[Fic] Concrescence - 3/3
Title: Concrescence
Pairing: Xiumin/girl!Kai
Rating: NC-17
Genre: romance
Warnings: smut
Word count: 24,535
Summary: Jungah has always known that she was going to marry the Obelus Group heir but she never actually thought she would fall in love with him.
Author's Notes: This was nearly titled "The Husband Acquisition"
***
It was hard to tell which side of the family was happier for news of the baby, though Jungah thought Minseok’s family won on sheer force of will alone. Granted, Jungah’s mother had already experienced having a grandbaby, so she was happy, beyond happy that Jungah was having a child but the newness was gone. She was going to have to tease her mom if the thrill had gone with each successive child, too. But it had been cause for a big family dinner for all of their family, in a private room in a restaurant. Even if everyone had learned early, the actual celebration had happened almost a month later, when Jungah had begun to relax out of the vague worry of something going wrong. Her doctor had assured her that all was well, and that made a lot of difference.
They’d all toasted her, and Jungah had cast her eyes to the ceiling. And lo, the families had joined in some amazing collision of DNA. The merger was complete.
Obviously having a child hadn’t been their only expectation of her. Though if she was ranking things, she knew it was far near the top.
“I’m glad they let us get out of that with just a family dinner,” Minseok said, groaning and tossing away his tie. He held out an arm and Jungah walked into the hug, leaning into him and exhaling, glad to be out of the scrutiny and suggestions and celebration and into the relaxation of their own home.
“They won’t call for a parade for a couple more months, I hope,” Jungah said, and Minseok laughed.
“Yeah. Have to give it time. Are you tired?”
She shook her head. “Not very much.”
And he was quiet a moment, stroking along her back. “So, this is kind of weird. I mean, I had a question, but it’s a really weird one, and I don’t want you getting the wrong idea.”
She nearly headbutted his shoulder. “Ask.”
Before it got weirder, or he rambled into the night, or she had a chance to get scared behind that trickle of apprehension that had started.
He sighed, shaking his head for a second. “Okay, it was something my mom said. It sounded like she was hinting that she warned you that since you’re pregnant that I might… I don’t even…”
“Have some extracurricular activities?” Jungah asked, a hint of wryness in her voice that both had him groaning and laughing.
“Fuck, so she did talk to you today.”
“Well, no. She actually told me that at the charity gala.”
“I-“ Minseok pulled her back, staring at her, aghast. “You’ve been thinking I’m going to cheat on you since then?!”
“I didn’t say I thought that! I just said that that’s when she told me.”
“Why… Why would she even introduce that as a thought? Why didn’t you tell me? I mean, even if you didn’t believe it, it had to have made you wonder. My own mother!”
“Hey, new husband, do you plan on cheating on me while I’m incubating your child? Because your mom thinks you might,” Jungah said, and Minseok’s whole face went a bit bemused.
“Okay, that would’ve been weird.”
“Maybe someone told her that when she was married, and she was returning the favor. I don’t know. And yeah, I thought about it for a while. But if I thought or planned on having you sleep around, then there was no way I could invest in getting to know you. And just because someone somewhere has done that, it doesn’t mean you would.”
“That’s an optimistic way of looking at it.”
Jungah shrugged a shoulder. “Realistic, maybe?”
“I’m not! Planning to, I mean. I hadn’t even- We’re starting a family, but you’re all I’ve wanted, so no.”
“Even when I get as big as a house? But you’re not planning to, so if it happens accidentally?” she teased.
And he huffed and pulled her back in, rocking her back and forth a little. “How could they compare to my wife?” he said, and it was so greasy and gross that she actually gurgled and he laughed until she squeezed him closer.
“Did you ever wish they’d chosen someone else?”
“No. You were better than some stranger, and I thought you were beautiful. I thought we could be a team. Protect each other from our parents.”
It made her exhale.
“Yes. Exactly. I’m glad other women weren’t just a given for you,” she said, pressing her face against his neck.
The kisses he pressed against the side of her head, the way he stroked along her back, it made her relax. The scent of him, the warmth of him, the comfort of being near him. “I feel like that would’ve been giving up on us.”
His words were serious then, not a tease, and she blinked rapidly as tears threatened. All she could do was nod, not trusting her voice. That was exactly it.
“I’m sorry,” he said, stroking against her back.
“You don’t have to be sorry,” Jungah burbled at him. And she laughed through her tears as Minseok made squishy faces at her and wiped the tears from her cheeks.
“All I want is us,” Minseok told her. “And we’re- We’re having a baby!”
Just them, and no one else. She was ready to celebrate with him.
***
Jungah almost felt normal, at least until she made her way out of the bathroom some mornings, including that day. Sometimes it felt almost like it was letting up. And then it just hit her in a new way, at new times. Minseok had kissed her cheek and was up already, and she could hear him humming to himself as he probably answered half a dozen emails while he absorbed his coffee. And oh, just the thought of coffee, smelling it had her clenching her teeth. She made it as far as a lounge chair, cuddling a cold bottle of water, from the mini fridge beside it, against her cheek and just breathing as she willed the world not to spin and her stomach not to protest.
She didn’t make any sounds, she thought, but Minseok was there within about 30 seconds, rubbing over her arm.
“Hey, you’re up. Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you. Do you want me to take you out for breakfast to apologize?”
“I’d love that,” Jungah said, and put her hand over his, grimacing. “I don’t know if today is a breakfast kind of day, though.”
“Oh. I didn’t- Let me go get you something,” he said, kissing her shoulder and leaving her there. He was back ten minutes later with a plate of assorted bland crackers and a pretty glass of iced mint tea. He’d remembered what she’d curled up with the last time. And she just felt grateful, pressing her cheek against his when he bent down to hug her.
“You okay here for a bit? I just need to make a few calls.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Thanks.”
He nodded, and smiled before he left her there. Jungah nibbled on one of the crackers as she listened to him make a call and pace in the other room, and her head lifted a bit at the sound of her name.
“Yeah, Jungah’s not feeling so well today, so I’m going to stick around a while in case she needs anything. No, it’s early days yet, still. She’ll kick me out if she can’t stand me hovering.”
Jungah snorted and put her head back down on the plush arm of the lounge chair. It wasn’t as though he could stay home with her all the time. She didn’t expect that. But that he wanted to stay near her, that soothed her. She breathed into the cool tea and listened to the sound of his voice, and then nearly dropped the glass as she started dozing. But she put it safely down, arm curled over her belly and hoping to wake feeling better.
***
They had an early lunch, Minseok’s plan being to go back and work the afternoon. It had been nice to hear his voice in the other room, and when she’d woken, to actually sit in the room with him, reading news on her laptop and looking up to flutter her lashes or wiggle her fingers at him as he talked on the phone. His winks were so greasy that she had to exhale into her hands, peeking at him as he silently laughed at her.
“Have you ever changed a diaper?” she asked.
Though, the second she said it, she regretted it, because maybe diaper changing topics over lunch weren’t the best.
Though Minseok looked a bit scared at that thought. “I’ve seen them changed? We can practice on dolls, right?”
“I think so?”
“Do I have time to get a degree in this in the next six months?”
Jungah half concurred, but she also knew something very important.
“Sometimes the best way to learn is to do it. And we’ll have lots of chances.”
Not just chances to learn, chances to get better the more times they did it, but chances to learn together.
***
It had been a lovely evening out, a celebration with friends and not just family. Junhwa had been the one to arrange it, a small gathering of those closest, and Jungah made note to not be in the room when Junhwa wrested the opportunity to plan a baby shower from the hands of Jungah’s sisters. She could see that on the horizon. They’d made time for lunches, she and Junhwa, and Sejung, and the others. She’d have to remember to continue that, to cherish it, because she knew the birth of a baby would change just how easy her life was.
“I like this color on you,” Minseok said, skimming the rich pink of the shirt she wore as they stepped out of the elevator on their floor. He’d said something to compliment her on her outfit before they’d left, too, but there was a tone in his voice that had her glancing at him, raising her eyebrows.
“Do you?” she asked, deflecting the comment a bit as he edged against her, nudging her against the wall beside their door.
“I do. I couldn’t stop looking at you.” And Minseok leaned in, brushing his lips against her cheekbone. “And thinking about you out of it, too.”
Ah. She knew it, knew the way he stood, the way he leaned into her. She let him kiss her, his hands skimming her hips as they pressed together in the hall. And she would have climbed right up against him had it not been for the distant sound of a door opening. Oh, that made him laugh, keying them into the apartment and steadying her as they both got their shoes off. But it was Jungah who led him to the couch, sliding into Minseok’s lap and feeling him moan for her as she wriggled against him. It made her want, his hands sliding under her shirt, the way that he kissed her.
“Should we-“ Minseok panted, and Jungah shook her head, not wanting to move, not wanting to stop. She was aching, and it took all four of their hands to open Minseok’s pants, kissing between frantic tugs, and Minseok staring at her in awe as she sank around him. She was ready, more than ready, and he was too, his hands sliding against her skin, helping her to move. It felt like desperation, like she hadn’t had him to her satisfaction in years, when the reality was it had been less than a day. But even that had been too long, need so strong it almost scared her.
Minseok’s moans made her body burn, and Jungah rocked faster, squeezing around him and grinding against him. He squeezed at her thighs, her butt, urging her, as she wrapped her arms around his neck and shifted her weight so he could lift his hips with her. The slide of him, the drag of him inside her had her moaning and wiggling faster, gasping as her breasts moved in the confines of her bra and her body clawed at the pleasure he offered. Her thighs trembling, leaning harder into him and whimpering as he moved against her. Jungah’s breath caught as her hips twitched, again, again, pleasure rising, holding, and she sobbed into his neck as the orgasm stormed her, dazed her as she tried to keep rocking for him. She was clutching around him uncontrollably, and Minseok was moaning her name and thrusting up against her. They were locked like that, moving together, Jungah’s body in orgasmic aftershocks as Minseok’s moans got louder. He throbbed in her and she could feel his hips stuttering upwards as he came in her.
She had minutes of hazy joy, having enjoyed her man, gotten all that she had wanted. And after that, relaxing against him, came the trickle of embarrassment, the way she’d pounced on him and come around him. Though, he’d been hard when he’d opened his pants, and he’d been the one to start touching her in the hall. She just wondered if there was a level of wanton he would judge her for. To want when he wanted, there was a kind of luck in that. To want him, find pleasure with him.
“We finally broke in the couch,” Minseok almost purred against her neck.
Some of the tension seeped out of her and she chuckled. “Are you keeping a list?”
“I should! Bed, shower, wall, couch.”
“Floor,” she helpfully put in.
“Can’t forget the floor. What’s next, though? Should I put you on the table and eat you for breakfast?”
He grunted when she pinched him but the way she wiggled, she was pretty sure he knew she wouldn’t be against it.
She whined a bit standing up, but that was for the state of her knees and thighs. She’d been careful not to overdo it, but she wasn’t above being coddled by Minseok in the shower. Though there, she caught him glancing at her belly, the tiniest hinting curve of it. When he didn’t notice her looking at him, she framed her hands at her sides.
“Am I boiling yet?” Jungah asked.
He chuckled, kissing against her neck and smoothing back her wet hair.
“Absolutely scalding. You wore me out.”
And Jungah believed it when he didn’t even pinch her when she grinned.
***
Jungah felt as though she harbored too much inside of her. There was the new life, yes, their little blob that would become a human. Maybe it’d been the talk with him, that Minseok was committed to their marriage, or something more than that, and all of the proof of it from the day they had married to the care he showed her while she was feeling sick. Maybe it’d been something that had been building up so gradually that she didn’t even truly know. Her relief, though, to know he was invested in her, it wasn’t just some proprietary thing brought on by the stating of vows. They were each other’s only so far as the eyes of the law allowed. It wasn’t that he held her in the night, or wanted to please her, or had done the job their families anticipated in getting her pregnant.
It was all of those things, all of the years of memories, and little smiles, and the way he absently kissed her fingers as he was working.
She’d fallen in love. Oh, she loved him, but when it had become more than just fond memories and care for his wellbeing, she didn’t know. It hadn’t been during the giddy exhaustion of the wedding day, or the romps in the sand. But maybe it had been, too, because it’d been a start. Maybe when he had brought out his memory box, or when he’d tucked her against his side under an umbrella, or brought her stir fry on the couch. A hundred things they’d done for each other, a hundred touches, a hundred kisses, and it made her press her knuckles to her lips to realize that the life they’d made, the happiness they had, was something they could build on and keep and flourish. Jungah had somehow expected to be a figurehead, but being one half of a couple was not nearly so far removed. If she had thought it would be more like a job, she had underestimated things quite a lot.
Her eyes stung when she thought about being glad that she had not doubted him. And much like the baby, it was a realization, a gift, that she did not want to wait long to share.
The afternoon’s nausea passed in time for her to be able to stand the sight of food, and it steadied her to pull vegetables out of the fridge and start chopping them, small and even. It wouldn’t be an elaborate meal, but it would be something she’d made herself. They could share it, and it would be one expression of love, possibly leading into a second kind. She went through about half a dozen possible responses from Minseok. Horror, scorn, happiness. There was boredom, which had caused an extra bit of pain. She just wanted his eyes to go a little soft, to be glad even if he didn’t feel that way, too, yet. To cherish it.
What Jungah did end up doing was getting a text after dinner was almost finished, that Minseok was meeting up with some of his friends, and that he’d be late and she should order something in. She texted him back to have a good time, and maybe had a slightly larger than normal portion of the food she’d made. It was good, she praised herself, as she only sulked a little bit at the setback of her plans. She had just wanted to charge straight ahead, to rid herself of the waiting. And she actually nodded off on the couch before she heard the chime of the door. Maybe, if he wasn’t tired-
Minseok nearly fell over taking his shoes off. Jungah hicced out a laugh, rushing to him, steadying him and helping him get actually fully in the door.
“Smells like you had fun,” Jungah observed, the scent of soju heavy on him, almost like he’d soaked in it. Maybe he had.
“Mmm, was fun. You’re so gorgeous. My friends are so jealous. Pretty Jungah,” Minseok said, touching her face and tilting his head like he was seeing her for the first time. “Pretty wife. You know you’re really beautiful?”
He said it, like he hadn’t said essentially the same thing a moment before, and she tried not to be too flattered by the ravings of a drunken man.
“Thank you,” she told him, and she cuddled him close, hoping he wasn’t going to just knock them both over. But all he did was cuddle her, and an angry drunk apparently he was not.
“You smell nice,” Minseok murmured, humming against her and inhaling deeply. “You smell like…”
His words trailed of as Jungah’s eyebrows rose.
“I smell like what?” Jungah prompted, poking him in case he was going to try and fall asleep on her standing up.
“Mm. Home,” Minseok said, pressing a smacking kiss against her cheek. “Why?”
Jungah chuckled, shaking her head. “No reason. Come on, let’s get you to bed.”
Minseok had only had to squint a little to get his toothbrush in his mouth, and she helped him to strip, rolling him into the bed and covering up all that gleaming skin before getting at least half a glass of water in him.
“Wife,” he said a bit pitifully, patting her side of the bed. She took his hand, sliding into bed beside him.
“Your wife has a name, you know,” Jungah told him, but he was already slack and most of the way asleep. But he’d wanted her near him, which was something cute of itself. She’d have to tease him about it another time, when he was awake and not impaired. He was so deeply asleep that when she rested her hand against his face, stroked back a lock of his hair, he didn’t move. She’d just have to put off her plans a little. Just a little while.
***
Minseok with a hangover was almost as cute as Minseok when he was tired, but Jungah had sympathy for him on that, soothing him when he blinked blearily up at her. He tipped his face to hers, kissing her, and making her feel like the one who was being taken care of. But Minseok was out of bed without complaint, off to inhale his coffee without assaulting her with the smell of it before she figured out what her stomach was going to do. But it let her slip out of bed, humming as she belted her robe closed and tried not to look too sleepy as Minseok greeted her with a spoon in his mouth.
“Good morning, husband,” Jungah teased, and Minseok squinted at her, his hair still askew. She patted it down as he still tried to think that through while he ate more yogurt. “You ordered me to bed like that last night. Wife!”
She patted the table, trying to imitate Minseok’s expression, and Minseok gurgled in laughter, tipping his head back as he swallowed.
“I did not!”
“Maybe not quite like that. It was a little more needy than that. It was cute. Mostly.”
Ooh, and yogurt was the smell of the day as she backed away until he could gulp more coffee. Then, he could get close enough to kiss her.
“Wife,” Minseok said soft, brushing his lips against hers.
“Blob,” Jungah said, pressing his hand against her belly.
“Hey, Blob is less blobby now. How needy?” Minseok needed to know.
Jungah pretended to think about it as she stretched and made her way back toward their room, knowing he’d be following shortly. But before she left the room, she let out a deep and dramatic wail of, “Wiiiiife.”
She just barely held in the laughter as she heard Minseok stomp his foot because his mouth was full. But Jungah curled in the squishy chair in their room, grinning innocently as Minseok came back into the room. He brushed his hand against her outstretched one, and she watched as he picked through his suits, baring his torso for a nice moment before tugging an undershirt over his head.
“Evil undershirt. Least favorite part of the day,” Jungah said, sighing, and Minseok glanced back at her, chuckling, his voice still rusty.
He tugged up the hem of it, giving her a peep show for a moment. She clapped and oohed accordingly, and Minseok laughed for real.
“If I was half as whiny as I think I was last night, I’m not sure how you didn’t just spank me and put me to bed.”
Jungah’s eyebrows rose. “It was tempting. But you were very complimentary to me.”
“Good thing I don’t completely lose common sense when I’m drunk. I’d say never again, but that could be impossible.”
“Not very often for your head’s sake, then?” she suggested, and he agreed, looping his tie around his neck. It took only a few more minutes of that before he was dressed, his slacks perfectly pressed, his suit jacket just so. He got into his shoes by the door, his bag and phone already there from the night before, and that was when he turned back to her, pulling her into a hug before he would say goodbye. He inhaled against her, holding her close like he didn’t want to leave her and it made it hard for her to breathe for a moment, with nothing that had to do with how tight he held her.
“Be safe,” she said, pressing her cheek against his neck. His arms were so solid around her, and the way he had kissed her when she woke him up, it squeezed her inside, her heart, her throat. She didn’t want him to leave one more time without knowing. “I love you.”
Heat rose into Jungah’s cheeks as it took a moment for him to still, to realize. He made a small sound and instead of pulling her back to stare at her, he pulled her back and kissed her. Soft, urgent little kisses as he held her near, and she kissed him back, delighted, surprised at the sudden outburst of affection.
“You,” was all he said, stopping, his face still too close for her to open her eyes to see, and it took her a moment to wonder what he was saying.
“Yes?” she said, after realizing maybe he was looking for confirmation, and that seemed to be the case as he stroked down her hair and kissed her again before pulling her even closer than they had been hugging to begin with.
That brought her face to face with the door Minseok had been meaning to go out of, and she smiled, leaning into him.
“You’ll be late,” she reminded him, and then almost purred when he groused and snugged her a bit tighter.
“How do you just expect me to leave when you say that.”
“You can’t just skip work all the time,” Jungah scolded, and he was too cute when he pulled back far enough to look down at his shoes that were already on. “Besides, I’m going to be here when you get home.”
“Oh yeah,” he said, blinking at her like that was something new and not what had been happening most days of their marriage. “Yeah!”
All Jungah could do was laugh, letting him kiss her one more time before patting at him and picking up his bag so that he could go.
Minseok’s smile was absent and still a bit startled when he told her goodbye, and when the door closed, Jungah didn’t even know what to do with herself, half prancing back toward the living room and flapping her arms a little as she tried to get her emotions under control. He hadn’t seemed completely shocked, and he’d seemed really pleased, too. Really pleased. She pressed the backs of her fingers against her cheeks and willed the flush to pass.
She spent the next minutes imagining him running back to tell her that he’d forgotten to tell her something. It was a sweet thought, but him just being pleased with it was so much of what she had hoped. But it was still on her mind an hour later, when the door chime sounded, even though she knew that Minseok would have just come right in. It was a delivery, one that was in her name, and she sat, pulling at the paper packing to unveil the contents. Imported crackers, samplers of iced tea bags, lotion that was unscented for days she couldn’t stand the scent of her own favorites. The last was a CD, music for morning sickness, and it made her smack her head against the jewel case for a moment as she laughed.
There was a note, one probably composed a day or two before. “Some new things to try. I hope you like them. - Minseok”
Jungah had been daydreaming of Minseok arriving to tell her he loved her. She cradled the note and felt he almost had.
***
There was an antsiness under her skin that kept Jungah going that day. She re-arranged her desk, made lists in the kitchen, scrubbed at a particularly stubborn stain on one of her shirts. When that all failed to distract her, and sitting down and reading after lunch had her fidgeting, she went out, browsing shops, getting a smoothie and trying to tell herself that nothing changed. The little routines they’d fallen into, the teasing him about nearly bowling her flat when she was five, or falling asleep listening to his heartbeat. He’d made such an effort integrating her, keeping her close, connected, beaming at her when she had delighted him. Or his eyes going soft sometimes when he touched her.
She could read so much into that, and it made her want to shudder to think of losing it, fearing the distance that she had mostly expected when they had married, but that he had never offered. Nothing had to change.
Jungah was in the elevator going back up to the condo when her phone chimed.
“Do you think you’ll feel up to dinner out?” Minseok texted her. “I can come pick you up in an hour.”
She typed back, “I’ll be ready. Where are we going?”
And she was inside of the door when Minseok was cryptic in his response.
“One of your favorites. Wear the green dress?”
It was one of his favorites, a new dress she’d gotten just a couple of weeks before. It was also not a casual dress, which told her that the restaurant wasn’t casual either. He liked surprising her with things like that, watching her reaction to a new place, a new menu. But if it was a favorite restaurant, then they’d been there, and knowing she had to dress had her texting back her agreement and moving fast to start getting ready. All she had to do then was meet him at the car, listening to his tale of the day and clearing her throat when Minseok got a little grumbly at people cutting them off and delaying their trip.
“Is dinner going to get cold before we get there?” she asked, and Minseok grinned a bit sheepishly.
But they were ushered in, without more than a few seconds of waiting. Only, they weren’t led toward their usual table, instead they went along a hallway, being led into an elevator and up, out into a room that looked like event storage more than anything else. Minseok saw her confusion and kept her arm in his, guiding her until they were led out one final door.
But it wasn’t to a dining room, not really. Oh, there was a table there, and chairs. There were flowers on the table, a half dozen short little candles dancing. But it was on the roof, on some kind of portable flooring, surrounded by arches covered in tiny lights, and nothing but the sky above them. Jungah could even hear music, from some hidden speakers she guessed, and Minseok was watching her as she gawked around.
“Do you like it?”
“It’s gorgeous.”
And completely not what she had been expecting. Minseok helped her to sit, and they were handed the menus after they had chosen their drinks. She opted for sparkling water, and she thought that he might have as well so that he didn’t drink in front of her, but that was the least of her concerns. They sent along their orders with the waiter, and Minseok smiled at her, reaching for her hand and taking it.
“Want to dance while we’re waiting?”
Their glasses were left abandoned on the table, and Minseok kept hold of her hand as they wound together, swaying to the music.
“You are full of surprises,” Jungah said, still staring at the lights that were strung around.
Minseok puffed up a little bit like a penguin. “You’re fun to surprise.”
“Am I?”
Oh, he definitely went someplace dirty, there, and she raised an eyebrow at him. She knew he liked the dress, but as private as it was, there were definitely limits.
“I’ve told you that I was happy that they chose us for each other,” Minseok said, his face close to hers. “I thought we’d be good together, but it’s more than that. Jungah, you- I love you.”
It was so gentle, so urgent and natural that it sent prickles across her skin, and the tears that sprung to her eyes, they weren’t something that she could help even as she tried to hold them back. She’d wanted to hear it. She’d known. Hoped. And when she opened her mouth, ready to half-sob at him, she thought of all the lights around them, the special table, the expense.
“Is that what all of this is for?” Jungah asked, and he nodded at her, searching her eyes. It nearly made her tear up again. “You didn’t have to do all of this.”
“I needed to. I wanted to show you, too.”
They’d given up on all pretense of dancing, at that point, and she just wrapped herself around him, Minseok holding her back tightly right away.
“Minseok,” she half chastised, and he laughed, nuzzling against her hair.
“I left out the ponies and the fireworks.”
She wasn’t sure why she was half worried that he meant it.
“The orchestra?”
“Too short notice,” Minseok said, sighing heavily and making her almost shriek with laughter as he pretended to bite her chin. “I got so addled. You handed me just this perfect… I had to do something.”
She’d stolen the thunder, maybe. Or maybe he’d just needed some of the things around them to bolster himself. It didn’t matter. If he’d whispered it in the dark, told her with sauce all over his face, she’d still have been happy. Everything she saw, he’d done for them.
“Minseok,” she said, leaning into him harder, and he stroked along her back, murmuring to her.
Only because of the gentle knock, and the waiter returning with their food, did they break apart and Jungah really realized how strange it all was.
“How did you get them to allow us to eat on the roof?” she asked.
Minseok had pulled his chair around by hers, so their knees brushed as he sat back down, his eyes mischievous . “That’s going to be my secret.”
They ate in the warm evening air, the subtle sound of music, the sounds of the city around them. There was no one there to judge how loud they laughed, or how close they sat, or when Minseok leaned in to kiss her, or to feed her from his own fork.
When they were home again, in a different kind of privacy, there was nothing different in the way that Minseok’s hands smoothed against her skin after he had peeled the dress from her. It had been good she had worn it, because she could feel the beginnings of it being snug. There was a knowing, behind it, that behind the way he cherished her, behind the way he pleased her, that there was something else. Her body had known him before her heart had, but he curled moans from her, urged her to hold him, kissed her, needing and gentle at the same time. He moaned her name, and in that moment, it was everything.
Jungah curled against him after, wrapped up in a robe and in the scent of him, the way he stroked her hair and let her arrange herself so that he was pressed up against her back and holding her.
“You’re on my side of the bed,” she teased him, and Minseok laughed, cuddling her tighter.
“Love you,” he told her, and it made her turn her head, kissing him again.
“I love you, too,” she said, and just saying it like that had her wiggling back against him. He kissed against her cheek, sighing as they both relaxed.
“Goodnight, blob,” Minseok murmured toward her belly.
It made Jungah smile, resting her hand over Minseok’s.
***
It was Jungah’s first launch party. A new line of phones from the Obelus Group was reason for fanfare, and Minseok was high in demand. He’d been on the go since way before she’d been ready to get out of bed that morning, and she’d dressed with Junhwa before heading to the venue. He’d promised her that she could leave if she got tired, or there would be a room at least that she could go to get away from it all and relax. Jungah wasn’t sure but the fact that Minseok could actually see more of the curve of her belly had Minseok even more protective.
Usually it took only a raised finger for Minseok to back off, though. It was her subtle way of letting him know that she knew her body, and her limits, and that she appreciated his concern. But the room was already crowded when she got there, and she sat through the announcements, the presentation. The chairs were all swept away, some at the sides to make room for mingling and showing off. Some people recognized her, greeting her, and Minseok’s assistant found her first, ushering her through the crowd after she’d waved at Junhwa to let her know she was going. Minseok was smiling, talking to a couple she didn’t know, and at motion approaching him, his head turned.
He didn’t just smile at her, he beamed, turning, greeting her like she was the only person in the room and nearly taking away her breath as he tucked her against him. He introduced her as Jungah, his wife, and she was greeted warmly. She could feel the tension in Minseok, that he wanted to tug her away, but he stuck with it until they moved away, and that was when he pulled her closer, pressed his lips against her cheek.
“I saw the presentation. It was wonderful,” she said. She’d had a place right near the front, too, to appreciate Minseok as he made his speech and demonstration.
“I caught a glimpse of you in all the activity, but I think you were talking to Junhwa when I waved.” And he got right close to her ear, whispering. “It’s a zoo in here. What have I been doing without you?”
Minseok got her a drink, and they socialized, with Jungah staying close to Minseok’s side at least for an hour or so. It seemed like he could tell she was flagging almost as soon as she did, and he started edging with her towards the side, whispering a promise that he would find a place for her to sit a while, soon.
There were so many strangers, and vague acquaintances in the room, so many people who met them and wondered how she and Minseok had met, how they were together. There was family, too, but they had expectations of a different kind, and hopes as well. Jungah smiled at Minseok as he talked and he caught her looking, smiling back.
It didn’t matter what anyone else thought of their marriage. If anyone doubted, they would see.
***
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3
***
Pairing: Xiumin/girl!Kai
Rating: NC-17
Genre: romance
Warnings: smut
Word count: 24,535
Summary: Jungah has always known that she was going to marry the Obelus Group heir but she never actually thought she would fall in love with him.
Author's Notes: This was nearly titled "The Husband Acquisition"
***
It was hard to tell which side of the family was happier for news of the baby, though Jungah thought Minseok’s family won on sheer force of will alone. Granted, Jungah’s mother had already experienced having a grandbaby, so she was happy, beyond happy that Jungah was having a child but the newness was gone. She was going to have to tease her mom if the thrill had gone with each successive child, too. But it had been cause for a big family dinner for all of their family, in a private room in a restaurant. Even if everyone had learned early, the actual celebration had happened almost a month later, when Jungah had begun to relax out of the vague worry of something going wrong. Her doctor had assured her that all was well, and that made a lot of difference.
They’d all toasted her, and Jungah had cast her eyes to the ceiling. And lo, the families had joined in some amazing collision of DNA. The merger was complete.
Obviously having a child hadn’t been their only expectation of her. Though if she was ranking things, she knew it was far near the top.
“I’m glad they let us get out of that with just a family dinner,” Minseok said, groaning and tossing away his tie. He held out an arm and Jungah walked into the hug, leaning into him and exhaling, glad to be out of the scrutiny and suggestions and celebration and into the relaxation of their own home.
“They won’t call for a parade for a couple more months, I hope,” Jungah said, and Minseok laughed.
“Yeah. Have to give it time. Are you tired?”
She shook her head. “Not very much.”
And he was quiet a moment, stroking along her back. “So, this is kind of weird. I mean, I had a question, but it’s a really weird one, and I don’t want you getting the wrong idea.”
She nearly headbutted his shoulder. “Ask.”
Before it got weirder, or he rambled into the night, or she had a chance to get scared behind that trickle of apprehension that had started.
He sighed, shaking his head for a second. “Okay, it was something my mom said. It sounded like she was hinting that she warned you that since you’re pregnant that I might… I don’t even…”
“Have some extracurricular activities?” Jungah asked, a hint of wryness in her voice that both had him groaning and laughing.
“Fuck, so she did talk to you today.”
“Well, no. She actually told me that at the charity gala.”
“I-“ Minseok pulled her back, staring at her, aghast. “You’ve been thinking I’m going to cheat on you since then?!”
“I didn’t say I thought that! I just said that that’s when she told me.”
“Why… Why would she even introduce that as a thought? Why didn’t you tell me? I mean, even if you didn’t believe it, it had to have made you wonder. My own mother!”
“Hey, new husband, do you plan on cheating on me while I’m incubating your child? Because your mom thinks you might,” Jungah said, and Minseok’s whole face went a bit bemused.
“Okay, that would’ve been weird.”
“Maybe someone told her that when she was married, and she was returning the favor. I don’t know. And yeah, I thought about it for a while. But if I thought or planned on having you sleep around, then there was no way I could invest in getting to know you. And just because someone somewhere has done that, it doesn’t mean you would.”
“That’s an optimistic way of looking at it.”
Jungah shrugged a shoulder. “Realistic, maybe?”
“I’m not! Planning to, I mean. I hadn’t even- We’re starting a family, but you’re all I’ve wanted, so no.”
“Even when I get as big as a house? But you’re not planning to, so if it happens accidentally?” she teased.
And he huffed and pulled her back in, rocking her back and forth a little. “How could they compare to my wife?” he said, and it was so greasy and gross that she actually gurgled and he laughed until she squeezed him closer.
“Did you ever wish they’d chosen someone else?”
“No. You were better than some stranger, and I thought you were beautiful. I thought we could be a team. Protect each other from our parents.”
It made her exhale.
“Yes. Exactly. I’m glad other women weren’t just a given for you,” she said, pressing her face against his neck.
The kisses he pressed against the side of her head, the way he stroked along her back, it made her relax. The scent of him, the warmth of him, the comfort of being near him. “I feel like that would’ve been giving up on us.”
His words were serious then, not a tease, and she blinked rapidly as tears threatened. All she could do was nod, not trusting her voice. That was exactly it.
“I’m sorry,” he said, stroking against her back.
“You don’t have to be sorry,” Jungah burbled at him. And she laughed through her tears as Minseok made squishy faces at her and wiped the tears from her cheeks.
“All I want is us,” Minseok told her. “And we’re- We’re having a baby!”
Just them, and no one else. She was ready to celebrate with him.
***
Jungah almost felt normal, at least until she made her way out of the bathroom some mornings, including that day. Sometimes it felt almost like it was letting up. And then it just hit her in a new way, at new times. Minseok had kissed her cheek and was up already, and she could hear him humming to himself as he probably answered half a dozen emails while he absorbed his coffee. And oh, just the thought of coffee, smelling it had her clenching her teeth. She made it as far as a lounge chair, cuddling a cold bottle of water, from the mini fridge beside it, against her cheek and just breathing as she willed the world not to spin and her stomach not to protest.
She didn’t make any sounds, she thought, but Minseok was there within about 30 seconds, rubbing over her arm.
“Hey, you’re up. Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you. Do you want me to take you out for breakfast to apologize?”
“I’d love that,” Jungah said, and put her hand over his, grimacing. “I don’t know if today is a breakfast kind of day, though.”
“Oh. I didn’t- Let me go get you something,” he said, kissing her shoulder and leaving her there. He was back ten minutes later with a plate of assorted bland crackers and a pretty glass of iced mint tea. He’d remembered what she’d curled up with the last time. And she just felt grateful, pressing her cheek against his when he bent down to hug her.
“You okay here for a bit? I just need to make a few calls.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Thanks.”
He nodded, and smiled before he left her there. Jungah nibbled on one of the crackers as she listened to him make a call and pace in the other room, and her head lifted a bit at the sound of her name.
“Yeah, Jungah’s not feeling so well today, so I’m going to stick around a while in case she needs anything. No, it’s early days yet, still. She’ll kick me out if she can’t stand me hovering.”
Jungah snorted and put her head back down on the plush arm of the lounge chair. It wasn’t as though he could stay home with her all the time. She didn’t expect that. But that he wanted to stay near her, that soothed her. She breathed into the cool tea and listened to the sound of his voice, and then nearly dropped the glass as she started dozing. But she put it safely down, arm curled over her belly and hoping to wake feeling better.
***
They had an early lunch, Minseok’s plan being to go back and work the afternoon. It had been nice to hear his voice in the other room, and when she’d woken, to actually sit in the room with him, reading news on her laptop and looking up to flutter her lashes or wiggle her fingers at him as he talked on the phone. His winks were so greasy that she had to exhale into her hands, peeking at him as he silently laughed at her.
“Have you ever changed a diaper?” she asked.
Though, the second she said it, she regretted it, because maybe diaper changing topics over lunch weren’t the best.
Though Minseok looked a bit scared at that thought. “I’ve seen them changed? We can practice on dolls, right?”
“I think so?”
“Do I have time to get a degree in this in the next six months?”
Jungah half concurred, but she also knew something very important.
“Sometimes the best way to learn is to do it. And we’ll have lots of chances.”
Not just chances to learn, chances to get better the more times they did it, but chances to learn together.
***
It had been a lovely evening out, a celebration with friends and not just family. Junhwa had been the one to arrange it, a small gathering of those closest, and Jungah made note to not be in the room when Junhwa wrested the opportunity to plan a baby shower from the hands of Jungah’s sisters. She could see that on the horizon. They’d made time for lunches, she and Junhwa, and Sejung, and the others. She’d have to remember to continue that, to cherish it, because she knew the birth of a baby would change just how easy her life was.
“I like this color on you,” Minseok said, skimming the rich pink of the shirt she wore as they stepped out of the elevator on their floor. He’d said something to compliment her on her outfit before they’d left, too, but there was a tone in his voice that had her glancing at him, raising her eyebrows.
“Do you?” she asked, deflecting the comment a bit as he edged against her, nudging her against the wall beside their door.
“I do. I couldn’t stop looking at you.” And Minseok leaned in, brushing his lips against her cheekbone. “And thinking about you out of it, too.”
Ah. She knew it, knew the way he stood, the way he leaned into her. She let him kiss her, his hands skimming her hips as they pressed together in the hall. And she would have climbed right up against him had it not been for the distant sound of a door opening. Oh, that made him laugh, keying them into the apartment and steadying her as they both got their shoes off. But it was Jungah who led him to the couch, sliding into Minseok’s lap and feeling him moan for her as she wriggled against him. It made her want, his hands sliding under her shirt, the way that he kissed her.
“Should we-“ Minseok panted, and Jungah shook her head, not wanting to move, not wanting to stop. She was aching, and it took all four of their hands to open Minseok’s pants, kissing between frantic tugs, and Minseok staring at her in awe as she sank around him. She was ready, more than ready, and he was too, his hands sliding against her skin, helping her to move. It felt like desperation, like she hadn’t had him to her satisfaction in years, when the reality was it had been less than a day. But even that had been too long, need so strong it almost scared her.
Minseok’s moans made her body burn, and Jungah rocked faster, squeezing around him and grinding against him. He squeezed at her thighs, her butt, urging her, as she wrapped her arms around his neck and shifted her weight so he could lift his hips with her. The slide of him, the drag of him inside her had her moaning and wiggling faster, gasping as her breasts moved in the confines of her bra and her body clawed at the pleasure he offered. Her thighs trembling, leaning harder into him and whimpering as he moved against her. Jungah’s breath caught as her hips twitched, again, again, pleasure rising, holding, and she sobbed into his neck as the orgasm stormed her, dazed her as she tried to keep rocking for him. She was clutching around him uncontrollably, and Minseok was moaning her name and thrusting up against her. They were locked like that, moving together, Jungah’s body in orgasmic aftershocks as Minseok’s moans got louder. He throbbed in her and she could feel his hips stuttering upwards as he came in her.
She had minutes of hazy joy, having enjoyed her man, gotten all that she had wanted. And after that, relaxing against him, came the trickle of embarrassment, the way she’d pounced on him and come around him. Though, he’d been hard when he’d opened his pants, and he’d been the one to start touching her in the hall. She just wondered if there was a level of wanton he would judge her for. To want when he wanted, there was a kind of luck in that. To want him, find pleasure with him.
“We finally broke in the couch,” Minseok almost purred against her neck.
Some of the tension seeped out of her and she chuckled. “Are you keeping a list?”
“I should! Bed, shower, wall, couch.”
“Floor,” she helpfully put in.
“Can’t forget the floor. What’s next, though? Should I put you on the table and eat you for breakfast?”
He grunted when she pinched him but the way she wiggled, she was pretty sure he knew she wouldn’t be against it.
She whined a bit standing up, but that was for the state of her knees and thighs. She’d been careful not to overdo it, but she wasn’t above being coddled by Minseok in the shower. Though there, she caught him glancing at her belly, the tiniest hinting curve of it. When he didn’t notice her looking at him, she framed her hands at her sides.
“Am I boiling yet?” Jungah asked.
He chuckled, kissing against her neck and smoothing back her wet hair.
“Absolutely scalding. You wore me out.”
And Jungah believed it when he didn’t even pinch her when she grinned.
***
Jungah felt as though she harbored too much inside of her. There was the new life, yes, their little blob that would become a human. Maybe it’d been the talk with him, that Minseok was committed to their marriage, or something more than that, and all of the proof of it from the day they had married to the care he showed her while she was feeling sick. Maybe it’d been something that had been building up so gradually that she didn’t even truly know. Her relief, though, to know he was invested in her, it wasn’t just some proprietary thing brought on by the stating of vows. They were each other’s only so far as the eyes of the law allowed. It wasn’t that he held her in the night, or wanted to please her, or had done the job their families anticipated in getting her pregnant.
It was all of those things, all of the years of memories, and little smiles, and the way he absently kissed her fingers as he was working.
She’d fallen in love. Oh, she loved him, but when it had become more than just fond memories and care for his wellbeing, she didn’t know. It hadn’t been during the giddy exhaustion of the wedding day, or the romps in the sand. But maybe it had been, too, because it’d been a start. Maybe when he had brought out his memory box, or when he’d tucked her against his side under an umbrella, or brought her stir fry on the couch. A hundred things they’d done for each other, a hundred touches, a hundred kisses, and it made her press her knuckles to her lips to realize that the life they’d made, the happiness they had, was something they could build on and keep and flourish. Jungah had somehow expected to be a figurehead, but being one half of a couple was not nearly so far removed. If she had thought it would be more like a job, she had underestimated things quite a lot.
Her eyes stung when she thought about being glad that she had not doubted him. And much like the baby, it was a realization, a gift, that she did not want to wait long to share.
The afternoon’s nausea passed in time for her to be able to stand the sight of food, and it steadied her to pull vegetables out of the fridge and start chopping them, small and even. It wouldn’t be an elaborate meal, but it would be something she’d made herself. They could share it, and it would be one expression of love, possibly leading into a second kind. She went through about half a dozen possible responses from Minseok. Horror, scorn, happiness. There was boredom, which had caused an extra bit of pain. She just wanted his eyes to go a little soft, to be glad even if he didn’t feel that way, too, yet. To cherish it.
What Jungah did end up doing was getting a text after dinner was almost finished, that Minseok was meeting up with some of his friends, and that he’d be late and she should order something in. She texted him back to have a good time, and maybe had a slightly larger than normal portion of the food she’d made. It was good, she praised herself, as she only sulked a little bit at the setback of her plans. She had just wanted to charge straight ahead, to rid herself of the waiting. And she actually nodded off on the couch before she heard the chime of the door. Maybe, if he wasn’t tired-
Minseok nearly fell over taking his shoes off. Jungah hicced out a laugh, rushing to him, steadying him and helping him get actually fully in the door.
“Smells like you had fun,” Jungah observed, the scent of soju heavy on him, almost like he’d soaked in it. Maybe he had.
“Mmm, was fun. You’re so gorgeous. My friends are so jealous. Pretty Jungah,” Minseok said, touching her face and tilting his head like he was seeing her for the first time. “Pretty wife. You know you’re really beautiful?”
He said it, like he hadn’t said essentially the same thing a moment before, and she tried not to be too flattered by the ravings of a drunken man.
“Thank you,” she told him, and she cuddled him close, hoping he wasn’t going to just knock them both over. But all he did was cuddle her, and an angry drunk apparently he was not.
“You smell nice,” Minseok murmured, humming against her and inhaling deeply. “You smell like…”
His words trailed of as Jungah’s eyebrows rose.
“I smell like what?” Jungah prompted, poking him in case he was going to try and fall asleep on her standing up.
“Mm. Home,” Minseok said, pressing a smacking kiss against her cheek. “Why?”
Jungah chuckled, shaking her head. “No reason. Come on, let’s get you to bed.”
Minseok had only had to squint a little to get his toothbrush in his mouth, and she helped him to strip, rolling him into the bed and covering up all that gleaming skin before getting at least half a glass of water in him.
“Wife,” he said a bit pitifully, patting her side of the bed. She took his hand, sliding into bed beside him.
“Your wife has a name, you know,” Jungah told him, but he was already slack and most of the way asleep. But he’d wanted her near him, which was something cute of itself. She’d have to tease him about it another time, when he was awake and not impaired. He was so deeply asleep that when she rested her hand against his face, stroked back a lock of his hair, he didn’t move. She’d just have to put off her plans a little. Just a little while.
***
Minseok with a hangover was almost as cute as Minseok when he was tired, but Jungah had sympathy for him on that, soothing him when he blinked blearily up at her. He tipped his face to hers, kissing her, and making her feel like the one who was being taken care of. But Minseok was out of bed without complaint, off to inhale his coffee without assaulting her with the smell of it before she figured out what her stomach was going to do. But it let her slip out of bed, humming as she belted her robe closed and tried not to look too sleepy as Minseok greeted her with a spoon in his mouth.
“Good morning, husband,” Jungah teased, and Minseok squinted at her, his hair still askew. She patted it down as he still tried to think that through while he ate more yogurt. “You ordered me to bed like that last night. Wife!”
She patted the table, trying to imitate Minseok’s expression, and Minseok gurgled in laughter, tipping his head back as he swallowed.
“I did not!”
“Maybe not quite like that. It was a little more needy than that. It was cute. Mostly.”
Ooh, and yogurt was the smell of the day as she backed away until he could gulp more coffee. Then, he could get close enough to kiss her.
“Wife,” Minseok said soft, brushing his lips against hers.
“Blob,” Jungah said, pressing his hand against her belly.
“Hey, Blob is less blobby now. How needy?” Minseok needed to know.
Jungah pretended to think about it as she stretched and made her way back toward their room, knowing he’d be following shortly. But before she left the room, she let out a deep and dramatic wail of, “Wiiiiife.”
She just barely held in the laughter as she heard Minseok stomp his foot because his mouth was full. But Jungah curled in the squishy chair in their room, grinning innocently as Minseok came back into the room. He brushed his hand against her outstretched one, and she watched as he picked through his suits, baring his torso for a nice moment before tugging an undershirt over his head.
“Evil undershirt. Least favorite part of the day,” Jungah said, sighing, and Minseok glanced back at her, chuckling, his voice still rusty.
He tugged up the hem of it, giving her a peep show for a moment. She clapped and oohed accordingly, and Minseok laughed for real.
“If I was half as whiny as I think I was last night, I’m not sure how you didn’t just spank me and put me to bed.”
Jungah’s eyebrows rose. “It was tempting. But you were very complimentary to me.”
“Good thing I don’t completely lose common sense when I’m drunk. I’d say never again, but that could be impossible.”
“Not very often for your head’s sake, then?” she suggested, and he agreed, looping his tie around his neck. It took only a few more minutes of that before he was dressed, his slacks perfectly pressed, his suit jacket just so. He got into his shoes by the door, his bag and phone already there from the night before, and that was when he turned back to her, pulling her into a hug before he would say goodbye. He inhaled against her, holding her close like he didn’t want to leave her and it made it hard for her to breathe for a moment, with nothing that had to do with how tight he held her.
“Be safe,” she said, pressing her cheek against his neck. His arms were so solid around her, and the way he had kissed her when she woke him up, it squeezed her inside, her heart, her throat. She didn’t want him to leave one more time without knowing. “I love you.”
Heat rose into Jungah’s cheeks as it took a moment for him to still, to realize. He made a small sound and instead of pulling her back to stare at her, he pulled her back and kissed her. Soft, urgent little kisses as he held her near, and she kissed him back, delighted, surprised at the sudden outburst of affection.
“You,” was all he said, stopping, his face still too close for her to open her eyes to see, and it took her a moment to wonder what he was saying.
“Yes?” she said, after realizing maybe he was looking for confirmation, and that seemed to be the case as he stroked down her hair and kissed her again before pulling her even closer than they had been hugging to begin with.
That brought her face to face with the door Minseok had been meaning to go out of, and she smiled, leaning into him.
“You’ll be late,” she reminded him, and then almost purred when he groused and snugged her a bit tighter.
“How do you just expect me to leave when you say that.”
“You can’t just skip work all the time,” Jungah scolded, and he was too cute when he pulled back far enough to look down at his shoes that were already on. “Besides, I’m going to be here when you get home.”
“Oh yeah,” he said, blinking at her like that was something new and not what had been happening most days of their marriage. “Yeah!”
All Jungah could do was laugh, letting him kiss her one more time before patting at him and picking up his bag so that he could go.
Minseok’s smile was absent and still a bit startled when he told her goodbye, and when the door closed, Jungah didn’t even know what to do with herself, half prancing back toward the living room and flapping her arms a little as she tried to get her emotions under control. He hadn’t seemed completely shocked, and he’d seemed really pleased, too. Really pleased. She pressed the backs of her fingers against her cheeks and willed the flush to pass.
She spent the next minutes imagining him running back to tell her that he’d forgotten to tell her something. It was a sweet thought, but him just being pleased with it was so much of what she had hoped. But it was still on her mind an hour later, when the door chime sounded, even though she knew that Minseok would have just come right in. It was a delivery, one that was in her name, and she sat, pulling at the paper packing to unveil the contents. Imported crackers, samplers of iced tea bags, lotion that was unscented for days she couldn’t stand the scent of her own favorites. The last was a CD, music for morning sickness, and it made her smack her head against the jewel case for a moment as she laughed.
There was a note, one probably composed a day or two before. “Some new things to try. I hope you like them. - Minseok”
Jungah had been daydreaming of Minseok arriving to tell her he loved her. She cradled the note and felt he almost had.
***
There was an antsiness under her skin that kept Jungah going that day. She re-arranged her desk, made lists in the kitchen, scrubbed at a particularly stubborn stain on one of her shirts. When that all failed to distract her, and sitting down and reading after lunch had her fidgeting, she went out, browsing shops, getting a smoothie and trying to tell herself that nothing changed. The little routines they’d fallen into, the teasing him about nearly bowling her flat when she was five, or falling asleep listening to his heartbeat. He’d made such an effort integrating her, keeping her close, connected, beaming at her when she had delighted him. Or his eyes going soft sometimes when he touched her.
She could read so much into that, and it made her want to shudder to think of losing it, fearing the distance that she had mostly expected when they had married, but that he had never offered. Nothing had to change.
Jungah was in the elevator going back up to the condo when her phone chimed.
“Do you think you’ll feel up to dinner out?” Minseok texted her. “I can come pick you up in an hour.”
She typed back, “I’ll be ready. Where are we going?”
And she was inside of the door when Minseok was cryptic in his response.
“One of your favorites. Wear the green dress?”
It was one of his favorites, a new dress she’d gotten just a couple of weeks before. It was also not a casual dress, which told her that the restaurant wasn’t casual either. He liked surprising her with things like that, watching her reaction to a new place, a new menu. But if it was a favorite restaurant, then they’d been there, and knowing she had to dress had her texting back her agreement and moving fast to start getting ready. All she had to do then was meet him at the car, listening to his tale of the day and clearing her throat when Minseok got a little grumbly at people cutting them off and delaying their trip.
“Is dinner going to get cold before we get there?” she asked, and Minseok grinned a bit sheepishly.
But they were ushered in, without more than a few seconds of waiting. Only, they weren’t led toward their usual table, instead they went along a hallway, being led into an elevator and up, out into a room that looked like event storage more than anything else. Minseok saw her confusion and kept her arm in his, guiding her until they were led out one final door.
But it wasn’t to a dining room, not really. Oh, there was a table there, and chairs. There were flowers on the table, a half dozen short little candles dancing. But it was on the roof, on some kind of portable flooring, surrounded by arches covered in tiny lights, and nothing but the sky above them. Jungah could even hear music, from some hidden speakers she guessed, and Minseok was watching her as she gawked around.
“Do you like it?”
“It’s gorgeous.”
And completely not what she had been expecting. Minseok helped her to sit, and they were handed the menus after they had chosen their drinks. She opted for sparkling water, and she thought that he might have as well so that he didn’t drink in front of her, but that was the least of her concerns. They sent along their orders with the waiter, and Minseok smiled at her, reaching for her hand and taking it.
“Want to dance while we’re waiting?”
Their glasses were left abandoned on the table, and Minseok kept hold of her hand as they wound together, swaying to the music.
“You are full of surprises,” Jungah said, still staring at the lights that were strung around.
Minseok puffed up a little bit like a penguin. “You’re fun to surprise.”
“Am I?”
Oh, he definitely went someplace dirty, there, and she raised an eyebrow at him. She knew he liked the dress, but as private as it was, there were definitely limits.
“I’ve told you that I was happy that they chose us for each other,” Minseok said, his face close to hers. “I thought we’d be good together, but it’s more than that. Jungah, you- I love you.”
It was so gentle, so urgent and natural that it sent prickles across her skin, and the tears that sprung to her eyes, they weren’t something that she could help even as she tried to hold them back. She’d wanted to hear it. She’d known. Hoped. And when she opened her mouth, ready to half-sob at him, she thought of all the lights around them, the special table, the expense.
“Is that what all of this is for?” Jungah asked, and he nodded at her, searching her eyes. It nearly made her tear up again. “You didn’t have to do all of this.”
“I needed to. I wanted to show you, too.”
They’d given up on all pretense of dancing, at that point, and she just wrapped herself around him, Minseok holding her back tightly right away.
“Minseok,” she half chastised, and he laughed, nuzzling against her hair.
“I left out the ponies and the fireworks.”
She wasn’t sure why she was half worried that he meant it.
“The orchestra?”
“Too short notice,” Minseok said, sighing heavily and making her almost shriek with laughter as he pretended to bite her chin. “I got so addled. You handed me just this perfect… I had to do something.”
She’d stolen the thunder, maybe. Or maybe he’d just needed some of the things around them to bolster himself. It didn’t matter. If he’d whispered it in the dark, told her with sauce all over his face, she’d still have been happy. Everything she saw, he’d done for them.
“Minseok,” she said, leaning into him harder, and he stroked along her back, murmuring to her.
Only because of the gentle knock, and the waiter returning with their food, did they break apart and Jungah really realized how strange it all was.
“How did you get them to allow us to eat on the roof?” she asked.
Minseok had pulled his chair around by hers, so their knees brushed as he sat back down, his eyes mischievous . “That’s going to be my secret.”
They ate in the warm evening air, the subtle sound of music, the sounds of the city around them. There was no one there to judge how loud they laughed, or how close they sat, or when Minseok leaned in to kiss her, or to feed her from his own fork.
When they were home again, in a different kind of privacy, there was nothing different in the way that Minseok’s hands smoothed against her skin after he had peeled the dress from her. It had been good she had worn it, because she could feel the beginnings of it being snug. There was a knowing, behind it, that behind the way he cherished her, behind the way he pleased her, that there was something else. Her body had known him before her heart had, but he curled moans from her, urged her to hold him, kissed her, needing and gentle at the same time. He moaned her name, and in that moment, it was everything.
Jungah curled against him after, wrapped up in a robe and in the scent of him, the way he stroked her hair and let her arrange herself so that he was pressed up against her back and holding her.
“You’re on my side of the bed,” she teased him, and Minseok laughed, cuddling her tighter.
“Love you,” he told her, and it made her turn her head, kissing him again.
“I love you, too,” she said, and just saying it like that had her wiggling back against him. He kissed against her cheek, sighing as they both relaxed.
“Goodnight, blob,” Minseok murmured toward her belly.
It made Jungah smile, resting her hand over Minseok’s.
***
It was Jungah’s first launch party. A new line of phones from the Obelus Group was reason for fanfare, and Minseok was high in demand. He’d been on the go since way before she’d been ready to get out of bed that morning, and she’d dressed with Junhwa before heading to the venue. He’d promised her that she could leave if she got tired, or there would be a room at least that she could go to get away from it all and relax. Jungah wasn’t sure but the fact that Minseok could actually see more of the curve of her belly had Minseok even more protective.
Usually it took only a raised finger for Minseok to back off, though. It was her subtle way of letting him know that she knew her body, and her limits, and that she appreciated his concern. But the room was already crowded when she got there, and she sat through the announcements, the presentation. The chairs were all swept away, some at the sides to make room for mingling and showing off. Some people recognized her, greeting her, and Minseok’s assistant found her first, ushering her through the crowd after she’d waved at Junhwa to let her know she was going. Minseok was smiling, talking to a couple she didn’t know, and at motion approaching him, his head turned.
He didn’t just smile at her, he beamed, turning, greeting her like she was the only person in the room and nearly taking away her breath as he tucked her against him. He introduced her as Jungah, his wife, and she was greeted warmly. She could feel the tension in Minseok, that he wanted to tug her away, but he stuck with it until they moved away, and that was when he pulled her closer, pressed his lips against her cheek.
“I saw the presentation. It was wonderful,” she said. She’d had a place right near the front, too, to appreciate Minseok as he made his speech and demonstration.
“I caught a glimpse of you in all the activity, but I think you were talking to Junhwa when I waved.” And he got right close to her ear, whispering. “It’s a zoo in here. What have I been doing without you?”
Minseok got her a drink, and they socialized, with Jungah staying close to Minseok’s side at least for an hour or so. It seemed like he could tell she was flagging almost as soon as she did, and he started edging with her towards the side, whispering a promise that he would find a place for her to sit a while, soon.
There were so many strangers, and vague acquaintances in the room, so many people who met them and wondered how she and Minseok had met, how they were together. There was family, too, but they had expectations of a different kind, and hopes as well. Jungah smiled at Minseok as he talked and he caught her looking, smiling back.
It didn’t matter what anyone else thought of their marriage. If anyone doubted, they would see.
***
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3
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