LEO’s POV

“I want it to be private. Dispatch should be the only news media to be allowed to attend my deployment. I want it only to be with my members, my Starlights and...” I fell out of words.

“Rosie?” CEO Hwang finished the sentence for me.

I nodded.

Just mentioning her name burnt the edges of my eyes.

Oh, how I would miss her.

“You made a great deal of choice, being so brave to do and finish your service earlier than your mates,” CEO Hwang whispered, took a hold of my arm from across the table. “She loves you, and she appreciate your decision... that’s the best thing to go home to,” CEO Hwang finished. “Just do your task well, don’t get into trouble in the Air Force, and if you’re lucky, in exactly two years you will go home with a good rank.”

“I will propose to her,” I bravely, firmly said, while wiping something wet from my cheek. “ And it should be the best proposal this country would ever see.”

CEO Hwang nodded.

“You came,” I welcome her, as she smiled and hugged me. “How was the filming?”

“Tiring,” she sighed, and I helped her with her coat as she sat across me. “They did praised me though, for that triple kick. But I think the compliment should go to you.”

“Why?”

“Well you were the one who taught me those moves. Even my teacher hasn’t taught me that.”

I cleared my throat. “Anything’s possible with love.”

Rosie scrunch her face, and in the end, scoffed.

“What’s up about this VIP room though?” she asked.

I rented a restaurant’s VIP room in purpose of tonight’s plans, in order to keep it private.

“You’ll soon find out.”

She frowned.

“Who else going to come?”

“Umm.. you’ll see.”

“Okay, to be honest I still don’t understand why you wanted me to come anyway.” She’s annoyed, I knew.

“You’ll see,” I said blankly.

She sighed, and I felt a little bit guilty for hiding things from her.

I honestly was very scared because I didn’t know how she would react on what I’m going to do next. Rejection, anger, or maybe even slaps and shoutings came into my worst imaginations. But I believe Rosie had matured way more. At least, I forced myself to believe so.

I didn’t even notice that my hands had turned cold, sweaty and trembling.

But right on that time, a pair of hands covered Rosie’s eyes from behind her, and I instantly noticed that Wonshik, along with the others, had came quietly.

“Oh—“

“Guess who,” he said, while holding back a grin, and my group members all sat silently surrounding the big round table, all holding back a laugh. Hakyeon hid behind Wonshik, and, as planned, in his hands were a plate of beautifully-designed cake, in the form of a fighter-jet. My request.

Rosie slowly touched Wonshik’s hands that covered her eyes, a small smile started to faintly bloom over her lips.

“Who.. I know the voice.. but..” she stuttered.

Wonshik finally let go of her, and she turned around. Her reaction, weirdly, brought a huge smile to me too.

“Wonppa!!” she squealed, and she jumped from her seat happily to hug Wonshik, who laughed and was clearly very surprised when she hugged his neck.

Hakyeon, behind Wonshik, smiled too.

I really had nothing against Rosie’s relationship with Wonshik. Rosie was, actually, two weeks older than Wonshik, yet she insisted to call him ‘oppa’ and Wonshik let her be. She had told me once, that she felt she couldn’t let Wonshik go, and she has to have him as her brother. She also admitted, that she had mistaken those feelings towards him once, yet they had fixed everything between them.

Honestly I never wanted to separate them too. Wonshik is also my best friend, and I would only entrust Rosie to him... because I knew that Wonshik would always love her.

“How long has it been?” Wonshik asked, with a huge smile.

“Four months,” Rosie pout. “You haven’t even reached me once!!”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Nah, I’m just kidding!” Rosie laughed, and let him go, as she approached Hakyeon and the other members. “Taekwoon, you didn’t tell me you had them coming!”

I let out a laugh.

“I actually asked your members to come as well. But they’re—“

“Two’s busy with filming drama, one busy practicing for Masked Singer, yeah, yeah..” Rosie continued.

“What? Who went for Masked Singer?” Jaehwan suddenly responded, his attention was fully distracted from his shrimp cocktail that had just came.

“Gainnie,” Rosie said, while doing a Baymax – fistbump with Sanghyuk. “She’s real good.”

“Dramas?” Hongbin asked.

“Eunhee starred in a Sunday morning drama on MBC,” suddenly Wonshik answered.

Both of my eyebrows float to the hairline on my forehead, and Hongbin along with Sanghyuk made this teasing noises while laughing.

“What?” Wonshik cluelessly shrugged, yet I could see his cheeks started to burn.

“Ya, Wonppa...” Rosie started, a huge, teaseful smirk started to crawl to her cheeks. “Don’t tell me you...”

“No,” Wonshik answered eagerly, clearly flustered.

A second later, laughter, teases and giggles were heard everywhere in the VIP room, while they got engrossed in their appetizers.

“Okay, calm down,” Hakyeon said while putting his arm on Rosie’s shoulder, sitting next to her.

“What is this all about, though?” Rosie asked. “That’s... one hell of a cake..”

Rosie was staring at the cake, and I knew very well she had started to get suspicious.

I was about to start talking, yet Hakyeon gestured me to hold back, and let him do the talking.

I nodded, and Hakyeon cleared his throat. Rosie rolled her eyeballs.

“So, tonight, thanks for coming but we know the relationship between you two is not something that’s only yours. We are all involved too, right?” Hakyeon said.

Rosie nodded, and Hongbin muttered, “Yeah, right.”

Hakyeon grinned, and continued.

“So.. Rose-ah, Taekwoon and us had made this.. event, to make a special announcement to you.”

Hakyeon gestured me to start talking, and Rosie looked even more confused.

“What...?”

“Rosie,” I hesitantly started. “I am... accepted... and going to be a fighter pilot.. in the military, next month. I... I will start to serve next month, for 24 months at Gyeonggi-do.”

There was a long period of awkward, torturing silence right after those words was said.

Silent reaction burst everywhere. Wonshik folded his arms on his chest and only stared at the table, his expressions were unreadable. Hakyeon clearly stared at Rosie, Jaehwan started to bit his lips, Hongbin threw stares between me and Rosie, and Sanghyuk fold his arms on the table, staring at the cake.

And Rosie... she only stared at me with a smile that started to fade slowly.

I suddenly felt the need to talk a little bit more. She deserve to get every bits explained.

“Please don’t misunderstand me, Rose.. but, as I had told you before, the sooner I serve, the better. So I could work longer, and spend more time with you, right after I finished. Can you... understand me?”

Her expressions turned unreadable.

Rosie’s face went pale, very pale, until it was almost paper-like, yet there was.. something in her eyes, that made them seem.. stronger, like there was a fire burning in her.

Suddenly, she stood up in silence, shocking everyone around the table. All eyes were at her as she stood up and walked slowly towards me. But in another second, she did something that almost made my heart stop.

Rosie bent down right next to me, cupped my face in her small hands and kissed my lips in front of everyone.

“You did it once in front of Jihae, now it’s my turn,” she smiled, after breaking the kiss.

I fell speechless.

My members jaws dropped at her sudden action.

“I’m proud of you...” Rosie caressed my hair, a soft smile bloomed on her lips, as her eyes glisten with tears that almost fell. “I’m so... proud of you...” she whispered.

I couldn’t say how relieved I was to see her reaction, and let my body fell weak as she brought my face to her chest, hugging me tightly. I let my hands grabbed the back of her clothes weakly, inhaling her scent and her warmth for as long as I could. Suddenly, my eyes grew hot, and I didn’t care even if my tears dirtied her area for having her to cover me crying, helping myself to calm down.

How thankful I was to have someone like her.

And the sudden, overwhelming wave of gratitude hit me, until I couldn’t control myself.

“I love you,” I sobbed. “I love you, Rose..”

I knew it was embarassing, as a man to cry, but I didn’t even care. Knowing my members didn’t make any teasing noises meant they knew how serious the situation was, and it was enough for me.

“I love you more... I love you..” Rosie whispered, calming me down until she pulled away from me, and kneeled to met my eye level. “I love you..” she continued whispering, while wiping my tears away.

It was, I thought, the first time where I lost control and cried badly in front of my group, at least since we won first place six years ago. I felt a little bit embarassed when suddenly hiccups came from me, and turned my face away from my group, while Rosie wiped my tears with her fingers, trying hard to hold back her own tears. I knew my lips, my eyes and my face turned intensely red and swollen, and I knew it was the hardest time in my life to control myself.

“Taekwoon-ah, it’s fine,” Hakyeon finally said, with a trembling smile on his lips. “I’m sorry I couldn’t accompany you to go serve..”

I shook my head, while reaching out for tissues on the table.

I would never ask you to accompany me, Hakyeon-ah... You have done so much for me, how could I ask for more..

When I turned around, another blow of surprise hit me as I saw Wonshik also cried, and Hongbin smiled forcefully, yet he quickly wiped something from the edges of his eyes. Suddenly I felt like air bubbled and burst in my throut, coming out as a snort that turned into laughter right when I saw Wonshik wiping his tears.

“Pfftt-- why are you guys crying,” I muttered, trying my best to hold back my own laughter.

Hakyeon laughed along with the boys who also laughed while wiping the edges of their eyes, and turned out Rosie giggled and hugged my neck to kiss my cheeks.

“Oh seriously hyung, I’ve never thought something like this would eventually happen,” Wonshik muttered with his slightly ragged voice.

“Even more a surprise when it happened to Leo-hyung,” Hongbin laughed.

And then there was loud, funny chatters going on the table, as the kids made fun of how we both met and stuff. Me and Rosie watched them with a smile, as I let Rosie sat on my lap.

“It’s going to be alright,” Rosie whispered, smiling oh-so-brightly while caressing my my cheek.

I nodded, and subconsciously we both leaned forward to let our foreheads touch.

“What are you doing...?”

I got awake all of the sudden, to the usual angel that accompanied me for the night. Rosie leaned on her side and supported her chin with one hand as she watched me sleeping. Her body formed a gorgeous silhouette, as the sun had started to shine brightly from the windows behind her.

“Hi,” she whispered, with the usual, soft smile.

I turned around to face her, ran my fingers through her long, wavy, jet black locks which had grew long enough to touch the bed.

“I love what you done with your hair,” I muttered.

“Really?”

I nodded, and softly played with the highlighted strands near the edges of her hair. She did a silver highlight on some strands of her hair, and it accentuated her image even more.

“I love you,” she whispered.

I nodded, and got up to peck her lips. “Let’s make coffee, I’ll drive you today.”

“Rose, toast’s ready—“

Right then a loud noise of broken chinaware echoed from the kitchen.

Yet there was no shriek or signs of normal shocks whatsoever. My heart fell to the bottom of my stomach.

“Rose!”

I ran across the apartment to the kitchen, stopping only to find Rosie froze on her spot, didn’t even move. Porcelain shattered everywhere near her bare feet but there was no trace of spilled drinks anywhere.

But she froze.

“Rose, don’t move,” I warned her, hurriedly took a broomstick and dustpan from behind the rack, and carefully stripped all the shatters into the dustpan and threw them away.

After making myself sure that the floor was safe to step on, I walked right next to her and turned her stiffened body to face me.

“Rosie, what’s going on..?”

Rosie suddenly let her face rest on my bare chest, and her hands slowly lingered around my waist, holding on weakly.

She said nothing.