[jae/jimin] i think i wanna marry you
Jae paces in front of the coffee shop he and Jackson arranged to meet. He’s fifteen minutes early and the people coming out of the café are giving him weird looks. He was there when some of them went in. Now Jae can feel his lip shaking and tries to calm down before he does something stupid. Jackson really isn’t someone he should be nervous about, anyway. But there’s the thing – Jackson and him are friends, sure, but he’ll always be a bit more Jimin’s friend than his. And Youngji’s even worse – your friend of a friend’s girlfriend. Jae just hopes everything will work out.
Jackson arrives a total of two minutes late, in which Jae manages to look at his phone a total of eleven times.
‘Hey man, I hope you didn’t wait long, you know how it is the days before a wedding,’ after Jae’s pointed look, Jackson laughs ‘Yeah, okay, sorry, I guess you don’t. Well. It’s hectic.’
‘So…’ Jae starts hesitantly and Jackson hums in acknowledgement while he squints at the menu above the counter. ‘I kinda need a favor.’
*
‘Hell yes!’ Jackson exclaims, a bit louder than acceptable. They get a few looks. ‘Well,’ he continues a second later, calmer this time, ‘You should ask Youngji too, but I doubt she’ll mind.’
Jae leaves the café with Youngji’s phone number and a little less nerves eating at him.
*
Turns out, brides-to-be are very busy people. Youngji flat out refuses to meet up (nicely). They talk via text with Youngji’s replies delayed anywhere between fifteen minutes and two hours. When Jae finally finishes explaining his idea Youngji sends him a string of heart emojis and ‘you’re so sweet’. Ten minutes later he gets a ‘that meant yes by the way.’ Another twenty minutes later he gets a text from Jackson, too – this one has a lot of heart emojis too, a lot of exclamation marks and a ‘you’re on man’ in all caps.
Everything is settled now. Then why does it feel like his nerves have just tripled?
*
The day of the wedding is a sunny one – the first after almost a week of rain. It seems like the sun waited for them to come out, because it suits Jackson and Youngji perfectly. They both look like they’re living the happiest day of their lives and it’s so cute Jae almost forgets to be nervous. Youngji is beautiful, as every bride is – but, as per usual, Jae can hardly take his eyes off Jimin. Her dress is a pale pink and her hair is done up and she… looks close to tears.
She catches him staring and nudges him in the ribs. ‘Shut up,’ she says, even though Jae hasn’t said anything, ‘I’m allowed to be sappy today.’
Up front Jackson is talking about the first time he saw Youngji and Jae thinks about the first time he saw Jimin – she had signed up for guitar lesson with the most determined expression he’d ever seen (she told him, later, that it had been a dare – go sign up for the hot TA’s guitar lessons). He had honestly expected her to never show up after the first class. Not only she did, but she fell in love with the guitar, too. They started harmonizing together at some point and it took a little over a year for Jae to start asking her to open mic nights with him.
When Jimin graduated college it turned out none of them is ready for the open mic nights to stop. So they never did.
Now, five years later, Jae stands next to her while she pretends not to cry. The priest is about to pronounce Jackson and Youngji husband and wife, and it’s almost time. Jae subtly moves away from Jimin’s side and watches Mr and Mrs Wang walk back the aisle, hand in hand and his heart goes in his throat.
Someone shouts for the bride to throw her bouquet and Youngji laughs (while Jackson grins at Jae). Youngji turns around and all the bridesmaids form a semi-circle behind her. Jimin tries to fall back but Hara drags her back with them. Jae wonders if the other bridesmaids are in on the plan.
Youngji pretends she’s throwing the bouquet a few times and everyone laughs. Then she turns around, walks right to Jimin and hands it to her. Everyone steps back and yes, the bridesmaids are definitely in on the plan. Jimin looks happy but confused, at least until she sees Jae standing in front of her. Her eyes are wide and disbelieving and this is it.
Surprisingly, Jae’s not nervous. He gets to one knee.
‘Since you’re allowed to be sappy today,’ he grins and someone laughs, ‘Park Jimin. Will you marry me?’
She can’t even pretend to not cry now because the tear tracks are sort of smudging her eyeliner but her eyes are shining and Youngji is a beautiful bride, yes, but Jimin has always been and always will be the most beautiful thing in Jae’s life.
Jimin is saying things that sound like noyesicantnoillkillyouyesyes but she’s dragging him up and kissing him, so it’s okay. He tries to put the ring on her hand in between kisses but fails miserably, they drop it and everyone laughs at them.
It’s perfect.