Carnation (yellow) – disdain

                Two days later, Daehyun was brought to Yongguk’s gym again. Yongguk had picked him up at the studio and they had lunch together before going there. He was sitting on the couch in the manager’s room with Yongguk next to him. The others were off to do their job as their break had long been over.

                Yongguk waited silently while Daehyun made a phone call to his younger brother. He had been informed earlier that Jongup would be the one to fetch Daehyun later. Although Yongguk was a little disappointed that the time he would be spending with Daehyun would be cut short, he kept reminding himself that it was a sacrifice he needed to make to obtain Jongup’s trust.

                “Jongup asks the name of this gym.” Daehyun handed out his mobile phone to Yongguk after a while into the conversation. “He wants to hear it from your own mouth.”

                Yongguk took the phone and greeted the person on the other line. “Yes, it’s me, Yongguk.” He paused for a moment to let the other speak. “It’s Shape Shifter Fitness Center,” he said it out loud and clear to the phone. “Yeah, don’t worry. I’ll always keep my eyes on Daehyun.”

                At the end of the short conversation, Yongguk released a sigh of relief. “Here.” He placed the phone in Daehyun’s hand. “Your brother hung up already. He said that he’ll be here in an hour.”

                “Why do you sound so tired?” Daehyun laughed.

                “Well, you should know that talking to you brother is like walking in a field full of y traps. One wrong move and I’m dead.” Yongguk deadpanned, but he was quickly infected with Daehyun’s boisterous laugh.

                “How do you want to fill those sixty minutes?” he asked while getting off the couch.

                “Running, of course!” Daehyun exclaimed, reaching out for the other man.

                Yongguk grabbed the slightly smaller hand before pulling Daehyun up onto his feet. “Let’s begin!”

                Jongup arrived at the gym exactly an hour later. He stepped into the building and had a good look around, but his brother wasn’t in his range of sight. He wondered if he should give Daehyun a call to tell him that he was already there. His thought was however forgotten once he saw the man sitting at the front desk.

                His feet moved on his own, nearing the receptionist as he indulged himself in the beauty of the man: of full lips, almond eyes, and a cute button nose. The man was even more beautiful up close, that he almost forgot how to speak once he reached the counter.

                The man looked up at him and their eyes finally met. Jongup felt like an arrow had pierced through his heart right after that. He didn’t know for how long they were gazing at each other but everything around him seemed to move very slowly.

                “Afternoon, sir,” the beautiful man snapped him out of his reverie. “May I help you?”

                Jongup cleared his throat, trying to get himself together. “Yes, may I know where Jung Daehyun is?”

                “He went upstairs just now. You can take the stairs or the elevator.” Youngjae gestured to his right side.

                Jongup turned to look at the direction before looking at the receptionist again. “Alright, thanks…” He bowed politely and started to walk towards the stairs. But after a few steps forward, he took the same number of steps back.

                “So, you work here?” He acted a little bit casual this time, leaning his side against the counter with an arm placed on it, even though the question was evidently very stupid to ask. Jongup didn’t care about it, as long as he could make a conversation with the cute guy.

                Youngjae looked up at him, his gaze getting sharper than before. “Why, do you think I’m just sitting here, willing to answer your question when I would usually ignore it?”

                Jongup noticed the obvious sassiness in the man’s tone which only made him even more intrigued. “So, you know my brother, Jung Daehyun? I’m Jung Jongup.”

                “I know.”

                “Won’t you tell me your name?”

                Youngjae didn’t hide the annoyed roll of his eyes. Leaning back in his chair, he sighed and crossed his arms under his chest. “Real name or nickname?”

                “Real name would be nice.” Jongup carved the sweetest smile he had, his bunny teeth showing.

                Youngjae didn’t falter. “Will you believe me if I tell you my real name? It can be fake, you know.”

                Jongup clicked his tongue. “Damn, you’re playing it hella hard.”

                Youngjae smirked. “It’s my specialty.”

                Before the tension between them could increase any higher, the elevator dinged. Both of them turned to have a look and saw Yongguk with Daehyun clinging onto his arm.

                Jongup’s eyes widened in surprise, not because of how close his brother was walking with the other man, but because Daehyun wasn’t wearing his dark shades like he usually would.

                “Jongup’s here,” Yongguk told Daehyun.

                “Really? Jongupie?” Daehyun called his brother with a broad smile plastered on his face.

                “Y-Yeah…?” The stunned Jongup somehow still managed to answer his brother.

                Yongguk halted his steps right in front of Jongup and Daehyun followed suit. “You came! Great!” Daehyun cheered, being the happiest one among them. “Let’s introduce you to Yongguk hyung’s friends. They’re super nice!”

                Jongup took Daehyun’s hand which was held out to him, locking their fingers together, while Daehyun’s other hand was still holding onto Yongguk’s arm.

                “First of all, this is Youngjae.” Daehyun pointed towards the said man with the hand clasped to Jongup’s, only missing him slightly to the left. “And Youngjae, this is my brother, Jongup.”

                Jongup turned to the beautiful man again. This time, Youngjae was wearing a forced thin smile on his face. “Nice to meet you, Youngjae-ssi.” He mirrored the man’s expression.

                “Nice meeting you too, Jongup-ssi.” Youngjae was glaring, in contrast with the smile he had.

                Yongguk immediately noticed the facade in Youngjae’s expression. He raised his brow at him. ‘What’s the deal?’

                ‘Nothing big,’ Youngjae replied.

                They walked further into the gym after that, with Yongguk leading Daehyun to Sungjoon, Minsu and Himchan, and Daehyun introduced them to his younger brother. All of them gave Jongup a warm welcome, making him feel assured that his brother was in good hands. They didn’t look so bad and were also being very nice to him, not less than Youngjae. Maybe, he shouldn’t be so worried about Daehyun anymore.

                The brothers didn’t go home straight away. Jongup was being kind to let Daehyun spend a little more time with his new friends. Besides, he had something that he wanted talk to Yongguk about. He waited for the right time as he pretended to have a look around the gym. When he saw his brother was distracted enough while talking to Sungjoon, he sent a signal to Yongguk who was standing next to Daehyun. Yongguk excused himself as soon as he noticed it.

                “How did you do it?” Jongup asked once Yongguk reached the bench where he was sitting at.

                “Do what?” Yongguk asked back, taking a seat on the bench.

                “Daehyun hyung’s glasses.” Jongup diverted his gaze to his brother. “He never had the confidence to be in public without them.”

                “I… didn’t do anything. Daehyun said that he doesn’t really like wearing the sunglasses.” Yongguk was being careful with his words since he didn’t want Jongup to take it the wrong way.

                Jongup turned to send Yongguk his doubting look. “Just like that?” He scoffed. “Impossible. Daehyun hyung is always embarrassed to show his eyes. He kept saying – his eyes can’t see anything so, why should he show them?”

                Yongguk sighed. Jongup’s stare made him realize he had no right to hide anything about Daehyun from his own brother. “I only convinced him that his eyes are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” he told him the truth before quickly adding, “It’s only in this gym though. He’s still not confident enough to go outside without his shades.”

                Jongup was again stunned. Anyone who had seen Daehyun’s eyes would know that their beauty could be compared to a newborn’s; eyes that were clear and pure. If Yongguk had used that excuse to make his brother to take off his glasses, then he must have seen Daehyun’s eyes before.

                “How did you know that his eyes are beautiful? Daehyun hyung would never show his eyes to anybody except the ones he’s close with.”

                “I happened to see his eyes the first time we met, in the backyard of your house.” Yongguk shrugged his shoulders.

                Jongup blew out a puff of air. He was completely annoyed with the other guy who only took a short time to get rid of his brother’s unnecessary glasses, when he himself had never succeeded at this in all his life. “I’ve been saying the same thing to him ever since he started to have that feeling of insecurity. How come he would easily listen to you when you’ve just known each other?”

                “I can’t answer that. Daehyun is the one who made the decision,” Yongguk explained.

                Jongup thought that Yongguk had said the right things. Even if it was not because of him, he actually felt happy and touched with his brother’s change. He remembered the number of fights they had every time he brought up that issue. He remembered how anxious Daehyun would be if he couldn’t find his sunglasses. His brother even went as far as not leaving the house until he got his glasses back.

                “It was during elementary school,” Jongup randomly spoke up, causing confusion in Yongguk’s mind.

                “That one night, Daehyun hyung asked our father to get him sunglasses, the ones that blind people wear, he said. Our father agreed without questioning him, he would simply give everything Daehyun hyung wanted. But I knew something was wrong. So, I went to his room and asked him what happened. He told me that his classmates kept asking him – Are you really blind? Why do your eyes look like a normal person who can see? Shouldn’t your eyes be a little weird like any other blind people? Shouldn’t you wear sunglasses if you’re blind? Daehyun hyung felt insulted, and I could see that his confidence was greatly affected.”

                “It could be that they were still kids… Kids are curious about everything…” Yongguk voiced out his hesitating thought.

                “Daehyun hyung was a kid too that time. He didn’t know blind people usually wear sunglasses besides having their white canes all the time. He didn’t know a lot of things and that made everything other people said matter so much to him.” Jongup’s lips curled into a small genuine smile as he turned to Yongguk. “That’s why I want to thank you for letting him know how beautiful his eyes are.”

                Jongup stood up before walking away from the bench, leaving Yongguk with an overwhelming feeling in his chest. His stare averted from Jongup’s retreating back to Daehyun, who was still talking to Sungjoon, sitting beside him on the same bench, and Minsu, standing before them. Daehyun never tried to face any of them as they talked and chose to keep his gaze right ahead, or most of the time, he would cast his eyes to the ground. Once in a while, he would fix his fringe by running down his fingers through them.

                If he had known about Daehyun’s past, Yongguk would have never asked about the dark glasses. Daehyun had been living with his insecurity for so long. It would be hard for anyone to change it. Yongguk was lucky enough to gain Daehyun’s trust. But it was definitely because they were mates. Maybe, Daehyun could feel the honesty and sincerity coming from him. Maybe, he had made Daehyun feel calm and safe around him. Maybe that’s why Daehyun could trust him even if they had only known each other for a short time. It was all because of the power of mates.

                Thanks to Jongup, Yongguk was a little bit more reassured that Daehyun was his destined mate.

                After the talk he had with Yongguk, Jongup didn’t really know what else to do besides wandering around the gym, walking in between the equipment and stopping once in a while to check them out. Daehyun didn’t seem like he wanted to go home yet as he kept talking to Yongguk with a huge grin on his face.

                Jongup would have killed the time by exercising for free (he would drag his brother out if he had to pay for it), but his current outfit wasn’t meant for sweaty activities. After a complete round of the floor, he was now standing a few feet away from the reception counter.

                Youngjae was still there, his elbow perched on the table as he rested his chin in his palm, his fingers tapping his lips. His other hand was holding the mouse while he looked at something on the monitor.

                Jongup slowly approached the gym’s receptionist. His mind was still thinking of something cool to say when the other man beat him to it.

                “You can talk to everyone else except me,” Youngjae plainly told him to stay away without even looking at him.

                “But everyone else is moving around, unlike you.” It wasn’t easy for Jongup to be told off.

                Youngjae glared at him again, annoyance apparent on his pretty face. “Why don’t you go find your hyung? You watch over him 24/7 right?”

                “How do you know that?” Jongup asked back, pretending that he didn’t hear the mock in Youngjae’s tone. His question, however, was ignored as Youngjae went back to do his work using the computer. “That’s okay. I can still watch over him from here.” He turned around to search for his brother among the other people exercising in there. It was rare for him to lose track of Daehyun but it happened today after meeting the most interesting guy he had ever encountered.

                “You shouldn’t be too protective of him… He can take care of himself,” Youngjae lazily commented.

                Jongup quickly turned back around, thinking that the conversation wasn’t really one-sided after all. “Do you have a brother?”

                “No.”

                “What about a lover? Do you have one?”

                “The only thing I have right now is very little patience and you better go away before it runs out.”

                Jongup didn’t expect to receive such a high level of cold treatment. He wasn’t mentally prepared to get through the worst of possible outcomes if he kept on trying his luck, so he decided to back off for now.

                Jongup and Daehyun were finally going home after the sun had set. They had their dinner at a nearby restaurant after they left the gym. Yongguk had offered them to have dinner together and he would send them home later, but Jongup refused since he didn’t want to trouble him. Daehyun went along with his brother and now, he was walking home with Jongup’s lead.

                Daehyun was being loud as usual, talking about this and that. Jongup would tell him to shut up once in a while, but not today. Daehyun thought of nothing about his brother’s uncommon behavior. It could be that Jongup was just trying to be a good listener today. He held to that assumption until something hard smacked his face, making him stumble a few steps back.

                Jongup was startled by his brother’s painful yelp. The hand that was holding to Daehyun’s was slightly tugged by the older man, causing him to halt his steps. When he saw Daehyun rubbing his nose while standing in front of a lamppost, he had an idea that his brother had crashed into the hard pole.

                “!” He went closer to Daehyun, carefully cupping his face to observe the damage done by the collision. “I’m so sorry,” his tone was pleading as he cursed at himself again for spacing out just now. His mind was totally in some other place that he didn’t realize he was leading his brother directly towards a freaking pole.

                Daehyun had a deep painful scowl on his face. He felt around his shades, afraid if it was broken anywhere. His other hand stretched out to the front, trying to find out what the hell he had actually bumped into. When the cold hard metal pole touched his palm, he just couldn’t contain his anger anymore.

                “Are you picking a fight with me?!” he yelled with all his might.

                Jongup flinched away, utterly shocked with the outburst. “No, hyung! I’m really sorry about this!”

                “Then what are you doing?! Even Yongguk hyung can lead me better than you do!”

                Had Yongguk’s name not been brought into this matter, Jongup would have continued to ask for forgiveness from Daehyun. So, he was more than pissed off to hear that statement coming from his own brother.

                “Fine, then! Go walk on your own!” He yelled, making it obvious that he was hurt by matter.

                Daehyun, on the other hand, was too mad to notice that. He immediately pulled out his walking stick from his bag before unfolding it. “It’s better than kissing a goddamn pole!” he remarked and began tapping his way home.

                Jongup’s fist clenched as he watched his brother as he walked ahead. If they were not siblings, he would have surely despised the attitude Daehyun was giving him. But they were totally related by blood and he always knew he got the same attitude like his brother.

                Jongup took a deep breath to clear his mind. He would usually lead his brother like he was walking with a king. Making Daehyun crash with a pole was the biggest mistake he had done in his life. It was all because of a certain person who had invaded his mind for the whole day.

                “Hyung, I said sorry, didn’t I?” He began running to catch up with Daehyun. “Yah, hyung! Wait for me!”

                “I’m walking on my own, remember?!” Daehyun turned his head slightly to the side to shout back.

                “Be careful, there’s a post box in front of you!”

                The soles of Daehyun’s shoes scraped the pavement as he made a sudden halt. Even though he knew the path quite well, he could still miss the tiny details along the sidewalk.

                Jongup smirked, slowing down his pace when his brother had stopped walking. But then, Daehyun swung his cane from side to side as he began to warily step forward.

“There’s not!” Daehyun yelled after he realized that he was fooled by the other. He started to walk faster again.

                Jongup gasped before making another run towards his older brother. “Watch out for the fire hydrant!”

                Daehyun’s confident steps faltered for a moment. He quickly resumed the walk, already knowing that Jongup was only playing around with him. “You’re lying!”

Jongup stifled a laugh, quitting on catching up with Daehyun, just because he was having fun pranking him. “Hyung, you’re walking straight to another pole!”

                “Shut up already!”

                Jongup thought that he would be okay once they reached home. He forced himself to think about something else while taking a shower and changing his clothes. He somehow managed to prevent Youngjae from getting into his mind. However, it was only for that short period of time because while he was watching TV in the living room, he failed to notice his brother being in the same place, feeling around the couch until the wandering hand hit his thigh.

                “Here you are!” Daehyun exclaimed, causing Jongup to jump in his spot out of shock. “Why didn’t you answer me? You aren’t possibly sleeping, right?”

                “Answer what?”

                “I was asking if you want a drink.” Daehyun sat down next to the latter, lifting a mug of hot chocolate in his hands. He didn’t have another mug prepared since Jongup didn’t answer him earlier.

                “Nah, I’m fine.” Jongup went back to the TV show.

                “I’m not asking you that right now. I’m asking why you didn’t answer me.”

                “It’s… Nothing…” Jongup halfheartedly brushed off the question.

                Daehyun carefully put down the hot mug on the coffee table in front of them. He could sense something was not right based on Jongup’s tone alone. Jongup even made him walk into a pole and thinking back, his brother didn’t talk much during their dinner at the restaurant either.

                “You’re acting weird ever since we left the gym,” Daehyun wondered out loud, crossing his legs on the couch as he sat facing his brother.

                It caught Jongup off guard, but he didn’t lose his composure. “I’m not,” he denied, trying to make it sound as casual as possible.

                “Yes, you are,” Daehyun insisted. “You usually pay full attention to me. It’s not that I like it that way, but it’s not normal. Even when we were at the gym, you –”

                Daehyun stopped mid-sentence and inhaled sharply. His eyes went wide. “Is it about Youngjae? I heard you were eyeing him all the time at the gym.”

                Jongup was again attacked from behind and this time, Daehyun hit the nail right on the head. “Who told you that?!”

                “Is it true? You tried talking to him, right?” Daehyun pestered, his lips pulling a big teasing smile.

                A deep blush crept up Jongup’s cheeks which he was sure would make Daehyun laugh his off if he could see. “Is it wrong to do that? I talked to everyone else too.”

                Daehyun was already laughing so hard at the awkward excuse even if he had no idea how red Jongup’s face had become. It bothered Jongup too much, so he decided to just flee from there.

                Daehyun realized that his brother had gotten up when he felt the sudden shift of weight on the couch. “Wait, Jongupie. Where are you running to?”

                “I’m going to make myself a drink,” Jongup said while walking to the kitchen.

                “But you said you don’t want any just now!” Daehyun pouted at him.

                “Cut it out, hyung!”

                Daehyun laughed even harder than before.

Proofread by Sempiternalis

A/N:

So, I decided to as some upjae (is that what the ship is called? idk) they're cute together :)

Thank you for waiting! Things will start to get real after this （￣▽￣;）

Thank you to all upvoters, subscribers, readers and commenters! XOXO