Title : Birthday Blowie
Prompt-# : 97
For : Anonymous
Pairing : Taemin/Key
Author : Anonymous
Word count : 2300+
Rating : PG-15
Warnings : none
Summary : Kibum's birthday is coming up and all of the other members are trying to find the best gift there is for their Kibummie.

Jinki usually starts a private KKT message group a week before a member’s birthday comes up so that they can discuss gifts and such (a tradition which started after both Jonghyun and Kibum bought Minho the 2010 Manchester United football kit) and so that no one forgets to get presents (a feat Taemin still manages year after year). There is no need for that this time around because the four of them meet every day for practice when Kibum is busy filming his drama. 

When the members are sprawled out on the floor during a break, Jinki brings it up. “So what are you guys getting Kibum for his birthday?” 

Taemin is the quickest to answer – with a shrug. 

Jonghyun answers his question with a question of his own. “What are you getting him?”

“Something from one his favourite brands. Maybe a bag or a jacket.”

“That’s so boring,” Taemin complains. Nobody pays him any attention. 

“I was going to get him a bag,” Minho says then. “I saw a satchel the other day, with some sort of dinosaur embellishment. It looked like the sort of thing he’d like.” 

“Why don’t we throw him a party?” Taemin asks.

All three members open their mouths to disagree, but quickly realise that they cannot come up with a good reason to reject Taemin’s idea. It is a strange occurrence. 

Not noticing s’ surprise, Taemin continues explaining his idea. “Since we’re all meeting here every night anyway, we can decorate the practice room and bring cake and food and drinks. I’m sure the company won’t mind if we take one night off.” 

“That’s not a bad idea,” Jinki replies. Minho and Jonghyun murmur their agreement. 

“I’ll get the cake,” Taemin offers, glad that the other members have agreed. 

Unbeknownst to each other and to Taemin, Jinki, Jonghyun and Minho have all decided to get Kibum his present anyway. Unbeknownst to all three of them, Taemin has an ulterior motive for suggesting that they throw Kibum a party for his birthday.
 

Kibum knows that the members are talking about his birthday because their conversations always taper off into silence whenever he walks into the room. He doesn’t mind – really, who minds getting presents? He’s just surprised that they’re all talking about it in person instead of Jinki’s customary member’s-birthday-group.

He’s been dropping hints for the past month to each of them about what he wants. 

In front of Jinki, he’s been browsing through the Yves St Laurent catalogue on his phone; enough for Jinki to notice the brand, but subtle enough that Jinki doesn’t realise that he’s meant to notice. 

To Minho, he’s complained a few times that he can’t find a proper satchel. It’s rubbish; he’s got a couple of satchel bags lying around and even if he didn’t, he knows very well where to find one, but years of receiving presents from Minho has taught Kibum a number of things. One, Minho likes to buy presents he thinks are practical. Two, he prefers the ‘walk into store, ask a salesperson for a specific thing and rely on their judgment thereon’ method of shopping and three, he’s got a pretty good eye for brands. 

Jonghyun and Taemin are far more complex creatures. Jonghyun’s presents veer from astoundingly generous – one-of-a-kind designer wear, for example, or a year’s worth of herbal medicine – to mind-boggling- like the time Jonghyun gave him a voucher to see a hypnotherapist to get over his fear of heights. 

As for Taemin, Kibum has given up entirely on expecting something from him. It does hurt a little, sometimes, but Kibum has come to accept that Taemin, despite being exceedingly rich, is also exceedingly stingy, and has the memory of a goldfish. Still, Taemin does manage to surprise him on occasion. There was one time he borrowed money from Kibum to buy him perfume, and another occasion where he returned a pair of borrowed headphones. 

To be quite honest, the reason Kibum isn’t fussed about Taemin’s propensity to forget his birthday is a deep, dark secret that he can never reveal to anyone else. 

It had all started one year when Kibum had, in a moment of loneliness – it was his second year spending his birthday away from his family – sent Taemin a text reminding him that it was his birthday tomorrow and that Kibum expected, at the very least, a birthday greeting from the maknae. Despite this, Kibum’s birthday had come and gone with nary a word from Taemin. 

When they met the next day, for practice, Kibum had been livid. He had ignored Taemin’s repeated attempts at aegyo, and when Taemin had kissed him on the cheek for passing him his water bottle, Kibum had said “Do you really think you can buy my forgiveness with a stupid kiss?”

Taemin had stopped and regarded him with a curious look in his eyes. 

“I suppose not,” he had eventually said. “Would a be sufficient?” 

Kibum really should have known better than to respond with “It might be”, but to be fair, he had thought Taemin was being sarcastic. 

His first indication that he had thought wrong was when Taemin had nodded, perfectly serious, and said “I’ll come to your room after midnight.” 

Still, Kibum hadn’t quite believed Taemin until the maknae was seated between his knees, undoing the drawstring of his pyjama pants with a determined scrunch between his eyebrows. It had been at that surreal moment that Kibum realised that Taemin was completely serious about the and that they were both hurtling at breakneck speed down a road from which there would be no return. 

“Look, I wasn’t serious. You don’t have to do this,” Kibum had said. 

“I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t want to,” had been Taemin’s answer. 

And that was how that tradition had started. Kibum can’t quite figure out what is going on in Taemin’s head, but he goes along with it because – and this is a deeper, darker secret than the birthday BJs – he has a wee little crush on Taemin. 
 

On the day of the birthday, Jinki packs Kibum’s present into the massive bag of decorations he took charge of buying. He thinks he’s being sneaky, but the YSL box in all of its black and gold glory stands out quite distinctly amongst the streamers and balloons. 

Jonghyun has bought Kibum a set of Diptyque candles. He carries them quite brazenly, thinking that the other members will assume that the candles are his. 

Minho has arranged to have the satchel delivered to Kibum during the party. It is the smartest plan. Unfortunately, he is foiled when the delivery boy turns up several hours earlier than he’s supposed to; right as all of the members and their managers are exiting the car in front of the company. 

“You cheated!” It is a cry with three voices, spoken simultaneously. 

“We can see the box, hyung, what makes you think it’s a good hiding place?” Jonghyun asks, pointing to Jinki’s ‘hidden’ present. 

“At least I tried to hide it, unlike you,” Jinki retorts. 

“Excuse me?” Jonghyun asks, feigning affront. 

“Oh come on, we all know you don’t like Diptyque and oh what a surprise, Kibum does,” Minho says. 

“Stop fighting,” Jinki says as they enter the building. “We all got him something, so that’s fine.” 

“Taemin will be left out, though,” Jonghyun adds. “Speaking of which, where is Taemin?”

“He said he’ll pick up the cake and make his way here by himself,” manager Hong says then. 
 

It takes a good hour – with the help of their managers – to decorate the room, order the food and unpack the food and alcohol onto the tables. Taemin still hasn’t showed up. 

“Kibum will be here in twenty minutes or so.” Manager Hong shows them the text from Kibum’s manager on his phone. “They’re done filming for the day.”

“We really should have known better than to let Taemin get the cake,” Minho says with a sigh. 

“We should have known better than to let him go anywhere alone, period,” Jonghyun adds miserably. “Nine years together, you’d think he would have remembered our birthdays by now.” 

“Kibum will be so annoyed.” Jinki sends Taemin yet another text message. 
 

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!”

Kibum is taken aback by the greeting. The practice room looks like a glitter monster threw up in it; there’s sparking glod and silver streamers on the walls and the ceilings and sticking to s and managers. He can see food and champagne and-

-and he can feel his cheeks start to hurt with how wide he’s smiling. 

He allows s to drag him inside and stick a paper hat on his carefully styled hair. 

“Open my present first,” Jonghyun says, pushing a plain brown paper bag into his hands. Kibum turns it over and sees the familiar logo of their favourite chicken place on the paper, but the box he pulls out of the bag is emblazoned with the famous black and white square logo of his favourite candle company. 

“Thank you,” Kibum says, hugging Jonghyun with one arm. “I love it.”

“Mine next!” Minho says. He gives Kibum a bag from Coach and inside it Kibum finds a lovely black satchel with a dinosaur accessory. 

“This is perfect!” Kibum exclaims. 

“Yeah, you mentioned you were looking for a satchel and I thought this was very nice,” Minho says. Kibum thanks him again and gives himself a mental pat on the back for being able to predict s so well. 

Jinki is last. Kibum dances with glee when he sees the YSL coat Jinki has bought for him and pulls Jinki to dance with him. “Thank you, thank you hyung!” 

But his dance comes to an abrupt end when he realises that there is one member missing. Kibum takes a quick glance around the room to make sure that Taemin isn’t hiding in a corner somewhere, but the maknae is nowhere to be seen. 

Jinki catches Kibum glancing around and says “Ah, Taemin went to get your cake. He should be here soon.” He can see that Kibum doesn’t believe him, but what else can he say?

“If he doesn’t get lost along the way,” Jonghyun adds grimly. “But we can start eating first.”
 

In the end, Taemin doesn’t turn up at all. 

Kibum knows how hard the other members have worked to throw him the party, so he keeps his disappointment to himself. He knows that Taemin isn’t fond of parties, but he never imagined that Taemin would consciously skip his own birthday party. 

So when he sees Taemin the next night, fidgeting uncomfortably from one foot to another, Kibum just ignores him. If Taemin thinks he can wriggle his way out of this one with another sloppy BJ, he’s wrong. Kibum may have a crush on him, but he also has his pride. Besides, they don’t even live in the dorm anymore. 

Kibum really should have learnt by now that Taemin can always surprise him. 

He’s getting ready for bed when the doorbell buzzes. When Kibum asks who it is on the intercom, he’s surprised to hear the answer. 

“Hyung, it’s me. Let me in.” 

Kibum contemplates telling him to off, but in the end, he’s not as cold as he pretends to be. 

Still, he greets Taemin with crossed arms and an unfriendly expression. “What do you want?” 

Taemin has the grace to look sorry, Kibum thinks. “I don’t suppose a would make you forgive me this time, would it?” 

“No, it wouldn’t.” 

“You could me.” 

Kibum chokes on air. “What?”

“I mean, if you want to. Like, it’s bigger than a blowie, right? Would that be enough?”

“Taemin, you can’t… you can’t just buy forgiveness with ual favours!” Kibum cannot quite believe that he has to have this conversation with Taemin. 

“You haven’t said no,” Taemin points out. Kibum opens his mouth to tell him no, but stops. He really does want to Taemin. Like, really, really badly. 

“It’s not right,” Kibum says finally. 

“I told you, I wouldn’t offer if I didn’t want it as well.” Taemin takes Kibum’s hand and starts leading him to the bedroom. “And I’ve wanted this for a long time already.” 

It is a wonder that gears of Kibum’s brain are still turning, but as they step over the threshold of his bedroom, the implications of Taemin’s offhand statement hits him. 

“Wait - Wait a minute,” Kibum sputters, yanking his hand away from Taemin. “Did… did you plan this?” 

Taemin is on the verge of exploding from ual frustration, so he doesn’t really catch what Kibum says. “Huh?” 

“Did you purposely skip out on my party so that you could offer to have with me?”

Caught, Taemin thinks. His next thought is: I’m so dead. “Can we just first before you get angry again?”

“I want to choke you,” Kibum growls. 

“Sure,” Taemin says, grabbing Kibum’s hand to lead him to bed. It’s like moving a particularly recalcitrant buffalo. “Choking, blindfolds, whatever you like, we can do that.” 

“You’re going to give me a ,” Kibum grumbles. 
 

When it’s over and they’re both lying side by side, trying to catch their breaths, Taemin bumps his fist against Kibum’s ribs and says “Happy birthday, hyung.”

“I really will strangle you,” Kibum threatens. A thought occurs to him. “Please don’t ruin my birthday next year as well so that you can sleep with me. You can just ask like a normal person.”

“But then you won’t have a reason to say yes,” Taemin replies. 

That surprises Kibum. “You’re you. That’s a good enough reason, isn’t it?”

“Is it?” Taemin rolls over and drops his head on Kibum’s shoulder. “Really?”

“Yeah.” 

“Then…” It’s now or never, Taemin thinks; he’s played this game for nine years now and every game has to come to an end. “Will you be my boyfriend?”

Kibum smiles. “Yes.”
 

“Finally,” Jonghyun says to Jinki when Taemin and Kibum turn up to practice together the next morning. 

“Thank goodness, I don’t think I could take another year of this,” Jinki replies, thankful that he won’t have to referee the yearly cold war between Taemin and Kibum anymore. 

“You guys don’t have the right to complain,” Minho hisses at them. “My room was next to Kibum’s. If anyone suffered the most because of this, it was me.” 

Jonghyun and Jinki nod their agreement.