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Look, don't laugh, but Jongho is miserable right now. Like, miserable… But not the 'pull my hair out' type of miserable; he's miserable because it's Yunho's birthday in a few more hours and he doesn't know what to do for the man. He's not really romantic or aromantic; it's just… he's not used to doing a surprise for people.
Usually, it'd be the hyungs or the staff to plan, and he'll just go with it, but this time, he's the planner, and he's the supposed mastermind behind Yunho's birthday celebration. He had a few ideas last week, but today, right now, those ideas don't come to mind out of the blue. He's so fucked.
He was in the living room, a pen in his left hand, with a medium-sized notebook in front of him on the coffee table, with a playlist of songs playing on the television. He's starting to chant the words 'come on' in his head like a mantra, hoping a good idea will pop up, but none does. He taps the pen at his temple repeatedly, telling himself to be creative and smart.
"Why do you look so stressed out?"
Jongho looks to the right to find San, who just walked out of his room in his pyjamas. The older makes his way towards the couch and plops down next to the maknae, glancing at the empty notebook. Jongho groans out in frustration before San pats the maknae's right thigh comfortingly.
"Okay, what's up?" San asks as he feels bad and slightly worried about the maknae. Jongho sits up straight, clearing his throat before speaking up.
"I wanna surprise Yunho hyung, but I have no idea at all right now… And he'll be back in like…" Jongho glances at the clock on the wall. "4 hours." San calms the maknae down, humming as he's thinking of what the younger could do for Yunho.
San gasps softly after a few minutes of brainstorming. "What about you order his favourite food, buy him a cake and play games with him? Seem simple, but those are his favourite things."
Jongho nods slowly as he jots down the ideas on the notebook before the corners of his lips twitch upwards into a wide smile. Right, he could buy Yunho's favourite food, cake, and play games with him. Thank goodness San came out of his room and found him; if not, he doesn't know what to do.
So, they started off with ordering Yunho's favourite food – pork cutlet with mashed potato and steak with some fries – as well as some side dishes of the day. San offered to buy the cake, which Jongho declined earlier, saying he feels bad. But San being San, he bought it because he doesn't mind at all.
As they've successfully ordered the food and cake, San told Jongho that it'll be here in around 10 minutes. The older left his phone with the maknae to check the order as he went to the toilet, saying that he needs to shower. Jongho receives a smack on the back from San after teasing the older about him being stinky.
While Jongho was chilling, listening to the music played on the television, San's phone vibrated, and Yunho's name appeared on the screen, which made Jongho nervous. He told himself to calm down, as Yunho doesn't know the surprise, obviously.
"Hyung! Yunho hyung called your phone."
"Just pick it up and tell him I'm showering!" San exclaims in the toilet before he hums again to whatever song it is. Jongho clears his throat before picking up the call; his right hand is balled into a fist on his thigh nervously.
"Hello?"
"Jjongie? Where's Sannie?"
"Ah, hyung is taking a shower. He told me to pick up your call."
A soft hum could be heard over the line before Yunho responded. "What are you two doing together? Is Sannie also telling you to play the new game with him?"
Jongho blinks his eyes, thinking about what to respond because he's not good at lying, and Yunho always catches on to things fast. He hums in response before letting out soft giggles.
"I take that as a yes then. I'll be home soon, so... wait for me?"
"Always, hyungie. I'll always wait for you."
Yunho giggles, but Jongho just knows that the older is probably a blushing mess right now. Jongho smiles widely to himself as he bids goodbye and then ends the call. He looks at San's phone and finds out that the rider with the birthday cake is out for delivery.
San walks out of the toilet a few minutes later to find Jongho opening the door and taking a box of the birthday cake, to which he helps by taking his phone from the maknae's hand. He thanked the rider alongside Jongho and walked to the kitchen after closing the door.
The maknae is now all happy as the cake is here, then gasps softly when he realises he forgot to check the delivery app for the food he ordered. As San was putting the cake in the fridge, Jongho picked up a call and gave directions to their designated floor. The older placed a hand on the maknae's back while waiting patiently with him.
At the moment they heard the doorbell, San went straight to the door and opened it to receive the food. They thanked the rider before placing the food on the kitchen island.
"Now you look happy and better."
San teases the maknae, to which he receives a smack on his right arm. Well, he does feel much better because the food and cake are done; he has to think of the ways to decorate the living room for the surprise.
Jongho ends up scrolling through videos to find ideas and inspirations to decorate, and he manages to find one video. Now, he's able to decorate the living room with San using the simple decoration items he bought a few days ago with Yeosang and Wooyoung.
The funny thing is that Yeosang suggested decorating the living room with cute puppy designs, but Wooyoung was against the idea. Wooyoung said by doing so, the living room might look a bit messy and suffocating, so he was the one who told Jongho to go with a simple design. After agreeing with Wooyoung, Yeosang picked out a few simple designs, and Jongho was satisfied with them. And according to San, the colours and designs are definitely pretty.
About 20 minutes passed; both of them are finally done with the decoration, and Jongho receives a text message from their manager that Yunho's on the way home. He was about to go into panic mode again when San reassures him that it'll turn out great.
"Hyung, let's prepare the food."
San hums in response and nods his head at the maknae before hurrying up to the kitchen to prepare the food and the cake. They took out the food and placed it on the plates nicely, proceeding to take the cake out of the box and placing it at the middle of the kitchen island with the candles of number 25 on it.
"Thank you so much, hyung, for helping me. I don't know what I'd do without you. I'll treat you to something delicious later."
"Aye, you don't have to – I helped because I wanted to. Have a great time with Yunho and shower him with lots of love, but don't do anything weird."
Jongho blushes and smacks San's right arm again as he's embarrassed. San disappears into his room again to give space for Jongho to breathe and prepare, as Yunho is arriving soon.
As he was rubbing his chest to calm down, he heard the sounds of a passcode being entered, then the door opened before it closed. Jongho stood still in the kitchen, too nervous to even move or greet Yunho.
"Jjongie?"
He was silent in the kitchen, thoughts unable to process as he was really nervous.
"Jongho-yah?"
When Yunho calls out to him again while taking his shoes off, Jongho inhales and exhales before clearing his throat and then responds.
"Aㅡat the kitchen, hyung."
With Jongho's response, Yunho's footsteps could be heard getting closer to the living room as well as the kitchen. The older stops in his tracks in the living room at the moment he sees the pretty decorations. Jongho, who was standing near the kitchen island, is now grinning cheekily even though he's nervous.
Yunho's eyes widened with a soft gasp left his lips when he saw the food and cake prepared for him on the kitchen island. Jongho claps his hands while singing the birthday song with Yunho making his way towards the maknae.
"Happy birthday, hyung. Ah… I prepared this simple food for you, and honestly, San hyung helped me with these 'cause I had a mini mental breakdown… Too nervous, and I don't know what to surprise you with. So… ta-dah!"
Yunho bites his lower lip as he looks at the delicious food, then his eyes divert to Jongho. The maknae was smiling widely, but he could see how nervous he was.
"Jjongie… I… I honestly didn't expect this. Celebrating my special day with my special someone is already good enough, but you prepared this, and I'm speechless. I feel so loved and good right now. Thank you so much, my bear."
Yunho opens his arms widely for Jongho, and the younger giggles shyly while walking towards the older with his arms wide open too. Even though Jongho is still shy with affections, Yunho doesn't mind taking it slow with the maknae.
One of the things Jongho loves about Yunho is that the older is patient. He's patient when Jongho tells him it'll be a teeny tiny bit hard for him to do skinship, especially in public; he's patient when Jongho takes his time to be really comfortable while hugging. He's super patient in a lot of things, and Jongho is glad and grateful that he understands.
Jongho is trying day by day, bit by bit, to express his feelings more and try all the skinship stuff, especially with Yunho, his lover. Yunho is beyond grateful that Jongho is comfortable with him. And Yunho thinks that the younger is doing great now. He's alright with kisses too, so that's good progress.
Yunho wraps his arms around the younger tightly, with Jongho resting his head against the elder's chest. Jongho rubs Yunho's back soothingly as they stay that way for a few minutes.
They pull away from the hug to hold each other's hands gently and look at each other. Jongho's cheeks heated up as he's slightly shy, but Yunho, on the contrary, is loving how pretty, shy and soft Jongho looks in front of him right now.
"I love you so much, hyung. Thank you for being born, for being patient with me, with all of us. And thank you for accepting me the way I am. Here's to more years with you, and I'll try to adapt to things quickly."
"I love you even more, Jjongie. You don't have to thank me. You deserve that and so much more. And just be yourself, okay? You don't have to force yourself to be like this or like that immediately. Remember, slowly but surely. I'll always be here with you."
Jongho nods his head as he smiles widely at Yunho's words. The older leans down to peck the maknae's forehead softly. Jongho doesn't flinch and isn't surprised at the action, so Yunho makes another decision to lean closer, his lips quite close to Jongho's.
"Can I kiss you?"
"Yes, please."
That's enough. That's all that Yunho needs for him to press his lips against Jongho's softly. The maknae closes his eyes as his hold onto Yunho's hands tightens a bit. Yunho captures the younger's lips in between his to initiate the kiss into a passionate one, letting Jongho feel the warmth and electricity through the intimate action. Jongho hums in response as he slowly smiles into the kiss before Yunho pulls away from it.
Yunho rests his forehead against Jongho's, maintaining the eye contact before his right hand goes up to stroke Jongho's left cheek lovingly. Jongho leans against the touch, feeling absolutely over the rainbow and grateful that the surprise is a success.
San exclaims in the room for them to quickly eat the food and not do funny business before the others arrive later. Jongho blushes, but Yunho laughs out softly, finding it funny how nosy San is.
Jongho brings the food and cake to the dining table with the help of Yunho. Both of them eat the food together, enjoying their time together before arriving home one by one, being loud and surprised at the things Jongho (and San) prepared for Yunho.
Yunho can't help but feel like the biggest winner of the year as he told them that he's lucky to have Jongho and it's the best birthday he's ever celebrated in his life. Jongho, being Jongho, blushed at those compliments, but he responded by pecking Yunho's cheek in front of the other members. On a side note, cue Yunho exclaiming in happiness when Jongho told him that he'll play games with him in celebration of his birthday.
The others, of course, were shocked because their maknae is the first one to kiss Yunho and not the other way around. Jongho feels proud before he becomes small again, but nonetheless, Yunho is so damn proud of his lover's progress – slowly but surely, indeed.