“Okay. Who wants to start?” Jiyong asked.

They all sat silently, looking from at each other, not wanting to start the torture.

“Fine. I’ll start.” Jiyong announced, rolling his eyes at his two wimpy friends.

“I have never had a favorite color.” Jiyong said.

“Now that can’t be true.” Youngbae said.

“Yeah, seriously, Ji. You have had to had one once.” Seunghyun agreed.

“Nope. Even when I was little I could never choose just one I liked. You can ask my omma if you don’t believe me.” Jiyong said with a shrug.

“Ugh. We’ll just do it.” Youngbae said, looking over at Seunghyun who nodded.

“Okay. On three. Hanna. Toul. Set.” Youngbae said.

Seunghyun stuck his finger in and pulled up a finger coated in the red powder to in his mouth. It was like eating fire. It starts off warm but started blazing and burning the longer it was in his mouth. Soon he longed for the fermented fish brine he gave Youngbae.

“Sorry. I have to go get more rice.” Seunghyun said quickly before running into the kitchen.

He shoveled it into his mouth straight from the rice cooker. bowls. His mouth was going to blister.

“Hey.” Seunghyun heard from behind him.

He turned to see a guilty looking Jiyong looking at the floor and shuffling his foot.

“I didn’t mean for this to get this crazy. I never wanted you to be in pain.” Jiyong seemed to apologize.

“Oh. It’s okay. I just shouldn’t have taken Youngbae up on that offer.” Seunghyun grimaced.

“Anyways, Bae and I talked it over and we agreed that yours is really too strong to play this game for long so we can stop playing, if you want.” Jiyong proposed.

“No! No! It’s fine.” Seunghyun said.

He really liked learning more about Jiyong and if he had to eat more chilies to do that, he would be happy to do it.

“Well, can you at least tone it down a bit?” Jiyong asked.

“What do you mean?” Seunghyun asked.

“I mean…you can put a bunch of it on top of some rice if you want and eat a bite each time.” Jiyong proposed.

“That would just spoil my rice.” Seunghyun pouted looking down at the sticky clumps.

Jiyong laughed a little.

“You can be really cute, you know.” Jiyong said.

Seunghyun felt his throat go dry.

“I-I can put it on my rice.” Seunghyun stuttered as Jiyong bit his lip.

Jiyong snorted.

“What’s got you so nervous?” he asked.

Seunghyun snapped back to reality at that. Jiyong was leading him on. Two can play at that game.

“What do you mean?” Seunghyun seductively said, laying it on thick by moving closer to Jiyong and brushing his hand down his smooth exposed arm.

Jiyong visibly shivered and Seunghyun smirked and winked at Jiyong before taking his rice into the living room with him. A minute later Jiyong followed him, his face looking still a little dazed.

“I’ll put the chile powder on my rice. I didn’t mean to spoil the game.” Seunghyun said.

“It’s okay, man. I was the one who switched with you.” Youngbae apologized.

Seunghyun quirked an eyebrow. That’s right. What was he apologizing for? This was obviously Youngbae’s doing. He knew that he wasn’t dating Jiyong but that didn’t mean he wasn’t jealous of him and a little mad he stuck him with the fiery chile powder. It was time for a little competition to make him pay.

“I’ll go next.” Seunghyun said, sending a side glare at Youngbae.

“I have never liked a girl.” Seunghyun announced.

Seunghyun watched as Youngbae glared at him while swigging the fish brine. Jiyong squirted the bean paste onto his finger and it clean. His breath caught. He didn’t know if he could take this game if Jiyong kept his finger like that.

“I guess it’s my turn. I have never kissed a boy.” Youngbae said.

Seunghyun felt his cheeks burn and looked to see Jiyong’s were pink as well. Seunghyun took the pepper powder and scattered it over his rice and looked dead on at Jiyong with heavy lids as he took the rice into his mouth. He didn’t regret the kiss one bit. He wanted Jiyong to know that and feel it in his bones.

Jiyong had a slight blush tint his cheeks before but as Seunghyun looked at him the color intensified. He still stared though until Jiyong looked jittery and turned fully away from him to eat his bean paste. Curse his eyes for making him uncomfortable.

Jiyong cleared his throat. “I guess it’s my turn then.” He said.

It continued like this for a couple hours. Seunghyun found out a lot. He found out little things about Jiyong like him taking Mandarin lessons and loving designer labels. He found out a lot more about Youngbae though. He found out that he liked to sing more than rap, he was in a Jinusean video when he was little, he was Christian, no one had ever confessed to him, and he secretly wished he was American.

Jiyong obviously wanted to play this for him to learn about Youngbae because he knew it would be hard to get them to talk. Jiyong kept all of his proclamations rather mild and trivial. It seemed that his and Youngbae’s were the deep ones. He had to give it to Jiyong, by the end of the game both he and Youngbae were grumbling and while laying on their backs, feeling more like friends than enemies.

“Jiyong. I call a truce.” Youngbae moaned.

“Yeah, me too. I can’t do this anymore. You win.” Seunghyun admitted.

His throat and tongue felt tight and large. His eyes and nose were running so much that he didn’t know what was tears and what wasn’t.

“You guys promise not to hate each other anymore?” Jiyong asked skeptically.

“Yes, promise. Now please let this end.” Youngbae pleaded.

Seunghyun thought a moment. A promise was a really big thing. What if Youngbae did something stupid? He was a really good catch. If he ended up with Jiyong instead of himself, he couldn’t stop himself from hating him. He’ll just have to work harder then. He will have to make sure Jiyong never slips away from him. He has to become the better man.

“Okay. Promise.” Seunghyun said strongly.

“Okay, then. Bathroom is 2^nd door on the left if you need it Seunghyun but I think Youngbae beat you there first so you may want to wait half hour.” Jiyong said, laughing to himself at the end as he cleared up Seunghyun’s bowl and the trash.

Seunghyun nodded and continued to stare at the ceiling. This one was smooth too, just like Jiyong’s old apartment. It was nicer and had fake wood floorings but the ceiling was still the same. That made him relax a little. Soon, he felt someone come into the room and lay next to him.

“What are you looking at?” Jiyong asked.

“Just looking at the ceiling and thinking about how some things never really change.” Seunghyun said.

“Mmm. When we first moved here I was the same way. I liked laying and looking at the ceiling and thinking I was at my old home, the one I grew up in.” Jiyong admitted.

Seunghyun smiled a little and gave Jiyong’s hand a slight squeeze before letting it go to ruffle his hair. How is it that he can read my mind like this? Maybe we are meant to be after all.

A/N: I am really sorry you guys. I am really not the type of author to just skip out on updates for so long, honest. Life has just been really rocky lately but I am trying to push through it all and part of that will be posting more often and letting myself relax through writing more. I really sincerely apologize.