There were currently two things that Seungcheol found beyond ridiculous. One, for him to have survived three days without another companion to accompany him throughout the night and two, the sight of Hong Jisoo indulging himself in a bunch of girly romance novels. What has the world come to? 

His frame leaned against the door frame, shaking his head at the absurdity mocking his eyes. Leaning slightly backwards, Seungcheol stole a glance at the small crowd that was in the living room. Even from where he was standing, Seungcheol could hear the giggles, laughter and boisterous screams as the staff did their hand at decorating the house. Then, he turned his attention back to Jisoo, alone by himself in the study room, reading a stupid book. Oh, the joy. Seungcheol approached his friend and slapped the book out of his hand, rather aggressively. “Not a good time for girly fiction.” He invited himself to the empty seat beside Jisoo. 

His pair of glasses slid down the bridge of his nose as he pushed it back up. Jisoo stared at Seungcheol with a disapproving look. “It's a classic. Romeo and Juliet if you don't know." He corrected and continued "They don’t need my help as you can see and apparently, I don’t see you doing anything productive either.” With that said, he managed to snatch the book back from the rough hands of Seungcheols and dusted off the imaginary dust particles. 

“Jisoo ah, in a span of 5 minutes, I was able to rid of two annoying girl friends,” he praised himself, full of confidence. 

“By ‘girl friends’ you meant 'girlfriends', those that you two-timed?” Jisoo kept his eyes fixated upon the novel’s content. 

“If you want to put it that way.” Seungcheol rolled his eyes and gave a Jisoo an odd look. 

Jisoo could feel the radar that Seungcheols’s eyes was exuding. “What?” 

“Don’t you find this, I don’t know, weird?” Seungcheol crossed his arms, scrutinizing Jisoo's form. 

“What? The fact that you don’t have a date still? Yes in fact, I do,” he replied bluntly with a grin.  

“Your humor’s not getting to me,” he answered with a frown. “What’s strange is the fact that you, Hong Jisoo, part of the Seouls' number ones' most fearful gang, not forgetting to mention; Kim Mingyu’s right hand man, taking an interest in romance novels?” 

He shut the book and placed it down on to the wooden coffee table and removed his glasses in the process, neatly placing it against the top of the cover of the book. “Unlike you, whose hobby is to flirt, date and flee, I prefer to enjoy a bit of peace and quiet.” He eyed the book as he said so and smiled in content. His bubble of thoughts however was broken by Seungcheols boisterous laugh. 

“You and I both know damn well that won’t happen.” Jisoo knew better than to argue because what Seungcheol said was undoubtedly, the truth. On the contrary, due to what his job entitled him to do, his life was far from being peaceful and quiet. 

“Yeah. Didn’t Mingyu tell you to hang the banners up?” Jisoo observed the untouched, still packaged birthday banners innocently laid in the box in the corner of the room. 

“He asked me. I never said yeah.” Seungcheol shrugged and then frowned at the accusation. 

“Least you could do is help him. But if he was here, I doubt he’d ask for your help,” reasoned Jisoo. 

“mhmm.” 

Jisoo sighed, defeated with Seungcheol’s indolence behaviour as he got up on his feet, making way toward the brown box where the decorations were kept. 

“Thanks, Jisoo.” Seungcheol grinned slyly as he laid his body down onto the couch, fully mounted, shutting his eyes. “Wake me up when you’re done, bro." 

Jeon Wonwoo didn’t know whether or not  he should be in a state of joy or bawling his eyes out. In fact, he didn't have much to say or much to feel at this particular moment. Excitement? He didn’t have much; however, he was grateful for his consideration; Kim Mingyu would do anything to keep him happy but he couldn't exactly give him what he wanted. For his birthday wish, he only had one thing in mind – to receive a call from Junhui. For Junhui to wish him a ‘Happy Birthday’ because he simply could not spend it with him this year - like in previous years. He had waited the whole day, always keeping his phone at a visible distance in fear of missing his call.  

But he received absolutely nothing. When his hopes had almost vanished, the phone vibrated, buzzing against the hard-wood of the mahogany desk. His heart leaped when he caught sight of the caller ID. Indeed, it was him. A bright smile immediately spread across his face. 

“Hello?” He spoke into the receiver with such excitement that it could not go unnoticed by anyone. There was no response from the other line. His smile slowly turned into a frown, disappointment clouded within him. He could hear it; the loud noises in the background, the blaring music, screams of the drunken and he could already picture the club that Jun was at. 

“Jun? Are you there?” He couldn't help the desperation that left his lips, calling for the others attention. 

“Argh...” he heard. 

“Are you okay?” He panicked across the phone, worry filling his emotions. 

“Hao~ co-come~ home...come back~ Ming..hao.” his words slurred, making it rather difficult to figure out what the other was saying, but Wonwoo knew – he did. 

“T-this is Wonwoo.” he corrected, saddened by the fact that he could still not forget their deceased brother, their friend. It's been two years and yet, he still couldn’t forget. His eyes moistened without acknowledgement. Was it so hard? Did Jun like tormenting with his feelings? 

“Mi~...Hao, Sor~ry. I'm sooo...” he started but then was cut short. Thankfully. Wonwoo wasn't sure if he could take anymore disappointment. He heard some shuffling from the other side, the techno music roared loudly and suddenly, the phone was filled with another man’s voice and he recognized who it was, Vernon aka Hansol Chwe-Junhui‘s right hand man just as how Jisoo and Seungcheol was Mingyu's. 

“Soz' Wonwoo ah. This is Vernon,” Hansol spoke loudly into the phone. 

“Vernon,” he gulped. “Jun, is he...okay?” 

“Yeah, don’t worry about him. He just got himself drunk, well, you know, it’s Jun. I’ll take care of him. By the way, happy birthday. You have a good one,” Vernon congratulated, but really what was there to congratulate when you’re becoming a year older? Especially when Wonwoo wasn't exactly happy on this supposedly happy day.  

“I...understand. Does he....have anything to say to m—“ Wonwoo stopped short when he heard yet another beep coming from the phone, indicating that he had someone waiting on the other line. He already knew who it was. “I...uh...I’ll see you then. Bye.” he ended the call with Vernon, only to find himself starting a new conversation with the other line. 

“Good evening, my love.” His husky deep yet sultry voice echoed into his ear. He could not deny that it was pleasing to hear him - especially after that call. 

“Good…evening, Mingyu,” he hesitated, gulping down his nervousness. 

“Are you okay? You don’t sound…fine,” he asked with concern. 

“Y-yeah. I mean,  I’m ju—“ 

“Yah! Are they following us?” Wonwoo sat frozen in his seat as he listened to the line. It was obvious he was not talking to him, he could only faintly hear Mingyu as if he was talking to someone else in the background. 

“Boss, why are they following us? Are they trying to ru-“ 

"No,” Mingyu replied sternly to someone as Wonwoo listened with utter interest. He tried to get every word he spoke into his memory, but could barely do so as he was almost whispering. 

“M-Mingyu? Hello?” Wonwoo muttered into the phone, wondering if he was still there for all he could hear was silence. 

“Yes, love. I’m here. Everything’s fine. Give me a second,” he assured seconds later, but he wasn’t so convinced for the next thing he heard was a gunshot, followed by what sounded like the screeching of tires and the collision of cars in the background. 

“!” It was not Mingyu, but whoever it was in the passenger seat, Wonwoo figured. His brows creased into a frown, lips worrying at his bottom lip. What in the world was going on on the other side? 

After an agonising wait, his voice was back on the line. “Sorry, love. Would you mind putting Jisoo or Seongcheol on the line?” 

“I…o-okay..” he stuttered, but rushed downstairs to retreive the two at the urgency of Mingyus tone. Luckily, Wonwoo found them both in the study room. 

“Oh, hi Wonwoo! Happy Bir—“ Jisoo smiled warmly, but Wonwoo abruptly cut him off. 

“I think something happened to Mingyu. Is he in trouble?” Wonwoo muttered as he extended the phone to Jisoo. He eyed the object peculiarly, yet took it from Wonwoo anyway. He caught a glimpse of Seongcheol who had became fully awake when he'd disrupted their silence and at the mentioned words ‘trouble’. 

“Gyu, this is Jisoo,” he spoke seriously into the phone as Seongcheol jerked onto his feet and listening attentively to what Jisoo was saying. As was Wonwoo. “No, I had no idea.” Wonwoo caught the glare Jisoo gave Seongcheol in which he only returned with a perplexed expression. Jisoo then turned to Wonwoo while nodding his head. He swallowed his saliva.  

Were they talking about him? Did they find out? What in the world is going on? A part of him was freaking out, but he tried not to show it. Yet, he needed to know.