Woohyun was a man who believed in destiny. He knew for certain that had a soul mate somewhere out there, the perfect woman for him. But maybe he hadn’t met her yet. It’s not like he didn’t try. Woohyun dated. He dated a lot, with girls with varying personalities and styles. It didn’t help that he didn’t have a specific type either to narrow down his options. He liked all women.

He couldn’t say the same for Maeri. She was too picky. Whereas Woohyun had run out of fingers (and almost toes) to use to count the number of relationships he had, he could count the number of serious relationships that Maeri was involved in on one hand. It’s not that she was unattractive (Woohyun was sometimes stunned by how pretty she could be when she tried), but she could be a bit standoffish. It also didn’t help that Maeri’s version of flirting with a guy was to stop talking to him and basically avoid him altogether, her shyness getting the better of her.

Perhaps the biggest bane in Woohyun’s and Maeri’s romantic relationships was each other. They had a tendency of intimidating each other’s significant others with their closeness. On more than one occasion, Woohyun was dumped because his girlfriend at the time thought he was cheating on her with Maeri. Those types of accusations hurt Woohyun deeply. He was a loyal guy, as loyal as a dog. He would never even dream of cheating.

He was pretty sure that Maeri had been accused of the same thing, but she would never tell him for fear of incidentally blaming Woohyun for her relationship’s demise. He would never blame her. Their friendship was nothing to be ashamed of or to be condemned.

Which brought him back to the topic of soul mates. Maybe the reason why all their relationships failed, why he couldn’t find his “other half” anywhere, was because she was right by his side all along. There had to be a reason why they were both single now at 30, fulfilling the requirements of their  12 year-old promise. Maybe it was destiny.

Woohyun contemplated all of these things as he lied on his bed, trying to fall asleep, but he couldn’t. His mind was whirring with thoughts of destiny and fate. He also felt like he was missing something, like he had forgotten to do something, like to turn off the stove or the light in the living room. He smiled sadly when he realized what it was. For the first time in 16 years, he and Maeri hadn’t talked for an entire day.

He picked up his cell phone, debating whether to send her his usual “goodnight” text, but he had to refrain. Maeri needed time to mull things over. He knew that if would send her a text right now, she would respond, but with a shortly worded text written out of courtesy and social obligation. No, she had to be the one to restart their line of communication.

However, the silence was killing him. He didn’t know if he could last another day.

“Damn it! Make a decision, woman,” he cursed under his breath, clutching his phone as he tried to drift into a deep sleep. He couldn’t.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Sungjong-ah!” Maeri shouted out into the open air, her head hanging outside her car window. “Yah! Lee…Sung…jong!” She called out again, honking her horn at every syllable.

Finally, Sungjong emerged from the auction house, drowsily shuffling his feet towards the car, carrying two cups of coffee in his hands. With difficulty, he opened the passenger side door, balancing both of the cups in one hand. After noticing his struggle, Maeri grabbed the cups from his hand and placed him in the cup holders. “Oh, thanks, Noona,” he said as he slid into his seat. After buckling himself in, he let out a great, big yawn, throwing his head back onto the headrest. “Augh!” he whined. “Why do we have to get up so early?”

“The guy lives an hour away,” Maeri said while putting the car into drive and starting their long journey. “So that gives us plenty of time to get to know each other,” she finished, giving a bright smile to the intern.

He scoffed, “How can you be so perky so early in the morning?”

“This is my second cup of coffee,” she giggled, taking a sip from the fresh cup that Sungjong gave her. “I’ll probably have…at least 3 more. Do you think the guy has a coffee maker?” she asked, slightly fearing that she might be entering into a coffee free territory. Then she waved her hand, dismissing her fears. “Forget it! There’ll be coffee shops nearby. I can get my trusty intern to go pick some  up!” She ended by pointing at Sungjong with a big smile.

Sungjong yawned as he stared at her curiously. “Your addiction to coffee scares me,” he joked.

Maeri forced out a giggle, but her recent dependence on coffee scared her too. She couldn’t sleep at all last night. Her brain was still churning and chugging, completely unable to shut it off. What made her brain work into overtime was the fact that Woohyun hadn’t sent her his usual text last night. She knew why he didn’t. He didn’t want to pressure her; he was patiently waiting for an answer.  But the silence between them was becoming unbearable for her.

“Noona! We just missed the turn!” Sungjong shouted, bringing Maeri out of her thoughts and back into the real world. “Aren’t you listening to the GPS?”

“Oh sorry! I thought it meant the next turn,” Maeri lied. Then she began to tap on the screen of the GPS. “These things are so hard to read.” She then turned the car around and took the appropriate turn, setting them back on track.

Then, a silence overcame the car. Sungjong was slowly falling asleep, his head resting on the window. Maeri couldn’t stand him being quite too, so she shook him awake. “Come on! I need your help. You’re my co-pilot,” she urged the young man.

Sungjong stretched in his seat and turned toward Maeri. “That’s right! You might take a wrong turn again,” he said.

“I’ve never really been good at directions,” she admitted. She felt another lull in their conversation slowly building up, so she tried to counter it the best she could. “Sungjong-ah, want to play a game?”

He perked up a little at the prospect. “What is it?”

“20 questions. You can ask me 20 questions about anything,” she proposed.

“Anything?” he asked wide-eyed.

“Yep, anything,” Maeri answered, hoping that she wouldn’t regret it.

“Call!” he shouted enthusiastically. Then he put a finger up to his lip and a pensive expression appeared on his face. After mulling it over in his brain, he finally asked, “What are the chances of this internship turning into an actual job?”

“Really?!” Maeri said in shock. “You can ask any question. Any personal question about me. Even about my deepest darkest secrets. And you ask about your job?”

Sungjong replied, “Hey! It’s important for me!” Then a sly smile appeared on his normal innocent face, “Besides I have still have 19 other questions. I can ask the about your deepest darkest secrets later.”

“Tch! You sly little thing,” she muttered. Then she answered his question in all seriousness. “This estate appraisal is actually a test. If you perform well, we’ll hire you on. I just didn’t want to tell you. You know, so you wouldn’t freak out and choke.”

“Really? It’s a test? You think I’m going to choke?” he asked a flurry of questions in his nervous state. Then he clamped a hand over his mouth. “Wait! Don’t answer those! Those aren’t one of my 20 questions!”

Maeri couldn’t help but to laugh at Sungjong’s unintentional cuteness. “Don’t worry. You’ll do fine. Just do what you normally do,” she encouraged. “And…you’re still at 19.”

Sungjong sighed, “Oh good!” His nerves were put to rest by her encouraging words. Then he pondered for a few moments before proposing his second question, “Noona, are you in a relationship?”

Out of shock, Maeri jerked the steering wheel a little, causing the car and Sungjong to abruptly shift to the right.  He hit his head on the window and yelped. “Sorry!” Maeri apologized. “You caught me by surprise.”

“You said that I could ask anything,” he responded, rubbing his head.

“Yea, but I thought we would slowly work up to that one,” she explained. “You should first ask, ‘where are you from,’ ‘what are your hobbies,’ ‘who’s your favorite member in Super Junior’….”

“Those are supposed to be basic question, ‘who’s your favorite member in Suju’?” Sungjong scoffed.

“Kim Heechul! Now you’re down to 17!” Maeri exclaimed.

“You tricked me! And totally avoided my first question,” Sungjong complained. He could see her starting to squirm uncomfortably. “It’s not that I like you. I’m just curious. You don’t seem to be married. And you’re old…”

“30’s not old!” Maeri interrupted.

“It’s all a matter of perspective,” he said quickly and moved back to the original topic before Maeri could object.  “It’s a simple question. Are you in a relationship?” he asked again

“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “Maybe?”

“Ah!” Sungjong exclaimed nodding knowingly. “It’s one of those talking phases. Are we dating? Aren’t we? I hate those.”

This time, Maeri was the cause for the awkward pause in the conversation, wondering if she should ask a question herself. “Sungjong-ah,” she began. The boy turned his attention to her. “Hypothetically, if an old friend of, let’s say, 12 years just randomly proposes to you, do you think that he’s being serious or playing around?”

“Is he 30 too?” he asked. She nodded. “30 year-olds hardly joke about marriage. And you know what they say about joking. That there’s some truth to it.”

“So he could be half-joking but half-serious?” she clarified.

“Yea.”

“Hmm…You’re pretty smart for your age.”

“I know,” he said with a smug smile. Then he suddenly asked, “So are you going to marry him?”

Maeri forced out a laugh. “This is all hypothetical, remember?”

“Okay so,” he began, “hypothetically are you going to marry him?”

Maeri paused for a few moments. “I honestly can’t think of a reason for why we shouldn’t. He’s the best friend that I ever had. He’s always been there for me. He’s incredibly sweet and  handsome as hell, with a cute little .” Sungjong gagged at that comment. Maeri laughed and continued, “I don’t know why I’m even wavering.”

“To me, it sounds like you already made your decision,” Sungjong said. “Also this situation is sounding a lot less hypothetical,” he joked.

“And…you’re down to 16,” Maeri retorted.

By the time they reached their destination, Sungjong burned through 6 more questions, leaving him with 10 more and a lot of blackmail material (the boy was surprisingly devious). Now they were driving up to a large estate in the middle of the countryside. Maeri guessed that the building had to be at least a 100 years old with a couple hundred acres of land. She would be impressed, but her job required her to visit this type of estates regularly. It wasn’t even the largest or oldest one she had ever seen, but it still held the promise of hidden treasures lying inside.

Apparently, it was one of Sungjong’s first times seeing such an impressive home. As soon as he emerged from the car, he looked around with his jaw dropped and slowly soaked in his surroundings. “Ooooh! Daebak! These people must be rich,” he exclaimed.

Maeri grabbed her bag and the camera cases from the trunk of her car and handed the cases over to Sungjong. “Not all the time,” she explained. “A lot of houses like this pass from generation to generation. You can often tell how much money the family has now by the condition of the grounds.” She surveyed the land around the house. The grass was slightly overgrown and the flowerbeds hadn’t been tended to in a while, allowing wildflowers to take root in the soil. “It looks like they have some money. But aren’t exactly rich.” She then grabbed Sungjong by the shoulders and smiled serenely. “Remember we’re dealing with grieving family members, so don’t forget to smile,” she said in a soothing tone, pointing to her smile.

Sungjong’s lips pulled up into a large smile, but his eyes remained scarily serious. Maeri burst into laughter and slapped his shoulders. “Yep. That needs some work,” she said as she turned and approached the house.

“What? Did it look weird? I practiced all night,” Sungjong whined, following her footsteps.

Once Sungjong was at her side, Maeri rang the doorbell. Before Maeri wasn’t surprised by the size of the house or by how much land it had, but she was surprised to see who answered the door. She normally dealt with elderly or middle-aged customers, but the man who answered the door appeared to be her age, taking her slightly aback. She quickly regained her professional footing and outstretched her hand. “Hello. I’m Yoo Maeri from Grey’s Auction House,” she introduced herself.

The man took up her hand and gave it a gentle shake. “I’m Kim Sungkyu,” he responded. His eyes drifted over to the young man next to Maeri.

“This is my assistant, Lee Sungjong,” Maeri introduced.

Sungjong stepped forward to shake Sungkyu’s hand. “Pleased to meet you,” he said, using his half-friendly half-serious smile again. Maeri winced once she saw it.

After exchanging pleasantries, Sungkyu stepped aside. “Please come in.”

“It’s a beautiful home you have, Sungkyu-ssi,” Maeri said, initiating the courteous small talk that her job required.

“Thank you. My great-grandfather built it. It’s been in my family since then, but now…” he sighed. “Sorry. I should probably show you where to go,” he said. Maeri responded with a polite nod, showing that she was ready to receive her orders. “There’s a couple pieces of furniture upstairs and a jewelry box. On this floor, there’s the china and some more furniture. I marked them all with tags, so they should be easy to find.”

“Okay. We’ll get started in a second,” Maeri said to her customer, and then she turned to her assistant. “Hey nice smile you had back there,” she said in a low whisper.

“I got nervous! Am I going to get points knocked off?” he responded in a whisper.

Maeri chuckled. “No, even if there were any points. It was a rookie mistake.” Then she picked up the camera. “You know how to work this?” Sungjong rolled his eyes. “Okay, I’ll take that as a yes. I’m still your superior, you know. I deserve a little respect.”

“Sorry, Noona. It’s just that after some of the things I just learned about you…”

“Yea, I’m not surprised you lost some respect for me. I lost some for myself too,” Maeri joked. “Okay, back to business. You’ll take the china because it’s easy. Don’t forget to take the pictures of the bottom.”

“Okay, Noona,” he said as he fiddled with the camera.

Maeri turned to Sungkyu. “I hope you don’t mind that my assistant handles the china. I assure you that he has very careful hands.” At that exact moment, Sungjong dropped the cap for the lens and almost dropped the entire camera at the same time. Maeri forced a  reassuring laugh. “See, he didn’t drop the expensive part, just the little cap,” she joked,  but Sungkyu looked more worried than amused.

“I’ll show him to the kitchen,” Sungkyu said. “The stairs are right over there,” he pointed to the corner. “Just look for the tags.”

They parted ways, and Maeri made her way up the stairs. The aging steps groaned under her feet as she made her way to the second floor. Once she got there, she began to take pictures of the tagged pieces of furniture. Some pieces were as old as the house, others even older. The older the better, Maeri thought, smiling as she analyzed each piece.

When she was making her way into one of the bedrooms, she heard a voice call out from behind her, causing her to tense up, “My mother’s jewelry box should be in there…I’m sorry if I startled you.”

“Oh, it’s not your fault, Sungkyu-ssi. I am very easily startled. So the jewelry box is in here,” she said as she walked into the bedroom.

“Yes,” Sungkyu said as he followed her inside. He leaned against the bed, watching Maeri open the box. Maeri smiled to herself. She was used to being watched with hawk-like eyes, making sure she handled the family’s prized possessions with careful that she wouldn’t steal anything. People had so little faith. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. He wasn’t watching her anymore. Instead, he was sitting on the bed with his head in his hands, looking so entirely dejected (it gave her the oddest sense of déjà-vu, perhaps reminding her of Woohyun and one of the multiple times he sought her comfort). But Sungkyu’s behavior wasn’t strange. Maeri was also used to people following her around, not wanting to be alone.

“You know, Sungkyu-ssi, we don’t have to pass this time in complete silence,” Maeri began. Sungkyu immediately raised his head the moment he heard his name. “Maybe if you tell me about some of the pieces, it will help me to sell them. People often like pieces with a story.”

“Really?” he said. He got up and walked over to her side. “What kind of things would you like to know?”

Maeri finished up taking a picture of a brooch in the shape of a dragonfly. “Is there an interesting story behind this?” she suggested.

“It was my great-grandmothers, I think. There’s nothing really special about it,” he said taking the brooch in his hands. “Actually it’s kind of ugly. Even my noona didn’t want it, and she loves stuff like this,” he said with a smile.

“What kind of stuff?” Maeri asked as she analyzed a ring with an emerald setting.

“Free stuff,” he said with a chuckle.

“If you don’t mind me asking, if she likes ‘free stuff’ so much, why are you selling everything?” she asked. She was met with no response. She looked over at him, and he was still fiddling with the brooch. “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have asked.”

“No, it’s alright. The reason why is that it’s just too much stuff, and neither of us have enough money to support this house any longer. We have no room for most of the furniture or even for little trinkets like this,” he said, holding up the brooch. “And storage costs a lot.”

“Do any of your other relatives want any of these things?” she asked. Then she brought down her camera and smiled at him, “I know this goes against my job, but I hate seeing items that have been in the family for years go into the hands of complete strangers, even ugly dragonfly brooches. They still have memories attached to them.”

Sungkyu smiled meekly, his eyes fixed on the brooch. “My noona and I are all that’s left. My parents didn’t have siblings of their own. And…” he paused, swallowing a lump in his throat before continuing. “My mom died two weeks after my dad. So it’s just me and noona,” he ended with a forced smile.

“They were lovebirds,” Maeri said under her breath with a slight smile on her face.

“Huh?” Sungkyu asked, confused by her happy expression.

Maeri bit her lip, realizing that her reaction was inappropriate. “My grandparents were the same,” she explained. “My grandmother died a month after my grandfather. My mom called them lovebirds because they couldn’t stand living without each other.”

“But she couldn’t live for me,” Sungkyu mumbled, leaving Maeri at a complete loss for words. Then he picked up a diamond ring from the box. “But maybe you’re right. Not all of this should be given to strangers. I’ll take this, if you don’t mind. It was my mother’s.”

Maeri nodded. “Go ahead. It’s yours anyway.”

Then Sungjong walked into the room. “Noona! Will you check these pictures to make sure I did it right?”

“Yes!” she answered. Then she turned to Sungkyu. “Please excuse me, Sungkyu-ssi.”

She walked over to her intern and began to flip through the pictures on his camera. “Very good, Sungjong-ah. But you’ll need to retake this one and this one. You accidentally cut off some of the border,” she critiqued. But Sungjong wasn’t entirely paying attention to her; he was busy observing the melancholy man fiddling with jewelry. Maeri snapped in front of his face, “Sungjong-ah! Minus 5 points!”

Sungjong stared back at her with his jaw dropped. “I thought that we weren’t using points!”

“Why are you staring at him? Why? Do you think he’s cute?” she asked.

Sungjong nodded a bit at the last question. “I was thinking that it was a shame that you were hypothetically engaged. You guys look good together. Plus he’s rich.”

Maeri rolled her eyes. She explained, “Way to be professional. Besides, he’s not rich. His family was, but not anymore.” Sungjong pouted at the last statement. Then she handed the camera back to him. “Now scoot and don’t drop anything,” she commanded.

Sungjong saluted to her before he left the room.

“You seem to run a tight ship,” Sungkyu joked when Maeri returned to his side. “How old is that kid anyway? 12?”

“He acts like it sometimes,” Maeri joked. “He’s 25.”

“Wah! How does he look so young?” he said shaking his head in disbelief.

Maeri laughed. “Try being a grown woman and him being prettier than you are. Life is unfair sometimes,” she joked. But then mentally gave herself a slap on the forehead. She couldn’t believe she said that her life was unfair to a man who lost both of his parents in less than a month. The long paused that ensued afterwards was proof of her error. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.” Sungkyu just waved his hand, showing that he took no offense, but he still remained silent.

Silence. Silence was slowly killing Maeri. Sungkyu’s silence just reminded her of the lack of communication between her and her best friend. It was becoming unbearable. Before she knew it, she blurted out a question that had been on her mind, but she never envisioned asking a complete stranger, “Sungkyu-ssi, do you believe in soul mates?”

Sungkyu looked up at her, his eyes opened wide, “What?”

Maeri busied herself with her camera as she clarified, “Do you believe in soul mates? In having someone so perfect for you, so intergral in your life that you couldn’t envision living without them? Like your parents?” Or possibly Woohyun for me, she thought. Maeri was slowly realizing how important Woohyun  was for her with his current absence. Her heart felt slightly empty, and her day didn’t feel complete without hearing his voice or seeing his face. And it’s only been one day. I could see how Sungkyu’s mother couldn’t last two weeks without his father.

Sungkyu cocked his head to the side, “I don’t know…I think that the notion of having a soul mate is nice. It gives us hope that every relationship we have could work out. It gives us a hope for a happy ending, but practically I don’t know. Because then we might have to acknowledge that there’s fate or a higher being in power, creating a perfect partner for each of us, at the same time controlling our love lives. Then it’s like, what about free will? Is everything already planned for us at birth?” He could see that he had lost Maeri mid-rant. “I’m sorry. I’m a philosophy teacher.”

Maeri shook her head. “Don’t apologize. It was very insightful,” she said.

Sungkyu laughed, “That’s a polite way of saying ‘confusing’.”

“Well, it was that too,” she responded with a smile.

He picked up another ring and played with it between his fingers. “What about you? Do you believe in soul mates?”

Maeri shrugged as she took a picture of a pendent. “I did when I was younger, but now,” she paused selecting her words carefully. “maybe I still do. But I’m not as sure of it as I was before. It’s just hard to keep the faith. It would help if it was more obvious. Like a man walking around with ‘Property of Yoo Maeri’ tattooed across his forehead. But how can you know for sure, you know?”

Sungkyu nodded. “The tattoo thing would really help,” he joked. “But I guess you can’t ever be 100% certain. You’d just have to take a leap of faith.”

Maeri looked up at the ceiling, contemplating what the philosophical stranger just said. “A leap of faith, huh?” she mumbled to herself. She looked back at Sungkyu, “I’m going to check on my assistant. You know, make sure he hasn’t broken anything yet.”

“I’d be grateful if you did,” he responded.

“We might take lunch after that, if you don’t mind,” she said as she was putting the cap back on her camera lens.

Sungkyu nodded. “Go ahead. I might too.”

“Thank you, Sungkyu-ssi,” Maeri said with a big smile, making Sungkyu rather confused, after all lunch was a part of her contract, why should she be thanking him so warmly. “For the conversation. This job can get lonely sometimes. I mean, you can always talk to furniture, but it doesn’t always respond,” she joked and much to pleasure he laughed (even though it was lame). “It was insightful, and I don’t mean confusing.”

“I enjoyed it too,” he said warmly.

Woohyun had a very stressful day at work. His boss yelled at him for nodding off at the meeting (he couldn’t help it. Accounting reports were the most boring thing on the planet), and Sungyeol had informed him that his wife was pregnant. Great! Freakin’ Lee Sungyeol is not only married, but now he’s going to have a kid. Whereas Woohyun didn’t even know if he had his best friend anymore, fearing that he scared her off.

His pent up anxiety became more obvious during his workout session with Hoya.

“Woah, buddy!” Hoya said, taking the weights away from Woohyun, who was trying to bench press more than he could handle. “Getting a little wobbly there.” After returning the weights back to its rightful place, Hoya patted Woohyun on his back. “Maybe we should call it a day.”

“No. Just one more set,” he said, reaching for the bar again. “I can do it.”

But Hoya just batted his hands away. “You’re practically falling asleep right now.”

“Just one more,” Woohyun said as he yawned. Hoya unwillingly gave in, allowing his friend to pick up the bar again. Woohyun brought the bar down to his chest, but he was unable to push it back up again. His strength had failed him.

“Geez!” Hoya let out as he helped Woohyun lift up the bar. “What’s with you today?”

“Just a bad day,” Woohyun said as he sat back up again. “That will never end.”

“Want to talk about it?” Hoya asked, wiping down the apparatus.

Woohyun rubbed his face with his hands. They smelled like sweat and iron, and he immediately regretted putting them on his face. He just sighed, “No not really.” Hoya didn’t say anything else. And that’s why Woohyun appreciated him. Hoya knew when he should talk, and when he shouldn’t. It was a skill that Woohyun wished he had at times.

Then he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He casually looked at who was calling before he answered it. “Dongwoo, what’s up?”

When Woohyun returned to his apartment, he saw Maeri, sitting on his coach waiting for him to come home. She was smiling, bringing a smile immediately onto his own face. She walked up to him and got down on one knee.  She grabbed his hands and held them tightly. “Woohyun-ah,” she started.

“Yes,” Woohyun answered in a high-pitched voice.

Maeri slapped him in the leg. “Shush! I’m being serious.”

“Yes,” he said in his normal voice.

She smiled and closed her eyes as she said the rest of her speech. “You're my best friend on the whole planet, and when I didn’t see you all day today, I realized how much I need you and want to see you every day of my life. Sooo…what I’m trying to say is, yes I will marry you.”

Woohyun pulled her up and into a hug, tightly squeezing her and swaying back and forth. She responded by hugging him tightly back, resting her head on his shoulder. “I knew you would, darling.”

She pulled back from the hug slightly so that she could see his face. She raised an eyebrow skeptically. “Really? Darling? What are we, 50?” she joked.

“Baby?” he asked, pinching her cheeks. She grimaced in response and shook her head. “Honey?”

She nodded enthusiastically. “I like it, honey.”

He wiggled and whined, “Noooo. You have to call me something different.”

“Pumpkin?” she asked after thinking for a while.

Woohyun frowned and pointed to his face. “Do I look like a pumpkin to you?”

“Is that a trick question?” she asked puffing her cheeks. He hit her lightly on the head. “Okay, how about sweetie?”

He smiled broadly and nodded. “Now there’s one more thing we have to do now, honey.”

Maeri cocked her head. “What is it, sweetie?”

“It’s a surprise,” he said, tapping her nose.

“Guys?” a voice called from the bedroom.

The couple laughed. “Yea, Dongwoo?” they said in unison.

He poked his head out of the door. “Are you guys getting married?” he asked apprehensively. They both nodded. He threw the door open and ran outside the room to hug the two of them. “I’m so happy right now!”

Woohyun laughed. “Woo-ah, are you crying?”

“Where are we going?” Maeri asked, but Woohyun didn’t respond. He was just dragging her down the street by her hand. “Where we going, sweetie?” Then he stopped abruptly in front of a shop, causing Maeri to run into his back. “Oh, sorry,” she apologized as she wiped his back. Then she peered over his shoulder and saw what sort of shop it was. “Oh!”

“Yep, can’t be a couple without a ring,” he said as he squeezed her hand. “Let’s go inside.”

They went inside the jewelry, and Maeri all the sudden felt overwhelmed by all of the options. Woohyun noticed that her eyes started to dart all over the shop. “Because you can’t ever make a decision, I’ll pick one out for you,” he said. The excitement of the past hour was making him impatient. He couldn't deal with Maeri's infamous indecision now.

“Then why am I here?” she asked.

He pulled her over to a display case. “Come on. It’ll be fun.” He pointed to a ring with a large setting. “Let’s try on that one,” he said.

“Sweetie,” she said in a low whisper. “That’s way too much.”

“Come on. Just do it,” he whined.

Maeri scoffed, “So the guy who tries to get me to pay for every single meal he has, all the sudden wants to buy me the most expensive ring in the shop.”

Woohyun looked at her and squinted, “Good point. Let’s go over there, where the rings are cheaper.”

“Call!” Maeri exclaimed.

They ended up picking a very plain gold ring with a couple of small, inset diamonds. Woohyun pecked her on the head. “Look at my future wife, saving me money. Other girls would want rings three times more expensive.”

“Yea, but other girls aren’t as cool as me,” she said.

Woohyun chuckled, “Now there’s just one more thing we have to do today, honey.” Maeri looked up at him confused, not being able to guess what he was going to say. He put his arm around her shoulders. “We have to tell our parents,” he explained.

“Oh my God! They are going to have a heart attack,” she said, as they walked out of the shop.

“I know. We’ll never hear the end of it,” he said with a chuckle.

“ ‘We told you so.’ ‘You two should’ve gotten married ages ago’,” Maeri said mimicking their parents’ nagging voices. “Do we really have to go?” Woohyun nodded and then he ran out in front of her.

“I’ll race you there. First one there gets to name our first child!” he shouted out and broke out into a sprint.

Maeri chased after him, shouting, “That’s no fair! I’m wearing heels!” She huffed, “Fine! But I’m naming the second one!”