A/N: By the way, for those of you wondering, I did manage to finish my survey. My presentation is on Tuesday thanks to everyone who helped me out!

난 아직 어린아이라
손이 닿지 않을 널 알기에
더 조금만 더

November 22, 2002

            Blowing out the candles with a huff of excitement, six year old Lee Jihoon clapped his hands together. He grinned lopsidedly at the camera his mother was holding as he posed for a picture. Right before his mother pressed the shutter however, he felt something wet on his cheek. Squeaking in surprise, Jihoon whipped his head around after the picture was taken to see his best friend, seven year old Choi Seungcheol, grinning at him cheekily.

            “You kissed me!” Jihoon declared, more of an observation than an accusation.

            “Yup yup, don’t you know?” Seungcheol said haughtily, always happy when he knew something that smarty-pants Lee Jihoon didn’t. “A kiss on your birthday gives you good luck for the rest of the year!”

            “O-oh, really??” Jihoon asked, still a bit taken aback by the whole skin ship thing. His family was a nice one, but his mother and father never showed much affectionate to each other in front of him. It wasn’t until he had gone over to Seungcheol’s house once and saw his parents kiss that he realized that some families were a lot more physical with their love.

            “Yup,” Seungcheol replied, popping the ‘p’. “Now c’mon, I want cake, let’s go help your mom with the plates!” Seungcheol pulled on Jihoon’s long sleeve, the fabric covering his fingers, towards the kitchen. Staring down at Seungcheol’s hand on his (if the sleeve had been shorter they would’ve been holding hands), Jihoon let out a low whisper.

            “But I didn’t give you a kiss on your birthday...”

            “What was that Ji?” Seungcheol turned around, looking at Jihoon with his large doe eyes, filled with innocence and mischief at the same time.

            “N-nothing, don’t worry about it!” Jihoon blushed lightly. Seungcheol shrugged, poking Jihoon’s cheek absentmindedly, before dragging the younger boy into the kitchen to see if they could help with the plates and maybe steal a couple strawberries from the cake.

시간이 더 흘러
내가 어른이 되면
널 이해할 수 있을까

My love my love my love
나의 그대여 부디 꽉 잡은 손
놓지 말아줘

April 14, 2007

            “Ji!” Seungcheol, now twelve, shouted, causing the eleven year old boy to turn back and look at his best friend with a questioning expression. Seungcheol easily caught up to the shorter boy, having spent most of his summer days playing basketball and running around, and was only a little out of breath after having chased down the other boy.

            “What’s up hyung?” Jihoon asked trying not to stare at how the tank top Seungcheol was wearing showed his new found interest in working out a little too much.

            “The basketball team,” Seungcheol began to explain, before getting cut off by their other group of friends.

            “Hey, hey!” Kwon Soonyoung, same year as Jihoon, greeted as he flings an arm over Jihoon’s shoulder. “What’d you guys get for the short answer question?”

            “For English?” Jeon Wonwoo, also eleven years old, asked curiously. “I said no.”

            “Aw, I said yes!” Soonyoung whined, pouting heavily.

            “It’s okay, I said yes too,” Jihoon replied, causing Soonyoung to brighten up again.

            “Who do you guys have for English?” Seungcheol asked as the group began walking home from school.

            “Mrs. Cheon,” Jihoon replied.

            “Aw, she hated me,” Seungcheol stuck his tongue out, making a distasteful face, causing Wonwoo to bark in laughter. “Better have gotten on her good side, ever since her fiancée pulled off the engagement she’s been a real hat.”

            “No way! He just cancelled the engagement?” Wonwoo’s mouth fell open, feeling slightly sorry for the strict English teacher.

            “I’m more surprised that someone wanted to marry her,” Soonyoung declared, causing the group to roar in laughter. Grinning, Jihoon and the others eventually separated as they went back to their respective homes. Standing in front of his house, Jihoon looked at Seungcheol, who lived a little farther than he did, and cocked his head, as if remembering something.

            “Oh yeah, hyung, you said you wanted to tell me something?” Jihoon asked.

            “Huh? Did I?” Seungcheol froze, immediately looking down and kicking the dirt with his school shoes.

            “Yeah, something about the basketball team? And stop doing that, you’re going to ruin your shoes,” Jihoon scolded lightly.

            “Who are you? My mom?” Seungcheol joked. “I don’t really remember what I was going to tell you, maybe I’ll remember tomorrow. See you later Jihoon!” Seungcheol grinned widely and waved before racing off down the street to his house. Jihoon stood there, watching as Seungcheol’s figure disappeared, before sighing.

            “I knew there was a basketball game tomorrow idiot, if you wanted me to come all you had to do was ask.”

내가 어른이 되면
달라질 줄 알았던
모든 것 그 모든 것들이
자꾸 나를 괴롭혀
머리만 더 아프게
내가 어른이 되면

June 9, 2012

            Now sixteen, Jihoon glared up at the bright afternoon sun and groaned as it almost blinded him. Covering his eyes with his hand, he tried to navigate the many steps at the back entrance of the school while lugging his heavy guitar case in his other hand.

            “Need help?” an amused voice asked behind him before Jihoon felt the weight of his guitar leave his hands. Whirling around, Jihoon looks up to see a smirking Seungcheol easily slinging the guitar over his shoulder.

            “I never even answered,” Jihoon blushed lightly, cursing his pale skin for contrasting greatly against his red cheeks. Nevertheless, Jihoon allowed Seungcheol to carry the guitar case for him up until the entrance of the school.

            “Sorry to leave you here with this heavy load Ji, but I’ve got a date,” Seungcheol apologized, placing the guitar carefully on the floor in front of Jihoon. “Jeonghan’ll be mad at me if I show up late again.”

            “Ah,” Jihoon said, non-committed, at the mention of Seungcheol’s boyfriend. “The one with the long hair right?”

            “Yeah, he always forgets to tie it up though,” Seungcheol said dreamily, losing himself as he thinks about how nice Jeonghan looks with his hair in a loose ponytail.

            “Then you better get going,” Jihoon snapped, getting angry at the love stricken look upon Seungcheol’s face. “Wouldn’t want to keep him waiting,” Jihoon muttered under his breath venomously.

            “Hey, did Jeonghan ever do anything to you?” Seungcheol inquired as Jihoon slings the guitar case over his shoulder.

            “No,” Jihoon spat out, clenching his fists.

            “Then why are you so hostile?”

            “I’m not hostile!” Jihoon exploded, glaring daggers at Seungcheol’s stupidly handsome face. “I don’t even know him; do you expect me to be as friendly?”

            “You’re always like this,” Seungcheol groaned under his breath.

            “What was that?”

            “Nothing, never mind, forget I asked,” Seungcheol sighed before bidding Jihoon farewell. Struck with a sudden case of déjà-vu, Jihoon watched Seungcheol run off to meet his boyfriend and let out a defeated breath of air.

            “He didn’t do anything to me, other than stealing away my childhood love.”

내가 어른이 되면
내가 어른이 되면
이 말 만 계속 머릿속에
맴돌아 어지러워

January 12, 2016

            “Hey Jihoon,” Seungcheol called as the two friends sit together on Seungcheol’s porch. Jihoon looked over, taking in the marvellous sight that was Seungcheol in a formal suit, before responding.

            “Yeah?” he croaked out, throat constricted.

            “Thanks again,” Seungcheol grinned at him, unaware of the inner turmoil taking over Jihoon’s mental state.

            “For what?” Jihoon asked quietly, already knowing the answer but still not wanting to accept the reality in front of him.

            “For being my best man, after all, what more could I ask for? I’m marrying the love of my life, and my little brother will be right there with me,” Seungcheol let a happy laugh, before turning around and fiddling with the ring on his finger.

            “No problem,” Jihoon whispered, not sure if Seungcheol could even hear him at this point. It didn’t matter anymore though; Seungcheol himself had said it loud and clear. A little brother. That’s all Jihoon was to him. He wasn’t good enough to be his high school sweetheart, Yoon Jeonghan had taken that role, nor was he good enough to be the person who Seungcheol would spend the rest of his life with, Jang Doyoon would be filling those shoes. All he could do was stand and smile as he watched his first and only love confess his love for someone else. If only he had done it before, if only he had claimed Seungcheol as his own back when they were kids, if only he hadn’t waited until they were all grown up.

Lol. I feel like this song is actually supposed to be really happy and wishful but I took one look at it and decided that I’d be writing an angsty fic. Whoops. ^_^ I like this idea though, even though this fic is like, a LOT shorter than my other ones. *shrugs* It’s my first time writing something in this kind of format (the time skipping) but it worked out well I think.

This was requested by Baekmenot by the way, the prompt was to write a song based on Seventeen’s Vocal Unit’s “When I Grow Up” (which, no matter what any of you tell me, makes me think of the Pussycat Dolls song).

Once again, thanks for reading and I do not own anything in this story other than the idea and plot, any similarities to other works of fiction are purely coincidental or have been used as sources of inspiration. Please do not repost this anywhere without my permission; plagiarism isn’t nice!

Hope you’re smiling!

~ Alateni

PS: Thanks to xenano, shushiqi, SapphireMelody, and lakeofwisdom for upvoting!!