Note: The arrangements are not in chronological order.

 Chapter 2: For her

Baekhyun

Baekhyun wasn’t really a fan of romance movies. He could have handle if Jiwoo wanted to watch a romantic comedy but this type of melancholy true love story that speaks about how far people would go for love as if nothing else matters for one and half hour tires him.

He wanted to yawn so badly but he didn’t want to upset Jiwoo. It sure wasn’t helping when he has been having sleepless nights trying to get his thesis done these days.

But one thing that kept him awake was how Jiwoo would unconsciously squeeze his arm that she wrapped around with hers excitingly and smiled widely at the romantic scenes before her.

“What a man. Look at him, he’s such a fool for her.” She giggled giddily. “He looks like he would give the world to her if she wants to. Where on earth to find a guy that looks so fine, and so cool, and sweet to be madly in love with you? I don’t think there’s any in the world anymore. This movie doesn’t make any sense.”

“But damn, he’s so unreal.” Jiwoo continued muttering while watching and then she began giggling dreamily because she enjoyed watching such scene that Baekhyun could see how her eyes were twinkling at it – or maybe that was just the light reflected from the screen. “Seriously, this girl must have saved the world in her previous life. No, no, no, his real girlfriend must have saved the world actually. Did you see the article –“ She stopped midsentence when she turned to Baekhyun and met his eyes unexpectedly. “ – I love you.” She blurted and kissed his cheek before she turned back to the front and leaned comfortably against his shoulder.

“Who cares about the movie? I have it in real life and it’s so much better.”

“I don’t think that works after – “

Jiwoo brought her arms up, hanging them around his neck. “You’re a fool for me, aren’t you?”

“I’m not.”

“You absolutely are.” Jiwoo cooed at him. “You even got upset over an actor in the big screen. Well you look at that, ugh, the marriage proposal is so cringy. What’s up with the flower petals scattered everywhere? Do you have any idea what a hard work it is to get it clean up after everything ends?” She commented before her eyes turned soft and she started smiling, listening to every word of the script. She absolutely loves it. “I think I like it a little too much. It’s so sweet. Did you listen to what he said?

I’ll love you with all of my heart for as long as I’ll live. Until death do us part. He looks like he is about to cry. Awww.” She muttered with a wide smile, nearly shrieking.

♦ ♦ ♦

Until death do us part.

Maybe going to watch the view of the city on uphill was a bad idea. Baekhyun could see how exhausting it was for her to walk up towards the top to get to where he wanted to show her.

When Jiwoo saw how Baekhyun seemed to regret a little of his decision to bring her there, she would joked, “I think I might need to work out, but I hate exercising, you know.”

Both of them knew it wasn’t for that fact that she began finding such a short and easy climbing too hard for her. She would have her whole body and joints in pain later, Baekhyun thought as he almost wanted to kill himself for not seeing this through before.

“It’s worth it.” She said, trying to ease him. “This is beautiful. I think it looks more beautiful at night, with all the lights.”

“You love it?” Baekhyun lightly pressed his lips on her shoulder, wrapping her around him from the back.

Jiwoo hummed happily in response. Then, she turned her head around when she heard the sound of incoming texts from Baekhyun’s pocket and eyed him warily. “Who are you texting with?”

“Jongdae.”

“Ah, I heard he’s busy managing his mother’s restaurant now.”

“Where do you hear that from?”

“Nana told me when we were on the phone the other day. She said it was always fully reserved that she had to reserve at least a month earlier to get a table, if lucky enough.” Jiwoo chuckled. “All of our friends are doing so well in life. I’m so happy for them.” Baekhyun noticed the bitterness in her voice.

“Aren’t we doing well now?”

“Well, you are.” Jiwoo casually fixed his collars so that she could look elsewhere. “I guess I am too. I get to be with you and I am happy.”

Baekhyun knew Jiwoo was upset how her illness had taken a big part of her life until she had to give up on some things she loves to do. Like her career. “Even without your job now?”

“I’m a little sad but it is for the best, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. I’m glad you think of it that way.” And he stole a kiss from her that made her look pointedly at him before her eyes slowly turning soft with that beautiful smile.

That moment was cut short when both of them startled at the sound of exploding in the sky, colourful of sparks spread through the night air and Jiwoo shrieked happily at the fireworks behind her. “Baek, look!” she pointed at it.

“Why the would you fire it up now?”

Jiwoo turned to Baekhyun, looking shock. “Are you talking to me?”

“No. I’m talking to Jongdae over there.” Baekhyun pointed to the man in full black attire, covered with a black cap and black mask while holding a newspaper. In the dark. How come she didn’t realize this lonely doubtful figure earlier among the rest here?

Jongdae pulled the mask to under his chin. “Hi, Jiwoo.” He sheepishly greeted her. “Well, I’ve wait long enough and I thought you’ve talked about it – “

“I didn’t even get to that yet.”

“Get to what?” Jiwoo interrupted. The fireworks were still booming behind them.

“Minseok, stop wasting more fireworks. We’ve failed.” Jongdae said to the other line, phone pressing to his ears.

Jiwoo was getting frustrated at the situation. She had no idea what was going on. “Okay Baek, spill it. I want to know what’s going on right here. And Jongdae, can you really read that in the dark?” She indicated to the newspapers in his hands.

“Not really. Honestly, I don’t really read newspaper. The smells of the paper irritated me.” He flipped the newspaper into half and kept it in between his arm and his body.

“Okay.” Jiwoo replied to Jongdae, frowning a little. To Baekhyun, she asked again, “What was that fireworks about? With Jongdae in disguise and Minseok down there somewhere.” She stretched her head out a little to see if Minseok can be spotted.

Baekhyun took a moment before answering. He was nervous and he could feel how fast his heart is beating against his ribcage now. “That was supposed to be a surprise.”

“Indeed, I am surprised. So?”

“But I already have it all arranged and the fireworks shall come to the last.”

“What was the thing that supposed to come before firework?”

With another exhale, Baekhyun placed his hands on both sides of Jiwoo’s arms and brushed it gently up and down. “I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I thought about it almost every night. I know I never am a good decision maker, like for example, I shouldn’t have choose this spot in the first place if I had thought about you better – “

“Baekhyun, it’s okay. I’m glad you take me here. I love this place.”

“ – that’s great then, but as I was saying, I’ve thought about it a lot and I’ve always get the same answer every time it crossed my mind. I want to fulfil our dream now.” Mentioning their dream, Baekhyun could see Jiwoo started to get hesitated at it. “You said you would do anything for me. And I only have one thing to ask from you. Marry me, Jiwoo.”

Jiwoo then, dropped her gaze to the ground, blinking a few times and when she brought it back up to meet his, he saw tears pooling in her eyes. Baekhyun grabbed that thin, cold hands in his. There barely felt like there was any flesh left and he realized how she had lost a lot of weight over the time. “I’m not taking a ‘no’ for an answer. I know you want this. I want this. So, let’s make it real.”

He knew she was contemplating inside her head, thinking of the best decision, thinking of what’s best for him and he only wished she would just know that what he was asking was what he truly wanted.

“I want to – “

Baekhyun knew a ‘but’ was coming so he cut her off. “Then say ‘yes’. That’s all I need to hear. Kim Jiwoo,” He knelt down, like the one in Jiwoo’s favourite kind of movies always do. He took out the small square box from the back of his pocket. “Will you marry me?”

Baekhyun wasn’t sure if the tears streaming endlessly down her face was any indication that he hurt her for approaching the topic but the bright smile that crossed her face after that took all the worries away, leaving his heart bursting in happiness because he treasured that the most. He wanted to make her happy.

“Yes. I’d love to.”

Standing right up, he pulled the ring out of the box and took her left hand in his before he put the ring on to where it belonged to. Just as he expected, it looked beautiful on her. “We’re engaged now.” Jiwoo was a crying mess, but she nod