Remember the Yongguk-scenarios written for one of our Admin's birthdays? Well, there was a girl commenting she wished she'd get a birthday story like that too. And it's not like we can turn down that request, can we...?

            June 24th. It’s starting to become evening and I just finished putting away my empty dishes, when my phone goes off with an incoming video call. I jump up in excitement. That must be him! Picking up I am greeted by a smiley face that tells me – yes, it is really him.

            “Sophia, my dear! Happy birthday to you my angel” Yongguk congratulates me and moves his lips near the camera to send me a kiss. I can almost feel the softness on my mouth and I unconsciously move my finger there to touch it. “Thank you” I say and smile back at him. Guilt wells up in his eyes. I can see that even though the video quality and the lighting on his side aren’t the best. He opens his mouth to say something while his smile disappears, but I lift up my index finger as if I was about to scold him. “Don’t you dare apologize!” Slightly dumbfounded, but still not any less guilt in his expression, he still talks, “I just… feel so bad I can’t be with you on this special day…” I sigh. “But you’re halfway across the world! What do you want to do? Besides, just talking to you like this makes me happy as is!” I answer, hoping he would just let it go. But as expected, he doesn’t. “But I can’t hold you like this… and I can’t kiss you…” he says while averting his eyes from the camera. I give another sigh. “I know… but we can make up for that all when you’re back!” He looks up again and says, “But it would’ve been important today.” – “It’s really fine, Yongguk. I’m fine with it!” I assure him. Finally he gives in and nods and the conversation can go into a different direction – if I celebrated well with my family, when I’m planning to celebrate with my friends, what kind of cake I got, if the food was good, and so on. But I can sense he isn’t in the best of moods.

            I return home with a cup of take away coffee in one hand and supporting my bag in the other. It’s getting dark earlier again and my cheeks are uncomfortably cold. Fortunately, I don’t have a long way home and so, I stand in front of my door just five minutes later, fumbling with the keys. Finally finding the right one, I open the door, walk inside and turn on the lights.

            “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SOPHIAAAAA!” I hear a bunch of six overly excited guys scream into my face, while blasting off party poppers and letting my eyes dumbfoundedly wander through the room. I see a banner saying “Sophia-Day” and balloons in all kinds of colors, as well as a cake with candles held by Jongup. Daehyun starts singing “Happy Birthday” and Youngjae and Junhong chime in dramatically. The only one not laughing is Yongguk, who now walks up to me and signals s to be quiet. Before he could say anything, I speak up, “What is this? Today isn’t my birthday!” He sighs. “I know” he says. “But since we couldn’t properly celebrate…” – “Are you still going on about that? I told you it was okay!” I scoff back at him and put down my bag, starting to feel sick. That just… was a little too harsh, wasn’t it? “I… have work to do, so if you’ll excuse me…” I walk straight to my room without daring to look at any of them. When I sit down at my desk, pretending to work, I hear them talking outside. I flip through the pages of my folder, but who am I fooling? I should probably apologize… But how do I go out there now? Since when am I such an idiot?! I get up with a long sigh and walk to the window. Putting my hands on the sill to support my body weight, I watch the people on the artificially illuminated streets. I try to concentrate on them and clear my head, but the guilt pushes down on me so that my thoughts return to Yongguk immediately.

            After a while, when I’ve sat down again, I hear three knocks on my door. “…Yes?” I say, permitting the person to come in. Yongguk opens the door. “Sophia, I’m sorry…” I shake my head. “No, I’m the one who should say sorry” I reply. “I ruined everything.” He approaches me and leans on the desk next to me, forcing me to look at up him. “You didn’t. You just didn’t know what was going on. After all, throwing a birthday party months after a person’s birthday is pretty stupid…” One corner of his mouth wanders upwards slightly, but his expression soon returns to a more serious one. “Yeah, I was confused… but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate you doing this for me!” I get up and hug him. “So… thank you” I mumble into his chest. I feel his hand placed on the back of my head. Hearing his heartbeat so close to my ear makes all the negative thoughts and feelings wash away. For a moment it feels as if nothing bad had ever happened…

            “But… why did you do that party now of all times?” I ask after a while of enjoying the closeness to him. He smiles in embarrassment. “The others said it would be a good idea…” Shooting him two questionmark-looks, he explains. “I wanted to do something special for you, since we didn’t get to spend your birthday together. So Daehyun suggested a surprise party, with the reasoning that a surprise party is least expected when there is absolutely no apparent reason for it.” – “That’s… stupidly smart” I comment and laugh. “Are they still here?” Yongguk shakes his head. “No, they left a few minutes ago” he answers. Grinning, I say, “Then we have all the cake to ourselves”, before lifting my heels and planting a short peck on his lips. As we part, the grip on the hand placed on the back of my head becomes stronger and he pulls me closer once again, to kiss me properly.

            “Happy belated birthday, Sophia…” he breathes, his soft lips landing on mine yet again at just the next second.