01

Kiseop opened his eyes to the dull ceiling of his dorm room in Japan. It was early in the morning and U-KISS had to prepare for a busy schedule of filming and interviews ahead. Rubbing the sleepiness from his eyes, Kiseop glanced at the bed on the other side to find it empty, traces of the owner failed attempt to tidy it up apparent.

Figures.
The leader can’t wake up later than his members, can he.

Kiseop groaned as he reached for the cell phone buried under his pillow. Squinting, he tried to make out the digits displayed on the all of a sudden too bright screen.

Time: 06.34. Date: 17-01.

The boy’s previously drowsy eyes widened. He sat up abruptly, a bit too fast to his own liking. Groaning from the small headache striking, Kiseop threw his blanket aside and sat by the edge of his bed.

17-01.
17th of January.
His birthday.

The main dancer whipped into detective mode as he rummaged through his bed, his drawers, the closet, and under the bed.
Nothing.
All clear.

He let out a sigh of relief as he slipped into his tiger slippers, though constantly reminding himself to not let his guard down. Nope. Not on his birthday. Especially when you live with the members of U-KISS. Two years living with the members taught Kiseop one thing: Nobody’s safe on their birthday. Nausea filled his stomach as he scrunched his nose, recalling the nasty prank the others did on his last birthday (exchanging his shampoo with his soap, his toothpaste with his shaving cream, scared the hell out of him with a voodoo doll, making him ear a cake that was made out of salt instead of sugar, sour yoghurt instead of milk, freshly grounded coffee--with a pinch of ginger, instead of chocolate). The whole day had been hell for him, and although at the end of the day, they had a proper celebration, Kiseop certainly didn’t want to endure the whole experience ever again (Now thinking about it, Kiseop felt bad for Kevin who had it worst on his fourth birthday with the members—and to think he was so excited about tricking the younger boy).

Trudging towards the door, Kiseop paused in his steps as he gripped on the knob, wondering if there would be a bucket of water or flour waiting to fall on him like how there was one on Dongho’s. Cautiously, he pushed the door with quite force until it hit the wall with a bang. A few seconds passed. Nothing happened. He poked his head out of the doorway, eyes darting to all directions. He fully exited his shared room with leader after making sure he was a hundred percent safe.

Something’s a bit fishy, the dancer thought, glancing around in suspicion. It’s way too quiet… He walked around in big steps guardedly. He had a horrible feeling the others will creep up on him and soak him with water guns or something just as bad.

Footsteps were heard from behind. Alert, Kiseop planned to turn around so quickly that he would shock his attacker, but his plan failed miserably as he knocked onto the couch beside him, causing him to lose balance and fall onto the responsible object, landing head first while his legs dangled from the backrest.

Soohyun raised his eyebrows upon witnessing the incident. A small chuckle escaped his lips as he watched his bandmate groaning in pain due to the silly fall.

“You’re hyper.” The elder remarked, earning a glare from the other. Soohyun chose to ignore it and tottered casually towards the younger boy. “Go shower, everyone will be ready soon.” He said, drying his hair using the towel hung around his neck. Kiseop was about to give a retort of ‘no way, you’ve jumbled my shampoo, just admit it, I’m not falling into your trap’ when the leader halted in his steps to ruffle the dancer’s already messy hair.

“Happy birthday. Work harder and be healthy, kay?” The elder uttered with a kind smile, before entering his dorm room to get changed.

Kiseop was dumbfounded. …That was early. Way too early. It wasn’t usual for the members to wish a happy birthday so early, not when they had yet to carry out a prank. Kiseop knew there was something going on and he would not fall for the members’ filthy tricks. Nope. Not on his birthday.