Flabbergasted? Stunned? Perplexed?... none of these words could designate how Sungmin felt the moment he stepped into, a kinda sorta fairyland… but, mentally broken for the rest of his life, yup that could effortlessly work for the current state of Sungmin’s mind.

He remained gapping like a fish out of water until an upset and raged looking Xiumin was seen walking toward him… the younger’s ear covered with a cordless phone… an angry grimace on his face destroying the young boy’s pretty features.

“W-w-what… t-the…?” Sungmin stuttered unintelligently.

“Don’t. Even. Dare. Mention. It,” Xiumin warned, his scowl deepening with each spat out word.

“B-b-but…” Sungmin still hadn’t been able to wrap his mind around what he was eyeing at and Xiumin pretending that their surrounding didn’t even existed was certainly not helping.

“Hi Jake,” Xiumin scowl disappeared as sunny and radiant expressions took over his face, his lips tilted in a pleasant smile, with his attention directed solely on the small device attached with his ear. “Dude, I needed to tell you, the party has been cancelled… my Dad’s forth cousin’s mother died… yeah, I know it’s a bummer… but Dad and I have to go to China to attend the funeral… yeah… don’t worry, dad promised to hold the party in an exclusive club next month… yeah, yeah we can all chill and have fun then,” Suddenly Xiumin’s smile faltered a little and he rolled his eyes before saying in quite a sarcastic voice, “Yeah, my dad is the coolest dad ever… okay Jake, I still have to call others so gotta go, bye.”

Sungmin, who had dazedly listened to what Xiumin had been muttering in the receiver, immediately perked up at some specific words the younger had uttered but before he could say anything, another voice joined them, and the owner of the voice being none other than Kim Heechul, who strutted out of- what Sungmin assumed to be- their kitchen, with his one hand perched on his narrow waist and other holding onto a broken beyond repair frilly piñata.

“Did you do that?” Heechul demanded from Xiumin, who in return only scoffed loudly before bringing his eyes back on the calling device in his hands as he typed in a new number to be called.

“Oh, Heechul Hyung,” Sungmin made his presence known to the said guy by somberly starting. “I am so sorry to hear about the death of your… umm… forth cousin’s mother…?”

“Wait what?” Heechul cried out. “Which forth cousin’s mother? Hold your fire… I don’t even have a forth cousin to begin with… who died? Nobody died!”

“Huh?” Poor Sungmin could only tilt his head in confusion, just then Xiumin’s next call was connected and both Sungmin and Heechul silently listened to younger boy telling his friend Marco exactly what he had said to Jake earlier… gradually things started to make more sense to them.

“Xiumin, what are you doing?” Heechul looked utterly shocked and surprised.

“Cancelling the party, what else?” Xiumin supplied with an easy shrug, disregarding the baffled looks Sungmin and Heechul supported.

“Why are you cancelling the party?” Sungmin asked, cautiously, because he had to be blind not to see the reason why Xiumin would be doing such a thing.

“Can’t you tell?” Xiumin retorted, waving a wild hand around the large and spacious living area of Kim’s residence which was decorated for- nobody, I say, nobody would have doubted was decorated for-a birthday party. “I have a reputation to uphold… I can’t let my friends see this or else my entire life would be ruined!”

“What… but why?” Heechul whined, turning around to look at the beautifully decorated Hall room. “I put so much effort to decorate it… I even asked a few friends of mine for ideas… everyone told me this would be the best theme for birthday-”

“DAD!!” Xiumin shouted indignantly. “First of all… I am turning seventeen… seventeen, dad, not one or two,” Xiumin emphasized by pointing at himself. “And I am not a GIRL!!”

“Pink is not only girls colors,” Heechul grumbled under his breath but Lee Sungmin beg to differ… because even if pink, per se, was not a color that girls could say they own but the princess theme that could easily be detected in some decoration applied for the party did gave away the fact that it was a girl’s birthday bash… and Sungmin could swear that the inflated multi-color balloons that adore the walls had small stretched words scribbled upon them and they read ‘My baby Princess’.

Sungmin again, dared to direct his gaze on the decorated Hall room… the very reason of his perplexity earlier… and all the cute and childish adornments made his inside turn unpleasantly, knowing it was meant for Xiumin.

“But if the party was cancelled… how come I wasn’t informed of that?” Sungmin wondered out loud, raising his arm that carried the gift Sungmin had bought for Xiumin.

“I asked Uncle Suho to call you all…” Xiumin started however he stopped short, glancing over Sungmin’s back and gave a short groan. “But I guess he doesn’t care for my precious reputation to be tainted… now, does he?” The younger roughly rubbed his baby face, like he was feeling mentally exhausted before reaching out for the gift Sungmin held. “I will take that… and now I need to go and take the list from Uncle Suho and call rest of the people before I get humiliated in front of them-”

Sungmin had just opened his mouth to protest when an arm slanged on his wide shoulder stopped him and turning around he was met with Minho’s wide grin, with surprised and wide eye Changmin and Kyuhyun standing behind him, currently surveying the thoroughly decorated Hall room… their mouths falling open in a wide gap … but it was Suho’s booming voice that made Xiumin’s sentence to break in the mid.

“Don’t worry birthday boy, I have called everyone and told them the party was cancelled,” Suho assured, as he descended the stairs connecting the upper floor with the hall-room.

“Clearly not everyone…” Changmin pointed out.

“Well, since much food had already been prepared so I thought I would let you guys come and enjoy,” Suho stated with caution as his eyes gradually came to clash with Sungmin’s, a hint of something deep was exchanged… Sungmin gave a small smile of understanding. “And I am sure Xiumin wouldn’t care if his reputation was tarnished in front of you guys…”

To that, Xiumin gave a subtle nod only, since he was busy collecting his gifts from the few guests that had arrived, despite the party being cancelled.

“Ah… of course…” Minho, who had seen the exchange, sniggered.

“Food?” Changmin’s eyes lit up, like Christmas had come several months earlier. “Now, no one would hear me complain.”

“But everyone would hear me complain,” Kyuhyun said, moving a step or two forward toward Suho. “If the party got cancelled then you most probably already called my father… he was already telling me not to come to the party and work on the presentation- the half an hour long presentation he had me working on for last three days straight, I must add- for the upcoming meeting,” Kyuhyun rolled his eyes exaggeratedly. “It won’t be long when I would be getting a call from my dad asking where I am… now what am I supposed to tell him, huh?”

“But surely you can’t be thinking of leaving… think about the CAKE, Kyuhyun.” Changmin necessitated, with his eyes going wide and round.

“What cake?” Xiumin scoffed, after returning from putting his gifts on a far counter. “The one I threw away?”

“WHAT?” Heechul shouted. “Now what was wrong with the cake?”

“Dad, I asked you to get me an Iron Man decorated cake… not Frozen Elsa’s one.” Xiumin explained rather slowly, like teaching a small child what was wrong and what was right.

“But everyone likes the ice-princess,” Heechul mumbled with a hint of a small pout playing around his lips before he huffed loudly and pushed away his long bangs. “It’s not my fault that you are already turning seventeen and my dream to hold my baby boy’s first, second and so on birthday parties had been ruined-”

“It’s not my fault either,” Xiumin pointed out. “If you need such a small baby then go get one with Dimple Dad.”

“ANYWAYS,” Heechul raised his voice, pretending to not have heard Xiumin’s last words. “I promise next time I would get you an Iron Man theme party and cake, okay?”

“What next time?” Xiumin scoffed. “You mean my 18th birthday?? No thank you, I am not letting you destroy my most important birthday.”

“Yeah, next time I would be the one to throw him the party, anyways.” Suddenly a loud and quite familiar voice said, before the owner of the voice was seen entering the large room, through the wide open door, a Cheshire grin etched on his face as he came to stand beside an excited and exhilarated looking Xiumin.

Heechul could only ogle at the man, mentally killing him for coming to the party when he most definitely was not invited… and Xiumin’s loud cry of ‘Dimple Dad!’ sure was not helping the pissed off sentiment Heechul was feeling.

“Jungsu Hyung?” Changmin said, blinking in confusion. “What are you doing here? I thought the invitation I received clearly said ‘Park Jungsu is not invited’.”

Where everyone sniggered knowingly, there Xiumin jumped up and down exclaiming how he was the one to invite the elder as his ‘Special Guest’ before the younger boy tone down his excitement to get a fake forlorn look on his face as he pressed himself closer to Jungsu, whining slightly. “Dimple Dad, Grumpy dad ruined my birthday party.”

“I am sorry to know that Xiumin,” The elder among the whole party acted his part very well by wrapping an arm around the boy, consoling him. “Next year I would arrange the party… with theme of Monsters and Horror movie characters, how is that?”

The gleam of hyper excitement was not amiss by anyone but only one person was seen staring daggers at Jungsu’s cute dimple smiling face.

“And who gave you the right to do any of that?” Heechul demanded, reaching forward to tug Xiumin away from Jungsu and cage the boy, protectively, in his own arms.

“I did,” Xiumin calmly replied in Jungsu’s stead. “And Dad you remember how you kept asking what gift I wanted for my birthday and I kept saying I would tell you later?”

“Y-yeah…” Heechul stuttered, worried because he could feel something bad coming his way… and when he say bad… it meant Park Jungsu level bad.

“Yeah so I think it’s later now,” Xiumin announced, wriggling in his father’s embrace to turn around and face him. “Therefore as my birthday gift… which you wholly owe me after destroying my bash… I want you to get me Dimple dad, like officially make him my Dad.”

A loud deafening silence greeted Xiumin’s, seemingly innocent, request… Heechul blinked blankly… Jungsu grinned in triumph… Sungmin, Kyuhyun, Changmin, Suho and Minho exchanged an amused look before bursting into loud laughter, lifting the silent charm from them.

“Park Jungsu, stop corrupting my innocent son’s mind,” Heechul exclaimed, shooting death glares to the said man. Jungsu could only throw his hands up in the air in a defensive stance… clearly portraying the fact that he was being wrongly accused… and even Sungmin wanted to throw in a small how Xiumin was undeniably not an innocent boy to begin with but before any of them could say another word, a loud ringtone was heard… drawing attention toward Kyuhyun, who was digging his pockets to get the ringing device out.

“It’s Dad,” Kyuhyun announced loudly as soon as his eyes fell on brightly lit screen of his smart phone. Sungmin and Suho shared an alarmed look because if Mr. Cho asked Kyuhyun to come back then there special plan for tonight would not be able to advance further… and that was not acceptable… but before either of them could think of what to say they were beaten to it by Park Jungsu.

“Tell your father you are attending a private party,” Jungsu advised. “You can’t possibly leave now… let’s have some fun first.”

“Yeah,” Suddenly Heechul chipped in. “If you leave then so would Minho and Changmin… and most probably Suho would tag along too… and I would be left alone with this erted guy… so I prohibit any of you to leave-”

“You talk too much, Heenim.” Jungsu grumbled under his breath before tugging an unsuspecting Heechul toward himself and quickly leaned in to shut the other up by claiming Heechul’s slightly parted lips. Wolf whistle resonated the spacious room, even Kyuhyun was distracted enough to goofily grin at the elder couple before the persistently ringing device in his hands reminded him about the call he was receiving from his father.

“Hello, Dad?” Kyuhyun said, quickly picking up the call and immediately a frown pulled on his fine brows. “Yes, the party was cancelled but only for other guests… Heechul Hyung has arranged a private party with few close friends right now.” Kyuhyun stopped and listen to what his father was saying from the other side and his expressions were becoming grimmer and grimmer with each passing seconds. “I would be home in a few hours-” Kyuhyun sentence came to a skidding stop as muffled shouts were heard coming out of K