Taking A Chance On Love || m.t.

十 Silver Lining

After returning from our honeymoon, it was back to work immediately for Mark since he had a group comeback to prepare for. As for me, I spent the first couple weeks waking up late, going to Seoul like a tourist, checking out the business district, frequenting night markets, and fattening Mark up with my interest in finding new recipes to try.

Eventually, I settled down and started sending in my resumé to various companies, hoping to get a good job to keep me occupied and increase our savings. I already had an extensive spreadsheet created with our short and long term financial goals, so I searched for reputable companies that would help us reach our goals. Aware of Mark's celebrity status and how easy it was for antis to find family members and harass them, my ideal company was one where I could work mostly remotely, yet still have the option to occasionally work at the company so that I could still practice my social skills and gain friends.

Thanks to my foresight to teach myself some Korean business standards while Mark and I were dating, I was able to quickly receive several viable offers after many rounds of interviews. I rejected a few based on how far away their offices were and eventually picked a wealth management and accounting firm with its HQ just a few blocks away from Mark's company. I at first planned to work as an accountant since that was my job back in America, but after realising I would need to recertify and learn a plethora of new rules, I took classes to become a financial planner instead. That way I could utilize my degree while still being flexible enough to work in another country.

This company was a somewhat well known one that had several high profile clients with large accounts to manage, so I was assured of their confidentiality standards. Once I began work, I made sure to tell my superiors about my identity so that they could prepare for any unsavory situations. Things went surprisingly smoothly, and before I knew it, I was already working remotely, only coming into the office to attend staff meetings and meet clients who preferred in-person advice.

I thoroughly enjoyed my work schedule, which I threw myself into as GOT7 finally launched their highly anticipated comeback. It was a great success, and they swept award after music show award in a month before finally going on tour for 5 months. It was lonely, suddenly being away from him after being nearly inseparable since we first met a year and 4 months ago. However, we video called every single day no matter where he was or what time of day it was for me.

The only thing I didn't tell him a lot about was how bad the hate had gotten while he was away on tour. I didn't want him to get angry at the fandom, because a lot of Ahgases were as sweet as could be, telling people to give us our privacy. As usual in any fandom though, there were antis who even half a year after we got married were still causing problems. Because I had agreed to show up in the back of the members' livestreams as a way to slowly desensitize the public to my presence and eventually not care what I did, many people had a pretty good idea of how I looked, although I was careful to never show my face fully. Unfortunately, while Mark was on tour, some detective netizens figured out my identity based on records and photos they'd dug up from when I still worked in America.

The company and the members did what they could to dispel rumors and asked for netizens to respect my privacy, but the hate ramped up as netizens tried constantly to find out where I worked and lived. Thankfully the firm I worked for lived up to their confidentiality standards, and my colleagues all did what they could to encourage me, while some of my clients who were active in entertainment gave me tips on how to avoid the media.

I did what I could to ignore the media, instead counting down the days until my husband came back. Things seemed to die down a bit, although that was merely on the surface. There was still a strong undercurrent of hate brimming below the surface, but I refused to let that stop me from living my life. Thankfully, when Mark finally came home, we simply picked up right back where we left off, settling into domestic happiness. Now that Mark was coming off the heels of a world tour, he was able to stay home and keep me company more often.