I looked between the three different rings displayed in front of me.   I already knew which one I wanted to get him, but the price was incredibly steep.  I whimpered and turned to Kai who texting someone, probably his sister.

"Which one?" I asked Kai, forcing him to peel his eyes away from his conversation.

"It's for your boyfriend.  Why are you getting him a ring anyways?"

I huffed, "His birthday is in a month, Kai.  A month.  I need to be prepared.  This is going to be his favorite birthday."

"A month.  What you're going to propose on his birthday?" Kai asked with too much snark.

"Yes.  I am going to propose on his birthday.  I need a month to adequately plan this."  I huffed.  Kai didn't seem to get it.  I'd been ready to get down on one knee since before he'd even agreed to be my boyfriend.  I was going to make sure that it was me who was going to make Baekhyun happy for the rest of forever.

"Uh, huh, and you guys have been dating for all of five months?" Kai was poking holes.

"Dating for five months but mutually in love for six years." I tapped his nose lightly. "So technically, it's been six and half years in the making."

"Get the middle one because it's the only one you've been staring at for the past twenty minutes."  Kai nudged the middle box which was a silver band encrusted with onyx and diamond.

I took one of those breaths where you knew that I was about to complain; Kai cut me off before I could even start, "If you are about to complain about the price; don't becauue it's a question of whether or not you think Baekhyun's worth it, and he is."

I cracked a grin at Kai, "You're a good friend."

Kai sighed and rolled his eyes, "Of course I am."

I turned to the sales representative and told her the one that I wanted.  She smiled and rung me up, after I told her the size of Baek's ring finger.  The price made me a die a little on the inside.  I would probably be working more overtime, maybe a part time job, and ramen was going to be my new best friend.

About a week before Baekhyun's birthday/ proposal day, my employer informed me that I would be participating in a collaborative project.  The project required that I actually go into work.

I was rummaging through my closet for "professional" clothing when Kai walked into my room and plopped himself on my bed.

I paused to turn and look at him, "Can I help you?"

"My sister is coming." He said rather lifelessly.

"The last time I checked, you like her, so what's the problem?" I asked, slowly picking up all of my dress shirts that I'd been throwing into a pile.  I was going to clean them because it had been way too long since I'd given them any attention.

"Do you think I should introduce her to Kyungsoo?"

"What?" It was honestly the most bizarre question he'd ever asked.

"Well, is introducing family to him at this stage in our relationship too soon?  We've only been dating a few months.  What if he thinks we're moving too fast?  What if he meets her and he doesn't like her and he breaks up with me?" Kai began playing with a loose thread at the edge of my sheets.  He was worried.

"Kyungsoo isn't dating your sister.  He's dating you.  How exactly are you suddenly insecure about how Kyungsoo feels about you?  I've never seen two people so convinced that the other couldn't possibly love them." I sighed.  "When is she coming?"

"Next week." Kai muttered, refusing to make eye contact.

"So you have a week to decide."  I had the until the end of the week to finalize my plans for the proposal.

Nothing was going to get in my way of proposing to the love of my life, nothing. Or so I thought.

Things did not got my way at all.

This whole "project" turned out to be a logistical nightmare that took over in a matter of days.  I was in the office all the time, which annoyed me because it was cutting into proposal planning as well as just calling my boyfriend.

It was Baekhyun's birthday, and I made my first poor decision.  I decided that I would wait until our dinner at which I was going to propose to wish him a happy birthday.  Baekhyun was going to pop up at my door at 6:00 PM because that was how he functioned; I had planned accordingly.  It would be dinner at his favorite restaurant, then we'd go to get some ice cream where I'd propose and he'd say yes and so on.

I was called into work at noon to give input and perhaps revise.

It was around 5:00 that I realized that I was going to be late.  I patted myself down in an attempt to search for my phone. I couldn't find my phone anywhere, and it struck me that I'd left my phone at home.

I gritted my teeth in annoyance.  I tried to call Kai to tell him that Baekhyun would be coming because Kai had been way too wrapped up in his own drama relating to his sister and Kyungsoo.  Kai failed to pick up, so I prayed and hoped that Kai would remember that today was the day.

He did not. Fast forward to me running home at midnight because the team leader decided it was time to go home.

I busted into the apartment, crossing my fingers that Baekhyun was sitting on the couch and I could at least salvage a tiny bit.  The lights were turned off, no Baekhyun glaring at me.

I flicked on the kitchen lights and found a note in Kai's chicken scratch.

Baekhyun stopped by. 

That was it.  I sighed, as much as I wanted to be angry at Kai, I couldn't; he was having a weird week.

I collapsed onto the couch next to Lady, who apparently wanted to wait for me to get home before sleeping next to Kai.  I turned to her, "He'll forgive me.  He has to."

I fell asleep from sheer exhaustion on the couch, I would wait until the morning to call Baekhyun.

Baekhyun turned his phone off.  That made it infinitely harder to find a way to apologize, then get down on one knee. He rejected my calls the entire day, I was about to go to his apartment and plant myself in front of his door when Kai walked into our apartment with red eyes.

"Kai? What happened?" My friend-mode kicked on.

He sank onto his knees in the middle of our foyer and began babbling incoherently as he tried to rub tears away.  I bent down and tried to make eye contact. "Take deep breaths.  Tell me what happened."

Kai collapsed onto his and took shaky breaths.  He sniffled, "I was supposed to meet Kyungsoo at Xiumin's cafe, but I ran into Krystal." He hiccuped. "She asked for a favor."  He stopped telling his story.

"Which was...?" Kai was not doing a great job explaining why it was a bad thing.  He and Krystal ended their relationship on good terms.

"She wanted some guy to stop asking her out, so she asked me to pretend to be her boyfriend."  He paused before whispering. "We ended up kissing and Kyungsoo saw and I don't know what to do. I think he's going to break up with me."  Kai devolved into sobs.

I pulled him into hug, rubbing his back in soothing circles.  His forehead rested on my shoulder as I shushed him until his body stopped shaking.  "It'll be okay."

"How?" His question was muffled by my shoulder, "He's never going to talk to me again."

I gripped his shoulders and pulled him back to look him in the eyes, "You two are in love.  He'll listen and understand when you tell him why he saw that."

"But-" Kai began to whine.

I cut him off, "Give him the chance to decide for himself.  If need be, ask Krystal to help you explain.  Okay?"  Kai nodded, "Now go find him, but maybe after you clean yourself up."

Kai nodded, laughing a little while wiping the final tears away, "I'm a mess huh?"

"It's really rather embarrassing." He playfully hit me after my response.

"Have you spoken to Baekhyun?"

I sighed, "I'm about to camp out in front of his apartment."

"Don't forget the ring."  With that I smiled and stood up.  I offered Kai a hand, and he accepted.

I waited in front of Baekhyun's apartment for hours.  The sun had set, but I was firm in my resolution; and more than slightly paranoid that Baekhyun would sneak into his apartment if I wasn't there.

I ended up falling asleep on his welcome mat, leaning against the cold surface of Baekhyun's door.

I awoke with my face on the floor.  My first thought was how dirty might this floor be, and had I stuck my tongue on it while asleep?  I heard the sound of Baekhyun's door unlocking.  I snapped up to see my boyfriend opening the door, completely fine with stepping over me and leaving me outside his door.

I managed to get myself halfway through the door by crawling before I felt the door hit my side.

"Go away." Baekhyun muttered, trying to close the door even though my body was obviously in the way.

"No." I pressed forward, squeezing through the opening.  I got myself entirely in the apartment before collapsing on the floor.

"What? What is it Chanyeol? What could you possibly want?" Baekhyun's tone was angry, annoyed, and a little bit defeated.

"To talk to you!" I sassed back, rubbing my surely bruising torso.

Baekhyun threw his hands up and seated himself on one of his dining room chairs. He huffed and glared at me. "Go."

I crawled towards him, stopping in front of him while staying on my knees, "First thing is first, I did not forget your birthday. I know that is what you are angry about.  So, happy belated birthday. As for why I didn't wish you a happy birthday or get to take you out, I was at work.  They called me in for a meeting, but I left my phone at home.  The meeting took up the entire day, I couldn't get out of it.  I wanted to be with you, but-" My explanation was cut off by the sudden presence of Baekhyun's lips against my own.

He held my face and softly moved his lips against mine before pulling away.  "You believe me?" I asked, shocked that he forgave me so quickly, which wasn't his style.

He looked me in the eyes, "Being mad at you is exhausting.  Don't give me cause to do it again okay?"

I nodded.  Baekhyun continued, "I promised Kyungsoo I'd listen to your explanation.  He kindly reminded me that there had to be a reason because it's you, and you could never forget about me."

"He's smart." I kissed Baekhyun's forehead.  "I love you."

"Love you, too." He whispered.

"I do however have to give you your gift." I pulled away.  "Close your eyes."

Baekhyun gave a small smile before closing his eyes.  His eyebrows were raised in expectation.  I took the ring out of my pocket.  I took his hand and unfurled his fingers, placing the ring in the center of his palm.  I closed his hand around it, "You can open your eyes."

Baekhyun began in a joking tone as he uncurled his fingers, "What-" He stopped, staring at the ring in the center of his palm.

"I had a speech.  It was something along the lines of 'I can't live without you, please be mine forever' but now that I'm here, those words don't matter.  I just want you to be happy, and I think that we could be happy." I felt my eyes getting glassy, so I concentrated on looking at the ring instead of Baekhyun. "To say that you're the light of my life would be an understatement, and I'm in love with you now, I'll be in love with you tomorrow and next week and next year and for the rest of forever.  So let's happy together.  Byun Baekhyun will you marry me?" I asked him as I met his eyes.

He stared, speechless.  He looked between me and the ring. "Now is not the time to joke." He whispered.

"I'm being 100% serious."

"Good." His voice cracked, "Yes, I'll marry you."

I chuckled as he tried to hide his tears.  "Don't laugh at me, you're the made me cry.  Put the stupid ring on my finger." He whined.

I plucked the ring from his palm.  I took his left and slowly slid the ring onto his fourth finger.  I laced our finger together and brought the back of his hand to my lips.

I reached up to his face to brush his tears away.  "I love you."

"God you're so stupid." Baekhyun whispered as he leaned down to kiss me.

"But I'm your kind of stupid," I said into his lips, but my comeback was lost under the kiss.  I could feel him smiling against my lips.

a/n: AND THE FLUFF STRIKES AGAIN.  This is longer than my usual chapters, but I'm going to guess you don't mind.

Okay.  ILY.  (Do you guys want Kai's perspective on the Kaisoo situation or was that enough?)