The best way to end a story?

A happy ending.

 Time passed quickly with college and papers, and with a seven year old Suyeon and Taemin found themselves trying to balance a lot on their plates. They worked well together, helping the other when they needed it and coming to know the boundaries each needed to function well. But with graduation for Taemin and his friends fast approaching, Suyeon couldn't help but start to worry. While Taemin has been nothing short of supportive and caring when it came to her future plans and enrolling Hyeonwoo in actual kindergarden (poor Suyeon's heart when she came to realize that he'd soon be in first grade, it worried her extensively) he hadn't shared any of his plans for after his graduation in the spring. She knew she shouldn't be terribly worried, after all, he disclosed most everything with her, even if he thought her reaction wouldn't be totally positive...

But even a suggestion or an acceptance letter from that American dance academy would be better than just the silence that was happening between them. Suyeon bit her lip, worrying away while playing with her pencil, almost missing Hyeonwoo's call. 

      "Hm?" She looked over, seeing her baby boy tilting his head, his brows furrowed and concentrating on her hands. Suyeon put her own worries to rest, giving him her full attention. "Did you say something, honey?"

He nodded, "Yeah... mommy, where's your ring?"

     She looked down at her hands. She'd never worn any sort of ring before, so what was her kid talking about. "I'm sorry, but what ring Hyeonwoo?" She asked.

"Daddy got you a ring a while ago," Hyeonwoo explained, climbing into a chair (he was basically big enough for no high chair -- god help Suyeon, he was going to be a gangly one) and looking at his mother's hands once again, "Why aren't you wearing it?"

     "He didn't get me a--" Suyeon's voice cut off when she put together the pieces in her head. Oh. Oh.

"Want me to look for it?" He offered, ready to clamber off in search of the sort of missing ring. Suyeon shook her head quickly, hoping her face wasn't blushing. "No no no, I got this sweetie."

       "No no no~" Hyeonwoo sang.

Suyeon didn't even look up from her notebook at this point, "This is not the time to dance to a girl group song sweetie."

"Uncle Key likes it!" 

      "Uncle Key likes you in general." Suyeon shot back playfully, ruffling his hair. He shrieked and rocketed himself off of the chair, rushing into his playroom. After he had gone, Suyeon sat in silence for a while.

Well, at least she knew why Taemin wasn't telling her anything.


     If Hyeonwoo had helped Suyeon look for it, they wouldn't have found it in the apartment, because Taemin had the habit of carrying it in his jacket pocket everywhere he went. Because, well, you never knew when the perfect proposal time would occur. He's thought through every possible location to ask Suyeon to marry him.

He considered the diner, but that wouldn't work, she'd be too focused on work and then after he had done it she'd get too much attention and he knew she didn't really like that. So that was crossed off the list.

At school-- the thought was quickly dismissed. If the diner would be crazy, then he shouldn't even consider at school. So no to that.

The moment almost happened at Christmas, in front of family and friends, just like the year he kissed her, but his hands were shaking too much and he just chickened out and tried to maintain a tough face while pretending not to see Key almost strangle him via eye contact.

At that point, Taemin was almost out of options, sighing in irritation to himself. "Where am I going to do it, in my sleep?" He groaned, his fingers outlining the now well known figure and shape of the ring box in his pocket. Time was running out, he was almost graduating and he knew that she was exceedingly worried about him leaving her for grad school. Unbeknownst to him, Suyeon was waiting for the question. She knew that after he had asked, there would be a lot more talk about his graduation plans and life after school and she just wanted him to ask her already. She shared her torment with Granny Byun when picking Hyeonwoo up one day, and the old woman herself agreed with her.