It was a tradition born out of late night drinking shenanigans, as many great traditions are. While the exact details were lost to the haze of morning after hangovers, the general consensus was that the story went something like this:

It was 3am in the dorm’s common room, SNSD’s “Genie” had come on the radio, and they were all pretty blitzed. Baekhyun had stood up on the big round table and demanded he be granted a wish from each of the 7 boys. “’S my birthday. You should all be ma genies. I’ll rub ya bellies first if I gotta,” he slurred. Everyone shouted him down with a chorus of ‘no ways,’ ‘don’t trust yous,’ and one snarky ‘you’d have to rub more than that’ thrown in for good measure. Chanyeol reached up and pulled the pouting singer onto his lap.

“I tell ya what, Baek. I’ll offer myself as sacrifice. I’ll grant you one wish,” the giant said, honking the birthday boy’s nose affectionately. Baekhyun giggled gleefully, clapping his hands and bouncing on Chanyeol’s knee like a kid on Santa’s lap.

“BUT,” Yeol exclaimed loudly, pointing an intimidating finger at the 6 other boys in the chairs around the table, “from now on, it’s gonna be a random luck of da draw. Like spinning a ing wheel of fortune or something. It ain’t gonna be me handing out wishes e’ery time someone survives an additional 12 months on the planet.”

And thus was born the dangerous game of Birthday Roulette. Which really isn’t so much a ‘game’ as it is a free pass to prank a friend for your own sick amusement, because that’s what the ‘wishes’ immediately devolved into. The birthday boy thinks up a unique request for each member, writes them out on separate slips of paper, and then one is drawn at random out of a pot. Sober discussion led to additional clarifications:

No repeats of any prior granted wishes. (“Cause that ’s boring,” Baek declared.) Because of rule 1, the non-selected wishes are immediately burned so no one can steal ideas and the person can reuse them for a future birthday if desired. Wishes can’t extend beyond the timeframe of the actual birthday. (No week-long requests.) This also precludes any long-term exchange of property or possessions, so Junmyeon could breathe a sigh of relief that his precious Maserati was safe. If the person drawn refuses to grant the wish requested of them, they have to forfeit their upcoming birthday wish, pay the birthday boy 100,000 won, and live with the shame of being “a ing drag” (according to Jongdae).

They eventually add the caveat that no one should be forced to be a wish fulfiller twice in a row, after Sehun complains about going back to back for Junmyeon’s and Jongdae’s birthdays, having to dress and speak like Minnie Mouse for the first and then having to refer to Dae as “His Royal Highness” while carting him around town piggyback-style for the second. Wish granters can opt-in or opt-out if pulled out of the pile twice in a row.

Flash forward to January, and Junmyeon presents the group with a chance of a lifetime. His CEO father is having a major business convention in Fiji, and he’s willing to let his son bring his 7 college buddies along for the trip on the company’s dime. They all arrive at the airport at the crack of dawn on January 12th, ready for the trip except for one important detail: they need to draw Kyungsoo’s birthday wish first.

Jongin holds his breath, wondering what his hyung might have put on the slip with his name. Kyungsoo’s not the type to revel in other people’s misery. He’s too kind-hearted, deeply compassionate even if he acts a little gruff on the outside sometimes.

Jongin, a dance major, met the older boy, a management major, in his required literature course exactly a year ago, in the spring of his sophomore year. The two hit it off when partnered up by their professor for a group paper assignment. Their shared passion for music bonded them initially, with Kyungsoo keeping a minor in musical theater despite it being an odd combination with his business program. The older boy loved to sing and was a gifted actor, though he claimed to have two left feet and refused to dance. (The younger insisted that dance was simply acting with your whole body set to music, but no amount of teasing seemed to change his hyung’s mind.) As Jongin and Kyungsoo became best friends, the dancer managed to fall into the singer’s eclectic group of friends, in large part because of how long he’d end up studying over in his hyung’s room. Baekhyun, Kyungsoo’s roommate, would always tease them that they must be terribly stupid to need to spend so much time on schoolwork. This would result in the elder throwing a pillow at the loudmouth and reassuring Jongin that he wasn’t slow, and it was fine – they could take their time. Kyungsoo was always willing to explain the motifs of a novel in their lit class when Jongin couldn’t see them, or help him more recently with differential equations when the younger feels like the numbers and symbols are all blurring together. His hyung rewards him with bright, heart-shaped smiles when he finally gets an answer right, always so encouraging and so patient with his mistakes and so… so…

So everything that Jongin has ever wanted. (But has never had the courage to ask for.)

In the midst of Jongin’s headtrip, Kyungsoo drops all of his wish requests, neatly folded up on identically sized paper strips, into a beanie Chanyeol’s holding open. After shaking it obnoxiously like a maraca for a few minutes, he opens it toward Minseok to do the honors in making the selection.

“Okay, Kyungsoo’s wish is… To have Baekhyun keep quiet all day, having to pluck out a leg hair each time he so much as makes a sound.”

“WHAT!?!” screeches the unlucky wish fulfiller.

Junmyeon covers his ears and responds, “Um, I think we all know why he picked this one for you, Baek, thanks for the demonstration, though.”

The others are chortling at the blonde who is huffing and trying to comprehend how this happened to him. Jongin’s snickering, too; these two are always butting heads over noise levels in their shared room, after all.

“You’re too loud on a normal day. We’re about to all be encased in a giant aluminum tube with no way to escape you. I consider this wish a blessing to all 7 of us – you’re welcome, everyone,” Kyungsoo says dryly.

“Are you gonna back out? Huh? Huh?” teases Jongdae. “Remember, you’re the whole reason Birthday Roulette exists.”

“No. I’m not backing out. I accept,” Baekhyun says, sticking his nose in the air as though he’s above the pettiness. “Any additional clarifications, Soo?”

“Yeah. While we’re all benefiting from the lack of Baekhyun noise pollution today,” he quips drawing a playful push from the wish fulfiller, “it’s only fair that I benefit the most. I don’t want to sit next to you on the flight because I’m sure you’re concocting other ways to annoy me since you can’t whine the whole time.”

“Okay. You got me. I totally was,” Baekyhun admits with a Cheshire cat smirk. “Who wants to swap?”

“Swap with Jongin,” Kyungsoo suggests offhand, gathering his carry-on bag as the security line is finally moving.

Jongin’s heart races. “Yeah, I’ll switch with you, Baek. You can sit with Chanyeol instead.”

“Don’t think I’ll go easy on you. I’m going to enforce Soo’s wish and snatch a hair if you talk, squeak, or sing,” Yeol warns with a grin. Baek nods in acknowledgement, having started his vow of silence for the day now. The giant dumps the remaining folded slips from his beanie into the ashtray tube for smokers outside the airport. The little papers fall in the small hole, and a nearby smoker quirks a brow at him before using the ashtray as intended, stuffing his still burning cigarette into the tube. The slips slowly smolder away as the whole group treks inside the main airport.

It’s a long flight that’s going to take virtually all day. But Jongin doesn’t mind since he gets the best seat companion for the trip. The two watch movies, do the in-flight magazine’s crossword puzzle together, and chat, about everything and nothing, as usual. To Jongin, everything with Kyungsoo is comfortable – even in cramped seats 30,000 feet off the ground. Several of the other guys rotate out with him over the course of the day, wanting a little time with the birthday boy. Jongin tries not to pout; after all, he’s never shared his secret crush on Kyungsoo with any of the others. They’re a pretty tight knit group, and any extra preference that people might have noticed Jongin having for Kyungsoo has been chalked up to the fact that he just knew the shorter boy first and the group second. During one seat swapping occasion where Sehun wants to a turn to visit the singer, Jongin takes the opportunity to chat with one of the flight attendants to get a special dessert from first class delivered to Kyungsoo after dinner.

“Aw, it’s your friend’s birthday? That’s sweet of you to think of him like this. Want me to round up all the attendants to sing for him?” she asks with a wink and a pretty smile.

“Um, no, but thank you for that. He’s not a huge fan of that kind of attention,” he excuses. It’s true, Kyungsoo doesn’t enjoy all eyes on him in this kind of setting. Jongin tells himself it’s the only reason for why he wants to keep the attractive women in their short skirted uniforms away from Kyungsoo…

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They spend much of the next day trying to overcome jetlag, going out to eat and otherwise just lazing around their lavish rented beach house with its oversized back patio looking out upon the pristine beach and sparkling blue ocean. All of them agree to be ready to start the next day on Fiji time, willing to rise at 7am to have the whole day. “It’s only fair because we’ve got another birthday to celebrate!” Baekhyun says enthusiastically, having overcome the pain from his partially hairless leg from the previous 24 hours. (The blonde had laughed once near the end of the flight and quickly discovered that keeping quiet when a leg hair was being mercilessly ripped out was near impossible, leading to a vicious cycle of screams and hair plucks until his right shin was practically bald.)

The next morning, Jongin wakes up just as the sun peeks up over the edge of the horizon, casting vibrant shades of orange and yellows across a clear sky. Today’s the day: January 14th. He’s been thinking about this for weeks now, carefully running through the possibilities of what to wish for. He’d made up his mind last week, but still feels the tingle of nerves now that the moment has arrived. Cracking his knuckles, he sits down on the patio with a glass of orange juice and writes out the 7 slips of paper needed for his Birthday Roulette.

Half an hour later, they’re all on the patio in the various lounge chairs. Junmyeon brings out a clay pot that looks fire proof and is the right size for the small mess of folded paper slips. Jongin drops them carefully in, and steps back, fidgeting nervously for the drawing.

“Drumroll please,” Sehun announces. Chanyeol beats his hands against the wooden coffee table, and Jongin’s heart beats at approximately the same pace as Junmyeon reaches into the pot and snatches a slip. He unfolds it and reads it aloud.

“Okay! Jongin’s wish is…. To have Kyungsoo mirror his every move today.”

Minseok lets out a hoot of laughter. “Ooooo, this could be good!”

Jongdae is rocking back and forth in his chair with excitement. “Maybe he’ll make him dance! Oh my gosh, please, you know how embarrassed Kyungsoo gets when forced to dance. Do some ballet!”

Chanyeol joins in with the suggestions. “I think you should spend the bulk of the day getting things off of high shelves,” he barks in laughter. “Soo will get a great calf workout on his tiptoes all day and have to carry around a stepstool!”

As the others are all cracking up, Baekhyun shushes them. “Wait, shut up, you’re going to scare him off! Kyungsoo’s got to accept the wish request first.”

“I don’t know, hyung,” Sehun says in a mock serious tone. “If I were 20 cm shorter, I mean, if I were you, I’d probably forfeit this one.”

“I disagree,” pipes up Junmyeon confidently. “I mean, anything he wants Kyungsoo to do, Jongin has to do, too, so there are at least limits on how mortifying it’d get.” He sends a wink to the maknae along with a Minnie-esque chortle and gets the face of death from Sehun in return.

The whole time,