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Over the next few minutes, she steadily consumed the meal Jin had prepared for her.  He sat and watched her.  

“Jin, you are a fabulous cook.”

He laughed.  “You made the kimchi.  All I did was mix it into the rice.”

“But you prepared the fish the other night, and it was excellent too.”  She smiled at him.

He reached out and took the empty bowl from her fingers.  He also removed the chopsticks from her other hand.  After setting both on the floor next to their bed, he turned towards her.

“How are you feeling this morning?  How is your head?  Can I take a look?”

She nodded as he began to unwind the bandage.  “I’m fine, Jin.”

“Does your head still hurt?”

She winced as his fingers touched the tender spot that had been split open.  “Only when you apply pressure to the laceration.  The headache is gone.”

Jin sighed with relief.  “I am most thankful to hear that.”  He examined the cut.  “The wound is healing nicely.  Should we keep it covered?”

“Yes.  For a couple more days at least, I think.”

“Let me grab a clean bandage.”  

He jumped up and headed for the other room, snagging the bowl and chopsticks before rushing out the door.  He returned a few moments later with the clean bandage and rewrapped her head.  When he was finished, he beamed down at her.

“You’re good to go,” he murmured cheerfully.  

“Thank you, Jin.”  Her eyes met his.  She swallowed.

His expression was transforming into something more intense.  She sought to distract him.

“You got drenched when you visited the village earlier, didn’t you?”

His eyebrows flew north.  “How did you know that?”  He watched in fascination as a pink blush suddenly suffused her cheeks with color.

“Um.  Those aren’t the clothes you wore to bed last night,” she grappled for a believable answer.

He grinned suddenly.  “You saw me, didn’t you?  When I was undressed.  What exactly did you see, Eunie?” he asked in a teasing voice.

She cleared her throat as her eyes traveled away from his face.  “Just your, um, bare chest.”

“Oh?  What did you think?” he quirked a dark eyebrow at her.  “Is your husband a healthy specimen?”

This made her laugh, and her eyes found his again.  “A healthy specimen?  Like you’re a science experiment?”

“Sure.  You’re a scientist, aren’t you?  What did you think of me?”

He watched in delight as the flush spread across her face again.  This was quite interesting.  Whatever was going through his wife’s mind?

He bent towards her.  “Eunie, are you having…certain thoughts about me now?”  He waggled his eyebrows at her.

“Certain thoughts?” she played dumb.

“Yes.  Certain thoughts.  How do I compare to all the other specimens you’ve seen?”

She would have choked on her kimchi then had she still been eating.  “You forget, sir.  My patients are women and girls.  Not men.  You don’t compare at all.”

He chuckled.  “You know what I think?”

She was afraid to venture a guess.

“I think you need to be kissed soundly.  And perhaps I should remove my shirt again.  Just so that you can become accustomed to certain thoughts about a certain specimen.”

She snorted suddenly before clapping her hand over her mouth.

Jin was delighting in her.  And wondering why it had taken him so long to wake up to her perfection.  He leaned towards her and breathed into her ear.

“How long have you loved me, Eunie?”

She turned pink again.  He wanted to ravish her lips then.  But he satisfied himself with a quick peck on her rosy cheek instead.

“I told you,” she whispered.  “Since you spun me in our meadow.”

A sad kind of wonder spread across his countenance then and flooded his eyes with a brief sorrow.  “You’ve been in love with me since we were six years old?” he breathed in awe.

She gave one short bob of her head.

“What?” he whispered.  He could hardly believe it.  “Surely not!  You never gave me any indication…”

“You never returned my feelings, Jin.  There was no point in giving you any indication.  You were always chasing one lass or another from the village.  And they were so pretty and well-suited to you.”  She was studying the blanket covering them both. “I couldn’t have stolen you away even if it had been possible.  Which it wasn’t.”

“Ah.  But it was.  You did, Eunie.  You stole me away from them all yesterday.”  His voice was a caress, so tender that tears were threatening her composure again.

She glanced at him then out of the corner of her eye.  “I did, didn’t I?” she asked, a tiny smile curving her lips.

“Indeed.”

“How ever did I manage that?”

“Your superior wit.  Your kind smile.  Your laughter.  Your sense of humor.  And your love of my fish.”

She chortled outright then.  “That last is what turned the tide, isn’t it?  My love of your fish.”

“It did make you pretty irresistible.  You were right, Eunie.  I could never marry a girl who didn’t love my fish.”  He sobered suddenly.  “But that was only part of it.”

“What do you mean?”

“When I found you lying on your kitchen floor, blood pouring from your head, I realized something.”

“What?” she narrowed her eyes as her eyebrows launched an invasion on them.

“I didn’t want to live without you.”

“What?” her voice came out as a surprised squeak.

“I love you, Eunie.  With all my heart.”  Then he bent his head and captured her lips with his own.

But the angle was so awkward as to make them both uncomfortable, so he slid his arm around her and pulled her towards him.  Eunbyeol gladly followed that guiding hand.  And reveled in the dance of his lips upon her own for several blissful moments.  She felt like weeping for joy.  Jin had just confessed his love for her!

He continued to press his lips against hers as his beard tickled her mouth.  She nearly giggled but somehow restrained herself.  As he deepened the kiss, his fingers began to caress her cheek, his tender touch lighting a thousand tiny fires under her skin.  She leaned closer to him as his other hand pushed gently against her back until her chest was snug against his.  

“Shall I remove my shirt, Eunie?” he mumbled against her lips a moment later.

She gasped, for he had just read the desire of her heart.  Boldly, she reached out and slid her hand under that shirt.  Her fingers found the smooth skin of his abdomen and delighted in the softness of that great expanse as she drew her hand upward over his torso.  Jin grinned against her lips before he continued to peruse her mouth with his own.  Desire was spiraling through them both and pulling them towards a greater kind of fulfillment when a knock sounded on the outer door.

Now Jin groaned against her lips.  “Eunie, are you sure you have to be a doctor?” he whined.

She giggled.  “I don’t know.  Are you sure you have to be a fisherman?”

“Yes,” he responded emphatically, “I definitely have to be a fisherman.  You fell in love with me because of my fish.  Besides, there are always fish in the sea.  I can feed you forever.”

Her eyes caressed his as they drew apart.  “Sounds like a plan,” she murmured, something alluring in her gaze.

It drew him towards her again…