The next time the ladies of Red Velvet had the opportunity to meet Jaeho since the dating news broke was a few weeks after the parents of the couple met, for the celebration of Jaeho’s birthday. Jaeho didn’t really celebrate his birthday often: the most he would do is invite friends to a restaurant, and when he had a girlfriend he would invite her along as well, but otherwise he didn’t particularly care for birthday parties. This was most likely a byproduct of growing up with a busy father who didn’t really have time to prepare for birthday parties, a lack of a mother to cook birthday meals, and Jaeho’s mature understanding of his family’s situation after his mother passed away to know that they weren’t in a position to do parties; likewise, Jaeho’s father didn’t really do much for his own birthday, Jaeho often having to force his father to join him in celebration at a restaurant.

               When Jaeho’s birthday rolled around this year, however, Irene insisted that they throw him a private birthday party at their apartment, ‘they’ being the five members of Red Velvet and himself. It was also the first time in some time that the six of them were in the same place, not including when the other four would join in on Jaeho and Irene’s video chats, and as expected, it was as rambunctious as ever.

               “You never told us what your dad said after the dinner.”

               “Oh that’s right! Tell us, Jaeho!”

               After their explosive greeting and birthday wishes, they had settled into the living room where Irene shared her parents’ thoughts of Jaeho after the dinner. Of course, as soon as Irene had finished her story, the other four jumped at Jaeho to continue his side of the narrative.

               “What did my dad think? I think it was pretty funny—while we were driving back to his residence, he was just kept on saying stuff like, ‘how can she be so pretty?’” The five ladies burst out into laughter, although for Irene it was more from embarrassment whereas the other four laughed from amusement, “‘Hey, Jaeho, how did you even make her your girlfriend? Did she ask you or did you ask her? Wow, I didn’t even think someone as beautiful as that could exist … don’t tell your mom this, but she might even be more beautiful than your mother. Your children are going to be really cute, huh…’ stuff like that, over and over.”

               “That’s so funny!”

               “Oh my gosh, I love your dad already~”

               “Yah, Jaeho, don’t exaggerate!”

               “I’m not, I swear! It’s the truth, you can ask him yourself,” Jaeho insisted, smiling along. Jaeho’s father was never against any of his past relationships as he had stated at the dinner, but seeing the difference between his father’s behavior now compared to when he met his ex’s, he could tell there was a world of difference. Having worked for much of his life, Jaeho’s father rarely expended much energy to show such emotion at home. It was something Jaeho had grown used to, although it was still sad to see his father so stoic at times. Because of that, seeing him as energetic as that night was like a breath of fresh air; it had been so long since his father had shown such emotion that Jaeho had nearly forgotten what it was like, and as if his conviction to build his relationship with Irene wasn’t strong enough, that experience only strengthened it. One of his goals in life was to allow his father to live in comfort, and while he was making enough to support the two, the issue of his significant other was always on the back of both men’s minds.

               “Speaking of, when are you going to give me a niece or nephew?” Yeri piped up, “I can’t wait to play with your children~”

               “Kim Yerim, we aren’t even married,” Irene scolded the youngest, who was apparently unphased at the imposing demeanor of her leader.

               “Then you should get married already! I agree with Jaeho’s dad, I think your children will be really cute,” she commented, ignoring the daggers coming from Irene’s glare, “Aah, I can’t wait!” frankly, Jaeho was amazed at Yeri’s ability to just completely disregard the look Irene was giving her, “I can’t wait, I want to play with them right now!”

               “Jaeho, say something,” Irene prodded her boyfriend, who was just smiling at the radiant excitement that the 24-year-old was exuding.

               “Jaeho, promise me that you’ll let me play with your children, pleasee~?” Yeri asked, giving the amused man the best set of puppy-dog eyes she could muster.

               “Sure, of course,” he said, laughing, giving in to the youngest’s display of cuteness.

               “Song Jaeho, don’t be giving Yeri any more ideas!” Irene whined, “I have to live with her, you know! Now she’s going to be pestering me every day about this!”

               “I’ll only let you play with our children if you behave yourself around Joohyun, OK?” Jaeho amended his statement.

               She nodded obediently. “Ok!”

               “I want to play with them too!” Seulgi volunteered, followed by Joy, then Wendy.

               “You know, I’m actually a bit scared because I don’t want my child to be traumatized by four crazy aunties.”

               “What do you mean ‘crazy’?” Joy complained, “I think you mean ‘fun’, not ‘crazy’.”

               “Oh, Sooyoung,” Irene said, switching the topic, “Jaeho made me cry a few times recently, you should yell at him.”

               “What?” Joy’s unbelieving chuckle caused Jaeho, who had immediately taken a defensive stance upon hearing the words coming out of his girlfriend’s mouth, to relax.

               “What are you looking so innocent for?” Irene said accusingly, looking to her right, tugging at her boyfriend’s arm. “Did you or did you not?”

               “What?”

               “Did you or did you not?” Irene repeated, pressing the issue.

               “I guess I did, but—”

               “See? Sooyoung, go yell at him.” At this, Joy just laughed.

               “Oh, I think I know what’s happening,” Joy said, clasping her hands together, “It’s because of the post he made the other day, right? When the whole #WeSupportYouBaeJoohyun thing was happening, Jaeho also made a post and Joohyun saw it and cried. Is that what happened?”

               Irene, doing her best guilty-but-pretending-to-be-innocent expression, just looked at the younger woman. “It is, isn’t it?” Seulgi chimed in, laughing in response. “Joohyun, you’re so cute, I can’t believe you would cry for something like that~”

               “It must be her old age getting to her.”

               “Yah, Kim Yerim,” Irene released her grip of Jaeho’s arm, reaching over to lightly push the youngest. The other four exploded into laughter, Jaeho only smiling in response, hoping not to get noticed. Of course, as the omnipresent leader of Red Velvet, she noticed the grin on her boyfriend almost immediately and turned to him, hitting him on the shoulder. “Why are you laughing?” she whined, to which Jaeho laughed out loud.

               “Sorry,” he responded, shifting in his seat to avoid the fury of the smallest woman present.

               “Let’s eat already! I want to open presents,” Yeri interjected.

               “They aren’t yours though.”

               “I still want to see them though! It also looks like Jaeho got something—” Yeri suddenly stopped upon seeing the look Jaeho was giving her, clearly communicating ‘stop talking!’

               Irene caught on quickly and turned to Jaeho, who now was donning the same guilty-but-pretending-to-be-innocent expression Irene herself was wearing not too long ago. “You got me something? How could you?” Irene demanded, hitting Jaeho’s shoulder, “It’s your birthday!”

               “Ow,” Jaeho whined, rubbing the spot on his shoulder Irene hit, “Exactly, it’s my birthday, why am I getting hit so much?”

               Irene laughed apologetically, glomping the well-built man. “I’m sorry,” she said earnestly, her head on his shoulder.

               Jaeho wasn’t actually mad, or even the slightest bit annoyed, at his girlfriend’s playful actions, but that simple action just melted his heart into a puddle. “It’s ok, as long as you don’t start calling me a masochist now.”

               Irene laughed again and moved to hit him again but preemptively stopped herself. “You’re a strong man, you can take it, right?” she said, looking up at him, their faces just centimeters apart.

               Jaeho gulped slightly, in that brief second utterly dazzled by the strikingly beautiful closeup of the idol before nodding. “Let’s, uh, eat,” he commented, finding himself a little flustered. How strange was it, Jaeho thought, that he’s been dating this beauty for months and months now and still hasn’t acclimated to her goddess-like beauty? Was this just going to happen for the rest of his life? Was his heart going to race every time Irene suddenly hugs him from behind, or leans on his shoulder and looks up at him while talking as she just did, or gently wipes his face with a napkin or handkerchief to remove something from his face? He hoped the feeling never faded.

               “What’s wrong?” Irene asked, suddenly a concerned expression overtaking her face. Jaeho noted how beautiful his girlfriend looked even like this.

               “What do you mean?”

               Irene paused for a bit, noticing that the slight hesitation in Jaeho’s voice and face was now gone. “Never mind. You’re right, we should eat,” she said, regrettably getting up from her warm, comfortable place next to Jaeho. “Come on girls, let’s go,” she called out to her members, heading into the kitchen.

               After the meal, the six of them partook in the opening of gifts: every single one of them had apparently went out and bought gifts for Jaeho despite his minimal interactions with them. He honestly felt bad that they all bought stuff for him, only feeling slightly better when they revealed that they all thought the activity fun and relaxing and a good break from their normal schedules.

               “We want to go first!” Yeri said, nudging Joy.

               The tallest member nodded fervently, an action that immediately put Irene on the defensive. Seeing the reaction from Irene caused Jaeho to likewise feel apprehensive, which turned out to be a reasonable reaction when they pulled out their joint gift: a set of gender-neutral baby’s clothes, a one-piece outfit complete with matching baby shoes.

               “You two—” Irene scolded the youngest, the other four bursting out into laughter. “Where do you get off, buying Jaeho stuff like this? It’s his birthday, not—” Irene abruptly stopped, a wave of self-consciousness washing over her. What was she about to say? It was his birthday, not their child’s? Oh god … now that the thought was in Irene’s mind, she couldn’t get it out. Watching Jaeho snuggle with their daughter or son on a rocking chair, seeing Jaeho’s proud expression as their child takes the first steps … what was going on with her? It was so embarrassing to think about but simultaneously so exciting; a strange combination of her face turning red from embarrassment and her heart stirring from joy assaulted her at once, rendering her unable to respond to her members’ teasing.

               “Not what? Not your child’s birthday? Are you planning that far ahead?”

               “Should we just hold onto it for now?”

               “When is your child’s first birthday going to be, anyway?”

               “I hope it’s in the summer, we don’t have any birthdays in that season.”

               “Or the winter, I think that would be nice too.”

               “A pregnancy lasts nine months, which means having a winter baby, or having a baby sometime around November, would mean…”

               The four of them burst into another fit of laughter, Wendy stopping shortly after seeing that Irene was still sitting down next to Jaeho, red-faced and oddly silent.

               “What’s wrong?” she suddenly asked the eldest, placing a hand on Irene’s arm.

               Irene jumped, quickly latching onto Jaeho’s arm and squealing a bit in fright. “Oh, sorry,” she replied, laughing a bit, “It’s nothing.”

               “What, were you day-dreaming?”

               “Probably about spending the rest of her life with Jaeho.”

               The two youngest squealed. “That’s so romantic!”

               “That’s enough you two,” Irene said, turning a set of pleading eyes to Seulgi.

               Thankfully, she caught on quickly and announced, “My turn!” before pulling out another box from the pile that had accumulated in the middle of the living room. “I heard that Jaeho plays games on his computer sometimes from Joohyun,” she said, pulling two boxes with illustrations of a gaming mouse and keyboard plastered on the surface, “But from what I could see from our video chats, it seemed like you didn’t have a gaming mouse or keyboard, so I got one for you,” she explained, laying the two boxes in front of him. “I don’t know if these will be to your liking, and if not, I can get you another one, but I was hoping that I could play games with Jaeho sometime!”

               Jaeho’s eyes lit up. “Oh, this is so nice! I’ve always been meaning to get something like this but always forget, thanks a lot! For sure, which games do you play?” Irene’s thankful expression quickly morphed into a jealous one, something that went by unnoticed by Jaeho until he asked the question.

               Seulgi, also noticing this change of facial expression from her leader, replied, “I’ll tell you later, who’s next?”

               “Even I haven’t played any games with Jaeho yet,” Irene quietly whined with pouty lips.

               “Ah, sorry Joohyun, I’ll get you some equipment too,” Seulgi laughed, planting a hand on Irene’s shoulders. “We can all play together.”

               “I’ll go next,” Wendy offered, walking into the kitchen. When Jaeho saw Wendy painstakingly attempt to drag a set of chairs that Jaeho somehow didn’t take notice of despite clearly remembering looking at them for a brief second, Jaeho rushed over to help her carry the chairs over to the living room. “Sorry, thank you!”

               “Did you make these yourself?” Jaeho commented, stepping back to admire the handiwork on the backrests of the wooden chairs. They were both painted with a beautiful sheen of silver, each having their names beautifully painted onto the top of the backrests in purple paint: ‘Joohyun’ and ‘Jaeho’. The chair with Irene’s name were decorated with cute caricatures of bunnies while Jaeho’s was that of a fox.

               “Yeah, it was really fun! I can tell you the place, you can go there for a date if you’re up for it!” Wendy replied, “I didn’t know if Jaeho had a favorite animal or one that he thought represented him, so I just chose a fox because foxes chase after bunnies.”

               Irene laughed at that, as did Yeri. “Wow, that’s clever of you, Wendy.”

               “That’s cute,” Irene said in agreement with the youngest.

               “I love them, you did a fantastic job on them. Thank you, Wendy,” Jaeho said, taking another second to admire the handiwork of the Canadian-Korean.

               “I’ll make one for your child when he or she’s born,” Wendy added on.

               “Yah, you—” Irene started, clipping the end of the sentence with laughter. “Never mind, I don’t know why I even try.”

               Wendy laughed as well. “Sorry, but I also really am looking forward to meeting your children; they must be extremely cute, considering it’s you and Jaeho who are making them.”

               “Ah yeah, thank you,” Irene replied, the other four laughing at the flat tone their leader responded with.

               “Ok, my turn,” Yeri offered, pulling out a smaller, giftwrapped box. “I remember Joohyun talking about wanting to get Jaeho into makeup so I got him some introductory stuff to get him started,” she said, Jaeho taking the box from Yeri.

               “Oh, am I not handsome enough for you?”

               Irene laughed. “You know that’s not what I meant!” she whined, enveloping her boyfriend in a hug. “It’s just something every girlfriend wants to do with her boyfriend; have you never done anything like this before?”

               Irene was looking up at her boyfriend with wide eyes, her facial expression much too adorable for the amount of weight behind the question she posed to her boyfriend. “I think once before?” he admitted, ever the truthful one, “my second girlfriend was really into makeup and pressured me into being her test dummy.”

               “Oh…” Irene trailed off, having such plans herself. She wasn’t planning on forcing Jaeho into doing anything, but she certainly was hoping that Jaeho could entertain her hopes of letting her experiment on him. In addition to that, there was that part of her that just wanted to see Jaeho in full makeup; she had already seen his photoshoot pictures, of course, and sometimes fantasized about spending a day with Jaeho in full makeup, cooking dinner, or just relaxing on the couch with her. Being around Jaeho already had an effect Irene, being as attractive as he was, but seeing him with makeup made even her feel like she was with a celebrity. On second thought, maybe spending an entire day with Jaeho in full makeup would be bad for her, especially her heart. “I guess—”

               “Well, when I say ‘pressured’, it was more because she had to talk me into it, so I guess the better word to use was ‘convinced’ or even ‘brought up the idea’,” Jaeho continued, much to the relief of Irene. “But if you’re planning on doing that, I just have one request,” Jaeho said, turning to Irene. She nodded, prompting Jaeho to state it, “You can do whatever you want, just don’t take any pictures or take any videos.”

               Irene pointedly frowned. “Aww, where’s the fun in that then?”

               “Maybe if you do some aegyo he’ll let you,” Wendy suggested.

               “Nope, I’m not falling for that one again,” Jaeho turned around as he felt his girlfriend grab his arm.

               “Jaeho—”

               “I think it’s my turn right now, actually,” Jaeho said, interrupting Irene and standing up to retrieve a small leather box from the counter on the kitchen.

               Irene looked up at Jaeho, confused. “I still don’t get why you got me something when it’s your birthday,” she said, Jaeho offering the box to Irene.

               Jaeho shrugged in response. “I actually happened upon this; I saw this on display while walking home from the grocery store and knew I needed to get you this, especially since they match your necklace,” he answered, urging Irene to open it.

               Irene opened the box to find a beautiful pair of translucent, light-blue earrings. “When I saw them, I thought it might be aquamarine and confirmed it when I walked in and asked about it, so yeah,” Jaeho explained, Irene gasping, covering with her free hand. She looked up at him, wondering how such a perfect man could also be so generous and giving; he was already attractive, caring, understanding, and warm-hearted enough, but these little surprises just confirmed for her that Jaeho was just a perfect boyfriend. Was there a single woman in the world who wouldn’t fall for these small gestures? “I mean, I had no choice, you have to understand, right?” Jaeho continued, taking Irene’s stare as a questioning one. She just shook her head, ignoring the whispering that her members were doing in the background. “If it were you, you would do the same thing, right?” This, Irene conceded; she knew the feeling of seeing something and just knowing that she had to buy it for the person in mind.

               “Oh, he’s already taking after you,” Seulgi commented.

               “Couples tend to become more like each other over time, right?” Joy added, “It won’t be long before Joohyun starts wearing dark-colored clothing all the time. Oh, and speaking of which,” she said, standing up and picking out the last item from the pile of gifts, “this is my gift to Jaeho.” Joy saved her explanation for after Jaeho opened the box, revealing a stylish, black-leather overcoat. “Oh, thank god, I didn’t know what Jaeho’s size was,” Joy commented after seeing Jaeho pick it up.

               “It’s a bit big,” Jaeho noted after trying it on; he could put it on and walk around without any trouble, but empty space, especially around the mid-chest area, was noticeable.

               “The point of this coat is so that if Joohyun ever gets cold, she can join you inside that coat and warm up.”

               “Sooy—” Irene started, exasperated expression on her face, semi-laughing.

               “What?” Joy replied innocently.

               Irene pondered for a split second before responding. “Isn’t it a bit early for this?” Irene noted, “It’s starting to get hotter, not colder.”

               “Well, you’ll be able to use it eventually, right?”

               The question from Joy was loaded, and thankfully didn’t hang in the air for long as the other three Red Velvet ladies peer pressured Irene into trying to fit inside the coat with Jaeho, which she managed to do with surprising ease. Jaeho couldn’t help but smiling, noting how adorable his girlfriend’s tiny frame was against his own.

               “Ok,” Irene interrupted her members’ fangirling, escaping from the confined space and hoping no one noticed her flushed face, “Time for my gift.” Irene fetched her purse and pulled out a sleek, black wallet. “This is a biometric wallet,” she explained as Jaeho examined the small box sitting in the palm of his hand, “you can connect it to your phone and it’ll let you know if you leave somewhere without your wallet, or vice versa. The key feature is the requiring of a fingerprint to unlock, which you have to set up by—” Irene joined Jaeho at his side and Jaeho, understanding what Irene was trying to do, opened the box, after which Irene pointed to a button on the side, “pressing this button and putting your finger on the little rectangle thing on the front.”

               “Oh, wow, this is amazing,” Jaeho commented, quickly setting up the security and testing it. “This is so handy, thanks so much—wait, how much did this cost?”

               “Anyway,” Irene said, dodging the question, “I wanted to—”

               “Wait, Joohyun?”

               Irene waved him off. “It doesn’t matter, really, I’m glad that you like it.”

               “But—”

               “No more asking, ok?” The gentle yet firm response summarily quieted Jaeho down. “I hate to bring the mood down since this is supposed to be a celebration, but I wanted to take this opportunity, with all six of us in the same room, to talk about any ideas for how to address the big problem.”

               Although it wasn’t explicitly said, it was understood that ‘the big problem’ referred to Jaeho’s sudden amnesia. The room fell into a bit of a silence, so Jaeho spoke up, feeling the burden of responsibility for the sudden downturn despite understanding that it wasn’t his explicit actions that created the situation, “So what do we know so far? I was able to remember Irene after watching a music video of her, but not when I saw a picture of us two together. Maybe I need a video to regain my memories?”

               “Well, a video is basically just a collage of pictures, right?” Wendy interjected, “Maybe it isn’t the video, but the multiple pictures shown as a video that caused it.”

               “What is your memory of what you did during the weeks that we spent together?” Irene asked.

               Jaeho thought about it for a bit. “Nothing particular comes to mind. I just did the usual: go out to bars or clubs, play games at home, probably watch some YouTube or streams.”

               “So, none of those memories involve anyone else?”

               Jaeho understood what Irene was trying to do after hearing that question: maybe if his memories involved someone else, talking to that someone else and realizing his memories were wrong might cause his memories to start coming back. However, that wasn’t the case for him. “No, I don’t think so. Now that I think about it, it’s a bit strange that I spent that much time at home, but if I remember correctly, I also had a surge of motivation in those weeks to play and improve.”

               “Are you lower rank than you remember then?” Seulgi, catching on, added.

               Jaeho shook his head. “I didn’t play any competitive.”

               “What’s that?” Irene asked.

               “In certain games, there are two modes of play: normal and competitive. Gameplay wise, they’re exactly the same, the only difference being the consequences of the results of the game. Performing well, or winning, will give you points, and performing poorly, or losing, will take away points; these points culminate into a ‘rank’, which is an indicator of how good you are relative to everyone else playing the game.”

               “Wait, why was that question relevant though?” Joy inquired, confused.

               “We’re trying to figure out if there’s a way to contradict Jaeho’s memories with concrete proof that his memories are false,” Irene replied.

               “Aah…”

               “How about your match history?” Seulgi continued.

               “I probably can’t view it anymore,” Jaeho said, Seulgi nodding understandingly.

               “I figured…”

               “Maybe it was just a matter of time?” Wendy suggested, “How long have you been a Red Velvet fan?”

               “Since your debut,” he answered.

               An eruption of impressed noises arose from the five. “Good answer,” Yeri said, complimenting her leader’s boyfriend.

               Before Irene or Jaeho really had a chance to devise a response to that, Wendy pressed on, “So maybe that’s it. Jaeho just spent more time, or had more memories, of Red Velvet and of Red Velvet’s Irene than of Bae Joohyun.”

               They spent a few more minutes brainstorming before Irene directed the group away from the somewhat somber topic to ones more befitting a celebration. One of the topics they stumbled onto were date ideas, one of which that caught on with the couple was riding bikes at Yeouido Park.

               Irene picked Jaeho up from his apartment and visited a bike rental shop, and a few greetings and photos later, the two mounted their bikes and enjoyed a leisurely bike ride along the scenic trail. After having a brief picnic, on their way back to return the bikes, Irene noticed something. “Hey, don’t those look like rain clouds?”

               Jaeho followed the direction of Irene’s finger and, sure enough, a collection of looming, dark-grey clouds were sweeping in from the nearby river. “I thought it wasn’t supposed to rain today.”

               “Yeah, that’s what I saw on the weather forecast too,” Irene replied.

               The rainclouds caught up to the couple as they neared the bike rental shop; Irene, wanting to impress Jaeho but also dress for the occasion, had chosen to wear a simple, somewhat tight polyester tank top with matching shorts and was not prepared at all for the sudden downpour, so the two took some time to dry off in the shop. Unfortunately, Irene had parked quite far away from the shop itself; fortunately, Jaeho brought a light jacket and could shield her from the rain as the two ran to her car.

               While nothing happened to Irene, Jaeho ended up catching a cold; Irene, feeling responsible, decided to take some time off and visited Jaeho in his apartment (his address was something Irene always knew but never used, both upon Jaeho’s insistence and because she was scared of being caught before the dating news was released).

               “Joohyun?” Jaeho said inquisitively when he answered the door, “Why are you here? Don’t you have work?”

               “I have some free time,” the idol responded, entering the apartment and taking off her shoes.

               “Ah, I didn’t even have any time to prepare…” Jaeho muttered to himself, “Sorry, it’s a bit messy,” he said, scrambling to find some slippers for Irene.

               “So this is what your apartment looks like…” Irene said in wonder, twirling around to get a good look at the place. “It’s so neat, what do you mean it’s dirty? It’s much neater than our—what are you doing?” Irene asked as she turned to see Jaeho scamper about in the kitchen, rearranging the dishes and putting things away, “Enough moving around, you’re sick.”

               “I’m not that sick,” Jaeho replied, following up by immediately coughing.

               “Uh-huh,” Irene eyed him, unconvinced, “get in bed right now,” she said, putting a hand on his back and pushing him towards what looked like the bedroom.

               “Alright fine, but are you sure you should be here?” Jaeho asked, following along with Irene’s insistence, “I don’t want to get you sick.”

               “Well I’m not going to just leave you alone,” Irene stated, “What kind of a girlfriend would I be if I just let my boyfriend deal with his illness by himself, especially if it was partially my fault?”

               “Ah, you don’t—”

               “In bed you go,” Irene cut him off, Jaeho letting the woman push him onto his soft mattress. “Did you eat yet? I brought some soup,” she said, motioning to the bag that was in her hand.

               “I was just about to make myself something actually,” he said, a smile inadvertently appearing on his face as Irene pulled the blanket over him. “You really are like my mom, tucking me into bed.”

               Irene smacked the grinning man lightly on the shoulder, smiling nonetheless. “Well, you better listen to your mom then,” she said, taking out the container and gingerly placing it on the nightstand next to the bed. “How are you feeling?”

               “It’s not terrible, I’m just tired all the time and low-energy, and I also have a cough and a bit of a runny nose, but that’s it,” he explained, “I took some cold medication this morning and have mostly been relaxing in my bed, watching Level Up Project.”

               Irene laughed, again gently smacking Jaeho. “You really are a smooth talker, aren’t you?”

               “I really was! See, look!” Jaeho took out his phone and unlocked it, showing Irene that indeed, the first thing that appeared on the screen was a video of Red Velvet’s own show.

               “Wow, I’m impressed,” Irene said, diverting her attention to the soup, “Put that away for now, you need to eat. What did you have for lunch?”

               “I just prepared some ramen for myself since I didn’t have the energy to cook,” he replied, watching Irene carefully blow on the soup sitting on the spoon, her free hand hovering beneath the utensil. That sight, of Irene blowing on the hot contents of a spoon, was something that probably could move the hearts of men all across the nation, maybe even the continent, and here Jaeho got to experience it in person. The idol looked stunning even doing that simple action: her long eyelashes pointing downwards at the spoon in her hand, a few strands of hair falling past her prominent cheekbones, her full red lips pressed together to create the cooling wind meant to make the contents of the spoon more comfortable to eat.

               “Here,” Irene directed the spoon to Jaeho’s mouth.

               “You really are feeding me?”

               “Shush and listen to mommy,” she said, a slight grin on her face. “Aah~”

               Jaeho obliged, opening his mouth and accepting the food. “Oh, this is good,” Jaeho noted after he swallowed, “Did you make this yourself?”

               Irene nodded happily. “I’m glad you like it! Let’s eat some more,” Irene said, scooping up another spoonful of the soup.

               Another smile found its way onto his face as Jaeho watched his girlfriend blow on the spoon, and when Irene turned to feed it to him, her facial expression morphed into an inquisitive one. “What?”

               Jaeho shook his head. “Nothing, I’m just really thankful I have such a loving, caring girlfriend.”

               “I could say the same about you. How many people would have dealt with me, the way I was that morning?” The wording was extremely vague but Jaeho instantly knew what Irene was alluding to; his very first memory of Irene, his first meeting of the beautiful woman in his memory. “You saved me once from loneliness the first time we met, and again that morning from despair by agreeing to humor my unreasonably difficult task.”

               “There isn’t a single fan of yours who wouldn’t help you in that situation though,” he argued, “Even your female fans wouldn’t hesitate. Probably.”

               Irene laughed, momentarily pausing in her feeding of the man in the bed. “Is that so?”

               “After all, most of Red Velvet fans are female, right?”

               “Ooh, I’m impressed that you knew that,” Irene noted with pride, carefully blowing on the spoon before directing it to Jaeho’s mouth. “As expected of my boyfriend. Enough talking though, eat first.”

               The rest of the meal was comfortable, Jaeho insisting Irene not stay too close to him. However, as the day gradually turned to night, Jaeho’s sickness seemed to worsen; his fever got worse, his coughing increased in intensity and severity, beads of sweat started forming on his forehead. Panicked, Irene called her mom for advice and requested her manager run to the store to pick up some teabags and honey.

               Jaeho told Irene repeatedly to not blame herself, that his colds usually went like this, but Irene couldn’t help but feel guilty anyway. Irene knew Jaeho better than to be dishonest, but she also knew that Jaeho didn’t have a problem telling incomplete truths to make others feel better; was this one of them? Not knowing the answer to that question, she decided to trust her gut rather than her boyfriend.

               Irene didn’t have a schedule the next morning, but even so, she knew the risk of staying the night. However, she couldn’t bring herself to just leave his side after seeing how difficult it was for Jaeho to sleep: his face flushed bright red, his coughs echoing about the apartment, the trash can next to his bed filled with tissues, the constant shifting around underneath his blanket … it was completely, heart-stoppingly terrifying. Irene made sure that the cup on the nightstand next to his bed was always filled with warm tea with a bit of honey mixed in, making sure to change the warm, damp towel on his forehead soaking the sweat that was pouring out of his body, but eventually her fatigue caught up with her.

               One reason she didn’t want to sleep was because she wanted to be constantly attentive of Jaeho, making sure his needs were met. The other, more prevalent reason was the fear of repeating what happened that night; was it because she slept on the same bed as him? Surely there was a limited range to his condition since he used to live with his father under the same roof; however, Jaeho always described his childhood as a comfortable one, leading Irene to imagine that his childhood residence being much larger than Jaeho’s current humble abode. If she slept on the sofa in the living room, would she be far enough away? What if Jaeho woke up the next morning, sick and amnesic? How was Irene supposed to take care of Jaeho then?

               As much as her fear kept her up, her fatigue eventually overpowered her; the combined factor of the stress she accumulated from seeing Jaeho’s condition worsen on top of her lack of sleep in recent days caused her to pass out on Jaeho’s sofa, only to wake up what seemed like moments after in a panic.

               The sun was already shining through the blinds of the sliding door leading to the balcony, and after Irene acquired her surroundings, she leapt into the air. “Oh no, when did I fall asleep?” she muttered to herself, running to the kitchen to grab the teapot, preparing another damp towel. Fear gripped her heart like a vice, and the closer she got to Jaeho’s bedroom, the more fiercely it took hold. It was like the feeling was traveling along her nervous system, seizing control of her arms, then her legs, then her brain. What if Jaeho didn’t remember her? Would she have to start over again? Would Jaeho allow her to nurse him further?

               She nearly jumped when she heard shuffling coming from the other side of the bedroom door. Not knowing what else to do, terror and anxiety and nervousness and a whole slew of other emotions pulled her away from the hallway and back into the living room. Her heart was racing so loudly she could nearly hear it inside her own chest, her palms sweating so much that she nearly lost her grip of the teapot clutched in her small hands, her arms and legs shaking like she was standing outside with no clothes on during a blizzard.

               She set the teapot on the table in the living room, closed her eyes, and started taking deep breaths. Jaeho’s health is more important than your insecurities, Irene told herself. Right now is the not the time to freak out about such things; if Jaeho lost his memory, then convince him that he should allow her to stay. They already had the hard part of revealing their relationship to the public out of the way; in fact, this time around, it should be easier to reacquaint with Jaeho since they had more—

               “Joohyun?”

               Irene dropped the towel she was holding onto her lap, the water seeping through her jeans not even registering as her head whipped to her side.

               Jaeho, standing just outside the living room, was looking onto Irene in confusion. “What’s wrong? Oh, you dropped the towel,” Jaeho said, walking up to the idol who was completely petrified. “I won’t be needing this anymore, I—”

               Irene jumped into Jaeho’s arms, wrapping her arms around him in a tight embrace, completely forgetting how sick he was the day prior. “You remember me…” tears were already freely flowing down her cheeks, a little bit of mucus escaping her slim nose. While she had a mind to not let Jaeho see this ugly side of her, the wave of relief that washed over her caused an inner desire to just embrace the man—her boyfriend, her boyfriend, and not a stranger again. “I was so scared, I-I thought … I didn’t know if I was far enough away from you, s-so I tried not to fall asleep, but—”

               Jaeho reached down and grabbed the box of tissues on the table in between the sofa and the TV, handing it over to the crying woman on his shoulder. Irene accepted it graciously, wiping her tears and gently blowing her nose. “I was so scared that you would forget me and tried not to fall asleep, but I was so exhausted that I passed out and when I woke up, I was—I was just so scared that I couldn’t bring myself to, to—…” Irene paused, Jaeho the shaking woman’s hair comfortingly.

               “It’s OK, I still remember you. You’re Bae Joohyun, my wonderful girlfriend, whose efforts to nurse me despite her busy schedule paying off wonderfully as I’m pretty much perfectly fine now.” Irene wiped her eyes again, careful to avoid smudging her undoubtedly already ruined makeup, and looked at him. Sure enough, Jaeho looked much better; his complexion had returned to its usual color, his eyes no longer red, not a single bead of sweat on his forehead. “Just in case, though, you probably should stop hugging me.”

               Irene nodded, removing herself from Jaeho’s warm body, impeding Jaeho’s view of her face with her hands. Of course, the thought occurred to Irene that what happened to Jaeho before would only happen the one time, but her fear of it happening again prevented her from writing off that threat so easily. “Let me touch up my makeup first,” she said through sniffles, “Then we can have breakfast. Let me make it though, OK?” When Jaeho made a sound of approval, Irene quickly grabbed her purse and rushed to the bathroom.

               There was a positive and a negative that was gained from that: the positive was that Irene and Jaeho now knew that his condition hinged upon a certain range, a range that appeared to be extremely close to himself. The negative was that, a few days later, Irene fell ill with what appeared to be a similar illness.

               Despite Irene’s resistance, Jaeho arrived at the Red Velvet dorm to take care of Irene, likewise bringing a bag full of things to take care of Irene with. It wasn’t that Irene didn’t want to see him; in her state, it was all that she wanted to do, especially since the events that transpired the past few days on top of her illness, she was extremely emotional and wanted to do nothing more than spend an entire day by Jaeho’s side to just enjoy each other’s company. The main reason why Irene insisted that Jaeho not come was because she didn’t want him to feel guilty for contracting what appeared to be his cold, not to mention that she didn’t want her boyfriend to see this meek, less-than-perfect side of her.

               However, even if Jaeho was feeling guilty for giving his girlfriend his illness, he showed no signs of it. He was as energetic and cheerful as ever, showing no signs of fatigue even as the sun moved to the other side of the world. It was decided, mostly by Irene, that Jaeho would stay the night; maybe it was because of how emotional she was in her current state, maybe it was because of how little they got to see each other in the past weeks, maybe it was because of how stressful her work had been recently, but after witnessing Irene’s determination, Jaeho relented. The same thought that plagued the idol when she last was in Jaeho’s apartment didn’t even occur to her until it got late, when she overheard Jaeho and Seulgi outside her bedroom talking about sleeping arrangements.

               “I don’t think we have a sleeping bag…”

               “I can sleep on the sofa, if you don’t mind,” Jaeho replied.

               “What do you mean?” Irene smiled, proud of how indignant Seulgi sounded at that idea. “How can we let a guest, much less Joohyun’s boyfriend, sleep like that?”

               “I don’t want to kick anyone out of their beds though.”

               “It’s ok, we’re all willing to volunteer. The only thing we have to decide is who is going to offer their bed,” Seulgi answered.

               “Do you want to sleep on Joohyun’s—”

               Yeri was cut off abruptly. “What are you doing up, don’t you have an early schedule tomorrow?” Seulgi admonished the youngest.

               “Even if she was ok with it, I don’t think I should,” Jaeho replied good-naturedly, Irene realizing what he was getting at.

               “Well first, we need to find Jaeho a blanket…” Irene zoned out for the rest of the conversation. Similarly to how the illness affected Jaeho, Irene’s illness only got worse as the night progressed. She barely had the strength to open her eyes, much less talk. However, Jaeho remained at her side the entire time, tending to her every need, making sure she was well-hydrated, continually talking the entire time in that soothing voice of his, telling random stories of his childhood and his memories of first discovering Red Velvet and anything else that came to mind. Before long, Irene felt her consciousness drift off into darkness.

               The next morning, Irene woke up feeling much better. Her nose was finally unclogged so Irene took the opportunity to take in a deep breath, the first in what felt like an eternity. She sighed in relief, opening her eyes and propping herself up to a sitting position, stretching her arms. She could tell that she was still a little sick—she still felt fatigued and had a mild headache—but it was definitely a few steps up from the previous night. “Jaeho’s—” Irene froze, realizing there was a weight next to her that she hadn’t noticed until that moment.

               Irene closed her eyes, her heartbeat racing once again. It wouldn’t be Jaeho, right? But then again, last night it was Jaeho that was accompanying her. Maybe he swapped places with someone else? But Jaeho wouldn’t have the urgency Irene did; the only reason Irene found the energy to fall asleep on the couch that night she went to his apartment was because that memory was present inside her mind. However, for Jaeho, such a thing wouldn’t exist.

               The weight started shifting around, Irene’s heart still leaping heaps and bounds ahead of her own body. This was different than the other day; that day, Irene had more control of the situation and wasn’t emotional from the cold she had. Right now, even with her eyes closed, Irene felt the stinging pain in the back of her eyes as liquid escaped her eyelids, completely incapacitated by an overwhelming fear.

               This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening.

               The same sentence repeated itself over and over inside her head, the same way it did that morning however many months ago when Irene woke up next to a Jaeho who didn’t even recognize her.

               There was still a chance it was Seulgi or one of her other members that took over, right? But as logical as that argument was, that the weight on the side of her bed didn’t have to be Jaeho, she couldn’t help but fear the worst. As the weight shifted a bit more, Irene’s curiosity ballooned, eventually to the point where she gained the courage to slowly open her eyes.

               “Oh my God—!” Irene abruptly muffled herself with her hands, the shrill scream escaping her lips as her eyes fell upon the sleeping man that she loved.

               Within seconds, Seulgi stormed into her bedroom. “What’s wrong?” the second eldest said, freezing as her gaze fell onto the same man. “Oh no…” The other members came pouring in shortly after.

               “Joohyun?” Wendy said in a panic, similarly gasping upon seeing Jaeho fast asleep at Irene’s side, his head that was once resting peacefully against the soft mattress now stirring.

               In that split moment, Irene’s voice disappeared. The only sound she could make was the uncontrollable, muffled sobbing that was escaping her lips as she fearfully watched Jaeho wake up, acquire his surroundings and open his eyes. She couldn’t bring herself to look the man in the eyes, not having the strength to go through what she did that morning all over again, especially in her current state.

               “What’s wrong?”

               Irene swore her heart fully stopped when she heard those words. It was undeniably Jaeho who said them: after all, he was the only one in that room—that apartment—who had such a deep voice. It was laced with such caring and worry that Irene’s emotions completely flipped around, going from despair to elation in a split second.

               “Jaeho? You still r-remember me?” Irene said after quickly wiping her tears with the back of her hands. However, after getting a good look at the man, it became apparent that this was far from the truth.

               “Um…” Jaeho was unsure how to respond. From the moment he woke up, he was confused; he was woken up by a shrill scream, and as if that wasn’t confusing enough, the very next thing he heard was sobbing. When he finally opened his eyes and collected his surroundings, he realized he wasn’t in his bed—heck, he wasn’t even in his apartment. His head was pressed against a mattress, himself kneeling next to it, and yet that wasn’t even the most confusing part. The most confusing part was realizing that the owner of the mattress, the one who was sobbing, was the most beautiful woman he had ever met in his entire life. His first thought was that the woman was crying out of fear of having a strange man at her bedside, but upon seeing the way she was looking at him, it became apparent that this wasn’t the case. He had cast his confusion aside for concern over the woman after coming to this realization, who very clearly was terrified. What it was she was terrified of, he was unsure, but now that she posed the ambiguous question to him, his confusion grew. Was he supposed to know her? Did he drink too much last night? But no, he didn’t remember even going to a bar or anything. Why was he here? Why was she crying? Did it have anything to do with him remembering her, or why he can’t remember what he was doing in this place?

               “Jaeho, please…” the woman begged softly, tears trickling down her cheek, “I don’t want to l-lose you again, you p-promised me that you wouldn’t do something like this…”

               The words were just streaming out of Irene’s mouth like a tidal wave of emotions spilling out from . She didn’t even notice the four others that were at the doorway, staying far enough away to be unnoticed but close enough to jump in if they felt like their leader needed help. “Y-You said—” her voice rose in between sobs, “—that you would—” her chest was in pain, like someone had reached an invisible hand inside her body and was squeezing her internal organs, her mind spinning out of control, “—you would always—” the pain she was feeling now was much worse than the previous day; whereas last night she was at least comforted by the fact that her boyfriend was at her side, now she didn’t even have that. And if she didn’t have that, what did she have? “—always be there for me, but—”

               “I’m sorry,” Jaeho interjected, carefully reaching out to Irene.

               “Don’t touch me! I’m sick!” she screamed, quickly withdrawing her hand, but when she realized what she did, regret piled onto the onslaught of emotional turmoil she was currently experiencing. Jaeho retreated, drawing his hand away as if he had just touched a hot stove, and when she saw the hurt in Jaeho’s eyes, she sobbed even harder. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I didn’t—I didn’t mean to—”

               The damage was already done though. The crazed demeanor Irene was displaying, the shrill scream that initially woke him up … she messed up, even more so than before. If his first impression of her was this bad, how was she ever going to convince him to stay? “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” she cried, covering her whole face with her hands, her words spilling out of , her voice smothering the room with sound, “I wasn’t thinking, I was just—just panicking because I’m sick and emotional b-because I’m sick even though you took such good care of me yesterday and all the s-stress from work and not being able to see you recently made me even more stressed so when I was finally able to see you y-yesterday I felt really happy but also really sad because I didn’t want to show you this weak side of me but—” her Daegu accent was spilling into her words, her emotions were overwhelming her; she couldn’t think straight, her mind was a complete mess except for one thing: do whatever it took to get Jaeho back. “I don’t know, I just—I don’t know, I’m so disgusting and ugly right now—” words were just tumbling out of , the woman regretting every word spoken but unable to control herself, “—I don’t know, maybe God is trying to tell me I don’t deserve you, but I love you so much—” her sobs worsened, tears dripping off her hand, her chin, everything. Irene pulled her blanket up to soak the liquid up, “—I love you so much, I don’t know what I would do without you—” her heart hurt—it hurt—like someone was tearing it to shreds, “—I—you’ve given me so much and I haven’t even begun to start giving back to you, it’s not fair—”

               Jaeho shifted in his spot, conflicted. Irene, just barely noticing this from her peripheral vision, attempted to calm herself down, to very little effect. “Please, I know how crazy I must sound or how insane I must sound, but—but—” she pressed her face against the mattress, partially muffling her voice, “—but I don’t think I would have anything left inside me if you left me, Song Jaeho, I—I—I—I don’t know, I just don’t know, but please don’t leave me, I’ll do anything so please don’t go—…”

               “I won’t go anywhere.”

               Jaeho could tell that this woman was being earnest. Did she seem insane? Yes. Was he slightly afraid? Also yes. However, there was some kind of feeling inside him, something almost like déjà vu, a feeling on the brim of his brain that he couldn’t quite identify, that told him he should trust her. Maybe it was because of how beautiful she was, which was evident even while she was sobbing as hard as she was, but when she started to beg, he decided to deal with the negative consequences of promising something to a potentially insanely over-attached woman later. That feeling inside him, whether it was because of her attractiveness or something else, told him to protect her.

               Upon hearing Jaeho’s reply, Irene hastily wiped her face and peered at him with the blanket still covering most of her face, quieting down. “R-Really?” she nearly whispered in a wispy voice, slightly hoarse from the combination of being sick and from talking so loudly just before.

               “I, um, I don’t know what’s happening, but—I don’t know your name, so let’s start off there,” he offered, “I’m Song Jaeho—oh wait, you already knew that, it seems like.” Jaeho was desperately trying not to trip over his words; he wasn’t usually bad around the fairer , but there was something about this woman that was different. A mysterious aura…? Just something about her that caused him to suddenly forget how to speak properly. “Um, well anyway, I’m Song Jaeho and I’m 30 years old and I’m a salesman.”

               It was only then—when Irene had some time to think after being saved from her desperate, crazed state by Jaeho—that she came to an epiphany.

               Not saying another word, Irene scrambled to the nightstand next to her bed, her sudden movement noticeably startling Jaeho, and grabbed her phone. A sudden determination overtook her, wiping her face with her damp blanket for good measure before unlocking the electronic device. “I need to show you something,” she said, opening the YouTube application on her phone, “Just wait a second.”

               Jaeho, now more confused than ever, sat patiently at the side of the bed as Irene pulled up one of Red Velvet’s music videos. “Here, watch this,” she put her phone in front of Jaeho. “You should remember who I am after seeing this.”

               Jaeho obediently watched, Irene taking the time to completely dry her face of tears. When Irene was ready, she looked up to see Jaeho’s expression morph from confusion to understanding and finally to embarrassment. “Ah, how—what’s wrong with me? How could I forget—” he froze, whipping his head up to see Irene looking back at him with an expectant expression. His face exploded into a fit of red as he immediately diverted his gaze. “I-I’m sorry, I don’t—why am I here? Is this Red Velvet’s dorm? Is this a hidden camera event?”

               Irene shook her head, taking her phone, that sudden determination causing a strange feeling of hyper-focus. If that’s all it took to jog his memory, if Wendy’s conjecture that Jaeho could remember Irene as an idol because how long he’s known her, if the two have already spent this much time together, then maybe…?

               Her heart was racing again as she fumbled around, opening applications and hastily closing them when she realized she opened the wrong one, her precision rapidly declining with every passing moment as anxiety and impatience seized her. “Wait,” she muttered under her breath, having to pause every few seconds to wipe the tears from her eyes, finally managing to open the photo gallery in her phone. Swiping across the screen fiercely, she froze and subsequently backtracked after spotting the picture she was looking for: the one they took not too long ago, the one Irene forced Jaeho to take with her along with her members at her birthday party. “Here, look at this,” Irene offered her phone to Jaeho again, her heart now having migrated inside .

               When Jaeho looked at the picture, he immediately felt something. That feeling—like he was on the verge of remembering something, that a memory was emerging but just refused to come out, that something was in the back of his mind that he was trying with all his might to pull out but wouldn’t budge—caused him to furrow his eyebrows, his mind zeroing in on the picture. What was it, damn it? There was something for sure—what was it? A memory? A clue about this whole situation? It was so close, he could feel it—why couldn’t he remember?

               The more time Irene spent looking upon Jaeho expectantly with no results, the more her heart sank back down into her chest. “You don’t remember?” the question almost came out as a whisper, a fear-induced question she almost didn’t want the answer to. “When you celebrated my birthday with me?” She could feel her tears resurfacing, and fight as she might, her cheek tickling with the cold feeling of tears rolling down her face was inevitable. “W-When we first met at the bar? Your first words to me? The drink you bought for me?” With every question, her voice became more and more distorted, the pain in her chest coming back, “W-When you said that you liked that I’m older than you and I t-teased you about liking older women—”

               Irene screamed in surprise when Jaeho loudly slapped the mattress with both hands, sitting up straight in response to her words.

               It all happened at once. That one sentence was the extra push he needed for everything to come flooding back: his first encounter with Irene, his confession to her, their 100^th day anniversary and that night, the next morning, Irene’s confession, his debacle that resulted in him being hospitalized, Irene taking care of him after getting sick from the sudden downpour that caught them off guard during the bike date in Yeouido Park … they were such precious memories, how could he have so easily forgotten them?

               Jaeho gripped his head in pain, wincing in pain as the sudden overload of memories caught him off guard. “Jaeho?! Are you OK? Did I get you sick again?” Irene spoke in rapid succession, her sorrow immediately replaced with concern.

               The splitting headache he was experiencing rendered him almost unable to speak, but at that moment, Jaeho knew that his pain was nothing compared to what he had put his girlfriend—his beautiful, amazing, caring, loving, patient, perfect girlfriend—through. “Joohyun…” he managed to groan, desperate to give the wide-eyed idol some indication that he remembered.

               “Jaeho?” Irene knew better than to be hopeful, but she couldn’t help it. She was burned by this exact situation too many times, but in her state—an emotional wreck, deep in the pool of despair, wrought with lovesickness—she almost had no choice but to feel hope.

               “Joohyun…” he groaned again, reaching out and somehow finding Irene’s hand immediately, grasping it firmly. “I’m—I’m so sorry.”

               When Irene saw a sparkle appear underneath his eyes, Irene knew that finally, her hopefulness had paid off.

               “Joohyun, I’m so sorry,” he repeated, tears now streaming down his face. “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so—”

               Irene, completely forgetting that she was sick, threw herself into Jaeho’s arms. “Both times … I hurt you so much, even though—”

               And then stillness.

               The whole world stopped as Irene kissed Jaeho, tears simultaneously streaming down her face, the salty liquid intermingling and staining the faces of both. But neither cared.

               If Jaeho’s promise to stay with Irene the first time he suffered the amnesiac caused her to feel the weight of the world come off her shoulders, this feeling—this understanding that finally, finally, at long last, she had her Jaeho back—made her feel the weight of the universe come off her back.

               Irene s her arms around Jaeho’s warm nape, pulling him closer to her, basking in the warm feeling of her boyfriend’s—her boyfriend’s—lips on her own.

               When she pulled away, a huge grin sat on her face. “But I—”

               “I don’t care,” Irene interrupted the confused Jaeho, guilt deeply apparent from his downtrodden expression, “Everything is worth it if you remember.”

               “I do, I do,” he said, repeated, getting on his knees. “I’m sorry, I never wanted to hurt you like that, please forgive me,” he kowtowed next to the bed, planting his face firmly onto the ground.

               “Stop that,” Irene insisted, trying to pull Jaeho into a sitting position but failing, “You can pay me back by kissing me again.”

               Irene was still a bit skeptical; from Jaeho’s proactive movements and from the fact that he said ‘both times’, Irene figured all of Jaeho’s memories returned, so this was a bit of a test. If Jaeho accepted right away, then she was sure that Jaeho had returned to her at long last—and that’s exactly what he did.

               Irene found herself smiling against the kiss, feeling Jaeho’s muscular arms wrapping around her waist. Nothing in the world mattered right then; not her sickness, not her members that were in the dorm with her, not the fact that she was sobbing just a few minutes ago, not her tears that were finding their way onto their lips, nothing.

               When he pulled away, Irene was still smiling. “I was stuck in this nightmare for so long, and yet again you saved me.”

               “I was the one who created the nightmare though.”

               Irene scoffed. “It wasn’t your fault and I won’t let you think that. You know it’s not your fault, so don’t even think about blaming yourself,” she firmly stated, only then noticing her members standing at the doorway from the corner of her eye. “What are you all doing there? Come in!” Irene signaled to the other four.

               A renewed wave of chatter and crying erupted as the rambunctious bunch entered the bedroom, only to be shortly after chased out by the same person who invited them in, suddenly remembering that she was still sick.

               “Jaeho…”

               The man whose name was spoken turned to look at the beauty, who was seated on the bed. “Yes?”

               “Jaeho…” Irene repeated, her smile having never left her face. “Jaeho…”

               “Do you want me to get you something?”

               Irene shook her head. “Stay here with me. I just wanted to say your name,” she stated, collapsing back onto her bed. “Jaeho…”

               “I’m right here,” he reassured her, placing his hand on her arm from the other side of the blanket.

               Silence befell the couple, broken when Irene said, “After all we’ve been through: SM interfering with our relationship, the media suddenly learning about it, you getting hospitalized, the debacle with your ex’s trying to sully your name, and of course your amnesia the first time it happened … now that all the obstacles are gone, what now?”

               Jaeho chuckled. “I know, it’s going to feel so weird, being a normal couple. Or as normal a couple can be when one of them is famous.”

               “I still can’t believe it took reminding you of your taste in older women to get you to regain your memories,” Irene grinning, Jaeho laughing again as well, “I guess all those times I teased you about that ended up paying off.”

               “You know, I remember the first time I lost my memories, I had some vague feelings that I knew you but eventually ignored them since I couldn’t ever connect the dots. This time too, after seeing those pictures, I felt something—I don’t know how to describe it, but it felt really close, just barely out of reach,” Jaeho said. “Without a single one of those memories, I might not have been able to regain them just now.”

               “So, I guess that means pictures are ok now?”

               “Wait, but mommy, you still didn’t explain how you fixed the problem,” the child, who was resting on the bed with the cover up to her chin, complained.

               “Oh, that’s right,” the older woman said, “From then on, every time daddy and I woke up next to each other, I would just show him a picture of us together. At first, it would take some time for him to regain his memories, but now, I only need to say one thing for him to remember me.”

               “What is it?!” the child asked excitedly.

               Irene smiled, cupping her child’s cheek affectionately. “That’s a secret between mommy and daddy.” One detail she chose not to include was all the fun Irene had waking up next to a flustered man and watching him squirm for a few seconds, especially the mornings after trying for the very child Irene was telling the bedtime story to.

               “Aw … tell me another story?”

               Jaeho, who was seated on the bed next to Irene, smirked. “You cheeky little kid, you already know the answer,” he said, pinching the child’s cheeks.

               “Hey, stop that, you’ll hurt her,” Irene slapped Jaeho’s arm, the husband instantly obeying and retracting his hand. “Not now, ok sweetie? Right now is bedtime.”

               “Wait! I have one more question,” the child insisted, tugging on her mother’s arm.

               “Only one more.”

               “If mommy used to be the famous one, why is daddy the one we always see on TV?”

               Irene smiled. “That’s a story for another night; right now, you need to sleep,” she said, Jaeho standing up as did Irene. “Good night angel,” the mother said, planting a kiss on her daughter’s forehead.

               “Good night, princess,” Jaeho followed suit, planting another kiss on the child’s forehead.

               When the married couple returned to the living room, they simply settled on the couch in front of the TV, enjoying each other’s presence. “Hey, do you want to have some of our drink tonight?”

               “Sure,” Jaeho replied, getting up. “Just a glass though, I have to get up relatively early tomorrow.”

               “Ok,” Irene said, slightly frowning now that Jaeho’s warmth had disappeared. A moment later, the tiny woman decided to follow her husband, sneaking up behind him and wrapping her slim arms around his waist, resting her head on his shoulder. “Are you going to water down my drink again?”

               “Oh, you noticed?” Jaeho said, laughing.

               Irene nodded. “I can handle my alcohol quite well now, you know.”

               “Tell that to yourself last time we had this, where you got drunk despite me watering your drink down.”

               “I did not get drunk!” Irene separated from herself, glaring at the smiling man, pouting indignantly. “I was just a little tipsy.”

               “Alright, alright,” Jaeho said, pouring Irene’s cup, “No watering your drink down, but on one condition,” he insisted.

               “What?”

               “You have to drink at least half a bottle of water before going to bed.”

               Irene acquiesced and retrieved a bottle from the cupboard beneath the counter. Irene took her place behind Jaeho, wrapping her arms around him again and resting her head on his shoulder. “Do you think we should tell Hayoon that we exaggerated some aspects of that story?”

               “Like when you were telling the story and were always saying how you were captivated by my beauty or something?”

               “That wasn’t an exaggeration, I still feel that way,” Jaeho claimed. “Here, feel,” he put the bottle of alcohol down and directed Irene’s right hand to his chest, right to where his heart was. Sure enough, Irene could clearly tell that his heartrate was beating quite rapidly.

               “You’re a trickster, aren’t you? How are you doing that?” Irene playfully asked in disbelief.

               “I’m not doing anything! You can feel down there for further proof.”

               Irene laughed, smacking Jaeho’s arm. “What are you saying? Hayoon is sleeping!”

               Jaeho smiled and resumed the careful process of creating the alcoholic drink that they shared their first night together: soju mixed with watermelon and vodka. “Speaking of, what are we going to do next time she asks for a bedtime story?”

               Irene thought about it a bit before answering, “Well, we still have a lot of stories for her: that show we did together, our wedding, your rise to fame, that incident at the movie theater, what happened on your 35^th birthday…”

               Jaeho laughed. “Now that is an interesting story.”

That's the last chapter! Do you have anything you're curious about or any other lingering questions? Feel free to ask me in the comments below, along with ideas you have regarding a few 'extra' chapters I'm planning on writing for this! I already have several ideas, but I'm down to be swayed by my readers.

If there are no questions, how'd you like this story? What did you think about the pacing of the plot and character progression (was it too fast? Did it feel like I was missing something? Everyone has been so nice in the comments, so feel free to be a little mean! I'm 23, I can handle it :D)? How about the chapter length? Was it too long?

Depsite this story not getting as much traction as my other stories, I still have to say I'm quite happy with this one; quality-wise, I would say it's slightly higher than my last story, Two Pieces of a Puzzle (it's a Taeny story with elements of romance/drama). Enough rambling though, hope you all enjoyed and thank you all so much for reading! Stay tuned for extra chapters that might come out within a couple of months (maybe two or three? I'm not sure) and make sure to post any questions/ideas for extra chapters down below ^_^