happy birthday, seungcheol
Apartment Block 17
[APARTMENT #118; Choi Hansol, Boo Seungkwan]
“Hey, what’s the date today?” Hansol asked Seungkwan, who was sprawled across the couch scrolling through Twitter on his phone. During the holidays, Hansol never kept track of the date; but he needed it now to timestamp a diary entry for their English holiday homework.
“Uh,” Seungkwan checked his phone, “It’s the 7th of August.”
“Cool, thanks.”
Seungkwan continued to scroll while Hansol went back to his room to write his diary entry. English was easily his best subject; he was pretty much fluent as he was half-American.
Suddenly, he remembered something and whirled back, startling Seungkwan. “Wait. The 7th? Isn’t Seungcheol’s birthday on the 8th of August?”
“Oh, yeah!” Seungkwan exclaimed. “Damn, we need to do something!” Seungkwan had honestly forgotten; but he knew that if they didn’t plan anything extravagant for his birthday, Seungcheol would probably hold some petty grudge against them for the rest of their natural lives.
“Quick, let’s head down to that party place in the mall,” Hansol suggested, aiming for the most clichéd yet somewhat thoughtful birthday present he could think of; a surprise party.
Grabbing their wallets, the two boys rushed out of the apartment and into the elevator. Upon reaching the lobby, they saw a small crowd gathered around someone. Someone quite short with fluffy, light purple hair.
“Oh, there’s Soonyoung,” Seungkwan acknowledged, pointing out the blue-haired teenager to Hansol. “I wonder what’s happening?”
In answer to his question, Soonyoung plugged his phone into a speaker and started blasting out ‘Heart Attack’ by AOA. Peeking over the crowd, Seungkwan remembered the name of the shorter, purple-haired boy; Lee Jihoon. One of the top music students at Pledis. Kwon Soonyoung’s roommate. Relationship... questionable?
Jihoon immediately started dancing a manly version of ‘Heart Attack’*, popping his chest intensely and eliciting a burst of laughter from the crowd. Seungkwan could see that Jihoon’s face was set in a grimace, but after the chorus finished, he cracked and turned around and buried his face into the wall in embarrassment. Soonyoung collapsed onto the floor, clutching his stomach in laughter. The crowd started cheering for an encore; Seungkwan noticed that he was surrounded mainly by 13-year-old junior high students he never knew lived in the block.
Soonyoung managed to calm his laughter a few minutes later, in which time Jihoon had curled into a ball in the far corner of the lobby. Seeing that nothing eventful was going to happen, the crowd dispersed with mumbles of disappointment. Seungkwan and Hansol approached Soonyoung hesitantly.
“Do I even want to ask?” Seungkwan began. He knew that Jihoon and Soonyoung were known for their weird dares that seemed to happen around the apartment every week or so. It puzzled him because Seungkwan had always seen Jihoon as a rather serious and quiet kind of person - not someone who would willingly perform a dare concocted by Kwon Soonyoung. I guess being around Soonyoung really does change you. Or maybe Jihoon likes him too much to refuse.
“Please, don’t ask. I’m just glad I only had to do the chorus,” Jihoon sighed, escaping his S.O.S position and joining the three boys.
“You were so cute, though!” Soonyoung laughed. “Little man with big movements. You should audition for a girl group.” Jihoon shot him a glare.
After bantering with Seungkwan for a good five minutes, Soonyoung finally introduced his roommate formally to Seungkwan and Hansol. Jihoon nodded respectfully and smiled. His smile wasn’t one that emanated happiness to the degree of Seokmin’s or Mingyu’s, but it had a feeling of warmth and comfortableness woven throughout it. Combined with his slightly short stature, he looked really cute. For a guy, especially. Seungkwan felt like hugging him.
Hansol and Soonyoung also seemed to get along quite well after they were introduced to each other, much like Seungcheol had predicted.
“My name is Soonyoung, but you can call me soon,” Soonyoung winked proudly, using his signature pick-up line jokingly. Jihoon rubbed his temples in exasperation and muttered something under his breath.
Hansol found it really funny, and gave Soonyoung an enthusiastic high-five. He himself tended to favour English humour, though Seungkwan never fully understood any of the jokes that involved English punchlines.
Seungkwan moved on to explain that Seungcheol had wanted to the four of them to meet a few days ago at the arcade, but wasn’t able to as Soonyoung and Jihoon were apparently sick.
“We’re better now! I definitely want to go to the arcade with you guys one day,” Soonyoung smiled. “Jihoon’s a killer at karaoke,” he added, poking Jihoon’s cheek.
“Oh, speaking of Seungcheol,” Jihoon said, brushing Soonyoung’s hand to the side. “Isn’t his birthday tomorrow?”
“Yeah, it is!” Hansol said. “We’re actually heading to the store now to get some supplies. We wanna plan a surprise party for him, since I’m sure he’ll love one of those.”
“Oh, that sounds like a pretty good idea. Also, I think Seungcheol did mention you guys once,” Jihoon said thoughtfully. “Aren’t you guys ‘Boonon’?” Seungkwan nodded earnestly; he loved being recognised. “Cheol showed us some of your covers on Youtube. You’re both really good. I’m studying producing and composing, so it’d be cool if we could combine our skills into a song sometime.”
“That sounds great, seriously! We’ve both wanted to try writing our own song,” Hansol said excitedly. “In the meantime, can you help us plan the party for Seungcheol?”
“We actually gotta go somewhere in a bit, but I’ll give you my number,” Soonyoung offered. Seungkwan swapped numbers with him and bid the two of them goodbye as he left the apartment block with Hansol.
“I feel like I’ve seen them doing crazy stuff around the apartments before,” Hansol said, as soon as they were out of earshot.
“Yeah. I met Soonyoung because I saw him walking on his hands through our floor with his hair tied in bunches with those cute little colourful headbands,” Seungkwan laughed as he remembered the first time he had talked to Soonyoung a few months ago. “Dunno about Jihoon, but I’d guess that they’re both pretty weird.”
“I guess that’s why they can get along with Seungcheol,” Hansol said jokingly.
They made a quick trip down to the local party store and returned to their apartment with bags full of streamers, banners and other generic party needs. All that was left was an actual plan; as well as a present. Seungkwan knew that just giving him money wouldn’t be good enough; he already collected bucketloads of money for rent every month.
“I really want him to have a good day,” Hansol said honestly. “He , but he’s a good hyung for what it’s worth.” Seungkwan nodded in agreement.
Though Seungkwan knew Seungcheol was rather childish and competitive at times (okay, most of the time), when it counted, he was very reliable, hardworking and a good leader. All in all, he always had a sense of responsibility, wanting nothing more than to please his parents; his father, especially. Being the youngest son in the family, he wasn’t expected to amount to much, as all focus was pushed onto his oldest brother. But for all Seungkwan knew, Seungcheol was definitely doing a good job at handling one of the apartment blocks his father owned; more than what was expected of him. Apartment Block 17 wouldn’t function without him, as crazy as he could be, and Seungkwan wanted Seungcheol to know that. Especially on his 22nd birthday.
“Yeah, I wanna show him some appreciation as well. But what would he like?” Seungkwan pondered. Seungcheol definitely loves being recognised and praised...
“What about we make a giant card or book and get residents to sign it?” Hansol suggested. “Like a yearbook or something. A book of praises.”
“Oh, good idea!” Seungkwan exclaimed in English. He managed to find a small, ornate notebook hidden amongst other video props in his drawer. “This should do, right?”
Before Seungkwan could think about how to conduct a signature hunt, his phone buzzed with messages from Soonyoung.
Today 1:33 PM
soonshine
> ey this is seungkwan rite?
> its soonyoung!!!! if u ddint name my contact already
> so about the party
> well im at a friends place rn, and they know cheol as well
> we were thinking ... we need a distraction
me
> im not sure where you’re going with this...
soonshine
> so u need time to set up the surprise party ey
> do u have supplies
me
> yep we’ve got a lot
> also we’re thinking for the present - we have a notebook we can get ppl to sign with some nice stuff
> seungcheol loves being complimented so...
soonshine
> lmao this is asuming that people are nice enough to compliment cheol on his bday
> ok but good idea :D
> alright so back to distraction
> me and jihoon got it covered:)
> we distract him and u sneak into his apartment and set up and stuff
> invite lots of ppl as well
> how long do u need us to distract him for
me
> oh uh... hansol and i are pros.
> 10 mins top
soonshine
> piece o cake
> also bring that notebook over latr so we can sign it
> lol yey that’s my present for him covered :-)
me
> k
> we’ll go to his apartment prior so we dont actually have to sneak in
> we’re not risking getting kicked out just for seuncgheol’s birthday
soonshine
> aw but thats no fun :(
> ok whatever but tell us when ur ready for the distraction
> it’ll take time to get that notebook filled i imagine so tell us when the plan’s gonna start
me
> yeh we’ll head out now probably to start getting signs
> shld be done by today... tmr morning is like backup time
> so lets aim for tmr early afternoon
soonshine
> alright :D
me
> uh also... anyone got a cake?
> hansol said the cake store only takes orders like two days prior :/
soonshine
> oh uh.
> you see
> no one i know can cook decent instant ramen
> yet alone something magical like cake
me
> alright nvm
> we’ll figure something out
> anyway seeya i’ll keep u posted
soonshine
> we’re in apt 104 btw
> if u know jisoo and jeonghan
> yeh we’re with them
me
> oh right yeh i’ve met them
> we’ll come by soon
soonshine
> righteeeoooo see you SOON ;))
me
> i hate you
------------
[APARTMENT #104; Yoon Jeonghan, Hong Jisoo]
“Why didn’t you video it?” Jeonghan whined, hitting Soonyoung’s shoulder lightly.
“He was laughing too hard,” Jihoon grumbled, referring to the dare he had performed earlier in the apartment lobby.
“You two never fail to amaze me,” Jisoo shook his head in mock admiration.
“Okay, but seriously,” Jihoon interrupted, changing the topic before they begged him for an encore, “What should we get for Cheol’s birthday?”
“Well, Seungkwan said they were making a card and getting people to sign it,” Soonyoung said.
“Seungkwan? You know him?” Jeonghan said excitedly.
“Yeah, kind of. We’re working together with him and his roommate to plan the surprise party,” Soonyoung explained.
“Damn, you should’ve told us! Don’t you know he’s part of that Boonon channel?” Jeonghan said.
“Oh right, right. Heard about them from Cheol and Jihoon,” Soonyoung said thoughfully. “I didn’t know you two were their fanboys,” he teased.
After several minutes of debating about presents for Seungcheol, Jeonghan decided he would paint an impromptu painting for him, and Jisoo would just nick something from Love Letter, the shop he worked at. Soonyoung and Jihoon figured that helping plan the surprise party and the heartfelt messages they would write in Seungkwan’s book was enough.
Before Jeonghan could get out his art supplies, the doorbell rang multiple times and Jisoo stumbled out to answer it before the visitor kicked the door down.
“Oh hey, Seungkwan! Hansol!” Jisoo exclaimed, upon recognising the visitors.
Hansol held up an antique-looking notebook that was filled to the brim with letters and photos poking out haphazardly. “Do you wanna sign the Seungcheol Appreciation Book?”
Jisoo allowed the two to enter their apartment as he set the book down onto the dining table. Flipping through, Jisoo was genuinely surprised to see nice messages throughout; though a majority of them were sarcastic (he could still feel the love).
“Why are so many of them referring to ‘scoops’?” Jisoo wondered. Many of the messages were all addressed to ‘S.Coups’.
Seungkwan sniggered softly. “S-Coups,” he corrected. “It’s his rapper name. He raps sometimes. You should search him up, I’m sure he’ll appreciate the attention. Believe it or not, he’s actually pretty decent.”
“Oh dang, I never knew!” Jisoo exclaimed. He felt slightly guilty that deep down, he found the name ‘S.Coups’ really funny.
“Why ‘S.Coups’?” Jisoo asked. Seungkwan and Hansol shrugged in unison.
“Oh, is that the book thingy?” Soonyoung bounced into the room and leant over Jisoo to look at the book.
“Yep. Go ahead, find a page that’s empty and write whatever,” Hansol said.
Jihoon and Jeonghan both came in following Soonyoung’s exclamation.
“Oh yeah, Jihoon, can I get your number? Also, Jisoo and Jeonghan... if you don’t mind. Mostly it’s in case we need to update you on the surprise party. Are you guys all coming?” Hansol enquired. They all nodded. “Okay, cool. Quite a lot of people said they’ll be coming so we need to coordinate it well.”
It took quite a long time for the boys to swap numbers and finish writing their messages for Seungcheol in the Seungcheol Appreciation Book. As Hansol picked up the book to leave, a polaroid fell out. Soonyoung frowned as he picked it up.
“Wait... Jihoon?” The polaroid was of Seungcheol sleeping on a couch, next to a person who resembled Jihoon making a face into the camera.
“What?” Jihoon said, peeking at the polaroid Soonyoung was holding. He tutted. “That’s not me; can’t you recognise your own roommate? Besides, you know him.”
“Oh man, yeah. That’s Yoongi. When we met him earlier today, I thought he was Jihoon at first, except he seemed older. I got kinda freaked out,” Hansol said.
“Oh, Yoongi! Your cousin!” Soonyoung remembered. “Right, he looks so much like you it’s scary.”
“He gave us lots of photos of Seungcheol. Seems like they’re quite close,” Hansol said.
“He likes rapping as well,” Jihoon explained.
“Pretty cool to have a relative live in the same apartment block as you,” Jisoo commented.
“We’re not that close, really,” Jihoon said. A silence settled upon the living room as they stared at each other awkwardly.
Seungkwan coughed. “Anyway, thanks for the messages! We’ll see you at the party tomorrow,” he said, waving goodbye as he and Hansol left the apartment.
Jisoo noticed that Jeonghan had been missing for a while, since he finished writing his message for Seungcheol in the book. He found him sketching Seungcheol’s birthday painting in his room; his art studio.
“What did you write in the book?” Jisoo asked as he entered the room.
“Secret,” Jeonghan grinned playfully. Jisoo shoved him lightly.
“Do you guys wanna play Monopoly again later, or should we just let you finish your painting?” Soonyoung asked, following Jisoo into Jeonghan’s room.
“I think I’ll work on the painting,” Jeonghan said sheepishly. “Can we play another time?”
“Alright, just text us whenever. See you around, then!” Soonyoung and Jihoon left the apartment together.
“So, I need inspiration for this painting,” Jeonghan said. He had sketched out a basic outline of the main subject; a camel. Jisoo laughed. They had both forever made fun of the fact that Seungcheol greatly resembled a camel, from his angular face and thick, luscious eyelashes every girl would be jealous of.
“I found out earlier that Seungcheol actually raps. And his stage name is ‘S.Coups’,” Jisoo said.
“Oh yeah, Seungcheol’s told me before. Funny name, hey,” Jeonghan laughed.
“Indeed. But since he seems pretty proud of it, maybe we could put his rap lyrics in the background or something? I don’t know him that well so you decide, but that’s all the inspiration you’re gonna get out of my uncreative brain,” Jisoo said.
“You’re heaps creative,” Jeonghan smiled. “Not everyone can imitate inanimate objects as well you do.”
Jisoo furrowed his eyebrows, flicked Jeonghan’s forehead and left the room, saying he had to go to work; which was true, as he realised he was already 10 minutes late for his shift at Love Letter. Jeonghan laughed loudly after him. Jisoo tried his best to ignore Jeonghan’s shouts of “You know I love you!”, grabbed his things and headed out.
------------
[APARTMENT #407; Jeon Wonwoo, Kim Mingyu]
Today 5:45 PM
sasskwan
> yo ming
> r u and wonwoo at home?
me
> no we’re eating early dinner at this rlly cool chinese place
> thERES AN AQUARIUM
> UNDR THE FLOOR
> LIKE I MEAN THE FLOOR IS CLEAR AND WE’RE LITERALY SITTING ON FISH AS WE EAT THEIR RELATIVES IDK HOW TO FEEL
sasskwan
> oh lol cool
> but anyway
> did u know it’s seungcheol’s birthday tmr
me
> wait what rlly?
> omg i didnt know!
> seungcheol, as in, the guy who basically owns our apt block?
sasskwan
> yeah basically
> anyway me and my roomie are outside ur apartment now
> we have this book we compiled for seungcheol and basically u just write a message in there for him
> also we’re planning a surprise party, maybe tmr afternoon, so ur invited if u want
> tell wonwoo too
me
> oh alright cool
> do u think u can come by later tonight so we can sign the book? we shld be back by like 8
sasskwan
> 8??? wtf how long does it take to eat dinner
me
> wonwoo said he wanted to take me to an arcade close by!!!
sasskwan
> wow
> ok
> have fun :-)
> oh but one more thing
> can u cook
me
> yeah im alright bahaha
> i havent burnt down our kitchen so i think im pretty great
sasskwan
> cool bc is there any chance you’d want to maybe bake a cake for cheol’s birthday?
me
> omg yeah i’d love to!!!
> i’ll do my best :)
sasskwan
> ok cool ur a lifesaver
> also ill probably forget to come by later so
> here’s the plan
> tmr about 12pm, seungcheol’s gonna be out
> my roomie and i are going into his apartment to set up the surprise stuffs
> u can come by then with the cake
> i’ll text u
> then u can also sign the book then
me
> alright cool! :D
> ok i gtg bc wonwoo’s telling me its rude to text at dinner
> bye seungkwannn!!!!
“Who’re you texting? Your girlfriend?” Wonwoo asked. Mingyu couldn’t tell if his tone was sarcastic or serious.
“Jealous?” Mingyu teased. He laughed when Wonwoo frowned. “Joking, joking. I don’t swing that way anyway,” he said casually.
“Oh, right. Who was it, then?”
“Do you remember Seungkwan, from the arcade?” Wonwoo nodded. “He was telling me that it’s Seungcheol’s birthday tomorrow!”
“Oh yeah, Seungcheol mentioned his birthday was coming up the last time he came over,” Wonwoo said thoughtfully. “Are you getting him anything?”
Mingyu looked up as the waiter brought them their food and thanked him. Turning back to Wonwoo, he said, “I’m thinking of baking him a cake! Well, it was Seungkwan’s suggestion, but it’s a cool idea.”
Wonwoo knew that Mingyu was a great cook, but he wasn’t sure about his dessert making skills. Well, guess I’ll find out.
It turned out that if anything, Mingyu was at his happiest when making desserts, and he was pretty darn good at it as well. The following morning, Seungcheol’s birthday, was completely occupied with Mingyu planning an elaborately decorated cake. The hardest part was Mingyu’s insistence on drawing the likening of a camel with 10+ different types of icing on the top of the cake; he said that Seungcheol resembled a camel way too much to ignore the opportunity to make use of it. Wonwoo couldn’t really disagree with his line of thinking.
“Do we have any leftover chocolate?” Mingyu asked, busy stirring up his 11th batch of icing. This time, it seemed to be the lovely yellow-brown colour of something you’d find in a toilet. Probably for the camel’s ears.
“Yeah, we still have a bag left,” Wonwoo replied, searching through the abundance of sweet ingredients Mingyu had bought last night after dinner. The arcade Wonwoo wanted to show Mingyu had ended up being closed by the time they got there, much to their disappointment (though Wonwoo wouldn’t admit he was upset).
“Ooh, toss me one!” Mingyu said, pausing his avid stirring to open his mouth like a puppy begging for food.
Wonwoo pursed his lips but gave in; definitely not because of Mingyu’s cuteness in that moment. Or maybe every moment. He took out a square of cooking chocolate and threw it with the best accuracy he could muster. Mingyu caught it gracefully and chewed on it with great enthusiasm.
“Cooking chocolate is so good,” he mumbled. He finished making his last batch of icing and piped it carefully onto the cake. He turned to Wonwoo, holding out a bag of black icing. “Okay, do you wanna help me with the last bit of icing?”
“I don’t particularly want to try. I got a C in high school art,” Wonwoo said.
“Grades don’t define you, Wonwoo,” Mingyu huffed, “I can’t be the only one making this cake. I’m sure you have really neat writing. Maybe you can write ‘happy birthday’ across it,” he suggested.
Looking closer at Mingyu’s creation, Wonwoo couldn’t help but admire the carefully piped designs and the intricacy of the camel itself. It really was a masterpiece. He didn’t want to ruin it with his amateur icing skill.
Steeling himself and willing his hands to stop trembling, Wonwoo piped out ‘Happy Birthday Seungcheol’ around the cake with as much control as he could muster. Mingyu was beside himself in awe at Wonwoo’s ‘hella posh writing’.
“I’m sure Seungcheol will appreciate this amazing effort,” Wonwoo said.
“I think it’s pretty great, don’t you?” Mingyu said. Well, it is, since you’re the one who baked it.
“It’s the love that counts,” Wonwoo said sarcastically.
“Right. So... I guess it’s clean-up time?” Mingyu sighed, looking at around at their chocolate-devastated kitchen. Wonwoo grumbled and grabbed a cloth from the sink.
“Probably would’ve been a good idea to wear aprons,” Wonwoo frowned, looking at Mingyu’s chocolate-smeared shirt.
Mingyu smiled sheepishly. “I actually have some in one of my boxes somewhere... I totally forgot!” He ran off and returned with the most ridiculously cheesy aprons Wonwoo had ever seen.
“Bit late, but might as well wear them for clean up!” Mingyu grinned, handing one to Wonwoo. The one Mingyu put on was obnoxiously bright pink with ‘KISS THE COOK’ printed across it in a hideously generic font (probably Comic Sans). The one Mingyu had given him, however, made him throw up in his mouth slightly. It was an apron with a muscled body printed on it; so it made the wearer look like a totally natural, tan, muscular man. Wonwoo put it on with great reluctance, wincing at Mingyu’s outburst of laughter.
“Wait, wait, I need a photo of this. If this isn’t the best thing Seungcheol will ever see, I don’t know what will be,” Mingyu grabbed his polaroid camera and snapped a quick selfie of them before Wonwoo had time to protest. The result was an incredibly cute picture of a confused (but very muscular) Wonwoo.
Wonwoo didn’t feel like protesting because Mingyu looked so happy. He grabbed his cloth and grudgingly scoured the kitchen surface. It took nearly an hour for the two of them (mostly Wonwoo, since Mingyu was too busy laughing) to clean up all the utensils and bench-tops.
Mingyu sank to the floor in exhaustion, flinging the rag into the sink. Wonwoo sat next to him and handed him a tissue. “You’ve got lots of icing on your face,” he said.
“Oh, really? Where?” Mingyu asked as he scrubbed his face, conveniently missing all of it. Feeling like he was in an incredibly clichéd romance movie, Wonwoo sighed and grabbed the tissue in order to properly free Mingyu’s face of poo-coloured icing smears.
Wonwoo’s face was just a little too close to Mingyu’s and he felt his heartbeat pick up. Has Mingyu always smelt this good?
Mingyu smiled and thanked Wonwoo for cleaning up his mess. “That was so fun. We should bake together more often!”
“Isn’t this just your excuse to see me in this ridiculous apron and smear cake batter on my face without getting into trouble?”
“I’ve heard that cake batter is great for your skin,” Mingyu grinned jokingly, reaching for one of the leftover bags of icing.
“Please, we just cleaned up,” Wonwoo begged. Wonwoo’s reaction to having cake batter splattered on his face was way too funny for Mingyu to resist.
Just as Mingyu was about to decorate Wonwoo’s face for the umpteenth time that morning, his phone buzzed. Seungkwan had added him and Wonwoo to a group chat.
seungcheol's super secret spectacular surprise birthday surprise >
Today 11:35 AM
sasskwan
> righteo guys the party’s about to start
> hansol and i are in cheol’s apt right now just chillin
> soonhoon’s about to create a diversion
> u guys gotta get to cheol’s apt quietly in the space of 10 minutes without arousing suspicion
> are you game!??!?!?!!?
mingtwo [a/n; these are all the names Mingyu has in his phone... this is Minghao btw]
> wait right now???
[unknown number]
> yep me and jihoon are creating the best diversion of the century
> u guys can count on us [thumbs up emoji]
seokmean
> chan and i can prob only stay for a while since we have training but we’ll be there :)
[unknown number]
> do we bring presents too?
[unknown number]
> omg josh did jeonghan finish the painting???
> send pic pls
[unknown number]
> [unknown number] sent a photo.
me
> WOAH THATS SO GOOD
sasskwan
> man, cheol will love that
me
> turns out me and wonwoo made him a cake with a camel on it as well
> You sent a photo.
[unknown number]
> woowowoww great minds think alike :O
sasskwan
> alright anyway, u ready for the distraction soonyoung??
[unknown number]
> ayeaye captain :D
[unknown number]
> seungcheol’s feeling salty bc its his birthday and no ones said anything lmao
> [unknown number] sent a photo.
actor-hyung
> lol poor cheol
sasskwan
> oh hey there junhui how did gift hunting go
> bet u its not as great as our gifts
actor-hyung
> shut up seungmeme we’re the best gift buyers
> im still not over u stealing our pokegym
sasskwan
> of course u arent ey
> lets see who got seungcheol the better gift :^)
[unknown number]
> ok guys shut up we’re starting our plan
> get ready to rush to his apartment
sasskwan
> i’m surprised u agreed to this jihoon but ok
> leggo :D
-------------
[APARTMENT #811; Lee Jihoon, Kwon Soonyoung]
Seungcheol rubbed his temples in frustration as he stared at the disaster of a kitchen in front of him. He took a deep breath and turned to Soonyoung and Jihoon, who were standing sheepishly in the corner.
“Tell me again... How did you manage to break the pipes?” he asked through gritted teeth. The whole kitchen was flooded, water pooling across all the bench-tops and pouring into the cupboards, soaking everything inside. The tap seemed to have been ripped off the sink, which was where water was spurting out haphazardly.
Soonyoung laughed nervously. “I wonder...”
“I’ll have to call my dad or something. You realise the repair costs will probably add to your rent?” Seungcheol sighed.
“Oh lord, no. I didn’t sign up for this! Please, just let us off this one time, Cheol,” Jihoon pleaded.
Seungcheol ran his hand through his hair and took a closer look at the situation. “It’s pretty serious. How the heck did something like this happen? It looks like a dog attacked the sink.”
“Uh, who knows, hey? Nature is weird,” Soonyoung shrugged.
“Um, I’ll need to go back to my place and ring up my dad,” Seungcheol said, turning to leave.
“Wait! Can’t you just call him here? I mean, you could video call him and show him the situation,” Soonyoung said hurriedly, barring the door with his body in order to stop Seungcheol from exiting.
“Uh, alright,” Seungcheol said suspiciously, but obeying anyway. As Seungcheol was calling his father, Jihoon texted Seungkwan.
Today 11:43 AM
me
> alright, seungcheol’s buying it
> he said we’re going to have to pay for the broken tap?!?!?!
> this better be worth it
seungkwan.
> yeh it will we all love cheol<3
> we’re pretty much ready
> all the guests (so far) have arrived
> we’re barely fitting in here and its already at a point where random strangers are wandering into cheol’s bedroom
> so yeh, u can send him up anytime
Jihoon gave Soonyoung an ‘OK’ sign. Seungcheol put his phone away in frustration, saying that he wasn’t able to get a hold of his busy father.
“Oh well. Guess it’s back to your apartment!” Soonyoung said, jittering slightly. Jihoon face-palmed internally. Man, he’s a terrible liar.
Seungcheol furrowed his eyebrows but nevertheless led the way out of the place and down a floor to his apartment. As he unlocked the door, he was greeted with a face full of confetti, flour and screams from more than thirty people crammed into the small room.
“Happy Birthday, Seungcheol!” they all screamed in slightly off unison.
Jihoon had doubted Seungkwan and Hansol’s promise to be ready in under 10 minutes but it seemed that they had managed to pull it off. There were banners hung all over the room, food strewn across every available surface and presents stacked in a disorganised pile in the far corner. Typical 12-year-old party set up.
“What?” was Seungcheol’s appropriate response. He looked thoroughly confused. At least try to look happy, you idiot. We broke our tap for you.
“It’s a surprise party,” Hansol grinned.
“How...”
“Don’t ask, just enjoy,” Seungkwan said, shoving a cupcake in Seungcheol’s face.
One by one, residents of Apartment Block 17 rushed forward to congratulate Seungcheol with words of encouragement, lots of sarcastic remarks and a plethora of birthday punches; Jihoon didn’t miss out on his chance to punch Seungcheol.
“You guys...” Seungcheol mumbled, muffled under the hugs of several residents.
“Hey, Seungcheol!” the tree boy who moved in recently approached Seungcheol and slapped him on the back. “Wonwoo and I made a cake for you! Hope you like it,” he gestured to a large cake sitting in the centre of the dining table. Jihoon sniggered upon seeing the camel drawn with icing on top. I can’t even tell the difference.
“Oh man, I never knew all you guys would’ve known...” Seungcheol bro-hugged yet another random resident Jihoon had never seen before. Further behind, he spotted his cousin, Yoongi, with his roommate whose name Jihoon could never remember. Jimin, maybe? I never remember since Yoongi always just calls him an idiot...
“Cheol!” A gorgeous, black-haired bean pole grinned as he got his turn at bro-hugging Seungcheol. “Up for another match sometime?”
“Jungkook! It’s been so long. I bet you’re just salty I beat you last time**,” Seungcheol smirked.
“Yeah, right. You just got lucky,” Jungkook retorted. Seungcheol laughed and slapped him on the back. Jihoon felt a small tug at his sleeve and he remembered that Soonyoung was still standing awkwardly next to him.
“I never knew so many people actually liked Seungcheol,” Soonyoung whispered to Jihoon.
“Tell me about it,” Jihoon mumbled.
“Should we like, congratulate him or something?” Soonyoung asked.
“If we up to him, do you think he’ll let the tap thing go?” Jihoon wondered.
“He seems a bit preoccupied now, though,” Soonyoung sighed, referring to the crowd of people vying for Seungcheol’s attention.
It took a while for the room to settle down after most people in the room had given their congratulations to Seungcheol. Seungkwan and Hansol had been busy for most of it making sure no one was breaking anything; it technically would be their fault if anyone broke anything since they were the party hosts.
Much to Jihoon’s surprise, there were several residents who showed up because they were fans of his rapping.
“My brother showed me your raps the other day and I really liked them! I never knew you could rap so well,” a younger boy told Seungcheol as he held out a present. “Have you ever considered auditioning for a talent agency?”
“Nah, I prefer flying solo. You’re Chan, right? Sungmin’s brother? Damn, yeah, you’re in Pledis, aren’t you!”
“You remember his name, but you still don’t remember mine?” a taller boy, presumably the brother, grumbled as he flicked Seungcheol’s forehead lightly.
“Uh, isn’t it? I swear your name was Sungmin,” Seungcheol insisted.
“Seokmin,” the boy sighed. “We have to go, anyway. Hope you had a good birthday, Seungcheol.”
“Oh, thanks!” Seungcheol smiled sincerely as he waved them goodbye.
Seungkwan decided to move things along and actually get Seungcheol to open some of the presents and eat some of the food before the guests stole it all.
“Mingyu, did you seriously bake this?” Seungcheol mumbled, wolfing down a generous slice of the cake.
“Wonwoo helped a little,” the boy replied humbly.
“Don’t lie. I know Wonwoo can’t cook for ,” Seungcheol said. The boy standing next to Mingyu - dark brown hair and rather tall, to which Jihoon wondered if everyone in this goddamn building was taller than him - frowned and made a face of mock hurt.
“Well, you’re not wrong. But I did the icing, and a majority of the cleaning up,” he looked pointedly at his roommate.
“Alright!” Seungkwan interrupted loudly, effectively drawing the attention of everyone in the apartment. It seemed that in the last half hour, the number of people squeezed into the room had doubled as more people showed up late.
“Time for the main present!” He grabbed the overflowing notebook and presented it to Seungcheol. Seungcheol grabbed it gingerly, not wanting to get paper-cuts from the sharp edges of photos that stuck out of the pages.
“Seungcheol... Appreciation Book?” he read out slowly. He turned to the first page and stared blankly at the words.
“We went round the entire block yesterday and asked people to write a message in there for you,” Hansol explained.
“If you make it to the end, there’s an extra special message there as well!” Seungkwan added. “It was kinda difficult to get that one on such short notice, so we hope you’ll appreciate it.”
Seungcheol sat in the nearest chair and scanned through the messages in the book. Jihoon couldn’t tell what the expression on his face was. He gave in to curiosity and snuck through the crowd to take a peek at the book. Messages ranged from a simple ‘happy birthday’ to long- passages about why they appreciated or ‘hated’ Seungcheol.
Thank you for always taking my trashy paintings. You , but I love you in the most heteroual way. -Jeonghan
Uh, happy birthday, I guess. Yeah. Thanks for taking care of Minghao and I when we needed help with stuff! Much appreciation. -Jun
MY NAME IS SEOKMIN. -S E O K M I N
ps. happy birthday!
I’m sorry to say that I laughed when I heard your rapper name was ‘S.Coups’. I’m sure you’re great at rapping, though (promise I’ll look you up later!). Thanks for being a great caretaker of the place, and just know that this block wouldn’t be the same without you screaming every day or so. Love from Jisoo ♡
CHEOL!! You’re such an idiot but honestly one of my great friends. Your dances are hilarious, and you’re such a dad. Also, hands off Jihoon. (winks) -Soon
I love you, Dad. -Hansol
If you found my camel cake offensive, I’m so sorry!!!! I tried my best!!!! I hope we can become better friends in the future because you seem like a really cool hyung! Happy Birthday!! -Mingyu
After reading countless messages and laughing at photos that were inserted here and there, Seungcheol finally reached the final page. There was a short paragraph written in clean, bold print.
I’m proud of you, so don’t think that I’m not just because I never say so. You’ve got yourself some good friends. I’m thankful that I can count on them to take care of you in my absences. Happy 22nd Birthday, Seungcheol. -Dad
“Dad...?” Seungcheol said faintly.
“I had to call your dad’s office 20 times to finally get him to pick up,” Seungkwan tutted. “He couldn’t make it to this party, but Hansol took the book there this morning for him to sign it.”
“You seriously went to all that trouble?” Seungcheol asked.
“Well, we don’t hate you,” Hansol stated.
“Oh... thanks,” Seungcheol said quietly. He coughed.
“Yeah, we know, we’re pretty great. Don’t cry too much,” Seungkwan said sarcastically. But to his surprise, as much as Seungcheol was trying to hide it, he started choking up.
“I never...”
“Aw man, Seungcheol’s crying!” Soonyoung hollered, pushing through the crowd with a grin on his face, whipping out his phone to video the historical event.
“Shut up, I’m not-” Seungcheol’s protests were muffled by the residents who surged forward to engulf him a huge group hug.
“Appreciate the kindness while you can, Seungcheol!” someone yelled over the commotion.
“We’ll act like we hate you every other day of the year!” another commented.
Seungcheol sniffled and rubbed his face vigorously. “I’m not crying, I swear. Stop videoing,” he tried to lightheartedly shove Soonyoung to the side.
“Sure, sure. Your eyes are probably just sweating. You should probably get that checked out,” Soonyoung smirked.
“Bet you didn’t think people actually cared about you, hey?” Jihoon reached through the crowd and patted Seungcheol on the back.
“I didn’t...”
The screams and Seungcheol’s eye sweating eventually subsided, but the noise level was once again brought up when someone in the crowd insisted Seungcheol deliver a thank you speech. The crowd began chanting “SPEECH! SPEECH!” like a mantra until Seungcheol spoke.
“Don’t make it sound like I’m receiving an Oscar or something,” Seungcheol remarked.
“That book is more precious than any Academy Award, so just do a thank you speech for all our sakes’,” Hansol insisted.
“Um... thank you,” Seungcheol said hesistantly. The crowd burst into yells of disappointment.
“Wait, I’m not done! Jeez, calm down,” Seungcheol held up his arms. “Honestly, I didn’t really think anyone would care about my birthday. I mean, I expected someone to do something, but I didn’t think you actually would bother. Compared to my last birthday, when I just got a $5 cake from the supermarket and a massage gift voucher, this is pretty dope.”
Laughs came from the crowd as someone yelled, “Don’t pretend like you didn’t love that massage!”
“But wow. Seriously, thank you. Hansol and Seungkwan, especially, I’m so glad I met you guys. Though you didn’t do anything for my last birthday...” he said jokingly.
“Hey, we were saving the best for this one!” Seungkwan argued. Seungcheol laughed and shook his head in mock disappointment.
“What was the best present you got?” someone yelled out.
“The book was beautiful. I love it,” Seungcheol said thoughtfully, “I also love and hate all the camel-themed gifts.” The crowd laughed collectively. “Oh yeah, whoever gave me that ticket to a seven-day spa resort deserves my never-ending thanks as well.”
“That was mine!” someone hollered. From near him, Jihoon heard Seungkwan mutter, “Dammit, Junhui.”
“Um, I really do love taking care of this place,” he continued before the crowd’s noise could grow louder. “Though you guys can give me headaches multiple times a day, I’m sure I give you all the equivalent back. That goes for everyone in this goddamn apartment block who didn’t show up today. I don’t know many of you particularly well, but I definitely notice your presence. Plus, I have your personal records in my cupboard somewhere.” The crowd groaned.
“I hope we can grow closer in the next year and become more of a family. Thanks for putting up with my nonsense. I really do care about this place a lot, so thanks for cooperating and caring enough to wish me happy birthday today,” he finished to loud cheers and pats on the back from satisfied residents.
After thanking a few more people, the party resumed back to how it was before, except most guests had begun talking to others in the room instead of swarming Seungcheol. Jihoon noticed that Hansol was holding a camera in a vlog-style position, capturing most of the events of the party.
“I’m gonna release this as a vlog on our channel,” Hansol explained to Jihoon. “Seungcheol’s always complaining that we don’t let him appear our videos, so we decided to let him have some publicity for once.”
“Oh, are you going to advertise his rapping or something?” Jihoon asked.
“Pretty much. Hope he appreciates it,” Hansol grinned.
“I will!” Seungcheol slung his arm around Hansol from behind, looking into the camera and making a disgustingly cute face. Noticing Jihoon, he unengaged himself and disappeared from the camera’s view. “Oh hey, Jihoon. Mind if I ask you and Soonyoung something?”
“I guess,” Jihoon pulled Soonyoung over from where he was, crouched over the food table, gobbling down an unhealthy amount of cupcakes.
“What was your broken tap really about?” Seungcheol asked seriously. Jihoon groaned; he had hoped that Seungcheol would’ve forgotten about it.
“Uh, surprise?” Soonyoung mumbled through his mouthful of cupcakes.
“It was a distraction to get you out of your apartment so the others could set up the decorations,” Jihoon explained rationally.
“You couldn’t think of anything else?” Seungcheol said in disbelief.
“Seungcheol. Do you really think you would’ve left your apartment if it wasn’t as drastic as a broken tap?” Jihoon pointed out.
“Fair enough.”
“So, since you’re feeling extra nice and kind today, do you think you could let us off the hook? Because we helped planned this party and we’re your best friends in the entire world who love you more than anything and would even take a paper cut anytime, any day for you?” Soonyoung pleaded.
“You must be joking, Soonyoung,” Seungcheol sighed.
“Love you, Cheol!” Soonyoung grinned as he ran out of the apartment, dragging Jihoon along by his wrist.
“Kwon Soonyoung, do you really think I asked for you to break your tap?!” Seungcheol yelled as he chased the two outside. “Your rent’s gonna be tripled next month!”
The crowd hushed as they watched the centre of the party run out of the place like a maniac. No one knew what to do.
“This place really wouldn’t be right without Seungcheol’s yelling,” Seungkwan sighed. Murmurs of agreement spread across the room as the guests began packing up and leaving with lack of anything better to do, returning back to their normal lives in Apartment Block 17.
a/n;
* lmao idk if you’ve seen jihoon (ft. mingyu & hansol) dancing to AOA’s heart attack, but if you haven’t, you’re missing out --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBtqV52ixaM
** do you guys remember that jungkook vs. seungcheol wrestling match on ‘my boss is watching’? :’)
happy (belated) birthday to our precious leader, choi seungcheol ♡
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