Work Text:
Usually Taehyung would complain about not waking up next to Jeongguk, all snuggled up in large bundle of blankets and head gently nosing at the younger’s collarbone, but this time when his senses slip out of dreamless sleep, tender sunlight is the first thing his eyes experience and the a delicious waft from the kitchen is the first thing he smells, and he knows he's in for something amazing. Lips stretching into his signature box grin, he stretches his arms as apart as possible and let's out a much awaited yawn. And then, when he's fully in his senses, it strikes him, and his eyes go as wide as saucers because it's-
“My birthday!” He screams, voice booming around the entire apartment and he knows Jeongguk’s heard it all the way to the kitchen when the slight sudden clattering of steel in heard and a soft curse follows it. Taehyung only giggles behind a closed fist, fingers hiding inside long sleeves. “Ah.” He leans back on the headboard, waiting for his boyfriend to walk in with that wooden spoon and scold him for startling him and possibly their neighbours too, and being an idiot at eight in the morning.
The perfect way to start a day, more so his birthday.
But what presents before him isn't something he expected at all, with Jeongguk walking into the bedroom with a tray in his hands and an apron smeared in chocolate sauce tied around his hips, and a wide smile on his face. Taehyung’s lips fall agape as he watches his boyfriend gently place the tray in the middle of the bed, then proceeding to crawl over to where he sits, among a humongous pile of pillows and blankets.
Taehyung knows Jeongguk’s taken extra effort, because usually they only manage to scrape up leftovers from the night before for breakfast with how tight their schedules are, and back when all the boys lived together in one dorm, sometimes they'd even have to suffice with a fruit or quick milkshake. Taehyung doesn't remember having a yummy looking breakfast including the likes of a stack of pancakes doused with cream and topped with sauce and berries, and a fresh and hot cup of tea on the side, ever.
“Guk, what-”
“Don't you dare say you shouldn't have, because I have, and you're gonna sit here and eat all this yummy looking stuff,” Jeongguk interrupts, then leaps ahead to bring Taehyung’s lips to his, hand pressing him in harder by the nape and thumb grazing his cheekbone. “Happy birthday, baby.”
“Wfow.” Taehyung mumbles through the kiss as his cheeks burn and skin tingles, then slightly pushes Jeongguk away, eyeing the tray occupying those inviting looking pancakes. “I haven't had a non instant ramen or leftover dinner breakfast in a while.”
“Then what the hell are you waiting for?” Jeongguk hands him the knife and fork.
Taehyung grabs both and cuts out a large chunk out of the stack, dips it in the sauce running down the pancakes and then the cream, and holds it up to Jeongguk’s mouth.
“You're eating with me.”
“But-”
Taehyung shoves the food inside his mouth when he tries to protest, and then flashes a wide smile when Jeongguk sits there stunned, cheeks full of pancake, making him look like a chipmunk.
“Chew.”
“Mfine.”
When Taehyung spotts the small sticky note on the edge of the tray that has ‘22’ written on it in marker, he plucks it out and flashes it in front of Jeongguk, but the latter only smiles sheepishly and continues munching.
It's after breakfast has rolled by and Taehyung’s heading for a shower, when he spots yet another sticky note on a bottle of new, expensive looking body wash on the shelf by the shower, and he plucks it out, reading the number scribbled on it.
“Twenty-one,” He mumbles, picking the body wash bottle with his other hand, examining it. He's wanted this one for a while, but it's not like he voiced his thoughts and decided it would be best to not splurge on just something as simple as body was like it was Christmas. “Twenty-one? Twe- oh.” It's then that it hits him, that Jeongguk- that fucker- is actually doing a birthday present countdown thing and Taehyung wants to slap him upside down for actually getting him twenty-two fucking gifts, because like hell he needs them.
Just when he's about to place the bottle back on the shelf and continue using his old, unfinished body wash, the sticky note falls to the floor on its other side, and Taehyung crouches down to read something else that's been written.
“I saw you eyeing this gift a while ago, twice actually, and even though you probably think it's too much, you have it now so you better use it,” He reads out. “Idiot.”
Taehyung walks out of the bathroom after a relaxing hot shower, smelling like vanilla and raspberries, damp hair matted on his forehead and beads of water still dripping down his body. The room is extra cold and Taehyung shivers, hurrying to shut the window.
The sticky notes don't seem to leave his trail as he spots another immediately after opening his wardrobe, and it's stuck on a new sweater. Taehyung’s instantly in love with the piece of clothing, and now he's starting to feel too spoiled and he wants to tell Jeongguk that it's time to stop, but he must have already laid everything out and honestly, Taehyung is starting to enjoy it a bit. Just a little bit.
He pulls out the soft, fluffy piece of clothing, which has thick, bold stripes on it, alternating in maroon and navy blue colours, with thin white stripes dividing them. He hugs the sweater for a whole minute, due to how comfortable it is just by itself, before slipping it on and then pairing it with a random pair of jeans.
He skips out of the room then, into the living area, and Jeongguk is sitting on the sofa all smug, smile wide and bunny teeth on show. Taehyung decides his boyfriend needs a beating, so he runs over to the younger and pounces on his body, holding him by the ear.
“Jeon Jeongguk,” He threatens, bottom lip jutting out cutely and Jeongguk doesn't know if Taehyung is trying to scold him or pout at him. “How dare you turn my Birthday into an advent calendar?”
Jeongguk snorts. Then smiles.
“You deserve it.” He grins.
“No!” Taehyung shakes his head vigorously. “Now I'm starting to enjoy and I'm too fucking curious about it, but I feel horrible at the same time because I didn't do such cool things for your birthday and I-”
“Tae,” Jeongguk laughs, situating Taehyung beside him properly, prying him away slightly from the awkward way he had been latched on to the younger. “It's okay. I'm not doing this because I expect something in return. I'm doing this because I can spoil my boyfriend how much ever I want and what's better than a Birthday to do so?”
Taehyung shuts up, and blinks rapidly when his cheeks grow hotter, shoving his head in Jeongguk’s sweater clad chest in a ridiculous attempt to hide his face, as red as a fire truck. A feeling of warmth and adoration envelopes him and he wraps arms around the younger’s torso, placing himself comfortably.
He sighs in content.
“When's the next one?”
He gets a playful smack in return on his arm, but then a small, rectangular shaped box wrapped in colourful wrapping paper is being placed in his lap, and Taehyung squeaks, already pulling apart the wrapping, neatly so. The ribbon flies across the room and he takes off the wrapping paper, revealing a brown wooden box. Curious, he brings it up and shakes it to guess the contents, but he's confused when it produces multiple noises.
“What this, Guk?”
“It's got gifts ten to nineteen in it.” Jeongguk replies, smiling.
“Ooooh.” Taehyung croons, quickly unlocking the box.
Taehyung marvels at the little knick knacks that occupy the box- two pairs of earrings that Taehyung had mentioned of before, a pretty phone case with marble patterns on it, a tiny keychain with a little bunny attached to it because of course Jeongguk would pull something stupid but cute like that, and a few other things that Taehyung knew he'd treasure for a long time.
Excitedly, he quickly switches his phone case to the new one, slips his copy of the apartment key into the keychain, and reminds himself to get new ear piercings soon. After gorging at the other few gifts for a good while, whilst Jeongguk looks down at his squealing boyfriend, yapping on about how he loves each new thing that he picks out and how Jeongguk is overdoing it with this whole advent gift thing, Taehyung realises he's down to nineteen gifts and only three more are left.
He doesn’t say anything however, doesn’t wanna sound too greedy and impatient, and happily nestles next to Jeongguk as they decide on spending the rest of the morning until performance practice watching some cheesy drama on tv.
When they finally head to practice, the rest of the boys pile up on Taehyung, almost literally, and voice out their wishes to him in person, unlike the quick, dry texts they had sent him after pulling great efforts to wake up early in the morning.
“I got you more snacks!” Jimin shoves a large (larger than the one during Christmas) bag into Taehyung’s arms and retreats, going back to rehearsing, while Taehyung peeks into the bag trying to decipher the different food his best friend has got him. Namjoon and Yoongi hand him their combined gift, and so do Jin and Hoseok, and he decides he'll open those up later in the safety of his bed back home, and joins the others for practice.
It doesn't go quite well as he planned though, his mind going haywire with the growing curiosity as to what those last three gifts from Jeongguk just might be, and he ends up skipping a couple steps in their Blood, Sweat and Tears routine here and there, and he's sure Hoseok would have, on other days, scolded him and pulled him by the ear, but he realises his hyung thinks it's just Taehyung’s Birthday jitters and let's him off with a weak stern glare.
Taehyung is radiating energy even after the intense rehearsal, whilst Jeongguk drags himself behind his over enthusiastic boyfriend, all ready to look for the last few gifts. The seven boys say goodbye to each other for next couple of hours, until all of them will gather at the couple’s flat to celebrate the second youngest’s birthday.
“Just one hint, Jeonggukie! One!” Taehyung whines, tugging on Jeongguk’s sleeve as the younger attempts to unlock the door to their apartment, kicking it open when the lock ticks. “Pleaseeeeee.”
“No, Tae!” Jeongguk shakes his head strictly, the two shuffling in. Jeongguk proceeds to take his own coat off and then Taehyung’s, hanging them up on those coat hooks by the door. “What's the surprise then!”
“But Guk-”
“Wait here, Tae.”
It's dark and cold and Jeongguk has disappeared, and Taehyung could very much shuffle slightly to the left and switch the lights on, but his inner voice tells him not to and to just wait, so he does just that, tapping his feet restlessly and bobbing his head up and down to absolute silence, just so the deep darkness doesn't get intimidating. He hears shuffling from the direction of their room then, and he chews down on his lip nervously, skin prickling with a thin sheet of sweat, palms clammy.
For some reason, Taehyung knows this one's gonna be a big one, maybe not as big as the last one because he knows Jeongguk is secretly cheesy as fuck and will save the best for last and shit like that, but he just knows he's gonna love it and he can't even see shit yet.
There's sudden warmth inches away from his own body, and the proximity almost makes him nervous before something soft, (possibly the softest) warm, and squiggly is pressed into his arms, and Taehyung almost doesn't want to believe what his brain tells him it is, before he pops one eye open and looks down at his arms, the lights now turned on, and the small, white, furry Bolognese puppy is looking up at him with the most curious head tilt and innocent eyes.
“Oh-oh my god,” Taehyung squeaks, hand slowly flying behind the animal’s ears, rubbing a spot there. His heart is beating out of his chest. “A puppy. You got a puppy.”
Jeongguk is standing diagonally behind him now, fondly looking down at Taehyung and the tiny creature. “Of course. I know how badly you wanted one.”
“Oh my god.” This time Taehyung breathes in multiplied disbelief, and he's short to squealing and running around the house in glee and would have done that if not for the adorable puppy in his arms. But then the doggie barks in its tiny yip and Taehyung lets out a wail of adoration and just about melts into a puddle on the floor, the puppy then leaning into Taehyung’s hand.
“I can't I can't, Gukkie, this is too much, too adorable, my chest hurts-”
Jeongguk laughs loudly and latches himself to Taehyung’s back, an arm looping around the latter’s small waist and the other settling on the puppy’s fur, slowly running through the softness. The animal is so small, it starts jumping around on Taehyung’s palm and moves all around, wagging its tiny tail.
“What do we name him?” The moment Jeongguk asks the question, a chain of names start tumbling out of Taehyung’s mouth, and he keeps laying out suggestions for a while, all the while they move to the kitchen as Jeongguk gets started on cooking something up and Taehyung already knows a special dinner is going to be his second to last gift, and he stands there patiently but excitedly, petting their currently unnamed Bolognese puppy.
“Buddy! How about Buddy? It's cute, I read it's like one of the most used doggy names in like western countries and it sounds so sweet too.” Taehyung grins, proud of his own suggestion, then looks down at the puppy who's now been placed on the kitchen island, the creature curiously strutting around the surface and examining everything around it.
“I like Buddy,” Jeongguk smiles, looking up and out of the pan, where his head had been engrossed in for the past forty minutes. But there's a delicious waft yet again from the direction, and Taehyung’s tummy has started to rumble with hunger. But he knows it's gonna be a wait because they won't be starting before the other boys arrive. “But let's keep that as an option, you gotta make sure he's given the perfect name huh?”
Taehyung sulks slightly and looks down at his new favourite thing in the world, wondering how they haven't been able to come up with a name they really like for the new pet in a long span of forty five minutes.
The doorbell rings then, and when the boys pile in after Taehyung opens the door with puppy in his hands, Jimin and Hoseok are the first ones to absolutely lose their shit because turns out they didn't know about this either, and the puppy is a little terrified at two new human beings suddenly jumping on it but it takes the animal less than ten seconds to grow attached to the duo and they start running around and playing with it, while the other three watch in amusement, Jin claiming dibs on the puppy next. Jeongguk pops his head out of the kitchen door and greets everyone.
“The food will be done in fifteen!”
As said, Jeongguk carries out a massive pot of food out in the living room, and Taehyung quickly runs to the dining table, eyes scanning over the shut lid in impatience. Everyone anticipates and then Jeongguk finally lifts the lid up, steam running out of the container in amounts, and the delicious fragrance of one of Taehyung’s favourite dish oozes out.
“Tteokbokki!” Taehyung squeals, instantly drawing out a chair and plopping down on it, letting out a very content sigh, leaning back against his seat.
“With ramen.” Jeongguk grins, shuffling right behind Taehyung’s chair and loops his arms around the older’s shoulders, squeezing slightly. “Dig in, guys.”
Everyone really digs in because Jeongguk’s Tteokbokki is good as fuck and everyone knows that, what with Taehyung’s plate filled to the brim with the food as he laps it all up, almost looking like their new puppy himself. And then everyone is so engrossed in eating, no one even notices Jeongguk bring out cake, but when that does happen, everyone suddenly has new found hunger in their stomachs because hello, cake.
When the cake cutting and pictures and videos and singing and wishing is done, the seven of them are lounging in the living room and puppy is yipping around on Jeongguk’s lap.
“Y'all named him yet?” Jimin asks.
“Nah, we came up with a bunch but nothing fit just right.” Taehyung sighs, deflating a little.
Jimin nods, and then the puppy proceeds to curl itself up into a ball on Jeongguk’s lap, the contrast of its fur and Jeongguk’s black jeans stark. Jimin giggles. “He looks like a rice cake.”
Apparently Park Jimin and his little comment is all that was needed for Taehyung’s head to light like a bulb, and he quickly grabs the little animal out of its comfortable position and brings it up to his chest, hugging it. The puppy doesn't seem to mind and quickly curls up there too.
“Mochi! We’ll call him Mochi!”
Jeongguk can't wipe the grin off his face as he watches Taehyung marvel over the new puppy and it's name, both creatures looking hella cute.
It's a little bit later in the night, the clock about to strike twelve in a little less that thirty minutes, when Taehyung has spent a good amount of it wondering what the final gift for the day is. He can't help it, he shamelessly went from being modest about these twenty-two gifts to obviously greedy and impatient. So when the curiously gets the best of him, he decides to cool off a little because hey it's almost fucking twelve and my birthday will be over soon and I still haven't received the final gift and now I can't stop sweating due to over anticipation, and abruptly gets up, not before placing Mochi on Jeongguk’s lap first.
“I'm gonna go get changed out of this, been wearing it all day.” Taehyung points out at his carefully constructed outfit consisting of skinny jeans, sneakers, a fancy top and a denim jacket. He feels icky and overdressed anyway now, and thinks changing into comfier clothes might actually help.
“Be quick.” Jeongguk grins wide, the one that flashes all teeth, and the words make Taehyung's skin tingle with even more excitement because this could be it, his final gift is coming at last. He vigorously nods his head and runs into the bedroom, immediately hopping into the bathroom first and decides to get his face clean first. There's still remnants of cake icing from before when the boys decided it'll be a good idea to make him look like an idiot.
When that's done, he's still quick on his heels and rushes to the wardrobe to pick out some random comfortable clothes, and does just so, pulling out one of those long ass t shirts, and some pj’s to wear beneath. The grin is unable to wipe off his face and then he quickly walks to the chair that has a towel hung on it, picks it up to wipe the water droplets on his face, and almost misses the soft thump of something falling on the ground,
He frowns, dropping the towel to the floor slowly, and starts looking around for what might have dropped, and eventually crouches down on his knees so he could have a better look around the chair and lamp, and the curtains behind them.
He almost gives up in annoyance when he doesn't find anything but knows he heard the sound, when something tucked behind the curtain catches his eye. He shoves his hand behind the material to reach it, and makes a small sound of glee when his palm grasps around it.
He brings it out, opens his hand, and remains still, unmoving, in his awkward crouching position. His mouth falls agape and breath quickens.
It's a tiny, square, velvet box, and one would be an idiot to not know what's held inside.
He hears it in his ears when he gulps the lump in his throat, and slowly gets up, half still in shock, clutching the box tightly in his hand. Yes, he doesn't want to ruin Jeongguk’s ultimate surprise, but he also kinda wants to kill Jeongguk for spoiling him with all those fucking gifts during the day and now deciding to seal it with this. Every step he takes towards the bedroom door, he changes his mind about going out there and flashing the box in his hands or keeping it back in its place and letting his boyfriend do his thing. But then he glances at the clock on the side table and there's less than ten minutes left for his birthday to be over and settles on a decision. Just when he's about to head out-
“...yeah I have it in my pocket guys,” Taehyung's eyes widen at that, as he looks down at his palm. “I put it in my jacket earlier when I was bringing Mochi out to surprise him.” Taehyung figures the box probably fell off the pocket, due to how excited Jeongguk himself must be to show Taehyung their new puppy, and was probably being hella clumsy.
“I can't wait oh my god,” Jimin squeals in delight and Taehyung hears someone clap in excitement, and now he doesn't know what the hell to do. “Why is he taking so long? Is he changing or sewing clothes in there?” Taehyung snorts at the comment.
“I-I don't know, but it's only making me more nervous as the seconds tick. It's also barely a few minutes left till his birthday is over and I wanna do this before twelve.” Jeongguk says, and Taehyung can hear the nerves in his voice.
“Well, go in and check on him then.” Yoongi.
That's when Taehyung decides, enough is enough. There's no point stretching it more and if Jeongguk actually does come inside and tries to propose (oh my god) and then realises there's no ring in his pocket, nothing would be more messier.
“I hope he says yes, guys.” Jeongguk mutters and then Taehyung hears shuffling and a someone else muttering something along the lines of stop being dramatic and go get engaged and he restrains his laughs as he flashes the bedroom door open. Jeongguk freezes awkwardly, in the middle of getting up and everyone’s eyes fall on him, and somehow everyone just knows he's heard some of that. He doesn't let anyone talk first though.
“Well I’d be able to say yes, Gukkie, only if you were a little bit more careful about your stuff.” Taehyung had decided to be slick and taunting about this, but he only ends up opening his clutched palm and presenting it in front of the whole group, which lets out loud gasps and he even hears Yoongi snort a little bit. Taehyung suddenly has tears pooling in the corner of his ears and now he's standing there looking like an idiot, but so is Jeongguk, halfway in the air with a stupid look on his face that says nothing less than fuck my life, so it's all okay.
“Shit, Tae,” Jeongguk bites down on his lower lip, cheeks and ears tinted red but there's an embarrassed smile threatening to break out on his face. “You weren't supposed to- how?”
“This is going to be fun.” Namjoon mumbles.
“I-it was on the chair by the window under a towel,” Taehyung manages to reply, hands slightly shaking with nerves now. “I wanted to wipe my face and..”
Jeongguk begins palming the pockets on his jacket, and then sighs in defeat when he finds nothing, and walks over to where Taehyung stands in three or four long steps.
“Shit,” He wraps his hand around Taehyung’s, the one holding the little box, and looks like he doesn't know if he should scream or laugh. “My last surprise. Done for.”
“It was still a surprise though,” Taehyung chuckles, vision slightly blurring with the growing tears in his eyes, chest heavy full of overwhelming emotions and nose chilly and cold in the winter climate. “It was.”
Jeongguk smiles slightly before grabbing the box and slowly opening it, plucking out the only content in it. He shoves the empty box inside his pocket, and then presents the ring to his boyfriend. It's beautiful and simple, but unique as hell.
Jeongguk had known it was something Taehyung would absolutely love when he had first seen it, and then refused to look at any other. It was slightly delicate, not like those chunky manly wedding bands or anything, but then again Taehyung was delicate, and pretty and the embodiment of an angel so yes, please pack this ring up for me. The ring itself was a gold crown, each tip coming out studded with a small diamond, and god knows how long Jeongguk had been dreaming about it settled on Taehyung’s smooth finger.
“Kim Taehyung,” Jeongguk cleared his throat, Taehyung nodded slowly, and the two almost forgot about the audience they had behind them until someone let out a small noise of impatience and a tiny gasp. Taehyung couldn't believe their hyungs were actually fanboying about them both doing this. “I love you so much. Marry me?”
That's it. That's all that was needed, and no crazy big speech about how they first saw each other and why Jeongguk loves him and wants to spend all life with him because Taehyung knew, and so did Jeongguk, with them talking about this stuff almost everyday. Their relationship had no scarcity of endless praises and expression of fondness, and plans of the future and what they want for each other. So those few words were just what Taehyung needed and then when he was nodding crazily, looking like his head might just spring out of his body and tears completely fogging his vision, he almost didn't notice the beautiful ring being slipped into his finger.
“I love you baby,” Larger arms loop around his torso and fingers padded at his cheeks to wipe the tears away, and when he could finally see clearly again, Taehyung grins that box smile that had got Jeongguk’s heart to fall to the floor in the first place. He cups Jeongguk’s face with his shaky hands, and places a long kiss full on his lips, arms then going around his neck. “Happy Birthday.”
Taehyung nuzzles his face along Jeongguk’s collarbones, and mumbles back a muffled I love you too before the audience on the sofas bursts into cheers and ear piercing clapping and screaming, and before the couple knows it, they're being coddled in a massive group hug, and Taehyung couldn't possibly need more.
He looks down at his ring clad engagement finger, and realises he's gonna have a hard time trying to not grin every time he looks at it. A soft, featherlight kiss is placed on his head and he tips his head to look into Jeongguk’s eyes, and realised he already has a hard time not to grin every time he looks at his baby anyway, so what the hell.
“I better be the best man!” Jimin mumbles from somewhere between the group hug.
“Whose?” Yoongi counters.
“I don't care, just make me one!”