I had to remind myself, this wasn’t a date.

But still, that clearly hadn’t kept me from hating every outfit I spread out on the mattress. Groaning out in complaint, I kicked at my bed (regretting it instantly when the pain shot through my leg) before throwing myself down onto it, rolling around on my clothes.

It wasn’t a date, but I was still going out to meet Daehyun’s brother. I didn’t want his younger brother to get a bad impression of me.

And probably, I would have still been picking at my choice, had not my mother come in to scold me about kicking the furniture. Soon as my mother had made her appearance, I’d made quick to shove on whatever first came to hand before scurrying out of the house.

If I’d stayed any longer, fussing over my clothes, mom would have probably decided against letting me go out, period.

That left me alone at the park, having arrived too early for my own good.

I at my clothes, toying with the buttons of my shirt, trying to keep myself busy as I waited for Daehyun (and his little brother). To the others, I must’ve looked like a loser; maybe some idiot who’d just got stood up.

For agonizingly long thirty minutes, I stood, leaned up against some tree, jabbing at my phone. Maybe I really had been stood up. Daehyun wasn’t going to come. He’d just been playing with me after all.

“Y-Youngjae!”

I’d only just about decided to head home (after telling myself to wait five more minutes for three to four times), when a familiar voice – painted in exhaust and longing for breath – jerked my head up.

It was him.

He was ing late.

I wrinkled my nose, about to blurt out an annoyed lecture, but paused, words catching at my throat at the boy by Daehyun’s side. Daehyun’s little brother.

“S-sorry, Jongup was having a bad day today and I accidentally dropped my phone in the bath trying to help him wash up and … … sorry, forgive me?”

My mouth hung a little open as I nodded my head to Daehyun’s words, not really paying much attention.

“Ah – oh yeah, this is my little brother,” Daehyun’s eyes crinkled into a lit smile as he ruffled the kid’s hair. He really did love his brother, I could see it through the spark in his eyes (I could vaguely remember it from the way Himchan’s eyes used to light up). “Jongup, say hello to hyung’s friend.”

But what hadn’t caught me off wasn’t Daehyun’s affection for his younger brother – Jongup, as he’d introduced. That much, I had already guessed. The boy had all the right traits to be loved as so. Squinted eyes, slightly dropped, and a wide smile to match, by all means, he wasn’t perfection, as Jaebum was, but no one could deny his charm. He definitely was something – much like his older brother.

But no, it wasn’t any of that that had made me pause, all supposed anger simmering down to nothing.

“Hello.”

He was wheelchair bound.