2030 – 34 years old

Even though we couldn’t get married officially after we’d graduated college Taeyong and I had a ceremony with our friends and family. After college we worked enough to buy our own apartment so we could live together. Taeyong had gotten hired by a record company as a producer and song writer and was doing what he loved making music, hip-hop especially.

Right now I was taking a break from work. Actually I’d quit my job because truthfully I hadn’t been happy. But during that time Taeyong continued to work bring in a lot of money for the songs he made. I had no idea that a music producer/writer got so much money. During that time we decided we wanted to adopt a kid and start a family.

“I’ll be home at seven,” Taeyong said kissing me as he finished his breakfast. “Keep the house secure Dae.” He smiled at me getting up to kiss our now five-year-old son Jaemin. “See you both later. Behave at school!”

Unfortunately in Korea we weren’t allowed to adopt a child but that wasn’t the case for other countries around the world. It had just been our luck to have the social worker approach us with a Korean baby from France. It was an automatic love at first sight when we got to hold him for the first time in the airport.

I smiled getting up to begin washing the dishes. Jaemin was one of the best things to ever happen to us. I was content being a stay at home parent for the time being. I planed to look for work when Jaemin got older and didn’t need so much supervision.

“Come on Justin we’ll be late for school,” I said turning the sink water off. “Go and put your shoes on.” I dried my hands off as Jaemin ran to the front door to put on his shoes. I followed after him with his backpack and lunchbox as he sat down on the floor slowly tying his shoes. He grabbed my hand after he was ready as we left our apartment to head to his school.

We lived in a nice neighborhood and there was a good elementary school in walking distance from the apartment. On the way to school Justin told me all about his best friend at school, a boy named Jisung. The two of them seemed close, as Jisung had come over to play plenty of times. It was cute how much Jaemin talked about his best friend.

“Have a good day at school,” I said kneeling down to hug Justin. “There’s your Jisung.” Jaemin broke out into a grin as he said goodbye to me running over to his friend. I slowly got up off of the ground as Jisung’s mom walked over to me as our kids went to get ready for their school day.

“Your son is just so sweet,” she said smiling at me. Over the school year I’d gotten to know Jisung’s parents pretty well. His mom, Seulgi was a nurse and his dad worked at some business company. “I’m glad the two of them are friends.”

“Me too,” I replied nodding my head. The two of us talked for a little bit before Seulgi had to head off to work. After that I left to head on a little walk around the neighborhood. My life was perfect. I’d been with the love of my life for twenty years and our love was still as bright as ever.

My walk led me to the park close to the area. No it wasn’t the same park Taeyong and I frequented as high schoolers but a new park. There was no river but we’d found a special place behind a grouping of trees. It was secluded and not many people walked in that area of the park. That had unofficially become our spot in the park. And now that we had Jaemin we always went to the park on the weekends since Jaemin always wanted to play.

I sat down in the park taking my phone out to take some pictures. Taeyong was no doubt in the studio probably having some popular artist singing or rapping on the song he made. I turned focus of the camera on me taking a few pictures of myself before sending them to Taeyong. I liked to do that when I was bored or when I was out. He would always send a picture back making some sickeningly sweet pose with a few hearts.

Sure enough after I’d sent a picture to him he sent one back holding a finger heart. Taeyong was so cute and everyday I felt lucky to have someone like him in my life. I smiled getting off the grass and leaving the park to head back home. In my free time I was busy writing a novel. I’d realized there weren’t many books in Korea for teens or people in general about gay couples.

It was risky because I had no idea if anyone would pick the book up but I didn’t care. Korea was slowly becoming for excepting of same couples but they still had a long way to go. One day I wanted to officially marry Taeyong, just to do that would be a dream come true to me.

I was almost halfway done with the book. The main premise was about a couple that was like Taeyong and myself. Except they faced more problems than we’d ever had to face. The worst that had happened to us when we got jumped happened to the main characters but they also tried to fight for acceptance. And one of the character’s parents was very against their relationship.

Truthfully I was really lucky, Taeyong too that we had parents that had been so open and accepting of our relationship. I knew that not everyone felt the same way as our families did. Probably it wouldn’t stop being a struggle for same couples or gay people to be truly accepted but we had to try our best.

Taeyong knew all about the book I was writing and supported it all the way. He thought it was a good idea to try and give more awareness to the problems we had to face. We had encountered some small problems when we had decided to adopt Jaemin but ultimately we managed to overcome them. But in general