Jiyong’s eyes opened lazily at the sound of the phone ringing loudly in the living room. He groaned and rolled over, stuffing his face on his pillow. It didn’t stop. I kept ringing… and ringing… and ringing. His head snapped up at the clock. It read 10:35am. He muttered unpleasant words about the caller under his breath. He stomped angrily to the living room and picked up the phone.

“Who the-“

The person on the other line cut him off and yelled, “HEY, JIYONG!! WHY ARE YOU NOT ANSWERING YOUR CELLPHONE?!”

It was Seungri. His eyebrows waggled furiously. He did not just get woken up early in the morning to get yelled at, did he?

“Do you want to die?” Jiyong said in a low, deadly voice.

He heard him gulped. “Uhh… no… Sorry, Ji,” he let out a nervous laugh. “Anyway, where are you?”

Is he ing kidding me? Is he seriously asking me where I am? Jiyong thought to himself. He was already agitated enough without his stupid questions. Jiyong tried to calm himself down. “I’m in the library, stealing books,” he answered not hiding the sarcasm in his voice.

Seungri gasped loudly. “What! Why would you do that?! Are you serious?!”

That was it. He was just too stupid for his own good. Sometimes Jiyong couldn’t help but ask himself how he became friends with someone who was no brain. He finally exploded, “NO YOU STUPID MORON! YOU CALLED MY APARTMENTPHONE AND ASK ME WHERE I AM?! IS YOUR ING HEAD THAT MESSED UP?!”

“Ah! He’s gone mad! You talk to him!” Seungri said in the other line, his voice trembling. Jiyong heard the phone being handed to another person.

“Hey, Ji,” Daesung’s voice came through the phone.

“What do you want?”

“Hello to you too,” He chuckled at his friend’s inevitable impatience. “Anyway, it’s my birthday... Didn’t we talk about watching a movie together? And you were the one who decided to meet here at the usual place at 10:30. You weren’t answering your phone so we figured you were still asleep. And apparently, we were right.”

“!” he grunted under his breath.

He hung up then phone then hurriedly did his morning routines. He couldn’t believe he has forgotten about his friend’s birthday. His thoughts must’ve been really messed up. It was already 11:30am when Jiyong arrived at their usual meet-up place. He saw Daesung sitting on a bench eating ice cream calmly, watching Seungri –who was surrounded by seven kids.

Seungri was the first one who saw him. When he did, a mischievous glint in his eyes appeared. He made a gesture to the kids to come closer to him and whispered something to them. All their heads turned to Jiyong’s direction at the same time. Suddenly, all of them run up to him with big grins on their faces and arms wide open for a hug screaming, “Daddy! Daddy!” “Why are you so late?” “Mommy already left!”

The passerby’s gave him a weird look. He even heard them whispering things like, “Oh, my. He’s so young and yet he has a lot of children!” “Kids these days…” “If he decided to have children at his age, he should know his responsibilities.”

Jiyong stiffened with rage. As much as he wanted to push the kids off of him, he couldn’t. They were still kids after all. Seungri was laughing his head off, pointing at Jiyong and slapping his thighs. Daesung shook his head at Seungri, already foreseeing his stupid friend's fate. When the mothers’ of the kids came, Jiyong stood there, his face furious, Seungri then realized that his laughing days time was over.

“Happy birthday,” Jiyong muttered to his friend after beating the sh*t out of Seungri -who was now crying in pain.

They decided to walk around since the movie doesn’t start at about an hour or two. They stopped in front of a store. Seungri, who finally recovered, pointed to the shirt that was on display and said he wanted it. Daesung agreed but said he liked the shirt next to it. Seungri then pressed his face to the glass to take a closer look at Daesung’s choice. Jiyong, having enough humiliation for the day, pulled him by the collar as people was beginning to stare at them.

Afterwards, they went to the movie theater to watch an action movie. The movie lasted about three hours. They came out of the movie theater with Seungri crying his heart out over the death of one of the characters, with Daesung patting him on the back comfortingly.

“Why did they kill her? She was so pretty too!”

Jiyong rolled his eyes and hissed, “Just shut up.”

“It was so cool when the car exploded at the end like that! Don’t guys you think so? It was really awesome!” someone said from behind them, excitement filling her voice.

“Well, I don’t see how a car exploding is awesome. But the son of the protagonist is so gorgeous! He’s officially my husband now,” another voice said dreamily.

The three of them stopped dead at the recognizable voices.

“Stop dreaming. Who would marry you?” the first one who spoke huffed.

“Daroooong!” the second bleated. “Did you hear that? So rude~”

Confirmed. It is them.

The three girls walked past them without realizing it. Jiyong caught a glimpse of Dara’s smiling face. She was in the center with Bom clinging onto her left arm and Joohyun was on Dara’s right side.

“Bom!” Daesung called out earning him a puzzled look from his two friends.

The three girls abruptly stopped walking then turned their heads to the source of the voice.  “Ah? What are you three doing here?” Bom asked, clearly not expecting to see them there.

Eventually, Daesung invited them for dinner. They agreed as he insisted, mentioning that it was his birthday. Seungri grinned happily to himself because of Dara’s presence while Jiyong merely grunted.

“If I knew I would’ve bought you a gift! I’m sorry!” Dara gave Daesung an apologetic look as they waited for their orders to arrive.

“Us too! Sorry Daesung.” Joohyun and Bom said.

Daesung shook his head at them. “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it!”

At that moment, the food started to arrive. Dara couldn’t believe what was in front of her. The table was full of different dishes. She was on her seat, slack-jawed.

“Disgusting,” Jiyong scoffed at Dara. Joohyun’s eyes narrowed at him, while Daesung looked at him with a brow raised.

Dara instantly closed and let out a nervous laugh. “I’m sorry. Food is my weakness.”

Daesung waved his hand. “It’s fine. Eat as much as you’d like!”

“Ah, don’t say that Daesung. She’ll eat all of it.” Bom said, laughing. Seungri and Daesung laughed with her. Bom stopped and said with a serious face, “No, seriously. She will.”

Dara’s face flushed. She hit Bom’s arm softly making her giggle.

“Uhh. It’s alright. We can order more so don’t hold back.” Daesung announced happily. Everyone did as they’re told. Seungri was the one doing almost all the talking but it was mostly directed to Dara. Unfortunately for him, just as he thought he was having a decent conversation with Dara, someone butts in and changes the subject. Jiyong was being his usual self, not uttering a word the entire time. All of a sudden, he stood up.

“You’re done eating? That was fast!” Seungri said, surprised as he looked at his empty plate. He, himself, wasn’t even done with his appetizer yet!

“That’s because you wouldn’t shut up,” he answered coolly, walking away from their table.

Dara looked curiously after him. “Where are you going?”

He paused then glared at her over his shoulder. “And why should I tell you?” His voice was cold. Everyone, except Dara, looked at him with disbelief.

As soon as he was out of the restaurant, Joohyun slammed her glass down at the table, startling all of them. “That jerk! How dare he talk to Dara like that?! “

“Yeah,” Bom agreed. “That was totally uncalled for!”

Daesung and Seungri laughed nervously, not knowing how to defend their friend. Awkward silence fell on them. They continued eating the food on their plates without uttering a word. None of them spoke for what it seemed like… forever.

“Jiyong is a very nice person.” Dara blurted out very suddenly, breaking the silence.