Play.

It's 10 minutes to 4 in the afternoon, the time where sunlight is filtered yellow through the windows and curtains of Kyungsoon's favourite cafe. The time in which she steps in punctually in her spaghetti strapped summer dress, rich black tresses in a french braid draping over her bare shoulders and the strap of her handbag slung loosely across.
It's 10 minutes to 4 in the afternoon, where the sunlight lights up the whole of the cafe with warm golden rays and her eyes dart over to her usual seat, empty and unoccupied. The emptiness welcomes her and coaxes her to take a seat, where the rays of the sun isn't intense with walls providing shade. She melts into the shadows, straying with thoughts.
It's 10 minutes to 4 in the afternoon, there is a stalk of pinked rose blooming in the glass vase sitting on the table and a couple is quarrelling in hushed, aggressive hisses a table away. It vaguely reminds her of how her parents - no, she interrupts her digressing train of thoughts. don't go there. Her eyes dart away from the disconcerting scene and closes her eyes. Pretends that she hasn't seen anything of sorts with lashes flitting down to the lonely utensils on the clothed table.
It's 9 minutes to 4 in the afternoon, the presence of another being led by the soft clipping of leather black shoes brings her out of the thoughts - I wonder why we bother with love if it never lasts - and she lifts her head up to find a male standing in front of her, skin tanned beautifully bronze and staring. "Uh…" He stutters and his lips, seemingly turned into a bundle of nerves. Kyungsoo tilts her head to her left - slightly - her amusement at the flustered male coyly hidden by the look of confusion. A smile is playing at her lips and Kyungsoo immediately guesses by the aura of innocence and inexperience that he carries along, - college kid.
It's 9 minutes to 4 in the afternoon and the lights are trifling with the strands of the waiter's hair, dusting over the chestnut brown lightly with a golden tinge and making it gleam a perfect shade of copper. His shyness comes in stutters of "Would you like to place your order?" and Kyungsoo nods before shrugging, "Anything's fine." Kyungsoon swears she isn't wrong about electrical sparks flying, set off when they lock eyes.
It's 8 minutes to 4 when the waiter lists out the list chef's recommendation imprinted in his mind, Kyungsoon honestly doesn't care because she only likes kimchi spaghetti.
It's 7 minutes to 4 when Kyungsoon shrugs, eyes crinkled into half crescents and replies noncommittally, "What would you recommend?" and the waiter pauses for a moment of hesitation before saying, "I am personally extremely fond of the kimchi spaghetti."
6 when Kyungsoo finally releases the breath she didn't know she's been holding and breathes "I'm Kyungsoo, what's your name?" He replies, "Jongin", feet half turning towards the kitchen doors to give the new order but not actually taking the step.
5 when they exchange small talk between bashful smiles hammering hearts, Jongin's feet is shuffling from side to side awkwardly. Kyungsoon notices it and asks him to take a seat but Jongin refuses, half-stammering because he's working and this is not very professional - not that either of them cares.
4 when Jongin's colleagues calls out to him and shouts at him to "Stop flirting and get back to work!"
3 when Jongin finally leaves with reluctance, pink still flushing into his cheeks. That is, however, not before an exclamation of "I don't pick girls up!" in indignance.
2 when Kyungsoon has her fingers drumming against the smooth of the tablecloth and missing the way Jongin smiles already - thoughts unconsciously wandering to how good the waiter - Jongin - looks in the white long-sleeved uniform which he rolled up and how the long black pants flatters his legs.
1 when Jongin returns with a sheepish smile, excuse of how he forgot to ask her for her number.
It takes only 10 minutes for butterflies to bloom and flutter in Kyungsoo's stomach and her dreamy smile refuses to go for the rest of the day. It only takes ten minutes for the new waiter of her favourite cafe to worm his way into her heart, squeezing himself into a space he makes without properly asking for Kyungsoon's permission.



Fast Forward.

It's their friday movie marathon night after Jongin's final lap of exams. Jongin goes over in to Kyungsoon's house, they are having a sleepover of sorts. "We missed out on a hundred and one movie nights since you've ditched me for your books," Kyungsoon states, smiling sweetly. Before Jongin has a chance to laugh at her for her miscalculation interject with something which is probably along the lines of "It's not that long" or "I did not ditch you", Kyungsoo continues, "And so, we're going to make it all up tonight." She reveals a stack of DVDs which she had been wanting to watch coupled with caramelised popcorn.
Jongin doesn't even eye the movie, already making plans to sleep through halfway of the marathon. He is however, very much interested in the pack of popcorn in Kyungsoon's hands. Jongin reaches out for the kernels only to get his hand smacked by the said girl. He takes on the look of a kicked puppy and pouts, "I want the popcorn."
"Earn for it." Kyungsoon smirks, popping one into and chewing it. The crunch of the popcorn adds on to the fragrance invading his nose and he whines at the thought of caramelised, crunchy popcorns which he is not allowed to eat. "You're evil," Jongin grumbles before he settles himself on the other end of the couch, arms crossed.
When Kyungsoon doesn't seem to care, eyes glued to the screen featuring the blue, wrong coloured penguin from centuries ago, he crawls over to Kyungsoon and breaks into a song. "You make me feel like. I've been locked out of heavan." This earns him Kyungsoon's attention, but not the popcorn, unfortunately, because Kyungsoon's starts breaking into short spasms of laughter, laughing at the way Jongin goes off tune when he sings and puts the popcorn away at her other side. She pokes his cheeks, "Aw," but doesn't give him the popcorn, returning her attention to the penguin and the penguin's stupid orange glasses and the penguin's weird friends.
He proceeds to plan B, and decreases the distance separating him and Kyungsoon. Kyungsoon's breath hitches at the distance, or lack thereof. She can literally smell Jongin and feel his breath warm against her collarbones. "Have you been using my soap?" She asks, a hand ready to push the other away.
Jongin doesn't reply, instead dives in and noses her nape before the other laid her hand on him. Kyungsoon is always ticklish at her nape. She squeals in surprise, pushing Jongin's face away with the little amount of strength she has. Rendered weak by Jongin's sneak attack, her strength is equivalent to that of a harmless kitten. Jongin takes advantage of her soft spot and hugs her closer, refusing to let her go without the popcorn. "Can I have the popcorn now?" he whispers innocently, in knowing of how his breath tickles Kyungsoon to no end.
"Get off me," Kyungsoon barely manages, his breath is so, so ticklish and his voice sounds unintentionally sensual in her ears.
She loses the fight in the end, surrendering her popcorn with narrowed eyes, "Cheater." While Jongin pops one into his mouth in mindless joy, he takes a look at the sulking Kyungsoon.
He probably knows how Kyungsoon likes throwing tantrums for fun, but he gives in to her tanrums anyway - that's secretly what he loves about Kyungsoon -, picking a kernel out of the pack and placing at the edge of Kyungsoon's mouth. "Ah." He coaxes. "Unless you want me to feed you with my mouth."
When Kyungsoo relents and takes the popcorn, she doesn't forget to bite Jongin's hand with all her strength. "Cheater."
And Jongin thinks with his poor throbbing finger that really, he should have just fed the ungrateful girl with his mouth.
They spend their friday movie night like that, a pack of popcorn finished in Jongin's hands by the time the movie marathon is only halfway over. He lies on Kyungsoon's lap, smiling in content.
Kyungsoon has her hands running through the blonde strands of Jongin's hair subconsciously. She likes the way her strawberry scented shampoo permeates his brown locks subtly, how it's smooth and soft and free of tangles.
It's there and then, with the pressure of Jongin's head a comfort on her thighs that she realises, why people bothered with love even if it never lasted.
The feeling of falling is thrilling, exhilaration zapping in a multitude of colours throughout the whole of her body. The world around her seems to blur into lines and she feels like she could melt into it, the comfort of Jongin's warmth similar to the shade of cafe walls, except it's like picking up a piece of home and it makes her want to tuck it safely into her pocket. It's not only that, there's Jongin's fingers in perfect fit with her own and it's almost as if he made himself take over a half of Kyungsoon's soul. "I get it." She tells Jongin, as the said boy struggles to keep his eyes open only for the brightness of their television to hurt his eyes. It's difficult without popcorn. Jongin loses his fight against sleep anyway, letting himself rest on the soft of Kyungsoo's thighs and relaxing into the way her fingers thread his hair. Kyungsoon really likes this feeling, she thinks this must be what people refer to as "happiness".



Fast Forward.

Jongin's found a supposedly stable position in a dance studio, as a dance teacher. Kyungsoon doesn't mind him much, he dances a lot better than he sings anyway.
In the apartment Jongin had rented with his average income, traces of Kyungsoon can be seen everywhere. There's a drawer full of Kyungsoon's pink pyjamas, a stuffed pororo plushy lying at the foot of the unmade bed, Kyungsoon's toothbrush in Jongin's toothbrush holder… the list goes on. She sows discord between Jongin and his favourite bolster by claiming that it's nicer to hug as compared to the said male. He tries to be make himself prettier than Kyungsoo by shamelessly using her facial masks every night. When Kyungsoon teaches herself to make kimchi spaghetti, Jongin forces himself to smile. When he takes the first taste of her first failed attempt. "It's good," he said, what he really meant, however, was, "Please never touch the kitchen wok or pan again. The noodles are horrible soggy and the kimchi cannot make the cut."
Kyungsoon of course, sees through his lies and knows the real words behind his stiff smile like the back of her palms. She's become an expert in reading Jongin's mind. Instead of promising to do better like what Jongin would have expected and very much liked, Kyungsoon remains ungrateful (because a leopard never changes it's spots and so does Kyungsoon) and threatens him with her spatula. She then decides that Jongin shall be her guinea pig for all her cooking attempts and Jongin shall have absolutely no say in it. Jongin gurgles and Kyungsoon silences him with a glare and her spatula.
As Jongin sits himself in Kyungsoo's heart, occupying an unhealthily much amount of space in surprising ease, he flips through the pages Kyungsoon's secrets. Slowly, he figures out the reason for Kyungsoon's apprehension towards love, falling, the way she dwelled at her only family portrait. Kyungsoon's scarred by the remnants of quarrels loud and echoing in her head, she treads careful even on ice which aren't thin. Jongin though, Jongin breaks her out of the shell she's built around herself, giving her the confidence to stop fearing the cracks of ice and instead skate across it.
He embraces Kyungsoon's vulnerability with soft whispers and promises that they'll not make the same mistake her parents made. With Kyungsoon's tears slightly damp on Jongin's shirt, his chest, he takes his turn in protecting the girl in the broad of his shoulders, caressing her soft black tresses like cajoling an child. Kyungsoon's allowed him her everything and he desperately wishes could grow up to protect her.
Kyungsoon too had integrated herself into Jongin's life and Jongin can't really imagine Kyungsoon not by his side. He looks forward to Kyungsoon's smiles in dreary mornings and Kyungsoon's small body tucked into him on cold nights. So one day, in the midst of back hugging Kyungsoon who still threatens to smack him with her heated spatula while she's making breakfast, he suggests, "Move in with me." His eyelids are droopy on his lazy morning and he rests his heavy head on Kyungsoon's petite shoulders.
He doesn't see the rare smile which threatens to split Kyungsoon's face, distracted by the wafting scent of blueberry pancakes, but he could pretty much imagine the smile he left, inhaling the sweetness of syrup mingled with her morning breath.
They'll take on the rough edges of the world together, they'll get hurt, tossed around, and come back clinging onto each other missing their comfort.
Kyungsoon becomes better at cooking and Jongin grows fond of kicking his bolster away for Kyungsoon's snuggles. It's what he always looks forward to at the end of a day's worth of dancing and straining his muscles. Kyungsoo still doesn't agree with how Jongin is softer than his bolster, but she can't deny her eyes of the sight of Jongin's delicious toned muscles.
When Jongin finally saves enough, he announces "We're moving" with a proud beam. He buys a small apartment of their own and decorates it with cozy pictures and polaroids hanging off here and there. Kyungsoon moves her collection of pororo soft toys over and ignores Jongin's usual whining of "Am I not enough" while Jongin tries to make it home by leaving his underwear around. He earns Kyungsoon's frowning in distaste. "Jongin. Stop being gross and do your own laundry, I'm not your maid."
"Yes mom!" He salutes, and continue rolling in the satin sheets of their bed because it's far more comfortable than Kyungsoon's huff of "You piece of ."
It isn't until she threatens to marry the spatula, which had become her partner in crime and best friend, that Jongin gets his lazy bum up and picks his dirty clothes up. Kyungsoon somehow gets convinced by Jongin to do laundry together though, thinking that two pair of hands would work better than one.
She regrets her thoughts when they end up having bubble fights and she barely manages to avoid crashing onto the floor by slipping into his arms. And as she sends another one of her harmless glares to Jongin, Jongin pecks her forehead, smiling in guile.
Kyungsoon likes to think they can live their happily-ever-after like this, it's amazing in love. She likes the random couple dances along pop songs and let the beautiful colours of sunset illuminate their home when she twirls right into Jongin's chest, breathless and giggling.



Fast Forward.

When Jongin (finally) proposes to Kyungsoon, it is in no way cliche. Or as Jongin may have thought. They sit in a boat one day, in the middle of the river which is somewhere in the park, away from human beings and distractions, only the occasional chirping of crickets in the bushes fills the air. Jongin talks and Kyungsoon makes snide comments, as usual, until he interrupts with an enthusiastic "Oh look a moonwalking bear!" to which Kyungsoon actually turns around to. "Really Jongin," She was about to say when she turns back, deadpanning at his lame joke and wondering how on earth she could have fallen for it. Surprise however, comes in the form of pororo plushy holding a spatula and another box of wedding ring, Kyungsoon tries to not seem amused. "And I thought you didn't like my pororos or my spatula."
Jongin shrugs and takes that as a yes anyway. He takes Kyungsoon into his arms and they hold a small wedding in the park where they used to treat as their escapade, with close friends gathered and congratulatory messages received with thanks.
Kyungsoon throws the bunch of flowers under their favourite rain tree and runs away with Jongin into her happily-ever-after, the mud in the park dirtying her wedding dress slightly. She is not actually giving a single about who the boquet of roses landed on even though Jongin pities the 'who' since Kyungsoon's strength is not to be joked about despite her being fun-sized.
With a flower band around her head, Jongin carries the girl away in a piggyback - because Kyungsoo prefers clinging onto Jongin's waist with her thighs instead of trusting his muscular arms to be able to bear her weight - not that piggybacking doesn't require Jongin's arm strength.
When the bills come in though, the flowers on Kyungsoon's flower head band wilts at it's edges. Kyungsoon stands by the sidelines and watches as Jongin gives up the job he loved for one in the monotonous bank. It earns them more to keep them by but Kyungsoon doesn't like it. She doesn't like the way Jongin's colours seem to fade and dull and she really wants to tell him that perhaps they could do with a smaller house or a smaller expenditure. It doesn't always have to be like that.
Jongin tells her that it's reality that they've been subjected to and Kyungsoon laughs mirthlessly as if she doesn't already know.
"Reality doesn't have to be this harsh," she tries, once while massaging the rigid muscles of Jongin's back. There are eye bags darkening at the underside of Jongin's twinkling eyes, and when Jongin sighs, Kyungsoon learns to maybe accept it. They'll probably get through this. "I could get a job."
Jongin freeze, not replying Kyungsoon for the silence to thicken before he slices it. "I'm sorry I couldn't be enough." It sounds a lot more resigned than the other times he's said this, and the only thing Kyungsoon knows how to do then is to cup his face and kiss him. She pours her all her feeling as her lips mould against his and tells him tells Jongin how much he's enough and more than enough when she on his tongue and tastes the cavern of his mouth. When they pull away breathless though, the resignation doesn't leave Jongin's eyes. As she tucks herself under the blankets, wrapping her arms around Jongin, she convinces herself that maybe if she does this more, stars will return.
It doesn't occur to her, however, that it is perhaps the bright city light polluting the night sky.
On this day where dinner is cooked for two and half is kept in the fridge with a note of "Reheat it when you're hungry" pinned beside a polaroid of Kyungsoon and Jongin in a valentines carnival, it seems like she's going to sleep alone again. The bolster doesn't provide more comfort, honestly speaking. Perhaps it is then that she regrets the way she had teased so many pieces of him away while giving back only a little. Perhaps it is then that she realises the way everything seems to be falling apart before silencing her thoughts in sharply. The chilly fingers of night caresses her nape and amplifies her loneliness when it sits by her bed.



Rewind.

Kyungsoon walks along the shores of the beach, Jongin in hand.
The boy kicks the sand out and shouts to the sea. Tells the cloudless blue sky how he detests his teachers and makes an open mouthed wish to make Kyungsoon his wife by the age of 25. Kyungsoon tries to play hard to get because "Wishes won't come true if they are spoken out loud" and Jongin tries to make her die from cheesiness by telling her all the pick up lines which ever existed, except the dirty ones because their relationship had not reached that level yet. Kyungsoon pretends to not be touched at all and tells him to get a proper life before he even considers marrying her.
He smiles, ego not at all deflated as he promises to work hard for the sake of Kyungsoon and their future babies and Kyungsoon looks at him in bewilderment. "No one said I'm going to have babies with you."
"I did." He replies looking at Kyungsoon with innocence lining the crescents of his eyes. "I'm going to teach him how to please his mother and pick up girls the way I did."
Kyungsoon bursts into her fits of giggles, for once complimenting Jongin for telling the Joke Of The Day.
The sea waves crashes back and on the shorelines with bits white of froth, calming to the ears. Across the stretch of white sand, only few people are speckled. It's nice to have the beach and the sun and the sand all to yourself, Kyungsoon thinks as she keeps a ear open to Jongin's small chatter and his occasional kicking of sand.
When the sand Jongin kicks gets onto her sundress and she turns to find Jongin grinning in mischief, she chases after the said guy with sharp "Get back here, you idiot!", arms flailing and half laughing. No one ever gets away with playing pranks on Kyungsoon. Jongin dodges her flailing hands with practised ease, running while facing Kyungsoon with a smug look on his face because Kyungsoon looks absolutely pissed that he isn't even putting in any effort. But every as the saying goes, "Pride comes before Fall", Jongin trips over a sandcastle some kid left behind, falling literally and Kyungsoon who charges forward doesn't find herself stopping. They fall together with a muffled oomph and Kyungsoon finds herself directly on top of Jongin.
She looks back up at the said male with a wince and her round eyes widens slightly, realising the fact that she is directly on top of Jongin, her hand on his chest and lips a millimetre away. Her stomach starts doing backflips because this is embarrassing and awkward and her limbs aren't listening to her when she asks herself to get off Jongin. Jongin, as himself, takes advantage of the situation and steals Kyungsoon's first kiss.
At the softness of the peck against her lips, Kyungsoon is immediately brought back to reality. She pulls back narrows her rounded eyes, trying to hide her surprise and embarrassment when she rolls off Jongin with a silent stutter of "."
As they help each other brush sand away from their clothes, two young boys return and look at them with forlorn lining their eyes the moment they see their ruined sandcastle. "Where did our sandcastle… go…" the smaller of the two asks, looking at the heap of ruined sand. Tears were welling in the smaller kid's eyes and both the boys look at the perpetrators of the mess.
Jongin and Kyungsoon looks at each other, lost, before Jongin decides that they should help to build it back. With the young boys sitting by their side, and Kyungsoon coaxes them to not cry. Kyungsoon and Jongin carry heap of sand and allow Jongin to show off his unknown talent in building sandcastles, how the sand must have a perfect amount of moisture before it can stand itself straight and hold the seashell decorations. It turns out prettier than before by sundown. The boys crowd around their new castle, eyes widened in awe. Jongin nudges Kyungsoon and tells her she looks like them all the time, which earns him a hiss of "I do not" because Kyungsoon doesn't like to admit she looks like a deer in the headlights for the most of the part.
The beach date could go like this, ending with a walk along the shorelines with the waves still crashing and remnants of the sunset in the shades of twilight, where Jongin has an arm slung around Kyungsoon and his eyes locked on the girl's small framed face, her doe eyes and her heart-shaped lips.
That is, if not for the fact that Jongin absolutely loves kicking sand up so that he can get another chance to kiss Kyungsoon. This time, Kyungsoon doesn't chase after him, instead gets an iron grip on his wrists before he could leave and pulls him in, wrapping her arms around the others neck and teasing him by pulling him close so that their noses touch, not their lips. She likes the way his eyes reflect the stars in the night sky, and the way the moon beams illuminates their outing with a soft - almost magical glow.



Fast Forward.
Resume.

It's 2.30am and the smell of perfume is heavy and nauseating on Jongin's coat which is dumped haphazardly into the laundry basket. Kyungsoon never was fond of perfume.
She's tries to not take in the intrusive smell with a small wrinkle of her nose and sets up the dinner for Jongin. It's only when everything's laid out, napkins and fork in place when Jongin says, "I've eaten."
"But I've cooked already." Kyungsoon says, feeling the line of her patience stepped on, "It's your favourite, kimchi spaghetti."
Jongin's brows knit into a frown, "I've already eaten." His tie is loosened and hanging around his neck.
"With a female, I presume." Kyungsoon mutters, sounding unbearably scornful as she keeps the utensils she's previously laid out back into the kitchen drawers.
Jongin doesn't reply her, only turns his back and proceeds to their room. "Jongin." She starts, holding the other back with her patience running thin. "Why aren't you replying?"
He replies "Yes," annoyance masking his worn-out features, "Isn't that kind of - shoved in your face?"
"So you're obviously cheating on me." Kyungsoon concludes anger bubbling.
It's coming right back. The exact words are being brought back to life and she's witnessing, reliving the scene all over again. Shut up, shut up, she screams and thrashes in her mind, telling herself and Jongin to not take the steps her parents had taken. Curiosity kinds of wins anyway, and their argument follow in that direction exactly, wondering what it would be like to turn out having the other edge of love's knife ed into you.
"No. Stop running to illogical conclusions."
"Then tell me more about the perfume you've gotten on your coat and the phone call and all the times you've returned to home after midnight." Her voice raises along with the lists of things which induced the doubts and sleepless, haunting suspicions.
"It's a colleague I had my dinner with" Jongin stresses. "And all those time I was working overtime for us-"
"Then why did I receive a phone call telling me to stop being the third party now in your new relationship?"
"I'm not in a new re- oh." Jongin stops mid-sentence, finally getting the gist of wherever Kyungsoon was coming from. Her fear and her irrational conclusions all made sense now. Before he could continue, however, Kyungsoon's face begin falling, anger contorting her gentle features "I knew it."
"I'm not cheating on you whatsoever Kyung," Jongin insists, grabbing her by her wrists.
It's always like that. People are always like that. They say the words they don't mean, draw you in only to kick you out. Kyungsoon is stepping away already, from this horrendous thing love and wishing for everything to turn back.
"Then what?. You're going to get a second wife and expect her to settle into our home peacefully?" Kyungsoon spits out every syllable with well-intended menace, aiming to hurt and pierce with precision.
"No, listen. Stop being stupid-"
"Now I'm being stupid. Kim Jongin, where have you been all the while I endured the cold of our house alone? You promised me we'd never make my parents mistake."
"Well you're the one who started this with your oversensitivity. I'm doing this for us, it's all for you can have a better life with me. You can't expect me to stay at home and eat kimchi spaghetti and live like you, uncaring about the happening around and self-absorbed" Jongin bursts, exasperated at the seemingly petty tantrum Kyungsoon's throwing. Work has worn him out and he didn't get home this late just to quarrel with his wife.
Kyungsoon, on the other hand, doesn't understand how this words as swords thing works, but she does realise that she was the one who sharpened her sword only to get a stab in her heart. It's not fair. So perhaps this is how it feels to have yourself crashing onto the ground when your marriage is based on baseless love. So maybe she's still a selfish self-absorbed, stupid little girl who throws tantrums because her husband is staying out late doing what she doesn't know with a female.
"Guess what." Kyungsoon begins, severing all the lines connecting her heart, soul, everything to Jongin harshly, ignoring the silent cries and beginning of regret, "I'm not having this life with you."
Everything is replaying. She was twelve when she first ran out of the house to the porch to the streets, barefooted. All she wanted was the voices to go away, the quarrels and tears to all go away. With one last look directed at light still lit in the cozy little apartment, she heads for any directions away from all the little pieces of home she had picked up and stored in their house. "You promised." She mumbles, voice shallow, broken and choked by the onslaught of tears as her breath hitches and she attempts to leave all the quarrels which had infiltrated her happy memories.
Kyungsoon has developed this tendency to run away from her fears. Since young, she's been running running. bracing herself for the goodbyes because that's all she's ever known.
Jongin, unexpectedly, follows her out to the streets and catches up with her soon enough when the distance of her running figure stops, gasping for a breath in his sight. He walks up to her and takes her hand, clasping gently when she prepares to distance herself again. "I'm sorry."
It's only then that Kyungsoon realises how she can't really dump the whole 6 years of her life to the back of her mind that easily. She isn't the best at letting go.
She breaks away from his grip weakly though, and tells herself to not react when Jongin pulls her in for a hug. "I'm sorry," he repeats, hurt dusting his voice and heartbeat still beating rapidly from the chase.
Kyungsoon breaks down and disintegrates into the state of vulnerability she had been at the age of twelve, when her parents were left quarrelling to themselves in the echoes of the huge house and her facade of indifference cracks, revealing her lost self.
Jongin cups her face and whispers, looking into her eyes with their foreheads pressed together so much like the old times and tears stream down Kyungsoon's face steadily. "Don't go. I'll make it up to you I promise. I'm sorry for hurting you, Kyungsoon, please give me a chance to make it up."
Kyungsoon stays silent. "I'll never leave you alone," He says and hugs the girl tight, hugs all her wounds, her hurt and tries to patch up the holes left in her heart, their lines their memories.
Partly surprised, she wraps her arms around the guy, finally giving in and crumbling into his arms.



Pause.
Playback.

"I remember how we felt sitting by the water and every time I look at you, it's like the first time. I fell in love with a careless man's careful daughter and -
She is the best thing that's ever been mine"
The sparks which flew when they first locked eyes, the walks by the beach, the sun-dipped kisses, the countless teasings, the moving of cardboard boxes from Jongin's father's red car to their apartment, the way Jongin always tucks the strand of Kyungsoon's hair falling onto her face behind her ears, the way she twirled herself into his embrace, the kind of happiness in full bloom nurtured by baseless love. It's what kept them going what keeps them going and what'll keep them going.
"Yea, we'll take on the world together." Kyungsoon says, making a pillow out of Jongin's arm, eyes swallowing the stars in the night sky.



Fast forward.
Play,

And they keep to their word.

It's 10 minutes to 4 in the afternoon, when Kyungsoon carries their very first baby boy and coos, basking in the sunlight. Jongin peers over and the baby starts crying. "So you don't like daddy." He states in mock disappointment. "Ouchie."
It's 10 minutes to 4 in the afternoon, where the sunlight lights up the whole of the little apartment with warm golden rays. It's reflected off the tears in the child's charming brown eyes. "But I see you've got my charms." Jongin points out, a usual stupid smile on his face as he winks. The baby cries even louder.
It's 10 minutes to 4 in the afternoon, there is a stalk of pinked rose blooming in the glass vase sitting on the table when Kyungsoon sends a kick to her husband and takes her baby away, "You creep. Stop disturbing my baby."
It's 9 minutes to 4 in the afternoon, Jongin takes on his usual look of a rejected puppy - he never grows up - and expresses his unhappiness, "Now you're playing favourites." This earns him a faked smile from Kyungsoon before the said girl turns away and proceeds to ignore him.
It's 9 minutes to 4 in the afternoon and the lights are trifling with the strands of the boy's hair as he flips through the pages of nursery rhymes, pointing and laughing at the cow which jumps over the moon in gurgles together with his mother. Kyungsoon dresses him up in matching pororo pyjamas and smooches him a lot to make Jongin jealous.
It's 8 minutes to 4 when Jongin decides to take matters into his own hands and make his boy take a liking him by introducing him to the wonders of a ball - soccer. "You can't be too attached to your mom, she's mine," he was telling him before their game. They spend the whole afternoon passing the ball to one another in their favourite park and Kyungsoon merely smiles at the way they collapse on the dirt, exhausted in the end. In the shade of the rain tree, she sits with another small baby bump.
It's 7 minutes to 4 when Kyungsoon pops the streamers of her first son's 4th birthday party and Jongin manages to sneak in a kiss on his cheeks without making him cry or getting a kick - "the kid is ungrateful like his mom," he had tsked, shaking his head in resignation, "I shouldn't have taught him soccer." This just makes Kyungsoon laugh at him, in which he silences with a smooch-full of tongue and saliva - the messy type which leaves Kyungsoon flabbergasted with narrowed eyes because "How old do you think you are?".
6 when Kyungsoo introduces the addition of a new brother to her family, face lighting up when she holds the new boy wrapped in pororo blue cloth. Jongin, in his usual stupid self, sniffles, "Now I'm going to have to fight for you with another kid, why is the competition so tough?"
5 when the both of them wake up to their children jumping on their bed. Kyungsoon squeals in fear of Jongin's legs getting crushed by the boys' weight and tries to swat them all down with the spatula by her bedside - "Daddy needs his legs to dance." Though really, all she's doing is poking them and nudging them off in fear of hurting them as well.
4 when the boys slips off the bed and continues jumping around anyway, youth and sunlight filling their young veins as they draw the curtains apart and let the blinding sunbeam burn their parents up so that they can be entertained. In addition, the younger one is singing, with Jongin's talent in that area (or lack thereof), he goes terribly off-tune in the first line of twinkle twinkle little star and Kyungsoon's ears feels like it's bleeding, as much as she doesn't want to admit it. Curse you and your genes, she mutters and she sends a jab to her husband.
3 when Jongin finally with reluctance, wakes up with a groan of "it's barely 4 in the afternoon. I need my beauty sleep you little devils." The boys pause for a moment just to stare at him with their huge, innocent round orbs and small pout - they seem almost...angelic. Jongin groans again. "Why do I have such good genes?" Kyungsoon looks at Jongin, tilting her head and deadpanning really, Jongin, for the millionth time. They turn their attention back to the children and spend a minute or so trying to catch and interrogate the little devils into confessing who's the one who came up with the idea of disrupting them of their well-deserved sleep.
2 when Kyungsoon has her hands wrapped around the younger of her two kids while watching Jongin - a professional dancer - doing the chicken dance with her other child. Not that she cares though, it's the entertainment that really matters to the both of them anyway, "right?" she looks to the younger one in her arms and asks. He smiles and nods back even though he has completely no idea whatsoever of what happened. She nuzzles her head into his neck where he's ticklish and makes him squirm in soft, melodious giggles.
1 when they finally agree that the children will not drown in the sea of the beach - their secret place. Kyungsoon ends up getting bullied by Jongin and his tiny team consisting of non-other than her two children. "Betrayer!" She yelps as they are lead into a game of splash-the-water, in which Kyungsoon is at a huge disadvantage. That is until Jongin remembers his promise and switches to Kyungsoon's team. They two adults ends up getting chased a good half-distance across the expanse of the beach before agreeing that the years have done them no good, collapsing as their children tackle them down.
It takes perhaps a little more than ten minutes to make up a rainbow filled ending but the sun still sets and melts into the horizon at the end of the day. Kyungsoon and Jongin looks at each other under the night sky with their children safe in their arms, sparks flying like their very first time and falling over and over again.



-fin-





a/n: 
- based off taylor swift's mine which i've recently gotten addicted to
- happy ending yay! ^-^
- do leave a comment heh