Taste | Changbin

Chapter Seventy-Two

In the midnight darkness, golden fairy lights glittered. They were strung around a large white blanket. A large wicker basket sat in the middle with a bottle of red wine leaning against it. Two crystal clear wine glasses accompanied the bottle.

A path of rose petals led up to it. A plethora of white candles were evenly spaced out on either side of the path. Their yellow flames burned and danced brightly along the night sky. 

Changbin leaned closer to her ear, "do you like the surprise?" 

His breath hit her ear and coated her arms in goosebumps. 

"When did you set this up? How did you do this? Where did you get the supplies? Was this why you were avoiding me all day?" 

He chuckled at the influx of questions. "Well, if you'd like me to be honest, I wanted to go on a date with you. It's something we haven't really done and I had a question I really wanted to ask you." 

"What's the question?" 

Reaching into his blazer pocket, he took out a small black box. "Lennon," he started before he lowered himself down to one knee." 

Her eyes widened in horror. "Wait, what are you do-"

"Will you do the honor of becoming my girlfriend?" He popped open the box to reveal a silver ring. 

Lennon clutched a hand to her chest. "Oh my god, I thought you were proposing already! It's way too early for that and JYP would kill you." 

He shook his head, "I just wanted to ask you formally. I know we've made jokes about it, but I've never officially asked you." 

A smile lit up her face, "I would love to be your girlfriend." She held her hand out to him. 

He removed the ring from the box. "What finger do you want it to be on?" 

"The ring finger, obviously." 

A large grin washed over his face. He placed the cold metal over her finger and stood back up. Lennon brought the ring closer to her face to inspect it. It was a thin metal band with a tiny heart engraved into it. "Is it like a promise ring?" 

"No, it's a matching couples ring. I got the idea from Hyunjin and Felix. I know that the two of them have a matching set of rings, so I figured that we could have that too." He held out his hand to her to reveal a matching ring on his own ring finger. 

"They're really beautiful." 

"If you'd like a promise ring, we could get you one, but I think we should probably wait a bit." 

"You're right. Really though, they're gorgeous. You didn't have to do that, but thank you." 

"Anything for my girl." Lennon's cheeks reddened at his words. "Now, would you like to eat? I packed a bunch of different things that the guys suggested." 

"I'd love to." 

He reached down and grabbed her hand. He led her through the path of petals. The floral scent wafted up as the two of them walked over them. Lennon felt like she was on cloud nine. 

As they neared closer to the picnic, Lennon glanced up. Their hotel wasn't the tallest building in the area, but it was still pretty tall. Yellow lights dimmed around in the distance. She let her eyes wander across the skyline. Even in the middle of the night, everything was so beautiful. 

Changbin let go of her hand and plopped himself down on the blanket. "Okay, if I'm being honest, I don't have that many options. It's the middle of the night and I didn't want to have too many things." He opened the latch that held the basket shut and flipped the lid open. 

Lennon sat down beside him. She brought her legs to the side, so he wouldn't be able to see up her dress. "That's okay. I'm not a fan of eating a lot at this hour anyway. We can just say it's our midnight snack." 

"That's exactly how I would describe it. We have the wine, obviously. Then we have some cheese, some sliced meat, crackers, fruit, and last but not least we have..." he trailed off. 

"What?" Lennon tilted her head. "What's the last thing?" 

Changbin lifted a small box out of the picnic basket. "Gushers, from Han apparently." 

She burst out laughing. Her laugh was like a melody to his ears, but he still felt a little embarrassed. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know he put them in here. He told me I should bring them along earlier and I told him no. We can just leave them here and return them to him later." 

"That's okay, I'm a fan of gushers. I'll eat a pack or two of them. It all sounds really good. It's like a charcuterie picnic, I love it!" 

Changbin started removing the items from the basket one by one. "Oh, I almost forgot, there's also chocolate covered strawberries along with the rest of the fruit." 

"Wait, really?" 

"Uh-huh." 

"Those are my favorites! Honestly, that's the only way I eat strawberries. I'm not a huge fan of them otherwise." 

"Really?" 

"Yep." 

"That's crazy because that was the food item I picked out. The rest of the stuff, the guys suggested." 

"It sounds like we were made for each other." 

"I have to agree." 

Changbin opened the plastic container of chocolate strawberries and handed it towards her. "Ladies can eat first." 

"Thank you." She grabbed one and took a bite out of it. "This is delicious. You have to try a bite." She held up the fruit to Changbin's face. 

He chuckled and took a bite of it. "You're right, that's amazing." 

She nodded, ripped the stem off, and placed the rest of it in her mouth. Changbin watched her chew in silence. He knew he had liked Lennon on the day before he met her, but he didn't realize just how much he was going to fall for her. 

He wanted to grip her hand and never let go. He wanted to experience her touching any part of him at all times. He wanted to shrink her and keep her safe in the palms of his hands. 

Unfortunately, things don't always go as planned.