Heartbreak Journey

Maybe Tomorrow

Ri Jeong Hyeok

When it came to expressing our love, despite couldn't be put into one of categories from Dr. Chapman's book, surprise was a big part of our love language. We loved to do it for each other.

Me, especially.

I loved how Se Ri's face always lighted up each and every time I gave her surprises. For her probably it showed my efforts. For me, come on, let's be honest, between the two of us, I had a lot of ground to make up for.

When I told the guys – the usual crew – about the trip to Jeju several weeks ago, they patted me in the back telling me how great the idea was. They said Se Ri would love it very much.

What they didn't know was how much planning came into this.

I had told Min Ah the possible date of the trip, so I trusted her to arrange Se Ri's schedule to match. I asked her to come up with something too so that Se Ri was not suspicious. I was left to think about how to announce myself to her on D-day.

With small surprises, like flower delivery or her morning coffee, all it took was a call to the shops and the surprise easily materialized. But what I planned for her in Jeju was big. Bigger than anything I'd ever planned for her.

And if you thought it was sudden or spontaneous idea, it was not. You knew me, I didn't have one spontaneous bone in my body. It was months of thinking and contemplating.

Ever since Dani threw the idea of asking her to move in together, the scenario kept going on and on inside my mind. And it went beyond living together.

It jumped into the future.

Where I could picture her walking towards me in wedding gown.

Where I could picture us crying over the birth of our future kids.

And where I could picture us in many different trips having fun with each other until we were grey and old.

The more I thought about it, the more I knew I wanted it. The more I knew I needed to make it happen.

First, I would ask her to move in with me. At least, based on her giving me the key to her apartment, I would assume she'd say yes. I mean, it was just technicality at this point anyway.

I probably had more scrubs kept at her apartment than mine. My coffee maker was in her kitchen. My favorite running shoes was safely tucked at the shoe cabinet on her foyer. See? Technicality.

Now, if I asked her to marry me, what would her answer be?

This wasn't my first rodeo, I knew that. But I felt like the stakes were much higher this time. With Dani, I proposed to her because... we'd been together for quite some time and that was the logical next step for us.

With Se Ri, I just loved her so much. My love for her was like nothing I've ever felt before and I couldn't wait to make her mine in all things that matter.

Her rejecting my proposal was always possibility considering her previous engagement. She might have reservation no matter how much she loved me. And I didn't know if I could survive that.

Ah, who was I kidding? If she rejected my proposal, I would just ask her again the next time.

And the next time. Until she'd say yes.

Well, now now, let us not jumped too far into the future.

I still needed a plan to propose to her. Something she couldn't say no to.

***

After all the planning and the hoops I'd gone through in preparing this surprise, to see my plan came to fruition and to see the bewildered expression in Se Ri's face when she saw me on the plane were exactly as I hoped when I concocted this plan.