“Do you, the bride, accept Yoo Changhyun as your husband through thick or thin and love the man for all eternity?”  The priest spoke, his eyes half open as the old man waited for the bride’s answer.

“The bride? Lee Han Ah?” the bride on the hand was trembling. The heater was on, the temperature warm enough to keep everyone comfortable, still she was shaking so bad that her tiara had tilted sideways. “Hannah-ya?”  Changhyun held her hands, it was cold to the touch as the groom started to look into her eyes, worried to death. “Jagiya?”

“No. No I can’t.” she mumbled, her eyes looking straight down to the white carpeted floor. Then, slowly a puddle of tears had formed around her shoes, dripping down to the ground.

“I stole… I stole your de..de….design.” she continued, her voice all wrecked and breathy. “w..what?” Changhyun asked, his eyes as wide as his forehead while his fingers peeled away from hers. “I can’t marry you, YooChang! I stole one of your designs and sold it to a company under my name. Houses… that you drew… for u…us” she cried as black rivers strained down her milky white cheeks. “I took the money, bought a car even! Your missing design… I stole it…” and with those words, the bride kneeled to floor and held Changyhun’s ankle, pleading for forgiveness.

But despite her thousands apologies, she never said yes. The young man sobbed as he dragged his feet away from her frail grasp and walked away. His breath labored; so difficult and painful as he walked out the church. “ Huh… bloody vow. Bull.”

♦

He cried and soon enough, the groom screamed. Tears raining down his white collar and the road looked blurry from the wetness of his own agony. He was so drunk in disappointment; he made his way to the train without even realizing it. Snapping his smartphone on the scanner and stumbling into the coach all wrecked. His wails echoed all around the train and a few girls even took a picture of him, all curled up in the corner of the seat, bawling his pants off. After a few stops, Changhyun stood up. “Home… I want to go home…” the young man cried, his eyes locked completely on the floor as he bumped onto people and bowing mindlessly as an apology.

The door slid open and Changhyun walked out, still looking down when he bumped onto another man. The latter felt like a brick wall, his petite shoulders had ached from the collision and his grip on his smartphone went loose as it cascaded down to the floor. Two phones scattered down beside the train. “I’m sorry.” They both mumbled, not even looking at each other as they picked up their belongings and went along.

“Uhh, it’s the wrong stop.” After a few seconds, Changhyun finally sobered up as he looked at the signage and hurried back into coach. He barely made it; the door had closed the moment he hopped in. And to his nightmare, the passengers were still staring.

He diligently curled back up to the corner of the seat and opened his phone. Mindlessly, the groom swiped away to unlock when he realized that it was the third try. “What in the bloody..” he cursed, his eyes red from the tearful abuse. He tried again. Zig to the ing zag, he screamed inside. The screen went dark as the timer ticked – ‘You have key in the wrong patter for the fifth time. Please wait 30 seconds and try again.’

“Fu…….udge!” he growled, his teeth gritted in a horrendous way as he violently shook the device. “Yah you useless piece of garbage, are you betraying me too now!!” he nagged the device while his ears burned with frustration and his breath sounded like it belong to a dragon. 

“Uhm, excuse me. Wait, stop!” a man rushed near Changhyun, all wrapped up in his jacket and hoodie. For a moment, the stranger had scared Changhyun. “Wa..waeyo?” he stuttered, all shook up inside. Is he being mugged? Or is it a serial killer? Honestly, go ahead – he challenged, mentally. “Here, take it… take everything. I’ll give you a kidney too if you want.”

“I think I’ll just take the phone…” The latter spoke calmly, sliding the black Iphone away from Changhyun’s hand and placing another device that looked exactly the same. “Uh?” Changhyun picked it up, swiped his pattern and like magic, it unlocked. “Oh!Ooooooh! ha! It unlocked!!” Changhyun laughed, looking straight back to the hooded stranger. For once, something was working out. His face all curled up in a heartfelt smile as he caressed the black IPhone like it was his baby. “Omo… I thought you betrayed me.”

“Haha. I’m glad you didn’t incinerate mine too.” the stranger laughed along, taking off his hoodie and simply took a seat beside Changhyun. He was gorgeous. Not in a perfect flower boy kind of way, but a warm, friendly type of charm. Big and sturdy, he even looked rather fatherly too. Changhyun’s little snicker was pretty loud and the stranger definitely noticed. “Excuse me? Do we have a problem here?”

“No… No… it’s just for a second there you looked like a total serial killer psycho but now, you’re... pretty handsome.”  Changhyun leaned back and stared at his home screen, somehow he was getting pretty sick staring at it. “Aishh….” And just like that, he started to delete everything like a madman. “Excuse me… but you’re the crying groom ahjusshi right? The one trending on twitter right now.”

“I’m even trending on twitter now… Amazing. What an amazing luck.” Changhyun whined as his eyes started to dampen all over again.

The tall stranger sat straight, scrolled down his SNS and handed it over. “Here ahjusshi, it’s not as bad as it looks. A lot of people are actually rooting for you.” Changhyun smiled and his eyes seemingly passed through all the nasty comments and focused to the ones that were comforting. He looked at the tall, young looking boy. “Thank you.” And to his surprise, the boy smiled back, a smile so warm and comforting, his freezing stomach actually calmed down. He sniffed and laid his head back to the seat and even though the pain inside his chest was crawling out from his skin, life was pretty bearable. He sniffed again, wiping his running nose with his bare hand.

“Aigoo. Here, a napkin.” The young tall boy handed the napkin over to his hands and looked away. Then he took out a sketch book and started to draw. It was a picture of a building, architectural type of design. There was not much left to do, all the latter was doing was just filling in empty spaces and sketching final touches to the pretty basic, futuristic looking building. An apartment maybe, Changhyun figured. “Uhm… I’m sorry but if you shade this part here, it would look much more three dimensional.” He pointed innocently at a part of the drawing, totally absorbed by the design. 

“And here...” his hand moved too close that it had touched the latter’s, making him flinch and flustered all over. “I’m sorry.” But then again, the young boy smiled and pointed where he was touching. “Here?” Changhyun’s face lit up as he nodded; his teeth showing all shiny and bright. “Ohh… you’re right.” The young man then diligently colored the part where Changhyun had pointed. And while he did, he spoke “You know ahjusshi, you’re pretty cute yourself. It’s such a pity that all I’m seeing is you cry.”

“You have such a bright smile, brighter than anyone I know.”  The young man kept coloring but his words were strangely very familiar and unbelievably comforting.

And it was so annoying that it came sliding down his lips so effortlessly too, as if he had known Changhyun for the longest time. Changhyun inhaled deeply, looking to the other side as he hid his reddening cheeks. He was so flustered. While the young man was smirking so devilishly, the moment Changhyun saw it, his head twirled. “Fu..dge.. Get a grip YooChang!” he never felt this way before. For the first time, his suit was all he needed to stay warm.

Just then, a pair of big warm hands had pulled his fingers into an embrace and that simple touch was like jolts of electricity running down his spine. Changhyun choked. “Here, a pack of heat pack. Your hands were freezing just now, so please use this to keep warm. “

“Cheer up man, one ending does not determine the rest. Tomorrow will definitely be a better day.”

“And thank you for the tips, it looks way better now, Sir Changhyun.”

The young man stood up, his sketch book tucked safely in his backpack as he bowed and walked out of the train. His last words remained deep inside the groom’s mind.

“And sir, I’m actually a fan. You’re actually pretty famous in my architectural faculty.”

♦

His phone rang annoyingly again, for the fourth time. Changhyun snatched it and threw it down to the floor, grunting as he struggled to stand up from the bed. It was the day after his failed wedding and he was on the way back to work. A few hours after he reached home last night, an offer popped out for him at a local university. He was finally an acknowledged architecture, more specifically a licensed architectural lecturer.

Thanks to someone he managed to sleep without the help of good’ol vodka. Instead he drifted away the moment he laid down to his bed. The new day was not as horrifying as he expected, his wedding somehow passed away like a blurry nightmare. No one asked and no one spoke about it. It was clearly winter time, judging from the gust of steam running out his lips but it was incredibly sunny too. Changhyun had to squint his eyes to make way to his class, bumping again to someone who felt like a brick wall.

“Aishh...” he cursed, his phone plopping down to the marble floor all over again. The mere sound of it made him hysterical. “A better tomorrow… bullsh..uh?” he held up the black IPhone again, analyzing it carefully. “Isn’t this… last night…” he mumbled, swiping his pattern again and again.

“Hi crying train Ahjusshi. It’s you again.” It was the same young man that he had met last night.

“I’m Jonghyun, your academy assistant. But I’m also a student…

“I look forward working with you, Sir Changhyun.”

And as if all his vows were broken, Changhyun was staring so deep into the younger's eyes, he was lost in a beautiful trance. And in fact, judging from Jonghyun's reaction, the way the boy had smiled so sweetly....

For that one moment, all his pain and all vows felt like they were left behind at train station. 

For all of his promise to be forgotten.