Hey, gang! How ya'll doing? Sorry I've kept you all hanging with this story, I've been battling different ailments lately. But here is the final instalment in the story, hope you guys enjoy the fluffy offerings :¬D

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June 2022

 

The sun was rising at a presumptuous speed over the Han River. The effect was that the long expanse of water was fettered with streams of golden-orange, illuminating the ferry boats that lolled and rolled like sleeping giants.

 

Seoul itself was waking up with an almighty roar, the sounds of cars and buses outpacing each other, outstripped only by the insistent feet of people in every shape and size as they clomped over the busy sidewalks.

 

But inside a tiny two-bedroom apartment overlooking Hangang Park, all was quiet. In the master bedroom lay a couple tangled up in the sheets and duvet of their queen-size bed, which was big enough to fit their sleeping bodies. The man’s arms were skinny, but wrapped tightly around the woman’s lithe frame. They weren’t sleeping; on the contrary, they’d been awake for hours, talking in hushed murmurs without even looking at each other. But they were just as connected hearing one another’s voices than when they weren’t talking at all and simply staring into each other’s eyes.

 

“Do you think this ever gets old?” Sulli asked, her voice evaporating into the still air.

 

Lay smiled, his hold on her waist tightening all the more as he nuzzled the back of her shoulder with his nose. “Not this part. I could do with less snoring though.”

 

He laughed when Sulli elbowed him in the stomach. “Yah! Zhang Yixing, I do not snore!”

 

“Do too! And you talk in your sleep.”

 

“I’m going to ask you a very serious question: do you or do you not want me to withhold from you for a whole month for your unnecessary cheek and lip?”

 

“Choi Jinri, andwae! Please don’t take your sweet lovin away from me! Forgive me, my love – saranghae, mianhae!” Then it was Sulli’s turn to start laughing when Lay continued his silly antics and begging by turning her around in his arms till she was settled on his chest and he was tickling her sides.

 

“Yah, hajima! Stop tickling and teasing me, you idiot!” Sulli complained laughingly, not in the least bit upset.

 

“I will when you say you love me,” Lay promised, a twinkle in his eyes, running his hands over Sulli’s hips as he spoke.

 

The action sent a ripple of pleasure through Sulli’s bones as she gazed down at the man she loved with everything inside her. They’d been together for 6 years and he was still able to make her head spin and her heart hammer in her chest. When she and Lay got back together after he completed his mandatory conscription, she had been so worried that it wouldn’t work out. And yet, here they were, lying in bed and planning the rest of their lives together.

 

It was a dream come true.

 

“Is that it all it takes to get you to behave?” she couldn’t resist teasing him a little bit longer before finally giving in.

 

“That, and a little…lovin.” Lay teased with a giant smirk on his face.

 

“Then I guess…” With one swift movement, Sulli had shrugged out of Lay’s grasp and flipped him on his back so that she was now straddling his lower half. “I’ll need to do what I can to keep you in line, soldier,” she purred, running her manicured fingers over the hard muscles on his bare chest.

 

“That’s Lieutenant, Mrs. Yixing,” Lay amended with a smouldering look in his eyes, being sure to let his hands wander all over Sulli’s sumptuous posterior.

 

“Shut up and kiss me already. And that’s an order.”

 

Lay’s mouth curled into a y smirk as he did just that and claimed Sulli’s lips sweetly with quiet assurance. Whenever it was like this between them, behind closed doors and away from the frenetic pace of stressful living in South Korea, he felt perfectly at ease with everything and everyone, especially his beautiful wife.

 

Soon after he’d come back to Seoul and accepted a new post with the army, he and Sulli had gotten married just a few short months later. It had been a small ceremony with just their families and closest friends present and a week-long honeymoon in Kyoto, Japan before they had settled down into life in their little apartment in Yeouido.  

 

When they’d been married for a year, Sulli quit her administrative job and went back to university to get a formal degree in teaching. And her former employer was more than happy to re-hire her again, only this time as the new Science teacher at her old school. It was a new challenge for her, but one she enjoyed thoroughly, especially with Tiffany and Victoria, her two best friends, at her side.

 

For Lay’s part, he had previously refused a promotion from his former superior, Captain Park. But the older soldier hadn’t forgotten about the potential he’d seen in Zhang Yixing and made it possible for the young man to get a different kind of job in the Korean army. Nowadays Lay was based in Seoul, dealing with the testing and screening of other young men like himself who needed to complete their mandatory conscription. So he became a liaison of sorts between the prospective soldiers and the military, helping them to train and to acclimatise to life in the army before they were placed in their respective bases. It was a rewarding job for Lay which meant that he didn’t need to be away from Sulli.

 

Between husband and wife, their salaries (even combined) weren’t exceedingly high. But Lay and Sulli were disciplined and patient; together, they were able to save up a huge quantity of their money and had just finished paying off the mortgage on their new home. They were due to move to Seongnam, which was south-east of Seoul by a few kilometres, the following weekend. There were so many big changes happening in their lives, but the young married couple couldn’t be happier about how their lives were turning out.

 

Just as Sulli moaned against Lay’s lips and pulled him excruciatingly closer, both adults felt something small and heavy crash on top of them:

 

“Umma! Appa!”

 

It was a little boy, 5 years of age, with a massive head of wavy, unruly black hair fitted onto a skinny body. He had dark brown eyes just like Sulli and two cute dimples on both cheeks just like Lay. He’d been awake for at least 20 minutes playing with his toys in his bedroom. Now he was starving for breakfast and wanted to monopolise his parents’ attention.

 

“Aigo,” Sulli mumbled, rubbing her smarting back where little Zhang Wongyu had landed on top of her.

 

She watched in bemused fascination as Lay got out from underneath her and scooped their son into his arms, spinning him round and round like he was a satellite orbiting the Earth, the little boy shrieking happily all the while.

 

“Jo shim hae!” she warned in spite of herself. She knew that Lay would never hurt Wongyu. But father and son were both like little boys when they started rough-housing.  

 

“Jin jung hae, Umma. Wongyu and I are having fun,” Lay chided soothing, putting Wongyu back onto the bed and ruffling his hair affectionately.

 

“Yes, Appa and I are having fun, Umma!” Wongyu cried happily.

 

“Is that right? Are you having too much fun to eat juk with gim and fried egg for breakfast?” Sulli inquired with faux sternness.

 

“Never! Juk, saranghae!”

 

Sulli and Lay chuckled when Wongyu kept yelling about how much he loved porridge, long after he’d leapt off the bed and dashed into the living room.

 

“Aigo, I worry so much about his high energy levels. He’ll break all his bones at the rate he’s going,” Sulli fretted.

 

“Wongyu’s fine, honey, the paediatrician said his energy levels are perfectly normal for his age. My mom thought I had ADD for the longest time and I turned out ok.” Lay said, rubbing Sulli’s shoulders in a soothing manner.

 

“Yeah, you turned out super little weird, but still ok,” Sulli quipped loud enough for her to hear.

 

She just dodged a smack he tried to lay on her bum as she kept laughing heartily en route to the kitchen.

 

Their 5-year old son had already the TV to start watching Keroro Gunso, (or ‘Sergeant Frog’ as many foreigners called it), the cartoon about Korea’s favourite animated amphibian and had proceeded to start jumping on the bouncy cushions on the sofa.

 

“Ya! Wongyu, kumanhae!” Sulli barked in a no-nonsense tone.

 

“Ne, Umma,” Wongyu answered docilely, which made his mother smile contentedly at the back of his head.

 

Within 10 minutes, Sulli had finished making a fresh batch of porridge while Lay stood beside her and fried the eggs for the gim. Then the little family sat down together at the rickety table in the living room to eat breakfast.

 

“Appa, why aren’t you going to work?” Wongyu asked, glancing over Lay’s rumpled pyjama pants and sleeping vest that he’d pulled on a few minutes before.

 

“It’s a public holiday, my son,” Lay answered with a smile while looking through the headlines in the newspaper.

 

“Appa needs a break, Wongyu, if only for one day.” Sulli remarked, bending over to kiss her husband on his cheek and another one on her son’s forehead in succession. “Are you excited for the picnic today, my little one?”

 

“Ne! Is Aunty Tiffany coming?” Wongyu questioned hopefully. He loved Sulli’s colleague and friend to death.

 

“Yes, she’s coming too. How about Chen?” Sulli asked of Lay in an aside.

 

“I texted him last night; he said he’ll meet us at the park. How about Victoria?” Lay asked back.

 

Husband and wife looked at each other and burst out laughing. “Who knows?” they chorused. Victoria hadn’t changed much over the years; she had turned 37 a few months ago and was still her usual bubbly and man-chasing self. It didn’t look like she had any plans to settle down any time soon.

 

“Umma, when is Aunty Victoria going to get married?” Wongyu questioned out of the blue.

 

Lay choked on a mouthful of porridge while he tried hard not to laugh at his son’s bizarre inquiry. “Maybe when pigs fly,” he mumbled under his breath.

 

But Sulli still heard him and elbowed him sharply in the ribs from her chair, making him wince and his own chair squeak sharply underneath him.

 

“When she’s ready to, son. People get married when it’s the right time.” She said with dignity and wisdom.

 

“I like Jung-Ah, Umma. She has pretty hair and always shares her lollipops with me. Can I marry her?” Wongyu asked eagerly in reference to their next-door-neighbour’s adorable 5-year old daughter.

 

Sulli struggled not to smile at her son’s earnestness while Lay laughed openly. “When you’re older, my sweet boy. Be a kid and have fun first. Then you can get married,” she promised, kissing him on the cheek.

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An hour later, the trio found themselves at Hangang Park, which was just 5 minutes away from their apartment. It was a bright, sunny day with a heavy wind that shook the sparse trees on the wide expanse of green lawn and made the masts on several boats resting in the shallow waters flap to and fro like thick curtains.

 

Lay found a prime spot for their picnic blanket on a patch of lawn near a family with a barking dog and another group in guys in their twenties who were playing touch football. There were scores of adolescents and young couples riding bikes on the pathway a few metres away. The air was filled with the sounds of animated talking, shrieks of laughter and general merriment.

 

While Sulli busied herself with making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for Wongyu, Victoria lay on her back with massive Jackie-O-esque sunglasses firmly attached to her pale face, fanning herself delicately with a copy of High Cuts that she’d brought along. Lay and Wongyu sat on their haunches close by, doing some last-minute assembling of a bright red and blue kite that they’d made themselves just for the occasion.

 

“And…done!” Lay announced, beaming proudly at their handiwork.

 

“Yay! Can we fly it now, Appa?” Wongyu asked, his entire body vibrating with intense excitement.

 

“In a moment, Wongyu.”

 

The five-year old took that opportunity to jump into Victoria’s lap and fix with her wide, curious eyes. “Aren’t you going to help me fly my kite, Auntie Victoria?”

 

“No thanks, kiddo. Kites and running around aren’t really my thing,” Victoria remarked, her nose curled with distaste. But when she caught Wongyu’s look of disappointment and Sulli’s disapproving scowl, she changed tact immediately. “But uh, why don’t we go ride some bikes in 20 minutes? After Aunt Victoria gets some sunlight in her bones,” she amended with a small smile.

 

“You can get sunlight in your bones?” Wongyu questioned in awe.

 

“Aunt Victoria can, she has super-powers.” Lay joked lightly, which made Sulli laugh. “Come on, Sergeant Frog, let’s fly our kite!”

 

“If you keep staring so long at the two of them, your eyeballs are going to melt,” Victoria declared with a smirk while Sulli watched Lay and Wongyu flying their kite together.

 

“I can’t help it,” Sulli said in an unabashed voice. “Most of it is just plain worry and the rest is general amazement. Lay and Wongyu are just so…beautiful to watch.”

 

“He really is a good father,” Victoria agreed, smiling in earnest. “I didn’t believe it at first, but you and Lay proved me wrong. You’re great together.”

 

Sulli looked at her oldest friend and clasped her hand tightly. “Thanks, Vic. You know you’d make an awesome parent too if you’d only settle down-”

 

“Aw, don’t spoil our beautiful moment talking about commitment. I love my life,” Victoria told her friend firmly.

 

“It is a pretty awesome life. We’re just waiting for Shin Se Kyung to play you in the movie.” A new voice chimed in.

 

Sulli and Victoria looked up from their picnic blanket and saw Tiffany standing over them, looking as chique as ever with that twinkling eye-smile of hers. Both women got to their feet in a flurry of mingled, happy exclamations and greetings as they engulfed Tiffany in a tight hug. Even though they’d all worked together for years, it hadn’t taken anything away from their close friendships.

 

“Tiffany, you look great!” Sulli gushed after disentangling herself from her friend.

 

“And smell great too – is that Chanel?” Victoria questioned.

 

“Dior,” Tiffany answered with another twinkling eye-smile before sitting down on the blanket.

 

After noticing Tiffany’s arrival, Wongyu abandoned his kite-flying and bounded towards her in a flash, beaming widely from ear to ear.

 

“Aunty Fany!”

 

“Hey, Wongyu!” Tiffany cried happily, opening her arms wide as he crashed straight into them. She’d been besotted with the little guy ever since she’d first held him in the hospital after he was born.

 

“Aunt Fany, did you see my kite?!”

 

“I sure did, it looks so cool! Did you make it, Champ?” Tiffany inquired, ruffling Wongyu’s long hair affectionately.

 

“Me and Appa did! Will you fly it with me too?!” Wongyu asked hopefully.

 

“Give me 5 minutes to take my high heels off, then I’ll come find you.”

 

Satisfied with that promise, Wongyu ran back to Lay, leaving Tiffany to smile after his retreating figure.

 

“You don’t have to run after him constantly, Fany. You spoil him too much,” Sulli chided knowingly.

 

“Oh, I don’t mind, Sulli. You know I love him to bits and pieces,” Tiffany remarked, her eyes still on Wongyu flying his kite.

 

“See, Sulli? Tiffany is just itching to pop out a kid or two. You should use all your matchmaking energy on her instead of me!” Victoria defended laughingly.

 

“I think you’re right,” Sulli agreed.

 

10 minutes later, Wongyu decided that he’d had enough of watching the kite come down and hit Lay in the face and came sprinting back towards the picnic blanket.

 

“Hey, Tiff,” Lay greeted, stooping to plant a kiss on her cheek while Sulli cut Wongyu’s sandwich into little squares.

 

“Sup, Lay. How’s it going prepping the new recruits?” Tiffany asked conversationally while dishing herself some kimchi onto a plastic plate.

 

“Oh, the usual. They’re mostly concerned about the time spent away from their girlfriends,” Lay answered drolly. “But I can’t mock them too much, since I used to be just like that too once,” he added, throwing an impish smile at Sulli’s focused look while she prepared lunch for their son.

 

“Oh, you were much worse,” Sulli quipped in her husband’s direction, but with a mischievous wink.

 

“Totally. Remember those sappy songs you used to sing to her on camera?” Victoria chortled through a mouthful of apple.

 

“Appa sings songs for Umma?” Wongyu asked in surprise while looking up at Victoria.

 

“He sure did, Wongyu. And they were so funny and silly.”

 

“Nice,” Lay muttered with a dark look while the women and his son laughed openly at him. “You women complain that men aren’t romantic. But then when we try to romance the socks off of you, you think it’s silly.”

 

“Dude, I don’t know what you’re complaining about. You still got the girl in the end.”

 

Lay looked up and smiled brightly at Kim Jongdae’s smirking features. Even though it had been years since they’d served together, it was still strange for Lay to see Chen wearing civilian clothes instead of army fatigues.

 

“Chen, you ugly punk!” Lay greeted, giving Chen a full-on bear hug.

 

“Not as ugly as you,” Chen teased back, happy to see his friend after a long absence.

 

“Chen, it’s so good to see you,” Sulli said in earnest as she kissed her husband’s best friend on the cheek.

 

“And you, Mrs. Yixing. You look more and more beautiful each time I see you.”

 

“Ya! Get your own wife to flirt with.”

 

“What Lay meant to say is that we’re so glad you could make it for our family picnic,” Sulli amended.

 

“Speaking of ‘family’, this can’t be little Wongyu. He’s taller than when I last saw him!” Chen declared in a booming voice.

 

Wongyu, who was extroverted and playful with people he knew well, tugged on Lay’s jeans while staring shyly up at the stranger. This was understandable since the last time Chen had seen him was when he was 2 years old.

 

“Wongyu-ah, this is Appa’s best friend, Uncle Chen. Say hello,” Lay instructed with a smile.

 

“Anyeong,” Wongyu said timidly, burying his face into Lay’s pants leg.

 

“Ani, there’s no need to be so formal with me, Wongyu-ah. You can call me ‘Oppa Chen’, ok?” Chen said, getting on his haunches to talk to the five-year old.

 

“Ok…Oppa.” Wongyu said with a little more confidence.

 

“Since Oppa hasn’t seen you in such a long time, I got you a little present. Here you go.” Chen handed Wongyu a plastic figurine of a soldier in fatigues holding a plastic gun. “Do you like it?”

 

“Ne, daebak! Kamsahabnida, Oppa Chen! Appa, look at my new toy!”

 

“I see it, kiddo,” Lay replied, mouthing a thank you to his friend over Wongyu’s shoulder.

 

“Chen, these are my two good friends from work, Victoria and Tiffany. Ladies, Chen and Lay used to be roommates in Yeongcheon.” Sulli introduced.

 

“Now I’m doubly glad I came.” Chen responded somewhat seedily, his eyes lingering longer on Tiffany in particular. “It’s always a pleasure to meet such breath-taking women.” He declared, stooping to kiss each of their hands in turn.

 

“Charmed,” Victoria said, the corners of her lips etched into an amused smirk at Chen’s antics.

 

Tiffany on the other hand, looked a little bit more flustered by Chen’s unnecessarily gallant actions. Lay, Sulli and Victoria noticed these too and shared a knowing look of bemusement.

 

“Nice to meet you,” Tiffany said to Chen, the wind blowing wisps of her hair into her face, which hid the remainder of her blush.

 

“Likewise,” Chen agreed. “You really work at a school with Sulli? That just can’t be.”

 

“Really? And why is that?”

 

“Forgive my frankness, but you’re just so beautiful. You could easily be a model or an actress with your looks.” Chen answered, his eyes drawn inadvertently to the young woman’s alluring eye-smile that made his heart quicken in his chest.

 

Victoria snorted mirthfully at this while Sulli and Lay shook their heads and smiled. Wongyu was politely confused by the strange banter between the adults. It was an afternoon filled with laughter, particularly when an old ahjumma yelled at Lay and Chen when their frisbee match got out of hand and they beamed her in the head with said frisbee. Even Victoria joined in when they all decided to play soccer with Wongyu’s orange, rubber ball. And Sulli watched with a bemused smile when Wongyu grabbed Chen and Tiffany’s hands and led them away so that the three of them could ride some bicycles.

 

Long after the sun turned a violent shade of red and ducked away behind the horizon, Lay, Sulli and Wongyu returned to their apartment and started getting ready for bed. It took a good hour to finally get Wongyu into a bath to rid his tiny body of all the sand and grass stains from Hangang Park. Then it was just a question of Sulli drying him off and putting him in his pyjamas before she and Lay put him to bed.

 

Wongyu let Lay pull the bed covers up all the way to his chin, but his parents could tell that he was nowhere close to falling asleep.

 

“Umma, do I have to go to bed now?” Wongyu asked Sulli with big, brown eyes that didn’t fool her in the least.

 

“Yes you do, little one. You have to sleep early before you start school one of these days.” Sulli replied, running her fingers through her baby’s silky hair.

 

“Umma’s right. Your brain needs to be awake so you can learn and become an astronaut one day.” Lay agreed, feigning seriousness for the barest second.

 

“I’ve been thinking and…I don’t want to be an astronaut anymore. I want to be in the army, like you, Appa!” Wongyu declared happily, his eyes flitting towards the soldier figurine that Chen had gotten him on the pedestal next to his bed.

 

Sulli and Lay shared a look. Neither of them had really mentioned it over the years, but the two of them breaking up while Lay had been doing his military conscription was still a sore point. Sulli loved Lay with all of her heart and was immensely proud of everything he’d accomplished within the Korean military; but there would always be a part of her that worried about Lay getting that phone call from Captain Park, his mentor, begging him to take a post far away from home.

 

Lay’s hand found Sulli’s as they rested on top of the bed spread while they both gazed down at Wongyu.

 

“My son,” Lay began quietly. “You can be whatever you want to be, so long as you work hard and you’re happy. What do you think, Umma?” he asked, turning to face Sulli.

 

Sulli sighed and leant closer to Wongyu. “Your Appa’s right, Wongyu. But if you want to become a soldier like your Appa, then you have to promise me one thing: always come back to me safely and in one piece.”

 

Lay looked at Sulli in wonder while Wongyu scrunched up his little nose in concentration, thinking his mother’s words over for a few seconds. Then he stared up at her, his mouth curling into a toothy grin: “I promise, Umma. I’ll never leave you!”

 

Sulli laughed heartily at this, happy tears gathering in her brown eyes while she bent over her son and kissed him on the forehead. “I love you so much, Wongyu. Don’t ever change, my sweet boy.”

 

Lay wrapped an arm around his wife’s shoulder and kissed her on the cheek. “I love you, Choi Jinri. I don’t ever want you to change either,” he whispered sweetly in her ear.

 

“I won’t,” she promised. “Please just stay with me and Wongyu for a really long time.”

 

Lay looked at Sulli and smiled warmly, all his love for her and Wongyu poured into that single gesture. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be but here with the mother of my child and our beautiful son. I’m not going anywhere.”

 

As Sulli stared at her husband and her son, she reflected on everything she and the man she loved had been through together and apart. The road before her had been murky and hard to tread at the best of the times; half the time, she’d had no idea how things were going to turn out. But they’d made it through the heart-wrenching moments and they were weeks away from starting a new chapter in their lives.

 

She’d always be grateful that she chased after Lay in Seoul Station 6 years ago and that he’d come back to her 2 years later.

 

Love struck them down once upon a time, but it had also brought them together and made them stronger than they ever thought possible.

 

 

 

THE END.

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And that's a wrap for this 8-chapter story, which took close to 6 months to finish *blushes hard* If any of you would like a PDF of this story, holler at me and I shall grant your wish. Special thanks to Winter86 on soshified for inspiring this writing challenge, it was a sweet ride. Now it's time to watch Teen Titans Go! and eat malva pudding with custard. Being sick does have some perks ;¬D Pip pip cheerio!