"—Hyung! Wake up!" Chenle's distorted voice wakes Renjun, plus the fact that the two maknaes are jumping on his bed, making the older bounce with them.

Renjun sits up suddenly and grabs their ankles making the two yelp aloud. He thinks it would be funnier of he was more awake for this.

"What?" Renjun growls but it comes out a whine. Curse my morning voice.

The two giggle and suddenly kneel down the bed, once again shaking Renjun. The older turns green and thinks he's gonna be sick when they kiss both his cheeks, a stupidly loud "Muah!" coming from Chenle's side and oh god, why is Jisung's side wet?

Funny thing is, if this were a normal day, (honestly, with these two, when is there a normal day?) the two of them would probably tag team him and say in the most disgusted tone, "Eww."

Today, however, they only have matching wide grins directed at him as they tackled him onto his back, screaming, "Happy Birthday, Renjun-hyung!" They cuddle on each of Renjun's side, the older not having the energy to actually scold them this early for being so loud and energetic, so he settles for snuggling closer to the two.

"Hyung," Jisung starts, looking up from where he's lying on Renjun's arm, "Thanks for always being there for us, especially when Mark-hyung isn't around, we must be a crazy baggage to deal with." Renjun coos at him, wanting to pinch his cheek. He was about to thank the younger when Chenle interrupts.

"Ge, thank you for also being there for me, seriously, I don't think I'd be able to survive in Korea if you weren't with me. Thanks for being my translator, hyung." Chenle says in Chinese, hugging closer to the older. Once again, Renjun was about to thank him when, this time, Jisung interrupts.

"Not fair!" Jisung pouts, "I said mine in Korean, brat!"

"Study your Chinese then, stupid!" Chenle sticks out his tongue and Jisung prepares to fight some more, but Renjun isn't having any of it. He's not gonna start his birthday this early and with the two maknaes (literally) fighting on top of him.

"Now, now." Renjun mumbles and the two immediately shut up. He briefly explains to Jisung what Chenle said before continuing, "Thank you, you two, for greeting me this early, really, thank you." The two giggle at the excessive sarcasm dripping from the older's voice.

"And you don't need to thank me for those things, it's my responsibility as a hyung, alright?" Renjun feels his eyes drooping, and he gives the two a sleepy smile when he feels them nod.

"Good, just be nicer to me next time, okay?" He snuggles the two closer as they burst into small giggles, "Now let's go back to sleep."

(The two of them mumble 'we love you, hyung' clumsily when they think Renjun was asleep already. Renjun hears it anyway, struggling to keep in his smile from the two.)

Later, he wakes up late, sleeping through most of the day, nearing dinner already, neither of the two in sight. Renjun lies in his bed, contemplating whether he should get up or not, he decides to skip lunch and wait for dinner instead. Renjun takes out his phone from under his pillow, tons of messages from the other NCT hyungs flooding his SNS. He answers them eagerly, rolling his eyes at some of his hyungs' dramatic speeches. His other SM sunbaes also greeted him, and he replies to those as well.

In the middle of replying to Doyoung's message, a request to facetime suddenly goes through, the caller ID very familiar to him.

Renjun hits accept, "Hey Jaemin."

"Renjun! How've you been?" Jaemin's voice goes through, his signature smile bright even on his screen.

"Fine, I should be asking you that, though." Renjun smiles and hopes Jaemin can see him through the darkness of his room.

"Better, maybe I can go back soon? That's what the doctors said, anyway." Jaemin's smile widens and he shoves his face closer to his screen, "Enough about me, what about our birthday boy?"

Jaemin's laugh is loud in the silence of his room, and Renjun can't help but laugh along with him.

"Renjun," Jaemin says once his laughter died down, "Happy Birthday, I wish I was there to celebrate it with you guys." His eyes cast down, and Renjun rushes to reassure the younger.

"Hey, it's fine, just focus on getting better, so next time, you can really be here." Renjun smiles comfortingly, wanting to hug the younger but he's all the way back in his home, while Renjun is back in their dorm.

"Okay, then." Jaemin's smile comes back and there's noise on his side, "I gotta go, hyung, dinner is waiting!" Jaemin jumps out of bed, his camera giving Renjun motion sickness.

Jaemin holds the phone away from him, showing his finger heart, kissing it briefly before sending dozens his way. "Happy Birthday, Renjun! I love you!"

As Renjun laughs in the background, Jaemin puckers his lips and kisses the camera, making the older slightly cringe away from it, the screen going black, meaning Jaemin had hung up.

Renjun locks his phone after that, looking around his dim room, suddenly, he wonders where Jeno is. Because he's definitely not here.

Just as Renjun was about to go and find him, he hears the front door open, the smell of food invading his senses. Renjun dashes to open his door, the younger kids already running to help Mark and Donghyuck with the food they brought.

Mark notices him as he leaves his shoes in the doorway, "Renjun-ah, happy birthday!"

Renjun steps out from his room, "Thanks, hyung."

Donghyuck's head snaps up at the mention of Renjun's name, and he runs to hug the older, "Happy birthday!" He crushes the older in his embrace, only letting go when Mark taps his arm.

"Yah, let's go eat, we're all starving."

Donghyuck doesn't really let go, lightly hanging off him as they speed walk towards the kitchen, mouth watering at the sight of the variety of food in front of them. Jisung and Chenle had already started eating and they shrug unapologetically when Mark scolds them to wait for them.

Dinner passes by peacefully, the two youngest predictably the first to finish, running away after dumping the dishes in the sink, Donghyuck screaming something about, "We bought the food, brats! You can't make birthday boy wash the dishes!"

In the end, Renjun still does the dishes, Donghyuck drying them beside him as Mark sits on the counter, watching them work. Donghyuck still gets distracted and plays with the bubbles though.

"Thanks," Mark interrupts the play-fight brewing between the two, and Renjun raises an eyebrow.

"For washing the dishes? No problem, hyu—"

"No, no. For taking care of the others when we're not there."

Donghyuck nods, crossing his arms, "Yeah, I heard it was hard no thanks to those two," Mark snorts and hops off the counter, Donghyuck's words probably coming from the oldest of them.

"Seriously, though, thanks. I know it must be hard to just suddenly mature when you're still young."

"I'm already seventeen," Renjun whines, unknowingly stomping his feet a little. The two of them coo at him.

They surge forward and kiss each side of his temple, pulling away quickly as Renjun rubs his temples as if massaging them, whining like a small child receiving affection from his parents, he's sporting a small blush, too.

The two form a large heart with their arms, their other arms resting on each other's waist and Renjun thinks, no doubt, this was Donghyuck's idea.

"Happy Birthday, Renjun! We love you!"

Renjun laughs embarrassedly, but appreciates the effort all the same. He hugs them both, their arms immediately dropping the pose to curl around Renjun. And Renjun's gotta admit, as much as he wants to be more mature now, he really does miss being cooed at, he misses being spoiled.

They let go, and Renjun's shirt is suddenly soaked, having hugged Donghyuck who played with the water.

"Ah, sorry." Donghyuck says, wiping his hands on Renjun's shirt, only making it worse since his hands are covered in suds. "Ah!" He pulls them away quickly.

Mark laughs beside him, swatting Renjun away, "Go take a bath, we'll finish up here."

Renjun goes voluntarily, not wanting to wash the dishes in his soaked state. He does, however, turn to look back, the two peacefully cleaning, their shoulders bumping together once in a while since Mark is standing too close. Renjun thinks its sweet and quietly snaps a picture, before saying "thank you," so softly, he doesn't think the others heard him.

He's about to close the door when he hears, "No problem," but their backs are still turned to him. Renjun smiles to himself, running to his room to avoid getting the floor wet.

He showers quickly, not wanting to catch a cold or risk having a freezing shower (since it turns so cold sometimes) then having a cold. He puts on his matching pajamas, his favorite Moomin prints. He doesn't like sleeping in mostly white but today is a special day, and also, he feels really good.

When he steps out, drying his orange hair on his towel, the lights are , and there's someone sitting on his bed.

"Jeno?"

The person's head snaps up, and he confirms it is indeed Jeno, the boy who's been missing since this morning.

Jeno turns to him, and shoots him an eye smile, patting the space next to him. Renjun goes, wondering where he's been all this time.

"Hey, where were you? You missed the feast." Renjun throws his towel somewhere in their room as Jeno laughs, when Renjun suspects he's hiding something behind him.

"I was out, then at the studio because of..." Jeno pauses, aiming for dramatic effect but Renjun is antsy. "This! Ta-da! Do you like it?"

Jeno plops unto his lap a Moomin plushie, the kind that Renjun owns already (three of them, to be exact,) but this Moomin, it's holding a heart, with stitches sloppily on each side of Moomin's hands where they're holding it.

And on the heart, is a sloppy, but all the more endearing, stitch of their names, Jeno and Renjun.

Renjun runs his thumb over the stitch, and looks at Jeno with the softest eyes, since he's feeling so, so loved today, he can't believe he's with such great people today.

Jeno pulls him into a hug, letting Renjun's head fall into the crook of his shoulder while he's hugging the plushie Jeno gave him. "Sorry, I wasn't here the majority of the day, stitching that wasn't as easy as I thought it to be. I even had help from our manager."

Renjun mumbles, "It's fine, I love it, thank you." And Jeno smiles wider.

"Also," He pulls Renjun's shoulders back, facing each other directly when Jeno cups Renjun's face in both his hands, taking in his look of bewilderment and laughing a little. He surges forward, kissing the corner of Renjun's mouth.

He pulls away just as quickly as he came, a sweet smile on his stupidly handsome face, "I'll give you your real kiss on your eighteenth birthday."

Renjun blushes furiously, complementing his looks especially in his white pajamas. He's almost as red as his hair but Jeno thinks he's just so cute, he couldn't resist stealing another kiss on the other corner of his mouth.

"Yah!" Renjun pouts when Jeno pulls away once again, slapping the side of his arm twice. "You're such a tease." Renjun sighs.

"Heh, you're so cute." Jeno looks at him as if he holds the universe in his eyes, but Renjun continues pouting. Jeno giggles, "Sorry, Happy Birthday, Injun-ah. I love you." He pushes both of them to lie on the bed on their sides, facing each other.

Renjun pretends to be asleep already, and Jeno admires the way his eyelashes look so pretty against his still pink cheeks before the other opens his eyes abruptly, "I love you, too." Renjun says cheekily.

Jeno smiles at him happily, and Renjun smiles back, equally as happy, if not more.