Jisoo had just finished with his job today, teaching how to play guitar to the kids. He didn’t expect that it would carry on until dinnertime, mostly because one of the kids’ parents came to pick him up really late. That wasn’t a problem, because Jisoo loved kids. He could teach all of them guitar until they became an adult, but the way back home to the rented apartment that he shared with his besties was rather far, suffice to say.

What made it worse was that one of his guitar’s strings broke. Sure, he could replace it with a new one, but he was too tired to go out to buy it now.

So, by the time he arrived, he put the guitar aside the first thing he did once he stepped into the apartment, and then fell right into the nearest couch he could reach.

He was probably about to depart into the dreamland when a voice suddenly called him out.

“Jisoo hyung.”

Jisoo forced himself to crack at least one eye open, and he did. A mop of pink hair was the one who greeted his sight.

“What is it?”

“Did you bring Martin to your guitar lesson again?”

At the mention of the name, he suddenly snapped both his eyes open.

Mingyu peeked into Jihoon’s room by opening its door very silently. He was sure the older boy wasn’t in the room; he saw him running with a bag slung over his shoulder this morning. He also kept saying (or maybe almost screaming), “I’m late, I’m late!” while ignoring the toast Jisoo had made, perfectly served on the dining table.

(“Can I have some, Hyung?” Mingyu pointed at the toasts with strangely twinkling eyes.

“Oh, sure.”

“Cool, thanks, Hyung!”

Mingyu took two toasts and ran back into his room, leaving Jisoo in a confused state.

“That one is for Jihoon…”)

He slipped through the doors and quickly closed it, while his eyes started scanning the room for the wanted item. It didn’t take him too long to find the thing at a corner of the room. With quick footsteps and a help of his long arms, he grabbed the thing and swiftly left the room without even making a single cracking sound.

“Jisoo hyung!”

No response could be heard from anywhere in the apartment. Could it be that he wasn’t home too?

“Hmm... I better look up the internet then...”

Just then, he heard another cracking sound, which seemed to come from the front door. It probably was Jisoo, so Mingyu immediately ran to the front door, still with the thing in tow.

“Jisoo h—”

His smile faded when he saw the familiar pink hair greeting him instead.

Jisoo started strumming the guitar in his hold, and he smiled a satisfied smile.

“It sounds really great! Thank you!”

“You’re welcome, Sir! Come anytime!”

He put back the guitar in the bag before slinging it over his shoulder. Since he brought Jihoon’s guitar to the lesson yesterday and broke one of the strings, he was quick to promise that he would change the string for the younger the next day. Thankfully, he got a good one, so Jihoon should be satisfied with it.

By the time he reached their apartment, he heard a strange loud voice from the inside. It kind of sounded like… Mingyu’s scream though?

Jisoo quickly opened the door and walked inside, only to find Mingyu huddled in a corner of the living room, with Jihoon raising a guitar above him.

“Taylor!” Jisoo shouted in panic once he realized it was his guitar Jihoon was holding, which made the two of them looked his way immediately. He rushed to get the guitar off Jihoon’s hold and looked at him disapprovingly.

“I know that I broke one of your guitar’s strings, but that doesn’t mean you can do this to Taylor!”

Jihoon, who looked wild and unforgiving just now, turned quite apologetic right away. Meanwhile, Mingyu peeked from spaces between his fingers and proposed a question.

“Hyung, can you teach me how to play the guitar? Please?”

Jihoon turned back into his menacing mode as he squatted down in front of the younger, making the taller boy somehow felt smaller than Jihoon actually was.

“Not until you gave back my toast!”

Jisoo just stood there in disbelief. Jihoon was risking his guitar at the stake of a toast?

(“Uh, Hyung, uh, I—”

“Did you steal that guitar from my room?”

Mingyu gulped once he heard Jihoon asking him that. Shyly, he nodded.

“Okay.” Jihoon just went past him without saying another word, which made Mingyu utterly surprised.

“Hyung, you’re not going to get mad at me?”

“Why should I? That’s Jisoo hyung’s guitar, not mine,” he nonchalantly replied as he walked into the kitchen.

Mingyu let out a sigh in relief. But it was short-lived because soon enough, Jihoon went out of the kitchen, fuming.

“Where is my morning toast?”

“Oh—”

“Did you eat my morning toast?”

Mingyu gulped once again before having the guitar in his hand snatched. Now Jihoon held the guitar and he was ready to swing it into the younger’s body.

“You’re dead, Kim Mingyu!!!!”)

Jisoo just shook his head in amusement. Still, he tried to comfort Jihoon by putting his arm around the shorter boy's shoulder.

“Jihoon-ah, I’ll make you another one. Don’t worry about that.”

“But hyung—”

“Jisoo hyung, please teach me how to play the guitar!”

“Shut up!”

Jisoo ended up making two toasts in the morning only for Jihoon. Mingyu didn’t get his toast this morning, but instead he got Jisoo’s promise to teach him guitar. Surprisingly, he took it as a good enough deal for him.

“Mingyu-yah,” Jihoon said in between munching the toast while looking over Mingyu fussing with the guitar, “if you steal that toast on the dining table, you’re dead meat.”

Jihoon then disappeared into his room, with Jisoo emerging from his with a book in hand.

“Mingyu-yah, take a look at this book. I used this to memorize chords and tabs, so I think it’ll be useful for you. Here, in page 3, you can see—”

“Hyung, wait a minute.” He gave the guitar to Jisoo, who looked wide-eyed, and then turned to the kitchen and grabbed the piece of toast on the dining table.

He came back to the living room while munching on the toast. Jisoo was currently holding his laughter.

“What, hyung?”

Jisoo just pointed somewhere behind Mingyu, and the younger looked like he had just seen hell when he turned his back.

There Jihoon was, with his face started turning as pink as his hair was.

“You’re dead, Kim Mingyu!!!!”