Birthday

The sunlight peeking through the window wakes me up. I open my eyes to see Taeyoung still asleep beside me.

Today is his birthday. It's been a little while since we were at his parents and Taeyoung has seemed very relieved after his father's talk with him. He walks with a slight bounce in his step, and he smiles even more than before. I guess their problematic relationship was holding him down this whole time.

I stare at his peaceful face for a while, admiring how it looks with the light casting shapes on his skin. I trace his lips with my fingers and adjust myself so my elbows rest on either side of him. He stirs a bit as I continue to trace his features. Eventually, he groans and his eyes flutter. They open, immediately looking into my own. Before he has time to talk, I kiss his lips with a smile. He smiles in return.

"What a nice way to wake up," he groans.

"Happy birthday," I sing as I place my hands on his jaw.

"Oh? Are you giving me my present already?"

I laugh, "what?"

His arms come around me and his mouth reaches upwards to touch mine again. After a while of our mouths moving slowly over each other, he sits up. He adjusts me on his lap as his lips continue to dance over mine. I giggle at him and hold onto his face. He is shirtless still, a result of last night's activities.

Because it's his birthday, I don't complain when he takes off my shirt, like he did last night. I let him do whatever he likes with me.

***

It takes a long time to get out of bed, and when I go into the bathroom to wash up, Taeyoung ends up following me like a large shadow.

"Not my fault I need to shower too," he exclaims with a mischevious smile on his face.

"Do you ever get tired?" I ask, completely dumbstruck by the boy's insane libido today.

It's hard to wipe away the seemingly permanent redness on my cheeks once I leave the shower, however this time it's from laughing uncontrollably the whole time from Taeyoung's childish antics. But even so, my lips feel as swollen as I'm sure they look from earlier.

I walk into the kitchen, now focusing on breakfast. Minjun and Junwoo are sitting down with expressionless faces. Once I walk in, they turn their heads to look at me with annoyed expressions. My smile falls.

"What?"

Taeyoung walks into the kitchen with a goofy smile on his face. He hugs me from behind and quickly kisses my neck. I lightly push him away, staring at the two boys in confusion.

"What?" I ask again.

"I get that it's your birthday Taeyoung," the boy behind me looks up in shock. "But can you two please be quiet. It's not even 10 AM yet," Minjun groans. Junwoo all of a sudden shivers, a dazed look on his face.

My jaw opens in humiliation and I pull away from Taeyoung. "N-nothing happened!" I say in reference to our shower, completely ignoring what happened before that. Taeyoung just sticks his tongue out at them and they groan once again.

I hurriedly move around the kitchen, frantically taking out frying pans and ingredients in an attempt to distract my mind from the fact that they heard us; or really, heard me. Taeyoung sits between the two tired boys, carrying a conversation about some new game Junwoo got. I continue to make breakfast, a promise I made to Taeyoung. He wanted bacon and eggs, Western style, so I had gone to the international supermarket and found bacon that was from Canada. It was expensive, but it'll be worth it.

The kitchen is soon filled with the sizzling sounds of bacon frying and boys laughing.

"Noona, why does it smell so good?" Junwoo asks with his nose in the air and eyes half closed.

"Welcome to the world of Canadian bacon."

Taeyoung gets up and comes around to look at what's cooking. His head comes down onto the top of mine, his arms wrapping around me.

I lift a small piece of bacon above my head. "Taste it, is it cooked enough?"

I feel his jaw move up and down on top of my head. His head leaves mine to turn me around.

"This is what bacon is supposed to taste like?" His eyes are wide open, lips shining with the bacon grease.

I laugh at his dramatic behaviour and kiss his lips.

"Oh?" Junwoo says from behind us. "Noona, why are you on my screen?"

Taeyoung and I turn around at the same time. Junwoo is staring at his phone intently. Minjun leans over to look at the screen as well. His face lights up. "Sohee-yah!"

I begin to feel nerves creep up my spine. I quickly move to see what they're looking at. When I look at his phone, I see a familiar sight. Taeyoung, with the grey hair he had a while ago, dressed in a silk dress shirt. The weird thing is that someone who strangely looks like me is also in the photo, standing in front of him with a smile on her face. It's an advertisement for the clothing line we modelled for last month, names of the pieces we are wearing written in small white font on the bottom.

"Wait. Taeyoung?" I ask without looking up. This person is me, an altered, beautiful looking version of me. But weren't they supposed to re-do the shoot?

When I look up, Taeyoung has a small smile on his face, as if he already knows.

"Wait, did you know about this?"

He merely shrugs his shoulders as he walks around to look at the photo.

"Oh, I like that one," he simply says. Junwoo screenshots the advertisement before searching the clothing brand on Naver. The website shows more of our photos, including the one where Taeyoung lays with his head on my lap. The sensual look on my face shocks me; did I actually look like that?

"Ooh, Noona, look at you!"

"Let me see," Minjun grabs his phone and Junwoo yells at him in annoyance.

"Oppa, what is this?" My eyebrows are crossed in confusion.

"Surprise?" He gives me a goofy smile. I lightly hit his arm as I move back to the stove. I can't let the breakfast burn.

"Explain yourself."

"They ended up liking our photos so much that they wanted to use them, and since you signed that waiver, they were able to. They asked me to run it by you but I wanted it to be a surprise."

Why the hell would they like photos with a beyond amateur model in it?

"They liked the chemistry between us," he wiggles his eyebrows at me. "Oh yeah, the agency needs your banking information so they can send you the money when it comes in."

"What?" I look at him with wide eyes.

"You thought you wouldn't get paid for having your face in advertisements?" He looks at me like I'm stupid.

I pout my lips and look away. "They're not going to try and recruit me are they?" I mumble to myself.

"Sohee, they already know you don't want to model. But if you ever change your mind I'm sure they'll take you in easily."

No, not my thing. But I guess having the extra cash from that photo shoot will be nice.

I slide the bacon onto a plate and soak the grease with paper towels. Then I fill a plate with hash browns, and another with fried eggs. Once I place the dishes on the island table, all three boys stare at them with open mouths.

"Take what you want," I say.

Immediately they start grabbing bacon with their chopsticks, fighting each other to take more than the other. I sit down to Taeyoung and take my share.

We eat all together, enjoying hot breakfast on a sunny winter day. The boys give Taeyoung thier presents, and I give him mine as well. Not surprisingly, they're all music related. Max and Koko come over as well, and we all end up in the living area watching Taeyoung's favourite movies.

Now I'm sitting on the floor between Taeyoung's legs, with Koko sitting on the couch  up beside me and Max beside her. The two other boys yell at each other about what the main character of the movie is going to do next, which eventually leads to Minjun throwing popcorn at the younger boy in annoyance.

I can't help but smile at this moment.

But even now there is a lingering darkness in the pit of my stomach, something that sometimes washes over my mind in a split second, causing me to daze out of the window, my smile slowly melting down into a frown.

But it always disappears once I feel Taeyoung move against me.

. . .

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Love,

Sooaura