“Mom! Dad! I’m home!” you announced as you walked in through the front door.

“How was your day today?” asked your mom.

“Pretty good, I guess. I got a perfect score on one of my exams so my teacher told me I didn’t have to come in on the last day of classes to take the final exam since it’s just meant to help other people raise their grades anyway.” You shrugged.

“That’s wonderful sweetheart! You should be more excited! How about we all go out to celebrate that day? We could also pick out a dress for you to wear for your graduation next week.” your parents were always shocked as to why you were never happy whenever you accomplished something. It seemed like everything you ever did, you just brushed off.

The door opened and in walked six boys. Your brother Wonshik was the first to walk in followed by his best friends. They were all laughing about some joke Jaehwan had made when your dad interrupted them. This was why you didn’t like telling your parents about your accomplishments.

“Son, did you hear what your sister did today?”

Your brother was silent, but his friend Hakyeon spoke up, “What did you do today? Something great, I assume.” He’s been Wonshik’s friend the longest of the five so he already knew and understood how Wonshik acted around you.

You stayed completely silent and stared at the ground.

“Come on sweetheart. Tell the boys the good news.” Your dad coaxed.

“I got a perfect score on my test so my teacher told me I didn’t have to take the final exam.” You shrugged.

All the boys except your brother walked up to you to either hug you or, in Sanghyuk’s case, high five you. You began blushing because of all the attention you were getting from your brother’s friends.

Wonshik cleared his throat. “That’s cool. Hey guys, the game’s upstairs. Let’s go.”

Your brother and his friends ran up the stairs. This was why you didn’t like telling people your accomplishments. Your own brother didn’t even care what you did. Why did anyone else matter?

~

You were in the living room studying when your dad walked in and sat on the couch next to you.

“Are you mad at your brother?” he asked.

“Why would I be mad? I’m used to it.” You replied without looking up from your textbook.

Your dad sighed, “Well since you’re not mad, would you mind going upstairs and telling the boys that dinner is ready?”

“Not at all.” You put your books down and went up the stairs. You reached your brother’s door, but hesitated. Wonshik didn’t seem to like you much and you didn’t want to make it worse by interrupting him when he’s with his friends. You took a few deep breaths and just when you were about to knock, you heard your brother speak up.

“No! None of you can date my little sister. I refuse!”

“Why?! She’s so cute and smart. You know she’s my type.”

“She is cute and smart. She deserves way better than you bozos.”

“WE ARE NOT BOZOS!”

“Whatever, I still refuse to let any of you date my little sister.”

“I’ll win her over. You just wait and- OW!”

“You’re not allowed in my house anymore punk.”

“Come on I go to the same school. I’m in her class too! If I don’t someone else will!”

“Who? I want names Hyuk!”

You couldn’t believe how protective Wonshik sounded. It always seemed like he couldn’t care less about what you did in life.

“Wonshik calm down man.”

“I can’t Kong. My little sister is gonna do great things in the future. You know she won a Women in Engineering award her first year of high school? If a boy gets involved her life could get ruined.”

“You’ve told us about the award a billion times. Sounds like you should just be her bodyguard.”

“That’s the plan.”

Now he wanted to be your bodyguard? You wanted to keep listening but you knew it was wrong and your parents would probably wonder what took so long. You took one deep breath and knocked on the door. Taekwoon opened the door and smiled down at you as if he knew you were listening the entire time. You gulped and hoped he wouldn’t tell Wonshik. The wink he gave you told you it would be your little secret.

“I, um, dad wanted me to tell you that dinner’s ready.”

“Okay, we’ll be down in a bit.” Wonshik said, looking really invested in whatever game they were playing.

You don’t understand what compelled you to walk up to your brother and give him a kiss on the cheek, but you did it anyway. He looked away from his game to give you a questioning look. You just shrugged and smiled at your brother. “I love you bro. Thanks for everything.”

You turned to walk away and made eye contact with Sanghyuk. You never knew he liked you until today. He was a quiet kid in class and usually only talked to the weeaboos about Naruto. Since the day you met him, you thought he was really cute. You stood there frozen for a while before you realized how much you were blushing and ran out of the room. You hadn’t noticed that he was blushing too.

“Punk I swear if you-“

“I didn’t do anything I swear!” Sanghyuk had never spoken to you before. Even though he spent a lot of time at your house, you were always studying or he was always in Wonshik’s room. Even if Wonshik would kill him, he was determined to win you over.

~

Dinner was just as it always was, your parents trying to prompt you and your brother to have a conversation together. On most days you didn’t care to speak at all because you thought your brother wouldn’t care. Now you knew that he really cares even if he was still pretending he didn’t.

“Kids, we’re going to go see a movie tonight. Please behave.” Your mom announced, excusing both your parents from the table.

“We’ll be fine mom. Have fun!” your brother responded.

“We will. Love you kids”

“Love you too!” both of you responded to your parents.

When your parents went out the door, you turned and smirked at your brother.

“Wonshik, is it okay if I borrow Hyuk? I still have to take a math test and I know he’s pretty good at it.”

“What?! This dummy good at math?”

“Please?”

“Well….we’re all studying then! It’ll be good for us right guys?”

You watched as your brother’s friends complained at Wonshik’s sudden idea. You smiled because you knew he did it to protect you. Then you turned to look at Sanghyuk who was staring at you from the moment you spoke up. You smiled at him and motioned he follow you to the living room. You both sat down next to each other and opened up your textbooks.

It was only a matter of time before-

“HAN SANGHYUK! GET YOUR TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROOM! WHO SAID YOU COULD SIT NEXT TO HER?!”

Wonshik was a great brother.