Jieun giggled as she rested her head on Yeosang's shoulder, her hand covered her mouth while the other was holding on her book. The male behind her wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to his body, chuckling in her ear, before leaving a peck on her soft, red cheek.
"You couldn't have possibly done it!"
She exclaimed between a giggle and the following. Yeosang was telling her what happened during his oral exam to get his degree. Jieun didn't know the topic of his thesis as he wanted it to be a secret until the very last. However, since they both finally obtained their degrees, he decided to reveal the secret.
The topic he had discussed during his exam was controversial and original and, to make the professors live his topic, he decided to include some personal pieces of information.
"Oh, yes. You bet I did it."
Yeosang replied as he laid his back against the bark of a tree outside the complex building they were living in. The girl burst into another loud laugh, squeezing her eyes and covering her mouth more.
She, then, shook her head and turned it on her right to look at the male, who was smiling, shoving his vampire-ish yet adorable canines. She was head over clouds, for him, never been as happy as she was with him with the other boyfriends she had.
"You really talked about that Succubus during your exam? Really?"
She asked incredulous on how fearless her boyfriend was, on some occasions. Ever since Kihyun and Joo-Hyuk stopped hanging out with Yeosang, the latter had the chance to spend more time with Jieun and to work on himself more. He was more cheerful and optimistic and had gained even more self-confidence. Though, his intimidating and blank expression was always lingering around him. It was in his persona.
Yeosang, by the way, could tell with certainty that he didn't miss Kihyun or Joo-Hyuk. Of course, he was hurt by their choice to take the distances from him but wasn't regretting letting them do that, instead of begging them to stay.
Thanks to that, he found someone that always wanted to have around, someone that actually believed in him and that listened to whatever he babbled about.
He found Jieun.
"Yes! The title of my thesis was Incubus in Literature, so I managed to link my major with some personal and weird experience. You should've seen their faces! They were so lost!"
The male commented before letting another chuckle exit his lips. He ran a hand through his hair just at the thought of the professors' puzzled and dumbfounded expressions. he couldn't blame them, it was weird to hear someone talking about a sex demon without being embarrassed or uncomfortable. Nevertheless, that was what Yeosang was looking for.
Jieun, once she had stored his last words, lifted her back from the male's chest and turned around to look at him straight into his dark brown eyes, her mouth in an "O" shape and her eyes widened in amazement.
"Don't tell me you've talked about having sex with a demon!"
She questioned, making it sound more like an exclamation as curiosity was running through her veins. When she heard no reply, she hid her face behind her hands, playfully pretending to be ashamed of being his girlfriend.
Yeosang, in the meantime, was lost staring at her. Her skin was smooth and white, except for her wrist where he could spot healed up, rosy deep scratches from when the Succubus had sunk her nails in her arm. Just by looking at it, Yeosang could feel her pain of that night. Her body was covered by an adorable, short, lilac dress with pretty and tiny red and yellow roses printed on the fabric. At her feet, her unavoidable white Chanel's. Her cheeks were red, just like her lips.
She was completely different from before, it seemed she had come back to life. Reality hit Yeosang like a train when he realized what she meant with weak. There was a huge difference between the Jieun he had in front of him and the Jieun of the previous year: now, she was so lively and full of energy; before managing to banish the demon, she was pale and wasted. Still, she never lost her beauty.
Yeosang shrugged and decided to reply while she had her face covered.
"Well, they asked me where I got those pieces of information from..."
She squealed for the embarrassment his boyfriend might have felt and shaken her head from left to right while abandoning herself in one of her cute giggles.
"Yeosang! You were taking an exam! What were you thinking of?"
She jokingly scolded him and slapped his arm. He chuckled again and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, pulling her against his chest again and Jieun took advantage of it to hide her face in the crook of his neck, inebriating her nostrils with his cologne that gave her reassurance.
Yeosang brushed his jaw on her head as his fingers caressed her shoulder, earning a peaceful sigh from the girl. The male's hand slipped on his thigh and nervousness started building up in his chest. He didn't know what to do, nor how to do, but he wanted to do it.
Jieun had started leaving humid pecks on the skin of his neck and a frown appeared on her eyebrows as soon as she spotted Yeosang lost in his thoughts. It wasn't like him and the girl immediately worried. Even if it had been already a year since they first talked, she was scared to not being enough for him anymore. Maybe he had found someone better than her or maybe he was just tired.
Hoping to steal him from his state of trance, she moved her fingers from his neck to his jaw, caressing the latter before applying some pressure, in order to make him turn his head. Yeosang looked at her with a puzzled expression, before Jieun could place short and soft kisses on his lips which he gratefully accepted.
"You know, yesterday I was thinking about how this story has changed us."
She murmured against his lips, before fidgeting with the hem of her short dress. She knew that it was a delicate matter to touch for Yeosang, despite having joked about it during his exam. After all, it could be considered a trauma, especially what they had both lived during the last night with the demon. The scenes of the messy and dirty room and everyone laying on the floor covered in blood and passed out were still fresh in everyone's brain.
After they got transported to the hospital and the doctors and nurses had taken care of their injuries, they got bombarded by policemen with questions about the burglars' identikit, since Joo-Hyuk had lied to the emergency services, telling them someone, that didn't exist, had broke in.
Yeosang's flat, as expected, had been seized and he had to move out of it, luckily finding his place by Jieun's apartment. Her roommate wasn't really happy about his presence in the apartment, she was going to be the third wheel and couldn't stand it. The newborn couple, on the other hand, couldn't be happier.
The next six month had been tough, for Yeosang. Even if he had managed to slowly recover his mental and physical health, the sense of abandonment never left him, probably because it was Yeosang's worst fear that had eaten him alive since he first met the Succubus, when he was pondering whether to talk about it with his friends or not.
Jieun had showered him with love and support, helping him whenever a mental breakdown surprised him, fomented by the stress and the nervousness of his upcoming exams to get his degree. How many times he had told her with cheeks stained by tears that he felt useless and left alone and how many times her heart broke seeing him so wasted.
All of that, all of those feelings built a huge contrast when he officially asked her to become his girlfriend, the day before his exam. The girl didn't know what powerful boost of self-confidence her answer gave him.
"I think that it did something good, among all that danger."
Jieun added before a bitter chuckle could escape from her lips. Yeosang couldn't be more in agreement than he already was. So, he hummed and brushed her cheeks with his thumb.
"For me, all that matters is what it did well. And, God, I'm so grateful for it, despite how weird and crazy it sounds."
He said and the girl frowned. It certainly wasn't something to say, after all, the whole group was on the brink of death due to that situation, so it was hard to find the good in what happened.
Yeosang gave her a warm, soft smile as his fingers sweetly crawled down her neck, caressing her warm, diaphanous skin.
"Among all that evilness and fake friends, I found you, Jieun."
He whispered. The girl's eyes shone, her natural light brown colour changed, almost turning into gold. Those words made her heart race and her lips curves into a huge and bright smile. She still couldn't believe how a man like Yeosang could have an interest in her, though she was grateful, since he was helping her building her self-esteem.
She giggled, again, caught by the embarrassment and the unexpected compliment. Suddenly, she stood up and stretched her arm towards Yeosang, who looked at her with a questioned and amused expression.
"Come! I want to show you the flowers!"
She chirped as her usual before started dragging the male towards the huge garden. She loved flowers as took care of them as if they were her children. With her hard work and a huge amount of love, she managed to embellish the small garden of the building they were living in.
With fingers intertwined, they reached the plants and Jieun started talking about them, their colours, their names and their characteristics. Yeosang knew some of them, already, thanks to a special surprise he was organising for the girl. The male walked towards the red carnations and caressed the petals carefully, their texture reminded him of paper, delicate.
His wrists were a trembling mess, just like his heart. He knew that he was going to get scolded after what he would've done, but at the moment, it wasn't his problem.
He gently plucked out the flower under the burning gaze of the girl, who flinched when he did it. With only one of her eyebrows lifted, she tilted her head, waiting for him to explain what he was doing to her precious flowers. As Yeosang turned around, his eyes met hers and he would've jumped out of his skin if it wasn't for the tension that was numbing his body.
"Red carnations symbolise love."
He began, walking back to the girl as he took care to remove every trace of dirt or ruined petals from the flower. The girl smiled sheepishly, perfectly aware that she had taught him that and grateful to know that he remembered it. That was what she loves the most about Yeosang: he always listened to her.
Once he had reached Jieun, he moved her jet-black hair behind her shoulders, catching a strand of it and pulling it behind her ear. Then, he placed the flower in her hair with trembling fingers but trying to hide it from her, otherwise, she would've bombarded him with questions about his health.
He fixed the red flower in her hair, making sure that it wouldn't have fallen in any way. The colour of the plant matched with her cheeks and her lipstick, making even more evident the contrast with her naturally pale skin tone and light eyes. She looked like one of those water lilies that tons of Greek authors had sung about. And, right from Greek times, Yeosang took inspiration.
Greek authors like the one she had on the blue book she was holding, Sappho, her favourite writer of all the times.
"Your love is what saved me."
He murmured with a deep voice as he fixed the last strand of hair behind the flower. Her eyes trembled as she stared at his focused face. Then, his plan started.
"Come,
Chase me through the tunnels of my mind
Feeling the edges of my fears in the dark.
Find me in the blackest corner
Watch me.
Gather me gently by shaking off the dust from my clothes.
I will follow you.
Everywhere."
Yeosang recited as his fingers fixed her hair, before leaving her head and smile at the girl in front of him. Her eyes widened once she heard the words of her favourite poem, her throat clenched for the excitement. It was like a dream coming true, for Jieun.
Her favourite poem, from her favourite author, dedicated by her favourite person. Since everything seemed too beautiful to be a reality, she bit her lower lip, to find, with amazement, that it was the real world and Yeosang, her boyfriend, was dedicating her a poem.
Yeosang's whole body was a continuous shudder, his fears were eating him alive from the insides painfully slow and tearing his organs apart. Was he really convinced of his decision? Yes, it was a big step, but he was one hundred per cent sure with it. Did he have the courage to do that? No, but he wanted to do that.
Get a hold of yourself, Yeosang mentally scolded himself. Where do I start? He asked himself, panicking.
Then, a voice he thought he could never be able to listen, replied to his question.
Listen to your heart.
So, he embraced that tip coming from himself and began with his plan.
"My beloved Jieun, I will be forever grateful to you and your love you shower me with every day. I would've never thought someone could actually love me the way you do and I want to thank you for proving me that I was wrong. Every day, I work on myself to be a better person, a better boyfriend for you, because I think I'm actually the worst person for you."
He chuckled bitterly at the end.
"And I just came to the conclusion that I need time to come out of my bubble that I create to shelter myself from the others."
He added, but as he was about to talk again, the girl gently caressed his cheek, giving him a bright smile.
"It's alright, dear. Take your time."
She said, convinced that he was asking for a break from their relationship. She couldn't deny that it hurt her, but, after all, if space was what he needed, then, she would've given it to him.
That answer from her reassured him and his intentions, which spurred him to keep going with his plan.
"However, I don't want to stay without you. I can't stay away from you, anymore."
Jieun was puzzled: first, he said that he needed time and space from her, then he contradicts himself, telling her that he needed her presence around him. Was he playing with her feelings?
Yeosang's trembling fingers reached his jeans, tears already filling his eyes.
"I want you to stay by my side and to teach me how to properly love you. And I want you to do that. Only you."
Jieun's eyes started to fill with tears as she let those sweet words penetrating her heart and bask in them. The effect that man had on her, it was her first time being treated and complimented by someone.
"This is why I'm asking you to walk by my side for the rest of our lives. But not as my girlfriend."
The girl's eyes widened and began shaking, kind of seeing where he was aiming at. Her lips slowly parted and the breath stuck in her throat.
Yeosang had taken out of his pocket a small, velvet, blue box which was giving him so much pressure and anxiety ever since he bought it. Then, he kneeled in front of her and opened the blue box, revealing the finest and shiniest ring the girl had ever seen in her life.
"Park Jieun, would you marry me?"
He finally proposed his voice broke by the excitement and the fear, inside of him, a hurricane that was messing his feelings and brain, a never-ending tornado.
The book Jieun had held until that moment fell on the ground and the girl covered her mouth with her hands, incredulous at the sight in front of her. Yeosang's eyes were pools of love and pure devotion and the girl's heart exploded when she realized that no one had ever looked at her the way he did.
Yeosang was her first time in everything and right that thought convinced her to give him an answer.
"Yes! YES!"
She screamed as she jumped on her feet and before she could throw herself in his arms. Yeosang immediately wrapped his arms around her, holding her figure into a ribcage-wrecking hug, both of them sobbing at their new big step they were going to take together.
When they parted, the male took her hand into his and slipped the ring in her finger, immediately noticing how good it looked on her. The latter didn't waste time and pushed Yeosang by the neck into a kiss full of gratitude and love.
"Thank you... You made me the happiest man in the world."
He murmured as tears kept cutting his cheeks.
"I love you so much, Yeosang."
Jieun replied looking at him straight into his eyes.
"I will teach you how to love yourself because you don't need any help in loving me. I have never felt any of the emotions you make me feel with anyone else. You are perfect the way you already are, my dear. Don't change for anyone."
They hugged again rocking gently from left to right as they both listen to their heart-pounding crazily in their chests.
"I love you, Jieun."
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Blessed groom,
The wedding of your dream is now complete.
She is yours, the girl you love.
Oh, bride,
You're all grace,
Your visage is all love.
Oh, groom,
Happy groom,
We girls we'll sing
Tonight,
Your love and your bride
Scented of violet
We'll sing tonight.
― Sappho, "Wedding"
☆──────═══• ☽ ☼ ☾ •════──────☆
The end.