～

The bell tinkles when Sanghyuk opens the door, signalling his entry. He holds the door for Hongbin, pulling him in with his other hand. It is much quieter inside, the sound of traffic and chaos muffled by the glass. The restaurant is empty, save for the lone figure walking around in the kitchen. As Hongbin narrowly avoids knocking over a vase, a voice calls out, matter-of-factly.

“We’re closed at the moment, if you didn’t know.”

Sanghyuk huffs and strides past the counter, Hongbin shuffling closely behind. He pokes his head through the cut out in the wall- the little window to pass dishes through- smiling creepily at Jaehwan who is busy chopping up tomatoes. Hongbin, who finally recognises Jaehwan, speaks.

“Hello there.”

Jaehwan looks up when he hears a voice, and upon seeing Sanghyuk eyeing him weirdly through the cut out, he shrieks, almost dropping his knife. Sanghyuk withdraws from the window, laughing loudly. Jaehwan takes a deep breath as if it will calm him some, and puts the knife down. He takes off his hat, stepping towards the door, thinking of giving Sanghyuk a piece of his mind. As soon as he opens the door though, he gets a face full of— marshmallow?

Jaehwan splutters and steps back. He sends a glare to Sanghyuk, who is laughing so hard, he needs to lean on the counter for support.

“Hello there.”

Jaehwan is startled again, hearing the voice coming from right next to him. He stares wide-eyed at the giant marshmallow thing as if it will give him answers. It only stares back, face unchanging. Obviously. The face is drawn on!

“Your inflatable pillow talks, Sanghyuk, and it’s scaring me,” Jaehwan says carefully.

Sanghyuk wipes the tears from the corners of his eyes, laughter reduced to occasional giggles. He takes a deep breath, fanning his face, then smiles at Jaehwan like a kid at the toy shop.

“This is Hongbin,” Sanghyuk announces, gesturing to the thing. “He’s my assistant, of a sort.” He grins sheepishly, unsure of how to really explain it.

Hongbin seems to pick up on it, though, and steps forward, (it moves) filling in for Sanghyuk. “Hello, stranger. I am Hongbin. I am an automated assistant. My goal is to aid in Sanghyuk’s wellbeing.”

It sticks its arm out, and Jaehwan registers that it wants to shake hands. He shakes Hongbin’s hand, it’s like shaking hands with a glove, and he swears that the smile drawn on Hongbin’s face turns up a little more.

“So this is your new invention, I assume?” Jaehwan asks, retracting his hand and turning away.

Sanghyuk, who is eating a muffin possibly stolen from the cabinet, (Jaehwan makes a note to tell him off about it later) quickly chews his last bite and says, through a mouth full of cake, “yes!”

He swallows, then beams at Jaehwan, excitement radiating off him. “Took me a few months but I’m finally done!” Sanghyuk flails on the spot, inches away from knocking over a cookie jar. Jaehwan winces.

“So, what is he— a moving and talking marshmallow?” Jaehwan asks, giving Hongbin a once-over. Sanghyuk chuckles and Jaehwan decides against telling him about the chocolate smears at the corners of his mouth.

“No, he’s a robot,” Sanghyuk points out. “A squishy robot.”

Hongbin has his face pressed up against the glass, and Jaehwan, from the other side of the tank, almost chokes on his candy bar. He sidles up to Hongbin, looking through the glass too, trying to guess what is so interesting about his fish tank that has Hongbin so occupied. After three minutes, he gets a little bored watching his fish swim around, so he nudges Hongbin’s side.

“What are those?” Hongbin asks before Jaehwan himself can ask.

Jaehwan glances at the tank again and deadpans, “those are goldfish.”

Hongbin tilts his head, curious. He stares through the tank a beat longer before he speaks.

“I do not detect any traces of gold in this water container.”

“Get up!” Wonshik shakes Hongbin’s shoulder. Hongbin groans and says something into his pillow but doesn’t move. Wonshik nudges him, and this time, Hongbin rolls over onto his back. He smiles, eyes still closed, pretending to snore. “Fine,” Wonshik huffs, and then pushes him off the bed, Hongbin landing on the carpeted floor with a fwump in a mess of blankets. “What was that for?” Hongbin complains, rubbing his head and scowling at Wonshik with sleepy eyes. Wonshik shrugs and gives him a cheeky smile. “It’s Valentine’s day, and I have things to do.” He reaches over to pull the blankets back up and once he’s done, he takes Hongbin’s wrist and drags him out to the kitchen.

“Oh god.” Hongbin says when he sees the first glimpse of pink. He cringes and releases himself from Wonshik’s hold, turning around. “You overdid it, didn’t you?”

Wonshik chuckles nervously, the laughter dying off when Hongbin turns his head and glares. “Maybe. Come on, at least give me a chance!” He pleads, pulling Hongbin towards the dining table. On it, he sees a vase with a dozen roses, a full breakfast set on pink plates, pink mugs and cutlery. All in all, a lot of pink. Scattered all over and around the table are rose petals and Hongbin sighs, thinking of cleaning it up.

Wonshik pulls out a chair, guiding Hongbin to sit down. “I promise, the food is safe.” Wonshik says as he pushes his chair in and Hongbin laughs. He sits across from Hongbin with a cheesy grin on his face. They eat their breakfast of waffles and syrup with some overrated love song playing on the radio. Hongbin finds that the coffee is surprisingly good and notes himself to ask about it later.

When they are done, Wonshik rushes him to take a shower because ‘the day hasn’t started yet’ and he has a plan to follow. “I’ll clean this up!” Wonshik assures. Hongbin shakes his head and closes the bathroom door.

They go to the amusement park, tickets waving in Hongbin’s face before he thinks of paying. Stupid Wonshik and his prepardness. They find that it is a bad idea to have ice cream, one, at ten in the morning, and two, just before a ride. Wonshik tries to hold in his breakfast and his screams on the rollercoaster whilst Hongbin tries to laugh off the queasy feeling in his stomach. Once Wonshik has his feet on the ground, he swears he would never leave it again.

By the time they leave the amusement park, Hongbin has a stick of fairy floss in one hand and a giant teddy bear slung over his other shoulder. On the way home after getting off the bus, Wonshik takes a detour, prompting Hongbin to follow, leading him to a park. They walk towards the trees, and under one tree sits a picnic basket, no-one in sight.

“What— how?” Hongbin asks.

“Secret.” Wonshik winks back.

Wonshik takes the teddy bear from Hongbin and places it next to the basket. He also sits, legs crossed, and opens the basket. He fishes out some sandwiches and two water bottles and offers them to Hongbin. Hongbin grumbles in defeat and plonks himself down on the ground.

Hongbin lies on the grass beside Wonshik under the tree. He watches the leaves swaying in the slight breeze and sighs. “Why can’t you be like this everyday instead of just Valentine’s day?” Wonshik sits up, grass falling from his hair, and gives him an incredulous look. “I thought you wouldn’t like it.” Hongbin picks a grass blade off his shoulder and laughs. “What if I do?”

Wonshik contemplates the idea, smiling. It seems like his cup of tea. “Only if you reward me.” He leans his face towards Hongbin, eyes fluttering cutely.

Hongbin pushes him away, hiding his wince with a laugh. “You’re so cheesy.”

"Hakyeon." Taekwoon stops, out of breath, by the small table his boyfriend is sitting at, ears red from the cold outside. "Fifteen minutes and thirty-one seconds." Hakyeon puts his phone down, which is on the stopwatch app, and looks up to glare at Taekwoon. Taekwoon scrambles to sit across from him and takes Hakyeon's hands in his. "I'm sorry." "On Valentines Day." Hakyeon scoffs. "What could you have possibly been doing?” He leans back on his seat. “Don’t tell me you were getting me a last-minute gift.” "No," Taekwoon whispers. He looks down, hiding in his scarf, partly because he is embarrassed and partly because he can still feel the cold on his face.

Taekwoon says something, voice muffled by the scarf and Hakyeon doesn’t understand. Frustrated, Hakyeon pushes himself away from the table, preparing to get up and leave. Taekwoon is never this late, and if he’s not going to explain himself, he can forget it.

Taekwoon quickly stands, knocking his chair back, to grab Hakyeon’s wrist. With his other hand, he pulls his scarf down. Hakyeon pulls his hand away and crosses his arms, patience wearing thin.

“I’m really sorry.” Taekwoon says, looking at Hakyeon with pleading eyes. “I- I saw a cat on the way..” he trails off, embarrassment taking over.

Hakyeon frowns and then raises an eyebrow. This is getting even more ridiculous.

“Look, I’ve got-” Taekwoon reaches into his coat pocket, fumbling around until he takes his phone out. He unlocks it and goes to his photo album. He taps on the most recent photo and hands the phone to Hakyeon.

Hakyeon reluctantly unfolds his arms to take the phone. Oddly enough, there is a picture of a tabby cat sitting on the sidewalk. Flicking through the photos, he sees close-ups, pictures from all angles, pictures of Taekwoon petting it, until he gets to a picture of himself from the day before. He doesn’t remember this happening. Hakyeon smiles. The picture is of him staring out the window of a cafe, sunlight shining on him in a way that makes him look ethereal.

Taekwoon notices the change in Hakyeon’s facial expression and snatches the phone away from him. He sees the picture he sneakily took when Hakyeon wasn’t looking. He hesitates and shoves his phone back into his pocket, blushing. Hakyeon tucks himself back towards the table, dreamy look on his face, and motions Taekwoon to sit.

Letting out a breath that he didn’t know he was holding, Taekwoon pulls his chair up and sits, the unease in his stomach settling.

“You are an idiot.” Hakyeon rests his chin on his palm.

"You are. So dumb." Hongbin laughed as Wonshik's character died yet again on Super Smash Bros. Wonshik grumbled and nudged Hongbin on the shoulder. "Why don't you join in? Since you think you're so good." Hongbin fell back on the bed, still laughing and clutching at his sides. "I just like watching you lose on your own." Hongbin gave him a pat on his shoulder. "Sorry man." This was how their afternoons were spent. Playing video games in Wonshik's room and eating a deadly amount of snacks. They could've devised a better way to enjoy their afternoon but it was comfortable, according to Hongbin. "I can't believe you were K.O'd at twenty percent." Hongbin commented whilst shoving a handful of chips into his mouth. Wonshik scoffed and reached over for a chip but Hongbin snatched the bag away. He glared and attempted to reach over again, but this time, Hongbin rolled over onto his stomach on the bed, crushing the bag under him. Wonshik sighed and dropped the controller behind him. He stood up, stretching his arm and smirking, and then lunged at Hongbin. Wonshik tried to push Hongbin off the bed but he didn’t budge, so he resorted to tickling him. Hongbin thrashed, giggling so happily Wonshik was stunned. His eyes crinkled into crescents and his dimples showed. The chip bag rustled under Hongbin and Wonshik was about to grab it but Hongbin pulled his wrist, sending him tumbling. Right onto Hongbin. Hongbin was still smiling and Wonshik’s breath caught in his throat. He really wanted to wipe that stupid smile off his face. “You’re crushing the chips.” Hongbin stated. Wonshik rolled his eyes, leaned down and gave him a fleeting kiss.

Hongbin smiled up at Wonshik, blushing hard. Seems like his plan backfired.

“You are so dumb.”