The men ran to the edge of that broken pier, just before the gap, and dove into the ocean after her.

Gary’s eyes darted through the midnight blue depths, searching for Ji Hyo, his cheeks puffed out as he tried to contain what was left of that last big breath he had taken just before the dive. He saw her body falling, her hair spread out around her face, and he thought that he had lost her, but her arms suddenly began flailing about and he knew then that she was still alive. He reached toward her, grabbed her by the waist, and pulled her up to the surface. The storm was diminishing just as quickly as it had developed, the waves calmer now. With his arm around Ji Hyo’s waist, Gary swam to shore, pulling her onto the sand as she coughed up the seawater that she had swallowed. He had just caught his breath when Ji Hyo reached out to him, squeezing him so tightly that he nearly lost his breath again.

“I’m so sorry, Gary-ah. I’m so sorry,” Ji Hyo said, her head resting on his shoulder in that tight embrace, her eyes closed. “I am so sorry for everything. I love you so much.”

Jong Kook made it back to the shore just then, seeing the two crying in their embrace. He watched them for a moment, their immense love for each other warming his heart and breaking it at the same time – such a striking contrast of emotions… mirth and misery, all at once. But he knew that the scene before him was the way it should be. Gary and Ji Hyo had been together from the start, and they deserved to be together at the end. What they shared together was irreplaceable. There was no doubt in Jong Kook’s heart that Gary would love Ji Hyo forever and would always make her happy. Jennifer had wanted to guide Jong Kook toward happiness so that he could move on. But she had said that she was wrong, that she should’ve let fate decide. And fate has made that decision in Gary’s favor… and rightfully so. Jong Kook didn’t need Ji Hyo to be happy. He had his daughter, and with little Sun Marie, all the happiness in the world was his.

Jong Kook stood up and Ji Hyo looked up at him then, her head still on Gary’s shoulder. Jong Kook smiled and nodded knowingly, and she smiled back, the two in complete understanding through that small gesture. He walked away then, leaving Ji Hyo and Gary to have their moment on the beach.

Ji Hyo pulled away from Gary’s embrace and stared into her fiancé’s eyes. “Do you forgive me? Can you ever forgive me?”

“Of course, Ji Hyo-yah. Of course.” He kissed her then, the salty sea on their lips and tongues, the rain pouring down around them. He thought back on the first time they had kissed, how nervous he had been and how fast his heart had raced, but this moment felt nothing like that. He was at complete ease, his heart finally at rest. “Saranghae, Ji Hyo-yah,” he said, as their lips parted. He held her hand, looking down at her engagement ring and tracing the diamond with his fingertip. “We will always be together, Ji Hyo-yah. Even if we separate, we will always be in each other’s hearts.”

She remembered the sensation that she had felt the night of Jennifer’s service, that sudden overwhelming fear of losing him. “But we won’t separate, Gary-ah.” She hugged him once more, feeling at home in his arms. “Never again.”

“Oh?” Gary smiled. “What if Leessang goes on a worldwide tour? Will you come with me?”

“Yes,” Ji Hyo said, her smile wide. “You’re stuck with me now… always.”

Gary enjoyed teasing her. Their best times together were when they played with each other in this way, joking and laughing. “Ai, Ji Hyo-yah. You have to let me out of your sight sometime. What about when I’m in the studio recording all night?”

“And leave you alone with those fan girls hanging around? No chance,” Ji Hyo said.

He stopped joking and looked at her more seriously now. The rain had slowed to a drizzle, but they were still drenched from the sea. “Ji Hyo-yah, you’re the only woman for me. You know that, right? I live for you, you only.”

“I’ve always known that, Gary-ah,” Ji Hyo said. She’d had her arm around him, and she pulled his wet body closer to hers now, their chests pressed against each other, their arms sweeping down each other’s back. She leaned in and let her lips glide across his, not yet a kiss… just a touch, knowing how much he liked these small moments. “I’ll never let anything come between us again,” she said.

Gary closed his eyes and turned that touch of their lips into another kiss, both taking comfort in the familiarity of their movements, how their lips always met between each push of their tongues, how he always breathed in deeply before pursuing her more passionately, and how she always followed that pursuit with a soft moan, feeling her body tremble in excitement at the way he loved her. Ji Hyo’s heart has always belonged to him.

When they returned to Korea, Gary and Ji Hyo sent out wedding invitations right away, anxious to start th