A/N: The author of this story has updated! Finally! Yay! You wouldn't believe how many wedding/engagement things I've been too so far this summer. And none of them are mine! Anyway, I was listening to BTS' new album while writing this (heart emojis for days), and I guess this chapter could appropriately be titled "Fake Love"…To quote one of my lovely reviewers, "Woah what was WB doing w such a b-?"

Thanks, as always, for the awesome reviews! I'm so glad you guys are enjoying the angst because it will continue for a while...

When he'd found her, she was smoking a cigarette on the balcony of his apartment, her legs curled up underneath her on the patio chair. He had woken up alone in his bed some minutes before, his body aware of her absence, and had nearly called out her name when he spotted her. In the early morning light, her hair blew gently around her bare shoulders, and as she leaned back she looked almost serene, but then she turned her head slightly, and even through the smudged windowpane, he could see she had been crying.

He hadn't said anything to her that morning. He hadn't really known what to do, so he left her to her thoughts, whatever torturous thoughts they were. They had only gone out a few times at that point, and she had never been forthcoming with details about her life, not the ones that weren't already public knowledge. Somehow he'd doubted she would be more talkative having been caught crying like that.

'A lady of mystery,' he'd once called her.

Ironic, he thought, how true it was now.

Casting off his tuxedo jacket and tie, Woo Bin collapsed into a chair in his living room and contemplated the options in his liquor cabinet.

Not that he needed any of it.

He needed sleep. Woo Bin closed his eyes and tried to think, instead, of how happy his friends had looked that evening, how pretty Jan Di had looked in her dress, how comically pissed off Madame Kang had gotten at the wait staff for bringing out the hors d'oeuvres in the wrong order.

He actually cracked a smile at that last one when he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket.

It was Yi Jeong.

"Hey bro, you okay? Ga Eul said you were sick."

"Woo Bin, are you at home?"

Yi Jeong certainly sounded sick.

"I'm at my apartment. Why?"

"I'm outside your door."

When Woo Bin swung open the front door, Yi Jeong was, indeed, standing there in a disheveled black tux, his bow tie askew the way it got when he was distressed and kept pulling on it. Though all four of the F4 had been close, Woo Bin could say he'd always felt a special bond with Yi Jeong. Certainly, they had shared more common interests over the years. Yi Jeong had been his clubbing buddy, his confidante, the only person who could get through to him when he was in one of his darker moods. The two of them looked out for each other and, as far as they could, each kept the other from turning into the worst version of themselves.

Tonight, Yi Jeong looked like he did whenever his mother had one of her worse episodes, like he was about to spiral into a deep, dark abyss only he could see.

He didn't seem physically ill, though.

"Yi Jeong?"

Pushing past Woo Bin, Yi Jeong entered the apartment and wandered over to Woo Bin's liquor cabinet.

He poured a glass of scotch and took a large gulp.

"Yah, what happened?" Woo Bin slid the bottle of scotch away from Yi Jeong, simultaneously grabbing a clean glass from the marble countertop.

Yi Jeong stayed silent for a long moment.

Suddenly, he slammed his half-full glass down on the counter, and some of the amber liquid splashed over the side onto the white marble.

"You ever heard of anyone named Yi Madeleine? Apparently, I'm engaged to her, and it was her idea. So her father says." He added the last sentence like an afterthought.

Woo Bin froze where he stood, his right hand clutching the bottle of scotch, ready to pour himself a glass.

What the hell?

"Woo Bin?"

Clutching the bottle tighter, Woo Bin barely resisted the urge to smash it on the floor. Was this what she had been trying to tell him all along? That she was going to marry his best friend? That she was going to marry his best friend? The f—

"Woo Bin? You okay?"

"What?" Woo Bin looked his best friend in the eyes.

"You looked kindof…spaced out for a minute." Yi Jeong looked away and took another gulp of scotch. "Anyway, I'm not going through with it...of course...but I just don't know"—Yi Jeong sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose—"how I'm going to last through the next week…dammit...and what the hell I'm going to tell Ga Eul."

Shit.

Now Woo Bin felt like an idiot and an insensitive bastard. Of course, he should be worried about Yi Jeong and Ga Eul.

He really felt like breaking some glass.

"I know she went to Shinwa University. Did you ever see her or talk to her? She was in our year. She's an artist. Actually, she's having some of her art displayed at my exhibition next weekend. Her father owns this huge hotel chain. Oh, and he's a major stockholder for the museum. I think he may be on the board of directors soon."

How could he tell Yi Jeong the truth? How could he tell him he had spent the past four years sleeping with his supposed bride-to-be? What would Yi Jeong think? What would any of his friends think of—

Wait, was he really still protecting her? Even after everything?

And he had always thought Jun Pyo was the idiot in the group. At least he loved a girl who actually gave a damn about him.

"You're not that shocked, are you?" Yi Jeong prodded.

"Aniyo, I was just…I was just…trying to remember."

Woo Bin finally poured himself a glass. He needed time to process this.

"My grandfather wants to announce the engagement at my exhibition next weekend."

Time he definitely did not have.

"Did you ever see her around? Did she ever mention anything about me?"

"Aniyo."

"Maybe if I show you a picture?" Yi Jeong pulled out his phone. "To be honest, she looks like someone you might have been interested in She's actually pretty—"

"I know who you're talking about, and I never really talked to her." Woo Bin downed his entire glass. He dropped the glass in the sink and went over to the chair he had been sitting in earlier. Seating himself so that he only partially faced Yi Jeong, he explained, "She…kept to herself mostly. You know. The frigid type. I hate girls like that."

It was mostly true. Most of it. They'd spent less time talking and more time doing other things.

And he did hate her. He hated her more and more with each passing moment.

And no, she had never mentioned Yi Jeong's name to him.

"Hey bro, you sure you're okay? Ga Eul seemed to think you were upset about something before."

Woo Bin glanced up. Yi Jeong actually looked concerned about him now.

He waved Yi Jeong off.

"I'm fine. I'm fine. Just tired from work."

He hated himself more with each passing moment.

"I just don't understand it," Yi Jeong continued. "It's not like this is someone I've been hearing about before. Why all of a sudden is it her? I have a bad feeling about this."

"Yeah, well, there's a lot of things I don't understand either."

"You have contacts in Paris, right? Would they know anything about her family? What about her father? Didn't your father's company work on his new hotel?"

"My father handled all of that. I was still in school." Woo Bin fidgeted with the buttons on his shirt cuffs. "She's an artist, though, right? Don't artists marry other artists all the time?"

"You think she wanted to marry me because I'm good at pottery?"

"Jae Kyung wanted to marry Jun Pyo."

"Look, no offense to our friend, but you honestly think that's a fair comparison?"

"I'm saying it's not. I'm saying half the girls in Korea would want to marry you, and they wouldn't need Madame Kang to force them to do it."

Yi Jeong cracked a smile for the first time that evening.

"Only half?"

"People have short-term memories. You have been away for four years, remember?"

Yi Jeong sighed.

"You're right. I'm overthinking it. Probably her father's getting the short end of the deal one way or another. I just don't know what my grandfather must be getting out of this. He doesn't agree to anything unless he has the upper hand somewhere."

"Well…it looks like he got it tonight. I'm assuming this is why you weren't at the party."

"What would you do? I'm having lunch with Madeleine and her father on Monday."

Yi Jeong stood in front of him, but he was staring out the window behind Woo Bin, clutching his drink in one hand and absently pulling the bow tie off with his other hand.

She'd already ruined his life. No way in hell was he going to let her do that to Yi Jeong and Ga Eul too.

Damn her. Damn the whole past four years of his life.

He didn't need a drink.

He needed to get angry.

Rolling up his sleeves, Woo Bin replied, in English, "Something they do not expect."