Chapter Text
The woman behind the counter swivelled away from her computer, turning to face them.
“Nae,” she confirmed with a placid smile, “It's been registered.”
Songhwa blinked in surprise, whipping her head around towards Ikjun to mouth an astonished kkeut?! Ikjun simply smiled and responded with a gentle, wordless nod. “Waah,” Songhwa remarked, awestruck, mostly to herself, “Who knew it was that simple?”
Ikjun raised an eyebrow, clearly amused at her reaction, “Now those are two words I’ve never heard in the same sentence before — marriage and simple.”
He cocked his head at her curiously, “Also...how is it possible that you’ve never been here before, not even as a witness? All three of your brothers are married.”
“Nobody ever includes the maknae,” Songhwa sighed, pouting sadly. Suddenly, her eyes widened as she recalled something, “You were the one who accompanied Iksun and Junwan, weren’t you?” she crossed her arms, levelling a look of both envy and betrayal at him, “and none of you even cared to ask me to join!”
“Yah, are you still holding that against me?” Ikjun grabbed her hand, in an effort to appease her before she remembered the full extent of his deception — that she was also the last person in the entire group to find out about what happened in Hawaii. He quickly leaned in, his features turning downwards as he began to stare down at her with his most convincing puppy-dog face, “Haven’t I made up for it now?”
At the slightest display of aegyo, Songhwa recoiled in horror, trying to extricate her hand from his grasp, her earlier fury now forgotten, “Mwohae, we’re in a government office right now.” She slowly slinked away from him, but Ikjun caught her arm again. Songhwa opened her mouth to protest, “Hey—”
“Yeobo, ” Ikjun called out, his tone both cautious and tender, as if testing out the word on his tongue.
Rendered speechless for the second time that morning, Songhwa felt her hand go limp, allowing Ikjun to link their fingers together with ease. Her breath hitched at the action and she let herself be pulled into his side, caving into his warmth.
“Yeobo,” Ikjun said again, this time slightly teasing, the grin in his voice evident.
“Hajima,” Songhwa gritted out, a failingly feeble attempt at sounding stern, which Ikjun knew all too well. “Yeobo, gaja,” he continued, with a cheeky persistence that only seemed to emerge around Songhwa.
Songhwa and Ikjun walked out of the district office together, hand-in-hand, in perfect synchrony.
Ikjun gave Songhwa's hand a tender squeeze, prompting her to glance in his direction and catch the gleeful smile stretched across his face. A smile so big and radiant, it almost led her to believe (and hope) that this was the happiest he'd ever been in his forty-two years.
Songhwa found her thoughts disrupted when she suddenly caught a glimpse of her own reflection in the glass doors. She hadn't realized that all the while she'd been pursing her lips to suppress her shy grin, her cheeks had taken on a rosy glow that betrayed every ounce of bashful joy she'd been trying so hard to conceal.
Only because she couldn't bear the endless teasing Ikjun would subject her to if he caught her grinning like a little girl. Especially when she's always the one telling him off for not behaving his age.
“What?” Ikjun playfully nudged her shoulder, at the sight of her bowed head.
“Nothing.”
Then, an imperceptible moment of silence later, she found herself asking the same question.
“What?”
And he similarly responded, “Nothing!”
And like that, while mindlessly exchanging mindless words, they’d made it to Ikjun’s car. As Ikjun turned his key into his ignition, the engine revved with a roar of finality that seemed to remind them there was no more ‘going back’. No more ‘undos’, no chances for a ‘do over’.
But the realization of this fact, as they found themselves moving away from the district office, further engraving their decision into stone, did not faze either of them in the slightest. Because the promise of forever was one they’d made the second they decided to commit to each other. Whether they solidified that in writing or not.
Which is why Songhwa had decided that she didn’t want to bother with a ceremony, or a large costly celebration of any sort. Truth be told, she wouldn’t even quite label Ikjun and herself as ‘married’ either — at least not in the way most people thought about it. In which a fresh, glowing couple carve out a brand new life together, their experience of the world being shaped by each other.
For Songhwa, Ikjun was simply the man she wanted to spend the rest of her days with, rather than a man to start afresh with. Having come so far, it was clear that what they both needed wasn’t someone to build their life around but instead someone who already fit seamlessly into the ones they currently led. Like a bonus puzzle piece that made living a little sweeter than it already was.
Songhwa’s thoughts drifted towards a particular seven-year-old, as she absentmindedly toyed with the plushie in the cup holder.
Okay, maybe a lot sweeter.
“I thought we were the ones picking up Uju,” Songhwa furrowed her eyebrows, at the news that her other best friend and his wife (who was now also her sister-in-law) had asked to fetch Uju from Mone’s house instead, “didn’t Iksun and Junwan leave before us because they had to be somewhere else? Will they be okay?”
“From the sound of Iksun’s voice, it sure sounded like it,” Ikjun shrugged, also puzzled at the sudden change in plans. They both sat in quiet contemplation as they simultaneously recalled the young couple leaving as soon as they’d stamped their seals as witnesses on the marriage registration form, vaguely citing an important yagsog (on a Saturday...) they had to get to. “Apparently it ended early so they offered to grab Uju and meet us at my apartment,” Ikjun elaborated, based on what his sister had just told him on the phone. At Songhwa’s continued silence, he narrowed his eyes.
“You smell something fishy, don’t you?”
Songhwa tapped her finger on her chin thoughtfully, entertaining the suspicion, “Well…”
“Ah, it’s probably nothing,” Ikjun waved his hand in the air, the other one sliding across the steering wheel, as he dismissed the notion of his sister having an ulterior motive, “she told me she just wanted us to spend some time together.”
“But what does Uju have to do with that?” Songhwa tilted her head, confused.
Ikjun regarded her with an unimpressed expression, as if he couldn’t believe she was asking her to spell it out for her.
“Alone.”
Songhwa blinked, struck silent for a few seconds before she quickly regained her composure and proceeded to groan, “Mwoyaaa, I’d rather see Uju.”
“It’s always Uju for you, isn’t it?” Ikjun grumbled, mockingly clutching his chest in despair, “I’ve never held a place in your heart. Tell me the truth. My son’s the only reason you agreed to live with me, isn’t he?”
Songhwa pursed her lips, despite the hint of a smile evident from the upturned corners of her mouth. “Why are you asking me a question you already know the answer to?” she muttered dismissively, turning away to look out the car and almost bursting into laughter at the sight of Ikjun’s despondent reflection in her window.
“God, you’re so dramatic.”
“I guess I am,” Ikjun admitted, unashamedly. From the corner of her eye, Songhwa saw a mischievous smile suddenly overtake his lips.
“Ikjun,” she warned, immediately catching onto what he was planning in his mind. After all, she knew him like the back of her hand. “We’re going straight home.”
“I didn’t say we weren’t,” Ikjun retorted. His smile had now grown into a large, conspiring grin.
She levelled a glare at him, as if to say, and you better not. His facial expression, however, did not match his words at all. Before she could warn him again, she tumbled sideways into his lap as Ikjun abruptly swerved into an abandoned lot, causing her glasses to fall off her nose, under her seat.
“Are you crazy?” Songhwa screeched, slapping his thigh before she tightened her grip on his body to steady herself and get off his lap. Ikjun grabbed her elbow before she could move away, swiftly reaching behind her to unbuckle her seatbelt and pull her onto himself with both arms. “Yes,” he whispered, a lazy grin adorning his face as he slid his fingers up the dip of her waist, “I’m the crazy man you just married today.”
They’d done this far too many times for Songhwa to be feeling the sense of nervous electrifying excitement that she currently did, the kind that accompanied a pair of lovers who’d just met rather than the twenty-two years of history they both shared. Even so, there was something quite novel, quite... uninhibited about the way Ikjun caressed the curve of her spine this time, the way he ran his lips across the top of her chest, untucked her blouse from her pants. As though the fact that they were now one in not only an emotional but a legal sense had heightened the intensity of the moment by tenfold.
Songhwa placed both palms on Ikjun’s cheeks, bringing his face to hers so that she now gazed down at him from where she was perched on his lap. She trailed her thumb down the edge of his jaw, leaning down to press a soft kiss on his skin as if it was second nature, although it was something she hadn’t done in a while.
Two years ago, the thought of kissing Ikjun, let alone sleeping with him was as unfathomable as the possibility of her cursing in public. And yet, a year later they couldn’t have become more different; fuelled by their newfound attraction, they’d been like magnets, unable to get enough of each other.
Now, the way her hands could blindly trace over every trough and curve of his face was a testament to the comfortable, lived-in tandem they’d eventually grown into. Although the fire had gone down considerably, Songhwa wouldn’t change a thing about it.
“In the car, really?” she cocked an eyebrow, tapping him on the nose.
“Well, we have to start somewhere.”
His answer seemed to satisfy Songhwa, who had decided that they’d stalled long enough and grabbed the hair at the base of Ikjun’s neck to pull his head back to position him at a better angle. She muffled his sharp yelp with a kiss, and Ikjun’s pain was soon forgotten as they both set to work on each other’s trousers.
“Boy, are you in a hurry, missus,” Ikjun teased, upon noticing the speed at which she’d unbuckled his pants and had helped him slide off her own. His ridiculous remark had effectively pulled Songhwa out of her haze. Her movements came to a halt, before she suddenly burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. Embarrassed, she buried her face into his neck, her shaking shoulders the only thing in sight.
"What..." she breathed out mid-laugh, "what are we doing, Ikjun?"
"We're sanctifying our car, what else?"
"Oh my God." Songhwa erupted into another round of giggles, struggling to hold herself up. The mood was now completely ruined, not a single sign of their previous sexual tension in the air. If the situation hadn't been so hilarious, it would've been downright tragic.
"I can't believe you're laughing right now, Songhwa," Ikjun muttered, sourly.
"I can't believe we're having sex in your car, Ikjun," Songhwa shot back, as if she couldn't believe her own words. "What are we, twenty?!"
"We're twenty years too late, that's what we are."
"You've been using that excuse for the past two years, Ikjun."
"We—"
"Jogyo!" There was a sudden, sharp rapping at their window, causing them to freeze immediately. “You’re not allowed to park here. I’ll need you to move your car at once, please.”
Songhwa and Ikjun simply blinked at each other, in all their half-bottomless glory. ‘At a loss for words’ was too inadequate of a phrase to describe them at the moment.
“In all of Seoul, you chose to park in a restricted area?” Songhwa hissed, rolling her eyes.
“How was I supposed to know it was restricted?! There was no signboard!” Ikjun rebutted, defensively.
"Jogyo, this will be my last warning."
Songhwa pursed her lips, wordlessly shifting off Ikjun's lap and redoing her hair and clothes. Ikjun pulled up his trousers and started his car up again. Too humiliated to roll down his window and acknowledge the man outside, Ikjun simply stepped down on his gas pedal and sped away from the empty lot, as fast as he possibly could.
Once they got back on the main road, Songhwa risked a brief glance in Ikjun's direction. Slowly, cautiously, their eyes met, and before either one could say anything, they simultaneously broke into laughter. Songhwa clapped a hand against her mouth to stop the giggles from escaping and scoldingly hit Ikjun's shoulder, telling him to focus on the road instead of snickering, despite being in near tears herself.
"If you ever mention this to the others..." Ikjun began, in a low, threatening voice, after they'd calmed down.
"Michyeosseo?! I wouldn't dare," Songhwa replied, indignantly.
They finally reached their apartment building, after what was supposed to be a 20-minute drive but had ended up feeling like an hour, no thanks to their shenanigans. Per Songhwa's orders, Ikjun leaned back against his car, while his wife fixed his hair (a mess of which she'd made herself) and patted down his shirt, doing as best she could to remove all signs of what they'd almost gotten up to. Songhwa stepped back after a while, nodding satisfyingly at her work before she brought her attention to herself.
"Do I look okay?" she asked, concerned over her appearance.
"Yes."
"Will you look at me?"
Ikjun slid his phone into his pocket, "Mian, Iksun was asking me where we were." He then ran his eyes over her, from head to toe, and pretended to fall backwards, at the sight of her overwhelming beauty. Songhwa simply rolled her eyes.
With a grin, he inched closer to her and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Absolutely perfect," he whispered, finally earning him her prized smile.
Not wanting to waste any more time, especially since Uju had been waiting for them, Songhwa and Ikjun promptly made their way up to his apartment. In the elevator, their hands instinctively found each other, intertwining together. Ikjun swung back and forth on the balls of his feet, his body buzzing with an electric warmth that Songhwa was able to pick up on.
"Why are you so excited?" she asked with a light laugh.
"Is that what I look like? Excited?" Ikjun tilted his head, curiously.
"You haven't stood still for the past minute."
Ikjun thought about it for a while, before explaining, "I keep getting this feeling that something is going to happen. It’s like my body can tell even if my mind can’t.”
Songhwa narrowed her eyes, “Like what?”
“Like—” Ikjun was suddenly interrupted by the ding of the elevator, signalling that they’d arrived on their floor.
He led Songhwa out towards their home, as he continued, “like…”
Ikjun was once again stopped in his tracks, this time by the sight of his front door, which had been left ajar.
Nothing but black could be seen from where he and Songhwa were standing, and no sound — not of Junwan, Iksun, or Uju, could be heard.
What...was going on??
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To be continued.