Chapter 9
Epilogue 

-7 months later -

"Yifan get back here!" 

Baekhyun rushed through the crowds on the sidewalk, and then the beach, Pushing people out of the way to get to the tall man he'd been dating the past 6 months.  The giant had done the one thing he'd told him to never do.

Yifan had touched his eyeliner. 

But oh, it was far worse than just touching it. Yifan had actually decided to apply it to himself. and while he had to admit that with the black sweater and jeans the man was wearing it was y as hell, It was still a direct violation of every rule Baekhyun had ever come up with regarding his oddly large collection of makeup. Now he just had to catch the giant and make him pay.

----

Yifan knew Joonmyun was standing on the pier, keeping an eye out for Baekhyun and himself, and he just needed to reach that area to put his plan into motion. Yixing and Sehun were standing a little way down the pier, doing the same, Jongdae being even further down. They each had large baskets of Baekhyun's favorite flowers beside them and had been told to sprinkle them gently when Yifan stopped by the pier.  He'd had it all planned out for months, given everyone specific instructions and made sure everything is perfect. (even if it meant he'd had to pay them with numerous dinners so they wouldn't screw it up.) 

There was only one thing he'd forgotten to plan.

Which is why he'd woken up the day of his master plan and realized he had no way of getting Baekhyun to follow him to the pier without him getting suspicious.

So Yifan had paced their bedroom as he'd gotten dressed, internally panicking until he'd seen the single most expensive eyeliner Baekhyun had ever bought laying on the dresser. 

Granted it wasn't the best plan to put the eyeliner on and 'accidentally'  let Baekhyun see him slip it into his pocket, but what else was Yifan to do? 

He was just thankful the man had actually decided to chase him down to get the eyeliner back.

-- On the pier--

Tao and Jongin walked along hand in hand, the ring on Jongin's finger shining as the sun hit it. They'd taken the next logical step and had been engaged for, as Jongin would tell anyone that would listen, exactly three months and five days. 

Tao smiled as he remembered the first time Jongin had done that, he'd thought it was the sweetest thing he'd ever seen. Aside from Jongin himself that is.

A small chuckle followed by a "here they come!" was heard as they walked past some men holding baskets full flower petals.

Curiosity took over for the two men and they wandered over to the side of the pier to see what was going on. 

Tao immediately laughed as he watched Yifan stumbling through the sand, almost being tackled by a shorter angry man screaming about eyeliner. And when Yifan fell right by the pier he thought he was going to die if he didn't get a second to catch his breath. 

Jongin had chuckled but when Yifan had dropped, but then he'd seen the man go down to one knee and wave his hand towards the men beside Tao and himself. 

The men on the pier began throwing flower petals over the side and the large man on the ground held up what looked like a pencil.

He elbowed Tao, who finally seemed to notice what was going on and who it was below them on the beach.

"Oh... my...  god..." 

Jongin chuckled quietly as Tao's jaw dropped and he watched the scene unfold completely. 

---

Baekhyun had stopped dead in his tracks when the flower petals began to fall.  At first, he was confused, but when Yifan held his eyeliner up, and he caught the glint of metal hanging from his beloved pencil, he choked back a sob. 

There was no way the big idiot was doing this.

Yifan smiled at Baekhyun and cleared his throat. the other man was panting slightly, it had been a hell of a run so far.

"Baekhyun. I know that you're probably going to kill me for what I did this morning, and I know, that by other's standards we've only been dating for a short time.... But I can't let you slip away from me. You helped me more than I could ever help myself and I can never thank you enough for that, But I can promise to love you for the rest of our lives... So... Baek... "

He stood up and walked closer to the stunned man, slipping the ring off of the eyeliner pencil.

"Will you marry me?"

The next couple seconds were a blur as Baekhyun, tears streaming down his face, jumped on Yifan with a shrieked "Yes!" and knocked them both over. 

The pier erupted in applause, Tao and Jongin whistled while the others erupted in cheers and yelled their congratulations down at the couple.

Baekhyun, Seeming to have forgotten his eyeliner was laughing and staring down at Yifan like he was the only person left in the world.

---

Tao was smiling as he turned from the scene, only to be met with the raised eyebrow of Jongin.

"What? what did I do, I know that look..."

"Oh, you know the look, do you? Zitao, how is it your evil curse flinging ex can be romantic when you proposed by drinking a bottle of wine and accidentally dumping a pot of soup on my lap?"

Tao laughed nervously and started backing away from Jongin.

"Zitao, Don't you dare!" 

Tao broke out into a sprint and headed for the beach. 

"Sorry Jongin, I've got to congratulate the couple!"

Jongin laughed and sprinted after him, amazed that after everything that happened, things were going to be just fine. 

When he finally caught up with Tao he caught the end of the introductions to the men that had been on the pier.

That night, over celebratory drinks, everyone started down the path that would lead to all of them becoming friends, And even though it took another seven months, Xiumin and Luhan pushed their way into the group, with Kyungsoo and Chanyeol eventually making it back from their sudden departure and easily finding a place in the weird group that had formed.
 

-END-
 

Alright, guys, that's all for this story! I'm sorry if the end seems rushed, But my laptop died when I tried to post this the first time and lost the entire last of half of this. It took me over 3 hours to write this, lose half of it and then rewrite it, while silently cursing my laptop. I hope you all enjoyed this, and I just want to thank those of you who have stuck around for the whole story. 

That being said I'm honestly not 100% happy with how this came out, and I may rewrite this, or possibly recycle the idea and turn it into something better. But that won't be for a long while, so in the meantime, Take care my lovlies!

-Miki