Strawberry Wine

final

It has been a year since Chae Young put a ring on Jung Kook's finger in the daisy field. They rent out a basement a few blocks away from the school they teach in. It is in the heart of the suburbs and the place is crammed with books, but they do not need much space anyway; they like being close to each other even physically.

Jung Kook's mother visits them sometimes. She likes Chae Young, even though she begrudges them for getting married without her. She loves to bring kimchi, fermented Pollock and gochujang and stock their refrigerator with them. For Chae Young, it is not the same as having a mother again, but it was nice to have someone older care for you.

Sometimes, she wakes up to Jung Kook's steady breathing beside her on the pillow and she leans in to kiss his face lightly to make sure that it is real, that it is not a dream and that Jung Kook is really hers, forever.

But there is just one gaping hole in her new life. She wishes her father would call again.

"He will forgive everything when you have a child," Lisa says in her wisest tone.

Chae Young laughs but she knows that they both want to wait with having a child. What she has trouble waiting for is her father's call.

Her grandfather passes away quietly in sleep. She takes a few days off and decides to spend some time with her grandmother. Jung Kook is to come later during the weekend on the school's day off.

They carry out the rites and her grandaunts and other women from the neighborhood help her prepare food.

It is in the evening during the second day of Wake when she had been speaking to some elderly guests that her father suddenly appears at the gate.

Chae Young stops abruptly mid-sentence. She blinks her swollen eyes and stares to make sure that her sleep deprivation is not making her hallucinate.

Her father smiles weakly at her. He looks older and tired.

Suddenly, warm liquid is coursing down her cheek. But she is smiling so big.

Running up, she throws her arms around him. He still smells the same, his arms still feels the same.

"I'm sorry," she blurts.

"No," he says softly, "I'm sorry."

Jung Kook arrives the next day. Chae Young is amused to see him slightly nervous on meeting her father. Jung Kook is rarely nervous.

"He's the reliable sort," her father tells her the next day when the last of the relatives from other towns and cities had left.

She smiles. "He is."

Pause.

"Appa, are you still upset with my decision?"

He sighs. "Chaengie, I've never seen you happier since mother- mother passed away. Even if you cry, your eyes are not dead. And when you smile, you really smile. Yes, it was initially not my choice for you to- to return to South Korea and marry suddenly. But that look in your eyes- I wouldn't exchange it for anything in the world. I was foolish to have been stubborn for so long."

Chae Young hugs him tightly. She can't find anything to say. Happiness did not always have words.

She tells Jung Kook about her conversation with her father later that evening. He is just as happy, if not more relieved.

She plans a picnic to the daisy field- her grandma, her father, Jung Kook's grandparents and of course, she and her husband.

Her husband.

The word amuses her. When she was eighteen, she would have never thought she'd be using that word at twenty five.

It is a pleasant autumn morning and her grandma is actually smiling. She and Jung Kook had asked her to stay with them in Seoul for a few months. For now, her grandma protests, but she seemed pleased when they suggested it.

In the field, before they unpack their food, she tells them that they're going to take a picture. Jung Kook has borrowed an uncle's camera especially for the occasion.

She sets up the timer and joins the little group of her family, noticing that her brother is missing. He will have to join them another day.

For now, she will remember her father with his arms around her mother's mother, Jung Kook's grandparents holding hands and Jung Kook's right arm around her waist, his head leaning in towards hers, and their golden wedding band glinting in the autumn sun.

a/n: dear readers, I have finally finished this story. I have really loved and has been encouraged by all your very lovely comments. Thank you for taking the time to read and leave comments. It has been a great source of joy for me. Stay gold!