♦Narrator♦

The sight of the clouds weren't even being taken in by Jay as he was too busy reviewing everything in his head, over and over again. Everything had to be perfect. He was currently on a flight back to Korea but SooMi didn't know that. A surprise return would be the perfect way to start off his even bigger surprise, no?

...

"You want to marry our daughter?" Mr. Jang said standing up, looking Jay straight in the eye. Jay gulped feeling slightly nervous but not backing down, keeping a firm hand and displaying great confidence.

"Yes sir. I am so in love with her. I'm prepared to start a new chapter in our lives together."

Mr. Jang smiled inwardly to himself without showing it on the outside. Both SooMi's parents have been waiting for Jay to ask for their blessings for the longest time. They were more than willing to say yes but Mr. Jang, being the humorous man he is, finds it amusing to tease Jay just a little bit.

"What if something happens? Something big, like another illness? What if she changes? Her appearance? What if she becomes FAT?" he said widening his eyes, trying to intimidate Jay while trying hard to contain his laughter. Jay was taken aback by the question for it came out of nowhere.

"I'm willing to do anything it takes for her to keep a healthy, fit, shape and I will take care of her." Jay said sort of in a question way, for he had hoped that that was an acceptable answer to the unusal question. "I will make sure that if anything, she will be the one to bury me. If I were the one to bury her..." Jay trailed off, already feeling part of the pain that would come along if she were to leave him. "I might as well die with her. I can't live alone without her. Even when she left for America, I thought I would die. I never stopped thinking about her. The day she reappeared into my life, I thought that I was given a second chance, that a miracle had occured. I will not mess this up." Jay said with courage, looking dead into Mr. Jang's eyes.

Mr. Jang was more than satisfied with Jay's answer, and his expression softened up with a smile. Jay felt a little relief after seeing that but still kept his guard up. Mrs. Jang stood up from the couch and pulled Jay into a warm hug while Mr. Jang patted his shoulder.

"Welcome to the family, son."

...

Jay smiled reminiscing over the flashback and couldn't believe that he was going to ask SooMi to be his wife. Wife. Mrs. Park SooMi. It had a nice ring to it. Just thinking about their future together got him excited. From now on when introducing himself, he would get the privilege to say the words "And this is my wife, SooMi." He would be a married man now. Commitment, he was making a commitment and a commitment to be a husband. Thinking about all of this had consumed his mind so much he didn't even notice the smile on his face as he held on to the ring.

***

Waking up to a beautiful Saturday morning, SooMi got dressed for a simple outing with no plans in particular. Just a nice leisurely walk throughout the city was what she was hoping for. Since she hasn't been out in a while, she felt that she wanted to dress up just a little bit.

After gathering her belongings, she opened the front door to come face to face with the shining sun. A smile crossed her face for she loved the sun and the bright light it gives off. As she was about to lock the door she noticed a small box on the ground.

Hmm..what's this?

She picked it up and examined it. Being the curious girl she is, she did what anyone else would do and opened it. To her surprise, she found the cutest little ring inside. Admiration was written all over her face when she noticed a small little note on the bottom of the box. 

If found, please return to _________

...and there stated an address.

Well, I know it's not mine so someone must've lost it. Omo! What if someone's going to propose tonight? They can't propose without a ring!

With worry etched on her face she quickly looked up the address and made her way there. Being so innocent, SooMi was determined to get this ring to its rightful owner.

She was so immersed in getting to her destination that she didn't even notice someone watching her from afar and laughing to himself while he watched his plan unfold.

She's too cute.

***

Paying the cab driver, she ran into the small shop which the address had taken her to. The shopkeeper was startled to see the girl run and burst her way through the door and make her way towards the counter.

"Juhgiyo!" SooMi tried to get the shopkeeper's attention.

"N-ne?"

SooMi rummaged through her bag and pulled out the box saying, "Are you the owner of this ring?" The shopkeeper held it and inspected the ring before the eyes on her face widened.

"Omo! I know whose ring this is!" the shopkeeper exclaimed.

"Jeongmal?" SooMi asked happily.

"Ne!"

"Great! So my work here is done." SooMi smirked. "Now you can return it to its owner, ne ahjumma?" she asked knowing that she did a good deed today.

"Mwoya? Ah ani, I can't!" the shopkeeper said while shaking her head back and forth.

"W-wae?"

"I have to watch over the shop! He might need this right now! You have to return it!" the shopkeeper panicked.

"R-return it! I don't even know who it belongs to!"

"Aish, ottoke??" the shopkeeper began to worry and began biting her nails. "Ah! I know!" she pulled out a notepad and started scribbling away. "He mentioned something about stopping for a drink here at this cafe" she told SooMi while pointing to the address she had written out. "Go there, and see if you can find out anything." she instructed.

"But, w-why me?" 

"Aish, child what if he's going to propose and he doesn't have the ring! Do you know how embarassing that would be? Plus it would ruin the moment! Now the girl will know that he has plans to propose and it won't be much of a surpise if he tries to propose again!" the shopkeeper said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Here!" the shopkeeper said making her way to her purse behind the counter. "If it helps, I'll pay you for doing this!" she said while looking through her bag.

"A-ani ahjumma!" SooMi could never take money for something like this.

"Well then, look! I'll give you anything in the shop here." she reasoned.

"Ani ahjumma, you don't have to.." SooMi held up her hands in defense while glancing over at something. The shopkeeper noticed this.

"Mwoya? What is it? What do you want? I know you were looking at something!" the shopkeeper smiled knowing that she had SooMi right where she wanted her. SooMi couldn't deny the fact that she did have her eye on something. She put her hands down and sheepishly smiled while walking over to what she had desired.

The shopkeeper followed her eyes and saw what she had wanted.

"The record player?" the shopkeeper smiled. "You have a good eye."

SooMi always took a liking to old, vintage things. As soon as her eyes landed on the record player that came with a set of records, she could not look away. At home she had a shelf full of old records that lie from her love of old music. Unfortunately, they just sit there collecting dust for she never could find a nice record player and all the phonographs that she liked were too much for her.

"Tell you what, I'll throw in a walkman and some cassettes too. How's that sound?"

"Jeongmal?" SooMi's eyes lit up at hearing that she'll be getting a walkman too. She could finally listen to all her old tapes again. 

"Ne, and oh! I'll give you one more thing since you seem to be into the old things of my time." the shopkeeper laughed. She went to the back and after retrieving what she wanted, made her way back to SooMi handing her the item.

"A p-polaroid??" she couldn't believe that she was getting all of these things in one day! She always thought that pictures were more memorable through the lens of a polaroid therefore she couldn't resist. "Ahjumma, gomawoyo! Jeongmal gomawo!" she jumped and hugged the shopkeeper tightly.

"Yes, yes you're welcome now go! Go find that boy before it's too late." the shopkeeper laughed shooing her away. 

"Thank you so much ahjumma! I won't forget this place! I'll be coming back!" SooMi smiled and waved goodbye. She walked out of there with a bagful of things she only dreamed of having. 

I have a feeling today's going to be great.

SooMi laughed and waved for a cab. She figured that it would be like a cat and mouse chase finding this man so she paid the cab driver for the whole day. She pulled out the walkman, stuck in a tape, and plugged her ears as they soon were filled with music. Next, she took out her polaroid and took a snapshot of herself, to mark the beggining of a day she felt that she wanted to remember.

Looks like I'm going on an adventure.

The bell rang as the door of the small shop opened again. The shopkeeper looked up to see who her next visitor was.

"Thank you so much, Imo." the boy walked up to her and kissed her cheek.

"Ah, no problem Jay. Anything for my little nephew. Aigoo, look at you growing up, you're going to propose and get married now!" she said pretending to wipe a tear from her eye.

"Aish, imo come on I'm still your little boy!" Jay said pulling in his aunt for a hug.

"I know, I know but it's just...wow. So she's the one, eh?" his aunt smiled up at him.

"Yup. She's the one." Jay replied with confidene and love.

"Good. You hold on to her Jay. I approve. I give you my blessing. I like her!" she exclaimed. "She's definitely a keeper."

"I know, imo." Jay laughed. "Here." he said handing her a wad of cash. "For the walkman, the record player, and the polaroid. I would've paid before hand but my plan kind of got a bit of a late start." Jay chuckled.

"Aish, Jay! No need to pay! I'm your aunt so I'll give it free. This little idea of yours is so cute, I just love it! Creative proposal, I should say. Plus, I like that girl and I wouldn't want to give those items to just anyone, you know that. Those were my favorite things back in the day!" his aunt smiled.

Jay was glad that you accepted all that his aunt offered you. He knew you would love them and he knew that you would set your eyes on the record player first. He told his aunt beforehand to throw in the walkman and polaroid because he knew of your love for old things.

"Now get going! Follow her and make sure everythign goes as planned." she said shooing away yet another person.

"Thanks, imo!" Jay kissed her cheek as he left.

"Good luck!" she waved.

Happy New Year everyone ^.^ Looks like this story might be ending soon :( Don't worry though I still have a lot planned for this story so look forward to it! I've been thinking about rewriting all the previous chapters because well...they . I mean I feel like the way I wrote them was just so amateur, which is funny since I'm in an honors english class where I always get high scores on my essays and get complimented for my good writing. I'll just rewrite them to fit the writing style that I should've used when writing those chapters. The story line won't change at all, I'm just going to edit them and make them more...umm what's the right word? I think mature. Anyway, hope everyone had a great 2012 and look forward to 2013!

lexamikol