DooJoon got up out of bed and headed straight for the kitchen. He was craving some cereal for breakfast. Since BEAST didn’t have a schedule that morning, he took the opportunity to sleep in a bit. On his way to the kitchen, he passed by the living room, where he found JunHyung, HyunSeung and YoSeob on the couch watching TV.

“Good morning!” DooJoon greeted. “Where’s KiKwang?”

“He’s in his room working out,” JunHyung answered fairly quickly, without removing his attention from the TV. HyunSeung felt a bit awkward because of the bitter undertones of JunHyung’s reply. YoSeob felt equally as awkward, and he looked from DooJoon back to JunHyung; he thought it was weird that JunHyung was giving a bit of attitude.

“Ah, I see… What about DongWoonie?” DooJoon asked, ignoring JunHyung’s tone. Again HyunSeung and YoSeob stayed quiet, letting JunHyung answer.

“He’s asleep. He’s still hungover.”

“What’s this? DongWoon was drinking? When was this and where was I?” DooJoon replied jokingly. He laughed, but no one else did. “Okay…”

DooJoon was a bit confused and feeling quite awkward. s had been treating him weirdly since last night when he saw KiKwang and KaHee. DooJoon decided that since he still wanted cereal, he would take this opportunity to ignore the awkwardness and walk away to the kitchen. After taking a couple steps, he was interrupted by his phone.

“Yeoboseyo?” he answered his phone.

“DooJoon-ssi!” DooJoon recognized the voice on the other end.

“Oh, flower shop ahjusshi!”

“You never picked up the flowers yesterday! We waited for you until closing time.”

“Flowers? Yesterday? Isn’t that…”

“I’m sorry, but I’m afraid you still have to pay the full price for your order.”

“Ah, but Ahjusshi those flowers were for the 21^st.”

“Yes, DooJoon-ssi we waited for you the whole day.”

“What?” DooJoon rushed over to the calendar which was hanging on a wall in the living room. The members on the couch were watching him; they were all extremely curious. JunHyung, however, looked especially unamused. DooJoon placed a finger on a random point on the calendar and traced over the weeks to the last date that was crossed off, which was the 19^th. “Today is the 20^th, isn’t it?”

Suddenly an arm reached over and crossed off the box for the 20^th. It was JunHyung.

“Wait, so today’s the 21^st?” DooJoon asked JunHyung, pulling the phone away and covering the receiver with his other hand. JunHyung’s face was expressionless when he looked at DooJoon, and it remained expressionless when he turned back to the calendar to cross off the box for the 21^st. He recapped the pen he was using, which was connected to the calendar with a string, and let it drop before walking back to the couch. He plopped down on the couch and continued to watch TV, but a frown was now visible on his face.

At this point, DooJoon could not take his eyes away from the calendar, and he was holding his phone at his side. He was still a bit confused, trying his best to comprehend the situation.

“DooJoon-ssi, are you still there?” The man on the other line could still be heard calling out for DooJoon’s attention. Zombie-mode DooJoon pulled the phone back to his ear.

“Ahjusshi… I’ll pay for the flowers. You can charge it to the same account as last time.” He hung up the phone and turned to s. Before he could address them, KiKwang walked out of his room. He was wearing a black wife beater and shorts, and he was sweating profusely. He was using a towel to wipe off his body, but as soon as he spotted DooJoon, his expression darkened. This time DooJoon noticed. DooJoon looked at each of the members, and they looked back at him though all of their expressions were making DooJoon feel nervous.

“What date is it today?” DooJoon asked.

“September 22,” JunHyung stated, taking charge and answering for everyone else as he turned back to face the TV.

“So yesterday was…”

“RaeIn-ah’s birthday party,” JunHyung answered again. Everyone else was very tense as they watched the awkward episode unfold. They were all looking at DooJoon, waiting for his reaction. That is, except for YoSeob; his attention remained focused on JunHyung. YoSeob found JunHyung’s behavior quite peculiar, and he was curious as to why he had been acting this way. Usually, YoSeob thought, JunHyung would not care about petty things like this at all. Usually he would stay indifferent towards the situation. But this time he was actually reacting, and actually choosing sides – and giving Yoon Leader attitude at that!

“RaeIn’s birthday…” DooJoon repeated slowly, still zombie-like.

“Ah, Hyung, really…” KiKwang said, his lips. “I think you messed up this time.” KiKwang said this lightly, but his tone of voice did not match his dark expression at all. This was all he said before walking to the bathroom to take a shower. DooJoon looked at the other members for help, but they had already redirected their attention towards the TV.

——-

RaeIn lay on the floor in between the coffee table and the TV. She was on her stomach, resting her chin on her folded arms. Her phone was in front of her, and she had been staring at it for hours.

“Yah, RaeIn-unni,” KaHee called to her, plopping down onto the couch.

“What are you doing, RaeIn-unni?” JulSu followed up, sitting on the couch next to KaHee. However, the members already knew what RaeIn was doing. Since that morning, RaeIn had been checking her phone constantly, watching her phone constantly, and fiddling with her phone constantly. She was waiting for DooJoon to contact her – via call, text, anything – however, none of them had heard from him all day. It was already 3:00PM.

“He still hasn’t called me yet,” RaeIn said frustrated. She picked up her phone to fiddle with it, checking to make sure all of her settings were okay and that there was enough signal.

“What if he doesn’t call?” JulSu suggested. They had a schedule to attend at 5:00PM. MAKIKO was going to guest on another episode of “Picnic with Bakery” – they were going to go ice-skating. They started off with around eight hours, but now they only had about two hours to get their leader in tip-top-variety-show-shape.

“He will call,” RaeIn said defiantly. “If he doesn’t call, how messed up is that?”

“What’s messed up is him going to the High Kick party with SeKyung,” KaHee muttered under her breath, and JulSu nudged her to be quiet.

“You’re right, Unni. He will call,” JulSu said, changing her tactic. “But we have to get ready soon. We don’t want to be late for filming, right? We don’t want the Bakery members to worry about you, right?”

“I guess so…”

“Yes, and we only have about an hour and a half to get ready, so let’s get dressed, Unni!” JulSu continued.

“Yeah… you’re right, we’re running out of time,” RaeIn said, starting to get up.

“Yes, yes…” JulSu coaxed.

“Maybe I should just call DooJoon instead,” RaeIn suggested a bit excitedly after she got up. “Maybe he doesn’t want to call me because he thinks that I’m mad that he didn’t show up yesterday.”

“But you are mad,” JulSu said, sighing. At the same time, KaHee jumped up and yelled, “No! Don’t do it!”

“Why not?” RaeIn asked frowning.

“Because! DooJoon’s the one who’s in the wrong here. He has to realize himself that he forgot about your party, and he has to make an effort to apologize. I won’t agree to you talking to him or seeing him until he apologizes first!” KaHee explained.

“But I want to talk to him now! I want him to explain himself now. So maybe I need to make the first move…” RaeIn looked at JulSu for approval and pleaded with her eyes.

“I have to agree with KaHee,” JulSu said. “You don’t want to sound needy.”

This struck a chord. “Needy?” RaeIn scoffed. “I’m not needy.”

“Exactly, you’re not. So why don’t you give us your phone for a while?” JulSu suggested. RaeIn looked at her blankly. “We’ve still got a couple hours before we have to meet up with Bakery. Why don’t you take a nap? KaHee and I will wake you up when it’s time to get ready. We don’t want you to worry about anything – just sleep!”

“Okay, okay,” RaeIn conceded, handing them her phone. She smiled at her members. “Thanks, you guys.”

“No problem,” KaHee said, grabbing a hold of her phone. RaeIn walked to her bedroom right away to get in as much nap time as she could. Once she closed her door, JulSu sighed.

“Poor Leader…”

“Yeah, I know right? But DooJoon, what the heck?” KaHee spoke towards RaeIn’s phone as if it was DooJoon himself. “Didn’t you realize that something is wrong yet? I swear, if you’re with that SeKyung right now…”

“I just hope no one calls RaeIn while we have her phone,” JulSu said, quickly trying to change the subject before the maknae could get her self worked up. “I mean, what would we do? Answer it for her? Just let it ring?”

“Oh, that’s right. Well, I guess it will be okay as long as it’s no one important,” KaHee agreed. “We could just tell RaeIn later when she wakes up or somethi—Oh shoot!” KaHee almost dropped RaeIn’s phone because it suddenly started ringing. “Ah, what do I do? What do I do?”

“Were we not just talking about this just now?” JulSu asked sarcastically, grabbing the phone. “Who is it anyway?”

——-

“Hey, DongWoon, wake-up! It’s already 3:00PM.” DooJoon shook DongWoon’s shoulders in attempts to shake him out of whatever dream DongWoon was stuck in. DongWoon only groaned in response, refusing to open his eyes.

“Yah, I need your help with something! Please, wake up now!” DooJoon whispered loudly into the maknae’s ear. DongWoon refused to budge. “DongWoon, I’m about to pull a Super Junior on you. I’ve got a bucket of water waiting for me in the bathroom.”

“Okay, okay I’m awake,” DongWoon said, getting up and rubbing his eyes. He looked at the clock by habit. “What the…  it’s 3:00 already?!”

“That’s what I just said,” DooJoon said, slapping his palm to his face.

“Sorry,” the maknae answered laughing. “What do you need help with Hyung?”

“I don’t know what to do about RaeIn.”

“What do you mean?” DongWoon asked confused.

“Weren’t you at her party last night?”

“Yeah, of course I was.” DongWoon noticed that DooJoon winced at his words, and so the idea dawned upon him. “Don’t tell me you never showed up.” Again, DooJoon’s face said it all. “Aww, no, Hyung! Why are you like this? Where were you?”

“I was at the High Kick party.”

“Why were you there?” DongWoon was very confused.

“SeKyung asked me to go with her,” DooJoon explained.

“I still don’t understand why you decided to go there instead of RaeIn’s party,” DongWoon mused. Suddenly his eyes widened. “Are you planning to break up with Noona?! If you are I’m not going to help you!”

“No, no, of course I’m not!” DooJoon exclaimed raising his hands in a stopping gesture. “I’m scared to talk to her. I think she’s mad at me.”

“I’ll bet she’s mad at you. You forgot her birthday,” DongWoon said jokingly. However he added a quick “Sorry, I was kidding” when he saw the fearful and sad look on DooJoon’s face.

“Yeah, if I were her I’d be mad at me too,” DooJoon sighed.

“Why don’t you just try to call her?”

“Should I?” DooJoon asked, looking a bit skeptical. “I was thinking about it, but…”

“Yeah, I think you should explain to her what happened…” DongWoon trailed off to think about the situation. “But Hyung, what would you say to her? Are you going to tell her the truth?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I?” DooJoon replied sternly. “Besides, KiKwang and KaHee already saw me at the High Kick party.”

“Well, I didn’t mean to lie to her. But I was just asking to see if you were going to tell RaeIn-noona that you were SeKyung-ssi’s date.”

“I wasn’t her date,” DooJoon said.

“She asked you to go with her to a party, as her guest. It was just the two of you, together,” DongWoon stated matter-of-factly.

“Ah, you’re right, it was a date!” DooJoon exclaimed, throwing his head back with his hand covering his face, as he writhed around in his chair. “What was I thinking?”

DongWoon merely shrugged in response. “Anyway, Hyung are you going to call her?”

“Yeah,” DooJoon replied. “Do I do it now?”

“You know, if you really want to… just go for it,” DongWoon cheered on his hyung. DooJoon nodded then took out his phone and dialed. He looked at DongWoon for moral support. His finger hovered over the dial button for a bit, and finally he pressed it.

“Ah, she didn’t answer. She hates me!” DooJoon exclaimed.

“Try again,” DongWoon urged. After an “okay” DooJoon complied and tried again. Still there was no answer.

“Now what do I do?” DooJoon asked, feeling hopeless.

“Maybe you can try texting her,” DongWoon suggested.

“Ah, you’re right,” DooJoon said.

RaeInnie, please call me when you’re free.
Or even better, can we meet up please?

“How’s this?” DooJoon asked, holding up his phone for the maknae to read. DongWoon replied saying that it was good. “Are you sure?” DooJoon replied still a bit skeptical. After convincing his hyung that the text was fine, DooJoon finally sent it.

“I wonder what she’s going to say,” DongWoon wondered out loud. “Oh, your phone’s ringing.”

“Oh, it’s RaeIn. She texted me back.” DooJoon was suddenly feeling very nervous.

“What does it say? What does it say?”

“Hold on, let me open it up…”