Rick could be coldly analytical when he chose. That was the reason for his wild success in his previous life. But he had put all that aside when he came to Japan and married Elena. Now, he knew he had to put on his objective lens and take a long hard look at what went wrong. Elena was a Japanese super-model. He, Rick, was no one in Japan - an average-looking part-time convenience store clerk. It didn't matter that Elena didn't care, she still couldn't fight the whole world that believed someone like him couldn't be with someone like her. Hiding their relationship from the entire world put an unfair amount of pressure on both of them. He had to find a way to release them from that pressure.
Having decided what to do, Rick lost no time in coming up with a plan. He had to become someone that could stand next to Elena. So he did his research poring through all Elena's modeling work - the kind of men that the world accepted her as standing next to, the kind of men that tabloids shamelessly connected to her name. If he could be a Hispanic investment banker in New York and a good-natured American store clerk in Tokyo - he could certainly become ...
"I'm not sure you have the right address Ma'am. There is no "Rick" living here. Honestly, this isn't the first time I have had women "accidentally" arriving at my door. It happens fairly regularly with the people in this building. "
"What?" Elena asks, confused at this stream of Japanese words coming from Rick's mouth.
"I'm Adrian.," he laughs and Elena's heart skips a beat. That laugh is so charming and attractive that Elena feels like a schoolgirl talking to her crush for the first time. She mentally shakes her head. "He's Rick. I know it.," she tells herself.
"Normally I don't give my name. Somehow for you, I feel like even inviting you in. But my agent says I shouldn't.," Rick continues and smiles ruefully.
"Rick. Stop. Stop pretending.," Elena begs., "I know who you are. You can lose weight and dye your hair and I don't know what you have done to your eyebrows. But I'll know my husband anywhere."
Rick leans in slowly to Elena's ear and whispers, "You really think so?"
Almost immediately after the news conference, LME's media engine got to work. Before any news outlet could print anything or even get on social media even, LME's official channels blasted the following message:
"On December 25th of this year, LME will celebrate an epic story of love between Japan's sweetheart -Mogami Kyoko, and Japan's superstar actor Tsuruga Ren. Throwing the party of parties to celebrate their fairytale wedding, the event will be live telecast on all channels. In the run-up to this event, many exciting contests will be held and prizes will be given away including tickets to watch the wedding live! The first contest will be starting in 5 minutes."
And within 5 minutes, a form was uploaded. The form needed to be filled by all those interested which apart from asking for personal details such as name, address, etc. had a survey question
"Who are you a bigger fan of? Tsuruga Ren or Mogami Kyoko?" This question and most of the contests that were to come were designed by Shin.
It wasn't exactly news to any of the people involved that there were going to be die-hard fans of both Ren and Kyoko who would not believe the other worthy of marrying their idol. By asking this question and having a Ren-meter and Kyoko-meter that displayed the results, Shin's idea was to channel that displeasure as a contest between Ren and Kyoko's popularity. Anyone who felt the other was beneath their idol's league could see the meter trending up for that other and either be motivated to sign up or start to understand the popularity of that other. For example, the fans in the die-hard Ren fan club would understandably think themselves better suited to Ren than Kyoko. But seeing the Kyoko-meter climb they might be surprised and eventually grudgingly accept her worth. It must be said that there was no doubt in Shin's mind as to the equality of Ren's and Kyoko's popularity.
The contests that came after that were also survey questions and they bombarded the inboxes of those who had already registered - What dress should the bride wear? What dress should the groom wear, where should the wedding be held, and who else should be invited and so on. The more people answered the surveys, the more invested they were in the wedding.
The media, of course, fed into this wedding drama by publishing news related to the surveys. In a world of either controversial political news or saddening tragic news, the wedding was the most feel-good story there was. A prince marries a princess, they dubbed it - the wedding royale.