Chapter 48

When I opened my eyes again, Lee JiHan was looking at me with his eyes open. Instead of the morning sun, his face was painted with the colors of the sunset.

Oh my, it’s night! I shot up suddenly wide awake, but he pulled me back down. I looked up at Lee JiHan.

“You can’t get up now,” he said.

“Oh, why didn’t you wake me?” I asked.

Even though I looked at him in resentment, he answered back sweetly, “I knew my AhJung would not have adjusted to the time difference, and we didn’t get to sleep until early morning. I didn’t think it would be a good day to go out. That’s why I didn’t wake you.”

“But still! We only get three days on our honeymoon,” I protested. “We can’t just sleep all day! We have to do something!”

We only had a three-day honeymoon. We didn’t have much choice with Lee JiHan’s school schedule. The reason we chose Las Vegas as our destination was because it was too long of a plane ride from his New York university. I didn’t have any issues with the choice we had, but I wanted to get as much from the trip as possible given the time restraints.

Lee JiHan calmly shook his head. “We can come to Las Vegas again next time. It’s not far, so we can come next weekend if we wanted to. Let’s not overwork ourselves and just rest. We can sightsee later.”

“But, it’s still our honeymoon,” I replied. “If we are just going to sleep in our hotel room, why did we come all the way to Las Vegas?”

“We came to this hotel room to spend our first night together,” Lee JiHan said.

“Hotels are all the same. This one’s no different...” I was replying rather apathetically when I caught a glimpse of the room around the bed.

This guy! This isn’t a room! It’s a house?!

My eyes had only been for Lee JiHan all night, so I had not been able to appreciate my surroundings. The walls were so far from my feet. It was a mystery as to why they bothered to put a TV that far away. If you turn that on, could you even see the screen? Wait, is it just audio?

Next to the television were two doors that opened into...

“There’s not another room back there, is there?” I asked in awe pointing to the room.

“That’s the living room. There is another room beyond that point,” Lee JiHan replied nonchalantly.

“But, it’s just the two of us here! Why do we need another room!” I yelled looking at Lee JiHan in disbelief.

He replied back with a voice as calm as his expression. “Because it’s our first night.”

“What on our first night? Were you planning to use separate rooms?!”

I lifted myself up flustered, but Lee JiHan pushed me back down again and said, “By my standards, this is the best hotel and room in Las Vegas.”

I was thinking about how random his explanation seemed to be.

He said, “That’s why I reserved this place. My dream was to spend my first night in the best hotel, in the best room.”

Like the flipping of a coin, my thoughts about the room switched. I was able to calm down. Oh... That’s his reasoning.

With a new understanding, I looked around the interior of the room. He chose this place because he wanted the best first night. I wanted to look at it in more detail and remember every little thing for a long time.

There was a limit to how much I could see lying down, so I pointed to the living room and said, “Then I want to go see that room too.”

I pulled myself up, but Lee JiHan pulled me back down again. “I think I already told you that you can’t get up yet.”

“Oh, it’s not like I’m walking around outside, just the living room. Do you really think I can’t even do that?” I asked.

“If you get up, your back and muscles are going to hurt,” Lee JiHan said as if he was certain of the fact.

“How would you know that?” I asked.

“I learned it from a wife specialist,” he matter-of-factly stated.

“What?” His response seemed unbelievable.

“I learned it so I will know how to take care of my wife,” Lee JiHan said. “The wedding was a bit rushed, so I didn’t get to learn a lot though.”

No wonder our first night together was so perfect. Who would have thought he would put in this kind of effort?

I was surprised and touched. On the other hand, I felt guilty. Maybe I should have visited the Ob/Gyn....

I was reflecting on my lack of effort when Lee JiHan said, “Anyways, you can’t get up and walk around right now.”

“Did they say that it will hurt to the point I can’t walk around?” I asked. “If it’s not that bad, I think I can carefully walk around a little bit.”

“Even if it’s not that much, you still can’t,” he said. “If your body remembers the moment as it hurting afterward, it will not want to do it anymore. Don’t feel the aches by getting up and just stay still. I’ll get whatever you need for you.”

Lee JiHan wrapped my body in the blanket. Cradling me like a baby he slowly lifted me. “You seem to be curious about that room over there, so I’ll take you to see it.”

As if there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for me, he walked toward the room I wanted to see. Without a single tremor, his strong arms supported me. I was comfortably able to look around the room without any pain. Two rooms, two bathrooms, one living room with a bar, a spa room with a massage table, and a balcony with a table on it.

As we looked around the 150-square-foot room, Lee JiHan never lost the happy expression on his face. He never once complained that he was tired.

***

When are they going to make a machine that washes you without you having to lift a finger? Every time I came back from a hard day, I wondered this as I dragged myself into the shower. There were smartphones and artificial intelligence. There were all these technological innovations, yet no one had thought to make that.

Instead of a machine, I got a husband?

From head to toe, without me having to lift a finger, I sat there mesmerized as he washed me. My husband was doing what technological innovation could not.

Lee JiHan moved relentlessly as I sat there amazed. He placed a gown over my refreshed body, dried my wet hair, and carried me over to the table at the balcony. On the balcony table was the dinner ordered from room service.

Feeling the Las Vegas wind against my skin and watching the glittering lights of the city, I ate a wonderful meal that melted my tongue, as well as my heart.

After dinner, we enjoyed tea time. We then moved to the spa room. Lee JiHan sat me down on the massage table. The lights in the room were soft as if we were in a luxurious spa salon. This room allowed for ordering a massage from room service.

Did he order that too? Anticipating this, I looked around the spa room. Lee JiHan stood in front of me and slowly took off my gown.

“Oh, why?” I jumped in shock and reflexively covered my chest.

“I’m going to massage you to relax your tense muscles,” Lee JiHan answered as he put a box on the table.

The box he put next to me had three bottles of aroma oil. Lee JiHan picked up one of them, opened it, and placed it under my nose. “Smell all three and tell me which one you like the most. I will massage you with the one you choose.”

“You’re going to personally do it? The massage?” I asked, not believing my ears.

Lee JiHan looked straight into my eyes and said in an obvious tone, “Nobody knows better than me what position you were in, for how long, and for what reason. So, the only person who can relieve those aches would be me. Hence I will be doing it.”

“You don’t have to... No, don’t. I want to get it from someone else,” I said.

Lee JiHan frowned as I shook my head. “You think somebody else’s touch will feel better? You experienced it yesterday, and you didn’t enjoy it?”

I shook my head frantically at his suspicious expression toward me. “Oh, no! It’s not that! I’m just afraid you might be tired. Aren’t you tired?”

It wasn’t an excuse. I was actually curious. Lee JiHan stared at me as if he didn’t understand what I was talking about.

“Mister, you were on the airplane for 12 hours just like me, which was the first time for you too,” I explained. “And, as we had our first night, you did all the moving while I was lying down. Mister, there’s no way you aren’t tired. Shouldn’t you be the one receiving the massage?”

As I said this, Lee JiHan’s frowning face softened. He spoke to me with a smile on his face. “Then and now, I’m moving because I like it. It’s something I’m doing being I like it, so how could it be tiring?”

Moving because he likes it.... My thoughts went back to the movements I felt last night. He moved that way because he liked it. My face started to burn.

“I’m sure you dedicated some of those hours as a sort of volunteering service to me trying to loosen up my nerves so it wouldn’t hurt,” I softly replied.

“That was not volunteer service,” he said. “I wanted to touch you and kiss you. It was a treat for my hands and lips.”

“Really?” I curiously asked. “I thought it was just a treat for me!”

Lee JiHan smiled ear to ear at my comment. He put the aroma bottle closer to my nose. “It was a dual treat. Hurry up and choose a scent so I can treat my hands again while massaging you.”

“Oh, all right! All right!”

I was so happy, I inhaled the scent near my nose. With my hand, I grabbed the other aroma oil bottle. I hurriedly popped the cap open and turned my nose to it so I could treat my body and Lee JiHan can treat his hands.

Choosing the scent I liked, I handed the bottle to him. Lee JiHan took the bottle and asked, “Are you going to keep calling me Mister? We’re married now.”

“Oh, that’s right,” I said. “What should I call you?”

“Whatever you decide to call me, I want it to be different from what you called me before,” he said. “We’re family now, so don’t call me the same thing as when we were strangers.”

JiHan’s hand held mine and made my palm face the ceiling. He dropped a couple drops of the oil onto it. He made me rub the oil into my hands.

What should I call him? Honey? Darling? Oh... It’s so awkward.

While I was contemplating, JiHan moved my hands to my nose. “Take in the scent and slowly breathe in deeply three times.”

I did what he instructed me to do. With a relaxed feeling, I said out loud what I felt in my heart. “Can I just call you JiHan? I think that will be the most comfortable.”

“If that’s comfortable, then let’s keep it as that,” he said. “Because we’re family now, it’s better to change what we call each other to something comfortable.”

JiHan agreed to it easily and slowly laid me down on the bed. As my head touched the pillow, a curious thought popped into my mind. “Uh, then, JiHan. Are you going to change the way you speak to me like you do for your brother and mother?”

He looked down at me confused.

“It seems that you don’t speak to your brother or your mother in the way you talk to me,” I said. “You have a sort of commanding tone of way of speaking to me. Now that I’m family, are you going to change it? Like the way you speak to your brother or mother?”

Lee JiHan looked like he fully understood and replied, “You are family, but this is a different problem. My mother and brother have both seen me as a young child. I only met you when I was all grown up, so I don’t want to look young to my wife. Truthfully, I used that kind of tone because I wanted to look more serious and formidable. After I started liking you, I used it because it felt more trustworthy and reliable. I kept up with this style of talking because I didn’t want the girl who is the same age as my older brother to not feel like I’m a man, that I’m a child.”

JiHan touched my cheek slightly, just enough to not wake a sleeping baby, with a soft touch.

Oh... Now that I think about it, this man is five years younger than me.

I felt like the massage was already starting. My body was melting with it. He was worrying about all sorts of things because he wanted me to love him.

“But, just because we got married, I don’t want to change from a man to a child. I want to stay a man in your eyes even after being married.” JiHan leaned over and gave me a kiss.

His lip movements felt like a part of the massage, so my body relaxed with it.

He removed his lips after a few moments and asked. “Do you not like this tone? Do you want me to change it?”

“No, I want you to continue your way of talking and the reason behind it,” I replied. “I don’t want you to change it.”

He seemed relieved at my answer and smiled with his eyes. Grabbing the oil bottle, he poured a couple drops into his hand and rubbed them together. With his warm and smooth hands, he massaged my body.

I didn’t know how this could be pleasurable to both of us, but my suspicions took a back seat as I enjoyed my own personal pleasure.