Zen finally asks the all important question.
New developments on Seven's whereabouts arise.
Suhee couldn't help but giggle as Zen helped her climb the hill, now realizing where he was leading her.
"What's so funny, babe?" she heard him ask, quickly noticing that he smiled when asking by the tone of his voice.
"I'm just remembering something, that's all." She eventually replied. "We're almost there, right?"
"Yes, just a bit further…"
They continued in silence for a minute more until the breeze picked up. Suhee shivered a little at the sudden drop in temperature and Zen immediately picked up on this.
"Would you like my jacket?" he asked with concern.
"No, I'm okay. I was just a bit surprised, that's all." She aimed a reassuring smile in his direction.
"Alright, but just let me know if it gets too cold."
She nodded in agreement and then he removed her blindfold. It was as she thought; Zen had led her to his – no their – secret place.
"You know you didn't have to blindfold me if you were just going to take me here."
The actor blushed in response and fiddled with this words; a rare behavior which took Suhee by surprise. The last time she remembered him acting like this was actually when he was asking her out on their first date. It was endearing how he tripped over his words to ask her and she couldn't help but smile at that memory. She then quickly became perplexed as she wondered what he was being so worked up about.
Suddenly Zen cleared his throat, bringing her from her thoughts. "We've been through a lot, haven't we?" he said, cheeks still tinted pink as he rested on the railing with his arms crossed and gazed at her fondly. "Since the first time I brought you here, I mean…"
Suhee smiled back and rested a reassuring hand on his upper arm. "Yes…between nightmares, tutoring, college and starting to work as your manager, we have been through some tough times as well as good ones." She said in reply while leaning her head on his shoulder. "But we survived them all together…"
"Yeah, and I can say with assurance that I can now face anything with you by my side."
"I feel the same."
The actor beamed at her. "God, you have no idea how happy that makes me to hear you say that." He turned his gaze out to the sparkling cityscape with confidence. "You know…It's kind of funny. This place seems to have become a stepping stone, symbolizing the steps we've taken to get here. From when I decided to do that cat food modeling job for Jumin, to you deciding to go to college…and even now…"
His girlfriend almost looked worried but curious. "What is…the next step from here?"
Zen blushed and turned to face her, taking both of her hands in his gently. He smiled and slowly bent down on one knee, then met her already teary eyes with his gentle confident ones.
"Suhee Yun…would you make me the happiest man alive and do the honor of becoming my wife?"
"Yes, Hyun!" she replied excitedly, letting the tears flow. "Yes I'll marry you!"
She then suddenly started to sob and Zen quickly stood up, bringing her into a tight hug.
"Babe, why are you crying?" he asked with a lighthearted chuckle.
"You just…caught me by surprise. And now I'm so happy." Suhee answered between sobs and gasps of air. "I didn't think that you'd ask so soon."
He pulled away and smiled while wiping the tears away. "God, I love you so much." He uttered before leaning in and kissing her softly. It was short and sweet and afterwards he pulled a small black velvet box out of his coat pocket.
"There's a ring too?"
"Of course. It's tradition." He opened the box, took the ring out, and slipped it on her left ring finger effortlessly. "I hope you like the design. I thought of it when remembering the first time we met."
She brought her hand up to her face to look at it closely. It was a simple silver band with a light purple amethyst in the middle of moderate size and in a heart shape. On one side of it was a round blue sapphire that was slightly smaller and on the other was a ruby of the same size.
"These are…our eyes when we first met?" she hypothesized after a moment of contemplation.
"Yes, because I knew the moment I first saw you that my feelings were confirmed and I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you."
"Thank you, Hyun." Suhee smiled, beaming at him. "This has been the best birthday I've had by far."
"It's still not over yet, princess."
"There's more?! You're spoiling me rotten right now Hyun."
"What kind of man would I be if I didn't spoil my soon-to-be-wife sometimes?" – he paused and whipped our his phone – "There's just one more thing I want to do before we head off to our next location~"
.
"…And it's sent~" Zen announced later, lounging on the bed of what used to be Rika's apartment.
Since the bomb threat and the party, Seven had disarmed and removed the bomb and cleared out all classified documents that were stored there. Now the apartment was an empty husk that Zen was in the middle of buying when their hacker friend disappeared. They were still allowed access though as the actor was given the key to keep safe for the time being.
"It's so you to post a selfie of our proposal…" Suhee stated while hanging up their coats.
"Well I have to let everyone know your answer somehow." Her fiancé replied, putting away his phone when she sat next to him. "They've been waiting on baited breath for this. Have you sent the photo to your parents yet?"
"It's a little late, so I'll send it to them in the morning." She then squirmed a little, getting anxious. "You know after this they're definitely going to want to see you in person."
The actor fell back so he was lying on the bed and sighed. "Yeah…and I'll have to try and get you to formally meet my parents, but this time I won't take no for an answer. I still want to make things right with them."
"We won't get married until we do…" Suhee spoke slowly, remembering the promise he made after their first attempt to meet his parents failed. She then noticed the worried expression on his face. "Don't worry. I'm sure if it's meant to be then we'll definitely be able to meet them and make things right sometime."
He smiled and talked her so that she was lying on the bed and he was hovering over her. "You know just the right things to say to make me feel better…" he then realized the position they were in and his eyes glinted with desire. "It's going to be much harder controlling the beast tonight, now that you're one step closer to becoming mine…"
Suhee blushed but whispered calmly, "Then let it loose if you must…"
Zen hesitated and then leaned down, his lips lightly grazing her collar bone. He suddenly let out a short quick breath and she gasped with surprise in response, body tensing up.
"God, I really want to…" he said while pulling away. He then sighed with defeat. "But I can't. Not when I promised myself to wait until we were married."
He then fell so he was laying right next to her.
"Then why allow yourself to get worked up in the first place?" Suhee asked with an almost pout.
He blushed. "I…get excited easily. I can't help it."
"Well if we're not going to do it tonight, then go take your cold shower so we can go to sleep. I'm exhausted from all the excitement of the evening."
"I will, but I want to watch you open your last gift."
Suhee was taken aback at his statement. "There's even more?!"
"Just one last one, princess." Zen sat up and opened the top drawer of the side table and withdrew a flat rectangular box before handing it to her.
She opened it gently and within the box were two plain silver wedding bands. She gazed at them for a moment and then looked up at him before saying, "Did you go ahead and plan our whole wedding ahead of time too?"
The actor chuckled at her remark and said in response, "No babe. I swear the gifts end with the rings. There was a deal with the purchase of the engagement ring and…" – he trailed off and got too excited to continue explaining – "Just read the words they're engraved with."
She did as he said and found that on the inside of the smaller ring it read, 'His Beauty' in pretty lettering and the other read, 'Her Beast' in blockier lettering. She smiled warmly at the inscriptions and thanked him. He kissed her forehead gently and then got up to take his shower. They then went to sleep without a care in the world, not thinking that their happiness was going to be interrupted by the morning's complications…
Jumin Han, Yoosung*, Jaehee Kang
Yoosung*: Jumin…Seven hasn't sent anything new for a few hours.
ZEN has entered the chatroom.
Suhee has entered the chatroom.
Jumin Han: There's the RFA's newly engaged couple. #(•ิ‿ •ิ) Congratulations, by the way.
Suhee: What's this about Luciel sending something?!
Jumin Han: You don't waste any time, do you?
ZEN: Hey, we have a right to know what's going on too. Why didn't you keep us in the loop?
Jaehee Kang: We didn't want to ruin your special night.
Suhee: Yoosung, please tell me…is Luciel in trouble?
Yoosung*: Well…I don't know if anything has gone totally wrong, but really early this morning Seven sent a bunch of random numbers to the chatroom.
Jumin Han: They're not just random numbers, but coordinates. I've got my men searching for him now based on what we've been sent.
Jaehee Kang: But…if I'm correct then what Seven sent was just the X coordinates. Searching for his location with just that will take an insurmountable amount of time.
Jumin Han: We'll just have to leave everything to luck then.
Yoosung*: Oh! He also said he found V and…someone else. He wouldn't say. But why did he have to leave right after sending the coordinates?
Jumin Han: I have a few guesses…but I feel that if I share them with you, they might just have a way of coming true.
ZEN: I see…Quite a few things are happening all at once.
Yoosung*: Oh? Like what? (ó^ ò)?
ZEN: Have you not been watching the news lately? A while ago a lot of information on some huge secret intelligence agency got leaked online. People are still going crazy over it even now.
Yoosung*: (((( ;°Д°)))) ?! Really?
Jumin Han: Yes, I've been looking into that as well.
Suhee: I remember that story.
Jaehee Kang: I do as well. Apparently there were some back deals with another company involved.
Suhee: You guys don't think…that this may be the same agency Luciel works for, do you?
ZEN: I hate admitting it but there's a good chance that it is.
Jumin Han: I would not be surprised.
Yoosung*: I'm getting worried now guys… ˚‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅ )‧º·˚
Suhee: You and me both, Yoosung.
ZEN: I think we're all in the same boat here. ╰(｢｢｢ ) I don't even know what's going on anymore…
V has entered the chatroom.
Yoosung*: V?! (((( ;°Д°)))) ?!
ZEN: ミ(ó□ ò)ﾉ
Jaehee Kang: (ᵒ̤̑ ₀̑ ᵒ̤̑)
V: 118.382643, 72.575154 SOS
V has left the chatroom.
Suhee: Are those…coordinates?
Jumin Han: They seem to be complete. I'm leaving to investigate them now.
Jaehee Kang: Wait it could be too-
Jumin Han has left the chatroom.
Jaehee Kang: dangerous.
Yoosung*: Will he be okay on his own?
ZEN: He does have all those body guards. All we can do is hope that he will be.
Suhee: And that he brings Luciel and V back safely…