Flowers and Fragrance

            “Are we done then?” Ryeowook asked, digging his phone out of his bag.

            Donghae nodded, wiping the sweat off his face with a towel.  “We’re done.  Why?”

            “Kyu’s making dinner and he wants to know when I’ll be home,” Ryeowook said, looking from Donghae to Hyukjae.

            “Ah!  He’s actually going to do something this year?” Hyukjae questioned, laughing.

            “He learned his lesson after the last time he forgot,” Donghae joked, pulling off his sweaty t-shirt and digging out a clean one from his bag.

            “That wasn’t Valentine’s Day,” Ryeowook reminded them, packing up his towel and water bottle.  “That was my birthday a couple years back…but yes, he learned his lesson about forgetting important days.  He won’t be spacing out holidays, anniversaries, or birthdays ever again!”

            “I never knew a person could actually go that long without speaking to someone,” Donghae admitted.

            “And that was a looooong time not to have ,” Hyukjae pointed out.

            “A few weeks is a long time?” Donghae questioned, his brows rising as he turned to face Hyukjae.

            “It is for me!” Hyukjae claimed.

            “And the thing is,” Ryeowook said, “I don’t really care if he gets me something expensive or puts tons of thought into it.  I just want him to acknowledge me.  He could have gotten me a card and a cake and I would have been fine if he’d just made the day about me instead of forgetting all about me.”

            “He didn’t forget,” Hyukjae reminded him.  “No one is going to forget your birthday when all the fans constantly remind us of it.  He knew it was your birthday and just didn’t take the time to do anything about it because he had so much going on.”

            “And, if he’d said something ahead of time about getting together to celebrate it on a different day because he was busy or something along those lines, I wouldn’t have been upset, but he just chose to ignore it.  But, like I said, he learned his lesson and I assume you boys won’t be making those mistakes yourselves?” Ryeowook asked.

            Both men shook their heads.

            “So I assume we should be leaving soon so you can attend to business, too.  Correct?”

            Both men nodded.

            “Great.  I’ll call Kyu and let him know we’re leaving soon,” he said, flipping open the cover of his phone, hitting the button for his husband’s cell phone, and waiting.  It only rang twice before Kyuhyun picked up.

            “Ryeonggu!”

            “Kyukyu!”

            “It’s sickening that you two actually baby talk like that to each other,” Hyukjae complained just as Kyuhyun began to speak on the other end of the line. 

            “I think it’s kind of cute,” Donghae countered, smacking Hyukjae in the back of the head.

            “Only because your girlfriend does it to you and you have to do it back, so you don’t want to admit that you hate it,” Hyukjae pointed out, wiping his sweaty forehead onto his hand and then smearing it onto Donghae’s clean shirt.

            “Hey!”

            Ryeowook rolled his eyes.  “Hold on, Kyu,” Ryeowook said.  He then zipped up his bag, slung it over his shoulder, and hurried away from the squabbling best friends so he could hear what his husband was saying to him.  “I completely missed you, babe.  EunHae was bickering with one another.”

            “Ah, I said…are you finally done?” Kyuhyun asked.

            “Finally?  It’s not that late!” Ryeowook said, smiling as he headed towards the door and collected his coat. 

            “Are you on your way home now?”

            “Yeah,” he said, setting down his bag long enough to slip on his coat and put on his hat.  “Do you need me to pick up anything on the way home?”

            “No,” Kyuhyun said, sighing.  “I went shopping today for everything I needed already, but the grocery store was really busy.”

            Ryeowook laughed at this.  “That’s what you get for going on a holiday, although I wouldn’t have suspected Valentine’s Day to be that busy.  You must have caught it at a bad time, poor baby.”

            “I wouldn’t have been so annoyed if that was my only stop, but it wasn’t,” he confessed.  “I had about three or four other stops to make as well.  What a pain!  I need to hire a personal assistant!”

            “Pfft!  You already have one and I do everything for free, so quit complaining about one of the only times every year you have to do something for yourself,” Ryeowook said, heading up the stairs to the main level.

            “Anyway, should I start dinner now,” Kyuhyun asked, “or will you be a while yet?”

            “It depends on what you’re making me,” Ryeowook said.

            “Well, you know I have a very limited amount of recipes in my arsenal, so I’m making your favorite,” he informed his husband.

            “Kimchi fried rice?” Ryeowook asked, smiling.

            “Of course.”

            “I was hoping you’d say that,” Ryeowook admitted.  “That doesn’t take very long, so why don’t you wait until I get home.  I have to shower again anyway.  Hyukie made me practice the choreography for the new music for a couple hours and I’m a sweaty mess.”

            “Fair enough,” Kyuhyun said.  “I’ll see you when you get home.”

            “See you soon.  I love you.”

            “I love you.  Bye.”

            Ryeowook turned off the phone and slipped it into his coat pocket before waiting for security to him out of the building, as a small collection of fans had gathered outside and he just wanted to get out without an issue and get home as soon as possible so he could spend the most time he could with his husband before heading to work for the night.

            Ryeowook walked into the