One year into your marriage and you could sense that there was something off about it. The two of you had settled too much into a comfortable stillness, and while that would be okay when you were in your fifties and sixties, right now you still wanted the excitement of marriage. You stared at the man in front of you and wondered if he was thinking the same thing.

            “Yongguk,” you called out.

            He looked up from his newspaper, smiled and went back down. You called him again. This time, he kept his focus on you. “Yes, darling?”

            You studied him for a while. You didn’t doubt that he still loved you very much. You just didn’t know if it was with the same ardor. It didn’t really help that you didn’t have children yet. You were okay with that. Children set a different tempo but you wanted to experience this newlywed feeling first. And that, unfortunately, had died out too quickly.\

            “Do you ever feel like you want to go back to the past?”

            He looked confused. “The past? Why would I do that? I like the present very much.”

            “I know. So do I. But I sort of miss the old us.”

            Yongguk smiled lightly. “We got used to each other.”

            You shuddered. “Don’t’ say that, Yongguk. I hate that. I don’t want us to get used to one another. I want to continue to explore and find things I love about you.”

            He blinked and you held a breath. Were you being too romantic? Too idealistic? Could this be why so many marriages had their downs? Could it be because you simply got used to one another and then that was it. You were stuck with the person you married forever.

            You sighed. “Never mind.” You poked your cereal in defeat, watching it get soggier with every passing minute.

            Yongguk folded his newspaper. “Do you have to work today?”

            “No. I’m off Saturdays, remember?” You said it with a bit of an annoyed tone. Surely he should already know this.

            “Okay, go get ready. Let’s go out.”

            This was spur of the moment and you stared at him. Yongguk flashed you his gummy smile and you felt the irritation ebb away slowly. “Is this a surprise?”

            He shrugged. “You’ve done this before but I suppose it can be a surprise too.”

            You were intrigued and went upstairs to change. You heard Yongguk rummaging in the closet and when you walked out, saw a shirt you haven’t seen in years. “This shirt!” You walked up to him and saw the telltale ketchup stain and he smiled.

            “You wore this on our first date.”

            “I know,” he grinned. “I thought I would bring it back.”

            You took the subway and you felt a sense of nostalgia. This was how dating was like back then. The two of you would catch any random train and take it to any miscellaneous stop and get off to explore. But this time, Yongguk seemed to be working with a mission.

            He pulled you up at Gangnam and the two of you walked out into the mecca of shopping and dating central. Yongguk held your hand and you to a familiar beaten path and walked into the noodle shop the two of you had stumbled upon on your first date.

            This was what Yongguk had taken to be returning to the past. You hid a smile and followed him in. The woman behind the counter was still the same, and she remembered the two of you. “Hello! I haven’t seen you two in a while. It’s good to know you’re still together.” She cackled bluntly.

            Yongguk held up your entwined hands. “We’ve been married for a year.” 

            The lady smiled, showing the gap in her front teeth and came forward to kiss your cheeks. “Blessings to you. Would you like the same thing?”

            “Yes please. The ketchup noodles are really good.” Yongguk complimented.

            “Married!” Still chortling with happiness, she walked to the back and he led you to the booth the two of you had occupied so many times before.

            You finally allowed yourself to smile. “So this was where it all started, huh.”

            “No,” he replied with a grin wide enough to rival yours. “If we wanted to go all the way back, we’d go to the Han River where I fell off while skydiving and you jumped in after me, thinking that I’d died.”

            You rolled your eyes. “You didn’t tell me it was a stunt!”

            But he was still grinning widely. “But it was a good thing, wasn’t it? We met officially.”

            “After I fixed myself from looking like a drowned rat, yes.”

            By then the pasta came and the two of you ate. He slurped the noodles in typical Yongguk fashion and you pointed out yet another stain on his shirt. “Oops,” he grinned slyly and you knew he had done it on purpose. “Clean it up the way you did before?”

            You resisted the urge to blush and leaned forward, and the sauce off his shirt. “Gosh, you’re so embarrassing.”

            “You didn’t mind doing it the first time.”

            But already, the date was working. You found yourself falling in love with him all over again. The two of you were different people now, and that was okay because you weren’t worried about whether the date would lead to another, rather you were comfortable

            To finish off, the two of you walked to a well-lit karaoke place. You plopped down on the couch and flipped through the book, finding all your favorite songs. You forced Yongguk to sing songs an octave too high and only shrieked when he leapt on you, threatening to take away the remote.

            You shifted comfortably underneath him and batted your lashes at him. “Come get me.”

            His mouth fell open and he shot a furtive glance at the closed door behind the two of you. Through the not so well insulated walls, you could hear a girl singing very off tune. The two of you grinned at one another and he leaned down closer. “Well, we’ve never done this before.”

            You craned up to kiss him. “I guess we can relive the past but make some new memories too,” you giggled as his hands started roaming up your shirt.

hehe ♥ 

I think I'll be done by August 2nd and requests will open the 7th.