Then it was the next day - 30th of December - Joshua’s birthday. As his birthday is the last birthday for the year and is also a day before the New Year’s Eve, it’s generally pretty wild.

After a lazy morning breakfast, I clean up and pack a duffle bag with the overnight clothes. It’s mid-afternoon when I finally leave the house to make my way to Joshua’s place which is in the suburbs of Seoul, just a few hours’ drive from the city. I am supposed to pick up Soonyoung and Jihoon on the way so I text Soonyoung to let him know that I’ll reach his place in 20 mins.

HoshiHosh: Cool, Jihoon is here too. We’ll be outside waiting for you.

But they are not waiting outside when I reach Soonyoung’s apartment building so I call him.

“Hey, Seungcheol” Soonyoung answers.

“Hey, where are you guys?”

“Well, uh… We’ll be out in five” he replies hesitantly and disconnects the call.

I sit there confused and eventually they show up with a kinda grim look. Not the sort of greeting I was expecting.

They load their bags and off we go. Neither speaks so I awkwardly clear my throat and ask, “So, what’s up guys? You don’t seem too excited about the party.”

I see Soonyoung look at Jihoon pointedly in the rear-view mirror before he looks ahead and answer “We had a little disagreement this morning.”

“Oh, regarding?” I ask when Soonyoung doesn’t continue and Jihoon keeps looking out of the window.

“About you and Jeonghan.” Jihoon replies, still looking outside.

 “It’s nothing, Seungcheol.” Soonyoung quickly cuts in.

“May I know what the disagreement was about?” I ask as fear crawls into my heart.

Nobody says anything for a while and I look back into the rear-view mirror to see Jihoon give a cold look to Soonyoung as Soonyoung pleadingly looks back.

“Okay, guys. What is going on?” I ask with a tremble.

Jihoon sighs angrily before answering, “I am pissed at you because you treat Jeonghan like and when I told Soonyoung this morning that I am going to break your arm if you tried talking to Jeonghan he told me I was being over-protective and I should leave your guys alone,” he looks at Soonyoung and continues, “Now, tell me Seungcheol,” he turns his glare back at me, “why should I not break your arm?”

I look in the mirror and decide to park the car into the on-coming gas station. This discussion cannot happen while driving.

After I park I turn around, facing Jihoon.

“You should not break my arm because I won’t be able to drive us to Joshua’s place.”

I react a moment too late and feel Jihoon’s punch painfully knock my jaw. I sit there for a moment holding my jaw as Soonyoung sits there holding back a very furious Jihoon.

“You are an . You know that?” Jihoon spits out in anger.

“Jihoon, please calm down, this is not the time or place.” Soonyoung begs, worry evident on his face.

“No, I deserved this. I totally did.” I say, looking back at them, “But now that you are done remodelling my face, I want you to listen to my side of the story.”

I tell them about everything, Jeonghan’s confession, me falling for Jeonghan and realising I am Demiual. The confusion, the misunderstanding, the coming out and lastly about yesterday, when I finally asked Jeonghan out.

“So, he said yes?” asks Soonyoung.

“Huh, not really,” I scratch my nape, “He said he needed time to think.”

“Do you think he will say yes?” Jihoon asks neutrally.

“I sure hope so.”

We sit there for a moment, thinking. I finally sigh and stretch.

“So, Jihoon. Are you still planning on breaking my arms?”

“Not till you have drove us to the party.” He smirks.

After that little glitch, the rest of the drive is smooth. We sing along to the songs on the radio and soon I am pulling into Joshua’s drive away. His parent’s house is beautiful. A simple yet classy suburban house with a small, well-kept lawn where stood Seokmin with his ever present wide grin.

“Hey guys! Long-time no see!” Seokmin rushes to greet us.

“Heyyyyy!” Soonyoung greets back. They do their weird dance and Jihoon rolls his eyes at them as I laugh.

“Hey, S.coups!” Seokmin shakes my hand and gives a quick hug. “What’s with that bruise on your…” he points towards his on jaw.

“Did you like my new look? Jihoon helped me with it.” I joke.

“The pleasure was all mine.” Jihoon chuckles as he carries his and Soonyoung’s bag inside.

“It is a long story.” I say to Seokmin who looked between us in confusion.

“Oh great, we have all the time for long stories. We have to get drinks from the supermart, come on.”

Seokmin pulls me back to the driver’s seat and directs us while pestering me for more details regarding the bruise and otherwise. Apparently, Jeonghan had already informed Josh and Seokmin about our development but as Seokmin puts it, “The story is more interesting when it is told first-hand.”

An hour has passed by the time we get back because Seokmin decided extra snacks won’t hurt. We pull into the driveway and carry the crates of drinks and bags of snacks inside. I blindly follow Seokmin as I can’t see over the boxes I am carrying when someone lifts the crate on top with a chuckle.

“Hey, you finally made it here.” Jeonghan beams at me.

I can’t help the stupid grin plastered on my face as Jeonghan helps me with the remaining boxes.

“Yup, finally.”

Jeonghan looks back at me and frowns. “What happened to your face?”

He reaches out to touch the bruise which is now turning purple and I flinch. Man, it is painful.

“It’s nothing, a misunderstanding.” I avoid Jeonghan’s eyes.

“Oh, I know what it is.” Jun walks into the kitchen holding a half-eaten apple, “Jihoon told me about it.”

“What did he tell you?” asks Jeonghan turning his back towards me to look at Jun.

“Just that S.coups broke someone’s heart and their brother lost it and punched him.” Jun winks at me.

“Not funny, Jun!” I scold him. I can’t afford Jeonghan having the wrong idea or another misunderstanding.

Jeonghan faces me and he is… smiling.

 “Jihoon punched you?” He asks while trying to keep his face composed, and failing miserably.

“Huh… yes.”

And then they burst out laughing. Jun chokes on his apple and rushes out of the kitchen coughing which only makes Jeonghan laugh harder.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” he says between giggles, “I don’t know why this is so funny.”

I look at Jeonghan with a pout as he walks closer to me. When he reaches out towards my face again I try not to flinch away. With fingers are soft when he caresses the left side of my jaw.

“Does it hurt?” he whispers.

“Yes… very much.” No, it doesn’t hurt that much but if Jeonghan is going to be pampering me, I am going to keep complaining about it.

“I am sorry. Jihoon hit you because of me.”

“You don’t need to apologize, I deserved it. Someone had to hit me to get my head straight.”

“Or not so straight.” Jeonghan smirked.

This pulls my attention from his eyes to his lips. I look back to his eyes and blush as I realise Jeonghan caught me looking at his mouth. He leans in forward as my heart hammers against my chest. I catch the smell of his shampoo. I feel heat between us, not sure if it’s my body’s or his. He slowly gets even closer, just inches away from my face.

And gently kisses my right cheek.

He pulls back and murmurs with a smirk, “Let’s get ready for the party.” and walks out of the kitchen leaving me hanging.

What a tease!

The party is a small affair with just the closest friends from college and school and few of Joshua’s cousins present there. They are all fun people and the party is comfortable rather than wild as Mingyu had led me to believe.

The cake is cut and presents distributed. I gift Joshua a set of earrings which will go well with his piercings. I hope he likes it.

Jeonghan and Seokmin, both of them gift him guitar and when they realise this they have a huge (mock) argument over whose guitar is better. Joshua doesn’t care. He loves any and all guitars.

After a louder than usual dinner, Seungkwan walks to the middle of the room to make an announcement. He introdu