I woke up to a noise somewhere around me. It sounded like a ringtone. I covered my ears as I felt movement beside me.

“Just turn it off,” I grumbled as I circled my arms around his waist, and he s one arm around me while reaching for his phone with another hand.

He cleared his throat before picking up the phone. “Yes, dr. Kim Soo Hyun here,” he answered the phone with slightly hoarse voice. “No, no… It’s okay. Now?”

I opened up my eyes and looked around. We were in my house’s family room, the TV was on with DVD’s  movie menu title on the screen. It seems like we fell asleep on the sofa after watching the DVD earlier this evening, or last evening, it was 2.34 am.

“Okay… I’ll come…. Yes. Fifteen, no twenty minutes. Okay…,” he turned off his phone and turned to me, a slight smile on his lips. “Did I wake you up? I’m sorry…,” he reached up and kissed my temple.

“No… ,the phone woke me up. Are you going back to the hospital now? Oppa, it’s two in the morning,” I croaked while rubbing my eyes.

“Yes,” he said while reaching for his jacket. “I’m so lucky Dong Won-ie Hyung let me stay with you watching the movie and didn’t kick me out when it finished. We finally spent a night together!” he grinned and winked at me playfully.

“Har har… so funny,” I rolled my eyes. “It’s called spending a night when you leave after sunrise. You can see stars twinkles out there,” I whined and pouted hard, like some teenager people think I was. I’m 26, yet people kept asking me which school I go to. “Will you just stay until morning, please?”

He smiled and sat right in front of me, our knees touched and I still shiver with every touch, like the first time I kissed him.

“Are you seducing me, Seo Hyo Na? You do know I’m weak when you seduce me, right?” He leaned and nuzzled my nose with his.

I smiled and kissed the top of his nose. “It’s me who is weak every time you seduce me, and you do know that very well.”

He laughed before he captured my lips with his and we were kissing with butterflies, fireworks, and other beautiful things flying around us. At least until our usual interruption showed up, I pulled away from him and hid myself on the crook of his neck while I knew he was grinning to my Keun Oppa who was on his room’s door, fake-coughing.

“Good morning, Keun Hyung,” he greeted him.

“Good… middle of the night to you to, Soo Hyun,” he answered, “now… one meter away from my sister,” he said again with tired voice.

Soo Hyun Oppa sat up groggily, still holding my hand though. “I have an emergency call anyway, so… I’ll see you in the morning, honey,” he gave me a fast kiss and run to the front door before Dong Won Oppa could even say anything and waved his hand to us before he closed the door behind him.

I felt myself blushed. I looked back to Dong Won Oppa and he shook his head before looking back to me. “You, go back to your room and sleep.”

“Did we wake Paran up?” I asked while biting my lower lips. Paran was 3 years old nephew of mine. A totally hyperactive boy with tendency of waking up to the smallest noise possible.

“Fortunately no, now go to sleep, Sweetheart,” he answered and looked back to his bedroom. I grinned and went to give him a peck on his cheek before going to my room to sleep.

“Good night, Oppa.”

“Good night, Sweetheart.”

***

He didn’t show up for the rest of the day and night after that. Or the day after that. I called him but he sounded a little confused and he ended each call shortly. Maybe he was busy, but I somehow feel uneasy inside.

I texted him like fifty texts that day but I only got one reply.

‘I’m sorry, I’m really busy. I’ll talk to you later. I love you.’

“Don’t you think that was very… I don’t know, peculiar?” I showed the text to Soo Joo the next day. She frowned at the text. “He usually text me twice the times I texts him. Like he wouldn’t hang up if I don’t hang up first.”

“Does he have that much free time? I mean if he replies all of your texts? I mean he’s a doctor. Busy is not an excuse, it’s the truth. If only you can say the same about a lawyer,” she glared at her own phone.

She and my best friend Im Siwan has been dating for nearly four years now, like me and Soo Hyun Oppa. It turned out that the goofy friend of mine was a workaholic, and his girlfriend loved attention he couldn’t give.

“Well, he doesn’t hold his phone every second, it’s just he always replies his texts, even an hour or two hours later. But this last text was yesterday evening, and I’ve been texting him a hundred times since then.” I let out an exasperated sigh and threw my phone to the café table where we met. Soo Joo looked at me with a pity. “I mean… we finally spent the night together. Was that wrong? He looked happy though.”

Soo Joo’s eyes grew wide. “What do you mean you FINALLY spent the night together?”  Her voice was a disbelieve whispers.

Oh my God, that came out wrong. “Uh… I… I mean… we were watching a DVD together and we fell asleep. But then he got to wake up at two in the morning and….”

“Wait, wait, wait!” She held up a hand. “You finally spent a night together after dating for four years?!”

I bit my lower lip. “You can’t technically call that spending a night. We didn’t do anything, we were just falling asleep. He fell asleep everytime he cuddles with me, he says it’s comfortable around me… he says…,” I couldn’t continue defending myself while she held up her hand again.

“What do you mean you didn’t do anything? You can’t be telling me that you two have never done anything? I mean… you’ve been together for four years and you’re 26 years old, and he’s… how old is he this year?”

“29. But that doesn’t mean anything…, you aren’t telling me that you and Siwan already…,” she rolled her eyes. “You did it already?! Yah!”

Soo Joo rolled her eyes in exasperated way. “Well, duh! We’re 26. We’re adults, we love each other, we know what we’re doing and we don’t have three over protective brothers,” she casted me a side look at the last sentence.

I groaned and slouched at the sofa. It was not my fault that my brothers always, ALWAYS, showed up everytime we’re getting somewhere. Those three people were like parasites! We couldn’t even make out for more than five minutes! For heaven sakes… at home, outside, at hospital, at the office… everytime we tried to hide they’re always there! Like some kind of ghosts. It’s a wonder why Soo Hyun Oppa still want to date me and not going to another girl.

A bad thought suddenly crept on me. “He’s not cheating on me because of that, right?” I sat straight. My stomach suddenly feeling queasy.

Soo Joo laughed. “Hyo Na yah, that Oppa can barely take his eyes off of you. What are you talking about?” She shook her head and sipped her already cooled tea.

The queasy feeling subdued but didn’t go away. I just nodded.

We finally finished the lunch and I had to go back to my office where Dong Won Oppa assigned me as a branch manager. And Soo Joo has to take care of her boutique as she was the designer of their clothing line.

We were walking down to the place where we parked our cars, laughing about some stuff our nephew did last week when I saw him. I could recognize him anywhere just by a strand of his hair I will know that it was him. He was in a jewelry store looking at the showcase, he looked confused while his hand was tracing each jewelry from the glass case.

“Why are we stopping?” Soo Joo asked beside me. “Do you see any pretty necklace?” See asked while looking at some pretty jewelry they showed on the shop’s window.

“It’s Soo Hyun Oppa,” I told her while pointing at him from behind the window.

“Oh, yeah. It’s…. shoot, Hyo Na,” I could feel Soo Joo stiffed beside me as a really beautiful girl showed up and stood next to Soo Hyun Oppa and they were tracing the jewelry case together, her hand was on his arm. At one point they stopped and he looked at her while saying something and the girl laughed and he laughed with her. And then the shop keeper pulled out a little tray full of… rings.

What… what was that? Was he buying her a…. ring? Was that a ring? I couldn’t feel my legs.

“That…. bastard,” Soo Joo’s voice raising and I had to grabbed on her before she launched herself into the shop and make a ruckus.

“Stop… please stop. Soo Joo… Soo Joo-yah. I can’t feel my legs. Soo Joo-yah… take me home. Soo Joo-yah… please. Please…,” I begged her. My tears are pooling on my eyes blurring my sight and I tried so hard not breaking down on that street.

Soo Joo hesitated. She looked torn between barging into that shop or helping my shock condition.

“Okay, let’s get out of here. I’ll take care of that bastard later,” she took my hand and put her arms around me and took me away from that place.

He was with another girl. He didn’t texted me back for two days, and he was with another girl. Picking a ring. They were picking a ring…. He was cheating on me and they’re picking a ring.  I’m going to be sick. I’m going to be sick. I’m going to be…

“No, you’re not going to be sick. I’ll take you home and then after you feel better we’re going to find them and we’ll chop them into pieces and feed them to the nearest shark possible.” She was driving me in her car while she left my car on the parking lot.

I didn’t say anything. I was focusing myself on the queasy feeling in my stomach and trying so hard not to vomit in Soo Joo’s expensive car.

“If you don’t feel like doing it, I’ll take Siwan Oppa with me and he’ll be delighted to destroy that human. Was he even a human?!” she was raging and I couldn’t stop my tears and I was sobbing like it was the end of the world. It was the end of the world.

“Don’t cry over that kind of guy, Hyo! Hyo Na?! Get your mind straight! Stop crying!” She was screaming while driving and I just couldn’t help myself to keep crying. Four years. Four years we dated and suddenly… out of nowhere.

“I’m telling Im Si Wan on this. He has to do something,” and she pulled her smartphone out, trying to call his boyfriend out while driving in scary speed.

I gained my senses and immediately snatched the phone out of her hand. “Don’t tell Si Wan,” my voice hoarse from crying. I wiped my tears and pulled myself straight. “Don’t tell anyone, Han Soo Joo. I want to meet him face to face…. I want him to explain in his own words, so don’t you dare tell anyone. The problem in here is us. Don’t you interfere,” I wiped my tears with a tissue, but my eyes were bloodshot.

Soo Joo kept quiet and driving with her eyes on the road. “So are we going to offend him right away?”

I shook my head. “We are not going to do anything. I am going to. But not now. I want to calm myself first. Take me to my office.”

“I’m going to take you home, I’ll talk to Hyo Joo Onni, and she’ll….”

“My office, Han Soo Joo! Now!” I yelled at her.

“Okay, okay! Calm down!” She changed the lane and turned back toward my office.

“And don’t you dare tell anyone. Not Hyo Joo Onni. Not even little Paran. Not even your boyfriend or any of my Oppas. Promise me.”

She stayed silent for a moment as if my favor didn’t make her sense. But then, “fine. I promise.”

Later that afternoon, I couldn’t keep my head at work and I kept spacing out and walked around my office. I had to calm down. I couldn’t let this ruined me like it did nine years ago. I had to let him explain. I checked my phone again but nothing. I had texted him asking what he was doing two hours ago but he didn’t reply. He was doing this on purpose. Was he avoiding me because he felt guilty? Because he was cheating on me behind my back? I wanted to know why but if I text him again in this state of mind, it will ruin everything I was. I needed to calm down. I needed to go. Away. Away from here.

I reached for the phone and waited until my secretary pick it up.

“Secretary Yoon, you know that meeting I have to attend next week on Osaka? Make it tomorrow. And I want to take days off until next week. If anyone asks where I go, tell them you have no idea where I went missing,” I told him.

“But…”

“No buts.”

“Okay Manager, I will prepare our schedule for tomorrow,” he said over the phone.

“No our in this, Secretary Yoon. I’ll go myself, you take care of things here when I leave.”

“But  Manager, I….”

“I trust you, Kyung Ho-ssi. Show me that you can be trusted.”

Silent on the other side of the line. “Yes, Manager. You can trust me.”

“Thank you.”

***

At the Incheon airport, on the waiting room the next day. I looked at my phone. Still no text or call from him. I didn’t text him since yesterday too. I thought this was how it was all going to end. So I will prepare myself for the worst. So I created a text message for him, the last text before I board the plane and turned off my phone for the whole week.

Hyun Oppa,

I need to talk to you about something important. But because it seems like you are very busy that you are having a hard time replying to my texts or phone calls I will have to meet you later. But not now. I saw something very disturbing yesterday and I just can’t get over it. I will see you one week from now. Don’t look for me. I’m fine.

I sent the message and after I saw it was delivered, it turned my phone off and went to board the plane.

***

“He went crazy. They all went crazy. They’ve been threatening your secretary with a lot of things but you’ve got to love your secretary. He didn’t say a thing.” Soo Joo said from the line of phone.

I dipped my legs on the hot spring bath I was in and traced the stones underneath it with my toes. “You didn’t tell anyone right?”

“Oh, I pretended I don’t know anything although Si Wan is very suspicious. But your secret is safe in my hand,” she laughed.

“How is he?” I asked her, imagining my boyfriend’s worried face. I would call him, I almost called him right before I decided to call Soo Joo instead. There was still a tight feeling in my chest.

“He’s… well, worried. He called Si Wan each hour as if he will suddenly know where you are, he has been calling me five times but I ignored his calls, he deserved it.” I could practically hear her rolling her eyes. “How are you?” she sounded concerned and sad.

“I’m fine…,” I lied. “I’m having a good time… I think.” I made a small whirlpool with my leg on the hot spring pool.

“You don’t sound like you’re fine,” she sighed. “You know what? Take all the time you need. I won’t let him anywhere near you until you’re ready.”

I smiled at the toughness in her voice. “You’re a good friend, Soo Joo-yah.”

“I am, Seo Hyo Na,” I could hear her grinning. “Just call me… what? No! I’m not talking to Hyo Na. What are you talking about? Im Si Wan! It’s my pho…,” there was Si Wan’s voice muffled on the background and the call suddenly disconnected.

I turned off my cellphone in fear that Si Wan will call me next using Soo Joo’s number. The phone blinked showing more text messages and chats that I refused to read just because I know it was everyone and they were worried dead about me. I still need time.

I put my dead cellphone away and went to sink my whole body into the hot water.

***

Later that night, I was feeling suffocated staying in the inn’s room by myself, I decided to walk around the inn. It was a traditional Japanese inn with hot springs in many spots. My room has its own hot spring so I didn’t have to share with other people. The outside part of the inn was huge with traditional Japanese garden and pond with koi fish in it. There was also a small creek with a bridge on it to cross. I was on the bridge.

It was a silent humid summer night. I looked up and there were millions and millions of stars but the moon was hiding shyly behind the trees. The stars were shining and blinking lazily at me as if they saw me and said ‘ah, you again, aren’t you tired of looking at us and cry? It has been a few days already. We’re tired of your tears. We can’t help you.’ I cried the silent tears again.

I still could not believe what happened. If it wasn’t for the ring I might not this wrecked. The ring. I wanted a ring. I looked at my bare fingers. I wanted a ring. A couple ring at least… no. I wanted an engagement ring! I wanted the ring! I wanted a ring that will make me say ‘yes’ without even think of it. Forget it. I didn’t want the ring. I wanted him. I wanted him to spend his entire life with me! And how should he represent it? Oh yeah, with a ring! A ring when he asked me to marry him! I would take a grass ring! Not diamond. Any ring! But instead he went around and went to find a ring with another girl. How was I supposed to feel? I was devastated.

I held myself to the sudden chill the wind that just blew brought. There was presence not far from me, I turned and saw someone standing on the side of the bridge, a male. Then the moon that earlier was covered by the trees revealed the man’s face, who was looking at me with such a relief. It was him. Kim Soo Hyun.

“I found you,” he said with ragged breath like he was running far away just to find me.

“What… How…,” my eyes almost popped out of its socket. Him. Here. How could he found me here? Who told him? I… did Han Soo Joo? Han Soo Joo. I’m going to skin that girl alive.

He walked toward me in long steps and before I could back out he grabbed my hand and pulled me into his arms.

“Don’t do that to me. Don’t go missing on me ever again. Do you hear me?” His grip on me was tight as if he would never let go of me.

I cried again on his shoulder. “You… you cheated on me…,” I heard myself sobbing. “With another girl! I saw you!”

He laughed on my ear. “Oh, my silly darling, it was my cousin! How could you even think of that? You know I love you,” he buried his face on my hair.

“You bought a ring for her! You never even give me a couple ring!” the voice that came out of my mouth was silly sob-wailing that sounded hysteric even to my own ears.

He laughed again and let go of me to look at me on the eyes. I was still sobbing. I believed my eyes were red and must be swollen for all I’ve been doing when I was here was crying and crying. But he looked at me as if I was the most beautiful person in the earth. He cupped my face with his hand and kissed away my tears, then he kissed my eyes, then my temples, then my cheeks, my forehead, my nose, my chin and lastly my lips.

His lips stayed on mine for a few seconds before he let go. He caressed my jaw with his thumb, not smiling but his gaze were holding me with so much love. He reached out for his pocket and pulled out a small black box.

I frowned at the box, then I looked back at him, then back at the box… what was the meaning of this? Was that a…

Then he suddenly dropped on his knee. I gasped when I finally understood what was in the box. I covered my mouth with my hands when he opened up the box’s lid and revealed a really beautiful ring with small diamonds all around it.

I took a step back… or more like I was dizzy by the surprise I limped back. He smiled beautiful smile, much more beautiful than the ring.

“Seo Hyo Na… I’m sorry I made you worried. I couldn’t text you wasn’t because I was busy or was cheating on you. I was nervous to death,” now I was shaking and he cleared his throat. “I have been thinking about this since we got together but I always backed out in the end because I was afraid that you will reject me.” He his lips and his hand that was holding the ring box was slightly shaking. He was really nervous, I could see that.

“That was why after that night that you woke up in my arms I realized…,” he found my eyes, his gaze was earnest, longing, loving…, “I want that to happen every day. I want you to wake up in my arms every morning. I want to kiss you good night every night. I want to have your kiss without anyone clearing their throat to stop us, nor little boy jeering at us. I want to have you, with me, for the rest of my life,” tears found me again. This time it was the happy tears.

He took a deep breath. “Seo Hyo Na…, will you marry me?”

 Those were the words I’ve been waiting for all this time.

I could not speak. I was much too shock. Instead I gave up to my leg that went weak and fell in front of him and hugged him tight, then I kissed him and kissed him and kissed him again. I kissed his entire face as if he would be gone if I don’t kiss every part of his head, then I kissed his lips and he answered me with a long kiss. I pulled away breathing hard, still crying and I put my forehead on his.

“I love you…,” I whispered to him.

“And…?” He asked with a nervous voice.

“And what?” I squinted my eyes at him.

“And will you marry me or not? You haven’t answered that yet…,” he knocked his forehead to mine.

I laughed and kissed him once again. “Of course I will.”

He let out a relieved breath and the he laughed softly with me. He took my hand in his and then he put the ring on my ring finger. The ring fitted just right.

I kissed his cheek and hid my face on the crook of his neck, smelling his scent. “I love you.”

“You’re mine,” he whispered on my ears.

“I’ve always been yours.”

THE END