You've Grown!//Jeongin's Birthday
Before we dive into this short story, let me say some personal words for our Birthday Jeonginnie!
Jeongin, Jeonginnie, whatever way you want to be called.
I always thought you're "just the sweet Maknae with braces", but you're much more than that.
You're hard-working, brave, ambitious, whenever you got criticism for your performance or voice, you accepted it and strived to be better.
And you were successful. You have improved a lot over the 10 episodes of your survival show, although you got a lot of backlash.
I love you for that. You're a great idol!
The bright sun rays crept their way through the blinds into Jeongin's room, tickling his nose and waking him softly.
Was it really the sun rays that woke him? No. There is another source for that soft glistening light. Jeongin rubbed his sleepy eyes, blinking a few times before he could finally see what was really causing him to wake up. He was astonished as he saw Chan holding a huge cake. Exactly seventeen candles were lit, brightly illuminating the whole room and in a colorful, big font »HAPPY BIRTHDAY« was written on top of it. Jeongin almost got a heart attack as he looked around the room more carefully and realized that all his teammates stood around him in a half circle, grinning brightly at him.
"1, 2, 3", Chan whispered, signaling the other members to ready themselves.
"Go!" At command everyone simultaneously began to sing for Jeongin.
"Happy Birthday dear Jeongin,"
Finishing their little jingle everyone clapped cheerfully and one by one went up to Jeongin, who was frozen in awe and surprise. His cheeks were red, barely able to breathe as each member hugged him and gave their own personal to him.
"Hah, finally you can't flee! Let me smooch you!", a way too familiar voice giggled. Before Jeongin could even clearly see the owner of the voice, they embraced him and gave him a big kiss in the cheek. Jeongin cringed at the sensation, laughed nonetheless as Jisung, the culprit, quickly worked at him impishly before cowardly disappearing behind the other members.
The last one who came up to Jeongin was Chan. He smiled brightly at the Maknae. Jeongin wasn't sure, but was he tearing up? However, as soon as Jeongin wanted to get a closer look at the leader, he already got embraced by him. Chan had by far the strongest embrace. Even Woojin, who's suiting the title of »Bear«, didn't stand a chance against this cordial, cuddly embrace. Chan sighed deeply into his neck.
"You're seventeen now! You're getting older! Ahh, I'm so proud of you!" Chan's embrace got even stronger.
"Jeongin, you've grown so much. As a person. You have improved so much in such a short period of time!", Chan huffed and sniffled, trying his best to keep himself together. Chuckling, Jeongin pushed Chan off of him.
"Hyung~. It's okay.", he looked at him, focusing on his eyes.
"Thank you!", Jeongin added, giving his hyung the cutest smile of all smiles. Chan felt his heart melt and break into a thousand pieces at this lovely sight.
"Come on, let's butcher his cake!", Jisung shouted from the back lines.
"Butcher? I'd rather eat and enjoy it.", Woojin rejoined. Everyone was laughing wholeheartedly at the members' little banter. Today Jeongin was sure he'll experience the best birthday of his life. Although, with these guys as friends, everyday is a good day.