Dara stared at the ring that Jiyong held up in front of her. She did not say anything nor did she give any form of reaction to Jiyong’s proposal. Jiyong sensed her lack of reaction and his face fell.

 

“Look, baby girl. If you’re not comfortable with this, it’s perfectly fine to tell me you don’t want to marry me. I’ll understand. After all, we’ve only resumed our relationship a while ago,” said Jiyong, trying his best to hide his disappointment.

 

Dara looked at Jiyong for another while before saying, “I’m sorry, Jiyong. I don’t know why I’m behaving like this. I really am happy that you’re back and I know I still love you as much as I did when you left, if not more. I guess I’m just so afraid of what might happen if we officially become a married couple. It seems like every time it works out for us, something eventually goes wrong. I know what you just did was planned between you and Yejun but I couldn't help but think that seems to be exactly what happens when we’re happy together. Once things go smoothly for us, something is bound to happen.”

 

Dara choked up as she finished what she intended to say. Jiyong got up and took her into his arms.

 

“It’s okay, baby girl. You don’t have to accept my proposal now. We’ll wait till you’re ready,” said Jiyong, as he put his arm around her and patted her on her nape.

 

Dara laid in his arms for a while before saying, “I never said I didn’t want to accept your proposal, Ji.”

 

“Bwoh?!” came Jiyong’s startled reply. “But didn't you just –”

 

“I said I was worried that something might happen. I didn’t say I won’t accept your proposal,” replied Dara, as she continued to lean against his chest.

 

“That means you –” began Jiyong.

 

“Can you promise me, Ji? Promise me that you will never leave me again, regardless of whatever we may face in future? No pain will ever be greater for me than you leaving me,” said Dara.

 

“I promise, baby girl. I’ll never leave you again. Not in a million years. No, not even if it was a million years,” promised Jiyong. “So can I ask that question again?”

 

Dara blushed and said, “Yes, you can.”

 

Jiyong pulled away from the hug and held up the box in front of Dara again. “Baby girl, will you marry me?”

 

“Yes, I will, Jiyong,” replied Dara with a smile.

 

Jiyong smiled and took the ring out of the box. He felt for Dara’s left hand and slipped it onto her ring finger. Once the ring was on her finger, Jiyong pulled her into an embrace.

 

“Why does the ring have three diamonds on it, Jiyong? Does it have a special meaning?” asked Dara.

 

“Of course! It’s not difficult to guess, actually,” replied Jiyong.

 

“Don’t tell me it stands for you, me and Yejun. Oh Jiyong, how cheesy can you be?” teased Dara.

 

“Wae~ What’s wrong with being cheesy? If you don’t like it, I’ll take it back,” said Jiyong.

 

“Andwae! It’s mine now. And so are you!” said Dara, as she clung tighter to Jiyong.

 

“Hahaha, arasso, arasso,” said Jiyong.

 

The pair remained in each other’s arms for a few more minutes before Jiyong broke the silence.

 

“You know, baby girl. We really have Yejun to thank for being together. If he hadn’t been the way he was when he was at the orphanage, we would never have gotten closer. If he had not been so brave, we would not have gotten back together after I pushed you away after my first coma. If he had not given me the card, I would have hesitated in coming back to Korea. If he had not been so mature and embracing, I wouldn’t be able to hold you in my arms now,” said Jiyong.

 

“Card? What card?” asked Dara.

 

“I never told you about it after I came back? Yejun gave me a card the day I flew off to America with Kiko. I read it on the plane that day but put it aside afterwards. Kiko found it when she came over to help me clear out my stuff before I came back to Korea. She read it out to me again to remind me of what Yejun wrote. This was partly why I had the courage to come back to Korea,” replied Jiyong, as he reached for his wallet and pulled out a small blue card with fine writing on both sides, before handing it to Dara.

 

“Yejun could write like this when he was six?” asked Dara disbelievingly.

 

“I think he must have gotten Mrs. Kim to help him,” replied Jiyong.

 

Dara held up the card and started to read.

 

 

Dear appa,

I still want to call you appa because that’s who you’ll be to me for the rest of my life. Thank you for being my appa for these past few months. You and eomma made me a very happy boy, even though deep down I knew you were not my real appa. You made me feel even happier than my real appa did when he was alive. I know I have been a naughty boy and maybe that's why you want to leave me now. I promise I will be a good boy from now on. Maybe if I become a good boy, you will come back sooner and marry eomma for real. That way, you two can be my real eomma and appa. I will miss your piggyback rides, your smile and the fun we had together. But most of all, I will miss seeing the way you used to look at eomma. Whenever I saw the way you looked at eomma, it always made me feel that you and Dara-noona were my real eomma and appa because my real appa always looked at my real eomma that way. That made me feel like we were a real family. I will miss you, appa. I still have eomma by my side, so I cannot feel sad because I don’t want her to worry about me. I also don’t want you to worry about me, appa. I will be a good boy to eomma and always make her happy, so that you will come back soon, appa. I’m sure the day you come back will be the day eomma smiles with her heart again and the day we become one big happy family. You must come back, appa. Yejun and eomma will be waiting for you.

 

 

Love

Yejun

 

 

Dara’s heart wrenched as she read the card. Tears pricked her eyes as she read and when she finished, two tears fell from her eyes and dripped onto the card.

 

“He blamed himself?” asked Dara in a choked voice.

 

“Apparently so. It killed me inside when I found out. I know I have no legal parental obligation to be there for Yejun but after getting Kiko to read it out for me again, I felt I wanted to come back for you and for him as well. I was planning to see if he was still at the orphanage or if he had been adopted by a family. As luck would have it, he bumped into me on the street and we ended up having a meal together without even knowing each other’s identities. That's why I think I was supposed to come back. I wanted to make it up to Yejun in some way but I think this is the best way things could have turned out,” said Jiyong. “I really want to be a father to Yejun.”

 

“I’m sure he’ll love having you to be his appa again. Eomma and I refused to remind him of you after you left because we were so scared that he might feel down because you were no longer around. I didn’t know that he blamed himself for your departure,” shared Dara.

 

“That’s what makes me feel so guilty, baby girl. I don’t want to father him just because I feel guilty but I really do feel that I want to be there for him from now on. He’s really been like a son to us. I don’t ever want him to feel like he’s to blame for anything that happened between us again,” said Jiyong.

 

“Well, he already takes your surname and he’s taken so well to you since you came back. I’m sure he’ll have no problem accepting you into his life as his father,” said Dara encouragingly.

 

“I certainly hope so,” said Jiyong.

 

“So where is Yejun now? Wasn’t he in on the plan to trick me into coming over?” asked Dara.

 

“He’s at the café now. I asked him to wait there with Youngbae. Yejun and his friend Hyunsik helped me prepare the video you saw just now,” said Jiyong.

 

“I’ll smack that boy when I see him later. Now’s he ganging up with others on me,” said Dara in a mock-threatening voice.

 

“Yah! Don’t threaten our son like that,” said Jiyong.

 

“Our son?” asked Dara teasingly. “Since when did he become our son?”

 

“Since twelve years ago,” came Jiyong’s tongue-in-cheek reply.

 

Dara smacked Jiyong on the head, as she blushed a deep red.

 

“Have you met up with anybody else since you came back? I haven’t told anyone we know that you’re back,” asked Dara.

 

“Only Youngbae. I haven’t had the chance to contact anybody else,” replied Jiyong. “I want to reach out to the re