Vigorous pounding on the door woke me rather rudely. In my sleepy stupor, I nearly panicked and horrifying emergency scenarios raced through my mind.

“NOOOOOONAAAA,” a familiar voice called through my door.

I sighed deeply. Clearly not an emergency. “Ken?” I called back.

“Oh I’m so honored Mira knows my name!” his sarcasm was audible through the thick material of my doorway. “You have five minutes to get ready!”

“What?”

“Just do it or I’m going to break in there and dress you myself!”

I sprung to action, getting dressed as quickly as possible, taking just a few moments to brush my unruly ginger hair and tie it back. I finally threw open the door, slightly out of breath, “What do you want, Ken?”

“What, you think you can just show up to our party without helping?” he winked at me with that sassy smile on his face.

I narrowed my eyes slightly. There was a long moment of silence where he just stared expectantly at me. “I, uh,” I stammered, “didn’t think I was invited.”

He gaped at me, “I thought you were supposed to be smart, of course you’re invited!”

I was honestly reluctant to follow him. This was supposed to be an intimate affair. “I’ll think I’ll stay here,” I said quietly.

“See, now, I was worried you might say that, so I’m just going to have to take you by force,” his voice was nonchalant as he regarded me.

“What are you going to carry me?” I scoffed. Ken was certainly in shape, but I was nearly his same height.

“No,” his smirk grew, “He is.” Ken stepped aside and I saw a timid Hongbin behind him.

“Hi,” he said sheepishly with a little wave. “Sorry, hyung’s orders,” his face was apologetic as he stepped toward me.

As much as I was sure I could take Ken, there was no way I would overpower Hongbin. He picked me up and threw me over his shoulder like a potato sack. I just decided not to struggle as they brought me down the hall. Ken opened their apartment door, and called in “Special Delivery!”

“You CARRIED her?” Ravi’s amused voice caught my attention and I attempted to look over my shoulder at him. Thankfully, Hongbin set me down as soon as we crossed the threshold. Ravi was running around frantically, dipping in and out of the side rooms that I could only assume were their bedrooms.

“Brilliant, right?” Ken grinned as he gestured me to follow him down a narrow hallway into a large open common room.

Immediately, I saw Leo and Hyuk hard at work pinning posters to the walls. “Girls’ Generation?” I asked incredulously as I took in the decorations.

Hongbin sighed, “N’s party is always Girls’ Generation themed.”

“Wow,” I said simply, taking it all in. “Alright, then.”

“Mira’s here!” I heard Hyuk exclaim, followed shortly by the sound of paper fluttering to the ground.

Leo’s sigh came soon after, “Hyuk, you can’t just drop them,” he was already talking to himself, though, as Hyuk had already joined us.

“Doesn’t it look good?” Hyuk asked triumphantly.

“Yeah,” I scanned the room. It was like they had received Girls’ Generation wallpaper at this point. “Very uh,” I paused, “thorough.” I glanced back over to Leo, who seemed to be struggling to pick up where Hyuk left off. After a moment of thought, I looked to Ken, Hyuk, and Hongbin, who had all started some other conversation. “I’m gonna,” I spoke, clearly to myself, “go help,” I finished as I walked over.

Leo was doing his best to hold up two posters and secure them at once. Quietly, I found the box of tacks they were using, and moved to secure one myself. “Hyuk, you can’t just run off,” he turned to me, his eyes angry, but his voice trailed off when he finally looked my way.

I continued what I was doing calmly, “Hi Taekwoon,” I threw him a quick smile.

“Mira,” he started, finally coming out of his stupor. “Sorry, I thought you were-“

“Hyuk, I know,” I laughed, “He’s over with Ken and Hongbin.”

“When did you get here?” he asked as he moved to continue his work.

Careful not to intercept him as I retrieved tack after tack to secure the giant posters of pretty Korean women onto the wall, I couldn’t help but chuckle, “Well, funny you asked,” I started, glancing back at the three men still gathered on the other side of the room, “Ken came to fetch me and ordered Hongbin to carry me here.”

Leo stopped what he was doing to look at me properly, “Carry you?”

“Yeah,” I continued working, “you know, just Ken things.”

“Did you not want to come?” he turned back to the posters as he began to speak again.

It was my turn to pause now, “I guess not?” it was a question since I didn’t know the answer myself. “I mean, of course I want to be here, I was just unsure if I really belonged here for such a personal occasion.”

He didn’t respond with words, but more of an affirmative hum. Regardless, it was nice to help as we finished the last wall of posters.

“Hey you two!” Ravi’s voice caused us both to turn, “Get over here, it’s almost time!”

“Time?” I looked up at Leo for an answer.

Leo checked his phone for the clock, “Hakyeon will be home soon,” his voice retained its quiet and calm tone, despite the atmosphere of urgency that was ading the room.

We made our way to the other side of the common room where Ken, Ravi, Hongbin, and Hyuk were all gathered around a rather large cake sitting on one of the coffee tables. It had been decorated with VIXX’s robot head logo and read ‘Happy Birthday Leader-N’ in chocolate Korean.

“Now for the best part!” Ken announced. “How will we scare the out of our dear leader today?”

I glanced around the room, and everyone seemed pretty keen on the idea. Seeing my slightly confused face, Ravi spoke up, “Hakyeon is afraid of everything. He knows 100% that we will be surprising him as soon as he comes in, but he will still be terrified,” his smile was nothing short of evil.

“So what’s the plan?”

“Well,” Ken started, pacing behind the table, “we could always stick to the classic jump scare, but I think we can do better.”

The room was quiet for a moment as everyone wracked their brains for ideas. Finally, it was Hyuk who spoke up, “Ravi hyung, do you still have the extra contacts from the Voodoo video?”

Everyone seemed to comprehend immediately as several ‘oooh’s were exchanged. “Yeah, I only have one pair, though.”

“That’s fine,” Hyuk responded immediately, “Do we have something to use for fake blood?”

“I’ll make something,” Hongbin jogged away toward the open kitchen nearby.

Hyuk stopped in front of me, “Actually,” he looked up at me and grinned, “Halley do you mind being fake dead?”

I shrugged, “Sure, I can do that.”

“Alright,” Hyuk looked to be taking inventory of everyone, “so we’ll have it look like there was some accident and Halley is bleeding. We need someone to be there with her.”

“It should be Leo,” Ravi called from his bedroom door, holding the little plastic contact case. I could feel Leo’s glare from beside me. “What?” Ravi said defensively, “he has a history of violence.”

“Ooh, that’s good,” Ken spoke up now. “So our story is that Mira came over for a surprise visit, and Leo accidentally murdered her,” his voice was a bit too enthusiastic for my taste considering the subject matter, but I had to admit it was a good idea.

Leo huffed, “I’m not that good of an actor.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Ken retorted, “nobody believes that.”

Ravi walked up to me and held out the contact case, “Will you be okay with these?”

“Yeah, no problem,” I took the case and inspected the black X shape on the lens. Definitely creepy.

“So we’ll have you wear these, and while Leo is tearfully relaying the horrible story about how he just murdered America’s sweetheart Mira, you snap open your eyes and look at N, he’ll probably actually poop his pants,” Ken explained hurriedly, and I couldn’t help but laugh at him, albeit quietly.

“Alright, alright,” I agreed, “let’s get this going, then.”

Setup was relatively easy. Hongbin had mixed some awful tomato paste and vinegar concoction, but it actually was fairly believable. Ravi was kind enough to lend me some cloth to place between my head and the fake-blood in order to minimize the amount of nastiness I got in my hair. We arranged ourselves in the hallway so that we could keep the common room light off. The other four guys hid in the adjacent bedroom, waiting to jump out. I lay down carefully on my side as Ken instructed, and Leo knelt behind me.

“Damn these contacts are uncomfortable,” I muttered as we waited.

“Tell me about it,” I heard Hongbin’s voice from behind the door.

“Hush,” Leo said quietly, “We need to listen for him.”

“Remember, Leo, you have to pretend to be sad that I’m dead,” I teased in a whisper.

He glanced down at me, though I couldn’t see too well out of the mostly opaque lenses, so I couldn’t quite make out his expression, “I’ll try,” his voice was surprisingly tinted with a hint of teasing as well. I was ready to retort again, but I heard footsteps outside. “I’ll tap you when it’s a good time. Do you mind?” I heard Leo’s faint whisper as he moved his hand to cradle my neck.

“Go for it,” I whispered back, trying to be as still and quiet as possible.

As soon as the rattling of the door handle signified N’s return, Leo leaned down and rested his head on my shoulder, his hand snaking under my neck. I cracked an eye open to see his blonde hair obscuring most of my vision, with only the glint of the two earrings on his left ear giving me indication on how he was facing. I had to snap my eye back shut when the light of the hallway illuminated us.

We were initially met with silence, but finally N’s footsteps drew closer, “Taekwoon?” he asked hesitantly.

“I’m so sorry,” Leo’s voice was so close, it took all of my self-control to remain perfectly still. I even ensured my breathing was as shallow as possible. “Hyung,” Leo’s voice was strained, as if he had been crying.

“Taekwoon,” N’s voice was firmer now. Leo wasn’t one to simply call him hyung, even I knew that. He stepped closer.

“She just wanted to surprise us, but” Leo pulled me tighter against his body, “I thought she was an intruder.”

N’s footsteps were hurried now, “Where are the others?”

“The police are questioning them downstairs,” he breathed. Wow, good one.

Finally, I heard N was very close now, and I felt a thump as he sunk to his knees by my side. Leo’s hand shifted slightly and I felt a tap on my neck. My cue. I snapped my eyes open to find N’s face right in front of me.

The scream that erupted from N’s relatively tiny body was enough that I’m pretty sure I felt the floor vibrate. He fell backwards and scrambled away from me. At that moment, Ravi led the charge out of the bedroom, “Surprise!” he, Ken, Hongbin, and Hyuk all shouted in unison.

N’s look of pure terror remained for a solid few seconds, until everything finally processed. Some fear still remained as he finally looked back down at me. I gave him a little smile, but I knew the contacts were still in. “I can’t believe they dragged you into this, too,” he managed to finally speak.

“Damn Leo, you did well,” Ken called from the doorway.

I was suddenly very aware of Leo’s hands still holding me, and I turned to try to get a glimpse of his face. He was actually smiling and laughing as he looked at poor N, who was like a frightened animal. Leo must have felt my gaze as he looked down at me. “Are you okay?” he asked, his voice still uneven from laughter.

“Yeah,” I began to sit up, and felt him help me. “I just need to get these contacts out.” I managed to scramble to my feet with his help. I couldn’t take them anymore, I carefully plucked the lenses from my eyes right there in the hallway.

When I turned back around, they were all looking at me, “Ah, much better,” Ravi smiled at me from the doorway, where he was holding N’s limp body in his arms. “See, Hakyeon, she’s fine.”

N turned to look at me over his shoulder, his expressive face clearly confused on how to feel. I felt an arm on my shoulder. I looked over expecting Leo only to be surprised by Hyuk’s smiling face there. “Sorry hyung, I convinced her,” he spoke apologetically, but there was no mistaking the grin on his face.

“Happy Birthday,” I called to him, trying to sound as upbeat as I could.

Taking my words as a cue, Hongbin flipped on the lights in the apartment, showing off all of their hard work. N whirled around, clearly worried he was about to get scared again, but he actually squealed like a fan girl when he saw what waited for him in the common room. “You guys are the best!” he exclaimed before turning back to us. Spying the tomato mess on the floor, he sighed, “You’re also the worst.”

“No worries,” Ken spoke as he led N into the decorated room, “You know if you weren’t so fun to scare, we wouldn’t do it all the time.”

N shrugged Ken off of him as he explored the room. “Where did you even get all of these?” he asked in wonder as he made a perimeter of the walls.

Hyuk laughed, “We called in some favors.”

“N, go sit down,” Leo insisted, gesturing to one of the couches.

As soon as everyone was settled, Hongbin emerged from the kitchen with two dozen lit candles on the cake. “Happy birthday!” everyone called in unison as the cake was set down on the table in front of N.

“So many,” N whispered as he took inventory of the candles.

“You’re the same age as me now!” I spoke up happily.

This seemed to catch N’s attention as he thought hard for a moment. Suddenly he lit up, “I’m a full year older than Leo now!”

Leo sighed from behind me. “I always hate these few months,” he mumbled.

The rest of the evening was spent watching Girls’ Generation videos, listening to their music, and eating too much cake. Ravi and N even had a Girl’s Generation dance-off that was determined to be a draw. I’m pretty sure Ravi was an easy winner, but no one was going to have N lose on his birthday. We were all lounging on the various couches and cushions as the sun set.

“So Mira,” N said suddenly.

“Hm?” I answered lazily.

“Who’s your favorite member of Girls’ Generation? We’ve watched all their videos a couple of times now,” he explained as he propped his head on his elbow.

“They have an American, don’t they?” I recalled from my very early research several months ago that SM had a couple of Americans and a Canadian in their largest groups.

“They have two!” N responded eagerly.

“I’m going to guess that redhead is one of them,” I pointed at the paused screen where a beautiful Korean girl with artificial red hair was mid-dance. “Her English is too perfect to not be a native speaker.”

“Very good! That’s Tiffany.”

“Then she’s my favorite,” I spoke as I lay back on the floor, where the boys had all tossed their pillows for extra lounging space.

“Good choice, but my favorite is-“

“Seohyun,” the five other boys all answered in unison.

“Hey!” N protested.

“His favorite is Seohyun,” Ravi repeated with a polite smile.

Pouting, N flopped into the couch he was on, “She’s just so pretty and talented,” he said dreamily.

“Hyung, isn’t she the only member of SNSD that’s younger than you, too?” Hyuk asked.

“Yes, but that’s not the point,” N said indignantly, causing laughter to erupt around the room.

A comfortable and tired silence filled the room for a few minutes. “Happy birthday, Hakyeon hyung,” Ravi said sincerely, looking over to his friend.

“It was a good birthday,” he agreed. “Except for that scary bit,” he frowned slightly.

“You have to admit,” Hongbin spoke, “it was a good one.”

“Only because you got Mira in on it,” N countered. “No way would I have believed it otherwise.”

“You still would have been scared,” Leo took his turn to speak.

“Maybe,” N retorted defensively, “but it wouldn’t have been nearly as good.”

“Thanks, Mira!” Hyuk called from the couch opposite to me.

I smiled, “No problem, but Leo is the one that pulled it off.”

When I glanced to Leo, he had a familiar tense look on his face. I suddenly remembered that spotlight compliments were pretty difficult for Leo to handle. When I looked to Ravi, he seemed to have the same idea as he spoke up, “Yeah, no kidding, I was worried he had actually murdered Mira there for a second.”

Leo’s head drooped, so I continued, “He was so stoic and convincing.”

His face was in his hands by that point, and Ravi looked ready to continue when Leo suddenly stood, “Well it’s pretty late, I think I’m going to go to sleep now,” he spoke a bit too loud to be sincere, but nobody stopped him.

“Good night, Leo,” I called as he walked by my.

To my surprise, he paused to look down at me, “Thanks for helping today,” he said quietly before heading into one of the rooms down the hall.

“I guess that’s our cue, then,” Ken said with a little pout.

“He’s right, though,” N said sadly. “Time for bed.”

And with that, N’s birthday party came to an end. The rest of them said their good nights and I made my way back to my own room. I practically fell into my own bed. I was tired from the excitement of the day, but I had to admit it felt nice to be a part of the celebration. My laptop sat closed on the desk, and I simply looked at it for a long moment, realizing this was my first day in Korea where I did nothing related to work. Threads of guilt threatened to consume me, but I managed to push them away as I relived the day’s events in my mind before drifting off to sleep.