...Tae-gun's maybe starting to understand why people like birthdays.

(Oh why is his heart hammering so fast all of a sudden. That's just cruel.)

But he wraps his arms around Jaeha, too, and mumbles a "Thank you."

"And I bought you something."

...?

"As a gift. Because it's your birthday. Come on, Tae-gun-ah, keep up."

Oh. Right. Those are a thing.

"You didn't need to," he says, a bit uncomfortable, but... he's actually kind of curious.

"No, but I wanted to. I want to make you happy, and I know material things aren't happiness but they're just... a small way I have of showing you that I care about you. And so that you can remember that."

See, that logic almost makes sense, at least compared to what his friends said the other day. It's also not helping with the butterflies or the hammering heart.

...but he's still a bit concerned. The other thing about presents is that—what if he doesn't like them? Is he going to have to lie to Jaeha and say he liked them? That'd be so awkward, and furthermore he doesn't want to lie to his boyfriend. He has no idea how to navigate that! Would it be okay for him to just say so? Does he say a polite "thank you" and then never use—whatever it is?

It doesn't take a psychic to guess some of what's going on in Tae-gun's head and being a psychic lets him figure out the rest. "I'm not going to be hurt if you don't like it. It's fine if you never use it. You can see it as a selfish thing I did for myself, if you want, you're not obligated to feel any way about it."

He grumbles into Jaeha's skin then pulls away and looks up at him. "It's unfair that you can read my mind like that."

Tae-gun doesn't mean it literally, because Tae-gun doesn't know that Jaeha does receive feedback.

(For some reason Jaeha is... uncomfortable with that.)

"I know you pretty well, and you're very easy to read," he says, trying to push that discomfort away.

(He knows what he'll see if he looks at it. He doesn't want to look. It's... scary.)

"Everyone says that. That I'm easy to read. I dunno why."

"It's your eyebrows. They're very expressive. I could write entire books about the stuff they're saying."

"You weren't even looking at me."

"But I could feel the eyebrows," he says, booping one of them with a finger. Then he pulls away from the hug and starts soaping himself.

...and now Tae-gun's being reminded that his boyfriend is smoking hot. That's the problem with showering together.

"Need I remind you again that I am free-use Jaeha and you can fuck me whenever you want?"

"We have work tomorrow morning."

"Are you saying we can't get a quickie in?"

"I'm saying if I put my hands on you it's not going to be a quickie."

"I feel so threatened." 

"We are not having any more sex today," Tae-gun declares, and that's that.

Jaeha laughs but drops it. He's not particularly raring for it, it's just a lot of fun to mess with Tae-gun.

...not that he'd say no. Tae-gun's got him in the palm of his hand, Jaeha will do anything Tae-gun asks.

(That's really, really scary.)

They finish showering then Jaeha bids Tae-gun wait in the bedroom while he goes to a different room to fetch Tae-gun's birthday present. When he comes back he's carrying two wrapped gift boxes: one is about as wide and half as long as Tae-gun's forearm, and the other is much wider but not very tall and somewhat flat.

He gives Tae-gun the smaller one first.

...alright...

He'll unwrap it, he guesses?

It's a beautifully ornamented carved wooden box, and there is a long metal knife inside with carvings in the same style.