Chapter 12: The Distance

“Actually I talked to some of PDs and also our manager about the wedding broadcast”

almost dropped

“A... broadcast?”

He nodded with a smile as he happily took a spoonful of the frozen delight into his mouth; she dropped her spoon making Heechul turn back to her.

“Hey! You dropped your spoon! Aish, you should be more –“

“A BROADCAST?!”

She shrieked, Heechul got startled and blinked his eyes twice. Other people in the shop turned their attention towards the couple; some were surprised by her sudden yield. Heechul gestured her to keep it down and asked an employee for a glass of water. He accepted the glass from the worker and thanked her; Youngmi swore that she saw the girl squeal.

‘A fan’

She thought to herself.

“Here, drink this first & before you freak out again can you let me explain?”

She drank up the whole glass in one go making him give her one of those ‘WTF’ looks. She set the glass down and breathed out a sigh, she then gestured him to go on with his explanation.

Heechul rolled his eyes and took another bite of ice cream before beginning his explanation. It went on and on, he said that the broadcast was gonna go live from the arrival of the guests to the entrance of the groom then bride up to the reception, all the while his bride-to-be just stared at him in pure disbelief.

“And besides, they’ll give us a copy of the whole thing!”

He finished with a proud smile on his face. She just wanted to slap some sense into him but she stopped herself instead she just leaned back on her seat and let out a sigh, rubbing her temples.

“So, what do you think?”

He asked; she avoided making eye contact with him, she just wanted to let everything be on mute right now.

“Yah, Youngmi-ah did you hear –“

“Yes I heard you”

“What do you think?”

She leaned in, making sure to keep her voice moderate.

“Heechul, do you think we’re Prince William & Kate to have this broadcast thing? Even if it’s all for free it’s just too much, can’t we just have a nice quiet wedding without the whole world watching every move we make?”

“Don’t you wanna feel like it for a single day?”

She sighed

“We should go oppa, pick out a design for the invitations”

She said, taking her bag and getting up from her chair. Heechul sensed the sudden change in the atmosphere and followed her out of the store. They successfully got to the car despite the sea of girls that were trying to get as close as possible to him with the help of the security.

The drive was quiet and Heechul avoided the subject about the broadcast thing. He never really wanted it but he just thought it might be a good idea for the wedding to be documented. As they arrived at the printing shop, Youngmi quietly got out and Heechul followed.

Inside, an employee led them to a room where there was a couch and a table & presented them with various template designs and left them both for a moment to go over and think about what they wanted to print.

“This is nice”

Heechul mumbled.

It was awkward and quiet.

Youngmi sighed and turned to Heechul who kept focusing on the designs at the table. He was unusually quiet and she just couldn’t but feel bothered by his silence. She turned back to the templates.

“We can just hire other people to document the wedding, you know”

She mumbled, he smirked and tossed aside of the templates.

“Fine, no broadcast but the documentation should be done from the moment you wake up”

She rolled her eyes and sighed as Heechul just laughed and ruffled her hair; she hissed and quickly fixed it up as they then got back to focusing on choosing which template to choose for the invitation. Heechul dug deep and found a photobook style template.

It was square and had 10 pages plus the cover was thick and they got to pick out the colours and photos to be printed on it too.

“Let’s pick this one!”

He smiled, presenting it to Youngmi. She took the template away from his hands and nodded with a smile. They called the employee and gave him the template that they chose.

“We’ll come back some time this week for the names and photos and remember that the motif is white & royal sapphire blue”

Youngmi said then afterwards the couple left.

-

“The awaited wedding of Super Junior’s Kim Heechul & Dr. Nam Youngmi seems to have been sparked up with a controversy after some angry fans had charged to her house and vandalized the exterior of the property. Police officials had come to the scene but the suspects had already fled off. So far, neither of the couple had given word about the incident”

Heechul hasn’t seen his bride-to-be ever since that day; he had schedules today with the rest of the members which required them to fly off to Japan. The news hasn’t died down which meant headache for the company once again but he was Kim Heechul and a scolding meeting after he flies back to Seoul was not gonna be a surprise for him.

He was at the airport today, ready to board the plane and he was on the phone with her.

“I’m meeting up with your sister today, don’t worry about anything”

“AISH! Why can’t you just stay in your house?! We’ll go and see the coordinator when I get back”

“Aniyo! Look, Heejin-unnie will be with me at all times & besides what’s the worst thing your fans can do?”

“Gauge your eyes out; bury you alive, kidnap & torture!”

“Don’t you think you’re exaggerating?”

Heechul groaned upon hearing their manager call him to hurry up

“I have to go; stay in the house, araso?”

He placed the phone down without even awaiting her reply and joined the others. As soon as he got on the plane he sat down on his designated seat which was next to Kyuhyun & Shindong.

Somewhere in mid-air he took out a notebook and a pen then began listing down names. Kyuhyun plucked off his headphones upon noticing what his hyung was doing, he nudged Shindong and pointed to the notebook that Heechul was holding. They exchanged glances for a moment before Shindong motioned the magnae to ask the elder guy what he was doing.

“What are you doing hyung?”

Kyuhyun asked; Heechul kept scribbling down and never once did he turn to the magnae

“Organizing some stuff to do for next week; photo shoot with Youngmi and etc.”

“A photo shoot?”

Shindong raised a brow; Heechul nodded and bit the bottom of his pen. Kyuhyun smirked and called for an attendant, he asked for food and the girl smiled at him with a nod before walking away to fulfil his request.

“So, how is Youngmi-noona?”

Shindong asked, turning on the Nintendo DS in his hands.

“She’s fine”

“What about the incident with the fans?”

Kyuhyun followed up another question; Heechul closed the notebook and placed it away inside his bag with the pen. He puffed out a sigh and rummaged his belongings looking for his earphones and iPod.

“I told her not to make any comments about it but she seems fine, she understood why it happened anyway”

“Well she’s a brave one”

Shindong remarked.

“When are gonna give out the invitations? Wonder Girls is gonna be there right?”

Kyuhyun asked once again just as the attendant arrived with his food. He thanked the girl then quietly she went away.

“Ofcourse!”

Heechul happily exclaimed as he finally found his iPod & earphones. He plugged them on and ignored the two beside him.

Back in Seoul

Youngmi parked up her car; Heejin unbuckled her seatbelt as Youngmi did the same then together they got out and entered the shop where Heejin was going to get her body fitted for her dress to the wedding.

“So, have you guys decided on the wedding date yet?”

She asked the younger girl; Youngmi looked up from the magazine she was reading

“Not yet but probably 5 months from now”

“Well that’s good atleast you’ve got a pending date but wait, I heard about what happened with the fans”

Heejin stepped down from the platform as the lady finished getting her measures. They thanked the people in the shop and left to go and see the coordinator next; the topic about the incident kept on flowing on and one until they arrived at the building where the office of the coordinator was located.

“He became protective, I’ll tell you that”

Youngmi told her with a laugh. As soon as they exited the elevator and opened the door to that office, a fangirl scream erupted which startled the two ladies. Youngmi & Heejin blinked their eyes as they stared at the screaming lady behind a desk, her hands pasted on her cheeks.

“OH MY GOSH! DR. NAM YOUNGMI REALLY IS MY CLIENT!”

She screamed, hurriedly approaching the startled bride-to-be. She fixed herself and took a deep breath before professionally lending a hand to Youngmi & introduced herself with a bright smile.

“Pardon my screaming; I’m Park Haera & I am your wedding coordinator”

Youngmi mentally slapped herself and smiled as she shook Haera’s hand.

“It’s nice to meet you, this is Heejin-unnie”

The coordinator gasped as she shook Heejin’s hand

“Neh, neh, Heechul-ssi’s sister! Why don’t we all take a seat?”

Haera took a seat on her leather chair as Youngmi & Heejin sat down on the couch facing her office table. Despite the lady still not getting over the fact that Heechul’s bride was really sitting inside her office, she pretty much did everything professionally.

“So, first we have to talk about is the motif of the wedding”

Haera explained which Youngmi brightly then informed her

“We already have one: Royal Sapphire Blue & White”

“The attires?”

“Done; the invitations have also been chosen and they’re ready to be printed and the bridal bouquet too other than those, the rest is yours to work on”

Youngmi smiled; Haera was surprised by how much they both had done by themselves.

“That’s good to hear so all we have to work on now is the wedding venue, the reception, the date, the rehearsals, the catering, other services too um... where is your groom?”

-

“OPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPAAAAAAAAA!”

The screeching voices of possibly a hundred fangirls waiting at the airport had filled Heechul’s ear despite the blaring music that his earphones were sending through his eardrums. Security guided them up to their bus, he swore he heard a number of them yelling ‘OPPA DON’T GET MARRIED!’ in Korean but he shrugged it off of his shoulders.

Once they were seated in their bus, they did a few peeks and waves through the window as the driver drove off.

Heechul plucked off his earphones and kept it inside his bag, Leeteuk was still busy staring out the windows for the chasing fans. The leader chuckled then turned to Heechul who was fiddling with his phone, probably texting Youngmi.

“Hey, give it a rest for a while Heechul, Youngmi’s doing fine! Trust me!”

Heechul let out a frustrated sigh.

“You heard about the incident hyung; when we went to the mall, I left her for a little while & when I came back she was being pushed over by two fans! What if this time she gets run over by a car or gets beaten up in the streets?! You know how ELFs & Petals can be a bit out of control sometimes!”

Leeteuk laughed at his donsaengs exaggeration; he certainly was convinced that other than Super Junior, Heechul cherished someone so much more. After he sent a text, he would sit still for a couple of seconds then check his phone, he would let out a groan every now & then and complain about how she wasn’t giving him a reply.

Up until they arrived at their hotel, Heechul was still busy fiddling with his phone; every now & then he would dial up her number and call her then he would curse because she wasn’t answering.

“AISH! That’s it! I’m gonna delete her number!”

He shrieked, Kyuhyun looked at him funny and smirked

“You’re deleting your fiancée’s number? Are you serious?”

They were at the lobby, waiting for their room keys. Heechul was irritated to say the least, though he dared to press the delete button he didn’t. When they finally got to their respective rooms, Heechul kept on trying to call her. He was roommates with Sungmin & the aegyo king was just observing him. They were in Japan for promotion and weren’t gonna be back in Korea for a week, he hoped that he won’t be dealing with Heechul’s angry tantrums for the time being.

Heechul threw his phone on his bed so hard that it bounced off and fell on the floor, startling Sungmin.

“Hyung, are you okay?”

He asked with caution; Heechul gave him a glare before walking out of the room & slamming the door.

-

Youngmi had dropped off Heejin to her apartment in Seoul then went home. It was around 7:00 in the evening and she remembered that Heechul was going live at a show with Super Junior in a few minutes! After parking up her car, she hurriedly went inside her house and the television.

She switched to a Japanese channel that Leeteuk told her she could watch the show from. She took her phone out of her bag, it had been put on silent for the whole day and to her surprise it was filled with missed calls & texts from Heechul! She gulped, he certainly was upset but she couldn’t call him back right now because even if she tried to Heechul was on the stage of the even right now.

Her umma was out of the house & had left a note on the front door that she was going to visit a few relatives then her unnie was back in her own roof for work so she was alone. She had made sure to lock the gate and doors.

Obviously, it was a live late night show that they were doing in Japan & the two hosts had brought up the topic about Heechul’s upcoming wedding.

“So Heechul-ssi, we heard that you’re getting married; how’s the bride?”

The male host asked him.

They weren’t that fluent in Japanese so they brought a translator with them for easy communication; after the question was relayed to Heechul in Korean, he chuckled & held his microphone up.

“Actually, I’ve been trying to get in touch with her ever since we landed”

Leeteuk sniggered quietly to the side as he remembered the situation Heechul got into earlier. The female host followed up a question

“So you can’t go a day without talking to her? That’s adorable!”

“Honestly, I wanted to keep in touch with her to see how she’s doing & I’m just very worried because of the incident with the fans”

The male host then said

“Do you have a message for your bride-to-be?”

Heechul faced the camera

“If you got kidnapped then to the kidnappers, please let her go. Anyway, YAH! ANSWER YOUR PHONE! I’VE BEEN WORRIED SICK ABOUT YOU!”

Youngmi laughed after hearing what he had to say & she also felt quite warm inside. After the show had ended, she waited a couple of minutes before calling Heechul.

It didn’t even take 2 rings for him to pick up.

“YAH! HAVE YOU BEEN IGNORING ME ALL DAY?! YOU GOT ME WORRIED SICK WOMAN!”

Despite him yelling at her, she just couldn’t help but laugh.

“Mianhe oppa, my phone was on silent. I’m fine here”

Heechul let out a sigh of relief

“I miss you already –AISH! I sound so sappy!”

“Babo, I miss you too; our wedding coordinator is crazy!”

“Tch. I told you to wait but no! I’ll be home in a week, araso?”

“Araso”

“Don’t sleep with other guys Youngmi-ah, don’t you even dare”

“Ofcourse not! Get some rest oppa”

“Neh ~ Hey call me tomorrow!”

“Neh – Annyeong!”

“Wait!”

“Mwo?”

“Saranghae”

Youngmi smiled; he was so sappy.

“Nado Saranghaeyo”