“We should go out today,” Seungcheol proposed out of the blue one day.

“Hm?” Jihyo had just gotten home not too long ago and the two of them were lounging on the couch. The apartment was empty save for them, because Junhui and Jihoon came over earlier along with Seungcheol with the excuse that they missed hanging out with the kids (though they come over frequently along with many of their other friends; how their apartment turned into their extremely large group’s hangout spot— they don’t know, but they can’t really complain about the situation since they enjoy the company).

“We should go out, you know. The kids aren’t home and we’re feisty, young adults. C’mon, what do you say?” Seungcheol grinned and quirked his brows cheekily.

“That sounds suggestive, but fine, I’m game,” Jihyo chuckled, getting up from her comfortable position tucked snugly into Seungcheol’s side, Seungcheol following her as they both went back to their room to get ready.

Seungcheol takes Jihyo out on a date that was much like their first one a year ago. They got to a movie first—this time it’s a horror movie that was supposedly so scary that even people like Jeonghan and Jihoon couldn’t stop thinking about it at night—of course, Seungcheol watched a whole entire zero percent of the movie while Jihyo had to work to hide in her giggles in between slightly terrified screams. After the movie, Seungcheol had to go collect himself in the bathroom before the two of them headed off to their next destination (Jihyo drove this time, fearing for the safety since Seungcheol was so jumpy).

Next was dinner, which Jihyo decided to take mercy on Seungcheol and choose a restaurant that was packed and well-lit. Jihyo spent most of the dinner calming Seungcheol down and showing him videos of the kids; some of the videos were old favorites while some were new videos that she desperately asked Jihoon and Junhui to send to bring Seungcheol back to reality. After Seungcheol calmed down, their conversation consisted of Jihyo asking Seungcheol about his intentions for the night and Seungcheol awkwardly avoiding answering seriously even if it cost him his image since Jihyo was certain he was planning something naughty.

“I promise I’m not planning anything dirty,” Seungcheol whined, his ears burning a bright red, and he wanted nothing more than to curl into himself and die.

“You sure?” Jihyo squinted at him, suspicious.

“ Yes .” Seungcheol sighed. “Trust me, you’d know if I was. We wouldn’t have left the apartment otherwise,” Seungcheol rested his chin in his hands and smirked, sticking his tongue out. The flip in Seungcheol’s demeanor and voice had Jihyo flushing and curling into herself.

“I think we’re done here,” Jihyo cleared , cleaning up their table and getting ready to go.

“Don’t get too excited cupcake, I’ve got another destination in mind,” Seungcheol laughed at Jihyo’s reflexive pout; and maybe, in the back of his mind, he was considering just heading home and relieving Jihyo’s disappointment, but then he remembered the point of this special date and he regained focus on the situation. The two of them left the restaurant after paying and were off once again. Seungcheol set off on the way to Jihyo’s hometown, specifically with the park she used to go to when she was younger in mind. When they arrive, they play around and have a lot more fun than they should have as grown adults, then again it was dark and there was no one around to judge them.

“Oh?” Jihyo flinched. She held her hand out for a few seconds in order to confirm the cool droplet she felt on her exposed shoulders. “It’s starting to rain...Cheol, we should go,” Jihyo frowned, slowing her pace on the swing to a stop and she reluctantly got off.

“What? Why? A little rain won’t stop us!” Seungcheol chuckled childishly and continued making his way up the slide. Jihyo sighed and rolled her eyes, insisting that they should go before it starts raining too hard, but Seungcheol refused to listen. She watched him keep playing at first, hesitant to join in because she was worried about getting too wet and ruining Seungcheol’s car.

“Cheol, seriously,” Jihyo flinched more when the rain began to pick up; the droplets were cool against her skin, and quite honestly, it was refreshing in the mid-August heat. However, Jihyo still couldn’t bring herself to enjoy it. “it’s starting to pick up really fast!”

“Oh really?” Seungcheol grinned, and he paused at the top of the monkey bars, seemingly scanning the area. He swiped his bottom lip with his tongue mischievously, swiped his hair back, and then carefully maneuvered his way across the monkey bars closer to Jihyo before jumping off of them right next to her into a puddle.

“Choi Seungcheol!” Jihyo screamed as she got splashed. Seungcheol laughed and jumped, far too excited that his plan worked out, and he teased Jihyo until the woman glared at him and chased him around. The two of them continued playing in the rain: they jumped in puddles to splash each other, and then they started jumping in puddles together in order to create bigger splashes, all in all having the time of their lives.

Eventually, the two of them decide to settle down at one of the benches at the park, not minding the rain too much anymore since they were both soaking wet at this point.

“We seem to get caught in the rain a lot, huh?” Jihyo started reminiscing. She mentioned about the first time they got caught in the rain, when Seungcheol came to pick her and Tzuyu up at the florist shop. “You wore a white shirt back then, I remember very clearly. That was such an unintentional low blow, it was so hard for me to stop myself from staring.”

Seungcheol laughed and cheered. “I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who felt attraction early on!” Jihyo rolled her eyes and nudged at Seungcheol, moving her wet hair back once again. Seungcheol and Jihyo get spurred on to talk about the other time they played in the rain like this, and Jihyo noticed that Seungcheol was asking her about her opinion on him a lot more than he’s ever done before.

“Okay, Cheol, you’re really being weird now. What’s going on?” Jihyo turned towards Seungcheol. She took ahold of his hand and laced their fingers together.

Seungcheol nervously at his bottom lip and pushed his hair back then ran his hand down his face. Seungcheol also turned towards Jihyo and cleared his throat. “As I tried to navigate my young adult life with a son, my only goal was to find a little bit of happiness.” Seungcheol started, voice shaky and soft. “It seemed impossible for me, because I couldn’t move on from the past—I didn’t want to move on from the past...or, at least, I thought I didn’t.” Seungcheol paused and stared down at their intertwined hands, rubbing Jihyo’s with his thumb slowly.

“Cheol…?” Jihyo uttered awkwardly, her voice shaky as well.

Seungcheol looked up at Jihyo with a soft smile. “It was because of you and Tzuyu that I was able to find a lot more than just a little bit of happiness: I found closure, new friends, new opportunities—I was able to find myself again.” Seungcheol’s smile widened and he exhaled deeply, looking up at the sky momentarily. “And just like it’s always done for us, I hope this rain can wash away our past regrets, and birth new bouts of happiness for the both of us. Not just as boyfriend and girlfriend, but as husband and wife—”

Jihyo choked. “Seungcheol—”

Seungcheol chuckled and pulled something out of his pocket before getting up and bending down on one knee in front of Jihyo. “So, Park Jihyo, will you marry me?”

Jihyo gasped, and then she broke down into a fit of giggles, tackling Seungcheol to the ground, kissing him. “Yes, yes, yes !” Seungcheol laughed and cheered once again, because Jihyo was actually saying yes to him, though at this point, he really didn’t know why he should have expected anything less. The two of them cuddled on the wet, muddy ground, laughing and possibly crying, but there was really no way to tell (though they were certain that the other was definitely crying).

Heading back to their apartment was an uncomfortable journey due to being soaking wet and muddy , but most of the uncomfort was shrouded out by the fact that the two of them were now engaged . When they arrived back to their apartment, it was full of their friends (Jihoon and Junhui returned back to their apartment because the children missed their toys and boys; they supposed the rest came over to either have an impromptu playdate or ambush them since it wasn’t one of their regular date nights).

“What in the world—” Nayeon started to question the two of them, but she didn’t get to finish her question because Jihyo was rushing into the apartment after barely slipping her shoes off in time, and flashing off the ring on her finger.

“He proposed!” Jihyo exclaimed, screaming, soon followed by the rest of their friends. Jihyo was surrounded by her friends who were jumping and screaming and hugging her despite her messy appearance. Seungcheol’s situation was pretty much the same; he was being congratulated from all around, there was a lot of screaming in his ears by Soonyoung and Junhui, he received big hugs from Jihoon, Joshua, and Jeonghan especially, while Wonwoo resorted to patting him on his shoulders with the biggest smile on his face while holding back his tears.

“Okay, okay,” Jeonghan eventually took control of the situation as the second oldest of the group and calmed everyone down. “We can continue freaking out after these two get cleaned up, we don’t want them getting sick! Also, we’re going to need to borrow some clothes…unfortunate for your guys’ closests…” Jeonghan grinned, and ushered Seungcheol and Jihyo off to their room to get cleaned up while he and Nayeon took liberties in raiding their wardrobes for clothes for everyone to temporarily change into.

Seungcheol and Jihyo got cleaned up rather quickly, not really being able to get too caught up into each other with a living room full of their friends and another room full of children who are definitely curious about the commotion from earlier. So when they exited their room freshly showered and and changed, and went back into the living room, the children were milling about, curiously asking their respective parents about all of the screaming.

“Mommy, Daddy!” Hansol and Tzuyu ran up to Seungcheol and Jihyo, arms up. The two picked up their children—Hansol in Seungcheol’s arms and Tzuyu in Jihyo’s—and gave them little pecks on the tops of their heads.

“Did we scare you guys with all of the screaming earlier?” Jihyo asked in a sweet voice, heading further into the living room with Seungcheol right beside her.

“Yes!” Both children answer with definite pouts on their faces. Seungcheol and Jihyo share an apologetic laugh and hug their children closer to them.

“Sorry kiddos, we’re just really excited about something super big,” Seungcheol explained.

“What is it?” Hansol asked, looking up at his father with big, bright eyes.

“Aunties and Uncles wouldn’t tell us why you screamed,” Tzuyu pouted again. Seungcheol and Jihyo shared another excited look and moved over to the rest of the group and set their children down onto the couch along with their friends and the other kids.

“Alright kids, we’ll tell you why everyone was screaming,” Jihyo brought her hands up to her face, not being able to hide her excitement.

“Mommy! Is that ring a part of it?” Tzuyu pointed out with her unusually sharp eyes.

“Oh?” Hansol tilted his head to the side. “Where did that come from?”

“Kids, Jihyo and I are engaged now,” Seungcheol finally revealed. All of the little ones didn’t quite understand, but Momo gasped and clapped excitedly.

“Why, why, why?” Dahyun climbed over her mother’s laps to get to Momo.

“They’re getting married !” Momo exclaimed, voice incredibly high. A few seconds later, Momo had started crying and she went over to hug Jihyo and Seungcheol tightly.

“ Married?! ” Dahyun’s entire face lit up and she screamed, climbing down from the sofa to face her own mothers and jump up and down. Chaeyoung didn’t say much other than a quick and respectful “congratulations” before she just went over to her older sister to check on her since Momo was still crying, but now into Mina’s shoulder instead of Jihyo’s. Hansol and Tzuyu also climbed down from the couch and went over to their parents excitedly.

“Are you serious? Are you getting married?” Hansol asked quietly, afraid that it might turn out to not be true.

“Yes, Sollie, we’re really getting married,” Seungcheol cupped his son’s face into his hands and his cheeks lightly.

“When? Tomorrow?” Tzuyu asked, jumping up and down in front of Jihyo.

“Not tomorrow, baby. Weddings take a lot of time and money, but definitely someday in the near enough future,” Jihyo chuckled, her daughter’s hair.

“I can’t wait!” Tzuyu smiled brightly; her eyes crinkled and her elusive dimple was out for the world to see. She was jumping around and dancing and exclaiming loudly, acting quite unlike her usual self.

“Me either!” Hansol exclaimed as well; Hansol wasn’t a gloomy kid, far from it, but his smile was unlike Seungcheol or Jihyo had ever seen. Hansol’s smile was wide, and his nose scrunched, and he just looked so excited.

Now that the news was broken to the kids—Chan had actually broke away from his parents as well and stumbled his way into Seungcheol’s lap with a bright smile and an attempt at a “congratulations”—the frenzy from before resumed and the group managed to execute a last minute party for the newly engaged couple. Which included Jihyo detailing their entire night and Seungcheol having to stutter through his proposal speech, a lot more embarrassed with all of their friends watching and still judging him from Jihyo’s retelling of the movie portion of their date. There was also a retelling of their relationship from start to finish, both of their sides being explained with no details left out.

At the end of the night, after everyone reluctantly filtered out of Seungcheol and Jihyo’s apartment, the couple gathered their slowly dozing off children and headed off to their bedroom. Seungcheol and Jihyo tucked Hansol and Tzuyu in between them and instead of performing their usual routine of reading Hansol something from his favorite book and singing Tzuyu to sleep, they retold their own love story again as per the children’s request.

“Everything feels a lot more embarrassing after laying it all out for everyone to hear,” Seungcheol admitted quietly, patting Hansol’s chest as the little boy slept.

Jihyo hummed. “I know, but it also feels really good. Retelling where we started and where we ended up...what was going through our minds all the while...seeing just how much we’ve truly changed,” Jihyo replied, fingers running through Tzuyu’s hair lazily.

“It’s amazing how I could feel the same amount of love with you in just year, as I did with Jeonghan in the several years we were together…” Seungcheol amazed.

“And it’s amazing how I could feel a lot more love from our one year than Mark and I’s few years together,” Jihyo huffed.

Seungcheol and Jihyo glanced at each other from across their children, and then as carefully as they could, they leaned over the two and shared a chaste kiss before going back to their positions.

“Here’s to the start of forever,” Seungcheol grinned goofily, even Jihyo could tell in the semi-darkness of the room.

“To the start of forever.” Jihyo replied dreamily with her own goofy grin on her face as she stared at her ring once again, then her and Seungcheol linked their fingers together before finally drifting off to sleep.