Chapter poster by @lovehyuck on Instagram

How was it like, dating the school's most good looking student? Not easy. Not when every morning, he would open the locker, and dozens of letters spewed out. Not when girls tried to stalk him home after school everyday. Not when you couldn't be seen around him. But it wasn't his choice. It was yours. Taeyong was perfectly fine with telling the world he was in love with you, his childhood bestfriend since you two were in diapers. The both of you never thought it could go past the best friend stage, but boy, were you both so, so wrong. However, when it came to university, you were an average girl, and Taeyong was listed as the school boy, also known as the school jock. He was popular, handsome, smart in his own ways, he was the perfect package, and you knew you had done nothing to deserve him. That is also the reason why you refused to tell anybody else besides both your families that the you were dating him. Anybody else outside the family circle would ridicule you for having the insane opportunity of picking up such a gorgeous man, much less if anybody else knew that the both of you had already slept with one another. 

"Babe, when are we going to tell them? Everyday I get letters, wishing that I don't," Taeyong drew circles over and over again on your bare stomach. 

"Never, they can find out when you get married and they aren't invited," You groggily responded, turning away from him and laying on your side. Taeyong slid his arm around your waist, your back feeling the warmth of his chest press against your spine. He kissed your neck and along your earlobes, playfully biting on your earlobe. You opened your eyes and turned to him, who eyed you mischievously. 

"If one day, I take a pregnancy test and it comes out positive, I'm going to handcuff you to my basement and make sure you father my child the corect way," You squint your eyes and looked at him suspiciously. Taeyong grinned and tightened his arms around your waist, kissing your nose and on your lips.

"You can handcuff me to your sink and I'll still father our child the correct way," 

You roll your eyes, used to the way he used his words to melt your composture.

And how did one get so close to a god and a god himself? You and Taeyong grew up together, went to the same schools the last 23 years, had nearly a billion classes together, and fulfilled the idea of "first love magic". Though your parents were not surprised that you two finally got together after 20 years, it was a secret nobody else was to find out. Both of you were already living in the same apartment, away from your families. You were practically married to him, but for the sake of both your reputations in university (mostly his), it was your choice to keep mum about the relationship, and had him promise that he couldn't tell anybody about the two of you. It hurt, not being able to act like the person you are -- his girlfriend -- but you could ask for nothing more, since the person you came home to everyday was him.

"Are you cooking tonight?" Taeyong rolled over and grabbed your headpillow, burying his face in it and inhaling the scent of your shampoo. You were already off the bed, but only in one of his oversized cotton pullovers and underwear.

"No, I have night classes. My finals are coming soon, don't really have the time to go grocery shopping and cook," You spoke as you walked into the bathroom, not even bothering to close the door as you begin brushing your teeth. You heard some shuffling before you gargled some water and spat it back out, looking up to see Taeyong behind you, still shirtless, wrapping his arms around your waist and leaning his chin on your shoulder.

"Then don't worry, I'll cook," He intentionally spoke in a voice higher-pitched than it normally was, tightening his wrap on your waist and gently kissing your neck, his breath hitting your skin and causing goosebumps to appear in waves.

"Tae," You huffed, watching him pull the neck rim of his own pullover down to your shoulder and carefully on your skin. You rolled your eyes, knowing exactly what he was doing. Taeyong pulled away from your collarbone and looked at you in the eye through the mirror, flashing you a smile that was both gorgeous, yet taunting and intimidating at the same time. There was a patch of reddening skin on your collarbone, something he loved doing when he knew he wasn't going to be with you the bulk of the day.

"You know this is unnecessary, with the number of guys that fancy me?"

"Don't say that, you're beautiful in your own way and only I can see it. Exactly the reason why there's one, and one man only, who is a complete er for you," Taeyong turned you around by holding your shoulders, leaning in forwards to you by resting his hands on the sink by your sides.

"Sometimes I worry, about how you're so good with words when I'm the only girlfriend you ever had," You whisper, raising a brow mockingly. Taeyong laughed and kissed your forehead, then moved down to your nose before your lips.

"I'll drive you to school?" He asked, pressing his forehead against yours.

"The entire school knows your license plate. You can do that next time when we're both working," You pecked him on the lips again and got yourself out from between his arms.

"Babe--" Taeyong sighed heavily, frustrated and slightly annoyed at how conservative and protective you were of both your reputations.

"Look, just a few more months, okay? After my finals, we'll both graduate and then we can tell the world we've been dating for 6 years," You took off his pullover and pulled on your own hoodie, making sure the neck rim was high enough to cover the mark he made on your collarbone.

"Why do we have to wait until then? No matter what people think, it still shouldn't change the way we function together," Taeyong tugged on your hoodie and sat down on the bed next to you, disappointed that you weren't going to show it off, or at least, let other guys know that you were already taken.

"It's not about you, okay? I'm worried that if people find out we are dating and living together, can you imagine the kind of they'll give me for it and how much they will look down on you? I don't want to go out with you thinking that I don't deserve you, because for the last 25 years, that's how I've been feeling on the inside, okay? I have done nothing to deserve you, and I know I'm the luckiest girl on Earth to wake up next to you every morning," You regurgitated the hard truth you had always kept under layers and layers of feelings in your heart. "But if it's any way our relationship is supposed to go, I definitely don't want it to be because of some stupid girls who want to sit on your and I start to feel horrible about myself and I make the worst decision I can ever make about someone whom I feel like I've been married to all my life," You were fully dressed now, refusing to remove the hoodie and already had your bag straps around your shoulders. Taeyong was just staring intently at you, processing every single word you just said. He never knew you were so afraid of losing him, of making the wrong decision, of being afraid of your own judgements. He wanted to just hug you and keep you there until he could assure you that for the rest of both your lives, nothing about his feelings for you would change. But before he could even begin, you were already out the door.

"eMarketing is the process of marketing a brand using the Internet. It Internet. It includes both direct includes both direct response marketing and indirect marketing elements and uses a range of technologies to help connect businesses to their customers.,," You rubbed your face, placing your notes on your lap and reading them on the bus to school. Why in the world did you take marketing as a course in university? You closed your eyes, trying to remember what your lecturer had said about the outline of the lecture for today, but your thoughts were interrupted by a soft tap on your shoulder. You look up from your seat and see one of your classmates, Won Kyurim. 

"Oh, hi Kyurim," You pull out your earpiece and shift inwards to let him a seat since the bus was still relatively empty. 

"Hardcore," He smiled at you, watching you flip through your notes. 

"Yeah, well, my finals are really soon and I need to ace it to get the job prospect I really want so," You shrug and return to your notes. 

"Hey, I was thinking if you'd like to--"

"Oh, hey, get up," You interrupted him, completely ignoring him. An elderly couple had just gotten onto the bus, and nobody looked like they were ready to give up their seats. You shove him off his seat and moved out yourself, gesturing to the elderly couple to take the seats. They bowed in gratitude, smiling at the both of you as the both of you grabbed hold onto the handles from the bars above.

"Sorry, you were saying?" You turned to look at him, only realising now that he was standing pretty close to you since the stop that the elderly couple had gotten on was right outside a market, the bus was now crowded. You quickly look away, uncomfortable with the stance you were in. His arm was right behind your head and the handle you were holding on was next to his head. There were no other handles available. 

"I was going to ask if--" His word swere cut off again by a sudden halt of the bus, causing someone's bag to hook onto your hoodie and pull it sideways with the weight and force. On instinct, Kyurim wrapped his arm around your waist to catch you, but the pull from the bag was large enough to expose your collarbone, and only a blind man wouldn't have been able to see the thumbsized, now slightly purple, mark on your collarbone. Your face immediately flushed red, noticing other students from your school on the same bus caught sight of the mark, including Kyurim. 

"I... didn't know you had a boyfriend," He awkwardly spoke, removing his arm from its position. You pursed your lips and looked down, knowing that someone on the bus was still staring at you, completely surprised that you of all people had a hickey printed on your neck. Kyurim didn't say anything the rest of the trip to school. 

"Dumb day at school, the world hates me I swear," You huffed, getting off at a secluded bus stop that nobody else from your school drops off at. "Some retarded-- damnation-- stupid-- ugh skdfjgdg!" You messed up your own hair in frustration. Within the next one week, the entire school is going to find out you have a hickey on your neck, and though you'd think people in their 20s would be much more mature, you could never be so wrong. 

"It's alright, as long as they don't figure out it's him," You comforted yourself, reaching the small bungalow you and Taeyong shared. The garage door wasn't shut properly. You walked over to the door and entered the garage from there, locking the door from the inside then making your way to the kitchen for a glass of water.

"Babe, you didn't close the garage door properly!" You kept your keys that were meant to open the front door into your bag, but then as you headed into the kitchen, the scent of grilled cheese chicken filled your nostrils. 

Taeyong was standing over the grill plates with two chicken s turning into a soft, honey brown color, a layer of cheese melting atop of it. The high table right outside the kitchen was nicely set up, with two small candleholders and a bottle of wine yet to be opened.

You put down your bag and rush up to him, not bothering about his slightly sweaty shirt and neck. Hugging him from the back, you rested your head on his right shoulder blade and kissed him on his back.

"Smells like heaven," You tiptoed and kissed his cheek. He had his apron on (blue with white checkers, because yours was pink with black checkers) and had beads of sweat forming on his forehead as the heat from the grilling plates floated upwards.

"Hey, how was school?" Taeyong asked, smiling from ear to ear without looking at you. You smile at his intense focus on cooking. It was never boring to see Taeyong multitask so well. 

"Oh," You shrug, not planning on telling him what happened in the bus. "Nothing much. Same old boring content,"

"Go and bathe. Dinner should be done by then," He finally shifted his eyes to you, leaving the chicken on the grill plates to sizzle. His eyes scanned you from head to toe, unable to believe that he had you to himself for the last 25 years and for the next 75 years or so. You watched as he looked at you with the softest, most loving eyes you had ever seen in him.

"What?" You chuckle, laying your arms on his shoulders.

"Oh, I don't know, just the most amazing person in my life standing infront of me," His eyes folded into little crescents, leaning forward and pressing his lips onto yours and lingered there for a good minute. 

You pull away first and hug him tightly, moving off to bathe as he asked. When you came back out, the table was set and Taeyong was changed into a fresh new set of clothes -- just to get rid of the sweat. The table was beautiful and the wine had been poured, but Taeyong's face was a mile long, and that glimmer in his eyes from before was gone.

"Babe, you alright?" You frown, walking up to him bending down a little, trying to read his face since his head was tilted down towards the floor.

"'Unecessary with the number of guys that fancy you', huh?" Taeyong looked at you, dead in the eye, an eyebrow raised.

"What?" You stood up straight, pushing your head back on your neck in surprise.

He pulled his phone off the table and placed it before you, showing you a video of an ever familiar scenario. You facepalmed and rolled your eyes. Someone had the audacity to film the entire thing between you and Kyurim, including his arm around your waist. 

"Babe, the bus, it--" You stopped the video and looked at him.

"We eat first. You haven't eaten anything since breakfast, so we should eat first," Taeyong interrupted you, taking his phone back and placing it facing down onto the table.

Dinner was so quiet, it pained you to even chew on the food. Your jaws were trying to open itself against a lock, and even your throat had a hard time letting food down into your stomach. You weren't hungry anymore, because Taeyong was obviously too bothered by the entire scenario today to say anything. It was so unsettling that as delicious as the food was, you couldn't bring yourself to clean the plate. Taeyong noticed your pace slowing down to an eventual stop, and picked up your plate, throwing the rest of it into the bin. You sighed, getting off your seat and into the kitchen as he washed the dishes quietly.

"Tae, it was an accident, alright? The bus jerked to a halt and he was just there--"

"And so, instinctively, he grabbed your waist?" Taeyong snapped without looking at you.

"Do you think I saw that coming?" You frown, now slightly annoyed that he was being petty and overly protective.

"Maybe you shouldn't have stood so close to him?" Taeyong turned and shot you one of his famous death glares, the kind that girls in school swoon over, but you of all people knew that his death glare meant nothing good in truth. You frowned and opened your mouth in disbelief.

"What-- Lee Taeyong! What in the world is wrong with you? You saw the video and you saw that he noticed your stupid territorial mark on my neck. Even if he was interested in me, he's not going to make a move now anyway, is he?" Your blood boiled at how unreasonable your boyfriend was being.

"So you do want him to make a move on you?" Taeyong finished washing the dishes and leaned sideways on the sink, flicking the left over water droplets off his hands and into the sink. He eyed you angrily, his left eyebrow twitching.

"You are unbelievable," You threw your arms up in the air and sped past him, pissed off and hurt that the thought of you ever replacing him even crossed his mind. You walk into your bedroom and slammed the door shut, locking the door and lying down on the bed, the large space only making his voice ring in your head even more.

The door knob was turned, but the one outside realised the door was locked.

"Jesus Christ, y/n, open the goddamn door," Taeyong banged on the door with his fist. You ignored him, shifting yourself under the blankets and hugging your pillow. Taeyong huffed and dropped his forehead onto the door with his arm above his head, before he walked away and rummaged the store room cabinets for the spare keys to the bedroom. Within a few minutes, the door clicked open and you could hear his feet shuffling against the floor.

"Babe," He called out, watching your figure curl up under the blankets.

"Go away," You grumpily respond, tightening your hug around your pillow. You heard him sigh.

"Babe, I'm sorry for yelling at you, okay? I just... I just didn't like the sight of someone else touching you," His side of the bed sunk. You turned away from his side, still under the blanket, refusing to acknowledge.

"I was thinking about what you said this morning and I just felt bad about myself, and... I don't know, it just snowballed into me being overprotective and possessive, and I'm sorry," He was shifting towards you. You closed your eyes, still in too upset of a state to respond. Before you knew it, your legs were being poked, and soon enough, he was trying to tickle you.

"Yah--" You pulled down the blankets and wanted to shove his hands away, but he only grabbed your wrists and held them down, immediately pressing his lips against yours. 

"I'm sorry. I really am. You're my everything and... if someone else were to have you, I would have nothing," Taeyong pulled away and whispered, pressing his forehead against yours as you felt his grip on your wrist loosen, his fingers intertwining with yours instead. You look him in the eye, and that glimmer of his love for you slowly seeped back into his gaze. His brown orbs were now softened, and there he was, the Lee Taeyong you knew and loved.

You took a deep breath and exhaled, scanning his eyes. Still somewhat pinned down onto the bed, you lifted your head and kissed him again, this time wrapping your arms around his neck, your thumbs caressing his ears and hair after he released your hands.

"Babe," He muttered between kisses, his fingers delicately pushing up your shirt.

"Hmm?" You hummed, trying to shut him up by continuously kissing him. 

"Please don't handcuff me to your basement," He smirked into the kiss, earning a small laugh from your throat.

The next day at school, the two of you walked into school with his arm freely draped over your shoulder, and how you wished you coul've gotten your entrance on tape.