Seungwan knew Joohyun had been hoping she would forget the twenty ninth was her birthday, but Seungwan had been counting down the days until it finally came. Despite the controversy, she still planned to do everything she could to make the day special for Joohyun. She had planned everything with Seulgi, Sooyoung, and Yeri so they could celebrate after work; while she and Joohyun had been at the trial, Seulgi and Yeri had gone to Seungwan’s apartment to decorate for a surprise party while Sooyoung stayed behind to run the office. The trial lasted until the late afternoon, and so they called it a day early and Joohyun drove Seungwan home as normal. Seungwan knew Seulgi, Sooyoung, and Yeri were already in the apartment, waiting for them to arrive.

    “Will you come up with me?” Seungwan asked, trying to keep it as vague as possible. Joohyun gave her a confused look. “I want to give you something, for your birthday.”

    “Seungwan.” Joohyun whined softly, drawing out the a in her name. “You shouldn’t have gotten me anything.” Seungwan shrugged in reply, a cheeky grin on her face. Joohyun sighed, “Alright, let’s go up.” They got out of the car, locking it and heading into the apartment building, climbing the stairs together. Seungwan took her keys out and unlocked the door, heart drumming in her chest with nerves, hoping everything would work out the way it should.

    As she pushed the door open and they stepped in there was a chorus of, “Surprise!” From Seulgi, Sooyoung, and Yeri as they revealed themselves. Balloons and streamers were hung all over the living room and kitchen, and there were presents and cards on the table.

    Seungwan looked at Joohyun to see her reaction, and as Joohyun peered around at everything tears came to her eyes. “Whoa, what’s wrong?” Seungwan asked, anxiety evident in her voice.

    Joohyun smiled tearily, shaking her head, “It’s just been a hard last couple of days, and this is just so kind.” She kissed Seungwan quickly and then said, “Thank you all so much.”

    “Quit crying and come enjoy the party.” Sooyoung teased, making Joohyun chuckle a little through her tears. “Unnie you’re old now!”

“Hey, watch it!” Joohyun gave her a glare, though it was hardly threatening with the sweet smile on her lips.

“Happy birthday, Miss Bae!” Yeri chirped in a cheery voice. Joohyun smiled warmly at her.

“You don’t have to be so formal outside the office, Yerim. I think we’re far past formalities anyways.” Joohyun said, looking at Seungwan for a moment.

“Sweet!” Yeri replied with a laugh.

Seulgi came over and hugged Joohyun, saying, “Happy birthday Hyun!”

“Thanks Seul.” Joohyun smiled.

“Seungwan is quite the party planner.” Seulgi remarked. “She had such an elaborate plan to make sure you didn’t find out.”

“What can I say, I’m organized.” Seungwan joked. To Joohyun, she said,“That’s why you hired me.” Joohyun rolled her eyes, chuckling.

The party was full of laughter and fun stories, which Seungwan hoped helped Joohyun forget for a little bit about the situation with her mother. She knew it was still making Joohyun upset, though she wasn’t mentioning it anymore. Joohyun was much more solemn in the last two days than she had been before, and Seungwan completely understood, but she wanted to cheer Joohyun up somehow. As the night moved onwards, they went to the table so Joohyun could open her cards and gifts.

“Open mine first!” Yeri called out as she set her chair close to the table. Joohyun smiled and picked up a card in a pink envelope, Yeri’s messy handwriting signifying which card was hers. Joohyun slipped the card out and read the message, smiling as she did so.

“Thank you, Yeri, that’s very sweet.” Joohyun said, setting the card gently back on the table. She opened Seulgi and Sooyoung’s cards next, and then she took the gift they had bought her together and carefully peeled the wrapping paper off. It was a Keurig and a few boxes of tea to use for it.

“I know you don’t like coffee, but you can just use it for tea.” Seulgi said. “Cause you’re addicted.”

“I am not addicted,” Joohyun protested with a laugh. “But thank you, this is wonderful.” She turned to Seungwan and said, “Only your gift left?”

“Yes.” Seungwan smiled picking the card and box up and handing them to her. Joohyun opened the card with careful fingers and peered at the message, scanning it over three times. It read:

Dearest Joohyun,

Happy birthday! You are the most wonderful person in the world and I hope this year treats you very well. I am so lucky to have you in my life, you’ve taught me so much about strength and love and I can never repay you for that. I care so deeply about you and I hope you feel the same about me. Here’s to many more birthdays spent with one another. Enjoy your special day honey.

Joohyun looked up at Seungwan, a fond look in her eye. “Thank you so much.”

“Open the gift.” Seungwan prompted. Joohyun did so, delicately opening a jewelry box to reveal a silver bracelet with the word Strength printed on it in small script. “Because you are the strongest person I know, and I think sometimes you doubt your own strength.”

Joohyun set the gift and card down to come over and kiss Seungwan, saying as she pulled away, “You are the sweetest person I’ve ever met.”

“You deserve it all and more.” Seungwan whispered back.

“Get a room you two!” Sooyoung laughed. Joohyun and Seungwan both shot her a look but laughed along with everyone else easily. The party moved into Seungwan’s living room, the group crowding together on the couch as they talked.

“Joohyun do you remember your eighth birthday party?” Seulgi asked with an amused look on her face.

“When you fell off the side of the slide?” Joohyun said back, giggling at the memory.

“Wait you’ve never told me this story.” Sooyoung elbowed Seulgi gently.

“You see,” Joohyun started. “She was a very rambunctious kid, and got a little over excited and flung herself down the slide so fast she whipped right off the edge about halfway down.”

“You were more worried than any of the adults were.” Seulgi said. “Joohyun came running over to me screaming bloody murder, acting like I’d just died.”

“I was eight!” Joohyun protested with a laugh.

Seulgi was giggling as she went on, “And school pictures were the next day!”

“Oh yeah, so she strolls into her first grade picture day with a huge scrape down the side of her face and a black eye.” Joohyun continued, which made Seulgi laugh even harder. “I didn’t see her until we were on the bus together at the end of the day and she tells me, ‘The camera guy asked me if everything was okay at home, what did he mean?’”

The group was all laughing at the story’s conclusion, Sooyoung saying, “You have got to show me your first grade photos now!”

“No, they’re so embarrassing.” Seulgi shook her head. “Aside from my messed up face, both my front teeth were missing and my hair was just a mess. I look insane.”

“Fine, I’ll get them from your mom.” Sooyoung replied, which made the rest of the party laugh again.

“I don’t have any photos from my childhood.” Seungwan said. “There’s no proof I existed before the age of like sixteen.”

“Wait really, you don’t have any?” Yeri asked, a puzzled look on her face. “What happened to them?”

“My mom has them all.” Seungwan replied simply. “I haven’t talked to her in ten years.”

“Wow.” Yeri let out a breath. “That’s rough.”

“I didn’t mean to lower the mood!” Seungwan remarked hastily. “I’m kind of glad none of those embarrassing photos will end up in any of your guys’ hands.”

“My mom took photos of me and my sisters all obsessively.” Yeri went on. “So my childhood was more documented than I care to remember.”

“Me too.” Sooyoung said. “My mom is still a huge picture taker. Everytime Seulgi and I go to visit her she takes so many pictures of us together. She always says, ‘You’ll be thankful when you finally get married and want to put together a photo book or slideshow!’” Everyone laughed at that, and the mood lightened considerably.

“I love pictures.” Joohyun sighed, a smile on her face. “I took as many as I could when I left for college, and I have a lot of pictures from college as well.”

“Well let’s all take a picture!” Yeri suggested. “We can hang it in the office!” She took her phone out and they all gathered around, huddling close together so they could all be in shot. Genuine smiles came to their lips as they looked into the camera, grinning widely and holding onto each other. As Yeri snapped the photo, Seungwan felt a rush of joy flood through her; she finally fit in somewhere, after feeling so alone and left out her entire life. She had finally found a family.