“Lee Seungri, I’m coming today.”

“You said you’d give me an extra stamp. Don’t forget.”

-

“Ok.”

Seunghyun held onto his phone and grinned as he stared at the two worded reply.

There was a time, Seunghyun recalled, that he’d gotten four “Get one more for free!” popsicle sticks in a row, and his friends had been fascinated, eating all their own popsicles at lightning speed just to try to see if anyone can beat Seunghyun. But no, only Seunghyun would keep getting the prize popsicle sticks.

They were sitting outside the campus convenience store when suddenly, Jiyong’s head snapped up, “Hey brat!” He yelled across the crowded campus, and when he didn’t receive attention from the person he was calling, he narrowed his eyes and ran off.

The group stared after him.

“So that’s the freshman Jiyong’s been bullying?” Soohyuk hummed, biting onto his plain popsicle stick.

“Poor boy.” Xin chuckled, “Jiyong must be a pain, but he can’t retaliate since he’s a sunbae.”

“Actually no.” Youngbae piped up, “Jiyong kept complaining to me that the kid had no manners, you know he doesn’t even call Jiyong sunbae or hyung? He just calls him ‘Kwon Jiyong’.” He laughed.

“Woa really?!” Daesung widened his eyes, “Daebak.”

Youngbae chuckled, “Jiyong wouldn’t stop talking about that kid, even though all he says is complaining.”

From across the yard, they saw Jiyong stop a younger boy who was slightly shorter than him in his tracks. The boy had a black hair that fell smoothly across his forehead, which creased into a frown as he was talking to Jiyong. Finally, Jiyong slung his arm across the boy’s shoulder with a smirk and dragged him back to his group of friends who were staring at him.

“Introduce yourself.” He ordered, to which the boy only gave a half hearted bow.

“His name is Lee Seunghyun!” Jiyong announced for him, unfazed by his obvious lack of enthusiasm. “That’s the same name as Seunghyun hyung, so I was thinking of giving him a nickname! How about Seungri?” He turned to the boy with a grin, “Lee Seungri!”

The boy frowned at him, “I have a name.”

Jiyong laughed as if he heard the funniest joke, his whole body curling forward as he covered his mouth with his forearm.

“Hi Seungri, do you want to try out your luck?” Xin was the first to speak to the boy, waving his non-winning popsicle stick around.

Lee Seunghyun, or now Seungri wanted to shake his head before Jiyong pulled him along to sit on the bench.

Seunghyun stared at the boy who suddenly looked up to meet his gaze.

“Do you….” Recognize me? He wanted to ask, but stopped himself.

“Do you want some ice cream? It’s free.”

He slowly held up his own popsicle stick that read ‘Get another one for free!’

The boy stared at it before glancing at Kwon Jiyong who was now leaning his whole body onto him while he tapped away on his phone.

“Ok.” He nodded at Seunghyun.

But the convenience store owner wouldn’t buy it, refusing to give him another free popsicle. He was convinced that no one was that lucky, and this group of infamous campus troublemakers probably just cheated in some way.

No matter how much Seunghyun insisted that he was just born lucky, the middle aged man just yelled at him to stop messing with him, his face red with anger.

“Sorry…” Seunghyun sighed, dejected and feeling wronged by the world,

Seungri shrugged at him, “It’s ok.”

That’s when a chocolate ice cream bar suddenly fell on Seungri’s lap, the bright packaging a stark contrast to his black jeans.

Seungri looked up to see Jiyong smirking down at him proudly, “Buying ice cream for my hoobae, aren’t I just such a nice sunbae? Call me sunbaenim and maybe I’ll consider buying you something more expensive.”

Seungri picked up the ice cream and looked at Jiyong with an unreadable expression.

“Sunbae, out of all the ice creams, I hate this brand the most.”

Jiyong’s pleased smirked turned into a “Yah!” in an instant, making a grab for the ice cream which Seungri was already holding in his hands. “If you don’t want it then give it back!” JIyong scoffed childishly.

“I’m a good hoobae.” Lee Seungri replied simply before opening the wrapping wordlessly and biting down onto the chocolate shell.

The others laughed while Jiyong fumed, amused that prince Jiyong had finally met his ultimate nemesis.

But out of the corner of his eye, Seunghyun saw Seungri take another small bite carefully out of the ice cream he was preciously holding onto with both hands, his lips curling into a small smile.

That was when Seunghyun first realized.

-

That morning, when Seunghyun walked into Lee Seungri’s cafe for the third time, the door opened to the sound of a pretty windchime that was the exact same one as his that now hang from the ceiling. It made his heart soar in a way that it only does when he sees amazing artwork.

Then, he saw Kwon Jiyong.

Sitting at Seunghyun’s bar stool, his chin resting on his hand, a glass of iced americano- Seunghyun’s glass of iced americano sitting in front of him.

He was grinning, talking animatedly at someone behind the counter.

Lee Seungri.

Lee Seungri that was never Seunghyun’s.

At that moment, Seunghyun realized- for the second time in his life, that sometimes being lucky just wasn’t enough.