Present Day

Sehun's eyes are following Luhan as he scurries around the kitchen trying to finish his latest new recipe before Kyungsoo's party. From where he's sitting, Sehun could see pure excitement radiating from Luhan's body language. His heart warms when he sees that distinct sparkle in Luhan's eyes whenever he's doing something he loves. And Sehun has no problems with Luhan exploring new recipes for his restaurants because by being married to him, Sehun gets to be the official taster – a job he's quite enjoyed over the years.

“What is it called again?” Sehun asks when Luhan turns around with a plate of something that Sehun has never seen before.

“It's cranberry brie crepes,” Luhan answers as he hands Sehun a fork. “I'll probably call it something else if we do decide to add it to the dessert menu at Lucky.”

Sehun stabs the dessert with his fork, and out trickles the cranberry sauce Luhan spent twenty minutes perfecting. He takes a bite, mindful that Luhan's eyes are on him, anticipating.

Putting the fork down on the plate, Sehun takes a few seconds to carefully chew the crepe.

As soon as he swallows, Luhan asks, “So what do you think?”

Sehun thinks about the after taste, and when he finally decides on what he wants to say, he reaches over the counter and takes Luhan's hand.

“The cranberry is too tangy, and the crepe part – if I'm pronouncing it right – is a bit chewy. Overall, I'm not a fan...”

There's disappointment in Luhan's eyes when he quickly says, “But French people –”

“Babe, I'm Korean.”

Luhan sighs. “Yes, I know..” He looks down at the crepes and pouts.

Sehun leans over to kiss that pout away. “I thought you wanted me to be honest. Weren't you the one who said I should be more honest with my feelings?”

“And I do love you for giving me your honest opinion,” Luhan says before pecking Sehun on the mouth, “but it's still disappointing. I wanted you to like it..”

Sehun squeezes Luhan's hand. “Hey, maybe it's just me. You should let the others try it.”

“Yeah, but they'll probably say the same thing.” Luhan takes another look at the crepes, pondering something. “Maybe I should try it with strawberries.”

Sehun smiles and lets go of Luhan's hand. “Yeah. Maybe you should, but right now, we have to get ready to go.”

“Alright.” Luhan turns around and starts washing the dirty dishes.

Sehun grabs the boxes that were filled with an assortment of party food that Luhan had finished earlier. “I'll put these in their bags and put them in the car.”

“Oh, do you need help?”

“No, I got it.”

Thirty minutes later, Sehun and Luhan are parked outside of Baekhyun and Chanyeol's house. Sehun honks the horn when he sees Baekhyun taking his sweet time to get to the car. Baekhyun ignores him completely and turns around to snap at Chanyeol, urging him to hurry up with locking the front door.

Luhan giggles upon seeing this, but all Sehun could do is roll his eyes.

Baekhyun happily greets Luhan as he enters the car, and gives Sehun a mere nod as he scoots over to make room for Chanyeol.

“Should we really let Sehun drive?” Baekhyun asks after Chanyeol helps him with the seat buckle.

Sehun scowls when Luhan smiles at Baekhyun's remark. “What's wrong with my driving?”

“Are you good at it?”

“Better than you,” Sehun states as he starts the engine and backs out of their driveway.

“Watch out for our gnome!” Baekhyun suddenly shrieks, causing Sehun to hit the brakes hard.

“What?!”

Baekhyun suddenly starts laughing hysterically. Sehun turns to look at Chanyeol, who's shaking his head. He looks at Sehun, and tells him, “We don't have any gnomes.”

Sehun glares at Baekhyun.

“What?” Baekhyun asks, trying to sound innocent. “I just wanted to see how fast you could hit the brakes. Congratulations, you passed!”

Sehun closes his eyes for a second before he turns to his side to ask Luhan a sincere question, “Can I please kick him out so I can run him over?”

“Yah!” Both Baekhyun and Chanyeol shout from the back.

Sehun ignores them and starts driving – already regretting his decision to carpool with Chanyeol and Baekhyun.

During the car ride, he and Chanyeol would occasionally say something about work, but the conversations never last long because Baekhyun and Luhan would change the topic to something completely different.

“Why can't we talk about work when you two talk about the restaurants and the cafes all the time?” Sehun asks when they stopped at a red light. He's not upset or anything, just merely curious.

“Because you use words we've never heard of whenever you talk about work,” Baekhyun replies. “It gets boring.”

Sehun looks at Luhan to confirm. Luhan gives him a shy nod. “It's true.”

“Should Sehun and I use simpler terms?” Chanyeol asks, earning a smack in the arm from Baekhyun, whose expression darkened.

“Are you calling us dumb?!”

“No! N-No,” Chanyeol quickly splutters. He looks towards Sehun for backup, but Sehun kept his eyes on the road. Frankly, there's nothing he could do to help Chanyeol. He's simply not trained in dealing with an insulted Baekhyun.

Noticing the pitiful plea in Chanyeol's eyes, Luhan turns around in his seat to smile at Baekhyun. “Baek, he's not calling us dumb. Chanyeol just didn't want us to feel left out.”

“Y-Yes. That! Luhan's right.” Chanyeol shoots Luhan a silent Thanks.

Baekhyun rolls his eyes, a gesture Chanyeol seems to take as one that meant forgiveness because he smiled as he intertwined their fingers.

Luhan turns back around with a satisfied grin on his face.

For a moment, Sehun wonders what they would have done if Luhan wasn't here. He immediately shakes the frightening thought out of his head.

The rest of the drive was peaceful, thankfully, and they arrived at their destination with everyone in good spirits.

After they've unloaded the bags and boxes, they made their way into the high rise apartment building where their friends were most likely waiting.

The first thing that comes out of Jongin's mouth when he opened the door is, “Nice of you guys to actually turn up before the year was over.”

“We're not even that late. It's not the end of the world,” Baekhyun huffs, pushing Jongin aside to enter the apartment. “Yeol, hurry up.”

Jongin balls his right hand into a fist, and makes a punching gesture at Baekhyun, whose back was turned. Chanyeol, seeing this, frowns in disapproval.

“Watch it, Jongin. That's who I'm married to.”

“I know and I'm terribly sorry,” Jongin solemnly states as he pats a suddenly confused Chanyeol on the back.

Sehun laughs, but he quickly stops when Luhan shoots him a look that usually meant no loving for three days.

“Congratulations on your engagement,” says Luhan once he got inside the apartment, handing Jongin a bottle of red wine.

“Thanks.”

“You sure about this?” Sehun asks in a low whisper, causing Jongin to grin.

“Positive.”

Taking a brief moment to look at his best friend, who was almost glowing, Sehun concludes that Jongin was definitely ready to make that big step, and he couldn't be more proud.

“Well, welcome to my tiny apartment,” Jongin announces as he closes the door behind him.

“It's not that tiny,” Chanyeol notes as he looks around, eyes widening when he sees the spectacular nighttime view of Apgujeong.

“Tiny compared to your mansions,” Jongin rephrases, walking over to hand Chanyeol a glass of white wine.

“We don't live in mansions,” Luhan clarifies as he walks towards the kitchen to join Baekhyun, who's already enthusiastically chatting with the other party guests.

Jongin scoffs. “Mini mansions then.”

Sehun takes a look around and though he knew a few of the other guests, they weren't the people he was hoping to see. “The others aren't here yet?” Sehun asks as he places the boxes on the table that Jongin had set up in the living room.

Jongin picks up another glass and hands it to Sehun, who accepts it with gratitude because he desperately needed a drink – being in a car with Baekhyun can do that to non-alcoholics.

“They're also running late,” Jongin answers. “I honestly don't know why I'm friends with people who don't have any sense of time.”

“Well, time is a difficult concept to understand,” Chanyeol states matter-of-factly. “How do we really know that we're late? What makes someone on time? How do you measure earliness? All fascinating questions, but no one has made time to answer them. Pity.”

Sehun and Jongin stare at Chanyeol, flabbergasted.

After a few silent seconds, Chanyeol clears his throat and rubs his neck nervously. “Sorry. I can get philosophical when I drink.”

Jongin blinks a few time, and when he's unable to make sense of what just happened, he leans over to whisper to Sehun, “He graduated from law school? Really?”

“Law school isn't difficult,” Chanyeol pipes up. Apparently, he also has super hearing whenever he drinks. “It's all about effort and the passion you put in.”

“That explains it,” Jongin says with a smile. Chanyeol flashes Jongin his signature smile in return. Sehun tries not to laugh at the situation.

The doorbell rings, and being the host, Jongin leaves to answer it. Sehun beckons Chanyeol over to help take everything out of the boxes and place them neatly on the table.

“Shouldn't the caterers do this?” Chanyeol asks as he takes out the salad bowl, putting it next to the appetizers.

“I like to see you tell them that,” Sehun muses.

Chanyeol looks over his shoulder, eyes quickly finding Baekhyun and Luhan still in the kitchen, laughing about something.