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Mingi awakes at 6am sharp.
He gets dressed in record speed, but still takes a while to get his recently dyed hair looking just right. His clothes are casual, a hoodie that does not belong to him and his most favourite pair of denim jeans. He eats breakfast all on his own, glances at the time on his phone, and then heads back up to his boyfriend’s bedroom.
Yunho is sleeping soundly, and Mingi almost feels guilty for having to wake him up… emphasis on the almost. He crawls up the mattress of the bed, and settles himself atop his boyfriend’s hips so that he’s straddling him comfortably. He tilts his head to the right, and he silently considers.
There are a few ways in which he could wake the other man up, tickling being the most common thing that he does. He doesn’t quite wish to do that now, though, and so instead he settles upon a more intimate approach.
Mingi leans downward, placing the palms of his hands against the mattress either side of Yunho’s shoulders in order to keep himself steady. A small smile tugs at his lips, his boyfriend really is very beautiful both up close and far away. He feels incredibly lucky to have him. Sometimes, Mingi silently believes that he does not deserve someone like Yunho.
The rapper places a soft kiss to the tip of the other man’s nose, and Yunho simply hums in his sleep in response to this action. Mingi sighs softly, and then he places a kiss to his boyfriend’s forehead, trailing his lips downward so that he can kiss the other’s right cheek afterwards.
He moves back to his original position, looking down at Yunho with their faces not so far apart, and he frowns because there is no clear sign of his boyfriend awakening any time soon. His efforts, so far, have been in vain.
Mingi tilts his head to the right again, and he quickly decides against kissing Yunho’s lips. Instead, he moves back to his cheek, the left one this time, and places a soft kiss there. Yunho moves a little, and Mingi’s heart rate immediately spikes.
”Yunnie,” he questions softly, looking down at his partner with hope steadily building inside of him. Yunho’s shoulders are no longer as even as they used to be, signalling that he’s not in as deep of a sleep as he had been before. “Baby?”
Yunho’s facial features contort for a brief moment, but then they relax. As far as Mingi is aware, Yunho is fast asleep again. The rapper rolls his eyes, moving off of his boyfriend’s body to instead sit on the mattress. He pouts, looking at him.
He watches Yunho for a second, and then looks down at his own lap. He folds his arms over his chest, the frown on his face deep. He loosely resembles that of an angry toddler who wasn’t allowed dessert before dinner.
Mingi notices the bed shifting perhaps a minute or so later, and his frown falls when he feels an arm loosely loop through his own left one. He glances towards the man beside him, and he smiles softly when he is greeted by Yunho’s kind eyes.
”Morning,” Yunho says, voice a little deeper than usual due to his sleepy state, “you’re cute when you pout.”
The younger cannot even remember why he had been pouting in the first place. All he knows is that time is ticking. So he gets straight to the point through the excited declaration of, “I have a surprise for you!”
Yunho raises his eyebrows, “you do?”
”Yeah!”
”What is it?”
Mingi’s eyes shimmer in confusion. “Well I can’t tell you that, Yunnie. Don’t you know how surprises work?”
Yunho hums small, and pulls his arm back towards himself. Mingi is left feeling a little cold without the touch. “What time is it?”
”Like 06:30?”
The older’s eyes widen. “Who are you and what have you done with Song Mingi?”
Mingi rolls his eyes, huffing quietly in irritation as he does so, and the older chuckles quietly to himself. A quiet mumble of, “you’re a dick.”
Yunho hears, and swiftly he asks, “what was that, Princess?”
”Nothing,” Mingi smiles sweetly at him, “I love you.”
Yunho’s gaze narrows a little. “Sure you do.”
”Of course I do,” Mingi says, moving his body downward to place the side of his head onto his partner’s chest, “that’s why I have a surprise for you.”
The taller of the two runs the fingertips of his left hand through the shorter’s hair. The familiar action leaves Mingi’s body practically melting against Yunho’s. “Is it a good surprise?”
”It is,” is the small reply, “promise.”
”Okay,” Yunho nods, “get up then.”
Mingi curls himself into a small ball. “Don’t want to now. I like it here.”
Yunho rolls his eyes, the action fond. “So you woke me up to give me a surprise and now you’re not going to go through with your plan?”
”Correct,” Mingi nods, “and it’s all your fault.”
”My fault?!”
”You started playing with my hair,” Mingi says, and then a fact they both know follows, “it makes me feel relaxed.”
Yunho is quiet for a moment, lying with his thoughts, still continuing to run his fingertips through the strands of dyed hair on top of his lover’s head. “I know it does,” he says softly, “that’s why I do it.”
Mingi is quiet too whilst he thinks of something to say. “Can we just stay like this for a few minutes? Please?”
”Of course we can.”
And so they do. Mingi buries his face into Yunho’s clothed chest, and he remains completely content beneath the feeling of fingers in his hair. His left ear is resting over Yunho’s heart, and he counts the slow beats of it within his mind, cherishing every single one.
Eventually, Mingi sits up. He felt about two seconds away from falling asleep, and he’d really like to show Yunho the surprise before their band members awake. Yunho sits up too, and he places his left hand against the right side of Mingi’s face in order to carefully guide him into a kiss. Mingi goes gladly, returning the action he adores so much.
They separate, and Yunho settles their foreheads together as his thumb slowly begins to caress along the younger’s cheekbone. The warm, romantic moment is ruined when he asks, “did you get me Spider-Man?”
”No,” is Mingi’s immediate reply, a certain distaste to his tone of voice, “and I don’t know why you have to be so obsessed with him in the first place.”
”He’s just a cool character from movies and games that I like, Min.”
”A smart, friendly, incredibly good-looking character who— why are you laughing at me?”
Yunho stops his chuckles immediately, but his smile is amused and Mingi sees the fondness in his partners hazel eyes when he detaches their foreheads. “You’re so cute.”
Mingi, despite his best efforts not to, immediately flushes a deep shade of red. “Shut up.”
The older kisses the younger once more, a quick kiss that doesn’t last long enough for Mingi to even think about returning it. Yunho then moves off the mattress, and he goes to collect the hoodie he’d thrown to the floor yesterday but he can’t seem to find it.
Mingi whistles innocently on the bed, and only then does Yunho register what he’s wearing.
The older asks in mock-annoyance, stood now at the end of the bed, “seriously?”
”It’s comfy!”
”Yeah,” Yunho nods, “that’s why I brought it with my own money.”
”What’s mine is yours, we agreed on that a long time ago.”
”Did we?”
”Yes.”
”And when exactly, my darling, did this supposed agreement occur?”
”When I decided to take like five of your hoodies before my hiatus,” Mingi says, “you weren’t mad when you found out so I took that as a,” a brief pause so that he can muster up his best Yunho impression, “yes, Mingi, the love of my life and answer to all of my problems, you can take as many of my hoodies as you’d like for the rest of our lives. Don’t even worry about asking first!’.”
Yunho’s heart feels warm, but also it aches a little too. Mingi’s hiatus from the group was a while ago now, but yet sometimes it feels like it was only yesterday the rapper was apologising for waking Yunho up at one in the morning because he just couldn’t breathe and didn’t know who else to go to.
Mingi’s frown returns, more sincere than what it had been before. Yunho’s entire demeanour has shifted, his shoulders now tense and his gaze is avoiding the younger’s one at all costs. Mingi shuffles towards the end of the bed, and he wraps his arms around Yunho’s hips, dragging his boyfriend closer in the process. The left side of his head settles against Yunho’s stomach.
”Please don’t be sad,” Mingi requests, “I don’t like it when you’re sad.”
”I know you don’t,” Yunho sighs gently, blinking away the tears threatening to build within his eyes, “but I can’t help it. I missed you so much during that time.”
Yunho will never forget the night he went to sleep in Mingi’s bed in order to feel him close but found Wooyoung already doing exactly that. Wooyoung had been curled around Mingi’s main pillow, buried in his bedsheets.
”And I missed you too,” the younger says, “more than words could ever describe. I’m here now, though, Yunnie, and I have been for years. I’m not going away again, and even if I did, I’d always come back to you.”
Yunho hums, appreciating the words but he doesn’t even want to think of another potential hiatus for his partner. He had felt like half of his soul was missing when Mingi was gone. Yunho runs his hand through Mingi’s hair like he had done earlier, and Mingi understands what’s being asked of him.
The younger allows his arms to fall from the older’s hips, and Yunho wanders over to Mingi’s still-packed suitcase. Mingi watches as Yunho picks one of his hoodies up.
”What’s mine is yours, right? This means that this hoodie of yours is now mine too, yeah?”
Mingi nods, “of course.”
Yunho is wearing jogging bottoms, and they’re clean so he just throws the hoodie over the top half of his body. Mingi stands, and he moves to turn off the bedside table lamp he had turned on earlier. When he turns back around, Yunho is a few paces away from him.
He asks softly, “Yunnie?”
”I love you.”
Mingi smiles small, “I love you too.”
Yunho nods, and then, “are you going to take me somewhere then?”
”I am,” the shorter says, “would you like to eat breakfast before we go?”
”No, thank you.”
”Alright.”
”I need to brush my teeth, though.”
”Go for it.”
Yunho turns and leaves the room, and Mingi waits a few seconds before following after him. He pulls Yunho’s bedroom door over behind him, and he wanders towards Yeosang’s door because it’s slightly open and his curiosity gets the better of him.
He peeks in, and he grins. Yeosang is fast asleep, and tucked up in his arms is Jongho. Jongho’s right arm is curled protectively around Yeosang’s waist, keeping him close as they dream. They’re sweet together, Mingi thinks. They haven’t yet explicitly stated that they’re dating, but Mingi is more than confident that they are. He thinks he may have even had a hand in getting them together.
Mingi hears the hallway floor creak, and so he pulls back and leaves their friends to it. Yunho’s eyebrows are raised in curiosity.
”What were you doing?”
”They’re cuddling,” Mingi says with a light shrug of his shoulders, “it’s cute.”
Yunho hums. “Jongho visits a lot lately.”
”Oh yeah?”
“Like a lot,” Yunho says, “I think I heard the bed frame repeatedly hit the wall a few nights ago.”
Mingi blinks, and then the two of them burst into a fit of matching quiet, hysterical giggles. Mingi grabs Yunho’s hand, being careful of his own injured finger whilst doing so, and he leads him swiftly towards the stairs. They go down them, entering the bottom section of the house.
They slip on their shoes, and Mingi pats his pockets whilst his partners back is facing him. He needs to ensure that he still has the keys to his recording studio. Hongjoong would kill him if he lost them and, also, the surprise is in there.
Together, they leave the house. The sky is still dark, the air is cold, and Yunho shivers as soon as they begin to walk. Mingi wants nothing more than to hold his hand, but he can’t because there’s always the just in case. Seonghwa always warns them of the just in case.
The walk to the studio is mostly quiet, neither of them really knowing what to say. Mingi knows that every time he speaks, he runs the risk of accidentally spoiling the upcoming surprise. He would hate for that to happen after having done such a good job of keeping the secret for months now.
Yunho has always been quite fond of the silence the night brings so he doesn’t mind the not talking. He’s just happy to be in Mingi’s presence despite still not knowing where they’re going.
They reach the studio building soon enough, and Mingi opens the door and gestures for Yunho to go through first. Yunho quietly thanks him, and he wonders why they’re here. He knows this building like the back of his hand, and he knows Mingi’s studio like the back of his hand too.
Often, the two of them lie on the floor of the studio room as they sing together. Sometimes it’s songs from their childhood, other times it’s ATEEZ songs and on the occasion, they write and sing something that’s forever only for the two of them to hear.
Mingi takes Yunho’s hand in his own one without another word, and he guides him up the stairs. Mingi’s studio is next to Hongjoong’s one, both having quite different aesthetics. They both have studios in their homes too, but they’re more like communal ones for anyone who lives there to use and so their private ones feel more like a second home to them.
Mingi unlocks the door of his studio, and once again he gestures for Yunho to go in first. Yunho immediately cuddles up to the giant teddy bear sitting in the corner of the room, and Mingi goes towards the computer after closing the door.
”Question,” Yunho begins, wrapping the purple bears arms around himself, “why exactly are we here?”
”You’ll find out in a minute,” Mingi doesn’t remove his eyes from his awakening computer, “just be patient, baby.”
Yunho feels his entire body heat up. Curse the day Mingi decided that baby was his pet name. Yunho watches as Mingi pulls up a recent audio file, and then he fetches his headphones from beneath the desk.
Yunho frowns, and Mingi looks over at him with sparkling eyes. “Come,” he says.
”Why?”
”Please?”
Yunho leaves the cuddly bear behind, and when he’s within touching distance, Mingi places his hands on his hips and guides him to the desk chair. Mingi places his headphones onto Yunho’s head, and Yunho just watches him with his curiosity overflowing at this point.
”Princess—”
But Mingi just shushes him. The younger spins the chair to face the desk, pushes it along the floor so that the gap between Yunho and the desk itself shrinks to almost nothing, and then he takes a step back.
Yunho turns immediately. “Where are you going?”
”To sit on the sofa,” Mingi says, “this is your surprise.”
Yunho’s gaze narrows. “I’m confused.”
”Just press play when you’re ready, yeah?”
A slightly defeated, ”Mingi—”
”It’ll be worth it,” the younger nods, feeling his nerves grow because this is the exact moment the last few months of incredibly hard work has been building up to, “I promise. I would never lie to you, yeah?”
”I know you wouldn’t,” Yunho replies, and he turns back around to face the computer. He listens closely, and Mingi is most definitely not walking in the direction of the room’s grey sofa. Yunho hears a drawer open, and then the clacking of what sounds like CD’s.
He pushes away his curiosity, and instead follows his partner’s instructions. He clicks play on the audio file. There’s some shuffling in the audio, and then Mingi, through the headphones, begins speaking into his ear:
”Today is November 23rd 2025, and we have been dating for a little over three months,” and following those words is a soft, happy giggle that makes Yunho immediately smile, “it will have been a little more than four months by the time you’re listening to this. Hello Yunnie!”
Yunho goes to say hello back, but stops himself.
”You’re probably wondering what you’re doing here so early in the morning, and you’re in luck because I’m about to tell you!”
Unconsciously, Yunho leans closer to the desk. His left elbow rests against the dark wood.
“So since early September, I have been creating a project as part of your Christmas gift. This project has been a lot harder than the rest I have done, and that’s mostly because this project needed to be completely perfect. I have spent months on this. I really hope you like it.”
He continues to listen.
”After I finish speaking, if all goes correctly, a song will play. This song is one I wrote for you. It’s about you, and it’s about how you make me feel. I reflected a lot on the day in which I figured out that I was in love with you, and so this song comes from the heart of both me now and the twenty-one year old version of me. Once again, I really hope you like it. No pressure or anything, but I poured my heart and soul into this one.”
There’s a pause in the recording, and just as Yunho goes to turn around, the version of Mingi from a few months ago starts speaking again:
”Please do not turn around. Don’t look at me whilst you listen. You know me, I’ll look for any sign of enjoyment or the opposite on your face and I’ll start crying either way. Um, I’ll shut up now. Enjoy the song Yunnie!” More quiet, and then another set of giggles: “that kind of sounds like we got married! Song Yunnie. Song Yunho, you know? Like if you took my last n— oh my god, Mingi, just shut up already.”
Yunho chuckles softly, and he won’t lie his heart does race at the idea of the two of them getting married. He has already told Mingi that, when the time is right, he’ll take the both of them some place they can legally marry one another.
There’s a soft click in his ears, and soon enough a melody he does not recognise begins to play. He listens, and his heart melts when Mingi begins to sing. The song that he is currently listening to, a song about the two of them, is slow and unlike anything Mingi has ever released before.
It’s almost a ballad, just not quite that. Some parts of the song are faster than others, and there will no doubt be a light rap section towards the end.
Yunho can feel his eyes brim with tears, and every single one of his senses is heightened in the best way possible. He has never felt quite so loved before. This surprise truly is the best one he has ever received.
Mingi tells him, through song, about the exact moment he knew he was in love with him. Mingi was lying curled up on his bed, only half-awake a little over three months into his hiatus. He had been watching— no, he had been admiring Yunho as he cleaned around his bedroom for him. A look of concentration had been on the older man’s face, his entire body filled with a certain determination to help make Mingi’s life easier in any way that he possibly could.
Mingi had been resting with his own thoughts, thinking about the way Yunho’s eyes sparkled under certain lights, thinking about how safe he felt with him, thinking about the way his smile lights up an entire room, and how wonderful it is to be by his side, and so many more things— Mingi had known for a while that Yunho was his entire world, he just hadn’t realised that the great love he felt for him was both platonic and romantic until the moment they had finally reunited after months apart.
Yunho had called Mingi ‘Princess’ for the first time that day, and Mingi still gets a little flustered whenever he thinks about the moment. His own Mother had been in the room, for goodness sakes.
Mingi sings about how utterly breathtaking he thinks Yunho is, and he sings about how thankful he is for everything they have ever done together. He sings about how he cannot wait for their future adventures, whatever it is they may end up doing.
The song is coming to a close, and Yunho doesn’t want it to end. He wants to loop the song and listen to it over and over again. He wants, needs, Mingi to send him this. It’s perfect in every way, and it means the world to him and more.
Mingi’s voice fades into nothing after a rap about promising to love him forever, no matter what happens, and Yunho’s heart could burst it’s so full. He feels warm all over, and just emotional. He blinks and a tear makes its way down his face. Yunho removes the headphones from his head, pushes himself away from the desk, and he spins the chair to the left so that he can stand.
He freezes immediately, eyes widening slightly because Mingi is stood up too and he’s holding a CD in his slightly trembling hands.
”This is for you,” the younger begins, offering out the CD, and Yunho doesn’t know whether to kiss him or hug him first, “it’s, um, that wasn’t the only song I wrote and recorded for you.”
A slightly breathless, “how many are there?”
”Fifteen,” Mingi answers, the bundle of nerves in his stomach still very much present, “there are even some covers on there too, taking the rough total number of songs to twenty. The covers are songs that remind me of us. I tried my best to translate them into Korean, but I found it a bit hard to do all on my own. Some of the songs I just sang in English because it was too difficult. Those ones might sound a bit weird at first, my pronunciation still isn’t the best.”
Yunho takes the CD, cradling it carefully within the both of his hands, and he looks down at it in complete awe. The cover of the CD, where an album cover should be, is a photo of them. They’re cuddled up in bed together, in the photo, fully clothed thank you very much. Yunho loves this photo so much, the two of them are wearing such bright smiles.
”D-did you like it?”
Yunho doesn’t reply. Instead, he flips the CD over. Lo and behold, there’s a rather professional looking contents page filled with the track titles. The background image is fan art of Bbyongming and Tyudeongi holding hands. Yunho smiles at it, chuckles, and then he sniffles softly.
Mingi has taken the time to write, record, and produce an entire album of songs for him, and this is only part of his Christmas gift. What on earth else has Mingi gotten for him? Yunho is overwhelmed, feeling so much love for the man stood opposite him and also feeling so loved and cherished himself. Their schedules have always been so busy, Mingi must have used the large majority of his own free time to do this for him.
The sound of sniffles instantly alarms the younger of the two. The sound of crying, usually linked to sadness, overpowers Yunho’s smile and the laughter. “Y-Yunnie?”
Again, no response.
”Did you not like it? I tried my best, really I did.”
Yunho registers the words, and he looks up at his boyfriend. “What?”
”I can get you a new Christmas gift,” he says despite his heartbreak, “that’s no problem. I’m sorry that it wasn’t very good. I tried for so long to get it right. I knew I should have just scrapped the idea wh—”
”No,” Yunho shakes his head, heart sinking, “no, Princess, what are you talking about?!”
Mingi blinks, shoulders somehow tense but also slumped in defeat at the same exact time. “My song? You didn’t like it?”
”Wh-what makes you think that I didn’t like it?”
”I asked if you did, and you didn’t reply to me. You’re crying— was it really that bad?”
”No,” Yunho shakes his head, “no, Mingi, these are happy tears, I promise.”
A vulnerable, “th-they are?”
”Of course they are,” the older nods, and he places the CD onto the nearest surface he can find. He then cradles Mingi’s face within his hands, “it’s perfect, Minnie, you are perfect.”
A nervous gulp, “Yunnie—”
”How could you think it was anything but that? My love, my Princess, my Mingi, this is the best thing anyone has ever done for me.”
The younger’s eyes light up, his facial expression falling into one of complete relief. “Really?”
”Yes,” Yunho nods, and he places their foreheads together, “I don’t know how I could ever properly thank you. The words don’t seem like enough.”
”Well, um, I mean a kiss would be n—”
A kiss is what he receives. Yunho places their lips together, and Mingi kisses him back immediately. The rapper’s hands settle against his partner’s hips, and their lips soon disconnect but their foreheads remain joined.
”I love you,” Yunho tells the younger, “so much, Mingi, you have absolutely no idea.”
”I think I do,” Mingi replies, “I’m certain it’s the exact same amount I love you.”
Yunho chuckles warmly, and he sniffles once again. Yunho pulls back so that he can look his boyfriend in the eyes. Mingi smiles at him, and Yunho falls in love all over again.
Mingi suddenly remembers, “the surprise isn’t finished yet.”
”Oh?”
”You didn’t open the CD.”
“I was supposed to?”
”Yes.”
”Shall I open it now?”
”Yes please.”
Yunho moves away from Mingi, and he collects the CD from where he had left it before. He carefully opens it, and a set of black and white photobooth images greet him. They’re cut up into their own little rectangles in order to properly fit into the case. Both Mingi and Yunho are in school uniforms in the images, they must be about sixteen here.
”I found them a few weeks ago. I had both sets so I must’ve forgotten to give you yours. I know it’s like a decade late at this point, but here they are.”
A beat of silence. “We were so young.”
Mingi nods. “I look absolutely hideous in those photos.”
Yunho looks over at him, shaking his head with his heart falling a little. “No, you don’t. You’ve always been handsome.”
“I don’t think so.”
”Well I do,” the older tells him truthfully, and then he looks back down at the photographs. He thinks he remembers the day they were taken, the lunch period they escaped from their schools and met up at the local arcade. If the two teenagers in these four photos could see them now, well they’d be shocked to say the least.
Mingi settles himself behind Yunho, his chest coming to rest against the taller’s back. He places his chin onto the other man’s right shoulder, and he wraps his arms around his partner’s waist.
”Do you think they’d be proud of us?”
”I do,” Yunho nods immediately, “and I’m so, so proud of them.”
”So am I,” Mingi says.
Yunho turns his head to the right, and Mingi lifts his head up from the other’s shoulder. They watch each other for a moment, and then Yunho leans in to kiss Mingi once more. Mingi returns the action, melting into it.
”I love you,” Yunho tells him when their mouths separate long enough for him to do so.
”I love you too,” Mingi replies, and then he adds, “Merry early Christmas, baby.”
Yunho smiles, settling their foreheads together once more. His following words are soft, his entire body warm in the embrace of the man he adores, “Merry early Christmas, Princess.”