The next day was Sunday, so I stayed home, trying to experiment with some new foods for lunch. I ended up finishing the cooking a lot earlier than I intended, so I ate the food I made as a brunch, and headed outside to meet Jin somewhere. 

He and the boys had been planning a birthday party for Yoongi, who wasn't going to throw one for himself in a million years. I moderated their debates, and after much argument on the activities we could do: laser tag, go-karting, bowling, clubbing, and so many more, we finally resolved to just stick to a simple at-home birthday party followed by a quick trip to the bar that evening, which Yoongi would probably enjoy the most. 

Jungkook was disappointed that we weren't playing laser tag, but I promised him that we would go another time.

Jin and I wanted to plan out the final details together, like when and how we should meet and how we would surprise Yoongi. We met at a little cafe and spoke for a couple of hours, figuring out the finer details, after which I went back home and fell back into my normal routine of some chores, a workout, a shower, dinner, and then an early night in.

I lay in bed scrolling through Pinterest, looking at some cute string lights that I thought I could use to decorate my next apartment, when I got a notification. It was daehyun, texting me. I felt a little flutter as I clicked on the notification and our chat opened.

Today, 9:54pm

Daehyun: heyy beautiful

Me: sorry wrong chat then

Daehyun: nah y/n it's youuu

Me: are you drunk?

Daehyun: lol no why

Me: nvm

Daehyun: do you want to meet up some day?

Me: I don't think I can this week, maybe next week?

Daehyun: sure baby anytime.

I put my phone away. Baby? Beautiful? Wow this guy was quick. And confident. Well, he was cute, so I wasn't gonna complain, but still...

Again the week began, and the days flew past. I exchanged a couple of texts with daehyun, but we didn't get to speak as much as I would have liked, unfortunately. Over the week I worked my butt off, making sure that everything was finished before the weekend so that I could relax completely and enjoy myself. Friday night was upon me much quicker than usual, for which I was grateful.

Yoongi came over for a while, and we just sat around and ate for the most part, talking.

Yoongi leaned back on the couch, groaning at something stupid I had just said.

"You're so stupid, y/n"

"Thank you, I pride myself on that. Now excuse me, I need to pee." I got up and walked towards the bathroom to pee.

When I came out, Yoongi was still on the couch, but holding my phone and looking at me funny.

"What?" I asked

"You never told me you were dating someone."

"Well, I'm not, who told you that?" I was confused now. I mean Rina made fun of me about picking up a 'date' so quick with daehyun, but I never really considered us to be together, and she knew that. She wouldn't tell anyone that I was dating someone unless she knew I was absolutely sure about them.

"Daehyun? Wait that's his name right? Why didn't you tell me dude? Congrats! How did yall meet? How long have you been together? This new boyfriend better be cool."

"Yoongi! We're not together." How did he know daehyun?

"Well, that's not what he thought," he said, smiling. "Your phone started ringing so I picked it up and he told me to tell you that he was missing you and he asked me to ask you to call him and asked who I was so I told him that I was your brother because I didn't know if he would be okay with the fact that you're hanging out alone with a guy friend so soon after you started seeing each other." He said this all in one breath.

I nodded as if I was going along with what he was saying, but in reality I zoned out somewhere in the middle of the sentence. "Wait what?"

He sighed. "Never mind. Who is this guy? If you're not dating, then he seems like kind of a creep."

"He's a pretty nice guy, I mean I've only actually met him once." I told Yoongi about the day we met, and showed him our chat through the days. To an outsider that may have seemed weird, but Yoongi was like a brother to me, just maybe a little less dorky and a little less overprotective than my biological one. Still protective, just not as much.

Yoongi slid a bit away on the couch.

"So you've only met that one time, and he texts you every night and calls you these weird, supposedly cute names?"

"Um..." he took my phone again and scrolled through the chat.

"He's flirting. Stay away from him," he said, dead serious.

"What? You want me to stop talking to someone because they're flirting?"

"No... it's not like that. I don't exactly know how to say this the right way but... You've only met once. He hardly knows anything about you, and he's been after you for a week now. He keeps asking you to meet up with him, even though you've told him you can't. He's suggesting these random places out of town, which he thinks 'you might like'- you don't even like shellfish, you're allergic to some, He's definitely older than you-"

"So are you. So are literally all my friends." I interrupted. It was a stupid argument, but I felt the need to defend Daehyun.

"Look, I don't know. This guy seems shady and weird and I think you should stay away from him. Don't go to meet him alone, don't go to meet him in a place that you don't know. That is, if you go. I don't think you should, but you're an adult. You can make your own decisions, I'm just giving my opinion."

"I-" I didn't know what to say. I understood where Yoongi was coming from. We only met once. We flirted a bit, but he was after me to meet up with him. He didn't seem like a guy who would want to have a serious relationship or anything, and he definitely knew that I wasn't serious about the flirting either. 

What Yoongi was telling me was essentially to not get attached. I got that. But some part of me still wanted to defend Daehyun, and tell Yoongi that he was a good guy. 

Debating back and forth in my head, I came to the conclusion that Yoongi had my best interests at heart, so I decided to listen to him.

"Okay Yoongi."

He smiled. "I didn't want this to be a cause for you to get upset, I mean...I don't want us to fight over this. I'm not telling you what to do. You've met him, and I've not, so if you really feel that he is a great guy and if you like him, I'm not someone to tell you no."

"Nah, I get it Yoongi. I understand where you're coming from, and I love you for that."

He looked slightly taken aback and a bit embarrassed at my open declaration of love for him, making me laugh.

"I don't do feelings, thank you very much," he said, his ears turning pink.

We both laughed, and fell back into easy conversation.

***

Sunday morning came, finally (and no, rain was not falling unfortunately), and I went for an early morning run before coming home for a shower and breakfast. 

I wanted to wear something nicer than usual today, so I opted for a nice top that I had bought really long ago in the US but never really wore. It was a long sleeved plain blue cotton top, all crinkled up at the neck bit, which had some elastic on it so that it could also be worn as an off- shouldered top, I didn't do that though, since it wasn't as well-fitting as I would have liked an off-shouldered top to be. 

I paired it with some black jeans and some sneakers, and pulled on a jacket before leaving to Jin's apartment. Since I didn't have a car right now, I took the subway train most of the way and walked the rest.

Approaching the apartment, my sense of excitement began to rise once more, reminding me of my first visit there. Jin opened the door for me, engulfed me in a quick hug, and we began setting everything up for when Yoongi would arrive. 

We told him that we were planning to call over all our friends and have lunch together on his birthday, but left out the fact that we had got his sister and parents tickets to come to town the next day as well, in addition to playing a bunch of party games later in the day. 

I brought the hoodie I had bought earlier, sloppily wrapped in Christmas wrapping (the only one I had), but I wasn't worried about the fact that he might say he didn't like it, for two reasons: one- he would at least pretend he liked it at the party, that's the kind of person that he was, he wouldn't want to embarrass me; and two- I had found the perfect present for him on friday after he left. 

My brother sent me a link to a website with these beautiful old vinyl records which he thought I'd like, and, knowing Yoongi would love them, I ordered one right away. It was to be delivered that evening, and I couldn't wait.

Namjoon came to help us about ten minutes later, after showering and changing into a light gray button-down shirt and jeans. We were done really quickly, since we only had a few balloons and one box of cake. At around ten thirty, our other friends began arriving- Jungkook and Hoseok came first, followed by Rina, and a bit later, Jimin. All of us were meeting together after a long time, so we had plenty to talk about for another half hour or so until I got a message from Yoongi saying that he was downstairs and coming up. 

Hushing one another, they all squeezed together in one line behind the couch while I went to open the door for Yoongi. He knocked on the door and I fumbled with the doorknob and the locks- screw these stupid high-tech doors and their refusing to open- There was dead silence as the door swung open, and then

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOONGI!!!" We all shouted as soon as he came into view. He was grinning his cute gummy smile, holding a box in his hands. I went on my tippy toes and threw my arms around him, burying my face in his shoulder. The box in his hands poked me a little bit, but that was okay, to be entirely honest. When I finally let go of him, he looked down at me, eyes shining.

"Thank you," he placed a little kiss on my forehead, leaving me a little flustered, since he usually never showed his affection physically. "I got a little surprise for you guys too," he continued, moving into the apartment, out of the hallway. I looked behind him into the corridor. Standing there, in black ripped jeans and an oversized gray sweatshirt was someone who I hadn't thought I'd see in a very long time.

"Taehyung?"