(A day later)

—Yesung’s POV—

I saw the way he looks at me, even if he thought that he was being discreet. He thought that I wouldn’t notice, did he? Well, clearly he felt that I didn’t know him well enough, but I do. I’ve noticed how he would look at me for the past three days and let’s just say that I didn’t like it, not a single bit. What kind of lousy solution did he even come up with? Leaving me was the worst possible solution that anyone could ever think of.

It wasn’t the first time that Wookie’s been feeling this way. Trust me, I would know. He feels this way every time Sooyoung does something to one of us, because he thinks he’s responsible. I’ve tried time and again to assure him that none of it was his fault, but he always shouldered the blame. I knew where he was coming from, really, but it wasn’t as if he asked Sooyoung to do this to all of us. Why was he always blaming himself for the stuff that happened?

It was a school day and I wanted to cheer Wookie up somehow. Maybe other people would have broken up with him by now, since some people didn’t seem to be able to handle to emotional stress of having a boyfriend who was constantly beating himself up. I wasn’t one of those people, and I was actually even more determined than anyone to make Wookie happy again. It to see him so upset all the time. Well, I had another reason to go on a date with Wookie.

Tomorrow was his birthday.

I glanced at the time and saw that it was about time to wash up. With no plan in mind, I shook Wookie awake and planted a kiss on his lips. I felt him smile against my lips as he tried to deepen the kiss, but we had school and we also happened to have made love the night before. I would have said , but it sounds a little crude.

“Wookie, we have school,” I reminded him after breaking the kiss. I could almost feel him pouting as I sat up and messed my hair up more than it already was. It wasn’t long before both of us were in the toilet and brushing our teeth.

While Wookie was making breakfast, I pondered over what I could do to cheer him up. To be honest, I don’t even remember the last date we went on, with just the two of us. So much happened to all our friends and we were all trying to be there for each other. Heck, the last time we were actually free was probably April, which was two months ago. Even then, we had school and we only went out for a simple movie date since we were busy with some mid-year projects, as well as preparing for the school concert.

A date, huh? It’s been so long since I’ve had to come up with something creative. I knew that Wookie would be happy going out on a date with me, even if it was just a plain old movie date, but that wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted to cheer him up and a movie date wasn’t going to be enough. Nope, I needed to be a lot more creative than that. Besides, who would bring their boyfriend on a lousy movie date for an early birthday celebration?

I drummed my fingers against the table as I sifted through what Wookie liked, and what we haven’t done together yet. I was tired of seeing him so guilty all the time. He was so ready to bolt, to leave me, and the thought of him leaving honestly scared me. We had only been together for less than half a year, yet I couldn’t imagine how it would be like to sleep without him in my arms. It was frightening for Wookie to have thoughts of leaving me just like that, and I wanted none of it. I wanted him to stay by my side, and be happy while he was with me.

I snapped my fingers as something, at long last, came to mind.

The zoo.

-----------------------

When we arrived at school, I noticed the absence of a certain Chinese man.

Where was Zhoumi?

Zhoumi was never the type to skip school, not even if he was sick or if he didn’t want to see someone. There had to be a very reasonable explanation for his absence, and I had a feeling that one of those who were born in the same year as him would know.

Wookie looked at me in confusion, probably wondering where Zhoumi was as well. As far as we knew, Sungmin had sent his cousin to speak with Zhoumi and talk him round. It couldn’t possibly be that easy for her to convince him that Henry was innocent, right?

“Heechul hyung,” Wookie whispered. I glanced at our resident and realised that he was exceptionally happy today. Henry wasn’t here yet, and I highly doubted that he would actually come to school today because he skipped yesterday, too. There wasn’t really a reason for Heechul to be this happy though, not unless his sadistic nature was satisfied by… oh.

“He did something with Kyuhyun, didn’t he?” I asked nobody in particular.

“It seems like it.”

I sighed and tugged on Wookie’s hand, heading over to Hankyung instead of Donghae. If Heechul did anything to anyone, the people who would know were Kyuhyun and Hankyung. Since Kyuhyun was in a seemingly happy mood as well but had disappeared the moment we got to school, Hankyung was the only one we could ask.

I tapped Hankyung on the shoulder and he turned around to raise a brow. Before I could even open my mouth, however, he nodded in understanding. He jerked a finger towards Heechul and Wookie and I nodded, silently asking what was with the man.

“He and Kyuhyun did to Yuri yesterday and he’s still riding on the high of torturing someone. We all know how he is,” Hankyung told us. I guessed as much, since Heechul did mention something about screwing Yuri up, two days ago when we found Henry crying.

“Expected as much,” I mumbled in return. Hankyung sighed and shrugged, because what could he do? Heechul would chew anyone out if they offended him. I was actually surprised that he hasn’t looked Sooyoung up already. Perhaps he still has some sanity left in that brain of his.

“So what happened to Zhoumi hyung?” Wookie asked curiously. Oh right, we were wondering where Zhoumi disappeared off to. Wookie sighed when Hankyung shrugged again, clearly not knowing where the other Chinese man was. “We’ll ask the others. Thanks hyung!”

The next person we were going to approach was probably Sungmin, but he wasn’t anywhere to be found. He was either doing something with Kyuhyun, if you know what I mean, or simply following Kyuhyun around and making sure that he doesn’t kill himself.

Once again, Wookie and I headed towards Eunhyuk and Donghae. “Do you know what happened to Zhoumi?” I asked. Donghae pouted and shook his head while Eunhyuk just sighed and looked around the cafeteria.

“First Henry skips, and now Zhoumi too. I don’t really want to know what’s going on between that couple but I hope everything will be fine again. I do want to pummel Zhoumi though,” Eunhyuk said rather seriously. I think both Wookie and I could see where he was coming from. Heck, more than half of us wanted to pummel Zhoumi for being the densest idiot ever.

“We’ll ask Sungmin hyung later then. Should we be heading up now?” Wookie asked, looking at the wall clock in the cafeteria. The three of us nodded and we headed up to the auditorium together with the others, bracing ourselves for another few hours of lessons.

-----------------------

During lunch break, I waited outside Wookie’s classroom for him as usual and after a minute or so, he skipped out along with Kyuhyun, Sunggyu and Woohyun. They just had higher music lesson, since I knew Wookie’s schedule as well as I knew my own, and I just saw Mrs. Im exiting the classroom.

Wookie immediately latched onto my arm with a grin and I briefly wondered how long he could stay this happy, with Sooyoung on his tail all the time. I needed to plan our date later; I really did, because all I thought of was to bring him to the zoo. Then what?

We walked to the cafeteria together, with the four Year 1 students talking about their homework. They were supposed to compose a pop song and sing it in front of the entire class. They were given a month to come up with not just the studio version and record it, but also the instrumental version. Needless to say, all of them were pretty hyped up about it. We weren’t in higher music for nothing.

After we arrived at the cafeteria, with Sungmin joining us on the way, Sunggyu and Woohyun left to find the other Infinite guys. We bought our food before sitting down at our usual table where most of the others already were.

“Sungmin hyung, what happened to Zhoumi hyung?” Wookie asked while chewing on his sandwich. Sungmin looked at Wookie and swallowed before looking at the others who had all turned their attention onto him.

“Heechul hyung and Kyu kind of got the truth from Yuri and my cousin let Zhoumi listen to the recording. I don’t know what happened to him, but it definitely has to do with the recording,” he told us before returning to his food. Wookie gave me a look and I groaned internally.

“No way are we going to find Zhoumi. Not today, Wookie,” I told him assertively. He had to spend less time worrying about people and spend more time worrying about himself. There was no way that I would let him visit Zhoumi and feel even guiltier about things. No freaking way.

Wookie opened his mouth to protest but Shindong frowned at him. “Ryeowook-ah, you have to stop being such a worrywart. Zhoumi is old enough to take care of himself. I think he needs time to sort his thoughts and you need time to relax,” Shindong said. “When was the last time you spent proper time with Yesung hyung?”

Wookie turned to look at me and bit his lower lip. “Sorry,” he muttered. I shook my head with a small smile, sending Shindong a grateful look for backing my point. He grinned at me and continued eating while texting who I assumed was Nari.

“It’s fine. We’ll go somewhere later.”

I bit off another chunk of my chicken and chewed as Wookie’s eyes widened in surprise. He clearly didn’t expect me to suddenly bring him out on an impromptu date, especially when it’s been pretty long since we even went on a date alone. We usually went out with either Sungmin and Kyuhyun or Leeteuk and Kangin.

I chuckled and nodded. “Yes, we’re going out. Don’t be so surprised.”

As expected, Wookie began bombarding me with questions about where we were going, for how long, and what we were going to do. I refused to answer since it was meant to be a surprise and I honestly hadn’t thought about what we were going to do yet. I had two more hours of school and hopefully that was enough to come up with something decent. At least it was a Friday so we could go home later.

By the time lunch was ending, Wookie was full-out attacking me with aegyo and whining about how he had a right to know what we were doing after school. As we walked to his next class, he pouted and poked my cheek continuously. “Please?”

I kissed him on the forehead and grinned smugly at him. Perhaps one clue wouldn’t hurt, would it?

“They’re tall and we’re going to see them.”

I hurried away before Wookie could try to squeeze another clue out of me. That clue in itself was already a huge clue, and Wookie might have guessed where we were headed by now. Well, so much for keeping it a secret.

Now I just have to plan an itinerary.

----------------------

The moment I stepped out of my classroom, stretching after two hours of sitting down and doing Literature essays and Calculus, Wookie barrelled into me and started bouncing on the balls of his feet. “The zoo! We’re going to the zoo, aren’t we?”

I smiled and grabbed his hand, walking towards the school gate. “Wasn’t the clue obvious enough?”

Wookie shrugged and waved to his classmates as we exited school. Not wanting to waste too much time on travelling, because the zoo was simply too far from our school to get there by bus within an hour, I hailed a cab and forced Wookie to get in. I’d expected resistance on his part since he didn’t like me spending too much, but today was all about having fun together and putting a smile onto the face which I love and woke up to every morning.

After the driver started to drive to the zoo, Wookie leaned against me and sighed contentedly. The smile never left my face. We always slept together and we lived under the same roof now, but although we spent majority of the day together, it was nice to go out and have fun. Staying in the house, talking and cuddling was amazing but what was a relationship if a couple didn’t go out on dates together?

It took slightly longer than forty minutes before we arrived at the zoo. Wookie was way too excited to even sleep a wink, and he just looked outside the window as the buildings and trees flew by us. I simply watched him for that entire time, glad that he was happy about going to the zoo. From what I knew, Wookie’s only ever been to the zoo once. He was pretty young then and his parents hadn’t been as busy yet, hence they had time for family outings. As he grew older, his parents got busier and now they’re hardly ever home.

I paid the cab driver and we got off. Wookie ran over to the ticketing counter and jumped slightly, waiting for me to purchase the tickets before we entered the zoo. The first thing we did was to take a photo together at the entrance, where there was a photo booth that allowed visitors to take pictures with some birds of paradise.

Wookie stuffed the polaroid photo into his file and grabbed onto my arm, leaning against me as I looked at the map and searched for our first stop. It wasn’t long before Wookie spotted his favourite animal and let go of my arm before making a dash to the front of the exhibit.

“Giraffes! Whoa, they’re so tall! Sungie, take a picture!”

Who was I to deny him? I took my phone out and snapped a few pictures of him, walking over to Wookie as he read the information about the giraffes that was in front of the exhibit. It wasn’t as if he didn’t know about giraffes, because I’ve seen him reading articles about giraffes before. His love for giraffes was a little disconcerting sometimes, but I didn’t really mind.

After leaving the giraffe exhibit, our next stop was the animal show due to start at four, which was about fifteen minutes from now. We found a seat in the fourth row and waited patiently for the show to start. Before long, the animal trainer came up and officially started the show, and Wookie cheered enthusiastically despite being twenty.

When the trainer called for a volunteer, Wookie grabbed my arm and raised my hand. I looked at him in horror as the trainer called me up to interact with the monkey. Although reluctant, I went to the front as Wookie pushed me forward, cheering loudly for me with a bright smile on his face.

I sighed inwardly, chanted my mantra that this was all for Wookie, and did as the trainer told me to. Once the animal show ended, I cornered Wookie and narrowed my eyes at him, a playful smirk tugging at my lips. “Was that funny?”

Wookie laughed and nodded, taking note of our current position. I had trapped him with my arms on either side of his head, and the position brought us both a sense of déjà vu. “Isn’t this like the day we got together?” he asked with a smile.

“There’s something missing though,” I pointed out. Wookie nodded in agreement with me and, in spite of the fact that we were currently in public, I leaned forward to press my lips onto his. It was a couple minutes of tongue wrestling before we broke apart and I took a hold of Wookie’s hand yet again. “Let’s continue our date, shall we?”

--------------------

Three hours later, when we’d finished our tour of the entire zoo, Wookie and I sat down in the restaurant and looked through the menu, both exhausted and starving.

Wookie set his menu down and waited for me to decide on what to eat before he called the waiter over and we placed our orders. After the waited left, Wookie grinned brightly at me and I chuckled slightly, raising a brow at my hyper boyfriend.

“Happy?”

He nodded excitedly and looked around the not-too-crowded restaurant before he got out of his seat and came over to my side of the table, sitting down on my lap as discreetly as possible. It was a good thing we chose a seat in the back of the restaurant, because this wasn’t something that I wanted other people seeing.

“You’re the best, you know that?”

“Really now? Just because I brought you to the zoo?” I asked mischievously, wrapping my arms around his waist and holding him to me. He nodded with a small hum, and I only chuckled again before bending over to peck the corner of his lips. “Anything for you, Wookie.”

I could almost imagine Wookie blushing at that, but who was the one taking the initiative to sit on my lap in a public place? Sometimes I wondered how Wookie could be so daring yet so shy, all at the same time. It was just another one part of his personality that I love.

When Wookie spotted the waiter heading back, he quickly clambered off my lap and slid back into his chair. If I were any other hormonal guy, I probably would’ve gotten by Wookie sitting on my lap. Thank goodness I wasn’t like that, because I didn’t fancy going home with a .

Soon after our drinks arrived, our food was served as well. Wookie hurriedly dug in and I wiped a stain off his lips before starting on my own food. Wookie wrinkled his nose in an attempt to hide his embarrassment. “I should eat slower, shouldn’t I?”

I nodded without looking at him, busy chewing on the chicken drumstick that I had in my hand.

We ate in silence for ten minutes before I finally finished all of my chicken and wiped my hands, sighing contentedly because damn, I was full. I glanced over at Wookie, who was still taking his time to eat the ramen he’d ordered, and laughed.

“How do you keep getting stains on your lips whenever you eat ramen?” I asked, grabbing the tissue and wiping the stains off once more. Wookie stuck his tongue out at me, refusing to answer, and instead kept eating mouthful after mouthful of ramen. While I sipped on my iced latte, I took my phone out and got some candid photos of Wookie, smiling to myself when I looked through them.

“Yah, don’t take pictures of me like that!” Wookie protested, whining when I kept my phone instead of deleting the photos. I stuck my tongue out at him, mimicking his earlier actions and earning a pout from him. I wasn’t going to fall for his aegyo. Nope; I was keeping those photos for memories and besides, he looked amazing in each of them. Then again, I was biased. Wookie always looked amazing to me.

I didn’t notice when Wookie finished his dinner, and I definitely didn’t notice when he crept over beside me and pulled my phone out of my pocket, unlocking it since he knew the password by heart. I was thinking of what to buy for Wookie as a birthday present. I should have bought a present for him weeks ago, but with all that was happening and the fact that I was naturally forgetful, buying a present simply slipped my mind.

“Don’t delete those, please?” I asked with my best puppy eyes, which weren’t very good considering the fact that my face wasn’t good for aegyo. Wookie pouted and scrolled through the photos before hesitantly returning my phone to me.

“Fine, at least I look alright in those,” Wookie admitted, getting back in his seat to finish his drink.

“I told you before that you always look good,” I reminded him smugly. Wookie rolled his eyes and I pretended to not notice the light blush spreading across his cheeks. Wookie was always adorable whenever he was embarrassed or didn’t know how to respond to praise.

After we finished our drinks, I gestured towards the exit.

“Should we go now?”

----------------------

On our way out of the zoo, we passed by the souvenir shop and although Wookie claimed that he didn’t want to go in, I did. I’d thought of something to get Wookie as a present and I knew that he’d love it. Besides, Wookie actually did want to go in, but he didn’t want me spending more money on him than I already did. That kid will be the death of me one day.

I hurriedly bought what I wanted and stuffed it into my schoolbag before meeting Wookie by the gates of the zoo, exiting together with our fingers interlaced. It was almost eight by now, but I intended to stay up till midnight to wish Wookie a happy birthday. We could do quite a lot in four hours yet I didn’t want to do a lot. Wookie was tired, anyway.

“Let’s take the bus back,” I suggested.

“Finally! Why didn’t you just let us take the bus just now?” Wookie chided, clearly displeased with the amount of money I’d spent on our date. It wasn’t cheap, really, and I had to take quite a little out of my savings to pay for everything. Well, time to help umma out more.

We were lucky enough for the bus to arrive a little while after we reached the bus stop, and we found two seats in the middle of the bus. As Wookie leaned against me, he looked up at me curiously. “What’d you buy just now?”

He tried to my bag and peep inside, so I hugged my bag tightly to my chest and shook my head. “It’s for me to know, and for you to find out,” I told him. Wookie narrowed his eyes at me and tried to snatch my bag from me and mind you, he was strong when he wanted something.

“I’m trying to find out here,” he pointed out, tugging my bag from me.

“I’ll let you see tomorrow,” I promised. Wookie huffed and let my bag go.

“Fine, tomorrow.”

“I promise you’ll find out what it is, first thing tomorrow,” I told him, seeing as Wookie was sulking already. He loved sulking whenever he couldn’t get what he wanted from me. It seemed to only apply to me, so I didn’t know if I should be honoured or not.

Wookie turned to me and sighed softly. “Sungie, do you think Sooyoung will ever stop?”

I didn’t want to answer him honestly. We all knew her ultimate goal, and she wouldn’t stop till she achieved it. It seemed that way, anyway. She wanted Wookie to leave me, to experience the same hurt that she did when she was forced to leave him. She never thought about how he felt at the time, and only thought about her own feelings. She was selfish and that was an undisputable fact.

“I highly doubt it,” I answered truthfully.

Wookie sighed again and nodded in agreement. “I thought so too. I know all of you don’t blame me, but it to be the one of the reasons why so many of our friends are miserable,” he said. I looked down to see him biting his lower lip and shook my head.

“It’s true that Sooyoung’s doing this to get back at you, but do you see the others shunning you? They still care about you, Wookie. We’re all in this together – never forget that,” I told him sternly. He puffed his cheeks up and nodded.

“I know.”

I could hear the resignation in those words, and I knew that Wookie was still going to leave if things got any worse. It would hurt both of us, but it was the best solution in his opinion. What did I think?

Throw Sooyoung in prison, of course. That way, Wookie wouldn’t ever have to leave me.

---------------------

It was pretty late when we arrived home, but I still had to get something. By the time we stepped into the house, it was almost ten. I briefly wondered how many stores were still open and sighed upon realising that many stores would be closed when I went out again. Still, I had to get something else so I showered first, and then I left the house while Wookie was showering so he couldn’t follow me. I did tell him though, in case he panicked when he didn’t see me.

I hurried to the nearest gift store with the item that I bought from the zoo, cursing the store for closing so early when I saw that the lights were turned off. I tried to recall where the next nearest gift store was and ended up running there. Thankfully, it was open, and I quickly entered because I knew that it was closing soon.

“Can you help me wrap a present?” I asked, panting slightly. The store was a good ten minute walk from my house and I ran here, for heaven’s sake. Who wouldn’t be tired? Well, perhaps someone fit like Siwon but I wasn’t fit, not like him.

The lady nodded and I picked out a wrapping paper similar to the gift itself, bowing gratefully to her when she helped me wrap it. In fact, she wanted to do it for free after finding out that the gift was for someone really special and important to me, but I wanted none of that.

I paid her and bowed to her once more, and the kind lady smiled to me and told me to treat this important person well. My next stop was the bakery, which was even further from my house than the gift store. When I got there, they were almost ready to close.

“Wait,” I called out, panting heavily by now. I had run for two whole minutes at the speed of a 100 metre sprinter. Even Siwon would be tired… I think. The storekeeper looked at me and nodded, obviously sympathising with me since I’d run the entire way there.

“I just need one cupcake, chocolate please,” I told him. He nodded and went to get the cupcake, packing it nicely and handing it to me with a warm smile. “How much is it?”

“On the house, boy. It seems as if whoever’s getting this is pretty darn important if you ran all the way here at night,” the man told me. I smiled awkwardly and nodded, but took my wallet out nonetheless.

“He’s really important to me but I can’t take this for free, sir,” I said, handing him the ten thousand won bill and bowing to him, wishing him a good night before I headed over to the supermarket, which happened to be my last stop.

The good thing about the supermarket was that it was open twenty-four hours daily, everyday. I walked over to the fruits aisle and looked at the boxes of strawberries, choosing the box that had the sweetest-looking strawberries and heading over to find chocolate sauce.

As I was queuing to pay, my phone vibrated in my pocket and I pulled it out, hastily answering when I saw that it was Wookie. I wouldn’t want him getting too worried, even if I wanted to surprise him with all this. “Yeoboseyo?”

“Sungie, when are you going to be back?” Wookie whined. I could just imagine the pout that he was sporting at the moment and I smiled lightly to myself.

“Ten minutes maybe? Don’t worry about me. Just sleep first.” That was the only way that I could sneak in unnoticed, really. If Wookie wasn’t going to sleep, then he would wait for me on the couch and I couldn’t hide everything that I had with me at the moment. There wasn’t any chance that Wookie would sleep first though, knowing him.

“I’ll wait for you. What are you even doing?”

“Stuff. Maybe you could… walk Kkoming?”

Wookie didn’t reply for some time, and I sped up my pace a little. “Fine, but you’d better be back by the time I get home. I’ll walk her for a half hour,” he decided. I did a mental victory dance and changed routes, not wanting to chance crossing paths with Wookie. I’d just take the longer path home that doesn’t pass by the park.

“Alright, I’ll see you in a half hour. Love you.”

“Love you too. You’d better be back,” Wookie warned again, light-heartedly of course.

“Ne umma. Bye!”

I hung up and took my time strolling home. By the time Wookie gets back, I just had to stall for a half hour or so and then I’d be able to give Wookie all the stuff that I bought for him. It probably wouldn’t be healthy to be eating so much chocolate at midnight but… who cares?

I looked at the bags in my hands and smiled again.

Kim Ryeowook, you’d better be thankful to have me as your boyfriend.

--------------------

“Sungie, are you back yet?”

I cursed silently and hastily stuffed everything into the fridge. Maybe I took too much time strolling back, or Wookie didn’t feel like walking Kkoming for a half hour. I slammed the fridge door shut and walked out, hugging Wookie and pecking him on the forehead.

“Did you go running? Why’re you so sweaty again?” Wookie asked, unhooking Kkoming’s leash and letting her run to me. I scratched behind her ears for a bit and headed to our room, turning the fan on full blast and plopping onto bed.

“I was rushing to buy some stuff,” I replied with a shrug. “It’s kind of late and I had to get everything before the stores closed.”

Wookie furrowed his brows and threw a fresh set of clothes to me, sitting on the bed as I changed out of my sweaty clothes. “What’d you have to buy that was so urgent? We could’ve gone together.”

Oh dang, now what was I supposed to say? I glanced at the time and cursed the fact that I still had a good forty minutes to stall Wookie. He was looking at me expectantly and I really had no idea how to answer that. What kind of excuse was I supposed to give?

“Is it another surprise?” he guessed. I shrugged since that was pretty true. “What’s with all the surprises? I get that my birthday is tomorrow, but still.”

I held a hand out to stop him from talking. “Just wait.”

He sighed and nodded, pulling his laptop over and opening a music composition programme. Without speaking, he began working on his newest music project, knowing that I would give advice whenever it was necessary.

On the bright side, at least Wookie wasn’t too desperate to find out what I bought.

For the next half hour, I watched as Wookie tried out different tunes on the programme, eventually getting up to use my keyboard instead. He was really talented at composing, actually. He was a lot better than me, in my personal opinion. I let the music flow over me and smiled while watching Wookie concentrate on composing his song.

When it was almost midnight, I told Wookie that I was going to get some food and he waved me off, probably knowing that I was setting things up. It wasn’t easy to surprise Wookie if he already knew that you were going to surprise him. Honestly, it wasn’t easy at all.

I brought the cupcake, strawberries and chocolate sauce out. I also placed the neatly wrapped present beside the food and got a candle, as well as a lighter. I waited there till it was a minute to midnight before lighting the candle and asking Wookie to come out.

“Happy birthday Wookie!”

Wookie blinked in surprise, and a smile slowly appeared on his face. Before I knew it, he had barrelled into me for the second time in the past twenty-four hours, and I heard him sniffling while thanking me. I was about to reply when the doorbell rang and I wondered who it was for a fraction of a second before realisation dawned on me.

Wookie ran over to the door and threw it open, jumping into Kangin’s arms almost immediately. He looked at me, mildly amused, and I simply shrugged with a smile. Leeteuk walked in not long later and after Wookie blew out the candles, we had a chocolate-coated strawberry feast.

Once that was done, Wookie opened the three presents he’d received, opening mine last. After thanking Kangin and Leeteuk profusely for the set of headphones and pair of earrings, Wookie tore the wrapping paper open slowly and squealed in delight upon spotting the item I bought at the zoo.

“I’m going to name it Kiki!”

And that’s pretty much how the night ended off. The good thing? I achieved my goal of cheering Wookie up. Even though he did mention Sooyoung once, at least he was happy for most of the day.

I just hope it stays this way.
 

What is with the recent monstrous chapters??? First it was 3970 words, and now it's 5741 ._. I actually intended to split this into two, with their date at the zoo being the next chapter but.... I felt so bad for that hiatus >w<

I missed YeWook fluff and damn, this fic has strayed so far from YeWook so I had to do this XD Who cares about Zhoumi, for now? He can come back in next chapter~ :D

I hope you guys enjoyed this and the ending was obviously rushed (sorry about that) but it was fun doing this chapter, though it took quite some time :)

Look forward to the next chapter! I'm not sure if I'm resolving ZhouRy's problem yet. We'll see how goes XP

I'll have to go on ANOTHER hiatus in three weeks' time, since my final exams are coming :/ It'll be a longer hiatus than the last, six weeks perhaps? I don't like hiatuses either but I can't screw this up TT Please wait patiently for me then~

That's all from me now and I'll see you guys next week! Annyeong~! ^^

(P.S. Where did the random two upvoters come from? o.o Thanks for the upvotes~ <3)