Grace walked out of her room with a weight on her head that didn't seem to want to leave. Over and over again, she thought about the marriage her parents were talking about, and no matter how hard she thought about it, she couldn't find anything that could save her—except Cody, who was now sitting in the waiting room.

Grace could clearly see that despite their distance, he was her only choice. At least she wouldn't feel forced if she still had Cody as an option, rather than having to obey her father, who would appoint someone Grace didn't recognize as her husband. Just imagining it was enough to add to the burden on her mind, which was already filled with various things.

“Good afternoon. M'lady,” Cody called out to her.

Grace immediately frowned. She closed her eyes, muffling her annoyance at Cody's call, which reminded her of the cause of the marital problems she needed to deal with.

Yes. Her age was the one that was the problem of the already existing issues in her life.

She would love to not add any more burden to her mind and life, but it seemed that her parents, with their great concern, did not allow her to embrace the celibate lifestyle, though she was quite keen on adopting that style and focusing on her career.

Grace took a deep breath before she sat down, trying to compose herself. “Grace,” she called to Cody. “No frills in front of her, ma'am or whatever. Enough Grace.”

Cody pursed his lips. Although he had called her by name before, he never got used to it, especially when he remembered Grace's status as the person who had hired her as an impromptu model.

Grace stared at him intently, taking in the face that would not give away the disappointment of her certainly exceptional features. She was willing to bet that face could be a valuable asset to anyone who prioritized appearance as a basis. “Do you know why I asked you to come again?” Grace scanned that face intently, as ifrv she didn't want her gaze to miss any of the man's expressions.

Cody stared nervously. He thought he came here for the same job as the last time Grace asked him. But he somehow felt tongue-tied to say so, especially since Grace seemed more serious than ever. “M'lady-”

“Grace!” cut Grace off firmly.

“You want me to continue being a fake boyfriend?” he said bravely.

Grace felt terrible for him, considering her request this time would surprise him a lot. “More than that,” Grace said cautiously.

Cody knitted his eyebrows together in confusion. “More than that?”

“Marry me!” Grace, with her loud voice, surprised Cody in his place.

Even Grace, who said the proposal, was surprised at herself. The girl laughed. She had lost her faith in herself, who had easily proposed to a man to marry her. “Let me laugh for a minute,” she said, asking for permission.

She laughed crazily, wiping away the tears at the corners of her eyes, then slowly stopped and tried to control herself. Her face regained its calm look, and she looked at Cody with a gaze that was now much kinder than before. “Marry me, yes.” She made a light smile with her sweet face.

Cody looked at her coldly and stiffly; Grace, who laughed in front of him and then asked him to get married, looked like she was playing with him just because he wanted to be asked to be her fake boyfriend. “I refuse,” Cody said firmly.

Grace nodded. She had already imagined Cody's reaction to her proposal, and the rejection was the least of what she could imagine. The most extraordinary thing she could have imagined was Cody accepting her marriage proposal. That was what surprised her the most. “I knew you would say that,” Grace replied with a smile. She had a pen in her hand, and her eyes were as spiritless as ever, expressionless and lifeless.

Earlier, she was just making up expressions in front of Cody to persuade the man to look more memorable and hit, but it turned out to be useless.

Grace's attitude caused a strange look in Cody's eyes as that saw her. He could not interpret the current situation; he felt that he had just been proposed to, but the one who proposed had already guessed his reaction. Then what was the point of asking her about the proposal? He thought Grace had a strange habit of involving other people as part of a joke to amuse herself.

Cody shrugged it off. “Then I'll excuse myself,” he said as he got up from his seat, and Grace's hand quickly held his so he wouldn't leave her there.

She smiled—much different from the one she had laughed at moments ago. “Sit down. Listen to my explanations until the end. I know you might think of this as another silly thing I did. But please, give me a chance to explain. Only then can you decide whether to accept or reject this offer?” Grace looked at him intently; she sounded desperate.

Cody removed his hand from Grace's grip. He obeyed her by returning to his seat with a puzzled look. “I'm still going to reject it. Even if you explain.” He firmly gave Grace his answer.

Grace returned to her laughter again, but this time in a way that was better to look at. “Yes. I would appreciate it if you would listen to me first,” she said, tapping her finger on the table.

He silently watched her with apprehension. “Okay.” Ultimately, he agreed to listen and stay in the room longer.

Grace smiled. “Thank you. So here it is,” she said, pausing in her speech. My parents asked me to get married.” Cody listened intently; his eyes locked on Grace's, and it was hard for her to continue.

The girl repeatedly took a shaky breath and then exhaled to calm down. “You know, it's not that I can't get married. It's just that I don't think about it at all. I was busy with my work for one reason or another. I guess getting married isn't my priority, so I don't mind if I don't live a married life in the future. It's not a bad idea either.” She spoke confidently, smiling in front of Cody.

Cody looked at her with his eyelids slightly lowered, making the corners of his eyes slightly sharp. “If that's what you're thinking. That day, you don't have to pay me to be your fake boyfriend. You can honestly say that you have other things that are more important than marriage. I think being honest is better than living a forced life.” Cody argued plainly and innocently.

Grace nodded in agreement, but she then looked at Cody seriously. “The problem is with my parents. They worry about me. You know I'm fine.” She thought so. “But they turn me around so perfectly. Their worry hurts me. I can't let them worry about me for the rest of their lives, so please!” Grace said pleadingly. She put her hands together. Putting them together in front of Cody, who felt uncomfortable with that gesture. Grace ignored her pride in front of Cody; for some reason, she felt fine if Cody saw her that way, while not in front of the others.

Cody looked at her reluctantly and lowered his head. “No. I'm not marrying you, and I'm not getting involved with this game anymore!” he said, getting up from his seat and walking away from the waiting room.

Grace, who saw his departure, immediately followed Cody. “Wait a minute, you haven't heard the whole story!” she prevented Cody from chasing after Cody, who was about to walk out.

Without even turning around, Cody continued his steps. “I'm done listening!” he asserted with his soft face and innocent expression.

Grace stopped, realizing that speaking nicely would likely be pointless. “You might be forced to marry me!” she exclaimed, sounding threatening. She looked at Cody with a different gaze, while Cody seemed troubled by her gaze.

Grace stared longingly at Cody's departure. It was like her hope and resolution had gone along with it. She turned her body around and walked stiffly to stop lamenting Cody's departure again. Furious, annoyed, angry, and desperate, he felt his feelings mixed up. Her head felt almost broken, and her feelings were in ruins.

Leading her steps to the place where she would complain and ask for help. Grace arrived with a bottle of wine in her hand, smiling at Jesse, who seemed to have been waiting for her for quite some time.

"What's that you brought?" asked Jesse, peering at the large glass bottle Grace held.

"Tada!" she exclaimed, holding up the bottle proudly. "I brought the red wine you like."

Jesse took over the bottle Grace handed him as if realizing its existence was another reason for his being there. "Unusual," Jesse said, placing the bottle on the table, then he moved to pick up the food he'd put on a plate. "What made you plan to drink today? When I asked you yesterday, you refused because you had work. I have to get up early; my brain needs to be in a healthy state to think." he imitated Grace's way of speaking.

Jesse smiled, pouring the wine Grace had brought into his and her glasses. Like a true sommelier, Jesse eyed his glass. Twisting the stem gracefully, she inhaled the aroma and began to taste it with a gentle sip from the rim. Then she smiled with satisfaction.

Grace did the same, but with eyes that watched Jesse closely. And seeing Jesse enjoying the wine so much was quite comforting to her. "You like it so much?" asked Grace, clinking her wine glass with Jesse's.

Jesse smiled a simple smile. "Nothing tastes sweeter and more comforting than a long-stored wine," she said, taking another graceful sip from the glass.

"Next time, I'll give you something better than this," Grace said, intrigued by Jesse's love of wine that always intoxicated her through the aroma she smelled as she sipped.

Jesse returned her gratitude with a smile and a twinkle in his eye. "Then what brings you here?"

Grace was silent for a moment. She sipped her wine in a way different from how Jesse drank it. Unlike Jesse, who was enjoying himself, Grace looked ready to get drunk and forget her emotions. "My parents asked me to get married."

"My parents, too. I guess all parents want their children to get married." Jesse replied in a crazy tone.

"But for me, it's an order. Mr. Lawrence is insisting. He'll probably use threats if I don't comply," Grace said, handing Jesse her glass so the girl could pour the thick red liquid back into her glass.

Jesse looked at her. "What else will Mr. Lawrence do?"

"I don't know." Grace relaxed her shoulders. "Maybe with my mom or with his wealth. He used to threaten me with those two things, and I wouldn't say I liked his threats. So, instead of waiting for him to threaten me, I complied. Besides, I needed to get married in the end for Mrs. Emery to feel at ease. They at least need to leave me with someone they can trust."

"More than they trust you?"

"Eng." Grace laughed, her lips pressed tightly together while her eyelids almost closed in a crescent shape. "They probably never trusted me in the first place. It seems like I've always been a worrying figure for them."

"Then what did you do?"

This time, Grace laughed out loud. She approached Jesse with a look that was beginning to resemble that of a little child. "You know what?"

Jesse laughed, rolling his eyeballs and looking the other way. He could confidently tell Grace was drunk at the moment because the girl's behavior was getting weird. "What do I know? How could I have known if you hadn't told me."

"Ah! Right. Listen, you might be surprised."

"What else could surprise me about your attitude?"

"I proposed to Cody for marrying me."

"What?" Jesse spat the drink from his mouth, even though she felt so much affection for the wine that she drank it slowly.

Grace nodded enthusiastically. "But he turned me down," she said disappointedly.

"I thought you couldn't get any crazier than you already are, but I was wrong." she gasped.

"He turned me down. The one person I thought would lighten the load of this marriage turned me down as soon as I proposed to him."

Jesse shook his head, at a loss for words. "If I were him, I'd do the same thing. I'd run and save myself from someone like you!"

Grace gave him a disappointed look. "Hey! Must you say it like that? Why do you have to make it clear!"Grace, annoyed, put down her glass rudely.

The glass that had slammed on the table was immediately caught by Jesse, who saw it in panic. "Hey! Don't slam it. It's my favorite glass. I'll keep drinking wine from it for the rest of my life. You have no idea how hard I worked to get this glass," she spouted at Grace.

She was ignoring the babble. Grace began to bury her face in the folds of her hands on the table. "What should I do? How do I get him to agree to marry me?" she asked Jesse, though Jesse was more concerned with the glass.

"Tell him you're pregnant with his child," Jesse said.

"You're even crazier than me!" snapped Grace, raising her face.

"If you're confused. You can use that method," she said without guilt.

Grace looked annoyed. She thought he had been wrong to come there and tell her. How could Jesse, without thinking about it, speak so easily, giving her ridiculous ideas that she couldn't even imagine? "You freak!" Grace smacked Jesse's head with her fist.

"Argh!" Jesse gave her a fierce look. "You ask, I answer."

"But it doesn't make sense!"

"What doesn't make sense is you can get pregnant with him. Why does it not make sense?"

"Because I never slept with him!"

Jesse paused. "You're right. You have to at least sleep with him before you can admit that you're pregnant with his child."

"Now you know what the problem is."

"Force him to sleep with you."

Grace regained her senses because of Jesse's nonsense, which made her think logically. "You're drunk."

Jesse nodded. "Yeah. With this," he pointed to Grace's bottle of wine. "Make him unconscious and then sleep with him. Make him believe you did something that night."

Grace laughed bitterly. "You made me look like a slut in front of him."

Jesse narrowed his eyes. "Now you're affected by what people think of you? Ms. Lawrence, the thing you need to remember is your goal. You're not planning to sleep with him because you want his wealth or anything else. Your goal was just to put your parents at ease. And he happens to be your choice," Jesse explained, dismissing Grace's thoughts about herself.

"But does it have to be that low?"

"You know you have high grades. Your grades won't drop just because you use sneaky measures, and he won't lose anything anyway. He's a man, and his position is always an advantage." Jesse added.

Grace exchanged glances with him. "Then you should do me a favour."

Grace Lawrence pondered the idea she had gotten from Jesse. The idea did sound crazy, and her pride also came into play with it, but she had no other way. Her mind could not find a way to persuade Cody, who insisted on rejecting her. She was sure nothing could persuade Cody to fence himself off as high as the Berlin Wall to separate himself from her.

Just the thought of that man being so wary of her made her extremely upset, and her pride droop at Cody's attitude towards her. The man had put her out of her mind. In the end, Grace decides to use Jesse's idea as a way out. If she had to regret Jesse's idea later, let it be her right to regret it, but now she was going to do it.

Grace drove her car to the building where Jesse's agency was located. Today, she learned of Cody's schedule from Jesse, who checked the man's schedule for her. As if he really wanted to help her, Jesse prepared many things that he could do.

"You're coming?" greeted Jesse, looking at her once the door in the room opened.

Grace quirked a faint smile that appeared to be a laugh at herself. "What else can I do but this?"

Jesse smiled so cheerfully. "Are you asking for small talk, or do you not know?"

Grace sat where she was, watching the models through the one-way glass connected to Jesse's room. She observed every talent Jesse had there, but her eyes couldn't move from Cody, who even stood out among the other professional models.

"You can choose anyone, though. That's if you want," Jesse said, getting up from his seat and taking the same notice as Grace. "Did any of them catch your eye? I can help you get closer to them if you want."

Grace turned her body toward Jesse. "I've made my choice since yesterday. I proposed to him yesterday and have no intention of proposing to anyone else. Don't make my feelings worse by having to propose to more than one guy."

Jesse laughed with satisfaction. She didn't mean to have fun on top of Grace's pain and confusion. But for the first time, she could see Grace dizzy with something else she wasn't interested in, and the situation was quite amusing. "So you're sticking to your choice. Stay with Cody?"

Grace nodded. "I guess it would be even weirder if it wasn't Cody. I mean, I'm dating him-"

"It's fake. Of course," Jesse interjected before Grace could finish her sentence. The girl walked over to the table where she had been sitting. She sat down casually watching Grace with her eyes.

"Yeah. Thank you for making that clear," Grace replied sarcastically.

"I'm happy to remind you."

Grace looked at Jesse quizzically. "Oh my God," she said, hoping Jesse would find another time to play a trick on her.

"So here it is." Jesse pulled out a medicine from the back of his drawer. He placed it on the table, drawing Grace's attention, who immediately went to it. "Just what you need, no need to thank me. I emphasize again, I'm happy to help."

Grace stared with narrowed eyes. She hated the way Jesse spoke, but she ignored that by taking the medicine Jesse took out and observing it. "What's this?"

"Stimulant," she said cheerfully and smiled mischievously.

Grace widened her eyes with her mouth open. "Are you crazy?"

"What do you want me to give him? Candy, chocolate, or cake. He's not a kid who can be persuaded with that," Jesse said, annoyed that Grace did not appreciate his efforts.

Grace shook her head. Although she thought she had met the wrong friend, she remembered that a person is a reflection of who they meet. But Grace was an exaggerated reflection for her. "But this is out of line. This is a crime!" Grace tried to stay within the bounds of reason.

She tried to retain her humanity. At least she wouldn't manipulate others to that extent.

Stimulant? Oh, my God.

Grace backed away, putting the drug back on the table. Holding it made her afraid of herself.

"Setting him up was a crime from the start." Jesse gave her a stern look. "Don't make me look like a criminal mastermind alone when I only tried to help."

Grace shook her head. "This isn't the kind of help I meant!" she quickly retorted.

"So what kind?"

"You could do something else, a little pushy for example? Using weakness as a threat. You know money can do a lot these days," Grace argued.

Jesse squinted at Grace, his eyes moving up and down, assessing the girl and then looking disgusted. "That method is more disgusting than making him lose consciousness. If you use your method, take advantage of his weakness. And then making her helpless, that's more inhumane and torturous," she objected.

Grace didn't understand what the difference was with using the drug. In the end, Cody would still be helpless because he had to take responsibility.

Seeing the look on Grace's face that she didn't understand her words. Jesse put the medicine back on the table where he first put it. "At least he still has the choice to take responsibility or run away when he does something he doesn't realize. But if you threaten her with her weakness, you don't give her any choice but to accept and agree to whatever you want."

"So you think this is better?" Grace still felt it was a bad choice.

"It's sleeping pills. It's not what you think. I'm kidding." Jesse got up from her seat, but her mood had changed. "I'll make her a drink here. You wait at the hotel I booked. Let me take him there."

Grace sat down on the sofa, momentarily relieved. But she also felt disappointed in what she'd said. Jesse's words that her way was more disgusting rang in her mind. Thinking back, she also realized that her thoughts were disgusting, as Jesse had told her.

The worst act is forcing someone to make them helpless and accept what they are told. It was like she was oppressing a weak person, and her actions didn't give any justification for her attitude.

After pondering Jesse's words for a long time, Grace was awakened by her phone ringing. Jesse's name appeared on her phone screen, indicating that Jesse was calling her.

"Where are you? Cody's almost here, but the room's still empty." Jesse's voice sounded on the other end.

Grace stood up and quickly walked out of Jesse's office. "I'll be there in a minute," she muttered, turning off the call between them.