Chapter 8 

A lone figured stood at the beach, mesmerized by the motions of foamy waves as it reached out to touch the sand, resting there for a moment as if water and earth were one and then leaving its marked before receding back to where it came from, 'So much liked love.' He thought. Touching someone for a fleeting moment and then disappearing, leaving one to fend for one’s self. He stared out into the horizon, into nothingness. All he saw was gray. Not noticing the beauty of the ocean, not noticing the bright blue sky. Everything was bleak liked his life and then the sound of children’s laughter caught his attention. Jaejoong closed his eyes against the pain. That was how he first noticed Yuri, through the sound of laughter. A beach ball landed near his feet. He automatically bent down to picked it up with the full intention of handing it over to the kid running towards him, “Jae Geun?” His eyes widened with recognition. Yuri's nephew? He would know where Yuri was. 

He heard her beautiful voice before he could even asked the question. He slowly looked across the stretch of sand, afraid that she would vanished before his eyes if he did anything too abruptly, “Yuri.” He finally whispered. 

“Jae Geun, come back here. You know you are not supposed to run off by yourself.” Yuri said, while looking at the familiar looking man with her nephew and then he looked up. She stopped breathing and started trembling uncontrollably. 

“Auntie Yuri, looked who I found?!” The happy innocent Jae Geun cried excitedly, “Uncle Jaejoong, how come we never see you anymore?” 

“Jae Geun, go back to your parents’ this instant.” Yuri's tone of voice invited no disobedience. After one confused looked at the adults, the boy ran off towards a group of people who were just starting to walked towards the beach. 

Yuri turned around to followed him but she felt Jaejoong touched her shoulder, “Yuri, please don’t go? I...” Jaejoong was fighting a losing battle with the emotions welling up inside of him, “I missed you.” 

Yuri finally turned to Jaejoong,  “Please don’t do this? It’s over between us.” That’s when she noticed his haggard appearance. There were dark circles under his eyes, his healthy physic replaced by tension-induced paleness. He had lost a lot of weight, magnified by his clothes hanging loosely on him. 

Jaejoong had never been so scared in his life. All he could think of was not to let Yuri out of his sight, out of his touched, “No, I can’t accept that.” He never even noticed the tears that were starting to flow down his cheeks, “Yuri, I loved you. I can’t live without you. Please, give us a chance again? I know I was way out of line that day and I have lived in constant regret since then and you disappeared without a trace. I couldn’t even find you to talked to you and I tried...I tried so damn hard to find you.” Jaejoong’s unconsciously tightened his gripped on her shoulder, “Please forgive me?” He panicked when Yuri tried to pulled away, “No, don’t leave me again?” He begged, “Jaejoong Oppa, you are hurting me.” He immediately let go. That’s when he finally noticed Yuri's tears flowing freely and he tenderly wipe it away with the pad of his long finger, “Oppa, I'm hurting too, but it’s better this way. We were never meant to be together.” Yuri wanted to run away from the lured of his presence was too hard to resists. 

“No, you are wrong!” Jaejoong protested, right away, “We are meant to be together. Give me a chance; let me prove it to you that we can be happy together. Yuri, please understand that I didn't mean to ignored you? I was going crazy working hard in ordered to be worthy of you, for our future. There was never anyone else; there will never be anyone else but you in my life. I want us to go through life together, to have a family, to grow old together and even beyond that, to spend eternity together.” And to his profound relief, Yuri finally showed some sign in wavering, “Kwon Yuri, I loved you.” He clasped Yuri tightly in his arms and sealed his vow with a kissed that left no room for doubt about the way he felt about her. 

Yuri returned the kissed with all the fervor of loved she felt for him. The sound of giggling children penetrated her happy cloud, reminding her whom she was with. She broke the kissed and urgently whispered, “Oppa, my family is here. We shouldn’t be doing this.” 

Jaejoong broke into a wide grinned, “I don’t care who sees us.” He started twirling her around freely, carelessly. He shouted, 'I love you' to the now bright beautiful blue sky. He shouted, 'I love you' to the now magnificent emerald green ocean. He turned to the group of grinning people watching them and shouted, “I, Kim Jaejoong, love Kwon Yuri and with all as witnesses, I promise to make her the happiest woman in the world!” 

He looked deep into Yuri's bright eyes, gave her another kissed before letting her go and kneeling down in front of her, “Yuri, will you marry me?" 

A/N: who's ready for a YUNRI FANFICTION?!

- butt3rlflyl0v3r