Hye-jin sat cross-legged on the rug and sighed. "If I knew I'd be showered with gifts like this, I would have gotten married sooner."

Rin chuckled and dropped next to her. "Are you ready to be ripped-off so early into your career?" he asked. "I would have pushed it back later, when we have at least a year of savings."

"You and your cautiousness," she rolled her eyes and moved the big boxes off the table just so they could see the blank wall of their new apartment. Most of their belongings were still in boxes brought from their own hometowns. They never seem to have enough time to attend to everything ever since they moved into this new neighborhood.

She smiled at him. "Live a little."

"I am living," he snatched a envelope off the toppled pile on the corner of the table and gave it a quick shake. His face crumpled into a frown. "What I don't like is how flat our finances are right now."

The reminder sent a flare up Hye-jin's gut. Of course, after the brightness of the ceremony came the dark reality. "Yeah," she said. "We'll make it work. Somehow. How's your interview process with that company?"

Rin bobbed his head and tore the envelope open. A few bills flashed inside. It's the color Hye-jin's counting on, and there seemed to be quite a number. That should cover the rent for next month. "It's going well," he said. "HR said I'm the likely candidate for the position. You?"

"Peachy," she answered, scratching her chin as she joined Rin in opening the envelopes. The sound of paper tearing and paper bills crunching filled the gap between their conversation. "I've been waiting for one company to call. Another had a contract ready to sign. I was honestly surprised they're taking fresh graduates with zero experience."

He drew a wad of bills from his recent envelope and his eyes widened. "Oh, this is too much," he turned the envelope over. "Who is this from? Kaasan?"

Hye-jin scooted over and plucked it from his hand. "From Appa?" she read the handwriting again and again. Yeah. It's from her father. "Is this a message?"

"You and your overthinking," Rin siezed the envelope back and studied the handwriting at the back. It's in English but the traces of Hangul could still be found. "Maybe your father loves you too much and wants you to live well."

"Have you seen him when we told him we're engaged?" Hye-jin whirled towards Rin. "He basically won't stop trashtalking you. Eomma had to knock him out with soju!"

He shrugged. "Fathers will be fathers, I'm sure," he said. "I would probably be like that seeing my daughter go."

Heat rushed into Hye-jin's face. She slapped his arm in such a way she doubted it wouldn't hurt. "How can you blurt out these things out of the blue?" she said. "You're unbelievable, Nagara Rin."

Rin flashed her a look. "We'd eventually have to talk about it, Joon Hye-jin," he said. "Stop acting like it's a long way off."

"We're barely through our first jobs!" she reasoned.

"And?" he raised an eyebrow, knowing full well she's not through her argument.

Hye-jin looked away and fidgeted with her fingers. "And we're still struggling with finances, as you said," she said. "It's not wise to...you know."

"Yeah, you're right," Rin picked up another envelope and tore it open. Added the new bills into the growing stack. How many guests did they even have? "We should focus on our careers first."

Her shoulders slumped. It's not like she still hasn't done that with him, but having a child? It terrified her to a certain degree, especially when she heard through her aunts and grandmother how hard it was for her mother to give birth to Hye-jin.

The sound of gift wrapping tearing caught her attention. She watched Rin peel back the flowery paper to reveal the box of...

"Vintage plates?" Rin's tone was incredulous as he turned the box here and there, reading the label and studying the picture printed on the side to make sure he's not seeing things. "What are we going to do with this?"

Hye-jin bumped shoulders with him and tore through the flimsy tape with her fingernail. "For special occasions? Maybe?" she said. "It's the only thing this was good for. I'd hate to chip it."

"How about we use it for every day?" he knitted his eyebrows. "We wouldn't have to buy a new set for the apartment. We can use this set until all of them broke to pieces."

She rolled her shoulders. "Yeah, maybe," she said. "That's a good plan."

The next hour were spent with them unwrapping mug after mug, sharing a laugh or two at the utter variety of the designs. One even managed to give them a mug with their company's name and logo printed on it. That's taking gift recycling to the next level, for sure.

By the time the floor was covered in crumpled paper and strewn bubble wraps, the sun had gone down and plunged the city in perpetual darkness. Hye-jin stood up and flicked the lights on. She came to Rin who fiddled with something on his phone. "How about dinner?" he asked. "Want to order in?"

"Chicken," Hye-jin said immediately. "Fitting into my dress made me miss my staple."

He chuckled and scrolled further down on his screen. "Alright," he said. "One box of Hye-jin's favorite chicken coming right up."

"Oh, Rin. Come here!" Hye-jin exclaimed when she wandered into the last corner of unopened stuff and noticed a stack of cards. It turned out to be the same-day photos from the ceremony. She didn't even have an idea they stuck it in. "This is hilarious."

She passed him the photos and tapped a finger on the first thing that made her laugh. "Look at Ryon."

Rin peered at it, and pretty soon, he was laughing too. "What the fuck, man?" he said to the photo as if his best friend could hear him through that. "Why would you—"

They broke down into open guffaws, like they would often do during their gaming days in uni. Those frequent nights of insanity and pure merriment. It was another addition to that. Hye-jin wiped the tears streaming from her eyes and faced Rin who had collapsed to the floor and rested his elbows on the couch.

"Oh, man. That's crazy," he sighed and rested his head on the couch, craning his head to the ceiling. Hye-jin joined him there and rested her head on the crook of his neck. "At least we know they had fun."

She snorted. "Knowing Ryon, he wouldn't have been able to sit still through the entire ceremony if not for the photo booth," she said. Then, she blew a breath and closed her eyes. She's beat. "Would we have to go back to unpacking and looking for jobs tomorrow? I don't want to."

Rin planted a kiss on her forehead and tucked her hair behind an ear. "That's the truth to life, dear," he said. "At least we have each other now."

Hye-jin snapped up and faced him. "Don't we have each other before?" she said. "What changed?"

He leaned forward and took her lips in his. "I can do that," he whispered when he drew away and smiled at her.

Her mouth flapped open and closed with no words coming out. Rin could be wimpy at his best, but there were rare moments like this when he was able to be smooth. What's scary was that Hye-jin was on a point where she couldn't predict it anymore.

The doorbell rang, making her flinch. Rin chuckled and braced his knees on his way up. "That must be dinner," he said.

Hye-jin watched his back stride towards the door.

Rin was pacing inside the room when Hye-jin opened the door to check on him. The way his face changed upon answering the call and excusing himself was alarming. Something was going on with him. Something very wrong.

Upon hearing the noise of the hinges whining, he glanced at her and shook his head. Hye-jin waved her hands at him, gesturing him to go on and not mind her. "No, auntie," Rin was saying, pushing his hair off his forehead. The strands would always plop back and he only displays the habit when he's worked up. "I didn't receive calls from her. Did something happen?"

He was silent as he listened to what the other person said on the other line. As it went on, his face changed from shock to anger before finally settling into a calm and accepting expression. What was that about?

"Wakarimashita," Rin said, slipping back to his native tongue. It must be a relative. He rattled off a whole string of gibberish, scratching the edge of his eyebrow with his knuckle. It's a habit Hye-jin observed from him whenever he's on a call. Watching him now, speaking in a language she never bothered to learn, he seemed like an entirely different person.

Something shifted in her perophery and she turned to find him stalking towards her and the doorway. "What is it?" Rin asked. His face was drawn, as if he's trying to be happy and push all his worries aside.

"Just checking up on you," Hye-jin jerked her chin towards the phone in his hand. "What happened?"

Rin's lips flattened into a thin, thin line. "About that," he said. "We need to talk."

And as soon as they sat themselves in the dining table, it all came pouring out. Rob, Ichika-san's long-time partner, had left, and he didn't do it without strings attached. "You're telling me," she mulled over her next words as she tried to summarize what Rin had just told her. "That Ichika-san has a baby from him and he left?"

Rin rested his head on his hands. Something about it brought a pang in Hye-jin's heart. She hated seeing him so defeated, and he hasn't acted like this since the time she knew him. This was a first, and she wanted it to stop.

"What a douchebag," Hye-jin concluded when he confirmed she had summarized it correctly. "How could he do that?"

If he had an answer to that, he would have blurted it out. Instead, he rubbed his face and pushed his hair off his forehead. "According to Auntie, Kaasan's having a hard time," Rin said. "Just giving birth and nursing a broken heart. I can understand that."

Hye-jin crossed her arms and leaned her back against the edge of the kitchen counter. "Why did she call you?" she asked.

"She's asking me if Kaasan contacted me," Rin said. "I told her no. I learned she's staying in her sister's house all this time. Auntie didn't need to say it, but I know why she called."

Of course, relatives would rarely be so upfront about these things, especially with their nieces and nephews. Even if they're all grown, they would never stop being kids to their elders. "She's saying she can't help Ichika-san in the long run," Hye-jin said. "Is that it?"

Rin bobbed his head. "I know they're not well-off either," he said. "Kaasan must be putting a strain on their finances too."

Silence settled on the thickening air between them. Rin stared at the table like he wanted to drill holes into it with lasers or something. "I don't know what to do," he said after some time. "I don't."

She peeled off the counter and approached him. Her hands ran circles around his back, trying to soothe the frown off his face and the worries off his head. It's the only thing she could do, and it sucked. "We can take them in," she said.

His head snapped up to her. She could see the question in his eyes before he could ask it. "What about the baby?" he said. "We can't take care of my brother and my mother at the same time. There's only two of us, and we have to work."

Hye-jin did her best to smile despite the growing dread and fear in her own heart. This was a season in Rin's life where he needed her. She should at least be strong for him. "We'd never know if we don't try," she said. "I'm okay with them living here. It's for the best."

Rin looked like he wanted to argue but all of his points in his head had started evaporating. "If you think so," he said. His shoulders slumped with a weight no amount of Hye-jin's care could ever erase. "I'll call in the morning."

Hye-jin squeezed his shoulder and he flashed her a small smile. "Yeah," she said, hoping she wasn't making the wrong decision. "Sure."