Contract Boyfriend from Gangnam: A Fake Love That Feels Too Real

di HANA GONG (Autore)

HANA GONG, 2025

Introduction Gangnam looks different depending on who you ask. To some, it's a place of glass towers and neon lights—wealth reflected on every polished surface. To others, it's a district of perfect cafés, designer coats, and people who seem too composed to ever trip over their own feet. But to Han Areum, Gangnam is a reminder of everything she's chasing and everything she hasn't reached yet. Every time she steps out of a subway exit and walks past a talent agency, she feels her dreams stretch just beyond her fingertips. She sees girls her age—or younger—heading in with sleek hair, flawless makeup, and confidence she envies. She sees her own reflection in a window: hopeful eyes, a secondhand coat, a rolled-up script sticking out of her bag. Some days, she feels strong enough to keep trying. Some days, she feels the cracks forming. And then there are the days when her family asks one question too many. "Areum-ah, where is your boyfriend?" "When are you bringing someone home?" "What happened to that nice boy you never actually dated?" Those days make it easy to lie. A tiny lie, she tells herself. A harmless one. Until her mother announces a family gathering in Busan and expects Areum to bring this imaginary boyfriend with her. That is how, two days before the trip, she ends up standing inside a Gangnam office building begging a man she barely knows to pretend to date her. Jung Jiho—stoic, organized, infuriatingly calm—is the last person she expects to say yes. He's a financial planner whose entire life is built around logic. His shirts are ironed. His apartment is spotless. His expression rarely shifts. He seems allergic to chaos. She is chaos. But Jiho listens to her rushed explanation, her desperation, her embarrassment. And he doesn't laugh. He doesn't scold her. He just says, quietly, "Tell me what you need." From that moment, nothing unfolds the way either of them expects. Pretending turns out to be the most dangerous part. Acting affectionate means noticing the warmth of a hand that lingers a little too long. Faking couple photos means standing close enough to feel someone breathe. Sharing a room in Busan means lying awake in the dark, trying not to think about the unspoken things sitting between them. Feelings grow in the small, quiet spaces: in the way she clings to his sleeve when her family overwhelms her, in the way he steadies her when nerves shake her voice. The more they act, the more the lines blur, and the more impossible it becomes to pretend the tenderness is fake. But love doesn't appear with fireworks. It arrives gently—like a whisper slipped between moments, like a soft breath caught between almost and becoming. This is not a story about flawless people falling effortlessly into romance. It's about two imperfect people learning to trust, learning to speak honestly, learning to let someone in. It's about Areum discovering she's allowed to want things—affection, safety, a future—and that she doesn't have to chase her dreams alone. It's about Jiho realizing he's spent years guarding his heart so carefully that he forgot how it feels to let someone hold it. Their story begins with a lie. It becomes something real in the moments in between. And it grows into love when neither of them is looking. This is the beginning. Turn the page and step into their world— a world where pretending becomes believing, where believing becomes feeling, and where two hearts slowly learn what it means to choose each other.

• Autore: HANA GONG
• Anno edizione: 2025
• Editore: HANA GONG
• Formato: EPUB2 con DRMFREE
• Lingua: Inglese
• Compatibilità: Tutti i dispositivi (eccetto Kindle)
• Layout: Reflowable
• EAN: 9798231871216