Three Words

Three Words

“Do you Yonghwa take Joohyun to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

He looked at her with a smile so wide as he held her hand

“I do”

“And do you Joohyun take Yonghwa to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

And she does have that same smile and spark in her eyes

“More than anything in the world, I do”

“By the power vested in me I now pronounce you man and..”

And even before the priest can finish his  sentence Yonghwa already swooped his wife into a big seering kiss. The ajumma who cleans the church who was so sleepy earlier now has tears in her eyes. Her and the gardener of the church was very much taken by the young couple who barged in at almost midnight and begged to be married.

The priest had a solemn smile and a silent prayer that these two be happy and blessed and strong for the rest of their life.

The young couple thanked the three church people endlessly and almost run out of the edifice when they were met by Joohyuns dad

“Seo Joohyun, get inside the car right now!”

The smile that was pasted in her face was instantly gone as she held on to Yonghwa tightly

“No dad, Yonghwa and I are already married, you can’t just separate us, I love him and he loves me”

“You don’t know anything! You two are both so young! You’re not even in college yet! How do you suppose you know how the world works?

“Sir with all due respect, I love your daughter very much”

“Son, love can’t feed a hungry wife and crying children” Her dad’s voice is clear and stern

Yonghwa slowly remove her hand from his

“I’ll come back for you, go now with your dad and I’ll come back”

“NO!!” her grip tightens as tears began cascading her eyes

“Joohyun, let me prove your father wrong” he whispered his glassy eyes pleading “let me do this for us”

And she did

Let go

10 years after

“Mom, Kyuhyun and I still haven’t gone through the guest list! You have to stop telling everybody to come early for the wedding!” Joohyun sat inside her flat exasperated. She has been very busy running their family business in Busan that they actually put the wedding off for years now. Kyuhyun has been nothing but patient, waiting for her to set the date and once she did, with a bit of pressure from people around them, he was ecstatic.

“I’m just excited, that’s all”

And then she feels guilty “I’m sorry mom, it’s just that grad school and the business is not easy to manage both at the same time and then plan a wedding”

“You should’ve hired a wedding planner”

“Well I don’t want to impose”

“Honey, you’re not imposing, you will be a client and you will pay for their services”

She took a deep breath and began sorting her mail as she listened to her mom talk about getting help for the wedding and that’s when she noticed the big white envelope. She opened and read the header

NOTICE TO THE ADDRESSEE

SUBJECT: DIVORCE REQUEST

“OMG MOM!” she almost dropped her phone as she continued reading

“What?! What is it?” her mother panicked as she notice how Joohyuns voice shook and faltered

“I’m still married to Yonghwa!” she stood up and paced the room as she tried to talk and think at the same time “MOM!! I thought dad filed the divorce!”

Her mom who was equally shock can barely speak “I – I don’t know, he told me he did”

“Well apparently he didn’t! Now I have to go to Seoul to settle this!”

“Calm down honey, I’m sure this will be very easy, the marriage wasn’t consummated and you guys were so young then, I’m sure it’ll be a solid ground for divorce”

She looked at the paper once more and sighed “I really hope so mom”

She has been sighing a lot these past few days as she pulled her luggage thru the busy city of Seoul looking for the building that was stated in the address. She told Kyuhyun what she has to do and his face fell, now that she isn’t making any excuses for the wedding, it was fate that did.

Another sigh

“Great! Just great!” she mumbled as a stone got stuck in her shoe. She walked to the side and sat on the pavement while she tries to remove the said stone “Why is it that when everything goes wrong.. it really does!!!”

Once she got the stone out she threw it on the road of which she didn’t a black car that stopped right in front of her

“Oh fudge!”

 She immediately stood up and bowed as the driver went out

“I’m so sorry!!!” her head bent low as she tried to find any scratch or dent the stone may have made

The man who was in his early fifties looked at her and smiled, he was dress as if he is on his way to a very important meeting, when he walked past her he went directly the back door of the car and opened it. Joohyun stood straiht and didn’t notice she was staring because that’s when her jaw dropped.

Yonghwa stepped out of the car followed by a guy who carries a suitcase, he was buttoning his suit when he thanked his driver

“Be back by lunch