Chapter 34: A Plethora of Happiness – October 18, 2025
“Yura? You can open your eyes now.”
She did, and her gaze embraced their favorite picnic spot. The one that ran along the river. She grinned as she turned her eyes towards Jin.
“You brought me here for a picnic?” she asked with excitement lacing her tone.
He nodded his head. “It’s been a while. I just wanted to get away with you for a few minutes. Alone. Without a big boy or a tiny girl trying to crawl into our bed with us.”
She laughed. “It’s all your fault for buying such a gigantic bed.”
“What was I thinking when I purchased a king-sized bed?” He tossed his eyebrow up into the heavens. “Next time I’m buying us a twin.”
Her laughter gurgled around them. “Want me all to yourself, do you?” she replied teasingly. Then she leaned towards him and embrace his lips with her own.
As he sat gazing at her twenty minutes later, after they’d enjoyed their lunch, he murmured, “Do you realize how much Minhyuk resembles you? He even got your beautiful, mocha eyes.”
Startled by his words, she glanced up at him. He then surprised her by opening his mouth in a song. His rich, lilting tones flowed over her.
“Eyes of brown,
Kind and round,
Stare at me,
Set me free.
“Lost myself
In velvet,
Deep and dark,
Left a mark.
“On my soul
Don’t you know?
Your eyes please,
Do not cease.
“Gaze at me;
Don’t leave me.
Always be
Mine so free.
“Yura, I love your eyes,” he whispered.
“Jin, I can’t believe you remember that song!” she gasped.
“Of course, I remember it. I wrote it for you.” His lips twisted into a grin. “And our son taught it to me.”
“What?”
He nodded as he laughed. “When he was my student. One day during class, he asked if he could teach me a song. You can imagine my astonishment when my own song was what poured from his lips!”
Her own lips wavered into a tremulous smile. “I always sang it to him. From the time he was a tiny tot.”
Their gazes locked.
“I’m so glad you never forgot me,” Jin whispered.
“That would have been an impossibility,” she murmured quietly.
“It’s still true, you know,” Jin breathed.
Her eyes met his in quandary.
“You’re still my forever girl. You left a mark on my soul and I never want to be free from it. I love you, Yura. I will always love you. You’re the only girl for me. I swear it. Forever.” He repeated his pledge.
As her lips captured his, she suddenly vividly recalled their first wedding anniversary. It had been a Sunday. She had been basking in bed late into the morning. Only a few weeks from delivering their daughter, Yura had been stealing every opportunity to indulge in laziness. For she had known her life was about to change again. In the most marvelous of ways. Jin, wishing to indulge his wife’s whim, had encouraged her to lie in that gigantic bed he’d bought for her. He had returned from the kitchen a half hour later with a beautiful breakfast…
“Jin! You made me breakfast in bed?! How wonderful are you?”
“Extremely,” he beamed. “Happy anniversary, my love.” He smiled sweetly at her and bent to brush his lips across hers after he set the tray on her nightstand. “I have a gift for you.”
He disappeared for a moment. Only to return with a huge vase full of the most resplendent red roses she had ever seen. Her eyes widened in surprise.
“Jin!” she breathed. “They’re lovely!”
He grimaced. “I’ve waited years to give these to you. You had to wait for them much longer than I originally planned, but here are the red roses that I promised to give you on our first anniversary.”
She nodded as she remembered. He’d given her pink roses on her sixteenth birthday. With the promise that he was saving the red ones for the special day when she would have been officially his for a whole year. Today that day had finally arrived.
She beamed up at him. “They – like you – were completely worth the wait, Jin.” Her eyes collided with his for a moment. Their gazes kissed for a few beats. “Does this mean your love for me is still passionate and undying?”
“Of course, Yura. Always. You’re my forever girl.” His face was sober, but the light of his love was still illuminating his eyes. Which were tangling with her own.
After a few intense moments, her gaze strayed towards the tray. “What’s for breakfast?” she wrinkled her brow as she stared in consternation at the upside-down, stainless steel bowl covering her surprise. She glanced up at him and quirked a midnight eyebrow.
“Take off the cover and find out.” He was trying to suppress his grin, but he was failing. It was peeping out at the corners of his mouth. He picked up the tray and set it in her lap.
She lifted the bowl and laughed. “What else? Chocolate mousse!”
“Yeah,” Jin sighed. “They were all out of chocolate moose at the candy shop, so I had to make the second best thing.” Then he suddenly tugged his eyebrows towards his nose. “Or is it, they were all out of chocolate meese at the candy shop?”
She giggled. “No, Jin. It’s definitely chocolate moose. Chocolate meese would ruin the joke.”
“But I feel certain that I could then rhymingly introduce chocolate geese somehow.”
She shook her head as another laugh escaped her lips. Then she plunged the spoon into her chocolate treat. This one was definitely a mousse…
Yura was still reminiscing about that lovely day a few hours after her picnic with her husband as she sat on her daughter’s bedroom floor. In the house that Jin had bought her. He had purchased a gorgeous home for them a year after the birth of their daughter.
Remembering the first time she’d set foot in their beautiful house, Yura smiled while she fingered the necklace he’d bought her a few weeks after their first anniversary. After the birth of their daughter. Two stones were suspended from the simple silver chain. A green peridot representing Minhyuk’s birth month and a blue topaz for Misuk’s. Yura loved that necklace. She had rarely taken it off since her daughter was a week old.
Jin’s gifts still surrounded her. This amazing house. This beautiful necklace. Their lovely, little daughter.
“Eomma!” That lovely, little daughter suddenly broke into her reverie with her indignant, little voice. “Play with me!”
Yura glanced down at her tiny darling. They were both seated on the floor in front of their dollhouse. The one Jin had bought for Yura. And for Minhyuk’s baby sister. The one that hadn’t yet existed when Jin was courting Yura for the second time. But the man must have caught a glimpse of the future somehow, for Yura was now living his dream. Playing dolls with their daughter in that gigantic dollhouse. A manifestation of her own childhood dream. Jin had returned it to her. And so many others with it.
As she bent her head to glimpse into the tiny kitchen where her doll was sitting with Misuk’s, Yura recalled the day that Jin had officially adopted her son as his own. The paperwork had joyfully declared her son’s new name. Kim Minhyuk. Yura had burst into tears. She had felt like all of her dreams had come true that day. Her son had finally belonged to the man who should have been his appa from the very beginning.
“Eomma!” Again that strident tone captured her attention.
Yura smiled at her little girl. “Misuk? Want to help me make some chocolate mousse?”
A voice answered her from the doorway. “I do!”
Yura glanced up to see her adorable son beaming at her. A few moments later, her husband joined her and their children in the kitchen. Where a good time was had by all. And much chocolate was enjoyed. By the whole family. Each and every single member. Jin’s dream had come true.
––
A few hours later, their adorable children had fallen asleep in their big bed as they watched a show on the second ridiculously large television set that Jin had bought. This one had been a present for Yura. He’d purchased it when they’d moved into their house. He’d insisted that she needed a TV in their bedroom. But she still suspected that Jin had bought it for himself. However, it had turned out to be a true gift for her too because its purchase had led to moments like this one. In which she could stand watching her children as they slept curled around each other in a mammoth bed that a wonderful man had bought for a single mother a long time ago.
“Jin?”
“Hmm?” He crossed their bedroom to smile down at Yura.
He threaded his arms around her waist and drew her near, but he glanced back to see the two beautiful, little darlings slumbering together in their king-sized bed.
Yura didn’t miss the light of love shining out of his eyes as they caressed Minhyuk and Misuk. Her eomma’s heart melted.
“I love you, Jin,” she gushed. “You’re such a good man. And such an amazing appa.”
His eyes traveled back to her face. For a few moments, his gaze drank in her beauty before he dipped his head to claim her lips with his own.
As that luscious mouth moved across his, he whispered, “I love you too.”
His eyes moved back to their children. “We’re living our dream, Yura. Two beautiful babies.” Then he caught her gaze again. “Does life get any more perfect than this?”
His gaze slid back to their beautiful daughter and their strong son. Jin was reflecting upon how wonderful it was to be an appa.
“I think so,” she murmured.
Then she paused as she watched a smile playing about his lips. Why was her heart racing? This time would be so different from the first time.
“Jin?”
His eyes danced with hers again. “Hmm?”
“I’m pregnant.”
His eyes grew wide as a sweet smile flooded his face with pure joy. He stood, beaming down at her. Because this time he knew he was the father.
