**doot, dooT, doOT, dOOt, DOOT**

I reached over to my cell phone and quickly turned off the alarm going off. Looking over my shoulder I tried to make sure that Sehun wasn’t waking up or anything from the bed. He had come back to the hotel room pretty late last night, and he fell right onto the bed; knocking out in his suit and all. Though he smelt of a club, I couldn’t tell if he was dead tired or he had too much too drink... Or maybe even both.

I got up from the desk with my phone in my hand texting Unnie that I was awake. She texted back within a few seconds telling me she’ll call me when she’s on her way downstairs; once I finished reading the text, I placed my cell phone in the back pocket of my jeans and continued packing my bag. It wasn’t that I was packing overnight to stay at my parent’s house. More of, I was packing as much as I could now to jet off to Korea the day of my wedding.

As I kneeled beside my luggage case folding my clothes, the tiny gleam of my engagement ring caught my eye. I sighed; I was going to miss this. And by that I don’t mean just the materialistic stuff, but also the memories behind this ring. Not necessarily on how he gave me the ring, but more of the times we shared together: from the first time we met at school—our first “date”—the first kiss we had together.

I shook my head trying to waver off the sadness. Don’t pull yourself into that mood Krystal. Think of the bright side: the future. The one where you’ll be able to attend Art school. The one where you’ll be able to model. The one where you’ll be well off, living with Unnie and the Twins….

The one where there was no Sehun.

“Soo Jung-ahhh…” A husky voice groaned from the bed. Oh ! He’s awake!? I stood up from my suitcase kicking the lid close with my foot as I shuffled over towards him. He was bundled up in the comforters, his shirt untuck and undone, his pants unbuckled and ped as well…Oh my god he was like a half way open Christmas present for the eyes. “Soo Jung where are you?”

“I’m right here you big baby.” I patted the top of his head, his hair all over the place and what not. His breathe smelt of alcohol, so huh, maybe him and Kai did get a bit tipsy last night…

Sehun opened one eyes and pointed at me. “There you are indeed.” He chuckled and sat up now with both eyes closed. He opened his arms wide. “Why are you awake? Come here and sleep with me~” Before I could reject his invitation, I was swooped into his bear hug and pulled down back with him on the bed. He took the care to cover me up under the blankets with him, and dug his face into my freshly washed hair. “Hummm~You smell good~”

I tried to push myself up, but the heavy weight of his arms and the blankets were making it impossible to do so. “I can’t say the same for you…” Well, that was kind of a lie, though he did actually smell like cigarettes and beer from the surface…Being this close to him, I could faintly smell that cologne of his that made me swoon—

“You aren’t leaving me, are you?” Sehun asked as I felt him begin to my hair ever so softly. “Don’t tell me you’re leaving me alone…” I gulped. He means now, right? Not…future tense… Calm down Soo Jung. He doesn’t know about the wedding day… He shouldn’t.

“I’m going out actually…” Well, I wasn’t lying to him about that. Hopefully he wouldn’t ask any further than that—

“Nooo doooon’ttt~” He held me tighter against him and kissed the top of my head. “No. I won’t let you leave me at allll~” His voice grew into a whisper that only I could hear in my ear. “You mean too much to me to let you go~”

No. No he can NOT be tearing my heartstrings this early in the morning… I closed my eyes taking a deep breathe: you can’t cry. No. No crying. You promised yourself not to cry when meeting mom and dad. When leaving Sehun…Now… I gave up trying to get away from his embrace and instead wrapped my arms around him. I laid my cheek on top of his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart. DON’T CRY SOO JUNG. DON’T. C-R-Y.

As if a shock was sent through my senses, a vibrating sensation ran up my leg followed by my ringtone. I quickly untangled myself from a now weak and sleeping Sehun, answering my phone.

“Hey, you’re on your way down?” I walked to the desk where my backpack was and stuffed my diary in it before strapping the bag on.

“Yeah. We’re on our way down now.”

I stopped in my tracks. “Wait, whose ‘we’? Is Amber coming with us?”

“Uhm…No…Kai is.”

“Kai!?” I whisper shouted into the phone. I quickly began to walk towards the door giving one last look at Sehun: now peacefully drooling onto the pillow. I opened the door to the foyer, and softly closed it. “Kai!? Why is Kai with you!?”

“Well, let’s just say he’s really good at being a fake sleeper and he overheard Amber and I talking about our plans for today… He refuses to go back to sleep and wants to come with us…”

“What?! No. Give him the phone.” I leaned against the door of the bedroom. Why wasn’t I that surprised that Kai would pull such a move? He did that all the time to me on the bus or subway when he wanted to rest his head on my shoulder or lap…

“Soo Jung I’m coming with you and that’s final” Kai immediately said upon being handed the phone. “I’m not letting you go through this alone—“

“I’m not alone Kai. In case you don’t know, I have an older sister who happens to be standing right beside you and—“

“Well, I’ll be there for the both of you. I have two shoulders for both of you to cry on if you need too… And I can be a mediator between all of you. Just in case something get’s out of hand or you need someone to drive back or—“

“Look, Kai, I know that you mean the best to come with us and protect us…But, its just my parents place. The most harm they’ve done is probably kill a colony of bees or something.” I smiled at the memory playing in my head of my Dad in his weird homemade bee guard trying to swat away the beehive on his rickety ladder. “We’ll be fine going to my parents. Really Soo Yeon and I—“

I felt the door open from behind me and I was immediately caught into a familiar pair of arms. I looked up and saw Sehun looking down at me, now shirtless and only had sweatpants on.

“You’re going to your parents place?” Sehun asked a lot more alert than earlier when I was in his arms. “I’m coming with you.” 

**BZZT, BZZT**

I looked down at my phone screen. Seeing it was a message from the person right beside me, I gave Soo Yeon a look and then at the message.

Unnie: Yah, we’re almost there now. What are we going to do?

Soo Jung: We’ll just tell them to stay in the car for now until we give them a signal.

Unnie: Yeah right they’ll stay in the car. They couldn’t even stay back in the hotel room.

Soo Jung: This time it’s different…They’ve made it all the way over here now. I don’t think they’ll barge in deeper into our family matters…

Unnie: Well, obviously Omma and Appa are going to ask about them… What are we going to say without giving away the wedding thingy?

Soo Jung: We’ll just introduce them as friends. That’s it. No beating around the bush or nothing.

“These are huge fields you own here Soo Jung…” Kai said in astonishment as he pressed his face against the window, looking out. “So, this is what a vineyard looks like huh—“

I looked out the window and looked at the scenery passing by us. This place hasn’t changed one bit since we left… I looked at Unnie who was also looking out the window. Judging by the expression on her face, she was probably thinking the same thing.

“Soo Jung used to get lost in that all the time.” My sister shook her head laughing. “I remember one time, she dressed as a scarecrow and ran through the rows cawing like a bird.”

“I remember that you would always hide the boys you brought over in the fields too.” I looked at her seeing how she would take my attack; Unnie looked at me and smiled rolling her eyes.

“What? It wasn’t a bad idea!” She replied.

“Brilliant actually” Sehun sided with Unnie. I looked at him through the rearview mirror; his eyes were already looking at me. His eyes crinkled at the edges, a signal that he was smiling back at me. I ree back, but not as joyful as I usually showed him. Every time I looked at Sehun now, I couldn’t help but think of what was going to happen tomorrow…

No. Soo Jung. Focus. Today is all about the parents, NOT that. I still need to figure out a way to introduce Kai and Sehun. We can’t just leave them here in the car for no reason; who knows how long this reunion was going to last…

“So this is the game plan, all right?” Soo Yeon said out of the blue leaning forward in her seat. “Kai, already knows this, but we are NOT planning to invite our parrents to the wedding, okay? Don’t even mention the engagement. Just, go with the scenario where Sehun is just Soo Jung’s boyfriend.”

“But, what if they know something about us from the tabloids or something?” Kai asked.

“No, if I they’re still the same…They don’t pay attention to any celebrity gossip. Only the important world news…” Soo Yeon explained. “But, if they somehow do know about this—

“I don’t understand why we can’t tell your parents about us getting married” Sehun asked. “I mean, wouldn’t you want your father to walk you down the aisle on your big day?”

“Or course I do…” I replied in a soft tone. Its just that it won’t happen anytime soon since we aren’t getting married, Sehun. God, if only I could say that to him—

“Look, lets just follow what the girls say no questions asked, all right?” Kai filled in my words as if he was trying to back me up. “It’s hard enough to face their parents now, but having us with them now is just double the trouble. So, the most we could do is respect their decision.”

Sehun gave Kai the side eyed look, then continued to look ahead while driving. I felt kind of relieved hearing Kai take my side, but judging on Sehun’s face he wasn’t very happy about it. The last thing I wanted before tomorrow was a fight with Sehun because that might be the very last interaction I have with him.

The rest of the ride was silent, and before I could go deeper into any thought, the familiar villa came into view. Sehun parked the car in the driveway, only the boys getting out of the car. See Yeon and I sat in our places unsure of what to do.

“Wow. This is it.” See Yeon looked at the house from the window. “Its been too long hasn’t it Soo Jung?”

“It sure has.” I looked at out at the childhood home I grew up in. Pushing out my thoughts of Sehun, my head filled with memories of my childhood in this house as a distraction of my current thoughts.

“Hey…” Unnie took my hand into hers. “It’s okay, all right? Everything will be fine no matter what happens. You know why?” She leaned in foreword. “Because I’ll be there with you every step of the way. You’re not alone in this.” She sat back taking a deep breath and exhaling out of . “In fact, I might even have it worse than you.”

I put a hand on top of hers. “Then I guess you can say, I’ve got your back too.” We both smiled at each other and let out a small nervous laugh. We both got out of the car at the same time, our heels touching the pavement together. The boys turned around from looking at the view and Sehun approached me first.

“Relax.” Sehun toom my face in his hands and rubbed my cheeks with his thumbs. “You’ll be fine…” He kissed my forehead then pulled back still caressing my face; I nodded my head. If only Sehun understood how much of an understatement being “fine” was.

“We’ll stand back here while you go ring the door bell,” Kai announced looking a bit annoyed at the PDA Sehun and I was showing. “Just give us the signal when you’re ready for us.”

Soo Yeon walked up to me and held out her hand. “Excuse me brother-in-law to be, but I have to take your lovely bride to be for a bit.” I looked at her with a stare; way to put salt in my wounds saying things such as “brother-in-law” or “bride” when she knows the situation.

We started walking up the driveway holding onto each other’s arm tightly taking slow calculative steps towards the front door, it was as if we were visiting the principal’s office: the anticipation of how we’ll be reprimanded for our actions.

“Do you think mom still wears that kitty cat apron in the morning while making breakfast?” My sister asked trying to lighten up the mood. Good thing too, because I’d rather talk of nonsense things then things that are about to make sense at this point.

“Or maybe dad still wears those gray bunny slippers” I replied following along.

“I thought they were white?”

“They used to be.” Soo Yeon and I looked at each other and laughed.

We stopped at the front door and stared at the tall oak door. This was it. This was really it… We both looked at each other and took a deep breath.

“I’ll do the honors?” Unnie questioned. I stopped her hand.

“No, I got us into the mess…” I rang the doorbell. “Now, its my turn to finish what I started.”