11.

“Care for a cup of coffee?”

A sigh, “You know I’m not allowed.”

Shaking my head - a pity - I turned back to shifting the sad excuse of crumpled papers I was forced to call my homework (Chinese homework, though it looked more like scribbles than characters to me). In a sense, homework was serving as a distraction from my old obsession with coffee - something I should have thought of before I’d gone absolutely crazy from the bann (who knew homework could actually be helpful?). Rewriting scribbles of characters didn’t take too long, after all; uselessly perfecting it did.

Nevertheless, Joonmyeon simply laughed, ignoring my comment to lower the warm mug onto the table beside me, taking the seat on the other side of the table. “One cup won’t make too much of a difference.”

In other words, what Kyuhyun doesn’t know, won’t hurt him.

He was a bad influence, persuading me to take the cup.

And I made sure to pass this information over. “You, are a horrible influence.” Not that I was complaining; bad influences were sometimes nicer to be with than your usual model students. (Bang stupid Yongguk being a good example. As annoying he had been in grade school, Yongguk had been one hell of a company.) “Kyuhyun wouldn’t like you one little bit, mister.”

“Oh? Then should I just take this back?”

I snatched the cup out of his reaching hands, taking a sip of the drink with a quirk of my brows. “I never said I wouldn’t take it.” He laughed. Joonmyeon probably had expected this reaction out of me, suggesting the impossible of taking the drink back. He knew I couldn’t turn down a good - or bad, coffee was still coffee - cup of coffee. “I’m serious, it’s mine now.”

He knew me too well.

(Not that my coffee addiction was anything of top A-class secret stuff.)

He raised his hands in mock surrender, slouching in his seat, leaning back.

Unlike our usual mornings spent rushing back and forth between classes (catching a single meal break in the middle), today was a free one, the single day of our week we’d both somehow managed to clear our schedules. Usually, we spent it out at parks - or sometimes the shopping district -, but today was a study date, and those were meant to be used mulling over homework that we knew wouldn’t get done by the end of our afternoon. I was going to dedicate today to scribbling messy lines together meant to be Chinese.

“It’s yours, you can have it.” Sometimes, Joonmyeon liked to pretend he was losing to me. We all knew he wasn’t fooling anyone. “So how’s your homework going?”

“Peachy,” I mumbled back, finishing up another line, “see, *bīng.”

“Actually, that looks more like shuǐ.” He pointed out the middle character on my sheet, a playon smirk on his lips. “You forgot the two lines.”

I swat his hand away, closing my binder and opting instead to stick my tongue out at him. “It looks plenty like bīng so shut it.” Joonmyeon was a kill joy.

Instead, we decided to do something else, catch a movie for example.

Stuffing my books back into my bags, I checked the clock. Exactly four hours before Junhong and Yifan’s kindergarten let out. That gave us enough time for a movie and lunch, if we hurried (that is, if we didn’t watch one of those foreign movies that lasted absolutely forever).

Returning our mugs back to the front (as well as Joonmyeon’s finished plate of - what used to be - toast), we picked up our things and headed out. The faster we got to the theater, the sooner we could go and get lunch.

Hopefully, they had left over seats. And by seats, I meant the good ones; not the ty ones too close to the screen or next to those over obsessive couples. You know, those that spend more of the movie screen period face rather than actually watching the movie.

(Quite frankly, I didn’t see the point in them paying money to come watch a film if they don’t even watch it.

Neither Joonmyeon nor I believed in pda.

Doing that in theaters were for people who couldn’t get laid on a general basis.

Not that we had much room to talk.)

Originally, our plans had to watch I, Frankenstein, but unfortunately, the movie had already started by the time we’d arrived and waiting for the next airing would meaning having to stay longer than the either of us had time for. So in the end, our plans changed and we ended up watching that new Disney film.

Uh, Frozen, was it?

All I knew was, Joonmyeon ended up crying somewhere through the film.

Sensitive, we could call it.

By the time the theater had lit up again, I was holding back snickers and patting Joonmyeon on the back, already having passed him over all the tissues I had on me. And on another thought, wuss was the word I was looking for in describing Joonmyeon.

“It’s just a movie,” I laughed, patting his head, wiping stray tears from his cheeks, “you don’t have to go crying through it.”

“B-But Anna almost died!”

And then, he sighed.

“You think if I turned into a ice figure, Yifan would cry for me?”

Putting actual consideration to it, Yifan would have probably thought it was just a joke and laugh - all children would, Junhong included (well, maybe not Junhong). But since Joonmyeon was already teary, and since there wasn’t a point in tearing him up again, I shrugged. “Probably. Who else would give him candy as much as you do?”

Joke taken, he smiled back, nodding.

“I should probably stop giving him so much. He probably thinks of me as a vending machine instead of his cousin.”

“A totally free vending machine that you don’t even have to waste coins for.”

Talk about being stepped all over.

Finishing up the remainder of our free time over a burger (no coffee this time, shame), Joonmyeon and I had children to pick up; much of Joonmyeon’s dismay - I could swear he almost started crying again, something about their school being let out far too early.

“Joonmyeon is an idiot!” And as on schedule, Yifan wasn’t at the least pleased when Joonmyeon and I arrived late, no thanks to his whining and complaining. No doubt, Joonmyeon ended up with new blue and yellow bruises all over his shins. “Joonmyeon is late again!”

Someone needed to tell Joonmyeon that being late to pick Yifan up wasn’t helping make his life any better. If anything, it was making it absolutely worse for him.

“Sorry, I’m sorry, alright?”

It took more folder apologies (plus an estimate of *ten thousand won worth of sweets) to get Yifan to stop kicking Joonmyeon. Even then, Yifan didn’t seem much pleased. Joonmyeon seemed to have his hands quite full of Yifan; it was amusing on one hand. Spoken from the viewpoints of a simple bystander, of course.

After another farewell with Joonmyeon and Yifan, Junhong and I decided to pay Yongguk a visit at his workplace; Junhong wouldn’t be left unattended, so the manager couldn’t say anything bad about it. This time, we’d be visiting as customers instead of a nuisance.

“Hey, kiddo, did you have a good time at school?” But you really couldn’t help Yongguk from being a dad.

Junhong nodded, twisting his bookbag around to flash him a picture he’d probably drawn in class. “This is daddy!” He pointed, identifying the black and red blob, then moving onto the next, “And this is Junhonggie and Himchannie hyung!” Between the pink and black (judging the size, me - why in the world he would have colored me pink was completely beyond me) blob and the red one, supposed to be Yongguk, was a smaller blue one.

He regarded the art proudly, a wide smile coloring his lips as he handed Yongguk his masterpiece. No doubt, he’d add it to the wall of fame they’d created in the guest room (the unused guest room, mind you, seeing how Junhong had us all sleeping on the living room floor these days).

With perfected reactions - a requirement of being a parent, I’d learned - Yongguk smiled with equal shine as Junhong, pulling him up into a hug and kiss to the cheek. “It looks amazing Junhonggie!”

I’d never really understand how Yongguk was able to form such over exaggerated reactions like that and still somehow make them feel legitimate. He should have become an actor instead of a barista.

Feeling a little out of the picture - but not a third wheel, as I had before Junhong and I’d learned to get along - I pushed my hands into my pockets with a smaller smile. They were like a picture straight out of those family brochures from hospital (mental institutes) buildings.

Officially calling out for a break, Yongguk led us to a table by the counter - just in case there came a need for him to get back on duty. And lucky for us, with food and drinks to feed an army (said army being of just Junhong and his inexhaustible energy).

“So what did you do today?” Wiping Junhong’s lips of cake frostings, Yongguk’s attention was on me, pushing me a cup of hot cocoa - my substitute for coffee (sadly).

I shrugged.

“Nothing much. Hung out with Joonmyeon.”

He blinked. “Again?”

“Is there nothing wrong?”

His face went a little red and he was quick to shake his head, hands moving with. “N-nothing’s wrong. I mean, it’s just … …” He frowned, “You seem to hang out with him often these days is all.

I smiled, leaning across the table to stare amused. “Is Yonggukkie jealous?”

His face roughly resembled a tomato. Really, teasing Yongguk was quickly becoming one of my favorite downtime activities. It was easy, not to mention fun. Yongguk always had the best of reactions, making him the best of targets to tease.

It didn’t take long for Junhong to pinch in as well. He and I ran on a similar code these days.

When we went in to pinch his cheeks, poking him, he swat our hands away, flopping his arms a little awkwardly with a soft whine. Sometimes, hanging with him, it felt as if we were back to our middle school years, when nothing was important (before I had this pile on of homework bothering my every sleep and rest).

But we didn’t get to too long. It was just about as his face cooled down from their flare that I legitimately got shivers. Not the good kind of shivers either.

“Oh! Himchan, it’s you again!”

Yongguk visibly stiffened in the seat across from me at the sound of her voice; while I was the one seated facing the shop’s front doors, Yongguk didn’t need to see to know her voice.

Apparently, this town just wasn’t large enough to keep avoiding Jieun. And when in the past, her voice had me wanting to turn invisible - because running into her meant being persuaded (she had a silver tongue, if I say so myself) to staying after classes to clean up the building and helping teachers grade papers - now it had my blood freezing and bones melting to slush.

The fact that this time, Yongguk was here too just made everything all the more worse.

Jieun skipped over toward us, her brown hair, tied loosely into a ponytail, flopping lazily behind her. And that’s when she noticed Yongguk too, her expression going through a wave of changes before settling on indifference.

In one way of seeing things, I suppose I should have cheered on the fact that Yongguk and Jieun could finally talk this out. All these years, Jieun had come to just assume that Yongguk had up and left her when their baby died. She didn’t know that neither of this was actually the case.

(But another part of me rathered that she never find out. Selfish.)

She smiled, bobbing her head lightly in Yongguk’s direction - him mirroring her move awkwardly - before turning back to me, lighting her smile and reaching over to pull me into a hug ( - she never had a particular fondness to hugging me - why she did what she did, I haven’t figured out just yet. Something told me I’d never quite get what was going on in Jieun’s head).

“It’s been such a long time since we last ran into each other!” She chirped, her voice pitched a little more from the last time we - quote, unquote - ran into each other. It was weird. I wasn’t used to her acting so friendly to me. “You need to actually learn to call people when you tell them you’ll contact them. You’re giving me your number this time, mister.”

She was harassing me. I was going to call this harassment.

“It’s pretty unnie!”

(Noona. Junhong needed to relearn his genders.)

His arms were stretched out for Jieun, and automatically, she squealed, scooting over to the other side of Yongguk to pull Junhong into her arms. This, of course, rewarded with a queer choking sound from Yongguk as well as a harder squeeze of his muscles.

(I was a little scared his veins would burst from the pressure.)

So I coughed a little, to intervene, inviting Junhong to sit on my lap to make room for Jieun. Yongguk immediately scooted his chair away, leaning closer to me with an excuse of Junhong being where I was.

“Oh, I can’t stay for long,” she huffed, bloating her cheeks (cutely, I suppose). “I promised to meet up with Woohyun, Gikwang and Hyosung today. I just dropped by cause I saw you from the window.”

(Blast my good looks and standing out - it wasn’t like I could help looking like this though.)

I gave a little nod, distracting myself from Yongguk’s glare - why did he look so upset - by fiddling with Junhong’s hair. “Oh? Then shouldn’t you be going?” Because the sooner these two were apart, the lesser strain at my sanity it would be.

“I came out early,” she smiled, reaching over again to pinch Junhong’s cheeks. “Plus, who knows when the next time I’ll be able to see this cutie will be?”

I could nearly swear Yongguk cringed.

Lucky for me, Junhong pulled away from Jieun’s touch, whining something about his cheeks hurting. He crawled closer to me and peeked out from under my arm, sticking his tongue out at Jieun. Maybe if the atmosphere wasn’t so stiff, I might’ve laughed.

Instead, I felt Yongguk tap me on the shoulder, his head tilt a little to an isolate corner. He wanted to talk.

I didn’t.

Setting Junhong down on the seat I was on, I promised I’d be back soon before letting Yongguk lead me away by a grip to my elbow.

“You’ve met her?”

The minute we were out of hearing range, just by the far corner of the cafe, he started attacking me, just verbally of course. (I bet you the guy who made the saying that sticks and stones may hurt me but words won’t do a thing had never been verbally abused before. They probably didn’t know what it felt like to be beat up verbally by Yongguk.)

I squirmed a little, my lips - of which were drying up faster than they’d ever done before - and looking anywhere but the dark eyes glaring me down. “Well, I might’ve seen her a few weeks back.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

He sounded mad. Yongguk wasn’t a very fluffy guy when he was mad.

“I didn’t think it was too much of a problem.” I frowned, waving my hand lazily toward Junhong and Jieun, “She doesn’t know he’s her kid. I didn’t tell her anything. In fact, she thought he was my kid until I told her otherwise. So just chill, alright?”

That didn’t seem to defuse his anger any.

(If I had a pan, I could probably fry some eggs on his head right now, was how angry he was.

Though that’d probably just get him even more mad.)

Biting down his lip, he frowned, huffing then storming back behind the counter, at the register, before his break was up. His coworkers turned to look at me, a slight questioning tilt to their head - cause we’d been so happy chatting earlier - but didn’t question it, returning back to their work without another words.

When I got back to the table, Jieun seemed to have caught sight of our problems, giving me a smile and saying that she should go. I agreed. It was time for Junhong and I to return home as well, it seemed - Yongguk needed some time to defuse.

“So, what’s with you and Yongguk?”

I made it maybe three steps outside the automatic glass doors when Jieun’s hand was perched on my shoulder, a curious twitch of her lips curling it up. I don’t know what she was exactly talking about.

She seemed to notice this. “Oh come on, no need to lie Himchan. I could see that he was so mad when I was touching you.” I winced and she rolled her eyes. “Hey, I’m not judging. Remember I said I’m meeting up with Woohyun and Dongwoo today?” I nodded. “We’re meeting up to go get Dongwoo something decent to wear for his date with his boyfriend.”

Was I gawking? Because I’m pretty sure my jaw dropped somewhere on the ground.

It took me a minute of on empty air before regaining my bearings. “He … we …” I frowned, “we don’t have anything together. He’s a friend.”

Jieun was frowning, tilting her head. “Oh? So you guys aren’t- don’t tell me you haven’t noticed yet then.”

What? What was it that I was missing out on?

“He totally likes you.”

“Wh-what? No way.”

“He does! A girl’s instincts. I know these things Himchannie, trust me on this one. Actually, everyone but you probably knows this. Isn’t that right, Junhonggie?”

I felt the greatest need to roll my eyes. She didn’t know anything. Yongguk probably wasn’t interested in getting a date - a boyfriend nonetheless. Just because he didn’t seem to have a particular difference toward the homoual community didn’t just automatically gay.

(And what the hell did Junhong know about this? He was a kid easily swayed to doing his chores - or anything for that matter - for a piece of chocolate and a hug.)

Jieun didn’t know anything.

“Oh! It’s already four! I have to go.” She smiled, back stepping away after a quick pat to my - my, not Junhong’s - head. “Seriously though, call me sometime. Just don’t tell Yongguk, he may get jealous!”

Before I had a chance to complain, she was already gone, skipping down the street, dodging people left and right, with a flowing bell of giggles chasing after her.

The girl was nuts. Downright out of her mind.

When Junhong and I got back home, we decided to take a shower, unleashing the bubbles in the bath and filling the tub to the brim with warm water. Someone had told me before that taking showers helped release stress and tension. Well, that was exactly what I needed at the moment.

We stayed in until our whole bodies got all wrinkly and the water went cold. Whoever had said that warm water unravels stress needed to fall in a ditch.

Because right now, I was feeling hot, stuffy and bloated. I was anything but stress free.

And in the end, we fell back into our usual schedule of lounging out on the sofa, him concentrated on the tv and me on anything but the tv. To be specific, on a topic brought up earlier about a certain friend I’d been housing for a few months now.

Stupid Jieun and her stupid big mouth.

“Do you really think so, Junhong?”

He turned to me, blinking his wide eyes curiously. “Think what, hyung?”

“Nah, nevermind.” I shook my head. “It’s nothing.”

(What did Junhong know anyways?)

A few hours early, because he’d been let off from his job at the convenience store - but really, the of the store had let him, a diligent worker, off in favor over a textbook orientated college idiot (I’d gone and seen just who it was that had replaced Yongguk. He looked stupid) -, Yongguk returned back home, shoulders heavy and bottom lip in his mouth.

“Daddy!”

Junhong’s greeting was as bright as always - seriously, where did he get all that energy from.

Stepping out of his shoes, ruffling Junhong’s hair, he looked a little funny at me for a minute, expression queer. Like he was thinking hard about something.

“What? Do I have something on my face?”

Don’t know how, don’t know why, but that seemed to spring something from him.

Stepping around Junhong, he pulled me close to a hug, clinging awkwardly and choking all air from me. He was crazy; he’d probably caught a dose of Jieun’s crazy.

“F-,” the fact that Junhong was just a few steps away, and could make out every curse word I was stuttering, didn’t seem to matter all too much for the moment, not when I was lacking desperately air. “Yongguk, I can’t breathe!”

He didn’t loosen up much, digging his nose into my shoulder awkwardly, twirling me by the slight.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean to get mad at your earlier today. I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

To whatever the reason, he found it appropriate to pull my arms away from my side, awkwardly flopping it against himself in a sort of self punishment(?).

“You can hit me all you want. I am so sorry.”

Yongguk was too weird.

a/n: i wasn't going to update until next week but. SCREW EVERYTHING. FOR BAP'S FIRST WIN. ♥ #BAP1STWIN

now i have to go and write another chapter before monday but IREGRETNOTHING. (20140212)

(image credit to daesbuldge)
officially an for naming the owner wrong. /foreverbricked.

*this is bīng(冰) and this is shuǐ(水). the difference between ice and water.
*10,000 won is roughly (a little less than) 10 dollars. it’ll get you about 20 chupa chups.