Love is a strange concept to Seulgi. You see it in movies all the time. Depicted by fireworks and enviable kisses. From the beginning of time, love stories all abound.

But love is just love. It’s just a bunch of unfulfilled relationships disguised as cute matching rings and Oscar-worthy romantic gestures.

It’s something that Seulgi doesn’t know personally but she does know of it.

If that makes any sense.

Despite her outward bubbly appearance, Seulgi is quite skeptical of it.

Growing up, her parents had been divorced. And now that Seulgi was older, they’re on amicable terms. Friendly enough to attend her graduations without spitting fire or pouring gasoline.

She’d been too young anyway to remember her parents being together. In a way, there was no negative or positive affluence of love. She felt neutral.

In terms of relationships, she’s had casual boyfriends here and there, but it wasn’t anything outstanding. There wasn’t a switch that went off with one of her ex-boyfriends. She’s never really had that moment that people talk about.

The one where you just know that this was it.

Being apathetic toward it was always easier than questioning if something was wrong with her.

Until recently, Seulgi hadn’t been such a fan, and now—she couldn’t deny its presence anymore.

“Seulgi!” She hears her name being shouted from a happy blonde. The girl waves enthusiastically as she jogs to where Seulgi is standing.

“Cress,” Seulgi acknowledges, peering curiously at the latter.

Cress is the head sorority sister of Phi Nu Lambda. Seulgi was actually a member during her freshman year before she grew aware that there was no way she could immerse herself into the party life that those girls were practically born for.

Unlike Cress’s neat, high-maintenance appearance, she’s actually more down to earth than you’d expect.

“There’s a party tonight,” Cress tells her. According to what Seulgi knows, there’s a party every night. Cress sees her skepticism and elaborates, “hon’, I swear—this one is different.”

Yeah, like the numerous times that Cress has told her that tonight’s party will be different only for the difference to be—attire-based, boozed-theme, or hosted , or a horrendous combination of the sorts.

Seulgi hums pleasantly—hiding her indifference, “I’ll think about it.”

Cress bounces excitedly, her thick blonde curls following suit. “While you’re at, will you invite your friend?”

Seulgi deliberates, “Which one?”

She had lots of friends. Casual friends. Mostly. Noeul was probably her closest friend here, but she isn’t too known on campus, so Seulgi assumes that Cress is referring to someone else.

“Um,” Cress drawls, pouting her lips as she thinks. “You know—that girl, around your height. She doesn’t talk much. Brown hair? She has a flower tattoo on her wrist.”

The mention of the tattoo gives it away.

“You mean—Noeul?” Seulgi confirms, her eyebrows drawn together in visible confusion.

Cress nods. “Yeah. I think so. She was in my communications class. She’s kinda pretty in a serene way.” Cress lets loose a sheepish laugh. “I thought she hated everybody to be honest.”

Seulgi snorts at the thought. Noeul probably hated fewer people than the dodo bird population. She could see how everyone could misunderstand Noeul for being frosty. It wasn’t personal. Noeul was just withdrawn.

“Why so specific?” Seulgi asks.

Cress twirls her hair. “Your friend has a friend.” The emphasis on friend is concerning. “I’m not sure he attends UCSF, but I’ve been seeing him frequent your dorms.”

Seulgi isn’t sure that Noeul wants her to disclose her relationship status, so she attempts to be as vague as possible. “I think they’re kind of involved?”

“We’re thinking about the same guy? Dark hair. Nice calves. He wears a soccer jersey sometimes.”

“Yeah. He goes to Berkeley,” Seulgi tells it as a matter of fact.

Cress practically glows at this hint. “He’s smart? Must be nice. I absolutely envy Noeul. If I didn’t know better, I’d snatch him the up.”

Seulgi laughs. She’s sure that Baekhyun would appreciate the compliment. Noeul would probably playfully roll her eyes. She hadn’t been the jealous type, aware that she dated someone who naturally turned heads.

“Invite them both! ‘Kay?” Cress trills. After seeing Seulgi nod, she waves enthusiastically, turning elsewhere to inform other people.

The walk back to her dorms is brief, but still, Seulgi spends most of it in her head. Thinking back to her first impression of Noeul, Seulgi was curious on the spot.

She felt that Noeul had a story to tell behind those serious eyes.

Of course, everybody had a story, but Seulgi was specifically interested in Noeul’s.

She wondered many things. Why a pretty girl like her stayed away from social events. Why she didn’t speak unless spoken to. And why she always looked so sad.

It wasn’t your typical I-woke-up-on-the-wrong-side-of-bed. Noeul’s sadness was encased in her body, the depth of it reaching her bones.

Seulgi was drawn to Noeul in the strangest, yet platonic way possible. And to her surprise, Noeul’s been such a joy to have around. She was a natural listener, and she went along with things.

They had opposite personalities but ended up meshing well in the end.

Learning about Noeul’s past, Seulgi didn’t envy Noeul in that aspect. She didn’t know if she was equipped to handle that type of baggage.

When Seulgi turns the doorknob, she sees Noeul huddled with somebody on her bed. An adoring smile finds its way on her lips as she observes them.

Noeul is passed out on top of Baekhyun, her head rested on a pillow over his lap. All the while, Baekhyun busies himself with something on his laptop propped on her back.

“Hey,” Baekhyun says with a smile.

“How are you?”

“Tempted by Noeul to sleep, but I have a research paper due at midnight,” he grumbles, glancing down at the sleeping girl with jealousy.

But Seulgi looks deeper and sees something else reflected in his eyes.

It’s longing.

It’s an understatement of the century to say that she’s never seen an example of another relationship as close-knitted as Noeul and Baekhyun’s.

They had to have been soulmates because there was nothing else in her arsenal of words that she can use to describe them.

Sometimes, Seulgi would catch herself watching in awe of their silent conversations. To strangers, it may look like there was nothing going on. But to Seulgi, no, she saw more than that.

She saw two people completely devoted to one another. And right now—she feels a prick in her heart and releases an incredulous huff.

It was envy.

While she does feel envy, Seulgi admires their resilience. The sheer willpower to maintain a healthy relationship in the midst of the most difficult time of their lives—especially while pursuing higher education.

While their peers went off on the weekend to get drunk and party, Baekhyun and Noeul happily alternated between their respective dorms every other weekend. Seulgi’s gotten so used to seeing Baekhyun since last winter that she honestly considers him as their third roommate.

But, above all of that, there was something else she appreciated about Baekhyun.

It was his ability to let Noeul and Seulgi just be. He never overstepped in their friendship.

“Everything okay?” Baekhyun asks when he notices her lingering.

She shakes her head, mouthing no. Then, she puts her hands on her hips, deciding that she would just leave them be.

“I probably won’t be back tonight. Be sure to lock up.”

Baekhyun nods. “Be safe. Call us if you need anything.”

“I will,” Seulgi tells him with an appreciative smile.

Noeul stirs from her slumber, and Baekhyun’s attention, in a blink of an eye, is back on his girlfriend, dotingly and peacefully content—like he didn’t need much more than her presence alone.

They exchange secretive smiles, and an innocent kiss takes place. It’s a simple greeting but from the way Noeul lights up, it’s more than that.

Seulgi begins out the door, briefly wondering if she’ll have what they have in the foreseeable future.

###

Chanyeol is twenty-three, and he’s known Baekhyun for approximately seventeen of those years. He’s known Noeul for around the same amount.

After the whole ninth-grade catastrophe, given that none of it had been her fault, she withdrew from their clique entirely. Chanyeol hadn’t known what Noeul was up to nor did he care to. He hadn’t thought it through entirely. In hindsight, like any other teenager, he was irrational and was quick to make judgments.

Even when they were friends, Noeul didn’t give much of herself. Anything remotely personal that was casually brought into conversations, it was now that Chanyeol realized how intentional she was in guiding the conversations elsewhere.

It was only after they’d broken up (if you could even count what they had as a relationship) that Chanyeol had realized he knew nothing about her at all.

Shortly after she dipped out of the popularity scene, Baekhyun transferred to their high school mid-year. Chanyeol knew Baekhyun when they were younger, and for some reason, they lost touch after middle school. He never thought to ask which was another mistake on his part.

But as high school dragged on, Chanyeol began to see things that he didn’t see before. Baekhyun was a completely different person than he’d initially thought. A lot of their friends didn’t know him apart from his soccer bit.

Baekhyun wasn’t at all materialistic. In terms of girlfriends and upping his popularity game, it seemed like they were all a blip in Baekhyun’s life. More accurately, Baekhyun was probably considered popular because he’d been casual friends with the popular kids, one of them being yours truly, and of course, the soccer team.

Or maybe it was the mystique. Like Noeul had been known once, Baekhyun was also very private. He never talked about himself either.

That’s why when Baekhyun was seen being intimate in the hallways of West Shore with Noeul, it became the talk of the town.

Honestly speaking, it came as a surprise to everyone. It’d been the most unexpected event of the century. Baekhyun and Noeul didn’t mix crowds. As far as Chanyeol had known, Noeul no longer engaged with any of her old friends.

Sure, the development was a little weird initially, but he got over it. Baekhyun and Chanyeol found a safe middle ground. They didn’t speak about ninth grade nor Noeul.

Chanyeol was foolish to think that Noeul was just another girl, a result of Baekhyun’s casual dating history.

After the debacle of Noeul’s disorder came to light, Baekhyun’s personality did a complete 180. It was like seeing a different person. To Chanyeol, the Baekhyun that he once knew—someone who seemingly lived nonchalantly and with no care, was suddenly much deeper than that.

Chanyeol only realized now that maybe throughout high school, Baekhyun’s personality was subdued. He’d only been perceived as cool because he never really expressed himself.

So that brought Chanyeol to reanalyze everything. Baekhyun’s relationship with Noeul. His life outside of school.

Initially, there was a disconnect between them, maybe they’d been growing apart under the curtains. But after Noeul disappeared from their lives, Baekhyun no longer cared about anything. For a month, things were messy with him. He was constantly angry. He lashed out at everybody.

It was hard for Chanyeol to be around him, but for some reason, Chanyeol held on. Maybe it was a personal stubbornness of his.

He didn’t want to give up on one of his oldest friends. Partly because it felt like they were maturing too quickly—that his childhood was slowly slipping through his fingers. Surely, there was a lot more going on than he accounted for.

So, Chanyeol stayed. When everyone backed away, it seemed like it was only Luhan, his brother, or Chanyeol who bothered to make an effort.

Chanyeol grew from his skepticism of Luhan. He hadn’t known the latter all that well because like Noeul, Luhan didn’t care to be known.

But they went from tolerating each other to collectively making fun of Baekhyun together. Chanyeol’s life seemed so much more involved at this point. It was the last semester of high school and that was when he realized how much time he wasted caring about materialism—when, in fact, he could’ve had this all along.

So when Luhan passed away, all of a sudden, Chanyeol once again had to reevaluate his life. Despite only knowing Luhan for a semester, he was someone that Chanyeol incrementally grew attached to.

It was a painful month, but it made Chanyeol realize something important. He found himself trying hard to hold onto what he had left. His friendship with Baekhyun.

Because, in the end, Baekhyun was one of his only friends who saw people through their worth and nothing else. Chanyeol liked the person that he was around the latter, and he ended up reconnecting with Noeul through Baekhyun as well.

They truly let go of their misunderstandings, and for a while, things began improving.

They were all graduating from university next semester, and yesterday, Chanyeol received an invite from his best friend for the Christmas party they were holding.

When the front door opens, Baekhyun is smiling with contagious happiness as he welcomes Chanyeol. “Hey, glad you made it here safely,” Baekhyun relays, bringing him in for a friendly hug.

Chanyeol clasps his back. “It’s good to be back in town.”

Baekhyun pulls back, closing the door behind them. “How’s the girl?”

“She dumped me for her childhood friend,” Chanyeol says lightly.

His friend winces. “How are you coping?”

Chanyeol snickers. “I’m fine. I’ve had time. How’s Noeul?”

Baekhyun’s face literally lights up when he replies, “she’s doing a lot better. I was worried about her joints worsening because of the cold weather, but Dr. Stevens says that she’s lucky to have YOPD and not its counterpart.”

Chanyeol sheepishly scratches his nape. “Which means?”

“Her disorder progresses a lot slower than the typical person with Parkinson’s disease,” Baekhyun elaborates. “She’s gonna be fine.” He ends on a bright note.

They separate for a little while after Baekhyun introduces Chanyeol to some new faces.

Chanyeol hangs out near the Christmas tree as he observes the rest of the interior. It’s a comfortable space with an open concept connecting the living room with the kitchen. The floors are hard-wood with an ashen wood finish, and the furniture ties together the homely feel in one neat bow.

Near him, there’s a big bricked fireplace with a brown, snugged couch in front with several people nearby having conversations. Noeul and Baekhyun are talking amongst themselves, leaning against the island of their kitchen.

It does feel a little odd to be in his former high school teacher’s home, but he’s happy on behalf of his friends for Junmyeon’s efforts. Without the elder, they wouldn’t have had the stability and support for their mental wellbeing otherwise.

Junmyeon stops by and asks him about his life to which he happily explains that he’s gotten several job offers for the environmental engineering position he’s been vying for set after graduation. Somewhere in the middle, Baekhyun joins mid-conversation and lingers even after Junmyeon leaves to attend to something else.

“Did you get accepted into any programs?” Chanyeol asks Baekhyun. A while ago, the latter told him that he was interested in pursuing a doctorate.

Baekhyun nods. “Yeah, I did. I’m just checking out the choices that I have right now. Some of them would require me relocating, which I would rather not—“ His friend glances to Noeul who is currently laughing at something that her friend is telling her. “She’s insistent on her not being involved with my decision process.”

Chanyeol chuckles at this. “Sounds like someone I know.” Just a month ago, Baekhyun had been telling Chanyeol about his recent fight with Noeul—her complaint that Baekhyun was deliberately hiding some of his prospects from her because he didn’t want them to affect her own. Out of concern, Chanyeol raises the question. “You should probably think carefully. It’s Harvard, man.”

“It’s just—I hate being away from her. It’s not even about her health. The ironic thing is that we haven’t fought about her health at all.” Baekhyun diverts his eyes from Chanyeol and stares into the distance. “I think I may be a little dependent on her.”

Chanyeol bellows out an incredulous laugh. “You think?” It’s not that he’s teasing Baekhyun on purpose, but it seems like the latter is forgetting how completely whipped he is for his girlfriend.

If it isn’t every day, the thought that she’s my girlfriend still renders me speechless, it’s I don’t think I can live without her.

Baekhyun glowers, his cheeks reddening from slight embarrassment. “Shut up,” he hisses, swatting Chanyeol, “I don’t tell you these things for you to use them against me.”

Chanyeol shakes his head, teasing, “I didn’t ask.”

“Ha. Ha.”

Chanyeol straightens, reverting back to seriousness as he reassures his friend, “look. I think it’s completely normal to feel the way you’re feeling. Given that I may not know how that feels, being stupidly in love with your girlfriend isn’t a crime. It probably goes against logic, and maybe even what’s good for you. But, hey, if it feels right, then that’s your gut telling you that you’re overthinking it.”

“I don’t know, man,” Baekhyun mutters hopelessly.

Chanyeol pats him on his arm. “You have a skewed view of what love is because your parents never did their job and the number of people you lost alone—you’re not going to always be a model citizen with a healthy mental space. So what if you’re dependent on Noeul? She grounds you, doesn’t she? If the relationship is going where I think it is, then I think she feels the same way as you.”

Baekhyun smiles at his advice. “I, strangely, feel less weird about this.”

“That’s because none of this weird.”

“I think Dad begs to differ.”

“He’s your dad. It’s like two of his children getting married, so it’s gonna be a little weird for him.”

Baekhyun stays silent for a beat. “Kind of out of the blue—but now that we’re on the topic, will you be my best man?”

Chanyeol’s mouth dries at this unexpected request. Logically, he knows that he’s Baekhyun’s closest friend, but still, it feels surprisingly pleasant to be asked for such an honor. Chanyeol huffs out a laugh. “ yeah. Congratulations.”

Baekhyun shushes him. “I haven’t proposed yet.”

“When are you…” Chanyeol trails off when Noeul and her friend head toward them.

Noeul smiles at him as she sidles up to her boyfriend, casually landing a kiss on Baekhyun’s cheeks before she turns to him. “Chanyeol.”

Chanyeol returns her smile. “Hi, Noeul.”

She points to her friend. He noticed her beforehand, noting that she was as intimidating as she was pretty. “This is Seulgi.”

Seulgi waves at him. “So, you’re the one that Baekhyun tells me who still cries while watching The Notebook.”

Chanyeol says cooly, “naturally, he’s lying.”

“How do I know you’re not lying?” Seulgi responds with a slight flirtatious lilt in her smile.

Noeul and Baekhyun have this knowing look on their face like they were definitely going to make fun of him behind Seulgi’s back.

He proceeds to shrug, reciprocating the same vibe. “Maybe we can grab a bite before you leave, and I can give you some proof.”

Seulgi’s eyes shine with mirth. “Sounds like I might take up on your offer.”

Baekhyun and Noeul snort at the same time. Noeul speaks, “this feels illegal somehow. Like I’m interrupting something.”

Seulgi says with chagrin, “babes, how do you think I feel around you two?”

Baekhyun takes the chance and winks at Chanyeol, secretly giving him the go.

Chanyeol leans in close to Seulgi who entertains him by remaining still. He proceeds to whisper into her ear, “I’ll do you one better.”

“And that is?” Seulgi asks.

“I know you’ll probably be her maid of honor, but how do you feel about doubling as my date?”

Seulgi pulls away, giving him a stunned look. Her gaze jumps from Noeul to Baekhyun and then back to Chanyeol as she tilts her head, mouthing you’re serious?

Chanyeol holds a finger to his lips, silently confirming.

She nods with enthusiasm, getting the attention of Noeul who asks her what Chanyeol said. Seulgi does her job with finesse and gives her a half-answer, not giving away Baekhyun’s plans.

Later, they’re gathered around the tree, and everyone is exchanging gifts.

Baekhyun clears his throat. “My answer to your question from earlier is now,” he tells Chanyeol.

Chanyeol is bemused when he sees Noeul opening her gift from Baekhyun.

Her confusion when she begins from the large box to a smaller box to unwrapping incrementally tinier ones until she finally lands on the prize morphs into disbelief.

Noeul turns to Baekhyun in speechlessness.

Everyone whoops and cheers for them when he asks the big question. Noeul wipes away her happy tears, throwing herself onto his lap—knocking both of them over. They share a kiss.

At this time, Chanyeol’s chest fills with warmth and glee. He realizes then that he’s glad he held on when things were tough. Seeing his two friends go from complete strangers to possibly be each other’s forevers is sheer luck. It’s such an honor to witness this moment and be able to celebrate their happiness.

What the two have is something that is so special, it’s infectious, making him yearn to have that same feeling one day.

And he knows that he will. Because if his friends who have struggled for the majority of his life are able to find happiness, then he knows that he can too.

###

Noeul is nervous when she returns home after a long day of tests. She’d gone through an entire spectrum of emotions from worry to shock.

Dropping her keys by the coat rack, she shuts the door quietly, slipping out of her shoes.

Baekhyun and Noeul are now in their mid-twenties, living in Cambridge. She decided that it would be best to uproot her life because let’s be honest, she couldn’t bear to be apart from him. Besides, she was basically the breadwinner with her job at the local elementary school. Noeul loved mismatching gender roles.

She didn’t mind taking care of her part-time househusband/graduate student.

He was halfway in his doctorate’s program for Physics, making even more measly pay than hers. Noeul loved to because he would make up these elaborate stories on buying her a mansion by the beach.

It was cute, but it was their life. Sure, it wasn’t how she grew up, where she’d been coddled by money, but they lived within their means. Noeul was happy, and as far as she knew, Baekhyun absolutely loved his research.

Daresay, he was almost in love with his own research regarding astrophysics more than he was with her.

The house is quiet, and their living room rug is a mess—filled with papers and plopped in the middle of that mess is her pretty househusband.

There’s a wrinkle between his brows, a result of scrunching them up half of the time. As much as he loved his field of study, he was stressed out just as much.

Noeul drops to the floor, leaning in to distract him with a kiss. He groans in happy content, winding his arms around her waist—temporarily forgetting the existence of his laptop.

“Hi,” he murmurs—dazed when they break away from their dizzying kiss.

Noeul would probably let him take her right there if it weren’t for the important news she had. He just looked so handsome with his cozy turtleneck sweater and flannel pajama pants—and those golden-rimmed glasses drove her out of her mind ing crazy.

Noeul smiles, dropping a kiss to his nose. “Hi,” she returns.

“How was school?” He asks, comfortably holding her in his lap.

She fidgets. “Actually…I took the day off.”

He blinks, worry etched into his features. “Is everything okay?”

Noeul nods. “Everything is perfect, babe. Just—“ She hesitates. “I’m pregnant?” She didn’t mean for it to come out as a question. It certainly wasn’t one. She was definitely pregnant. Four months to be exact.

Noeul didn’t suspect anything because a lot of the soreness and nausea could be put off as symptoms of Parkinson’s and the side effects of her medication. It hadn’t been anything new, so she didn’t bother to check.

And she’d been diligently using birth control, but the doctor did tell her that no birth control was fool-proof. It wasn’t that she was turned off from the desire of having kids, but for a time, it just felt like these things happened to other people and not to her.

As soon as her symptoms were ramped up in the last couple of weeks, she decided to check back with her doctor. It turned out nothing was wrong in the aspect of her disease progression. It was pregnancy, and Noeul was shellshocked for the last two hours since the confirmation.

Baekhyun’s expression is blank, almost worryingly blank.

Noeul waves. “Hey—“ She interrupts him from his daze. “You okay?”

Baekhyun blinks rapidly. “No yeah—I’m—yeah. I’m okay. I think?”

“Do you not feel ready?” Noeul asks. She didn’t want to force a surprise pregnancy on him. They discussed it in the past. Of course, it was casual and not at all serious. Still, if he wasn’t ready to go there, they had other options.

“It’s not that I don’t feel ready,” Baekhyun tells her. “I’m afraid.”

“About being a dad?”

“No, doll. Not at all. I think I can be a good dad. You know—I really like what we have now, but if we really think about it, this is a child. A real human being with real needs. It’s gonna change both of us even if we swear it won’t.”

Noeul nods. “I get it. Some good people turn out to be horrible parents. It’s not about one’s character. High-stress environments can turn anybody crazy.”

Baekhyun reluctantly smiles. “Right.”

“Are you scared that you’ll turn into someone like that?” Noeul asks.

He wordlessly nods.

Noeul hugs him, fitting her chin snug on the crook of his right shoulder. “I’m scared too. I know that I’m not like my mother, but I can’t help but be afraid that we’ll give our baby a horrible genetic makeup. I have Parkinson’s and you have a history of drug addicts in your family. They’re not very good odds.”

Being transparent was exactly the solution. Noeul admits that communication between them because their habits growing up were to repress emotions in order to not burden anybody else. But she found that maturing meant talking about things that weren’t necessarily pleasant to talk about.

Being versed in psychology, perhaps that meant knowing herself more than she would’ve liked, but still—she could easily decipher people now and curve her expectations when needed. It helped her stay in touch with reality and resent people’s actions a little less because she could understand where they came from.

So, in a way, she completely understood Baekhyun’s apprehension. Noeul had concerns of her own which if their baby did come to term, there is a concern of predisposition. Besides, their childhood and skewed view of family did make them both susceptible to emotional syndrome.

It was a phenomenon that exacted itself in many dysfunctional families when a parent would find themselves relying on their children with adult matters and inconsequentially distorting healthy boundaries.

She could see herself taking the easy way out with how complicated her illness would play into all of this.

But Noeul finds this worry reassuring. This meant that they both wanted the best for their baby. This wasn’t simply out of the usual thoughtlessness due to the novelty that having kids was a natural trajectory of marriage.

“If it helps, I think we’ll be good parents,” Noeul tells Baekhyun in earnest.

He watches her, patiently waiting.

“What was your first concern when I told you that I was pregnant?”

Baekhyun thinks, and then says, “about whether or not we were in the right mental space to have a child.”

Noeul nods. “Right. Mine too. Does it occur to you that if we were really reckless and bad people, we would jump straight to accepting this out of societal pressure and obligation without any thought of consequences or logistics?”

“You’re…right.”

“I don’t think we have to make this decision now,” she tells him.

Baekhyun looks to her with dead seriousness. “I think I want this.”

Noeul falters. “You do?”

“I never really considered having kids now, but I’m not opposed to it either. We’ll be really tight on funds, but we’ve gotten really good at communicating, don’t you think?”

This brings a smile to her face. “Like what we’re doing right now?”

He smiles as well. “Exactly. Marriages fail when couples try to solve their problems with having a kid. I certainly don’t want kids because they’re supposedly fulfilling or because I see them as an extension of me.”

“Or because you’ll be given unconditional love?”

Baekhyun shakes his head. “Definitely not. I think we’re ready because we have an example of what not to do. I’m in that stage in my life where I’m wondering how things are going to get even better than they already are. This—“ He finds her hand and squeezes. “—is one of those moments. Regardless of our worries, I’m genuinely excited by this news.”

Noeul finds herself grinning so hard that her cheeks hurt. “You want to have kids with me?”

Baekhyun leans in, planting a hard kiss on —filling her stomach with butterflies and euphoria. “I want to experience everything with you, Noeul.”

[a/n] hi! i’m back for one last time (??). next semester will be my last semester of junior college before i transfer to university, so i’m probably going to go on hiatus until then.

i love sharing my writing with you guys but knowing how busy i’ll be, i’m going to put writing on pause. this is why i practically sprinted to get this epilogue done.

i wanted to give you guys a realistic glimpse of baekhyun and noeul’s future. first from their friend’s pov to give y’all an outside perspective. then lastly, a very realistic scene of pregnancy. not to rag on people, but i feel like epilogues have this unrealistic touch of marriage = happy ever after.

it’s really not. there’s a lot of thought and cooperation that goes into fostering a healthy relationship. i really wanted to show you guys that progress. just because you come from dysfunctional families does not mean that you yourself will be bad parents. it’s about knowing who you are and what your limits are. anyway, thank you again for reading. i’m happy i got to finish this story and deliver two very beautifully written characters.

please leave some comments. i would love to know how you guys thought of this chapter.