“HYUNG~” called Hongki from the other room. I’d been playing with Sunny for a while; the time seemed to go on forever and I couldn’t seem to pull myself away from her.

“Yeah?” I called back, dragging a small mouse on a string along the floor as Sunny ran after it, pawing at the mouse when she caught it.

“We’re meeting the boys in half an hour so get ready, plus I’m sure that Sunny needs some sleep,”

I picked Sunny up and put her back into her basket, and after a few tires of putting her back, she stayed there. I laughed at how adorable she was as she looked up at me with her big round eyes.

“I’ll see you later, my little Sunny,” I said and patted her small head.

I checked that Sunny had enough water and a bowl of food and shut the door, saying goodbye as I went. Hongki was sitting on the sofa holding his phone, probably texting someone.

“Hey, you ready to go?” he asked looking up at me.

“You said we had half an hour…what’s the rush?” I asked. Even though it was still my birthday and I was waiting for more presents, I didn’t want to expect too much, after all, my friends had probably forgotten my birthday; they usually did, so it was no surprise.

“Yeah, but if you’re ready we can go now,” he said standing and walking towards the door. I shrugged my shoulders, the thought of another surprise lingering ever so slightly in the back of my mind.

We walked into town and sat down on a bench. There were a lot of people in today. It was strange too, it was a Friday. Shouldn’t everyone be at work?

I looked across at the shop in front of me; Costa. I did love coffee, maybe I could persuade one of the boys to buy one for me.

Suddenly Hongki jumped out of his seat and started waving frantically at a group of people coming our way. I could just about make out Shindong, Heechul and Leetuk’s faces, but the rest were either a little blurry or they were hiding behind the people in front.

As they neared, I could see all the friends who had been in my last year of College.

Siwon almost jumped on me, giving me the biggest hug, and they all said their individual hellos and birthday wishes. I was happy they were all there.

I sat back down on the bench and they all crowded around me; Hongki and Ryeowook beside me.

Donghae and Sungmin seemed to be holding plastic bags. They handed them to me.

“It’s not much, because we’re not as rich as you, but we all chipped in to get you some really nice gifts.” Said Donghae.

I smiled. “Thanks guys….i thought you’d forget again, like you did last year…and the year before that…and the year before that too…”

We all laughed. I opened the bag that Donghae had given me first. It had a small dark blue rectangular box in it. I opened it to find a sparkling silver watch.

“Thanks guys, it’s really nice,” I said, slipping it onto my wrist. To be honest, it looked really good.

“Open the other one!” said Ryeowook beside me, jumping up and down with excitement.

“Yeah!” said Sungmin, also seemingly excited.

“Alrighty then,” I said giving the bag and the box to Hongki.

I opened the second bag to find a bigger box, except this one was white and had the words “SELF STIRRING MUG” written on the top.

I laughed and took it out the bag.

“That’s pure genius!” I said smiling at all of them. “Thank you for remembering this year, and thank you for my presents too,” I said, and I really was thankful, because I’d gotten more presents in a day than I had in a few years.

We all sat in Costa for a little, talking about how everyone’s lives were going. Sungmin had recently gotten married, Donghae had just had his third child; they’d called him Chunghee, Kibum and his girlfriend had celebrated their third year of being together.

It seemed like everyone had someone to share their life with, except me. I sighed, but smiled, trying not to draw attention to the fact that I was in fact lonely.

Being alone !

After a while, I decided that I needed to get back to check on my Sunny. I’d had a lovely time with all the boys back together, but they all had things to do as well.

We said our goodbyes and Hongki and I headed off home.

“You’re lonely, aren’t you?” he asked as we walked out of town.

“How did you know?” I asked sarcastically. He laughed.

“I think it’s because I’ve lived with you that I could tell, or because you don’t make it subtle!” he laughed again.

“Sorry for having feelings, Hongki,” I said a little hurt.

“C’mon, I’m joking!” he said patting my back. “Plus, you never know when the right girl will pop up out of the blue……or you know…..the right guy…”

“HONGKI! I’m not gay!” I said slapping him around the head.

“I know, I know!” he said defensively, putting his arms out to stop me hitting him again.

When we got back to the house I went straight for my room to check on Sunny. But when I got there, Sunny was not in her basket. I started to panic when she wasn’t in the room anymore.

“HONGKI!” I shouted, desperation filling my voice. “SUNNY’S MISSING!”

He came running into the room. “WHAT?” he was a little confused.

“How can she have escaped? I shut the door!” I started to stress out and Hongki put both hands on my shoulders, trying to calm me down.

“Kyu, she can’t have just grown arms and hands and fingers and opened the door, okay? She’s got to be around here somewhere,” Hongki said. In truth it did calm me down, but I was still panicking.

“Have you checked under the bed, yet?” he asked.

“Yeah! She’s not there!”

“Hey, boys. What are you stressing about?” asked a female voice from behind us. We turned around and saw a girl wearing nothing but a white towel around her, and my slippers was standing in the doorway. She was smiling sweetly.