Chapter Text
One year after Wonyoung came home to Korea, Dongwon invited both of them to Jeju to taste his new venture. Tangerine wine. He was thriving. Rented an office space for the tangerine business already, his new life nothing like Seoul, nothing like thirty years slaving away for a corporation.
They flew from Seoul in the morning. Yujin slept most of it. From the taxi to the airport, on the flight, on the drive from the airport. Wonyoung had to shake her awake when they landed.
"Whose fault was it to make us do another series marathon?"
"You agreed to it."
Dongwon's driver picked them up at arrivals. They were planning at least a week. Their anniversary fell during the trip and they wanted to celebrate it in Jeju, away from Seoul.
Dogs and puppies met them at the entrance of the villa before Dongwon did. Wonyoung went straight down to the ground.
"Omoooo, they're getting so much bigger from the last time we were here. Look, baby!"
She picked up one of the puppies. It licked her entire face. She didn't move away.
"Hey, sweetie. How was the flight?"
"It was really good. Barely felt anything."
"She slept through the whole thing," Wonyoung said, puppy still in her arms. "Taxi, plane, car. I had to check she was breathing."
Yujin was already pulling their bags from the trunk. "I'm gonna take our bags upstairs, okay?"
"Thank you, baby."
Wonyoung stayed with the dogs.
Yujin made two trips: the suitcases, then the separate bag she'd packed without labeling. Upstairs, back down, Wonyoung still on the ground outside, one puppy on her lap, another circling.
They showered to get rid of the plane smell and collapsed on the bed. Still damp. Legs spread, arms out, staring at the ceiling.
"What did you bring?"
"Cuffs. Oh, that new paddle you like."
"The strap?"
"Of course."
"You're the best."
Dongwon called them down when dinner was ready. The housekeeper had set the table: Jeju black pork, hairtail fish jorim, jeonbokjuk.
Four bottles were already lined up on the counter. Handwritten dates on masking tape stuck to the glass. Dongwon's tangerine wine.
"We're starting with this one." He poured the first bottle into three glasses. Pale gold, almost clear. "First successful batch. Jeju gamgyul, no sugar added, four months natural fermentation."
Wonyoung picked up her glass. Held it to the light. Smelled it first, tilted the glass, nose just over the rim, the way she'd been taught.
She tasted. Dongwon waited.
"It's good."
"Just good?"
"The acidity is right. Not too sweet. You can taste the tangerine without it hitting you over the head." She took another sip. "What's the second one?"
"After dinner. You're not rushing through my wine like it's convenience store makgeolli."
Wonyoung tasted the jeonbokjuk. She took her time with it: the texture of the porridge, the brine, the sesame oil on top.
"The rice is overcooked."
"Yah —"
"But the abalone is perfect. Tell her to reduce the water next time. Just a little."
Dongwon shook his head. "One year at Le Cordon Bleu and she's grading my housekeeper."
"Two semesters."
"She does this at restaurants too," Yujin said. "We can't go anywhere without her reading the menu like a balance sheet."
Dongwon refilled their glasses from the first bottle. "So how's Seoul? How's the apartment?"
"Good," Wonyoung said. "Yujin finally learned how to descale the Bialetti."
"I descaled it fine before."
"You used dish soap."
"It worked."
"It didn't work."
Dongwon watched them. Two people who'd lived together long enough to fight about a coffee pot.
"And work? Both of you busy?"
Yujin put her chopsticks down. "Actually — yeah. The NGO got new funding. We've been asked to advise the KCCA on how to use the BL and GL wave for Korean tourism and soft power."
"KCCA?"
"Korea Creative Content Agency. The hallyu stuff. The government's starting to see that queer content is driving international attention. BL dramas, GL webtoons. And there's real money in formalizing that. Tourism packages, cultural exports, festival programming. The conservative party is fighting it, but the data is there."
"If the funding holds," Yujin said, "I'm looking at a promotion. Actual policy advising."
Wonyoung reached under the table and squeezed Yujin's knee.
Dongwon raised his glass. "Worth a toast."
They drank.
He opened the second bottle. Darker than the first, more amber, a deeper fermentation. "This one's six months. Different orchard. Try it."
Wonyoung tasted. Yujin tasted. Wonyoung tilted her head.
"This one's better."
"I think so too," Dongwon said.
"The first one is cleaner but this one has more body. More depth. If you're selling to restaurants and hotel bars, this is the one you lead with."
"I have a distributor in Seoul interested. Craft Korean wines. We're working out the price point."
"Don't underprice it. If the quantity is limited and the product is good, you price for the market that values it."
"And you?" Dongwon looked at Wonyoung, pouring the second bottle for Yujin. "Still fixing other people's menus?"
"Still fixing other people's menus." She pulled a piece of hairtail apart with her chopsticks. "I'm consulting on new menus for bakeries now. Crafting them from scratch. Testing recipes, costing ingredients, figuring out what works for their price range. A place like Zero, Taeyeon was selling her canelé for 3,500 won each. Overnight prep, copper molds, fifteen-minute baking window. I repackaged it. Box of three for 10,000 won, limited quantity per day, and she sold out by noon for three weeks straight."
"Our kitchen smells like butter every weekend." Yujin reached for the black pork.
"And I've been working with a UGC agency for the launches. When a bakery drops a new menu, I get microinfluencers to post about it at the same time. Ten, fifteen creators, all on the same day. The algorithm picks it up and the place goes viral on TikTok before the owner even knows what happened."
Dongwon put his chopsticks down. "You can do that?"
"She sources and pays each one herself. Picks the creators, briefs them, coordinates the timing."
"That's genius," Dongwon said.
Yujin said, "My girlfriend," at the same time Dongwon said, "My daughter."
Wonyoung rolled her eyes.
"Just Wonyoung."
"So what are you thinking long term?" Dongwon asked.
"Venture capital. A small fund for independent food businesses. Money, strategy, pricing, branding, supply chain, the whole package. Maybe in two or three years, once I have enough cases to pitch properly."
"You'll need anchor investors."
"I know."
"I know people."
Wonyoung didn't answer right away. She took another sip of wine.
"Think about it," Dongwon said. "Introductions. What you do with them is yours."
"I'll think about it."
He opened the third bottle. Rosé-tinted, a blood orange hybrid he'd been experimenting with. He poured three glasses and sat back with his own, looking at the spread on the table, the bottles, his daughter and Yujin eating his food and drinking his wine.
He talked about the business. The farmers he'd partnered with. The office space he'd rented. He woke up at six, walked the orchards, talked to the farmers, came home and cooked or painted or played with the dogs. He was animated, talking with his hands, the wine in his glass catching the light.
"Two hundred bottles this quarter. Next year I want to double it. Maybe get into the duty-free shops at the airport." He took a long sip. "Not bad for an old man who almost died, right?"
Yujin choked on her rice.
Dongwon's face changed. He looked at Yujin. Yujin looked at her bowl.
"Almost died?" Wonyoung said.
Dongwon set his glass down. He told her. The kidney failure. The transplant. How sick he'd been the year she left for Paris. How he'd kept it from her because if she'd known, she wouldn't have gone. How Yujin had known the whole time.
Wonyoung looked at Yujin.
"You knew the whole time?"
"Baby —"
Yujin reached for her hand. Wonyoung pulled it away.
The dinner went on for a few more minutes. Dongwon tried to steer it back. The fourth bottle still unopened on the counter, the dogs, the new café in Jungmun. Wonyoung answered in single words. She finished her rice. Thanked the housekeeper. Walked outside.
Yujin sat at the table with Dongwon. Neither of them spoke. Dongwon looked at the door Wonyoung had walked through.
Wonyoung sat on the lawn. One of the dogs had followed her out and gone lazy beside her, belly-up in the grass. She scratched its stomach without looking at it.
The door opened behind her. A picnic mat shaken out and spread flat. A blanket. Two wine glasses set down against each other. The second bottle, the six-month one she'd said was better.
Yujin sat beside her.
"Aren't you cold?"
"I'm fine."
Yujin put the blanket around Wonyoung's shoulders anyway, tucking it at the front the way she always did. Then she lay flat on the mat, arms behind her head, looking up.
"I love how we can see so many stars here. Unlike in Seoul."
"Yeah."
Wonyoung wasn't looking at the stars.
"Baby—"
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Would you have gone to Paris if I told you?"
Wonyoung opened her mouth.
"Be honest," Yujin said.
Wonyoung closed her mouth. Huffed. "But still. I wanted to know. What if—he could've died, Yujin."
"But he didn't."
"He could've."
"Baby. He could've died. You could've met someone. I could've met someone. We could've broken up for real. Our flight could've crashed. Everything could've happened." Yujin turned her head to look at Wonyoung. "But it didn't. He's healthy now. Did you not see his face? He's happy. I haven't seen him like that in a while, and I've seen him at his worst. Can we focus on that?"
Wonyoung didn't answer for a long time. She pulled the blanket tighter around herself.
"I still wanted to know."
"I know."
"I had a right to know."
"You did." Yujin poured the wine into both glasses. Handed one to Wonyoung. "And I'd do the same thing again."
Wonyoung took the glass. Drank. "I guess it's easy to focus on the negative."
"He survived." Yujin took Wonyoung's hand and pulled. "Come lay with me."
Wonyoung lay down beside her. The whole Milky Way was visible, thousands of stars, the sky so wide and open it made Jeju feel like a different country.
"Beautiful, right? Too much light pollution in Seoul to appreciate the stars."
Wonyoung found Yujin's hand on the mat between them and laced their fingers together. They lay like that for a while. The dog had rolled onto its side and fallen asleep in the grass next to them. Somewhere down the hill, the sound of waves against the coast.
"We survived," Wonyoung said.
"We did." Yujin squeezed her hand. "And we worked for it. Both of us. Every day for three years. That's worth more than everything that could've gone wrong."
Wonyoung turned on her side, facing Yujin. Yujin's profile against the sky: the line of her nose, her jaw, the way her hair fanned out on the picnic mat.
"I couldn't have done any of this without you. The business, Paris, coming back. None of it."
"Baby, you went to Paris alone. You built the consultancy yourself. I watered your plants."
"You kept everything alive."
Wonyoung stroked Yujin's face. Ran her thumb along her cheekbone.
"I can't imagine being with anyone else but you."
"Wow. Thanks."
"That's it??" Wonyoung punched her arm.
Yujin caught her fist and held it. Kissed her knuckles.
"I can't imagine being with anyone else but you either. I want to do life with you. The lows, the highs. No matter what."
"Thank you for trusting me, baby," Wonyoung said. "For three years now."
"And for many, many years after."
"Till we're both old?"
"Definitely."
"When I'm not sexy anymore?"
"Hmmmm. Let me think. Can you still move your hips though?"
"Jerk."
"You'll always be sexy to me. Even if you wear diapers."
Wonyoung buried her face in Yujin's neck. Yujin wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer on the mat. The blanket had slipped off Wonyoung's shoulders. Neither of them fixed it.
"I love you."
"I love you too."
"Let's do life together?"
Wonyoung held out her pinky.
"Are you proposing?" Yujin teased.
"What? Um— well—"
"I'm teasing, baby." Yujin linked their pinkies. "Let's do life together."
"So who will move their hips tonight? Me or you?"
Rei held up two dresses in front of the mirror. Liz was still on the bed, scrolling through her phone.
"What do you even wear to a cat's birthday party?"
"Clothes." Liz didn't look up from her phone. "You wear clothes."
"Helpful."
"Well, you know Wonyoung. She's extra like that." Liz sat up. "I'm pretty sure it's an excuse to make content for Cheez. You know what's funny?"
"What, babe?"
"The other day I went on Cheez's Instagram. One day she's dressed like a princess and the next day she's dressed like a soccer player."
"No way."
"Yes way. Look at this." Liz held out her phone.
Rei sat on the bed beside her and scrolled through the grid. One photo was a perfectly styled flat lay of Cheez in a pink tutu on a velvet cushion, soft lighting, flower petals arranged around her. The next was Cheez in a tiny soccer kit, mid-yawn, blurry, shot from above at a bad angle.
"The grid is not even consistent."
Rei laughed. "Do you think they take turns posting? These blurry ones are definitely Yujin's and all these aesthetic ones are Wonyoung's."
The café was in Yeonnam. One of the places Wonyoung's consultancy had worked with. She'd booked out the entire outdoor terrace for the afternoon.
Rei and Liz arrived and stopped at the entrance.
A banner hung across the terrace: CHEEZ 1ST BIRTHDAY. Balloon arch in pink and gold. A photo booth area with props. A separate table for gifts.
"Oh my god." Liz grabbed Rei's arm.
Cheez sat in the middle of it all on a cushioned chair, wearing a pink tulle dress. She looked furious.
Minji and Hanni were already there. Mochi in Minji's arms, orange fur all over her blazer. Biscuit on a leash beside Hanni, cautiously sniffing a balloon.
"Oh my goooood, it's a playdate for all the pets!" Rei squealed.
She crouched down and Minji handed Mochi over. Rei buried her face in orange fur.
Minji smooched Rei on both cheeks, then Liz. "Where's your pet?"
Rei turned to Liz and scratched under her chin. "Here's my pet. My cute kitty cat."
Liz went red from her neck to her ears. "Rei!"
"What? You are."
"We're in public."
"And?"
Wonyoung came out from inside the café carrying pastries she'd helped develop for the menu. She set the tray down and immediately pointed at Cheez, who was pawing at the tulle dress.
"She tried to take it off three times already. Yujin wanted her in a soccer jersey."
"A tiny Son Heung-min kit." Yujin came out behind her with drinks. "She looked sick in it."
"She looked like a mascot."
"She looked like a champion."
"So the Instagram makes sense now." Liz nudged Rei.
Ryujin and Karina showed up together. Ryujin still in work clothes. She'd been in the office that morning.
Ryujin dropped into a chair. "Half day on a Saturday. My team lead keeps scheduling weekend check-ins."
Youngji was already filming the setup on her phone. "Quit."
"I've been there four months."
"Quit faster."
Youngji had come with a ring light and a tripod. She was already framing shots of Cheez for her own channel.
"Youngji, can you not turn my cat's birthday into your content?"
"Your cat has 4,000 followers. I have 200K. I'm doing Cheez a favor."
Gaeul arrived with a bag of cat treats. She looked at the banner, the balloon arch, the tulle dress.
"This is more than my family spent on my brother's first birthday."
Minji was on her second glass of wine. "They staffed me on this restructuring case. The partner changes the scope every three days. I haven't slept more than five hours in two weeks."
"And you love it." Hanni leaned on Minji's shoulder.
"I hate it. I love the paycheck."
Rei bitched about SM. She'd been assigned to a senior artist who refused to do any digital content. "She won't even approve a TikTok. I made a whole campaign deck and she said TikTok is for children. She's twenty-eight."
"Who is it?" Karina leaned in.
"I can't say."
"You literally just described her."
"NDA, babe."
Liz talked about the gaming startup. They were still pre-revenue and her CEO kept pivoting the product every two weeks. "Last month we were a mobile game. This month we're a platform. Next month we'll be a metaverse."
"I did a whole editorial last week." Karina poured herself more wine. "They paid me in 'exposure.' My landlord doesn't accept exposure."
"At least you like your job." Gaeul fed Mochi a treat under the table. "Try working for your own family. I can't even complain to HR. HR is my aunt."
Mochi chased Biscuit between chair legs. Cheez watched from her cushion, above it all.
Then Yujin and Wonyoung brought out two cakes.
Two.
The first was Wonyoung's: three tiers, cat-shaped fondant, a tiny crown on top, pink icing, edible flowers.
The second was Yujin's: single layer, green frosting like a pitch, CHEEZ written in shaky icing letters, a candle shaped like the number 1 stuck at an angle.
"We couldn't agree." Yujin set hers down next to Wonyoung's.
"So we both made one."
Hanni clapped. "Oh great, two cakes! I would've loved two cakes as a child. I couldn't even get one."
Minji put her arm around Hanni. "I'll buy you a hundred cakes."
"My McKinsey sugar mommy."
Wonyoung was already straightening the candle on Yujin's cake. Yujin swatted her hand away. Wonyoung put it back. Yujin moved it again.
"Please don't have an actual baby, you two." Rei looked at Yujin and Wonyoung.
"We're not—"
"We haven't—"
"Can we even make a baby?" Yujin looked at Wonyoung.
"If we could, would you want to?"
"I mean—"
"I'll put a baby in you." Wonyoung sipped her wine.
"Wait—me??" Yujin pointed at her own belly.
Rei rolled her eyes. "Even more reason to not have an actual baby."
- END -