FLASHBACK (COLLEGE/UNIVERSITY YEAR)

“The Knicks want me, Yoona,” Yul said.

Yoona looked up from the sink and smiled weakly at her husband. “What did they say when you said see me after college?” she asked.

Yul cleared his throat. “I didn’t say that.”

She pulled her hands out of the water and grabbed the dish towel off the counter, wiping her hands on it. She walked over to the table and sat down across from Yul. “What did you say?”

When he wouldn’t meet her gaze, she immediately knew. Finally he looked up. “I’m leaving in a week,” he told her.

“Yul...”

“I want you to come with me, Yoong.”

Yoona’s eyes filled with tears that she refused to cry. With the way things had been going between them, he hadn’t called her Yoong in a long time. “But we had an agreement. We finish college and then we make a decision where to go from there. Your education is important.”

“I already signed a contract,” he admitted.

“How could you?” she asked desperately. “You didn’t even talk to me about it. Yul... we had a plan!”

“Yeah, well, we planned to be parents forever, too, but look at where we are now,” he said, motioning around the apartment with his arm.

Yoona ran her hands through her hair. “I can’t believe you did this,” she said accusingly.

He got up from his seat and came to stand in front of her. He knelt down and took her hands in his. “Come with me, Yoona. You can transfer to NYU. We can start over.” He swallowed past the lump in his throat. “I can’t stay in this apartment. Not with Yul Jr.’s room just down the hall. It’s constant reminder.”

Yoona pulled her hands away and stood up. “No, I’m not going with you,” she refused stubbornly. “I came here with you, to Duke University, because it’s where you wanted to go. I followed your dream. And you promised me that we would finish school before you decided where you were going to go in the NBA. So I made that my dream... finishing school. I’m not going to give this one up, too.”

“Yoona... you can still finish school. In New York.”

Yoona shook her head. “I’m going to stay with Sunny and Taeng,” Yoona said, turning away and walking purposefully towards their bedroom. “Yoona!” he yelled.

She turned around. “Don’t you dare yell at me, Kwon Yul!”

He laughed bitterly. “You think I’m going to just let you go?”

She laughed in turn. “You think you have a choice?” she shot back, pulling her suitcase out and putting it on the bed. She opened it and then started hastily throwing her things into it.

“So, what you go to Sunny and Taeng’s? And then what?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t thought that far ahead yet,” Yoona said angrily. “I’m not the one who makes choices about our future without consulting you.”

He sat down on the bed and she could feel his gaze on her entire time she was packing. She had all she could do not to stop and beg him to try and get out of his contract. But she felt like enough had changed without him about to uproot them and change everything else in their lives, too.

“My flight is leaving next Friday morning at 10am. I want you to go with me Yoong,” he told her. “I won’t board that plane until the last possible minute. If you’re not there, then I’ll know it’s over.”

She looked up at him and met his eyes. “I won’t be there,” she assured him, snapping her suitcase shut.

ONE WEEK LATER...

“I’m sorry, Mr. Kwon,” the airline attendant said. “But if you don’t board the plane now, I’m afraid it’s going to leave without you.”

Yul took one last look around the airport and sighed in defeat. Yoona wasn’t coming. He looked at the attendant and nodded. “Ok,” he said, walking toward the gate to board his flight to New York.

END OF FLASHBACK

“I visited Yul Jr.’s grave on his birthday,” Jesse told his brother.

“Yeah, me, too,” Yul said, still looking straight ahead while they walked.

“You had a game that day,” Jesse said.

“Yep,” Yul agreed. “And by the time I’d flown back to L.A., I was exhausted.”

“They let you do that on a game day?” Jesse asked.

Yul nodded. “It’s a clause in my contract,” he informed Jesse. “I get to visit him on his birthday. And on his death day,” Yul said quietly.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” Jesse said.

“Yeah, well, when they want you bad enough, they’ll give you whatever you ask for.”

Jesse nodded. “It looks nice. Someone takes good care of it,” he said.

“Yeah, I pay for someone to maintain it,” he said. “He plants those purple wild flowers that Yoona loves so much,” he continued, more to himself than to Jesse.

Jesse cleared his throat. “So, what do you think is going to happen when Yoona wakes up?” he asked.

Yul stopped, hands still in his pockets and lifted his eyes to his brother’s. “You mean if?” he asked.

“No,” Jesse said fiercely, reaching out and squeezing his brother’s shoulder. “I mean when.”

“Thanks,” Yul said, releasing a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding. He started walking again, Jesse by his side. “Well, when Yoong wakes up I do what I should have done a long time ago. I stick by her,” he said, his voice full of emotion, “whether she likes it or not.”

 “Yul... you don’t want...”

“Yeah, Jesse, I want a drink. I want a drink every damn day of my sorry life, but wanting one and letting myself have one or two different things. I won’t let myself have one,” Yul assured his brother. “It’s been years.”

When Yoona hadn’t come to the airport, Yul had been devastated. But he knew that ultimately, it was Yoona’s choice. He’d told her that he wanted her there, and that should have been enough. Then he had let his pride get in the way and refused to beg her. Instead, he’d drunk himself into oblivion as often as possible, and being that he was in pre-season training and the Knicks weren’t on the road yet, it had been nearly every night. It only took two telephone conversations for Jesse to know that all was not right with his brother, and he’d been on a flight to New York immediately. He’d tried to talk to some sense into Yul, but he couldn’t. So he’d just stayed and made sure that where Yul went, he went too. Jesse took care of him when he needed it waited patiently for Yul to come to his senses. It wasn’t long after the season had started that Yul pulled himself out of his stupor. It was obvious that he couldn’t continue on the way he’d been and play to the best of his ability.

Yul had realized that for the second time in his life, he’d turned to alcohol to solve his problems. The first time had been when Yoona had left to go out on tour. He wouldn’t do it again. He promised himself... and Jesse that he was done drinking, and he hadn’t touched a drop since. Not even when celebrating a big win.

But now, he was going to get Yoona back. And at this point, where this situation was concerned, his pride was no longer an issue. Begging was no longer beneath him when it came to his wife.

“You know, I know that you and Yoona had it worst, but we all lost that little boy,” Jesse said, as he and Yul turned around and headed back toward the hospital.

Yul looked down at the ground and nodded his head. “I know that, Jesse. More than I did then. Then it was just about... what we were going through.”

“And then it was made worse when we lost you and Yoona,” Jesse continued.

“You didn’t lose us. I joined the Knicks, and Yoona went to Stanford,” Yul said with a shrug. “She followed her dream.”

Jesse stopped and his eyes followed Yul as he continued down the sidewalk, when Yul realized that his brother wasn’t beside him any longer, he stopped and looked up, and then behind him. “You OK?” he asked.

“You don’t get it, do you?”

“Jesse, what are you talking about?” Yul asked.

“Yoong’s dream hadn’t been Stanford for a long time, Yul. Yoona’s dream was you.”

“Yeah? Well if that’s true, then why didn’t she come to New York with me when I asked her to?” Yul shot back.

“Because she wanted you to fight for her!” Jesse told him.

Yul laughed bitterly. “Yoona is not like that.”

Jesse gave a similar laugh. “She’s female, Yul. She wanted you to fight for her,” he said again. Yul rolled his eyes.

“How stupid are you?” Jesse asked. “She waited for month at Sunny and Taeng’s for you. And then... when it was clear that you weren’t coming back for her, she left. Much like you did, without a word to anyone else only a note.” When Yul didn’t respond, Jesse continued. “Yoong was always the one to fight for you, Yul. Look at what happened when she came back from the tour. You made her chase you.”

“I didn’t make her chase me. And besides, she was the one who left.”

“Well, if you’re going to use that logic, then you’re arguing my point,” Jesse informed him. “You’re the one who left, so it was up to you to come back after her.”

“Are you seriously going to stand here and have this argument with me while Yoong’s in the hospital unconscious?”

“At least I know you won’t run.”

Yul signed and continued on his way.

“You guys have never been the same,” Jesse said.

“Yeah, well, you lose a son and then try to pick up where you left off after he dies!”

“Well, it kind of looked like you did,” Jesse said, “with all the parties and supermodels.”

Yul rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well, maybe you shouldn’t believe everything you read in the papers. And maybe you shouldn’t judge me.”

“Are you just gonna wait until she wakes up and then leave again?” Jesse asked straight out. “Because if you’re just gonna break Yoona’s heart again, then maybe you should just go now,” he said.

“Same brother you are,” Yul said, picking his pace, not bothering to wait for Jesse.

Everyone had eaten and they were all in Yoona’s room sitting around her bed catching up with each other, trying to push the current situation out of their minds. But it didn’t go far, considering Yoona was right in front of them.

Yul was in his own chair, Sunny and Taeng were each in a chair, and Jesse was in a chair with Tiffany sitting on his lap.

Yul felt like he was a fly on the wall, not participating in conversation, just listening to what was going on around him, taking his eyes off of Yoona only for brief moments at a time.

Fany was laughing. “So, what was it like finding out that you were having two more girls, Taeng?” Fany asked.

Taeng looked at his wife, who was glowing. Tiffany couldn’t help but notice how Sunny seemed to glow even more when her husband was looking at her. Taeng grinned, “My first thought was that I hope they look like their mother,” he said squeezing Sunny’s hand. “My second thought was that I needed to add another bathroom,” he said, making everyone laugh. 

Listening to Taeng’s story, Yul was overcome with guilt, as he always was, when he thought of how he hadn’t been sure if he’d wanted Yul Jr. when Yoona had first found out that she was having a baby.