“Wait, Binnie, you on for dinner later?”

Hongbin checks his hair in the side mirror of Jaehwan’s car before replying. Once he’s satisfied he bends down to look at Jaehwan through the open passenger seat window.

“I can’t, I told you, remember? I’ve got to pick up Sanghyuk at the train station.”

“Oh , is that today?” Jaehwan leans towards Hongbin. “Your mother must be going crazy.”

Hongbin rolls his eyes. “She hasn’t stopped cooking for the past two days and every other thing out of is ‘my baby’ this and ‘my baby’ that. I’ve been relegated to distant relative status.”

“Hey, we should go out together soon, welcome him home,” Jaehwan suggests. “God, I haven’t seen him in so long. I can’t believe he’s already done with his first year of uni. Awww!”

“Don’t you start, hyung.” Hongbin says flatly. “Enough of this fawning over my little brother. He’s still the tiny scrawny brat that used to follow us around and never gave me any peace and hero-worshipped you. That’s the only reason why you like him, isn’t it? He fed your enormous ego.”

“I keep telling you that I’m not as terrible as you think I am,” Jaehwan sniffs, affecting hurt.

“Try that on someone who hasn’t known you since you were ten. I’ll text you, okay?”

Hongbin jogs up the stairs to his third-floor apartment to the sound of Jaehwan driving off, wondering if he’ll be able to get in a nap and maybe a bit of studying before the whole family goes to pick Sanghyuk up later. The moment he opens the door, however, he is greeted by a mop into his hands.

Hongbin stands in the middle of chaos. Everything he can see in the living room and kitchen has been turned upside down, his sister giving him a doleful look from where she’s been made to get down on her hands and knees to wipe the floor.

“Go put down your bag and get mopping,” his mother orders. “How can my poor baby come back home to this mess, I ask you? He’s been working so hard in Seoul, studying so diligently, and now that he’s home how can he live comfortably in this pigsty-”

Hongbin takes a deep, calming breath.

*

To: Idiot Hyung

- Dinner tmr? Or Friday. I’m calling all the others. Hakyeon hyung was saying he wants to see Hyukkie too.

To: Binniebingbong

- bbq tomorrow! let’s see how well our baby hyukkie can drink now. omg wait no he’s not even legal yet is he? he won’t be 19 till July.

To: Idiot Hyung

- Lol ‘baby Hyukkie’… hyung. You’re in for a very big surprise. Literally.

To: Binniebingbong

- what surprise?? 

To: Idiot Hyung

- You’ll see.

*

“Holy ,” Jaehwan breathes.

“Hyung,” Sanghyuk beams, and goes in for a hug. Jaehwan has to lift his arms to get them around Sanghyuk’s newly-broad shoulders and Sanghyuk teasingly lifts him a little off his feet – what the ! – before putting him down and letting Jaehwan stop swooning over the fact that the last time he’d seen Hongbin’s little brother he’d been six kilograms lighter and five centimetres shorter.

“Holy ,” Jaehwan repeats, ignoring Hongbin laughing at his dumbfounded expression as Hakyeon sweeps over to coo in disbelief over Sanghyuk in turn. Jaehwan lets himself be tugged onto a seat next to Wonsik and Taekwoon who are definitely looking a little misty-eyed at the sight of their collective baby being clearly all grown up now.

“How did this happen?” Jaehwan demands when they’re all seated – Sanghyuk is unquestionably the tallest one of all of them now, even sitting – “How did you get so big?”

“I grew?” Sanghyuk laughs. “How am I supposed to answer that, hyung?”

“This is bull,” Jaehwan grumbles, thinking of how firm Sanghyuk’s chest had felt during their earlier hug. “This is utter bull. I didn’t grow like that.”

“That’s not all,” Hongbin raises an eyebrow. “Somebody has a tattoo. I now have blackmail material so good Hyuk has no choice but to obey every word I say.”

“Or you’ll go squealing to your mother?” Wonsik guffaws. Sanghyuk rolls his eyes in annoyance.

“Of course!” Hongbin retorts. “A chance like this comes along only once in a blue moon. For all the times he’s ratted me out-”

“Tattoo?” Jaehwan croaks out, and quickly takes a sip of water to smooth over his undue show of emotion.

“Across his back,” Hongbin answers. “I caught him changing.”

Sanghyuk is drowned in jeers and teasing about how the rest of them better watch themselves around his hardcore badass self now until the meat and side dishes come, Sanghyuk as the youngest pouring soju for everyone while Taekwoon sternly orders pear juice for him despite his strident protests.

“I’ll be legal in two months, hyung,” he says sulkily, sipping from his cup.

“I’ll personally bring you out then and get you drunk,” Taekwoon replies. “For now, juice.”

“And who will be there to take care of you when you’re both passed out in the middle of some street somewhere, I’d like to know?” Hakyeon snipes immediately. “As if you can hold your alcohol, Jung Taekwoon. Don’t make me laugh.”

As the table dissolves into bickering over who can drink the best and who can’t Jaehwan tries to block out the image of Sanghyuk’s broad tattooed back. It’s madness – Sanghyuk used to be smaller than him, skinny and cute, even up till he graduated high school and left Busan to study business in Seoul University; the pride and joy of his family. Jaehwan just can’t reconcile these two images of Sanghyuk only one year apart. And that one year has done wonders – not just physically, but Sanghyuk speaks with a firm confidence he lacked before, teasing his hyungs and riling them up but doing so in such an endearing way that it never comes across as rude; they catch up with one another, the atmosphere bright and never lulling, and by the end of the night Jaehwan is tipsy and wholly charmed by this new version of Sanghyuk.

They roll their way out of the beachside restaurant, Hakyeon threatening everyone to pay him back for their part of the bill he’d paid for first and not to ‘forget’, and Hongbin and Wonsik immediately pretend to not know who Hakyeon is.

While Hakyeon murders the two of them with Taekwoon looking on fondly, Sanghyuk slings an arm over Jaehwan’s shoulders and grins down at him cheekily.

“Congratulations,” Jaehwan says sarcastically while having to look up at him. “This is still bull, by the way.”

“You still have time to catch up, hyung,” Sanghyuk teases. “Twenty-two isn’t that old yet. Still time for one last growth spurt.”

“Keep talking,” Jaehwan warns him with a fist, and Sanghyuk giggles at the impotent threat. The six of them spill onto the beach, the fine sand getting into their shoes but the alcohol in their blood making them uncaring.

Sanghyuk closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “I missed the smell of the sea,” he says, Jaehwan watching the ocean breeze ruffle his hair. “I missed you, hyung.”

“What, haven’t you gotten over your crush on me yet?” Jaehwan jibed at him, anything to distract himself from the thought of just how ing hot Sanghyuk has become –

Sanghyuk drops his arm from Jaehwan’s shoulders and turns to face him, so close Jaehwan’s forced to tilt his head up to look at him. For a crazy second Jaehwan thinks Sanghyuk’s going to kiss him, right in front of Hongbin and everyone else, but all Sanghyuk does is contemplate him.

“Maybe,” he says at last with a grin, and then leaves Jaehwan to go chase his brother down the beach.

*

It’s summer, which means his own university semester is over, which means Jaehwan has nothing to occupy himself with, which means that the six of them – sometimes five, or four, depending on part-time job shifts – spend most of their time on the beach or in cafes or at Wonsik’s house. The beach means swimming, which means being shirtless, which means seeing Sanghyuk’s muscled chest and arms and tattooed back. Which means dying and death.

The tattoo itself is a latin phrase done in flowing text across his shoulders, which Hongbin is highly gleeful about (“Not just something small that my mother could possibly forgive in about a week. No, he’s got to do the entire width of his back. My mother won’t let him hear the end of it for months!”) and Jaehwan has started to dream about the way it ripples as Sanghyuk flexes his shoulders. Currently he’s recovering from the feel of Sanghyuk just now picking him up and throwing him bodily into the surf, wet skin and laughing eyes and firm arms –

“Jaehwan!” Taekwoon kicks his thigh and Jaehwan blinks up at him quickly.

“What, what?”

“We’re going to get beer, I said. Do you want anything?”

“Chocolate,” Jaehwan answers automatically, and then settles back on his blanket next to Hongbin as Taekwoon and Hakyeon walk off towards the row of shops fronting the beach. Sanghyuk’s still in the water, and from his location Jaehwan has a perfect view of the beach forty metres in each direction so that when Sanghyuk comes out of the sea, dripping wet and muscles gleaming in the sun, Jaehwan will be in prime position to Appreciate.

Five minutes later Sanghyuk comes out of the sea, dripping wet and muscles gleaming in the sun. Jaehwan sighs and melts like an ice cream at high noon.

Sanghyuk walks up the beach to them, running his hands through his wet hair and shaking the excess water from his arms; Jaehwan’s sunglasses nicely hide every bit of ogling he’s doing, both from the object of the ogling as well as the object’s brother. If Hongbin finds out about this shameful new development Jaehwan might as well sell his soul to the devil because it will have more or less the same effect of damning him forever. He will never know another day of peace.

Once Taekwoon and Hakyeon are back and they’ve gone to play beach volleyball with Sanghyuk, Jaehwan munches on his chocolate bar as Hongbin sips his iced coffee, watching Sanghyuk thoroughly and calmly thrash the two oldest hyungs. They giggle and shout encouragement, seeing Taekwoon work himself up into an indignant lather and propose rematch after rematch even after Hakyeon begs off in agony; Sanghyuk doesn’t look like he’s even breaking a sweat.

“So, everybody’s crazy over Sanghyuk now he’s shot up and started working out,” Hongbin says. “I’ve got girls I don’t even know contacting me asking for Hyukkie’s number. Apparently my mother has been showing him off around the neighbourhood.”

“How does it feel to be the less-loved child?” Hakyeon smirks, stealing Hongbin’s drink. Hongbin resolutely grabs it back.

“What girls?” Jaehwan asks innocently.

“Girls I used to go to high school with. Hyukkie’s hot property now. I don’t think he’d go for noonas, though. I’m not sure how to tell them.”

“He prefers younger girls?” Jaehwan keeps his tone carefully neutral, and misses the look Hakyeon and Hongbin give each other.

“Maybe,” Hongbin answers, and it’s so close to the ‘maybe’ Jaehwan got from Sanghyuk the day they’d welcomed him home that Jaehwan peers suspiciously at Hongbin over his sunglasses.

“You gotta admit though, Hyuk’s really grown up well,” Hongbin continues. “Don’t you agree?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Jaehwan replies airily.

Hongbin stares at him for a moment, and when Hakyeon loses it he gives a deep sigh. “Hyung, you are such a ing bad liar, you know that?”

Jaehwan glares at Hakyeon laughing at him and Hongbin shaking his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“If I had ten thousand won for every time I caught you salivating over Sanghyuk these past three weeks I’d be a billionaire by now,” Hongbin retaliates. “Admit it. You’ve got the hots for my brother.”

“I do not have ‘the hots’ for anybody,” Jaehwan counters, putting sarcastic air quotes around Hongbin’s choice of words. “If anything, I have ‘the colds’, because that’s how little ‘hots’ I have for him.”

“Sanghyuk!” Hongbin yells, and Jaehwan nearly chokes on the last of his chocolate. “Come back here!”

“What are you doing!” Jaehwan hisses, panicking, as Sanghyuk jogs over carrying the volleyball in one hand and dragging an exhausted Taekwoon behind him with the other. “Lee Hongbin!”

Taekwoon collapses onto the sand next to Hakyeon and presumably passes out; Hakyeon courteously covers him with a towel before returning his attention to Hongbin playing fast and loose with Jaehwan’s life. Sanghyuk stands before them glistening under a light sheen of sweat, hair tousled and golden in the sun. Jaehwan is aware staring will only condemn him fully so he scowls at his toes.

“Hyukkie, we were betting that you can’t carry Jaehwan all the way to that rock over there and come back in under a minute,” Hongbin tells Sanghyuk in a barefaced lie. Jaehwan nearly swallows his tongue. “We’ve got money riding on this so don’t let me down.”

“What am I, your on-call entertainment?” Sanghyuk scoffs, and Hongbin exaggeratedly takes out his phone and pretends to start dialling his mother.

“Oh, hello, umma, I have something really interesting about your baby Sanghyuk to tell you-”

“Okay, yes, fine,” Sanghyuk grumbles. “Who is betting what?”

“I’m betting you can’t do it, Hakyeon hyung is betting you can,” Hongbin says smoothly. “You have to go all the way to that rock there, okay? No cheating.”

Sanghyuk holds out his arms to Jaehwan, who doesn’t move for a good second because of the litany of screams and alarm bells going off inside his head. When he moves he gets up slowly, casual as anything, but when he passes Hongbin he mutters a dire death threat.

Sanghyuk crouches down for Jaehwan to get on his back but Hongbin stops them. “No, bridal style. In your arms.”

Amidst the protests from Sanghyuk and Jaehwan Hongbin shrugs, spreading out his hands in a magnanimous call for reason. “Anybody can piggyback someone, that’s no test of strength. You have to carry him properly. Unless you don’t think you can do it? Hakyeon hyung, pay up.”

Sanghyuk gives him a Look and hefts Jaehwan into his arms. Jaehwan has no choice but to wind his own arms around Sanghyuk’s neck and determinedly not stare at Sanghyuk’s mouth or focus too much on the feel of Sanghyuk holding him against his bare chest. He has never, in his entire life, been picked up like this; and never, in his entire life, did he expect his first time to be under these circumstances.

Sanghyuk shoots off, Jaehwan holding on for dear life – but Sanghyuk’s firm hold on him doesn’t falter, and the feel of the sheer strength of Sanghyuk’s arms and how small Jaehwan feels being carried like this is enough to make Jaehwan dizzy. He buries his face in Sanghyuk’s neck and screws his eyes shut, feeling more than hearing Sanghyuk breathe heavily with the effort – and Sanghyuk’s panting is putting Jaehwan in mind of other more horizontal pastimes.

By the time Sanghyuk makes it back to the others Jaehwan isn’t sure he can walk or even owns knees anymore. Everything is jelly and everything is on fire. Sanghyuk playfully unloads him like a sack of potatoes, Jaehwan playing along and crumpling into a heap in order to try to hide his half-hard that his board shorts will never in a million years hide.

“Did I make it?” Sanghyuk pants, and Hongbin shrugs coolly.

“Sorry, we forgot to start the timer.”

Jaehwan is sure that if Hongbin were mortal and not the son of hell like he is he would have been instantly fried to a crisp under the glare Jaehwan sends him. Too bad he’s clearly used to the heat.

Sanghyuk roars in frustration and stomps away, apparently going back to the sea for another dip to get away from his demon brother, and Jaehwan continues dying.

Hongbin holds out an open palm to Hakyeon, who ill-temperedly slaps twenty thousand won into it.

“What the hell is that for?” Jaehwan snaps.

“I bet that you were thirsting for Hyukkie. Hakyeon hyung needed a bit of convincing.”

“And how do you know that’s been confirmed?” Jaehwan asks as sweetly as he can, fingers itching to wrap themselves around Hongbin’s throat.

“Well, if the blush doesn’t give it away your definitely does,” Hongbin beams cheerfully. “Never ever took you to have a size kink, hyung. You were never interested in poor Hyukkie until his recent level-up.”

Jaehwan closes his eyes and his legs and wishes for the angels to come and take him.

“Hyuk used to crush on you so bad and you never even gave him a second look. Now I feel like I need to follow you around with tissues to wipe up your drool.”

“Enough,” Jaehwan yells. “Shut up, shut up, shut up.”

“Hyukkie’s still a baby,” comes Taekwoon’s voice emanating from under the towel next to Hakyeon. “You better treat him right, Jaehwan.”

“Another twenty thousand won says Jyanie hyung won’t have the courage to ask Hyukkie out,” Hongbin says, eyes twinkling. Hakyeon gives him a high five. “You’re on.”

“I hate all of you,” Jaehwan declares with feeling. “Where’s Wonsik? Wonsik wouldn’t treat me this way.”

“Wanna bet?”

*

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