Yifan flinched when the door slammed loudly, almost rattling off its hinges. In the back of his mind he make a mental note to check the door for cracks later on (he won’t be too surprised if he’d find the door just hanging by its thread, what with the amount of times it’s been slammed shut) but right now he have more pressing matter at hand. Sharing a glance at his brothers, they all nodded and marched forward, opening the door harshly and tumbled into the living room where their sister was pacing back and forth.

She stopped her pacing once she spotted them and stood with her hands on her hips. “How dare you embarrass me like that in front of my friend!”

Luhan snorted. “Yeah, you might think of him as just a friend, but he definitely wants more!”

“I told you, Jongin is just a friend!”

“That’s what they all say in the beginning, jiějiě but you know what they really want.”

“I can’t believe you guys.”

“Look, Yuan,” Yifan tried to calm his twin down. Perhaps it’s the being twins’ thing, but he never did like to see Yuan being all upset. “You know that we’re just trying to look out for you.”

“By what, scaring off and terrorizing any boys that try to come near me?!”

Tao crossed his arms across his chest with a frown, “Well, you shouldn’t hang out with boys, jiějiě. Boys are rude and nasty and have only one thing in their mind.”

“……….Tao, unless you’ve forgotten, you and Yifan and Luhan gēge are boys too.” Yuan flicked her gaze towards Luhan before snickering. “Well, perhaps not Luhan gēge; he’s much too pretty to be a boy.”

“I’m not pretty! I’m manly, dammit, manly!”

“Uh-huh, yeah sure gēge. Or did you forget that summer when you grow your hair long and that guys thought that you were my sister?”

“WE PROMISED TO NEVER TALK ABOUT THAT SUMMER AGAIN!”

“You did. I never make that promise.”

“Ugh…..whatever! The point is Tao is right, you shouldn’t hang out with boys!”

Yuan huffed. “And like I said before Yifan, all of you are boys too.”

“So? And it’s Yifan gēge to you!”

“So, basically you just put down your own gender, Yi-fan.”

Yifan rolled his eyes. “What he meant was other boys. Other boys besides us are unsafe and it’s our duty as your brothers to keep you safe from them.”

“Like I’d have a chance to get close to any boy, what with you scaring them all off.”

“Hey, that’s not true! We don’t scare off all boys that came!”

“Oh, yeah Tao? Name one that you allowed to stick around.”

Luhan pointed a finger victoriously. “There’s Yixing. We don’t have a problem with him being near you.”

Yuan sighed. “Yeah, that’s because he’s your best friend, and we’ve known him and his family ever since we moved into this neighborhood, which was well over ten years ago.” She put her feet apart, hands still on her hips and glared each one of them down. “But other boys, you’ve managed to scare them all off! Thanks to you I never have any boyfriend, and by the rate this is going I’m never going to have any!”

“Why do you need a boyfriend, anyway? They’re nothing but trouble.”

“Maybe so, but I’d like to find that out for myself if you would ever give me a chance, Yifan!”

“I’ve told you, call me gēge! I’m older than you, dammit!”

“By a measly three minutes!”

“That still makes me older!”

“Says the one who still sleeps with a stuffed alpaca toy!”

“Hey! Ace is not a toy! He’s a good companion!”

Iola snorted. “I can’t believe you named your stuffed toy.....whatever. The point is, you three always drive out any boy who seems interested in me, and I’m tired of it!” She ticked off the fingers of one of her hand. “First, there was that boy in junior high, the one who asked me out on what should be my first ever date with a boy.”

“Which one was that, again?”

“Don’t you remember, Luhan gēge? It’s that squirt, the one that always hang out with that Beef guy?”

“Beef- Ah, you meant Baekhyun, Tao?”

“Yeah, it was his friend, that Jongdae kid, the shorty who asked Yuan on a date.”

“Hey! He’s not a shorty!”

“Yes, he is Yuan.”

“Yeah well, anyone’s short compared to you because you’re a giraffe, Yifan.”

“I told you to call me gēge!”

“No. Anyway, remember what happened? He was nice enough to ask me to the movies but then you three had to corner him after school and terrorize him so bad he won’t even look at my way till the end of school year!”

Tao snickered slyly. “Hey, not our fault if the guy got scared easily. We just went to talk to him nicely.”

“Talk nice- You three kidnap him to the old equipment shed behind the school for hours and threatened him that you would castrate him if he even as much as looks at me!”

Luhan had a faraway gaze, a mixture of glee and fondness that Yifan was sure mirrored in his own eyes. “Ah yeah, that was a good memory, wasn’t it?”

Yifan nodded. “He was so scared I was pretty sure he’d pee in his pants if we kept him captive long enough.”

“Don’t forget that high-pitched scream he let out when we finally let him go,” Tao added. “Man, does that boy have a voice. I wonder what become of him now?”

Luhan shrugged. “Who know, who cares?”

“Last I heard he transferred to a music academy. Wouldn’t be too surprised; with that high voice he can be a singer.”

“You keep tabs on him?”

 “I like to keep tabs on all boys who dare to come near Yuan.” Yifan shrugged easily, only grinning rather proudly when Tao looked at him admiringly while Luhan patted his back. His twin sister though, was another matter altogether.

Yuan tapped her right foot and her glare intensified, which Yifan didn’t think was possible. But of course, his twin has to prove him wrong.

“Are we done with your reminiscing, now?” The three boys wisely keep their mouth shut and Yuan blew an angry huff of breath before continuing. “Jongdae wasn’t the only one you scared off; there was that time last year when that senior asked me out to prom and of course you had to ruin that!”

Luhan snapped his finger. “I remember that one! It’s that Seunghyun something kid, right?”

“Ah yeah, the one who like to call himself Ontop or something like that. Weird nickname, by the way.”

“He’s the one who always hang out with that other guy right, the one who call himself Dragon or GD or something?”

“It’s not Ontop Tao, I think it was TOP.”

“Another weird nickname. What is up with kids these days and strange names?”

“It’s their stage names, Luhan gēge. I think they were in some kind of music group, right?”

“It’s a rap duo; last I heard they were making quite a name for themselves in the underground music scene.”

“Is that so, Yifan? Their music must be better than their nicknames if that’s true.”

“They’re pretty decent actually, Luhan gēge; I’ve heard their demo tape one time and it have quite a nice beat.”

“Still, their nicknames are weird!”

“TOP and G-Dragon ……yeah, you’re right; it doesn’t have a celebrity vibe to it.”

“Enough with the names! The point is, I was the only sophomore who get asked to go to the senior prom, and by Seunghyun on top of that, and you guys totally ruined it when you scared him off!”

“Pfft! Good riddance! I mean, why would you even consider to go out with a guy who changes haircolor as often as the sun shines baffles me.”

“Not to mention that he sometimes dressed as if he was blind and dressed in the dark. Do you remember that one time he wear that awful purple suede suit?”

“You’re one to talk about fashion crimes Yifan gēge; I’ve seen the way you dressed sometimes and it’s amazing the fashion police hasn’t capture you yet.”

“It’s high fashion, Tao! Why can’t anybody understand that??”

“Because you’re probably the only one who thinks that dressing from head to toe in neon red is fashionably acceptable?”

“I have to agree with Tao on this, Yifan. That ensemble was such an eye-sore I was surprised no cars skidded to a halt when you walked down the street, thinking that you’re a red stoplight.”

“That outfit was dope and you know it, Luhan!”

“GUYS!!”

The three brother quickly shut up and whirled back to their sister, who seemed even angrier than before. Yifan almost swore he could see smoke coming up from her ears and nostril.

“The point is, each and any guy that ever try to get close to me is either chased off or threatened by you guys and I’m sick of it!”

“We’re just trying to protect you, Yuan.”

“Well, have it occur to you that I’m a seventeen year old young woman who doesn’t need her brothers to protect her all the time?!”

“Never!”

“We’ll always protect you, jiějiě!”

“No boy will ever get their hands on my twin!”

“UGH!! I HATE YOU ALL!!”

Yuan turned and quickly bounded off the stairs, the slamming of the door following soon enough that made the three brothers flinched. They looked at each other before shrugging easily.

“Well, that’s that I guess.”

“Think jiějiě will come down later, Yifan gēge?”

“Probably not, Tao. You know how she gets when she’s like this.”

Yifan walked to the couch and plopped himself down, Luhan quickly found his seat next to him while Tao took the armchair. He was readying himself for a nice evening, thinking of catching a basketball game on TV when suddenly Tao gasped and jumped out of his seat, panic clear in his eyes.

“Gēge! We need to get Yuan jiějiě out of her room!”

Yifan raised one eyebrow. “Why the urgency? You know she’d fume and rant the whole night then go back to being herself tomorrow.”

“No, don’t you remember? Māma told us this morning that she and Bàba are going to visit Aunt Zhou in the next town and won’t be home for a few days.”

Luhan just shrugged. “So? It’s not like this is the first time they ever leave us alone.”

“You don’t get it! With mā gone, who’s going to cook us food?!”

That got Yifan’s attention. Normally it will be Yuan who will cook for the boys if their mother was not around. Ever since the Great Kitchen catastrophe (or also known as when their mother grounded them for two weeks because ‘you-three-burned-my-best-pot-by-just-boiling-water!’) the boys were not allowed to step foot in the kitchen.

Judging by the way she stomped off upstairs just now, there is no way Yuan will come down tonight just to cook for them.

Luhan shared his opinion when he just shrugged again. “So Yuan won’t cook for us. Doesn’t matter, we can always order take-out.”

“With what money? Mā said she might be gone for almost a week, so that means we have to order everyday while she’s gone if Yuan jiějiě is still upset with us.”

The three brothers looked at each other, realization slowly dawning on them.

“Do you have any money?”

Luhan quickly shook his head. “I already spent all of my monthly allowance two days ago.”

“What? What did you buy??”

“Probably some useless soccer memorabilia.”

“Hey! I would let you know that it is a rare Manchester United soccer jersey signed by the great Ronaldo himself!”

“And where did you buy the jersey from?”

“Yeah, is it from MU’s official seller or something?”

“……..there was an offer for it on ebay so I went for it.”

“…………”

“…………”

“…..what?”

“Are you sure you’re not being scammed, gēge?”

“Yeah, how do you know it’s real?”

“The seller said so!”

Yifan and Tao shared a look, before sighing simultaneously. 

“What? Like you did something better with your money?”

“Hey! I spent mine on something really really good!”

“…………”

“…………”

“…..what?”

“Psh, yeah right.”

“You just spent all your money on Gucci, didn’t you?”

“They were having a sale! And this wallet is just begging me to buy it!”

“……wallet can’t talk.”

“Well, this one does! And it wants me to buy it, so I did.”

“I would never understand your obsession with that brand.”

“You’re one to talk, Yifan gēge. What did you spend your allowance on?”

“I spent it on something very useful and important, unlike the two of you.”

“…………”

“…………”

“…………”

“You bought skincare again with your allowance, didn’t you?”

“Skincare is important! I need those to keep wrinkles at bay.”

“…..Yifan, we’re in our late teens. I think we’d have several more years before we have to start worrying about wrinkles.”

“Well, you might be willing to risk your skin, Luhan, but I’m not taking any risk. Better early than late.”

“And you dare say my Gucci purchase is not important.”

“Because it wasn’t!”

“Yes, it was!”

“No, it wasn’t!”

“Was!”

“Wasn’t!”

“Guys, cut it out! Focus on the problem here!”

Yifan and Tao stopped their bickering and stared back at Luhan. The oldest among them frowned and stared back.

“So all of us already spend all our allowance, correct?”

“Yeah.”

“Right.”

The three brothers looked at each other again before the same conclusion come to them and they immediately bounded up the stairs.

“Yuan! Please come out!”

“You’re not going to leave your beloved twin to go hungry right, Yuan?!”

“Yuan jiějiě! I’M HUNGRYYYYYY!!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's my birthday today and I like to give my readers a presnt, so here's the next chapter ^^

Hope you have a great day, wherever you are  :D