"I'm sorry but why are we all here again?"

Minjoo appears to be the only one baffled to be in Sakura's apartment out of all places after school hours, still in her school uniform.

Just half an hour ago, she almost punched her own friend in the face for suddenly pulling her to the side the moment she steps outside of their school gate but thank god for Chaeyeon's quick enough reflexes, who saved them from an unneccesary trip to the hospital and impending hospital bills.

The next thing she knows, she's already in one of Sakura's SUVs with Chaeyeon, on their way to Sakura's place.

"Oh right, I haven't told you yet haven't I?" Sakura answers nonchalantly and snaps her fingers in realization but she soon dismisses it with a smile. "I called you here for a reason."

"You mean, kidnap. And not call," Minjoo corrects the older girl with a sigh, causing the latter to pout at the accusation. To be fair, they did catch her by surprise and somewhat made her get into the car without any warning, so it does count as a kidnapping to an extent. 

"Now, you're making me sound like I'm a bad person."   

"...Technically, we did kidnap her but go ahead," Chaeyeon interjects with a cough. She chose to keep her lips shut when Sakura's pout gets worse over time. 

"Well. Whatever," Sakura says defensively with her arms crossed. "Anyways, as I was saying. I called you here for a reason. Yujin's birthday is coming up soon and now that she's starting over well at her new school, I want to throw her something special." 

"Yujin.. is having her birthday soon?" Minjoo blinks in surprise at the revelation.

Come to think about it, she does know little about Yujin. 

All the while that they were together, the conversation about their private lives never came up. 

Everything that she had learnt about Yujin so far just came naturally but now that the topic was brought up to her attention, Minjoo doesn't know what to make of from the tug that she feels at her heart right now. 

Minjoo wants to know more about her. 

It was Sakura's turn to be surprised. "She never told you that?"

"No," Minjoo shakes her head hesitantly. Sakura's perfectly sculpted brows temporarily creases, accompanied by a small sigh. 

"Good gracious. What am I going to do with you two." 

Sakura was about to open to speak again but Chaeyeon had beaten her to it. "Just let them be," Chaeyeon adds a small pause as she catches the preoccupied look in Minjoo's eyes. "They'll figure it out."

"...Right," Sakura looks at Chaeyeon, the latter looking right back at her. It's frustrating, sure but even if they're both close with their respective friends, meddling with their matter isn't going to help anyone. "Okay, so as I was saying. I wanna throw something memorable for the kid and I basically need all the help that we can get."

Minjoo soon returns her former attention on Sakura. "Alright, what do you need?"

It took a lot of effort from her side in trying to handle the preparation for the birthday surprise, at the same time keeping her guard up around Yujin while keeping her company and so far, Yujin haven't suspected anything yet. 

Apparently, Sakura's plan initially involved them renting out a holiday villa just for the surprise and getting a famous singer to perform at the event but Minjoo somehow managed to convince her not to and stick to keeping it on a smaller-scale. They ended up settling for a normal birthday party at Sakura's condo with the friends and acquaintances that Yujin had gotten close to. 

The hardest part of the preparation was probably trying to identify the people that Yujin had been spending time with, if not with Minjoo. 

What Minjoo discovers so far were the three girls in Yujin's class. Jang Wonyoung, Choi Yena and Jo Yuri. 

Even then after a rough digging here and there, Yujin's interactions with the girls is seemingly limited to school hours.

Outside of that, Yujin doesn't appear to even have exchanged KakaoTalk ID's despite of getting along well with them, so when Minjoo called them three to meet her secretly, the three were more than delighted to be invited to be a part of the surprise.

At the end of the day, it is Minjoo whom she spends the most time with. 

Another sigh escapes from her lips as she stares at her reflection in the mirror.

Maybe she should've chosen a better outfit for the night. The dark green turtleneck sweater is starting to look dull in her eyes after a while, in spite of the constant praise from other people on how she looks great in it. 

But then again, it may be the jumbled up thoughts in her head that's acting up. 

As hard as she tries to push Sakura's words from the other day, it still bothers Minjoo to some extent. 

God, this is not the time for this. 

Minjoo pulls her sleeve up to glimpse at the bracelet that Yujin had given her during their vacation, inadvertently fiddling with it. This was actually her first time wearing it to anywhere other than Bali ever since she returned from the trip. 

The blue baby breaths embedded in her bracelet reminds her a lot of Yujin.

It was the perfect color to describe her.

A sincere and serene blue. 

Hence, it was also one of the reasons why she had chosen to get a warm blue hoodie as Yujin's birthday present.

It wasn't exactly the best birthday gift one can get and Minjoo did thought of gifting her a necklace instead, in return for the bracelet but it's too intimate of a gift - is what her subconscious keeps on telling her. 

A knock on the bathroom door interrupts her chain of thoughts and on the other side of the door was Hyewon, who came to tell her that Sakura is on her way back to the condo with a very digruntled Yujin, which also means that it's time for them to get into position.

Minjoo catches one final look at her overall appearance in the mirror, fixing her appearance for one last time before heading to the living room where everyone else were at.

Thankfully, everyone whom they had invited for the party was able to make it in time.

Wonyoung, who had been put in charge of the lights immediately rushes to take her spot close to the light switches, turning off the lights upon hearing footsteps approaching the entrance.

"Why do I have to spend my birthday with you in your apartment? I'm not your girlfriend." 

Yujin's resentful voice can be heard as soon as the door clicks open. 

"Oh please, anyone would kill to spend their birthday with me alone. In my apartment," Sakura replies with a snort, slipping off her shoes in front of the doorstep. Yujin follows suit, still in a very much grumpy state. 

"Right. Why is your apartment so dark anyway?"

As if it was on cue, the lights starts to flicker open, revealing the rest of the girls who had gathered in front of a very poorly decorated wall with a cake. 

"Surprise!"

Yujin bats her eyes at the sight before her incredulously, agape before turning to Sakura to get her to explain what was going on. 

"What--" 

"It's your birthday, of course we're going to throw something for you kid," Sakura laughs out loud and ruffles the younger girl's hair out of affection. "Happy birthday."

Alcohol.

Alcohol.

And more alcohol. 

Minjoo has no issues with drinking but this might be the third cup of beer that she's having for the night, all thanks to Sakura but she's starting to wonder on whose sake is the party actually for. Yujin doesn't even drink - except for that one accidental time in Bali but it's not as if Yujin has any recollection of it. 

For some reason, no one thought of stopping Sakura from bringing out her stash of alcohol and serving them at the party where majority of them had barely turned legal and some have yet to but on another note, at least the underaged minors has their conscience in tact, so it didn't take much for the responsible ones a.k.a Chaeyeon and Minjoo to keep them in check.

The girl whose lips seems to be protruding a little in a cute way seemed tempted originally to approach the alcohol table at the very least but fortunately, her friend whose name Minjoo could barely recall (Juri? Yuri?) who had been sticking to her all night long reprimanded her even before she gets to take a step forth from where they were at. 

Speaking of Yujin's friends--

There's the cute but extremely tall girl too that Minjoo had invited to the party. It didn't take long for Minjoo to discern the crush that the gir