It was Taemin’s birthday in a couple of days and the rest of the SHINee members had completely forgotten. They just went on with their lives as Taemin was getting excited wanting to know if the members had planned anything for him or if he was just going to receive presents.  Their schedules went on as usual despite the day approaching ahead of them. Of course the other members had noticed Taemin’s extra happiness in the past couple of days but didn’t know the reason for it. They didn’t really question Taemin’s attitude, they just let it slide past them.

                The night before Taemin’s birthday still none of the members had mentioned his birthday for the next day. He went to sleep slightly upset but also excited not knowing if the members where just pretending to not notice his birthday. That night he dreamt of s showering him with gifts at a surprise party that they had arranged for him. At the party his family and some of his closest friends were there celebrating alongside him as if he was a child once again. He was happy in his dreams and he hoped that the following day would be as wonderful as his dream.

                Once Taemin woke up in the morning he didn’t hear anyone in the dorm which was sort of strange but still normal since everyone had individual schedules but would eventually see at least one other member throughout the day.  Taemin had woken up from the constant vibrating from his phone signaling that he had been receiving text messages nonstop. He opened them all one by one all saying generally the same thing. They all wished him a happy birthday and a great day ahead of him. He went online and saw all the fans wishing him a happy birthday as well and that just made his day seem brighter. He started getting ready for his first schedule of the day and when he was done getting ready he stayed in the living room waiting for their manager to pick him up to go to his schedule. Not long after he sat on the couch their manager walked in with a party hat on his head and a small cake with candles on it. He walked over to Taemin excitedly telling him to blow out the candles and to make a wish. Taemin complied and made a wish and blew out the candles. His manager asked him if he wanted to eat a slice before leaving for his schedule which he nodded to. His manager had placed a child’s party hat on his head while he got out two plates and some forks for the cake. He offered a piece to his manager and he grabbed a slice for himself and they sat on the couch eating their slices before having to leave to go to his schedule.  They left the rest of the uneaten cake in the fridge and then left.

                Throughout the whole day Taemin had been receiving constant ‘Happy Birthday’s’ and cakes and random little presents for his birthday, but half the day had gone by and no sign of s was shown and also they hadn’t called or texted him at all. When he was done with his schedules for the day at around eight at night he asked his manager to just take him to get him something to drink. They drove to a café and got coffee and then left again to head back to the dorm which was completely empty. No sign of the members was seen. He went to the fridge to get some more cake from the morning only to find it was gone. He guessed that one of s must have come home during the day and saw it and must have eaten it. He didn’t really mind though. His phone rang and reached towards his pocket to get his phone, when he pulled it out he saw that it was Kai, a smile was placed on his lips as he answered the phone.

“Hello.”

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!”

                Taemin heard all of the EXO members screaming into the phone. He smiled even if his ear hurt from the screaming and cheering over the phone. He heard them start singing the happy birthday song to him over the phone and an even bigger smile formed on his lips.  He heard Kai taking the phone off of speaker and then he just heard Kai directly with some noise in the background from the other members. They talked for a bit before Kai had to get off the phone because they were all going to be going somewhere. They hung up and Taemin just stayed in the kitchen. He didn’t really know what to do since he was alone. He had already talked to all his friends and family throughout the day. He couldn’t exactly go out since the fans would follow him around like they had all day long. He decided to just go into his room and go on his laptop. He watched a movie and then another. Before he knew it was already one in the morning and s still hadn’t come home. He decided to just go to bed but he couldn’t. He became saddened at the fact that it was his birthday and none of s had remembered. Everyone else had remembered but why couldn’t the four closest people to him, aside from his family, forget.  He didn’t really realize that he had begun to cry until he turned his head and felt his pillow begin to get wet. He quickly wiped his tears and tried to go to sleep. An hour or so after Taemin had fallen asleep he woke up from the sound of the front door opening and he heard footsteps stumbling into the living room. He got up and out of bed to check who had gotten home and saw all four members stumbling around the living room trying to keep steady, obviously drunk.

                Once the members had found a comfortable spot on the floor or the couch did they notice Taemin standing in the hall way. Key motioned for him to come to him, Taemin did so and sat down near Key’s feet. Key sat up but held his head as it hurt from moving too fast. Taemin had fully taken in that all the members were completely and utterly drunk to the point of all of them not comprehending anything. A slur of words came from Key asking him why he was still awake, Taemin just smiled at him and shrugged as if he himself had no idea as to why he was awake. Key nodded and then leaned his head on Taemin’s legs and used them as a pillow and almost instantly fell asleep. Taemin let out a disappointed breath and moved Key’s head from his lap and moved it onto a pillow lying on the couch. He got up and got blankets for everyone before he headed towards his room with his head hung low. He didn’t sleep much. He didn’t want his hopes to be brought up of him having a good day the following day.

                The following morning Taemin woke up to the sound of his alarm clock going off. He turned it off and just lay on his bed facing the ceiling. He looked to the side and found the bed next to his empty as it was the night before. He got up and made his way to the living room finding all of his hyungs still passed out on the floor.  He headed into the kitchen to get something to eat before getting ready. He got a bowl of cereal and sat at the small table alone looking onto the living room where the other members where still asleep. When he was done he put his dishes in the sink and went to his bedroom to gather some clothes to change into after showering. When he was done getting ready he went into the living room not surprised that everyone was still asleep. He started waking everyone up. First starting with Key and then Onew, next came Jonghyun, and finally Minho.

                When everyone was up they all had a groggy look on their faces and all still reeked of alcohol. Key asked for a glass of water and Taemin went into the kitchen to get all of them some water since they’d all need it eventually.  After everyone had gotten a glass of water and some Advil for their headaches they all began to get ready, all feeling lethargic.  Once everyone had showered and their heads had cleared up they all sat in the living room waiting for something to happen. They all talked aside from Taemin. He stayed silent as he sat on the floor by the couch. He just looked directly at the TV screen. Jonghyun had noticed his sudden quietness compared to the last couple of days and asked what was wrong but Taemin just shook his head, not wanting to bother the members with his feelings of being left alone on his birthday.

                When their manager finally went to pick them up they all scrambled into the van with Jonghyun in the passenger seat, Key and Minho in the middle seat and Onew and Taemin in the back seat. Their manager has started explaining their schedule for the day and they all just sat there listening to what they were supposed to do that day. After their manager was done explaining everything he asked Taemin how his birthday had gone the day before. All the members turned back to look at Taemin with shock in their faces. Taemin didn’t really care anymore, he responded with “ it was fine” and then turned to look out the window. He put in his earphones and drifted off to sleep. The other members just stared at Taemin with shock still on their faces wondering how they could have forgotten their maknae’s birthday. They all tried to talk to Taemin but saw that he couldn’t hear them because of his headphones. They all went quiet for a while until Jonghyun spoke up.

“He must feel terrible. We went out and had fun without him on his birthday completely forgetting about it. He saw us and took care of us last night and this morning not even saying anything.”

“He was awake when we got home, I asked him why he was awake but he just shrugged. He must have been waiting for us to come home so we could celebrate his birthday with him.”

                Their manager heard them all talking and stopped the car and turned to look at them with a look of disbelief on his face. He had taken them all home early and Taemin was the last one to finish with his schedules so he expected the members to do something for Taemin.

“What did you guys do after I dropped you off?”

“Well we were hungry so we were going to order some food but we found the cake in the fridge so we ate that but we didn’t know it was for his birthday.”

“What did you do after that?”

“We went out drinking and didn’t come home till around two in the morning.”

“Did any of you even remember his birthday throughout the entire day?”

                All of them shook their heads. Their manager just let out a sigh of frustration. He had noticed how Taemin was glued to his phone all day but he didn’t think much of it since he constantly had it in his hands but he didn’t realize that he was waiting for s to call or text him happy birthday. He started the van up again and instead of driving towards their schedule he turned around and headed back to their dorm. All the members looked at their manager surprised as they were going back. When they were back at the dorm the members had gotten off and headed back up to their dorm not knowing what else to do. When they entered the dorm Taemin headed straight to his room and closed the door behind him.

“Hyung why did we come back?” asked Jonghyun.

“So you can all fix this.”

“How?” replied Minho.

“I don’t know but if by tomorrow he isn’t as happy as he was the day before yesterday you will all be put on punishment. Honestly how can you forget his birthday after spending over five years celebrating it each year?”

“It just slipped out minds. It’s not like we committed a crime.” Came Key’s response.

“He may not say anything to any of you and how he’s feeling but it hurt him. Everyone called or texted him or even showed up to his schedules and dropped off birthday gifts. But he waited all day for the four of you to say it to him. I cleared your schedules for the afternoon in case you were planning something but I guess I just wasted my time.”

                The four members lowered their heads in disappointment realizing that had really messed up. They heard Taemin’s door open and saw him walk out making his way towards the kitchen. He stopped in the living room where everyone else was.

“It’s fine. I guess I just have to grow up and learn to accept that it’s just any other day and not anything really special. So stop talking about it. It’s over, it’s passed. Just forget about it.”

                He walked into the kitchen and grabbed a drink before walking back into his room without sparing a second look at s.  They all stood there in silence not wanting to disturb the silence.  It was clear that Taemin was very upset about them forgetting his birthday. They wanted to make it up to him but they didn’t know how.  Their manager left them to think about what they should do to make Taemin happy again while he went to clear their schedules and to apologize for missing their current schedules.

                The members were left in the living room trying to figure out what to do. Throwing a surprise party would be useless since he wouldn’t believe that it was genuine, asking him what he wanted would also be useless since they were already supposed to know what he wanted, and plainly asking him to forgive them for forgetting was way beyond selfish and useless since he was already this upset. They sat around in the living room trying to figure something out. It was past lunch time and they still hadn’t thought of anything useful, when one of them came up with something and voiced it out the others would reject it saying it was too generic or too extravagant to the point that they couldn’t do it.

                Taemin walked out of his room to see if his hyungs had made anything to eat but all he was greeted was the four of them sitting around in the living room just staring off into space. He was slightly angered that they had all been together the whole day doing nothing and no one even checked up on him. He wasn’t asking for much, he just wanted them to apologize for forgetting his birthday and for them to through in a simple ‘Happy Birthday’ in there as well. He didn’t really care that they didn’t plan anything for him or get him anything he just wanted to spend time with them and be with them on his special day. Apparently it was too much to ask for.

“What’s for lunch?”

                Nothing; he got no reply not even a look. They all just kept on staring at random places in the living room looking lost. To Taemin it seemed as if they were even ignoring him now and that upset him more. First they forgot his birthday, then they don’t apologize, and then they ignore him completely, Taemin had had enough.  He went back into his room. He got one of his duffle bags and began to pack some things, he made up his mind and decided to go to his parents’ house for the time being.  Once he was done packing he went back out into the living room and didn’t even look at his hyungs, he simply walked to the door, slipped on his shoes and left. He didn’t say where he was going or anything, he didn’t leave a note for them to find, he just left.

                The members snapped out of it when they heard the sound of the front door closing. They expected for it to be their manager but nobody came in. they realized that someone had gone out and that someone was Taemin. None of them heard say anything or even really saw him leave.  They were all lost in thought trying to figure out how to make it up to Taemin. They didn’t go after him thinking he’d just come back home when he wanted.

                When Taemin arrived home his mother greeted him warmly and asked about his birthday and how it went. He lied to her telling her that it was great. She asked if the members did anything special for his birthday, he simply shook his head and told her that the members had schedules till night time and couldn’t celebrate with him. She nodded and told him to go to his room and to get ready for lunch. He nodded and simply went to his old room and set his things down.  He sat down on the bed and thought about how his life would be like if he hadn’t become and idol, if he would be feeling the same way. He simply shook the thoughts out of his head and headed to the kitchen to help his mother.

                As night approached the rest of the SHINee member’s started to get worried since Taemin hadn’t come home yet. They didn’t want to disturb him in whatever he was doing so they didn’t call him but they did text him a couple of times. Taemin, back at home, had his phone on silent and left it in his room. He didn’t want anyone to bother him, not when he was spending time with his family. His brother Taesun had come home not long after he did and greeted him with a hug and a lot of ‘I missed you’s’ it was normal for him. He hardly got to see his family, even if he did call them often, nothing beat the feeling of physically being with his family.

                Back at the dorm the members were all extremely worried since none of them had heard back from Taemin and their manager had gone back and asked where he was but the members just stood silently not wanting him to find out that he had gone missing. He eventually figured it out, to which he was furious telling them how irresponsible they were to not even know where their member was. He tried calling Taemin multiple times but just like the members, he didn’t pick up.

                The next few days the members had canceled all group schedules so it wouldn’t seem like something was wrong since Taemin was missing.  They went to their respective schedules but hadn’t heard anything from Taemin. They all called as many of Taemin’s friends to see if he was with them but they all said that they hadn’t seen him. They never thought to call his house, which was stupid in their part but Onew after three days without Taemin decided to call his parents and ask them if he was home.

“Hello?”

“Yes, hello?”

“Hi Mrs. Lee. It’s Jinki. I was wondering if Taemin had gone home.”

“Oh, hi Jinki. Yes, Taemin did come home. He’s been here the past three days. Why? Did he miss his schedules or something?”

“No, we were just wondering where he was since he hadn’t come home and he wasn’t with his friends.”

“Oh, he didn’t tell you he was coming?”

“No, but that’s okay. As long as he’s safe it’s okay.”

“Well, alright Jinki. Did you want to talk to Taemin?”

“It’s more of if he wants to talk to me.”

“Oh nonsense I’ll put him on.”

“Okay.”

                He heard Taemin’s mom walking around the house asking Taemin to take the phone. He heard a small whining sound come from Taemin before he got ahold of the phone.

“Hello.”

“Taemin, it’s Jinki.”

“I know.”

“Well I wa- we were wondering when you were going to come home?”

“When I feel like it.”

“Taemin you know that it can’t be like that. You have schedules to attend. The last couple of days we’ve been canceling your activities saying that you got sick and couldn’t make it. That excuse can only work for so long before they figure something’s not right.”

“If I come back will I be treated the same?”

“The same, what do you mean? Did you want us to treat you differently?”

“I’d like to be at least acknowledged when I talk to any of you. Also it’d be nice if I was included in some group things, considering I’m also part of the group.”

“When did we ever ignore you?”

“The day I left. I asked you all a question when I came out of my room and none of you even looked at me. You were all in your own little world and I was the only one not invited.  Also, you all forgot my birthday; not just one of you, but all of you. It hurt you know. I think of you as my brothers and I always remember all of your things. A simple sorry and a happy birthday would of made it slightly better but you all chose to just look at me like a was some freak side show and then just stayed quiet. It hurt even more that you’ve only decided to start looking for me now. What if something bad had happened to me, you wouldn’t even care.”

“Taemin, we’ve been looking for you since the day you left. None of us really thought of calling home for some reason. And we’re all sorry about forgetting your birthday, but please can you come home, we miss you, we miss seeing you smile and making everyone happy. And I promise we’ll through you the best birthday party in the world.”

“That’s a pretty big promise.”

“And I’ll make sure it comes true.”

“Okay. I’ll be expecting a big party when I come home tomorrow.”

“Okay. I’ll go and pick you up, so you won’t have to worry about anything. Just be as pretty as usual and you’ll be fine.”

“Hyung, I’m a man. I’m not supposed to be pretty I’m supposed to be handsome.”

“Which you are but you know I like calling you pretty. Besides no matter how much you grow up you’re still our baby in the group.”

“Fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Mmm. Bye Taeminnie.”

“Bye hyung.”

                They hung up and Onew went to tell the other members that Taemin had been with his family the whole time, and he slipped in the part of promising Taemin the best birthday in the world the following day. The other members just looked at him like he was insane. They couldn’t plan a party in just a day. Key especially, being a perfectionist  didn’t like the idea of having to plan and actually through a party in the time span of a little over a day. But, nonetheless he started planning what they would need and began giving orders and telling the members to go out and get certain things for the party.

                The next morning the SHINee members were all sprawled out on the living room floor with the living room half decorated and the kitchen was a mess from Key, who went grocery shopping the night before.  They woke up when their manager walked in and freaked out over the mess and the fact that they weren’t ready to leave for their schedules. Onew, when he finally woke up, he explained the whole thing as to why the dorm looked the way it did and he saw a smile slowly growing on their managers’ face. He was brought into a death grip hug while having their manager squealing like a teenage girl about how they were so cute and how proud of them he was about putting in all that effort just to make it up to Taemin.  He told them that he’d reschedule their events for the day to his best ability and asked if they need for him to get anything for them.  They nodded and told him what to get and what time he needed to be there. He nodded and left the dorm with his phone in his hand getting ready for the multiple scolding’s he was going to get for rescheduling.

                About an hour before the sun set Onew left to  go and get Taemin so that by the time that they got back home everything would be done and waiting for Taemin.  When he arrived at Taemin’s parents’ house he began to get nervous a million questions began to go through his mind: what if he doesn’t like the food, what if he doesn’t like the decorations, did we forget something, is everything going to be okay? All these questions repeated themselves in his mind but he chose to shake it off and just get Taemin for the time being. When he was at the door he knocked and Taemin’s brother, Taesun opened the door and just welcomed him inside. He stepped inside and saw Taemin in the living room sitting on the couch watching TV.

“Taemin?”

“Hmm. It’s time to come home.”

“I thought you forgot about me. Here I’ve been waiting all day and I thought you forgot about me.”

“I could never forget you. The others and I were just making my promise from last night become true so you wouldn’t be disappointed.”

“Okay.”

                Taemin went into his room and grabbed his things and went back into the living room to say good bye to his parents and his brother. They all told him to visit again sometime soon and he promised to do so. He walked out with Onew as they headed to the car they stayed silent but it was comfortable. In the car the only thing that was making any noise was the stereo. When they reached home Onew had texted the members that they were in the parking lot so that they’d turn off all the lights. When they walked in Onew assured Taemin in first as he walked behind him holding his things. When the door closed the lights went on and Taemin was met by the sight of a multitude of streamers hanging from the ceiling and a bunch of balloons everywhere. But what he was most surprised by was that the rest of the members all had been sitting in the middle of the living room all with big ribbons on top of their heads. Taemin let out a stifles laugh before he couldn’t control it anymore and just bent over in half with laughter. When his laughter died down a little he took out his phone and began to take pictures of his hyungs for later use of blackmail and pure enjoyment.  He turned towards Onew and saw that somehow he had managed to sneak a bow on top of his head as well.

“So? Is it the best party in the world or what?”

“I don’t know? Is there food? ‘cause I’m starving.”

“Oh yes, can we just have you walk into our mini all you can eat buffet of Taemin’s favorite foods.”

                The look on Taemin’s face was priceless. When Onew said all you can eat he really meant it. There was so much food that it would last them a month. He turned towards them brought all of them in a group. Their manager walked in through the front door with a children’s party hat on and a cake with candles as he sang Happy Birthday at the top of his lungs, to which the rest of the members joined in on. Taemin walked up to the cake and blew out the candles. He smiled up at his second family and tears started to drop from his eyes out of pure joy. It was better that his dream that he had the night before his birthday. It wasn’t as extravagant but it was still as Onew had said “the best birthday party in the world.”

i swear i was going to stop this at around 2000 words but it turned out be close to 5000 words which is way out of the limit i gave myself. even still i feel as if i could keep writing for another good 4000 or so words. but anyways its 11pm and i was supposed to post this sooner but i wasn't home all day, but at least it's still Taemin's birthday (in california). 

also i know that it's not very generic birthday fic since the majority of the fic is pretty unhappy. sorry i don't really like writing happy senarios lately. i think the work load from summer school is getting to be too much and i'm really only going to have 1 week of summer break and that's going to be the  week of senior everything. (only one more year till i leave for college T.T)

welll i hope you enjoyed this and don't be afraid to comment.