Rolling Stone Pt. 2
Passenger
 

Sometimes I’m sure I know no one
A thousand faces but no names
She said my love you do know someone
Oh and I know you back just the same

But I’m scared I said, what if this stone don’t slow down
Oh just be aware she said
What goes up will come down
And when you do I’ll be around

Oh when I’ve dragged this rolling stone across this land
I’ll make sure I leave this stone in her hand
For we both know too well the rolling stones turn in to sand
If they don’t find a place to stand
 

I.

 

“Hwasa, you’re back up in five!”

 

A flurry of tangled arms reached out to fluff her hair, fix her makeup, and throw all manner of textured cloth at her. Hyejin closed her eyes to allow the sensation to wash over her. The buzz of voices and the air of panic faded to white noise as she thought about the last time she’d seen her little family.

 

She thought about the way Sumi had screamed when she revealed her birthday present, a bright red electric Mini Cooper—a two-seater for both her daughter and her wife. They’d have plenty of room to drive it round their new suite, she thought, smiling at the image she knew she’d be missing out on.

 

It was her first world tour, so to speak—four months, 6 countries, and 8 cities—and she barely had time to breathe between the dimly lit bars and open fields with way too many bodies per square kilometre. Hwasa and her band had made it to medium-sized sold-out venues, large-scale festivals, and there were even talks of stadium shows starting in Tel Aviv.

 

But after two years in and out of home, her heart began to ache for the simple pleasures of life. She missed figuring out Sumi’s homework alongside her, pretending to help when she was really stealing snacks. She missed Wheein hugging her back when she made dinner, refusing to move no matter how many times she told her it was dangerous. She missed being able to surprise her little girl at her dance recitals, and showing up at Wheein’s shows with the biggest bouquet of flowers in hand.

 

These last four months had been full of gifts in the mail and money in envelopes—the kind of love she never wanted to replace her own. And now, halfway through her third month of touring, she found herself in Auckland, ushered onto the stage by her friends, alone in a crowd of strangers shouting her name.

 

God she loved her fans, she really did. She’d met so many, been touched by so many—it was an honour, she knew, it really was. And the adrenaline of each performance was no less addictive than when she first began. The stage, and the lights, and the passionate declaration of her love through song—songs only she and her loves truly understood.

 

But Hyejin was exhausted. It was the road, and the drama, and the occasional nastiness that came with show biz politics. It was never the art. The struggle had always been trying to figure out whether the art was worth everything else.

 

Hyejin ran off stage, cheers fading out as she disappeared behind the curtain. A roadie offered a freshly cracked open bottle of water and offered it to her with an admiring gleam in his eyes. But Hyejin’s mind was elsewhere—she drank deeply, as if it could cleanse her of all of this guilt. She closed her eyes, listened to the roar of “encore” echoing off the vibrating, beer-soaked floors.

 

One more, she decided then. Just one more.

 

Everyone was livid when she took the first plane out to Seoul the next morning. Confused fans demanded their money back for the remaining cancelled shows. Her team called and called to no avail. First they pleaded, then begged, then demanded. After all of that, they called their PR team to clean up the mess.

 

Hyejin touched down in Seoul with reporters at her tail. She bit the bullet then, with the promise of home awaiting her. It was the predictable set of questions, and she was in no mood to lie.

 

Why did you cancel your shows?

 

“My team has been wonderful,” she said diplomatically, “the fans are phenomenal. I’d simply missed my family too much.”

 

How do you think this might affect your career?

 

“I’ve chased my dream long enough. As much as I love music, I love my family too. If this is the end, then so be it. I will always have music, for as long as I’m alive, but my daughter is young and my wife is tired—I can’t be selfish anymore. Not like this.”

 

What do you have to say to your fans? Do you feel that you’ve disappointed them?

 

“Of course! Disappointing my fans is my biggest regret. I know you have all worked hard for those tickets, and I know how selfish this is, but I have to do this.” Her eyes glistened. She cleared . “I hope you will forgive my selfish decision one day.”

 

The reporters, with their drawn brows and curled lips, didn’t seem to quite know what to make of the story. Hyejin, knowing she wasn’t big enough to make front page news, simply shrugged and excused herself as she shuffled into a nearby taxi. Who cares what they think? Who cares what anyone thought. She would deal with it all tomorrow.

 

Tomorrow will come eventually, and the day after that.

 

But today, she smiled at the thought. She was going home.

 

II.

 

She fidgeted with her red suitcase anxiously as she watched the ascending numbers above the elevator door. Suddenly a thought struck her—how were they going to pay for the new suite now? The move was in two months—will she have enough time?

 

The panic rose inside, draining the colour from her cheeks as she turned down the familiar hallway. She stared, frozen, at the familiar door. What if she made the wrong decision? What if she’d messed it all up. Terror gripped at her insides as the what ifs began to form a precarious tower in her mind.

 

“Sweetie, did you hear something?” Came Wheein’s voice from behind the door. Hyejin’s heart raced loudly in her ear.

 

“Is it a mouse?” A small voice replied, followed by muted shuffling near the doorway. Hyejin did not dare move.

 

“Do you think…”

 

“Mommy, you’re silly. Mama is in New Zealand. I looked it up today! I’ll show you! New Zealand has sooooo many fluffy sheep!” Excited chatter and hurried footsteps faded away from the door.

 

“Wait.”

 

Hyejin widened her eyes and wondered if she had spoken her thought out loud. But it was Wheein, standing right behind the door now, her voice as clear in her mind as if she was right beside her.

 

“Mommy?”

 

“I think...she’s here.”

 

The lock slid, and the door inched open. A single eye in the shadows caught Hyejin’s.

 

“Hey,” Hyejin said with an instant grin. For just this moment, all of her worries dissipated,

 

The door flew open with a bang. A loud, sharp, and excited screech filled Hyejin’s ear as she released both hands from her coat pockets to embrace her overeager wife. Wheein leapt into Hyejin’s arms, nearly knocking her over.

 

“I’m home,” Hyejin whispered, squeezing the smooth material of Wheein’s white sleepshirt. She held the other woman closer, and kissed the side of her jaw quickly before burying her nose into her shoulder. She did not realize how much she missed her wife’s scent until now.

 

“Welcome home, Hyejinnie,” Wheein murmured into Hyejin’s hair.

 

“Mama?” Hyejin glanced up to the doorway, where her little girl stood wearing a bewildered deer-in-the-headlights expression. In one hand, she held a small tablet. In the other, her stuffed lion’s arm touched the floor. Her hair was the same wild, curly mess as ever, but her pink pajamas matched her mother’s, and Hyejin could’ve melted right there.

 

Instead, she tried to be calm as she pulled away from her wife’s embrace. “My little lion,” she said smiling.

 

“You’re really here!” Sumi cried. She dropped the lion and tablet onto the floor—both mothers wincing automatically—and rushed forward to hug her mother’s legs. “I missed you sooooo so so so so much!”

 

“I missed you too, darling. You’ve gotten taller again, haven’t you?” Hyejin said, ruffling her hair. “And your hair is so long now.”

 

“I’m trying to grow it so it’s like the hair you had in your music video! The one with all the girls dancing in the fountain,” Sumi declared proudly. “You were so pretty, Mama! Oh! But you’re always pretty. You too, Mommy. I have the prettiest moms in the whole world!”  

 

Hyejin threw her head back and laughed. “My little girl is such a charmer now.”

 

Wheein chuckled. “She gets it from you, I swear.”

 

III.

 

After a quick change into a matching set of blue pajamas, Hyejin carried Sumi to the dining table and plopped her down in front of a bowl of baby carrots. Hyejin took her seat beside her, but not before stealing a carrot from the bowl. “Mama! That’s my midnight snack!”

 

“Sweetie, it’s only 10 PM. Here, have some rice.”

 

The little girl huffed, but took her mother’s proffered rice without further complaint.

 

Sumi insisted on staying up while Hyejin ate dinner this time, as she begged to hear all about her mother’s tour. “Did you really meet Rihanna?” she whispered loudly, leaning closer with both elbows on the table.

 

“Yeah,” Hyejin said with a conspiratorial grin. She leaned closer as well, earning a raised brow from her wife beside her. “Don’t tell Mommy, but she was reaaaally pretty.”

 

Wheein, from her seat beside her, punched her wife lightly in the arm. “Do you want to die, Ahn Hyejin?”

 

Hyejin raised her arms in mock surrender. “I didn’t say anything! Ask Sumi!”

 

Sumi also raised both arms up. “Mama said Rihanna is pretty—it’s not my fault!”

 

Hyejin gaped at her daughter, who was doubling over with laughter. “Sumi-ah...I can’t believe you would betray me like that!” She placed a hand on her heart, and dramatically cried out in poorly imitated pain.

 

“Wheein-ah, please take me back. Nobody loves me anymore. My only daughter—oh, the betrayal!” Hyejin reached over and wrapped both arms around Wheein’s waist. Wheein squealed and laughed as she made a half-hearted attempt to push her away.

 

“Wheein-ah, just one kiss!” Hyejin cried.

 

“Aigo,” Wheein groaned, though the smile never left her lips. “You’re so annoying sometimes.”

 

“That’s why you love me.”

 

Wheein rolled her eyes. It took all of a second for her to break her resolve and plant a kiss on her wife’s lips.”

 

“Ew,” Sumi’s little voice protested. The two women looked over to see their daughter hide behind her own fingers. “Are you done yet? Kissing is gross.”

 

“Oh?” Hyejin and Wheein shared a mischievous smile. “Looks like somebody is going to need a lot of kisses to see how great they are!”

 

Sumi screeched, hopped off her chair, and made a mad dash to her bedroom, closely followed by her two doting mothers with outstretched arms, and way too much love to share. She ran around her bed, but was quickly caught and picked up in a tight embrace by her Mama’s protective arms. Her Mommy showered her kisses all over the little girl’s head, sending her in a fit of giggles that led to many others as her mothers tickled her sides.

 

Later, while the laughter winded down, and Sumi laid on her bed, sleepy and exhausted, Hyejin swept her daughter’s hair across her forehead and tucked a long strand behind her ear. Wheein snuggled against Sumi, sandwiching their daughter between them as she held up her phone.

 

“Let’s take a picture to commemorate,” she said happily.

 

“Wheein-ah...we’re all in pajamas, and I don’t even have makeup on. It’s not going to be cute.”

 

“C’mon Mama,” mumbled Sumi with a poorly suppressed yawn, “just a picture. Mommy always says that we’re cute no matter what.”

 

“Yeah, Hyejinie, we’re so cute.”

 

Hyejin chuckled, her eyes glittering with unrestrained affection. How could she deny her two angels anything?

 

“Okay.”

 

In that moment, she knew she had made the right decision in coming home.

 

Even if the world still did not agree with her yet.

 

IV.

 

“I saw the news.”

 

Hyejin looked up from her mug of tea, relieved somehow that she didn’t have to be the first to speak. Wheein, with her head on her shoulder, kept her eyes trained on the blank television screen as she mulled over the words she needed to say—the words Hyejin needed to hear. She placed a hand on her wife’s stomach and settled on what she knew to be the inevitable: “It’s okay. It’ll be okay.”

 

Hyejin hummed. “I know. The fans will probably riot.” She nuzzled her cheek on Wheein’s head. “But I don’t regret it one bit. If I have to start over, then I’ll start over.”

 

Wheein sighed. “But you’ve worked so hard.”

 

“I don’t care. I guess I’m a bit worried about money, but I don’t know. Maybe I can be a teacher or something. Teach music. I don’t know. I don’t know who I am without music, but at the same time...I don’t know who I am without you and Sumi either.” Hyejin snuggled closer. “You’re the greatest loves of my life,” she whispered.

 

“You’re Ahn Hyejin,” Wheein replied, drawing circles on the back of Hyejin’s hand with the pad of her thumb. “You’re a wonderful wife and mother, a talented musician, and you’re the most beautiful soul I’ve ever seen. It’s okay to be uncertain sometimes, Hyejinie—I’ll always be here to remind you.”

 

Hyejin turned and kissed the corner of her lips. “I’m so, so, so lucky,” she said, more to herself than anyone else.

 

A moment of comfortable silence passed when Wheein suddenly bolted upright, spilling a bit of thankfully lukewarm tea onto Hyejin’s lap. “Wheein-ah!” Hyejin cried, “What are you doing!”

 

“Sorry, sorry,” Wheein said, handing over the box of tissues on the coffee table. “I just had a great idea.”

 

Hyejin paused, an eyebrow raised as she pulled a tissue out of the box. “That doesn’t sound good.”

 

But Wheein ignored her. “You should post that picture of us.”

 

“Wheein-ah…the PR team will freak out. They think it’s scandalous enough that I talk about you and Sumi so much…”

 

Wheein grabbed her phone from the coffee table and pulled up the picture they had taken only thirty minutes ago. The three of them laid in matching pajamas, Sumi’s sleepy smile at the centre of the picture while her two mothers kissed her on either cheek. “This is not for your company. It’s for your fans. And if they really love you, they’d understand when they see this.”

 

“But I...don’t want them to see this as an excuse. I love you and Sumi more than my heart can bear sometimes, but not everyone will see it that way. I just...I can’t go back to touring.”

 

“Hyejin, look at me,” Wheein dropped her phone into her lap and grabbed onto Hyejin’s arm with both hands. “Do you like performing?”

 

Hyejin hesitated. “Well, not as much as—”

 

“Do you like performing?”

 

She looked down at her hands. “Yeah. Sometimes. But...I’m tired now, Wheeinie. I just want to stay here. I don’t want to go anywhere without you anymore. Every time I go to a new place, I just wish you were with me, and I think about how I could take you there on vacation someday. And I don’t want to keep waiting for that someday.”

 

“You can stay in Seoul,” Wheein said softly. She leaned into her arm and collapsed down against Hyejin to resume her earlier position. “You can just perform here. Let your fans come to you.”

 

“That’s not—”

 

“Post that picture. For them, and for yourself,” Wheein said. She angled up and placed a quick kiss on Hyejin’s cheek. “You’ll see.”

 

“Okay.”

 

V.

 

Hyejin woke up to 52 missed calls and an unending number of notifications. She ignored the 33 calls from her manager and the 19 from concerned friends and families, then muted KaTalk before throwing her phone back on her bedside drawer.

 

Against her side, Wheein shifted, her breath warm against her bare skin. “Something wrong?” She mumbled, her voice still heavy from sleep.

 

“Mmm, nothing out of the ordinary.”

 

Wheein yawned, then threw an arm around Hyejin’s waist. “Check on the photo,” she said into her shoulder.

 

“Ugh,” Hyejin grumbled, turning to Wheein to cuddle her instead, “I want the Internet to go away for a long, long time.”

 

Wheein laughed, and nudged her nose with her own. “Check on the photo, you little drama queen.”

 

“But—”

 

“Ahn. Hye. Jin.”

 

With a groan, Hyejin slowly stretched an arm toward the end table and picked up her phone again. New notifications were still popping up—she squeezed her fingers against her eyes and pressed the cool object into Wheein’s warm hands. Without a word, Wheein began to scroll through.

 

“Hyejin-ah…”

 

“Oh god, I don’t want to know.”

 

“Manager-unnie is really mad.”

 

Hyejin scoffed. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

 

“Three thousand people liked your photo.”

 

Hyejin shot up into a sitting position, impervious to the cool air against her chest. “WHAT?”

 

“Wanna hear what else?” Wheein continued with a smirk.

 

“What?”

 

“Read the comments.”

 

Her heart hammered in her chest as she began scrolling through her comments section. As she had predicted, some people did not appreciate the cancellation of her concert. Some were mixed in expressing their disappointment. It was an unusual situation, after all. But the majority of her fans, confused as they were, expressed overwhelming love for both her and her family.

 

“Look at this, Hyejinie,” Wheein said, pointing. “These tags are so cute.”

 

“Hashtag royal family,” Hyejin read out loud. “Hashtag stand with the queen.”

 

“I told you your real fans will always love you.”

 

“I don’t...I don’t believe this.”

 

Wheein plucked the phone out of her hand and threw it aside. “I think a celebration is in order,” she said, running a finger along her wife’s collarbone, “don’t you think?” ‍

 

Hyejin reached around and wrapped her fingers in Wheein’s hair. A glance and a whisper of love passed briefly between them before Hyejin pulled her down and met her lips in a slow, passionate kiss. Wheein rolled on top of her, breathless as her hands clutched Hyejin’s face, drinking her in with all of her being.

 

“God I love you so much,” Hyejin mumbled against her lips.

 

Wheein smiled that slow, sly, y smile she could never get enough of. “Show me.”

 

Hands travelled along hot skin, Hyejin’s heart newly bursting out of her chest as she took in Wheein’s scent. But then—

 

“Mamas!” Came a familiar little voice, followed by a high-pitched shriek and the patter of feet running across the hardwood.

 

“Oh ,” Hyejin mumbled, craning over Wheein’s shoulder to glance at the open bedroom door. Her head hit her pillow with a heavy sigh. “We traumatized our kid.”

 

Wheein laughed, and untangled herself from Hyejin’s body. “Guess we’ll have to get up now and do some parenting together.”

 

“As scary as that sounds, hearing you say that makes me really happy.” Hyejin said, running a hand through her hair as she stood. She stared at her feet, suddenly shy. “Thank you for waiting for me, my love.”

 

“You’re worth waiting for.”

 

They grinned at each other from opposite sides of the bed. Though their hair was dishevelled and their pajamas were wrinkled, they never felt more beautiful under their lover’s gaze.

 

Wheein cracked a grin. “I’m so lucky to have you, Hyejinie.”

 

“I’m the lucky one.”

 

“Oh stop, or we’ll be here all morning,” Wheein said. Though her smile only grew when Hyejin made her way around the bed and reached for her hand.

 

“Let’s go do some parenting, Wheeinie,” she said brightly. “Together.”

 

“Okay. But maybe we should put some clothes on first.”

 

END
 

---

Notes: Unexpectedly, I'm back with the sequel! I wasn't very happy with how the first part turned out, so I felt like I needed some closure to all of it. I hope you enjoyed this little story! Please don't forget to sub, vote, and/or comment if you enjoyed the story :) Every token of appreciation is thoroughly appreciated!