A soft distant voice tickled Seunghyun’s ears while he stirred in his sleep. It was light and pleasant. Melodic and singsong. And very familiar. The voice was close enough that he could hear the person was singing, but distant enough where he couldn’t make out the words. Curiosity over took his senses as he let the sweet voice pull him from his sleep and into reality.

He pushed himself up, sitting upright on the couch, as he rubbed sleep out of his eyes and stretched his tight muscles, remembering why he hated sleeping on the stupid piece of furniture. His ears perked up when he heard the same voice that woke him, coming from the kitchen. Looking over his heart almost stopped at the sight that greeted him.

Jiyong was moving about the kitchen, in his own little world, dressed only in boxers and an oversized t-shirt, singing to himself as he worked. Seunghyun noticed the young man’s hair was wet and all over the place, like he had just taken a towel to it, which made the sight of him that much ier.

His boyfriend shook his head and danced to the beat that only he could hear, as he went from the fridge to the counter, the cabinets to the stove and started cooking whatever it was he had found. Seunghyun watched him for a few minutes, taking the opportunity to observe a side of Jiyong he had never seen before, carefree.

As he sat there he finally started to really take in his boyfriends singing, it was breath taking, and pulled him in, never wanting the sweet tune to end. And just like a siren from the sea, the man’s voice drew him in, making him get up and walk over to the breakfast bar to be closer to him.

“If this is how I can wake up every day, I don’t know if I’d want to ever leave the house again.”

“Oh my god Seunghyun! You scared the out of me,” Jiyong exclaimed as he turned around to face his boyfriend, with his hand clutching his heart.

Seunghyun laughed and walked around the bar. He took the young man’s hand down from his chest and wrapped his arms around him, in a soft embrace as he said, “Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s ok. Just don’t do it again.”

Seunghyun took in a deep breath, smelling his shampoo on Jiyong’s wet hair.

“So, not only do you come to my house unannounced, but you take a shower, use my shampoo…” He leaned back and tugged at the hem of the shirt the he was wearing. “And also raid my closet?”

Jiyong bit his lip in embarrassment and said, “Sorry, sorry, it’s just I went from a show directly to the airport, and then came straight here after I landed, and then after what we did earlier I just couldn’t take it anymore, I needed to take a shower. And then I realized that I left my luggage in Daesung’s car so I didn’t have any clean cloths… so I kinda bowered some of yours…” He gazed up at Seunghyun when he finished speaking with a shy, apologetic look, asking for his boyfriend’s forgiveness.  

It was like looking at a puppy that had just been caught doing something it shouldn’t have been, and you never have the heart to actually yell at the poor thing because it’s so cute and innocent. So all Seunghyun could do was pull Jiyong’s face to his, kissing him to show his forgiveness. He pulled away and rested his forehead on the younger man’s and said, “God. You make it so hard to stay mad at you when do stuff like this.”

Jiyong gave a small smile and brought his lip back up behind his teeth.

“You just love doing that, don’t you?”

His boyfriend lifted his shoulders and cocked his head to the side with a coy expression, trying to play dumb.

“Ugghhh… I could just eat you up, you know that?”

Jiyong smirked. “I think you took care of that earlier.”

Heat immediately rose to Seunghyun’s cheeks, not only from his boyfriends blatant words, but also from the images that flashed in his mind, replaying their intimate encounter.

Jiyong giggled, happy that the tables had turned as he made the older man blush for once. He stood on his tip toes and kissed the tip of Seunghyun’s nose and pushed himself out of the embrace, shoving Seunghyun back towards the breakfast bar. “Now go sit over there. I’m busy making dinner.”

“Dinner? I thought it would be morning by now, what time is it?”

“It’s 9p.m., we only slept for a couple hours, and I’m starving.”

Seunghyun nodded his head and made his way back to the bar, pulling out a stool and sitting to continue watching his boyfriend cook. He sat there thinking about how wonderful it was to have another person in this big apartment, it made it feel like it really was a home now, with the sounds of cooking and the smell of food filling the air, Seunghyun wanted this moment to last forever.

He thought about how hours ago he didn’t want to even look at the man, and that broke him inside. He knew that his happiness will always be because of the man in front of him, which made him think about how he never wanted be away from his side for too long.

He saw Jiyong reach up to the spice cabinet above the stove to grab something, which lifted his shirt up to exposing the creamy smooth expanse of his lower back, and Seunghyun’s hands itched to touch it. Despite it almost looking like a tent on him, there really were no words to describe how y Jiyong looked wearing one of his old t-shirts. With that in mind, he realized he needed to make a phone call.

He watched as the young man struggled to grab whatever he was after because it was just out of his reach. Seunghyun took mercy on him and got up, pressing against the younger man’s back as he asked what he was wanting.

Jiyong stilled from the sudden contact but answered, “The pepper flakes. Why must you be so tall, I can hardly reach half the stuff I need.”

Seunghyun chuckled, pulling down the container and handing it to Jiyong.

“I have to go call Daesung. I’ll be back in a minute.” He kissed the top of his head and let his fingers glide across Jiyong’s hips and back as he left the room, leaving the man tingling from his touch.

Halfway through dinner, the door bell rang and Seunghyun got up to answer it, knowing who it was. Daesung walked in carrying a large suitcase and set it down on the couch. Seeing this, Jiyong got up and rushed over and thanked the man for bringing it.

“No its ok, I have to move something tomorrow so I needed the room in my trunk anyway.” Daesung looked at Jiyong noticing for the first time what he was wearing and then looked to Seunghyun. “So I take it you guys made up?”

Jiyong looked down, remembering he was only wearing boxers on the lower half of his body and turned beet red. He scrambled over to his suit case, and pulled out a pair of pajama bottoms, then ran off to the bathroom.

Daesung and Seunghyun laughed.

“Yeah, we talked it out and I realized that it was a big misunderstanding.”

“So everything’s good between you then?”

Seunghyun nodded. “I think we became closer because of it, stronger.”

“Well that’s good. I hope something like this doesn’t happen again because I hate dealing with the pissy you.”

Seunghyun glared at his manager who just rolled his eyes in response.

“No, but seriously, I’m really happy for you. You need him in your life.”

“Don’t I know it…” He mumbled to himself.

Jiyong reentered the room now fully clothed and thanked Daesung again. The manager said that he had to get going, so he waved goodbye and left for the second time that day.

“Does he really have to move something tomorrow or did you specifically call him to drop off my suitcase?”

“I called him.”

Jiyong was about to say something but Seunghyun cut him off. “But I have a reason why.” He walked over and placed his hand on the ruff canvas that made up the suitcase and looked at the younger man.

“Earlier when you were explaining how you forgot this and you had to borrow some of mine… it got me thinking.” He took a deep breath knowing what he was about to say would hopefully help their relationship progress. “Why don’t you leave some clothes here? You know, in case you feel like staying over a night or two. I’m not saying to move in, because I don’t think we’re ready for that but I… I just want you here… with me. With you here, this place feels like home.” He looked up and waited for a reply from his boyfriend.

A huge smile spread across Jiyong’s face as he said, “Really? You really mean that?”

Seunghyun brought his hand up and scratched the back of his head. “Yeah… I really do.”

The next thing he knew, he was being tackled as Jiyong ran over, squeezing him tight. He looked down, smiling and asked, “So is this a yes?”

Not lifting his head up, Jiyong nodded into his shoulder. Seunghyun’s heart exploded and he picked the man up, hugging him back and squeezing tighter. When he set him down, he pulled back and brought his hands up to cup Jiyong’s face and leaned in for a kiss.

Their lips pressed tightly against each others, Jiyong parted his lips and Seunghyun’s, begging for entrance. The older man moaned softly as he parted his lips as well and their tongues slid against each other.

Jiyong hands fisted the fabric on the back of Seunghyun’s shirt as he pressed closer, wanting to be able to explore his mouth and taste him as much as possible. After a while they separated, breathing heavily as they tried to catch their breath, and then Jiyong whispered, “I love you.”

Seunghyun squeezed him once more before he detangled himself from the young man and grabbed the suitcase. “Come on, let’s find a spot for these.”

Over the next two weeks they spent a couple nights together at Seunghyun’s place, both getting used to the notion of living together but not really “living together”, but Jiyong really didn’t have as much time as he wanted because he had to get ready for the pictorial shoot in Jeju.

He had meeting after meeting he had to attend so him, the staff, models, and designer could go over every detail and schedule. The designer wanted everything set before they left so all they had to do was land on Monday night and start taking pictures Tuesday morning.

The Sunday before the shoot, Seunghyun deiced to go over to Jiyong’s place instead, wanting to help him pack the rest of his equipment. What puzzled Seunghyun was how much of a nervous wreck his boyfriend had become in preparation for this. Jiyong kept running around, checking and rechecking that he had everything he needed, when finally Seunghyun reached out and stopped him.

“Hey look at me.” Jiyong did. “I don’t know why you’re so worked up about this but everything will be fine. You’ve done hundreds of these before, so let’s just order some take out, watch a movie, and relax for the rest of the night, ok?”

Jiyong let out a long sigh and rested his head against the older man’s chest. “I’m sorry. I just have these butterflies in my stomach that won’t go away and I’m trying to distract myself with work.”

Seunghyun pulled the man back to look at him, furrowing his brows. “Wait… I thought you were nervous about the shoot?”

“No, not really. I have something else on my mind.”

“And that would be…”

Jiyong covered his face in his hands and mumbled something that Seunghyun couldn’t understand.

“What?”

Sighing again, Jiyong looked up, with a tint in his face, and softly said, “I’m nervous about after the shoot… when it’ll be just us.”

Seunghyun brought his hand up and started brushing his thumb over Jiyong’s cheek as he said, “You’re not the only one who’s nervous about that, you know?”

Jiyong gave a slight nod and leaned into his boyfriends hand. “I know, it’s just… We’ve waited so long… I’m just scared that we’ve worked it up to much and… and I’m worried it’ll be a letdown somehow.” He gave another big sigh as he lowered his eyes, taking a sudden interest in the carpet.

Tucking his finger under the younger man’s chin, Seunghyun brought his head up making Jiyong look at him. “Jiyong… here…” He grabbed his hand and rested it on his chest over his fast-beating heart.

“Do you feel that? My heart beating a mile a minute? This… is just from you touching me.” He held the younger man’s hand against his chest as he leaned in to kiss him. The younger man felt his heart beat quicken. He pulled back after a second and continued, “That is from being able to kiss you. And this is what happens when I say… I love you.”

Jiyong looked at his hand against the chest and felt as if he was holding a small humming bird in his palm with the way Seunghyun’s heart started beating.

“This is what you make me feel. And words can’t describe how much it means to me that I’m with you and we came back together after all this time. Forget what happened the other week… and don’t ever doubt what you and our relationship mean to me. When it does happen… it will be the best moment of my life.”

Jiyong let the words sink in as he leaned up to claim Seunghyun’s lips for a quick, loving kiss. After bringing his head back down his nestled into his boyfriends larger, strong, frame and said, “Thank you. I really needed that.”

Seunghyun rubbed Jiyong’s back as a strange sound broke the silence.

Jiyong giggled and looked up, “Way to ruin a moment.”

“Hey I can’t control my stomach and I told you we needed to order food.”

“Alright, come on, let’s call the place down the road again.”

Seunghyun smiled like a little kid. “You order and I’ll pick out a movie.” Jiyong rolled his eyes and went to grab the takeout menu that was taped to the fridge as Seunghyun ran over to the tv stand.

After the food arrived they sat on the couch and watched the movie the older man had pick out, relaxing for the rest of the night and forgetting their worries about the rest of the week.