Wheein’s POV

“Flowers” I whispered under my breath as I glanced at the bouquet of flowers on my lap. I lifted it up and took a whiff of it, trying to see if its scent is still there. I placed it down on my lap again and patted my inside coat pocket next. “Box… Where’s the box? Where’s the box?” I inserted my hand in my coat pocket and sighed in relief when it’s still there. I chewed the inside of my cheek as I glanced at the cake on my sister’s lap. “Cake” I whispered, nodding my head at it before I faced the passenger seat. “Mom? You brought the food, right?”

“It’s in the trunk, sweetie”

“Okay…” I nodded and leaned back, sighing heavily as I closed my eyes while I couldn’t stop my legs from moving out of nervousness.

“That’s the fifth time you asked and the fifth time you checked everything. Calm down”

I pouted at Sica and whined, “I couldn’t. What do you think I’ve been doing for the past few minutes?”

“I’m expecting you’d looked worse by the time you’ll propose to her”

I gasped while my eyes widened as I leaned closer to my older sister. “Do you think I should propose? Can I even propose? We can’t be married. Should I have bought a ring instead? Would she be happy with that?” I turned to Mom and Dad at the front of the car when Sica just laughed at me, leaning closer to my parents while making sure that I won’t flatten the flowers on my lap. “What do you think Mom? Dad? Should I propose even if we couldn’t get married?”

“Do you want to propose to her? Have you two talked about that?” Dad asked.

I pouted as I leaned back on my seat again and shook my head. “I don’t know… We haven’t talked about that. We’re always talking about Yongjae though”

“Maybe you should ask her first before proposing” Mom suggested.

“But how would it be a surprise if I’m going to ask her if it’s okay to propose to her?”

“Not like that, baby girl” Sica said, laughing at me as she pinched my cheek. “Talk about your plans with your relationship. Don’t ask her directly”

“What if she doesn’t want to?” I asked, pouting at my sister before I pouted at the flowers on my lap. What if Yongsun doesn’t want to stay with me forever? Her mother already wanted us apart.

“But what if she wanted to?”

“But we still couldn’t do it though…”

“You could legalize your marriage if you get married in another country”

“We can?” I asked Sica, my eyes widening before I slowly frowned at her. “But what if she doesn’t want that?” I asked, voicing out my worry.

Yongsun was even having a hard time coping against how people would look at her every time we’re together in public. I never blamed her about it and she’s definitely improving now every time we go out. It still makes me a little bit sad that we couldn’t be our normal selves in public because of how guarded her actions were. But I still understand her. It just makes me think that maybe she might not want to be with me anymore because of it. Maybe she’d get tired fighting against it and adjusting just like when she was still pregnant with Yongjae.

I was suddenly pulled to my side by my sister before I felt her kiss the top of my head. She leaned my head on her shoulder and squeezed my arm.

“Stop worrying when you have nothing to worry about” she whispered while I sighed and nodded on her shoulder even though I’m still very worried.

My nervousness was replaced with worry a second ago but when I saw our apartment building, I instantly sat up, getting nervous all over again. I glanced at the flowers to make sure that it still looked beautiful. I patted my coat to make sure that the box is still inside my coat pocket. Then I glanced at Sica but pouted at her when I saw her trying not to laugh at me.

“You’re back to being nervous again. Stop it…” she whispered before she covered when she couldn’t hold her laugh anymore.

“You’re just making her even more nervous, Sica” Dad said from the driver seat.

“You couldn’t do anything about it, Dad. Whether I’ll laugh at her or not, no one could stop her from being nervous”

“But you’re not helping her as well”

“Sorry, Mom” she mumbled and instantly stopped laughing.

I snickered at her while she glared at me. I unfastened my seatbelt and stuck my tongue out to her before I hurriedly climbed out of the car.

“Do that again and I will destroy your cake”

“No!” I hurriedly ran towards Sica to grab the box of cake from her but she turned her back on me and walked away from me. “Give me that! You’re destroying it if you won’t carry it properly. I worked hard on it!” I placed the bouquet of flowers close to my chest so it wouldn’t get destroyed when I jogged towards my sister. “Give me that!”

“This is karma for teasing me!” she called out behind her while we continued to chase each other in the basement parking lot.

“Wheein!” Dad called out to me, and at the same time Mom said, “Jessica!”

I stopped running when Sica stopped running as well. I pouted at her while she frowned at me.

Mom and Dad walked towards us, bringing the plastic bags of food I bought for dinner.

“Act like your ages”

“But she started it” I whined at Dad.

“Your Dad just said to act like your age, Wheein” Mom said, making me frown at her.

“Don’t stick your tongue to me next time, baby girl”

“Sica…”

“Sorry, Mom” she said, apologizing right away.

“Are we just staying here? Aren’t we supposed to go up?” Dad asked, looking at me now.

“Oh yeah… Yeah… Follow me” I whispered, gulping hard from nervousness again as I led the way towards the elevator.

Sica walked beside me and placed her arm around my shoulders before she pulled me close to her. She kissed my head while I sighed heavily when we got inside the elevator. Mom and Dad stayed behind us. I could hear Mom whispering how Sica and I are still immature despite our ages and how we’ve been living independently for years now. Sica just laughed at Mom’s remark while she squeezed my shoulder. I couldn’t help but smile a little bit from that as well.

My older sister let me walk out of the elevator first. She’s been to our apartment plenty of times. She could come here with her eyes closed already. I’ve seen her more now that she met Yongjae than before. The little guy has charms that would make anyone love him instantly.

Thinking about it now, Mom and Dad might visit us more often as well if they’ll see Yongjae later. It’s still not Yongjae’s bedtime as well so he’d still be awake by now. I just hope it’s okay for Yongsun. Having Sica felt like too much for her already. I don’t want to stress her out if my entire family would constantly visit us.

“Are you going to stay in her apartment, Wheein? Aren’t you moving out? Yongjae will grow up soon” Dad said from behind.

“I’m planning on moving us out. I’m just not done with the renovations yet. I haven’t told Yongsun about it as well so don’t ever tell her anything” I said, glancing at all of them. “Okay?” I asked them and heard a collective of yeses from them before I continued walking again.

I stopped in front of our apartment door and looked at them. “Should we light up the candles first?” I whispered to them.

“Let’s just light them inside. Yongkeey might do a surprise attack at us. Instead of surprising Yongsun, we’ll be the ones getting surprised by the dog” Sica whispered while I nodded at her.

I tensed up when I heard Yongkeey barking on the other side of the door. She recognized me right away even when I was trying to be quiet and I immediately panicked. Instead of entering the password, I pressed the doorbell.

“I thought we’re supposed to get in right away. Why did you ring the bell?” Sica whispered behind me.

“I panicked because Yongkeey recognized me from the inside of the house right away”

“Then just enter the password before it’s too late”

It was already too late.

I jumped on my heels when I heard the door opened and saw Yongsun by the door. I was frozen on where I was standing that all I did was stare at her.

Sica nudged my arm and whispered, “Say something”

I gulped hard and opened my mouth, only to shut it close when I saw Yongsun smirking at me. “I… We… Uhmm… ” I stuttered and gulped hard once again while Sica sighed deeply beside me and shook her head. I could hear Mom and Dad laughing from behind me.

“Take your time, Whee. We can wait for it,” Mom said, making Yongsun chuckle at me.

She opened the door wider and glanced at Mom and Dad behind me. “I didn’t expect she’d be bringing all of you, Mr. and Mrs. Jung. Come in. I hope we all fit inside though” she said, before greeting Sica with a nod and smile.

“Is Yongjae still awake?” my older sister asked, moving inside the apartment and didn’t bother to wait for me to say something.

“He is. He’s sitting in the high chair in the kitchen” Yongsun replied, stepping aside to let Sica in.

“We’re supposed to sing and surprise her, Sica. What are you doing?” I whined at her and pouted at Mom and Dad when they walked around me and got inside, didn’t want to wait for me as well. “Hey! No! No, your roles are done now. You can go back home now. Mom! Dad! Sica!”

I took a step to get inside but Yongkeey stopped me when she leaned her front paws on me and wagged her tail excitedly. “Hi…” I whispered and patted her head before she went inside, leaving me alone with Yongsun by the front door. I groaned so hard from frustration while I heard her laughing at me.

“Is this supposed to be mine?”

“Yes… Happy birthday, Yongsun. My plans got ruined again when I panicked. I’m sorry”

I handed her the flowers and she accepted it before she wrapped her arms around my shoulders and hugged me tightly. I sighed and hugged her back as I looped my arms around her waist. I closed my eyes and pushed my face to her neck while she repeatedly kissed my check.

“Your plans didn’t go better than expected?” she asked as she pulled back to smile at me.

I pouted at her and shook my head while she smiled wider, her dimples going deeper right at the corners of her lips.

“They don’t have to go as planned. I love this already”

She buried her fingers in my hair before she pulled my face to her, closing her eyes when our faces got closer before she kissed me. She kissed my cheek next and smiled at me, her fingers still right in my hair and gently massaging my scalp. She brought the flowers in between us and stared at it intently.

“You brought me magnolias”

I smiled so wide and nodded at her. “They’re from Mom’s garden. Mom’s magnolias are always the best”

“Is that why your parents are here? To deliver the magnolias?” She quickly kissed my lips before she held my hand and walked us inside the apartment.

“I’m supposed to bring us to Jeonju so I could bring Yongjae to the house as well. Mom and Dad could meet him and we could go around Jeonju before going back to the house for dinner. I prepared a special dinner for you there”

“We can always have dinner here. You don’t have to bring me to Jeonju for that”

“But I can’t bring the garden here. It was supposed to be a dinner in the garden. Then you told me that you just want to stay here so I cancelled that. I just asked Mom if they could bring me the flowers. I didn’t expect for all of them to be here with me”

She laughed at me again and squeezed my hand before bringing it up to her lips to kiss it. “You’ve done so much already. You really don’t have to do all those things. I’m already happy that I got to spend my birthday with all the people I love”

I nodded before I bent my head low, averting her gaze when I felt my face heating up from the blush. I heard her laughing at me softly before I felt her lips on my cheek, kissing me there.

“Thank you. I love you, Wheein”

“I love you too” I whispered as I brought my gaze up to look at her and saw her smiling so wide at me. I cleared my throat before I asked her, “Did you wait long for me? Are you hungry already? Should we eat dinner now? I’m sorry for making you wait”

“It’s okay…”

We both turned our attention towards the kitchen when we heard Yongjae whining.

He was already in Sica’s arms while my Mom and Dad were trying to grab his attention. He was twisting and turning to dodge my parents’ faces and didn’t want to hold onto my older sister as well. He’s been shaking his head and running his fists in his head, ruining his pineapple hair.

“I think someone is already very hungry,” Yongsun whispered beside me. “Let me make him a bottle”

“No…” I stopped her from moving before she could even walk towards the kitchen. “Sit down. Let me handle it”

“Then I’ll just set the table so we could all eat dinner”

“No”

“No?”

“No.” I shook my head at her and walked her to the couch. “Sit down. I’ll just ask help from Sica since they’re already here to ruin my plans”

“What? No… ”

I silenced her protests by pecking her lips before I made her sit on the couch. I headed to the kitchen as I removed my coat and hung it on the backrest of the chair. Then I walked towards Yongjae, squeezing past Mom and Dad to get to him. “He’s hungry already, that’s why he’s grumpy. Can you set the table for me so we could eat dinner?” I asked Sica, lifting Yongjae from her arms.

“Sure”

Mom and Dad moved to sit on the couch since the kitchen would be cramped if all four of us were here. Yongsun was uncomfortable letting Sica set the table by herself so she stood up and insisted on helping her even though my older sister assured her that she could handle it.

Sica didn’t just come here to play with Yongjae. She sometimes eats dinner with me and Yongsun and volunteers to wash the dishes as a thank you to Yongsun who cooked the food. She has already memorized where the utensils were located and could’ve set the table herself.

I turned my attention to Yongjae who’s been pouting in my arms. I kissed his pouting lips and then his cheek before I turned to the refrigerator to grab his food. “You hungry, little guy? Yum yum? You want yum yum?”

“Yum yum…” he whispered in my arms.

I grabbed the small container of his food in the refrigerator and showed it to him. “This o