“Oh my god… Junhong!!!”

The painful scenery shocked them. Here stood Yongguk, who only shook his head, his hurtful eyes darted to the ground. Youngjae’s reaction, as the reaction of an normal older brother, was different to Yongguk’s, every thoughts inside his head also ran different. He covered his mouth with a hand, lips trembling, no word came out and tears threatened to fall. He panted hard as he clenched on the wall to prevent himself from stumbling. His dongsaeng was even though so annoying sometimes, but witnessing the kid suffer, Youngjae felt anything but hurt.

“How … how do you become like this?…”

And Yoo Junhong…

.

.

… was buried under a big mountain of snacks and sweeties. A bottle of whipping cream was rolling and its content scattered carelessly on the ground. A lot of unknown sourced (and unknown expire date) snacks and cookies covered the places: from the door to the desk, the bookshelf, the bed, under the bed and even on the bed… the scramble was everywhere. Cola bottles - the empty and also the full ones, were rolling until something under the desk interrupted their way. Junhong appeared hurt and drained, struggling with the snacks in the bed, together with a tear-stained face and a running nose, one of his hands still holding a half-eaten chocolate bar and swinging it back and forth tiredly.

“Go…heeup! Go away… and leave me alone…”

Junhong had never been easy to be broken. When he was unhappy, the kid would keep it to himself and never shown it to the world so they only caught him smile or speak motionlessly then.  But when it became too much, he would locked himself in his own room and tortured himself with snacks – things he hated the most. As the result, the more he repeated, the more draining he felt and more overloaded for his brain, his surrounding turned incurable darkness. Youngjae tearfully crawled toward Junhong, his trembling hands searched for Junhong’s struggling ones.

“Good boy don’t do that, don’t leave your hyung. Heeup! Junhongie… Please…”

Junhong shook his head vigorously and sniffed.

“Hyung… let me be, leave me dried up alone here…”

Witnessing the distressing sight before him, Yongguk sighed and wondered what exactly Jongup had done after all…

Yongguk couldn’t stand watching people around him suffer but everything he could do was comforting them. And now Junhong-his beloved dongsaeng needed that. At this situation, Himchan’s plan was sure broken into pieces.

Sighing, he tiptoed carefully not to step on all the snacks, cookies, cola bottles,… and some undefined things on the ground and sat down at the side of the bed. He scrunched his face as he swept the remaining scramble down to the ground and voiced “Calm down first then tell me what’s wrong?”

Junhong was now settle down from sniffing and answered between hiccups : “Jongup, he…”

Yongguk and Youngjae looked at each other, ‘as expected’, there was only one culprit.

Youngjae got mad. He pulled his sleeves up “What did that boy do to you? I’m gonna-”

Junhong shook his dead vigorously “It’s not his fault. So please don’t make a scene, you’ll ruin it all…”

Yongguk seemed to understand nothing. Youngjae kept asking “What did he say?”

Junhong mumbled “Jongup hyung… he’s looking for a girlfriend.”

Quiet. Junhong rubbed his eyes, watching his two hyung stood still without any response. He decided to reach out, picking a snack and throwing it into his mouth. Youngjae came back to reality not long after that, ‘wasn’t Jongup…’

“Who told you that?”

Junhong shook his head. “No one. I… overheard that when Jongup hyung was talking to his friends.”

Youngjae let out a big sigh. Of course, Jongup went out with his friends sometimes. Honestly speaking, as a player who never give a for school, party is life, Junhong should find Jongup weird. But the real Jongup, who Youngjae wasn’t fond of at first (that should be Jongup’s fault for being Daehyun’s cousin, but now he somewhat changed), was very nice and kind. Jongup had a lot of friends but since Junhong had moved to the school, Jongup was the first to say hi. Since then, they glued together. Jongup always watched out for Junhong, helped the kid with homework and called him out to have fun. How could Junhong didn’t realize Jongup’s feelings while they were that close? And now Junhong was doubting Jongup? Yongguk found Jongup was easy like an opened book. Within a month, Yongguk could tell Jongup’s affection toward Junhong was more than obvious and he could see Jongup’s lovely pink hearts fly out and aim direct to Junhong’s face (but the poor kid couldn’t feel any of them…). And he found it unacceptable that neither of two realized the other’s feelings and made up a pair as he thought. So that Daehyun found his love before Jongup did surprised him.

“Junhong, the kid lo-”

“So you gave up?” Youngjae asked. Junhong looked up and laughed drily.

“Gave up what? He isn’t interested in boy anyways”

“Who told you that?”

“I know Jongup hyung-”

“A thief knows a thief as a wolf knows a wolf” Yongguk sighed “Jongup and you are close to the bone. Believe me, once you decided to confess, even if the answer isn’t what you have been waiting for, Jongup and you are still friend. So Junhong, why don’t you just talk to him face to face?”

“In case he already has a girlfriend…” Youngjae’s lie got Junhong nervous again. But he knew they got their reason. His brother had experiences…

“But I don’t know what to do…”

“I’ll be there” Youngjae stood up straight, pulling along his younger brother. “Now, change your clothes, fix your hair. And let’s go!”

Junhong raised his brows “Where to go?”

Yongguk kicked the boxes and d his way to the door “You’ll find out. Soon.”

“But Junhong..” Youngjae scrunched his nose “Your destruction is so scary. Don’t forget to clean this mess.”

Junhong looked around and was scared by his own self. He silently reminded to refresh himself regularly and keep his mind optimistic after this event.

Now he wondered how to be optimistic while the problem named “Jongup” kept on making he feel like losing all of his power. He decided to escape  this circle first.

~000~

After the first step on Daehyun’s mansion, Junhong was immediately pulled by Himchan into a room.

Youngjae dropped himself onto the sofa next to Daehyun who was busy munching on his snack. Daehyun smiled at him and fed him a cookie. He took a bite on it as an unknown arm s around his waist and pulled him toward Daehyun so that there was no room left between them. He sighed as the dizziness of someone’s existence, someone who was always beside him and showed him special affection. Finally he comprehended the reason why people desired love, purchased everything for love, because… it fulfilled you, made you feel like you are the most amazing person in the world. The fact that ‘that person’ was Daehyun actually confused him. But now he rethought about it, he knew that was something he couldn’t avoid. Why he had to refuse it when deep inside he valued it? If Junhong wanted it, he wouldn’t interrupt. Seeing his beloved brother so stress, he wouldn’t do nothing.

“What are you thinking about?” A warm voice echoed in his ear. It would be so romantic if… Daehyun’s mouth wasn’t full with cookie and its scramble didn’t dropped onto his shirt. His eyes twitched and he pushed that face away.

“Nothing”

Meanwhile, in the “changing room”…

“Hyung… why we have to cover my eyes?” asked Junhong.

“Shhhh” Himchan couldn’t stop his dangerous smirk on his own lips.

“For the plan… Take off, Junhong”

“What?? I won’t-” Junhong yelled but stopped right after.

“Shh. I’m sure Jongup likes this”

Junhong stopped protesting. If the reason was Jongup, he could do anything. But should he believe in Himchan?

With his eyes covered, Junhong slowly took off his clothes. Even the fact that they were both boys, Junhong still felt a little bit uncomfortable.

Himchan stuffed a shirt into his hand and he started wearing it. The next thing, however, surprised him.

“What is this?”

“It makes couple with the shirt.” Himchan answered “Beside, it isn’t for dancing or bad thing so don’t worry.”

Dancing suits… That surprised him. He silently wondered if Himchan really owned ones. But first, the “thing” he just slipped into… was unexplainable short. It wasn’t a short, only a piece. Aware of what it really was, Junhong was taken aback “This is-”

“Don’t say anything and do what I tell you”

Omg, no way, how could he suppose to let Jongup see him in this clothes. Hyungs, what were in their mind?

~000~

Late in evening, Jongup received a text from Daehyun.

‘My house. Now’

Jongup considered at first but then followed. He bid goodbye to his friends. He was too tired to pretend like he was interested in what his bunches do, included their tricks to the security system of the mall or trolling some stranger girls passed by. That was their routine, or their habit. All those thing to Jongup, however, no involved. But they was his friends, so he kept following. It was his birthday and they gathered. It not like he wanted to, but they did. Sometimes he fed up with their ways to entertain but he didn’t know what to say no more. He wondered if he was weird when he wasn’t high interested as they were. All day long his mind ran around the only person he wanted to share this special day together with. But Junhong hadn’t called or sent him a message. He thought the boy must be busy or he wasn’t aware of his birthday even. They hadn’t celebrated a birthday party before anyways. It wasn’t like he had been expecting much, it was just…

…it would be better if they were together today.

With two hands full of birthday gifts, Jongup walked back to Daehyun’s mansion. He thought about many things while watching the sunset, mostly about Junhong. It must be a lie if saying that his feelings towards Junhong were between friends. But he was clueless how to prove it. They were close but he wasn't sure if Junhong felt the same. Frankly speaking, Jongup was only afraid of being rejected. People were fragile, he also wasn't brave enough when it comes to something privacy.

He hated that on himself - too cowardly to confess.

Letting a long sigh left his mouth, he rang the bell on Daehyun's door. Then a holding-laugh-in smiling Yongguk opened the door. He found out that there was a somewhat funny atmosphere in the house…

"Hyung, where's Daehyun? Why is it so dark inside?"

Yongguk slapped on Jongup's shoulder. "Enter the living room."

He lifted his eyebrows and did what Yongguk told him earlier. The scene in the front was just out of his imagination and for a moment, he felt like time stopped.

Note: Thousand apologizes  for the loooong delay T_T