a tall glass of stupid.

your smile. it brightens up my day.

the way you admire your food before taking a bite.

your little hugs.

whenever you keep close to me when you sleep.

the way each hair strand is perfectly placed whenever you have a different hairstyle.

your soft skin against mine.

how you love your pets unconditionally.

how you care for your friends and treat them like family.

the way you never forgot me.

how you always feel at home when we're at my parents.

your knowledge about fashion.

the way you look at me (when you think i'm not looking).

how careful you are when you're the one driving.

how every single detail is met when you prepare a surprise.

the surprises you give me.

how we have this unspoken rule that we can always just come up to each other and sit beside each other in silence.

when you sit on my lap when we do anything.

the way you support me.

the way your hand fits mine.

how stylish you are.

how every person you meet is just mesmerized by you (including myself).

you instantly clicked with my friends.

my friends say you're the nicest girl i've ever introduced to them, and that they're expecting a wedding invite from us.

the way we just understand each other.

every day is a learning process. we are not perfect, but we can learn together, and i love that.

my shirts fit you perfectly.

our plans for the future are already set, it's just a matter of us waiting for that moment to arrive.

my parents love you.

the fact that we met again after years of searching for the true happiness that we always wanted for each other.

your handwriting - it's beautiful and perfect.

the way you can hold your phone, your wallet, three sets of keys, and my card all between three fingers. how?!

when you say that you like my (slowly improving) cooking.

when you say that i make you happy.

when we talk about the serious stuff.

how we just finish each others' train of thought most of the time. we're getting the hang of this mind-reading thing.

how strong you are, physically and emotionally.

how much you trust me, that you start to tell me things about your past. i appreciate that. i hope you'll trust me for the rest of our lives.

your powers. that's really sexy.

how good you are with cooking. i can never surpass you.

when you teach me things i don't know yet. i can listen to you all day.

your pets.

your ace bed. not gonna lie, i sleep better on your bed than on my own bed.

you're my lucky charm.

your skincare routine. at first, i found it very tedious, but now that i'm feeling your skin all the time, i get why you follow that regimen religiously.

the playlist you made me, i listen to it all the time now.

everything you do is just perfect to me.

you continuously want to improve yourself and i admire you for that.

your fascination with star signs. i know i gave you a hard time in the beginning but i now know why you're so into those things - the readings most of the time are really interesting.

the things you do to show me how much you love me.

your big, power hugs, especially after a stressful day.

the bentos you make me whenever i forget to eat.

how much endurance you have.

how patient you are with me.

the way you take care of everything.

how much of a good planner you are. i could never plan as efficiently as you.

the creative directing skills that you apply everywhere. you've got a good eye for design.

just how creative you are with everything.

the way you look at me when i'm trying to explain something.

the little sounds you make when we make love.

the way you just breathe in when we kiss.

how adorable you are.

you fit perfectly in my arms.

you fit perfectly anywhere.

when you hold my hand, especially when i'm nervous or anxious.

you just know the perfect time to hug me.

you just always know what to say to comfort me.

you look beautiful every day.

i love how you change nails almost every week, and every week your nails look gorgeous.

your reaction when you first saw the shelf i had installed in the bathroom for all your skincare and your products. i'll never forget that.

the way you moved when we danced to the songs playing on your record player.

the way you'd kiss my face whenever you feel extra lovey.

watching you pour your own maple syrup on your pancakes somehow is just satisfying to me.

the way you're cuddled on my side whenever we watch something on TV.

how you talk to your pets - it's so cute, and i just wanna see how you love your pets all the time.

how hardworking you are. even during the weekend, i would catch a glimpse of you being a boss and i love that about you.

you make time for all the things that are important to you and i really admire that.

how freaky you really are.

how you're quick to learn all about the wine trade. i'm proud of you!

how the universe just knows that we'll end up together.

how you get along with not just my friends, but also my staff. jae says you're the most pleasant non-work-related person i've brought to the office.

how much you also think about our staff.

how thoughtful you are.

how nice you are to everyone you meet.

just how far you've come. seeing you grow into the beautiful, strong woman that you right now makes me the proudest boyfriend.

you're unabashedly you.

you always keep it real, and you’re always honest with yourself and with everyone around you.

you are never late to anything, and i admire that because in contrast, i sometimes will be late to any meeting especially if i don’t feel like going.

you treat my parents as if they were your own and i really love that about you. you’re the first ever girl that they honestly really liked.

how much food you can take in and yet you still look stunning. i love seeing you eat a good amount and just enjoy yourself.

how excited you are with the little things, like the flower legos and the new spiderman movie coming out soon.

how much you value every second that we spend together.

the way you think about our dream home and what else we need there that i may have missed one way or another.

how you keep track of every detail.

your warmth, and how it comforts me.

how much of a good girlfriend you are.

how much of a good girl you are.

the way we just click, really.

you make everything brighter.

when you tell me you love me.

their current mornings in japan were even more fruitful, because for some reason, yona seemed like she was more in her element, and kino loved seeing this side of yona. she was more playful, more expressive, even cuter than usual. expressive, in the sense that it was his first time hearing her moan out in japanese while they made love. maybe japan was a place where kino would really see more of yona, sides of her that were (hopefully) exclusive to him.

he let yona stay in a bit more - it was his fault that she was out of breath at 8 in the morning, hair disheveled, shirt canted up her chest. the least he could do before he got up to make them breakfast was to pull down her shirt and tuck her in bed properly. he'd have to just join her in the bath later so they could at least get cleaned up before deciding on what they'll do on that free day.

yona had requested for breakfast in a certain order: him, and a howl's moving castle breakfast. the first part of her request was already fulfilled, so what was left to do now was to cook the actual breakfast.

kino has been a bit more confident with making breakfast for her lately, with practice and a little help from the lessons he'd been taking back at home. it had been an ongoing insecurity of his, ever since he and yona started dating, that he didn't have the necessary skills to cook her anything other than eggs, which was ironic now that he was preparing eggs and bacon on a cast iron skillet, just like the breakfast that howl prepared in the film. thinking about how he had progressed from not being able to properly fry an egg to actually planning out different types of breakfasts for yona made him smile as he prepared everything, making sure that the breakfast she requested was perfect, up to the last drop of coffee.

he decided to go back to the bedroom to check up on her, just because. she was laying on the mattress, in her most comfortable state, her cheeks blushed and glowing from their earlier shenanigans. he let out a small laugh and decided it would be better if he just carried her from the bed to the dining area of their rented airbnb, where he'd already prepared their soon-to-be feast. per her request, a howl's moving castle breakfast, and coffee, just the way she liked it.

moments like this with her made him fall in love with her a bit more. seeing her smile as she took the first few bites of her meal, her asking if she could sit on her lap while they ate, and him saying yes to everything she said - not because she said so, but because he wanted to, as well.

it was as if they relived their university glory days, of them just letting it all out and jamming to whoever was onstage. they drank - a whole lot! - and didn't regret a single thing. because they know within themselves that they had each other to lean onto at the end of the festival, they had a hotel they could crash to, they had each other to hold for when the beer gets too much and the music gets too loud.

somehow kino felt like they were making up for lost time, and in a good way at that. they would always talk about the past, and how they were in two separate worlds back when they were in college. yona, with her party-girl status, and kino, with his idiot fratboy behavior - all of those things were things of the past. but during this festival, they allowed themselves to show at least a little bit of those personalities because they weren't able to see that from each other back then.

somehow, kino felt like they were making up for lost time.

and he was loving every second of it.

the nights back at the hotel were even better. kino suppressing his frustration with the men attempting to touch yona without consent, or even just men staring at her in the crowd - he let it all out on that bed, with her pinned under him. he let it all out with each kiss, each nip on her skin, each low moan that escaped his lips with every move he made inside of her. and she returned that same energy, with her loving every minute thing that he did to her. yona would always say that she loved seeing kino get all possessive, and kino would always retort that she was all his, and no one else's.

those two days of them getting to know each other's wild sides (or at least, the sides of each other they didn't get to see from years of being apart) were spent productively, with each night ending with their bodies pressed onto each other, limbs tangled together with no intention of letting go.

and if this was all a dream, kino wished to never wake up.

they had the best spot in the crowd - not too near the stage, where they would have been crushed by the barricades, and also not too far that neither of them wouldn't be able to see anything. they were right in the middle, with enough space to breathe, but even so, they still had their arms wrapped around each other as the music led them to follow the crowd and to move, to sway with the rhythm.

at some point, kino had also managed to put yona on his shoulders, so she could properly see the artists she wanted to see. this was what he appreciated the most about live concerts like this, because no one thought this was too selfish of them, or too power-trippy. in fact, everyone else was doing the exact same thing: boyfriends carrying their girlfriends on their shoulders as they vibed to the songs that were blaring from the festival speakers.

somewhere between niki's urs and i like u, kino had found himself standing still, absorbing everything that's happened. he was probably a bit tipsy from the beer (a beverage he swore he wouldn't drink if not for the current situation that they were in), because everything around him seemed to move in slow motion and the music was just a hum against his eardrums. had he gone deaf? did the beer he drink had something else mixed in? there was a millisecond of panic that rushed through him as these small things started to mess with his intoxicated mind but he decided to focus on one thing, and one thing only -

her.

yona was having the time of her life, belting out to whatever song it was playing. her smile was wide, from cheek to cheek, a smile that kino had noticed she always has whenever they were together. kino hadn't really processed everything before this point yet; he'd been with yona for two months now and yet everything still felt surreal, like this was something that he wouldn't be able to experience - being at a festival with the love of his life, them just enjoying and living life in the moment.

their eyes met, and by this time, kino had his arms around her waist, and her hands locked behind his neck. whatever song niki was singing in the background was the perfect background music for them to just be swaying with the crowd, with him willing the most of his sober energy to be able to enjoy this very moment with her.

he didn't even think he'd be able to go back to their hotel room in one piece, but somehow, he did. and she was with him the whole time, probably using some of her magic to put him to bed. and, as usual, he refused to sleep without her cuddled into his chest, her small breaths almost in sync with the beat of his heart.