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They were all quiet until Jungkook sang his last note, then noise began to erupt. 

“Yoongi, we thought you were going to sleep the whole day away,” Jin informed him.

“Yeah, we were preparing to eat your birthday cake without you!” Tae teased him.  “I had nearly sunk my teeth into it.  If only,” he shot Hobi a mock glance of irritation, “Hobi hadn’t yanked it out of my hands.”

Hobi blushed.  He didn’t want to admit that he’d dropped Yoongi’s cake on the kitchen floor.  Namjoon had quickly come to his aid and helped him clean it up.  And Jimin had offered to buy another.  He’d already called the cake shop and placed the order.  Another vanilla cake was on its way up.

Hobi cleared his throat.  About to confess.  But Jimin came to his rescue.

“Don’t worry, Yoongi.  Tae won’t get to eat a bite of that cake.”  And everyone suppressed a giggle.

“Hey,” Yoongi responded.  “That’s a little harsh, don’t you think?”  He glanced at Tae.  “I don’t mind if Tae eats a slice.”

“Nobody will be eating a slice of that cake,” Namjoon mumbled under his breath.

Yoongi shot him an odd look.

“Anyway,” Jin pressed on, “your kimchi stew is ready.  Are you hungry?”

“Oh!  Did you get your iced americano?” Jimin asked as his eyes slid around the room looking for it.

He spied it on the nightstand and crossed to pick it up.  But as he reached for it, he tripped over Tae’s foot.  His friend had sat down on the bed and extended his extremely long legs.  As Jimin’s hand knocked the coffee to the floor, he steadied himself on the edge of the nightstand before glaring at Tae.

“I told you that your legs were too long!” he grumbled.

“You’re just jealous because I’m so tall,” Tae teased him.

Jimin’s face erupted in rancor.  “You’re only two inches taller than I am!”

“Yet you still managed to trip over my feet.”  Tae cocked a dark eyebrow.  “That’s a whole sixth of a foot,” Tae responded knowledgeably.

Jimin grimaced at him as he headed for the kitchen to grab a towel to clean up the mess.  He swung back around and flung his ire at Tae.  “This time you’re going out to replace Yoongi’s treat!”

“This time?” Yoongi asked, glancing from one boy to the other.

Tae laughed, trying to smooth over the discussion so that Yoongi wouldn’t know that he’d inadvertently led to the destruction of his birthday cake.  “All right.  All right.  I’ll go get another iced americano.”

“You don’t have to,” Yoongi murmured as he stood up.  “I can live without coffee.”

“On your birthday?” Namjoon asked.  He shook his head.  “I don’t think so.”  He glanced at Tae.  “Besides, Tae owes you one.”

Yoongi saw the odd glance that passed between his friends.  And wondered what all the secrecy was about.  But before he could insist that someone explain, Jin caught his attention again. 

“Come on, Yoongles.  I’ve got a bowl of kimchi stew cooling on the table for you.  Too much longer, and it will be cold.”

Jungkook followed his hyungs out the door.  He was hungry!

“Jimin, will you go with me?” Tae begged his shorter friend as he leaned over to grab the towel from his hand.  Tae knelt to wipe the floor clean while Jimin stared down at him.

“Well, since you cleaned the floor for me…okay.  But no more accidents today!  Okay?”

The two of them were the only ones remaining in Yoongi’s room.

“Hey, you don’t have to berate me.  It’s bad enough that I’m going to miss lunch to go on a coffee run.”

“Hmm.  Well, if you just had better control over those long legs of yours, we’d be sitting down to a bowl of stew right now.”

Tae sighed.  “Oh, the price I pay for my superior height!”  He twinkled down at his friend.

Who was glaring up at him.

“Do you want company…or not?” Jimin asked grouchily.

“Apparently not,” Jungkook breathed from the doorway.  “So…what happened to Yoongi’s cake?”

“Tae smashed it.”

“Hey!”  Now it was Tae’s chance to shoot a dirty look at Jimin.  “I did not smash it.  I pretended to eat it, which freaked Hobi out, and he dropped it on the floor.”

Jungkook’s face was comical – a struggle between dismay and hilarity.  Finally, his natural sense of humor came to his rescue, and he guffawed.  “Poor Yoongi.”

“Poor Yoongi?” Jimin asked.  “I’m the one who had to order another cake.”

“Which I am paying for,” Tae insisted. 

Jimin quirked one eyebrow at him.  “Oh, really?  I’m glad to hear that.  Because I don’t remember you giving me your credit card number when I made that phone call.”  Then he held his hand, palm up, towards his friend.  “That’ll be fifty thousand won.”

Tae’s eyebrow shot up.  “For one little cake?”

“No, for a cake that’s big enough for all of us to enjoy.  And special enough for Yoongi’s birthday.”

“Except for Tae.  He doesn’t get any, remember?” Jungkook joked.

“He was talking about the other cake.  Which, technically, no one got any of.  It’s in the trash can.”

“Not anymore.  Hobi took it out to the dumpster.  He removed the evidence from the apartment.”

“The evidence of what?” came a soft voice from behind them.