Chapter 17
Jin Ri watched as her cousin busily shuffled through papers and signed some documents continuously. It was during such times that she was glad her uncle never asked her to help out with the company. If he had, there was no doubt that she’d say yes. Family meant everything to her and the family business was a big part of that. But she was really happy that he didn’t because she didn’t think she’d be good at any of it.

“Kyuhyun seems to have had fun,” Sun Young absently said as she went through the files on her desk. She was looking very business-like in her navy blue skirt and white blouse with pearls around her neck and on her ears.

Jin Ri was seated on the seat situated in front of her desk. She was on her way to a photo shoot when she decided to stop by the Hyundai corporate office to visit her cousin and her uncle. But her uncle was out of town so it was just them.

“He did,” Jin Ri confirmed. She smiled as she leaned back on her seat, remembering how Kyuhyun recounted the things he did. He was like a little boy when he told her how much fun they had while playing. “I’m really happy that they didn’t grill him.”

Sun Young snorted. “Sungie says they did,” she recounted. “But he also said that Kyuhyun answered every question diligently and passed with flying colors.”

Jin Ri rolled her eyes, but chuckled. “I’m not going to stop being with him even if he didn’t pass,” she confidently stated.

“Would you care to enlighten me about you and Kyuhyun?” Sun Young demanded, an eyebrow raised. She stopped whatever she was working on and clasped her hands together, waiting expectantly for her cousin’s reply. Even when Jin Ri had finally admitted that she was officially with Kyuhyun, she never gave any details unless she asked. She was beginning to wonder how serious they were, how serious she was about him. She’d never really seen her that way with anyone before.

“What do you want to know?” Jin Ri asked cautiously.

“You seem so into him, Jin,” Sun Young commented instead. “What happened to taking things slow?”

“We are taking things slow,” Jin Ri defensively stated.

“But…?” Sun Young pressed.

“But…” Jin Ri continued. “I really like him a lot.”

“How bad is it?” Sun Young wanted to know.

Jin Ri met her cousin’s eyes and smiled somewhat shyly. “He makes me see in color. And I love it,” she confessed. “It’s not so much the complications and complexity of it. It’s the details of everything. He just makes me see so much more.”

Sun Young giggled. “Who knew that one Cho Kyuhyun could actually do this? It’s the singing, isn’t it? The smile? Or is it the cuteness of his impudence?”

“How is being impudent cute?” Jin Ri pointed out questioningly.

“Just tell me what it is about him that’s gotten you acting like this,” Sun Young persisted, rolling her eyes.

“It’s nothing in particular,” Jin Ri honestly acknowledged, shrugging. “It’s him. All of him.”

~ * ~

As soon as Jin Ri opened the door of her apartment, she burst out into laughter. Standing in the hallway were half of the members of Super Junior. Kyuhyun, who was standing at the back, gave her a wave and a sheepish smile. When he mentioned to them that he was going to her apartment with Leeteuk and Zhoumi to try her recording studio, Eunhyuk, Donghae and Ryeowook also volunteered themselves to go.

“I hope you don’t mind that we’re all here,” Ryeowook appeased, almost fearfully. He was clutching Eunhyuk’s hand so tightly that Eunhyuk’s smile had a mixture of grimace in it.

“Of course not, oppa,” she sincerely said, stepping aside so they could all go in. “Even if you really were all here, I still wouldn’t mind.”

Ryeowook wrapped her in a tight hug, smiling appreciatively. He was next hugged by Eunhyuk, then Donghae, then Zhoumi and, finally, Leeteuk. She chuckled as she all hugged them back. At the end of the line was Kyuhyun, who was watching his hyungs being so affectionate with his girlfriend.

“Are you all done?” Kyuhyun dryly asked. “Can I have my girlfriend to myself now?”

“Such a brat,” Eunhyuk noted, shaking his head. He turned to Jin Ri. “How do you put up with him? Seriously.

“Just between us,” she said in a stage whisper. “Sometimes I think I picked the wrong member.”

“Ya!” Kyuhyun violently reacted.

She giggled and blew him a kiss as she led the boys to the recording studio. The members looked around the apartment as if they were in a museum. Eunhyuk and Donghae occasionally pointed at a photo or an item that they found interesting, making her shake her head and smile. As they entered the studio, all members, except Ryeowook, gasped in surprise and amazement at the beauty of it. All being composers, it was all a dream of theirs to own their own studios someday.

Once she had showed them how things worked and once they’d all settled in, Kyuhyun quietly pulled her out of the room and closed the door so they could have some privacy. He wrapped her in a hug, her head resting on his chest, eyes closed. They stayed like this for a while, just enjoying being in each other’s presence. The past week had been busy for both of them that they’d barely seen each other, merely talking to each other on the phone.

He slightly pulled away and smiled at her. “Hi,” he greeted.

“Hi,” she greeted back. She leaned towards him and buried her face in his chest once more. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too, princess,” he responded, kissing her head.

“Want to go with me to the kitchen?” she then asked, smiling at him as she pulled away.

“Do I even have a choice?” he chuckled as she pulled him to the kitchen before he could even answer.

“No,” she answered, shaking her head. She had him sit on a chair as she began putting the food she cooked on plates. “So why exactly are they recording here again and not at the company?”

“Going to the company would make it seem like work,” he explained. “They just want to have fun.” As she began the wrapping of the Kimbap, he stood up and went to her side. “Do you need any help?”

She looked up at him, looking a bit shocked that he offered. When she recovered, she smiled and shook her head. “I can do it,” she told him, nodding towards the seat he was on earlier. “Just watch.”

He narrowed his eyes at her as he sat down. “What did you bring me here for if you just wanted me to watch?” Even though she’d never witnessed him cook anything, one story from his hyungs was enough for her to not let him try.

“You being around is helpful already,” she assured him. “I’m almost done anyway.”

“I haven’t burned anything in a while, you know,” he shared, frowning.

“I know you haven’t,” she replied, holding back her laughter. Once she finished wrapping the last Kimbap, she announced, “Done!” She clapped her hands and finished putting everything into their respective plates.

Kyuhyun watched as Jin Ri went to the sink to wash her hands and then wiped her hands on a small towel. She then walked to the fridge to check if there were enough drinks for the guests and made sure that the glasses were all ready, as well as the other utensils. He couldn’t help but smile as he thought about how wifely she was. She was just so caring and so considerate towards other people. He thought about telling her these things, but he figured she wouldn’t want to hear him calling her a wife.

“Hey, what did the company say about your solo?” she asked conversationally, turning towards him.

He smiled. “They liked it,” he relayed, looking very much relieved at the thought. It was something he’d been worried about, as everyone around him had seen and felt. But he realized that there really was no reason for him to have been so worried. Writing from the heart never failed anyone.

She gave him a warm smile, walking around the counter. “I told you so,” she stated, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“Come here,” he called, pulling her to stand in between his legs. “Have I told you yet how beautiful you are?”

“Kyu, you’re starting that cheesiness again,” she warned. But her face was heating up from the shyness and giddiness that she always felt from his sincere words.

“You like it, though,” he observed, quirking an eyebrow. He wrapped his arms around her waist and she bowed her head to hide her blushing face. He really enjoyed how he was able to make her blush and weak on the knees.

“Will you sing me a verse of your new song?” she requested, meeting his gaze once more, changing the subject. 

He brushed some strands of her hair away from her face and started to sing.

“It sounds really beautiful,” she honestly critiqued. “Your fans would be swooning all over the place.” She giggled at the thought.

He snickered. “What about you?”

“Sorry,” she disappointed him. “I’m really not the swooning type.” She patted his shoulder and started to move away from him. 

He violently protested so she turned back towards him and kissed him, wrapping an arm around his neck. Her hands clutched the hairs on the back of his head as he closed whatever small distance was between the two of them. His arms were wrapped tightly around her tiny waist.

He chuckled once they’d pulled away from each other. “Chung Jin Ri! That was bordering on college kiss!”

“Kyu!” she chided, slapping his arm.

He rubbed the part of his arm that she so excitedly slapped. “I’m starting to believe your brothers when they say you have a violent streak,” he relayed.

“I only get violent with you,” she pointed out, sticking her tongue out. “Because you always keep teasing me like that.”

Chuckling, he pulled her towards him once again and kissed her on the forehead. “Hey,” he suddenly spoke, his tone changing. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”

“What?” she wanted to know as they left the kitchen to call the others.

“It’s about Shin Jae,” he quietly let her know.

She immediately stopped walking and faced him. “What about Shin Jae?”

He then recounted how her cousins had asked him if he knew what happened between the two of them and how they had reacted when he had said yes. “Is there anything more that had happened? From the way they reacted, I’m getting a feeling that there’s something I don’t know.”

Jin Ri stood there, not knowing what to do. She figured that he would eventually find out that she hadn’t told him the complete truth about her and said male. It was one of those things that people just never talked about or shared willingly after the incident had passed. She wasn’t proud of it and she was afraid that Kyuhyun might change how he saw her if he found out.

“Princess?” Kyuhyun gently called, touching her arm. “Is there something else that happened?” From the way she was acting, he guessed that was something that she had omitted from the story that she had told him in the past.

They both sat down on the couch so that they could talk, deciding not to disturb the other members in the recording studio. After a couple of seconds, Jin Ri stood up. Kyuhyun stood up as well, being the gentleman that he was. But she shook her head at him and insisted that he sit back down.

“The night we got into a car accident,” Jin Ri began, facing him from across the living room table. “The thing that I told my parents were…” She hesitated. It was hard putting such things into words. But she supposed she just had to say it. Taking a deep breath, she divulged, “Shin Jae and I were engaged to be married.”

Kyuhyun suddenly had a coughing fit. “Sorry? I thought I heard you say that you and Shin Jae were engaged,” he repeated, hoping so much that he’d heard wrong. When she looked apologetic and guilty, he clasped his hands together and stared at the table. “Why?” he asked after a moment of silence, finally meeting her eyes again.

“Because…” She bit her lip, looking very much like she wanted to ground to swallow her up. She nervously fiddled with her hands, watching him closely. It scared her that he might look at her differently after what she was going to tell him.

“Hey,” he said, standing up and walking over to her. He wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tightly, hoping that she would stop trembling. “Whatever it is, it’s over and done with. You don’t have to tell me.”

“No, Kyu,” she discouraged, untangling herself from him. “This is something I should’ve told you before.”

“It can’t be that bad,” he consoled her, starting to get worried.

“I was pregnant,” she blurted out. He stared at her, unblinkingly. When he just continued standing there, looking at her and not doing anything else, she proceeded. “He got me pregnant,” she repeated quietly. “That’s what I told my parents in the car.”

“But you said that you didn’t love him. You said that you took things slow,” he recapped, almost defensively, when he found his voice.

“I’m sorry, Kyuhyun,” she whispered. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I’m sorry I lied.”

“So you got engaged…” he put the pieces together. “But didn’t get married.” He gave her a curious look.

“We only got engaged because I got pregnant,” she explicated. “My uncle didn’t want it any other way. I tried to reason with him that it wasn’t necessary.”

“It was the right thing to do,” he stated simply. “I don’t think Shin Jae would allow you to raise the kid by yourself.”

She shook her head. “Not by myself, no. We could have raised it together without being married,” she clarified.

“So why didn’t you get married and where’s the kid?” he wanted to know. The disbelief of everything she was saying still hadn’t sunk in. He couldn’t believe that she had gotten herself pregnant.

“I lost the baby,” she elaborated softly. “As soon as I found out, I insisted that the engagement be put off. I wasn’t going to get married to someone I didn’t love.”

Kyuhyun couldn’t help but leer and shake his head at this. “You didn’t love him and yet…” He trailed away and just shook his head once again. He couldn’t quite wrap his head at everything that was being revealed to him.

“I was naïve and stupid.” She sighed. “I don’t expect you to understand,” Jin Ri began, tears forming in her eyes. She watched as he ran a hand through his hair, avoiding her gaze. She couldn’t blame him. Why would he want to be with her now?

“You’re right,” he retorted. “I don’t understand. I just…” He took a deep breath, moving away from her. “I’m going to take a walk.”

“Kyuhyun.” She took a step towards him.

He suddenly turned to face her and pulled her into a tight hug. As he hugged her, he closed his eyes and tried to stop all the hurt and anger from boiling inside of him. He wanted to be mature. He wanted to take the high road. It was all in the past, after all. It shouldn’t be an issue anymore. 

But he couldn’t do it. He wasn’t that big of a person. So he gave her a kiss on the head and pulled away, walking out of the apartment.