The Marriage Register

Somi lifted the white paper in front of her. In the left column, her husband, Kwon Hwi-young. In the right column, his wife, Kwak Som-i.

The marriage register, its ink not yet fully dry, sent a small shock washing through her, as if a dull bell had gone off inside her skull.

"We're really married now."

Hwi-young's smile, the corners of his eyes curving upward, only made the whole situation feel even more unreal.

Married. To Kwon Hwi-young, of all people....

It was insane. Truly insane.

Her heart swelled until the fingertips clutching the document trembled.

But the names on the paper were unmistakably Kwon Hwi-young and her own.

The past few weeks had passed in a blur. Visiting both families, holding the formal family meeting, filling out and submitting the marriage registration—everything had been settled with lightning speed, like roasting beans over a flash fire. It was so unbelievable that she could only stand there bewildered.

Wait, it was this easy? This actually works?

In any case, the two of them were now legally married, registration and all. After discussing it with Hwi-young and the elders, they had agreed to hold the wedding ceremony after graduation.

Naturally, all hell had broken loose at Somi's house. For all her resolve to take the secret to her grave, a few days later she'd gone down to her hometown with Hwi-young—and the moment her father saw him drop to his knees on the dirt of the front yard without a word of warning, he dropped the feed bowl he was carrying, and her mother grabbed the back of her neck.

Her parents were the sort of people who could be endlessly jovial when things were good, but when angered, even their own daughter couldn't handle them. And yet, watching Hwi-young calmly confess his wrongdoing before them, Somi was secretly astonished.

In the end, Kwon Hwi-young's status plummeted from "the only trustworthy senior in Seoul" to "that thieving bastard who deserves a beating to the death." Even so, Hwi-young patiently endured her father's all-night drinking rampage and finally won the family's blessing for the marriage.

For Somi, who knew well the soft hearts beneath her parents' fussing—people who would flip out over anything involving their granddaughter without a second thought—it was, frankly, the ending she had half expected.

What had truly been unexpected, on the other hand, was Hwi-young's family. She had been so terrified that they might be difficult and object that looking back on it now was almost embarrassing.

That wasn't to say Hwi-young's parents were easy people, though. CEO Kwon Seung-jun, a man she'd only ever seen in internet news, and Baek Seol-hee, who looked like she'd walked straight out of a magazine spread. Face to face, the two of them carried an aura that overwhelmed you just by sitting quietly in a room.

The day she first greeted them, she'd been so nervous she trembled and stammered through her words. She had felt like a chihuahua dropped in front of a house-sized tiger.

But contrary to her fears, there had been no nitpicking, no fierce opposition. Sharp questions were exchanged, but never the kind meant to cut someone down or humiliate them. She didn't know how Hwi-young had softened up his own parents beforehand, but at the very least, they had seemed like people who had already reached some kind of conclusion.

The formal family meeting was the same. Their manner was far from warm or affectionate, but neither were they emotional about it.

They respected Somi's wishes as much as possible and calmly worked out the necessary details together with her parents.

She would be supported in finishing her studies even after the baby was born. Hwi-young would take responsibility for whatever they needed until he graduated and found his footing in the world. After that, their lives would be entirely their own affair. It was clear and clean, like a line drawn in the sand. Cold, in a way—but viewed differently, it was an utterly cool-headed attitude free of any meddlesome interference.

And Hwi-young, for his part, showed no particular disappointment or hurt at his parents' reaction. He simply accepted it with the same equanimity he brought to everything.

His family fell outside Somi's idea of an ordinary family, but perhaps that was simply the way of that household.

And so everything proceeded faster than her worries could keep up with. The marriage she'd once dismissed as impossible had, before she knew it, become reality.

And when the whole process was over, Somi opened her eyes on an unfamiliar bed.

She lay stiff as a mummy, her two hands folded neatly on her chest. Rolling only her eyes to survey the room, she took in a landscape entirely strange to her.

This was Hwi-young's bachelor apartment—and now, the newlywed home they shared.

As soon as Somi cleared out of her dormitory, the two of them had moved into his place to begin married life. Thankfully, thanks to Hwi-young's finicky distaste for the bustling off-campus housing strips crawling with fellow students, the apartment was a quiet mixed-use office building set a little apart from the university. Bachelor pad was a polite term for it—the place was far more spacious than any single person needed, with every essential appliance built in. Somi didn't need to add so much as a single spoon.

For now, they would attend school together through this semester; after that, Somi planned to take a leave of absence. Because she had to have the baby.

And when that time came, they would clear out of this officetel and move into the real newlywed home, currently under renovation. It was a bit farther from school, but it was a place arranged by Hwi-young's family.

Their real newlywed home.

Just thinking the words made her feel oddly tingly. Of course, everything still felt awkward. The marriage. The pregnancy. Sharing a blanket with Kwon Hwi-young. Even this very room.

Somi let out a soft breath in the place still too unfamiliar to call home. In that instant, a warm puff of breath landed on the nape of her neck. She flinched, her trapezius muscle jumping.

Her body still faced forward as she rolled only her eyes slightly toward the side—and Kwon Hwi-young's face was right there, inches away. So close she could hear him breathing.

"......."

Her heart pounded out a raucous morning racket.

For all his handsome face, Hwi-young's sleeping habits were rather wild. Rolling all over the bed was a given, and sometimes he'd fling an arm right across her waist. Purely unconscious sleep behavior, of course, with no ulterior intent whatsoever.

Last night had been proof. While she lay there soothing her about-to-burst heart just to make it onto the mattress, Hwi-young, with the placid face of a man without a care in the world, flipped back the covers and settled in beside her as naturally as anything. Then he murmured, "Good night, Som-ah," and fell asleep like it was nothing. It couldn't have taken more than a few minutes.

Which left Somi the one going out of her mind. How was anyone supposed to sleep lying in the same bed as the man she'd pined after for years?

Really... after that bus ride too, I couldn't help marveling at how he can sleep anywhere. They say the beautiful are heavy sleepers—apparently that applies to Kwon Hwi-young as well.

On the other hand, she also thought: how comfortable must he be, to sleep that soundly sharing a bed with a woman?

Fine. Well, as long as one of us slept well.

Morning light was slowly filtering through the gap in the blinds by the window. Somi was fiddling with the edge of the blanket, watching the sun stretch in a long ribbon across the floor, when Hwi-young's phone alarm began to ring.

His head shot up from where it had been buried in the pillow. His hair, a full bird's nest, swayed drunkenly in the air as he blinked his eyes open slowly. At last he twisted upright, reached out an arm, and picked up the phone on the nightstand. He fumbled at the screen a few times to kill the alarm, then flopped back down and turned his head the other way, burying his face in the pillow again.

Their eyes met.

"You're awake?"

Hwi-young's low voice drifted out from half-buried in the pillow. Maybe because he was still half asleep, his voice was deeper than usual, strangely unfamiliar. Instead of answering, Somi hunched her shoulders.

At some point he had turned over completely and was lying facing her. His cheek pressed flat against the pillow had mussed his hair all over his forehead, but the eyes peeking through it were clear and bright.

"Couldn't sleep? Your eyes are red."

He reached out his large hand and gently swept it under Somi's eyes. The warmth against her eyelids was so tender that she found herself squeezing them shut.

"Um, I did sleep, but..."

Her lips twitching, Somi slid her chin onto the pillow and spoke up.

"Did you know you have wild sleeping habits?"

"Me?"

Hwi-young's eyes went wide.

"My sleeping habits are wild?"

"...Yes."

"How so?"

"Well, you see...."

You kept throwing your arm right around my waist. You crept up to the back of my neck and sniffed at me. And then you randomly buried your face in my hair and nuzzled around....

All the strange things he'd done in the night came flooding back, but she couldn't bring herself to say them. Looking at his face, harmless and shining in the morning sun, she found herself wanting to believe it had all just been aimless sleep-twitching.

In the end, Somi picked the mildest version.

"You just... rolled around a lot."

"Really?"

A flicker of alarm crossed Hwi-young's face.

"Don't tell me I kicked you?"

Less kicking, more hugging, actually.

"You kick too?"

"...Well."

Hwi-young furrowed his brow, looking genuinely troubled.

"I can't know what I'm doing when I'm asleep."

The sight of him seriously racking his memory made her want to laugh. Barely suppressing the urge to tease him, Somi bit the inside of her lip and shook her head.

"No, it wasn't that bad."

"Ha. Thank goodness."

Hwi-young looked sincerely relieved. He thought for a moment, then hugged his pillow and murmured,

"Sorry. I'll work on it."

Such an immediate apology only flustered her more.

"Oh no, it was nothing. You don't need to apologize that much."

"Still."

Hwi-young blinked slowly.

"We'll be sleeping together from now on. I can't have you uncomfortable."

Her heart slammed—a sudden, violent thud.