“I’m sorry we can’t spend the holidays together.”

It wasn’t a rarity that Yifan spent most of his time away from home due to work. He was a business man and had to travel to most cities and even countries to discuss new contracts and new arrangements about the construction of new industrial plants. In the beginning of his career, Yifan loved it. He loved getting to see the world, he loved seeing the different places. But shortly after his career had him settling in one certain city in South Korea for almost a year while the current contract was in the works, he had fallen head over heels for a certain short black haired male with the cutest smile and the prettiest pair of eyes he’d ever seen.

The man happened to bump into him one day in a coffee shop, spilling the warm drink onto both of them, and during their little clean-up, Yifan was almost too caught up in admiring the beauty of this man to even remember that he had a ten o’clock meeting with the construction manager that morning. In a dash and several more apologies, Yifan hurried out of the coffee shop with a phone number and a name.

Kim Junmyeon.

xxx-xxxx

And then with that little note of paper, it grew into what it was now. Six months into dating, the two were head over heels for one another, within the seventh month, they tied the knot, and then spent the rest of the year that Yifan had in Seoul together. It was hard to part ways with the man once it came to his job calling him away to another city, but with a kiss to his husband’s lips and the new changes he made to his schedule, he would be back within two weeks. And he was.

He was well into his career now so he could make the calls of what jobs he wanted to take and what he gave off to one of his colleagues to take care of. And since he was a married man now, he had to make time for his husband. And he did. As best as he could.

It failed every now and then, and the need to have him in certain places for certain extended amounts of time, it was inevitable sometimes. But nothing that Junmyeon wasn’t completely understanding about. They still were in touch, texting, calling, and even facetiming with one another every night before they retired to bed.

But moments like this one, after having one of the acting mangers over the project call out due to his wife’s pregnancy, Yifan was forced to leave his home with Junmyeon during his winter vacation to work out the details in the US this time.

It was coming up on Christmas, and Yifan knew he wouldn’t be able to make it home before the holiday. He’d spent the entire thirty minutes after receiving the call about the manager, apologizing to Junmyeon over and over. And then before he boarded the plane, he apologized even more. They had plans, they wanted to spend this time together to make up for the absence throughout the year, but as they say, duty calls.

“Yifan, it’s fine, we’ve been through this before. Next year, we can try to spend Christmas together again,” Junmyeon smiled, pecking the man’s lips before handing Yifan the other luggage bag.

Yifan’s expression was still disappointed, “But… I really wanted to spend the holidays with you. We had everything planned and—”

Junmyeon cupped the man’s face, “We’ll have plenty more holidays to spend together, this is just one. I’m not angry with you over this, okay? Stop looking like a kicked puppy.” He pressed his lips to Yifan’s again. “Go and come back to me, yeah?”

Yifan nodded, pressing for another kiss, saddened that his plans of being cuddled up with this beautiful creature by a warm fire and exchanging lazy kisses as the day goes by them was ruined. “I love you, Jun. I’m sorry we can’t spend the holidays together…”

Junmyeon patted the man’s cheek, watching Yifan’s lips start to form a pout, “I know, but this is just one holidays, many more to come. I love you too.” He couldn’t resist stealing another kiss just as the announcement for the boarding of the plane sounded over the intercom. “You need to go before you miss your plane. I’ll be right here waiting for you when you come back, okay?”

Yifan wanted to cry when Junmyeon’s hand fell from his cheek, but with the soft smile on the man’s face, he returned it, nodding his head. “Okay, I’ll call you tonight as soon as I land.”