The date thing didn’t last very long, though, as just by the end of the week Seungho had discovered while Cheolyong talked to the phone with someone that they had apparently broken up for some stupid reason that had made his eyes roll. The boy was obviously upset and sulky, and Seungho couldn’t help but feel bad for him, so he decided to knock on his door at the Saturday night and invite him along to eat with his friends. Most of them already knew Cheolyong from one occasion or another, so it wouldn’t be all that awkward, and even if it was, Seungho could detach himself from the crew a little to talk to the younger boy.

 

Seungho’s attention, however, seemed pretty much unnecessary once they’d gotten there. In all due fairness, Cheolyong was too busy staring at his female friends and blushing whenever they called him cute to care if anyone who didn’t possess s was talking to him. All in all, Seungho was glad bringing him out had helped him get over the break-up – in fact, he was afraid Cheolyong didn’t even remember the girl’s family name by that point.

 

“Cheolyong, be nice,” Seungho said on his Friday shift a week later after the boy had opened the door for him. “Today we have company, ok?”

 

He stepped aside and watched Cheolyong’s face dissolve from curiosity to something between surprise and ogling that looked a little funny. Injung, one of the mentioned female friends, particularly the one Cheolyong kept sputtering about for the week because Injung noona was so pretty and nice, smiled at him with a wave of hand.

 

“Noona,” the boy stammered, apparently at loss of words or actions, scratching his neck awkwardly so he’d have something to do with his hands. “Hi!”

 

“Now, I asked Injung to spend about half an hour taking care of you because my parents asked me to buy the groceries today,” Seungho explained, figuring it wasn’t a complete lie since he actually did have to buy the groceries, only not with as much urgency as he let on. He noticed how Cheolyong froze when he was told he’d be alone with Injung for such a long time in his apartment. “You have to promise me you’ll behave.”

 

“Come on, we can handle a few minutes without you just fine,” Injung interrupted, standing by Cheolyong’s side and putting her arm over his shoulders, making the boy jump a little at the contact. “Cheolyong and I will become good friends today, right?”

 

Cheolyong started when she smiled at him, stuttering an unintelligible answer as he gazed into her eyes. Seungho snorted before nodding at them, giving Cheolyong one last menacing glare and walking away, just hearing Injung ask him what fun stuff they could do together before they closed the door of the apartment.

 

Later that night, after he had walked Injung to the bus station, thanking her once again for being so kind as to do him that favor, to which she had just shrugged and smiled, saying it hadn’t been a problem since Cheolyong was a cute kid, he got back to the boy’s apartment to wait until his parents arrived. A few moments after he sat on the couch, Cheolyong emerged from the bathroom, dressed in his sleeping clothes, fresh from shower.

 

“Would you look at that, a girl spends some minutes here and you go get ready for bed without even having to be threatened,” Seungho noticed with a smirk, watching Cheolyong drop onto the seat next to his sideways so he’d be facing the older one. “I should ask Injung to come by more often.”

 

“Hyung,” Cheolyong whispered with a grin, ignoring the teasing so effortlessly it surprised Seungho a little, given that the boy was usually very quick coming up with witty comebacks. “She kissed me.”

 

Seungho’s eyebrows arched as he pulled a shocked expression. “Did she?”

 

“I know you won’t believe me,” Cheolyong hurried to say, raising his hands defensively. “But we were talking, and then she was laughing and she pulled me into a hug and kissed me,” he stopped to grin excitedly. “Right here,” he completed as he pressed his index finger onto his cheek.

 

“Nice,” Seungho said with a smile, nodding approvingly at Cheolyong.

 

“Maybe I can convince my parents to hire her instead of you,” the boy wiggled his eyebrows mischievously, poking Seungho in the ribs only to have his hand harshly snapped away.

 

“Yeah, I wouldn’t count on that. Your mom told me what happened when she tried hiring a girl to babysit you for the first time,” Seungho chuckled a little when Cheolyong blushed. “You’re very classy.”

 

“It was an accident, ok? My hands slipped from her shoulders,” he tried standing up for himself, but Seungho was barely giving his explanation any attention, laughing to himself.

 

That hardly was the only time Seungho went out of his way to do something for Cheolyong, and, while the younger one rarely returned his favors or even barely acknowledged them, it was ok since he never really asked Seungho to do anything. He simply didn’t mind taking care of Cheolyong and doing things for him, for some odd reason – the kid really had the uncanny power of growing on you without any notice and irrevocably twist you around his little finger.

 

“You said you’d bring a friend with you,” Seungho whined as Cheolyong tugged at his hand, chirping something about cute monkeys. The two of them had engaged in a bet Seungho lost under suspicious conditions, but he nevertheless lived up to his word and paid up the two zoo tickets Cheolyong had asked for, presumably for him and a friend. He had not expected Cheolyong to corner him in front of his parents, saying he didn’t have anyone to go to the zoo with, displaying an insufferably rehearsed pout that made Seungho (stupidly) offer himself to go with him before he could stop his own mouth.

 

“And I also already said they’re all busy today,” the younger one said off-handedly, hugging Seungho’s arm and bouncing a little as they neared the feline section. He had never actually wanted to ask the older one to take him to the zoo, which had been his original intention from the beginning, because he assumed Seungho wouldn’t want to spend the entire Saturday afternoon with the boy he babysat, thus coming up with the idea of the bet. He knew Seungho wouldn’t resist being the good hyung, mainly if he was put under pressure in front of his parents, so the execution hadn’t been very difficult.

 

“You know, I had plans today,” Seungho muttered under his breath, watching the unimpressive tigers roaming between the bushes in their protected area.

 

Glancing up at him through his eyelashes, Cheolyong blinked a few times.

 

“Then why did you agree to come?” he asked innocently, another practiced, more subtle pout adorning his face. It was rather hard to keep it steady when Seungho mumbled a little in response before averting his gaze, but Cheolyong was nothing but a professional. “Hyung,” he suddenly exclaimed, tightening his hold of Seungho’s arm, “look, it’s a gift shop! Come on, I’ll let you buy me a cool hat.”

 

The afternoon hadn’t ended so well, however, as Cheolyong, breaking free from Seungho without his consent, ran over to a popcorn stand and managed to trip over a cautionary metal tube and injure his ankle. Seungho had scolded him, yelled at him, released his frustration over having to cancel his date that afternoon just to watch over the boy, though never actually telling him that was the plan he’d had to skip, and now, back at the younger one’s apartment after helping the limping kid in the commutation, he could just stare powerlessly as he clutched onto his leg, feeling a little bad since Cheolyong had watery eyes and probably didn’t need a lecture after almost breaking his leg.

 

“I got some ice,” Seungho said, holding up an improvised ice bag when walking back into his room. He kneeled down in front of Cheolyong, carefully removing his sneaker and sock, inspecting the hurt area as the boy watched his actions with a wince. “The ankle is a little swollen. Hurts a lot?”

 

Cheolyong nodded a little, lip getting between his teeth when Seungho rolled the hem of his jeans up till the middle of his leg, fingers grazing softly, soothingly against his skin. He eyed Seungho’s face when he took his foot onto his own lap, gently placing the ice over the reddened skin – he quickly glanced away when Seungho looked up worriedly at him after hearing him hiss.

 

“It’ll get better,” he cooed, caressing his shin comfortingly.

 

Cheolyong however could only close his eyes as the nagging pain of the injury now mixed up with the stinging sensation of the ice on his sensitive skin, and Seungho’s fingers felt too smooth and nice in contrast to the pain, those weird thoughts he’d had once or twice about his babysitter rushing back to him.

 

“Cheolyong,” Seungho muttered in a low voice, facing him with worry as they boy let out a heavy sigh.

 

The underside of his foot grazed lightly against the rough fabric of Seungho’s pants, pressing a little onto his thigh, all the different sensations overwhelming Cheolyong a little and now Seungho was looking at him, making him nervous, and he really couldn’t take that.

 

“I can take care of it myself,” Cheolyong sputtered, pulling his foot out of Seungho’s reach with a cringe. “You go take care of the plans I ruined for you.”

 

“I didn’t mean to yell at you before,” Seungho sounded a little guilty, hands trying to reach up to Cheolyong’s shin. “Let me help you with that.”

 

“No, I’m fine,” the boy hissed with a shake of head, pressing the ice onto his own ankle. “Just go. I don’t need you anymore, you can go.”

 

“But Cheolyong–”

 

“I want to be alone, Seungho. Go home already,” Cheolyong said with some urgency, looking down and pressing his free hand onto his forehead because this was somehow really weird, and Seungho just needed to get out because he was the reason it was so awkward, he was the one making it so hard to think, to breathe.

 

The older one resigned to obliging and leaving him alone, not without letting Cheolyong know he’d be in his apartment if the boy needed him.

 

Cheolyong dropped back onto his bed with a sigh once he was alone, wondering whatever brain malfunction he had just experienced for things to get so goddamn weird for no reason.

 

It seemed like the two of them chose to forget the end of their zoo visit, both of them acting as though it had never happened when Seungho showed up for his shift on Monday – Cheolyong feeling too embarrassed about the way he’d behaved, Seungho feeling guilty for having been so harsh on Cheolyong to the point of making the boy mad. But there had been some aftereffects for the unfortunate evening, as it was made clear when Seungho, for the first time, asked Cheolyong if it’d be ok to bring a friend over to work that week.

 

“Whenever did you have to ask me, hyung?” Cheolyong brushed it off with a shrug.

 

“I don’t know,” Seungho returned his attention back to his plate, sticking his chopsticks into the meat leisurely. “Just wanted to make sure.”

 

“Is it Injung noona again?” the younger one suggested with an excited waggle of brows, putting down his juice glass. Seungho chuckled half-heartedly.

 

“No, it’s a guy friend,” he said, amused by the way Cheolyong’s shoulders dropped in disappointment. “You don’t know him yet.”

 

On the following day, Cheolyong got to meet Changsun. It was true they hadn’t been introduced to each other previously, but Cheolyong had seen him about twice on the building, now understanding he’d probably been visiting Seungho. Changsun was about Seungho’s age, maybe in the same class as him, but behaved very differently from Seungho and most of his friends – he was considerably child-like, his behavior often mirroring Cheolyong’s, if not even more immature, getting lost in his own sentences and finding himself unable to outsmart someone younger than him by years. Cheolyong found it easy to like him, mainly when the boy was so funny when frustrated by how effortlessly Cheolyong overpowered him.

 

“Ok, it’s time for you to sleep,” Seungho announced, clapping his hands next to Cheolyong’s ear to startle the boy.

 

“Ah, hyung,” both Cheolyong and Changsun whined in unison, glancing back from the TV screen on which they played what had to be the tenth videogame match within the last two hours – Seungho had almost fallen asleep countless times watching them monopolize the game without even giving him a chance to play.

 

“It’s time for him to sleep,” Seungho raised a brow at Changsun as he pointed to Cheolyong, making the boy laugh embarrassedly. “If you behave, I’ll let you stay up until eleven.”

 

“Let us just finish this round,” the youngest one chimed in, looking up expectantly at Seungho with his now infamous combination of mild pout and big, lovable eyes. Unfortunately his babysitter had learned how to see through the pleading look with time. Not even when Changsun supported his request did he merely consider faltering.

 

“You put that remote down or I’m dragging you to bed.”

 

“But my foot hurts,” Cheolyong pointed at the bandaged ankle.

 

“Then I’ll carry you to bed,” the older one shrugged.

 

At that, Cheolyong snickered meaningfully. “Yeah, as if you could.”

 

He only had time to see Seungho arching his eyebrows defiantly before being swiftly lifted from the ground, Seungho’s arms holding his legs and torso, and he squealed awkwardly out of surprise, instinctively holding onto the older one’s neck and shoulders.

 

“What the , hyung,” he managed to mumble when Seungho walked out of the living room with a laughing Changsun at his feet. After realizing his hands were grasping the boy’s nape, going up to his hairline, Cheolyong immediately dropped them, making them hang oddly from his shoulders, and avoided looking at Seungho’s face.

 

“Damn it, Cheolyong, you’re too heavy for someone so skinny,” he choked out, minding not to accidentally bump Cheolyong’s injured foot against the furniture or the walls by maneuvering around them with some difficulty.

 

Once the younger boy was somewhat hastily laid on his bed, Seungho punched his shoulder, eliciting a scowl from the other one as he cupped the abused spot.

 

“That was for cursing,” the babysitter huffed, walking to the door frame by which Changsun stood and turning off the light switch. “Now go sleep.”

 

“What, you’re not giving me my good night kiss?” Cheolyong sneered, pleased with himself once Changsun glanced at Seungho with an amused matching smirk. “I guess he’s just shy when we have company, Changsun hyung.”

 

“Hyung really tends to be shy when someone else is watching,” Changsun chuckled, making Seungho roll his eyes at both of them.

 

“Yeah, your parents will hear about your math grade,” he said to Cheolyong, and then turned to Changsun, “and good luck finding another chemistry tutor.” He smiled sardonically when they grunted, once again in unison. “Sleep tight, Cheolyong.”