Eunsook hates winter, she really does. Outside, she’s too cold unless she’s wearing practically her entire wardrobe (and half of Taemin’s), yet she sweats underneath it all, even as her fingers get frostbitten. In buildings, it’s often too hot. She has to bring a change of clothes to work, for God’s sake.

The cold isn’t even the worst part; it’s the darkness. Eunsook’s always liked the nighttime, liked how soft it is against her skin, and Taemin likes it even more, dragging her out onto their tiny balcony on summer nights to sit on his lap and watch the sunsets, comfortable talk always drifting to the philosophical as darkness falls. But the combination of darkness and coldness is just too much to bear.

“Are you heading home or going to fight a blizzard?” Minho asks as he passes by her desk. She flips him the bird and pulls Taemin’s beanie down to cover her ears. Kibum looks at her like she’s a lost cause, so she swears at him too, before ordering him not to stay too late. She’s worried he doesn’t get enough sleep.

The taxi line is so long that Eunsook trudges to the bus stop, where she huddles into herself miserably, nose running and hair sticking to her face annoyingly, her hands too numb to remove from her pockets to wipe it all away. Instead she sniffs and closes her eyes and prays for spring to come soon. (It’s only November.)

The time has just gone ten o’clock when she finally makes it home, opening the door as quietly as possible so as to not wake him. She knows Wednesdays are his busy days and that he often sleeps early. Nevertheless, she slips off her shoes and all the layers of clothing and looks up to find him smiling at her from the sofa.

“You’re supposed to be asleep.” She grumbles at him, shuffling across the carpet to collapse on top of him. It took him a while to convince her she won’t crush him to death when she does this.

“You were supposed to be home two hours ago.” Taemin pouts.

She can’t see the pout because she’s got her head tucked under his chin, ear resting against his heartbeat, but she knows him well enough. After all, they’ve been together over seven years now and spent the last two married. Taemin doesn’t even flinch when Eunsook suddenly grabs his hand, pulls it towards her. He looks down at her and smiles at the way Eunsook’s deep, warm eyes reflect the sparkle of his wedding ring, before she laces their fingers together and wriggles around so she can kiss him.

“Case got dumped on my desk as I was about to leave.” She sighs when they break apart, and Taemin giggles at the puff of air across his face. “Managed to shift most of it onto Minho though.” It’s she who laughs then, remembering the simultaneously gracious and resigned look on Minho’s handsome face. Though she thinks the man she’s currently lying on is far more gorgeous. “I wanted to come home.”

He hums, lifting his head to chase after her lips. They’re too tired to do much more than enjoy lazy kisses, so they rearrange themselves around each other, a jumble of limbs that leaves Eunsook’s left leg thrown over Taemin’s hip, with one of Taemin’s hands on her thigh and the other in her hair.

“Mmm, did you put on the heating?”

Taemin chuckles quietly, neither wanting to disturb the peace. Eunsook dreads the thought of moving, wants to stay tangled up in Taemin for the next eternity.

“’Course I did. I know how cold you get.” He kisses her still-cold nose as demonstration.

Eunsook doesn’t know how he does it, how he looks at her like she’s as lovely as the sunsets he’s so fond of, like she’s as beautiful as the constellations he points out. Even after all these years, even though she knows her face is all swollen right now and she’s gained so much weight in the last month from comfort eating and her nose is bright red and she couldn’t be bothered to use anything besides concealer and mascara today.

She snuggles closer to his firm chest and steady heartbeat, and feels all the cold seep out of her bones, because he looks at her like she’s all he needs to feel warm.