IRIS’ POV

I secretly looked left and right before I ate the 'remaining' of my ice cream. Well, I said it was 'remaining,' but it was actually more than half of the ice cream cone. The sweetness burst in my mouth and I almost moaned with pleasure as my desired sugar rush came into my body.

Of course, on the outside, my face was still sporting a calm, elegant expression as I walked with grace to my home.

You see, I liked to pretend that I was a perfect woman.

And the reason for it? Well, I wasn't also sure.

In truth, I was a trying hard, judgmental otaku/fujoshi who was a sucker for unhealthy snacks and foul words.

However, I didn’t want anyone to know about my true self. Everyday, I acted as if I was an elegant, hardworking, and smart lady to impress others. Was I pretentious? Well, I definitely was. It was just, I wasn’t comfortable showing others my true self.

Back when I was in school, I would stay up the whole night studying just so I could have perfect scores on my exams. When the morning came, I would spend hours in the mirror just to look my best. With not a hair out of place, I would walk in the classroom with a worried look while pitifully saying, ‘I fell asleep last night so I wasn’t able to study.’

During my speech for our graduation where I took the highest honor, I portrayed a great image of an excellent, beautiful, and inspiring youth. In my mind, however, no one knew that I was gloating inside and was secretly sending Oscar, my fierce competitor who took the 2nd honors, a proud look.

During the first day of my work, when my office mates asked about my hobbies, I answered, "I play the piano and read books during weekends". However, the truth was, Saturdays and Sundays were manga days and no one and nothing could bring me away from my manga collection.

Thanks to my pretensions, people saw me as a beautiful, educated, talented, and elegant lady.

Yes, this was how I lived my life. And to date, I had no regrets in living it like that.

Because of the coldness of the ice cream, I unintentionally coughed a bit. Carefully, I took an immaculate handkerchief from my pocket before wiping my lips with all the elegance that I could muster.

Suddenly, I heard a soft chuckle near me. My eyes widened before I immediately turned around to see if somebody saw me. Surprisingly, the street was empty, except for some people who were walking in front of me from a distance. I blinked for a few seconds before I started to walk again.

'Maybe, it was just my illusion. I got paranoid that someone caught me doing that. The chuckle even sounded like it was made by a super sexy man!' I thought to myself before I heard a ring on my phone. I immediately answered when I saw on the screen that it was my grandma who was calling.

My grandmother, who was the one to raise me, called me once every week. She was the sweetest old lady as well as the most stern grandma. I always look forward to talking to her.

We started to have a nice chat until my grandmother invited me back home for the incoming holiday. Of course, I wanted to see my grandmother. However, my mind automatically thought of a perfect excuse to avoid her request.

"Grandma, I would love to return and see you. But...I'm sorry. I have previous engagements." I sweetly replied to her.

"But my dear...I miss you," was what my grandma said.

'I also miss you, my dear grandma. However, whenever I went back to your home, I always needed to act and pretend all of the time because my cousins were there to judge my every move, 24/7. Last time, Mika even ‘accidentally’ threw a spatula on my face, hoping that my gentle facade would be broken.' I remembered that scene with a frown.

“You know that I am really missing you too, grandma.” I softly told her. “But I have a plan with my…my boyfriend. Uhm. He will be hurt if I suddenly cancel our trip.” I bit my lower lip and lied to my grandma.

Since I graduated from college and started my job, my grandma had been insistent on finding a boyfriend from me. Aside from that, whenever I went to see her, my cousins and aunts would always flaunt on my face how awesome my cousins’ boyfriends were. Of course, they were right. Even though I pretended to be a perfect girl, it seemed that I was slow in the love matter as I never had a boyfriend since birth. As a result, my grandma would always arrange a blind date for me.

And even though I could be considered as an expert in love novels and manga, I had no experience in real life dating. Besides, even though the men she introduced to me were decent, my heart just didn't seem to have any reaction to them.

Thus, I lied and made up a story about having a boyfriend. Thanks to the thousands of love novels and mangas that I read, I had enough knowledge on how to create perfect romantic scenarios and stories that I occasionally shared with my grandma.

Moreover, ever since I mentioned my fictional boyfriend to her, he became the perfect excuse for anything whenever I needed him.

"So that's why. How's your boyfriend, my dear?" I heard my grandmother's gentle voice on the receiver.

"He's really sweet, Grandma," I told her. "He's bringing me somewhere on the holiday. I'm also clueless where."

"That's really sweet, dear." I could feel my grandma's smile as she said that. "Do you think he will pop the question?" She chuckled.

I blanked for a moment before I realized her question. At that moment, I felt that some cold sweat started to drip from my forehead.

"Grandma...we just started dating.." I pretended to stutter like a shy teenager. After all, having an imaginary boyfriend was already very foolish. If he were to be promoted as an imaginary fiance...then that would just be completely absurd and outright ridiculous.

"He was pursuing you for a year and you have been together for seven months. That's not 'just started dating'. Your cousin, Mika, is already engaged! Her fiance went on his knees and asked her the question last night in front of the 'Goddess' statue. I heard it was so romantic." My grandma gushed.

For the second time in our phone call, I blanked.

‘What? Mika is engaged?’ I was internally shocked.

Mika Howell was my cousin and my number one competitor/enemy. The number of times that we competed in the past cannot be counted anymore. The only thing that mattered to me was that I always won against her — except for getting a boyfriend first. I still remembered how she and my aunt talked down on me for having no skills in attracting the opposite gender.

Immediately, my mind pictured her gloating and sniggering face.

"Mika is...getting married?" Carefully, I asked my grandmother.

"Yes. She is. They had been dating for six months when Liam popped the question. So you see, my dear...dating for seven months is totally not too short especially if the guy's heart was captured..."

‘She is dating Liam? The son of the governor who is also a prominent lawyer? Liam... my childhood crush?!’

"...so, my dear. You should learn from your cousin and capture the heart of your boyfriend." Grandma told me.

At that moment, suddenly, for some reason that I didn’t know, my mouth opened on its own.

"Grandma...now that you talk like this...actually...I got something to tell you..." I started to say but stopped because of my own internal dialogue.

‘Don't say it! This is ridiculous and would put you in trouble!’ My mind said.

‘Don't open your mouth! You would be lying to your grandmother!’ My heart dictated.

The fact that my mind and my heart agreed didn't happen very often. However, something that was stronger than them both won and took charge of my body. It was like my body was taken over by the strong—willed female protagonist in the one—thousand—plus—chapter—novel that I just finished reading.

For whatever the reason was, I just helplessly heard myself saying, "It's like this...I hope you won't be mad. Grandma...actually...I'm also engaged. My boyfriend...he wanted us to get married but I always think that we should meet the family first."

I froze immediately after saying that. Then, my cold sweat started to run down my spine.

And that night, before I went to sleep, all I could ever think about was 'Oh no, Iris. You placed yourself in deep sh*t.