kismet - 5
Pairing: JongIU
Synopsis: Every happy ending deserves a second chance.
As the week wore on, and Jonghyun found ways to surpass the minor missteps that came with Jieun’s memory loss, he found himself becoming more comfortable with the circumstances. He’d kiss Jieun as long as she initiated it (every time he thought he should kiss her, he’d panic and decide against it), call her by the pet names he would call her when they were together, even cuddle in bed with her until they both fell asleep. He let himself fall back into being her boyfriend, even if were just for the time-being.
He drove her to the hospital a week after she was released, to get her stitches removed. While she went with a nurse who would remove the stitches for her, Jonghyun sought out the doctor who had tended to Jieun.
Doctor Park walked out from her office, greeting Jonghyun with a smile. “How is it going so far?” she asked.
“It’s... as good as it can be,” Jonghyun said. “I have a question, though. How long, do you think, will it take for her to get her memory back?”
Doctor Park nodded and gazed off thoughtfully. “I’d say... this is a rough estimate, but within the next three months,” she said. “If her injuries were worse - bleeding in the brain, that sort of thing - it would be longer... maybe about a year. However, since her injuries weren’t that bad, I’d give it three months, tops. Why?”
“No reason,” Jonghyun said. “It was something I’ve been wondering about for a few days.”
Doctor Park smiled sympathetically. “Are you thinking about the fact that she’s married?”
Jonghyun nodded slowly and hesitantly. “Sometimes I forget that’s she’s married myself, and that’s dangerous because... you know, I don’t want her husband to get hurt in the end,” he said. “And I don’t want to feel like I’m taking advantage of this at all. So I thought that, you know, if I had some sort of timeframe, I could use that to keep myself in check.”
“The point, honestly, isn’t to ‘keep yourself in check,’” Doctor Park said. “If you do that, it’ll seem unnatural, and she’ll have questions - and we’re working to avoid that. Cast aside what you know - that she’s married - and act on what she knows... it’ll be very simple, trust me.”
Jonghyun sighed and nodded again. “Another question... do you think the fact that I was the last person she thought about before the accident is the reason why she forgot about Minho?”
Doctor Park furrowed her brows. “Where did you get that from?”
“She said she remembered the accident,” he replied. “She said she went to get her phone to call me - I guess that was when her car broke down and she needed someone to pick her up - and then the truck hit her and that was it.”
Doctor Park thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement. “That makes some sense. I think that explains it a little bit. It’s hard to know for sure, though.”
“Oh, there you are!” Jieun called. Jonghyun turned around to find her grinning and walking down the hall towards him. “I thought you left me. A warning would have been nice.”
“Sorry,” Jonghyun said, taking into account what Doctor Park said and putting an arm around her waist. “I was just talking to your doctor.”
“About...?”
“Uh... I was thanking her for taking such good care of you after your accident,” Jonghyun said, looking back to Doctor Park.
“Oh,” Jieun said with a laugh. She bowed to Doctor Park and smiled brightly. “Thank you, Doctor.”
“You’re both very welcome,” Doctor Park said. “I have to start making my rounds, so you two have a great day.” She waved and walked past them, disappearing around the corner.
“Okay, ready to go?” Jonghyun asked.
“Yep - but, first, look at this scar,” Jieun said. She pushed her hair out of the way of her forehead and frowned. “Bangs for the rest of my life, right?”
“It adds character,” Jonghyun said, and Jieun scoffed. “Let’s go home.”
If there was one thing Jonghyun knew about Jieun, it was that she had a very close relationship with her mother. Jieun would designate an entire hour each day to call her mother and chat about anything, everything - and even if they got into a screaming match halfway through, she always ended the call with an “I love you.”
The ritual never changed, Jonghyun noted the day after he brought Jieun home from the hospital. She grabbed her phone as soon as the clock struck the designated hour and went somewhere quiet and comfortable so she could call her mother.
Jieun came back to Jonghyun after one of these phone calls, a week after she got her stitches removed, with a big smile on her face. “Ah, my mom,” she said, collapsing onto the couch beside him. She put her head in his lap and curled her knees up to her chest. “She keeps telling me to come to her house for dinner.”
“You should,” Jonghyun said. “You haven’t seen her in a while.”
“Oh, I know,” Jieun said. “I told her I’d come over on Friday night. But... I think you should come, too.”
“No, no,” Jonghyun said, suddenly uneasy. “It’s fine if you go alone. I can make myself dinner.”
“That’s not the point,” Jieun said. “My mom and stepdad adore you. They always said you were good for me, even before we got together. They’d want to see you, I think.”
She wasn’t lying - her parents did like him. Or, at least they used to, until Minho came into the picture. As soon as Jieun broke up with him, her parents - mainly her mother - looked down on him. He was the one who didn’t go to college, worked whenever his boss gave him hours, lived in a shabby apartment. Minho was the trust fund baby that would ensure Jieun would have a sparkling adult life. Jonghyun was nothing.
“Please,” Jieun whined, pushing out her bottom lip. “If not for them, do it for me! Please?”
“Alright,” Jonghyun said, and Jieun smiled and rubbed her hand on his knee. “I’ll go. Friday, right?”
“Mm-hmm,” Jieun hummed. “Can’t wait.”
Jonghyun forced a smile and nodded. “Me too.”
Jieun’s family lived in an old-fashioned house on a narrow street across town. The houses were so close together that, on a good day, the cars of every person on the street would line both sides, all directly in front of their respective houses. Anyone who dared to visit would have to park in the lot a few blocks away and walk the rest of the way up.
It was something Jonghyun was used to, after years of knowing Jieun and visiting her family, both when she lived at home and later when they’d go as a couple to have dinner with them. This time was no different - save for the fact that he and her parents both knew that he wasn’t her boyfriend. Jieun held onto his arm as they walked from the car to her parents’ house, waving hello to neighborhood people that passed them on their way.
“Mom!” Jieun cheered as her mother opened the door. She gave her a hug and Jieun’s mother glared at Jonghyun over Jieun’s shoulder. “It’s so nice to see you. I hope you don’t mind that I brought along a special guest.”
“Of course not, sweetheart,” her mother said, her dulcet voice a sharp contrast from the expression on her face. Jieun pulled away and grabbed Jonghyun’s hand. “Come inside.”
Her mother, a short woman who was known by anyone that knew Jieun to be one to act like she had money that she didn’t, made her way toward the kitchen while Jieun and Jonghyun took off their shoes and went to the living room.
“Hello, sir,” Jonghyun said to Jieun’s step-father as she ran to greet him, bowing a full 90 degrees. For what Jonghyun figured was for Jieun’s sake, he smiled back and raised a hand in greeting. The air was already tense, heavy with Jieun’s parents’ frustration with the fact that their daughter wasn’t there with her multi-millionaire husband but rather with her paycheck-to-paycheck ex-boyfriend. Jonghyun almost wished he could make some lame excuse to go home and leave Jieun to meet with her family on her own, but thought against it as Jieun’s mother walked into the room with a tray full of food.
“I’ll help you, Mom,” Jieun said, scrambling away from her step-father. As she took two bowls into both of her hands, she looked at Jonghyun. “Can you help, too? She spent a long time cooking, I don’t want her to drop it and let it go to waste!”
Jonghyun glanced at Jieun’s mother, who glared at him menacingly, then promptly took the bigger bowl and a small serving dish to bring to the table. He could feel her staring into his back as he made his way to the table, but he’d deal with it as long as it kept Jieun happy and blissfully unaware of the truth.
“...oh! Mom, I need to tell you the funniest thing. There’s this guy in my class... I’ve heard a lot about him, he’s kind of popular on campus. Very handsome, charming, funny, just really nice in general... I think he’s flirting with me, though. No, I don’t think he is, I know he is... but I obviously don’t flirt back because... I’m with Jonghyun. You raised me to be better than that, right?”
“What’s his name?”
“Minho. He’s popular on campus because, besides his good looks, his dad is super-rich... something to do with sports, I wasn’t really paying attention -”
“Jieun, it’s true that I raised you to be faithful and to have humility, but look at your options! Love is never more important than money.”
“Mom! No... god, that’s terrible! I can’t believe you’d say something like that.”
“If I hadn’t divorced your father when I did, we’d be living in some little two-room shack in the country. We wouldn’t be able to buy things from the store, we’d have to make it ourselves! Can you imagine that?”
“Mom...”
“Just think about it. Do you want to end up living in an apartment for the rest of your life, or do you want to have beautiful homes all over the place? Tell me.”
“Mom, I’m hanging up now. I love you.”
“Jieun -”
“I love you. Bye.”
Jieun looked down as Jonghyun put her hand to rest on her leg. She glanced up at him then gave his hand a squeeze before she intertwined their fingers. “Mom, dinner was great,” she said, her voice a bit distant. Jonghyun noticed this and looked over at her, concerned.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it,” her mother replied. She dabbed at her mouth with her napkin and gave Jonghyun a quick once over. “Did you like it?”
“Always,” Jonghyun said, nodding and giving her a tight-lipped smile. She mimicked him, then took a sip of water from the glass in front of her.
“The pitcher’s empty,” Jieun said, releasing Jonghyun’s hand to pick up the cool glass pitcher on the floor beside them. “I’ll refill it.”
“No, no, I’ll do it,” Jonghyun said, only to flinch at the sound of metal chopsticks hitting the wood table.
“She said she’d do it,” her mother said coolly. “Let her do it. She’s perfectly capable.”
Jonghyun nodded obediently and Jieun slowly pushed herself to her feet, holding the pitcher to her chest as she left the room.
“Ma’am, I hope you don’t take this the wrong way,” Jonghyun said once he was sure Jieun was out of earshot. He heard her open the freezer for the ice tray and started to time himself. “I understand that you’re upset and frustrated, and you obviously don’t like me, but Jieun seems like she’s catching on to the mood... for her sake, just try to bare it... please?”
“I don’t believe in this ‘let her remember on her own’ crap,” Jieun’s mother snapped at him, and Jieun’s stepfather sighed as if he’d heard this way too many times. “I’m not going to sit by and let my daughter get her life ruined by you, because she ‘can’t remember’ the good life she barely began.”
“I always treated Jieun well,” Jonghyun said. “I don’t understand how I’d ruin it...”
“You’re, how old? Twenty-two, twenty-three, and for the past two years, you’ve been working the same dead-end job,” she said. “Choi Minho probably hasn’t worked a day in his life but he has all the money to back that up. Don’t you dare question how you’d ruin her life. If she married you instead, I would probably kill myself because I refuse to watch my only daughter suffer because she married a slacker.”
Jonghyun heard Jieun’s approaching footsteps and refrained from continuing the conversation to keep her from overhearing, but as soon as she entered the room, her mother said, “Jieun, go back to the kitchen. I’m talking to Jonghyun and I don’t want you around.”
“But... the water...”
“You’re leaving soon, aren’t you? We don’t need the water. Put it in the fridge and stay out of here.”
Jieun looked from her mother to Jonghyun before she slowly turned and walked away again.
“Let me tell you this now,” Jieun’s mother said once she was gone. “You tell her the truth, or I’ll do it myself. If you really want what’s best for her, you’ll do it.”
“She’d never believe me,” Jonghyun said. He looked her right in the eyes and added, “And I doubt she’d believe you, either.”
Jieun’s mother scoffed. “It’s not that hard to get her to believe what’s obviously true. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knows every single detail, and it just takes a few hints and buzzwords for her to get her memory back. So I’m warning you - do it, or I will.”
“Jieun, let’s go,” Jonghyun called, pushing himself onto his feet.
“What?” she shouted back.
“We’re leaving,” he said, walking away from the table.
“Don’t you dare,” Jieun’s mother said behind him, standing up to follow him.
“What’s going on?” Jieun asked, frowning as her mother stopped still a few feet away from Jonghyun, who stood with his hands in his pockets at the door. “Are you two arguing?”
“Get your coat and shoes,” Jonghyun said.
“You’re not leaving,” her mother snapped at her. “You’re staying here.”
“Mom! Mom, no... I’m going home,” Jieun said.
“This is home. Where he is, that’s not home. You’re staying.” Her mother crossed her arms as Jieun shook her head and pulled her coat down from the peg on the wall beside her and slid her feet into her shoes. “You’re defying me?”
“No,” Jieun said. “I’m just going home. I love you, Mom. Bye.” She held the crook of Jonghyun’s arm and let him lead her out the door, her head down to avoid her mother’s eyes.
“What... what happened?” Jieun asked quietly as they drove home.
“Nothing,” Jonghyun said.
“I know you’re lying,” Jieun said. “Why are you lying?”
“I’m not,” he said. They pulled up at a stoplight and he looked over at her, a forced smile on his face. “Nothing happened. I just wanted to get home before it got too cold.” Jieun frowned and he pressed his thumb against her bottom lip. “I promise.”
“Liar,” she mumbled.
“Liar or not, I want a kiss,” he said, half-hoping it would placate her. The other half of him actually wanted to kiss her, though he chocked it up to wanting to keep everything as normal as it could possibly be.
“No,” she said. “Because you’re lying to me.”
“I’ll steal it, then,” Jonghyun said with a genuine grin, practically leaping over the armrest to kiss her. She squealed and moved away, pressing her hand to his chest to keep their distance.
“The light’s green!” she said, laughing now as Jonghyun continued to try to kiss her.
“I don’t care, there’s four other lanes; whoever’s behind me can go around me,” he said. “Kiss me.”
Jieun pouted, then kissed him quick on the lips and pushed him away. “Drive, people are honking at us,” she said, sliding down in her seat and crossing her arms. “And I’m mad at you for lying to me.”
“You won’t stay mad for long,” Jonghyun said as he finally pressed on the gas pedal and continued down the stretch of road.
“You just admitted that you’re lying!” Jieun said, punching him hard on the arm.
He winced and shot her a side-long glare. “I did not. All I said is that you won’t stay mad for long, meaning you’ll realize I’m not lying and you’ll move on.”
Jieun sighed. “Will you at least tell me what she said? What did she say to make you want to leave?”
Jonghyun chuckled. “Your mom hates me,” he said bluntly. “She basically said it herself.”
“But... why? She’s always liked you,” Jieun said, her voice disappointed.
He shrugged. “I’m sure she has her reasons,” he said. “Whatever it is, it’s not important. So don’t worry about, okay?”
Jieun sighed again. “Okay. I guess. I’m shocked that she’d say that.”
“Like I said, don’t worry about it,” Jonghyun said. “Just focus on what’s important.”
“And what’s that?” Jieun asked. “You?”
Jonghyun smiled. “No, not me. You. Focus on yourself.”
“I’d rather focus on you,” she said, laughing as Jonghyun glanced at her. “I’ll focus on myself when you’re not around.”
“Do what you want,” he said. “As long as you don’t spend time thinking about whatever your mother said to me.”
“I’ll try not to,” Jieun said. “I’ll try.”