Meeting Jinyoung was never a part of the plan. Actually, I had never planned on meeting anyone. Sure, maybe I was going to get married when I became an adult, maybe I would start a relationship with someone if there ever were someone, but it wasn’t supposed to be then. It wasn’t supposed to be when I was still trying to figure myself out, that just wasn’t how it was supposed to go. I was supposed to have found myself first before finding someone else.

          That doesn’t mean that I wasn’t happy with Jinyoung. I was probably happier than I had ever been. It was just that I was caught off guard with the relationship. It kind of scared me, really and in a way, it was turning me into someone that I didn’t know I could be. Maybe, in all reality, I just wasn’t really ready for a relationship.

          “Hey, are you okay?” Jinyoung asked. He stopped packing his bag and looked at me with confusion in his eyes. “What? You don’t want me to leave this place?”

          “No,” I said shaking my head and putting on my best smile. “I just…I don’t know.” I shrugged my shoulders and sat on the chair as I watched him finish packing. I had offered to help but he wouldn’t let me, he said that he wanted to do it himself and that he didn’t have much to take with him anyway.

          “So,” he finally said sitting down on the bed across from me. His tone was serious and I was kind of afraid about what would come next out of his mouth. “Minyoung, are you going to tell me what’s really wrong? Are you sure you’re fine because I don’t think you are. You seem…kind of out of it today.”

          “Am I?” I wondered. I honestly didn’t know. I did know that I felt a bit strange, I just didn’t have a good enough reason for it. Maybe I was afraid of the outside world, about what the future would hold once we left the hospital. The two of us had only ever really had a relationship inside of the hospital, where the four walls surrounded us and kind of made us feel secure. We didn’t really have any outside influence upon us, but once we leave, once Jinyoung is officially released, we’ll be exposed to the world and who knows what’s going to happen then.

          “Hey, where’s that mind taking you?” he wondered.

          “I…I don’t know,” I finally admitted. “I just…what if we’re not the same when we leave here? What if nothing will be the same for us?”

          “Why won’t it be?” Jinyoung asked getting off of the bed and making his way over to the arm of the chair. “What would make you think that we’d be any different?” I shrugged my shoulders. “See? You’re unnecessarily worrying about things.” He put his arm around me and pulled me close to him. “I promise you that nothing is going to change between us. It’ll always be the two of us, you and me.”

          He gently kissed my forehead before getting up. “I know it won’t,” I slowly began, “I’m just worried.”

          Jinyoung made his way over to the bed and turned around to look at me. “Worried about what?”

          “I just have this feeling,” I said attempting to make light of the situation. I studied Jinyoung’s face for a moment before brushing it off. “Maybe I’m just nervous about this whole you being released thing.”

          “I promise you, nothing is going to change,” Jinyoung said coming back over and looking me straight into the eyes before quickly kissing me on the lips. “I love you, Minyoung.”

          “I love you, too,” I sighed.

          “Well, then let’s finish up here so I can get out quicker.”

          The two of us continued to pack and Jinyoung made his last farewells to the hospital staff that took care of him so well over the course of who knows how many months. Just as we were finally exiting the front doors of the hospital, I received a text from Shinwoo asking how everything was going and informing me of the progress of the celebration.

          “The outside world,” Jinyoung sighed. “It feels like I haven’t been here in forever.”

          “It feels strange, doesn’t it,” I said in an attempt to see it from his point of view, as though I were just stepping out into the world for the first time in months, as if I was feeling freedom for the first time. “Can I make a suggestion on what we do as a celebration for your release?”

          Jinyoung seemed slightly taken aback by my statement for a moment, but I guess it’s because I was never one for suggesting to do something. Then again, it wasn’t like we were able to do much in the hospital anyway besides walk the grounds really. “Sure, what do you want to do on my first day of freedom?”

          “Let’s go eat some meat,” I simply suggested with a light smile.

          “Meat? That’s what you want to do as our very first thing?”

          “Why not?” I wondered. “All you’ve had is hospital food, so I thought that maybe you’d want something…not from a cafeteria? Plus, you like meat.”

          “I do, but…” he began before shaking his head. “You know what,” he said moving closer to me and putting his arm around my shoulder. “You’re really cute, did you know that?”

          “Let’s just get a move on,” I said as I tried to hide my face, embarrassed from the comment.

          “Hey, where are you going?” Jinyoung playfully asked as I scurried away to the restaurant that we were holding Jinyoung’s kind of welcome home party.

          The place Shinwoo and I, along with the others, decided upon was the place where I had first met them, months prior. It was the restaurant Jinyoung had taken me to for me to meet his friends, the day that he confessed his feelings for me. I guess it was that day that everything started to change.

          They had told me that it was one of his favorite restaurants, a place that he went to frequently when he could. Apparently once he was done eating there, he would make his way to the convenience store, not surprisingly it was the one I worked at, to pick up some things before going home. I never did really know where he lived actually.

          But Jinyoung must’ve recognized the road we were heading down as we walked hand in hand because I saw a faint smile show up on his face. Walking with him, though, felt like a dream, a dream I’d never want to wake up from. I was amazed that how, just by holding his hand, it felt like I could conquer the world, it felt like I had the ability to do anything. I just hoped that we’d be able to be like that for a long time. I just hoped that we’d be able to conquer the world together, by each other’s side, for the long run.

          “You want to go here?” Jinyoung asked once we reached the entrance.

          “Why not? It was the first place you took me to on our kind-of-not-really-date,” I said with a faint smile at recalling the memory.

          “You remember that?”

          “Of course I remember that.”

          “It was so long ago, though.”

          “But it was with you,” I said with a shrug of my shoulders. “We should go inside, though. I’m pretty sure you don’t want to wait any longer, right?”

          “Of course not. I’m hungry. After all, like you said, all I’ve had is hospital food for way too long. I’m ready for some good food.”

          He looked at me and smiled as we walked through the doors where everyone was standing. After a silent count off, they welcomed Jinyoung. “Hyung, congrats!” Sandeul yelled as he set off his popper.

          “Congratulations on your release,” Baro chimed in.

          “Minyoung?” Jinyoung asked immediately turning to look at me. “What is this?”

          “What else could it be? I—”

          “Son,” his father said as he and his mother slowly approached Jinyoung. His mother was carrying a bouquet of flowers and gently held them out to him. “Congratulations on your release.”

          “Mom, Dad,” Jinyoung slowly said registering the presence of his parents. I couldn’t identify his reaction. Was he happy? Or rather was he angry that they came without him knowing? “Why are you…”

          “Minyoung invited us,” his mother said with a kind smile. “You have quite a nice girlfriend there. You better keep a hold of her.”

          “I know,” Jinyoung softly said. It seemed like he was the embarrassed one. It was the first time for me to see him have that kind of reaction towards people or even be that way. It always seemed like he was the one who knew what he was doing, the one who would always take control of the situation no matter how bad it was. But in that moment, he was timid and shy, like a little boy. He looked down for a moment and finally took the flowers from his mother. “Thank you for being here.”

          “Of course,” his father said.

          “We wouldn’t miss it for the world,” his mother followed.

          I stepped away from them to let them have their moment. So maybe he wasn’t really on that bad terms with his parents or perhaps some sort of misunderstanding had happened between them that caused an argument. Maybe my mind just ran a bit wild.

          “You know, you’re doing by Jinyoung, you know,” Shinwoo said coming up next to me. “He’s lucky to have you around.

          “No,” I said shaking my head, my eyes still glued on the three of them. “I think I’m the lucky one.”