It was their last Chuseok* before they turned double digits.

The reason his mum was excited about this beat Jongdae but he was willing to entertain her because it meant extra songpyeon** was being made — not something to be sniffed at.

Chanyeol’s family was coming for the celebrations, a tradition dating back to the ancestors they would honour before they ate their evening meal. While for Jongdae and Chanyeol (and to a lesser extent, Jongdeok and Yura), it meant an opportunity to spend time with their closest friend, for the adults it was a chance for them to talk about entirely too serious things while drunk. Once again, Jongdae didn’t mind, Chanyeol was going to be here, that was what he was looking forwards too.

“DAE-HYUNG!” Jongdae looked up to his brother to stop him from telling Chanyeol off this time, he kind of liked it when he called him that.

Still, he knew his brother was smiling as he squealed out “YEOLLIE!” and ran across the crunching leaves to pull the much taller boy into his arms. They’d not had much time with each other in the last year and the only opportunities they had had were incredibly formal occasions. Jongdae had missed his best friend and letters just hadn’t been cutting it.

His ribs must have bent slightly with the way Chanyeol practically crushed him, craning his neck down and tucking his nose close to Jongdae’s ear. “I missed you!” the yell wasn’t totally necessary considering the distance between them and it forced Jongdae to pull back, finger in his ears with harsh aish and a rather pointed look.

“Yeollie~ that hurts,” he didn’t mean to whine but it really had, it wasn’t Jongdae fault if he involuntarily did it, things like that just surpassed conscious thought. Almost as much as he hadn’t expected to whine he didn’t expect the cheek splitting grin that broke across Chanyeol’s face almost in mockery of his pain.

He watched as his friend’s eyes turned to upturned crescents and too large hands grabbed his cheeks. “Our Dae is so cute when he whines!” Chanyeol’s formal robes waved around his arms as he pulled on Jongdae’s cheeks, testing the young prince’s patience more than entirely necessary.

Jongdae scowled up at his gangly friend, trying to put on his most serious face, “Chanyeol-ah! I’m your hyung,” he pointed out, voice stern and chillier than the weather as he told his friend off.

“Technically he’s not really your hyung, you’re only three months older than him.” Yura and Jongdeok were quick to correct him, chiming in simultaneously before dissolving into pretentious teen laughter.

They were right, he knew that much, but he didn’t appreciate this kind of slander, especially when he was trying to guilt Chanyeol into apologising. “Yeollie.” he turned his lips down, hoping the attempt would get his friend’s hands off his face.

Chanyeol’s face went serious, brows pulling together in a frown before he gave Jongdae’s face one last pinch and he dropped his hands. “Yes, Dae?” Jongdae noticed the drop back to informal language, he was going to have to scowl extra hard at Jongdeok during dinner prep, just for what he and Yura had done.

He could never scowl at Yura, she was too pretty.

Just as he was about to open his mouth with something even mildly witty to say Chanyeol’s father’s voice, almost as loud as his son’s, echoing out across the courtyard. “TIME TO HONOUR OUR ANCESTORS!” and it was, the sun was dipping low on the horizon and if they wanted to get things finished before finding all their places and setting the table before it completely set they needed to hurry.

“Forget it” he shot back to Chanyeol before punching his friend in the arm. “My comeback was too witty, you probably wouldn’t have understood it anyway.” he offered the underhanded concession to his friend, smirking at Chanyeol pulled his eyebrows together and visibly began to decipher the words.

A delayed “HEY!” later and Jongdae was running away from Park Chanyeol, a prince who’s circlet was dangerously close to coming off as he bent low to gather the prematurely fallen leaves into his arms. “I’m gonna get you Kim JongDAE!” the last syllable of his name was emphasised and Jongdae let out a peal of laughter as he ran away, only drawing to a stop once he heard a telling crunching sound and saw Chanyeol tumble.

His eyes automatically went wide and in a heartbeat he was back by Chanyeol’s side, helping his needlessly clumsy friend up off the ground. “Chanyeol-ah, are you okay?” he asked, dusting as much dust as he could off his friend’s hanbok.

Chanyeol grumbled his response, shuffling a little on the slippery grass before dipping his head. “Let’s just go inside. ‘M cold.” obvious as the excuse was, Jongdae couldn’t argue, at least there was less of a chance of Chanyeol hurting himself inside, besides it’d bruise his friends ego to say anything else.

They made their way over to the building under the watchful eye of Jongdae’s mum, the rest of the Kim family having already made their way inside.“Remember boys, you’re turning ten in a few days, or for you, Chanyeol, a few months. You’ll need to start behaving more grown up.” His mother’s voice was sage, greased with a skill that came from running a country while still managing a husband and two children, and maybe a bit of disapproval. There was no question in the nod of Jongdae’s head, he would listen to her unflinchingly.

Chanyeol however, clearly didn’t take it to heart, grinning up at Jongdae’s mother and bobbing his head as he toed off his shoes, only to bellow, “SO WHERE ARE THE SONGPYEON?!” in an entirely not grown up voice.

His voice made a smile crack across Jongdae’s face, even considering the ominous warning his mother had given them both.

Jongdae liked that about Chanyeol. He made him smile.

AN//

* Chuseok is essentially a harvest festival celebrated in Korea around the time of the autumn equinox

** Songpyeon is a specific rice cake made and eaten usually at Chuseok (my Korean friends tell me it’s very nice)

title: The Boys - SNSD (chosen for no reason other than I thought it was a cute title nfsdj)

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