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“Taerae, I’m so sad,” Matthew says the second he opens the door to let Taerae in.
“Why?” Taerae asks. “Did someone die?” His parents have told him it’s not necessary to ask if someone died every time one of his friends is sad, but they’ve also always told him to be prepared for anything, so he’s pretty sure that’s what his mom would call “mixed messaging.”
“No, nobody died,” Matthew says. “Chaehyun has a cold, so she can’t come today.”
“Oh. That is sad, you’re right,” Taerae says, frowning. He mostly means it. He doesn’t want Chaehyun to be sick, of course. And in theory he doesn’t want her to miss today’s playdate. He likes Chaehyun, always has fun playing with her at recess. But he can’t help but be excited at the prospect of an afternoon alone with Matthew. They’re best friends, but Matthew also has a lot of other friends. Which Taerae doesn’t mind—he thinks everyone should be friends with Matthew, because Matthew is the best. But it does mean that he doesn’t often get Matthew all to himself.
“It’s tragic,” Matthew says solemnly. “We were supposed to get married today.”
Right.
“Right,” Taerae says. “I forgot about that.”
He did not forget about it. He was just…well, he was hoping Matthew had forgotten about it, even though he knew there was very little chance of that. Ever since Matthew got back from his aunt’s wedding in Canada last week, he’s barely been able to talk about anything except weddings. When he ran over to Chaehyun on the playground and got down on one knee, holding a piece of grass twisted into something resembling a ring, Taerae felt a strange, unidentifiable feeling settle in his stomach, and it hasn’t quite gone away since.
Matthew continues to bemoan Chaehyun’s absence as Taerae follows him up the stairs to his room. Then, suddenly, he gasps and whirls around to face Taerae, his eyes wide.
“Wait,” he says. “We can get married.”
Taerae blinks. “What?”
“We can get married,” Matthew repeats, gesturing between himself and Taerae.
“To...each other?”
“Yeah. Why not?”
Taerae frowns. “Won’t Chaehyun mind?”
“Nah, I don’t think so. And if she does, I can just marry her too when she’s feeling better.”
“But we’re…we’re both boys,” Taerae says hesitantly.
“Boys can marry boys,” Matthew says, matter-of-fact. “At least, I think so. I know girls can marry girls, because my aunt married a girl.”
“The aunt that just got married?”
“Yep.”
“You didn’t mention that.”
“Yes I did,” Matthew says confidently. Then he stops, cocking his head to the side. “Actually, maybe I didn’t. I don’t know. But yeah, I have two aunts now.”
“Oh,” Taerae says. Come to think of it, he does remember Matthew mentioning a second aunt.
“So?” Matthew says, and Taerae sighs.
“Okay. Let’s get married.”
Twenty minutes later, the porch has been decorated with all manner of random flowers and leaves from the yard. They don’t have any kind of proper wedding attire, so they’re both wearing worn-out, way-too-big suit jackets that used to belong to Matthew’s father.
They’ve been joined by Matthew’s sister, who Matthew has somehow managed to convince to both officiate the wedding and to let them borrow two plastic rings from her jewelry box. She’s standing by the altar (which is really just a chair with a sheet thrown over it), clearly more interested in her phone than the wedding.
At Matthew’s signal, Taerae begins his journey down the aisle, which is just the sidewalk that leads up to the porch. Matthew is humming some fancy-sounding song as Taerae approaches. He’s bouncing on his toes and smiling that big, sunny smile that always makes Taerae feel lucky to just be in his presence.
When Taerae has reached the altar, there’s a long moment of silence before Matthew turns to Yaebin and whispers loudly, “Noona. The rings.”
“Oh right,” Yaebin says, not looking up from her phone. She fishes the rings out of her pocket and hands them to Matthew, then says, “I now pronounce—”
“Noooo,” Matthew whines. “We have to put the rings on first.” Yaebin rolls her eyes.
Taerae’s hands shake a little as they slide the rings onto each other’s fingers. His is gold plastic, with a little green flower. Matthew’s has the same design, but the ring is silver and the flower is blue.
“Okay, I now pronounce you husband and husband, or whatever,” Yaebin says, already turning away from them. “You better not lose those rings, Matt. I mean it,” she warns as she heads back into the house.
Matthew ignores his sister and turns back to Taerae. “This is the part where we would kiss,” he says.
Taerae’s stomach drops. “I—we’re not—I mean—”
Matthew giggles. “No, silly. But we can pretend.” He leans forward and puckers his lips, smacking them loudly in an exaggerated imitation of a kiss. Taerae hesitates for a moment, then does the same, trying to ignore the heat rising in his cheeks.
“Now we’re married,” Matthew says, grinning. Taerae looks at him and thinks, with startling clarity, whoever gets to marry him one day is so lucky.
“You know,” Matthew says, looping his arm through Taerae’s as they turn to go back inside, “it’s not so bad that Chaehyun isn’t here. I mean, it’s bad that she’s sick. But I think I’d rather marry you than her.”
“Oh. Why?”
“I don’t know. It would feel weird to marry her, even though it’s not real. She’s my friend, you know?”
“So am I,” Taerae points out, his voice quiet and timid.
“Yeah, but that’s different,” Matthew replies. “You’re…you’re special, you know? You’re my Taerae.”
“Oh,” Taerae says, feeling suddenly warm inside. “You’re special too,” he adds. He says it quietly, but he knows Matthew heard him, because he gives him that perfect sunny smile again.
Taerae smiles back. Maybe weddings aren’t so bad after all.