If he had to pick a favourite season, it would be Autumn. It wasn’t too hot and the sun wouldn’t blaze down and burn his already dark complexion, and it wasn’t too cold to wear more than a sweater or a coat. The view was something too, probably a scenery that very often described Jaejin the most. Jaejin talked a lot in general, trying to act cool or even cute at times, but there was a quiet side of him – the side that often inspired him to write some songs out of the blue.

Those songs, according to Seunghyun, were mostly depressing as if whoever wrote those songs just lost his precious dog and could never ever find a replacement of the soft fur. The feeling of losing a companion seemed to hurt the writer of the songs that he just had to portray the feeling in them. It didn’t make sense to Jaejin though, because he was allergic to dogs.

But Jaejin was allergic to a lot of things anyway.

So when classes officially started again, Jaejin took his time walking to campus, contrary to how much he seemed to be in a rush just before summer break started. Dying leaves and wet road that was caused from the drizzle of the morning rain looked rather depressing for most people, but not Jaejin. To him, it was fascinating, almost in a romantic way.

“I thought you didn’t have class today, Hyung?” Minhwan puzzled, looking up from the book he was reading, voice was as soft as possible because he didn’t want the librarian to send him a nasty glare.

“I don’t. I’m just bored, so here I am. Might actually do some stuff for tomorrow’s class or something,” he grinned, taking the seat next to Minhwan.

“It’s only the second week of the semester and you’re already planning on studying?” the younger guy shifted closer to allow them to talk freely without getting kicked out of the library.

“Aren’t you already studying yourself?” Jaejin questioned. “If not, you wouldn’t be here, right?”

There was a long silent stare from Minhwan, his small eyes seemed widening up (though Jaejin wasn’t sure if that was even possible). Hesitantly, Minhwan pushed a pile of papers to Jaejin, tapping on top of them.

“…right. Of course. What else could you be doing but some last minute attempt to finish you summer assignment…” Jaejin sighed. “What have you been doing throughout the whole summer, seriously?”

Minhwan just shrugged. “I don’t know. Culinary trip?”

For the rest of the morning, Jaejin ended up helping Minhwan with his assignment, trying his best to recall what he had done for this assignment when he was in Minhwan’s year. The help led to a lot of ‘Hyung, you’re a genius. I love you, and only you’ and some unnecessary massages on Jaejin’s shoulders. Not that he actually minded, especially when it felt rather empowering to him.

Hongki called him right when Minhwan had to leave for class, much to Jaejin’s surprise because he didn’t remember giving his number to Hongki (not to mention that it was rather creepy too because Hongki seemed to have a private number that didn’t show up on the screen). The older guy said he was around and without actually asking Jaejin if he was free, Hongki quickly stated that he’d be waiting in the nearest café. So after a long stare at his phone screen, Jaejin groaned as he packed his stuff and left. Jaejin started to think that if there were one reason why Hongki and Jonghun were so close with each other, it would be because they were both very persistent.

“Jaejin!!!” Hongki waved at him when he stepped into the small café.

In the name of the late Ace and Oda-sama, was that a spiky bandana on Hongki’s hair? And a pair of faded pink jeans? Jaejin shuddered a little thinking how he would feel if he were the one that was wearing them.

“I knew that you’d be here in less than ten minutes!” Hongki exclaimed as he patted the chair opposite of him, signalling Jaejin to sit there.

“You hung up before I could say anything. I couldn’t call you back because you use a private number, what else could I do?”

“Dude, you have to use a private number when you’re as famous as me!”

Jaejin frowned. Hongki was popular, but not that famous. Maybe not yet, but what mattered was that it wasn’t to the point that there would be any obsessed fan that would track him down. “So? Why did you call me?”

“I was near by, so I called you?”

“How did you get my number?” Jaejin asked again.

“Jonghun’s phone. Is that even a question? It’s like common sense yo,” Hongki grinned.

“…of course. So you’re good now? Your leg?”

“It’s awesome. I can jog a little now. Why? Worrying about me? That’s sweet~,” he answered, followed by a frown from Jaejin.

At the very least, Hongki let him order anything for lunch and he said he would be paying for them. It was actually his first time to be out with Hongki. Just the two of them. He would usually meet Hongki when he was at Jonghun’s apartment or when Jonghun decided that he didn’t want to suffer alone and dragged Jaejin with him when Hongki forced him to go for a shopping day. So yeah, he couldn’t help it but feeling rather awkward right now.

“How’s Jonghun by the way?” Hongki spoke up to break the silence.

“Fine, I guess,” Jaejin answered. “You work with him, why did you even ask?”

“I do work with him. But he doesn’t seem to be mentally there, if you know what I mean. So it feels a little bit like I don’t see him often.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Jaejin mumbled, sipping to his black coffee.

Hongki pushed his lower lip forward, eyes were glued at Jaejin unamusedly. For a moment there, Jaejin almost thought that Hongki looked kind of cute that way, but his mind quickly snapped and decided that it was creepy to think of his boyfriend’s best friend that way. “You know what I meant by that.”

Jaejin had actually tried not to think about it. Deep down he did know what Hongki was trying to say to him. Jonghun hadn’t been mentally around. The older had spent most of his time on the phone, on skype, on instant messaging or any other communication media that he could think of. It felt almost as if Jonghun couldn’t give his mind a rest from thinking about how Seunghyun – surprisingly – was doing in Japan. Not once or twice Jaejin wanted to protest to Jonghun, telling the older guy that he just wished that he would at least put his work aside when he was with him – but it was hard because Seunghyun was his precious junior that it sounded stupid to ask Jonghun to stop checking on Seunghyun literally every thirty minutes. He wanted them to get along, now that they kind of got along with each other, it felt stupid to actually feel bothered about it.

“Is that why you called me here?” Jaejin asked at last.

“Yeah. I know Jonghun well, probably more that you - no offense, but you know it’s true. So I know when he forgets about what he has and when he’s trying too hard,” Hongki shrugged.

“You really don’t have to comfort me. It bothers me a little, but at least Jonghun-hyung has stopped thinking of Seunghyun as a competition. I’m glad that he could get along with my friend, you know.”

“You seriously think of it that way?” Hongki sank to his seat.

“Yeah.”

“You’re so naïve.”

---

The mind of Lee Hongki worked in the most puzzling way possible. Not many understood him, and not many could accept his blatant personality. Hongki still remembered when even his own Dad almost gave up on him during his teenage years, was probably tired of yelling and throwing things at him. Sometimes he wondered if he would survive if he were to have a different mum, because now that he was older, he realised how hard his mum was trying to keep things together for him.

Hongki knew that he was stubborn and self-centred, but he didn’t really care about what people think about him. Accept him for the way he was, or they could just walk out of the door. He had always been that way since he learned how to walk and talk.

Music might not really change who Hongki was, but it was probably the reason why he was able to stop himself from being brutally honest about what he was thinking. He couldn’t play any instrument when he met his CEO. All he wanted to do was acting and that was the only reason why he decided to go for an audition. It confused him when CEO Han asked if he had any other talent besides acting, because really, Hongki could act, but probably wasn’t as great as what CEO Han wanted it to be. So he just sang.

That was the turning point in his life. And that was when he met Jonghun the next day for his second audition.

Jonghun was a skinny-looking teenager with his jeans hung so low when Hongki met him. His hair was so short and Hongki swore that his face looked like a face of someone that would stutter when he spoke. Jonghun wasn’t taller back then, and Hongki hated everything about puberty because all he got was a couple of centimetres while Jonghun just suddenly outgrown him. But one thing for sure, Hongki had never really thought about music until he saw Jonghun playing the piano to accompany him singing.

They had come a long way together to the point where Hongki had to tell every girl he had dated that Jonghun would always be on top of his VIP list and that they had to accept that at times Hongki would put Jonghun first - before them.

But Jonghun was no Hongki and Hongki knew that well. Jonghun was timid and awkward most of the times. Back in the days, he remembered how Jonghun was always uncomfortable or just turned out to be super cheesy when he was with a girl. It took Hongki a lot of phone calls to Heechul for advice because it was painful to see some girls shuddered at what Jonghun was saying. Of course, all the long phone calls to Heechul was worth it because look at Jonghun now. No girl would say no to him.

Other than the fact that Jonghun actually ended up falling in love with a guy.

Everything was wrong, Hongki concluded. Everything that Jonghun was doing was wrong. No, Hongki wasn’t homophobic or anything, but he just couldn’t help but feel nostalgic when Jonghun told him all of his date plans with Jaejin. Every time they had a conversation about Jaejin, Hongki thought that his best friend, Choi Jonghun, had to learn how to have a boyfriend. Hongki even considered calling Heechul again to ask for advice. Heechul knew everything; that was why he was the Kim Heechul. If only Heechul wasn’t in the army right now, things would be easier for Hongki.

“You don’t have to pretend that you like Seunghyun when you don’t,” Hongki spoke up at the end, twirling on the chair while studying the song that he was going to record.

“I don’t hate him,” Jonghun stated simply.

“But you don’t like him either.”

“…your point?”

Hongki put down his headphone, pushing himself and the chair to where the mixer was, trying his best not to touch anything because Jonghun hated it when Hongki played with his computer and sound mixer.

“My point is that you have to stop checking on Seunghyun way too often. Jaejin wouldn’t hate you if you don’t like him,” Hongki tilted his head as he randomly stared at the ceiling.

“You don’t know that,” Jonghun mumbled.

“For real dude. Have I ever get mad at you just because you don’t like my girlfriend?”

“No,” Jonghun sighed. “But you get mad at her when she says she doesn’t like me.”

“That’s because she sometimes doesn’t let me go to your place to hang out! That’s different,” Hongki frowned.

“No. It is exactly why I try to get along with Seunghyun,” the composer put his mouse away and turned his chair to Hongki. “I don’t want Jaejin to get mad at me because I don’t like his best friend. Because you see, you get mad at your girlfriend when she doesn’t like me.”

“But Seunghyun isn’t exactly his best friend? I thought it was the Kibum guy?”

As Jonghun paused, thinking about what Hongki was saying, Hongki pushed his chair back to the table – shaking his head in the process. Stupid Choi Jonghun. “And my girlfriend and your boyfriend aren’t exactly the same person, in case you failed to notice it,” Hongki commented. “Like… dude, you don’t like half of the people I hang out with, but I never get mad at you for that.”

“You’re not my boyfriend…”

Rolling his eyes, Hongki just wished that his best friend wasn’t so strong headed. Most people would tell him not to worry about it but Hongki just had to worry about Jonghun because Jonghun was like his other half (strictly in a bromance way, mind you). Besides, to the obviously talented shrink like Lee Hongki, it wasn’t hard to read Jaejin like an open book – despite whatever everyone else seemed to think, Hongki was actually good at reading people.

“One day, you’ll stress him out. Just saying,” Hongki pointed out, putting the headphone back.

---

Since he didn’t usually make friends that fast, Jaejin had accepted the fact that he would always be that one kid that Key would bring along. Then after a while, people would finally recognise him and would start a conversation with him. He was exceptionally shy towards guys and it was easier for him to be friends with girls (which now that he had thought about it, it kind of explained his ual preference). So when Hongki, once again, told Jaejin to meet him at this one restaurant that Jaejin had never been in before, Jaejin wondered if he had unconsciously developed some human interactional skill. Or maybe it was just because Hongki was a social butterfly.

“I’m going to Japan this weekend, wanna come along?” Hongki asked out of the blue.

“...what?!”

Hongki looked back at him, seemingly not liking the idea that Jaejin was actually surprised at the question. “You lived there before, didn’t you? It’d be nice to come back.”

“I did,” Jaejin mumbled. “How did you even know about that?!”

“From Jonghun? Dude, stop asking how I know about stuff. I’m your boyfriend’s best friend! We share everything. Even our boxers.”

“... I seriously do not have to know about the last part,” Jaejin rolled his eyes.

“Of course you have to. Only God knows when you’re gonna rip Jonghun’s boxers when it’s actually mine that he’s wearing. I would love to have my boxers back in one piece.”

“Hyung, why would I even want to rip them apart?”

Suggestively, Hongki wiggled his eyebrows, the corner of his lips curving upwards to form a smirk. Okay, that was awkward. He already felt awkward talking about it with Minhwan, let alone Hongki that he barely knew.

“...seriously, Hyung... let’s not talk about it,” Jaejin quickly dragged his gaze away from Hongki to some random spot in the restaurant, only to stare down to his ice latte - unnecessarily stirring it.

“I didn’t say anything,” Hongki grinned.

“You’re annoying.”

“Aren’t we getting along just fine?” Hongki’s grin grew wider.

Jaejin had to agree though. The two of them surprisingly hit it off just fine. There were a lot of bickering but Jaejin kind of enjoyed them, he even made fun of Hongki back when he had the chance too. For some weird reason, it felt like they both had known each other for ages.

“You’re only eating that?” he asked, tilting his head at the smoked salmon salad that Hongki was eating.

“I’m on diet.”

“Diet? Pffttt. What are you? A girl?” Jaejin snorted.

“What?! No! It’s just that since my comeback is soon and I’m going to Japan this weekend, so I can’t afford to look fat. Or else stylish Noona will kill me because my clothes won’t fit. Because you see, I will definitely gain weight in Japan,” Hongki explained.

“What are you going to do there anyway? Aren’t you supposed to concentrate more on your comeback?”

As the older man stared at him, an awkward smile was formed on his face, making Jaejin think that he might have just said something that he shouldn’t.

“I like to just walk around Tokyo when I’m stressed out. It makes me feel relaxed. With the comeback and all, I just thought that I would need some piece of mind and a little private time for myself before my daily routine will only be about work,” Hongki mumbled, munching quietly on his salad. “Just away from home. From work. From CEO Han’s and Jonghun’s long naggings. Then I can come back to Korea and feeling refreshed and ready to face the world.”

Jaejin took a moment to try to understand Hongki’s explanation. It was weird that he could somewhat relate to Hongki. At the first glance it might seem like he was running from his problem, but to Jaejin, it was just a small personal time where he could actually prepare to face his problems after a little break. It actually boost up his confidence.

“Have you tried climbing Fuji-san then? There’s this delicious soba restaurant half way up there,” Jaejin spoke up.

“Fuji-san?”

“Mount Fuji.”

“Oh... I haven’t. It seems troublesome.”

“Such a waste, hyung! You should try!” Jaejin frowned. “Okay, it’s decided then. I will bring you up there!”

“Don’t decide on your own like that!” Hongki protested.

“Do you want me to come along with you or not? I will come to Japan with you if you agree to climb up Fuji-san together.”

Hongki paused. “You mean, you’d come along with me?”

“Sure, why not. It has been awhile since I was there anyway,” Jaejin shrugged.

“Ok then! We have a deal!”

---

Possessively, Jonghun held tightly the bag that he had snatched from Jaejin. No, this couldn’t be happening. There was no way he would let it happen. He pierced his eyes at his boyfriend, walking away from Jaejin’s bed to throw the bag out of the room. He kicked on the bag as hard as he could to make sure that it wouldn’t easily be seen if Jaejin decided to chase after it. Over his dead body. Over his freaking dead body!

“Don’t be such a kid, hyung,” Jaejin rolled his eyes, rushing over to his thrown bag.

“No!” Jonghun insisted, holding onto Jaejin’s shoulders, pushing him away from the room’s door.

“Why not?!”

“Because it’s Hongki. It’s freaking Lee ing Hongki!”

“But I thought it should be fine because it is Hongki-hyung?” Jaejin frowned, seemingly not satisfied with his boyfriend’s reason. “You’re being unreasonable. He’s your best friend, I see no problem in me hanging out with him.”

“Because he’s my best friend and because I know him well, I don’t trust him! I don’t mind if you hang out with him but I mind if you’re going to spend the weekend with him. In Japan. Are you crazy?!”

“It’s just the weekend. You’re going to Jeju with your parents anyway.”

Ugh. If only he could cancel the trip to Jeju, this conversation would be easier for Jonghun. But he couldn’t afford to call it off because he knew his mum would definitely throw fit at him. As the only child, and pretty much was a troublemaker as a kid, Jonghun was pretty close to his mum. Now that he was working, he hardly spent time with his parents and his mum had started to whine about it when they were on the phone.

“Are you playing the jealous card again? It’s Hongki-hyung, for goodness sake. Isn’t he straight or something?” Jaejin walked passed Jonghun, able to dodge Jonghun when the older guy was trying stop him. “Now where is my bag...” he mumbled.

“No, you can’t go!”

“Why not?” Jaejin frowned, turning around as he rested his hands on his hips, seemingly not liking the way Jonghun being possessive over a weekend trip.

“I can’t trust Hongki’s mouth! He might say something that he shouldn’t!”

“...the hell? Are you keeping secrets from me then?”

“No.. just..”

“Don’t be stupid, hyung. I’m going. Hongki-hyung had bought the ticket for us. It’s super rude to cancel the trip, especially because the flight is tomorrow’s morning.”

He didn’t like it. He didn’t like how little control he had over Jaejin. That slender and smaller frame of Jaejin’s felt fragile in his hands when they were in bed, but for the rest of the time he had almost no power to keep Jaejin the way he wanted him to be. Jaejin wouldn’t listen to him if Jonghun told him not to spend too much time reading comics. The younger guy would just wander off to meet his friends if Jonghun didn’t say anything about meeting him, very often ended up with Jonghun standing before Jaejin’s front door while calling him because no one opened the door for him.

A guy... was definitely harder to handle than a girl.

Sweeping his bangs away from his forehead, Jonghun groaned. He followed Jaejin to the living room, only to feel annoyed when Jaejin managed to find his bag that Jonghun had kicked away. “Can you please not go?” Jonghun pleaded this time.

“Like I said, it’d be rude. I’ve promised him that I’d take him to Fuji-san.”

“Fuji-san? Who the hell is that?” he sat down to Jaejin’s couch, watching Jaejin heading to the bathroom to put the necessity to his luggage.

“Mount Fuji! Oh gosh. Hongki-hyung asked the same thing. Don’t tell me you haven’t climbed mount Fuji as well. How long did you guys live there for? What a shame,” Jaejin answered.

When Jaejin was finally done with his packing, the younger guy join Jonghun on the couch, facing him while staring quietly at him. “Is Hongki-hyung really not trustable?” Jaejin mumbled, nudging Jonghun’s knee with his leg.

“...he’s... trustable actually. He won’t do anything weird.”

“Then? What’s the problem? It’s more like an outdoor trip than anything else. Geez, Hyung. You act like a possessive, jealous girlfriend most of the time,” said Jaejin.

Jonghun sighed when he felt Jaejin shifting closer to him, sinking on the couch with the head rested on Jonghun’s shoulder.

“I... have to check on Seunghyun,” Jonghun let Jaejin rested his head on him, but hand trailing down on his pants to get his phone.

He heard a groan, and when he was about to dial Seunghyun’s number, Jaejin snatched Jonghun’s phone away. Now what?

“Hyung...”

“Give my phone back,” Jonghun demanded.

“Something is wrong with my laptop. I sent it to the shop to get it fixed.”

“...what does that have anything to do with my phone?” Jonghun frowned.

Jaejin shifted away, placing Jonghun’s phone on the coffee table. “You see... that means I can’t access the internet. Or my videos folder. And I’ll be away for the rest of the weekend whether you like it or not.”

“So?”

The younger guy turned to him, staring in a way that Jonghun had never seen before. Jaejin’s lower lip was pursed forward with his cheeks puffed, and his eyes were widened in a manner that Jonghun refused to believe as cute - but damn it it kind of looked cute.

“Well, you know... maybe I should compromise better about bedtime just for today.”

Jonghun pierced his eyes at Jaejin, pausing for a second to try to understand what his boyfriend was trying to say. No laptop? No internet? No videos folder? Gone for the rest of the week? It didn’t make any sense to him. And now bedtime? What about bedtime? How were these supposed to be related to his phon--.... Oh! Bedtime!

“Ok!! To the bed! Seunghyun can wait!” Jonghun stood up, grabbing Jaejin’s wrist to drag him along with him.

---

“Ah~! We’re really going, aren’t we?! This is fun! And I heard that your Japanese is really good! I can introduce you to Taka. He’s going to love you! Maybe we shall bring him to Fuji-san as well!” Hongki stretched his arms up as he settled himself down on the chair in the waiting room.

“I do okay, I guess,” answered Jaejin, sipping to his ice-latte and sitting down next to Hongki.

At the end, Jonghun let him go. Even though it involved a lot of nagging. ‘Don’t get drunk when you’re with Hongki. Be careful of his friends, don’t get too close to them. Call me if anything happened. Do you need a Japanese number because I have an active one? You can buy a prepaid one at the airport. Wait, just use mine.’ And there were more. It felt like his boyfriend had turned into his mum when she first sent him off to Japan.

“You look sleepy,” Hongki commented.

“Because I am.”

“Stay up all night packing?”

“No. More like your best friend acted as if he wouldn’t be able to get laid for the rest of his life since you’re kidnapping me to Japan,” Jaejin sighed.

“That beastly, huh?”

Jaejin just nodded as an answer. “I’m impressed you can still sit normally,” Hongki commented.

“Oh shut up. What do you know about same- , you crazy,” he frowned, punching Hongki’s arm unamusedly.

Hongki laughed, leaning back on his seat as he checked on the time.

“Though I wonder if I was like Jonghun-hyung before I dated him,” Jaejin mumbled.

“As in?” asked Hongki.

“You know... I wondered if my girlfriend got my attention only when she offered ?” he sighed. “He would probably spend the rest of the night checking on Seunghyun if I didn’t take his phone away and hinted that I was in the mood.”

The cheerful expression in Hongki’s face changed into a flat one, the excitement from the trip seemingly fading away from him. “Were you actually in the mood?”

“No... not really, no. He said he wanted to check on Seunghyun, so I just decided that I have to come out with a way to get his attention.”

Groaning, Hongki snatched the latte away from Jaejin and decided that it would be his for the rest of day, ignoring the naggy protest from the younger guy. “The two of you are idiots,” Hongki grumbled.

------

I'm soooooo sorry that it took so long :( I had a yearly report that was taking most of my free time and my new job is demanding (at least I like it). But here you go people!!! I have two weeks off so I hope I can post at least one more chapter before my holiday ends.

And banner is made by jongjaeki@tumblr. I'm too lazy to edit stuff this time XD.