They are five years old when they meet each other and Mingyu stops Wonwoo from eating glue just because he was wondering how it tasted. 

“That’s bad for your tummy. It will stick you all inside and you will die,” he says to the small kid with raven hair in front of him. Wonwoo wides his eyes at the word ‘die’ and puts down the glue. “If you’re that hungry I can share my special cookies with you.”

“Why are they special?”

“Because me and my daddy made them with a lot of love, but daddy says that’s our secret ingredient so don’t tell anyone,” and he puts his finger on his mouth to emphasize the fact that the other boy shouldn’t tell anyone about it. 

“My name is Kim Mingyu and I’m five and a half.”

Wonwoo grabs the cookie the other boy is giving him and says, “I’m Jeon Wonwoo, and I am this much,” and he holds up is five fingers and waves his hand in front of Mingyu’s face as he eats his cookie.

~

They are six (‘and a half’ Mingyu will always say) when Wonwoo decides they should definitely get married.

“We should get married, Gyu.”

“Why?” Mingyu asks and stops building his sand castle to look at Wonwoo who is looking at him very seriously. 

“Well, my mommies love each other, so they got married, and your mommy and your daddy got married because they also love each other. We love each other so we should definitely get married,” the six year old says full of determination. 

To their disappointment their plan is shut down as soon as they sit their parents down and tell them their plan, because apparently you can only get married when you are a grown up. Mingyu and Wonwoo think that stinks because they are six years old and they have grown up plenty already, so they get one of those plastic rings that have smiley faces on them and they proclaim each other husband and husband. 

~

When they are eight years old the big kid from the year above shoves Mingyu down the slide and he breaks his right arm. 

When Wonwoo slides down to go to Mingyu he is already a crying mess, the poor kid, because it makes his chest hurt when he sees his best friend hurting so much and crying in pain. 

After waiting a while they put Mingyu in one of those big ambulances and Wonwoo panics a little because in the movies they always put people who are very sick in those. 

“Is he gonna die?” Wonwoo asks his teacher as the grabs her leg and cries.

“He’s not gonna die, sweetie.”

“But in the movies almost everyone in the big, noisy ambulances die. He’s gonna die,” the small boy yells. “I want to go to him.”

He wipes his tears and walks to the ambulance, all determined and maybe just a little bit afraid but he can’t show because he has to be tough for Mingyu. 

“Mister, mister, I wanna go with him.”

“I’m afraid you can’t, little guy,” he says as he pats Wonwoo’s head. 

“But I’ve seen in the movies there’s always a person that can go with you. I’m his best friend, so you have to let me go with him. Right, Gyu?”

“Y-yes. Please, let him come with me,” Mingyu says half crying and half trying not to so he can talk. 

Their teacher comes and kneels next to Wonwoo. “Let’s do it like this, I’ll call your parents and they’ll take you to the hospital to be with Mingyu, okay?”

“I wanna go with him. We’re married, see?” and he shows her the smiley ring on his finger. “I have to be there for him. Can’t you see he’s hurting?”

Wonwoo can’t stop crying and why won’t they let him go with Mingyu? He’s not a child anymore, he’s eight years old. 

“Sweetie, look at me,” and his teacher puts her hands on Wonwoo’s tiny shoulders and he looks at her, wiping his tears away from his face. “The more we discuss this here the more Mingyu is going to be in pain. I already called his parents and they’ll be at the hospital waiting for him and I’ll call yours to take you there but you have to let these people take Mingyu right now, deal?”

Wonwoo nods, but before he lets the big men take Mingyu he asked them to let him talk to him because ‘i have husband rights’.

“It’s gonna be okay, Mingyu. You’re probably not gonna die, it’s fine. I’ll see you at the hospital. I love you,” and he kissed the other boy’s forehead. 

The only thing they hear has the men close the door of the ambulance is Mingyu screaming, “I’M GOING TO DIE?” 

And the next day when Mingyu goes back to school the big kid from the year above goes to him to say sorry but Wonwoo is having none of it. 

“You almost killed him,” Wonwoo says as he waves his hands all over the place.

“Wonwoo, the doctor said it was just a broken arm and that I was never going to die because of it.”

“Still, I was very worried and he made you cry. That’s not right,” he says with his softest voice. 

Mingyu turns to the older kid in front of him who looks like he is about to cry. “It’s okay, Seungcheol. I forgive you. I know you didn’t do it on purpose,” and he gives the other kid a wide smile with two of his teeth missing, while Wonwoo is still angry and planning on banning Seungcheol forever from his birthday parties. 

~

And when they are thirteen they are playing truth or dare and somehow Wonwoo is dared to kiss Mingyu. They are only thirteen and surrounded by a lot of people, so they give a tiny peck on the lips but Wonwoo swears he can still feel the warmth and the weight of Mingyu’s lips on his the next morning. 

~

When they are fifteen Mingyu gets his first girlfriend and Wonwoo feels something burn in his gut but he can’t really label it. He is happy that his best friend has found someone that makes him this happy, but every time he sees them together or every time Mingyu just won’t stop talking about his girlfriend, Wonwoo feels a pang in his chest that hurts him a lot but he doesn't know why. 

“Ma, mom, can I ask you something?” he asks once over dinner. 

“Go ahead.”

Wonwoo always felt comfortable with his moms to talk about whatever so the thought of keeping this thing, that was bothering so much, away from them never crossed his mind. “Why is it that every time Mingyu is with his girlfriend or talking about her I feel a pang in my chest and this weird feeling in my gut? I mean, I’m happy for him but it’s just…”

“You like him.”

“Of course I like him, ma. He’s my best friend,” and his moms start laughing softly. 

“Have you thought about the possibility that maybe what you feel is jealousy? And that even though you are happy for him you wish he was your boyfriend instead?”

He thinks about it and how they sometimes still call each other husbands, or how he has the smiley plastic ring on his key chain, or that he always pictured himself having a life with Mingyu every time he thought about the future because a life where Mingyu wasn’t by his side wasn’t one he ever thought about.

“I’m probably just jealous Mingyu doesn’t give me all of his attention anymore,” he settles and goes back to eating, missing the look his moms give each other. 

~

And when they are sixteen Mingyu and his girlfriend breakup (something about her not wanting to be second in Mingyu’s life, and if Wonwoo is being honest he doesn’t really understand what she means by that) and Wonwoo is there to help Mingyu pick up the pieces and watch everything on Netflix while they eat ice cream and cookies - the special recipe, with lots of love - and Mingyu tries to understand where all went wrong. 

~

It’s their graduation day. Mingyu is eighteen years old and Wonwoo is almost there and he realizes that he is in love with Kim Mingyu. He doesn’t know what makes him realize it; if it’s the excitement around them because they are adults now and they are graduating and going to college, or if it’s the way the sun kisses Mingyu’s beautiful tanned skin, but when he sees Mingyu on his graduation gown and a smile brighter than the sun shining in the sky, it’s like no one else exists to Wonwoo in that moment. 

But then he thinks for a while and it’s been like that since he met Mingyu. Since he was five years old that it was always Mingyu this and Mingyu that, ‘oh ma, did I tell you about the thing Mingyu did for his art project?’ or ‘mom, did you know that Mingyu is top of our class?’.

He can’t pin point the moment he fell in love with him but he knows that what he feels is real, it’s not just a crush and it’s not just him being confused or just dazed with the happiness of graduating and the excitement of experimenting the college life. 

But he stays quiet and waits for the best moment to tell Mingyu. 

~

They are twenty years old and Wonwoo has lost numerous great moments to confess to Mingyu.

Wonwoo has had girlfriends and boyfriends since he started college, all an attempt to try and fill the space that Wonwoo knew it was only meant for Mingyu, and every time he tried to come clean about his feelings for the other boy something always stopped him. He was afraid he would ruin their relationship and Wonwoo thought that having Mingyu like this was better then not having him at all. 

But then on New Years eve Wonwoo drank a little too much and he’s feeling a little bit too confident and he thinks it’s a great time to confess to Mingyu. 

“I love you,” he whispers in Mingyu’s hear when they hug once the clock strikes midnight. 

“I love you too, buddy,” Mingyu says right back. 

“No, Mingyu. I’m in love with you,” and suddenly everything goes quiet. Wonwoo can’t hear the music blasting inside the house or the noise the fireworks are making, all he can hear is his heaving breathing.

Mingyu is making a weird face and Wonwoo has no idea what it means, but whatever it is, it’s not good. 

“I— I need to go,” and he runs out of there as fast as he can. 

It takes two weeks for Mingyu to finally come up to Wonwoo and finally talk to him. 

“Sorry I ran away,” he says looking at his own feet and not at Wonwoo. 

“It’s okay. I should have never told you anything.”

“No! No,” Mingyu says way to fast and looks at Wonwoo. “I’m glad one of us had the guts to take their heads out of their and finally do something.”

Now Wonwoo is maybe, just maybe, a little confused. 

“When Sojung broke up with me, she did it because she knew no one in my life was as important as you, she knew I was in love with you even before I realized it myself. But then you went to my house and you made those cookies and you came up to me and asked me if I wanted the special cookies, the ones made with lots of love, and I knew. Right there I just knew I loved you.”

The only thing Wonwoo can do is look at the boy in front of him, the boy he has known for almost all his life, and kiss him. 

This is not the peck on the lips they shared when they were thirteen in a game of truth or dare, this is the kiss Wonwoo has been dreaming about since he was seventeen years old. It was warm and familiar, and it tasted like coffee and chocolate chip cookies. It feels like home and Wonwoo has never experienced anything better. 

They break the kiss and they try catching their breath with their foreheads agains each other. 

“I loved you when I was sixteen, I love you now and I will love you always. I mean, we’ve been husbands for the past fifteen years,” Mingyu says and kisses Wonwoo again. 

~

And some years later, when Wonwoo asks Mingyu to marry him it's with the same smiley plastic ring he gave Mingyu all those years ago when they were six. The ring doesn't even fit all the way on Mingyu's pinky and this time they can get married because they are 'grown ups’ and it's not something out of Wonwoo's child like logic. This time Wonwoo takes Mingyu to a beach house and proposes to him while they are a mess of tangled limbs under the sheets and Wonwoo is whispering love confessions onto Mingyu’s ear.