Chapter Text
You jumped about ten feet in the air when the boys jumped out from behind your couch and kitchen counters, shouting “surprise!” in tandem with Min Hee behind you.
“Happy birthday!!” Their grins were ear-splitting and infectious. You’d been entirely prepared to spend the bulk of your birthday on the couch – you’d never been the kind of person who needed a big deal made out of their birthday – but it in that moment, you had to admit that it felt great. Near-giddy levels of joy bubbled up from your chest. You grinned right back, laughing a bit at the guys’ appearances.
Every single one of them was wearing a pointy birthday hat, and Taehyung promptly ran up to you with two in his hands.
“Do I really have to-”
“Yes,” he said, not even letting you answer. “It’s tradition.” He pouted until you let him slide one over your head, vowing to take the itchy, attention-attracting thing off your head as soon as he let his attention slip.
Once he’d wrangled the hat into place, he caught Min Hee coming in the door; she allowed the hat to be placed on her head without protest.
“Thanks, y’all,” you managed, giving the apartment a once-over as you moved farther into it. They’d clearly let Taehyung loose on the place; he’d put confetti all over the coffee table and kitchen counters, and hung streamers from the ceiling.
Jin motioned you toward the kitchen peninsula; sitting on it was a candle-spattered cake that looked very familiar. “I made your favorite cake – family recipe and all.”
You looked at Jin with wide eyes. “How did you manage that?”
“I swiped your phone during movie night and got your mom’s Line ID. Then Namjoon helped me write out a text explaining who I was and asking for the family recipe. He translated the recipe into Korean and converted the measurements.”
“Wow, guys. I don’t know what to say…You went to so much trouble!” The guys had gathered around the peninsula with you, looking excited (mostly about the cake). Namjoon was flashing that grin of full-blown excitement that always robbed a grin from you. His genuine excitement had always been infectious, even through a phone screen. In person, it was all the more potent; you couldn’t be around Namjoon’s excitement without becoming genuinely excited yourself. It simply wasn’t possible.
“Don’t say anything – just blow out the candles!” Jin grinned.
“And don’t forget your wish,” Taehyung interjected.
You gathered your hair in one hand and leaned over, blowing the candles out in a few tries. You didn’t need a wish – you sent up a silent thank you instead. You had more amazing, kind people in your life than you ever could have asked for, and you felt that even more strongly than usual in this moment, with all of them grinning at you. You knew they would have had to plan this party months in advance, making sure they wouldn’t have an event scheduled for this evening. They would never hint that they went to that level of effort, but you knew it all the same.
The guys cheered and Jin immediately began cutting into the cake and passing it out. It was delicious. He’d even gotten the icing right, and that was no easy task. It was a special recipe, and if you didn’t time a few things just right, the icing was ruined. You’d never managed to get it right yourself.
Everyone trickled off to the living room except for Namjoon – he’d already spilled his drink and was heading for the paper towels to clean it up. You grabbed them first, taking a few yourself before handing him the rest. “I’ll help.”
“It’s your birthday, you shouldn’t be cleaning up messes!” Namjoon tried to take the paper towels from you, but you jerked your hand back in time, causing him to miss. You gave him a sly grin and slid past him, beginning to wipe up the mess. He sighed and joined you.
“You look great, by the way,” he said, eyes locked solidly on the drink he was mopping up.
“Thanks,” you managed, blushing with an intensity you didn’t realize even you could reach. “You do, too.” It was true – you’d forced yourself to look away before you started staring, but he looked great. He was wearing a white t-shirt that had just enough cling to it that it hinted at the muscles underneath, and it made his dark skin all the more obvious. You knew light skin was the Korean beauty ideal, but you had always hated it when they Photoshopped Namjoon’s skin to appear lighter; you loved his skin’s olive tones.
“I’m just in a t-shirt.”
“You don’t need a suit to look nice,” you said as you headed for the trash can. “Besides, I would’ve been in my sweat pants if Min Hee hadn’t dragged me out and gotten me a dress.”
Namjoon chuckled. “It is the first time I’ve seen you wear one – in person, at least. Over Skype doesn’t count.”
“I’m paranoid about the wind outside. I had a bad experience entering a subway once…” You shuddered dramatically. “Let’s just say shorts are my best friends now.”
“Oh, dang.”
“Yeeaaah…It was embarrassing. Luckily, it happened in Korea, so people were nice enough to pretend they saw nothing.”
“Maybe they didn’t?”
You wrinkled your nose. “Nah, they saw. 100% certainty.”
Namjoon looked embarrassed for you. “Ouch.”
“You see why I don’t wear them now?”
“Yeah…”
***
Jin’s POV
Jin watched (y/n) and Namjoon talking in the kitchen. Predictably, (y/n)’s face was already bright red, and Namjoon could hardly make himself look at her. Namjoon may have rejected Jin’s announcement that he suspected (y/n) liked him, but he had certainly reacted predictably to the news.
He’d been more self-aware, and thus more awkward, around her ever since. Not that (y/n) would notice much of a difference, or that she would attribute it to the right cause; if anything, the poor idiot would think she’d done something wrong. But that was if she’d even noticed. So far, it didn’t seem like she had.
Still, he didn’t regret letting that bit of information slip to Namjoon. He needed to know if he was going to blunder his way into a relationship – with some additional help, of course. Jin was convinced that all they needed was a little push, and perhaps a single, honest talk. (Y/n) needed to confide everything to Namjoon just as much as Namjoon needed to feel like she trusted him enough to do so.
It was a conversation (y/n) had been fearing and avoiding since she’d met Namjoon, and he understood why. It often changed the tone of her relationships – professional and romantic relationships, even friendships. Some people simply didn’t know how to treat her after they realized she had such severe health issues; they often either treated her like she was made of glass or tried to ignore it altogether, forcing her to push herself to her limits in an attempt to keep from offending her by pretending she had none. Many people simply faded out of her life.
Yet literally everyone in the room could sense Namjoon’s and (y/n)’s feelings for each other but them. It was both adorable and hilariously pathetic.
“The dress was a great idea,” he whispered to Min Hee.
“Thanks – I think it’s paying off. His ears went red the instant she opened the door.” Min Hee nodded to the bag at Jin’s feet. “Your idea’s good, too. Get his guard down, at least. How many of the guys know?”
“All of them,” Jin admitted nonchalantly. “They were coming up with their own plan, and I didn’t want things conflicting. So I let them join in.”
“All of them? Wouldn’t dating rumors be, you know, bad for the group?”
“For a while, maybe. But we all want to date, and we’ve been at it long enough that the dating clause doesn’t apply, officially at least. The company doesn’t like it, but they can’t stop it. Those of us who are older, especially, are starting to think about dating seriously – starting families. Someone has to do it first, break the ice – and it’s kind of fitting that it’d be Namjoon. Besides, the nerds were practically made for each other.”
Min Hee laughed. “As long as they don’t kill each other with their clumsiness.”
“They may need a scheduled check-in every day to make sure they’re alive and the house hasn’t burned down, but hey!”
“I’m willing to take a shift,” Taehyung stage-whispered heroically from his spot in the circle.
Hobi nodded enthusiastically. “Especially if they feed me!”
“Great, as long as we’re taking volunteers…”
“I’m not a babysitter,” Yoongi grumbled, but he was clearly amused.
“I’ll count you in, then,” Min Hee shot back.
“Aigoo, they’re coming back,” Jin muttered. “Talk about anime or something!”
***
Your POV
When the two of you got over to the living room, the guys had cleared the furniture from the center of the room, allowing everyone to sit in a circle on the floor. They stopped arguing about anime and waved you and Namjoon over to two spots on the floor, next to each other. You quickly grabbed a pillow and sat on it instead of directly on the floor – your hips would throw a hissy fit two minutes in if you didn’t sit on something soft. Luckily, you had the couch to lean against, too, which would keep your back (mostly) happy with the arrangement. You’d be sitting here for a few hours – the circle meant the guys had planned an activity other than video games or movies, and that only meant one thing…
“Time for drinking games!” Hobi half-sang, snatching several bottles of soju from a bag and holding them up triumphantly.
“And I have a bottle of Coke for you,” Jin said from his spot on the other side of the circle, holding it up. Good – that meant you wouldn’t awkwardly have to find some sort of excuse to bow out of drinking. He’d already done it for you. Your mix of medicines – seventeen pills a day – meant that drinking was off the table for you…a sip here or there couldn’t hurt, but anything more than that wouldn’t be a good plan. I wonder what he told them…
“We can’t get drunk or anything,” Namjoon warned. “We have a schedule first thing in the morning, so no hangovers. Once you start to feel tipsy, switch to Coke.”
“I’m watching, and I’ll change you to Coke if you don’t do it yourself!” Jin added. He gave Jungkook a particularly long look.
The maknaes groaned a bit, but accepted the rule willingly. They likely knew the truth in the older men’s warning; in fact, with Korean drinking culture, you were sure each of them had ended up doing a show hungover at some point – and you couldn’t imagine it was any fun.
“What are we playing?” Min Hee asked. Everyone looked at you.
“The Image Game?” You asked, unsure. You hadn’t really participated in many drinking games since you couldn’t, well, drink. But this one you knew – everyone went around in a circle and stated something, like “best at holding their alcohol,” and everyone pointed to the person that statement applied to. The person with the most fingers pointing at them had to drink – unless they thought they’d be chosen, in which case they could make an X with their arms to block. But if they were wrong and everyone pointed to someone else, they’d have to drink instead for blocking incorrectly. It would be hilarious to see what the guys came up with for each other.
It could either be hilarious or a nightmare to be the only totally sober one in the room. You were sure it’d be hilarious with the guys, even if they were only getting tipsy.
“Okay!” The guys shouted, clapping excitedly. Jungkook, still relatively new to the official world of adult drinking, looked particularly excited.
“Me first, me first!” Taehyung called once everyone’s shot glasses were filled. “The clumsiest person.”
You and Namjoon were pretty evenly matched for this one, but in different ways. You tended to hurt yourself more – tripping, banging into things, somehow managing to tip the contents of entire cabinets onto your head – while Namjoon tended to break things more (although he was known to run into things frequently, and all bets were off if he was attempting to cook). You sure weren’t voting for yourself, though, so you quickly pointed your finger to your right, directly at Namjoon.
“Hey! Traitor,” Namjoon shouted, but he’d also pointed at you with lightning speed, so you felt zero guilt. You stuck your tongue out at him. Jin and Min Hee were pointing at you, but the rest of the boys – more acquainted with Namjoon’s particular brand of destruction – were pointing at Namjoon. He sighed and knocked the shot back. You filled his glass back up with a grin. “I’ll get you back for that.”
“Mmm-hmm. A Coke shot, the horror,” you whispered, covering your mouth in mock terror.
“You might not get drunk, but you’ll have the worst case of burps you’ve ever had in your life.” He narrowed his eyes at you playfully, and you returned the favor.
Jin cleared his throat loudly. “If the love birds are done having their competitive spat, it’s my turn.”
You and Namjoon both straightened up quickly, sitting at attention. You were sure your face was literally on fire. All you managed as a comeback was a weak, “Psshhh.”
“The scariest person when they’re mad!”
Jimin immediately made an X with his arms – a wise move, since almost everyone quickly pointed to him, including you – you’d seen enough interviews to know it was the other guys’ opinions. Jin and Min Hee, though, pointed at you. Again.
“Really?” the guys blurted.
“Have y’all formed some sort of pact to point to me every time or something?” You sent them a glare.
“Hey, it’s true,” Jin insisted. “She doesn’t get genuinely mad often, but when it happens I swear to goodness I fear for the life of whoever made her mad. Fire shoots from her eyes!” He pantomimed the fire for grand effect.
“Admittedly, she’ll let someone walk all over her all day long. But when other people are involved it’s like night and day. A guy came into the café once and started being super racist. I guess he assumed since it was owned by an ex-pat that he could act that way? Anyway, when he wouldn’t listen to her calm requests to leave, she got in his face – the dude was, like, a foot and a half taller than her, no joke – and said he was going to leave right that instant or she was going to make him, and call the cops to boot.”
“It was a lie, I know three taekwondo moves.”
“But, geez, she lied well. That man turned tail and ran.”
Namjoon raised his hand. “Can I change my vote?”
“Alas, you cannot. And no drink for Jimin since he blocked it…” Jin sighed. “If only you guys had seen how scary she can be.” He shuddered dramatically.
“Note to self, stay on (y/n)’s good side forever,” Taehyung muttered.
“You might want to rethink your war with her, Namjoon. You might die.” Jimin added.
Yoongi turned to Namjoon with a shrug. “We could do without the bad press, but your life, die if you want.”
After the laughing subsided, the game started back up. Yoongi lost to most frequent use of foul language, you lost to biggest book nerd, and Namjoon lost again for worst cook. Min Hee actually won out over Jin for the ultimate Mom Friend, which said a lot – some of the guys had only met her a few times.
You switched to some other drinking games, several of them counting games, and you were suddenly very glad you couldn’t drink alcohol. Brain fog made remembering what numbers to clap on and doing so quickly incredibly difficult. Even though you failed miserably, it was still incredibly fun. You hadn't laughed so much for so long in quite a long time. Namjoon definitely got his revenge in the burp department, though. On the plus side, the guys were very impressed by your belching abilities.
“My college roommate and I rated each other’s belches and it became quite competitive,” you explained with a shrug. “A lot of girls only pretend not to be gross around guys.”
Eventually, the guys started getting tipsy and began switching to soda one by one. Jungkook was the first out – he was new enough to drinking that he hadn’t built up a tolerance yet. But the process taught you a lot about what kind of drunks each of the guys would be.
Even at the tipsy mark, it was clear Taehyung was a moody and cuddly drunk; pouting one second and grinning the next, grabbing people’s arms, and sprawling across their laps. The shots from several losses in a row had clearly hit him a little harder and more suddenly than expected, and he was closer to drunk than anyone else. Yoongi got visibly happier as the evening progressed; by the time he switched himself to Coke, his gummy smile was near-constant. You’d already seen Jin drunk – it amplified his confidence, his clinginess, and turned his aegyo to full steam. At the tipsy stage, he just got very talkative. Hobi got downright giggly, while Jimin was the odd man out; most people stayed happy in the tipsy stage, but he was pouty and just a tad whiny.
Namjoon was downright adorable, predictably. He lasted longer than most of the others, switching to Coke just before Yoongi, the guys’ last holdout, did. Min Hee could drink nearly anyone under the table, so she was barely buzzed when Yoongi finally filled his glass with soda. You suspected some of the guys hadn’t wanted to tap out before a girl, maybe getting a bit tipsier than they would’ve, but being responsible had won out.
Namjoon had hit the happily sleepy phase that comes to some people before the drunk stage, but Jin had already informed you that if Namjoon kept drinking past his sleepy phase and got drunk, he began pulling deep meanings from literally anything. That made him the most adorable drunk you’d ever heard of, and for the first time you wished he was just a tad less responsible so you’d have something to tease him about for the rest of his life. Instead, he’d given into the sleepy phase, sliding down so that he could use the couch as a pillow without straining his neck.
Jimin, Taehyung, and Jungkook had all conked out on the floor, while Jin was busy talking Min Hee’s ear off. Yoongi had sleepily pulled out his iPod and earbuds, likely reviewing whatever he and Namjoon had been composing lately, and Hobi was having a conversation with Aslan, who had decided to add himself to the pile of sleepy maknaes.
“(Y/n), back me up on this,” Jin whined, throwing aegyo at you.
“On what now? I wasn’t listening.”
Jin threw his head back in mock exasperation. “Back me up by telling Min Hee that when I retire, I can totally make a living as a chef in my own restaurant.”
“This is true, he could.”
“He’s never trained professionally!”
“…Min Hee. He has millions of very, very devoted fans across the world. He wouldn’t need any real talent to succeed. He could really buy a place, slap his name it, and hand over the management to other people while he relaxed and he’d still hit it big. Plus he could take classes if he wanted – he has the natural talent!”
“I guess that’s true…Their fans are scarily devoted…”
“Aha! I win!” Jin pumped his fists in the air repeatedly.
“Anyway, it’s getting pretty late. I should probably head out.” Min Hee stood and started gathering her plate and plastic cup.
“Yeah, us too,” Jin said, sighing with his usual theatrics. He leaned over and nudged the pile of maknaes. “Hey, time to go!”
They didn’t budge. Jin turned to Namjoon instead. “Namjoon, a little help, here?” Namjoon groaned and, without opening his eyes, reached for the nearest person, which just so happened to be you. He nuzzled his head into your shoulder and wrapped his arms around yours. You turned absolutely red; you’d opened your mouth to say something right as Namjoon readjusted himself, and now you were just frozen in place, mouth open, like an idiot.
Jin and Min Hee burst out laughing, which only made your face redder (if that were even possible). Hobi noticed and quickly joined in, giggling uncontrollably. Yoongi heard the noise through his headphones and looked up, looking slightly annoyed – until he saw why everyone was laughing and promptly joined in. Great. Even Min Yoongi was laughing at you.
Blessedly, the pile of maknaes still didn’t move, except for one of them mumbling something that sounded like, “shut up, sleeping.”
Your stomach clenched, but not from embarrassment (although that emotion was certainly there, too). It was the kind of clenched-up stomach that comes when someone you like, well – nuzzles his face into your shoulder.
Namjoon scrunched his nose adorably and finally lifted up his head, but kept his arms how they were. He squinted blearily between the three people who appeared to be laughing at him. “What’s so funny?”
“You!” Jin managed, pointing. Namjoon followed Jin’s finger and looked at you, then his arms, and slowly realizing exactly what he’d done. You could practically see the whole nuzzling bit replaying through his head. Belatedly, he let go. His face was a light shade of pink, but his ears were flaming. That was serious blushing for Namjoon (it was unfair, but along with his good looks he’d gotten some sort of magic gene that protected him from the curse of blushing).
“Sorry!” he blurted.
It was your turn to laugh, realizing the hilarity of the situation now that Namjoon was the one who was the most embarrassed. “It’s fine, Namjoon. It’s not like touching me is forbidden.” You allowed him to relax for a beat before you added, “Although my dad is a gun-toting Southerner, so you miiiight want to try not to make that mistake if you ever meet him.”
“But he doesn’t own any guns, right?” Hobi asked, amused but looking slightly concerned for Namjoon’s safety. Gun laws in Korea are extremely strict, so American gun culture – and the extremely, sometimes dangerously lax gun laws attached to it – seemed almost alien to them.
“Of course he does. Two, and counting. I don’t even know how many my cousins own, but way more than that, each. My uncle only has one.” You grinned cheerfully before adding, “Don’t worry, they wouldn’t actually shoot you. Although my cousin did set one of his guns in front of him on the table when his sister brought home her boyfriend, and they’ve said they’ll do the same for me…It’s some sort of weird vetting they do.”
“…Why?” Min Hee looked equally amused and confused.
“Their logic is that if the guy sticks around after that he must really like me? I don’t know. My cousin’s boyfriend ended up marrying her, so they’re pretty sure of their method’s merit.”
“Americans are weird,” Jin and Hobi said.
“Tell me about it,” you admitted, grinning. There was a dark side to gun laws in America, a very dark one that politicians seemed unwilling to try and fix, but you didn’t feel like getting into it now. It was a conversation you knew you and Namjoon could spend hours on, likely making the others feel left out. Besides, it was late, and the talk of your family reminded you that you’d promised to Skype them – it may be late in Korea, but it wasn’t back home. They’d be waiting for your call, and the guys needed to get going, anyway. “Okay, let’s see if we can get the maknaes up.”
Together, you slapped the guys awake and hustled them out the door to the waiting van, which had pulled up in the alley. Before he followed the others out the door, Namjoon stopped and turned to you. You realized that his ears were still a bit red, a little detail felt like a victory of some sort.
“Oh, I put some seaweed soup in your fridge – you can’t have a birthday without it! My mom walked me through making it on the phone, so I think it turned out alright…I also put a present on your bed, for you to open later.”
“Wow,” you managed, giving him a genuine smile. “Thanks. You really didn’t have to. I feel like you’re always giving me things!”
“I do it because I want to,” he said. “It makes me happy. So don’t feel bad about it.”
Suddenly and without thinking, you stepped forward and gave him a hug. After a moment of surprise, Namjoon wrapped his arms around you in response.
“Thank you, Namjoon,” you mumbled into his shirt. “I really don’t know what I did to deserve you.”
“That’s funny, because I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”
You stepped back and laughed. “I think you’ve miscalculated. You’re one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met.”
“And you’re one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. Honestly.” The guys were calling him from the van, whisper-screaming his name up the stairs. “Night.” He reached out and ruffled your hair affectionately, careful to mess it up so he’d earn an annoyed glare from you, contrasting with the grin that was plastered on your face.
“Night, jerk,” you said with a laugh as he slipped out the door.