Dongho thought there was something suspicious going on with his little nephews.

For some kind of strange, incomprehensible reason, the twins had stuck to him like glue whenever they were close to him. Not to mention, they apparently had gotten into the habit of distracting either him or Aron whenever they talked (at least whenever they talked in close proximity of the twins). It was endearing at first, but Dongho quickly got tired of it after the first few days. Sure he loved the attention, but really now, the clinginess was getting annoying.

Although, there was a high chance Dongho might have just imagined their clinginess.

But—nah, there was still a chance he imagined it.

Dongho just couldn’t fathom a reason why they might want to cling onto him more. Other than the fact he had been spending less time with them, of course. But he couldn’t help it if he was busy, he was eighteen damn it! He had other things to do than babysit a pair of twins! Not that he doesn’t enjoy taking care of them; please do not haunt him in his sleep dearest dead sister.

But there was no denying the fact that the twins was suspicious of his and their teacher’s friendship, as evident by the fact that they had told Jongup about it. And Jongup’s response to the revelation had been less than pleasant.

“So,” Jongup spoke up, startling Dongho out of his concentration. They were studying in the campus library—or at least Dongho was—before they had to go and pick the twins up from Kindergarten. There was a mischievous glint in Jongup’s eyes, and Dongho knew he wasn’t going to enjoy what they were talking about.

“I heard you and the twins’ teacher had been getting friendly around each other.”

Dongho eyed his friend carefully, trying to decide whether or not to answer his friend. “Yeah,” he said slowly, averting his eyes back to the textbook in front of him, “We’ve been talking to each other lately…”

“Since when?” Jongup asked, crossing his arms across his chest.

“I don’t know, a few days ago?”

“You two talk over the phone?”

Dongho’s head snapped up, eyes widened and mouth slightly agape. “How did you know that?” Dongho asked incredulously.

Jongup smiled amusedly, “Two little birdies told me.”

‘Minhyun and Minki…’ Who else would know? He wasn’t exactly being discreet whenever he called Aron, and Jongup wouldn’t know since the walls in their apartment were thick enough so that next-door neighbors wouldn’t hear any private conversations, unless Jongup was the type of person to eavesdrop on their neighbor’s conversations.

“So how far have you two gone?” Jongup pried, leaning over the table slightly.

“Gone…where?”

“You know,” Jongup replied impatiently, “Gone into your relationship.”

To Dongho, it had would have been an innocent question, had it not been for Jongup’s sly and knowing smirk.

“What—relationship—Jongup!”

The glares and a reprimanding ‘Shh’ was enough to let Dongho know he had accidentally raised his voice too high. Though Dongho really could care less, he was too busy glaring at his friend, and thinking about how much he would love to wipe that smile off his face.

“What gave you that idea?” Dongho hissed.

“Nothing, absolutely nothing, I was just wondering,” Jongup said, his gaze not wavering from Dongho.

They sat in silence for a while, neither of them wanting to lose in their mini staring contest. It wasn’t until Dongho let out a sigh and proceeding to shove his textbook in his backpack did they stop. Jongup calmly stood up and followed his annoyed friend out of the library. And once they were out, Dongho turned to his friend with an exasperated expression.

“Jongup, we’ve had this talk before, I am not interested in men.”

Jongup shook his head as he put an arm around his friend’s shoulder, leading them towards the exit, “Dongho, Dongho. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. You’re being in denial.”

“Am not,” Dongho said stubbornly, “You’re just jumping into conclusions because I’ve never had a girlfriend before.”

“Or shown an interest in girls for that matter,” Jongup quipped.

“Yes I do!”

“Uh, no you don’t,” Jongup stated bluntly, “Remember that time during high school this girl was practically throwing herself onto you and you ignored her in favor of telling this guy his new haircut suited him? Please take note that this girl was drop-dead gorgeous.”

Dongho rolled his eyes, “Just because I didn’t like one girl you assumed I was gay?”

“She was drop-dead gorgeous, Dongho. How many times do I have to repeat that? Guys would kill to be in your position.”

“Whatever,” Dongho muttered crossly, “I’m still not interested in men.”

“Dongho, you know I’d still be your friend even if you’re as straight as a rainbow--”

“I remember you saying that last time.”

“—So you don’t need to pretend. Just accept the fact already.”

Dongho wanted to reply, but he quickly found it would have been of no use. Jongup was as stubborn as a mule when it came to proving Dongho’s uality (although there was nothing to prove). Even though Dongho himself had told him multiple times that he was straight, for goodness sake. But does Jongup listen? No. He doesn’t.

So he decided to just remain silent and ignore his friend.

Jongup noticed Dongho was giving him the silent treatment and rolled his eyes. Fine, two can play at that game. The two of them continued their trek to the kindergarten in silence, with Jongup’s arm still awkwardly wrapped around Dongho’s shoulder.

When they arrived at the kindergarten, Choongjae was the one to greet them by the gates.

“Oh, good afternoon there!” Choongjae greeted cheerily, before his smile faded slightly when he saw the rather awkward sight of two unsmiling boys with one boy having his arm wrapped around the other.

Dongho brushed Jongup’s arm off of him as he returned Choongjae’s greeting with a smile, “Good afternoon, hyung!”

Choongjae was about to ask what happened, before deciding against it. Everyone had his or her own little quirks after all. “I see you brought your friend this time.”

“Yes,” Dongho answered quickly, “Are the twins in the classroom?”

“Oh yes, Aron’s still there if you want to talk to him.”

Dongho ignored the snicker coming from Jongup and thanked Choongjae before striding towards the classroom, Jongup following close behind. Dongho opened the door to the classroom and was greeted by the endearing sight of Jonghyun chasing Minki and Minhyun around in a game of tag.

“Oh! Dongho!” Aron exclaimed, standing up from where he was cleaning up toys, “Good to see you!”

Minki and Minhyun seemed to stop their game of tag in favor of running up to their uncle and greeting him. Aron walked towards the uncle and nephews, Jonghyun tagging along as well.

“Oh,” Aron said, when he finally took notice of Jongup leaning against the doorframe, “Nice to see you again.”

Jongup returned Aron’s greeting with a simple wave of his hand and a smile.

“So, Dongho,” Aron said, turning his attention back to Dongho, “I managed to clear up my schedules for today, so do you want to go hang out somewhere? After we drop off the kids, of course.”

“I’d really love to, hyung, but,” Dongho spared a glance to Jongup (who looked like he was about to burst out laughing—the jerk), “I can’t go today, maybe next time?”

Aron seemed to have notice Dongho’s glance, and nodded absently, “Uh, sure, next time. Just tell me whenever you want to go hang out.”

“Of course!” Dongho beamed, “Come on twins, time to go home.”

The twins said their farewells to Jonghyun and followed Dongho out of the classroom. Dongho risked another glance at Jongup, to find the so-called-friend of his with the most amused expression Dongho had ever seen.

“I’m not going to say anything,” Jongup snickered, trying and failing to contain his laughter.

Dongho had the sudden urge to wring the guy’s neck.

Short update is short, I know. And it’s been over a week…But I can explain! Sort of. I’ll just say I didn’t have any inspiration for this chapter, then got sick, then just went to plain-on lazy mode. So yeah, entirely my fault. Sorry… I even made you this fail of a chapter...

Shameless self-promotion time: I have made a JRen fic, for those of you who like JRen and/or interested to read it go have a read. It’s called “Through Darkness”. Not exactly happy, but I’m not sure if it’s angst either… 

THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO SUBCRIBED/COMMENTED/TOOK THE TIME TO READ THIS!!!! You guys are awesome!