One day, the Dynamic Duo went to the cinema. Aaron was pigging out on junk food. Tristan asked for a handful of chips but Aaron refused to share. Tristan knew this was only teasing, so instead, she tried to dunk a hand into the bucket of popcorn Aaron was also eating.

This received a hand-slap and a stern stare. Tristan dug out a handful but Aaron shooed it back into the bucket.

"Hey! You're such a brat!" Tristan laughed.

Aaron tossed a few kernels of popcorn at her friend. Though the room was dark, the movie screen lit everything well enough to take proper aim. Tristan's white teeth gleamed in this light as she laughed and tried to create a shield with her hands.

Faulty shield: the onslaught of popcorn got through anyways.

The movie theatre wasn't very full, but the few people in the room started hissing at the girls and telling them to shut up.

"Tristan, shut up! You're being too noisy!" Aaron mocked.

Tristan protested by slapping Aaron in the leg. Because she hadn't expected it, Aaron jerked forward, covering the part of her leg that Tristan hit, while losing some of her popcorn. As she exclaimed "Ouch!", Tristan swiped the popcorn bucket from her distracted hands. She hugged the bucket close to her chest, slunk down in her seat and stuffed her face quietly.

Aaron feigned frustration and also slunk down. She glanced at Tristan who pretended to be oblivious watching the screen intently but smiling from ear to ear at her triumph. Aaron muttered and glared at her friend. Seeing this out of the corner of her eye, Tristan grabbed one popped kernel and held it in front of Aaron's mouth.

Aaron shook her head no, but Tristan was persistent.  She now took her eyes off the movie screen, and turned to face her friend. She waved the popcorn in her face until finally Aaron snapped at it like a frog catching a fly. Tristan picked up another piece and fed it to Aaron, who opened willingly this time.

Tristan slunk deeper into her seat but sat sideways so she could lean her head on Aaron's shoulder. She brought the popcorn bucket between them, and they agreed to share for the rest of the film.

When Aaron's shoulder fell asleep, she brought her arm around Tristan's own shoulder and rested her arm there. Tristan looked back at her friend for a second and frivolously gave her a peck on the cheek.

Though she was already turned back to face the screen, Aaron looked sideways at Tristan. She wasn't sure why, but something made her smile when she saw the movie lights reflected in Tristan's dark eyes.

On the evening of Jin and Aaron's double birthday, Milk had decided that an ambush would be too hard to pull off. Instead, the birthday girls were informed of an outing at the agreed-upon club, with salient details omitted.

The three arrived at the club together and were greeted by a handful more people than the guests of honour were expecting. Of course, their core group of friends, including Chiao and Tristan were also present. They had hidden the giant cake on the seat of their booth, so the girls wouldn't see it when they approached the table.


After hugs, hand-shakes and birthday greetings, the girls sat down. The cake was so large, Chiao and Milk had to move it onto the table together. Aaron awwwww-ed when she saw it, and Jin said, "Oh, thank you, guys! This is home-made isn't it?"

Milk announced, "Chiao made it - let's hope it's edible."

Chiao protested with a pouty face and put her arms around the base of the cake tray. She announced, "I don't have to share, you know."

Aaron said, "Oh, come on, I want birthday cake!"

Chiao prepared picnic utensils and plates, and said, "Good!"
 


As the night progressed, the girls laughed, played pool and danced up a storm. Milk and Chiao had requested that the DJ play one slow song so they could each romantically lead one birthday girl onto the dance floor. The intent was to embarrass them, but to also acknowledge publicly that it was their special night, even to strangers in the club who weren't part of the party. The song they chose was a favourite among the MissTer girls. Jin had also performed the song on TV shows so it was particularly symbolic to her.

To the intro of DBSK's "Love In The Ice", Milk bowed to Jin and held out her hand. Jin cracked up and shouted, "You're a nutcase -- what are you doing?" and before she knew it, she was whisked off to the dance floor, held in the taller girl's embrace.

Friends snapped photos of them and jeered loudly. Jin was totally embarrassed but was a good sport.

Meanwhile, Chiao led a slightly less reluctant Aaron onto the floor. As they slow-danced among friendly camera flash-fire, Aaron shouted over the music into Chiao's ear, "So are there any more surprises?"

Chiao avoided yelling, and instead simply gave an exaggerated shrug gesture.

Near Chiao's ear, Aaron shouted again, "Do I get a birthday ?"

"Screw you, you pig!" Chiao bellowed and playfully punched her y friend in the chest. True, they had had a history together, but that ended months ago. Still, Aaron was a joker and liked to tease about it when nobody else was listening.