"Love doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to be true".

This year, the couple had decided to spend the elder’s birthday in the villa owned by the Yoon family for a short weekend escapade. After having to go through an extravagant birthday party crammed with cocktails and gourmets and socialites and modest speech and business smiles, a yearly protocol that Doojoon detested but his parents insisted had finally ended, the couple headed straight for the earliest domestic flight to the island of volcanic rocks.

Doojoon was dead beaten from entertaining the guests all night, so he brazenly took the book that the deer boy was currently immersed in and tossed it randomly on the sofa, and set to drag the protesting boy to bed right after emerging from his hot shower. The elder summoned the last atom of strength and carried the reluctant Hyunseung, bridal style, only to dump him unceremoniously onto soft lilac sheets, a colour that the bookworm liked for his bed.

“Very. Romantic.” Hyunseung hissed while rolling his eyes. “Yah I was at the ! You brute—“

Lights were switched off and he felt Doojoon climbing up the bed, pulling the cover over their bodies and snuggled up on him, wrapping his arms around his smaller frame and tangling their legs together.

“Yah, am I a bolster?” Hyunseung whined, still offended by how he got cut off from his literature time.

“Mmmm… stop reading those stuffs. Sleep. Shhh...” Doojoon lulled as he brushed his lips lightly on the crown of Hyunseung’s head before cuddling even closer, pressing the bookworm’s face against his chest, already drifting off to dreamland.

Hyunseung scoffed, “How many times must I tell you, these are literatures of explicit intimacy, passion and sensuality weaved together using the finest language. Not stuffs,” Hyunseung’s grunts came out muffled while he glared indignantly at Doojoon’s rising and falling chest.

“…”

“Yah.”

“…”

“YAH Yoondoobong!”

“…”

“… At least dry your hair, you’ll get migraine.” Hyunseung nagged, softer this time round when he felt the elder steadied heartbeat against his palms.

Snores.

‘Eish, You muttonhead.” Hyunseung tried squirming out of Doojoon’s koala-hug to pull the quilt over their heads, using that as a towel to absorb as much moisture left on Doojoon’s hair as possible.

Doojoon woke up in total darkness, feeling gentle puffs of steady breath tickling his chest, followed by a distinct scent of a certain someone’s honeydew shampoo. He grinned under the covers before pulling it down from his head, noticing a slightly damped patch at the corner. He lowered himself and was welcomed with a breath-taking sight of long lashes, milky complexion, and pink thin lips that were slightly parted. He swept aside the dark strands that had fallen over closed eyes and brushed his thumb over those luscious lashes before leaning in to meet a pair of lips with his own. Hyunseung stirred from his sleep, his eyes fluttering opened to see Doojoon blinding smile.

“Good morning beautiful.”

“Hey…” Hyunseung greeted softly, almost y. And the elder would give anything to wake up every morning with this view for the rest of his life.

“Doo…” the voice came again, accompanied with furrowed eyebrows this time.

“Hmm?” The elder offered his most generous smile.

“I think I’m having a stiff neck,” Hyunseung announced after trying to shift from his position. The subtle movements caused him to flinch lightly, shutting a single eye as his jaws locked in a low grunt; the folds in between his brows could probably squash an ant.

“Oh…” Doojoon’s smile had fallen into nervous lip chewing and shifting eyes. He watched as Hyunseung’s discomfort turned from a pout into a sullen sulk, transiting into a full blown temper tantrum.

“It’s all your fault!!” And the volcano erupted. “What was I huh? A tree trunk?!! And you? A koala bear?! I’m a comatose now, a comatose! I’m not getting out of bed today. Never.”

And with that, Hyunseung kicked Doojoon down the bed while trying not to move too much of his upper body, pulled the cover over his head and snoozed on.

Doojoon stared at the purple lump above, feeling highly amused. It was going to be a long morning.

After much hassle and coaxing, Doojoon managed to get Hyunseung out of the bed by placing a neck pillow around the younger man so that he wouldn’t yelp in pain if he happened to suddenly turn his head. By afternoon, Hyunseung had gotten much accustomed to the strain and was more relaxed, hence, the duo decided to visit some places and get some groceries after a few rounds of Wii Kinec.

They got back to the villa right before the sun vanished under the horizon. Hyunseung was all pumped up for the birthday dinner he was about to prepare – Grilled meat! The lit teacher was a hardcore meat lover, particularly beef. Doojoon remembered a 6 year old Hyunseung asked him whether the cows in the milk farm were edible, and he couldn’t forget the hungry look oozing from the boy’s sparkling orbs while feeding a calf.

“Cowie baby, you have to grow up well so that I’ll not run out of beef neh?” Hyunseung coaxed creepily while the calf lovingly.

Doojoon chuckled at his mildly horrifying memory while defrosting a large pack of sliced beef, which earned him a suspicious look from the beef-lover.

“Wah, I didn’t expect you to become such a sadist over dead cows. You’re giving me the creep.” Hyunseung threw his companion a dirty look before getting back to a pound of flank steak that he had been marinating with too much enthusiasm.

Doojoon merely raised an eyebrow and mumbled on, “I wonder who’s the sadistic one…”

They had a hearty dinner consisted of the different parts of a cattle, from rib to tenderloin, and other few of Hyunseung’s favourite dishes, some soju, and watermelon. After washing up, they plopped comfortably on the sofa in their lounge pants and t-shirts, each holding a pint of vanilla ice cream.

“So I’m wondering if this is my birthday or yours.” Doojoon mumbled as he chucked down another spoon of frozen cream.

“Of course it’s yours!” Hyunseung assured, eyes glued on the 64 inches flat screen with blue creatures maneuvering through virtual landscapes of glowing trees and liana and turquoise plains and streams that shined like sliver.

“Then why are we watching your favourite movie, eating your favourite ice cream, and having your favourite beef? And I noticed the bed sheets too.”

Hyunseung wriggled his toes that were mounted on the coffee table, finally letting go of his ice cream tub and tore his eyes away from the tv screen to look at Doojoon, who was already looking at him.

“Impatient aren’t you?” Hyunseung’s doe eyes lit up with a grin, but only had Doojoon begging to differ.

The latter watched his companion scurried off to their room. His eyes fell dead seeing Hyunseung returned with a dreadfully familiar piece of paper.

“Why is it the same gift every year?!” Doojoon groaned as Hyunseung presented him his usual gift, a page full of coupons.

“Wah… but you’ve been using them so well.” Hyunseung countered indignantly. And the lit teacher was pretty damn right, because Doojoon being Doojoon, was a practical man. Hyunseung recalled the elder using “Make me laugh” coupon during his grandmother’s funeral when they were still little kids. The ten year old Hyunseung went all out with his body gag which nearly made Doojoon joined his grandmother in heaven from running out of oxygen from laughing. On another occasion during college, Doojoon used “Borrow anything from you for a day” coupon, where the he borrowed Hyunseung’s boyfriend at that time during Valentine’s Day just to piss off a girl who was too infatuated with him, and also to conveniently break the pair up.

“Yah, why that face. You’re the only person in the world that would ever receive this awesome gift you know, stop sulking.” Hyunseung defended when he noticed the glum look on the elder’s face. “Give it back if you don’t want it,” the younger made to take it back, only to had Doojoon pulling the paper to himself.

“I didn’t say that.” Doojoon glared, which earned him a satisfied look from Hyunseung. He studied the paper, recycled paper might he add (how sincere), filled with boxed up text of Hyunseung’s neat handwriting.

“Terms and conditions applied, you know the drill right?” The latter’s attention was already back to the movie as he talked.

Doojoon hummed irately in acknowledgment before skimming through the list for new ones this year. Hyunseung created the theme, “No matter what”, where Doojoon easily spotted a few eye-catching deals, such as “Stop being mad no matter what”, and the biggie, “Grant me a wish, no matter what.” The elder unknowingly beamed in delight, realizing that the coupon gift wasn’t that bad afterall.

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A/N: long overdue xD i'll put up the next chapter soon!