“Happy Birthday to you~ Happy Birthday to you~ Happy Birthday Happy Birthday~ Happy Birthday to you! Happy 21st, baby!” 

I opened my door to Yongguk was a birthday cake in the middle of the night. It was two in the morning and I was home alone, since my mom was in Gangnam to visit my uncle. I squinted my eyes at him, trying not to fall back asleep. 

“Get inside, you’ll wake the neighbors.” I said. 

Yongguk laughed a bit and stepped inside the house, still holding the cake with candles lit. He stepped in and I closed the door behind him, switching the living room lights on. I turned around to look at him and noticed something that I didn’t notice before. It seemed that the cake was home baked. 

“Quickly blow out the candles.” Yongguk urged, putting the cake closer to my face. 

I smiled and shook my head. I blew out the candles, feeling my heart swell and all drowsiness gone. Yongguk set the cake down onto the coffee table and looked back at me. I smiled and stood up on my tiptoes, bringing my arms around his neck to hug him. I pulled him in roughly and responded with a playful groan only to then bring his arms around me too. 

“Did you bake the cake?” I asked, resting my shoulder against his shoulder. 

“Yeah.” he laughed. “I was meant to come at midnight, right on time but I burnt the first cake so I had to start over.”

I laughed and pulled away, kissing him. Nothing had changed, we were still living next door to each other and we were still so in love with each other. Yongguk smiled against my lip and rested his hands on my hip, making me feel safe. 

“You need to shave your stubble.” I pulled away grimacing. “It hurts.” 

Yongguk laughed and shook his head. He then grabbed him hand and roughly rubbed the back of my hand against his stubble. It didn’t sound too bad, but that was painful. I yelped and quickly pulled my hand away. 

“You really know how to ruin moments, babe.” Yongguk stuck his tongue out. 

“Ew.” I said. “Don’t call me that.” 

I began walking away, into the kitchen when I felt him chasing after me. I’ve always had a strange fear of people chasing behind me, even though they don’t intend to. But once I knew that Yongguk was chasing me on purpose, I began freaking out and running faster. I tried running quickly into the kitchen when I felt his strong arms wrap around my waist and he lift me off the ground and against his chest. 

“Oh my gosh, put me down.” I squealed, a strange feeling of fear and happiness mixed together. 

I was glad that he was affectionate but a part of me was terrified that he was chasing behind me. Yongguk lifted me slightly off the ground and against his body, laughing evilly and twirling around, making his way to the living room. Finally, after he thought that he had enough fun, he sat down on the couch and made me sit on his lap. 

“That was terrible.” I panted. “Don’t do that again.” 

“You like it.” Yongguk poked at my sides. “Don’t pretend.” 

I chuckled and nodded, still trying to catch my breath. 

“Yeah, I do.” 

I smiled a bit and kissed his lips. Yongguk placed his hand against my cheek and kept me there, not letting me move away from him. Although I never wanted to do so. I put my arms around his neck and continued to kiss him. 

“Happy Birthday.” he whispered as we pulled away. “What do you want to do?” 

“Honest answer?” I raised my brows at him. 

He nodded. 

“Sleep.”  

_______________ 

Yongguk and I ended up out on the porch in my backyard, just sitting on the steps with a blanket around us. We had the cake resting on Yongguk’s lap and we tried finishing it, although Yongguk’s baking skills weren’t great yet. It was a bit too dry for my liking but I still at it, because he had to bake it twice. I chuckled at the idea and rested my head on his shoulder. 

“Please remind me never to bake again.” Yongguk said, collecting the fork and setting the cake behind us, on the porch. 

I laughed huddled closer to Yongguk as I gust of wind blew by. I held the blanket tighter against myself, while link my arm in his. The smell of his flesh and light cologne was so familiar and I was eased. I wasn’t sure from what, but being around him just gave me a feeling of safety. 

We just sat there, in complete silence, no words needed to be exchanged. It wasn’t an awkward silence but rather a comfortable silence. 

“Are you glad that you’re legal now?” Yongguk asked. 

“No.” I sighed. “It just means more responsibility.” 

“It’s not like you were responsible in the first placed.” Yongguk scoffed. “Always depending on oppa to clean up after your mess.” 

After he said that, I actually did then realize that I was sometimes very dependent on Yongguk. It was true. But I guess there wasn’t anything wrong with being dependent. It just shows that I was human and I could go weak sometimes. I was touched, but then again, he said oppa so I wasn’t as touched. 

“You know I hate that word, yeah?” I looked up at him.

“I know.” Yongguk shrugged. 

Again, we were back to the silence. But this time it was a strange silence. Since I knew Yongguk so well, I could tell when he was uncomfortable or when something was wrong. He wasn’t as relax as he should have been and his jaw kept tensing, as if he wanted to say something but decided against it. I opened my mouth to ask but didn’t get a word out before he beat me to it. 

“Should we get married?” he asked quietly. 

Upon hearing those words, my heart lurched in my chest. I felt it speed up and I didn’t believe what I had just heard. 

“What?” I said quietly. 

Yongguk sat up straight and looked down at me with his familiar warm eyes. I knew what I heard was correct, so I felt happiness build in me like I’ve never felt before. 

“Marry me.” Yongguk smiled. 

My mouth opened but I didn’t hear any words come out and I felt my chest stir at the unfamiliar conversation. Yongguk reached his hand into his pocket and brought out a small, square velvet box. He then used his other hand to open the small box to reveal a silver ring with a small diamond simply embedded in the middle. 

I reached my hand out to feel the small objects, trying to grasp fully onto the situation, just to make sure I wasn’t crazy and imagining everything. 

“So…” he asked. 

Tears fell from my eyes before I quickly wiped them away with an embarrassed laugh. 

“Yes, Bang Yongguk, I’ll marry you.” I said. 

Yongguk smiled and let out a small breath of relief, as if scared that I would decline his offer. He took the ring out of the small box and ushered me to give him my left hand. I quietly reached my hand out to him, faced down. He slipped the beautiful ring into my finger and brought my hands to his lips, kissing it. 

I let a few more tears fall before throwing my arms around him and hugging him. It was my dream proposal. A lot of people liked public proposals, ones that had a lot of people around them. For me personally, I didn’t have anything against public proposals, I just felt that it wasn’t for me. I felt that it was better to just be together and share the moment together. Just the two of us alone and no one else. 

“I love you.” Yongguk whispered close to my ear. 

“I love you too.” I replied.

Suddenly I felt Yongguk slip something softly into my hand. I pulled away and looked at him. He smiled at me shyly and made me look at the piece of folded paper he had just slipped into my hands. 

I opened it and in it, with his neatest possible writing, Yongguk wrote: 

“Forever is such a long time, but I wouldn’t mind spending it by your side.” 

-Bang Yongguk. 

“I thought it was too cheesy and that you’d laugh at me.” he scratched the back of his head. 

I chuckled softly and placed my hand on his cheek, feeling his stubble against my hand and brought his lips to mine. 

Right in that moment, I felt my entire world change. It felt like my world shift. The centre of my world shifted from my social life and studies and shifted to the love of my life. I felt that as long as I was with Yongguk, I’d be okay.