Julie’s POV

Oh my gosh! We haven’t even gotten our stories straight. What am I supposed to say to them?  After three knocks Mrs. Cho walks in excitedly with Mr. Cho following behind her. She runs to me and clings to my arm as if we are best friends.

“How was he? Was he great?” She is so eager to know how her son is.

“He…um, yes. He is great.” I answer her nervously.

“AH! I KNEW HE WOULD BE!” she said victoriously. “He has always been very stubborn and hard headed growing up. It’s the feisty ones who are good!” She winked at me.

“He is very stubborn…yes.” I am still so nervous; I hate lying to her.

“Let’s go out for coffee! Go get ready!” She said shooing me into my bedroom.  I happily go into my room and change. This time alone to think is exactly what I need. Should I just tell her that we are still getting to know each other? That her son is a gentleman and has never even tried to pressure me into that? We have been using this time to fall in love.  I walk into my closet and grab my white and blue dress. It seems appropriate for my first mother-in-law outing.

After I change and put some makeup on, I sit on my bed for a few minutes. Should I tell her the truth? Of course I want to do that with him but why do we have to rush things? We are both still young so we can still have babies for a long time. I sigh and get up to join my in-laws. As I open the door, I hear whispering. Are they planning something embarrassing? I don’t think I can take much more. I bring my ear close to the cracked door and listen the best I can. I’d rather know what’s coming.

“We are not supposed to discuss this with her.”  Said Mr. Cho.

“What am I supposed to tell her then?! You can’t just leave for no reason!” Mrs. Cho answers.

“Tell her I got called into work.”

“But I am a terrible liar!”

“You will have to pretend to be ne today. I need to go now, good luck.”

I hear the front door close as Mr. Cho leaves to go somewhere. But where is he going? I walk out of the bedroom and Mrs. Cho jumps, startled.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

“Y-yes. I’m fine!”

“Where did Mr. Cho leave to?” I say. Mrs. Cho looks really nervous.

“Oh, uh he had to go to work.”

“Oh, that’s so sad. I was really hoping he would join us. Is there any way he could do his work after a short coffee break?” I ask innocently. Mrs. Cho looks like she might burst.

“No no, he is too serious about his work. Let’s go now!” She says hurrying me to the door. I wonder what they are hiding from me.

---

We arrive at the coffee shop and Mrs. Cho is still on edge. She really can’t hide anything. But I feel like even if I know something is up, she still wouldn’t tell me; I will just have to ask Kyuhyun when he gets home.

“So, Julie, what kind of coffee do you like?” She asks me while trying to focus on all of the items on the menu so she won’t look so fidgety.

“I love sweet things and anything with caramel in it so I usually get a caramel macchiato.” I answer.

“Oh! That is my favorite too! I am so glad I chose you for my son!” She answered excitedly before giving the waitress our order.

“How did you find me, anyway?” I ask curiously.

“Oh dear, I found you on the internet!” At this, my mouth dropped and my eyes shot open. The internet?! What the heck, I was set up on the internet?! My parents have officially lost their minds.

“Please explain.” I say trying to compose myself.

“Well, there is this website for parents who want their children to get married! It is very detailed and even lets you chose what country! Kyuhyun has always found white, American girls extremely attractive, your personality traits matched his perfectly, and you were listed as looking for a Korean man! The match couldn’t have been more perfect so we contacted your parents and now you are here!” she was so thrilled about her plan.

“But, what if me and your son met and then hated each other. We really didn’t get along at first but what if we had stayed that way and never fallen for each other?” I ask.

“After talking to your parents, we knew you guys would fall for each other. The more we talked to each other the more we realized that you guys are pretty much the same person and even your flaws were similar. There was a small chance that you guys wouldn’t have liked each other but it was much more likely that you guys would thank us for it.” She sounds so sincere and loving.

“Then, why did you have us married right away? Couldn’t we have dated first?”

“Oh, no no no! Kyuhyun would have done everything he could to avoid you to the point that he never would have met you! And your parents say that you would have done the same! Immediate marriage was the only way.” I really don’t like that I was put on a dating website by my parents, or that I was forced into marriage without being allowed to date or meet him, but she is right about us probably never meeting if our parents tried to get us to date. And I do love him now. I guess I should say thank you, but my pride won’t let me because of that dating site thing. Actually, it was a marriage site; I am practically a mail order bride. I am in no way okay with that.

“So, Mrs. Cho, there is something I should tell you.” I said with my head hanging in shame.

“What is it, dear?”

“I…we…still haven’t done it.” I said feeling sorry towards her. I don’t like that I lied to her; she is too sweet of a person to be lied to.

“You haven’t done what?” she asks confused.

“I have not had with your son yet.” I admit. Her face is full of hurt.

“Why did you lie to me?”

“When I first met your son, we fought a lot. He would get angry after only seeing my face. It took us a while to realize our love for each other and we are still falling in love every day. We are just not ready yet. We didn’t want to lie to you, but we didn’t want to be rushed into our first time either.” I explained.

“Oh, I see. I don’t mean to be pushing you into something you don’t want to do.” She is insulted.

“It’s not something I don’t want to do! I want to, I really do! But last night we felt like we weren’t ready for that and went on a date instead. And after that we got in a fight so-“

“You got in a fight? What happened?” She asked worried.

“Oh, it’s nothing. We are okay now. As of last night we have come to a point in our relationship in which fighting hurts us because when we hurt the other person, it hurts us even more. He was sad and it was the worst feeling I had ever felt.”

“You have come to that point in your relationship and you still don’t feel like you are ready? Just kill me now.” She says dramatically.

“But…” I sigh, “As of this morning, I want to now.” I painfully admit. Why am I telling her so much? I should have just kept my mouth shut and let her talk about coffee.

“Then do it! What are you waiting for?! He can always call in sick!” she exclaimed. Call in sick? I feel like the Super Junior members would come to check on him if he did that and then we would be caught…that is not an option I like.

“He works so hard, I think it would be best to save his sick days for when he really needs them.”

“He has been a for 25 years. Trust me, he needs that sick day. Better yet, go on a honeymoon and get away! You can go anywhere you want to go!” her emotions are like a roller coaster. One moment she is excited, the next she is upset, and then in an instant she is upset. This is not something I am used to.

“Honeymoon?”

“Yes, then you can make it as special as you want it to be!” She says. I suppose a honeymoon is not a bad idea, but I didn’t even get to have a wedding. I wish I could have had a wedding.

Kyuhyun’s POV

“We don’t know for sure if that is the reason why she was almost kidnapped,” said the police officer.

“But there is a very big chance that it was?” said my dad irritated.

“Look, I don’t want to put any ideas into your head. You asked us to keep you informed about the investigation so I told you what we are looking into, but that might not be the case. If this is too stressful for you then we can just tell you the definite answer after the case is solved and nothing else.”

“Did I say I wanted to be left out of the investigation? Is this the face of a man who wants to sit back and know nothing while you twiddle your thumbs?” my dad said angrily.

“Dad, I’m sure they are working very hard to figure out why Julie is in danger. We should leave them to continue working on it.” I turn to the officers and bow. “Thank you for your hard work and please continue.  Also, I ask that you keep the officers posted in front of my apartment to be under cover because we don’t want to upset Julie with any of this. We will be going now.”  With the officers looking less irritated, I walk out of the police station with my dad and in-laws. Julie’s parents are speechless. I hate feeling so helpless; I want to keep Julie safe and make them feel better. I don’t want them to regret sending her to me. Ever.

---

I walk into my apartment after a long day. Both mine and Julie’s parents have gone home to sleep; my parents bought Julie’s parents a house for when they come here to visit, tonight is their first night there.

“Oh, you’re home!” Julie said peeking her head out of the kitchen and smiling. Just seeing her face melts the cold around my heart. It has been a long day; I am so thankful I have her to make me feel better when I come home, even if I can’t tell her that something is wrong. I can’t let her find out. Her face turns red and she looks to the floor.

“Why are you blushing? Am I pretty today?” I say laughing. She runs to me and before I can comprehend what is happening her lips are on mine. Her soft perfect lips kiss mine, gently at first, and then more passionately as her hand grab onto my shirt and my hands find her waist. What did I do to deserve this? She breaks the kiss and looks into my eyes.

“You were expecting that kiss to be waiting for you when you got home, I hope I didn’t disappoint,” she says blushing. My mind flashes back to that morning when she kissed me passionately before I left the house, making me not want to leave. I smile back at her.

“You could never disappoint me! I love everything about you!” I said before pulling her back in for another kiss. My lips move with hers on their own accord, I feel as if I have no control over them anymore. Her lips are like a drug, I can’t get enough of them. After a few minutes, our innocent kissing gets more heated. She bites my lip and it causes me to hold her closer, wanting to kiss her more.  Her hand slides under my shirt and touches my stomach, causing a tingling sensation to go throughout my entire body. I break the kiss and push her away.

“It is not safe for you to do that.” I say out of breath. She smiles deviously at me.

“If that’s what you want.” She says before smiling, turning her back to me and walking back into the kitchen. What just happened?