CHAPTER 24: HAPPY ENDINGS DON’T EXIST

 

 

The time I had been separated from Chanmi, the time I knew she was being tortured, had made me worry for the girl more than I had worried before. I had become very protective of my little sister. So hearing her scream echoing in the apartment made my blood freeze and heart skip a beat. With ice cold shivers going up and down my spine, I ran to the door and rushed out, trying to locate where the scream had come from.

The scream had alerted the others as well as Myungjun and I were the last ones to rush there. The situation, anyhow, turned upside down as I realized what had happened. Chanmi was standing at the door of the bathroom, wrapped up in a bathrobe. Minhyuk was sitting down on the floor, looking extremely embarrassed, whole face flushing red. I stared at the two with wide eyes.

“He came in while I was showering”, Chanmi hissed, glaring at the boy but pointing her words to me.

The worry disappeared from my mind and I had to resist bursting into a laughter. I felt my lips twitching and couldn’t help but to let out a chuckle. Chanmi looked up at me, looking slightly offended, and snorted.

“You”, she said and stared at Minhyuk. “If you’re not completely sure whether someone is in there, you should knock!”

Minhyuk, still looking very embarrassed, looked up at the girl. “You should’ve locked the door.”

“The lock isn’t working”, Chanmi spat out, glaring at the boy with a defiant expression.

Myungjun let out a chuckle as well. “Yeah, that… we’ll get it fixed.”

“You better”, Chanmi bridled, eyes narrowing, and then turned to glare at Minhyuk again.

I glanced around me and for my amusement, I could see everybody trying to hold back their laughter. The situation was just very funny, even though both Chanmi and Minhyuk were probably deadly embarrassed.

“I didn’t see anything, you know”, Minhyuk muttered and bridled a little bit.

“Sure you didn’t”, Chanmi snorted and kicked the boy in his chest, making him fall further away from her.

That was the last move, I couldn’t help but to burst out in laughter and soon everybody followed my lead. Minhyuk got up from the floor, very ashamed, and escaped from the scene. Chanmi crossed her arms against her chest and glared at me. I could just respond with my laughter.

“She’ll become a heartbreaker one day”, Jinwoo laughed out. He noticed Miyeon glaring at him with a judging expression, and let out an awkward chuckle. “She’s too young for me, anyway…”

Miyeon boldly took a step forwards and hit the boy she barely knew, in the back. A muffled groan let Jinwoo’s mouth and he looked at the girl with an apologetic expression. The girl just snorted and walked away. The situation was slowly breaking down and everybody left the scene.

After showering and changing my clothes, I felt a lot better. I had gotten some rest and the cool shower refreshed my condition a lot. It had been a while I could just wear comfy trackpants and a sweatshirt and just sit down comfortably – well, not exactly comfortably since my bruises were hurting if I sat in a wrong position or touched somewhere where the injuries were more severe. But the overall feeling I had was comfortable.

The day passed pretty quickly. The two units’ members got to know each other a little bit better and we prepared dinner together. After eating all nine of us spread onto the living room’s huge sofa and watched a movie. I couldn’t believe it. The situation was amazing and dreamlike, I had been able to balance out my old and new life by bringing my old unit into the corporation. But seeing the two units that had been living in completely different worlds just hang out and relax together almost didn’t make sense to me.

After the movie we just sat silent for a while. Everybody seemed to have a lot to think about.

“Sanha”, Minhyuk called the boy’s name quietly. “Are you mad at me because I beat you up yesterday? Is that why you’re not talking to me?”

I glanced at the youngest of the group who had, like always, curled up into the most isolated corner of the sofa. He had been pretty quiet for the whole day, and even now, he continued the same road. He glanced at Minhyuk, bridled a little bit, and then just stared in front of him.

“If that’s the reason”, Jinwoo started. “You better change your way of thinking. We all got beaten up yesterday. We were pretty much up each other’s’ throats yesterday. But it was nothing personal. It was all just orders from our chiefs. And that just proves we’re loyal. Look at me and Myungjun. We’re the leaders and we get along just fine.”

Sanha listened to his leader’s words carefully but only replied with a sigh and turned to look away. Then my attention glued to Eunwoo and Bin who had started moving around a bit uncomfortably while Jinwoo was speaking. Nothing personal. Those were probably the words that triggered them. For them, the fight was nothing but personal. I felt relieved as Bin managed to flash a small smile to his friend, who replied by raising the corner of his lip upwards slightly. Not exactly a smile, but close to it.

“Aeri”, I heard Myungjun whisper behind me as he leaned against the sofa’s back. He had left the living room briefly to take a phone call and had now returned. “Dad wants to speak with you.”

I tilted my head. “Why? It’s pretty late.”

The boy shrugged his shoulders. “He didn’t tell me.”

I nodded as an answer and got up from the sofa, slowly walking out of the living room. I was wearing the comfiest clothes I could find from the closet but I didn’t care right now. My father-in-law would understand that I wanted to feel at ease after hours of fighting and pain. I slipped sneakers onto my feet and headed out of the apartment alone.

The hallways of the corporation were silent. I was used to the security men strolling around the building, neatly dressed secretaries and businessmen and women walking up and down the corridors, filling the elevators and being all busy, so the whole building looked very empty and deserted. But then again, it was already 9pm, everybody but the chauffeurs were already free from work. The only person I saw while walking to the CEO’s corridor was a security man who stood alone at the main doors of the building. He bowed at me as a greeting while I walked past him, and I nodded as a reply.

I slowly approached Mr. Kim’s office, wondering if he always stayed in there this long. Everybody else was now with their families and friends, resting, while he was still working. Then a new question popped into my mind – what exactly was the reason he wanted to meet me?

I played the doorbell outside of his office and he was quickly there to open it.

“Good evening”, I greeted the man with a small bow.

“Evening, Aeri”, the man flashed me a big smile. “Come in.”

I followed the man in and watched as he sat down in one of the big, comfy looking armchairs at the side of the office. I sat down opposite to him, to the sofa, and waited patiently for him to open his mouth.

“How are you feeling, Aeri?” he started.

I shook my head. “I’m getting better. My injuries aren’t too severe.”

“I’m happy to hear that your physical condition is improving, but I mean the psychological side”, the man stated and tilted his head a little bit.

I was silent for a second. I wasn’t sure of what I should say or to not say. But then again, he was my father-in-law, he was basically my family. I could say anything to him.

“It was the second time I saw someone die”, I said quietly. “Ironically enough it was the woman who killed my father.”

Mr. Kim nodded. “Would you like to meet a psychologist?”

“No”, I replied immediately. “I don’t think it would help. It’s not the death itself that bothers me, but the person.”

An understanding expression rose to my father-in-law’s face as he nodded. He was silent for a second, like he was too immersed in his thoughts to open his mouth. “Well, what are you going to do from now on? Do you still want to leave the corporation?”

I looked up at the man. I had almost forgotten. Yes, I had been pretty much ready to leave the corporation when I realized the change in my heart. But after this man had forgiven me, after Myungjun’s unit had accepted me again, I had pretty much forgotten the idea of leaving. Besides, I had fallen for Myungjun after the time I had those kind of thoughts. Now I had found my place. Where would I even go if I left the corporation?

“I can prepare the divorce papers if you want to”, the man stated. “Even though I’d love to have you as my daughter-in-law.”

The first words almost shocked me. When I first talked about this with the man, I was very unsure, whether I should divorce Myungjun or not, but now my heart and my brains, for once, agreed completely. I let a small smile rise on my lips.

“Having you as my father-in-law has been the best thing that has happened to me”, I started. “You helped me when I was struggling. I’ll always feel extremely thankful. And I’d love to stay as your daughter-in-law.”

A wide smile spread on the man’s face and his eyes became narrow lines. This was the genuine happiness I loved seeing on the man’s face. He leaned forwards a little bit and offered me his hand. I grabbed it without hesitation and shook the hand with a smile on my face.

“I hope we’ll see many happy years ahead of us.”

So do I. Those were the words that echoed in my thoughts as I left the office and walked down the corridor slowly. I felt like all the heaviness I had been carrying on me, all the worry and stress, had just fallen off me. I took in a deep breath as I stepped into the elevator.

I entered the apartment, the smile still lingering on my face, and I could see everybody eyeing at me curiously as I sat back onto the sofa. Chanmi poked my side with her elbow. “What?”

Shaking my head, I smiled at the girl. “Nothing special. I’m just happy.”

The girl flashed me a glare and pretended to brush the sweet sugar coating off her, as my words had been way too corny for me to say. She leaned against Miyeon’s shoulder, motioning to her that I was out of my mind. The girls laughed at me and I didn’t even feel offended. I just let out a sigh and fell against the back of the sofa.

About an hour later we were preparing to go to sleep. I was already half-asleep on the bed, buried under the heavy, thick blanket, when Myungjun entered the room. He had walked to the room straight out of shower, only wearing the pants of his pyjama, letting the slight outline of his abdomen show. I let out a small laugh.

“You can’t walk around like that anymore”, I chuckled. “There are three girls living in here now.”

He pouted at me, playing offended, but brushed it off by pulling the pyjama’s t-shirt on and shaking his head, rolling to the bed next to me. I was lying on my back, eyes half-lidded and drifting somewhere between sleep and being awake. At some point I realized Myungjun was lying on his side, resting his head against his hand and staring at me. I turned to look at him. “What?”

“Are you going to tell me what you talked about with dad?” he asked.

I chuckled. “You’re curious? Alright, you can continue like that.”

“Hey”, the boy pouted. “Are you starting to keep secrets between us?”

I smirked. Myungjun let out a whine and poked at my side. I giggled and tried to wiggle further away but he started tickling me. I let out a groan, playing frustrated, and rolled over, sitting down on top of him. The boy got surprised at my sudden move for a second but then he just chuckled and placed his hands on my waist.

“Can you tell me?” he asked.

I decided to play the boy a little bit. I sighed and put on a serious mask. “He offered me the divorce papers.”

The expression on Myungjun’s face was blank for a moment. “What?”

“Well, my gang is kind of gone now”, I stated. “So basically the marriage contract is useless.”

The boy sat up, not even struggling even though I was sitting on his lap. “No”, he said. His face was totally serious but the look in his eyes was starting to get somewhat angry. “Dad wants us to divorce? I won’t let that happen.”

I felt my mask shattering slowly and couldn’t help but to give up and laugh at the boy. “He did offer me the divorce papers. But I said no.”

Myungjun’s expression changed to confused. He tilted his head, not fully understanding the situation.

“I’m going to stay right here. I’m your wife”, I chuckled, placing my hands on the boy’s cheeks. “Where would I go?” Then I slowly leaned closer, approaching the boy and placed a quick, sweet kiss on his lips.

As I backed away, relief spread on the boy’s face and as he finally understood, he flashed me a smile. “Don’t scare me like that!”

I laughed. “I wanted to play you.”

“Oh I’ll show you…”, the boy said quietly, smirking at me as he rolled us over on the bed. Now he was hovering over me and I was lying on my back – and to be honest, the move did let some butterflies fly free in my stomach, but I didn’t want to give in this easily. I let out a chuckle and placed my hands on the boy’s sides, poking my fingers in between his ribs. He let out a groan and as he moved away from me, I jumped on him again, rolling him over to his back and sitting on top of him again. I flashed him a proud smile. I had won the small wrestling battle.

“I love you”, I let the words fall out of my mouth without even realizing.

Myungjun blinked. His eyes had become a tad wider. “That was the first time you’ve said that to me.”

I felt myself blushing a little bit. “But you’ve said it already so I thought I should too.”

“You’re so cute”, the boy said, his expression softening a lot. “I love you too.”

He rolled us over again, this time he pinned me to the mattress, pressing me down with his body and placing his hands on both sides of my head. My eyes widened with the sudden action and the butterflies I felt in my stomach earlier seemed to just go crazy. I felt my heartbeat getting faster and almost irrational as the boy was slowly leaning closer to me with half-lidded eyes. I could feel his breath on my skin and it made shivers go down my spine. I slowly tilted my head and felt my eyelids falling down as the boy finally pressed his lips against mine. Out of all the kisses we’d had until now, this one was the most passionate and needy. I wrapped my hands around the boy’s neck, trying to pull him closer, and his hands were traveling down my body until they were placed on my waist.

As the kiss got more deep, I started to feel light headed as I was starting to run out of breath. My fingers ran through the boy’s moist, hazelnut hair as I gently pulled him further to break the kiss, taking deep breaths. Myungjun, breathing heavily, flashed me a smirk as he placed his hand on my face and gently brushed a strand of hair behind my ear.

“I’m a bit disappointed”, he whispered.

I looked into his eyes. “Why?”

“I put the shirt on for nothing”, he said, flashing me a smirk as he dove for a new kiss and pulled the blanket over us.

 

O N E     M O N T H     L A T E R

 

It was the first actually warm day of the spring. 2016 had the coldest winter in years and even the spring had felt very windy and freezing, the temperature not rising over 12 Celsius degrees until the end of March. As I had opened the curtains to see bright sunlight as the first thing in the morning, I had already known this would be a good day. If Seoul was sunny and warm, Jeju would be even warmer. Mr. Kim had decided to give us a small holiday, but since he thought it would be wasteful to send us overseas for just a few days since the jetlag would bother us for the first days, he had ended up providing us a 4-night trip to Jeju Island. It didn’t bother me at all, though – I had enjoyed the scenery and the fresh air during the mini honeymoon too. I was more than glad to be able to go back.

Things had been clearing out very well during the month my previous unit and my present, had lived together. Mr. Kim had decided, after a short time of thinking, to accept my friends to the corporation as a brand new unit, consisting of Jinwoo, Eunwoo, Sanha and Chanmi. I had naturally became a part of Myungjun’s unit, but since Jinwoo had Chanmi under his wing now, he’d be just fine.

Eunwoo and I had somewhat been able to sort things out. He wasn’t glaring at me all the time or just spitting out his words when talking to me. We were still very distant compared to how close we once were, but I believed someday he’d open up to me again. He and Bin, anyhow, had seemed to completely forget the hatred that had continued for years. They were like glued to each other. From time to time I could notice Bin eyeing at his friend wistfully, which had formed some thoughts in my mind – whether the boy actually thought of Eunwoo as only a friend, or something more.

My father-in-law had used his few criminal connections to make it possible for Jinwoo and Eunwoo to be home-schooled – as it was officially illegal in the country. That way they’d be able to graduate high school and someday apply for university. Sanha and Chanmi, then again, had started attending the same high school as Minhyuk and Bin went to. He had opened up to the others a little bit. He was still far from the bright boy I had been able to see a glance of, but there was definitely progress.

How happy I was that things were going the way I liked them to go.

 

We departed to Jeju in the morning and arrived a couple of hours later. I had been right; the weather was lovely. Windy, yes, but warm and sunny. We were staying at the same hotel Myungjun and I had stayed at during our honeymoon, so the area was already familiar for us.

Since the day was just starting, we decided to start off the short holiday with a picnic at the beach. We grabbed a couple of blankets and packed some snacks and drinks into our bags and headed to the beach. The sand was almost white, the water was glowing in different shades of turquoise. It looked perfect.

“I wonder if the water is warm”, I heard Minhyuk wondering as we were putting the blankets on the sand.

Chanmi snorted. “You can go on and try. I doubt it is very warm…”

Minhyuk glared at the girl as he sat down on the blanket, taking the backpack off himself and emptying it on the blanket.

As all of us were sitting down, we started stuffing ourselves. We had fruits, gimbap and some homemade dumplings to eat, and lots of soda to drink.

“Such a shame we couldn’t come to the beach last time”, Myungjun stated as he took a sip of his Pepsi.

I chuckled. “We barely got along back then... You would’ve probably gotten drowned if we came to the beach.”

“No, you have a completely wrong aspect”, the boy said, smirking at me. “That’s when we started getting along better.”

I rolled my eyes and took a bite of an apple. The weather was really nice. Not warm enough to be in short sleeves, but the hoodie I was wearing was a great fit for the temperature. The wind here wasn’t as harsh as it was in Seoul, it was more like the wind was caressing my face and hair… and messing my hair up completely. But it didn’t bother me now. I was enjoying the fresh air.

“Come on!” I heard Chanmi sighing. “I was already holding the apple myself!”

I turned to glance at my sister who was shouting at Minhyuk. The boy had apparently grabbed an apple off her hand and eating it himself, flashing a smirk at the girl. I shook my head. The two were bickering continuously. I was already used to it.

“Don’t they remind you of someone?” Miyeon asked, poking me with her elbow.

I blinked my eyes, looking at my friend.

“They’re exactly like Aeri and Myungjun were in the beginning”, Bin stated, flashing us a wide smile.

Oh. I hadn’t thought of it that way. I turned to look back at the two teenagers arguing over an apple. Miyeon and Bin got a point there. I couldn’t help but to chuckle a little bit. Time would show if they’d end up together like Myungjun and I did.

“Minhyuk”, I called the boy’s name and he turned to look at me, holding the whole apple in his mouth. “Try to behave. Chanmi doesn’t like childish boys.”

With Chanmi’s face turning blank at my comment, the boy’s cheeks flushed red and he turned away from us, taking the apple in his hand and continuing to eat properly. I laughed. Yes, they boy definitely had a crush on Chanmi.

“I told you she’ll become a heartbreaker”, Jinwoo chuckled.

Miyeon cleared . “What did you say?”

Jinwoo turned to look at the girl. “You heard me. She’s pretty, she’s friendly, but she also has some attitude.”

“Sounds perfect for you”, the girl snorted and flashed the boy an obvious fake smile before glaring at him.

“Are you jealous?” Jinwoo asked with a teasing tone in his voice. “I told you I like older girls.”

Miyeon turned to look away and continued stuffing her face. I tried to hold back my laughter. It was definitely that time of the year. Spring. There was a possibility of two new couples forming between the two units. I found my eyes wandering to Eunwoo and Bin who were eating on their separate blanket. Bin was lying on his back, legs and arms spread comfortably. His eyes were slightly narrowed and he was staring at Eunwoo who was busy stuffing his mouth. I felt kind of bad for Bin. Well, at least he and Eunwoo had gone through something similar – having a crush on their friend who couldn’t respond to the feelings.

I glanced at Myungjun, who was lying on his stomach on the blanket. I lied down next to him, looking as he slowly opened his eyes and smiled at me. I replied to the smile with my own and couldn’t hold back a yawn.

“This is so weird”, I said quietly.

“What is?” Myungjun asked with a soft voice.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Just… being like this. It’s like we finally got out happy ending.”

Myungjun chuckled. “Happy endings don’t exist. There is something sad in every ending.”

“What are you saying?” I asked, poking his arm.

“But this is not an ending”, he continued, rolling on his back and wrapping his arm around my shoulder. “So we can just be happy.”

I smiled at his words and rested my chin against his chest. Right. This wasn’t the end. This was the beginning of our life together. I slowly closed my eyes and enjoyed the feeling on sunlight dancing on my face.

A month had passed. Our injuries were almost completely healed, just barely there to remind of us that the unlucky night actually happened. There were no grudges, no pain, no sorrow. Just newly found friendship and trust. There was a bright future ahead of all of us. And even if we’d face hardships, we had each other.

Isn’t that called happiness?

______

There it is, the final chapter that I wrote for 6 hours! I was going back all the time, starting from the beginning and changing some parts and I just didn't seem to be happy with it but I managed to get it written after all!

So, this is the end for this story and I'd like to thank everyone who read, subscribed, commented and voted up the story! ^^ It means a lot for me to be able to share my writing and to get comments on it because that way I can improve.

I hope you liked the ending, please leave your final comments :)  As I've been writing a lot lately I'll probably start publishing my new story in a couple of weeks so I hope you'll wait for it and read it as well!