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Salt, sand, and warm water.
An ambiance of liquid gold and flowing linen, a world of tropical greenery furnishing the days, and candles and bonfires speckling the nights.
The distant whisper of waves intermingles with the muted chatter of palm leaves, a sound that is constant but calming. Like a massage to the mind and a solace to the heart that treats you to a relaxation like you had never before known, you found yourself closing your eyes and sinking into the mattress with muscles that became jelly. Golden rays and the songs of birds beckon you to explore the morning's treasures, but instead you smile to yourself and pull the sheets up to your chin, then habitually reach out for your husband Jumin Han; who, when your hand feels nothing but cold blankets, is nowhere to be found.
With disappointment you cannot mask, you prop yourself up and glance around for some hint of where he has gone. Admittedly, Jumin is the needier one of your presence; from even days before the first RFA party, he held you close to his heart (sometimes literally) as though you were the very thing that kept it alive. But for him to disappear like this in the morning without a word—on your first anniversary vacation together, no less—was far out of the ordinary.
You slip out of bed and onto the wood floors and wrap a robe over your thin nightgown, glancing into a few of the rooms and, when Jumin is not found, you finally step out onto the patio which overlooks a private beach scape. The beauty almost startles you (a life of luxury would take many more years for you to get used to), but as the saying goes, what you are looking for is always in the last place you look.
Your first greeting is the twinkle of seashell windchimes and the humid salt breezes, but Jumin is not late to follow. He sits on a bamboo chair with his head in his hands but is swift to compose himself in your presence, glancing up at you with a countenance framed by natural light that compliments the gentle honey of his skin and the obsidian of his hair. The wind combs its fingers through his locks and the beige linen of his polo, tugs fabric against the broadness of his chest and flatters the shape of his build. Like a chiseled statue of the renaissance, there he is poised, chin rested on knuckles and elbow propped on his thigh. He smiles in a wordless welcome and asks whether you'd like to join him, but behind the formality of his gesture resides the faint flicker of apprehension, of worry, a brewing rainfall on this summer bliss.
All rationale that told you not to pry has been abandoned at the doorstep when you take a seat, and with attention geared at none but your lover you part your lips to ask what's wrong.
His countenance smolders with a fragment of the melancholy you saw before; but stronger now, it reaches like a shard that cuts icicles into your heart and threads deeper with cold tendrils.
Jumin demonstrates more through his hesitation to respond than though any of the words he could've taken from the dictionary. He glances downward, and with falling shoulders and knotted fingers he takes in a breath that returns carrying words that taste like acid.
"Are you happy with me?"
Here you are, under the shade of palms and luxury; here, in an abode that costs as much as it were made of gold; here, overlooking a strip of blue ocean trimmed by sand as white as snow; even here, Jumin still worries.
He offers you all he has and all he is, from the shirt off his back to the heart in his chest, and yet dreads it is not sufficient. You are the only pearl in his sea and the one he would risk anything for, but he treasures your smile far too much to possibly take it away. To be insufficient for your happiness.
But after a year of happiness that is brought not by zeros in his bank account but by his devotion and his love, you know he has no reason to fear. Jumin Han is who you have cared for all along and will for the rest of your life; and reaching to take his hand and rub a thumb across its breadth, you know that there is nothing more important than the man beside you and the unwavering support you will always share.
"I could never be happier than with you."
The words lift weight from his shoulders and smooth the creases on his face. For a moment he only blushes, glances away bashfully as though he is embarrassed for having brought the topic up in the first place. Weakness is not what he likes to display. But...
"Wait." Attention sparks back into his countenance, and out of the corner of your eye you see him pull a small box from his pocket. Seafoam green tied with a red ribbon, he hands it to you to turn in your hands, but aside from the gift in front of you that bashful expression is what catches your attention the most. "This is for you. I could buy you all the things in the world, but... this one I made myself."
Inside is a necklace of seashells; made up of different shapes, sizes, colors, clumsily strung together. Not the work of a professional, but somehow better, because between the threads and the seashells are memories and smiles and warm embraces. Forehead kisses and back rubs, smiles and sunsets. You glance up to him, painted with the sunshine of a new day, and he meets you with that small Jumin smile.
"It's not the best gift money can buy, but today I want to give you my time." He begins, and nothing can express the gratitude that swells in your heart. "I want you to know that you mean everything to me, and you are the first person in my life to truly... to truly understand. Even some things that remain a mystery to myself."
Shadows cast by palm leaves dance across his face, summer colors sway in the wind, the lapping of waves on the shore continue to paint the picture of now. But all the luxuries pale in comparison to the presence of Jumin Han, holding your hand in his and telling you the one thing he will never tire of saying.
"I could never be happier than with you, either."