Seunghyun walked to the door, smiling as he heard Jiyong to continue fussing in the kitchen. He opened the door to find Chris and Charlotte there with their three children as well as a few other neighbors behind them.

“Hi.” He stepped aside, holding the door open wide. “Please come in.”

They all smiled and thanked him as they walked into the house. Seunghyun looked up the street to see another small group walking towards the house. The man smiled and waved as they turned up the walkway.

“Hey there neighbor.” He held his hand out, giving the rapper a strong handshake. “Im Ryan and this is my wife Mellie, and our daughters Chloe and Jen.”

Seunghyun smiled. “I’m Seunghyun, it’s nice to meet you.” Not seeing anyone else for the moment the small family followed him into the house, the the kitchen where everyone else was talking.

“Ji Ji.”

Jiyong’s head fell back as he sighed overdramatically. “Yes?” He looked at Seunghyun. “Oh, hello!”

Ryan and his family smiled at Jiyong and greeted him together. Chris smiled. “Ryan and I work at the county garage fixing up school buses, police cars, and stuff like that. Our Josh is in the same grade as Chloe.”

Jiyong smiled. “This really does feel like a nice, close community.”

Mellie smiled at him. “It is, and it’s a relief to see a nice group living here. The tenants that have lived here over the last few years have either been sketchy, or grumps that didn’t want to talk to anyone. It’s a breath of fresh air to see such polite young people here.”

Seungri looked out the window and began to laugh. Everyone else’s eyes followed and they all saw Gaho had jumped into the pool to swim with Charlotte and Chris’s kids, who were shrieking with laughter.

A woman with red hair, named Lacey, laughed. “Your dog seems energetic.”

Bae smiled. “All three of them are pretty hyper. Where are the other two at though?”

He turned to look at the tattooed rapper, who shrugged after he took a photo of Gaho. “Are they still in the house?”

He set his phone on the island counter and walked into the hallway. “Jolie! Homie!”

The two dogs came bounding towards him from the living room, panting and wagging their tails happily.

Jiyong jogged outside, the dogs following excitedly. Seunghyun followed his lover, with the other guests accompanying him. Jiyong was standing at the edge of the pool trying to get the other two dogs to jump in, to no avail. Seunghyun walked up behind him and pushed him into the water, causing everyone to break out in laughter. Jolie and Homie jumped in after Jiyong, who had just resurfaced and was pushing his hair out of his face.

“Well then!” He was smiling. All three dogs were swimming around him, making sure that he was all right. The kids swam over, smiles on their faces.

A little red haired boy, Billy, swam close to Gaho, petting his head. “Your dogs are silly!”

Jiyong chuckled. “Yeah, they are pretty silly, huh?”

“What are their names?” A girl named Gemma asked.

Ji pulled Gaho closer to him. “This one is Gaho. The other one,” he pointed to Jolie who was swimming after Homie. “Her name is Jolie. Her collar is purple, Gaho’s is this dark blue green color. Homie has the black collar.”

Billy looked at Homie. “That’s a bulldog right?”

Youngbae smiled at Billy’s parents. “He’s very smart.”

They beamed at the compliment. “He loves animals. He wants to be a vet. Is that one yours?”

“Homie? Yeah, he’s mine.”

Jiyong climbed out of the pool and walked up behind Seunghyun. He wrapped his arms around him, laughing when the elder jumped at the sudden cold of Jiyong’s body. “Ya! Ji Ji you’re all wet!”

“Well duh! You pushed me in the water! This is fair, I could push you into the pool instead.”

Seunghyun turned and put one arm around Jiyong. “No, this is ok.”

The younger rapper smiled as he rested his head against his lover’s chest. “That’s what I thought.”

Charlotte smiled at them. How long have you two been together? With the way you act with each other, I want to say it’s been a long time.”

Jiyong chuckled. “Only about 6 months actually. We’ve known each other for years though. I guess that how long we felt something, but didn’t do anything about it makes it seem like we’ve been together for a long time.”

“6 months?! Is that really all? Wow!”

They were all laughing when they heard the doorbell again.

“I’ll get it!” Youngbae called as he walked into the house. Jiyong untangled himself from the taller man and walked over to the cooler to get a soda. Youngbae came back after a moment followed by Edna and her husband.

She walked over to Jiyong and offered a small smile. “This is a nice way to get to know everyone.”

He smiled back. “Yeah, we thought it would be a nice and easy way to interact with people. And everyone seems to be enjoying themselves.”

Edna looked into the pool at the kids swimming with the dogs and Ji noticed a few parents had joined them.

“I’d say this is a successful little get together. Did you plan all this?”

The rapper smiled. “No, this was a last minute thought I had yesterday morning while we were unpacking the last things. I wanted to do something nice.”

Edna touched his arm sweetly. “Oh honey, I love that you guys moved here. This alone puts you so high above all the previous owners of this house. This is such a kind thing to do. I love seeing when people want to get their community together, especially in a way that is so welcoming and generous.”

Seunghyun walked over to them, his shirt still damp from where Jiyong had hugged him.

“Edna, this is Seunghyun.”

She pointed to Seungri. “I thought that was his name?”

The elder rapper laughed. “Yeah, there’s two of us. Most people call him Seungri since they don’t want to say our name and have us be confused to who they are talking to.”

She nodded. “I see. Well, you all seem very polite.”

Seunghyun smirked. “Only sometimes.” He picked Jiyong up and jumped into the pool holding him.

                ^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^

Everyone made small talk throughout the rest of the evening and people were in and out of the pool.

By the time it was dark, there was almost no food left and they felt very comfortable with their neighbors. Daesung, Youngbae and Seungri were cleaning up dishes and food in the kitchen, while Seunghyun and Jiyong were in the back yard cleaning up the extra chairs and towels.

Seunghyun stepped out of the little shed where he had neatly stacked the chairs and looked up at the stars. He breathed deeply, thoroughly enjoying the fresh night air. He smiled when he felt Jiyong snuggle into his left side and raised his arm to pull the younger man closer.

“What are you doing hyung?”

The elder chuckled. “Looking at the sky. It’s beautiful.”

“You know what my mom used to say to me when I was little?”

“Hm?”

“She used to tell me that the stars were my dreams.”

“That’s cute.”

“Yeah, but looking up right now, I feel like there aren’t as many stars as when I was little. It’s like that many dreams have died.”

Seunghyun stepped away from Jiyong and gave him a smile as he grabbed the younger’s hands, clasping them together and bringing them up to kiss each hand softly. “There may be less, but the stars burn brighter with you.”

Jiyong’s face lit up and he hugged Seunghyun tightly. “I love you so much!” Seunghyun could hear the emotion in the younger’s voice. He held him tightly and they stood like that for a few more moments before they went back into their inviting second home.

Hehe, now this story’s title should make sense with the end of this chapter. And OMG I forgot how cute-sy some of the stuff in my outline for this fic was and gods, I think I killed myself a bit XD