Chapter 1 - Yibo and Lara Sue

When Yibo married Lara at the age of 22, it was not a marriage of love, but a marriage of alliance with a good friend he had met at university. They formed an alliance so that they could stand together against their enemies, their parents.

Yibo, the marriage refuser, was looking for a way to finally silence his parents. For two years they had been nagging him to find a woman to marry after graduation. They kept arranging blind dates for him. Sometimes they even tricked him. They would pretend they wanted to take him out to dinner and then show up at the restaurant with random women and leave them alone. On his 21st birthday, they surprised him with a strange woman and her parents. They told him to come home for his birthday to celebrate with the family. And that turned into a blind date with a strange woman and her parents, who would have loved to discuss the engagement right away. And although Yibo even threatened his parents never to come home again if they did such a thing again, they did not give an inch and insisted that he find himself a wife!

Yibo would have liked to continue to stand up to his parents, but he had a problem that they could exploit for themselves and their goals! Because Yibo wanted to open his own mini market after graduation. But to do so, he needed his parents' financial support, and they would only give it to him if he finally found himself a wife. So what was left for him to do?

Luckily for him, he had met Lara. A fellow student who had the same problems with her parents as he did. Well, almost the same problems. She never wanted to open a mini-market. But she wanted to finally move out of her home and get away from the control and overprotection of her parents. But they wouldn't allow her to leave home until she was married.

And then, four months before Yibo's 22nd birthday, there was that one night when Yibo and Lara tried to drown their worries and problems in alcohol. And what happens when two young and stressed people drink more alcohol than they can handle? That's right, they fuck up! And in their case it went like this. They drank a lot of alcohol, complained about their parents and came up with a very STUPID idea. Lara asked Yibo: "Hey, why don't we just get married? We are friends and get along well. And we both have the same problem. If we both get married, our parents will finally give us peace and we'll finally have what we want. Our freedom!"

The drunken Yibo thought it was a great idea. "Good idea. That's what we'll do! We'll get married and finally shut our parents up." They both laughed and were happy about their solution to the problem. They therefore also immediately called their parents and announced that they were engaged to be married as soon as Yibo turned 22.

The next day came the unpleasant awakening for Yibo. His parents were already waiting for him in the living room with lots of wedding catalogues. And at first Yibo had no idea what was going on. But then he remembered the phone call to his parents and the words he said to them: "Mum, Dad, I'm engaged and I want to get married. Preferably as soon as I'm 22 years old. Lara agrees."

Inwardly, Yibo cursed himself as he hesitantly joined his parents in the living room. What was he supposed to say? How should he act? But before he could find an answer to his questions, the front doorbell rang. Immediately Yibo rushed to the front door and froze as a very embarrassed looking Lara stood in front of him with her parents, giving him a look that spoke more than a thousand words. "We are so screwed." She said with a look.

It didn't take 10 minutes for the parents to get to know each other. Because a wedding had to be planned and every minute is precious! For Yibo and Lara there was no escape. They had got themselves into this mess and now they would have to spoon out the soup, as the saying goes. Or in other words, they were fucked and had no chance to wriggle out of it.

When the shock wore off after a few days for Yibo and Lara, they decided to team up and go through with it. They would get married and pretend to be in love. But once married, they would each do whatever they wanted. A real marriage, or even love, was not in the cards for either of them.

The marriage took place in a small registry office. Only Yibo, Lara, their parents and two close friends were present. The registrar, a man in his mid-fours, performed the ceremony. Much to Yibo's chagrin, the registrar smelled strongly of alcohol and garlic from his mouth. And every time a breeze came through the open window, the alcohol and garlic stench was drawn to Yibo. He had to stifle a gag several times and swallow the bitter taste that formed in his mouth.

After only 20 minutes, with a short text read out and a few signatures, the wedding ceremony was completed. Afterwards they went to the wedding location, where friends and relatives were already waiting to celebrate with them. The celebration lasted until the early hours of the morning. And the only ones who stayed sober were Yibo and Lara. Because they were afraid of getting drunk and telling everyone the truth about their marriage. Who knows what their parents would have done to them then?

As a wedding present from Lara's parents, they gave them a small three-room appartment. So at least Yibo and Lara had their own rooms and didn't have to share a bedroom. And from Yibo's parents they got a car and the furnishings for the appartment. Yibo also got the capital to open his own mini market.

They did not go on a honeymoon after the wedding. They didn't want to. Instead, Lara worked in her first job while Yibo started to set up his own small mini market. Yibo still had a lot of work to do and it cost even more than he had initially calculated. As it turned out, he had to renovate the two business rooms before he could start doing anything else.

It took Yibo as long as the wedding preparations to open his mini market. The opening took a whole 4 months because there was so much work to be done in the shop. The renovation was the last thing on his list. Before that, he had to take care of other things. For example, the new laying of the electricity cables. Renewal of the water pipes. Installation of a customer toilet. Laying fibre optic cables for the internet in the office and especially for the cash register, which is connected to the internet and sends all earnings to a software on Yibo's computer in the office.

On the day of the opening, Yibo celebrated with the customers who came to him in the mini market. And his customers were not only excited about the young handsome owner, but especially because they finally have a mini market in their neighbourhood and no longer have to drive or take the bus when they need to run some errands or just feel like having a snack.

Soon after opening, Yibo's Mini Market became a real hot spot in the neighbourhood. Residents often came there in the evening to meet, eat snacks and have a drink while chatting. And for Yibo, it meant having a full cash register. After just three weeks, he was able to hire someone part-time and a temp. Which enabled him to offer a 24-hour service. Which pleased the residents of the neighbourhood even more.

But while things went very well for Yibo, it was the exact opposite for Lara. Her first job was torture for her. Her boss was always in a bad mood and took it out on her. And her colleagues made her do the dirty work and talked bad about her behind her back. They thought that Lara only got the job because she was so pretty.

After only three months, Lara looked for a new job and was lucky to find one. But things didn't go well there either after a short time. This time it failed because of her poor English skills. And of all places, it was in a company whose clients live exclusively abroad and only needed to communicate in English.

Lara worked there for two weeks, then she was fired and had to start looking for a job again. As all good things come in threes, Lara was really lucky with her third job. She got a warm welcome and everyone was good to her. The only thing that didn't work out for her was her love life. Every date she had was a flop.

After each date, she returned home frustrated, where Yibo had to cheer her up, even though he was tired and worn out himself. He only enjoyed this the first two or three times, after that it was just frustrating for him. At one point he got so annoyed that he told her, "Why do you even go on dates when you have a husband?" He had no idea what those thoughtless words were about to unleash in Lara.

First, without explanation, Lara moved in with her best friend Gia for several weeks. Then she came back without explanation and avoided Yibo for weeks. Then she pretended nothing had happened and tried to get close to Yibo again after he told her that if she didn't calm down he would move out and file for divorce immediately because he didn't want to live with a person who avoided him without giving any reason, as if he had a contagious disease that would lead to death.

Although it seemed that everything was back to normal between them, Yibo still noticed that Lara had changed. He just didn't know what had changed and why. And so days, weeks and months passed without Yibo understanding what was going on and Lara tried not to show anything.

And eventually time passed and the two got used to their married and professional life. Like a real couple, they made joint decisions, went shopping together, took care of the household, the laundry and the bills together and often spent the evenings together in front of the TV. Only the nights they continued to spend separately. For Yibo, nothing had changed. Lara was a good friend for him, with whom he had a marriage to appear to be. And he liked it the way it was.

For Lara, it was obvious that her opinion of marriage had long since changed. Her secret, which she had been keeping for almost three years, was slowly getting bigger and bigger. She realised that she finally had to tell Yibo the truth before he found out himself. And so she waited until their third wedding anniversary, cooked him dinner and then asked him for a talk.

"Yibo, there is something I have been hiding from you for a long time. I wanted to confess it to you for so long. But I never knew how to do it. After all, we both agreed that our marriage was just for show for our parents." She began the conversation.

"Why don't you just tell me what you want to say?" Asked Yibo, who was never a man of many words.

"All right, I'll tell you. I have developed feelings for someone."

"I see, and?"

"Well, how do I say this?"

"Lara, you can tell me anything. So out with it. I'd like to take a shower and then go to bed. I'm tired and have to head out to the mini market in the morning."

"I've had a boyfriend for two years who I love very much. And I'm pregnant by him!"

"Um..."

"I want you to stop getting your hopes up that you and I can be more. Because I love my boyfriend very much and we even want to get married."

"Wait a minute. You think I'm getting my hopes up for something more with you?"

"Yes. It was you who told me then to stop dating because I already have a husband. You were never more than a good friend to me. I tried to be nice to you because of your feelings for me. But I can't take it anymore. I want a divorce from you so I can finally marry the man I love. I need to get away from you."

Yibo laughed out loud. "You really think I have feelings for you just because I said that? I said that then because I was annoyed with having to comfort you all the time when you had another date that went wrong. I never had feelings for you! At no point was I attracted to you okay? If you want a divorce, I have no problem with that."

"Good, then I'll prepare the divorce papers and we can file them at the registry office next week. And it would be good if you could find your own appartment. Well, I got this appartment from my parents and I'm going to keep it."

"Oh wow, you really suck. We both got this appartment as a gift, not just you! But fine, I'm sure I can find a cheap appartment near my mini market. Also, you should have apologised for insinuating that I have feelings for you!"

"Yeah well, you're right. I apologise for the insinuation and the way I just dealt with you. I'll give you four weeks to find a new appartment. That should probably be enough. And now I'm going to go to my boyfriend's. See you later." Said Lara and left the Appartment.

Yibo could only shake his head at her and then went to shower and go to bed.