~April 27~
"Hello?" Jungwoo sleepily answers the phone.
"Kim Jungwoo, why are you asleep? It's 6 p.m. and you're still asleep?" You scold him, completely forgetting about the time difference between New York and Korea.
You hear another groan from the other line, "Minju, it's 5 a.m. here. Would you quiet down? Your grandmother's still sleeping and I'm afraid your going to wake her up with that voice of yours," he scolds you back. You quickly apologized for being so disruptive in the morning, but got on with your point.
"Alright, but when she wakes up, could you ask her to call me?" You plead, missing your grandmother as the days pass by.
It's already been ten days since you've arrived in New York, and the homesick feeling was sickening. You wanted to see your grandmother so bad, but, at the same time, you wanted to stay with your friends. Everyday, you hoped that your grandmother would just magically appear in the penthouse when your day was over so you could tell her all the crazy things that happened each day.
You missed your morning walks with her, and, to be honest, you envied Jungwoo. You missed baking for her your favourite chocolate chip cookies, and eating a bunch then saving some for the following days. You longed for the time you spent with your grandmother when you were back in Seoul.
It was no lie that you were starting to worry even more. You started to worry about things you usually wouldn't worry about like how many bathroom visits your grandmother made, or how long it took Jungwoo to wake her up.
The boys would constantly tell you that as long as Jungwoo wasn't calling, everything was fine. But no calling could mean other things. What if they were both troubled?
Jungwoo sighs, "Okay, Minju. But you really don't have to worry. Besides, your grandmother and I are having the time of our lives," you hear him smugly remark, "Oh, and happy birthday, Minju. You are officially legal."
"Sweet of you to say, and thank you for that, Kim Jungwoo, but call me if anything seems strange. Now, go get your sleep, loser," you tell him, hanging up the phone so he could rest.
It was another boring day after you all finished your time at the hotel. Jisung and Jeongin had told you all earlier that they were heading out to buy some things. You wanted to come with, but they insisted you stay.
What was the use of a great place to stay when there was nothing to do?
But you started thinking—so far, Jungwoo was the only one to greet you on your birthday. Unfortunately, none of your friends had greeted you that day. You'd only realized after half the day's gone.
You tried to make the excuses for them; maybe they were too busy or had too much on their minds. But that's never happened before. The only time you guys have ever forgotten a birthday was a few years ago when it was Hyunjin's birthday. Other than that, you guys made sure to mark each others' birthdays specifically on your calendars and imbed them into your brains.
It saddened you once the thought kicked in, but you tired to not let that get in the way of your vacation.
Deciding to just let it be, you opted for taking a nap. As you were already on the couch, you stretched out your arms and legs, finding a comfortable spot.
——
"Minju," you were shaken awake. As you fluttered your eyes open, you saw all eight of your best friends, crouched in front of you as they struggled to keep their balance.
"Don't touch me," you mutter while slapping their hands away, a bit salty since they still haven't greeted you, "you guys forgot my birthday and I'm not happy about it."
You wanted to go back to sleep, but hearing their chuckles, you couldn't. You shifted to face the other side, giving them your back as you tried your best to sleep.
"Min, we got you something," Minho shakes you again, but like before, you shrug him off carelessly.
"What's the point of talking to me if you haven't even greeted me a happy birthday yet?" You ask them, but you only get silence in return.
You admit, you were a little grumpy not just from their lack of acknowledgement, but also since you had just woken up and you weren't exactly in the mood to awaken your unconscious mind.
You were bummed that they didn't greet you even after directly telling them, but you decided to just go back to your nap. In fact, you were more than bummed. You were starting to get pissed. You knew your friends cared about you, but you were starting to doubt that.
If they weren't going to act upon it, then you'd rather just ignore them.
They all left after you had given them no answer. After a few seconds, the living room lights were shut off. Couldn't say you didn't appreciate it, it became easier for you to ignore them.
But after your eyes grew tired and was an inch away from sleep, you heard the singing of your eight best friends behind you.
Confused at the moment, you turned around, wanting to see what the fuss was. You sat up and rubbed your eyes, trying to get a clearer vision of what was happening. To your surprise, you watched as your best friends all sang you happy birthday, holding different kinds of birthday celebration props such as party hats, balloons, and a cake.
You didn't know what to do at first, but it sank in a while after that forgetting your birthday was all just part of their plan.
You smiled as you saw the cake in Jeongin's hands (who stood in the middle of all of them) and immediately recognized the same bright colors. It was your favourite type of cake—white frosting base with streaks of pink and rose gold. Somehow, they were able to replicate the cake from your favourite cake shop in Seoul.
You felt tears fill your eyes to the brim, but you refused to let them fall. After thinking they'd forgotten, you were overwhelmed by the surprise. As they sang the last note of the well-known birthday song, you bursted into your widest smile yet.
You failed to express your gratitude in words as you covered your red face, sucking in the tears in which you succeeded. And without a second to spare, your best friends wrapped you in a group hug, each one of them saying different words of comfort, creating a cacophony throughout the penthouse.
At that moment, you felt like all of your stress was pushed aside.
"And to think you were so rude to us just a minute ago," Felix feigns hurt as he crosses his arms above his chest. "I demand an apology."
"Well, too bad. You ain't getting that anytime soon," you spit back jokingly. "Instead, you guys should apologize to me."
"That's what the cake is for, Min," says Minho as he grabs the cake and hands it to you.
Receiving it, your eyes gazed over the small details of the cake. It really was the exact cake.
"Thanks, peeps," you look up to them. "Now, if you don't mind," you add, looking around the penthouse before standing up and running to your room, making sure to lock the door as the boys chased you up.
"Hey!"
"We want cake, too!"
The continually banged on your door. As you placed the cake down on your table, you realized that you didn't have a fork to eat with.
"Shoot," you mumble to yourself, thinking of a way to eat your long-awaited cake without having to use your hands.
"You don't have a fork there, do you?" You hear Chris from outside and you could tell they all had a stupid smirk on their faces. As much as you hated to admit it, your clean-freak-self could never eat a cake with your bare hands.
Debating on whether to let them in or not, you finally chose to open the door, letting a horde of hungry kids fall flat onto your bedroom floor.
As Seungmin was the only sensible one amongst the group, he let the boys open the door for him as he just watched, which allowed him to escape the mess on the floor. He shrugged at the boys with a certain indifference to the human pile, stepping over their fallen bodies as he entered your room with an innocent smile and two forks in his hand.
As if nothing had happened, he handed you a plastic fork and took a seat on your bed as you brought the cake to you.
"Thanks," you said before both of you dug into the delicious cake while the rest struggled to stand up.
seungmin and his one rational brain cell