“Maaark! Where are you?” Mark hears his boyfriend call out as he arrives at their shared apartment.

“I’m right here,” Mark waves, poking his head out from the kitchen where he was making himself some tea. He takes out an extra mug for Jaebum.

“Oh Mark, I love you, Mark,” Jaebum slurs loudly, mispronouncing Mark’s name as he trips over his feet while attempting to remove his shoes. Mark puts away the mug and replaces it with a bottle of water. Although Jaebum has assured him many times that going out drinking with co-workers is part and parcel of the life of the average Korean man, Mark can’t help but frown whenever Jaebum is comes home intoxicated. It’s especially bad tonight; usually he’s just tipsy, but now he's completely -faced. Mark is actually kind of surprised that he managed to find his way home and let himself inside, to be honest.

“Maaark, I need to talk to you. It’s really important! It’s–” Jaebum stops mid-sentence, looking green in the face.

“Ah!” Mark all but throws down his tea and Jaebum’s water and rushes to guide Jaebum into the kitchen. Throwing up in the kitchen sink isn’t exactly ideal, but it’s better than throwing up on the living room floor.

“Ergh, I’m fine, I’m fine,” Jaebum pants, looking anything but.

“Here, drink this,” Mark lifts the bottle of water to Jaebum’s lips. Jaebum presses them together, obstinate even in this state. Mark just presses the bottle to his lips until they part, then he puts his hand to the nape of Jaebum’s neck and tilts his head back, letting him swallow small sips at a time. “That’s it, just like that,” Mark lowers his hand from Jaebum’s neck and moves it to his back, rubbing it soothingly.

“Ah, thank you, Mark. You take care of me so well, that’s why I love you,” Jaebum babbles, spilling water on the front of his suit.

“Oh , that’s dry-clean only,” Mark swears as he grabs a paper towel and starts to blot the black silk.

“It’s okay; I’ve got like a dozen others just like it. You helped me buy them, remember? God, I love you. Have I told you that already?” Jaebum pushes off the sink and wraps himself around Mark like a sentient scarf.

“Once or twice,” Mark chuckles, shuffling backwards towards the sofa. When his calves touch the soft leather, he carefully lowers the both of them down onto it. “There we go.”

“Mark, I have something important to tell you,” Jaebum breathes into his collarbones.

“What is it?” Mark hums, companionably bumping his knee against Jaebum’s thigh.

“I was on my way home and I saw a dog. A dog, Mark,” Jaebum says, sounding awed.

“What kind of dog was it?” Mark learned long ago that the only way to make sense of Jaebum’s drunken ramblings is to ask him questions until he comes off the tangent he started on.

“It was dark and the bus started moving pretty fast after the red light so it was kind of hard to see, but I think it was a golden retriever. She was such a good dog. I didn’t get to pet her, but I just know she is,” Jaebum coos. Mark can’t help but smile; to think the younger man likes to insist that being cute doesn’t suit him.

“Was she alone?” Mark lifts the water bottle to Jaebum’s lips again.

“No, of course not. You can’t leave dogs alone on the street,” Jaebum scoffs. “She had two owners. They were walking together. It really made me think.”

“What did it make you think?” Mark wipes a stray drop of water off Jaebum’s chin.

“Marry me,” Jaebum says simply, lifting his head from Mark’s chest to peer into his eyes. Mark drops the water bottle, eyes bugging out of his head.

“Oh no, slippery when wet!” Jaebum exclaims before he pulls himself off Mark and stumbles toward the kitchen.

“Wait, wait, wait! What did you just say?” Mark demands, grabbing Jaebum by the arm. Jaebum keeps moving forward and Mark’s feet lose traction as they slide over the spilled water. The two of them go crashing to the floor

“Owww, I told you, Mark. Slippery when wet,” Jaebum groans, rubbing his elbow.

“Did you just propose to me?” Mark asks with wide eyes.

“Yes,” Jaebum says, looking terrifyingly sober for one moment.

“What, now? Like that? While drunk?” Mark’s voice steadily climbs to a tenor.

“Pffft you say that like it’s something I just came up with. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, or else I wouldn’t have this, now would I?” Jaebum declares as he pulls a black box out of his trouser pocket. Whatever wind was left in Mark’s lungs after his fall is knocked out as Jaebum opens the box to display a white gold ring with small diamonds dotting its side.

“No.” Jaebum’s face falls.

“You…you don’t want to marry me?” He asks, his voice barely a whisper.

“No, I mean I refuse to give my answer now. Not like this. If I know you at all, then there’s no way you wanted it to happen like this. And I don’t want to have to describe how the proposal went not only to my parents but also to my fiancé because he was too wasted to remember it.” Mark gets to his feet, pulls Jaebum to his, and guides him to bed with hands on his shoulders.

“No, you’re going to sleep this off, and then you’re going to try again tomorrow. Or whenever, but not now.”

“Okay,” Jaebum mumbles, complying but still looking a bit put out.

“Come on, get your suit off,” Mark orders, ing his suit jacket. Jaebum blinks sleepily at him, unmoving except for slightly swaying on his feet. Mark rushes to his trousers and pull them down, succeeding just before Jaebum collapses on the bed. Mark heaves a sigh, shaking his head, before he continues to undress his lover, hanging up the suit and putting it in the ‘to clean’ section of their walk-in closet.

He’s about to head to the kitchen to make himself a fresh cup of tea when he notices the black box lying on the floor. He picks it up, turning it over in his hands before he stares at his sleeping almost fiancé. Biting his lip, Mark digs up a post-it notepad, scribbling out a message before he sticks it to the box. Then he rests the box on Jaebum’s chest. He knows he told Jaebum that he could do it whenever, but now that he knows that Jaebum’s not only been thinking about marriage, but has gone out and bought a ring…waiting any longer would just drive him mad.

After he has his tea, he brushes his teeth and crawls into bed beside Jaebum, who hasn’t moved an inch. Mark should feel at ease, knowing that their feelings are so aligned, but he’s so anxious for the other man to wake up that it takes ages for him to fall asleep.



Before he’s even fully awake, Jaebum feels the pain of his hangover reach him in his dreams. It’s only when he opens his eyes does he realise that they’re not being squeezed out of his head by a vice, as much as it feels like it. The sunlight shining through the window renders him blind, momentarily distracting him from the fact that his mouth tastes like something crawled into it last night and died. He blearily sits up and glances over at his side table, expecting to see the usual glass of water and painkiller. It’s there, but so is something else.

“,” Jaebum croaks. He’s kind of glad that he can’t remember last night, because if he did he would be kicking himself particularly hard at doing something so mortifying even if Mark says yes and they live happily together for fifty years. For one fleeting moment he considers throwing himself out their window to spare himself the humiliation of the exchange he’s about to have, but he shakes it off, pausing as his head starts spinning again. But before he faces Mark, he heads to their en suite to wash his face and brush his teeth. Even if he feels like , directly and indirectly due to the alcohol he consumed, he doesn’t have to look like it.

“Good morning, Mark, or afternoon I guess,” Jaebum mumbles as he shuffles into the living room. Mark jumps to attention at the sound of his voice.

“Uh, I saw this note on my table,” Jaebum says, sheepishly holding up the ‘Try again when sober!’ message he found stuck to his ring box. “Did I really…?” Jaebum trails off, looking awkward and embarrassed.

“Mmhm,” Mark nods, suppressing a smile.

“Ah…I see,” Jaebum coughs.

“So…?” Mark prompts with raised eyebrows after a long silence fills the room. Jaebum opens and closes his mouth a few times, trying to get out the words trapped in his throat. It’s not like he had written a speech–well he did, but that was just a draft–and the fact that Mark is making him redo it when he could’ve pretended it didn’t happen is surely an indication that he’ll say yes but…

“Jaebum, just speak,” Mark says softly, eyes shining. Jaebum ignore the thudding of his heart in his chest, taking a deep breath to clear his head. Okay.

“Mark, when we first met, you were so quiet and unassuming, but something about you caught my eye; I couldn’t stop looking at you. You play your cards so close to your chest that I swore you were going to tell me to off when I asked you out, but then you said yes. And…and now here we are.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but sometimes when we’re just sitting on the sofa, watching a movie or TV show together, I’ll turn and look at you. It’s because I’m just so happy that I’m beside you, that you’re beside me. So, so can I look at you forever?” Jaebum cringes. Mark gasps before inhaling deeply, beaming at Jaebum, baring his adorable shark teeth.

“Yes, of course.” Jaebum releases a breath he didn’t know he was holding. The smile was a decent hint, but he needed to hear it out loud to be sure. Mark holds out his left hand, wiggling his fingers significantly. Jaebum jumps a bit, rushing to get the ring on his finger.

“Are you still drunk?” Mark chuckles as Jaebum misses his finger twice.

“And excited and so anxious I could piss myself,” Jaebum mumbles as he struggles to get the ring on, succeeding on his fourth try.

“Why anxious?” Mark, his fiancé, tilts his head.

“What if I it up?” Jaebum breathes. It’s amazing how freaked out he feels when the best thing in his life has just happened to him.

“Hmm getting anxious about something like that is counterproductive. If we run into problems, we’ll deal with them then. For now, let’s celebrate,” Mark grins before pulling Jaebum into a kiss. Most of Jaebum’s anxiety vanishes the second his lips touch Mark’s, and the rest of it slowly melts away as Mark’s tongue moves around his mouth.

“Better?” Mark smiles. Jaebum nods, a dopey grin on his face. Mark giggles, flashing his canines.

“So, Mark, my dear fiancé,” Jaebum pauses to kiss Mark again, “What should we do today?”

“Hmm how about we get a dog, a golden retriever?” Mark smiles cheekily.

“You think so too?” Jaebum gasps with raised eyebrows. Mark nods, his eyes glinting. “I guess I really was wrong to be so anxious. Seems like we’re entirely on the same wavelength,” Jaebum says, sighing in relief. Mark bursts out laughing.