It was kind of a surprise that our friends didn't object when we introduced them to the 'no alcohol in our apartment' rule. Himchan and I had decided to invite all of them over one night because it had been a while since we last hung out, but now that Junhong was staying with us we figured that it would be better not to consume alcohol while he was around. I wanted to be a good influence. So we stuck to serving coffee instead.

"So you have a kid living here now?" Daehyun confirmed and both Himchan and I nodded.

"He's one of our students," I explained.

Zico sputtered at this. "'One of your students'? Does that mean you mean you have more than one? How many do you have?"

"Uhm, I don't know, a lot," I said, furrowing my brow in confusion. I didn't really understand why it was such a big deal. Zico knew that we were both teachers.

"Oh wow, good for you. I only have Youngjae." He grinned as he slung his arm around the younger boy's shoulder. Youngjae was sitting right next to him. He was blushing and he was clearly uncomfortable. This was the first time I had met him while he didn't have some type of alcohol in his system and his personality was vastly different when he was sober. I preferred him like this, to be honest. "Does he call you 'master' too? Youngjae calls me master sometimes. It's pretty hot."

It took a few more seconds before I realized what he was getting at. Then I blanched. "Oh!" I quickly exclaimed, waving my hands in front of me in a dismissing gesture. "Oh no. No no no. No. Junhong is one of our actual students, Zico. He's not... oh God... he's not like that."

Zico gawked and then flashed a sheepish grin. "Oh." He scratched the back of his head. "Oops?" Youngjae glowered fiercely and shoved the arm off his shoulders. He kind of looked like he wanted to punch Zico in the crotch again. I guess that part of him hadn't changed, except this time he actually managed to contain himself.

The air was a little awkward after that and the tension lasted until the sound of the front door opening cut through the light conversation a few minutes later. "Hyungs?" Junhong called out while he was still in the hallway. "Is it okay if Uppie sleeps here tonight? His nanny already said that he was allowed to." Jongup's mother had gone out of town for a couple of days so the two boys spent as much time as possible together now that they didn't have to sneak around.

Himchan cast a glance at me as if to confirm that I was okay with it as well and I nodded without hesitating. "Of course Jongup can stay," my fiancé responded. Both boys were smiling as they entered the living room and they seemed a little surprised to see how many people were gathered there. Himchan introduced our friends one by one. "And this is Junhong and Jongup," he concluded, gesturing towards the two, who were still standing. Jongup was halfway hidden behind the taller male, clutching his arm tightly as if he was anxious. Junhong linked their fingers together, which seemed to calm Jongup down a bit. He was still clearly on guard, though.

Zico propped his chin up on his palm and eyed the younger of the two up and down with a wide smile. "You're pretty cute," he said bluntly. "How old are you again?"

"Too young for you." I glowered at my so-called friend, who seemed completely unaffected.

I was surprised when Jongup let out a disapproving noise. I shifted my attention to him instead. The face that was usually wearing a constant smile was now displaying a frown instead and he was glaring daggers at Zico. "Junhongie is my boyfriend and you can't have him," he stated before dragging an equally stumped Junhong off to the bedroom, shutting the door behind them.

"That was new," Himchan commented. He snuggled closer to me and stole a sip from my almost empty cup. "It's good that Jonguppie is learning to stand up for himself, though." I hummed in agreement, focusing on my fingers running through Himchan's hair.

"You let them be alone in there with the door closed?" Jaehyo mused.

Himchan shrugged. "You remember what me and Yongguk were like back in high school, right? The location is not a problem when it comes to hormonal teenagers, so I would prefer it if they do... that in a room with a bed rather than a public bathroom or something like that." I whined and buried my face in his hair. I didn't want to think about what was most likely going on behind that door. We had agreed not to talk about it. My fiancé patted my arm in a comforting manner. "Guk-ah, we're running low on coffee, can you go make some more?"

"Guk-ah," Hanhae parroted in a whiney voice. His comment elicited sniggers from more than one person in the room. I flipped everyone off just to be safe before I disappeared into the kitchen.

It didn't take long before I heard someone enter behind me. I turned my head, coming face to face with Zico. He looked a little lost, to put it bluntly, and he shot me a careful smile as if he was afraid I was going to bite his head off. I turned the coffee maker on and leaned back against the counter, crossing my arms. "Is there something you need?"

He opened his mouth to answer, but then closed it again. He furrowed his brow. It seemed as though he wasn't really sure how to phrase his question. Eventually he let out a sigh. "So, uhm, you know how you and Himchan are totally disgustingly disgusting most of the time, right?"

"Not a great way to start a conversation if you need my help, but go on."

Zico grimaced. "Well, it's just... I just... hyung, I like Youngjae a lot and I want to be disgusting with him. Like the way you're disgusting. With the pet names and the touching and stuff. And since you're basically the King of All Things Disgusting I thought that maybe you could give me some pointers or something?"

I bit back a harsh retort in favor of actually helping him, but only because he seemed genuinely helpless. "Not hitting on someone other than Youngjae would be a start." Zico stared at me as if he had no idea what I meant by that. I sighed. "Look, you can't just expect this to happen overnight. It's a gradual transition and you have to work for it. Have you ever taken Youngjae out on an actual date?" I wasn't really surprised when he shook his head. "Do that. Take him out to dinner, that's a start. Show him that you really like him and then he'll hopefully open up to you along the way."

"Bro, you should run a freaking dating advice column or something like that."

I rolled my eyes good-naturedly. "Oh, and another thing... it would probably be a lot healthier for everyone involved if you didn't try to give him alcohol poisoning every time you see him. Cut back on the booze a little, okay?"

"Okay." He flashed a grin and made an 'ok' sign with his fingers. Then he left me to go join the others in the living room again. I shook my head and returned to my coffee-making. Either I had just helped fix something or I had made it a lot worse.

~*~

A/N: I wanted to say a whole bunch of stuff about this chapter, but I'm sick so my brain isn't functioning properly right now. T___T uhmmm... yeah. quick recap; zico thought bad things about zelo, jongup stood up for himself, zico wants to be more lovey-dovey with youngjae (which will probably be difficult because he's been kind of a douchebag the whole time) and banghim are being disgusting... as usual. that's about it for this chapter.

I'm sure you've all seen yongguk and daehyun's teaser photos, right? oh, and you've also seen zico's teaser video, right? b.a.p is coming back on october 23rd (they're releasing their single there), block b is coming back in two days. do you all realize what this means? it means that they'll be promoting at the same time, which means potential blockbap interaction, wooooo! anyway, here's the teaser:

ps. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JUNHONG-AH! ♥