It was a cool, spring day in downtown Seoul and, while the citizens of the city went about their business unhampered, a young Chinese man named Wen Junhui was having a complete mental breakdown. He’d finally gotten his nerve up enough to propose to his boyfriend of two years and even though his friends had agreed to help him with the proposal, he was completely terrified of what could go wrong. There was so much stress involved in planning because his baobei, the love of his life, deserved the best, most memorable proposal in history. His original idea had been to propose in the flower shop that his friend Seungcheol owned because that’s where they had first met, but that idea was scrapped after remembering that it was spring and Minghao had horrible pollen allergies. Another idea was to go out to a fancy restaurant and propose via the cliche “ring on a breadstick” but it was a Friday and reservations as any good restaurants were impossible to come by on such short notice.

Jun grabbed his hair and yanked, hoping the pain might give him inspiration. It gave him a headache, and he sat at the kitchen counter rubbing his temples to alleviate the pain. It was stressing him out so much and the nerves were killing him, but...this was his boyfriend. That beautiful, loving person who’d stuck by him through so much . The person that Jun would gladly throw his life away for. It...it just had to be perfect.

“I’m home!” A voice called as a door slammed at the other end of the apartment. In walked Minghao, looking adorable in an oversized sweater of Jun’s and round glasses. His hair was slightly wet and hung down in waves rather than the tight curls that had been common as of late (it reminded Jun of thinly sliced pork belly, not that he’d ever tell his love that). His cheeks were flushed and Jun smiled at the sight of two steaming Americanos in his hands.

“Welcome home baby,” Jun got up from his seat and pulled Minghao into a tight hug. “How were classes today? Did you find out the results of your last assessment?”

Minhao pulled back slightly so he could take of his bag and place the coffees on the table. He sighed, pouting a little bit. “No. I’m really worried about that assessment too. I think I missed four counts of the choreography that got changed and the music was changed last minute too and just...ugh.” His boyfriend thumped his head into Jun’s chest and Jun entertained himself by running his hands through the blonde waves. Minghao purred at the sensation and yep, okay, Jun was dating a literal cat.

“Don’t be so stressed out babe. You’re the best dancer in your class, you know that. The professors have said that millions of times. You don’t need to worry.”

“I just want to do good. For my parents and everyone and...it’s just really hard sometimes.” Minghao pouted and removed himself from Jun’s embrace. “I’m going to go take a shower. I’ll be out in a few minutes.”

Jun kissed his forehead and Minghao, blushing slightly, went down the hall to the bathroom. The sound of water running was heard a few minutes later, accompanied by Minghao’s soft voice, singing an old Chinese song that Jun hadn’t heard in years. Jun grabbed one of the Americanos and slumped down onto the couch in the living room. He hoped the caffeine would help his headache a little. He felt bad about stressing over a proposal when his boyfriend was so worried about his classes.

As a dance major at Seoul University, Minghao had a lot of stress thrown at him. The dance department was notoriously hard, known for having a low acceptance rate and punishing teachers. As a foreign student, Minghao had been singled out from the start and many of the professors seemed to make it their job to make his life harder. Jun was proud of his boyfriend through. He worked twice as hard as anyone else in that department, staying in the studios until early in the morning to he could get choreography perfect. There were many days when Jun would have to go to pick Minghao up at the studio only to find him passed out on whatever horizontal surface was available.

Jun sighed. Maybe he should save the proposal for another day? Even though it was their anniversary, maybe all that was needed was a night in with movies and junk food. The Chinese man was already running through a list of take-out numbers in his head and trying to remember if there were any new movies on Netflix when Minghao came into the living room. The dancer was wearing Jun’s clothes, which looked huge on his waifish frame and he was cuddling a gigantic Pororo plushie that they’d won at a fair the previous summer.

The sight of his baobei wearing his clothes and looking so tiny just made Jun’s heart melt. He opened his arms, beckoning Minghao over to cuddle. Plopping himself down on the older boy’s lap, Minghao snuggled into the embrace and sighed contentedly, all previous stress temporarily forgotten.

“I know it’s our anniversary, but would you mind if we just had a lazy night in? I can call for Chinese food and we can binge on horrible reality shows?” Jun whispered into Minghao’s ear. The smaller boy smiled and nodded. “Can we get kimchi fried rice?”

“Of course babe,” Another forehead kiss was given and Jun pulled his phone out of his sweatshirt pocket to dial the number long memorized to order deliciously greasy fast food.

The pair sprawled out on the old couch, immersed in watching horrible movies. When the food came, it was devoured in record time and the coffee table was littered with takeout cartons and disposable chopsticks. As the night went on, they drifted off to sleep with the tv humming quietly in the background.

The elder of the two woke up the next morning with a dead arm and a mouthful of curls. He yawned, stretched, and carefully removed himself from the shared embrace. Picking up his lover, Jun carried him into their bedroom and tucked him under the covers. Minghao snored on quietly, nose scrunched up as he unconsciously reacted to some dream. Slipping away into the kitchen, Jun checked his phone to find a barrage of new messages.

Scoops-hyung: Did you propose yet?

Angel Boy: I heard from Seungcheol that you found the ring! so happy :D

Diva Boo: i’d better be your best man at the wedding!

10/10 Hoshi: did you do it did you do it did you do it did you do it??????????

Jun replied to all of them.

Jerry: not yet; he was so tired last night we just had a lazy day

Turning off his phone, he set about making breakfast. Twenty minutes later, pancakes were frying on the griddle and sausages were sizzling in a pan. Jun chopped up some fruit, arranged everything nicely and carried a tray of breakfast into their bedroom. Minghao was awake, sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes sleepily. He yawned.

“Good morning Junnie,” A smile spread across Minghao’s face at the sight of food.

“Morning love,” Jun set the tray down on the end of the bed and crawled under the covers with his boyfriend. “Hope you’re hungry because there’s a ton of food.”

“Always,” Minghao could eat and eat and eat and never gain weight. It sometimes worried Jun how thin Minghao was, but was quickly reassured by him that he had always been like that.

They ate in a comfortable silence, the only sounds being forks scraping over plates or little slurps of coffee. Sunlight streamed through the curtains, giving the tiny room a warm glow. Jun found himself analyzing every detail of the younger’s face, from the crinkles in the corners of his eyes to the dimples of his cheeks to the soft curve of his lips. He was suddenly taken back to the first time that they’d met, Jun a senior at SeoulU and Minghao a nervous sophomore transfer from China. It had been such a relief for the sophomore to run into someone who spoke his native tongue, who understood how it felt to be homesick and to want your own food, your own bed, your parents near you every day.

Thinking back on all of the times they’d shared together, all of the fights and make-ups, the stolen kisses and  hands held under tables, Jun realized that through anything and everything, he just wanted to be with Minghao forever. He realized that he didn’t need an elaborate proposal to make Minghao feel his love; he just had to be there. Shaken at the realization, his thoughts hadn’t caught up with his mouth when he blurted out: “Will you marry me?”

Minghao looked at him in disbelief. The world seemed to stop. “What did you say?” His voice trembled.

Jun pulled his boyfriend onto his lap and looked him straight in the eyes before he chickened out of saying what he’d been dying to say for the longest time.

“I want to marry you Xu Minghao. I want to wake up next to you forever and share everything with you. You are the love of my life, my baobei, my everything. I had this giant elaborate proposal planned out; there was going to be flowers and a celebration and all of our friends, but for some reason I could do it. Do you know why? Because I realized that I don’t need to do all of that stuff because it doesn’t matter. My love for you is a stronger message than any of that stuff combined and I hope to God that you love me as much as I love you because I want to stay with you until we’re old and gray and we can’t hear each other say I love you because we’ve gone deaf and senile. I don’t care if we’re stuck in a crappy apartment in a foreign country where neither of us are good at communicating, or if we’re on a beach in Hawaii or if we’re in the middle of the apocalypse. I don’t need fancy things or a big house or money because all I want is you. Forever and always, I just want you there. So, I’m going to say this again before my brain catches up with my mouth and I freeze up: Xu Minghao, baobei, love. I love you and want to spend the rest of my life loving you. Will you marry me?”

Jun took a deep breath and looked and Minghao. There were tears coming from the boy’s eyes and Jun panicked immediately, thinking that he’d upset him somehow. “Baby, please don’t cry! Did I say something? Please talk to me.” He pleaded.

“I can’t believe that for a second you’d think that I don’t love you as much as you love me. Of course I’ll marry you, you big idiot!” Minghao sniffled and rubbed at his eyes. Jun kissed away his tears.

“You’re serious?”

“Always,”

Jun laughed and a few tears came out of his eyes as well and they both sat there crying and laughing until neither of them could cry anymore.

Wen Junhui’s plans had been ruined. There had been no elaborate proposal, no fancy dinner or huge gesture. That Saturday morning, in a tiny apartment in a foreign country, Wen Junhui and Xu Minghao fell even more in love. From that day on, whenever they held hands and Jun could see the engagement ring on Minghao’s finger, he was reminded that sometimes the best things in the world were the simplest. He was young, had the love of his life by his side and he was ready to take whatever the world threw at him. Minghao would be there with him through thick and thin and Jun really could say that he was the luckiest guy in the world.