Wedding
Wedding
A place that, with the changing times, offered a bright atmosphere rather than a solemn one.
An event that for some was a once-in-a-lifetime occasion, yet with the changing times, had become one where doing it several times was no longer strange.
An event where people smiled and clapped in celebration, but where someone might be shedding tears and wailing.
A-ra and I were currently at a wedding hall.
It was for the wedding of an entertainer from her agency.
Come to think of it, this was my first time ever at a wedding hall.
A-ra and I had only registered our marriage; we hadn't held a ceremony yet.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Nothing. Just that it's my first time at a wedding hall."
"I see..."
A-ra's face shifted toward an apologetic look, and she let out a sigh.
Then she gently stroked my head.
"I'm sorry. Noona's been so busy..."
"What for?"
"We haven't been able to have our wedding yet."
"Ah... well, that can't be helped."
The wedding could be held after I graduated.
Wasn't it a bit early to hold it now, with A-ra at 23 and me at 21?
I figured it would be more than enough to hold it when I was at least 24 or 25.
"Honestly, aren't you more serious about the wedding than I am, Noona?"
"Yeah... Noona wants to have the wedding."
Well, I thought that as long as I lived happily with A-ra, it didn't matter whether we held one or not, but A-ra seemed to believe we had to have a ceremony to be a real married couple.
When I'd asked if it didn't matter much since we were already legally married, she'd countered that legal and emotional matters were different.
What did she say again?
That real couples had to make a vow with a kiss, her face turning red as she said it.
So I'd kissed her right away and told her I'd love her forever, and her face had flushed even redder...
"Seong-hwan-a? Are you hungry? Why are you drooling?"
"Ugh... maybe there's a hole in my chin."
As I tried to wipe the drool with my hand, A-ra snatched my hand up.
She pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and started wiping my cheek and chin.
"My husband requires a lot of hands-on care~"
"Ahem... I'm not a child, you know."
"Didn't I tell you? To Noona, you are a child."
A-ra was probably the only one who treated her husband like a child.
I wanted to protest, but since it was true that I had been drooling, I had no choice but to keep my mouth firmly shut.
While we were being lovey-dovey and showering everyone with our affection at someone else's wedding, the lights inside the wedding hall went out.
And then, white lights began to shine along the virgin road.
"Wow..."
A gasp of admiration escaped my lips.
A wedding was more splendid than I had thought...
Perhaps because it was the first wedding I'd ever seen, the image lingered in my mind for a long time and wouldn't fade.
***
The photo session for the bride and groom ended, and the sessions with their families and friends were all finished too.
I'd heard that in the old days, weddings used to last for hours, but the saying that nowadays they didn't even take 30 minutes was true.
"Hey, the thing about it taking hours was like 30 years ago. They don't do that nowadays."
"Really? It's my first time here, so I don't know much."
"If you wanted to do it for hours like in the past, it would probably cost about 200 million won just for the wedding expenses."
I'd heard from A-ra that even a wedding these days, which wraps up quickly, costs around 30 million won.
Burning that much money in just 30 minutes... As expected, it really does cost a lot.
"There's that, and you also have to prepare the meal for the guests, right?"
"A meal?"
"It's a buffet when you do a wedding."
So that was why.
It seemed like A-ra had been looking forward to it since earlier.
A buffet, huh...
I used to go to those quite often since they were affordable.
Nowadays, there were plenty of salad bars that cost around 10,000 won, so it was pretty easy to visit them.
"Ahem! Seong-hwan-a! How can you compare it to places like that?"
"Oh come on, a buffet is a buffet."
It wasn't that buffet food was tasteless.
But given the nature of a buffet, where food has to be provided quickly to many people,
a drop in quality was unavoidable.
Unless it was a really expensive hotel buffet...
"This place IS a hotel buffet?"
"Oh, you're right. This was a hotel..."
I had completely forgotten.
This was a much more incredibly expensive hotel than I'd thought.
How much did they say it was per night?
I remembered it being an amount that made my hands tremble.
"Seong-hwan-a, if you were to have a wedding, where would you want it?"
"I'm fine with... anywhere, really?"
"How can a guy have so little greed... If Noona were a guy, she would have wanted to do it at a hotel like this."
"Given your circumstances, Noona, isn't even something like that difficult? Or we could do a private wedding, maybe."
"Oh, that might not be a bad idea."
What would happen if news spread that A-ra was getting married?
Honestly, I didn't even want to imagine it.
There were fans who'd show up at a wedding hall where a famous celebrity was attending and cause a scene, so what would happen if they found out the person in question was getting married?
Honestly, even I would go find a celebrity I liked if they were getting married.
Because I could understand it, it made me that much more reluctant.
"So? Are you going to hold a wedding?"
"Of course I have to. We're not exactly short on money."
Unlike other young couples our age, we weren't short on money.
I was a university student, and A-ra was an idol, so we just lacked time, that was all.
Preparing for a wedding took an incredible amount of time, so it wasn't something you could do by just missing a day or two.
"That is true... but even if we do it, can't we just keep it simple?"
"Simple? Shall we do it by ourselves at a church?"
"Not bad. Just calling a few people around us."
Like my mom, Jeong Hwan-yi and Lee Min-ho, and the Queens members and Director...
Well, wouldn't it be good to just call about that many and do it quietly?
Even if we did that, a rumor would probably spread from somewhere and end up on the news anyway.
"But we're not doing it right away anyway, right?"
"Huh? Well... yeah."
"Let's think about the wedding slowly. Setting all that aside, shall we go eat first?"
"Wait a sec... the meal tickets are definitely..."
A-ra began to rummage through her pockets.
After fumbling for a moment, she pulled out two ticket-like pieces of paper.
"Here!"
"So these are the meal tickets... By the way..."
"Why?"
"Noona, how much congratulatory money did you put in?"
"Heh heh.... 3,000!"
It wouldn't be 3,000 won, right?
My generously big-spending wife probably did about 30 million won.
I figured an amount like 30 million won was something A-ra could easily afford to give as congratulatory money.
"And you?"
"500."
"That's a lot? Well done, well done."
She started praising me, saying what a feat it was for a penny-pincher to give that much.
I wished she would refrain from stroking my head in places where a lot of people were watching.
"Noona, other people are watching."
"Let them watch, so what. Stroking, stroking."
"Ugh..."
Being stroked by A-ra while wearing a suit gave me a peculiar feeling.
It felt somewhat mature, but being stroked made me even more embarrassed—or how should I put it?
"D-don't do this and let's just hurry up and go eat."
"Hmph..."
She wriggled her body cutely and clung tightly to me.
Whenever she acted cute like this, an irrepressible smile would spread across my face, but now was not the time.
As if brushing off something that had gotten on the neat suit she was wearing, I dusted her off with a pat-pat.
"'Hmph' is not an answer. We can just do this later when we get home."
"Shall we? Hehe, I just wanted to hear Seong-hwan-i say he'd let me stroke you."
"Anyone who heard that would think I'm a husband who won't even let you stroke his head. In reality....."
"Shh! You can't say things like that outside!"
Her words had completely flipped in less than a minute.
So she knew that, yet she still did such an embarrassing act outside?
I was going to have to give her a little punishment later.
That aside, a wedding, huh...
I needed to find a husband candidate for our Lil' One too...
Was it about time to start looking?
***
A few days after attending the wedding.
Jeong Hwan-yi and Lee Min-ho called me out, so I headed to the coffee shop in the apartment complex's shopping arcade.
I had asked them before if there was anywhere we could adopt a Pomeranian, and they'd said they would look into it for me.
It seemed this time, they had heard about a good place where adoption was possible.
"Yoo Seong-hwan! Over here!"
"I'll go order some coffee first!"
"I already ordered for you!"
Good sense they had.
Instead of heading to the counter to order coffee, I went straight to where the two were sitting.
As I got closer, Jeong Hwan-yi was staring into his phone with an expression that looked like he was groaning.
How should I put it—it felt like he was worrying about something.
"What's with that guy Jeong Hwan-yi?"
"He says he's gonna adopt a dog too."
"Oh ho... a Pomeranian?"
"No. Golden Retriever."
A large breed, huh...
Both Lee Min-ho and Jeong Hwan-yi—why did they only look for large breeds like this?
Weren't small breeds, which were easier to raise, also fine?
"Large breeds are cute too. They're big but gentle."
"Hmm... is that so."
"Anyway, you take a look at this too."
Lee Min-ho handed over a tablet.
The thing Jeong Hwan-yi was looking at was also a tablet...
Did this guy carry around two tablets?
"It's a home adoption, okay? It seems they couldn't raise it through the baby stage together, so they're sending it out for adoption."
"Cute..."
"Right? It's not even 1 month old yet."
When I'd brought Lil' One home, she'd been about 3 months old, I think.
Since they said it wasn't even 1 month old yet, it really was just like a baby.
"At 2 months they become little cotton balls, and at 3 months..."
"They become the Lil' One from back then. I'll go with this one."
I decided without hesitation.
The discussion with A-ra was already finished, and I had gotten all sorts of things ready at home too.
Lil' One would be happy to have a husband too, right?
I hoped they would get along closely and well.
But it was really tiny.
Lil' One had been like this in the old days too.
"Aren't Pomeranians gentle with other dogs?"
"Not sure. She's never met another Pomeranian, so I wouldn't know."
"That's true."
Well, that was something we'd find out once we brought the pup home.