Let it be known that dating Oh Sehun was both harder and easier than what you expected. In fact, you convinced yourself it was just an odd dream you had when he first asked you out on a date—as the day after his confession, he boarded a plane and flew to Japan with the rest of his bandmates to promote their next album. You were only reminded of this when he came back, holding a bouquet of flowers and rocking back and forth on the tips of his toes. He had raised an eyebrow at you then, eyeing your sweatpants and wondering why you weren’t ready yet.

It was easier when you were both people who went with the flow. He would call you up in the middle of the night and ask to come over, which resulted in a movie marathon until the early hours of the morning. You would understand when he had to go on tour, and you would always make your way to see him when he came back.

It was hard when you found yourself genuinely missing him to the point that it almost consumed you. When you would message him randomly in hopes of getting a reply—his attention—something. It became especially difficult because you found Sehun difficult to read. More often than not, his face remained stoic, and you never noticed that he was upset or angry at something until he imploded.

So, you learned. You categorized his different looks, his laughs, his smiles. A twitch of the eye meant that he was annoyed, and the source was usually Chanyeol. The right side of his mouth lifting up meant that he was amused by something, while the left side was a sneer.

You were the star pupil at the school of Sehun.

It was all of these things and more that made you fall deeply and truly in love with him.

You told him this.

He didn’t say it back. It was okay, though.

It took some time, but you found Sehun rarely saying ‘I love you’ was less of a problem than you thought. But when you both got into a huge fight over it, approximately 10 months into the relationship, he showed up at your doorstep—with flowers in hand, a cheesy love song playing on his phone, and a pouty look on his face—you began to understand.

He expressed his love in a different way.

He said ‘I love you’ in the way he grabbed your hand whenever you walked down the street. The way that he brushed the hair out of your face when it tickled your nose. The way that he pressed a kiss to your forehead at the end of the night no matter what, good days and bad.

He said ‘I love you’ in the way that he held the door open whenever you walked through the door. The way he would text you to ask how your day was going. The way he nodded along with whatever you said, despite knowing that most of it went over his head. The way he hummed a random song to you when you couldn’t sleep.

He said ‘I love you’ in the way he plopped a key in your hand, informally asking you to move in with him. The way you would find a wrapped present when you came home that day, only to find something you’ve admired through a shop window. The way he randomly sent flowers to your office, signing them as ‘your secret admirer’ in his handwriting.

Despite of—or perhaps in reaction to—his lack of expressing his feelings in words, you found yourself saying it more often.

You found yourself saying it every day; when you woke up; before you went to sleep; before you went to work; when you came home. Every time you saw him was an opportunity to say those three little words.

After a while, you wouldn’t have been surprised if he got annoyed at them—but he didn’t. He had the same reaction every time. A slow grin would appear on his face so wide that it reached his eyes. And every time, he would kiss you in variations between a short peck and a passionate, heated embrace.

Since that initial fight, he never gave you any reason to doubt his love for you, because you knew.

There were times where you would both speak each other’s love languages.

On his birthday, you had gifted him the watch that had once belonged to your grandfather. He was in awe when he first got it. In countless videos, you noticed he always had it on his wrist, even when it clashed with his outfit.

When preparations for the newest comeback picked up, you made dinner for him that you stuck in the fridge. Those nights you were woken up by a gentle pressure on the side of your neck before you drifted back to sleep, a small smile on your face. You found yourself at SM more often, leaving treats like brownies at the front desk for him to retrieve. With each gesture, you hoped that Sehun knew that there was truth to the three little words you told him every day.

However, nothing could prepare you for his reaction when he saw you in the crowd during a concert in China.

He all but stopped in his tracks when his eyes locked on yours. His eyes widened, and his mouth dropped to form an ‘O’. But then his expression changed, and you saw his familiar, slow grin reach his eyes.

It had been a long two weeks for the both of you. Not only had he had a busy tour schedule, but things had picked up at your job. This led to many unanswered messages, missed calls, and overall dissatisfaction. You jumped through countless hoops to make this happen.

A part of you that felt dislodged and unbalanced had righted itself as you watched him perform. Even among a huge crowd of screaming fans, you felt right for the first time in weeks. It wasn’t like he could do anything more than look at you and smile—he was in the middle of a performance, after all—but witnessing him in his element was enough for you.

You weren’t surprised when, after the concert was over, you received a text from him with nothing else other than a hotel name and room number. You snorted when you saw it.

Sehun answered the door in only a towel, hair still damp. You rolled your eyes.

“What if it wasn’t me?” you asked, crossing your arms.

Sehun wiggled his eyebrows. “Then they would have gotten a free show.”

You both laughed when you tried to push his chest, but he ended up grabbing your hand and pulling you into the room. He shut the door behind you.

He brushed stray hairs from your face and tucked them behind your ear. “You must be tired,” he whispered, “relax while I change, okay?”

You nodded, already heading towards the bed when he broke away. You swiftly took off your pants and collapsed on the bed, not caring about your other clothes.

You began to nod off when you felt the bed dip; you turned around to see your boyfriend join you. He placed one hand on your cheek and the other on your waist.

“How did you get here?” he asked quietly.

You grunted. “I lied, cheated, and stole to get here. I convinced HR that I was supposed to take the next few days off, but that there was a glitch in the system, and I wasn’t granted it. So, I made a big deal about it until they gave it to me.”

Sehun laughed. “Sneaky.” His dark circles gave away his exhaustion.

You bit your bottom lip and cradled his face. “I missed you.”

He leaned into your touch. “I missed you, too.” He looked away. “I was happy when I saw you at the concert.”

You grunted, nuzzling his hand.

He chuckled and placed a gentle kiss on your forehead.

“I love you,” he said, bringing his face near enough so that your noses touched.

You closed the distance and kissed him, slow and deep—a gesture that said ‘I love you, too.’