Taehyun tried and tried to come up with a good idea, but no matter how much he tormented his brain, he was still completely lost.

"Guys, tell me you know what you're getting noona for her birthday," he said in frustration. "I, for one, don't have any idea whatsoever."

"Who, Nari?" Beomgyu peered over the edge of his book. "You're her boyfriend and you don't know?"

"It's just that I've already given her a lot of stuff," Taehyun groaned, burying his face in his arms, slumped over the table. "Even those new books she was eyeing at the bookstore three months ago."

"Somehow, I think you should have waited until her birthday," Kai commented.

"Probably, but she had already read the first book and was daydreaming all day about the other ones. She literally wasn't sleeping at night sometimes."

"I bet she mumbles in her sleep about it," Soobin guessed.

"She does," Taehyun said. "You know how she sleepwalks sometimes? I caught her standing in the middle of the living room and repeating a whole dialogue. Once I walked into her room to wake her up before she was late for work and she was doing the exact same thing."

"Bookworms," Yeonjun pronounced with mock disgust. "I will never understand you and your obsession with books."

Beomgyu and Taehyun turned their glares on him instantly. "And I'll never understand why you chickened out and ended up not asking Minsoo to marry you," Beomgyu said. Yeonjun turned his own glare on them.

"Hey, I asked her later," he complained. "It was one time! Besides, weren't you the one who almost ran away from your own wedding?"

"Now's not the time to rehash that," Soobin cut in, always the peacemaker. "Anyone have any good ideas for Nari?"

"Noona does like pretty jewelry," Kai ventured, putting down his textbook and pencil, pausing his studying for a moment. "I think she'd like a necklace?"

"True," Taehyun conceded, "but that's a bit basic."

"It's the intent that counts," Soobin wagged his finger at him.

"Maybe you should just propose to her," Beomgyu snickered. "Woman's in love enough that she'd accept a plastic ring."

"Yes, I'm only delaying my proposal because I don't have a pretty plastic ring," Taehyun deadpanned. "Genius, I'm not going to ask her that yet! We've only been together for barely two years!"

"What did you get her last year?" Beomgyu asked.

"When we first started dating, I couldn't afford anything to give her, so I got her that ring she wears all the time. The one with the tiny sapphire in the middle. It was the best I could do, but she was so happy she cried for nearly half an hour."

"Wow, she's whipped for you," Yeonjun shook his head. "Even more than she was whipped for me. My pride is hurt."

"Shut up, you have Minsoo noona," Taehyun said off-handedly. He didn't really mind that Yeonjun made jokes about when he and Nari dated, knowing that he was absolutely head-over-heels for Jeon Minsoo. "And why wouldn't she be? I'm wonderful."

"I have an idea!" Soobin suddenly said. "You know how she's always talking about how she's so jealous that we're all 'gifted with such good singing voices'?"

"Yeah?" Taehyun tilted his head, interested. "What about it?"

"Are you saying we sing a song for her?" Kai asked. "Not very special, is it, considering Taehyun does that for her all the time?"

"I'm saying we make a whole new song for her," Soobin corrected, eyes alight with excitement. "She'll never see it coming."

"And how do we do it?" Taehyun asked, getting just as excited.

"You're forgetting I major in sound engineering," Beomgyu piped up. "And Kai has experience with that kind of thing."

"It's just helping out with a few songs," Kai protested, going a bit red. He didn't like to talk about, out of embarrassment, how he actually sometimes helped out with the production process of some songs at Yeonjun and Soobin's agency, where they were now fully-employed songwriters. It was the two who persuaded one of the producers to let him help out, as he was interested in the area.

"It's enough," Taehyun grinned. "I have plenty of experience in writing song lyrics and we have two professionals here to correct my mistakes."

"You're good, though," Yeonjun said. "I've read some of them, and they're better than I thought."

"Thanks," he said somewhat shyly. It was more of a hobby than anything, something he did when he was too tired to read and too wired to give himself a break. He found college often did that to you.

"When do we start?" Kai asked eagerly.

"Tomorrow, we meet at that amazingly tiny studio the university allowed me," Beomgyu said decisively, "and we work all day."

"Sounds good to me," Taehyun agreed. "I don't have any assignments due either, and noona's going to be at school for an extra class, then she's going to visit her mother."

"The song is going to be good," Soobin predicted. "I just know it."

***

"Okay, that was really good!" the producer gave Taehyun a thumbs-up. "By any chance, have you taken any vocal lessons before?"

"I have, actually," Taehyun admitted, fidgeting a bit. "My mother thought it might do me good to hone in on what she believed was a divine gift."

"Well, it's certainly heavenly," Yeonjun grinned. "Those last notes—I don't think I could have pulled it off as well as you did."

"Anyone could have done it, but thanks. You sing pretty well yourself."

He tugged off his headphones and exited. "I hope it sounds good, though," he worried. "The song, I mean. We worked so hard on it. I'd hate to see it go any other way."

"Don't worry, it sounds amazing," the producer said, playing a clip of their vocals. "And the track you submitted was really good, too, there were only a few tweaks I needed to work out here and there. You say Beomgyu and Kai worked on this together?"

"Pretty much," Soobin confirmed, seated next to Yeonjun. The two weren't there at the moment, Beomgyu babysitting his one-year-old daughter while Sohyun was at work and Kai buried in assignments and projects. "I was surprised when I heard it, too. I also had no idea they could sing that well."

"With the way Nari noona gushes about it, I'm surprised you didn't," Taehyun raised an eyebrow.

Soobin just shrugged and laughed. "I guess I underestimated them, especially Beomgyu."

"Does it have anything to do with him being a dancer?" Yeonjun asked.

"Not really, no. I just never thought about it."

"We can have it done by her birthday, right?" Taehyun asked the producer.

"Oh, yeah, definitely," he confirmed. "Two days before that, at least."

"Now we go and plan her birthday party!" Yeonjun cheered.

***

"Why are you so jittery?" Nari asked Taehyun. "Is it because you forgot something?"

"Nope, definitely remembered everything," he shook his head. "I'm just excited about the present we prepared for you."

Her brow shot up. "We? Meaning you and the other guys?" she asked. "Is Nayoung involved in this?"

"She helped somewhat," Taehyun admitted. "With...uh...our outfits and the coordination of the said outfits and the...decoration of your gift. What do you think of mine? Too simple?"

"Nope, you're adorable," she said, scanning his outfit of a white shirt tucked into dark jeans and a red beret perched atop his curly blonde hair again. She knew he'd dyed it himself one day on a whim but guessed Nayoung was the one who insisted he curl it. Taehyun would have never done it himself. "The glasses are an especially nice touch. Are the lenses real?"

"Nope, I'm wearing my contacts," he said, touching the round gold-framed glasses resting on the bridge of his nose. "Though I would deny the term adorable."

"You look impossibly cute, then," she grinned, surveying her own outfit that matched his somewhat. She wore a black-and-white striped tank top despite the chill in the air and black leggings. It was what she called her 'birthday comfort outfit' and always wore something similar to the celebrations her friends insisted on having. Her hair was held back from her face with a black hairband.

"In that case, you're impossibly beautiful," Taehyun retorted, looping an arm around her waist and pulling her closer. "Did that I tell you that already?"

"Twice in just the last hour."

"Well, I'm saying it again," he leaned closer, whispering in her ear. "You're the most impossibly beautiful woman I've ever seen."

"Nice variation," she observed, unfazed by their proximity—at least on the outside. He did this so often that it was easy to act unbothered, but her heart always hammered wildly. "Was that a spur of the moment thing, or did you always think so?"

"I've thought it since I was fifteen," Taehyun said seriously.

"Am I that enchanting?"

"Honestly? Yes," he grinned back at her, "you've always been so enchanting."

"Gross, no couple things right now!" Kai hollered from behind them, standing in the doorway to their apartment. "This is a birthday party, not a wedding party!"

The two broke away from each other, Taehyun frowning at Kai and Nari still grinning, now more out of awkwardness. "Watch me say the same thing when you finally ask Maya out," Taehyun grumbled. "Not that you'll do it anytime soon."

Kai flushed with embarrassment and turned away, flustered as always at the mention of the girl he was head-over-heels for from his classes. Some part of Nari wondered if he had acted that way when he was into her, but she pushed the thought away, remembering what Taehyun had said almost two years ago. That was all in the past.

"Leave him alone," a voice said cheerfully from the open doorway. Nari turned and brightened up immediately at the sight of her best friends. "He already suffers from heartsickness enough."

"Hey! Whose side are you on?" Kai exclaimed, ducking away from Nayoung's arms as she tried to good-naturedly hug him, only to land in Sohyun's. The older woman cheerfully wrapped her arms around Kai's shoulders and held him with an iron grip.

"This is harassment!" he complained, wriggling.

"No, it's just affection," Beomgyu emerged into the light, fiddling with a beret on his head – exactly like Taehyun's. He also wore a white shirt and black jeans like him, but the shirt was decorated in green patterns. "The type you need to appreciate more."

"Where's Yeoreum?" was Nari's first question.

"You're more attached to my child than me," he observed. "She's at my mom's place. We thought it best not to bring her to this one. Considering what we're planning at how jumpy she is. And her bedtime is way before the party is going to be over."

"One, of course I'm more attached, she's a perfect angel unlike you," she said. Beomgyu feigned hurt. "And two, what in the world is so amazing that you deemed it unsafe for a one-year-old?"

"Something quite incredible," Yeonjun appeared behind him with Minsoo. "Either you laugh at us and make us feel absolutely terrible or you cry and we achieve our goal. Operation See Nari In Smudged Makeup is all set to go."

"We'll see," Minsoo said. "I have high faith in this, surprisingly."

"Why surprisingly?" Yeonjun asked, incredulous. "Do you have no faith in me?"

"I do, I really do," she said with a straight face, "but Nari is completely unpredictable."

"I'm surrounded by haters," Nari sighed. "It's a pity, really."

"Haters dressed fashionably," Nayoung put in. "I've been waiting for some comment on the outfits that I picked."

"Oh yeah, about that! Why are you guys dressed like that?" she nodded towards Yeonjun's green shirt and the same red beret as the others, even Kai, who wore a white sweater with green and black embroidery.

It seemed as if they all were wearing those black jeans and red berets. Even Soobin, who had arrived the earliest but had left again when they realized they didn't have enough water for nine people, was wearing them and a white sweater with black patterns. It wasn't like them to let anyone coordinate their outfits; they usually preferred to do it themselves. Or dump it on Yeonjun, whichever worked.

"Why do you ask?" Kai's tone was too casual to fool Nari, but she decided to play along anyway. It definitely wasn't anything bad, and it couldn't hurt to let them do this.

"It's making me a bit nervous," she shrugged. "Not that you don't look good."

"It's all part of the mystique," Nayoung said serenely. "Trust me, you'll see why soon."

"I pray that soon comes quick."

***

During the general noise and excitement of the party, the oh-so-great surprise the boys had prepared and the girls were in on slipped Nari's mind. At one point, she just wanted to throw herself back into bed, exhausted from a long day work, but every time she thought about saying she was tired, she managed to get distracted by something else and got excited all over again.

One such event was them rehashing the stories of how they met and started their partners. Taehyun was just telling them about how they used to go to the same library as kids and he asked her to be his girlfriend at the same time he asked her to move in when Beomgyu yelled, "hey, Choi Soobin! Where's your girl? And you, Kai Huening?"

"There's no way I'm asking Bora out yet," Soobin protested. "Nope. We're just in the friends stage!"

"And Maya is way out of my league," Kai said glumly.

"Take heart, both of you," Sohyun said, sounding like she was exhausted. In fact, both she and Minsoo had nodded off twice already; the rest keeping themselves awake through sheer willpower. "They'll come around eventually!"

"Alright, time for presents!" Taehyun suddenly yelled. "No dozing off until midnight!"

Nari, who had been leaning against him, jolted awake and was about to fix with a cross look when the words fully sunk in and she sat up straighter, her curiosity positively overflowing from her expression.

One by one, she received her gifts from the girls, which included a new handbag from Nayoung who declared her old one was definitely out of fashion; a set of whiteboard markers from Sohyun, who had heard her complain to Beomgyu about the lack of markers available to the teachers which tended to be annoying when they took lessons; and perhaps the gift she actually expected to get, two new books from Minsoo.

The books made her gasp in happiness and attack Minsoo with a bear hug – something she didn't often do since the girl wasn't particularly fond of physical affection (though Yeonjun was apparently a different case, in her own defensive words).

"No fair, where's my hug?" Nayoung complained.

"Yeah, we got you stuff too," Sohyun added.

"I attack you with cuddles every day," Nari giggled. "Whereas Minsoo barely gets any."

"Fair," Nayoung conceded.

Now, Nari looked expectantly at the boys, who looked incredibly jittery. Yeonjun kept shifting on his feet; Beomgyu reaching up to tug on his hair constantly; Soobin tapping his fingers rhythmically on the table; and Kai bouncing his legs up and down, all wearing expressions of nervous excitement. Taehyun was so nervous, he was chewing on his bottom lip again.

"Well, don't look so terrified," she said. "You know I'll appreciate it anyway. What's to be scared of?"

"That it'll be worse than we realized?" Yeonjun offered.

"Take a moment to note the message of our present is from Taehyun, not the rest of us," Soobin added. "These two are literally married and then there's us two pining for girls we can't have."

"Who says I can't have Maya?" Kai mumbled.

"Nobody," Beomgyu said pacifyingly. "Anyway, Nari, go sit down on the sofa. You and Taehyun sit in the middle and the rest of us surround you. It's for aesthetic picture purposes."

"Alright?" she did as was asked of her, pushing away from the table where they were seated around and walked the few feet across to the room and sat down on the sofa, and Taehyun quickly slipped into place beside her. The boys sat around them, Yeonjun and Soobin to her left and Beomgyu next to Taehyun. The girls did not sit; they stood at a distance, next to the TV and watching with eager expressions.

"What are we doing, exactly?" Nari couldn't help asking as Minsoo positioned her phone in her hands to take pictures. "Just looking pretty?"

"As pretty as you all are," Nayoung deadpanned, "no, because we could just take you to the nearest entertainment agency and sign you contracts as actors or idols. Sohyun, go on, do it."

Sohyun fished a USB drive out of her handbag and carried it over to the TV affixed to the wall. Both being more book people, Taehyun and Nari didn't use it too often; just on movie nights, where they cuddled together and watched movie and TV series adaptations of books they read, criticized every little thing about it, and somehow always ended up falling asleep in each other's arms no matter their resolve to get up and go to their own beds.

"Careful!" Taehyun cried when it nearly slipped out of Sohyun's grasp as she struggled to reach behind the TV and plug it in.

"I know," she grumbled, narrowing her eyes in concentration as her hand maneuvered cautiously. "And...there we go!"

Nayoung picked up the TV remote from the table and exited the show it was playing, a rerun of a drama. She pressed the buttons with a restless excitement, flipping through the audio files with meaningless numbers, meaning it was probably Beomgyu's. Then she handed the remote to him and ushered the girls into the nearest bedroom.

Nayoung stopped on a file labeled 'For Nari!' and opened it. At the same time, Taehyun's hands tightened on Nari's and Yeonjun hid his face in his hands, ears bright red. The reason he was embarrassed was because as soon as the sound hit her ears, Nari turned to him with wide eyes.

https://youtu.be/dz_W3yD0Ip0

"Is that..." she breathed, listening to the audio file go, please tell me now. "What even..."

It's harder than an exam to guess your heart, Beomgyu's voice echoed. He flushed red but sat still, watching Nari's expression shift from confusion to shock.

I've been searching all day, your feed on the timeline (what do you like?)

Taehyun smiled awkwardly at her. "Surprise," he whispered as the song carried on. "I love you."

"Me too," she squeaked.

"Guess," why do you keep pretending you don't know?

Why do you keep laughing? Time is flowing by

I stay up all night again today

Where did you exactly hide it? Tell me the secret

Say now! Say now! Oh yeah, say now! Please tell me now!

Time's up, give me your wishlist, birthday, tell me your wish

"You made a whole song for me," Nari breathed, leaning forward towards the TV. "You really made a whole song for me."

A useful something

"It was his idea," Kai pointed to Soobin.

No, pretty trash

"It just clicked, is all," Soobin shrugged, clearly embarrassed.

How about romantic? I can't make a guess

(what's the best present?)

"This is the best present," Nari cried, wiping away hot tears that threatened to overflow. "I can't believe this."

A wishlist I've filled up in my phone

Everything suddenly forms a meaning

A jewel box with a star called you inside is overflowing in my heart

"You guys are literally so cheesy," she said, grabbing Taehyun and hugging him tightly. "Only you guys would do this for me."

Now I'll send it to you

"Received," she whispered, leaning into Taehyun and hugging him even tighter. "Received lovingly."

"I'm glad you like it so much," Taehyun whispered back, stroking her hair. "I really did agonize for a long time over this. It's thanks to them I was able to do this."

"I love you guys even more for this," she declared. "How are you so wonderful, for the millionth time?"

"It comes with practice," Beomgyu piped up. "But don't be fooled. Your boyfriend there did most of the lyric-writing. Soobin and Yeonjun barely had to fix anything."

"See, he's amazingly talented," she grinned. "He's Kang Taehyun, after all."

"They're being modest," Taehyun said. "The producer we sent the track to check over said there wasn't much he had to fix, either. And it was done by him and Kai, for your information."

"Now, there's a surprise," she said, making her tone sound surprised even though she really wasn't at all. She had always known these guys were the greatest at everything.

(Oh-oh, oh-oh) been waiting for your birthday, so excited for your birthday

"Were you?" she asked of Taehyun, who nodded energetically.

(Oh-oh, oh-oh) tell me what's your wish yeah, tell me what's your wish yeah

"Nothing much, except for always getting to spend birthdays like this," she promised. "In the company of you guys. Maybe bring Yeoreum along next time, too."

"Yes, of course," Beomgyu laughed. "Can't forget the baby. You're happy with so little, Nari."

"Enjoy the little things, I guess."

Rather than getting it all wrong, I might just confess

I like you!

And that was when she burst into tears. "Ah, I'm so emotional," she said through her sobs, dabbing at her tears. "You guys, I'm really actually speechless for real this time. I don't even know what to say other than thank you, over and over."

"You don't have to say anything," Yeonjun said, all joking manner gone, a genuine smile on his face. "We were just helping Taehyun. He was the driving force behind all this!"

"Yeah," Soobin agreed. "Whenever we were feeling unmotivated, or hit a roadblock, he was the hype man. Those lyrics are almost all his."

"And Yeonjun hyung's," Taehyun said, blinking back his own tears. "He was helping a lot to restructure my old lyrics, ones I'd written a long time ago and wanted to include."

"Well, now you've seen me in smudged makeup," Nari sniffled. "Score one for you."

"Our goal was just to see how much it touched you," Soobin admitted. "It worked."

"It did," she promised. "I love you guys so much."

✧✧✧

WORD COUNT: 3745

A/N: i'm weak for serenading men so the result is this chapter