𝐒𝐏𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐒 - ★彡[ᴀʟʜᴀɪᴛʜᴀᴍ]彡★

𝟒 - 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇 𝐏𝐔𝐑𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐄𝐒

Alhaitham led me into his house–or rather, his mansion. Honestly, I could hardly believe that I wasn't just dreaming. The inside was just as fancy as you would expect, but it felt homier than a standard mansion. For some reason most large houses nowadays were all just white– white walls, white floors, white furniture– but Alhaitham seemed to have decorated it like a normal house.

"This is amazing," I couldn't help but breathe out, my gaze flitting around.

"Is that so?" he walked over to the counter of the kitchen and elegantly set down his bag from work. "I'm glad it's to your liking. I'll show you where your bedroom is if you'd like."

"Yeah, sure!" I followed him up a spiral staircase that led up to the third floor.

"This is your personal floor," he told me with a somewhat nervous expression, "there's a personal bathroom, bedroom, and walk-in closet. I also used the third room to give a small working space."

"Wait, you're kidding. A whole floor?! I couldn't possibly take up that much space," I shook my hands out in front of me desperately. This whole floor is two times the size of my apartment, I really don't want to take up too much space...

"Don't worry," his eyes softened slightly, "you're the one doing me a favor, so feel free to indulge yourself as much as you wish. In fact, this amount of space isn't adequate considering how much you'll have to sacrifice."

"If you say so," I nervously walked forward and peeked into the bedroom. Unfortunately, as expected, it was adorned with extremely expensive furniture. I walked towards the queen-sized bed and flopped myself down on it face-first. It's perfect! The mattress wasn't too soft or rough, the ideal balance between the two. The pillows were incredibly nice as well.

I sat up and grinned at him. "Mr. Alhaitham, thank you so much! I don't think I've ever stayed in a room this fancy before."

"I'm glad it's to your liking," he spoke once more, "I think that's all you really need. If you ever need to talk to me about anything, my living space is on the second floor, and then we share the first. I would prefer if you didn't go to my room unless there are dire circumstances, for privacy purposes."

"Sure!" I nodded.

"I'm glad that you're enthusiastic about this process," Alhaitham murmured awkwardly, "I was worried that I wouldn't be able to make adequate preparations for a woman, but it looks like my advisors did well."

Damn, it seems like he's really unfamiliar with women.

"I'm surprised you're so self-conscious about this," I chaffed, indulging in his queer naivety with woman, "but there's really no reason to stress yourself out. I'm sure any girl would be above the moon to receive a whole floor to herself with no rent. Wait, there's no rent, right?"

The light-hearted comment seemed to soothe his mind a little as he nodded. "Your bags will be brought up shortly. I'll leave you to yourself for now, so feel free to familiarize yourself with the area."

"Ah, thank–"

He was gone before I could finish thanking him. Mr. Alhaitham must have work to do. I feel bad for taking up so much time in his schedule. Letting myself fall back onto the bed, I relished the cushy pillows and closed my eyes. A feeling of serenity washed over me as I inhaled the faint rose aroma that wafted amongst the whole house.

After I had finally settled into the soft mattress, there was a knock at the door breaking my moment of solitude. Alhaitham walked in whilst looking somewhat disheveled.

"There's a slight problem..." he pulled out a few sheets of paper from behind him. "I should've told you this earlier, but I didn't have the right opportunity to bring it up."

"What is it?" I felt a growing dread in my stomach. Whatever he was about to say, there was no way it was going to be good.

He handed me the papers, in which the contents left me completely and utterly flabbergasted. There were several pictures of people with cameras just outside his house, along with several testimonies that Alhaitham's wife never left the house and that she likely doesn't exist. One article was titled "Ideal Husband is a Scam?!!" and several others had titles that were either identical or slight variations of that.

"Now that I think of it, it would've been important to mention prior, but here we are..." he sighed. "Anyways, we're going to have to figure out a way to make you visible from outside without revealing your face. Preferably as soon as possible. A large news company just released an article on it and we've received several negative emails. I apologize that this is so sudden, but it appears we must make a move as soon as possible."

"Wait, huh?" I needed to give my brain a minute to process all the information he threw at me. "Give me a second."

A way to make myself 'appear' without my face being seen? Would that even be possible?

"I've already devised a plan," Alhaitham cut off my thoughts, "if that's what you're worried about. My bedroom window is visible from the outside. We could use the curtains along with the lighting to create silhouettes in which it could appear as if we were performing acts of intimacy."
My first reaction was to immediately question the legitimacy of the plan, but I instead replied with: "How did you even manage to come up with that?" It reminds me of that one otome route where you had to pretend to be this guy's fake wife...oh.

"I consumed a lot of romance media that was available to the public," he said, "and I saw that there was an otome being recommended for both men and women, saying that it's a good social commentary. Therefore, I picked it up, and that was a scene that played out between one of the love interests."

"Wait, you play otomes?!" A light flared up in my gaze. Rule number one of an otome fan: you can only share your love for otomes if the other person is fond of them. "That's amazing! Have you just played that one, or have you played others? Oh my gosh, I loved the game you're talking about. All of the male leads were so wonderful, and they each had their own unique flare. I think, personally, the secret male lead is the one I was the fondest of, what about you?"

"Hmm," he put a hand over his mouth, seemingly deliberating the choices. "Well, I don't particularly know how to judge men's attractiveness, so I'll scale them on their productivity and morals. I would say in terms of that... the one I personally think holds the most responsibility is the fashion designer. He seems to care a lot about his work and doesn't sugarcoat things, which is always a plus."

This man is straighter than a 180° angle...

"Yeah, I loved him!" I beamed at him. "His route was a blast too."

"Anyways," Alhaitham made sure to get the conversation back to business, "could you meet me in my room in around thirty minutes? They normally show up at this time of night. I apologize for making you do this on such short notice."

"No need to apologize," I gave him a thumbs up, "it's really no problem."

Giving me a small nod, he walked out of the room, closing the door gently behind him.

I've never gone into a man's room, let alone this late at night! I stood up, feeling determination well up in my chest. This is my job, and mine alone. Just you wait, creepy stalker/paparazzi people! My acting skills will blow your shoes off!

If only I had known...

EDITED (✓)