Jiji stood in front of the large clock tower in her current hometown server on Matoki, giving a side glance to the avatar beside her. She crossed her arms before slowly ascending the hidden stairs to the side of it, keeping her steps as quiet as possible while her partner followed suit. It wasn't long until they were at the top, just a few paces behind their target.

She walked closer, announcing her presence. "Shishi--Yongguk... we need to talk to you." She looked back at the other avatar, beckoning him forward.

"Guk-ah," The avatar began, his voice deep just as Yongguk's was. "Come and sit so we can talk..."

Shishi quickly about-faced from his position staring out across the town and it's bustling avatars upon hearing the familiar extra voice, eyes widening when they settled on a black haired avatar clothed in white, black and red with the dual guns typical of his class strapped into his holsters. It had been a while since he'd seen him...

"Youngnam..." Shishi murmured, wasting no time in walking over to his brother and giving him a fierce hug. "It's been too long..." He whispered, a small smile making its way onto his face as the other avatar squeezed him tightly before pulling away.

"Guk-ah, Jieunnie has told me some things and it's made me really worried about you..." Youngnam muttered, forehead creased with the very same worry he spoke of.

Shishi frowned heavily and glance between the two avatars, "Like what things?"

Yongnam looked at Jiji and sighed heavily, sitting against the railing behind him. "I heard you got into a fight Friday and..."

Jiji interrupted, "Yongguk, I saw how you were with that Junhong boy - what's going on? Is this about Toto still?"

Yongguk's happiness over seeing his brother quickly faded at the mention of a certain freshman/avatar's name and he suddenly wished he'd been left alone up here to commiserate over what an he was. He crossed his arms over his chest, his appearance indifferent, "There's nothing going on. That brat pissed me off so I was putting him in his place."

Youngnam frowned disapprovingly, "Yongguk-ah, be truthful. Jieunnie says you've been good about keeping yourself out of trouble, at least fight-wise, for the most part. That is, until now after what happened with this Toto. And you're even lowering yourself to scaring a freshman after you said that you were past all that. This isn't like you, so what's wrong?"

Shishi said nothing, the shame of his brother finding out that he was breaking his promise to him threatening to swallow him whole. He wasn't stupid, he knew the fight with Toto had affected him a lot worse than he'd acted, but it didn't mean that he liked acknowledging this fact either. He sighed heavily, hoping what he said next would clarify some things for them, "Junhong is Toto..."

Jiji stared at him in surprise, then smiled knowingly, "Ah... now it makes sense..." She tapped her chin while Yongnam looked thoroughly confused. She waved her hand some, "I'll tell you later."

"Look, Yongguk... this fight has affected you a lot. More than you're letting on and more than I know you'll admit," Jieun spoke, gently patting Shishi's shoulder. "You still haven't figured out why Toto was so upset the day I went with the two of you?"

Yongguk rolled his eyes, "He was being a brat because he didn't all of the attention and he got pissy because I defended you from him when he took it out on you." He nodded, even though at the back of his mind it didn't make as much sense as it used to. There were four other members in the guild that he praised when they did a good job and Toto never made as much of a fuss then. So why was it only with Jiji?

"You're very ignorant, Guk-ah." Youngnam chuckled, "Even I can figure it out and I don't know anything other than what Ji told me."

Yongguk narrowed his eyes at his brother but said nothing in response and instead Jiji with 'well?' look.

Jiji rolled her eyes upwards and tilted her head, "Yongguk-ah - do you not remember when I came up to the two of you that day, how you introduced me compared to him?" She waited for a moment while Yongguk looked completely lost. "Yongguk... you introduced me as a friend, while you introduced him as a guild member. Only a guild member and you've known him for quite a while - not as long as me obviously, but the point is still there."

Before Yongguk had a chance to say anything, Yongnam caught on to Jiji's point, "Guk, we asked you to make the guild so you could gain friends. Not just members - but people you would get a connection with by spending time together. We know you won't do it offline because of the reputation you managed to fall into, but online, you can be yourself..."

His brother sighed gently, "Yongguk, you need to open up to your friends. Especially this Toto since he seems pretty important to you, enough so that he's beginning to affect you offline. I'm not saying tell your life story or even tell them all about your home life and how you have a twin that's currently being kept away from you."

Yongnam stopped for a second before adding in, "And Guk.. we know you get sad and hate relying on just us because we've gone through a lot too, so please... do what you promised us when you made the guild. Treat them like the friends you need..."

Shishi fell silent once again, so incredibly silent that both Jiji and Youngnam weren't entirely sure Yongguk was even still at the computer anymore. The redhead warrior was still there, however, he was just lost in his thoughts. He remembered the day he, Jiji and Toto had gone on the mission together, and how he'd introduced them. It was such a tiny detail, he'd honestly forgotten about it until Jiji had brought it back up. It made sense now because Toto had been fine up until that moment and he felt foolish now for making it seem like he didn't think of the other as a friend.

But Toto is a friend to him, it was just hard for him to outwardly show it.

He felt even more ashamed of himself now that he realized that the very people he had sought after for friendship were being treated as nothing more than employees to help him advance in the game. He was supposed to be entrusting them with things he couldn't with his own brother and just enjoying being Yongguk, not Yongguk the bully or the Yongguk the irresponsible teenager, but he hadn't because he was afraid of opening up.

Opening up meant getting hurt and getting hurt meant being miserable and lonely. But it seemed that not opening up created even more misery.

"You're right... both of you..." Shishi finally said after several minutes of silence, a heavy sigh leaving him. 

"We know," Jiji replied, sharing a teasing smile with Youngnam.

Shishi gave them a blank look but couldn't help the small smile that began tugging at his lips. He chuckled softly, "Thanks you two... I really needed the wakeup call..."

Jieun nodded her head, giving him a tight hug. "You're welcome of course - I told Yongnam we'd get through to you no matter what, even if I had to go pick him up and bring him to your house so he could knock some sense into that hard head of yours."

Yongnam nodded and smirked, giving his brother a quick hug. "I have to go now, I just logged on for a few minutes to see you. But I can tell you'll be just fine," He chuckled, giving a wave before fading out.

Jieun turned to leave, but then paused, looking back at Yongguk, "And don't think I missed how you and Junhong were while doing the banner. You had good teamwork." She grinned and quickly left before he could do anything to her.

"I—we—he—" Shishi spluttered after her and heaved a frustrated sigh. "That was nothing... it was for school and I had no choice..." He grumbled to the now empty air in the clocktower, knowing it was a lie even as he said it because he and Junhong had worked very well together.

Even if the other had obviously not liked having to listen to him.

"Aish... just like Toto..." Shishi rolled his eyes and turned back to the view of the city once more. He pondered over what needed to be done now that he'd been given a much needed wake-up call and decided the first step should be to patch things up with the younger. 

That being said, he quickly pulled up his message box and sent a message to Toto that simply said: 'We need to talk. Meet me at the clock tower in town.' Once that was done, he returned to gazing out and watching the city people.

______________________________

I have nothing to say other than I'm a lazy piece of for an author. 
I'm sorry.
Also--I've noticed some pretty important questions in the comments,
I'll answer those at the end of next chapter because it'll be a shorter chapter.
Thanks everyone for supporting this fic
and loving your authoress even when she's
a lazy .