Forget it! Seungmin thought as he paced up and down the candy aisle of yet another convenience store. He grabbed the most extravagant looking set of colorful hard candies and an assortment of those huge marble-looking lollipops that always looked way too pretty to eat and made his way back up to the counter to pay for the ridiculous amount of sweets. 

Damn Chan’s busy schedule that seemed to always be switching around without notice! Damn it right to hell! Chan wasn’t supposed to be back at the office until tomorrow afternoon, and since Seungmin had a couple of days off he made absolutely no plans to go up to the company building. That was until he overheard one of the hyungs on the phone saying they would meet Chan there.

Seungmin’s eyes widened at the price that flashed across the screen on the register.

That idiot better appreciate this. He thought as he fished his wallet from out of his back pocket.

Of course Chan would appreciate it. Hell, his leader would probably cry if Seungmin gave him so much as a peppermint that he found in between the cushions of their sofa.

He wouldn’t even be so worried about the damned holiday if Chan hadn’t left the stupid ‒ adorable and thoughtful, and prettily wrapped ‒ box of assorted chocolates on Seungmin’s bed while he was sleeping. The younger had nearly kicked the present off his bed upon waking up on the morning of Valentine’s Day. He’d seen a similar looking present sitting at the end of Hyunjin’s bed, but it was considerably smaller in comparison to his ‒ he came to find out that Chan had bought a smaller box for each of the members ‒ but Seungmin had kept that a secret to himself.

He’d met the leader on the rooftop later that night and they talked about this and that while sharing the present, continuously eating one after another without realizing that the sweets were made with alcohol until they tasted it on each other’s lips, too drunk off the sweet liqueur chocolates to care at that point.

He flipped open his wallet and blindly felt around for his card, slightly panicking when he didn’t feel it in it’s normal spot. Seungmin looked at the cashier with a sheepish smile and began to desperately search his coat pockets before giving up with a sigh. He peeked into his wallet once more and groaned at the sight of one lone bill tucked between the folds.

“I, uh… I’ll go put this back.” He said, defeated. 

As much as he cursed the candy before, Seungmin had been a bit proud of his selection and even a bit excited at the thought of being able to present such a pretty gift to his hyung. The rule was to pay Chan back with gifts or candy by two or three times the value of the chocolate he’d received a month ago, and if Seungmin were to have purchased the candies he had initially brought to the counter that would have been at least ten times more… He would have to make it up to Chan at a later date, but he refused to head up to the office empty handed.

“Stupid White Day with it’s stupid freaking rules.” Seungmin grumbled to himself as he scanned the shelves for a significantly cheaper option of sweets.

He picked up a packet of gummy worms, the low price label having caught his attention, and read over the contents description. All of the flavours were ones he knew Chan would enjoy, but of course, of course, the cheaper ones would be the sour kind. There were taffy-like chews, but Chan couldn’t stand the texture of taffy, so those were out of the question and Seungmin didn’t even bother picking up the shiny red packet after spying the cute cartoon character that was in the shape of a flame. Chan didn’t do spicy.

Seungmin dropped into a crouched position and whined quietly to himself, “Why is this so difficult?” He whispered pathetically into his arms.

Oh?

A price sticker in his budget range stared back at him from the bottom shelf of the aisle. It would be cutting it close, though. There was no way he’d be able to purchase the plastic shopping bag along with it, but he could work with that.

He picked up the packet of assorted small lollipops and flipped it over to review the contents: all nice fruity and sweet flavours Chan would approve of, nothing sour, nothing spicy, and nothing taffy. Seungmin sighed and smiled to himself as he stood back up, this would have to do.

“Would you like a bag to put it in?” The cashier asked after ringing up the candy.

“No, thank you.” Seungmin answered politely as he drummed his fingertips along the counter. Now he just had to decide whether he would give Chan the entire package of lollipops or pick just one to give him first. It was barely a present worth giving either way, but it was better than choosing to forego giving Chan anything altogether.

“Good luck,” the cashier said with a knowing smirk as Seungmin turned to leave the store, his sorry package of Dum-Dums lollipops in hand. Seungmin’s ears went red with embarrassment, he questioned himself once more as to why he decided to go through with getting candy in the first place and walked out of the store without answering the cashier.

♡ ♡ ♡

Seungmin could hear his leader’s voice before he could actually see him and took the opportunity to hide around the corner and collect himself before giving Chan the candy. He could hear a voice that sounded similar to one of the company’s staff members and it gave the younger hope. Seungmin figured that if Chan was having an important conversation of sorts, then he would be in full professional leader mode, which would ultimately work to Seungmin’s advantage.

The younger went to the nearest empty staff member’s desk area and plucked a pair of scissors from a cup that mostly contained a mess of colourful pens and markers. He would have just opened the bag without scissors, but this mission called maximum stealth, which meant absolutely no sounds that could possibly warn Chan of his presence until the last possible moment.

He quickly clipped a line of the plastic off from the top of the bag and pursed his lips as he tried to think of which flavor Chan would like best out of the choices. Seungmin found himself impressed by how many choices there were in such a small bag and decided to just pick at random or else he’d be stuck trying to choose for an unnecessary amount of time. The lollipop he ended up picking was a peach-mango flavour and Seungmin thought the random choice could not have been more perfect.

Seungmin slowly approached the conversing pair in order to give Chan plenty of time to notice him. Whatever the two were talking about must have been pretty serious as the leader didn’t acknowledge his presence until he was only a couple of feet away. The tone of his voice as he talked to the staff member instantly lightened and the creases from his furrowed brow smoothed out, lips stretching into a small adoring smile at the sight of Seungmin.

Chan continued talking as the younger approached but held his hand out to him in acknowledgement. Seungmin slid the hand containing the lollipop over Chan’s outstretched palm and comfortingly wrapped his fingers around the rest of the elder’s hand with an encouraging smile.

Seungmin kept their hands together as he turned his body so that he faced the staff member to bow politely to which the other responded with a slight nod of their head. Seungmin then decided that he was no longer welcome around the two and sent one last smile to Chan before he reluctantly let go of the elder’s hand and carefully made sure the lollipop stayed in it. 

He looked back at them for a moment once he was a good distance away and smiled at Chan’s hands, which were now neatly poised behind his back, the one Seungmin was holding before now twirled the lollipop between his fingers.

No matter how out of character the gesture may have seemed at the time, Seungmin was glad he did it. He knew that even if he couldn’t fully interrupt the other and help him escape from what looked like quite the stressful situation, then he could at least make it a little less painful with a brief appearance. He made his way to the floor of practice rooms to get in some personal practice for their upcoming showcase overseas.

♡ ♡ ♡

Seungmin lost track of time while he practiced in his self-claimed practice room, only looking at the clock when he heard the soft knocking on the door. 

The door opened a few seconds later to reveal a hopeful looking Chan, the elder’s lips breaking into a genuinely happy smile when he spotted Seungmin by the mirrors. He hastily walked toward the younger without a word, his smile growing impossibly wider when he spied the package of lollipops laying against Seungmin’s coat on the ground.

“I was wondering when you’d come find m‒ Oof!” Seungmin had began to say before Chan practically tackled him into a suffocating hug. The leader pulled back only for a moment to press a brief kiss to the younger’s lips before tucking his head under Seungmin’s chin, finding comfort in the sound of his boyfriend’s quickening heartbeat.

“Thank you… for earlier. It meant a lot to me.” Chan sighed against Seungmin’s chest.

“Yeah, what was that all about?” Seungmin began. He wrapped his hands around Chan’s arms and pulled the older away from him so that he could look him in the eyes. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Seungmin already knew the answer to his question by watching the way Chan stared at his lips, and he would be lying to himself if he said he didn’t want what was to come of it. He licked his lips as he waited for the answer and swore that he could taste the over exaggerated fusion of peach and mango.

“Me, later. You, now.” Chan silenced the younger with his words and connected their lips once more, this time slightly more urgent than the last.

Seungmin didn’t need to be told twice. He pulled Chan even closer by wrapping his arms around the elder’s waist and let himself melt into their sweetest kiss yet.