Third Person POV

Zelo had woken up early. He sat quietly on the floor, watching over the sleeping hyungs. Daehyun wasn’t there. 

“Is he an early riser?” Zelo grumbled softly as he rubbed his eyes.

Birds chirped delicately outside and for once the open window was pleasant; it let in the sweet scent of pollen and the gentle warmth of the newly awoken sun into the room. Zelo rose slowly and silently shuffled out of the room. He clicked the door close and swiftly spun around to head down stairs.

Zelo put a hand on the wall, ready to trot down to the kitchen. He paused. Jisu’s door hung slightly open. A white rectangle of light fell across the carpet. He cautiously walked towards the door and gently pushed it open. The bed was empty. A white blanket was tossed to the side—half of it was draped across the floor, over Sohee’s legs. Sohee was curled up on her side, lightly breathing into the cupped palms of her hands. Her hair was out. Loose brown waves sprawled out on her pillow, falling across her face and covering one closed eye. Sohee groaned gently and abruptly tossed onto her other side. Shocked and not wishing to wake her, Zelo hurriedly stepped back and shut the door. He sighed, his hands still clasping onto the knob. A firm hand suddenly slammed onto his shoulder.

“What are you doing?” Jongup furrowed his brows.

“I-I was—” Zelo tried to explain. “The door was open,” he replied, relieved as the words smoothly slipped out of his mouth. “I just came to close it.”

Jongup eyed Zelo’s hand which was still clutching onto the door knob. He hastily brought his hands to his sides. Jongup stared blankly at Zelo. It was obvious both of them had just woken up. Jongup’s hair stuck up flatly on one side, his shoulders slung wearily forward and his expression was blanker than usual.  Zelo stuffed his hands in his pockets and nodded.

“I’m going to get a glass of milk,” he said in a slightly questioning tone as he walked towards the stairs.

Jongup gave a short nod of his head and Zelo swiftly descended down stairs to the kitchen.

Jongup sighed and laid the top of his head onto Jisu’s bedroom door. He stared at the floor for a few minutes then gradually his gaze was clawing at the door knob. He shut his eyes for a moment and, taking a breath in, Jongup clumsily pushed himself off the door. He stood steadily in front of it and stared at the knob. He shook his head briskly.

“It’s not erted…” he grumbled to himself innocently.

He took hold of the knob and spun it around till it clicked.

“Jongup?” a voice called behind him.

Jongup turned, Daehyun cocked his head to the side.

“I need to use the bathroom,” Daehyun chirped.

“S-sure!”

Daehyun walked towards the bathroom door, located between the siblings’ bedrooms. He paused. “What are you doing?” he asked in his usual nosy manner.

“N-nothing.” Jongup shook his head before quickly adding, “Is Jisu awake?” The boy scratched the back of his head, pretending to wonder about his step sister’s status.

“She’s down stairs.” Daehyun stared at his dongsaeng, his lips beginning to curl. “You don’t care about that though, do you? …Sohee?” he said gesturing at the door. He chuckled at Jongup’s stuttering. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell,” Daehyun assured him.

Earlier...

Daehyun had risen as early as always. All the other members lay sprawled out on the mattresses. Even if Daehyun wasn’t an early riser anyone would have been woken up by the snoring, sleep talking and grinding of teeth sooner or later. He slowly stood up and crept out of the room, immediately as the door was closed behind him the place was silent. Every step could be heard.

“Jisu?” Daehyun chimed as he strolled into the lounge, supposedly heading to the kitchen. “You’re up early.”

Jisu lifted her head and gave him a sheepishly smug grin. “I always wake up this early,” she lied. It was 5 o’clock in the morning and she was barely able to slither out of bed.

Daehyun smiled, the bags under his eyes were evidently darker than they had been at the dinner table last night.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Jisu questioned as Daehyun stretched his arms up and yawned. Hr rubbed his eyes. “Something keep you up?” Jisu pressed.

Daehyun lifted a brow and took his hands away from his face. He dragged his fingers across his chest, drowsily rubbing his neck as he let out a yawn. “I was texting Eunmi. She said she couldn’t sleep.”

“You should have just told her you were tired,” Jisu pouted.

Daehyun shook his head. “No, I’m fine.”

Jisu frowned and decided to immediately drop the subject. “Do you want to eat breakfast?” 

The two early birds walked over to the kitchen. Jisu popped some toast into the toaster while Daehyun wandered towards the fridge and pulled out a carton of milk. He hovered the carton over his head, tilted his chin up and let the milk fall cleanly into his mouth.

Jisu smirked and snatched the carton away from him. “This isn’t your place, use a glass.” She teased then attempted copying Daehyun. As Jisu was carefully tipping the carton towards her lips Daehyun decided to give it a quick tap. The milk split into Jisu face, from her top lip downwards was drips of white. She pressed her lips into a flat smile and stared cynically at Daehyun. His body jittered as he tried keeping in a laugh—aware that everyone else was still sound asleep he was scared to wake them. After deciding when to end the joke, Daehyun tugged on his jumper and gently patted the milk off with the ends of his sleeves.

He gently dabbed Jisu’s face, still faintly smiling. Jisu tucked a stray hair from her face, bashfully hiding her embarrassment as Daehyun dabbed the ends of her lips.

“We haven’t hung out since the school festival,” Daehyun grumbled.

Jisu swiftly wiped away the rest of the milk. “Yeah… are you free later today?” she asked hopefully.

There was a sudden ding and the toast popped out. Jisu reached over the bench, handed one of the slices to Daehyun and began eating hers.  Daehyun stepped back and leaned against the kitchen bench as he bit into the bread. He tilted his head to the side, the toast still in his mouth, and looked at a point beyond Jisu. “I promised Eunmi to meet up with her today.”

“What about tomorrow?” Jisu persisted.

“Um—”

There was a clatter by the kitchen entrance. Zelo lifted his head, hair falling over his eyes after he had stumbled on the end of the kitchen mat. He looked flustered as he bent down and adjusted the mat. “Good morning,” he murmured softly as he rose back up.

“Good morning,” the other two chirped back.

“Oh! Junhong, is the toilet free?” Daehyun asked after he had somehow made his slice of toast disappear.

Zelo turned around as if he could find a ‘vacant’ or ‘occupied’ sign behind him—though I doubt typical living houses have them. He shrugged limply, “I guess.”

Daehyun nodded in thanks and rushed upstairs to the bathroom, located between the siblings’ bedrooms.

 “You—!” Jisu growled as she continuously hit Zelo’s arm.

Zelo lifted his arms up but the girl began kicking at his legs. “What?!” he groaned, “What did I do??”

Jisu frowned. “I finally got some alone time with Daehyun and you in and scare him off!” she said glaring up at Zelo—almost fiercely if it weren’t for her petite structure and lack of height. “I even woke up early!” Jisu whinged and began stamping her feet.

“Sorry?” Zelo furrowed his brows, unsure of whether it was the right time for an apology or not. “It’s not my fault he needed to go to the toilet,” he grunted.

“Stupid… Useless…Idiot…” Jisu began to murmur a chain of muffled insults under her breath.

“Hey, you didn’t say anything last night… right?” Zelo interrupted.

Jisu paused and rolled her eyes. “Sohee again?” she groaned. “What are you so anxious about?” Jisu paused “…maybe I should tell her?” Jisu snickered as she waited for the boy’s slow reaction to kick in.

Zelo’s eyes widened, a shock peeled through his skin as he stood there staggered for a moment. He opened his mouth then shut it again, cringing before he blurted out an agreement. “I’ll help you with Daehyun and you don’t tell Sohee!” Zelo proposed hastily. 

Jisu hummed in consideration. “Hmm… okay!”

Daehyun leant against the veranda. The white painted wood was peeling like pencil shavings below his sleeves.  The sun shine ran down like streams weaving through his hair and blurred out his face against its untainted light. The house had suddenly grown quieter after the department of the guests. Jisu took a breath out and pulled open the glass door. She walked over next to the boy, about a meter away, and leant against the veranda. Daehyun smoothly turned around, slightly flustered as he was caught dazing off.

“What’s up?” Jisu smiled softly. There was a pause and a light breeze passed them. “What are you thinking about?”

Daehyun pressed his lips into a soft curve. “I don’t know,” he chuckled softly as he brought a hand to his face to block the sun. “Just a minute ago it was so noisy” he paused. “Has everyone left already?”

Jisu nodded. “Don’t worry, you can stay.”

Daehyun smiled, “we get to hang out a second time today. So much has changed, we’re always so busy. Why did we have to grow up?”

Jisu stared softly at him then turned and tilted her head into the clouds. “Some things have stayed the same…”

The piano played softly with the gentle waving of trees and swaying of speckled sunlight. Each note was tenderly as the lady’s long fingers strolled their way up and down the piano’s reversed coloured keys. The top of the piano, glistening white, made it look like you were staring down at a pond as the light swayed to and fro. A little girl sat beside the lady playing, she kicked her feet and nodded her head as she watched her mother play. A little boy stood by the piano, swaying slightly as he hummed to the tune, occasionally hitting a wrong note. Another boy ran into the scene, mud on his bruised knees and his old cuts reopened. He held out a muddy soccer ball in front of him.

“Daehyun hyung,” the boy called out as he rubbed each of his dirty hands on his shorts. “Let’s play.”

Daehyun flickered his eyes towards the boy. His hair was over-grown and covered his eyes after rejecting his mum’s request to cut his bangs earlier that afternoon. “Jisu,” Daehyun said turning to the girl sitting in front of the piano. “I’m going to play outside, do you want to come?”

Jisu shook her head and pouted. “I want to listen to mama,” she whinged.

Daehyun stared at Jisu then turned to the other boy, scrunched up his face and began to think.

The woman laughed. “Jisu, go play outside!” she insisted, “you like your oppas don’t you?”

Jisu pouted and poked her tongue at Jongup “I only like Daehyun oppa!”

Daehyun hesitated to press further. “Like what?” he smiled and tilted his head, chasing after the girl’s eyes.

Jisu turned around so that Daehyun could only see the back of her head. “Nothing’s changed about me…” She stared out into the distance. I only like Daehyun oppa. Jisu took a deep, deep breath in and held her chest up before exhaling. She swiftly her heel, and looked Daehyun straight into his eyes. He looked sincerely back at her. She made a decision. Now.  “Oppa, I lik—”

A sudden ringing broke Jisu off. Daehyun immediately reached into his pocket. At first it looked like he was about to decline the call but as he checked the contact details his face brightened up and he brought the phone to his ear. “Eunmi?” he chanted.  Daehyun lifted his eyes and nodded to Jisu, “One sec’ Jisu, let’s talk later.” He then pulled open the glass door and exited.

Jisu stared blankly at the back of the boy as he walked away. “I like you.” She finished bitterly. “More than her.”

I know my releases are slow ; u ; honestly, I've been so busy and until my dance showcase is finished I still will have to... practice... have to practice!! But!...what do you think? Daehyun x Eunmi or Daehyun x Jisu?

I'm excited to write the next chapter o u o