epilogue

BEGINNING NOTES:

Seven years later...

(ԅ[ •́ ﹏├┬┴┬┴ Not me realising it took 50 or so pages for baekchen to kiss.)

Jongdae woke up to an overpowering sense of comfort, a snug tangle of legs, and a faceful of defined muscle. Rather, a very strong and nice and firm set of muscles that would act as Jongdae's perfect pillow this fine morning. It wouldn’t hurt to snuggle into this some more…

Suddenly, he felt a shuffle.

“Good morning, beautiful.” His eyelids still heavy, Jongdae peeked to see Baekhyun staring at him with a half-lid gaze and a lazy smile. His tufts of toffee were flying astray. Like always, he was handsome with a delicate touch of beauty. The morning sun filtered through the window, lighting Baekhyun’s dark eyes in a way that glimmered brighter than the North Star.

And it was all his. Wasn’t he lucky?

“Mornin’ Baek,” he slurred. It took too much energy to stay awake. Besides, it was too damn early anyway… Well, too early for anyone who wasn’t his brother but he digressed. He snuggled deeper into the omega’s inviting warmth. “‘m goin’ back t’sleep…”

“Oh hell no.” Baekhyun backed away from Jongdae’s touch, leaving the latter to hiss at the sudden chill. At the foot of their king bed, their three-year-old corgi Teolagi huffed in annoyance, yet followed his favorite human on his perilous journey for today. The brunet lugged himself toward the dresser, the corgi carefully stretching his toasted bun of a body close behind. “You have a breakfast date with Minseok-hyung in 20 minutes. Come on, up up.” As if agreeing, Teolagi barked in tandem, emphasizing each huff with a proud stomp of his stubby paws. (Though if you asked Jongdae, he probably just got excited at the word “breakfast.”)

Jongdae groaned and rolled over to Baekhyun’s side of the bed, digging his face into the still-warm pillow.

“Ah, why~?” He whined. “Don’t wanna. Come back t’me!”

His morning tantrum was interrupted by a ball of something hitting his back. His clothes. Garnering all his effort, the omega sat up and glared at his smug mate.

“Boohoo. Too bad, so sad. Teolagi, play Despacito." An enthusiastic bark followed. (What the hell was Baekhyun teaching their pup?) "Don’t come crying to me when he yells at you again. Besides, you have class after so you can’t even sleep in.”

“He knows better than to wake me up at the crack of dawn for stupid breakfast. He knows I’m working on my thesis.”

“Baobei, it’s 7AM. It’s not that early.”

“Well-”

“Just go.”

With that, Baekhyun went off to do whatever he did before work; the man’s day technically didn’t start until about two hours later, the lucky bastard. Meanwhile, their pup sauntered off to the back dog door, leaving his human to fend for himself as he went to sniff every grass blade with precision. Ahh, to be a spoiled Pembroke Welsh Corgi in this economy.

Sparing no extra second, Jongdae went in for the attack, wrapping his arms around his unsuspecting victim. As he expected, Baekhyun shrieked.

“Jongdae! What the hell! Let go!” He struggled to push away his sticky lover.

Jongdae shook his head, tightening his vice-like grip. “Not lettin’ go ‘til I get my good morning kiss.”

“Dae! You have morning breath. It’s gross.”

“Hey! You never complained about it before.”

“...”

“Baek!”

At the younger’s whines, Baekhyun chuckled. The nerve of this man. Look at him… Laughing at his suffering like the cruel, cruel man he was under all the cute fluff.

Seeing that it was enough, the other omega halted his laughter and cooed, “Come here, you big baby.”

With that, Baekhyun pressed his lips against Jongdae’s cheek.

“Hey-”

Jongdae promptly was silenced by the softest touch of velvet, humming in satisfaction. Now this, this was happiness. He smiled against his mate’s lips, wishing for this moment to last for an eternity.

For a moment, the world faded away, leaving them alone with their growing passion and racing hearts.

Before he knew it, Baekhyun pulled back to rub his nose against the other’s nape, quietly purring. After a few swipes, he landed another kiss on his cheek. Sure, Jongdae could not smell his mate's claim, yet he preened knowing it was there.

“There. Now get ready.”

Jongdae happily obliged.

The last seven years were… hectic to say the least. With the help of Minseok, he had not seen his parents since the infamous Screaming Match^tm between them and his older brother. His last memories were their faces of disappointment and rage when the alpha drove away, never looking back.

(They still sent over files of marriage candidate profiles until Jongdae moved in with Baekhyun to their new place in Mountain View.)

Baekhyun didn’t speak much about his own family’s estrangement. All Jongdae knew was ever since he dropped the news of ending his engagement with the Park Chanyeol, he cut all contact with his alpha mother’s side of the family. Strangely enough, the omega kept contact with his ex-fiancé (much to Jongdae’s initial jealousy) as strict friends. All things considered, the alpha truly wasn’t a bad guy, goofy even, once he got to know him. If Jongdae was optimistic, he might even say that they became good friends over the years. (Though to be honest, the omega had witnessed the man run into too many door frames for him to be intimidated by now.) In the coming years, however, Jongdae suspected they would become closer if Chanyeol's stammering whenever Min-hyung came by during his visits said anything. He wouldn't have ever known that the alpha made an excellent lobster cosplay otherwise.

To answer the unspoken question: Yes, the dancing around and failed mating calls made Jongdae want to smash himself against the wall. But jokes aside, good for them.

It was hard, starting from the bottom with nothing to his name, essentially disowned. He didn’t know what he would have done without his brother and mate as his anchors. But he did it. His beloved mate a proud aerospace engineer working on rockets at NASA of all things, and him pursuing his Master’s in Music Education.

He might not have a corporate kingdom at his fingertips. He might not be the trophy spouse of a wealthy business associate. But that was okay.

His life, his mate, his potato of a dog, he wouldn’t have traded this for anything. His world may not be “perfect” with a white picket fence and tiny tots running around, but it was perfect for him. Well, almost.

Jongdae's eyes glanced at their walk-in closet. He had to find out how to present a certain ring at the bottom of his main dresser now that same- matings were finally legally recognized in their country.

After all, he refused to let the dog tuxedo he bought online go to waste.

ENDING NOTES:

This was one of my first big projects I set myself to accomplish. I have started many other longfics, yet I felt guilty keeping this one in the basement. So many times I pondered just keeping this in the WIP folder. I was never happy with what I wrote. I changed the plot so many times. The initial iterations were pure angst, with the story ending with a wedding between BBH and PCY. In that version, KMS was meant to be a random alpha that KJD met at the reception, finding a kindred soul. KJD pining over BBH and KMS pining over PCY.

One version had BBH confronting his mother because she tried to pay KJD off to leave him alone (Yes, the rich mom K-drama trope).

I could go on and on. The story has evolved to this final version.

And while I am not completely okay with how everything ended, it took H telling me that perfection shouldn’t be my goal. My story doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does need to be told.

Thank you so much for reading this. As always, kudos and comments are much appreciated. I try to respond to each one, so don’t be shy! Also, feel free to share this fic via Twitter! I’m mainly a lurker, but I use it to give updates on my future projects.

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