~ Kwang Min ~

The sound of running water and a soft crooning voice brought me from my slumber. Sleepily I rubbed sandman’s dust from my eyes before registering the empty bedroom. Young Min was nowhere to be found, but the sheets next to me were still warm with body heat. The next splash of water from the bathroom brought a smile to my lips. I slid off the bed quietly and padded into the bathroom.

As expected my twin was on the other side of the glass door separating us. His lanky form could barely be made out through the frosted glass, and likewise he couldn’t see me with the steam from the hot water fogging up the mirror. The soft humming of Brown Eyed Soul confirmed his identity. “Hey hyung, can I join you in there?”

The door slid open and Young Min’s smiling face came into view. A cheeky grin was stretched across his lips and his eyes twinkled merrily. “Come on, Minnie, do you even need to ask? Since when did you even ask?”

I shed my sleeping attire – which really just consisted of an oversized shirt and my underwear – and dumped the articles of clothing in a corner of the bathroom floor that wasn’t damp before stepping into the wet shower cubicle. “Oh, you know, just trying to be gentlemanly. Sorry if that didn’t work.”

“Nope. Don’t forget that besides in bed, I’m the one in charge. I’m the older one here.” Young Min held open his arms and with a slight pout I entered into his embrace. He chuckled and pecked my lips lightly before walking both of us backwards and under the showerhead. “I was wondering when you were finally going to wake up. I was getting a bit prune-like waiting for you in here.”

“Oh hyung, you don’t have to shower with me every morning, you know.” I gave a soft mewl of delight when Young Min ran a hand through my damp locks and flattened them on my head. With the other hand he reached behind him and felt about for the shampoo. Upon locating the bottle he squeezed some of the clear blue gel onto his palm and began lathering my hair up. His short nails scraped against my scalp and I hummed in appreciation.

“But I want to. Besides, you like it when we shower together, so who am I to deny my beloved such a privilege, hmm?” Giggling at the pet name, I took the shampoo from Young Min’s hand and began doing the same for him.

After washing the shampoo residue off our hair Young Min picked up the bar of soap and weighed it in his hands. “Should we soap each other up or do it for ourselves?”

“You’re not going to become hard if you do it for me, will you?” I eyed Young Min suspiciously. “It’s still a little early for me to be dealing with the traumatic effect of your morning wood poking into my hip.”

“Damn, you know me too well. We’ll do it by ourselves, then.” We hurriedly cleaned ourselves and took turns to rinse ourselves off. I flicked the shower off and observed as Young Min wrapped a towel around his waist before passing another one to me. I wound it around my waist as well and followed my twin out of the tiny glass cubicle.

“Ah, ah, not so fast, hyung.” I caught Young Min back before he could leave the bathroom and spun him around, fingers interlocking and resting on the small of his back to prevent him from escaping. “You haven’t given me my proper morning kiss yet. You know those little pecks in the shower do not count. I’m still waiting for the real one.”

Young Min slapped me on the chest playfully before he closed the gap between us and placed a soft, experimenting kiss on my mouth. His lips drew away just the slightest and I tightened my grip on his waist, pulling him towards me again. Our kiss was nothing like the passion-driven ones we shared during love-making. This one was slow and lazy and as our tongues mingled I could taste the spearmint from the tube of toothpaste that we shared.

I hummed in satisfaction as we pulled away from each other sighed in contentment. Even after so many years of kissing Young Min my heart still beats incredibly fast with his presence and I still blush at the strong emotions in his eyes when he looks at me. It was amazing to be in love. “How I wish our day would end just like this in the bathroom. I really don’t want to go to work.”

“Don’t give me that excuse,” Young Min chuckled as he drew small circles on my shoulder blade with his left middle finger, making my skin tingle delightfully beneath his touch. “You just don’t want to face that annoying colleague of yours who asks where the iodine solution is kept three times.”

“Three times in the morning before the lunch break.” I corrected with a huff and I lifted my pointer finger to poke Young Min in the lower back. “After lunch his memory becomes worse. It’s probably because of all the blood going to his stomach and thus leaving his already intellectually-challenged brain even more oxygen deficit.”

“Don’t be mean. You still need to work together with him, you know.” Young Min chided lightly as he removed my hands from his waist. “Come on, we have to go get ready for work now or we’ll both be terribly late. You wash up first while I go change, okay? Then I’ll leave your outfit on the bed and go whip up a quick breakfast for the both of us.”

I kissed him on the cheek in appreciation. “Thanks, hyung. You don’t have to, though. I can dress myself.”

Young Min rubbed the area where my lips had touched his skin shyly. “Well, we both know your taste in clothes is horrible and you only survive based on my fashion sense, Minnie. So just let hyung do the job of picking your outfits out for you, okay?”

“That is true. What will I do without you, hyung?”

“Probably walk around for the rest of your life.” Young Min winked and blew me a kiss before leaving to get ready.

~~~

Neither Young Min nor I owned cars despite both of us being of age and having vehicle licences. It wasn’t that we couldn’t afford it – we were both earning enough to get one of our own – but that we couldn’t decide who would drive predominantly if the need arose for us to commute together. Young Min wanted to be the one to since he was older, but seeing that I was clearly the better driver of us two, I couldn’t agree to it.

After debating pointlessly for weeks and reaching no conclusion (It was probably stemmed from our habits since young), we decided to call a truce and completely scratch the idea of getting our private vehicle. Every morning, Young Min’s colleague from work would come pick him up right outside out apartment complex and I would travel to Seoul University via public transport.

After finishing breakfast and washing up, we left the apartment together and headed downstairs. As per normal, I waited with Young Min by the lobby for his co-worker to pick him up so that I could say hi to her as well. Yes, her.

Hyorin was older than us by four years and lectured in the same department as Young Min. We’d first met each other when I dropped by Hanyang University to go for lunch with my brother. She’d begun to rant to me about how she was tempted to fail her troublemaking class, until Young Min approached from behind and asked if I’d been waiting for long, after which she thought she was hallucinating and almost passed out from shock. Ever since, she’d become one of our closest friends and supported our relationship wholeheartedly, claiming it “revived the dying flames of her high school fantasies”.

“Oh, noona is here.” I waved at Hyorin who had just pulled up to the curb in her electric blue Audi. She grinned back brightly before adverting her gaze to give us a moment of privacy. I s my arm around Young Min’s waist and gave him a one-arm hug from the side. “Bye, hyung. I’ll be cooking tonight so remember to be back early!”

“Sure thing, Minnie. If worse comes to worst I’ll bring my work home with me tonight.” Young Min returned the gesture with a peck on my cheek. “Have a safe trip. I’ll see you at night.”

I stood by the pavement as Young Min climbed into the passenger seat of Hyorin’s car, watching as he buckled up and waved at me. Hyorin gave a final salute to me before starting the engine and driving off. I only turned away to head to the train station only when they were out of sight. Even though my brother just left, I missed him already. I couldn’t wait to see him again after work tonight.

~~~

I usually kept my phone on normal settings when I was in the laboratory, just in case Young Min wanted to ring me up (which he often did). However, knowing that he would be busy with work today, I switched my phone to the silent mode and didn’t feel the vibration in my coat pocket when a text came in at roughly lunch time. It was only much later in the afternoon when I saw the unread text message sitting in my inbox.

12:47

To: Kwang Min

From: Appa

Son, I have something important to discuss with you two. I have already informed your brother.

Please be home early today. I will be waiting for you at your apartment at 6PM sharp.

What raised my attention was the fact that the sender was from Appa, who almost never initiated contact with either of us. I wanted to ring up Young Min to talk things through, but recalling that he would be conducting a lecture until 4.30PM, I suppressed the urge and stowed away my phone and continued to analyse the sample of bacteria under the microscope.

Whatever the issue was about, I would find out when I get home tonight.

~~~

It was a quarter to six when Young Min and I ran into each other in the lift lobby. His tie, which had been properly done up in the morning, was loosened and hung around his neck limply. His dress shirt was slightly crumpled and his hair was wind-tousled. Evidently, he had rushed down from work as well. I fixed the few strands of hair for him after we entered the elevator. “Hyung! Did you get Appa’s text message?”

“Yeah. I wonder what the ‘important thing’ he wants to discuss is about. He has never urgently requested to meet both of us before.” Young Min reached up and caught my hand, interlacing our fingers together and lowering our hands to our sides when we arrived on the eighth floor. He tugged gently and led me out. “Whatever it is, it had better be a darn good reason for me to leave the board meeting early. I nearly got into trouble with the dean for that.”

Young Min dropped our joint grasp to punch in our passcode of our apartment. When we entered, the first thing we noticed was that there was an extra pair of shoes by the door and an unfamiliar peacoat on the coat rack. Sensing that something was amiss, Young Min held me back from venturing any further in and went ahead to check. I heard a startled gasp from my brother and rushed forward, ready to grab any item that was in my reach to help him, only to find Appa behind the kitchen counter, pouring juice into a glass casually.

Young Min, on the other hand, had a baseball bat gripped tightly in his hands and raised in the air, as though he was in a batting stance. “Appa! How did you get in here?”

“You put that baseball bat down first. Seeing you with that makes me uneasy.” My twin complied and lowered the end of the aluminium stick and left it resting against the wall. Appa pulled a barstool over and sat down. “I told the doorman downstairs that I was your father and I was here to visit, but you two weren’t home yet. So he offered to open the door for me using the master key and told me to make myself at home.”

“Ugh. Remind me to give that annoying kid a piece of my mind tomorrow morning when we leave for work.” Young Min muttered under his breath, causing me to bite back a snicker. Appa didn’t seem to have heard and continued to drink his beverage.

“Evidently, you really did make yourself at home.” I groused and eyed the glass in his hand. It was grape too, our favourite, and the last of the carton. Of course I was going to be sour about it! “Next time though, please let us know you’re already in here first before doing anything funny. You nearly gave hyung and I a heart attack.”

Appa hummed noncommittally and took a sip of his beverage again. Seeing that he wasn’t planning on replying soon, Young Min cleared his throat to catch Appa’s attention again. “So, what is the urgent matter you were talking about?”

“Have a seat first.” Young Min and I pulled out the stools tucked beneath the counter sand sat down next to each other opposite our father. He nodded in approval and brought over the brown manila envelope that he left at the side of the counter. “You know how I don’t like to beat around the bush, so I’ll get straight to the point. In a nutshell, I have decided… That you two are getting engaged.”

“Eh?” Stupefied, Young Min and I snapped our heads to look at each other simultaneously. “But we’ve barely started working, Appa. We’re still so young, Appa, and we’re not thinking about settling down anytime soon. Marriage isn’t even in the talks yet. Young Min hyung and I are just enjoying a simple dating life now.”

“But I can’t wait anymore. The only reason your mother and I consented to your relationship was because we thought you two were just going through a phase in puberty where you were extremely reliant on each other. Now that you both have grown up, it’s time to stop this nonsense and get serious. I know you two are still young, but that will no longer be the case in a few years’ time.”

Without giving us time to respond, Appa shook out two laminated sheets from the envelope and slid them across the kitchen island to us. We moved them closer to us but didn’t pick them up.

“I have taken the liberty to select two suitable marriage candidates for the both of you.” Appa jerked his chin out at the photographs on the marble counter. “I figured that it would be better if they could understand the closeness that you two possess, and so the two guys I chose are twins as well. They’re Jung Daeryong and Jung Soryong.”

Young Min and I glanced at each other apprehensively before plucking up a photograph each to take a better look. “They happen to be working tonight, or else I would’ve asked them along and brought them here for you to meet. Two lovely, bright young boys they are.”

“Here are their profiles and contact information. As for which twin is more compatible for which one of you, I would leave it up to you to choose. I will give you that much liberty to decide.” Appa passed the rest of the contents of the envelope over. “Do try to connect with them soon. I’ve set your engagement dates to be one and a half months from now.”

Appa left us rooted in our seats in disbelief as he rounded past the counter, past us, and headed to the foyer. He pulled on his coat and fixed his lapels as we stood watching him dismally. “Your Umma will be the one in charge of planning your wedding. Don’t disappoint her, will you? I’m sure you four would look lovely on the day.”

A/N:Hey y'all! Sorry this took so long. And turned out so crappy. I wanted to show how the twins found out about their engagement but the whole thing just seems so disjointed. PSHHHH.

I don't have time to edit it either. It's the last week of school for me (I only have one more day of lessons tmr) but even the teachers decide to pile on a ton of assignments to complete. And this is on top of the holiday homework they already gave. UGHHH. They're inhumane I swear.

Oh well, do leave a comment to let me know what you think!

And I'll try to update again tmr or the day after. If not... You're going to have to wait two weeks or so for the next update because I'll be going overseas... SIGH. We'll see how things go, yes? :)