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Dongeun still isn’t very good at cooking. She still tries though and what she cooks is edible almost all the time. Many consider cooking a basic skill, one someone learns as soon as they leave home and can’t stand to eat take out and instant meals anymore. Now that time has come unpaused for her, she supposes she should learn too.
She hears Yeojeong come in just barely over the sound of boiling water. It’s later than it should have been, but that’s why she’s making dinner tonight instead of him. Working at a prison sometimes meant that there were emergent situations and he had to stay late. This was one of those nights.
“What happened at work?” She starts to dish up for the both of them. It was the third recipe she found on google, the second one was a disappointment.
“There was a shanking, despite our best efforts the victim could not be saved,” Yeojeong says in a sing-song voice. It’s obvious to tell exactly who that dead prisoner was.
“Ah, did they find who did it?” Dongeun is setting the table and gets her first look at Yeojeong since he left for work that morning. He was wearing a pink dress shirt, which was a color that did look nice on him.
“No, the incident happened in a camera blind spot somehow,” That somehow was in fact a carefully laid trail of breadcrumbs of where the victim went throughout the day and where on the path the cameras didn’t catch. It couldn’t be said in one conversation, but their chosen executioner was a clever man.
They could be more obvious about these things, talk about plots openly. It could be said for tactical denial of what they know but that might be an over complicated explanation for something quite simple. The simple matter was that it was fun. It felt exciting to whisper things in coded language and never say what was meant.
Yeojeong had picked something up for her on the way home, she assumes it’s ice cream based on the way he immediately went for the fridge. She had her back to him while he dug around in there, grabbing a water bottle for her and a beer for him. Dongeun didn’t drink much and alcohol and antidepressants didn’t mix.
They talk move over the dinner table, the heat of a summer that refused to fade into the early fall making it too unbearable to eat on the patio. She has some early semester homework spread out on the table. Going back to school for a degree in architecture was a lot of work, but it was honestly fun.
She had even made friends. Not many of them, but there was a small support group for those who weren’t going to college right out of high school and they were all fine people. She even hung out with them outside of the campus.
“How heavy is your course load, your future mother in law wants to have dinner with us on Sunday?” Yeojeong brought this up towards the end of dinner, when plates were mostly clean and they were more just enjoying each other's company.
“Just call her your mother, we aren’t engaged yet but I am free,” Dongeun kept a careful watch on her assignments and her class schedule. As of earlier that morning she was still planning things around a revenge plot. She guessed she could relax a little, but she had never been good at that.
“Why aren’t we engaged yet?” Yeojeong was genuinely good at putting false emotion on his face. She could see how every facial feature was a perfect mask of confusion, every bit except his eyes, which on a closer look read excitement.
“Because you haven’t asked,” They had been talking about it for a few months, mostly brought on by Dongeun saying how stupid she thought public proposals are. She could see it coming any time now, but she wasn’t worried about it. It wasn’t the type of patients that came with being able to construct an eighteen year long revenge plot, but rather one that came from knowing she had all the time in the world.
“I picked up something for you on the way home,” Dongeun knew this already, but still managed to look excited. It was probably ice cream, but she couldn’t be sure of the flavor, Yeojeong always picked something new when he got it and he tended to pick unusual flavors for the fun of it.
It’s chocolate chip mint for her and plain chocolate for him. Thinking about it, it may be her favorite flavor, which was an odd thing to consider. Favorites were something one has solidified by the time they’re a teen at the oldest, but Dongeun wasn’t fully sure what her’s were.
Her favorite color was, maybe yellow? Favorite season was probably spring. She liked mint chocolate chip ice cream the most. These were all things that came with a bit of thought, and were things that she could only really say in honesty in her late thirties.
“Ah, I also have something else,” Yeojeong digs around in his work briefcase while Dongeun is distracted with her ice cream. Yeojeong knew he needed bait to give him even the slightest aspect of surprise. He found what he was searching for, and then took the seat next to her at the dinner table instead of the one across from her where he ate dinner.
“I’m asking,”
“What are you asking?” Dongeun mumbled around a spoon still mostly in her mouth.
“We aren’t engaged yet because I haven’t asked, so I’m asking. Will you marry me?” Yeojeong retrieved the engagement ring and presented it to Dongeun. It had taken quite a bit of sneaking around to figure out her ring size without asking. Luckily with her tutoring in revenge came stealth as a secondary skill.
Ice cream is suddenly very unimportant. As is remembering to put her spoon back into the carton of ice cream and not just letting it fall to the floor.
The thing that is now very important to Dongeun is kissing him. Wrapping both of her arms around his shoulders, pulling him in tight and kissing him. She’s not sure she remembers to say yes around taking care of these important matters, but the ring slides on her finger all the same.
It’s a late dinner and they both have their regular early mornings ahead of them so there isn’t much time left in the day to celebrate. They message a few close friends about the engagement inbetween kissing, eating ice cream and cleaning up from dinner. Dongeun mostly just tells Kang Hyeonnam, while Yeojeong has a much longer list of acquaintances to brag to.
When she showers that night, perhaps her new fiance joins her. When they lay in bed together he has an arm wrapped around her waist. Dongeun was not someone who rested easily, she tossed and turned and dealt with insomnia more nights than not, but Yeojeong was someone who was the same.
There is no surprise the next morning when she wakes up to find all the blankets kicked onto the floor and that despite the three pillows they keep on the bed there is only one left and it has been kicked down to their feet. There’s a few moments before the alarm goes off so she kisses her fiance softly on the forehead and basks in the morning glory.
Planning for the wedding is quite fun honestly. A lot of it is made up on the fly, it’s not something Dongeun had planned for, in her plans she was either in jail or dead by this time. A few sections of it are not for her to deal with, like in every possible field the medical community has quite a bit of social politics occurring at all moments meaning that Yeojeong handles most of the rather large guest list and her future mother in law pays for the wedding, she insists on it in fact.
Hyeonnam takes on the role of bridesmaid pretty easily, the maid of honor to be exact. It feels almost childish and awkward when she calls her her best friend, but perhaps that makes it all the nicer. Dongeun has learned that she likes these childish things in her adulthood, her indoor tent that she still has, her slowly growing collection of stuffed animals and the small rush of joy she feels whenever she gets to call Hyeonnam her best friend.
Dongeun has also learned that she enjoys mundanity. When she spends several hours deciding just how each table will be set up with her future mother in law and a wedding planner she finds it less of a waste then most people probably would. Perhaps she just enjoys that she can waste the time on it and doesn’t have to worry every moment.
It’s nice to have normal problems. It feels nice to be finishing drafts for assignments while trying wedding cakes. Managing a group project inbetween finding times everyone in the bridal party is available to do various things. Going home after a day of classes and crawling into bed with her fiance with no more worries than a few passing thoughts about her wedding vows.
She tries on bridal dresses with Hyeonnam, her future mother in law, and a few women she doesn’t know all that well that were Yeojeong’s friends to match the number of groomsmen he has. She learns she doesn’t like lace, in fact she quite hates it.
The party argues for nearly an hour over whether she should have three-fourth sleeves or no selves at all, split down the line not on her scars but instead on the premise of more traditional relatives throwing a fit over her tattoo. It doesn’t really matter much to her, but eventually the choice is made for a strappy dress with a low cleavage line. People were going to be looking at her anyways, she doesn’t feel much need to hide.
After that they start working on bridesmaid dresses. Dongeun is heavily biased in that she’s selecting the dress for Hyeonnam instead of anyone else.
She sits with her future mother in law while the others try on potential dresses. A whispered conversation is had between the two about how determined Yeojeong is to sneak a reference to the edge their relationship had started out with, with him serving as her executioner, into his vows. Yeojeong is very proud of it, so is Dongeun, but she does agree with her mother in law to help him hide it better. In return she steals part of the idea for herself, a small laugh just for her and her future husband.
Wine red continues to be Hyeonnam’s color and that is the color Dongeun goes with for the bridesmaid dresses. She makes sure that the rest of the group is agreeable to the one she picked and is drawn back when she realizes this is her biggest worry of the day, even the week. It’s late December after exam season so that isn’t something prodding around her mind, and there is no concern with revenge anymore. A life she expected, or rather intended, to end was now soft and breezy.
The new lightness of the afterwards always sits oldy on her shoulders. Sometimes late at night she fears that it was all some pleasant dream of blood. She keeps records on hand for those nights, Myeongoh’s obituary, articles on Sara & Yeonjin’s arrests, the perfect timing of Jaejoon’s disappearance and Doyeong leaving the country and Hyejeong’s still active social media profile. It had lost many followers and had switched to a six of learning sign language and fashion, but is still only barely trugging along.
Dongeun sends her a wedding invitation digitally. She’s not sure what she’s expecting. When the only response is “Kill yourself” she’s not sure what else she could have. All is right.
The bridal shower is a spa day in February. Not Valentine's Day, Dongeun and Yeojeong take that day for themselves with a simple exchange of presents ( a new knife for Yeojeong and a large teddy bear for Dongeun. She’s learned she likes soft and childish things, it’s perfect).
Dongeun does enjoy her massage, but something feels off the entire time. Sometimes it’s just simply difficult to sit still, she was too used to constant motion and plotting that moments of relaxation came with difficulty to her. When she was still in her revenge there was always some action that was being done, even if it was the action of forcing herself to sit still.
Yeojeong had noticed that she paced when deep in thought, even when she hadn’t. She had only noticed when he said that he had moved the shoe rack so she would have a smooth pass through the living room to the hallway when she paced. It was one of many small ways the house had shifted to be just as much hers as his. Blueprints on the walls, a draft table in the living room next to the stand where he kept his knives. Small things.
They get married in April, in the small gap between midterms and finals. With the credits Dongeun has she’ll graduate with her architecture degree at the end of the school year. Life is moving slowly in the afterwards. She leaves a favor for the bridesmaids on Sohee’s grave.
The wedding itself is a bit boring. The planning had been good fun and nothing necessarily goes wrong, but it is boring all the same. Both Dongeun and Yeonjeong sneak references to the fact that the first time the words were meant it was said I’ll kill for you rather than I love you in their vows. It goes unnoticed but by them and then they are married.
The fun part of the wedding is watching the guests. Dongeun talks to them plenty but mostly she just sits and watches. Hyeonnam has a not old but not young couple sitting on either side of her, interested in something other than the photos Dongeun had asked her best friend & maid of honor to take. Hyejeong shows up despite her response to the invitation. Dongeun makes sure she knows she is watching whenever she gets too comfortable, which then sends her scattering. The simple things in life are often the most pleasurable.
After the wedding Dongeun and Yeojeong do not immediately go on honeymoon, though they do spend a long weekend mostly in bed. Graduation comes quicker for what will probably be her last time through the education system, but a professor had mentioned graduate programs with what wasn’t even close to subtlety. It was tempting.
She picks up a new game somewhere in between. Go is something she genuinely enjoys, but there’s few spaces to play it online. It’s an old man’s game and they aren’t the type to adjust to the digital era so to connect remotely she has to pick up a new game. Chess is what she learns, plays it in odd hours of the morning and night.
Dongeun and Yeojeong honeymoon in Europe that summer. Romance in Italy, Euro Disney in France, meeting up with a friend in Britain, plenty of castles in between. Dongeun talks about the construction of the buildings around her, Yeojeong searches if he can take a sword through customs.
Life goes on.