“Soo-man CEO… does this mean I have your blessing?” Nichkhun asked cautiously, letting go of the breath he had been holding in for the majority of their conference.

            “Yes, I’ve given you guys the blessing since day one. You know that I love her like a daughter so the ultimate decision depends on her.”

            “I know. I wouldn’t force her into anything she wouldn’t want and I’ll treat her well, I promise.”

            “I don’t know what happened between you guys but it’s hard to find someone you love in the hub-bub of artists, so cherish each other. As long as she’s safe and still works according to schedule, you can go ahead and do whatever you youngsters do nowadays to get girls to fall in love with you.”

            Nichkhun laughed and shook Lee Soo Man’s hand before thanking him. He had gone to SME to ask for his permission to bring the real Khuntoria story into the public eye. JYP had lifted their dating ban but it would be inappropriate to start a scandal without asking SM first. Nichkhun explained briefly what had happened between him and Victoria in the past two years to the two CEOs and wanted to let them know of his new plan of courting Victoria so that she would be his girlfriend again. It required doing a lot of childish and romantic things in public and he knew fans would go crazy when events happened. It seemed like the entire world was on his side this time, all giving him the strength and encouragement he needed to get Victoria back. Even though the dating ban of f(x) had yet to be lifted, Lee Soo Man thought that it would be harmless for Victoria to proceed dating Nichkhun in public considering how big the Khuntorian fandom was. He knew Victoria still loved Nichkhun and couldn’t bear to watch his little girl let fate toy with the two lovebirds.

            “Hwaiting!” Lee Soo Man cheered before Nichkhun turned and walked out the door. He texted the members “Mission Start!” before hopping into his company car and headed home.

            -

            “Hyung, what are you going to do first?” Wooyoung asked, excitedly bobbing up and down in his seat. “You have to be extra romantic this time to get sister-in-law back!”

            “Yah yah, don’t worry. Hyung’s the king of romantic! Just look at his face!” Junho laughed, holding Nichkhun’s face till his cheeks were pushed up. “I’d fall in love with him just looking at him.”

            “Let go Junho hyung! You’re going to make Khun-hyung ugly!” Chansung swatted Junho’s hand away before holding Nichkhun in a small hug. “Hurry up and get noona back so she can make us yummy food.”

            “Don’t worry guys, I’ve got a couple things up my sleeve.” Nichkhun assured them. The boys were still promoting for their Grown album while f(x) were preparing for their comeback. They had just finished filming their show and could finally enjoy some time in Korea in preparation for their next comeback. Timing was impeccable for the two of them this time, Nichkhun thought to himself.

            -

            June

            Victoria checked herself one last time before heading out to the studio. Her and Amber had been invited to participate in Running Man along with Jia and Fei from Miss A for a “Chinese Special” for Running Man. After recording, the girls went to dinner to catch up with each other.

            “Onni… so a little bird has been complaining and crying around the studio because he said his girlfriend is still mad at him. We personally think he’s borderline annoying, but we wanted to know what you’d do with this little bird.” Fei asked, smiling as she hinted at Nichkhun’s misery.

            Victoria and Nichkhun had been on a texting basis but she has yet to agree to take him back. She knew he put the girls up to this and played along, taking the bait the girls had set out. “Well… I’d take a car and run the bird over. He’s passed the border of annoying and set up a colony of annoyance.” She joked. “But it’s really cute for the bird to care so much about his girlfriend. Don’t tell the bird I said this though.” She warned.

            The girls nodded as they made empty promises. Victoria knew they were on Nichkhun’s side and one look from Nichkhun’s puppy dog eyes and they’d spill tonight’s conversation in a heartbeat.

            “You know… Nichkhun oppa has really been lovesick for the past two years. I’m sure you know already, but he really monitored your every move. Did you know that he freaked out when the whole Changtoria thing blew out of proportion? Taecyeon oppa texted Changmin oppa to get information for Nichkhun!” Jia laughed. “Only you have this power to make Nichkhun oppa all nervous.”

            “Eh… the boys must be exaggerating.” Victoria brushed aside.

            “Ani onni! Wooyoung-oppa told me that Nickhun oppa was so depressed for the first bit of moving to Japan. His mom even scolded him for being so stupid!” Amber cooed.

            “What? Last time I talked to Cherleen she didn’t mention it!” Victoria denied. “Wait wait wait… Wooyoung ‘oppa’? Since when did you and Wooyoung become so close?” she interrogated, diverting the attention.

            “Since never! We were on the same show the other day and we talked about it. A lot of people are worried about you and Nichkhun oppa, onni! Wait wait wait, you still talk to Nichkhun’s little sister?! I thought you didn’t care about him anymore?” Amber retaliated.

            “What are you talking about? I’m friends with Cherleen!” Victoria defended. “We always talk as friends, Nichkhun never comes up in conversation!”

            “Well, what’s important is that we know that you know Khun-oppa never stopped loving you in the past two years. If you think about it, he only broke up with you because he didn’t want to have to sacrifice you for work.” Jia continued to convince.

            “You know the whole ‘if you love a person, let them go? If they come back then you guys are meant to be’ thing? Nichkhun was just doing that just incase you were tired of waiting for him. To be fair, he hurt himself just as much making this decision.”

            “You guys don’t have to tell me all this good stuff about Nichkhun. I know he is and always has been a wonderful man. The problem is… I’m scared of giving my heart out again. Our schedules are going to be busy at some point… is he just going to ‘let me go’ again?” Victoria said, suddenly making the mood more serious.

            “Onni, we know we’re supposed to be Team Nichkhun, but we truly just want you to be happy.” Fei said, feeding her a piece of dukkbokki as the girls continued to tell Victoria what they heard in the company about his love-sick ways.

            -

            June

            The sun shined through the sunroof of the car, Victoria happily sticking her hand out the top of the car as Nichkhun cruised down the highway. Nichkhun had simply told her they were heading somewhere and she had no choice but to follow along since he pulled the “friends can hang out and go on road trips” card. He held her hand for a bit on the drive before Victoria pulled away as she snapped into the reality of their situation. “Victoria, you’re supposed to put up a fight.” She mentally scolded herself for letting him melt her so easily. It was hard holding a grudge on Nichkhun, whether it was pretend or not.

            The couple arrived at the familiar cable car location of Nam-San during their We Got Married days. The two of them had not been on the cable car since then and it sure dug up memories. Victoria entered quietly, eyeing Nichkhun as he smiled goofily at her.

            “You look like you’re tired. You should sleep.” He insisted, nudging her to lean against the wall.

            “What? I’m not tired. What are you up to?” Victoria laughed.

            “Victoria! Just sleep. Or at least pretend to sleep.”

            Victoria did as she was told as he used his ageyo on her. Nichkhun waved his hands in front of her to make sure she wasn’t peeking before taking out a marker and writing Nichkhun & Victoria love forever onto the metal wall of the cable car.

            “Okay, you can wake up now, sleeping beauty. Don’t you think it’s kind of rude to fall asleep on your date?” Nichkhun joked, earning a punch.

            “What did you do?” Victoria asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

            “Look.” He said, pointing to the graffiti on the wall.

            Victoria laughed as she recalled the innocence of their last cable car ride. He had never seen Boys Over Flowers and had no idea what scene she was trying to describe, but now, with their initials written on the wall just as the drama did, she felt like the was Geum-Jan-toria, only her Goo-Jun-Pyo became Goo-Jun-Khun, who in her opinion, was much better looking.

            “I watched the entire drama till this scene came up.” Nichkhun confessed.

            “You’re so silly.” She said, smiling and tracing the area of their initials.

            “Well, love makes a person childish.” He said, continuing to quote her. “Are you touched?” he said, looking for some recognition.

            “Very.” She said, blinking at him as she fell deeper in love with him.

            “Does this mean you’re ready to take me back?”

            “Sorry Mr. Nichkhun. Geum-Jan-toria isn’t ready yet.” She hung her head down low as she continued her internal debate. She really wanted to kiss him then and there to make up for lost time… but her heart was beating too weakly and she knew any form of wreckage would kill her.

            “Well, good thing Goo-Jun-Khun is a patient man.” He held her hands. “Don’t be sorry. I want you to give me the trust when I earn it.” He assured her.

            “Omo. Wouldn’t fans go crazy if they see this?” she said, suddenly remembering their idol status. A couple people had freaked out when they saw the two of them together, but Nichkhun had assured her it’d be okay.”

            “Didn’t I tell you? Now that my lifting ban has been lifted and Soo-Man hyung has given us his blessing, I’m allowed to be romantic with you in public.”

            “What about your fans?”

            “My true fans will stick with me no matter what as long as I’m happy. I’m not worried about losing a few here and there if they don’t want the best for me.”

            Victoria looked at him as she thought about how much he has matured over the last two years.

            “I also have this for you…” he said, a small diamond cut in the shape of a star hanging from a necklace. “Goo-Jun-Khun wanted to give you this star, so that even if it’s cloudy, you’ll always be able to see stars.” He said, putting her in half a back hug as he put the necklace on for her.

            Victoria held the diamond in her hand before letting it fall gently on her chest. She looked up at Nichkhun as he flashed her a bright smile, satisfied with the completion of his event despite the fact that she had yet to cry from being touched.

-

July

A sweaty Victoria glanced at her phone for the twentieth time that day. Usually Nichkhun would have sent her a text by now, even if it was just a simple “Good morning” one regardless of how busy he was. “Was this some sort of test?” She thought to herself, perhaps this was his way of turning the tables around to see if she would be able to resist not talking to him after how persistent he had been in the last couple of months. “Or maybe he’s actually mad at the fact that she had been so cold despite all the stuff he did…” she worried. f(x) had been continuously practicing in preparation for their upcoming “Pink Tape” comeback and it made it harder for her to meet up with Nichkhun. Their text messages and phone calls had become more consistent recently, as if they were actually in a relationship, even though she still refused to admit it as such. Everyone around them knew Korea’s international dream couple had gotten back together even though Victoria continued to deny it when the sunbae’s asked. Khuntoria fans were recruited by Nichkhun as part of his plan to get Victoria back, posting on his twitter, though without mentioning any names, that he needed help courting a special girl who was mad at him. His tweet made headlines for a week as his fans tried to guess who this mysterious woman was, with the ability to make Nichkhun upset. Anti-fans became angry as their thai-prince announced the potential end of his bachelor status, but Nichkhun didn’t care to be in the middle between fans, all he wanted was Victoria to take him back. He finally posted a selca between Victoria and him after the argument between fans continued, announcing that Victoria was the one that stole his heart. Khuntoria fans left over 5000 messages on Victoria’s weibo, insisting that she took him back even though they didn’t know what had happened in the past 5 years. Since 2PM and f(x) were both becoming senior groups amongst the many new idols, their dating bans have been officially lifted.

            Their comeback was in 3 hours and as they waited nervously in their waiting room for their rehearsal call, Nichkhun’s message brought a smile to Victoria’s face.

            “Hi lovebug. I know you girls will rock the stage tonight. Fighting! I’ll meet you in your waiting room after you guys are done, make sure you eat before the show, okay? Love you!” she read.

            So he didn’t forget about her, she smiled to herself. The text settled her nervousness a little bit and she couldn’t wait to see him afterwards. The girls had been waiting so long for this moment they couldn’t wait to hop on stage and rock their performance.

            Fans cheered loudly for them as they stepped off the stage, taking in the familiar cheer and sea of periwinkle glow sticks that moved around in the audience. Victoria and the girls high fived and cheered on their way back to the waiting room, complaining about the state of hunger they were in now that all the adrenaline and nervousness was gone.

            Victoria’s mouth hung open as she opened the door to the waiting room. She blinked her eyes in disbelief as Nichkhun grinned proudly at her. In his hand, a bouquet of daisies – her favorite, and beside him stood her mom. She hadn’t been home in so long that she barely recalled the last time she saw her parents. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t hold the excitement that came with the tears now running down her cheeks as she held Nichkhun and her mom in a tight embrace.

            “Omma, what are you doing here?” Victoria asked in Chinese.

            Her mom simply smiled and pointed at Nichkhun, who continued to grin at Victoria. Victoria buried her head in his chest as he the small of her back in attempt to calm her down.

            “Surprised?” he asked, although it was rather obvious as she continued to sob into his chest.

            She simply nodded a little before looking up at him. Had there not been a million people watching them, she would have kissed him then and there. Victoria’s mom ate dinner with f(x) and Nichkhun before sent her off to the hotel.

            Nichkhun turned to Victoria in the car, her hand in his as she finally took a good look at him for the first time that night. She had been so flustered by the appearance of her mother that she had forgotten about Nichkhun’s presence.

            “Thanks for everything.” She said, reaching over to plant a small kiss on his cheek.

            “Don’t be silly babe.”

            “You’re the best boyfriend ever.”

            It took a while to sink in before the joy overcame him. “Wait… boyfriend? Who is this boyfriend you speak of?” he teased. He had been waiting for her to call him her boyfriend again since they broke up and he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

            She blushed as he smiled slyly, holding her hand even more tightly as he tickled her chin in hopes to get her to say “boyfriend” again. He grabbed her face and pulled her into his embrace after she continued to swat his tickling hands away.

            -

            August

            “Mmm, smells delicious!” Victoria beamed as she peeked over Nichkhun’s shoulders. Nichkhun had brought her to 2PM’s dorm for a homecooked dinner date. She always prepared food for him he figured it’d be nice for her to step out of the kitchen for once. He was stir-frying vegetables over the stove as Victoria tried to move her way around to the front of the stove in hopes to help him out. He turned around with spatula in hand with bits of sauce stuck on the side of his face, making Victoria laugh as he stared at her with a stern expression.

            “Master Chef Nichkhun at work here. I’d appreciate it if you’d stop trying to distract me.”

            Victoria pouted. “It feels weird not helping you!”

            Nichkhun turned off the stove and trapped her against the corner of the counter. “Well you can always repay me later.” He winked, making her blush when she realized what he was hinting at.

            Victoria ducked from under his arms playfully and returned into the dining area. The rest of the boys were busy doing other things, leaving Khuntoria alone in the house for at least a little bit of the night before the boys came to disturb the romantic moment.

            “Everything was delicious.” Victoria said, gathering the dishes towards the sink.

            “I have something else for you.” Nichkhun said, wiping his mouth as he pointed towards the fridge. “Go open it.”

            Victoria walked over to the fridge timidly with a questionable look on her face. She hadn’t been expecting anything and couldn’t help but feel butterflies in her stomach. Her and Nichkhun have been officially re-dating for a while but she still wasn’t used to her surprise events, feeling like new lovers every time he surprised her. Her face beamed with excitement when she opened the fridge, a box of golden durian looking back at her.

            “Mom sent it from Thailand yesterday.” Nichkhun beamed, even though he couldn’t take any of the credit for surprising her this time. His mom had been the most supportive throughout this time of regaining her trust and she couldn’t wait for Victoria to take his stupid son back. She already thought of Victoria as her daughter-in-law and her motherly instincts told her that Victoria was the perfect girl for Nichkhun.

            “Omo, durian!” she cheered excitedly, closing the fridge before grabbing Nichkhun’s laptop from his room to video call her. She excitedly thanked his mom before his mom shooed her off to try the durian. Nichkhun had been behind Victoria, giving his mom the thumbs up for their efforts in making Victoria happy.

            “You really make me the luckiest girl in the world” Victoria said, holding her belly. “If I eat like this every day, I’ll turn into a fat ahjumma really soon.”

            “It’s okay, I’ll still love you.” Nichkhuns said, pinching her cheeks softly before leading her to his bedroom.

            -

November

A wave of excitement ran over SM as all the females in the building anticipated their “Pepero Day” surprise. (For those of you that don’t know, Pepero Day is celebrated on November 11^th since the Pepero sticks resemble the 1’s of that day. Couples usually exchange pepero packages or other sweets to demonstrate their love for each other, kind of like on Valentine’s Day). The guys didn’t understand the excitement, especially the single boys, but somehow the girls went crazy over the chocolates, even if they were supposed to be on their diets.

“Onni, did you get anything from Nichkhun oppa yet?” Krystal asked excitedly. The girls were in the building to helping their choreographers with new dance routines but clearly they had more important things on their mind. Nichkhun was known to be a romantic person, it would be a lie if Victoria said she wasn’t expecting something from her boyfriend.

“Did you see the size of that bouquet?” the receptionists talked in jealousy as the delivery boy signed to bring the bouquet up to Victoria.

The girls rushed around Victoria excitedly as she held the bouquet in embarrassment. There were 11 champagne coloured roses circling 11 dark red roses. A box of white chocolate pepero sticks were attached to the roses, along with a note:

To my dearest Victoria,

Happy Pepero Day! Thanks for giving me a chance to make everyone jealous and taking care of me despite the fact that I’m a pabo. You’re the best and I can’t wait to spend pepero day with you for the rest of my life. You’re sweeter than chocolate (I’m allowed to be cheesy) and I love you more than words and actions can ever show.

With love,

Your pabo Nichkhun

The girls cooed as Victoria finished reading. She brought the roses to her nose before Amber snatched the pepero box from her.

“Onni, I’m hungry” Amber whined.

“Haha, I know I know. Go ahead and eat it.”

“Assa!” Amber cheered as she opened the box. She gasped as she opened the package, handing it back to Victoria immediately.

“What happened? I thought you were hungry?” Victoria asked in confusion as she peeked into the box.

She too gasped when she saw a polaroid picture of Nichkhun showing off his Cartier leather wristwatch. A female version of his watch greeted her in the box.

The girls cooed again as they stood around in jealousy. An expensive watch beat any pepero package any day, only Nichkhun would be cute enough to think of something like that. Victoria smiled as she sent Nichkhun a picture of her holding the bouquet with her new couple watch on. Nichkhun smiled to himself as he applauded himself for successfully making Victoria happy despite the fact that they couldn’t meet up today. 2PM had been practicing for their world tour concert and always kept busy.

-

December

Victoria sighed as she put her head back on Nichkhun’s chest. Nichkhun had her in an embrace and they were sitting outside by the fire pit with hot chocolate in hand, star gazing in the high mountains of Mount Halla. They never accomplished their goal during We Got Married so Nichkhun brought her there again to complete their goal. They finally had the delicious ramen and got the certificate of completion after so many years. Along the way they played in the snow and built snowmen as any happy couple would when climbing the mountain.

It was a lot of effort even though the two had been rehearsing for the annual end of year music shows, but Nichkhun thought hopping in the shower after hiking together made it worth it. Victoria had playfully tried to deny it at first but Nichkhun’s puppy dog eyes finally made her give in. They would be spending the night here tonight before returning back to Seoul tomorrow for more practice.

Victoria looked at Nichkhun as she thought about how fast this year went by. Nichkhun and her had been through so many ups and downs but she loved that they were happy together now.

-

January

“Hello hello!” Victoria peeped into 2PM’s practice room. They would be going on tour next month, making their last stop in Seoul in May. The boys greeted her excitedly as they wiped their sweat away. A delicious smell of Vic-omma home made dinner greeted them and they couldn’t wait to devour it. Victoria had been delivering food whenever she could since she knew how hard the boys had been working and they were thankful for her generosity.

“Sister-in-law!” Junho cheered excitedly. “Khun-hyung was afraid you wouldn’t come! He’s been checking his phone all night.”

Nichkhun punched him in the arm before giving Victoria a small hug since he was sweaty. Victoria thought he was so hot and charismatic but he already knew that without her having to say it from the way she blushed when she took in his scent. It absolutely broke her heart to see the boys so sleep deprived so she delivered food and offered Nichkhun massages whenever they had the time to hang out. This would be their first separation since they got back together so the two became nervous as they thought about the hardships of distance. Nichkhun would be working hard and Victoria would be in Korea working with her company. They’ve done distance before but it was still hard to say “see you soon”.

“How was your day?” She asked, unpacking the food boxes as 2PM cleaned themselves up in the bathroom.

“Good. Same old practicing day” he sighed, putting his head on her shoulder as he pleaded for attention from behind her.

“Well, eat and rest for a bit before you guys start again. I don’t want you guys to strain yourself!” she said with a worried look in her eyes.

“Don’t worry babe, we’ll rest if we really need to.” He assured her as the rest of the members came back excitedly.

Victoria left shortly after they finished eating, making it hard for Nichkhun to send her off.

-

May

Victoria guided Nichkhun’s mom into the stadium in anticipation. Tonight was 2PM’s last concert as part of their tour and Nichkhun had sent Victoria and his family tickets to come. Victoria had been talking to him consistently but she couldn’t wait to see him shine on stage. They hadn’t had a chance to talk yet and she couldn’t wait to see him after the concert ended. Victoria chatted happily with his mom and Cherleen, clapping along with the songs they knew. Victoria held her breath when they danced seductively with girls but the artist in her forced herself to throw away the useless jealousy.

Nichkhun’s solo portion was last, right before the ending of the concert. The girls on stage had been waiting for this part all night and cheered loudly with the fans when the lights dimmed and the screen in the middle of the concert hall lit up.

Victoria’s eyes widened in confusion as clips of their We Got Married, Hello Baby and privately filmed home videos played on the screen. The fans laughed and cheered but they were equally as confused as she was. Nichkhun, in a white tuxedo by a white grand piano lifted from the stage, making the crowd go crazy as girls cried over how handsome he was.

A soft melody came from the piano as he started to play a ballad version of “Proposal” by JYP. The spotlight made Nichkhun look like an angel and Victoria was mesmerized. Nichkhun’s mom looked over at Victoria with a small smile as if she knew what was coming next. Nichkhun had been planning to propose to her for a while now and was looking for the perfect time to do so. When he brought her mom to Korea last summer, he had asked her parents for permission for her hand in marriage and her parents were more than happy to hand their stubborn daughter off to her Prince Charming. Nichkhun always made her happy and they knew how strong their love was.

When the song finished, a spotlight hit Victoria, making her look around in confusion as everyone cheered as Nichkhun asked her onto the stage.

“Hi everyone! I’m sure you all know my ex-wife… Victoria!” he started, causing everyone to cheer. “Well… I’m here today to ask for your blessing today…” he continued as he let go of Victoria’s hand and got on one knee. Victoria finally knew what was happening as she held her hand over in a loud gasp. Tears immediately started flowing from her eyes uncontrollably even though he had yet to propose.

“Victoria and I have gone through so much to be together and I know that the ups and downs have made our love stronger. I’ve wanted to spend the rest of my life with her since the day we started We Got Married and I wanted you Hottests, the most important people in my life, to witness this important moment in my life as I ask my ex-wife to re-marry me and give me her hand as we spend the rest of our lives together.” He said, holding out a beautiful diamond ring. The diamond in the ring had been passed down from his great grandmother’s engagement ring, only framing it in a more modern platinum band that fit Victoria’s hand perfectly. Victoria nodded as she tried to catch her breath, the crowd cheering more loudly than ever. Nichkhun stood up and wrapped his strong arms around her as he felt his heart calm down for the first time in months.

2PM came out and cheered as the fans continued to go crazy. Nichkhun’s mom cried tears of joy in the audience and Cherleen cooed over how cute her brother was. He was always sweet but Victoria made him smitten and she knew Victoria was the only one that could make him happy.

“Well, Mr. and Mrs. Nichkhun, stop making everyone jealous already!” Jun K. cheered as 2PM embraced the couple in a group hug. The boys knew how nervous he was even though Victoria was sure to say yes and they were glad that their brother was happily planning the next stage of his life.