Of Around Forty Years Old.

"Hyung?" Changmin asked from the other end of the line.

"I know! I know!" Yunho let out as he was driving quietly and nodded with his device on the speaker and set on the passenger seat, knowing that the other did not see him. But whatever! He was used to have this kind of twitch since long ago. Younger, he would tried to suppress this convulsive move in fear of being seen as someone odd from the others. Now, the man just accepted his defaults.

"Stop saying that when you don't even know what I was trying to say to you." His friend snickered.

"I'm on my way Changmin-ah. I just got some detour because your noona wanted me to get her a strawberry cake."

"Did you get it?"

Yunho laughed amusedly. Changmin, his wife's younger brother was one of the kind. The man forgot everything when it came to his older sister, who was his stepsister, and food. As he knew, those two had lost a parent since their young age and it made them closer than real siblings could be making the other man have a very bad sister complex.

"Stop laughing!"

"I know! I know!"

"I don't know why my noona married you! You're annoying as !"

"I hope you will be less vulgar with time. But at thirty eight..." Yunho shook his head as he put the left turn signal before turning to the left direction, taking the direction of his home in this quiet neighbourhood in this Gangnam-gu. "Yeah! At this age you're a lost cause."

"Aah!" Changmin snorted. "I just called because your wife wanted to know where you are. So stop this moral lesson. And as we know, you're not so mature than I am despite you being an old man. Forty three years old! You're like a grandpa!"

"Yah!"

"Noona!" Yunho heard his brother-in-law call out his wife. "Your husband is talking on the phone while driving!" And the man could hear his wife reprimanding from where she was before taking the device from Changmin's hand. "Yunnie! I'm going to end the call. Knowing that you are on your way, it's enough for me." Jaejoong said quietly. And Yunho could see her smiling through her cheerful tone of voice. "See you soon! Love you!"

"Love you too."

Yunho nodded as he heard the call ending with a singing beep. Still smiling, the man felt at peace with the life he had now. And, in a few minutes he was going to have his beautiful wife and children draped around his arms.

However, he frowned at the sight of all those cars parking around his dream house, the house Jaejoong had left him choose to be their love nest. Normally, Jaejoong had planned a romantic dinner while sending their little devils to their grand-parents. And Yunho had imagined the rest of the night for the two of them.

But, if he wasn't wrong as he recognised Yoochun's familial car parked next to his sister's, those people weren't expected into their dinner. Not even Changmin. As for the latter, he thought that the younger man was going to take his little boy and girl to Jaejoong's parents. Nothing was suspicious having him on the other end of the call.

So, what's going on?

Yunho let out a sigh.

Knowing the members of their family, those people were the kind of people who loved to stick themselves when he expected less from them. Well, he wasn't going to complain either. He had lived all his life with them and he loved them for who they were.

He got out from the car and walked around the engine to take the strawberry cake in its box from the passenger seat. He closed the door quietly and walked to his house with a smile. He opened the front door and narrowed his eyes at the sight of no one in the living room.

"Jaejoong?" He called out. But nothing. "Love? I got you the strawberry cake." There was only silence. And Yunho felt a bit uneasy. "Moonbin? Haewon?" He called his two young children. But those little Jung monsters were nowhere to be seen. Normally, he would find them running around the house, shouting and laughing as they were so into their play.

He sniffed and looked around once more. No one at the horizon. Even, Changmin was nowhere to be seen. Usually, the young man of thirty eight would run to snatch the box of cake from his hands the second he stepped into the house.

Very strange.

The man put the box of cake on the island table in the kitchen, looking around him once more. Taking by his curiosity at the sight of his garden with those colourful balloons floating in the air, the man walked towards the french wooden double windows. He all those locks on the double panels, loving the sound of those rattles coming from the locks and glided one of them, making a way to this magnificent outdoor place, where his wife spent so much of her time to take care of all the flowers and vegetables and fruits she grew for her pleasure and the family's stomachs.

He stepped on the grand terrace and smiled at the sight of all those people, family and friends, appearing from nowhere - more from their hiding place - crying surprise to him as they were smiling and clapping their hands with his young children running to him as they bumped onto his legs and hugged him tightly each one leg while looking up at him with a grin. And Yunho could only grin back, ruffling their soft hairs. Not long after he took his oldest son in his arms.

Then, the traditional birthday song started in a cacophony with no one singing in the same rhythm. There were those who sang slowly going against those who sang loudly and quickly or those who only hummed as they did not know who to follow. But everyone was having fun with the children laughing at all those adult people who did not even know how to sing a simple song.

And they all ended with a cry and loud applauds with a few happy birthday coming from everyone.

"Happy Birthday!" Yoochun said as he walked towards the birthday man with a smile and shook their hands together like the young teens they were back then. Clapping hands and bumping shoulders.

"For a surprise! It's a surprise!" Yunho nodded with a smile.

"Give the credit to your wife." Junsu added as he took his friend in his arms and patted Yunho's back strongly as he could, making them laughed amusedly.

"Whose in their right mind would celebrate a birthday outdoor in this kind of season?" Changmin snorted but soon he screamed painfully. Jaejoong did not hold back as she hit her younger step brother for mocking her initiative to make a birthday party for her husband.

And everyone laughed at this one touch love between the Kim-Shim siblings.

"Happy birthday Yunnie-yah!" Jaejoong smiled as she walked towards her husband with her arms stretched out. And Yunho did not waste his time as he took his beautiful wife in his arms, pressed soft kiss all over her face.

"Thank you." He said softly against the crook of her neck, tickling her a bit and having a giggling Jung Jaejoong in his arms. "It's really a surprise." He said lovingly as he was looking at his wife who the few years spending together never faltered her beauty. Still beautiful and still young even at her forty.

"And cold!" Jaejoong added with her most beautiful smile while a soft mist came from before laughing softly. And Yunho laughed with her as he brushed the tip of his nose with hers. "Should celebrate your birthday in June!" She huffed.

"Next year!"

"Yeah!" Jaejoong nodded as she closed her eyes when her husband leaned to press their lips together.

"Not bad with you in bikini." He said softly against her lips.

"Wipe that smile away from your lips. I know what you are thinking right now!" Changmin grunted. "There're children here. And where's the cake?"

"In the kitchen." Yunho said, still smiling and his arms still wrapped around his wife and looking at all those people who were standing in this cold in this month of February for his special day.

"Gosh! It's really cold and we're freezing." Somi, Yunho's younger sister, let out while holding her last born in her arms while her older children were snuggling against her husband asking for some warmth from the man who was happily holding them in his arms crouching down at their level. "Next time let stay in the house!"

"Yeah! Let get us all inside before we become icicles." Jaejoong's mother let out with a smile as she was walking towards the couple. "Happy birthday son!" She said as she took the older man in her arms.

"Thank you, changmonim (mother-in-law, for husband calling his wife's mother)" He smiled and wrapped the older woman in his arms while she pinched his cheeks playfully making the man laughed softly at being treated like a child despite his old age. But the woman did not help looking gratefully at this man for giving so much happiness to her one and only daughter of her four children.

"Thank you for taking care of our Jaejoong." Mr. Shim, Changmin's father and his wife's stepfather, said as he patted Yunho's back with a beautiful smile painting on his lips.

"Thank you for believing in me."

"Now I have to set a blind date for Changmin." The older man laughed and took his stepdaughter in his arms, rubbing her back softly and pressing a kiss on her temple.

"Appa! I'm not so desperate!" Changmin growled.

"You're at thirty eight man! And not a wife or even a girlfriend." Kyuhyun, Changmin's best friend laughed at the latter's expense. But he gained a punch on his shoulder from a whining giant Shim Changmin, making everyone burst into laughter.

Then, Yunho took his parents and sister in his arms, accepting their words for the day with a smile painting on his lips while the two best friends were still fighting like  the two kids they were long time ago.

"You're old and mature now." His father said as the older man patted his shoulder while looking at him with a proud stare. "You did well my son. Very well!" Mr. Jung nodded with his most beautiful smile painting in his face.

"Thank you!" Yunho nodded shyly, but he felt happy to be able to be someone worthy of all his father's expectations.

And the father and son took each other in one another's arms, feeling happy for this day and hoping for the same quiet and maybe boring but happy day to come the year after.

Soon, Yunho was surrounded by everyone giving their happy birthday with their personal message to the man of the day before sprinting into the house with laughs and chuckles, shouting their appreciation once they all hit the warmth of the living room while all the children had dragged all the colourful balloons with them with smile painting on their infant's face with no worry and only the want to have a good day with so much fun.

"Good day!" Yunho laughed as he turned to look at his wife who was still standing next to him while rubbing her soft palms together with a smile painting on her plush and full lips. And he could only love her more and more as she was willing to be with him for the best and the worse of their married life.

"It's a fiasco." Jaejoong let out with a moue which disappeared quickly when her husband pressed a soft kiss against her kissable lips.

"Thank you for all those time spending with me." He said with a smile as he loomed his left arm around Jaejoong's waist under her red woollen cardigan.

"You're not going to die tomorrow. So stop saying this kind of thing." She chided with a stern look. "I count of having more than eleven years with you Jung!" Jaejoong added with a pout.

"I want it too."

Jaejoong nodded with a smile and tiptoed a bit to press her lips against her husband's bow shaped lips. A chaste and lingering kiss with all their love for each other.

"Yah!" Junsu said as the man of forty peeked from the french double doors. "Every time I saw the two of you, you have your lips glued to one another. Stop that! You're not young anymore."

"Wrong! I'm still young! But the two of you are old!" Yunho's wife contradicted in singsong tone as Jaejoong left her husband behind and entered their house.

Junsu shook his head with a smile while stepping aside to let Jaejoong pass around him. "She's one of the kind." He chuckled when Yunho stepped next to him.

"She's lovely."

"Love-struck!" Yunho's childhood friend bumped his shoulder against his back, pushing the birthday man into the warm atmosphere of the vast living room of the Jung mansion, being made and decorated at Yunho's liking. The man was an architect after all. It was a grandpa's house but with a few touches of modernity.

Standing in his house, Yunho undressed himself from his coat and looked at all the people presents this day. His parents were standing with Jaejoong's parents, having a great discussion while showing every emotion they could have at their ages.

And when he saw them being doting grandparents with their grandchildren, he knew that those older people had had their own happy moments despite the hardship of life they experienced to be the people they were now.

Maturity and comprehension but also love were reflecting their old beings.

He was now forty three. It was a good age to turn back time to see what had happened in his life until now. A retrospective of his past was not bad as he was hoping to be like his parents and parents-in-law at their ages, years later.

Forty years was the debut of being mature and experienced. And three years later, he could say it for once. He made it. It took him time, but he was there.

For that, he had to take a long path in life, starting from his childhood time with those pinches of cheek and those ruffles of hair, and of course those plucks of nose from those eldest who loved to display their affection by torturing the poor child he was because they found him adorable.

As he turned his eyes towards a group of children not far from the chimney, his nephews and nieces if not children of his friends, he could not help but chuckle at this picture of déjà-vu from his childhood. This kind of grandparents' affection was a tradition in every family. Children could not avoid being pinched, plucked and ruffled until they were adults. Even entering the adulthood, they were not being able to left alone either.

He could be the testimony of this as his mother-in-law did not hesitate to pinch his cheeks for this special day of him.

"What are you thinking about?" Yoochun asked as he gave a glass of wine to the man of this day. "Something naughty I assume!"

"Nothing of that sort." Yunho answered with a smile. Then, he took the glass of wine from his friend's hand. "Just that nothing changed." He added as he pointed out at his daughter being pinched on her cheeks by all the older people in the room where she went.

"She's adorable."

"Yes! But you're not there when she complained of looking like a chipmunk because people like to pinch her cheeks."

"A chipmunk?" Yoochun asked with an amused smile painting on his lips.

"Yes!"

"I know that!" The man nodded as he turned to look at his youngest son running around the spacious room with his friend. He chuckled at how the older children loved to pinch his cheeks every time he passed by them. "She has those lovely chubby cheeks that attract the attention of everyone." His friend said before sipping a few drops of his wine.

Yunho nodded and laughed softly before drinking his liquor. Then, he turned his eyes on another corner of the room.

There, standing with balloons in their hands a few adolescents trying to meddle with other teens who seemed to be comfortable with themselves while those quiet young teens were trying to cope with the ungrateful life of being teenagers with a few complexes.

Hyunbin, Jaejoong's nephew, seemed to stood out from all the group of teens as he was taller than them looking like a funfair stick pole with his arms lifted in mid-air as he was holding a few balloons in his hands for the pleasure of the young children, smiling shyly while others were laughing openly.

And Yunho could not help but smile at his own experience. At this age, the man was feeling uneasy about his height. He looked like a teenage boy who did not have the right body for his dimension.

Well, he did not know if people would understand what he was trying to say. But, compared to his other friends, Yunho felt like being an alien with his tall height and a little bit chubby while everyone his age was in the same height and weight, not mentioning a good dental while he had to hide his crooked teeth, smiling so little until he got them aligned.

And at the end, he did feel like escaping the most of his childhood time to start anew with another body and face. It could be good if he could change his reality to another one by jumping onto a vortex like those kind of rerun B series. But, real life was different and Yunho had to cope with his default to grow stronger.

At the sight of Taemin, another nephew of his wife, Yunho could only feel sympathetic. The poor teen who had a complex with his appearance - because, well in his wife's side, everyone was born with this kind of feminine trait and it could be something really bad when you were born male - seemed to space out a lot as if he was there only by his presence but his mind was somewhere else.

Being different was good after all. But at this age, those teens did not think much as they only wanted to be like everyone and not being casted out.

Life was cruel sometimes. However, at the end, everyone will have their places in this world.

Yunho could say it because he did go through that hard period of life with some bruises but he did have his happy ending. So, he cheered for them not to give up this soon.

"You're going to be fine." He nodded as he let out lowly while clicking his glass with Yoochun's.

"What did you say?" His friend asked with a frown but smiled at him.

"Nothing." Yunho shook his head slightly with a smile. "I'm going there." He pointed out into another corner. Yoochun nodded when he returned to his conversation with a few friends of them. A group of friends he didn't notice the presence as he was focused on those young teens.

The master of this lieu walked quietly through those teens and he could not help but pat Hyunbin and Taemin's back, encouraging them to never let go of any kind of possibilities in life.

"Happy birthday samchon!" The two teens said one after another as they smiled at him.

"Thank you!" Yunho smiled back. "Go get something to eat and drink. Don't stay in the same place. Go!" He pushed them towards the kitchen and continued his walk.

There, he passed by a group of young adults laughing and talking happily as they seemed to get over their teenage time and were adapting easily into their adulthood. However around twenty, you just started your life as you juggled with study and part-time jobs.

"Yunho samchon!" The young people called him and Yunho stopped in his track to be taken in picture with a horde of young adults lifting their glasses to celebrate his one year adding to his already old age.

The man shook his head and posed for more pictures with all those people with in passage some of those young women saying that if he wasn't their uncle or their fathers' friend, they would hit on him as they found him really handsome for an old man. At that, Jaejoong screamed from the opened kitchen that this man was hers and only hers.

"He's already taken girls! So hand off from my man!" Yunho's wife said with a smile then, she turned to a few old people not far from her. "Yah! Old fogies? How did you raise your daughters?"

"Go put a leash on your husband!" Joohon, Yunho's childhood friend said with a smile. "He is the one standing among those girls!" And others nodded as they were on the man's sides.

"I bet you would want to be in his place." Jaejoong snorted playfully at those bad-faith men.

"It's a bit creepy if you think of this." Ga Eun, Jaejoong's best friend who had married Junsu said as she was filling her plate of a few canapés. "Some of those girls are their daughters." She added with a twist of her nose as she was looking at her best friend.

"Ewww!!" Jaejoong spitted out as she took a bread from a bas