Hyun Bin POV
Milan, Italy.
It was quite late at night when we arrived in Milan. We were being picked up with the car service and went straight to Como. The road trip was going to take two hours and I saw Yejin was having a hard time holding her eyes open. She sat beside me on the back seat of the SUV, leaned her head to the window, and several times her head hit the window from the road bumps.
I pulled her shoulder and patted mine, gesturing for her to lean on me instead of the window. The usual Yejin would likely reject it and pretending to be strong but this time, she just leaned on without protest.
She told me that she never been to Como before, and since it was almost midnight, the lake's beauty was hidden under the dark, although the amber lamps from the city were quite stunning to witness.
We headed straight to Grand Hotel Tremezzo, a palatial art noveau by Lake Como. I booked a lake view room for three days before we fly to London. We went with two PSS agents guarding but I asked them to keep distance as far as their protocols permit them.
"Where's my room?" she asked.
"Here. Why ask?"
"Are we sharing the bed as well?"
"You think? We're just sharing the bed here. Take a rest, Yejin."
After breakfast by the lake, I took Yejin to Villa del Balbianello with the hotel's wooden boat. It was a museum that is used to shoot the James Bond movie Casino Royale. The ambiance was so European, much different from where we came from, Seoul. I hoped by taking Yejin there she would forget all her burden in Seoul.
Then in the afternoon, a couple of hours before sunset, I took her to take a walk by the lake. The light of the lake and the sweeping views of the Alps in the background truly makes you feel like you're dreaming, it's magical in a way that feels like you're healing your soul.
She wore a floral summer dress and a wide hat. So girlish, so feminine. I could spend my day just by staring at her.
"What?" She asked.
"I hope you don't get tired of this, but seeing you not in office attire is something new for me. You're very pretty."
"Do you just notice that? Did I look that hideous all these years in office attires?"
"Honestly, I didn't pay attention to any staff. If I have known you before, I would date you since your first day. No playboy Tiger1 and Amethyst1 would surface four years ago not a week ago. Maybe there would be also Tigercub1 and Tigercub2."
"Really, Tiger? Last week we had a conversation at the state banquet, you told me that it was impossible for you to fall for me. I have warned you though."
"I don't know, babe, I was never like this before, chasing and patiently waiting for a girl. I can't explain with words, but the heart wants what it wants."
"When did it have started?"
"I don't know. Why?"
"I'm not complaining, but taking me on this Como trip is really unnecessary. I thought that there will be paparazzi here but so far we're safe here, you don't have to act this sweet, no one to show.0
"There are paps here, we just haven't noticed them yet. But this trip is not for them. Why it is so hard for you to accept that I want you, for real? That I have stopped acting days ago?"
"Because you're Hyun Bin. The playboy Hyun Bin. I have been cleaning up your public mess for years and you didn't even notice me. Or is this because those two PSS agents who always tail us here?"
"So you don't believe me because we are being tailed by the PSS agents? Okay, I'll send them home. We'll have our honeymoon just for the two of us. I like you a lot, Yejin, if you think that love was too soon."
"I'm your father's staff-"
"Stop saying that. Can you just be my wife and I be your husband during this honeymoon week? Or friends, if that's how you prefer to call us."
"You don't have to do this, Bin."
"Are you afraid of something?"
"This Como Lake is so beautiful, so romantic. I'm afraid that I will be carried away."
I stopped walking and turned to face her. I kissed her hand and caressed her cheek.
"I like spending my time with you. I'm not pushing you to return the feeling, baby. I'm not proud of my past, is that why you're afraid? That I will take advantage of you?"
She nodded. "The line is getting blurred here. I have started to see you not as an assignment."
"I'll be anything you want, friend, lover, husband, anything but assignment. I understand that it will need some more time to prove my sincerity but please, stop questioning my intention."
"I'm sorry."
"Yejin, this is not Seoul and we don't have to impress anyone. I'm taking you here is for us, you and me. Just, enjoy it if you like it, let me spoil you, but if you don't like something or I cross the line, tell me as well. I will make it up to you."
"I'm afraid if I fall for this, I can't bear the divorce that will happen four to five months after this. I'm afraid of the broken heart."
I held her close and caressed her back.
"I'm sorry for the complicated circumstances between us."
She pulled off and smiled. "What should I do, Bin?"
"Let me spoil you, my wife. This is our honeymoon day. Forget the assignment."
She nodded and smiled. Finally. This miss Son was quite hard to convince.
I took her to dinner in a restaurant in Bellagio. It has an old European ambiance and it was like we were lost in our world, away from everyone.
We were in the middle of dinner when I saw Choonja, Yejin's PSS agent blocked a woman from approaching us. Chen, my PSS agent came to me and asked.
"Excuse me, Mr. Hyun, Mrs. Hyun, I'm sorry for interrupting, but this woman said that she is your old friend and wanted to congratulate you. Said her name is Akiko."
"Oh, let her." Yejin quickly answered before I could say no.
"Chen! No." I said to him, he nodded and walked away.
"Why?" Yejin asked me while looking at the woman then back at me.
"She is... I had a night with her some time ago. I don't want to reconnect." I said, uncomfortably.
"Oh. Okay." She quickly drank a glass of water. "Is she Japanese? Akiko."
"Yep. She's the daughter of the Prime Minister."
"Oh. That Akiko."
"You know her?"
"I cleaned up your mess with her. You got a ticket for overspeed driving when you were with her in your car. But you punched the police."
"Yep," I confirmed.
"I didn't know that you spent the night with her after that. I stayed for two hours at the police station dealing with that. Where were you after me and Mr. Park arrived?"
"Hotel? I'm sorry. Thanks anyway."
"You don't want to say hi to her?"
I shook my head. "For what? I never reconnect with any of the girls."
"You did, you said once that you want to meet an old friend, back at our second night together after the banquet?"
"I lied. I was pissed off with you and wanted to get away, I was using that excuse to let you know that you were not my only option."
"I see. Then how about me later?"
"What do you mean?"
"When we were not together anymore, and someday we may accidentally meet somewhere?"
"There will be no such days."
"I don't want to be just another ex that you don't want to see."
"You won't. This is my first time spending days and nights with the same woman. We're married."
"You womanizer."
I cringed. "But I'm yours. If you want to have me."
She just smiled responding to me.
"Excuse me. I need to go to the restroom." She stood up and walked away.
Son Yejin POV
"Hi! Are you really the woman who's sitting with Bin?" a female voice was interrupting me in the restroom while I redo my make up.
"I am." I looked at her, the Japan PM's daughter Akiko.
"Bin is really something. He got married yesterday and now is having dinner with another woman?"
"That's me. The one he got married to."
"So you're the wife? I can't believe there will be days I see Bin married someone!"
I felt a wave of uncomfortable in my heart and I did what I know best to stay elegant in drawing the border between her and us.
"You seem to know my husband quite well, Madam," I emphasized the word husband.
"For a night. But that was one hell of the night I won't forget! Bin was amazing! Ah! Sorry Ma'am, I should not say that. My bad."
What the hell?!
"Well, let's just call that history. Excuse me, Miss...?"
"You don't know me?"
"Do we know each other?"
"Who are you, anyway? I never saw you anywhere before."
"Oh. How rude I am, I forgot to introduce my self. Hi, I'm Mrs. Hyun. Nice to meet you, Madam. I hope we will never see each other again."
Then I walked out of the restroom without waiting for her response. I walked straight to our table and sat back.
"Everything okay?" He asked.
"Let's go back. I'm tired."
I stayed silent during the trip back to the hotel. He held my hand but didn't say anything either. Reaching our bedroom when no one listening but us, he blurted out.
"Are you mad at me?"
"Did you do a mistake?"
"I don't know. But something is wrong with you."
"I'm fine."
"That's it. You are totally not fine."
"In your opinion, Mr. Hyun."
"In my opinion, when a woman says I'm fine it means the total opposite. Are you jealous or sort of, because of Akiko?"
"Oh, you have a lot of experience with women. Why should I? I have a marriage certificate with your name written on it. She just had you for one hell of an amazing night, as she quoted."
He chuckled. "Did you meet her at the restroom? Oh shit!"
"Language, Sir. No need to overreact on it. I just have to practice more, you have a long list of desperate ex-girlfriends and who knows who will show up tomorrow? A princess? A movie actress? I think I understand now why President Hyun chose me to be your fake wife. Your exes are potential crises. I deal with crises every day."
"You're talking nonsense here. Akiko just wanted to say hi and congratulate us but you're this jealous."
"Oh, you want your congratulation from her now, Bin? Get out, get her."
"Will that cause a crisis?"
"Potentially."
"Then what the crisis management staff would suggest me to?"
I didn't answer him. I wanted him to stay and comfort me.
"Miss Son, what should I do to avoid a crisis with my wife?"
"Stay with her."
"And?"
"That should be enough."
"She is pretty hard to convince. What if I put on a movie to watch together with her?"
"What movie?"
"Anything works. I just need an excuse to cuddle. Maybe she would cool down. Or heat up, in a certain way."
"That would be nice. Go on. I need to change my clothes."
He smiled and crushed down to the couch, got busy with the TV remote. I joined him minutes later. He pulled me closer and we watched Tom Hanks's The Terminal.
We haven't reached half of the movie when he started to snuggle towards my neck and kissed it.
"You smell so good. I like it." He breathed to my neck.
I ran my fingers through his hair as he started to ignore the movie and got busy kissing me. Then I felt something, probably his phone was vibrating inside his pants.
"Sorry, babe," he pulled off and took his phone out.
I didn't know who call him but just a few seconds since he picked it up, he spoke to the person across the phone.
"I get it. My Dad can have his own deal. I don't have to agree with him though. There is no way I'm going to let her go for such a political deal. I'll figure it out later. Thank you, Mr. Park."