#Side Story 16
As the wedding preparations were quickly finalized, everything else proceeded smoothly through professional hands. Others helped with the wedding preparations along the way. Even Ji-ae, at Hwi-kyung’s request, went shopping for household items with him once or twice.
“You knew about it too?”
“To some extent. Remember when I tried to remove what was attached to you by searching through your memories?”
“But you didn’t tell me?”
“I wanted you to hear it directly from your mother. It didn’t seem right for me to say it.”
After Ji-ae confessed the truth to Hwi-kyung, Gyo-ha also revealed everything he had seen in Hwi-kyung’s memories. While how he had injured his right hand remained a secret, there was no reason to keep the scene of Ji-ae resurrecting Hwi-kyung hidden anymore.
“Understanding my mother is separate from accepting everything.”
“Of course.”
“I don’t think I can be a particularly good son.”
“Few are as filial as you in this country full of undutiful children…”
Hwi-kyung decided to acknowledge Ji-ae. Complete forgiveness or acceptance was impossible, but Ji-ae needed Hwi-kyung’s help until she could go abroad again.
Ji-ae called it shameless and tried to refuse Hwi-kyung’s assistance, but Hwi-kyung couldn’t just let her go. Not because he still clung to their parent-child relationship, but because he didn’t want to become someone who avoided helping others during their most difficult times, like his parent had done to him.
And so, after many twists and turns, the wedding march preparations finally reached their conclusion. The couple planned to have a private ceremony with only close friends and family, then return to America.
At least, that was the plan until the full-fledged rainy season began after the wedding.
“There’s a saying that rain on your wedding day means the couple will live well together. I really like that saying.”
“Aren’t you just saying that because it’s raining now?”
“I never thought the weather would be this uncooperative.”
Although rain and thunder wouldn’t matter for an indoor wedding, Gyo-ha’s mood had crashed to the ground along with the terrible weather. Due to the downpour, not only was their honeymoon to a resort postponed, but the few guests who did attend arrived looking like drowned rats.
Unlike Gyo-ha, who was deeply worried about the weather, Hwi-kyung didn’t think much about it. Rain? Let it rain… For Hwi-kyung, the imminent wedding was more important than the downpour, guests, or honeymoon.
Ok-ja, beautifully dressed in hanbok, sat in Hwi-kyung’s parents’ seat. In the distance, Ji-ae, as nervous as Hwi-kyung, could be seen exchanging greetings with Gyo-ha’s family members who had cornered her.
Jung-hye greeted the guests because she couldn’t trust Sung-ha to do it, while Sung-ha, held captive by Se-young, was dressed up like a decorative husband and kept busy dealing with the elders with uncharacteristic maturity.
Hwi-kyung later couldn’t remember much about how the wedding proceeded. He just remembered taking pictures with too many people. Chairman Lee Baek-gyeong’s officiating speech sounded a bit nagging. It wasn’t particularly special, but it wasn’t particularly bad either.
Those who had clicked their tongues at two men getting married in Korea had long been driven away by Jung-hye. The surviving guests, whether they meant it or not, only offered congratulations to the newly married couple.
The bouquet Hwi-kyung threw was caught by Se-young without any prior agreement. Se-young giggled like a young girl and gave her husband Sung-ha paranoia by saying she should get married again. After the ceremony, Ji-ae remained in the guest seats for a long time before awkwardly standing next to Ok-ja for the family photos.
The best photo would be printed and hung next to Gyo-ha’s graduate school diploma.
Hwi-kyung suddenly realized he was truly living. The sense of reality that had remained vague even after the regressions ended now washed over him like a wave. He was no longer “someone who shouldn’t be alive at this age.”
Gyo-ha firmly grasped Hwi-kyung’s hand. I promise. The moment Gyo-ha took his hand, those words struck Hwi-kyung like lightning. Though he couldn’t remember exactly when he had heard those words, it was clear that that single phrase, heard so long ago, had created this miracle of the present.
“Now, one more shot. Everyone, relax your expressions and smile!”
The photographer clapped, urging people to look properly at the camera. Meaningless jokes spilled from the photographer’s mouth to create natural smiles. Everyone willingly lifted the corners of their lips even at these trivial jokes. Despite the bad weather, it was definitely not a bad day.
* * *
Even after the wedding ended, the rain didn’t stop. Puddles had formed on the roads, and dirty water splashed up whenever cars passed.
Gyo-ha regretted not being able to leave for their honeymoon immediately, but Hwi-kyung didn’t mind returning to their private space. They could go on a honeymoon anytime if they used their vacation days wisely.
“Gyo-ha.”
“Yes?”
“Did we perhaps meet a very long time ago?”
In the car heading home, Hwi-kyung finally voiced the question he’d been thinking about. Gyo-ha asked if this was a pickup line.
“Are you trying to seduce your husband again…?”
“It’s not that. Somehow, I just feel like we might have met very long ago.”
“I don’t think we did, except when we met in the thirteenth regression. Your face isn’t easy to forget, so if we had met before, I would have remembered first.”
No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t recall any connection before the thirteenth regression. Hwi-kyung had only seen Gyo-ha in news articles, and Gyo-ha had lived on the opposite side of the world, unaware of Hwi-kyung’s existence.
However, regardless of what they couldn’t remember, the two had met before. A childish seven-year-old young master who talked about wanting a destined love, and a five-year-old child who didn’t want to trouble his mother and couldn’t properly say when he was sick.
A childhood meeting that neither could remember could still be considered fate. Thanks to Gyo-ha’s innocent promise, Hwi-kyung had been able to end his long, long regression.
“One thing seems certain, regardless of anything else.”
“What’s that?”
“That we’re destined for each other.”
“You believe in that?”
“Of course I do. Actually, it’s fine even if it’s not destiny. I’ll forge the path myself.”
The rain that had been falling throughout their wedding day continued for three more full days before stopping. The day cleared as if it had never rained, and the world moved on busily as if nothing had happened.
Even after placing simple wedding rings on their ring fingers, the two lived much as they had before. Hwi-kyung still couldn’t completely shed his sensitive and anxious nature, and Gyo-ha still couldn’t completely fix his habit of acting first and thinking later.
But paradoxically, these imperfections made them complete for each other. Sometimes Hwi-kyung felt that meeting Gyo-ha was an incredible stroke of luck. Without Gyo-ha, Hwi-kyung wouldn’t have endured until the sixteenth regression.
“I’ve been thinking too, and it seems we are indeed destined.”
“Finally, Hwi-kyung believes in my theory of destiny.”
“I don’t know about the rest, but I find it believable that if it’s not destiny, we can forge it ourselves.”
Life isn’t a fairy tale, so marriage didn’t make every day happy. Unfortunately, since Jung Hwi-kyung and Lee Gyo-ha were such different people, they clashed as often as they complemented each other. Considering how Hwi-kyung frequently wanted to kill Gyo-ha in the thirteenth regression, there was no guarantee it wouldn’t happen again.
The future they knew now was short. In fact, since so much had changed from previous regressions, they wouldn’t be able to enjoy the regression advantage anymore. Some might find it frustrating or stupid that someone who regressed sixteen times was satisfied with winning the lottery just once.
But through those sixteen regressions, Hwi-kyung had succeeded in gaining much more. He wouldn’t regress now even if he got a job at a black company. The fact that he couldn’t escape through forced regression if a boss bullied him meant he also wouldn’t restart from the beginning if he became an old-fashioned boss himself.
Life returns to its place. People say one lives according to their fate, but some people, whether they wanted to or not, went against their innate destiny. Once you go against it, going backward also becomes a path.
“Will you stay by my side from now on?”
“Of course.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
This “promise,” with an effect stronger than wedding vows, was made casually this time too. On the bed on a weekend morning, or at the breakfast table before work on a weekday…
They promise once again. How dangerous it is or what effect it has doesn’t matter. Because both unconsciously know they will never break that promise.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
