Yunho woke up to his mother telling off the housekeepers in the hallways as usual, this time about not knowing simple flower arrangements and that their lack of skills had led to the ruining of the whole ambience of the house.

He softly padded towards the door and cringed slightly when he heard the smashing of what was most likely a flower vase. When he heard the angry footsteps of his mother disappear down the hallway, he turned the knob slowly to take a peek outside. There was no sign of his fuming mother except for two middle aged housekeepers knelt down on the carpeted floor with deep concentration on their faces as they proceeded to clear up all the pieces of the once beautiful porcelain vase from the Renaissance period which was a gift from one of his father’s closest acquaintances.   

“Yunho, dear child, please return to your room! You might accidentally step on one of the broken shards!” The older of the two housekeepers got up to lightly push Yunho back into his bedroom.

“Aunt Lee, did Mother ask for a compensation from you two?” He asked worriedly and placed his palm on the heavy rosewood door to keep the housekeeper from closing it in his face.

Lee smiled down at the sweet boy and ruffled his hair affectionately, “No, dear child, but thank you for asking.”

Yunho gave her a nod and with a grim look on his face he continued, “If she ever demands compensation in the future, I’m sure you know where to get the emergency money from.”

She laughed, “Yes, dear child. It’s in the cellar, third wall on the left and on the eighth shelf, there’s a cookie jar with money kindly put aside in secret by Young Master Jung.”

Yunho pouted, “Don’t call me that. I don't think it makes any sense when mother is the one breaking things and yet demands that you unsung heroes pay for them at the end of the day.”

Lee patted his head and sighed, “That’s life at the bottom of the food chain, dear child.”

“Aunt Lee…do you think...mother remembers?” Yunho asked in a small voice as he fished out a Rubik’s cube from his pocket and started playing around with it. 

“Remember wha-” Lee then gasped in embarrassment when she recalled what day it was thanks to Yunho’s hint, “Happy Birthday, dear child!”

“Thank you,” Yunho gave her a small smile, “I’ll just resume being invisible so as not to disturb anyone for the rest of the day.”

Lee could only sigh sadly when Yunho closed the door behind him.

Yunho was apprehensive about opening his bedroom door. He was sure Young Mi would either jump in front of him and scream ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY’ or she tell him something he didn’t want to hear, e.g.: "Skip school today so we can go out and celebrate your birthday!"

He had as promised cooked dinner for her yesterday night and through the entire duration of it, she did all the talking; about birthday celebrations she had in the past and when it was his turn to share, he could only talk about Jaejoong and Yoochun’s countless failed attempts at celebrating his birthdays. So far, the duo hadn’t succeeded yet. Young Mi also fell off her chair in her fit of laughter when Yunho had told her that Jaejoong actually attempted to break into his 38^th floor apartment back in Seoul when the elder had denied him entry by abseiling from the roof of the building. Luckily, Yoochun’s brains were working quite well at that moment in time (Yoochun goes into dorky mode when he’s in the presence of close buddies) so he had kicked down Yunho’s door instead. Yunho still had them thrown out because the duo had only planned on getting into the then-editor-in-chief’s house and not the party, so they stomped into the place unprepared and only looked at each other blankly when Yunho sarcastically asked them a simple question- ‘So what did you two plan for me this year?”

Yunho was now sitting Indian style in the middle of his bed fiddling around with his phone, checking up on the stock markets and the inbox of his student email account. He wondered how long could he keep up with putting off going out of his bedroom. 

It was already past 8am and usually at this time, Yunho would have already taken his breakfast and left for school.

He somehow managed to crawl off the bed and silently opened the door to peek down the hallways.

No sign of life.

Yunho raised a brow at this for a while before throwing the haversack over his shoulder and walked into the kitchen. There, he found an already made peanut butter and jelly sandwich laid on a rainbow coloured plate on the counter. Walking closer to pick up his breakfast, he noticed a note under the plate.

Oh my Gawd, there’s no more fish food!

Yunho chuckled to himself. He could almost see a panicky Young Mi knocking on every door of the apartment block begging for her fish’s feed.

He transferred the bread into a disposable plastic container, dropped it into his bag and slipped into his sneakers before heading to school. He knew he was going to be late if he persists on wanting to take the bus, so he decided to ‘treat’ himself that day and take a cab to school.

8.45am.

Yunho had never been to school this late before because he usually arrived at least half an hour earlier so he could sit in class and revise or work on assignments. He was about to walk through the gates when he saw this very familiar figure from afar who seemed to be pestering every single student who walked into the main building.

He had deep wine red hair, a colour that one could only get through countless times of painful hair bleaching, and it contrasted with his impossibly fair skin. He had very trendy oversized shades on and his neck was adorned with an equally expensive looking woollen scarf.

Yunho didn’t care if he looked like a madman but he stood in the middle of the pathway and laughed his head off. That sound made the fair skinned beauty whip his head around and gape comically, “YUNNIE!”

The elder smiled and waved.

“You ing waved! Oh for the love of Louis Vuitton bags- I was worrying for nothing,” Jaejoong ran over and gave Yunho a bone-crushing hug, “You glow like a pregnant woman, Yunnie!”

Yunho raised a brow and drawled, “Seriously?”

Jaejoong nodded vehemently, “Yes, seriously. Skip class for me?”

Yunho was torn between a pouting Jaejoong and an interesting 3-hour lecture on Differential Geometry (Are you kidding, Jung?).

“It’s not like as if you would fail your examinations if you skip one lesson right?” Jaejoong started to lug Yunho out of the school building.

“But we’re going to discuss a new topic today.” Yunho sighed.

Jaejoong’s mouth twitched in slight annoyance. He hated to be thrown aside like a used toy.

Yunho detected a deadly aura around Jaejoong and sighed again, “Perhaps you could sit in?”

“You’re barking mad,” Jaejoong placed his hands on his hips with a deep frown on his flawless face, “And you know fairly well that I will get a migraine when I hear anything related to numbers.”

Yunho grabbed Jaejoong’s hand and they ran down the hallways, completely dismissing the weird looks they got from the rest of the student body as they made their way towards the lecture hall.

“I need to keep a good track record if I am to prove myself worthy of doing a 3 years crash course instead of 5.”

Jaejoong thought for a while and pouted, “Fine. But won’t your professor know that I’m gatecrashing?”

“She welcomes anyone to sit in, so she’ll probably think you’re from another faculty.” 

“Okay,” Jaejoong gulped when Yunho opened the door to the lecture hall and had to be dragged in because he had caught sight of the hideous scrawls and countless mind-boggling geometric structures flashed on the projector screen which left him temporarily paralysed. 

“Sorry for my lateness, Professor Enright.” Yunho apologised.

“How kind of you to have directed Mr. Sunglass here,” the 63 year old smiled kindly at her star student, “Fortunately for you, your favourite seat is vacant.”

Yunho bowed and tugged on Jaejoong's hand once more so they were in the third row from the front.

“I have never sat this close to any professor or lecturer before,” Jaejoong face palmed.

“I know, but there’s a first for everything.” Yunho grinned and got his bible of a textbook out, “Oh, and you make a really beautiful redhead.”

Jaejoong playfully shoved Yunho, “Aww, and you’ve developed such a sweet-talking mouth, Yunnie.”

“I’m being honest.” Yunho replied.

“Happy Birthday, Yunnie.” Jaejoong reached over to squeeze the elder’s , “I’ll give you your present later.”

“I thought the present was you being here.”

“ing , I want to ravish your sweet-talking mouth soooooo badly.” Jaejoong his lips seductively.

“Jaejoong, we’re in class.” Yunho reminded the younger as he scribbled notes at the speed of light on his textbook, “And stop channeling your needy vibes towards me, it’s really awkward.”

“I’m boreddddd.” Jaejoong purred in his ear, “And .”

“Give me 5.85 minutes, Jaejoong, I need to complete this.” Yunho practically ignored the ually charged Jaejoong and began working on the question flashed on the projector screen.

The Editor in Chief looked to the front and gaped.

“The is that!?” His eyes rolled back and he fainted.

“He was the epitome of handsome, Young Mi! The way he stood up and rattled off the answer like a bullet train was like...WHOA- though I didn't understand a single of what he was ranting about.” Jaejoong beamed like a proud mother father, “And his professor had sparkly eyes when she announced that he had the correct answer.”

Young Mi smiled, “Of course, he’s Yunho after all, no math sum can baffle him.”

“And how did you escape work anyway?” Yunho looked towards Jaejoong. 

“I lied about going on a buying trip for next month’s photoshoot and no one questioned me.” Jaejoong smirked.

“I’m sure Father knows the motive behind this so called trip.”

“He doesn’t. I bought a ticket to LA but managed to flirt my way through at the airport and flew here instead.” Jaejoong laughed.

Yunho shook his head in disbelief.

“Anyways…” Jaejoong rummaged through his large Louis Vuitton hand carry and dumped a stack of papers on the elder’s lap, “Happy Birthday.”

Yunho looked though the pile and his face gradually lit up, “Wow.”

“I know right!? I sacrificed so much time helping Sumire out with schoolwork and her sewing lessons. I’m surprised she didn’t tell you about her winning that costume design competition.” Jaejoong smiled as he sat closer to his elder brother to look at the wonderful test and quiz scores as well. 

“She didn’t. She only updated me on how she’s doing in math.”

“Duh, that’s all you ever care about.” Jaejoong rolled his eyes.

“Don’t say that. I-” Yunho’s eyes went wide and paused when he was looking at the last piece of paper in the stack, “Jaejoong, explain.”

Jaejoong puffed his cheeks out for a moment before replying, “Err…I talked to Daddy and told him to let you go…so…you’re free from Blitz. He isn’t going to tie you down with having you take over it anymore.”

“Oh, Jaejoong,” Yunho hugged the beauty tightly, “You finally succeeded in giving me a birthday surprise.”

“Yayyyyy!” Jaejoong giggled.

Yunho broke the hug and looked at Young Mi, “I almost forgot, did you manage to get the fish food?”

“None of the neighbours owned fishes, so I had to wait till the shop opened before replenishing the stock.”

“How can such a seasoned fish owner like you forget such a thing?”

“I accidentally dumped the entire bottle into the fishbowl yesterday and forgotten to buy a new one.” Young Mi scratched the back of her neck sheepishly.

“Daydreaming of our fabulously handsome Yunnie?” Jaejoong taunted.

“Yea-OH !” Young Mi ran off in embarrassment, not forgetting to trip over air in the process of course. 

“She always blurts out stuff, don’t mind her.” Yunho waved it off and placed the pile of papers into the drawer underneath the coffee table.

“I never knew she was such an adorable klutz,” Jaejoong smirked, “And I never knew you liked accident-prone girls.”

“Shut up,” Yunho sulked.

“Soooooo…which stage are you both at now, hmm?” Jaejoong flashed him a sleazy smile, “Still holding hands like little kids?”

“We’ve kissed, many times in fact.” Jaejoong was about to say something when Yunho added, “All of them initiated by me.”

Jaejoong started to laugh hysterically, “MY YUNNIE HAS FINALLY GROWN UP! HE NOW HAS BALLS TOO!”

“Jaejoong,” Yunho said warningly, “Stop screaming, the neighbours can hear you.”

“But they don’t understand a word coming out from this pretty mouth of mine,” the beauty pouted.

“Mimi’s teaching the neighbours Korean.” Yunho explained.

“MIMI!?” Jaejoong was all over the elder now, “HAVE YOU GUYS MADE FABULOUSLY-STEAMY-Y-HOT LOVE YET!?”

Yunho struggled to pry the younger off him, “I’m not interested in such things. And besides, even if I want to, I’d have to tell her beforehand so she can go to the doctor’s to do the necessary preparations.”

“What? But why?” Jaejoong questioned.

“She…” Yunho pointed to his stomach and then shook his head.

“Cannot conceive?” Jaejoong dropped his voice to a whisper.

Yunho nodded.

“So you’re gonna send her to get a womb transplant so you can impregnate her?” Jaejoong smirked.

Yunho couldn’t help himself but slap Jaejoong’s arm with quite an amount of force, “Nonsense. I’m surprised you don’t know about this…but women like her need to get something done before they can…do that thing because it will hurt tremendously if they don’t.”

“ING ! That means you can’t go ninja on her when your acts up!” Jaejoong exclaimed, “I would die if I married someone like that.”

“Jaejoong, I think you really need to consult Louise about your terrifyingly high libido.” Yunho concluded.

It's the Queen of y-Bipolar-ness' birthday, so I thought it would be nice to drag him to where Yunnie is to make a special appearance in this chapter. HA. 

Comments please and thanks!