“Hyung,” Cheolyong stared at his phone screen. His brows crooked deep, reading the message he just got repeatedly in his head. These letters that she had been sending at the end of every last message whenever they texted each other bothered him more than anything. . He wasn’t sure to ask such a silly question to his hyung, but Cheolyong was really curious about it. “What is XOXO?”

“XOXO?” Seungho, who was busy making ramyeon in the kitchen, turned head over his shoulder to the youngest. “You mean that rookie group?”

“No. X. O. X. O. Look,” Cheolyong got up from his seat and walked over to Seungho, showing the message. Seungho tried hard to hold back his laugh at the cheesy conversation, but he noticed those letters aafter the last sentence and smiled.

“You don’t know what those mean?” Seungho chuckled, stiring the food inside the pot. “You’re unbelievable.”

“Are you saying you know what they mean?” Cheolyong leant closer, sniffing the delicious smell coming from the pot. Seungho shoved his head away. “Tell me!”

“Why should I?!” he laughed, pointing Cheolyong nose with the chopsticks. “You’re the one who has more dating experiences here. How come you don’t know things like this?!”

“Having more experiences doesn’t mean I know everything about dating though! Hyung, tell me!” he whined, shaking Seungho by his arm in cute manner. Usually it worked on him, but because he shook him too hard, Seungho spoiled some of the soup he scooped from the pot on his shirt.

“Yah!” he shouted. “Aish! Look what you just did!”

Ignoring the oldest nagged at him, Cheolyong kept bothering him with the question, “Tell me what XOXO is!”

“Isn’t that the 12 members rookie group?” Cheondung, just came out from the bathroom, rubbed his head with towel as he walked to the table. “They are the hot topic these days.”

“It’s not about them!” Cheolyong and Seungho replied at the same time.

Cheondung cringed at the messages on Cheolyong’s inbox before focusing on the four letters. “Sometimes my sister added them at the end of the message too,” he gave back the phone to the youngest. “I was confused by these letters too at first, so I sent them back to her. She replied me later, saying that I shouldn’t give her too much X.”

Seungho snorted and coughed at Cheondung last words. He turned around and hit the visual with the chopsticks. “You shouldn’t send Xs to your sister!!—Are you saying you don’t know what these letters stand for too?!”

“I thought it’s a brother-sister thing!” Cheondung laughed.

“Brother-sister thing?!” Cheolyong looked surprised. “...Does it mean this girl looks at me as her brother only, not a guy?!”

“Cheolyong-ah, it’s not like that—“

Seungho got cut off by Cheondung when he added, “Maybe it’s a girl’s code? Like X represents how many mistakes you’ve made on your previous date , and O as your good point?”

“I got four letters. Does it mean I got 2 bad points and 2 good points?” Cheolyong innocently asked.

Seungho couldn’t help but laugh. “You two are idiots!”

“What are you guys fussing about?” Joon, who just came back from his individual schedule, came into the kitchen and sat down next to Seungho. His eyes gazing at Seungho’s ramyeon bowl. The leader quickly covered it with his arm. Cheolyong sighed and showed the message to Joon. “My mom sent me these too before...”

Seungho and Sanghyun bursted out in laughter. Joon looked at them weirdly and gave the phone back to Cheolyong. “Why are you wondering about this though? Maybe these are just random letters she randomly typed!”

“Hyung, I know these are not just simply random. Even your mom and Cheondung hyung’s sister used it. It must be mean something—“

“Kisses and hugs.”

Cheolyong turned his head and noticed G.O who just got up from his nap, staring at his phone screen with his half-opened eyes. “It means kisses and hugs,” G.O uttered, walking to the fridge. “X for kiss and O for hug.” Cheolyong turned away to Seungho who already nodded his head in agreement. Joon, meanwhile, was amazed at the new learning he just got.

“How come it means kisses and hugs?” Cheolyong mumbled in confusion. Girls sure do making weird codes.

“Shouldn’t you feel grateful that this girl doesn’t look you as her older brother?” Seungho smiled cheekily, digging his meal silently after saying his words.

*

Cheolyong lied down on his bed few hours later, staring at his phone screen. He tapped the edge of his phone while thinking of something smart yet playful to reply the text. Slowly composing the sentence, he smiled cheekily before pressing the Send button.

Our last date was really fun. Can I see you again?

And I’ll make sure to give you the X next time, not just the O

The X?

Kiss

ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Oh

ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ how come you know the meaning of that? I’m embarrassed

It’s fun learning new things ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Looking forward to that

The X, I mean

ㅋㅋㅋ Awesome

Okay, it’s late. Better sleep.

Good night?

Good night oppa

XOXO

ㅎㅎ