A little white dog trotted over to Lee Sungyeol, who was rubbing his eyes and yawning as he stretched his arms.

“Dubu~” Sungyeol coos as he picks up the little dog, who starts the choding all over his face. Sungyeol rubs the puppy's head affectionately as he sets the little dog comfortably in his lap and picks up another marker, a pink one this time.

‘Paradise! ♥’

—

It wasn’t much, but it was still a start. Lee Sungyeol tightens his grip around Hyeeun’s hand as he took in a deep breath. It was the first time Sungyeol ever took her anywhere out of Seoul, and he considered this a ‘honeymoon’ of sorts.

“Yah, Lee Sungyeol, didn’t you say Yongin had everything?”

“I...” It’s been a few months since he last came here, and when he did, it did have everything... “Well, Yongin’s a great place!”

“Says Lee Sungyeol.”

“Hey come on, if there’s no Yongin, there’s no Lee Sungyeollie right?”

Hyeeun smiles, and Sungyeol throws an arm around her, bringing her closer to him as they shared warmth on this particularly cold day. The couple continues to stroll through the sunlit streets of Yongin, joking and laughing as they walked and well, admired the ‘landscape’.

“Wait,” Hyeeun calls out as she pulls away from Sungyeol, walking towards a open manhole.

“Be careful!”

“Oh god...” Sungyeol bent down and peered into the hole, until he saw what Hyeeun saw. A small, snow-white and completely drenched puppy was crouched in a corner of one of the water pipes near the top of the manhole. It was shivering with both fright and cold and the sounds of it whining made anyone’s heart clench in pain.

“Can’t we save it?” Hyeeun’s voice dropped to a whisper. It was dangerous to try going down into the manhole, but reaching down to the puppy from the top could be possible.

“I’ll try,” Sungyeol decides in the end and gets on all fours as he estimated the distance. It takes an awful lot of stretching before the tips of Sungyeol's fingers brushed against the puppy’s wet coat of fur. His fingers grasped the puppy gently yet held on tight as he lifted the pup out of the stinking manhole and passed the shivering bundle to Hyeeun, who cuddled it against herself, spreading warmth.

Sungyeol unknowingly felt himself smiling at the scene and can somehow imagine that exact scene happening ten years later with his child... Okay, that’s thinking too far.

“Can we keep it?” Hyeeun asked. “Look, it looks so pitiful and cute and adorable... It looks exactly like our Sungyeollie!”

“Is that meant to be a compliment or an insult?” Sungyeol pouts. “Comparing me to a dog?”

“She’s not a dog, she’s our child, right uri aegi?” Hyeeun corrects him, patting the puppy’s head and scratching behind its ears.

“Now you’re calling our child a dog?” Sungyeol asks, his eyes wide.

“Aww, let’s call you Dubu since you look exactly like your appa, nae?”

“What? Hey, don’t hog our child, I want to hold her too!”

Sungyeol kisses the top of Dubu’s head as he felt Hyeeun clinging onto his arm.

“Actually Yongin’s not bad, it reminds me of paradise,” Hyeeun comments.

“Any place that I go with you is paradise,” Sungyeol corrects.

“Eww, stop being so mushy.”

“But you love it!”

“... okay.”

Sungyeol promises himself that ten years later, they would walk down this street, with a little kid and Nam Hyeeun would call him yeobo and not ‘Lee Sungyeollie’ anymore.

Mmm. A good promise.

270711 - As long as you’re there, any place is Paradise.