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If she had been asked ten years ago, at the age of fifteen, where she thought she would be at 25, Eunbyeol is fairly sure that she would never have been able to predict any of this.
After all, Eunbyeol at 15 was an entirely different person than the woman she is at 25. Still reeling from the loss of her parents and her subsequent move to live with her grandparents, she was a wisp of spirit, moving aimlessly through the motions of school and extracurriculars without sparing a thought for her future. Lost and painfully quiet as she was, she had never left the house when she didn’t have to, and would scarcely have even considered university if it hadn’t been through the efforts of her teachers.
She certainly never saw herself here, a decade later, buried deep in her third year of medical school and surrounded once more by family, this time of her own choosing.
Smiling, she shifts over on the couch, watching as Jumin, finally relaxed enough to openly chuckle when he meets her gaze, side-steps Yoosung and Saeyoung, loudly arguing over something or another, as they always are. Meanwhile, Jaehee chats with Zen and, judging from her animated expression and his preening one, about his most recent performance, this time as Tony in West Side Story.
All they’re missing is…
“Eunbyeol?”
She turns, grinning.
Almost as if summoned by her thoughts, Jihyun appears to sit beside her, his face still faintly flushed with the chill from outside but bearing two large mugs of hot chocolate.
“Jihyun! I was just thinking about you.”
His laugh as she leans over to kiss his cheek is warm. “Lucky me.” Without asking, he hands her a mug and sighs as he takes a sip of his own. “Mmm, much better. It’s certainly getting pretty chilly out. I think we’ll have a few more inches before the storm’s finished.”
She nods. “How was…?”
Though she trails off, his smile stiffens, ever so slightly. “It was… as you might expect.” When she says nothing, only reaching for his hand and giving it a gentle squeeze, he sighs again, noticeably less contented this time. “It is… not easy. But he—they all deserve as much.”
“I’m sure that somewhere, they know you are thinking of them.”
“Just as your parents do you.”
In spite of herself, her eyes widen and he laughs. “I know you well enough to know what you’re thinking of. I’m sure they’re so happy to see you here, warm and loved.”
“Mmmm.”
For a moment, they sit in silence, enjoying the lively chatter—or perhaps scolding—of the room as Jaehee cuts off her conversation to mediate the spat between Yoosung and Saeyoung while Zen and Jumin trade exasperated looks. She leans into him, smiling wider when he slides an arm over her shoulders.
“You know,” she murmurs, too softly for anyone else to hear, “loving you was the second best thing I’ve ever done.”
She doesn’t have to look up to see his eyebrow raise. “Oh? What was the first?”
“Finding you. Though…” she pauses, grinning at him, “perhaps you did most of the finding. So thank you.”
His chuckle, warm and gentle, reverberates in his chest. “And you helped me find myself, so we are more than even. I like to think that we found each other.”
She smiles. “I like that.”
After all, in the end, that is all that matters.