Kwon Jiyong felt every eye in the church turn his way. The thought of playing groom to the woman who had occupied too many of his dreams left him a little weak in the knees. Seeking Sohee's permission, he met her gaze, but she looked just as surprised as he felt. Standing next to her, Sohee's brother Wooyoung grinned and gestured him forward. Jiyong realized the restless spectators considered the idea of him playing the part of the groom as an innocent request - unlike himself.

"Sure," he said with a shrug. As he made his way forward, he felt a bit like when his name had been called for the Most Valuable Player award for the football team his senior year - undeserving. Yet he wasn't about to turn down the prize.

Sohee had turned to face the altar and seemed to be staring everywhere but at him. The wedding director situated Jiyong just in front of her and to her right, then clapped his hands again to get things underway. The minister's voice was a dull buzzing sound in his ears.

Unable to take his eyes from her, Jiyong took in Sohee's flushed face and dark hair, and the years peeled away. She might have been 16, standing there in her pink prom gown, and he at her side in his gray tux, clutching a corsage and wondering how on earth he'd pin it above her with her father watching.

"Who gives this bride?" the minister boomed, breaking into Jiyong's reverie.

"I do." Wooyoung had to shout over the howling of the storm raging outside. Then he placed Sohee's hand on Jiyong's.

Her fingers were soft and pink and trembling. When she looked at him, a current of electricity jolted Jiyong's arm. It had always been like this between them - intense, unexpected, and unrealized. And the large diamond winking up at him from her slender hand reminded him that this...chemistry...would remain unrealized. Tomorrow Sohee would marry another man who would give her babies and anniversary gifts and memories for her old age.

"Do you, Sohee, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love and cherish as long as you both shall live?"

She stared at Jiyong, and he squeezed her hand inadvertently. Was she thinking the same as he - that if circumstances had been different, they might have been exchanging vows for real?

"I...do," she whispered.

The minister turned to Jiyong. "And do you, um, Khun, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love and cherish as long as you both shall live?"

"I do," Jiyong said, his voice strong, his gaze fixed on Sohee. The pupils in her eyes dilated slightly, and her lips parted.

"Will both the bride and groom have rings?" the minister murmured, his eyebrows high, clearly aware of the...tension...between Sohee and her pretend groom.

"Yes," Sohee said.

She looked straight ahead while the minister repeated the ring ceremony, but Jiyong couldn't stop staring, overwhelmed with the thought that fate had stepped in, had given him another chance with Ahn Sohee. He should say something, do something.

"And then the groom will put the ring onto the bride's hand," the minister said.

"Maybe this will do for now," Jiyong said, then removed his class ring and slipped it onto her finger next to her engagement ring.

***

Sohee stared at her hand, remembering how much she had once coveted the ring. This entire week - the reappearance of Jiyong, the last-minute details for the wedding, and now this unsettling rehearsal - it all seemed surreal, as if it were happening to someone else. Not someone whose life plodded along contentedly.

"And then I'll say, ‘You may now kiss the bride,'" the minister said, gesturing vaguely.

Jiyong looked at Sohee, his mouth twitching with want - surely they weren't going to skip the good part. The kiss, after all, was the prize. The indicator of what, if anything, was to come....