Woots woots, SURPRISE! ;D

MONTH SIX 

There was only the sound of fingers typing furiously away on laptops and the occasional frustrated flips of pages in the living room. Both Kris and Shin were in the middle of a busy month, where day after day saw them working hard to meet the deadlines of their assignments. 

At the group's suggestion, they decided to work on their assignments together. Jia was crashing at Zhou Mi's to get help from her senior boyfriend, while the other pair of lovebirds, Fei and Luhan, were in the former's room to work. They decided to take the living room then, where they could make use of all the space they had. 

The both of them sat on the floor and opposite each other, laptops on the coffee table and books sprawled on the floor around them. She was in her oversized red tee and sweatpants; he loved seeing her in red, loved the way the color brought life to her otherwise normal fair skin and now black hair. Her hair fell messily over her shoulders; her bangs were sloppily clipped to the side and she every so often stopped to clip them properly again. 

This side of her came as a surprise as it greatly contrasted her working style. Working on the school magazine often meant a perfectionist Shin who was extremely strict on herself. She was always serious, although she welcomed the jokes from the others. At home - and more often now, with him - she behaved freely, not at all bothered by the way she looked. 

He loved this side of her. What he loved even more was the fact that showing this side of her to him meant that she was now comfortable enough with him. Despite being together for a while now, he still had the occasional worries of her still being afraid. Of course, he knew he was being silly, because Shin, being Shin, always had her own way of expressing her affections for him. 

"What are you staring at, Mr Wu?" Her voice broke through his thoughts and he felt his smile grow wider. She looked away from her laptop screen, peeping at him with a cheeky look. "The last time I checked, I don't have anything on my face that can help you with your paper." 

He grinned back at her. "Looking at you gives me the strength to carry on, though." She rolled her eyes and got back to her assignment. He chuckled, shifting himself next to her. When he saw the corners of her lips twitching slightly, he knew that he won. Pulling her close to him with one hand and turning her laptop away with the other, he let out a content sigh, "Mm, I missed having you this close."

She let out a muffled giggle, arms wrapping around his torso. "Me too." She felt him lightly press his lips on her forehead and she closed her eyes, enjoying how nice it felt to be in his arms. She always felt safest with his arms around her and right now, being this close to him melted away all of her stress. "I love you."

Kris swore the world stopped spinning the same moment he stopped breathing. He could not have heard wrongly, could he? Did she just--

"Are you okay?" She blinked innocently at him, like she had not just said those three important words to him. The sudden loss of warmth when she moved back made him want to frown - get back into my arms, he wanted to say - but he was still too surprised to process anything else. "Kris, are you--"

"I love you too."

Shin found herself crushed against his chest, his arms wound tightly around her. She relaxed and snuggled into his warmth, the crook between his shoulder and neck her favorite place, her arms also finding their way around him. They held each other like this for a while, none too willing to be the first to let go. 

"I love you too." He repeated softly and she smiled against his collar bone. "I love you. I love you so much." 

"I know. I love you too." 

"You mean it, right? I mean, I don't want you to say it because I've been saying it," he struggled to explain, holding her tighter still. "I love you, I really do. I just don't want you to feel obliged to say it back to me."

That was when she pulled away, hands reaching up to cup his face. He may be trying to hide it but worry was clearly reflected in his eyes. It then dawned upon her just how much he loved her. Following that, a small pang of pain hit her heart. 

It has been close to two months since Kris first said those three words to her. It was a slip of tongue and he had looked extremely flustered after that. He stumbled over his words, something that rarely happened with him. She still remembered the flush of his cheeks and how his eyes looked at everywhere but her. 

To make it less embarrassing for him, she had softly replied "me too" and reached out to hold his hand. At least, back then, she thought that it was the correct thing to do. It never occurred to her once to reply with another "I love you"; she always thought that love was a huge word and a responsibility equally huge. She wanted to be sure that when she said it back, it was because she truly meant it, not because he had said it to her.

Despite her disappointing response, he became more confident. Sometimes he would slip it in before he said goodnight to her on the phone, other times he would mumble it into her ears when he hugged her. There were also times when they were walking and he would bring their intertwined hands up to his lips, kissing the back of her palm before whispering the three words. 

There has never been a single time when she said more than "me too" or did more than just smile back at him. And just a few minutes ago, he reciprocated her first "I love you" with more than just another "I love you too". This man loved her so much and yet she never did or said enough to let him know that she loved him back just as much too. 

"I'm sorry. I must've kept you waiting long." She wondered how he must have felt for the past months, telling her that he loved her and getting back nothing more. Why did she wait so long to tell him? He deserved them - he more than just deserved them. And right now, she was absolutely sure about it. "But I love you. I really love you too." 

"Can you say it again?" He still looked dazed and she could not help but smile at that. He smiled back, turning slightly to kiss the insides of her palms. 

"I love you." 

"Again?"

"I love you, Kris."

"Again?"

"I love you. Wu Yifan, I love you. I'd say it over and over again," she grinned as she playfully pinched his nose, moving away to sit in front of her laptop again, "but right now, we have to get back to work."

He groaned. "Baby, can't we take a short break?" He was beside her again within seconds, lightly tugging at her sleeve as he pulled out his trump card. He saw the look in her eyes, the one that said , those puppy eyes again, and he knew that he won a second time. He stole a quick kiss before standing up and pulling her along. "We've been at this for hours and we need a quick re-charge! Let's have some chocolate cake!"

She chuckled as she let herself be led by him into the kitchen, listening to him ramble non-stop about how he knew that the chocolate cake was the perfect type of energizer she needed. 

Gosh, I love this man. I really love this man. 

MONTH TWELVE

"Good morning, baby."

There could not be anything in the world that was better than waking up to Kris's morning voice. His voice, originally deep and husky, was scratched with sleep and that made him sound so much ier. 

Shin cringed at the brightness of the morning, barely squinting through an eye she forced open. She heard a deep chuckle vibrating from his throat before feeling him pull her closer to him. She snuggled close to him, resting an arm around his torso as his leg draped over her. Mm, perhaps the only thing better than waking up to his voice was waking up to him next to her. 

Gently rubbing his stomach, she asked, "Are you feeling better?" Now that she remembered why she was here with him, she suddenly felt more awake. "Is the pain better now?"

"It's almost gone." Then he turned to face her, looking at her through sleep-clouded eyes. He smiled lazily as he closed his eyes again, pressing his lips against her forehead. "You always make everything better." 

He had complained of stomach pains the day before, pains so sharp that he could barely stand properly. Despite so, he had persisted on not going to see the doctor, insisting that it was a pain he could sleep away. It was only when he ran away mid-conversation to the bathroom to throw up did she manage to convince him that seeing a doctor was necessary. 

When he was diagnosed with mild food poisoning, she decided to stay the night with him to take care of him.. Even though he put up some resistance, he eventually gave in when she argued that he would insist on the same if it was her who was sick. That - and because he would never say no to spending more time with her. 

"Thank you, love," he mumbled softly but loud enough for her to hear. 

"Anything for you," she smiled, purposely pausing longer than usual, "love."

An hour later, Kris was sitting in his kitchen, hands propping his head up as he watched her cook. Shin was on the phone with her mother, consulting the older woman on what to cook for him. He found it amusing, the way she looked so serious and confused at the same time. As she busied herself with cooking, he busied himself with looking at her and smiling to himself. 

"Just another ten minutes," she turned around comically, putting out both hands to indicate the time left. He could not help but chuckle at the sight. "I'm almost done!"

"You mean I have to starve for another ten minutes?" 

"Yah, I tried my best!" He could hear the pout in her voice and he chuckled some more. Shaking his head, he stood up and walked to stand behind her. When he wrapped his arms around her waist, he let out a sigh of content. She laughed softly when he purposely brushed his stubble-covered chin against her cheek. "Ten minutes will become fifteen minutes if you keep this up, Mr Wu."

He pressed a kiss to her cheek, comfortably resting his chin on her shoulder as she continued preparing their meal. A warm feeling washed over him; he has never felt more complete than he was now. "Well, Miss Lee, this is something you will have to get used to." 

Smiling, he closed his eyes and relaxed, letting his body sway to her slight body movements. He loved everything about this moment, from having the love of his life in his arms to her preparing their meal. He felt whole, like every missing piece of a puzzle has finally fallen into place. 

"When you say this is something I have to get used to, does it include you being down with food poisoning?" It was a joke and Kris heard the teasing in her voice; he has long gotten used to Shin's way of joking and use of sarcasm and the way she would always use them to spoil any romantic moments. It was part of what made her so special in his eyes. "Because if it does, then forget it. I don't like seeing you in pain. It hurts me too." Although  Shin, being Shin, always had her own ways of bringing romantic to the table. 

She yelped in surprise when he lightly pinched her in her sides and he chuckled. "I love you. I love you so much." 

"I love you too." Then she patted at his hands softly, telling him to let go of her. Because he refused and only agreed to loosen his arms, she only managed to turn around slightly. Wrinkling her nose in mock annoyance, she kissed him a little below his chin. Smiling, she said, "I could get used to this."

He smiled back. "That's what I said."

---

Just a little update on how Shin and Kris was doing! :D That said, here's the link to the new project, Why Don't We Fly?. I can't promise very frequent updates but I can promise at least 2-3 updates a week. Of course, I will try my best to write as often as I can (I'm actually writing it during breaks at work, lol) so I can post more often! :D I'll see you guys there!