When Taekwoon and Sanghyuk arrived at the outdoor basketball courts after their lesson on Friday – Taekwoon had actually praised Sanghyuk this time on his scales, then turned right around and scolded him for not being able to demonstrate the difference between delicato and estinto – Hongbin was already there, practising his three-pointer shots. It was getting to be properly autumn and it was chilly out, so all of them were dressed warmer than usual for until the game got going and they warmed up on their own.

Taekwoon dropped his bag and rummaged around in it, finally finding what he was looking for and sliding the hairband onto his head to keep his fringe out of his eyes. Hongbin cried out in recognition as he jogged up to meet them, accusing eyes on Taekwoon.

“So that’s where that went. I was searching high and low for it the other day and you had the nerve to say you didn’t know where my hairband was.”

Taekwoon just shrugged shamelessly and sat down on the court to wait for the others, leaning back on his hands and watching the court lights switch on as the evening darkness fully descended on them. It was starting to get dark earlier and earlier these days and Taekwoon didn’t like it. The tail-end months were his least favourite time of the year because one: they were cold, and two: they were cold.

Hongbin pretended to ignore Sanghyuk as if he was still mad at Sanghyuk quitting the team earlier in the week, Sanghyuk half-laughing and half-begging for forgiveness as he hung off Hongbin’s arm, Hongbin trying to shake him off in dramatic mock anger. It was clear Hongbin had a soft spot for Sanghyuk, and Taekwoon smiled to himself as he watched them wheel around in circles, playing out their little dramatised breakup.

Sungjae arrived a few minutes later, soon into Hongbin and Sanghyuk’s improvised drama which had bloomed into a full-fledged soap opera with Sungjae acting the man Sanghyuk had left Hongbin for, borrowing bits and pieces from famous dramas and being so ridiculous Taekwoon couldn’t help laughing out loud at them. Finding new friends was one thing, but finding new friends that were in sync with your own nonsense was like finding a huge ginseng root in an empty field. It apparently didn’t matter that Hongbin had never met Sungjae before as long as he was someone who would unquestioningly jump into character as the conniving rich secret lover of his real-life best friend who was acting out a painful, tearful breakup with his basketball senior as a metaphor for his real-life ‘breakup’ with the college basketball team. Good stuff.

It took a little over ten minutes for the others to finally arrive, Hakyeon looking predictably like he’d been forced to come, Wonsik, and – Jaehwan, waving at everybody. Taekwoon sat up, eyes immediately flicking to Hongbin. Oh, boy.

“You don’t mind that Jaehwan’s here, right? He’s really good, we were playing the other day and he kicked my ,” Wonsik shook his head, apparently the only one there who hadn’t noticed Hongbin’s eyes go wide at the fact that Wonsik had actually gone to play basketball without Hongbin, and not even because Hongbin couldn’t make it, but clearly because Hongbin hadn’t even been invited. Taekwoon watched Hongbin process this information, Wonsik blissfully unaware of the approaching danger, and when Hongbin’s face settled into a smooth mask Taekwoon felt a strong twinge of apprehension. He knew what Hongbin looked like when he was mad, and sad, and worried, and scared, but he’d never seen Hongbin look like this. Worse, Hongbin was smiling.

“Oh, but now we’ve got an uneven number for three on three,” Hongbin said pleasantly, even Sanghyuk picking up on it and sending a secret look of alarm Taekwoon’s way which Taekwoon held, looking grim.

Hakyeon immediately grabbed his chance and raised a hand. “I’m out then.” He practically skipped over to where Taekwoon was and sat behind the court’s perimeter line, dragging Taekwoon’s and Sanghyuk’s bags with him. “I’ll be your cheerleader.”

 Hongbin’s smile didn’t falter. “Fine. Let’s split the teams, then? I get Sanghyuk and Wonsik.”

Taekwoon had to protest this, worried as he was about Hongbin. He may not care about basketball all that much but there was no way he was going to get his willingly whipped on the court. “Hey, both you and Sanghyuk can’t be on the same team. That’s not fair.”

“Let’s do it by scissors, paper, stone?” Sungjae offered, for some reason unable to sense the general atmosphere of murder, like Wonsik. Even Jaehwan was starting to look a little uneasy at Hongbin’s unflinching smile.

The teams ended up: Hongbin, Taekwoon and Sungjae versus Sanghyuk, Wonsik and Jaehwan, and the game started to the tune of Taekwoon’s extreme sense of foreboding.

They all knew Hongbin was really good, obviously – even Sungjae who was new to them had watched Hongbin in that game he’d gone to support Sanghyuk for. He was one of those born players, and Taekwoon had always wondered how come he hadn’t gone to one of the big universities on a sports scholarship because there was no way someone as good as he was couldn’t have been scouted in high school. But that was still a mystery, and Taekwoon sensed there was something mixed up in there that Hongbin wasn’t open to sharing. In any case, the bottom line was Hongbin was good. He never tried very hard when he played with Taekwoon and the others because he never really had to, for one, given the others weren’t basketball prodigies by any standard, and because Taekwoon knew Hongbin wasn’t actually that big-headed to want to beat his friends into the dust just in order to feed his ego.

Today, however, was clearly a whole new ball game in every sense of the word. Hongbin was being downright vicious.

He didn’t give the other team a chance, darting around them and almost effortlessly getting the ball away from them every opportunity he got. Sanghyuk was uncomfortably conflicted in how serious he needed to play against Hongbin – he was the only one who could at least put up some kind of defense against Hongbin though he knew sooner or later Hongbin would best him, and it was just sad watching Wonsik and Jaehwan try to keep the ball in their possession or try to score. Hongbin refused to let them. He scored again, and again, and again, Taekwoon and Sungjae hardly needing to do anything, and when Hongbin finally body-checked Jaehwan so hard Jaehwan fell flat on his back Taekwoon loudly called for a break, slapping a hand on the back of Hongbin’s neck and almost dragging him over to the water coolers back against the wall of the sports hall over on the other side of the courts on the pretext of getting water.

Wonsik had gone over to help Jaehwan up, concernedly checking if he was alright, and Sanghyuk sat down in a confused, sweaty heap next to Hakyeon and Sungjae who was finally cottoning on that something was not right.  

“What the hell’s going on?” Sungjae asked in a low voice, and Hakyeon stonily stared straight ahead. Sanghyuk sighed and shook his head.

“Later, Jae. I’ll tell you later.”

Hakyeon turned to look at Sanghyuk in surprise, and Sanghyuk shrugged. “I figured it out on my own. Taekwoon hyung didn’t tell me anything, don’t worry.”

Hakyeon contemplated Sanghyuk for a few moments, lips pursed, clearly feeling protective. “Just don’t say anything to Wonsik or Jaehwan, alright? Or Hongbin, clearly, if you value your life.”

“I do value my life, which is why I don’t know if I want to keep playing,” Sanghyuk muttered, watching Taekwoon and Hongbin at the water coolers, Taekwoon’s hand still on the back of Hongbin’s neck and talking rapidly.

“I don’t think you need to be afraid,” Hakyeon grudgingly told him. “Wonsik and Jaehwan, on the other hand…”

The two in question came over to plop themselves down facing the other three, forming a small circle.

“You okay?” Hakyeon asked Jaehwan, who winced.

“Is it just me, or is Hongbin hyung kind of mad about something?”

Hakyeon just sighed at Jaehwan’s attempt at levity, looking up at the dark sky. Wonsik was looking guilty.

“Maybe we should go?” Wonsik ventured, nudging Hakyeon. “I think I’m the one he’s mad at.”

This actually made Hakyeon laugh, though it had very little humour in it. “Oh, you think?”

Wonsik looked down at his hands and Hakyeon sighed again. He lolled his head back in order to see what Taekwoon and Hongbin were up to, and found that they were on their way back. Taekwoon had finally dropped his hand from Hongbin’s neck, and when they both reached the others Hongbin stopped and smiled at them, but it was a very different smile this time; contrite, and more dimples and less teeth.

“I’m sorry, you guys. I’ve got some stuff going on and I let it get the better of me. Jaehwan hyung, you okay? I’m sorry about that, just now.”

Hakyeon’s eyebrows were raised by the end of this little speech, matching Wonsik’s. Sanghyuk and Sungjae were still just confused, but Jaehwan smiled back warmly. “I don’t break that easy. It’s fine.”

Hongbin put out a hand to help Jaehwan to his feet and Jaehwan took it. Sanghyuk half-expected Hongbin to let Jaehwan go halfway and start laughing manically when Jaehwan fell again, but he didn’t. He pulled Jaehwan up and smiled prettily at him again, quick this time.

“Great, okay, let’s play,” Taekwoon said, clapping his hands encouragingly.

The others got to their feet too, Hakyeon trying valiantly to hide his suspicious frown and watching Hongbin like a hawk. Hongbin circled around to where his bag was lying next to Hakyeon and in one smooth move, pulled his gym sweater off over his head.

Sanghyuk couldn’t help it; he gawked. Hongbin topless was a sight to behold – broad shoulders, perfect abs and chest, slim waist – but Sanghyuk had no idea why it was happening, and it was only when Wonsik’s jaw went slack at the sight and Taekwoon turned around and actually closed his eyes in consternation that it clicked.

“Shouldn’t have worn my winter training gear, I’m burning up,” Hongbin a.k.a. genius evil mastermind said, running both hands through his sweaty hair like he was in a male model photoshoot.

“Oh, is it stripping time?” Sungjae asked delightedly, totally missing the point, lifting up the hem of his own shirt and generously bestowing the sight of his pasty, soft body on all of them such that Sanghyuk had to laugh.

“Hyuk, you too!” Sungjae cried, galloping after Sanghyuk who immediately clamped the hem of his sweater down and made his escape, using Taekwoon as an obstacle to block Sungjae from grabbing him and forcing him into unwilling . Taekwoon tried to pry both Sanghyuk and Sungjae off him, hitting out indiscriminately to remove the two madly giggling pests.

In the meanwhile, Hongbin had attacked Wonsik in the same spirit, Wonsik blushing to the gills and desperately trying to keep his sweater on and shyly avoid looking at Hongbin’s bare body at the same time. His face was flaming furiously by the time Taekwoon had managed to get rid of Sungjae and Sanghyuk and had grabbed Hongbin round the middle, hauling him away from Wonsik as Jaehwan watched, innocently laughing.

“Play nice,” Taekwoon said to Hongbin, smile on his face but warning in his eyes.

“You’re no fun,” Hongbin replied, winking, and Sanghyuk watched all this with the greatest respect for Hongbin blossoming rapidly in his chest. The man was diabolical.

The game restarted, and where Hongbin had been previously terrifying now he was positively playful. He let Taekwoon and Sungjae in more, letting them take charge of the scoring, which left him free to play defence. Defence, which in this case consisted of a lot of pressing extremely close and grabbing Wonsik around the waist and teasing the other team with possession of the ball, grinning and laughing and being generally the biggest tease Sanghyuk had ever seen in his life. He was playing dirty but adorably so, holding Wonsik back from scoring with a rascal shamelessness that Wonsik couldn’t help but laugh at and even planting a huge kiss on Sanghyuk in order to distract him when he was trying to pass the ball to Jaehwan, making Sanghyuk fall to his knees in self-declared defeat while Hongbin whooped in brazen delight and Jaehwan played along, raucously yelling a protest against such methods and making the most noise he could. Wonsik was weak with laughter and Taekwoon could only shake his head. So this was Hongbin at his most magnetic, and no wonder he had behind him a trail of broken hearts as far as the eye could see. The game was a mess – Sungjae was dramatically comforting Sanghyuk on the floor after being kissed by Hongbin, Sanghyuk pretending to be traumatised, and Wonsik was almost in tears laughing at Jaehwan and Hongbin mock-fighting over Hongbin’s cheating. Wonsik got up, still laughing hard, and barrelled into Hongbin, grabbing him and pulling him bodily away from Jaehwan, yelling at them to stop. Hongbin put up a token struggle before melting into Wonsik, raising dancing eyes to Wonsik’s and letting Wonsik hold him, Wonsik’s hands on his sweaty, warm skin.

Taekwoon turned back to look at Hakyeon, who was looking utterly resigned.  

*