(In which Jaehyun is a lot unsure.)

Sooyeon is going to kill him.

“Sooyeon is going to kill you.” Soojung tells Jaehyun over the phone, matter-of-factly. Jaehyun groans his agreement.

There’s a loud pop heard in the background, followed by the sound of his sister chewing. She must be stressed out again because Soojung only ever eats bubblegum when she’s trying not to smoke. The internship is probably getting to her. Jaehyun asks as much. “Yeah, the internship is a .” Soojung snorts over the line, popping another gum and chewing it all over again. She recently became an intern at W Magazine a couple of months ago and Jaehyun knows she’s counting down the days until she can finally “get out and get a real job with a real established company”. Jaehyun suspects she’s talking about Vogue.

“But,” Soojung continues, “we’re not talking about me today, baby bro. I’m not the one who brought a stranger home after he stole clothes from our sister’s precious fashion line.”

Jaehyun groans, again. The only reason he called Soojung and told her about the whole fiasco was because Jaehyun felt like he needed to tell at least one of his sisters, preferably the lesser scary of the two. Soojung, of course, took it like a pro. She was, understandingly, shocked at first before Soojung calmly took a breath and proceeded to tell her youngest brother what an absolute moron he was and that he will die by the hands of an angry Jung Sooyeon.

Soojung wasn’t useful, basically.

“First of all, he didn’t steal anything from the store.” Jaehyun corrects then pauses. “But there was a missing mannequin.”

“…Huh. Weird.”

Jaehyun nods. It was weird. Apparently, the missing mannequin was last seen wearing the exact clothes Taeyong wore when they found him, at least that was what the manager texted him an hour ago. Jaehyun can’t think of any possible way a mannequin could go missing just like that but then again, he has more pressing matters to attend to.

Jaehyun glances over his shoulder from where he’s standing outside the balcony, Taeyong wolfing down their lunch on the dining table. He eats like he’s never had food before.

They had stopped by McDonald’s drive-through on the way, Jaehyun feeling guilty about not considering that Taeyong may have not eaten yet. When he asked the stranger what he wanted, Taeyong was flustered. “I-I don’t know.” He stammered, curling his hands into a fist again. “I don’t really care.” Jaehyun bit back a sigh. In the end, he had ordered two Big Mac sets and an apple pie. Taeyong seems to like it enough.

“And second,” Jaehyun goes back to the call because Soojung can be very impatient when she wants to, “the stranger has a name.” His sister snorts again. It’s her ugliest habbit. “Yeah? And what would that be?”

“Taeyong.” Jaehyun answers. The owner of the name looks up upon hearing it but goes straight back into eating when Jaehyun merely shakes his head. Taeyong has his cheeks puffed up. It’s cute.

“Besides, he doesn’t have anywhere to go, Soojung. It feels wrong to not help him.”

Jaehyun couldn’t shake the image of Taeyong from ealier in the hospital, when he was asking all those questions. He had looked so sad, shoulders slumped and dejected and something inside Jaehyun seemed to activate, this sudden need to protect Taeyong. The whole ‘I-can-lend-you-my-apartment’ sounded like a very good plan at the time. It’s still too early to tell, though.

“Oh, baby bro.” Soojung sighs from the other line, exhaustion palpable in her tone. She pops another bubblegum. “Why did you have to be the nicest of the three of us?” Jaehyun chuckles and looks out the balcony, the bustling city staring back at him. “Because Sooyeon is supposed to take over the world and you’re supposed to help her, remember? I’m just the cheerleader.” It gets his sister to laugh and Jaehyun smiles. It’s one of his favourite sounds in the world.

They’re close, the three of them. One would have to be blind not to see how much the siblings loved each other. Jaehyun have always looked up to Sooyeon, always have admired his sister’s steel grip determination and perseverance to fight back against not only the prejudice towards her gender, but to prove everyone wrong by opening up J:J without using their father’s name. Sooyeon had worked hard for it, Jaehyun knows this because he saw it all with his own eyes. She deserves her success.

And Soojung? She’s practically his best friend, if anything. They’re closer in age, just two years apart so she’s basically in every phase of Jaehyun’s life, primary school till he graduated. Soojung is also the first person Jaehyun goes to when he has something to tell, including when he found out that he may or may not be attracted to guys too. Jaehyun remembered being scared because even if the world has been more open to those kind of stuff, not everyone was. And their parents? Well, they’ve always been more traditional.

But his sister had simply hugged him and told him that it was okay, that he was normal. “And Mom and Dad have to be okay with that because if they don’t, they’d have to fight me too, alright? Because we’re in this together, Jaehyun.”

A car honks, startling Jaehyun back into the present before his thoughts could bring him to his parents. He glances at the clock in the living room and notices that Taeyong has just finished his lunch and is currently roaming around the apartment. He looks fascinated by the book shelves next to the TV. “When is Sooyeon coming back again?” Jaehyun asks.“In a week, I think. What are you going to do with your new housemate?” Soojung shoots back.

“I don’t know. I’ll figure something out, later.” Jaehyun sighs. I hope.

Soojung hums. She clicks her tongue, once, twice, three times. Clears . “Look, if anything happens, just call me, OK? I don’t want to receive