AN:

1. don’t tell me that I didn’t foreshadow Ji-hyun’s pregnancy in chapter one…… hehehehehe…

2. a bit of self-congratulating on "accurately" predicting WJA and PSJ as a couple...... hehehehe....

--Late June 2021--

—A pleasant reminder of how Ji Chang-wook’s afternoon started one day in late June 2021—

Nam Ji-hyun was screaming. 

“JI CHANG WOOK!!! I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU IF YOU DON’T GET YOURSELF OVER HERE THIS INSTANT!!! YOU ARE THE WORST!!!”

Her Eomma took the phone away from her daughter’s ear and whispered into the receiver. “I think if you aren’t here soon she might find the voodoo doll.”

Ji Chang-wook was not exactly sure what he was going to do. He was on his way but the filming location was not Seoul. To add to the complications it was rush hour and he’d left his bike at home. 

“Chi-gu-ah… help…” he begged rubbing his hands together.

“Public transportation… that looks like your best bet. I can have a car waiting to take you from there.”

“I…” Chang-wook hadn’t taken public transportation since he started working as an actor.  “Will that really be faster?”

“There is an accident so probably,” his manager said looking at the traffic on his phone. “I’ll take you to the train station.”

“Whatever gets me there fastest,” Chang-wook shouted over his shoulder as he ran over to the PD and explained the situation. 

“How are you getting there?” the woman asked after agreeing that he could go.

“Public transportation.”

“You must be crazy.”

“I’ll be a dead man if I don’t get there soon.”

“Take that then.” And the director pointed to the motorbike they were using in the shoot. Chang-wook didn’t need any more encouragement and sprinted to the bike and tore off in the direction of Seoul.

“Do you think he’ll be ok?” the director asked.

“Chang-wook? He’ll be fine. There isn’t any traffic on the way to Seoul,” Chi-gu said smiling at the prank he’d almost been able to pull off. “I’m sure Ji-hyun was just letting off steam.”

He bowed to the director and quickly dialled a number.

“Hi, there might be lots of pictures of Chang-wook rushing to Seoul. We need to create a diversion.”

“One of our artists?” asked the junior management co-ordinator.

“Are you kidding? No, someone from a different agency. Reporters get their information not from the entertainers' company but other companies…”

“Who are you thinking…”

“I’ll let you worry about that.”

But when he checked the internet to see what had been put up, there were already a few shots of Chang-wook at a red light on his way to Seoul. He hadn’t changed out of his costume making him look exactly like the top Hallyu star that he was. 

“Better get back to Seoul before he does something stupid,” the long-suffering Bang Chi-gu sighed.

 —

Ji Chang-wook couldn’t believe his luck. The traffic had allowed him to weave between stationary cars and he arrived at the hospital in time for the birth of his twin sons. Of course there had been another four hours of labour after he had arrived but his beautiful wife was now resting and he was looking down at the two most perfect creations in the entire world. His mother, in-laws, and sister-in-law and her boyfriend were all there as well. 

‘I…’

‘Oh. Don’t worry. No need for words.’ his father in law sighed. ‘Ah! We have boys in the family!’

‘Aish. Yeobo. How dare you say such a thing when you have such perfect daughters.’

‘True. true… But then I hope for granddaughters too. I am just glad… so glad that everyone is healthy.’

The families agreed and slowly filed out leaving the young parents to themselves.

‘What should we call them?’ Ji-hyun asked from her bed. He didn’t like seeing her so vulnerable but at the same time knew that even suggesting that would earn him a death glare. More importantly, though, he had seen with his own eyes how incredible she was. How women gave birth? It was a mystery to him. 

‘How are you feeling?’

‘I’m well. I have been thinking though. We need to give them good names. Twins need to have good names.’ 

“Hyung-min and Hyung-joon,” he said with authority. “Uhhh… sorry I’ve been thinking about it…”

“Hmm… Ji Hyung-min and Ji Hyung-joon… I like it. But what if we have girls… then we can’t have generational names! I always liked the idea of having a daughter called Min-seo… Ji Min-seo…”

Chang-wook took a deep breath. Ji-hyun, his most perfect Ji-hyun, would be desperate to get back to work in a couple of months. And he was just coming into the reality of being a father. The idea in the abstract had been exciting, thrilling but, now that he saw his wife holding not one but two sleeping boys, he realised that they needed to focus on the present.

“Jiji… Let’s just focus on the fact that we have twin boys… Let’s worry about daughters later, Hm?”

“Ok,” she pouted. “Yeobo… I’m… very, very, very happy right now.”

—

The official announcement for the twins birth was delivered formally and without fanfare. 

The fans eagerly awaited Chang-wook or Ji-hyun’s update on their SNS. They hoped for something adorable or cute or anything that gave them a picture of the babies or the young family.

Chang-wook was the first to update. He posted a picture he had drawn himself. 

Fans were thrilled by the childish drawing that looked the one he had drawn of Ji-hyun when he’d been asked to describe his ideal woman. He captioned it: “Happy Family”

Ji-hyun reposted his picture but her caption was more heart-stopping: “Aren’t my sons and husband handsome? kekeke”

Their shippers were the first to send gifts welcoming little Ji Hyung-min and Ji Hyung-joon. They sent little stuffed animals, mobiles of stars and moons, and picture books. There were flowers for Ji-hyun and a specially designed t-shirt for Chang-wook with his drawing of his family on the front. He was photographed wearing it while shopping for diapers.

—

When Chang-wook was able to finally bring his young family home, he took extra special care. Chi-gu was called to act as chauffeur. The trip went off without a hitch until little Hyung-min started to cry. He woke up his twin who cried even louder. Chi-gu, at the panicked insistence of Chang-wook, pulled over. It seemed that Hyung-min wanted to be changed. Chang-wook froze at Ji-hyun’s look. He was going to be the one changing the diaper. He had done it once before but only under the careful supervision of his eomma, eomeonim, Ji-hyun, and nurses. And with more space than a celebrity van was able to give them. He looked pleadingly at her. But she calmly pointed out that little Hyung-joon wanted to be fed. The men exchanged looks. They had faced many situations together over the years but this was going to be the most stressful they would experience in their long lives. With a little shuffling, Ji-hyun got into the back, a hastily erected screen of baby blankets gave her privacy to feed Hyung-joon. Meanwhile, Chang-wook and Chi-gu supported each other in the job of changing little Hyung-min. It was messier than they expected.

Despite this rather loud and complicated start, Hyung-min and Hyung-joon were affable little babies. They never seemed to want the same thing at once—perhaps unusual with identical twins but a relief to Ji-hyun who was never forced to deal with two hungry sons at once. This kind of consideration earned the nickname of the “Gentleman Hyungs”. When they were older, they took the name to heart and impressed everyone they met with their friendly, polished manners. Hearts fluttered when they entered rooms. Their SNS was full of young women worshipping these two oppas. 

—

The Gentleman Hyungs were very popular amongst their parent's friends. Everyone impatient to meet them and once things had settled down, SNS was sprinkled with pictures of little hands and feet. 

These popular posts also led to some interesting speculation when one day Park Seo-joon posted a picture of two little hands each grasping his thumbs. There was no evidence that netizens could find that Seo-joon was friends with either Chang-wook or Ji-hyun. Some pointed out that his most recent costar was a friend of the couple but that was it. A small, but loyal fandom, however, got very excited and patiently waited for Won Jin-ah to post a picture of her visit to the Ji-Nam household. It came a few days later. Jin-ah posed with Ji-hyun, the little gentlemen hyungs in their arms. “Little hyungs. So cute.”

Despite the electric chemistry between Seo-Joon and Jin-ah in “My boss the Gumiho”, there were no dating rumours and even people who wondered if they were dating were shot down by his more vocal shippers and solid fans. Her fans had scoffed that Jin-ah eonnie would go out with someone like him—she was too good for him. 

The couple in question, however, was in the midst of a complicated conversation. The idyllic family scene at the Ji-Nam household pushed Seo-joon over the edge. He got broody over the idea of having little sons or daughters of his own. Chang-wook and Ji-hyun encouraged the couple to come out to the public. Jin-ah finally relented when a small food truck from their shipping fandom arrived at the site of her new drama. She oppa by posing for a picture in front of it with the caption: Thank you for your support.

The dating rumour erupted and was confirmed by her agency two days later:

“We are greeting you with the news that our actress Won Jin-ah has been dating actor Park Seo-joon since April 2017. We have no other news as this is our actresses private life.”

 His announcement was a little bit more revealing:

“We have confirmed with our actor Park Seo-joon that he and Won Jin-ah have been dating since April 2017. He is happy to greet his fans with this news. He thanks his fans for their love and support. He also apologies for the suddenness of this news but he wanted to protect Won Jin-ah’s privacy and his own.”

Their very first shipper, an instagram account called __tinymel, personally sent them little hand-carved gumiho figures made from rosewood. She posted: “We always supported Won Jin-ah and Park Seo-joon individually because Gumiho ship was a little. We received a lot of hate, but the little red string of Fate gave us hope. Whatever happens in the future, we love Won Jin-ah and Park Seo-joon and pray for their happiness.”

—

Ji-hyun was busy messaging her eomma when Chang-wook stopped the car. They had borrowed her parent's car so that they could better drive around anonymously. It was their first date since the twins were born.

“Where are we?” she asked. They parked in a small alley that looked like many others in the large city.

“Hmmm… just a minute. I need to check the map.”

She looked around even more confused when he got out of the car and asked a passing halmoni a question. She gave him a complicated set of directions and walked off shaking her head. Ji-hyun got out and walked over. He grabbed her hand.

“Kaja!” he grinned down at her. He looked incredibly pleased with himself.

Eventually they arrived at a large-ish building with a discrete little sign announcing that it was a 찜질방.

“Orabeoni!”

“You said you wanted to go to jjimjilbang. And the last time it wasn’t quite right. But this place is special—Lee Deok-hwa comes here with his wife. Actually, we are meeting them.”

“Yeobo! Of course! It will be wonderful to see them.”

Ji-hyun smiled Deok-hwa sunbae-nim had in many ways taken over the role of a father in Chang-wook’s life, especially supporting him in his career. And she had always wanted to meet his wife, who had been one of their early supporters from “Suspicious Partner” days. She was also excited to thank him for making this possible.

They pushed open the door into a small reception area. It was quiet with the television muted and an ancient halmoni watching from behind the desk. 

“Good morning. We are here…”

“How many? Couples only”

“We are married.”

“Are you on the list?” she narrowed her eyes at them.

“The list?”

“Invite only,” she pointed to a handwritten sign.

“Oh.”

Ji-hyun and Chang-wook exchanged a look. It was rare for Chang-wook not to be recognised and he had removed his mask so that he could speak more clearly to the elder. 

“Lee Deok-hwa… he invited…”

“Hm. Not signed in.”

“I still think that we should be allowed in… my wife gave birth recently…”

“Humph. Who do you think you are? A celebrity?”

Ji-hyun started giggling. Ji Chang-wook was being treated like a young man with no manners. It was a wonderful joke. And when she met the halmoni’s eye she had to bite her lip to stop herself from laughing even harder. The elder knew exactly who they were. To help with the farce, she decided it was time for her to step in.

“Halmoni,” she began in a soothing voice. “Lee Deok-hwa sunbaenim will be coming soon. We are clearly early…”

“Young people! These days. Humph. These days young people have no respect for their elders. You should have made better plans instead of showing up when it was convenient for you!”

Chang-wook spluttered and was about to give the older woman a lecture about making young mothers stand around without even a bench or chair for them to rest. A gentle hand on his arm calmed him down somewhat.

“You are right, Halmoni. But we made plans to meet at two pm and it is now five minutes past.”

“Is it?” the halmoni glanced at the clock. “Well, you should have said so sooner. I’ll go and get him.”

She disappeared.

“Wait…” Chang-wook glanced at Ji-hyun. “Does that mean he is already here?”

“I think she was playing a joke on us,” his loving wife explained. 

In a few minutes, Lee Deok-hwa appeared in his orange jjimjilbang uniform.

“Ha! There. Bet that taught you. We had a bet about how long it would take,” he wagged a finger at Ji-hyun. “You were always quick. Your husband suffers from… a lack of imagination.”

The halmoni went around taking down the signs saying that only couples and members could go into the spa. 

Ji-hyun and Chang-wook were surprised how large it was compared to the small front. Families relaxed while the little children played in their lime green outfits. Ji-hyun was about to tie her hair up when Chang-wook stole her hair tie and did it for her.

“Too cheesy, too cheesy,” Deok-hwa sighed. His wife smacked his arm. 

“Aish, oppa, you are worse,” the older woman shook her head. “When we first got married it was as if I couldn’t do anything on my own. It took a year for him to understand that a woman likes to do things for herself.”

“You are a romantic!” Chang-wook sounded accusing.

“Only a romantic can criticise. I have experience!” the veteran actor smirked.

A few people recognised them but mainly they were left alone to enjoy themselves. Eventually, they needed to head home. Ji-hyun was missing her sons and Chang-wook was secretly desperate to see them and make sure that his very capable in-laws hadn’t killed them. 

Hyung-min and Hyung-joon were, of course, very happily entertaining their grandparents. Both grandmothers were cooing over the babies while Ji-hyun’s appa was watching them with a very proud look on his face. He was thrilled that he was no longer the only man in the family. First his handsome son-in-law and now his handsome grandsons. And soon, he hoped, another very capable son-in-law would even out the numbers. 

What made him happiest was seeing his daughter cradling her babies. She had gone through so many things in the last four years. But look at her now—a grown woman, an actress who was winning awards for her last two projects, a wife, and a mother.

As they were leaving, he pulled her aside.

“Hyun-i. My little girl. Your Appa is so proud of you. Your eomma and eonnie are also proud. But a father’s pride is different. And I am,” he wiped away a stray tear. “I am so, so proud.”

He glanced over at Chang-wook who had Hyung-joon strapped to his chest. 

“You picked a good man, our daughter. He will worship you. He will be a good father. And… and I am so happy for you.”

Ji-hyun hugged her appa. He was a quiet and loving man. One she had always relied on and to hear his words of praise meant the world to her. 

“Appa. I love you.”

He sniffed.

“Now, go and tell that cheeky bastard,” he said this loud enough so that everyone could hear. “Tell that husband of yours that he if he ever borrows my car again he needs to refill the petrol! I don’t think I’ll make it to the petrol station. Fumes! That is all he left.”

Chang-wook looked at his eomma who was shaking with repressed laughter. He grinned.

“Abeonim, Ji-hyun refused to let us stop…”

“Aish… don’t blame me. Let’s go. Now. Quickly. Now,” Ji-hyun her husband through the door. She gathered Hyung-min in her arms and turned to her Appa.

“Appa… it was my fault. He wanted to refill the car… Bye!”

And she skipped out after him.

“They are a lovely couple,” Ji-hyun’s eomma sighed.

“They are mad,” Chang-wook’s eomma chuckled.

“Do you think that they know how adorable they are?” Ji-hyun’s appa shook his head. 

The in-laws smiled at each other. No one could have predicted this. But it seemed like their darling’s story was slowly wrapping up. Not long, they thought. Not long until the final grand episode. The long-awaited triumph of their wonderful and talented children’s first year as a married couple.

AN: sorry for this slightly choppy chapter! I feel bad and could have done better... :(