"Ahjussi... What does that do? That looks cool too. Press that, press that."

Yongguk turns slowly to Daehyun who's sitting beside him with both hands on either knees, staring intently at his MacBook.

"Can you shut up?" He snarls. He hates it when people get noisy when he's working and Daehyun's just two times the magnitude of noise.

"You're mean, ahjussi. Like a spiky porcupine. So spiky." Daehyun says as he dramatises the spikes of a porcupine, gesturing a stinging object before Yongguk's face until the older man gets annoyed and slaps his hands away.

"You're a ing chicken." Yongguk scolds and Daehyun's eyes widen.

"Chicken?! At least porcupines are cute!"

"You can't stop clucking and you're a coward. So you're a chicken. And you have a birdbrain too."

"YAH!" Daehyun takes the insult badly because he admits he has a vulnerable self esteem! [ ( ≧Д≦) ] 

"You're too much, ahjussi!"

"It's the truth~"

"God, when is this rain going to stop? I need to get out of here!"

"You're welcome to leave anytime you know." Yongguk says before leaving the studio.

"Where are you going, ahjussi?" Daehyun calls out after Yongguk as he turns back to the window. "Yah ahjussi! I'm scared of thunder!"

Daehyun bumps into Yongguk in the kitchen after chasing after the man. He rubs at his forehead and observes Yongguk open a cup of ramen and pouring hot water into it.

"Ahjussi... Are you going to eat that?"

"No, I'm going to paint with it." Yongguk turns around and gives Daehyun a look.

"Just asking! You're really a porcupine... Why are you eating ramen all the time? You have a open kitchen! Don't you know how to cook?"

"No. I didn't need to anyway." Yongguk turns a little quieter as he rests a fork over the ramen cup to keep the cover over it. "There used to be somebody who would cook for me."

"Oh..." Daehyun sense the porcupine retreating into its spikes and quickly changes the topic. "Yah ahjussi, I'm hungry anyway. Can I cook in your house?"

"Is it good?" 

Yongguk lifts up the pasta noodles on his fork before pushing Daehyun's face away from his plate.

"You face is too close." He says before tasting the proclaimed 'Daehyun-styled pasta'. He chews on silently and Daehyun starts to close in again.

"It's good right?"

"It's edible." Yongguk says plainly before taking another bite.

"Cheh, this ahjussi. It's good, you just don't want to say it. Pasta is my forte!" Daehyun proclaims proudly as he settles down opposite Yongguk at the dinner table.

"Why do you like pasta so much? You eat the same thing when we were overseas too." Yongguk asks as he pokes at the alright-looking mushroom in the sauce.

"Pasta's the first thing I learned how to cook. It's pretty cheap and easy to make. You know, I'm kind of poor so pasta's my favourite." Daehyun chimes before digging into his own serving and Yongguk is just once again amazed at the way Daehyun wolfs down his food. It's like this kid has a vacuum inside his stomach.

The rain's still pouring outside and Daehyun's the television in the living room. For once, the house isn't so damn quiet anymore. Yongguk turns back to the pasta Daehyun made out of whatever he's found out of his fridge. He frowns at a random piece of corn in his pasta. Obviously somebody's dumped everything inside.

"Ahjussi, it's your turn to wash the dishes since I cooked for you right?" Daehyun grins and flees from the dinner table, his food already finished. Yongguk stares at the dirty plate and utensils in front of him and grits his teeth begrudgingly.

When he's finally done (with that two plates), Daehyun's sitting at his desk fiddling with his things.

"Yah! Don't touch my stuff! Did you screw up anything?" Yongguk immediately checks his compositions anxiously.

"I didn't! I just looked around for a bit..."

"Don't look into other people's stuff." Yongguk chides softly and kicks Daehyun's chair out of his place before sliding back into his spot.

Daehyun glides away on the office chair but quickly swerves himself back beside Yongguk, staring intently at the computer screen. When Yongguk's had enough of him staring, he lets Daehyun try doing whatever he's doing.

"Sing this."

"What? Me? How?"

"Open your chicken mouth and sing."

"How does it even sound like..."

Yongguk plays the notes. "Okay go."

Daehyun copies the melody and surprises Yongguk who smiles a little at him. "That's surprising. I thought you were tone deaf."

"Yah!"

"Try singing this entire thing."

And Yongguk successfully scams Daehyun into recording his demo for him.

"Great, now I'm done with the demo. Hey, can you do the rest for me?"

"What?! Am I scammed into doing chores for you again?"

"Hey, not everyone can record Bang Yongguk's demos. But you'll do fine. You're pretty good actually. So sing this."

"Ahjussi... You're always scamming me..."

"This is a compliment. You have a good voice." Yongguk says as he clicks on absentmindedly.

Daehyun on the other hand, is rather thrilled. "REALLY?! Yah ahjussi, you're a producer right? Can I become a singer?"

"YAH ISH! Now you're trying to get famous through relations?!"

"Come on ahjussi, if I really sing that well then I can stand a chance right?"

"Whatever, sing the demo for me first."

"Eee, ahjussi. You just don't want me to get more famous than you."

"You're really big headed..."

"AHJUSSI!!! THE RAIN IS NOT STOPPING!! ( ≧Д≦)!!"

Yongguk yawns nonchalantly as he flips through the channels scratching his stomach. The clock reads 11.32pm and Daehyun's being noisy beside him when he's trying to watch tv. He turns to glare at the noisy kid.

"Don't be noisy. Go home."

"I can't! It's pouring!"

"Urgh..."

"Ahjussi... Can I sleep here?"

"Mwo?"

"I let you sleep at my house too..."

"I was totally drunk and out of my mind that night... "

"Urgh. Shouldn't have even thought about asking you for help anyway..."

"Tsk. Fine, fine. You can sleep in the guest room. Just don't do anything funny."

"Really?! Gomawo~ Wow this is amazing. Bang Yongguk, all-talented rapper slash producer, omo I'm sleeping in his guest room!"

"You talk one more time I'm going to throw you outside."

Daehyun climbs into bed, a real bed, not his flimsy futon, sighing at the comfortable mattress under his back. Sigh, a rich man's house is definitely different. He climbs out of bed again and closes the curtain, the beating rain and occasional thunder outside is a little scary to his tender nerves. He buries under the covers and falls asleep quickly..

BOOM!

"No..." A deafening thunder shakes him from his sleep and Daehyun closes his hands around his ears, trying to block out the sounds of his childhood nightmare. He thought he'd grow out of it but eventually... He didn't

"I can't sleep..." Daehyun whimpers as he grabs the extra pillow on the bed. "Aish! I can't help it!"

He escapes his room and almost trips on his way out when the thunder strikes again. He scrambles into Yongguk's room and suddenly finds his voice lost at the door.

Well, what is he going to say? Ahjussi, I'm scared of thunder? He'll probably die from a beating...

"Ahjussi..." He whispers and slowly creeps towards Yongguk's bed, the other man's back facing him. He sits down slowly on the edge, feeling a little reassured now that he's with somebody, even if it's Yongguk monster... He sits there for quite some time hugging his pillow and staring at Yongguk's unmoving backview for a while until the lightning glares outside the window, lighting up his wide frightened eyes. He dodges down onto the bed, hiding behind Yongguk and bracing himself for the oncoming growl of the thunder. But another growl comes his way though.

"YAH!"

"AHHH!" Daehyun's heart went to his throat when the black shadow of Yongguk's backview suddenly turns around to yell at him at the same moment the thunder cracks.

"YAH! YOU ALMOST GAVE ME A HEART ATTACK!"

"AHJUSSI, YOU'RE THE ONE GIVING ME A HEART ATTACK!!"

"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU HERE?!"

"I'm... I'm scared of thunder..."

"What?"

"Thunder... the thunder..."

"Chicken."

Yongguk taunts Daehyun before kicking the boy in the chest, telling him to get off his bed. Daehyun falls backwards in alarm and was about to hurl some insults back at Yongguk when the thunder interrupts him. He squeals into his pillow frantically and Yongguk just stares at him with sleepy eyes, murmurring something about bloody kids.

Daehyun ends up curling up at the other side of the bed when Yongguk falls asleep trying to argue with him. He's grateful that that awful mouth is finally slack and he could find a little security from the scary thunder. The thunder finally eases up a little and Daehyun was just about to fall asleep on one corner of the large bed when Yongguk suddenly awakes, having remembered that he was just in the middle of chasing some wide eyed chicken off his bed.

"Yah..." His voice is coarse with sleep and impatience when he nudges Daehyun with his foot. "I'm not going to sleep on the same bed as you..."

"Don't disturb me... I was just falling asleep..." Daehyun moans and pushes Yongguk's foot away from his back.

Yongguk scoffs and throws a hand over his eyes. "God damn, you're nineteen, not nine!"

"I'm scared okay! I have a phobia... You're really unkind..." 

"You're weird..."

The room falls into a silence with the rain pattering outside but Daehyun's already wide awake as the memories begin to take over his fatigue. He blinks in the dark, clutching his pillow to his chest and suddenly doesn't feel so sleepy anymore. He turns his head back timidly, and sees the steady heaving of Yongguk's shadow. 

"Ahjussi... Are you asleep?"

Yongguk doesn't reply.

"Ahjussi... Actually... There's a story to this... The first time I was home alone because mom had to go out to work, it rained really heavily like this time... I was alone and the thunder was really scary... So I'm scared of this... I'm just telling you since you're asleep and won't laugh at me..."

"Who said I'm asleep?"

"EH?!!"

"But that's a cool story. Now I have something to laugh at everyday."

"Eh ahjussi!! I thought you were sleeping! You didn't hear anything!"

"I heard it. You're a scaredy cat."

"I'm not!"

"Whatever you say."

"Ahjussi..."

"What."

"That's a secret."

"Whatever."

Yea, scared of thunder.

Yongguk stands beside his bed the next morning, staring down with messy hair at Daehyun, lying sprawled on his bed with a drooling mouth.

"Bloody kid... Yah, stop drooling on my bedsheets!"