Takes place after this chapter of Because we’re family. You don’t have to read this first for things to make sense but you might want to take a look.

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Minseok had kept his promise. In return for her promise to keep silent about his personal life and not go running to their mother, he’d taken his twelve year old sister Hayoung to netball practice. This had been followed by a trip to a fried chicken place for lunch and a game of bowling which Hayoung had comfortably won. She’d been pretty pleased about this. They’d moved into the arcade now and she was still bragging about it. This wasn’t a surprise to Minseok, he had five younger brothers too and none of them were particularly gracious winners either. Even Joonmyun, who was generally speaking the most reserved of his little brothers had a competitive streak.

Out of all of his siblings though, Hayoung was particularly fond of winning. They were in the middle of a game of air hockey now and she was three points up and bragging about this too.

“Yes!” Hayoung was yelling now, giving an excited little jump. “Four to zero!” And then something occurred to her and her eyes narrowed. “Oppa, you’re not letting me win, are you?”

Minseok shook his head. “Of course not.” He told her. Or at least he wasn’t doing it on purpose. He had a lot on his mind and he was feeling kind of worn down and neither of those things were helping him concentrate.

“Are you sure?” Hayoung asked, unconvinced. “Because I don’t need you to. I’m really good at this, I beat Sehun and Tao all the time.”

Sehun was the youngest of Minseok’s brothers at fourteen years old, Tao was a little older and his best friend Luhan’s younger brother. And at the reminder of Luhan, Minseok found his brow furrowing. The last proper conversation he’d had with him hadn’t been pleasant to say the least. But no, this was Hayoung’s day he reminded himself. He shouldn’t be letting his own personal drama get in the way of her enjoying herself. “I’m sure.” He said, trying to put Luhan to the back of his mind. “I’m just a little out of practice that’s all.”

Hayoung considered this for a second and then she was grinning. “I guess you don’t come to the arcade very often,” she conceded, “you’re getting way too old for that.”

“Way too old?” Minseok protested, wondering when his sister had gotten such a smart mouth and then immediately realising this was a stupid question. Hayoung had had a smart mouth from the moment she could talk, the only reason this comment had surprised him was because this was usually reserved for Baekhyun. Baekhyun might be seventeen and theoretically almost an adult but this didn’t stop them fighting like cat and dog. “I’m only twenty-one.” He added, getting back on track. He didn’t think twenty-one was that old.

“So… ancient then.” Hayoung translated, impertinent grin still on her face. “You’re practically a granddad.”

“And you’re most definitely a brat.” Minseok countered. “And you haven’t won yet. It’s first to seven remember? Not first to four.”

“True,” Hayoung agreed, “but I think I’ve got this.”

And as it turned out Hayoung was right. She had it. Minseok managed to scrape two points but his little sister was first to reach seven. 

She scored more points shooting baskets too and had beaten him with about ten seconds to spare in a motor racing simulation game.

So by the time she’d spotted the dance game in the corner was free she was practically bouncing. “Come on!” She exclaimed, grabbing his hand and dragging him towards the machine. “Let’s play!”

“You play.” Minseok told her, wishing he was twelve again and had her energy levels. “I’ll watch.” He hadn’t slept well the night before and his own energy levels were almost depleted. 

“I don’t want to play on my own.” Hayoung whined, still tugging on his hand. “You only need to play one game with me. Please. I won’t make you do best of three or anything, I promise.”

But Minseok shook his head. “Hayoungie, I’m tired.” He told her. Now that they’d stopped for a moment he was realising just how exhausted he was. His legs and his lower back were aching and a headache was building right behind his eyes.

“Tired, or scared of losing?” Hayoung asked, dropping his hand and crossing her arms across her chest, her eyes narrowing.

Hayoung was always cute when she got sulky, but cute or not he wasn’t backing down. Just looking at the flashing lights round the machine was making his headache worse, he dreaded to think what jumping around would do to it. “Tired.” He said firmly. “Now go play before someone else notices it’s free.”

“Fine.” Hayoung huffed with a pout. “But I bet Luhan would play with me if he was here. We should ask him to come with us next time so he can step in when you get all boring.”

“We’ll see.” Minseok told her. He’d rather not be talking about Luhan but he couldn’t tell Hayoung that or she’d want to know why.

“He’ll want to come.” Hayoung said confidently. “He likes the arcade. But if he does you need to promise not to do cute boyfriend stuff together because that’s gross.”

“Well that shouldn’t be hard.” He said, trying to keep his tone light. “Because we’re not boyfriends.” After they’d been caught kissing by his little sister in the hallway of their apartment block Luhan had started to question this and Minseok had had to remind him of all the reasons why they weren’t a couple and why becoming one would be a bad idea. It hadn’t gone that well. Luhan had kept on insisting that they should at least try dating, they were practically a couple already so what could it hurt? And Minseok, not appreciating being pressured had snapped and told him it wasn’t going to happen and he’d never promised him it would. And Luhan had looked at him with wide eyes and a wounded expression then he’d stonily apologised for misunderstanding where things were going and had stormed from the room. And feeling more than a little hurt himself Minseok hadn’t followed. They hadn’t done more than exchange general niceties since. So yes, Hayoung really didn’t have to worry.

But his little sister wasn’t convinced. “You are though, aren’t you?” She said, giving him a knowing look. “Just because you’re not calling him your boyfriend that doesn’t mean he isn’t.”

“That’s exactly what it means.” Minseok told her, not liking the direction the conversation was taking. “If he was my boyfriend that’s what I’d be calling him. But he’s not.” Minseok wasn’t even sure he was his friend at the moment but he wasn’t about to get into that. He could live without receiving relationship advice from a twelve year old.

“Fine, he’s your secret boyfriend then.” Hayoung said, waving away the argument. “But a secret boyfriend is still a boyfriend and I don’t want to see you being all cute together.” 

“He’s not my secret boyfriend.” Minseok exclaimed, patience starting to wear thin. 

“Then what was all that kissing I saw?” Hayoung demanded, crossing her arms across her chest, dance machine behind her forgotten. 

“I… that’s… I don’t have to explain that to you.” Minseok spluttered, caught out by the question. “That’s not your business. Luhan and I are not boyfriends, secret or otherwise and that’s all you need to know.”

Hayoung still wasn’t buying it. “You live together, give each other googly eyes all the time and you sometimes kiss each other on the mouth. If he’s not your boyfriend now then I bet he’s going to be your boyfriend soon.”

And if it had been any other day Minseok would probably have told her gently but firmly that that was enough. But things at home after his conversation with Luhan were still awkward, and while he knew it had been a conversation that was bound to happen eventually, if Hayoung hadn’t caught them kissing outside their apartment Luhan might not have brought up the subject of labelling their relationship so soon. If Hayoung hadn’t questioned their relationship status out loud their argument wouldn’t have happened when it did. And he knew blaming his little sister wasn’t fair, she hadn’t meant any harm, but he was tired and on edge as it was and the lights and the noise of the arcade were making his headache worse and it was hard to rationalise when it felt like your eyeballs were pulsating in your eye sockets. 

“How many more times do I have to tell you? Luhan is not my boyfriend.” He snapped, the words sounded loud and harsh even to his own ears but he couldn’t seem to stop himself, they just kept coming. “He was never my boyfriend and he never will be my boyfriend. And even if he was, whatever relationship we may or may not have is none of your business.”

And for a moment all Hayoung could do was stare at him in wide eyed surprise, mouth slightly parted. Then her expression was hardening and she was muttering a sulky “Sorry, I’ll just shut up then, shall I?” 

And Minseok instantly felt guilty. She was his little sister and he’d obviously hurt her feelings. “No that’s not…” he started to say but she didn’t let him finish.

“If you don’t want me to talk to you just take me home.” She said, haughtily. 

“Hayoung, I…” Minseok tried again but his baby sister was nothing if not stubborn.

“No, it’s okay.” She told him, cutting off his attempted apology for a second time. “You’re too tired to play with me anyway, remember? So just take me home and I can play video games with Sehun instead. That will probably be more fun anyway. He might even let me speak without snapping my head off.”

And Minseok wanted to argue, he wanted to tell her not to be so silly. But Hayoung had already spun on her heel and was striding towards the exit. And he knew telling his little sister not to be so silly never got anyone anywhere, it only ever made things worse. She was only twelve after all, she’d only take it as criticism.He’d give her some time to calm down and then he’d apologise again when she was ready to hear it. That would give his headache a chance to clear up too, it would definitely be easier to find the right words if he could actually think straight.

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