Blessing in Disguise

Chapter 3

Birthday parties always manage to make things better. But as Siwoo placed the pink candles on Ain's whipped cream cake, his heart felt hollow, and the sound of his parents' argument echoed over the voices of his members singing the birthday song. The cheerful melody clashed with the tension in his mind and created a dissonance he found hard to block out.

"WOOO! Our baby's turning 24!" Fang cheered, his voice booming with enthusiasm as he reached towards the big pan of homemade galbi in the middle of the table. He grabbed two long strips with his chopsticks and devoured them quickly, spitting out four pieces of bone back onto his plate.

"You're only a year older," Ain laughed. "But time sure does fly," he added nostalgically, carefully picking out the hardened drops of pink wax from his cake with delicate fingers.

"It feels like yesterday when we first met," Siwoo said, forcefully joining the conversation with a bleak smile to clear his head. "Remember how Ain took forever to open up? You'd just moved from the states and couldn't even eat or talk properly in front of us."

"But then he became our cutest maknae," Fang teased, throwing Ain a playful grin before shoving another strip of galbi into his mouth. Rae, with a disapproving tsk, turned away and proceeded to help Ain open his gift. His appetite had evaporated along with the sound of the rapper sucking on his thumb.

"You can change the earbud tips if they're too big," Rae said as he handed over the brand-new AirPods encased in a baby pink plastic cover. "I'll keep them in the box for now."

"Thanks, everyone... I love the gift!" Ain cradled the tiny buds in his hands, looking around the table with a warm smile. "These must have cost a fortune...! Thank you." As the main vocal of CLOUDS, Ain's love for music surpassed everyone else's in the group, so they had all agreed to pitch in to replace the old wired earphones he had been using all this time. It hadn't been a difficult decision since each of them had, at least once, thought about replacing them whenever they saw Ain struggling to untangle the yellowing wires in his bag.

The three members watched him try the earbuds on with satisfied smiles, but their expressions shifted when they noticed their maknae's eyes begin to flush red and gleam under the floresent light flickering above.

"It wasn't that expensive..." Fang arched his brow quizzically and glanced at Siwoo as he licked the sauce off his lips.

"Ain?" Siwoo put down his spoon and leaned forward in his chair, concern etched on his face. Rae took a sip from his cup, his eyes fixed on Ain as the lean shoulders began to quiver.

"Guys... I might have to go back to the States." Ain's voice wavered, and everyone fell silent as he let out a restrained sob. "You know how my parents have always been against me singing, right?" Siwoo's grip around the chair tightened, his knuckles turning white. "They told me to quit and go back home to finish my studies."

Rae opened his mouth to say something but closed it again, unable to find the right words. Ain squeezed the AirPods in his hands, his head dropping in despair. A tear fell onto his lap, staining his beige slacks with a dark oval. "I think I can hold it off for another year... but after that, I'm going to have to leave CLOUDS." His voice broke, and a shadow fell over the other members' faces. CLOUDS without Ain was a silent choir. Siwoo felt the wave he had been suppressing all evening begin to rock back and forth inside the confines of his heart.