A/N: Hello lovelies! I didn't realize I ended my story abruptly. This was three years ago, but I guess this is where the story ends for Ellie and Kibum. I hope you all enjoyed and see you soon for another story, starring, of course, SHINee. I have new things in store for you all! Please enjoy~~~ 

A/N: Play this song as this chapter goes on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVKCQZcCi0M

One Year Later…

            “Congratulations!!!” I ran into his arms and he spun me.

            “Thank you baby! Congratulations to you too!” he kissed my cheek and the people around us whistled and made ‘oooooooo’ sounds. I let go of him and held his hands instead.

            “Over here! 1…2…3,” Minho Oppa said signaling for us to look at his camera. I smiled and gave Kibum a side hug. After taking the picture, I ran to Minho and grabbed the camera from him.

            “You guys take a picture!” I pushed them towards Kibum and they stood beside him and it suddenly looked like a photoshoot. The girls around us gushed because how often does an SM idol group hang around a school? “Okay, I’ll take a selca so we can send it to Onew Oppa,” I turned to take a picture of us five. I told Kibum’s parents to take a picture beside him and his mom handed me her phone to take a picture. I took one with my phone too so I could give it to Key later. After taking their family picture, they called me over to stand beside him and they asked Taemin to take a picture of us four. Well, six including Comme Des and Garcons.

It has been over a year and a half since I started training, but I haven’t even prepared for debut. No promotions, no tracks, no mention of anything. I began to question if I would still debut but the members said to be patient and that it would happen soon, but I doubted their words. When the company found out that I was sick, they started to act differently. They didn’t pay too much attention to my practice times, but they put all their attention to my weight. Their justification was that I’d be photographed a lot so I agreed with them. Kibum made sure I ate all the time, but no heavy carbs. He fed me fruits, vegetables, and sweet potatoes. He put himself in the same diet so that we were eating the same things. He said that he needed to diet too, but I was sure that he just didn’t want to make me uncomfortable with the good food he could be eating. The members were still working solo but there has been talk of a comeback, but they haven’t started preparing. Minho was finishing up a drama, Kibum was hosting a talk show, Taemin just finished promotions, and Jonghyun was back to his radio show. They were as busy as always.

            “Could you say a few words about graduating?” A few of the reporters came up to us and asked Kibum. They gave him his space and waited for him to answer. Kibum said a few words and mentioned that he wanted to spend the day peacefully with the people he loved. We just all smiled for the camera and one reporter caught my eye.

            “Aren’t you Ellie-ssi??? When will we see you on the screen? Are you still debuting? Was it all just talk? You’re still under SM though, right?” the reporter had grabbed my arm, then suddenly I was swarmed with flashes, for the reporter didn’t talk quietly. He had basically announced it to everybody around. I pulled my arm away and bowed. The members suddenly put up their arms in front of me and I felt a pull behind me. The members spoke for me and Kibum and I backed up.

            “Did they touch you?” he looked at me. I looked at his parents who looked as equally worried.

            “He just grabbed my arm but I’m okay, just shocked,” I smiled. His brows furrowed and walked towards the members who were bowing to the reporters. More people had gathered around after what had happened.

            “Excuse me, as reporters, I’m sure there are ethics and things you can do and things you aren’t supposed to do. I’m sure grabbing people is one you’re not supposed to do, thank you for your time and your attention,” he bowed and waved. The reporters looked around at each other, giving us the time to walk away.

            “That was cool of you,” Jonghyun clapped when we got inside the car. Taemin and Minho agreed.

            “Are you okay?” Kibum’s mom asked me before they were to go back to their car.

            “Neh, Eomoni, don’t worry,” I smiled at her and she gave me a hug.

            “We’ll see you at the restaurant!” Kibum’s mom said and gave me a wink. I started the car engine and off we went. Kibum thought we were going to a restaurant but what he didn’t know was that we had a surprise picnic set up at a rooftop garden as a congratulations on obtaining his Doctorate. Yes, I graduated too, but there was so much to celebrate for Key and so I didn’t mind that we weren’t surprising me.

We had invited his closest friends and Onew requested the day to be home today so he was already at the rooftop preparing everything. I looked behind to see Jonghyun, Taemin, and Minho texting away on their phones, probably making sure everything was set up at the rooftop and that the guests knew we were on the way.

            “Wait, the restaurant’s that way,” Kibum pointed towards the left side.

            “Aniya, I’ll just park in that lot because it’s busy today, there are probably a lot of cars there already,” Whew! I heard Taemin sigh behind me and Jonghyun coughed to cover it up. I stifled a laugh then cleared my throat. After parking, the members quickly got out of the car and ran to Key’s door. Kibum backed up and looked at me, confused at what was going on.

            “What’s this?” he asked the members as I got out of the car. I took out a blindfold from my bag and tied it around his head. “My hair, my hair,” he said. I hit the back of his head.

            “Aiyoo, stop worrying,” I chuckled. The members carefully led him inside the building, the elevator and out on the rooftop. I saw everyone close to Kibum and I couldn’t help but be happy for him. His parents were already there. Well, they drove fast. Then I saw Onew Oppa. I wanted to run and give him a hug and tell him how much we all missed him. I gestured for the members to take their stance among the guests and I stayed back to remove the blindfold.

            “Aiyooo, what’s going on?” Kibum asked shyly.

            “Are you ready?” I asked.

            “For what? There isn’t like a long snake or like a tiger in front of me, right? You’re not giving me a pet or anything right?”

            “Yeah, totally, we took you to a fancy building to give you a pet boa constrictor,” I rolled my eyes and took off his blindfold.

            “Ta-da!” I exclaimed and he covered his mouth.

            “Surprise!!!” Everybody yelled out.

            “Omooooooooo!” he looked around and his eyes landed on Onew. “Hyung!!!” he called out and walked towards Onew. I watched the two of them reunite and I wanted to cry. So, this is what those videos on youtube feels like… All those “Soldier Comes Home” videos that I couldn’t understand before finally made sense.

            “You know you didn’t have to do any of this, right? It’s your day too, you know. Graduating in a foreign country, that’s not a small challenge,” Kibum looked at me lovingly as we talked in the small gazebo on the rooftop.

            “I know, but I wanted you to have this after working so hard, plus your parents also wanted to have this celebration for you,” I smiled at him and held his hand.

            “Well, thank you. This is the first time I’ve seen my friends all gathered together in one place,” he chuckled and started to fiddle around with his graduation gown. “I should probably take this off, people have been asking for pictures all day,” he stood up and took the gown off. Then he did something that I never imagined would happen. I looked around, confused and I saw all the guests, starting to walk towards us, with cameras pointed.

            “No… no no no no no no no no, no…” I put my hands over my mouth and watched Kibum take his spot. I stood up in shock, backing up. Kibum smirked and bit his lower lip. No way this is real. Wake up! Pinch yourself! Wait- ow! Oh my God… “Yah yah get up, they might get the wrong idea,” I eyed him and looked at our crowd of friends. Then my eyes landed on his parents. His dad had his phone up while his mom was holding back tears. “Omo… No no no, what??” I looked over to the members and they were also holding back their own feelings. Too late for Jonghyun Oppa though. Look at him go! I looked around again and I saw a group trying to get to the front of the crowd. “No,” I said quietly. It was my parents. My brother. As well as Kris. They had their phones up too.

            “Ellie-ah, look at me,” I almost forgot Kibum who was kneeling in front of me. Tears started to fall down my face and he chuckled. “I haven’t even said anything, crybaby,”

            “Aniya… No… I- just… like- ottoke, I know, like, oh my gosh,” I couldn’t catch my breath and our friends and family laughed at this scene.

            “Okay, well I could kneel here all day or I could stand and hug you while you cry,” he said in English. I just nodded, afraid that if I spoke, I’d end up bawling.

            “Ellie… we’ve been friends for a while and we’ve been together for a while too. While I worked on my dream and while you pursued yours. As we fight through everything together, fight through trouble, harsh words from trainers, judgmental people, your sickness, and everything else… I want us to be together for the results of those battles. I’m there for the journey and I want to be there for the destination. Being at the peak of my career… living my dream…meeting you, knowing you…gave me a new dream. You. Sooo, I want to ask you if you want to fulfill that last dream for me,” He pulled out a black velvet box out of his blazer’s pockets. I still had my hands over my mouth, letting the tears run down my arms. I watched him open the box and let him ask me whatever it was he wanted to ask. “Ellie, So Ra, my honeybun, my one-in-a-bajillion! Will you marry this one-of-a-kind, dashing guy kneeling down in front of you and in front of all these people?” he looked quickly from the guests and us. I nodded quickly and without a pause, he put the ring on my ring finger and stood up to hug me. The guests clapped then they settled down quicker than I thought. I couldn’t see them because Key kept my back towards them. “I love you so much, more than you’ll ever know and I’ll spend forever making sure you know every single day,” he whispered and kissed my forehead. I still couldn’t manage to say word without my wailing coming out.

            “I,” I started to say. “love you too,” I said in between breaths. He let go of our hug and grabbed my hand.

            “Come, let’s go,” he said, taking care of the smudges on my crème-coloured dress.

            “Where?” I turned around and the seats were arranged in two separate sections, facing our direction, with all our friends and family sitting down, watching us. Onew stood up and walked towards us, with the biggest smile on his face.

            “It’s done,” he nodded at Kibum and he just nodded back.

            “What’s done?” I looked at them back and forth. Kibum didn’t say anything and led me in front of the gazebo, just a few metres from the guests. We faced each other and Onew stood on my left, facing the crowd.

            “Oh God…” tears started to come out again and Kris was suddenly behind me, with a mini bouquet, not a second later, Amber Unnie stood beside Kris.

            “Oh my gosh, I’m standing beside the coolest person I know,” I looked at Kris and she had her eyes wide open, pointing at Amber who laughed and winked at me.

            “Honey, now’s not the time to fangirl,” Onew whispered. I couldn’t even say anything again because the moment I looked back at Kibum, he was smiling so widely that I wanted to tell him how much I loved him, that I wanted nothing more, but him. Just him.

            “Are you ready to get married?” Onew looked at both of us and the reality hit me like how Trainer Ye Jin hit her clipboard every time she saw me.

            “Now? We’re getting married…Now???” I asked, looking at the crowd, Onew, my bridesmaids, Amber and Kris, and my… Kibum. I’m getting married. Right now? Today? 2 minutes after getting a proposal??? I threw a surprise graduation party for Key and I get a surprise in return??? The crowd laughed at my reaction and Kibum, grabbed both my hands.

            “Yes honey, we’re gonna get married. Right. Now. I can’t wait longer,” he kissed each hand and looked back at me. I just nodded and let Onew Oppa officiate the wedding.

I looked at Kibum and saw my future, my dream, my everything. When he looked at me, I knew that he also felt the same things.

            “I love you,” we said at the same time and smiled lovingly at each other. We faced forward, held each other’s hands tightly, and waited to hear the words, ‘husband and wife’ together.