Seunghyun sat in front of his desk, doing his homework like a diligent student would do. He scribbled down random answers as his mind and heart were elsewhere.

                He was bugged.

                His friends’ words were revolving inside his head. He hated being teased, let alone being the center and the only target to be teased by his friends.

                He was accompanying Seungri to the park earlier today when his friend showed up and right in front of his little baby brother causing him to be more bugged that he’d ever been.

                “See, who’s coming; the freak of our class. How do you talk? Oh yeah, you don’t know how to talk; you only know how to RAP. Hahahahaha.”

                Seunghyun shut his eyes forcefully and shook his ears. He didn’t want to remember his friend’s words. Seungri shouldn’t have heard it in the first place. He should be the greatest in front of Seungri. Seungri should be the proudest brother in the world to the point he envy his big brother.

                But, his friend earlier just crushed all his wishes.

                Seunghyun sighed and laid his head on the desk. He never liked the idea of studying. How could he think study could ease his uneasiness? He was inevitably devastated.

                Just then, little Seungri toddled inside Seunghyun’s room, bringing a small toy knife with him. He stopped beside Seunghyun and tugged his clothes.

                “Hyung, Hyung, came down!!” Seungri pulled his chubby fingers toward his palm, motioning the elder to crouch down and adjusted his head to the same height as his little head.

                “What’s wrong Seungri-ah? Are you playing as a café owner again?” Seunghyun did as the younger’s wish while eyeing the toy knife.

                Seungri innocently shook his head and held the elder’s head. He grabbed his toy knife and did what he had intended. He was attempting to cut the elder’s ear with the toy knife!

                “A-ah!! Ri, What are you doing? It’s hurt.”Seunghyun winched as he pulled his head up to get away from Seungri’s torture. But Seungri was way faster, he pulled Seunghyun’s ear and glared at the elder.

                “Don’t move, Ri is not done yet.” Seungri pouted before continuing on his task. He pushed and pulled the toy knife repeatedly, ignoring Seunghyun’s winces and Seunghyun’s ear redness. He was determined to cut it off his brother’s head. “Ri will cut it down so Seunghyunie Hyung will not hear monsters’ teases. Seunghyunie Hyung is the best!! They're saying lie about Ri's hyung-ie!!"

                Seunghyun was dumbfounded. He didn’t expect his little brother to do what he did. He was touched that he promptly hugged his younger, ignoring the latter’s complaints. The younger who wasn’t giving up, started to kick randomly and hit the elder with his little hand.

                “Put Riri down!! Ri is not done yet!! Hyung!!”

                Seunghyun only laughed at Seungri’s statement as he hugged his brother tighter and walked toward his bed, carefully putting him down on his bed before he himself sat before his younger. “Seung—“ He was cut as Seungri aggressively jumped onto his laps and continued his task of ‘cutting’ Seunghyun’s ear again

                This time, Seungri did it more eagerly as if he was afraid he would be stopped again before he’d done his task. He pouted all along, leaving the elder no longer had the heart to stop him. Instead, Seunghyun convinced himself that his ear wouldn’t be torn apart for it was merely a toy knife. There would most likely a little hint of redness being left but he didn’t mind as the younger cuteness was worth it. He stopped wincing and started giggling instead.

                “Nooo!! Seungri-ah!! You shouldn’t do that!” little Daesung came to Seunghyun’s resque. He struggled to get onto the bed and pushed Seungri’s hand, fighting him and involved himself in a bicker with the younger. “Hyung-ie still needs his ears!! Earmuff should do!!” Daesung forcefully pushed Seungri aside and put the earmuff on Seunghyun, leaving the eldest clueless of the situation he was in.

                “Earmuff still let Hyung hears the monster’s teases!!”

                “But, Hyung still needs his ears!!”

                “Guys, what are you actually bickering about?” Seunghyun finally asked the two little boys who didn’t stop bickering. He looked at his brother for any explanation when he saw the determination look at the youngers’  face.

                “Ri hates the monster. He teased my hyung-ie at the park!! Ri doesn’t want Hyung-ie to listen them. Ri hates sad hyung-ie.” Seungri started to sob, causing Seunghyun to be taken a back at the sudden explosion of tears from his youngest.

                “W-why are you crying?” Seunghyun awkwardly reached his younger and cradled him who was now crying on his lap. He drew some circles on the younger back as Seungri snuggled closer to his chest, hiccupping as the result of his cry.

                Daesung didn’t want to lose either. He crawled to his hyung’s side and put the earmuff back on. “I don’t like Hyung being teased!” He stood behind Seunghyun and kept on holding the earmuff, preventing Seunghyun to move it as tears started to form on the corner of his eyes. “I don’t like Hyung being off.  I want to play with Hyung.”

                Seunghyun only groaned as he heard soft sobs on his back, he could feel droplets of tears started to pour on his hair.  He right away knew Daesung was also crying behind his back. He stretched open one of his arm, waiting the other little boy to walk and reached him. As expected, Daesung obediently walked to his side and silently sob there.

                “Haish, both of you, it should be me who cry. Stop crying.”

                “We’re replacing you. We don’t want Hyung to be tired.”

                “Since when did crying become tiring?! It’s shutting crying people which is tiring!!” Seunghyun exclaimed. To his surprise, the cry became louder. He didn’t know anymore as he groaned for the second time, drawing circles on their backs respectively. He was in the verge of giving up when two other boys showed up, indicating nothing but another episode of dramas. He mentally groaned.

                “Seungri-ah!!!”

                Seungri precisely shot up after the voice of his beloved cousin. “Jiyongie Hyung!!” He was abruptly pulled by the elder, literally being squeezed to the point he lost his breath.

                “Ah, Ji, Bae, Help me with these two babies!!” Seunghyun shouted in defeat. That moment, Daesung straightly sat up and stopped his sob, trying his best to maintain a strong face as he held back his hiccups. Yongbae couldn’t help but instinctively wiped Daesung’s face with tissue.

                “Hey, what’s wrong with Ji?” Seunghyun eyed his cousin suspiciously as he noticed the bloodshot eyes the latter owned. He demanded a quick answer for Yongbae as he hated to see Jiyong laid a finger on his brother; it’d take forever to separate them.

                “Someone mocked Jiyong’s picture he did for his drawing task today,” Yongbae explained.

                “I see.” Seunghyun nodded his head and smirked as he could already imagine what Seungri would do to Jiyong after the baby learned as to why he was squeezed by the elder; he would heartlessly scratch Jiyong with his toy knife the way he did to Seunghyun.

                Jiyong hugged the younger stubbornly as he kept on insisting to hold the latter despite the latter’s rebellion. It was a habit Jiyong had longed adapted since the day he started his school; hugging Seungri each time he met something he wasn’t amused of.

                “Hyung-ie, let me go!!” Seungri tried to reach out, yet he failed miserably. He looked at his hyungs and pleaded them to help him out, throwing out his ultimate secret weapon of acting all cute, but again, he failed. In the end, the irritated panda kicked his hyung forcefully, successfully freed himself from the dragon’s deathly grip.

                “Ri, how could you?!”

                “Hyung-ie did it first!! Jiyongie Hyung didn’t want to let go of Ri!!”

                “I need a hug!!”

               Seungri gasped at Jiyong’s statement, directly knew what had fallen upon the elder. In a speed faster than the light, he pulled on a determined look and grabbed his toy knife, raising it high and started doing his task all over again; this time, with a different target.

                 “Riri will save Jiyongie Hyung too.” He scratched and scratched, completely immersed in his task as he ignored the other.

                Seunghyun was laughing his heart out as Jiyong winced in pain. Yongbae was left speechless as he watched Seungri’s attempt on cutting Jiyong’s ear with the toy knife which is truly meaningless. Daesung who was sitting next to Seunghyun immediately prepared to storm out and put the earmuff on Jiyong, saving his other hyung’s ear from the savage youngest.

                “No, no, no. Seungri, Daesung, you can’t do that.” Yongbae held the two boys’ hands, stopping them to do anymore damage on Jiyong who was now rubbing his ear. “That’s not how you do things.”

                “Why?? Jiyongie Hyung is hurt. If Jiyongie Hyung doesn’t have ears, Jiyongie Hyung will not hear the monsters’ teases,” Seungri voiced out his defend as he glared at Yongbae. He didn’t like being on the wrong side.

                “Hyung, Seungri is right! But earmuff is better!! That way, Jiyongie Hyung can still hear other thing.”  Daesung looked at Yongbae with the same intense stare Seungri gave.

                “Wait, Ri?! How come you want to cut my ears?!” Jiyong gasped in horror-stricken face. He couldn’t believe his favorite cousin would be that heartless on him. He was even more dumbfounded when the younger only nodded his head determinedly. He was completely getting a punch in the face as he turned speechless.

                “Listen, Ri, Dae, you’re not allowed to do tha—“

                “Whyyyy?!”

                “Don’t cut me off, Ri. When someone teases you, you should prove them you’re better, not turning deaf ears on them!”

                “Deaf ears? What is ‘deaf ears’, Bae Hyungie?”

                “You cover your ear so you don’t hear the word you don’t want to hear.”

                Seungri and Daesung stared in awe at Yongbae’s enlightenment before nodded in understanding. The three elder only watched from their seat, stood by to prevent their dongsaengs doing any unexpected things any seconds came. Seungri and Daesung insensibly whispered at each other, excluded the three prepared hyungs as they made plans.

                Seunghyun and Jiyong were both caught off guard when they were being dragged by the younger. They were forced to sit down side by side in front of a small table stood in the center of Seunghyun’s room.

                “I’ll teach Hyung to talk well and not rapping! Follow after me!!” Daesung yelled at the eldest, taking a seat across him. He started to shout out random words, demanding the eldest to repeat after him which the eldest reluctantly did.               

                “I’ll be Jiyongie Hyung’s teacher. Focus on Riri!!” Seungri jumped onto Jiyong’s lap and pulled his hand. He took Jiyong’s bigger hand in his smaller one, guiding it to scribble down unidentified object on the paper, attempting to give Jiyong a drawing lesson which in reality was far more aced by Jiyong than he himself.

                Yongbae who was being the outcast one only went out of the room, coming back with a big package of snacks and sat across them, smugly enjoyed his snack as he watched the two other elders grumbled on their own places as they dealt with their respective demanding toddlers. He laughed at them and silently grateful he wasn’t the one being forcefully taught by the younger.

                Seunghyun and Jiyong only gritted their teeth as they watched Yongbae leisurely threw his peanut high to the air and successfully catching it, annoyingly munched it while smirking at them in a teasing manner. They were powerless as all they could do was gulping down their desire to devour the peanut while watching Yongbae temptingly ate in front of them.

                They really felt like crying.

                “HYUNGS!! Pay attention to us!! We want to show the other that our hyungs are the best!!!”

---

                “Hey, Ri. I’m being teased again today.” Jiyong playfully shoved Seungri’s shoulder who was busy doing his homework. “Where is your toy knife? I’m ready.” Jiyong’s lips twirled up into a cat smile as he brought his face closer to Seungri, shoving his ear to the youngest face. “Cut it for me, please.”

                “Aiiishh! Hyung!! That was 9 years ago. I’m 12 now. Just drop that joke!!” Seungri embarrassedly pushed his cousin aside, focusing himself on the homework he had to finish by tomorrow. It’s not helping though as another one came up.

                “Didn’t you say you don’t want your hyungs to hear the monster’s teases?” Seunghyun jumped into the conversation with a triumph smile plastered on his face, enthusiastically annoyed his brother.

                “Aiish, I was just trying to help!!” Seungri clarified as he crossed his arm in front of his chest, grumbling on his own after being the hyungs’ main bully target leading to nothing but the elders’ laughter. “Aiish, Bae Hyung!! Dae Hyung!! Help me!!”

                Jiyong and Seunghyun only laughed at their cute dongsaeng before messing his hair delightfully, totally proud of this little brother of theirs. Now, they were all numb when it came to teases or mocks, they had already learnt how they were actually declarations of jealously. What they needed to do was to prove other that they were beyond other’s reach; all thanked to this little brother’s innocent attempt to cut their ears years back which led them to get enlightenment from Yongbae.

 “Aiish!! Hyungs!! Anyone; JUST COME AND HELP ME!! MY HAIR IS ENDANGERED!!”