Mishi Fasenoa, at twenty-five years old, entered into a secret agreement with teefu Tay Taris for a one-year marriage. She named it “the yellow one” after the color of the folder, and had no idea that day what kind of whirlwind she was actually setting in motion.
In truth, she imagined it to be very simple and fun. She would simply leave work for a while and move into a house of her choosing. She would marry her boss, show a few smiles and embraces, live in comfort, and the year would pass like water.
It was a well-thought-out plan that no one except Mario Ward was allowed to know about. To business partners and the general public, Mishi and Tay had to appear as a genuine engaged couple. That meant first playing two months of a reserved, strictly professional relationship until they were ready for the attention that would require them to begin acting out a romantic one.
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Before the wedding took place, Mishi would literally sneak into Tay’s apartment night after night so they could sit together over a list of things they should know about each other. They turned it into a full subject and practiced like at school. They wanted their future interactions with the press to run smoothly.
In the next phase, Tay taught Mishi etiquette, in which she had significant gaps. By then they were sitting together in luxury restaurants, where Mishi—a girl who had spent her life drifting through dance clubs—was completely out of her depth. No matter how prepared she felt for anything, only under the scrutiny of others did she understand what Tay meant by the hell of foreign eyes. Gossip already drifted through the palace, and occasionally the media dropped a note about teefu Taris having lunch a bit too often with his secretary. It irritated Mishi how the journalists degraded her position, but she and Tay agreed not to react to anything until they were officially engaged.
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At first, it was Mishi who received the biggest lessons. She had to learn a great deal about Tay’s world. She didn’t always know whose hand to shake first, but she improvised well. She played everything into charm. Even though she didn’t know how to carry herself like a lady, she adapted quickly and studied the noble surroundings every second.
Tay, on the other hand, struggled to perform his part of the act. His only task was to behave naturally as a man who loves a woman. How difficult that was for someone of his temperament and experience. Here, Mishi bravely took the lead and advised him how to look at her or how to hold her. There wasn’t much he had to enact over those few months, but this role was profoundly uncomfortable for Taris. Mishi did not have it easy with him.