You could tell something major was up. Minhyun was uncharacteristically chatty with you. He had been that way all week long, every time he was with you, his mouth was running faster than you had ever imagined it could.

It wasn’t that he was mute around you or anything. You’d known him for so long now and conversation had always been comfortable. When you were friends, he had always spoken with thought, with meaning for his words to be heard. And when you started dating, those words he uttered began to have love confessions mingled in there.

All the same, he always spoke with purpose. Right now though, you were confused.

“Are they always like that?” he concluded, panting a little with his full on conversation. You blinked at his exhausted expression, not sure what he had even been rambling on about. It had gone on for far too long to keep up with. Even he seemed a little over it.

“Are you alright?” you asked seriously, Minhyun’s gaze instantly dropping from yours to unsettle something he had just tidied. These were clear warning signs to you and you reached for your boyfriend’s hands, the slight tremble not being lost on you. “Minhyun, everything is okay with you, right?”

“Of course it is.” There was still no eye contact. It confused you greatly. He got up then, letting you go and moving across the room, his smile returning with the distance. “Do you think we need to get more flowers for the house? Maybe we should go look at a florist today, Y/N.”

“Uh sure.” Your thoughts were racing; you had never struggled to understand how his mind worked. And further, Minhyun wasn’t the type to lie to you.

But he had clearly just done so.

You began to think the worst.

 

 

The incessant chatter continued for another week. You had grown tired of hearing Minhyun’s voice from dawn to dusk and welcomed his departure from your apartment whenever he was off to do something. He was full of energy; he had been insisting you take walks around various gardens at your favourite nearby forest, checking out the shapes of trees and benches as if his life depended on it. And then he had been eating a lot more cake than he usually did, bringing them all home for you to try. Naturally, you loved sweet things but even you were sick of mouthfuls of cake being shoved in your face.

The irony of his bustle was that the apartment was showing signs of neglect. His normally stringent routine of cleaning had gone astray as he focused on fifty things at once. Soon it was you wiping down the cabinets on his behalf, or doing all the dishes when he was out again.

You were getting fed up and wanted explanations.

Every time you attempted though, Minhyun would avoid them, sometimes distracting you enough from the conversation or other times blatantly lying. It surprised you so much that when he came home that evening you had been waiting for him. You needed to find out if your painful thoughts were becoming a reality or not.

“Hey baby,” he greeted with a grin, kissing your cheek and then throwing his coat over the sofa. You stared at the garment as if it had been your first time seeing such a thing. And it was, at least over the back of the sofa like that. You glanced to the entry of your apartment and his empty hook on the wall where he religiously hung it.

“Okay, that’s it!” You stood up and grabbed the coat at its collar, almost as if you were doing the same to him. You shook the garment in his face, Minhyun’s umber eyes clouding over. “Since when did you put your coat over the back of the sofa?!”

“Since when were you the type to nag me over cleaning?”

You nodded repeatedly. “That’s right! Normally it’s you chiding me for leaving my stuff lying around!”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to?” It was more of a question, Minhyun’s eyes still distant. It irked you to no end; he normally always would look you right in the eyes, even if your conversation was heated.

“You’ve been really weird lately,” you told him, as you moved to hang the coat where it belonged and then shifted back to his side, Minhyun leaning back a little at your approach. His movement stabbed at your chest a little. You then squared your jaw and poked him right in the shoulder. “What is going on?! No more lying.”

“I haven’t be-”

“You have too! Every time I approach this conversation you all but run-- where are you going?!” He had started heading over to the kitchen and you groaned, following him quickly. Minhyun reached into the refrigerator for a bottle of water and before he could do anything further, you snatched it out of his hand and gulped half of its contents. Slamming it down on the bench, you glared up at him. “Don’t avoid me, or this!”

“Y/N, why are you so angry? There’s nothing to be this worked up about!”

You snorted, shaking your head incredulously at him. “You’re not acting right. Since when do you talk so much? It’s normally me who can’t shut up. And you’re always out doing the most random things. Why have we been going to the parks recently and–”

“Exercise is good for us,” he cut in, though you could tell he was keeping something from you as he chewed at his lips.

“Stop lying to me!” you cried, throwing your hands around with your emotions. You were close to tears and he was shutting off entirely. It hurt so much that you let the tears fall, shaking a little with how worked up you felt. You heard his feet start moving towards you but your next question stopped them in their tracks. “Are you, are you leaving me?”

“What?” he managed to get out, and your eyes finally lifted up to search his for an answer. He was crying too, but not allowing any further information out. It made you break down on a sob. “Why would you ask such a question?”

“Are you cheating on me then?” you spluttered, hearing the sharp inhale the taller man took. You instantly knew it was the wrong thing to say but you couldn’t stop the rest of your words tumbling out. “You’re not yourself lately, Minhyun. I’ve tried asking you, but you don’t answer. Of course, it’s led me to think the worst.”

“You… honestly pondered the idea that I could cheat on you?” His voice was thick with disgust and he his heel, storming out of the apartment with a bang of the door, leaving you crumbled on the floor sobbing.

 

 

Minhyun didn’t return that night, and you had found yourself asleep on the sofa the next morning, your body aching from the awkward position you had fallen asleep in. Stretching your limbs slowly, you looked around your home, feeling as if you didn’t belong anymore. Ever since you had said that line out loud you had felt sick to the stomach, your insecurities had treated both you and Minhyun terribly. You knew he would never do such a thing to you and yet you had insinuated it, cutting him deeply in the process.

Your pain that you felt didn’t need to be given to him, no matter how much he was keeping you in the dark lately.

Getting up, you padded into the kitchen to get a drink of water before using the bathroom to freshen up, not wanting to sit in your misery anymore. After showering and wrapping a towel around yourself, you set about attacking your dull expression, putting on your morning skin routine before reaching for your bottle of lotion. You shook it and tried to squirt it out, but all that happened was a deflated, empty sound. Looking around the bathroom for the bottle you know you had bought to replace it, you frowned when you came up empty-handed.

“Maybe I put it in the bedroom,” you murmured to yourself, heading into your room and looking over your dresser top to see if it was there. You then moved onto Minhyun’s side, looking between the assorted items he had up there in case you had accidentally mixed it up like you had in the past and put it on his side. You grinned when found it, reaching to the back of the dresser top for the bottle when you knocked something in the process. Crouching down, you blindly felt around for what had fallen, your fingers brushing over a box-shaped item. You gripped on and retrieved it, your eyes widening at the jewellery case.

Had this been from when he got you that necklace recently? That had been when all the trouble had started to occur now that you came to think of it. He hadn’t handed it to you in a box but strung it around your neck himself after surprising you by dangling the necklace down from within his hand.

“Why keep the empty box then?” you wondered to yourself, shrugging and going to put it back. But as you moved you heard a rattle, and paused, realising it may not be empty at all.

Sitting down on the edge of your bed and adjusting the towel closer to your chest, you then eyed the box suspiciously. You weren’t the snooping type. But your boyfriend who was acting really weird had thrown you another mystery. You decided you would simply open it and see what was inside and then put it back, no questions asked.

With shaky hands you did just that, cracking the lid open and stared at the ring that had fallen out of its plush stand. You couldn’t touch it right away, your thoughts rushing around and overwhelming you. Finally though, you gently retrieved it from its fallen spot, lifting the band up to see the simple cut and diamonds up close.

It was so beautiful you hadn’t realised you were crying.

Or that Minhyun was home again. He had panicked behind you, wanting to yell out for you to stop, to rush up and take the box away before you could even open it. But he was frozen on the spot, watching as you opened the tiny jewellery box, your little gasp halting him from coming over and complaining. He had worked so hard. It hadn’t been easy on him lately either, but he had wanted everything to be perfect.

Because when he had spotted the ring by chance, he knew it belonged on your finger. And that was the reason he had been trying to get everything ready since then.

He swallowed roughly as you picked it up, holding it up to your face, the tears falling from his eyes too as you grew emotional. And then you slipped it onto your finger tentatively, choking on a sob as you held up your hand to admire it.

“It’s a perfect fit.”

“Of course it is,” he said, and then blinked rapidly, your head snapping to turn and find him there.

How long had he been there? You stared back at Minhyun’s teary face for some time, until his legs finally carried him to your side, sitting down beside you and then taking your hand into his lightly so he could admire how good the ring looked there. You watched him avidly, your mind slowly coming to realisation.

“You were going to propose to me,” you mentioned softly, Minhyun’s head nodding immediately. Fresh tears pooled in your eyes at your stupid mistake. You had thought the worst, and not once stopped to think his behaviour stemmed from the anticipation of asking something important of you. You felt so betrayed by your own thoughts. “I didn’t know.”

“Of course you didn’t, when someone is planning to propose, they don’t exactly just tell you, Y/N.”

You clamped your eyes closed, wishing to go back in time quickly. You had ruined everything.

“I saw this ring when I went to get my Mum her birthday present. I hadn’t thought I was ready to ask you yet to be my wife,” Minhyun explained, stopping to shift your hand in his to another angle to gaze at it from. He smiled lightly to himself. “As soon as I saw it, I imagined this. How beautiful it would look on this hand. It was made for you.”

“I thought you were losing your mind, you were acting so out of character.”

Minhyun nodded. “I was crazy. As soon as I had purchased it, I felt the weight of this ring more than I have most decisions in my life. I didn’t even have a plan of how to propose to you. I fumbled around and then thought if I turned to you, I’d get a good idea of what you’d like. I didn’t want to go with things I found online, though they did point me in the right directions.”

“The flowers,” you said softly, Minhyun nodding again. “You know I love tulips.”

“They’re out of season, so I needed to take you along to see what you would like instead.”

“All the walking around,” you continued and lifted your eyes back to his. He was smiling at you. “The cake too?”

“I wanted to propose to you within one of the forests or gardens we often walk in together. You’re always your happiest when we walk through the forest, so I decided there would be best. But then I needed to find the right spot.”

“The forest holds all of our inner confessions,” you agreed, knowing you always felt re-energised from exercising together there. You smiled too.

“You love cake, but then there was so many to choose from. Did I want one that was simple, or more delicate? And I know you love vanilla cake, but there were so many options that went with vanilla. One with chocolate frosting, or raspberry. Ones with fruit in them, I couldn’t make any decision without running it by you first.”

You lowered your head, attempting to pull your hand out of his. Minhyun held on. “I ruined it all.”

“I thought that at first,” he confessed, and you didn’t have the nerve to look at him then, your lip trembling from your mistake. “I had done so much for this moment, and yet stupidly left the ring somewhere you could find it.”

“I’ll take it off,” you told him, trying to pry your hand free again.

“No.”

“Minhyun, I can’t wear this, I ruined it all!”

Lifting your face up gently so he could gaze into your eyes, he smiled warmly at you. “After all of that would you have said yes?”

“You could’ve just said marry me and thrown the box at my face and I would have been the happiest woman alive, of course I would have said yes to all of that!”

He grinned then, blinking rapidly before leaning in to kiss your lips passionately. You were confused by his reaction since you were still so frustrated with yourself for messing it all up. But your lips knew his all too well and fell into their habit of kissing him back. When he pulled away, Minhyun chuckled a little and glanced down at your still towel-clad self.

“Get dressed, we’re going out.” He kissed you again briefly, and then stood up, looking down at his hand still in yours. His thumb ran over your ring finger and then he returned his eyes to yours. “Don’t take it off.”

 

 

He had taken you to the florist first, holding your hand within his and then picking up a bouquet from the selection. It had been close to the one you had picked out on your last visit and after paying for it, Minhyun handed them to you to hold. You smelt the assorted flowers happily, sharing a smile as you both walked back out to the car.

The cake shop was next, Minhyun expertly picking the simple vanilla with raspberry flavoured frosting, asking for a slice to be cut out of it before taking you over to sit down. He went back to the counter and ordered drinks as well, soon returning with a tray of cake, drinks and the box with the rest of the dessert packed away.

You shared the slice together, your smiles now giddy. It wasn’t possible to feel this amazing after how distraught you had been two hours ago.

By the time you were both walking through your favourite track at the forest, you were more than satisfied with the turn in events. Nestling into his side, you caught Minhyun’s gaze and he leant down to brush his lips over yours before looking ahead again.

“Are you trying to find the spot?” you asked with a little giggle, Minhyun chewing at his lips as he glanced at all the trees around you both. His eyes darted to yours nervously and then back at your surroundings. It made you laugh again. “Why are you nervous? The ring is already on my finger, you won’t let me take it off.”

“Doesn’t mean you’ve said yes yet,” he countered and your breath got stuck in your throat, your eyes widening at his words. He seemed to find what he was looking for, taking you over to a spot where a willow tree hung over the pathway. You glanced up into its fairytale-like branches, smiling at the leaves as if they were magical in this moment. You imagined it as night time with the little leaves as if they were little lights cascading over you both. Minhyun had done well, this spot was perfect.

Glancing over at him now that he was clearing his throat, you smiled widely, feeling so in love with the man in front of you. Your man. You could barely stand to let the moment happen, wanting to shout at him that you’d marry him and to kiss you already. But you had already made your mark on this situation, and so you bit your lip to stop your impatience, waiting for Minhyun to find the resolve inside him to start proposing.

“I knew when I met you that you would be my lifelong friend. We got along so well despite our differences, and you helped me more than you ever can imagine when I was younger. I knew I would spend my time in your company laughing at your dramatic ways, testing my own reserved nature a little more every time I accepted any of your dares. The day when you dared me to kiss you, I had been so nervous I thought you’d laugh in my face at doing such a terrible job.”

You grinned at the memory of your teenage request, knowing you had loved Minhyun for over a year before plucking up the courage to give him that instruction. You could still remember how sweet your first kiss had been, he had sent you into another realm of ecstasy with his lips back then. You looked at his mouth and smiled, nothing had changed there.

Minhyun shared a small smile at your reaction. “And when I pulled away from that kiss, I knew we’d date well too. You liked how I took care of you, and I loved how needy you were for me. Everything has mostly gone well between us.”

You couldn’t help divert your eyes at the reminder of your recent behaviour.

“We balance each other out, you accept all my faults and I’ve come to love just how differently you think from me. Even if you sometimes go to the extreme.”

“It’s the writer in me, I’m creative and destructive by nature,” you blurted out and Minhyun tilted his head to the side at your interruption before laughing a little and nodding.

“So now we’re standing here at the point in life where I know we’d make amazing lifelong partners too. Able to face anything together, good or bad, lack of sleep from having children, and the joys of watching them graduate and find their own families to grow. Just like these trees here have done. They started out as seeds like we did, the inkling of our love expressed in that first kiss. And now they stand tall and strong as we will for the rest of our lives. If you marry me, that is. Marry me; Y/N. Make me the happiest man in the world.”

You were a lost cause now, your eyes still finding tears to shed but this time from absolute joy. You nodded your head up and down energetically to answer instead and Minhyun wasted no time in scooping your face up into his hands and planting his lips over yours, enveloping you in his love.

When you finally pulled apart and caught your breath you grinned up at your now fiancé and toyed with the button on his shirt. Minhyun observed your reaction for a moment and then frowned. “What is it?”

“With the wedding, can we make sure we both know what’s going on? I don’t want to ruin that too,” you admitted and Minhyun laughed, pulling you into his arms tightly and nodded.

“From here out, I promise we’ll do everything together.”