✗; an orbit around the sun
backdated ⭯ apr. 11th 2019 — after the short mission they’d taken on recently together, there was a part of joohyun that wondered why she still avoided him so strongly, as if denying it doesn’t only make her feelings fester up uncontrollably. there’s no way of telling and yet she’d believe it was her who reached out first, her who clung to him. no matter how many times she’s told herself that she’s killed the past her, it comes back to haunt her in bits and pieces, especially around him. his birthday is an event she can’t miss, least of all actually avoid and ignore him on. instead, she’s done the opposite and she fears her heart is on her sleeve because of it but it’s okay because jongdae is included in a way too. that makes it less intimate, right? what could she possibly do when her brother is involved?
the gift is wrapped plainly, the only indication that it’s really her giving it to him being the chocobo shaped stamp on the card, an obsession from childhood that carried on into adulthood. the frame is just as simple too, because the real gift is the picture of the three of them from years ago, all of them too young to know what their parents were up to in their occupations. sehun’s arms are around the both of them and joohyun’s smile is one she doesn’t show anymore. it feels like a lifetime ago but she wishes they could go back. she wishes it was that easy.
the message on the card is short and sweet, for lack of a better phrase: “ happy birthday sehun ” but the main point is that she gives him the gift herself, walking up to him near the late hours on thursday so he’ll have it at midnight ( knocking on his door then seems like too much for her, doing too much, asking too much )
it’s another late night and he doesn’t quite realize it until another member of avalanche mentions how his mother might start worrying soon—not that she’s his actual mother, but sehun doesn’t care to correct him, not when the other member hardly knows more about him than his name and where he goes home. so it’s with a wave of his hand that he acknowledges the message, knowing full well that miss siyeon would start blowing up his cell phone soon if he didn’t at least begin heading home for the evening or message her that he wouldn’t be going home.
he’s just about finished wrapping up all the things he’s started on during the day when he’s approached by joohyun, an event that shouldn’t be surprising at all, but with the way she’s been dancing around him, is actually quite warranted. the surprise is evident with the short rise of his brows, but it quickly disappears, settling back into its neutral state as he manages a warm smile, not because he’s still trying to act as if everything’s the same as it was before that night, but because he’s always just genuinely happy to be around her. it’s always been that way—when they were kids, when she showed up the first time, even when she showed up the second time, even when he should have been angry at her, even when he should have been hurt.
but none of that matters now, does it?
it takes him a moment to notice the gift in her hands, and suddenly he remembers why he’s felt like he’s forgotten something all day. the fact that she’s the one to remind him is bittersweet, but he takes the gift from her anyway. “thanks, shortstack,” he says softly, shaking it as if it would reveal its contents to him. obviously, it doesn’t, so he goes with plan b: opening it right then and there. “what’s in it?”
