Jiyong ripped open the package that had just arrived with anticipation. Soonie thought this was a new game and tore into it with him, screeching with joy. There was something about human nature and making a mess, it was a special kind of fun. Like jumping into a puddle and making a splash or having a food fight, it let loose the primitive ape inside of you, who was a forever toddler. He was delighted to discover his hunch had been right as a carefully wrapped box of limited edition cereal peaked out of the brutally butchered paper box. After quickly getting it to safety on the top shelf from the little Tasmanian devil who destroyed anything in her path, he laughed loudly, helping her tear what was left of the poor box into shreds, turning the living room into a proper dumpster. When there was nothing left to rip, Soonie dove into the pile of paper dust, throwing it in the air like it was confetti, smiling like she had just won 1st place at a music show. Silly little monkey. She was too cute.

"Uh! Uh!“ she complained when she had lost interest in the trash-confetti and pointed up at the wall.

"What?“ he asked, pretending to have no idea what she was asking for. She was pointing at the cereal box, but there was no way he was letting her have it. That was one special cereal box and he had been patiently (or not so patiently) waiting for it to arrive so he could possibly start the rest of his life. Lately, he had been thinking a lot about confessing his feelings to Seunghyun. At first he had tried to ignore the whole thing, but his feelings just kept growing and growing, like unmanageable weed, spreading into the tiniest holes and crevices of his heart, threatening to completely take over. The only way was to confess. Either the gut-wrenching pain of being rejected would act as a pesticide and rid him of the infestation in his heart, or he would accept him and they could grow a whole garden in there together. He made it sound so simple, easy peasy, but in reality he had been agonizing over this for weeks, trying to find some way to solve this without risking their friendship.

"Mmh!! Uh!“ Soonie was getting frustrated, the tears lining up in the tear ducts, impatiently waiting their turn. Jiyong was about to put his foot down, but before all hell broke loose he realized that maybe, just maybe this could be solved peacefully.

He reached for the bubble wrapped box and let Soonie get her hands on it, but while she was distracted by the wonder that is bubble wrap, he yanked the box of cereal out, leaving her with the wrapping alone. As he expected, she didn't mind at all. Fascinated with the bubbliness of the plastic, she poked and poked but didn't have the strength to burst a single bubble. After getting the cereal to safety, he returned and popped one for her. At first she was startled by the loud sound of the pop, but a moment later she exploded with laughter. Once she had gathered her senses, she waited with anticipation for him to do it again. This time he did two at once. She laughed herself silly, turning completely red in the face. It was so adorable, he couldn't but laugh himself.

She wanted to try it herself, but no matter how hard she pressed her little fingers together, the bubble didn't budge. Then he got an idea. He flattened the sheet out on the floor and stood up and jumped on it. It was like an automatic rifle had gone off, he popped so many at once. Soonie lost it, laughing uncontrollably. Wobbly, she stood up too and jumped, and it worked! After that there was no going back, the bubble-genocide had commenced, or bubble-ocide. There was no mercy, no bubble was to be left unpopped.

“Woa!” a deep, hoarse voice snuck past the bubble pops. Jiyong started. They had been laughing so hard, they hadn't even noticed Seunghyun come in. Thankfully, he had already hid the cereal, else he would have had a proper heart attack.

“I wanna try too!” he grinned, throwing his bag on the floor and running towards them, jumping as high as he could, trampling the bubbles with the energy and excitement of a kid at Christmas. They all laughed like crazy, not stopping until the last bubble was popped.

The next day, Jiyong woke up with a large stone in his stomach. It was so big and heavy, it made it hard to move. Today was the day. He tried to think about something else, but it was impossible. Even though he had been planning this day in his head for weeks, he still didn't know quite how he was going to do it. He wanted to use the cereal as bait, to kind of semi-confess, so he could see whether there was any chance Seunghyun was interested in him, and if not, save face and salvage what was left of their friendship. But how exactly was best to go about this still eluded him. If he didn't think of something genius by tonight, he was just going to use brute force and blurt it out. This was happening, and it was happening tonight. He had even asked Youngbae to babysit. The truth was that he was almost convinced that he wasn't alone in this, some days more than others. He didn't really have any solid evidence, it was just this feeling he had. There was something there. There had to be.

The moment Jiyong opened the front door, he turned into a swarm of butterflies. Each and every cell in his entire body was vibrating with excitement and terror. He had dropped Soonie off at Youngbae's on his way from the studio.

“Oh, you're home.” Seunghyun walked out of the bedroom looking like a handsome prince, still buttoning his shirt, so for a short, sweet moment it was a little bit too revealing. He was wearing a casual suit, but on him it didn't look all that casual. Jiyong's heart skipped a beat. Why was he all dressed up? Did he know this was a special night? How had he found out?

“Got a date!” Seunghyun grinned when he saw the question mark that was Jiyong's face.

“A what?” Jiyong asked, dumbfounded.

“A date!! I have a life you know.” he chuckled and gave him a wink. A wink that sent a stake through his heart. Jiyong could feel his whole world quietly collapsing around him. He thought they had been timidly flirting with each other, testing the waters before they took the final leap of faith, neither of them brave enough to actually make the jump. It had all been his imagination. Idiot. He had made the whole thing up. The power of wishful thinking. He was alone in this stupid one-sided crush of his. And now he was alone in this agonizing heartbreak, although he was too stupefied to really feel the full effects yet.

There was a knock on the door behind him.

“No!.. don...” Seunghyun exclaimed, running across the living room, but he was too late. Jiyong had already opened the door.

“Oh! Jiyong-sunbae!” Hanbin smiled widely and bowed.

“Eh.. wha...” Jiyong just stood there, frozen, while his brain pieced the puzzle together, revealing the ugly truth.

“Hyung, you ready?” Hanbin beamed at Seunghyun, all starry eyed.

Jiyong felt sick, his stomach was all twisted, but he did his best to hide it.

“Dude! I told you we were going to meet at the restaurant.” Seunghyun hissed at Hanbin, glancing worriedly at Jiyong.

“But... I always come pick you up.” Hanbin pouted, not feeling like he deserved a scolding.

Seunghyun turned slowly towards Jiyong, avoiding eye-contact.

“Heh...” he laughed awkwardly, biting his lower lip nervously. “So ehm... you uh... you knew, right?” he sent him a feeble but hopeful smile. He could see he was holding his breath.

Jiyong just nodded. That was all he had strength for. Sure, he knew he was gay. He had known for a while. What he didn't know was that not only did he have a boyfriend, but it was Hanbin of all people. He didn't know why, but it made it harder to actually know who it was. Maybe because he couldn't really hate Hanbin. He was a really hardworking, talented, stand up guy, and ridiculously gorgeous. He couldn't really blame either of them. It wasn't their fault. They didn't know about the intense feelings hidden deep inside his rapidly decaying heart. How could they? He only just found out about them himself. He was an idiot to think a catch like Seunghyun would be single. He had only himself to blame. He had gotten his hopes up based on nothing, acting like an inexperienced schoolgirl obsessing about her first crush, who didn't even know she existed. He was such an imbecile.

Seunghyun sent him a warm, deeply thankful smile. He looked like the weight of a freight train had been lifted from his shoulders, only, the train had run over Jiyong in the process, leaving him for dead.

“I'll be late.” Seunghyun informed Jiyong and pushed Hanbin out the door. Before it had a chance to close, he stuck his head through the door. “...tomorrow morning late!” he giggled with delight, sending him a teasing wink.

The sound of the door closing reverberated through the empty house. It was over. It was all over. An overwhelming need to throw up sent him running to the bathroom, where he spent the next half an hour vomiting all his hopes and dreams, which he then flushed down the drain.