Youngji woke up to a very familiar warm smile beside her. It was her mom's. She rubbed her eyes tiredly and blinked a few times, still sleepy. 

"Youngji-ah, wake up!" Her mom shaked her shoulder gently, wanting her to wake up. Youngji blinked a few more times before she stretched her hands. She yawned cutely as she slowly sat up from the couch. 

"What time is it, omma?" 

"It's almost seven. You better hurry up." her mom said, while taking the remote control and turned off the television.

"Ah, almost seven," youngji nodded, but then she widened her eyes, "what?! Oh my, why didn't you wake me up earlier, omma?" Youngji immediately stood up. Her mom just smiled and walked away towards the kitchen. 

While youngji was searching for her phone, someone slapped her shoulder from behind. 

"Yah! How can you fall asleep while watching tv? Aiye, you are going to be late you know! The guest are going to arrive soon. Aish, chincha," Nana, her bestfriend nagged behind her. Irritated, youngji just turned around and walked towards the stair. 

"I'm talking to you, hello." Nana followed her. They then walked upstairs.

"Nana-ah, can you please don't nag? Since you know i'm already late, shouldn't you be helping me to get ready now?" Youngji said while staring at Nana. 

Nana sighed, "whatever. Anyway, wipe off your drool please, sweetheart," and then she chuckled. 

Youngji shrugged and just ignored Nana. She knew Nana was just kidding. Youngji went straight to the bathroom while Nana just waited for her. 

After finished bathing, she went out with a towel wrapped around her body. She looked at Nana and grinned weirdly. She scratched her not-itchy head and sat next to Nana. "Nana-ah..." 

"what? You are looking so creepy right now, seriously." Nana raised her eyebrow. 

"Hehehe, help me to find a suitable cloth for tonight please?" Youngji pleaded, doing her best puppy face. 

"Aigo, you are really helpless." Nana shighed as she shook her head. She quickly went to Youngji's closet. There were like, a lot, really lot of clothes yet she still didn't know what to wear. Of Course , she is Youngji after all. After looking through the closet, Nana finally chose a white dress that reach Youngji's knees. It fit Youngji body perfectly. Not so simple and not so crowded. Just nice. 

Nana helped Youngji braided her hair neatly. With a final touch of lipgloss, and yes, she's done.

"Alright, you look pretty already!" Nana complimented her as they both looked at the mirror one last time before heading downstairs.

When they reached downstairs, the food were already placed on the table. Luckily, the guest haven't arrived yet. Youngji glanced at her watch on her left wrist. 10 more minutes before 7. Alright!

Nana permitted herself to went to the toilet for awhile. Youngji went to the kitchen, wanting to help her mother. She hadn't even arrive at the kitchen yet when the doorbell rang. 

Youngji immediately went to the door, expecting a guest. She didn't invite a lot of people but of course she was still excited. It's her birthday. Youngji checked herself at the mirror one last time to make sure she was looking good. After being satisfied with her appearance, she quickly ran to the door and opened it. There were nobody there. She took a look around the front yard, wondering if anyone was walking around there, but there was no one. She looked down and saw a box, not really big, not so small either, wrapped nicely with a colorful 'happy birthday' wrapper. She bent down and took up the box. She was about to unwrapped it to see the sender, when Nana suddenly showed up beside her.

"Eh, our classmates have arrive already! Look!" She patted Youngji's shoulder and Youngji looked up, a smiled appeared on her face instantly. She was indeed very excited. The mysterious gift can wait. 

After all of the guest had arrived, (youngji didn't invite a lot of people, just her classmates, some of her close seniors & juniors and her relatives) they all gathered in the hall. The light was turned off. Youngji's father came up, holding a cake with candles on it. As her father showed up, all of them sang 'Happy Birthday' to her. Youngji couldn't help but blushed a little. She was very happy right now. 

Her father put the cake on the table. "make a wish, make a wish, make a wish," the guests chanted. Youngji crossed her fingers, closed her eyes and made a wish. Youngji opened her eyes. She took a look at the guests before she blew the candles. 

"She must be wishing to have a boyfriend just now," one of her classmates, Hara, said. That make the people around them laughed a little. Youngji never has a boyfriend before, and surely everyone knew. She was too focus on her studies to even care about all the couple things. 

"I'm not, okay," and of course , Youngji denied it. It had never cross her mind to have a boyfriend right now. All she wanted to do was to study abroad and make her parents proud. That's her goal. 

"Well, who knows. Maybe you will get a boyfriend this year," her other classmate, Gyuri said. 

"I never want one." Youngji shook her head while showing her unsatisfied expression.

"We never know, youngji-ah. It's not like you can control your life all you want." a boy wearing fake spectacles named Kang Joon said. 

Youngji just shrugged it off. Seeing the tense situation, Nana quickly changed the topic of the conversation.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Youngji was having fun that night, she was surely enjoying herself with her friends, but somehow Kangjoon's words kind of stucked in her head. 'ah, he's just kidding.' Youngji calmed herself, not wanting to overthink.

That night, after all of the guest went home and the house had been cleaned, Youngji headed up to her room and changed into her pajamas. She was already sleepy, but she insisted to unwrapped her presents first.  

Firstly, she took the present from her parents. It was a big black paper bag, with a tiny gold ribbon on it upper left. 'Fancy,' youngji smiled. She removed the tape carefully. She looked inside the bag and saw a pair of sneakers. She had been wanting this sneakers since like, six months ago? Feeling all excited, she picked the card inside the bag and read it. It was just a few sentences of birthday wishes, but it made her feel so touched that she nearly cries. She became more determine. She will, absolutely make her parents proud of her! 

She smiled proudly. Youngji was about to unwrapped Nana's gift when the mysterious present from that unknown caught her eyes. Putting Nana's gift aside, she took the box and unwrapped it. Well, it was a book, dusty book, brown hard-covered book, ok enough. There was a printed "Seven days after your birthday," on the book's cover.