I Think I Wanna Marry You

Five: 손잡고 걸어요 Under The Starry Sky

Author's Note: I can't believe it's been more than a month since the last update! I have been so swamped with Uni Deadlines. And wow, 1.3K hits??? Thank you for being patient and sticking with me, everyone! Keep the love coming!

By the way, did anyone else squeal over how romantic Sungjae was to Joy in front of his brothers? My entire body was curled up into a ball because I physically cannot take how cute they are - it's like they were the only two in the room. And they just keep getting sweeter and sweeter. KYAAA.

Writing this while still feeling absolutely heartbroken over Bbyu's last episode. If you haven't caught it yet, get ready a box of tissues and something you can cuddle with to cry into, because I cried so badly.

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Chapter Five: 손잡고 걸어요 Under The Starry Sky (We Walk Holding Hands Under The Starry Sky)

"Sugo haesseoyo! Kamsahamnida!" All five Red Velvet members bowed gratefully to their dance instructors as they left the practice room.

As soon as the door closed, Joy felt herself slide down the wall she was leaning against. "That was suuuuuchhhh a tough practice!" she moaned while eyeing Irene and Wendy still practicing the robot point of their Dumb Dumb dance routine. Seulgi stood at the side looking over their movement then helping them adjust their arms to make them look more oblique and stiff.

Yeri bounded over and handed her bottled water while plopping her sweaty self next to Joy. She cheekily nudged Joy and said in a low voice, "I'm sure someone will be more than happy to soothe your tiredness."

Joy blushed and nudged Yeri back which started a nudge war between the two of them. Yeri finally surrendered when Joy's competitive nature gave her an opening to nudge Yeri painfully in the ribs. In response, she huffed and got up to ask Seulgi to help her with the throw-and-catch-an-invisible-ball dance move. Joy sighed and dropped her head back, mind once again drifting back to the day he comforted her by the river.

It's been two weeks since that day. They did not exchange phone numbers, so Joy wondered how their relationship was to progress. Even though there was chemistry, they were still shy and still trying to suss each other out. She found him handsome and interesting, and honestly will not object to meeting him again. But she was a girl. Appa always taught her to be a bit more reserved. He said guys that come after her should work for her attention. She giggled and shook her head a little at the thought, remembering an incident during one of the (many) times he said it.

She was five. They were sitting together on the playground swings and appa had just left to get her a mint ice cream cone (as she requested) when a boy came and sat down on the swing that appa was sitting on. The boy had a bowl haircut and was at least two years older than her. He challenged her to see who could swing the highest. Even as a child, Sooyoung was competitive. She had immediately responded by proposing a wager: the child that swung the highest got to think up the loser's forfeit. Being very confident of her abilities in the playground and not trusting the boy to keep his word, she got off the swing and went towards him with her pinky extended.

"You promise? Pinky swear that you will do the punishment when you lose!"

"Pfttttt. Of course I promise. Not like I will lose anyway!"

The boy hooked his pinky through hers and motioned to press her thumb to his.

"There! Pinky promise sealed. Now neither of us can break this promise!"