AnAn emptied her pockets into the plastic tray on the rollers at the entrance of the courthouse. She removed her shoes and put them into the bin as well. The last time she'd been inside this building, her mom was arguing with her dad about divorce papers. She was just little then, afraid of the serious sounding argument.

The clatter of the plastic trays bumping along the x-ray machine echoed through the large building. This was where her Ceremony would be. The thought gave her a sinking feeling in her stomach. But today was just the debriefing. She'd get the Arrangement files and a photo of her match. But the photo didn't matter to her. She didn't care what this guy looked like. She didn't want to be Arranged to anyone, not even to Jerry if she were honest.

AnAn walked through the metal detector then collected her belongings on the other side. There had to be a way out of this, some loophole in the system. If she just had a little time, she could ask Joslyn more about the Sympathy Doctors.

Large signs directed her to the Building Families offices, which were at the other end of the building. The area had bright, colorful walls, like a preschool for children, but the atmosphere felt sterile like a hospital. 

"Go on back," the frowning lady at the front desk said to AnAn. She didn't bother to glance up from her computer. "End of the hall, white door. You're late."

"I can come back some other time, then."

The woman looked up. "I'm sure it was just the blizzard outside that slowed you down, and you're not late on purpose."

AnAn didn't reply.

"Appointments don't get rescheduled. The Officials are busy at other locations."

AnAn headed down the hallway to the unmarked white door which was partially open.

A young, blonde lady, who looked to be in her early twenties, sat at a wooden desk that had no pictures or knickknacks on it to give it any personality. She glanced up and gave AnAn a stern, no-nonsense glare, then motioned for her to take a seat.

"Please fill out the forms," she said, getting right to the point. She wore the standard Building Families uniform, a crisp, stewardess-like suit and hat, both with the Building Families logo on them. "Have a seat, Anne."

AnAn sat down and that's when she noticed that someone else was in the room, sitting in a chair behind the Building Families Official, at the back of the room.

It was Taejung!

AnAn stopped breathing. It couldn't be. 

She blinked hard in case it was an illusion that her mind had created, from watching his music video last night. This is impossible.

Taejung watched her silently from the corner of the room and AnAn felt her face flush. She reached up to smooth down her wild hair. Now that it was short, and self-cut, it stuck out in every direction.

She tried not to stare, but she couldn't seem to look away. Taejung was even more attractive in real life than in his videos, if that was possible. Half his hair was purple, the other half white with a tint of blue. Different than in the music video she'd watched, where he was blond, but she'd seen this style in some of the latest photos posted a week ago—combed back in a classic style with a curl hanging down in front of his eyes. He wore a black, military-style jacket, with black turtleneck underneath, which contrasted with the white of his skin. The sleeves of the jacket had two gold stripes and the buttons were also gold. AnAn's eyes kept travelling to him, even as the Building Families Official continued to talk. He looked like he'd just come off the set of a Hear4U music video. Maybe he had! Were they filming in Canada?

He met her gaze with cold blue eyes, unwavering. He had to be wearing contacts. AnAn knew everything about Taejung and she knew his natural eye color was brown. Unless this wasn't Taejung at all, but a look-a-like? Even so, what was he even doing here?

"Anne?" the Building Families Official said. "Are you listening?"

"Huh?" AnAn blinked and looked at the blonde woman.

She continued talking, but AnAn interrupted. "Excuse me, but..." she cleared her throat. "Who...I mean." She nodded toward Taejung.

"I realize this is unprecedented," the official said, straightening the front of her uniform. "But Taylor has come to your debriefing to...assess his match."

Assess his match?

"We're not supposed to meet in person until the ceremony," AnAn said, finding her voice.

Taylor? The name sounded suspiciously like a variation on the name Taejung. 

"And we're not allowed to assess our match, we have no choice—"

"It says here in your file that you grew up on a farm?" The Official kept her gaze on the papers in front of her. AnAn looked down at the pages as well. A farm? She'd never even been out to a farm. Her mom said that being out in a field left you too exposed to threats. "And," the Official continued, "you were homeschooled?"

AnAn was about to object when she remembered Jerry hacking into her Building Families account. Very funny, Jerry, she thought. But she could hardly tell the Official that her friend had hacked into their system and changed her profile. 

She glanced over at Taejung again, or Taylor as they were calling him, and realized that only a homeschooled, Canadian farm girl with no access to media would have never heard of him before. Were they counting on her to not know who he was?

"That's right," AnAn lied. "I learned to read and write from my mom, but I've never had a computer, or even a television." She wouldn't let on that she knew who Taejung was, in case it would make her a threat to them. If they found out she worked in the media and knew exactly who he was, it could get her into big trouble with the wrong people. They'd find a way to shut her up.

The Official thumbed through AnAn's papers. "And you currently work on your family farm?"

"Yes," AnAn said, continuing the lie. What could she say? That her friend hacked into Building Families' poorly secured system and faked her entire profile? She'd get both her and Jerry put in jail or executed. She kept her eyes on the Official and refused to look at Taejung anymore. What had she gotten herself into?

She'd walked in here worried about being Arranged to a middle-aged divorcee, but this was much harder. How could she handle being married to Taejung? And why was he even here? She could feel his stare from the corner of the room but she kept her eyes on the official.

"Have you ever heard of the band Hear4U?"

"Here for me?"

"Anne, let me be direct—"

"It's AnAn."

"You being Arranged to Taylor here is... a unique match, for the purpose of helping Building Families expand our repopulation efforts, globally."

AnAn's reporter instincts told her that was far from the truth. Taejung didn't look like he even wanted to be here, let alone volunteer to repopulate the West. He had to be hiding from something or running away. Without him, Hear4U wouldn't be able to do the upcoming concert, which was bad news for the One World Nation, who seemed to be going about their world domination in a different way now, after losing the war; through media and an upcoming world election. So Taejung's being here was dangerous.

This was the entertainment scoop of a lifetime. Kpop idol comes to small town Canada to... escape an oppressive government?

"Anne—"

"It's AnAn. Anne-Anne!"

Her outburst seemed to surprise Taejung and he raised an eyebrow.

AnAn's face flushed, and she looked away.

"I see you have nothing saved up in your Building Families fund," the Official continued, ignoring AnAn's outburst completely. "For the honeymoon, wedding or for children. And in your questionnaire, you stated you had no interest in sex."

AnAn's cheeks flared! She was going to kill Jerry for including that in her file, even if it was true.

"I didn't really think it was necessary to save my money," she shrugged, bringing attention away from the Official's last statement.

"Because of your agoraphobia?"

AnAn opened her mouth to say she didn't have agoraphobia, but then closed it again. If the file said she had agoraphobia, then she would pretend to have agoraphobia.

"It says in your file that it makes you afraid to travel. Afraid of open fields?" The Official studied AnAn as though trying to gauge whether or not she was lying. Fortunately, AnAn's 'serious eyebrows,' as Jerry put it, usually disguised any signs of nervousness or fear, making her look all the more serious when she was nervous. For the first time , AnAn was happy to have intense eyebrows.

"Is travel even allowed?" AnAn sat up straighter in her seat, realizing she had to be more careful of what she said. "I mean, if Tae-lor, Taylor, wanted to travel. Not me."

"He does not," the Official said, matter-of-factly.

AnAn glanced at Taejung, who sat unmoving and made no response.

The Official jotted something onto her paper. "Unfortunately, you won't be having a Ceremony—"

"What? Because I didn't save up? It doesn't cost anything to have a Ceremony."

The woman looked up. "You're keen on a Ceremony?"

"Actually, no. I'm not really keen on any of the Arrangement process." It was the one true thing she'd said all morning.

"Well, it's mandatory."

"The Ceremony?"

"The Arrangement. You'll sign the papers to finalize it now."

"Aren't we supposed to have an Officiant and—?"

"You seem to know a lot about these processes."

"No, it was just in the pamphlets." AnAn had actually done a lot of research for her exposé on Building Families, and all their procedures.

"Sometimes schedules are adjusted... for unprecedented circumstances. The Ceremony is just a courtesy. This time it doesn't fit into the schedule."

AnAn was pretty sure Snowbridge was not backed up with a busy Ceremony schedule.

The woman slapped a pile of papers onto the desk in front of AnAn. A red X marked the spot for her to sign.

She stared at it for a moment. There was a copy of the full Arrangement agreement online. Anyone could read it before their Arrangement date, but she doubted hers was the same as everyone else's. Beside the line where she was supposed to sign, was another line for Taejung's signature. As though reading her mind, he got up to join her on her side of the table.

AnAn forced herself not to watch as Taejung walked over.

The Official crossed her arms and gave AnAn a pointed look.

"What if we don't agree," AnAn said, clearing her throat. "What if we don't both sign?"

"That is not an option."

Taejung was standing beside her now. She could smell his soft cologne. Her muscles felt limp and useless all of a sudden. She didn't think she could even hold a pen. But he wasn't signing the page either.

"What if I just don't sign?" AnAn said softly. It wasn't exactly the angry resistance she had imagined she would give, when finding herself in this situation.

"The penalty for not complying to procedure is life in prison."

"Since when?" AnAn found her voice. Life in prison? That was ridiculous.

"Since recently. Do I need to remind you what goes on in fertility prisons?"

AnAn grabbed the pen on the desk. "No." She signed the paper so aggressively that the pen's tip ripped a line in the page at the end of her signature.

Taejung leaned forward to sign as well, and AnAn scooted back, the chair legs making a harsh sound on the tile floor. He looked up and gave her a curious glance, his hand hovering above the signature line. He exchanged a look with the blonde Official and she gave a slight nod. He turned back to the document and signed it. It wasn't his real signature though, AnAn saw, but a haphazardly handwritten 'Taylor,' with no last name.

"You'll be living on a ranch," the Official said, snatching up the document. "On the outskirts of town."

"A ranch?"

"I understand that it's out in an open field," the Official sighed, crossing her arms. "But you'll be inside the house, not standing out in a field." She looked like she was trying her best not to roll her eyes. If AnAn really did have agoraphobia, she'd be tempted to smack that look right off the Official's face. "It's a high-end property," she continued. "Not rundown. Well maintained." She put the papers into her suitcase and snapped it shut. "You won't have to do a lot of work on it."

"Are there horses and animals?" AnAn asked. Her entire world was changing right before her eyes. How would she manage a ranch? Yesterday she thought life would just stay the same for a while, after being Arranged to Jerry; they would live in the same apartment they had shared for over a year. She would continue working at NNN for the next three years. But now she was married to a K-Pop Idol and living on a ranch.

"No animals at the moment."

AnAn's shoulders relaxed. At least that was one less thing to worry about. She noticed Taejung's shoulders relaxed as well. It was just a slight movement, but she'd picked up on it. Was he just as unsettled as she was, by all of this? What was his story? International Travel was currently banned, so he had to be in this country illegally. Unless Building Families was above international law. Was he running away from his government?

"It's not like your parents' farm," the blonde woman continued. "It was once a Bed-and-Breakfast, before the war. A very large home. Beautifully renovated." She stood up and offered her hand to AnAn in a handshake. "We'll be in touch, Anne."

When AnAn didn't take her hand, she added, "Anne-Anne," then turned to Taejung and said something to him in Korean. The woman was clearly not Korean, but apparently spoke the language fluently.

Taejung nodded to her and returned to his seat in the corner of the room, where he picked up a duffle bag from the floor.

"Taylor will join you at the ranch later this evening." The Official shoved a manila envelope into AnAn's hands. "You'll find a key and a map to the property in the debriefing folder. Taylor and I still have a few more things to discuss, but I'll see you out."

That was it? She was Arranged now?

The Official escorted AnAn to the door, then closed it in her face. 

She looked inside the folder. There was a glint of a diamond at the bottom.

Her wedding ring.

No vows. No, 'you may kiss the bride.'

Why was she disappointed? Taejung would never kiss her. He was an international K-Pop star. And she'd dodged a bullet by not being required to go through a regular Ceremony. So then why did she feel jilted somehow.

AnAn closed the folder back up. She was technically late for work now. The ring and the ranch would have to wait.

----

Author's Note: Hey everyone, I'm back! I'm rewriting this entire novel, for those who read 'Arranged Marriage to Taeyong.' This one will be different and have a lot of all-new interactions between AnAn and 'Taejung,' (my new name for a character that suspiciously looks exactly like Taeyong haha). 

I am doing it this way because I want to publish this novel once I get this rewrite done, and I obviously can't use real Idols or a real band. I also would love to be considered for a Wattpad Original, which is not an option for fan fiction, as those characters are copyright. Imagine this being made into a Netflix Original or something! I mean, they'd HAVE to use a real K-Pop Idol if that happened! Right? *hope springs eternal*

I will post again sometime this week :D 

Thanks for reading and I will see you all again soon!