Happy birthday.

   His mother is the first person to greet him on this special day. He wakes up smiling because his mom’s doing the same thing and it makes her three times prettier than she normally is. His mom’s cooler than mermaids or Snow White or any other princesses she’s told him about because she has always been his wonder woman (and no one could beat wonder woman).

   “My little boy is six now, what’s your wish?” she asks and places a cake with six candles on his bed.

   Kyungsoo chuckles, shakes his head and chokes his mother with a tight hug. His mother has always been smart, smart enough to know that to her only son, this means everything and more.

   Happy birthday.

   This is all of Kyungsoo’s fears combined: being the center of attention and not knowing what to do. Not that Kyungsoo is dumb. For a ten year old kid, he could recite the multiplication table until twenty one (and he’s still working on it). He could handle numbers, but he couldn’t handle a group of his classmates singing him a birthday song.

   So, Do Kyungsoo gulps and stares at his knees while praying for the song to finish.  

   Happy birthday.

   Since his eleventh birthday, Kyungsoo has been writing letters to himself every year to celebrate…something. His letters had always been about self-motivation and trying to get it through another year.

   It’s eleven in the evening and he’s alone in his room, surrounded by the stacks of books his family got him (because it turns out to be the only thing he could love unconditionally). He looks up from writing and notices the moonlight burning into his hands, making his pale fingers even whiter.

   Beyond his windows, the moon looks so big and wide and touchable. Kyungsoo would like to believe it’s older than it seems. Everything is older than it seems, even Kyungsoo. Biologically, he’s fourteen, but his thoughts are so ancient he might as well be a hundred and fifteen. He might as well be as old as the moon.

   The only difference is that the moon has been scarred: by craters and footsteps. It has been made beautiful, while Kyungsoo has never been touched.

   He’s come to the point where he believes in fingers and kisses and winks exchanged in secret. Love has already come knocking at his door, waiting for Kyungsoo to open it so love can destroy everything it touches.

   This year, instead of writing about thinking positively, Kyungsoo writes about Romeo, and the kind of love that has spanned decades and centuries.

   Happy birthday.

   The next year, Kyungsoo writes about Peter Pan (the boy who refused to grow up) and Wendy (the girl who chose to grow up because there was no other way). He writes about them and wonders who he might be.

   Happy birthday.

   Kyungsoo spends his birthday ditching classes in order to write about what he’d like love to be.

   Draining coffee cups after another in his car, he jots down all the qualities love should have. Love should be taller than he is. Love should be understanding and patient and she should love to read books. Love should want to help old people cross the street and love should tip generously. Love should also tuck him to bed when he’s tired and love should be able to make his knees go weak just by the sound of his name dancing on love’s tongue.

   Happy birthday.

   If it wasn’t for his mom’s facebook message, Kyungsoo wouldn’t have remembered he’s seventeen today. His mind has filtered out the dates and time and appointments, and it’s only letting one thought in: Hang Se Ah.

   Se Ah is nothing but a girl with shiny hair that curls at the edges and a smile that could soften the hardest of hearts in town.

   Se Ah is the love interest he’s been waiting for since the moment he could read romance novels. Se Ah is the girl who happened to borrow all the interesting library books Kyungsoo has been meaning to read first. Se Ah is the heat that could make Kyungsoo sweat like a sinner in church once she’s close enough to touch. Se Ah is Se Ah and for that, Kyungsoo forgets that it’s his birthday and that he should write a letter to himself.

   He’s seventeen and as a birthday gift, Kyungsoo calls out Se Ah’s name in the parking lot, runs to her, and locks their lips together.

   Happy birthday.

   This time, it’s Se Ah who greets him happy birthday with a smile on her face and a chocolate cake on the other hand.

   This would have been enough: waking up next to another person who understands who you are and why you are the way you are.

   This would have b