The year after you graduated, you found a job all the way over in Daegu. Kibum, who had returned home right after graduation, offered to be your roommate, so there the two of you were, him headlining as Frank in Catch Me If You Can, you working as an assistant to a prominent civil engineer.

For your 25^th birthday, Kibum gives you something indescribably precious.

Your birthday falls on a Saturday, so Taemin, Minho, and Jinki catch a train over on Friday to stay the weekend and celebrate. It’s almost like the old gang is together again. When the clock strikes midnight and a quarter of your life has officially passed, the four boys present an envelope to you with glowing faces.

“I knew that this would be the perfect gift for you,” Kibum brags, flipping his blond hair with a smug expression plastered on his face. “I picked it out myself.”

“I’ll see about that,” you murmur, unable to keep the smile off your face. You open the envelope, and a slip of paper falls out. Tickets. Your hands tremble as you read off the printed words.

[Date/time: 6/15/2017 1:00PM]

[Location: Daegu Culture and Arts Center]

[Event: Fansign, Kim Jonghyun]

“Oh,” is all you can say. “Oh,” you say as you launch yourself into Kibum’s waiting arms, and the rest of the boys crowd around you to form some kind of mass hug. “Oh.”

The morning of the fansign, Kibum curls your hair for you so it falls prettily across your shoulders. He dresses you up and does your makeup, but all you can focus on is the album in your hands. Jonghyun’s face is splashed handsomely across the cover, hair gelled into perfect disarray, casually leaning against a wall. His second full album.

Kibum sends you off with a pat on the shoulder, and you walk into the fansign feeling out of place among all the screaming teenage girls holding gifts and posters and wearing his concert t-shirt. And then you catch sight of him, and all you can think about is how he’s still the same as in your junior year of college, only with more makeup and to cover up the bags under his eyes.

He bits his lip stupidly and waves into the crowd with two hands, and hidden behind a crowd of fangirls, you smile, because he’s been doing that since he was 7. You wait patiently, thumbing through the lyric book, occasionally catching a few lines that you recognize from all those years before.

When it’s your turn to go up, you greet him with a bow. Jonghyun’s smile falters when he sees your face.

“Hey, stupid. I never got to give you a good luck punch.” You hand him the album.

“The last time you gave me a good luck punch, I was 11 and you made me cry,” he retorts, looking down to sign the cover and draw a cute littleㅎㅅㅎ. He opens to a page and scribbles something else. “You look pretty today,” he says conversationally.

“Thanks.” Your hands are still folded in front of you like an ordinary fangirl. “Kibum did it. We live together now.”

Jonghyun’s face freezes for a split second. “He’s trying to score a date with this other guy in his theater company,” you say quickly. “Don’t worry, Jjong, he’s still gay.”

Jonghyun laughs it off and hands you the album back. The security guard coughs. That’s your cue to leave. Turning away, you’re halted when Jonghyun reaches out and grabs your wrist. “Wait.” His eyes are wide. You know that expression. He’s scared. “Wait. Did…”

“Yeah,” you say softly. “Kibum told me.”

“Please move on, miss,” the security guard says. Jonghyun bites his lip and asks again.

“And…”

You nod, just a fraction of an inch, and that’s all he needs to know. He grins like an idiot and mouths I left my number, pointing to the album you hold in your hands, and you roll your eyes, turning and flouncing away with every bit of sass that you possessed.

Once you’re back in the sweltering summer heat outside, you open to the first page, and indeed, written over a photo of his beaming face is “what would I do without my bestie? Call me!”