TIME AFTER TIME ; jjk

23

Chapter 23

PARK SOOHYUN

What is it like being thirty-one?

I was still feeling twenty-five, if I'd be asked, but I was actually older, and it wasn't weird, nothing weird about it at all, and thirty-one doesn't feel too different to twenty-five or thirty which I was just a few hours ago. I wondered if others my age felt the same. Maybe I was just about to live through it, around it, towards the things it would throw at me, and looking back, I had more of my life that was behind me, and much more of it ahead.

It was the 13th of May. Summer rains were yet to come and pour over the stretch of Seoul. Gentle warmth draped over the azaleas and plum blossoms, the crowded sidewalk, and though I wasn't there breathing in the sunbeams, I was appreciative of the moment where life itself was the weight​i​est element.

Jimin

happy bday twin sis.

happy birthday to you, too.

Will I see you tonight?

can't afford to go out. catching up on deadlines.

are you celebrating with friends? kim taehyung and jeon jungkook, you say?

They don't know.

huh

I didn't tell them yet.

What about the guy you've talked about before? How is he by the way?

He's taking me out to dinner.

Oooh why are you hiding him though?

I have to get back to work.

ok my only wish is for u to finally change for the better this year.

love you :)

My parents had called me on the phone later, asking how I was and feeling sorry for not celebrating with me and my brother. I said it was okay.

Though birthdays weren't usually a thing for me, I had wondered whoever else remembered about it (even few of Jimin's friends who used to greet me as well back in college), turning on the notifications of my phone if ever another greeting would come in. That even if I had no friends outside of work, there could be someone at least thinking of May 13 as Park Soohyun, my day, and it was hilariously pathetic to hope for it, that at thirty-one I'd still find myself doing the same thing that I did for the past years and all of the attempts resulted to nothing.

But I let myself be hilariously pathetic. In case.

. . .

The two were surprised more than disappointed that I had not told them at least a few days prior.

Taehyung instantly slipped his phone out of his pocket and slid his thumb across the screen, a little too aggressive. Brows pinched, he nudged Jungkook's side with his elbow to get the latter's attention. "What should we get? You're paying half."

Jungkook peeked at Taehyung's phone, threw me an examining look, lowering his gaze down to my body. "The one matching her pantsuit's color."

"Yeah, that's cool. So it'll look even better when she takes photos."

"Am I having a photoshoot? What are you even talking about?"

"Do you like number balloons?"

"The hell will I do with 3 and 1? I don't want to get reminded—"