March

“Is he here yet? I say, is his iness here yet?” HyungSik asked frantically. He looked at himself in the mirror and smoothed his hair back. He collapsed into the makeup chair, picked up a magazine and fanned himself with a look of ecstasy on his face.

“You are such a fanboy, and you make me sad.” SooYoung shook her head, but kept her eyes her book. Jodi looked at her assistants with amusement clear on her face.

“Calm yourself, my love. The man of your dreams will be here shortly—with his fiancée,” Jodi couldn't help but add. HyungSik's face fell and he gave Jodi a dirty look.

“You hardhearted hag. Just dash all me dreams.” He threw the magazine down dramatically and moaned in agony. “You es just don't know! TaeYang has been the object of my desire since 'Your My'. One look at him, and all thoughts of the straight life flew out the window. He made me this way! I liked girls before I saw him! I needed a girl, too! Now all I want is boys.”

Jodi watched HyungSik throw himself back in the seat and pretend to cry. He covered his eyes with his hands and wailed heartbrokenly. Jodi loved him. It was hard not to. He was actually SooYoung's friend and classmate. A British born Korean who was 'getting in touch with his roots' by studying in Korea. HyungSik majored in business to appease his parents, but his real passion laid with the arts. He was a very talented artist, hard up for cash, and just shy of too gay to function.

“Please get all this out of your system before they come,” Jodi begged. “You promised me you would be professional for once.”

“And I will, I promise.” HyungSik sat up straight and raised his left hand.

“It's the other hand, idiot,” SooYoung corrected. She rolled her eyes at him and closed her book. “What's the plan, boss lady? How are we going to pull this shoot off with only three people?”

“I'm going to do Luna's hair first. It won't take long, it's just a braided crown. While I'm doing that, I want you two to start painting YoungBae—”

“What?! Like, I actually get to touch him?!” HyungSik screamed and jumped around in pure bliss. He stopped and pressed his hands to his chest and head. “Oh my god. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't. Um. Where's my phone? I have some pictures of him and I just—I'll—uh—I'll just run to the bathroom for a minute.”

SooYoung and Jodi watched his retreating back with identical looks of disbelief and eww. “Your hands better smell like soap when I see you again!” SooYoung yelled after him. She looked at Jodi and said two very rare words. “I'm sorry.”

Jodi laughed and waved her off. The buzzer sounded, letting Jodi know someone was at the gate. She looked at the monitor and saw YoungBae's profile through the car window. She let them in and went to greet them in the front hall. They bowed and greeted each other before moving into the studio area. Jodi sent SooYoung to go get her friend so they could go over the plan all at once.

HyungSik walked into the room, his face red and his eyes wide. He stared at YoungBae mutely until SooYoung hit him in the back of the head. He bowed stiffly and stuttered out a greeting. “Hi, I'm Sik. Not sick, but Sik. Actually, I'm Go HyungSik. I hate my name sometimes, it can be so confusing. Like, now,” he said with a very false and nervous laugh. He coughed into his fist and dropped his eyes. “Sorry. I love you. I'll stop talking now.”

Everyone looked at him until Jodi cleared to bring the attention back to her. “So, . . .” Jodi showed the mock ups to Luna and YoungBae and was very pleased when they gushed over her ideas.

She sent Luna behind a divider, first, with a paintbrush and blue paint so that she could paint her s herself. They wouldn't be seen in the pictures, but she wanted her torso to be uniform. While that was going on, she had SooYoung and HyungSik start painting YoungBae. His hair was already styled, so that saved her some prep time. Jodi braided Luna's hair and started painting the rest of her torso with the blue base color. They made small talk while they waited for the coats to dry. Jodi would disappear to the other side of the divider to check on YoungBae's progress from time to time. Once HyungSik got his fanboy nerves under control, he did an amazing job making it look like there were subtle rays of light shooting from YoungBae's heart while SooYoung painted his back.

“How's married life? I'm pretty sure you see Ji more than I do these days,” Luna mused aloud after one of these breaks.

With a smirk, Jodi responded, “You might be right.”

And it was, in fact, true. JiYong had folded himself into the fabric of her house in the days after he first stayed the night. He accompanied Jodi on her morning run exactly one time and vowed to stop smoking. He came over for dinner when his schedule permitted. His clothes took up residence in the closet, and his toothbrush had a space in the bathroom. He got to see first hand what BINGO night was all about, he even won the prize money one round. He would talk to the boys about their day(JeongUi more than JinShil), and even had the pleasure of supervising bedtime twice. When the boys went to sleep, he and Jodi would veg on the couch for a while before he went to sleep in the guest room. Jodi didn't complain, she liked his company. He was so much more pleasant than SooYoung. “He's been doing well. Busy with his endorsements and such, but good, I think. How's the life of an engaged woman?” Luna groaned and rolled her eyes. “That good, huh?”

Luna sighed and shook her head. “It's not Bae. He's an absolute treasure, as usual. It's my halmoni that's the problem. Bae and I loosely decided on a fall wedding, so he could promote and tour all summer, then take the time off for our honeymoon. No. She wants us to get married in June, and have a very traditional wedding. And when I say traditional, I mean traditional. I'm talking rent a hanok in the middle of nowhere, wear hanboks—and not the modern, simplified ones, but the full regalia like this is still the Chosun era hanboks. She wants to give me real ducks—what the hell am I going to do with a duck?—, and sangsu, yedan, homgap, cholgap, paemul. Oh, and have me show up in a sedan.”

“Wow.” Jodi turned Luna to the side so she could begin to paint the crescent moon on her back.

“Yeah.” Luna stretched her neck, let out another deep breath, and readjusted the towel she had across her front for modesty. “I love my halmoni. She has taken such good care of me my whole life. She's never had children, she's never been married, so I can see why she wants this, but . . .”

“But it's not what you had in mind,” Jodi finished the thought for her. Luna nodded. They were silent for a minute while Jodi changed brushes. “What did you have in mind?”

“Honestly? I don't care. I just want to be married to the man I love. I want to wake up beside him every day, not every few days because he has to go home for sake of appearances. If it were up to me, I would take him to Vegas and get this over with. The ceremony, and flowers, and dresses, and invitations and all that—I don't need it. All I need is him.”

Luna didn't think she had spoken that loudly, or that YoungBae would understand because she had spoken in English, but both happened. He heard her, and came around the divider in all his sun inspired glory. He looked at Luna with so much love in his eyes that Jodi had to back away. Just as she was making it to the other side, she saw YoungBae kiss Luna gently and tell her how much he loved her.

* * * * *

JiYong sat at his now familiar spot in her kitchen, watching her cut vegetables and fruit for the boys to snack on when they came home. While he sat there, he entertained Jodi with funny stories about encounters with overzealous fans. He heard the sound of feet pounding and then the door flew open.

“Noona! Noona!” JeongUi dropped his book bag and ran at her waving a piece of paper.

“What!? What!?” she yelled in response. Jodi set down the bowl of washed carrots and braced for impact. JeongUi ran into her full speed and momentarily knocked the wind out of her. The little boy hugged her briefly before holding the paper up to her face.

“They're gonna have a soccer team at the school! Can I do it?”

Jodi straightened the crumpled mess as best she could and read quickly. “Are you really going to do it?” He nodded. “Are you going to go to every practice?” He nodded again. “Are you going to keep your grades up?” He hesitated, but nodded nonetheless. “Then I don't see why not. I'll talk to eomonim about it tonight.”

JeongUi pumped his fist in triumph and ran over to JiYong. “Hyung! Will you come see me play?”

“Of course I will!” JiYong assured him in the same excited tone. He gave JeongUi a high-five and watched him skip away. JinShil walked over at a calmer pace and hugged Jodi around the middle. She rubbed his back and kissed the top of his head.

“What about you, baby? Do you want to play, too?” Jodi asked. JinShil shrugged. Jodi quirked a brow at that. “Okay, well, there's some time between now and then. Think about it, okay?” JinShil nodded. “You and your brother know the drill. Wash and change. I've got snacks out here for you.”

JinShil nodded, and hugged her again. He looked at JiYong quickly, bowed to him, then ran off to the bedroom. JiYong threw his hands up. He couldn't understand why the kid still hadn't warmed up to him.

Jodi's text alert went off, and she asked JiYong to check it because her hands were wet. “Amber Jo asks, 'Are we having movie night this week?'” JiYong read to Jodi in halted English. Jodi spun around to face him and pressed her hand to her stomach.

“I need you to know, that when you speak English, it does something special to my heart.”

JiYong smirked and bit his lip. “Lethargic.”

“Boy, stop.”

“Choreography.”

“Oh, I can't take it!”

JiYong walked around the counter and whispered in her ear. “Reluctant.” Jodi rolled her eyes back and slumped to the floor. He laughed while he reached down to help Jodi stand