LOTS OF SWEARS, SORRY IF YOU'RE UNCOMFORTABLE

Donghae hates birthdays.

Actually, no, he doesn’t. He hates his birthday, but he doesn’t hate anyone else’s. He thinks it’s childish that he’s held a grudge for years, but Donghae can’t help his childish nature, especially when everyone had forgotten his birthday completely a few years ago.

However this year, he doesn’t think it’ll be that bad.

Especially when he wakes up to a text message. Not just any text message though; a text message from Hyukjae.

[9:21] Hyukkie ♥: Hae! Meet me at the park, okay??? No questions asked!!! Just go! ^^
[9:22] Hyukkie ♥: By the way, happy birthday, you doof

Donghae squints groggily because honestly he’s very tired and doesn’t want to go anywhere. However, the mere thought of spending a special day like this with his best friend whom he may or may not have feelings for makes Donghae very excited.

Upon remembering the time everyone had forgotten his birthday though, his mood dims slightly, although he tells himself any day with Hyukjae is the best present ever.

He quickly gets up his feet and is ready to go and meet Hyukjae in no time.

“Excuse me,” Donghae asks the man sitting on the bench where he and Hyukjae usually sit on together to meet. “Have you seen a young man, kind of slim and angular jawline?”

Donghae is honestly confused. Hyukjae is not at the place he had told Donghae to be at, and the man was usually very punctual. He’s a little hurt, but it’s hidden behind bubbling worry that Hyukjae might be injured.

“Oh yes, he passed here just a few minutes ago,” the old man says with a tired smile, understanding Donghae’s very vague description. He leans against his cane, and pulls a small, folded piece of paper from his pocket and puts it in Donghae’s hand gently. The old man’s hand is rough, and feels like wisdom. “He left his behind, and told me to give it to you.”

“Oh, okay, thank you sir!” Donghae says quickly with a bow. He heads off back in the direction in which he came, opening the sheet of paper clumsily, heart sinking slightly at the thought that maybe Hyukjae is too busy to meet him.

“Jesus , Lee Hyukjae,” he mutters to himself as he notices that it’s ripped from a math book, and wants to groan at Hyukjae for being so careless (yet extremely cute).

Dear Donghae,

Christmas last year. Where did we go? What did we do?

Hint: You kept them all.

Donghae lets out a small gasp and a breathless smile, remembering the day very clearly. They had gone to a Christmas festival held in the space in front of the shopping centre only ten minutes away from the park he was at right now.

He sets off immediately at a rather fast pace, trying to think of anything that particularly stood out on the day, though his mind is entirely focused on the thought of seeing Hyukjae. He furrows his brows, scrunching the paper in his hands because they had been hanging out since morning when he had woken up till midnight when he fell asleep on the bus by accident and Hyukjae had to carry him home.

The only thing in his mind on the day was how Donghae burst into tears when Hyukjae told him to make a wish, knowing his wish of Hyukjae liking him back would honestly never come true. They hugged after that, and he remembers something that Hyukjae had whispered in his ear about wished being bull anyway. The rest is really fuzzy though, and Donghae can’t seem to remember anything else.

Unscrunching the piece of torn paper once more, Donghae’s eyes scan the note for hints. He finally reads the ‘you kept them all’ and a light bulb seems to go off in his head.

Reaching into his pocket, he pats his wallet in which he stored them all.

Donghae’s eyes immediately scan the area. His mind thinks back to when it was decorated in white, him and Hyukjae sitting together on the benches in lame jumpers and beanies. It’s much less crowded though, obviously. He want to groan because it looks like no one’s here, which means the person he wants to see the most won’t be here either.

“God dammit,” Donghae curses under his breath, but upon seeing the large photo booth, a large grin blooms as he runs towards it, eager to get this over with and be with Hyukjae.

Donghae pushes past the cloth, and as shocked when there’s a loud snap and a flash, realising he’d accidentally got into someone’s photo.

He pulls out immediately, squeaking out a small “sorry!”

“No, that’s alright,” says a rather short female, walking out of the photo booth with a bright smile. She has bright red lips and a cute mole on her left cheek. “We were just finishing, weren’t we, Kyu?”

A man follows straight behind her, tall and lanky with chestnut hair in messy curls. The girl takes his hand in her own immediately, snatching up the photos in his other hand and fawning over them. Donghae peers over, and notices how in one of them, it’s just a close up of his nose.

“Hyuna,” he says slowly. His voice is noticeably deep, a contrast to the shorter, and more outgoing girl. Donghae doesn’t stop to think about how they don’t seem to match each other at all. “Are you forgetting something?”

Hyuna suddenly frowns, and Kyuhyun lets out a small sound (is it a laugh?). He turns to Donghae, and said man suddenly wants to shrink down into his shoes.

“Hyukjae-hyung was just here, I’m assuming you’re looking for him,” Kyuhyun says, voice monotone. Donghae furrows his brows- how did Hyukjae know Kyuhyun and his girlfriend (?) would be coming? “ing monkey needs to stop using me as a pawn. Anyway,” Hyuna finally lets out a small gasp and she takes out a small, crumpled piece of paper from her pocket (once again ripped from a math book, dear lord). “Here’s the note he wanted to give you.”

Donghae takes the small note from Hyuna and bows thankfully.

“Well, Hyuna and I have to go eat lunch now,” says Kyuhyun. Donghae checks his watch: 11:54. He widens his eyes at how much time has passed. “Nice seeing you, Donghae-ssi.”

Something tells Donghae that he just wants to get away and spend more time alone with Hyuna.

“Wait no, Kyu,” says Hyuna. Kyuhyun hold his breath, but his eyes are soft. “I’m going to stay and talk to Donghae for a while, okay? You go first, I’ll meet you at the restaurant.”

Kyuhyun sighs slightly.

“Okay, sweetie, don’t take too long.”

With that, Kyuhyun is gone, and Donghae is left alone with the small, chipper little woman.

“You know,” Hyuna starts. “That’s really sweet of Hyukjae to do something like this for your birthday. Kyuhyun and I have been together for almost a year now, and he hasn’t done anything this special for me yet.”

Donghae lets out a small encouraging smile.

“Don’t worry, Hyuna,” says Donghae. Although he feels bad for Hyuna, his heart beats faster and the butterflies in his stomach flutter faster at the thought that Hyukjae would do something this sweet for him. “Kyuhyun’s not the type of guy. He does love you though, I’m sure. Don’t worry about it, go have lunch with him now! Maybe he’ll surprise you.”

Hyuna laughs. “No, there’s never any surprises like this. I wish Kyuhyun would be more like Hyukjae, but you know, I shouldn’t complain.”

“Speaking of which,” Donghae starts. He kind of wants to open the clue immediately and get going, but he has a question burning at the back of his mind. “Why are you and Kyuhyun together, if you don’t mind me asking? You guys seem very different.”

Her cheeks dust pink, and her eyes seems fixed on her feet. Donghae knows the feeling very well, being able to recall the exact moment he knew he fell in love with his very own best friend.

“Well, last Christmas I was here with a few friends, and they all left before the concert started. I stayed around though, and Kyuhyun was on the stage singing, and I just fell in love at first sight.” Hyuna sighs happily at the memory. “Thankfully, although it was kind of crowded, he saw me and smiled and came to find me after the show. We kind of just… started from there?”

“Oh,” Donghae realises. “So that was his voice?”

“Yeah,” Hyuna nods. “Anyway, I should get going! All this talk about Kyuhyun makes me want to see him.”

Donghae smiles, because he completely understands that as well. “That’s okay; I really want to get to see Hyukjae now too.”

“Okay, good luck,” says Hyuna with a dramatic wink, and Donghae gulps because it seems like Hyuna just knows. “And happy birthday!”

When Hyuna is completely gone, he turns around and gets back to walking out of the shopping centre’s lot. He opens the crumbled piece of paper. It reads:

Hey!! ^^;;

I know this might be too much, and you might not want to go, but could you go to that one place I always go with my family to have fancy dinners?

Hint: It’s far, far away. You have to take the ferry.

Donghae wants to sigh, and he wants to be annoyed, but frankly, he’s just too excited to