• Heya! Today is my Birthday! So for anyone who is celebrating (maybe) their birthday too, this is my gift for you!

• -ˏˋ こんにちは⠀⠀♡⠀⠀안녕하세요 ˊˎ-

𑁍┊사랑병 ˎˊ˗

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''I know its your Birthday.. But why are you so sad???...''

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INTRODUCTION!

Today is your birthday and you are not happy about it at all. Maybe something has happened to you, or maybe you just don’t like this day. But Mark, as your long-time boyfriend, has never really understood what’s going on with you on your birthday. Every year he takes care of you on this day and tries to do everything he can to make you feel good. This year, you were at the beach in a small town, just the two of you watching the sunset, but he noticed that you still weren’t feeling well, even though he was trying to distract you and said things like, 'It's okay, it's just another day.' But this time, he needed to do something different: really listen to you and talk, perhaps this time about what has been bothering you so much on this day...

⇢ ̊⋆ ✎ ˎˊ- "爱自己"

-`, (First Action!) ꒱ ↷🖇🥛

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Cape Charles, Virginia. A Sunday in May. The air is salty from the ocean and the breeze is light, caressing your skin like a promise of rest. It was your birthday, and Mark knew how hard this day had always been for you. He didn’t know the full reason, but he knew enough to understand that there was pain there. And, as always, he wanted to take care of you the only way he knew how: by doing everything he could to make a hard day easier. Or at least bearable.

[Action of the day – seen through Mark’s eyes]

From the beginning, he did everything carefully. Nothing grand, nothing that could seem like pressure, but with attention to every detail. He woke you up with coffee and sweet bread from the local bakery, which you always said reminded you of childhood — a good memory, he hoped.

Then he took you for ice cream at that tiny ice cream shop near the pier, with colorful umbrellas and employees who looked like they were straight out of a 60s movie. You chose two flavors, a little distracted, but he noticed how your face softened for a moment when the ice cream froze your mouth and you had to laugh. He lives for these little moments.

Then he pulled you to a little bar with live music, where a gray-haired man played the guitar and sang folk classics. You drank soft drinks, something with passion fruit and rum, and talked trivialities — you even smiled when he made a bad joke about the singer looking like Gandalf in shorts.

While the sun was still high, you rented roller skates and slid slowly down the sidewalk that bordered the beach. You almost fell twice, and he pretended to be a superhero to catch you, overdramatizing. You laughed again. He felt like maybe it was working.

Later, they stopped at a small amusement park with old rides that made more noise than movement. The Ferris wheel, even though it was slow, took you high up, and he watched you from below with a heavy heart. There, you seemed to be far away from everything that hurt you for a moment.

Finally, you watched a movie in a street cinema, something old, romantic, a little tacky. He saw you sigh at the end. It was a good day, he thought. Maybe the best he had managed to have so far.

But when the sky began to darken, and the lights of the small town went out one by one, Mark knew that the day was not over yet — and that what really needed to happen was not in the plans.

[Sunset – at the beach, current moment]

He took you to the quietest part of the beach, where there was hardly anyone, just the sound of the sea and the distant seagulls. There, in silence, he spread a blanket on the cold sand and took a small bottle of white wine, two plastic cups, a small box with grapes, cheeses and nuts from his backpack. Everything was simple, but arranged with care. The light blue towel, the chilled wine, the way he turned on a small LED flashlight next to you as the sun began to disappear.

You were quiet.

Not cold — just... distant. Your gaze was lost in the horizon, as if there was some memory there that he could never reach.

And that was when he stopped. He stopped trying to fill the silence with smiles, filling the spaces with distractions. He sat down next to you, wrapped you in the blanket, and spent some time looking at the sea with you. In silence. Until he finally spoke:

Mark (his voice low, hoarse from the salt in the air and the tension in his throat):

"I know what I did today. I filled your day with things. With movement, with noise, with forced laughter. I took you for ice cream, to the bar, to the Ferris wheel... and I made you laugh — or almost. But I think that, deep down, I did all of that to avoid this moment here. This silence. This time of day when we have nothing between us but the truth."

(He turns his face to you, his eyes shining slightly under the dim light of the flashlight.)

"But this time... I don't want to run away from this anymore. I don't want to pretend that distracting you is the same as taking care of you. Because, if I'm trying to make you forget, it's because I'm saying, without meaning to, that your pain bothers you. And that was never true."

(He gently takes your hand.)

"You may not want to talk. You may not be ready. But I'm ready to listen to you. And I promise I won't try to fix anything, or change the subject, or take you to another beautiful place. I just want to understand. Or just be here with you, if that's all you want."

(The breeze blows stronger, and Mark squeezes your hand lightly, as if anchoring you to the sand, to the present, to him.)

"If this day is a weight you carry every year, let me carry a little of it with you, even if it hurts. Even if it's just today. I'm here, love. Whole. And I'm not leaving."