Dedicated to: candyredhearts

“Changmin-ah, could you get that for me? I’m kind of busy with Soeun right now. She’s kicking up a fuss about some shirt she doesn’t want to wear.”

His wife’s tone was one of frustration, annoyance, yet honey-sweet all mixed together. Almost four years down the road and he still hadn’t gotten sick of hearing it.

They were in their late twenties now, Changmin was twenty-eight while Victoria was twenty-seven, and they had one daughter named Shim Soeun. The little daddy’s girl, that’s what Victoria called her, but they both knew she loved her all the same.

“Alright Vic, but be careful with Soeun. Yell if you need help.” He replied, starting down the hall and picking up the phone.

It was Minho, calling to see if she was doing fine. After all, one three-year-old daughter was enough for the couple to handle already, while he and Yoona, even though they were younger, had twins that they could take care of easily.

Minho had gotten used to the two children—a girl and a boy, Chaerin and Jaehwa. They were so close to calling the boy Yoogeun, since Minho wanted it so much, but Yoona had enough sense to snap out of it before she went into labour.

“Oh, we’re doing—Changmin—great. Changmin hurry! Soeun—really great.” Changmin replied, punctuated with Victoria’s yells.

He was far from annoyed; rather, he wanted to quickly end the conversation with Minho. He could hear Yoona’s faint chuckling in the background, and he knew she was listening. That choding, he thought, almost laughing as well.

“Yeah, we’re fine. Listen, I kind of—oh you get it? Oh, okay. I’ll talk to you another time then, Minho. Say hi to the twins and your wife for me, ‘kay? Yup, bye.”

Changmin grimaced and braced himself for his wife’s violence when he entered the room, but surprisingly she was flipping her fringe back and smiling at him gratefully.

“I swear—Soeun’s biased to you. See? She wears it immediately!”

“I thought we talked about this already, hon.” Changmin shot her a sidelong, meaningful glance. She took the little girl’s hand and sighed, giving up her side of the battle.

“That’s my girl. Now, um, could we go somewhere? Alone? I’ll call the baby-sitter to take care of Soeun for the night. It’s been so long since we last had a date together, Vic.”

Victoria agreed to the idea, and Changmin hoisted Soeun up into his arms, gently kissing his wife on the cheek.

She took into account all the things the baby-sitter needed to take note of and repeated for the third time before Changmin pulled her out of the door—literally, and muttered a short ‘thanks’ and ‘goodbye’ to the sitter.   

“Really, Vic? She knows what we need already. Trust you to go on so long about Soeun’s dietary habits. Now come on, I’ve made a reservation at 504 Steak Lounge, and if we don’t hurry, we’re going to be late.”

“Yes really, that’s one. And two, fancy! Choikang Changmin hasn’t lost his charm, huh?”

“Oh, Vic, you crack me up. The Choikang never loses his charm and you know it.”

Victoria walked up the spiral staircase of Changmin’s apartment. She and him had been dating ever since f(x) and TVXQ disbanded. It was their third anniversary and she knew he’d planned something very special, but she didn’t know what.

He always had been one for surprises, and that was a fact. On their first anniversary he surprised her by putting an ad in the newspaper that covered a full page. After that everyone noticed the couple and ‘shipped’ them.

She smiled as she stepped up onto a platform leading to the next level. The floor was lined with rose petals, making a pathway. She didn’t know where it led—his house was huge—and so she continued walking. The house was dimly lit with candles, creating almost a cheesy romantic atmosphere.

When she was nearing the end, she knew because she could feel it, a paper was on the floor, and it read, ‘Close your eyes and take ten more steps forward’.

Victoria knew Changmin wrote this. She recognised the writing almost too easily. Smirking to herself, she let her eyes shut and counted as she took the steps, waiting with a bated breath.

As she neared, she could feel a soothing presence, and she bumped into a figure. Opening her eyes, Changmin was bent on one knee and held out a small box with one hand. She gasped, butterflies floating around in her stomach, as if it were the day of confession again.

“Song Qian, will you give me the greatest honor that could ever bestow me and be my lawful wife?”

Victoria gasped a second time, and could only nod as he put the ring on her finger. Changmin stood up and carried her bridal style towards the living room, where a song was already playing. She recognized it. It was the soft ballad that he’d composed two years after TVXQ disbanded, just a piano instrumental, but oh so special because Victoria helped too.

“Would you let me have this dance?” He extended a hand to her and she nodded yet again, placing her hand in his and the other on his shoulder, after feeling his arm wrapping around her waist and pulling them closer to each other.

“I love you, Victoria.” He whispered in her ear before softly and supplely capturing her lips with his own, dragging on hers a little.

“Me too.” She could barely speak between the short kisses, as they turned more and more magical by the moment.

Changmin entered the restaurant with her and led her to the private room he’d booked. Pulling out the velvet chair for her, he saw to her being tucked into the seat comfortably before sitting down opposite of her.

“So, umma.”

“So, appa.” She replied equally casually, a smile playing at her lips as she leaned towards him. “Why the sudden ‘fancy restaurant’?”

“Why, I can’t take my wife out to a fancy restaurant for no particular reason?”

“Cough it up, Changmin, I know there’s something up.”

“Alright,” he chuckled, “My dear wife, if you hadn’t noticed, today’s our anniversary.”

Victoria and Changmin always started their meals with a bottle of wine, unlike ‘normal’ people who drank wine last. Picking up her glass and sipping a bit of it, she glanced at him skeptically.

“I would’ve—”

“No, Vic, you wouldn’t have known. Face it. And it is our anniversary. Believe me. I was going to take you somewhere more romantic, but… I didn’t have a chance. The company… I can’t leave it alone for this period of time. And not to mention your fashion line’s doing extremely well.”

Victoria smiled. Once again, he hadn’t failed to read her mind correctly. Shaking her head from side to side, she admired his ability to know her so well. Maybe it was the fact that they’d been together for more than a decade—two if you count during their promotional and pre-debut times.

“Ah, right. And yes, it is doing pretty well. How is the company? You’ve been coming back late and going in and out of the country so often I hadn’t a chance to talk to you about it. Oh and who called just now?”

“The company’s good, the stocks are flying high! Economy’s so brilliant nowadays. I’m sorry hon, I’ll try to make an effort to come back more often, I promise. And as for who, why don’t you guess?”

Victoria thought for a bit, and then she said, “Minho?”

Changmin nodded, “Yeah it was Minho. He and Yoona are doing exceptionally well. And we were worried about them. They grow up so fast! Two kids!”

“Is my hubby jealous? Haha, I could give you another, but we don’t want that too early do we know, Changmin? Anyway, we’ve got to visit them soon. Maybe we should have an SM reunion. Yes, that would be fun. We have to organize that some time.”

“Who are the couples again? I can’t remember. But I know for a fact that Sooyoung and Key, Onew and Jessica—or was it Tiffany—are married without kids.”

“It’s Jessica. And yes, they don’t have kids. I know the rest, but I’m too lazy to talk about them. Soeun’s been clogging up almost ninety percent of the brain space I have.”

Changmin gave her a confused look. “What about me?”

“You kid. You take up one hundred percent of my heart. Well maybe ninety-nine. That one percent’s for Soeun, but the most of it is yours, aren’t you happy enough?”

Victoria leaned over and kissed him on the lips quickly and called to order. As much as Changmin was the more surprising one in their relationship, Victoria never failed to amaze once in a while.

“Hey. What are you doing?” Victoria whispered.

Changmin looked up from the book he was reading and pointed to it. She nodded, casually picking up and book and sitting next to him.

“Hmm. Romeo and Juliette. Didn’t expect that from you.”

“Well, what did you expect then?” Changmin turned to face her and put down his book.

“Oh, nothing.” Then, softly, she added, “Picture books.”

“What did you say?”

“Oh, I didn’t say a thing.” Victoria replied cheekily.

Changmin decided to let it go for this once. He watched as her eyes fell on the book, reading carefully, turning the page delicately as if each page was a piece of glass that would break the moment you dropped it. Her movements were light and slow.

She knew he was watching her, but she kept on reading, drawn more by his gaze than the book itself. Telling herself that he was just interested in the book and not her (which, obviously, wasn’t true), she sighed and focused on her book.

Then again, she started to feel restless in that position.

“You know, Changmin, staring isn’t polite.” She smiled and kissed him on the cheek.

“I know. But I can stare at my girlfriend—that’s completely legit.”

The full six-course meal went on without any glitches, fortunately, and it was exquisite. The entrée was lobster bisque; the next lighter course was a small grilled fish, and the main course was a tender yet tasty sirloin steak—the Lounge’s most popular, actually. They’d ordered Caesar salad for the salad course. Following that, they were surprisingly hungry for two more courses and decided they’d have it.

The desert was a hot lava chocolate cake with a serving of vanilla ice cream, hot and cold, just the way Victoria liked it. The final cheese course they’d eaten was Cheddar with some wine. Even after drinking wine at the start of their meal, they were in the mood for more at the end.

“Well, that was a delightful meal.” Changmin smiled and got up, ready to pay the bill.

“Yes, yes it was. I’m going to miss having meals alone like this again.”

“Oh, this can be arranged every week, but it depends on our schedule.”

“I know, I know.” Victoria sighed and watched him sign the receipt.

She stepped out of the restaurant into the night, breathing in the fresh air, embracing the warm atmosphere. Changmin stepped out after her and led her to the rooftop. She walked towards the railing and put both of her hands on it, sighing again.

“Since when did my wife sigh so much?”

Changmin smiled and walked up behind her, gently wrapping her thin figure with his arms, putting his head on her shoulder affectionately.

A low, waning gibbous moon hovered in the twilight sky, bestowing a dim light upon the land. The soothing sounds of the night could be heard but not seen, for the encompassing darkness had blotted out all but the faintest light of the nearest lamppost. For a few moments, the two didn’t say a word.

“Vic, you’re one amazing woman, wife and partner. I wouldn’t know what I’d do without you. But one thing’s for sure.”

“Hmm?”

“I want to spend the rest of my forever with you.”

“Forever?”

“And even after that,” he promised, kissing her on the cheek.

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