It had been a long time since they had been alone together.

Sure, they saw each other frequently enough. They were bound to see each other either during Running Man filming or mealtimes with the other members.

But being alone was something else entirely, and they had missed being together dearly. It was the stolen kisses and warm hugs that they couldn’t share in public. It was the conversations they had that stretched into the dead of the night. It was the comfort they felt from being side by side.

As such, they didn’t like it when they couldn’t spend time together alone for long periods of time. 

It was especially painful when they missed big days apart. Like their birthdays. Or Christmas.

Most recently, they missed Valentine’s Day. And Valentine’s Day was a big day, not only for Jong Kook and Ji Hyo, but also for all couples around the world.

So Jong Kook and Ji Hyo knew that they had to make up for it somehow the next time they met up in Ji Hyo’s apartment. However, they were both completely exhausted from their schedules and barely chatted for 10 minutes before they inevitably fell asleep in each others’ arms. 

Hours later, Jong Kook woke up from their much needed nap, only to realize that Ji Hyo was no longer beside him. This came as a huge surprise to Jong Kook, because not once had Ji Hyo woke up before him at all. Not when they had taken a 20 minute power nap together, nor when they had slept a full-fledged night. Jong Kook always had the pleasure of staring at Ji Hyo’s peaceful face in the midst of slumber, before waking her up with numerous butterfly kisses. And subsequently get greeted with her scowling face and whines from getting woken up.

But he loved every second of it.

However, while Jong Kook felt it a pity that he could not carry out his usual waking-Ji-Hyo-up routine, he was happy and relieved that she was not around. Jong Kook wanted to give Ji Hyo a surprise belated Valentine’s Day gift, and having her around would kind of ruin the “surprise” element of it all. 

Thus, he assumed that Ji Hyo had a last minute schedule to attend to and left in a hurry, not telling Jong Kook probably because she didn’t want to wake him up or anything. 

Jong Kook got to brainstorming and tried to decide what would be a good Valentine’s Day gift for Ji Hyo. It took him less than ten minutes to come to the conclusion that he whip up a nutritious and nourishing home-cooked meal for her, as in the ten minutes that they talked before they slept and the numerous texts and calls they had exchanged- Ji Hyo had complained about how she hadn’t gotten anything good to eat the past few days. Her tight schedule had forced her to compromise on the amount of time allocated to food; there was no time for her to walk into a fine-dining and order a steak- so she had to make do with quick snacks that could be easily eaten during car rides in between schedules. 

Jong Kook began making a shopping list of the ingredients he needed- before setting off for the nearby supermarket, disguising himself as a random citizen which was easy since the winter cold allowed him to don on extra layers of clothi