This chapter is dedicated to Kailliane who definitely dreams of marrying Kai! ;)

You admired the dress you were wearing in the mirror as your eleven friends paced around the room, each with their arms crossed and frowns on their handsome faces. You sighed and hurriedly turned around.

“Will you stop it? You’re making me nervous!” you grumbled at the 11 boys pacing in your already rather small room. You had your hands on your hips as you looked at every man in the room who were all wearing identical black tuxedos.

Luhan rolled his eyes and stood in front of you with the same posture, “You should be nervous! Your husband-to-be is two hours late to his own wedding! We have every right to be like this!” he shouted then ran a hand down his face and shook his head.

You rolled your eyes since you knew they were over-reacting. It’s not like it’s unusual for Jongin to be extraordinarily late for important events. You knew he would get nervous and head down to the dance practise rooms to dance away the butterfly flutters and then time would fly by and he would be late. He couldn’t help it, despite how many watches you had already bought him.

You started fiddling with your dress to pass the time since the men pacing in front of you won’t stop until Jongin arrives. You gave them all a glare as they all started arguing amongst themselves and one by one, most of them started leaving after Kyungsoo gave them a subtle hint in the shape of a cough and a gesture towards the door.

Only Luhan, Yixing, and Minseok stayed to help you get ready for the upcoming wedding. You didn’t mind as the four of you had always been close and enjoyed each other’s company.

You had already put on the simple white sleeveless ball gown and since you already knew that Jongin was going to be late, you had postponed your makeup and hair until now. And no one else except your best friends were going to do this; just like you had agreed all those years ago when Jongin and you had first started dating.

And you suddenly found yourself swimming in memories as your closest friends prepared you for your wedding.

Luhan, who had always been a master hair stylist, was braiding your hair with little flowers and pinning it up.

Minseok, who had always offered to teach you his makeup skills, was helping you with your makeup.

And Yixing, the angelic unicorn that belonged in a fairy tale, was making sure that your dress was perfect and that your nails were perfectly manicured with your hands soft for that crucial moment when Jongin would slide the ring onto your finger.

And then the memories flooded your mind.

~~~~~4 years ago~~~~~

You had spent the entire day studying for your upcoming exam at college and you just wanted to crawl into bed and sleep for a month but your friends had dragged you bowling with the rest of the group.

It’s not that you didn’t want to go bowling with EXO members, you just weren’t in the mood today. Luhan had insisted that you go since he wanted to take your mind off the finals but it really wasn’t working when your brain kept making you feel guilty for spending precious hours staring at handsome bowl instead of cramming more names of human bones into your brain.

As Minseok’s turn finished, you were handed your usual ball by a kind-faced Yixing who seemed worried about your lack of sarcastic comebacks tonight.

You stood up and went to bowl when you heard someone snicker behind you. You suddenly stopped, your nerves frayed from the stress, and you glared at the culprits.

None other Kim Jongin and Oh Sehun.

Otherwise known as the evil maknaes.

The boys suddenly realised their mistake in waking the lion and hid behind Junmyeon, still chuckling quietly to themselves. However, you noticed Jongin sending you an apologetic gaze and a small nod as he subtly convinced Sehun to stop snickering.

You rolled your eyes at the antics of the idiots and you turned around and hurriedly bowled. Unsurprisingly with your angered state of mind, the ball seemed to ignore the path you wanted it to take and swerved almost instantaneously into the gutter.

“Gutter ball!!” you heard Chanyeol shout as he obnoxiously laughed and you quickly walked past him and sat down in the seats near the score screens next to Yixing. You faintly heard Kyungsoo tell the beagle line and the maknaes to be more considerate but you didn’t pay much attention to their antics.

You felt Yixing grab your hand which was resting on the seat in a tight fist as you struggled to keep your frayed nerves together. “Do you want to go home? Do you need to rest? I’m sorry we were inconsiderate… We shouldn’t have dragged you here…” he repeatedly apologised and asked you if you wanted to go home.

The truth is, you were about to take his offer of driving you home after a million apologies when you noticed Jongin’s constantly wandering gaze towards your direction. You remembered the worried texts at midnight every night since you had started intense revision telling you to go to sleep since he knew you were still up studying.

00:12am: Get some sleep! You’ll need it!

00:45am: Yah! You need to sleep! You won’t be able to study well tomorrow if you don’t sleep!

00:48am: Sing me a lullaby ;) xx

You weren’t sure if Jongin knew, but you really did appreciate the reminders; despite how silly they seemed. Sometimes, you lost track of time and you didn’t get enough sleep, so Jongin’s well-meaning texts really did help.

And perhaps you had also wanted to speak to him. It was no secret amongst your group of friends that the both of you were close but only Yixing knew that you had almost given him chocolates on Valentine’s Day just a few months before.

And so your heart started beating loudly when you saw Jongin sit next to you in the bowling alley and Yixing suddenly gave you a reassuring look and a light squeeze of your hand in his before standing up and joining the others.

You were about to follow Yixing when Jongin suddenly grabbed your hand and pulled you back into your seat. “They’re being too loud, stay here and relax for a bit…” he had to speak slightly louder for you to hear his voice over the loud music being played at the bowling alley.

You appreciated the thought but you shook your head, “I just want to go home… The exams are in two days’ time and I need the sleep…” you trailed off as you took his hand off yours, picked up your coat and turned to leave the bowling alley.

“Wait!” you heard him shout and you felt his rough hand gently encircle your wrist, “Let me drive you home. It’s the least I can do…” he looked down at the floor and kicked at the back of his shoes.

You made eye contact with Yixing behind him and you saw him nod as if to say that he understood and you shrugged, “Sure.” You agreed quietly.

He looked up at you and smiled as he slid his leather jacket on and you both walked to the entrance, hands still joined. When you realised this as he held open the door for you, you blushed and hurriedly pulled your hand away. You didn’t notice his disappointed face.

The car ride was peaceful as the radio played some pop songs quietly with you leaning your head on the vibrating window glass, struggling to stay awake long enough to walk yourself into your apartment.

“Yah! Don’t go falling asleep on me… I won’t be carrying you up all those stairs!” Jongin broke the silence as he shook you awake with a gentle prod as he divided his attention between you and the road.

You swatted his hand away and muttered, “Keep your eyes on the road, Jongin…” You stood up straight and leaned your head into the head rest of the seat behind you and closed your eyes.

You heard a small chuckle from Jongin as you felt the car slowing down. You were already home and you couldn’t gather the strength to open the door of the car to get out.

You heard a door open and you felt Jongin reaching into your coat pocket to grab your keys. Suddenly, you were in his arms and you felt yourself too tired to argue at the unwanted skinship (was it really unwanted, though?) and you let yourself be carried into the lift.

Before you knew it, you were dropped onto your sofa in your living room of your small and cosy apartment. “You really need to get yourself into bed because that’s something that Yixing hyung will kill me for. And if he’s too kind to kill me, he’ll probably get Minseok hyung and Luhan hyung to do it for him!” he whispered into your ear, far too close for your liking.

You lightly hit his arm to push him away as you got into a sitting position. You felt the sofa shift beside you as Jongin sat next to you, his gaze never leaving yours.

You suddenly felt very nervous so you stood up quickly and started walking towards your bedroom.

“Listen… I don’t really know how to ask this…” he chuckled nervously as he messed with the back of his hair and attempted to make eye contact before looking down at the floor.

You raised an eyebrow, “The trick to asking, is to imply that you’re asking a question. Either by changing the intonation at the end of the sentence or by using words that make it a question. It’s reasonably simple…” you rolled your eyes.

He pouted and chuckled some more, “Okay then… Do you want to go watch a film with me after your exams are over?” he half whispered towards the end.

Your heart started beating ferociously and you feared he would either hear it or see the blush rapidly changing the colour of your face. You noticed your hands were clammy as he waited for an answer.

You breathed out to calm yourself and smiled, “Sure!” you said with a small fist pump. “Now get out, I need to sleep!!” You pulled him off your sofa and pushed him towards the door.

He was laughing loudly and trying to push your hands away, “Alright, alright! Let the ice princess get her beauty sleep!” he said as you started closing the door. He put his foot between the door and the hinge as he said seriously, “We’ll arrange the details tomorrow afternoon, okay?” he asked with a small smile and you nodded with a reassuring smile.

He gave a small bow and pulled his foot away, letting the door close.

Does this mean you were dating? You were very curious and your dreams that night featured a tanned boy and his perfect smile.

~~~~~x~~~~~

You had started dating a few weeks after the cinema date. It wasn’t surprising to your group because ‘the between you two was as thick as Mr T’s ’ as Sehun so eloquently explained.

In truth, nothing had changed between the two of you other than the significantly higher amount of glances between you two. And maybe the lazy afternoon kisses on your sofa as one of you struggled to leave for their own apartment.

Life was even better after your exam results came in. All that studying had paid off with an almost perfect score in everything that mattered and you were able to celebrate your achievement with the rest of the group.

Life was blissful and wouldn’t want it any other way.

Yixing always commented on your constant smile that he used to have to drag out of you, but was now present whenever you were in Jongin’s company.

Even Minseok and Luhan were inspired to announce their long-term relationship to the rest of the group; which the group graciously accepted. Now they were waiting for the announcement from either Chanyeol or Baekhyun. Everyone started expecting it after Kyungsoo once commented at how often they touch each other, be it simple hands wandering to find each other or even when Baekhyun had his hand on Chanyeol’s thigh for an entire hour.

The group seemed happier and soon couples started to be made. And many years passed.

~~~~~1 year ago~~~~~

You didn’t know what to expect when Jongin sent you a text to meet him in the dance studio.

He had instructed you to come in comfortable clothes and shoes and that Yixing would be waiting for you at the entrance of the building.

True to his words, Yixing stood leaning against the wall next to the door wearing a white tank top and baggy tracksuit trousers. He pushed against the wall when he noticed you had arrived.

He gave you his usual gentle smile and held the door open for you as you entered the familiar building. You had been here hundreds of times and spent hundreds of hours in the same studio, watching EXO practise their routines over and over again.

Yixing led you to the usual room and you were confused on why you needed a guide this time when Yixing suddenly stopped outside the familiar door.

He took a small red rose out of his pocket and handed it to you. You blinked in confusion and you were about to ask what the rose was for when he opened the door and you were blinded by the white spotlight being shone on you.

You felt yourself being gently pushed into the room and the door closed behind you. You closed your eyes to block out the light and felt a small tap on your shoulder, so you slowly opened your eyes again.

It was dark. Then a spotlight in front of you to reveal Minseok and Luhan. They each gave you small smiles and a rose before the spotlight switched off again.

This time, the lights of the entire room to reveal the entirety of EXO in some sort of formation with Jongin in the middle. You blinked and they began to dance with a very familiar song in the background.

It was your favourite EXO song that you and Jongin often danced to in your kitchen, Call me Baby.

They were all dancing and one by one they came up to you to give you a rose. This continued until the end of the song with Jongin handing you a white rose, different from all of the red roses given by the other members.

A new song came on, Thunder, one of your favourites. This time, you noticed that Jongin was nowhere to be seen. But you also noticed the frequent heart signs that the members were sending towards you.

Suddenly, the lights switched off again and the music suddenly stopped. You heard movement and the lights were switched back on, with you still standing dazed and moved by the performance by the closed door.

The lights revealed eleven men holding small signs with each having a small design or letter printed on it. You read the signs.

<3 M A R R Y  M E ? <3

You brought your hands to cover your gaping mouth when you saw Jongin step in front of the signs and you saw Yixing switching on the music once more as Jongin gave you a solo dance.

The rest of the boys began to chatter quietly amongst themselves as Jongin finished his dance for you, still holding up the signs.

The boys stopped chattering when the song ended and they began to leave through the door behind you, giving you small encouraging smiles and a small pat on the shoulder.

Yixing was the last to leave with a pat, smile, and a wink.

Jongin stepped closer to you with a bouquet of white roses in his hand and a box in the other.

He silently handed the bouquet to you and you struggled to hold all of the roses.

“12 more roses for your collection of 12 roses.” He smiled and continued his short speech and he fumbled with the red velvet box.

“Each red rose represents the care and affection we have for you. And each white rose, the love I have for you. You’ve been with me for three years now and I wanted to give you a rose for every day that you stayed with me, but how would we carry them into the studio?” he laughed and scratched the back of neck.

“My point is, you’ve been our muse and my drive for the past three years so we wanted to thank you. But there’s something else, as you already know…” his voice became gentler and quieter.

He stepped closer to you and went down on one knee, “Will you give me the honour of marrying you, living with you for the rest of our lives, raising a family together, and watching our children grow?”

You chuckled, “You’re not supposed to say that unless I accept, Jongin!” you joked with a grin.

We gave you a crooked smirk, “How could anyone deny this perfection?” he asked, pointing to himself.

You rolled your eyes, “You’re right.” You whispered with a smile and stepped closer to him, so close that you would only need to move your hand slightly to run your hair through his hair.

“Yes.” You said after a few seconds of a warm atmosphere between you two. He smiled and you dropped the roses to give him your hand and he removed the ring from its box and slid it on your finger.

The both of you laughed and hugged as he stood up. It was a day to celebrate.

~~~~~present~~~~~

You smiled to yourself as Yixing finished arranging your veil since Luhan and Minseok had finished their last touches a few minutes ago. You heard a loud knock at the door and Kyungsoo came rushing in.

“He’s here!” he shouted, looking like he had ran all the way from the entrance to the small chapel to the room hidden in the topmost floor of the chapel.

You turned around and gave a small smile.

It was, indeed, a day to celebrate.

xxxxxxxxxxx

A/N: Heya guys! Sorry for the very late update! I've been very busy, tired, and dragged all over the country by my parents! I honestly have spent my free time either watching Call Me Baby or studying... Hopefully, this super long update made the wait worth it! ;) I hope you all enjoyed it! Don't forget to comment want you thought of it! :D