Inception - When our hands touch *completed*

* a short fanfic *

"Ooohh, it's your birthday! Aren't you excited?"

My best friend Ma-Ri started slapping against my shoulder, the way she always did when she was excited about something. She had told me to come meet her at the station, but I had no clue as to why. Truth be told, I was a little annoyed by the whole thing. I had planned to celebrate my birthday with my parents, siblings and a few close friends, but one by one they had canceled on me.

"Aaww... Why the long face? Are you annoyed that you didn't get your stay-at-home celebration, or is it because I dragged your ass down here after telling everyone to cancel on you?"

I frowned. "Wait, you did what?"

Ma-Ri laughed, ducking cowardly as my hand raised to slap her against her shoulder – something I did whenever I was upset with her. "I'm sorry! I had to go around the bush with this. Otherwise you wouldn't have come. You just love being at home so much, especially on your birthday. And if I would've let you do that again this year, I wouldn't have been able to arrange this very special birthday gift for you!"

"Well, you could've just asked me."

Ma-Ri tilted her head and gave me one of her smug looks. "And you would've said yes? Be honest now."

"Probably not," I pouted which made Ma-Ri laugh. "Still, you could've asked me!"

"Stop pouting. I'm here, even though my sister's nine months pregnant and I am going to be an aunt any day now," she said. "You should be so lucky to have a friend like me."

"Your sister! Right! How is she doing?"

"Ready to pop, I'm sure." Ma-Ri snorted. "But with a first it's not uncommon to go over the nine months. Still, I'm hoping my niece won't decide to announce her arrival in the next few hours or so. If so, I'm going to hold a grudge for at least two months."

She chuckled as she linked her arm around mine and pulled me along. "Now come, let's go. We don't want to be late."

"Late for what? You haven't told me what we're actually doing here."

Ma-Ri held up two tickets. "We're going to see Ateez perform and meet them face to face afterwards!" She squealed, pressing her arm around mine.

"Ateez?" My mind was going through the possibilities of what this name might entail, because I for sure had never heard it before.

Ma-Ri always had the weirdest ideas for birthday presents, but up till now they'd always been physical items, which I unwrapped at my stay-at-home party.

Last year, she gave me something that looked like a turtle shell. It was like a life size turtle, but I could put it on like a suit. "You love turtles and you're always cold!" she had explained when I asked her about it. "Now, you can be warm and be a turtle, too!"

I must've looked at her like she had gone insane, because my parents had started laughing and my brother had told me 'to put it on'. Which I ended up doing, purely because of peer pressure. I didn't tell them at that moment, but the warmth I felt from being inside the turtle suit was actually very comfortable.

In a weird way, Ma-Ri had found a perfect gift for me – yet again.

Today, I was hoping for the same kind of experience, yet I couldn't shake this feeling of anxiety because I had no clue what Ma-Ri had come up with. She was unpredictable that way and having a present that meant we were going somewhere, was a first.

I looked at the two tickets in her hand. Ateez. Ma-Ri said we would see them perform. So, this was a group. But was it a music group or a dance group or something else? Perhaps I could google the name and see what came up.