There was only five minutes left before the bell rings signalling the end of the day. Seungyoon used the last five minutes to gather up the toys scattered around on the floor whilst the kids attention where occupied by seungri. His arms were over flooded with stuffed teddies and plastic vehicles as he quickly shoved them away into the large plastic container and right on time bell finally rings.

The children excitedly gathered all their belongings whilst seungri opened the door greeting the parents and guardians as they collected their kids one by one. About an hour and a half later there was still one kid left patiently waiting in his seat all ready to go.

“Would you like me to call your dad and ask where he is mino?” seungri asked it was unusual for his dad to be this late to pick him up.

“Oh my uncle is going to pick me up today, I’m sure he’ll be here soon.”

The worried façade stayed on seungris face before seungyoon spoke, “its okay hyung, I’ll stay with him until his uncle comes, so you can head home first.”

Feeling a bit reassured seungri takes his leave not without saying bye to the other two left. As soon as he was gone seungyoon settled himself down in one of the seats that were way too small across minos table, “my mum has been sick lately so dad has to stay at home to look after her, I told dad that I can go home by myself because I’m a big boy now but he still said no.” frowning to himself as he fiddled with the paint stained sleeves of his jumper.

“I’m sure your dad knows that you’re a big boy but its bit too soon for you to be going home by yourself, do you want to play jenga until your uncle arrives?” seungyoon watched as the youngest lit up immediately at the sound of jenga. Smiling at the now happy mino he fetched one of the drawers open reaching out for the box of jenga blocks.

After twenty minutes filled of collapsing blocks and laughter erupting from the youngest at seungyoons numerous losses the sound of the door being open diverted their attention.

“Uncle is finally here!” leaping out of his seat, mino dashed ahead to the exhausted newcomer with open arms.

Seungyoon stood up from his seat ready to lecture on minos supposed uncle. He predicted that his ‘uncle’ would be your ordinary middle aged grumpy guy donning a moustache; however this guy didn’t fit into that category at all. The guy was currently squatted in front of mino with an apologetic look contrasted on his face, breaking their little reunion seungyoon cleared his throat.

“I’m so sorry that I’m late, I took the wrong bus and ended up down south.” scratching the back of his head nervously.

“It’s alright but please arrive earlier next time.” Seungyoon stopped, wasn’t he meant to be lecturing the guy right now.

“jinwoo hyung gets lost almost everywhere he goes like one time me and dad lost him at the—“ jinwoo cut him off  in a flash covering his mouth, “just ignore him he doesn’t know what he’s talking about honestly, anyway we’ll be going now sorry once again for being late.”

Watching as jinwoo tried to redeem himself, he couldn’t help but notice the tips of the others ears turning pink in embarrassment; before they could leave seungyoon found himself calling jinwoo back.

“Uh is mino’s mum okay? He told me that she’s been sick lately.”

Jinwoo fell silent in confusion before he beamed, “oh his mum is actually two months pregnant but we’re keeping it as a surprise from for the time being so for the meantime I’ll be picking mino up.”

“Oh I see.”

“Why are you talking so quietly I want to know what you’re talking about too” Mino whined shaking jinwoo’s hand that he was holding.

“Anyway we’ll be going now.” Hand in hand the two of them left the classroom with mino still complaining.

 Seungyoon watched the both of them leave he couldn’t help but feel curious about jinwoo. For the first couple of days since they’ve met jinwoo still arrived late but he managed to get the hang of the routine, it wasn’t until around the last two weeks of march that seungyoon started to learn more about him.

It was parents evening, originally seungyoon had planned to have a night in with some Chinese food but that dream was crushed when seungri had dragged him along. Yet here he was seated in the class room in front of jinwoo and mino.

“I have to say mino has improved incredibly over the past few months, he’s even starting to become a role model amongst the class even though most of the time him and seunghoon would be causing mischief”

“Not all the time.” Mino muttered under his breath which didn’t go unheard when jinwoo nudged him.

“At least this parent evening was better than the last one from what I heard” from the back of the class room mino was being called over by two small boys waving frantically to get his attention.

“Hyung I’m gonna go over and play with seunghoon and taehyun for a bit.”

“Don’t take too long.” Jinwoo watched mino hop off his seat running over to the other two, it was just him and seungyoon left. There wasn’t much to talk about mino seeing that seungyoon had already informed on how he was doing and what he needs to work on, he decided to use this chance to learn more about jinwoo.

“Um jinwoo?”

Breaking away from his thoughts jinwoo returned his focus to seungyoon in front of him, “Sorry I was day dreaming for a bit did you call me?”

Seungyoon thought it was cute that for a second jinwoo looked like a deer caught in headlights but swatted away that thought in an instant. “Yeah I was just wanted to know what you do for a living if you don’t mind.”

“Oh I work in my brothers’ café as a pastry chef and sometimes as waiter whenever the café is short-handed.”

“I guess you have a sweet tooth then.”

Jinwoo laughed, “Definitely.”

 Their talk drifted away with just the both of them in their own little world, for seungyoon it felt like it was an hour when it was actually fifteen minutes and within those fifteen minutes he learned that jinwoo had begun to take earlier shifts in the café whilst his brother became more occupied with his pregnant wife, he lives in a cramped apartment by the station hoping to move out before the end of the year, his favourite season is autumn, and that he admitted he is terrible with directions (seungyoon already knew that) also that he’s a er for cliché dramas.

When it was time for jinwoo to leave with mino, seungyoon was glad that he didn’t stay home that night.

When the flowers began to wilt and the heat started to rise with the sun living into the late evenings seungyoon had found himself unconsciously picking up the smallest details about jinwoo like the way he would fiddle with the ends of his sleeves or the way his smile reached his eyes there were even a couple of times that seungri had caught him off guard when he was drowning in his thoughts.

After he had made his rounds making sure the kids were okay he found mino hunched over concentrating on something he couldn’t see, seated at both sides of him were none other than seunghoon and taehyun.

“You should add more pink to it.”

“No way pink is too girly you need more blue and green.”

“I don’t think pink is a girly colour.” Catching the attention of the smallest three seungyoon smiled at them before he squatted down to see what they’re up to. “Now what are the three musketeers up to today?”

“We’re helping mino with his painting.” Seunghoon perked up with his rosy cheeks splattered with bright paint.

“Hyung did you know that mino’s mum is going to have a baby soon” taehyun beamed while leaning forward, his paint splattered face matching seunghoons but not as messy as the other.

Seungyoon grinned, “That’s great news do you know if you’re going to have a little brother or sister?”

“I’m going to have a little sister so I’m making this finger painting to show to her when she arrives, what do you think about my painting hyung” holding his painting up giving seungyoon a better view of it. The bottom half was messily blocked with patches of green being the grass, there was four colourful figures with big smiles the tallest two in blue and red being minos parents along with a tiny pink figure as the baby next to them was mino in orange. But there was another figure that he didn’t seem to recognise at the end in purple.

“Who’s the purple person in the end?”

Mino looked down at his painting, “oh that’s jinwoo hyung!”

“Wait a second” taehyun inspected minos painting once more “you’re not that tall.”

“Yes I am, in fact I’m sure I’m taller than you.” Mino stated putting his painting down before crossing his arms.

“That’s a lie because I’m taller than both of you.” Seunghoon added it wasn’t long until it turned into a full blown debate on who was the tallest among the three; however seungyoons eyes were still glued onto the purple figure of the painting with a smile growing on his face, While seungyoon was occupied looking after the kids in class through summer jinwoo was busy weighing two responsibilities at once on his shoulders.

As the clocks began to run faster the branches melted spilling a pool of brown, gold, and red onto the floor whilst the people had started to double up their layers of clothing from head to toe. Honestly as much as seungyoon loved stepping on the fallen leaves hearing satisfying crunch echo into his ears he also disliked how the chilly weather made it even harder for him to leave his bed than usual.

It was midway through September and everything felt like déjà vu to him at the moment, there was twenty minutes left before it was six and seungyoon was still in the class room with mino who was starting to doze off waiting for jinwoo to arrive.

With every second seungyoon grew worried as the ridiculous scenarios egged him on keeping him on the tip of his toes, why was jinwoo taking so long?

What if something terrible happened to jinwoo on the way here?

Did jinwoo perhaps miss his bus?

Just when seungyoon thought he was going to explode jinwoo arrived tripping on his own feet before he fall face first into the ground seungyoon had rushed towards him catching in his arms, the smell of vanilla wafted in nose the moment jinwoo’s forehead met his shoulder.

“Finally hyung! I’m gonna go pee really quickly” mino yelled before he disappeared.

 Seungyoon stepped back with his hands firmly placed on jinwoos shoulder his eyes quickly scanned over the other making sure that he was okay.

“Are you hurt anywhere? Are you okay how come you were so late today?” his questions came out faster then he intended to.

Gaining his composure jinwoo  brushed his hair back smiling reassuring at the worrisome seungyoon in front of him, “I’m okay and I’m sorry I’m so late things have been getting pretty hectic lately.” The both of them now settled down on a desk nearby. Jinwoo could still see the worry laced in seungyoons eyes if there was one thing jinwoo hated it was making having other people worry about him.

“So what happened?”

“it’s just that since the baby is coming soon I’ve been taking more earlier shifts and taking care of stuff in my brothers place for the past few days also today it was my turn to lock up the café and because of that I missed my bus.”

Seungyoon could see that all the heavy weight of was starting to take toll on jinwoo, he could see the dark eye bags becoming more apparent, he could see that his bright glow of a complexion was starting to dull, he had the urge to take him in his arms again  after seeing jinwoo looking fragile.

“Is there any way I could help you out?”

Jinwoo leaned on the table with a hand propped under his chin, “don’t worry this is nothing I can’t handle but thanks for the offer.”

Seungyoon reluctantly let it go for a moment until he had an idea, it would be better if they exchanged numbers that way if anything had come up he would be able to tell seungyoon straight away. Now that he thought of it why hadn’t he asked for jinwoos number months ago? Would jinwoo found it weird if he had just asked out of nowhere for his number but of course seungyoon would text and call him for vital reasons that is.

“uh jinwoo is it okay if I could have your number just you know if something comes up you can contact me quicker that way and I could help you out with anything if you want, I mean just only for that since I know you’re busy and all.” He spluttered out, seungyoon honestly had no idea why he was getting so nervous all of a sudden this wasn’t like him at all.

Strangely enough jinwoo had become awfully quiet for a while looking up he saw the reason why. Jinwoo had fallen asleep; the only sound he could hear was the soft snores escaping from the others lips and the clock ticking in the background.

Despite jinwoos tired appearance he looked really relaxed almost peaceful like and to be honest seungyoon felt like he could just endlessly watch him without ever getting sick of it.

The sound of pattering feet made its way into the room, “what jinwoo hyung fell asleep?” Mino groaned out loud but not loud enough to wake jinwoo up.

“You should let him rest for a bit, he’s been pretty busy lately. I’ll tell you what I can teach you some card tricks to pass the time until he wakes up.”

In the end jinwoo woke up half an hour later letting out a string of apologies again and again to seungyoon for falling asleep which resulted of seungyoon being held back from going home all because of him. Nevertheless seungyoon brushed it of assuring him it was fine, besides he didn’t have the heart to wake him up when he looked so peaceful. At long last jinwoo was now in the bus with mino seated on his lap whilst he texted away informing his brother that he was on his way to drop mino off.

“Oh by the way seungyoon hyung told me to give this to you.” Digging inside his pocket and now clutched in his hand was a folded piece of paper peaking out between his chubby fingers.

Taking the piece of paper he unfolded it to reveal a row of digits, at the bottom was a little message written in neat handwriting, ‘My number just in case anything happens – seungyoon’ with a smiley face added in the end.

Since that day the both of them started texting each other at first it was only important stuff like notifying seungyoon if he’ll be late or not but as the days went passed it became a daily routine for the both of them to text each other about anything and everything. Since then Seungyoon found himself checking his phone every other minute waiting for jinwoos reply like an eager puppy.

“You should just go and ask him out him already.”

Startled at the new voice seungyoon jumped away with his phone held against his chest, “don’t do that hyung and what are you talking about.”

Seungri placed his hand on his right hip with a ‘you can’t hide anything from me look’ upon his face, “oh please you know what I’m talking about, I’ve seen the way you’ve been constantly checking the clock and how enthusiastic you get when the bell rings all because of a certain someone. Not to mention I’ve also noticed that you’ve been texting away on your phone when you think I can’t see you.”

At loss for words for a few seconds, seungyoon awkwardly laughed trying to kill the tension in the air around them. “I think you’re just being delusional now hyung.”

“Whatever but it’s best to ask him before its too late you know.”

Seungri then left seungyoon alone, but even if he did ask jinwoo out he had no idea how the other would react like would he be delighted or worst case scenario disgusted. Wait the main thing was did seungyoon even like jinwoo that way and does the same apply to jinwoo?

He hesitated. For the past four weeks he constantly kept burying confusion and doubt deep down along with his feelings, it didn’t help at all when day by day everything he did jinwoo came into his mind at this point seungyoon had no idea how he could keep this up.

On the very last week he was wide awake at three in the morning with his phone cradled in hands laughing to himself whilst scrolling up through the conversations he had with jinwoo. The only source of light in his bedroom coming from his phone illuminated his features.

He froze.

Everything finally comes to smack him in the face; kang seungyoon had fallen for jinwoo hard. Dropping his phone on his bed he brought his hands up to his face, “what am I doing.” facing away from his phone he silently watched his beige wall across him hoping for the sun to rise already, before he was dead to the world the image of jinwoo sleeping reappeared in his head.

 That being the last straw he was set on asking jinwoo out the next day. Seungyoon was determined, scratch that he is determined.

The sun bloomed in the sky although the wind sang harshly bringing everyone down to shivers outside, but compared to the bitter weather seungyoons head was a total mess, he had only ten minutes left. Though his heart was like a bomb rapidly ticking away and seungyoon was ready to blast into the sky.

“No way do that again!” taehyun squealed in amazement, the attention was focused on mino who was proudly holding a card up in one hand showing seunghoon taehyun when his other hand had a deck of cards.

“no fair teach me how you did it.” Seunghoon frantically asked mino.

Mino grinned as he shook his head,”no can do, a good wizard never reveals his secrets.”

Seunghoon and taehyun shared baffled looks, “don’t you mean magician?”

“Same thing.”

Overhearing the trio’s conversation seungyoon chuckled to himself putting the toys away, the school bell rang and the excited chattering of the class soon died down as they left. Seungyoon could feel his palms become sweaty; he couldn’t tell if he was excited or nervous.

However his anticipation to get it over and done with was immediately shattered, jinwoo didn’t come to pick up mino. The one who picked the boy up was mino’s father, he came over to seungyoon and thanked him for putting up with jinwoo while he was picking mino up in his place apparently the baby was going to be due sometime this week, seungyoon congratulated him and ruffled mino’s hair before they said their goodbyes.

On the way home he let his cheerful mask slip while disappointment took its place, he wondered why jinwoo hadn’t come today if something happened then he would’ve texted seungyoon about it. Shaking his head seungyoon told himself that he would ask tomorrow for sure, even though he could just simply ask through text he refused to as he preferred to ask face to face instead.

But jinwoo didn’t come to pick up mino the next day or the next, but seungyoon wasn’t going to give up yet on the fourth day there was still no sign of jinwoo. mino had arrived to class extra cheerful than usual. He was officially a big brother now, the baby was welcomed to the world in the early morning and mino proudly boasted on how cute she was plus on how he couldn’t wait to play with her.

Their regular texting had died down to getting texts every other day. The last time they texted about it was on how jinwoo wanted to watch a horror movie based on a creepy doll, even though he hated dolls from the very bottom of his soul he still wanted to watch it. They both agreed on watching together when they were free.

But the thing is when will they see each other again?

The weather grew harsher with the bitter cold shooting straight to the bone; the evening’s stretched out longer through time whilst the trees had fallen asleep their branches drooping down bare.

A lot has happened through the past two months without seeing jinwoo; the other had been out of town for during October staying over at friends whose birthday was coming up. Seungyoon was slightly jealous that the so called friend got to see jinwoo, but that melted away during the night of the birthday. It was around ten when seungyoon was going to sleep in early until he heard the distinctive notification on his phone. Jinwoo wasn’t very sociable at parties, he preferred to stay in and watch dramas in the comfort of his own home, Seungyoon encouraged jinwoo to go out and talk to people however jinwoo replied saying how he’d rather be with him then being surrounded by people he barely knew.

His face was flushed pink, he had to reread the reply numerous times to make sure that he wasn’t dreaming. Seungyoon ended up keeping Jinwoo company that night even though he wasn’t actually there with him, jinwoo didn’t come back until the second week of November they had always planned to meet up but with every chance they got their schedules clashed keeping them away from each other constantly.

Seungyoon yearned to see jinwoo again, to hear that captivating laughter, to be surrounded by his sweet vanilla scent, he even pondered if jinwoos fingers would complete the gaps in between his like a jigsaw puzzle. Seungyoon was incomplete and needed jinwoo to be whole again.

He was missing him terribly.

 It was December now and the news said that it would be a white Christmas this year. It was just an ordinary day, watching out for the kids during break time, getting dragged into their world of imagination, assisting them whenever they didn’t understand, and of course keeping an eye out on partners in crime seunghoon and mino.

The children were clothed up head to toe looking like fluffy marshmallows sometimes seungyoon wondered how they could even breathe with all the layers they had on. Waving goodbye and wishing them a happy holiday the children waved back and waddled away.

“Do you want to come and eat at a barbeque restaurant youngbae hyung, daesung hyung and the others will be there.”

 “ah not today hyung but thanks for the offer though.” Seungri offered a warm smile before he left the class shouting over his shoulder that he’ll text him later on. Heaving a deep sigh seungyoon was left alone in the room turning around he instantly screamed in fright with his hand clutched over where his heart was.

“Jesus Christ mino why are you still here?! I thought you had gone home already.”

“Wow that scream was really high hyung.” Seungyoon tried to still his rapidly beating heart that was desperate to burst out of his chest.

“Isn’t your dad going to pick you up as usual?” he asked after taking a deep breath.

“Mm yeah but I don’t know where he is.”

Seungyoon was hoping that he could just go home earlier today just so he could sleep in before he could get caught in traffic, rolling out the kinks in his strained shoulder he decided it would be a good idea to gather his stuff so he could take mino to the reception and from there hopefully someone would pick him up.

“It’s getting late so let’s go to the reception together and they’ll –“

“Surprise!!”

The door smacked the wall violently scaring the daylights out of seungyoon for the second time. Why was everyone trying to give him a heart attack today, honestly.

“Jinwoo hyung!”

Seungyoon did a double take looking back at the doorway, he was actually there. Jinwoo gave the mino a bear hug smothering his face with kisses, “gross hyung!” mino tried to squirm his way out of the eldest hold. Finally releasing mino jinwoos eyes met seungyoons.

It was like those sappy scenes in dramas where the two lovers run towards each other arms wide open as they finally embrace with the sun setting behind them.

Except it wasn’t really like that.

 Jinwoo bolted straight into seungyoon enveloping him completely while seungyoon struggled to not fall backwards from the sudden impact; his arms were locked around the others neck with their chest against the other. Seungyoon returned the hug wholeheartedly his arms wrapped protectively around jinwoos torso.

After their warm hug seungyoon gestured for him to sit down by seat nearby which jinwoo gladly did as mino hopped into his lap. The both of them sat down and started to catch up on everything that they had missed, jinwoo filled in about the adventures he had while he was out of town and seungyoon told jinwoo about the time when the troublesome duo mino and seunghoon accidentally started up a rumour about some ghost living in their toilet. They were trying to outdo each other on who could come up with the scariest story which ended up with a terrified taehyun spilling the story to another classmate and like a domino effect everyone was scared to go to the toilet.

He missed this, he missed their interactions the way jinwoo’s eye light up when he talked. Seeing the way the light kissed his brown hair in the light, and most of all jinwoo’s smile that was permanently tattooed in the back of seungyoons head leaving him breathless every time he closed his eyes.

One the other hand jinwoo was on the same boat as seungyoon he didn’t know he would miss the other so much lately he would constantly be thinking about seungyoon, no matter what his mind would always track back to him leaving him wondering what the other would be doing and what not.

The moment the care taker came in making sure that everything was locked and secure seungyoon and jinwoo hastily left just in time to see the first set of snow fall. Their long talk left mino falling asleep in jinwoo’s lap, jinwoo was now carrying mino in his arms with the youngest backpack slung over his right shoulder.

Jinwoo was staring up at the sky in awe letting the snowflakes tenderly kiss his cheekbones and the tip of his nose, it was now or never seungyoon remembered.

“Sometime this weekend if you’re free, would you like to go out with me and watch a movie? I mean as friends I mean not like –“

“Seungyoon I’d love to go on a date with you.”

Halting in his steps, seungyoon had a moment to celebrate to himself before he caught up with jinwoo. Threading his fingers through minos hair, jinwoo let the snowflakes that gathered on his minos head to land on his shoulder.

 Seungyoon watched as jinwoo readjusted his arms around Mino, “I can drop the both of you off so that you won’t have to wait in the cold for the bus to arrive.”

“That would be very helpful.” Jinwoo smiled to which seungyoon returned, the both of them turned walking down the pavement careful not to slip on the snow that was starting to set in. their shoulders brushed against the other as they walked to seungyoons car.

Halfway towards the car seungyoon felt jinwoo’s fingers sneak their way to complete the gaps in between his, that was the very moment where seungyoon felt he was complete.

I'm sorry this took so long but hey it's finally here! also I've been thinking of doing a one word drabble thing for jinyoon where for every chapter is based upon that word. I've actually got about five of them planned out at the moment so I'll just have to write them up and post it up sometime nextweek. ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

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