After Dusk || Im Changkyun

63. Happily Ever After

About Three Years Later

You lounged on your couch, huffing as you stared at your open laptop, your eyes not tearing from the tab you had open. The afternoon sun was shining from the large open window wall that you were sitting behind, the entire living room lighting up in a Sunday daze.
The sun was shining brighter than it normally did at the very end of August but you couldn't care less about it.
You were so focused on the screen in front of you.
"What's up, baby?" You heard that sweet baritone voice sing from behind you, arms draped around your shoulders while eyes peered from the back of the couch.
Seeming not so pleased by your lack of response, his fingers slowly made their way to your chin, tilting it up and diving down for a little peck on lips. You sighed as he pulled away, throwing a leg over the back of the couch and jumping over it, landing on the cushion right next to yours.
"It's that time of year again." You huffed, leaning into his body while you whined. Changkyun on the other hand seemed more than a little confused.
"Is it tax day?" He questioned cluelessly, still not releasing that he could simply look at the laptop to see the cause of your annoyance.
"No, Kyun." You breathed out, frustration laced between every single syllable, but not the angry kind.
The jealous kind.
You gestured towards screen, wanting to kick your legs around like a little girl and not act like the rational twenty-six year old you were.
"Tickets to Italy are at an all time low. Kids are going to school, college students are going back to their campuses, their parents have no excuse to leave. Look at them! They're so cheap!" You exclaimed, aggressively pointing at the screen with all the energy you could muster up after weeks and weeks of tireless filming and shooting. It was the first weekend you'd had to yourself in over a month.
It was the first weekend either of you had in over a month.
"You talk about ticket sales like we're broke, Eggo. We're both rich. Very rich." Changkyun emphasized but still scrolling through the tickets and the timings, muttering something about how they were pretty cheap.
You both hadn't been back to Italy since the coveted three weeks where you'd started dating. Of course, Changkyun had stopped in Milan and Madrid a few times for the sake of work but never long enough for it to count and never with you at his side.
Neither of you had the time to plan a nice vacation to yourselves since you'd gotten together. The topic of returning to Italy was reoccurring. It happened every year right after your anniversary. You'd always be eager to go but pulled yourself back to earth when you remembered your hectic schedule.
"I know we're rich and I'm grateful that we have the money we have, but you don't know how much I would give to just ditch it all and go on a trip with you." You pounded your head into his shoulder repeatedly, clutching onto the sides of his large pale blue t-shirt. His hands cupped your face, stopping you from your brutal abuse to yourself, giving you a soft smile while one of them dropped, the remaining hand gently caressing your cheek.
"What happened to Ms. Mega Rationalist? Talking about random trips is my job in this relationship." Changkyun chuckled, shaking his head at your little pout but he couldn't help himself. You could tell. You shifted closer to him, placing the laptop on the cushion to your other side, watching as Ollie curled up next to it with a little toy that his favorite Uncle Jungwoo had gotten for him.
It was a miracle that he hadn't ripped it into shreds.
Your palms rested on his forearms, your head tilted in that pained smile that only you could somehow muster up.
"I know. I know." You said in surrender, however your hands weren't up, knowing that there was no battle for you to lose, just one for you to continue.
"But I feel like I haven't seen your face in forever." You admitted, knowing that he'd immediately understood with the way his face dropped. The average person wouldn't have caught it, but the years have taught you to notice even the smallest of things about your partner. The tiniest downwards curve of the lips, the meek dimming of the eyes, and even a slight more pressure to the touch.
There was almost nothing you could get past each other at this point.
"I know. I'm sorry." He apologized, to which you shook your head.
Neither of you could control how busy you were. You knew that walking into your occupations. It was hard work and it was demanding. Any time you could get should be appreciated.
"Hey, but we have this time now, don't we? Let's appreciate it." You grinned, trying to think optimistically while you gave him a quick squeeze, returning to the comfortable spot of leaning up against him.
"I do want to go to Italy though. It's been years since I was last in Milan."
"Shush, it's been longer for me." You rolled your eyes at your amused boyfriend, and you could tell how much he loved how riled up you were about the topic.
"You really want to go, don't you?" Changkyun raised an eyebrow, making you eye him in disbelief.
"What do you think, Im?" You remarked sassily, to which his grin grew.
"You're getting brazen with me." He told off in that joking manner he always seemed to sport with you,
"I love it."
Changkyun pulled the computer onto his lap, clicking on a certain one of the ticket bookings, staring at it for a solid second before looking down at you who was curled up against him in a slightly upset fashion.
"You know, if we went to Italy again, I'd want you to go as my wife." He confessed out of nowhere. Your attention had been caught at the special "w" word that you'd been hearing from your family and friends an awful lot lately.
Being four years into your relationship, people had been eagerly waiting for Changkyun to pop the question.
Even you'd been waiting.
You'd be lying if you said you hadn't gotten your hopes up a few times in the last year, only to be met with nothing. Of course, the conversation had occurred plenty between the both of you to know that both sides were definitely on the same page.
You just didn't have the time.
The feelings swelled in your chest at the thought, and in the vulnerable, almost intoxicated state you were in, you blurted out something a bit too honestly.
"If you asked me to marry you right now, on this couch, I'd say yes."
You hadn't had the time to take back what you said, knowing that even if you did, you wouldn't mean it.
You were being completely serious.
Changkyun had shot up quicker than speed itself, his hands resting on the top of your arms. He had that hopeful twinkle in his gaze as he stared down at you, his messy bed hair was all ruffled up and were just screaming at you to run your hands through them.
"Do you mean that?" He asked, his face straight but you knew that was fighting breaking out into giddy laughter.
You nodded, playfully placing a kiss on his cheek while you shrugged.
"I don't even need a ring. All I need is for you to say the words."
Changkyun perked up, jumping off the couch, losing his balance and falling onto the floor, his hands still on you. You giggled, trying to pull him back next to you but he stayed on the ground, his grip on your wrists loosening while he sprung onto his feet, running into your shared bedroom with no other words said.
To say you were confused would be an understatement.
"Kyun?" You called out into the quiet apartment, wondering where he'd disappeared to without any explanation. You were about to get up and see what he was doing for yourself but he stumbled out the door frame before you could even get to it.
He'd zoomed over to you, towering over while he stood in front of you, that awkward introverted air surrounding him.
"This is going to sound crazy." He started, giving himself another moment, his eyes fluttering close while his chest rose steadily, dropping when his eyes opened once more.
"Initially, I wanted to start this with breakfast in bed. I wanted to send you out on an afternoon girls trip with your friends, Lila, your mother. I wanted you to have fun and then we'd go out for dinner. The fanciest place I could find in the city. We'd take a joyride, talk through the night, and end up at that beach from four years ago, our first actual date." He spewed, rapping every word so fast to the point that you could barely comprehend him.
"I'd have a song, an entire monologue just drowning you with every sweet word I could think of. I wanted to propose at midnight, you know? Make it grand because you deserve so much. Instead I'm doing this at..." he looked behind him at the clock in the kitchen,
"2:17 in the afternoon on a lazy Sunday."
He waved his balled fists in front of him, and you almost couldn't believe what he was saying.
"I was going to ask your mother for permission, I'd drive down to ask your father for permission... heck! I was even going to ask Yuta for permission. He's like your older brother." He chuckled awkwardly, not meeting your eyes as he continued to go on. Ollie barked, almost as if he were joining in on this unexpected conversation. You could feel your heart racing in your chest, pounding as the little smile on your face grew, wondering if this was going where it was going.
"I wanted the world to know that you'd be mine for the rest of eternity. We'd have a big wedding, with everyone we could think of, and anything we wanted." He exclaimed, his eyes glittering as he talked about the things you'd never heard from him. He spoke as if he'd been thinking about this since forever.
"This." He gestured at the position you were both in. You on the couch of your shared apartment, and him awkwardly standing in front of you,
"This is not how I wanted it to turn out, but it's so much more us." He rubbed his nape, and you felt yourself leaning closer to the edge of the couch, dying of anticipation.
"This is going to sound hypocritical,"
"Mr. Annoying Hypocrite." You muttered under your breath, cutting him off. He scoffed, finally looking up to make eye contact, his dark irises glittering under the sunlight, making your own heart soar at the sight of him.
He was glowing.
"But we don't need materialistic things. We never have. I just need you, and you just need me." Changkyun explained, his hands finally resting at his sides. He took another deep breath, placing one on his heart before getting down on the floor.
Specifically,
Down on one knee.
"I don't have a massive declaration of my love to you." He admitted guiltily, shuffling around on the ground while you looked at him with utter shock, wondering how on earth this ended up happening in front of you.
"But," he grinned, opening one of his balled fists to reveal a purple velvet box in his palm. He took his other hand, shaky and unstable, managing to open it, eliciting a gasp from you.