"where's the party?" haechan questions the second the friend group enters the door of yangyangs apartment. luckily big enough for a birthday party, he and xiaojun had spent the afternoon lazily throwing decorations together and preparing food.

the birthday boy glares at him, and shuffles into another room to grab plastic cups. sungchan is seen in the kitchen washing dishes, his tall, slender body much too familiar to ignore.

rinae feels her roommate latch onto her arm tighter, and she didn't have to question the sudden clinginess. "this was a bad idea."

"cake coming through!" hendery shouts from behind them as he holds yangyangs birthday cake with two hands and the girls move to the side to give him some room, before rinae whispers. "do you wanna leave?"

"no, no," the other responds almost immediately, not actually sure if she really didn't want to leave, she just knew she didn't want to be a buzzkill, "i'm good. i'm chill... very chill."

rinae hums, not fully believing the brunette but choosing to take her word for it and hoped she would be able to have a good time.

on the other hand, yangyang looked a bit frantic. he was speaking to xiaojun in madarin while the other spoke back in questioning tones as if he had no idea what yangyang wanted him to do. hendery then cuts in and the two go quiet and back to what they were doing, and rinae stiffles a laugh.

"it's five," sungchan announces before turning the faucet off, and everyone quickly finishes up their tasks.

"where's the alcohol?" haechan asks while already making his way to a cooler full of beer.

"yeah, i need that," cj agrees, unraveling her arm from rinaes before following haechan to the cooler. rinae watches sungchan glance up at the sound of her voice, eyes following her but she seems to pretend not to notice him.

"or you could, like, wait until the party guests actually show up," hendery needled, "alcoholics."

"i am literally the party," haechan then replies before twisting a beer cap off with his teeth, "ow."

"if you're the party, i'm worried," the other teases before he plops down onto the couch.

haechan glares but doesn't get to say anything when xiaojun jumps in, "a person can be the party?"

"it's called a hyper-bowl," yangyang joins, matter-of-fact-ly.

rinae snorts, "a what?"

"a hyper-bowl? do you not know what that is?"

"...oh my god."

"what's your problem?"

"you mean a hyperbole, you fucking dumbass?"

haechan laughs with beer still in his mouth and it drips down to his chin, trying to contain his laughter before he accidentally spat it out all over yangyangs carpet. the rest of the group break out into fits of laughter while yangyangs face flushes bright red.

"i said what i said."

the sound of the door opening grasps rinaes attention, turning to see jaemin and jeno entering the premises. her lips subconsciously curve into a smile and jenos does the same when he sees her, she felt a sense of relief with him walking in.

"what the fuck is up!" jaemin shouts, holding out his hand to bro-shake hendery, along with the rest of the guys.

jeno ignores everyone else and instantly goes to his blonde lover, his eyes crinkling more and more. "hi."

"hi," rinae laughs, trying not to laugh at his natural cuteness, "do you want a drink?"

"can't. dd." he pouts, stepping closer so there was almost no space between them.

rinae sulks, "that's no fun. me personally, though, i'm gonna get a drink." the boy laughs as she slips her hand into his and drags him into the kitchen.

yangyang finally gets his speaker to work, and music begins to play. it was loud, not loud enough to not be able to hear anyone talking, but loud enough to be comfortable. all of the guys besides jeno and sungchan gather in one spot and talk, sungchan and cj eventually lock eyes and awkwardly smile to each other.

the tall boy decided to break the ice and approach her, not knowing if it was a good idea or not, but considering she smiled back at him, he thought it couldn't have been so bad to say hello. "hi."

"hey," the shorter replies, heart beating out of her chest, "how are you?"

"i'm alright! doing good," his hand finds his nape, be was mostly lying about 'doing good,' "you?"

"i'm good, sungchan," she smiles sadly, "this is really awkward, straight up."

sungchan laughs without thinking, and then cj laughs, and for a second, the two of them forget they weren't together and have a genuine laugh. the moment was very short-lived but the two felt a small sense of relief that their hearts weren't full of heartbreak.

minutes later, ryujin, yeji, lia, chaeryeong, and yuna show up with gifts and birthday cards in hand, yangyang gasping when seeing bags labeled 'happy birthday!' and sincerely insists that they didn't have to get him anything. once setting down said gifts, the girls travel over to rinae.

"can we steal her from you? just for a second?" lia grins to jeno, her arm already locked around the girls arm and he nods and smiles.

"she's yours," he replied, "temporarily."

the girls talk together and cj eventually finds them gathered, joining in the conversation and quietly spilling the tea about the encounter she had with her ex moments prior, and she was sure she could feel sungchans eyes burning into her from afar, reading her lips and trying to decipher what was being said.

jeno watched the group from afar, as well, but for a different person and a different reason. he watched the girl enjoy herself with her girl friends, and found himself smiling at the way her bunny teeth peaked through her smile, the way her eyes glistened with excitement everytime someone in the group cracked a joke, and the way her soft hands delicately grasped whoever was next to her's shoulder whenever she wanted to say something.

he acknowledged all of her habits and mannerisms, her speech patterns, and how goosebumps formed all over her arms whenever he made any sort of romantic gesture.

"damn, you're obsessed with her," a voice knocks him out of his focus as hendery nudges jenos side with a grin. jeno sighs, "i really am. i can't even believe she's real."

no one had seemed to realize that the two had gone off into their own conversation, too immersed in the fact that yangyang was weirdly good at imitating spongebob. hendery glances over to jeno. "you know, i'm glad it's you she likes. she really has some questionable taste in men, but you're normal."

the pink haired boy laughs. "wow, thank you. she did say that she's never been in, like, a real relationship."

hendery hums, "it's true, i don't think i have ever seen her like someone this much."

jenos heart swells but he does nothing but smile.

the party goes on smoothly, music playing, drinks being drank and food being eaten, yangyang was pretty satisfied with the outcome. mark arrived, then jungwoo and winwin, then sungchan left briefly to pick up his sister before returning with the baby known as coya.

after about an hour in, almost all gamer heads along with three guests had shown up.

chenle notifies mark over instagram dms that he and the two others were pulling up, too nervous to just walk in even though that was the request by yangyang. mark still walks to the front door and opens it, greeting the trio and moving aside to allow them in.

all three pairs of eyes practically sparkle at the sight of their gamer idols in the same room, surrounding them. shotaro gasps quietly and leans into chenle, "i see rinae."

chenle withholds a laugh and lightly shoves his friend, "then go say hi, weirdo."

"yangyang! look who's here!" mark announces over the music, grabbing not only the attention of the birthday boy, but the rest of the room as well.

"oh god," kim mutters to herself when all heads turn in their direction.

"holy shit," yangyang curses in disbelief, walking towards the friends, "i'm in the same room as the son of a ceo."

chenle laughs, waving him off humbly, "ah, happy birthday, and thank you so much for inviting us, we really appreciate it."

"don't even mention it, man," yangyang replies, already very slightly slurring his words, "i'm tipsy, i won't lie."

rinae watched the interaction from a far for a moment, before the trio eventually went onto briefly say hello to the rest of the guests.

"nice to meet y'all, i'm hendery," the boy introduces himself and while both shotaro and chenle do the same, kim stays quiet, starstruck.

"sorry, she's like, kind of obsessed with you." says shotaro.

hendery laughs, "me? little old me? kim, was it? thanks for coming."

the two boys beside her laugh at her shock before she snaps out of it. "thanks for inviting us, holy shit. i'm literally such a big fan."

the blonde watching from just steps away finally unravels herself from the group of girls and makes her way over to formally introduce herself. once jeno realizes, he follows shortly after to do the same and it doesn't take chenle long to notice the pair approaching them.

"what's up?" jeno greets, doing a bro-shake to chenle, while shotaro and kim look their way.

"oh my god," shotaro says aloud, his hand flinging up to his mouth, "sorry, i didn't mean to say that out loud."

"that's shotaro, big fan of rinaes, i apologize in advance for his behavior," chenle teases, rinae laughing when shotaro nudges his friend and whispers something along the lines of 'don't embarrass me.' she notices his inability to look her in the eye, so she attempts to ease his shyness by placing a gentle hand over his shoulder. "nice to meet you! i love your videos, too, dude."

she doesn't notice kim practically scowling at her presence. her bright eyes turned down, an eyeroll almost escaping but she settles with turning her head the other way and drowning out the sound of her voice. that was until—

"we'll leave you girls to talk, i'm gonna introduce them to the guys," jeno nods to the rest of gamer heads to rinae, to which she smiles and watches them go the other way.

with her teeth shining through, and her lips curved ear to ear, rinae turns her head back to kim to see an unexpected resting face as if she'd been holding it the entire time. suddenly intimidated, the blonde swallows before speaking. "kim, right? i just want to say, you're so funny. i'd literally give my followers to you if i could."

the others' lips curve upwards in the slightest, but the rest of her face continues, and rinae continues. "uh, i heard you're going to twitchcon, right? that's gonna be fun! i'm probably just gonna stick to cj the entire time, or jeno if he's not too busy being famous and all—"

"i'm gonna go find a drink," kim interrupts bluntly. she doesn't allow the girl to say anything before she's walking into the kitchen.

"oh, okay! it was nice meeting you," but she was already gone before rinae could finish her sentence.

"stupid bitch." kim mumbles once far enough to ensure she wouldn't have been heard.