His sister, for example, when he'd shared with her and his brother-in-law that he wanted to propose to Yixing, hadn't understood.

 

"Why?" Minseok had asked as she absent mindedly twisted her own wedding ring around and around on her finger. "You've been together for almost 20 years; you've got teenage children. What's the point?"

 

Jongdae, for once, had been relatively perceptive and had noticed Junmyeon's frown before his wife did. "Babe," he tried to reason, "Jun-hyung probably would have been married ages ago if it were possible for him." He'd then turned to Junmyeon and prompted, "Right, hyung?"

 

"Right," Junmyeon had agreed wholeheartedly. "I love him, and I want proof of that on more than just our hearts, you know? Like in government records and on licenses because we couldn't before, but now we can."

 

His smile had been brilliant as he spoke, but Junmyeon's cheerful expression instantly fell when Minseok countered, "I love you, dongsaeng, and that's nice and all, but I don't think we can help." She rubbed her very pregnant belly and excused herself and her husband from any future proposal preparations on the grounds of "We need to prepare for the baby."

 

Junmyeon's best friend hadn't been particularly enthusiastic about assisting him, either.

 

"Bro," Yifan had clapped him hard on the back as they sat drinking beer and watching the LA Clippers on TV. "This is great news!"

 

"I know, right?" Junmyeon had crowed happily. "You can get married too now!" A momentary look of panic had flashed across Yifan's face at his words, though, so Junmyeon had added, "If you want, obviously. I get that some people aren't interested in labels or whatever."

 

Yifan shook his head. "It's not that, man," he disagreed. "But I'm almost freaking forty. And I love Tao, but he's just a kid. I don't want to push him into anything he isn't ready for." This was true: Yifan's boyfriend had graduated from a Masters program just that May; he'd also once been Yifan's student, and was still barely 25.

 

"Maybe if you two help me propose to Yixing, Tao will start thinking more positively about getting married himself." Yifan had looked skeptical, but Junmyeon was confident. "I'm sure of it!"

 

"Either way, Junmoney, I don't think I can help you out." Junmyeon's gape had nearly reached the floor, so Yifan had apologized and admitted that he wasn't too sure about marriage himself, actually, and being intimately involved in causing one already seemed like too much of a commitment.

 

"No one loves me," Junmyeon had complained to Yixing the evening after that conversation as they sat snuggled together in a blissful moment of childless peace. The twins were out on a double date and their parents had been more than happy to make the most of their free time.

 

Yixing rolled his eyes and nuzzled his lover's neck comfortingly. "I do," he offered. "Pretty sure the boys do, too," he added with a dimpled smile. "Although, I'm sure they'd love anyone who makes kimchi jigae as good as yours."

 

"You flatter me," Junmyeon had chuckled as he drew his partner closer for a brief kiss that turned much longer. When their sons had come home a few hours later, they could only imagine what their parents had been getting up to because the living room was empty and the bedroom door was closed.

 

"I want to propose to Baba," he told Kai and Sehun that next morning as they'd been rushing around to get ready for school long after Yixing had already left for work.

 

"Appa," Kai had replied, completely seriously, too, "I thought you got married, like, ages ago."

 

Sehun had smacked his slightly younger twin across the back of his head, emitting an indignant "Hyung!" before he corrected, "No, you pabo. Gay couples couldn't get married in South Korea until very recently. Appa and Baba couldn't have gotten married before then, even if they wanted to."

 

"We did," Junmyeon had confirmed with a proud smile, more than a little impressed by his eldest son's knowledge of current events. "I'm surprised you didn't know this, baby," he'd said to his younger son as he'd grabbed Kai's backpack and handed it to him in a preemptive action against panicked searching two minutes before they'd have to leave. "You're always going on about wanting to marry that boyfriend of yours–Kwangsoo, is it?"

 

"Kyungsoo!" Kai corrected indignantly with an all-consuming blush.

 

Sehun had just laughed, called his Appa a badass, and grabbed his brother's collar to get them both out the door before they missed the bus. They'd been gone more than five minutes before Junmyeon had realized he'd never asked the twins for help in proposing to their Baba; their inability to concentrate on anything other than Kyungsoo and Luhan, though, had caused their Korean father to assume that neither Kai nor Sehun would be very useful after all.

 

As an absolute last resort, then—because one was a little too spazzy, and one cared about no one but his lover and himself—Junmyeon had rung up his high school classmate and good friend, Chanyeol, to ask for assistance. Chanyeol had been the only other gay student in their entire school, and luckily he and Junmyeon had actually gotten along well enough to still call each other chingu more than 20 years later.

 

"Proposing's the easy part," Chanyeol's nonchalance about the whole thing had stressed Junmyeon out, actually. "It's the wedding you have to be mentally ready for."

 

"Not everyone's a diva like your husband, Park Chanyeol." This Junmyeon had pointed out gleefully because any chance to tease his friend was a win in his book.

 

"At least I have a husband, Kim," Chanyeol had remarked in return—and he did. Chanyeol and Baekhyun had gotten married in a beautiful little ceremony almost as soon as the laws had passed; Junmyeon had been Chanyeol's best man, and the couple's parakeet had hopped down the aisle with a basket around its neck, tossing rose petals everywhere like a bona fide flower girl.

 

"Touché," Junmyeon had given his friend the victory because he knew that when it came to bickering with one another, Kim Junmyeon and Park Chanyeol were kings; it drove Baekhyun absolutely nuts, too, which Junmyeon liked to laugh about. "I'll have one soon, though," he'd turned wistful almost instantly.

 

"Gotta get the man to say yes, first. He's smart," Chanyeol had added playfully, "he might just be better off grabbing the kids and hightailing it back to China."

 

"I hate you," Junmyeon's dead-pan had been almost serious. "And the twins were adopted from Busan; the Chinese government would never let them stay. You'd know this," he'd jabbed, equally playfully, "if you were any type of proper godfather like you were supposed to be."

 

Chanyeol sighed and it had sounded so long-suffering that Junmyeon's loud laughter had made the phone speakers crackle obnoxiously. "You knew what you were getting into," Chanyeol had challenged before bringing the conversation back to where it began. "Which is why I'm seriously telling you the proposal is no biggie. You don't even need my help."

 

"But I do!" Junmyeon had challenged back. "I really do."

 

"Nope," Chanyeol'd been grinning, Junmyeon could hear it. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, Junnie. Let this make you stronger."

 

"Have I told you lately that I hate you?" Junmyeon had rubbed exasperated circles into his forehead as he said this, but the movement was nowhere near relaxing as Chanyeol had retaliated, and they'd launched into another faux argument that had lasted for a good 15 more minutes until Baekhyun got home and angrily demanded his husband get off the phone to pay him some attention. Junmyeon's eyes had nearly rolled back into his head at that one, but he'd let his friend go with little fuss—they now lived next door to each other, anyway, and not even Baekhyun could whine about that detail.

 

That had been two days ago, and Junmyeon had been moping about since then, completely astonished that he had so many family and friends who loved him, but apparently not enough to lend a hand. Admittedly, all the excuses had been good ones, but still! Junmyeon wasn't the best when it came to sweeping romantic gestures, but Yixing was a fan of them, so Junmyeon wanted to do his very best.

 

A text message pulled him from this self-pity party and Junmyeon was surprised to see that it was from his older son.

 

From Sehun: Appa, can you come outside for a minute? I think the cat ate Uncle Chan's bird thing.

 

Junmyeon's sigh echoed through the empty house as he slipped into a pair of outdoor shoes and grabbed Yixing's comfy knit sweater from off the couch before making his way to their backyard. He'd been under the impression that Sehun was studying at a cafe with his brother and their boyfriends, so Junmyeon was a little confused as to why Sehun would be texting him to come outside when the teenager wasn't even supposed to be home himself.

 

When he opened the sliding door to the back, though, what greeted him was not the sight of their house pet with yellow feathers sticking out its mouth. Instead, every single one of the friends and family he'd recently contacted about proposing to Yixing were standing in a line in front of him wearing grins that were practically radiant.

 

Minseok was first. "You're my only brother, and I love you." She was near tears as she clutched her belly and continued. "But Yixing's become like a brother too, and I wish you both all the happiness in the world."

 

Jongdae gazed at his wife as she cried and gently took her hand in his before he spoke too. "What she said."

 

That made Junmyeon and the rest of the group laugh faintly, but Yifan was next and he moved on without pause despite the momentary amusement. "You deserve to be happy, man."

 

Yifan looked at Tao and the expression on his face was one of complete contentment as his boyfriend contributed his own words. "The love between you two truly inspires me." Tao looked up at his boyfriend to return Yifan's gaze lovingly. "I hope that someday he and I can follow in your footsteps."

 

"Maybe soon!" Junmyeon winked and the whole group laughed again.

 

After Yifan, though, was not at all who Junmyeon had expected. "Sir," the ever-respectful Kyungsoo began, "my parents are happily married and they've been a great example for me as to what a good relationship looks like. You are that for Kai, so I don't even think you need to make things official, but I'm glad you can if you want to."

 

"I look at you two, Sehunnie's dads, and think that maybe there's hope for an inter-ethnic couple like us, after all." It was Luhan this time. "It's cool you get to marry now, too."

 

Junmyeon thanked his twins' boyfriends with a pair of handshakes and a warm smile; despite the fact that his internal parent was screaming "You're too young to date, stay away from my babies!" He didn't say that out loud, though, which was probably for the best since his sons were next and they would have been mad at him for it.

 

"Appa," the twins said simultaneously in the way that only twins can seem to do. "You adopted us when we were babies," Sehun continued for them both, "and you showed us that love doesn't have to be the social norm for it to be right. Thank you, for that."

 

"And for being such awesome role models as gay men out in Korean society," Kai added with an almost imperceptible sniffle. "You taught us that the world is beautiful because acceptance exists in the most unlikely of places. Now that optimism has been rewarded by legal acceptance, and honestly," the sniffles increased in volume, "I'm so happy I could cry."

 

"You are crying, pabo," Sehun pointed out in a whisper that made Chanyeol, who stood two people away from him down the line, snort and forget what he'd wanted to say.

 

"Those kids, though," he finally managed, "they're great; take after me." Baekhyun rolled his eyes and interjected, "We're happy for you, Junmyeon-hyung. Marriage is great and I'm sure you'll think so too."

 

Strangely enough, it wasn't until Baekhyun's well-wishing that Junmyeon realized exactly what was happening here. Even still, when the lightbulb lit up and he said in excitement, "You're all here to help me then?!" he wasn't entirely correct in his assumptions.

 

"Actually," Yixing's voice interjected as the line of ten people parted in the middle to reveal Junmyeon's lover where he'd been hidden behind on one knee. "They're here to help me. I asked them here because I know how important our friends and family are to us, and I wanted them here as support when I asked you this: Kim Junmyeon, I love you and I've wanted to marry you since the day we met."

 

Junmyeon, by that point, knew what was coming, but he couldn't help the hands that flew to cover his mouth in shock and happiness as Yixing continued. "I know some people might say that we did it wrong. That having kids and buying a house and reaching a twentieth anniversary are all milestones that come after a wedding, not before one." Junmyeon nodded; that was definitely something he'd heard before. "You and I, though, we couldn't do things that way even though we wanted to. But now we can. So," Yixing took a deep breath and shifted a little in his kneeling perch on their backyard grass before he asked, in front of all their loved ones, "Jun, love, will you marry me?"

 

Grass stains were always a pain to remove from clothes, but in that moment, Junmyeon couldn't care less as he launched himself at his longtime lover and threw his arms around Yixing's neck. "Of course," he kissed his fiancé once. "Of course," kissed him again. "Of course!" Junmyeon kissed Yixing a third time before the rest figured enough was enough and began cheering loudly.

 

"Congratulations!" Everyone said, to each other and the happy couple, as hugs were shared all around to commemorate the moment. And what a great moment it was.

 

(Junmyeon didn't think to ask about this until much later, but as it turned out, Yixing had actually gotten everyone's agreement to help long before Junmyeon had even thought about asking. It had been Minseok who'd called Yixing in a panic about Junmyeon's plans, and Minseok's husband who'd calmed his pregnant wife down enough for them both to call the rest and fill them all in. Chanyeol had fiendishly suggested they do their best to thwart Junmyeon's plans, and the rest, as they say, was history.)