Chapter 23

The next three days of the shows raced by.  It was Jens first time at a show like ours and she watched from the side of the stage just as excited as we were. 
We absolutely loved performing shows like this.  All the people, all the love, the energy it made all the hard work we had put into preparing worth it.  Having my very own girlfriend watching me made me feel even more proud of our work, having her experience it with me, someone there to run to when I came off the stage and someone to ask, ‘Did you see that?’ felt like magic to me. 

On the third day of our concert our new album was also released, meaning the following few weeks were really busy.  We travelled to different stages to perform the new material, we went on different variety and talk shows and promoted and promoted.  As usual the schedule was insane and we were all exhausted.  It helped to keep me going to see Jen in the background of the shows, to come back to a hotel room and have her their waiting for me.  She was brilliant and I began relying on her more and more as my rock whenever I was so tired.  She had arranged to put her job on hold for the promotions to be with us and support me.  Not having had this special kind of emotional support before I couldn’t imagine life without it now.  She seemed to know what I needed before I knew myself.  She was always ready to help massage me if my muscles were sore, which they frequently were, and she never pushed me even when I didn’t have the time for her.  She wasn’t mad with me when I would frequently fall asleep on her after being with her for only a few minutes that day. I was carrying guilt around with me that I was neglecting her, and every day she was kinder and kinder to me it grew a little bit bigger.  

When the month-long promotion was over we had a little bit of free time before they wanted me to start work on some new material to follow up my solo album.  The new album for the band, was a success, we didn’t have more shows for a couple of months and this was the time when the company gave us a chance to work on our other projects away from the band.  Jonghyun was also working on a solo musical project, meaning he would still be frequently around, Minho had got himself into a drama along with Jinki and they would be going to opposite ends of the country for a while to work.  Kibum was taking on a musical so he would be around, but he was going to be busy rehearsing a lot of the time.

Luckily Jen and I were having our 100^th day anniversary of being together in the little bit of free time I had.  I really wanted to do something special for it, so with the help of Mr Romance Jonghyun and a little input from Minho I arranged something I hoped she would like. 

‘100-day anniversary?’ She laughed at me. ‘What?’

I frowned, I never realised it was weird to celebrate anniversaries in days before.

We got out of the car and got into the elevator. 

‘Shut up and enjoy it will you’ I told her playfully.  ‘I’ve got a whole thing planned’.

It was late in the evening, I had arranged for them to keep the tower open for us for an extra hour so there would be no one there but us.  I looked over at her, she was staring up at the ceiling of the elevator, taking in its show.  I had no time to take her around Seoul, so that’s what we were doing, Seoul by night. 

The elevator pinged open and we stepped out into the foyer.  It was silent, all the shops had closed up and there was just one other person there who was letting us in, and cleaning up after us, but they were staying out of our way. 

I took her hand and walked out in the cool summer night air, we walked around taking in the view.  I was satisfied to see she was impressed.  I pointed out different points of Seoul to her and then I took out the locket I had in my pocket and a pen. 

‘This is what we do, we write a note, and we lock it on the railing’ I told her smiling down at her. 

‘I don’t want anyone to know about our locket but us, that’s why we are doing this at night’.

She smiled up at me, her face full of love and kissed my nose. 

‘Ok, so what do you want to write on it?’ She asked me as we sat down on one of the benches.

‘Nothing cheesy’ she warned me.

I snickered, ‘How about Noona Neomu Yeppeo’ (Noona, you’re so pretty).

She shoved me in the ribs, she hated being called Noona. ‘That’s bordering on cheesy Taemin, and you know I hate that’ I let out a deep laugh.  It was fun making her mad. 

‘How about we do it in Japanese?’ I suggested.

‘Why?’ She looked at me confused.

‘Ok, listen to my logic, so your language is English, mine is Korean, if we use either of those we are not equal, I want this to be equal, so let’s use a whole new language’ I looked at her hopeful.

‘But you speak Japanese’ she told me blankly.

‘Yes, ok, but it’s beautiful, the only other languages you speak are Chinese and Indonesian, and they don’t sound as beautiful’.  She looked at me in disbelief for a second before she broke down laughing hysterically. 

‘There’s a beautiful word in Japanese, it sounds really lovely, 何時までも Itsumademo’ I told her seriously.

‘Hmm, say it again’ she asked.

I repeated the word to her. 

‘Ok, I agree it sounds lovely, but what does it mean?’

‘It means forever, eternally.’ I answered looking deep in her eyes.

She looked back at me, her eyes soft, she smiled ‘It’s perfect’

We signed the locket with our initial only and the Japanese word ‘forever’.  I stood up with her and we found the right place to lock it onto the railing.

After I locked it in place, I stepped back, I put my arms around her waist and nestled my head into the crook of her neck, looking at our locket and out into the skyline of Seoul.

‘I think I want to be this happy with you forever’ I whispered into her ear.

She leaned back into my chest and sighed, ‘I think I want to be happy with you forever too’

‘You’re my forever’ I whispered, placing delicate kisses along her neck.

‘Forever’ she replied.

‘Come on’ I told her untangling myself from her and wrapping my hand around hers.

‘Where to now?’ She asked. 

‘All the excitement Seoul has to offer’ I told her with a smirk.

After I showed her everything I could of Seoul at night we got in the car but not to go home. 

‘Try to sleep a little if you’re tired’ I told her snuggling up to her on the back seat as the driver twisted down the motorway.

‘We’re not going home?’ She asked me puzzled.

‘No baby, I’ll wake you up when we get there’. She dozed on my shoulder as we made our way across the country to the East side of Korea, to Gangneung, there was a beach there and it was the perfect place to watch the sunrise together. 

We arrived at about 5am, it was still a little dark, but there was light on the horizon. 

There was a tiny shop selling coffee, so I went and bought two cups before coming back to the car and waking her up. 

‘Come on’ I told her pulling her out from the car and walking down onto the beach with her. 

I pulled out a blanket and settled it on the sand below us, then sat down and cuddled together as we watched the sun slowly but surely rise up out of the sea in front of us.  It was pretty magical and moving for me.  This was Jonghyuns idea to watch the sunrise like this and I had to give him his due for coming through with a good idea. 

‘This is so beautiful’ Jen sighed next to me.

‘I know’ I told her, completely ignoring the sunset now, my eyes only finding her face, lit up with the new sun and the magic of what we were doing.  Seeing her like this was the most special thing of all. 

She looked at me and smiled, rolled her eyes a little and kissed me. 

It was nice to be here and do this after the crazy few months we had had together since she made the crazy decision to come back with me to Korea.  After adjusting to this life, working on being jealous, getting hate of the girls in the dorms and meeting everyone.  I was happy that at last we had this time together to spend doing something meaningful.