If only Yun Hee knew that being an adult could be this tough, then she would have made sure to ask Santa to keep her a child forever. It's not like she was never given a heads up. People all around her had given her enough warnings, by complaining about their troublesome daily life. But Yun Hee being the hard headed person she was, never paid attention to it. She always thought of life as a friend who would always remain loyal to her and life did, until then. She never had to worry for her daily necessities and extra demands because of her rich parents. She never had to suffer from loneliness because of her sister and her friends. She never had to worry for good grades and career because of her IQ that was higher than most of the people around her. She had basically everything a person could want in his life and she was happy with them until she met Oh Sehun.

Being a rational and realistic person, Yun Hee always knew better than to let people and their judgements cloud her mind. And thus, she had successfully managed to keep her mind void of their bulls about love and marriage. She never believed in fairytales, not even as a kid. She always found the girls around her age dreaming about a prince riding a white horse and boys dreaming abouta charming princess idiots. But there was one thing from the fairytales that she always believed to be true and that was the happily ever after's. She had always believed that happily ever after's existed, not necessarily with a knight in shining armor but a mere pauper, but it did exist.

Yun Hee remembered the time she was set to marry Oh Sehun. She knew that he would be neither her prince riding a white horse nor her knight in shining armor, but she still hoped that she would get her happily ever after with him. She was not in love with him at that time; hell, she was far from that; yet she hoped. But now that she was actually in love with him, why was she feeling so hopeless? Why was her dream of having her own happily ever after seeming so far-fetched?

Yun Hee felt herself coming back to the reality when she heard her phone ringing for already a countless times since that morning. Only then she realized that the whole time, she was playing with the ring on her index finger. She let go of that ring and took out her phone from her bag to pick up the call. When she saw the caller ID, she shook her head and chuckled before picking up the phone. 

"What do you need now?"

"Happy birthday, Hee." She heard an overly excited voice of Jongin.

"I hope you know that this is your ninth time calling me to wish." She tried to sound annoyed but could not help the smile on her face.

"Oh my god! That means I have to do this for 15 more times. Oh no! I am already getting tired. By the way, you are wrong. This is my third time calling you. The rest of them were texts since I didn't want to ruin your beauty sleep," Sarcasm alert "Even if it cost me my own good night sleep." Someone was surely grumpy after ruining his own sleep.

"Well, was I the one who asked you to make a pledge and wish me every single hour at the cost of your sleep? Do you know how annoying getting a call almost every minute can be?"

"But I was not calling you every minute."

"Do you think I am an orphan? Don't I have any family or friends? Do you think you are the only one who remembers my birthday? Then you are highly mistaken."

"I will take your words as a thanks."

"Whatever." Yun Hee rolled her eyes.

"Stop rolling your eyes and tell me when are you free today?" Yun Hee was not even shocked that Jongin knew her well enough to guess her expressions.

"If it's for something useless, then I am forever busy."

"I want to know when you will be able to give me your birthday treat."

Yun Hee tried to imitate the sound of a poor signal and said, "Jongin, I can't hear you." Then she cut the call. 

Yun Hee burst out into a laugh when she got a text message right after that which said, "You sounded like a dying dog. See you in the evening." Jongin really could lift up her mood any time, since she had actually forgotten about the turmoil in her mind for a while.

The moment Yun Hee entered the common room, she heard a cheer not very loud, since they were in a hospital but loud enough to know that it was a big deal.

"Happy Birthday, Yun Hee."

Then Yun Hee felt a sudden blow as Min Ah rushed to her like a wind and hugged her tightly.

"Congratulations on turning 26, birthday girl."

"You didn't have to necessarily mention my age. Now I feel as if I am old", Yun Hee nagged.

"Well then, I got what I wanted."

"You are evil." Min Ah giggled. Then Baekhyun came closer to her and hugged her. "Happy birthday, Yun Hee. Many many happy returns of the day."

"Thanks, Baekhyun."

"It's supposed to be 'Oppa' for you, young lady. How come you have never called me that even though I am 3 years older than you?"

"I don't call my own brother-in-law 'Oppa' even though he is of the same age as you. To me, you are my best friend's long term boyfriend, which makes you our equal." Yun Hee giggled and squatted when Baekhyun was about to reach for her ear.

"You are rude, but an adorable one. So I forgive you. Besides it's your birthday today, so it would not be right if we have to rent a bed for you here today. Anyways, congratulations." Smiling brightly, Baekhyun ruffled Yun Hee's hair. Yun Hee smiled back at him. Her best friend was surely lucky since she got such a handsome and caring boyfriend.

Then one by one, all of her teammates came towards her. Some shook her hand while someone hugged her, but all of them gave her warm birthday wishes. Yun Hee was grateful to all of them.

They were all laughing on some joke when Yun Hee felt a presence beside her and turned around to face that person when she felt the person holding her hand. She sighed when she saw that it was Min Ah but her brows when she saw where Min Ah's eyes were focused on. Yun Hee hastily retracted her hand from Min Ah's hold and said, "What are you doing?" She didn't know that she stammering.

"I was just looking at the new ring on your finger. Why are you getting so defensive?" Then she reached out to hold Yun Hee's hand again, but this time, Yun Hee didn't retract.

"It's so beautiful. Where did you buy it from? Tiffany and Co.? Because I think I saw it on their latest limited edition collection. Were you trying to hide it from me?"

"I didn't buy it. It was a gift. I got it just last night, that's why I didn't get to show you."

"A gift? From who? Yun Hee was about to reply, but she was stopped when Min Ah held up a hand in front of her face.

"Wait, let me guess. Sehun?"

"Hmm." Yun Hee tried to sound nonchalant as much as possible, even though the mention of Sehun's name was reminding her of his promise last night, something that she had left unanswered, something that had created a storm inside her.

"Oh! I see. Someone had a very eventful start of her birthday, huh? Did he say anything with it? You know, something that could excuse his half-assed behaviour and feelings." Min Ah wiggled her eyebrows.

Yun Hee sighed and said, "There is nothing to hide from you, since you know everything." She looked at Min Ah and saw that she listening to her attentively. "He said that he promised to give his all to our marriage and would try his best to fall in love with me."

"And what did you say?"

Yun Hee let out another sigh and said, "Nothing. I couldn't bring myself to say anything, Min."

"Okay, I get it. My question should have been something else. What did you want to say?" To that, Yun Hee gave her a pointed look. Min Ah looked unaffected as she shrugged her shoulders and said, "Don't give me that look. I know that you must have wanted to say something. You always have something to say."

"But at that time, I really couldn't find anything to say."

"Why?"

"Because my logical mind was contradicting my emotional mind and at the end it was a draw."

"You and your highly intellectual talks. So what did your logical mind say?"

"Don't trust him. There is no guarantee that he wouldn't give in to his feelings for his ex for a second time."

"And what did your emotional mind say?"

"Trust him and win him over with all the love that you have for him."

It took a while to get out of the hospital, at least more than Yun Hee had imagined. Min Ah and Baekhyun had left half an hour ago, but she was stuck there because she was called in the last moment by their chief, to discuss something about the child patient whose case she was studying. Now she was dialling for her driver while making her way towards the exit. At one point, she heard the phone being picked up, so she juggled the phone in her hand and placed it against her right ear.

"Mr. Cho. I am getting off from my work, so...."

"Okay, ma'am. I will bring the car right in front of the exit." The voice coming from the other side had no similarities with the one of her driver.

"You know what? I have to say this that I am getting tired of hearing your voice every hour. Thanks for not calling me when I was working, but the voicemails, Jong. Urgh! They were like a pain in the . Today, you are forcing me to say that I officially hate the three words 'Happy birthday, Yun'."

"Woah! Long lectures. There are 6 more times to go, honey. After all, It's only 6:30. Besides, I told you that I will see you in the evening, so here I am. Now, I am going to be your chauffeur, who will drive you to our destination."

"Where?"

"Rossini."

When Yun Hee entered the restaurant, the owner approached them and greeted them politely. Yun Hee crooked her eyes when the owner called for a waiter and had him lead them to the VIP section, much to Yun Hee's surprise. It is much of a hassle to make a reservation there anytime, let alone getting into the VIP section without it. And when it came to the month of December, then you could surely bid your dream of having a reservation here goodbye. But not only Jongin had mnanaged to reserve the VIP section, he had actually managed to bring out the owner from his den just to tend to them. Everything seemed suspicious.

She turned to look at Jongin who was holding her by the shoulders and leading her to where the waiter was taking them and saw that there was a faint smile on his face. At that time, Yun Hee felt stupid for feeling confused even for a minute. She should have been used to this after being with Sehun for almost a year.  After all, who wouldn't come out of his shell to tend to the shining heir of the Kim Co. That brat surely knew the effect of his status.

When they reached there, the waiter bowed to them and then turned to her before saying, "Happy birthday, ma'am. I hope you will have a wonderful evening her."

Yun Hee turned to look at Jongin and saw him slapping his forehead, making her laugh out loud. "You wanted a birthday treat from me, then how come you are the one who has something planned?"

Jongin knew that his cover was blown out so he decided to play it cool. "This is just the beginning, you know. We still have a long way to go."

When she entered the VIP section, she really got the shock of her life when she saw Min Ah and Baekhyun sitting there already.

"Surprise!"

"Min, what are you doing here? You were supposed to be home."

"Madam, let me remind you that since the time we met, there hasn't been a single birthday of yours that we spent without me giving you surprises."

"Okay, but with Jongin?"

"Well, I thought that it would be nice for the 4 of us to have a hangout since we never got to have one ever since your wedding."

Yun Hee looked at the three people in front of her who were all wearing goofy smiles, her friends. It indeed felt nice. She looked at Jongin with gratitude, which he replied with a smug smile, making her scoff at him. She was glad that he always made sure to never bring any awkwardness between them.

Sehun was patiently waiting for his wife to come home, but even after 2 hours of her supposed arrival time, she still wasn't home. He check the phone on his hand again to see if there was any kind of heads up but saw nothing. He smirked when he saw this. I mean, who was he kidding? He didn't even feel a beep when the phone was in his hand for the past hour. He decided to call her again, but still nothing. His call was being sent straight to voicemail.

Then Sehun suddenly thought of her regular chauffeur. He was appointed by Yun Hee's parents so he never bothered to save his number in his phone. At that moment, only he knew how much crappy and frustrated he was feeling at himself for being so careless towards Yun Hee since the start. No wonder she hesitated last night when he promised her to give his all. After all, he had practically done nothing to show his sincerity since the start.

He was about to make his way to Mr. Jun for the informations regarding Yun Hee's driver when he heard the front door opening. He knew that it was Yun Hee since nobody else had the passcode except the people of this household. He still found it weird though because Yun Hee always rang the doorbell instead of opening the door on her own.

Sehun went towards the door and saw Yun Hee in a pretty much disheveled state. Her hair was all over the place and her cheeks were slightly red. She even stumbled on her way to enter the house. When she saw him standing there, she gave him a soft smile. The smile was a small one, but it was not fake.

"Hello, Sehun." She waved at him before squinting her eyes at him. "You are really there, aren't you?"

She stumbled towards him and waved right in front of his face. Sehun could tell that she was drunk, clearly from her behavior but asked her nonetheless.

"Are you drunk?"

"Yup." Yun Hee nodded. "Just a little though. I just had a few glasses of wine in the dinner." She hiccuped as she she tried to show him how drunk she was with her fingers.

"You had dinner?"

Yun Hee nodded with her lips pursued. "Jongin took me to Rossini. We had so much fun there. He actually gave me a whole signed Hunger games series as a gift." She lifted up her left hand to show him a nice looking bag.

Sehun felt slightly bitter when he thought about the dinner he had prepared for her with a plan to celebrate her birthday, but Jongin seemed to have beaten him to it. He didn't say anything as he kept on listening while Yun Hee went on about the dinner. It had been so long since she talked to him this much. He saw Yun Hee fumbling with her shoes so he approached her to help, which she didn't mind as she still kept on going about all the things Jongin had planned for her.

"Everything seemed so perfect until Min Ah suggested a game of truth and dare. And that er boyfriend of hers agreed to her in a breath." His attention was really picked up then. So she was not alone with Jongin. For some reasons, he felt relieved they had company but also sad when he realized the amount of happiness Jongin was able to give her. When he was done removing her shoes, he took her to a sofa and made her sit down on it as he asked Mr. Jun to bring a glass of water for her. She kept on talking about what happened in the game while Sehun looked at her with fond eyes Even though it had been only a few minutes, Sehun could already tell that she was the talkative type of drunk. 

"From what I heard, the game was fun so far. Then what happened in the game that made you feel so down?"

Yun Hee looked at him with her eyes pierce but shining and said, "She mentioned you."

That was hard, coming from Yun Hee. Sehun felt guiltier when he saw Yun Hee's eyes that were shining. But he decided that it was not the time to be wallowing in pity, after all he had a drunk wife to take care of. So he coughed out lightly as he composed himself. He saw Mr. Jun coming towards them with a glass of water so he went towards him and took the glass from him before making Yun Hee drink the water. 

Sehun looked at Yun Hee intently. She looked so cute with her eyes wide as she kept on sipping on the water. This was the first time Sehun was seeing her in a vulnerable state and he made up his mind to make sure that she was taken care of properly. He still had some impending debts from their early days of marriage when Yun Hee used to take care of his drunk  without complaining.

He passed the empty glass to Mr. Jun before excusing him for the night and turned to Yun Hee who was humming a song he couldn't figure out. He chuckled when he realized that she really couldn't stay quiet in her drunk state. Sehun was thankful somehow, because even though drunk, he still got to see the glance of her old self after so long. Honestly speaking, he didn't know one could miss something this much until now. He just hoped things wouldn't get awkward when she would get down from her high.

"Let's get you to the bed, shall we?"

Yun Hee stopped humming and suddenly gave him a mischievous look. 

"Only on one condition."

Sehun was already a panting mess when he gently laid down Yun Hee on the bed from his back. Yun Hee pouted in disappointment and grumbled.

"Is the already over?" Her look changed into one of a determination. "We need a larger staircase, Oh Sehun."

Then she looked at him again with her mischievous expression. "Can we go downstairs and do it all over again?"

Yun Hee pouted and gave him puppy eyes to convince him. If it had been any other day, then Sehun would never believe his eyes because yeah, his wife was never the one to make puppy eyes.

"No, Yun Hee. I am not going to pretend to be a macho man and say that you were not heavy at all, because miss, you were. And secondly, you kept swinging your legs aimlessly the whole time, endangering both of us constantly. So nope, I am not doing that again. Now go to the closet and change your clothes into something comfortable. I will wait for you here."

"Then don't peek, you ert. I don't trust your hormones. They could go haywire anytime. Hmph." Then Yun Hee made her way towards the closet while speaking gibberish. She tripped on her way a few times and everytime she did, she cursed Sehun lightly, making him laugh out loudly each time. A drunk Yun Hee was surely amusing.

She didn't even lock the door behind her as she took off her clothes so Sehun made sure to give her all the privacy she deserved by turning around. They were definitely not in a state to be comfortable in changing in front of each other. 

When Yun Hee was done, she stumbled towards the bed and jumped on it, before rolling around it with the blanket clutched tightly in her hands. Seeing her comfortable on the bed Sehun was about to go downstairs when she stopped playing around abruptly and sat up before calling out for him.

"Sehun, are you leaving me?"

The question punched Sehun in his guts. She could have asked 'where are you going?' or 'are you going downstairs' or anything, but instead she chose to ask that question. Sehun looked at her and saw that her eyes had turned sad.

"You are leaving me, aren't you?", she asked in a meek voice.

Sehun sighed before going towards the bed and sitting in front of her. The moment he settled down, Yun Hee turned her eyes away from him. 

"Why do you think like that?"

"I know that you will leave me once she comes back." Her eyes were still not facing him. He felt like kicking himself when he couldn't even assure her that anything like that would not happen, because he himself wasn't sure. But one thing was certain that he would not let Yun Hee suffer like that because of him.

"Don't worry, Yun Hee. Neither is she coming back, nor I will leave you." He patted her hair. "Go to sleep, hmm?" He would make sure nothing goes wrong.

"Then lie down on the bed with me. I miss hugging you to sleep." Yun Hee pouted.

Sehun felt dumbfounded at the request because he also missed that so freaking much. Once out of his trance, he shook his head slightly and chuckled before saying, "Is that what you want? Okay then. I will be back in a minute then you can..."

"Now. I don't want you to be gone even for a minute, do you get me?"

Sehun felt a warm feeeling inside him as he saw Yun Hee scooting to make place for him, which was clearly not needed because of the huge size of their bed and patted on the empty spot beside her. He got on the bed and lied down, which made Yun Hee lie down the very next moment with her head nestled in the crook of his shoulder. He felt ticklish when he heard Yun Hee murmuring a sleepy 'I love you' before feeling the hold around his torso loosening a bit, indicating that she had fallen aleep.

It didn't take much long before Sehun also followed her in the dreamland. Needless to say, even after having an empty stomach and wearing formal clothes, it was the best sleep Sehun had in a long while, feeling all snuggly and warm in a harsh cold night of December. After all, his human sized teddy bear had finally returned after a long disappearance, to where she truly belonged - in the arms of Oh Sehun.