33%

Against All Odds

Your fingers drummed against your laptop while your eyes stayed glued to the screen, waiting desperately for the page to load and give you your results.

"Come on..." You mutter to yourself, your patience growing thin as you continue to watch the circle of death revolve again and again in the middle of the screen. But finally, as if to please you, the circle disappears and blocks, letters, and colors start forming on the screen.

Your head dives closer towards the screen and your eyes awaken as they read over each word carefully, expecting the best outcome possible.

But instead, a fat red '33%' was flashing in the middle of the page and you felt your heart sink. Looking for an explanation or maybe a possible 'error' in their system, your eyes find the first paragraph and start reading, hoping to find some optimism in them... but no luck.

Unable to even fathom this outcome, you began changing the combination to all the other 11 options, taking a look at their results. Your's couldn't possibly haven been the lowest one...

But as you reached the last option before coming to your result again, it was. A 33%. The lowest score.

And to your surprise, your eyes began to water.

"Babe, where are you?" Your ears perk at the sound of your boyfriend's voice. He sounded cheerful today, which would've been great if you didn't suddenly feel like death was upon you. As you heard his foot steps approaching closer to the bedroom, you immediately flop over onto your side on top of the bed and bury your face into the covers, not wanting him to see you in such a state.

"Baby?" You hear Jiyong's voice at the door and could almost make out the smile that follows with it as soon as he spots you, "There you are. Why didn't you reply?" You soon feel the bed dip next to you, his heat radiating onto your curled up legs and feet. "Hey... what's wrong?"

You shook your head as more tears spilled out. You knew you were being silly reacting this way to such a thing, but the worst thoughts couldn't help but bubble up along with that blinking red 33%.

Now his warm hands were resting on your arm, gently shaking you.

"Hey you..." He coos again, and you can hear the concern, "What happened? Are you in pain? What's going on?"

Knowing that at this rate, he'd never leave, you surrender and finally push yourself up into a sitting position and facing him, allowing him to see your tear-stained cheeks and a large pout on your lips.

You can see the alarm in his eyes at your tears as he brings his hands up to cup your chin, using his thumbs to wipe away the marks your tears had left behind.

"__________-ah... why are you crying, hm?" Jiyong asked with his brows furrowed. "Tell me, baby. Please." It always aggravated him whenever you were upset, crying, or angry and he had no idea why.

With a defeated sigh, you simply point accusingly towards your computer screen and watch his eyes follow it, meeting with the website you were looking at earlier.

"...'Horoscrope Compatibility'..." He reads out loud and it's clear he has no idea why you were showing this to him. So to help, you scrolled further down the page to show the results after entering your horoscope sign and his own, revealing again that damn 33%.

He's silent as he takes in the image. You, too, remain quiet as your mind drifts off again, remember what you read in 'Love & Relationship' section. But your thoughts are cut off by his sudden chuckle.

"Babe," He starts while tapping against the screen before looking at you in disbelief, "is this what you're crying about? This... 'compatibility test'?"

You nod your head twice before pouting even more, but this only makes him laugh harder.

"This doesn't mean anything, you silly." He reassures you and holds your hand tightly in his. "I'm not going to love you any less just because I was born on a certain day..."

"But, look!" You protest, not giving up so easily and scroll down towards the section that really got to you, "Look what it says here... 'completely different lifestyles which will get in the way of understanding each other... this will frustrate the Leo male as he tries to reach out... he will see her as 'boring', 'stubborn', and 'suffocating'.'" You emphasize each negative trait you had already seen in yourself long before. "Do you think I'm boring, stubborn, and suffocating?" You ask while looking at him, desperate to hear it from his own lips, "It says we won't last longer than a year... and our anniversary is coming up soon..."

He takes a moment to just stare at you, his eyes taking in and observing exactly how affected you were by all this silliness that article was feeding you. He never saw you so uncertain about your two's relationship before, much less because of something you read online from a questionable source. You even cried because of it. 

But while he stared at you, observing all these things, seeing you worry your silly head about whether or not you two would last and how cute it was, he realized how wrong that article was: 100%.

He first pushes himself closer to you. Maneuvering the both of you so that you sat just in between his outstretched legs, allowing him to wrap his arms around your torso from behind and bury his head into the crook of your neck. With each breath he took, his nose would fill with your scent which would make his heart flutter.

"I do not find you boring. You always do silly stuff like this that keeps me on my toes." He says with a smirk. His warm breath tickling your ear and neck. "You can be a bit stubborn, but it's nothing that I can't handle." He attempts at a joke, which successfully brings a hint of a smile to your lips. "And you are not suffocating. If anything, it's more suffocating for me when you aren't around." He says it so simply, but he doesn't realize just how deeply his words settled into your heart and warmed it.

"And finally, we're not going to last for only a year." He says with a wide smile, shifting his head so he could clearly see yours. You turn your head as well, staring up into his eyes to see the promise in his words, "We're going to stay together for a long time... until we're old, wrinkly, and lose all of our teeth." His eyes flicker to your lips, craving them at that precise moment as he leans in, pressing his lips against yours for a quick peck before continuing. "And we'll have lots of babies together, and our babies will have babies. And we'll all be happy, healthy, and still in love." He spoke as if he was telling you a story. A story that played images in your head of a bright and happy life by his side. The best thing about it was that he made it sound so believable.

With your mind preoccupied by those images, you lean your head against him while your eyes dazed off at the center of your screen. That 33% no longer blinking so brightly, but merely just another splotch of color on a white canvas.

"Do you really think so?" You ask, despite already knowing his answer as he gentle holds your hand in his and lifts it up to his lips.

"I know it." He whispers, closing his eyes as he presses his lips to the back of your hand, making you smile.

 

You were brought back to the present by a firm squeeze of a familiar hand. You slowly turn your head to see a familiar face, his head full of silver hair shining in the soft sunlight from the windows, styled in one of the many different ways he had always liked it. The wrinkles set here and there on his face, evidence of his smiles from over the years.

"What are you thinking about, hm?" He asks. His voice older and more tired than how it used to be. But not any less distinct as if you really listened carefully, you could still hear remnants of his youth. You glance down at his thumb that was softly caressing the back of your hand that also had it's own share of wrinkles.

"Mm..." You hum happily, "when you predicted the future." You said with a wide smile, showing your still healthy and strong set of teeth, "Well, except for the teeth part."

His lips curve into his smirk, one that somehow still looked handsome over the years. "Still think we're only a 33%?" He raises an eyebrow with his question.

And as if watching a movie, your lives together played before your eyes as you remembered each up and down, all the fights, all the laughter, and all the love that was exchanged between to two people that were supposed to be different. So different that they weren't even supposed to make it past a year.

"Alright, everyone! We're lighting the candles now. Mom, Dad, go ahead whenever you're ready." Your eldest daughter says, motioning to the rest of the large family that had gathered for your and Jiyong's special day.

You two glanced at each other, both full hearts while being surrounded by family and loved ones. But most importantly, being by each other's side for another day.

"Happy 67th Anniversary, _________-ah." He said with such content. His eyes glistening in wonder and pure delight from the reality of such a phrase.

"Happy 67th Anniversary, Jiyong." You returned, before leaning in for a sweet kiss to add to the millions that you have shared together.

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Hatsumomo #1
Chapter 1: Oh my godness this was definitely a feel-good story! This was just what I needed before goingt to sleep! >. < Perfect, thanks so much for sharing this lovely story with us :)
ninabread #2
Chapter 1: Awwwwwww :*D

Oh, and btw, I just wrote a tiny drabble for taeyang - if you have time, could you tell me what you think?

I think I'll start with this and work my way up lol.

Beautiful scenario with such a vague prompt :)