Epilogue

10 years later

‘’Excuse me, miss?’’ Yoona turns around to see a young girl standing behind her, a notebook perched in clammy hands, ‘’are you perhaps… has anybody ever told you that you look like Im Yoona?’’ she stammers and Yoona smiles.

‘’She is Im Yoona!’’ the girl sitting in the shopping cart exclaims. The girl blushes at that and shoves the notebook towards the older woman. A waterfall of words is the result.

‘’I was wondering if I might have your autograph? Mummy said it was okay and I play the piano every day because I want to be like you because I think unnie’s really pretty and cool and you play the piano well. So I want to play in Paris like you when I get older.’’ Yoona can’t help but chuckle at her childish enthusiasm as she signs her name on the white paper. She writes a large ‘good luck!’ underneath it for good measure. As she hands back the notebook she ruffles the young girl’s hair.

‘’You should practice hard. Then you’ll be just as successful as me. I know you can do it!’’

The girl’s eyes light up at that and the practically beams a smile at Yoona before an older woman approaches them with a sorry smile, plucks the girl away from Yoona’s side with an apology Yoona waves away. She never played for the fame, but it’s not something she dislikes. With fame comes possibilities and that means playing in the Royal Albert Hall and the Paris Opera, and those are all things she wouldn’t want to give up. It’s good being one of Korea’s national treasures.

‘’I didn’t find those paprika chips you wanted, I think they’re all out so I just grabbed some cheese ones instead.’’ Yuri says, carrying the largest bag of chips Yoona has ever seen. It’s put in the trolley besides their daughter, Miyeon, who immediately grabs it as if she hasn’t eaten in days (and the opposite is true).

‘’Miyeon!’’ Yuri says sternly, ‘’what has mummy told you so many times before? Hmm?’’

The girl lets go of the yellow bag immediately, a guilty look on her face as she mumbles something incomprehensible.

‘’What was that?’’

‘’I can’t eat the snacks until we’re at home.’’

‘’That’s right.’’ Yuri lectures and with another look starts to push the cart again. Yoona hides a smile behind her hand at the scene before her eyes.

When she was younger, she never really thought about getting kids. She wasn’t someone who liked kids all that much: they were noisy and difficult most of the time, charming as they could be. She imagined that she might have them one day because it was the thing to do. Never could she have foreseen the pure love she would have felt for this little girl. Yuri had started mentioning it one day, when they were in Paris and the temperature was high and their love was passionate (it’s the French way). Yoona hadn’t been able to get the thought out of her head. How great would it be to truly have a family: to have a little baby to love and hold, to teach and be taught by.

They had adopted Miyeon when Yoona turned twenty-eight and her father had cried the first time he’d seen her. He had held her hand and shook his head and told her how proud he was. She cried, too. She couldn’t help it.

They had cried even more when they went to Yuri’s family. They were tears of happiness.

‘’Did you get the outfits for your dance group from the dry cleaner?’’ Yoona remembers, shooting a glance at Yuri. Yuri’s dance group was attending the national competition this Saturday. It was a big deal and if they won, some of the kids might be able to get into a company of their own. Rumours were someone of the National Ballet of South-Korea was going to be attending. Yuri hadn’t talked about anything else for the past weeks.

‘’Yup. I picked them up along with your dress for Seohyun and Changmin’s wedding.’’

‘’Oh !’’ Yoona exclaimed, ‘’that’s Sunday isn’t it!’’ realising what she’d just said her hand shot to . Yuri shot her a dead look. Below them, Miyeon had both her hands pressed to her face in a mimic of Yoona, shouting with joy.

‘’Mummy said a bad word!’’

‘’That’s right Miyeon! And mummy’s very sorry isn’t she?’’ Yuri said pointedly, looking at Yoona who clutched her chest with as much drama as a 1900s play-heroine.

‘’So sorry! Never again shall such vulgar words cross my tongue!’’ They both laughed at the childish play, Miyeon looked a little confused but was smiling nonetheless.

Yoona remembers when she and Yuri first met. She remembers that day at university all too well. How impressed she had been by Yuri’s cool looks and deep voice, by her beauty and how charmed she’d been by her wit. She remembers days of laying around curling her fingers in long black hair, staring at the ceiling of Yuri’s dimly-lit room, the warmth of her head resting on Yoona’s belly, remembers London and Paris and Shanghai and every hotel room they’ve ever made love in. She remembers the bad days, too. The days where they would fight and shout and where they hated each other so much Yoona thought that was the end. Days where it seemed they weren’t going to have enough money, that they were going to have to give everything up. She remembers when she was younger and inexperienced and confused. She remembers Seunggi, remembers her mother.

It hasn’t always been the easiest journey but somehow, things have more or less fallen into place in the end and when Yuri asks her do you remember how we met? Yoona smiles and says, yes.

‘’Do you ever want to go back to those days?’’ The older woman asks, biting her lower lip in concentration as she tries to get Miyeon’s Barbie into a dark red dress, long black hair splayed over white covers. The radio’s still on from where they’d been listening to the news earlier, an ancient Christmas song Yoona vaguely remembers from her youth now filling the room.

A couple of feet away Miyeon lies on the bed wearing the hideous red dress they’d bought her a week earlier because she thought it was so pretty, please mummy, playing with the wrapping paper instead of her actual toy and every now and then there’s an excited squeal as she lifts it to shows her mummies how great it is.

Yoona smiles.

‘’Never.’’

*

a/n: I'm sory to end this story so abruptly but I've lost absolutely all interest of writing about this universe. I actually wanted to stop a few chapters ago but I felt too guilty. I'm also really busy as I have started university this year and I don't want to waste the free I have on writing a story I don't enjoy. I will continue to write Soshi stories (YoonYul stories, too) but I'm afraid this one will end here.

Thank you so much all the people who've read this story, upvoted this story, commented on this story or have subscribed to it. It really means a lot to me and I truly mean it when I say I'm thankful. What is a writer without their readers? What do my stories mean when there's nobody that will listen? Nothing! So that is why I am thankful.

Thank you!

Author-sshi