Lohen wanted only the best for Alandra, and that was why he had become a madman over the last few weeks.

Back when they were in Indonesia, Albedo told him that he had found the right moment and proposed to her in her favorite restaurant. She said yes, of course. It was a semi-public proposal, totally not planned, but everything just felt like it was so right that Albedo just knew he had to do it right then and there.

Lohen was so ecstatic to hear it. The two men had planned to marry her, after all. They were almost in their thirties, their relationship had been filled with certainty over the last two years, and their job too had been stable enough that they had a fair work life balance.

So of course, it was due time for them to ask her hand in marriage.

Albedo had told him that there was nothing to worry about. Alandra would say yes, would say I do to them both — but that did not mean Lohen did not fear another possibility. That did not mean Lohen could just ask her casually when they were showering together or anything.

After all, unlike Albedo, he once left her.

He made a mistake where he thought leaving was the best option. The time between their second semesters until graduation day, when his parents’ demanded him to stay in the path that they prepared.

Yes, he did come back. Yes, he finally had enough courage to tell his parents what he wanted and get back into her life. Yes, she accepted him slowly, and eventually loves him the same even until now.

But there would be moments when he stared at her and thought that maybe, her loving him was indeed a gift from God. A generous second chance.

Marriage, however…

Maybe that was a stretch.

“Something is in your mind,”

Alandra’s lips brushed against his cheek, and it was enough to pull him back to the present moment.

Lohen blinked and turned his face slightly, only to find Alandra looking at him with that soft, knowing concern he always found impossible to escape. She was lying on her side beside him on the picnic blanket, one elbow propped beneath her, her dark hair spilling loosely over her shoulder and catching little shards of sunlight where the leaves above them trembled.

The afternoon was gentle around them, the park quieter than usual because it was a weekday and most of Mondstadt was still trapped in offices, classrooms, meetings, and whatever other dreadful obligations kept people from touching grass.

Lucky them, he thought dimly. Their schedules had finally bent kindly for once.

The picnic basket sat open near their feet, mostly unpacked now. There were little containers of gyoza arranged carefully, golden at the bottom because he had pan-fried them exactly the way she liked. There were cheese sausages, one that would make her moan with how hella good it was as it melts in her mouth.

There were also two bottles of milk tea resting in the cooler bag: roasted oolong for him, jasmine for her, both prepared earlier that morning in his kitchen while she stood beside him in sleepy clothes and tried to steal the sausage even when it was not fried.

Most of the food had been made by him.

Because he wanted his hands on this day. Wanted there to be proof that he had shaped it carefully, not only paid for it. Wanted Alandra to look at the meal and taste effort in every bite, because there were things money could build, but care had to be touched into place.