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Daniel stands on the altar, the collar of his suit digging into his skin, and his hands were shaking. He had insisted on wearing gloves until he puts the ring on, and Seongwu his best man and best friend had just rolled his eyes in resignation. Fine, it’s your wedding day, I’ll let you off this time – but you’re explaining to Minhyun.
He was starting to regret his choices because he swears he has a mini swimming pool in his gloves and his suit feels heavy against his damp skin. He fiddles with the collar, his fingers aching to unbutton just one button (who would notice, anyway, right?) but Minhyun was glaring at him as if to say, don’t you dare lay a hand on that outfit we spent a whole day trying to get you into. So he doesn’t – instead, he lets his mind wander to him.
“Married? Wow,” he had chuckled when Daniel told him about it.
“Is it so surprising?”
He had laughed for a minute before he realises that Daniel was actually being serious. “No, I just – I can’t imagine you being all suited up for a wedding, I know how much you hate bowties! And having to keep still while they do up your hair? And then having to put diapers on your kids, they’re going to want a dog instead of cats–”
“We’re going to get cats and dogs,” Daniel had pouted. “Plus, I’m great with kids.”
“I know you are,” he had smiled wistfully. “Always thought you’d make a great husband. I’m glad.”
The minister was reading something but he couldn’t focus. His eyes dart around the hall, and his heart hammers in his chest, as if it was hoping for something – or rather, someone. He notes that he’s not here yet. The man who’s been on his mind ever since he had decided to have a wedding. He doesn’t know if he’ll come.
“Promise you’d be on time?” Daniel had asked.
He was answered with a smile. A smile that sends Daniel to the day they first met – the day Daniel fell hopelessly in love, even if Jihoon had denied going for a date three times before he finally agreed. It was a smile that could only belong to someone so beautiful it hurts.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
And yet, he wasn’t here. Jihoon wasn’t here.
The murmurs of the crowd weren’t helping at all. He’s getting more anxious with each passing second. His eyes meet Minhyun’s, and the older man smiles at him reassuringly. He doesn’t feel reassured. He sees Seongwu and Jaehwan bickering over something at the corner of his eye, and makes a mental note to clock them both in the head for arguing over a samosa on his wedding day.
The door opens then, and everyone rises to their feet. Daniel doesn’t dare look. He hears Minhyun walk over to whoever had entered, and then the muttering grows louder. He doesn’t want to go on if Jihoon wasn’t here yet. He can’t.
Moments later, Minhyun walks over to the altar and says something to the minister before turning to him. “Daniel,” he hears his friend whisper urgently in his ear. In the distance, the hall door clicks shut. So it wasn’t the groom. It was a messenger. Daniel heaves a sigh – of what?
“Hyung, where’s Jihoon?” he asks.
Minhyun falls silent, his next words chosen carefully. “He’ll come, Daniel. Didn’t he say so?”
“What if he doesn’t?” Daniel presses. But Minhyun refuses to have it.
“It’s your wedding day, Daniel, and I expect you to act accordingly,” Minhyun huffs before returning to his seat. Seongwu notices, and he shoots Daniel a withering look as he goes to comfort Minhyun. Jaehwan sidles up to him instead, and Daniel just wants to be left alone.
“Minhyun’s going to come ‘round,” Jaehwan tells him. “Besides, he’s got a point, you know? Just… relax. It’s your wedding day.”
Daniel glares at him as if to say, how am I supposed to relax? to which Jaehwan just pats his shoulder.
“I’m gonna lose it if this stretches on any further–” Daniel starts to say when the door swings open and the organ starts to play. Whatever he had wanted to say had died in his throat and he finds himself rooted to the spot. Everyone had risen to their feet once again, but Daniel could feel his own about to fail him any second now.
“Finally,” he hears Seongwu grumble. Minhyun shushes him, his eyes flitting to Daniel who had turned as white as the tuxedo he was wearing. Not that Daniel’s ears picked up on whatever his friends were whispering (not so quietly) about. His eyes were fixated on the figure that was slowly approaching him. He swallows. He’s not ready.
His soon-to-be steps on the altar, and the crowd settles back into their seats. He throws them what he hopes was a smile, but his face felt tight so he wasn’t sure. He receives a vague smile in return. They stare at each other as Seongwu steps forward to give an opening speech, and Daniel realises how real this all is.
“Thank you everyone for attending the ceremony,” Seongwu clears his throat as he starts to read off his script. “Three years ago, my best friend Daniel…”
“Are you going to eat that?”
Daniel whips his head up to see an angel looking down at him. Is he dead?
“What?”
“I said,” the stranger repeats impatiently. “Are you going to eat that?”
Daniel looks at where the stranger was pointing at – his bagel which was still untouched on his table.
“Well?”
“You can have it if you want,” Daniel shrugs. He bought it just to stay in the café anyway, not that he was actually hungry. He just had lunch with Jaehwan an hour ago so he was still pretty full.
The stranger’s lips turned up into a blinding smile, and his eyes sparkled brightly as if Daniel had turned on a happy switch inside him. Following that encounter, that was all Daniel could think about. Those eyes and that smile that appears in his dreams, and even in those dreams, his heart flutters, and that was how Daniel became a believer of love at first sight.
“Daniel?”
Daniel snaps out of his thoughts and wills himself to focus. Minhyun’s right – he shouldn’t be like this. Not today. His soon-to-be was looking at him, their expression bordering between worry and amusement, and Daniel’s heart continues to thunder.
“I’m sorry, can you – can you repeat that?”
“Kang Daniel,” the minister repeats a second time. “Do you take Park Jihoon to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
Daniel looks at the man before him, his hair swept into a comma hairstyle, revealing part of his forehead, making him look like an otherworldly prince, and those eyes – those eyes will be the death of him. He swears that they contain all the stars in the galaxy, the way they shone as they look into his own. His tears came before his reply and he sees Jihoon crack a small smile, trying to hold back a chuckle that was threatening to escape his lips.
“Yes.”
“And Park Jihoon, do you take Kang Daniel to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
“Yes.”
“I now pronounce you husband and husband,” the minister concludes. “You may now kiss the groom.”
The crowd claps then, and their friends hoot noisily in the background. But Daniel doesn’t notice any of that – how could he when his fiance, oops, his husband, was looking at him as if he was the most precious thing in the world? As if he won’t ever get tired of looking at Daniel like that every single day? His past, his present, and his future. Daniel could feel his heart exploding.
Jihoon was the first to take a step forward. He holds Daniel’s elbows and squeezes them gently. “Hi, sorry I was late. Got held up by Max. He kinda ate our wedding cake.”
“It fines,” Daniel blurts out. “I mean, it’s fine. That was totally a typo–”
Jihoon had stood on his tippy toes and planted a kiss on Daniel’s lips, cutting him off, and Daniel instinctively brings a hand to caress Jihoon’s face. His finger brushes over the younger boy’s cheekbones and he smiles at how Jihoon shivers against his touch as if it was their first kiss. Jihoon’s lips were soft. Sweet. Addictive. The way they move against his own was gentle, just like the hands that have travelled up Daniel’s arms like tiny spiders, now draped over his shoulders, pulling him close.
Just as swift as he had come in, Jihoon breaks from the kiss and rests his forehead on Daniel’s. They stay like that for a few seconds until they hear Jaehwan clear his throat, signalling that it’s the time to move the hell on and you can totally do this later. Jihoon giggled, and soon Daniel was also giggling as he presses a quick peck on his husband’s cheek.
“I love you.”
“I know,” Jihoon says back, his cheeks glowing, and Daniel realises yet again that he just might be the luckiest man in this entire universe. “I love you too.”
“You could’ve texted Minhyun to tell us you’ll be late. I thought you aren’t going to make it.”
“Didn’t I tell you?” Jihoon hits Daniel playfully on the chest as he looks into Daniel’s eyes. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
I love the way that you smile
And maybe in just a while
I can see me walk down the aisle
'Cause you're the apple to my pie
You're the straw to my berry
You're the smoke to my high
And you're the one I wanna marry