CHAPTER FORTY FOUR  

Til Death, We Won’t Part 

[ Jimin’s. ] 

[ -1 year, 6 months left ] 

Since I was a child, I’ve always dreamed of having a fairytale kind of marriage myself.  

It was inevitable, really. I haven’t really been in a lot of weddings pero alam ko sa sarili ko na I want one—a grand wedding, the entire hall filled with friends and family of me and my future spouse, the fated one I’d spend eternity with. 

Dati, I thought that was Yeji. We were good together, but not the good kind that would last forever—I knew that I’d find something like that in someone else.  

Then, there comes you.  

In the midst of confusion and anxiety and every negative emotion I was feeling in my chest because of my life changing overnight, I found you.  

Right in the middle of the farm I thought I would just sell for a price because I didn’t have any use left for it. 

Maybe, finding my mother wasn’t my grandfather’s real intention as to why he had sent me to go there after inheriting it. Maybe, he knew that I’d find something else. Someone else. 

His favorite daughter found the love of her life in this place, after all. It isn’t a long stretch that his granddaughter would, too, right?  

You are a rainbow after the strongest of storms. My heart knew I loved you before I could even realize it, and maybe it’s because you had always exuded calmness and steadiness the moment that I met you. You had your own storms, yes, pero hindi ko naramdaman na naging hadlang iyon sa atin. 

Well, besides from the fact that you had to be away for five years and you almost died at the hands of a man you thought to be your father. Pero magsisinungaling ako kapag sinabi kong hindi ako napagod.  

I was. Multiple times. So many times through the five years that you had disappeared. So many times, trying to wait for you to wake up when you were lying in that hospital bed. So many times while I watched you struggle on your own trying to walk and trying to go back to the normal that you once were before Kihoon inflicted the greatest scar he could do to you. 

So many times, I grew tired pero hindi ako sumuko.  

Somehow, I found contentment watching you sleep. Creepy, I know, pero napapalagay ang loob ko kapag pinapanood kitang matulog. Watching your shoulder rise and fall in a steady rhythm, never changing and never fading even as you carry onto your own version of lands unknown in dreams I always hope would be about me.  

It gave me peace. Gave me everything I could have to rest and to be motivated to still push further, just as how your smiles and laughter gives me strength and the continuous drive to be with you all the more.  

You are everything to me, Minjeong ko.  

Everything I’ve ever wished for. Everything I love, I find them in you. Everytime I hold your hand, I can’t help but be in awe with how we fit properly and how I’ve grown to be used to you being here that I can’t let you disappear again.  

Minjeong, I’ve built my life around you.  

I know, may kasabihan na huwag mo daw ibibigay ang lahat sa taong mahal mo. Kesyo aalis din naman daw sila, and you’d find yourself having to make do with the bits and pieces of you left because you gave them your all.  

I mean, how can I not, then?  

You make me feel safe. Safe to do that. Safe to give everything, to give my everything to you. Safe enough not to ask anything in return because you gave yourself back to me even when I’m not asking for it, anyway.  

You give the best kisses, mahal. You make me feel so excited for the next time that I could kiss you again, for the next time that I could hug you and hold you and make you feel the best there is in this world that we’re in.  

Winter Minjeong Kim, you’ve made me feel so alive, each moment that I’m with you.  

So alive that I want to memorize every moment I have with you. So alive that I don’t want to miss anything, any moment at all when I’m with you.  

Is it possible to feel so much love for one person that your heart feels like it’s going to burst open when you don’t acknowledge it?  

“You look so pretty, Rina.”  

Ate Joohyun is smiling at me. So wide that I know it’s going to hurt her muscles later, at nakatabi sa kanya si Ate Seulgi na nagpupunas ng luha sa mga nangyayari.  

Here I was, right in front of the mirror of my dressing room for this night.  

A white wedding dress, fit and snug against my body as the stylist fits the veil over my head. The flower bouquet is right there, filled with the beautiful flowers that I know ay galing kela Chaewon—one they must have specifically arranged for me.  

“God, ang makeup ko! Teka lang, sisilipin ko lang si Minjeong, ha?”  

Tumango nalang ako kay Ate Seulgi na lumabas na muna ng kwarto. Naiwan na lang si Ate Joohyun—Aeri was here earlier, but she had to take care of something related to the reception kaya umalis muna siya.  

“You’re so pretty,” Ate Joohyun says again, like it’s the only words she knows. “God, I’m so jealous. If I knew na ganito ako maiinggit sa ikakasal, then I should have pulled Seul to a priest already!” 

“You’re busy with the two companies,” natatawa kong sabi, sticking my tongue out to . “Haven’t you already accepted na tatanda ka nang dalaga, Ate?” 

“Rina, don’t jinx me! Hindi na nga ako pwedeng ikasal this year kasi sukob na iyon!”  

I laugh at her. “This is a special day for us, Ate. Don’t you dare steal this day.” 

“I know, baby. I can’t believe my little sister is getting married na…” 

Niyakap ko siya ng mahigpit. Kanina ko pa pinipigilan na umiyak because my makeup will be ruined, but I couldn’t hold it back as Ate Joohyun hugged me back, at pumasok na rin si Kuya Jaehyun sa loob.  

Kuya Jaehyun gives me tissue agad when he saw me crying. I hugged him as well, at hindi ko mapigilan na mapangiti habang iniisip ko na grabe na yung pinagiba ng buhay namin.  

Seven years? It’s already seven years ago when I first got the inheritance from Lolo. Yun din yung taon na nilapitan ko si Ate Joohyun after being indifferent with her through the years, making ho with her and finally being okay with my sister again.  

Seven years ago when I first met you.  

Hindi ko pa rin makalimutan ang araw na iyon. You were working in the field, trying to make it pretty because you knew I was arriving soon. You with your pretty little hands, your pretty little self smiling as you worked with your friends in the place I knew you truly belonged in.  

Somehow, I was drawn to you from the moment that I first saw you. 

There was something magnetic about you that had always pulled me to you, mahal. No matter how I tried to avoid it (I didn’t), hinding hindi ko iyon nagawa. There’s something about you that makes it so easy for me to be so close to you without even thinking about it.  

Something always brings me back to you, mahal ko. Even if everything pulls us back together.  

Babalik at babalik ako sa’yo. 

“The wedding is going to start soon,” I said, gathering myself and taking one last look in the mirror before turning back kela Ate Joohyun at Kuya Jaehyun. “You guys should go to the hall na.” 

Bumukas na yung pinto, at may isa pang nag-aabang doon. His face sends me to tears almost immediately, and I let out a shaky sigh as I rush to hug him tight.  

“You’d have to make do with me,” Tito Tobias says, and he wipes my tears off with his thumb. “At least I look like your father, ‘di ba, Jimin?” 

Tumango ako sa kanya. Pinilit kong ngumiti pero hindi ko magawa—I hug him tight, as if it could make the years I’ve spent away from my true father go away and memories I want to have with him suddenly appear in my mind.  

“I… I’m sorry I couldn’t go back agad,” Naiiyak kong sabi, at ikinuha na ako ng tissue ni Tito Tobias para ipunas ko sa mga luha ko. “Had I known sooner, I would have—” 

“Why don’t you come with me for a few minutes?” nakangiti niyang sabi, and I tilt my head because of that. “I have something to show you, Jimin.” 

There was still an hour before the ceremony starts. Where was he taking me? 

As if to read my mind, he answers my question. 

“It’s time to take you to Thomas, anak.” 

His final resting place is on a hill,