Jongho. Who was Jongho? The guy who you were assigned to pick out outfits for. The guy who you would fix his hair for. The guy who would give you glances in public then chuckle to himself when you had a flustered look on your face. The guy who asked for your number in private in one of those vans during a long trip to his next schedule. The guy who would call your phone late at night quietly because he doesn’t want s to know. The guy who had to introduce you to his teammates eventually because Hongjoong and Seonghwa knew him too much.

       3 weeks. You guys have just dated for 3 weeks. There are sparks and fireworks everytime you touch or lock eyes in public. There are tingles all over your body when you two meet secretly. He is already talking about marrying you and what it would look like, and you don’t mind because this all feels like highschool freshmen being hopelessly in love with each other; and you feel like you two versus the world.

 

You dated 3 weeks before your birthday too. Today is your birthday. This day.

 

You’re not very confident if he remembers. You two JUST dated. You would understand why he’d forget. It was easy to remember his birthday, it’s all over the internet. Very obvious.

You were preparing to go out and get something small for yourself.

 

“JONGHO!?”

“FINALLY! YOU OPENED YOUR CLOSET!”

“YOU HAVE A SCHEDULE!”

“I skipped.”

“YOU CAN’T SKIP! THE MEMBERS WOULD BE LIVID! YOUR MANAGEMENT WILL HAVE YOUR HEAD! THEY’RE GOING TO CALL THE POLICE!”

“They won’t know when I’m gone. I’ll tell them that I was too long in the bathroom.”

“HOW LONG WERE YOU IN THERE?”

“Almost two (2) hours. I lost count, to be honest.”

“WHY ARE YOU HERE!?”

Jongho searched his pockets and pulled out a little cracker. He pulled the only string it had and spread confetti all over your floor. “Happy birthday!”

 

You threw your head back and giggled. “What?”

“Happy birthday,” Jongho laughed along but then his mood changed to serious, “Did I get it wrong? Wait! Don’t tell me!”

You laughed with him and grabbed his cheeks. “Is this supposed to be a surprise party?”

“I have cake, but then it melted in my bag. I think my bag is sticky now.” Jongho went back to your closet and revealed an old dark brown Jansports backpack. He sat on the floor in front of you and pulled out items from his back to your bedroom floor.

 

Makeup.

Extra clothes.

Extra shoes.

Pikachu plushie?

Couple sweatshirts?

Phone case with his face on it?

Signed album by Twice?

Colored pens?

A kalimba?

Loom band kit?

Leggins with cats printed all over them?

GEMSTONES!?

 

“Jongho, what the !?”

“What?”

“What are these?”

“I wasn’t sure what you were passionate about so I went ahead and grabbed whatever we talked about before. Do you see anything you like?”

 

You sat in front of him and went through the whole thing. “You remember all of this? When did we talk about Pikachu?”

“Van. Bored. Scrolling through instagram, you said you liked a Pikachu plushie then scrolled past it.”

“That’s too detailed.”

“I also saw your likes on Instagram.”

“Creep.”

“Babe, yes present is better than no present, k?”

 

You laughed and admired the Pikachu plushie. It was a bit small and less “plush” than you imagined, but then again what do you expect from a cheap place that just sells toys that looked aesthetic?

“Gemstones?” You grabbed seven (7) gemstones together and said, “Are these decorations or real gemstones?”

“I got them for 4,700 won.”

“Honey, they should be more expensive than this. You might have been scammed.”

“… DO YOU LIKE GARDENING? They’re good decorations.”

“Jongho, but -!?”

“Babe, what did I say? Yes present is better than no present, k?”

 

You started organizing his stuff together for him and snorted while shaking your head then you remembered what he just stated earlier.

“Jongho?”

“Yeah?”

“Where’s the cake?”

 

       Jongho looked around his stuff and the moment he touched the couple sweatshirt, you would see the cake is squashed in a box, a box that was between the sweat shirts… you could see that the cake was a rainbow cake. You laughed but tried to hold it in. He doesn’t know your favorite color as well, so this is just a guessing game. “Okay, let me get a basket for this.”

“I’m sorry…” Jongho said seriously with a pout as he tried to clean the scene.

You grabbed a basket you would use if your laundry load was too much today. And today is one of those days.

 

       “We can clean this tediously later,” you helped me clean up the floor and his bag with wet wipes. He gathered the rest of his stuff and placed it in an extra bag you had. You cleaned up his hands then yours. You cupped his face in your hands to make his pout go away.

“You’ll have me later after all of this?” Jongho said, muffled. You were pressing his cheeks too much because he was just too adorable.

“Of course, stupid,” You rested your arms around his neck and you both made a little dance. There wasn’t any music. There wasn’t any rhythm, but both of you just loved what you two had right now. His eyes were on you. Your whole focus was on him. You two smiled.

 

He pouted and titled his head.

“What?”

“Can I get …?”

“What?”

“I said, can I get …?”

“Speak up, baby, I can’t hear you, and we’re this close already.”

“I said…” he took a deep breath before continuing, “Can we have… um… y time before I got back to my schedule?” he scratched the back of his neck and looked away from your eyes as if he saw something important.

You laughed. You guys didn’t do it often. He rarely comes to your place. You don’t go to his place, the members are always there. You go to love hotels, but because it’s risky, so you both rarely do it. 

New, fresh couple. Cannot keep their eyes off each other. Always together because of work, but has to pretend that they’re complete strangers.

 

“Aren’t you tired?” You asked.

“I’m not in the right mood to sleep,” Jongho said,

You sang to the main vocalist of your favorite group, “If you’re not in the right mood to sleep now then… come take my arms and go I’ll be yours for sure”

Jongho smiled widely as you saw him try to hide a blush. “Answer me…”

You leaned over and gave him a peck. Both of you laughed in the kiss and pulled away.

 

“How are we going to do this?” Jongho laughed.

“You’re the one to say, you laughed!” you spat.

“Excuse me?” Jongho exclaimed.

“If you really want this then do something, don’t wait for me!” you realized you made a mistake when he flung you on his shoulder within one move and placed you on your own bed.

 

It was past breakfast, you think. You haven’t eaten yet. Sunlight was coming through your window and his red hair was vibrant under this weather. He cornered you with your hands being cuffed with only his one hand while his other hand traced your face until he cupped your chin to make you look at him.

He laughed and laid down next to you.

You were blushing hard and just froze there. “JONGHO!!!!!!”

“What?” Jongho was laughing hard.

“AT LEAST MAKE UP FOR IT!”

“Make up for what?”

“YOU TEASE!” you turned your body away from him.

 

It was another mistake.

He wrapped his arms around you. Left his hot breath on your neck and kissed you there all while his free hand was going in your shirt.

 

False hope.

He tickled you.

“JONGHO!”

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”
“STOP! STOP IT!”

“I LOVE YOU TOO!”

 

 

 

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The song you sang was "Square" by Yerin Baek