It was two weeks already for Sungmin and Kyuhyun been in relationship. They decided to go out as they confessed their feeling already, and it seemed like Sungmin’s brothers didn’t bother with it. Kyuhyun, as mysterious as he was, didn’t tell anyone about it. He liked to be with Sungmin, but he didn’t like it when he had to talk out about their relationship. He thought it was a waste time, so he just let it be. When people thought they were going then let them be, and when people thought they were just friends then just let them be. Kyuhyun was so simple that Sungmin have no complain about him.

Now they were having date after class. Today was Sungmin’s day off from Heechul’s café so he accepted Kyuhyun’s wish to have a date after school. Since the day Heechul kissed him, Sungmin had never really talked to the older. He didn’t know how to start conversation so he kept silence, but he felt like a if he kept silence. But he didn’t get the right time to talk out about it, and Heechul was avoiding him as well. He didn’t tell Kyuhyun about it because he knew Kyuhyun would rampage and destroy Heechul’s café and of course he would tell Sungmin to stop working there, but Sungmin owed Heechul a lot he couldn’t just left the café. It was complicated. How he hoped he could talk to Heechul again.

“Say Sungmin, what do you want to eat?” Kyuhyun asked as they walked their path along the Myungdong Street. Kyuhyun asked Sungmin to company him buying a new headphone because last night when he played his lovely StarCraft, he couldn’t hear a single sound from his old headphone. So he bought a new one that day. Actually that was only one reason for them to be out to date. He really want to go date with Sungmin but the smaller was really busy with his work.

“Erm… anything spicy? I want to eat jjampong.” Sungmin shyly talked back, haven’t used to voice out his wants at all. “But if you want to eat something else, we should eat whatever you want.”

“I’ll eat anything you want to eat.” Kyuhyun chuckled as his cute boyfriend as they searched for the Chinese restaurant. Before they could find the restaurant, they stopped by an accessories shop. Kyuhyun said he wanted to buy something for them, a couple thing for them to wear around, the first couple thing for them. Sungmin just followed him around, sounding out his thought about everything Kyuhyun shown him. He wasn’t a picky type.

When they walked around the shop corner, Sungmin stopped on bracelet section. He could be said fall in love in the first sight with a couple bracelet which had a white star and a black star on the center of it with a brown string tied to star’s sides. It was simple but beautiful. Kyuhyun, being a sweet boyfriend he was, saw that and went back to Sungmin’s side. “You like it?”

“H-huh?”

“I see you’re seeing the bracelet. What do you like?”

“U-um… I like the star one…”

“Oh, I like the black one!” Kyuhyun picked it up and tried it on his wrist, then he picked the white one to try on Sungmin. “You suit white the best, Sungmin.” Kyuhyun smiled to the latter. Sungmin, the other hand, was blushing like crazy. Kyuhyun was really handsome when he smiled. “Let’s buy it? Our first couple thing.”

All the time they were walking until they found the Chinese restaurant and ordered the jjampong, Sungmin couldn’t stop staring at his new bracelet. He was very happy to have this as their first couple thing, so he really treasured this. “Thank you…” Sungmin said slowly after their meal came. “It’s a nice date we have today. And you even buy me a bracelet and jjampong. Thank you very much.”

Kyuhyun smiled. He didn’t know why he could smile so much around Sungmin. He was asked to smile a lot around his parents but he couldn’t do that often. But with Sungmin everything impossible turned out to be possible. He even spent so much money because he bought new headphone, but it didn’t matter. He was really crazy to save his money before. “Thank you for accompany me today.” Kyuhyun ruffled Sungmin’s smooth hair. Why were his lover so cute? He was really lucky to have him. “I hope we’ll go on date like this very often though. But I understand you have to feed your family, so don’t feel burdened by it, okay? Just say whenever you get day off, I’ll bring you out somewhere.” They laughed their hearts out at this.

“I’d like to go on date with you again soon, boyfriend.”

“Ooh… now you call me your boyfriend, huh?” Kyuhyun pinched Sungmin on his cheek. “Look how elastic is this.” He pulled on Sungmin’s cheeks like it was some rubber toy made Sungmin squealed in pain.

“Why are you abusing my cheeks?” Sungmin cried as he rubbed his reddish cheeks. He was really cute. Kyuhyun chuckled at his cute boyfriend who whined in pain as he feed the smaller boyfriend jjampong from his bowl. That made Sungmin stop whining though.

“Ah, didn’t you say you buy a cellphone? I want your number.” Kyuhyun pulled out his phone from his pocket, eagerly watching Sungmin who had this sheepish smile on his face as he showed his new cheap phone. It was from his own money so he was very proud of himself. It had camera although it wasn’t that good, at least it could use to call someone. “You didn’t buy the touch screen one? It’s easier to use you know.”

“I can’t afford that.” Sungmin shrugged. “I buy this because Minseok said he needed to call me when Jinki can’t make it to his day care. And Jinki said I’d need it in case something happen in his school. Sometimes I think Jinki is older than me…”

“Well, he sounded like one, though.” Kyuhyun laughed. “I mean, he showed me his masculine side and said everything in adult like way, and he even greeted me like my dad’s secretary. It’s all adult like but I like it.”

“Well, he behaves older than his age, anyway… I’m happy he has friends he can talk to.” Sungmin smiled. Talking about his brother always could bring his smile up. He liked it when he talked about Minseok and Jinki, and he liked it more to talk about his brother to Kyuhyun. He knew the latter had no siblings so showing him the feeling of having brothers was interesting. Kyuhyun seemed like to talk about them too, especially Minseok.

Kyuhyun was happy to have Sungmin’s number. Now he didn’t have to worry about Sungmin anymore because he could call his lover anytime he wanted. It was torture for him to not be able to talk to Sungmin outside the school. He always wanted to know when Sungmin finished his part time job or when Sungmin went back home. But now he could ask that things.

Just when Kyuhyun gave a call to Sungmin to let the latter know his number, another phone call came. Sungmin didn’t have the number on his contact though, but he still accept the call. It was Jinki’s homeroom teacher. Apparently something happened to Jinki so his homeroom teacher asked Sungmin as his guardian to come to school. Sungmin went panic and immediately went to Jinki’s school as soon as he could. Kyuhyun was with him because he couldn’t let Sungmin went alone like this—he needed to be calmed.

----

Jinki sat on the couch inside teacher room. He was lucky he had no scratch on his body, while his friend beside him had this wound on his knee. It happened so fast he couldn’t think anything. He was really afraid his Sungmin hyung would walk in to the room with red eyes and hard face—how could he go home? He didn’t want to face his brother but his teacher asked his brother’s phone number so his brother would come whatever he was doing. He felt sick all of sudden.

The door of teacher room opened to show the worried face of his brother. Sungmin ran to his brother as he walked in, hugging the younger boy to his embrace, feeling relief because Jinki was okay. He thought bad things on the way to Jinki’s school because his teacher didn’t say anything about this call, so he couldn’t help but feeling anxious of Jinki’s condition. He let go of Jinki, but the latter didn’t say anything. He even had his head low although Sungmin was checking all over his body.

“Lee Jinki’s guardian?” a tall man Sungmin known as Jinki’s homeroom teacher called him to sit on the chairs across his own chair. Sungmin told Kyuhyun to keep Jinki accompany as he talked with Jinki’s teacher. He took a seat on the chair, waiting for the teacher to talk about it but apparently he had to wait for other guardian to start the talking.

Ten minutes later, a woman in her thirties walked in with the same worried face Sungmin wore a while ago, immediately hugged the boy besides Jinki who were sitting there stiffly, then the woman took a seat next to Sungmin’s. “I’m sorry to call you in your busy hour, but today we found that Jinki and Donghyuk fought on school’s ground.” Sungmin inhaled sharply at this. It was the first time he heard that Jinki fought with his friend, because he knew Jinki was avoiding this kind of things to prevent him worried over him. So what did make Jinki broke his own promise?

“Apparently Jinki is the one who push Donghyuk and Donghyuk has this wound on his knee but we have treated his wound, but could you please tell them to not letting things like this happen again? I still don’t know how this happened, but I will ask their friends about it.” Sungmin nodded, but the woman beside him was furious.

“You have punish that boy!” the woman almost shouted and that attracted the boys on the couch. “What if he pushes other student? We don’t know what he’s thinking.”

“I’m sorry mam, but he is only twelve.” Sungmin couldn’t stop himself for speaking. It was his brother this woman was talking about. She went out of line. “It’s not like he tried to kill your children with a knife or a big rock. Kids sometimes fight but eventually they will make up. There’s nothing to worry about.”

“There’s nothing to worry about?” the woman had her eyes wide open when he saw Sungmin. “You kid know nothing. I have to bring my kid to see if there’s something wrong with his knee. What if he had crack on his knee? Will you pay for it? What are you doing here anyway—where’s your parent? Your parent should teach you and your brother manners!” Sungmin felt his heart had a hole. Well maybe he had no parents, but he knew he taught his brothers right. His brothers had manners, and they didn’t behave badly even in the house.

“S-ssaem…” small voice interrupted the two’s fight from the door—it was Jinki’s friends, Jonghyun and Minho. They looked afraid but they entered the room with push between them. They lowered their head as their teacher had his way towards them, even making his eye as high as theirs.

“What is it?” the teacher asked while his hands busy ruffling two boys before him.

“Ssaem, I’m sorry… it’s not Jinki’s fault.” Jonghyun said in sad tone Sungmin even frowned with him. “It is because I accidently stepped on Donghyuk’s painting. Donghyuk got mad and stepped on my painting, but Jinki came and helped me. But then Donghyuk stepped on Jinki’s painting instead and Jinki got mad and he pushed Donghyuk until Donghyuk got the wound. I’m sorry…”

Sungmin knew it was only because of small matter. Kids always liked that. They fought over small things, then made up the day after. He didn’t understand why this woman had to say bad things about Jinki like that. He had heart—Jinki might hear it too.

“Thank you for telling me the truth, okay? You may go home.” The teacher smiled as he let the boys go out the room before he went back to his place. “I think a little punishment for them is needed. I’ll talk to them so they’ll forgive each other, and the punishment will be pull out the grass on the backyard, is it okay?”

----

Sungmin hugged Jinki tight. They were home, and it was night already. Minseok had fallen asleep on his futon, while Jinki did his English homework on the short table in the living room with Sungmin as his tutor. Jinki was silent all the time from they walked back home, and Kyuhyun said it must be because he felt ashamed or angry. But Sungmin knew Jinki was feeling sorry for what he did today. So he gave him a hug he usually gave whenever his brothers had this disturbing feeling.

“Are you feeling better?” Sungmin asked as he face his brother who exhaled deeply. The older comb the middle Lee’s hair slowly, giving him comfortable feeling. “I was so worried earlier. Don’t fight with anyone else, okay?”

“…okay.” Jinki pouted. He only showed his cute side when he was with Sungmin. Probably because he felt like a big brother whenever Minseok was around. “Hyung?”

“Hm?”

“Thank you… for not angry with me.” Jinki played with the hem of his shirt as he said so. He was feeling shy and feeling sorry in the same time. “I’ll say sorry to Donghyuk tomorrow.”

“That will end everything, right?” Sungmin gave his little brother a kiss on his temple. “Say, why did you push Donghyuk? Isn’t he your friend?”

Jinki went silent. He was drawn for a moment before he lowered his head again, feeling shy all of the sudden. He knew his brother wouldn’t laugh at his mistake whatever he did, but he still felt shy. “It was… the painting.” Jinki said sadly. “I painted our family. It was kind of hard because I don’t really remember dad and mom’s face, but I painted it at least. But Donghyuk destroyed it… so I got mad and pushed him. But I regret it now.”

Sungmin was stunned. Jinki did his best on drawing because he knew Jinki liked drawing, but hearing him drawing their family where his parent was no longer living was… breaking his heart. No wonder Jinki got so mad. No kids in this world would say still if their treasure got destroyed like that. Jinki broke his promise with a reason Sungmin could accept. It was harsh for him actually.

“I want to show you my painting, but… hope I can make it when we get a painting class next week.”

Sungmin hugged Jinki tighter. He couldn’t stand it. Jinki was only twelve—how he could hold his feeling when he painted his family? Even Sungmin still cried whenever he remembered his mother’s face. “Just tell me when you need more colors to paint, okay?” Jinki nodded and gave his older brother a kiss. Just much his little brother would suffer because he had no parent? Sungmin wished he would be an adult soon.

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To Be Continued