This one is almost a month old already, but it’s worth writing about.
So my 23rd birthday passed last month (Oct. 14). It was quite different from any of my previous ones, besides the fact that my older brother, who shares the same birthday, wasn’t there. I think I’ve celebrated my birthday without my older brother only once before this one.
I usually don’t start out my birthday thinking, “Yes! It’s my birthday today!” Especially this time, since my mind was preoccupied with something else. That morning I was looking for my jeans which had been missing since it was last washed. It had been a while since I saw it hanging for it to be dried, and that morning I saw that it was gone. So I asked Joy the housekeeper, and she told me she thought I took it down. When I asked Richard, my next-door neighbor, he told me that sometimes things go missing around here, but that they usually come back. So I’m like, Great...
Later that morning, Mrs. Kim invited the three “bachelors” (Richard, Eben, and I) for lunch. I didn’t realize that it was my birthday until Eben exclaimed, “Oh, I see! you prepared lunch for us because it’s SunMin’s birthday!” So apparently Eben had forgotten that it was my birthday, which was no big deal since I don’t expect anyone other than my family to remember that. Mrs. Kim seemed surprised, saying, “How could you forget?”
When we finished eating lunch (which was amazing, kalbi-tang and all), Eben told me that he’ll make a “Queen’s cake” for my birthday (which is just a muffin). He pulled out a muffin (seemingly out of nowhere), and started putting match sticks on it... 23 of them! Of course, we couldn’t light them all because as soon as one was lit it would burst out some flame and die in a few seconds, or get too hot to get near it. Anyhow, they sang happy birthday to me over a small muffin with a flame on top.
Now, I thought that was funny enough. After the song, Mrs. Kim gave me some presents, which turned out to be a Tupperware full of kimchi (yes!) and another Tupperware with dried squid in Korean spice (double yes!). Then Eben brought out a big box wrapped in newspaper. So he didn’t forget that it was my birthday after all! Hmm, something is fishy here, I thought (besides the actual food). When I opened it, I saw a nice yellow shirt, a pair of socks, an underwear (what?), and a pair of jeans... And they were all mine!!! No wonder where my jeans went! They were all tagged as if to seem like they were brand new. Also in the box was my phone from the States (which I can’t use here because it uses embedded SIM card), and on it Eben and Richard had recorded some videos of them singing happy birthday and putting tags on my cloths (for some reason Richard had kept a bunch of clothe tags from the Philippines in his room).
Then after that, they brought out a real cake, a chocolate flavored one with “HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUNMIN” in icing. I guess that was the nice part.
Man, we laughed so hard! I hadn’t laughed like that for so long. It was all Eben’s idea (yes, I know he got them from his friends when they tricked him the same way). Anyway, I had a real good birthday. Thanks guys! I need to do it to one of my friends one day.
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