Chapter Text
Ong Seongwoo was playing with the new vinyl disk he bought two days ago at one of the thrift shops – it is supposed to be his birthday cake, just like last year and the year before. He doesn’t even bother to buy the real cake because nobody would be eating it with him since he lives in New York alone and maybe his friends would buy something but definitely not cake – alcohols are more likely.
His schedule goes like waking up, receiving plenty of wishes from his family and his friends, lunch all by himself at the burger shop he loves and the spend the night at some bar with his college friends – a very typical birthday for Seongwoo. But this year, his birthday is also his graduation day because Seongwoo is finally done with his master degree and he is super proud of it.
“Have you received my flowers?” Minhyun’s voice echoed through the phone, which Seongwoo put on loudspeaker mode. “Yeah, violets one right? Which has a fucking huge Happy Birthday and Happy Graduation, Best Friend! From the fucking very best, Hwang Minhyun! Super hard to miss by the way,” Seongwoo said sarcastically, as he was trying to go through all the bouquets he received on his living room – which was quite a number.
His parents sent him a huge box of flowers, as well as Jaehwan and the other members of Hundred and One, also from a couple of close friends and close families. “I’m sorry I couldn’t make it,” Minhyun said afterward, it’s the third time he has apologized and Seongwoo is getting bored of saying that’s it’s really okay. “Say that one more time and I am going to hang up,” Seongwoo snorted.
“It’s your birthday and graduation day,” Minhyun stated rather sternly. “Someone should have made some time to show up,” The latter added a second later. “Well, my parents are in no circumstances to leave Seoul and you have this huge meeting and I perfectly understand, Minhyun, what're the differences with last year.” Seongwoo chuckled. “Also, you can’t really get a boring birthday in New York,”.
“Yeah, well then, I am not talking about me or your parents.” Seongwoo could almost hear Minhyun rolling his eyes. “Daniel has a show to do, you know and I’m fine with that,” Seongwoo replied instead – in fact, Kang Daniel, his eight months boyfriend, a notorious guitarist of Hundred and One, a global fucking icon, hasn’t even sent him any greetings yet – even the flowers from his band members didn’t have his name on it.
“I didn’t say anything,” Minhyun cut in and Seongwoo sighed. “I’m just saying it’s both your birthday and your graduation day! Who could have missed something that important?” Minhyun added with the most annoying tone Seongwoo ever heard. “Well, you do! So, run along!” Seongwoo snapped.
“Whoa, okay birthday boy, don’t be mad. Sorry though, have a nice day, by the way, and happy birthday once again, best friend!” Minhyun laughed one last time before he hung up and it kind of pissed Seongwoo off a bit. He knows Daniel has sent a show to do that day, and the younger male even sent him the official announcement and has apologized for the nth times. Again, Seongwoo is fine.
But a simple greeting wouldn’t hurt and the fact that Daniel doesn’t even bother. Great, now Seongwoo is slightly mad all thanks to all the wonderful people he has chosen to be the part of his life. In all honesty, Seongwoo has grown really accustomed to his solitude, like celebrating events all by himself, but Minhyun has a point. It’s not like he is graduating every day and having it on the same day as his birthday.
Seongwoo is still pissed when he arrived at the venue and most of his friends are there with someone and Seongwoo is there with his favorite camera, alone – it stings but Seongwoo tries to ignore every part of it. And the ceremony went smoothly and even though Seongwoo wanted nothing more than going home, he is still happy that he still has some friends and they would probably ask him to hang around.
Seongwoo ended up taking pictures of everyone and everything – graduation is such a beautiful event, like people actually accomplish something after fighting for it, and that’s a great thing. He was laughing at something his friends said after they took a picture of them when he actually feels someone taking a photo of him, with an obvious camera’s flash – but Seongwoo decided to ignore it since it’s probably the university's official photographer or something.
“You know it’s funny that you take picture of everyone else but you barely have a decent picture of yourself.” Seongwoo finally turned his head around because the voice was too damn familiar and too hard to miss either – and Daniel was there, standing all gloriously with his freshly bleached hair and his infamous grin. “You said that my smile is pretty but that smile is pretty too, hyung.”
Seongwoo was too stunned and speechless when Daniel handed him the polaroid picture of him laughing behind his camera – the quality is kind of shitty but Seongwoo likes it already. “When – what?” Seongwoo stuttered a bit as Daniel laughed at his reaction. “You – the show?” Seongwoo raised his eyebrow before he even managed to form a decent sentence. “The show is fake news, even if there is one, I would cancel it or something, I’ll make it work,” Daniel cut in.
“And Minhyun was being a dick–.” “Yeah, it wasn’t so hard for him, was it? He agreed immediately when I asked him to try to piss you off a bit. He told me that you are pissed off, a lot.” Daniel laughed when he handed Seongwoo a bouquet of blue roses that he has been holding this whole time that Seongwoo too surprised to notice. “Happy graduation,” Daniel added as Seongwoo accepted it.
“Smile for me!” Daniel instructed a still-confused Seongwoo with his bouquet, as he held up his polaroid camera. “Since when you use that?” Seongwoo chuckled afterward. “I don’t because it’s yours,” Daniel replied nonchalantly as he handed Seongwoo the camera as well.
“I know yours broke like months ago and you have been wanting to buy a new one, so, graduation gift?” Daniel grinned again as Seongwoo gasped. “No fucking way, I thought you are my gift already,” Seongwoo replied as it startled Daniel a bit – it was supposed to be his day of complimenting Seongwoo and the older just beat him. “Thank you, you are the best,”.
Seongwoo didn’t think any longer when he threw himself to hug Daniel with hands full of things, but luckily Daniel is ready to catch him as Seongwoo left a light peck on Daniel’s lips. “You almost killed me in your head, I believe,” Daniel commented instead. “Also, happy birthday, to the most stunning person I have ever met,” Daniel said as he kissed Seongwoo’s cheek. “Thank you for existing and for being everything that I am not,”.
Seongwoo pulled away for a second and stared at Daniel as he tilted his head slightly. “No, you are –,” “Shush, this is my time to say nice things to you, so you can shut up.” Daniel chuckled as he circled his hands on Seongwoo’s waist. “Ong Seongwoo, you are so fucking pretty and intriguing and irresistible, and you have that skill of making me comfortable, like I want to open up to you about everything, and you make me feel like it’s okay to just be me in front of you, so thank you to all of that,”.
“Thank you for being there for me, for wanting to fix me, for keeping up with me, for having the most beautiful soul, you dork hyung, who also loves cameras and taking pictures of me,” Daniel continued and if Seongwoo is any less of a man, he would be in tears most probably. “Thank you for walking in into my life, best decision I have ever made,” Daniel ended as he placed a deep kiss on Seongwoo’s lips.
"It's like watching stars, every day is a new discovery and every new discovery worth a keep, and you are my stars, Ong Seongwoo, besides the fact that you shine through me and manage to find your place on my empty sky,".
“You are so cute of a global icon,” Seongwoo replied afterward, which made Daniel to whine in distress. “And of course, you always have your way to ruin a moment,” Daniel protested. “I like the speech, do you think you could say it again to me at home? Please say that you are staying for a night at least.” Seongwoo frowned at the end of his sentence as Daniel raised his eyebrow in amusement.
“Well, as you said before, I am indeed your birthday gift, so, is five nights okay for you?”