Date check, today is 10th day of February and a regular day for everyone including the famous lawyer of Los Angeles, Atty. Kim Jungeun, to do their daily work. Today is her birthday too and for the young lawyer, it is just a reminder that she reaches another milestone in her life… nothing more, just a simple birthday on a normal month.
But is it really a normal month for her this year though?
Because the moment when the world reaches its first day of her birth month, her best friend slash secretary Jiwoo started to call her EVERY single midnight and cry her eyes out without saying any reason behind her tears and loud sobs on the other line. The secretary also tears up every time her boss crosses paths with her and shares an eye contact with when they’re at Eclipse. Jungeun feels like after February reach its time, she became a sliced onion to Jiwoo’s eyes, making the latter teary and emotional when they meet.
Jungeun tried to confront her, countless times already, but Jiwoo never answered her question and just shook her head while trying to stop her tears from falling. It honestly scares the lawyer every time.
Well who wouldn’t get scared, right? Seeing your best friend cries for almost two weeks straight and not sharing any idea or reason why, even just a single word. Jungeun is literally clueless right now.
“She cried again.” Jungeun informs to her girlfriend who is sitting with their daughter on the floor after she enters her office.
Jinsol stops from showing a small piece of Gundam to Yerim and then she turns her head to the approaching lawyer, “who cried?” she asks.
“Jiwoo. She cried again when I asked her about my schedules for today.”
Chuckling and turning her attention back to her daughter and Gundams, Jinsol shares a questionable look with Yerim and Jungeun saw it but decided to ignore. She sits on the couch behind her two favorite girls before starting to watch them build the robotic figure.
“Have any plans for tonight?” The older asks making Jungeun think for a moment before shaking her head as an answer.
“No? Why did you ask? Planning to bring me outside with Yerim for dinner date again?”
Even how often Jinsol brings her and their daughter to a restaurant or somewhere else for their ‘family’ day, Jungeun still loves it when her girlfriend has a plan on her mind. Either it is just a simple feast or what-so-ever, the lawyer still looks forward to it.
And now, she just wants to celebrate her birthday later with Jinsol and Yerim and with their friends in addition if they won’t leave her house to celebrate.
The author only shrugs her shoulder before turning her head to Jungeun, “it’s your birthday, right? You’re the one who supposed to make plans for later.”
“Hmm… hit a point.” Jungeun replies.
Jinsol shrugs her shoulders then smiles towards her girlfriend before playing with their daughter again.
Secretly turning her little smile into smirk, the author gives herself a mental pat on the back when she thinks about what will going to happen to all of them next few hours. She just know that everyone’s waiting for Jungeun’s birthday and only her girlfriend doesn’t have any idea about what will happen on her that day.
͟
Sighing while circling her swivel chair around to remove the haziness in her mind, Jungeun tries her best to relax herself. She tried, tries, and will try to avoid the migraine that her paper works gave to her to suffer into that day. And thinking that it is her birthday, it adds more tragic touch to Jungeun’s sufferings.
She finished studying her current case already and the sunlight behind the glass wall of her office begins to make its way out as the darkness of the night starts to replace the nearest star. A cue for her to stand up from her chair and leave the building as she knows her girlfriend and their child are waiting for her to come home.
Both Jinsol and Yerim left earlier than usual as they want to try to cook and prepare for their dinner. They’ve settled to that not-a-hundred-percent-safe plan of Jinsol after Yerim second the motion. Dangerous or not, Jungeun got no any chance to protest when Jinsol shouted “majority wins!” after and ran out from the office with their child on her arms.
Jungeun silently prays that her house is still standing, while she’s walking to the parking lot.
“Good evening, Attorney Kim. Going home, boss?” Suddenly, Wonho appeared out of nowhere making the lawyer hastily stopped from her tracks and answer.
“Yes. You can check the securities and locks now, let the other guards do their shift.”Jungeun instructs and the lad nods his head.
“Will do, Attorney. Drive safely and happy Birthday.” Wonho politely says before he slightly bows and salutes out of his habit.
The habit started when Jinsol began to visit his boss and both of them always exchange those gestures playfully. So now, the head security guard of Jungeun’s firm keeps doing the playful salute every time he greets the people who work at Eclipse, which were returned with the same gesture sometimes.
Giving her employee a kind smile, Jungeun thanks Wonho and with their closeness she also offers a playful salute in return. “Thanks. You too, Wonho.” The lawyer says before she starts to approach her parked car.
“Congratulations, Attorney Kim!”
Jungeun was about unlocks her car, when she heard Wonho shouted from the distance. And when she turns around to face the lad, he was already inside of the elevator and waving, so she just awkwardly wave too until the elevator closes.
“Weird.”
͟
Coming home and arriving to their house, the weird feeling that still bothers the lawyer since earlier just gets stronger upon she sees their house dark. There’s no any light on, and only the street lights around their area give the brightness to her way to the front.
Where are Jinsol and Yerim right now? It’s been an hour or two since they went home and they’re supposed to be preparing for their dinner if they weren’t done yet.
Why their house is still dark?
Jungeun carefully holds the doorknob before checking if it’s unlock and it is, so she slowly turns it and opens the entrance. Still no light but the moon is shining so brightly behind the windows that it helps the lawyer to calm her beating heart for a bit and closes the door behind her. She then turns on the light of the living room and puts her bag and car keys on the coffee table.
The lawyer knows she shouldn’t have stay or just start calling for Jinsol’s number since it may be quite dangerous for her or for them, but the other side of hers tell her to not panic. And so she finds herself walking to the kitchen of her house and to the back door, which she soon opens and finds the backyard has lighten up candles scattered around.
“I swear if she won’t clean this place later, I won’t let her step inside of my house again.” Jungeun murmurs to herself, trying to hide the confused yet surprised feeling she has. Walking out and approaching the candles, a sudden sound from a violin starts to play but Jungeun cannot see anyone else in the place.
Only she, the candles, and sound of the playing violin are there, nothing more.
While thinking about where her girlfriend and their child at, the lawyer suddenly feels a soft tug on her blouse from behind making her slightly jump. Jungeun turns around to check who it is, she found Yerim offering a ring. Looking so innocent as if she didn’t accidentally startled her mother seconds ago; the child doesn’t even apologize and just smile widely.
“Oh my God, baby. You scared mommy.” Jungeun says as she lowers herself to match her daughter’s height. Before the child could say anything, a frantic footsteps start to get nearer to them and they both look at the source of it.
“Yerimie! Why did you run off with the ring? I was the one who should give that to mommy.” A panicking raven soon arrived and with a pout, Jinsol crosses her arms on her chest. “I haven’t given my speech yet.”
“I’m sorry, bruni, but I want to show to mommy her ring first before surprising her.” The little child says excitedly and older mother immediately puts a hand on top of Yerim’s mouth.
“Just accept it already, Jinsol! Your child beat you on your surprise proposal!”
“Surprise, Jungeun!”
“Oh snap! Surprise proposal failed!”
“Better luck next time, buddy!”
“What do you mean next time, Soo?!”
“Will you all shut the effin’ up?!”
Jungeun just watch the chaotic scenes in front of her and she realizes that there are more people hiding from her and arguing with her girlfriend right now. She guesses that they are their friends.
“What’s the meaning of all of these?” Jungeun questions to fuming Jinsol while standing up and raising her right eyebrow.
Connecting the dots and based on what she had heard, it is a “supposedly” surprise proposal for her. Even Jungeun can say that it is a fail.
“I was about to… Never mind… Come out now, guys!” Jinsol stutters and she waves her arms around making Sooyoung, Haseul, Hyelin, and France come out from their hidden spot while holding a banner with ‘YOU WILL MARRY ME’ printed on it.
Jungeun should be crying right now, she swears she would…
Who wouldn’t if your partner finally asks for your hand in marriage?
However, she’s still raising her eyebrow while finding the whole situation chaotic than touching.
Don’t get her wrong, she’s surprised and she didn’t expect any of these but the messy situation of the whole surprise makes her chuckle, and so she does. Jungeun laughs but forcefully stops immediately after Jinsol taps her shoulder.
“So? How’s it?” Jinsol asks.
The lawyer looks around again then stops when her sight lands on the banner. Something’s wrong obviously, especially on the question. Was it really a question though?
“I think there’s something wrong on your banner, Jung.” She says to her waiting girlfriend.
Jinsol looks at it too and her confused expression turns into realizing one. “Oh right! Hey, spread the banner!” The raven orders to the four and they spread the material making four periods after each words visible.
“Are you seriously forcing me to marry you? How sweet, Jinsol.” Jungeun says with an obvious hint of amusement on her tone.
Yes, the sentence earlier was demanding enough for Jungeun, but now that it turned into ‘YOU. WILL. MARRY. ME.’ No doubt that the older is really ordering Jungeun to marry her, and with the force now.
“Yes?” Quite not sure about her own answer, Jinsol scratches the back of her head.
“What if I won’t do it?”
“Then no ring for mommy.”
It was Yerim who answered. They almost forgot about the child between them. Both parents look down at their daughter and Jinsol smiles goofily while Jungeun just shakes her head.
This is too different from her dream proposal. Everything is just so messy.
What the candles are for? It doesn’t even make a path or any image like the others she used to watch or imagine or read. The banner doesn’t make any sense too. It’s far from sweet letters and messages that she expected to see when she was dreaming about these. Again, every single thing right now is so messy.
And yet, thinking about accepting the ring her child is offering to her, the demand that is written on the banner, and the smiling face of Jinsol in front of her, all of the chaos that happened were set aside and her mind tells her to carefully ask for the ring from Yerim.
After her child hands her the jewelry, Jungeun examines it for a while and shakes her head upon seeing a tiny red colored stone attached to it which she assumes is a diamond. Her girlfriend seriously loves to spend money for her.
“How expensive is this, Jung? Answer me honestly.” The lawyer asks, looking straightly to her girlfriend’s eyes.
“Not much seriously. Your yes is way more expensive than that ring.” Jinsol answers smoothly before smiling widely again.
Jungeun starts to throw her free hand to the author and then she hides her face using her hands when she feels her own tears starting to cover her sight.
Unbelievable, she just got swooned by Jinsol… But it always happens, right?
“I hate you. This is not my dream proposal. I hate you so much.” Jungeun cries before hitting Jinsol again.
Jinsol, who obviously got shocked from the lawyer’s outburst, immediately pulls Jungeun to her embrace and whispers a few sorry. She doesn’t know what the younger wants and Jinsol thinks she failed her girlfriend. Maybe she should tell Jungeun to reject her engagement proposal and plan again.
“I’m sorry, baby. I-I didn’t know what you-“ Jinsol tried to coos but before she can even finish her sentence, a pair of lips stops her from talking and another couple of weak punches were given to her.
“How did you make me love all of these? I hate you so much.” Pulling away from the hug for a second, Jungeun shakily wears the ring on her own left ring finger before snuggling back to her now fiancée. “It is way better than what I’ve dreamed of because of you.”
The author lets out a relief sigh before chuckling and she kisses Jungeun’s temple. “I thought you won’t accept it. You made me quite nervous back there, hon.” Jinsol confesses and they both laugh.
“Stop talking, mommy and bruni! Kiss again!”
“Yes! Kiss!”
“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!”
“Hyejoo-ah, close your eyes!”
“Kiss her, Sollie!”
“Look away, Chaewonie.”
Both shaking their heads because of others sudden loud cheers, Jinsol and Jungeun look at each before exchanging a quick peck again, making everyone around them celebrate. The other members of their squad and their parents finally show up themselves and congratulate the newly engage couple. Some teasing the raven for having a failed surprise, while some are excitedly screaming around Jungeun about getting married, everyone celebrated the double event that are special that night.
͟
Around last week of September:
After 7 months of discussing and preparing for their wedding, the big day finally comes and everyone is excited except Jungeun who is nervously staying at her hotel room.
She have been waited for this day since she was still a kid and she never imagined how nerve-wrecking a wedding is until it is completely in front of her. Jungeun’s dream wedding is now waving at her and less than an hour or half, the ceremony will start.
The wedding will be held in a beach, like what she wanted. Flowers surrounding the venue, few relatives and friends were invited, and she’s getting married with the love of her life. Her dream is slowly becoming true.
But what ifs are slowly flooding her mind. Her negative thoughts start to bother her. Good thing she learned from her best friend how to be optimistic, her positive side always encounters the negativity that suddenly comes up to ruin her mood.
What if Jinsol suddenly back out or walk out from their wedding? No, she won’t because everyone around them knows how excited and determined Jinsol to marry her so they can be an official family after the wedding with their child.
What if Jinsol suddenly realizes she doesn’t love her enough and got scared? Jungeun doubts her own thought since she’s sure that Jinsol loves her too. She was the one who popped the question to Jungeun and she should back out already before this day to come to them if she’s afraid.
Then what if Jinsol will meet a woman who is more beautiful and better than her in the future, will Jinsol leave them?
Jungeun’s negative thoughts got cut when the sudden sounds of few knocks on the door reach her ear. She’s already done on her preparations and just waiting for anyone’s cue, informing her that she’ll go down the aisle and meet her future wife in front of the altar and the people they have invited now. Maybe it is one of the staffs.
Carefully lifting her dress and walking to the door, Jungeun opens it and finds her teary yet smiling best friend Jiwoo. This woman is obviously much more excited and emotional than her, but Jungeun understands the overflowing feelings that everyone’s having right now, including Jiwoo’s.
“I thought it is bad to see the bride?” Jungeun jokes, trying to make her best friend smile which she successfully did.
“Shut up, I’m not your soon-to-be-spouse.” Jiwoo says before she playfully rolls her eyes and embraces the older. “I’m so happy for you, Jungie. I thought you’ll die virgin- ow!”
Jungeun pulls away from the hug after hitting Jiwoo and she is now the one who rolls her eyes. “And I’ve expected you to give me an eye teary speech!” She scoffs. Seeing her best friend suddenly bombarded her hotel room with obviously tears on her eyes. Of course, she’d expect that the younger will make her cry too.
“Oh come on, Jungie! You know how much I love you and excited for you. No need for any speeches. Jinsol will kill me if I make you cry and ruin your make up.” The red head chuckles before pulling her best friend into a hug again. “You truly deserve someone like Jinsol.” Jiwoo softly says.
And with that, she unintentionally made the bride turn into emotional.
Maybe Jungeun doesn’t need a speech or any long messages from the younger, because after she heard the soft words that Jiwoo let out, her eyes starts to get teary and she feels her heart warms.
Since they were little, they stick together. From the years she slowly start to dream her fairytale like love stories until those dreams got shattered into pieces because of what happened to her family in her past, Jiwoo always stayed beside her and accompanied her. And now that her dreams finally returned and becoming true, her best friend is still embracing her and caring for her.
Jungeun appreciates and loves Jiwoo so much that she wishes the latter won’t get hurt again. They’ve saw each other broken, got miserable, became whole again, and getting stronger still. Jungeun would love it if she’ll also witness her best friend’s wedding in the future like how Jiwoo will witness hers later.
“Hey, stop crying, Jungeun. We didn’t fly from Los Angeles to Hawaii for you to ruin your own wedding.” Jiwoo comforts the bride in her arms after she heard a sniff.
The red head pulls away from the hug before taking a tissue lying around and helps her best friend wipe her tears carefully. The sight may be funny for Jiwoo because she’s seeing the cry baby side of Jungeun in front of her right now, but the wedding is more important and she can’t risk her best friend’s image, so she tries her best to calm down the bride.
“You two, stop being dramatic and retouch your make ups quickly. The wedding will start in 15.”
Both best of friends look at the hotel room’s door and they find Vivi leaning on the doorframe and smiling at them amusingly.
“We need to hurry, Jungie! Let’s go!”
“Hey! Slow down! I’m wearing dress, Kim Jiwoo!”
“Obviously, all of us are, Jungeun.”
͟
After the three women reach the location where the wedding will be held, both Jiwoo and Vivi bid their excuses and advance congratulations to the bride as they will walk down the aisle first. Both are Jungeun’s bridesmaids and dressed in fairy like white dresses, approaching the other attendants and listening to a staff’s instructions.
“This is it. It’ll start now.” Jungeun thinks and then she let out a deep sigh to lessen her nervousness.
The ceremony soon finally starts and Jungeun listens to Haseul’s opera like voice in the background while she’s trying to digest how her Ob-Gyn got an angelic voice. It was Jinsol who asked Haseul to sing for their wedding and Jungeun just let her fiancée planned for it. She trusted her and she’s completely awed by now.
After few minutes, a staff finally approaches the bride and signals her that she’ll go down the aisle soon, and so she starts to walk to the place where she was instructed to stand at and meet her daughter.
“Woah, mommy looks beautiful.” Yerim compliments to her mother in shush tone.
Jungeun smiles to the lovely child of hers and compliments back. “You look beautiful too, baby.”
Yerim is assigned to be their flower girl and she’s the next to walk after the ring bearer. Both her and her mother watch the lazy Hyejoo in black suit makes her entrance to the front slowly. (Sooyoung stops herself from going to her daughter to carry her and make the walk quicker.)
After Hyejoo finished, it is now Yerim’s turn to enter so she makes her way to the aisle and grins widely to everyone. Completely different from Hyejoo, Yerim hops and waves to Jinsol who is standing at the front and watching her. The raven waves back to her daughter and grins too. They are now wearing their similar smile.
The attention of the bride in suit soon transfers from her daughter to the next one who will walk, and everyone witness how Jinsol’s jaw drops upon landing her eyes on Jungeun. Their parents and friends prevented them to see each other before the wedding, so finally meeting again, Jinsol visibly gawks at her bride while Jungeun is mentally stunned by the older.
Jinsol is wearing black polo long sleeves inside of her white suit that has a small touch of blue flowers printed on the left part. Her tops were partnered with black slacks and white formal shoes. She’s also wearing royal blue necktie to complete her outfit.
Her looks is just so simple yet attractive to Jungeun’s eyes, and to see that the raven is wearing eye glasses, Jungeun wants to say ‘I do’ already.
“I know your future wife looks good, Jungie. But it’s your turn to walk now.” Snapping out from her trance, the lawyer looks at her right side and sees her father smiling at her. Mr. Kim carefully grabs his daughter’s right arm and wraps it to his own left arm, he then sighs before giving Jungeun a soft kiss on her temple. “Let’s go. Everyone’s waiting for you, honey.” And they both finally start to walk.
All the people who are present to their wedding are watching Jungeun and her father, yet the former only sets her attention to the woman who is standing at the front. Watching how Sooyoung closes Jinsol’s mouth and suddenly the raven starts to tears up, Jungeun wants to laugh so bad but decides to maintain her composure. She can’t embarrass Jinsol on their wedding day.
“Here you go, Jungie. I’m going to pass you to Jinsol now. Please always remember that if Jinsol hurt you, which I truly doubt, you can call daddy and I’ll kick her butt for you.” Mr. Kim whispers to his daughter, making Jungeun gets more emotional (how many time did she gets emotional that day?).
The bride chuckles before nodding her head and softly replies with a thank you and I love you to her father. Once they reach Jinsol, the raven quickly wipes her tears and turns to her future father-in-law. “Thank you for making your beautiful daughter, Mr. Kim.”
“Oh! You’re very much welcome, kid. Please take care of my beautiful daughter.” Jungeun’s father says while chuckling but he quickly stops and leans in to Jinsol’s left ear, Mr. Kim whispers, “or I’ll take her and Yerim away from you.” And then he pats the raven’s shoulder before standing straight back.
Jinsol nervously swallows a lump of nothing then lets out an awkward laugh while nodding. “Of course, Sir, I will.”
“Good. I’m giving you my daughter’s hand now.” Passing Jungeun’s right arm from his left arm to Jinsol’s, Mr. Kim gives the two brides his fatherly smile before he walks to his seat beside his ex-wife.
“Hi.” Jinsol softly greets to the woman cling into her. Her nervousness immediately vanished upon seeing Jungeun approaching her earlier, it may be because the younger is too beautiful in her white dress or it is because she will going to get married to the love of her life now. Thinking about both makes Jinsol’s heart flutter and beats double than usual. Everything is just too much for her that it feels like it is a dream than reality.
“Hey.” Jungeun giggles before both gives each other a sweet smile and walks in front of the Officiant.
The whole opening remarks, addresses and basically the whole ceremony went smooth for them, but not until when it's Jinsol's turn to delivers her own version of vow for Jungeun and it goes weird (that the other members of ’97 squad have to help her explain her words to the confused Jungeun and make her understand their best friend’s recitation.)
“… I promise you, Attorney Kim Jungeun, that I will love and stay with you for the rest of my life, and even though I still doesn’t know if you’re a ‘whoo’ person or ASDCRXGR-“
“Wait, if am I what?” Jungeun unconsciously cut her partner’s speech while raising her right eyebrow. She’s aware that she’s tying with a sweet and unpredictable person right now and she honestly doesn’t mind it because she loves Jinsol so much. But for the first time that day, she cannot understand what was the woman in front of her has meant with her words. She also cannot believe how Jinsol did the incoherent word that she just said.
“Jinsol seriously sucks on that…” Sooyoung let out louder than she intended and all of the attendees look at her, including the brides and the Officiant.
“What Jinsol meant was that if you’re a person who blows your food first when it’s hot or just eats it then endures until it gets cool inside your mouth.” Haseul explained, trying to help her best friends, and the oldest among the ’97 club gave them a thumbs-up for confirmation and support.
Speechless by what she had heard, Jungeun just slowly nodded her head and then let out a stutter. “O-ow…”
The Officiant broke the awkward silence by faking a cough and Jinsol continued her vow.
Rest of their wedding went okay (thankfully) and the most awaited first kiss of the newly wedded couple was witnessed by wilding crowd of attendees, making Jungeun and Jinsol laugh.
The lawyer can finally say that all of her dreams had come true, and she’s glad that she got Jinsol. If it wasn’t because of the latter, she might be still a hopeless single woman with a child, so Jungeun’s very thankful for meeting the other mother of her daughter. Catching a woman who makes her and Yerim feel happy and loved, that’s all she just wants for them. Sure it wasn’t really a bad idea to give Jinsol a chance to meet their child and enter their lives.
About Jinsol, who is still embarrassed by her own weird vow earlier, also feels so relieved and contented now. At last, she’s married with Kim Jungeun and she loves how she got tied to a wonderful woman like her wife. Being with the lawyer and their child gives Jinsol a reason to believe that having a family can complete a person’s life. And maybe she should make another dream now as she successfully achieved the goal that she has made almost a year ago. She’s sure that Jungeun and Yerim will help her to reach her new dream, together with her.
May they have a full of love and joyous life together.