The Pretend Wife

Sixteen.

•••

after driving for thirty minutes they arrived at a small family own vineyard that was situated just outside volterra.

jennie looked at taeyong with a perplexed expression on her face as if asking what was going on but he only responded with a small smile. they got out of the car and headed towards the front door.

taeyong knocked softly and they waited until an old woman opened the door for them. taeyong spoke to the woman completely in italian and jennie had no idea what they were talking about.

she watched as the woman responded to him, a smile lighting up her wrinkled face as she invited them inside.

once inside, taeyong leaned over to whisper to her an explanation. "this vineyard is owned by the bianchi family. they are one of the oldest families here who still make wine the old fashioned way. i wanted to show you how wine was made before, way before the huge companies got in the way."

jennie's eyes sparkled with interest. this was something completely new for her and she couldn't wait to experience it.

as they entered the house, the old woman turned to taeyong and asked inquiringly, "sei sposato?"

taeyong answered with a gentle smile "si signora." he replied.

the old woman's smile widened as she gazed lovingly at taeyong and jennie. "belle coppie." she commented causing taeyong to blush.

as the woman walked ahead, jennie leaned towards taeyong and asked curiously. "what did she say?"

"she asked if we were married and i said yes." taeyong responded.

"that's all?" jennie narrowed her eyes at him. "what did she say before she left?" jennie pressed further. she wanted to know what caused the lee taeyong to blush.

taeyong gave her an embarrassed smile "she said we were a beautiful couple." he replied.

jennie couldn't help but blush herself. taeyong took her hand and they followed the old woman who had stepped out of the back door. for the next forty minutes, the woman took them on a tour of the vineyard as well as the wine cellar where they kept their wines.

the woman, who had introduced herself as giulana bianchi, had spoken non-stop in straight italian. jennie assumed that she was explaining to them the wine making process.

fortunately, taeyong was there to translate most of giulana's utterances to her.

as they were about to descend to the wine cellars, a young man who looked like he was around their age approached giulana.

he appeared to have asked something to her in Italian. giulana replied and the only words that jennie understood were her name and taeyong's. jennie inferred that the man was probably asking who they were.

giulana then turned to them and introduced the man as niccolo bianchi. according to taeyong he was giulana's son. jennie smiled at him and said hi but to her surprise niccolo took her hand and kissed it softly.

"siete la piu bella ragazza che ho visto." he said to her in italian. jennie had no idea what he had said but she did notice taeyong frown a little bit.