HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NAM JI-HYUN!!! 

And to celebrate her birthday, I hope you will enjoy this special chapter…xxxx

—Mid January 2021—

Nam Ji-Hyun fidgeted with her dress, which she had commissioned from 섹시/Comfy. It was for Ji-hyun unreasonably beautiful. An Empire waist and sweat-heart neckline were complimented by a lace bolero. 

“Omo!”

Ji-hyun looked up. Her university friends rushed into the room smiling and calling out to her. 

“Hyun-i! How can you get married first! I always thought you would wait…”

“Ha. Of course Ji-hyun-ah would do her own thing. Never underestimate her. Always rushing into things that end up being the right decisions.”

They gathered for photographs and smiled at the photographer who was enjoying the day. 

“Who is he?” one of her friends whispered. “What is a Westerner doing here?  His Korean is so good.”

“Ah. He is the boyfriend of the designer for 섹시/Comfy. He is being kind and this is their wedding gift to us.”

“So he has a girlfriend?” her friend pouted. 

“This way ladies!”

They filtered out and more guests entered. While Ji-hyun felt like she had been there for hours the wedding was actually quite small. They had picked a traditional villa just outside of Seoul that was protected from paparazzi by a large wall and extensive gardens.

Her Eomma and Appa came in. Even though they had both seen her already both of them had tears glittering in their eyes. 

“Aish. I never cry!” her eomma protested.

“Don’t worry,” her appa kissed her. “I can cry for both of us.”

“Ha,” her eomma lovingly slapped her husband's arm. “Ok. Ok.”

Ji-hyun’s heart swelled. If they were lucky, she and Chang-wook would share these same moments. Watching their children grow up and get married. Her hand strayed to the slight bump that was beginning to show. 

“Soon,” she whispered. Because once the families were all gathered here for a final picture before the ceremony started she wanted to share some exciting news with them. Something she had somehow managed to keep secret to herself for the last couple of days.

The next to arrive was her eonnie, who ran over and grabbed her hands crushing them. The sisters smiled at each other.

“Always leading the way,” she said. 

“Eonnie!”

“Aish. Don’t make me cry. You know I never wear makeup. I can’t ruin it just because I am so happy for you.”

Once the immediate family portraits were taken, Ji-hyun took in a deep breath. Chang-wook had seen her dress while it was being designed. He had seen her when they arrived at the villa. But somehow her heart was pounding more now. What would he say and think? Would he think her as beautiful as she found him handsome?

“Hyun-i… Look who has come to see you…” her eomma coaxed her daughter to look up.

Chang-wook entered with his mother on his arm. 

Ji-hyun couldn’t find her voice. She looked at his eomma first, afraid that she would burst into tears if she looked at him too much. She was dressed in a hanbok. Ji-hyun carefully looked at the beautiful embroidery.

“Ji-hyun-ah… Are you not going to look at your groom?” the older woman asked.

Ji-hyun turned her head to look at him.

Many would agree that he was handsome. She understood that. She had eyes after all. But she wondered why people stopped there. Why did they stop at his looks and not see the boy-man underneath? His intensity was a pretence. His loving stare and giddy smile were the real Chang-wook.

“Ji Chang-wook,” she breathed. “… Orabeoni…”

“Hello sunbae-nim,” he reached out to take her hands in his. 

The families exchanged confused glances. They were used to her calling him “Orabeoni” but had never heard him call her sunbae, let alone sunbae-nim.

Chang-wook knelt at her feet. She noted how he was careful not to touch her dress. Always so considerate.

“No crying, Jiji.”

“Aish,” she blinked away her tears.

“What is with these women? Refusing to cry?” her appa laughed. It broke the spell that enthralled the family and photographer who had stopped taking pictures as he observed this moment between the couple.

Ji-hyun and Chang-wook, however, remained in their own little world. 

“Hurry!” her eomma said. “We don’t want to keep everyone waiting. Already coming this far!”

“Oh… I have… I want to tell everyone something first.”

“What? Can’t it wait?”

“No. Oppa, here,” she pulled him in and whispered the news. He did deserve to hear it first, after all. She wasn’t expecting his reaction. He fell back and fainted. 

“Jang-i!”

“Son? What did you say to him!”

“Here. Let’s bring him back to…”

Chang-wook sat up with a grin on his face. 

“Gotcha!” 

Ji-hyun laughed.

“Don’t tell me you weren’t shocked,” she accused.

“Yes. But happy… doubly happy.”

“Ok, ok, what is the big secret.”

“We’re having twins!” Ji-hyun announced. 

“She is having twins!” Chang-wook said at the same time.

“Omo!”

“Seriously?”

“Oh, my lovely children.”

“So happy for you.”

“Congratulations.”

The words and expressions of joy piled up on each other so that it was hard to know who was saying what. 

The excitement settled and the families joined to take pictures. Their smiles were the most beautiful that the photographer had seen since he first met his girlfriend in Paris four years ago. 

There was a knock on the door. The wedding co-ordinator wanted to know what was taking them so long. 

After that everything was a blur for Ji-hyun. The ceremony seemed to happen with lightning speed with Kang Ha-nuel presiding. 

“You might wonder why I am MC-ing for the happy couple. I’ll tell you. I am the only one who has kissed both of them. And I tell you now that they are the most wonderful people in the world who deserve all the happiness that you will wish them today.”

His comment was received with laughs. It was an amusing start to an otherwise staid wedding. The wedding banquet also flew by.

“Help me convince her,” Jin-ah’s boyfriend begged to her at one point. 

“Did you sit together?” Chang-wook asked.

“I didn’t… but I think that I will be able to get away with giving her this,” he waved a plate of food under their noses.

“Yeobo!” Ji-hyun pleaded.

“What? Are you feeling…”

“Spicy food. Spicy food!”

“Ok, ok, I’ll get some.”

Ji-hyun turned to the other man.

“I’ll get in trouble if I tell you, but the best way to convince her… do a project with her.”

“How?”

“Use your influence.”

“Romance?”

“Does it matter?”

“Thanks. I’ll keep it in mind.”

She watched him weave through the guests and tables. You don’t know what’s coming Jin-ah eonnie, she thought. She almost felt sorry for Jin-ah eonnie. Her oppa was about to corner her and make it impossible for her to hide any more. 

“What happened? Why does he look so happy?”

“I told him to do a project with Jin-ah…”

“So long as she doesn’t find out until after the twins are safely delivered…”

“What is this?” 

“Chi-gu!” Ji-hyun hugged him. “We have a special surprise.”

“Oh?”

Chang-wook grinned.

“Twins,” he whispered into his manager’s ear.

Both of them were surprised when Bang Chi-gu, a man unflappable in every situation he had been in, fainted. 

“Is he faking?” she asked.

Chang-wook squatted next to him.

“Nope… hey… mate… what… come on. That is nothing to faint about.”

Chi-gu blinked as he regained consciousness.

“Please tell me… Ji-hyun… This is not a day to play tricks…”

“No trick. Honestly. You get to be an uncle to twins.”

Chi-gu pinched himself. And with Chang-wook’s help to stand up.

“Not dreaming.”

“Why is this so upsetting?”

“Do you know! Do you know what you have put me through? And now this? How am I meant to control him with that news? Erratic… crazy… How!”

“Aww… Chi-gu! It won’t be that bad.”

Jiahyun took pity on Chi-gu.

“Chi-gu noppa. It will be a couple of years before they can start causing any problems. And they might even take after someone other than us…”

“Yes. Might take after eomeonim,” he whispered to himself. 

“Oh? Chi-gu! I saw you faint,” fairy godmother-eonnie came over. “What happened?”

“We are having twins,” Ji-hyun informed her.

The older woman clapped her hands together. She seemed uncertain who to congratulate first and settled on hugging both of them at the same time. 

“Oh… I just…” she wiped a nonexistent tear. “I why can’t I cry with happiness right now?”

“Eonnie!”

“No, no… I’m just… so happy.” 

Ji-hyun and Chang-wook moved on from their long term supporters and continued greeting their guests. The banquet soon came to a close and the guests filtered out and headed back to Seoul. Some of the last people to leave were their CEOs. The two men came over, both a bit drunk, but smiling from ear to ear.

“Congratulations, Ji-hyun-ssi,” Glorious began.

“Ji-hyun-ah… So happy for you.”

“Thank you,” she smiled. 

“Are you going to congratulate me?” Chang-wook asked.

“YOU! YOU! Ha,” SOOP boss scowled. “You got one of my actresses pregnant.”

“Boss… you are… what if people. We haven’t told everyone,” Ji-hyun looked around.

“I am in the mood to tell you to pay a penalty,” the man turned to his Glorious counterpart. 

“Me! Why should I! Nam Ji-hyun-ssi has made it impossible to sell the perfect boyfriend… She should be paying the penalty.”

“But now I can sell the perfect husband….” Chang-wook put in.

“No talking from you,” they advised.

“Now Boss, Glorious CEO-nim… I think you are both overreacting. First, I haven’t agreed to any projects so nothing to worry about there. Second, imagine all the wonderful CFs, Oppa will bring in now! So many opportunities to win over the ajummas… Nation’s Husband? And boss, I’ll only be out until… hmmm… the babies will be born in June and then I will be back full time in four months… Only ten months… that is shorter than my last break when I was finishing school… And I can work with radio maybe? And there are CFs for maternity clothes…”

The CEOs looked at each other.

“How does she do it?” they sighed. “Ji-hyun… so long…”

Chang-wook beamed.

“I’m afraid that we are going to need to leave… I have a surprise for my wife,” she could tell he took special pleasure in those words, “my wife”. He grabbed Ji-hyun’s hand and walked swiftly to the exit.

“Oppa, we can’t leave when there are guests still here!”

“But we are going to… let our families finish up.”

—

Chang-wook looked at Ji-hyun. She was sleeping in the car. They were headed to the airport so that they could have a quick weekend together. He had picked Japan where they had a better chance of avoiding fans and she could enjoy the hot springs. When they arrived he was pleased to see that their suite was prepared. He had booked under his appa’s name, a gesture to the man who had left the world too soon. 

They explored the surrounding area then returned to the room to lounge on the sofa and watch a film before going to bed. He had been surprised when she had asked to spend their first night watching a movie rather than going to a restaurant.

“We can do that. But I have a surprise for you.”

“Another?”

She flashed him a teasing smile. 

“Actually, it will be a surprise for me too. It was a gift from fairy godmother.”

She loaded the dvd and pressed play. Their fairy godmother’s picture popped up wishing the happy couple all the happiness in the world. Then followed another and another of their friends congratulating them. Some of the messages were short, others longer. Chang-wook held her hand drawing lazy circles. Her profile was beautiful. But he wanted to see her full face. He reached over and cupped her cheek, turning her head to face him.

“Hello.”

“Hello.”

“Happy Four Year Anniversary, Jiji.”

She frowned.

“What do you mean?”

“What day is it?”

“The 19th of January.”

“What happened on the 19th?”

“Umm… we got married?”

“And…”

“I don’t know.”

“Seriously. How can you be so forgetful,” he pouted.

“Ji Chang-wook-ssi… so easy to tease. Happy four year anniversary, Yeobo.”

“You remember!”

“We met, properly, four years ago. You fell in love with me when I called you orabeoni… how could I forget that.”

He grinned and gave her a forehead a loving kiss. Then wrapped his arm around her.

“Oh, we have to rewind. I missed some of them…” he grabbed the remote.

“Orabeoni… please… I think we can watch the rest…”

“What?” he said while he struggled to rewind the film.

“I want to find out if we have enough pillows…”

“I asked for extras. Don’t worry.”

He was surprised when she pulled the remote from his hand and turned the tv off. She then pushed him onto the sofa so that her body was draped on top of his.

“Yeobo… don’t you think that we have more important things to be doing than knowing how happy our family and friends are that we are married?”

He grinned. His Ji-hyun was seducing him again. 

—

When they got back to Seoul it was snowing. Large wet flakes that melted onto the pavement or gathered like lace on the parked cars and trees. The flight landed with a thud and Chang-wook put out a protective arm.

“Are you ok?” he asked.

“I’m ok.” 

He revelled in her smile. Soft and warm. Since her pregnancy, there was a glow about her that he hadn’t seen before. Her whole face seemed more perfect and her voice seemed lower. 

“Ji Chang-wook-ssi?” the air hostess approached them. “We have understood from your company that they would like you to leave last? I realise how unusual that is… but…”

“Thank you,” he gave a small bow. Normally it would be easier for him and Ji-hyun to leave the plane first. Get out quickly before the other passengers had the time to react and take pictures with their phones. But they were going for a different tactic this time. Wait until the very last minute with the hope that they could whisk them out a side entrance. 

“Aish,” Ji-hyun muttered. She handed her phone to him and he read the message from her manager. There was a large gathering of fans all eager to welcome him back to Korea. So far the news of their marriage had not come out but the ever-persistent fans had discovered that Ji Chang-wook was in Japan. 

“So far no news about you,” He kissed her. 

“Maybe we should leave separately?” 

But he shook his head. He had no intention of letting her wander around the airport on her own. They would leave together. 

The pilot gave his signal and they stepped off the plane. Security guards flanked them and they were ushered through the airport. Neither of them had anything but hand luggage so no need to wait around there. Straight through the doors into arrivals and a wall of screaming fans. It became even louder when people realised that Ji-hyun was with him. 

He hitched her bag higher on his shoulder and moved his own to the other side so that he could put a reassuring hand on her back. She looked at him with an involuntary smile. The fans went wild. 

Suddenly someone pushed forward and fans started to press against the security guards lining their path to the waiting cars. 

“Hey, Sorry I took so long,” Chi-gu ran up to greet them. He took the bags from Chang-wook and strode through the mass of people. Chang-wook followed carefully shielding Ji-hyun and occasionally bending down to say something to her. Some of it was for the cameras—he wanted everyone to know how strong their relationship was—but mainly he wanted her to feel safe. This was her first time coming across his fans in such close proximity.

“Oppa,” she gave him a slightly nervous laugh. “How do you manage? Is it like this every time?”

“I’m sorry,” he whispered back.

They made it to the car and it drove off. Security hemming in the fans until they had gotten away. Half-way back to Seoul, it pulled over and they got into his father-in-law’s car to drive back to the villa. 

“Urgh, I never want to do that again.”

“Was it crazy?” Ji-hyun’s appa asked.

“Yes. It has been worse. They only had three hours to gather,” Chang-wook explained.

“Yeobo.”

“Yes?”

“In the future… become ugly. In our next lives, please be born as you but ugly. I don’t think I want to live through that again.”

Chang-wook pulled her closer and hugged her. 

“Hyun-i… please leave my son-in-law alone. Besides, do you want ugly babies?”

“Appa!”

“We just want healthy babies,” Chang-wook replied dutifully.

When they arrived at the villa he realised it was the first time he had seen it with snow. To greet them was a small group of friends and family. It was a surprise “Babies Shower” that they wanted to have, or at least that is what the couple thought. Instead, they found themselves sitting in the study with their bosses carefully crafting notices of their marriage and Ji-hyun’s pregnancy.

“This could have waited…” Chang-wook glared at them. His Jiji was tired and according to all the books he had been reading she needed rest not talking about whether they released a joint statement like last time or individual ones.

“Joint statement,” Ji-hyun said with finality. “But Chang-wook oppa is correct. Why do we have to do this now?”

“Ji-hyun. You have to start press for the shorts soon. You are starting to show…”

“No, I understand that we need to send one out soon… but did you have to do this today?”

“Ummm…” her boss exchanged a glance with Glorious’ CEO. “We might have let the cat out of the bag somewhat…”

“How?” Chang-wook clenched his fists. This was his and his wife’s news to share no one else’s.

“Not the pregnancy… the marriage…” his boss backed up behind a chair.

“How?”

“A picture was posted on social media this morning… she took it down…”

“What?” Chang-wook shouted. Their guests had had their phones confiscated when they entered the wedding venue just so that this kind of thing wouldn’t happen.

Ji-hyun took her boss’s phone and looked at the picture. It was from 섹시/Comfy’s designer’s personal account. Chang-wook looked over her shoulder. There was nothing to hint at their wedding, just the designer’s studio and some dress forms.

“I don’t understand.”

“Oppa, my dress…” she pointed to a dress form that had Ji-hyun’s wedding gown on it. It was in the back and only a fan would be able to spot something as small as that. The comments were neutral until he saw one from Ji-hyun’s aunt who had innocently commented “pretty”. The replies to that comment were more explicit. 

“Your aunt was the one to let us know. She is the one who got the picture taken down but as you can see some people saw her comment before then.”

“Very well. Let’s post our announcement now then.”

“Now?”

“Why not?”

The men looked at each other. Ji-hyun sat like a queen in her chair. Her face was as serene as a queen, who was ordering her eunuchs to get her snacks. Chang-wook watched SOOP’s boss’ face. 

“Come back to work soon, Ji-hyun! I’ll get you a role in a saeguk. You need to be a queen, an empress. Please… Please… come back soon.”

Those two broke out laughing while Chang-wook and his boss looked on. 

“Did we miss a joke?”

“He is always begging me to work more,” Ji-hyun said with an affectionate smile. 

Chang-wook and the Glorious CEO found themselves swept up in the powerhouse of SOOP boss and Nam Ji-hyun. Later Chang-wook would explain to his boss that sometimes you just had to go with the flow.

“Right then… Back to business. What should it say?” Soop boss said.

Joint Statement from SOOP and Glorious:

“We are happy to greet you with this news. Actors Ji Chang-wook and Nam Ji-Hyun would like to announce that they were married in a small ceremony surrounded by family and close friends this last weekend. The couple would like to thank their fans. They know that this news will come as a surprise and they are deeply grateful for all the love they have received. They promise to continue showing good work to their fans in the future.”

Two weeks later they released this joint statement:

“Actors Ji Chang-wook and Nam Ji-hyun will be expecting their first child later this year. They are thrilled to share this news with fans.”

The next morning this correction was made:

“We would like to correct our previous statement. Actors Ji Chang-wook and Nam Ji-hyun will be expecting twins later this year. They are thrilled to share this news with fans. It is a double blessing.”

[AN: It might seem they married quickly, but JCW was insistent that they married on their four year anniversay. :) ]