A/N: Because everyone should write a bottle episode at least once.

Jiyong scrolls through Twitter again on his phone, more for something to do than any genuine interest in what’s going on in the world around him.  He’s been sitting in this elevator nearly an hour now, and he has no idea how much longer he’ll be there.  And it doesn’t help that Seunghyun is sitting in silence beside him, an awkward gap of space held resolutely between them.

They called their managers ages ago when the elevator first came to a halt, but so far there’s been no luck in getting them out.  Jiyong doesn’t know what’s taking so long.  Surely they’ve found a service technician by now.

It’s a stupid coincidence that he and Seunghyun even managed to get stuck in here together anyway.  They never see each other anymore.  Jiyong’s been busy promoting his new album, and Seunghyun has been gearing up for his movie premiere.  To be honest, Jiyong doesn’t even know why he came to the YG building today. 

Jiyong sighs and scrolls through his phone again.  He looks at Seunghyun out of the corner of his eye and sees him staring around the car at everything except for Jiyong.

It’s awkward as .  They’ve barely spoken a word to each other since they got stuck in here.  They’ve barely spoken a word to each other in a while, if Jiyong’s being honest.  They’ve been broken up for a while, and the only time they see each other is for work.  But they stopped interacting on stage and in front of the cameras long before they broke up, so it’s not like their current behavior is any marked change.

It makes Jiyong sad, sometimes, how much their friendship has dissolved.  They used to be so close, best friends with the same dream, and then they brought into it, which was amazing at first, but it gradually changed everything, made things hard, created insecurities where they hadn’t existed before.

They’d screamed and fought, said angry words with even angrier glares, and slowly, everything that worked between them before had chipped away.

Jiyong doesn’t understand how everything got so hard.  It used to be so easy between them, laughing and joking, writing music, finishing each other’s lyrics.  He doesn’t understand how it got to where the only thing that works between them anymore is the physical, how the only way they can stand to be in the same room together is when they’re ing.  Because that’s something they still do.  Occasionally.  When Jiyong gets drunk and needy or when Seunghyun feels too alone in his house all by himself.  They fall back together and kiss with their teeth, and one of them always wakes up in the morning alone.

They’ve had a few brief relapses, like after his concert in Jakarta, when Jiyong thought things might work out, that it was worth giving it another shot, but those times seem to be the exception, not the rule.

Jiyong hates how all their happy memories are eclipsed by whatever the kind of pattern he and Seunghyun are now stuck in.  But people grow up.  They grow apart.  And sometimes they grow parallel, side by side, never able to touch.  Jiyong just hopes he and Seunghyun aren’t running perpendicular, paths destined to cross only once.

He wishes they could go back in time, figure out where they went wrong and choose a different path.  He wishes they could get back what they once had.

Finally, Jiyong can’t take the silence anymore.  “Remember when we started writing our album together?  And Youngbae kept hanging around, offering to do backup vocals if we needed him to?”

Seunghyun cracks a smile.  “And you got so annoyed with him because you thought he was insulting your singing.”

Jiyong grins.  “Yeah.  But really he was just jealous about all the time we were spending together.”

Seunghyun lets out a little laugh and nods, and then they both fall silent again.  Jiyong takes in a deep breath, holds it in, and looks around awkwardly before letting it out.  He’s just about reconciled himself to a long night of loaded silence when Seunghyun finally speaks again.

“Remember when you first started wearing skirts, and Seungri tried to copy you, but everyone gave him such a hard time about how he looked in them?”

Jiyong giggles.  “He was so irritated.  He kept telling everyone it wasn’t his fault he looked bad in them.  Because he was so manly.”

Seunghyun raises one brow at him.  “And then you started making me wear those half skirt things on stage.”

Jiyong shrugs, not repentant at all.  “They looked good on you.”

“So you kept saying.  Loudly.  Just so Seungri could hear.”

“I wanted him to know being manly didn’t have anything to do with it.  You’re very masculine, and you pulled them off just fine.”

Seunghyun shakes his head.  “You get way too much pleasure out of ing with him.”

Jiyong grins.  “Like you don’t.”

Now that the tension is cut, Jiyong doesn’t want to give it a chance to sew back together.  He fumbles around for anything to say, any fun memory he can possibly dredge up.

“Remember when you got really drunk and started belting out ‘Tell Me’?  By the Wonder Girls?”

“I was serenading you.”

Jiyong snorts.  “We were in the middle of a YG Family dinner party.  And you kept wailing about how you wanted me to tell you .”

Seunghyun just pouts.  “Those were my genuine feelings.  I was trying to be romantic.”  Jiyong gives him a disbelieving laugh, but then Seunghyun starts cracking up all by himself.

“What?”

“Remember when Youngbae walked in on you my ?”

Jiyong chuckles, embarrassed, chin falling down to his chest.  “Oh god.  He was so scarred.  I don’t even want to know how much praying he did after that.”  Then, Jiyong raises his head back up and shoots an accusing look Seunghyun’s way.  “And you just made it worse!  You were all like, ‘at least you caught us while my was still in his mouth and not his .’”

Seunghyun laughs happily, eyes crinkling up, not the least bit apologetic.  “I don’t know if you’ll remember this one.  You were so ing trashed when you did it, but…do you remember when you tried to give me a in front of everyone at Seungho’s birthday party?”

Jiyong buries his face in his hands.  “Shut up.  I was trying to give you a present.”

Giggling, Seunghyun says, “But it wasn’t even my birthday.  And Seungho kept moping because you wouldn’t pay any attention to him.”

“Whatever,” Jiyong grins.  “I was trying to get laid.  Besides, my calendar is red.”

Jiyong doesn’t know why he says it, why he brings up lyrics from the present when they’re having so much fun reminiscing about the past.  But once the words are out, the damage is done.  The whole atmosphere changes.

“Everyday’s your birthday,” Jiyong finishes, just to hammer in the final nail.

Seunghyun isn’t smiling anymore, all traces of their previous levity gone.  And here’s the thing about Jiyong.  He never knows when to stop.  He never knows when to quit pushing and just let things be.

“Remember when I asked you to feature on my album, and you backed out on me?”  Jiyong faces forward so he doesn’t have to confront Seunghyun’s reaction head on, because Jiyong has no idea what it might be.

He hears Seunghyun sigh and say, “Here we go.”

It makes Jiyong’s jaw tighten in anger.  He turns back toward Seunghyun because he feels the need to confront him, after all.  “Really?  That’s all you have to say?  I know we’re not together anymore, but I thought you were at least still my friend.  I didn’t ask any of the others to be on it, not even Youngbae.  Just you.  And then you ing flake out on me.”

Seunghyun just stares at him, face impassive, and it makes Jiyong want to rough him up at little, make him as frazzled as Jiyong always feels.

“I know it wasn’t because you didn’t have the time.  The part wasn’t that big.  It would’ve taken you five minutes to record it.”

Seunghyun his lips and looks away.  When he finally meets Jiyong’s eyes again, he says, “I had the recording time booked with Teddy.  But then I cancelled it.”

“But why?”

“Because I finally read the rest of the lyrics.  And I didn’t want to do a song like that.  I didn’t want to feature in a song about us breaking up.”

Jiyong wants to scoff at him and call him self-centered for thinking everything’s about him, but he doesn’t even bother, because it’s obvious to anyone who knows him who his songs are about.  “Well, it’s not like I could’ve given you Lydia’s part.  ‘You and me against the world?’  That would’ve been a ing joke.”

Seunghyun’s jaw clenches in anger, and he looks away, and Jiyong still never knows when to quit.

“You and your director friend are awfully close.”

Seunghyun doesn’t even react to that.

“He keeps posting all these pictures of the two of you together.  Did you know about that?”

Seunghyun just keeps looking at one of the empty corners of the car.  “Why would I even give a ?”

And that really makes Jiyong’s blood boil.  Because all he can think about is the months and months of time they’ve spent dodging the cameras, careful not to interact in front of them, acting like they barely know each other on stage.  He thinks about all the things he’s tweeted and liked online and then went back to later and deleted.

But when it comes to John Lee, Seunghyun doesn’t give a ?

“Do you have any idea what people are saying about you two?” Jiyong asks.  “How he’s your sugar daddy, and you’re his new boy toy?”

Seunghyun just shrugs.

“Right,” Jiyong says, feeling hurt and upset and brittle.  “You don’t care what people say when it’s him, but when it’s me they’re talking about—“

“I never gave a about that, either,” Seunghyun cuts him off, eyes flashing.  “That was all you, Jiyong.”

Jiyong flinches because what?

Seunghyun presses on, “Remember when Hyunsuk-hyung pulled us in and told us we couldn’t do fan service anymore?  You’re the one who agreed with him.”

Yeah, Jiyong remembers.  He remembers the way Hyunsuk called him a pathetic little puppy, always panting after Seunghyun, and that Jiyong could be as lovesick as he wanted to be but to do it away from the public eye.  God, Jiyong had been so embarrassed.  Because he always suspected he fell way harder for Seunghyun than Seunghyun fell for him, and the president’s words just felt like a confirmation of that.

But he doesn’t want to tell Seunghyun any of that, so instead he says, “Everyone was talking about us.  There were rumors everywhere.  The reporters even had pictures of me leaving your house in the morning.”

Seunghyun shrugs.  “They were never going to leak those.”

Jiyong just looks at him disbelievingly.  “It could’ve destroyed our careers.  We had to cool it down, at least when people were watching.  And if you’re not careful, that’s what’s going to happen with all this with John Lee.”

His hyung doesn’t say anything to that.  He just looks calm as ever, like it doesn’t matter, like all of this is just a minor annoyance, not remotely worthy of the emphasis Jiyong is putting on it.

Jiyong doesn’t ask him if there is any truth to the rumors about him and John Lee.  He doesn’t know what the exact connection between them is, and he doesn’t want to know.  All he knows is that the guy is special to Seunghyun, and that right there is enough to make him feel like he’s dying; he doesn’t need to know how special.

Jiyong looks helplessly down at his lap.  “I just…I can’t believe you don’t even care.  You’re the one always so concerned about your privacy.”

“But I don’t care what people say.”  Seunghyun pinches at the fabric of his slacks and rubs the material between the pad of his thumb and forefinger.  “When I feel the need for privacy, I just go back into my house.”

Jiyong scoffs.  “Because we all know how much you love to hide away there.”  As long as they’re talking about their issues, he might as well bring up one more, but Seunghyun doesn’t take the bait.  That’s fine, though, because Jiyong isn’t done with the current topic anyway.  All he can think about is how he and Seunghyun used to be so open and affectionate with one another until they had to stop.  How they used to hug and touch and joke with one another, but now most of that is saved for the other members. 

And his private time seems reserved for John Lee.  Seunghyun doesn’t even hang out with Nuthang much anymore.  Soohyuk is the only one who really talks to him now, but that’s because they both have that common acting thread.

And sometimes Jiyong feels so childish next to Seunghyun, with his grown up suits and his grown up hair and his grown up friends.  Because Jiyong is still youth and energy and crazy hair, and he doesn’t know how he’s ever supposed to fit in Seunghyun’s new world.

Jiyong swallows, bitterness heavy on his tongue.  “Remember when you stopped liking music and left me behind?”

Seunghyun does look at him then, pain in his eyes that Jiyong didn’t know he could still make him feel.  “Remember when you started moving way too fast for me to ever catch up?”

That makes Jiyong pause.  Seunghyun’s words cut to the heart of him before he even understands what they mean. 

“You’re always taking off to new places,” Seunghyun says.  “Meeting new people, trying new things.”  Seunghyun shrugs, looking hopeless and insecure.  “You didn’t seem to need me, anymore.”

“So why didn’t you go with me?  We used to do everything together.  Why didn’t you come along?”

Seunghyun gives him a pointed look, like Jiyong’s missing something obvious.  “Because you didn’t want people to see us together anymore.  If I couldn’t even be with you, how was I supposed to compete?”

Jiyong looks down, and his voice turns small at what he says next.  “You don’t have to compete.  Not with me.  No one else has ever even been in the running.”

Jiyong chances a look up at Seunghyun then, so ing nervous about what he might find, but Seunghyun is staring back at him with parted lips, speechless, like he never expected Jiyong would own up to so much.

And Jiyong doesn’t really know what’s going to happen next.  Because the only part of their relationship they’ve ever managed to get right is their beginning, and Jiyong’s too ing scared to flip the pages to read the end because he’s afraid it won’t be what he wants it to be.  He’s afraid one of them will get married and have kids and the other will forever remain the token bachelor, and every couple years or so they’ll reunite for a public appearance and wonder what might’ve been.  What might’ve happened if they had been brave enough to act on their feelings and damn the consequences. 

Sometimes Jiyong thinks about that time long ago when he and the other members planned to run away.  He wonders what his life might’ve been like if they’d gone through with it, if he and Seunghyun would've gotten together and stayed together and been happy away from everyone’s prying eyes.

Jiyong lets out a little laugh before he speaks, so he can pretend it’s a joke if he needs to.  “Remember when we ran away and got married and bought a big house to live in?”  He looks straight forward, keeps his gaze from flitting over to Seunghyun to gauge his reaction.

Seunghyun doesn’t say anything at first, and Jiyong’s almost embarrassed enough to go crawl into a hole when his hyung’s deep, quiet voice breaks the silence.  “Remember when we spent months trying to find a little girl to adopt who looks just like you?”

Jiyong draws in a shuddering breath.  His bottom lip trembles as he turns to face Seunghyun and sees that Seunghyun is already facing him.

A lone tear slides down Jiyong’s cheek, and Seunghyun gazes back at him solemnly.  Jiyong scoots closer to him, and his hyung reaches up to brush the tear away with the back of his knuckles.  Jiyong leans into the touch and whispers, “Remember when we got stuck in an elevator and I kissed you?”

Seunghyun’s expression softens even more.  “No.  Remind me again how that one goes?”

So Jiyong does.  He curls his fingers into Seunghyun’s shirt and slants their mouths together, and Seunghyun opens for him, just the same as he’s always done.

Jiyong brushes their lips together slowly, tongue sliding languidly against Seunghyun’s.  He takes his time, savoring, committing every sensation to memory because he doesn’t know how long it’ll be before he’s allowed to have this again.

Jiyong thinks of all the happy memories they could have, all the happy memories they’ll likely never have.  But he’s not going to think about that last part right now, not when he has everything he wants right here in his arms. 

He presses closer, mouth working more insistently now, and it must call out to something in Seunghyun because his hyung cups his face and kisses him with a desperation Jiyong’s never felt from him before.  He tries to keep up, to give as good as he gets, but he mostly just tries not to falter when Seunghyun’s need crashes over him.

Seunghyun finally stops kissing him, presses his forehead against Jiyong’s and pants into the space between their mouths.  “Jiyong—”

And then the elevator comes back to life. 

When the car jolts back into motion, he and Seunghyun pull back in surprise, and once they realize what’s happening, they automatically pull themselves up to their feet.  Seunghyun starts straightening his shirt, and Jiyong wipes his mouth with the back of his hand.

When the doors finally open, their managers are waiting on the other side along with a couple other members of the staff.

The spell has been broken, they’re back in the real world, and Jiyong looks over at Seunghyun with a bittersweet smile.  “Remember when things never worked out the way you wanted them to?”

He doesn’t wait to hear Seunghyun’s reply.  He just passes through the doors and back into their separate lives.

Jiyong is riding in the front seat of the van on the way back home when he gets a text message.  He pulls out his phone, and a slow, gentle smile creeps over his face at what he finds there.  Even when he starts tearing up, his smile never wavers.  

“Turn around,” he says.  His manager gives him a questioning look from the driver’s seat.  “Take me back.”

Jiyong reads the text again.

Remember when things worked out even better?