Hey guys, sorry for the late update. My computer broke down, and deleted whatever I wrote for the next chapter.... And then I was busy with school work and everything, and even now, I'm in the midst of taking exams and studying for them and all, and my life's pretty hectic right now. Will try to update again later! You guys make procrastinating worthwhile <3333333333

There seems to be a myungyeol pic for every occasion xD

“Can you remember the dance we went through last time?” Myungsoo whispered to Sungyeol as they made their way over to Woohyun’s house. It made sense that they’d have dance lessons there, because his was the biggest out of the seven friends’ houses. Myungsoo couldn’t think why Hoya hadn’t held lessons there before.

“Yeah.” Sungyeol smiled.

Both boys had hung back from the rest of the group (who acted like they hadn’t noticed), so that they could walk side by side.

“What comes after this…?” Myungsoo went through a few dance steps.

Sungyeol watched, hesitated.

“Uhh…” He tapped his chin thoughtfully.

“This…” Sungyeol’s arms moved about uncertainly. “Or this…” Sungyeol’s arms moved in the other direction. “Maybe this…?” Sungyeol tried again.

Myungsoo shook his head and smiled.

“Never mind, I’ll ask Hoya later.”

He realized that they were lagging behind their friends. Myungsoo picked up pace, trying to close the distance between them and their friends.

He took the opportunity to do something he’d been wanting to, but never plucked up the courage to do.

“Hurry up!” Myungsoo grabbed Sungyeol’s hand, twined their fingers tightly together, gave them a squeeze, and dragged Sungyeol behind him as he jogged up to his friends.

Of course, they were bound to notice.

“Ooo…” Woohyun grinned at Myungsoo.

“Awww…” Sunggyu breathed, and Sungjong came to walk beside him with a tissue on hand just in case.

Hoya and Dongwoo simply wiggled their eyebrows suggestively at the pair.

Sungyeol’s fingers started to twitch at the attention they were receiving, but Myungsoo refused to let go of Sungyeol’s hand, and laced their fingers together, so that their hands were just a jumble of fingers and sweaty palms all balled into one.

Myungsoo looked everywhere but Sungyeol, much to their friends’ amusement.

He didn’t let go until they’d reached Woohyun’s door, and he had to bend down to remove his shoes. What he didn’t see was the way Sungyeol’s face lit up whenever he looked wonderingly down at their hands.

Woohyun paused; hand on the knob of the door. Six people exchanged barely concealed looks of excitement.

Sunggyu coughed.

Everyone (excluding Sungyeol) whipped out their kazoos stashed in their various pockets, and blew as hard as they could, and Myungsoo fished out a party popper to add to the din.

“Gahh!” Sungyeol started, raising his hands to cover his head, as if to protect himself from assault. He opened one eye, then the other.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!”

Woohyun laughed at Sungyeol’s distressed expression (think severely constipated.), and flung open the door to reveal the living room covered with a hundred balloons personally blown up by Myungsoo, the decorations on the walls done by the Yadong couple, and the pile of presents from all of them the centerpiece on the table. They shoved Sungyeol in, ruffling his hair, patting his back.

It was only after several minutes had passed, and Sungyeol hadn’t made a noise, that they realized something wasn’t quite right.

One tear rolled down Sungyeol’s cheek, chased by another, and another, till the guy was practically sobbing over them (literally. Sungyeol was the tallest of their group).

His friends hung back, bewildered.

“I…” Sungyeol hiccupped and tried to smile (scary, Sungjong gulped), “I love you guys…” Then he turned, and gave the best smile he could manage to Myungsoo, to reassure the boy that he loved him most.

The weight of six people all trying to hold him in bone crushing hugs all at once was too much to bear, and they crashed to the floor, squishing each other in the process of trying to squish Sungyeol, who let out a very unmanly sounding squeak.

“You guys…” Sungyeol concluded, breathless, “…are the best!” He attempted fending off Sungjong, Sunggyu and Woohyun who were currently rubbing balloons against his head to try making his hair stand up as if he’d been electrocuted or something. His other hand went down trying to protect himself from the merciless tickling fingers of Hoya and Dongwoo. Myungsoo simply lay beside him on the floor, watching him with his unfathomable eyes and a slight smile playing about his lips.

Yes, Myungsoo was sure now. He loved this idiot.

Myungsoo got up on one elbow, and joined in the fun, helping Hoya and Dongwoo tickle Sungyeol.

“People!” Sungjong shouted from the kitchen. The boys tussling on the floor looked up, completely disheveled. No one had noticed when the maknae’d left the little battle of tickling fingers.

Sungjong stood in the doorway of the living room, balancing a huge brown-coloured cake in his hands. Sungyeol’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head.

The rest of the boys sang the birthday song so loud for Sungyeol that he was convinced all of Woohyun’s neighbors knew his name.

“Make a wish.” Myungsoo’s eyes smiled at him as Sungyeol inhaled to blow the candle out.

A wish? Sungyeol held his breath so long his face turned a tad purple. He looked around at the people beside him. He had everything. All that mattered to him was right there at that very moment. What could he possibly want more?

And then his eyes travelled to Myungsoo’s and he screwed them tightly shut, and wished as hard as he could for something impossible.

Please. Sungyeol didn’t know who he was begging. Please, I wish for a happy ending. Don’t let Myungsoo die.

And when he opened his eyes again, Myungsoo was smiling at him, and Sungyeol’s hasty wish seemed like the most important thing in the world. Sungyeol wouldn’t have wished for anything else.

“Snacks!” Woohyun cried, putting his plate down once they’d dissected the cake and messily divided the various shapes and sizes among the friends.

“I’ll help you…” Sunggyu followed him, and nobody was surprised.

Myungsoo leaned back against the sofa, where he was seated on the floor at the coffee table, and secretly crept an arm around Sungyeol next to him. Sungyeol’s heart skipped a beat at the contact, and he choked on his cake. Myungsoo looked apologetic, the arm he’d wrapped around Sungyeol left and was replaced by a hand patting Sungyeol’s back.

“I’ll get you a drink.” Myungsoo got up and headed to the kitchen.

He rounded the corner to see Woohyun leaning closer to Sunggyu, much like when he’d been interrupted that afternoon. Myungsoo awkwardly cleared his throat, and Woogyu jerked away, and pretended they’d never been caught at almost-kissing.

“Hyungs…” Myungsoo decided that he was allowed to tease them a little, what with all the amusement they’d shown at him holding hands with Sungyeol earlier.

“What were you doing?” Myungsoo’s eyes sparkled with glee.

 “Sorry. Couldn’t help myself…” Woohyun didn’t even look phased. He sent a heart in Sunggyu’s direction, making the two boys cringe.

“What were you about to do this morning, Myungsoo?” Hoya joined them in the kitchen.

Myungsoo groaned. Not Hoya too…

“We were…” Myungsoo tried to come up with a third excuse.

“Say,” Woohyun turned to Myungsoo once Sunggyu left the kitchen to bring out bowls of chips with Hoya, and the only people left in the kitchen were Dongwoo, Woohyun and Myungsoo. “How far have you gone with Sungyeol?”

Myungsoo froze where he was, one hand on the jug of orange juice.

“How far…?”

His friends leaned in confidentially, and Myungsoo finally got Woohyun’s question.

“What?!” Myungsoo waved a hand in front of him. “We haven’t done anything!”

“Eyy…” Woohyun and Dongwoo looked skeptically at him. Then turned to each other.

Dongwoo looked at Woohyun.

“How about you?”

Woohyun looked less sure of himself. “Well…”

Dongwoo grinned. “Need some tips?” His eyebrows arched mirthfully.

“Ehh???” Woohyun and Myungsoo scrambled closer to Dongwoo. “You’ve done it already? When?”

Dongwoo grinned at them, but before he got a chance to tell, an embarrassed looking Hoya came and dragged him away by the arm.

Woohyun and Myungsoo looked at each other.

“Yadongggg!”

_______________________________________________________________________________________

“You wanna watch a movie?” Myungsoo asked Sungyeol, settling on the couch. Myungsoo stretched. Hoya had insisted that they still have a dance session after the party, and they’d nearly puked up all the junk food they’d eaten.

After the party, Sungyeol’d gone over to Myungsoo’s place, and both boys settled down in comfortable silence.

“Okay.” Sungyeol shrugged. He wasn’t really bothered actually. He was too busy unwrapping the pile of presents he’d brought back from his birthday party.

Dragging them over, Sungyeol sat at Myungsoo’s feet, tearing open the wrappers and reading the cards that came along with them. Sometimes he’d smile, and shake his head at the letters written on the cards, but there were a few that made him tear up as well. When he’d gone through the stack, Sungyeol looked up at the flickering television screen, disappointed.

He’d been looking forward to Myungsoo’s present. Had Myungsoo forgotten to get him one? Sungyeol pondered awhile. He figured that he’d not really know what to get Myungsoo if it was his birthday either, so he tried not to feel too bad about the absence of a present from Myungsoo. After all, celebrating his birthday with Myungsoo was a present in itself.

As Sungyeol stared at the screen, not really comprehending what the program was going on about, Myungsoo watched Sungyeol. Myungsoo remembered when he’d done the same to the guy he’d once called his best friend. Myungsoo thought about how special Sungyeol was to him, how lucky he was to be with the boy.

Myungsoo realized he’d not said something important to Sungyeol yet.

Leaning down, Myungsoo wrapped his arms around Sungyeol’s neck and rested his cheek against Sungyeol’s soft hair. He swallowed, mouth going dry.

“You smell nice…” Myungsoo whispered.

That wasn’t what he’d really wanted to say. Myungsoo held his breath, then let it out all in one go.

“I love you.”

 Myungsoo’s voice was clearer this time, because the words rang so true that they made everything else he’d ever said to Sungyeol sound like lies. That gave him the courage to pull out the little velvet box that’d waited in his pocket for what felt like eternity. He took one of Sungyeol’s wrists in his hand, and fitted the box in his palm, and curled Sungyeol’s fingers over it.

“Go on,” Myungsoo encouraged, seeing Sungyeol just look at him dazedly. “Open it!”

And Sungyeol did. Running his fingers over the little silver figures of eight, Sungyeol breathed out in wonder. Of course Myungsoo hadn’t forgotten. Sungyeol had been stupid to think otherwise. Behind him, Myungsoo clocked his reaction, grinning as wide as ever. Only Sungyeol made him smile like that, it seemed.

Glancing behind him at the clock that hung in the kitchen, Myungsoo was just about able to make out the hands of the clock nearly aligned at twelve. He still had a few seconds left.

Myungsoo’s arms tightened around Sungyeol.

“Happy birthday…”