It's the first time he thinks BIGBANG will last.

eighteen is two years (too young)

| something good, something that stays |

It's both too early and too late for anyone else to be practicing. The sun is shy behind the horizon, not yet awake, and the fog is crooning outside.

It's funny, Seungri hadn't thought there would be fog in Seoul too, for some reason, and waking up in the morning to see the familiar curtain of white had been a slight shock. It made it more real somehow; Seungri being in Seoul and becoming an idol. 

“Seungri,“ Jiyong says suddenly. His eyes are focused on the ceiling of the practice room and its bright white lights, as if he's avoiding Seungri's gaze which can't be true because Seungri doesn't think Jiyong cares enough about Seungri's opinion to avoid him.

It is 3am and Jiyong is ramped up on caffeine and adrenaline, and Seungri is the stupid maknae who can't leave his hyung alone. 

Seungri takes a moment to catch his breath and wipes the sweat off his forehead with his shirt. “Yes?” He rolls over to look at the older boy. 

“Hyung,” Jiyong reminds him absentmindedly. It is almost second-nature at this point, because Seungri always forgets. Seungri makes a face at Jiyong, not quite whining but bordering on it, and squawks when the older boy scoots over to lay his head on Seungri's stomach as punishment. 

Seungri rolls his eyes at his sweaty, heavy, smelly hyung and obediently— hah, Jiyong snorts, obediently — repeats, “Yes, hyung?”

Jiyong is quiet for a moment, long enough for Seungri to think he fell asleep. Seungri bites his bottom lip, tentatively bracing his elbows against the floor. “Jiyong-hyung?

“Do you think we'll make it?” Jiyong asks, suddenly. He chews his lower lip in the briefest display of vulnerability, and then looks Seungri in the eye. “Are we— do you think BIGBANG is gonna last?”

Seungri freezes, and with how close they were, he's sure that Jiyong can feel how tense he is. Seungri his lips and sits up fully. Jiyong's head slides down to his lap.

Jiyong's gaze is still stubbornly fixed on the ceiling, but there's a trace of insecurity there, and it has Seungri at a loss because Seungri isn't the one Jiyong goes to about these kinds of things; has never been. It was more Youngbae or Seunghyun's job to listen, since they were closer to Jiyong and knew him longer. 

But not Seungri, never the maknae.

Despite their relationship improving to absurd scales during the past year or so, they're still not at the point in their relationship where Jiyong could be comfortable confiding anything important to him. Or at least, that's what Seungri had thought.

Apparently, they're a lot closer than he knew, and the realization sort of takes Seungri's breath away. Seungri's tempted to ask Jiyong to pinch him. “Why not,” Seungri replies. “I think we're doing good right now.”

“Right now,” Jiyong scowls, and he says it like it's a curse. “What about in the future? Seven years from now, are we still going to be here? Together?” He looks up at Seungri, upside down, with intense eyes like he's searching for an answer in Seungri's irises, and Seungri feels in front of him. 

“Five years from now,” Seungri corrects softly. His heart is a racecar and his eyes are suddenly weary. Two years; it's already been two years since Seunghyun left Gwangju and became Seungri.

Seungri will turn eighteen in two months. 

(He feels older than that.)

“Time flies by too fast,” Jiyong whispers. They're the only ones in the room, but his voice sounds too loud. “I want to freeze everything so that it stays like this forever.”

“That's a lie,” Seungri murmurs. “You'd go crazy repeating everything. You hate stagnation hyung.”

Jiyong cracks a smile, the one that's only reserved for his closest friends, small and barely gracing his lips, and for Seungri it's an acknowledgment to how far they've come, how close they've grown.

“It'll be okay if you're there too,” he says. There's a crack in his low voice and Seungri's heart floats quietly in his chest. 

Seungri smiles at that. Turns away and catches their reflection in the mirror. His hair is a mess and Jiyong's isn't much better, brown strands slick with sweat. 

It's hot and Seungri wants to turn on the fan. Jiyong is heavy and Seungri thinks his legs might have fallen asleep, but that's okay. “We'll be okay,” Seungri says aloud.  

The more he thinks about it, the more he believes it.

If you asked him two years ago, if he thought BIGBANG would still be together after seven years, he might have replied “I'll be happy if we stay together for one.” It wouldn't be out of malice or insecurity.