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The Hunters Guild, famously, is the strongest guild in the country. It's also, less famously, one of the most precisely run. Everyone there knows the one, unbreakable rule: stay organized. There is a schedule for everything, a set location for everything, lists to keep track of every expense and fire extinguisher. Even the coffee stations are immaculately organized by cup size, creamer brand, and type of grounds.
Things are predictable. Things happen like clockwork. Everything is calm, easy to navigate, and easy to handle. Even the occasional chaos is still, somehow, organized. Perhaps the only unpredictable thing is the schedule of the guildmaster, but that's just because no one seems to know when he goes on breaks or sleeps.
(Some, including Gina, have theorized that he's a vampire who doesn't need sleep. This has yet to be disproven by anyone in the guild.)
So, naturally, when the comfortable, familiar routine is disrupted, things naturally go to hell immediately.
The monkey wrench in the plans for the day is this: Guildmaster Choi Jong-in walking through the front doors (barely anyone has ever seen him do that in the morning, hence the vampire theory) with a bouquet of flowers tucked carefully beneath one arm.
Every single hunter in the lobby instantly goes silent. Someone drops their phone.
Guildmaster Choi smiles cheerfully, like he is not actively causing a scene in his own guild. "Morning, everyone."
Son Ki-hoon, who was just about to call the elevator, takes his finger off of the button. He blinks once, then twice. The image before him remains the same. Guildmaster Choi is standing in the lobby holding a bouquet of flowers , like it's normal.
It's not. It's not normal and Ki-hoon badly, badly wants answers.
He looks the Guildmaster up and down, as discreetly as he can. Same pink suit. Same rings. His glasses are the roundish ones today. Everything else is normal. What, then, is the deal with the flowers?
Ignoring the neatly-wrapped package of chaos he's just dropped on the guild, Choi maneuvers elegantly through the crowd and comes to a stop near the elevators. Ki-hoon immediately snaps to attention. "Sir!"
Guildmaster Choi's lips quirk in a smile. "Hunter Son. Would you care to join me for some coffee? I have some updates for you regarding the team. All good things, of course."
"O-oh," Ki-hoon says, and tries to hide his excitement. Coffee with the guildmaster. No, no— he is a normal man. He is a normal man with a normal admiration for Guildmaster Choi. "Yeah, of course."
The elevator takes them up, and Ki-hoon can't help it. Hiding his hands behind his back, he asks, as casually can as he can, "The flowers, are they, uh, for any sort of occasion? I didn't think it was a special day, but I can mark it in my calendar, you know, for future reference."
Choi laughs a little. Ki-hoon stares resolutely at the polished wall of the elevator to avoid disintegrating into a useless puddle.
"I suppose it's a bit of a special day," Choi admits. He shifts the flowers, gently caressing one of the blossoms with his other hand. "They're a gift from my partner. It's my birthday."
The doors slide open just as Ki-hoon yelps— very loudly— "Birthday??"
Ki-hoon puddles into one of the break room chairs, like a sad little dog, as Gina laughs at him. Hard. He doesn't think he's seen her laugh this hard, ever.
"You can stop now," he mumbles into the table. It's a very nice table, to be fair. Very smooth. Very cool. An excellent quality table.
Gina does not stop. Which is fair— Ki-hoon did make a bit of a fool out of himself.
"In my defense," he whines. Se-mi pats his shoulder in sympathy. "In my defense—"
"Yeah?" asks Gina, still laughing. He's glad one of them is having a good time. Personally, he's feeling a bit like he should consider quitting his job and becoming a hermit, but Gina's not him. There's a big difference in their circumstances.
"Shut up," he wails into the table.
"Never mind that," says Bo-ra. "You said it's his birthday, right?"
"Sure feels like we should've known that already," Gina says, her laughter finally ceasing. "Did none of us look him up? Surely it's on his Wikipedia page."
"It is," Bo-ra says. "I guess none of us ever bothered to look him up."
Well. Ki-hoon had, but he's not going to tell them that, because that would mean admitting that he was too busy admiring the photo of the guildmaster to pay attention to literally any of the other information. Such as, evidently, his birthday.
"Yeah," Ki-hoon sighs, finally sitting up straight. How he misses the table already. "The flowers are from his partner."
"Someone's actually dating that man?" asks Gina, with absolutely zero shame. Se-mi makes a strangled sort of sound that she delicately covers with a cough.
Ki-hoon reacquaints himself with the table. "Gina," he whimpers. "You cannot just say that." He looks up to see her checking her nails with nonchalance. Completely unaffected. He never knows whether to feel awed or intimidated by her.
"I said what I said," she huffs. "Anyways. So it's his birthday. Should we get him a cake?"
Gina says it sarcastically, as if it's a joke, but…
Ki-hoon thinks back to the conversation in the office. Before it had drifted into work-talk, Ki-hoon had timidly asked if Guildmaster Choi had any plans for his birthday. And Guildmaster Choi had said, as lightly as if he was commenting on the weather, "Unfortunately not. Both my partner and I have raids scheduled today, and I have some other things to wrap up here."
"Oh," Ki-hoon had said, and something inside him twisted with sympathy. "I'm sorry."
Choi smiled in that fox-like way of his. "It's alright. My partner has informed me that we'll be making up for it with dinner this weekend, so. Treat today as just any other day."
Except it's not, Ki-hoon thinks now, staring at the table. It's the guildmaster's birthday— surely that deserves a little celebration. Guildmaster Choi has always looked out for them, trained them, encouraged them. He had enough faith in Ki-hoon to appoint him leader of the secondary team and hasn't once doubted him, even after every single mistake Ki-hoon had made while trying to figure out how to be a good captain.
And hunters are busy, Ki-hoon knows— especially an S-Rank like the guildmaster. Ki-hoon's had raids on his birthday before, too. But every single time, his coworkers had bought him some donuts and thrown him a small celebration in the break room, just before leaving for the gate. He thinks Guildmaster Choi deserves at least the same.
Ki-hoon brings out his phone. "Se-mi, what's that bakery you always go to? The one you get for your siblings' birthdays?"
Se-mi's eyes light up. "Oh! That's a good idea, Ki-hoon. Here, I can order it. Do we know what flavors he likes?"
"Are we seriously buying a cake for him?" asks Gina.
"Yeah," Ki-hoon says, simply.
Gina raises an eyebrow, then shrugs. A smirk splits her face. "Alright, why not. When's the raid scheduled for today?"
"This shop does do same-day orders," says Se-mi. "If we order now, we can get the cake by… four PM."
"That's when the raid is scheduled to end, actually," Bo-ra says. "We just have to get the strike squad in on it. Get one of them to lure him back here and into the break room."
"I know someone on the squad," says Gina, already pulling out her phone. "I'll text them. Should we get other things? Balloons?"
"A bit overkill," Bo-ra points out.
"Just the cake is fine," Ki-hoon says quickly. "I don't want to overstep. I just— you know. I want to do something nice for him. He's always working and doing all this stuff for the guild. We should give him a quick celebration."
"What flavor?" Se-mi holds out her phone for everyone to see.
"Strawberry," says Gina. "Since he likes pink."
"That's your logic?" asks Bo-ra dryly.
Ki-hoon shrugs. Sounds as good as anything. "Go for it, Se-mi."
She beams. "Done."
Somehow, the "Throw A Birthday Celebration For Guildmaster Choi" team multiplies by lunchtime. Someone had overheard Ki-hoon making plans, or the information had leaked— either way, it seems half the guild knows about it now.
The guildmaster, thankfully, had left hours ago for the gate— and everyone who's approached Ki-hoon has been sworn to secrecy. There's a mutual understanding, anyways: keep it a surprise. Just a fun thing for the guildmaster, since it's his birthday.
(Evidently, no one else knew about this either. Ki-hoon doesn't know whether to feel reassured or mildly concerned about that fact. Seriously, have none of them ever looked up him online?)
But regardless, more people come to help, and preparations are a lot easier— albeit also more chaotic— with more hands on deck. In addition to the cake, someone orders twenty whole boxes of donuts. Someone else hauls an electric keyboard into the break room. One of the secretaries is going around, attempting to teach people how to harmonize for the birthday song. It's loud. It's chaotic. Ki-hoon cannot wait for the guildmaster to walk into this scene.
He sets up the cake on the table. Se-mi hadn't requested any writing, so it's a nice, simple strawberry-flavored cake. Gina, however, has other plans, and she acquires icing from a nearby store to write, in shaky lettering, Congrats, you're old.
Ki-hoon attempts to stop her, which goes poorly. Someone asks, faintly concerned, if that's offensive to say— to which Gina replies, "Maybe, but I doubt he'll care." Which is probably true.
So the icing stays. Napkins are acquired, along with various other bits of decor. The break room looks like a mess, and Ki-hoon knows it'll be hell to clean up, but. It's worth it. He takes a good, long look at the room and smiles to himself.
A few minutes later, Gina marches into the room and hops onto a chair to yell, "He's on his way! Everyone in their positions!"
All of Ki-hoon's confidence in the plan takes a jump right out the window. They have positions? This is the first he's hearing about this. What's his position? On the ground begging for mercy? Wait—
Footsteps echo from the hallway. That's Guildmaster Choi. Guildmaster Choi is walking towards the break room, his voice getting louder by the second. He's saying something about gates, hunting gear— Ki-hoon has no time to listen. He has to get into his position, whatever the hell that is.
Gina grabs him by the shoulders and manhandles— womanhandles?— him towards the central table. She steers him to stand firmly next to the cake and pats his arm. "You're doing the speech. Good luck."
… He forgot that there needs to be a speech.
Ki-hoon clears his throat and tries to look like a normal, competent man just as the door opens and Guildmaster Choi steps into the room.
The person on the keyboard plays a loud, dramatic chord. Guildmaster Choi pauses. He takes a slow look around the room, unblinking, his expression perfectly flat and neutral.
The chord continues. Perks of an electric keyboard, Ki-hoon supposes. Guildmaster Choi's perfect poker face cracks, revealing bemusement underneath.
He finally seems to notice the cake, and he blinks. He looks the most confused Ki-hoon has ever seen, which Ki-hoon will take as a sign the plan had succeeded.
"Oh," says Guildmaster Choi. "Well. This is unexpected."
The entire room bursts into song. It's terrible. Half the room is desperately attempting to harmonize while the other half is singing in every possible key. The pianist, bless them, is unsuccessfully trying to save it with even louder, even more dramatic chords.
It's everything Ki-hoon could've wanted in a birthday song, really. He sings as loud as he can, not really trying to match anyone, and tries not to giggle when Guildmaster Choi's mouth twitches before he flattens it again, as if trying to maintain his composure.
"That was lovely," he says, when the last few stragglers have stopped holding out the last note. "Is now an appropriate time to applaud?"
"Happy birthday, Guildmaster," Ki-hoon says, and tries not to flush when Guildmaster Choi's gaze lands on him. "We, uh, we just wanted to surprise you with something, since it's your birthday. I hope you like strawberry. And cake. If not we can get something else— there's also donuts, or I could run to the bakery myself, and—"
Guildmaster Choi holds up a hand, and Ki-hoon snaps his mouth shut. His chest warms at the expression on Choi's face— the soft, genuine smile he directs at the room at large.
"Thank you all," he says, quiet and earnest. "This is a lovely surprise."
Yeah, Ki-hoon thinks, as Guildmaster Choi accepts the plastic knife that Se-mi hands to him and laughs at the icing on the cake. This was a good idea.
He's never seen the guildmaster look so relaxed, so carefree. Maybe this celebration really has helped him take his mind off things. Ki-hoon smiles, proud. Even if it's only for a few minutes, he's glad he was able to get Guildmaster Choi to relax. He deserves it, on his birthday.
Guildmaster Choi takes one slice of cake and leaves the rest for the group. He spends another half hour there, talking to people, fielding congratulations from what seems like at least a fourth of the guild. His smile stays small but genuine the whole time. Not that Ki-hoon was watching, of course— he's a normal man, after all. A normal man with normal feelings about the guildmaster.
"You're such a simp," Gina comments, and elbows him. "Good job, Captain."
"Stop," Ki-hoon grumbles, and gently shoves her back. "I told you not to call me that outside of work."
"We are at work," she points out, amused. "And you organized this whole thing. I'd say you deserve the title."
"Did you, now?"
Ki-hoon nearly jumps out of his skin. On instinct, he snaps his hand up to salute, only for Guildmaster Choi to chuckle and shake his head.
Gina's laughing again. Thoroughly flustered, Ki-hoon lowers his hand and squeaks, "Guildmaster, sir! Hello! Happy birthday. Was the cake, uh, okay? It wasn't too sweet, right?"
"No, it was perfect," says Choi, smiling gently. "Thank you for organizing it. This really was a very nice surprise."
Ki-hoon swallows and smiles back, which takes a stupid amount of effort considering he does want to smile. The guildmaster's presence just makes it a tad difficult to function properly, sometimes. Maybe Gina's right, but— whatever. He can fight her about it later.
"No need to thank me, sir," he says. "It's your birthday. I'm just glad you're enjoying it. I hope you and your partner have an amazing time this weekend, too."
"Thank you. We will," says the guildmaster, thoughtfully. Then he pats Ki-hoon on the shoulder, his eyes falling shut as his smile widens. "Yoon-ho likes seafood, so we'll be trying out a new restaurant that opened downtown. I'm excited."
Ki-hoon freezes. "H-huh? Did you just say— as in Baek Yoon-ho? The guildmaster of the White Tigers?"
Guildmaster Choi is already drifting away. "Perhaps I'll have a donut," he says thoughtfully, as if he hadn't just said— whatever the hell that was. He's dating Guildmaster Baek? Was that joke? How many people named Yoon-ho are there?
"Guildmaster," Ki-hoon calls. No, he needs answers, because what? "Guildmaster, I—"
"A donut, please. Yes, thank you."
Guildmaster Choi looks over his shoulder and winks smoothly at Ki-hoon. Ki-hoon immediately drops his paper plate.
"Dude," says Gina. "What's wrong with you?"
"Yeah, you look kind of weird," says Bo-ra, appearing on his left. "What's the matter."
Ki-hoon is still staring after the guildmaster. He did that on purpose, didn't he? Of course he would.
"I," Ki-hoon says slowly, "have some news for you guys. Let's wait until everyone's left— and you'd better sit down."