Chapter Text
(Eunha's POV)
“Appa, give me the doll!” the little girl exclaimed, hands making a grabbing motion to support her demand. Her lips, which had jutted into a pout, pulled to the sides until they mirrored the bunny smile of her father when he gave the adorable almost two years old her doll.
“Unbelievable,” I mumbled with a fascinated smile, fondly shaking my head, “how much she has grown since the last time you visited. She’s grown so tall already!”
Areum sighed – half happy, half exasperated – from her seat next to me on the couch while watching her daughter with adoring eyes. “Isn’t she? She basically grows out of her clothes every week, we always have to buy her new stuff! Let’s see if she’ll end up as tall as Binnie in a few years.”
We chuckled as we watched Suryeon toddling over to Taehyung, who she – upon meeting for the first time – had already declared to be her hero and ultimate favorite play-buddy, stating her undying love and her decision to marry him (which had completely destroyed Areum, rendering her to a puddle of laughter on the ground as she had giggled uncontrollably, yapping for air, only barely managing to hold her panicking husband back, who was about to pull their daughter aside to give her a little lecture on why marrying TaeTae wasn’t appropriate.)
“It feels like a miracle and a blessing each time anew when I remember that we created that precious little bundle of joy,” Areum softly smiled, watching Suryeon fondly before looking down on herself, lightly patting herself on the stomach. “And miracle number two is already on the way.”
Her words made Soobin caress her not-so-prominent (yet!) baby belly fondly, and I couldn’t help but coo at the cute sight. There was no doubt that I would love their second baby just as much as Suryeon, though I did feel sad that in the coming months, I wasn’t going to see any of them.
“By the way,” Areum began suddenly, and I turned towards her, gifting her all my attention, “would Jimin and you like trying for a baby too? Like no pressure, I can understand if you wouldn’t – having children requires a lot of work, time and effort,” she added.
As though to underline my raven-haired friend’s statement, Suryeon decided that it would be a good idea to load up all of her toys (and there were a lot – Areum and Soobin liked to spoil their daughter after all, and who could fault them for that) into Tae’s arms, squealing in protest every time one fell. The boxy-smiling idol indulged her happily, though, his love for children obvious in the crinkling of his eyes and the little noises he made while playing along.
“But your wedding was already a year ago…” Soobin continued where his wife had left off, trailing off, which gave me a perfect opportunity to reminisce, my eyes finding Jimin, who was playing with Suryeon as well. I unconsciously smiled as I remembered that significant day.
Ah, our wedding. It had been beautiful in its simplicity – nothing ostentatious, not too many guests – only the Chois and the Lees and the HYBE choreography team from my side, and the BTS members with their parents, a few people from the company (Bang Si-hyuk included) and a few of Jimin’s friends from his side making out the roughly fifty attendants. My husband (seriously, even thinking of labeling him with that term was still so amazing for me) had managed to rent out a beachside on Jeju Island – I didn’t dare ask how much that must have cost – and that’s where we married, on a beautiful, sunny day, with the sound of the waves in our ears, my beautiful white dress with the little sparkling, flowery details fluttering softly in the wind. Like a miracle, no paparazzi had found us that day, our relationship thus having stayed a secret until now. People often describe their marriage as the best day and decision of their life, and that’s exactly what I would call mine too.
“I don’t know, would you want to try?” my best friend brought me out of my memories.
I hummed affirmatively. “We’ve talked about that a lot, actually,” I confirmed lightly, a smile breaking out on my lips as I watched Suryeon lightly pushing Tae, which had him dramatically falling to the ground, the little girl immediately dissolving in a pile of giggles at his antics.
“Talked about what?” my husband asked, reaching us and planting a peck on my cheek before sitting next to me on the couch.
“Trying getting pregnant,” I explained, failing to suppress my blush from the casual but sweet gesture despite the many times he had kissed me before.
“Ah, right,” Jimin made with a lovely eye smile, almost reflexively looking at Suryeon as he answered. “We would really love to, but cupcake and I decided to wait with trying until after the tour. We will spend almost a year overseas after all, and considering that Eunha’s one of our backup dancers, some people might make the right connections.”
“Yeah, that seems like a good idea,” Areum grimaced. “Pregnancy can be terrible sometimes – morning sickness, all kinds of pains and urges – and experiencing all that while not in the comfort of your own home, with all that chaos and pressure and hectic of a world tour, doesn’t sound that nice.”
Soobin nodded, his watchful eyes staying focused on his lovely daughter romping around the room with an equally enthusiastic Taehyung at her heels. “That’s reasonable. Oh, I still can’t believe that we won’t see you for almost a year starting tomorrow,” he pouted.
“It’s an awfully long time, isn’t it?” I hummed in sad affirmation, looking around in the room provided to us in the company building where we now were spending the evening after having an extensive dinner to enjoy time together before the world tour would bring a lot of distance between the Choi family and us. The dinner had been so much fun, there had been a lot of people – Bang Sihyuk, the dance team that I had become great friends with over the past two years (especially with Hyejin, the girl I had so much in common with), all of the BTS members, the Choi family and me – so it had been filled with laughter and joy. However, now, with the Choi family, Jimin, Tae, and me spending time together with the threat of having to part for such a long time looming over our heads, I felt much more gloomy. “Let’s do a lot of video calls, though.”
“Sure! But how many countries are you performing in again?” Areum asked, slightly disbelievingly. “There are so many, how do you even stay on top of all of them?”
“We don’t,” I answered with a helpless giggle. “There are around fifteen, I think? Could be wrong, though...”
“Australia, USA, Canada, Brazil, Germany, France,” Jimin started counting on his fingers, “Norway, Italy, South Africa, South Korea, India, Japan, Vietnam…” He sighed, shaking his head as he lowered his hands again, obviously giving up. “I genuinely can’t remember all of them.”
“How do you even do that?” Soobin wanted to know with an utterly puzzled expression, catching Suryeon as she ran towards him with an excited squeal, and pulling the squeaking two years old onto his lap. “How can you go around in so many countries and perform and perform, it must be horribly draining!”
“It is,” Jimin admitted with a sincere nod while tickling a squirming Suryeon’s feet at the same time, showing off multitasking skills that I was jealous of. “But there are a lot of things I learned over the years that make it more bearable. Also, we have the members, staff, and ARMY, who will always support us. And...” he made a dramatic pause, “I will have my beautiful wife,” he added with a wink towards me that had my stomach dissolve into butterflies, “so with her, I’ll be at home wherever we are as long as I’m by her side.”
Those words earned him impressed ohs and ahs from the others and a kiss from a very flustered me.
A thought suddenly crossed my mind, and I giggled, hurrying to express the reason for my amusement when everyone on the couch – the Choi family and my husband – turned towards me with questioning expressions. “Ah, I just remembered how Mr. Bang reacted when he caught Soobin singing a nursery rhyme to Suryeon,” I told them, giggling teasingly when said bunny-smiling man buried his face into his hands with a groan upon recalling the incident.
Previously that day, only a couple of hours ago, Mr. Bang and Soobin had stumbled into each other in the hallways of the company, shortly before the dinner was going to begin, the older man amazed at the younger’s sweet voice echoing through the corridor. He had urged Soobin to sing, and when the shy man had hesitantly complied, the older hadn’t stopped showering him with compliments, trying to get him to sign a contract and start an idol career under HYBE. But the younger had declined the offer, adorably flustered by all the praise for his vocals, mumbling something about that being only a possibility in another universe or something along the lines.
“The Lees are sending you greetings, by the way,” Soobin was quick to mention, obviously trying to change the topic. I decided not to be mean this time and let him carry the conversation in another direction without complaining.
“Thanks, how are they doing?” I wanted to know excitedly, wondering how the entire time the Choi couple had been here, we had forgotten to catch up on the Lees and had barely even mentioned them. Time had really flown during the evening, and we had so much to tell each other, though, so no wonder why the topic of the Lees had stayed on the sidelines.
“They are well and healthy,” Soobin continued, letting go of his daughter with a fond shake of his head when she started crawling over his and his wife’s lap to get to me. I happily pulled the girl into my arms, mumbling a few welcoming words to her but still staying attentive to what Soobin wanted to say. “Wishing you all the best for the world tour. Oh, and Beetie still behaves like a puppy despite his supposed adult age, but that’s nothing new,” he added with an amused grin.
“Of course he does,” I laughed, rolling my eyes at the thought of the doggy that had never lost his playfulness. I had actually witnessed it only a few days ago in a video call with Mrs. Lee, during which the dog behaved like an overgrown puppy, unable to contain his excitement to see me as he jumped over basically every surface in the Lee’s house. Mrs. Lee also tended to passionately talk about the little shenanigans Beetie had been up to at any chance she got – much to my amusement – and there were always a lot of stories to tell me.
“The café is doing well, too,” Areum piped in. “Really well, actually. There has been an onrush of customers recently because apparently someone with a huge Instagram following happened to stumble across it and fell in love with the aesthetic, happened to post a few pictures – and boom – suddenly we now have so many more customers,” she told us ecstatically, spreading her arms to visualize the sheer amount. “It was a struggle to try and keep up with the orders, but luckily Mrs. Lee managed to find and hire a new worker, so we’re not as overwhelmed anymore.”
“I’m glad,” I hummed, my chest feeling light with that information, trying to stay silent despite my excitement for the good news because a certain child seemed close to falling asleep on my lap while she was fiddling with my fingers.
“Oh, Suryeonie,” Areum sighed adoringly, finally noticing the sleepy state of her daughter and brushing a few raven hair strands from her face. My lovely best friend turned to me with a sad expression. “I think it’s time for us to get back to the hotel so she can sleep properly,” she pouted, apology swimming in her eyes.
I glanced at the watch hanging on the wall and was startled to discover it already reading 11:36 PM.
“It’s far past Suryeonie’s bedtime, so it would really be for the better,” Soobin confirmed, expression just as apologetic as his wife’s.
Reluctantly, I let go of the sweet girl that was close to fast asleep, transferring her into the arms of her father, where she snuggled even deeper into his warmth with a cute little grumble.
“It’s okay,” I reassured, upon seeing how sad the Choi couple seemed. “We’ll call and text each other a lot throughout the coming year. Oh, and deliver the Lees my greetings!”
Despite the Chois having to leave because of Suryeon’s sleepiness, the farewell took close to twenty minutes, the thought of parting from the Chois to not see each other for such a long time weighting down the mood. We spent all those minutes lying in each other’s arms and exchanging greetings and best wishes until we eventually parted.
When the Chois finally left the room, I remained with a pout, feeling kind of empty and sad. However, my husband knew how to cheer me up, tackling me in a hug that had me yelping in surprise.
“No bad feelings allowed,” he mumbled into my ear, pampering my neck with butterfly kisses until the tickling feeling made me lose my pout, my lips spreading into a smile and giggles escaping my mouth.
“Stop it,” I squeaked between the giggles bubbling out of me, but I was helpless in the face of Jimin’s pecks and had to admit defeat, unable to resist the attack. “Okay, okay, I’m not pouting anymore! What do you want?” I managed to get out between the peals of laughter, and Jimin instantly let off my neck, looking into my eyes with a mischievous glint shimmering inside his dark ones.
“Mrs. Park,” he began sententiously with a grand gesture and a dialect that reminded me of the way of speaking from the Joseon dynasty, using the same ostentatious choice of words and inflection as the emperors in K-Dramas. “Will you grant me the dearest of my wishes and dance with me?”
I rolled my eyes with a smile but complied and took his offered hand, taking in an upright position and moving my other hand like I was holding a fan. “It would be my pleasure, Mr. Park.”
With the tour starting tomorrow, the practice rooms lay deserted as everyone was advised to take as much repose and be as rested as possible to grant a beginning with everyone at their full potential. My husband pulled me into one of the rooms, and I barely had the time to push the door close behind us before he was tugging me further inside, towards the laptop where he chose a soft ballad song that we had developed a couple choreography to only recently, so it was still fresh in mind.
We took in our beginning positions, and then the first notes already floated out of the speakers into the room, tingling in the air and filling my imagination with the stories it told. A smile lifted the corners of my mouth as the melody began taking a hold of me, making me move to the soft notes. While turning and twisting my body, my eyes found the ones of my husband, who was looking at me with so much love that I felt my heart swell and everything around me and in my mind – the surroundings, my sadness over the distance that would separate us from the Choi couple, my nervousness regarding the grand world tour – started to fade until the only thing I could see was Jimin, who danced beautifully and gracefully as ever, sparks of love and passion dancing in his eyes. As the song developed, gaining and losing its speed numerous times, the choreography allowed us to move closer and approach each other until, at last, we found ourselves in each other’s arms as the final notes faded out. Breathing heavily, we looked into each other’s eyes, his holding so much warmth that I only pressed closer to him, grateful to have him in my life. He laid his forehead against mine, not breaking eye contact as we remained in our small bubble, the rest of the universe not mattering to us as we were in that wonderful moment together, both not planning to ever let go of each other.
“I love you, Eunha,” Jimin mumbled as I was drowning in the love-filled depths of his eyes.
Tenderly reciprocating the look in his eyes, I snuggled as far into his warmth as I could, my hold around him tightening, pulling us together so nothing would be able to tear us apart.
“I love you too, Jimin.”