Jongdo rode his car along Gangnam Street as he looked around for someplace to settle. He’d tried to call out several restaurant names on his head that serve delicious food worth for a birthday person to try but he couldn't come up with anything in the end.

“What do you want for lunch?” he asked, eyes still looking around as he lowered the speed.

“Hmm…” wandering her eyes around, she tried to decide which plate she wanted to have for her birthday lunch. “Japanese sounds great.”

“You look like you still have another thought in mind,” he said, turning the steering wheel to the left.

Soojung let out a sheer chuckle and rolled her eyes. “Why are you being so considerate today, huh? Is it because you’re still in a good mood from meeting Red Velvet’s Yeri days ago?” she diverted her eyes to look outside while still chuckling lightly after he elbowed his arm.

Jongdo let out a cryptic smile and glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. “Said the girl who rejected so many guys in past only to end up asking how could Jongin never call her all these times.”

“Yah!” she immediately twisted around and slammed Jongdo’s arms. It’s true that she once wondered how could they never call each other after they went back from London–more like nagging actually–only that she didn't spill it directly to Jongdo. Jongin might only accompany her for a day, they even took a different flight back in order to avoid people’s attention, but she thought they would contact each other right after. She’s that type of person who never pays attention to such things but Jongin sure had made her wonder if it was hard to give her a call after all the sweet moments they spent fortuitously in London.

Jongdo couldn’t hold his laughter any longer as he laughed uncontrollably–slamming the steering wheel and glimpsed at her in a mocking stare. “You want Jongin for your birthday lunch? Too bad your lovey-dovey baby bear is working in Hanoi now. He even might be clueless about your birthday.”

Trying to hide her gloominess, she didn’t spare him a glance and kept staring at the road. She thought maybe it’s better to not take his sweet acts seriously. How could he treat her like a princess only to bring her down in the end? “I don’t care. I just want to enjoy my lunch today. Stop talking about Jongin.”

“Okay. I will,” Jongdo said as he made a left turn entering a parking lot in front of an eye-catching building that was filled with people. “We are having lunch here. Besides, I want to find something worth knowing about Red Velvet.”

“SM Town COEX Artium??? Why are we even here on my birthday???” Soojung stared at Jongdo in disbelief as he kept driving the car to search for an empty parking spot.

“I said I want to search something about Red Velvet here,” he casually countered while parking his car but his tone was emphasizing.

“Oh God. What’s happening with you? Why are you being like this?” she grumbled under her breath but slid out of the car anyway to follow Jongdo inside the place.

There was nothing interesting for her to see inside as it’s only filled with photos and goodies from SM groups. She just trailed Jongdo to the Red Velvet’s section as he scanned through the stuff. She kept sulking behind him until they reached EXO’s section only to make her pissed even more.

Jongdo ran over Jongin’s photo board on the wall and mockingly pointed Jongin’s face to bother Soojung. Remembering how he didn’t even mind to greet her with birthday wishes, she found herself staring at Jongin’s photo wrathfully. She swore she had never wanted to kill someone so badly. She always overlooks things about love and boys but this time she just couldn’t even though she really tried hard to think of it as a piece of cake. Kim freaking Jongin.

“You want me to call my brother? Maybe he has 10 seconds of spare time to congratulate you,” he said sarcastically as he took out his phone. He was ready to dial Jongin number but stopped when Soojung snatched away the phone from him. “I’m not calling him and I don’t care whether he knows my birthday or not,” she stated boldly and she sent daggers to his eyes.

“Really?” he said, wriggling his eyebrows.

“What happened with you?!” she couldn’t stand his ridiculous mockery any longer as she turned around and walked further from where he stood. She kept walking until she found a cake shop in the middle of the second floor and decided to soothe herself down with a piece of cake. Ordering two cupcakes, she sat on the table and sipped her mango smoothies in vexation while looking around. The place was rather packed that day as the same song kept on being played repeatedly. She wondered if it was EXO’s new song but she could care less for now. She really didn’t want to bring up anything about Jongin or EXO for a while. Enough of playing with her poor mind.

While enjoying the cupcakes in front of her, she noticed people crowding around some walking mascots not too far from her. She squinted her eyes to get a better vision and spotted Sehun’s name on the back of the mascot.

“Excuse me but what mascot is that?” Soojung stopped the waiter who walked past her table to ask.

“It’s EXO mascots. I heard they’re having a comeback in two days. Since they’re still working overseas, the company made the mascots parade for all the fans.”

Nodding her head, she bowed her head to her with her typical awkward smile and let her left the table. “EXO. EXO. EXO. EXO everywhere,” she muttered under her breath as she tried to bear the irritation blooming inside her whenever she heard the name.

She had finished her first cupcake and she began to notice that Jongdo wasn’t coming to search for her yet. Maybe he was too busy seeking information about Yeri, therefore she decided to just leave and waited for him to call later. She headed to where the elevator located and stopped when the mascot got in her way. The mascot kept wiggling his body and hindered her steps while Soojung just stared at the mascot confusedly.

“I’m sorry. The mascot can’t see the way,” suddenly the staff approached and apologized as he pulled away Lay's mascot from her–allowing her to leave her place. But once again, another mascot hindered her way to the elevator. This time, it was Sehun’s mascot. The mascot reached for her hand and dragged her toward another side of the floor. She couldn’t lie she was expecting Jongin to come out of the mascot, but she witnessed that it was only regular staff who were inside the mascots.

She didn’t realize where the mascot took her until she entered an empty room. Sehun's mascot led her to the couch inside the office and waved his hand before he walked outside and bumped himself onto the wall because it was hard for it to see the way. As her suspicion rose, she immed