Five Wishes for Yoona
Five Wishes for Yoona
(Five men wish Im Yoona a 'Happy Birthday'.)
Yoona ft. Leeteuk, Kyuhyun, Minho, Taecyeon and Changmin
4,105 words, G. For Yoona's 22nd birthday.
“You’re the person I am proud to call friend.” (Leeteuk/Yoona)
Leeteuk calls her at exactly midnight and grins when Yoona picks up the phone and congratulates him on being the first to greet her a ‘Happy Birthday’ again this year. It’s been ten years since he first met her looking all scrawny and awkward in blue overalls and showed her around the company - and nine out of all those years ago, he is still the one who holds the position of being her first in almost everything (first person to call friend, first person to call, first person to thank, first person to laugh with, first person to cry with, first person to share stories and secrets no one else really knows) - first in everything important in a friendship like theirs.
And their friendship is a marvelous thing, it makes him all the more special in the eyes of their peers and really, who doesn’t like all that attention?
“Aww. Our Yoona probably waited for this call, didn’t she? Tss, I should have called a little later and made you stay up.”
“Yeah, right. If you did, then you won’t be number one in my calls list anymore! Did you want someone else to be first to greet me, Leeteuk-oppa?”
Leeteuk imagines her grinning and shrugging in her Tokyo dorm, snuggled inside a pink blanket he sent over the first time the girls left for Japan activities.
“Even if someone calls, you won’t pick it up unless I greet first right?”
“Maaaybe.” She croons and dissolves into her loud alligator laugh just as he laughs into the phone as well.
Leeteuk is lucky. And it feels pretty damn great knowing he’s got South Korea’s sweetheart as his best friend. It’s awesome how she singsongs his name whenever he calls and laughs when she makes a chiding comment on having only “Oppa call me when I’m down. Why can’t some other guy call, huh?” because he knows that she doesn’t mean it in a bad way and that she actually really does like hearing from him at a regular basis (so unlike someone else he knew, who would come up out of nowhere, tap her once on the shoulder and steal her away from him in a heartbeat of a second). She would laugh at his jokes and play along when he tells her to do something embarrassing, not caring at all if for a moment she’s a little too close while they laugh and play (and he begins to feel a little out of breath at her proximity). She’s cool with the fact that she’ll forever be regarded as one of the boys (at least that’s what she thinks) and will stay up no matter how late his schedules’ would be to talk whenever he wants (he always does; how could anyone pass up a chance to talk to her for the nth time in a day if they had his privileges?).
Im Yoona is his best friend and he wouldn’t have it any other way (as long as he ignores the fact that the whole best friend thing kind of stabs at him a bit because he’ll never be more than friends with her no matter how hard he wishes). She’s a year older today, and he wishes her for more than good health and happiness…
He wishes for her to stay as his ‘M.I.L.K. Vice President’ forever.
“You know… you’re always going to be my best oppa, right? That’s a promise.” She says from miles away, under Tokyo’s night sky and his pink blanket of a gift.
His lips curl into a grin. “Yeah, I know.”
“You have my favorite smile.” (Kyuhyun/Yoona)
Kyuhyun calls her in the early morning, just as the sun began to rise in the east, and laughs when Yoona answers with a sweet but garbled ‘Hello, Kyuhyun-ah’ and a yawn. He doesn’t mind that she sounds a little weird because she’s always been a little bit special in the head and besides, everyone knows that Jungsoo-hyung probably got her to stay up all night just to talk and smother her with his 15-part monologue of Happy Birthday wishes. He doesn’t mind at all because he knows that even though she’s tired and probably wants to sleep in a little more, she’ll still answer.
“Has anyone ever told you that your yawn sounds like a moose dying?” He says, his voice light and amiable as he held onto his phone with one hand. He lounged on the couch and watched the sun rise across the horizon and slowly light up the city of Seoul. He figures that Tokyo is getting brighter too with the sun’s rays and wonders briefly if So Nyeo Shi Dae slept sprawled all over their living room floor again after their tour practice. “Because it sounds really weird. Loud and breathy, like you’re wheezing for air that’s not there anymore.”
“Gee… thanks a lot for that insightful observation, Kyuhyun. I am overwhelmed with your love on my birthday today.”
Kyuhyun can almost see her roll her sleepy eyes at him and laughs easily at the thought. Blurry-eyed or not, Im Yoona had a sharp tongue and quick wit that could almost match his own… that is, if only she’d let it out once in awhile. Still, that didn’t bother him much - he rather liked having to witness that feisty personality of hers firsthand as one of her friends (and many admirers) rather than have her going around showing it to nobody special in the world.
If anyone was to see her crazy-eyed and snarky, it would be in front of him - Cho Kyuhyun, snark star extraordinaire and their band of SMTOWN friends.
With a grin etched across his face, he moos loudly into the phone and waits patiently for a reaction. When nothing comes but a stunned silence, Kyuhyun does the sound one more time (louder this time and no, he doesn’t care if his hyungs wake up suddenly to pelt him with shoes and whatnot) before speaking, “Hey. I sound just like you, don’t I?”
It’s soft at first and then an explosion erupts as Yoona burst out laughing - her lilting laughter passing through his earpiece and straight down to warming his heart. He wishes her a lot of things for her birthday, but most especially this: a happiness that’s never-ending. She deserves that much, he thinks, because she’s almost as awesome as he is and he wants that kind of happiness too.
Kyuhyun hears her laughter die down and her voice hitch in a merry breath, “You’re insane, Kyuhyun. Did you win StarCraft against Kangin-oppa again?”
He shrugs, and when she laughs again a moment later, he knows that she understood him without even seeing him.
“Of course, you beat him. You’re the amazing Cho Kyuhyun after all.”
“Exactly. You’re learning fast, Yoong-padawan.”
“You are my favorite noona.” (Minho/Yoona)
He calls her right after an interview and during lunch because he figures there’s no other perfect time for him to do so than when her face is probably buried in a bowlful of ramen and takoyaki. He chuckles to himself when Yoona answers the phone with a furious rant telling him to ‘make it quick or else he’ll be the one paying for her birthday lunch next year’. It doesn’t disturb him all that much because she’s always said that over the years but she never ever came to collect. Usually she’d be the one to burst into their practice room door with smiles and goodies filling her arms while enthusiastically cheering ‘Go Minho! Go Taemin! Go Jinki! Go Kibum! Go Jonghyun! Go SHINee!!!’ at the top of her lungs, no matter how small the event he and his team were practicing for.
Im Yoona is just that kind of person. She is such a wonderful noona - he dares and says that she’s his favorite one - because no one else could lift up his spirits better than she can (with her laugh and her smile, with the way her hair fell on her face and she would brush it back behind her ear). And she’s done so a million times that Minho’s actually lost count.
“Is that how you say hello to your favorite dongsaeng?” He replies cheekily, smirking to himself when she lets out a mock-haughty scoff.
He could just imagine her rolling his eyes at him before nodding gravely, because conceited as the thought may be, he’s dead sure that he was at least miles higher in her ‘best dongsaeng’ poll than Taemin will ever be with his cute smile and sweet demeanor. Noona wasn’t nearly as competitive as him but she liked a good challenge - and who else was perfect to challenge amongst the SHINee boys that Choi Minho himself?
“Oh right… because the noona has to be the polite one in the conversation.” She says sarcastically, her voice light and friendly despite the palatable command in her tone. He choked back a laugh because it’s fun to tease her over the phone like this - where she couldn’t pummel him with her enormous strength (even though, secretly, he liked the attention she showered him when he did because then she’d be close enough for him to smell the lavender soap she liked to use).
No one is really the same once they’ve fought Yoona and her mighty fists and he knows this (because he’s witnessed it first hand; how his hyung had stared after her when she fought back, waking him up from his groundless trance and bringing him back to them finally) all too well.
“We should have an arm-wrestling tournament when we all go back to Korea. I want to see if I can beat you with these guns of mine.”
“Guns of steel? Really, Minho? You’re a flimsy stick compared to me!” she exclaims, the essence of a showdown evident in her voice and he grins, knowing that it’ll be a fight to the death and he was more than ready to fire it up.
“Noona, have you seen yourself lately? You’re even skinnier than usual! You’ve got nothing on me!” He replies and smirks when she does that mock-haughty scoff once again. A challenge is a challenge and Im Yoona would never back down (he liked that part of her the most; the faith in her spirit and confidence in her strength. She was a lot of things, but she was never a quitter).
“Maybe, but I have faith in HimYoona’s majestic return so you should watch your back!”
Minho likes to wish for a lot of things for his friends (patience for Key, maturity for Onew, a less evil mind for Kyuhyun, tact for Heechul, a bit more bravery for Changmin) but for today - for her special day - he simply wished for that faith in herself to last forever. If there was anyone who would go the distance in this industry they were in, Minho knew it would be her. Im Yoona was special after all, his favorite noona.
“Kidding aside, let’s hang out for dinner soon, okay? The whole gang together; the Y2K1 trainees: You, me, Kyuhyun, Jinki, Changmin… promise you’ll make time?”
He nods and smiles, because she’s lifted his spirits again without knowing it.
“Anything for you, Noona.”
“You are beautiful.” (Taecyeon/Yoona)
Taecyeon calls her secretly and hangs up even before the first ring ended and his members start wondering where he is. He stares down at his phone, at the number already dialed in and waiting to be called and briefly hits himself over the head at his own cowardice. It’s not like he’s never called Yoona before but even then, every call was a challenge and right now he was just simply going through his ‘call-Yoona’ routine.
He jogged in place for a moment, stretching his legs and arms before mentally psyching himself with confidence to dial the number and not hang up.
She turned a year older today and even though they’re friendship had become too awkward for them to talk like before - he still considered her to be one of his close friends (no, never mind that he had secretly wanted more and had asked Tiffany to bring Yoona when they met up for coffee or dinner so that he could be around her more. That was in the past and although he still thought of her from time to time, he had settled on giving his heart to another and he was happy there). He wanted to wish her good health and luck on her activities. There’s no harm in that.
Taecyeon punched the ‘Call’ button and waited anxiously as the phone rang once, twice and then-“Oh. Taecyeon-ah… hello!”
It was amazing how the sound of her voice could erase his worries away and cause him to grin like the idiot his members often complained about. He cleared his throat and replied as coolly as he could without sounding to eager or nervous or both. It was enough to be happy that he had managed to call… she didn’t have to know the routine he had to go through just to do it.
“Yoona... it’s been awhile. I heard you’re a year older today… Happy Birthday!” Taecyeon congratulated himself for sounding calm and friendly when deep inside his stomach was twisting in complicated knots. He could just imagine her sitting quietly, listening to her mp3 while waiting for practice or an interview or whatnot and thanked Heavens that she had decided to pick up regardless of her packed schedule. Being a part of So Nyeo Shi Dae was hard, even harder was being its’ face.
“You heard right, oppa. I’m 22 today finally, but somehow I expected it to feel different.” She replies good-naturedly. Her voice is a lot smoother now on the phone than the last time he had spoken to her and he figures it’s because of all the extra-training she’s been putting herself through to improve her singing. Though personally, he thinks she doesn’t need to improve any more. She was already perfect as she was - she was Im Yoona, after all; South Korea’s maiden love.
“Different? How so?”
“I’m not sure. I guess I was hoping I’d have more wisdom by now, but instead I feel the same… still a choding.” She laughs softly, the sound ringing through smoothly like crème mixing in black coffee. “I’m not worried though. There’s hope for me yet - I can still be someone’s beautiful daughter-in-law, right?”
Taecyeon’s lips lift upwards absentmindedly as he shook his head and stared up at the ceiling. He stood there, rubbing his shoes together and wondered how someone so perfect could think she wasn’t already so and slowly laughed when he realized that - This is who Yoona is. A girl always striving to be better than herself and hoping for more in life; someone who would work endlessly with a permanent smile on her beautiful face, no matter how many times she stumbles and falls.
He had wanted to wish her luck, but instead - he thinks - he’ll wish for her hope (to be the lady she will be (but already is) and to be better than the version of herself now) to never run out.
“You’ll be someone’s beautiful daughter-in-law, Yoong.” He replies when she said his name and wondered if he was still there and smiles to himself. Whoever marries her is extremely lucky, he thinks (and pushes the thought of wanting to be that man away - that time for him was over now, over) and should be told so the moment he catches word from Tiffany again (because he knows he doesn’t deserve someone as pure and beautiful like her, no matter how much he’d liked to think that he was perfect the way he is - just not for her).
“You think so?”
He nods in his space on the wall and grins at the softness of her tone. “Hey. There’s no doubt about that.”
“I love you.” (Changmin/Yoona)
Changmin doesn’t call her even though he’s thought about it the whole day - during all three major meals and snacks in between tapings and interviews all around the Japanese metropolitan district. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to call - they were friends after all and colleagues! - because he really did (you could ask Yunho or his Japanese manager and they would tell you just how many times he sat staring at his phone like an idiot waiting for an apple to drop from an orange tree). No - calls and texts were out of the question for him right now; they felt impersonal somehow, almost insincere and he was anything but that. He had been the silent, brooding sunbae for so long; it was time for a change in dynamic.
And so there he was, carrying his feet up eight flights stairs of an apartment building in Tokyo where the girls of So Nyeo Shi Dae stayed, just so he could deliver a birthday message he wasn’t quite sure he had already formulated in his head. Nevertheless, he was there at least - making an effort and climbing because he had to escape their fans camped out in front of the building and efficiently blocking his safe and not scandalized passage up to their dorm.
Come to think of it, Changmin doesn’t remember ever visiting them like this back in Seoul. He remembers being invited along with his hyungs (back when they were five and making a mess of things in the kitchen instead of the courtroom) but never really going through with. He briefly wonders if Yunho, Jaejoong, Yoochun or Junsu ever did (and he figures that two out of four probably already did) and suddenly he’s overcome with a biting shiver of trepidation that he stopped his finger from connecting to the doorbell just in time.
What the hell was he doing there anyway? It was late (it was half past eleven in the evening already and no one should ever greet a friend this late in the day without a proper excuse - he had none, thus presents the problem) and she was probably already asleep or about to sleep… right? Changmin sighed in exasperation and leaned his head over the door, breathing as softly as he could just in case they can hear him in there and opened the door. He didn’t want them to see him like this, all embarrassed and anxious because that’s not who he is normally.
At least… not when Yoona is around him.
He found that he was never really as calm and collected when he was around her. A high five turns into an awkward wave when she looks his way, a hug turns into a pathetic excuse of a handshake, and a smile turns into a pained grimace because just Yoona being herself is simply too much for his senses (eyes, ears, nose, skin, brain, heart) to take.
They’ve known each other for a decade now since joining the company at the same year and somehow things had never changed since then. They were still awkward and odd to look at when together; she was better off paired with Siwon or Leeteuk or Donghae or Minho or anyone really in and out of SM than with him - but that thought had always left a pain in his chest that he never quite understood. They rarely spoke and the one time they really did - speak past the standard formalities - she had told him to “Wake up and stop moping. You are Shim Changmin, damn it - you are the strongest in the company! Stand up and act like it!” and then stomped off, leaving him slack-jawed at the fury of her eyes and the glow of her skin.
Yunho told him after that incident that perhaps… he liked her more than he realized. She had gotten him out of his stupor after all, when no one else could and ‘that had to mean something more’ than he wanted to admit. “Perhaps, you love her?” His hyung had said, and (before he gamely shot the idea down point blank to his friend)… Changmin had considered it too.
“This is ridiculous.” He whispered to himself, rubbing his palm over his forehead and trying to concentrate on gathering his wits and getting this over with. He was just there to wish her a “Happy Birthday” - something he could have simply done thru a call or a text he had proceeded to take further until his tall frame stood in front of a white apartment door. He wasn’t there to profess his love (because he just wasn’t sure if he should say that yet. Even though it hurt to think about her with someone else and he thought of her at every waking moment) and it was better to get it over with now or never. Changmin breathed deeply and straightened his posture, raising a fist and knocking just once-
… And apparently, once was just enough.
“Op… Sunbae? You’re here…” Yoona stared up at him in surprise, blinking slowly as her hands fitted itself on the door knob and made no motion to move aside. There was a flurry of emotions drifting across her eyes, ranging from surprise to disbelief to confusion and then for a moment, happiness. She stood motionless before him, blinking still and Changmin figured that it was better for his nerves to stay outside than being asked to come in.
“Hi. It’s-it’s late, I know. I’m sorry for suddenly dropping by.”
“Oh-no, it’s fine. I just didn’t expect it to be you at the door. Um… did you want to-?”
He shook his head and flashed a sheepish smile. “No, it’s okay. I’m not staying long. I just dropped by to-”
It’s harder to finish his sentences if she continued to look at him like that, Changmin mused, and he carefully pulled at her hand (ignoring the warm tingle her skin elicited on his skin) to him and closed the door softly behind her. The look of surprise on her face was almost comical if not for the slight blush that enflamed her cheeks and he briefly speculated on why that was. He hadn’t noticed it, but his body was closer to her than he had planned and when he came to - he didn’t have the will to move away.
“Happy Birthday… Yoona.”
She cast her eyes down to his chest, slightly twisting her wrist in his hand but didn’t pull away and replied, “Thank you.”
He doesn’t think he can let go of her now. And he repeats the words a little louder,
“Happy Birthday, Yoona.”
A chuckle erupts from her lips and she smiled at him, shaking her head. “I heard you the first time, oppa.”
His own lips curled into a smile and Changmin shrugged amiably. “I had to repeat it just in case you didn’t hear me.”
“Is that all you came here for? To greet me a ‘happy birthday’? Because you could have just sent me a message.”
“I think we’ve both had enough of just sending messages, don’t you think?”
“Maybe… but it’s not like you have anything else to say right?” She said, tilting her head to the side and looking at him fully now. Her eyes shining into his and burning a warm course into his chest and-This is it… isn’t it?
Changmin had come there initially to wish her a ‘happy birthday’… but instead he found himself wishing for something more than just that. Something more than a friendly greeting and a polite bow every now and then at the halls they’ll find themselves walking together; more than a curt nod and half-hearted wave; more than text messages secretly exchanged during breaks from schedules in different countries.
His hand cupped her cheek while the other found its’ way at the back of her head, and slowly he poured himself onto her lips to tell her words he could not say out loud just yet. Words that would describe the emotions that faithfully stirred in his chest since the day he met her and ten years later.
He wished Yoona love… his love, to be specific - because there was no one else he’d rather give it all to but her.
“Yoona... what?”
“I’ve wanted you to kiss me for a long time.”
“You have?”
“Mmhmm.”
“Since when?”
“Since forever.”
“I’m sorry you had to wait this long.”
“You seemed like you were waiting just as long to me.”
“That’s true. So… is this the best birthday greeting ever?”
“I don’t know… you’ll have to remind me-”
…
“Yes. This is the best greeting, ever.”
“Good. Hey, Yoona.”
“Hmm?”
“I… do I still have to say it?” I love you.
“We’ll work on it.” I love you too.
* * *
Notes: Posted here for archiving purposes. /orz
(Five men wish Im Yoona a 'Happy Birthday'.)
Yoona ft. Leeteuk, Kyuhyun, Minho, Taecyeon and Changmin
4,105 words, G. For Yoona's 22nd birthday.
“You’re the person I am proud to call friend.” (Leeteuk/Yoona)
Leeteuk calls her at exactly midnight and grins when Yoona picks up the phone and congratulates him on being the first to greet her a ‘Happy Birthday’ again this year. It’s been ten years since he first met her looking all scrawny and awkward in blue overalls and showed her around the company - and nine out of all those years ago, he is still the one who holds the position of being her first in almost everything (first person to call friend, first person to call, first person to thank, first person to laugh with, first person to cry with, first person to share stories and secrets no one else really knows) - first in everything important in a friendship like theirs.
And their friendship is a marvelous thing, it makes him all the more special in the eyes of their peers and really, who doesn’t like all that attention?
“Aww. Our Yoona probably waited for this call, didn’t she? Tss, I should have called a little later and made you stay up.”
“Yeah, right. If you did, then you won’t be number one in my calls list anymore! Did you want someone else to be first to greet me, Leeteuk-oppa?”
Leeteuk imagines her grinning and shrugging in her Tokyo dorm, snuggled inside a pink blanket he sent over the first time the girls left for Japan activities.
“Even if someone calls, you won’t pick it up unless I greet first right?”
“Maaaybe.” She croons and dissolves into her loud alligator laugh just as he laughs into the phone as well.
Leeteuk is lucky. And it feels pretty damn great knowing he’s got South Korea’s sweetheart as his best friend. It’s awesome how she singsongs his name whenever he calls and laughs when she makes a chiding comment on having only “Oppa call me when I’m down. Why can’t some other guy call, huh?” because he knows that she doesn’t mean it in a bad way and that she actually really does like hearing from him at a regular basis (so unlike someone else he knew, who would come up out of nowhere, tap her once on the shoulder and steal her away from him in a heartbeat of a second). She would laugh at his jokes and play along when he tells her to do something embarrassing, not caring at all if for a moment she’s a little too close while they laugh and play (and he begins to feel a little out of breath at her proximity). She’s cool with the fact that she’ll forever be regarded as one of the boys (at least that’s what she thinks) and will stay up no matter how late his schedules’ would be to talk whenever he wants (he always does; how could anyone pass up a chance to talk to her for the nth time in a day if they had his privileges?).
Im Yoona is his best friend and he wouldn’t have it any other way (as long as he ignores the fact that the whole best friend thing kind of stabs at him a bit because he’ll never be more than friends with her no matter how hard he wishes). She’s a year older today, and he wishes her for more than good health and happiness…
He wishes for her to stay as his ‘M.I.L.K. Vice President’ forever.
“You know… you’re always going to be my best oppa, right? That’s a promise.” She says from miles away, under Tokyo’s night sky and his pink blanket of a gift.
His lips curl into a grin. “Yeah, I know.”
“You have my favorite smile.” (Kyuhyun/Yoona)
Kyuhyun calls her in the early morning, just as the sun began to rise in the east, and laughs when Yoona answers with a sweet but garbled ‘Hello, Kyuhyun-ah’ and a yawn. He doesn’t mind that she sounds a little weird because she’s always been a little bit special in the head and besides, everyone knows that Jungsoo-hyung probably got her to stay up all night just to talk and smother her with his 15-part monologue of Happy Birthday wishes. He doesn’t mind at all because he knows that even though she’s tired and probably wants to sleep in a little more, she’ll still answer.
“Has anyone ever told you that your yawn sounds like a moose dying?” He says, his voice light and amiable as he held onto his phone with one hand. He lounged on the couch and watched the sun rise across the horizon and slowly light up the city of Seoul. He figures that Tokyo is getting brighter too with the sun’s rays and wonders briefly if So Nyeo Shi Dae slept sprawled all over their living room floor again after their tour practice. “Because it sounds really weird. Loud and breathy, like you’re wheezing for air that’s not there anymore.”
“Gee… thanks a lot for that insightful observation, Kyuhyun. I am overwhelmed with your love on my birthday today.”
Kyuhyun can almost see her roll her sleepy eyes at him and laughs easily at the thought. Blurry-eyed or not, Im Yoona had a sharp tongue and quick wit that could almost match his own… that is, if only she’d let it out once in awhile. Still, that didn’t bother him much - he rather liked having to witness that feisty personality of hers firsthand as one of her friends (and many admirers) rather than have her going around showing it to nobody special in the world.
If anyone was to see her crazy-eyed and snarky, it would be in front of him - Cho Kyuhyun, snark star extraordinaire and their band of SMTOWN friends.
With a grin etched across his face, he moos loudly into the phone and waits patiently for a reaction. When nothing comes but a stunned silence, Kyuhyun does the sound one more time (louder this time and no, he doesn’t care if his hyungs wake up suddenly to pelt him with shoes and whatnot) before speaking, “Hey. I sound just like you, don’t I?”
It’s soft at first and then an explosion erupts as Yoona burst out laughing - her lilting laughter passing through his earpiece and straight down to warming his heart. He wishes her a lot of things for her birthday, but most especially this: a happiness that’s never-ending. She deserves that much, he thinks, because she’s almost as awesome as he is and he wants that kind of happiness too.
Kyuhyun hears her laughter die down and her voice hitch in a merry breath, “You’re insane, Kyuhyun. Did you win StarCraft against Kangin-oppa again?”
He shrugs, and when she laughs again a moment later, he knows that she understood him without even seeing him.
“Of course, you beat him. You’re the amazing Cho Kyuhyun after all.”
“Exactly. You’re learning fast, Yoong-padawan.”
“You are my favorite noona.” (Minho/Yoona)
He calls her right after an interview and during lunch because he figures there’s no other perfect time for him to do so than when her face is probably buried in a bowlful of ramen and takoyaki. He chuckles to himself when Yoona answers the phone with a furious rant telling him to ‘make it quick or else he’ll be the one paying for her birthday lunch next year’. It doesn’t disturb him all that much because she’s always said that over the years but she never ever came to collect. Usually she’d be the one to burst into their practice room door with smiles and goodies filling her arms while enthusiastically cheering ‘Go Minho! Go Taemin! Go Jinki! Go Kibum! Go Jonghyun! Go SHINee!!!’ at the top of her lungs, no matter how small the event he and his team were practicing for.
Im Yoona is just that kind of person. She is such a wonderful noona - he dares and says that she’s his favorite one - because no one else could lift up his spirits better than she can (with her laugh and her smile, with the way her hair fell on her face and she would brush it back behind her ear). And she’s done so a million times that Minho’s actually lost count.
“Is that how you say hello to your favorite dongsaeng?” He replies cheekily, smirking to himself when she lets out a mock-haughty scoff.
He could just imagine her rolling his eyes at him before nodding gravely, because conceited as the thought may be, he’s dead sure that he was at least miles higher in her ‘best dongsaeng’ poll than Taemin will ever be with his cute smile and sweet demeanor. Noona wasn’t nearly as competitive as him but she liked a good challenge - and who else was perfect to challenge amongst the SHINee boys that Choi Minho himself?
“Oh right… because the noona has to be the polite one in the conversation.” She says sarcastically, her voice light and friendly despite the palatable command in her tone. He choked back a laugh because it’s fun to tease her over the phone like this - where she couldn’t pummel him with her enormous strength (even though, secretly, he liked the attention she showered him when he did because then she’d be close enough for him to smell the lavender soap she liked to use).
No one is really the same once they’ve fought Yoona and her mighty fists and he knows this (because he’s witnessed it first hand; how his hyung had stared after her when she fought back, waking him up from his groundless trance and bringing him back to them finally) all too well.
“We should have an arm-wrestling tournament when we all go back to Korea. I want to see if I can beat you with these guns of mine.”
“Guns of steel? Really, Minho? You’re a flimsy stick compared to me!” she exclaims, the essence of a showdown evident in her voice and he grins, knowing that it’ll be a fight to the death and he was more than ready to fire it up.
“Noona, have you seen yourself lately? You’re even skinnier than usual! You’ve got nothing on me!” He replies and smirks when she does that mock-haughty scoff once again. A challenge is a challenge and Im Yoona would never back down (he liked that part of her the most; the faith in her spirit and confidence in her strength. She was a lot of things, but she was never a quitter).
“Maybe, but I have faith in HimYoona’s majestic return so you should watch your back!”
Minho likes to wish for a lot of things for his friends (patience for Key, maturity for Onew, a less evil mind for Kyuhyun, tact for Heechul, a bit more bravery for Changmin) but for today - for her special day - he simply wished for that faith in herself to last forever. If there was anyone who would go the distance in this industry they were in, Minho knew it would be her. Im Yoona was special after all, his favorite noona.
“Kidding aside, let’s hang out for dinner soon, okay? The whole gang together; the Y2K1 trainees: You, me, Kyuhyun, Jinki, Changmin… promise you’ll make time?”
He nods and smiles, because she’s lifted his spirits again without knowing it.
“Anything for you, Noona.”
“You are beautiful.” (Taecyeon/Yoona)
Taecyeon calls her secretly and hangs up even before the first ring ended and his members start wondering where he is. He stares down at his phone, at the number already dialed in and waiting to be called and briefly hits himself over the head at his own cowardice. It’s not like he’s never called Yoona before but even then, every call was a challenge and right now he was just simply going through his ‘call-Yoona’ routine.
He jogged in place for a moment, stretching his legs and arms before mentally psyching himself with confidence to dial the number and not hang up.
She turned a year older today and even though they’re friendship had become too awkward for them to talk like before - he still considered her to be one of his close friends (no, never mind that he had secretly wanted more and had asked Tiffany to bring Yoona when they met up for coffee or dinner so that he could be around her more. That was in the past and although he still thought of her from time to time, he had settled on giving his heart to another and he was happy there). He wanted to wish her good health and luck on her activities. There’s no harm in that.
Taecyeon punched the ‘Call’ button and waited anxiously as the phone rang once, twice and then-“Oh. Taecyeon-ah… hello!”
It was amazing how the sound of her voice could erase his worries away and cause him to grin like the idiot his members often complained about. He cleared his throat and replied as coolly as he could without sounding to eager or nervous or both. It was enough to be happy that he had managed to call… she didn’t have to know the routine he had to go through just to do it.
“Yoona... it’s been awhile. I heard you’re a year older today… Happy Birthday!” Taecyeon congratulated himself for sounding calm and friendly when deep inside his stomach was twisting in complicated knots. He could just imagine her sitting quietly, listening to her mp3 while waiting for practice or an interview or whatnot and thanked Heavens that she had decided to pick up regardless of her packed schedule. Being a part of So Nyeo Shi Dae was hard, even harder was being its’ face.
“You heard right, oppa. I’m 22 today finally, but somehow I expected it to feel different.” She replies good-naturedly. Her voice is a lot smoother now on the phone than the last time he had spoken to her and he figures it’s because of all the extra-training she’s been putting herself through to improve her singing. Though personally, he thinks she doesn’t need to improve any more. She was already perfect as she was - she was Im Yoona, after all; South Korea’s maiden love.
“Different? How so?”
“I’m not sure. I guess I was hoping I’d have more wisdom by now, but instead I feel the same… still a choding.” She laughs softly, the sound ringing through smoothly like crème mixing in black coffee. “I’m not worried though. There’s hope for me yet - I can still be someone’s beautiful daughter-in-law, right?”
Taecyeon’s lips lift upwards absentmindedly as he shook his head and stared up at the ceiling. He stood there, rubbing his shoes together and wondered how someone so perfect could think she wasn’t already so and slowly laughed when he realized that - This is who Yoona is. A girl always striving to be better than herself and hoping for more in life; someone who would work endlessly with a permanent smile on her beautiful face, no matter how many times she stumbles and falls.
He had wanted to wish her luck, but instead - he thinks - he’ll wish for her hope (to be the lady she will be (but already is) and to be better than the version of herself now) to never run out.
“You’ll be someone’s beautiful daughter-in-law, Yoong.” He replies when she said his name and wondered if he was still there and smiles to himself. Whoever marries her is extremely lucky, he thinks (and pushes the thought of wanting to be that man away - that time for him was over now, over) and should be told so the moment he catches word from Tiffany again (because he knows he doesn’t deserve someone as pure and beautiful like her, no matter how much he’d liked to think that he was perfect the way he is - just not for her).
“You think so?”
He nods in his space on the wall and grins at the softness of her tone. “Hey. There’s no doubt about that.”
“I love you.” (Changmin/Yoona)
Changmin doesn’t call her even though he’s thought about it the whole day - during all three major meals and snacks in between tapings and interviews all around the Japanese metropolitan district. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to call - they were friends after all and colleagues! - because he really did (you could ask Yunho or his Japanese manager and they would tell you just how many times he sat staring at his phone like an idiot waiting for an apple to drop from an orange tree). No - calls and texts were out of the question for him right now; they felt impersonal somehow, almost insincere and he was anything but that. He had been the silent, brooding sunbae for so long; it was time for a change in dynamic.
And so there he was, carrying his feet up eight flights stairs of an apartment building in Tokyo where the girls of So Nyeo Shi Dae stayed, just so he could deliver a birthday message he wasn’t quite sure he had already formulated in his head. Nevertheless, he was there at least - making an effort and climbing because he had to escape their fans camped out in front of the building and efficiently blocking his safe and not scandalized passage up to their dorm.
Come to think of it, Changmin doesn’t remember ever visiting them like this back in Seoul. He remembers being invited along with his hyungs (back when they were five and making a mess of things in the kitchen instead of the courtroom) but never really going through with. He briefly wonders if Yunho, Jaejoong, Yoochun or Junsu ever did (and he figures that two out of four probably already did) and suddenly he’s overcome with a biting shiver of trepidation that he stopped his finger from connecting to the doorbell just in time.
What the hell was he doing there anyway? It was late (it was half past eleven in the evening already and no one should ever greet a friend this late in the day without a proper excuse - he had none, thus presents the problem) and she was probably already asleep or about to sleep… right? Changmin sighed in exasperation and leaned his head over the door, breathing as softly as he could just in case they can hear him in there and opened the door. He didn’t want them to see him like this, all embarrassed and anxious because that’s not who he is normally.
At least… not when Yoona is around him.
He found that he was never really as calm and collected when he was around her. A high five turns into an awkward wave when she looks his way, a hug turns into a pathetic excuse of a handshake, and a smile turns into a pained grimace because just Yoona being herself is simply too much for his senses (eyes, ears, nose, skin, brain, heart) to take.
They’ve known each other for a decade now since joining the company at the same year and somehow things had never changed since then. They were still awkward and odd to look at when together; she was better off paired with Siwon or Leeteuk or Donghae or Minho or anyone really in and out of SM than with him - but that thought had always left a pain in his chest that he never quite understood. They rarely spoke and the one time they really did - speak past the standard formalities - she had told him to “Wake up and stop moping. You are Shim Changmin, damn it - you are the strongest in the company! Stand up and act like it!” and then stomped off, leaving him slack-jawed at the fury of her eyes and the glow of her skin.
Yunho told him after that incident that perhaps… he liked her more than he realized. She had gotten him out of his stupor after all, when no one else could and ‘that had to mean something more’ than he wanted to admit. “Perhaps, you love her?” His hyung had said, and (before he gamely shot the idea down point blank to his friend)… Changmin had considered it too.
“This is ridiculous.” He whispered to himself, rubbing his palm over his forehead and trying to concentrate on gathering his wits and getting this over with. He was just there to wish her a “Happy Birthday” - something he could have simply done thru a call or a text he had proceeded to take further until his tall frame stood in front of a white apartment door. He wasn’t there to profess his love (because he just wasn’t sure if he should say that yet. Even though it hurt to think about her with someone else and he thought of her at every waking moment) and it was better to get it over with now or never. Changmin breathed deeply and straightened his posture, raising a fist and knocking just once-
… And apparently, once was just enough.
“Op… Sunbae? You’re here…” Yoona stared up at him in surprise, blinking slowly as her hands fitted itself on the door knob and made no motion to move aside. There was a flurry of emotions drifting across her eyes, ranging from surprise to disbelief to confusion and then for a moment, happiness. She stood motionless before him, blinking still and Changmin figured that it was better for his nerves to stay outside than being asked to come in.
“Hi. It’s-it’s late, I know. I’m sorry for suddenly dropping by.”
“Oh-no, it’s fine. I just didn’t expect it to be you at the door. Um… did you want to-?”
He shook his head and flashed a sheepish smile. “No, it’s okay. I’m not staying long. I just dropped by to-”
It’s harder to finish his sentences if she continued to look at him like that, Changmin mused, and he carefully pulled at her hand (ignoring the warm tingle her skin elicited on his skin) to him and closed the door softly behind her. The look of surprise on her face was almost comical if not for the slight blush that enflamed her cheeks and he briefly speculated on why that was. He hadn’t noticed it, but his body was closer to her than he had planned and when he came to - he didn’t have the will to move away.
“Happy Birthday… Yoona.”
She cast her eyes down to his chest, slightly twisting her wrist in his hand but didn’t pull away and replied, “Thank you.”
He doesn’t think he can let go of her now. And he repeats the words a little louder,
“Happy Birthday, Yoona.”
A chuckle erupts from her lips and she smiled at him, shaking her head. “I heard you the first time, oppa.”
His own lips curled into a smile and Changmin shrugged amiably. “I had to repeat it just in case you didn’t hear me.”
“Is that all you came here for? To greet me a ‘happy birthday’? Because you could have just sent me a message.”
“I think we’ve both had enough of just sending messages, don’t you think?”
“Maybe… but it’s not like you have anything else to say right?” She said, tilting her head to the side and looking at him fully now. Her eyes shining into his and burning a warm course into his chest and-This is it… isn’t it?
Changmin had come there initially to wish her a ‘happy birthday’… but instead he found himself wishing for something more than just that. Something more than a friendly greeting and a polite bow every now and then at the halls they’ll find themselves walking together; more than a curt nod and half-hearted wave; more than text messages secretly exchanged during breaks from schedules in different countries.
His hand cupped her cheek while the other found its’ way at the back of her head, and slowly he poured himself onto her lips to tell her words he could not say out loud just yet. Words that would describe the emotions that faithfully stirred in his chest since the day he met her and ten years later.
He wished Yoona love… his love, to be specific - because there was no one else he’d rather give it all to but her.
“Yoona... what?”
“I’ve wanted you to kiss me for a long time.”
“You have?”
“Mmhmm.”
“Since when?”
“Since forever.”
“I’m sorry you had to wait this long.”
“You seemed like you were waiting just as long to me.”
“That’s true. So… is this the best birthday greeting ever?”
“I don’t know… you’ll have to remind me-”
…
“Yes. This is the best greeting, ever.”
“Good. Hey, Yoona.”
“Hmm?”
“I… do I still have to say it?” I love you.
“We’ll work on it.” I love you too.
* * *
Notes: Posted here for archiving purposes. /orz