Namjoon doesn’t really get birthday presents anymore. Sure, when he sees his parents they’ll no doubt spoil him rotten and the rest of the group will band together to sneak an unholy amount of junk food into the dorm that night, but it’s not the same as when he was a kid. Namjoon misses the days when birthday’s provoked anticipation, prickling in his fingertips a week before the main event at the prospect of presents and cake.

He still gets cake of course, Big Hit aren’t yet stingy enough to skimp on that, and now when attention falls on him in celebration of his birthday it’s a global event,

“Your birthday is the third trending topic on twitter!” Hoseok announces happily as they pile into the van to move to their next music show rehearsal.

Yoongi raises his eyebrows, “wow, third trending in Seoul ain’t bad”

“Not bad at all,” Hoseok agrees, “except these are the worldwide trends I'm looking at,”

“What the ?” Namjoon leans forward to get a better look at Hoseok’s phone and sure enough, his birthday hashtag is sitting comfortably at third place just behind 9/11 and the Pistorius trial. 

“People are talking about you more than the new iPhone!” Jungkook shouts from the front seat, “you made it hyeong!”

“We already know that we have fans all over the place, how are you lot even surprised anymore?” Taehyung asks matter of factly

“We’re barely a year into this gig and the excitement of being famous has already worn off on you?” Yoongi sighs, “Namjoon, congrats on your twitter success,”

“I didn’t do anything!”

“Well you can send the fans a cheesy thank you note later,” Yoongi settles back into his seat and the van settles back into the comfortable silence that characterises their better days on the move. 

They spent the majority of their free time backstage at the Music Bank recording taking pictures of each of the other members trying to ‘kiss’ Namjoon and adding various degrees of sappy messages to the images as they went up on twitter. Even from the backseat Namjoon can see Jimin flicking through responses to the posts and giggling to himself. And to think, the cake has yet to come.

“Having a good birthday?” Seokjin mumbles. He’s slouched against Namjoon’s shoulder looking like he might fall asleep at any moment. He probably should fall asleep, he and Hoseok were up late last night doing ‘secret things’ that Namjoon strongly suspects will cease to be a secret when they get home but he knows as well as any of them do that the only thing harder than staying awake during busy schedules is trying to wake up again after a nap.

Namjoon wrestles his arm out from under the dead weight of Seokjin’s body and throws it around his shoulder, “it’s alright. Same as any other day I guess.”

“Yeah you’re just trending internationally on twitter no biggie”

“Well that doesn’t exactly remove the eight million things I need to do before I have the free time to celebrate,”

Seokjin smirks and he sits up a little straighter, “and what exactly would you like to do to celebrate?”

“Given Hoseok’s track record organising birthdays I doubt I have much say in it,”

“You can’t think of anything that Hoseok might have forgotten?”

Seokjin leans in till they’re close enough for their noses to brush, “nothing at all?”

Sliding his free hand into Seokjin’s, Namjoon leans in the rest of the way to kiss his boyfriend, quickly and quietly before any of the others can start a fuss. “Well, maybe one thing”

And then Seokjin is beaming back at him, eyes shining despite the fatigue and breath fluttering against Namjoon’s cheek. He’s so warm, so pretty, and Namjoon figures that if he wants to be a bit obnoxious with the PDA then the others can deal with it. 

It’s his birthday after all. 

From the front of the van comes a drawn out groan, “they’re playing tonsil hockey aren’t they? I’m gonna turn around and they’ll have their tongues down each other’s throats,”

“Shut up Jungkook,” Yoongi sighs, “we’re all trying to pretend it’s not happening,”

Taehyung frowns “How do you even know what they’re doing you’re nowhere near them?”

“I have a sixth sense for these things,”

“He’s right,” Namjoon pauses kissing Seokjin long enough to gather everyone’s attention, “do you have any idea how many times I’ve avoided seeing Hoseok getting blown because of him?”

“If you never saw me how did you know I was getting blown?”

“No one is as chipper as you unless they’re getting head on the regular”

“ he’s right,” Yoongi shakes his head in disbelief, “how did I not see it before?”

Hoseok purses his lips in irritation, “please, explain to me where you think I find the time to get my wet and I promise you I’ll make good use of it!”

It’s easy to drown them out once they start bickering, and Namjoon makes the most of the rest of the car journey to push the boundaries of what he and Seokjin would normally consider appropriate behaviour in front of the others. And he'd be lying if he said there isn't something kind of fun about flicking the bird at Jungkook every time he makes the mistake of looking in their direction and passing comment: ‘I’m still a kid you know this is like child abuse or something’



By the time they step out of the van at their next destination, both Namjoon and Seokjin’s lips are pink from kissing and the maknae wants nothing more to do with either of them, 

“So I was thinking I’d send the others out for pizza when we got home,” Seokjin mutters to Namjoon as they walk into the building, close but not so close as they could be holding hands. Appearances matter after all. 

Namjoon frowns, “pizza? That late at night? They’ll be gone for ages,”

“Do you think they’ll be gone long enough for me to you off?” Seokjin is smiling at the fansite masters swarming the area, looking innocent as ever. Namjoon blinks at him, 

“I might be able to manage that,”

And just like that his birthday feels special after all.