The first year was the worst. But it was also the best.

After driving back from the Mint Eye, Saeyoung felt numb. He had come so close to being fully reunited with his brother. The two of them had smiled together and laughed and joked and things had finally been normal for the Choi twins—as normal as things could get, with the whirlwind of chaos the Mint Eye had brought to their lives.

Initially, Saeyoung had only thought of his own loss as he pressed harder on the gas pedal, with (Y/N) been silent, not saying a word. But after he'd calmed himself a bit more, he saw her shoulders trembling and realized, with a start, that she would perhaps miss the pale-haired boy as much as he did.

Saeyoung had been apart from his brother for four years, which was why it felt so much worse to have had a taste or reunion and then be forced into separation. But (Y/N) had been with Saeran for all that time, developing a strange manifestation of feelings for the boy.

While it was a second parting for the redhead, this would be the first time (Y/N) was separated from Saeran.

And neither of them knew when he would return.

Or if he'll return, a small voice whispered in Saeyoung's head, which he ignored.

That, perhaps, was why the first year back in Seoul initially seemed like it would be so horrible. Neither Saeyoung nor (Y/N) could forget about Saeran, both of them miserable and in grief over the fact that they had lost the boy once more.

But after a few months, when the grief wasn't as strong and wasn't as frequent, they began looking at each other. And it was around this time that they began truly seeing each other. It was at this point in time that their impassioned kisses now had traces of something else, something sweet and tender and beautiful.

They began falling in love.

From the second day they had been under the same roof, the two of them had kissed and hugged and relished in each other's presence.

But true love, Saeyoung learned, ran deeper than physical affection.

A shrill scream rang throughout the house, coming straight from the kitchen. Saeyoung sprinted there, jumping over furniture and couches to reach his target destination with the maximum efficiency. A dozen different thoughts raced through his mind, desperately trying to determine what could have made (Y/N) scream with such ferocity.

"I'm here!" He shouted, barging into the kitchen, only to see (Y/N) standing in front of an empty fridge.

"We're out of Ph.D. Pepper!" She exclaimed, gesturing wildly at the lack of the sugary soda in the fridge that was usually stocked.

Saeyoung gasped, taking the matter very seriously.

"Whatever shall we do, my princess?" He inquired, stroking a nonexistent beard as he considered the possible courses of action. "Fear not! Saeyoung, your defender of justice and knight in shining armor is here to save the day! TO THE SUPERMARKET!" He exclaimed dramatically.

(Y/N) sighed and strolled lazily to the living room, plopping herself down on the sofa. "We can't go to the supermarket, Saeyoung," she grumbled, flicking him. "It'll risk our identities being leaked."

The realization dawned upon Saeyoung, and he then understood why her reaction had been so...dramatic. He sat across from his lover, hating the frown that was now deeply etched across her face when a mischievous solution came to his mind.

"Indeed, Saeyoung Choi and (F/N) (L/N) cannot risk their identities being leaked...but I specialize as a secret agent." The redhead winked. "Give me ten minutes to raid your closet and the person you'll see will be completely different!"

(Y/N) coughed, not quite believing Saeyoung, but that only strengthened his resolve to utterly change his appearance.

Saeyoung winked, kissing her playfully on the cheek before disappearing into his room. It took him just shy of ten minutes to steal (Y/N)'s clothes and change into them, placing a wig over his head and doing a little twirl for the girl in front of him as he introduced himself as 'Ms. Ho-Syun Chua'.

Half-expecting (Y/N) to roll her eyes, the girl instead looked delighted. "Not bad, Saeyoung. But I can do better," (Y/N) smirked. She pecked Saeyoung lightly on the lips before disappearing into his own quarters. He waited with a smile on his face, eager to see what she'd be wearing when she returned, and nearly died when she returned with a sexy smirk, her hair covered in a cap and dressed so stylishly that Saeyoung had to question whether truly found that outfit in his closet.

Though her natural hair color was growing back in at its roots, it was mostly covered up by her cap and in her playful attire, she looked like a younger version of Zen.

Much sexier, though.

It was little things like that, the way she bounced back jokes at him and how she took it as a personal challenge to drink more Ph.D. Pepper than him, which made Saeyoung begin to fall for her.

And not just in a basic, teenage-romance way but in the most heartfelt way Saeyoung had ever known.

"Will you be my girlfriend?" He'd asked one night as they ate dinner together, debating whether Toph or Bumi would win in an all-out fight. He'd wanted to ask the "What are we' question at first, but had decided to cut straight to the brunt of it when the moment befell him. "I know our situation is weird, but you're so perfect and beautiful and—"

"Yes," (Y/N) had said, silencing him, not a moment of hesitation in her voice.

And then she'd kissed him harder than she'd ever kissed him before, all talk of dinner and TV shows forgotten.

After that, Saeyoung just fell harder and harder for her.

He had been forced to disconnect his bunker from the network out of necessary caution to hide any indication that people were living in the home. As such, the two had been forced to rely exclusively on pre-downloaded materials from Saeyoung's various computers, which seemed like a lot at first, but as six months grew into twelve, the amount of fresh content seemed to be less and less, until there was none left at all.

Despite the evident lack of things to do, though, Saeyoung rarely found himself bored. (Y/N) truly was all he needed.

And so, the first year was just that: love lost but found again, a year devoid of Saeran but instead filled with (Y/N). It was the absolute worst, with Saeyoung never having missed his brother as much as he did in that year, but simultaneously the best, because he had the girl of his dreams.

After that, life was a blur.

To Saeyoung, there was only (Y/N).

And to (Y/N), there was only Saeyoung.

After the second year together passed, Saeyoung couldn't hold back any longer.

"Are you happy?" Saeyoung asked one night.

The two of them were in bed, (Y/N) about to fall asleep after intense lovemaking, but the question weighed on Saeyoung's mind too heavily for him to wait until morning.

"Hm?" (Y/N) mumbled, awake but not fully alert.

"Are you," Saeyoung began, sitting up in bed. "Are you happy?"

Next to him, (Y/N) rubbed the drowsiness from her eyes and sat up next to him. "Of course, Saeyoung. Why wouldn't I be?"

The redhead bit his lip. "It's been...two years."

He didn't say what the 'it' was, but he didn't have to. She was all too aware of that fact, and they'd both been tracking how long Saeran, Vanderwood, and V had been gone. "This isn't what life is supposed to be like. You have your whole life ahead of you and...I don't want to keep you chained here like a prisoner. "

(Y/N) chuckled, bringing her hand to Saeyoung's cheek and kissing his jaw.

"In all the time I've been here with you, I've never once felt like a prisoner."

"I know. But..." Saeyoung trailed off. "I don't want this to be the rest of our lives. We don't know when they'll return, and when they do, we don't know what our lives will be like."

"What are you saying, Saeyoung?" (Y/N) asked earnestly.

"(Y/N), I've been thinking a lot about this and there's so much I don't know...except for one thing." Saeyoung turned his body and looked at (Y/N). In the darkness, he could barely see more than the scant outline of her body, but he didn't want to ruin the moment.

"I want to spend the rest of my life with you, (Y/N)." He said.

"I want to spend the rest of my life with you, too," She responded, giggling.

Saeyoung bit his lip, thankful for his decision to leave the lights off. His face was on fire, and (Y/N)'s innocent lack of awareness as to what he was trying to say wasn't helping.

He took her to hands and placed them inside his own, taking a deep breath, preparing himself for the worst. Hoping for the best.

"(Y/N), will you marry me?"

Saeyoung heard her breath catch, a soft gasp of what he hoped was happiness.

For a second, she didn't say anything, and Saeyoung felt his stomach sink. Then, her lips were on his, the girl's petite frame pushing him down onto the bed with her on top of him. "Saeyoung, yes," She murmured between kisses, bringing her hands to his face. "I want to marry you."

Saeyoung let out a sigh of relief and wrapped his arms around the girl's body, holding her close. As (Y/N) peppered kisses down his neck, whispering a soft "Yes" every time her lips left his skin, the boy couldn't keep himself from grinning. Everything after was a product of passion, and Saeyoung wasted no time in flipping (Y/N) over for a second round of what had left them so naked and intimate in the first place.

It wasn't until much later that the two of them actually discussed the details of the wedding.

Saeyoung wanted to get married in a spaceship, he had decided, but after calling KARI, the Korean Aerospace Development Association, he was bluntly informed that no, such a thing would not be possible.

One of their biggest arguments had actually been about the location of the wedding. Saeyoung had stated that he wanted to get married in a church, but (Y/N) blatantly refused, telling her fiance that churches reminded her of the house of worship within the Mint Eye, a cruel place she was often sent to for punishment.

As a sort of stubborn compromise, they agreed that they would decide when the time came, much later.

Of course, like all previous arguments, it was quickly forgotten over binging Honey Buddha Chips and watching cartoons together.

One thing that could never be forgotten, though, was Saeran.

Saeyoung loved (Y/N), he truly did. Unlike others, he had found her and chosen to love her, only growing further entranced by her spell as he got to know her.

But Saeran was his other half. His soul was incomplete without his brother, and the two were tied not just by blood but by the hell they had both endured together growing up.

More than once, Saeyoung mused over how, if he could just have the slightest intimation on where Saeran was, whether he was even alive or not, it would give him so much comfort.

I wish twins could communicate telepathically, the redhead thought as he lazed on the couch.

(Y/N) was in her room, probably taking a nap. Neither of them had anything to do, as usual, so Saeyoung began thinking that he might explore the culinary realm. Barely a week after returning to the bunker, he'd made more chocolate chip cookies for (Y/N) than either of them knew what to do with and had been repeating that pattern every now and then, but trying something new might be interesting.

He pulled himself from the couch. How about a Ph D. Pepper pie with a Honey Buddha Chip crust? Saeyoung nodded to himself. That sounded like a good idea.

He was about to enter the kitchen when he heard a high-pitched beeping play from some piece of equipment on the ceiling.

"Saeyoung?" (Y/N) asked, by his side in an instant. "What's that sound?" She asked while covering her ears.

"The carbon monoxide alarm," Saeyoung responded plainly.

"What?!" She grabbed his arm. "We have to get out of here!"

"A-ah, no, I mean..." Saeyoung gathered his thoughts.

Within the first month of moving back into the bunker with (Y/N), Saeyoung had disconnected any electronics he thought were at risk for giving up their presence. As a security measure, though, he had wired the intruder alarm to the carbon monoxide alarm, mechanically setting it up so that if someone was at the front gates, the alarm would go off.

"I rewired it to only go off when there's someone at the gates," Saeyoung finally said. He stood on a chair and silenced the alarm, gazing hesitantly down the hall.

"Someone at the gates?" (Y/N) asked. "That could be..."

Saeran.

The two of them didn't even look at each other, their minds to in sync with one another. The couple stumbled to the door, equally fearful of what they would find, all thoughts and brain processing systems a jumble.

Who would they find outside the gates? Would it be Saeran, returned at last? Or will it be V and Vanderwood, saying that he didn't make it? Saeyoung wondered, desperately praying that wouldn't be the case.

He paused in front of the door, hesitating with (Y/N) as the two of them mentally prepared themselves for how their lives might change. The redhead felt his fiancée wrap her hand in his, giving it a squeeze before twisting the doorknob and opening the door.

And there, in the distance, three figures could be spotted barely one-hundred feet away.

The first man, a brown-haired man in a black and purple suit, with a muscled arm shaking the barred gate.

The second was a tall gentleman dressed in all black and sunglasses, the only spot of color on his body being his bright blue hair.

And the third: an all-too-familiar man in a leather jacket, with hair so fiery red it's only rival was Saeyoung's own.

Word count: 2.6k

Notes: WOAH GUYS I complained in my last chapter that I wasn't getting enough sleep AND MY PRAYER WAS HEARD 0_0 All my classes are now online and most of my extracurricular activities are canceled, so I'm getting 10 hours every night! On the downside, the reason everything's cancelled is because of Corona ::/ I hope that all of you and your families are healthy and safe, and I'll see you in the next chapter :)

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Next Update: 03/19/20

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