"Movie or Honor Pictionary?" Eunki's mother asks while inflating a blood pressure cuff around his arm . She doesn't mention ger all favourite post dinner activity - Phonetic Scrabble . He looked up to see that her eyes were already laughing at him .

"Phonetic , " The boy stated .
She stops inflating the cuff . Ordinarily Jisung , his full-time nurse , would be taking his blood pressure and filling out his daily health log , but his mom had given him a day off . It was his birthday and they always spent the day together , just the two of them .

She puts on her stethoscope so that she could listen to Eunki's heartbeat . Her smile fades and is replaced with a more serious and concerned expression . It was the face her patients most often encountered . Eunki wondered if they ever found the expression to he comforting .

Impusively he gave her a quick kiss on the forehead to remind her that it was just him , her favorite patient , her son .

She opens her eyes , smiles , and caresses his cheek . He thought to himself that if he was going to be born with an illness that requires constant care , it was good that his mom was a doctor .

A few seconds later she gives him an expression that literally screamed
'I'm afraid I have some bad news for you' .

"It's your special day , why don't we play something you have an actual chance of winning at?  Honor Pictionary?"

Since regular Pictonary couldn't really be played with two people,  that created a new game , Honor Pictionary . One person would draw and the other would have the honor of making the best guess . If they guessed correctly , the other person would score a point .

Eunki narrowed his eyes at her.  "We're playing Phonetic , and I'm winning this time, " He said confidently , though he knew he had no chance at winning . In all their years of playing Phonetic Scrabble or Fonetik Skrabbl , he's never beaten her at it . The last time the played he was close to winning . But he  was devasted by her on the final word , playing JEENZ on a triple word score .

"OK." She shakes her head with mock pity . " Anything you want. " She closed her laughing eyes to listen to the stethoscope .

They spend the rest of the morning baking his traditional birthday cake of vanilla sponge with vanilla cream frosting . After the cake cooled , Eunki applied an unreasonably thin layer of frosting , just enough to cover the cake , They are , both of them , cake people , not frosting people . As decorations , Eunki drew eighteen frosted daisies with white petals and a white center across the top. On the sides he fashion draped white white curtains .

"Perfect" His mother peers over his shoulders as he finishes up . "Just like you "

He turns to face her . She was smiling widely and proudly at him , but her eyes were filled with tears .

"You . Are .Tragic , " Eunki says while he squirts a dollop of frosting on her nose , which only makes her cry and laugh more . She's noy usually this emotional , but something about his birthday always makes her both weepy and joyful at the same time . And if she's weepy and joyful , then he was weepy and joyful , too .

"I know ," she says , throwing her hands helplessly up in the air . "I'm totally pathetic ." She pulls him into a hug and squeezes him , getting frosting into his hair at the same time .

Eunki's birthday is the one day of the year that they're both most acutely aware of his illness , It's the acknowledging of the passage of time that does it , Another whole year of being sick , no hope for cure on the horizon . Another year of missing all normal teenager things -- Learner's permit , first kiss , prom , first hesrtbreak , first fender bender . Another year of his mom doing nothing but taking care of him  . Every other day these omissions are easy -- easier  , at least --- to ignore .

This year is a little harder than the previous . Maybe it's because Eunki is eighteen now . Technically , he's an adult . He should be leaving home , going off to college . His mother should be dreading empty-nest syndrome . But because of SCID , he wasn't going anywhere .

Later after dinner , she gave him a beautiful set of watercolor pencils that had been on his wishlist for several months . They go into the living room and sit on their knees in front of the coffee table . This was also part of their birthday ritual : She lighrs a single candle in the center of the cake . He closes his eyes and makes a wish . He blows the candle out .

"What did you wish for?" she asks as soon as he opens his eyes . .

Really there's only one thing to wish for -- a magical cure that will allow him to run freely outside like a wild animal . But he never makes that wish because it was just simple impossible . It's like wishing that mermaids , dragons and unicorns exist . Instead he wishes for something more likely than a cure . Something less likely to make the both if them sad .

"World Peace , " he says .

Three slices of cake later , they begin a game of Fonetik . He didn't win , didn't even come close .

His mother uses all seven letters and puts down POKALIP next to an S . POKALIPS

"What's that?" he asks

"Apocalypse ," she says , eyes dancing .

"No way . I can't give that to you ."

"Yes," is all she says .

"Mom you need an extra 'A' . No way ."

"Pokalips, " she says for effect , gesturing at the letters "It totally works ."

He shakes his head

"P O K A L I P S , " she insists , slowly dragging out the word .

"Oh my god , you're relentless , " He says , throwing his hands up . "OK OK , I'll allow it ."

"Yessss woohoo ," She pumps her fists and laughs at him and marks down her score .

"You've never really understood the game ," she says . "It's a game of persuasion ."

Eunki slice himself another piece of cake . "That was not persuasion ," He says . "That was cheating ."

"Same same, " she says , and they bith burst into laughter .

"You can beat me at Honor Pictionary tommorow," she says .

After he loses , they went to the couch and watched their favourite movie , Young Frankenstein. Watching it was also part of their birthday ritual . He put his head in her lap , and she his hair , and they laugh at the same jokes in the same way that they've been laughing at then for years . All in all , it wasn't a bad way to spend an eighteenth birthday .

--

a/n 
yes jisung as a nurse 

also if y'all don't like this , let me know , I'll take it down :)