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Minho had never liked parties. It wasn't that he'd been to many (non-extravagant business ones he meant) other than the few that Namwoon had took him to. This was the main reason why he was unusually quiet and nervous on the way to Felix's party.

Jisung was sat beside him, of course. Ryujin had managed to convince her dad to take the three of them despite the fact that he refused to take Yeji to. "I've hired her a chauffeur," Ryujin had laughed down the phone when Minho asked about it, "and charged it straight to my dad's card of course." Yeji wasn't too happy but Ryujin just laughed it off and explained that he had so much money he wouldn't notice.

The journey was rather quiet. Minho didn't know whether it was the fact that they were all nervous for the party of whether it was the awkwardness they felt about Mr Shin. Either way, it felt for Minho wrong to be sat with his boyfriend and best friend and not be sharing some huge silly story or talking about something ridiculous. He supposed those conversations would have to wait for when they finally pulled up to Felix's party.

Despite the Australian boy's request, all of them had bought presents. Yeji had insisted that she paid towards some of her and Ryujin's joing present and Minho and Jisung had bought one each. It was hard to find something, Minho thought as he peeked inside his gift bag one last time and prayed that Felix would like it. He had known the boy for such a short amount of time so he could barely think of anything to buy.

The door swung open and interrupted Minho's fretting. Hyunjin greeted them with a bright smile on his face and a 'happy birthday' headband placed on his head. Jisung snorted at the sight causing Minho to begin laughing too and the entire group were soon in hysterics even before they had entered the house.

"It's gonna be a long day," Hyunjin spoke as he finally stopped laughing and they stepped inside.

Minho wasn't quite sure what he had expected of Felix's house but it was beautifully average. The layout and size of it was something Minho could only compare to Namwoon's family home that he had visited once. Other than that, Minho had never seen anything look so cosy in his life. There was something so seemingly beautiful about living an average life.

Neither Hyunjin or his family seemed to care about Felix not having much money. It was common knowledge that the Hwang's were easily one of, if not the richest family in the country but none of that seemed to matter to them at all. In Hyunjin's eyes, Felix was just like him and they worked together beautifully and Minho found their relationship heartwarming.

He had seen people so often marry for money in the world of business. He'd seen countless sons and daughters of his parents friends get married for nothing other than deals and it sickened him. Minho couldn't help but think of all of the people who had had love robbed from them because of money.

"Minho? Minho? Minhoooo?" A hand waved in front of his face and the older boy only zoned back in when Jisung placed a light kiss on his cheek to knock him from his trance.

"Sorry about that, my robot glitched," his boyfriend apologised to which Felix laughed and Minho only then realised the birthday boy was stood in front of him.

"Sorry," he began and Felix's amused grin didn't falter a bit, "happy birthday," Minho held out the gift bag and Felix took it excitedly.

"You really did have to," he smiled gratefully and Minho returned the gaze.

When Felix opened the bag, his excited gasp was enough for Minho to know he had made a good decision. "Oh my god!" The Australian boy exclaimed happily.

The present had been thought of in genius moment, Minho had spent a good half an hour googling and finding places to buy an array of random Australian snacks. He'd then made his dad's driver take him to about 15 separate stores to find all of them but the look on Felix's face made the whole thing worth it. He looked purely ecstatic.

Minho and Jisung blended into the party after that. They knew only their friends and there were random adults, who Minho assumed to be Felix's family or family friends, dancing around to some English song no one but Felix and his mom seemed to know.

"Hey Minho, do you think you could choreograph a routine to this?" Jisung asked as a particularly cheesy sounding song came on.

"I think there already is a routine," Minho pointed to the group of about 5 people who were making use of the make shift dance floor.

They watched the dancers for a while then, Jisung rested his head on Minho's shoulder and the older boy used the time to just take the situation in. It was so easy for them to just be. No one in that room cared that Jisung was a Han or that Minho was a Lee. They didn't care that their parents were rivals, they didn't care that there was no deal attached to their relationship, they didn't care that Minho looked at Jisung like he hung the stars in the sky.

Instead, Minho and Jisung were just two other ordinary boys. They sat unnoticed and Minho got to relax and he could finally look at Jisung without having to worry whether he was putting too much love into his gaze or whether he was staring for a second too long.

"What is it Minho?" Jisung asked finally after a few minutes, "you seem really deep in thought."

"I am," the older admitted, "it's so easy just sitting here isn't it," he lifted up his hand that he had linked with his boyfriend's, "we can just be together and no one cares."

"That's what it's like in the wider world," Jisung hummed, "the world of the rich means nothing to 99.9% of the population, they don't know or care who we are."

"I don't want the people in our lives to care either," Minho spoke and Jisung just laughed.

"We'll get away from them some day," he joked and Minho smiled in return.

"I hope so but anyway, you know this song right? Are you coming to dance?" Minho raised an eyebrow as Jisung who looked vaguely afraid.

"Come on," Minho squeezed his hand gently, "no one knows us here other than Ryujin, Yeji, Felix and Hyunjin."

"Oh shit," Jisung spoke straight after which confused Minho until he turned to where everyone was facing the door.

"Sorry I'm late Lix, I bought you this, I hope you like it," Minho heard a familiar voice that he never wanted to hear again.

"You've got to be kidding me," he turned back around to face Jisung and his heart rate picked up.

"Minho you've gone so pale," Jisung spoke worriedly and Ryujin seemed to notice their concern as she walked over and quickly lead them both into another room.

"What's going on?" she asked and Minho almost felt as if he couldn't speak.

"It's Namwoon," he breathed out.

"Who is Namwoon?" She asked bewildered and Jisung attempted to take over the conversation from his panicking boyfriend.

"He's Minho's ex best friend but they didn't end on a good note and now he's out to ruin Minho's life basically," Jisung explained.

"Sung, if he knows Felix, he can find my dad so easily, what if he tells him?" Minho asked desperately looking for reassurance that that wasn't going to happen but Jisung couldn't give any.

"What are we going to do?" Ryujin asked the two boys.

"I think we have to tell Felix who he is," Jisung spoke up and Minho furiously shook his head at the suggestion.

"It's his birthday we can't just ruin it like, sorry but your friend is an asshole," the oldest explained.

"If it was you would you want to know?" Ryujin asked.

"Yeah but-" Minho began but he was cut off.

"So I'm going to tell him then."

thank you so much for reading this part!! i'm sorry it took me so long to update )): but i hope you're all having a good 2021 so far <33 !! tysm for reading i hope you enjoyed it

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