Winter Lights are Prettiest with You

Pairing: Seungcheol x Jihoon

They should have left the house thirty minutes ago, but Jihoon refused to go anywhere with Seungcheol dressed the way he was. Seungcheol argued that a Christmas sweater wasn't going to cause any embarrassment, but the other wouldn't budge from his place on the couch. Eventually, Seungcheol came back with a knitted sweater and a beige coat and dragged a lazy but satisfied Jihoon out the door.

"Where are we even going?" Jihoon interrogated as Seungcheol drove off the driveway. When Seungcheol reached over to hold Jihoon's hand, he clucked his tongue and moved away. Seungcheol turned to complain childishly, but the other kept his gaze trained in front of him.

"Eyes on the road, hyung," he reprimended gently, and just in time because Seungcheol had been about to drive straight into a pole. As he swerved away from the sidewalk, Jihoon groaned when his body slammed into the side of the car. Seungcheol could feel the smoldering glare drilling into the side of his head, and took advantage of Jihoon's smushed position to lace his fingers with the latter's. A scoff escaped Jihoon's lips, but nothing else.

They had barely driven ten minutes when Seungcheol pulled up to the curb, unbuckling his seatbelt. Jihoon blinked in confusion at the surprise turn of events, and flinched when a cloth obscured his darkening surroundings. "What are you doing?" He asked slowly with hands resting on Seungcheol's forearms. He could hear the other snickering, but before he could utter a snarky comment, the cloth tightened around his head like a blindfold.

"From now on until we get to our destination, you're not allowed to peek. You can't see anything, right?" Jihoon could feel the air moving near his face and expected Seungcheol to be waving his hand haphazardly in front of his eyes. He nodded quietly, choking the disturbing thoughts of kidnap surfacing in his mind because he trusted Seungcheol (maybe a little too much). The car lurched forward into a smooth pace, and Jihoon had no other choice but to lean back and wait until they arrived.

Once Seungcheol opened the passenger door and helped Jihoon out, he had an arm wound around his waist as he led the other to a spot in the garden. Jihoon tripped three times on the path there, once over his feet and twice because Seungcheol had jostled him playfully. He let out a string of curses from his pretty mouth, for which Seungcheol cuffed his head like an older brother.

"I'm your boyfriend, not your chew toy," Jihoon whined when Seungcheol bit his finger after the latter had bumped his shoulder, sending him swaying, and the former had poked Seungcheol's chest in accusation. The sounds of pure bliss echoing through Jihoon's eardrums sounded too content for him to keep his angry façade for long, and he was soon grinning, aware of Seungcheol's smile despite his lack of vision. Seungcheol reviewed his premeditated plan, adjusting Jihoon to look out into the garden.

Silence enveloped the couple as Seungcheol constantly checked his watch for the correct timing to unravel Jihoon's blindfold. "Five-nineteen," Jihoon heard him mutter unconciously, and his mind escaped to wonder about what exactly the surprise would be. If it was like last year with Soonyoung and Seokmin starting a snowball fight, Seungcheol would be dead by the end of the night.

Just then, the offensive piece of cloth wrapped around his head dropped, and Jihoon's squinted to adjust his pupils. At first, he was staring into a field of pitch darkness, only aware of Seungcheol's presence beside him and comforting hand in his grasp. A moment later, his surroundings lit up in glittering pinks and blues and yellows, and he was left gaping at the shimmering lights.

Jihoon had been unaware of how large Seungcheol's romantic persona was and shifted around to thank Seungcheol. He was met with a warm smile, as if Jihoon had no need to thank him because he already knew. An unexpected surge of affection blossomed in his heart, and on a whim he threw his arms around Seungcheol's shoulders and nuzzled the cold tip of his nose into his neck. "I love you," he mumbled, an unwanted blush dusting his cheeks as he burrowed his face away from the other's gaze.

Seungcheol's laugh was pleasant and soothing, and he plucked off Jihoon—who was being very clingy—to see his expression. He was fidgety and flustered, rejecting eye contact, and Seungcheol tilted his chin so that Jihoon was forced to look at the man who could still make his heart flutter and pound five years into their relationship. "I love you more," Seungcheol whispered before connecting their lips tenderly. In that moment of unbridled laughter and breathless smiles, hues of flattering colors decorating the air around them, Jihoon was brighter, more beautiful, more colorful than any glow in the night.

This drabble can be read as part of the same au as the first Jicheol drabble (aka Chapter 1). The place Seungcheol tok Jihoon to is called the Garden of Morning Calm (in korean 아침고요수목원). It's a popular date place for couples espcially in their twenties, but in winter they do a special event where they turn all the lights on at 5:20 p.m. I've been there once during the summer with my family, and I have to say it was a beautiful place. I'd love to go there one day with my future boyfriend *crosss fingers*