Hello, there. SORRY FOR THE LONG UPDATE!

ATTENTION! Downwards, I will say something, PLEASE READ IT.

But I won't ruin your excitement to read this chapter, so enjoy, first!

Days and days passed like that. Erza was still trying her best to be 'Jellal's lovely wife' but none of her actions seemed to affect Jellal. Not to mention Jellal had been avoiding Erza completely. Jellal always went to work long before Erza even woke up, and he came back home past midnight and this occurred every single day during the week before the party. Every meal Erza cooked was indeed eaten by Jellal, but he ate it alone. Every smile and good mornings Erza—tried her best to—say, was only replied by a nod. Erza didn't want to give up, but everything just seemed so useless.

And now, Sunday, 9 August 20XX, 7 p.m. Erza and Jellal had already stood there on the red carpet, walking to the ballroom of one of the most expensive hotels in Fiore.

Erza awkwardly wrapped her hands around Jellal's lower arms, walking on the red carpet with all eyes on her. I must say, she looked absolutely charming tonight. She wore a long black one shoulder dress which wrapped every single curves of her body very elegantly. Her 5 centimeters silver heels stepped slowly on the red carpet and rose petals—which somehow was laying there—and her necklace, bracelet, and wedding ring was all the same color—silver—which really made her shine the brightest among other businessmen or women there. Not to mention the one she's holding tight was no other but the Jellal Fernandes.

"Mr. Fernandes," when both of them were inside the ballroom, a man with grey suit and black tie approached them and greeted Jellal

"Mr. Oscar." Jellal said as a small smile appeared upon Jellal's face. Erza looked at Jellal, he smiled. She thought, but still trying her best to hide her shock behind a small smile. "Very nice to see you here." Jellal continued.

"Yes, it's such an honor to be invited here." He said. Mr. Oscar's eyes looked at Erza deeply as she just gave him most elegant smile she could flash this second. "And who might this beautiful young woman holding your hand, Mr. Fernandes?"

"This is my wife, Erza." Jellal said as Erza immediately shook the hand of the man in front of her.

"Wife! I didn't know you have one."

Jellal laughed a bit, "Well, here she is." He replied. Both of them started to talk about business stuff. Not that Erza was not interested or not understand. Hey, remember? She's also a business woman, as successful as Jellal, as famous too, but it seemed like the makeup she put on helped people to not immediately recognize her face. She's not uninterested in the topic, but she just froze there—nodded when she had to—because she had never seen this side of Jellal. Laughing and talking about something enthusiastically.

"Well then, Mr. and Mrs. Fernandes, I don't want to keep you here. You have a lot to greet. Have a good night, both of you." He said as he left. With Erza's hands still wrapping around Jellal's arm just like they agreed to on the car, she had to follow him greeting every single person who's acquainted with Jellal. Every single person asked the same thing and reacted the same;

"Who is she, Mr. Fenandes?" and after Jellal replied, they reacted "I didn't know you're already married!"

Erza sighed slowly. Every conversation always started like this and in the end they would talk about business and Jellal's company, where Erza, who shouldn't have heard that—because she's an enemy—tried her best to not eavesdropping and kept staring at the cake buffet. They looked absolutely delicious. She really wanted to flee then taste every single cake served there.

There are 2 things that made Erza stay. First, of course, she still had the 'obligation' to hold Jellal's hands until the party ended. Second, honestly she's very curious of any other expression Jellal might show her—or should I say his coworkers.

"Hey, Jellal!" a small punch on Jellal's shoulder made both Jellal and Erza turned their heads. A big and tall, full of muscles man was standing there with an unbuttoned suit and a red tie which was not tied very well. "You made it here."

"Simon," Jellal said. Erza blinked at the closeness of both men. Every single person who had talked to Jellal today, addressed Jellal as Mr. Fernandes, and the person standing in front of her called Jellal his name very casually and punched his shoulder.

"So, you must be Erza," Simon said, offering his hand to Erza as she immediately took it and shook his firm hand. "Nice meeting you." He continued.

"The pleasure is all mine." Erza said with a smile but deep down she's very confused of the relationship between Jellal and Simon.

"So, Jellal," Simon scratched his head and looked at Jellal and Erza continuously "You're really bringing her here." He said with a somehow sad tone. "You cut my phone call and I couldn't reach you from that day."

"My personal phone was kind of broken. You could've called to my business phone."

"And risk being yelled 'if you want to talk to me privately, don't call this number. This is only for business' by you?" Erza's eyes widen, she couldn't imagine Jellal say that to anyone. At least he would say it politely… Well, I guess. There are so many things she didn't know about Jellal. "But I guess everything's going to be fine," Simon continued.

"I don't really know what you're going to say, but whatever it is, don't say it here. I have a bad feeling you'd say something about… Well, things." Jellal said while looking directly at Simon eyes as he sighed and nodded. "I should get going then, Simon. I'll call you tonight if I remember."

"Oh, no. I'll call you." Simon said "Enjoy the night before something we-don't-know-would-happen-or-not happen."Simon said with a weak wave and walked away. Erza could hear Jellal sighed slightly as he looked at his friend(?) walked away.

"Let's go…" Erza said to break the ice but Jellal didn't move his feet

"You've been staring at that cake buffet for a long time…" Jellal said "I'll greet the others alone, you go enjoy the cake."

"You're not eating too?"

"No… I have people to greet."

"Then, I'll come with you."

"No… Just… Enjoy the cake." Jellal said while looking straight at Erza as if he's signaling 'please understand and leave me alone for a while'. Erza nodded and let go of Jellal's hand. Jellal walked to the crowd and immediately surrounded again as Erza slowly walked to the cake buffet. He's like a puzzle, at the same time I really want to solve it, but I'm afraid he doesn't want anyone to solve it. And somehow I don't want to get too deep into his life anymore. Because tonight, when we're out of this ballroom, there would be no more forced smile, good mornings coming from me, dinner or breakfast that I would cook for myself alone and Jellal'd cook later when I'm asleep. There would be no more 'I'm home', 'welcome back', even though he had never reply it. Everything would go back to normal,

When we were just two strangers joined in marriage.

"Would you leave your husband and come with me, Mrs. Fernandes?" Erza almost choked her cake when she heard that sound coming from her side. She immediately turned her head and saw Simon standing there with a friendly grin.

"P-Pardon?"

"Sorry… I was just kidding." He said between his chuckles. Erza looked at him then smiled a bit, that really shocked her. But… If someone actually asked that to her… What would she answer? "So… Erza. Or should I call, Mrs. Fernandes?"

"You call Jellal his name, so please call me my name too." Erza replied "So, Simon. I take that you're very close to Jellal?"

"Yes. I must say, I know everything about him and so does he about me." Simon said "Let's just say, we're childhood friends."

Erza's eyes widen a bit as she immediately hid it with a smile and few nods, "So may I assume you know everything about, well… our 'marriage'?" Erza said while twitching her pointer and middle finger at the word 'marriage'.

"Yeah." Simon said as he chuckled at the finger twitching act Erza did "Sorry, it's rude of me."

"Oh, no. If I had a best friend to tell everything to, I would also tell her the whole thing." Erza said; her eyes were staring at people who were dancing. But her stares were blank and cold… So lonely.

Both of them fell into silence as Simon coughed to break the ice, "I must say… Sorry for everything Jellal did to you until now."

"No… It's okay. I'm used to it. It's been a whole year after all. But indeed I was shocked why would he announce our marriage all of the sudden. It's not like I feel this is a 'real' marriage after all—Oh! Pardon me, I was babbling too much." Erza said as Simon smiled as he shook his head

"You're being too formal, Erza!" Simon said, slapping Erza's shoulder. Not too hard, but enough to make Erza stumble but not to the point she'd fall. "Look, when he starts to open up, you'll know he's a great man."

Erza nodded "But I wonder when's that 'when'?"

"You know… I'm wondering the exact same thing." Simon looked at the figure walking toward here as he gave Erza a last pat on the head, "Anyway, thank you for being there for him the whole year."

"No… I did literally nothing."

"You just don't know…"

"What—"

"Erza." Erza looked at Jellal who's now standing next to him "It's late, we should head home." Jellal said. Erza nodded as she said goodbye to Simon—so did Jella. She wrapped her arms around Jellal's arm again and walked to Jellal's car.

This is it, Erza thought. Our live would turn back to way it was a week ago. Strangers are strangers with or without marriage contract.

Both of them entered the bedroom and took off their clothes with their backs facing each other. After putting on her pajamas, Erza washed her face and brushed her teeth, looking at her plain, no more makeup face. Tonight, all she did was fake a smile like she always did every morning when she said 'good morning' to Jellal. Did she fool everyone? Did everyone believe she's Jellal's wife? Erza shook her head and gently slapped her cheeks. Now that every obligation she had to do was completed, everything should go back to normal.

No more fakeness, just… silence.

She walked out of the bathroom, seeing Jellal was nowhere to be seen. Did he go somewhere? Somehow ever since the whole act, she had been thinking about him too much! And that's NOT GOOD! She needed some caffeine.

When she opened the door to the living room, Jellal was sitting on the sofa with his laptop on his lap and a phone hanging between his left ear and shoulder. Erza walked pass him like he's not there and was about to plug the water heater until she heard someone shout—Jellal.

"WHAT?!"

Erza looked at Jellal, there's no wall separating the kitchen plus dining room from the living room. She stood there, trying her best to eavesdrop a bit from the distance between where Jellal sat and where she stood.

"You could've told me AT the party!" He shouted again, but a little bit calmer than before, "Simon, ugh… Let's not continue this… I'll find a way… Just! I'll find a way, I told you. And no! That's NOT helping!" Erza started to become more confused. She didn't want to continue hearing something that's probably had nothing to do with her, but at the same time, something made her to keep eavesdropping. She tiptoed closer to where Jellal sat. "Simon! This is for the best, I WON'T TELL."

Really, what's happening there? Erza thought, thinking of some possibilities inside her head until she heard something…

"Erza WON'T know this, because I'll fix it before she knows."

Her name! He said her name, so it had something to do with this! Erza stood there, looking fiercely at Jellal who seemed too frustrated to even notice that she's there, not hiding anymore.

"Like I said, I'll fix it before she notices."

"And what if she already noticed it?" Jellal turned his face, seeing Erza stood there, crossing both of her arms, and looking at Jellal who seemed stressed but still trying his best to hide it. What a perfect mask wearer.

"Jellal? Jellal?" Erza could hear the sound of Simon from the phone when Jellal moved the phone farther from his ear.

"Call you back later, Simon." Jellal said and disconnected the phone before Simon could even say anything back.

"So…?" Erza asked demandingly

Somehow—calmly, Jellal gave Erza his laptop. The first thing she saw on the monitor was headline news. She read the title carefully.

ERZA SCARLET, OWNER OF SCARLET INC.
MARRIED COMPANY'S ENEMY OWNER; JELLAL FERNANDES!

Erza could feel clearly her hands shook uncontrollably… This is NOT happening! Everything should've gone back to normal when she stepped out of the ballroom tonight… She thought.

But somehow Erza seemed to understand, marrying Jellal Fernandes was the worst mistake she made in life.

PLEASE READ THIS!

Hello,guys. Firstly, I would like to say THANK YOU for reading my stories and supporting me up until this point.

I just want to say, I would really appreciate it if you guys step closer to me and click that Private Message button. I really really want to talk to you guys. Tell me what do you like about my stories, tell me something that can inspire my work! Even you guys babbling nonsense will become an inspiration to me.

All you have to do was PM me, a little hello would be very nice. Your messages have been my motivation to keep writing and I guess lately people just stood there and read this without me knowing what do you guys want or expected to happen. I really want to live this story up into you guys expectations, you see.

And please suggest me a social media to make and chat with you guys!

Sincrely,

Keiko Amano