Terrace Crossing Apartments

2:14 PM

Seoul, South Korea

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When Park Jungsu came to pick me up on Saturday, I stood aside like a prissy princess and made him carry and load all of my luggage into the car. As I expected, he did it without complaint. It was going to take a little bit more than manual labor to make him hate me.

“Can you check that paper again for me?” he asked, taking his eyes off of the road to point at a folded piece of paper on the dashboard. “It says turn right at the end of this street, right?”

I opened it to find a map, as well as some instructions and an address in my grandmother’s handwriting.

“Take a right and the place is on the right,” I told him curtly, I had spent the whole drive here silent and cold on purpose, closed off to conversation. Surely, that will drive a man crazy.

After Leeteuk parked in the private garage of the apartment, I jumped out of the car, and headed up the stairs into the lobby, ignoring and leaving Leeteuk with the luggage. I pressed the up button for the elevator, and waited impatiently. The door opened with a soft “bing” and I stepped in.

“Wait!” Leeteuk slid in just as the doors were closing, catching him breath. I just looked at him, wordlessly.

The apartment that my grandmother had found for us was on the 8^thfloor of a relatively new apartment building. Inside, we found the place to be fully furnished, but scarcely decorated. A little lobby, a giant living room, a modern kitchen and dining room, two bathrooms, a study, and ….oh no.

I stood in the doorway of what seemed to be the only bedroom glumly, cursing whoever had furnished this house. The study was obviously the second bedroom, but now, it would be too much effort to move out those floor to ceiling book cases and giant desk.

“They planned this,” Leeteuk muttered, coming up behind me. I heard him sigh, and he too looked at the only bedroom. “I bet your grandmother and my mother planned for this to happen.”

Taking steps inside, I opened the side cabinets until I found one filled with pillows and blankets. “Well, here’s some extra pillows and blankets for you,” I said, picking them up.

“What?”

I turned to glare at him. “I call dibs on the bedroom, so it looks like you are sleeping on the couch. Here.” I proceeded to dump the pile of pillows and blankets into his arms, fully enjoying the look of disbelief on his face.

[How to get rid of a fiancé, step #1: make him sleep on the couch]

“Grown-ups don’t call dibs,” he complained, putting the blankets down on the bed.

“You’re only saying that because you were too late.” I opened another of the door, and found a closet that was a decent size. Not that I’m going to let him know. “This closet is kind of small,” I said, faking a pout. “I’m going to need it all. You can use the hall closet.”

[Step #2: take all of his closet space]

I spent the afternoon packing, then made some kimchi rice. Deciding that I had caused Leeteuk enough emotional damage for one day, I called him for dinner of kimchi rice and red wine that I had found in the cabinet, and shared my food with him. We ate together at the table, and it was still silently awkward. Okay, maybe I wasn’t completely done with my emotional damage. 

“So, why did you return from New York?” he asked, breaking the silence and trying to make conversation. “It seemed like you really like it there.”

“I kind of wish I’d stayed now,” I replied, pointedly.

Leeteuk blushed, and looked down. He was a more sensitive than I had thought.

Slowly, Leeteuk reached into his pocket, and withdrew a little velvet box. He opened it, revealing a silver engagement ring.

“I just picked this out last week,” he said, sliding it over to me across the table. “You don’t have to wear it if you don’t want to, but mom wanted me to make it more official.”

“I won’t be wearing it,” I told him. “I don’t want my co-workers asking me about my fiancé, since I can’t talk about this.”

“Fair enough,” he nodded.

“Since we aren’t married yet, does that mean we can both still date other people?” I asked, casually.

“I guess so,” Leeteuk replied with a shrugged. “But there need to be rules.”

“Of course,” I agreed. “My rule is that you don’t bring any of them here. If you want to date, do it elsewhere. I live here now, and I don’t want to have to explain myself to anyone.”

“Fine, but I have a rule too,” Leeteuk said. “No matter what, we are going to be married one day. I don’t care who you go on dates with, but I don’t want you messing around with other guys inappropriately. I don’t want you kissing whomever you want while we are engaged.”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “And this rule applies to you too?”

“Both rules apply to both of us,” he decided. “Deal?”

“Bottoms up,” we both drank to that.

That night, as I laid in bed thinking, I couldn’t help but take out and look at the engagement ring. It really was beautiful and probably expensive, showing off Leeteuk’s fine taste in jewelry.

This was the first time I had ever received anything this beautiful, and I wished that this was a different situation, at a different time. With a sigh, I put the box away in the bedside drawer, and turned off the lights. This was not the time to get soft hearted, because I had a fiancé to get rid of.

[A/N]: I've had this written for a while, but AFF kept crashing/not loading so I didn't feel like uploading it. Also, after the AFF blackout, I lost two chapters of one of my stories that I ended up having to re-write. Anyways, here it is!

Okay, so Honesty from Sherlock is the most beautiful song in the world. It really showcases their vocals, and I'm obsessed. In celebration of Sherlock, I have started my SHINee/OC story, called Juliet. Go sub! The description sounds a bit awkward, but it's a working progress. If any of you are poster makers and want to volunteer your services, let me know, or I will just make one later.