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Birthday - JP Cooper

Jungkook

My innocent mind and young soul couldn't have fathomed the rollercoaster ride that awaited me when I left home a year ago to come here, but as I walked in through the iron-clad and familiar gates of Uni a year later, I was smarter and stronger.

It was winter again, but unlike my first day at Uni when we had sun, today was rather dreary. The flock of students was dragging their luggage. Whenever a naive sophomore crossed my path and referred to me as 'sir,' my head boggled.

Yes. I passed sophomore year with flying colors. Yes, I was now a second-year student. And, yes, I also became the youngest person on the dancing committee.

There wasn't a day when I didn't text Jimin and Taehyung Hyung during our holidays. They were in Korea for the entirety of the time. I traveled with family to Dubai, Australia, and even Paris. Not that I wanted to, but my Appa had business needs, and he thought to make a nice and long family holiday out of it.

I had too much time to sit back, energize, rethink, and restrategize about my situation. My strategy this year was simple. I needed Jimin to realize that he wasn't bound to his sexuality like a rule. When it rains, look for rainbows, and when it's dark, look for stars kind of a thing.

The entire world looked at him and glimpsed him as he wanted us, but I didn't know what I saw in him that had me convinced that I in his life was a possibility. Call me delusional or intuitive. They were things one felt, not saw.

If anyone asked me what made me so convinced, I wouldn't be able to explain those things. I saw a streak in Jimin that made me believe that I could succeed. I wasn't completely delusional, so I was giving my assumption a probability of being way out of the park, but I was going to see through the end.

Although I had a new motivation this year, I wouldn't say that the last year was in vain either. Jimin let me into his circle of trust when he was always selective, and earning something so real from him when I knew he didn't offer it easily was also a big win.

But where was the man of the hour?

I glided my gaze through the foggy atmosphere. Most of the students were inside because of the cold, so maybe he was too.

I went to the reception to pick up the room key card before dragging my bags to my new dorm for the second-year students.

Just as I entered through the door, I looked around the new space. It was definitely more spacious, not as big as Jimin's dorm, but better than my last room.

Before leaving for the holidays after exams, Ulrich and I cleared out our old room. Ulrich was the one to arrive early the last time, so this time, I had the chance to pick the side I wanted.

Not unpacking yet, I rushed out and headed to the common storage room where people stored the things they needed for the next year and couldn't take them back home. It was situated on the ground floor, so on my way over, my legs took me to my old dorm.

I wanted to see the space one more time for some reason. Knowing that the dorm would be locked, I still couldn't resist walking up to my old room's door and twisting the knob.

It clicked open.

The happiness I felt was beyond reason.

I stepped inside the empty room with which my memories were associated. No one could guess that I fell in love right there, lying on the small bed and dreaming about the most beautiful man I'd ever seen. Ulrich and I became such good friends in this very room. When I thought about all the nights we waited for each other to have dinner together, or study, or even when I dragged that goof to sneak into senior's dorm and parties, a big smile crossed my face.

Ulrich was my first and only friend that I made on my own. Not that I would ever tell him, but I loved him so much.

Not wanting to run into the juniors, I closed the door and redirected towards the storage room to grab the bean bag we bought last year and rushed back to my new dormitory wing again.

When I strolled in, I saw Ulrich sprawled like a starfish on the bed I had chosen. "That one is mine," I flung the bean bag to the side and jumped on the bed, springing Ulrich slightly.

"I'll let you have it if you answer five biology questions." He teased.

Instead of arguing, I lunged at him and picked him up bridal style. He barked out a burst of laughter, unable to control himself as I threw him unceremoniously on his bed. "Don't think of invading my space again. Next time, I will dunk you into the pool."

He was still laughing while holding his ribs. I shook my head and made a beeline to the door.

"Where are you going?!" His voice chased me.

"To see Jimin Hyung's new hair color, of course!"

And then I was out, wondering if he had already checked in, second-guessing if I should simply text him.

I didn't have to suffer for long when Jimin got out of the car that had stopped in front of the Uni gate. Even from a distance, I could see him quickly catching up on the temperature outside as he blew his vapory breath. Even though the summers weren't exactly, not cold, European winters were something to behold.

Blue.

He had blue fucking hair. Like the brightest ocean in the night, so blue they were almost black.

A slow smile built on my lips and I turned around to walk away. I had things to do, important things.

Jimin

I settled into the new dormitory like every year.

Ideally, we never unpacked on the first day because we planned trips for the first two weeks. We had planned to go to Mykonos before exams, but two weeks ago, Taehyung said that we had to stay for a day or two at the University.

He and I had come to the Uni together from home and this time, we took adjacent rooms. The rift between us shredded over the period of Holidays. We went to Jeju together with Hoseok for a week and they came over to stay at my house for two days.

I was happy that things were back in place. On a very positive note, I knew this year would be the best year ever. Most students moved out of the hostels in the last year because of the mandatory internships, and although, I have also been thinking of moving out for quite some time now because I didn't like Rose coming over and other people seeing her, I decided to stay for another year and have the best time of my life before my Uni life was over. These days were not going to come back again. We would move out next year either way, which would also be our last year.

I considered fetching Taehyung and asking him about his plan when a loud sound reverberated. It seemed to have come from behind the cafeteria.

I rushed out into the corridor to see the explosion of colors in the air outside. There was pink, yellow, blue, and green mixing into the foggy atmosphere.

It had to be a student's gimmick. I simpered, guessing they had to be my classmates or fourth years.

All of a sudden, my phone chimed along with a few other students who were scarcely scattered across the span of corridors.

My hand went into my coat pocket and I stared at the notification from the Uni Yammer page. A lavender animation with the timer was going off. It said six hours to go for the huge bash, and the thing that I couldn't have missed was the venue. It was Christoph's house.

What the fuck?

If Christoph had planned a party, we should have known about it. I was always the first person to know.

I was still in my thoughts when Taehyung ran into me. "Did I miss it?" He asked, seeing the mix of colors almost settling down to the ground. He grinned when he found the traces.

"Will you explain what is going on?" I asked, pointing my phone's screen at his face.

He looked at me happily. "You'll know. Now, let's get something to eat. I need to arrange booze for the party, so I'll be gone soon. Let me know if you need anything."

"Are we preponing the party this year?" I asked. We had one gathering each year, but since Christoph's parents were coming to town, we already had that bash at the end of last semester.

He let a secretive smile overpower his features. "You'll see. I am not supposed to tell anyone."

Ugh.

When he left after eating, I texted every single person who managed the parties, but everyone said only Taehyung was the one who knew about it.

I waited a whole two weeks for him to tell me why we were postponing our mandatory trip, but he didn't tell me. I guessed I could wait a few more hours and find out. I had nothing to do, so I slept.

I only woke up by Tae's call. "Hi," I said, quickly looking at the time.

"Can you pick some things from the Edeka on your way?" He asked.

"Sure. Tell me what you want."

**

Holding the three big cartons of baked snacks, I entered the cantonment house. It looked nothing like how it did in our parties. We usually turned off all the lights and allowed heterochromatic disco lights to illuminate the hall.

But in front of my eyes were bright lamps illuminating the entire space, especially the main area of the hall where a small stage was created with an arch of golden and black balloons. When I walked closer, I didn't miss the decoration hanging between the ends of two arches; 'Happy Birthday Jungkook' spelled out in glitter.

"Fuck," I cursed softly.

For the second time, I felt that gut-wrenching punch again. I first felt it when Jungkook and Taehyung started dating, or I thought they did — I still didn't know what was going on between them at that time — and they didn't tell me about it when I was the one who had nudged them in that direction in the first place, at least Jungkook.

Knowing that Jungkook chose not to tell me about his party put my psychology into a challenging situation. I shouldn't have been thinking about him. I shouldn't have been feeling like I was left behind, but I did. 

Somebody called my name and I turned to smile at them, even though all I wanted was to turn around and leave. Some people rushed towards me and took the boxes from my hand. I also saw a glimpse of Rose standing with Andre and Anja.

A hoot from somewhere pulled my gaze and it fell on Jungkook who was dancing and drinking. Some of it was spilling down his chin, but he was uncaring. Everyone inside was wearing full clothes except him. That was the second thing I noticed about him.

The first thing was his hair and his face. He had lost some of the baby fat from his cheeks, his hair was longer, cut in a wavy mullet and he sported bangs. I had never seen any man look attractive in bangs before. Correction. I had never noticed a man's hairstyle. His haircut suited him, prominently highlighting the color of his eyes and bringing attention to his soft features and the mole under his bottom lip.

At least five inches of his bare torso was visible and his abs were peeking from underneath his black, body-hugging top thing. It was a curse ever since I saw him in a towel, I started noticing things like those about him. I couldn't help but admire how elegantly the black pants were hugging his curves. He had curves. Like on a woman.

There was a sleek chiffon, black scarf that was thin enough to look like a tie around his neck offering him a deathly medley of pheromones and feminity.

For some reason, I waited for his eyes to meet mine while my heart raced like I was doing something wrong, something like stealing from a friend.

When his gaze stopped on me, his lips stretched lazily and my heart raced even harder like I had been caught robbing the said bank, horns blaring and everything.

Just as easily as he had looked at me, his gaze glided away. A group of his classmates lifted him and he laughed down at them.

Taehyung put a hand on my shoulder from behind and I turned to see him. "It's Jungkook's birthday today?"

"No, his birthday was on September 1. He wanted to celebrate with Uni friends and when he told me, I took the responsibility to arrange a few things."

"It's a great party, Tae." I tried to keep my lips stretched, but it was rather becoming hard.

He was whisked away by a group of girls and I found myself in a corner, alone.

I waltzed to the bar looking for a strong drink, hoping Rose would find me. I poured myself a glass and sat on the low couch, invisible to the hub of party cheerers.

I finished two drinks and whatever I was feeling started to build something strong inside me, something I couldn't pinpoint. How did I go from wanting to have the best year of my life to feeling like this on my first day?

"Jimin Hyung!"

My body came alive at his voice, as though I was starving for his attention. I turned to him, unsure what expression I was wearing on my face for him to see. "You are not going to wish me happy birthday?"

"Sure," I smiled, looking at that one bang that was disordered by the sweat and was sticking to his skin. I almost reached out to unstick it. "Happy birthday, Kook."

He grinned boyishly. From this close, I could focus on his flush red lips. "Thank you," he said quickly and then pouted. "Where's my gift?"

"I didn't know it was your birthday," I jabbed almost instantly. "I would've bought you something if you'd just told me. I thought I was your friend."

"But you are."

"Yeah? Then how come you or Tae never mentioned you were dating? I was the one who pushed you to have dinner with him, remember? How come you didn't tell me you were planning this party? I thought we had something special."

Fuck. I shouldn't have said that. Not a single word of those sentences made sense. Not one.

"Hyung," he laughed out of everything, making my heart hurt. "Are you jealous?"

Yes, jealous. That was what was happening to me. Jealousy pinpointed.

"No."

"Are you jealous I didn't tell you about the party or because I told Taehyung Hyung and not you?"

I put the glass on the small table beside the couch and stood up. He held my wrist to stop me, not that I was going to leave. "Hyung... I wanted to surprise everyone."

"Yeah, well. Consider me surprised."

When I tried to pull my hand back, he let me go, but he got in front of me. A sick part of me was feeling happy that the birthday boy was standing with me while another sick part was still upset. It seemed to me that the rational part of me was too drunk to take over. "I need a gift from my Hyung." He said somberly.

"I don't have anything now, do I?" I swayed my hands in the air sarcastically.

"Then agree to go out on a date with me. That will be the biggest gift I'll have."

I looked at him, some of the common sense knocking back into me. My head spun. What was happening? Was he - Did Taehyung and- Were they a couple or not? "Aren't you dating Taehyung?" I asked when I should have said I was in a relationship with Rose.

"No." He narrowed his eyes at me to stare at me determinedly.

I fell right into it. Didn't I?

My brain returned to full capacity and I understood exactly what must have happened between him and Taehyung and why my friend had stopped talking to me. But I still had one thing for which I couldn't kill my curiosity, but now that I was sane again, I didn't ask him. "Jungkook."

"My birthday wish, Hyung," he stopped me before I could let him down. "Just one dinner. It doesn't even have to mean anything on your part."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "And you won't expect anything out of it?"

He only gave me a small smile.

I let out a huff, pushing my hair back. "It's platonic and doesn't mean anything," I repeated more to myself.

"I'll text you the details." Jungkook let out a breath of relief and I knew immediately that I fucked up. I fucked up big time.

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16 Jan, 2025