Detective Myunseok didn't contact you after the police station incident. You had no idea where the investigation was going and the detective had said that he couldn't tell you who his leads were because they weren't confirmed.

It was your birthday today, the winter break was almost done. You and Se Hun spent most of your time hanging out with each other, EXO, and enjoying the Heejung-free house. You hadn’t gotten a chance to visit Infinite, but you missed them a lot.

Se Hun had a bruise on his cheek because of the lady at the station. He also had a couple on his chest that he didn't tell you about.

You opened your eyes, *I'm 17.*

You didn't care that much though, you soon forgot that it was your birthday and washed up. This was normal, you didn't really care about your birthday, and the only part you liked was that you were one year older. That you had another year's worth of memories and another one to make more.

You sighed, wiping your face with a towel. Last year at this time, Hoya had surprised you with an amazing breakfast and he and Infinite redecorated your room (they all took turns: half of them would keep you busy while the other half redecorated it). It hadn't been very extravagant, they moved your furniture around, painted the walls a different colour, and added a few decorations. It had been simple and nice, and Hoya hadn't spent that much money on it which was why you liked it so much. It had been a memorable birthday.

Last year, you would have never thought that your next birthday would be without Hoya.
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Se Hun opened one of his eyes and then the other, then he bounded off the bed. *Noona's birthday!*

He quickly took a shower and changed his clothes.

He looked in your room, but saw that you weren't there and went downstairs.

“Hi, noona.” He greeted normally when he got into the dining room, he sat across from you. You were playing on your phone, waiting for Se Hun to arrive so that both of you could start breakfast together.

“Morning.” You smiled. Infinite hadn't sent you any 'Happy Birthday' texts. You didn't mind, but it was pretty odd.

You noticed Se Hun had changed his clothes before breakfast, something he never did until lunchtime normally.

“Why are you dressed before lunch? Are you meeting Jiyeon?” You teased, biting into your toast.

Se Hun's smile vanished and he gave you a look, “Noonaaa! No!”

You laughed as he started his breakfast. The two of you had been enjoying the Heejung-free house to the fullest.

“Well? Then why are you dressed?” You asked.

“Lu Han told me about hygiene, and Sooyeon ajhumma made me try it out today.” He said sadly, as if hygiene was the worst thing in the world. But that was just an excuse, today was going to be a busy day for him.

“Ahhh.” You nodded. “So what are the plans for today?”

“Actually, uh, I have stuff to do here at home.” He cleared his throat. “But Xiumin, Chen, Tao, Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and D.D hyung want to take you out today. They're taking you somewhere.”

“What stuff do you have to do?” You raised an eyebrow.

“Just you know, stuff.” Se Hun said, finishing his breakfast.

You shrugged, “Okay.”

“They'll be here to pick you up soon.” He told you.

You nodded, “I'm going to get dressed.” You went upstairs to change. You wore a plaid shirt (that L had given you), black jeans, and a pair of converse. You grabbed your coat and bag and went downstairs.

All of EXO were there, talking in hushed voices. When they saw you, they immediately quieted down.

You slung your bag over your shoulder, “Uh, what's going on?” You asked suspiciously.

“Nothing!” Chanyeol said in an unusually high voice. Baekhyun snorted and elbowed him.

“Well, you guys better get going now.” Se Hun urged. “Buh-bye.”

“What are the rest of you going to do here?” You asked.

“Stuff.” Kai and Se Hun answered. Lay, Lu Han, Kris, and Suho shook their heads.

“Ooookay.” You gave them odd looks. *What are they up to? They don't know about my birthday, do they? Impossible..... I've never told them anything about it.... Unless they asked L oppa.... but he would have told me....*

You decided that they were just acting they way they usually did; like weirdos.

“Let's go now!” Xiumin ushered you out the door. “We'll be back in a couple of hours, bye!”

Baekhyun, Chanyeol, D.O, Tao, and Chen followed him.

“Where are we going?” You asked as they forced you into a huge limo, piling in after you.

“The mall.” Baekhyun informed you.

“We’re going shopping?” you raised an eyebrow.

He nodded, “We’re picking Jihyun noona up first.”

“Why didn’t she come with Kai?”

“She’s at her job right now.” Chen said.

“She has a job?” you repeated. Kai’s family seemed quite wealthy, why would she need a job?

Chen nodded, “Noona doesn’t want to just take money from her parents to pay for her university, so she got a job to pay for part of it.”

“Ohhhh. Where does she work?” you asked.

“At a bar.” Chanyeol answered.

Your eyes widened, “What?!”

“Just kidding.” Chanyeol chuckled. “She works at a fast-food restaurant in the mornings.”

The limo arrived at her workplace and Jihyun scrambled out of the restaurant. She waved at her co-workers before getting in the limo.

“Hi noona!” the boys chorused.

“Hi unnie.” You smiled.

“Heeeeyyy.” She sat down beside you. “So, which mall are we going to?”

“The cool one!” Xiumin said excitedly. “The one with the good food court!”

“Of course.” Jihyun rolled her eyes, then whispered to Chen, “Are you sure it was a good idea to let the boys, especially Se Hun and Kai, stay there and get everything ready by themselves?”

Chen nodded, “Kris hyung is there.”

Jihyun nodded and straightened up, “Got it.”

You all arrived at the mall and they took you on an unnecessary shopping spree. They were planning on taking you to every store in the mall, starting with the one closest to the entrance.

“How about this, Haerin?” Xiumin held up a flashy dress covered in fruit.

“Oh, uh, it’s uh, a little too bright for my taste.” You smiled weakly. “But since you’re probably going to marry some sort of food, you should save that dress for her.”

Baekhyun laughed and high-fived you. Xiumin joined in by nodding and saying, “You’re right, Haerin. I’ll save this for Mrs. Bun.”

“Try this on.” Chen handed you a light purple, casual dress. You did and it fit really well, and everyone agreed that you looked good in it.

“You look so good, Haerin!” Chanyeol wiggled his eyebrows and put an arm around you.

“If Se Hun saw you right now, he would bite your hand off.” Baekhyun remarked, taking Chanyeol away.

“Okay, we’ve bought a couple of clothes, let’s go home now.” You suggested.

“NO!” everyone shouted. You jumped, “Huh?”

“Oh, uh, what they mean is that we haven’t done enough shopping! We’ve only been to one store!” Jihyun exclaimed. “Let’s go look at the jewelry somewhere else.”

“But I’ve bought so much more than I normally do.” you mumbled.

“Nonsense, you only bought a dress, two shirts, and a skirt.” Jihyun waved it away.

You sighed, “Fine, let me go take this dress off and then we can go to another store.”

“No!” they all shouted again.

“What? Why do you guys keep saying ‘no’?” you asked, raising an eyebrow.

“You should just wear it home.” Tao said. “Excuse me! We’re done now and she’ll be wearing the dress out!” he pointed at you.

A sales lady came by and took your clothes from you, Jihyun’s clothes from her, and EXO’s purchases. She scanned the dress you were wearing and then left.

You ripped the price tag off, “Okay, where to next?”

“Chanyeol, what are you doing?” Baekhyun asked, giving Chanyeol a weird look. He was holding price stickers in his hands.

Chanyeol grinned, “I’m taking the original prices off and putting it on other stuff. The next person who picks this notebook up is gunna be surprised that it’s $50.95.”

“Stop that! You’re going to get us in trouble!” Bakehyun hissed.

“Don’t worry, no one will find out. It’s the only fun thing about shopping.” Chanyeol assured.

Baekhyun shook his head and sighed. You laughed, *So childish.*

The boys and Jihyun took you to practically every store in the mall and gave their purchases to the salesclerk that was there, saying they would pick it up on their way out. This was a big, expensive mall and everything was really nice. All of them made sure you bought something from each store they went to. The boys would always do something stupid and make you laugh, that was the fun part.

“Can we go home now?” you groaned as you sipped on a fruit smoothie.

Chen looked at his phone and smiled at you, “Yeah, let’s go.”

“YAYY!” you cheered. Jihyun laughed, “What kind of a girl are you? You don’t like shopping? Oh come on, don’t tell me you didn’t have fun today!”

“I did, you made shopping a lot more funner than when I went shopping with oppa.” You smiled. “But I still don’t like it that much.” You made a face.

Tao suddenly hopped on a horse, it was one of those rides that were in some parts of a mall for little kids.

“What are you doing?!” Xiumin gave him an odd look, “You’re such a giant, this is a kids ride!”

Tao shooed him away, “Can someone put a coin in there and turn this thing on?”

Everyone walked away from the giant baby.

“Hey! Where you going?!” Tao scrambled after. “I wanted to ride that!”

“Yeah, and you would have scared all the kids away.” Chanyeol snorted.

“Would not!”

“Would too!”

They argued until you all arrived at the entrance of the mall, then Chen told them to shut up because he was getting a headache.

The boys paid for their things and Jihyun did as well.

When it was your turn, Chen stepped in.

“Here you go.” He smiled at the man who was in charge of Haerin’s purchases.

“What are you doing?” you asked Chen. “I’m paying!”

Chen shook his head, “Se Hun said you have to buy whatever you’re buying with that card.”

“What?! No!” you shook your head, and hit his arm lightly.

“Hey, don’t kill the messenger.” Chen shrugged, taking the card back from the man after he had used it.

“Well, then I’m not taking these.” You crossed your arms and walked away.

“You weren’t going to anyways!” Chen called. You looked back and saw them carrying all the bags.

You blew a raspberry and Jihyun patted your shoulder, “Just go with it.”

You took your phone out and texted Se Hun, [Sent at 4:43] I hate you, Oh Se Hun!

[Received at 4:44] Oh just go with it, noona. I hope you bought nice stuff :D

You shook your head as everyone sat in the limo.

“Are we all going so Se Hun and Haerin’s?” Jihyun asked.

Xiumin nodded.

“I am so hungry!” Chaneyeol exclaimed.

“Well, I’m sure there’s lots of food at home since the p-”

But Tao couldn’t finish his sentence because Baekhyun stuffed a piece of gum in his mouth, “Since the prices for food went down and ajhumma’s been going grocery shopping a lot? I agree, now chew. Your. Gum.”

Tao looked baffled but chewed the gum, “What flavour is this? I don’t like mint!”

“Shut up.” Baekhyun said, giving him an ‘I-don’t-care’ look.

When they arrived at your house, everyone pushed you forward.

“Ladies first!” Xiumin smiled, his cheeks looking chubbier than usual.

Jihyun rolled her eyes, *They are so obvious, Haerin’s way too naïve.*

“Um, okay.” You gave him a weird look and unlocked the door. You held it open for everyone else.

“They can hold the door for themselves.” Chanyeol said, walking in behind you.

“Uhhh, okay.” You mumbled taking your shoes off and going in the house deeper.

When you turned around, your eyes widened. The entire living room and main hall was decorated.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAYYY!” EXO yelled, throwing balloons and confetti in the air.

Your eyes widened and you put a hand over your mouth *No way.*

“Haerin-ah! Happy birthday!”

“My boo! Happy birthday!”

“I can’t believe you’re turning 17 before me. Whatever, happy birthday!”

Infinite walked into the room with big smiles on their faces.

“Oppas!” you squealed and gave them all hugs.

“But, how did you know it was my birthday?” you asked EXO. “Did they tell you?” you gave Infinite suspicious looks.

“No. You have an extremely creepy brother over there.” Woohyun pointed at Se Hun who smiled innocently.

“I do my research better than the FBI.” He grinned.

“Why though?” you asked, looking at the decorations and all the effort that had been put into it.

He shrugged, “Cuz you deserve it, noona! This will be the best party ever and you won’t be sad ever again!”

You were touched, he did that for you?

“We were sent to be the distractions.”  Xiumin smiled cheekily.

*Awwww.* you completely melted.

“To be honest, I didn’t trust these boys to handle the party.” Jihyun confessed. “But you guys did pretty good!”

“Please, Jihyun noona, I know you’re talking about us. Don’t underestimate our skills.” Kai pointed at himself and Se Hun.

“Cake time! Into the kitchen!” Sooyeon called.

“Into the kitchen!” the boys chorused.

Se Hun walked with you into the kitchen and there was a big cake in on the table.

“Wow.” You were awed.

“Like the cake, noona?” Kai grinned, calling you ‘noona’ for the first time. “I picked it out.”

“I helped!” Se Hun argued.

“Yeah, whatever.” Kai rolled his eyes.

“I want to light the candles!” Se Hun excitedly took the lighter from the table.

“No.” Lu Han snatched it away. “Definitely not.”

“But I like fire.” Se Hun pouted.

“Yeah, exactly.” Lu Han rolled his eyes. “You can do it.” He passed the lighter to L, who was standing behind you.

L nodded and lit the candles.

“Don’t forget to make a wish!” Sungyeol reminded.

You nodded as you thought of your wish. The immediate thought was for Hoya to come back.

But that was a silly, unrealistic wish.

*I wish that my life with all these wonderful people will be filled with happiness and good times.*

Before you blew them out, you looked at Se Hun, “Blow them out with me.”

Se Hun gave you a confused look, “Huh? But you’re supposed to!”

“On all my other birthdays, my brother blew out the candles with me. Tradition can’t change, right?” you said, smiling lightly.

Se Hun’s mouth turned into an ‘o’ *She really thinks of me as her brother?*

Grinning, he stood beside you. He took your hand and together, both of you blew the candles out.

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Hellllooooo

I like the end of this chapter (: kinda cute

Story's almost over~! 4-5 chapters left~~~

I don't really have much to say.... Maybe it's cuz I'm hungry... Gunna go hunt for food.

Taemin on WGM, lalalaaa, looking forward to it. I'm watching Shinee's Wonderful day and Onew is so cuteeee

I'm also watching 49 days again. I didn't really like the ending, I don't like how she died T_T

So this time when I watch it, I'm gunna not watch the last two episodes and pretend like my happy ending happened!

Kay, byebye~! :D

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