The soft rays of the morning sun fell in through the window, waking me from my slumber. I blinked a few times until my eyes got used to the brightness and turned my head to look right into Baekhyun’s face. He was clinging to me in his sleep, his arms holding on to my waist as I was nestled to his side. An affectionate smile spread over my lips and I watched him silently.

I moved my hand to the long strands of white hair splayed over the pillow in between us and brushed it with my fingers, marveling at how silky it was. Sometimes, I braided it for him and he always pretended he didn’t like it, but it obviously wasn’t true because he never opened the braid afterward and kept it the whole day. It looked adorable on him, but of course, I didn’t tell him. He wouldn’t have appreciated it.

I still couldn’t believe what we went through together, how much luck we’d had to get out of this madness alive and without losing each other. Two months had passed since we had left the laboratory behind for good and a lot had changed.

My finger gently traced the faint scar on his face, moving over his cheekbone, to his nose and his other cheekbone. I had gotten used to it, but still felt resentment towards Li who had been responsible for it. Baekhyun was fast asleep and didn’t seem to notice my gentle touch. He let out a soft sigh but didn’t open his eyes. I smiled and snuggled up to him, resting my head on his chest while I hugged his torso. It had become a habit of mine to cuddle with him while we were in bed and he didn’t mind at all, often initiating it himself.

I wasn’t surprised he was tired—he had been busy yesterday and deserved all the sleep he could get. We had begun renovating our new house I had bought using the money I had inherited from my parents. It wasn’t too far away from Seoul, in a quiet neighborhood I had grown to love. Baekhyun had helped me paint the walls in the living room and kitchen, refusing to let me do it after I had clumsily fallen off the ladder. Since I didn’t want to stand idly by, I had unpacked more of our things, putting them in wardrobes and drawers we had already set up a week earlier. It had been quite funny to see Baekhyun spilling paint over himself, dyeing his white hair in all colors of the rainbow. He’d needed some time to get rid of the paint afterward, and I used the opportunity to braid his long hair for him again.

We were almost done renovating, and I was getting more excited each day because I was looking forward to the result. I always wanted to have my very own house, a place I could decorate and furnish the way I wanted. My uncle’s mansion had never been a true home to me. It had been too big, too luxurious and not cozy in the slightest. What Baekhyun and I had built up for ourselves held much more meaning to me. I was proud of it and he was too, I could tell. We were planning to invite our friends soon for a housewarming party.

Ever since we had escaped Minho’s clutches together, I had seen the other eight men a few times. They were doing well, living together in their own place. Lay, Xiumin and D.O. had decided to keep an eye on the other five since they needed some help and support with adapting to society after being locked up for so long. Chanyeol had to be stopped from setting things on fire, Suho needed to understand he couldn’t flood streets and whole cities, Sehun and Chen couldn’t create random thunderstorms whenever they wanted and Kai needed to be held back from scaring the out of people with his teleporting. Needless to say, Lay, Xiumin and D.O. had their hands full in the first few weeks.

However, it had been the same for me and Baekhyun. After my uncle’s mysterious disappearance, the police had begun to investigate, eventually locating his abandoned car close to the burned-down laboratory. They hadn’t been able to find his remains or any other evidence as Chanyeol’s hot fire had destroyed everything. Consequently, they assumed he had perished in the fire and declared him dead.

Since I was the only living relative, I inherited his company, his mansion, and all his wealth. I hated his company and shut it down since I did not want a repeat of what had happened to my friends. After some deliberation, I sold Minho’s mansion to a rich businessman because I didn’t want to live there anymore. I didn’t need all the money I had acquired from my uncle either and frankly, I didn’t want to live off the wealth he had obtained through his crimes, so I took a decision.

I gave his money to the nine people who deserved it the most because I wanted to enable them a fresh start at life. Baekhyun’s friends were able to afford a spacious house for themselves and didn’t have to worry about finding work since my uncle’s wealth would last them for a while. Sadly, I couldn’t undo his crimes, but I at least could support them this way.

Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t notice Baekhyun had woken up by now, opening his blue eyes to study me quietly. His hand trailing over my back to my waist prompted me to lift my head off his chest to peer up at his face.

“Good morning,” I smiled, seeing his eyes brighten.

“Morning, kitten,” he grinned and hugged me tightly. “Have you been awake for long?”

“Not really. Honestly, I would stay in bed all day if it means I can cuddle with you,” I admitted.

“That sounds like a good plan for today,” he said and the gleam in his eyes revealed he was having not so innocent thoughts about it.

“I knew you’d say that.”

“I’m not hearing you complain,” he teased, planting a soft kiss on my temple as he shifted on the bed.

“I think we’ve earned ourselves a day off after all the work lately.”

“You can’t resist me, huh?” he purred into my ear, causing me to blush. “Admit it.”

“Baekhyun,” I whined, “Stop it.”

“I’m not doing anything,” smirked, his breath fanning over the shell of my ear making me shiver in delight, “Yet.”

“You’re a devil.”

“And you love it,” he drawled, kissing the side of my neck.

A few days later, I invited my friend Jennie to help with deciding which furniture to buy for the dining room since I had trouble picking and Baekhyun wasn’t such a great help either, always shrugging whenever I asked him.

As soon as she arrived, she hugged me and excitedly looked around inside the house, wanting to see what we had accomplished so far. Her brown eyes were sparkling in joy when she walked over to the photo wall in the kitchen, spotting a few selfies we had taken a while ago. Most of them looked silly, prompting her to grin.

“Honestly, Rin, I’m jelly of you,” she said. “First, you get the hottest bodyguard ever, and now you live in a cute house with him? Not fair!”

I held in a laugh seeing her envious glare that soon melted away when she grinned. “Oh well, you deserve it after the you went through! No offense, but I never liked your uncle and I’m relieved he’s not meddling with your life anymore.”

I hadn’t told her the whole story since I had agreed with Baekhyun to keep the lab and their abilities a secret to protect them. Nonetheless, Jennie was aware that Park Minho had done something terrible enough to force his niece to go into hiding. She didn’t like him at all and hadn’t felt sorry hearing of his mysterious death.

“He was difficult,” I sighed, not wanting to speak about him anymore since the memory of him was connected to many negative emotions. “Anyways, what have you been up to this past week?”

Jennie walked over to the window and glanced outside, taking in the blue summer sky and the houses standing on the other side of the quiet street. “I’ve been working and spent the evenings with my boyfriend. Other than that, nothing much has happened. I was looking forward to today the whole time because I was curious about your new home!”

“It’s not finished yet,” I said sheepishly and shrugged.

“I think it’s already perfect. It doesn’t have to be a fancy villa, right? I like it better than your uncle’s mansion.”

Baekhyun walked by the kitchen, stopping briefly when he saw we had a visitor. He still remembered Jennie from before, but he hadn’t met her in a while and seemed surprised she was here. As soon as she spotted him, her lips formed a sly smirk.

“If it isn’t Mister Bodyguard! Hello!” she chirped and I groaned, hiding my face in my hands. Why did she have to be this embarrassing?

“Hey,” he said, his eyes flitting over to me momentarily. “What’s up with you?”

“She’s being a weirdo again,” I sighed, causing Jennie to laugh.

“So? My friends are weirder anyway.”

“You have a point there,” I snorted, shaking my head in disbelief.

“Excuse me, can we get back to the topic?” Jennie cut in and our attention shifted back to her.

“What topic?” 

“Are you engaged yet?”

I blushed bright red, sputtering something nobody could understand and entirely missed Baekhyun’s frown.

Another week passed until we were finished renovating the house. All walls were newly painted, the furniture in place. Baekhyun kept joking around, saying we didn’t really need lamps, but he couldn’t stop me from buying new ones since I thought the rooms looked weird without them.

I planted flowers in the small front garden and took extra care with decorating the rest of the house, adding photos to the walls that depicted either Baekhyun and me or our friends, and chose fitting curtains for each room. Baekhyun couldn’t fathom why I was dead set on decorating every single room with all kinds of items, but he let me have my fun and didn’t interfere. On the contrary, he usually watched me as I worked on making the house cozier and homier, a soft smile on his lips. He wore this expression often lately and seeing it brought me joy and relief—I was happy when he was happy.

As planned, we wanted to have a housewarming party since we were finished with everything, so we invited the others for dinner this evening. I had something in mind I wanted to cook and spent half the day in the kitchen all the while keeping a careful eye on Baekhyun to make sure he didn’t eat all the food while I wasn’t looking.

I had just finished making salad and was now working on the pudding for dessert. The kitchen was chaotic, dirty dishes were piled up left and right of me along with various ingredients I had already used or would use later. Quiet music sounded through the kitchen and I was humming along, lost in thoughts.

Unexpectedly, a pair of arms wound around my