The florescent lights of Seoul shine through the large windows of Gwiboon’s apartment as she leisurely nurses a glass of red wine. She sits down on the opposite couch of the one Jinki—her brother—is sprawled out on and it doesn’t occur to Jinki that his sister is getting married in less than 24 hours and the thought doesn’t even occur to Gwiboon either. She continues taking light sips out of the glass when she hears hard knocks on her door. Jinki grumbles, rolls around a few times and ignores the knocks like Gwiboon but soon submits to the sound and gets up to answer the door.
Kim Jonghyun invites himself in before Jinki could say something and Jinki dashes for the couch and collapses on it once again, leaving Jonghyun to sit on the floor.
Jonghyun notices the half empty bottle of wine and chuckles.

“Gwiboon, you know you’re getting married tomorrow right?”

Gwiboon continues to stare absentmindedly at the ugly red rug that currently occupies her mahogany floors and finishes off her glass and then fills it up again.
Jonghyun takes it upon himself to fill up a glass and offers to clink their glasses together to which Gwiboon ignores and drinks some more.
Jonghyun could tell she’s nervous from the way her hand is shaking, making the liquids in the glass shake.
Jinki notices too and sits up and tries to be a good older brother.

“Gwiboon, he’s right,” Jinki said, agreeing to a point that Jonghyun never made but sort of implied. “You’re getting married tomorrow. You don’t want to spoil the entire thing by having a hangover.”

Gwiboon inhales a sharp breath a drinks some more. “The financial stress has gotten to me.”

“The wedding’s tomorrow,” Jinki stated obviously. “You’ve paid for everything already. I don’t know why you have to keep on worrying.”

Jonghyun knows that wasn’t the actual reason why Gwiboon decided to drink less than 24 hours before her own wedding. He’s always known Gwiboon a little better than Jinki did. He was in love with her after all.
An hour later Jinki falls asleep soundly on the couch—saying he wanted to get enough sleep before the wedding. Its 9 o’clock at night when Jonghyun finally begins to personally interrogate his best friend and simultaneously love of his life.

“What’s wrong?” he asks and Gwiboon immediately responds with the sincere answer instead of the lie like previously.

“I don’t know.”

It’s one of those moments where Gwiboon really doesn’t know. Gwiboon gets up and retrieves the third bottle of the night and fills both their glasses up to the very brim.
They both drink at the same time and stop at the same time. Gwiboon stares intently at the red liquid in her glass and the stress is so evident in her eyes.

“I love Minho,” she says and Jonghyun’s heart starts to hurt for a moment. “But…I don’t know if I love him enough to…marry him.”

Her voice is shaky and she’s confused and for a moment so is Jonghyun but as her best friend, it’s his job to help make all the pieces fit together.

“You’re just nervous.”

Gwiboon shakes her head determinedly. “I’ve been thinking…” she says and pauses for a moment that adds some dramatic effect. “I’ve been thinking about the wedding and… I’m not…sure.”

Jonghyun isn’t sure what Gwiboon is implying. She’s always been sure about the wedding since Minho proposed last year and the selfish part of Jonghyun hopes that Gwiboon is considering to cancel the wedding or at least postpone it to give him some time to tell her how he really feels about the wedding.

“And since you’re going to America… I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself.”

Jonghyun shoots her a bittersweet smile. “You’ve got Minho now. You don’t need me anymore.”

The words hurt Jonghyun as he says them and he knows it hurts Gwiboon too.

Three Months Ago

Jonghyun chuckles lightly as Gwiboon tries on the fifth dress that her female best friend—Taeyeon—had chosen for her and she stares at it intently as she studies her own figure in the mirror.

Taeyeon squeals and says she looks beautiful but Gwiboon shakes her head and orders Taeyeon to put it in the ‘maybe pile’ and to go ask the sales lady for another dress and Jonghyun sits there, still watching in amusement. Gwiboon had insisted that he should come along, saying that she needed a man’s opinion as well. She notices the amusement on his face through the mirror and turns back at him.

“Why are you laughing at me?”

“It’s funny to see you stressed out about clothing.”

Normally, Gwiboon could choose what she wants with clothes in less than—Jonghyun checks his watch—an hour and forty-five minutes.

Jonghyun gets up and gives her a back hug. “You look beautiful. Minho’s a lucky guy.”
‘A really, really lucky guy,’ Jonghyun adds mentally and Gwiboon smiles at him through the mirror.

He feels his heart beat increase and he knows Gwiboon could feel it too and she turns around looking him in the eyes.

She locks her arms around his neck and Jonghyun thinks they’re going to kiss but she speaks. “Don’t leave,” she begs him and Jonghyun looks at her sympathetically.

Why stay? He has no reason to…Or so he tells himself.

Now


Jonghyun waits for Jinki to stop mumbling in his sleep to continue speaking. “You don’t want me to go do you?” he asks tentatively.

She nods her head and for the 100^th time in the last 12 months he tells her he has to. Jonghyun wants to ask her for a reason to stay because he doesn’t think there is, but if there was a reason Gwiboon could provide it for him.

“Why should I stay?” he asks and the snappiness in his voice startles her for a second and she stares at him.

He waits for the answer; I need you, I want you, I love you. He gets neither of those.

“You’re my best friend,” she says.

“You’ve got Minho. He’s your husband and you’re best friend in one. You don’t need me.”

Jonghyun’s bitterness hurts himself more than it hurts Gwiboon. She nods understandingly.

“I don’t know what I want,” she says and all of a sudden the conversation goes back to what they were discussing before the ‘Jonghyun leaving’ matter.

“I don’t know, what do you want?”

Gwiboon thinks about it for a moment and she says sincerely, “…Not Minho.”

He’s shocked but hides it and asks her, “Then what?”

She knows the answer is hiding in the back of her head but she shrugs for the moment.

Jonghyun and Gwiboon: 18 years old

Jonghyun is standing awkwardly by the snack table when Gwiboon runs up to him in her heels.
She stops in front of him and wordlessly drags him onto the dance floor like every muscle in his body forgot how to function and like his mouth didn’t know how to protest.
They directly under the spot light and she forces his arms around her and he tries to make him movements seem as involuntary as possible. He’s soon holding her tightly up against him with her thin arms circling around his neck.

“Gwiboon, what do you want in life?” Jonghyun asks and thinks the question is suitable for the moment and Gwiboon shrugs.

Now

It occurs to Jonghyun that Gwiboon has never been sure about her future plans. He reluctantly zips up a bag full of his clothes and looks out the window. Or maybe she did know, and they just didn’t involve Jonghyun.

‘Somewhere…’ he thinks. ‘Somewhere Gwiboon is getting ready to say ‘I Do’ to someone that isn’t me.’

***

Gwiboon looks into the mirror and is totally surprised when Minho walks into her room.

“Minho,” she says, not snappy, not angry, but simply surprised.

Minho smiles at her and sits down on the bed. “You ready?” he asks her.

Gwiboon doesn’t nod and Minho starts to worry.

“No,” she says.

Minho doesn’t look too into it and smiles. “Don’t be nervous.”

“I don’t want this.”

Minho stares at her in disbelief and waits for her to explain what she means. Gwiboon gets up and kisses Minho once on the lips. “Tell them it’s over.”

She leaves Minho sitting there and slaps herself for not realising what she wanted earlier.

***

Jonghyun hears a knock on the door and takes time to open it. When he does, Gwiboon is standing there teary eyed in a long, white dress that accentuates all the right parts of her body and the sight hurts his heart and confuses him at the same time.

“What are you doing here?” he asks and she just breathes heavily.

“You always ask me what I want,” she says breathlessly. “Now I know.”

Jonghyun stares at her intently and she smiles at him. “I want my happy ending. But I don’t want it with Minho. I want it with you. I love you.”

Jonghyun smiles and walks closer to her. He gives her the kiss that Minho was supposed to give her. It was slow, passionate and it was all kinds of right.
That day Jonghyun missed his flight and spent the rest of the day cuddling with Gwiboon on his bed, Gwiboon still in her long, flowing wedding dress but he didn’t care.

He had finally found his reason to stay and she had finally found what she wanted.

Fin.

~~~~~~~~~~

A/N:


Yep, this is really messy but like my other fics, I'm still proud of it ^^;;
Please ignore all the errors. If there are errors, they will be corrected someday.

Thanks for reading. Comments are loved <3