“HEY JOY! WE’RE OVER HERE!”

            I look over and spot Hayoung and Mino at a table in front of the Wolf. “Hey guys!” I said as I took a seat. “Can you believe it? We’re in our junior year now!”

            “Time is going by so quickly,” Hayoung said with a shake of her head. “Next thing you know we’ll be off getting married.”

            Mino shuddered. “That’s honestly not for another decade or so.”

            “You never know,” Hayoung said. Then she eyes me. “Especially in Joy’s case.”

            “Oh God,” Mino groans. “That’s right. She’s dating what’s his face? Hmm I seem to have forgotten his name...Ho Hunse?”

            I smack his arm. “Stop it!” I said, already growing shy at all of the teasing. “We’re not even that serious.”

            “Of course,” Mino says. “Because things with Oh Sehun are never serious.”

            I sighed. Mino’s overprotective brotherly side was kicking in. “That’s what I like about him,” I said.

            “Well, if he ever breaks your heart,” Mino replies, already cracking his knuckles. “He’s going to have to go through me. Capeesh?”

            “Capeesh,” I muttered.

            I knew that life at SMU would be strange without the Exo boys that I knew and loved. Jongin had gone with his original plan and decided to stick around his animal shelter gig before investing in vet school. Thanks to Sehun’s parents, as well as his premium upbringing, he’d already landed a well paying job at a technology company, dealing with business and sales. I was proud of him, and he seemed grateful for the opportunity. Although it wasn’t med school like Sanghyun, it was something that he liked: business and computers, mixed with a little bit of scheming. It was the perfect match.

            Not to say that Sehun’s completely happy there, however. Apparently, his boss hates him. But don’t bosses hate everyone?

            As I walked back to the Red Velvet building, I did what I always did: look over at the Exo building just across the path. Sehun’s new job was about 500 miles away from SMU, which was a 7 hour drive at the very minimum. Or, according to Sehun, “Seven hours? That’s bull. It’s a five and a half hour drive.” So because of that, we didn’t get to see each other as often as I would like. But I guess that was what made me look forward to Christmas: that he would be home.

            “JOY, WAKE UP!”

            I groaned and dug my head under a pillow. “What, Yeri?” I muttered. Kim Yeri, a freshman, was my roommate this year. Whereas Wendy had been very energetic and motherly towards me, I couldn’t have been more of the complete opposite. It seemed as if sometimes Yeri was the older one, and I was the one who needed wake up calls and dinners prepared. I used to be able to wake up early just fine, but I was now investing in Sehun-like habits where getting up was starting to become a struggle. Must be what happens when you get older.

            “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” Yeri shouts, jumping up and down on my bed.

            “Thanks,” I mumble into my pillow, still sleepy as hell.

            “Are you doing anything?” Yeri asked as I struggled to wake up. “Is your boyfriend coming?” Typical Yeri. She’s been wanting to meet Sehun since day one.

            But just the very mention of him made me smile. “Nah,” I said. “I don’t think so. He works pretty far away. My birthday is pretty insignificant compared to that kind of stuff. I don’t even think he knows.”

            “What?!” Yeri exclaimed. “He’d better call you at least. Or send you flowers!”

            I almost choked on my spit laughing. “HAHAHA Sehun? Send me flowers? I mean the guy’s my boyfriend and all but that seems too...mushy for him to do. I mean it’d be nice. But I doubt he will.” One thing I knew with Sehun was to not get your hopes up for anything. After all, I’d never even told him my birthday.

            I had two classes that day, all lectures that I needed to attend to. In the first class, I came to find a bouquet of yellow roses sitting on my desk.

            Huh.

            On the card were simply the words: To Joy. So obviously they were for me.

            I carried the bouquet of roses out of my class to meet up with Hayoung and Mino at the Wolf. Their eyes immediately widened at the sight.

            “HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOY!” they both said to me. “Who are the flowers from?!”

            I wanted to say Sehun but how was it even possible? He didn’t know the classes I took, or the seats that I sat at. He wasn’t even here.

            So I shrugged. “I have no idea to be honest.”

            I came to my second class to find a bouquet of lavender roses. Once again, the card was just simply: To Joy. I found the color choices to be especially interesting. Why not red roses? The most simplest of them all? But instead, this strange person had sent me yellow and lavender roses.

            As if confirming my thoughts, when I got back to my dorm room the following evening there was a bouquet of red roses sitting just outside my door. Then, suddenly, I got a call.

            “Hello?”

            “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” Sehun shouted over the phone.

            “What the--you idiot, how’d you know?”

            “The question is, how can I not know?” he asked me. “I’m supposed to. You seem surprised.”

            “Well, yeah. Because I am!” I said. “I am so confused right now.”

            “What you should be saying is, ‘I have the best boyfriend ever’.”

            I laughed. “That, I already knew.”

            “We met on the basis of scheming. You should’ve expected more from me.”

            “Alright,” I said, getting settled into my room. I laid out the three bouquets in front of me: yellow, lavender, and red. “What’s your deduction?”

            “I didn’t want to be cheesy,” Sehun said. “You know me. I don’t settle for lack of originality. Chocolates and a simple bouquet would not cut it.”

            I smiled, knowing him all too well. “I figured.”

            “I know a couple of underclassmen, you see,” he continued. “And they owe me favors. So I had them find out your schedule and where you sat during lectures. Had them pick up the bouquets and the rest was easy peasy.”

            “I’m assuming the colors mean something.”

            “Yellow,” Sehun explained, “means friendship.”

            “Ouch. So I’m friendzoned?”

            “Never,” Sehun said with a laugh. “Even though we’re a couple, we’re also friends. And you’re one of the friends that I treasure. God, I sound like an idiot. But anyways, lavender is royalty. So it goes something like, ‘You are the queen to my heart.’ Remember when you were that Joseon dynasty princess that one time for the Spook Bash? Good times. Oh, and of course red. Symbolizes love. That’s practically a given.”

            I didn’t want to let him know that I was practically melting right about then, listening to his voice over the phone as he explained to me the meaning behind his entire birthday scheme. I felt like I was going to cry.

            “Joy?” Sehun said. “Joy are you there? C’mon don’t tell me that I was just talking to myself just now I’m not going to repeat my entire explanation.”

            “No,” I said, sniffling a bit. “I’m here. I heard it.”

            Sehun paused. “Holy you’re not crying are you?”

            “NO,” I choked. “Where are you right now anyways?”

            “At my apartment. Just got home from work. Joy, you should really come up here sometime and teach me how to cook dinner or some . I can only survive on take-out for so long.” I heard him fiddling around on the other end, probably attempting fry an egg but I know that he’ll end up burning it somehow.

            “Sehun?” I said.

            “Yeah?”

            I looked over at the flowers, and I was getting a little bit emotional, but I tried to keep a steady voice as I said, “I miss you.”

            “I miss you too,” Sehun said.

            “Thank you for the birthday present. You’re the best boyfriend ever.”

            He laughed. I wished that I could see him laughing. “Now that’s what I like to hear.”

            So I left Sehun to tend to his dinner -- I advised him to actually keep an eye on his food as he cooks it -- while I cooked my own. As I ate alone in my dorm room, I thought back to Sehun’s birthday gift. It wasn’t even really a gift. The flowers will wilt in a couple of days. But the guy had always been a person of action. He didn’t need to get me some expensive necklace or earrings or whatever, stuff that I never even wear. The very act of him thinking of me, to the extent of consulting little underclassmen to figure out where I sat in class, all of the little details like that made me smile to no end.

            Birthdays, in my book, were never anything spectacular. Jongin, for example, always liked to go all out for his birthdays. But I was okay with just the smaller things in life and as I lied in bed that night, there was only one thing running through my mind: best birthday ever.

A/N: For all of those that are wondering :)

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/01/30/flower-meanings_n_4696045.html