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You stir as Jihoon’s warm body shifts out of your grasp, leaving cool air behind. He takes a moment to stretch; you take a moment to admire his naked torso, blinking sleep out of your eyes. He looks so good with his lithe form backlit by the early morning sun. 

“Stop looking at me like that,” he says, voice still low.

“Mm…like what?”

“Like you want to bite me.”

Giggling, you snuggle deeper into the pillows. You already did that last night; left a beautiful mark behind, too. He’ll find it soon. You’re looking forward to it.

Yawning, Jihoon heads into the bathroom. Wait for it…

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

You stifle another giggle, tugging at the thin straps of your camisole, which have slipped down in the night. You like to sleep with bare arms, mostly so you can enjoy the feel of his skin against yours. It’s grounding.

Jihoon’s angry face appears in the doorway. “What did you do?”

“Don’t know what you mean.”

“This!” Pointing at the huge red mark high on his neck, he hisses, “You know, just the giant hickey you left on me!”

Rolling over onto your stomach, you grin. “I did a good job, huh?”

“I can’t go to work like this!”

He absolutely can and that’s the point. You’re sick to death of the Head of Information Security thinking that just because she has a fancy title, she can keep trying to ask your fiance out to dinner. She’s tried making it a date, a team-building exercise, a reward for his hard work. Jihoon is running out of ways to politely refuse her.

So you thought of a more straightforward one.

Striding over to the closet, Jihoon pulls on his work clothes, feeling along his shirt collar. His nerdy little polo falls just underneath the edge of your mark, almost an underline to your explosive statement.

“I think you look sexy.”

“I’m not supposed to look sexy at work.” He tugs his shirt collar up a little more, trying and failing to cover the mark.

“I don’t know,” you tease, kicking your feet back and forth. “I kind of like the idea of the hot IT nerd coming over to help fix my computer problem.”

Jihoon responds with an exhausted glare. “We are not doing roleplay. This is a serious issue.”

Sighing, you push yourself off the bed and head to the bathroom. Rummaging through your makeup bag, you pluck out a tube of concealer. “Come here.”

“Now what are you going to do to me?”

“Hide all my hard work,” you say, showing him the tube. “It’s supposed to match your skin tone when it goes on, though I don’t think it does transparent.”

“Hurry up,” he urges, tugging his collar down for you.

It’s tempting to lean forward and give him another one. Instead, you go about covering it up the best you can. When you’re done, the hickey is practically invisible. His skin looks a bit strange if you stare at it too long, but there’s not much else you can do with so little time.

Jihoon turns to study his neck in the mirror, then nods. “Good enough.”

“So glad you approve,” you retort.

Not bothering to clean up your makeup, you wander out into the living room where your desk is set up facing the window. Dropping down into your chair, you yank your laptop open and type in your password.

Jihoon hovers behind you. “Baby.”

“Bye, go to work.”

“Don’t be like this, please.”

“I’m busy. Working.”

You open your email to make a point, clicking through each one without reading it. Jihoon sighs.

Placing a kiss on your bare shoulder, he finishes getting ready and heads out the door. You continue staring at your computer screen until you hear the door close and lock. Then you slump in your chair.

Whatever. He’s right, he’s the Security Operations Center Lead. He can’t show up to work looking ravished.

It still drives you crazy that his boss gets to spend all day flirting with him while you have to sit here and deal with it. And it’s not that you don’t trust Jihoon, because you absolutely do. His boss doesn’t stand a chance against you.

You just can’t help your desire to make it really, really obvious that he’s yours.

Resolving to be more mature about the situation when he gets home, you head to the bathroom to get ready for the day. It’s only after you’ve dressed, brushed your teeth, and started on your hair that you hear the front door close.

Jihoon should be at work right now. Unless…

Sure enough, he’s standing in the entryway, hurriedly toeing off his shoes.

“Jihoon? Did something happen?”

Your eyes drop to his collar where the edge has been rubbing against his neck. The fabric is stained with concealer and you can see the very bottom of the hickey. Your heart rate jumps.

“You didn’t get in trouble, did you?”

“No. I took a sick day.”

“But–”

“I kept thinking about the mark you left and, well…”

You follow his gaze down to the very obvious bulge in the front of his work slacks.

“Ended up with a bigger problem.”

The grin that splits your face is indecent. “You made such a fuss about it and it secretly made you horny.”

“Not a secret,” he grumbles. “Get over here.”

But you dance just out of his grip. “I think you owe me an apology.”

Jihoon’s eyes flash; his hand darts out, catching you around the waist. With one smooth movement, he pulls you flush against his body. “I think,” he says dangerously, “that I owe you something else. Something to match.”

“of course I want to marry you” moment — Seungcheol, Joshua, Dokyeom, Mingyu

It hits him when he’s watching you do something really ordinary. Folding laundry, laughing with his members, arguing with the gps. He’s already imagining you years from now in the same scene, just the same you and him. He doesn’t have a moment of confusion or panic because it just feels right, like he’s been waiting to find home and now it’s just… here. He holds onto the moment, doesn’t blurt it out, but that night after the realisation [bc he can't keep such an important thing to himself without telling his soulmate], he kisses you like a promise and whispers “I love you” a little too seriously for an average Tuesday [and that's when you know too].

“oh no, I’m in deep” moment — Jeonghan, Jun, Seungkwan

He was joking, teasing you, just being his usual self, and then you laughed or pouted or called him out like any other random day... but for some reason, his heart just stopped. His stomach did this flip and he had to pause because oh. Oh. He’s not just whipped; he wants to marry you. The realization is both terrifying and beautiful, and he covers it with even more teasing… for now, but if you catch him staring too long with that soft look in his eyes, you’ll know.

The awe moment — Wonwoo, Woozi, Minghao

He notices it when you’re not looking. Maybe you're helping a stranger, or maybe you’re reading, headphones on, completely in your world, or maybe you're just asleep beside him. That warmth in his chest just keeps on growing but not like a fire, but like a gentle tide. He doesn’t say much for few days until he can't anymore. His eyes linger longer on you with this fond look in his eyes, and when you look up and ask, “What?” he just shakes his head with a little smile. “Nothing,” he says, but inside, he’s already thinking out vows.

“I don’t want anyone else” moment — Hoshi, Vernon, Dino