Pitched dark space greeted him the moment he pushed the door carefully, as if one more decibel he would wake the whole city up. Nothing guided him to walk further besides dimmed light coming from laptop screen at the corner of the room.

He flung his wrist to his vicinity, 2.14 a.m. and he’s definitely not happy about that sight. He knew he wouldn’t have had a chance to just storm towards the bedroom, but he took his last gut to slip a little far left by the kitchen island after he caught the yellow cable plugged to the side of the laptop across the room from behind the shelf full of his books and hot wheels collection.

“Minho?”

He took a deep sigh before walked timidly from the fridge.

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“Are you okay?”

“Why are you still awake?”

“Don’t be an answering a question with another one.”

“Since when I’m okay? With the load of works keep increasing, sanity is flying away further.”

She tried to not escalate the tense but she couldn’t help but huffing. Minho hates it the most, it makes him distressed and anxious at the same time.

“Go change your clothes and try to have some sleep will you?”

“I’ll go change and get my laptop, I can finish some stuffs for an hour or two with you. Can’t leave you here draining your brain out while I snore under the blanket, can I?”

“What are you talking about? I’m finishing in fifteen minutes. Actually, seven if you stop this unnecessary argument.”

There’s an invisible pang blocking his airway by the words that sounds so flat and blatant. Minho’s mature enough in his thirty, but he still loves some attention or just simple courtesy. After all, his guilty-tripping habit is not vanished completely yet.

“Did you stay awake waiting for me?”

“Huh? Don’t be so drown into yourself. It’s not only you who got something to take care.”

“I’m not having midnight fight.”

“Midnight? It’s almost three and you said midnight? Less than four hours you’d wake again already. How can you say it’s midnight?”

“Babe, stop it. I’m tired. I’m sorry. I should’ve known. I’ll go take a quick shower and you can do whatever you want. We’ll continue in the morning. Whatever it is you want to continue.”

This time, it’s her who has breathing difficulty. Those nonchalant words carved her heart a little bit too deeper. The past three weeks had been the hardest. Not only for him, but also for her. She felt helpless, Minho is not the type of person who easily lean on someone else.

She closed her laptop when she heard the water sounds rummaging the silent night. When she reached the shared bedroom, Minho left his stuffs scattered around and the room is too bright, it starts hurting her tired eyes. Knowing Minho takes his shower time pretty serious, she collects his belonging, put it aside, turned off the light and slipped under the blanket. She closed her eyes immediately, after all, Minho’s okay. Stressed, but okay. Exhausted, but okay. The fact eases her mind, brought her to the dreamland second by second.

Right before she slumped into deeper sleep, firm hand wrapped her waist, slowly, cautiously, afraid to disturb her in any possibility. Minho pressed his face on her spine, mumbling some words he’s unable to say while both of them sober.

“I’m sorry.. I was just too tired, I started to blame everyone. No one told me to go this way, but I guess I was so caught up trying to be the best.. so caught up trying to prove myself. Jink and Jonghyun are not helping. Their tough love at the office drove me insane. Not their fault. It’s my fault. Not your fault. It’s my fault.. Please don’t hate me..”

She stirred, rolled her torso and facing Minho, and pressed his face to her chest. By then she just realized he has a fever. When he started sobbing, it feels like someone skin her alive. So poignant, she secured him closer to her, hand’s never stop the back of his head.

“Sshhh.. I don’t hate you, Minho. No one hates you. I’m here, remember?”

Minho nods weakly under her embrace. For more than five minutes, only the sounds of their breaths ringing in the room, in its own race, trying to pace each other.

“Will you be here if I have nothing? Will you be here if one day I start to hate you?”

“I will be here, Minho.. As long as you need me.”

“Even if I turned into monster?”

“As long as you need me, Babe. And you would never turn into monster.”

The very soft sincerity choked him even worse, his sobbing get bigger, shoulder shaking, and she’s quietly holding her tears.

“Taeyeon..”

“Hmm?”

“Will you marry me?”

***

“I’ve called Jinki.”

“What did you tell him?”

“That you need to rest and maybe Suho or Hyungsik can take the lead on the Skype meeting for today.”

Minho’s struggling supporting his back on the bed trying to make himself taller so at least she would consider to listen to him. But before he even thinking to whine, she already shot him the deadly glare.

“No, you’re not gonna give me some bull doubting their capability, Minho. It’s so disrespectful. They knew their stuffs.”

“But, Tae..”

“The only we need to talk about is yours. Put that back to the mattress. You need to ing rest! That new restaurant in Itaewon won’t build itself if the architect is hospitalized!”

“And what about your work?”

“I have everything in my laptop. I can work from home. I need to make sure you’re fed properly.”

Minho’s not happy with the decision. It’s unfair that she can still work while he needs to waste himself lying on bed doing nothing.

“Can you get my laptop bag?”

“I said no works! Which part of those words that you didn’t understand?”

“I can’t watch any Netflix? For Pete’s sake!”

Taeyeon didn’t budge at all, she just cocked her head a bit, pursing her lips, and continued to make some mock-up presentation for some international exhibition where she’s taking a part as one of the creative director.

“Tae, please, you’re working over there without even talking to me. If you let me get bored, I would be even sicker. So, Babe, pretty please?”

And of course no one cannot ignore and escape those pleading doe eyes. She rolled her eyes and rushed to where she put his laptop’s bag last night, he got his point, anyway. And Jonghyun would never forgive her if Minho really needs to be hospitalized.

“Here. But if I caught you typing or clicking something more than two minutes, I would burn down the computer. Got it?”

“You should have gone to the military. Your force is so needed there, you know?”

She didn’t respond a bit and took the laptop out and take the bag with her. Minho keeps some important notes or sketches of his on-going project in it. Better to secure it first before the workaholic man swindled right in front of her.

“Ugh, Tae. Can you pass me the mouse inside the bag?”

“Why do you need the mouse?!” Taeyeon shouts in a very annoyed tone. Worried actually, because he might be start doing some drawing instead of watching a movie.

“The pad is acting weird since a month ago and I didn’t have time to repair this, remember?! Now give me my mouse so you can stop being an evil nurse as if I’m a mental patient.”

“You’re mental!”

Still being upset, she started digging the bag to stop Minho for nagging. If there’s something that makes her believe that Minho is not a perfect human form of Greek-god, it’s his hobby to nag. When her hand knocked something soft, her eyebrows knitted together instantly.

“What is it?”

She raised the small blue box she found instead of the mouse. Minho smile arose when she walked closer, he set aside the laptop, an uneasy feeling creeping her.

“Since you didn’t answer the question, so might as well try to use properties.”   

“What question?”

“Will you marry me, Lee Taeyeon?”

“Are you being serious now?”

“Open it.”

And before her eyes, a beautiful vintage ring with her birthstone on it. The ruby looks even prettier since Minho purchased it three months ago.

“Choi Minho.”

“Lee Taeyeon.”

“Is this real?”

“How many times I should ask?” his strong arms pull her down on his lap. He took the ring and her trembled hand, he found it so cute even his heart is about to burst any time, “Now, listen carefully because I guess I have no more guts left. Lee Taeyeon, the woman who never cease to surprise me, the woman who teach me how to be human, will you marry me?”

She didn’t answer, again. But this time, she sprung on him, hands grabbing his jaw so tight and locks his lips with hers.

***

A/N.: I am baaaacckkkkk!! Officially! :)) this is without double checking so maybe the grammar and everything is so bad, please bear with me :/ and yeah, this maybe or maybe not, foreshadowing a little bit.. if you know what I mean :P enjoy!! xoxo