Jiyong was sitting at the counter waiting for his order when someone placed a hand on his arm. He brought his fist up as he whipped around to face the newcomer. Staring at the person in shock he quickly lowered his hand. “Jessica? What are you doing here?” he asked.

Jessica smiled sheepishly at Jiyong. “I heard what happened to your little brother. Is he alright?” she asked.

“He will be.” Jiyong replied. “You come all the way here to ask that?”

“No” Jessica answered. “I, um, I found out something last night and I thought you should know. Edison was the one who put those pictures in your locker. He’s had a crush on me since he moved here this year.”

Jiyong’s eyes widened as Jessica said her piece. It was Edison, some AsianCanadian mixed dude not Seungri that had pranked him. Seungri was innocent and he’d gotten hurt. His dad was right. He wasn’t fit to take care of his little brother. A hand on his cheek brought Jiyong out of his little freak out session. Realizing that he had zoned out on Jessica he blurted out, “Sorry. What did you say?”

“I said they’re calling your order.” Jessica repeated glancing at her friend in concern. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah. Sure” Jiyong replied snatching his order and walking out the door with Jessica right behind him.

“Okay” Jessica hesitantly said. “Well I just wanted you to know about that jerk and to tell you that you don’t need to worry about payback. The football team’s already taken care of that for you.”

“Wait! What?” Jiyong asked stopping dead in his tracks. “Why would the team do that? I thought he was their quarterback?”

“Oh, he is. But rest of the team can’t stand the arrogant jerk.” Jessica informed him. “They really wanted you to try out when they saw you play at P.E. They said you were just what they needed; a great quarterback and a team player. Unlike mister “I’m so wonderful”.

Jiyong glanced at Jessica in surprise. He’d thought the other guys were just being nice to the new kid. “So what did they do?” he curiously asked when he finally found his voice.

“Oh, they just showed him that it takes more than one person to win a game.” She replied with a laugh. “You should have seen it. The coach had the offense and defense scrimmage against each other. When Edison called the play and took the ball, the offense line all kneeled down and let the defense through. They hammered him into the ground. It happened twice before the coach stopped it. By then he couldn’t even stand up.”

Jiyong snickered. “Remind me to thank those guys.” He said.

“I’ll tell them.” Jessica offered. “I need to tell them about my little prank anyway.”

“Your prank?” Jiyong questioned.

“Oh yeah.”Jessica replied. “I’m not letting that jackass get away that easy. After all, that prank was directed at me, too.”

“So what are you gonna do?” Jiyong asked as the couple walked in the hospital.

“I’m going to make him my special chocolate cake and give it to him a little while before the game on Friday.” Jessica said. “You know the game against his old high school.”

“You wouldn’t?” Jiyong asked smirking.

“Oh but I would.” Jessica replied showing Jiyong the small box contains of pills in her purse. “Shame the field’s so far from the bathrooms.”

“You are awesome!” Jiyong complimented throwing an arm around the girl’s shoulders. He and Jessica talked and laughed all the way to the door of Seungri’s room.

After bidding Jessica good bye, Jiyong quietly stepped into Seungri’s room. Walking up to the bed he smiled as he looked at his sleeping father and little brother. He carefully set the soup and pudding on the tray table for later and reclaimed his seat at Seungri’s side.

****

By eight o’clock that evening Seungri had had enough. He had tried everything he could think of to make things up with Jiyong. However his brother just continued to keep his distance. And his dad’s mother hen routine was really creeping him out. Seungri was tired, sore, and he needed to go to the bathroom. But there was no way he was making that trip with his dad again. Once had been humiliating enough, thank you very much. Not knowing what else to do Seungri reached over, picked up the phone, and called the one person who could sort this mess out; his uncle. After explaining the situation to his uncle, Seungri covered the phone and hollered for Jiyong who immediately appeared in the door way. He watched a wealth of emotions cross his brother’s face as he spoke to their uncle. Thirty minutes later Jiyong walked back over and handed the phone back to him. “Uncle? Did it work? Is he still mad at me?” Seungri asked.

“Jiyong’s not mad at you, Seungri. He never was. Jiyong’s upset with himself ‘cause you got hurt.” His uncle explained.

“But it wasn’t his fault. He didn’t mean for me to fall.” Seungri defended.

“I know that.” Their uncle assured the little boy. “But it seems your dad opened that big mouth of his again. Gave Jiyong both barrels and your hard headed brother believes every word. I think I managed to get through to him a little bit. Afraid the rest is up to you. Now let me talk to that daddy of yours. I’ve got a few things to say to that idiot.”

Seungri chuckled as he called for his dad. After handing the phone to his father, he held his good arm out to Jiyong.

“What’s up, Seungri?” Jiyong asked as he took Seungri’s hand in his.

“I gotta go, Jiyong.” Seungri said. “And I’m gonna need your help to get there.”

“Dad will be through in a minute, Seungri.” Jiyong told him. “He’ll take you then.”

“Two things wrong with that Jiyong.” Seungri stated. “One, I can’t wait that long and two, I can’t handle dad taking me again.”

“That bad, huh?” Jiyong asked smirking. “Fine, I’ll take you.” Taking Seungri’s arm he carefully helped his little brother to his feet. They slowly made their way across the room and disappeared down the hall.

Their dad sat at the table phone held tightly in his hands. “You don’t get it! Seungri could have been killed!” he growled into the phone. “Jiyong is big brother. He’s supposed to take care of the kid, not let him get hurt.”

“Like the boys have never gotten hurt with you on watch.” His brother huffed out. “You forget about the time you took the kids to the park and they ended up taking a swim? Or the time…”

“Enough! I get it okay. I’ve screwed up, too.” he admitted. “But Jiyong’s”

“He is still a kid.” His brother broke in. “And a damn good son. You seem to forget that. He’s your son and he’s going to make mistakes. What happened to Seungri was one of them. Jiyong feels bad enough. He doesn’t need you to make it worse.”

“So I should just what, blow it off? Pretend it’s okay?” he snarled. “I can’t do that. I’m his father…”

“That’s right. You’re his daddy. And it’s time you started acting like it.” His brother admonished. “Now go make up with your boy before I decide to come kick your a$$.”

“Ya, thanks for the advice” he said. Hanging up the phone he slowly stood and walked into the living room. He leaned against the doorway and waited for the boys. Hearing his boys’ laughter he smiled. He had missed that sound lately. He watched as the boys came into the room and froze smiles dropping off their faces.

“S-sorry, dad.” Jiyong stammered as he led his little brother back to the couch. “Seungri had to uh go to the bathroom. Said he couldn’t, couldn’t wait.”

“Time to fix things.” Their dad thought. Careful to keep a smile on his face their dad walked over to the front door. “I’ve gotta go out for a while boys.” He told his sons. “Jiyong, you’re in charge till I get back. Watch out Seungri for me.” Grabbing his keys he walked out the door.

“Jiyong, what just happened?” Seungri asked as he stared at the front door.

“Umm, not sure.” Jiyong replied scratching his head.

“Think Uncle threatened to fill dad full of buckshot again?” Seungri snickered.

“Maybe” Jiyong said sitting beside his little brother. Shaking his hand at his father’s actions he snatched up an old notebook that was lying on the table and waved it in front of Seungri. “Time to put that geek brain of yours to good use. We have a payback to play.” He stated as he grabbed a pen.

Together the two boys carefully planned out the perfect prank making sure that they left nothing to chance.