Kyuhyun rolled down his car window and one of the military police told him strictly that this was an off-limit and restricted area. Kyuhyun quickly apologised and explained to them that they made a wrong turn. They had wanted to take pictures of the lake but missed out the side road. 

"Sir, can I have your driving licence please? And your passenger's ID too" the military police asked. 

"Sure" and both Kyuhyun and Sungmin took out their wallet to handover their IDs. 

The military officer took both cards and stepped towards his booth. The other 3 military police had lowered their guns but still surrounded their car. 

"Ohmygod, Kyu, they gave me such a fright!! I thought they were going to shoot us!!" Sungmin said and looked slightly relieved. 

"Me too!" Kyuhyun said. "Sorry I should lookout for the side road just now" 

"Not your fault, but i think let's not go to that side road? We go back to the villa?" 

"I think if they let us go, they will monitor our car. So we need to proof to them that we really wanted to turn to that side road..." 

"Oh yes, I think you are right! I never thought of that..." 

"Ohhh, that guy is coming back..!" 

"Fingers cross!" 

The officer walked back to their car and Kyuhyun lowered down his window again. "Sir, we've check our records, and you two are clean. Okay, can you do a reverse and drive out? You can proceed with your original plan" 

The officer returned back their IDs and did a slight bow, and gestured for his team to move back. He stood there until Kyuhyun had reversed and drove out. 

"Wow, thank god!!!" Sungmin said while keeping his ID after Kyuhyun passed thec2 cards to him. "I keep your driving licence in my wallet first ok. Pass to you later" 

"Thanks. I was actually shivering just now you know. Hahaha. I was scared for your safety!" 

"I can't imagine if they started shooting...! They should at least put up a signboard with 'Restricted Area' or something" 

"I think they purposely did not put up a sign to catch people seeking into North Korean border". 

"Anyway, we are safe now, let's enjoy the view!!" Sungmin said, while looking around the area. He pointed to Kyuhyun the parking area further down. There were some cars parked here, which they saw earlier from the other side. 

"It should be quite safe here because there are kids around" Kyuhyun chuckled to Sungmin, after he has parked his car. 

"Like what you said, I think they are monitoring us, so we just take the pictures of the lake and dam sceneries and don't aim your our phone towards the opposite side where they might be hiding there to watch us" 

"Yup, let's go!" Kyuhyun smile and got out. 

The view of the Hwacheon Dam and lake was really magnificent!! It was really a hidden gem! Sungmin knew not many people dare to venture here because it was closed to the Demilitarised Zone, so he considered he was lucky to be able to view such beauty, all thanks to Kyuhyun! 

On the way back to the villa, they bought buckwheat noodles for dinner at 1001 Buckwheat Noodles. Sungmin saw it when Kyuhyun stopped his car at a traffic light. Sungmin preferred to pack and eat at the villa since the sun sets early during end winter. If they dine here, it would be dark by the time they went back to the villa. 

They were talking happily about the lake all the way back to the villa when it started to snow. 

"Heyyyy, it's snowing!!!!" Sungmin said excitedly. 

"Beautiful right? Nowadays in Seoul, it doesn't snow as much as before..." Kyuhyun said, looking ahead and admiring the snow too. "Let's stop for a while to enjoy the snow!" he said and slow down to turn to a small car park area with a mini market. 

They came out of the car to take photos. It was cold but the snow was beautiful, more powdery than those they get in Seoul. As Hwacheon was nearer to the north, Siberian winds bring frosty weather with sporadic powdery snowfall in this city, which takes the average temperature down to -10 degrees Celsius.

"Kyu, you wait in tge car? I want to see what that mini market has" Sungmin said and when Kyuhyun nodded and told him to be careful, Sungmin crossed the carpark and walked towards the mini market. 

"Great! There's cupcakes!" Sungmin took a basket and took a box cupcake, candles, matchstick, some decorations, bread, eggs, and cheese. 

Once he got back to the car, he put them at tge car boot. 

"What did you buy?..." Kyuhyun asked him when he got into the car. 

"Bread, eggs and cheese. I'll make breakfast tomorrow morning" Sungmin smile at him. 

Kyuhyun passed Sungmin a small towel to wipe himself off from the snow, and started driving. The snow was getting heavier and he was thankfull that they decided to go back to the villa early. 

Sungmin heated up their buckwheat noodles after he came down from his shower, and boiled water to make a pot of hot tea. It was snowing heavily outside and it was beautiful. It was already dark and Kyuhyun has switch on the porch lights, so Sungmin could see the snow against the lights. Lovely and romantic! 

Kyuhyun had kissed him before he ran up to take his shower, so Sungmin has time to bring down his gift and put a candle on the cupcake. He put up the birthday deco at the dining room, and when their noodles has been heated up, he arranged everything on the table and off the lights. 

When Kyuhyun came down, Sungmin surprised him by singing happy birthday to him and lighted the candle. 

Kyuhyun laughed "Ohhh Min... thank you so much!!!" 

"Say your wishes and blow the candle!!" Sungmin told him and stood next to him. 

Kyuhyun kissed his forehead and blew the candle, and pecked his lips. Sungmin switch on the lights and gently pushed Kyuhyun to stand with his cupcake against the Happy Birthday deco on the dining wall, so that he could take his photos. Kyuhyun then pulled him over to take selfies together. 

"No wonder you wanted to go into the mini market alone!" Kyuhyun chuckled and removed the candle from the cupcake. He feed Sungmin half of his cupcake and ate the other half. 

"Happy birthday Kyu!! I love you and let's stay together until we are old!!" Sungmin gave him his gift. 

"Thank you my love! What did you buy?..." Kyuhyun accepted the gift and kissed him. 

"Open it!" 

Kyuhyun removed the wrapper and was all "Wow..." when he opened the box. It was a Hugo Boss watch, and 
Velocity Gentleman range. He was looking at it on the display window last December when they wrnt shopping, and didn't know that Sungmin noticed his interest! 

"Thank you very much, Min! This is lovely!!! You remembered I was looking at it!" Kyuhyun laughed. 

"Yup! I went back to the shop and bought a pair. See, mine is the boy size and yours is the men size!" Sungmin showed him his new watch too. He had put it on but hide it under his pullover. 

"Wow, so now we have a couple ring and a couple watch!!" Kyuhyun kissed his cheek and put on the watch. He gently pulled Sungmin's hand to show both their watches and took a photo. "Lovely!" he smile  at his boyfriend. 

"Okay let's eat!" Sungmin placed Kyuhyun's buckwheat noddles in front of him and poured two cups of tea for them. 

"It's snowing heavily!" Kyuhyun just noticed it while eating. 

"It's lovely, isn't it? I haven't experienced a heavy but lovely snow for quite sometime! Probably when it snowed in Seoul, I was couped up in the office and didn't looked out at the window". 

"Oh by the way, have they approved your application?" 

"HR will let me know this week. Kyu, what if they did not approve it? We'll be like this for years. Only when I'm off duty then we can spend times like this..." Sungmin said sadly. 

"It's okay. Then we can look forward to spend more precious time like this! It's more meaningful and make us feel complete when we are with each other" Kyuhyun smile and took a serviette to wipe Sungmin's lips. 

Sungmin loved all the loving gestures that he received from Kyuhyun. He is such a loving and caring boyfriend and Sungmin would always thank God for giving him such a partner. 

Now he understands why Siwon and Kyuhyun's relationship, if there were to happen, would never work. Both of them are the 'men' in the relationship, and both are leaders. A relationship would work if one is the leader, but would accept and compromise with the partner, just like their own relationship. Kyuhyun was the leader in their relationship, and Sungmin was the more feminine partner, but Kyuhyun never regarded him as the follower and never dictated that Sungmin must agree with all his decision. 

Sungmin smile thinking about their relationship. And yes, he agreed with Kyuhyun that it would still be okay if he stayed working at night shift. They would miss each other and would look forward to times like this, where they would be happier spending precious time with each other. 

He was looking forward to the frozen lake fishing tomorrow! It would surely be a fun day, and he has Kyuhyun's company the whole day!!!