𝐒𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐭│𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐚𝐮 ✓

4

Healina

"Get the banners, I want all hands on deck, streamers, lights, cake- where is the cake?!" Seungkwan was marching up and down with a megaphone as one does on a casual Wednesday morning in preparation for a surprise party for Joshua and Jeonghan. Seokmin was pulling a huge table across the floor of the Hong household, making a terrible scraping sound as it went while Vernon was intricately hanging up various serenity blue banners. A collection of other family members of the four boys were helping out around as well, Joshua's mother having a particularly hard time manoeuvring the three tier cake her and Seokmin had been working on into the open lounge. It was a bit awkward having Joshua's birthday and the night before the ceremony on the same day but they were sure Joshua wouldn't mind sharing some of the attention with Jeonghan.

Three hours of over the top planning and preparation later, Joshua and Jeonghan were due to come over. It was now the day before the ceremony and everyone was buzzing to see the two boys come of age for their serenity eyes they were both bound to get. And so, everyone began rushing to find a hiding place despite not having an exact indication as to when the boys would enter, Sanha having the particularly interesting idea of trying to disguise himself as a lampshade pole where everyone else went for more traditional places like under tables and behind doors.

After 5 minutes of waiting the energy died down as everyone realised just how uncomfortable hiding was but then there was the sound of footsteps walking up the driveway. Silence filled the air for the next few seconds until the whole room erupted into screeches, "Happy Birthday Joshua!"s and whoops from the various people at the party. Joshua jumped but then beamed as he observed what the others had done for them, Jeonghan on the other hand just smiled but that was all he could do before Seungkwan tackled him into a hug, making the older stumble back into the doorway.

"Woah, you didn't have to do all this." Joshua was the first to speak up, eyes dazzling like the various decorations around the room, everything was intricate and perfect just like it should be for the two Healina boys. "You better appreciate those." Vernon said with a pout, gesturing to the tiniest cut on his arm, causing people around to laugh. "Tomorrow, tomorrow the ceremony is tomorrow~~" Sanha bounded around the house chanting as Jeonghan tackled him into a hug, ruffling the preteen's hair.

"Yah, anyone would think it's you having the ceremony tomorrow." Jeonghan found himself smiling again at his brother's antics, if only he could be that innocent and lively all the time. Jeonghan was sure his brother would grow to be perfect for Healina, he had five close friends and one had even gotten his serenity eyes the previous year, Sanha enjoyed to gush over them frequently, complaining how unfair it was he'd have to wait a whole six more years until he got his.

The party continued on with Seokmin and Joshua's grandma singing an old ballad together with a rental karaoke machine and everyone laughing along while Vernon and Seungkwan were having a competition on who could make the tallest mountain of hour d'oeuvres, much to the displeasure of Jeonghan's dad who had spent all night making them.

Eventually the mood died down and got rather sentimental, the two boys had grown up so much, everyone was sat sharing stories of when the two were young when the mothers of the two boys emerged into the room carrying two soft serenity boxes resembling the sort of case that wedding rings would be held in. "Mother you are not trying to force me into an arranged marriage already." Jeonghan deadpanned, slightly breaking the serious tone and causing a lighthearted chuckle to spread across the room.

"We wanted to wait until the end of the ceremony but we couldn't help ourselves." Joshua's mother grinned as the two opened the boxes in unison to reveal two pairs of cuff-links, both pairs a bright white. Joshua teared up as he looked at the boxes and Jeonghan gave that same soft smile as it all felt rather bittersweet to him, still not over his apprehensions. "I love them, thank you." Joshua said, gently taking the box from his mother and looking on at them fondly like you would an old photo album. Jeonghan grabbed his pair too tracing his finger around the edge of them, "They're perfect."

"The perfect present for our perfect angels," Joshua's grandfather interjected.  The sentence made Jeonghan chuckle lightly earning a slightly confused look from Seokmin but he brushed it off as nothing.

Probably nothing.