It was winter time, and that meant snow, and the holidays, cozy sweaters and late night cuddles and hot chocolate. It was Jinsol’s favorite time of the year, for all of those reasons and more. But this year, she was even more excited than usual. Because she had a plan.

She and Jungeun had been dating for almost six years now, and Jinsol figured it was time. She was going to ask Jungeun to marry her. It was the perfect time of year for it too, pretty and snowy and exciting. Proposing while it snowed would be so pretty, and Jinsol was excited. She just needed a little help when it came to getting the ring.

That was where Jiwoo came in.

“I’m happy for you guys, but did I hear right? You want me to what?” Jungeun’s best friend looked at Jinsol like she wasn’t sure, smile from Jinsol’s earlier confession of her proposal plan fading out.

“I want you to figure out Jungeun’s ring size and favorite type of ring for me,” she said, giving her a hopeful smile and leaning over the table separating them. “I’m planning on proposing but I want everything to be perfect, and I can’t ask those questions myself without her catching on.”

“That’s cute and all, and I would love to help you because Jungeun is going to be so happy, but how am I going to ask her those things without seeming suspicious?”

“Just tell her that you’re looking for Sooyoung.” Jiwoo sputtered and choked on her water, face blooming red as she coughed for a few seconds before looking back up at the other girl, eyes wide.

“Sooyoung and I aren’t that close yet, what are you-.”

“It’s pretend,” Jinsol said, holding up her hands in innocence, “you can tell Sooyoung what the plan is and then after I propose I’ll tell Jungeun that you were just on a mission from me and it wasn’t real.” Jiwoo coughed once again and tugged at her bangs.

“I don’t know….”

“Come on, please? Do it for me?” She didn’t look convinced, so Jinsol put on her best cute face (which would probably be ineffective, since Jiwoo was the cutest person alive) and tried again. “Do it for Jungeun?”

“Fine,” Jiwoo said, sighing and crossing her arms over her chest. But her smile was coming back, and Jinsol considered it a victory, grinning widely.

“Thanks Jiwoo, you’re the best!”

The next day, she received a text containing the details that she needed from Jiwoo, along with an assortment of emojis and a photo of her and Jungeun together in the food court.

-It was hard to figure out what she liked cause she kept looking for Sooyoung instead but what I sent you should be good. Probably. Hopefully.

Jinsol wasn’t worried. All the descriptions Jiwoo had sent her sounded like things Jungeun would like, and now she had the right ring size. Everything was working out perfectly.

-Thanks Jiwoo! I don’t know what I’d do without you! XOXOXOXO

-Save those kisses for your girlfriend!

She grinned down at her phone before slipping it into her pocket and grabbing her purse, ready to head out. The perfect ring for Jungeun was waiting out there somewhere.

-

It was about a week later when everything finally came together. The perfect ring in Jungeun’s size was safely hidden away, they both had a day off, and it had snowed yesterday, enough snow to stay piled in the grass but little enough for it to be shoveled off the walkways. Everything, once again, was perfect.

“Jungeun!” The said woman looked up from where she’d been typing on her laptop at her girlfriend’s shout of her name.

“Yeah? What’s up, babe?” Jinsol grinned and walked into the room, already dressed in a warm sweater with her winter hat perched atop her head.

“Let’s go on a walk in the snow!”

“The snow?” Jungeun turned to look outside the window, not looking totally down with the idea. “Isn’t it, like, really cold out there?”

“It’s not that bad, it’s above freezing, the sun’s out, and there isn’t any wind. Come on, walking in the snow is so romantic,” Jinsol said, tugging on her girlfriend’s arm and putting on her cutest pout. The other girl laughed and shook her head, reaching out to close her laptop and turning to face her girlfriend.

“Fine, it is romantic, I’ll admit. Let me get into something warmer and we can go.”

“Yay!” Phase one-get Jungeun to go on a walk-had been successful, and she didn’t seem to suspect a thing. Jinsol grinned and reached into her pocket to make sure the ring was still safe and sound. It was, and she straightened her shoulders and skipped after her girlfriend to go grab her coat. 

It wasn’t as cold as it looked out, and Jinsol took in a deep breath of the air before letting it out, watching to see if it would condense.

“See? No fog, so it’s not cold out!”

“I don’t think that’s fog,” Jungeun teased, taking her girlfriend’s hand as they walked towards the nearby park. Jinsol shrugged, unbothered.

“Well, whatever it is, it’s not there. So it’s warm enough out to walk.” It wasn’t long to the park, and when they got there, Jinsol took in the kids playing in the snow and the other couples walking around, hand-in-hand. It really was the perfect day for this. Everyone looked so happy and bright that she couldn’t help the giddy feeling building up in her chest.

“It is pretty nice out,” Jungeun admitted, smiling as she looked around. “Maybe we should build a snowman together. I haven’t done that in ages.” Neither had Jinsol. And she very much liked the idea of doing that. After she proposed, that was.

“Let’s do it! We’d have to go back and get our snow gloves if we wanted to do it now, though.”

“I think these would be okay,” Jungeun said, bringing up her gloved hands, and now that Jinsol’s hand was free, she slipped it into her pocket to grab the ring. Thankfully, it was still there, and when her girlfriend turned slightly to look at the kids making a snowman, saying something about them not having snow gloves either, Jinsol dropped to one knee and pulled out the ring.

And promptly dropped it. Or more like, it shot out of her slippery gloved hands and propelled itself into the mounds of white around the walkway, disappearing somewhere into the depths of snow. For a moment, she just stared with open, wondering if this was really happening.

Then she quickly dropped onto the other knee and began frantically looking for the tiny ring, ignoring the fact that her knees were getting wet.

“So I think we can- what the heck are you doing, Jinsol?” She froze at her girlfriend’s words and sheepishly turned to look at her, going through all the options in her head. She was starting to make the snowman! Starting a snowball fight! She dropped her earring? She just liked being in the snow so much! But none of them even seemed believable, especially in the position she was in, and if she had any hope of ever seeing that ring again, she’d probably have to get Jungeun to help her.

“Well…. I was going to propose to you but I dropped the ring in the snow before you turned around, and now I can’t find it.” A flurry of emotions crossed Jungeun’s face, from shocked to confused to happy.

“I- What?”

“I’m trying to find the ring that I just lost so that I can propose to you?” She smiled widely and innocently, hoping that her blunder would be quickly brushed over because this was not how this day was supposed to go. But then Jungeun burst into laughter and bent down across from her, covering with her hand.

“Only you, babe, only you. How did you manage to drop it?” She felt her face flush, but her girlfriend was laughing, so that was probably a good thing?

“It’s really hard to hold onto things with these gloves on! But the ring landed in the snowbank, so if we just look I’m sure we can find it and then I can get on with the proposal and we can pretend this never happened.”

“If you think I’m ever going to let you live this down….” Jinsol huffed and turned her attention back to the snow mount, pawing through the day-old powder.

“Just help me look babe, please? It’s your ring, and it’s really pretty, and I’d hate for it to get lost.” Still laughing softly and with a giant grin on her face, Jungeun dropped to her knees beside her and began to look.

“We probably look crazy,” she pointed out.

“I always look crazy so it’s fine.”

Jinsol was determined. She was going to find this ring and save this day and get Jungeun to marry her, or she was going to get frostbite on her fingers and knees trying. Swallowing and narrowing her eyes, she kept digging, looking out for anything that caught the sun differently than the snow. Anything, anything…. Something small poked out of the snow, and her fingers closed around it. As soon as she dusted it off, she let out a sigh of relief and held it up in triumph.

“I found it!”

“Don’t drop it this time!” Jinsol focused all her energy on not dropping the ring as she turned to her girlfriend and assumed the stance she’d had before this had all gone down.

“Miss Kim Jungeun, the absolute prettiest woman in the world and the love of my life. Will you marry me even though I dropped your ring in the snow?” Jungeun laughed, cheeks tinged red, and Jinsol might have been imagining things, but it looked like her eyes were a bit misty.

“Yes, Jinsol, I’ll marry you. Even though you dropped my ring in the snow.” The younger woman grinned and held out one hand, asking for her girlfriend to place her left hand on top. As she took off her glove and placed her hand gently in Jinsol’s, she smiled fondly. “This is the best Christmas present ever, you know that?” The ring was a little cold, and a little wet, but it looked perfect on her finger. Jinsol’s heart swelled, and she stood up, prompting Jungeun to stand with her.

“Hey, can I kiss you?” There were plenty of people around, but Jinsol didn’t care, and Jungeun didn’t seem to either, because she was already leaning in.

And yeah, maybe not everything had gone to plan, and maybe Jinsol’s fingers and knees were freezing and the ring was still a little wet. But Jungeun had said yes, which meant that she was now her fiancee, and that was all Jinsol had wanted.

Although the image of the ring flying through the air in slow-motion would probably never leave her mind.

“You know, I’m never going to forget this.”