„Seunghyun, I told you to put on your jacket! Hurry up we are late as it is!“

„But mama, the sleeve!“

„Yes I see that but didn’t you say you were a hero yesterday? A hero is able to turn the sleeve of his jacket inside out by himself! Oh man, Hanna is crying too, where is your father when you need him? Hush, hush baby girl, everything is fine. Lee Seunghyun! Put on your jacket!“

The little boy pouted at his mother’s strict tone as he watched her fussing over his sister but obeyed anyway as he somehow managed to get the sleeve back into it’s right position before sticking his own arm through it. 

When Seunghyun woke up this morning his mood had been brilliant, he still remembered how the taller boy from the previous day had called him his hero and even gave him the nickname ’Seungri’. He really liked the sound of it and had pestered his mother the entire way back home. Seungri wondered if he would be able to see Jiyongie and his friend Youngbae again, maybe they were on the playground every day.

But right now Hanna just wouldn’t stop crying and while her older brother loved her unconditionally he also was fed up with the never ending screaming.

„Stop spacing out honey, we need to go!“ His mother said in her usual stressed manner and ripped him out of his thoughts. „We need to go to the kindergarten by foot, papa has the car.“

„Papa is always working. He is never home.“ Seungri mumbled as he followed her out of the front door of their old little house.

„Your papa needs to make money, and I will need to do that too very soon, we talked about that, right? Then your nanny will take care of you again.“

„But I don’t like her! I want to stay like now!“

„She’s very nice! I only stayed home after Hanna was born, but now she is old enough for your nanny to take care of her as well and you will behave, do you understand?“

„…“

„Do you understand, Seunghyun?“

„Yes…“

„Good, now come.“

Little Seunghyun was never someone to listen, rules were boring and the only reason he did listen to his mother was because if he didn’t he would be punished. For some reason, though, he couldn’t stop himself from running away all the time, whenever he got the chance he would disappear from his mother’s sight. It wasn’t like he didn’t like his family but he wanted to explore his surroundings, there were so many places he hadn’t seen yet and his mother wouldn’t let him go on his own. So in other words, he just went without asking and most of the time it was worth it, just like the previous day when he had chased of the scary guy and saved Jiyongie and his friend.

So obviously, when Seungri saw that his mother was once again busy trying to calm down his baby sister, because that little devil never stopped throwing tantrums, he took this opportunity to sneak away, turning left at the next possible corner and running for the life of his before she was even able to notice that her troublesome son was gone yet again.

The boy had never seen this street or any of these buildings but he was a bit surprised to see that they weren’t as run down as is own home. The houses here were bigger and had big gardens with many beautiful plants and expensive looking cars in front of them. That is, if they didn’t stand in the garages. 

Why didn’t he live here? He would choose one of these over his home anytime because at his house, whenever it rained, the water would drop from the ceiling and during winter the heater didn’t work. Also, in summer, the heat was unb-

„Seungri?“ A voice erupted behind him causing the boy to turn around to see from whom it came from. To his surprise he saw four older boys, two of them were familiar to him and two unknown.

„Jiyongie hyung! Youngbae hyung!“ He exclaimed and ran towards them with his little arms opened just to jump and cling himself to Jiyong with a giggle, kind of hanging from the older with his feet dangling in the air.

„What are you doing here alone? That’s dangerous.“ Said one asked and ruffled through the black locks of the smaller child. „Don’t tell me you ran away from your mom again?“

It was easy to read the boy, his expression turned guilty and he puffed out his cheeks as soon as the words left Jiyong’s mouth, ready to find excuses why it was okay for him to run away.

„We always go that one way, so boring!“ Seungri grumbled, his tiny finger still grabbing Jiyong’s clothes even after he was back onto his feet.

„But your mother must be worried, it’s better if we search for her, okay? Are you on your way to kindergarten?“

„Yessu!“ Seungri answered enthusiastically and the older couldn’t hide his grin at that.

„Which one?“

„Errr, I dunno the name.“

„Then do you know where it is?“

„Close! Aah… close to the playground!“

„Close to the playground? … Oh! I know which one you mean! It’s called ’Tree House’, right? It’s on our way to school, maybe we could ask your mother if we can take you there?“

Seungri’s eyes had that special sparkle in them again and he nodded happily before the five of them made their way back to where Seungri came from.

„Who you?“ The youngest asked the two unknown boys, who had only been watching wordlessly until now.

„I’m Daesung. Nice to meet you Seungri.“ The smaller of the two said and smiled gently.

„Daesungie hyung.“ Seungri replied with a serious but content nod and turned his eyes onto he taller. „And you?“

„I’m Seunghyun and I’m the oldest here.“ Seungri’s eyes turned wide.

„You are Seunghyun too?! Me is Seunghyun too! But me is Seungri- I mean, I am Seungri, you not Seungri as well right?!“

„No?“

„Gooooood.“ Seungri sighed out after he nearly panicked about his name being stolen by that tall guy. „But I’m call you… hmm… I’m call- I’m calling you Tabi!“

„What?“ The bigger Seunghyun said and frowned at the choked giggles from his friends. „Why Tabi?!“

„Because, I don’t know, why not? Ah! There is mama!“ Seungri exclaimed and ran towards the woman with the stroller, who seemed to be frantically searching for her son. „Mama!“

„Oh my god, Seunghyun, I swear, one day I’m going crazy! I don’t pay attention for one second and you are gon-!“

„Mama, can I go with my friends? They bring me to kindergarten!“ He didn’t even let her finish, his excitement couldn’t be tamed.

The woman, rocking her baby back and forth, thought hard. Her son was unbearable sometimes, like right now when he decided to not give a single damn about whatever she said, so she was torn between just letting him go with his friends, since she had the feeling they’d at least be able to bring him to the kindergarten safely, and not allowing him to because, if she was being honest, Seungri was four and the other boys were only children as well.

But on the other hand, they were close to the kindergarten anyway, there shouldn’t be anything dangerous, right? Also, call her a bad mother, but she was tired and Hanna was exhausting enough, she couldn’t handle another hyperactive child right now.

Oh, she’d probably regret this.

„Okay, we’ll make an exception today. But promise me to be careful, alright? You guys too, take good care of him please.“

„Yaaaay, thank you! Let’s go!“ Seungri yelled super excited without a care in the world as he proceeded to walk towards the direction the facility was located in, not even saying goodbye to his mother. She simply sighed and shook her head as she watched the four boys quickly following him, they soon would notice just how exhausting that little fellow could really be. „Unthankful brat.“

After a few moments of looking after them they were already far away so she was about to turn around to go back home when suddenly she caught a glimpse of something that caused a smile to spread on her lips. The mother could see one of the boys, if she wasn’t mistaken the one called Jiyong, taking the hand of her son as said one tried to run all over the place again. To her surprise Seungri stayed calm after that, without making a fuss or pulling at his hand to break free.

Perhaps, she thought, that’s what Seungri needed, something like an older brother figure.

Little did she know that the expression ’brother’ wouldn’t be very fitting for those two.

„-and then me was falling down but me wasn’t crying.“ Seungri ended whatever story he was just telling his new friends after he had been babbling on for a few minutes. The older guys had stayed quiet at the rambling of the boy, occasionally nodding or humming in acknowledgement. You’d think they were annoyed or bored but actually the fact was: They loved the tiny boy.

It didn’t really matter what the youngest was talking about, for them he was the cutest little thing on earth and so were the stories he told. 

Jiyong had it the worst. He stared at him as if Seungri was the most beautiful creature and from time to time he would praise the tiny boy, pinch his cheeks lightly or pat his head, shoulders, back… he more or less couldn’t stop pampering him.

After some time they reached the kindergarten though and they all came to a halt in front of it. It was obvious that neither Seungri nor Jiyong wanted to let go of their hands so they just stood there, big Seunghyun occasionally rolling his eyes.

„You should go inside.