Arranged... With Love...

10. Smile.

"Who were you talking to on the phone that made you so happy?" Tanu asked as he eyed his friend, who had just come back after finishing a long call. 

"Huh?"

"I asked, who were you talking to that you are smiling so much?" Tanu repeated the question.

The smile on Cade's face vanished and was replaced by a guilty one, like the one of a kid who was caught stealing candies. "I wasn't smiling." 

"You were. As if someone lit up a thousand-watt bulb on your face." Nara too was shooting suspicious looks at him.

"I said, I wasn't smiling," Cade refused to admit that he was smiling, that too after getting a call from that asshole husband of his, no way!

"Ok, then tell us who that call was from?" Nara sounded as if she was compromising.

"An old acquaintance." Cade didn't need an experiment to know that his friends would snap if they found out that he was talking to his husband on the phone for over an hour.

"An old acquaintance?" Tanu had a playful look on his face. "Which old acquaintance of yours was that? Is he someone we might know?"

Cade really wanted his friends to drop the topic and get off his back. "Yeah. It was your great-grandfather from his grave."

"Oh?" Tanu wasn't mad at the retort. "Then can you please give me that number? I really want to talk to my great-grandfather. I want to ask him how he is doing inside his grave." He said with a plastic sincere smile.

"You guys are sick." Cade stood up and went to his cabin.

"Don't you find him suspicious?" Tanu leaned over and asked his girlfriend.

"Very very suspicious." Nara nodded, munching on the chips.

The trio had arrived in Busan the previous day and had to report to the Busan branch of K Publishers before heading to the festival venue.

It was only when they got there that they found out that there was a mix-up in the dates and the original festival would be starting a day later. The trio decided to first report to the office and then have the rest of the day off for themselves to explore the city.

"Sunbae, it was your girlfriend on the phone, wasn't it?" Lee Nayul, one of their Korean colleagues whom they were close to, asked Cade.

Cade looked up at the cute girl in front of him. "Nayul- Ah, don't you think that you are being nosy?"

"I guess it right, right?" Nayul bounced in excitement.

"No. It was not my girlfriend." Cade went back to reading the festival brochure.

"Then, was it your boyfriend?"

"No"

Lee Nayul pouted in sadness. The next second, she jumped up in joy again. "I know, that was the person who you have a crush on, right? That was why you were smiling so much with just a call!"

"I don't have a crush on the person I was talking to on the phone."

"You don't have to be so uptight, Sunbae. It is normal to feel happy when you get a call from your crush. You don't have to feel embarrassed."

"I am not embarrassed and there is 'no' crush," Cade said firmly. "Now, would my dear Nayul, get me a latte from the cafe downstairs?".

"Yes." Nayul pouted and headed to the cafe.

Cade stared at the brochure, but he couldn't read a single word of it. His brain was filled with the thoughts of his conversation with his husband.

He didn't know if he should be calling Raya his husband. He didn't even know if the marriage meant anything to Raya.

He wasn't expecting Raya to give him a call. A part of him wanted to yell at Raya and ask for an explanation.

But when he heard Raya's name, he didn't know what came of him so he started acting like a rude rebellious teenager.

Even though the call lasted more than an hour, they were just bickering back and forth.

Raya didn't actually talk to him about why he made the call or anything.

Cade assumed that the call was just to make an excuse for not showing up.

"Cade, " Jung Sangjun, one of Cade's close friends in the Korean office entered the cabin. "Here you go. "

He handed a tourist sim to Cade.

"Thanks" Cade took the card and put it on the second sim lot of his phone.

"Why aren't you taking the other sim off? Didn't you say that you don't want to be bothered by your parents for the time being? Wouldn't they be able to call you if you keep the sim on? " Tanu said as he entered the cabin.

"I changed my mind," Cade answered while rearranging the documents on his table.

"Why? Is it because of that 'old acquaintance' who just called you a while ago?" Nara wiggled her brows teasingly.

Cade ignored both of them. Yes, they did guess it right. He didn't remove the sim because he wanted to get calls from Raya. He had even unblocked Raya's number that he had blocked on their wedding night in a fit of anger.

He might look like a pushover in this relationship. But somewhere in his heart, he hoped things worked out. Maybe he could solve the whole situation without hurting anybody including himself.

He wasn't deluding himself about having a happy married life with Raya, but he didn't want to mess up the years of friendship between their parents because of the marriage. 

"Old acquaintance? Which old acquaintance is going to give him a call?" Sangjun asked curiously. "Isn't it going to rip himself off by giving an international call to you?"

Sangjun's words made Cade realize that they weren't in the same country anymore. He wondered how much the call must have cost Chot since he talked on the phone for over an hour.

He felt sorry for Chot. Chot turned out to be a way better person than he imagined him to be. He had planned on apologizing to Chot for the long call when he met the older guy again. 

"No problem. He can afford to make international calls." He was referring to Raya. He was sure that as someone who is supposedly traveling abroad, the international calls wouldn't be a problem for his husband.

"He? Who 'he'?" His friends were at it again.

Cade pushed their faces away and looked at Sangjun. "My work here is over. We will be heading back to the hotel now." He hooked each of his hands around each of his friends.

"Alright, I will pick you guys up in the evening to give you a little tour and try some street food," Sangjun replied.

"Street food on day one? What if we get an upset stomach?" Nara complained.

"Then, how about we try the Pojang macha[1] today?" Sangjun suggested. Pojang Machas were much safer and cleaner than other street food stalls.

"That's a good idea. I have been craving for soju for so long." Nara commented.

"No alcohol for you today, Nara. We have to report to the festival venue early in the morning tomorrow and make sure that everything is in place. We can't be hungover tomorrow." Cade reminded.

"Damn it!" She cursed.

"Can we at least do some shopping?" Tanu begged. After all, Cade was the leader of the team for the trip.

"That's doable." Cade nodded.

"I have prepared a whole itinerary for you. You guys will have nothing to worry about. All you have got to do is follow my lead." Sangjun said proudly.

[1] Pojang macha- those red-colored tents we see in K-drama that sell popular street foods.