As they entered the dining hall, Krystal wondered why it was still dark. Maybe they’ll be opening the lights when she’s finally in their seat, she thought. However, before they could even start walking to their seat, the receptionist asked them to wait and she’ll ask the staff to open the lights. The receptionist pressed a service bell, but Krystal wasn’t able to see where the bell was because it was too dark.

Ding! Ding!

As the receptionist pressed the bell twice, the power went up and she was surprised with what she witnessed.

“SURPRISE!”

Familiar faces were in the room and they were all present in her birthday, which was a surprise celebration. All of her cousins were present, her niece was also there, her aunts and uncles, her closest friends, her parents-in-law, and of course, her mom. Her jaw completely dropped as she looked at each and everyone of them. She wasn’t sure if she was dreaming or this was really happening. Still in shock, she was frozen.

Minho, on the other hand, was filming the while thing with a huge smile on his face. “Happy Birthday,” he said to his recording before laughing and trying to tap his wife who was in a real state of shock.

She finally went back to reality when her mom approached her and gave her a hug. “Happy birthday, dearest!” When she realized that it was really her mom, she finally cane back to her senses. She hugged her mom back tightly and thanked the older woman. After saying they loved each other, they broke the hug and received a hug and a greeting from her in-laws. She thanked the older couple before pulling away from the hug.

“Excuse me,” the receptionist said. “Would tou like me to take your picture.”

“Yes, please. Thank you.” Minho stopped recording and handed his phone to her.

After taking a picture with their parents, their parents went beside the receptionist and asked for the husband and wife’s picture to be taken. They smiled for the camera and was able to hide their awkwardness. After taking their picture together, they thanked the receptionist and went on to greet her other guests.

As they were eating, Krystal noticed that Minho kept looking at his phone, but she just ignored it. She got her phone and sent him a text, though he was seated beside her at the edge of the table. Across Krystal was her father-in-law, while her mother was at the other edge of the table, across Minho and seated beside her mother-in-law. The seat beside her was empty, so that’s where she and her mother placed their bags.

Krystal: Everything okay?

Minho: Yeah. It’s about work. Sorry to kill the party vibe

Krystal: It’s alright, I understand :) you barely touched your food though.

Minho: I’m almost done. I’ll be eating with no problems after.

They looked at each other and gave each other a small smile. Krystal kept her phone, while Minho sent one last message before keeping his phone in his pocket. As he took two spoonfuls of his food, his phone started ringing. He swallowed his food right away, then excused himself to get up from the table to answer his call.

Krystal continued eating when all of a sudden two hands covered her eyes. Her back was faced to the entrance, so she couldn’t see anyone who arrives. She held the hands that were on her eyes to verify that it really wasn’t Minho’s. The fingers were long and thin, and she felt that it was familiar.

“Unnie?” She guessed that it was her cousin from abroad who’s working as an engineer.

“Guess again,” Minho answered.

“Minho? If this is just you, why do you have to cover my eyes?” Again she touched the hands. “These hands are not yours, I know that.”

“Go ahead and take another guess!” He held back his laughter and guessed that she was probably annoyed.

“Uh- I don’t know. I don’t wanna say who it is because I know it’s impossible.”

“Why, who do you think it is,” her mom asked.

“The only person I know with these hands are Jiwon, but I know that it’s impossible for her to be-”

“Here?” She removed her hands from her best friend’s eyes and waited to see her reaction.

“OH MY GOSH!” Krystal stood up from her seat and turned to hug her best friend. She was so happy that the person that she always wished to be present every year on her birthday is actually present right now.

“Surprise, twin!” Jiwon said to her as they were in a hug. They hugged each other tightly and both had huge smile on their faces. “Let me guess, you’re crying now, right?”

“I’m not,” Krystal said softly.

Jiwon was the first one to break the hug and held her best friend’s face to check if she really had no tears, but she was right. Her best friend, or twin, had tears lining her eyes just waiting to spill. She laughed before wiping her tears and giving her another hug.

“What are you doing here?”

“I flew here just for your birthday!”

“WHAT?!”

Jiwon nodded with a huge smile. “Yeah! I’m here just for you, then I’ll be flying back to Sydney on Saturday evening.”

“I’ll be taking a few days off, then.”

She knocked on Krystal’s head. “Yah! It’s okay-“

“You’re only here for a few days! I’ll take tomorrow and Friday off, then on Saturday it won’t be a problem because I’ll only be in the hospital for half of the day. Plus, I’m my own boss.”

“Fine, fine!” She gave Krystal another tight hug and thanked her. “Happy Birthday, twin!”

“Thank you, twin. I love you,” she said to her as she started to feel her tears coming out again.

“I love you too and please don’t cry now.”

They pulled away from the hug and looked at each other with huge smile on their faces. Minho was able to record everything, then Jiwon announced that she’s hungry as she just arrived from the airport. There’s a reason why the seat beside Krystal was vacant and that reason was because her best friend’s here to surprise her.

Later at home, the two girls headed inside, while Minho offered to bring Jiwon’s luggage for her. Jiwon will be staying at Krystal’s room with her and need not to stay in the guest room because she knew how their living arrangements were. Krystal quickly toured her around, while her husband went to carry her luggage upstairs outside Krystal’s door. She brought Jiwon up to her room and showed her to he bathroom. “Go get changed. I know you’re really tired.”

She nodded as she opened her luggage. “Thank you.”

“I’ll just be downstairs for a bit, but you can sleep if you’re already sleepy.”

“Yep, we have the while day tomorrow.” She smiled at her best friend.

“And the other tomorrow!”

“And the third tomorrow before I leave.”

Krystal’s smile became small and she sighed.

“Hey, don’t be sad! We always message each other and we can see each other when we have the time.”

“I know, but you know how emotional I get.”

“I wonder how crazy your hormones will be when you’re pregnant.” Jiwon ran to the bathroom instinctively.

Krystal ran to her to hit her, but she was too quick. “You get back here!”

“I’m tired, Soojung. You said yourself that I better head in here.”

“Ugh, I hate how right you are sometimes!”

“You mean all the time! I’ll see you later- or tomorrow if I fall asleep.”

“Rest well. Good night, twin.”

“Good night.”

Downstairs, Krystal went to get a glass of water and sat on the dining chair. Minho came from the washroom and also got himself a glass of water and sat on his usual spot.

“Wanna watch the videos from your surprise party?”

“Yes, please.” She excitedly wiggled her fingers on the table as she smiled while waiting for him to give her his phone. “Thank you,” she told him as she received it.

“You were really frozen in your spot.” Minho commented as she watched.

“Yeah, I couldn’t quite comprehend what was happening at that time.” She laughed at herself when she saw how shocked she was. She went on to watch the other videos, until she saw the video of her best friend’s arrival. As she watched the videos, she had a huge smile on her face and her eyes were also happy.

“Thank you,” she said as she returned his phone to him.

“No worries.” He drank the rest of the glass before speaking. “Were you surprised tonight?”

She nodded as a reply. “Very.”

“The reason why I was on my phone earlier was because I was speaking with Jiwon. I kept asking her where she is because we were already eating.”

“So that’s why! You really had an idea that she was coming?!”

He smiled at her as he nodded. “From the very start.”

“Wow.”

“I’m really happy that you were surprised and had fun tonight.” He smiled at her.

She nodded as she finished the rest of her glass. “Mom actually did a great job this time. She’s even gotten your help!”

He tilted his head with his brows furrowed, looking a bit confused.

“Mom loves throwing surprises, but she was never able to surprise me successfully because she’s way too obvious- or I don’t know if it’s just me because I can see through her and her tactics. She’s not that great with surprises, but I’m surprised this one gave me the shock of a lifetime compared to all my birthdays.”

“Oh. Yeah, looks like she outdid herself this time.” He forced a smile before checking the time on his watch. There’s still two minutes left before her birthday officially ends, so he took a small box out of his pocket. “I have something for you.”

She looked at him in a state of shock. “What, you don’t even know about today- well, you obviously did because mom asked you to help her, because of my best friend.”

“Tch!” He shook his head as he chuckled before placing the box on the table.

She blinked she saw that it looked like a box containing jewellery. “Minho, I- I-“

He took another look at his watch and saw that there was only a few seconds left before the day ends. “Happy Birthday.” His voice was low and pursed his lips together before slight curling them upward to firm a small smile. He got up from his seat and bent down to kiss the crown of her head before he walked upstairs.

She took the box and saw the time on her phone. Her birthday officially ended and she thought that he purposely gave his gift to her at the last minute. She opened the box and saw a necklace inside. The small pendant had a blue diamond in the middle surrounded by white crystals. As she lifted the necklace, she saw a tiny paper folded inside. She took the small paper out of the box and unfolded it.

“There are only two memorable greeters, I think. I know that you only have a limited number of greeters and people who remember and I want to be a part of them. I know that you’re best friend’s your first first greeter since you were kids, but since it’s the first time that we’re celebrating together, I want to be your last greeter for the day. Happy Birthday, Krystal.”

-Choi Minho

P.S. You were right- blue and white really go great together.

“Oh my gosh,” she whispered after reading the note from him. She removed the necklace and saw something engraved at the back. “KJC,” she read it softly. Those are her new initials ever since she got married. Beneath it were the numbers 520. Her mom’s fluent in Chinese and she used to speak it when she was younger. She knew exactly what those numbers meant. Her eyes just widened.

“This is not something that can be customized just a few days and a few hours away from my birthday.” She started thinking to herself if he had the necklace made because her favorite shade is a rare find in jewellery.

She headed upstairs and saw that Jiwon was still awake and scrolling through her phone while seated on the bed. “Hey,” she greeted her.

“Hey, doc!” She noticed the small box on Krystal’s hand, which made her gasp, when she sat beside her on the bed. “You just received the necklace? It’s pretty, right?” She smiled before poking her side.

“You knew about this?”

“Of course! Your husband asked me what your favorite colors were last month.”

She heard her phone buzz and saw a message from her mom. Her mom sent her another greeting and apologized for falling asleep, that’s why her last greeting for her at the last minute of her birthday was delayed. After replying that it was fine, the older woman sent her another message, which made her widen her eyes.

I’m so glad that you had fun tonight, dear. I thought that it was just going to be a simple dinner, but Minho actuality had a surprise ready for you. I was even surprised when I saw everyone there earlier. He does a better job at pulling off surprises than me. Just like you said, mine’s an epic fail because I’m way too obvious about it, like inviting you to your own surprise party, but Minho did an amazing job. He’s planned this for a month, doing everything on his own and didn’t even ask help from me. I truly commend Minho. Rest well, you have the whole day of fun and laughter with Jiwon.

As she was reading, Jiwon was also speaking. “I really commend Minho, you know. His surprise for you was a success. Can you believe that he put a one man show for the preparation? He only asked me if your favorite color was really blue and I said the second one was white, but he didn’t even let me finish and said it himself, then said he was right. He showed me the design of the necklace after he had it made, and he was the one who flew me out here. I told him that he didn’t have to, but he insisted to pay for my fare because he wanted your birthday to be special.”

Krystal felt like her world stopped once more. The surprise was Minho’s idea. The necklace was customized for her. Her best friend’s here because of him. She actually had a real birthday celebration since she was 7. The funny thing about today was the people who didn’t know when her birthday is were actually present because he still invited them, knowing how much they mean to her.

“He doesn’t know about that one birthday of yours, right?”

She knew what Jiwon meant and she just shook her head. “I never told him about it. It was fine if people didn’t remember, just as long as you and mom does, remember?”

“I know.” She smiled at Krystal before wrapping her arm around her. “You know what he said when I asked him why he was throwing you a surprise?”

“What?”

“He wanted you to feel loved and happy on your day.”

Her heart started beating quickly and she felt like she couldn’t breathe. She felt bad for not acknowledging the work that he did and even thought that it was her mother’s. Maybe that’s the reason why he looked a bit upset earlier before he went upstairs. “I’m gonna go wash up now. Just go sleep even when I’m not yet done.”

“Okay, I think I’m gonna sleep now. My eyes feel heavy already. “Good night.”

“Night night.” In the bathroom, tears spilled from her eyes and she quietly sobbed, hiding any sound she may make with the running water.

She was lying down in bed comfortably in her pajamas, but she couldn’t sleep. She quietly stepped outside and closed the door, then went to sit on the couch on the second floor living area. She opened the lamp so she can read her book that’s left behind the pillow, but she kept going back to the same paragraph. She couldn’t concentrate on what she was reading, which rarely happens to her. A few moments later, she heard a small sound.

Author's note: That's it for today's triple update :) I still have 5 more chapters to be posted, but I'll be posting them again on another day. I do promise that you won't have to wait so much for it. I'm really sorry for taking so long because my schedule makes it impossible for me to post updates (I use my brain and work 7 days a week) and my health just keeps getting worse (I actaully just got discharged from the hospital and my IV was just removed yesterday). Please let me know what you guys think in the comments section below (you’ll get bonuses when you do, I kid you not) and be sure to stay tuneed until I post the new chapetrs that I wrote along with these three updates. Don't forget to hit subscribe as well :D thank you!