Cherish

Wedding day.

Set: Around 2-3 months after Cutlass.

A bit of context: I’m not too sure about Korean tradition, but it’s Chinese tradition for the bride to wear red at weddings and Cutlass takes place in a biethnic world that’s based on China/Korea. However, I’m Chinese and not Korean and therefore only know a select few Chinese customs, so I guess the wedding tradition in the Cutlass universe is based on that? I’ve attached some references of Hei’s dress at the end of the author’s note, but none of them are exactly what I was thinking—it’s a bit of a mix. Also, this chapter is cut weirdly because I didn’t want to write out the whole ceremony :’)

(And yes, Jongdae walks her down the aisle.)

((This chapter derails halfway through because it's midterm week, I only wanted to write Hei's dress + vows so everything that isn't that is much more brief. Still put a ridiculous amount of research into how weddings work, oops.))

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“You need to stop fussing,” Jongdae said. “Everything looks perfectly fine, but your hair will be ruined if you keep on touching it.”

Reluctantly, Hei set her hand down. Yoona had left the room for a brief moment to fetch more pins, and she had taken the absence of the other woman to start fidgeting after she had been instructed not to.

“I’m not nervous,” Hei finally managed to Jongdae. Then she was hit with the realization that Jongdae couldn’t lie, which meant her hair really would be ruined if she touched it one more time, so she clenched her hands so tight in her lap that she was certain she was cutting off the circulation to her fingers.

“Alright,” he said drily, “you clearly just got more nervous. Take a deep breath. It’s just Baekhyun.”

She glanced up at him incredulously. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

“Did it?”

“No!”

He chuckled affectionately, reached over, then seemed to remember he couldn’t ruffle her hair and lowered his hand. “You look pretty,” he told her, “so you don’t need to be worried about appearance. If it’s the vows you’re worried about, they were fine when we rehearsed them, and I don’t think you’ve made any drastic last minute changes. So unless you’re having second thoughts about marrying Baekhyun, which would actually be a very reasonable excuse for nervousness, you have no reason to be. Are you having second thoughts?”

“No.”

He shrugged as if to say, problem solved. Before either he or Hei could say anything else, the door opened again and Yoona swept aside, holding a couple more pins. She fastened Hei’s updo a little bit, dusted just a touch more of makeup on her face, then stepped back to examine her handiwork.

“You, my dear, look stunning,” she told Hei. “Come on, let’s get you in front of a full-length mirror so you can see for yourself.”

Thankfully, the shoes she was wearing weren’t the worst on a comfort scale. They still had heels though, so when Hei stood up, she wobbled for a brief moment.

Jongdae steadied her arm, and, apparently concerned that she couldn’t make it to the mirror without faceplanting, kept a grip on her elbow all the way there.

She stared at her own reflection in pleasantly shocked silence. The dress was traditional, but Yeri had taken the liberty to add a few tweaks with Hei’s approval. Somehow or another, they had made sure Baekhyun hadn’t seen it at all, but Yoona had promised to coordinate his clothing with hers so it didn’t all go tragically wrong.

Red and gold seemed such a bold combination that Hei had been against it in the beginning. She’d protested; Yoona insisted, with Yeri joining in, and then Jongdae, until she had been convinced to at least try. Now, looking at herself, Hei had to admit she was glad they forced her to make the choice. The collar of the dress was high, red embedded with patterned flowers of intricate golden stitching. Yeri had been the one to adjust the sleeves so they were wide and flaring, lined with the same gold pattern at the hems. The skirt of the dress was long enough to drag on the ground, which irritated her, but she supposed she would have to ignore it for the day. Yeri had taken the initially less-sophisticated cloth and stitched her own set of patterns onto it, so flowers that matched the neckline ran up from the bottom of her dress.

Yoona appeared in the mirror behind her. She slid something into her hair—Hei caught another flash of red and gold—and then nodded in approval. “We’re all set. Just in time—I think it’ll be starting in ten minutes.”

“I still can’t believe Minseok’s the officiant,” Jongdae muttered. “He does everything in his spare time, I swear. Next thing we know, he’s secretly the Kim family leader.”

Hei felt inclined to agree.

A couple minutes later, she was being escorted out of the dressing room and into the hall. They had set everything up outside; it was, thankfully, a pleasant enough day that no one had to worry about the rain. The afternoon sun was bright enough to illuminate, but not so much that it was hard on the eyes.

The group that was there was quite small; Baekhyun’s crew, and a splattering of other associates he knew and trusted. Seungwan was there, Hei spotted, and then with a jolt of surpr