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Everyone warned them that it would be too much for them to do everything in one week, but Donghyuck has always been persistent, and Jeno has never been good at saying no to Donghyuck. That’s probably how they find themselves two nights away from their wedding, bringing the last few boxes of their things into their new home. Their dinner—leftover pasta from lunch with Jeno’s parents because they can’t be bothered to go out, not in the state they’re in—has grown cold, in the bowl covered by a plate on the dining table. It’s well past dinner time, and Jeno only realises it when he checks his phone to fix their new clock to the current time.
“Oh wow, it’s that late already?”
Donghyuck looks up from reading the title of the book he was holding. He’s been going through their box of books, trying to figure out which ones should go to the room they’re turning into a home office for them to share and which ones to put in the new shelf they bought from their IKEA trip earlier that day that they plan on putting together in the living room tomorrow morning. (That’s the plan, but Jeno has a feeling that it might end up with him finishing up alone because Donghyuck is not the best at reading instructions.) “What?”
“It’s already nine,” Jeno says, turning the hands on the clock until it shows the right time before placing it aside. “I just noticed. Probably should’ve put the clock up earlier.”
“It’s been that long? No wonder my back hurts so much,” Donghyuck frowns, putting the book he was holding on the coffee table. Jeno guesses that one’s for the new shelf. “You can go ahead and eat first, I’m just gonna finish sorting these books.”
Jeno moves to Donghyuck’s side, taking the book Donghyuck just grabbed from the box and placing it on the steadily growing stack. “Come eat with me.”
“But—”
“We can continue later,” Jeno interrupts before Donghyuck could retort. He knows how Donghyuck tends to fixate on finishing something, especially when he gets into this weird mood that makes him forget to take any breaks in between. “Let’s eat first.”
Donghyuck sighs, but a slight tug on his hand is all it takes for him to follow along as Jeno leads him to the dining table, pulling out one of the chairs and making him take a seat. Jeno picks the bowl of pasta and places it in the microwave, not at all in the mood to spend time figuring out how to use the stove. He’s somehow glad that they chose the kitchen as one of the areas that they wanted to arrange first, because with how exhausted he is, he might just dig around for some wooden chopsticks and eat from the same bowl. He grabs two bowls, two forks and two mugs, tucks a bottle of water under his arm and tries to balance all that with a hot bowl of pasta in his right hand once it’s done.
“Dinner,” Jeno says with a smile, handing the utensils to Donghyuck when he gets up to help. “Not the fanciest, but I don’t think you’d want to wait for delivery.”
“Sorry, I really lost track of time,” Donghyuck says as he goes to split the food between the two bowls, pushing the fuller one to Jeno.
“I did too, you don’t have to apologise,” Jeno assures, pulling Donghyuck’s bowl towards him with a reprimanding look. “Why’d you give me so much? You need to eat too.”
“You know I get puffy when I eat late at night. The wedding’s the day after tomorrow.”
“Exactly. It’s not tomorrow, there’s nothing wrong with a little puffy face. It’ll go down before you know it,” Jeno nags as he puts some of his noodles into Donghyuck’s bowl, making sure it’s the same amount before pushing it back to Donghyuck. “Plus you look cute when you get puffy. Like a marshmallow.”
“Really? Marshmallow?” Donghyuck chuckles, reaching for his fork. “If it doesn’t go down in time for the wedding then I won’t be the better looking husband, and it’ll all be your fault.”
Jeno can’t fight the smile that breaks out on his face at the mere mention of the word ‘husband’. They’ve been planning for the wedding for months, barely needing to put much effort other than making decisions thanks to their trustworthy wedding planner, Doyoung, who was Donghyuck’s childhood neighbour, which means that it’s been a while since it’s decided that they would become husbands, but it still makes Jeno’s heart flutter when he hears Donghyuck says it into existence. It still has Jeno grinning like a fool, his foot reaching forward to hook his ankle with Donghyuck under the table.
“You’ll always be the better looking husband in my eyes,” Jeno says. “The best looking husband. The cutest. The most handsome. The most adorable. No one can compare to you.”
“I think I got your point,” Donghyuck says, rolling his eyes at Jeno as he slowly starts eating the pasta. Jeno does too, his eyes trained on Donghyuck even when he’s ducking to get the food in his mouth, his eyes curving up into little crescents when Donghyuck catches him staring. “What is it?”
“Nothing. I just wanna look at you.”
“Just take a picture, it’ll last longer,” Donghyuck mutters through a mouthful of pasta, his eyes suddenly widening as he rushes to stand up. “That reminded me. I had something to ask you.”
Jeno watches as Donghyuck scurries to the coffee table, pushing some stuff aside to grab his phone that has somehow buried itself under everything they tossed onto the table to deal with later. Donghyuck comes back to sit in the chair next to Jeno instead, pulling it until they’re as close as the chair allows them to be, Jeno reaching for Donghyuck’s bowl to put it in front of him.
“I was thinking,” Donghyuck says, unlocking his phone with a quick scan of his face.
“You were? I thought you didn’t like doing that,” Jeno teases, feeding Donghyuck as he goes through his phone. He hums happily when Donghyuck simply opens his mouth to accept the food.
“Asshole,” Donghyuck says, showing the screen of his phone. It’s a chat between him and Doyoung, and Jeno leans closer to read through the messages. “I showed Doyoung hyung the frames we bought earlier since we said we were buying our own for the big wedding picture, and his husband offered to print the ones for the smaller frames too.”
“And how much would we have to pay? If it’s cheaper than the shop then go for it.”
“No charge, actually. Doyoung hyung said it’ll be one of their wedding gifts for us, and that he’ll strangle his husband into printing them for free if he has to,” Donghyuck says, and Jeno’s eyes catch on the message specifically saying what Donghyuck just quoted. It’s quite a fun sight, imagining Doyoung crossing his arms in front of his husband as he insists on making him print the photos for them.
“That’s sweet of him,” Jeno says with an affectionate smile. “Have you decided what pictures you want to get printed out?”
“That’s what I wanted to ask you. There were a few that I’ve chosen, but I wanted your opinion too, since you’ll be seeing them every day from now on,” Donghyuck exits the messenger app before opening his gallery app, scrolling down until there’s a folder named ‘new house frames’.
“You know I wouldn’t mind if you chose any pictures. I’d still enjoy looking at them.”
“It’s still our house,” Donghyuck says. And there it is again, that little feeling inside Jeno’s heart, the way Donghyuck’s words keep making him feel incredibly elated, like he’s literally flying on cloud nine. They’ve been staying together for a while now, but it was in the apartment that Jeno first rented with Jaemin back when they were studying, where Donghyuck had moved in after. They never really considered it their own place, so it’s entirely different to be calling the little house they’ve got under their names their ‘house’. Donghyuck and Jeno’s house.
“It is,” Jeno agrees, lips stretched into a wide smile. His cheeks are starting to hurt, and if Donghyuck noticed how much he’s smiling over absolutely nothing, he’d probably tease Jeno about it, but Jeno wouldn’t mind, not when he’s in such a good mood.
Donghyuck links his arm with Jeno, closing the little distance between them to show the picture that he chose. “I think we can put most of them on the new shelf and under the TV, and maybe a small one on our dresser? I don’t know, it just seemed bleak when I went to take a look earlier.”
“I like that. I get to see more of your cute face when I get ready for work.”
“You’ll get to see plenty of me after our wedding,” Donghyuck says.
“But it’s still not enough, you know? Need to see you all the time,” Jeno tilts his head, lightly knocking it against Donghyuck.
“Fine then. We’ll put one on the dresser, and another picture of just me on your bedside table so I’ll always be watching, even in your sleep,” Donghyuck says with a straight face, the one he always shows Jeno when he’s trying to say that he’s being serious. It usually never works, because Jeno finds it adorable more than it is scary.
Jeno doesn’t push, letting Donghyuck turn his attention back to his phone. He opens a picture, and Jeno barely has to look to recognise what it is.
“This one for the living room,” Donghyuck says. It’s a picture of them back when they were still in college—toeing the line between friends and not-friends—going on a trip to Jeju Island with their friend group.
It was during one of their semester breaks. Jaemin had messed up the hotel booking, and somehow Jeno and Donghyuck ended up in a room with one bed instead of two, so they spent the whole trip sleeping in the same bed.
(Jeno’s not exactly sure if it was just something that he felt in the moment, but when the two of them were hanging out that one night out on the balcony, trying to sober up after drinking with their friends, he casted a glance at Donghyuck, his face illuminated by the soft light over his head, and Jeno knew he didn’t want to just stay friends with Donghyuck. He wanted to do so much more with him, and the words easily tumbled out of him before he could stop himself.)
The picture was a result of the last day of their trip, when Jaemin was busy taking pictures of everyone, and Jeno had nervously slid an arm around Donghyuck’s waist, letting his head fall onto his shoulder. Jaemin had counted to three, and Jeno had smiled with a firm squeeze of his hand on his boyfriend’s waist.
“Oh God, we looked so young,” Jeno coos, zooming into his hair in the picture. “I kind of miss the blonde.”
“You looked really hot then,” Donghyuck praises, and Jeno is a sucker for praises from Donghyuck. “I never told you this, but when Renjun first introduced you to me, I thought there was no way you were single and immediately decided that you were way out of my league, which now that I think about was a terrible assumption.”
“You thought I was out of your league?”
Donghyuck makes a vague affirmative noise. “Only in the beginning. Then I found out you’re just a dork with a handsome face, so I changed my mind,” he says, sliding to the next picture before Jeno could question him any further. “What about this one?”
Jeno shifts his attention back to the phone, scanning the picture that Donghyuck has opened up. It’s one of the two of them, sitting next to each other on the sofa at Donghyuck’s parents house, clad in matching sweaters. Jeno knows those exact sweaters, a pair that Donghyuck’s grandmother had made for them, tucked away in one of their boxes in the bedroom. It was the first time Jeno had spent the holidays with Donghyuck’s family, meeting not only his parents and siblings, but even his grandparents and a few of his mother’s siblings and their families. Jeno got to experience the holiday with a big family for the first time—so unlike his family, where he only has one uncle from his mother’s side—and inherently became a part of Donghyuck’s family, based on what his little cousins declared during Christmas dinner.
“You look very cute in that sweater,” Jeno comments.
“You do too,” Donghyuck says, pausing to tilt his head. “But it gave you rashes on your back, and my mom thought I had hit you or something. Do you remember how she scolded me in the morning?”
Jeno snickers, reminded of the panic that was on Donghyuck’s mother’s face when Jeno pulled on his collar and she accidentally saw the reddened skin of Jeno’s back. “And then she pulled on your ear and nagged about how she didn’t raise you like that.”
“It was so unfair! She was being so protective over you when it wasn’t even my fault,” Donghyuck says with a pout.
“At least you know she loves me,” Jeno says.
“She really does,” Donghyuck whispers, staring at the picture for one last moment before switching to another one. “Okay, next one.”
Jeno raises an eyebrow when he sees it. “This picture?”
“Yeah. What’s wrong with it?”
There’s nothing wrong with it, actually. It’s a picture taken during Jeno’s convocation ceremony, after Jeno had finally finished his master’s degree. He was dressed in a graduation gown, a scroll in one hand and a bouquet of flowers in the other. Jeno remembers Donghyuck insisting on getting a new suit just for the ceremony, which Jeno had eventually agreed on and had let himself be dragged around from shop to shop by Donghyuck. The reason why Jeno was asking is because the picture is not only of Jeno, but also of Donghyuck by his side, wearing Jeno’s graduation cap and hugging an even bigger bouquet courtesy of himself, his lips stretched into a smile but his eyes visibly showing that he had been crying moments before and in the middle of taking the picture. They were happy tears, obviously, but it didn’t help the panic that had arisen in Jeno when he went to see Donghyuck and found him sobbing into his hands.
“It’s… nothing actually,” Jeno quickly says. If Donghyuck is fine with the picture, then there’s nothing wrong with it.
Donghyuck seems to catch on soon enough, because he’s zooming into the picture right where his face is, and he’s mouthing a quiet ‘oh’ to himself and deflating in his seat, which Jeno definitely picked up.
“I think you look just fine.”
“Right,” Donghyuck says. “That’s a no.”
“Wait, you really do look just fine!” Jeno tries to say, but Donghyuck is still frowning at the picture. “Okay, I’m pretty sure there are other pictures like this that we can use. I’ll go through my phone and try to find it, okay?”
“Okay,” Donghyuck agrees, but the excitement he had before seems to be rapidly dissipating as he puts his phone down and goes back to picking at his food, slowly munching through them.
Jeno watches him as discreetly as he can be, swallowing down the last of his dinner and pushing the bowl away from him. He wordlessly picks up Donghyuck’s phone from where he had put it down, typing in the password before scrolling through the pictures. Donghyuck doesn’t say anything, just continues eating while Jeno uses his phone. When Jeno finds the picture he was looking for, he lightly taps Donghyuck on his shoulder and waits for Donghyuck to finish his last bite before he turns to look at him.
“Do you like this picture?” Jeno asks. He relishes in the smile that takes over Donghyuck’s face almost immediately when he sees the picture, taking the phone from Jeno’s hand.
Jeno can’t exactly describe how he feels looking at the pictures, because the memory of the night itself brings so many different emotions to him that sometimes it’s overwhelming. He unconsciously starts playing with the band on his ring finger, feeling the cool metal against his thumb as Donghyuck scans the picture.
The night of the proposal. One of the most vivid memories Jeno has of that night was how absurd it went. It was just another Saturday night for the two of them, where they would make a reservation for dinner at a nice place, drive to a cafe afterwards and spend some time catching up with each other about how their week had been. It was a nice little routine they had, a good hour or two where they focused solely on each other, pressing pause on everything else that was going on around them. Except that night was a little different, because instead of talking about the interns at Jeno’s workplace or Donghyuck’s new designs, they had talked about their future. From where they’d want to live, to where they’d want to get married.
It’s still funny to Jeno when he thinks about it, the way Donghyuck had tried to grab something from his coat and the way Jeno had suddenly grabbed his wrist, asking if he was doing what he thought Donghyuck was doing. A moment of confusion later, they’re both holding a ring box in their own hands, laughter bubbling out of them at the realisation that they had somehow planned to propose at the same time, on the same night. Donghyuck had asked Jeno to marry him, and Jeno had repeated the same question, and they both giggled as they slipped the rings onto their fingers.
Surprisingly, it was Jeno that broke first. The first tear had fallen while he was taking Donghyuck’s hand, thinking of how perfectly the ring fit on Donghyuck’s finger, how complete Donghyuck’s hand looked adorned with the jewellery with his fingers laced with Jeno’s own. Donghyuck followed suit, and not long after they were softly laughing to themselves in the far corner of a cafe, and Jeno whispered how much he loved Donghyuck while Donghyuck did the same.
“Of course I do,” Donghyuck says softly. “It’s so blurry though.”
It’s blurry because they had been too caught up in their emotions when they took the selfie—they couldn’t get themselves to ask other people to do it for them, not when they were basically a pair of teary-eyed mess—and Jeno’s hand wouldn’t stop shaking as they smiled through their tears and held their hands up to show the rings. They had sent it to their families respectively, which had garnered a bunch of congratulations and well wishes, and then to their friend group, resulting in their phones blowing up from keyboard smashes and yellings in caps with a few phone calls of more yellings. They could’ve tried to look better, maybe freshen up and splashed some water onto their faces before taking the picture, but Jeno prefers this; he gets to see the raw emotions that they felt after proposing to each other and he gets to remember it every time he sees it.
“But you like it,” Jeno reconfirms, smiling to himself at the way Donghyuck visibly softens the longer he looks at the picture.
“This one definitely goes in the living room,” Donghyuck says as he copies the picture to his folder. “Right in the middle of the others.”
“Anything you want,” Jeno says as he gets up, placing a kiss on the top of Donghyuck’s head before he collects their dirty dishes. “I’m gonna go clean these up, you just stay here, okay?”
Donghyuck hums. “Thank you.”
Jeno simply gives him a small smile as he goes to the kitchen, dumping everything into the sink. He’s tempted to just leave them for tomorrow, but he felt like he’s been saying that about a lot of things in the house today, and he might get even lazier tomorrow to do it, so he rushes through washing the utensils and putting them onto the rack to dry through the night. There’s rustling coming from the living room, but Jeno pays it no mind and continues to clean up the rest of the kitchen, assuming that Donghyuck has moved to sit at the sofa instead.
When Jeno gets back to the living room, he’s met with the sight of Donghyuck holding a book. He sighs, going straight to Donghyuck and plucking the book out of his hand once again.
“I thought it was clear that I didn’t want you to do anything when I went to do the dishes,” Jeno says sternly.
Donghyuck offers him a wry smile. “I was just gonna look at the frames, but I just thought I could sort through a little bit more—”
“Sweetheart,” Jeno muttered, taking Donghyuck’s hands in his. “You’ve been doing work all day long. Take a breather, and then we can continue tomorrow. We don’t even have that much to do left, and if we don’t finish it, we’ll still have time after the wedding before we go for our honeymoon.”
Donghyuck leans forward and wraps his arms around Jeno, hooking his chin onto Jeno’s shoulder. “They were right. We’re crazy for cramming everything into one week. Thank God all the preparations for the wedding are done, otherwise I’d be in a completely different mood right now.”
“We’re both busy, they know that. This was the most efficient, even if it meant less time to relax.” Jeno runs a hand through Donghyuck’s hair. “But we do have time to relax, so you should do that now.”
Donghyuck buries his face in the crook of Jeno’s neck with a sigh. “This is me relaxing.”
“I have a better idea, though,” Jeno says, slowly peeling Donghyuck off of him, leading him to take a seat on the sofa. “Wait here, okay? And seriously, don’t do anything. Don’t even get up.”
Jeno disappears into the kitchen again, fishing for the bottle of wine from the kitchen counter—the one they had opened to commemorate their first night in their new house that they never finished, which Jeno had left out some time earlier because Donghyuck seemed like he needed it (Jeno was right, Donghyuck needs it right now)—and the wine glasses from the top cabinet. He hums happily as he brings them to the living room, joining Donghyuck on the sofa.
“Wine,” Donghyuck says.
“Yes, wine,” Jeno says as he uncaps the bottle, carefully pouring it out into the wine glasses, making sure the cap is tight before placing it aside. He doesn’t want to deal with spilled wine, not when they just put the new carpet down. He hands one glass to Donghyuck, who easily accepts it with a growing smile on his face. “Cheers?”
Donghyuck clinks his glass with Jeno’s, sipping his drink while watching Jeno do the same. He looked a bit silly through the glass, but Jeno can’t take his eyes off of the satisfaction on Donghyuck’s face when he gets the wine in his system, and sooner or later he’ll grow tipsy enough to fully let himself go.
“You know me so well,” Donghyuck mumbles after a while, taking another sip from his glass.
“How could I not? I’m always watching you, aren’t I?”
“I told you, take a picture. It’ll last longer.”
Jeno hums as he places his empty glass aside, far enough to keep from any of them bumping into it. He takes Donghyuck’s phone from the table—not exactly sure where his own has ended up—and puts on a song, moving to the empty space of their living room and letting the melody play for a few seconds before extending his hand out towards Donghyuck.
It’s so beautiful today
Every day is a happy day
When I walk this road with you
“Dance with me?”
Donghyuck blinks up at him for a moment, downing the rest of his drink with his head thrown back before setting the glass down to where Jeno had placed his, pushing himself off the sofa with a soft grunt. He walks towards Jeno, accepting his hand and letting Jeno turn him around so his back is to Jeno’s chest.
Though I’m still not good at it
Let’s look at each other
With only our love
Jeno easily slips his arms around Donghyuck’s waist, threading their fingers together and holding Donghyuck’s hand close to his body, swaying them to the song that’s softly playing in the background.
When it rains
I’ll warm up your hands
I’ll be your umbrella
“Is this relaxing enough?”
“You’re gonna make me fall asleep standing at this point,” Donghyuck murmurs.
Jeno chuckles, leaning down the place a kiss on the back of Donghyuck’s neck. “That’s the goal.”
I love you
Thank you so much
On every day that I’m with you
I’ll protect you
Jeno lets go of one of Donghyuck’s hands, reaching up to hold and tilt Donghyuck’s head to face him. He gets a good look at Donghyuck then, all soft and pliant in his arms, exhausted from the whole day and a few steps away from letting sleep consume him. Jeno leans down then, connecting their lips in a short kiss, swallowing the content sigh that Donghyuck lets out as his eyes slip closed, as he leans his weight fully onto Jeno.
On every day I have you
I promise you
My dear
Jeno pulls away. “Let’s head to bed, my dear.”