"Wait." Eric says as he munches on his drumstick. Everyone halts from eating. "Bakit nga pala ang daming pagkain?"

Hyunjoon and Haknyeon look at each other before the former fixes a glare to Eric. 

"Iluwa mo nga yan. Ngayon na." Hyunjoon as he forcibly pulls on Eric's jaw to open his mouth. 

Nagpupumiglas naman si Eric while trying to call on his hyungs for help. But none of them cared enough to actually stop eating and help their youngest. 

As everyone (except Eric, maybe) knows, today is Hyunjoon and Haknyeon's birthday. And Hyunjoon's extra (and filthy rich) literally hired catering services to feed his whole class, much to the school canteen's dismay. The catering services and all the commotion succeeded in pursuing their teachers not to conduct the lesson and just celebrate the pair's birthday. 

Eric, as he usually does, skipped the morning classes and only went to school at lunch time, surprised to see their whole class lined up in the buffet. 

--

"HAPI HAPI HAPI BEEEEEERRRRTTTTDDEEYY SAYO ANG INUMAN (HEY) SAYO ANG PULUTAN (HEY)" The whole class sings to welcome their prof. It's their 5th class, which means, limang beses na silang kumakanta ng birthday song to escape their lectures.

"Nice try, class pero sa May pa ang birthday ko." 52-year-old Mrs. Jung says as she places all her belongins onto the table.

"Birthday po ni Hyunjoon at Haknyeon!!!!!" is the only logical thing that came from the whole class' joint blabbering. 

"Happy birthday, Hyunjoon. Happy birthday, Haknyeon," she says nodding towards the boys direction, "Now, go back to your seats, boys."

Collective whines emerge from every side of the room. Of course, the ever-strict Mrs. Jung is unstoppable at giving her lectures. (Huhu wala bang rest day uupo lang naman sya & magrereport students 😔) The boys treaded back to their seats with long faces (and some, plates).

"NANDITO NA 'YUNG LECHON!!!!!" Haknyeon walks in from nowhere, kinda confused that he's greeted with silence. "...Oops, good afternoon, Mrs. Jung."

"Ma'aaaam!~" half of the class whines, "Lechoooonnnn..." (They may have sighed dreamily help them 6 hours na yata sila kumakain)

"Hmm," Mrs. Jung taps the side of her forehead with her index playfully, as if thinking, and the class gets their hopes (and heads) up. "Ha-high blood-in ako eh."

"Ah!!! :-((((" The class whines. "Ma'am naman eh!!"

Haknyeon cannot be bothered, tho. He sets the newly-arrived food on the buffet and takes a slice.

Wait.

A slice????

Nasslice ba ang lechon???

"Mamon ba yan???" Their prof perks up at the idea of the lechon not being an actual lechon.

"Mhm," Haknyeon nods. "Cake po, Ma'am. Gusto nyo po?"

"Cake??"

"Kala ko may milagro na. : ("

"walang himala!!! ang himala ay nasa puso ng tao!!!"

"Typical Haknyeon."

"Huy Haknyeon bat naman hindi pa totoong lechon pinadala mo : ("

"pigs are friends!! not food!!"

"hindi ba fish yon?"

Mrs. Jung, however, stands up with all the energy she has left and clapped. "ANO CLASS BAT KAYO NAKATUNGANGA DYAN TARA KAIN NA TAYO"

--

"Ang kapal ng mukha kumain ng isa dyan samantalang di niya alam yung okasyon."

Eric pauses, a spoon in his mouth. He carefully pulls the spoon out, with all the food that was initially there still intact. (Uhmm, yuck)

"We're literally beside each other, ba't mo ako ini-indirect." He chokes on his own saliva.

They're currently at Haknyeon's (after-party kuno pero part 2 lang talaga ng paglamon) to continue celebrating. Now with Sangyeon and Jacob.

Haknyeon's initial friends LOVE his house – mansion – the most just because of the fact that it's huge and filled with food. Perks of having a chaebol friend. (One of the cons siguro is hindi sila pwedeng kumain ng pork.)

 "Alam ko namang birthday nyo ni Haknyeon hyung!" 

"Oh really"

"Oo nga!! May gift nga ako sayo eh." 

"Nasaan?"

Eric chews on his food while Hyunjoon extends his waiting palm to Eric. 

"Ano, nasaan?" Hyunjoon asks impatiently, wiggling his hand.

"Teka." Eric responds with a full mouth. When he's (kinda) done chewing, he leans in and kisses Hyunjoon on the cheek. "There."

The younger boy leans back onto his chair while the birthday boy blushes profusely. Walanghiyang Eric 'to, walang alarm, walang anything. Nakakaloka. It also doesn't help that everyone else witnessed what happened and is now teasing them.

"Ba't ganon puro beef naman yung kinakain natin pero I SMELL SOMETHING FISHY." Kevin starts.

"Hyunjoon and Eric? We ship !" 

"Hyunjoon sobrang pula mo haksjsjsjs"

"OMG???? TOTOO BA 'TONG NAKITA KO??? Grabe binata na si Eric dati lagi lang syang nasa condo para yayain tayo maglaro tapos ngayon may bf na sya. Ang cute ng bf mo, Eric, mukhang pusa grabe Hyunjoon nam--"

"Shut up, Jacob."

If it's possible to get even redder, Hyunjoon might have experienced that.

--

"Hi Ma!!!" 

"Hello Tita!"

"Good evening po." 

Haknyeon's mom is greeted in various ways. The condo guys (aka the Topz charot) even straightened up at the sight of the house owner. 

"Kanina pa kayo?" She asks casually.

Haknyeon tells them to calm down in a relatively loud voice before nodding. "NEW Friends ko, Ma. Jacob, Sangyeon, Hyunjae – BF ni Kevin, Younghoon – possible bf ni Changmin, Sunwoo – boyfriend ko, and Juyeon – uhmm ni Chanhee."

Everyone is too engrossed (or embarrassed) in Haknyeon's mother's presence to realize what kind of tomfoolery the other birthday boy signed them up to. She slowly nods, though, forehead creasing as she looks at Hyunjoon.

"Oh, Hyunjoon, bakit may kanin ka pa sa pisngi?"

Hyunjoon's hand automatically finds its way to his face. And sure enough, he feels bits of rice there. Gross. He looks at Eric pointedly and the latter just holds up a V sign. The dormies laughed, though. They're the only comfortable ones anyway.

"Haknyeon, sweetie, may I have a word with you?" His mother has the sweetest smile. Haknyeon knows what she wants to talk about and isn't even a tad bit nervous. Besides, the Topz™️ have enough nervousness to make up for his lack of it. 

Haknyeon's mom is halfway out the door when she adds, "And bring your boyfriend with you."

The whole room goes into chaos as they realized what the woman just said. Boyfriend?! Haknyeon has a boyfriend?!

Who among his friends s on him? Before Sunwoo can even sulk and overthink, he feels a hand on his and he gets pulled up and out of the room.

--

"So boyfriend, huh?" Sunwoo asks, trying to keep his composure. Don't squeal. Don't squeal. Don't.

They're walking around Haknyeon's backyard where the pool is. They just finished talking with the older's parents and it (un)surprisingly went well. And now they're out to "catch some fresh air."

"Mhm." Haknyeon nods, looking straight. (kahit gay sya charot) "Ang bagal mo kasi eh."

And then quickly, "Pero ligawan mo pa rin ako ha." And if he ever blushed, Sunwoo didn't see.

"Yun naman balak ko eh. Ligawan ka kahit tayo na."  JDJSJXJSJS wtf .

None of them knows when and why they stopped walking but they did, at some point. Sunwoo adjusts so he's facing Haknyeon and the latter does the same. 

"Yung regalo ko nga pala sa 'yo..." Sunwoo doesn't know how to end his sentence so he just let his lips deliver the message silently. In a way that prevents Haknyeon from replying with words, too.

And maybe, somewhere upstairs, a shadow of two figures with their heads tilting and arms a messy limb trying to hold on to something tangible and lovely can be seen through the window.