Normal... Right?

by Pochaccomongmong

Summary:

You think you know someone.

You think you do, until you realize you don’t.

 

How could I be so blind?

 

He never expected this kind of betrayal. Not from his best friends. Not from his family…

It turns out that the very people you love more than anything in this world are the ones that will hurt you the most.

Notes:

Hello wonderful readers!
This is my first time posting a fic and I am so very excited to be sharing it with you! I'm not sure if it's any good, but I think it's worth it to get it out here and see what people think!
I will mention that it is possible I may rework this story at some point. There's a chance I may look over it again and want to fix possible issues with pacing and whatnot.
Other than that, I hope you all enjoy this work! I'll try to upload when I can, but I make no promises for certain days or times. Please don't hesitate to leave a comment letting me know what you think of the story so far! I would love to hear your thoughts, and it would definitely be greatly appreciated. I can't wait to see where this first post will lead me!
Happy reading! ❤️

Chapter 1: The End of Normal

Seungmin is just a normal person with a normal schedule and normal friends. Well, except for the fact that he’s a kpop idol and his closest friends are his fellow members. That part is a bit more exciting than normal. But still, he’s normal considering his circumstances.

His normal schedule consists of waking up in the morning, eating a good breakfast (because breakfast is the most important meal of the day), going to work, having lunch, hanging out with his friends (aka his members), going home, eating dinner, and going to bed, just to wake up the next morning and do it all over again. Nothing too special.

His personality is pretty normal too. He’s on the quieter side, but one of his favorite things to do is to tease and mess with his members. His hyungs get the worst of it of course. He has to be a good hyung to his only dongsaeng in the group after all. He takes advantage of being the second youngest of the group, knowing that this means he has maknae privileges without having to actually be the maknae of the group. Most of the cuddles and cuteness aggression of his members goes to Jeongin, but he gets out of trouble easily because he is one of the youngest of the group. It’s great.

So as you can see, his life is pretty normal, and that makes him feel at ease. Having a routine, knowing that things are just as they should be. He is happy as long as things stay that way.

He continues on with his normal life, feeling good and having fun with his members, even feeling a bit excited because his birthday is coming up. Life is good. Until everything comes crashing down on him.

 

—

 

It starts like any one of his normal days. He wakes up at 8:30, gets out of bed, washes his face and brushes his teeth, changes his clothes for the day, and then heads to the kitchen for breakfast. This is where things start to seem weird .

Usually he’ll go into the kitchen, still empty and quiet because Felix sleeps a bit later than Seungmin does. He’ll make himself some coffee, find some food, and sit at the table, slowly eating and sipping at his coffee until eventually Felix comes out of his room, completely disheveled as if he’d just rolled out of bed. Then, he’ll join Seungmin at the table with his own food and a glass of juice.

This morning however, things went nothing like that.

This morning when Seungmin leaves his room, Felix is already in the kitchen, fully dressed and ready for the day. Not only that, but he’s already eaten, putting his empty plate and cup in the sink to be washed later.

Weird .

Seungmin stands at the entrance to the kitchen for a moment, frozen in confusion. Eventually he snaps out of it and walks into the kitchen, trying to go about his day as he normally would even if Felix is doing things a little differently.

He speaks with a small, teasing smile on his face. “You decide to get an early start for a change Lix hyung?”

Felix doesn’t look at him as he replies, voice lacking its usual bright and bubbly warmth.

“Something like that.”

Seungmin looks at him, quietly wondering if he might have done something to upset Felix. He shrugs it off though, assuming he might’ve slept poorly or something. But he had this feeling in the back of his mind…

“Oh, okay. Well… Have a good day then.”

Felix doesn’t respond, already leaving the kitchen before Seungmin could even finish his sentence.

 

—

 

The next few days are… Strange. Normal is nowhere to be seen as Seungmin quickly notices that it’s not just Felix that’s acting off. It’s everyone. Every time he enters the room where his members are, it gets quiet. They’ve all been acting cold towards him, barely saying anything to him if they speak to him at all. When they do speak their voices are sharp and even harsh at times. He doesn’t know what he’s done to upset them, but Seungmin, the one in the group who can usually be counted on to be confident in himself, is afraid of the answer he might get if he asks.

Did I go too far with the teasing? What if they decided that I’m annoying or too hard to deal with? What if they kick me out of the group? Can they do that? Would I even want to stay if I’m not wanted, or-

“Seungmin, come on let’s go.”

Seungmin snaps out of his spiraling thoughts at the sound of a cold voice, all too familiar after the last couple of days. It’s almost as if it’s the new normal. He looks up to see Minho staring at him blankly as always. You can never really tell what he’s thinking, and his voice can come across harshly to people who aren’t too familiar with him. But Seungmin hasn’t been able to tell if he’s imagining the way he seems to be genuinely annoyed by him lately. It feels as if as his thoughts get worse, so does the way his members seem to speak to and look at him. Seungmin doesn’t really know what to think anymore. Everything feels wrong.

“What?”

Minho sighs heavily and raises an eyebrow at him. When he speaks he sounds bothered by the fact that Seungmin didn’t know what was happening.

“Let’s go. We’re all sharing a couple vans back to the dorms, so unless you want to walk back to yours I suggest you hurry up and get going with the rest of us.”

With that he huffs and turns on his heel, joining the others as they leave the dance studio.

Seungmin gets up quickly, feeling his shirt still sticking to him after the intense dance practice they just had. He grabs his bag and slings it over his shoulder, then picks up his water bottle before jogging out the door. He catches up to the rest of the group but hangs back a bit, hearing them joking around and laughing with each other. He knows that if he joins the group fully it’ll stop, and if he’s being honest he kinda misses the sounds of their laughter. He misses just being with them without feeling anxious and excluded. It’s only been a few days, but it feels like years, and he really doesn't know what to do about it. Seungmin thrives in his normal life, his normal routine. But that normal doesn’t seem to exist for Seungmin anymore.

They reach the vans that are going to be taking them home and Seungmin climbs into the very back, wanting to stay out of everyone’s way. Once he’s settled into his seat he leans against the window, looking outside as he now tries to block out the quiet, happy chatter around him.

As the van starts moving he tries to empty his mind, but he can’t stop his brain from thinking. He thinks about the last few days. He thinks about his members. He thinks about why he can withstand all the hateful comments about him online, but when his members push him aside for a few days he can’t stop himself from overthinking every little thing he might have done. It shouldn’t make sense, but it also does in a weird, messed up way. Of course the opinions that actually mean something to him would be the ones held by those closest to him.

Seungmin sighs quietly and closes his eyes, feeling exhausted because of everything that has changed in such a short amount of time. It seems that he may have taken normal for granted, and now that it’s gone, well… He’s definitely struggling.

They finally reach the building where their dorms are and Seungmin gets out of the van after everyone else. He follows Felix to the door of their place quietly, just wanting to shower and curl up in bed. If anything is still normal, it’s the comfort that his warm bed gives him. That at least hasn’t changed and it helps him feel a little better at the end of the day. Felix unlocks the door and walks in before Seungmin, taking off his shoes at the entrance and dropping his keys and phone on the kitchen counter as he walks to his room. Seungmin takes his shoes off as well, and as he heads to his room to put his stuff down, Felix leaves his room with a change of clothes and enters the bathroom to shower. Seungmin stops walking, staring at the closed bathroom door and internally sighing as he realizes he’s gonna have to wait until Felix is done to take a shower. Okay, well... It is what it is.

Just as he starts moving towards his room again, he hears faint buzzing sounds, short and continuous. He looks around, trying to figure out what it is. That’s when he sees it. Felix’s phone is still on the kitchen counter. Seungmin stares at it for a moment, debating with himself. He doesn’t want to invade one of his members' privacy, but… This could potentially give him answers that he’s been too afraid to ask his members for.

He stands there for a few minutes, listening to the faint sound of the shower as he deals with his internal conflict. Felix usually takes awhile in the shower after dance practices as heavy as this one, probably using the hot water to properly unwind. Seungmin has time. He finally makes a decision. He turns and walks into his room, dropping his bag on the floor next to his desk. Then he walks right back out of his room and to the kitchen before he can chicken out and change his mind. He stares at the phone, still buzzing with messages. He feels nervous, his hands shaky as he reaches out to grab the phone. He takes a few deep breaths, trying (unsuccessfully) to calm his pounding heart. Then he does it. He flips the phone over so the screen is facing him, puts in the passcode that Felix trusted all of his members with, and opens the message thread that is blowing up.

The 7 Dwarfs

 

Happy (Felix)

- Taking a shower as soon as I get inside, I’ll catch up on the chat when I’m out

 

Doc (Chan)

- Okay Lixie, take your time :)

 

Dopey (Han)

- okay gang how are we gonna keep seungmin away from us tomorrow

 

Sneezy (Changbin)

- Wow, straight to business then I guess

 

Dopey (Han)

- im just trying to get things done

- theres too much to do and if we dont figure it out he’ll just slow us down

 

Grumpy (Minho)

- Hannie is right, we can’t have him getting in the way.

 

Bashful (Hyunjin)

- Is someone gonna have to stay with him? Cause if that’s the case then I don’t wanna do it.

- My creative skills can be put to much better use

 

Doc (Chan)

- I would offer but I don’t trust you guys to do things properly without supervision… :|

 

Grumpy (Minho)

- Yah, I’ll be there!!

 

Doc (Chan)

- Minho, I’m afraid I’ll return to 6 unalived children.

 

Grumpy (Minho)

- …

 

Dopey (Han)

- that lack of an answer from minho hyung scares me

- dont leave us to his mercy channie hyung!

 

Sleepy (Jeongin)

- ig I can stay with him if no one else wants to

 

Bashful (Hyunjin)

- Awwww, our sweet baby always so thoughtful

 

Sneezy (Changbin)

- Okay, so it’s settled then?

- Jeongin is gonna keep Seungmin away so we can get things done in peace without worrying about him coming in and messing everything up

 

 

You think you know someone.

You think you do, until you realize you don’t.

How could I be so blind?

He never expected this kind of betrayal. Not from his best friends. Not from his family…

It turns out that the very people you love more than anything in this world are the ones that will hurt you the most.

Seungmin drops the phone on the counter, unable to keep reading even though messages are still coming through, though at a much slower rate now. He feels like he can’t breathe. Is this real? Is he really just a burden to them? It seems like he’s just holding them back. He really doesn’t know anything anymore.

Shaking and feeling a strange sense of emptiness in his chest, Seungmin walks to his room. He closes the door. He lays down in bed pulling the covers up over him, not caring that he’s still in his sweaty practice clothes. He lies there, unable to sleep. Trembling and unable to move. Feeling like his world has turned upside down. Knowing that his world has crumbled around him, leaving him with nothing but the hollow remains of destruction.

He was wrong about everything.

There really is no more normal.

Chapter 2: Blind

Summary:

All eyes turn to Minho as they process what he just said. And then it hits them. It really hits them.

That maybe they did do things wrong.

Maybe they really messed up.

And now they’re sitting helplessly, surrounded by reminders of their failure.

Notes:

Hello hello my wonderful readers!!!
Here is chapter 2... I'm ngl, there's a part of me that really doesn't like the way this fic is coming out for some reason but... Idk... LOL... It is what it is ig.
Well, regardless of how I feel about it, I hope you enjoy it at least! 😄
Anyways, don't forget to leave a comment and tell me what you think!
Happy reading! ❤️

It all started about a week before Seungmin’s birthday.

Minho, Hyunjin, and Han were hanging out at the “Minsung” dorm when the topic of Seungmin’s birthday came up. Han spoke first, words fast and excited.

“Oh, hyungs before I forget, I was thinking about how it’s gonna be Seungmin’s birthday and I thought it would be fun to do a little surprise party for him! Especially since we always do a bigger party for Lix and I since we practically share a birthday, I thought it would be nice to properly celebrate Seungmin.”

Minho stares at Han as he finishes talking, then speaks next, voice thoughtful as he remembers the joint birthday celebration they held for Han and Felix just yesterday. “It does feel like we never really try as hard with Seungmin since all of your birthdays are so close together…”

Hyunjin joins in, voicing his own thoughts, already freaking out over their revelation. “I never thought about that… Oh no, I feel bad now. Do you think that makes him feel bad? I hope he doesn’t think we don’t care.”

Minho shakes his head, taking the role of the “voice of reason”. “I don’t think he feels bad about it. You have to remember that he’s probably the most level-headed out of all of us.”

Han nods. “You’re right. And in any case, we can really show him how much we care this year!”

The other two agree and they get to work planning how to do it without Seungmin finding out since the eight of them are almost always together. They start by opening a new group chat, which after much thinking with their one shared brain cell and lots of giggling, they called “The 7 Dwarves” because they’re short kings. They make sure to exclude Seungmin so they can tell the others of their idea and talk about party planning.

Once the others know the plan, the three of them come up with another bright idea. They decide that in order to keep Seungmin off their trail since he is so observant, they are going to ignore him a little. He’s pretty secure with himself and never seems too bothered when he’s had disagreements with any of them. Besides, it won’t be too much, and they really need to keep some distance between him and the rest of the group until the day of the party comes so he won’t find out and the surprise won’t be ruined. They decide it’s a good idea and tell the others through the group chat immediately. After some convincing (for Chan of course, always the worried leader), they get everyone to agree and the plan is set in motion starting the next day.

 

—

 

The first day of the plan is hard for Felix. He gets up earlier than he usually does because the seven of them planned to have a quick meet up at Chan and Jeongin’s dorm to discuss a few things in person. Just as he's finishing up his breakfast, Seungmin walks into the kitchen. Felix notices him pausing for a moment, his eyes bright with confusion as he takes in the image of a fully dressed and ready to go Felix putting his dishes in the sink. Before he can think anything of it though, Seungmin smiles his usual teasing smile and speaks.

“You decide to get an early start for a change Lix hyung?”

Felix almost turns and responds as he normally would, but he hesitates when he remembers the plan that Minho, Hyunjin, and Han had come up with the day before. He takes a breath and steels himself, making his voice as flat as he possibly can and not looking at Seungmin for fear of him seeing right through the act he was putting on. It was still hard though, treating his friend and roommate this way.

Come on, it's just a few days… If you don't do this the whole surprise will be ruined…

“Something like that.”

His words are cold and they feel wrong coming out of his mouth. Before he can turn around and apologize, Felix is walking out of the kitchen to the door of their apartment. He can hear Seungmin responding as he walks away, but he doesn't stop.

“Oh, okay. Well… Have a-...”

The door slams behind Felix as he leaves the dorm.

 

—

 

The meetup between the 7 of them at Chan and Jeongin's dorm is loud, but productive. They decide when they're going to surprise Seungmin, making sure all of their schedules are cleared for that day. The only one with something on their schedule for that day is Seungmin, and it's only for the morning so they can get things set up in his and Felix’s place. They decide on decor, music, dinner, and a cake. It seems like they have pretty much everything they need planned out. With that they finish up their meeting and head out to their individual duties for the day, all of them filled with determination and buzzing with excitement.

 

—

 

Over the next few days the 7 of them keep up with their “ignore Seungmin so he doesn’t suspect the surprise party” agenda. It seems to be going well. There have been a few times where they will be talking excitedly about the party with hushed voices and Seungmin will walk in unexpectedly. They stop talking immediately when it happens, their postures rigid and nervous as they silently hope and pray that he didn’t hear what they were talking about. He hasn’t said anything, so as far as they can tell everything is going according to plan.

Seungmin has been a bit quieter than usual, but he was already one of the quieter members before so it goes almost unnoticed for a while. Eventually it’s mentioned by a few of the members at different times, but they all brush it off saying that “it won’t last long”, “it’s almost his birthday”, and “he’ll be fine”.

So they just keep doing what they’re doing, quieting down when Seungmin enters the room, not talking to him as they usually do, isolating him in hopes that they can give him the best birthday they’ve ever given him.

 

—

 

Minho takes a deep breath and a few sips of water before putting his water bottle into his bag and picking it up. He can feel beads of sweat slowly trickling down his face and neck, soaking into the collar of his shirt. Ugh. He just wants to get home and shower.

Just before he walks out of the dance practice room with the rest of the group he sees a small figure sitting against the wall out of the corner of his eye. He turns his head fully and sees Seungmin sitting there, knees pressed against his heaving chest, face and shirt soaked in sweat. Seems like he fared the intense dance practice just as the rest of them did. Minho wants to make a snarky remark about it but he has to keep up the (extra) indifferent, uncaring facade.

He notices that Seungmin obviously hasn’t realized that they’re all leaving, so he tries to alert him to this fact.

“Seungmin,” he calls, loud enough for him to hear. When Seungmin doesn’t have any kind of reaction to his voice he feels a small crease forming between his eyebrows. All the ways Seungmin has been acting off in the days they’ve been treating him differently start going through his head and he can feel a small frown tugging at the corners of his lips. He walks towards the boy, schooling his expression as he always does, and stops when he’s standing in front of him. He still doesn’t react to Minho’s presence and this makes Minho worry a little more. But he can’t risk Seungmin finding out… So he acts as normally as he can. It helps that he’s naturally somewhat indifferent with all of the members, so maybe this will give Seungmin some small peace of mind if he needs it.

“Seungmin, come on let’s go.”

Finally he reacts, his whole body jerking as he looks up to find the source of the voice speaking directly to him. He looks dazed. Confused as he stares at Minho.

“What?”

Minho watches him carefully with an eyebrow raised questioningly, and sighs before speaking again.

“Let’s go. We’re all sharing a couple vans back to the dorms, so unless you want to walk back to yours I suggest you hurry up and get going with the rest of us.”

He speaks just as he would if no one was hiding anything from Seungmin, and he sincerely hopes that it helps him in some way. He wishes he could ask what’s wrong, wishes he could drop the mask that he always has on and the one that he has to have on now. But he can’t risk letting the others down, not when they’re so close to this damn party. It’s tomorrow, he can wait one more day. It’ll be fine.

Before Seungmin can respond he lets out a deep breath and turns around, joining the other members as they leave the studio, knowing that Seungmin will likely be right behind them.

But…

None of them notice how Seungmin hangs back, keeping his distance from the group.

None of them notice how Seungmin longingly watches them laughing and talking to each other.

None of them realize just how deeply their actions are affecting him.

 

—

 

Once they arrive at their dorm Felix unlocks and opens the door, leaving it open for the quiet Seungmin trailing behind him. He kicks off his shoes and sends a quick text to the Seven Dwarfs group chat, then drops his phone and keys on the kitchen counter, forgetting about them in favor of a nice hot shower. Moving quickly he goes into his room, drops his bag on his bed, grabs a change of clothes, and leaves his room to get to the bathroom. He barely even sees Seungmin heading to his room as he closes the door behind him and starts the shower, quickly undressing and stepping into the hot stream of water.

He sighs once he’s in there, feeling his muscles relax and the sweat he was covered in slowly coming off of his body and swirling down into the drain. While he’s there he also takes a moment to think about how tomorrow is finally the day. He feels excitement filling him and imagines the big hug he’s gonna give Seungmin when they surprise him. He misses hugging Seungmin. But it’s gotta be worth it if they can do something to make him feel happy and loved.

With that thought he quickly finishes his shower and gets out so Seungmin can have his turn. When he leaves the bathroom he expects to see Seungmin waiting in the living room with a playfully annoyed look on his face, mumbling about how he took so long in the shower like he always is. But when he looks around the room is silent and empty. He doesn’t even see light coming from under the door to Seungmin’s room.

Maybe he was just tired?

A buzzing sound catches Felix’s attention and he turns away from Seungmin’s room. He doesn’t knock to let him know that he’s finished with the shower, not wanting to bother him if he’s asleep. If he’s awake he should be able to hear that the shower stopped anyways.

Felix follows the buzzing to the kitchen counter, finally remembering the phone that he had left abandoned. He picks it up and scrolls through the texts he had missed during his shower. It’s just everyone talking about how to distract Seungmin tomorrow for extra time after his schedule so they all have time to set everything up. The texts have moved off the party topic for now and Felix is too exhausted to keep up, so he puts a thumbs up on a text Changbin sent summarizing the plan for Jeongin to keep Seungmin occupied, and goes to his room.

With that he plugs his phone in, flops into bed, and falls asleep.

 

—

 

The day is finally here.

Felix waits for Seungmin to leave the dorm for his schedule this morning before leaving his room. Once he hears the front door close, signaling Seungmins absence, Felix leaves his room, checks all the rooms just in case, and then sends a text to the group chat letting all the guys know that they can come over with the party supplies. While he waits for them to arrive he changes and eats a quick breakfast.

Everyone slowly shows up in pairs, each person carrying boxes or bags of party related things. There are gifts, streamers, balloons, confetti, pretty much everything that could be used for a surprise birthday party. They really tried to go all out for Seungmin this year. They all chat excitedly as they get to work, hanging the streamers, blowing up balloons, and putting up a big “Happy Birthday” banner on the wall, placed just so it is the first thing that someone would see when walking into the apartment. They admire their work as they go, feeling more and more giddy as the hours pass.

Seungmin should be just about done with his work for the day, so it’s finally time for Jeongin to take care of distracting him for about another hour. While he takes care of that the others can finish up final details like picking up the cake and getting things prepped to make Seungmin’s favorite food (though everyone already knows that Minho is DEFINITELY not going to allow anyone to help with the food).

Jeongin pulls out his phone to text Seungmin.

Puppy Hyung 🐶

 

Jeongin:

- hey hyung wanna get some lunch when youre finished at the company? 

Jeongin waits for a response, checking his phone after a few minutes. The text is marked as read… So why isn’t he responding?

Puppy Hyung 🐶

 

Jeongin:

- hey hyung wanna get some lunch when youre finished at the company? 

 

- hyung?

- is everything alright?

Jeongin waits a few more minutes for a response, seeing the next 2 messages being marked as read, with still no response. He stares at his phone, unsure of what to do.

“Umm… Guys?”

Immediately the others look at him, hearing his strange, concerned tone. Chan speaks up first, a worried look on his face.

“What’s wrong Innie?”

Jeongin looks up at him.

“I don’t know, but Seungmin isn’t responding. He’s just… Leaving me on read?”

The others look at each other, some with confused, questioning expressions, others with nervous, almost guilty looks on their faces. No one speaks for a bit. No one knows exactly what to do. Do they wait to see if Seungmin will show up? Wait to see if he eventually responds to Jeongin? No one really knows right now.

Once they start speaking again they come to an agreement. They’ll wait. Maybe he’ll respond or show up soon.

And so, they do just that. They wait.

 

—

 

Hours pass. It’s dark out. Seungmin hasn’t come home. They’ve all texted and called, trying to find out where he is. But no response comes. All of their calls go to voicemail and after Jeongin’s texts earlier none of their messages are marked read. They’re at a loss.

Someone speaks up in the midst of their concern, saying what some of them were too afraid to.

“Do you think… We made a mistake by pushing him away for the party?”

All eyes turn to Minho as they process what he just said. And then it hits them. It really hits them.

That maybe they did do things wrong.

Maybe they really messed up.

And now they’re sitting helplessly, surrounded by reminders of their failure.

Notes:

So... We can see that Seungmin is somewhat of an unreliable narrator in the first chapter. His ways of perceiving certain actions by his members were definitely affected by his thoughts and feelings (even though his members were clearly being pabos)... Poor Seungmin... 😭

Chapter 3: Happy Birthday...

Summary:

For a moment he wishes he could stay here forever. He wishes he could just exist in this little bubble where time feels as if it’s standing still and a quiet calm settles around you, only interrupted by the soft sounds of nature. It would be so much easier to just cease to exist everywhere but here, to feel his problems and worries dissolve around him.

But he can’t just disappear. He can’t let go of his responsibilities. And he has to face his problems again at some point.

For now though, he can stay in this peaceful bubble he’s made for himself. He can pretend for a while longer that nothing outside of this moment exists.

Notes:

Hello hello my wonderful readers! 😄
I hope you are all doing amazing today wherever you are!
Really quickly, I know I've been uploading this fic on Wednesdays, but I think I'm changing it to Fridays to make things a bit easier on myself. It's because I have 3 different fics I'm working on at the same time, so this way I have more/better time to write for each fic (Uploading one fic on Mondays, another on Wednesdays, and this one on Fridays). So yeah. I hope that makes sense. If not, I apologize. Hehe...
Anywaysss, here's a fun little question for you guys: Have you or anyone you know had to have your wisdom teeth removed?
I thought of asking because yesterday I went to the dentist for some jaw pain (and a general checkup/cleaning ofc) and found out that it's because of my wisdom teeth! Sooo, I have to have all 4 of them removed... Blegh... But yeah, if y'all have any funny stories of you or someone you know being loopy afterwards, feel free to share. Honestly, I hope that if I do anything funny after I'm done with the removal my parents record it. Cause... Idk, maybe it'll add some levity to the situation. And memories yk. LOL. So if my writing gets worse anytime soon, just know it's because I'm losing all of my wisdom... (I'm so sorry, I had to. I'm a sucker for bad jokes 🤷🏻‍♀️😭)

Okay, okay, enough of all the randomness! I'm a pro yapper when I get into it.
I really hope y'all enjoy this chapter! I think that so far this is my favorite one? I'm not quite sure, but I definitely resonate with something in this one.
Also, I genuinely demolished my own heart with the cupcake. 🧁🥲
Alrighty, I'll let you get to the story now. As always, feel free to leave a comment! I absolutely LOVE hearing what you guys think and getting to respond.
Stay safe out there wherever you are!
Happy reading! ❤️

Seungmin opens his eyes, the bright morning light making him squint. He’s still tired, wishing he could just lay in bed all day after the night he had. He hadn’t fallen asleep until late last night… Or should he say until early this morning? Anyways, he heard the water of Felix’s shower turn off, and then nothing. The dorm was quiet. Felix didn’t check on him, no one had texted him… It was like he didn’t exist.

To make it even worse, today is the day.

The day he was once looking forward to, but for the past few days has been dreading.

It’s his birthday.

Maybe this could be a good thing. Maybe they’ll remember him, maybe they’ll wish him a happy birthday and do a small celebration with a cake and everything will go back to normal.

Normal…

Can we go back to normal?

But he hadn’t even received a single “Happy Birthday” text at midnight. Every other year in the time Stray Kids had been together, all the members would rush to be the first one to wish a happy birthday to Seungmin. It was like that for all of their birthdays. But this year…

Seungmin shakes his head and sits up, rubbing his face with his hands. He can’t be worrying about this. It’s too early and his head is pounding.

And to top it all off like a sour cherry on a melted ice cream sundae, he has a schedule this morning.

Seungmin sighs quietly and drags himself out of bed, taking two aspirin with some water and then grabbing a change of clothes to take a shower.

When he leaves his room the rest of the dorm is quiet. Either Lix isn’t home or he’s still sleeping. Either way, Seungmin just walks to the bathroom, shutting the door behind him quietly and turning the shower on.

He showers quickly, barely letting himself enjoy the warm stream that washes all of the dried sweat off of his body from the dance practice they had yesterday. Once he’s out he gets dressed and does his skincare routine.

When he finishes up and moves to leave the bathroom, a small part of him hopes that Felix will be in the kitchen making him a small birthday breakfast like he usually does.

He opens the bathroom door…

But there’s nothing.

There’s no smell of pancakes wafting through the air, the dorm is still just as silent as before, and now he feels cold despite the warmth lingering on his skin from the shower.

He tries to give himself some kind of reassurance.

They must have forgotten. We’ve been busy lately.

But his mind is spitting horrible, venom soaked words at him.

They don’t care about you. Why even worry about celebrating a talentless burden like you who's only dragging the group down? You know it’s true. You’re nothing but a bother, an annoyance, a piece of gum sticking to the bottom of Stray Kids shoe.

Seungmin sucks in a sharp breath and goes back to his room. He pulls on a hoodie and covers his face with a face mask before grabbing his bag and pulling on his shoes by the front door. He doesn’t even look back as he leaves the dorm, completely losing the last shred of hope he had in his members.

 

—

 

He’s at his schedule for the day, somehow feeling even worse than he did when the day started. It was just a vocal lesson but he kept messing up, his voice strained and cracking at the worst moments. His vocal coach looked at him with a disappointed face that he rarely ever saw. Usually his teacher could do nothing but beam at him and praise him for the progress he had made, his hard work and constant practice evident and paying off greatly. But today it seemed that Seungmin had taken huge strides in the opposite direction. He sounded worse today than he ever has. If he had to guess, Seungmin would say he sounded like a trainee again.

With a deep breath he tries the line he’s been stuck on for the last five or ten minutes once again. And once again he fails, his voice breaking horribly on only the second word. He groans and drops his face into his hands, feeling a resentment towards himself building with every mistake. He really can’t depend on anyone can he? Not his members who don’t seem to care about him anymore, and obviously not even himself. His own voice is betraying him.

Seungmin hears the vocal coach sighing, and he doesn’t bother to look up just to see the disheartened expression on his face. He can’t take it. He already feels frustrated enough with himself, seeing just how much he’s let someone down would just make him feel so much worse.

“You know what Seungmin-ah, I think we can finish up early for the day. I can tell you’re not feeling well, so we’ll pick up here next time, alright?”

Seungmin just nods, face still buried in his hands, too ashamed to look up at his vocal coach. It’s humiliating, having to finish early because he can't get anything right. The only times he’s ever finished a vocal lesson early is when he’s obviously excelled in whatever they’re working on for the day. He hears the vocal coach packing up their music and leaving the room, the door clicking shut quietly as Seungmin is left alone to wallow in everything he’s feeling.

After a few minutes like that he looks up, feeling more alone than he ever has. Today is turning out to be one of the worst days he’s experienced. The day he had been looking forward to for the last few weeks, the day he was supposed to look back on fondly because of time well spent with his members on his special day, was now one that would be remembered for all the bad things he was experiencing. He didn’t know how it could get worse.

Just then his phone vibrates from where it sits on the small table in the room.

Seungmin looks at it for a moment, not really wanting to deal with anything else for the day, but he reaches for it just in case anything is happening that he needs to be aware of. He’s just responsible like that.

When he looks down at the screen he sees that it’s a message and his heart almost stops for a moment. It feels like it’s been too long since he received a message from anyone. He hesitates before he opens it, not really sure what to expect. But eventually he makes himself open it, staring down at the text bubbles.

Little Fox 🦊

 

Jeongin:

- hey hyung wanna get some lunch when youre finished at the company?

Seungmin stares down at the message, unsure of what to do. For the first time in about a week, one of his fellow members was asking to hang out? As he’s thinking, Seungmin forgets that Jeongin must be waiting for a response, especially since they receive read receipts.

 

His phone buzzes in his hand, more messages popping up on his phone on the screen in front of him.

Little Fox 🦊

 

Jeongin:

- hey hyung wanna get some lunch when youre finished at the company?

 

- hyung?

- is everything alright?

When Seungmin reads the messages that had just come through he feels a sudden surge of anger rushing through him.

So they all decide to suddenly ignore me and treat me like a pariah for a week and then they get to come and act like nothing happened?

Seungmin feels like his skin is crawling. He shoots up out of his seat, gripping his phone tightly as he stares at those last three words. Is everything alright? So now someone cares about asking if everything is alright? Now they care about his feelings? About how quiet he’s been and how alone he might feel?

A tiny part of his brain tells him that maybe they really do still care, that things can be just like they were, that he should go get lunch with the maknae and try to make sure everything is fine. But he shoves those thoughts deep down into the depths of his mind, the negative and spiteful thoughts easily drowning out those hopeful ones.

Without thinking too much about what he’s doing, he shuts his phone off, shoves it into his bag, and leaves the room. He continues on to leave the company building, mask covering his face and hoodie pulled up over his messy hair. He starts walking in one direction, not caring about where he’s going or what he’s going to do or even what his members might think if they can’t get ahold of him.

That is, if they even care.

 

—

 

He’s on a bridge over the Han River. Just looking out on the water, thinking about everything and nothing at the same time. Seems like it should be impossible, right? Well it doesn’t feel impossible. His mind is full of thoughts about his members, about the way they’ve been treating him, about the way things used to be, about his birthday, about how he couldn’t figure out how things got so messed up in such a short amount of time. But while all that was going through his head his mind felt still. Calm in a way. It’s the strangest thing. But strange is the new normal in Seungmins life, isn't it?

He just sits there on the ground by the railing, not really feeling the passing of time. Only knowing that it’s getting later because the sun is going down, the sky is getting darker, and the air is getting cooler.

For a moment he wishes he could stay here forever. He wishes he could just exist in this little bubble where time feels as if it’s standing still and a quiet calm settles around you, only interrupted by the soft sounds of nature. It would be so much easier to just cease to exist everywhere but here, to feel his problems and worries dissolve around him.

But he can’t just disappear. He can’t let go of his responsibilities. And he has to face his problems again at some point.

For now though, he can stay in this peaceful bubble he’s made for himself. He can pretend for a while longer that nothing outside of this moment exists.

And that’s exactly what he does.

 

—

 

As he watches the sun begin to set in front of him, he grabs his bag and pulls out something he bought in a small convenience store that he passed on his way here. He sets it up and holds it in front of himself, silently admiring it.

It’s a small cupcake, nothing too fancy, with a single candle he placed in the middle and used a match to light. The sight is bittersweet, the cupcake standing as a small celebration for his special day, but also a reminder of everyone he is not surrounded by. He stares into the small flame, feeling a slight pressure building behind his eyes, and sings himself “Happy Birthday”, his quiet voice shaky and tinged with sadness. When he finishes the song he blows out the candle and watches the thin ribbon of smoke from it disappear into the breeze.

He puts the cupcake aside, knowing he doesn’t have the stomach or the desire to eat it right now. Not when the moment makes his heart feel like it’s bleeding. His eyes are pricking with unshed tears as he looks back out towards the sunset, seeing the last rays of the sun slipping below the horizon.

“Happy birthday to me.”

 

—

 

Seungmin takes a breath, finally looking away from the water that now reflects the moon and stars above him. He’s been here for hours. It was sometime in the afternoon when he arrived, and it must be well past midnight now. He doesn’t bother checking the time, opting to leave his phone forgotten at the bottom of his bag, still shut off.

He slowly stands up from where he’s been sitting, his joints a bit stiff from staying there for so long. He takes his time stretching out his arms and legs a little, in no rush to go back home. Everyone should be asleep anyways since it’s so late.

Eventually he places the uneaten cupcake back into its small box and then into his bag, and starts walking in the general direction of the building where his dorm is. He lets himself look around at the few people around him as he walks, knowing that the darkness around him will prevent anyone from recognizing him unless they’re really paying attention. But no one is looking at him right now, too busy enjoying the beautiful night surrounding them.

He finally sees the building he’s heading to come into view. It makes him want to turn around and go back to his peaceful little bubble on the bridge. But he knows that he has to keep going, because reality is waiting for him and he doesn’t have the luxury of putting it off for any longer than he already has. So he keeps moving, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other.

He enters the building and gets into the elevator, going up to his floor. When the doors open he takes a deep breath before stepping out, taking solace in knowing that he won’t have to face anyone tonight. Tomorrow however, was another story. But that’s something he’ll deal with when morning comes.

He steps out into the hallway and approaches the door, pulling out his keys so he can go inside. He puts the key into the lock and turns it, then opens the door. His eyes are down as he steps into the apartment, about to take off his shoes.

But before he can do anything, something slams into the front of his body, knocking the air out of his lungs and almost making him fall to the ground. Whatever it is keeps him upright and squeezes him tight, making it hard to breathe.

Then a voice. Several voices.

“Seungmin!”

And then he breaks.

Notes:

Lmk how the cupcake made you guys feel. Did it destroy you like it destroyed me??
Thanks for reading!!! 🤭

Chapter 4: - NOTICE -

Hello hello my dear, wonderful readers! ❤️

 

I wanted to come here and try to explain my absence. I know it’s been awhile since I last updated and I feel really horrible for keeping all of you waiting for the next part(s) of the fic. I’ve been meaning to release an explanation and apology, but I keep getting distracted and forgetting. I figured that it’s better late than never though? Especially since I’m not completely sure when I’ll be updating again (though I do hope that it will be soon).

 

This will be a bit of an explanation, so I sincerely thank you if you are able to read through all of it. 🫂

 

 

Burnout

So, one of the first things for me is that I think I was pushing myself a bit too hard and ended up burning myself out. I have the tendency of writing chapters when I should be sleeping, so I wake up pretty tired. I was doing alright, but I think my body had enough of it and I was physically unable to stay up as late as I initially had been while writing. I wasn’t really feeling well during the day because I was so exhausted, and I was struggling to stay awake even early in the night because of the utter lack of sleep I was allowing myself. All of this on top of some possible health problems I have been faced with was really taking a toll on me. I will say that my sleep schedule is still not perfect and it is definitely still far from healthy, but I am trying to at least let myself sleep enough hours to function properly!

 

Moving

Another thing that I will address is that I am currently in the process of moving! My family and I have been busy looking at houses and packing our stuff because we need to be moving very soon. Thankfully we found a house about a week ago, but this does mean that packing has become much more serious and is taking most of my days. I will also mention that I’ve never been very good with change, big or small, and due to some family things, personal issues, and past traumas, looking through some items from my past has brought up a lot of emotions. Because of this my mental and emotional state has been a bit wobbly resulting in a few rather big breakdowns here at home, and I am trying to deal with that as well. I am trying to lean on my parents for support, something I have always struggled to do because I never want to feel like a burden, and they have helped me a lot through this time. I am still struggling, but I know that I can and will get through it. Right now is just difficult because of everything happening. This move in a way marks the close of an extremely difficult part of my life, and it has been painful as I try to move towards healing and proper closure.

 

Lack of Motivation

One of the last main factors in my absence has been a lack of motivation to write. I don’t know if it’s caused by a combination of the burnout and mental/emotional state I’ve been in recently, but I have been very unmotivated to continue writing my fics. I still have the ideas for my stories, but when it comes to actually writing it feels like I don’t even know where to begin. The task feels larger than life in some ways and even getting a few words on the screen in front of me feels like an enormous strain. I am doing my best to try and push through when I can, writing little bits at a time, but even then I end up erasing what I;ve written and giving up. I’m really hoping that I can get through this slump soon. Seeing the kind comments that people have left helps me feel a bit better, knowing that my work is appreciated even if I don’t feel happy with it at times. And it is because of you, my beautiful readers who support me with comments or (kudos) (by saving my fics), that I am not giving up on these fics. It would be easy enough to write as I feel I need or want to without posting, but I know that I can share so much with those of you who do happen to enjoy what I write. So I am eternally grateful for all of you who support me, whether it be loudly or silently.

Okay! And with that I’ve explained the three main reasons why I’ve been missing for a bit. Of course there are other reasons including recovering from my wisdom tooth removal, and even more exciting, attending my first concert! Yes, I had the amazing opportunity to go to my first concert EVER which was the Stray Kids concert in San Francisco. It was easily one of the most amazing experiences I have had the pleasure of experiencing. The seats were way back, but I will say that because of that the view was amazing. They looked like ants on the stage (the big screens helped a ton), but their energy was unmatchable and I was able to get some great videos of the entire stage. My throat was sore from screaming for 2 days after, but it was well worth it. I was able to get some merch (tour t-shirt, jacket, and a keychain) as well, so that was great. And I just have to share that I was so pleasantly surprised when they sang Starlost as their closing song. I thought they were going to be singing Haven because that's what they did in Seattle, but when Seungmin (my ult of all people 😭🙏) said something about wanting his lost star back I immediately gasped and started screaming because I just KNEW. You can hear it all in the video I was taking, it’s hilarious. Starlost is my absolute FAVORITE Stray Kids song, so I was honestly in tears. An amazing way to end an amazing night. I honestly still cannot believe that I was in the same vicinity as SKZ, let alone the same stadium. LOL… So surreal.

 

Anywayssss, I apologize, I got off track for a minute there. As you can see my ability to yap on and on is completely intact. 💀 I hope that this was able to clarify things for anyone wondering why I suddenly stopped uploading. I hope that you can forgive me for going so long without even giving a proper explanation. I promise that I am doing my best to get back into a good mindset so that I can continue writing, and hopefully the move goes smoothly as well. I really just want to be done with it. And I also promise that my fics are not abandoned. I will come back to them as soon as I am able. I’m really hoping that I can sooner than later!

 

One last time I am so sorry for just disappearing. If you read through this entire thing, thank you so much.

 

I love and appreciate every one of you. Thank you for being you, thank you for reading my fic(s), and thank you for being so supportive. It means more than you know. ♥️

Chapter 5: Better Than Normal

Summary:

“Make a wish Seungmin-ah.”

He closes his eyes, a content smile on his face, and blows the candles out.

Notes:

AHHHHHH, helloooooo my wonderful readers!!!
I have returned!
And I come bearing gift!
Yes, gift. Just this chapter. But yayyy, it's THE LAST CHAPTER!
If you've been patiently waiting for this, thank you so much, I hope you've enjoyed this adventure with me. If you're arriving after the story has been completed, welcome, and I hope you've enjoyed the story!
This will be my first completed chapter fic, so It's a little bittersweet for me... I'll miss it (even though I procrastinated this chapter so horribly), but I'm excited to have it done so I can focus on other stories.
Anyways, I'll let you get to reading! I sincerely hope you enjoy that chapter! I can't say that I'm 100% happy with it, but I don't think it's too horrible.
Happy reading! ❤️

When he opened the door he expected a quiet dorm. Lights off, living room and kitchen mostly cleaned up and put together, a silence that would ring through Seungmin’s entire being.

What he got was the exact opposite.

The moment the door is open he’s hit by something with such force he doesn’t know how he's still on his feet. It hit him hard enough that it even knocked the air from his lungs.

That’s when he feels warm arms wrapped around him, holding him up steadily, squeezing him in a way he hasn’t been in what feels like forever.

He becomes aware of the voices filling his ears, worried, curious, watery. He’s being bombarded with so many things that he can’t even brace himself against the sudden wave of emotion that rushes over him. He barely registers the hot tears flowing down his face, and that the loud sobbing in his ears is his own. He can’t tell that his body is shaking or that he’s engulfed in a warmth he’s been missing. He doesn’t feel that he’s being led, almost dragged because of his currently useless legs, to the couch in the living room by the person holding him. He only faintly hears the quiet reassurances of a gentle voice right by his ear, asking him to breathe. Feels the ghost of a soothing hand rubbing up and down his back. Cool fingers wiping his tears and carding through his hair.

Seungmin loses track of time as he melts into the comforting arms of the person holding him. He’s exhausted and afraid to open his eyes just to realize that this is all some kind of dream.

“Seungminnie, can you open your eyes for me?”

He feels his heart clench at the voice, unsure whether he feels more sadness at the pain in his voice or joy at the fact that it seems to be real. Either way, he pushes himself closer to the person’s chest and takes a deep breath, catching a whiff of what smells like home for the first time in a while.

After a few moments he leans back a bit and opens his eyes, squinting for a moment because his eyes are a bit sensitive to the light from crying and keeping them shut for so long.

The first thing he registers is that everyone is surrounding him, watching him with wide eyes. They’re all obviously emotional in one way or another. Some have puffy, red eyes, others have quiet tears streaming down their faces, and a couple just have a soft, sad look on their faces.

Then he notices the room, and he can feel his eyes filling with tears once again at the sight.

There are streamers hanging in various places, balloons floating in the corners and laying on the floor, confetti artfully scattered on the coffee table in the middle of the room, and a big, homemade ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEUNGMIN’ banner hanging so it would be easily seen upon walking into the apartment. He even notices a few carefully wrapped gifts of varying sizes on the kitchen counter, just next to a colorful cake.

He doesn’t know how to feel, suddenly overtaken by too many different feelings. Confusion is the main one, accompanied by others like frustration (towards both himself AND his members), stupidity, and an overwhelming amount of warmth and love for the seven dumbasses surrounding him.

Before he can start crying again a soft voice and a cool hand on his chin demand his attention.

“Minnie, look at me.”

He looks over to come face to face with Chan, who’s lap he’s currently sitting across. Chan’s arms are wrapped around him, obviously still in comfort mode. Seungmin’s face burns a bit, embarrassed by the level of vulnerability he’d let slip in front of them. He slowly slides off of Chan’s lap and sits in the corner of the couch, just a little bit of space between them. Chan looks like he really doesn’t want to let Seungmin go, but he lets his arms fall away since the younger seems to need some space.

The room is silent, aside from the quiet sniffles from a few different areas of the living room. Then Chan speaks again, just three simple words.

“We’re so sorry.”

The others murmur their own quiet apologies while Seungmin stares at him, mouth opening and closing as he tries to come up with something to say. But he doesn’t know what to say. He doesn’t even really know what’s happening. When he does speak his voice is weak, quiet enough that he would have had to repeat his words if the room was a little louder.

“I don’t understand…”

Then someone else speaks up, the quiet voice drawing everyone's eyes away from Chan and Seungmin.

“We wanted to surprise you…” Minho looks right into Seungmin’s eyes. He wasn’t one of the several criers in the room, but for once he didn’t try to hide the pain and regret etched onto his face. “I could feel that something was wrong and I didn’t do anything. I saw that you weren’t okay and I just let it go.”

Han quickly jumps in, hastily wiping at the tears on his puffy cheeks. Any other day Seungmin would have teased him. “No, this is all my fault Seungmin. None of this would’ve happened if I hadn’t come up with the stupid idea of us throwing you a surprise party.”

Seungmin blinks, finally more aware than he has been in the last week.

“Surprise party?”

Hyunjin cuts in to explain. “We wanted to throw you a big party this year, since we always do something bigger for Lix and Sung… And we thought it would be fun to surprise you with the best birthday we could, so you knew how much we care about you. But… Obviously we went about it completely wrong… Since you can usually read us so well we decided that the best way to keep it from you would be by…”

“By ignoring you. Distancing ourselves from you so you couldn’t catch on to anything.” Changbin finishes.

His mind is rushing through everything that had happened that week, the hushed conversations that ended abruptly every time he entered the room, the way they had all been avoiding him as much as possible, the lack of birthday wishes that morning… Or yesterday morning since it’s probably several hours past midnight at this point. But there’s still one thing keeping him a bit on edge…

“What about the texts?”

He looks around the room, seeing all of their faces turning to confusion.

He sheepishly explains himself before they can say anything. “Uhh, I kinda went into Felix’s phone while he was in the shower a few days ago. I saw the group chat, something about seven dwarves?” He raises an eyebrow at that, amused at the name. It doesn’t last long though, his face falling again when he remembers the texts he had seen. “Anyways, I saw a few messages about me messing things up. You guys were trying to get rid of me so I wouldn’t get in the way. I just assumed that I was holding everyone back… That I wasn’t enough for the group”

The room stays quiet for a few seconds, the others all looking at each other with faces of surprise, all thinking the same thing.

If he had just read a little more…

Chan looks back at Seungmin with a small smile, eyes still sad because he had thought so little of himself. “Well, look around Seungmin.” He opens his arms, gesturing to everything around them. “We couldn’t exactly get this done if you were home with all of us…”

Seungmin watches Chan, wide eyed and mouth hanging open slightly as he takes a second to process everything he’s just learned. And then… He’s laughing. Not just regular laughter, but the kind that has you leaning over and clutching your sides, gasping for breath as you fight tears. He’s laughing and laughing, the sound borderline hysterical. Everyone in the room watches him carefully, not quite sure if they should be relieved or worried. Maybe a bit of both.

At some point the laughter fully shifts to him just crying and Chan is scooping him up again. The only difference this time is that everyone gets up and surrounds Seungmin, getting as close as possible with as many of them as there are, at least placing a reassuring hand on his back or one of his arms or legs.

The entire situation felt so dumb to Seungmin. So much heartache and so many misunderstandings could have been easily avoided if even just one thing had been done differently. If any of them, including Seungmin, had just made the choice to speak up. He was supposed to be the level headed one. The one that was never too insecure or worried over trivial things. But this had brought him down in a way not many things had, and it shook his self-confidence, his self-esteem.

Then Jeongin speaks, saying words that Seungmin didn’t even really know he needed to hear.

“Seungminnie hyung, remember that you will always be enough for us. And if we’re stupid enough to make you think otherwise just come yell at us.” Jeongin laughs a little at the end and the others all hum in agreement. The sound of their collective agreement at Jeongin’s statement makes Seungmin feel as if a huge weight has been lifted off of his chest. He can breathe again for the first time since the day Felix let the door slam shut before he could finish talking. The day all of these misunderstandings began. The day he let that little voice whispering in his head get the best of him.

Seungmin sniffles and lifts his head a bit, looking at all of his members. His friends. His family.

“I love you guys…”

They all coo at him, savoring his words since they aren’t ones he says often, and returning them with pure love and adoration in their voices.

Eventually they all separate when Seungmin starts complaining about how gross he feels, covered in tears and sweat from the heat of their bodies being squished together. He does his best to look annoyed once they’re all separated, but he can’t help the little fond smile that creeps up onto his lips.

Before they can tease him anymore he excuses himself to shower, wanting to wash the long, emotionally draining day off of his skin. When he leaves the bathroom it smells like someone’s made food, and it smells delicious. His stomach growls and he frowns as he remembers he hasn’t eaten, then makes a mental note to grab the uneaten cupcake from his bag.

He wanders towards the kitchen, stopping when he sees that all the lights in the kitchen and living room are off. Then before he can think much of it, the lights flicker on and he’s met with the seven of his members wearing party hats, using party blowers, and shouting out “Happy Birthday!” They quickly follow it up by singing Happy Birthday in their usual unorganized and chaotic manner. A blinding smile makes its way onto Seungmin’s face and he can’t help the delighted laughter spilling out of him. Felix approaches him, snapping a party hat into place on his head. Then as the song nears the end, Minho approaches with a birthday cake, everyone else stepping forward to stand around Seungmin. A few candles are lit up and he looks down at the small flames, flickering in front of him.

“Make a wish Seungmin-ah.”

He closes his eyes, a content smile on his face, and blows the candles out.

 

—

 

September 21, 2026

It’s Seungmin’s birthday tomorrow and he couldn’t be more excited.

Everyone learned from their mistakes made last year, so this time around they didn’t try to hide much of anything from Seungmin. They didn’t let him listen in on their planning, but they didn’t push him away to hide it either. If anything, they were all clingier than usual in the week leading up to his birthday.

He walks into the dance studio where everyone else is, placing his bag on the ground against the wall. Everyone else is huddled up in the middle of the room, whispering and giggling amongst themselves. He glances at them for a moment, then turns to start stretching.

Felix catches a glimpse of him and nudges Hyunjin who is standing right next to him. The older boy looks up at Felix, then turns to look at what he’s staring at. When he sees Seungmin stretching over in the corner, both boys get the other's attention to alert them that Seungmin is there.

They all stop talking, and Seungmin notices the silence. For a moment he freezes and his stomach churns, remembering last year, but before he can get too in his head about it Felix is there, flinging an arm over his shoulders and pulling him into a hug.

“You’re finally here! We’ve been waiting for you.”

When the freckled boy pulls back he has a big smile on his face. He starts tugging on Seungmin’s arm, leading him to the middle of the room where everyone else is. Once Felix and Seungmin join, they all fall into casual conversation, warming up together like they would any other day.

Seungmin realized a year ago that the very people you love more than anything in this world are the ones that will hurt you the most. But now he finally also realizes that if they love you just as deeply as you love them, they are also the ones who will be there no matter what, doing everything they can to show you how much they care. Especially after they mess up.

Seungmin doesn’t really know anymore if he’s a normal person with a normal schedule and normal friends. Up until last year he truly thought he was. But is it really so bad to be something other than normal? Maybe his life and his seven favorite people in it are more than normal. Better than normal.

And he couldn’t wish for anything greater than that.

Notes:

Wohhh, it's officially over... 🥹
Again, I hope you've enjoyed the story...
Don't forget to leave a kudos and let me know what you think! Reading your comments really makes me so happy!
I hope you're having an amazing morning/afternoon/evening my wonderful readers! ❤️

P.S. What did y'all think of Karma? And which are your favorite tracks?? Mine are (in no particular order) Bleep, Mess, Phoenix, Ghost, and ofc, 0801... 🤭 Ceremony is soooo good too. Their title tracks are always so amazing imo!!! But it's def a no skip album for me!

Notes:

Don't forget to let me know what you think in the comments!
Have an amazing morning/afternoon/night my wonderful readers! ❤️