It feels like the guys have been gone for months by the time they get back from New York. Taehyung is home just a few days before my birthday, and honestly I had kind of assumed that he would have forgotten, given how busy he has been. As it turns out, though, he has arranged some kind of birthday surprise for me today, and I have no idea what it is....

I am sitting at the table, finishing my coffee, when he saunters out of the bedroom wearing a black Celine t-shirt, dark blue relaxed fit jeans, boots, and what looks like an Australian outback-style hat.

"Are you ready for our birthday date?" he grins.

I look at him with my mouth hanging open, then look down at the sundress, cardigan and sandals I have on. "Uh, I thought I was ready, but now I'm not sure..." I say, raising my eyebrows.

Tae takes in my outfit. "Oh, yeah, you should dress more like this," he says, pointing to himself. I laugh and try to think of what I have here at the condo that is even faintly similar.

"Babe, if you're not going to tell me what we're doing, then you have to at least come and consult on wardrobe, OK?" He nods and twinkles his eyes at me.

I start with comfy jeans that have some stretch to them. Tae scrunches his face up and nods, saying "Yeah, for sure." Next I grab a thin short-sleeve plaid shirt in shades of purple, violet and yellow. Tae nods again. For shoes I hold up platform sandals and he shakes his head 'no.' I grab tennis shoes and he grins and nods. "And a hat," he says.

"What kind of hat?"

"A hat to keep the sun off you," he says, tipping his brim at me.

"I don't have anything like that!" I say, looking at him in dismay.

He takes my hand and pulls me deeper into the closet, where his accessory racks are.

"Try this," he says, plopping a cowboy hat onto my head. It falls down below my eyebrows, and I laugh and tip my head waaaaay back to look at him.

"Your head is a little bit bigger than mine, babe!" I giggle.

Tae laughs and pinches my cheek. He searches around through his collection, and he picks up a baseball cap with a neck cover hanging off the back.

"Nooooo," I say, and laugh. "You can pull off that look because you're just gorgeous, but I can't."

Tae shrugs and hands me a beige baseball cap without the goofy back flap, and I crank the adjustable strap at the back to its smallest setting and pull it on. Fortunately, I have my hair bundled into a low bun at the nape of my neck, out of the way. "Perfect, thanks, love!" I grin.

Taehyung wraps his arms around me. I turn the ball cap backward so I can see him; he takes off his Aussie hat and leans down to kiss me sweetly. I nibble his lower lip gently and smile into his eyes, my hands on his hips. "Where are we going, Taehyung-ah?" I tease.

He whispers in my ear, in his deepest voice, "It's a secret. I'm not telling you," and then stands up straight and laughs. I pout at him, but he zips his lips with his fingers.

"OK, stop wasting time with all this lovey-dovey stuff, then, and let's go see the surprise!" I grab his hand with a huge grin on my face and charge out into the living room, towing him in my wake. Tae's bass laugh booms out, and then he races past me to hit the elevator call button first.

I go to hop into Tae's SUV but stop when I see a rectangular red leather box about five inches on each side sitting on the passenger seat. Taehyung is watching me with a big grin on his face.

"Taehyung-ah, what is this? This box looks expensive." I frown at him apprehensively.

"Happy birthday, Birdie. Open it!"

I make a yikes face at him and carefully unwrap the beautiful white ribbon, snapping open the box. Inside is a smooth, chunky white gold bracelet with a panther face on one end. The inside of the box lid says Cartier, and the panther has inset onyx spots and emeralds for eyes. My own eyes get huge. "This is too much! This looks crazy expensive!" I say, holding it out to him as if to show him or to give it back.

"It's not too much, it's just right for my green-eyed tigress," he says, smiling and leaning over to lift my cap brim so he can get a better view of my eyes. "I looked at the one covered with diamonds, too, but I thought you would scold me too much!" he laughs.

I smile at him incredulously, then look down at the bracelet again, running my finger over the panther's forehead. "She's really beautiful, Tae. Thank you. Don't get me anything for Christmas, OK? This should be for both. Also for next year. And then five more years."

Tae laughs. "Christmas is months away. I might forget by then." He gives me his devilish grin. I shake my head at him, and climb into the car. I put my seatbelt on and then twist the bracelet open, placing it on my left wrist.

"When am I ever going to wear something so fancy?" I wonder out loud, gazing at it. 'It would go with my Hybe party dress. I bet he planned that,' I think, looking over at him. "This is crazy," I tell him. "Maybe I'll just wear it every day, with my t-shirt and jeans."

Taehyung grins. "You could do that," he says, pulling out of the parking structure.

"But Tae, what am I going to do with her while we're on our date today? I can't wear her if we're going hiking or something - what if I lost her? But she might not be safe in the glove compartment. What if somebody stole her?" I look at him solemnly.

"Just put it in the glovebox. Don't worry, I'm sure it'll be fine." He reaches over and gives my knee a squeeze.

I take off the bracelet gingerly and carefully place it back in the box, stowing it in the glove compartment under the vehicle deed and a few other papers.

Once it's safely out of sight, I can focus on the rest of the surprise. Taehyung is driving south, out of the city. I keep glancing over at him, trying to figure out what we're doing. "Berry picking? Petting zoo? Riding ATVs?" All kinds of possibilities swirl through my mind. He hears me guessing and breaks into a boxy grin every time, but just sings along louder with his playlist, chuckling a little bit.

About twenty minutes south of the city limits, he turns onto a two-lane country road. We go east for another ten minutes, and my mind is spinning trying to work out the puzzle. He turns down an unpaved road, toward an enormous white mansion, and I spot paddocks and a long barn.

I can't stop a huge smile from spreading across my face.

"Tae-Tae, are we riding horses today?!" I ask, putting my hand on his thigh.

He smiles over at me. "Surprise! Happy birthday! Do you like it?"

"I LOVE it!" I reply. "You are the sweetest man in the world!"

"I booked the whole farm for two hours, so it will only be the two of us," he says, and puts his hand over mine.

I turn my hand over and lock our fingers together. "You're so extra, love," I murmur, craning my neck to try to see the horses. I'm really glad that we don't have to deal with a bunch of security guys and tourists, though.

____________________________________

As Tae pulls up in the gravel parking area, a man in jodhpurs and a helmet strides out to meet us. "Are we at the Olympics?" I whisper to Taehyung, and we both laugh.

We all bow, shake hands, and introduce ourselves, and then Mr. Chu turns to lead us to the barn. "Mr. Kim, you mentioned that you are both experienced riders?"

"That's right," Taehyung says.

"OK, then why don't we select some tack and get your horses saddled up, and the two of you can just ride freely around the pasture?" He waves his hand toward a large fenced-in area of grass, at least 50 acres by my estimate.

In the tack room, there are straw bales arranged artistically around a collection of saddle stands. I see about 15 or 16 English saddles and then two western saddles down at the end of the row, looking a bit dusty. I head straight for those, and tap the one with the pretty scrollwork tooled into it. "This one, please," I say to the stable hand who has appeared out of nowhere, and he bows and picks it up.

Taehyung shrugs and picks the other western saddle. "OK, we'll match!" he says.

I grin. "You're going to be my cowboy today?"

Tae grabs a piece of straw and puts it in his mouth, chewing the end with one eyebrow cocked, looking very macho. He tips his Aussie hat and says, "Hey there, little lady!" in English. I crack up, and then pat his chest and tell him that he's sexy. Tae grins and blushes, suddenly bashful.

The riding coach leads us into another room with small lockers for our things, and tells us to leave our belongings and hats inside.

I raise my eyebrows at Tae, and he looks really disappointed to be separated from his hat, but of course we have to wear helmets to ride. I put my arm around his waist and give him a sympathetic little squeeze.

The stable hands have already saddled two horses for us; a beautiful black gelding with one white sock for Taehyung, and an elegant chestnut mare for me. Taehyung puts his foot into the stirrup, grabs the saddlehorn, and hoists himself into the saddle, grinning down at me. "Come on, shorty!" he teases, and I stick my tongue out at him, then walk over to the mounting block. The stable hand brings my mare over. I climb the block and swing my leg across her back, but I still have to pull on the horn and hop a little bit to get astride. I give Tae side-eye, and see him laughing with his lips pressed together. "Jugeullae?" I threaten him, chuckling, and now the stable hand is trying not to laugh, too.

"What's her name?" I ask him, patting the mare's shoulder.

"Bam Saegui (밤색의)," he replies.

I smile. "Keep it simple, hm?" He nods. "And what's the black horse called?"

"He is Sultan," the stable hand tells me.

"Ooh, how regal," I grin.

I pick up the reins, nudge her with my feet, and click my tongue at her. "Let's go, Brownie-girl!" She starts out at a sedate walk, her head a bit low as if she's tempted by the grass.

Tae rides up slowly on my left side, and grins again. "You look good, cutie!" he says.

"Oh, yeah?" I say. "Well, you, too. Show me what you've got, cowboy!" I nudge Brownie into a trot, and then stand up in the stirrups, posting like an equestrian athlete. Tae brings his horse to a trot, as well, and tries posting. I laugh over at him. "Watch out for the saddlehorn, there, lovie. Don't damage your bits!"

Tae gives the horn a wary look, and places his left hand over it as a buffer. "You would be sad, huh?" he says.

I grin. "I would be really sad, but I think you would cry even harder than me!" He winces at the idea, then laughs.

Taehyung sits back down in the saddle and urges Sultan into a canter, so I follow suit. Brownie seems a bit reluctant to pick up her pace, but when she sees the big gelding pulling ahead of her by a few lengths, she gets competitive, and puts her heart into it. After a few strides, she shifts into a gallop without any direction from me, and we race ahead of the guys.

"YAH!" Tae hollers as we run by, and he nudges his horse to gallop, as well. We go flying down the field, laughing and taunting one another.

We let the horses run for close to an hour, chasing each other all over the pasture. Brownie is starting to blow pretty hard, so I rein her in and Taehyung brings Sultan to a walk, circling back around to where Brownie is grazing. The gelding lowers his head to eat, as well, and Taehyung and I look at each other and smile.

"Birdie, we should have horses," Taehyung says. "This is so fun."

I nod. "Yeah. I mean, you barely use the guest bedroom. We could convert that into a stable." I grin at him.

"No, I don't mean right now! But in the future, we should buy a farm and have some horses."

I smile fondly at him. "That would be nice."

He beams at me, and looks out across the field. "We could buy this farm!" he says.

I laugh. "I'm not sure we need twenty horses, Tae. This might be excessive!"

He eye-smiles at me, and leans over to pat his horse's neck.

____________________________________

Later that afternoon, I've carefully stowed my birthday bracelet in Taehyung's jewelry cabinet, and we're both soaking in a warm bath with Epsom salts.

"That was so fun, but it broke my ass!" I laugh, hugging Tae underwater.

He grins. "Yeah, I think two hours was too long! My butt has never been this sore, I swear."

"We might have to go get a couple's massage somewhere..." I say, rocking back and forth gingerly against the bottom of the bathtub.

"Oh, actually, we could have massage therapists come here!" Taehyung says. He climbs out, groaning slightly, grabs his phone, and makes a call. "OK, they'll be here in about forty minutes." He splashes back into the bath and beams at me.

I shake my head in amazement. "Wow, just like that, hm?"

"Anything for my birthday Birdie and her broken ass!" he says, laughing. I scoff and roll my eyes, but float over onto his lap so I can kiss him.