Eun Jiwon-hyung   2 mins ago

Jaejin-ah, let’s have a drink at my place.

It was almost midnight and Jaejin was busy preparing himself to sleep—beauty routine was essential for him ever since Sechskies reunited. Tonight he chose carbon-based night mask that scared people off. He had just walked out of the bathroom when he saw his phone’s screen flicker and a message prompt was on top of it. He didn’t expect this at all. He pondered deeply, grabbing his hair while being careful not to ruin his beauty mask before the minutes were up.

“What’s this all of a sudden?”

Lee Jaejin was known for asking people out at the oddest times, indeed, and he acknowledged it, but being invited as randomly as he usually did to others was quite strange. Specifically, asked out by the leader was uncommon for him. Usually when he wanted someone to drink with him, he would ask them to some place and he would end up nagging to the end of the world—Suwon warned them all—therefore, sometimes, he would be extremely nice and caring and he would spoil anyone who was drinking with him, and for Jaejin personally, it was the worst of all possibilities.

Honestly, Lee Jaejin was not used to being spoiled by his life-long leader, not even the slightest, it somehow disturbed him. In his memory, they were always bickering although not always fighting. He knew well enough how stupid and stubborn Eun Jiwon could be, but he also knew no one could possibly escape from the subtle endearments of one gentle and caring Jiwon once he decided to do so. It was nice as much as it was unexpected the first time anyone experienced it—it defied common expectations of most people upon meeting him anywhere. Lee Jaejin could not understand how Sunghoon lived this long being such a baby brother to Jiwon and given countless sorts of endearments along the way. Jaejin was used to fight and bicker against the inanity and headstrongness of his leader, his relentless nagging but he couldn’t endure the kindness—his heart couldn’t.

Twenty years of knowing each other had damaged the barrier Jaejin built unconsciously around himself because of his peculiarity. Eun Jiwon just slipped into the slightest crack and the next second Jaejin realized, he had already been there since as natural as oxygen in the air. It was ironic that Jiwon knew him inside out better than any friends he ever had in his life although in reality he could not seem to be in agreement with Jiwon most of times. The leader always found faults and held nothing back whenever something was not of his standards and Jaejin’s ideas were often contrasting his, especially in terms of artistic. Even so, Jaejin couldn’t win against him (most of times) and he knew far too well that Jiwon did know what was best to do most of times, too.

He sighed deeply and mourned, “What to do?” repeatedly. His black kitten climbed onto his lap, purring against his stomach. Automatically, Jaejin’s free hand came to pet the cat. His mind was still floating away from real world, though. He didn’t tell anyone some things about his depressing years after his flunked solo project and the death of his parents. During those years, he was only happy whenever he saw Jiwon on TV, especially with the rest of the members slowly retracting themselves from stage life as well (Suwon and Jaeduck were still appearing from time to time, but not as often as their leader). Stupid Eun Jiwon and his childish character was his main entertainment aside from taking care of his nephew.

He had said once that he didn’t trust the leader fully despite Jiwon’s level of confidence that he would listen and follow Jiwon. He was baffled, seemingly, but he had his reason not to trust the leader from time to time—that was why they argued a lot. Expressing his lack of trust was a way to declare his independence, his freedom to choose and decide for himself, and his beliefs as a man in democratic country—some people would tell him that this was nonsense because he trusted Jiwon too much without failure anyway. To Jaejin, exhibiting his devotion to the leader verbally was borderline dangerous and unwanted. It was best for him to show how committed he was to Sechskies and Eun Jiwon by actions for he knew Jiwon would never be able to notice what lied beneath it—what his actions truly meant—because that man’s skull was as thick as stone, just like most men.

“Charles, what should I do? Hyung asked me to drink with him. Did he ask other guys? Should I call him first?” he asked the cat worryingly. He wouldn’t mind if it was just the members and people Jaejin also knew, but Jiwon knew too many people—he couldn’t help but feeling worrisome. As he was pondering, his phone buzzed. Jiwon was calling him by the number—he suddenly regretted giving his new number to the leader.

“Yes, Hyung.”

Lee Jaejin could not ignore his call. It might lead to worse situation.

“Yah, aren’t you going to reply, Lee Jaejin? Just say it if you don’t want to,” Jiwon blasted. This was as normal as breathing. Jaejin was flustered because he hadn’t come to any conclusion so far.

“Sorry, I was just thinking, Hyung. Are you going to invite the guys?”

“Eh?”—Jiwon sounded surprised and offended slightly—“No. Why would Hyung invite other guys so late in the night?”

“Hyung asked Suwon so late too before,” Jaejin said, unknowingly pouting.

“Aish,” Jiwon groaned, “You asked Kim Dongwan to eat dumplings at one a.m. why can’t Hyung ask you around the same time? You are the weird one. Come on, you always ran away whenever Hyung mentioned drinking. Come and drink with your hyung here.”

Jaejin could not decipher the meaning behind Jiwon’s words, howsoever it got into him. His imagination soared and wandered, assumptions and predictions were made although he was sure most of things he truly wished for would be ones disposed in reality. He smiled brightly at Charles, who absolutely had no idea what was going on.

“Yah! Lee Jaejin! Did you just ignore me? Yah! You’re alive, aren’t you?” Jiwon’s angry voice woke him from his state of daydreaming. He just realized that he hadn’t been answering Jiwon for quite some time. He immediately apologized.

“Aish, we are not doing video call right now. Hyung can’t know what you do. Now, are you going or not? Don’t nod—Hyung can’t see it, remember?” Jaejin was nodding right on time, too, but he was giggling.

“Yes, yes, Hyung, I’ll be there soon,” said he to avoid more nagging.

“Okay, good,” Jiwon said, sounded pleased, “Hurry up, Jaejin-ah, Hyung’s waiting.” His kind brother mode was on again and it was easily identified by the tone of his voice. It warmed anyone’s heart, but it also brought distraught to Jaejin’s fluctuating mood.

“Should I change?” was the first thing that came into his mind.

*****

Jaejin was drowned too deeply in his own world despite currently walking into the parking lot and supposed to find his car. He unintentionally ignored Yoo Byungjae’s greeting as they unexpectedly ran into each other. The neighbor wasn’t surprised anymore with the antics of the peculiar Lee Jaejin, but he was still hurt by the fact Jaejin didn’t even realize that he greeted him. Actually, he began to worry because he witnessed his senior repeatedly bumped into various cars long before he found his.

“Hyungnim, are you okay?” the neighbor decided to ask, touching Jaejin’s back carefully. Jaejin jumped slightly, turning around nervously to see who touched him just now. He glared at the bearded man for a moment, judging wordlessly.

“Hyungnim, you a