Will you be the special someone who is willing to put that ring on your finger to be my wife?

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It had always been my dream to have a wedding on a summer beach. Since my aunt’s wedding twenty years ago, when I was still five, vowing an ‘I do’ whilst feeling the summer breeze itching my body was always on my mind. My aunt – my mother’s younger sister – had inspired me because I knew how she struggled to make her wedding to be unforgettable, although I was just five back then. It was my summer vacation when I witnessed her hard work to prepare her wedding. My parents sent me to my grandmother’s house, where my aunt also lived before her marriage, to spend my holiday.

My aunt used to study fashion and design during college, but because of some matters, she gave it up and turned to be a kindergarten teacher. It was a pity actually, because she sometimes told me how she missed designing something. So, that was why she was able to make her own wedding dress. She told me that she didn’t want any designer to make it for her because it was her own special occasion that she believed would only happen once in her life, then she should prepare it herself by her own creativity and imagination as how she wanted it to be. And the result was really adorable. It really suited her feature and personality. I even thought that she really should have been a designer in the first place. That was why I also dreamt to make my own wedding dress later on when I got married.

My grandmother’s house was near the beach. I remembered having fun with my cousins whenever I wasn’t around my aunt. They are my mother’s older brother’s sons. Just like me, Kim Sunggyu and Kim Myungsoo were having their summer vacation – it was our routine to hang out together during summer – at our grandmother’s house. Probably it was also because our aunt’s approaching wedding, our parents sent us off to our granny’s house before their days off.

Myungsoo was the same age as me, while Sunggyu was three years older than us. Myungsoo and I would like to run away from our rooms in the morning to see the sunrise. We both loved to watch the sun greeted the world in the horizon. Myungsoo would bring his camera toy and pretended to take some pictures using it, and then he would ask me to pretend a pose in front of the orangey sunrise. Years after that, we did that with the real camera he got from Sunggyu and I for his twentieth birthday.

Two weeks after our parents dropped us off at our grandmother’s house, came our aunt’s wedding. On that day, I couldn’t make some sand castle on the beach like what I usually did together with Myungsoo and Sunggyu because the wedding organizer had changed our playground into a beautiful place to witness our aunt’s wedding ceremony, the venue for her precious white wedding. She was dressed beautifully in her handmade wedding dress. At that time, while holding her train of dress, I told Myungsoo who was beside me that I wanted a wedding like this. And he added that probably it would be better to have the sunrise witnessing my wedding.

 

 

Thirteen years after our aunt’s wedding, I stood silently watching the sunrise at the beach near my grandmother’s place. I had arranged a summer vacation with my cousins, because summer was the only time we could hang out together since none of us lived in the same city. So, here we were, observing the rising sun while having our own minds working their own ways. The only sound we could hear was the wind and some chirping birds. It was lovely and enjoyable, until Myungsoo broke the silent.

“Do you still want to have your wedding at the beach?” he asked me. Among us, it was only me who had this dream.

“Hm. Even, like what you said, I want it to be done in the morning like this, while the sun is greeting the universe.”

Beside me, I could hear Sunggyu’s chuckle. He was never fond of romantic things like how Myungsoo and I would like. “Seriously? I won’t be there, then.”

“Why? Because you don’t want to wake up real early to prepare for my wedding? Jeez, such a lovely cousin,” I remarked sarcastically.

“My blanket loves me more than you.”

“Yah, Kim Myungsoo! How come you have a very nice brother like him?”

“Thank you for calling me nice, I appreciate it,” declared Sunggyu. “By the way, what makes you want to have a wedding like auntie’s? Don’t you want to have something different?”

“I don’t know. It’s just that I was so mesmerized by how auntie’s wedding was. It was really beautiful. And everything was her own idea. You can say that I was really impressed.”

“Then, why don’t you make your own idea of your wedding?”

“Don’t get me wrong, I indeed have my own idea of how I want it to be. It’s just the place that happens to be the same. Auntie’s happened during midday, while I want mine to be at the dawn.  The decoration and the wedding dress will also be a lot different.”

“Hm, still. The main topic is the same.”

“Oppa!”

Myungsoo chuckled looking at us. It was always like this whenever the three of us were together. Myungsoo would always be a good companion, but Sunggyu would always be the ruiner. “Okay, stop it you two. Let’s take picture together before the sun gets higher,” he said still chuckling while taking his pocket camera out. By that, the three of us gave our backs to the sun and putting our best smile to the direction of the camera.

“Hyungs, Noona! How dare you did that without me!” from afar, a loud whining heard, coming from none other than our youngest cousin, Lee Sungjong, our aunt’s son. He was born a year after the wedding.

“Hurry come here, Jongie!” shouted Sunggyu. He was his best cousin, I assumed, because Sungjong had never been teased like how Sunggyu always teased me. No, I wasn’t jealous of that although I was the only girl among my mother’s grandchildren, because who couldn’t love Sungjong? He was very much lovely although sometimes he could get me on my nerves whenever he didn’t want to share his snack with me. I loved snacks, don’t hate me.

“Next time, wake up earlier, Jongie. Stop playing games until midnight.”

“Noona, don’t nag. Let’s take a picture.”

 

 

Three years later, I found myself working in the same company as Sunggyu, although the divisions were different. He was a field reporter while I was an art and set designer. Well, yes, we worked in a television station. While Myungsoo, he was becoming a part time photographer in a magazine. His passion for photography indeed made him some money. It wasn’t wrong for Sunggyu and me to buy him that dear SLR camera.

Although we rarely met each other at the office, whenever we had time, Sunggyu and I would have lunch together at the office cafeteria. We would talk about our own workload, about the weather, about our parents and grandmother, about Myungsoo and Sungjong, even about how we missed watching sunrise at the beach. This year’s summer, the three of us were really busy doing our own stuff, so that it was only Sungjong who could come visit our grandma.

The next year’s summer, we managed to have our annual summer vacation at grandma’s. Sungjong surprised me when I saw him since he had grown taller and taller each year, although his face was still as beautiful as a girl’s face. Myungsoo gave me three huge bars of chocolate. He said he bought it while he was in Sweden for his job – he had been a full timer after all. While Sunggyu, he came with a friend of his. I remembered he introduced him to me once during our lunch together. He was also working at the same company as me, the camera person who usually accompanied Sunggyu. His parents named him Nam Woohyun.

This Nam Woohyun, I remembered him joined the company at the same time as me, but I didn’t recognize him until the day Sunggyu introduced us to each other. Even, I didn’t really pay attention to him after that since I often worked inside the studio to prepare stuff for some recordings while he often worked outside to report some happenings around Korea, even around the world. But telling you the truth, my first impression toward him was that he was attractive.

Truth to be told, Woohyun was such a nice guy. He was the kind of person who you would like to befriend with because he could know when to cheer you up when you’re feeling low. He would also be the person who you could trust to tell your sorrow with. He was polite as well, so that was no surprise when my grandma loved him. He could mingle with everyone without difficulty.

I remembered my grandma said one night during our vacation when we were going to bed. She talked about how she wanted to have a grandson like Woohyun. She said his grandsons were less cheerful than Woohyun and they were sometimes a bit annoying. I could only smile because well, she was true, Sunggyu, Myungsoo, and Sungjong rarely listened to what grandma said. It wasn’t because they were disobedient, but more because they liked to tease grandma.

“Sora-yah,” she called me. “I think Woohyun and you can be a great couple.”

I turned my head towards grandma’s direction on my right and showed her my shocked expression. Well, I knew that Woohyun was nice and somewhat charming, but I didn’t hope grandma would think like that. I liked having fun with Woohyun, but I knew that we were just friend, not more than that. Even, I didn’t know Woohyun that much since we had only met for a couple of time. Also, I didn’t think that Woohyun would like me that way.

“Heolmoni, we’re not like that,” I replied.

“Not yet. I can feel it that you two soon will be closer. Believe me, Sora-yah, elder’s intuition works.”

I knew how my grandma was. Whenever she talked about her intuition, no one could stop her. So, instead of making other arguments which would end up rejected, I left it there.

Grandmother’s thought turned out to be true. Only a month and I’d become good friends with Woohyun. We sometimes hang out together in the evening after work whenever we were free, sometimes with Sunggyu, sometimes only us two. We liked each other’s companion and we also found some similarities between us, like how we liked cappuccino better than latte and how we disliked potatoes except French fries. I didn’t know since when, but whenever people asked me how I could be close with Woohyun, I would start blushing. And the next month, we became official couple.

Sunggyu told me that actually Woohyun had attracted to me since our first encounter – he said he couldn’t believe there was still a person like Woohyun who glorified love at the first sight – although I didn’t really remember when our first encounter was, if I wasn’t mistaken, that was on the day of my job interview. Then, knowing that actually I was Sunggyu’s cousin, he asked him to introduce him to me. I was flattered. I also didn’t even know that there was someone like Woohyun existed.

When I told you that Sunggyu was unromantic, Woohyun was 180 degrees the opposite. He was really romantic or even I could say that he was greasy. Sometimes I couldn’t stand his high level of greasiness, but probably that was one point of him that could make me helpless whenever he was around. His greasiness was first shown when he asked me to go out.

That day was a typical Saturday in autumn. I had my day off and so did Woohyun. He told me that he would like to spend weekend together with me since Sunggyu was away to report some happenings outside the city. I couldn’t say no, of course, because, well, you know that I liked his companion, right?

He asked me to come to his flat which was some blocks away from mine. It was such a coincidence that we actually lived near. So, I decided to walked to his flat right after I had my breakfast. He said that he had prepared lots of things to do, so why not come early? When I arrived at his house, nothing unusual happened. We just talked, played games, and watched movie. He then made us some lunch which I could consider as one of my most favorite lunch ever. I didn’t know that he was such a good cook ‘til then. When evening came, he told me he ran out of coffee, so he asked me to stay for a while when he excused himself to go to the nearby store.

His absence turned out to be a bit longer than I thought. I didn’t know, I just got a tad worry. But before I decided to call him, he sent me a text.

Sora-yah, I forgot to bring wallet.

Please give it to me at XX shop.

It’s on the drawer near TV.

Thx :D

At first, I was stunned at how careless he could be, but when I stepped out of his flat, all I could see was red. It wasn’t a stain of blood nor was it some stains of paint, but it was a symbol. An arrow symbol made by red roses that directed me to the rooftop. Well, you can say it was lame, but it wasn’t Woohyun if it wasn’t greasy and lame.

When I opened the door to the rooftop, it was dark, since the sun had set several moments ago. I couldn’t see anything but black. No more red. I knew Woohyun was a bit afraid of dark, so I doubt that it was his work.

“Woohyun?” I called, making sure it was really his doing.

Nothing replied my call, instead, a few seconds after that my eyes were blinded by some beautiful lights that surrounded the rooftop. In the center, a screen showed some pictures of me and even Woohyun from the projector. At the end of the video, there was this big question “KIM SORA, WOULD YOU GO OUT WITH ME?” By that, Woohyun was visible right in front of me with his mischievous grin decorated his bright face. I couldn’t help but blush.

“I know this is lame and cheesy, but I can’t think of any other romantic way to ask you going out with me,” he said, smile still engraving his face. “You might not realize it before but I have been looking at you since the first time I landed my eyes on you. You have your own way to attract me even though I tried hard to not being too attracted. I even found out that you are way more attractive the time I know you for this past two months. This might be too early, but Kim Sora, I do like you and I want to try having something more than friendship with you.”

A bunch of rose that he was holding had the same color as the rose arrow in front of his flat. It was brightly red and probably my face right now also had the same color as those flowers. His hand was quite shaking, funnily, because from what I knew Woohyun was always a confident guy. No matter what he would never show his anxiety. Also, it was contradictory with his cool face – I knew he tried so hard to maintain that cool face.

“Woohyun,” I started whilst maintaining to stay calm despite the crazy thump inside my chest. “You are a good guy. Thank you for liking me. I really am flattered,” I stopped, gaining another fresh air to my lungs. “This is the best cheesy confession I’ve ever witnessed. And to end it, I’d love to say yes.”

Woohyun’s smile was blooming so wide. The twinkle in his eyes showed so much affection yet reliefs. Seconds after, I was in his embrace, lips to lips.

“Did you do all of this?” I asked when we sat down in front of the screen to re-watch the video.

He scooted me closer to him, an arm around my shoulder. “Not really. Sunggyu helped me decorating the lamps and Myungsoo helped me picking up the pictures.”

“They did? I thought Oppa was out of town and Myungsoo was even out of country!”

He chuckled. “Sunggyu and I did this decoration two days ago, before he left for Busan. And have you forgotten there’s a thing called internet? Myungsoo mailed me the pictures of yours.”

“Means that you have planned it for quite a while then? How couldn’t I realize.”

“It’s because you’re too busy with your workload yet too ignorant to notice,” he stated matter-of-factly. It was true that this past week had been very busy for me. One of my team mates had his days off for several days because his father passed away, so we had to work harder which only meant for me only focusing on my work. Working in a TV station never was an easy job.

“Actually,” he continued after some moments of silent. “Sunggyu suggested me to ask you out on the summer beach during that holiday.”

“Huh?”

“But I refused because I was afraid that you would reject me, since we really didn’t know each other at that time. Though it was you who actually didn’t know me, because I’ve known what kind of a person you are from Sunggyu.”

I remembered that time when grandma told me that I would make a good couple with Woohyun. Did she say that because she had known that Woohyun liked me?

 

 

A week after that everyone knew that I dated Woohyun. I heard many reactions from that, but most likely they were not surprised. “Ah, I knew it,” was the most common reaction I got.

Sungjong and grandmother called me right after Sunggyu told them. They told me that they were happy and they trusted Woohyun. I didn’t know what the meaning behind what they were saying, but I could only say yes. My parents were also happy and insisted for me to get married soon. I refused because everyone knew that was way too early. Sunggyu who came back from Busan on Monday came to my flat and gave me a pair of couple T-shirts as a present. I felt like a teenager who had just had her first date. It wasn’t my first time dating someone, obviously, but everyone seemed to think like that.

“That’s because you’ve been single for too long after you broke up with Lee Sungyeol,” Myungsoo said when I told him what had been on my mind about others’ behavior towards my love life. We were now sitting in one of our favorite cafe, owned by Jang Dongwoo, Sunggyu’s friend during high school, right after Myungsoo back from his photo shoot trip in New Zaeland. Jeez, that kid was really lucky.

It was true that I had been single for quite a long time. Sungyeol used to be my boyfriend during high school. But we decided to break up because he said he would go to study abroad – he was a chaebol after all, so I believed his parents wanted him to pursue his degree from reputable university there in some superior countries. I also agreed because I thought that our relationship was too slow. It wasn’t like going out after all, because we felt like we were just hanging out with best friend whenever we were together. Nevertheless, during college I also had a close friend, in which we were comfortable around each other, but in the end we just drifted apart when he decided to come back to Busan after graduated.

“Your statement makes me more pathetic, I guess.”

“Well, it’s true,” Myungsoo replied coolly. “Lee Sungyeol left you to UK, while Lee Howon left you to Busan. From my point of view, it’s not them sympathizing you, but they just hope that in the end Woohyun won’t leave you away.”

“Isn’t it the same?”

He played with his spaghetti before answering me, “It’s you who makes it seems pathetic. If you think otherwise, then you won’t seem that pathetic.”

“Right,” I said in the end. Not knowing what other thing to do.

“And now, don’t put on that pathetic face on you because your boyfriend is here,” he said while pointing out the doorway where Woohyun walked in with Sunggyu. He gave me his bright grin when I looked at his direction.

 

 

The next summer, we – Sunggyu, Myungsoo, Sungjong, Woohyun, and I – managed to have a vacation again at grandma’s house. It was the typical summer afternoon when I joined Myungsoo and Sungjong at the beach after helping my grandma with some chores. Sunggyu and Woohyun were off to buy some groceries for dinner. Woohyun had promised to cook us dinner.

“What are you guys doing?” I asked while plopping myself beside Sungjong on the sand. He had been applying some sun block to his milky white skin.

“Nothing actually. We just talked.”

“What kind of talking?”

“Just stuff like how his parents’ wedding was,” Myungsoo replied. Now, it was him who applied the sun block cream.

“It was beautiful,” I commented, taking the sun block bottle Myungsoo offered. However hot it was, summer would always be beautiful in my eyes. “Aunty was the most beautiful bride I’ve ever seen in my life. Probably that’s why you are beautiful, Jongie.”

The said name made a disapproving face. He was never fond of being called beautiful despite the fact that his face was indeed beautiful.

“Your parents’ wedding was the beginning of our annual summer vacation here.”

“And the beginning of her dream of having a summer wedding,” Myungsoo added and we all chuckled. “I remembered making some castles like those kids are doing,” he said afterwards while pointing at some children played the sand.

“Yeah, although the heat was superb, we didn’t care and just ran here and there playing with sand and water.”

“How I miss my childhood.”

After several moments of pause, suddenly an idea prompted into my mind. “What if we make some castles?” Obviously, I got disapproving faces from my two lovely cousins.

The next morning, as always, I stood watching the sunrise at the beach. What different was that I didn’t do that with Myungsoo like I usually did since I was five, but I did that with Woohyun only.

“I need to take some pictures of the market in the morning for my work,” Myungsoo said when I asked him to go to the beach. While Sungjong followed Myungsoo, Sunggyu was being the sleepy hamster himself, couldn’t be awaken from his dreamland. So, here I was, standing with Woohyun.

“What makes you love this thing so much?” Woohyun asked, his left hand wrapped around my right hand.

I smiled upon hearing his question. My mind wandered to the mornings I had experienced standing here with my cousins. There wasn’t any certain explanation actually to why I liked to witness the sunrise. And also the reason my cousins did that with me. We just did that and it had became a routine.

“I don’t know. We did that once, then it became a habit,” I replied nonchalantly. “But later, I found out that I do this as a kind of gratitude because I’m still living. It’s like a token, whether you’re still living or not. If you still can witness the glowing orangey sun greets the horizon, then you are still alive,” I added.

He said nothing but I could see that he was deep in thought.

“Why did you ask?

“Hm? Nothing. I was just curious.” He smiled softly but it indeed reached his eyes. I believed that was heaven when we were together, hand in hand, smiling at each other, but actually, it wasn’t, because after that, he let go of my hand.

He surely noticed the confusion written in my face, but he just let it go while still smiling. “What’s wrong?” I demanded. “You seem like hiding something behind me.”

He chuckled. “Not really, but well, you can say so.”

“What? You’re hiding something from me? I thought we agreed not to have any secrets between us.”

“Are you mad?”

“No,” I replied sternly. I was a bit exaggerating, I knew.

Woohyun changed his position so that he was now facing me fully. Both his hands grabbed mine and squeezed it a little. “I’m sorry if I get you mad, but I hid this not to make you upset but to make you happy. Will you believe me?”

His voice was gentle. No more humor in his speech and seriousness was all over his face. I felt dumbfounded. I didn’t know the ‘this’ he meant. “I will if you tell me what it is.”

“Actually, this is what I’ve been hiding from you.” He let go one of my hands to take something from his jeans’ back pocket. He opened up my hand and put the thing he took on my palm.

I could feel something cool grazed my palm, and when I could take a better look at it, I was surprised. Woohyun put a ring on it.

“Woohyun, did you... Did you just propose me?” I asked, bewildered.

“Listen to me, Kim Sora,” he started. His hands were holding mine again, tighter. “It used to be my grandmother’s ring. She gave me that a year before she died when I was still in high school. She told me that the ring was very precious to her because she got that from someone very special. She asked me to give this special ring to someone very special to me, like that very special someone who gave this to my grandmother. And you, Kim Sora, are my someone special. I don’t want to rush things between us because I know that you are still trying to know me better, and so am I. Apart from that, I also know that I love you so much until it sometimes hurts, so that’s why,” he stopped and suddenly kneeled in front of me. “Kim Sora, will you be the special someone who is willing to put that ring on your finger to be my wife?”

I was tongue-tied. This was too beautiful to be true. My boyfriend proposed me under the rising sun on a summer beach which I loved the most. How couldn’t I say no? Though my heart was beating like crazy, my palms started watering, and my cheeks became rosy red, I managed to reply, “Please, put it on my finger, Nam Woohyun.”

Woohyun’s eyes that had never left mine suddenly turned into crescents as his smile blowed sweetly beautiful. With no hesitation he put his grandma’s ring on my left ring finger, then he kissed it tenderly. “Thank you, my beautiful Kim Sora.”

As he stood up and kissed me right on my lips, I heard a camera clicked. Seconds after, some confetti was thrown all over us and my cousins were shouting happily toward Woohyun and I. Telling you the truth, cheesy or not, that was the most beautiful proposal I’ve ever known.

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I'm looking forward towards your comment and critique.
Thank you for reading my piece of mind :)

 

Well, this is for my friends who are having their birthdays today.

Happy birthday to you :')