“SoKyung, slow down!” YongGuk pulled me to a stop once we were a good distance away from the restaurant. “Talk to me.”

                I dropped his hand and balled my hands into fist, pressing them against my eyes and trying my best not to cry. But a sob broke through anyway, and he noticed.

                He didn’t even say anything, just pulled me into a hug and rested his chin on the top of my head and started rubbing my arms in a comforting gesture that I really needed at that time. I have no idea how long we stayed that way, standing in the middle of a crowded sidewalk, but I honestly didn’t want to move.

                “Let’s get out of here.” YongGuk muttered, leaning down to look in my eyes, giving me a small smile.

                I wiped at my eyes and gave him a questioning look. “And go where?”

                He shrugged. “Let’s go to the beach.”

                I shook my head. “I didn’t bring—“

                “Me neither, now let’s go.” He grabbed my hand and led me back to the car. We both climbed back in, where he started playing with my phone until he was able to find the quickest route to the nearest beach. “Are you okay to drive?”

                I sighed and started the car. “It’ll calm me down, trust me.”

                He just smiled and turned the radio on full blast.

                Neither one of us talked during the car ride, so the only noise in the car was the radio and the voice on my phone’s GPS. Not that I minded. YongGuk kept me distracted enough just by playing with strands of my hair, so I had no time to think about my parents or their offer or how any of that made me feel. I just focused on YongGuk and the drive to the beach.

                We walked along the beach for a while, keeping the conversations light. It was really nice for the most part.

                And then he brought it up.

                “We’re going to have to talk about it sooner or later.” He slipped his arm around my waist, keeping his voice quiet so that no one around us could hear our conversation. To anyone else, it probably looked like he was just being really affectionate. But I knew better.

                He was keeping me close to him so that I couldn’t avoid his questions.

                I sighed and looked away from him and towards the ocean. “How about later?”

                “Nice try.” He stopped walking, making me stop too. “What happened back there?”

                “My parents decided to try to play puppet masters and I cut the strings.” I muttered, allowing my bitterness to show. “It’s actually quite usual. You get used to it.”

                YongGuk stayed silent for a while. “You got pretty upset. I mean, understandably, considering what they were talking about, but it was more than that, wasn’t it?”

                I gave him a small smile. “You’re perceptive. I knew there was a reason I married you.” I leaned close and kissed him gently before ducking around him and continuing walking down the beach. “It was everything, really. Everything from my childhood up to when they kicked me out. I just lost it.”

                He caught up to me quickly. “They kicked you out?”

                I laughed bitterly, crossing my arms. “Why do you sound surprised? You know my parents. If it was legal to force an abortion than they would have done that too.” I turned to look at him and shrugged. “Trust me, they did all they could to convince me to do that before they finally just dumped me out on the streets, though. Can’t have anyone ruining their perfect family, now can we?”

                It got silent between us as we continued walking down the shore for a long time. Then, YongGuk grabbed my arm, forcing me to a stop and turned me around so that I was looking at him.

                “I get that your parents are arguably the worst parents in the history of mankind, but that doesn’t give you the right to treat them this way, okay?” He sighed. “Especially in front of HanMi. That’s just a really bad example of how to show respect to people that treat you the wrong way. You don’t want her to act the way you did back there, I know you don’t.”

                My shoulders slumped as I looked away. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to come off as rude or anything. I was just angry.”

                YongGuk nodded. “Yeah, trust me, I noticed.”

                It got quiet again.

                “It’s getting pretty late, you want to go back to the hotel now?” he asked, tilting his head towards the direction of the car. I smiled and nodded, following him back to the car.

                Before we got in though, I thought now would probably be a good time to say something to him. “Hey.”

                He looked up as he opened the passenger door and raised an eyebrow at me. “What?”

                I stared at him for a while and leaned against the car. “I love you, okay?”

                I think it caught him off-guard, because for a while he just stared back at me in stunned silence.

                And then he smiled and walked over to my side of the car. I turned so that we were facing each other and leaned against eh car, smiling back at him.

                “That’s not fair.” He mumbled, placing a hand on either side of the car and leaning closer to me. “Isn’t the guy supposed to say it first?”

                “You were taking too long.” I joked, wrapping my arms around his neck.

                He rolled his eyes. “Patience is a virtue, So.”

                I thought about that for a while, and then nodded, pouting slightly. “I’ve waited for three years though.”

                His smile faded until he was only staring at me with this intense look in his eye.

                “What?” I asked, tilting my head to the side.

                He shrugged. “I guess I never told you.”

                “Told me what?”

                He bit down on his lower lip and gave me a playful smile. “When I fell in love with you. The first time.”

                I looked at him in surprise. “No, I don’t think I’ve ever heard this story.” I smiled and started opening the car door. “Hotel?”

                “Hotel.”

                We got back to our room just as it started to get dark outside, so we decided to just stay in and hang out in the room for the rest of the night. I changed out of the dress as soon as we got into the room, eager to pull on some sweats and a t-shirt, because that’s what I was most comfortable with. While YongGuk was changing, I decided to check my phone, which I had left in the car while we had been on the beach.

                I let out a heavy sigh when I noticed how many missed phone calls I had.

                “Something wrong?” YongGuk asked, stepping out of the bathroom and coming to sit next to me on the bed.

                I scrolled through the missed calls. “Mother, Mother, Mother, Hana, Hana, Hana, Hana, your manager, hang on.” I pressed the phone to my ear. “Let me see what Hana wanted.”

                He nodded, turning to the TV and flipping through the channels.

                I quickly deleted all the voicemails my mother had left, not in the mood to listen to her voice at the moment. I just wanted to know why Hana had called so many times. Along with their manager. Something must be up for him to call me.

                “So? Please answer your phone. I really need to talk to you. It’s important.” She sounded panicked. Not like, on the verge of hysteria, but like she was trying to be calm but was losing the battle.

                I clicked to the next message. “SoKyung, pick up! Look, I didn’t want to say this in a voicemail, but something’s wrong with HanMi and we’re taking her to the hospital, so the sooner you get back, the greater that would be, because I have no idea what I’m doing. I need you here. I’m sorry, but I can’t do this.”

                I dropped the phone.

                “What’s up?” YongGuk asked, turning to look at me.

                I looked up at him, and he seemed to notice the panicked look in my eyes. “We need to go back. Now.”

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

dun. dun. DUNNN!!!

sooo, sorry this update came later than i said it would!! this weekend wasn't what i expected it to be...

i got sick :/ like REALLY sick. i mean, after the fair and stuff. it just went downhill from there :( but the fair was fun! :D got to hang out with family and eat lots of fair food and stuff. pretty awesome stuff.

but yeah, i was sick so i'm sorry that this update came so late.

thanks for reading~