—June 2022—

Nam Ji-hyun fidgeted with her phone—she was running late because the twins needed to have a checkup, everything was fine. She was headed to a meeting with the Shin Su-won(writer), Kim Seong-hun(director), and producers about the release of “Our Home”. Chang-wook had been early and supposedly entertaining everyone with stories of the twins. She rushed up the stairs and arrived a little breathless.

“I am sorry, my apologies.”

“Please, Ji-hyun-ssi, we understand. Now, this is a serious question. We have made a decision but wanted you to know first. But we have been invited to premiere “Our Home” at Cannes. We expect some backlash because of the period and… well, we hope that you are comfortable preparing for that.”

Ji-hyun shared a look with Chang-wook. This would be the biggest honour and challenge of their professional lives.

—July 2022—

“Jagiya, I wish to say thank you,” she began. “Thank you.”

“Jiji, thank you! Also, I have a present for you!”

“What? No! Why? But it is your birthday soon. What about my present for you!”

“This also a present for me,” he grinned. 

Chang-wook had been waiting for over a year to give this to her this gift. He kept putting off buying it and eventually gave in after the twin’s first birthday. As soon as it had been bought he felt a sense of dread. He needed to get Abeonim’s approval. He had called him and they went out for dinner. Not anywhere fancy. He knew he need to ease Ji-hyun’s appa into the idea and that an expensive restaurant would just set up his back. So they met at a small place near Abeonim’s house. As it wasn’t their first time meeting here, Ji-hyun’s appa was relaxed and it gave Chang-wook enough time to pour drinks and they were both in a good mood when Chang-wook blurted it out:

“AbeonimI’veboughtJi-hyunascooterforherandIwantedyourpermissiontogiveittoher.”

“What?” Abeonim wriggled his finger in his ear. He was already worried that he was getting deaf and the rush of words coming out of Chang-wook’s mouth was very confusing.

“Iwantedyourpermissiontogiveittoher.”

“Start from the beginning. One word at a time. I think I’m getting deaf… or you are just talking too fast.”

Chang-wook gulped and started again.

“Abeonim I’ve bought Ji-hyun a scooter for her and I wanted your permission to give it to her,” he held his breath waiting for the response.

“Why do you need my permission for that?”

“Because it can be dangerous!”

He watch Abeonim shake his head. 

“Of course, but then there are a lot of dangerous things in the world.”

On the morning of his birthday, Chang-wook woke up early and then woke up Ji-hyun. They enjoyed a birthday breakfast with the twins but he was eager to get moving. 

“Can I blindfold you?” he asked. 

Ji-hyun looked at his eomma, who shrugged.

“Eomeonim, do you know what it is?”

“Yes. Yes. I think…” she chuckled. “I think that our Chang-wook-i will burst if you don’t go with him right now.

Ji-hyun submitted to the blindfold and allowed herself to be led to wherever he was taking her.

“Hmm. It might be difficult for you to walk there without tripping. Here get on my back,” he said. She climbed onto his back and rested her head against his shoulder. He put her down when they reached their destination. And slipped off the blindfold. 

“Omo!” She said. There in the garage was a beautiful little scooter. “Really? This is a present for you?”

“Yes,” he wrapped an arm around her. She smiled at his cheeky smile. It was going to be very difficult to keep her own secret from him. Because Chi-gu had let slip that Chang-wook was getting her a bike when he asked what size she was for a helmet. Once she knew the present was, she had asked Chi-gu to teach her to ride a scooter. Of course, she would let orabeoni “teach” her but it made her less nervous to have a little idea about what it was like to drive a scooter. 

“Oh. Oppa! I love it.”

“Do you? Because… Well I wanted to go on a trip with you and we need bikes to that.”

“Oh? Now?”

“August.”

“We can’t do August orabeoni. Remember we promised my immo to visit her. And then I start my next drama. So I don’t think we can do your trip until…” she crinkled her forehead in thought. “Probably November.”

“Ji-hyun!”

“Oh, I am so sorry,” she hugged him.

“NO. I don’t mean about the trip. We can do it without the bikes so in July… but when did you pick your most recent project? And what is it?”

“Yes, I did.”

“You didn’t tell me which one you picked though.”

“Halfway Heart”

“The Noona romance?”

“Oppa…”

Chang-wook muttered under his breath. He had been spoiled when they were filming “Our Home” because he was her love interest. Of the scripts she had been offered, “Halfway Heart” was one of the better ones but it didn’t mean he liked the idea of an idol—he assumed it would be an idol—romancing his Jiji.

“Oppa… do you want us to talk about what your next drama is?” she said very pointedly. It was a thriller-romance with an idol turned actress as the lead. 

“I know. I know. I just…” 

“Orabeoni… Look. Let’s talk about this later? It is your birthday. I don’t want to have a fight today. Ok?” She walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. “Now, can we do my surprise?”

“Your surprise?”

“Yes,” she looked at her watch. “Hmm… we need to leave in an hour.”

“All of us?” he asked.

“Just us.”

“I wanted to spend time with the boys.”

“We’ll be back for dinner. Probably before then.”

She stole his idea of the blindfold and it wasn’t until the arrived at the first stop that he knew where they were. The airport.

“Where?”

“Aish. Put that back on.”

He started grinning. There was a small hint in his heart about where they might be going but he was afraid to get his hopes up. It was too much to hope for. But his hopes soared when she put noise-cancelling headphone over his ears.

“Jiji, don’t you think we are drawing too much attention?”

“Hmm… You are right… but that is ok. with your mask on, hat… maybe I’ll do the sunglasses as originally planned.”

She slipped some sunglasses on that were so dark that it was hard to see where he was going. But he patiently allowed her to lead him through the airport—with a brief moment where he removed things for security—to the gate. There she removed the headphones and then the sunglasses. 

“Present!”

He blinked as his eyes became accustomed to the bright lights. They were waiting to board a flight to Busan.

“Busan?”

“Busan. For lunch,” She linked her arm through his and rested her head on his shoulder. 

“Lunch? Really?”

“Yes, yes. Lunch… where did you think we were going?”

“I had no idea.”

They landed in Busan an hour later and took a taxi to the seafood restaurant that they had attempted so many times to have a date at. The owner welcomed them warmly and teased Ji-hyun for making a reservation—again!—especially on a Tuesday!

After their lunch, they walked along the path. It was a quiet moment. Each of them reflecting on their good and less good memories of their time in this location. 

“Orabeoni,” Ji-hyun stopped and pulled him around so that they were facing each other. “I wanted to come here, oh for so many reasons. But I also wanted to let you know. To let you know that all of the things that have happened to us have led us here. If things had gone smoothly from the beginning, I don’t think we would… I’m not saying we wouldn’t be here. But those months apart allowed us to grow, don’t you think? And without that growth, I don’t think we would be as happy as we are. So many couples don’t know how to fight when they get married. They live happily and get married. While we learnt how to be unhappy. Orabeoni. Thank you. For all the growth we did. For our reunion. For our precious little boys. Our gentleman hyungs. We would have gotten here a little more slowly, perhaps, but it would be different. We had so many fateful meetings. I think we will always have Fate on our side. So I look forward to the future.”

It was a long speech, but Ji-hyun was so captivating when she spoke that Chang-wook could only hold her hands while he stood bewitched by her words. She expressed herself so beautifully, much better than he ever could. 

“Jiji, our beautiful, smart Jiji… How can you tell the words in your heart like that? I am in awe of you.”

“You foolish man. Kiss me.”

He bent down and placed a chaste, teasing kiss on the corner of . He was about to draw away when he felt her hands reach up and pulled him back. Her kiss was a deliberate exploration. At first he was caught off guard. She was, again, surprising him. He felt her breathe in and held her closer to him. He caressed her back, her sensitive neck, and her luscious, thick hair. He got lost in the sense of how she held him in place so that she could deepen the kiss. Due to the heat of their kiss that they had lost all reason. Chang-wook bent her back so that he could better reach her. Ji-hyun’s gasp stopped him. If they weren’t careful things would get out of hand. 

“Jiji…” He stood up and rested his cheek on her head. Their breaths were coming in soft pants.

“Yes. Yes, um… let’s umm,” she murmured. “In case… we should, um, slow… stop?”

He felt her wiggle around in his arms. He didn’t let her go but drew her in closer. They were now facing the ocean. 

“Let’s sit over there,” he pointed to a large rock. They walked over hand in hand. Ji-hyun settled between his legs and leant back against his chest.

“My battery,” she smiled.

“Hmmm…” he wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on her shoulder. Her hand played with his wrist.

“OPPA!” she gasped. “Oppa… we have to go. RIGHT NOW!”

“What?”

“We will miss our flight if we don’t… we need to run… can you, um…, can you run?”

He laughed when he realised what she was asking. Ideally he wouldn’t have to move for a long, long time. He liked her exactly where she was too much. But he also knew that she wasn’t really asking him a question. 

“Let’s go!”

They got up and began to run. They called a taxi and arrived just in time to catch their flight. They laughed and teased each other. Ji-hyun saying it wasn’t fair that his legs were so long. Chang-wook point out that she was the one who hadn’t set an alarm. She had made him lose track of time. He was proud that he could still make blush.

—September 2022—

Ji-hyun was talking with the young idol who was her costar for “Halfway Heart”. She was pleased at how he was doing and thought it was sweet how he called her noona sunbae-nim. 

“Noona sunbae-nim,” he sounded a little anxious.

“Hmm? I don’t think that you need to worry about the next scene.”

“No…” he pointed over his shoulder. Ji Chang-wook was carefully riding his motorbike through the sound stage’s parking lot. He was wearing a leather jacket, aviators, and very fashionable biker boots. 

“Aish.”

“He won’t… um…” the young man gulped.

“Don’t worry about him,” she patted his arm and turned around to greet her husband. She grinned it looked like he was shooting a film or CF. He stopped his motorbike about ten metres from them. After he swung his leg over, he posed a little. Then he removed his helmet and ran his hand through his hair making it look like he had just come from the stylist. As he stalked towards them, Ji-hyun bit her lip

“Jiji-yang-i,” he gave her a devilish smile. “I thought I’d come and see how filming is going.”

“Orbeoni. How did you… Let me introduce you to Lee Hoon.”

“Hello sunbae-nim,” he bowed very low.

“Are you filming well Lee Hoon-ssi?” Chang-wook asked very formally.

“Yes. Yes. Ji-hyun noona… I mean Ji-hyun sunbae-nim is taking very good care of me…”

Ji-hyun covered to prevent herself from laughing.

“Ji-hyun sunbae-nim is very good at taking care of her hubaes,” Chang-wook said. Ji-hyun could see that now he had seen the young idol he was inclined to be amused rather than annoyed.

“Ji-hyun sunbae-nim?” Lee Hoon looked confused.

“Yes, she is my sunbae. I am her hubae,” Chang-wook said with a straight face. He was doing a very good job at holding back his laughter.

“Jagiya, you are making him uncomfortable. Honestly. Hoon-ah. Don’t worry. He is just making a joke.”

For whatever reason this seemed to make Lee Hoon even more anxious. She knew how on edge he was. It was his first drama and he was a solo artist for a smaller label. Having Ji Chang-wook appear and look so dashing and y would put most young men in their place but such a junior—it was, she could see, almost too much for him.

“Aish. Oppa. Come on.”

“Ok, ok. Hoon-ah, don’t look so worried. And I have something for you. He led them to where the food trucks had been set up and revealed that he had prepared one for each of them. She watched him clap the younger man on the back and tell Lee Hoon to call him hyung. The young idol was so happy that he looked like he might burst with happiness. They took lots of pictures and Chang-wook gave her a little kiss before driving off. 

Ji-hyun urged her costar to post the pictures to his instagram in their next break. 

“Seriously? Chang-wook-ssi… uh Chang-wook-hyung won’t mind?”

“Aish, he wouldn’t have sent you a food truck if he didn’t want you to share the pictures. Look. I will share too.”

She posted a picture of the three of them with the two food trucks in the background. She captioned it:

“Chang-wook orabeoni making sure we eat well. We ate very, very well.”

Chang-wook liked it and reminded her to drink lots of water because it was hot outside. Their fans were, naturally, so happy with their little interaction. 

Lee Hoon posted a picture with him and Chang-wook in front of the food truck. with the caption:

“I can’t believe it. So honoured. Ji Chang-wook sunbae-nim, thank you. I will eat well.”

He was embarrassed when Chang-wook liked the post and commented: “Hyung is happy that you liked it. Hoon-ah Hwaiting!”. His new friendship with the Ji-Nam family caused his followers to grow by 10,000.

That night while the family was having dinner, Ji-hyun told her sons all about what an amazing man their appa is. Of course, they didn’t understand a word she was saying. But every time she said “Appa” they waved at their appa with great enthusiasm. 

—

The months went by…

The Ji-Nam family went to awards shows for their respective dramas and won awards or didn’t. 

Their sons continued to grow and started creating havoc.

They went to the wedding of Park Seo-joon and Won Jin-ah. 

Seo Kang-joon and Nam Ji-hyun went to a reunion dinner for “Mi-rae Leaves” and slowly resumed their friendship.

Chang-wook created a minor scandal when he went away for a vacation with his friends and left Ji-hyun at home. Gossip columns, eager to spice up a boring month, insinuated that Ji-hyun and Kang-joon were having an affair. This was, embarrassingly for the tabloids, quashed when Kang-joon was photographed on a date with his former costar Park Min-young. The tabloids were forced to publicly apologise to everyone and made donations to Korean Animal rescue at the request of the two couples. 

Ji-hyun, urged by Shin Su-won, directed a short film. It told the story of an old woman on Jeju who was isolated from her family, which had moved to Seoul. She made friends with a young boy by making Yuja-cheong.

—May 2023—

Ji-hyun stood in the hotel suite. She kept glancing at herself in the mirror and wondering if this was really happening. She was more nervous than she had been at her wedding. She and Chang-wook were about to walk the red carpet at Cannes. 

Stylist-eonnie came over and placed her hands on Ji-hyun’s shoulders.

“Hyun-i. Omo. You look so beautiful.” 

“Eonnie… Thank you so much for flying over. I don’t think I could have done this without you.”

“Aish. For my babies I’ll do everything.”

At that moment, Chang-wook entered. He was as handsome as she remembered from their first night presenting awards together.

“You always look so pretty in a tux,” she smiled.

“Pretty! I shouldn’t look pretty…” he rushed over to the mirror and looked at himself. 

“HA! No. Very handsome. Tall, dark, and handsome,” she reassured him. “And eonnie, I am sooooo, sooooo, grateful that he isn’t wearing that hideous comma hair. It looks so ugly. Urgh. I wish I’d been around to tell you not to wear your hair like that!”

“Jiji! I thought I looked good.”

“Oppa. You always look good. But you will never look better than during “Suspicious Partner”. Even now, I sometimes wish that eonnie would come over and style you like that,” she got a dreamy expression in her eyes. 

Chang-wook looked hurt. He had never expected for Ji-hyun to be so shallow about his appearance. In fact, he liked to think that she had never once thought about his appearance. That it was *him* she loved and not his pretty face. She could see this on his face.

“Orabeoni, jagiya. You are the most handsome, y man I know… You want to see what I posted just now?”

“Oh? What?” stylist-eonnie jumped in.

Ji-hyun pulled out her phone. It was the picture she had taken of him and the twins. It was from the day he had come to the set with the food trucks. He was striding towards her and she had quickly taken a picture. Her caption was: “Chang-wook orabeoni always looks like a movie star. kekeke”.

Chang-wook grabbed his phone and commented. “The photographer is pretty.”

“Aish. The two of you. You will make my teeth rot!”

—

After that they were swept into the car and found themselves at the red carpet.

The cameras were flashing and the air was full of anticipation. This was Cannes after all, the most prestigious film festival in the world. Chang-wook looked over at his wife sitting calmly next to him. In a whirlwind of the last few years, she had stood like a rock next to him. This was their moment. The grand premiere. He took her hand in his gave it a little squeeze and opened the door. The fans gathered cheered waving and calling out their names. The press shouted to get their attention for photographs. Both smiled back, waving their hands in acknowledgement of the crowd. In all the organised chaos of a red carpet, Chang-wook leaned over and whispered in her ear.

“Saranghae Jiji.”

Ji-hyun looked up at him. Her smile was bright and her eyes shining.

“Saranghae Orabeoni.”

He was so caught up in their moment that he pressed a quick kiss to her lips. They forgot about the reporters, fans, and everyone else. Ji-hyun and Chang-wook, he thought, fated to be together forever. It was a pretty wonderful fate, he had to admit and one he wouldn’t change for the world. 

AN: Thank you all so much for the journey. I can't believe I am saying goodbye already. But I met the goal I had set myself: Finish before JCW's next drama.