Jiyong's blood froze. He blinked to be sure he wasn't imagining things. He wasn't. Youngbae, Daesung and Seungri were on the living room floor, playing with Soonie. Or, it was more like they were taking orders from Soonie, who was only too happy with her three new slaves. Shocked, he looked around for Seunghyun, who was nowhere to be seen. He heard the toilet flush, and without thinking, he rushed into the bathroom before the guys noticed him.

“Wha..?” Seunghyun zipped his pants in a hurry, surprise shining from his face. 

“The guys!! They're outside!” Jiyong bit his lip, trying to figure out what to tell them. They had probably let themselves in and discovered Soonie while Seunghyun was otherwise engaged. Why oh why had his bladder betrayed them like this? How were they going to explain everything?

“I know, I called them.” Seunghyun sent him a vague smile, still in a state of surprised stupor. 

“You.. you what?” he couldn't believe it. Why would he call them when it was obvious that they would find out about Soonie? What had he been planning, to squeeze her into one of the kitchen cabinets and then turn on some loud music so they couldn't hear her screaming to be released? Not the best plan he had ever heard.

“We're overwhelmed, it can't go on like this any longer, so I called in reinforcements.” Seunghyun grinned. “I considered whether to wait for you before explaining everything to them, but then I thought, you've got enough on your plate, so I just went ahead.” he shrugged sheepishly.

“And..?” he held his breath even though he knew the guys would never do anything to knowingly create problems for them.

“They're all on board and willing to pitch in, like you'd expect. And I made Seungri promise three times not to tell Hyunsuk, and then I made him put it in writing.” Seunghyun chuckled heartily, clearly thinking he did good. 

Jiyong exhaled all his pent up stress, thankful for how lucky he was to have those four amazing human beings in his life, not daring to imagine how his life would have turned out without them. It hadn't always been a walk in the park, but by going through hardships together and helping each other reach success, the five of them had become a tight knitted family. Which was why a sneaky feeling of guilt was crawling up his sleeve, bent on swallowing him whole. Usually if they had a problem, they would have a meeting about it and solve it together, so he felt like he had been deceiving them by keeping Soonie a secret. 

Seunghyun pushed him out the door as he exited the bathroom. A nervous tingle wouldn't let his stomach alone. He straightened out as he walked towards the guys, bent on not letting it show. He was G-Dragon, stuff like this didn't faze him. 

“Watch out, she's a total menace!” he chuckled, shaking his head at how easily the guys let her control them. She was riding Seungri like a pony with Youngbae's help and support. Seungri didn't seem to mind though, galloping around, taking great leaps every so often, sending Soonie into a fit of laughter every single time. And it was not only she that laughed, Seungri glued a smile to everyone's lips with his hysterically colorful performance.  

“Are you guys staying? Should I order some food?” Jiyong asked when his stomach started composing a symphony that no one would pay to hear, giving the drained zombie former known as Seungri a light shoulder massage for his troubles. 

“Ah, no, we've got to get going, don't we?” Daesung stood up, nodding in Seungri's direction who sprang up the moment their eyes met. 

“Yeah, we've gotta go. No worries though, we won't breathe a word.” Seungri sent Jiyong a reassuring wink. It wasn't very reassuring, since Seungri had the tendency of blurting out all the wrong things at all the wrong moments. Jiyong gave him a piercing stare, Seungri's eyes widening as a worry wrinkle appeared on his forehead. Scaring him a bit would hopefully help etch it into the lining of his brain that this information was sensitive, for their eyes only. One could always hope. 

He stood up to them to the door, but only Seungri and Daesung went with him, Youngbae staying behind with Soonie and Seunghyun. One of his eyebrows shot up in surprise, but then again it wasn't uncommon for Youngbae to stay longer for some good old-fashioned hangout time. 

“Seriously though, thanks guys.” he sent them a grateful smile. As a friendly gesture, he gently squeezed Daesung's upper arm, which was pretty much like trying to squeeze a rock, it didn't budge, not half an inch. To save face he pretended to dust something off his sleeve, before his hand fled the scene, ruffling up Seungri's hair on his way out as a diversion. 

“See ya later!” he called after them before closing the front door. 

Youngbae proved to be the Einstein of babysitting, inventing methods that revolutionized the way Jiyong saw the caregiver role. Fascinated, he tried his best as Youngbae's new apprentice. Youngbae made it look so easy, Soonie following his every lead. But when it was his turn, it all somehow went terribly wrong, giving him a newfound respect for Youngbae and his teachings. 

Seunghyun hung back, acting more withdrawn and weird than usual. Jiyong couldn't but wonder if this was the first crack in the cozy, little glass bubble that they had created for themselves. They had lived within it in a perfectly balanced symbiosis, that now had been thrown completely out of wack. They were like fish out of water, trying to walk with no legs in this new, scary world. 

“Okay, I'm completely out of batteries.” Jiyong dramatically declared as he lay down on the floor, Soonie climbing on top of him as if he was Mount Everest in the flesh.

“Fooood, I need fooood.” he cried out. A short while later, Soonie stuffed his mouth with something plastic. He pried it out, scowling at the lingering taste of the plastic. It was a toy burger. Aww.

“Thank you, snuggle muffin.” he beamed, hugging her to pieces. Youngbae giggled brightly. 

“Seriously though, I need human food or I'm going to disappear into the void in my stomach. What are you in the mood for?” he asked Youngbae. Seunghyun had disappeared to somewhere. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen him for at least the past half an hour, maybe longer. His heart sank at the thought that Seunghyun didn't feel comfortable enough to hang out with the three of them, getting a valuable lesson from Dr. Baby Genius, he sure could use one. 

“Mmm...” Youngbae frowned after an awkwardly long pause, like he was trying hard to get out of a pickle without ruffling any feathers. It was weird, because normally they were like close brothers, never as relaxed as in each other's presence, able to tell each other anything without the slightest hint of awkwardness or judgment. It felt like he was holding something back, but what? If he didn't want to eat, why didn't he just come out and say so?

Frustrated, Jiyong stood up to see if there was anything edible in the kitchen. For some reason he glanced in the direction of Seunghyun's bedroom on the way, stopping in his tracks as if he had hit a brick wall. Seunghyun was nowhere to be seen, instead a dashing movie star exited his room in style. Tall, dark and handsome didn't start to cover it. He was wearing a flashy suit he had never seen before, radiant blue, making his eyes pop. His shoes were so shiny, he started to think they were made from some kind of mirror-material. Had he put on makeup? He looked like he was posing for a photo shoot, and doing a damn good job at it too. His short hair was perfectly molded, darker than the darkest of nights, making him look like a million bucks. No, even with a million bucks one could never obtain anything as exquisite as the prince standing before him. It was as if he had leapt right out of one of Soonie's books, a fairytale coming to life.

“C'mon, move your tight little heinie, we're going on a date!” he commanded with the air of authority. It was a total transformation from the awkward dork that had vanished into thin air earlier. Jiyong was not hating on it. It wasn't that he didn't adore the dorky version, he loved spending time with the world's most loveable oaf, pingu Tabi. It was just that he rarely got to meet this mythical creature that was Bond, Seunghyun Bond. He usually didn't get to spend much time with actor Seunghyun, being much more familiar with the slightly shy, but always cool Big Bang Seunghyun, and a little too familiar with the extremely clumsy casual Seunghyun. 

“Huh?” the blood in Jiyong's veins came to an abrupt halt at the word 'date', causing him to turn paler than a transparent cloud. Every one of his skin cells started tingling, like they were coming apart at the seams. He couldn't think properly, painfully aware of Youngbae's presence, his gut contracting as the thought 'has the time finally come?' circled round and round in his head, like he had been expecting this. Had he? Had he been waiting for this? Did he want it to happen? Should he go along with it even though he wasn't sure where he stood in all of this? Should he ask that they discuss it before committing to something as drastic as going on a date? What if he went and didn't like it?

His face must have been showing everything he was thinking, for Seunghyun added with a chuckle “Obviously not an actual date date... just you and me, going out of the house, no work stuff, no Soonie stuff, just us, hanging out, taking a mental health break.”. He smiled his brightest. What a sweetheart. He had actually listened to him. Jiyong resisted the urge to melt into a warm pool of mushy feelings.

“Hah! Yeah, course.. hah... as if.. heh..” he forced out a painfully fake sounding laughter, trying his best at pretending the thought that he was for real never even crossed his mind, when it couldn't be further from the truth. He waited for the refreshing feeling of relief, he had dodged the biggest bullet he had ever faced in his entire life, but he couldn't ignore the sinking feeling in his gut.

“But you said you needed more alone time, you could take some right now, I've got Youngbae to help me with Soonie, so you could go off to loner-land worry free.” he tried to step up and show that he too could listen, but instantly regretted his offer.

“Nope, we're going on a date!” Seunghyun declared unfazed, leading the way to the door.