Forever Monday

Ji Hyo could feel the pulse of the crowd as if it was her own beating heart. The noise thumped throughout her body and energized her, making her feel, even though she was standing off to the side of the stage rather than out on the floor with the rest of the fans, that she was united on some deep organic level with them. The cheer that escaped her lips was but a layer in the collective excitement resounding in that New York City club for Gary and Gil of Leessang, who were about to sing their last song of the night.

Gary stood in the center of the stage in his dark attire with his head down, his eyes closed behind his sunglasses as he listened to the crowd. He slowly lifted the microphone, hearing the rising intensity of his fans as he did so, and then opened his eyes as he turned to look at the far side of the stage, where Ji Hyo stood unseen by the crowd. The love he felt for her made his heart cramp so much that he had to put a hand to his chest, afraid that his heart would give out and that he would collapse right there on the stage.

With one hand still at his chest and the other bringing the microphone to his lips, he turned to the crowd and, in a voice that echoed with amplifier reverb, said, “This last song is about my heart. It’s about the love I want to give someone, a love so strong that my heart seizes every time I see her.”

The opening guitar notes to “I Will Give My Everything to You,” layered with Jung In’s melodic vocals, swelled out of the club’s speakers. Gary lowered his head again, nodding to the music, and then cut in with the lyrics. Your heart is my house. Where you stand is my path…

He tried to sing for the crowd but every cell in his body urged him to turn toward Ji Hyo, for whom this song was secretly written. Facing her now, he sang only for her. Dear you, lock your arms around my neck. Open up your heart and have my love. Let’s walk together tomorrow. You’re special to me, definitely, fervently…

Ji Hyo was taken aback when Gary suddenly turned to the side and faced her as he sang those lines. Although he was far away, at least ten steps out in the middle of that stage, she felt for a moment like he was standing right in front of her, pouring out his heart. But when he turned back to face the crowd as he finished singing the verse, she dismissed those thoughts, thinking that it was silly to imagine that such words could be directed toward her.

Later, though, after the concert was over and they sat in the hotel bar having a drink, he said something that made her think back on those words. “Ji Hyo-yah,” he said. “Let’s walk together tomorrow.”

Gil and the Leessang entourage had already gone to their rooms by then, as it was after two in the morning, leaving Gary and Ji Hyo alone in that small hotel bar. The quiet of the bar, in contrast with the loudness of the concert earlier, was somewhat unsettling. Ji Hyo’s ears were still ringing.

“You’re on the same flight back with me, right?” Gary asked. “Tuesday morning?”

Ji Hyo nodded and sipped the last of her champagne.

“So we have all of tomorrow to spend together,” he said. “You didn’t have plans, did you?”

“Ani, I was just going to do some shopping. Maybe buy some souvenirs for people back home.”

Gary smiled. Ji Hyo was always thinking of others. Gesturing her up from the table, he said, “Then let’s head to our rooms and sleep well tonight.” He placed his hand gently on the small of her back as they left the bar. Although their rooms were on different floors, he got off the elevator with her to make sure that she arrived at her room safely. “I’ll wake you in the morning,” he said.

Ji Hyo was pulled from her dreams just before nine the next morning by soft knocking at her door. Having only had a few hours of sleep, she was tired but also excited about spending the day exploring the city.

Expecting to see Gary when she opened the door, she was startled to see a bellhop instead.

“Miss Song?”

Ji Hyo rubbed the sleep from her eyes and nodded.

“Mr. Kang asked me to deliver a message. He said that once you’re dressed and ready, to meet him outside the front entrance.”

“Oh?” She wondered why he sent someone instead of calling on her himself. He must have some business to attend to, she thought.

The bellhop handed her a steaming cup of coffee. “He said it’s just the way you like it.”

Ji Hyo smiled and accepted the coffee. “Thank you,” she said, as she closed the door. An Americano in America, she thought, as she breathed in the rich aroma and carefully sipped it.

It took her longer than expected to get ready. She wasn’t sure why, but she felt nervous and couldn’t stop fidgeting with her makeup and the green sundress she was wearing. By the time she left the room and caught the elevator down, nearly forty minutes had passed since the bellhop delivered the message. She felt terrible about keeping Gary waiting.

The elevator opened up to the lobby of that grand hotel, the marble floors shimmering underneath the crystal chandeliers. She looked around at the luxurious furnishings as if seeing it for the first time. When they arrived yesterday, she had been jet-lagged and hadn’t paid much attention to her surroundings. But now that she was more alert, she wondered why Gary had chosen such a fancy hotel. He had the money, of course, but it wasn’t like him to be so extravagant.

As she neared the front entrance, the doorman smiled and partially bowed as he opened the door, flooding the entranceway with sunlight and the clamor of the busy city street. She thanked him and stepped out onto the sidewalk, looking in both directions for Gary but not seeing him. Ahead, the traffic breezed past the cabs and the horse carriages parked out front. From the front seat of one of those carriages, Gary suddenly called out to her.

“Your carriage awaits, Miss Song Ji Hyo!”

Ji Hyo stared up at him sitting in that carriage and holding the reins as the two white horses neighed. She instantly covered and tried to contain her laughter. “Gary-ah! What are you doing?”

He gestured for her to join him but she shook her head and bit her lip, still surprised at the sight of him and not quite believing that he wanted to steer that carriage around the city all by himself.

“Ah, you got me,” he said, blushing as he stepped down and joined her on the sidewalk. He held her hand and turned her attention to the chauffer who had just emerged from behind the carriage. “I suppose you’d feel more comfortable if he drove, huh?”

“Oh! Are we really taking a carriage?” Ji Hyo asked.

He smiled as he put his arm around her and led her to the carriage steps. “Come on,” he said. “They say it’s the best way to see Central Park.”

Ji Hyo stepped up into the carriage, brushing her hand along the red velvet seating and looking around at the satin white enclosure. As Gary sat beside her in the back and the chauffeur took his seat up front, Ji Hyo turned to Gary and smiled. “This reminds me of that day on the show, when I rode in the princess carriage.”

“The day I kissed you?” Gary asked.

“Gary-ah! I still can’t believe you did that.”

“Don’t blame me, Ji Hyo-yah. Blame my heart.”

Ji Hyo smiled, by now used to his poetic witticisms. She didn’t want him to know how much she enjoyed hearing him talk like that, mostly because she didn’t believe that she was the sole object of such wooing. It was part of his charm and the reason why girls swooned over him.

The driver had taken hold of the reins and the white horses up front sprung into their trot onto the street, sending the carriage off with a sudden push. Ji Hyo leaned forward and peeked outside the carriage, wary of entering the traffic, but the carriage soon turned off the main avenue and headed toward a single-lane street entrance to the park. The sounds and sights of the city faded as they left the buildings behind and made their way into the greenery.

“Whoa, daebak,” Ji Hyo exclaimed, taken aback by the stark shift in scenery. The lane curved around the lush landscape, which was full of dense green trees and small rock formations. Bordering the lane was a sidewalk where people walked and jogged leisurely, occasionally crossing over the lane to continue into worn paths through the park. The carriage moved slowly enough to put Ji Hyo at ease and she now sat back in the seat with a smile as she continued taking in the landscape.

Gary sat quietly, studying Ji Hyo’s face and every subtle movement of her lips. Over the years, he had memorized these movements and what they meant – the way she pressed them closed and rolled her teeth over her lower lip when she was focused and concentrating, or the way she let them fall open and curled her tongue to the side when she was lost in meandering thoughts. He could tell what she was feeling, what she thinking, by those lips. As he watched the way she smiled now, how her smile deepened and ebbed and deepened again like the flow of waves, he knew she was genuinely happy.

The rhythmic clacking of the horses’ hooves upon the pavement slowed as the carriage turned down a narrow path that winded toward a red brick pavilion. Gary watched Ji Hyo’s expression, knowing what she would ask before she could utter it but letting her ask anyway.

“Where are we going?” Ji Hyo asked.

“Can’t tell you,” he said.

“What?” Ji Hyo playfully nudged him. “What are you up to?” She looked at him curiously and then turned her attention to the pavilion they were slowly approaching. She could hear organ music, the type one might hear at an old carnival.

As the carriage slowed to a step, Gary stepped down onto the pavement and held out his hand to help Ji Hyo out. The brick pavilion had open archways, through which Ji Hyo could see a carousel. The flashing colored lights were washed out by the sun but the calliope music was full of life and beckoned them forward. There weren’t that many people there that Monday morning, but those that were there had come with children, making Ji Hyo feel a bit too old to ride.

As if knowing what she was thinking, Gary grabbed her hand and whispered, “We’re young at heart, Ji Hyo-yah.” He smiled then and ushered her into the pavilion and onto the carousel platform where they walked between the fifty-seven uniquely painted horses.

“I want to ride this one,” Ji Hyo said cheerfully, as she grabbed the bar near a white horse with a blonde mane and a bright red saddle, its head arched high and its legs bent as if frozen in a gallop.

Gary hopped atop the horse next to her. “I’ll ride anywhere so long as it is by your side,” he said.

Ji Hyo blushed. “Are you acting this way because it’s Monday?”

“It’s forever Monday… in my heart.”

“Ai, Gary-ah.”

The calliope music began again as the platform started moving, the horses each drifting up and down the metal pole to which they were attached. As the rode, Ji Hyo listened to the music and to the laughter of the children around them. She wished for a moment that she could relive her childhood, not because she disliked her adult life, but because she missed, as she assumed most people did, that carefree existence. Everything was new back then. Life was full of hope and mysteries. She always worried that as she grew older, she would lose that sense of wonderment. But riding on this carousel reminded her that she was, as Gary said, still young at heart. And life was still full of mysteries… like this curious oppa beside her, whom she could never seem to figure out.

Gary’s thoughts were focused only on Ji Hyo and all the things he had planned for them today. As the platform continued to slowly spin, he revised those plans in his head, trying to make the most of their short time in the city while also maintaining an insouciant, laidback vibe. No stress, he thought. He just wanted her to be happy all day.

When the ride came to an end, Gary helped Ji Hyo off her horse and they then strolled back to the carriage. “You tired of horses yet?” Gary asked, as he helped her up into the back of the carriage.

“Never,” Ji Hyo said, smiling.

They rode north through the park to Loeb Boathouse, which sat at the eastern end of a wide watery expanse, bordered on all sides by tall greenery. Ji Hyo could see the skyscrapers of the city towering from behind those trees, the only reminder that they were still in a metropolis. It was a sight to behold – the way those buildings framed the picturesque landscape.

She wanted to ask Gary what they were doing here at the boathouse, but knew that he would only reply with some cryptic poetic answer. And so, when he asked her to sit outside on one of the tables overlooking the lake and wait, she did so without question.

It wasn’t long before he returned to her. Whispering in her ear, he said, “Our gondola awaits.”

“Gondola?” she asked. First a carriage, and now… a gondola? This Kang Gary was something else.

They walked down to the docks where the gondolier, complete with a red and white striped shirt and a straw hat adorned with a red ribbon, stood with one long wooden oar at the stern of that narrow boat, its ends curved up off the water.

“It’s like we’re in Venice,” Ji Hyo said, as the gondolier helped her aboard. When Gary boarded, too, she noticed that he was holding a picnic basket. “You brought food?” she asked.

“Hungry?”

Ji Hyo quickly nodded, but her excited expression soon transformed into skepticism. “When did you…? Wait, how did you…?”

“Speechless was exactly the reaction I was hoping for,” Gary said, as he sat on the wooden seat across from Ji Hyo.

“What’s with you today? Is this… a date?”

“A date?” Gary peered into the basket with a mischievous smile and pulled out a container of mixed fruit. “Nope, no dates in here. Just strawberries and melons.”

“Aish,” Ji Hyo said, shaking her head. She decided to leave the question of his romantic intent out in the open, unanswered, as the gondolier steered them out into the water. Maybe it was just the way Gary was, she thought. Throughout their time together on Running Man, he had always maintained the Monday Couple pretense even when the cameras were no longer on. Or, at least, she had always thought it was a pretense, but perhaps it was instead a personality trait, something inherent and natural rather than an act. If so, she was surprised that he was still single.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked her.

“Nothing,” she said. “Just wondering what else is in that basket.”

“Hmm,” he said. He reached inside and pulled out a folded piece of cloth, which he then unfurled and lay down on the wooden bench seat between them, placing the fruit in the center.

“Tablecloth?” Ji Hyo asked. “You think of everything, don’t you, oppa?”

Gary blushed and pulled out two Greek salads and a bottle of wine.

“Oh, looks like you forgot the desert,” Ji Hyo teased.

“Ji Hyo, do you think I don’t know you at all? Of course I bought something sweet.” Gary held the lid of the basket open so that she could see the cranberry scones inside. Ji Hyo was about to reach in but Gary quickly flipped the lid closed, nearly snapping off her hand.

Ji Hyo recoiled in surprise. “Wha–”

Gary stared down, trying to hide his red face. “I just, I always wanted to do that thing from Pretty Woman. That scene where uh…”

“Oh!” Ji Hyo laughed, knowing the scene to which he was referring. “Shall we do the Titanic pose, too?”

“Ji Hyo-yah, we’ve already done the Titanic pose. Don’t you remember?”

Ji Hyo smiled and reached for the salad, careful now with her hand. “You’re not going to try the Pretty Woman thing again, right?”

Gary, embarrassed, shook his head.

“Okay,” Ji Hyo said, reaching confidently now for the salad. She enjoyed teasing him. There was no one else in her life like Gary, someone with whom she could play in such ways. That was precisely why she had broken things off with Baek Chang Joo just a month earlier. He had caused her nothing but stress, always taking everything seriously and not once enjoying the simple pleasures of life. With him, that fear she had of growing old and losing that childlike sense of wonderment was real. With Gary, it was the opposite. It was nothing but wonderment.   

The gondolier stopped rowing for a moment to open the bottle of wine and pour two glasses for them. As Ji Hyo and Gary clanked their glasses together, the gondolier began serenading them. Even though she knew that it was custom in Venice for the gondolier to sing, Ji Hyo hadn’t expected that here in Central Park. She covered to hide her smile.

They ate comfortably on the gondola and gazed dreamily across the lake to the bordering trees, so full and green with sweeping branches that left long shadows along the water’s edge. As they listened to the Italian song being sung just for them, both Gary and Ji Hyo secretly wished that their time together on the water would never end.

After leaving Central Park, they spent the afternoon walking aimlessly through the city, doing some shopping on Fifth Avenue, taking in the sights at Times Square, and breezily passing through the Museum of Modern Art. They had dinner at Chez Josephine, a Parisian restaurant with red velvet walls and elaborate chandeliers, and then returned to the hotel late that evening to rest.

Ji Hyo knew that she was tired, but she lay restless in that hotel bed, unable to fall asleep. Her mind was full of thoughts about the day, curious as to how Gary was so prepared. He didn’t know New York well, or at least, that’s what she had thought. But today, he seemed to know everything. Had he done that much planning for just one day? Why?

She closed her eyes but these thoughts raced through her head, stopping only when a sudden knock at the door startled her from her daydreaming. She walked to the door expecting to see Gary, but greeting her again was the same bellhop from that morning.

“Hello, Miss Song,” he said.

“Another message from Mr. Kang?” she asked, smiling.

“A car is waiting for you outside,” he said.

“Okay, thank you,” she said, as she closed the door and wondered what that Kang Gary up to now. This time, she decided, she wouldn’t leave him waiting so long. She quickly retouched her makeup and left her room within minutes of receiving the message.

As she stepped back onto those New York City streets, she felt like she was in a different world. The city at night looked so different than during the daytime. Couples seemed to walk more closely together and the noise of the traffic seemed quieter somehow. But it was the lights that made the difference. She looked up and saw that the sky was dark with no stars to be seen because of the twinkling lights emanating from the windows of the skyscrapers all around her.

Directly ahead of her was a black limo, idling. The driver was standing near the rear door and when he saw her, he opened the door for her.

“Miss Song?” he asked, gesturing her forward.

Ji Hyo nodded and sat in the backseat, feeling her body tremble with nervousness as to why Gary had sent a limo. She wondered now if she was dressed appropriately in just her plain green sundress, which was somewhat wrinkly from being worn all day.

When the driver sat down up front and began driving away from the hotel, Ji Hyo leaned forward and was about to ask him where they were heading, but decided to instead sit back again and just let it be. Anyway, she was sure that Gary had arranged for the driver to deliver some poetic message in response to any questions about their destination. She smiled thinking about this. It was nice to feel special.

She watched the lights and the storefronts and the people of the city flash past her window, feeling like the world was so alive around her and that she was a part of that life, a part of that world despite how foreign it all felt. Back in Seoul with Baek Chang Joo, she had always felt so alone and isolated. But that was over and her heart was now open to all the possibilities the world had to offer.

The limo pulled up in front of a building on Fifth Avenue. Ji Hyo tried peeking out the window but couldn’t see any signs. The driver came around and opened her door, and when she stepped out and looked up at the building, she saw the words Empire State in gold letters on the façade. Looking up and up now, her head tilted far back, she tried to grasp the height of the building.

“Welcome to the Empire State Building, Miss Song.”

As the people hurried past her on the sidewalk, Ji Hyo peered at the doorman who was smiling at her and gesturing her forward. “Thank you,” she said, more curious than ever as to what Gary had planned.

The doorman led her inside and showed her to the elevator. The elevator operator also knew her name. “Mr. Kang has requested that you meet him on the observation deck,” he said.

“Okay,” Ji Hyo quietly said. They ascended the floors in silence, soon arriving at the eighty-sixth floor. The elevator doors opened and Ji Hyo was escorted by a third building employee to the deck, which wrapped around the building. She was surprised to see that the deck was out in the open rather than in an enclosed space. As she walked out on the red brick floor, feeling the wind swirl around her, she took in all the lights of the city, the panoramic view of Manhattan almost overwhelming. But then she realized that she was all alone up there. Not one tourist, no more building employees, just her. She rubbed her arms, feeling a slight chill from the height and the brisk wind.

Just then, she heard music – a solo saxophone playing a slow, sweet melody. The saxophonist soon emerged, followed by… Gil? He was holding a microphone and began slowly humming along with the saxophone’s long notes, his voice serving as soulful accompaniment. Ji Hyo covered to hide her shock as she listened. She didn’t realize that she was crying, not until she felt her cheeks suddenly wet from the streaks of her tears. She was about to dry her eyes when she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Gary, who had taken off his jacket and now hung it over her bare shoulders. Before she could utter a word, Gary walked over to Gil and the saxophonist, both of whom continued in their harmony, now softer to allow for Gary’s voice to carry.

“Ji Hyo,” Gary quietly said. “I’ve loved you since the day I met you.”

Ji Hyo held both hands over now, the tears streaming freely from her eyes.

“The loveline on the show has never been an act for me. Everything I have ever said to you has been true. I’ve suffered for years alone with this love.” He paused for a moment and then walked closer to her. “I don’t want to suffer anymore. I want Monday to be every day… to be forever.” He reached for her hands, feeling them tremble inside his.

Gil and the saxophonist let their music fade as they left Gary and Ji Hyo alone on the deck. The air was dense with the silence of anticipation as Gary waited for Ji Hyo to speak.

She let go of his hands to rub her eyes. “I didn’t know,” she quietly said. “I thought I did, but I didn’t, I…”

“Do you feel the same way about me?” he asked.

Ji Hyo slowly nodded. “Part of me always has. I just, I never thought…”

Gary held his hand to her face and tilted her chin up so that their eyes could meet. “Let’s live like this every day,” he said. “Let’s enjoy life together. Our bodies may grow older, but our hearts can stay young if our love is strong.”

Ji Hyo held her hand to her chest, feeling her heart racing. “My heart is yours,” she tearfully said.