─── chapter twelve.
❛ HAPPY BIRTHDAY ❜
KIL DEOK-JA WAS IN A FRENZY. never before had she felt nervous the way she felt now, her grip on jace's arm so tight that she was practically cutting off his blood flow.
"this one — no wait! oh, but this one is so cute... jace, what do you think?" the girl held up two pair of pajama pants in front of the big-eared boy's face.
she had managed to convince jace, the self proclaimed vasco expert, into going birthday present shopping at the last minute, only a day before the teen's birthday. even though the thought of kil deok-ja, their class's most vicious fighter, shopping like a normal person seemed odd to the big-eared teen, he ultimately agreed for the sake of her sanity.
jace sighed and pushed the clothing out of his face. "deok-ja, you already got him a lot of stuff. knowing vasco, he wouldn't care even if you gave him a napkin!"
"you're right." she gnawed on her fingernail in thought, before placing the dark blue pajama pants with paw print patterns in her shopping basket anyway. "i'll buy him this too and be over with it!"
with an irritated jace complaining by her side, she quickly paid for her final gift, and as compensation, gave him a newly bought pack of gum (she bought 4, so sharing wasn't all that bad).
"deok-ja." he said sternly when they finally reached their splitting point. "stop worrying, he'll love it. also, it's creepy seeing you like this."
she slapped him gently on the arm in response, scrunching up her face in annoyance.
"whatever. thanks for coming with me. see you tomorrow." deok-ja grinned up at the boy.
"see you." he waved as they walked in their separate directions, deok-ja's hands ridden with shopping bags.
hopefully, he'd like the gifts she picked out.
KNOWING VASCO, deok-ja should've been able to predict this sort of ludicrous idea. however, since it was his birthday, she had no choice to go along with it when he announced after their burn knuckles dinner that he was having a small party by the river.
well, it was a good thing deok-ja packed her multiple heated blanket and wore thick socks, otherwise she'd be murdering someone at the moment. that, and the additional warmth of an almost fully grown moose snuggled into her lap. she couldn't possibly show up to vasco's birthday party without moose, now could she?
she could almost hear deok-su's taunting voice as he sat warm and cozy at home. the bespectacled teen had once again refused to engage in any other social interaction after school hours, so he made deok-ja relay the message to vasco, who was quite upset.
"he looks so happy." mira smiled from underneath the comfort of deok-ja's borrowed blanket, completely ignoring the shivering zack beside her. she certainly had her own priorities.
"it pisses me off..." the boxer muttered under his breath, crossing his arms in an attempt to keep warm.
"let's sing happy birthday!" jace suggested, his teeth clattering against each other.
"happy birthday to you!" they all chanted as vasco held the cake with his arms, bare of anything but a tank top.
deok-ja had the urge to bundle him up in blankets and preserve his smile forever, but merely clapped along with the others.
"happy birthday to you!"
"happy birthday, dear vasco-ah!"
"happy birthday to youuuu!"
as they finished, vasco made to blow the candles only to have the wind beat him to it. deok-ja laughed quietly as he pretended not to notice and blew on the smoke, crushing the hopes that everyone else had of finally going back inside somewhere warm.
soon, it was time for vasco to open his presents, and deok-ja allowed him the honor of holding moose while he did so. the look on his face was worth the cold (at least, it was to her).
little daniel gave him polaroids of enu and her puppies, to which the dog on his lap barked in recognition and wagged his tail.
"thanks daniel. i love them!" vasco said, very touched.
jace gave him a limited edition heroman figurine that he spent months looking for, which had the same hairstyle as the big earned boy himself. it seemed to mean a lot to vasco, because he teared up a little.
then zack gave him a good luck rock he made at the last minute, the marker still in his hands as he told vasco that it was a treasure given to him by his mom. this one brought vasco to complete tears as he tried to deny it since it was given to zack by his mom (and totally not picked up from the floor minutes ago).
park taejoon made vasco an account with 100,000 followers, which left nobody impressed. he had yet to get rid of his attention seeking ways.
finally, it was time for deok-ja to present her gifts, and it made her increasingly nervous. she'd rather fight to the death with goo, who used weapons, than see a look of displeasure painting vasco's face.
"happy birthday," she muttered as the tattooed teen stuck his hand into the large bag, trying to grab the contents inside.
the first thing he pulled out was a black lava bead bracelet with a V charm connected in the middle with two deep blue beads, making vasco beam and immediately slip it on. jace snickered and nudged deok-ja, calling her 'surprisingly romantic', to which she slapped him on the back with enough force to leave the big eared boy wincing in pain.
the next item was a thick leather jacket (she had practically wasted her entire bank account on — she will be stealing money from her richer friends soon), and the last a pair of paw print pajamas she bought earlier with jace.
"deok-ja, thank you!" vasco smiled at her.
she only murmured a quiet welcome, and they moved on to playing games in the freezing weather. but then, zack had the stupid idea of placing the rock in vasco's heroman box, and flinging it into the river.
yeah, deok-ja was definitely going to murder someone.
NOBODY REALLY IMAGINED, and especially not deok-ja, that this party was a very bad idea.
oh, wait. that's exactly what she imagined would happen!
without much consideration to the sounds of sirens, screaming, and people recording the news right before her eyes, deok-ja shoved the heroman figurine vasco had spent the past half hour looking for into zacks hands and flung him into the water.
not even mira, who was probably the closest with zack, uttered her displeasure at deok-ja's actions, all silently agreeing that it was a good enough punishment for the stunt he pulled earlier.
seriously, deok-ja doesn't understand what her brother sees in the boxer to be as generous as to let him keep his bones in one piece every day. if it had been her enduring his constant snarky attitude...
besides that rather rude end to a day, where a certain architecture department student used her fists to knock zack unconscious for being stupid, it ended with her handing vasco one of her thermal blankets and a cup of hot chocolate.
"next time, i'm fucking killing him." deok-ja muttered as she took her seat beside the tattooed teen, moose trailing behind her obediently making himself comfortable against her legs.
"it's ok, i'm not mad anymore." he replied with a smile, fiddling with the bracelet around his wrist.
"do you like it?" she hummed, gesturing to the bracelet.
vasco nodded enthusiastically, before pausing and ducking his head as a small red hue blossomed against his ears.
"it's the first time anyone has given me a bracelet." he said quietly, a small smile adorning his face as he looked up at the dark haired girl.
she laughed quietly, patting his damp hair with a grin. there had really been nothing to worry about, because vasco was the kindest person kil deok-ja knew.
"happy birthday." the girl repeated, letting her fingers linger against his hair slightly longer than they should've.
even though she'd given away her blanket for a good cause (vasco's shivering form), the boy beside her was enough warmth for the two of them.
# LOVE, RAY !
another short chap for the vasco's birthday episodes (i adore them sm)
deok-ja and vasco are so adorable <3
next chapter will hopefully be longer since it's about jiho and illegal gambling, and where big booty jake is introduced<33 lemme tell yall in advance, from this point forward things are gonna get DARK (bc the webtoon starts getting less cute and more bloody — my fav lol — so the twins will not have much time to get much closer w anybody else)
i'm not sure what imma do bc i didn't plan the plot and stuff so it's prob not gonna be too good lmaoo but i'll try my best!!
sorry ab not updating sooner, i honestly don't have as much time as i had before but i'm still doing as much as i can pls be patient w me 😭
anyway this chapter covers up until ep 82!! it feels like a lot but then i remember that the webtoon is like 400+ chapters and i realize i'm barely scratching the surface 💀
also i skipped some eps because they're mostly irrelevant to the actual plot (except for the eps this chapter is based off of bc i love them sm so i had to incorporate them into my story)
pls vote and comment, i love interactive readers!! love y'all and stay safe<333