His speech came to an end.

Amina released a shaky sigh and let go of Youngbae’s hand, glancing up to clap cordially along with the rest of the crowd.  She was on cloud nine, still shocked over her own bold display of affection.  She watched as he moved away and headed back towards the front of the room, an easygoing smile spread across his lips.  He confidently handed the mic back to an attendant before he was flagged down by another table.  She watched as he greeted them with familiarity.

Feeling out of place, for the second time that day, Amina reached for her bottle of water and took her time uncapping the lid.  She pressed her lips to the hard plastic rim and took a deep swallow of the cool liquid, quenching her thirst.  She let her thoughts from the day take control of her body.  Slowly, her eyes grew unfocused.

“’Eh, you thirsty or something Shorty?”

Amina snapped out of reverie, righting the bottle up to place back on the table.  Barely.  The bottle slipped due to the extra force she exerted.  She caught herself mid-way through a disaster and recapped it swiftly.  Her eyes constricted with embarrassment as she swallowed the mouthful of water that still remained within the puffs of her cheeks.  Amina gingerly dabbed her lips against the side of her gently clasped fist and eyed the bottle of water before her.  It was nearly all gone.  “I-I guess so…” she lamely replied.

“You want another one?” Teddy inquired, his eyes roaming over her face carefully.  Amina shook her head negative, even though she still looked a little pale to him.  He didn’t know too much about pregnant woman, but he’d be damned if she passed out on him.  “You sure?”

Amina bobbed her head and smiled weakly.  “I’m sure.”  She could tell that he didn’t believe her, so she smiled more certainly.  “I’m good,” she reiterated.  She glanced around the crowd, searching for her husband.  He was still across the room, too far away to make eye contact.  And she could still feel Teddy’s eyes on her.  “That was some speech, huh?” Amina commented, wanting to change the topic.  She glanced up at Teddy expectantly.  “I didn’t realize how many people worked on the album.”

“Yeah…” Teddy replied hesitantly, still quietly scrutinizing her face.  He finally turned to his beer bottle and began scratching the corners of the label.  “Youngbae usually goes all out when he starts thanking people.  Sometimes, I forget all that goes in until he mentions it again.”  He glanced over at her.  “He’s usually pretty good about those types of matters.  Remembering things like that.”

Remembering things like that.

Amina nodded assuredly at first.  Then hesitantly.

Her eyes gave her away.

Teddy silently wondered what that was about.

Amina her lips, forcing the brightness back into her smile.  “So… Teddy oppa, based on Youngbae-sshi’s speech, I assume he spends the most time with you out of everyone.”

He took a long draw of his beer and nodded.  “Yeah.  Back in the day, we’d stay up late – meticulously going over each track.  He’d crash in my studio or just stop by to talk about music in general or he’d just watch me work.” 

“And now?”

Teddy rubbed his chin, thinking.  “Still is.”   He gave her a meaningful side glance.  “We also talk about personal things in addition to music.”

Amina sighed and pressed her lips into a small smile, nodding her head as she lowered her lashes.  She had no doubt that Youngbae probably received advice from his hyung about their relationship from time to time.  That was fine.  She wasn’t concerned about that.  She glanced up at him.  “How’s he doing?” she implored, her eyes turning worried.  “He’s been so busy with work that I haven’t been able to see for myself how he’s dealing.”

“You mean with Boss-ah?”

She nodded.

He shrugged indifferently.  “I mean, he’s been quiet.  Tired.  But for the most part, it’s business as usual.”  Teddy watched as Amina worried her bottom lip.  “Look, the guys keep his spirits up.  They still joke and play around with him – which I think is what he wants.  Just to be treated like normal.”

She averted her eyes and stared at the table top.  He could tell she was thinking hard.

“How are you doing?”

Amina snapped her head towards Teddy’s direction, suddenly feeling exposed.  She expected it, but at the same time… she didn’t expect it.  “I-I’m fine…” Amina replied, feeling the foreign words form around her thick tongue.  She couldn’t even tell if she told him a half-truth or a half-lie.

She just felt numb inside.

He eyed her silently, taking another swig of his beer.

Amina glanced over his shoulder to the table beyond, spotting her unnie becoming dangerously close to falling into Seunghyun’s lap.  God, how many additional drinks did Hanna have?  She knitted her brows anxiously.  “Mianhae,” Amina winced, slowly standing up.  She grabbed her wristlet off the table.  “I should check on my unnie.”  She half-bowed to a curious-eyed Teddy and started her way across the room.

Thirty minutes later…

“Yah!” Park Bom exclaimed, as she slapped both of her hands loudly on the bar top.  She eased onto the bar stool and chuckled gleefully upon seeing Youngbae visibly jump.

“Mwuh?” Youngbae visibly jerked out of his leaning stance, immediately reaching for his glass of water.  He whipped around and eyed Bom nervously as he took a sip.  And then fidgeted uncomfortably when he noticed she wasn’t alone.

Lee Chaerin, better known as CL of 2NE1, smiled cheekily at the scene before her.  She tucked a errant stray of hair behind her ear, her deep red fingernails glistening against her auburn rich locks.  “Go ahead, unnie… ask him.”

“Ask me what?”

Bom quirked her head at Youngbae, her cherry chocolate bangs falling wispily off the side of her forehead.  “The name of your new girlfriend.”

“Huh?”

“When I stood up during your speech… you had your hands on some girl.”  She narrowed her eyes on him, causing a red flush to appear on his cheeks.

“What girl?”

“The same one you were staring at a few seconds ago,” CL interrupted, much to his discomfort.  The girls looked at each other and grinned.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Just tell us Youngbae oppa,” CL insisted.  “If you like her, that’s fine.  We just want to know her name.  And we promise we won’t interfere like the last time.”  She shot Bom a dubious look.  “But from what I’ve asked around… I heard she might already be married.”

“Married?!” Bom mouth hung open.  She looked back at Youngbae. 

Youngbae his lips.  He glanced between the two and swung his arms back and forth against his sides, feeling an unexpected current flow of energy course through his veins.  He always felt this way whenever he was about to impart The Good News.  His lips curved up into a smile.  “Neh, she is married,” Youngbae nodded.  He grinned wide upon seeing the look of disgust on Bom’s face.

He interrupted her before she could speak.  

“To me.”

Daesung paused mid-way through his conversation when he heard a loud commotion coming from the bar area.  He glanced over his shoulder, watching curiously as Bom and CL pounced on Youngbae.  Bom was grabbing Youngbae by the collar, her eyes wide as , while CL had her hand clasped on Youngbae’s bicep in a death grip.  His hyung held a finger up against his lop-sided grin, doing his best to tell the girls without words to keep it down.  But it was useless.  Nearly half of the room was glancing towards their direction.

“Hmm.” Daesung contemplated out loud.  He turned back around and caught Amina’s open curious gaze on the trio.  Her eyes widened briefly before she jerkily looked over to him.  He could sense a bit of panic in her face.  “Mwuh?” he asked.

“They’re looking at me now,” Amina whispered loudly, her lips barely moving.  She gave him a nervous smile.  “I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

Daesung slyly glanced back over his shoulder, taking it in from a different perspective.  He looked back and grinned at her.  “I think they just got told about your nuptials.”

Amina groaned.

“I’m sure they’re laying it into hyung for not telling them earlier.”  He bobbed his head, taking a swallow from his glass of water.  He set the glass back down on the dinner table beside them.  “My guess is, they’ll be over here later tonight to introduce themselves.”

“Great,” Amina softly replied, a weak smile on her face.  She lowered her head.

“You don’t want to meet them?”

She looked up.  “It’s not that,” Amina replied.  “It’s just…”  She thought for a second, her eyes searching as she tried to think of how best to explain it.  “Tonight was supposed to be about Taeyang-sshi’s album.  And all the hard work that he and everyone else put into it.”  She shook her head.  “Not about me and Youngbae oppa.”

His small eyes assessed her face.  “Does everything have to have its proper time and place for you?” Daesung candidly asked.

Amina stared at Daesung, poised open in a half-smile, pleasantly surprised by his insightful question.  It took her off guard for a moment.  She paused… and then nodded.  “Neh.  At this time… at this point in my life, I need things to have its own place and time for everything.”  Her face grew solemn, her eyes turned serious.  “That is how I was brought up.  It’s the only thing I know…  And with the way things are right now, I need it - for that additional security.  If I expect something to happen, I want the reassurance that it will happen.”

“And if something happens in conjunction with an expectation?”

“You mean, like something unforeseen?”

“Neh,” Daesung smiled.  “Like tonight.”

“That’s fine,” Amina nodded.  “As long as it’s something that cannot be controlled.  I know there are things that can happen at the blink of an eye.”  Her eyes dimmed as Boss came to mind.   “But there are impulsive actions that others or I can control.  And those are the ones that I am more particular about.”

Daesung nodded thoughtfully.

“It’s almost like…”  Amina sighed, pressing her lips together.  Her eyes focused on a distant object as she spoke to Daesung.  “For instance, I find it impolite to speak out of turn.  Knowing that I have something important to say, and then have someone suddenly interrupt and thereby steal that moment from me – inadvertently, disregarding me. I find that rude and selfish.”

She glanced up at him.  “Which is why I shy away from impulsive behavior… usually.  It’s not that I don’t want to meet the girls.  It’s just that I don’t want to be rude to the others.”  She winced.  “Does that make sense?”

Daesung shook his head.  “Ani…”

Amina grinned and shoved him playfully.  “You’re no help!”

He rubbed his shoulder, a quick smile on his face.  “So when do you think would have been the ideal time to tell them you’re married?”

She shrugged her shoulders, looking at him bewilderedly.  “I don’t know!  Definitely not tonight.  And especially not with so many people around.”  Amina looked nervously around her.  “What if someone overhears him?”  She gently nudged her chin towards the bar area.  “It’ll be all over the front page by morning… all over the internet within the hour.”  She shook her head in disbelief.  “It’s like he doesn’t think sometimes.  He gets too comfortable with the people and forgets his surroundings.”

“Or maybe he’s just happy?”

Amina heard the implied reprimand in Daesung’s voice and felt a twinge of shame.  She pressed her lips together and lowered her head, remorse filling her brown eyes.  “I know he is.  I’m happy too.”

“So why do your eyes tell me otherwise?” Daesung quietly asked.

Her eyes flew up to his.  “Because…” Amina began, her eyes burning intently into Daesung’s.  “No matter how much Youngbae oppa and I want to, we can never love each other freely.”  She shook her head dismally at him.  “That’s just how it is.”

“It doesn’t have to be that way.”

“It does.”

“Ani, it doesn’t,” Daesung shook his head.

“Neh, it does,” Amina insisted, her eyes filled with heated promise.  “Because I would never ask him to choose me over his music.  And every time he tells someone that I’m his anae – instead of feeling elated, I feel stressed out and nervous and I constantly wonder to myself, ‘Did we confide in the right person?’  ‘Will this person one day betray my Youngbae?’”.  Her eyes silently implored Daesung.

Amina let out an anxious sigh underneath her breath, her heart filled with sudden despair.  She looked away and peered bleakly at the table top, hugging her arms protectively over her stomach.  She appeared deep in thought.

Daesung stared silently at her profile, the corners of his mouth downturned in a small frown.  “Youngbae hyung will do whatever he wants to do, regardless of what people think or say of him.”

It was like déjà vu all over again.  She let out a breathless laugh, feeling comforted by the knowledge that these guys knew Youngbae so well.  Smiling, she looked over at Daesung, catching him by surprise with her sudden change in demeanor.  “Neh,’ Amina grounded out against her will, a grin still in place.  “Seungri-yah told me the very same thing a couple of years ago actually.”  Her eyes sparkled at the long ago memory.  “It’s the one thing that I love about Youngbae oppa… that also drives me crazy.” 

“So you should be used to his antics by now, then.”

“Used to it?” Amina asked, lifting her brow high.  She saw the embarrassment on Daesung’s face and immediately forgave him for his faux pas.  “Even if Youngbae-sshi and I were together for the entire past two years, I doubt I’d be used to it or tolerate it for that matter.  I mean, he can do whatever he wants to do when it comes to his music, what he chooses to wear, how to style his hair…”  Amina looked intently at Daesung.  “But if I ask him to consider something, I would hope that he would take my feelings into consideration and at least think about it very hard.”  She furrowed her eyebrows.  “Very, very hard.”  She grinned.

Daesung chuckled.

“Mwuh?” she innocently asked.  “I never ask for much…”  Amina trailed off, smiling to herself.

They glanced around, watching as the crowd of people moved about them. Amina quickly looked over and checked on Hanna.  Her unnie was still sitting with Seunghyun, their heads nearly glued together.  Much to her relief, her unnie had been nursing her glass of wine quietly for the past hour and was actually having a civilized conversation for once that didn’t involve . 

At least not yet.

Amina watched as Hanna crossed her legs and scooted closer to Seunghyun, the toes of her heels trailing up along his calves.

Oh God… here we go.

“So how is everything else going for you at home?”

Amina turned to Daesung and blinked, trying her hardest to clear the latest image from her mind.  She cleared and tried to remember his question.  “Umm… good,” she nodded.  “Good, I think.”

“That’s good,” Daesung puckered his brows and looked her over with concern.  “No more nightmares or dark thoughts?”

She shook her head marginally.  “You know that with my father’s passing, things had gotten progressively better over time since we’ve last spoken.  And then with Boss’s passing… I’ve seem to gained a new perspective on life.  I still have dreams about Boss, but I can feel Youngbae-sshi sleeping next to me.”  Amina looked worriedly into Daesung’s eyes.  “And that’s usually enough to calm me back down and go back to sleep.”  She pressed her lips together.  “I try to not wake him up.”

He didn’t say anything.

“They’re not bad dreams.  I just,” Amina shrugged.  “Miss him.”  She glanced down at her hands.  The silence lingered on.  After a few more seconds, Amina became slightly alarmed and looked up, peering into Daesung’s solemn face.  Her eyes constricted anxiously.  “Say something.  Please.”

He shook his head.  “I’m just… trying to wrap my head around it, that’s all.”

Amina raised her eyebrows in question.

“It’s just that, I know how attached you were to Boss when you were dealing with you father’s passing and your depression.”

Amina lowered her head and bowed.

“I just see a completely new you now.”

The surprise in his voice made Amina jerk her head back up.  She reciprocated the smile on his face with a