After grabbing some dinner, Jongin and I head to our apartment for the last night.

“Hey, Jongin?” I mumble sleepily, commanding myself to resist the urge to fall asleep for just a little longer.

He turns, his cheek sliding along the cotton of the pillow and creating a hushed sound that alerts me to his movement. “Hm?”

“You know, when we first learned all about this ‘Pure One’ stuff I thought you would hate me.”

A finger is brushed lightly along my temple and then dragged to my chin, lifting it so he catches my full attention. “Why would you ever think that?”

I shrug, wondering if he can see the gesture with his newly human eyes in the pitch blackness. “You’re parents were killed because of me.” Shifting my face away from him, I purse my lips. “Doesn’t that make you want to hate me, even if only a little?”

He inhales steadily, and pauses to think. I worry because maybe his answer is the very answer I fear. But, “I could never hate you, Daeun.” I relax visibly. “You aren’t responsible for the death of my parents.”

“But if it weren’t for me, Danmi wouldn’t have had a vision about the Pure One,” I sit up abruptly, suddenly mad at him for not even considering the possibility that I messed up his life. “If it weren’t for me, those people wouldn’t have gone after her and then killed your parents. I’m the very reason you don’t have your parents with you, the very reason you’re here right now with no parents.”

“What’s so wrong about being here right now?” An arm pulls me closer and the guilt only rises higher in my throat. “Sure, my parents may be gone, but they made their decision to protect you in order to protect everyone’s future as well as my future. You didn’t kill them, Daeun. People and vampires filled with greed and ill-intent killed my parents.”

“Yeah, but-”

“No buts. Goodness, woman, you speak and think too much. Have I ever told you that?”

“You have now,” I mutter as I slump back into bed.

A few moments of silence fills the air as he lightly twists his fingers in my hair. “When I got my memories back…I was so relieved. I remembered just how good it was to know you again. I thought to myself, ‘how could I live my life without knowing and being with this person?’ My life would be half complete without you in it.”

“Shut up.” I mumble, blushing furiously and turning on my side with my back facing him.

“Aw,” He chuckles. I feel his chin rest lightly on my upper arm. “Shy?”

“Go to sleep, Jongin.” I whisper, feeling my cheeks heat up from embarrassment.

He settles back into bed, the warmth of him pressed against my back. “Daeun?”

“Hm?”

He says nothing.

“What, Jongin?”

“I love you.”

It’s the softest whisper that I’ve ever heard him say, and yet it vibrates within the room, amplifying until it starts to ring in my ears. I shift to my other side so that I’m facing him again. In the darkness, I feel my way to his heart and place my hand over it. And although his heart had never once stopped beating in his life, there is such a human feeling to the thumping of his heart that I cling closer to him. “I love you always.”

_

“Hey, what do you think about the name Alex?”

I raise an eyebrow while picking up a full box and placing it into the car. “Well, it has a nice sound to it. Why?”

Jongin shrugs and smiles. “Nothing, really.” A pause. “I mean, just going over names for our future kid.”

I almost stop breathing entirely. “What?”

“Or kids. Plural. If you want more than one I’m fine with that, too.” There’s a teasing lilt in his voice. 

“Uh…um…” Surprised and speechless, I fumble miserably for words.

Jongin grabs my hand and lays his cheek on it in that endearing gesture of his. “Personally, I think the more the merrier, right?”

It’s around this time I get over my initial shock and flick his forehead with my free hand. He yelps, pouts and rubs his forehead. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Jongin.” I try not to sound too flustered.

“Oh,” he says quietly, his expression falls and he turns back to finish putting away our belongings in the car and I worry that I’ve hurt his feelings. But soon after, I see the corner of his mouth twitch up as he reaches into his pocket. “So, would this be getting too ahead ourselves?”

He pulls out a small, black velvet box. 

At first I almost naively ask “what’s inside?” out of habit, but that urge fades and is replaced with adrenaline. Is that what it really is? Perhaps it’s just really expensive diamond earrings. Or a key…to something? Maybe I’m over thinking this and I’m the one getting ahead of myself this time oh he’s getting on one knee and he’s opening it and-

“Daeun,” he takes the gold diamond ring and holds it between his fingers. I keep glancing between his face and the thing that means forever, the thing that will lead my—our—future in a different direction. “I’ve hurt you. I’ve put you through a lot. Especially when I eat all the ice cream and forget to get more.” I laugh and he smiles briefly before returning to his serious composure. “But I promise that I have never loved anyone like you. I promise that I will never love anyone like you. And I promise that my love won’t end. I will do everything I can to protect you and keep you from getting hurt. So will you be mine? Forever? Until we both grow old and even when we get sick of each other we’ll still love each other?”

“No,” and before I can be misinterpreted, I lean in for a quick kiss. “No, I will never, ever get sick of you.”

He laughs once, and picks me up into his arms. “Good,” he says in between kissing me. “Because I wasn’t planning on getting sick of you either.”