The four year old boy boy dressed in a bright blue laughed, proudly showcasing his yet-to-grow mouthful of teeth. His ears peeked out shyly from his cap as he waddled forth in his denim overalls.

“Jjongie!” His face was scrunched up with the effort it took for the two syllables to reach the toddler sitting beside him. “Jjongie!” He whined, with more force this time, tugging on the other’s oversized pants and demanded attention. “Jonghyun!” The taller boy finally turned, sweeping Changhyun in a bone crushing hug and secured something in the shorter’s hair.

“Changhyun is so pretty!” Jonghyun beamed, making a rectangular frame with his chubby fingers, making sure he caught the glowing yellow flower that complemented the other’s soft brown hair. Changhyun patted the newly given gift carefully and beamed, holding up a handful of crushed leaves and offered them to Jonghyun.

“I picked them from a tree wa~ay up there!” He pointed at the sky with his stubby fingers and stretched, making sure that Jonghyun understood how much effort it took to pick the precious leaves. “Do you wanna taste them?” Jonghyun discretely made a face, but pocketed the leaves anyways.

“I’ll save them for later.” He replied, grasping Changhyun’s hand and pulled him off the concrete ground. The ground was starting to feel uncomfortably hot and he needed to make sure that it couldn’t burn his precious Changhyun.

They stumbled over to the lake and climbed onto damp rocks, brushing fresh water snails off them and throwing them in the lake for good measure. Seaweed was pocketed as snacks for the adults – washed clean with lake water of course. Maybe if they were real good, the adults would agree for them to stay another night.

“Changhyun?” The smaller made an acknowledging grunt, too busy bending over and searching for the snails they had banished earlier. “Are you my friend?” Changhyun’s fingers had just brushed against the shell of a snail, and boy was it huge! He quietly made a victorious whoop and wrapped his hand around the shell, still unaware that an insecure other was waiting anxiously for his answer.

“Changhyun?” Jonghyun’s voice shook a little, getting sick of waiting. Changhyun looked up, his eyebrows knitting into a frown when he saw the tears threatening to spill on Jonghyun’s face. He waddled towards the taller, all thoughts of the snail forgotten, and wrapped his short arms around Jonghyun’s waist.

“Jjong, don’t cry!” His own lips began to quiver. “Changhyun’s going to be here for you.” Jonghyun released a relieved sigh and wrapped his own hands around the other.

“Thanks Changhyun.”

Changhyun gave him another squeeze and waddled back to the site of the dazed snail. He picked it and up showed it to Jonghyun, offering to wash it for them to share.

Jonghyun had to fling the poor snail into the water again, despite Changhyun’s prevalent protests.

Jonghyun was sulking.

His eyebrows formed a deep frown and his bottom lip stuck out prominently in dissatisfaction. His arms were crossed in front of his chest as his daddy had shown him and he sat cross-legged in the shallow river water, refusing all contact with his species.

“That stupid hyung!” He muttered, putting emphasis on stupid as a certain Byunghun hyung had taught him. “He doesn’t know nothing!” A rock plopped into the river, offering an angry splash as consolation. Jonghyun glared at his rippling reflection and pulled at his nose, his ears, the corners of his eyes, and finally his lips.

“If you were an alien,” he whispered accusingly, “you could fly with all the other aliens that hyung doesn’t believe in.” Turning his head slightly, the small boy watched his horse-teethed hyung spin Changhyun in the air as the younger giggled gleefully.

All I want is to shove a snail up his nostrils. Jonghyun restrained himself from speaking malicious thoughts out loud, although he secretly wished that he could cram multiple snails right up those nostrils. “He’s just always stealing Changhyun away from me,” he confessed to his reflection, almost afraid that the rippling figure in the river would laugh at him. To the little boy, feeling angry because of this reason was far too embarrassing to contemplate. 

He sighed, a soft noise as he propped his head up with his arm, wondering if he could spin Changhyun around in the air as well. Flexing his arm, he squeezed down on the muscle, or lack of muscle, and sighed again.

“I wish I was an alien…” He leaned back, falling into the water and closed his eyes. When he opened them, another pair of double lidded eyes stared back at him with worry.

“Jjong?” A sad voice sounded beside his ear. “If you’re an alien, can I be an alien too? I want to go with you too.” The corner of Jonghyun’s lips lifted as he sat up, shaking water from his hair. Changhyun’s face began to fall, his eyes filling with water and his lips began to shake.

“You don’t…want me to come?” Changhyun clutched onto the taller’s sleeve. He wasn’t going to let go even if Jonghyun grew wings and flew away. As time dragged on, Changhyun became more and more unsure. Did Jonghyun really…not want him?

As his grip began to loosen, Jonghyun threw himself onto the smaller, his sulky mood having flown away.

“I’m going to take you everywhere.” Jonghyun grinned, squeezing Changhyun’s cheeks between his mud covered hands. “We’ll turn into aliens and I’ll marry you!”

He planted a sloppy kiss on the boy’s lips and smiled, wrapping his arms around Changhyun’s small frame tightly.