Long story short, so far my seventeenth birthday went like this...

I woke up to my brother in my face screaming "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" which made me very close to punching him in his face because I am not in any way a morning person and I certainly do not like being woke up by my obnoxious brother yelling in my face even if it was meant to be goodhearted gesture.

Then I went to school to take my Spanish exam, in the hallway I got tackled by YoSeob screaming, "SKY~LAR!!" at the least expecting moment. As we crash to the ground he grinned at me and said, "Happy birthday~!"

Seriously... Who does that?

After my exam, I met up with DooJoon who was giving me a ride to his house where he swore that there wasn't in any way going to be a party.

So then as we entered the Yoon residence surprise~~ a party! With all my band mates and friends. Yep... Sure didn't see that coming.

And bam~ Here we are. Sitting awkwardly on DooJoon's couch in the living room watching KiKwang, JunHyung, and HyunSeung play Rockband... As if they didn't get enough of that, and DooJoon, DongWoon and YoSeob were in the kitchen stuffing their faces, which wasn't anything new.

Casey sat down next me, noticing that I was absent mindedly and totally embarrassingly staring at DongWoon. "Go talk to him," she said, "It's your perfect chance, he isn't doing anything."

What Casey was saying was true, but in all honesty I barely talk to him outside of the band. I've never had a class with him... Not even in junior high, nor do we have a locker near each other. Besides band practices the only time I see him is in the halls or when we're both hanging out with DooJoon. In fact, I met DongWoon at DooJoon's birthday party in the seventh grade and that's where I began falling for him...

Did I say falling for him? I meant... liking him..


Before I even had time to make a decision, DongWoon began to approach me, which is something he had never done before. His beautiful, kind brown eyes mets mine as he softly said, "Hey Skylar, happy birthday," flashing a beautiful smile that made my heart skip a beat. He handed me a birthday card, that just simply read 'Happy Birthday' on the front. I opened it, and in pen he wrote:

"Merry Christmas

Whoops... That's embarrassing.

I meant to write Happy Birthday.

Thank you for being an amazing keyboardist... You're awesome.

-DongWoon

P.S. - Hi. :)"

Cutest. Birthday. Card. Ever.

"I uh... Wanted to get you something, but I don't know what you like," DongWoon shyly spoke, "So here's twenty dollars." He handed the money to me.

"Oh, you really didn't have to-"

"No... It's okay, I wanted to..." he stopped me, "happy birthday again."

He smiled again before walking away. That smile will be the death of me.

"SKY~~LAR!" A voice belonging only to YoSeob. He came over to me carrying a plastic box full of stuff. "Happy birthday!" he grinned as he handed me the box, I was afraid to look in it.

"What is...?"

"It's your present!"

The box was filled with a collection of the most random I've ever seen, consisting of:

- An open toothbrush, new or used...I'm not sure, and I'm not going to find out.
- Two rolls of paper towels.
- An old folk Russian CD.
- A picture frame... With nothing in it.
- Fisher Price Keys.
- A dog toy.
- An old lamp... Which I Iater learned, did not work.
-Seven chess pieces... Two knights, a rook, three pawns, and a queen to be exact.
-One old walkie talkie.... One.
-A magnet
- And last but not least, a card that read 'Happy Bar Mitzvah" and inside he wrote: "Shalom! Kekeke. Happy birthday Skye~~~ Love... Your Oppa. :3"

What the is wrong with this kid?

Nevertheless I think he's hilarious, and I love his random assorted gifts.

Since I did not know JunHyung or HyunSeung well at all, they just gave me really nice birthday cards. I'm actually quite relieved HyunSeung didn't go all out and get an extravagant gift or a bunch of money just because he can... He's very down to earth and not snobby or at all influenced by his parents' money. If you meet the guy not knowing he's rich you probably would never know... Unless you went to his house.

JunHyung, on the other hand, is the opposite. His family is rather poor. I thought it was extremely thoughtful for him to just get me a card.

DooJoon had gotten me a surfboard... a surfboard. Since we live in San Francisco he was surprised that I had no idea how to surf, and being the athlete that he is, he had always been determined to teach me and to one day buy me a surf board... I never took him seriously. He also got me a scented candle, which I love, Ocean Breeze in fact... My favorite.

And my brother had gotten me this game called "Shocking Memory", which is like the game simon where you have to follow the patterns except this game ing shocks you if you mess up the pattern... Scared the out of me. Of course, KiKwang was loving it.

I ought to punch him.

"But seriously," he said, pulling me aside, "I got your better present at home."

"Why didn't you just bring it here?" I asked.

"Because..." he paused and his expression turned solemn. "It's... sentimental." And that's all he said before walking away.

Sentimental? I didn't even know KiKwang knew how to be sentimental...

The party ended around eleven at night. The only one there beside KiKwang and me was YoSeob, who was playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl on DooJoon's Wii... He didn't look like he was leaving anytime soon. I thanked DooJoon and YoSeob for the party and gifts one last time before KiKwang and I headed across the street to our house.

And right when we got in the door of our house, everything spilled from my mouth. "KiKwang what was wrong with you tonight? You weren't yourself."

"I was just thinking about some things," he said.

"What things?"

Then he disappeared for a couple minutes. When he returned, he was holding a book in his hands. "Remember when I told you I had another present?"

"Yeah."

"Well, this is it..." He said softly handing me the book.

I wasn't prepared or expecting what was inside. It was a scrapbook, and wasn't that well put together so I assumed that it was KiKwang's handy work. He wasn't really the arts & crafts kind of guy.

But that didn't matter to me... All I could focus on were the pictures inside. There were pictures of all of us, all of the joyous memories we had from when we were kids up to just a couple years ago.

All I could focus on were the pictures of my brother. No, not KiKwang... But our older brother, KangDae.

Our older brother who... died in a car accident a couple years ago.

KangDae was the happiest, coolest, and nicest guy anyone could meet, and he was such a caring and lovable big brother to both KiKwang and me. He was a senior, he was popular among everyone, even the stereotypical "nerds and losers" most popular people would ignore. Not KangDae, he was nice to everyone, friends with everyone. He was going to graduate and go to a big university and become a big football star.

KiKwang knew how close KangDae and I were. We had a special bond, something neither of us had with anyone else. KangDae also was the one who taught me how to play the piano, and gave me my love for music. As I flipped through each page, mostly filled with pictures of KangDae's energetic and happy smile, I couldn't hold back the tears any longer. I couldn't tell you the last time I cried, especially in front of someone… It was kind of embarrassing.

And just when I began to think KiKwang couldn't be any sweeter, he pulls out one more special present. "I had this custom made for you," he said, putting a necklace over my head, a dog tag with a picture of KangDae, one of his senior pictures in fact, my favorite picture of him. And on the other side it said his name, and under it was his date of birth and date of death. "So you can always have him close to your heart."

It was at that moment I did something to KiKwang I hardly did to anyone in the past two years... I embraced him. Never before had he been so sweet, I guess he can have a sentimental side afterall.