Eunbi goes out from her room to the kitchen for a cup of refreshing drink, it is 3 in the morning already, yet she is staying up with her desk full of crayons, colour papers and different stickers. Eunbi likes to draw, she can draw cartoon characters really similar to the professions. If saying that Yerin likes to take photographs on her free time to relax herself, Eunbi's way to enjoy herself is to draw. But it is not an interest to draw until mid-night, Eunbi would like to shut her lamp off and go to bed as well, if not for her girlfriend. Tomorrow is Yerin's 18th birthday, in Korea age, the girl is turning to 20 which is officially turning into an adult by law. More to add, it is the first birthday that the two celebrate togerher as a couple, Eunbi could not let herself mess the day up. That's why she spent the whole afternoon lining up their group of friends to throw a surprise party for the girl tomorrow and prepared her own present. Although the young painter has been drafting her work since evening, being the extreme perfectionist that she is, she threw away nearly every piece of her work and scribbles. The rubbish bin in her room is already reaching its maximum capacity, yet, the girl is still not satisfied with her product.

Leaning onto the kitchen counter, Eunbi holds her cup of green tea up and closes her eyes. She takes off her glasses and massages her nape with her free hand. It has been long since she picked up her colour pens again, she used to draw cartoons in class when the teachers were talking as Eunbi seldom pays attention in class, it is either drawing or sleeping. She stops herself from doing both after getting along with Yerin, the girl is quite serious about lessons and she had been glaring Eunbi for a few times in class whenever she catches the girl is not listening to the teacher. Although Yerin did not speak her annoyance out directly, Eunbi could feel the girl was not pleased at what she is doing, Yerin did not scold her, but she dose not talk to Eunbi for the entire day. At most she gets as reply on those days is a "I am fine thank you". As not wanting to make her girlfriend mad at her again, Eunbi is learning to get rid of her habits and trying to be a better student during lessons.

While Eunbi is letting herself rest for a little in the kitchen, her phone chimed. Eunbi is curious that who will text her at this time, she reaches into her pants' back pocket for her phone and unlocks the device. She smiled at the picture which the sender sent her seconds ago, it is her girl's favourite Jibang doll.

[Hwecheol Dongsaeng: Eunbi noona, I waited until noona fell asleep in order to steal this from her embrace. You cannot imagine how hard she grips onto it! Anyways my mission is completed! Good luck to your present and see you tomorrow!! Goodnight noona:)]

[Eunbi: Thanks Hwecheol ah, find a day when you are free and lunch is on me. ;) Good night and have some rest before we surprise your noona tomorrow. :D]

Eunbi has been asking Hwecheol for help on this big day. She chuckles to herself when she flashed back to their conversation that afternoon.

***Flashback to that afternoon***

Eunbi was at the bakery store, pondering on which cake she should get for her soon-to-be birthday girl. Although being friends with Yerin for so many years already, they had been spending birthdays together for years, Eunbi suddenly felt uneasy and nervous. She stared at the cakes for thirty minutes before she fished out her phone and called a certain someone, a certain someone whom could give her a answer of what she should buy.

"Yeobuseyo?"

"Hey Sojung, it's Eunbi."

"Yeah, what's up?" The background of Sojung's phone was super noisy, Eunbi could only think of the Karaoke room. "Are you in the Karaoke?"

"Yes! So I could not hear you clearly! Why do you call me anyways?" The tall girl shouted at the other side of the line.

"What flavour does Yerin like most?"

"Whose favourite of Yerin? Of course it is you pabo ah!"

"I know that, but I'm asking what flavour does Yerin like most! Flavour!"

"What colour?"

"FLAVOUR!"

"I cannot hear you! Anyways that's your girlfriend, you should know better than I do! My song is up! I'll talk to you later! Bye!"

Eunbi looked at her phone with disbelief, "Aish did she just cut me off because of her song? This old grandma always talks me about manners but where is hers…" She mumbled to herself before dialling to another number.

"Eunbi noona?" Only two seconds then the call was being picked up.

"Yes Hwecheol ah, I need your help."

"And it is?"

"What does your sister like most?"

"You are asking the colour? Or styles? Or you yourself?" Hwecheol did not miss the chance to tease his noona, the younger boy loved to fool with his noonas, they are always fun to tease.

"I know I'm her ultimate favourite, but not I'm asking the flavour, I'm at the bakery."

"Ahhh, spare me the details noona." Hwecheol chuckled. "Anything with chocolate will be fine, Yerin noona loves chocolate, perhaps more than she loves you keke."

"Aish you kiddo, I'll let it pass this time as you are helping me, but watch out next time!"

"Haha sure noona, catch me if you could blurrr."

"Huff, kids are so bad these days, anyways gotta go for the cake now, talk to you later Hwecheol."

"Sure noona, call me if you need anything.”

“Oh, well there is one more actually, could you perhaps steal the Jibang that Yerin hugs to sleep everynight and photo it to me?”

“Why? You wanted to blackmail her and replace yourself in her embrace at night?”

“Aish nooooo! Where do you learn those things from! I am making her present only! No dirty thoughts you wasted kid!”

“Haha, alright noona, I will trust you for now. But I am not at home now, I’ll send you later tonight, is it still okay? Do you have enough time?”

“Yeah, I could make the other parts first. Thanks Hwecheol ah.”

“Welcome Eunbi noona, good luck!”

With Hwecheol's help, Eunbi brought the cake smoothly and carried it back to her house into the fridge with care, she smiled to herself as everything was going as planned.

***Back to reality***

After sending out the message, Eunbi refills her mug with another cup of tea and walks back to her room, she sat down by her desk and opened the picture. She wants to draw Yerin's jibang as the cover of her D.I.Y. Art book, she sighs before grabbing her pencil, it is still a long night to go, but everything is worth when it is doing for your loved ones, right? Eunbi smiles to herself and begins to draw once again.

Today is Yerin’s 18^th birthday, the girl does not really care about birthdays as she is used to have no grand celebrations, she usually just spend the day with a simply meal with her family members. Well, you cannot blame the others, as Yerin’s birthday is on the summer holiday, she could not meet her classmates and friends to hold a party or exchange presents or whatever, and what’s more, is that the girl has been turning off her birthday notification on her every social media. Be it her Twitter account, her Facebook, Instagram or even Snapchat. All of them the birthday alerts have been switched off since she was in her second year of junior school. If you have not know Yerin for long, you would probably never know when is her birthday unless you ask her yourself, she never posts birthday pictures to remind her friends too. She always says that “If they remember, they remember. I don't like to force others to tell me a fake ‘Happy Birthday Yerin!’ just because they see the noti on SNSs, I am not that desperate.” That is why, usually there are only a few of her close friends will know about the day and send her birthday texts, as she recalled, last year she had eight friends remembering the day. Sojung, Yuna, Yewon, both the Eunbis, Hayoung, Joy and Jihyo. Yerin may not have a lot of friends, but she values the quality more than the quantity, you only need a few who know you well rather than having a lot, right?

On her big day, Yerin is planning to sleep until noon and goes out with her girlfriend which they will be having a late lunch together. However, someone interrupts her plan that early morning.

“Wake up noona!”

Yerin turns to the other side now facing the wall, “Leave me alone Hwecheol ah! Go and play by yourself noona needs to sleep!”

“No noona! You are waking up NOW!” Hwecheol pulls the blanket away from Yerin, he knows waking up his sister will be a pain on the , it is never an easy job.

“I don't have schedules in the early morning Hwecheol ah!”

“Yes you have. You are coming to the movies with me!”

Hearing the word “movie” Yerin jumps up and grabs onto her brother’s arm, “Seriously? You are bringing me to the movies?”

“My treat, as your birthday present. But if you are not getting ready by the next twenty minutes, I am going on my own.” Hwecheol pretends to be mad and walks towards the door.

“Right away! Wait for me Jonnie!” Yerin rolls off her bed in a blast, rushing towards the bathroom to wash herself.

“By the way noona,” Hwecheol laughs at how funny his sister is right now, with messy hair and oversized pajamas, “Happy birthday.”

After the movie, Hwecheol and Yerin take the bus back home together. Yerin is still fascinated by the computer graphics that the film used just now, her mind is fully occupied by the scenes moments before that she could not hear Hwecheol calls her.

“Sorry, what?”

“I am asking that have you received any of the birthdays text this year?” Hwecheol asks, he always knows his sister likes to play such a challenge on her friends, not just to test if they remember, but rather like testing their friendship. Yerin might not speak it out, but Hwecheol sometimes sees disappointments in her eyes when she does not receive blessings from her closed friends. He knows Yerin actually values her friends deep in her heart more than the others have ever imagined.

“Just yours and Eunbi’s.” Yerin replied casually while scrolling her phone. “Don’t worry for me Jonnie, the day is still long to go, it is only two in the afternoon now.”

“Do you think they will forget about it?”

“Well… that is still a normal thing if they forget, it is not anything worth remembering anyways. We have so much assignments for the holiday, it is understandable.” Yerin says with a coy smile.

“Are you sure that you won’t be crying in your room again?” Hwecheol teases, but he really does not want to see his sister crying again like the year before. He found Yerin hugging her legs sobbing to herself when it was passed mid-night, later he knew it was because one of Yerin’s important friends, Joy had forgotten Yerin’s birthday.

“Aish… you kiddo. I am not talking to you anymore. But no, big girls don’t cry.” Yerin smacks Hwecheol’s arm hard.

While the siblings are still bickering, the bus reaches the stop to their apartment. Hwecheol is busy with his hand phone right when they have left the bus, Yerin tries to steal a glimpse on what her brother is doing, but every time Hwecheol is just quick enough to hide his phone at Yerin, all Yerin could get from her brother is a wink. When the duo arrives at their apartment’s door, Yerin fishes out her keys and holds onto the door knob. Just when she is pushing the door open, suddenly there are color crackers blowing up and people pop out shouting in union, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY YERIN!”

Yerin keeps her hands on the door knob and looks at the people standing in front of her for seconds, she only comes out of her daze when Hwecheol pushes her from the back.

“Woah… why are you all here?”

“Surprise huh? How could we forget your birthday! So we planned you a party right in your house!” Sojung hugs Yerin tight. “Enjoy your day.”

“Thanks Sojung ah.” Yerin hugs her friends one by one, first it is Sojung, then the elder Eunbi, Yewon, Yuna and at last her brother stretches his arms at Yerin.

“What? You are part of the plan too?” Yerin sniffs and tries to hide her tears.

“Hey! Big girls don’t cry noona! And don’t make me tell you myself, I am the most important key person to make this all success.” Hwecheol grins at his sister. “But Eunbi noona is the planner.”

Speaking of Eunbi, Yerin looks around, her group of friends are all there, but where is her Eunbi?

As if on cue, the girl that Yerin is finding carries a cake in her hands and walks out slowly with care. The group then sing the birthday song for Yerin.

“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to Yerin, happy birthday to you!”

 Eunbi holds the cake up high and smiles, “Happy birthday Yerin ah.”

The moment when Eunbi brings out the cake, Hwecheol knows she screwed up this one… that is a chocolate… green tea cake. Knowing her sister for long, Yerin never eats stuffs with green tea, she hates them. Hwecheol remembers telling Eunbi that anything with chocolate will be fine, but how on earth could he knows that she would choose something with green tea and chocolate together???!! This is a weird combination anyways! Hwecheol panicked a little and glared at Eunbi, trying to send his messages to her, but she is too caught up by the beauty standing in front of her, believe me, she nearly drools. Hwecheol smacks his head thinking how this will end and locks his eyes at Yerin. Surprisingly, Yerin does not appear to be shock, her eyes smiles come out at the very moment Eunbi wished her happy birthday, and she takes the cake into her hands happily. “This is strange,” Yerin never likes green tea as Hwecheol remembers, and there is no way that she cannot recognize that is a green tea cake.

“Let’s have the cake cut!” One of noona’s friends says, Hwecheol could not remember who that is, Yuna noona? Or Sojung noona? Both of them are too tall that he always mixes the two of them up.

“Okay, let Yerin have a cut and I will distribute the potions.” Eunbi passes the knife towards her girlfriend.

“Don’t cut till the end!” Yewon teases the birthday girl, this is a rumor that widely spread in our country, if a girl cuts the birthday cake until the bottom of the plate, she could not find her Mr. Right and will forever be single. But in this case, Mrs. Right would be more suitable.

“Don’t worry, Yerin noona has Eunbi noona there already, feel free to cut as you like!” Hwecheol joins the teasing team and all of them burst into laughers, Yewon gives Hwecheol a high-five and makes the young boy earns some killing glares from his sister, well he is not wrong though?

The group of friends all present their gifts to Yerin and play some board games in the afternoon to spend time. The elder girls are all so caring of their young dongsaeng, they asked Hwecheol to join them together when he was going to play basketball in the public court near our building. Of course it is not his personal will to go out, but just that he thought it was better for him to go out and give them some alone time. It is in the mid-summer and today is 34 .C, so Hwecheol gladly accept their offer and stay home, he has a great time with them, although they have a 4-years gap, the noonas are all so fun to fool with, they don’t act like noonas at all. At around dinner time, Yerin’s patents come back from work and prepared the meal for all of the kids. Yerin’s mother is really a great cook, all of the girls like her recipes too, they have been coming over to eat with the family during festivals, like on every Christmas and lunar new year, Yerin’s parents love them too. And as it is Yerin’s birthday today, her Mom makes it into a feast that could at least feed 15 people when they have only 9. All of them have a great time and the group of girls greet Yerin goodbye at around 9:00.

Once the guests are gone, Hwecheol finally gets time to go for Yerin, he knocks on her door and go inside, he sits by her bed when she is busying unpacking her presents at her desk.

“Noona?” Hwecheol speaks up after watching her for minutes, he is not sure whose present Yerin is looking at, but he swears he sees tears in her eyes.

She does not look at her brother, but she signals him to continue, so he asks.

“Since when did you start to like green tea?”

“You know I am never a fan of it Jonnie ah.” She finally looks at Hwecheol for the first time since he has stepped into the room, “You want to ask about the cake, right?”

The young boy nods and she smiles at him.

“I could tell Eunbi is really paying so much effort to prepare the day for me, I could not just shout at her and throw the cake onto her face, that’s not how her plan is going. I really appreciated her efforts, I love her so I could let the cake pass.  And it is with chocolate anyways, it isn’t that bad.”

“Ahh… so that means only Eunbi noona could buy you green tea stuffs? And if I am the one carrying the cake out today I would be killed?” Hwecheol pretends to pout, “Favoritism alert! It is not fair!”

“Love is never fair kid.” The sister chuckles and pulls her brother out of her bed, “Now go out, noona have important matters to deal with.”

“Tsss… I bet it is just calling your girlfriend, don’t make it into some sort of important mattes noona, you cannot fool me!” Hwecheol dashes out of the room before his sister could catch him, Yerin yells something before shutting her door, the boy could not catch what exactly she is saying, but he assumes it is just ty words throwing at him, whatever.

This noona is love-struck already, only Eunbi noona could tame her, I should find Eunbi noona as my shield somedays.

After her friends say goodbye and leave, Yerin returns to her room and opens the presents one by one. Hwecheol gave her a pair of StarWars chopsticks, they will go illuminate when you hold onto them, it is so ridiculous to Yerin, she laughs until she is out of breath, she has no idea how she is going to eat with those pairs of chopsticks. And at last, it is Eunbi’s present.

Eunbi’s one is a rather small pack, Yerin unsealed the package paper carefully, and there she found a small book. On the cover, it is her Jibang smiling at her saying “Let’s Read!” Yerin smiled to herself and flips the page over. It has been long since she saw Eunbi’s drawings again. On the first page, there are some words written nearly, Yerin read onto the words slowly.

Instructions of the Birthday Book!

1. When you miss me!

In the coming year, we need to prepare our public exams, and undoubtedly, we will meet each other less… so this is for you to read when you miss me!

2. When you are tired!

You are turning into an adult now, and there must be more difficulties and hardships you need to face. I may not be there to help you all the time, (as I’m still a kid ahaha) but when you are feeling stressed out, take a look at this book and it will charge you up again! I made it small for you to bring with you whenever you’re out:D Isn’t me sweet? :P

Okay, cut the talk, let’s begin our journey.

I Love you. And, Happy Birthday Rinnie.

Eunbi

Yerin’s lips curled upwards a little more every time she flips the pages, it is either a photo of them, or a drawing that created by her girlfriend. The booklet recorded their first day being a couple, a picture that Yerin was soundly sleeping onto Eunbi’s shoulders during their train ride.

[When I was listening to the song, I kept asking myself, would you Yerin? And thanks to my luck! You said yes that day!]

And after some pages, there was a drawing of Yerin sleeping on her arm in the detention hall, Yerin peeked at the date, it was during the drama period.

[It hurt so much when I saw you were stressing out yourself… I was really mad at you back then, I was mad that you lied to me, but more of my anger was that you did not treasure yourself. Rinnie ah… I could only protect people from hurting you, but I could do nothing when you are the one hurting yourself. It hurts me too…please don’t do that again. Promise?]

Then there is the selfie that they took during their school trip, the one when Yerin had just won the friendly match and took with her girlfriend. They both smiled brightly at the camera.

[My girl is so charm on the court!!! I fall for her deeper every time! (You’re charm off court too, so don’t worry:P) I am signing up to be her No.1 fan! Forever! Woohooo!!!]

As Yerin continues to flip through the pages, there are lots of their memories, sometimes it is just pieces, but all of them bring warmth to Yerin. Eunbi is always good at remembering bits and tips. Even the smallest things or a simply line that she casually says, Eunbi would always put them in her mind. And on the last page, it is not a pictures or drawings, it attaches a letter along with a tiny paper bag. Yerin unfolds the letter.

-To the future us-

Dear Yerin and Eunbi,

Annyeong, after 10 years, how are you two doing? I hope that you two are still reading this letter together after 10 years, (Well it’s not a hope, I am sure we will.) I hope that Eunbi has become more mature, to protect your Yerin. You need to find a good job and earn money, arraseeo? You need to buy her many many food to make her chubby too:D Yerin looks a lot more better when she is not that thin you know? But seriously Eunbi ah, please protect her with whatever you can. And after 10 years… Yerin should be more beautiful than she already is, she will take care of her Eunbi well too, right?:)

Yerin always says she wanted to go travel around the world. I could not bring her on plane now… but I will try harder when I grow up! By then, we should have travelled to Tokyo… Taiwan… Hong Kong,,, and many many other countries together!

After 10 years, we will turn old, but my heart towards you will never turn old. Ahh, right!! Maybe we have already got married after 10 years:D I promise you, Rinnie, I will do my best to be a better person, a better partner for you. This is my promise to you, promises are made to be kept, so please keep my ring for now first. And when I fulfill my words, I will buy you another one. :>

Love you,

Eunbi from 2015

After reading the letter, Yerin’s vision becomes blur, she uses her shaking hands to unwrap the paper bag. It has a ring inside the bag, Yerin holds the ring up and places it in her finger gently. She puts her hand on her chest and closed her eyes, her tears finally break out from her orbs and fall onto her cheeks.

This is the best birthday that she ever had.