"How'd the airport go?" Sehun asked.

I sank into one of the leather chairs, letting out a big exhale. "Painful. But they are on the plane. I went into the terminal and watched the screen until it said DEPARTED, just to be sure."

"I'm glad," he said. "When she unpacked her entire carry-on searching for her passport and it was in her hand, I thought for sure she was going to just bag the whole trip."

"Oh, we had, like, two more incidents like that while en route," I told him, rubbing my eye. "I'm starting to think it's a good thing she never goes away. I don't think I could take it."

"But she's gone," he said, wrapping a rubberband around the stack of place cards he'd been counting and dropping them into the bin at his feet. "And we have the weekend off. Just as soon as we finish all this."

I looked at the arrangement of vases, guestbook, cake toppers, napkins, and other wedding-related items piled on the table in front of me. It had all been purchased for the Mina Myoi Wedding, which had been booked for the next day. A moderately expensive, mid-size double hander with a chic theme, it was to have been the kind of event Eomma and Wooyoung could do with their eyes closed. And it would've been lovely, I was sure of it, if Mina's finace hadn't called it off with a little over a week to go.

It was too late to get back any deposits or return stuff, even if she wanted to, which she did not. In fact, the specific orders, delivered by her mother, were that she "never hear about this unpleasantness again." We could always use extra supplies for emergencies, but there was still something sad about boxing up all this tuff that had been bought, I knew, with such great plans and hopes. I reached over, picking up the cake topper: it was a groom holding a bride in his arms, both of them smiling.

"I'll wrap up the candles and candleholders," I said to Sehun now, standing up. I ripped open a box of tissue papers, pulling out a piece, and picked up a small blue votive. The colors for the wedding were to have been yellow and blue, the bride and groom's favorites, respectively. "But, to be honest, I never liked the whole green idea."

Sehun looked over at me. "Green idea?"

"The tablecloths," I said, nodding at the stack of them on a nearby chair. "My mom hates anything but white. but Mina was all about symbolism, you know, of merging yellow and blue together. So for the reception, she wanted a lot of green."

He laughed. "Man, in this business people can find meaning in everything. Even the color wheel."

"Weddings makes people do weird things," i told him, wrapping another votive. "That's the one truth that never changes."

As we worked quietly for a few minutes, I thought of Mina Myoi, a girl that loved ballet and statement jewleries whom I had met a couple of times at the office. All brides tend to be obsessed with their events, but I remembered her being mostly focused on her huge engagement ring, which she was constantly turning to catch the light. Perhaps, I thought now, it was like crystal ball, and looking into it she saw everything turning out perfectly, with yellow and blue and then all that green. Or she just liked the way it shines. Maybe both.

"So," Sehun said now, as I wrapped a larger pillar candle, "what's the latest on the dating news? You've been awfully quiet since Alien Lover. Hope you haven't had trouble keeping up your end of the bet."

"Nope," I said. "Last night I doubled with Gayeon and Im Jaebum with one of his friends, also a food truck guy."

"Wow, that's a big community, huh?"

"It is," I agreed. "This guy Youngjae, his parents do dumplings, I hear they're delicious."

"And what about Youngjae?"

I sighed, picking up another votive. "Very nice, super cute, and totally hung up on his ex."

He made a face. "Yikes."

"Yeah. Her name is Chaeyoung. To me she kind of sounds like a nightmare, but he is hopeful it's just a matter of time before she comes to her senses." I tucked my hair behind my ear. "It wasn't awful, though. At least I got to see Gayeon."

"She's been busy?"

"She's always busy. But now she's in love, which means any of her spare time is all about Im Jaebum," I said.

"That always . When your friends go totally MIA."

"Nah, I'm happy for her. She deserves it." I bent down, arranging the candles in the box at my feet. "Gayeon has always been a hopeless romantic, but she's never really had a serious boyfriend. It's a first for her, all this walking into the sunset.  So it huge."

I could feel him looking at me as I stood back up, bunching up some more paper. "What about you, though?"

"I just told you. Taehyung on Monday, Youngjae last night, and Mark and I are trying to work out something this weekend, since I"ll be free. So not only I am totally still in this, I'm actually ahead of what we agreed on. Which is why I'm already thinking about good prospects for you when you can't go the distance with Tzuyu. Maybe Chaeyoung will still be available."

"Maybe," he said, and I laughed. "But I wasn't talking about the bet."

I looked at him. "Oh. Then what did you mean?"

"The whole in love, hopeless romantic, huge thing. When do you get that?"

"Have to win the bet first," I laughed again.

He didn't. "I'm serious, Suzy. The bet aside, you want that, right? The sunset walk?"

Immediately, I felt myself tense, my guard going up. "I mean, sure," I said, trying to sound light and easy. "Who doesn't? But it only happens so often."

"You think there's a limit on sunset walks?"

"I think," I said, "that we're all entitled to great loves, but not an endless amount. If you've had one, it takes a while for another to come around."

"A great love is just that, though. Great."

"Yeah?" I asked.

"So it doesn't usually involve a bad breakup, like yours did. Which is the opposite of great."

Now I was kind of stuck. I cleared my throat, recalibrating. "Things end," I told him. "Even with the best  - or greatest - of beginnings. And yellow and blue makes green. Such is life, right?"

I wrapped another large pillar in tissue, then put it in the box. After a few moments of silence, Sehun said, "I can't decide if you're really this cynical or just guarded."

"Maybe both," I said.

I was trying to be funny, or at least lighten the mood. It was bad enough to be surrounded by the evidence of a romance that had crashed and burned; did we really have to share our own war stories, as well? The moment I thought this, though, I felt a pang in my heart. Jongsuk wasn't a battle for me. Loving him had been the easiest thing I'd ever done. Maybe that was why I was so sure if anything else ever came close, it would be nothing but hard.

Just then the door opened, the bell ringing. I looked over to see Tzuyu coming in, wearing flats and a sundress, another girl following along behind her. "Hope it's okay we dropped in," she said to Sehun, waving at me. I waved back. "I just really wanted Jihyo to meet you."

"It's fine," Sehun said, putting down the guestbook he'd been about to pack up and walking over to them. "The famous Jihyo. It's great to finally meet your acquaintance."

"And you are the infamous Sehun," the girl, was shorter than Tzuyu, with dark hair and bangs and wearing a light cream sweater and jeans, replied. "Who has my cousin in the best mood I've seen her in months."

At this, Tzuyu blushed, but still reached out to take Sehun's hand, wrapping her fingers around it. "Jihyo got the brunt of my breakup darkness," she explained to us. "I went a bit goth for a while there."

"If you can imagine that," Jihyo said.

"I can't. Tzuyu is all sunshine," Sehun replied, and of course at this she beamed, glittering even more. I went back to my candles. "So. Big day's tomorrow, huh?"

"Yup," Jihyo said, looking at the cake topper. "And i hear you can actually attend?"

"I can," he replied, and Tzuyu smiled even wider. "We had a last-minute cancellation. Hence all this stuff and no use for it."

Jihyo picked up a bottle of bubbles tied with a ribbon from a nearby basket. "Wow. Looks like it was going to be a big deal."

"All weddings seem big once you work a job like this," he replied. "No matter the size, it's the small details that kill you."

he sounded just like Eomma. I bit back a smile, bending over my box.

"Well, I guess it's good we decided to forgo all that for the most part, then," Jihyo replied.

"Jihyo's getting married tomorrow," Tzuyu explained to me.

"You are? Congratulations," I smiled. "Where's the ceremony?'

She and Tzuyu looked at each other, then laughed. "Good question. Right now, it looks like it might be at the Sooji's Cafe a few doors down, in that little patio part out back. Unless we can find a place better."

I raised my brows. "The patio? Aren't there just smoking tables out there?"

"We're hoping to relocate the ashtrays," Tzuyu said easily, as Jihyo moved her hand over the votives left on the table. "Jihyo and Suho want it lowkey, and Kyungsoo's boss okayed it, as long as we don't linger during the evening rush. It's all about the party after, anyway."

"And where's that?" I asked.

"Probably we'll all just go to the SOBeR for drinks," Jihyo said. "That's our favorite bar. We actually met there."

I looked at Sehun, who had gone back to piling blue-and-yellow napkins into the box. "Wow. After all we see around here, it sounds so easy."

This word just came to me, and I was grateful for it. better than the next one, which was sad. but maybe the whole Mina thing was getting to me. Jihyo said, "Well, Suho just hated the idea of a big, expensive thing, you know? And we're doing a party in a couple of months in Seoul for his whole family, so none of them are coming. It's just us and my mom, the friend who got ordained on the Internet to marry us, and a few others."

"It's going to be perfect," Tzuyu said.

"Oh, totally," Jihyo added. To me she said, "What are these?"

I looked over to see her holding a box of small cards, tied with a bow. "Oh, those are for the wish wall. Or, were."

"Wish wall?" she asked. "What's that?'

I looked at Sehun, wanting to offer him the chance to explain. But he looked clueless. So much for already being an expert. "At the ceremony, we were going to set up this bulletin board on an easel," I told her, pointing to where it was leaning against a nearby chair. "Then during the reception, everyone writes out a wish for the bride and groom on one of these cards and tacks it up. At the end of the night, we take them down and arrange them back in the box. The idea is that every night from the first one you are married, you open one, together."

"Oh." She looked at the box. "That's kind of cute."

"It's big right now," I told her.

"Suzy, however, doesn't believe in wishes," Sehun added.

"I don't believe in making one every time you blow out a candle," i corrected him. "But this is kind of nice, for the couple. People seem to like it."

Jihyo put the box down, then picked up the cake topper again. "I can see the appeal. I mean, Suho didn't want to do any of this, but . . ."

I looked at Sehun, who raised his brows. Tzuyu said, "But you didn't either, right? I mean, you're good with simple plan?"

"Oh, sure," Jihyo replied quickly. "I mean, it's just about us being together with the people we love. It doesn't matter where we are. And that patio seems nice. You said we could put some flowers out, and then bring them up to the SOBeR and put them on the picnic tables outside there. That sounds good."

"It'll be great," Tzuyu said.

"Perfect," Sehun added. Jihyo just stood there, holding the cake topper. "Um . . . are you okay?"

"I'm fine, just fine." Her voice cracked, clearly, on this last word. She looked at me. "Do you have a restroom I can use?"

"Down the hall to the left," I told her, pointing. She nodded, letting go of the topper, and then walked that way. A moment later, we heard the door shut, then lock, behind her.

Tzuyu looked at Sehun. "Omo. I had no idea she wanted any of this . . . I would've helped her."

"She didn't tell you she did." He put an arm around her, and as I watched how effortlessly, easily, she leaned into him, I thought of myself doing the same thing. Sehun said to her, "Weddings are emotional, even the small ones. I'm sure that's all this is about."

"I mean, I asked her if she was sure about the patio, if she didn't want to do it somewhere nicer, but they're both students and don't have much to spare. Kyungsoo offering Sooji's Cafe seemed like the perfect solution. And SOBeR . . . well . . ."

"It's a very thematic name," Sehun assured. "First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Jihyo . . ."

"With a baby during sober?" She looked stricken. "Now I want to cry."

"What's wrong with sobers? You're not really drunk."

"Sehun," I said quietly.

"I should go check on her," Tzuyu said. "She seemed really upset."

"Here, take a water." I reached over to grab one off a nearby table. "It always helps."

She did, then started down the hall, her sandals hitting the floor. When she was gone, he looked at me.

"okay," he said. "You have to do something."

"Me?" I asked.

"A bride in distress! That's your speciality."

"A bride," I corrected him. "Not our bride. She said herself all this" - I gestured at the stuff still piled around us - "wasn't what she wanted."

"Come on. I've only worked here a few weeks and even I can recognize a CG when I see one."

I blinked, surprised he'd learned the abbreviation. "A Controlling Groom is our only problem if it's our event. And this isn't."

He looked at the tables again, then at me. "Okay. But what if it was?"

"But it's not."

"But it could be," he said. "If we decided to help, maybe find a better place, donate some of these stuff. It could totally be."

"You want to get my mother involved in this?" I asked. "Are you crazy?"

"No, no, no. I'm not talking about her. I mean us." He moved his hand, fingers wiggling between us. It reminded me, instantly, of that first night we'd met at his mother's wedding, when he wanted me to heal. It seemed like a long time ago. "You and me. We could do this."

"But I don't want to," I said.

"Did you not just see that?" he demanded, pointing at the bathroom door. Tzuyu must've joined her cousin inside, as I couldn't see anyone. "This is the only wedding that girl will ever have. Do you want to be responsible for it taking place among ashtrays and the smell of coffee?"

"Or," I whispered, "it is a first marriage, soon regretted, and she does everything exactly to her heart's desire next time."

He just looked at me. "I can't believe you just said that. And by the way, whispering didn't make it any less heartless."

I sighed. "Sehun. I know you like to save things. Dogs, children, the day. But not everybody wants it. Or needs it."

"But some people do," he shot back. "And those cases, if you can help, you should. Why wouldn't you?"

"Because it's not your problem? Or responsibility?"

"I don't see it that way."

"Then you plan the wedding," I told him. "You know enough by now. Take this stuff and go nuts, if that's what you want. It's fine with me."

Hearing this, he studied my face, saying nothing, for long enough that I started to get self-conscious. "It must've been really awful," he said. "What happened to you."

I gulped. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You do, though. A boy, a great love lost, the only sunset walk you're allowed." He shook his head. "You can't even see the hope in anything."

"I see plenty of hope," I retorted, feeling defensive. "But this is a business."

"Which is built on the whole idea of people wanting to mark publicly the very moment they agree to be together forever, now and for the last time."

"And it's lovely when it works out that way," I said. "Now and for the last time. But sometimes, it doesn't. I'm part of this kind of thing enough. I don't need to do it on my free time, as well. Don't you get that?"

He didn't answer this question. In fact, he said nothing, and then, distantly, I heard the bathroom door open. By the time the girls returned, I was back at work wrapping a candle like it was my job, which, in fact, it was.

"Sorry about that," Jihyo said to us. "Pre-wedding nervousness, I guess."

"We're going to do a wish wall," Tzuyu told Sehun. "It won't be hard to pull together, right?

"You can use this one," he said, nodding at the box of cards on the table. "Suzy said so."

At this, both Tzuyu and Jihyo turned to me. "Oh, wow, really?" Jihyo asked, her face flushed. "That's so nice! Thank you."

I nodded, this time staying silent.

"And I was thinking," Sehun said, "that while the patio idea is nice, I think you can do better. Why don't you guys come back to my house and take a look at the backyard? Julee's garden is awesome and we have plenty of space for tables."

The girls looked at each other. Jihyo said, "Really?"

"Why not? At least there won't be ashtrays."

"Oh, we could put flowers into mason jars! Those are cheap, right?"

"I think so," Jihyo replied. "And you know what else isn't expensive? Those little white lights, like Christmas ones, that we could string up. I wonder if they sell them in summer."

"Even if they don't," Sehun said, "someone has to have some in their attic. We'll ask around."

"Oh, I love this!" Jihyo said, clapping her hands, a smile on her face. "I mean, I know we wanted to keep things simple, but . . ."

". . . this will be simply beautiful," Tzuyu finished for her.

Jihyo looked like she might cry again, or already was. "Thank you," she said to Sehun, clearly meaning it. Then she looked at me. "Seriously."

"Oh," I said, holding up a hand. "This is all him."

And it was. I was acutely aware of this for the next 40 minutes, as I finished the word day with them so close by, excitedly planning way. I focused on my packing, getting the tissue wrapped just right, clearly labeling each bin with its contents. Everything in its place, just as it should be, even as this crazy, last-minute event came together only steps away. But as they at five, still chattering excitedly, and I locked up alone, I couldn't help feeling like I'd lost. What, though, at least this time, I couldn't say.