When she woke, her head was pounding, it wasn't as if she had drank anything last night but since the new year had rolled around, her tolerance for things like consistant loud noises and pressing crowds of people had waned and now she had a pulsing headache to show for it. Moonbyul had been at her parents place all week for a catch up with her family and to help out with a minimal issue involving her sister being bullied and Yongsun missed her more every day she was gone. In the week just gone, she had picked herself up a retro clock, one that flipped the days of the little calender inside over as the adjoining clock ticked over. She watched now, mesmerized as the seconds hand kept it's rhythm and hit the number 12 once again just as the hour hand followed suit, the minute hand already having been there for 59 minutes. Her eyes flickered over to the calendar side as it flipped the next day into existence and she smiled wryly to herself, she was another year older and nobody was there to rub it in. As she'd passed through her 20s and into her 30s, her friends had taken it upon themselves to remind her how much older she was than most of them, she didn't mind but her tolerance for these jokes was wearing dangerously thin and quite often she had to stop herself from biting the joking party's head off. It was so early that she felt her eyelids droop and fell back into a light slumber, the bed felt too big and she frowned in her sleep as she curled into a ball. The hours slipped by and she sighed herself awake as the sun pierced through the tiny holes in the curtains, sulkily, she pulled the duvet over her head like a toddler and pouted, there was a sudden weight on the bed and for a second her heart stopped, she was home alone after all so it must be an intruder. thinking quickly, she gripped the duvet and wrapped it around the person tightly in an attempt to trap the them, even temporarily. There was a yelp of surprise and she surpressed a giggle at her own success as arms freed themselves from the duvet and wrapped around her, in a second, she had been rolled and was now the one in the duvet, her face free but unable to wriggle out. "Yah, Moon Byulyi, why did you creep in like a burglar?, I could have hurt you, big dummy!", Moonbyul laughed and covered her wife's face in kisses, it was the best way she had found of defusing her tiny nuggets of fury and it was working now. Yongsun's body relaxed and she managed to manouvre herself so that she lay next to Moonbyul, they kissed for longer now and it was amazing, Yongsun tried to convey how much she had missed her by lengthening the time her lips were pressed against Moonbyul's until the latter reminded her subtly that they both needed to breathe and they broke apart.

Throughout the morning there were little things Moonbyul did differently: making Yongsun her favourite breakfast, cleaning the apartment whilst running her a bath and insisting she stay in the bedroom until the bath was run, using the fancy bubble bath for the first time, making a cup of coffee and tuning the radio to her favourite station, hanging up secret decorations (birthday banners and balloons), gathering party poppers and opening the door silently for their friends, arranging cards and presents on the table, making sure the food menus were on the table so Yongsun could choose what they had for dinner and waiting patiently in the bedroom with a huge cozy towel for when she emerged from the bath all soapy and shuddering. As Yongsun walked into her towelly embrace, she shuddered but snuggled into Moonbyul's body and closed her eyes. "So warm, I don't want to move away and get dressed. Perfect timing honey. I hope you weren't waiting for long though.", she opened her eyes and looked up into her wife's eyes as she said it. Pressing her lips softly to Moonbyul's she smiled and danced around on the spot making sure her whole body was dry before stepping away and pulling her clothes on quickly to preserves the heat from the friction. Before she tried to leave the bedroom, Moonbyul stood in her way and insisted she stay put, looking confused, Yongsun smirked a little but did as she was told. It wasn't long before Moonbyul called for her to enter the main room of the apartment and she was met by a wall of noise, temporarily deafened, she stood grinning at the room which was full of party decorations and the sound of music. All day she had felt like everyone had forgotten and it was just going to pass without any remark but here they were, her friends, even though there was just the 5 of them (Yonghee had come over and was busy pouring herself what turned out to be the 10th cocktail of the day), Yongsun didn't need a single person more. She greeted her friends and thanked them for coming, was showered in party popper streams and had started the process of opening her cards when she noticed a small envelope on the front door mat. Clearly none of the others had noticed, Hyejin and Moonbyul were engaged in a deep conversation which was undoubtedly about Yongsun because she kept catching Hyejin glancing at her every other second and Wheein was sat on the kitchen counter drinking and laughing with Yonghee who had sat on the floor in a cautionary ove to prevent herself falling as she got even more drunk. Thumbing open the envelope in seconds, Yongsun skim read the card inside, her heart fell a little as she read the single name which had once been part of a pair:

"All my love, Dad.".