ISTTIMI

CHAPTER 9: SCENE ONE

SCENE ONE: JAMES DEAN AND AUDREY HEPBURN

On the last day of October, Dad left us again to be deployed in another place. It was an annual happening for our family yet we still couldn't get ourselves used to it.

With Dad gone, mom goes to work on her own while me and my brothers take a bus to and from our schools.

November flew by fast - the auditions (which was totally exhausting because most students didn't really enjoy being in a play but only auditioned to be surrounded by good-looking boys) and final plan of our play happened - and the next thing we knew, it was already Jin's birthday tomorrow.

On a Saturday night in our household, mom was already sleeping in her room after finishing her work in the study, leaving me with my siblings to occupy the study for us to, well, study for the incoming exams before our club's major event.

We were all quiet that time. I was teaching Soobin some math since I was already done studying my own lessons, Namjoon was helping Beomgyu with English, while Seokjin was now munching a brownie on mom's desk.

"Mom will kill you if she sees even a small piece of that brownie on her working table." Namjoon told him.

Jin slowly munched his brownie and gulped. "You know what I'm currently thinking right now?"

The rest of my brothers looked up at Jin and asked in unison, "What?"

"I'll be expecting a surprise party at 12." he said, "I want chocolate cake."

"What's that?" Beomgyu asked, his eyes shaking.

I kept my eyes on Beomgyu until he met mine. I tried telling him that he should not blow our cover because we've been trying hard to keep Jin from the fridge since this afternoon, afraid that he might see the cake we bought for him.

"Is the cake ready?" Jin kept on trying to catch us, "You know it's chocolate or nothing, right?"

"Jin, what are you saying?" I asked, "We can't buy a cake this late in the evening."

Jin made a face of disbelief. "I just voiced out what I was thinking but go on.. Continue studying."

I'm not surprised with what happened. Jin's the kind of guy who picks up easily. He's a genius, a silent one. We don't usually see him with us in the study room but when distribution of grades come, he's never fallen out of the top students from their batch. Same goes for Namjoon. They're the bright ones, to summarize what I'm trying to say.

I'm not bad myself, but that's only because I study hard - unlike the other two who kinda are effortless. Beomgyu and Soobin are kind of just like me, considering the fact that Soobin loves isolating himself sometimes to read novels yet he always says he hates studying (plus a special mention - Mathematics is the subject he despises the most). Last but not the least, Beomgyu. He loves playing around but he never failed any subjects so it's still something to be proud of.

When Jin left the study, I made Soobin follow him to make sure our oldest brother doesn't open the fridge before going upstairs. Namjoon didn't try to volunteer nor speak when we have plans like this because he knew well that he couldn't keep a secret.

Soobin came back after a few minutes. We studied until 10 in the evening, when Soobin and Beomgyu finally understood their subjects.

At 11:55, I woke up everyone in the house except for Jin. Mom took out the cake from the fridge as me and my brothers waited for her outside Jin's room. At exactly 12 midnight, Namjoon opened the door and we started singing Happy Birthday at the top of our lungs.