My family hasn’t been a birthday gifts kind of family in a really long time. Ever since high school, birthday gifts to and from my parents have lost its meaning. As far as my parents saw it, there was no point in them getting me anything when I could just get it myself, and vice versa. It made sense, I guess. 

However, this year, my dad’s birthday also marked his retirement. Well, not completely. He was handing his job over to Joonmyun officially, and he would stick around as an advisor to watch over him. There was a formal party involved that marked this official passing of the torch, inviting friends, family, and business associates to celebrate this moment. 

I brought Sehun as my date, but by now, we were not longer hot news. I guess the minor scandals we had caused had already blown over – the media was really so fickle. I found Lu Han deep in conversation with Joonmyun, and decided to wave hello and not interrupt. Baekhyun and Yixing were talking under their breath about the daughter of a business associate who was here when I snuck up behind them. 

“I hear she’s a ,” I supplied to their analyses with a straight face. “Joonmyun says even her appearance is not worth her terrible personality.”

“Damn it,” Baekhyun muttered under his breath. “She’s so hot though.”

Yixing seemed to agree even as he turned away to scan the crowd again. 

“Have you seen Sehun?” I asked. I had lost my boyfriend somewhere near the bar when Tiffany, Joonmyun’s friend since childhood, pulled me to the corner to gossip about some guy she had just recently started seeing. She’d asked about Sehun too, but by the time I turned to look, Sehun had moved somewhere else. 

“Nope,” Yixing said, then frowned. “But I did see Kim Jongin. Did you know that he was here? Who the hell invited him?”

That was news to me. “Oh really? It’s a business thing, I guess. We’ve been in charge of marketing a lot of his endorsement photoshoots.”

Yixing made a face. “I bet your mom is wishing she’d never done the-thing. Then her daughter could still be dating the nation’s prince, Kim Kai.” 

Baekhyun’s head snapped to stare at me. “You and – oh, Jongin is Kim Kai?”

“The past is the past,” I waved his curious questions away. “Anyway, I’m going to go look for Sehun.”

Instead of finding Sehun back at the bar where I last saw him, I instead found Kim Jongin leaning against the counter. Just my luck. He was dressed head to toe in a designer suit, and sported a dashing bowtie. However, his dark hair was dyed a blond-gray color that made him look ethereally handsome. 

“Naeun, can we talk?” he asked under his breath. 

I looked straight ahead. “The media is here,” I hissed back. “They’ll make up rumors.”

“Tomorrow, then?” he persisted. “The ddeokbokki place near the Han river?”

Even without asking, I knew which place he was talking about. We had gone there a lot back in high school, and that was the place where Jongin had first told me that he liked me. 

I didn’t want to go, I really didn’t. But I had avoided talking to Jongin for years, avoided this conversation. What was I even afraid of? I guess I was afraid to find out that none of what we had was real. However, it wasn’t something I could avoid forever. I needed closure too. 

“Fine,” I whispered, turning away. “10PM, don’t be late.”
 
Of course, I told Sehun as soon as I found him. 

“No,” he said at once. “I don’t want you going.”

“Don’t you trust me?” I asked.

“I trust you, but I don’t trust him,” Sehun growled. “You’re mine.” Sehun was kind of cute when he was possessive. 

Eventually, he grumbled his way to agreement, although the pout never reall