At the sound of Himchan entering the living room where I was reading a book I raised my head to look at him with a smile, but the moment I noticed the expression on his face I immediately felt a sense of concern overwhelm me. He seemed guarded in a way that wasn't like him and it made me worried. "Himchan? What's going on?"

He opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, but then seemed to change his mind so he closed it again. He bit his lip hesitantly. "Are you busy right now?" he asked after a few more moments of consideration, eyeing the object in my hands.

"Not if you need me for something." I closed the book and put it away and stood up from the couch to walk over to him. I allowed him to take my hand and pull me to the bedroom. I knew from the atmosphere that this wasn't about , though. This was something else.

Without answering my questions about what was going on, Himchan made me sit down on the bed and I stayed there as he went to rummage through one of his drawers. He returned to me when he seemed to have found what he was looking for and he sat down next to me on the bed, completely rigid. In an attempt to make him a little more relaxed I reached out and placed my hand on his thigh, giving it a squeeze. It seemed to serve its purpose.

In any case Himchan let out a sigh. "I'm going to cut right to the chase," he began without meeting my eyes. " I know this is probably going to sound really, really stupid and I already kind of regret this, but... will you wear this for me?" He showed me what he was holding and I furrowed my brow.

"What's that?" I asked, taking the small box from his hand to open it. "A ring?"

"I was thinking, you know, since I'm wearing one that... that maybe you could wear one too?"

"Like an engagement ring?"

"Yeah, I guess." I took the ring out of the box to get a better look at it. Compared to the one Himchan was wearing, the one I had given him, it was rather simple, but my tastes were less flashy than his anyway so it suited me well. He exhaled sharply when I remained silent for too long. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have suggested this, it was a stupid idea. You don't have to wear it." He reached out to take the ring away from me. I pulled away from him.

"No no, I want to." I handed him back the box and then held my hand out expectantly. "Put it on?" Trembling just a little, he slid the piece of jewelry onto my finger. Once the band hit my knuckle he pulled away and glanced at me as if he wasn't sure how I would react, but I just smiled. "I really like it, Chan-ah," I muttered, leaning in to press my lips against his. "Did you pick it out?"

"Your mother helped me," he mumbled. He ghosted his fingertips over the back of my hand and paused by the ring before continuing down my finger. "But I think this one suits you."

My smile grew even wider. "I think so too," I said and leaned in for another kiss.

It didn't take long before we were lying down with our bodies pressed as close together as possible. I had one arm wrapped around Himchan and our legs were tangled and my fiancé had let his entire forearm slip under the shirt I was wearing to rest it against my stomach and chest. He always liked skin on skin contact. I was content. I was warm and I was comfortable and I could feel my eyelids grow heavier and heavier as I dozed off.

"Guk-ah?" Himchan shook me gently. I didn't have to open my eyes to know that he was looking up at me. He was resting his head on my chest, but I had felt him shift his position so I could tell. I merely let out a low hum, simultaneously indicating that I was listening to him and that he could go on. There was a short pause nonetheless. Then he let out an almost inaudible sigh. "Did you really mean it when you said we can have a baby after we're married?"

The question made me tense up and now I did look at him. He was staring up at me with large eyes and there was a hint of insecurity behind them that made me wrap my other arm around him as well so I could hug him fully and at the same time press my lips to his forehead. "Of course I meant it," I whispered. "I promised I wouldn't lie to you."

"Why can't we have one now, though? Why do we have to wait?" There was something that wasn't quite right about his tone and I didn't like it. I pulled back a little so I would be able to see his face properly. He didn't meet my gaze. "I just... I just don't understand it."

I ran my fingers gently through his hair. " We already talked about this, Chan-ah. I want to focus on getting married before we do anything else and we both know we're going to need a lot of money for that. We'll have to go overseas and I want the wedding to be perfect and that'll most likely be expensive. Having a baby isn't going to be cheap either. We have to save up. You understand that, right?" He didn't give me any kind of answer, not even an indication that he did understand. I let out a sigh. "Himchan? Please look at me?"

"I... I don't care if the wedding is perfect," he mumbled still without raising his gaze. "It doesn't matter. As long as you're there and I'm there what else do we need?" We had talked about marriage ideas when we were younger, before we had even gotten engaged. His preferences had probably changed a little in the years that had passed, but I knew how much it meant to him, which was why I also knew that he wasn't telling the truth when he said it didn't matter.

I kept running my fingers through his hair. "What's the rush? I'm not going anywhere any time soon, Himchan." He didn't say anything and he still didn't look at me. His lips were pressed together in a thin line. I wasn't sure what his expression meant, but I continued anyway: "I love you more than anything in the entire world. I want to start a family with you and grow old with you and be disgustingly disgusting with you for the rest of our lives."

"Oh my God, stop," he exclaimed before I even managed to make it all the way through the last sentence and I paused, blinking my eyes in confusion at his outburst. Not until then did I notice that he had tears in his eyes. I reached down to wipe them away. He was faster than me, rubbing the back of his hand almost angrily over his cheeks.

Needless to say the sight of tears made me worried. "Are these the good kind of tears or the bad kind?"

"The good kind, you idiot." He slapped my chest and sniffled loudly, pressing the heels of his hands into his closed eyes as if that would help him stop the tears. "Where is all of this sappiness even coming from?"

"It's all me, Chan-ah." I pressed my lips to the top of his head.

"I don't remember allowing you to be so disgusting. Because that's what you are, you know. Disgusting."

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

*****

A/N: guys... guys... this is it, you guys. this is the end. it's been quite a journey, huh? 63 chapters. 72000+ words. I see 434 of you right now and I just want to say thank you so, so much for reading this and I love every single one of you. maybe there are some of you people reading this right now who aren't subscribed to the story and I love you too. I love you all. I'm sure waipeu does too. but this is the end. this is how it ends.
I'm just going to go through this chapter real quick. actually, you know what? after you've read this, you should go back and re-read the first chapter of this story, I'm sure you will find a lot of similarities between this and that. that is completely intentional. the "proposal", the cuddling, their position... it's similar (only with the roles reversed, kinda). some of the sentences are even, like, 98% the same. and yeah, I did this on purpose. it felt like closure, you know? wow, pressing that "mark story complete" button was... difficult. T___T
some people have been asking for sequels and spinoffs (there seems to be quite a lot of interest in the zicoxyoungjae pairing especially). I'm not going to make any promises. if it happens it happens and that's that.
I would like it a lot if you commented. it's not required, but it would be nice. :D I would also like it if you read and subscribed to my stories and of course waipeu's stories. and once again; I love you all. ♥