"Hello?"

"Come home early today." a deep, husky voice softly ordered him.

"Nah, I really want to finish this track. I'm so close, I just need a better bridge between the last two parts and then it's good to go." Jiyong explained with enthusiasm, he was really quite happy with how this one had turned out. This was a smash hit for sure.

"But.. but we miss you." Seunghyun pleaded with overflowing aegyo coating his voice. Jiyong shook his head, Seunghyun was probably just bored and was trying to manipulate him to drop everything for the oh so important reason to entertain him. Yeah, that was not going to happen, he told himself firmly, for there were parts of him that just wanted to run home no matter the consequences or how pathetic he would look. But thankfully those parts were not in control. He wasn't the type to take orders quietly and follow them blindly.  Na-a, not him.

"We?" he retorted in disbelief, calling his bluff. "Mhm, sure. I bet Soonie has been asking for me all day." he chortled into the receiver, already gloating over his victorious comeback. 

"Hang on, listen to this.." Seunghyun said brightly, followed by a short silence. 

"Remember, like we practiced... 'Ji'..." Jiyong could faintly hear him coaching Soonie in the background. Let him try, there was no chance that mini stubbornator would cave.

There was another short silence and then he could detect vague breathing sounds filled with the air of concentration. 

"Mm.. eh... Ji.." said the cutest, tiniest, most decisive little voice on the planet. Aww, even though he knew it was Seunghyun feeding her what to say, his heart had already melted into a puddle of goo, swooshing around aimlessly in his chest. He played back her voice in his head a few times to make sure it would stick and turn into an everlasting memory. He wanted to edge that cutest of 'Ji's into the outer lining of his brain, so he could play it back like a record, able to listen to it whenever he was in need of a warm shot of fluffy feels. 

“Say 'miss you'.” he heard Seunghyun whisper, his gut compressing in anticipation.

He held his breath and listened to the silence for a moment.

“Miss you.” her thin, bright voice copied.

That was the straw that broke the camel's back. When Seunghyun's chuckle reappeared on the line, he could feel he had nothing left to fight with, he had been rendered helpless. 

“Okay, fine. I'm on my way.” he blurted out before hanging up real quick so as not to give Seunghyun a chance to gloat. 

They had the nicest of nights, the three of them, enjoying the simple pleasures in life, just being together, conjuring up smiles on each other's faces. Jiyong, almost surprised by his own feelings, wouldn't have wanted to miss it for the world. Normally when he was in work mode it was like going under water with all of his pockets filled with rocks, he couldn't swim back up unless he got rid of the extra weight rock by rock, unloading them by finishing his songs. But now he actually had something to pull him up out of the creative abyss at the end of the day. Even though he was still weighed down by all his unfinished projects, he felt light enough to leave them for tomorrow. 

Jiyong was playing with Soonie on the floor, when Seunghyun exited the kitchen with a huge glass of wine, filled almost to the brim. He only had the one glass. It looked so delicious, swirling around at his every step. Slightly dispirited by the fact that Seunghyun had only brought one for himself, without even asking him if he wanted one too, he decided not to make a big deal out of it and go get his own. He was about to stand up, when Seunghyun handed him the glass, and helped him move from the floor to the sofa. Taken aback, Jiyong wrinkled his eyebrows in surprise. 

“Don't look so surprised, I'm a really dreamy guy. Just google it.” Seunghyun snorted, picking Soonie up off the floor. 

“Soonie-ya, should we let appa Ji have a moment alone with his wine and go brush our teethies?” he put his lips up to her neck and blew heartily into it, making a funny farting sound. Soonie collapsed into a fit of giggles, gingerly trying to get him to stop, but when he did, she not so subtly exposed her neck for another round. 

“Let's brush our teethies, brush our teethies.” Seunghyun sang in a silly voice on the way to the bathroom, treating Soonie like a toy airplane, making her fly, following a very erratic flight path.

“Bwusha teeesshies.” she sang along happily, putting her hands out, flying like superman. Super-Soonie.

Jiyong couldn't help but giggle to himself as he took a sip of the red wine. The smooth, bitter sweet liquid played with his taste buds as he leaned back and took a moment to appreciate what had just happened. Seunghyun could be really sweet when he wanted to, overwhelmingly so, distracting him with kindness, making him forget all the frustrating little details that were eating at his brain. He smiled to himself as he heard Soonie's laughter from the bathroom, wondering if it was a good idea getting her all worked up right before sleep, but deciding it was none of his business since it wasn't his problem, not tonight. 

He took another sip, feeling the subtle effects of the alcohol. For some reason Seunghyun's face appeared before his mind's eye. He really was abnormally handsome. It was as if someone had accidentally dropped the entire supply of handsome into the mix that was to become Seunghyun, leaving nothing behind for the poor souls that were so unlucky to be in the making at the same time. Too handsome for his own good, that was what he was. He knew it himself, and he wasn't afraid to use it. It was a dangerous weapon that to this day remained infallible. Jiyong always tried to make it look like he was immune to it, when in reality, he was just as powerless against it as the rest of them. 

“Ji.” 

Jiyong started, looking around the living room. Peeking around the corner of the sofa was the top of a shy little head. 

“Aigoo, what are you doing out of bed, baby bear?” he asked softly.

“Ji.” she repeated with a crinkled nose, holding her arm out, opening and closing her hand to indicate that he should follow. Intrigued, Jiyong stood up and took her hand. With all her might, which was adorably weak compared to the effort she was making, she pulled him all the way into the bedroom and wasn't happy until they were all tucked under the covers together. 

Jiyong sent Seunghyun a question mark with his eyes, but he just shrugged as if to say 'it wasn't me'. Jiyong could feel as the unstable wall around his heart started crumbling, Soonie and Seunghyun having made it their hobby these past few days to pick at it, taking it down one piece at a time. He hadn't even realized the wall was there. He considered himself a pretty warm person. Sure he was strict and acted cold a lot of the time, but that was only in connection to work, with leadership came great responsibilities. Outside of work though, he wasn't afraid to show his affection. Or that was at least what he had thought. But apparently he had been holding back. What exactly lay behind that wall, he wasn't sure, and in full honesty, he was afraid to find out. So he tried hard to keep the wall from coming down, picking up the pieces and trying to fit them back together, but he couldn't find a glue strong enough to withstand the cuteness of those two pabos beside him, who were determined to let more light into his heart, painting his world in vibrant colors. Often a little too vibrant.

Soonie stubbornly refused to choose any book other than the Pingu penguin, but they had already read it so many times that they could both recite it backwards without the slightest hesitation. Bored out of his mind, Seunghyun started to rap the first page in his low, enchanting voice. It was a pretty good production, injecting the story with some much needed new life. Jiyong couldn't resist joining in, going for the real GD&TOP feel, the lullaby version. What would their fans say if they could see them now, huddled together under the covers, rapping a children's book to a toddler?

“Ya..” a voice whispered into Jiyong's ear. He tried to open his eyes but they were too sticky, his eyelids refusing to let go of each other, like young lovers being torn apart. He could feel something brush up against his cheek ever so softly, it felt nice until it didn't. 

“OUCH!” Jiyong cried, jumping up in the bed and rubbing his cheek fervently.

“SHHH!” Seunghyun shushed him with a sly smirk dancing provocatively on his face, pointing to the sleeping angel beside him, who wasn't quite as angelic as advertised, slobbering all over his pillow. He nodded to the door, indicating that they should take this outside. 

“What the...?!” Jiyong slapped Seunghyun's upper arm the moment they had reached a safe distance from the bedroom, hard, as payback for the pinch. He could still feel where Seunghyun's fingers had dug into his skin, twisting it painfully. He was sure there were a pair of red fingerprints permanently branded on his cheek. The media would have a field day, he could already imagine a dozen different headlines, each one more scandalous than the one before. 

Seunghyun grinned guiltily, though clearly not regretting his actions one bit. Changing the subject, he asked Jiyong whether he was in the mood for comedy, action or horror. Jiyong glanced in the direction of the TV and saw that Seunghyun had prepared a cozy movie night. There were blankets on the sofa, popcorn and beer on the table and the TV on standby. Although Jiyong would have preferred getting some much needed sleep, he did appreciate the effort Seunghyun was making, so he went along with it.

“Comedy.” he chose as he crawled under the blanket.

“Yeaaah, we're watching horror.” Seunghyun's grin grew wider as he reached for the remote and pressed play. 

“Are we now? And who's going to protect me from the scary monsters when you've left me, running for your life, huh?” he . Seunghyun was surprisingly weak when it came to horror flicks, yet for some unimaginable reason he kept subjecting himself to them, as if trying to prove his masculinity or something along those lines, never succeeding in anything other than embarrassing himself. That stubborn pabo.

“Ah!” Seunghyun yelped, grabbing Jiyong's arm.

“Shhht, you'll wake Soonie up, you scaredy-cat you.” Jiyong giggled, not shaken at all by the movie, yet his insides were vibrating at a low frequency. 

“Call me hyung.” Seunghyun protested, apparently not in love with his new nickname.

Jiyong snorted loudly, “Ehm, I can call you Hyun if you want.” he offered jokingly, not taking his request seriously.

“A ha ha..” he laughed ironically, “No, for real.” he added with sincerity. He was too good an actor, at times like these Jiyong had no idea if he was being serious or if he was pulling his leg. The rule of thumb was to always assume he was joking. 

“I can't, no way.. it's too ridiculous, we don't have that kind of a relationship, it would just be awkward, so awkward.” Jiyong cringed, keeping his voice light so it could be interpreted as both being serious and as if he was going along with Seunghyun's skit, should it turn out to be one. 

Seunghyun sat up in his seat, “Do you have no respect for your elders?!” he said with a hefty dose of indignation. Okay, so he was definitely playing around. It was not that he had betrayed his part with shoddy acting, it would have been very convincing if not for the fact that he wasn't the type to get offended over something as trivial as this, or at all, really.

“Not when the geezer in question has the maturity of an immature 16 year old.” he crinkled his nose and stuck out his tongue. It had the desired effect, making Seunghyun laugh heartily. He had the most infectious laughter, tickling Jiyong's laughter center.

“Oh come on!” Seunghyun shook his head at him, not believing his eyes. “You just watched a whole town of people being brutally murdered by terrifying zombies and you didn't even blink an eye, but then a puppy food commercial comes on and... and there are tears? Seriously?”. 

Jiyong wiped them away as quickly as he could, not thrilled that he got caught, but the puppy just had such a sad backstory, and it was the same breed as Gaho. How was he not supposed to be moved?

“It's probably just the mother hormones kicking in, with taking care of Soonie and all.” he tried to convince him.

“You know you didn't actually give birth to her, right?” Seunghyun chuckled, revealing the laughter crease in his cheek. It was one of Jiyong's favorite things in the world, the sight of it never failing to lift his spirit. Seunghyun's smile was so juvenile and happy, like the one of a six year old prankster that was too cute for his own good. 

The morning after, even though they were running a bit late, it was practice as usual. They had developed a pretty efficient step by step routine that allowed them both to get ready, passing Soonie between them like she was the ball in a championship game of football, working together to reach the goal. The goal of getting to the day's schedule on time, not wearing any of their clothes backwards. They didn't always manage a touchdown, but they were getting better. 

Today, like the majority of days, Seunghyun was going to stay home with Soonie while Jiyong went to the studio. 

“Okay, I'm off. I'll probably be home around seven or eight, but if Soonie is too hungry, don't wait and just eat without me.” he said as he headed for the door.

“Ah, wait!” Seunghyun came running towards him. Not saying a word, he proceeded to fix his collar with great concentration, his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth. 

“Have a nice day.” he flashed him a smile when he was done, leaning in and giving him a quick goodbye kiss on the cheek. Jiyong nodded and exited the door, feeling like a true family man. 

The moment the door shut, he stopped in his tracks. He put his hand up to his cheek, it tingled slightly. What had just happened?