#tho the scenery & set pieces were pretty sweet

[uglynicc]

Me: *watches Borderlands movie trailer*

Also me: *sees Mouthpiece or at least his mask in a quick shot*

Me again: *has mental breakdown wondering if this means there will ever be a live action movie version of Troy and Tyreen*

[myforeverforlife]

home is with you.

Your boyfriend is extremely important to you — but so is your job. When you’re offered the opportunity to do work abroad for the summer, you jump at the chance. Jongdae is understanding, the best boyfriend you could ever ask for. But even kind words meant to comfort aren’t the same as having your best friend, the love of your life by your side.

Word Count: 5,904

Masterlist

You weren’t always this lucky to have time to call Jongdae nowadays. 

”And then, Jongin realized that he had left his keys inside his car, but the door had already locked behind him! He had to call a locksmith to get him in.” 

You laughed along with Jongdae, hand coming up to cover your mouth in a half-hearted attempt to stifle yourself. “Was it the same person as last time?”  

“The exact same one. They looked pretty annoyed,” Jongdae told you, chuckling to himself from his side of the phone. 

“He should just leave a spare key somewhere, for the next time that this happens.” 

“You know Jongin, he’d end up losing that one too.” 

You hummed in agreement, rolling onto your back and pressing the phone closer to your ear. It was 5:18 in the afternoon in Seoul, but 10:18 in the morning for you. You were currently on a summer trip with some other professors and a handful of graduate students from your university studying a small sample of the wide variety of languages spoken in South Africa. The hotel you were staying at in Johannesburg was beautiful, but it didn’t have the same appeal as home. 

Especially when your favorite person was almost 8,000 miles away. 

“How is your work going? Fluent in any new languages yet?” Jongdae asked, a crinkling noise carrying through the phone as he moved around. 

“I wish I was that good,” you said with a giggle. “We’ve been focusing on finishing up our lessons on Xhosa first before starting on Zulu next week.” 

“Oh wait, Xhosa’s language that they used in Black Panther, right? The one with the clicks?” Jongdae gave a small click of his tongue himself.

“Yep! I’m surprised you even remember that.” 

“I learned from the best.” 

You chuckled, never failing to be flattered by the way Jongdae dropped compliments on you out of the blue. He always did it so easily, you couldn’t do anything but accept them gratefully. “I can only hope that my students think the same thing.” 

“I’m sure they do. You always have a bunch of students talking to you and trying to get in touch with you. Speaking of, you have some letters in the mail from some of them.”

“Did you read them?”

“No. Did you want me to?” You heard a creak and guessed that he’d gotten up from his seat, heading over to the counter where you keep your unread mail. You could picture it so clearly, Jongdae’s slipper-covered feet padding across the floor as he flipped on light switches in the hallway until he reached the mail. The thought was so vivid, you felt a familiar wave of uneasiness come over you. These periods of homesickness still came to you often, even though you’d been in Johannesburg for almost a month already. 

You cleared your throat, forcing yourself to focus on the present. “No, it’s okay. How many letters are there?”

Jongdae hummed to himself as he counted, and you knew that he was flipping through the letters one by one, movements swift like they always were. “Four. Are these all your senior students?” 

“They might be. Actually, can you open them up and send me pictures of them? They might be urgent.” 

“Yeah, of course.” 

“Thanks, Dae.” You stretched out on your bed, sighing as you felt yourself physically relax. “I miss being home, even with all the work.” 

“I miss you too. Eating at home by myself is getting pretty old.” 

Your eyes closed shut at this, a grimace finding its way onto your face. “I feel so guilty. I wish you could have come with me.” 

“Oh babe, I didn’t mean it like that. Don’t feel bad, please? I’m glad you got the chance to go on this trip. How often do you get to go travel, especially to places far away like South Africa?” 

“I know, but still.... I miss having you with me.”

“I miss you too, Y/N.” Jongdae’s voice was more quiet, taking on a more somber tone. “But it’s two months away from home, and you’re already halfway through. Before we know it, you’ll be back home.” 

You smiled to yourself at these last words. Home. Back home with Jongdae, in the comforts of the apartment the two of you have been living in for a couple of years. “You’re right. I’ll be back home and leaving my lecture outlines and worksheets all over the place like usual.” 

Jongdae laughed, the sound light and cheery like always, reminding you of sweet lemonade on a warm day. “I found a page from one of your lectures the other day. It was under the table in the living room. I didn’t realize how much I really missed you until I started getting all emotional over a piece of paper, and it was like the most boring of papers you could have ever imagined. It was a sample page from a dictionary, your freaking Latin dictionary, can you believe it? I was tearing up over that?!”

A snort escaped from you, and you fought back the giggles as you heard Jongdae joke over the line about how it wasn’t supposed to be funny, it was supposed to be touching and romantic. 

You’ve missed talking to him like this. 

A couple of days later, you were sitting beside one of your colleagues in a private bus on your way to your destination: the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The trip would be long, almost six hours if you were lucky, but the dean of your department had a close friend who taught Zulu at the university, and had arranged for him to get your travel group familirized with the language. You were looking forward to a change in scenery after staying in Johannesburg for the past month, and thankfully the hotel that you would be staying at in Durban was close to the ocean. 

You stared out the window aimlessly, watching the other cars and people as they passed by while the rest of your colleagues chattered amongst themselves. Since you were so caught up in your own thoughts, you almost missed the slight buzz coming from your cellphone. 

Quickly, you pulled it out of your pocket, letting out a sigh of relief when you saw who had texted you: Jongdae.

JD: did you sleep well? :)

🌷: I did! 💕 what are you doing right now?

JD: missing you 

🌷: jesus CHRIST dae

JD: i love you!!! so much

You giggled softly to yourself, garnering the attention from your seatmate, Nari. She had been teaching at the university a bit longer than you had, and she was like an older sister to you. “Texting your boyfriend?” she asked with a playful wiggle of her eyebrows. 

“The one and only,” you replied, sending Jongdae a text before putting your phone down so that you could talk to your colleague properly. “He’s been extremely cheesy lately.” 

“He must miss you a lot.” 

“Yeah.” Nari didn’t fail to notice how your face fell, and she gave your arm a light poke. 

“Look at you, Miss Lovebird over here,” she sang with a childish grin. “I bet you’ll be the happiest out of all of us when we get to go home.” 

Her efforts to cheer you up didn’t go unnoticed, and you were overcome with gratitude for this entire experience. Not only was the trip extremely well-planned out, but your colleagues and seniors were also friendly and kind as well. You really couldn’t ask for a better trip. 

“I guess so,” you replied, resting your head against the back of your seat. “Although I heard that you’ve got someone waiting for you back home too.” 

“What?! Who told you?” Nari exclaimed in a hushed whisper, quickly looking around to make sure no one had heard. “I didn’t even say a word about him to anyone!” 

The next hour was filled with soft giggles and gossip about the budding romance between your colleague and another professor in your university’s History department. 

When the long drive was finally crawling to an end and you were able to catch the sight of the rippling crystal-clear ocean by the coast of Durban, you let out a sigh of relief. Being landlocked didn’t suit you, and getting even a small glimpse of the water was enough to put you at ease. 

The hotel was situated close to the beach, promising you a beautiful view of the sunrise and the sunset every day for the remaining month in South Africa. Eager to show Jongdae, you stepped out onto the balcony of your room and held your phone up, snapping a vibrant photo of the landscape before you. Without hesitation, you sent the picture to Jongdae before remembering that it was almost midnight over in South Korea. 

JD: you’re at the beach?? 

🌷: close to it, our hotel is like right by it          sorry, were you about to fall asleep?

JD: no i’m over at minseok’s house        he and chanyeol say hi 👋🏻

🌷: tell them i say hi too!!         babe, we’re coming here together someday so we can stay in this hotel

JD: YES!!!! ✈️

🌷: lol i love the enthusiasm!

JD: you know me, your trusty hype man always on hand

🌷: true, true 😂 do you have time to talk? not facetime tho, i look so sweaty ugh

A couple of seconds after sending the last text, your phone screen changed to alert you of an incoming call from Jongdae. You smiled at the profile picture you had set for him: one of him grinning widely as he stood with his arms wrapped around you from behind. It had been taken at your birthday dinner last year, and you could never find the will to change the picture. “Hello?”

“Babe!” he yelled, a laugh filled with giddiness filtering out through the phone’s speaker. “I want to go over there to see you right now,” he said, a wistful whine seeping into his voice. “And you know I don’t care how sweaty you are,” he added in reference to your last text. 

Before you could answer, another voice broke in. “Y/N!” You easily recognized the voice as Chanyeol’s. “Hurry up and come back, your boyfriend’s going crazy without you!”

“I am not!” You heard Jongdae yell, and the sounds of scuffling as you assumed the boys were fighting over the phone.

“Dae? Hello?” you called out, rolling your eyes as they continued to wrestle over the phone. Suddenly, as if at the flick of a light switch, all traces of the boys’ fight were gone, leaving only an empty silence on the other side of the phone. “Dae?” you tried once again, eyes growing shifty as you tried to figure out what had happened.

“Hey, Y/N,” a new voice spoke. “I stole the phone from these goofs before they could break it.” 

You let out a breath you hadn’t even realized you had been holding. “Hi, Minseok. I hope Dae hasn’t been bugging you too much. How’ve you been?” 

“Eh, same as usual.” You could tell the older boy was smiling, the thought of his wide grin bringing back memories of home with your friends. 

“Hey, give me my phone back! I was talking to the love of my life!” Jongdae yelled out, probably from behind Minseok, you guessed. 

Minseok sighed, pretending to gag before you heard him yelp. “It was nice talking to you, Y/N. I’m giving the phone back before Jongdae punches me again. Enjoy the rest of your trip!” 

“Thanks, Minseok!” 

A breathless Jongdae was heard once more, panting slightly as he spoke into the phone again. “Hi again, babe.”

“Dae, why are you breathing like that?”

“Have you ever tried to grab a phone from Chanyeol? That monster’s like two buildings tall.” You heard the sound of a door clicking shut. “I’m hiding out in Minseok’s bedroom now so they don’t try to steal it away again.”

“Mm, good thinking.” 

“So, where were we?” 

“I honestly don’t even remember. Probably something along the lines of us missing each other a lot.”

“Yeah, that sounds like us.” 

“Just four more weeks, and then I’ll be back home. I can’t wait to show you all the pictures I took. And the beach here is so pretty! I mean, I haven’t gotten a chance to actually go down there yet, but I’m planning to whenever I can.” 

“Is it prettier than the ones here?” 

“Nothing beats the beaches back home.” 

“We should go on a trip together someday, but your semester’s coming up soon and I’m always busy with work.” Jongdae made a small noise, a small humming as he tried to think of a solution. 

“We could always leave work behind and go on a surprise trip,” you teased, knowing both of you would never actually do such a thing.

True enough, Jongdae laughed. “Even I’m not that spontaneous, athough the idea is tempting. I’d love nothing more than to just have more than a couple hours just for the two of us. No work, nothing to worry about.” 

“Same.” You thought back to your last date with Jongdae; a trip to the movie theater to go see Infinity War. Both of you were entirely too busy to have more than the weekends and the occasional day off. Even then, it seemed like some parts of your minds were always reminded of something that needed taking care of at work. 

The door to your hotel room opened behind you, and you spun around to see Nari’s head peeking out from behind. Her eyes glanced up to the phone at your ear before she tapped at her watch, then held up five fingers. 

You looked over at the clock on your nightstand, surprised to see it was almost time for dinner. With a grateful smile to your roommate for the reminder, you watched as she silently closed the door behind her. “Dae, I have to go. The rest of the staff is meeting downstairs for dinner with the dean, and I can’t be late.” 

“Yeah, no worries! I’ll text you later before I fall asleep.” 

“Okay, bye Dae. I love you.” 

“I love you too, babe.” 

The next couple of weeks passed by so quickly, you were almost convinced that they had been a dream. Your team got to learn from some of the university’s professors not only about the Zulu language, but also about the culture and the history of the people who spoke it. The professors were kind and accommodating every step of the way, and you had been over the moon when they gave you copies of some of the materials that they used to teach in their classes. The appeal of having new material to share with your students and colleagues back home was so great, you almost forgot about how homesick you had been at the beginning of the trip. 

Before you knew it, it was your final week in South Africa, and you had almost everything prepared for your return trip back home. Your suitcases were nearly packed with your belongings and souvenirs for your loved ones waiting for you, a daily reminder that soon, you would be back. It seemed that the feeling was contagious — the number one topic that you and your colleagues all talked about was what it would be like when the plane landed back in South Korea. 

“The first thing I’m gonna do is run back home to visit my mom,” Justin, a professor in Ethnic Studies, spoke up. You were all gathered around a set of tables at a restaurant, lazing around and relishing in the easy conversation that came to you all. Drinks had followed after the savory dishes, and you would be lying if you said that you weren’t feeling a bit tipsy at this point. 

“Because you miss her?” someone called out, too far down the table for you to see who it was. 

“Well, yeah, that too. But also because I miss her cooking.” 

The table broke out into groans and chortles of laughter as Justin’s voice grew louder. “What?” he asked, face red from the drinks he had earlier and his embarrassment. 

“I never would’ve guessed that alcohol makes our friend Justin here all sentimental,” Nari whispered to you, hiding her smirk behind her hand. 

You hummed in agreement, downing the rest of your drink before setting it down on the table. “You’re one to talk,” you said with a laugh, the sound more of a silly giggle as you let yourself relax. “Remember that time we went drinking to celebrate you getting approved for tenure and you cried for hours at the bar?”

“She did what?!” Justin yelled, eyes bugging out as he glanced from you to Nari. Who would have imagined calm, always-prepared Nari as emotional when drunk?

She shot you a glare, but you pretended not to notice and continued on. “If you ever see Nari drunk, she gets all sappy and basically starts giving speeches about how much she loves every single person in her life. That time, I was worried until she started talking about how thankful she was to everyone she worked with. In. Full. Detail. We were there for practically the whole night.” “Alright, and alcohol turns you into a chatterbox,” Nari interrupted, pulling you up along with her. “I’ll be taking this girl back to the hotel before she gets even more intoxicated.” 

The rest of your drinking party shouted out their farewells, some of them advising you two to stay safe as you stumbled out of the restaurant. 

“I’m not that drunk,” you grumbled, although you let Nari hold onto your arm for safety. As you continued to walk, you found yourself leaning onto her more and more, your steps growing heavier. 

“Yeah, okay. I’m pretty sure your boyfriend would lose his mind if I let you do something crazy.” 

Your eyes widened at the mention of Jongdae, and you clumsily got the clasp of your bag open, rummaging through it for your cell phone. “I should call him! I can’t remember the last time I even texted him.”

“Y/N, I saw you texting him an hour ago. He’ll live without you texting him until tomorrow morning.”

Despite her words, you finally got your phone out and began typing out a text to Jongdae.

🌷: dae i loove yiu

JD: babe? are you okay??

🌷: aveolutelyy fome

You squinted at the screen of your phone, trying to decipher your own text while Nari stood beside you and tried to call a taxi. Your phone suddenly started to ring, the familiar ringtone that you reserved for Jongdae playing in your ears. 

“Y/N?” you could hear him say, and you pressed the phone lazily to your ear. “Where are you?” he asked, concern lacing his voice. 

“Out eating. And drinking.” You stifled a small burp before continuing on. “I love you, Dae.”

“I love you too babe, but are you sure you’re okay?” 

“I am absolutely, one hundred percent fine.” 

Nari leaned closer, rolling her eyes at your statement. “Jongdae? This is Nari, your girlfriend’s pretty drunk so I’m taking her back to our room.” 

“Thanks,” Jongdae sighed out in relief. 

“He says thanks,” you relayed to Nari. “But you’re wrong — I’m not pretty drunk, I’m only slightly drunk.” 

Nari snorted at this, continuing to look for a taxi while you heard Jongdae speak up through the phone. “I really doubt that,” Jongdae said with a chuckle. “Get some rest and I’ll call you later.”

“Promise?” 

“Pinky promise.” 

“Okay. You better remember.” 

Jongdae let out a breathy laugh before making a sound in acknowledgement. “I will. Goodnight, babe.” 

“Goodnight,” you murmured before hanging up, the phone cold and heavy in your hand. 

A taxi suddenly drove up to the sidewalk, and Nari patted your shoulder softly. “Come on, Miss Lovebird. Let’s get you back so you can catch some sleep.” 

You let her help you into the cab, leaning against her shoulder as she gave the hotel’s address to the driver. “Nari?” you asked, watching the lights of other cars whiz past as you looked out through the window. 

“Yeah?” 

“Thanks for always looking out for me.” 

She glanced down at you, brows raised in surprise. “Yeah, of course. It’s nothing.” As your best friend, it was second nature for her to have your back. Of course, she didn’t tell you that before this trip, Jongdae had asked her to keep you safe as well. 

“That boyfriend of yours is a real gentleman,” she told you, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “You guys are so cute, it makes me sick.” 

You shook your head, closing your eyes. “Jongdae’s the cute one.”

“Okay. Just go to sleep, dream about Jongdae or something,” she teased.

You didn’t answer, the only indication that you had heard being a small nod. 

You didn’t remember much of anything else, except for being woken up by Nari, heading up the elevator and then a fluffy blanket being draped over you. 

And silly as it was, you did dream of Jongdae.

The countdown to your flight was drawing excitingly closer, and you felt as if you were all the way up on cloud nine with no intention of coming down. But of course, something managed to bring you down anyways. Multiple things, in fact. 

The first disappointment came a couple of days before your flight was scheduled to return home. Jongdae had called you just as you were about to leave the university and head back to your hotel, his words coming out in a blur.

“Babe, I’m sorry, but something came up and I can’t pick you up at the airport when you get back. But I’ll send someone to come get you, I promise!” 

“Dae, don’t worry about it. I’ll grab a ride from a friend or something,” you told him, even though you did feel slightly let down by this change in events. 

“No, I’ll make sure there’s someone there to get you! I don’t want you to have to go home by yourself.”

Even with the sudden drop in your mood, you still couldn’t find it in yourself to be mad at Jongdae. Whenever things fell through, he always found a way to make up for it. “Alright, Dae. I’ll see you soon.”

The next blow hit you when you were finally, at long last aboard the flight and realized that you were missing a USB full of notes and assignments you had collected during your summer in South Africa. The files contained things you wanted to include in your lectures for the new semester, and after failing to find it in your carry-on with your laptop, you could only hope that it was with your luggage. It really wasn’t as big of a deal as you thought it was, considering the fact that you could email the professors in South Africa and explain the situatoon to them. But with tensions already high and fatigue riddling your brain, the USB remained a dark cloud over your thoughts. For the rest of your flight, you were constantly plagued with the worry that it had been left behind in South Africa, now thousands of miles away and laying abandoned on a polished hotel table. 

When your flight finally landed after an excruciating twenty-seven hours up in the air, you grabbed your belongings and headed out to where Jongdae had texted you to wait for your pickup. At that point, you were so tired that you forgot about looking for your USB, and you were determined to catch some sleep in the comforts of your bed with your favorite person.

You had said your goodbyes to everyone else, giving Nari a hug and promising to call her before heading over to where Jongdae had said your ride would be. You were walking with your bags in hand, looking down at your phone when someone called out your name, the voice all too familiar. Looking up, you saw Junmyeon waiting for you, waving his hand and holding up a sign that read: “Professor Y/N, welcome home!”  

“Jun!” you screamed excitedly, or at least, as much as your jet-lagged, exhausted self would let you. You came closer with arms outstretched, leaving the suitcases a couple of paces behind. 

“Welcome back!” he greeted you cheerily, returning your hug and then taking the suitcases himself. “How was your flight?”

“Long. I honestly just want to sleep for decades. Oh!” You suddenly remembered the USB, explaining the story in full detail to Junmyeon even as he looked over you warily.

“We can look for your USB later, I think your health is more important. Plus, Jongdae will be pissed at me if you end up fainting from exhaustion. Come on.”

You lumbered into Junmyeon’s car, letting your head rest on the window as the two of you talked. Junmyeon filled you in on everything you had missed: from Jongin and Chanyeol’s joint cafe venture being a success, to Yixing’s latest return from Changsha. You gave him the gist of your trip, elaborate stories shortened down to small summaries in your weary condition, but Junmyeon knew he’d end up hearing the full stories sometime later on once you were well-rested. 

He pulled up to your place, immediately getting out to grab your suitcases for you. “Will you be okay getting this stuff up by yourself?” he asked worriedly, his feet shuffling slightly as he thought. 

“Yeah, I’ll take the elevator, don’t worry. Is Jongdae home?” 

His eyes widened briefly before he looked away, clearing his throat before he spoke. “Uh, I don’t know. He didn’t tell me anything before I came to pick you up.” 

Too worn out to question his behavior, you gave little thought to his response. After waving goodbye, you managed to get all of your belongings inside, up the elevator and to your floor. The wheels of your suitcases made a hushed, rustling sound as they rolled over the carpeted hallway. There was no one else out yet, seeing as it was still only eight in the morning and on a Saturday, no less. You let out a small huff of exhaustion as you got to your door, unlocking it and pushing it open with your shoulder. What lay beyond the threshold, however, left you speechless. 

You were taken aback to see papers scattering almost every available surface of your home, each one slightly different from the rest. From where you stood at the door, you could tell that there was a line of text on each one of them, although you couldn’t tell what they said from this distance.

After switching your shoes for your well-missed slippers, you ventured closer to a sheer of paper laying on the floor next to the shoe rack. A smile lit up your face as you realized what was on it: the words “I love you”. A glance at the pages nearby showed the same phrase, but in other languages. 

A small journey around the room had you gaping in awe at the diversity of the langauges scattered throughout it. “I love you” in Korean stared up at you from the couch, one in Italian was taped to the TV. You were even impressed to see it written out in Icelandic and even Xhosa and Zulu, the two languages you had been studying during your summer trip. 

“Oh my God,” you breathed out, taking precious time to study each sheet of paper, every symbol on them all written in a hand you knew too well: Jongdae’s. “Dae?” you called out, stepping over a sheet of paper in your way. “Are you in here?”

You turned the lights on as you made your way to the bedroom, the bulbs sputtering to life as they lit up overhead. When you finally got there, pushing the door open cautiously, you were disappointed to see no sign of Jongdae anywhere. Upon further inspection, you caught sight of a small, yellow envelope resting on top of the blankets. 

Careful to take your time in reading, you couldn’t help the smile that came to your face and the sudden warmth settling in your chest. 

“Welcome home, babe! I’ve missed you, I hope you enjoyed the small surprise I set up~ I’m sure you’re wondering where I am, right? Meet me at the place where we first met, I’ll be waiting for you there ❤️”

The place where you first met? You remembered first meeting Jongdae at a mutual friend’s housewarming party, but you were confident that he didn’t mean for you to meet him there? Surely you were missing something...

You paced around, the envelope in your hand as you willed yourself to think. “Come on brain, work with me here,” you pleaded, throwing your head back to stare up at the ceiling as you continued to walk around in circles. 

Circles. A hand came to your mouth as the answer suddenly hit you like a flash of lightning. The party was the first place where you two had actually spoken to each other, but you two had met each other for the first time while walking in circles at the botanical gardens close to your university. You were there on a lazy Sunday afternoon with Sehun taking pictures to fit his Instagram aesthetic when he had spotted his friends, Jongdae and Kyungsoo. Jongdae had assumed you two were dating at first, and he had later confided to you that he was glad the opposite was true. 

Quicker than you would have thought physically possible, you were back downstairs and beginning to worry about how to get to the gardens when you recognized a car parked outside.

“Jun? What are you still doing here?” you asked, peering into his car. 

Junmyeon rolled down the passenger window, a playful grin on his face as he unlocked the doors. “Need a ride?” 

“You’re in on this too!” you exclaimed, hopping into the car. 

“I’m guessing you know where we’re going?” he asked, already setting off. 

“Seoul Iris Garden!” 

The drive was far too long for your waning patience, your feet tapping against the floor of the car as you fidgeted in your seat. All of the fatigue that had been weighing you down earlier was gone, a sudden rush of adrenaline replacing it. 

“Will you at least tell me where he’s waiting?” you pleaded, for what was probably the fiftieth time since you got in.

“It’s a secret. And if I tell you, it won’t be as fun.” 

“For you, or for me?” 

Junmyeon ignored this with a knowing smile, pulling into the parking lot. Before he could even put the car into park, you were out and jogging into the depths of the gardens. 

The gardens were peacefully quiet, only a couple of people walking around in the early morning. You, by contrast, were out of breath and starting to get sweaty with all of the running around you were doing. You had seriously underestimated how difficult it would be to find Jongdae. 

As you dashed past patches of flowers, you finally caught sight of a small figure standing atop a bridge spanning a small stream. “Jongdae!” you chirped out, a triumphant laugh leaving your lips as you approached him. 

He turned around, his grin spreading on his face and his eyes alight with mirth as soon as he caught sight of you. A burst of laughter bubbled out of him as you wrapped your arms around his waist, holding him close to you as you rested your head against his chest. “You found me! And you saw all the papers back home?” 

“I did! I can’t believe you had me run over here in my airport sweats though, especially now that I see what you’re wearing,” you joked as you loosened your grip to look him over. Jongdae stood before you in a button-down you had bought for him a couple of years ago, with a pair of black pants and shiny dress shoes. 

“You know it doesn’t matter to me even if you’re even out in pajamas,” he murmured. He lifted a hand to your face, running his thumb over your cheek as he gazed into your eyes, as if he couldn’t believe you were really there before him. 

“So what’s the big occassion? This is all a bit much just to welcome me home, isn’t it?” 

“Well...” Jongdae cleared his throat before dropping his hand from your face. He held onto both of your hands in his own, his thumbs running over the back of them nervously. “I missed you so much, more than I even expected.” 

“I missed you too, Dae.” You leaned up to press your lips to his, the sensation of his lips against yours something that you had been longing for ever since you left. 

Jongdae pulled away, much too quickly before your liking before resting his forehead against yours. “This trip was an eye-opener to me. I mean, I already knew that I loved you, but I didn’t know that I had room in my heart to love you even more until after you were miles away from me. I looked forward to every text, every phone call, every picture that you sent me. Chanyeol wasn’t kidding when he said I was going crazy with you gone,” he added with a small chuckle. “I think I went over these plans like crazy for the past month or so.” 

“And it definitely swept me off my feet. Thank you, Dae.” You nudged his nose with yours, giving a hushed giggle when he pressed back, just as gently. 

“There’s still one more thing.” 

Jongdae let go of your hands, and before you knew it, he was down on one knee and pulling a small box out of his pocket as you gaped down at him. With trembling fingers, he got the top of the box open, revealing a delicately designed ring inside, the diamonds there sparkling in the light of the morning sun. 

“Y/N, I love you. So much. I can’t imagine a day without you in my life. I love hearing the sound of your laughter, the way you whisper to me when we’re falling asleep at night. I want to wake up beside you everyday for the rest of my life, not just as your boyfriend, but as your husband. Will you marry me?” 

You were nodding even before he could finish his question, dropping down beside him and catching his lips with yours in a kiss. “Of course,” you breathed against his lips. “Of course I’ll marry you.” 

Jongdae beamed at you with a smile so full of love, you weren’t sure how any single person was capable of carrying around so much affection. You let him slip the ring onto your finger, the cool metal resting there as if it had been there all along. He brought your hand up, his lips brushing over the ring as you felt a flush start to dust your cheeks. 

Your relationship was strong enough to withstand time and distance, something both of you had learned through this trip. Together or apart, you two would always come back together. Home was with Jongdae, and his was with you. 

And now, the two of you would create a new one together. 

A/N: i knew going into this that there really was only one option for the ending — absolute fluff haha! i hope that you guys enjoyed this and that it was worth the wait! this fic was inspired by exo-cbx’s “miss you”, which talks about a long-distance relationship as well (and also the song is just really good, so that was definitely on repeat while i was writing this) also fun fact: i almost majored in linguistics, and then decided against it because grammar is my #1 enemy 😅

@mikapeanut