Hanbyul arrived a little late. It irked him, for once he had the luxury of spending the day with Minki and then he squandered precious time because he miscalculated how long the cake would take in the oven. Still, it had all worked out (half of it sat in a pretty gift bag he had decided to repurpose, the other at home in the fridge waiting for Yuanjun to come home) and for the first time all day he felt genuine excitement over his birthday. There was no art in getting old, celebrating that didn’t seem particularly logical to him, but his birthday followed his six-month anniversary with Minki very narrowly and admittedly, a part of himself yearned to let his boyfriend spoil him a little bit.
He didn’t have to wait long after ringing the doorbell for said boyfriend to open the front door and greeted Minki with a small wave instead, quickly entering the flat. “Happy b– err, anniversary.” He stumbled over his echoed greeting, laughed softly and would’ve leaned over to kiss the other had his glance not been directed to the pillow fort in the living room.
Hanbyul inhaled quietly in wonder, set down the cake bag and hesitantly pulled Minki into a tight hug. His body slowly started reminding itself of how much it liked being held, how much it cherished the proximity and how well his boyfriend fit into his arms. “Thank you. It’s beautiful, I love it,” he whispered hoarsely and finally went for a kiss. For a moment, both impossibly long and too short, he basked in just that: the quiet, the knowledge that here the two of them were safe. A chiding you shouldn’t have burned on the tip of his tongue but he pushed it back quickly, already sensing the discussion it would bring. “I love you,” was what he said instead. “I brought us cake,” he then added, remembering that the treat probably should go in the fridge. “Mostly made it for Yuanjun but it looked nice so I wanted to share,” he explained amusedly and handed Minki the container. “I’m gonna go put this away but… give me a tour of the fort, afterwards?”
Before dating Hanbyul, Minki had never really been the type of guy who went out of his way to do things like that for his significant other. Obviously he treated his significant other with the proper respect they deserved, and he did do nice things for them. He was a good boyfriend, or at least he tried his very best to be a good boyfriend, and he none of his past boyfriends or girlfriends really had anything negative to say about him.. Or he hoped that they didn’t. They hadn’t said anything negative, nor had he heard from anyone else that they had negative feelings towards him, so he wasn’t too worried. But with Hanbyul things were different. He didn’t really treat him like he treated the people in his past relationships. He was more sensitive and gentle towards him, and he could tell that his feelings for him outweighed anything that he ever felt for any of his past lovers. No, Hanbyul was special, and he deserved to be treated as such. Minki knew that he was the other’s first boyfriend, that he hadn’t really been with any men before Minki came along, and that in and of itself was enough to make the older male realize that things had to be handled a little bit differently with their relationship, a little bit more cautiously.
He smiled at the response he got from him. He returned the hug without a second thought, his arms wrapping around the younger male and squeezing tightly. It was nice hugging Hanbyul, especially when he initiated the embrace. It just showed that he was growing more and more comfortable with him, and that made him happy. “I’m glad you love it. You have no idea how hard it was to get this all set up by myself,” he joked playfully, before leaning in to return the kiss that was placed against his lips. “Hm, I love you more,” he murmured softly as they parted ways, his hand reaching up so he could stroke his thumb against Hanbyul’s cheek for a moment, before allowing it to drop away. “Oh, cake? I can’t wait to try it. Did you make it yourself or did you buy it?” He asked, taking the container out of his hands. “Don’t worry about that, I’ll put it away in the fridge. You can make yourself more comfortable, I’ll be right back.” He pecked him on the cheek before moving towards the kitchen.