Chapter 8 - Friendship

 

The trip back to Seoul was quiet, Jiyong tried to many times to break the silence but nope…even the process of changing his diaper was weirdly quiet. Jiyong pouted when they finally reached the apartment. SeungHyun put him down and started preparing a little dinner for the two of them. Jiyong walked towards his hyunng with a heavy heart.

 

“How many times?” Jiyong asked as he looks up at the towering hyung.

 

“Step back GD you don’t want hot oil splutter to get to your eyes.” SeungHyun replied lifelessly. Jiyong just bit his lips and leaned against the wall, safe enough distance but not too far from huyng. SeungHyun can see from the corner of his eyes Jiyong’s sadness. He can’t keep this up so he looked at the little boy who as busy mumbling something at himself. “hey?”

 

“I asked you how many times.”

 

“could you be more specific?”

 

“Times you went to our stock room? What do you do there?” Jiyong asked.

 

SeungHyun lowered the fired then gently tossed the pan holder on the counter. “twice a month…”

 

“why? It’s dusty there, it’s dark and….why?!”

 

“Cause I want to constantly remind me of my roots…when I’m pressured by fame or when I’m stressed out or feeling too overwhelm…I go down there, take out my boxes and check for something. I always see something new again that reminds me of who I am…something keep myself grounded….reminding me of all the beautiful memories and hard earned lessons I learned throughout my life.” seungHyun answered.

 

Jiyong felt really guilty now, he totally had forgotten and neglected his past with seunghyun.

 

“Turtle?” Jiyong asked, SeungHyun shook his head in disapproval.

 

“You don’t have to force yourself Ji…I know we’re not that close anymore and I know you equivalent my position about treasuring the past with weakness.”

 

“no it’s not…I’m not forcing myself…TURTLE!”

 

“what?! SHELL???” SeugnHyun played along, he knew that Jiyong doesn’t mean this.

 

“can you accompany to that room? The stock room?” Jiyong pointed at the door. SeungHyun tried to reject but Jiyong was determined not even budging from his place.

 

“what do you want from there? I bet you don’t remember what you’ve placed there in the first place!” Seunghyung barked back. He’s really not in the mood.

 

“Just take me there Turtle or else….I’LL CALL YOU HYUNNIE!”

 

Seunghyun’s jaw drop…Jiyong’s the only one who called him that and it struck a nerve  when after so many years he heard that dreaded nickname again.

 

The two guys went downstairs and Jiyong asked SeungHyun to take his bags out. He quickly checked his bags, discarding the one obviously not containing what he’s looking for.

 

“Ji what the hell you’re messing up your portion of the place.”

 

“ah sorry turtle I think I heard you say something but I didn’t understand.” Jiyong winked, Seunghyun laughed his head back on how Jiyong wanted to play this game.

 

“fine Shell why are we here?”

 

“I’m looking for something turtle duh?” Jiyong laughed but then shriekd hoorah when he found what he was searching for. Jiyong hugged it before dashing out f the stock room, Seunghyun was curious at first be decided to let Jiyong ran his heart out back to their place…when SeungHyun and Jiyong entered their place Jiyong quickly held Seunghyun’s big hands. “hurry hurry!” Jiyong pulled Seunghyun in the middle of the living room, sitting down and tapping the spot infront of him with his baby hands, inviting SeungHyun to join him. “sit!”

 

Seunghyun complied and waited for Jiyong’s huge smirk to disappear and start talking.

 

“promise you won’t find this weird ok?” jiyong blushed a bit.

 

“I’m talking to you in a 3 year old body…what more can weird me out Ji.” Seunghyun answered, Jiyong reveled when he heard Seunghyung call him JI again and not GD…an obvious sign his anger is disappearing. But Jiyong doesn’t want to be forgiven after his aegyo, instead he wants to earn it…to show SeunGHyun he does care…well he DID care but now promises to continually care…

 

“close your eyes.” Jiyong asked seunghyun and so the older man did. Jiyong pulled SeungHyun hands and handed him something. “ok…”

 

SeungHyun opened them and noticed a parcel on his hands, he opened it after making sure it’s not as dusty and all. He pulled out a huge notebook “What’s this?”

 

“open it!” Jiyong smiled wider and waits at SeungHyun tries to comprehend what he has in his hands. When seunghyun flipped the first page, he quickly closed it and laugh, Jiyong felt like running away..he knew it..SeungHyun’s reaction will definitely be like this. “what’s wrong?”

 

“When on earth….how… Ji?!” SeungHyun can’t pin point what should his exact words be, his tummy’s growling trying to fight of laughter and at the same time his head felt fluffy and funny at this sudden revelation.

 

“Hey cursing in front of a kid.tsk tsk….” Jiyong playfully poked SuengHyun’s dimple.

 

SeungHyun can’t stop laughing, his long fingers still trembling as it plays on the edge of page 1, his eyes turned to tiny slit and slowy a tear threatened to fall.

 

“FINE! GIVE ME THAT!!” Jiyong pouted and tried to grab back his little treasure, regretting ever showing to SeungHyun.

 

“NO!! LET ME SEE THIS ONE!!” SeungHyun stood up and took a deep breath before opening the not so little brown book Jiyong handed. It was a little scrap book, complete with Jiyong’s characteristic doodles and cut outs form random magazine letters to form the a cheesy front pager:

 

“Turtle X Shell”

 

SeungHyun laughed at this, making Jiyong flare up a deeper shade of red.

 

“When did you start doing this Ji?” SeungHyun checked out how thick it was and got a surprised that it was relatively more than 1 inch…

 

“When we met….grade school…we had a project and it involved a slambook thing…something about important people in our life….someone that influences us other than our family. I don’t have any idols then, nor I don’t look up to anyone….” Jiyong hesitated, but Seunghyun needs to know so he looked away before continuing --- “I don’t look up to anyone other than you hyung.”

 

SeungHyun kneeled on one knee, gripping the book tighter… “so that’s why you kept on taking a lot of pictures back then huh?”

 

Jiyong nooded and puffed his cheek, SeungHyun couldn’t resist to pinch Jiyong’s nose.

 

“So this was your project?” SeungHyun asked, Jiyong shook his head.

 

“a part of it, yeah” Jiyong explained as he goes back to his little forgotten box of memories, tiptoeing to grab something. “but you know that my other passion if taking pictures right? I do a lot of it…well used to…and also I like…that.”

 

“the cheesy art of scrapbooking?” SeungHyun teased that rewarded him with a  grunt from Jiyong.

 

“IT’S NOT CHEESY!!!” Jiyong cried out, pulling out a few more…. “don’t say it’s cheesy! Look at how many cuts I went through when I was making them!” Jiyong flashed his tiny hand in front of his hyung’s face. Jiyong doesn’t need to show it, SeungHyun knew about Jiyong’s liking towards crafts and pictures.

 

“I’m just surprised that you still did this….wow…”

 

“Yup, after the project I liked it, so I continued making them updating our scrapbook then I went away…but I was happy you got in YG again and there…I started updating it in secret since you all think it’s stupid.” Jiyong rolled his eyes before dropping a few different more. “This is mine with youngbae, daesung’s…and Seungri’s.” Jiyong placed them on the floor proudly showing his works to his hyung.

 

SeungHyun can’t help but give an arrogant smile…Jiyong noticed this and was baffled at first…

 

SeungHyun laid his scrapbook beside the other three, confirming what he first noticed but had to do a double check for confirmation.

 

Jiyong rolled his eyes when he got why SeungHyun was doing this.

 

“Mine’s the thickest.” SeungHyun proudly said.

 

“Of course! Duh!” Jiyong laughed. “You’re my turtle.”

 

“But you have your panda now and then your ever so besti…..”SeungHyun said with a joking spite.

 

“Tsk...I don’t care…You’re my turtle…my memories with you is different from the other three…ours….our is special…I will not rap if you didn’t bring me to that rap gig thingy you have—“

 

“to do my homework---“ Seunghyun laughed.

 

“Well yeah apart from that but I don’t know..argh why are you doing this to me?!”

 

“What?!”

 

“making me cheesy..it’s disgusting.” Jiyong took back the albums and wanted to shove them back inside the box.

 

“Ji..being sentimental and knowing how to appreciate your past with people is not being cheesy…..I’m happy to know this..can I keep it?” SeungHyun asked Jiyong who nodded silently, he took a quick glance at the last page wondering when Jiyong stopped updating this memory capsule with him. SeungHyun felt a little bit disappointed, he knew it…the last update was before LIES….

 

The one song that changed everything..

 

The song that sky-rocketed them to fame…

 

The song that took the little cute shell away from the turtle.

 

Jiyong noticed SeungHyun abrupt change of mood.

 

“what’s up?”

 

“I miss you….I miss this….” SeungHyun sadly sighed as he flips from one page to another… “I miss my shell…”

 

Jiyong felt guilty….he realized he changed so much that he had forgotten what it was like he used to be when they were kids…he wanted to grow up and to be a huge rapper and succeed that he didn’t even think twice when he was asked to change. He never even batted an eyelash when he dropped his past and sadly it included his memories with this amazing friend.

 

“The shell’s…..the shell’s still here anyways…”

 

“Why did the dragon let go of it?” SeungHyun raised his eyebrow…

 

“Well…the dragon was a little bit hesitant---“

 

“Hell no, that dragon was selfish and took the turtle’s shell and shove it to nothingness.”

 

“I know…that dragon right?”

 

“You just realized?”

 

“I did….I hate that dragon.”

 

“me too….well I think I hate it more than you do. Is the shell still ok?”

 

“Yup after some fight the dragon realized how important it is to fly low and put his feet on the ground….and look back….back to those memories he left behind.”

 

“Good….cause the turtle’s been crazily cold all this time..he needs his home back.” SeungHyun smiled, leaned forward and took the books from Jiyong’s hands.

 

Jiyong was still blushing when SeungHyun took him upstairs, they were in the middle of the living room… Jiyong doesn’t know what SeungHyun was doing, all he can see was SeungHyun took out their memory drives and the photoprinter, some papers, cutters and glues..

 

“hyung?”

 

“let’s update the books, let’s update them.” SeungHyun replied happily checking his laptop for all the pictures he took realizing how many it was and how different they all look now.

 

“can we make a new one?” Jiyong asked, sitting beside SeungHyun and rested his head on his turtle’s arm.

 

“new one?”

 

“I want to make one…something with the whole group. Can we make one?” Jiyong was looking a little bit unsure but he’s been planning to do one until stardom kicked in.

 

“Sure….where do you want to start…la la la days?”

 

“Nope.” Jiyong attached one of his oldest driver to SeungHyun’s laptop, waited for it to log in…clicking folder after another…

 

SeungHyun warmly smiled when he realized what Jiyong was doing…he turned his head and gently placed Jiyong’s head against his lips…smiling and feeling touched by how his sentimental dongsaeng finally returned.

 

“Let’s go back as far as when Bigbang was 6 people.” Jiyong answered when he finally opened the pictures of them with one guy name Hyunseung. “I’m happy he’s in beast now….”

 

“Yup we all are Jiyong.”

 

“Hyung…” Jiyong looked up to see SeungHyun’s caring eyes… “you’re not gonna call me GD again will you?”

 

“Only if you deserve it…” SeungHyun winked.

 

The door opened and Daesung came in… “I’m home, seminar got cut off so yeah.”

 

In reality the seminar was not cancelled, Dae came home after receiving numerous calls from SeungRi begging him to check on the two men. “what are guys doing?” Daesung sat on the floor with them, seeing a lot of torn out pages and pictures being attached. “whoa?! This one’s ancient!!!!”

 

“yeah we’re doing a scrap book…” jiyong proudly said as he sat there on SeungHyun’s lap…his hand clasped within SeungHyun’s tight grip as the older man guides his fingers to cut along a picture.

 

“nice, can I  join? I have tons of pictures in my driver…” Dae asked eagerly, Jiyong nodded.

 

“Aish shell focus!” SeungHyun snide, they almost cut YoungBae head off.

 

“sorry….” Jiyong smiled and rested his head against SeungHyun’s chin…

 

Daeusng jumped up and went straight to his room, taking out 3 drivers and putting it on his laptop. He started browsing and got amazed on how they change. “man seungri really looks like a worm back then---“

 

“HEY!” Jiyong shouted, SeungHyun just laughed when Daesung cried out that he stands up on what he thinks.

 

Jiyong turned around and look up at SeungHyun, nearly spilling the glue on his hyung’s shirt. “Hyung you don’t think SeungRi look like a worm right?”

 

“He’s face is droopy…come on!!” Dae cried out….

 

“I can’t…I don’t know…” SeungHyun shook his head…

 

“HYUNG LOOK!!” Jiyong shouted grabbing a glowing thing inside of SeungHyun..

 

“IT TICKLES!!” SeungHyun took out Jiyong’s hand outside his shirt and took out the pendant.

 

“COOL!!” Dae quickly went closer to the two…. “SUCCESS!!”

 

“2 down…5 more to go.” SeungHyun smiled at Ji…Jiyong shook his head in disbelief.

 

“Let’s take a picture of this one! It’s a nice memory!!!!” Jiyong took SeungHyun’s phone, handing it to Dae and positioned himself in the middle while giving out a big V sign with both hands. “Smile!!”

 

SeungHyun smirked cunningly as Dae count 1 to 3…and when “3” came...the picture was perfect…

 

A shocked Jiyong with his mouth wide open as his face got squished when the two men decided to both kiss each of his cheeks, perfectllly sandwiching his fluffy cheeks at the last minut. SeungHyn was giggling and offered a high five to daesung and congratulated him for getting his subtle wink. Jiyong covered his face hiding the blush splattered all over.

 

“SeungRi will kills us.” Daesung said as Jiyong instructs SeungHyun on how to attach their picture on the wall.

 

“Yeah or I think maknae will not held himself back if he decides to draw doodles on this one.” SeungHyun laughed when he stepped back to see their newly hanged photo.

 

“Hell let him be jealous…even youngbae…they chose stupid gwangju before me!” Jiyong yawned. SeungHyun picked him up and  Dae followed as they all went to SeungHyun’s room to tidy up their little leader.

 

After some time….

 

“So that’s nice to hear…” Youngbae answered SeungHyun from the other line. Daesung was now busy reading his bible while Jiyong’s asleep. “though it’ll be the second time I heard it…”

 

“It was amazing Bae, Ji was nice and I didn’t know he still cared that much….” SeungHyun was now busy browsing their newly updated scrap book. “I’m just thinking Ri will kill me and Dae when he sees our last picture.”

 

“I better get myself out of the house then so if a case comes up I can never be dragged in as a witness.” YoungBae laughed.

 

“How’s Ri?” SeungHyun asked.

 

“Well he was worried the whole day, he tried calling you up but you won’t reply.” YoungBae checked on Ri who was now snoring to his heart content.

 

“I’m sorry we got busy. How did he take the news of Jiyong’s new achievement?”

 

“He was happy..but I think he got jealous on you though.” YoungBae chuckled. “kinda kept on stressing he was the first leaf…”

 

SeungHyun rolled his eyes. “whatever, anyways I want to ask you something…” SeungHyun jolted straight and Daesung lowered the bible….

 

“Hyung?” YoungBae asked.

 

“Shh…” SeungHyun and Dae eyed at each other, and when the crying sound got louder the two men flinched. “Oh men…..” SeungHyun was about to stand up.

 

“No let me hyung.” Daesung stood up and went straight to SeungHyun’s room, seeing a crying Jiyong. SeungHyun watched as Daesung feed Jiyong his teether but the baby just threw it away and continued crying while he’s asleep. “oh man…he’s been doing this every 30 minutes.”

 

Dae and SeungHyun’s eyes were dark already, being woken up by Jiyong every 30 or worse 5 minutes.

 

“Hyung??” Youngbae asked again.

 

“ah sorry…well that’s what I was gonna ask you about. Jiyong’s not sick and for the past days he never cried while he’s sleeping right? But right now…he’s been doing it for every 10 minutes and the longest is an intermediate of 30….what should I do?”

 

“You fed him?”

 

“yes.”

 

“changed him?”

 

“yes, even applied the lavender lotion he loves…and yes before you ask I did check if it’s toddler compatible and it is.”

 

“maybe he’s not used to in your room take him to SeungRi’s…he’s been sleeping with SeungRi since night 1, I heard baby’s are like that they look for their mom or dad when they sleep….” YoungBae suggested.

 

“no cause that mean either me or dae will have to sleep in Ri’s room…I can’t sleep there, and Dae doesn’t want to.”

 

“how about this….um just a suggested ok?” Youngbae looked at the maknae totally oblivious.

 

“What? I’m desperate I want to sleep..” SeungHyun yawned. Dae stood up and gave him a thumbs up.

 

“I wonder how long will this one last?” Dae wanted to sleep too…SeungHyun pointed out a finger so he’ll stop talking as he carefully listen for YoungBae’s advice.

 

“Bae are you sure this will work?” SeungHyun went inside SeungRi’s room, Dae closed behind him.

 

“It worked to my nephews and nieces.” YoungBae laid besides SeungRi talking in a lower tone.

 

“Ok I’ll try…”

 

“Pick one that you know---“

 

“I know. Thanks ok, that’s just an update and you go sleep now.” SeungHyun bid Youngbae goodbye.

 

“Yup yup…night.”

 

“what are you doing hyung?” Dae asked as he watches SeungHyun took off the cover of SeungRi’s laundry basked.

 

SeungHyun felt disgusted at first but sighed…. “well bae said this works….” He took out one shirt and smelled it.

 

“Hyung!?!?” Dae was taken aback at how serious SeungHyun was when he smelled Ri’s used shirt. SeungHyun quickly handed Dae the red shirt. “what?”

 

“Smell it…it smells like ri right? Bae said not to use the one he goes out with and puts perfumes on…choose a shirt that he used at home and rarely puts cologne nor perfume on.” SeungHyun was glad that SeungRi’s shirt doesn’t smell bad at all….but warm and fuzzy.

 

Dae shook his head.

 

“Ah just smell it with your big nose!” SeungHyun shoved the shirt under Dae and hesitantly gave in…giving three  quick sniff. “so?”

 

“yeah it smells like a freshly woken up SeungRi.” Dae rubbed his nostrils as if the friction will take away the smell.

 

“Good.” SeungHyun then took one of SeungRi’s pillow with him.

 

~~WAAAH~

 

Dae and SeungHyun jerked when they heard Jiyong crying again.

 

“seriously? It’s not been 10 minute.” Dae scoffed as they both made their way back to SeungHyun’s room, Jiyong’s eyes were shut but he was crying…

 

“This better work bae.” SeungHyun asked for Dae to lift Jiyong’s head and quickly replaced the pillow with one of Ri’s then placed the shirt in front of the sleeping/crying Jiyong. He wrapped Jiyong’s tiny hand on the shirt and strategically placing it so Jiyong’s next breath of air will come with maknae’s scent.

 

SeungHyun held his breath when slowly…

 

Jiyong stopped crying, mumbled something and then….hugged the shirt tighter..

 

“wow…” Dae was amazed, so was SeungHyun…. “He looks way peaceful now.”

 

“yup….he totally does…” SeungHyun rubbed his right index finger against Jiyong’s cheek….thanking youngbae and Ri’s used shirt for he is sure now he’ll have a good night sleep.

=====================================

Oh man..lol XD now i'm confused, it's like Baby Jiyong can be paired to anybody, he's just a good mix to anyone...so he learned about valuing his friendship and past....awwe.. T^T..well sorry my fingers have the mind of their own so i'm also getting surprised as i type =)...so well now here's the last update for today...next week i think will be the next batch (i think?)

 

Again i'm sorry if my grammar waswrong or typos...I'm still sneaking in to edit thisand since mom went to japan today so yey! :)) i have no one to nag me on getting my nose on the book.

btw..again LOVE TO HEAR YOUR COMMENTS!! :) makes my mind come up with newer ideas. =)

2 down 5 more to go. :)