Chapter 15- Puppy Love

YoungBae was busy figuring out how to tumble the last 3 pigs in his game when---

“Jingle bell….jingle bell---“

YoungBae stopped paying then looked down at his lap to see SeungRi’s head layin on it with his eyes focused on the manga---who was happily singing this Christmas song.

“Jingle bell rock—“ SeungRi sung,

“Rock!” SeungHyun surprised YoungBae too when joined Seungri in singing.

SeungRi looked up at SeungHyun, playfully smirk before continuing with his random caroling--- “Jingle bells swing and jingle bells ring—“

“Yo yo!” SeungHyun interlude; making YoungBae giggle…

“Dancing and prancing in jingle bell square~~~” Seungri sung with eyes closed---

“IN THE FROSTY AIR~~~” the three bigbang sang together---making the three laugh at themselves.

“haha, aigoo—that was fun---aish I miss laughing like that.” YoungBae sighed at the site of the other people in the dancing room quite far from them. (Jiyong’s condition forced them to be isolated for now).

“what I miss is Jiyong---ah I wonder what he’s doing now---“ SeungRi hugged his manga.

“Eh you miss him you two were just together a few hours ago---“ youngbae tapped SeungRi’s forehead. “Jiyong even nearly pulled out your hair roots if my memory serves me right.” Youngbae and SeungHyun laughed.

“What I miss is having to eat lunch without jiyong crawling in front of me and showing me that puppy dog eye---like seriously he turns in to like puss in boots in shrek when he wants to eat what I am having!”

“wooh hyung complain and complain but still you order things you know Jiyong won’t help but asked to share and be fed…admit it you’re enjoying it-“ SeungRi playfully stick out her tongue and the three burst out in laughing once more.

The practice room suddenly became quiet, everybody’s taking a break and somehow all of them were lost at their own little worlds. The dancers are speaking in groups and YoungBae can swear that he heard one of the kwon twins gossip about possible places Jiyong was spotted.

Sheesh if only you guys know--- YoungBae smirked as he plays with his smart phone, SeungRi was busy reading his manga with his head on YoungBae’s lap and SeungHyun was on YoungBae’s left  browsing through some online stores. The three members promised to keep close to one another so as to avoid anyone asking them  separately where Jiyong could be.

Just a safety plan that oddly made the whole Bigbang production team confused and isolated from the main members. YoungBae put down his phone and pouted at the distance between them and the rest of the crowd.

“Aish this is hard---“ YoungBae gritted his teeth.

“Why are you bored with us huh?” SeungHyun pouted at the younger one who immediately shook his head, “hehe…good.”

“But I think everybody’s starting to speculate where the hell Jiyong is…we can’t hide him forever.” YoungBae leaned his head against the mirror walled harder than expected and accidentally banging head against it. “Ouch! Tsk.”

SeungHyun laughed, “it’s better than risking hanging out with them just to ease drop, we all know the last time we tried to cover each other assess we ended up being YG’s resident janitors for a week---“

“More of me being the resident janitor while you four are appointed supervisors---and literally you just supervise and watch---“ SeungRi looked up at SeungHyun then rolled his eyes. “YoungBae hyung don’t worry ok, we definitely can’t keep Jiyong like that so until then we’re all stuck with one another.”

“Aaah…” YoungBae bit his lower lip in frustration before randomly looking at SeungRi and quickly playfully tugged the younger one’s hair.

“OUCH!!!” SeungRi pulled off YoungBae’s hand off “MY HAIR STILL HURST DAMN IT.”

“haha, just checking if your roots are still intact after Ji turned that to some sort of a jungle bar.” YoungBae giggled.

“IT’S NOT FUNNY OK!” SeungRi sat up and slammed his manga on the floor. “BESIDES YOU JUST KEPT ON LAUGHING AND DIDN’T HELP AT ALL!”

“What? I didn’t know Jiyong’s scared of early baths---he was like a cat trying to get away from a puddle of water!” YoungBae was laughing so hard and to the point he can feel some tears from his eyes. “how did you even managed to get him a bath?”

“Oh yeah, I never heard such a little kid curse like that---aah what the ! Why do I have to go and take  a bath this early—ah ! Ah !  Ah ----jerk---what—“ SeungHyun laughed along YoungBae as the reenact SeungRi’s face when Jiyong climbed on top of his head and turned the maknae’s hair into some sort of long vine he can climb on.

“But Ri really, I can never force Jiyong to take a bath---even if we’re talking about his time before all of this hoopla---“ YoungBae asked.

SeungRi stopped reading then covered his face-----took a deep breath then gave out a muffled reply---

“what?!” YoungBae pulled the manga off of SeungRi’s face…SeungRi suddenly felt like shrinking as the two older hyung overlook on top of him: SeungHyun naughty one eyed raise and YoungBae’s sincere curiosity expression. “look I want to know because in case in the future---“

SeungRi finally sighed, cleared his throat and answered: Simple---I took a bath with him.

“WHAT!?” YoungBae and SeungHyun nearly shouted, catching everyone’s attention on the room. SeungHyun lowered head quickly, YoungBae waved his hand to tell everyone ‘sorry’ and also ‘mind your own business’ and SeungRi grabbed back his manga and continued to read as if nothing happened.

“wait you took a bath with him?” YoungBae asked slightly feeling uncomfortable; hell all things that involved skinship makes him uncomfortable.

“yeah---he said he will not go there without someone with him---I understand, we ….you know…because of his condition, we---ermm—we change him right so he kinda felt fed up of being exposed all of the time so i—“

YoungBae quickly covered seungri’s mouth, SeungHyun just felt lost- “Maknae----just….just shut up.” YoungBae blushed.

“I am so not giving Jiyong a bath---“ SeungHyun chuckled.

SeungRi’s eyes grew big and he sat up hastily that he nearly hit YoungBae’s chin, “Wait Hyung! I…OF COURSE I STILL HAD SOMETHING ON! AH! THAT’SWEIRD! AIGOO!! I’M NOT HYUNG!” He cried out while hugging himself as if protecting himself from xray visions being thrown at him by the two other men. “I AM SERIOUS! THAT BAD WAS INNOCENT! ARGH! WHY DO I EVEN HAVE TO DEFEND MYSELF!”

YoungBae and SeungHyun slowly started to find SeungRi’s panic funny that they didn’t notice that someone was already standing right in front of them. The maknae started shaking youngbae’s shoulder and begging for them to believe him when suddenly:

“Defend what?”

The three stopped joking around, all of their muscles suddenly contracted because they all know who’s voice belongs to.

“Everybody OUT!” the man said, the three hooping to be included at the word ‘everybody’ stood up as fast as they could and joined the leaving party but then—

“AAH!” SeungHyun’s collar was grabbed from behind and being the random eldest quickly grabbed YoungBae’s arm who in return pulled SeungRi’s hair.

“NOT YOU THREE----“ the voice said, slowly the three bigbang slowly looked at who was tugging them to give out sheepish smile…

“Morning boss.” SeungRi smiled ear to ear---making YoungBae want to kill the maknae right there and then.

“tsk.” Hyunsuk replied.

-------------on the other hand---------

“KYAAA! THAT’S NOT RIGHT!!” a girl cried out pulling Jiyong to sit still—“WHY DO I ALWAYS HAVE TO MAKE YOU SIT STILL HUH!”

“WHY DO I ALWAYS HAVE TO REMIND YOU THAT I DON’T WANT TO BEAROUND YOU HUH?!?” Jiyong barked backed and squinted his right eyes as a cold finger covered with pink paint dabbed against it. He closed his hand into a fist and tried to chant something random to calm himself down.

“HAHA! THERE YOU GO!!!” the girl gave out a huge smile before calling out her girlfriends who are busy playing princess who are having a teacup. “HEY MINRI LOOK!!”

“uwa!!! Youjin that’s so cute!!!! Yonggie looks so cute with the heart shape on his cheek!” the spectacle wearing girl pointed out.

“heart?!?!” Jiyong pulled out the nearest mirror and saw in horror what Youjin just wrote…or draw…or whatever. “AISH!” Jiyong finally stood up and was now puffing and huffing. I AM SO KILLING DAESUNG FOR ENROLLING ME IN HIS DAY CARE FOR A WEEK NOW AND WITH YONGGIE AS A STUPID ALIAS. He glanced up at the wall clock to see that it’s already 4:30 pm, time to go home.

“awe…mom’s gonna be here any minute now!” Youjin crawled and grabbed her gray teddy bear. She gave out a huge smile before standing a few cm from Jiyong. “You’re cute! That’s why I like you!”

“eh----yeah….BUT YOUJIN YOU DON’T HAVE TO WRITE THINGS LIKE THIS…let’s talk…” Jiyong grabbed Youjin’s hand, “look I know we’ve been hanging out for a week now (JUST BECAUSE MY MEMBERS SAY I SHOULD), but I’m….I don’t think I can hang out with you anymore.” Jiyong was trying to make himself clear, he even started lowering his voice so as to not make anyone obvious by how fluent he is actually. “So please, tomorrow I don’t like sitting with you for lunch—I don’t like being around you can’t you see?”

Jiyong paused and was expecting a cry or even a slap (if daycare kids know how to slap that is), but then Youjin just batted her innocent eye lashes and tilted her cute doll like hair. “umm youjin, do you get it?”

Youjin smiled wide in an instant and then--- “YONGGIE!”

She surprised Jiyong with a huge hug confusing Jiyong more. “I knew it! Me too I like you!”

“huh?! Wait…huh!?!” Jiyong noticed that Youjin was hugging him too tight that the heart shaped painting on his cheek was now getting into Youjin. “what are you talking about!?!”

Youjin pulled away, “well mom said that if a boy is always mad at you for no apparent reason and he say he can’t stand to be around you like what you said before---“

“uh-huh?”

Youjin held her breathe--- “WELL THAT MEANS THE BOY LIKES YOU!! A BOY WHO ALWAYS PICKS A FIGHT WITH A GIRL MEANS HE LIKES HER!! OH YONGGIE I LIKE YOU!!”

Jiyong felt like his world came tumbling down. “what the hell!?!?” he whispered.

“Ah!! Mom’s here!! Bye boyfriend!” Youjin pinched Jiyong’s cheek “I can’t wait for the Christmas play!!! I can’t wait to be juliet and you’re romeo

“I’m sorry but I was told I’m gonna be angel Gabriel.” Jiyong wanted block the girl’s enthusiasm, if sarcasm already exists in a kids head.

“Nope! I’m gonna ask ms. Michi, she’ll understand! See you tomorrow yonggie, oh and I love our lunch today! Tomorrow I like red beans….byebye!!...” Youjin started running towards her mom with her tiny hands on her backpack, she passed by Daesung who she gave a quick bow before turning around to wave at a frozen Jiyong a last goodbye. “Boyfriend red beans ok!!”

Eh!?Jiyong wanted to slap himself.

---back in Daesung’s car---

“Puwahahahahaha!! OH MY GOD! OUR LITTLE BABY NOW HAVE A GIRLFRIEND!? DOES MOMMY SEUNGRI EVEN APPROVE OF THAT?!” DaeSung joked around.

“SHUT UP!” Jiyong kicked Dae’s thigh, but just made the dongsaeng’s thigh jiggle a little. “LIKE THE HELL THAT’S WHY THERE ARE SO MANY ED UP WOMEN RIGHT NOW! WHO ON EARTH GIVES ADVISES TO A LITTLE GIRL THAT IF A BOY’S MEAN TO YOU HE LIKES YOU!”

“actually most mom says that to their daughters.” Dae reaches out at the lower side of his car door pocket and took out a cd, “ah this one’s better---“ Dae played the cd and increased the volume, slowly the car was filled with a nursery rhyme that made Jiyong cover his eyes and scream.

“NOT THAT FREAKING SONG AGAIN!! YA! DAE I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO THAT SONG FOR THE WHOLE DAY NOW!”

“Hyung, that’s your Christmas presentation song you really have to practice you know---“ Dae took the curve and noticed his phone was blinking.

“I’M NOT STUPID I KNOW THAT SONG ALREADY! JUST!! AAH!!” Jiyong kicked up in the air but the baby sit was stopping him from wreaking havoc that he used up too much of his energy that his limbs suddenly became dead weight. “First I have that stupid daycare to deal with, now that Youjin girl who thinks I’m her bf…and now that stupid play…DAE I…I SHOULDN’T HAVE THESE PROBLEMS! I ALREADY HAVE ONE HUGE ONE ON MY HAND AS OF THE MOMENT!” Jiyong waved at himself from head to toe.

“Look hyung, bigbang’s being busy now, after all we’re lucky that fans are giving us another chance, we can’t do any more shifting to guard you and we don’t trust anyone about this secret except one another.” Dae explained, “I know you feel as if your time’s being wasted in there, but don’t ever think for another second that we’re also not scared of the past 7 or 9 days we left you there and instead of trying to help you fix yourself.” Dae sighed as he reassuringly rub Jiyong’s legs. “But this is the set up we can squeeze in..maybe you’ll learn something from the day care and the reason you just can’t seemed to gain one is because you’re not giving yourself ample time to see what it can offer.”

“you sounded like a used car salesman.” Jiyong looked away, he was being feisty and sarcastic intentionally because deep inside he know what Dae is talking about…everyone’s busy---except for him. He noticed Dae was looking quite intensely on his phone. “what is it?”

“YoungBae hyung said to meet us up in the cafeteria----as if we don’t do all the time we pick you up.” Dae tilted his head in wonder.

“wow…maybe something is up.”Jiyong bit his thumb as he watches the seoul skyline turn a little bit darker now.