When Jiyong pulled the car to a stop outside of their apartment building, Daesung and Yongbae both cast him a curious look. The leader just laughed. 

"Yeah, yeah, I know this is your car. Go have tonight for yourselves and call em when you want me to come get you tomorrow and we can go to Seunghyun's place or out for dinner or whatever. Now go be foolish, children." He winked at them and tossed the rest of Daesung's keys to her. "I'll see you later."

Daesung smiled and slid out of the car, but Yongbae stopped long enough to give Jiyong a kiss on the cheek.

"You're the best, Ji. I love you."

He was almost as pink as his hair, reaching back to slap the dancer. "Get out!"

The couple laughed as Jiyong raced the car off into the evening sun, swearing feverently as he went and turning up the volume on the radio. 

"C'mon. Let's go home." Yongbae smiled. Daesung felt like she was going to pass out just from the intensity of the love there. He took her hand as he lead her to the elevator, pressing the button for their floor, smiling at her the entire time. 

When he took the keys to the apartment door from her with freightening gentleness, she couldn't stop her lips from quivering, could feel the emotion overwhelm her even when she bit it to keep it still. He flicked on the lights, the apartment no different from how he remembered it and set his bag down on the entryway floor, Daesung closing the door behind them. 

"it's so good to be home." He breathed, relief flowing through him. When he turned around to look at her, she was hiding her face behind her hair, hands twisting together anxiously. "Dae? Are you alright?"

She shook her head and slid down the door, curling into a ball on the entrance mat, tucking her face into her knees. Her voice was thick and small with her rasp, like it was back when she was a nervous trainee who didn't speak much. "I shouldn't be like this. You just got home - I should be happy."

He sat down next to her and pulled her in, wrapping his arms around her. "I saw your last interview."

She froze up in horror before she started to sob in earnest. He pulled her closer, resting his chin on her head and running his fingers through her hair and down her back, the other hand up and down her arm. 

"I can't imagine how hard it's been for you. It's not easy to deal with gossip on a regular basis, let alone this. Or how he attacked you on that show."

Her fingers clenched in his shirt and she buried her face further into his chest, breath coming in short, stuccato hiccups. He kissed her head, bringing her legs to lay across his lap.

"Even some of the men in my unit believed it, tried to make me believe it. But you're my Daesunggie, my lovely Dae, my talented D-Lite. I knew you would never do that, and I knew that you had the same faith in me. That was all I needed. All of the pictures, the posters, the memories and the rosary you sent me only reinforced that, made me love you more, yearn for you more. I would never believe anything the media has to say. Not a word. Plus, I bet you didn't see Seungri's interview."

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, accidentally smearing some eyeliner. He grinned at it - she was even more precious like this, weak and vulnerable in front of him because she trusted him with it, not to mock her, to pity her, to belittle her. She trusted that he would never use it against her, to reveal it to anyone she wasn't comfortable with knowing, because she loved him. "What did he say?"

"Well, you must have made him nicer, because he told the host to 'shove it up his '."

She laughed, hiccups cutting her off occasionally, but she looked lighter. "I'll have to thank him tomorrow."

"I dunno. He looked pretty satisfied with himself afterwards. Even finished the interview when the female host took over."

"Brat." She huffed affectionately, dabbing away the last of the tears. She smiled up at him before it dropped. "Oh God, I'm wearing makeup!"

"Get up. I'll help you wash it off." He smiled, kissing her softly on her lips. "You don't need it around me."

Her thumb slid over his cheekbone, smiling tenderly at him. "Thank you."

He blinked. "Oh. I almost forgot to mention - I need your CD again."

"Did you break the last one?"

He smiled sheepishly. "Wore it out."

She blinked at him un surprise, the last of her tears falling away. "You . . . wore it out? I didn't think CDs could be . . . "

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, well, Every time I had spare time, I listened to it, played it on the stereo after you officially released it, so . . . Oh, and my bunkmate, the guy beside JIyong today at the airport, he's a major fan of yours. His name is Hunshik."

"Looks like I need two more copies of it then." She giggled. 

He grinned at her, pushing her up slightly. "C'mon. Let's get your makeup off and both of us showered. I smell terrible and you look like you could rise off all the bad thoughts."

Jiyong got sick of waiting for them around two in the afternoon. Every ten minutes he was checking his phone for any calls or texts, but there was nothing.

"Oh ym God, just go get them already." Seungri whined, pushing the smaller man. "Take Seunghyun's key and stop being a distraction."

"You're the one making faces at the camera." Jiyong huffed. "Why did Seunghyun even want to work with you? You're impossible. Must be because you've kissed."

Seungri rolled his eyes. "Seunghyun-hyung's only kissed me as much as he's kissed you, so I'd keep my mouth shut. As it stands, I also happen to be the only member who hasn't kissed Daesung."

"That just makes you sound less straight, you know." Seunghyun murmured, eyes roving over the lyrics of his rap once more, brows furrowed. 

Seungri was instantly indignant. "Excuse me? Mr. Let's-kiss-every-memeber-I-can-while-on-tour over here. Sometimes it's like you're trying to stick your tongue down Ji's throat."

Jiyong snorted. "Like you don't want to."

A devious smile came to his face as he leant on the mixing table. "Only if you wear that tight little black dress you did in 'CRAYON'."

Jiyong rolled his eyes. "You just don't have the legs to pull that off. Besides, the parody you crossdressed for didn't even make you look that good. I actually managed to look like a girl."

Seungri wrinkled his nose. "Ew. Why did Daesung have to be a girl? It should have been you."

Jiyong rolled the beat for Seunghyun again. "Why? So you could try to chase after me?"

"Well, if you were a girl, it would be east to get you down."

Jiyong snorted. "Yeah-huh. Of course it would. Especially for the underage maknae."

"Take that back! I am a marvel of nature!"

"Of course. Because Seunghyun's voice isn't liquid gold, Yongbae isn't practically always shirtless and Daesung doesn't have the best voice known to man."

"So, wait, you're assuming Daesung would be a guy interested in you?"

Jiyong raised an eyebrow at him. "Duh. I'm her best friend."

"No way! I am!"

"Okay, Ri, okay."

"Shut up, shortie!"

"What did you just say to me?"

Seunghyun  slapped his keys into Jiyong's chest, startling him out of his almost-fake rage. "Just go get the lovebirds and discuss when and who you're going to later. You're both distracting me right now."

As they left the building, Seungri looked throughfully up into the sky. "Who do you think a female TOP would go for?"

"None of us. He's chair-ual and I doubt that would change."

Seungri laughed so hard he actually snorted. 

When they didn't get an answer, Jiyong let them into the apartment. It was clean, only Yongbae's military duffel bag sitting in the entranceway. Seungri led himself to the kitchen, complaining that Daesung only ate rabbit food and had absolutely nothing good to eat.

"It's good for your health. You know these two are exercise freaks. You've been to the gym with them."

"Just because it's good for you doesn't make it good food!"

He snorted and walked deeper into the apartment, knocking on the bathroom door, opening it, and finding the room empty. He went to the next door, knocked, opened, and found a spare bedroom/probably Daesung's old bedroom/songwriting/composing space. There was a bare mattress leaning against one wall, while the others had been soundproofed. There was a piano, a drumset and two guitars, one electric and the other acoustic. There was also a synth keyboard plugged in beside the piano. The grand piano in the living room was most likely Yongbae's, the one that Daesung wouldn't play on. Yongbae was a better player anyway, and he preferred to create soft melodies on the grand piano rather than their music. 

He knocked on the last door, got no answer, and opened it. This was another bedroom, but considerably smaller. There were two dressers doubling as vanities, a large and open walk-in closet and a double bed surrounded by pictures hanging on the walls, a chest sitting at the end of the bed. And there, wrapped up in each other and the thick duvet, were Yongbae and Daesung, both sound asleep. Yongbae was on his back, Daesung laying partially on top of him, head tucked into his shoulder. By the looks of their shoulders, though, neither of them were wearing much, if any, clothing.

Jiyong closed the door and knocked louder this time, hearing Yongbae curse softly before speaking. "Hello?"

"It's two in the afternoon and I came to get you two." Jiyong replied, careful not to be too loud in case Yongbae didn't want Daesung awake just yet.

"It is, too. Damn. Okay. Give us a minute and we'll meet you in the living room."

"No problem. Just so you know, Seungri's here too."

"Noted. Thanks."

Jiyong shook his head with a smile as he walked to rejoin Seungri. The lovestuck fools. "Found anything yet?"

"No! They'd disgustingly healthy. My tastebuds are offended on their behalf."

"That's just because you're human junk food. I don't even know how you stay as small as you care." Jiyong stole a bottle of watermelon juice from the fridge, leaning on the small kitchen table. 

"How can you even drink that?" Seungri looked thoroughly offended.

"It's . . . watermelon juice."

"Yeah! Ew!"

"But . . . watermelon?"

"Uh, fruit. Yuck."

"How can you not like watermelon?

"I like watermelon, but I'm objecting to all other fruit."

"Strawberries too?"

"Okay, strawberries are exempt too, but-"

"Blueberries? Cherries? Grapes? What kind of monster are you if you don't like grapes?"

"Okay, I like those too, but-"

"Nope, can't talk to you. You've sworn off fruit."

"Hey, I never-!"

"Nope. Silencio. I don't want any of what you're trying to sell me."

"Jiiiiii-"

"Nuh-uh." He pushed Seungri away by his face as he took another drink of the juice. "Nope."

The maknae pouted, rolling his eyes as he continued to search in vain for anything premade and chocolate inside Daesung's cupboards. 

It took another twenty minutes for Daesung and Yongbae to appear, both of them dressed.

"Tell me you have secret chocolate somewhere." Seungri pleaded. Daesung blinked in surprise. 

"I don't eat chocolate, so I don't buy it."

"Not even sometimes?"

She shook her head slowly and Seungri looked like he was ready to either throw a tantrum or start crying. Yongbae laughed. Jiyong rolled his eyes, finishing the juice. 

"God, why are you even so put out? We're going for dinner soon. You can order chocolate whatever there."

"But I want it now." Seungri whined. Yongbae walked past him, smiling as he ruffled the younger's hair. 

"Patience. You'll be fed soon." And Seungri settled down.

Jiyong snorted. "You'll make a really good father one day, Yongbae." He grinned and sent a wink Daesung's way. She rolled her eyes with a smile, pulling on her boots. 

"They don't serve or sell chocolate in the military." Yongbae chuckled, ruffling Seungri again. "I'm inclined to be nice to him, since he's going to die of withdrawal once he's there."

"You are both unbelievably rude." Seungri huffed. "No wonder I like my noona the best."

Roughly three months later, when they were all having dinner again on one of their rare free evenings at a small, local restaurant where they were well-known and secreted customers, Yongbae proposed. 

It was a decidedly quiet event, so much so that Seunghyun, Seungri and Jiyong didn't notice right away. 

They had decided to indulge (three of them, anyway, Seungri complained), and Daesung and Yongbae were watching, nursing their second drinks of the evening, knowing someone had to drive them back to Seunghyun's villa. The booth they were in was rounded, Seunghyun sitting on the outside with Seungri to his right, who was flanking Daesung. Jiyong was across from him, Yongbae on his left. The couple was sitting close together in the centre, occasionally sharing food with each other in an almost friendly way, neither of them too keen on too much PDA or making the other members uncomfortable. The three were arguing about the correct properties of an Oreo brownie mudslide and if it was a worthy alcoholic drink or vodka got lost and found its way into a milkshake. 

Seunghyun was perhaps the first to notice, having been paying attention to the banter, but only occasionally participating. He liked wine, preferred it to most other alcohol, so he thought they were both wrong. Through the evening, Daesung and Yongbae had shared small, soft conversations of their own, and Seunghyun let them. If possible, after he'd returned, they'd grown so impossibly close that the scandal rumours couldn't keep up - he was with her in every picture, in the audience during her interviews or with her even there, on stage and they lived together. They kept their couplish activities low, though. They weren't kissing at the table, weren't making eyes at each other or doing much of anything that wasn't the norm for them even before they started dating. 

So, Seunghyun knew when Yongbae showed her something, just blocked by the table, removing his arm from around her shoulder to open whatever it was. But Seungri got particularly animated and Seunghyun's attention was drawn away - something about chocolate being the lifeblood of existence and Jiyong's inability to swear fealty to it a sure sign of his doom. It made Seunghyun afraid that soon a twenty year anniversary would be upon them - he didn't know how he'd made it as far as he had with them and when they stopped being live-in coworkers and became intimate family - when hyung and noona and dongsaeng and maknae became affectionate callsigns over rigidly structured, polite respect to age and experience. 

Daesung twisted to face Yongbae better, and so did he, as she offered him her left hand. He whispered something inaudible, she nodded and he did something to her hand before smiling at her. She smiled right back, pressing a brief kiss to his lips before they both sat normally again, the smiles now permanent fixtures on their faces. Daesung kept looking down at her hand and grinning, twisting at something.

Seunghyun didn't think anything of it. He'd never been in a relationship for four, nearly five years before. Maybe they just had an understanding. 

It took Seungri and Jiyong until the drive home to notice. 

Daesung had elected to drive Seunghyun's car back to his place, Yongbae agreeing to drive them back to their apartment after they picked up their car. 

"Ooooo~" Jiyong murmured, leaning forward in his seat to perch his elbows on the console. "Where'd you get the rock?"

Daesung grinned at her passenger. "Yongbae gave it to me."

"Oh, really? It's nice. So . . . sparkly." Jiyong sing-songed, starting to hum some tune stuck in his head. "I love the shine on it."

Now it had caught Seungri's attention too. "Woooow. Nice rock! Did you finally decide to put a ring on it?"

The leader and the maknae both gasped, looking to each other at the same time, then starting to sloppily sing 'Single Ladies', snorting and laughing the whole way through. 

"It's an engagement ring, isn't it?" Seunghyun, only mildly tipsy now, asked, leaning forward and pushing Jiyong out of the way as they switched to 'Say My Name'.

"Um-hmm." Daesung hummed back and nodded happily. 

Yongbae cast a smirk and a wink back at the eldest. "I liked it."

Seunghyun snorted and sat back. "Congratulations, you disgustingly sweet bastards." 

Daesung laughed. "Thanks, hyung."

"Oh no, did we miss something?" Seungri whined, probably seeing double and only able to navigate based on the highlighter tip that was Jiyong's hair. 

"I'll show you tomorrow, promise." Yongbae answered, voice low and soothing. 

Jiyong frowned, tryign to puzzle it out through the alcohol his brain was swimming in, then seemed to decide it was alright to drown as long as the pool was drained by tomorrow morning. "Yeah, show us tomorrow. I can't- can't quite see straight."

"I bet you can't. I told you those fruity drinks have a lot of alcohol in them. But you said they were girly just because they taste good. I'm gonna make sure to bang pots around your room when you have an inevitable hangover." Seungri giggled. 

"Not if I kill you first." Jiyong muttered back, wrapping an arm around the youngest's shoulder. "And I could."

"Yeah, yeah. You love me."

"Not as much as you'd hope." Jiyong grinned back.

Seungyun sighed. "Are you sure you two can't stay the night? I really will need help with them come morning."

The couple exchanged a look, then shrugged. "Just make sure to knock first."

"It's okay. I learned that the hard way once with Jiyong n my bathroom." The man shuddered. "I always knock."

Come morning, with some careful help from Daesung, Jiyong had managed to avoid a hangover. Seungri, however . . .

"Morning, panda~" Jiyong sang, ruffling the other's hair.

"I wish you were dead." Seungri replied miserably, hiding his face in his arms to ward off the morning light. 

Jiyong pinched his cheek, just to hear the youngest start to list all the swear words he knew and some that sounded vicious, but made up. Laughing at him only incited him to list off threats as well. 

"Leave him be." Daesung scolded, laying down a pill and some water for the youngest. The sun caught the ring, and the shine of the ring caught Jiyong's eye. Fashionista for a reason, people. 

Immediately, the leader was on her, yanking her almost to the floor by her left hand as he inspected the ring. "Oh my God. When did you get this?"

"Yongbae gave it to me last night."

"What?! When?"

Yongbae leant back in his seat, cracking his back into place once more over the top of the chair. "When you were arguing about alcoholic milkshakes."

Seungri's fist slammed down on the table. "Mudslides are legitimate drinks, dammit!"

Yongbae just chuckled. "I don't really care what you drink, Seungri."

It took Jiyong a full ten minutes of staring at the ring. "It's an engagement ring, isn't it?"

Yongbae smirked, taking a sip of his coffee. "Indeed it is."

"What?!" Seungri's head came up so fast, the light blinded him. "!" He rubbed them, downed the pill she gave him, then squinted at the diamonds. "You got engaged?"

"Yeah."

"To be married?"

"Yes."

"And Daesung said yes?"

"I did."

Seungri leant back in his hair, rubbing his hands over his face. "I'm going to go off into service and you're going to have children, aren't you? I can see it now, already planning on leaving me out of your first child."

"You were my first child." Daesung replied. 

"Uncalled for!" Seungri griped. "I am an adult!"

"Who throws tantrums." Seunghyun said.

"And hates eating their vegetables." Daesung added. 

"And doesn't play well with others." Yongbae supplemented. 

"And doesn't still doesn't listen to his elders." Jiyong finished.

Seungri pouted and crossed his arms. "Four dads and two moms - what did I do in my last life to deserve this?"'

"On the bright side," Daesung laughed, "It's only half the parents you'll have in the next life."

"Hardy-ing-har."

And so Daesung and Yongbae were engaged, very quietly and simply.