“Hoseok-ah..” he pleaded as his hands tried to cover his eyes . Taehyung was sitting on his bed when a sudden figured appeared in front of him, a tad bit too close for his liking. In attempt to cover up the sudden rush of blood he felt, he had decided a childlike appearance would suffice.

And thus giggles erupted from the younger boy’s lips as his arms wrapped them around Hoseok’s waist.

“What? I’m not doing anything, silly”.

A bright smile was plastered on his face as he tried plugging off the arms around him. Of course, that wasn’t as easily done as said. The younger boy was clinging in an uncomfortable position, his face pressed against Hoseok’s stomach and the latter knew it he wouldn’t be let free anytime soon. He plopped them both on the bed, landing on their sides as a shriek left the clinging boy.

“Taehyung, let go. You’re clinging”. Taehyung shook his head, his lips pouting in the process. “This boy..” Hoseok muttered under his breath as he shook his head. Taehyung slowly released his friend and looked at him innocently.

“Sorry hyung”, he said, his voice sounding small and light. A hand ruffled his hair and he chuckled. Hoseok looked at the boy next to him and smiled. He forgot what he even came to disturb Taehyung for. He was a master in distraction really. It didn’t help that Hoseok’s attention was easily distracted in the first place. Call it the attention span of a 2-year-old. He wasn’t complaining, he’d remember it whenever it was of importance again.      

“Hyung, do you remember when we first moved into the dorm?” Taehyung looked at him questioningly. The sudden question urging him to think. Hoseok’s thoughts left the present as it went back over the recent few times he had been in his room in the dorm, all the way to the first time he had chosen a bed in the house. At the time, he didn’t really have much choice other than choosing either the bed he was laying on, which belonged to Taehyung, or the bed across the room, which was his current bed. Namjoon being the leader and all, fully abusing his right to choose first. After Jin of course. Or Yoongi for that matter. That boy and Mrs. Sleep were married way before Namjoon could walk, talk or even breathe anyway. Real love still exist, he guessed and shrugged, a small chuckle leaving his lips.

“What are you laughing at hyung? Tell me, tell me”, the younger boy ushered him wriggling his hands uncontrollably as he felt himself curious for some storytelling. Hoseok laid his hands on Taehyung’s, as to get the boy to stop moving as much. He felt him relax under his touch and saw that as his cue to start.

“Yoongi. Sleep. Do I need to tell more?” A knowing chuckle left Taehyung.

“Remember when I was so determined to sleep in the same room as Namjoon and Yoongi?”

“Yea, you were totally on top of them. You gave them no room to breathe, in hope they would take you into their dorm. Really hyung, why were you even so persistent to sleep with them?” Taehyung asked raising his eyebrows in question.

“You know, how I.. kinda back then. I was new into rapping and they were at level A-ma-zing for me at the time. I hoped by sleeping in the same room I could magically steal some of their rapping and writing skills of course”, he stated matter of factly, thinking how absolutely dumb he sounded for even thinking that sharing a room would somehow make him do things better. Of course he had to work for it, hard work at that. Blood, sweat, tears and all the bunch. He laughed at his naive younger self. At least he had the bright spirit, right?

“Silly hyung, you’re a good rapper. You’ve improved a lot in the meantime. At least now you don’t write ‘hakuna matata’ in your lyrics anymore” he giggled and stuck out his tongue before earning himself a smack on the head.

“Shut up. It sounded good to me at the time, I have no regrets, you hear me!” Hoseok poked his cheek. It was soft, a bit squishy.

“Hyung, what are you doing?” the deep voice startled him. Hoseok hadn’t realized how he had started staring at the boy, studying his bouncy cheeks with the tip of his fingers. A soft sigh left his lips as a smile tugged his lips.

“Your cheeks are bouncy”.

“Sometimes, you’re so weird you know that?”

“Leave me be. You’re the one to say, Alien”. A frown crept its way on Taehyung’s face.

“Don’t call me that. I’m human, just like you”. He began disliking the word the more he heard people around him describe his being with it. Somehow, it left a tinge of displeasure when he heard it, though he knew it was meant endearingly for his public image. It wasn’t a pleasure to hear it within his private life, within his own dorm, within the 4 walls he called his home.

“I don’t like it. You’re my friend, I don’t want to think you see me as weird” he followed, the frown slowly leaving his facial expression being replaced by a blank one. At least, they were friends because they connected in some way, liking similar things and talking about topics they both found interesting, having lots of things in common, right? He reasoned with himself, his friend seeing him as an alien would be the same as them not really being friends. Because Hoseok was seeing him as different instead. This left another frown on his face.

“Don’t frown Taehyung-ie, you’ll get wrinkles.”  

He didn’t even notice when he had started hugging Hoseok again. This time he was determined to cling on to the older boy.

“Hyung, I like you”, he muttered as he snuggled closer to the boy, “you’re really my best friend”.

“Should I feel honored now?” an exaggerated laugh could be heard before a comfortable silence filled the room. Hoseok saw the younger boy struggling to keep his eyes open. They had a rough schedule. He was probably dead tired, especially with promotions up ahead. Hoseok patted his head.

“Sleep Taehyung-ah.” He felt himself getting drowsy as well and decided 5 minutes of napping wouldn’t hurt anyone.   

The door to their room opened just when his eyes were about to close, Jimin’s head peaking inside. He glanced between the two boys on the bed before shrugging.

“Guys, time for practice. Kookie and I are ready, hyungs went outside already”, he stated and the door went shut.

“Fine. At least we had a few minutes of rest”, Hoseok muttered before getting up, a clinging Taehyung waking up in the process, both dragging their feet out of the room for practice.