CHAPTER 10: MINI HONEYMOON

It had been a while I had slept this long, and to be honest if felt very nice. I was energetic and ready for the day from the moment I opened my eyes. The bedroom was still very dark, pitch black, because of the heavy curtains that prevented the sunlight from entering the room. I reached for my phone that was connected to a charger and laid on the nightstand beside the bed. The time was ticking close to 11am. I stretched grandly before getting up from the bed. I walked to the window and pushed the curtains aside, looking out of the huge window. The beautiful sea view welcomed me to Jeju Island’s capital, Jeju City. I had never been outside of Seoul, except for the site where my father was buried, so this island was like a paradise for me. It had snowed yesterday so there was a thin layer of snow on buildings’ roofs and on the ground.

“Are you awake?”

I was about to fall down from my feet as I heard Myungjun’s voice asking me from the door. I let out a deep breath before I turned around and walked to the door, opening it and almost chuckling at the sight of still sleepy Myungjun in his pyjamas and messy morning hair. He looked so different from the Myungjun that I was used to.

“I’m awake”, I said. “You scared the hell out of me.”

The boy let out a chuckle. His morning voice was a little bit raspy, which I hadn’t expected. His voice was usually so soft and velvety. “Do you want to wash up first?” he asked.

I nodded. “Ladies first, right?”

Myungjun chuckled, shaking his head, and headed back to the living room. I followed him through the room, seeing him burying himself under the blanket again. I locked myself behind the bathroom’s door and quickly undressed before hopping into the bathtub and letting the hot water flow. While cleansing myself I came to think about it – this was actually the first time Myungjun and I spent a morning together like this. Usually he had already dressed up and eaten breakfast, sometimes even left the apartment, before I woke up. That’s why seeing him with morning hair and pyjamas seemed so unusual for me.

I got so immersed in my thoughts I almost dropped the soap from my hand as I heard someone ringing the doorbell of the suite. I froze for a moment. Who could it be? I stood still under the hot water, listening very carefully. I heard footsteps, the door opening, and Myungjun greeting someone. After I heard a quiet ‘thank you’ and the door closing I continued showering but finished quickly to wrap myself into a fluffy bathrobe and tying a towel into my hair. Then I stepped out of the bathroom, looking around carefully.

“Who was it?” I asked. “At the door?”

“It was someone from the reception”, Myungjun replied. “Miyeon and Bin sent us a small suitcase full of our clothes.”

I raised my chin and slowly let it back down in a slow nodding motion. I see. We had indeed left in a rush, we didn’t have any baggage or clothes with us. It had actually worried me a bit the evening before, but luckily Myungjun’s unit members were smart. I took the suitcase with me into the bedroom, and as Myungjun headed to the bathroom, I got dressed up. Even though Jeju was far in the south compared to Seoul, it wasn’t that much warmer right now. It was about 10 Celsius degrees, not too cold but not warm either. I was happy Miyeon had chosen the clothes well. I wore black skinny jeans and a big, comfy turtleneck sweater.

I took the suitcase back to the living room after dressing myself and then went to check my phone. No new messages or phone calls. I guess everybody wanted us to spend the honeymoon in peace. Understandable, even though I had my doubts – I wasn’t sure how long we’d spend here, and to add into the fact that we were there alone, just the two of us… it might get a little bit awkward. Our relationship had improved a little bit yesterday after the fight we had but still, who knew – Myungjun could still annoy me to the breaking point.

“Where should we go for breakfast?” I heard Myungjun’s voice ask from the open door of the bedroom. He had decided to wear ripped jeans and a white t-shirt with a leather jacket. “We slept past the hotel’s breakfast. Not that it matters.”

I tilted my head a little bit. “I don’t know. Should we just go out a search for a good place?”

The boy snorted playfully. “You’re so old school. Normal people would just search the best place online.”

“Well, Mr. Modern, you can do that then”, I said, raising my eyebrows.

He let out a small laughter and shook his head. “Let’s just head out.”

After strolling the area around the hotel and eating breakfast in a small, cute coffee shop, we decided to take a bus to the city centre and headed to a huge underground shopping mall to see around. We didn’t really have any interest in shopping but still we both did end up buying something. Since it was still winter we thought it wouldn’t be very interesting to go and see the tourist attractions that were out in the nature – there would be just snow to see. We did decide to pay a visit to the Teddy Bear Museum that I had heard of before, and we spent a good, fun hour in there. After a couple of hours strolling here and there we stopped for a coffee and tea and some toast as we started to become a bit hungry.

“I didn’t know you liked tea”, I pointed out as Myungjun took a big sip of his drink.

He smirked at me. “Well what do you do know then?”

I snorted and rolled my eyes. “Nothing, I guess.”

I took a sip of my caramel macchiato and with the sweet caramel taste lingering in my mouth, realized I was once again longing for Eunwoo. He was the one who knew I loved everything sweet, he was the one who always ordered this for me. I didn’t even realize I was letting out a sigh and looking down at my shoes under the table.

“Do you want to have a taste?” Myungjun asked.

I looked up at him. To be honest, I had never once in my life tasted tea. I tilted my head a little bit and pulled the drink closer to me. I sniffed the tea first before taking a small sip. I was surprised. It was actually very good. Not bitter in the same way as coffee. I glanced at Myungjun, who raised his eyebrows at me.

“Is it good?” he asked, not being able to hide his amusement.

I nodded. “Yeah, it’s good.”

I gave the drink back to Myungjun and continued sipping on my coffee. Even though the caramel and the steamed milk toned down the coffee’s bitterness, I actually had to admit the tea Myungjun was drinking tasted better. I took the last bite of my toast and leaned against the back of the chair. Now I didn’t feel hungry at all. Even though I didn’t have any needs and basically everything was fine, I couldn’t help but to feel a bit restless. I had never been on a holiday like this. It was natural for me to be on my toes at every moment, even though there probably weren’t any enemies going around in here. I should have been able to just relax and forget everything for a couple of days, but I couldn’t. Myungjun seemed to be aware of this, and it is almost seemed like he wanted to keep me busy so that I could empty my mind.

“Are you finished?” he asked.

I nodded and we quickly left the coffee shop. I let Myungjun lead the way and walked behind him, following him wherever he went. It was clear this wasn’t his first time on the island. He could find his way almost anywhere in the city without looking at his phone for directions. We probably looked a bit strange as we walked together but barely exchanged any words – there was basically no conversation between us. I don’t know about Myungjun, but I sure did feel a little bit awkward.

We wondered to a long, narrow shopping street that had many small stalls of clothes, souvenirs, accessories, food, pretty much anything. Perfect place for me – I loved handmade accessories and I had to admit the souvenir stalls had a calling for me, even though I tried to resist it, without a result. As I was looking for some keychains, I almost had a heart attack as I felt something sliding into my head. I turned around and stared at Myungjun who laughed at me with a pleased look in his eyes. I raised my hands and felt the thing on my head. It was a headband – with animal ears. I sighed and glared at Myungjun.

“What’s wrong with cute little kitten ears?” he asked, smirking. “Even though you’re more of a wolf. A beast, you know.”

I rolled my eyes. This was probably the third time he had called me a wolf. I sighed and with a wicked grin on my lips I walked to the stall with all the cute headbands on it. I glanced at the variety for a moment before picking one and walking back to Myungjun, placing a headband with huge elephant ears on the boy’s head.

“There. It suits you”, I said, flashing a smile at him.

“Why?” he asked. “Because I’m as cute as a baby elephant?”

I groaned at me boy. “No. You’re just as noisy as one.”

The boy just stared at me, not saying anything, so I thought I had succeeded in silencing him and was about to walk away, raising my hand to take the headband away. But right at that moment, he suddenly pulled me back from the hem of my jacket and suddenly I was standing next to him, my shoulders being under his arm, staring at the boy. “What are you doing?”

“We have to take a selfie”, he said, smirking at me. “A proof that we had a great time on our honeymoon.”

I rolled my eyes but proceeded to smile at the camera. After taking the photo we finally put the headbands away and continued our way.

The day passed by very quickly. We had been walking around a lot, quarrelling a little bit at every stop, but otherwise barely exchanging any words. We had visited many stores and tasted the local snacks, taken a lot of pictures and before we even realized, it was already pitch black outside, and the lights of the Jeju City were very beautiful against the darkness. It was already 8pm as we decided to do our last stop before returning to the hotel – it was time for dinner.

During the time I had lived with Myungjun and his unit, I had learned one thing; Myungjun loved meat. That’s why it was no surprise it was a galbi restaurant we had our dinner in. Even though I hadn’t felt myself very hungry before entering the restaurant, the smell of the delicious beef ribs cooking on the grill made my mouth water. It had been a long time since I had last eaten galbi. Jinwoo had taken me, Eunwoo and Chanmi to eat samgyeopsal every now and then but galbi… I really couldn’t remember.

As we started eating, I almost laughed at the not-so-appropriate sounds Myungjun let out while eating. He was really enjoying his food.

“You’re not even trying to hide how much you like this”, I sighed and couldn’t help but to chuckle a little bit.

The boy opened his eyes and looked at me, smirking. “It’s delicious, though. And your manners haven’t improved at all. You’ve never talked at me formally. I am two years older than you, you know.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Does it even matter anymore? We are married now. Should I call you oppa now? Or honey? Or perhaps, hubby?”

He grinned at me. “Whatever feels right, wifey.”

I cringed at the word and took a sip of my cider before continuing eating. At some point I noticed Myungjun staring at me and I went through possible reasons in my head. In the end I came to the result that I didn’t have anything weird on my face, no food on my teeth or dirt in my clothes, so I raised my eyes and stared back at him with a questioning look.

“You know”, he started, shrugging his shoulders. “You’re not as bad as I thought you are. You’re pretty okay, actually.”

I snorted and stared at him for a while before taking another bite of my food. “I guess you’re pretty okay too.”

“Really? Alright, could we stop fighting all the time then?” he asked.

I chuckled. “Is that just only my decision? You’re the one who starts the fights usually.”

He tilted his head a little bit. “Okay, I admit I could have acted a bit better too.”

“Definitely”, I snorted. “But if you’re going to behave from now on…”

“… we’ll get along?” he finished my sentence. “Sounds good.”

I let out a small laughter, shaking my head, and continued eating. Myungjun soon did the same. This started to work out much better. We were in the relationship to actually have reasonable conversations now. There was still a lot to fix and improve on but for now, this was enough for me.

We were back at the hotel at 10pm. Basically, since we didn’t really have anything to do, we could have just gone to sleep. But since we had slept for over 12 hours the night before, neither of us felt sleepy. And that’s why we both just sat on the sofa of the suite’s living room, staring in front of us blankly, not knowing what to do. It almost reminded me of the boring nights in the underground tunnels with my unit. I glanced at Myungjun.

“Do you know how to play ‘spin the bottle’?” I asked.

He turned to look at me. “You mean truth or dare? I think everyone knows how to play it.”

I pouted a little bit. “Well, anyway. Should we play it?”

“Why?” the boy asked, raising his other eyebrow. “I don’t play games.”

“Oh come on, don’t be such a staid”, I sighed. “Let’s play!”

He rolled his eyes. “We don’t even have a bottle.”

I took a more comfortable position on the sofa. “You can go and buy one.”

“You’re really eager, aren’t you?” he asked, sighing again. “I have a feeling your reasons are questionable.”

I glared at him. “Don’t you even think about anything weird.”

Letting out a chuckle he got up from the sofa. “Alright, I’ll come back soon.”

He left the suite for a moment. I lied in the corner of the sofa, half of my body covered by Myungjun’s blanket. I had been a bit worried about him sleeping of the sofa – it didn’t look very comfortable, but now that I actually lied on it myself, it actually was very comfortable, not too hard but not too soft either.

Myungjun was back very quickly, he had probably just paid a quick visit to the small store in the hotel’s lobby. He came back with a bottle of Pepsi and we emptied the bottle into glasses we found from the minibar we had in the living room. I heard Myungjun wondering why we bothered to do that just to play a foolish little game and I smacked the back of his head with the empty bottle.

“You should learn to relax a bit”, I said. “You’re always going somewhere, doing something. Now you have to play with me until… until all the glasses are empty.”

“So you’re making this a drinking game”, he stated. “With no alcohol.”

“You’re the one who bought the Pepsi”, I pointed out.

Myungjun pouted a little bit and I couldn’t help but the let out a quiet, mocking chuckle. I felt good whenever I could silence him like that.

“Alright”, I said and placed the bottle between us on the sofa, after making the surface steady and as even as possible for the bottle to spin smoothly. “Do you want to start since you’re older?”

With a sigh Myungjun grabbed the bottle and spun it. As the bottle stopped, pointing at me, a grin formed on his lips. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth”, I said after giving it a small thought.

Myungjun tilted his head. “Hmm”, he hummed silently as he was thinking. “Have you ever done anything illegal?”

I let out a laughter. “What kind of question is this, and from you? I’m a gang member. I have stolen things, I’ve owned a gun since I was 15, I’ve beaten people up badly… I think I’d be in prison if a police actually caught me some day.”

He chuckled. “The game starts with the easy questions, you know. Your turn.”

I spun the bottle and as it stopped at Myungjun, he already had made his mind. “Dare.”

I thought about it for a moment. Then I flashed a wicked grin at him. I saw him raising his eyebrow, questioning my thoughts.

“Pick me up and do 30 squats”, I said, smiling at him sweetly.

“What?” he whined. “Why?”

“It’s a revenge for dropping me on the floor yesterday. This time you better not drop me.”

He let out a groan but got up and before I even got to react, he had placed his hands around me and picked me up in the same bridal style as yesterday. He stepped further away from the sofa and smirked at me. “Don’t worry, I’ll hold you tight.”

I rolled my eyes as he started squatting. It was almost surprising how easily he seemed to do the squats. I hadn’t really ever thought about it, but because he was quite short, I had probably seen him as pretty weak person. I guess I had been wrong. I felt his muscles starting to shake at some point, but for my surprise he actually succeeded, even though he was very breathy and needed a moment to calm down afterwards. I sat on the sofa, watching as the emptied a glass of Pepsi.

“You got your daily exercise”, I said, flashing a sweet smile at him again.

“Yeah, I did”, he replied to my smile with his own, even though it was very obvious the smile was fake and I couldn’t help but to laugh at him. We continued playing, and even though Myungjun had protested about playing at first, he seemed to get excited about it as the game continued, and he was eager to come up with different questions and mission for me – he sure did have a good imagination. For an example, I had to go and knock on the next room’s door, asking if they had an extra roll of toilet paper. As a revenge, he had to go and give the same roll back to the next room’s people. Soon we had played for over an hour, and the Pepsi glasses had been emptied already, but we continued playing anyway.

Once again, the bottle stopped at me and I said “truth” before Myungjun got to ask. I was tired of running around; it was almost midnight already.

“How many guys have you dated with?” he asked. He was clearly getting tired too, since he didn’t have the energy to come up with interesting questions.

“None”, I replied right away and was ready to spin the bottle again.

“What?” Myungjun asked. “Really? I thought you and that Eunwoo guy were together.”

I sighed. The fact I was sitting here all comfortably made me feel a bit guilty already, but thinking about Eunwoo just brought the atmosphere down a whole lot more. “We never were together.”

“Why?” Myungjun asked again. “He seems to like you.”

“I know”, I said. “Things just don’t always go the way they could.”

The boy looked at me for a while and then nodded, letting the subject pass. I spun the bottle and the game continued for an another while. I couldn’t help myself, my thought wondered back to the tunnels and Eunwoo continuously. I missed the whole unit, especially my little sister, but the feeling I felt while thinking about Eunwoo wasn’t just longing. It was something more complicated, something I couldn’t really explain. Something that made my heart hurt and made me feel very uncomfortable. Like I was losing him forever. That couldn’t be true. I’d be back in the tunnels one day, I’d be able to be genuinely happy with my sister and unit and live with no bigger worries. I just had to wait, the day would come. Right?