"Hyung," Younghyun whispers as he leans towards Sungjin who sat beside him. "I'm hungry."

Sungjin sighs, turning the menu to another page, "Then choose what you want and go order ahead."

"But I'm having what you're having," Younghyun mumbles, looking up at him from where he was staring at the grilled steak on the menu.

"What do you want, for starters?" Sungjin looks back at him.

"I'd like that," Younghyun points to the steak. "But I'm having what you're having."

Sungjin hums, "Drinks?"

"Iced tea's fine. Or just water, that's fine, too," Younghyun answers.

"What else?" Sungjin leans to the table, pushing the menu to him before looking at him, giving all his attention to him.

Younghyun blinks, turning the page over, "Ooh, they have garlic breadsticks!"

"Do you want that? Dowoon's having that too," Wonpil says from across them.

Younghyun nods, Dowoon puts 'x3' beside the garlic breadsticks on the notepad on his phone. Younghyun turns another page and stares unblinking at the meat burgers. Sungjin watches him, not noticing the small, soft smile on his lips as he does. Jaehyung says his order to Dowoon before the three of them look at the two members in front of them.

"Kang Bra," calls Sungjin and the bassist turns to the next page. He chuckles, "Do you want burgers?"

"No, it's too much already," mumbled Younghyun a bit disappointedly, head shaking a bit. "I'm just looking at the rest of the menu."

Sungjin smirks a bit and glances at the rest of the band who was still watching them. Jaehyung raised a brow at him.

"Oh, hyung, what do you want?" Younghyun says. "You haven't ordered yet. I said I'm having what you're having."

Sungjin rocks his leg up and down a few times, thinking as he looked back at the younger one who blinked at him patiently. Then he looks at Dowoon, his lips.

"Grilled steak, two orders of garlic breadsticks and… this one," Sungjin turns the menu back one page and points at the meat burger that Younghyun was staring at earlier.

Dowoon lists it down, "That's just for you?"

"Yeah," nods Sungjin.

"So if Younghyun hyung is having what you're having, then times two orders of those," Wonpil says, watching Dowoon double everything that Sungjin said.

They look over the list and then approve to order.

Sungjin pats Younghyun's shoulder, "Kang Bra, go order with Dowoon."

"Okay," Younghyun obeys, standing up and following their maknae to the counter.

Jaehyung watches them stand in line, going over the list of orders, before turning to Sungjin who was putting the menu on its stand on the side of the table. The leader ran a hand through his hair twice before folding his arms on the table, leaning onto it.

"You know," Jaehyung starts, eyes squinting a bit as he thought.

Sungjin and Wonpil look at him to listen. Jaehyung looks afar, kind of dramatically, as he snaps his fingers repeatedly to put into words what he wants to say. Sungjin and Wonpil wait patiently. Then Jaehyung snaps one last time before pointing a finger at Sungjin when he looked back at him.

"I was thinking… with you calling Brian — " Jaehyung gestures to him.

"Kang Bra," Sungjin supplies, Jaehyung nods.

"That. Yes. With you calling him that, I was starting to think it was your version of calling him 'babe' or something," Jaehyung says.

Sungjin furrows his brows, looking weirdly at him. Wonpil nods a bit in agreement and Sungjin raises a brow at him. Wonpil nods even more.

"It's like, you're calling him babe, but with 'Kang Bra'," Jaehyung adds, hands moving animatedly. "Because come to think of it. You're the only one calling him that."

"So?" Sungjin asks, heart skipping a beat for whatever reason.

"You call us the same, you call us our name — "

"It's his name, too — "

"Yes, but no, I'm saying you're the only one who gets to call him by that and it's like your endearment for him," Jaehyung argues, sitting up, and Wonpil and Sungjin know he's not going to back down from this.

Sungjin blinked.

"He's saying that if we call Younghyun hyung like how you call him, it's going to be so weird to hear, it's just going to sound so wrong," Wonpil adds.

"Exactly," Jaehyung nods, gesturing at Wonpil to emphasize his statement. "Even in your contacts. You put our names like normal but for Brian, you put it how you call him."

"What's wrong with that?" Sungjin questions.

"I'm not saying there's something wrong with it. I'm just saying it's like you have an endearment for him," Jaehyung repeats. "It's like a coded version of 'babe'."

Sungjin sighs, facepalming. Now he was starting to feel wrong about calling Younghyun as he used to.

"And he's okay with it, too," Wonpil mumbles. "He's closest with Jaehyung hyung and he still corrects him from calling him Brian. He still wants him to stop calling him that even if it's his name."

Jaehyung nods again, "He still gets a bit pissed at me when I call him Brian but lately, he just kinds of let it go because he's so tired of telling me off."

"That's just because I'm older than him — "

"And I'm not — ?"

"And I'm the leader," Sungjin finishes his argument.

"No, that's not it," Wonpil shakes his head. "There's like some kind of special treatment when it comes to you."

Sungjin sighs again, stressed but he tries to understand, "Okay, continue."

"It's like — Jaehyung. Wonpil. Dowoon," Jaehyung says in a monotone voice and then sings. "Sungjin~"

Wonpil snorted, "That's so accurate."

"So," Sungjin clears his throat. "Should I stop, then?"

"No!" Jaehyung answers immediately. "I'm just pointing it out. I like having this idea that there's some kind of subtext whenever you call Brian."

Jaehyung smirked at him, eyebrows wiggling.

Sungjin sighs again and props his head with his hand. He flicks his eyes to the side to see Younghyun and Dowoon walk to them with a tray in their hands. A waiter was following them, another tray in his hands. Sungjin scoots to the window to give space for Younghyun. They put the plates of food on the table carefully, the three of them arranging them so everything can fit.

They thank the waiter and Dowoon slides back beside Wonpil. Younghyun stood by the table, looking down at the food with a frown on his face. Sungjin, who was dividing his and Younghyun's food accordingly, pauses and looks up at him. He glances at the other three and then back to Younghyun.

"Kang — Bra…" Sungjin stutters.

He stops and looks at Jaehyung who was coughing to cover his laughter. Sungjin looks back at Younghyun.

"Yah, what's the matter?" Sungjin pokes Younghyun on his arm.

Younghyun blinks before shaking his head and sitting down beside him, still frowning, "Did you order your food because that's what you want to eat?"

Sungjin raises a brow, "Yeah, why?"

"He was thinking you ordered them because he wants them but he's having what you're having," Dowoon explains.

"Ah," Sungjin chuckled. "I kind of put your preferences into consideration."

"Kind of? You ordered what he wants," Wonpil rolls his eyes.

Younghyun pouts a bit, mumbling, "You should have just chosen what you want, I'm fine with anything."

Sungjin chuckles again, "It's okay, Kang Bra — "

He turns his head away to the window and scrunches his nose. Now he can't get it out of his mind — the existence of a subtext whenever he calls Younghyun. Jaehyung cleared his throat numerous times, preventing his grin from blooming on his face.

"Yah," Younghyun laughs a bit at the American, pointing at his iced tea next to his plate to tell him to drink. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay," Jaehyung clears his throat as he nods.

Sungjin shakes his head once, Wonpil snorts, nearly choking on his food. Dowoon pats his back.

"What is wrong with you all?" Dowoon mutters.

"Aish," Sungjin whispers.

Younghyun looks at him, worried, "What? Something the matter?"

"No, no," Sungjin shook his head, hand waving as a dismissal.

Sungjin refrained from calling Younghyun by his name for the rest of lunch. He calls him with 'yah' or he pokes his shoulder. Jaehyung and Wonpil happily watched him struggle. They know they're going to get something from the leader later but they couldn't care less. It was too entertaining.

When they get back to the studio, Sungjin sat the two down. Younghyun had been occupied with Chan on their way to the studio, the boy asking him things and Younghyun answering enthusiastically. Dowoon stood on the side, watching as Jaehyung and Wonpil kept their head down, but kept on giggling to each other. Sungjin had his arms crossed, kind of disappointedly. Dowoon wonders what was wrong.

"I don't mind you thinking that but you should have just kept it to yourself," Sungjin grits out, Jaehyung and Wonpil laugh out loud.

Dowoon frowned in confusion when Sungjin facepalmed.

"You can just forget about it!" Wonpil says.

"But I can't! Jaehyung put up a good argument!" Sungjin hisses.

Jaehyung pats his chest proudly, "Former PolSci student here. Disregard it, Sungjin."

Sungjin sighed again, eyes closing.

"What's the matter?" Dowoon inquires.

Wonpil grins at him, "We were just thinking about how Sungjin hyung has some kind of endearment for Younghyunnie hyung."

Dowoon tilts his head and then he figures it out, "Ah, when he calls him 'Kang Bra'?"

"See, Dowoon knows!" Jaehyung says.

Dowoon plops down on the purple beanbag, grunting a bit as he hits it, and pulls out his phone to fiddle with it, "It's cute. It's like his version of — it's like a pet name or something."

Jaehyung and Wonpil laugh harder. Sungjin runs a hand through his hair, stressed.

"You had to make it worse," Sungjin rolls his eyes.

Dowoon giggles, "I said it's cute!"

"Doesn't matter!" Sungjin barks, just as the door opens.

Younghyun stopped by the door, frowning as he looked at them one by one, reading the atmosphere. He closes the door gently.

"Why are you yelling? Are you mad? Why are you mad? What did they do?" Younghyun fires out to Sungjin as he advances towards him.

Sungjin reads the worry in his eyes and he shook his head, looking away from him as he takes a deep breath.

"Are you okay?" Younghyun blinks at him and then turns to the others. "What did you do?"

"We did nothing," Wonpil answers. "Truly."

"Then why is Sungjin hyung — "

"Nothing," Sungjin says, grabbing Younghyun's arm to pull him back when he walked to Jaehyung and Wonpil.

Younghyun looks down at him, still worried. Sungjin looks back at him and opens his mouth to speak. But he stops and looks away again, hand covering half his face as he chuckles in disbelief to himself, ears turning red a bit.

Jaehyung and Wonpil laugh again, Dowoon giggles from where he was laying on the beanbag. Younghyun, even when he doesn't know what was going on, smiled as Sungjin chuckled.

"Forget about it!" Jaehyung slaps Sungjin on his shoulder.

Sungjin looks back up at Younghyun, "Kang — Young — aish."

Laughter fills the studio. Younghyun chuckled.

"What? Were you about to call me Younghyun?" Younghyun raised his brows in surprise. "Just call me as you do, hyung, I already told you it's okay."

"No, you don't understand — " Sungjin turns to Jaehyung and slaps his arm, hard.

"What!" Jaehyung winces but still laughs a bit.

"I knew you did something. What did you do?" Younghyun grabs Jaehyung's arm, Sungjin pries him away from the other guitarist.

"What did they do?" whines Younghyun. "I'm not going to do anything!"

"I said they did nothing!" Sungjin argues.

"Then why can't you tell me what's happening?"

"Because you can't know about it!" Sungjin says, Younghyun frowns deeply. "Just — let's compose, Kang — Bra."

Younghyun furrows his brows, "Why do you keep on stuttering when you call me? You have been since lunch."

"No reason," Sungjin sighs as he walks around the table to take a seat.

Younghyun sits beside him, "Is that what I shouldn't know about? Do you have an issue with my name?"

Sungjin shakes his head.

"Then why are you — "

"Shhhh," Sungjin closes his eyes as he holds his head. "I'm starting to get a headache from this."

"Sorry. Should I get you painkillers?" Younghyun mumbled.

"Ugh, Brian is such a boyfriend with you, Sungjin," Jaehyung groans as he sat down on a stool behind the table.

Wonpil sat beside him, "I wish someone would care about me like how Younghyunnie hyung cares about you."

Dowoon yawns loudly, "You hyungs are so so sappy."

"What did we do?" Sungjin laughs.

Dowoon stands up from the beanbag and goes to sit as well, "Get a move on."

---

“I am telling you, Sungjin. It’s different when you call Brian,” Jaehyung insists for the nth time that day as they walked around the city late at night.

Dowoon had wanted some fresh air, and Wonpil insisted to go with him to ‘protect him’ for some reason. Naturally, Jaehyung went with them, and so they decided to go out together. Now, Jaehyung and Sungjin remained on the back, behind Younghyun, Wonpil, and Dowoon. Sungjin put his hands in his jogging pants’ pockets as he sighed. Jaehyung put his hands in his hoodie’s pocket.

“It’s not that different. It’s only his name,” Sungjin rolled his eyes.

Jaehyung huffed, “I bet you 10, 000 won, it is totally different when we try to call him that.”

“Why do you turn this into a ing debate topic? Do you miss school?” Sungjin looks at him.

“Because it is such a debatable topic!” Jaehyung answers. “And because you’re really stubborn that you kept on refusing, you kept on countering my arguments without any backup statements.”

“You don’t have backup statements, either,” Sungjin points out. “You just kept on insisting that your argument is valid.”

Jaehyung glares at him, “I’ll give you more than a backup statement. I’ll try to call Brian like how you call him.”

Sungjin watches Jaehyung grab on Younghyun’s shirt and pull him back. Younghyun stumbles back and looks back at him. Dowoon and Wonpil stop walking to look at him as well. Sungjin blinks when Jaehyung looked at him. Jaehyung glances at Wonpil, already snorting before he can even speak. Wonpil reads his look and the keyboardist hides behind Dowoon.

Jaehyung looks at Younghyun and snorts, “Kang Bra.”

Younghyun scrunches his face and pushes him back, “Ew, did you just call me - eww!”

Jaehyung steps back and cackles out, holding onto Wonpil who was also laughing. They look over at Sungjin and laugh harder when they saw the weird, absolutely disgusted look on his face. Dowoon chuckles, head shaking. Sungjin realizes what Jaehyung means.

“Ugh, I had never cringed so hard in my life before,” Younghyun shudders.

“Let’s go home so you all can laugh out loud. The whole neighborhood is gonna wake up at this point,” Dowoon giggles, leading the way back to their house.

Younghyun throws an arm around Dowoon, eyes rolling at Jaehyung. Wonpil walks alongside them again, Jaehyung stumbling beside Sungjin.

“That was so disgusting,” Sungjin mutters under his breath.

Jaehyung pats his shoulder, “Now, do you understand?”

Sungjin nods, nose still scrunched in disgust.

---

"So? How are you?" Wonpil questions as he enters the living room.

Sungjin, who sat at the couch looking bored as hell, looks up at him from his phone and raises a brow.

"Fine. Why?" Sungjin blinks.

Wonpil hums, "Nothing."

He sat on the other end of the couch and curled up, taking his phone out to fiddle with it as well. It was silent for a few minutes but then Sungjin looked at him.

"Where's Kang Bra?"

"There it is," Wonpil mumbles to himself, sighing. "Gone off somewhere with Jaehyungie hyung."

"Why don't I know that — you know what, that's none of my business," Sungjin says.

It was quiet again. And then the leader speaks again.

"When did they leave? Where did they go?"

"There it is again," Wonpil remarks and earns a hit on the arm from the leader.

"Just answer me," Sungjin demands.

"I don't know!" Wonpil whines. "Why don't you call them?"

Dowoon leaves his room and goes to the kitchen, taking one banana milk from the fridge, "Jaehyung hyung took him somewhere early in the morning. The beach, probably."

Sungjin furrowed his brows, "Why? Kang Bra's not a morning person, though?"

Dowoon stabs the top of the banana milk and takes a long sip, shrugging, "Jaehyung hyung woke him up and he had no strength to get mad at him so he just went with it. I think he slept on the way there, anyway."

Sungjin sat up and leans forward, putting his elbows on his knees as he slightly glares at the wall.

"I think they'll be back at — " the door opens, " — now."

Soft laughter filled the entrance to their house and then the two members appear from the corner. They look at them, the two of them looking back.

"Hello," Jaehyung greets before going to the kitchen and taking the water pitcher to get a glass of water.

"Where did you go?" Wonpil asks, glancing at Sungjin who just looked at them.

Younghyun points to their eldest member with a small smile on his face, "Jaehyung hyung took me to the beach!"

"Why?" Sungjin questions, some kind of emotion underlying in his tone.

Younghyun frowns, "What do you mean, why? Can't he take me to the beach?"

"But it's early in the morning. You get upset at me when I peek in your room and you wake up accidentally," Sungjin answers.

"I don't get upset at you," Younghyun frowns deeper.

Sungjin just looks at him. Jaehyung pats Younghyun on his shoulder and the bassist turns to go to his room. They follow him with their eyes and then Jaehyung looks at Sungjin who looked back at him.

"Problem, Sungjin?" Jaehyung raises a brow.

Sungjin sighed, eyes closing as he cradles his head.

"Sorry I didn't tell you we were going somewhere but that was my fault. Why are you — yah," Jaehyung watches the younger go to Younghyun's door and knock on it continuously until it opens.

Younghyun pries it a bit, Sungjin gently pushes it open and slides in. Jaehyung crosses his arms.

"What is wrong with him?" Dowoon mumbles.

"Jealous, maybe," Wonpil shrugged and looks up at Jaehyung. "What did you do, anyway?"

"Nothing. I remember him saying the sea breeze calms him and he looked really stressed when we went home last night," Jaehyung says, sitting beside the keyboardist.

Dowoon finally sits as well, "Yeah, why was he so stressed?"

Jaehyung hums, "Sungjin's not calling him by his name in any variations lately, didn't you notice? He calls him 'yah' or just — " he pokes the air, " — pokes him."

"So it's still your fault," Wonpil concludes.

"How is it my fault?" Jaehyung looks at him, offended.

"If you didn't tell him about that subtext under his nickname for Younghyun hyung, he wouldn't think twice about calling him that," Wonpil says.

Jaehyung only shrugs. In Younghyun's room, Sungjin takes Younghyun's wheeled chair and sits on it, facing the bed where Younghyun sat cross-legged. He was still frowning, clearly upset.

"Yah," calls Sungjin. "Yah, I'm sorry."

Younghyun nods, avoiding his eyes. Sungjin sees him remain upset and he sighs, wheeling the chair closer to sit in front of him.

"Yah — "

"I know, you're sorry, you already said it, hyung," Younghyun softly says, turning away from him and pushing the chair away.

Sungjin grabs onto his arms and pulls himself back, "Then why won't you look at me?"

"Do I need to? I forgive you already. Not that I'm mad at you," Younghyun says.

"You need to, so I know you're okay. Come on, look at me," Sungjin tugs at his arms.

Younghyun refuses to.

"What did you do on the beach?"

"Nothing. We just walked around," Younghyun mumbled, looking down at his lap.

"Why did he take you there? That was impromptu," Sungjin bends down to look at his face.

Younghyun turns away again, "I don't know, probably because I'm stressed and he knows the sea breeze calms me — "

"Why don't I know that?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because I'm the leader," Sungjin replies.

Younghyun stares at the wall and thinks, 'Ah, because he needs to take care of us.'

"I don't know. I just mentioned it to Jaehyung hyung before," Younghyun mutters.

"You still aren't looking at me," Sungjin points out.

"Hyung, get back, you don't like being this close to others if you don't need to," Younghyun tries to pull his arms from his hold but he doesn't let go.

"But I need to," Sungjin rebuts. "Yah, I'm sorry, really. I'm not disappointed or anything. I just wondered why neither of you told me you were going out."

"I already said I forgive you — "

"Then why won't you look at me?" Sungjin's voice raised a bit, but not as a shout, it was more like a whine.

Younghyun finally looks at him, exasperatedly, "Happy? Now get out."

Sungjin smiles and pulls at his arms again, putting them on his shoulders before his own arms wrapped around his waist. Younghyun froze. Sungjin whispers in his ear.

"Next time, tell me where you wanna go. The only method I know to deal with your stress is eating so next time, ask me out or something. Hm?" Sungjin hums.

Younghyun mutely nods against his shoulder, still surprised. Sungjin pulls back with a wider smile and then stands up. He pushes the chair back to his desk and heads for the door.

"Talk to me, Ka — Younghyun, okay?" Sungjin stutters before leaving.

Younghyun gets disappointed again, and the stress comes back doubled. He was stressing about what he did and how awful it can be to make Sungjin not call him as he used to. And he plops back on his bed really stressed.

---

Jaehyung strums his electric guitar for the last time as the song ended. He looked at the other guitarists, glancing at the maknaes on the back. Sungjin rests his left hand on his mic, eyes closing as he fiddles with his guitar pick on his right hand. Younghyun kept his head down, disappointment plastering itself on his face. Dowoon places his drumsticks on the snare and gently rubs on his palms with his thumbs. Wonpil takes a sit for a moment, wiggling his fingers.

Sungjin sighs, his cheeks blowing up as he did. Then he turns to Younghyun who still has his head down.

"Should we take a break?" Sungjin asks. "Younghyun-ah?"

Younghyun gulps and nods a bit. He had been out of it today. His voice kept cracking at the wrong parts, and he'd forget most of his lines, sometimes forgetting it was his part next. They were having a band practice, playing some of their songs, the new ones and the previous ones. Younghyun seemed out of focus. He couldn't reach his notes, those he can easily reach on any other days, either.

He seemed tired, too, like he wasn't getting enough sleep even when he'd slept throughout the day. He was distracted, badly distracted about something. Jaehyung takes his electric guitar off his body and puts it on the rack before walking up to the bassist who did the same with his bass. Jaehyung bends a little to look at his face, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"What's the matter?" Jaehyung softly asks.

Younghyun his lips, head shaking.

"Tell him," Sungjin says and they look at him. "Tell him what's wrong."

"It's nothing — "

"You can't say it's nothing when it's obviously affecting you — "

"Sungjin," Jaehyung cuts.

Sungjin pokes his inner cheek with his tongue, looking away as he put a hand on his hip. He takes his guitar off, puts it on its stand, and then turns to the door.

"I'll be back in a while," Sungjin mumbles before leaving.

Jaehyung rolled his eyes and looks back at Younghyun, "Yah, what's wrong?"

He takes a chair and makes the bassist sit, the maknaes walking up to them. Younghyun leaned to his knees and sighed, eyes closing.

"Did I do something?" he mutters.

"What do you mean?" Wonpil asks.

"Sungjin hyung seems mad at me for a while now," Younghyun looks up at them, clearly bothered.

"He doesn't, though?" Dowoon barely speaks.

"No, he — " Younghyun's stress seeps out from him, filling the room heavily. "He calls me Younghyun now."

"Ah, god," Jaehyung groans a bit, putting an arm on Wonpil's shoulder to lean onto him.

"What? Do you know something?" Younghyun looks at him.

"Maybe," Wonpil says. "But it's better if you talk to Sungjin hyung about it."

"I'm scared, what if — "

"Why are you scared of Sungjin hyung?" Dowoon wonders out loud. "He can't hurt anyone even if he's really mad. He's scary but he can't hurt you."

"I don't know," Younghyun kind of sobs, but he wasn't crying nor was he close to.

"Sungjin's making this a lot harder, it shouldn't even be hard," Jaehyung sighs. "Talk to him, Bri."

"Will you stay, then?" Younghyun pleads, just as the door opens and Sungjin comes back.

Jaehyung grips Younghyun's shoulder assuringly, "Talk to him."

He turns to leave, the maknaes following. Jaehyung nudges Sungjin and jots his thumb back to Younghyun to usher him to take over before leaving the room with Dowoon and Wonpil. And silence joins the stress hanging heavily around the room. Younghyun laces his fingers together and uses both his thumbs to rub at his forehead. He closes his eyes.

Sungjin remains standing from where he had stopped when he came in and stares at the younger.

"Younghyun-ah," Sungjin calls softly.

"Don't call me that," he hears Younghyun mumble desperately. "Don't call me that, don't call me that!"

Sungjin furrows his brows and approaches the younger, kneeling on one knee to take his hands from his face.

"Younghyun?"

"I said don't call me that," Younghyun repeats, looking away from him and leaning back on the chair.

"Why not? Yah, what's the matter?" Sungjin stands up and leans onto the chair by putting his hands on its arms. "You've been so stressed lately. I told you to tell me what you want to do, didn't I? Why didn't you approach me in any way?"

Younghyun kept quiet.

"You reject me when I ask you to eat out with me," Sungjin adds. "And you never reject food. What's bothering you, Younghyun?"

Younghyun closes his eyes to calm down. Sungjin waits patiently.

"Are your vocals okay? You sound like you're having a hard time singing. Should I ask PD-nim to give you a break?" Sungjin asks again.

"Literally shut up for a moment, hyung," Younghyun holds one of his arms.

Sungjin closes his mouth and watches him carefully, looking for any signs of distress or emotion on his face. And all he reads are worry and fear. Sungjin blinked, eyebrows furrowing and head tilting to the side in wonder.

"Why are you… scared, Younghyun?" Sungjin mumbles.

Younghyun finally looks at him and Sungjin's heart dropped to his stomach. He can't read any positive emotions from the younger. All he reads are negative and he feels like crying. What was happening to him? Then he panics a bit.

"Younghyun? What's the matter? Please tell me. What's bothering you, Younghyun-ah?" Sungjin puts a hand on the side of his neck, using his thumb to raise his head a bit so he can look at him properly.

Younghyun pulls his head away from his hand before pushing him back and standing up, "Hyung, tell me, did I do something?"

Sungjin steps back and blinks confusedly, "What?"

"Did I do something?" Younghyun repeats. "Did I do something against you?"

"No. What are you saying, Younghyun?" Sungjin furrows his brows in worry.

"I said stop calling me that!" Younghyun reminds.

"Why? It's still your name — "

"Is it?" Younghyun steps closer to him, Sungjin steps back. "Is it really my name?"

"What are you talking about?" Sungjin looks really worried now.

"That's not my name," Younghyun shakes his head.

"What — Brian?"

"Oh, Sungjin, for the ing love of God," Jaehyung hisses from the other side of the door where he and the maknaes are listening.

"He's so stubborn," Wonpil giggles a bit.

"He's so stupid," Dowoon says.

"No!" shouts Younghyun. "Those were never my name!"

Sungjin narrows his eyes, "Don't raise your voice at me, Younghyun, I can hear you just fine — "

"Then why do you keep on calling me Younghyun if you can hear me just fine?" Younghyun mocks.

"What is it if I call you that?" Sungjin questions.

"I was never Younghyun, I was never Brian to you!" Younghyun says. "I'm Kang Bra, that's me!"

"Why is this such a big deal?"

"Because you give much more meaning to me when you call me with that name!" Younghyun argues. "You give me another identity with it, an identity that only knows you and only you know!"

Sungjin steps back again, surprised at Younghyun's outburst.

"It makes me feel special because I'm the only one you give a nickname to in the band," Younghyun says. "You call the others as their name but you call me different. You say it's just half of my name but to me, it isn't. It's more than that. That's why I'm fine with you calling me that even when I hate it when someone calls me Brian."

Sungjin gulps, relaxing.

"So you refraining from calling me that feels like I lost an identity. It feels like I lost you. It feels like you let me go," Younghyun spits out. "Am I not yours anymore, hyung?"

Sungjin his lips as his heart cracks before answering, looking at the younger straight in his eyes, "You were never mine, Younghyun."

Younghyun winces a bit, "What are you talking about?"

Sungjin takes a shaky deep breath and speaks calmly.

"Oh, he's about to rat me out," Jaehyung mutters.

"I'm not blaming anyone and you shouldn't, too," Sungjin pauses, voice cracking as his heart does.

Jaehyung sighed in relief, "Oh, good, he saved me from Brian's wrath."

"Days ago, Jaehyung told me that there's a subtext whenever I call you like how I used to," Sungjin starts. "He said it's like I have an endearment for you; like I was calling you babe in my own way."

Younghyun listens attentively.

"I wasn't — I didn't consider it at first. But then Wonpil — "

"Oh, he dragged me in," Wonpil scoffs.

"Wonpil said that if one of them calls you like how I do, it would sound so weird and so wrong," Sungjin continues. "That's when I realize Jaehyung was right. So now, every time I call you as I usually do, I can't help but think I'm calling you babe."

Younghyun blinks, "So?"

Sungjin shakes his head.

"So what if it sounds like you're calling me babe? To hell with it," Younghyun says.

"No, you don't understand — "

"Then explain. Stop telling me I don't understand when you haven't even tried to explain it to me yet. How am I supposed to understand if you don't — "

Sungjin looks deeper into his eyes, head shaking a bit, "I can't call you that."

"Why not?"

Sungjin sighed, lips trembling, "I can't call you babe when you're not even mine, Younghyun."

Younghyun keeps quiet for a while and watches as Sungjin looks away, teeth chewing down on his lip for a few seconds and then letting go. His Adam's apple bobs in his throat as he gulps heavily. Younghyun takes a step closer.

"Do you want me to be?" he asks.

Sungjin looks up at him.

"Oh, , he's going to go for it!" Jaehyung giddily mutters, grinning.

"Answer me, Sungjin hyung," Younghyun demands. "Do you want me to be yours?"

Sungjin gulps again, nodding a bit.

"Then ask me," Younghyun steps closer. "Come on, ask me to be yours."

Sungjin took another shaky deep breath, his hands also shaking a bit at his sides, "Younghyun — "

"Again."

Sungjin frowns, "I haven't even — "

"Is that my name?" Younghyun raises a brow at him.

Sungjin looks down for a moment and then up at him again, "Kang Bra, will you be mine?"

Younghyun smiles before embracing him, arms wrapping around his shoulders and head snuggling to his, "Jaehyung hyung is stupid, you should never listen to him."

"Oh, this er," Jaehyung sneers on the other side of the door. Wonpil and Dowoon snicker softly.

Sungjin slowly runs his hands on Younghyun's waist before wrapping his arms around him as well, pulling him closer. He closes his eyes and buries his face on the younger's neck, inhaling through his nose and exhaling hotly and shakily through his mouth.

"Hyung," whispers Younghyun.

Sungjin hums and lets the younger sway them side to side gently.

"What's my name?" Younghyun asks with a smile against his ear.

Sungjin smiled back against his neck, "Kang Bra."

And Younghyun hugs him tighter. Sungjin returns the gesture.

"Are you mine?"

Younghyun chuckles, "Property of Park Sungjin, yeah."

Sungjin didn't even try to prevent the giggles bubbling from his throat.

"Jinjja, hyung, you can just claim me out of nowhere, I'd never mind," Younghyun sighs. "I'm literally in love with your eyes."

Sungjin chuckles, "I thought you were just joking whenever you say something about my eyes or my voice. Just anything about me in particular."

"That's just so offending in so many ways," Younghyun pulls back, pouting.

Sungjin laughs a bit, reaching up to run his hands down the sides of his neck softly. The door opens and Sungjin waits for them to tease them, Younghyun just grins at them.

"Really, I put all that effort into taking you to the beach when all I could have just done is tell you all about this whole nickname ," Jaehyung complains.

"You wanted to take the stress off him," Wonpil says.

"Plus, you wanted to make Sungjin hyung jealous. It worked," Dowoon adds.

"Ohohoho, so you really were disappointed that time. But not because we left without telling you, but because I was with Jaehyung hyung," Younghyun grins teasingly at Sungjin.

And Sungjin felt betrayed because he was expecting the other three to . Nevertheless, he smiles at Younghyun. And the other three can see in his eyes how in love he was.

And Jaehyung admits, "Sungjin, you look so good when you're in love."

Wonpil nods, Dowoon gives Sungjin a thumb up.

"He always looks the same, though?" Younghyun frowns and then grins again. "Ohoho, does that mean you've been in love with me this whole time?"

Sungjin facepalms, the others laugh.

"Maybe I am," Sungjin looks back at him.

"So sappy, I'm telling you," Dowoon rolled his eyes, but with a small smile on his lips.

 

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