[JT] Save The Last Dance For Me
A/N: It's probably strange for me to be releasing a Jjongtae fic especially in the wake of Tae-yeon's dating news. Truth be told, I started this before the news broke and only just finished it. It might possibly be the longest thing I've ever written on this LJ, but it was fun, and of course, I wish Tae-yeon only all happiness in her own love life, whatever it may be.
This was written out of a prompt given by cafebreaks who requested a "rom-com remix" for Jjongtae. So here's my "Wedding Date" remix (check out the trailer here), Jjongtae style, dedicated to the two people who got me into this ship: cafebreaks and abiwrites.
“I’m not usually like this. I just wanted you to know this right from the start.”
Silence.
“I can’t imagine what you must think of me. I know, I know. I’m a terrible daughter for wanting to bring home a fake boyfriend for my sister’s wedding, for even considering lying to my parents. I know that. But you know how in the movies, there are those families which are absolutely crazy, but at the end of the day, you still love them because they’re family?”
He doesn’t say anything, watching her with those imperturbable eyes and she coughs when she realizes he isn’t going to answer. “Yeah, mine’s not like that. It’s also possibly why I’ve begged my way out of every family gathering I’ve had for the past two years.”
“It’s just that, my ex-fiancé is the best man. Small world, right? He’s best friends with my sister’s fiancé and I just…I just need to get through these four days without my mother making some remark about how it should have been me getting married, my sister being… my sister, my ex-fiancé from thinking that I’m this unattractive, hopeless woman who couldn’t find a new boyfriend even though we broke up two years ago. Not that that isn’t the truth. I mean, not that I’m hopeless. Well. Maybe the unattractive bit is true. But that I couldn’t find a boyfriend even after two years, but seriously, do you know how difficult it is to find a nice, decent guy in Seoul? I mean, come on. There’s got to be someone… and I’m rambling.”
She splays her hands on the table, closing her eyes, feeling the stress of it all catching up to her as she takes a deep breath to slow herself down.
“I just need someone good-looking, preferably with impressive credentials to blow my family and my ex-fiancé out of the water, enough to keep them off my back for the next three years at least.” She says softly. “I know it sounds bad, morally questionable, and I can’t imagine what you’re thinking of me now, but I just… really need to do this and I was wondering if you’d be up to the job.”
She looks back up at him and he hasn’t moved, not even to take a sip of his tea. She tries to make out the emotions, the thoughts behind his eyes, but nothing comes up. He has really intense eyes though, she notes. Not that it’s a bad thing. He makes it work, with all that pale skin and his silences.
“Now would be a really good time for you to say something, please.”
He leans forward, steepling his fingers, and some shred of common sense that hasn’t completely vacated the recesses of her brain jolts to life. What was I thinking? Of course, he’d say no. Which self-respecting individual actually wants to spend four days with a fake girlfriend he barely knows, and her psychotic family? Oh god, how am I going to face him after this? Maknae seems really happy with Jung Yong-hwa, which means I’m going to have to see him lots after this since he’s Jung Yong-hwa’s best friend. It’s going to be so awkward and I’ll have to pretend like I never even proposed this dumb idea to him, oh god-
“I’ll do it.”
She actually starts in her seat, more out of shock than anything else. “What?”
“I said, I’ll do it.” Lee Jong-hyun leans back into his seat, finally picking up his cup of tea nonchalantly, like he hasn’t just agreed to be her fake boyfriend for four days. “When do we leave?”
---
“Stop fidgeting.” Jong-hyun’s voice in her ear makes her jump; he’d barely said two words to her all throughout their flight and on the drive to the Jeju house. She’s starting to learn that he’s a man of few words.
Good. The fewer words he says, the easier this whole façade will be.
“I’m sorry.” She apologizes, adjusting the shoulder straps of her dress one last time. It is a deep royal blue number that’d made her feel like a million bucks when she’d tried it on in the shop, but somehow it feels all wrong on her right now. “I’m just… nervous.”
He looks at her with what might be concern, and then his hand comes up easily, curving around her right shoulder, making her left shoulder bump into his chest, which is surprisingly solid. She blushes at that thought, but tries to lean into him without looking as awkward as she feels. It’s odd, but the reality of what she’s doing, masquerading this near stranger as her boyfriend to her family is finally starting to sink in.
She’s wondering if it’s not too late to take this all back when she spots her mother watching them with a glint in her eye, in the middle of the room. “Oh God.” She mumbles, fidgeting with the chiffon dress. She tries to paste a smile on her face, but it feels more like a grimace as the older woman weaves her way through the crowd, heading towards them.
Jong-hyun’s lips curve in a small smile. “Your mother?”
She nods.
“She looks like you.” Is his only remark and she only has time to look at him before her mother descends on them.
“Tae-yeon!”
She hugs her mother dutifully. “Omma.”
“That is a beautiful dress, dear.” Her mother comments. “Although I’m not sure whether such a deep blue is really your color. I always thought you looked better in pastels.”
She winces. It hasn’t even been two minutes, and her mother has already made one of her first passive-aggressive digs at her. “Omma. I’d like to introduce you to my boyfriend, Lee Jong-hyun.”
Jong-hyun’s arm slides down from around her; he bows deeply, respectfully, before extending a hand to her mother. “Hello omonim. It’s good to meet you. I’m Lee Jong-hyun.”
“Omo.” He mother flutters, grasping Jong-hyun’s hand. “Our Tae-yeonnie didn’t tell us that she was bringing her boyfriend.” Her mother’s gaze is starting to turn beady. “Or that she was in a serious relationship.”
Jong-hyun, seemingly oblivious to the pointedness of her mother’s words, simply laughs, dissipating the tension. She can’t help it; she stares at him. She’s never heard him laugh before. “Taeng wanted it to be a surprise.” He says affectionately, his arm returning to her shoulder, tugging her into him and more out of reflex than anything, her arm settles around his waist. “She didn’t even tell me about her sister’s wedding till last week. I think she was nervous about introducing me, but I really wanted to see you, omonim.”
Oh, he’s good.
She can practically see her mother melting at those words. “Aigoo. Well, its such a pleasure to meet you too, Jong-hyun. And please, call me omoni. Omonim is so formal and you’re practically one of us, coming all this way.”
He dimples-he has dimples?! she thinks, dazed. None of this is going the way she imagined it would be-and if her mother wasn’t sold, she is now. “Thank you, omoni. I’m happy to be here with your family and Tae-yeon.” His nose brushes against her temple in an almost-kiss, and while they’ve talked about signs of affection on the flight, she can’t help it; she jumps slightly. It’s just been so long since a guy (any guy, really) has gotten this close.
Her mother, thankfully, notices nothing. “I’m going to get your father. Jong-hyun ah. You have to meet Tae-yeon’s father and her sister-where is Mi-young and Nichkhun? Don’t go anywhere, Jong-hyun. I’ll bring them over here.”
She watches her mother go and suddenly, she is feeling a lot more confident about this whole wedding. “You didn’t tell me you were so good with older people.” She accuses, tipping her face back so that she can look him full in the face. “Just wait, she’s not going to let you go now.”
His smile is smug, complete with dimples. He’s pleased with himself, she thinks faintly, but his eyes seem to soften as he studies her face. “You never asked,” He says simply. “And I don’t think that would be such a bad thing.”
---
She sidles up to Jong-hyun an hour later, kissing him on the cheek. It’s not a kiss on the lips, but she’ll work her way up to that. For now, this’ll have to do. Her hand slides into his. “Hi, babe.” She murmurs, and he kisses her on the spot between her eyebrows, playing along easily. They lock eyes, as they separate. “I see you’ve met my ex-fiancé.”
Jong-hyun’s face briefly registers surprise, but he manages to keep a straight face, and the two of them turn to face Jang Woo-young, who looks utterly flummoxed at this point. She feels a mean pleasure; she definitely has the upper hand at this point. “Hi Woo-young.”
“Taeng-I mean, Tae-yeon.” Woo-young is obviously working hard to keep his composure. Not that it’s working well. “Hi.”
“This is Jong-hyun. My boyfriend.” She makes the introductions, smiling pleasantly all the while. “He’s the Executive Director at FNC Entertainment.” Yes, take that, Jang Woo-young, personal trainer. My boyfriend-well, my fake boyfriend-is a CEO of one of the hottest entertainment companies in Seoul.
She feels a slight twinge of guilt for being so mean even in her thoughts, but Jong-hyun puts out his hand politely, which Woo-young takes in a handshake and she watches somewhat triumphantly as her ex-fiancé mumbles an excuse, stumbling back into the crowd. Score 1 to Tae-yeon.
“That went well.” She turns back to Jong-hyun. “What were you guys talking about before?”
Jong-hyun shrugs, swirling the whiskey in his hand. “Just things.”
Her eyes narrow at his vague answer; he’s definitely being evasive now and she’s just about to open her mouth and demand that he tell her everything this instant when he continues. “He’s definitely a bit drunk, but I think he’s still crazy about you.”
Her mouth falls open then; any meanness at seeing Woo-young wrong-footed softens and dissipates as she presses Jong-hyun for more answers, openly curious and maybe just the tiniest bit hopeful. “Why? What do you mean?”
He looks at her for a long moment, and not for the first time today, she curses him silently for being so difficult to read.
“He seems miserable.” Jong-hyun finally says.
---
“Why do you like him so much anyway?” Jong-hyun says later that night.
She turns to look at him, squinting at him through the crack in the sliding doors that separate the two of them. There are no curtains in his room so the moonlight is pooling on his face, but he doesn’t seem to mind, arms pillowed behind his head, clad in a white singlet and long cotton pants.
Her eyes fall on his bare arms. Jong-hyun might look pale and delicate, but the shape of those arms, the solidness of his chest that she’d felt earlier says otherwise. She blushes at that thought, forcing herself to focus on the slope of his nose, glad he can’t hear her thoughts or see the red on her cheeks. She’s not here to oogle. It’s strictly business.
“If you don’t mind my saying,” Jong-hyun goes on placidly. “He’s kind of an ass.”
She ignores the slight, folding her hands under her cheek as she rolls on her side to face him properly. “Did he really seem miserable?”
“No, he just seemed like a tool.” The sarcasm in Jong-hyun’s voice is unmistakable now, and she smiles, because even though he’s criticizing Woo-young, Lee Jong-hyun is starting to feel more like a person, more like a friend with every minute of this wedding.
“Woo-young is sweet.” She admits. “I wouldn’t have been with him for five years if he was just a tool.”
That gets him; he rolls over on his side to face her too, though this casts his face into shadows. “Seriously?”
She nods and he lets out a long slow breath. “Five years. Imagine that.”
“We were about to get married too.” She says, thinking of the ring that she still keeps hidden in a box under her bed in her apartment in Seoul.
“So what happened?”
She sighs. He might as well know. He practically knows everything anyway. “I found out he was cheating on me with some girl. Well. It wasn’t the first time. And so, I broke it off.” She pauses, chewing on her lip, aware of how silent it really is and she can’t bear any more sympathy with regard to this matter, so she makes a joke to cover it all up. “I think my mom was more devastated about losing Woo-young as a son-in-law than me. She’s never let me live it down.”
She silently curses herself, for how that sounds, for what he must think of her and her family, but he doesn’t say anything at all and so she rolls on her back, staring up at the ceiling until she falls asleep.
---
“Its unusual for a wedding to stretch so long.” Jong-hyun remarks to her the next day, while helping her to unpack the picnic.
She shrugs. “Its more for Nichkhun’s family’s benefit. His extended family is American, so they’ve never really been to Korea. These four days are sort of meant as a holiday for them too, to explore Jeju.”
“So it’s not just me then, being on a paid holiday.” His eyes are bright and when she looks up, there is a wide cheeky grin on his face that makes her smile too, though she’s slightly embarrassed at his words. She’d paid for his air ticket here and promised to cover all other expenses; though he’d been adamant that he couldn’t accept anything for her, she’d fought until she’d worn him down. He’s spending four days, pretending to be her boyfriend and spending time with her family-she couldn’t let him do it for free.
“Jong-hyun!” Nichkhun hollers from across the field. “We need one more person for the team. Get over here!”
Jong-hyun waves to show that he’s heard, turning to her. “Do you still need my help?”
She shakes her head, nudging him. “Go have some fun.”
He pauses like he wants to kiss her, but smiles instead, resting a hand on her shoulder lightly. “I’ll be right back.”
The minute he’s gone, her cousin, Soo-young sidles up to her. “I still can’t believe he’s your boyfriend.”
She lets out a long breath to expel some of the nervous tension in her body. “Me too.”
“You,” Soo-young takes out the containers of sandwiches, putting them neatly on the table. “Need to send God a bottle of wine for that good-looking specimen over there. No, make that a bottle of champagne. Just look at him!”
She pauses, turns to look at the on-going baseball game. Jong-hyun is standing at second base, shouting encouragement and slapping his knees as one of her younger cousins hits the ball and then he is off, running, making it past third, fourth base till he is declared safe. He high-fives the other kids on his team, swinging one of them around. He looks like a loon, she concludes, turning back to the picnic on the table, but still she smiles to herself.
Beside her, Soo-young sighs. “There is nothing more irritating in the world than seeing your cousin hopelessly in love again, after two long years.”
She attempts to keep the conversation as light as she can. “Has it been two years already?”
Soo-young rolls her eyes. “Like you don’t know. You’ve probably kept better track of time than me, Kim Tae-yeon. Don’t lie. Remember, its me you’re talking to.”
That makes her smile as she opens a bottle of soda. “I know.”
Soo-young stops unpacking, perching herself on the edge of the picnic table, watching her with keen eyes. “You’re not still in love with that idiot, are you?”
“Which idiot?”
“Which other idiot could we be talking about?” Soo-young snorts.
Before she can reply however, there are arms sliding around her waist and she turns her head to see Jong-hyun resting his chin on her shoulder. “I’m hungry.” He complains, and not thinking, she lifts a hand to dab at the trickle of sweat that is sliding down his face.
If anyone had told her Lee Jong-hyun was capable of acting cute, she would have laughed in their faces. As it is, she’s having a hard time trying to keep the grin off her own face.
“You’re all sweaty.” She returns, but his arms tighten around her waist, not letting her go. Just over his shoulder, she sees the lanky figure of Woo-young. It might be a trick of the light, but he seems to be frowning in their direction and her heart soars.
“Here.” She opens one of the containers, taking out a sandwich, lifting it to his lips. He bites into it, smiling at her through bites and she makes a sound of disgust. “You’re getting crumbs all over me!”
She shrieks as he takes larger, exaggerated bites, finishing the sandwich but pretending to chomp into her neck like some kind of demented vampire. She tries to run away but he grabs her, swinging her around and she is laughing as he places a sloppy kiss that lands half on her chin and her neck, all thoughts of Woo-young gone.
---
She is lying there on the picnic mat, half-drowsing to the tune of the guitar that Jong-hyun is playing (who knew that he played the guitar in his university days? He’s good) when a shadow falls over her.
She lifts her sunglasses to rest on her head. It is Nichkhun, holding a glass of wine. “Has anyone seen my future wife?” He says sheepishly. “She’ll kill me if I don’t serve her first.”
She sits up, intending to hunt for her sister, but Jong-hyun puts down the guitar, stilling her with a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll look for her.” He says easily and she smiles her thanks as he heads off. She lies back down, sliding her sunglasses to rest on her nose again. She is so full from the picnic, and slightly tipsy from the bottle of wine and soju she shared with Jong-hyun and Soo-young so she’s half-asleep when another shadow falls across her.
“Taengoo?”
There is only one person who would call her by that nickname and she jerks upright, all sleepiness forgotten.
It is Woo-young, standing over her with his hands shoved sheepishly into his pockets and that puppy-dog look, so hopeful and shy and familiar from two years ago strikes her straight to the heart. “Can we talk?”
She bites her lip, unsure if she wants to have this ‘talk’, but nods, letting him pull her up from the mat and lead her away.
They are standing by the edge of the lake and she folds her hands behind her back, rocking back and forth slightly. “So… what is it?”
That letting go of me was the worst mistake you ever made in your entire life, and you want me back and you’ll spend the rest of your days making it up to me?
He rubs his chin. “I’ve been wanting to tell you this for a while now. I just, didn’t know how. And it didn’t seem right, but…”
Suddenly, behind him, she notices Jong-hyun and Mi-young returning to the picnic. Where did her sister go, she wonders, and why does Jong-hyun look so unusually grim?
Woo-young’s sigh of frustration returns her to their conversation. “You’re not even looking at me.”
She looks back up into his handsome face, but for some strange reason, she’s not really registering anything. “I’m sorry, Woo-young. Look…” She looks around him again, but Jong-hyun is standing off to the side now, frowning at nothing in particular. He hasn’t even seen her standing her with Woo-young, and for some odd reason, her heart constricts with worry-what could have possibly happened? “Let’s talk later, okay? I just need a minute.”
She leaves Woo-young behind, making a beeline for Jong-hyun, who is looking unusually serious. She’s learnt to tell his looks apart; she thought it was an impossible task, but surprisingly after spending almost two days with him, its getting easier and easier and she’s never seen him look this… worried before and it makes her frown too.
“Hey,” She says softly, taking his hand and she sees him look up, as if realizing where he is, and who she is. “Is everything okay?”
He smiles, for her sake, but she can see the tightness in his eyes still and she reaches up to rub the crease between his eyebrows. He tries again, his grin becoming more natural and her heart settles down. Something did happen, she decides, but he isn’t going to tell her what it is. “Everything’s fine.” He pronounces, and she tries to make herself believe him.
---
“We could get in huge trouble, you know?”
“Nah. Everyone is either sleeping it off or too drunk to care.” His grin is blinding in the moonlight as he pats the bench next to him, holding up a soju bottle. She sits herself next to him, and if its possible, his grin grows wider, taking in her appearance. “Nice. And who are you supposed to be?”
She looks down at herself, realizing how dumb she looks, having come from the bachelorette party. “I’m supposed to be a cupcake. Don’t laugh!” She waves a finger in his face sternly, but he is already chuckling. His cheeks are flushed; he’s probably had a bit to drink himself too at the stag night that he’s just come from.
“What was the theme?” He manages through laughter.
“Pink food. Shut up!” She whines as he laughs even louder, reaching out to tweak the cupcake headband she has on. “I didn’t pick the theme; Mi-young did and she’s obsessed about pink.”
There are actually tears of mirth in his eyes that he has to wipe away while she pulls the hairband out of her hair. “Stop laughing,” She says, stubbornly, though she knows she does look pretty silly.
“Okay, okay,” He relents, cracking open the soju bottle and pouring out two shots for the both of them. “You make a cute cupcake.”
“I bet you’re just saying that because I’m the only cupcake you know.” She grumbles.
“That is true,” He concedes, the ghost of a smile still playing around his lips. “But I still think you look cute anyway.”
She looks down at her dress, pink, with ruffles, the kind she hates, but his compliment still rings in her ears and she ducks her head so she doesn’t have to look him in the eye. “Thank you.”
He takes his soju in one-shot while she finishes hers a little slower, but he refills her cup anyway. The soju might be a bad idea, she thinks dimly, she’s already had a couple of shots at Mi-young’s bachelorette party and while she’s an okay drinker, she’s definitely going to be way over her limit in a bit. She doesn’t mind though; the alcohol is giving her a nice buzz, making her feel all weightless, like nothing matters.
“So how is this wedding turning out for you?” He asks. “Just, you know, a testimonial for my future potential clients.”
She snorts, sipping at her soju. “What, you’re going to moonlight now on the side as a boyfriend service? What’ll your tagline be? Every lonely heart needs a fake boyfriend, call this number to reserve your fake boyfriend today.” She intones her words so they sound like a professional ad on the television and he sputters with laughter.
“Well, it’s a possibility.” He rebuts cheekily. “After all, have not my services been wonderful these days?”
She sobers a little then, getting serious, and the mood between them shifts. “It’s actually been fun.” She admits, quietly, turning the small cup in her hand. “I thought this wedding would be torturous. But you’ve been great, Jong-hyun. Thank you.”
“I didn’t do much.” He demurs, returning to his taciturn, reserved self.
“You did.” She bursts out. “You impressed my mom, you drank soju with my dad, you’ve been here helping me make Woo-young jealous and making him see what he’s missing out. You’ve just… been here.” She finishes lamely, feeling his eyes on her in a way that makes her stomach flop uncomfortably.
“Thank you, Jong-hyun ah.” She says, forcing herself to look back up at him. Its strange; they honestly haven’t spent that much time together, two days isn’t a lot of time, but she feels close to him. Like he could actually become a good friend of hers, like she can trust him. Its not that she doesn’t have guy friends in her life right now, but she’s just never let anyone in again that close especially after Woo-young. And now, she thinks, looking up at Jong-hyun, maybe all that will change.
Her heart is strangely full, and impulsively, she leans in to kiss him on the cheek.
Her lips linger, and she has one of those moments where she can see everything that is about to happen but she doesn’t let herself pull away. Instead, Jong-hyun turns his head slowly, until their lips meet and he kisses her, properly for the first time, without an audience.
And sitting like that, kissing Jong-hyun in the moonlight, her head somewhat buzzing from the alcohol and the taste of soju on his lips, Tae-yeon feels freer than she has in years.
---
“So that’s why unnie and I started fighting over Tony oppa from next door.” Mi-young, or Tiffany, as Nichkhun calls her, laughs to the general laughter of the whole table listening to this tale at the post-dress rehearsal lunch that the two families are sharing.
She takes a sip of her wine, hiding a smile. “Although in all fairness, Tony oppa always walked me back from school.” She tells her younger sister, who widens her eyes.
“Yeah, but he dumped you to come play with me in a week!” Mi-young sticks out her tongue playfully at her, and though she laughs, there’s a tiny sting that comes from remembering the rivalry that has marked most of their childhood. Perhaps, even now, she thinks a tad soberly, it hasn’t ended, at least on Mi-young’s end.
She shakes her head, choosing to ignore these horrible thoughts. Where are all these thoughts coming from? Time (and distance) have helped their relationship as sisters, she thinks. After she moved away from their hometown in Jeonju to Seoul to work, her sister’s presence in her life hadn’t seemed quite so… stifling. She could handle the occasional gleeful message from Mi-young about how she was getting a promotion at work, how she thought Nichkhun was just about to propose to her from the distance of her Seoul flat. As far as sisters go, they’ve never at each other’s throats-they’ve always been outwardly affectionate to one another in fact-but Tae-yeon finds it sad that she’s never been able to say she’s felt truly close to her little sister.
She realizes that the wine has run out and takes her opportunity to get away from the table, clear her head a little. “I’m going to get more wine, okay?”
Jong-hyun starts to rise, but she motions for him to stay seated.
In the kitchen, she unwraps another bottle of wine from a hamper, taking her time to find the corkscrew and opening the bottle. She rolls the cork between her fingers, inhaling its sweet, earthy smell, not thinking about anything in particular.
“Taengoo?”
She turns around, dropping the cork on the table. “Woo-young.”
He stands in the doorway of the kitchen, effectively barring her exit and there is this look of grim determination on his face that should start getting her anxious. She suddenly recalls the way he’d taken her aside at the picnic, the way he wanted to ‘talk’ to her. What else could he want to talk to her about, she thinks with faint amusement, but to get back together? Nothing else would explain his obvious jealousy seeing her with Jong-hyun, coupled with what Jong-hyun has told her about how miserable Woo-young seemed without her.
Only…
She used to be sure of her answer, but now she finds that she’s suddenly not.
She picks up the wine bottle, fingers curling tightly around its glass neck for the lack of something to hold onto. Woo-young, in the meantime, takes a few long strides forward until he’s standing right there, in front of her, close enough to kiss her. “What’s up?” She tries to make herself sound as breezy and unconcerned as possible.
“I just really need to tell you something.” Woo-young’s hand comes up to rest on her forearm. “Look, I’ve just been thinking all weekend. Well, longer than all weekend on this and I just need to tell you that-“
She cuts him off. “I think I know what you want to tell me.”
“You do?” His face is awash in bewilderment and in that moment, she decides that she doesn’t want to play games anymore. It’s time to be straight with him.
She nods. “You wanted to ask me to get back together with you, didn’t you?” He bows his head, his hand dropping from her arm, lacing his fingers together and she takes that as an admission. “Honestly, Woo-young. I would have said yes. I would have. It’s just….”
Here, she pauses. Unbidden, like a mirage, Jong-hyun’s face rises in her mind and she unconsciously touches her fingers to her lips, smiling to herself at the thought of their kiss last night.
“I’m tired of the two of us.” She tells him. “I’m tired of this back-forth, the cheating, the taking you back. It’s over, Woo-young.” She says all this gently, so that as far as possible she won’t crush him.
“Let’s just go out and eat some dessert and enjoy ourselves for the wedding tomorrow, okay?” She pats his arm, heading past him. She doesn’t want to go down the lets-be-friends route, because it’s patronizing, and honestly, she doesn’t think she can ever be friends with Woo-young anymore. He’ll always be a part of her past, always, but it doesn’t mean she has to keep him in her life even in the present.
It’s time to break out of this holding pattern, she thinks decisively, open up her life for something new to come in.
Jong-hyun.
The mere thought of him makes her smile, and her steps already feel lighter.
“It was your sister.”
Woo-young’s voice cuts through the air like a whip and she stops so suddenly she can feel the swish of the material of her dress banging against her knees.
“What?”
She turns around slowly, because it feels like her feet might be rooted to the ground, her knees are knocking together and her heart is starting to bang frantically against her ribs, like it wants to flee from this room. She knows how it feels.
She doesn’t want to be here now, for this… this piece of news about her sister that doesn’t seem good, by any means.
But just like her heart, trapped in its cage of ribs, she is trapped, here in this kitchen, by this horrible, engulfing need to know.
Woo-young’s Adam’s apple bobs up and down; he is nervous. “The girl I was cheating on you with… it was Mi-young.”
Oh God.
Her brain screams at her to run, to flee, to pretend that she didn’t hear what Woo-young said but it’s no use. Her legs might as well be marble, holding her hostage in the middle of the kitchen as she clutches that bottle of wine like its her last lifeline.
Woo-young’s face is stupidly hopeful now, relieved almost as if his confession will have somehow absolved him and he continues on, heedlessly, thoughtlessly.
“It was right after I proposed. I don’t know how or why it started… I guess I just got cold feet and… panicked a little. You know? And Mi-young was there while you were off thinking about all the wedding preparation that had to be done, Nichkhun was still away studying. And things just happened. Too quickly for me to really process any of it,” He hastily adds in, like that will somehow make him less culpable. “But Mi-young was great.”
“I felt guilty,” He confesses. “So I broke it off with you and Mi-young and I kept seeing each other for a couple more months until we both realized of course, that it was bad, and morally wrong. I thought it was all over, then. But then when Nichkhun returned and proposed… I realized.”
His voice drops, becoming more low and affectionate and she closes her eyes; she doesn’t want to hear this, doesn’t want to, but she has to. “I’m in love with her. Mi-young.”
She opens her eyes then, to his hopeful, open, honest face that she’s never hated as much as she does now in this moment. As she stands there, still dumbly holding onto the bottle of wine in her hand, she feels every last ounce of the confidence, the hope that she’s built up over this weekend crumble to bits.
Her fingers strangle the glass neck of the bottle, setting off a wild trembling all throughout her body.
“That’s what I wanted to tell you.” Woo-young runs on, apparently not aware that every word that comes out of his mouth is a further dig of the knife in her heart. “I just wanted to tell you, to come clean. Because you deserve the truth, after all these years.”
She knows she should be angry-and she is, she is, but she can’t let herself think about any of that right now. Denial is fighting with too many things within her, and the numbness, the lack of coherent and serious thought is just so much more comforting an option and so, she chooses it.
“Taengoo?” He prompts her, finally, finally starting to realize by the expression on her face that she might not have taken his confession in the way he hoped. “Say something.”
She turns around, and walks away, slow as a sleepwalker in a dreamscape. Vaguely, she can hear Woo-young calling out her name behind her, the bottle slipping from her hand and the wet heaviness of the hem of her dress that suggests that she’s walked through the puddle of wine on the floor. But none of it matters now, does it?
It was Mi-young. All this time.
She wonders if the knife in her heart has slipped, has come down to stab her in the gut instead and she tastes betrayal in the tear that has slipped down her cheek, running into the corner of her lips. My ex-fiancé cheated on me, with my sister, she tries out the thought in her head and she shuts her eyes, almost at the door of the house. No, no. Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it, she chants to herself.
It’s only when she’s reached the open doorway to the outdoor patio where they’re having lunch that she realizes she can’t go back to the party. She cannot force a neutral expression, any expression at all, but in the corner of her vision, she sees Soo-young’s face, turn as if in slow motion, towards her. The cheerfulness in her face drops, dims at her expression, and somehow Tae-yeon knows she should go, before she ruins the party, but she can’t.
Then Soo-young is at her elbow. “Oh my god. He’s told you, hasn’t he?”
That snaps her out of her trance; her eyes fly up to her cousin’s and she’s finally able to choke out words from beyond her dry throat. “You knew?”
The shame on Soo-young’s face hurts her more than she could have possibly imagined, but then she sees Mi-young, getting up from her seat, starting over with an expression that holds equal amounts of alarm and guilt.
That is the last nail in the coffin and Tae-yeon, for the life of her, can’t decide if she wants to scream, or cry. Which is the fastest way to break apart?
And then, blessedly, Jong-hyun is there and his arms come up around her so quickly, so fiercely that she clings to him, unashamedly, the only rock, shelter in this moment when she feels like this world has been knocked out from under her feet. Jong-hyun, Jong-hyun, Jong-hyun, she breathes through tears.
It is Mi-young’s shrill that shatters the temporary respite. “I can’t believe you told her!”
She stiffens, feels Jong-hyun take in a sharp breath and her hands and heart grow cold all over again.
She lifts her head from where it is nestled into his chest, looks up at him through watery eyes. The world is blurred, warped around the edges, but the minute she looks into his eyes, she knows.
She disentangles herself from him, aching, shaking all over but when her hands come up to shove him away from her, she can feel the anger swelling up from inside her. Her eyes scan the line of faces around her, identical in their expressions of guilt and knowledge and everything fractures around her.
In that moment, Tae-yeon does the only thing she can-run away.
Only Jong-hyun won’t let her go; he’s running after her, his hand is warm around her wrist. “Wait, Tae-yeon.”
His voice twists her heart and she whirls around, giving in to the anger. “You should have told me.” Her voice is thick with tears and she fists her hands in her dress, rumpling the delicate fabric. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“How did you want me to tell you?” Jong-hyun interrupts agitatedly. “Tae-yeon, I’m so sorry, but your jackass of a fiancé chickened out and decided to cheat on you with your younger sister while you were engaged to be married. But no, I can’t tell you any of that because for some unfathomable reason, you’re still hung up on him and he’s nothing short of perfect in your eyes even though he walked out on you two years ago and nothing will change that.”
She feels her mouth fall open slightly at the way he just puts it out in the open like that, so straightforward, so cruel and every last voice in her that wants to deny it is silenced.
The tears pool up in her eyes, overflowing in perfectly symmetrical trails and Jong-hyun seems to soften, taking a step towards her. “I’m sorry, Tae-yeon. I didn’t mean it like that.”
She steps back, shaking her head mutely.
“None of this changes the fact that you should have told me.” She says at last. “I brought you here to help me. Do you remember that? Not to keep the biggest secret in my family hidden from me.”
“Is this what this weekend has been for you? A joke? Have you been laughing non-stop at me, Kim Tae-yeon? For being some kind of idiot who’s still hung up on her ex-fiancé even after he walked out on her two years ago?” She uses his own words against him and though she sees him wince, she feels no pleasure in hurting him either. It only hurts her more. “And then laughing more, laughing with everyone who knew that Woo-young was cheating on me with my own sister when I was just so blithely going about my way these three days, thinking that Woo-young was going to ask me to return to him?”
A sob escapes her throat at those last words; she has never been so humiliated in her entire life.
His eyes are fierce. “No. Absolutely not.”
“Don’t lie, Lee Jong-hyun.” She shouts, her words breaking up over sobs. “Even I know what a huge fool I am. How could you not know?”
He shakes his head. “Don’t, Tae-yeon. Don’t put words in my mouth that I didn’t say; I did not and have never laughed at you for being a fool and I never will.”
“More fool you, then.” She says, subsiding, fixing him with a cold look. “Perhaps that’s what we both are then: fools and idiots. After all, two people who pretended to be in a relationship for four days are basically one step away from insanity, am I right?”
Jong-hyun looks like he wants to fight back, to argue, but her harsh words hit her mark and he just looks frustrated, defeated. She shakes her head. “Go home, Lee Jong-hyun. Let’s not carry on this charade any longer-we’d be true idiots if we did.”
She walks away, heavy steps with a heavy heart, letting her feet take her anywhere else but here.
---
It will all be over soon, she thinks.
It is two hours before the wedding, and while she’d cried herself to sleep last night, she’s all strained smiles and few words this morning.
Last night, when she’d finally let herself into the house after midnight, Mi-young had been waiting there with those anxious eyes.
“I won’t tell Nichkhun. I won’t ruin your wedding; I’ll smile and say and do all the right things.” She says before her sister can get a word in edgewise, and the way her sister’s eyes soften in relief is confirmation that her sister only stayed up to make sure that she wouldn’t ruin the nuptials tomorrow. “But I wouldn’t want to be you when he finds out that you both cheated on him with his best friend behind his back and that you basically tricked him into marrying him by hiding this from him.”
Even the memory of Mi-young’s stricken face doesn’t even feel like a victory, she thinks, not when she wakes up the next day to find Jong-hyun’s room empty-Nichkhun, the only person surprisingly, blissfully unaware of what has really happened, tells her worriedly that Jong-hyun left very early in the morning. At least, Nichkhun thinks that she’s so despondent because she and Jong-hyun had a fight. He’s half right, but she doesn’t bother to correct him, only sends him off to get ready.
Soo-young tracks her down an hour before the ceremony is due to start.
“Tae-yeon.”
She doesn’t even bother looking at her cousin; she doesn’t know who else she can face to be honest, but Soo-young doesn’t let that bother her, sitting beside her, speaking urgently. “Look, you’ve every right to be angry with me. I know that, and if after this conversation you never want to speak to me again, I understand. But Jong-hyun…”
“He’s gone.” She interrupts her cousin. She doesn’t want to hear much more of this. “Probably gone back to Seoul on the first flight he could catch this morning and I don’t blame him.”
“Stop it, Tae-yeon.” Soo-young catches her wrists firmly in her hands, forcing her to look at him. “Stop it. Jong-hyun loves you.”
She shakes her head. Her cousin may as well know. “Jong-hyun isn’t really my boyfriend. He was just a friend of my friend’s boyfriend. I asked him to come here and be my fake boyfriend to keep my mother off my back because I knew Woo-young would be here.”
She sees Soo-young take that all in, momentarily silenced, but then her cousin barrels on. “So what? That doesn’t change what I just said: Jong-hyun loves you.”
“He’s my fake boyfriend. No, we’re not even friends in real life; we’re practically strangers.”
“So?” Soo-young argues back heatedly. “Maybe that’s what you think, Kim Tae-yeon. I’ve seen the way he looks at you, the way he talks to you. And I may not be the one getting married today, but I know that whoever Lee Jong-hyun is, he’s in love with you.”
He’s in love with you. She thinks of that kiss, by the moonlight, his arms around her and her eyes grow wet against her own compulsion.
“And you’re in love with him too.” Soo-young says, softly, perhaps realizing how close Tae-yeon is to the verge of tears. “You know that.”
She doesn’t know what to say, what to do.
“He might not be gone yet.” Soo-young says hopefully. “Flights out from Jeju are hard to get especially on a Sunday.”
She doesn’t want to, she’s not going after him, but she finds herself standing, thrusting her flowers at her cousin, pulling out her handphone from her tiny clutch to call him, to stop him somehow, but its then that she’s treated to the oddest sight.
It’s Woo-young, running out of the church doors.
The two of them watch his retreating figure, followed a few seconds by Nichkhun, whose face is dark with anger.
Before Nichkhun is even out of the sight, the two girls have already exchanged looks, walking as quickly as they can back into the church, into the backroom where Mi-young is waiting.
Mi-young is crying.
She looks up at them as they enter the room and Soo-young makes clucking noises of sympathy, walking up to Mi-young, who holds up a hand, stopping any of them from coming any closer. She looks straight at Tae-yeon and her mascara and eyeliner are running from the tears.
“I told him.”
Tae-yeon hates her sister. She hates her sister for always making everything about her, for always needing to be in the spotlight, for making every single thing into a competition. She hates her sister for dating her boyfriend behind her back, for cheating on Nichkhun, for keeping all this bottled up until her wedding day.
But Mi-young is still her sister.
Mi-young shakes her head mutely, the tears falling fast now. “He left. It’s over.” She hiccups, her voice breaking down into sobs now. “I’m not getting married after all.”
She still hates her sister. She doesn’t know if she can ever forgive Mi-young, for any of it, for all of it.
But Mi-young is hurting now and she doesn’t even think about it; she strides across the room, holding her sobbing younger sister and she lets herself cry for this whole mess that they’ve made of everything.
---
“Omma will be furious.”
Mi-young shrugs her slender shoulders, dabbing futilely at her eye makeup. “She will be. But you were right, it wasn’t fair to keep it from Khun.”
Impulsively, she reaches out, taking her sister’s hand, squeezing it. “Do you want me to go with you and tell them?”
Mi-young squeezes her hand gratefully, seeming to deliberate, before shaking her head resolutely. “It’s my wedding. I’ll tell them.”
She smiles a little then, sadly, lifting her hand to touch her sister’s face. It looks like something good is finally coming out of this whole mess-her little sister is learning how to take responsibility for her own problems, instead of sending her in to deal with their parents like she could have. “It’ll be okay.”
Mi-young takes in a huge shaky breath, nodding, and with one last hug, she adjusts her dress before sweeping out of the room.
Tae-yeon, on the other hand, heads outside, wondering if she will spot Nichkhun, returning somehow. He’s not the type to leave her sister at the altar, she thinks. At least, she didn’t think he was, but then again, he did just find out that his fiancée has been cheating on him with his best friend.
She shakes her head, letting out a long gusty sigh. How did this weekend turn out like this? What a mess.
Then, she sees it.
A man in a tuxedo, a rose in his button hole, slightly floppy now, dark hair falling over his forehead, sprinting towards the church. In spite of herself, her heart lifts. “Nichkhun?”
“Sorry, can’t talk, I’m late for my own wedding!” Nichkhun shouts, dashing past her into the church and she smiles, looking after him. It looks like she was right on that count.
Then there is a hand on her shoulder and she turns around, surprised.
It is Jong-hyun, dressed in a nice suit, looking straight at her and for a minute, she forgets how to breathe, how to think.
“Jong-hyun.” Her voice doesn’t sound like her own; it is strangled by the weight of words she wants to say out loud to him but can’t.
“I was going to leave you.” He says simply. “You told me to go, and I wanted to. I was on my way to the airport.”
She doesn’t know where to look; his words are direct and they fill her with shame, making her hang her head, but then his fingers are there, tilting her face up to meet his.
The right corner of his lips curve in a crooked, infectious smile. “But then, I thought, I’d rather fight with you, than try to love someone else.”
Her breath stalls in her throat, as she lets the meaning of his words sink in and she doesn’t need more encouragement after that. She winds her arms around his neck, pulling him in close until their foreheads bump and then she is kissing him. Its not a semi-drunk kiss, its not like the staged or fake kisses they’ve shared over these few days; it’s a real kiss, its about him and her and she doesn’t ever want to let him go again.
Then suddenly, he is pulling back and she is dazed by the loss of his lips on hers. “I’ve got to go.”
“What? Why?” She blurts out inanely, curling her hands at the back of his neck tightly. “No.”
His smile grows into a full-sized grin, cheeky and full of life, just the way she likes it. “I have to. I’m the best man.”
The incredulous laughter escapes her lips in a puff of air, but he is holding out his hand and she takes it as the two of them run into the church to join in the wedding.
EPILOGUE
She steals a sip of his champagne, leaning back into him, watching as Nichkhun twirls Mi-young, fairy-tale like out on the dance floor.
Her sister looks so happy.
It’ll take all of them a while to sort it out, of course, she thinks. Mi-young and Nichkhun may have gotten married today, but that doesn’t cancel out what Mi-young has done with Woo-young. But from the looks of the radiant couple on the dance floor, anyone with a working pair of eyes can tell who Mi-young has chosen, how much she loves Nichkhun. As Nichkhun dips Mi-young, dropping a kiss on her lips, Tae-yeon smiles, because she’s just glad that Nichkhun did make the right decision in the end, no matter how difficult it might have been for him to come back.
Similarly, years of sibling rivalry and misunderstanding aren’t so easily sorted within the space of a day, but she thinks she’s also learned something, through this wedding-that she might hate her sister, but when it comes down to it, she loves her sister too. And that might just be enough to get them through this.
Mi-young catches her eye over Nichkhun’s shoulders, blowing her a kiss.
She blows one back too, with a huge smile, before looking up at Jong-hyun, who has an identical grin on his face and she nudges him in the ribs. “What are you thinking of?”
He cuddles her a little closer and she lets him, shamelessly, despite being in full sight of her parents. “Oh nothing,” He says casually, though the twinkle in his eye is bright. “I’m just thinking how great our first real date is going to be.”
This was written out of a prompt given by cafebreaks who requested a "rom-com remix" for Jjongtae. So here's my "Wedding Date" remix (check out the trailer here), Jjongtae style, dedicated to the two people who got me into this ship: cafebreaks and abiwrites.
“I’m not usually like this. I just wanted you to know this right from the start.”
Silence.
“I can’t imagine what you must think of me. I know, I know. I’m a terrible daughter for wanting to bring home a fake boyfriend for my sister’s wedding, for even considering lying to my parents. I know that. But you know how in the movies, there are those families which are absolutely crazy, but at the end of the day, you still love them because they’re family?”
He doesn’t say anything, watching her with those imperturbable eyes and she coughs when she realizes he isn’t going to answer. “Yeah, mine’s not like that. It’s also possibly why I’ve begged my way out of every family gathering I’ve had for the past two years.”
“It’s just that, my ex-fiancé is the best man. Small world, right? He’s best friends with my sister’s fiancé and I just…I just need to get through these four days without my mother making some remark about how it should have been me getting married, my sister being… my sister, my ex-fiancé from thinking that I’m this unattractive, hopeless woman who couldn’t find a new boyfriend even though we broke up two years ago. Not that that isn’t the truth. I mean, not that I’m hopeless. Well. Maybe the unattractive bit is true. But that I couldn’t find a boyfriend even after two years, but seriously, do you know how difficult it is to find a nice, decent guy in Seoul? I mean, come on. There’s got to be someone… and I’m rambling.”
She splays her hands on the table, closing her eyes, feeling the stress of it all catching up to her as she takes a deep breath to slow herself down.
“I just need someone good-looking, preferably with impressive credentials to blow my family and my ex-fiancé out of the water, enough to keep them off my back for the next three years at least.” She says softly. “I know it sounds bad, morally questionable, and I can’t imagine what you’re thinking of me now, but I just… really need to do this and I was wondering if you’d be up to the job.”
She looks back up at him and he hasn’t moved, not even to take a sip of his tea. She tries to make out the emotions, the thoughts behind his eyes, but nothing comes up. He has really intense eyes though, she notes. Not that it’s a bad thing. He makes it work, with all that pale skin and his silences.
“Now would be a really good time for you to say something, please.”
He leans forward, steepling his fingers, and some shred of common sense that hasn’t completely vacated the recesses of her brain jolts to life. What was I thinking? Of course, he’d say no. Which self-respecting individual actually wants to spend four days with a fake girlfriend he barely knows, and her psychotic family? Oh god, how am I going to face him after this? Maknae seems really happy with Jung Yong-hwa, which means I’m going to have to see him lots after this since he’s Jung Yong-hwa’s best friend. It’s going to be so awkward and I’ll have to pretend like I never even proposed this dumb idea to him, oh god-
“I’ll do it.”
She actually starts in her seat, more out of shock than anything else. “What?”
“I said, I’ll do it.” Lee Jong-hyun leans back into his seat, finally picking up his cup of tea nonchalantly, like he hasn’t just agreed to be her fake boyfriend for four days. “When do we leave?”
---
“Stop fidgeting.” Jong-hyun’s voice in her ear makes her jump; he’d barely said two words to her all throughout their flight and on the drive to the Jeju house. She’s starting to learn that he’s a man of few words.
Good. The fewer words he says, the easier this whole façade will be.
“I’m sorry.” She apologizes, adjusting the shoulder straps of her dress one last time. It is a deep royal blue number that’d made her feel like a million bucks when she’d tried it on in the shop, but somehow it feels all wrong on her right now. “I’m just… nervous.”
He looks at her with what might be concern, and then his hand comes up easily, curving around her right shoulder, making her left shoulder bump into his chest, which is surprisingly solid. She blushes at that thought, but tries to lean into him without looking as awkward as she feels. It’s odd, but the reality of what she’s doing, masquerading this near stranger as her boyfriend to her family is finally starting to sink in.
She’s wondering if it’s not too late to take this all back when she spots her mother watching them with a glint in her eye, in the middle of the room. “Oh God.” She mumbles, fidgeting with the chiffon dress. She tries to paste a smile on her face, but it feels more like a grimace as the older woman weaves her way through the crowd, heading towards them.
Jong-hyun’s lips curve in a small smile. “Your mother?”
She nods.
“She looks like you.” Is his only remark and she only has time to look at him before her mother descends on them.
“Tae-yeon!”
She hugs her mother dutifully. “Omma.”
“That is a beautiful dress, dear.” Her mother comments. “Although I’m not sure whether such a deep blue is really your color. I always thought you looked better in pastels.”
She winces. It hasn’t even been two minutes, and her mother has already made one of her first passive-aggressive digs at her. “Omma. I’d like to introduce you to my boyfriend, Lee Jong-hyun.”
Jong-hyun’s arm slides down from around her; he bows deeply, respectfully, before extending a hand to her mother. “Hello omonim. It’s good to meet you. I’m Lee Jong-hyun.”
“Omo.” He mother flutters, grasping Jong-hyun’s hand. “Our Tae-yeonnie didn’t tell us that she was bringing her boyfriend.” Her mother’s gaze is starting to turn beady. “Or that she was in a serious relationship.”
Jong-hyun, seemingly oblivious to the pointedness of her mother’s words, simply laughs, dissipating the tension. She can’t help it; she stares at him. She’s never heard him laugh before. “Taeng wanted it to be a surprise.” He says affectionately, his arm returning to her shoulder, tugging her into him and more out of reflex than anything, her arm settles around his waist. “She didn’t even tell me about her sister’s wedding till last week. I think she was nervous about introducing me, but I really wanted to see you, omonim.”
Oh, he’s good.
She can practically see her mother melting at those words. “Aigoo. Well, its such a pleasure to meet you too, Jong-hyun. And please, call me omoni. Omonim is so formal and you’re practically one of us, coming all this way.”
He dimples-he has dimples?! she thinks, dazed. None of this is going the way she imagined it would be-and if her mother wasn’t sold, she is now. “Thank you, omoni. I’m happy to be here with your family and Tae-yeon.” His nose brushes against her temple in an almost-kiss, and while they’ve talked about signs of affection on the flight, she can’t help it; she jumps slightly. It’s just been so long since a guy (any guy, really) has gotten this close.
Her mother, thankfully, notices nothing. “I’m going to get your father. Jong-hyun ah. You have to meet Tae-yeon’s father and her sister-where is Mi-young and Nichkhun? Don’t go anywhere, Jong-hyun. I’ll bring them over here.”
She watches her mother go and suddenly, she is feeling a lot more confident about this whole wedding. “You didn’t tell me you were so good with older people.” She accuses, tipping her face back so that she can look him full in the face. “Just wait, she’s not going to let you go now.”
His smile is smug, complete with dimples. He’s pleased with himself, she thinks faintly, but his eyes seem to soften as he studies her face. “You never asked,” He says simply. “And I don’t think that would be such a bad thing.”
---
She sidles up to Jong-hyun an hour later, kissing him on the cheek. It’s not a kiss on the lips, but she’ll work her way up to that. For now, this’ll have to do. Her hand slides into his. “Hi, babe.” She murmurs, and he kisses her on the spot between her eyebrows, playing along easily. They lock eyes, as they separate. “I see you’ve met my ex-fiancé.”
Jong-hyun’s face briefly registers surprise, but he manages to keep a straight face, and the two of them turn to face Jang Woo-young, who looks utterly flummoxed at this point. She feels a mean pleasure; she definitely has the upper hand at this point. “Hi Woo-young.”
“Taeng-I mean, Tae-yeon.” Woo-young is obviously working hard to keep his composure. Not that it’s working well. “Hi.”
“This is Jong-hyun. My boyfriend.” She makes the introductions, smiling pleasantly all the while. “He’s the Executive Director at FNC Entertainment.” Yes, take that, Jang Woo-young, personal trainer. My boyfriend-well, my fake boyfriend-is a CEO of one of the hottest entertainment companies in Seoul.
She feels a slight twinge of guilt for being so mean even in her thoughts, but Jong-hyun puts out his hand politely, which Woo-young takes in a handshake and she watches somewhat triumphantly as her ex-fiancé mumbles an excuse, stumbling back into the crowd. Score 1 to Tae-yeon.
“That went well.” She turns back to Jong-hyun. “What were you guys talking about before?”
Jong-hyun shrugs, swirling the whiskey in his hand. “Just things.”
Her eyes narrow at his vague answer; he’s definitely being evasive now and she’s just about to open her mouth and demand that he tell her everything this instant when he continues. “He’s definitely a bit drunk, but I think he’s still crazy about you.”
Her mouth falls open then; any meanness at seeing Woo-young wrong-footed softens and dissipates as she presses Jong-hyun for more answers, openly curious and maybe just the tiniest bit hopeful. “Why? What do you mean?”
He looks at her for a long moment, and not for the first time today, she curses him silently for being so difficult to read.
“He seems miserable.” Jong-hyun finally says.
---
“Why do you like him so much anyway?” Jong-hyun says later that night.
She turns to look at him, squinting at him through the crack in the sliding doors that separate the two of them. There are no curtains in his room so the moonlight is pooling on his face, but he doesn’t seem to mind, arms pillowed behind his head, clad in a white singlet and long cotton pants.
Her eyes fall on his bare arms. Jong-hyun might look pale and delicate, but the shape of those arms, the solidness of his chest that she’d felt earlier says otherwise. She blushes at that thought, forcing herself to focus on the slope of his nose, glad he can’t hear her thoughts or see the red on her cheeks. She’s not here to oogle. It’s strictly business.
“If you don’t mind my saying,” Jong-hyun goes on placidly. “He’s kind of an ass.”
She ignores the slight, folding her hands under her cheek as she rolls on her side to face him properly. “Did he really seem miserable?”
“No, he just seemed like a tool.” The sarcasm in Jong-hyun’s voice is unmistakable now, and she smiles, because even though he’s criticizing Woo-young, Lee Jong-hyun is starting to feel more like a person, more like a friend with every minute of this wedding.
“Woo-young is sweet.” She admits. “I wouldn’t have been with him for five years if he was just a tool.”
That gets him; he rolls over on his side to face her too, though this casts his face into shadows. “Seriously?”
She nods and he lets out a long slow breath. “Five years. Imagine that.”
“We were about to get married too.” She says, thinking of the ring that she still keeps hidden in a box under her bed in her apartment in Seoul.
“So what happened?”
She sighs. He might as well know. He practically knows everything anyway. “I found out he was cheating on me with some girl. Well. It wasn’t the first time. And so, I broke it off.” She pauses, chewing on her lip, aware of how silent it really is and she can’t bear any more sympathy with regard to this matter, so she makes a joke to cover it all up. “I think my mom was more devastated about losing Woo-young as a son-in-law than me. She’s never let me live it down.”
She silently curses herself, for how that sounds, for what he must think of her and her family, but he doesn’t say anything at all and so she rolls on her back, staring up at the ceiling until she falls asleep.
---
“Its unusual for a wedding to stretch so long.” Jong-hyun remarks to her the next day, while helping her to unpack the picnic.
She shrugs. “Its more for Nichkhun’s family’s benefit. His extended family is American, so they’ve never really been to Korea. These four days are sort of meant as a holiday for them too, to explore Jeju.”
“So it’s not just me then, being on a paid holiday.” His eyes are bright and when she looks up, there is a wide cheeky grin on his face that makes her smile too, though she’s slightly embarrassed at his words. She’d paid for his air ticket here and promised to cover all other expenses; though he’d been adamant that he couldn’t accept anything for her, she’d fought until she’d worn him down. He’s spending four days, pretending to be her boyfriend and spending time with her family-she couldn’t let him do it for free.
“Jong-hyun!” Nichkhun hollers from across the field. “We need one more person for the team. Get over here!”
Jong-hyun waves to show that he’s heard, turning to her. “Do you still need my help?”
She shakes her head, nudging him. “Go have some fun.”
He pauses like he wants to kiss her, but smiles instead, resting a hand on her shoulder lightly. “I’ll be right back.”
The minute he’s gone, her cousin, Soo-young sidles up to her. “I still can’t believe he’s your boyfriend.”
She lets out a long breath to expel some of the nervous tension in her body. “Me too.”
“You,” Soo-young takes out the containers of sandwiches, putting them neatly on the table. “Need to send God a bottle of wine for that good-looking specimen over there. No, make that a bottle of champagne. Just look at him!”
She pauses, turns to look at the on-going baseball game. Jong-hyun is standing at second base, shouting encouragement and slapping his knees as one of her younger cousins hits the ball and then he is off, running, making it past third, fourth base till he is declared safe. He high-fives the other kids on his team, swinging one of them around. He looks like a loon, she concludes, turning back to the picnic on the table, but still she smiles to herself.
Beside her, Soo-young sighs. “There is nothing more irritating in the world than seeing your cousin hopelessly in love again, after two long years.”
She attempts to keep the conversation as light as she can. “Has it been two years already?”
Soo-young rolls her eyes. “Like you don’t know. You’ve probably kept better track of time than me, Kim Tae-yeon. Don’t lie. Remember, its me you’re talking to.”
That makes her smile as she opens a bottle of soda. “I know.”
Soo-young stops unpacking, perching herself on the edge of the picnic table, watching her with keen eyes. “You’re not still in love with that idiot, are you?”
“Which idiot?”
“Which other idiot could we be talking about?” Soo-young snorts.
Before she can reply however, there are arms sliding around her waist and she turns her head to see Jong-hyun resting his chin on her shoulder. “I’m hungry.” He complains, and not thinking, she lifts a hand to dab at the trickle of sweat that is sliding down his face.
If anyone had told her Lee Jong-hyun was capable of acting cute, she would have laughed in their faces. As it is, she’s having a hard time trying to keep the grin off her own face.
“You’re all sweaty.” She returns, but his arms tighten around her waist, not letting her go. Just over his shoulder, she sees the lanky figure of Woo-young. It might be a trick of the light, but he seems to be frowning in their direction and her heart soars.
“Here.” She opens one of the containers, taking out a sandwich, lifting it to his lips. He bites into it, smiling at her through bites and she makes a sound of disgust. “You’re getting crumbs all over me!”
She shrieks as he takes larger, exaggerated bites, finishing the sandwich but pretending to chomp into her neck like some kind of demented vampire. She tries to run away but he grabs her, swinging her around and she is laughing as he places a sloppy kiss that lands half on her chin and her neck, all thoughts of Woo-young gone.
---
She is lying there on the picnic mat, half-drowsing to the tune of the guitar that Jong-hyun is playing (who knew that he played the guitar in his university days? He’s good) when a shadow falls over her.
She lifts her sunglasses to rest on her head. It is Nichkhun, holding a glass of wine. “Has anyone seen my future wife?” He says sheepishly. “She’ll kill me if I don’t serve her first.”
She sits up, intending to hunt for her sister, but Jong-hyun puts down the guitar, stilling her with a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll look for her.” He says easily and she smiles her thanks as he heads off. She lies back down, sliding her sunglasses to rest on her nose again. She is so full from the picnic, and slightly tipsy from the bottle of wine and soju she shared with Jong-hyun and Soo-young so she’s half-asleep when another shadow falls across her.
“Taengoo?”
There is only one person who would call her by that nickname and she jerks upright, all sleepiness forgotten.
It is Woo-young, standing over her with his hands shoved sheepishly into his pockets and that puppy-dog look, so hopeful and shy and familiar from two years ago strikes her straight to the heart. “Can we talk?”
She bites her lip, unsure if she wants to have this ‘talk’, but nods, letting him pull her up from the mat and lead her away.
They are standing by the edge of the lake and she folds her hands behind her back, rocking back and forth slightly. “So… what is it?”
That letting go of me was the worst mistake you ever made in your entire life, and you want me back and you’ll spend the rest of your days making it up to me?
He rubs his chin. “I’ve been wanting to tell you this for a while now. I just, didn’t know how. And it didn’t seem right, but…”
Suddenly, behind him, she notices Jong-hyun and Mi-young returning to the picnic. Where did her sister go, she wonders, and why does Jong-hyun look so unusually grim?
Woo-young’s sigh of frustration returns her to their conversation. “You’re not even looking at me.”
She looks back up into his handsome face, but for some strange reason, she’s not really registering anything. “I’m sorry, Woo-young. Look…” She looks around him again, but Jong-hyun is standing off to the side now, frowning at nothing in particular. He hasn’t even seen her standing her with Woo-young, and for some odd reason, her heart constricts with worry-what could have possibly happened? “Let’s talk later, okay? I just need a minute.”
She leaves Woo-young behind, making a beeline for Jong-hyun, who is looking unusually serious. She’s learnt to tell his looks apart; she thought it was an impossible task, but surprisingly after spending almost two days with him, its getting easier and easier and she’s never seen him look this… worried before and it makes her frown too.
“Hey,” She says softly, taking his hand and she sees him look up, as if realizing where he is, and who she is. “Is everything okay?”
He smiles, for her sake, but she can see the tightness in his eyes still and she reaches up to rub the crease between his eyebrows. He tries again, his grin becoming more natural and her heart settles down. Something did happen, she decides, but he isn’t going to tell her what it is. “Everything’s fine.” He pronounces, and she tries to make herself believe him.
---
“We could get in huge trouble, you know?”
“Nah. Everyone is either sleeping it off or too drunk to care.” His grin is blinding in the moonlight as he pats the bench next to him, holding up a soju bottle. She sits herself next to him, and if its possible, his grin grows wider, taking in her appearance. “Nice. And who are you supposed to be?”
She looks down at herself, realizing how dumb she looks, having come from the bachelorette party. “I’m supposed to be a cupcake. Don’t laugh!” She waves a finger in his face sternly, but he is already chuckling. His cheeks are flushed; he’s probably had a bit to drink himself too at the stag night that he’s just come from.
“What was the theme?” He manages through laughter.
“Pink food. Shut up!” She whines as he laughs even louder, reaching out to tweak the cupcake headband she has on. “I didn’t pick the theme; Mi-young did and she’s obsessed about pink.”
There are actually tears of mirth in his eyes that he has to wipe away while she pulls the hairband out of her hair. “Stop laughing,” She says, stubbornly, though she knows she does look pretty silly.
“Okay, okay,” He relents, cracking open the soju bottle and pouring out two shots for the both of them. “You make a cute cupcake.”
“I bet you’re just saying that because I’m the only cupcake you know.” She grumbles.
“That is true,” He concedes, the ghost of a smile still playing around his lips. “But I still think you look cute anyway.”
She looks down at her dress, pink, with ruffles, the kind she hates, but his compliment still rings in her ears and she ducks her head so she doesn’t have to look him in the eye. “Thank you.”
He takes his soju in one-shot while she finishes hers a little slower, but he refills her cup anyway. The soju might be a bad idea, she thinks dimly, she’s already had a couple of shots at Mi-young’s bachelorette party and while she’s an okay drinker, she’s definitely going to be way over her limit in a bit. She doesn’t mind though; the alcohol is giving her a nice buzz, making her feel all weightless, like nothing matters.
“So how is this wedding turning out for you?” He asks. “Just, you know, a testimonial for my future potential clients.”
She snorts, sipping at her soju. “What, you’re going to moonlight now on the side as a boyfriend service? What’ll your tagline be? Every lonely heart needs a fake boyfriend, call this number to reserve your fake boyfriend today.” She intones her words so they sound like a professional ad on the television and he sputters with laughter.
“Well, it’s a possibility.” He rebuts cheekily. “After all, have not my services been wonderful these days?”
She sobers a little then, getting serious, and the mood between them shifts. “It’s actually been fun.” She admits, quietly, turning the small cup in her hand. “I thought this wedding would be torturous. But you’ve been great, Jong-hyun. Thank you.”
“I didn’t do much.” He demurs, returning to his taciturn, reserved self.
“You did.” She bursts out. “You impressed my mom, you drank soju with my dad, you’ve been here helping me make Woo-young jealous and making him see what he’s missing out. You’ve just… been here.” She finishes lamely, feeling his eyes on her in a way that makes her stomach flop uncomfortably.
“Thank you, Jong-hyun ah.” She says, forcing herself to look back up at him. Its strange; they honestly haven’t spent that much time together, two days isn’t a lot of time, but she feels close to him. Like he could actually become a good friend of hers, like she can trust him. Its not that she doesn’t have guy friends in her life right now, but she’s just never let anyone in again that close especially after Woo-young. And now, she thinks, looking up at Jong-hyun, maybe all that will change.
Her heart is strangely full, and impulsively, she leans in to kiss him on the cheek.
Her lips linger, and she has one of those moments where she can see everything that is about to happen but she doesn’t let herself pull away. Instead, Jong-hyun turns his head slowly, until their lips meet and he kisses her, properly for the first time, without an audience.
And sitting like that, kissing Jong-hyun in the moonlight, her head somewhat buzzing from the alcohol and the taste of soju on his lips, Tae-yeon feels freer than she has in years.
---
“So that’s why unnie and I started fighting over Tony oppa from next door.” Mi-young, or Tiffany, as Nichkhun calls her, laughs to the general laughter of the whole table listening to this tale at the post-dress rehearsal lunch that the two families are sharing.
She takes a sip of her wine, hiding a smile. “Although in all fairness, Tony oppa always walked me back from school.” She tells her younger sister, who widens her eyes.
“Yeah, but he dumped you to come play with me in a week!” Mi-young sticks out her tongue playfully at her, and though she laughs, there’s a tiny sting that comes from remembering the rivalry that has marked most of their childhood. Perhaps, even now, she thinks a tad soberly, it hasn’t ended, at least on Mi-young’s end.
She shakes her head, choosing to ignore these horrible thoughts. Where are all these thoughts coming from? Time (and distance) have helped their relationship as sisters, she thinks. After she moved away from their hometown in Jeonju to Seoul to work, her sister’s presence in her life hadn’t seemed quite so… stifling. She could handle the occasional gleeful message from Mi-young about how she was getting a promotion at work, how she thought Nichkhun was just about to propose to her from the distance of her Seoul flat. As far as sisters go, they’ve never at each other’s throats-they’ve always been outwardly affectionate to one another in fact-but Tae-yeon finds it sad that she’s never been able to say she’s felt truly close to her little sister.
She realizes that the wine has run out and takes her opportunity to get away from the table, clear her head a little. “I’m going to get more wine, okay?”
Jong-hyun starts to rise, but she motions for him to stay seated.
In the kitchen, she unwraps another bottle of wine from a hamper, taking her time to find the corkscrew and opening the bottle. She rolls the cork between her fingers, inhaling its sweet, earthy smell, not thinking about anything in particular.
“Taengoo?”
She turns around, dropping the cork on the table. “Woo-young.”
He stands in the doorway of the kitchen, effectively barring her exit and there is this look of grim determination on his face that should start getting her anxious. She suddenly recalls the way he’d taken her aside at the picnic, the way he wanted to ‘talk’ to her. What else could he want to talk to her about, she thinks with faint amusement, but to get back together? Nothing else would explain his obvious jealousy seeing her with Jong-hyun, coupled with what Jong-hyun has told her about how miserable Woo-young seemed without her.
Only…
She used to be sure of her answer, but now she finds that she’s suddenly not.
She picks up the wine bottle, fingers curling tightly around its glass neck for the lack of something to hold onto. Woo-young, in the meantime, takes a few long strides forward until he’s standing right there, in front of her, close enough to kiss her. “What’s up?” She tries to make herself sound as breezy and unconcerned as possible.
“I just really need to tell you something.” Woo-young’s hand comes up to rest on her forearm. “Look, I’ve just been thinking all weekend. Well, longer than all weekend on this and I just need to tell you that-“
She cuts him off. “I think I know what you want to tell me.”
“You do?” His face is awash in bewilderment and in that moment, she decides that she doesn’t want to play games anymore. It’s time to be straight with him.
She nods. “You wanted to ask me to get back together with you, didn’t you?” He bows his head, his hand dropping from her arm, lacing his fingers together and she takes that as an admission. “Honestly, Woo-young. I would have said yes. I would have. It’s just….”
Here, she pauses. Unbidden, like a mirage, Jong-hyun’s face rises in her mind and she unconsciously touches her fingers to her lips, smiling to herself at the thought of their kiss last night.
“I’m tired of the two of us.” She tells him. “I’m tired of this back-forth, the cheating, the taking you back. It’s over, Woo-young.” She says all this gently, so that as far as possible she won’t crush him.
“Let’s just go out and eat some dessert and enjoy ourselves for the wedding tomorrow, okay?” She pats his arm, heading past him. She doesn’t want to go down the lets-be-friends route, because it’s patronizing, and honestly, she doesn’t think she can ever be friends with Woo-young anymore. He’ll always be a part of her past, always, but it doesn’t mean she has to keep him in her life even in the present.
It’s time to break out of this holding pattern, she thinks decisively, open up her life for something new to come in.
Jong-hyun.
The mere thought of him makes her smile, and her steps already feel lighter.
“It was your sister.”
Woo-young’s voice cuts through the air like a whip and she stops so suddenly she can feel the swish of the material of her dress banging against her knees.
“What?”
She turns around slowly, because it feels like her feet might be rooted to the ground, her knees are knocking together and her heart is starting to bang frantically against her ribs, like it wants to flee from this room. She knows how it feels.
She doesn’t want to be here now, for this… this piece of news about her sister that doesn’t seem good, by any means.
But just like her heart, trapped in its cage of ribs, she is trapped, here in this kitchen, by this horrible, engulfing need to know.
Woo-young’s Adam’s apple bobs up and down; he is nervous. “The girl I was cheating on you with… it was Mi-young.”
Oh God.
Her brain screams at her to run, to flee, to pretend that she didn’t hear what Woo-young said but it’s no use. Her legs might as well be marble, holding her hostage in the middle of the kitchen as she clutches that bottle of wine like its her last lifeline.
Woo-young’s face is stupidly hopeful now, relieved almost as if his confession will have somehow absolved him and he continues on, heedlessly, thoughtlessly.
“It was right after I proposed. I don’t know how or why it started… I guess I just got cold feet and… panicked a little. You know? And Mi-young was there while you were off thinking about all the wedding preparation that had to be done, Nichkhun was still away studying. And things just happened. Too quickly for me to really process any of it,” He hastily adds in, like that will somehow make him less culpable. “But Mi-young was great.”
“I felt guilty,” He confesses. “So I broke it off with you and Mi-young and I kept seeing each other for a couple more months until we both realized of course, that it was bad, and morally wrong. I thought it was all over, then. But then when Nichkhun returned and proposed… I realized.”
His voice drops, becoming more low and affectionate and she closes her eyes; she doesn’t want to hear this, doesn’t want to, but she has to. “I’m in love with her. Mi-young.”
She opens her eyes then, to his hopeful, open, honest face that she’s never hated as much as she does now in this moment. As she stands there, still dumbly holding onto the bottle of wine in her hand, she feels every last ounce of the confidence, the hope that she’s built up over this weekend crumble to bits.
Her fingers strangle the glass neck of the bottle, setting off a wild trembling all throughout her body.
“That’s what I wanted to tell you.” Woo-young runs on, apparently not aware that every word that comes out of his mouth is a further dig of the knife in her heart. “I just wanted to tell you, to come clean. Because you deserve the truth, after all these years.”
She knows she should be angry-and she is, she is, but she can’t let herself think about any of that right now. Denial is fighting with too many things within her, and the numbness, the lack of coherent and serious thought is just so much more comforting an option and so, she chooses it.
“Taengoo?” He prompts her, finally, finally starting to realize by the expression on her face that she might not have taken his confession in the way he hoped. “Say something.”
She turns around, and walks away, slow as a sleepwalker in a dreamscape. Vaguely, she can hear Woo-young calling out her name behind her, the bottle slipping from her hand and the wet heaviness of the hem of her dress that suggests that she’s walked through the puddle of wine on the floor. But none of it matters now, does it?
It was Mi-young. All this time.
She wonders if the knife in her heart has slipped, has come down to stab her in the gut instead and she tastes betrayal in the tear that has slipped down her cheek, running into the corner of her lips. My ex-fiancé cheated on me, with my sister, she tries out the thought in her head and she shuts her eyes, almost at the door of the house. No, no. Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it, she chants to herself.
It’s only when she’s reached the open doorway to the outdoor patio where they’re having lunch that she realizes she can’t go back to the party. She cannot force a neutral expression, any expression at all, but in the corner of her vision, she sees Soo-young’s face, turn as if in slow motion, towards her. The cheerfulness in her face drops, dims at her expression, and somehow Tae-yeon knows she should go, before she ruins the party, but she can’t.
Then Soo-young is at her elbow. “Oh my god. He’s told you, hasn’t he?”
That snaps her out of her trance; her eyes fly up to her cousin’s and she’s finally able to choke out words from beyond her dry throat. “You knew?”
The shame on Soo-young’s face hurts her more than she could have possibly imagined, but then she sees Mi-young, getting up from her seat, starting over with an expression that holds equal amounts of alarm and guilt.
That is the last nail in the coffin and Tae-yeon, for the life of her, can’t decide if she wants to scream, or cry. Which is the fastest way to break apart?
And then, blessedly, Jong-hyun is there and his arms come up around her so quickly, so fiercely that she clings to him, unashamedly, the only rock, shelter in this moment when she feels like this world has been knocked out from under her feet. Jong-hyun, Jong-hyun, Jong-hyun, she breathes through tears.
It is Mi-young’s shrill that shatters the temporary respite. “I can’t believe you told her!”
She stiffens, feels Jong-hyun take in a sharp breath and her hands and heart grow cold all over again.
She lifts her head from where it is nestled into his chest, looks up at him through watery eyes. The world is blurred, warped around the edges, but the minute she looks into his eyes, she knows.
She disentangles herself from him, aching, shaking all over but when her hands come up to shove him away from her, she can feel the anger swelling up from inside her. Her eyes scan the line of faces around her, identical in their expressions of guilt and knowledge and everything fractures around her.
In that moment, Tae-yeon does the only thing she can-run away.
Only Jong-hyun won’t let her go; he’s running after her, his hand is warm around her wrist. “Wait, Tae-yeon.”
His voice twists her heart and she whirls around, giving in to the anger. “You should have told me.” Her voice is thick with tears and she fists her hands in her dress, rumpling the delicate fabric. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“How did you want me to tell you?” Jong-hyun interrupts agitatedly. “Tae-yeon, I’m so sorry, but your jackass of a fiancé chickened out and decided to cheat on you with your younger sister while you were engaged to be married. But no, I can’t tell you any of that because for some unfathomable reason, you’re still hung up on him and he’s nothing short of perfect in your eyes even though he walked out on you two years ago and nothing will change that.”
She feels her mouth fall open slightly at the way he just puts it out in the open like that, so straightforward, so cruel and every last voice in her that wants to deny it is silenced.
The tears pool up in her eyes, overflowing in perfectly symmetrical trails and Jong-hyun seems to soften, taking a step towards her. “I’m sorry, Tae-yeon. I didn’t mean it like that.”
She steps back, shaking her head mutely.
“None of this changes the fact that you should have told me.” She says at last. “I brought you here to help me. Do you remember that? Not to keep the biggest secret in my family hidden from me.”
“Is this what this weekend has been for you? A joke? Have you been laughing non-stop at me, Kim Tae-yeon? For being some kind of idiot who’s still hung up on her ex-fiancé even after he walked out on her two years ago?” She uses his own words against him and though she sees him wince, she feels no pleasure in hurting him either. It only hurts her more. “And then laughing more, laughing with everyone who knew that Woo-young was cheating on me with my own sister when I was just so blithely going about my way these three days, thinking that Woo-young was going to ask me to return to him?”
A sob escapes her throat at those last words; she has never been so humiliated in her entire life.
His eyes are fierce. “No. Absolutely not.”
“Don’t lie, Lee Jong-hyun.” She shouts, her words breaking up over sobs. “Even I know what a huge fool I am. How could you not know?”
He shakes his head. “Don’t, Tae-yeon. Don’t put words in my mouth that I didn’t say; I did not and have never laughed at you for being a fool and I never will.”
“More fool you, then.” She says, subsiding, fixing him with a cold look. “Perhaps that’s what we both are then: fools and idiots. After all, two people who pretended to be in a relationship for four days are basically one step away from insanity, am I right?”
Jong-hyun looks like he wants to fight back, to argue, but her harsh words hit her mark and he just looks frustrated, defeated. She shakes her head. “Go home, Lee Jong-hyun. Let’s not carry on this charade any longer-we’d be true idiots if we did.”
She walks away, heavy steps with a heavy heart, letting her feet take her anywhere else but here.
---
It will all be over soon, she thinks.
It is two hours before the wedding, and while she’d cried herself to sleep last night, she’s all strained smiles and few words this morning.
Last night, when she’d finally let herself into the house after midnight, Mi-young had been waiting there with those anxious eyes.
“I won’t tell Nichkhun. I won’t ruin your wedding; I’ll smile and say and do all the right things.” She says before her sister can get a word in edgewise, and the way her sister’s eyes soften in relief is confirmation that her sister only stayed up to make sure that she wouldn’t ruin the nuptials tomorrow. “But I wouldn’t want to be you when he finds out that you both cheated on him with his best friend behind his back and that you basically tricked him into marrying him by hiding this from him.”
Even the memory of Mi-young’s stricken face doesn’t even feel like a victory, she thinks, not when she wakes up the next day to find Jong-hyun’s room empty-Nichkhun, the only person surprisingly, blissfully unaware of what has really happened, tells her worriedly that Jong-hyun left very early in the morning. At least, Nichkhun thinks that she’s so despondent because she and Jong-hyun had a fight. He’s half right, but she doesn’t bother to correct him, only sends him off to get ready.
Soo-young tracks her down an hour before the ceremony is due to start.
“Tae-yeon.”
She doesn’t even bother looking at her cousin; she doesn’t know who else she can face to be honest, but Soo-young doesn’t let that bother her, sitting beside her, speaking urgently. “Look, you’ve every right to be angry with me. I know that, and if after this conversation you never want to speak to me again, I understand. But Jong-hyun…”
“He’s gone.” She interrupts her cousin. She doesn’t want to hear much more of this. “Probably gone back to Seoul on the first flight he could catch this morning and I don’t blame him.”
“Stop it, Tae-yeon.” Soo-young catches her wrists firmly in her hands, forcing her to look at him. “Stop it. Jong-hyun loves you.”
She shakes her head. Her cousin may as well know. “Jong-hyun isn’t really my boyfriend. He was just a friend of my friend’s boyfriend. I asked him to come here and be my fake boyfriend to keep my mother off my back because I knew Woo-young would be here.”
She sees Soo-young take that all in, momentarily silenced, but then her cousin barrels on. “So what? That doesn’t change what I just said: Jong-hyun loves you.”
“He’s my fake boyfriend. No, we’re not even friends in real life; we’re practically strangers.”
“So?” Soo-young argues back heatedly. “Maybe that’s what you think, Kim Tae-yeon. I’ve seen the way he looks at you, the way he talks to you. And I may not be the one getting married today, but I know that whoever Lee Jong-hyun is, he’s in love with you.”
He’s in love with you. She thinks of that kiss, by the moonlight, his arms around her and her eyes grow wet against her own compulsion.
“And you’re in love with him too.” Soo-young says, softly, perhaps realizing how close Tae-yeon is to the verge of tears. “You know that.”
She doesn’t know what to say, what to do.
“He might not be gone yet.” Soo-young says hopefully. “Flights out from Jeju are hard to get especially on a Sunday.”
She doesn’t want to, she’s not going after him, but she finds herself standing, thrusting her flowers at her cousin, pulling out her handphone from her tiny clutch to call him, to stop him somehow, but its then that she’s treated to the oddest sight.
It’s Woo-young, running out of the church doors.
The two of them watch his retreating figure, followed a few seconds by Nichkhun, whose face is dark with anger.
Before Nichkhun is even out of the sight, the two girls have already exchanged looks, walking as quickly as they can back into the church, into the backroom where Mi-young is waiting.
Mi-young is crying.
She looks up at them as they enter the room and Soo-young makes clucking noises of sympathy, walking up to Mi-young, who holds up a hand, stopping any of them from coming any closer. She looks straight at Tae-yeon and her mascara and eyeliner are running from the tears.
“I told him.”
Tae-yeon hates her sister. She hates her sister for always making everything about her, for always needing to be in the spotlight, for making every single thing into a competition. She hates her sister for dating her boyfriend behind her back, for cheating on Nichkhun, for keeping all this bottled up until her wedding day.
But Mi-young is still her sister.
Mi-young shakes her head mutely, the tears falling fast now. “He left. It’s over.” She hiccups, her voice breaking down into sobs now. “I’m not getting married after all.”
She still hates her sister. She doesn’t know if she can ever forgive Mi-young, for any of it, for all of it.
But Mi-young is hurting now and she doesn’t even think about it; she strides across the room, holding her sobbing younger sister and she lets herself cry for this whole mess that they’ve made of everything.
---
“Omma will be furious.”
Mi-young shrugs her slender shoulders, dabbing futilely at her eye makeup. “She will be. But you were right, it wasn’t fair to keep it from Khun.”
Impulsively, she reaches out, taking her sister’s hand, squeezing it. “Do you want me to go with you and tell them?”
Mi-young squeezes her hand gratefully, seeming to deliberate, before shaking her head resolutely. “It’s my wedding. I’ll tell them.”
She smiles a little then, sadly, lifting her hand to touch her sister’s face. It looks like something good is finally coming out of this whole mess-her little sister is learning how to take responsibility for her own problems, instead of sending her in to deal with their parents like she could have. “It’ll be okay.”
Mi-young takes in a huge shaky breath, nodding, and with one last hug, she adjusts her dress before sweeping out of the room.
Tae-yeon, on the other hand, heads outside, wondering if she will spot Nichkhun, returning somehow. He’s not the type to leave her sister at the altar, she thinks. At least, she didn’t think he was, but then again, he did just find out that his fiancée has been cheating on him with his best friend.
She shakes her head, letting out a long gusty sigh. How did this weekend turn out like this? What a mess.
Then, she sees it.
A man in a tuxedo, a rose in his button hole, slightly floppy now, dark hair falling over his forehead, sprinting towards the church. In spite of herself, her heart lifts. “Nichkhun?”
“Sorry, can’t talk, I’m late for my own wedding!” Nichkhun shouts, dashing past her into the church and she smiles, looking after him. It looks like she was right on that count.
Then there is a hand on her shoulder and she turns around, surprised.
It is Jong-hyun, dressed in a nice suit, looking straight at her and for a minute, she forgets how to breathe, how to think.
“Jong-hyun.” Her voice doesn’t sound like her own; it is strangled by the weight of words she wants to say out loud to him but can’t.
“I was going to leave you.” He says simply. “You told me to go, and I wanted to. I was on my way to the airport.”
She doesn’t know where to look; his words are direct and they fill her with shame, making her hang her head, but then his fingers are there, tilting her face up to meet his.
The right corner of his lips curve in a crooked, infectious smile. “But then, I thought, I’d rather fight with you, than try to love someone else.”
Her breath stalls in her throat, as she lets the meaning of his words sink in and she doesn’t need more encouragement after that. She winds her arms around his neck, pulling him in close until their foreheads bump and then she is kissing him. Its not a semi-drunk kiss, its not like the staged or fake kisses they’ve shared over these few days; it’s a real kiss, its about him and her and she doesn’t ever want to let him go again.
Then suddenly, he is pulling back and she is dazed by the loss of his lips on hers. “I’ve got to go.”
“What? Why?” She blurts out inanely, curling her hands at the back of his neck tightly. “No.”
His smile grows into a full-sized grin, cheeky and full of life, just the way she likes it. “I have to. I’m the best man.”
The incredulous laughter escapes her lips in a puff of air, but he is holding out his hand and she takes it as the two of them run into the church to join in the wedding.
EPILOGUE
She steals a sip of his champagne, leaning back into him, watching as Nichkhun twirls Mi-young, fairy-tale like out on the dance floor.
Her sister looks so happy.
It’ll take all of them a while to sort it out, of course, she thinks. Mi-young and Nichkhun may have gotten married today, but that doesn’t cancel out what Mi-young has done with Woo-young. But from the looks of the radiant couple on the dance floor, anyone with a working pair of eyes can tell who Mi-young has chosen, how much she loves Nichkhun. As Nichkhun dips Mi-young, dropping a kiss on her lips, Tae-yeon smiles, because she’s just glad that Nichkhun did make the right decision in the end, no matter how difficult it might have been for him to come back.
Similarly, years of sibling rivalry and misunderstanding aren’t so easily sorted within the space of a day, but she thinks she’s also learned something, through this wedding-that she might hate her sister, but when it comes down to it, she loves her sister too. And that might just be enough to get them through this.
Mi-young catches her eye over Nichkhun’s shoulders, blowing her a kiss.
She blows one back too, with a huge smile, before looking up at Jong-hyun, who has an identical grin on his face and she nudges him in the ribs. “What are you thinking of?”
He cuddles her a little closer and she lets him, shamelessly, despite being in full sight of her parents. “Oh nothing,” He says casually, though the twinkle in his eye is bright. “I’m just thinking how great our first real date is going to be.”