How You Just Know

So here I was, the day of our anniversary, on the verge of tears reading the small note in my hands over and over again. No, I wasn't about to cry because I was sad, but just the opposite, because I was happy. Here's what it read:

Good morning honey~

Hope you had a good sleep last night, I know I did. I always do because I have you in my arms! :]
Anyway, happy anniversary. I'm sorry that I had to leave so early, but I got a call really early this morning saying that we were going to be busy early on, but that means I might be able to come home earlier tonight as well! I rushed this morning in order to prepare you this breakfast, so I hope you like it. I even made some of your favorite filipino dishes, so take it easy today, and I'll meet up with you later, okay?

Happy Anniversary again!

- Your Husband.

You know what the best thing about having a caring husband is? It's that fact that is doesn't matter how long you two have known each other, they're still full of surprises. So, since my shift over at the restaurant a couple of blocks down the street didn't start for another hour or so, I might as well take my husband's advice and "take it easy." I sat down in front of the table filled with delicious food and started to dig in.

"More water please!"

"Ah, yes, please just hold on one second!" I replied as I gathered the empty plates from this one table.

"We need more kimchi!"

"Just a moment!" I replied to another customer.

"Helloooo, we ordered like 30 minutes ago!" a more rude customer had replied. I could already tell how impatient they were, for, they weren't considerate of the fact that this place was completely full, which surprised. Also, they had ordered a mere 5 minutes ago, 30 is a rather large exaggeration.

"Ma'am?" I momentarily looked up from the table and faced a young woman with a baby in her hands, "Do you mind telling me where the bathroom is?" her voice was polite, sincere, and...a little strained due to fatigue. She was constantly shaking, I'm guessing to try and stop the baby's cries.

"Ah, yes, it's on the other end of the restaurant-"

"Miss, water!" I heard a yell...but I ignored my sudden urge to beat that person's face in...

"It's on the other side of the building to the left," I told her politely while pointing in the general direction.

"Thank you," she bowed her head slightly while rushing towards that direction.

"Yah!" I heard another customer yell.

"C-Coming!" I stuttered while quickly cleaning off the table and rushing with my other duties.

"Aiiish!" I let out irritatingly as I exited the restaurant. All those ungrateful people! They should be happy to be served by me! ...Okay, well, at least they should be a little more considerate, but still, the entire shift was utterly tiring and full of silent curses...from yours truly...

"Ma'am, I think your husband's waiting for you," some person behind me said.

"Oh yeah? And how would you know he's my husband?" I yelled rather spontaneously due to my stress, however, my mind had quickly switch from irritation to shock as I looked at the man in front of me holding a single rose in his hand.

"I'm pretty sure it's him, and he's been waiting for you for the last 2 hours," he chuckled as he handed me the rose, his childish face quickly switching to a slightly more serious one, "You should really tell me when you plan to work overtime, yeobo," he emphasized.

"Oppa~" I said in a sing-song voice to Young-Bae, "Happy Anniversary!" I practically lunged myself towards him, hugging him, and he doing the same.

"How are you, Byul?" he asked above my head (well, he is taller than me, and the top of my head in the crook of his neck), "I'm guessing a little stressed from what I saw that entire time," he chuckled.

I quickly let go of him to look him in the eye, "You were there?"

"Well duh, what else do you think I meant when I said I was waiting for you for the last 2 hours?"

I stuck my tongue out at him, "You could have done something more...fun?"

"What's more fun than hanging out with you?" he smiled as he put his arm around my shoulder, "Come on."

"Where are we going?"

"Well what do we usually do on this day every year?"

"Eat ice cream?"

"Hey!" he feigned his attempt to sound legitimately surprised, "That's a great idea, let's go!" but before he could drag me along with him.

"Noona neomu yeppeo~" (Noona is so pretty) I heard a familiar voice sing from behind me. I turned around, "Noona!" The familiar male figure running towards me.

"Yah, Lee Seung Hyun! Slow down!" another familiar figure, female this time, running behind him.

Both of the figured had stopped in front of me, the female clutching at her knees in order to regain her breath.

"What brings you here, Ri?" I questioned my undeniably adorable and dorky donseng, Lee Seung Hyun, also known as Seung Ri.

"Noona neomu yeppeo~" he restarted the SHINee song he had started a while ago, "Micheo (Going crazy)...REPLAY REPLAY REPLAY~" he practically shouted those last 3 repeating words, loud enough for the those passing by to give us strange looks. I merely smiled at them, feigning in embarrassment.

"Aish, oppa..." the female beside her dragged out. Meet Kim Yuri, his girlfriend for the last three years now.

"Hyunnng~" whined Seung Ri, "I can't believe you got to noona first. and I was about to propose and everything!"

"OPPA!" see, one thing about Yuri that one must definitely not ignore is the fact that she's very...reactive...or sensitive to the slightest of things.

I heard a chuckle from the man beside me arise, "Sorry Ri, but you know much I love her."

"And now I'm stuck with this thing!" Ri pointed to the female beside him.

"YAH!" she punched him hard.

"Ow..."

"Yuri-ah," my husband started, "If you get tired of him, I'm all yours," I could feel that smirk growing on him, turning my head towards his face to confirm my assumption, still having my mouth wide-open, "I'm sure my wife would mind a little bit of bigamy here and there."

"YAH!" I elbowed him hard in the stomach.

"OOF!" wow...that looked like it really hurt.

"HELL NO!" Ri shouted as he hugged Yuri possessively, "She's mine!"

"Mission accomplished," my oppa managed to get out while still in pain, "With minor injuries," he emphasized. I only smiled in return, knowing that his little act was just to get them back together.

"Oh, by the way unnie," Yuri reached in her over sized purse and handed me a small wrapped box.

"What's this for?"

"It's from my oppa and me, Happy Anniversary you two!" she clapped her hands once in pure delight.

"Awww~" I pulled myself away from Young Bae and pulled the two younger ones into a big hug, "Thanks guys," and I really meant it.

"What's in the box?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" I shouted at him once more as we both sat down at an empty table for two with our ice cream cones in our hands.

"Open it~" he whined. Sheesh, for a 27 year old guy, he sure acts like a kid.

"Later, oppa!"

"But it's killing me," he put his hand over his heart exasperatedly, "Killing me on the inside..."

"Freakin' drama queen..."

"What's in the box?"

"YAH, DONG YOUNG-"

...but my shouts had been halted by the simple fact that someone's ice cream was now in my face. And the previous owner of that ice cream was none other than the person sitting across from me, my husband.

"Oops?" he sounded unsure of how to respond. I just stared at him in shock, even knowing fully well that the entire act was indeed my fault, not his. (Even after being with me so long, my shouts at him still seem to have a negative/surprising effect)

"I-I'm s-s-sorry," he managed to stutter while reaching for one of the napkins he had collected earlier and wiped my face clean of the (sadly...very sadly) uneaten ice cream, "Really Byul...I'm sorry."

I smiled at him, "Yah, what happened to your manly image?"

"You know very well I gave that up for you," he smiled, knowing that I had indirectly accepted his apology.

But then, I remembered something, "Yah, I thought you said that since we're married now, that gives us an excuse to do something more than just eat ice cream."

The look on his face turned from one of content to one of slight...sorrow? He then smiled sadly at me, "I said that, didn't I?"

"Yah, oppa, is there something wrong?"

He smiled just a little more before he turned his head towards my left, trying to avoid eye contact. At time like this, I truly worry about him, for it wasn't often when he looked rather...mournful.

Both of us entered our small apartment, the awkward silence not leaving us, the same silence that had accompanied us the whole walk home. (We didn't have a car with us, our jobs were in mere walking distance anyway.)

"Do you want to take a shower first?" I was a little shocked at first, I assume the silence was getting to me, but I simply nodded "yes" towards him as I headed towards the single bathroom in our apartment.

After about 30 minutes later (hey, I'm a lady, 30 minutes is a minimum for taking a shower), I managed to dry my hair along with changing into my comfortable "bedtime" clothes before going out the door once more. Before actually leaving the bedroom though, I glanced at the digital clock on the wall. The red-lit numbers read "9:00" with the small dot specifying PM. It wasn't that late yet, so I decided to go back out to the main portion of our apartment to join whatever my husband had been doing. However, when I entered the vicinity, I was surprised. Well, surprised seems like a rather weak adjective to describe how I felt. I was literally shocked to the bone to see all the lights turned out in the small space we had outside of our bedroom, the only light illuminating the area being 5 small candles on our "dining table" which was surrounded by 12 banchan (side dishes), 2 larger plates, and an elevated silver platter right in the middle. To the side, my oppa was resting his head in his arms, supposedly sleeping, but I knew he wasn't.

"Oppa..." I drew out the last syllable as I approached his unmoving body, "What's all this?"

"Like I said," he rose his head lazily, I'm guessing from drowsiness, "We're married now, we can do more than just eat ice cream," he weakily smiled at me while guiding me towards the chair beside him, "Come on, let's eat."

"Where in the world did all this food come from?" I asked while I sat down, removing the covers to the two main dishes, bibimbap and seoleongtang.

"You know, I've realized something," he chuckled while serving some of the food onto the plate in front of me, "That you never check inside the fridge as long as I cook something for you."

I gaped at him, so he had this planned...

"Come on, Byul, it's really not that big of a deal, close your mouth before it attracts flies."

Instead of giving him a playful shove against his upper arm, I merely closed my mouth, smiling in the process. Without even bothering to give the food a second glance at the moment, as soon as my husband's hands were empty after putting the spoon back into its previous dish, I hugged him.

"Byul?"

"Thank you..." I said as I closed my eyes. My arms were wrapped around his neck, my head lying on his left shoulder.

"For?" he chuckled while returning the hug weakly.

"Everything..."

"Well, you know, I can't be responsible for bringing you into this world, because that's your mother's job, but I guess that's a good place to start."

"Yah," I punched him playfully now. Before we started to eat, I finally asked, "What's this?" and I opened the elevated silver platter only to be mesmerized by the intricate designs on the cake in front of me, "Where'd you get this?"

"Uh..." my husband scratched his head, "Sorry it's not perfect, I tried to be a little more fancy, but I didn't have time. I didn't even get to put the words on it..." his voice started trailing off as I continued to stare at the cake in front of me.

But then I realized something, "Whoa whoa whoa, hold up. You made this?"

He scratched his head again, bowing his head down, as if to be embarrassed, yet still admitting the truth. However, I was just about to hug him again when he slightly pushed me away.

"Yah, save the hugs for later. I'm hungry," pft, typical oppa.

Another 15 minutes passed in complete silence. It wasn't awkward or anything, I was content with just hearing the both of us chew the delicious food that my husband had personally made. Seriously, if he hadn't cooked food like this before, it would have been more of a surprise. It's rare to find a guy that cooks for you these days...

Anyway, I was busily eating the delicious food on my plate when I looked to my right and saw Young Bae just playing with his food using his fork, looking somewhat down.

"Oppa," I started, "Is something wrong?"

He looked at me with intense eyes as he dropped his spoon on his plate, the resonating pang eminent in my ears, "Byul..." he started. I was getting a little worried with how his tone of voice was currently, "You're..."

"I'm..." I urged him to continue.

"You're happy, right?"

"Eh?" I was confused at the statement.

"You're happy...with me...right?"

"Oppa, what are you talking about?"

"I mean...this lifestyle...and all. You're happy with it?"

"Yah, of course I'm happy. I have a roof over my head and food I can eat. What's gotten into you, oppa?"

He sighed in frustration, "I don't know how to say this..."

"Yah, o-oppa..." I stuttered. Hell, I was nervous, "You're...you're not leaving me, are you?" ...aishh, stupid mouth.

"Mwo?" (What?) he looked at me as if I was crazy, but then his expression lightened as he began to laugh.

"Ya-...YAH!" ugh, why can't I stop stuttering.

"Byul, I would never leave you, and even if I tried, I don't think I'd have the guts to do it."

I sighed in relief, but then I looked at him even more confused, "So...then why do you sound so sad?"

"Are you..." aish, he was doing this again... "Are you happy with me...as your husband?" he said those last three words almost as a whisper, but I still heard them nonetheless.

"Yah," I hugged him, "I would've never been married if it weren't for you, so I should thank you for having the guts to spend the rest of your life with me."

"Well someone had to do it," he laughed as I playfully hit his shoulder, "Ow," I stuck my tongue out at him.

I was about to resume my meal when he look my hand in his. A sudden shock went through my spine when he touched me like that. This certain feeling...I haven't felt it since the day we both got married...

"Byul," he started once more, "I'm going to ask you one more time. Are you happy with me...as your husband?"

"Mwo? Of course I am. I wouldn't have it any other way," I stated the obvious, but in truth, whether it was obvious or not, I already knew that I wouldn't have married anyone else, and now, I admit to that. Hey, I was comfortable around him, more than anyone else, "What are you saying?"

"I always took the phrase actions speak louder than words so seriously," he looked right into my eyes and smiled, causing butterflies in my stomach. Why was I feeling this way? "But I guess hearing the words every now and then doesn't hurt as well."

"Oppa, what are you going on about now?"

"Byul...I don't want you to misunderstand me when I say this. We've been married for a year now, and I've finally accepted the fact, that as your husband, NOT as your best friend..." and he took a deep breath, "...I love you..."

For a moment, I paused, his words echoing through my ear tunnels, but after a while, the same bubbly feeling overcame me as I stood up from my seat a little to hug him so tightly, I think he had trouble breathing, but that didn't matter. All I knew is that at that exact moment, I knew. I just knew that this person in front of me, my best-friend-turned-husband, was the one for me.

- Karlo
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