KHronicleS

Serendipity

Joseon, January 1890

"Woo-sung, must you be so insolent?!" I whispered to the annoying young man beside me. He just came out of nowhere and pulled at my dress playfully as he always did whenever we were out at a ball. He was eighteen, two years older than me but he was like a five-year old with all of his antics. He always played pranks on me which sometimes made me laugh but most of the time made me even more annoyed than I had ever been. He was the eldest son of the Minister of War and I was the only daughter of the Minister of Taxation.

"Must you be so Hye Soo-lent?" He teased back, mimicking my pronunciation. I rolled my eyes at him. Irritated, I reached behind to scratch an itch on my back from the corset I have been wearing for a couple of hours already. I hate these festivities. All the aristocrats were gathered every year and the elders arranged for their descendants in a matchmaking scene. Before I could reach my targeted body part, I felt him scratch the area. "What are you doing?!" I panicked. If someone saw us, we'd be easily misinterpreted and then we're both doomed. 

"Hands off this instant!" 

"What? I am just helping you." He raised both of his hands while smirking. He knew what he was doing. I groaned. I hated him, he always made something to put me on edge.

"Get away from me!" I whispered.

His eyes darkened. "No."

"What do you want?" I asked with clear frustration in my voice.

"I told you I am choosing you to be my bride."

"Fool, you say that to every lady you come across." I shrugged him off.

"When I say it to you, I am most serious." I turned my back on him and covered my ears.

I felt him walk away, I frowned. We had been in the same situation, with him saying the same thing for two years now. He backed down easily this time. Good, at last.

A few minutes later, I saw him walking back to my direction along with his parents. My eyes grew wide and I took a step back. What was he up to?

"She is the one I am talking about."

His mother looked at me with warm smiling eyes, obviously pleased. 

"Oh my sweet little lady, you are so beautiful." She touched my hair and cupped one side of my cheek.

"Very well, then." His father also looked at me with gentleness. "I shall talk to your parents and have you invited at our home within fortnight."

I was left speechless. 

-

Korean War, June 1950

I held tightly onto my husband as the clashes and attacks continued. Our house would collapse any minute now from all the bombing. The North blew up the bridge across the Han River, closely located to where we lived.

"Hye Soo, my dear. I would continue to love and hold you even after this lifetime. Death would not part us." He croaked as much as his seventy-eight-year old voice could.

I cried. We have been through so much. We married at an early age and I eventually fell head over heels with him because he proved that I was the only one. He treated me like a queen. He never made me feel that something was lacking even after having three miscarriages. When we came to accept that we were never going to have a child, he made me the center of his world, and I did the same.

We were laid down on our bed, holding each other and waiting for our time to come because there was definitely no escape. We were too afraid to go out and be shot at so we chose to stay inside together and let fate take its course.