He shifted uncomfortably. He didn’t like seeing the new girl cry. She was a foreigner, and had just enrolled in his school. He didn’t like that the teacher gave her a super hard test without sympathy. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and walked out of the classroom.

            After her departure, Zelo heard a couple of people whispering about her. They were calling her unwanted, and saying that she was so strange and stupid for having failed such an easy test. “Besides, who needs to know Korean to do well in math?”

            Zelo angrily pushed his chair in and walked out. People stared at him strangely. With his height, blue hair and glasses, he stood out in their school. But people have known him since he was young and had accepted him for who he was. But this behavior was strange for the normally pacifist boy.

            He hauled his bookbag over his shoulder and went to look for her. He saw her step out of the girl’s bathroom, with a tissue over . “Hey,” he caught up easily to her and tapped her on the shoulder.

            When she looked at him, she was wary. “What is it?”

            “I can help you look over that test if you want. It’s really unfair of the teacher to be so mean to you.”

            She looked suspicious. Zelo held up both hands. “I’m really trying to help. I’m pretty good at math and I don’t think your problem is the Korean.”

            It took her another minute. By now they were out of the school. She held out the slightly soggy paper and he examined it. “Oh, your problem is that you forget to substitute the original trig values. You need to look at this. You have things in terms of theta but you need to replace them with the x values to get back your original equation.”

            He pulled her to a nearby bench and pointed her mistake. She wrote out the figures in the air and then her brows uncreased. “Oh! I’m such an idiot.” And for the first time, Zelo could see her smile.

            She spoke Korean with a slight accent and some of her conjugations were off but it was still cute. “How long have you been learning Korean?”

            “A few years. My dad has always been planning to move here so he hired tutors. But it’s still such a hard language. But I’m pretty good at reading!”

            Zelo laughed. “Er, are you busy right now?”

            She looked at her watch. “Yeah, sorta. I’m having a birthday party with some of my brother’s friends he met at the university. Do you want to join us?”

            Zelo looked slightly uncomfortable. “Ah, I don’t know.”

            But she tugged on his arm. “You just saved my life. My brother will love you. He’s always grasped math like this,” she snapped her fingers. “So you’re the answer to all his frustrations.”

            The tall boy blushed and followed along at a slower pace. “I guess a happy birthday is in order then. You shouldn’t have cried. Not on your birthday. Didn’t you know? Crying is going to wash away all the birthday charm.” He wiped away some of the remaining streaks and smiled. “There you go!”

            It wasn’t a long walk to her home. She pushed the doors open and a large bunch of boys crowded. “Hey! Happy birthday, sis!” they all greeted her.

            She beamed. “This is Zelo. Zelo, this is everyone. You’ll get to know them one by one. And make sure you avoid Daehyun when you’re eating. He’ll steal all your food.”

            A good looking boy, who was in the middle of a sandwich, walked by and cuffed her gently on the head. “I heard that!”

            Although older, the boys were fun to be around and soon they were joking casually with Zelo as well. “So, are you planning on dating my sister?” her brother asked.

            Zelo turned bright red and Youngjae guffawed obnoxiously. “He’s so shy. Girl, if you don’t want him, I sort of want to adopt him as a pet. He’s so cute.”

            When the birthday cake was presented, her brother pulled Zelo aside. “I have a little surprise for her. Make sure you’re not standing near her when she cuts the cake.”

            Zelo looked a little confused. Her brother winked at him and he nodded. He has seen these fake bomb cakes before. They explode when you cut into them and the outer layer reveals the cake on the inside. He debated whether to tell her but then decided it’ll be fun to see her getting caked.

            They sang the birthday song to her, with Zelo playfully rapping a part, much to the delight of the other boys. She closed her eyes, made a wish and cut into the cake. There was a ting as the device was triggered and everyone ducked for cover.

            When they scrambled up, they saw her, staring around indignantly. “Hey! You all knew!” her eyes landed on Zelo, who was also safe and laughing.

            “You knew too!” He nodded and she huffed. “Watch. Next time it’s your birthday, I’m going all out.”

requested by ijustsneeze and happy birthday to tacoko 

don't ask about the ending LOL