looked too old to be an idol.
“Adult idol. And an actor too.” he smiled at her. She wanted to scream. This was not the incognito life in South Korea that she had planned to do. Being a fiancee to a famous idol was seriously going to limit her movement. It wasn't even the right kind of connections that she needed! This is not going well. She knew that she needed him to register her so that she could get her visa to validated, her residency number needed to be legal so that she could move around without a lot of problems. But he couldn't announce her identity to anyone. It would be the end of her mission as she knew it.
“Could we...keep this under wraps? I want to have a private life here. I don't want anyone to know that I am here.” she was obviously scaring him. But she needed him to trust her on this. “I mean, I don't want to affect your stardom...I am sure that you would be less famous if women found out that you were married to someone. I am just thinking about you.”
He seemed pensive for a moment. Then he nodded. “I think you have a point. But my parents and my groupmates still need to know about you,” then he smiled at something he remembered. “Okay, maybe not all of them. I am sure Kyuhyun can't be trusted to keep you a secret.” he laughed. Who Kyuhyun was, she was about to find out.
