Once again thank you for all the subscribers (and upvotes) and comments :)) Really appreciate them and all, and hope you'd enjoy this update :))

“Lee Jinki!” Jonghyun sprung from behind with his bouncy hair flying up and down.

“Yah!” Said boy almost threw up his chicken with the sudden call. “Call me hyung!”

Jonghyun wondered if the addressing really mattered in today’s society. Surely, he knew about their importance in rankings and superiority in the past, but today? Even Kibum doesn’t adapt to the hyung calling, he thought.

Or was it just Kibum trying to level their status altogether? Another possibility crossed his mind.

“Hyung,” Jonghyun sat down beside his chicken-obsessed hyung (as if he was any better.)

“Hmm give me another 10 minutes.” Jinki turned to smile at Jonghyun with his oil-laden lips before returning to the silent war with the drumstick on his right hand.

“Hyung! Stop kidding our break is only 30 minutes.” Jonghyun grumbled. Jinki, sensing that he is really needed instead of the usual Jonghyun trying to disturb a chicken-hungry hyung, placed his chicken back on the bowl.

“Now Kim Jonghyun, this better be worth the time.”

Jinki had told him: you need to enforce the hyung in you. Don’t let a junior climb all over you. While Jonghyun wanted to rebut about how Kibum wasn’t really climbing all over him (he even frowned at that idea because Kibum was somewhat taller and therefore larger than him in a sense), Jinki continued with “literally” which thankfully cleared up the question marks in Jonghyun’s head.

He took in a deep breath and opened the door to their shared room.

“Ah Jonghyun you’re back.” Kibum greeted without turning back as he twirled the pencil with his fingers, sitting on the chair pondering about some philosophical questions.

Mission “Let Kibum bow down to the Almighty Jonghyun hyung” commence. Jonghyun thought to himself. He cleared his throat before trying to channel a stern tone. It was really unlike Jonghyun, the usual happy-go-lucky person that he is, not exactly the kind to be strict on someone. He didn’t do that to Jinki (but then of course, who is he to act strict on a hyung?), neither towards Minho who is simply just a nice buddy to spend time with (until Kibum comes into the picture and he realizes that it’s actually not bad spending time hanging around in the room or even bickering with Kibum – over the messy desk, him being picky about food and Kibum would actually try to match his preference, or even stupid questions that he knew were stupid and annoyed Kibum to no end, but asked for the sake of asking), and Taemin… he just have a soft spot for pretty things (or people), and Taemin actually called him hyung all so naturally. Towards others that isn’t that close with, there was all the more no need to reinforce the hyung in him.

“Kibum,” Jonghyun wasted no time and went straight to the point, “shouldn’t you call me hyung?”

Kibum scoffed. Really, is this the Kim Jonghyun he roomed with?

“What’s wrong with you?” Kibum wondered.

“Nothing, just realize that shouldn’t you call me hyung?” Jonghyun replied, “after all I’m one year older.”

“Hmm okay, younggam.” Kibum replied without further thoughts and turned back to his paperwork.

“No no!” Jonghyun was annoyed, and frustrated because Kibum never follows whatever he has for his plans – but then it should have all been predicted from the start because Kibum is the Kibum that Jonghyun can’t really handle for a reason.

“What’s wrong? You’re older, so I call you younggam, is there a problem?” Kibum turned around once again.

Jonghyun thought he was all done with Kibum’s younggam since day 1 but nope, it was back to haunt him again. To make things worse, he couldn’t really come up with words to rebut Kibum’s theory because in a sense, Kibum was right.

“There’s someone more suited for younggam,” Jonghyun continued, his thoughts running back to the hyung who infused the idea of hyung in him, “and for now, I shall be the hyung.”

“You don’t make sense either.” Kibum commented, “What’s with the sudden hyung obsession? And nope, if you think I’ll call you hyung – you can’t even take care of your desk properly.” Of course, Kibum would bring out all the desk incidents, “and you can’t even cook for yourself.”

Jonghyun wanted to argue back, but…

“But since you really want to be a hyung,” Kibum continued, “I guess it’s alright with me too.”

Jonghyun couldn’t believe for real because Kibum surrendering to his ideas is something so rare and precious and he had to blink twice, quietly pinch himself to realize it isn’t his dreamland where everything goes his way. It was the kind of reality he wanted but never had (until this moment).

“Just take care of the dinner, your desk, your clothes, your everything and that includes our shared floor, ceiling, walls…”

Jonghyun was astounded by the vocabulary that he knew but never bothered to familiarize with (for instance, he always brought his clothes to Taemin who, being nice, would help him bring to the dry cleaning – and that’s how he gets back his clothes all nice and fresh smelling). Come to think of it, didn’t he abuse his hyung authority over Taemin a little? He thought but immediately brushed the thought aside with “Taemin is kind hearted by nature”.

“Which means you,” Kibum pointed at Jonghyun, “shall clean the fans, wipe the walls and floor once a week,” and before Jonghyun could even process the horrifying thoughts, “and of course once a month for the ceiling.”

“Wait, Kibum-“

“Your clothes should also be nicely washed and ironed on a regular basis.” Kibum continued, “and I trust that you being a good hyung will not bother next door’s Taeminnie.” Jonghyun flinched at that comment as Kibum narrowed his eyes. He didn’t recall telling Kibum anything about him being a burden to Taemin?

 “But Kibum you never clean the fan once a week or wiped the ceiling once a month?”

“Of course, I only take care of those issues when I’m absolutely free out of duty as a roommate. But if you want to be hyung it’s obvious that you do those duties as a hyung.”

Is there a difference? Jonghyun pondered to himself.

Of course there isn’t supposed to be a difference, but you don’t have to know about it. Kibum thought to himself with a silent chuckle.

“You can start by wiping the floor now, hyung.” Kibum continued with a creepy smile.

Jonghyun blinked and blinked. What did he just get himself into?

“And hyung,” Kibum continued, “Remember to settle our dinner.”

Silence, because Kibum was back to his paperwork and Jonghyun was just sitting on Kibum’s bed (of course, why would he even bother climbing to the upper deck to merely sit down and ponder).

“Kibum ah…” Jonghyun started with a meek tone.

“Hmm hyung?”

“Can we pretend this conversation never happened?” Jonghyun replied.

“Of course.” Kibum turned around to face him, replying with a light tone. Then all of a sudden his tone changed. “Kim Jonghyun, see what you’ve done to the floor?”

Jonghyun’s eyes widened in absolute surprise, and he immediately sprung into action as another series of countdown resonated in the room.

See if you’d ever rant about not being a hyung, Kibum thought to self as he lay down on the bed with the excuse of “I need a short break before making our dinner” while Jonghyun slogging his life away wiping the ground.

Nevertheless, Jonghyun thought that letting Kibum ride all over him (in a literal sense) was still better than him carrying all the duties that a hyung ought to be.

Meanwhile, the younggam was sneezing all over his desk because... do we even need to explain that?