Jongdae’s last class ends at 3:30 PM but by the time Baekhyun finishes chit-chatting with nearly everyone in the class, it’s way past 4 in the afternoon.

“Yah” shouts Chanyeol, after they’ve been kicked out of the building for being too noisy. “Isn’t four o’clock too early to start drinking?”

Baekhyun shoots him A Look and so do the two others.

“Is it ever too early to start drinking, gang?” Baekhyun shouts.

“No way!!!” they all shouts back.

Chanyeol shakes his head, laughing. “What was I thinking?!”

Chanyeol makes a bit display of theatrically smacking his own mouth with his hands. Jongdae helps with the hitting, using Kyungsoo’s hand. Kyungsoo’s more than willing to comply, doing his creepy, low voice laugh that has Chanyeol complaining about goosebumps.

They reach Hongik street where the pub they frequent is located, but before they reach the actual pub, something catches their attention. The arcade three stores over from the pub has a big sign out front.

“Beat the high score and get a free Bluetooth speaker!” It says.

Baekhyun jabs Chanyeol in the ribs with his elbow. “Hey, didn’t you say you were good at that game? Win me a speaker, will ya?”

Baekhyun’s finger is pointing at the punching machine. Chanyeol sizes up the arcade machine as he cracks his knuckles in succession.

“Ah, does this old hyung have to bring forth his boxing skills for you little kids? Ah... this is dangerous you know...”

Chanyeol’s hyperbole is hilarious and Jongdae lets him know it. He throws his head back in laughter before he says, “Yah, Park Chanyeol, when did you ever learn boxing? If it’s boxing, you know my hyung, he-“

“Yeah yeah yeah” Chanyeol cuts him off. “Your Hyung is the best at everything, isn’t he? Well, how come you're always bragging about him, but never let us see him?”

“Yeah, how come?” Baekhyun adds, sticking out his tongue.  "Do you even have a real hyung?"

They nod at each other in agreement and Jongdae flushes from his neck up. It was true that he didn’t really like bringing friends over to his house. Neither did he like introducing his Minseok hyung to his friends. It wasn’t out of embarrassment. Not really. But the thought of Chanyeol or Baekhyun gawking at any of his hyungs brings a sour taste to his mouth.

“You don’t want to meet Minseok Hyung” Kyungsoo says quietly. “If he saw either of you two messing around, he’d beat you guys up for sure.”

There’s a pause, but then Jongdae snickers. Out of his close friends, Kyungsoo had been the one to know Jongdae the longest. This meant Kyungsoo had seen Jongdae’s whole family. Also, everything Kyungsoo said was probably true.

“Yah, i...is Jongdae’s hyung that scary?” Chanyeol asks, instinctively hunching his back in fear.

“Oh whatever” Baekhyun brushes Kyungsoo’s comment off and pushes Chanyeol toward the arcade. “If Chanyeol beats the high score, Jongdae has to invite us to his house!”

“Yay!” Chanyeol screams, rotating his arm as a warm-up.

This riles Chanyeol up, while Jongdae protests, “Hey! I never agreed to that! Ah, Byun Baekhyun!”

But before Jongdae knows it, the coins are inserted into the machine and the game beeps to life.

“Give the man some space!” Baekhyun shouts, shoving them out of the way.

Even passers-by stop to watch at the huge, unnecessary display Baekhyun is making. Jongdae, even though he maintains that he never ever agreed to any of this, watches biting his thumbnail. Kyungsoo chuckles, shaking his head, as he stands beside Jongdae.

“Calm down” Kyungsoo reassures Jongdae. “There’s no way that overgrown puppy can beat the high score. It’s at 982 right now.”

POW!!!

Chanyeol makes his punch.

There’s a collective silence as everyone watching holds their breaths. The red LED numbers scramble as it announces Chanyeol’s score.

The last digit is... 5.

“Ohhhh!” shouts the spectators.

The second digit is .... 9.

“Waaaa!” Baekhyun yells.

Jongdae grabs Kyungsoo’s arm, jumping up and down. “Noooo!”

And the final, first digit turns out to be....

7.

795 is Chanyeol’s score. And while Jongdae is now jumping with joy, Baekhyun smacks his lips in disappointment.

“Man, I thought you were better than this.  Where's my speaker!” Baekhyun deplores.

Chanyeol hangs his head in defeat and the passers-by leave, laughing and shaking their heads.  Cackling, Jongdae starts to walk toward the direction of the pub with Kyungsoo when Baekhyun whispers something into Chanyeol's ear.  Chanyeol’s head snaps back up.

“Best out of three" he says solemnly, jingling more coins in his fist.