I am in the studio when I get the call. I can feel the vibration in my pants pocket. I pull my headphones off and signal to Jiyong to stop recording. He gives me a deadly glare but I ignore him and take the call anyway.

“We did it, baby,” Seunghyun’s excited voice practically screams into my ear.

“Did what,” I ask stupidly.

“I am at the gardens with Seungri and Roni right now,” he evades my question with an indirect answer. “I have the rings and the proper papers. Get down here before some lawmaker gets a wild hair up his and we lose our rights all over again. Love you.”

He hangs up on me, confident that I will obey him. Without another thought, I throw my headphones off my neck, not caring where they have fallen and run out of the recording booth.

“Where are you going,” Jiyong shouts at me.

“The gardens,” I answer shortly as I grab my jacket and fling it over myself.

“I am going with you.”

“Fine by me.”

I am walking too fast for Jiyong to keep up. But I make sure not to leave him behind. As soon as we are both in my car, I take off. Seunghyun had been hoping this day would come for months. I have too. But I have done a lot less campaigning and planning than he has.

“Put this on,” I grab a suit jacket out of the backseat of my car and fling it at Jiyong. Seunghyun had made sure they were packed weeks ago, just in case. I will put my own on when we get to the gardens. He slithers into the jacket and stares at me as if I am possessed.

“Are we going to a wedding?”

“Yep,” I answer him without giving anything else away. When we get to our destination, I see Youngbae pulling up at the same time. He and Hyorin even get out at the same time as we do. Hyorin is wearing a lovely, baby blue maternity dress, one of the colors Seunghyun chose for this event. I breathe a sigh of relief that there are no paparazzi or news crews trying to cash in on this ceremony. I know this moment is huge for the country. But I still feel like we have a right to our privacy, especially on our wedding day. I duck into the backseat and grab my suit jacket, taking my regular jacket off and slipping into the new one in a fluid motion. I feel someone come up behind me and fix the back of my jacket collar. I turn around to see Roni smiling up at me. She is wearing lilac, the other wedding color Seunghyun chose.

“Come on,” she takes my arm. “Seunghyun said I should walk you down the aisle.”

Jiyong gives Roni a light peck on the lips before sprinting off, presumably to act as my best man. The gardens are subtly decorated to reflect what kind of celebration is happening here. We had been here months ago, when Seunghyun first got the idea of where he wanted us to be when we would officially make this kind of commitment. Only our closest friends and family should be here. My sister is here, thankfully. She quickly moves to the other side of me to accompany me on my walk. My parents are not here. It does make me a little sad that they refuse to be a part of my life in light of who I am. But I can take heart in the fact that Seunghyun’s family is here. And they have even wholeheartedly accepted as a part of Seunghyun’s life. His nephew is our ring bearer. Both of Jiyong and Roni’s daughters are the flower girls. Everything looks perfect. But it is still moving so fast. As the music starts, I feel a bit of trepidation. Instead of moving forward, I take a step back. My sister takes a firmer hold on my arm. Roni gives my hand a reassuring squeeze. At the end of the aisle, I can see Seunghyun mouthing the words “Come on, baby. You can do this. Just walk forward, Daesung.”

But in this moment, I suddenly feel like running away. I hate to repeat this. But everything is moving so fast, too fast for me. The past few months of Seunghyun trying so hard, using his own celebrity status as clout and with his impending military service looming in a few months as his personal inspiration… He and so many others made this day happen. It is too momentous, so much bigger than just the two of us finally getting married and starting our lives together. I start to shake my head and take another step back. The music stops. My sister lets go of my arm. Roni pulls away from me. I watch with my eyes somewhat on the ground as they join the others at the end of the aisle. When I look up, Seunghyun is standing in front of me. The expression on his face is enough to make me melt. He looks exceptionally good today. But of course, he took extra effort.

“We should go together. I should have known you could not do this without me. I am sorry. Here, take my arm.”

I sigh heavily and gratefully take his arm. Seunghyun nods to whoever is in charge of the music and it starts up again. With him by my side, I actually do find the strength to move forward. He never takes his eyes off me as he leads me down the aisle and to the altar. From then on, the ceremony continues smoothly. I am grateful that he caved on the one detail I really wanted- a pastor to actually perform the ceremony. He made sure to find one that is definitely progressive. I know he put a lot of effort into that. It took him weeks and promises of large sums of money to find a pastor that would actually perform the ceremony. We wrote our own vows. Still, they are short and sweet, in light of the urgency of the situation. The minute Seunghyun slips the ring on my finger, I finally start to relax. Before God and mostly everyone I care about, I have definitely committed my life to Seunghyun. I am even the one taking his last name. When it comes time for the kiss, he bends me over backwards and kisses me with a level of passion I have not experienced from him before.

“You have made me so happy,” he whispers sweetly into my ear. “Thank you for doing this with me.”

When he finally lets me up, everyone cheers. My sister comes up and hugs me.

“Other than that slight hiccup, you did great.”

“Thank you.”

Seunghyun never lets go of my hand. For the rest of the day, he is practically glued to my side- even more so when we have our first dance as a married couple. Everything is as perfect as it should be. I could not be happier.