kismet - 7
Pairing: JongIU
Synopsis: Every happy ending deserves a second chance.
The room was dimly lit, so when the door opened the fluorescent lights illuminating the hallway poured in through the door. Anyone paying attention to people coming and going would glance to see who’d opened the door, then resume what they were doing.
Minho wasn’t really paying attention to anything. He was only at the party because it was Jiyeon’s birthday and he felt obligated to be there, but nowadays he didn’t want to be anywhere. He didn’t want to be home because it depressed him, but if he went out, he’d end up wishing he could go home. It was like he was in limbo and the key to escaping was nowhere to be found.
He finished his beer and went to get a bottle of water from the cooler, then went back to his place against the wall. The door opened and Minho, no longer caught in his train of thought, looked over instinctively to see who’d come in. He watched Sunyoung approach a group of girls near the door, and it took him a few moments to register who was standing in the middle - Jieun.
He glanced around then slowly advanced toward them, smiling awkwardly at Jiyeon who grinned and raised her eyebrows at him. “Minho! Are you enjoying yourself?” Jiyeon asked.
The other four girls stopped talking and looked at him. “Ah, yeah,” Minho said, locking eyes with Jieun. “Hey.”
Jieun furrowed her eyebrows. “You look familiar...”
“Jieun, this is Minho - that guy from the hospital,” Jiyeon said. “You... remember him, right?”
Jieun cocked her head to the side. “Oh, right. The one that convinced everyone that I was married to him,” she said with a laugh. “What was that all about? That was bizarre.”
Minho cleared his throat and glanced at Jiyeon, who shrugged and gestured with her head towards Jieun. “I apologize for that. I’m really good friends with Jiyeon and she... she called me when you got into the accident and asked me to bring her to the hospital to see you. They wouldn’t let me in unless I was family or someone close so... I just said we were married.”
Jieun laughed aloud. “That’s so weird,” she said, and Minho forced a laugh. “That’s really weird. But thank you for your concern.”
“Yeah...” Minho looked toward the door as it opened once again; Jonghyun walked in and their eyes met. “I should go,” Minho said, looking back to Jieun. “It was nice seeing you again.”
Jieun glanced back to where Minho was looking and then grabbed his wrist. Minho flinched, but relaxed, taking advantage of the closeness while he could. “Don’t leave yet, I want you to say hello to my boyfriend.”
“I - no, no, it’s fine,” Minho said, now trying to pull himself out of her grip. She held on tighter, reaching out with her other hand for Jonghyun’s.
“Babe,” Jieun said as she pulled Jonghyun closer. “Do you remember him? Minho, from the hospital.”
Jonghyun let his eyes drop; the look on Minho’s face was making him dizzy with anxiety. “Yeah, I remember him,” he said.
“Minho,” Jiyeon said, taking him by the arm and pulling him from Jieun’s grip. “Can you help me get something? It’s on the top shelf of my closet and I can never reach it, so since you’re here...”
Minho looked from Jiyeon to Jieun, then back to Jiyeon. “Yeah,” he said. He nodded in goodbye to the rest of them and followed Jiyeon across her apartment.
“That was more than awkward,” Hara commented and Jieun frowned at her.
“Why?” Jieun asked.
“Nothing,” Hara said with a smile. “I’m gonna go get a drink.”
The rest of the girls followed her, including Sunyoung, who glanced from Jonghyun to Jieun and smiled before she went to catch up with them.
“Is it just me, or is everyone acting sort of strangely?” Jieun asked.
“I don’t know,” Jonghyun mumbled. “I think I’m gonna head home... you can call me when you need me to pick you up.”
Jieun sighed. “If you’re leaving, I might as well leave too because I won’t have any fun. Why are you leaving?”
“I... honestly, I don’t feel like I should be here,” Jonghyun said. “Celebrate with your friends, it’s okay. I’ll see you in a couple of hours.” He kissed her cheek and started for the door.
“Hey, Jieun,” Sunyoung called from the kitchen. “Do you want a drink?”
Jieun glanced at the door as Jonghyun closed it, then back to Sunyoung and nodded. “Yeah, sounds good.”
Jonghyun got a call close to midnight from Jieun’s phone. The person on the other line wasn’t Jieun, but Suzy instead. “She’s really drunk,” Suzy said. “Come get her before she sneaks another drink and passes out.”
“I’m on my way,” Jonghyun mumbled groggily, having been awoken by the sound of his phone buzzing and singing. He got dressed and drove back to Jiyeon’s apartment, stopping outside of the building when he saw Suzy and Nicole sitting on a bench with Jieun sat between them.
“I wanna go home,” Jieun whined, words slurred, her eyes shut. “Take me home.”
“He’s here,” Nicole said. “You’re going home, just be quiet.”
Jonghyun shook his head as he approached the three girls. “Why’d you let her drink so much?” he asked, putting his arms around Jieun’s middle and hoisting her over his shoulder.
“We didn’t let her do anything,” Suzy deadpanned. “We couldn’t even find her after you left. She went off and drank on her own.”
“Who found her then?” Jonghyun said, adjusting his weight as Jieun slumped near-lifelessly over his shoulder.
“Sunyoung,” Nicole said.
“Of course,” Jonghyun said. “Alright, goodnight.”
He half-expected a begrudging response, but knew better; with Jieun almost passed out, they didn’t have to fake niceties.
He pulled open the passenger side door and carefully set Jieun down in the seat, fastening her safety belt before closing the door and rounding the car to his side. Before he could even find someplace to turn around and drive home, Jieun was snoring. Now he just had to worry about how to get her back upstairs without waking her up.
Jieun trudged out of the bedroom at noon, eyes nearly glued shut with last night’s mascara. Jonghyun snorted when he saw her, and she jokingly snarled him as she slumped against the wall next to the bathroom. “Can you make me some tea?” she mumbled.
“Of course,” Jonghyun said, laughing at Jieun’s state of dishevelment. He went into the kitchen and set the kettle to boil, then went back to where he was sitting at the breakfast table adjacent to the bathroom door.
He listened to Jieun turn on the water to wash her face, then to the sound of her scrubbing her teeth clean. The bathroom light clicked off and she returned, looking shades better than she did just minutes earlier. “I feel like crap,” she said, dragging her feet to the seat opposite Jonghyun. “I’m never drinking again.”
“You never drink like that,” Jonghyun said. “Except for that weekend before your math final that would stressing out over... that’s about it.”
“What, you’re saying I only get drunk like that when I have things on my mind?” Jieun asked, and Jonghyun nodded. She shrugged. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I do have things on my mind.”
Jonghyun was about to press further when the kettle started to whistle. Jieun cringed, the high-pitched noise ringing in her hungover head, and he jumped up to take the kettle off the stove and fix her tea. He returned with a large mug of steaming hot green tea, and Jieun smiled brightly. “You treat me so well,” she said, accepting the mug from Jonghyun.
“I do try,” he said, and she giggled before she sipped her tea. “Hey, can I ask you something?”
Jieun raised her eyebrows. “Go ahead.”
“Is there something you need to tell me?” Jieun frowned in confusion and put her mug down. “Anything?”
“No... why do you ask?” Jieun replied.
Jonghyun shrugged. “I don’t know... I was talking to Sunyoung last night and -”
“Why do you talk to her?” Jieun asked, her voice suddenly sharp. “I honestly can’t stand her. I only talk to her because the rest of the girls like to have her around.”
“Well...” Jonghyun laughed incredulously. “Why?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “We had a falling-out. I don’t like her.”
“Is...” Jieun narrowed her eyes at him. “Nevermind. Forget I asked.”
“What did she say to you last night?” Jieun asked, her voice calm and even again.
“Nothing,” Jonghyun said. “Forget about it.”
“I don’t believe you,” Jieun said, “but maybe it’s better that you don’t tell me. I’m not in the mood to get pissed off.”
Jieun brought her mug back to her lips, her eyes focused on a discolored notch in the surface of the wood table. Jonghyun could see the anger in her face, and he was so curious as to what could make her so angry... but if he asked, it would escalate into an argument and that’s not what he wanted to happen.
Now that he thought of it, it was very obvious that Sunyoung and Jieun didn’t have a great relationship. Sunyoung was always looking for trouble when it came to her, especially now that they were in this situation. Sunyoung was trying to get into Jonghyun’s head and make everything more difficult, when all he needed was for things to be as simple as possible.
Sunyoung had no right to leave the trail of hints she left the previous night; if anything, it was her way of getting back at Jieun for whatever issue they had in the past. And yet, Jonghyun thought, there was no way she’d stir something like that up without having proof to back it up. Sunyoung was looking for trouble, yes, but he knew she was too careful to pigeonhole herself and make things up.
Yet, as the day wore on, and Jonghyun continued to think about what Sunyoung said alongside the way Jieun reacted at the mere mention of him speaking to Sunyoung about anything, he couldn’t help but wonder if this was something she remembered. When they were still together, Jieun and Sunyoung were almost inseparable, and they remained that way even after she and Jonghyun broke up. So whatever happened had to had happened in the frame of time she spent with Minho.
Jonghyun felt a flicker of hope, but in the same breath he didn’t want it to happen. If she was remembering things, she’d soon remember Minho and leave Jonghyun to go back to him. It was for the best, and it was what was supposed to happen, but he couldn’t help but dread the day it happened.
Jonghyun wanted to ask her if the conflict she had with Sunyoung was something she’d just remembered, but quickly thought against it. She didn’t know there was anything to remember, so bringing that up would probably put her in a bad place. He’d just have to wait and see.
“...and that’s how I ended up buying half of Manchester United,” Minho’s father said, and everyone laughed heartily. Jieun was more quiet, giving a half-smile instead because she didn’t quite understand what was so funny.
“Jieun, dear,” Minho’s mother said, and Jieun looked over at her with a bigger smile on her face. “You’ve hardly touched your dessert.”
“Oh, I’m not really hungry,” Jieun said, shaking her head.
Minho’s mother giggled. “I understand. You’re trying to make sure you fit into that wedding dress, right?”
Jieun pursed her lips but nodded anyway. “That’s it. I don’t want to end up wearing a size too big.”
“Speaking of the wedding,” Minho said, putting his hand over Jieun’s, which was resting in her lap, “we thought we’d have the wedding in the backyard.”
“Here?” his father asked.
“Why not? There’s more than enough space, and I think it would be symbolic because I grew up in this house and now Jieun’s joining the family.” Minho looked over at her and smiled. “It’s better than getting married in a church, right?”
Jieun smiled and nodded. “You’re right.”
“Plus, it would cut costs a lot,” Minho said.
“You know money isn’t an issue,” his father said, winking at Jieun. She nodded again, sinking down slightly in her seat.
“I know, but saving is an issue. You can only spend so much,” Minho said. “And since you and Mom are paying for her dress, the bridesmaids’ dresses, and so on, plus the reception venue, we thought we’d help you save money and have the ceremony here.”
“I think that sounds lovely, don’t you, Jieun?” Minho’s mother asked.
Jieun nodded one more time. “It sounds perfect. I’m really excited,” she said.
“Do you plan on leaving school?” Minho’s father asked.
“Oh... no, I wanted to continue,” Jieun said.
“You don’t need a degree. Hell, you don’t even need to work once you’re married,” his father said. “Right? What would be the point?”
“I... I don’t know, I just wanted to finish college,” Jieun said, her voice soft. “I would want to work... I don’t want to just be a housewife.” She finished with a quiet, forced laugh and glanced around to see if anyone agreed.
“You’re majoring in music production,” Minho said. “What kind of work do you plan to get with that?”
Jieun chewed on the inside of her cheek and nodded hesitantly. “That’s true. I guess it would be dumb.”
“Not dumb,” Minho said, putting his arm around Jieun. “It’s just not a smart use of your time.”
Jieun nodded again. “You’re right. That’s what it is.”
Jieun let out a quivery breath and rolled on her side towards Jonghyun, sleeping soundly beside her. She moved closer and put her arm over his abdomen, curling against his form. “Jonghyun,” she whispered.
He stirred a bit and she looked up at him, hoping to see his eyes half-open looking down at her. His eyes remained closed, a low snore resonating through his nose.
“Jonghyun,” she said a bit louder, wanting him to wake up and stay asleep all at the same time. “Baby.”
His eyes slowly opened and he looked down at her. “Why are you awake?” he mumbled groggily.
“Can I ask you something?” Jieun said.
“Mhm,” Jonghyun replied, pushing his arm underneath her body to cup her back and hold her closer.
“If we ever got married, would you want me to work, or would you want me to sit at home and do nothing?”
Jonghyun furrowed his brows, his eyelids heavy with sleep. “I don’t know. It would be up to you.”
“Would you think it was stupid for me to work? Say we were rich and didn’t have to work, and I still wanted to. Would it be stupid?”
“Of course not,” Jonghyun said. “As long as you’re happy.”
“Really?” Jieun asked. “Do you mean that?”
“Yeah,” Jonghyun replied. “If you’re happy doing nothing, fine... if you’re happy working even if you don’t have to, fine. As long as you’re happy, I’d be happy too.”
Jieun smiled. “Thank you.”
“Mhm,” Jonghyun mumbled, his eyes opening a bit more to watch Jieun push herself up to eye-level with him. She pressed her lips to his then pulled away slightly, only to rest her forehead against his and sigh.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you too,” he whispered back, and she smiled.
“We should get married.”
Jonghyun’s eyes opened completely and Jieun laughed, reaching behind her back to intertwine her fingers with his. “What? You’re kidding, right?”
“You wouldn’t want to?” Jieun asked. “We’ve been together so long... I think it makes sense.”
“But...” If he said no, he’d probably upset her. If he said yes, that opened several doors to all sorts of trouble that he wasn’t sure he was ready to get into. “Am I dreaming right now?”
“No,” Jieun said, playfully pinching him on the arm. He winced and she laughed. “See, you’re awake. And I’m serious.”
“You’re proposing to me,” Jonghyun said. “You’re proposing to me.”
“Someone had to do it,” Jieun said. “Come on, yes or no?”