I Will Fight For You (A The8 Fanfiction)

Chapter 48

Naturally, when you've been in a relationship for many many years, perhaps after 7-8 years, the next thing on your mind would be marriage. Or kids if you've already been married. Wait. How long is appropriate until you get married? Was 7 years too long?

Minghao: *butts in* It's never too long or too short, Hee-young sweetie. It depends if the couple wants to take their time or they go straight into marriage. In our case, we weren't in a rush, were we?

Shut up! How'd you get in my head?

Minghao: I am literally right next to you as you ponder out loud.

Oh. Well, that was... Kind of embarrassing.

"So... You plan to go to China this weekend?" I asked.

"Yup and you're coming with me. I need my parents to really approve of you," Minghao replied.

And so we went. I was less frightened and anxious as compared to years before. I was ready to face them. We arrived on Friday evening. They received us well at the door and let us in. This time, I could have a full Chinese conversation with Minghao's parents and nothing could describe the pride they had on their faces by the end of the day. I barely needed Minghao's help.

The next day, his parents continued having the bright smiles on their faces. Ok. I guess this was a good sign. Hopefully, they approve of me. In the afternoon, Minghao went out with his father while I stayed home with his mother. She was pleasant and kind. I actually liked spending time with her despite the little pinch of anxiety in my heart.

"Are we going to cook dinner today?" I asked in Chinese.

"No, we are going out to eat tonight. It's a reunion dinner of some sort," she replied with the same bright smile.

By 7.30pm, we were all seated at the roundtable of a seaside fancy restaurant, Minghao, his parents and I. There were empty seats left and his parents told us that there were 2 more people joining us.

We did not wait that long before we were joined by the missing people.

"Eh? Mom? Dad? W-what are you doing here?" I asked, shifting my gaze from one smiley parent to the other.

"Surprise! We actually have business matters here so since we were here, why not have dinner together?" my mother explained as she settled down.

They never told me about this but ok. We had dinner together and the two families got to know each other. Sometimes, either Minghao or I would be dragged in. Oh, how did they speak to each other? In English, of course. That was where we came in- when there were some words they had problems expressing, we would translate them in the language they knew well.

They ate pretty slowly as some time was used up with them talking. Minghao and I were done faster than them.

"Oh! Minghao, you can go bring Hee-young for a walk. There are some things we want to discuss. Business-wise," his mother suggested when she saw our empty plates.

He nodded and invited me out. We agreed on walking on the beach that the restaurant was overlooking. I took off my high heels and he took off his shoes and socks and we walked on the sand. He held both shoes in one hand and held my hand with the other. I looked to my side where the dirty blue velvet-smooth water led to the deep dark blue sky. The rhythmic light crashing of waves on the shore calmed my heart. The sea breeze blew lightly in my face, occasionally making me shudder with how cold it got.

Then Minghao came to a halt. We faced the sea and he put his shoes down and so did I. We took in the scenery before us.

"Have you ever wondered how love can last so long? How we can still love each other even after many years without it ever fading?" he asked out of the blue.