After 20 minutes, everyone despite Wonwoo and Mingyu came in.

“Wonwoo took him to the supermarket to give us some more time to get prepared,” Dino mentioned.

Hana put confetti canons in the hand of Dino, S.Coups, and Jun. Then, she gave party streamers to Minghao, Woozi, and Dokyeom. Hoshi and Seungkwan inherited the party blowers. Joshua and Hana were in charge of filming the entire action while Vernon and Jeonghan had the honorable task to bring the cake to Mingyu.

They turned the lights down when Wonwoo sent a message to S.Coups, warning them that they were in the elevator. The squeaking noise of the entrance door notified everyone that the birthday boy had arrived. They waited until the moment Wonwoo the lights of the living room to fire the confetti and the streamers.

“Happy Birthday Mingyu!”

Vernon and Jeonghan came forward with the birthday cake while everyone was singing ‘Happy Birthday to you.’ Mingyu near to the tears blew out the candles. Seungkwan and Hoshi with the party blowers.

“I wasn’t expected that after today’s activities,” Mingyu eventually declared after having pushed Seungkwan and Hoshi away. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Enjoy the year, Mingyu,” Woozi joked around. “Next year you will have to begin to pay for each year passing without fulfilling your military duties.”

It was true that the Korean government had decided a few years ago that men should pay a fee after their 28^th birthday for postponing their military duties. The military service had been reduced to 18 months, and Korean men had until their 35^th birthday to do it under threat of imprisonment.

“A long time ago, we teased Dino about his young age,” Mingyu mentioned with a half-smile. “Now, I am sure that we would all love to be his age.”

Mingyu’s comment turned everyone’s attention to Dino giving Mingyu some space to take back his senses. Hana approached him to congratulate him, “Happy Birthday Mingyu.”

He smiled at her and put a hand on her shoulder, “Thank you, Hana, for being here with us.”

Hana raised her eyes to meet his gaze.

“You know,” she confessed. “I think you guys don’t know how grateful I am about you accepting me and welcoming me into your lives.”

Mingyu leaned over her ear and whispered, “You know the guys might not tell you that openly because it can be a sensitive subject to some ears. However, I can assure you that we consider you as a part of the Seventeen family. For me, you are our 14^th member.”

Hana put a hand in front of , “Do you intend to make me cry?” she inquired quietly. “Because if you do so, you’re on the right path.”

Mingyu winked at her before giving his full attention to the various dishes which were laying on the dining table.

“Did you prepare all of this during the time we were at the VR zone,” he asked, impressed.

Hana nodded, “Vernon did some Algamja-jorim though.”

Mingyu rushed towards the plate and took some of the braised potatoes, “Hana, you have to try it. It’s the only dish Vernon can cook properly.”

Hana reached to the braised potato Mingyu was offering her. As she tasted it, her eyes widened.

“Woah! It’s good.”

Vernon joined in the conversation, “Told you.” He took one as well and smiled while chewing. “Mmh, just excellent!”

Mingyu and Hana laughed. The evening went on as usual. The members were teasing Mingyu more, but they were doing mostly out of their affection for him. Hana took pleasure to see all the members offering their most sincere smile. Never in the world should these smiles be taken away from them. ‘And even more not because of you,’ a voice in her head pointed out. True, it was. She would never forgive herself if she were to harm the group in any way.

On Monday, the members had one more day off. The reason for that was that they had to wait on the final version of the song to start working on the choreography.

“I’m going to the gym with Coups,” Mingyu announced in the morning.

“Let me join,” Hana blurted while standing up to rush in her room get her stuff ready.

At the gym, S.Coups and Mingyu were having a coaching session while Hana worked out alone. Hana realized how much she had needed to release some of her thoughts. Vernon’s confession had distracted her mind for an entire day. She wanted to free herself from the weight that left her heart restless. She had decided on the answer she would give Vernon. She wasn’t sure that it was the answer that would put her mind at ease but it was the most rational and safe decision.

At the apartment, Joshua was chilling with Hoshi while some other members were in their rooms. Vernon, Seungkwan, and Wonwoo went out shopping, and Minghao was taking care of his health at a hospital. Joshua was looking at his phone when he suddenly exclaimed, “Hoshi, this is bad!”

“What is bad?” Hoshi inquired, upset.

Joshua got up and went to the kitchen.

“How could she not tell us? We have to prepare something, Hoshi,” Joshua babbled. He looked at his watch. “Omo, we are running out of time. Come on Hoshi.” He clapped in his hands to make Hoshi stand up. “Let’s inform the others.”

Hoshi grabbed Joshua’s arm to make him calm down, “First Josh, you will have to tell me what’s going on here.”

“It’s Hana’s birthday today,” Joshua exhaled.

“What?” Hoshi bawled.

“Yeah, as I said it’s bad.”

Hoshi nodded and rushed towards the rooms to warn the others. Joshua called Seungkwan and requested that he should buy a proper birthday cake while being in town.

Hoshi came back soon followed by Dino, Jeonghan, Jun, Woozi, and DK.

“How come nobody was aware of that?” Dokyeom inquired.

“I guess no one never asked her,” Dino inferred lowering his face.

“That’s bad,” Jun conceded. “What are we going to do?”

“I’ve contacted Seungkwan, Vernon, and Wonwoo to get a birthday cake,” Joshua informed. “However, I wasn’t able to reach either Mingyu nor Coups. So, I guess we are left alone on this one, for the moment, and I have no clue how much time we have left to organize something.”

“Don’t you want to go out somewhere?” Jeonghan offered. “It’s pretty nice outside for the beginning of April, and I’m sure Hana would love to see the cherry trees.”

“I guess you might be right,” Joshua agreed, impressed by Jeonghan’s input. “We have to get in touch with Mingyu or Coups to tell them without any questions.”

“It’s a good idea,” Woozi nodded. “I guess it will be good if we could all meet somewhere. Jeonghan, do you have any ideas of parks ?”

“Seoul Forest Park ?” Jeonghan suggested.

“Isn’t it too crowded ?” Woozi wondered.

“I don’t think so,” Jun mentioned. “It’s Cherry Blossom Festival at Yeouido Park and Seokchon Lake. I guess the mass might go there.”

“Perfect!” Dino exclaimed. “I can already picture Hana’s smile. Don’t you want to film it? She would probably be thankful to have a souvenir of our time together.”

Dino’s words brought them back to the cold reality that Hana wouldn’t share their lives forever, and that their time together was slowly running out. In the back of his mind, Joshua knew that, once Hana’s contract would terminate, she would probably go her own way. However, Joshua didn’t want her to get out of their lives. The day Vernon had confessed his love for her, Joshua had spotted a glimmer of hope that Hana would become an integral part of the Seventeen family. He was ashamed of his selfish thoughts, but he could sense that most of the other members were feeling the same as him.

Hoshi had been able to reach S.Coups, and they had decided to meet at Seoul Forest Park. Mingyu and S.Coups would bring Hana on a walk pretexting that they wanted to get some fresh air after working out.

The other members met beforehand to get their surprise ready. Dino had planned the perfect scenario. They would hide behind trees while Mingyu and S.Coups would bring Hana to the discussed location. Some of the members will then jump out of their hideout while Dokyeom and Joshua would bring the birthday cake. The filming part had been assigned to Minghao and Dino. They had asked Mingyu to film as well, if possible, once they approached the others’ whereabouts.

At first, Hana hadn’t been delighted by Mingyu’s suggestion to go in a park for a walk. However, as soon as they had arrived at Seoul Forest Park, Hana realized that she could not have wished for a better way to relax after working out. The colors of spring were taking over the winter landscapes. While looking at the blooming cherry trees, Hana remembered why spring was her favorite time of the year. Spring was the sign of a new beginning: the perfect analogy of a life cycle. Whatever the essence of one’s struggles, there will always be a way to grow stronger. Nature had proved it all! Spring was the result of hope: the evidence that giving up should never be an option.

After having walked a while, Hana was impressed to see how calm it was in this park. She would have imagined it to be very crowded because it was cherry blossom time but it wasn’t. While talking to S.Coups, Hana didn’t notice Mingyu getting out his phone and lowering his pace. Suddenly, S.Coups stopped and declared with a grave face:

“Hana, I’m sorry, but we actually wanted to tell you something?”

“What?” Hana inquired, uneasily. “What is it?”

S.Coups couldn’t hide his smile anymore, and before Hana could suspect anything, a pack of excited guys came out from behind trees blurting, “Happy Birthday, Hana!”

Hana had forgotten entirely that it was her birthday. The guys rushed towards her and hugged her. Hana was overwhelmed with joy, gratitude, and happiness. Joshua and Dokyeom came with an illuminated birthday cake. While they were singing the birthday song for her, the tears began to run down her cheeks. She blew out the candles before hiding her face in the sleeve of her sweater. Dokyeom put his arm around her, “Hana, I warn you if you don’t stop crying now, I will join you sooner or later.”

Hana offered him a smile, “I’m fine. I… just wasn’t expecting that… at all. I even had forgotten about my birthday. How did you know by the way?”

“True, how did you guys now?” Mingyu inquired, curious.

Most of them shrugged their shoulders while Hoshi glanced over at Joshua, “It is Joshua who found out.”

All the faces turned towards Joshua waiting on his explanation.

“Well,” Joshua started with a half-smile. “I was literally stalking Hana on Instagram and scrolled down the comments on her latest post. The most recent ones were congratulating Hana on her birthday. Hana even has a Wikipedia page! Guys, she is famous! Well, that’s how I’ve found out.”

Hana became the center of focus again.

“Famous?” Mingyu inquired, skeptical.

Hana lowered her eyes. She was always trying to stay humble regarding the number of followers she had on her social media accounts.

“Yeah, well, I’m considered as being an influencer. However, I don’t like to boast around the number of followers I have. To me, people cannot be reduced to numbers.”

Everyone went silent for a moment, reflecting on Hana’s words.

“That’s our Hana,” Dino expressed. “Always humble about her achievements.”

The other members nodded, and Hana gave them an honest smile.

“Let’s eat the cake,” S.Coups suggested as he clapped in his hands.

A collective ‘Yeah’ resounded.

With a splendid sunset, night came. While talking with her mum and then with her grandparents on the phone, Hana had walked away from the group. She enjoyed the moment of isolation and looked up to the sky. The stars were hard to see because of the city’s lights. Still, Hana could discern the familiar shape of the moon. A breeze came making her shiver. She crossed her arms on her chest while sighing.

“It’s getting cold, isn’t it?” a voice commented behind her.

Hana herself to face Vernon, and gently , “Always sneaking in the back of people without any warnings, are you not?”

Not expecting that kind of answer, Vernon widened up his eyes and mouth before laughing earnestly. Hana joined him. Her look darkened as soon as she noticed that this would be the perfect moment to give him her answer.

“Vernon,” she started with a serious tone. “Regarding what you told me on Saturday, I…”

“Wait,” Vernon interrupted her. “Are you sure that you had enough time to think it over?”

His posture made him look strong, but his eyes were telling the opposite: he was afraid.

“I don’t know how I can explain my decision at best,” Hana resumed. “But I guess… you are an idol, and currently, I’m employed by the same company as you.” She exhaled loudly. “On top of that, I am aware of the fuss it creates when idols are dating. I don’t want that for you, neither do I want it to affect the other boys. You might tell me that I don’t answer regarding my personal feelings… but, because of these circumstances, I can’t have any personal feelings.”

Vernon had lowered his gaze and slumped his shoulders.

“I’m sincerely sorry, Vernon, but I just can’t,” Hana whispered after a moment.

Vernon lifted his head and put his hand behind his neck.

“I can understand, Hana… Come on, let’s go back!”

The forced smile he gave Hana broke her heart…