THIS IS A CONTINUATION CHAPTER OF CHAPTER THREE!!!

I originally had another story in mind for Thunder but because i updated on new years i decided to do new year themed story.  looks like the one i had planned originally might have to go to Mir who was the winner of the last poll. 

            It’s been about two years since Cheondung joined MBLAQ.  Two years since I decided to wait for him as he decided to pursue his dream thousands of miles away in a different country. 

            It’s New Year’s Eve and I’m already up at 10AM.  Korean time is 14 hours ahead of mine so I need to get online to wish Cheondung a happy new year.  I sit impatiently in front of my laptop waiting for Thunder’s face to appear.  I haven’t seen my boyfriend personally for almost a year already.  The camera blinks to let me know someone is answering my call.

            “Oh hey!” Mir’s face appears on the screen and he waves at me, a big goofy grin on his face.

            “Hey Mir!” I say as I wave back at him, “Is Cheondung there?” I check my clock.  There’s only two more minutes before the New Year in Korea. 

            “Hey get out of here!” I heard Thunder’s voice and saw Mir being pushed out of the screen as Cheondung got into his chair.  My breath caught in my throat as I saw him.  It always does each time I see him.  Even though I chat with him at least once a week, text him every night and monitor him and MBLAQ every day, my heart beats faster every time I see him.  And it makes me laugh because I never used to get these feelings when he lived here (at least not that serious) when we would see each other and hang out every day.   

            “Hey! I thought you’d miss it,” he moves closer to the screen and I smile at him.

            “I wish I could be there with you.”

            “I know,” Cheondung looks sadly ar the ground, “I wish I could be with you too.  I wish I could be with you every day.”

            I hear “awwwwwssss” come from behind Cheondung and he quickly turns around.

            “Don’t you people have lives?”

            “No.”

            Cheondung turned back to me with an apologetic smile, “Sorry about them.”

            I laugh because it’s a stupid thing to be apologetic about, “It’s okay.”

            “Hey we have 10 seconds left!” Cheondung exclaims as he eyed his digital watch. 

            “10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1!”

            “Happy New Year!” I exclaim at the same time he does…at the same time s do as well. 

            “Hey! Since you’re not here to give Cheondung the New Year kiss I’ll give it to him for you,” G.O’s voice is suddenly behind Cheondung and he goes in to kiss my boyfriend’s cheek.

            “Ewwww no!!!! Get away from me G.O!” Cheondung runs out of his seat and I can see him and G.O run around temporarily in and out of my computer screen. 

            “Noooooooooooooo!” Cheondung screams and I see G.O run across the room.  Cheondung is about to chase after him but stops and turns to look at me.  I can feel my heart beat faster again.  Seriously this boy is giving me mini heart attacks. 

            “I wish I could stay longer,” Cheondung says regretfully as he sits back down in front of his camera, “But I’m kind of backstage right now when I should be at the Gayo DaeJun.”

            “Oh,” I don’t’ even bother my disappointment.  The way he says it, makes it sound like saying happy new year to me is a trouble for him.

            “Hey don’t be like that,” he says reassuringly, “I’m glad that you wished me a happy new year.”

            I look back at him.  I want to hug him so bad.  I wouldn’t care if I couldn’t even touch him as long as I could just look at him…and not on a screen. 

            “Will you be free in 14 hours?” I ask. 

            There’s a murmur of sounds in the background and Cheondung looks behind him.  He turns back to me and there’s a big smile on his face.  An extremely big smile that makes me really suspicious, “You bet!  I have to go now but…I love you!  Thanks for sticking around with someone who’s such a bad boyfriend like me.”

            I gave him a big smile, “Anytime, as long as you’ll still take a normal girl like me.”

            “You’re more than normal.  You’re my everything.  And I wouldn’t be able to live without you.”

            “Stop being so cheesy.  Hey I’m watching the Daejun right now!  You better hurry!” I say.  I want to cry.  I miss him so bad. 

            “Okay,” his hand is on the laptop screen, “I’ll see you soon.”

            I put my hand on the screen too and blow him a kiss.  He pretends to receive it and then blows me one too, “Next time will be for real,” he promises. 

            “I’ll hold you to that!” I point at the screen and he waves.  Then the window closes. 

            I fall back onto my bed trying to hold back tears.  Why is love so hard?  Why can’t he be here when I need him?  Why can’t our love be simple?  Why do I have to wait for that one time in a year when he gets a break just to hold him? 

            I look at the most recent picture I have of me and Cheondung, which was taken about a year ago.  He’s giving me a piggyback ride and I’m trying to block his eyes with my hands.  He’s in the middle of laughing and his expression is happy even though one of his eyes is covered.  And I’m looking adoringly at him.  I sigh as I look at that picture.  Thunder, hopefully you can come visit me soon.  Being away from you is too painful for me.  I get heart attacks when I see you but my heart doesn’t beat without you. 

            I turn my computer on around 10 o’clock that day.  Cheondung said he had a concert to perform at and couldn’t talk to me at midnight.  I wait for 30 minutes like a loser in front of my computer screen until I decide to call him.  No answer. 

            “Cheondung,” I silently say as I tug at the plastic diamond ring on my ring finger.  Cheondung won it when we first began going out in eighth grade.  He gave it to me before he left for Korea.  It’s not an engagement ring and I wouldn’t even say it’s a promise ring but it’s something special.  And he did promise to replace it with a real ring one day. 

            I jump in surprise as I feel arms wrap around my neck and a kiss on my cheek.

            “I missed you,” I hear a low voice and immediately turn red,”Ch—ch--cheondung? “

            “Don’t tell me you need to hesitate to say your boyfriend’s name,” Cheondung let’s go and swirls my chair around so I can face him.  And like that I’m sure I’m about to die; my heart is pounding so hard.  I feel like it’s about to jump out of my chest.  His hair is back to black and he’s much taller than I remember.  More muscular, but the way he’s looking at me with those eyes is something that hasn’t changed.  The smile that comes to his lips hasn’t changed. 

My feelings for him hasn’t changed.

            “Surprise?” he says hesitantly.  It seems like he’s afraid that I’m mad at him or something.

            “This is the biggest surprise ever!” I jump out of my chair into his arms and start kissing him everywhere.  His cheek, his nose, his forehead.  And then his lips.  We stay connected like that for what seems like an eternity because we’ve missed each other so much.  I missed the feeling of his lips on mine, something that I took for granted when he was with me every day. 

            “What are you doing here?” I say as we let go. 

            “Well I’ve been asking my manager every single day this year to see you on this special day and finally he said yes.  I needed to come back home.  I needed to be with you.  Webcams just aren’t the same,” he tugs at my hair, “You’re so beautiful.” He stares me in the eyes and I feel like melting right there.  Maybe I am; if he weren’t holding me I’d probably fall like a klutz. 

            I wrap my arms around him and put my head against his chest, smelling Thunder’s scent: musky but flowery sweet at the same time.  Yup that’s my Thunder. 

            “Come on,” he grabs my hand and pulls me out the door, “We don’t want to miss the fireworks.”

            It used to be something we would do every year at New Year’s.  Watch the fireworks together.  It’s not like fireworks are overly special.  Yes they’re nice to look at but in the end it’s only a bunch of lights in the sky and as you grow older you become less excited when you hear them.  But when you’re a kid, fireworks are one of the most fun things to watch.  Me and Cheondung have been watching the New Year’s fireworks since we were little kids, even before we started going out.  And let me tell you, these last two years have not been the same watching the fireworks without my Cheondung. 

            But at the same time, I feel like I should be spending more time with him here and now.  And I want to spend every free minute I can with him.  Going to see the fireworks an hour away is going to waste that time.

            “How long do we have?” I stop him from walking by tugging at his hand.

            He turns to me but with a smile on his face, “Stop worrying about that.  You always worry too much,” he squeezes my nose and laughs when I scrunch it up, “But I’m glad to know that some things will never change.”

            “Oh fine,” I say dejectedly and silently push him out the door. 

            As we reach my garage I see his slick black BMW that he recently bought for his mom.  His family might live with him in Korea now but he still owns the house here and every once in a while I’ll see new things while I pass by the house.  Occasionally, I see a family member who’s always nice enough to ask me in for tea.  Yes tea. 

            He opens the door for me like a gentleman and gets into the driver’s seat.  As we wait at a red light before going onto the highway he looks over at me and grabs my hand.  His fingers intertwine with mine and he brings it to his lips. 

            “You still wear it,” he says.  We pull onto the highway.  Cheondung is driving with one hand and damn he looks so hot while doing it. 

            “I never take it off,” I say.  I have the sudden urge to kiss him on the cheek but don’t want to cause any accidents by surprising him, “So what’s with the sudden transformation?” I raise an eyebrow at him, “You’ve suddenly grown muscles.  You try to look boss all the time now.  Where’s my cute Cheondung?”

            Cheondung bursts out laughing, “What are you talking about?  I’m still him!” 

            “You want to impress the girls,” I say.

            “I don’t need to impress anyone. I have you!” Cheondung turns to lock eyes with me and this time I even see him blush before he turns back to the road.

            “But if you want me to become skinny again, I’ll do it.  I would even gain 200 pounds if you want me to.  Bleach my hair pink!  Get a tattoo of your name on my arm.  Whatever you want me to do.” He’s trying to hold back laughter but at the same time he looks absolutely serious. 

            “Oh you don’t have to go that far,” I tug gently on his ear, “A nose piercing will do.” I grin at him and I see him break into a smile, “We’ll go to Claire’s first thing tomorrow morning.”

            I burst into laughter but at the same time feel so happy that he’s at least going to be with me tomorrow too.

            It’s only a few more minutes before Cheondung is pulling off of the highway.

            “We’re there already?” I look around quickly but don’t see the city lights.  Instead I see a clearing.  And a field of beautiful flowers.

            I turn to him as he gets out of the car and I quickly open the door to meet him in the middle, “Hold up cutie.  What’s going on here?”

            He grabs me into a hug and starts walking so I have no choice but to follow him to the top of a grassy hill where a blanket is laid out with candles, “Stop asking questions and enjoy okay.”

            I hold on to him tighter because the weather’s a little chilly and we both sit down on the blanket. 

            “You don’t know how hard it’s been for me the last two years,” he begins and I nod.

            “I never knew how much my life depended on you too.”

            “You’re the one who kept pushing me to do my best.”

            “I never pushed you!” I laugh as I hit my head against his chest.

            “No but I pushed myself because of you.  I wanted to make you proud of me.  I wanted to show you that leaving you wasn’t a waste.”

            I put a finger to his lips stopping him from talking, “I am proud of you.  And I know leaving wasn’t a waste because you’re living your dream.  I might be mad sometimes that we can’t be together all the time…but it makes moments like these even more special.” 

            “You’re the most important person to me,” he’s turning the plastic ring on my finger and then turns me to face him.  He looks at his watch, “There’s only a minute left till the New Year.”

            “Well I don’t know where this is but I doubt we can see the fireworks from here,” I say.

            “Don’t be so skeptical,” he pulls me up off of the blanket and we walk to a nice place where roses grow. He points above where the trees around us are low so we can see the sky. 

            “5…4…3…2…1…”

            And I see the fireworks erupt into the air, with sparkles of pink and red, green and yellow.   A whole array of rainbow colors ignite in the sky making beautiful shapes that soon explode into other shapes.  But at the same time they’re not as big as the ones that are usually seen at New Years.  There’s not a lot of kaboom. There’s no showy display.   It’s smaller, but still displays the same beauty.  Just as the fireworks are about to end and the fireworks start going non-stop for the final kabam I see pink and white fireworks go into the sky and the next thing I know they’re forming words.  I gasp as I see the words, “Will you marry me?”

            I turn back to Thunder and he’s down on one knee with a diamond ring in his hand.