Bring Her Joy (A Marry My Husband Fanfic)

Rockie's Day 8

Ju Ran groaned, regretting every sip of alcohol she had taken the night before. Her head throbbed, and her stomach churned unpleasantly. "Suk Joon ssi," she croaked, "I think I'm dying."

Suk Joon chuckled, placing a comforting hand on her head. "You're not dying, Ju Ran ssi. You'll be fine."

"Feels like death," she muttered, burying her head under the pillow.

Suk Joon disappeared into the kitchen and returned with a glass of honey water. "Here," he said, handing her the water. "Drink this. It will help."

Ju Ran took a small sip and then grimaced. "Thank you."

Suk Joon laughed and offered to make breakfast. "I've ordered Kimchi Jjigae. Should arrive in some minutes. Also, I took a two day break from work for you. Why don't you wash up?"

Ju Ran nodded gratefully and took a long sip. "I think I owe you my life now"

Suk Joon smiled. "Just doing my fiancee duties. Now, clean up. I think the doorbell is going off."

Ju Ran nodded and waved him away. When she was feeling less dizzy, she got up and went to the restroom. The funny thing is between the two of them, they had finished 2 beers and 4 soju; Suk Joon drank more than half of that. While she, the ChiMaek Lord (a name she had declared she was drunkenly), was out after two glasses of soju and half a beer.

Then again, Suk Joon was in the navy reserve and regularly drank for 3 days with his buddies; their tolerance could not be compared.

Thirty minutes later saw them at her table, chopsticks moving joyfully left and right as they inhaled the spicy and comforting soup.

Settling on the couch after with a cup of tea, unspoken words hung in the air between them that they had not gotten into yesterday because Ju Ran wanted to go to a bar for Chicken and Beer.

"Ju Ran ssi, I have a question." Suk Joon said, placing his cup of tea down and meeting her eyes.

Ju Ran nodded, meeting his eyes. She knew she was a bit impulsive yesterday so she expected this.

"What were your results yesterday?" Suk Joon asked his eyes nervous but calm.

"No cancer recurrence." Ju Ran saw the worry visibly leave him and regretted her impulsiveness. She explained, "I have a procedure to do for some cysts that were found but apart from that, I'm clear."

He rubbed her shoulder reassuringly and smiled, knowing she still had more to say.

"I'm sorry, I was very impulsive yesterday. I should have led with that but I only had some much courage to ask you to marry me that I ignored the whole idea it could represent." Ju Ran felt contrite. "It must have sounded like I was pressuring you into this, right? Knowing how much you care about me...  But I genuinely think that I have lacked the courage to express my feelings for you for a long time. I want that to change, I want you to feel my love." Ju Ran added, holding his hand that rubbed her shoulder.

"Noona, can I hold you?" Suk Joon asked, his eyes soulful. Ju Ran hesitated, then moved closer and leaned into him. Listening to his heartbeat, she was instantly comfortable and happy.

"I love you, Ju Ran ssi. I think I fell in love with you that first time I saw you. It was during my welcome dinner at U&K Electronics, you were in this electric blue sweater with grey pants and sat between two female coworkers. You had been off site the whole day and my first meeting with you was that moment.

"Manager Do kept offering me plain barbecue but you noticed I liked the spiced one and offered me the ones you grilled. It was a preschool instant like and it only grew as I got to know you, married or not. I liked talking to you, sharing our thoughts, meeting you 'by chance' at the storeroom, and I know it sounds creepy but, just watching you fascinated me. My ordinary fixer days were suddenly vibrant." Suk Joon said, his eyes sentimental. He leaned back and met Ju Ran's eyes, looking for something in there that he eventually found.

"Being with you is a dream for me, and having the person I like like me back is a blessing. I'm sorry, I get jealous and nervous when you are upset, I admit to that. And I want to be a part of your everyday before we promise ourselves to each other. So I'm asking, Noona, can I marry you three years from today?" Suk Joon said, his eyes nervous as he met hers.

Ju Ran took a moment to get his words and deflated a bit at it. Seeing the question in her eyes, Suk Joon continued, "Three years from now, you will be the marketing team manager for U&K Foods, I will be the director of operations. Yeon Ji will be ten years old, your ex will be out of jail, your investments with Ji Won would have matured. So many things are set to happen in our lives that will cause instability. I want us to survive all these and still be together but in a better place mentally, financially and growth wise. Then, I want us to decide if we still want to be together."

Ju Ran was quiet for sometime. She had never known someone who made such an unselfish decision like this before. He was obviously saying all these to protect her. No matter the facts that she was a First Class graduate of Seoul National University and had a good job, everyone will almost say she was marrying up. Suk Joon was richer and more powerful than her and only became a more desirable man with age.

She, on the other hand, was a divorcee with a crazy ex and a good enough salary. But in three years, by U&K standards, she will be a management staff, own company shares, have good investment returns and her crazy ex will no longer be a problem. He wanted her to be accepted on her own terms and at her own pace.

She came out of her thoughts to Suk Joon wiping her tears that had escaped down her cheeks.

"If you cry, you'll make me cry." He said, bringing her in for a hug. Ju Ran hugged him back, sniffling.

"Let's do as you said. I'll do my best to be excellent and worthy of your love. I promise." Ju Ran said, squeezing him reassuringly. Suk Joon smiled, I'm the one who should be worthy of you, he thought. He will do his best to show her how worthy she is of love.

"By the way, you don't have to worry about my family not liking you," Suk Joon said. "I'm the lowest in my family, even Marie, our dog has more say in matters than I do." Suk Joon added after some time.

Ju Ran blinked and laughed. "What?"

"I'm serious. My dad probably already likes you despite not knowing you because he prefers daughters and my mum has given up on me so she will like anyone I bring. Besides, my dad likes anything and anyone my mum likes." Suk Joon said factually.

Ju Ran laughed until she couldn't breathe. His family dynamics were interesting. "You said your dog Marie has more say than you?"

"Yeah. I was in charge of the housework from my teens because my dad believes daughters should be raised preciously. Everyone thinks my dad had many children because he was looking for a boy, but I'm the third child. He was just looking for as many daughters as my mum will let him have." Suk Joon said, shrugging his shoulders.

The conversation continued, the variety show forgotten. Ju Ran found out that her boyfriend was the stranger in his family household, his room had been converted to Marie's room and his dad would rather he only came for holidays. Ju Ran laughed more than she had in a long time; her new inlaws were an interesting bunch and she couldn't wait to meet them.

A/N:what do we think? 🤗🤗🤗
Kindly let me know in the comments. As always, Live and Love 💕💕💕