Moving Forward

After college graduation (a year and a half later)…

            We had it all figured out by the time we graduated from college.  In order to have more privacy, we decided to move into an apartment a decent distance from where either of our parents lived, to avoid any frequent drop-ins.  The double life we were living mostly just entailed our families at that point.  We’d come clean to most or our friends by then.  We even sat Victoria down and told her the truth because it was just going to be too damn hard to keep Kyuhyun’s best friend’s fiancée out of the loop, which is what she was by then. 

            Both of us took a few days off for the move, but a couple days in, all of the big items were moved in and we were just going through individual boxes and finding homes for things around the new place.  All the hard work was done. 

            “Hey,” Kyuhyun said, walking into the kitchen.  “Want to take a break and get some coffee?”

            “Sure,” I said, putting the pan away that was in my hand and heading for the door.  “You didn’t mean Ryeosuni, did you?”

            He shook his head and wrapped his arm around me, ushering me to the door.  We headed for his car and got in.  I was busy playing on my cellphone, chatting with Henry, and was distracted, but eventually wondered why we hadn’t gotten there yet after about fifteen minutes. 

            “Are we going to a specific one?” I asked, looking around.

            “Yeah,” he said, turning towards campus.  “We’re headed towards the Mouse Rabbit.”

            That was the café that he’d first bought me coffee at, when I pretended to be looking in the display case at desserts and he accidentally stumbled upon me.  “Why are we going there?  We’ve probably passed two dozen other cafés already.”

            “Probably, but I know you like the dessert there and I wanted to take a break from working,” he said, finally pulling into the parking lot in the back. 

            We got out and headed inside.  Sure enough, they had my favorite sweet in the display case and Kyuhyun ordered our drinks and desserts with the barista.  I grabbed my coffee and plate and headed over to a table in the corner, near the window.  It was the same one that we’d first sat at together.  It was a little round table with four chairs around it.  I sat down neat the window so I could watch people walking by.  Then Kyuhyun sat down in the chair next to me, like he would if he were with Ryeosuni, instead of the one across from me. 

            “What are you doing?” I softly asked him.

            He smiled at me.  “I’m sitting next to you.  It’s fine.  There’s no one else here.”  It was true.  Because it was between school years, the place was dead.  It only got a little busy in the mornings and around lunchtime.  It was already later in the afternoon and we were the only customers inside. 

            I thought back on our first time sitting there and how he’d asked me to study in the library afterwards.  Kyuhyun and I roomed together in our last year of college and he never went to the library to study once I moved in.  He said that I was less distracting than Yesung was, but when his grades began to slip a little from less studying and paying too much attention to me, he had to buckle down more and learn to create a healthier balance between the two.  He still didn’t go back to the library though.

            I felt Kyuhyun grasp my hand under the table and thread his fingers through mine.  I looked over at him and he smiled at me.  “What’s up with you today?” I asked, laughing at his strange behavior.

            “I’m trying to be romantic,” he laughed.  It is funny because he’s terrible at it most of the time.  He’s better at being romantic with Ryeosuni and will ask her to dance randomly or buy her flowers. 

            “Why?  Are you feeling overly sentimental because we just moved off campus?”

            He shook his head, still smiling and starting to blush a little.  “No, I…I wanted to ask you something.”  The way his tone turned more serious and how his hand tightened around mine made my heart race a little.

            “Ask me what?”

            He took a deep breath and then his eyes locked with mine.  “I was wondering if you’d marry me.”

            I gasped.  My eyes began to glaze over with tears.  “You want to get married?”

            He nodded.

            I inhaled sharply, but the tears still ran down my cheeks.  “Oh my God!”

            “Is that a yes?” he asked.

            I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him.  Once.  Twice.  And then I just didn’t pull away at all.  I was just too excited at the idea of getting married and it didn’t even matter to me that neither of us were dressed up as women and we were in public and someone could walk in at any moment.  In fact, the workers could all be gawking at us and it didn’t matter.  We were getting married!

            “That’s a yes, right?” Kyuhyun asked, his lips still pressed against mine.

            I pulled away marginally.  “That’s a hell yes!”

            He wrapped his arms around me and kissed me back. 

            You’d have thought my mother had won the lottery when I told her that I’d proposed to Ryeosuni and she’d said yes.  There was mass hysteria!  She screamed!  My father jumped and looked around, terrified that someone had been hurt.  My ears are still ringing, actually.  And then she brought out stacks—and I mean multiples, like five or six stacks—of bridal magazines for us to look at.  She’d clearly been planning our wedding since the first day she’d met Ryeosuni.  I told you she had been.

            From that day forward, she referred to Ryeosuni as her daughter-in-law, as if it were already a done deal, and every time we went to their house, we had to discuss the wedding.  I tell you what.  I bumped up the date of the wedding my six months because of that.  The hell if I wanted my whole life to revolve around one single day.  It wasn’t even the real day!  Ryeowook and I flew out of the country and got married about three months after we got engaged.  I married Ryeosuni a year later and it was the longest year of my life. 

            And then Kyumi still had to marry Ryeowook as well, but we waited a little longer on that one.  After all the fuss of our other wedding, we decided Kyumi’s parents were going to die in a car accident first so we could have a smaller wedding.  As is, we had to hire actors to play Ryeosuni’s parents.  Thankfully, they live in Europe, so they’re not around much. 

            “Let me see your ring, dear,” my mother said. 

            Ryeosuni eagerly showed my mother her ring and I rolled my eyes.  Here’s the problem with marrying two people.  Humor me, it’s kind of like a two for one with them.  Ryeowook was totally chill about getting a simple wedding ring.  He wanted matching rings for the both of us, but they weren’t expensive.  Ryeosuni, on the other hand, expected me to buy her a rock.  I have a decent job working with computers and she thought it would look bad if I didn’t buy her an expensive ring.  My mother and all her friends would think it strange if I didn’t spend the money on something nice.  I actually went without for a month over this.  I mean, with Ryeosuni.  Ryeowook still gave it up because he was just happy to be getting married.  He acts so bipolar when it comes to Ryeowook vs. Ryeosuni.  Kyumi did not act like this over her engagement ring.  Mostly because the budget was getting tight at that point.

            “That’s beautiful!” my mother said, smiling at me.

            “It is!” Ryeosuni beamed.  “KyuKyu treats me so well!”

            I felt my cheeks warming.  “Well, you