What was that delicious smell? Jiyong sniffed around trying to determine where it was coming from. As if by magic, he started to be able to see the contours of the dynamic stream of olfactory particles slithering through the air like an invisible snake. He followed them mesmerized, going through every twist and turn to discover their origin. Then he saw it. A huge Be@rbrick was waving to him from a hot tub. The scent trail he had been following was coming from the tub. Wait. It wasn't a tub, it was a giant coffee cup. Coffee! That was the smell. Freshly ground, scolding hot coffee with such a deliciously deep aroma that each and every one of his cells were screaming for it. He wanted it, he had to have it. Even though there was a human size toy bear bathing in it. As he came closer, the bear started chuckling hoarsely. It sounded exactly like Seunghyun. 

Not realizing they had been closed, he fought to open his eyes. Disorientated, he sat up. He was in Seunghyun's bed and Seunghyun was sitting on the edge of it, chuckling as he held a cup of coffee in front of Jiyong's outstretched hands, keeping it just out of reach. 

“Wow, the coffee force is strong with you! You reach for it even in your sleep, like a built in reflex. It's actually a bit creepy to see your body move without anyone in control of it, like a coffee zombie!” Seunghyun sniggered as he took a sip right in front of him. “Mmm” he murmured, looking like he was in seventh heaven, a real life coffee commercial. Jiyong was not amused. This was not his idea of funny. He was tired, and a long way from having forgiven him. He sent him a death stare until he relinquished that marvelous liquid of life. 

Feeling the warmth spread through him as he took a long, glorious sip of what could only be called perfection, he began to return to the realm of the living. The cloud of annoyance that had been threatening to rain on his brain cleared, the sun appearing as if somebody had flipped a switch in his head. Ah, Seunghyun always had the best coffee money could buy. He had such a taste for the good life, and his hermit tendencies lead him to bring the pleasures right to his doorsteps instead of actually going out to experience what the world had to offer. 

“You don't think one cup of coffee is going to fix everything, do you? I mean, yeah it's really good coffee, but..” Jiyong peered his now fully awake and focused eyes at him, his heart's wounds still fresh and throbbing. 

“Fix everything...?” Seunghyun wrinkled his eyebrows.

“Yeah, I'm not just going to pretend it didn't happen. You left. You left me. I desperately needed you, and you just left.” he clenched his teeth, hissing the words at him. He was more heartbroken than angry, but he sure as hell wasn't going to let Seunghyun know that. 

“Oh.” the ghost of understanding visited Seunghyun's face.

“Yeah, oh.” Jiyong spat at him, working up a roaring fire in his chest, ready to let the flames Seunghyun's heels on his way out as he fled his wrath. 

“It wasn't like that. I was just going out for some air, but as I was thinking about how frighteningly unqualified we are, not knowing the first thing about taking care of a kid, a real life kid!! I realized we had an expert right in front of our noses. My mom. Like, of course! So I went back home and talked to her, she gave me a ton of good advice and awesome tricks, and she's going to e-mail me some more later.” he calmly explained, clearly impressed with his mom, sending him a tired smile. His eyes were puffy, like he hadn't gotten any sleep. 

“In the middle of the night?” Jiyong frowned, his voice full of doubt. For all he knew Seunghyun had gone to an all night karaoke, partying with some cute girls. Or boys. Maybe he had a boyfriend and had spent the night with him, using his mom as his cover. He didn't trust his words. He couldn't trust his instincts about Seunghyun anymore either. Last night had made him realize he didn't know him as well as he thought he did. They weren't best friends, best friends didn't bail on each other at the first sign of trouble, especially if they were the ones to get you in trouble in the first place. No. They were just colleagues from now on, he told himself stubbornly.

“Yeah, well, it was nearly morning when I got there, but mom usually gets up pretty early so she doesn't mind.” Seunghyun shrugged, sticking to his story. 

“And you TOLD HER?!” Jiyong panicked. This was a potentially career ending secret they were sharing, and he just went around advertising it?

“What, no! I told her a friend of mine was having a hard time, that his ex-girlfriend had just showed up on his doorsteps with a baby, out of nowhere, telling him the kid was his and leaving him in the lurch. It's a good story, right?” Seunghyun grinned proudly. 

“Eh, not really. Everyone knows that when you tell someone a story about 'your friend', it's really about you. What if she figures it out? It's more than suspicious that you would risk waking your mom up in the middle of the night for some random friend.” he bit his lip worriedly. It was not that he didn't trust Seunghyun's mom, it was just that things had a habit of leaking out. The more people that knew, the bigger the chances of something going wrong.

“How could she possibly figure it out?! Where would I have gotten the baby from?!?” Seunghyun pointed out, his voice high pitched and dramatic, like it was the most preposterous idea he had ever heard.

“From your ex-girlfriend, obviously! Since the story would be about you!” he retorted, irritation poisoning his words. Had Seunghyun just failed to connect the dots in his own story, or was it really impossible that he could have a surprise baby out there somewhere, a little bingu clone? For that could only mean one thing. He got a pang in his chest. It hurt every time he thought about the likelihood of Seunghyun being gay. He didn't care whether he was or not, but the fact that he hadn't confided in him really stung. How could he not trust him enough to tell him something so important about him? Maybe he was just imagining things. Maybe his gaydar was faulty. Maybe.

“Oh, right. Yeah, sure. Uhm, I'm pretty sure mom didn't take it that way. Besides, she would never breathe a word to anyone.” Seunghyun awkwardly reassured him. So his mother knew he was gay then? He told his mom, and not him, his best friend? It bothered him more than he had realized. He got that coming out was a big step, but it wasn't like he would be coming out to the world, it was him! How could he not know that he was fine with it, that by telling him, he would receive nothing but support from him? The uncomfortable seething mix of emotions in his gut felt like they were going to boil over at any moment.

“But why didn't you call me and let me know? Do you know how worried I was? I was beginning to think you were dead in a ditch somewhere! Or worse, alive and just ignoring me!” he almost yelled at him. He couldn't hold back the frustration he was feeling.

“Sorry.” Seunghyun pouted guiltily. “Agh, when I got the idea, I was so excited about it I didn't think of letting you know. And then my phone died. Come on, you didn't really think I had left for good, right? You do realize that you are at my house, and we're kind of dependent on each other for our livelihood, you know, a little thing called Big Bang? It's not like I could just up and leave and you'd never see me again.” he added, a silent chuckle showing up on his face.

“But awww, it's sweet to see that you would miss me so much.” he giggled in a cutsie voice, pinching Jiyong's cheeks with an obnoxious smirk, totally full of himself. 

Jiyong smacked his hands away, “Shut up!”. He didn't have anything more intelligent to say, because as much as he hated to admit it, Seunghyun was right. He had overreacted last night. The exhaustion and helplessness exaggerating his emotions, he had gotten lost in a temporary mist of overly dramatic thoughts that had clouded his vision. Of course Seunghyun hadn't left him, never to return, that was ridiculous and not very Seunghyun-like. It had been a bastard move to take off without saying anything, but that was the extent of Seunghyun's crimes. He didn't deserve to be exiled for that alone. He was going to have to forgive him. And what was worse, Seunghyun's joke hit the bullseye. He had missed him beyond belief. He needed him, and not just to help him take care of Soonie. Wait. Soonie.

“Where's Soonie?” he asked as he got out of bed.

“Playing.” Seunghyun pointed to the living room with his head. 

“What? With no supervision?” he panicked, running out of the room to find Soonie in the middle of an impenetrable fort, the inner walls made of pillows, taped to chairs that lay sideways on the floor. Seunghyun had built a prison, an isolation cell where Soonie couldn't hurt herself even if she tried. It was actually pretty genius. As a smile took over his lips, he could feel his mood change colors against his will. He had already forgiven Seunghyun, despite having planned to punish him a little longer. He didn't deserve exile, but letting him off easy would set a bad example. Ah, he wasn't the type to forgive easily, yet Seunghyun always managed to wriggle his way out of detention, flashing that picture perfect smile of his and all was forgotten. He let out a hopeless sigh. There was no fighting it. Seunghyun's charms were supernatural and it was foolish to think that he, a mere mortal, could withstand them.

“Oh, the studio called earlier, I picked up your phone since you looked really wiped. They wanted to know if you wanted to cancel your session today as well, so they could reschedule.” Seunghyun told him. They were sitting on the couch, watching Soonie torture a teddy bear, but it wasn't Seunghyun's this time. He had stopped at a toy store on his way home, not wanting any more of his precious possessions to fall victim to Soonie the Destroyer. 

“And you told them yes?”

“No.”

“NO?!” Jiyong repeated, aghast at his incompetence. 

“You can't afford to take more time off, then what will become of our album? I don't have anything going on today, so I'll babysit. After all, she actually likes me.” he . Jiyong stuck his tongue out at him, hiding how grateful he was. It felt good to be able to rely on him. He did warn himself not to become too dependent on him though, since there was no way of telling when he would flake out again. 

Exhausted but satisfied, Jiyong keyed in the security code to Seunghyun's house after a hard days work. It was the date of Big Bang's debut. He would have never thought Seunghyun to be such a sentimentalist, he smiled to himself. Against all odds, today had been a really good day. Last night's heightened emotions had been the inspiration for a new song, a real hit, he was sure of it.

The moment he stepped inside, his blood froze in his veins. He dropped his keys. Struggling to breathe he ran inside. Everything was upside down, the place had been trashed. They had been burgled!