There were a lot of cute things in this world.

Although right now the cutest thing in front of Jeongguk was his boyfriend pouting at him. With his dark brown hair curling around his face, big puppy-dog eyes and his bottom lip jutting out, the raven-head couldn't fight the urge to smile.

"Do we really have to go?" Taehyung asked in a desperate tone.

They were currently in their bedroom. The older was sitting on the edge of the king-sized mattress looking up at Jeongguk who stood in front of him. They were both dressed nicely in suits prepared to attend a rather formal event: dinner with Mr and Mrs Jeon.

To put it simply, Taehyung was terrified.

"Hyung, come on..." The younger held out his hand. "My parents really want to meet you, properly this time. They feel really bad for how things turned out last year."

The brunet still had goosebumps every time he replayed the encounter he had with Jeongguk's parents in his head; more importantly, the part where they told him to stay away from their son. Had they really changed their minds? Finally, he just sighed and took the other's hand, allowing himself to be pulled up into a standing position.

Right away, the raven-head slid his arms around his boyfriend's waist. "Please don't be upset..." The younger then smirked. "Tell you what, if you get through tonight with my parents, I'll cook you your favorite dinner tomorrow," When Jeongguk saw his Hyung starting to smile a little, he continued, "Then we can take a long bath together," He made sure to enunciate the word 'long' before finally ending his little bribe with, "And after that, I'll make the hot chocolate you like so much and we'll watch anything you want on TV."

How- how do you say no to that?

The older groaned when Jeongguk's hand cupped his cheek. He closed his eyes, leaning into the touch. "Can't we just do all that now?" He opened his eyes with a hopeful glint in them.

"Hyung..."

"Okay, okay. Fine." He gave in, letting his head fall back momentarily, also pouting again just to show that he wasn't too happy about this.

However his little pout was quickly erased as the raven-head pulled him into a kiss. It wasn't a short nor a long kiss- something in between maybe? With Taehyung's upper lip caught in between the younger's lips, a familiar warmness started to seep into his body. Eventually, Jeongguk pulled away, displaying a breathtaking smile on his gorgeous face.

"Thank you." He said.

The brunet only smiled back, pretending that his heart wasn't on the brink of exploding. In the next minute or so, the two of them made their move to leave the apartment.

After being together for almost a year and a half now, the spark between them never wavered even the tiniest bit. Sometimes Taehyung felt like they were back in their college days when their affections for each other was just starting to grow; back when he was a nervous mess, stuttering all the time.

But those were just distant memories now for they've come so far from all that.

When they got back to Korea, Jeongguk got them an apartment in Seoul with some of the money he'd saved up while working in Japan. Of course, Taehyung pitched in too with whatever he earned from the internship. However even the deposit for the cheapest place was way overpriced. At that time, by the looks of it, they could only afford two months of rent plus other accommodations like water, electricity and food.

But they made it through. In that two months, they worked hard juggling a few jobs here and there until their income was finally stable.

Taehyung didn't accept the job at the Audi HQ in Daegu. He just couldn't do that after having lived with Jeongguk in Japan. He felt incomplete to be so far apart from the other. But things worked out for the better. His parents weren't too disappointed about him turning down the job. They were just glad he got some experience from the internship.

So fast-forwarding to where they were now; Jeongguk eventually completed his diploma in business, reconciled with his parents and his father offered him a job at their family company. He realized that he could cook in his free time. And yeah, it was his passion but earning a living without his parents' support had taught him that there were more important things in life besides wanting to achieve one's dream.

Meanwhile, the brunet used his experience in Japan and the diploma he had in journalism to land a job in this news-casting company (he was basically a journalist). He didn't get to anchor the daily news or anything... all he did was interview people and write reports on this and that. Though Taehyung didn't mind all that, it was close to his old job, also it gave him a chance to get over his social anxiety.

It's kinda funny seeing as how in the end, neither of them got to pursue what they initially wanted to do but they were still happy. They had a nice place to live in, food, their families' support and most importantly, they had each other.

It was good; it was a comfortable life to be living.

After a twenty minutes car ride, the two of them reached Jeongguk's parents' mansion. It was a complete contrast to the apartment they lived in but that was the least of Taehyung's concerns right now. He considered driving away in the raven-head's car just to escape from there but oh wait, he didn't know how to drive a manual car.

Damn it, he should really take the effort to learn how to drive that thing.

Once they were both standing outside the giant front wooden doors, the brunet felt a hand resting on the small of his back. He turned to the side to see Jeongguk offering him a reassuring smile. "Relax hyung. It's just dinner. We'll be fine."

We... Taehyung's chestnut eyes bored into the other's for a moment, stuck on the fact that the raven-head addressed them together as 'we'. It was nice to hear that, like they were in this together no matter what they faced.

The door in front of them then creaked open, making them turn away from each other. 

Here goes nothing.

"Oh you boys are finally here!" An elderly woman made her appearance in an elegant green dress, grinning at them both. "Come in, come in." She chirped and by now, the brunet had his eyes glued onto her. She was definitely Jeongguk's mother seeing as how she looked exactly like the woman who spoke to him that night at the hospital. One difference though...

She was less scary now.

"Hyung." The younger called out breaking him from his thoughts. Jeongguk gestured for them to walk in, his hand moving up and down his hyung's back in a soothing manner.

Soon, they were inside the beautiful mansion. Despite being very self-conscious right now, Taehyung couldn't help but to scan every part of the living room that they just walked into. This was where Jeongguk grew up, he thought as he smiled to himself. He got to see what his boyfriend's childhood was like tonight.

"How have you both been?" Jeongguk asked his parents when the older couple came to stand in front of them.

His mother was the first to reply. "We've been good honey. We're so glad that you two agreed to have dinner with us tonight." She lastly turned to the brunet with a smile.

Taehyung nervously smiled back, trying hard to remind himself that the raven-head's parents had changed. Yeah, they didn't hate him anymore.

"Taehyung, how are you son?" Mr Jeon asked not-so-formally.

"I'm fine sir." He spoke out, also shocked that he didn't stutter.

He felt the younger's hand still on his back and that gave him a little confidence as the four of them continued with some light chatter. To his surprise everything was going fine.

Well, that was until Mrs Jeon reached a hand out to Taehyung. She probably intended to stroke his hair or cheek but he abruptly flinched, his head turning to the side with his eyes tightly shut. 

Yes, okay. He thought that she was going to hit him. Can you blame him though?! Meeting your partner's parents was nerve-wrecking as it is; it made you do really, really stupid things. Plus, he didn't really get off to a good start with Mr and Mrs Jeon.

When the brunet felt no pain afflicted on his cheek, he peeked one eye open to see the older couple giving him weird looks and Jeongguk face-palming himself.

Oops.

"Taehyung what are you doing?" Mrs Jeon asked first.

"Uh..." He squinted his eyes with his head still facing the side. "I was just... just admiring this side of the room." He held out a hand gesturing to the side of the living room. "Very beautifully decorated Mrs Jeon." He added the compliment last minute, also wishing that he could crawl into the ground right now and hide there for the rest of the night.

Surely anything, ANYTHING was less humiliating than this.

"Then why did you shut your eyes?" His boyfriend's father questioned this time.

The brunet racked his brain for any excuse- "It-it's because the room's just so beautiful... I had to..." He looked up thinking of what else to say. "...to absorb it all in, t-that's why."

Oh god, kill me now.

"Oh." Mrs Jeon nodded in an unsure way before smiling again. "Well, let's head into the dining room. The food is ready." She looped her arm around her husband's and they turned around, walking in a certain direction.

A huge sigh left Taehyung once the elderly couple was out of sight. The hand on his back moved to grip his waist now, pulling him closer to the body next to him. He felt the raven-head's hot breath on the side of his neck as they started walking towards the dining room as well.

"Did you really think that my mom was gonna hit you?" Jeongguk whispered.

A sheepish smile made its way to the older's lips. "Sorry, it was on reflex." He defended.

"Hyung," The younger stopped walking, pulling Taehyung to a stop too. "You have nothing to worry about. My parents want you here. They're changed now. You don't have to be scared okay?" He lifted a hand to cup his hyung's cheek.

Maybe Taehyung was worrying for nothing. It was just really weird seeing the other's parents talk nicely to him like that. A part of him kept thinking that this was all an act; like suddenly they were going to be back to their old selves and be against their son dating him.

Although right now, the look Jeongguk was giving the brunet told him that he should just trust the younger's words. And so with a deep breath, he smiled and nodded.

"Okay."