NOW

MARCH 2017

IT was 7.23 in the morning and Jongin just came out from shower. He has a flight to catch at 8.50 AM and he needed to hurry up because he has to pick up Soojung and Kyungsoo on the way.

He looked around his neat room, and his gaze fell automatically on the suitcase he packed for today’s internship training in Jeju. He didn’t look forward to spending a marvelous 3-day work vacation there but at least he got to be in a new place with fresh air, so he thought he had nothing to lose after all.

Jongin grabbed a hair towel  from the folds inside his closet and dried his hair right off. He walked over toward the table to check any missed call from his friend, but there were none. So instead he sent a text message to them.

Gonna pick you guys at 8.00. Be sharp or I’ll leave your guys right away. 

He then placed his phone back on the table and within minutes a reply from Soojung came in.

Lel. Tell that to Soo.- Soojung

Heyyyy I’m here y’know - Kyungsoo

Exactly – Jongin wrote briskly and sent it to the Kakaotalk Group Message. He smiled unnowngliy, and went to put on some new clothes.

THIS is it.

I am walking down the aisle, and on my left is - MInhyuk. And this guy is smiling despite hating to be married to me anyway.

Wow – look at all these people that come to cheer on us.

I don’t even know half of the crowd.

Except for that woman  - I’m pretty sure that’s my cousin who likes to copy my style.

Tctch! I still dress better than you, woman.

Wait – what?

Exchange wedding vow?

What wedding vow?

No, no, wait priest sir, I don’t understand what’s going on.

Is there any way we can skip the wedding vow part?

Oh we can?

Let’s just skip it then.

Ring?

What ring?

Oh the wedding ring?

I don’t know.

Minhyuk, do you have it? I’m pretty sure this dress doesn’t come with pockets.

Nope. I don’t have it, you silly. I told you, I don’t have pockets.

What - you lost the ring?

Then how the heck are we supposed to complete the whole matrimonial thingy, you clumsy potato?

Maybe we should cancel the whole marriage thing.

Let’s not get married. Okay?

Okay?

Minhyuk?

Okay?

SOFIA’S brow rose in unison as she looked down to the daughter whose face half covered in the blanket. She then pulled away the blanket, and Naeun appeared to be mumbling something incoherent under her breath. Sofia tried to shake her daughter up but Naeun never budged from the touch.

“Alrightiee….no….no…what do you mean regrets?” Naeun mumbled on, and she showed no sign of waking up from the dream she’s fallen deeper into.

“Naeun dear,” Sofia said whisperingly. “Wake up, honey. It’s already 10.00 AM. We need to go the hotel Grand Hyatt Hotel. Naeun?”

“No…no…”

“Son Naeun,” Sofia raised a tone higher. “Wake up, honey.”

Naeun slowly slit open her eyes, and made a wry face at the blinding sun that streamed in. She turned away and fell asleep again.

“Naeun,” Sofia called again, shaking Naeun by her arm but instead Naeun shoved it away.

“Just go,” Naeun said, grumpy. “I don’t wanna go. I’m tired.”

“Naeun-”

“Mom,” Naeun came in suddenly ash she looked at her mother. “I’m really, really tired. Can I please sit this one out? Just this once.”

Sofia was slightly surprised as she studied the exhausted expression stapled to Naeun’s face. Her eyes were baggy and bloodshot. Her voice was weak and it seemed like she had beads of cold sweat breaking out on her forehead.

“Are you coming down with fever, honey?” Sofia brought her hand toward Naeun’s face but it was stopped by Naeun even before reaching her forehead.

“I’m fine.”

Sofia gasped, shocked and fairly saddened by Naeun’s sudden cold behavior in the morning, but she smiled it away anyway. Maybe her daughter was just really tired.

“Okay. I understand that you might get a little overwhelmed by the whole wedding preparation, and it’s only right to let you have some break from it. Okay. Have plenty of rest, honey. And let the maid know if you need anything.”

“I will.” Naeun then grabbed the blanked that was on her tummy and pulled it over her head. She closed her eyes and fell back to sleep.

IT was as though the fate has something against Naeun on her free day. Her phone has been ringing ever since her parents left for the hotel, and it seemed like the caller was determined to keep reaching her until she actually got up from bed and take her call.

Dammit. This better be important or I’m hanging up right away.

“Hello?” Naeun spat out, angry as she got up and fixed herself into a better position. “Who’s calling?”

“Naeun?” Jongin  asked naturally, wondered what went wrong today in her  way.

“Jongin?” She almost dropped her jaw, thrilled to be hearing the voice she hasn’t heard in a long time.

Or 4 days.

“Oh hi,” Naeun ’s lips turned into a smile without she realizing it. “What is it?”

“I’m calling you to ask you about your official position.”

“My what? WHAT?!”

“Your official post- wait, why are you shouting?” Jongin asked angrily. “There’s this stupid form I need to fill in and they ask about my boss’s official position. And I don’t know the official term. I mean I know what you do, but I don’t know what it’s called officially.”

“Yah Kim Jongin,” Naeun chided in a rude manner as her grip tightened around her phone, infuriated. “Are you joking right now? Is this some kind of a prank? Are you seriously going to behave this way toward your boss?”

“What are you talking about? Why are you getting mad at me? Did you not hear what I just said?”

“Yah!” Naeun roared, deafening Jongin right on the spot before warning him one last time. “If you dare to embarrass my name at the internship program, I will fail you and your future juniors to come! Do you understand? I’m hanging up!”

You ignorant douchebag!

JONGIN rolled his eyes as he shut down the phone after being hang up by Naeun mercilessly. He was still clueless though – why did her boss lash it out on him? Was that a bad timing to ask such question?

What did I do?!

He scoffed off, shoving down his phone into his pockets and walked off to catch up with the rest of the interns that were already getting in assigned groups.

I know I shouldn’t ask you. You probably have zero idea about it anyway.

LATER that night, Naeun couldn’t stop staring at her handphone. She has been circling around her room endlessly, and wouldn’t stop fidgeting over every sound her handphone.

One time it rang because her aunts were calling her to tell her they would be joining her for the wedding day.

Then a text message from bank called to inform her about her weekly credit card usage.

Then another text came in; promoting the home shopping's big sale they planned to organize some time in mid April.

And she couldn’t help but to grit her teeth at every new updates that wet trough her phone.

She didn’t know why she was doing this, or feeling this restless, but she couldn’t help herself. Jongin wasn’t certainly going to call her out of the blue, especially not after the way she treated him this morning, but she was dying of curiosity about how he was doing at the internship program, and she felt like she should be calling him instead if she wanted to get rid of the anxiety.

She was his boss, after all.

THE speech regarding Employees Special Condition by the special guest from Mr. Oh Jung Yeol, the head assistant of minister of development ended earlier than it was originally scheduled and the interns were gladly released early to bed that night.

Jongin and his small packs went out for night walk, but Soojung decided she was very tired from being an attentive listener all day that she excused herself for the day. The boys bid her farewell and saw Soojung off before continuing to wander around by the beach for another good minute.

“It’s very beautiful here,” Kyungsoo complimented quietly as he looked on at the shimmering emerald green ocean under the full moon light. He looked up instinctively, and smiled as thousands of sparkling diamonds above his head greeted his was.

“And it’s a bright night too,” Kyungsoo added before changing his gaze toward silent Jongin.

“Yeah,” Jongin agreed under his breath with a hint of smile. “And it’s ing cold.”

“You betcha,” Kyungsoo laughed lightly and went on to walk by the shore. He raised his pant, not wanting to get them wet, and took off his shoes and he let the water to touch his ankle as they rose in turns.

“You’re gonna catch cold if you get wet under this low temperature.”

“It’s okay,” Kyungsoo laughed again, emitting e smoke from his mouth. “That way I get to skip more talks tomorrow. Seriously though, four boring talks, non-stop since we first arrive up until, what -10.14 PM? I think that’s enough lecture on how to be good worker. It’d be nice if they give us some physical activities tomorrow.”

“Like what?” Jongin asked kindly, partially intrigued.

“Like, I don’t know,” Kyungsoo shrugged. “Ride a bike down the hills, hike up Halla Mountain, or anything that could strengthen the bond, rather than give us verbal lesson. We’ve had enough verbal lesson in college- shouldn’t they let us experience something totally new?”

“Those aren’t related to internship, but I like the sound of riding bike down the hills. I heard it’s crazy beautiful up there. Especially the blossoms field. They are in season, right?”

“Of course. It is spring.”

Jongin nodded, and he looked around the quiet and serene resort, and was amazed at the beauty of the architecture, and wondered how rich would Naeun’s dad be, and intelligent too, to have invested such large sum of money to build another branch of his hotel at a very strategic place.

And it was obvious where he stood beside Naeun in real life. Hesmiled it off, looking down to his feet, and noticed the sand had coated the bottom part of his Nike sneakers.

Why would I care?

He moved toward the ocean, hoping to wash off the sand but he knew his effort was futile when he ended up getting caught in more sand to his wet shoes.

Genius.

His phone suddenly rang inside his coat, and it broke the temporary silence that lingered between Kyungsoo and him. Kyungsoo turned to him, and kept a distance between him and Jongin because he knew how much his friends appreciate some privacy when on phone.

Jongin smiled, pleased, and walked on forward for some time alone. He looked down to his phone and read the caller’s name that flashed in the dimly lit night.

Naeun.

Jongin slid his finger across the screen and brought the phone to his right ear. He took some breath in before proceeding to greet her as-matter-of-factly.

“Yes?” he offered first, indifferent.

NAEUN frowned at the tone of her secretary’s voice. She didn’t like his cold tone, as though he had been resentful of her call since the beginning of the century, but she knew better what Jongin was like. And that maybe he was just exhausted to receive any kind of call that night.

“Yah,” Naeun snapped. “How could you greet your boss like that? You sound like you didn’t have a good day. Is it bad – your internship program?”

“We had to sit through a continuous series of talks on basically the same topic for almost 12 hours, so yeah, I guess you could say that.”

“Omo are you serious?”

“I wish I had the energy to lie right now.”

“You’re just exaggerating. I’m sure.”

“Naeun, you’d better have good reason why you’re bothering my night right now.”

“I called you because I was worried about your internship program.  I hope you did not get into trouble today.

 “This might sound off to you but, nope, I did not get into trouble today. I kinda behaved throughout the program. T’was hell, but your warning got me through.”

“I sense sarcasm. A sharp one.”

Jongin shook his head, holding back his soft chuckle and asked in a hoarse voice, “No seriously, why are you calling me?”

“I just told you why, like 3 seconds ago.”

“Right,” he drawled, mischievous grin snuck up to his lips. “And undoubtedly I have answered your question. I’m guessing that would be all, boss?”

“Oohh! Another sarcasm. I hit jackpot today, didn’t I?”

“I don’t know why it flows so naturally when I’m with you.”

“Hah!” Naeun scoffed, her heart lightened up a bit by his crisp remark. “That’s such a bad pick up line. Oh and you best not forget to buy something from Jeju for your boss here in Seoul.”

“You want me to buy you some sort of a souvenir?”

“Yes! Exactly.”

“I’m not on a school field trip, Naeun. I’m on an internship program. I’m not sure if I would have the time to even go shopping.”

“Yeah I know, but I’m sure that’s not big of a problem for you. Give the committee some hot wink and she’ll let you out for 5 minutes.”

“Hot wink?” Jongin chuckled breathlessly, amused at Naeun’s effort of persuading him down. “You’re one weird boss.”

“Oh yeah! Oh and what did you write about position? You surely didn’t write something ridiculous to get back at me for this morning like head of janitor or something,, did you?”

Jongin paused, slightly shocked that Naeun did not sound like she was remorseful for her rude behavior, nor did she show how insensitive she was about her out-of-nowhere warning on not tarnishing her good name. She should know he was not that stupid to do such thing.

“It’s getting late,” Jongin said suddenly, sending Naeun off guard by his hasty dismissal. “And I’m very tired too. So, yeah, have a good night boss.”

“Yah Kim J-” Naeun’s voice was then cut off in the middle of her sentence, and Jongin forced his phone inside his pocket as he walked back to where Kyungsoo was standing. His jaw clenched, but he quickly forced a smile at seeing Kyungsoo’s big eyes that were faithfully waiting for him.

“C’mon now,” Jongin said, putting an arm around Kyungsoo’s shoulder. “Let’s get inside. It’s freezing out here.”

NOW

APRIL 2017

JUST give it some time, Naeun thought. She would call Jongin back right after her wedding. She doubted Jongin didn’t know about her big wedding today, but she tried to not wrap her mind too much around him. Something felt strange from the way he sounded when he hung up, and she couldn’t figure out what went wrong during their brief phone conversation or anything before. Maybe she had missed some details, and not being able to get it off her chest was driving her crazy. She never liked leaving things hanging up in the air with someone, and the same goes to Jongin.

But today is her wedding day, and she needed to focus on what was more important.

Her wedding.

***