PROLOGUE :

"so i think i may have stabbed myself in the eye with a pen?" Yes, Yeonhee and Seojun first "met" through an emergency call he put in when she had only been at the job for about two weeks. This was fall 2013 and Yeonhee had not been taught how to reply to someone who casually questioned stabbing themselves in the eye with a pen. Seojun seemed to be trying to downplay the severity of the whole situation while Yeonhee tried to get every detail out of him that she could manage. He wasn't very helpful and was quite vague, and, well, she got pretty frustrated. After nearly yelling at Seojun to either tell her exactly where the pen was or to go to te hospital half-blind, he paused and apologized. He then explained the situation clearer and offered to buy her a coffee for her troubles. Yeonhee was very confused but wrote down his name and number anyway, because she was poor and could use more coffee.

"wow, you literally stabbed yourself in the eye with a pen." The two met at a Starbucks for coffee and Yeonhee knew instantly who Seojun was because of the bandages on his eye. Seojun was outwardly cool and collected, polite and the perfect gentleman, but on the inside he was really sort of panicking because he hadn't expected the 1-1-9 girl to be so witty and charming. Like sure she was pretty, but her jokes were funny and her aura? He really liked her from the first time they met in person (Yeonhee could only think about how somehow this really smart guy had been stupid enough to stab himself in the eye, oops).

"thank god, someone else who finally pops the whole soup dumpling in their mouth." They bonded over the small things, you know? They were similar people but distinctly different, and it was the little quirks that were so endearing to each other. Yeonhee liked the way that they had the same ramen preferences, and Seojun liked the way that they both preferred cats to dogs. They didn't really build a friendship before starting to date- Yeonhee and Seojun texted a few times after the Starbucks trip and Yeonhee asked him if he wanted to try a date sometime. She hadn't gone on dates in a while, and he was cute and smart. What other reason did she need? Seojun was totally crushing on her, so he was game.

"year two, who knew?" It was strange, how quickly they fell into dating. Yeonhee found herself completely endeared by his habit of freaking out over her if she mentioned anything being even slightly out of the norm. She admired his passion for helping others and his loyalty to his friends. Seojun just sort of knew that she was always the right girl. She balanced him in just the right ways. Before they knew it, they were a two-year couple. Of course, it's not like it was all daisies and butterflies. Yeonhee is the type of girl that needs to be given attention but Seojun puts so much attention into his work. There have been many minor arguments over Seojun's workaholic tendencies, but none were as bad as the one two and a half years after they first began dating. Yeonhee's last musical  had been torn to pieces and rejected, and she was admittedly stressed. Seojun, on the other hand, was doing some jobs that kept him away, and for long periods of time. She felt ignored and hurt that he didn't seem to care how upset she was over not getting her musical into production and so one day, when they were just casually drinking coffee together in her apartment, she broke. Yeonhee yelled and cried about how he really just liked working more than her, about how he didn't care that her career could be going nowhere, and that overall Seojun was just a neglectful boyfriend. It was over-exaggerated and in the heat of the moment, but Seojun took it personally. He also was hurt that Yeonhee couldn't see that he was helping people when he worked, so of course it took some sort of priority. It was confusing and loud and ended only when Seojun grabbed his bag and left her crying in the living room. They hardly spoke for two weeks, and it looked pretty bad.

"who has time for that sort of stuff?" Seojun realized he wasn't quite being himself. He had buried himself into his own work again, and stopped being considerate where he normally was. And after talking to her best friend, Yeonhee realized that she hadn't quite been in the right either. Had she once really communicated how much that musical meant to her? How much the rejection hurt? They agreed to meet up and talk it out like adults, and while they nearly came to the conclusion that perhaps they weren't suitable for a relationship, Yeonhee asked to try again with better communication. Seojun wasn't quite willing to let it all end there either, and so they vowed to try and be better for each other and themselves. After that near-breakup experience, their relationship actually got a lot more natural. Yeonhee was more honest and real with Seojun than she ever had been before. Instead of holding back on her cursing because she felt awkward that he hardly ever said more than "Damn it" on a really bad day, she just let herself be her. Never before had she realized she was being so different with him than with everyone else in her life. And Seojun stopped trying to be so dominant in the relationship, because that simply wasn't him. He didn't have to be a "man," Yeonhee could make the decisions and it didn't make him any less of a man. She was someone he could be honest with, and he liked that.

"thank you for being here." That's what really made them a good couple. Once they stopped pretending (Even if they hadn't realized it before), they really just seemed to get each other. They built a relationship with communication and dates to libraries and cuddling on stormy afternoons and understanding one likes to work and the other likes to get to know a lot of people. Yeonhee and Seojun learned new little quirks and bits about each other over the years, and the proposal was very underdramatic, like Seojun. He simply asked her one night while they were cuddling in her apartment. It was around one a.m., and he pressed a kiss to her hair and said, "Do you want to get married?" "Of course, why wouldn't I?"

"i don't wanna ever leave!" Perhaps their most fond memory is the three-week trip they took to Canada. Seojun and Yeonhee put together their savings, took time off of work, and visited Canada last year. They visited a number of beautiful nature sites, took countless pictures, ate at the best and craziest food places- It was an amazing experience. Yeonhee calls it "the time we never stopped holding hands," because in every picture their fingers were tangled together. They're such pleasant memories, of new places and experiences and breathtaking nature. Their vacation has even influenced some of her work. Seojun keeps a picture of the two of them at the Niagara Falls in his wallet.

EPILOGUE :

"honeymoon? who has time for that? not us." It was easy for Yeonhee and Seojun to decide to skip the honeymoon until later. As in...Never later. He likes to work and she doesn't want to take him away from that when he'd only be antsy. That would be no fun, and so they just agreed to go on a date a week instead. Normally those dates are to places like Build-A-Bear where they buy cute couple bears, or to the new boba place up the street. They've been married for about four months. They moved into their own two-bedroom home that they're currently renovating, so they always spend Sunday working on some new project in the house. Seojun is definitely better at the DIY side of it all. They're already making the second bedroom a nursery, however...

"it's okay. i'm okay." Seojun and Yeonhee want kids, they really do, but they visited a family planning center and things did not go ideally. It looks like Seojun has some slight fertility issues that would make getting pregnant naturally somewhat difficult. Unfortunately, the money it would take to do it through IVF or IUI is just too much to be realistic. They could afford to try it out, but to have the money to raise the child after? It could be a little too tight for comfort, and it might not even work. That does put some strain on their relationship these days. It makes Seojun feel guilty, guilty that he didn't check before he married her, because he knows how much Yeonhee wants a big family. It's hard for them to talk about but they do talk about it.

"you're gonna be late for work, silly." Seojun wakes up first and makes them lunch to take to work, and then he also always has to wake up Yeonhee who sleeps through her alarm. She has a habit of throwing her pillow at him for that. They eat their own separate breakfasts that they make for themselves but generally at the same time. They're not the types to talk to each other in the morning, instead just going through their own routines. Living together isn't that different because Seojun rarely has slept anywhere else but Yeonhee's apartment for the past few years. They head off to work with a hug and a kiss. Seojun takes the car and Yeonhee takes the bus. They send each other texts about anything and everything that happens in their day, though Seojun takes a lot longer to reply because of the nature of his work. Yeonhee gets home first and always cooks dinner, and if Seojun gets back and there is no dinner made, he knows she's had a long day and orders something in. They hang out for the few hours between dinner and heading to bed, normally just talking about their day, working on their individual work assignments side-by-side, talking about the renovations they're planning, gaming on the Wii, so on and so forth. A lot of the time, dinner is Yeonhee cracking a joke and making Seojun choke on whatever food he's eating.

"about that date?" Yeonhee doesn't really have a set schedule, just an amount of work she has to get done before she can leave for the day since she currently isn't working on any new production, just writing the next one. Since she often finishes early, Yeonhee heads out to see her friends or help out at her parents' food stall that they're still running. Seojun, on the other hand, often works overtime and even rotates with three other physical therapists to be on-call during weekends, which he otherwise would have off. He never returns home until dinnertime or later, and so he doesn't see his friends often. Because of this, Yeonhee lets his brother come over to help work on their house because he needs to know people that aren't her, his coworkers, and his patients. She's very supportive of his job and pushes him to leave the house more. Still, they do find the time for a date once a week and it's...Nice. Yeonhee sort of misses the time they spent together before getting married, because Seojun worked harder to work her into his schedule. Sometimes she feels they take each other for granted, but they're working this out in pillow talks and sleepy cuddles.

COUPLE TRIVIA :
✤ They were married on February 1st this year.
✤ Honestly, chores just sort of go to whoever is home. Both are pretty clean people so they naturally wash their own dishes, pick up, and clean the house.
✤ Yeonhee totally is the dominant one in the relationship.
✤ They 195% will do any sort of bodily function around each other. It's been years, who even cares anymore?
✤ Kisses on eyelids and foreheads! Essential.
✤ Sleepy cuddles! Essential.
✤ Seojun also likes to have his nose kisses, which Yeonhee thinks is just the cutest thing in the world.
✤ They don't like drinking and only keep alcohol in the house for guests. Getting tipsy or drunk is not their idea of a good time.
✤ Since Yeonhee prefers dogs and Seojun prefers cats, they decided to not get any pets except for maybe a hamster. But since they're working on the house they don't want to get one yet in case it escapes and gets lost.
✤ Once, early in their relationship, they drank together because they just sort of assumed that the other wanted to. It was a mess because Yeonhee gets really moody when she drinks and Seojun cries over anything.
✤ Their first kiss was in a book cafe about nine months into the relationship. It was memorable because there were windchimes making pretty noises in the background. Because of this, they have windchimes at home.
✤ Closing the door to the bathroom? Never heard of it.
✤ Putting down the toilet seat? Never met her.
✤ If Yeonhee has a long day at work, they take a bubble bath together and play with the bubbles.
✤ Seojun likes to give her a bubble mustache and beard.
✤ They both nerd out together over dinosaurs.
✤ The wedding was at a museum.
✤ Neither were s or even new to dating when they got together, even though it was a while ago. They made a point to go get STD tests together and opened each others results as a show of trust.
✤ Seojun sometimes packs her a special little treat that he picked up from her favorite bakery in her lunch, just to surprise her.
✤ Occasionally, they have contests where they see who can burp the alphabet the loudest.
✤ They have been a couple since 2013.
✤ Yeonhee's favorite thing about Seojun is how much he lives to help people. It's just so admirable and she loves it. But she'll just say it's his pretty face.
✤ Seojun's favorite thing about Yeonhee is her bright personality. It's enthralling and beautiful, and he also loves her hair.
✤ That's why he plays with her hair so much.
✤ Oftentimes, their dates are to the community pool so Seojun can teach Yeonhee how to swim.
✤ She's very useless at it, but very cute.
✤ If they start to fall asleep together on the couch, Yeonhee will traces pictures across any of Seojun's open skin with her fingertips and watch as he falls asleep. It warms her heart.