𝟮 𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗨𝗦 𝟭. ❥ sungtaro.

BONUS - April 27th, 18 years later

Shotaro cracked open the door to Katsu's room, seeing the now-fifteen year old staring down at his phone. "Hey, happy birthday!"

Katsu placed down his phone, climbing out of his bed to attach himself to Shotaro, half hugging him. "I get to see Robbie today, right?"

"Yes you do," Shotaro said, though he scoffed. "Not even a thank you?"

Katsu muttered out a quick "thanks" before moving past Shotaro towards Mizuki's room. He threw open the door, completely disregarding the sleeping girl inside. "Mizuki!"

Mizuki let out a small groan.

"Jung Hye!" Katsu smiled wide, eyes crinkling the same way that Shotaro's still did. "Get up!"

Mizuki groaned again, saved from her younger brother's wrath by Sungchan. "Hey, Katsu, happy birthday and all, but let Mizuki sleep. She doesn't get up bright and early like you do."

Katsu huffed. "Is that going to happen to me in two years?"

"I doubt it, kid." Sungchan brushed off Katsu's shoulder. "Now, Jung Hwan, why don't you start getting yourself ready? It's not raining for once."

Katsu nodded, but stopped himself from walking back into his room. "Why are our Korean names so boring?"

"Well, um, I panicked a bit."

"Panicked?" Katsu didn't elaborate, slipping past Sungchan to stare at Mizuki. "Noona~"

"Okay, okay." Shotaro actually shut Mizuki's door this time, stopping Katsu from going any further. "What if we go and get ready, huh?"

Katsu frowned, but trailed towards the bathroom and shut the door behind him. Shotaro sighed, placing his hands on his hips before turning to Sungchan. "So, happy 19 years."

"Is it really happy?" Sungchan asked, but he nodded solemnly. "At least we have two other things to worry about today."

"What do you guys mean by that?" Mizuki's voice cut into the conversation. She stood in her bedroom doorway, rubbing her eyes while she looked at her parents.

Before either parent could respond, the bathroom door swung open again and Katsu peeked his head out. "Yeah, you guys are always mentioning that."

Sungchan and Shotaro shared a look. It wouldn't hurt for them to mention it to their kids. After all, it's been long enoguh that they've (a) moved on officially from that year, and (b) now have more that they thought they ever would.

"Well, um, 19 years ago," Sungchan started, clasping his hands together, "a year before we found out about Mizuki and four before you were born, there was a piece of... bad news, I guess."

"Channie, you're taking too long." Shotaro placed a hand on Sungchan's shoulder, looking at each of his kids. "We found out that I had a miscarriage."

Mizuki's face morphed into an unreadable expression. "Oh, that's what it is?"

"It was a long time ago anyways." Shotaro sighed. "Katsu, why don't you shower? And Mizuki, you should grab some breakfast. We've got things to do today!"

~~~~~

As Mizuki and Katsu got ready, Shotaro and Sungchan set up for the birthday barbeque they were hosting for the younger's birthday. It was a beautiful day outside, and they got to setting up the chairs and tables. Katsu was done getting ready early, so he arrived at the backyard and attempted to lift up the cooler to bring it outside. Sungchan had to help him with that one, and Katsu disappeared immediately after. Mizuki was also ready, but she only ended up popping downstairs a few times before disappearing to her room again.

Sungchan stared on grilling about a half hour before people were set to arrive. Katsu watched him with intent, as though he would be the one grilling, until the doorbell rang. Once it did, he raced inside the house to greet his guests.

The first guests to arrive at the house were Jungwoo, Jaehyun, and Corey. Upon their entry, Katsu frowned when he noticed that Robbie hadn't come with them.

Jungwoo could read the boy's expression. "Don't worry, Katsu. Robbie's coming with Lili later. But happy birthday!"

Katsu hummed, turning around from the front door to search for Mizuki upstairs. Once he'd fetched his sister, he brought her downstairs to lead the family to the backyard.

After that, people poured in. When Robbie arrived, Katsu nearly lost it, obviously, rushing to the door to give the man a hug. Once he had, he turned his attention to Jaxon and Jason, who had come in behind, and ran off to the backyard to do stupid things with them.

Sungchan and Shotaro stayed next to the grill, looking around the expanse of their backyard. Robbie seemed to be in an intense conversation with Dejun and Kun; Yangyang was seated in a corner with Yuta and Mark, talking to Kunhang via cell phone; Jaehyun and Jungwoo were enjoying the food more than talking; and Johnny and Ten were conversing while keeping a sharp eye locked on Jaxon, Jason, and Katsu.

Actually, as for the kids, Mizuki was standing on her own next to Kayla, Eleven, and Jo, while Lili, Lea, Corey, and Kaelin were standing in a clump. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, which was a plus.

The cake was set out already, covered by a clear case. Every time that Katsu, Jaxon, and Jason walked past it, the latter made a point of stopping right by it. Around the third time they did so, Jason reached a hand out towards the handle of the case.

"Jace!" Ten was, unsurprisingly, very quick to notice this.

"I wasn't actually going to–"

"Jason Seongjin Seo, you better step away from that cake."

Jason did, in fact, step away from the cake. Jaxon and Katsu immediately started laughing, but Ten only narrowed his eyes at the former. "Jaxon Sujin Seo, I know for a fact you're not laughing when you could've stopping him."

"Sorry," the two twins mumbled.

Shotaro and Sungchan glanced at each other, having witnessed the interaction. "Do you think it's time for cake yet?"

"Yeah, probably." Sungchan glanced down at his watching. "Let's get everyone."

One awkward round of Happy Birthday and way too many slices of cake needed to be cut later, Shotaro and Sungchan finally sat down on some lawn chairs and relaxed.

"Well, this was a success," Shotaro sighed, eyes flitting to Katsu for a brief moment.

Sungchan nodded. "Success. A happy day."

"It's weird to think that we hated April 27th for a moment, huh?"

"True. But now, it's better. Happier."

Shotaro looked up at the stars that were staring to come out. Most of their guests' attention was directed at the sunset.

"Happy."

***

you probably should've revisited the names of the kids before lol

tiny headcanon: jason jaxon n katsu all have nicknames for each other, those being jace, jax, and kat respectively

mizuki can translate to hope and katsu can translate to victory (its also a food lol i imagine its katsu's favourite) it's very important you know that because mizuki gave them hope and katsu was like the finish line