Johnny was somewhat of an oddball, in Donghyuck’s opinion. 

His brother was only older than him by two years, but Johnny’s height, appearance, and overprotective personality has made him come off as older. Some people have even congratulated him on looking so young while being a single father. 

Come on, Johnny didn’t look that old. But no matter, people always treated Donghyuck as some cute thing, a younger ball of fluff that must instantly display aegyo on command. Which is exactly what Doyoung was doing to him right now. 

While Johnny did his job at the palace, Donghyuck was under the watchful eye of Doyoung, Johnny’s friend since they were schoolmates. Doyoung mostly did homework in the living room, letting Donghyuck do his shenanigans like usual in the apartment, only alone this time. 

Donghyuck had asked Johnny why he needed someone to take care of him while Johnny worked. It has always been like this; Johnny had slaved away doing part time jobs while finishing preparatory school but yet wouldn’t leave Donghyuck alone. Even though Donghyuck was now sixteen, just like Johnny two years ago, Johnny still wouldn’t let him get a job and insisted he must be under watch. 

It’s not that Johnny thought that Donghyuck couldn’t defend himself; he could. The two would playfully wrestle with each other all the time, and Donghyuck could throw a nasty punch. However, since Johnny now worked at the palace, there would be some enemies against him and might do something to Donghyuck. This happened a year before Johnny worked, where apparently someone found out some workers in the palace and murdered them in their home. 

Well, it’s a good thing Doyoung was taking care of him. Doyoung could stare at someone until they died. 

Now, though, Doyoung was staring at Donghyuck, waiting for the other to do some , like puff his cheeks and smile. 

“Please, Donghyuck, you never smile around me,” Doyoung pouted. “You got to do something.”

“How about no.” Donghyuck reached over for the screwdriver and tightened the screw on the little contraption he was building. Donghyuck knew nothing about building, but for his birthday, Johnny had bought him some kits on how to build certain stuff. The one he was currently doing was a small robot; Johnny would be sad if Donghyuck finished it without him, so he wasn’t going to complete all the steps just yet. 

“Fine, it’s your facial features, your choice.” Doyoung put his books aside (he actually managed to get into the university; he was really smart) and got up, heading to the kitchen. “Do you want dinner or is it a no?”

“Maybe later.” Donghyuck stuck his tongue out, staring intently at the next piece he was trying to add. He wasn’t even paying attention to Doyoung. “I’ll wait ‘till Johnny comes back.”

Doyoung sighed. “He’s probably working late again, you know.”

“Well, I’ll just have to sleep late I guess,” Donghyuck said. “This wiring is going to take a while.”

“Well, I’m stealing your bread loaves, for your information.” Doyoung got up from his spot of the couch and headed straight to the kitchen, rummaging through the bread cabinet. “Why are there only bagels?”

“They were on sale,” was the only thing Donghyuck said while he worked on another screw. A lot of the screws were tiny and thin, so it was a lot of work to hold them steady. 

Doyoung shrugged, grabbing one that appeared to have dehydrated berries in it, taking a bite as he opened the ice box and grabbed a milk bottle. “Do you want milk? It’s about to expire soon.”

Donghyuck shook his head. “I don’t eat or drink when I’m making stuff, the last thing I need is to electrocute myself.”

Doyoung sat back down on the couch, taking a sip of the milk. “Okay, what do I have to do to make you do aegyo?”

“I’m not doing aegyo – dang, I’m missing some screws.” Donghyuck grabbed a box from the shelf behind him, one filled with different cartons of nails and screws. “Let’s see-"

“Come on, there has to be something!” Doyoung shrieked. “Is there not one thing in the world that you would like to have?”

My parents back Donghyuck really wanted to say, but since Doyoung wasn’t a necromancer, Donghyuck merely said, “I want Johnny to give me a tour of the palace.”

“What the- I can’t do that!” Doyoung screeched, almost spilling his milk. “You know how adamant Johnny is about that stuff!”

“Then no aegyo,” Donghyuck finalized. 

“No, wait-“
 

***

The small Kingdom was run by the Park family, just the King, Queen and their son, Prince Jisung. The kingdom had a few main cities other than the vast country sides, but Johnny and Donghyuck happened to live in the main one, Neo City, where the palace was located. 

Donghyuck had no idea how Johnny got his job at the palace; he wasn’t even sure what he did. Johnny always said he did errands and such, but there wasn’t really a specific job title. He did work late all the time, but other than that, Johnny didn’t really complain much about his job. 

From the stories that Johnny would tell him, he had never met the royal family, but he has met with the King’s first adviser. An , Johnny had described him, but he told Donghyuck to never use that word. The last thing they wanted was to be executed for treason. 

However, during Johnny’s time in the palace, he had made another friend (it was to be expected – Johnny made friends everywhere.) He had a short and easy name to remember, Ten, and he was one of the main doctors in the palace. Really young to be a doctor, but was apparently a genius. He went to study medicine at the age of-

Oh, his name was a pun! That made sense.

But yes. Johnny made a friend. Although Donghyuck had a feeling it was going to be something more. Why? Because Johnny freaking woke up at up 7 am on a Saturday to clean the house before Ten came over. 

Their apartment may be cramped, but it’s not like it was dirty. Well, it got dirty often, but they would always clean up their mess no matter what. One time Johnny bought a big bag of flour on sale, but when he dragged it to the kitchen, he didn’t realize there was a hole in it, and the house was practically covered in white powder for a good three days. 

Okay, so maybe their house was a little dirty.

It wasn’t the bad type of dirty thought; more like, the type of dirty that shows that people actually live there. Still, though, there was something about Ten that made Donghyuck’s brother wake up at freaking 7. 

It turned out Ten wasn’t even coming until-

Ten comes at ten. 

Donghyuck is starting to wonder if this Ten person is made up. 

He rolled around in his bed, covering his ears with his pillow as he heard Johnny shout while banging the walls. He was probably dusting them. Again. For the third time that morning. 

Sadly, sleep had left his side, so he threw off his covers and put on his slippers, eyelids still half-closed. He was going to make sure that Johnny would get an earful from him. 

He slowly walked out of his room and was greeting with the sight of Johnny dusting the walls, yes, dusting them. Come on, their apartment didn’t have that much dust in them, what the hell was wrong with him?

“Johnny!” Donghyuck screeched. 

Johnny threw the duster into the small closet they had in the foyer. “Hey, how was sleep last night?” he nonchalantly asked while grabbing the bucket he had on the floor. He pulled out a rag and squeezed it, the water and soap coming up. He didn’t even wait until it was done when he started anxiously scrubbing the walls. 

“Bold of you I went to sleep, why the heck are you up so early?!” Donghyuck yelled at his older brother. 

“I told you, we have a guest later!” Johnny moved to another section of the wall, the one behind the couch, and continued scrubbing, some water droplets falling on the sofa. 

“Johnny, be careful, for goodness sake.” Donghyuck grabbed the paper towel roll Johnny had put on the floor next to a bunch of other cleaning supplies. “If you’re going to clean, do it properly, why are you so anxious anyways?”

“Who said I was anxious?!” Johnny put the rag back into the bucket and set it aside. “Do you know what time is it, I have to start cooking the rice at 9-“

“Johnny.” Donghyuck grabbed his brother’s arm and pushed him towards the kitchen. “Let me clean, gosh, do whatever you want in the kitchen-“

“But it has to be perfect-“

“Johnny, how much perfect can this place get?!” Donghyuck yelled at him. “Make me an omelet while you’re on it, aish.”

Johnny and Donghyuck each had their respective roles in the tiny apartment – Donghyuck cleaned and Johnny cooked and worked. Sure, Donghyuck could cook okay, he supposed, and he loved to bake, but Johnny was the one who could whip up ten different types of meals with four ingredients. This same Johnny, however, thought you could clean wood with water. 

Donghyuck took a look around the living room. It wasn’t even a mess – Johnny had put all the stuff away and arranged the bookshelf correctly. There was a crumb, here or there, but nothing that required waking up freaking three hours early. 

Donghyuck finished in less than ten minutes while Johnny screamed about whether the bread loaves were good enough or not. Donghyuck spent the next hour and a half calming Johnny down. 

When the so-called Ten finally came, Donghyuck talked to him for a few minutes until he went back to room, finally going back to sleep again. 

***

Donghyuck was sort of an oddball, in Johnny’s opinion. 

To be fair, though, Donghyuck changed a lot after their parent’s death, but no matter how much Johnny tried to be there for him, nothing seemed to work. 

The good thing was that Donghyuck was doing a bit better now, but still kind of, well, how could Johnny say it – reserved. He went to being someone who could speak anything on his mind to, well, not anymore. 

Often, whenever the two were out in public, the people would tell him compliments on everything about Donghyuck, about how he was a nice boy, his behavior, even his looks (Johnny also took pride in that – they were the good-looking Seo Brothers after all), but that always made Donghyuck uncomfortable. He stopped going to those places with Johnny altogether. 

He also doesn’t do aegyo anymore, which always earns him a pout from Johnny. As the younger sibling,  you’re supposed to be cute, it’s your job. When they were younger, Donghyuck always did it, no questions asked, matter of fact, he loved the attention he received from it. Now? Not so much. 

Although 16 was an age of weirdness, so maybe that’s why Donghyuck was odd. It’s just a phase, Johnny would remind himself; he just had to remember to show continuous support towards his brother and that he was still there with him, and everything would turn out fine. 

Like the electronics. Donghyuck had been showing an interest in how so many gadgets work, so Johnny would constantly bring little projects that his brother could work on. Donghyuck certainly looked happy while working with those. 

Johnny considered themselves to be happy. Well, him at least. That’s what mattered, right?