„Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you...“

A cheerful singing was wafting through the practice room and I was just standing still, touched, smiling like an idiot and watching Junmyeon, who was rushing to me with a huge cake in his hands.

„Be careful!“ Kyungsoo blurted. „That cake took me a lot of time.“

„You didn’t bake it,“ Jongin objected, while he clutched his wrist and dragged him onto his lap.

„But I sketched the draft,“ dark-haired boy snapped and broke away from the grip of his boyfriend to be able to take care of his precious cake.

„That is admirable,“ Jongdae confessed, when he took a shot of soju, „because your painting skills are...“

„You better think about what you are going to say next,“ Kyungsoo growled and gave him a murderous glare, which only he was able to make.

„I'm holding my tongue, I'm holding my tongue,“ Jongdae raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture.

„Do not argue,“ Chanyeol threw his hands up and looked in my direction. „Hun has to blow out the candles.“

 „Great,“ Baekhyun jumped up from his seat and aimed at me with his mobile phone to immortalize that moment. I looked at Junmyeon, who was holding a cake, smiling at me brightly, and then I looked around.

It was true that all of us needed to relax, especially in those days. In the days, when it was more than certain that EXO will have another member less.

„Hunnie,“ Minseok yelled, „we'll count.“

We had known it already for a month. We knew Zitao was the next one, who was leaving our group. Since the last show we had seen him once, maybe twice.

„Three!“

The third blow in less than a year. Three times we had been broken already.

„Two!“

But the biggest blow hit me six months ago. When he left.

„One!“

Without even saying goodbye.

I took a deep breath from the depths of my lungs and blew out all the candles successfully while others kept encouraging me to wish something.

Luhan.

„I took a great photo,“ Baekhyun cheered, smiled at me playfully and slipped the phone into his pocket. Perhaps, so that I couldn‘t delete it. Or rather couldn’t even see it.

„And I have a video, even if most of it are just shots of Junmyeon‘s covering my view," Jongdae added with a laugh and nudged Yixing, who was lying on a chair beside him and sometimes just mumbled into cheers of the rest of the group and then returned to his slumber.

„So you’ll never become a good paparazzi," Junmyeon looked at Jongdae and then handed Kyungsoo the cake, which dark-haired boy guarded by the sigh the whole time vigilantly.

„I’ll slice it,“ he said and went to the table to put down his masterfully sketched masterpiece.

„Sehun should do it, he’s a birthday boy,“ Chanyeol said, but when Kyungsoo turned at him with a murderous expression on his face, the tall one backed two steps away and conciliatory grinned at him.

„Darling,“ Jongin said gently, still sitting in his place only a few feet from his boyfriend. „I know you are afraid and want to take a good care of the cake, but it‘s Sehun‘s birthday.“ Kyungsoo stared at him without saying a word for a moment, but his expression softened gradually. He took a knife from the table and abruptly turned to face me, whereupon I jumped away from him in horror. And I wasn‘t the only one, who was scared, because Junmyeon, standing next to me, gasped and grabbed my wrist.

 „Cut the cake,“ Kyungsoo, who obviously didn’t notice our reaction at all, spurred me to do it and pointed at me with a knife, lips curled in a completely innocent smile.

„T – that’s fine,“ I laughed, still slightly uncertain because of the sharp blade, which was only a few centimeters from my belly, „do it on your own.“

„Really?“ he reassured and rotated the knife, so I could take a grip finally.

„Sure,“ I patted him on the forearm and finally calmed down more or less.

„Okay,“ he smiled with an expression of a child, who had just received his favorite toy. One wouldn‘t believe he had almost tumble to the ground someone at least a head taller than him just half a minute ago.

Dark-haired boy consequently sliced the cake into twelve perfectly symmetrical pieces and my heart sank.

Twelve. Twelve pieces of cake. Twelve segment making up the whole.

I sighed and shoved my hands in my pockets. Kyungsoo gave me a puzzled look, then grinned and picked up the first plate: „Don‘t worry, I'll give you a piece with the most of marzipan, I promise.“

„Thanks,“ I laughed, stepped closer to him and watched him picking up a piece of cake with a marzipan character and putting it on a glass plate.

„Here you are,“ Kyungsoo said and handed me the plate with a spoon and began to serve other pieces of cake, handing them to all the other members.

I sat down next to Jongin, started eating the cake and watched Baekhyun and Chanyeol fighting over a bigger piece of the cake, while Kyungsoo was explaining to them that all the pieces were exactly the same size. So the argument for a bigger piece of the cake became an argument for a bigger piece of marzipan.

„Hun,“ Minseok sat down next to me, „we have one more surprise for you.“

In that moment Baekhyun’s and Chanyeol’s bickering stopped and both of them went to me. And the rest of the group moved closer to me with their chairs, sly smiles on their lips.

„What?“ I asked and my spoon clinked against the glass plate with a half eaten cake.

„We need to give you a gift,“ he said and ruffled my hair with a satisfied smile on his lips.

„Uhm... okay,“ I muttered, blushing with embarrassment over their generosity.

„But we need to blindfold you to really surprise you,“ Baekhyun said and turned to Yixing with a sly smile.

„What?“ Yixing furrowed his eyebrows, when he saw Baekhyun‘s expression.

„The scarf you got around your neck. Give it to me,“ he said, holding out his hand. Therefore Yixing unwound it and handed the scarf to Baekhyun, following his other actions by the gaze.

„We should leave him here till morning,“ Jongdae laughed, but then Minseok, who rose from his chair, hit him in the shoulder and frowned at him with a reproachful look.

„Just kidding,“ Jongdae waved his hand, leaning toward Minseok to give him an apologetic peck on the cheek.

„Even Junmyeon‘s jokes are funnier,“ brown-haired boy said, but let himself being drawn into a warm embrace of his boyfriend anyway.

„Better don‘t insult me,“ Jongdae wrinkled his brow, then hugged him tight and his lips curled into a smile. Minseok just rolled his eyes, let Jongdae kiss him on the cheek once again and then he focused on Baekhyun, who moved behind me meanwhile.

„Don‘t worry,“ he patted me on the shoulder, „you’ll love the gift for sure.“ Then, when I put the plate with unfinished cake on the chair beside me, where Minseok had sat before, he covered my eyes with the blue-gray scarf smelling of Yixing’s perfume and tightened it behind my head firmly.

„Can you see anything?“ Jongin was making sure.

„No,“ I shook my head and immediately after I heard the creaking of cha