Work Text:
i.
“You are a very good looking person. Very.” said Gyeoul, staring at Jeongwon as he took the cup of coffee she had offered.
“Uhhhhhhhh okay? Thank you…” Jeongwon felt scrutinised by his girlfriend of almost two years, who was still staring at him, looking as if she was seeing him in a new light.
“Can you tell me what this is about?” he asked curiously.
I saw you just now standing with gyosunim-deul looking at the sun set. You look as good from the back as you do from the front. You have quite a marvellous profile,” she proffered as an explanation.
Jeongwon blushed. He wasn’t supposed to. After all, this was not the first time he had been told that he is good looking. It was also not the first time he had received a compliment along the same lines from Gyeoul. But while those other times she meant for her statements to be taken as compliments, this time, judging by the curious way she was looking at his whole being, it felt like she was making more of an observation.
“What is happening? Where is this coming from?”
Gyeoul blinked. She had no answer to the question.
He had long accepted that he was decent looking and didn't need to feign humility, especially around his girlfriend. “You fell for me first. Without even having spoken to me once. Surely my looks had a lot to do with why you were attracted to me. No?”
“Did it?” Gyeoul asked, more to herself. Her eyes were looking sideways now. Jeongwon could hear the cogs in her brain moving as she tried to figure it out. He gave her a moment while assessing this whole absurd conversation they had gotten into. Just a couple of minutes ago, he was with his friends getting philosophical about sunsets and how they signalled that it was time to call it a day and go home. The next minute, he’d said bye to them to meet Gyeoul for coffee, only to be subjected to statements from her that initial impressions told him were compliments but clearly, they weren’t.
He nudged her in a direction so that they could find a place to sit and enjoy their coffee. “If it weren't for my looks, what exactly made you fall for me at first sight?” he asked curiously.
“I don’t know…”
“You seriously don’t?”
“I don’t…think so. I have met good looking people before. Why did I fall for you?” she asked, looking at him, trying to find the answer in his eyes.
Jeongwon was stumped. Again, at the absurdity of this conversation and at the fact that in all their time together, they had never explored the reason why Gyeoul fell for him at first sight.
“Back then…you were good looking, yes. But your good looks alone couldn’t have sucked the air off my lungs.”
Jeongwon turned his head away from her because he couldn’t help but smile giddily. “What’s up with her?” resounded his head for the 256th time in the last few minutes.
“Strange that you never asked yourself this before,” he quipped.
“It’s not like I had a lot of time then or now to introspect every aspect of my feelings for you,” she retorted, a frown creeping up between her eyebrows.
“So, why are you doing it now?” he asked, amused and smiling.
“Because your question is valid. And I want to know why I fell for you.”
Jeongwon let out a soft snort and let her be with her thoughts. They’d both had a busy day and being in her proximity without talking much was enough for him to unwind at the end of it.
“I was so occupied back then by my instant attraction to you and trying to get you to notice me. I just went with the flow of it and never bothered to find out why I was SO attracted to you right off the start.”
“It was the red thread of fate,” he teased, pushing into her shoulder.
“Right!” Gyeoul said, shaking her head, a smile making its way to her face.
“Let’s not overthink this,” he said, “whatever was the reason, I am grateful it happened. We wouldn’t have been here otherwise.”
“Yes,” she replied smugly. “You owe me” she teased before winking at him.
“Woman!” he exclaimed, “you’re being weird today. In a nice way. Weird, still.”
“Uggh, leave all that, I have news!!” Gyeoul said, her eyes suddenly brimming with excitement.
“What? What?”
“I got invited to present at the Busan conference!”
“That is… Gyeoul! I’m so proud of you!” he told her squishing her into him sideways, momentarily forgetting that they were sitting in the open where there could have been prying eyes.
Gyeoul didn’t seem to mind, clearly she was too caught up being happy about the invitation. And Jeongwon was really proud! He had never been invited to this very prestigious conference before he became a professor himself. He was going for the conference this year, but as an attendee (because a Japanese paediatric surgeon whose work he had keenly been following was presenting a paper there).
“You know what this means?” he asked.
“What?”
“I’ll be there as your trophy husband.”
“Husband?” she asked, her eyes becoming big.
“Partner…” he substituted, “same thing…”
She smiled. “You’re teasing me!”
“No, I’m not! I’m so proud that my girlfriend is going to present there and I’ll be in the audience watching you field questions. If you hear happy hoots, you’ll know who’s making them.”
“But the date for my presentation is on the 21st afternoon. You are planning to go there on the 22nd morning.”
I’ll move my schedule for the 21st around. I’ll drive us to Busan early morning that day. You’ll let me stay with you in the hotel room they provide you that night, right?”
“Yes, of course.”
“We can head back to Seoul after Fujishiro gyosu’s talk. What say?”
“Works for me. Thank you!”
“We need to celebrate. Let me take you out for a nice dinner tonight?”
“I’m up for that! I have my final rounds in half an hour. I should be free by 7:30”
“But I’ll be occupied until 8 🙁”
“That’s okay, I can keep myself occupied for 30 minutes. If Minha eonnie isn’t busy, I’ll kill time on the OBGyn floor.”
“Wherever you are, just make sure you’re not on the GS floor. Who knows who might feel like dumping work on you.”
“Neee, gyosunim,” she genuflected, taking a big sip of her iced Americano.
ii.
It was late by the time Jeongwon got done. The guardians of his patients had endless questions for him, which held him up. He had asked Gyeoul to meet him at the parking lot at 8:30 pm. When he reached his car, she was nowhere to be found. He called her up and she picked up immediately and huffed into the phone. “I had stepped out of the hospital. Will reach the entrance in a minute. Can you pick me up from there?”
“Sure. Be there in a minute,” he said before hanging up.
“Minha eonnie was in surgery. So, I decided to go out for a walk and got distracted when I saw a new stationery store and lost track of time,” she said in one breath as she got into the car, before Jeongwon could even open his mouth. For some reason Gyeoul really liked stationery shops and it was no wonder that she had lost track of time.
“Okay… What do you want to eat?”
“How generous are you feeling?” she asked, clearly very happy about the conference invitation.”
“Very.”
“In that case, beef! Korean beef!”
“Korean beef it is! Finally you’re letting me splurge on you!” he said, stopping at a signal.
“You always splurge on me.”
“Nonsense.”
iii.
Gyeoul was very happy. Not just about the conference but also about the excellent beef she’d just had. And only a fool could deny that Jeongwon was infected with this happiness too.
“Shall we order dessert?” he asked, feeling indulgent.
“I would like that.”
“I have something for you!” Gyeoul said a few minutes later, after the order had been placed.
“What is it?” Jeongwon asked, amused by the expression on her face. She looked radiant but also like she was dying to laugh.
“It’s quite silly though.”
“I like silly. Especially if it’s from you.”
Gyeoul pursed her lips giddily when he said that. Reaching into her bag, she took out a small brown paper cover and gave it to him.
He opened it and found a small spool of what looked like red twine. “What is this?” he asked, taking it out and examining it.
“The red thread of fate!” she blurted before laughing in mirth and also embarrassment at the silliness of it.
Jeongwon laughed too. “Well, thank you. This is the most unique gift you’ve ever given me. I shall cherish it, I promise,” he said, pocketing the little package.
iv.
(Three days later)
Jeongwon picked her up that morning because he was in her area getting some work done before heading to the hospital. Gyeoul didn’t notice it at first, not when she got into the passenger seat. She didn’t notice it at any of the times they stopped at signals. It was only when they reached the hospital and got out of parking and entered the basement when it caught her attention. Even then, she wasn’t sure what she had seen, only that the rosary around Jeongwon’s wrist had a hint of red.
“What’s this?” she asked, holding up his wrist to examine the rosary in the elevator. That’s when she noticed it – a red twine spiraled neatly around every bead across the length of the rosary, giving it a new, albeit still inconspicuous, look.
“My red thread of fate,” he replied smugly.
Gyeoul looked at him with eyes that grew softer by the second.
“Ah, mata!” he exclaimed, pulling something out of his pocket. “I spent a couple of hours this weekend learning the basics of macrame,” he said before slipping something into her hand.
Gyeoul unfurled this thing to find a neat line of red macrame. She stared at it long and hard before he took it off her palm and fastened it around her wrist.
“There. Now we literally have the red string of fate connecting us.”
Gyeoul fell silent. She loved this man so much. And this love grew ever so often that she sometimes felt like her heart couldn’t contain it.
Jeongwon was about to get down on the next floor but before the door opened, Gyeoul squeezed his hand and said, “I may not know why I fell for you the moment I saw you. What I do know is that it was forces beyond our might that made us happen.”
“I know. I’ve always known,” he confided.
The elevator door opened and Jeongwon stepped out, looking at her one time before the door shut again.
“I believe it now,” Gyeoul whispered, running her finger over the red bracelet that adorned her wrist now.