It's my birthday, too!

‘Surely this counts as exercise of the day’, you mutter to no one in particular. The walk from your guest parking space all the way to the building main entrance isn’t necessarily friendly, but it’s made worse by the light rain coming down, and so you’re jogging as best as you can with your hands full. Once inside and in the lift, second floor selected, a quick pat down becomes necessary to make sure everything was picked up in the rush.

Car keys? tapped. Phone? tapped. Large bag that carries your gift and some party poppers? Quick glance at the larger bag you’re holding, and check. Smartwatch? It reads May 16, 2025, 11:59. Satisfied, walking out of the lift, just a soft smoothing over of your shirt, which both helps you settle down from the sprint and make sure you’re not too wet from the drizzling rain, and you’re all good to go.

Standing in front of Unit 201, you knock on the door, one, two, and just before the intended three, Magenta opens it halfway, poking her head out, a smirk fully in place.

“You’re already in deep shit and you’re late?” she sing-songs, hands on her hips, and barely containing a laugh. She still opens the door completely, though and motions you in, clearly in a hurry.

You take a look around the small living room. There’s a “Happy Birthday” banner already up, right above the picture the birthday girl keeps of herself above the table, and some assorted donuts, with a single candle inserted at the top.

“I’m not late, I’m barely on time. Also, how am I in deep shit?” You look around for somewhere to place the bag down, Hina gives a small wave, quickly at work filling some glasses in the kitchen and Chodan is off to the side, finishing up setting up green and white streamers that cross the room, above the infamous storage tent in the middle of the room.

“Your insta story?”. She’s clearly teasing, and you can’t help but scoff.

“It’s not my fault she shares a birthday with the greatest solo artist of a generation. Besides, i couldn’t really post about her, could I? It’s all a big secret.”

She scoffs right back, amusement in her eyes, landing a playful slap to your shoulder, “That’s what Close Friends stories are for”

You chuckle and start taking the poppers out of the bag, placing them in the table, leaving the carefully wrapped gift box in the bag for now. Walking over to help Chodan with the streamers, she senses your approach, gives a small wave before putting up an apprehensive expression.

“Not a word about the game last week” she mutters shamefully, and you can’t help but laugh.

“West Ham, Chodan. You’re lucky the bottom three are absolutely terrible, or you’d be looking at a relegation fight on that form”. You grab an end of the last streamer, cut some tape, and take it over to the other side of the room.

“Bah, it’ll still be good enough to win the Europa League”.

“She should be wrapping up her live now, and making her way back up here” Magenta announces to the room, and you point to the table, so they can grab a party popper each. You then all move to the center of the room.

“She’s offline, should be here soon!” Hina moves to turn off the lights, and you patiently wait alongside the giggling band members. In the silence, it’s easy to hear the lift coming up, footsteps approaching, and the pass code being entered before the owner of the apartment steps in and turns on the lights.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!”. Siyeon tears up while looking at her band members, becomes wide eyed at spotting you, and then jumps at the sound of the party poppers going off, completing a set of reactions that makes the usually straight faced vocalist adorable to everyone’s eyes.

“Thank you~ the streamers are super cute! Oh, this is going to take forever to clean up” she sniffles softly and steps in to hug her members, and they all receive her in a group hug, whispering congratulations and some words meant for them and them alone, until she raises her head back up.

“What are you doing here?! Shouldn’t you be at work?” her members let her go as she takes a couple of steps towards you, “I thought I wouldn’t see you until... well” she falters in her words but still reaches your opened arms, melting in your embrace, wrapping her own arms around you.

“It’s been two months, Siyomin. I thought I shouldn’t come, you just came back from Taipei, but its your birthday, I couldn’t miss you on your birthday”, you give her a soft squeeze and look down at her, she’s smiling softly but her eyes take a challenging look.

“Oh, it’s my birthday is it? Are you sure?” she pulls her head back a little to direct a playful glare at you. Over the last couple of months, you’ve learned this could mean trouble, but you can’t help but notice she hasn’t let go of her hug, and you know you’ll be all right.

“No birthday text, no birthday call, no dms from the guy I’ve been dating for the past couple of months.” She tilts her head menacingly, and you can’t help but find it cute beyond words. “Maybe he’s busy, no time to spare a message except... oh no, he’s been in social media, he’s posted a birthday post all right, for IU-sunbaenim”.

“Best artist in a generation, you said?” Magenta helpfully provides, in between giggles.

You laugh sheepishly, not really building a defense for yourself, and she takes your silence for an admission of guilt, while the rest of her band members can’t help but laugh even harder at your predicament.

“But of course! I’m just some idol, right? No wait! Not even an idol, I’m a ‘Fake Idol’, I’m-“ you end up cutting her off by placing a hand on her cheek and leaning down to place a chaste kiss on her lips. Her arguments fade away, and for a couple of seconds, it’s nice to resume the budding relationship you and the young rock star are building, right where you left off before Siyeon and her QWER band mates flew overseas.

Band mates... Her Band mates! Siyeon pulls back in shock remembering you’re not alone and throws a playful slap at your chest. “Baka! Are you serious right now?”. The watching audience is in equals measure shocked and amused at the turn of events, and a hearty laugh comes out at the sight in front of you, a blushing Siyeon, who can’t seem to decide if she should be embarrassed, delighted or furious at your little stunt.

“I knew i was going to see you today, and I didn’t want to risk waking you up or interrupting your rest, you just came back from overseas and you’re performing today. I was being considerate.” You place a soft kiss on her forehead. “I didn’t wanna risk posting something for you because we’re supposed to be a secret“ She seems placated enough, so you’re free to deliver the final blow. “Besides, it’s not my fault you share a birthday with IU, she was here before you were”, you point at your heart. The irritation returns to her eyes and another slap connects, this time aimed at your shoulders.

“I want a birthday story” Siyeon pouts, and you won’t be able to say no to that face, so you start running scenarios to predict the possibilities of someone connecting the dots- “in Closed Friends” ah.

“I don’t have a closed friends on socials”

“Well make one. I said secret, but I also told you that if I said yes, I wanted all in. Going on dates, texting while away, corny posts, donuts. You were adamant you could make it work.”

“Araseo~, I’ll pick a photo and upload something, promise”

“We have to go soon, though, so you might want to take a bite out of your birthday donuts so we can all start getting ready” Chodan interrupted, reminding everyone that their schedule was already packed as is, and drawing Siyeon’s attention over to the small dining table.

“You guys, thank you~, oh this looks delicious” Siyeon finally lets go to walk over to the table and take a couple of pictures. The small party took a couple of bites from the Donuts, sang happy birthday, allowing the birthday girl to make a wish and blow the candle while you took care to document the rushed celebration.

As the girls started taking their leave and heading to their own apartments to prepare to leave for their presentation at Hanyang, Siyeon turned remorsefully at you. “I wish you could come with us, but, it’s a college festival...”

“I know, I know, I’ll get out of your hair so you can go get ready. We’ll celebrate properly soon, I promise”

“Let me walk you out”. She grabs your hand tightly and you walk the short distance to the door, letting go so you can grab your shoes, and just as you get upright once again, being embraced tightly by Siyeon.

“Thanks again for coming, I missed you, really...”

“I missed you too, happy birthday Siyomin, and good luck tonight! I’ll be looking for clips later”

“I’ll send you a picture” You step out of the room and she leans in to place a soft kiss on your cheek before pulling back and giving a small wave, closing the door with a sheepish smile.

Making your way back down on the lift, and looking out the main door, you can see the rain hasn’t stopped one bit. It doesn’t look serious, but you can’t help but worry about Siyeon and her band mates performing in this weather.

‘They’ll be all right’ you think, as you brace yourself to run all the way back to your car.