He found out first by phone call. It was late night and the call came just as he was about to go to sleep. In another half hour it would be his birthday and he had no intentions of staying up to pass the midnight marker. One year older was one year closer to getting old.

            “Hyung! You should go check Twitter.” It was Daehyun and the younger boy was laughing so hard Himchan could feel his stitches hurting.

            “Why? What’s going on so late at night?”

            “You’ll see,” and with that cryptic remark, Daehyun hung up.

            Himchan grumbled and had half a mind to just ignore his dongsaeng. There couldn’t be anything important. But the thought that maybe this was a birthday surprise hit him. He didn’t want to be a party pooper. So Himchan grabbed his phone and pressed the familiar blue app.

            His notifications definitely exploded. And when he saw that Yongguk had tweeted, his heart skipped a couple of beats. When his eyes perused the tweets and he saw that Bbang had mentioned every member, himself included.      Himchan leaned back on the headboard and began to look at the short tweets in detail.

            It began with Junhong. Himchan smiled seeing the proud words that Yongguk had written to the youngest. “Daehyun, you’re two.” Himchan rolled his eyes. Fine Yongguk. Play hard to get. He scrolled and saw that Jongup was third, and Youngjae fourth.

            “Himchan, you’re a pass.” The moment he read this, his lips thinned. Cute, Bbang, cute.

            Himchan exited out of the social media application and pressed speed dial two. “Hello?” came the familiar deep voice and Himchan straightened up.

            “What’s the meaning of this?”

            “Of what?” but Himchan knew Yongguk was one hundred percent aware of what was going on. He could hear the amusement in the other man’s voice.

            “So, were you rating how available each of us is to the public? Because I guess I’d just pass because I’m not available.”

            “What?” And at this Yongguk chuckled out loud. “Channie, is old age getting to you? Are you losing your ability to reason?”

            “Ya, don’t insult me. You’re older than I am, old man.” But Himchan had a huge grin on his face. This was how he wanted to pass into his birthday: talking to the one he loved.

            “Guess again.”

            “You can’t possibly be ranking by how annoying we are, right?”

            Yongguk snorted. “You’d be top of that list if that were the case.”

            “Hey!”

            “You nag. A lot,” Yongguk deadpanned.

            This was true, so Himchan couldn’t exactly argue with that. “It’s for your own good though. I don’t nag for my own health. If you only ate more, or slept more, then I would have no cause to nag you.”

            “You nag our kids too.”

            Himchan felt happy domestic feelings burst inside of him. There was nothing that made him happier than to hear the members referred to as ‘the kids,’ much less ‘our kids.’ “Well, how else would they grow up to be good, righteous people?” It was fun, this flirty banter with Yongguk and Himchan couldn’t keep the happiness out of his voice.

            “So,” Yongguk began and Himchan found himself hanging onto Yongguk’s every breath. There were butterflies of anticipation in his stomach as he listened. “How do you want to celebrate your birthday?”

            “I’m already celebrating it,” he responded.

            “I know talking to me makes you happy but let’s think about others too. Do you want a party, or do you just want something small?”

            “Something small. I already have dinner plans with my family. How about we take the kids out to bowling or something?”

            “Sounds good to me.” Then, Yongguk added, “Then what about after?”

            “After?”

            It was fun to hear the slight embarrassment in Bbang’s voice as he spoke again. “You know. After dinner with your family. How should we spend your birthday?”

            “Oh, I don’t know. I would have already seen you for lunch.”

            Himchan heard the tsk of disapproval Yongguk made. “Please, Himchan. Let’s play hard to get when you don’t already miss me to the stars and beyond.”

            The birthday blushed a brilliant red and he hugged his pillow tightly. “So what do you propose? It’s my birthday and you’re my boyfriend. Shouldn’t it be your duty to plan something?”

            “How about wine and chocolates and starry night skies? We can go to that mountain we used to go during our earlier days and we can spend the end of your birthday together?” There was something soothing and pleasant about Yongguk’s deep voice mapping out the romantic night and Himchan wrinkled his nose.

            “I don’t know. I’m just a ‘pass,’ remember?”

            Yongguk laughed out loud. “What if I told you that list was most off-limits to me, and you’re last because there’s nothing off-limit about you to me?”

            Himchan pouted and kissed the picture of Yongguk on his screen. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Bbang.”

            “Good night, Channie. Happy birthday my love.”

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HIMCHAN

Keep smiling, Umma ♥

I had to. My Banghim feels were out of the room and ajgdhdjagha