Epilogue 2.1

Epilogue 2.1

While Miran only blinked in disbelief, Andre sent a rapid stream of new messages.

André: Most of the paperwork is already done. As soon as you arrive on March 24, we’ll go to City Hall and apply for a marriage license. After twenty-four hours, we can get married.

André: We’ll get married at City Hall on the 25th, and the moment the marriage certificate is issued, I’ll prepare the application for the CR-1 spouse visa.

André: Questions?

Miran stared at the tiny letters on the monitor for a long time, her expression blank with shock.

Get married on the 25th… which was only four days away?

She hesitated and placed her hands on the keyboard. But her fingers froze. Her mind had gone completely blank, leaving her unable to type even a single word.

Right then, the phone started ringing in the living room.

“Nooo!”

Miran screamed and grabbed her hair.

Lately, even the sound of the phone ringing made her stomach drop. Every time it rang, it kicked the internet offline.

She stared hopelessly at the frozen chat window as Juran answered the phone. A moment later she knocked on the door.

“Miran! Phone. It’s my son-in-law An!”

“What?”

Miran shot to her feet, yanked the door open, and snatched the cordless phone—almost as big as a child’s forearm—from Juran’s hand. Then she slammed the door shut again. Her pounding heart shot straight up to her throat.

Covering the receiver with her palm, she cleared her throat.

“Hello, Andre! International calls are expensive, why are you calling…?”

There was no one watching her, yet Miran covered her wide, blooming grin with her hand and stretched her voice playfully.

On the other end, his voice came with a hint of laughter.

― Why didn’t you answer.

Miran let her eyes flutter shut and breathed out softly. His low, resonant voice sounded even sexier over the phone.

Still, calling internationally because she didn’t reply for a few minutes… Andre was far more impatient than he looked.

“You suddenly said we should get married in four days. I was shocked, that’s all.”

He went quiet for a moment.

― …So. You don’t want to?

She sat down at the edge of the bed.

Of course she wanted to. She wanted to see him every day, every moment.

But… March 25?

Back in late December, when he proposed in the Virgin Islands with the old family ring, she’d vaguely expected she would marry him someday. But once she returned to Korea, her training schedule had been so grueling she hadn’t even had time to think seriously about when that would be.

She’d heard that international marriages required complicated procedures, so she had braced herself for the possibility that it might take far longer than she wished for them to actually live together.

Because a long stretch of long-distance seemed inevitable, she had thrown herself into flight attendant training with even more determination. She had never, ever imagined he would suddenly say they were getting married now.

Then… would none of her family be able to come to her wedding? Maybe later they could at least have a simple dinner together?

“I don’t dislike it. I like it. But… can you even have a wedding at City Hall? Do they have something like a wedding hall in there? And I don’t even have a dress… what do I do?”

As she fired off questions in a panic, Andre finally added a brief explanation.

― Hmm… This isn’t a wedding the way you’re imagining it. To apply for a spouse visa, we need a marriage certificate. To get that, we have to register our marriage and go through the legal process of establishing you as my spouse.

Andre had a habit of saying the conclusion first, then adding the explanation later. Likely because no one had ever dared argue with him, no matter how he phrased things.

“Ah, the spouse visa…”

Miran mumbled and flopped backward onto the bed.

― I hired an immigration lawyer recently. Fiance visas have a high rejection rate, so the risk is too big. The lawyer said the safest and most efficient route is to enter the United States on a spouse visa and then adjust your status to conditional permanent residency afterward.

Getting a U.S. visa was notoriously difficult. And unmarried women of marriageable age were known to face the strictest scrutiny of all.

“So you mean… we submit the marriage registration now, and hold the actual wedding later?”

― Yes. We can plan the ceremony after the visa comes out. I emailed you the documents you need to prepare for the marriage registration and visa. I’ll take care of everything else. All you need to do is… just come here. Questions?