They finally bought a house.

Not the one in the city. The one far from it.

They quickly signed the papers and got the keys. Jinwoo was ecstatic over it and Seungyoon - well, he’s just happy to see Jinwoo happy. There’s still something about the house that didn’t sit right with him and days prior to their move-in date, Seungyoon laid awake in bed contemplating if they made the right choice. Jinwoo, on the other hand, hired some contractors and was working on some things around the house. Seungyoon had begged him to to take him along using his puppy eyes and his pout that he thought Jinwoo could never resist but all of it was for naught and he still found himself husband-less the last couple of weekends. The cats did keep him company and they stayed put when he grumbled about how much he missed his pretty husband.

“It’s my house too!” Seungyoon was making it certain that Jinwoo could hear his pout from the other end of the line.

“Seungyoonie, there are all sorts of exposed wires, nails, and stuff.” Jinwoo explains placidly, like he’s talking to a five year old. “I can’t bring you here. You’re too precious.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Seungyoon pouts even more, he hears Jinwoo start laughing.

“It means, I LOVE YOU.” Jinwoo’s voice dips lower, “I love you so much and I just want you to stay put there and be safe.”

Seungyoon grew quiet, it’s really not fair how his husband can be so suave right now and be so out of his reach.

“Jinwoo...”

“What is it now?”

“I think I just fell in love with you even more.”

Jinwoo started laughing again on his end, “Really?”

“Really.” Seungyoon affirms, “Baby, don’t come home too late. Let’s eat dinner together tonight and watch that drama you like.”

“I’d really like that.” Jinwoo paused, “But you better not step into the kitchen and cook.”

Not long after that, they started packing their things in the condo in boxes. The cats loved it and Seungyoon would often find himself pleasantly surprised to find them curled up inside. The smaller and more cramped the box is, the more they liked it. He would snap pictures with his phone and send them to Jinwoo who would instantly reply back with a dramatic animated ‘heart-eyes’ sticker.

Packing away their things made Seungyoon a little sentimental. They had so many memories in this place and the idea of leaving it weighed heavily in his heart. Truthfully, he loved that their condo was getting smaller day by day - it meant always having his husband close and never having him out of his sight for too long. Seungyoon just couldn’t help but be greedy when it came to Jinwoo, he had that effect on him even from the start. He wouldn’t say he’s possessive as a lover but he admits to being territorial - Jinwoo is his, he’s just protecting what belongs to him.

The night before they move-in to their new house, Jinwoo asks him if they can order some Chinese take-out. Seungyoon looks up from his notebook, preoccupied with some lyrics he was writing.

“But I thought you wanted us to have dinner out?”

Jinwoo smiled at him lightly. “Here is fine, baby. It’s our last night.”

The food they ordered arrived quickly. With their plates and utensils packed away, they ate in the take-out boxes using the wooden chopsticks that came along with it. The whole set-up reminded Seungyoon of the night Jinwoo first came over.

“Did I kiss you first or did you kiss me first?”

“You wanted to kiss me since the first date.” Jinwoo tells him nonchalantly, like that’s the answer to it.

“Actually, I wanted to kiss you before I even got the courage to ask you out.” Seungyoon smirked as he picked up a piece of shrimp with his chopsticks, “I tried on our second date but you rejected me.”

“You tried to kiss me in a packed subway car! Also, I gave you a chance to kiss me on our third date.” Jinwoo huffs, stuffing his mouth with a dumpling, “You didn’t even notice.”

“Seriously?” Seungyoon blurts out, the shrimp on his chopstick falls back into the Chinese take-out box it came from. “When? I don’t remember.”

Jinwoo glared at him, “When we were walking back to your car after we went to that cafe on the hillside, the bear-themed one, Krunk Cafe.”

“Oh.” Seungyoon recalls it now. “I thought you were just teasing me.”

Jinwoo didn’t answer him, instead he picked up another dumpling with his chopsticks and aggressively chomped on it.

“So, I’m really curious.” Seungyoon surreptitiously glanced at his husband who was busy poking the dumplings with his chopsticks like they’ve offended him horribly, “Was it you or was it me?”

“I wanted it, you wanted it. It was dark. We met halfway.” Jinwoo suddenly turned beet red, his voice getting lower, “I let you have more than a kiss that night. Did you forget...”

There’s no way I would. Seungyoon thought smugly to himself, I definitely got more than a kiss from you that night.

“Jinwoo.” Seungyoon’s voice suddenly turned serious.

His husband stared at him, confusion painted on his too pretty face. Seungyoon leaned forward and took the last dumpling on the take-out box, chewing on it slowly and thoughtfully.

“Thank you for marrying me.”

Seungyoon pressed his face against the glass window as their SUV got closer to the house. “Is that...”

“It’s our house, Seungyoonie.” Jinwoo’s tone was complacent as he drove. “Looks great, don’t you think?”

Seungyoon nods slowly, still trying to process it. On the backseat the cats slept on in their carriers. The house looked like it was going to collapse on itself the first and last time he visited it, now as they got closer to it, it looked like it got a breath of new life. The ivy threatening to overtake it is gone, its cracked weather beaten exterior was now painted a pale powder blue that matched the early morning sky behind it.

“Wow.” Was all Seungyoon could say when they finally pulled up in front of it, remembering how horrendous the whole structure had looked to him before.

“You promised not to run around.” Jinwoo says firmly from behind him, “Stay in the kitchen like I told you, eat the food I packed for you, and don’t go upstairs.”

The moving truck pulled up behind them just then, Jinwoo’s attention shifts - going from pretty-gentle husband to pretty-commander-in-chief, the ‘pretty’ part stays because his husband is always pretty in whatever he does.

Walking up to the porch was a joy, Seungyoon no longer felt threatened now that the rotting floorboards had been replaced with new ones that felt and sounded solid under their feet. The front door had been replaced as well and Jinwoo smiles at him winningly when he successfully unlocks it on his first try.

The smell of fresh paint permeated in the air, the ostentatious wallpaper is all gone and the walls are now painted a very light appealing shade of grey. The recently installed hardwood flooring gleams under his feet, Seungyoon stared at a particular spot under the stairs where he recalled there was some terrible scuffing, there wasn’t any there now or anywhere else for that matter. He stayed in the kitchen at first, just like he promised Jinwoo - but he grew bored of it quickly and not even 10 minutes later he’s helping the movers unload some of their boxes from the truck.

It was while Seungyoon was stacking a box marked KITCHEN on top of another box that he heard another vehicle pull up in their driveway, it was followed by the sound of a car door slamming close.

“Pretty one, where are ye?”

Seungyoon peers out from one of the living room windows, catching sight of a rugged looking male with bulging biceps. He didn’t come alone, a few other guys were with him - all of them just as well-built as he is.

He hears Jinwoo race down the stairs and by the time Seungyoon stepped out to the front door to follow after him, Jinwoo was already being engulfed into a tight hug by ‘Mister Bulging Biceps’.

“We told ye we’d come by and help out.” ‘Mister Bulging Biceps’ said, finally letting go of his husband, “Now where’s that mister of yers? Yer Seungyoonie.”

Maybe it was better not to have said anything at all, Seungyoon thinks. ‘Mister Bulging Biceps’ had lifted him off the ground right after he introduced himself and was now hugging him a bit too tight for his liking.

With them around, everything from that point on moved quickly - must be the biceps. It was like watching a video on fast-forward and soon the floor was covered in their furniture and boxes. Jinwoo had done a great job at organizing their things when they were packing them away at their condo and it didn’t take long for him to instruct them to place their furniture and assortment of boxes exactly where he wanted them.

When Seungyoon looked out through one of the windows to check on the moving truck, he was surprised to find it gone.

“Why ye lookin’ so surprised, boy?”

“The moving truck. It’s gone.”

‘Mister Bulging Biceps’ laughs gruffly.

“Yer pretty mister already sent them off. See here, boy.” he points at the boxes before them, “Me guys got everything unloaded in no time.”

Seungyoon eyes the boxes waiting to be unpacked. Quite honestly, had ‘Mister Bulging Biceps’ and his all-bicep-crew not come around he didn’t know how long they’d be out there still moving things around.

“Thanks for the help, we really needed it.”

“Anytime.” ‘Mister Bulging Biceps’ winked, “Eh told that pretty mister of yers E’d come running with me guys if he needed anything.”

“Out of curiosity, how do you know my husband?”

“He helped me daughter four years ago.” he answered, gaze moving up to the ceiling. “She wes a struggling yeng thing, couldn’t hold down eh job and the bills kept a-coming.”

Seungyoon chewed his lip thoughtfully as he listened.

“Me girl, she wasen’t happy anymore, almost took her life...but that pretty mister of yers had come a-running and set everything al-right.”

“This is my first time hearing about it.” Seungyoon said, “He didn’t tell me.”

“E’m not the only one, boy.” ‘Mister Bulging Biceps’ clapped his back. “There’s a-plenty of us.”

He