Your boyfriend was sitting at the end of your sofa, his phone in his hand as he looked up possible destinations for your date that day. The offer of free time from his manager had come as a surprise so when he’d turned up at your door that morning it had been without a plan. You watched as he tapped at the screen, a look of extreme concentration on his face. And then he was smiling. “The zoo!” he exclaimed. “School is back in session, so it should be quiet. We should go.”

The zoo was a place you’d always wanted to go to with Yugyeom, you just hadn’t had the chance to yet. And you had to admit it was an almost ideal date location.  There’d be the opportunity to walk hand in hand and there were sure to be gift shops full of ridiculously cute souvenirs you could buy as a reminder of your date. Any other day and you’d have agreed with his suggestion immediately, hand holding and cute souvenirs were very much your thing. But not today. “Yugyeom…” you said slowly, knowing you were going to disappoint him but seeing no other way around it “…I’m not really feeling it today. I’d rather just stay home, if that’s okay with you.”

“Oh.” He said and as you’d predicted he looked crestfallen. “I just thought we could do something special. It’s mean I’m free for the whole day. How often does that happen?”

Not often enough but that didn’t change things. You felt like total crap. If you gave in and let him drag you off to the zoo then it wasn’t like either of you were going to enjoy it.  “I know.” You told him, feeling guiltier by the second. “If you want to make the most of today, call up a friend and go do something more exciting then I don’t mind.” It would probably be better if he did. As nice it would be to have him around would it really be fair to him if you made him stay? Your plans for the day consisted of sitting curled up in the corner of your sofa feeling sorry for yourself. Spare time was a rare commodity for him, you didn’t want him to feel that he’d wasted it.

“If I wanted to spend time with my friends that’s what I’d be doing.” Yugyeom told you, a slight frown marring his face. “But I don’t, I want to spend time with you.”

“I want to spend time with you too.” You assured him. “I just…” you trailed off, not sure how to explain it to him without sounding like you were being overdramatic. When you’d gone to bed last night you’d known what was coming. You’d felt achy, a dull insistent pain radiating from your back and through your abdomen, spreading as far as the tops of your legs. And when you’d woken up this morning it had been just as you’d expected, you’d blinked your eyes open to find you were in agony. The cramping had been so bad that it had been a struggle just getting out of bed. But you’d forced yourself to, knowing that if you stayed in bed and did nothing about it that it was just going to get worse. So you’d taken painkillers, forced down a little breakfast despite feeling sick to your stomach and had taken up residence on the sofa. And then Yugyeom had knocked on your door. He’d been practically bouncing with excitement, he was so happy to have been given the day off. And now he was sitting there looking at you despondently. You’d wiped the smile from his face and you felt terrible.

“I just…” you repeated, your throat tightening. You weren’t sure who you felt more sorry for, Yugyeom because you’d effectively ruined his day or yourself because you felt like death and your boyfriend hadn’t even noticed. “… I don’t think I’m going to be very good company today.” You finished, your voice cracking a little.

And Yugyeom’s eyes immediately widened in surprise. “Hey,” he said, voice laced with worry, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.” He dropped his phone onto the sofa cushion beside him and moved to sit beside you. “I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad, I just wanted you to know it doesn’t matter what we’re doing, I want to spend time with you. I’ve missed you.”

Okay, so now you felt stupid. Tearful and stupid. “Oh.” You said, curling in on yourself further and hugging the cushion you’d been squeezing the life out of all day more tightly. You didn’t know what else to say to that. You’d missed him too.

And Yugyeom was smiling again. It wasn’t the same smile that had lit up his entire face earlier, it was a little softer, but you were glad to see it anyway. “Now we’ve cleared that up,” he said and he prised one of your hands from the cushion and laced his fingers through yours, “do you want to tell me why you don’t feel like doing anything today?”

Did you want to tell him? Not really. You’d always found it a little awkward, talking about your period, even if it was just with your friends. You didn’t know why, it was nothing to be embarrassed about, but you couldn’t help it, whenever you ended up talking about it you invariably found yourself turning red. But if Yugyeom was intent on spending the day with your overemotional and miserable self then you supposed he deserved to know why you were acting that way. So yo