off limits ✧ zb1 applyfic

✧ seventy two

Narae had been waiting for this day for so long! Well, exactly a year, to be more precise, but she was very excited to finally celebrate her birthday. Not to mention, since the last, she'd made quite a few new friends, who had all agreed to attend. Only Vicky had had to miss out on it, as she still wasn’t quite recovered from all the emotion of the past few days, but the two girls had agreed to meet as soon as they could.

To make this a perfect birthday, one particular person had been working overtime. Taerae had taken care of everything, from the cake, to the decoration, to the invitations, and now to welcoming their guests in. Hanbin and Irang had arrived the earliest, carrying wrapped presents. The guests had poured in quite quickly, up until the Shen siblings who arrived just a bit fashionably late. As Taerae welcomed them in, he kept his eyes firmly on the ground, finding it impossible to even look at Audrey. Soon enough, everyone had arrived, and the party was on its way.

"Wait, do you girls want to see all of the plants I have in my room?" Narae asked excitedly, obviously unable to contain her happiness at being reunited with all of her friends.

"That'd be great," Yanmei indulged her with a smile, though she had already seen most of them.

And just like that, the eight girls moved upstairs like a herd, leaving the nine guys downstairs. Alright then, the party would have to wait just a little bit.

Funnily enough, Narae's enthusiasm about her plants had struck at exactly the right time for Yujin. As he watched all of his friends settle on the couch, he mentally prepared himself for the conversation he was about to start. Jiyeon had been unable, or rather, reluctant, to give him advice, so he had no choice but to seek it elsewhere. Having everyone under the same roof at the same time was the perfect opportunity.

"Okay, guys," he started, clearing his throat to catch everyone's attention, as he stood in front of them. "I need advice."

They all turned to look at him, blinking. For him to pretty much hijack Narae's birthday party to get some advice, they imagined the situation had to be pretty serious. Yujin took a deep breath, before remembering just one bothersome detail. His lips forced into a rigid smile, he turned his eyes to Hanbin.

"Hanbin, please plug your ears."

It only took a second for Hanbin, and everyone else in the room, to understand what Yujin might have needed advice about. His nose scrunched up in discomfort, Hanbin rose from the couch.

"Yeah, uh... I think I'll just go to the bathroom," he said, embarrassedly. "So you can have that conversation without me."

Yujin waited for Hanbin to completely disappear into the hallway to continue on with his request. After all, this would be way too awkward if Irang's brother was there to hear it. He imagined his reaction wouldn’t be too different from Jiyeon's. Or maybe it would be worse.

Finally, Yujin clasped his hands together and turned back to his friends, standing perfectly straight like he was about to give a presentation. He wondered if he looked as embarrassed as he felt.

"It's about Irang." No eyes widened in the room. "We haven't kissed yet, and I don't know what to do about it."

That at least seemed to grab their attention. All of them looked back at him with open mouths, only now realizing that their precious Yujin wasn’t a baby anymore. Well, all things considered, asking his friends for advice on how and when to kiss his very first girlfriend was sort of a baby thing to do. They just hadn’t expected him to be so brave about it.

"Okay..." Gyuvin commented, his lips pursed in unease. "And why are you telling us this?"

"Because, like I said, I need advice. I have no idea if now's the right time, if there are rules for these things, and all that jazz, you know? So I thought you guys might be able to help..."