You wake up feeling groggy and a bit sore after sparring with Taemin and Eun yesterday. As always, you let yourself spend another five minutes in bed, figuring it must be around nine am if you’ve woken up on your own, and you grunt when you hear your phone vibrating briefly on the bedside table.

You open one eye, wondering who’s texting you this early, and blindly reach out for your phone. You almost knock off a glass of water in the process of grabbing it, and then it almost blinds you with the brightness, and ugh.

From Eun the Queen:
[Received 9:03]
Happy anniversary! Did you plan anything for today?

At first, you just squint at the screen, wondering what the hell she’s talking about. What anniversary? And why would it be happy? You look at the date on your phone, glaring at it even harder. Twelfth of November, it says. Should it ring a bell?

Another message comes then, this time from Kris.

From Hot Cop:
[Received 9:04]
I totally forgot today is your anniversary. Do you know who reminded me? Heechul. He legit kept a photo of you and kai sitting in your prison cells after the loft burned down and being angry at each other lmao

And then you receive a photo from him. It’s black and white, with some dumb, cute hearts added to it, and it shows you and Kai in a prison cell. You think back to that time, to when the loft burned down and you and Kai were the main suspects. You confessed in these cells, and apparently, Heechul took a pic of that.

Because your life gets documented by everyone and anything and at any time of the day by grown men who act as paparazzi.

And then it hits you: today is the day you and Kai got together.

You sit up on your bed, your head spinning.

You forgot your anniversary.

*

Eun opens the door to her house still wearing pajamas, expecting to find a postman there, and finds a wheezing you instead. She frowns and doesn’t even get to say anything before you’re barging into her house, a whiff of wind following you. Eun is a bit shell-shocked.

“Are you okay?” she asks, closing the door. She turns towards you. You’re already taking off your shoes and your coat, and you’re not wearing any makeup. Your hair looks like it needs washing, and you’re wearing a stained t-shirt and a blouse that used to be your dad’s. Also, yoga pants. Eun wants to question your fashion choices, but you don’t give her a chance to.

“I forgot about the anniversary,” you pant. Eun stares at you, her eyes wide and focused.

“You’re kidding,” you say.

“I’m not! I’m bad with dates! The only dates I ever had to actually keep track of were my mom’s birthdays and my dad’s death anniversaries!” you practically scream out. Your face then goes from furiously panicked to downward depressed. “Jesus, that sounded so ing sad.”

“What’s going on? Is that Chanyeol?” a female voice asks. Eun’s mom appears in the hallway. She’s wearing a bathrobe and looks freshly out of the shower. She then notices you and looks sincerely surprised. “Oh dear. With the amount of ruckus I was sure it was Chanyeol.”

“No, this time it’s his sidekick,” you say, lowering your voice a little bit.

“I’d say Chanyeol is your sidekick,” Eun voices. “Not the other way around.”

“Eun, the emergency!” you remind her, turning towards her and grabbing her hand. Then you turn back towards her mom, bow at her ninety degrees, and excuse yourselves. Then you drag Eun to her room, close and lock the door behind her, and go on full panic-mode.

“I forgot. See, I was planning on something nice, I really wanted to do this right, like a proper girlfriend and all, but I forgot. I was busy studying, and trying to contact Father, and all the stuff involving Mabeob keeps on coming up, and nobody even said anything until today and why did I forget?!”

Eun is sitting on her unmade bed, her head titled to the side just a tiny bit, her eyebrows raised pointedly and her lips pursed. You’re panting, standing in the middle of the room, staring down at her.

“Are you calm now?” Eun asks you after a few seconds of pregnant silence.

“No!” you exclaim, crossing your arms over your chest.

“How about now?”

“Still not calm!”

“Now?”

“Eun.”

She giggles then. The sound makes you feel a bit better, in all honesty, until you realize she’s low-key laughing at you. You decide to pout, your arms going tighter around your middle as if you’re trying to shield yourself from her mockery.

“Eun.” You say pleadingly. “Don’t laugh.”

Eun lets out a full-body giggle at that. “I just don’t understand,” she admits. “You don’t freak out when a monster attacks you, but you freak out because you didn’t prepare anything for a relationship anniversary.”

“First anniversary! With Kai! In my life! My first!”

“Calm down.”

“You calm down.”

Eun scolds you with her glare alone. You deflate a little. She pats the spot next to her on the bed, and you huff out an annoyed breath. She pats the bed with more force, and you final stomp over to her and plop down next to her (angrily).

“Remember your first date?” Eun asks you, taking your hand into hers. “Oh, wow, your palms are sweating.”

“That’s because I’m nervous,” you pout. Eun your hands a little, shaking her head like she wants to say ‘don’t worry, that’s okay’, and then she leans forward, so that she’s the only thing you can see.

“I think you could just do what you did on your first date. Cinema, food, a walk in the park...?”

You stare at her, and then nod slowly, blinking owlishly at her. You lean forward as well, your faces inches apart, like you’re sharing a secret.

“Minus the pack stalking you, of course, they weren’t planning on doing it this year,” Eun adds. “They’ve had enough of your greasiness.”

“Right.”

“So. That’s a possible plan. But you don’t know, yet, if Kai hasn’t prepared something, right? Has he told you about anything?”

You shake your head. “Wait, has he told you?”

“I know nothing, Jon,” Eun replies, shaking her head ‘no’ as well and reassuringly patting your hand. “So do you know what you should do now?”

“No.”

“You should go take a shower, and then I’ll help you put on some makeup, and then we’ll go look for a present for Kai, because I assume you haven’t bought him anything.”

“. You need to buy a present for an anniversary?” you ask, gasping.

“It’s the general tradition. Not everyone do, but…”

“Right,” you say, standing up abruptly. “Right.”

“Go to the bathroom, I’ll bring you a towel. Yeah?” Eun asks, pointing at the door. You nod energetically, feeling like a little kid. “Yes.”

“Okay,” Eun says, nodding. You go out of her room. She leans back on the bed, exhaling. Then she sees you stick your head into her room again.

“Eun?” you ask, whispering. She frowns, tilting her head to the side questioningly. “Can you lend me some money for the present?”

*

Chanyeol is laughing at you. It’s bad, because now Eun feels free to laugh at you harder, since she has a buddy to do it with. You’re glaring at every piece of clothing you see, at every possible accessory you see, and at anyone you see, and by the time you’ve checked three shops, you’re pretty sure half of the children that have seen you today are scarred for life from your angry glare.

“This is hilarious,” Chanyeol says for the nth time today. Eun laughs like the joke is still fresh, and then Chanyeol takes more photos.

“If you’re sending them to Kai then I’m gonna rip your…” you notice a little girl walking past you, “…ears off.”

“They’ll grow back,” Chanyeol shrugs.

“But it’ll hurt.”

“Point.”

“What about this?” Eun asks, showing you a heart cut in half necklaces for couple. You cringe. Eun laughs. “Thought so.”

“Maybe just buy him socks, Kai loves socks,” Chanyeol mutters, looking down at Pusheen themed socks. “These are so cute.”

“I can’t buy him socks for our first anniversary,” you say. You walk further into the store, checking out everything and hoping for something to catch your attention. Eun follows you. At some point she links your arms together, hugging you for a few seconds.

“We’ll find something,” she says. “And if not, you can always tattoo his name on your heart or something.”

You punch her on the shoulder half-heartedly, a smile appearing on your lips. Chanyeol pops out beside you two, holding up a set of red, lacy lingerie, with a huge grin on his stupid face.

“This,” he says.

You and Eun both shove at him until he staggers away.

*

An hour later, you’ve reduced yourself to a pile of a sobbing mess. People are giving you weird looks, and this time it’s not because you’re fighting a weird-looking zombie man in the middle of the shopping center.

Eun is your hair, shushing you, and Chanyeol is still taking videos.

“Here we have a woman who only ever cries when dogs die on movies and when she forgets to buy Kai a present. A truly ferocious crime.”

“There’s just nothing here he’d want,” you say, lifting your head to look at your friend. “He buys himself all the stuff he needs, he doesn’t particularly like accessories, and he’s not a fan of all those cute couple rings and other like that.”

Chanyeol puts his phone down and stretches his arms out to the sides. “Buy him a freaking Rilakkuma plushie and a chocolate pudding and he’ll be happy, dude!”

You sniffle.

“Dal,” Eun says with a sigh. “I think you’re overthinking and overreacting to this whole girlfriend thing. Kai didn’t start to go out with you so that you could go on romantic walks on the beach and act all lovey-dovey in public or buy presents. I mean, you’re both low-maintenance.”

Chanyeol snorts very hard. Eun clicks her tongue at him.

“Your idea of a date is to stay home and watch spy movies,” Eun continues. “And order food. Neither of you likes super romantic stuff, and if you do something romantic, it’s because it cracks you up. Just because the society tells you what kind of girlfriend you should be, doesn’t mean it’s the kind of girlfriend Kai wants. Or the kind of person he loves.”

You sniffle once more, panic slowly seeping out of your veins. Silence fills the space between you three, and then Chanyeol speaks up.

“God, my girlfriend is amazing.”

“I know. I know,” Eun replies, reaching out across the table to take Chanyeol’s hand. You look at them, pouting, and sigh loudly.

*

The doors to Kai’s loft open before you even reach them, and then Baekhyun grabs your hand and pulls you inside, putting a beanie over your head and pushing an umbrella into your palm. You blink at him, brows furrowed.

“What?”

“Dal’s here!” Baekhyun calls. You look behind him to see Luhan, Chen and Kyungsoo jump out onto the hallway, all holding different things. Luhan pushes two cinema tickets into your free hand, Chen wraps a scarf around your neck that smells like Kai, and Kyungsoo stands behind you to throw something into your backpack.

“Snacks,” he says, patting you on your shoulder. You stare at them, dumbfounded.

“What?” you repeat. Then Kris comes to the view, pushing Kai out of the living room and towards you. Kai is already wearing a coat and a beanie of his own, shoes on his feet, and he looks more elegant than usually. Also, that coat is new. “What?”

“Happy anniversary!” voices from all around the loft announce. Someone hollers, someone – probably Yixing, because he’s a dork – blasts ‘Happy Birthday’ on the TV, and then you’re pushed out of the loft, straight into Eun and Chanyeol’s embraces.

“Happy date!” everyone calls, waving after you. You and Kai are literally pushed and dragged out of the loft. Eun is pushing you down the stairs as you stutter and ask question and Chanyeol is blabbering on about Counter Strike to Kai while his arm is wrapped around Kai’s shoulder. Once you make your way downstairs you find a taxi waiting for you there, and before you know it, you’re inside, your head aching.

Chanyeol closes the door and the taxi moves right away, jerking a little. You realize that Chanyeol and Eun knew all along. 

You’re dumbfounded and still clutching that umbrella to your heart. You slowly turn towards Kai, looking like a very confused owl. Kai is staring into nothing, his mouth slightly open, and he looks just as shocked.

“I don’t even know what happened,” he says then, slowly turning his head towards you. His eyes go softer when he takes in your face, and just like that, you feel yourself melting. “They came in the morning with clothes and stuff and just…I didn’t even…”

You stare at each other for the next few seconds. Then you look down at the tickets you’re holding in your hand to see that you’re going to see Marvel’s ‘Gambit’. It’s been in the theaters for a while now, but you never got to actually see it, so you let out a surprised gasp. “Look,” you say, giving Kai his tickets. He looks excited when he sees the title.

“That’s in two hours,” he says. Then he looks at the taxi driver. “Excuse me, where are you taking us?”

“That’s a surprise,” the driver says, grinning. You can see his wrinkly, happy eyes in the review mirror, and you shrug when Kai sends you a curious look.

“Wait, let me get this straight,” you then say, shaking your head a little. “The two of us didn’t plan anything for today, but the pack did?”

Kai looks at you a bit dumbly. You wonder if he’s trying to figure out whether or not you’re going to be angry about him not planning anything.

“I was going to invite you over and order pizza,” he deadpans.

You feel something warm spreading in your stomach. You blink a few times at him, tears welling in your eyes, and then you snort, leaning back in your seat. “It’s stupid how much I like you,” you say, laughing, and Kai stares at you, dumbfounded. A smile begins to show on his face, though.

*

You eat in an Italian restaurant and you don’t have to pay for anything, because apparently someone already did. When you go out, ready to walk to the cinema, you find a taxi waiting for you outside. You know it’s for you because a very angry looking taxi driver is waiting for you in front of his car with a big cardboard thing they use on airports that says ‘Strawberry Couple’. He doesn’t look too happy with the role he’s had to play in this whole scheme, and he shows it, but the two of you don’t care. You go to the cinema, watch the movie, and when you go out, it’s already dark outside. So you take the same route you took the first time, on your first date, and go to the nearby park.

It starts snowing then, and the umbrella Baekhyun has given you proves very useful.

You go back to Kai’s loft a few hours after that, hungry again and a bit cold, to find it empty. No pack and no Choco. The only thing the pack has left behind is a photo album just waiting for you to open it, laid on the top of the dinner table. It’s black, with tiny little stars plastered into it. On the first page, there’s a picture of you and Kai standing in the forest, your backs turned towards the camera, as you’re both looking down on some mushrooms.

‘Strawberry Couple looking for their sanity’, says below the photo, and that fact alone makes you snort out loud.

You and Kai sit on the couch go to through the photos together, the dim room lighted up only by the lamp in the corner of the room, and you find dozens of different photos of the two of you in different places and times. Some of them were taken before you got together, some of them are from the very first days of you going out, some are recent. Kyungsoo has bought himself a really good camera a few months back, and a lot of photos were taken by him, you note. There’s even some snapchat and instagram photos that they’ve placed in the album.

“This is the single cheesiest thing they’ve done together,” you sum up as you’re nearing the end of the album.

“It is,” Kai admits. “I’ll never let them forget about it.”

“Oh come on,” you say. “You have their photos covering the whole wall here,” you snort, pointing at the wall to the left where all the photos are. “You’re just as cheesy as they are.”

“Maybe, but I didn’t send them on a date,” Kai shrugs.

You gasp. “Should we?”

“Are you up for paying for their food?”

You consider it for a moment. “My initial thought was: sure, everything for them. Then I remembered how much Tao and Chen eat.”

Kai laughs. You look up at him, closing the album.

“Happy anniversary,” you say, and he kisses your nose.

Every time I try to write something only low-key cheesy it turns out full-on cheesy af. Good thing you guys seem to enjoy cringing at the cuteness and greasiness of it all, though. Also, 'Gambit' comes out October this year. RALF is set in the future. I just want to point that out XD

Love you chocolate glazed donuts <3