Damn the Delivery Boy

month six

Winter sinks its teeth in, and it bites hard. Your bones ache, your muscles ache, everything just moans and groans with every move you make. Most of your time nowadays is spent writing, wrapping yourself in blankets and sweaters and just anything to keep you, your baby, as warm as possible, waiting for Jeongguk to come home like you are a wife waiting for your love to return from sea.

His final exams finished last week, the big graduation in a month, now only working at the retail store and leaving the delivery life behind him. Slowly, the colour is gaining back in his skin, life flickering in his eyes, and you feel at ease.

So when you come home from a trip to the grocery store, bundled in a scarf, sweater and coat, yet still feeling the icy chill, you are little shocked to find Jeongguk answering the door before you have the chance to fumble through the set of keys.

"Oh," You gape, the shopping bags almost slipping from your arms at the sight of him. "Y-You're not working?"

"Nope," Jeongguk grins and warmth bursts within you, making you smile too until he is taking the plastic handles from your wrists and mumblinghey get inside, your teeth are chattering.

While you lock the door behind you, Jeongguk places the bags on the kitchen counter, removing all of the cold products and tucking them in the fridge, freezer, before he leaves the remainder for later. There is something about the way he is smiling as he approaches you, and something elseabout the apartment that you have not quite figured out yet that suggests he is hiding something, and you contagiously find the corners of your mouth itching up as well.

"Hey," Jeongguk murmurs, wrapping his arms around you and finding a slight intrusion in the way in the form of your belly. He looks down between you, foreheads pressed together. "And to you, Pizza."

"Tell me, Jeongguk," You smirk, kissing him on the chin. "Why do you look like you just got away with murder?"

"Aha! That's because I did!" He waggles his eyebrows, taking your hands and dancing you in slow circles, childish laughter bubbling from your tongue. "I murdered a man and hid him in our bath. Would you like to come see?"

You nod too eagerly for somebody who was just been offered to willingly look at a dead man, and Jeongguk only grins wider, coming around you to place his hands on your shoulders and guide you forward. Only once you enter the hallway does he cover your eyes with his palms, the aroma of something sweet, like jasmine, filling your senses and eliciting a pleasant moan from you that has him humming in agreement. It becomes stronger, combined with other delicious scents, like mint and honey, until you can practically taste it on the tip of your tongue in a burst of wonderful flavours. But before you can try and convince answers out of him, Jeongguk is already moving his hands away and you are squinting against fluorescent light, the bathroom slowly forming into solid edges, the bathtub coming into bright, colourful view in fizzling, steaming water coloured with streaks of fuchsia and sunset purple.

"You ran me a bath?" You say with a grin so brilliant that anyone else would think he just bought you a penthouse on the upper side of the city with a sports car to match. Though in your own terms, it feels precisely that way.

Jeongguk starts untying your scarf with his rosy lips tugged into a sheepish smile. "I stopped by that place you like. Lush? Yeah, and I bought like, ten bath bombs because I thought they might help your body feel better in the cold weather."

"That's so sweet," You murmur, shrugging off your coat. "I love you."

"I love you too, but seriously, how do you not eat everything in that place?" Jeongguk asks with a genuine seriousness and you sputter a laugh. "There was this body lotion called strawberry buttercream, and while the lady at the register wasn't looking, I decided to put some on my finger and eat it. But I was disappointed to find that it tasted fucking awful and nothing like strawberries, nor buttercream at all." Jeongguk stops then, looking frazzled. "Jesus, girl, how many layers are you wearing right now?"