D-1
The wedding was still on.
But the days that followed had not been easy for Kim Yu-ra either.
"Jae-ho oppa… even so, couldn't you smile just a little? People are watching."
"……."
Her fiancé didn't even answer.
Hanbok pickup, florist consultations, collecting the wedding photos…
He simply trailed after Kim Yu-ra in a daze, creaking along like a broken machine. He wouldn't even take pictures with her.
It was the fallout from the hymen status confirmation she'd shoved in front of her future in-laws two weeks ago.
She'd seen it coming. She'd basically announced to his parents, right to their faces, that she was a twisted virgin-obsessive's prize.
"Oppa. After the final rehearsal, maybe we should treat the choir members to a meal…"
"Handle it yourself."
"But still, these are people who've known you longer than I have."
"……."
"Oppa?"
Jung Jae-ho kept his mouth shut tight, listening only to CCM. Kim Yu-ra had to speak several times before he'd offer even a clipped reply.
Of course he'd react like this. That much is true.
Even so, Kim Yu-ra didn't regret it.
If she hadn't pinned Jung Jae-ho down this way?
The wedding itself might have been called off entirely. Two years of investment, wiped out. That wasn't exaggeration — it had been a genuine crisis.
He's still suspicious of me.
The same kind man who, during medical missions in developing countries, had answered a slap from a local with a smile and a gentle touch… was now looking at her with sunken eyes. As if he had a great deal to say but was holding it back because the situation wouldn't allow it.
"Jae-ho oppa. Should I hang the wedding frame in our newlywed home?"
"……."
"Hmm?"
He flinched briefly at our newlywed home, then nodded. At least he didn't seem inclined to call off the marriage at this point. That was something.
But this was not the wedding process Kim Yu-ra had dreamed of.
By now, she'd expected to be preparing for their wedding night.
Honeymoon destination: the Maldives. Accommodation: a water villa with a private pool.
She hadn't chosen the place for the scenery.
It was the location she'd selected to complete her two-year virgin performance.
The plan had been specific.
A white sheer robe and lingerie that looked thoughtfully prepared for a beloved spouse (but was actually clumsy), a floral perfume, wedding-night makeup.
On top of that, she'd mapped out the gestures to look like a virgin.
Shyly covering her chest with her arms when he undressed her.
Drawing a sharp breath and squeezing her eyes shut at the moment of penetration.
Even contingency plans for various scenarios — finishing in a minute, failed insertion.
Now all of those plans felt faded and dull.
Honestly, she wasn't even sure they'd make it to the wedding night.
The most essential piece of the sacred first night her fiancé had imagined was, after all, a pure bride — and right now Kim Yu-ra's purity was under suspicion. Looking at Jung Jae-ho's face, it wasn't mere suspicion. He was blackening in real time.
It was bleak, but she decided to endure.
He'd only lost his tenderness. As a spouse, Jung Jae-ho's appeal remained intact.
A third-year gastroenterology fellow at Jinseong Seoul Hospital.
If all he'd wanted was to inherit his father's private practice, he was already overqualified.
Jung Jae-ho was simply continuing his training to complete himself as a physician, and to keep doing medical missions. Money wasn't an issue anyway — his parents seemed ready to throw it at him without limit. Aside from his thinning hair and his virgin obsession, he was a perfect man in every respect.
I know that. But it's still hard.
Kim Yu-ra looked at the screenshot a friend had sent her, telling her to enjoy it.
Just looking at that was genuine comfort.
She was grateful for her classmates' jealousy. Everything except that last bit dragging Joo Sung-hyun into it.
Every chance they got — Joo Sung-hyun this, Joo Sung-hyun that… that damn bitch. Come to think of it, that bitch had been the start of all this misery.
Just wait until you get married.
Kim Yu-ra vowed she would absolutely destroy her later. But first—
"Get out."
"Huh? …Ah, right. We're already here. Haha…"
She had to get through the wedding first.
And after that, she planned to desperately soothe her groom.
Because she still hadn't given up on her dream of a happy marriage.
Jae-ho oppa was being cold right now, but if she could just create the right opening… he was originally a kind and tender person. Once the hurt was resolved, he would surely return to the Jung Jae-ho she knew so well.
Kim Yu-ra smiled as if nothing were wrong.
…
But even forcing a smile was no longer easy.
"Oh my. And the groom-to-be? Couples usually come together."
Lord. Cover my anxiety with Your peace. Kim Yu-ra prayed inwardly.
…
The fiancé who had been answering only in monosyllables finally opened his mouth on D-1 — the evening after the final wedding rehearsal.
"Oppa. They said we just need to hand over the love story video by tomorrow morning. One last check together tonight…"
"Sister Yu-ra. I have something to say."
"Yes?"
"Sit down. Turn the video off."
Jung Jae-ho had suddenly stopped while doing a final check on the five-minute mid-ceremony video they were supposed to hand over to the venue's AV team — the one to be screened right after the vows.
The video itself was nothing special.
Photos from the 2023 Hope Church youth summer retreat where they'd first met, Kim Yu-ra singing in the choir while Jung Jae-ho of the emergency medical volunteer team watched her with a fond expression, footage of them doing service work together…
The highlight was a photo from the purity pledge service.
The subtitle set to appear at that moment read: [On this day, we vowed to keep each other holy until marriage.] An awkward caption, given the current atmosphere.
Did something in the video set him off…?
Just as Kim Yu-ra tensed and started reading his face—
"Daniel Mbongo."
Her fiancé suddenly spoke someone's name.
Mbongo. An exchange student from Kenya. The ex-boyfriend she'd dated for two semesters after meeting him at the international office orientation.
It was also a name that should never have come out of Jung Jae-ho's mouth.
The color drained from Kim Yu-ra's face. For a long moment she could only open and close her mouth. …She needed to say something. The words caught in her throat and only air escaped. That wasn't all. The muscles in her face kept twitching, and her hands began to tremble.
Jung Jae-ho paid no mind and continued calmly.
"Sister Yu-ra. I know everything. …Choi Young-in from the swim team, the exchange student Mbongo, and Joo Sung-hyun."
"Jae-ho, oppa. That, maybe…"
"Joo Sung-hyun told me. His memory is excellent. Too excellent."
"Ah?"
From that point on, she couldn't even invent an excuse.
She had talked about a lot of things when she was dating Joo Sung-hyun.
It had been strange from the first meeting with him — different from ordinary dating. No matter what she said, he never let anything slip, and he'd never interrogated her about her past. She hadn't imagined Joo Sung-hyun would remember everything she'd said and snitch on her.
What was certain was that her fiancé now knew about her ex-boyfriends.
Possibly the one-night stands too.
She needed to deny it, but her mouth wouldn't open.
Because it was far too clear that no matter what she blurted out, Jung Jae-ho wouldn't believe her.
And yet… what was this?
"Sister Yu-ra."
"It's all a misunderstanding… yes, oppa."
"I heard Choi Young-in already died in an accident. You can't dig into a past tangled up with a dead person. And that Joo Sung-hyun… how should I put it. He seemed to have malice toward you. Digging up someone else's wounds like that isn't right."
Unexpectedly mild.
From Kim Yu-ra's perspective, it was like a small candle lighting up in pitch darkness.
Her fiancé's attitude was uncharacteristically progressive.
There was a reason. The swimmer was already dead. The one who'd delivered the truth, Joo Sung-hyun, was the villain.
"I can understand those two. More precisely, it's not that I understand…"
"Jae-ho, oppa."
"I can try to understand. Try to embrace it. …Honestly, it's hard. What were you feeling when you made that purity pledge with me? How exhausting must it have been, performing purity for two years? Weren't you even sorry? You, really."
"I'm truly sorry for lying."
"I'll set those other two aside. But."
Mbongo, he said, was hard to accept.
She was in no state to think clearly, but Kim Yu-ra thought she understood why.
Unlike the other two, the relationship with Mbongo had been pure sex with zero emotional investment.
Mbongo himself had wanted ordinary dates too… but Kim Yu-ra had always drawn the line.
Because it was painfully obvious how she'd look, walking around hand-in-hand with a muscular Black man from Kenya who had to leave Korea the following year.
Jung Jae-ho's torment likely wasn't so different.
Wasn't he caught in some emotion that was hard for a man to put into words?
Even so — bringing up ex-boyfriends in the middle of checking a mid-ceremony video. Kim Yu-ra wanted to run, but.
What Jung Jae-ho added next stoked her hope.
"If Sister Yu-ra tells me the truth even now, I'll wrestle with it somehow before the Lord. It'll hurt every time I look at you… but calling off the wedding at this point would mean losing too much for me as well. I'll try… at least try."
Hope that Jung Jae-ho might bury the past for practical reasons alone.
Looking at his demeanor, becoming a normal couple was already difficult.
But outwardly they could still appear as a model couple… and with time, that rage might gradually settle.
Having steeled her resolve, Kim Yu-ra forced her mouth open with difficulty.
"It's absolutely not what you're thinking, oppa. When I was a sophomore, I volunteered as an international exchange helper. And while meeting him to help out, I somehow got swept up by Daniel before I knew it… whatever Sung-hyun sunbae said, he exaggerated everything. Am I the kind of person who'd do that?"
She confessed the relationship with Mbongo in a heavily sanitized version.
She cut out anything sexual as much as possible, and left out the fact that she had approached him first.
Jung Jae-ho listened to Kim Yu-ra's words with his eyes squeezed shut in apparent agony… as if he were straining to hear her sincerity somehow.
There was still hope.
Kim Yu-ra wanted to believe that.
Is that guy really a civil servant?
Jung Jae-ho felt that Joo Sung-hyun's advice had hit the mark. (In front of Kim Yu-ra, paint me as a malicious messenger. But time it for right before the wedding. That way, you might hear the truth — even if it's late.)
He wanted to scream at Kim Yu-ra's excuses — that she was sorry for lying but it had only been a few times, that Mbongo had created an atmosphere she couldn't refuse — but Jung Jae-ho forced himself to hold back.
"Oppa. I'll even get down on my knees."
"Don't apologize. I'm nowhere near ready to forgive you. Considering my parents and the guests, tomorrow's ceremony… fine. Let's go through with it as planned for now."
"Yes. I'll just… fix my makeup… and go pick up the elders?"
After sending Kim Yu-ra off first, Jung Jae-ho deleted the existing mid-ceremony video.
Because something other than a predictable love story was scheduled to play.
A short edited cut with Kim Yu-ra's voice — the one he'd just secured — laid over it as BGM.
Truthfully, the audio wasn't necessary. But there was no particular reason not to use it either.
"So tomorrow is the end."
Tomorrow was the day of the wedding.
The wedding that, until a mere three weeks ago, he had believed would be holy and sacred.