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Warning: Alternative Universe

Summary: Ga Eul has never been keen on her mother remarrying, especially since her billionaire stepfather to be has a nasty daughter who bullies her constantly. Desperate to avoid humiliation, she decides she needs to bring a boyfriend to the wedding. To her surprise, the most unlikely person in the world volunteers for the role.

Le Petit Ami

I.

By all counts, she should be happy. Her mother was ecstatic, almost unforgivably so. Guiltily, Ga Eul shoved that ugly thought back into the murky depths of her subconscious. Her father had been laid to rest for almost ten years and during those ten years, her mother had been completely faithful to a memory that she could only cherish, not hug or kiss or hold. She had raised Ga Eul to the best of her ability while juggling her full time job as an advertising executive. She had, as Ga Eul told herself, paid her dues and now she deserved to enjoy the good fortune that came her way.

'At least she still visits Appa's grave and has no intention of stopping,' Ga Eul comforted herself as she browsed the jewellery section of Tiffany's. Thanks to Choi Ji Yong, her stepfather to be and billionaire media mogul, she had the money to buy her mother a beautiful wedding gift. At least he was kind and considerate, if a bit distant. But that probably had to do with the fact that she was already nineteen and had deliberately avoided him when her mother had started to date him. His daughter on the other hand…

Just imagining Choi Jin Hee who insisted on being called Ginger sent a shudder coursing through Ga Eul's body. She was the type of girl that Ga Eul had always avoided: popular, rich and completely nasty. The news of the wedding had hit her badly and unable to vent her anger on either her father or Ga Eul's mother, she had taken it out on Ga Eul. In a bid to get the two girls to know each other, their parents had insisted on bringing them out to dinner or the theatre several times. Each time, Ginger had managed to whisper nasty things about her in Ga Eul's ear. From her hair, to her looks, to her dressing, nothing was good enough. It didn't help that Ga Eul had no idea what to do whenever they inevitably mingled with the rich and famous they always ran into. Usually it ended up with her standing quietly aside with her the other three talking. When they left the girls alone to go on shopping trips, Ginger had arranged for her friends to meet her there and they would tag along, breathing comments about poor people who married into families too good for them. As much as she wanted to beat the stuffing out of them, she dared not leave because she knew Ginger would squeal and say she refused to get to know her. It had happened once already and although her mother had been understanding, she could not quite believe that "sweet Ginger" could be so nasty.

Finally she saw something her mother would love. It was a long necklace, made entirely of a single row of round diamonds linked together with platinum. It was completely gorgeous and obscenely expensive. Ga Eul looked around for a salesperson but all the ones she could see had gravitated to the sides of other far more well dressed people. Obviously even they felt she didn't belong here, which was true. Just then, her phone rang. Without thinking, she pressed the receive button. "Hello?"

"It's me."

Ga Eul stifled her sigh. That kind of rude greeting only came from one person. "Yes Ginger?"

"Father says to tell you he'll be sending a driver to pick you up on the morning of the departure. The driver will also escort you to our private jet. I guess he's afraid that a country bumpkin like you will get lost in the airport."

"Okay, that's fine," she managed in a clipped tone. It was not worth arguing with Ginger over the phone in public. "If that's all—"

"I'm hurt, sister." The emphasis on that last word made it clear she considered Ga Eul anything but. "Have you gotten a wedding gift yet?"

"I'm trying to." Ga Eul waved at a salesman with no customer to attend to but incredibly, the man ignored her and drifted away.

Ginger laughed. "Good choice of word. In the first place, it isn't even your money. Secondly, I'm sure none of them are giving you the time of day. They know a fraud when they see one." The line went dead and Ga Eul was left standing there, her phone frozen against her ear. How had Ginger known?

To her horror, the backs of her eyes grew hot and she knew the tears were coming. Stuffing the phone into her tiny bag, she took a deep breath and blinked furiously, fanning her warm face with her hands. Still, her vision blurred and she knew it wasn't working. Hastily, she turned around, eager to escape but only succeeded in knocking into someone.

"Ouch! Watch where you are going!" The tone was as spoiled as anything she had ever heard from Ginger.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, eyes on the ground and head slightly bowed. She just needed to hold on until she got to the restroom and into the privacy of a cubicle.

"Ga Eul yang?"

This voice, clearly masculine, was so familiar it made her look up. Her heart skipped a beat when she realised who it was. "Yi Jeong sunbae."

Her eyes were slightly red and the tip of her nose was too. She looked adorable but on the brink of tears, a little girl lost in a sea of white and blue, silver and diamonds. "What are you doing here?"

It was an innocent question but an unfortunately timed one. Her vision blurred again even as she lifted her chin defiantly. "Why does everyone act like I can't be here? I'm j…just trying to get a w…wedding present." She cringed as she heard her voice falter. Her throat was closing up, another sure sign that she was about to cry.

To his horror, Yi Jeong realised that Ga Eul was three seconds away from tears. "I'll see you later," he told Min Hee.

"But Oppa—"

Ignoring her protest, he wrapped an arm around Ga Eul and bundled her out of the shop. They just made it out when he felt her shuddering against him. "Oh Ga Eul yang, what has happened now?" he murmured, looking around for a private corner. There was a corridor leading to one of those stairwell exits and he walked her over to it. When he was satisfied that they were alone and no one could hear them, he stood still and let her cry in his arms. There was nothing elegant about the way she bawled and he could feel her hot tears soaking through the pristine silk of his shirt. Still, it was refreshingly sincere, so unlike the crocodile tears he always got from other women, he thought as he smoothed back the hair from her face, stroking its softness. "Don't cry anymore Ga Eul yang," he said softly, aware of the strange knot in his chest as she sobbed against him. "Tell me what's wrong."

"Everything!" she managed to choke out.

"Well, I can't claim to solve everything but that's a good place to start from. Now if you could get a bit more specific…"

She heard the gentle teasing humour in his voice and it soothed her raw feelings. Swallowing hard, she stifled her sobs, taking several deep breaths. "I must look like a mess," she muttered, embarrassment slowly sinking in especially when she saw the huge wet splotch her tears had left on him. As if by magic, he produced a handkerchief and pushed it into her hands.

"Not for my shirt Ga Eul yang, for your face." She flushed and he bit back a chuckle. "Now what is making my best girl friend so sad?"

Wiping her tears away, she told him the whole story. Thus far, only Jan Di knew what had happened and although Yi Jeong was a good friend to her, she had never said anything to him about Ginger.

His eyes darkened with anger. "And you never told your mother?"

"How can I? She's getting married in a week and she put her life on hold so that she could raise me. Besides, Ginger has always been nice to her. It's like she's a different person in front of them."

It would be easy enough to expose Ginger. Woo Bin would probably suggest having Ga Eul wear a wire and record all nasty remarks. But he doubted Ga Eul would agree to that and besides, what good would it do except create tension between the newlywed parents. "Well that's one problem I can't help you with until you decide what course of action you want to take." He couldn't even get Jun Pyo to sic the school population on Ginger because word of it would get back to Ga Eul's mother and then Ga Eul would look like a villain. There was nothing he could do.

"You said you wanted to buy a wedding present?"

She nodded.

"But the salespeople wouldn't give you the time of day right?" He scowled when she nodded again. "Morons. Let's go in there and show them how sorely mistaken they are."

"But…but I have a budget!" she protested, digging in her heels unsuccessfully as Yi Jeong determinedly pulled her back to the shop.

"Ga Eul, your future stepfather owns three private islands and a hotel chain apart from his media empire. Your budget could probably buy the mall we are in." He opened the doors and pushed her through. "Now just keep quiet for a second and let me do this. After all, you owe me."

"That was ten years ago and you were bullying my best friend. I'm done owing you."

"I still have the scar from you running me over with your bicycle so your debt is kind of eternal."

"There's such a thing as plastic surgery."

"What? And lose the only hold I have over you? I think not."

She would have replied except that suddenly, they were surrounded by sales assistants who were practically salivating at the sight of So Yi Jeong. "Obviously you are a regular customer," she muttered as they were escorted to some plush seats and someone hurried off to get them hot tea.

"You have no idea," Yi Jeong smirked as she rolled her eyes. If there was one thing Ga Eul didn't like about Yi Jeong, it was his Casanova status. He was sweet and sensitive to her, gentlemanly to Jan Di, a little terrified of Jun Hee noona but any other woman was his oyster and he knew it. He went through models and socialites like water and she marvelled that he had never run out of women to go out with.

The jewellery was brought to them. Ga Eul tried to mask her amazement at the way they were being treated. "That's the necklace I was looking at," she whispered to Yi Jeong when the next velvet covered tray arrived.

"Tell them you want it. It's your money and you are in charge."

After a few moments of hesitation, she gestured at the necklace. "Could you please wrap that up for me? It's a present."

"Certainly Miss."

Ga Eul noticed the way the saleswoman's eyes flicked over to Yi Jeong and she just knew what she, what all of them, must be thinking, especially given Yi Jeong's reputation. Like hell she would let them think of her as another one of his playthings. "Here, take this. Charge anything else we buy to my card."

The woman's eyes almost fell out of her head when she realised that the card she held in her hands was a Black Card. "Of course Miss," she said almost dazedly as she walked off.

"You just had to do that, didn't you?" Yi Jeong smiled as she turned and shot him a grin. That was more like the Ga Eul he knew, spunky and independent.

"I have a reputation to maintain too you know." She was about to say more when her phone rang again.

Her cheerful expression faded and as she stared down at the device in her hand, he knew who it was. Suddenly seized by a wild inspiration, Yi Jeong reached over and plucked the phone from her hand. "Hello," he drawled, ignoring the fact that she was still sitting there staring at him with her mouth slightly opened. "I'm afraid she's a little busy right now. Is it urgent? Alright, make it fast then." Turning to her, he handed the phone back. "It's Ginger, sweetheart," he said loudly.

What the heck was he up to? "Y-yes," Ga Eul stammered, her eyes still on Yi Jeong and the extremely pleased expression he wore.

"Who was that?" Ginger's tone was curious and slightly venomous.

"That was…" Her best friend, apart from Jan Di? The man she had always nursed a slight crush on and for some reason, had placed her on his list of women worth respecting? She couldn't say that in front of him!

"Ah, I get it. One of your cheap dates. Maybe you can bring him to the wedding."

No one spoke about Yi Jeong like that and got away with it, not even Ginger. "As a matter of fact Ginger, I am bringing him to the wedding and he's not a date. He's my boyfriend and we are on a date so stop calling unless you have a good reason to."

With that, she cut the call. The adrenaline rush was still racing through her when what she had said finally sunk in. "Oh my God, what have I done?"

"I thought you did very well actually."

How could he sit there looking amused when she had just put her foot in her mouth and royally screwed up the situation she was in even further? "No I didn't," she practically wailed. "First I said you were my boyfriend—"

"You could do worse."

"This isn't about you Yi Jeong sunbae. I lied that I have a boyfriend whom I am bringing to the wedding, only I don't have a boyfriend to bring to the wedding and Ginger is going to just massacre me for that and I don't think I can bear a whole week in the resort with her—"

Abruptly, he pressed his fingers against her lips. Ga Eul's eyes went wide but she stopped talking immediately. She felt a little light-headed but she was sure it was more to do with Yi Jeong's touch than the current disaster she had created.

"Good. As much as I enjoy the sound of your voice, it's nice when you're quiet too. Firstly, I don't mind being of service if it helps you tell Ginger to take her remarks and shove them where the sun doesn't shine." Her eyes got even bigger but then she started to giggle. "Secondly, I have been invited to the wedding too, as have Ji Hoo, Woo Bin and Jun Pyo. Thirdly, you can't give up since you've thrown the gauntlet down and I'm not about to let Choi Jin Hee ruin your week."

A slight frown furrowed her delicate brow and Yi Jeong sighed in exasperation. "What I am saying is, I'll pretend to be your boyfriend during the wedding."

"You?" she squeaked.

"Yes. I, So Yi Jeong, will be your boyfriend for that entire week. I promise to love and obey you, rescue you from evil stepsisters and see to it that your mother's wedding is more than bearable. Is that okay with you?"