WHEN I WAS 15 :: seungjin ✔︎

35

When I was thirty-five, we celebrated the twins' first birthdays.

My original plan had been for Seungmin and me to eat cake, put the twins to sleep, take a photo, and maybe have a drink or two.

Seungmin's original plan had been to throw a giant party that neither of the birthday kids would remember, invite every single person on the face of the planet Earth, go to sleep after midnight the following day, and maybe have a drink or two.

We found our happy medium in the form of a backyard event with close friends and a random banjo-playing guy—having, of course, a drink or two. The banjo guy would entertain the children while the adults enjoyed the real party, and the whole thing would be over hours before bedtime.

It was tedious to plan, which is why I was glad to have Seungmin organize the whole thing. "Where in the world do you find a guy who'll play a banjo at the first birthday party of adopted twins of gay celebrities?" I wondered out loud one morning, while Seungmin stared at his laptop screen.

"The Internet, my love. The World Wide Web. You won't believe the kinds of people—"

"Yeah, yeah. I just hope the banjo person doesn't have, like, a mental breakdown or something."

Seungmin cracked a grin and looked up at me. "What, like you did, trying to figure this party out?"

"It's not my fault that I, an unorganized and dramatic person, married an organized and sane person," I tell him, and sit down beside him, careful not to spill orange juice on anything. "Who are we even inviting?"

"We already invited them, remember? You made a group chat and sent a text that I sent you to send to them."

I blinked. "Of course, I totally sent that. How could I forget?"

"You didn't send the invitations?" Seungmin hissed, his fingers freezing over the keyboard. "Hyunjin, that was a week ago! How... no one even knows that this party exists..."

Gulping, I stood up. "I'll, uh, send it now." I smile at him sheepishly. "Who do I send it to, though?"

"Chan, Felix, Lucy, my mom, Jisung, Sora, Nana, Jeongin, Wooyeon, and their spouses when applicable."

"Right, right," I mumbled, about to head out of the room to find my phone. "Sorry," I added, hoping Seungmin wouldn't be too upset over my mishap.

"It's fine," he said with a weak smile. "Hopefully they're free; if not, it's alright, too. It can be just the two of us and a banjo guy, and the twins, and the bugs. Everyone knows how you act, anyway—they won't really be surprised by your shenanigans."

I snorted. "My shenanigans," I echoed, one eyebrow arched. "Shenanigans. Okay."

"I love you," Seungmin called out after me as I left the room, making my stomach clench in a warm and fuzzy way that I'd not yet gotten used to.

Poking a head back into the room, I winked at Seungmin. "I love you too, Seungmin. I trust in your banjo-person-finding abilities."

The party was memorably fun, remarkably so, and we managed to avoid a banjo-guy breakdown in the face of so many celebrities and so many cute children.

My trust was not misplaced—it never was, when it came to Seungmin.