snippets of VCY

wisdom-tooth removal surgeries and promises of love transcending lifetimes

The surgery didn't come with any warning whatsoever.

No signature requirement for any document, no heads-up by the doctor regarding this side-effect that comes after wisdom tooth removal.

He feels her arm around him.

"Look at the camera, Marco's taking a picture!" She squeals and moves her face close to his while posing with the free hand that's not around his neck.

He looks forward where Luca drives and Marco–
His eyes throw daggers towards Marco who blanches and then looks forward, phone sitting in his lap soundly.

Cha Young takes it as a sign he's done.

"Show me, Marco!" She moves forward to retrieve the phone.

Luca turns red, controlling his laugh.

Marco's ears turn pink from embarrassment.

Vincenzo kicks the front seat and he winces before giving the phone to Cha Young.

There's the sound of a video playing.

She watches the video intently with genuine curiosity and he watches how she goes from cheerful, excited to sad and mournful.

"I look horribly ugly." Her tears threaten to spill, and Vincenzo slowly takes the phone from her strong grip and throws it back to Marco.
"You're the prettiest, Cara." His voice is soft and silent as he placates her and she rubs her eyes furiously, her lips pouting, and her face swollen but glowing.

She scoots infinitesimally closer to him in response and hums.

"You're warm."

He smiles while holding her close.

Once back at the villa, it turns out everything fascinates Cha Young. Everything she's seen since she was 6.

At first when Luca steers the car to the main gate, and she squeals while saying "I married a rich guy!" To which Marco lets out a bark of laughter because that is a confession to say the very least.

Then it's wandering around instead of moving inside.

She strolls in the garden and when she sees Payan, their trusted dog, she coos and moves close towards him.

Only to flinch and jump back when he barks at her in excitement.

After that, she agrees to go back inside, fisting his shirt between her fingers.

Vincenzo's urge to laugh out loud as he sees her shaken and bewildered is harder to suppress than he imagined.

Moving inside, Cha Young does a 90-degree bow to every single house staff she sees and greets them in Korean.

When all they can give her is apologetic smiles unable to understand, there's 180 degrees change, and she starts cursing vehemently.

They make it to the room, and he helps her sit down and then leaves for a minute to fetch some water for her.

When he comes back, it's his years of calm composure that stops him from dropping the glass of water as he sees her fiddling with the gun he keeps under his pillow.

He hastily puts the glass down and slowly takes the pistol from her hands.

She refuses to give the pistol back and he looks at her and sternly says "No."

She pouts and relents.

"Where's mine?"

He doesn't answer her as he chooses to keep the gun away from her sight and then gives her the glass of water to drink.

She takes 3 sips in total and he's keeping the glass back when she taps on his shoulders again.

He sighs.

"In the last drawer here." He points towards the bedside table.

"Can I see it?" She asks, fairly innocuous.

"No." His reply is instant.

She pouts again.

And then puts her chin on his shoulder and moves closer to him.

He grabs her by her waist and pulls her closer, rubbing her back soothingly.

"I have a very important question."

"I am listening." He replies, smiling, rubbing her back and channeling his affection.

She withdraws and looks at him with a narrow gaze.

"Answer this honestly." She points at him with a finger, breathing deeply.

His gaze is tender as he grabs her hand and places a kiss on the inside of her wrists.

"Always."

She shifts back to placing her chin on his shoulder.

He resumes rubbing her back, stroking her mane too now.

"Would you still love me if I was a raccoon?"

He laughs, it is inevitable to do so.

Hands faithfully on his back, he pulls away to look at her.

And then kisses her forehead.

Because that is inevitable to do so, too.

"Of course." His reply is honest.

She hums.

"So, you wouldn't marry someone else?"

He raises his brow.

"I'd be a raccoon as well; I'd marry you there too."

"You'd marry me if I'd be something else too?" She asks genuinely surprised.

He laughs again.

"I'd marry you in every lifetime, whether you're a raccoon or not."

She contemplates this, then nods before hugging him by his shoulders.

"Fair enough." He hears her say.

"Would you, though?" He asks back.

"Would I what?" She asks back, voice muffled, head burrowed into the crooked of his neck.

It feels dumb to say, "Would you still love me if I was to be a raccoon?" or maybe he doesn't hold as much courage as her.

So, he quietly asks.

"Would you love me in every lifetime too?"

She's under the influence of anesthesia which explains why it was easy for him to ask such a vulnerable question.

She answers while tightening her grip around him, voice a breathy whisper as she says

"Of course."

Silence stretches into the air, and he sits there, with her in his arms, trying to find a definite answer for whether he deserves her.

He comes to a very calculative conclusion.

She is his prize.

A prize implies that he won it, earned it, deserved it.

But if he gets to have her, it will be because she'll let him.

Let him have her.

And she, in a caressing whisper said, 'Of course'

So, he hugs her back, and they sit there savoring each other's warmth, with the new promise of loving each other for a lifetime and beyond.