LAST DAY: DEVOTION

One day can last for a lifetime if you are desperate enough.

Thanks to Christopher’s help and the immaculate parental attention he was receiving, Hyunjin had easily snuck two trunks out of his house. He exchanged his final goodbyes with Jaehyun in secret, promising to write to each other once enough time had passed. After Wooyoung helped him leave the building without being seen, Hyunjin rushed to the Bahng Manor where his belongings were awaiting him, and thirty hours later, it was finally time to go back to the house at the end of the cul-de-sac. Finally. 

As he knocked on that door, Hyunjin could practically taste his life with you on his tongue.

“My lord?” the lady who brought you to the manor that very first day opened the door, wrapping herself in her shawl. “What are you doing here?”

“I think you know, my lady,” Hyunjin politely bowed. “Please tell my night sky to come out. I must see her. It’s urgent.”

Bora lost consciousness for two seconds due to excess endearment.

Just from the way he addressed her as my lady, a known former makeshift wife, she could tell how vastly different the young lord was from his entire lineage, but it wasn’t enough to remove her reservations. Did he fully comprehend the inevitable aftermath of what he was about to do? That there was absolutely no turning back from this?

“My lord, I implore you to see reason,” Bora heaved a concerned sigh. “Are you quite aware of what you are giving up?”

“I am giving up on a life without her, and it’s not up for discussion,” Hyunjin responded with slightly furrowed brows. “I beg you to have mercy on me. Please call her outside.”

Fascinating thing, time. When Bora bore witness to the extremely reluctant union of you and the young lord, he was just a boy, taking his first wobbly steps into adulthood. It may have been only a month, but she was looking at a man now. A wounded one. 

A man in love. 

She closed the door, and when it momentarily opened again, revealing the sight he could spend an eternity gazing at, his heart jumped out of his chest. You, on the other hand, almost passed away due to acute shock.

“Hyunjin?!” 

“You said love does not have an expiration date.”

“What are you doing here?” your blood froze in panic. “Your folks are going to kill us!”

“They are welcome to try. I will die if we are apart anyway.”

Oh, this man. Oh, this beautiful, beautiful soul. Every time you caught a glimpse of him, always the same thought crossed your mind—how terribly you wished you could spend the rest of your life with him. It wasn’t to say you wouldn’t face any hardships together, but they would surely be a lot more endurable with the inhumane strength his mere presence bestowed upon you.

“Hyunjin, I’m… I’m leaving tonight,” you forced yourself to avert your eyes from him.

“To the south, I know,” he replied without a beat. “So am I.”

“So are y— But… But your schooling—”

“I did tell you it was out of town, did I not?”

“And it happens to be in the middle of sunflower fields?!”

“Of course not,” his heartfelt laughter made the sun rise into the night. “You and I are going to pass the sunflower fields and travel three more towns away. Then we will start a new life there.”

Start a new WHAT?

You were staring at him, mouth agape, pinching yourself to see if you were dreaming. You were so scared it wasn’t real that you couldn’t even bring yourself to pinch that hard.

“We won’t have too much, but I will make enough to take care of you,” he took one step towards you, moving as slowly as he could as if not to spook you. “If I can be selfish enough to ask you to endure for a few years, as my rank goes up, so will my compensation.”

What was this feeling? Happiness?

You obviously wanted to jump at it, but the hellish questions at the back of your mind wouldn’t stop bombarding your mind, immediately erasing whatever faint smile your lips were trying to give birth to.

“What if you regret this?” you asked, nudging the pebbles on the ground with the tip of your shoe. “What if… What if you get tired of me?” 

“I love you. I know you love me, too,” he sneakily wrapped an arm around your waist and gently lifted your chin, brushing your hair with his fingers once you looked into his eyes. “My skin told me you love me. Your scent told me you love me. Do you deny you love me?”

How could you deny it? All the deaf ears in the universe had heard of the ridiculous magnitude of your love for him, but was that enough? Was love really enough to silence all the self-conscious noise in your head?

“I have nothing to lose, but you—”

“Yes, I have everything to lose. You are my everything,” he insisted, holding your hands as tightly as he could. “Am I still your treasure, darling?”

Whatever ice wall you were trying to build around your heart loudly cracked and exposed your biggest weakness, scarily accident-prone and easy to bruise.

“You will always be my treasure,” you put your arms around his neck.

He held you in a tight embrace for quite a while, then reluctantly pulled away with a kiss on the crown of your head. 

“Lord Bahng’s estate is going to look after us,” he gently caressed your cheeks. “Take whatever it is you need and meet me at the church at midnight. Promise me you will come.”

“I promise.”

He kissed your hands and took a few steps backwards, still staring at you before he turned around and left for the church. As you rushed inside to check your already packed trunk to see if you had missed anything, Bora stood by the doorframe, unable to help being slightly worried. 

“Sweetheart, are you absolutely sure about this?”

“I haven’t been this sure about something in forever,” you turned to her. “The worst that can happen is I come back to your door empty-handed, but I won’t let happiness pass me by this time, Bora. God knows I’ve paid my dues. I deserve it, too.”

“Yes, you do. Of course, you do,” she sat down on the floor and pulled you into a big hug. “God, I’m going to miss you so much. I will KILL YOU if you don’t write to me!”

Bora helped carry your trunk two streets down where Hyunjin was waiting for you on a bench with a few more men around him. As soon as he saw you, all of them jumped to their feet to load the trunk into the carriage waiting in front of the church.

“Come with me,” he held your hand and dragged you into the building.

It was so quiet and peaceful inside, and Hyunjin unwittingly remembered a particular night he happened to be here about a month ago. The small wedding he had stumbled upon and he wrote a haiku after.

Long for the moment

their souls blend in a whisper

these doting lovers.

And now, he was here himself just like how he always thought it was supposed to be.

In love.

“Father Seojoon,” Hyunjin pierced the silence towards the back of the large hall.

“My lord?” the priest narrowed his eyes in surprise. “Have I mistaken the days? Wasn’t your wedding tomorrow?”

“No, it’s tonight,” he stopped at the altar, grabbed your arm, and locked it with his. “Marry us right here, right now. This lady here is to be my wife for all eternity.”

“Are you CRAZY?!” a shriek ripped from your throat.

“Yes, I am!” he answered equally loudly. “You told me that I can’t hope to start a family without love. I either start it with the woman I love, or I don’t start it at all.”

“Well?” Father Seojoon looked at you upon your stunned silence. “Do we have a verdict, my dear?”

Once reality finally registered in your brain, you brightly smiled. Hyunjin beamed at you in return.

“Yes, Father.”

“Very well then,” the priest nodded in contentment. “My lord, if you have any vows prepared…”

Hyunjin fully turned to your direction and held your hands, reciting his vows to you from a few days ago once again.

“All my life, I have been told many things…”

His voice waned into silence in your head as you gazed deep into his eyes. You were crying once again, but out of pure, unmitigated happiness this time. He swore to you he would live to be the full moon that rose in your heart. You swore to him you would be the night sky that would embrace him for all eternity. When you were pronounced husband and wife, the young men bearing witness to your union cheered, and you really wished you had a small bouquet to throw at them. You kind of wanted Christopher to catch it so that he would be the next in line.

“Thank you, Father,” Hyunjin bowed. “My lady and I are forever in your debt.”

“Hyun, hurry!”

You said your goodbyes to Father Seojoon and got out of there as quickly as you came in. Everything was happening so fast that you were feeling pleasantly dizzy.

“Yunho will take you to our estate in the south. We have sent the news; they are expecting you,” Christopher informed both of you. “We will come visit when the dust settles.”

He and Hyunjin tightly hugged each other as if they were sending a brother to war, though not with a shred of worry. Once they pulled away from each other, the dimpled man turned to you with a smile warmer than the sunsets.

“I can’t thank you enough, Christopher,” you emphasized per his persistent request from you.

“No, you can’t, my lady,” he bowed ninety degrees. “Take care of my brother for me.”

“As long as I live,” you gave his arm a firm squeeze and hopped into the carriage.

Tonight, you were supposed to be on your way to the sunflower fields in the south, but instead, you were headed to your brand new life with your husband. You rested your head on Hyunjin’s chest as he wrapped an arm around your shoulder, pulling you closer to him. The night sky was as clear as pristine waters, letting the full moon shine as bright as Hyunjin’s smiles. Maybe it was your eyes tricking you, but there seemed to be this glow around it tonight. Like a bunch of angels were guarding it from all harm. 

You and Hyunjin watched the view for some time in blissful silence, and when you looked up at him, you were instantly filled with a craving for a kiss. Your very first kiss as husband and wife. On the very first day of the rest of your life. It wasn’t long before you fell into your usual rhythm, and you found yourself straddling his lap, your arms around his neck, his hands on your waist, just kissing the night away with your hearts beating as one.

“I could kiss you the whole way there,” he smiled into your mouth, the caresses on your hips slowly turning into gropes. “I love you, my night sky.”

“I love you too, my moon,” you took a gentle bite from his lips.

“Do you promise you will still love me in the morning?”

“As long as my heart beats.”

“Let me have you,” he buried his face in the crook of your neck, hands running up your legs under the skirt of your dress, “As my lawfully wedded wife this time.”

“If my husband wishes,” you whispered into his ear, “we can fuck the entire time.“

“God, it’s going to get so messy in here,“ he crashed into your lips again.

Once upon a time, an everlasting drought had turned the soil of your heart terribly arid, and you had come to terms with not a single drop of water visiting that barren land ever again. When you least expected it, Hyunjin appeared as the oasis in your parched soul and breathed life into you, turning the desert of you into the lushest meadow with the most beautiful flowers blooming all over.

You could breathe again.

You could love again.

You could hope again.

It wasn’t a pumpkin carriage that whisked you away to some palace far far away, but it was okay. Seven kingdoms combined couldn’t hold a candle to a quiet town in the south, home to all your dreams, and you wouldn’t have it any other way. Hand in hand with a passion incarnate wordsmith. In the arms of the owner of your heart. Souls intertwined, never once apart.

In life.

In death.

Inferno.

The End.

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