DWWWB Epilogue

When she met my youngest aunt, her face was very tense as her lips stretched into an awkward smile. When she heard that my youngest aunt had raised me, she said dozens of times that she was so grateful and wanted to make a good impression.

“Is this our second time seeing each other? Right? We met in Europe. Right, Mujin?”

Her eyes widened even more when she heard my aunt’s nonsensical joke.

“Auntie!”

I scowled at her.

“I’m joking, just joking.”

“Don’t even joke about that.”

My aunt clapped her hands and laughed.

“You became so gentle, so I thought you weren’t Gong Mujin anymore. How can someone change so drastically? Milhee, do you know? This kid has a really bad temper. This is all a pretense.”

“Yes, I know.”

She smiled prettily and nodded at my aunt.

What do you know? I treat Oh Milhee so well!

I shot her a bewildered look, and she winked at me as if to tell me she was just appeasing my aunt.

“Omo, really? Is our Mujin picking on you too?”

My aunt continued speaking as if she were worried.

“Mujin. You shouldn’t do that. Fix that habit before you get married. You’re the only one who can take care of your wife. Do you understand? And Milhee, if he misbehaves, tell me. I’ll give him a sound beating.”

“Yes, Auntie-nim.”

“No need to call me ‘Auntie-nim’. Just call me ‘Auntie’, okay? And you said Heesu will be the one to catch the bouquet? Her boyfriend isn’t all that, so why is she making such a fuss about catching the bouquet?”

“I heard Heesu’s boyfriend asked her to marry him. He even found a house near the new Shinbundang Line station. I guess he’s really good to Heesu.”

My aunt and Milhee chattered away as if they had never been awkward at all. When I looked at her with questioning eyes, she grinned and squeezed my hand under the table. She was so pretty that I felt like my heart would stop.

Oh Milhee greeted my aunt so naturally, but as I stood in front of her apartment building’s entrance, my heart pounded even more than when I crossed the finish line in a race. I felt like I was half insane until I got on the elevator and rang the doorbell.

As soon as the doorbell rang, the door opened wide. She greeted me with a smile.

“Mom, Mujin-ssi is here!”

Mujin-ssi?

I looked down at her with slightly bewildered eyes as she suddenly called my name in such a formal manner. Having caught on quickly, she went on her tiptoes and quietly whispered in my ear.

“Because I have an oppa at home who is my mother’s son.”

When I heard her cute explanation, a smile spread across my lips. Just a moment ago, I had been feeling extremely tense and felt like I was going to suffocate. But when I saw Oh Milhee’s face, my racing heart seemed to calm down.

“You’re here? It seems that you’re crossing over our doorstep once again.”

Her older brother, Oh Hyunho, who I would now have to call ‘hyung’, began to tease me.

“You were worried our family would tell you to respect the hierarchy at our home, so you put on that show at the Tour de France, didn’t you?”

Oh Hyunho’s face seemed to be sullenly saying, ‘How can a younger sister get married first when her older brother hasn’t married yet?’

“Aigoo, don’t say things you don’t mean. Are you trying to one-up your brother-in-law?”

Her mother came out of the kitchen and scolded her son.

“Hello, my name is Gong Mujin.”

I bowed to her mother.

“Just ignore him. No one in our home is upset that Milhee is getting married first. And you really didn’t have to buy all this. Hurry up and come inside.”

Her mother gave me a bright smile as she looked down at the bundles of gifts I was holding in my hands.

“Hmm. What do you mean no one is upset? I’m upset.”

It was the voice of her father sitting in the living room.

Since five people couldn’t sit around a table for four, a large table of dumplings was set up in the living room. It was a similar situation to when I visited my mother’s house in the past.

“Hurry up and sit down. I don’t know if the food will suit your taste.”

However, the mood was completely different. Milhee sat next to me with a grin, and her mother smiled playfully at her daughter. Her older brother also looked between his younger sister and me with a look of awe.

“So you’re going to live in Korea now?”

Her father asked as he lifted a bottle of liquor. I quickly knelt down and placed a glass in front of him.

“Yes, I have a house in Seorae Village.”

“Isn’t it difficult to manage a single-family house?”

“There is someone who takes care of the housework, but if Milhee feels uncomfortable, we can move into an apartment.”

I received the bottle of liquor from her father as he nodded. My hands were shaking as I filled the empty glass. It was the first time in my life I had ever trembled like this.

“You two dated briefly in college? That’s what you said in the interview for that program.”

Unable to resist the passionate pleas of PD Han, I agreed to an interview as a special director’s cut of the program. In the interview, I talked about my first love in college and my last love now. PD Han had said he would package it up well when he was trying to persuade me, and thanks to him, our marriage announcement went much more smoothly than expected.

“Yes, we did.”

“So when you came to my house and signed my helmet, were you two dating then?”

Her father’s voice sounded a little hoarse, laced with a hint of betrayal.

“Yes, sir.”

I answered with my head bowed.

“Aigoo, honey, what’s wrong? Did you really not know back then? Did you think Gong Mujin was merely Hyunho’s hoobae and that he was just visiting our house?”

Everyone looked at Milhee’s mother when they heard her unexpected remark.

“Mom, you knew?”

Startled, Milhee asked in a voice laced with laughter as she looked at her mother.

“You had pictures all over your dresser. Dad didn’t know, but I knew.”

“Then why did you pretend not to know?”

Oh Hyunho asked in shock.

“Gong-seobang. Our kids are like this. They seem smart, but they’re so clumsy. Did they really think they could fool their parent? They didn’t even know I was pretending to be fooled. Do you think I didn’t know that my Milhee was secretly dating? When she was running around like she had a screw loose?”

“Mom, when did I ever have a screw loose?”

She pursed her lips with displeasure.

“If the two of you kept dating, our Milhee would never have gotten into the broadcasting station, let alone graduate college. And do you think Gong-seobang would have been able to compete properly when he was so anxious?”

“Mom, Gong-seobang isn’t like that. Do you know how determined he can be? When he focuses on one thing, he can’t see anything else. Even back then, he only rode the bicycle.”

“If a man has a purpose, he should be like that. That’s how a family can be established.”

Her father stepped in to confront his daughter’s grumbling.

“Anyways, you’ve had a difficult time. I was determined not to give our Milhee to just anyone. If she brought home a bad husband candidate, I was going to throw him out the door.”

Her father laughed bitterly as he poured himself another glass of liquor.

“Our Milhee has high standards. Who do you think she takes after? It’s because she takes after me, okay? Look at your mother-in-law. See how beautiful she is? She’s still beautiful, right?”

“Yes, sir.”

I nodded and smiled faintly.

“That means I also have high standards when it comes to my son-in-law.”

“Father, you should be honest. Ever since Gong Mujin visited our house all those years ago, you’ve been talking about it. You said that if you had a hoobae like Gong Mujin, you’d introduce him to Milhee.”

Her brother spoke up in a mischievous voice.

“Ever since you met Brother-in-law, your standards have gone up, Father.”

A small hand gently grabbed my arm.

“And that’s why I brought Mujin-ssi back, Dad.”

Her father smiled in delight when he heard his daughter’s cute words. Then he wiped his damp eyes.

“Aigoo, I can’t believe this stubborn girl is getting married.”

“You’re no better, either, dear. Why are you acting like this on such a wonderful day? How much do you plan on crying on her wedding day?”

Her mother’s eyes also reddened.

“We will live well. I will do my best so that you won’t have to worry.”

“I didn’t hold back anything as I raised my daughter Milhee. Don’t make my daughter cry.”

“Yes, Father.”

When I bowed my head with my reply, her father suddenly asked a question.

“But is our Milhee good at riding a bike? When she was little, she tried learning from Hyunho and fell down. I scolded Hyunho a lot. She cried because she scraped her knee, and it deeply upset me.”

“Father, that’s a source of trauma for me. Is Milhee your only child? Am I not also your child? How could you scold me like that? You’d think you picked me up from under a bridge or something.”

“You get married and have a son and daughter and see how it goes. You will understand your father’s heart. A black-hearted son and a precious daughter. They are different, very different.”

I felt increasingly strange as the family continued to share their honest feelings.

“And now that a black-hearted bastard is taking away your precious daughter?”

I also couldn’t get used to the way Oh Hyunho teased his father.

“How is he black-hearted? Our only son-in-law is as white as white jade! Huh?”

Milhee held onto my arm and chuckled.

“Gong-seobang. I will now cherish you as much as I cherish our daughter. So don’t make her sad.”

Her father, who was now drunk, smiled kindly at me. He cautiously gave me some fatherly love that I had never felt in all my life. Just a moment ago, I had felt awkward because I couldn’t adapt to the harmonious atmosphere, but now my heart melted and my eyes stung.

“Thank you, Father.”

“It’s nice to hear you call me ‘Father’ instead of ‘Father-in-law’.”

“Dad, Mujin-ssi taught me how to ride a bike. Since then, I’ve never fallen, and I’ve been riding it well.”

She glanced at me with a grin. She was only saying things that her father would like to hear.

“Life is like riding a bicycle. If you keep your balance and ride well, you won’t fall. If you lose your balance, problems will arise. Whether it’s family, a married couple, or a parent-child relationship. Since you two are smart, you’ll live well. Yeah.”

Years ago, I was struggling to find balance in my life. It takes practice to find balance. Maybe that first meeting was practice. It was a harsh practice that brought me the balance I have now.

I told them a dozen more times that we would live well and that I would treat her well. Her family was as warm as she was, and they welcomed me as one of their own. The warmth brought tears to my eyes.

The moment love is found, life is complete.

During the wedding preparations, I agreed with all of her opinions unconditionally. There was no need to disagree. All I had to do was do what she said.

“I think PD Han wants to do a program with me late next spring.”

Our wedding date was set for early spring of next year.

“What kind of program?”

“A cyclist audition program? He said they wanted to plan a bicycle race with Seoul as the backdrop. He said the Tour de France broadcast is also very effective in promoting tourism in France.”

“So he wants to plan a race with Seoul as the backdrop?”

She smiled and nodded. We were lying on the bed next to each other as she flipped through a wedding magazine.

“This dress is pretty. What do you think?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty.”

I gently kissed her cheek. Even if she wore a potato sack at the wedding, I knew she’d look pretty in my eyes.

“But once you start going on TV, you might end up going in that direction for a while. Have you given that any thought?”

I laid on my back and pulled her body into my arms. She propped her pretty face against my chest as she waited for my answer.

“I’ve never really thought about it. Before I met you, I never thought about going on TV at all. If you say it’s okay, I’ll do it.”

She slightly frowned with a smile on her lips.

“Are you going to do whatever I say from now on?”

“Yeah. I said I’d do that.”

She buried her face into the left side of my chest where my heart was beating and laughed. Her warm laughter came in gentle waves and reached my heart. I lowered my head and gently kissed her hair.

“Then what are you going to do about your tour next year?”

“I’ll only go out once a year. Then I’ll retire when I turn thirty-five. When I’m not going out to compete, I plan on creating a professional team in Korea and training other athletes.”

“Did your team say they’d let you do that?”

“Yeah.”

She looked up at me without saying anything. Her face was filled with complicated emotions.

“I already thought about retiring at the age of thirty-five for a while now. And even before I met you again, I knew I wanted to return to Korea. Even though I had no place to settle down, I always missed the land where I was born and raised.”

She craned her head forward and gently kissed my lips.

“But now you have a place to settle down.”

Tears welled up in her eyes.

“Don’t go anywhere and stick right next to me, Oppa.”

Her tearful voice sounded so adorable.

“Don’t be hard on me because I’m sticking to you too much.”

She tightened her arms around me and muttered back in a soft voice.

“Why would I be hard on my husband? I won’t. And from now on, if anyone is hard on you, I will punish them all.”

The memories of being lonely seemed hazy and distant. I pulled her body closer to me. Then, as I lightly kissed her red lips, she began to murmur.

“But where are we going for our honeymoon?”

“Wherever you want to go.”

“Will it be okay for you to take a long plane ride? You have a fear of heights. Aren’t you afraid of flying?”

I cleared my throat for no reason before I answered her.

“I am a bit scared, but… I’ll be okay if you’re with me.”

I’ll say this again. I don’t have a fear of heights.

I’m just a man who wants to lean on his woman’s kind heart.