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May 2021
Three years.
Luke still couldn’t quite believe it.
He and Young sat across from each other in a dimly lit restaurant, the kind with candles that flickered in little glass jars and menus so fancy Luke had pretended to understand at least three words he absolutely did not. But Youngjae, who was dressed in a fitted black button-down that made half the room stare at him, looked across the table only at Luke, like nothing else existed.
Luke twirled the stem of his cocktail glass between his fingers, the drink a bright pink concoction far pricier than he’d ever justify on his own. “We’ve levelled up,” he said with a teasing smirk. “Three years ago we were sneaking cheap vodka into the house.”
Young snorted. “Three years ago you were still pretending you didn’t have a crush on me.”
Luke nearly choked on his drink. “Excuse me? I was very subtle about the whole thing.”
Young raised an eyebrow. “You used to blush every time I walked into a room.'”
Luke glared, but he couldn’t stop the laugh bubbling out. “You were the worst.”
“And look at you now,” Young said, eyes softening. “All grown up. Fancy dinner. Proper adult relationship.” He lifted his cocktail and tapped it gently against Luke’s glass. “Same beautiful face. Same terrible flirting.”
Luke rolled his eyes, but warmth spread through his chest. He leaned his elbow on the table, chin in his hand as he watched Young sip his drink. “Do you ever think about how weird our story is?” he asked. “Like… all the stuff we went through before getting here?”
Young smiled slowly, that soft, private smile he only ever gave Luke. “Every day,” he admitted. “And every day I’m grateful we didn’t give up.”
Luke’s heart squeezed. “Me too. I really love you.”
Young reached across the table, threading their fingers together. His thumb brushed Luke’s knuckles. “I love you too. More now than back then. More than I even knew I could.”
Luke’s cheeks warmed, and he hid his smile behind his cocktail glass.
They spent the rest of the evening reminiscing about the terrible frat party where Luke followed Young up the stairs and then threw up, about hiding their relationship from Gabe, about the snowball fight when Luke was an emotional wreck, about moving to Boston and finally being able to exist openly.
Young laughed so hard remembering Luke’s first drunken attempt at flirting.
“I love all these good memories,” Luke gushed.
“We’ve got enough of those to fill a book.”
Luke’s eyes softened. “You’re the author,” he teased. “Why haven’t you written one yet?”
Young met his gaze, something warm and unspoken flickering there. “I’m working on it.”
Luke blinked. “Wait, you are?”
Young shrugged, suddenly shy. “Maybe. Kinda. It’s a work in progress yet, but it’s… about us. Inspired by us, I mean.”
Luke felt his heart explode. He leaned over the table, pulling Young close for a soft, lingering kiss. It was the kind you give someone who feels like home.
Three years together, and somehow, it felt like the beginning of something even bigger.
Eventually they left the restaurant and decided to take a walk. The evening air was cool as they padded along the pier, their hands brushing as they exchanged soft laughter. Dinner had settled into that perfect kind of calm, with full stomachs, warm hearts, and the feeling that the night didn’t need anything else to be perfect.
They paused near the railing, looking out over the dark water. The waves shimmered beneath the glow of passing streetlamps, and Luke leaned into Young’s side, content and sleepy from the cocktails.
“I still can’t believe you wore actual trousers tonight,” Luke teased. “Not sweatpants. Trousers.”
Young hummed. “I know. I must really wanna impress you, huh?”
Luke smiled softly. “You always do.”
A moment passed, quiet and easy.
Then, just as Luke was about to make a comment about one of the boats shaped like a giant swan, something caught his eye. It was a larger boat gliding across the water, wrapped in strings of warm fairy lights that sparkled like stars.
“Woah,” Luke breathed. “That’s really pretty.”
He stepped closer to the railing, mesmerised by the glow, the reflection dancing on the surface of the water. The boat drifted nearer, slow and deliberate, almost theatrical in the way it moved.
“Imagine being on that,” Luke whispered. “Like… a private little party where we could—”
But then he stopped.
Because the side of the boat turned toward them, and illuminated under hundreds of lights were words painted in bold, neat block letters:
LUKE, WILL YOU MARRY ME?
Luke’s breath punched out of him. “What…” he whispered. His brain stalled, scrambling to make sense of the letters, the lights, the timing…everything.
Then he turned.
Youngjae wasn’t standing beside him anymore. He was kneeling. On one knee. On the wooden pier. Velvet box in hand. Head tilted up to look at Luke with the softest, most terrified, most hopeful expression Luke had ever seen on him.
Luke’s hand flew to his mouth. His heart went wild, a rush of heat, a dizzy swell of love so intense he thought for a moment he might actually faint.
“Youngjae…” Luke breathed, voice trembling.
Young laughed shakily. “So, I have a whole speech,” he managed, thumb rubbing nervously over the box. “I practised something really cool in the mirror earlier but now I’m—I’m literally forgetting every word.”
Luke let out a watery laugh, tears already spilling.
Young took a slow breath, steadying himself. “Luke Davies,” he said softly, voice thick with emotion, “you’re the first person I ever really loved. Properly loved. You’ve made every year better than the last, and I want every year from now on to be with you.” His eyes glistened. “I want to wake up with you, grow up with you, probably argue with you, definitely grow old with you… all of it.”
He opened the velvet box. A simple, elegant ring caught the pier lights and glittered beautifully.
“Will you marry me?”
Luke didn’t even realise he was crying harder until Young reached up, instinctively wanting to wipe his cheek but hesitated because he was still holding the ring. And Luke nearly collapsed, nodding too hard, laughing through tears, chest bursting with joy.
“Yes,” he choked out. “Yes, yes, yes!”
Young let out a breath he’d clearly been holding for weeks and stood up just in time for Luke to throw himself into his arms. They kissed, clumsy and wet and perfect, with the fairy-lit boat drifting past behind them like something out of a dream.
Luke broke the kiss only because he had to laugh against Young’s shoulder. “You used a whole boat,” he sniffed.
“Yeah,” Young murmured, hugging him impossibly tight. “You deserve a whole galaxy, but I’m… still finishing my book, so a boat is what you get for now.”
Luke kissed him again.
His fiancé.
His fiancé.
Holy shit.
They stood there, wrapped up in each other, the world drifting by in warm golden lights, and Luke thought, with a full bursting heart, that this was the best moment of his entire life.
Young suddenly let out a small, nervous laugh. It was the kind that meant he had one more thing to confess. “Okay,” he murmured, brushing his thumb gently under Luke’s eye to catch another tear, “so… I should probably tell you something before you hear it from someone else.”
Luke sniffed and blinked up at him, cheeks blotchy from crying. “What? You’re not about to say the boat wasn’t for me, are you?”
Young snorted. “It is very much for you. I promise.”
“Then what is it?”
Young let out another breath, this one softer — almost shy. “I, um… I asked your dad.”
Luke’s brain stuttered. “Asked my… dad?”
“For permission,” Young clarified, the tips of his ears turning pink. “To marry you.”
Luke’s mouth fell open. “You—you asked him?”
Young nodded, suddenly looking like he wanted to hide inside his own coat. “Yeah. I figured… he’s always been such a big part of your life. I didn’t want to propose without knowing how he felt. And I just…I don’t know. I wanted to do it right.”
Luke stared at him, heart swelling in a way that actually hurt.
“How did he react?” Luke whispered.
Young’s expression melted into a smile so soft it could’ve lit the whole pier. “He hugged me.”
Luke’s eyes went wide. “He hugged you?”
“Yeah,” Young laughed. “Properly hugged me. Like… dad-level hug. Back pats and everything.”
“Oh my god.”
“And then,” Young continued, almost glowing at the memory, “he got emotional and said he was really, really happy for us. That he’s been waiting for you to find someone who loves you the way you deserve. And that—” Young hesitated, voice going warm, “—he already considers me family.”
Luke’s breath hitched and he covered his mouth with his hand, overcome by emotions all over again.
Young stepped closer, cupping Luke’s cheek with one hand, gentle and grounding. “So, yeah,” he whispered. “He was thrilled. He didn’t even hesitate to say yes.”
A tear escaped down Luke’s cheek, but this time it wasn’t from shock or overwhelming shock. It was from pure, overwhelming love. “You talked to my dad,” he whispered, almost laughing at how unreal it felt. “You talked to my actual dad. About marrying me.”
Young’s thumb stroked his cheek lightly. “Of course I did. I want to spend my whole life with you and I wanted the people who love you to know that.”
Luke threw his arms around him again, breath shaky but happy. “I love you,” he mumbled into Young’s neck. “I love you so much.”
“I love you more,” Young murmured, kissing the side of Luke’s head.
“No you don’t.”
“Yes I do.”
“No you—”
Young cut him off with a kiss, gentle and lingering, the kind that made Luke feel like his entire future had just clicked into place. The fairy lights glimmered off the water. The night was quiet around them. In that moment, Luke felt absolutely certain: He couldn’t have said yes to a more perfect person.
For a moment, Luke was glowing, but then a thought crashed into him so abruptly he actually blinked and stepped back. “Wait,” he said slowly. “Does Gabe know?”
Young’s face did a tiny, guilty twitch. Not a full flinch, but enough. “No,” he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “Not yet.”
Luke groaned into his hands. “Youngjae…”
“I know,” Young said quickly, reaching out to rest his palms on Luke’s hips. “I know. But I wanted to… I don’t know… handle it properly. Not just drop it on him like a grenade.”
“A marriage bomb is exactly the kind of grenade that would send him into orbit.”
Young winced. “Which is why I’m trying to find the least explosive way to break it to him.”
Luke snorted. “There is no least explosive way.”
Young smiled sadly. “Yeah. I’m aware.”
They stood there for a moment, listening to the gentle lap of water against the pier, the soft hum of the fairy-lit boat drifting in the distance. Luke’s excitement still swirled in his chest, but now it mixed with something more complicated…dread, fear, hope all tangled together.
“Do you think he’ll be angry?” Luke asked quietly.
Young didn’t answer immediately. He looked out at the water. “I think…” Young began, voice careful, “he’s not going to take it easily. This is Gabe we’re talking about. He feels things big, and he’s only just gotten used to the idea of us being together.”
Luke sighed. “Brilliant. Fantastic. Lovely.”
Young laughed under his breath and tugged Luke into his chest. “But,” he murmured against Luke’s hair, “I also think he’s grown more than you give him credit for. And this time… we’ll tell him together. No secrets. No half-truths. Just honesty.”
Luke’s hands went around Young’s waist. “Together?”
“Always,” Young said softly. “But we’ll do it gently. When the moment’s right. I don’t want him finding out in a way that makes him feel blindsided.”
Luke nodded slowly, resting his head under Young’s chin. “So… we’re engaged, but Gabe doesn’t know.”
“Correct.”
“And we’re going to tell him… at some point.”
“Yes.”
“Preferably when he doesn’t have access to heavy sports equipment.”
Young snorted. “Absolutely.”
Luke sighed again, but this time there was a smile tugging at his mouth. “God. He’s going to lose his mind.”
Young squeezed him tighter. “He probably will. But I’m hoping that eventually he’ll be happy for us.”
Luke looked up at him, heart full. “And until then?”
Young’s eyes softened with certainty. “Until then… we enjoy this moment. Just you and me, yeah?”
Luke nodded. “Yeah.”
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