Sehun steps off the train in Busan with his eyes glued to his phone. He only just avoids bumping into a family of four reuniting and steers to the left towards the escalators. The wind bites as he leaves the train station and he shrugs his coat a little closer around him. He’s still focused on his phone as he continues down the street. The small blue dot on his phone map lets him know exactly where he is. Sehun is on a mission today.

He looks up when his phone tells him he’s arrived. He's standing in front of a large glass shop front. There’s a sign above the door with the shop’s name and what seems like at least a million flowers in buckets in the window. A small bell rings above his head as he enters and an elderly lady sends him a big smile. She’s wearing a dirty apron and kindness seems to radiate off her. Sehun can’t help but feel welcomed.

“What can I do for you, young man?” she asks as she puts away a few stems of rhododendron flowers.

“Can I get a bouquet with sunflowers?” he asks, trying not to let it show how shy he feels at the request.

“That will take a couple of hours.” She nods towards a small poster which explains the wait time because of pre-orders for Valentine’s Day. Sehun’s heart sinks a little. It hadn’t occurred to him that florists would be busier today. The elderly lady tilts her head to look at him.

“I can wrap a few sunflowers for you in a couple of minutes if you want that instead,” she offers. Sehun nods. It might not be exactly what he’d hoped for, but sunflowers are Mikyung’s favourite and he wants them more than one of the pre-made bouquets on display.

The lady turns and walks into a back area to put them together for him. Sehun looks around the shop and wonders at just how many flowers there really are. Wandering around admiring all the different kinds fills the fifteen minutes he has to wait for the florist to bring him five sunflowers wrapped in brown paper tied with a lace ribbon. They’re still beautiful even without being in a proper bouquet, and Sehun thanks her before leaving.

He’s been so invested in his surprise that he hasn’t yet managed to appreciate the city he’s in, the city Mikyung has fallen so hard in love with. As he walks it’s not hard to see why it appeals to her so much. He can hear the waves as he nears the port and the sea breeze hits him in the face. Seagulls scream over him the closer he gets but still the large main roads gives it a city feeling, like Seoul. After a few minutes, the sun breaks through the clouds overhead. The temperature doesn’t rise much with the sun's appearance, but there is no snow and the wind isn’t as icy as back home. He pockets his gloves and lets his fingers feel the cold winter air.

He’s nearing the Busan Ilbo office when a building he passes grabs his attention. The sign over the door indicates a GP’s office, but the sign in the window says For Sale. It doesn’t give a lot of information on why the office is for sale, only a phone number to call if interested. As Sehun stands there, it seems to slowly transform in his mind. The dark, empty room behind the window lights up, bright wooden flooring and white walls making an inviting waiting area. He sees a consultation room and small surgery for excisions, even though he can’t see how big the office is behind the window, and before he really knows what he’s doing he’s found his phone and is adding the number to his contacts.

He stares at the number on his lit screen, wondering what he’s thinking. He certainly has no intention of buying a business, but for some reason, he can’t get himself to delete the number. Maybe it’s something to do with the sudden, unexpected dream behind them.

Sehun shakes his head and pockets his phone. It’s already midday and he has a mission to accomplish.

It’s around 12:30 when he finally reaches the newspaper office. He stops in front of the glass doors and looks up at the tall, imposing building, and has to take a deep breath to calm himself. Is this stupid? No, this is romantic, he tells himself, and steps inside. The hot air in the front room has the cold skin on his fingers tingling. The sunflowers in his hands seem to brighten the room unexpectedly. The woman who sits behind the reception lifts her eyebrow when she sees him and Sehun feels uncertain again. He grips the sunflowers tightly and walks up to the receptionist.

“Is Cha Mikyung in?” he asks. She narrows her eyes and measures him up almost like he's a criminal. Sehun forces himself to stand his ground.

“Who can I say is looking for her?” she asks eventually, picking up a phone from the desk in front of her and dialing. Sehun makes a half-hearted gesture, he wanted to surprise Mikyung, but the receptionist is intimidating and he quickly gives up on the idea of trying to explain.

“Oh Sehun,” he answers, and the receptionist repeats his name into the phone. The receptionist is still looking at the flowers in his hand with narrowed eyes as she asks him to wait on one of the hard plastic chairs lined up in the middle of the room. Sehun sits down obediently. As he waits, his thoughts wander back to the office he’d seen. Could he really move to Busan if the opportunity presented itself? It all feels so big, so scary somehow. Sehun has only ever worked at Hangang. He knows every procedure in and out, he knows the staff, he has friends, and he never has to worry about the cost of staff or medical instruments. All he has to do is treat patients.

Warm hands suddenly cover his vision and he hears a giggle from behind. They surprise him more than he would like to admit, but he tries to mask his shock with a small grin. When he pries them away, he turns around on his chair and his heart glows at the sight of his girlfriend.

“Hey, stranger,” Mikyung says, smiling. Sehun loves the sound of her voice so much. She sees the flowers on the seat next to him and tilts her head.

“Are those for me?”

Sehun grabs them before he slides onto the floor on one knee and holds them out towards her. Mikyung looks down at him, confusion written all over her face, and Sehun battles his grin.

“Cha Mikyung, you’re the love of my life. I can’t imagine spending my life with anyone but you and I don’t want to ever give up on you, on us.” Mikyung's jaw drops. “So, Mikyung...." he reaches the flowers out towards her. "Will you be my Valentine?”

Mikyung blinks a couple of times before starting to laugh.

“Oh Sehun, you utter ,” she says as she takes the flowers. Sehun gets off the floor and reaches out to embrace her. The flowers get a little squashed between their chests, but she doesn’t comment on it when he lets her go.

“So, will you?” he asks again.

“I can’t believe you just did that, but yes, I’ll be your Valentine. I expect you have a lot of romantic stuff planned with such a Valentine’s proposal?” Mikyung raises her eyebrows, and Sehun grins.

“Are you off work yet?”

She shakes her head and links their fingers with the hand that isn’t holding the flowers.

“Not quite. Come on, let me introduce you to my coworkers."

The small office she sits in holds four journalists, desks divided by noise cancelling screens. Despite the effort to lower the volume in the office, it’s still incredibly loud. A middle-aged woman sends him a smile as Mikyung introduces him to her and then moves on to the two men in the room. One is fresh out of college and the other is a tanned, muscular guy, perhaps in his mid-30's, with shaggy bleached hair.

“This is Choi Yoochun!” Mikyung beams. “The longboarder I told you about.”

Sehun feels a strange hint of unease well up in his stomach. They’re of similar heights, but Yoochun is all broad shoulders and muscle, where Sehun is built like a rope.

“Oh, the invisible boyfriend,” Yoochun jokes and Mikyung laughs. Sehun forces himself to smile and greet the other man politely for Mikyung’s sake, but inwardly he seethes. He tightens his fist in his coat pocket and puts a possessive arm around Mikyung. Yoochun chuckles as he goes back to the piece he’s working on and Sehun knows the man has just seen straight through him. Embarrassment crawls up his neck and he turns away to stand behind Mikyung as she goes back to her desk.

Thirty minutes later Mikyung finally finishes her work and spins around on her chair to beam up at him. She leads him out of the office with her hand in his, and as they walk outside his insecurity slowly diminishes. By the time they get to Mikyung’s place it’s gone, which is a great relief to Sehun. He’s never been jealous before and he doesn’t like it, but Yoochun made him feel so inadequate.

Mikyung puts her sunflowers in a vase and then turns to look at him. “What now?” she asks. Sehun reaches out to take her hand.

“Let’s go sightseeing.”

They take a taxi to Songdo beach which is mostly vacated at this time of year. The walkway is beautiful and the waves are small but glassy and well-formed, inviting despite frigid temperatures. They don’t have their surfboards and winter wetsuits though, so he leads Mikyung to a small red metal staircase. She stops him and looks at him with a raised eyebrow.

“What?” he asks. “It’ll only take thirty minutes on foot to walk to Amnam park and I bet it’ll look stunning in winter. Come on!” He leads her up the stairs and they slowly walk hand in hand around the island.

“Why couldn’t we have taken the cable car?” Mikyung complains a few minutes in. Sehun gasps dramatically.

“What happened to my sports-enthusiastic girlfriend?” She narrows her eyes at him and Sehun can’t help but chuckle. He’s trying to contain it, but it’s not possible with the way she looks at him. It doesn’t take long before she’s giggling as well.

“She went to work aaaaall day,” she elaborates and Sehun snorts with laughter. Mikyung ignores him, but seems to have gotten more energy at his laughter and she pushes him forward on the path around the cliffs. With the rocky cliffs on one side and the blue ocean on the other, this is a sight unlike another. It must be even more spectacular during summer. It takes thirty minutes as promised before they end up on the other side on a large platform in the park. Mikyung giggles with happiness and Sehun laughs at her as she starts running around on the platform. He finds his phone and snaps a few pictures of her without her knowledge. After a few minutes of just admiring the view, Mikyung reaches for her own phone and asks a couple of foreign tourists to take a picture of them together. Sehun embraces her as they look towards the couple taking pictures. For the last one, he leans down to kiss her.

“Ooh, look at us,” Mikyung says and turns her phone towards him so he can see the photo of them kissing with the ocean in the background.

They walk through the park back towards Busan city life. When they get to the road, Sehun flags down another taxi and ushers Mikyung inside. He puts his hands over her eyes as they get closer to their destination and Mikyung protests but when he doesn’t let up she accepts her fate. When they arrive, Sehun allows Mikyung to look around as he pays for the taxi.

“I don’t get it,” Mikyung says when the taxi drives away. Sehun reaches out to take her hand again. He points to a staircase that leads down and she looks at him skeptical. He just shakes his head and drags her towards the staircase. Going down a few steps leads them into a completely different world. Mikyung snorts when she realises where they’re going.

“Oh my god, you’re so childish,” she laughs. Sehun pouts cutely at her until she relents and gives him a kiss.

“Who cares, my girlfriend still loves me.” Mikyung shrugs, but kisses him again. He chuckles at her and pulls her into the 3D trick-eye museum.

“That isn’t very chivalrous,” Mikyung points out when Sehun asks her to get on top of a sea monster and pretend to battle it.

“I can’t fight it beside you," Sehun points out. "Who would take the pictures then?” A tap on his shoulder has him turning around and an employee of the museum smiles at him.

“I can take the pictures,” she suggests.

“Yes! Come here and fight this sea monster for me, oh brave warrior.” Mikyung says as she gets off the sea monster and pretends to lie in its mouth and play dead. Sehun shakes his head but still gets into character as he hands over the phone and goes over to pretend to slay the monster and save the girl. The employee directs their story and takes photos of them, ending with one of Mikyung in Sehun’s hands as he leans down to give her a true love’s kiss.

It’s getting dark outside when they leave the museum. Sehun leads Mikyung down the streets until they reach the richer parts of Busan.

“We can’t go fine dining dressed like this,” Mikyung complains but Sehun assures her it’s okay. She looks perfect, always has and always will in his opinion. He, himself, just has a nice shirt and a pair of beige pants beneath his coat, and the white blouse and black skirt she’s wearing will be fine. As they get closer to Ventanas, Mikyung sends him another glare.

“It’ll be fine. You look perfect.”

“You always say that,” she mumbles but Sehun ignores her as he leads her inside and they get their table. Sitting at a table with the most amazing ocean view only makes the experience better. It might be getting darker, but small lights on the streets and on the fishing boats seem to line up just for them.

“You know, if they turn on fireworks you’ve really outdone yourself,” Mikyung says. Sehun snaps his fingers and sends her a cute pout.

“I knew there was something I’d forgotten!”

When their dinner finishes, they walk hand in hand towards Mikyung's house. She leans her head on his shoulder as they wait for the walk signals at the crossings and Sehun links their fingers together. They reach her house around nine in the evening.

“Will you be leaving tonight?” she asks as they sit on her couch, her legs slung over his, hand resting on his chest. There’s a hint of sadness in her smile that disappears when he shakes his head. He leans down to touch her nose with his as he whispers his ‘no’. Mikyung giggles and pulls back a little. Sehun tries to follow but doesn’t get far before he pushes Mikyung down on the couch and almost falls on top of her. Their legs are tangled together to keep them steady. Mikyung is laughing and Sehun joins in as he slowly gets up into a sitting position again. She is still laughing softly when he helps her up as well. She traces figures with her finger on his chest and Sehun closes his eyes and soaks up the love that is so palpable in the room between them. He misses this. These evenings where it is just him and Mikyung with no expectations. He opens them again when he feels cold fingers on his bare chest and realises Mikyung has ed his shirt enough to put her fingers against his skin.

“Did I live up to your expectations?” he asks her and she smiles at him. With a whispered yes, she kisses him. When she lets go, she starts ing his shirt more. Sehun’s thoughts flashes back to the sign on the GP’s office he saw earlier. He imagines coming home every day to this, to love, to Mikyung. He shakes his head to rid himself of the image, breaking the kiss in the process. She tilts her head in a question.

“Something wrong?” she whispers.

Sehun smiles at her. “No, nothing’s wrong.”

He leans down to kiss her again and this time, his shirt isn’t the only one that is ed.

---

Jongin sits behind the wheel of his car and shakes his head vigorously, trying to force his sleepiness away. He’s been awake for 36 hours straight, and he really can’t have any more coffee today. He’s nervous enough about what he’s doing without caffeine-induced anxiety adding to the mix. He rubs his eyes, then peers into the rear-vision mirror and wages war on his hair, which has been forced into weird, angled tufts by hours of sweating under a surgical cap. After a couple of fruitless minutes of finger-combing and smoothing, he’s forced to admit defeat. He leans across to the glove compartment for the grey woolen beanie he keeps in there and jams it over his head so that only a couple of wayward locks escape over his forehead and below his ears. He checks his a