"My baby... Wake up!"

The blonde boy awoke by someone cooeing at him softly, right beside his ear.

"Mom?," he slurred sleepily.

"Yes, baby. Happy birthday!" Taehyung blinked in surprise as he had completely forgotten that today was his big day.

He was turning seventeen.

As he completely opened his eyes, he could see his mother standing right beside his bed, holding a birthday cake with colourful candles that proudly showed the number "17", coloured in a rainbow-like flow.

It was a fruit cake with various sorts of tasty fruits; strawberries, bananas, cherries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, kiwis, et cetera.

"Ohh... Mom. Thank you," he gasped, sitting up slightly and wrapping his arms around her skillfully so that the cake she was holding wouldn't drop.

"Blow out the candles," she spoke softly, making him nod and bend over to reach the cake and blow out the two flames carefully, making a bit of smoke erupt.

His mother smiled and pressed a short kiss to his forehead.

"Come downstairs soon, Taehyungie. Then you can have a piece of cake and unpack your presents."

She waved a slender hand at him and left his room with a beautiful smile on her face, making her son smile with the same beautiful, rectangular smile.

He then kicked the duvet off his body and yawned by letting out a high-pitched squeal, sighing afterwards.

Was he excited? Was he happy?

He couldn't deny the fact that there still was this unbearable emptiness inside of him, and even though he did feel excited about this special day, there was this weird, painful tug inside of him whenever he thought back to the old times.

Shaking his head and getting dressed, he tried thinking optimistically and stepped down the stairs that lead to the dining room.

Since everyome seemed to make an effort for him to be happy, he felt like he should at least try to grant their efforts with being as happy as possible.

Even his father lowered his newspaper and forced a smile on his face which admittedly looked more like he was grinding his teeth together, and congratulated him.

Grinning, Taehyung sat himself on the dining table and ate a piece of fruit cake after thanking his mother, actually quite enjoying his seventeenth birthday.

"So, what will you do today, Taehyungie?"

The blonde chewed the delicious cake through until he could swallow and then answered: "Jimin asked me if I could hang out with him, he'll be here any minute."

She nodded.

"Of course, baby. Have fun. There will be presents when you return." She winked.

And just as he finished the cake, the doorbell rang.

"Oohh, that's him! I'm gonna go, goodbye, mother! Goodbye, father," he exclaimed, lowering his voice when he said the last two words.

After hearing his parents bid goodbye to him, he rushed towards the front door and opened it, revealing a grinning Jimin and a smirking Mark.

"Hey guys! I--"

"Happy birthday, you cute piece of shit!!," Jimin screeched, pulling Taehyung into a tight hug and definetely catching him off-guard.

"T-Thanks," he breathed when the redhead let go, now turning towards Mark.

"Happy birthday, babe." Smiling kind of awkwardly since Jimin was here aswell, Taehyung hugged the brunette too, whispering a "thanks" while he was at it.

"Soo, where are we going?" The shortest of the three smirked.

"We have something awesome planned!"

°○●○●○°

"Guys, today was amazing! Thank you for everything, I'll open the presents at home!" The birthday boy was beaming at his two friends, the two of them pulling him into a group hug.

"You deserve only the best, Taehyung. Of course we would do this for you. Now go inside, your parents must be waiting. Happy birthday again," Jimin said while smiling his cute eye smile.

Bidding goodbye to the two of them and waving happily, Taehyung unlocked the front door and entered his home.

After answering all of his mother's questions and receiving his presents, Taehyung went upstairs to his room happily.

Today was better than he had imagined, much better. How lucky he was.

Him, Jimin and Mark had driven into the city to play LaserTag.

The blonde had never done anything like that before so it was a whole new experience for him, but he had lots of fun.

Afterwards, the three of them had eaten some delicious chocolate cake and gone to see a movie in the cinema, an animated movie.

Of course, Taehyung couldn't ignore the way Mark had 'accidentally' touched his hand every time he had reached into the popcorn bowl the two of them shared.

All in all, he had an awesome birthday and he was satisfied.

After opening his presents from Jimin and Mark, which were Girls' Generations albums and a heartfelt love letter- kind of thing from Mark, he suddenly noticed something on his bedside table.

A bouquet.

A bouquet of blue roses.

A bouquet of blue roses with a note next to it.

Furrowing his eyebrows, Taehyung grabbed the note, feeling his heart beat wildly in his chest.

He didn't recall seeing this before. Did someone sneak into his room and randomly leave flowers?

He tried to avoid all sorts of suspicions and unfolded the note which revealed some kind-of messy handwriting:

'Dear Taehyung,

Happy birthday. I hope you had a wonderful day and I hope you had lots of fun.

Things have changed a lot, I know.

First of all, I wanted to apologize to you. I fucked up so bad, I'm so sorry. So, so, sorry. I wasn't thinking clearly and honestly, I think none of this would've happened if I would've got some sense knocked in my head.

I hurt many people and I was being an asshole, I now realize my mistake and I want to make it right.

I still remember when we were young and we randomly looked up birth flowers in my mother's calender.

My birth flowers were tiger lilies and yours were the Calicanthus Floridus'.

(I would've got you a bouquet of those instead but Calicanthus Floridus' weren't sold in bouquet form so I got you roses instead, I recall you finding them really pretty when you were a kid. By the way, I glued a Calicanthus Floridus onto the bottom of this note.)

Whatever I do, you and all of our beautiful moments together won't leave my head. I simply can't live without you and I think I finally realized that, I was trying so hard to cope without you by my side but evidently, it didn't work and I turned into a shitty person that I do not want to be anymore. I did so many stupid things and I wish I could turn back everything back to normal, back to when you didn't hate me and I was your soulmate for eternity.

You don't have to forgive me or anything, just please know that you are and will be one of the most important people in my life, forever.

So I'm telling you to just be happy.

You're a beautiful person from inside and out and your happiness makes me happy, so please take my words to heart.

I love you,

-JK.'

As he read the last word, the blonde could feel his breath hitch and his heartbeat pick up its pace.

Tears were welling up in his eyes as he ran towards his window to see if he could still catch him.

To his luck, he could see a tall figure with long, messy hair standing right outside his window, looking as handsome as always.

And then, he immediately opened his window and climbed outside.

"Jungkook!," he screamed, the other immediately turning around and widening his eyes.

Jungkook didn't even get a chance to speak because Taehyung decided to quite literally throw himself into his arms.

With his head nuzzled in between the younger's shoulder and neck area, the blonde's arms were secured tightly around Jungkook's neck so that their chests were basically touching.

The very surprised ravenette embraced him by wrapping his arms around him and putting his head on top of his, feeling like he could cry of luck. Nothing felt better than having the boy he loved back in his arms, even though it was probably just meant in a friendship-kind of way.

For a while they stayed like this, but then Taehyung removed himself from Jungkook since he was starting to get emotional, instantly missing his warmth.

"U-Umm, thank y-you so much f-for the flowers, a-and the note, of c-course. I m-missed you so much."

And the tears started streaming down his face.

Jesus Christ, why am I crying? I don't get it, why am I crying?

He realized that being Jungkook's friend and being secretly in love with him felt much better than just staying away from him without sparing him a glance. And obviously, the other felt the same way.

"Don't cry, please," the younger mumbled, stroking the tears away with his thumb. He could feel his own eyes getting teary.

Taehyung subconsciously leaned into his touch, wondering about how right this felt.

Again, being in this low-key intimante position, he wanted to kiss him.

But of course, he didn't.

You have a date tomorrow, Taehyung! Get yourself together.

He controlled himself and managed to stop the tears from flowing even more.

"I can't believe you remembered blue roses were my favourite. I'm sorry for being so mad at you, by the way, of course I didn't mean it. L-Let's be friends again."

Jungkook nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, friends..."

Taehyung smiled and got closer to him again, the ravenette thought he was going for another hug but suddenly...

...He felt a pair of lips on his cheek.

Taehyung had just kissed his cheek.

Tryjng to hide the very deep and very obvious blush creeping up his cheeks, Jungkook just laughed nervously and hoped the other couldn't hear his loud and overly rapid heartbeat. Thank god it was late at night.

"Haha, that's g-great. Um.. you have a date tomorrow, right?," he stuttered.

"Y-Yeah, I do." Suddenly, the blonde kind of regretted saying yes to him, no doubt Mark would be a good boyfriend but whatever happened, he knew his heart would come crawling back to Jungkook, no matter how hard he tried to avoid that.

Because simply, no one could make him feel the way he made him feel.

"Uh, that's great. I hope you have fun and t-text me all the details. I'm glad you could forgive me, by the way.

Happy birthday again."

The ravenette knew he was lying because indirectly, he wanted the date to not be successful and he wanted Taehyung to dump the shit out of Mark.

But, of course, he didn't say that.

"Thanks. I will."

The two of them waved each other goodbye, both feeling a bit awkward but mostly euphoric since they just reunited, even if it was just as friends.

Friends.

That word suddenly sounded so foreign to the both of them.