When I proposed to Himchan it was no big deal. It was in the middle of winter and the heater was broken and we didn't have enough money to get it fixed. I had lost count of how many times that had happened this season, but I guess that's the downside of living in an apartment as ratty as ours. So we spent most of the time curled up in bed under every single blanket we owned with our limbs tangled in order to stay warm.

My boyfriend had let his entire forearm slip under the oversized hoodie I was wearing to rest it against my stomach and chest. I had squealed at first - in a very manly way, naturally - because his fingers were like icicles, but he shot me one of his looks and I didn't say anything. He was content, so of course I was happy as well. Besides it's was pretty adorable to watch his eyelids grow heavier and heavier as he dozed off.

When I reached down to brush some of his hair away to get a better view of his beautiful face, a strange feeling of affection surged through me. I felt so lucky that someone like me could be with someone like Kim Himchan when he could obviously do so much better, but I knew that he loved me and I knew that I loved him even more (whenever I mentioned this, however, we would end up bickering until I had to shut him up with kisses). I wanted to make sure we would stay this way forever.

"Chan-ah," I whispered, shaking him gently to make sure he was listening to me. He let out a grumpy, displeased huff that meant that he was awake. "Let's get married."

To my surprise he chortled. "You're so funny, Bang Yongguk," he murmured sleepily.

I furrowed my brow. "I wasn't trying to be funny, though."

It took a few seconds. Then I felt him tense up in my arms and he turned his body slowly so he could look up at me. His eyes were wide. I smiled sheepishly. "Are you being serious right now?" His breath hitched when I nodded. "You're asking me to marry you?" I nodded again. He lowered his head back down to rest on my chest and his fingers drew circles on my skin. "But we can't afford that," he mumbled.

I pressed my lips to the top of his head and smoothed down his hair immediately afterwards. "I don't care about money, I just want you to be mine forever." Again he shifted his position, this time he ended up hovering above me with one leg of each side of my waist and he looked down at me with glistening eyes. I placed my hands on his hips and my throat clicked when I swallowed nervously. "Kim Himchan, will you marry me?" I asked.

He was smiling as he leaned down and connected our lips and my eyes fell shut of their own accord. I didn't open them again until my boyfriend pulled away and I gave his hips a squeeze, urging him to answer my question. "No," he whispered against my mouth.

My face fell. "Wh-what? Why?"

A chuckle fell from his pretty lips. "Do you think I'm that easy? I thought you knew me better than that." He sat upright, crossing his arms over his chest. "If you're going to propose I demand that you do it properly." I stared up at him, completely frozen (and not because of the cold). After a while my boyfriend rolled his eyes and got off me. He slipped his sock-clad feet into the slippers standing by the side of the bed and left the bedroom.

"What the hell?" I muttered under my breath. I waited a few seconds before I got up to follow him.

I could hear the sound of water running in the kitchen and I entered just in time to see Himchan plugging in the kettle. I walked up to him and wrapped my arms around his waist from behind, pressing my lips to the side of his neck. "I'm making tea," he stated in a light tone as if our previous conversation hadn't taken place at all. "Do you want some?" I hummed in response and he pulled two cups out from the cabinet in front of us, placing them on the kitchen counter.

"Are you mad at me?" I asked him after a few moments of silence.

"Why would I be mad?"

"I asked you if you wanted to marry me and you said no and left the room. I assumed you were mad."

I loosened my grip on him when I felt him trying to turn around in my hold. He cupped my face with his hands and pressed his lips against mine. "You're kind of dumb," he said and kissed me again when I pouted. The water had started boiling and Himchan peeled my hands off his body and pushed me gently towards the dining table, urging me to sit. He put the cups and the kettle on the table and went to fetch our teabags. I saw him frowning as he looked into the small cardboard box, but then he shrugged. It turned out that we only had one left.

He plopped down on the seat across from mine. "So you don't want to marry me?" I pressed as I watched him pour water onto the teabag that he had placed in one of the cups.

He took a swig of the hot liquid before pushing the cup towards me. I wrapped both of my hands around it. It provided great warmth. "You can't expect me to say yes just like that," he sighed as if he was bothered by my suggestion. "It has to be done properly. I have standards."

I should have expected this from him. We had been together for six years, ten months and thirteen days and we had known each other even longer than that. I should have known by now that he was like this. He was always like this, but that was part of what I loved about him. "You know, for a poor person you're extremely high maintenance," I teased and handed him the cup.

"I love you too," he responded with a grin.

*****

A/N: 'sup, subbies?
oh, you should expect puppies and unicorns vomiting rainbows and glitter from this story.
it has so much fluff that I threw up in my mouth a little while writing some of the chapters...
just saying.