TWELVE

“Idiots,” Jiyong mutters as the monotone beeping noise kicks in.

He stares at the phone for a while as he continues to mentally repeat that word over and over.

“Who was it?” Seungri asks, accidentally brushing against Jiyong’s arm as he’s passing by.

Jiyong, however, doesn’t reply. Instead, he simply follows Seungri to the kitchen.

“What are you doing?” He lazily puts his arms on top of the counter and leans his chin on top of them while keeping his eyes focused on the younger.

Seungri rolls his eyes. “I’m knitting a scarf, what does it look like I’m doing?”

He screws the cap back on the water bottle and hurriedly takes the glass so he can walk away again.

“Are you going to keep avoiding me?” Jiyong yells after him. “Let’s see how long you can keep that up, yeah?”

He hears a mocking snort coming from the living room.

Jiyong grins to himself, mentally accepting Seungri’s unconsciously offered challenge, before joining him on the couch. He purposely chose to sit right next to Seungri, and he purposely chose not to sit close enough for their legs to touch.

“It was Seunghyun-hyung,” Jiyong says matter-of-factly.

Seungri looks up and silently places his glass on the small table next to him.

“The call just now,” the oldest adds as he points his thumb to the hallway where he had answered the call earlier.

Seungri shrugs, giving him a look to show just how disinterested he is in any news concerning Choi Seunghyun. Choi Seunghyun? Who’s that?

“You don’t want to know how his visit went?” Jiyong tries.

He sees the corner of Seungri’s lips twitch. It’s over in less than millisecond, but it’s most definitely there.

“Or maybe Daesung’s called you already to tell you?” Of course Daesung hasn’t called; otherwise Seungri wouldn’t be listening this attentively to his annoying lover at a time like this.

“Oh,” Jiyong’s grin widens. “Does that mean he hasn’t?”

He leans forward in order to catch Seungri’s attention, to no avail.

“Seunghyun-hyung had a lot to say, do you know what he’s going to do next?” Jiyong asks as he leans even closer.

He hates it when Seungri denies him any attention.

“No? Not interested either?” He practically sings it, and he doesn’t just sing it once.

He keeps on singing it again, and again, and it’s driving Seungri crazy because it’s a catchy tune.

“If you’re not going to talk about it, then don’t bother bringing it up,” Seungri coldly says.

He then looks up from his book and shoots Jiyong a glare as he almost spits out his name. “Jiyong.”

Jiyong looks at him for a while with big eyes, sighs, and leans back to his original position.

“So you’re still angry.” It’s not so much a question as it is a statement.

He had expected that the whole Seunghyun-Daesung situation and Seungri’s strong opposition to Seunghyun’s plans would’ve passed by now. But instead, Seungri has only grown angrier and angrier with the entire thing. The fact that Jiyong does support Seunghyun’s escapades has definitely added fuel to the fire.

“Daesung’s told him off,” Jiyong sighs, immediately catching Seungri’s undivided attention.

“He practically shoved him out the door telling Seunghyun he should’ve ended things between them sooner.” Jiyong carefully observes Seungri’s reaction before continuing.

“He asked about Hana.”

Seungri’s lips twitch again, but this time it’s not out of curiosity.

“He still doesn’t know?” Seungri asks; his voice softer now, and despite the reason, Jiyong finds he likes it a lot better than his cold voice.

“Seunghyun hasn’t told him yet, and well… I don’t think it’s really our place to tell him.”

The younger keeps his gaze focused on the other for a w