[ C H A P T E R   E I G H T E E N ]

If Yongsun had to choose one thing that she absolutely loves about being married after months of them living together now, it would be going to sleep and waking up to each other’s faces. Byul would probably pushed her off the chair for being cheesy, but there was this special feeling of being comforted at seeing someone you love sleeping right next to you. It was usually Yongsun who would wake up first and tried to cook him breakfast because Eric snoozed his alarm at least ten times before he finally got himself out of bed, and most of the time when he tried to snoozed his alarm for the eleventh time that morning, she’d be the one annoying him until he woke up — he would get a little grumpy perhaps for just five minutes and they’d be laughing over the most random thing ever, like Eric confusing Yongsun’s body scrub for face scrub and the next few days, the whole internet was wondering why he had a huge zit on his forehead in one of his podcast. 

    “That’s life, sometimes you just get a huge zit and you just have to accept it.” 

He would tried to cover it up because really, no one has to know that he was too tired to read whether that scrub was for body or face. Sometimes people would freaked out over him doing things he normally wouldn’t, like eating breakfast or actually stretching and working out. He’s not complaining, but he didn’t really have a choice either — she was trying to help him stay healthy, and Eric appreciates that a lot but hell, he thought, every time she forced him to do stretching with her every night before bed, Eric could have sworn he saw his own life flashed before his eyes.

And some other time, it would either be Eddie almost exposing to the world that his brother is now married when he rambled a little bit too much during their podcast, or Yongsun’s members who would so much that it almost slipped out of their mouths. 

Eric walked out from the shower to Yongsun making two cups of bedtime tea for them — something they’ve been doing very regularly these days so they could take a sip and have a small talk before bed. They had just come back from having dinner with his parents before they left for their relatives in Jeonju, and no matter how many time they’ve met, Eric was always amused to see just how much his parents adored Yongsun like she’s their own daughter. It was endearing to him because a few days before they flew to Korea, his mom would rang him up and asked what gift should she get for Yongsun and went on and on about how much she wanted to make her feel welcomed and became best friend with her — it was funny to him, because they’re already pretty much like best friends, and anyone in their family could tell except them. 

Handing him a cup of tea, she took a seat next to him on the couch in their living room and gave him a smile. They were both in their own styles of sleepwear, Yongsun in her usual pajama set and Eric in his casual hoodie and sweatpants. Sometimes when she feels like it, she’d be sleeping in his hoodie that she claimed they’re sharing it, and some other time, she’d go to bed in her sleeveless pajama gown because it was hot but ended up waking up in the middle of the night to throw his hoodie over herself because it suddenly got really cold. Half of the hoodies he owned might have went missing from his wardrobe and he knew exactly where they were at, but Eric played oblivious because he wanted to know how much longer would it takes for her to actually empty his entire wardrobe — but, he’s definitely not complaining though. 

He might have secretly been the happiest man alive whenever she did something in public with his clothes from head to toe, not that anyone noticed nor cared enough that it could be his though, they just assumed that she stole it from Byul, and the younger woman would always tried to drop a few subtle hints that it wasn’t her clothes but really, people believed what they chose to believe so they were both saved for now. 

    “Have you ever thought about having kids?” Eric almost spit his tea out from her sudden question. Yongsun laughed and continued. “I’m not saying I want kids now, I’m just curious because everyone around us, friends and families, seem to be wanting us to have one even though they don’t say it out loud — not my members though, they’re too vocal about it.”

Eric laughed, her members have been indeed very vocal about it, but he wasn’t mad at them though. He knew parts of the girls were just teasing them, and parts of them were actually dead serious about it because they were one of those people who had been there to witness their relationship from the beginning. Eric guessed they’re probably fed up with them taking things incredibly too slow sometimes so they’d always tried to push them and helped them out — but babies, hmm. 

    “One day, yes.” He looks at her and takes her knowing smile as that she was also thinking the same thing. “I think I kinda want to spend a few more years together, just the two of us before we, you know, fully commit to parenting.”

    “I was actually thinking if one day we’ll ever have kids, I think I might want to temporarily stay in Atlanta and just prepare for the whole process because you know how it is here, all hell will break loose and I know we’re not at that level yet, but journalists and paparazzis will never let us live in peace… but, I also don’t want to be a burden on your parents so I honestly don’t know how we’ll do this.” 

    “You’ll never be a burden on them, Yong. They’ll love having us back home, even just temporarily, and you’ve already seen how much they love you.” Eric offers her a reassuring smile and reaches his hand out to pat hers gently. Pulling her closer to him by her waist, he continued. “Don’t stress over it yet, we’ll think about it later when we finally decide to have one.”

Her sister told her that she has one of the best parents-in-law in probably the entire world, not that Yonghee was putting her own parents-in-law down, they also love her but they still clearly cared more about their own son — which is very normal in most families so she’s not complaining. But with Eric’s parents, Yongsun understood exactly what her sister meant. They loved and treated her so well, gave her emotional ad physical support whenever she’d doing a big project, and each time that happened, she felt like crying because she was overwhelmed by how much they actually accepted and loved her. 

Something she has noticed over the past few years between them and his parents was how much their relationship seems to resemble his parent’s — Eric and his dad were definitely the more romantic person than Yongsun and his mom. Eric would sent her flowers really often no matter where he was at, it could be a really special occasion or a really typical boring day, she’d get a flower from him and it would put her into the happiest mood that entire day. Yongsun eventually learned from his mom later on when they were having a mother daughter-in-law date that his dad was exactly the same, flowers were something they gifted really often to only the person they love. 

He still hasn’t changed now that they’re married, he would still gift her flowers almost every other days and Yongsun has now made it her new habit to learn what this specific flower in this specific color means because he never gifted her the same one, and nevertheless to say, the meanings she found were always interesting. 

She stole a glance at Eric who was sipping his tea and giggled.

Not even in her wildest dream would she ever thought they would have this day. She joined wgm solely because she was convinced by her company that it’d help with Mamamoo’s career and as a leader, she was willing to do anything to help them out, and Yongsun was absolutely sure that whoever she ended up with as a partner during the show, they’d never be close until the very end because she knew herself very well — but good lord was she wrong. 

He gave her spaces when he didn’t even have to, he went against the director’s demands and instead waited for her to open up when it was also risky on his parts, he respected her too much, gave her too much that it was impossible for her to not fall and if anyone asked her the same question again, she’d still give them the same answer as she did before — he was like a big gift given to me, because he really is.

    “I’ve never said this before, but you two are actually a lot more different from each other than I initially thought.” Byul would suddenly told her on a casual day where they were just laying down on the floor of their practice room just the two of them after the two youngests went home first. “But the most beautiful thing I’ve ever witnessed from you two was that despite those differences, you filled each other’s flaws with it and made each other the happiest because of it. I think that’s why no matter how much I tried, I could never hold a grudge against Ric-hyung for hurting you before nor stopped you from getting back together with him.”

Yongsun would scrunched her face in embarrassment at her just to make the atmosphere a little lighter even though she was on the verge of crying herself. Byul was like her other biological sister she got to know quite late, but she had seen so much what Yongsun was going through. She had seen her in her happiest, she had seen her when she was a broken mess, she had seen her desperately trying to hold onto a tiny hope that was barely there, and it made sense to Yongsun that of course, Byul would be very furious when she first knew what happened between Eric and her — but she also had seen so much more to really stayed mad at him for too long so instead, she gave him the green light he was looking for and pushed him to fight back for Yongsun. 

    “You know I never really overcame that toxic relationship I had back before we even debuted, and I’ve never found the courage to actually date anyone again because of it?” Byul asked, and a little chuckle echoed from her like it was the funniest thing she has ever done. “Don’t slap me for being cheesy, but you two might have inspired me to start loving again because you two convinced me that true love really does exist, although it will hurt as hell at one point.” 

Yongsun smiled, she would have really slapped her for being cheesy on any other day but that day when Byul opened up to her about it, she smiled almost a kind of motherly smile. 

    “I’ll be rooting for you like you’re always rooting for me, Byul — but maybe, find out in advance if that person has a crazy ex or not, because man, that was really hard.” 

No offense to Eric, she loves him with the whole being of her heart, but his crazy ex was really something. Byul bursted out laughing at that and promised her that she’d investigate thoroughly before getting with someone else, because they weren’t entirely sure if their CEO would still be very calm about it if it happened for the second time. 

    “What happened to her though? Did the court finalize anything yet?” 

    “Yeah.” Yongsun shrugged, and a big sigh of relieve escaped . Things were finally wrapping up between that ex and them. “She tried deleting her evidences, but you know, we have witnesses and proofs so she’s found guilty, they decided that she could either paid the fines or get put in jail for intentional blackmailing.”

    Byul clicked her tongue. “Serve her right.” 

Yongsun felt a very slight poke on the tip of her nose and she looked at Eric, her thoughts about her conversation with Byul that day dissipated into thin air and she realized her tea was almost cold now, so she down the whole cup in one go before they could get any colder. 

    “What were you thinking about?”

    She leaned over to place her cup on the table in front of them. “Let’s hold a proper wedding ceremony in 3 years.” 

He raised his brows at her. Clearly something must have crossed her mind earlier that she finally decided when would they hold their wedding, but whatever it was, Eric was just amused at how surprising she could be. 

    “I’m taking that you already have an actual date in mind?” 

    She grins. “May 17th.”

Eric didn’t have to ask why. May 17th was always the date for something big in their relationship. They got married in wgm on May 17th, they got back together on May 17th, they registered their marriage on May 17th, and of course, Yongsun would wanted their actual wedding to be on the same date as well. There was no specific reasons why though — it’s less confusing that way when you broke up and got back together way too many times, and according to his wife, it’d be too confusing if they have four different anniversary dates.

    “Have you thought about where you want it to be at yet?”

    She gave him a knowing smile like she was waiting for him to pop the question. “Atlanta. We fell in love in where I grew up, it’s only fair that we physically get married in where you grew up as well.” 

Eric smiled, Yongsun always tended to amuse him in so many ways, especially the way she thought things through. He had never really expected her to want to get married in where he grew up, because it was far, very far, and her family was also in Korea, but for her to come to a conclusion that his hometown was just as important as hers really said a lot about how much she treasured both of their cultures and origins — he couldn’t be more grateful than that. 

May 17th in Atlanta, he’s not going to disagree with that. 

Eric watched as her smile beamed brightly like it always did, her eyes glazing in pure excitement at whatever thought was running through her head when he agreed to her proposed wedding plans. With Yongsun, if you let her does things her own ways, if you give her just the support she needs, she would always come back with a result no one would ever expected and he’d always be the proudest of her for that.

Her eyes met his, and she raised her brows and mentally questioned why was he watching her. Eric grinned and placed his cup down on the table as well, and in a swift of moment, he leaned in to kiss her so suddenly that she almost yelped in surprise. Her arms were around his, and he kissed her again, softly at first then allowed themselves to get lost in it. Her hands got lost in his hair, and Eric didn’t really care if she was going to turn them into a mess anytime soon.

    Picking her up in bridal style, he mumbled. “Let’s go to bed.” 

    Yongsun gave him a confused look. “Hm? It’s only 9pm, are you already sleepy?” 

    “I never said I’m going to sleep, Yong.” 

Yongsun frowned before his answer finally occurred to her. Blushing a deep shade of red, she punched him on his arm, but she never refused anyways.