“Wan, wait – “

I’m pretty sure she heard me…then why did she ignore me? Also, why did she leave as if the hounds of hell were chasing her out?

Pasting on a smile to distract myself from worrying about Wendy, I once again turn back to the surrounding well-wishers and endure the small talk of wedding preparations. In reality, all I want to do is get out of this stuffy suit, unwind from all the stress of proposing and celebrate with some beer, fried chicken and my best friend. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy, ecstatic even…but she’s the only person that makes the good news seem real; like the time I got an A in maths after long hours of her tireless tutoring, or the time I was offered the internship of my dreams after thinking I had bombed the interview and proceeded to cry on her shoulder for a whole night as she was forced to cancel her blind date.

Joohyun’s gentle squeeze of our clasped hands successfully brought me out of my stupor of imagining how much nicer it would be if I were chilling with Wendy on our worn-down couch, snuggled and ready to snack as we watched our ongoing TV series, ‘The Mentalist’.

“Hey, are you alright? You seem out of it?”

Her gentle words bring a smile to my face, “I’m great! I just managed to propose to the girl of my dream without making a fool of myself. This day couldn’t be better. I’m just a little tired and I’m kinda worried about Wendy…”

The hardness that suddenly entered her eyes cautioned me to hesitate...yet, as quickly as I saw it, it was as quickly replaced by the gentle eyes I fell in love with. Maybe I really do need some sleep after all the restless nights of fretting about all the things that could go wrong with the proposal. You know it’s time to call it a day when you start questioning yourself if you’re starting to imagine things...

“What happened to Wendy? I noticed she left but I didn’t think it was a big deal. Apparently not, seeing as it’s been on your mind rather than celebrating our engagement.”

“Are you sulking? Of course, I’m celebrating. I’m the luckiest man alive to be able to call you mine. It’s just that she’s a big part of this. Without Wendy, we wouldn’t be engaged right now. I’m just a little concerned that she couldn’t even say goodbye properly…”

“Hmmm I’m sure she’s fine. You worry too much. I think you forget that she’s a grown woman rather than your childhood friend. I’m pretty sure something just came up. I know it’s tiring but the party is nearly done.”

Pecking me on the cheeks, resulting in an uproar of whistles and cheers, she excuses herself to talk to her friends. Similarl