The sun peeked through the window, but Jihyo was not bothered at all. She unwittingly left a face mask on her face as she fell asleep the night before. Weirdly, it was the first night of her life that she found it difficult to sleep. Of course, part of the reason would have to be that it was becoming harder for her to be stuck in slumber without a certain warm body by her side.

She picked up her phone from the bedside table, and glanced at the time. 7:00AM. Odd, it had never been her strong suit to wake up early in the morning, specially after a restless night. She ended up scrolling on Hotteok’s Instagram account, not bothering to reply to the numerous text messages she briefly saw on her notifications.

She’d been told to take the day easily, and she much liked that idea. She was resolute that this day was going to be great for her, noting that neglecting everybody’s messages was an important part of that plan.

The minutes stretched by, and soon enough, her sister came swinging into her room, drawing the curtains wide and letting the sunlight flood in. “Good morning unnie! Did you have a good night’s sleep?”

It was only then that Jihyo sat up, and rubbed the sleep away from her eyes, yawning as she did. “I’m guessing from that yawn, it doesn’t seem like you got little sleep. That’s weird. We had you go up early last night,” her younger sister sat beside her on the bed, resting her head on Jihyo’s shoulder. “Why weren’t you able to sleep, unnie? Didn’t you finish it?”

Jihyo gazed at her table. A piece of paper lay on top of it, just beside a pen, and she remembered that she had yet to finish her task. She checked the time again. 7:48AM. She had a few more hours to still accomplish what she sought out to do the night before, but in the meantime, she could stall.

She decided to divert her sister’s attention, “Don’t worry about it. I have the rest of the day…”

“The rest of the day before 3:00, unnie. That doesn’t count the time you’ll be spending in hair and makeup. It’s going to be a busy day,” her sister grinned. “Are you excited?”

Jihyo thought about it for a moment, but realized there was no point in thinking it through. She truly was incandescently happy. It was likely why she couldn’t sleep the night before. She wordlessly nodded at her sister before asking her whether breakfast was ready.

“Well, we can’t leave the bride famished on the day of her wedding, can we?” her sister beamed before dragging Jihyo out of her room and into the dining area.

“I just saw her. She’s breathtaking, Jongkook-ah,” Hyeseon approached a fidgeting Jongkook. He was playing with a pen on one hand, while the other held onto a sheet of paper, but, upon seeing his mother, he immediately slid the paper into his suit pocket and stood up.

He held his mother by the arms, “Of course, she is, eomma. That’s why I’m marrying her.”

“Aigoo! You’re ending up marrying that darling girl anyway. What took you so long to figure out she’s the right person? We could’ve had this years ago, and I would have young grandchildren to take care of by now!” his mother nagged.

Jongkook chuckled, “I’m already getting married, eomma. Shouldn’t you just be happy for me? Better late than never.”

“You better get to work immediately after the wedding. I want to see my grandchildren before I die, adeul-ah. I mean it. Jihyo would have the most beautiful children,” his mother mused.

“They could take after me, eomoni,” Jongkook teased. His mother rolled her eyes at him, and it made him laugh loudly. “Why do you consider that as a bad thing? I take after you. Don’t you want your grandchildren to look like you?” he teased.

“Stop bothering me and just go to Jihyo now,” his mother relented, not even taking any time to answer his teasing. Jongkook chuckled once more, as his mother continued to say, “They said something about taking your pictures before the ceremony. Run along now, adeul-ah. You can’t leave your bride waiting.”

“That one, I agree with. I’ll see you later eomma,” Jongkook said, putting an arm around his mother and planting a kiss on her cheek, before running off to the room where he knew that Jihyo was staying. He was excited to see her.

Unfortunately for him, when he entered, Jihyo’s friends from Pohang were crowded all around her. She was obviously seated down, so he couldn’t see her. He decided to wait his turn, knowing that weddings were always a way for people to catch up with the couple; he’d been a wedding guest multiple times after all. He dutifully stood by the door, smiling at the friends who let him skip the line, so he could go ahead and take the much needed pre-wedding photos with her. He kept his hand behind him, and he was squeezing them together, in anticipation to see what Jihyo looked like.

She was adamant about making sure that he had absolutely no idea what she was going to wear to their wedding, and despite his efforts to scour their apartment for her dress, she was too sneaky for him, and he had to hold up the proverbial white flag, accepting that he had to wait for the wedding to find out what she would be wearing. This was the moment he had been waiting for.

One of Jihyo’s friends must have noticed him, and she whispered to the rest of their group. Just like that, the rest of the guests turned back at him, bowing slightly with their heads. Like a curtain being drawn open, they moved aside to reveal Jihyo in her resplendent glory, as she sat on her chair. She stood up, grabbing the bouquet and piece of paper she kept by her side. “Oppa, you’re here…” she said, a smile appearing on her face as she saw him.

He, however, was stunned. Given his inability to find Jihyo’s wedding dress prior to the wedding, his mind had conjured many different images of her in different gowns. He just knew she wouldn’t be wearing something too big; that much, she’d told him.

But, at that moment, she looked so beautiful. She was wearing a simple gown, and yet she looked so elegant. Minimal in nature, she wore something that was made of silk, with no frills like lace or tulle. That was simply not her. It didn’t have any sleeves and was low-cut, allowing him a peek of her neck and collarbones, and the dress hugged her figure beautifully, cinching her small waist before falling down and fanning around her. When she moved forward to meet him halfway, it was only then that Jongkook noticed the slit of her dress, showing off her white heels. Her hair was in a low ponytail, cascading down and covering her exposed back; the dress was backless, after all.

Some curled tendrils of her hair framed her face, and he could see the new earrings he had given her as a wedding gift. They were made of diamonds, and they dropped beautifully from her ears, the light bouncing off of them, allowing them to shine and twinkle as she walked.

He was speechless, and his mouth was left agape. He’d always known Jihyo was gorgeous, but there were no words to describe how she looked at that moment. Her hands reached to his chin, slightly moving it upwards as if to keep his jaw from dropping. “Stop staring. You’re just teasing me now,” she said, her voice a bit lower to keep the people around them from hearing.

Jongkook had to clear his throat, losing his voice initially. “You look…” But he lost his words. His mother was right, so much so that he couldn’t find the right word to describe. Every other synonym of the word beautiful did not feel sufficient to describe her right then. So, instead, what he couldn’t put into words, he channeled into his action, as he cupped her cheek with his hand, and planted a soft kiss on her lips, one that she reciprocated by pressing her own against his, letting her hands rest on his shoulders.

The people around them cheered and hollered, causing them to break apart upon remembering that they weren’t alone. They both sheepishly looked down at the floor, slightly stealing glances at each other and the people around them. Jongkook noticed that their videographers and photographers had their cameras trained on them, and that was when he realized what he came for.

“Eomma said we’re called to take photos before the ceremony?” he asked.

Jihyo nodded, “Yes. The coordinator said we’ll take the photos in the garden before we begin.”

“We should probably go,” he said, offering his hand out to her, and she took it. “Our beloved guests… um… we’ll be right back,” Jongkook sheepishly called out to the rest of the people, before leading Jihyo out of the room to follow the wedding coordinators and videographers towards the garden.

The garden was doubling as the wedding venue, so tables were sprawled on the carpet laid out on top of the grass, with an aisle in the middle. It was decked out in innumerable flowers and decorations, and the area was surrounded by palm trees, reminiscent of his second hometown in Los Angeles. Lanterns and lights hung above them, perfectly lined up to light up the place once it turned dark, and from a distance, a view of the Seoul skyline could be seen, which would undoubtedly look beautiful once the sun was about to set. There was a makeshift stage, where they were expected to have the ceremony, and, to the right, some steps were put up in front of a white curtained panel for them to take pictures with the rest of the wedding party.

Behind the area was their favorite part, however. There was a fountain, a replica of their favorite from Los Angeles, just on the corner of Santa Monica and Wilshire in Beverly Hills, and set against the background of the skyline, the view was just astonishing.

“We were told you’d want to take your photos here?” the coordinator mentioned to the couple, as Jongkook and Jihyo nodded. They purposefully chose not to take photos before the wedding, reasoning that they wanted to capture how they looked on the day itself, instead of having a separate photoshoot. Knowing that their chosen wedding venue also had this backdrop further solidified their reasoning, as it was a beautiful mix of two of their favorite places, and considering that they secluded this area off from the guests, it felt like their own small piece of paradise. They liked it very much, and felt secure in the area, much like how they felt at peace in the privacy of their relationship.

Jongkook and Jihyo had endorsed a lot of products before, which meant that taking photos together should have been easy. But, this was the only time they were shooting for a wedding, and the scrutiny of the cameras made them quite apprehensive at first.

The wedding coordinator didn’t miss this, so she devised a way around