"Anne? No, how do I…?"
Jumin placed a hand on his head as pain flooded his senses.
"How can you be my wife?"
Anne sat there on the pavement, jaw agape as she stared at Jumin in disbelief.
"You can recognise me, you can remember that we got married…" she muttered as Jumin stepped away.
Footsteps alerted her to her chaser. She jumped to her feet and turned to see the Zen clone rushing towards them. She moved closer to Jumin.
"Excuse me."
Her nails light raked down his suit, finding the inevitable cat hair that was left behind from Elizabeth 3rd.
"Hey! Zen!"
She turned on her heel as Jumin blinked slowly to process her actions.
"Meow!"
She threw it in the clone's face. It stumbled with wide eyes and stopped to have a hysteric sneezing fit. Anne darted around Jumin to continue running but he grabbed her arm.
"Come."
Anne yelped as she was dragged into the car and Jumin ordered for Driver Kim to get going. She awkwardly buckled herself in before glancing out the rear window to see the Zen clone disappear when they turned the corner. She sighed in relief, swabbing and nursing her itching thighs.
"Talk."
"Eh?!"
Anne glanced at Jumin with wide eyes who sat back, crossing his legs and looking mildly irritated.
"We've never had a wedding, this is the first day we've met, so why do I know you as Mrs Han?"
Anne blushed brightly as Jumin leaned closer.
"Um, uh…it's complicated…"
"We've got time."
"Direct as always," Anne muttered as she scooted a little further away "Uh, um, how much do you remember about me?"
"We've been married for at least three years. Or we would have been. We're not actually married right now and this perplexes me."
Anne shuffled awkwardly before glancing at him.
"Uh, yeah, no, in another timeline we would have been married for three years."
She scratched the side of her head awkwardly, glaring down at her shoes.
"Jumin, this world you live in is easily manipulated, especially since your god lives amongst you and can reset the time back to the day…when a new member of the RFA joins."
Jumin's eyes widened slightly and Anne poked the car floor with her foot.
"Um…I was that member once upon a time and that was when we met and got romantically involved. Then came the three years of an arguably rocky marriage."
"Hm? You were happy."
"Yes, but you threw out my favourite shirt!"
"It was an eyesore, it didn't flatter your figure!"
"Oh my God, it was something to wear when I wanted to spend the day inside just being lazy! No-one was going to see it!"
"I have to see you in it! Or had to!"
"Jumin, don't get me angry."
Anne glowered at Jumin and Jumin couldn't help but smile a little.
"We often got into arguments, didn't we?"
"It's because you do things behind my back without talking to me. Remember my personal assistant that you hired and she just showed up one day whilst I was wandering around the place in my underwear? What did I even need her for?!"
"You're disorganised and clumsy, a security guard wouldn't have been enough to make sure you were safe."
"Since when do I need an assistant to be a housewife?! And when I wanted to go and find a job…!"
"I earned enough for the both of us, you didn't need a job."
"I get stir crazy!"
Anne was glowering at him even more and Jumin still smiled.
"Despite everything, we somehow managed to put our differences aside to come to a compromise."
Anne sat back a little and sighed.
"Yeah…despite everything…"
She looked a little put out as she glanced outside and Jumin tilted his head.
"What happened? Did the god reset?"
Anne hunched her shoulders.
"Well, that was my fault."
Anne kept her eyes down, fidgeting with a guilty look.
"Ugh, I…I don't know how to put this."
Her eyes were watering as she fiddled with her hands uncertainly. Jumin waited patiently as she swallowed nervously.
"Jumin, I'm not from this world."
Jumin looked even more puzzled.
"What does that even mean?"
Anne didn't dare look up at him.
"I…I mean…I wasn't born here in Korea. Or like on this Earth. Hell, Anne isn't even my real name. This isn't my real body either, this was something that I made in order to arrive in this world."
Jumin was quiet for a while as Anne tensed her body up so much that she was up against the car door, keeping as much distance from him as possible.
"I was trying to go back home because I knew that living here might cause problems and it's not like I purposely arrived here. I just wanted to continue the original life that I had been living."
"And leave me behind?"
A cold chill went up Anne's spine at Jumin's accusatory jab.
"Ah, I knew how to reset the world so it would have been like I never existed."
Jumin was giving her a dark look and Anne shrank back.
"Jumin, your Master side is coming out," she whispered shakily.
Jumin's look grew darker. Anne pressed herself into the car door further.
"Yeah, that is a whole new level of yandere right there."
She yelped when Jumin grabbed her by wrist, unbuckled her seatbelt and pulled her closer.
"Jumin…!"
She went quiet as Jumin kissed her roughly, holding her face in place. A few moments passed before they parted and Jumin pressed his forehead against hers.
"How can you be so selfish? Does our time together mean nothing to you?!"
"Of course not! I don't want to leave but I know I have to!"
Jumin was glaring at her coldly, his large cold hands framing her flushed face. Tears brimmed her eyes.
"I have to face my reality sooner or later. I can't live here forever, hiding from the life I was born into."
Jumin was silent as he let go of her face and pulled her into his lap. She nestled her head into the crook of his neck, gently nudging the top of her head into his cheek.
"So? What went wrong?"
Anne fumbled with her hands.
"Um, uh, God happened. Your God is Luciel, he can freeze the world whenever he sees fit and with the right monitor, he can reset."
Jumin held back a snort.
"This is a terrible prank," he commented.
"I wish it were."
They were silent for a little while longer, Jumin placing a hand on Anne's side to gently caress it.
"Luciel wanted me to reset and go down his path, become his love interest rather than have you. I refused, saying that I had to go back home and that I should fix the damage I caused as quickly as possible before returning."
She rubbed her wrist and Jumin noticed the marks from her cuffs.
"I became his prisoner, he refused to let me go until I went down his route. I accidentally reset the timeline and since then, I believed I could direct his attention away by creating other girls to capture his heart. Some interested him, others failed, but he never fell in love with any of them. When I realised that, I knew I needed to create someone to help rescue me. It took me ages to put together Rena so she'd be able to obey the laws in this world."
"Rena?"
Anne glanced at him then frowned.
"Ah, I can't remember what name she put forward but your newest member in the RFA."
"You mean Sachiko."
Anne nodded and Jumin sighed, leaning back.
"So now you're here. What's your next move?"
"Rena and I got separated, I need to lie low until we can regroup then get to Rika's apartment. The computer there will let me access the broken codes which need to be fixed and I can administer the hard reset."
Jumin looked displeased and Anne tilted her head.
"Jumin, please…"
"And if I won't allow it?"
"Jumin, that Zen clone was working with Luciel and he's got others around, eventually they'll…!"
Horns sounded and they clung onto one another when the car jolted and Anne nearly flew out of Jumin's arms. Jumin looked up and lowered the window which separated the passenger area from the driver.
"What happened?"
Driver Kim stuttered as he pointed to a car that had crashed and was now upside down in the middle of the road. There were people surrounding it and a figure slid out from a broken window. Jumin's eyes widened in disbelief as Anne went pale. She patted herself up and down as the Jumin clone outside stood and brushed itself off.
"My phone!"
"Can you turn this car around?"
"There's too much traffic."
Anne opened the door and bolted before Jumin could stop her.
"Anne, get back here now!"