Daesung really likes to play games. Not in the: ‘oh let’s all have fun and play games for hours ‘cause I love you and I love spending time with you’ kind of way, no he likes to play games in the: ‘INEEDTOPLAYGAMESINEEDTHEFUNPLAYWITHMEPLAYWITHMEATTENTIONPLAYWITHME’ kind of way. It’s not a bad way to love games, but if you don’t play with him when he asks, things get a little…intense.

Youngbae was not expecting to do anything all day. He was actually hoping that he would be able to sit in front of the TV and watch movies all day or something with Ji and Daesung because they had the day off. It was supposed to be an absolutely wonderful and relaxing Tuesday.

But who on Earth has relaxing Tuesday’s? Younbae doesn’t, that’s for sure, and that’s what he realized as he woke up to a very loud banging noise that seemed to be coming from Jiyong’s room across the hall.

“What the hell?” he mutters darkly as he pulls himself out of bed and slips his feet into a pair of slippers before walking sleepily out into the hall. He had been hoping to sleep in just a little bit, but it was only just after 8:00am and though that could be considered sleeping late by his normal standards, Youngbae had been hoping for at least 8:30am. Being that he was slightly upset by his early rising, he was completely unprepared for the scene that awaited him just a step outside his door.

Daesung, a natural early riser like Youngbae, was sprawled rather haphazardly on the floor in front of Jiyong’s door. The door was partially open, if only because his foot was somehow wedged in between the door and the frame, and the rest of his body was in a jumbled and writhing mess. He seemed to be fighting more with himself than with the door, and it would have been completely unclear how he got there if it weren’t for the fact that Jiyong was staring down at him from the crack in the door.

Both of them noticed Youngbae’s presence at the same time, and Daesung immediately ceased moving so that he could stare innocently up at Youngbae.

“Good morning hyung! How did you sleep?” Daesung asks, as if he weren’t lying in a heap on the floor. Youngbae can see Ji roll his eyes and shake his head in exasperation while Daesung speaks, and tries desperately to figure out what could have been going on.

“He probably slept really well until you woke him up with your insane flailing” Jiyong responds, opening the door a little wider to reveal that he had yet to get dressed for the day. In fact, the poor thing had been woken up by Daesung as well, which is why he was so terribly put out at the moment.

Daesung’s face immediately turns into a pout, which would be amusing because of the position that he is in on the floor but isn’t because it turns into a slightly angry pout when Youngbae lets out a small chuckle.

“It’s not funny. Ji-hyung doesn’t want to play with me.” Daesung pulls the leg that was in Jiyong’s room back in toward himself and sits up before pushing himself back against the wall next to the door. “No one ever wants to play with me.”

Youngbae and Jiyong look at each other, the same thought floating between them – oh no it’s one of THOSE days – for it seemed that it would indeed be one of the days that all Big Bang members dreaded: Game Day.

In an effort to avert a crisis, because Jiyong was upset that he had been woken up and it was clear that Daesung was on the verge of a melt-down, Youngbae suggests quickly that he make everyone breakfast. This seems to divert attention from the situation briefly because Jiyong mutters something about hating oatmeal before wandering into his room, presumably to change; and Daesung’s pout goes from angry to just…pout-y as he whines:

“But you only ever make rice and fruit!”

Youngbae decides to ignore both comments, because he isn’t really that bad at cooking, and heads toward the kitchen with Daesung trailing slowly behind him. Youngbae very carefully ignored Daesung while he made breakfast; eggs, fruit, kimchi, rice… Youngbae shakes his head for about the fifth time in the last 30 seconds, trying to clear his mind of the almost imperceptible sighs and whines from Daesung and from a feeling of defeat as he realizes that Daesung was quite right about his cooking abilities. Jiyong walks out into the kitchen wearing a sweatshirt and shorts and sits down as far from Daesung as he can while still sitting at the table.

Daesung frowns at him, but Ji ignores him, “I like my eggs dry” he says, as if Youngbae hadn’t lived with/around him for the past who even knew how many years.

Youngbae just ignores him as well, dropping three plates onto the table along with a handful of chopsticks, not even caring to count out the proper number. He puts the food on the table in a nonchalant way that seems to suggest that he would prefer that no one comment on the food.

The point was gotten, as both Jiyong and Daesung fill their plates with no hesitation or complaint before Youngbae is even able to sit down. Daesung is kind of dancing in his seat, as if breakfast is so excruciatingly exciting for him that he can’t sit still. Youngbae looks pointedly down at his food, and Jiyong shields his face with his hand. The hope in both cases was that Daesung would forget that they were there and lose interest. Unluckily for them, Daesung is much smarter than that, and he’s also rather oblivious to their desperate attempts to get out of playing with him.

“Breakfast was really good hyung!!” Daesung exclaims after finishing his plate. He had an enormous and bright smile plastered across his face and he was leaning forward just slightly; Jiyong turned around almost completely so that Daesung couldn’t see his face.

“uh, thanks Daesung” Youngbae hadn’t wanted to answer, but he couldn’t just ignore Daesung, especially after a compliment. He looked somewhat like a deer caught in headlights, he was hunched over his plate, but he had turned his head up just enough to be able to make eye-contact and be heard.

“I’ll do the dishes! You can get ready for the day!” Youngbae didn’t want to get ready for the day, and he didn’t really want to give up his plate when Daesung swooped in to grab it. Jiyong was terrified, and when Daesung seemed to be preoccupied with the dishes, he grabbed Youngbae by the arm and they both rushed from the kitchen.

With a quick nod to each other, they disappeared into their bedrooms; it was decided, they were going to go out, it was the only way to avoid Daesung. It took Youngbae a little longer than usual to get dressed; he was trying to waste as much time as was possible. When he finally exited his room and walked out into the common area, he saw that Daesung had cornered Jiyong, who was sitting on the couch with his eyes open wide just staring in a kind of petrified silence.

When Youngbae walked in Daesung’s attention was immediately drawn away from Jiyong’s cowering form. His facial expression was frightening; an odd amalgamation of fevered excitement, severe disappointment, and sudden, terrifying hope. Youngbae stopped in his tracks and considered leaving the room, but Daesung had already seen him.

“We should all play a game” he said it with absolutely no inflection and no change to his facial expression. Terrifying is something that most people wouldn’t normally ever equate with Daesung, but Youngbae and Jiyong would have to agree that right now, Daesung was probably so much more than just terrifying.

“Why don’t we just…watch…a…” Youngbae didn’t even finish his suggestion. Daesung had started forward when Youngbae started speaking, which was a universal signal in the Big Bang dorm stating that you should just back down now before you get hurt. Jiyong calls this ‘the stalking’. It’s at this point that they all always realized that they had lost whatever tentative hold they might have had on winning an argument against Daesung, or even just changing his focus.

Jiyong knew that Daesung had won this round against them, but he also knew that if he thought quickly enough, he could come up with a way to appease Daesung that would cause minimal heartache for both himself and Youngbae. As his eyes scan the room, and Daesung’s slow approach elicits an almost strangled sounding “alright, let’s play a game” from Youngbae, Jiyong notices an unopened game in the corner of the room.

“Yah, Daesung!” Jiyong shouts in an authoritative voice, as if he hadn’t been cowering into the cushions of the couch just moments beforehand, “Why don’t you and Youngbae play that game over there?”

The death glare that Youngbae sent in Jiyong’s direction was ignored with a skill that only comes with practice as Daesung happily skipped over to the corner and picked up the box.

“Jenga!” Daesung cries in excitement, turning around to show the box off to the other two as if it were some great prize, “what is Jenga?” Jiyong and Youngbae look at each other quickly, as if both thought that looking at the other would make an answer appear.

“It’s a two-person game” Jiyong says, without looking away from Youngbae, “you should set it up on the little table over there. Bae knows how to play; you can play it with him!” The look that he gave Daesung was purely helpful and considerate in nature and while it tricked Daesung, who clapped happily and dashed over to the little table to set the game up immediately, Youngbae saw it for what it really was: Betrayal.

But Youngbae wasn’t going to protest; he knew that Jiyong must have had some sort of plan, and with this in mind he was determined to play Jenga with Daesung in the hopes that afterward they would be able to just sit and relax.

As they were setting up the tower of blocks, Daesung seemed to realize that Jiyong wouldn’t be playing with them, “but Ji-hyung!? What will you do?”

Jiyong had been hoping to disappear into his room, but realizing swiftly that that was not going to be an option, he says: “I’m going to take pictures! We need to keep track of our… fun times together!” The crack in his voice was noticed only by Youngbae, who sent him another glare in response and continued to stack the blocks.

Once the stacking was completed, and Jiyong was properly situated so as to take the ‘best possible’ photo’s, Youngbae started to explain how to play.

“So we take turns pulling a block out of the stack and carefully placing it back on…” Youngbae couldn’t continue with his directions because Jiyong had started to make a ridiculously loud humming noise part way through his sentence. When Youngbae stops talking to send Jiyong a reproachful glare, Jiyong takes this as his cue to speak.

“No, no, no! Honestly Bae, don’t you know?” Youngbae didn’t know, and he wanted desperately to tell his friend this, but figured that he might as well play along so while Daesung looked at him, confusion written plainly across his face, Youngbae motioned for Ji to continue. “You don’t place them back on top; you put them on the side. The person who causes the tower to topple loses!”

Daesung was excited to begin, and really, Youngbae decided that it wasn’t that bad. Even though it could be a much longer game, since they weren’t adding more to make it more likely to fall, Youngbae figured that it wouldn’t really be that bad. But Daesung was overly excited, and once they got just a few rounds in, he started to get anxious.

“Youngbae-hyung! What was that rule that Ji-hyung said wasn’t real?” He was trying to sound nonchalant, but his frustration with the slow process of the game was starting to show.

With only a quick glance at Ji, Youngbae responds, “Oh, well it’s kind of an advanced rule. When you take out a block, you place it on top instead of to the side” a quick look at Ji is all he needs to know that the boy is trying not to laugh.

“Let’s do that! I want to win!!” Youngbae chuckles good-naturedly and nods in agreement.

“Alright, it’s your turn, go ahead!”

It took only 5 more rounds for Daesung to knock the tower over. His reaction was worth the wait as he grabbed onto the falling tower with both hands in a vain attempt to stop it and fell hard against the stone wall next to them with an expression of both pain and excitement etched onto his face.

As they were getting ready for their second movie of the day, Daesung suddenly remembered that Ji had promised to take pictures of the game. With no expression on his face, Ji hands the camera over.

He had taken exactly three pictures, and though Daesung was kind of upset, Youngbae thought that they captured the moment fairly well.