“So which one did you sleep with? The bride or the groom?” Hyukjae asks, dropping into the seat beside him after having effectively wooed and charm the entire wedding party and former classmates of Donghae as Donghae quietly nursed his drink in his corner.

“What?” He nearly jump up from his seat, the drink in his hand spilling over the rim and down onto the table. He quickly looks around to see if anyone else heard that but the music is booming loud in the private clubroom and everybody is caught in their own thing.

They’re alone and Donghae isn’t drunk enough for this.

“Well, you were really reluctant to come that I practically had to dragged you here and ever since you intoduced me to the bride and groom, you been pretty shifty and refuse to meet my eyes,” Hyukjae says with a casual ease that leaves Donghae squirming in his seat. “Also, the groom kept giving me this knowing look and the bride won’t stop bringing up how ‘fun’ you were back in college.”

Donghae bites on his lower lip and drags his gaze upward to meet Hyukjae. There’s a long pause between them and Hyukjae patiently waits for him before, “both,” he says finally, beat red.

Hyukjae’s eyebrows shot up into his hairline. “Really?”

Donghae nods with a grimace and hesitantly adds, “… and at the same time.”

Hyukjae’s eyes widen comically and he whistles in awe. “Wow, I never would have guess that. Who knew you were so adventurous in bed.”

Donghae flushes deepen. “We’re a small town and there were very little things to do.”

“So you guys get together often and have cape to cure the boredom, huh?” he muses, the corners of his lip tug upward.

Donghae drops his face into his hands. “Please stop talking.”

“I’m not judging, sweetheart,” Hyukjae says softly, his hand squeezing Donghae’s thigh in comfort, “not in my kind of work anyway, but I think a head up on this kind of thing would be nice since I’m playing the part of the devoted boyfriend here. So who else in this room are your former partners?”

Donghae slowly lifts his head up and winces. “Maybe a third of the people here?”

Hyukjae makes a startle choking noise that sounds like a dying whale. “What?!”

“I had a wild youth,” Donghae says defensively, even though he knows that period was something he does not need or want to ever relieve it.  

Once Hyukjae calms down enough, he levels Donghae a look. “I bet,” he says, nudging Donghae’s side. “So when is the next wedding we’re attending?”

Donghae pauses as though thinking it over. “Well one more this week and then we have three more in the next two weeks. The next month, though, is going to be pack with like five in one week but the rest of the weddings are stretch out in the last of the summer so it won’t be as hectic.”

Hyukjae’s eyes widen even larger with every words that leave Donghae’s mouth. “When you hired me for this gig and said you needed a date to a few wedding, I thought you meant maybe two or three ceremonies that somehow have their schedule fallen close together…” He says slowly, brows knitting in confusion.

Donghae shrugs. “It’s tradition in our town that no matter where you go afterward or whatever part of your life you’re in you always come back home to tie the knot here. So every summer, there’s an influx of people coming back to this town and an endless parade of weddings we go to every year.”

“That’s,” Hyukjae’s face goes through a series of undecipherable emotion before settling into a peaceful acceptance, “strange but doable. So how many weddings do we have left?”

“I think thirteen more weddings for this year? I have been told this is one of our busiest year yet," Donghae says, making a face at the thought of all these wedding including his brother he'll have to attend after of making excuse not to come home for them.

Hyukjae looks amused by that prospect. “Well, if they’re as interesting as this one then I’m sure I enjoy it and besides I love finding all these pieces of you that you have been hiding. I wonder what else I shall discover this summer.” He winks as Donghae’s groan.

---

Colonel Lee Dongsook is a three timed decorated war hero who had fought in two different wars, been on every continent except the Antarctica, and once when he was caught in a bank robbery trying to deposit a check he singlehandedly disarmed the robber and beat him to a pulp while giving him a lecture about human decency until the police arrived.

He’s hardened soldier set in his old ways which is why Donghae and his father often head—this, his mother loves to point out, is probably where Donghae got his obstinate and take no prisoner attitude from—and even though, strictly speaking, Colonel Lee is retired from active duty but that doesn’t really mean anything to Donghae’s father who still acted like he’s a conscripted soldier and in constant state of combat with Donghae’s (former) boyfriends.

So with his mother cheerfully prepping for dinner in the kitchen, leaving Donghae and Hyukjae in the living room area under the tender mercy of his father, Donghae prepares himself for war.

“Do not let your guard down,” Donghae had hissed earlier into Hyukjae’s ears just as they about to enter the battlefield and, “or my dad will eat you alive.”

Hyukjae only lifted an amused brow in return and smiled. “How vaguely threatening. This will be fun then, I see,” he said and Donghae nearly stumble over his own tongue to find a reply to that.

So with his father glowering at them, Donghae squirming in his seat, and Hyukjae wearing his most courteous and charming mask on, it begins.

“Any arrest record, criminal charges, or addiction I should know about?“ his father demands gruffly, cutting through the point with absolutely no delicacy at all, it's like going up against a goddamn tank.

Donghae drop his face into his hands and groans. He might as well be putting Hyukjae in front of a firing squad, it would have been more merciful than this.

“None that I’m aware of,” Hyukjae answers coolly and there’s an obvious lilt of amusement in his voice, as though he finds this all terribly entertaining.

Donghae slowly spread his fingers wide so he peek through, like a train wreck he can’t turn away from, and catches just as his father’s brows furrow slightly from across the table but it’s like fanning a wall, pointless and unmovable. “And are you hiding any secret love child or lover on the side then?” he probes further.

Donghae’s hands start to shake with a violent urge to throttle his father—a feeling that he’s intrinsically familiar with since he was old enough to understand the meaning of difficult and his father goes hand in hand. “Oh my god,” he says despairingly but his father, ignoring Donghae’s outburst, doesn’t even spare him a notice.

“I’m too paranoid and scare of your son to ever do that,” Hyukjae responds smoothly next to Donghae, and in normal circumstance that kind of thing doesn’t exactly speak of confidence in a relationship but, what with probably years of practice in his line of work, it comes off fond and appallingly indulgence.

He reaches over to Donghae and carefully removes Donghae’s hands from his face much to Donghae’s surprised. He drags one of Donghae’s hands into his lap without any resistance from Donghae as Donghae’s heart thrumming erratically against his ribcage, a rhymatic beating that he can’t seem to grasp, and he watches with pulsating heat as Hyukjae’s laces their hand together.

“But in truth, I wouldn’t dare to, sir. He’s my world and I wouldn’t know what to do without him,” Hyukjae says tenderly, and bestows upon Donghae a look so besotted and in love that leaves him nearly shaken. Now, Donghae can clearly understand why people keep throwing money at Hyukjae’s way despite knowing that his affection is only for sale until the next person with deep pocket come along and is never guarantee thing.

Donghae, facing the full force of Hyukjae’s unrelenting attention on him, would hand over his entire fortune for a minute of Hyukjae’s time, what he would give to be truly the center of Hyukjae’s world, and then has to forcibly yank himself out of that horrifying thought because—what.

Donghae pulls his gaze away, flushed and awkward all of a sudden, and turns his attention back to his father.

Still staunchly unimpressed, even with that disgustingly sweet demonstration in front of him, Donghae’s father says, “Good, if your answer were any less then that I would have eviscerate you right here.”

“Dad,” Donghae says horrified, nearly jerking out of his seat but Hyukjae grips his hand tightly and pulls him back down.

“I wouldn’t have any other way,” Hyukjae say in respond, not a beat out of place.

“So what do you do for living?” his father continues on with his barrage of question as though Hyukjae hadn’t said anything.

Donghae leans forward, a rehearsed answered already on his tongue, but a squeeze from Hyukjae’s hand stops him. “I run a small exclusive entertainment club for those looking for companionship and some casual fun,” Hyukjae explains with a casual ease that Donghae doesn’t feel confident about. “We try our best to fulfill the request of our clients and if we can’t we turn them away. We aimed to serve but only at our pleasure.”

Which, Donghae muses, is just a fancy and roundabout way of saying, service.

"And this is all above ground?” Father narrow his eyes suspiciously. “No shady business?”

Hyukjae smiles, all teeth and sharp edges. “I assure you the business itself is quite legitimate and boring.”

“And your family—“ his father starts and at that moment Donghae can feel Hyukjae goes tense beside him and his hand is lax and cold against Donghae’s.

Enough is enough.

Donghae springs forward, up on his feet before Hyukjae can even think of stopping him and glares down at his father. “Dad, leave him alone already!” he yells, huffing and seconds away way from grabbing Hyukjae and making a run for it. "I didn’t bring Hyukjae here for you to interrogate him like he’s some sort of criminal.”

“Donghae, sit down, I’m not done,” his father orders, finally directing his now unwanted attention Donghae’s way.

It’s two decades of living under the roof of his parent’s home and his strict upbringing that Donghae is quick to obey despite the protest that is sitting on his tongue. He drops back down into his seat with a glower on his face.

“Donghae, you always been clever and capable ever since you were a child but…,” his father makes a face, “your taste in men is completely wretched. It’s like you’re a magnet for the scumbags of society,” his father says, sparing Donghae a sympathetic frown. “So forgive me for me just a little doubtful about this new one.”

“My taste is fine,” Donghae snaps reflexively, a sulkiness to this tone. It’s not like he’s that bad. Honest.

“Your father is right, sweetie!” His mom shouts from the kitchen, clearly not bothering to hide the fact that she has been shameless eavesdropping on their conversation all along. She pokes her head out of the kitchen and says, rather cheerfully, "Remember Kiwoo, that accountant you dated three years ago. He was a nice and very polite young man but kinda dull in my opinion until three months later he was arrested for attempting to murder his employer with a butcher knife. Or investment banker Boyeon, who gave great gifts to and took us to the most amazing restaurants, only to find out all that money he lavished our way was from him embezzling his company’s fund and Boyeon wasn’t even his real name,” she sighs regretfully, “and he was such a sweet boy too.”

Donghae glares at his mother. “Mom, he also stole my money,” he says, somewhat miffed.

“That’s why I said he was, Donghae.” His mother rolls her eyes like he’s being difficult on purpose. “Which only prove my point.”

“Fine, I’m only attracted to conman and murderer,” Donghae grates out.

His mom frowns, lips pressed thin. “Donghae, don’t be difficult. You just need to look harder and I’m sure you’ll find a good one this time.”

“Well,” Hyukjae says suddenly and Donghae twists around to see Hyukjae’s lips twitching in amusement, his earlier disposition had gone away and he’s now in his element once again. “I’m not going rob myself of my own money and I don’t believe I have any latent homicidal tendency I need to work out, so I guess that’s some pluses for me already.”

His father abruptly stands up and glowers at Hyukjae. “Dad, what are you–?” Donghae demands, and half-heartedly wonder if he should call the hospital just in case.

“I don’t like you nor trust you yet,” his father says, towering menacingly over them like some kind of dark specter, ready to cut a life short at any moment, “but you’re better than most of the ‘characters’ that Donghae often bring home so I guess you’re alright for now. But I’m watching you and if you make even a wrong move, I’ll show you exactly how I deal with those that mess with my family.”

Hyukjae, amazingly didn’t cower under his father’s threat, just meet his eyes head on and simply nods. “Yes, sir. I understand completely,” he says firmly.

“Honey,” his mother scolds with annoyed huff, before disappearing into the kitchen, “save the scare tactic after dinner. Help me get the roasted fish ready.”

His father sends Hyukjae another glare and heads into the kitchen as his mother’s order, leaving Donghae and Hyukjae alone with the threat of death looming over them.

“Well that went smoother than I thought,” Donghae says idly into the dead air, even though earlier he had envisioned a potential nuclear war breaking out in his living room.

Hyukjae lets out a long sigh of relief and sinks back into his seat as though all the tension had melt out of him. “For a second there, I thought he was going to punch me.”

Donghae turns to him, eyes wide in shock. “Wait, you were nervous?!” he asks incredulously. Hyukjae had seemed so in control and unfazed in the onslaught of his father that Donghae didn’t think there was even a drop of fear in him.

“Of course, he’s your father and I wanted him to like me even if it’s just a little. He’s a hard man to impress and I–” Hyukjae stops, catching himself a little too late. There’s a rosy stained on his cheeks as though he’s embarrassed to admit that it but, “well,” he coughs shyly, “yea.”

Donghae feels flush of happiness sweeps over him. “Thank you for being brave and trying to stand toe to toe with my dad,” he says earnestly.

Hyukjae diverts his gaze, “He’s important to you and that’s all that matter,” he says, and gives a shudder. “Even if he is absolutely terrifying.”

Donghae laughs, delighted and so happy that the sound wrecks through him.

---

Donghae can recall several events in his life that he wishes he could scrub from his memory. Some past are better off not revisiting.

There was that one time when he was eighteen, thinking he was alone in the house that day he’d invited some guests over only to be later get caught in bed with his boyfriend and his boyfriend’s girlfriend by his grandmother no less. Moreover, how could he ever forget that in his first year of college, he’d landed in jail for breaking and entering his own apartment because his roommate decided to be an so he locked Donghae out that night. Then of course, his entire blackhole of a dating history that could be regulated to the b-rated horror flick for the terrible horrifying experience that it brought to everyone involved—from the accountant turned the Bloody Butcher of Songpa-gu, the conman in bespoke suit who steal millions out of people’s lifesaving, and to the humble florist by day and by night North-Korea’s sympathizer and spy.

These men that had walked in to his life like a dream and then ran out of it like a horrid nightmare that wouldn’t go away, they were a marred on his record that he wish fervently to erased.

Once is unlucky; twice is a coincidence; three, ok maybe he should have stop there; but fourth, fifth, sixth and beyond is a goddamn pattern. Whether he was just attracted to the worst of the worst or there is just something about his character that drew them toward him, he doesn’t quite know but both options doesn’t speak much about his future prospect in looking for a marriageable partner.

Donghae doesn’t exactly have a good track record in making the wisest decision when he’s sober let alone when he’s desperate and horribly cornered by his mother, who has no qualm about abusing her authority as his mother to get him to comply. Maybe that’s why he ended up hiring an to pretend to be his boyfriend so he can go home with his dignity in tack.

Even with all these miseries that seem to plague his life and he can say for without a doubt while they’re really bad but no, this might top them all.

Surrounded by various relatives he haven’t seen in a while—grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and everything in between—circling their table like sharks scenting blood in the water and Donghae is the goddamn injured seal in this scenario, he has a sense of impending doom as the family reunion blasts full throttle. And it’s only the first day of a seven day event.

This specifically, Donghae thinks bitterly, is why for the last three years something always managed to come up just in time for him to avoid every family gathering hosted by his grandparents that draw every relative from all corners of the world back home for the summer. He even had to leave the country one time and orchestrated a hospital stay that had his mother in a panic and threatening to visit Verbier to make sure he wasn’t on his deathbed and clinging to life.

All these effort just so he didn’t have to step a foot near his extended family can be, admittedly, a little dramatic but a necessary evil to counteract having to deal with them in close proximity. He can only handle his extended family in small doses, with multiple exits in sight and escape routes already mapped out and preferably through phone lines and pixelated screens.

But there is only so much he could do before his family was onto his game. His mom had gave him an ultimatum early this year that if he didn’t come to Family Week this summer don’t bother coming back at all and his brother had even arranged his wedding during Family Week so Donghae couldn’t plan another escape unless he want to have “terrible brother” stamped all over his tombstone and hope to even be an uncle in the near future.

With that kind of pressure, Donghae caved and now he’s watching his own demise unfolding as his mom flip through another page of his childhood photos to show Hyukjae either as an effort to scare him away from Donghae or his mother is getting her revenge on him for refusing to come home by letting him relieve his terror filled childhood. He doesn’t know which but both are nefarious and it’s probably why his mother manage to brow beaten his fierce father into marriage into the first place

The 21^st century with all it limitless potential and technological advancement offer more than one way to humiliate him, he finds as his mother happily pull up another album of his embarrassing childhood photo saved on her phone to show Hyukjae. He thought by going far from his childhood home that would save him from going through this horror.

Trying to dodge impending childhood humiliation is one thing but even that doesn’t distract him from the true deal breaker.

Every time Donghae spot one of his relatives near their table they would stop, stare, and then do a double take, eyes going wide with shock and nearly tripping over their own two feet, when they finally catch sight of Hyukjae next to him, prim and proper and looking like he had just walked out of the cover of GQ magazine, conserving with Donghae’s mother as Donghae’s father look on with a bleak expression his face.

It must be a puzzling to them for Donghae not to be only back but also with someone. Not that Donghae could blame them because he had left this town with a barely scrapped up pride and memories of an angry teen and disappointing at his heels.

They clearly have not forgotten the tantrum Donghae had thrown when he was seventeen that landed him and half of his cousins in the town’s jail, because there wasn’t even a juvenile detention center in a town that small. Their parents had paid them a visit in jail but between feeding them and keeping their stay like some strange overnight sleepover and yelling at them through cell bars, they demanded to know who started the fight. Despite the cut knuckles, split lips, and bruises that littered their body, Donghae and his cousins were tight lipped.

Seventeen was a strange and precarious age for him, just shy of adulthood but still fully entrenched in the teen years, trying to navigate the mind field of hormones and confusing feelings while seeking to carve himself outside of his family’s expectation.

He wasn’t doing a good job of it. Constantly on a hair trigger, Donghae was an exploding time bomb waiting to happen.

All that burning fire kept bottled up in paper string knit control, it was bound to implode.

Donghae had moved through that year under the intense scrutiny of his family and the entire town, waiting and watching for him to have his meltdown, and all it took was a sly remark from one of his cousins to launch Donghae across the room and on top of him.

His parents knew who started the fight just by looking at the guilty look on his face. They didn’t yell, his mom had stay silent as she held his hand through the bars and his father, always untouchable and unmovable in many ways, had a haggard look on his face and had solemnly asked, “Where did we go wrong, Donghae?”

That was worse than if they had gone off on him instead.

It was the kind of parental disappointment that eventually drove Donghae to escape to Seoul as soon as he came of age but even then, he was doom from the start because for all his parents badgering and hammering him to do better, to be better and they love him wholeheartedly and Donghae loves them back with equal fervor.

Before he had left for Seoul the winter of his nineteen year, his mother had said her good bye with a waning smile on her face and left a few departed words that he carried like the heaviest chain: “Trying to keep you here would be like emptying the ocean with a spoon—a futile and useless effort. You are meant for something bigger and better than this town. Go and be you, Donghae.”

So despite all his efforts to claw his way out of this wretched town that tried to suffocate him and stamp down on his otherness, because small town like this has never been kind to those that are mark different, he came back to it eventually because this is where everything and everyone he loves live.

Walking away from that was nearly impossible, but coming home was equally or even more so daunting.

Donghae likes to think he had outgrew his wilder and more violate younger days but right now here in this private space, surrounded by people who had seen him at his most ugly and shameful moments, he’s sinking under their scrutiny.

He hates it. Even though pleasing his parents was the only reason he had bring back Hyukjae with him and suffer through his parent’s interrogation and their skepticism, if another one of his relatives pop up and leer at them, Donghae will have to consider disowning himself to save them from this farce.

Donghae carefully holds his tongue, watching his mother excitedly chattering away about a past memory of him and desperately trying to ignore the rest of the world. But even that kind of uneasy peace doesn’t last as his mother and father’s got called away by one of his aunts and leaving the two of them to the mercy of his other relatives to jump on them at anyime elike a scene right out of the African safari. Now without his mother’s protective bubbles shielding them and his father’s deep glower to scaring the rest of the party away, they’re defenseless and Donghae’s itch to get out of this place once more run deep.

“So that fish costume you wore in the fifth grade,” Hyukjae starts, eyes crinkling with amusement.

“Don’t even,” Donghae snaps, arms crossed. The tense line of his shoulders drops slightly under the face of Hyukjae’s charm.

“I think it’s cute,” he says, lips twitching with barely held laughter.

“Like that mean anything to me now,” Donghae grumbles, wishing real hard he could visit his younger self and convinced him it was a very bad idea to listen to his mother now and in the future. “I don’t ever want to—”

“I see you haven’t made your escape yet,” he hears abruptly and turns to see Hyeri walking up to them with mischievous glint in her eyes. The devil could take a lesson from her surely, he thinks with a sense of dread.

“Not without trying,” Donghae mumbles. His mom had confiscated his cell phone the moment they’d arrived at his grandparents’ stately home as if he was ten again and couldn’t stay still for ten seconds so she have to him leash him.

Hyeri pulls out a chair and sits down next to him, inviting herself onto their table much to Donghae’s growing annoyance.

“Wow, you’re actually here for once! I mean after your last dating fiasco,” she pauses dramatically and Donghae waits, feeling a wave of irritation wash over him when he’s in the vicinity of his prying and gossip mongering relatives, “well fiascos really. I thought you would rather drag some stranger home and pretend he’s your boyfriend then go another around with actual fact dating because you know,” she gestures emphatically, “it’s you after all—a walking dating hazard.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Donghae replies, his stomach churning uneasily. Her statement hit closer to home than Donghae would have like—which just means she knows him really, really well or that Donghae is a total train wreck that he’s getting predicable at this point.

“Cousin Hein said he’s very handsome, well manner, and charming enough that your father hasn’t eviscerated him yet. So I’m interest to see how managed a catch like that! But with your history it would be embarrassing if he turn out to be another one of those.” She wiggles one of her brow. “I just hope he isn’t like secretly a serial killer or something worst you know? We don’t want another repeat of Kiwoo,” she says, and then her eyes narrow suspiciously. “Or is he?”

“Why don’t you just ask that to his face, I mean it’s not like he’s right here, next to me at all or something,” Donghae says dryly, as though Hyukjae hasn’t been avidly listening in to their conversation the entire time.

Hyeri shifts her attention pass him and over to Hyukjae, giving him a cheery wave as though she had not been ignoring his presence since her arrival at their table and because she is his cousin in more way than one, Hyeri, nonplussed, says, “Hey there! I’m Hyeri, Donghae’ s favorite cousin—”

“That’s a vicious lie and you know it,” Donghae snorts. Everyone and their mother know his favorite is Jackson. Though that hadn’t stop Hyeri’s attempt at usurping Jackson’s position since they were eight and he had to break a tie between them over a game of beach soccer and had chosen Jackson over her.

“And I’m so, so delighted to have you here with us,” she continues gushing, voice as enticing as a venus flytrap before its mouth close on its prey—the shameless hussy.

Hyukjae waves back because he, too, has no shame. “Nice to meet you,” he says with a grin.

“So are you?” Hyeri demands, scooting closer and zeroing in on her prey. “Someone who is secretly hiding some kind of murderous intent and just waiting to unleash on unsuspecting victim?”

Because Donghae is only starting to find out that Hyukjae just might fit a little too well into his neurotic family. “Well,” Hyukjae starts, leaning closer in as though he was confessing a secret to Hyeri. “I’ll let you know as soon as I find a viable candidate.” He draws back with a playful wink.

Hyeri, who works in the town morgue and read true crime novels before bed, practically lights up, seemingly charmed by the prospect of a potential victim in Hyukjae’s future. “Ohmygod, he’s a delight, hyung! I like him already, even if he might rip out your tooth and use it as a trophy in the future.”

“Stop talking, please, stop talking,” Donghae insists. His face into his palm and deeply and passionately wish for death right now.

Just as he thinks his day can’t get any worst another horror terror decides to drop in too. “Hyung, hyung!” Taehyung appears between them, trying to squeeze in. Hyeri clears out of her seat to make room for Taehyung who slides in to his new seat with unrepentant glee. “I can’t believe you’re here!”

“Neither can I,” Donghae says wryly, cursing his entire existent right now. One after another, watching his cousins coming out of the woodwork to disturb him is not how he wants his day to play out.

Taehyung stares at him expectantly. “So is it true?” he asks, eyes wide and practically vibrating out of his skin in excited curiosity. “I heard from my mother who heard from Auntie Minjae, who had a conversation with your mother at Uncle Sunwo’s grocery store two days ago that you brought home a male supermodel and that he’s running away from some kind of scandal and is currently in hiding with you? Auntie Minjae said you might have kidnapped him in the process too.”

Donghae’s left eye twitches. “Can nobody keep their mouth shut in this family,” he grumbles.

“A male supermodel, huh,” Hyeri says, lips twitching. Her laughter threatening to spill over.

“It was either that or an alien in disguised as Uncle Sujin suggested and even I thought that was a stretch,” Taehyung says, wrinkling his nose. “We were sure that you would rather chew out your own arm before you bring anyone else back again after your last boyfriend got arrested for attempted murder and Grandmother was yelling at you for living in sin.”

Donghae groans as Hyeri cackles beside him, severely wishing his entire family would stop being so involved in his love life more than he does.

“Well you can ask him yourself since he’s here,” he points out snidely because let it not be said that he’s not the only one in his family that has a narrow scope in view.

Taehyung’s eyes go wide as he peer over Donghae to get a good look at Hyukjae. “Hi!” Taehyung says, eyes bright with undisguised excitement. “You’re actually real and clearly not an alien!”

Hyukjae look down at his hands, turning it over and making a show as though he’s checking himself over. “No, unfortunately not it seems,” he answers, deciding to humor Taehyung and ignoring Donghae’s horrified squeak next to him. “But please do tell me more this scandal that I’m apparently in.”

Donghae takes in grim satisfaction that Hyeri laughs so hard that she fall over her chair.

a/n: ngl, i love fake dating trope, but i also love small town au and big family drama ////o\\\\.