How About Seven? ✔

Epilogue

Ah. Weddings.

Where a man and woman join together in holy matrimony, where a shared life of both burden and happiness begins. The perfect occasion to drink too much wine, eat too much cake and to hold reunions with old friends.

I heard the priest say, "Do you, Leila Fanning, take this man, Moon Taegyeon as your lawfully wedded husband?"

Leila beamed. Her eyes shone, and her brown hair, so much longer since the last time I had seen her, was coiled up beautifully in a high bun decked out with white flowers. Their wedding cake was a three-tiered masterpiece of red, black and white fondant - the colors, I was told, of both bride and groom's favorite soccer team. 

Leaning forward, she kissed her shy Korean fiancé (now husband) on the lips. The hall erupted in rapturous applause. There was an explosion of confetti, and the speakers blasted a 15-second chorus of Whitney Houston's I Wanna Dance With Somebody. Amidst the chaos, the emcee of the evening skipped onstage. He was dressed in a flamboyant pink tuxedo and black bowtie.

Emrys whooped into the microphone. "Alright, alright, alright! Let's give it up for our beautiful newlyweds! And now, for the first dance of the evening! Mr and Mrs Moon, if you may ...?"

Leila and her husband moved to the dancefloor. The speakers took to playing Han Hee Jung's Dreaming and the lights around the hall dimmed to a soft, mellow yellow. Next to me, Thomas gave a light squeeze of my hands. I squeezed back.

Watching my high school best friend dance away on her wedding night brought tears to my eyes, and I was on the verge of outright crying when there came a little yelp at my elbow. The most fragile-looking champagne flute began its descent to the ground, followed closely on the heels by a most despairing cry of "Oh nooo ..." Tossing my handbag at Thomas I did a quick lunge forward and caught the stem of the glass between my fingers with seconds to spare.

William rubbed his palms against his jeans and took the glass back from me. "Sorry. Sweaty hands."

Unlike the rest of the wedding guests in their formal wear, William was dressed in a white turtleneck, light grey coat and dark blue jeans. The reason being that he had just rushed back from an important academic conference, of which he was the main speaker. Ever since William had begun his career as a philosophy professor he'd become increasingly clumsy about things such as meeting basic needs (food, water) and making sure important dates didn't clash (like today). Emrys liked to joke that he was the one who needed to get married, and fast.

Now William took an awkward sip from his wine glass, and made an attempt at smoothing out the creases from his jeans. I wanted to tell him that he looked better than what he thought he did - a fact clearly proven from the amount of side glances he was getting from the women around him.

I watched the bridesmaids and best men took to the dance floor. Leila had asked me to be her "best woman" but I had declined regretfully. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't risk the exposure. This wasn't a normal wedding; it was a big one, because the groom was a member of South Korea's national soccer team. Which meant lots of press, and lots of photographers.

For half a decade now, Thomas and I had led quiet, unobtrusive lives. We moved from place to place, not staying in the same city for more than three months. I had become an anonymous author publishing on paid websites, which meant I could write wherever and still rake in a relatively steady income (readers it seemed, like thrilling mafia stories).

In the beginning of our travels, Thomas would take up whatever job he could, until one day we discovered he had a natural affinity for languages. In the one and a half year we spent in Italy, it took him only four months to become fluent in conversational Italian, and he quickly started a business online teaching it to non-speakers. Then we threw a dart on a map and it landed on France, so his classes expanded to include that. After two years it expanded further to include Japanese, and just as we were thinking about picking up the dart again, we got the invitation to Leila's wedding.