JIN

I was staring at my phone for the umpteenth time that night. I knew I was just torturing myself but I couldn’t help it. The kakaotalk window read like this:

[Happy Valentine’s Day!]              08:30

[Oh! It’s today?!]                                              11:31
[Happy Valentine’s Day Jagi <3]                  11:32

                [You’re always so busy]                 11:33
                [You forget the date, huh?]         11:33

[kekeke, yeah I’m sorry]                                15:38

                [Will you have time to meet me?] 15:40

[hmm… I don’t know darling…]                   16:59
[I have schedules all day…]                           16:59

                [Oh…]                                                   17:00
                [well, even if it’s late, I don’t mind.] 17:00

[Really? It might be quite late…]                19:04

                [I’ll wait. My class is late tomorrow.] 19:05
                [Don’t worry about me.]               19:06

[Ok, then I’ll come later.]                              20:42
[Please wait for me. <3 ]                                20:43

                [Ok ^_^ ]                                              20:44

That was already four hours ago, and there hadn’t been further replies. It was almost 1am now and I was wondering just how late “quite late” might be. I knew what I’d been getting myself into when Jin and I had started dating, but still, it did leave me quite grumpy that I couldn’t even see my boyfriend on Valentine’s Day. And, seeing as it was past midnight, technically, it wasn’t even Valentine’s Day anymore…

I sighed, fiddling with the small pink box in my hands before placing it down on the coffee table in front of me. Immediately as I reclined back into the couch, I was startled by the loud buzzing of my phone.

[Jagiyah, are you still awake?]     Jin’s message flashed up on my screen.

I replied immediately that yes, yes I was.

[I can come from a bit now if you want.]

[Yes please] I typed, quickly, making him send me an animated laughing sticker in response.

[I’m coming now.]

He stood on my doorstep less than 15 minutes later, looking as handsome as always, in his long elegant jacket, which he wore open over a thick woolen black turtleneck sweater and a pair of nice jeans. People often joked about it, but dressed like that, he really did look like prince charming. I held the door wider, inviting him to come in, but he shook his head, smiling mischievously at me. I raised an eyebrow at him but he just said, “Go get your jacket, I have a surprise.”

I went to fetch my jacket – wrapping a scarf around my neck and grabbing the little pink box on my way – and soon we were climbing the steps of my apartment down towards his car.

“Where are we going?” I asked, once my seatbelt was securely fastened. But instead of answering me, he just turned around to fetch a paper bag from the back seat. I looked at him curiously as he pulled out some kind of short black scarf.

“Since it’s a surprise,” he told me, “you have to put this on.”

I stared at him, a little dumbfounded, and he pressed his lips together, trying to repress a smile.

“Come on…” he chuckled, leaning over towards me and securing the thing over my eyes.

“You can’t see, right?” he asked and I just shook my head in response. “Good.” he said, “now put this on too.”

“What?” I asked, but before I could say more he slipped a set of heavy headphones over my head, blocking any outside sound from coming in.

“Jin….” I chuckled, pulling the left headphone slightly away from my ear, so I could hear his answer.

“Ah-ah-ah!! No cheating!” he scolded me.

“Why all the mystery? Isn’t a blindfold enough?” I sulked.

“If you can hear, it’ll give the surprise away…” he explained, sounding extremely giddy, “anyways, you’ll love this,” he said, “it’s the rough version of the new album.”

“Seriously?!” I exclaimed in shock. He never let me hear what they were working on before it was released.

He gently placed the speaker back onto my ear, and soon, a lovely melody enveloped me. I leaned back into my seat, basking in the song, and soon, I could feel the car come to life as we took off.

We drove for maybe four songs, and then I felt him unbuckling my seatbelt, and a moment later, my door open. He grabbed my hand and gentlemanly helped me out of the car.

It was slow going but we made our way inside a building – I could tell from the sudden and much welcome influx of heat – and we walked a bit further, inside what I guess was an elevator, considering the wobbly feeling that came over me shortly after we stopped moving.

I was distracted by the amazing music that was playing in my ears, but soon I realized that we’d been motionless for a lot longer than an elevator ride usually takes, so I found myself complaining, “This is taking really long…” I mumbled, not actually sure if I’d spoken loud enough for him to hear me. Of course, I wouldn’t hear it even if he did reply, but he took my hand in his and gave it a little squeeze. I smiled, knowing he – at least – could see it, and a moment later, the queasy feeling finally stopped, and we started walking again.

“Seokjin-ah, are we almost there?” I pouted. I wasn’t usually a big complainer, but this whole charade, as romantic as it was, was starting to drive me a little crazy.

Again he squeezed my hand and pushed my left speaker away, leaning in to whisper in my ear, “Almost.” Hearing his voice so close and so suddenly like that sent shivers down my back. And he sounded like he was smiling.

A door opened and I was hit by a blast of cold air, indicating that we were outside again. I thought it was rather weird, considering our progress, but before I could wonder anymore, and without warning, he took the headset off my head and said, “We’re here.”

‘Finally.’ I thought, reaching up to take off the scarf, but he brought a hand up to stop me.

“You have to keep it on a while longer, ok?” he said, sounding both apologetic and like he was about to laugh at the same time.

“Ok…..…” I muttered, not knowing what else to say.

I heard a small chuckle come from him and he took my hand, pulling me along again. I couldn’t help but notice that, although we were outside again, it was completely quiet; almost eerily so. And it seemed to be a lot colder than before.

“Stairs.” Jin warned, suddenly, interrupting my thoughts again.

I’m sure you’ve never really thought about this, but it’s actually really hard to go up stairs blindfolded… even if you do happen to have a prince holding on to your hand next to you. I awkwardly tried to make my way up, one step at the time, but finally, after stumbling for the 7^th or 8^th time, and Jin laughing at me, he gave up, saying “oh here….” before scooping me up into his arms and carrying me the rest of the way.

I was so surprised I couldn’t even say anything. I just sat still, feeling my heart rate accelerate – and probably looking like a total idiot – as he carried me up the stairs; of which there were a lot of, apparently. He was going quite fast, but it took over a full minute until we reached the top. After a moment, I just pressed my face into his chest (both for warmth and because he smelled really really good…) and enjoyed the moment until he finally put me down. I actually felt a little disappointed when he did.

“We’re almost here.” he assured me, taking my hand once more and pulling me along.

It was windy up here. I tried to imagine where we could possibly be, but my brain kept coming up short. The roof of a tall building maybe? But then, why the stairs?

At last, we came to a stop and I felt him towards me. He reached up to take the blindfold off and I blinked a few times, my eyes having to adjust to the cold night air. The first thing I saw was his face. He stood so close to me, it was impossible to look anywhere else. His eyes were sparkling in the moonlight as he smiled softly at me. I was once again breath-taken by how beautiful he looked. How on Earth had I managed to get a boy like him to like me?

He broke eye-contact after a moment and I finally took in our surrounding and gasped. I knew exactly where we were. We were on the viewing platform at Namsan Tower. Around us stood several fences, on which were hooked thousands upon thousands of lovers’ padlocks, and beyond them, the Seoul city nightscape sprawled out like a million twinkling little lights in the darkness.

“Oh!” I gasped, bringing a hand up to cover my mouth, “Seokjin!” I exclaimed, turning back to look at him in disbelief. He was smiling at me, obviously pleased with the effect of his surprise.

“You always said you wanted to come here… so I made it happen.” he simply said, looking a little smug as he looked at me from under his lashes.

“Oppaaaa!!!” I threw my arms around him as I shouted the word, making him stumble and take a step back as he stabilized himself. But he just chuckled, bringing his arms up around me and pulling me closer as I nuzzled his chest, fighting the urge to cry.

“Oppa…” I whined, feeling the tears coming up.

“Are you happy?” he asked, tenderly.

I looked up and nodded vigorously, making him laugh quietly.

“You said you had something for me?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh! Yes!” I fished the small box out of my jacket pocket. It was a small, square pink thing with a white ribbon wrapped around it. “You know I’m not very good at cooking but…”  

“I’ll eat them deliciously.” he said, interrupting me as he took the box from my hands with his right, and petted my hair with his left. I looked up and he was smiling so brightly that I had to look down, feeling my whole face flush.

I heard him laugh, and then, as I was busy staring at my shoes, I saw the white ribbon fall to the floor in front of me and the sound of him unwrapping one of the chocolates made me look up, just in time to see him pop one in his mouth. He chewed for a moment, mouth puckering up prettily, and then his eyes closed into two thin lines as he smiled, uttering this funny little noise of pleasure that he only makes when he eats. I stared at him expectantly until he swallowed and opened his eyes, still smiling.

“Good!” he exclaimed, and my face split into a smile. He ate another one and I watched him in silence, my heart ready to burst with the love I felt for this silly, beautiful man.

“Hmm… yes. I think I’ll keep you.” he said after a moment, looking at me with the most teasing smile.

I promptly looked down at my feet in embarrassment again.

“Jagiyah… come here.” he said, his voice dropping down 2 or 3 octaves. Shoving the box in his pockets, he reached over with one arm to pull me in for a hug. It seemed so easy for him. Just to reach out his long arm like this and completely surround my whole body with it. He held me there for a moment and I thought my heart might explode. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, he followed-up by whispering into my hair, “I’m happy you’re mine…”

I was glad for the cover of darkness because I could feel the heat rise up in my cheeks again, but I was deliriously happy and couldn’t help smiling at his words; though he couldn’t see, since I had my nose buried into his amazingly soft sweater.

“I’m sorry, I’m always so busy… but thank you for staying by my side.”

I looked up as he finished his sentence, only to find him looking right down into my eyes.

“Oh, Oppa………. Always…” I replied, my voice shaking with emotion.

He smiled gently again, bringing a hand up to caress my cheek as he gazed at me, and then – finally – he closed his eyes and bent down to kiss me.

It wasn’t our first kiss, and I knew exactly what his lips tasted like, but that kiss was nothing short of magical. His full mouth just pressed against mine softly, lingering a little before pulling away, but only far enough that I could still feel his breath on my skin. He peered into my eyes, and from this close, I could see every little detail of his irises, every little fleck of black and brown and gold hidden into them. He was so beautiful I suddenly forgot how to breathe. And then he smiled.

“Happy Valentine’s Day.”