IMB/IBB 2013: Lovely Balcony (1/2)
Title: Lovely Balcony
Pairing/Focus: Sunggyu-centric, slight Woohyun/Sunggyu
Rating: PG (for cursing)
Word count: 16,637
Summary:
In a time when the modern family usually bore fruit to two children in a marriage, the Kim family seemed to be an abnormal exception. No, they didn’t have an only child (although maybe all of them sometimes wished they were), nor did they have three, nor four. The marriage brought on seven pregnancies of poor Mrs. Kim. She was blessed with many girls and only one son.
“Sunggyu, please? You’re not busy right?”
(Sunggyu, the fourth child of the Kim family and the only boy out of all seven children that their parents decided to have. He was only seventeen and in his last year of high school.)
“I’m not but-,” the excuse he was about to give was refuted without being said.
“You don’t want me to fail right? I have my mid-term tomorrow! Please! I just need to practice a little!”
Sunggyu groaned, making a face as he realized he had no other choice. His head lolled back in defeat.
“Okay,” he said, dragging out the word as if it would make him feel better.
It didn’t.
His sister squealed in delight, “Thank you so much Gyu!”
“He said yes?” a head popped from around the corner of the hallway, at the top of the stairs, to peek into the room that was at the end of the hall.
“Yeah!”
“Choonyei! Why don’t you do it instead?” Sunggyu yelled in annoyance at the sudden appearance of his younger sister.
(Choonyei was the sixth child of the Kim family and the fifth girl. She was only thirteen and very much into video games, sports, and whatever her brother, Sunggyu, happened to be into at the time.)
“No way! Me plus make-up equals hell no!” she yelled in return.
“Choonyei! Watch your mouth!” the sister that was currently in his room yelled, making Choonyei flinch before running away down the stairs.
“Haneul-noona, why is it always me?” he asked with a pout.
(Haneul, the third child of the Kim family and the third daughter. She was nineteen and studying cosmetology. Sunggyu always tended to be her live mannequin.)
“You should be grateful! All these things I apply on you make your skin look really nice and soft! Everyone loves that! Look at you, you don’t have a single blemish thanks to your sister,” she said proudly as she took hold of his chin and tilted his head, trying to emphasize her point.
He swatted her hand away, “Face creams and mud masks are fine, noona. I’m not okay with actually wearing make-up.”
“But you look really good! Almost like Aecha-unnie, but with smaller eyes.”
(Aecha, the first child of the Kim family and the very first daughter. She was twenty-two and already a high ranking employee in the company that their parents worked in.)
“It’s not fair that you guys got the better portion of that,” Sunggyu complained.
Haneul simply laughed as she disappeared into her room (which she shared with another sister) that was a little way down the hall. Haneul was studying cosmetology and was in a constant need of subjects to practice on. Sadly, Sunggyu was the only one that was sympathetic and free enough to be her live mannequin. Choonyei was only thirteen so she didn’t need any of the treatments and was nowhere near patient enough to sit through it. Not to mention that she’d rather be outside playing some kind of sport or a videogame.
“Oppa! Oppa! Is unnie gonna put make-up on you again?”
“Ah, Jinho,” Sunggyu groaned again, “Did Choonyei tell you?”
(Jinho, the seventh child of the Kim family and the sixth girl. She was ten and she tended to admire Haneul because of all the ‘pretty’ things she did.)
The younger girl nodded happily as she jumped on Sunggyu’s bed, “I wanna watch! It’ll be my turn next!”
“Mom will kill Haneul if she sees her putting any kind of make-up on you.”
Jinho whined as a slight pout adorned her lips.
“What are you doing here? Hanuel said you told her you were gonna go out,” Sunggyu questioned as he eyed the sudden newcomer.
“Unnie said that? I wonder why she never wants to use me as a guinea pig.”
“Because Gyu looks a lot better in make-up than you, Yeunja,” Haneul stated as she walked past her.
(Yeunja, the fifth child of the Kim family and the fourth daughter. She was sixteen years old and a junior in high school.)
She tried to dodge the smack that Yeunja threw but it was to no avail. Her hand landed pretty heavily on her butt, making her yelp in slight pain. She only turned and gave her a glare before placing the box, in which she had all of her supplies, on the male’s bed.
“You know, having 3 other sisters in the same house, why must it be the only brother that has to go through this? You like to torture me, don’t you?” he asked Hanuel.
Hanuel offered him a smile that only made Sunggyu sigh in annoyance.
“Is your unnie coming today?” Sunggyu asked.
“I don’t know. Probably not.”
Sunggyu sighed, resigning to the fact that he won’t be getting out of it, “Do your worst.”
“I’ll make you look gorgeous, just you wait.”
*
“Guys! Hey guys, we finally got new neighbors!” Choonyei yelled as she ran inside Sunggyu’s room.
“What? Really?” Yeunja asked.
She had been sitting in the room watching Haneul work her magic as she secretly stole the techniques from her. Her attention quickly diverted from it as she heard the news. She stood from the bed and made her way towards the balcony doors, pulling them open. Haneul and Jinho followed behind.
“Do they have any kids?” Haneul asked as she searched around the area of the house next door.
“Hey~ that guy is handsome! I gotta go greet the neighbors!”
Hanuel laughed at Yeunja’s eagerness, “Oh God, there’s two of them… and the other is hot too!”
Sunggyu rolled his eyes, letting his sisters gossip and fawn over the new guys as he studied the work his sister had started. She had skipped over the foundation, instead applying some BB cream to serve as the regular kind. She had applied the eyeliner neatly, thin towards the inner eye and slightly thicker towards the end. She had fanned the eyeliner out with a cotton-tip and it made his small eyes look bigger. He liked the effect a lot.
“Looking good, oppa,” Choonyei remarked as she admired him from behind his chair.
Sunggyu only gave her a dry look that made her laugh, “I’m serious! You look really good! You could be Aecha-unnie’s twin!”
Sunggyu could only sigh but he agreed. He could hardly recognize himself. It was almost like his oldest sister was staring right back at him, “Choonyei-yah, why do I have to suffer like this?”
The girl giggled, “You look good oppa, don’t worry too much.”
He continued to examine his reflection as his sisters gossip got loud enough for him to hear.
“Oh, he has a motorcycle!” Haneul exclaimed.
“Noona! I’m taking the make-up off,” Sunggyu called out and was pleased to have her finally turn around.
“Okay, okay! I’m sorry,” she turned to give the guys one last, longing, look before returning to her brother.
“Don’t worry. I’m sure one of them is bound to notice any one of you,” Sunggyu tried to re-assure.
“They sure will. Me,” Yeunja said with a cheeky smile, “I’ll see you two later. I’ve got something I need to go do.”
She received glares from both Haneul and Sunggyu. Haneul wanted to go out and make a good impression first (not to mention flirt with them too). Sunggyu just couldn’t believe how shameless his sister was.
“Don’t worry guys, I’ll leave one for you two,” she said as he quickly scurried out, very narrowly avoiding the brush her sister threw at her.
*
It was a matter of minutes before Haneul finished applying the finishing touches. She stepped back to examine her work thoroughly. The brunet stared at his reflection for a second before leaning forward and examining everything. His fingers gently brushed the area around his eyes. He had a slight complex because his sisters always teased him about his small eyes, so seeing them appear much bigger surprised him.
Jinho jumped from the bed and ran, tapping her brother’s arm in order to get his attention. He turned to her and she stared up at him.
“Oppa you look so pretty!” she said and smiled. He could only return her honest smile.
It was a little longer before Haneul prepared his hair to be covered by a wig. It was long and wavy, the color matching Sunggyu’s brunet hair. Sunggyu merely groaned when he saw her walk in with the other materials. She had applied make-up on him once before and had also practiced placing wigs properly on him, but she had never done both at the same time. He had tried to protest but when his older sister reiterated that it was for her midterm, he merely sighed and agreed half-heartedly.
The things he did for his sisters.
It seemed like an eternity until she finished fixing the bangs and perfecting the curls. Sunggyu was about ready to start complaining and whining (his butt had fallen asleep and he hadn’t been able to feel it for a while now) when they heard Yeunja’s voice come from outside.
“Unnie!”
Jinho was the first to run towards the open balcony windows, wondering what her older sister could be yelling about.
“What does this girl want now?” Hanuel muttered to herself as she set the brush down.
“Why can’t you come upstairs you lazy-eek,” she squealed before she could finish the sentence, freezing in place for a second before a laugh, an estranged one to Sunggyu’s ears, escaped her, “Hi…”
Sunggyu inched closer to his balcony, trying to get a view of what was going on but he couldn’t really see anything. He pouted lightly as he heard someone (a male) yell, you’re cute. Another weird laugh escaped Hanuel and he couldn’t just stand there anymore. The laugh was so fake, it gave Sunggyu goosebumps just hearing it.
He poked his head out and looked over his sister’s shoulder, immediately catching sight of what had his sister acting so stupidly. Yeunja was down there with some guy he hadn’t seen. The new neighbor perhaps? He raised his brow, unimpressed at his sibling’s reactions. Really, how old were they? He watched as the other guy turned to them before a handsome smile stretched his lips. He waved at them.
“Hey cutie!” he heard.
Cutie?
Cutie!?
“Oh shit,” Sunggyu panicked, before retreating back into his room and covering his face with his hands.
Someone had just seen him all dolled up and called him a cutie. Someone had seen him as a girl! And hit on him right off the bat! Was it supposed to boost his ego or embarrass him beyond belief? He didn’t even know what to feel at that moment but embarrassment so it had to be the latter.
Hanuel followed after him and promptly burst into laughter, “I told you I’d make you gorgeous!”
*
“Shy sister you got there,” the guy said as he lowered his arm.
He watched as the two girls, along with the little sister, disappeared into the house again.
“Uh, yeah,” Yeunja answered, unsure if she should give her brother away or not. She wasn’t sure what kind of impression they’d be giving if she went with the truth.
“What’s her name? She’s cute,” for some unknown reason, a smile took residence on her lips.
“Ah… her name is Aecha! She’s my unnie,” she answered.
Well, he did look like Aecha so there was no way the guy would know the difference. He only caught a glimpse of Sunggyu and it was pretty far anyway.
“How old is she?”
“17,” she answered without hesitation but mentally slapped her forehead as she realized what she said, “I mean 22! S-she’s 22…”
He looked at Yeunja strangely but accepted the correction, “So she’s a noona…,” he said as he looked up at the balcony again.
“Yeah… so um, whenever you guys are done organizing stuff, you should come over and meet everyone! I have a brother that’s a year older than me. I think you guys would get along just fine.”
*
It was later that night when they were all in Sunggyu’s room. Haneul and Yeunja were sitting on his bed while Sunggyu and Choonyei were playing some kind of shooter game. The two girls were busy talking about the new neighbors, Yeunja giving her the information that she had acquired with their first meeting. He wasn’t really paying much attention to the conversation the two were having. He was too busy trying to capture a flag in the game.
“Ya! Stop camping!” Choonyei yelled suddenly.
“Stop yelling at the TV,” Sunggyu stated flatly as he tried to shoot down a couple of guys.
“I was talking to you!”
“What?!” he asked, completely offended, “I do not camp! You’re just mad I keep killing you! It’s not my fault you’re not that good at this game yet!”
“Ahh!” Choonyei yelled in frustration as the last ten seconds of the game came to an end with the words in red spelling LOSER in all capitals on her half of the screen, “I hate this game.”
Sunggyu could only laugh.
“Can you believe he liked Sunggyu?? He was asking about all kinds of details but I made it clear that he was married.”
“You did what?!” Sunggyu asked as he heard Yeunja say that.
That made both of the girls that were gossiping laugh.
“I thought you weren’t listening,” Hanuel said after giggling at his expression and calming down.
“I wasn’t! But how the hell was I not supposed to hear that?” he accused.
“Oppa the game is starting!” Choonyei called as she pulled on his plain white tee.
“Here Jinho, play for me,” he handed the controller over to the youngest sister who had just walked in before crawling his way to his bed. He had been sitting on the floor.
“What did you tell him?”
“Why does it matter?” she asked.
“Because you’re spreading lies about me!”
“Well what did you want me to tell him? Oh, that girl you saw is not a girl, but my brother in drag? I lied and told him you were Aecha-unnie. You two look alike anyway!”
That seemed to ease Sunggyu’s mind a bit. If she had said that, then that meant she had told him Aecha was married, not Sunggyu. That was true. The oldest married right after college.
“Anyway, his name is Woohyun and his brother’s name is Myungsoo. They’re gonna be attending our school. Woohyun’s a junior and Myungsoo is a sophomore,” Yeunja continued to relay.
But Sunggyu’s attention had already strayed, returning to the game instead. He was glad Yeunja covered for him. It would have been embarrassing to face the guy afterward. They were neighbors now after all, and the last thing he wanted was for the new guy to spread questionable rumors about him at school.
*
When Sunggyu officially met this Woohyun guy, it was after school the following Friday. The popularity of the new guys had skyrocketed in no time. Sunggyu didn’t question why. It was actually pretty obvious. The brothers were handsome and they rode motorcycles to school. They had the girls swooning.
It was different with him. He was cute and smarter than average. The girls would fawn over how he looked like a child with his round face and his full cheeks. He was popular amongst the girls because he was always very kind and could hold conversations with them about almost anything. He was charming, gentle, considerate, and pleasant. He guessed it was because he grew up with nothing but girls so he knew how to mingle with them fairly well.
It was a lot harder to mingle with guys. They were rough, uncouth, annoying, stupid, and found amusement in the stupidest things. He had never been exposed to the things the other guys found as entertaining. It was even more uncomfortable when they started checking girls out. Not only was he not into girls in general, he was just not used to it and he tended to stay away from the guys. He had mostly guy acquaintances. It wasn’t that he didn’t have any guys that were actually his friends. He did, but they were very few.
Yeunja had introduced them that afternoon, “This is my oppa, the one I was telling you about the other day.”
Woohyun dismounted the bike and bowed politely, “I’m Nam Woohyun, your new neighbor.” Sunggyu returned the gesture, completely surprised by it. Myungsoo joined them and did the same.
“Do you mind if I call you hyung?” Woohyun asked, smiling at him.
“Uh, no, go ahead,” he liked the sound of it. He had almost no one to call him hyung so it was a nice change to hear it every once in a while.
“Me too, can I call you that?” It was Myungsoo who was asking now.
The kid looked cute despite the fact that he was taller than both Woohyun and him. Sunggyu only nodded.
“Are you guys heading home?” the oldest brother asked.
“Yeah,” Yeunja and Sunggyu answered simultaneously.
A small smirk made itself known on the handsome face, “Want a ride?” he pointed with his thumb over to his bike.
Sunggyu’s small eyes widened and he almost hit Yeunja for reacting so quickly to the offer, “Oh my God, that would be awesome! Right, oppa?” she asked but giggled when she saw the expression on his face.
He looked like he was thinking of a way to break it off with someone. It was so funny. He looked so conflicted. It amused Woohyun as well.
“It’s alright, we both have a license,” he tried to reassure the older brunet.
But it was spoken to deaf ears.
“Oppa!” Yeunja pushed the other forward and that snapped him out of it.
He had unknowingly begun to build all kind of scenarios of what could go wrong if he said yes. Not a single one of them were looking like he’d even make it home alive. He cleared his throat, suddenly aware that he was being stared at.
“Actually, I promised to walk home with some friends so… maybe next time?” He was really hoping there was never a next time.
“With who, oppa?” Yeunja asked, curious.
He hadn’t mentioned that earlier and she had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn’t true, until she heard someone call out for her brother.
“Sunggyu-yah!”
The brunet didn’t even get a chance to turn as he felt someone jump on his back. The intruder let out a little laugh as the brunet straightened up to get the male off him.
Sunggyu sighed as he pushed the other away, “How many times have I told you not to do that?”
“But it’s fun!” the dark haired male laughed before turning his attention to the younger guy, “Hey, what’s up man.”
Woohyun gave a quick nod of acknowledgement before clasping the offered hand and giving him a half hug.
“You guys know each other?” Sunggyu asked, startled.
“Yeah, we have Art together, right Dongwoo?”
Dongwoo…? He was already speaking to his best friend with no honorific? The guy sure moved fast.
“Yeah. Hi Yeunja! Hey Myung.”
The girl waved at him happily while Myungsoo only gave him a quick nod of acknowledgement.
“You have a class with him, too?”
“Nah, all three of us have lunch together,” he explained easily, “So what’s going on?” he asked.
“They were gonna give us a ride home, right Sunggyu-oppa?” Yeunja asked.
“Uh…right…”
“So you’re not walking home with me?” Dongwoo asked, a little accusingly.
Woohyun laughed, “He turned us down to walk with you.”
“Oh, really?” he asked, surprised.
“Yes, really,” Sunggyu said as he nudged him with his elbow, “Who do you take me for?”
“…”
“See you guys later,” Sunggyu said as he started walking away with a huff.
Dongwoo started laughing, “I’m sorry, I was just kidding!” he yelled before turning to the others, “Bye guys! Sunggyu! Wait for me!”
They returned the farewell before watching as the lively teen reached Sunggyu.
“I thought your brother was lying,” Woohyun said as he turned to Yeunja before mounting the bike.
“I thought so, too…,” she said, smiling at the guy before the roar of the engines startled her.
Myungsoo turned to her and handed her his helmet, “Wear this.”
“Don’t you have an extra one?” she asked as she took it.
“We do, but they’re at home and we’re not going very far anyway,” he explained before instructing her where to place her feet and telling her to hold on tight.
Woohyun watched them carefully and once he was sure she was secure enough, he revved his bike a bit before changing the gear and moving forward.
Sunggyu watched worriedly as they sped past them, hoping nothing bad would happen to Yeunja before returning his attention to Dongwoo.
“I didn’t know you guys were that close,” his friend stated.
“What do you mean by ‘that close’?” Sunggyu asked, raising a brow.
He had said it with a slight emphasis that he didn’t particularly like.
“You know, close enough to get them to offer you rides,” he clarified.
“We’re not. I just met them today,” Sunggyu defended.
“Then they must really like Yeunja if they were giving you both rides.”
Sunggyu sighed, “They’re our new neighbors, that’s why they offered.”
“Oh,” Dongwoo dragged out, “That makes sense now.”
There was a moment of silence as they kept walking before Dongwoo spoke again, “They’re really handsome.”
”That they are. They’ve even got Haneul-noona all stupid.”
“What about you?”
Sunggyu groaned in annoyance, “I just knew you were gonna say something like that.”
Dongwoo laughed, “Your noona has good taste at least.”
“She’s a cradle robber! Woohyun is a year younger than us and Myungsoo is a year younger than him!” Sunggyu exclaimed quietly, not wanting to draw attention to their conversation.
“Some people like them younger, others like ‘em older, what’s the deal?”
“…You’re right. We should invite them over to your place. From what I understand, they both seem to like noonas.”
“That’s not funny,” Dongwoo stated.
Dongwoo had two older sisters, Jinju and Kkotip. Jinju was a year older than they were and the other was Haneul’s age. He was the only guy and he was the youngest. As fate would have it, Haneul and Kkotip had been friends during their high school years as well.
“That’s what I’m saying.”
Perhaps they were both a bit overprotective over their sisters.
*
“Oh my God, oppa! That was really amazing! You don’t know what you missed!” Yeunja exclaimed later on in the day after they were all gathered in the living room.
The family usually set aside Friday nights to hang out. Mrs. Kim and Mr. Kim allowed the children to choose what they wanted to do. They’d usually pick a movie, play board or video games or go out to eat.
Hanuel was pouting. Yeunja had gotten home and had not shut up about how she had rode Myungsoo’s motorcycle with him on it. No she was not jealous, just annoyed. Sunggyu laughed at the obvious lie but left it at that.
“What are we doing tonight?” Choonyei asked excitedly.
Sunggyu’s phone started ringing and almost immediately the entire room started to sing along to the song, making the male laugh. The ringtone gave away the caller. It was his oldest sister, Aecha.
“Hello?” he answered as he covered one ear to try and keep the noise down despite the fact that his sisters were singing the song like their life depended on it.
“What’s going on? Sounds like you’re in trouble.”
Sunggyu laughed, “They’re singing your ringtone noona, what’s up?” he asked as he finally got up to walk into the kitchen in order to hear her better.
“Oh, really? They sound passionate back there. But anyway, I was calling to let you know that Mom and Dad aren’t making it tonight. We were invited to have dinner with the company reps,” she explained.
“Ah, well that’s okay. I’ll let the girls know.”
“Please do. I’ll talk to you later, Gyu!”
“Bye noona.”
The brunet stood in the kitchen for a couple of seconds, “We can probably do video games tonight since they won’t be here…,” before nodding and making his way towards the living room.
His phone rang again, this time signaling he had received a text message, “Wow, I’m popular today.”
It was Jinki, a friend of his. He was an only child but the guy was smart and really polite. Sunggyu really liked him.
Are we hanging out tomorrow?
He started typing a response in the little pop-up window, letting the song of the message play on before singing the last lines at the top of his lungs.
“Girls, Mom and Dad aren’t maki-” Sunggyu stopped in the middle of his sentence as he noticed two new faces.
He felt his face heat up in record time before he turned away and covered his face, hearing the living room erupt into laughter. Woohyun and Myungsoo were standing at the threshold of the room and had witnessed and heard Sunggyu’s impromptu performance. After a few moments he manned up and turned back around, avoiding both boys’ eyes.
“Mom and Dad aren’t making it tonight,” he said finally, smacking Yeunja who was still giggling as he passed her.
“So what are we doing then?” Choonyei, the second youngest, asked.
Yeunja quickly proceeded to sit the boys on the couch as she moved to sit on the armrest next to Sunggyu.
“I don’t know…” he said, forgetting his earlier thoughts.
“Let’s play Scrabble in teams!” Yeunja exclaimed.
He turned to glare at her, almost reading her mind before counting the people present. They were off by one person.
“Jinho can be in a group of three,” she continued to explain.
“I call Myungsoo-oppa!” Choonyei yelled suddenly, startling the occupants of the room.
After being looked at funny she turned to the boy, “That was your name right? Myungsoo?”
The younger brother nodded, “I’m Choonyei! Come sit over here!”
Myungsoo smiled, thinking the teen was rather cute before following her instructions as she went to go pull out the board game.
“I pick-”
“I’ll get Woohyun!”
It was Yeunja’s turn to glare at her brother. He had to have known that she wanted to pair up with one of the boys. Why was he being like that?
“But-”
“It’s okay, right?” the brunet asked the dark haired male, his eyes almost daring him to say no.
It was pretty clear that Sunggyu was being protective of his sisters so Woohyun really had no place to argue. What could he say? Besides he really wanted to befriend Sunggyu. He had to appeal to the male if he ever wanted to date his sisters. Wasn’t that the general rule?
“It’s fine,” he agreed.
Sunggyu moved to go sit on the other end of the coffee table, closer to Woohyun. Hanuel pulled the annoyed younger sister down to sit with her as well before calling Jinho over to join their team. Choonyei had already pulled out the board and had Myungsoo draw a tile before proceeding to go around the table.
The order was decided quickly. Sunggyu and Woohyun would be going first.
“I think there should be a punishment for the losers…,” Myungsoo spoke up.
“You’re pretty confident over there,” Woohyun said as he let Sunggyu set the tiles on the wooden rack.
“What kind of punishment?” Choonyei asked, excited.
She liked those kinds of things. Her friends always had those whenever they played a game (she usually only played with guys). Usually the worst punishment they could give each other was ttakbam. There was a moment of silence in which they thought.
“How about drinking a full glass of water?” the younger brother suggested.
Choonyei was the only one who made a face at that. That was so boring.
“Let’s do ttakbam!”
“No ttakbam,” Sunggyu said sternly, sending her a look, “You cried last time, remember?”
Her cheeks colored when she heard the distinct laughter of the two brothers and she pouted before deciding to keep her mouth shut. She was only embarrassing herself.
“How about loser sings?” That brought on more chuckles and this time Sunggyu’s cheeks were slightly dusted in pink.
Yeunja had said it with the intention of getting back at her brother. She really was annoyed that he was acting so protective over them. Hanuel had boyfriends before and Sunggyu seemed to make sure she didn’t get any. Although her thoughts were definitely an exaggeration. It wasn’t that the guys were falling all over her. She was pretty but not so much to have the entire population of boys tripping over themselves to ask her out. She just seemed a little too smart and a good girl to attract the idiots. That was okay with Sunggyu, but he definitely had no hand in any of it.
“Sure, they already heard me anyway…,” Sunggyu said, trying to act cool and unaffected.
It seemed to work but the laughter that erupted from Woohyun startled him. He turned to the male and saw him gesturing to his sisters and when the turned, he saw the look of disbelief on Yeunja’s face. It wasn’t extremely noticeable but the color had drained from her face and her teasing smirk had fallen.
“Call!” Woohyun said still laughing.
Her mouth opened at hearing that, “Woohyun!”
He wasn’t making things any better and the echoing consent from Myungsoo and Choonyei only made it worse.
“Unnie!” she called as she turned to Haneul who only shrugged.
“You dug your own grave.”
*
“So you like Nell?” Woohyun asked as the game slowly started building up.
Everyone had already taken three turns and they had just finished their fourth. They had gone by pretty quietly, finding themselves with not much to say after laughing so much. Sunggyu glanced up at the male next to him as he rearranged the tiles.
“Yeah.”
He nodded to himself, “I’d recognize those lines anywhere. Ocean of Light, right?”
The brunet chuckled lightly as he confirmed the question.
“You have good taste,” he said with a smile as he assessed the word that Myungsoo set down on the board.
“I know.”
Woohyun couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped him as well.
*
Sunggyu was lightly biting his thumbnail and it sounded pretty loud in the quiet room.
“Hyung, could you please stop that,” the older brother asked as he took the ‘R’ and placed it at the beginning of the remaining four tiles that they had. They had somehow unluckily acquired a Q on their last draw. The Q was worth 10 points, which would be deducted from their score if they still had it by the time someone placed their last tile on the board.
“Can’t we use IQ?” Woohyun asked secretively, taking hold of the tile.
“No!” the other nudged him to stop him.
“You’ve been staring at these for almost a minute! I don’t see any other way out of this!”
Sunggyu waved his hand away as his eyes darted from the board to the tiles.
“Oppa, you’re taking too long!” Choonyei complained.
Their team already had the perfect word to use and they had their heart set on the ‘I’ from the word TRAIN.
“Hold on…,” he said as he started to move the tiles to his liking on the rack.
He placed the ‘R’ towards the back again and placed the ‘F’ at the front followed by the ‘A’ and then the ‘Q’. He glanced up again at the board and it finally clicked. He snapped his fingers in victory as he began to set down the tiles as FAQIR.
“Is that even a word…?” Myungsoo asked as he stared at the odd word.
“Of course it is!” Sunggyu defended himself, “It’s a word for some kind of monk…” he didn’t sound so sure.
But just as everyone else was about to pull out their phones to check, Woohyun quickly piped up, “He’s right. It’s a Muslim or Hindu monk…”
*
“Your vocabulary sucks,” Sunggyu said as he leaned back against the couch.
The room had been filled with tension ever since Hanuel started counting the score.
“It doesn’t! It’s not my fault that the words I used happened to mostly have all one point letters…”
“Of course not…”
“At least we weren’t last?” Woohyun stated uncertainly.
“At least.”
They had avoided last place successfully and had claimed first place thanks to the odd word that Sunggyu had used.
*
That had been the last he had seen of them for the weekend. He had wondered why the brothers had randomly shown up and at the perfect time that Friday, but after hearing Hanuel and Yeunja talking about it in their room he quickly understood that Yeunja had invited them over when they dropped her off. She must have really liked them.
He must admit, both brothers were handsome, dashing, and really easy on the eyes. He didn’t blame her in the slightest. It did, however, shame him to see such obvious advances made by his sister. Had she no shame? At least Hanuel acted her age…mostly. She would squeal and turn into a fifteen year old whenever Yeunja told her about what Woohyun did or what Myungsoo said.
After another week, Sunggyu had found out that the only time his sister saw both brothers was after school. They didn’t share a single class. It made Sunggyu wonder how in the world she knew about their whereabouts and what they talked about, at least until he heard that it wasn’t only her but a majority of the girls in his classes as well.
“I have Woohyun for Physics. I don’t know how they expect me to concentrate on the lesson when he sits right in front of me.”
They were sitting in their English class working on an assignment. Sunggyu simply shook his head. He wondered what kind of witch craft Woohyun was using to affect the girls so much. He had the entire girl population swooning over him.
“But he tends to look out the window a lot, especially when we have problems assigned from the book. Oh my God, girls, he has the most perfect nose I’ve ever seen.”
Sunggyu couldn’t help the little stifled laugh that escaped him when he heard that. His nose? Even the nose had its own following?
“Yah, why are you laughing, Kim Sunggyu-ssi? Have you not seen it?”
“No, not really,” he responded, glancing up at the girl sitting in front of him before returning his attention to the work on the desk.
“Well you see him every day after school, take a closer look. Those brothers look like they came out of a magazine,” the girl huffed in slight annoyance, “Your sister is really lucky she gets to ride home with them.”
Sunggyu dismissed her with a shrug. It was starting to seem like every girl wanted to become his sister.
He would deny it later, if anyone asked, but he couldn’t help but to really survey Woohyun’s nose after school that same day. It was straight bridged, pointy, and just very nice looking. He noticed that his nose really was perfect. His face fell a little noticeably when he realized that.
The worst part had to be that the damned nose had gained another admirer.
*
“Are you okay?” Dongwoo asked once they were far enough away.
The older male didn’t look too happy.
“Fine,” he answered as he waved goodbye to the trio.
He had inspected Woohyun’s nose from a distance and had refused Dongwoo’s, ‘Let’s go say hi.’
“You’re rejecting us again?” Woohyun yelled after them.
He was mounted on the bike and was looking at the guys as they continued to walk. Sunggyu let another wave answer for him before clinging onto Dongwoo.
“I hate the girls at this school,” Sunggyu mumbled.
“Okay… when did hating the entire girl population at school start…?” Dongwoo asked uncertainly.
His friend had been a little upset for a while and this sudden declaration of hatred worried him.
“Since they started gushing over noses.”
“What?” the blond male asked.
Sunggyu then proceeded to explain his dilemma. Dongwoo could only laugh at his exaggerated misery. It wasn’t like such a thing was worth the attention, and it was proved as Sunggyu kept glancing up at his hair. He was positively sure that Dongwoo’s hair had been brown yesterday but looking at him now, it was lighter. A lot lighter. He was a little afraid to ask why he had bleached it. There could be only one reason to why his hair suddenly changed color.
“Kkotip-noona asked me to be her practice doll for dying hair…,” the short male finally stated as he noticed the wandering eyes.
“What?!” Sunggyu asked.
He groaned when he realized that Haneul was more than likely to ask him to do the same sooner or later.
*
It was definitely a lot sooner than he had expected.
Haneul had her hands clasped in front of her, pleading up at her brother, her best, pity-inducing pout on her lips.
“You’ll let me dye it, right? Right?” she asked desperately.
“Haneul, I can’t. I have homework I need to get to today,” Sunggyu tried to reason.
“I promise it won’t take long!” she continued.
“Dongwoo already had his hair dyed today, why hadn’t you even brought this up?” her only brother asked.
“Well… because I forgot… But you’d forget too if you got home to those neighbors!” she said as she pointed behind Sunggyu.
That was definitely the wrong thing to say.
“Well then ask them,” he said sternly before closing the door on her nose.
“Sunggyu-yah!” she whined behind the door as she practically glued herself to it.
“No.”
“What’s going on?” The brunet’s eyes widened in shock.
It was his mother.
“Mom! Sunggyu won’t let me practice on him! I really need to for tomorrow’s exam!” she continued with her whiny voice.
He could picture her pouting at her mother and draping herself over her dramatically. Things were not going to end well. He could feel it.
“Sunggyu!” the knocks came soon after and Sunggyu groaned, hanging his head in defeat before answering.
“Let your sister practice on you! Her grades are at stake here!”
And that was how Sunggyu was sitting in the middle of the master restroom, sulking as his sister hummed a tune to bring the mood up. It was safe to say it wasn’t working for the male. At all.
“Sometimes when I’m alone I wonder, is there a spell that I am under, keeping me from seeing the real thing,” she started singing, making Sunggyu raise a brow.
“How do you even know that song?”
“I practically live in your room, Sunggyu dearest,” she said teasingly as she gave a hard tug to his hair, making the other complain.
“You’re abusing me. I’m gonna call the CPS,” he threatened but it only made his sister laugh.
“Stop being such a baby. I’m almost done with your coloring,” she said as she continued to apply the last of the mixture on the back of his head.
Sunggyu had no idea as to what she was doing but he only sighed. He had tried to ask, on many occasions, about what color she was dying it, but Haneul had kept her mouth shut on the matter or she would tease him. First she had said green, then pink, then gray. Sunggyu was dying inside but he hoped his sister wasn’t as vengeful as she wanted to come off as. She was probably dying it a light brown.
Please let it be a light brown…
“Okay done!” she said as she placed a bag over his hair and tied it up, “You are free to attend to your homework! I’ll go get you in a little while in order to rinse the dye off your hair~,” she said happily as she shooed him out of the bathroom.
*
Sunggyu averted his gaze for what seemed to be the millionth time that day. It hadn’t failed.
You’ll be turning heads, Gyu-yah, his sister had exclaimed happily the night before. Of course, she hadn’t showed him the color his hair had been dyed until she had dried it and styled it accordingly.
It wasn’t horrible, he supposed, after staring at his reflection for a good half-hour, half horrified and half fascinated. There was no way he was going to blend into the crowd. He was gonna be the center of attention at their high school for a time to come. But at least the color complemented his pale skin really nicely.
He hated that he couldn’t entirely be mad at Haneul for that.
He looked around for his cheery friend and his jaw nearly dropped when he saw Dongwoo’s hair color. It was pink. Or was it purple…?
“Woah! Sunggyu, your hair looks awesome!” Dongwoo greeted the other as he waved him over.
Sunggyu’s lunch schedule had changed, hopefully for good (his teacher had a tendency of forgetting they had lunch in the middle of the period and decided to let the kids have the first lunch in order to not worry about it later).
“Kill me now,” he stated dramatically as he took a seat next to Dongwoo and draped himself over the lunch table.
“Nice hair, hyung,” he heard a deep voice say and he lightly tilted his head to the side to take a peek.
It was Woohyun, and he seemed amused by his behavior. Sunggyu only grunted in response. Dongwoo laughed at his best friend before patting his back reassuringly.
“What the heck are our sisters thinking? And why does that color look really good on you?” Sunggyu questioned, completely stunned that such colors were actually working for their appearance.
“It’s what they’re studying! It looks good Gyu, I promise. Now let’s get some lunch.”
“Was it a bad dye job or…?” Woohyun questioned as they made their way to the lunch line, staring intently at the pretty bright color on the other’s head as he walked ahead of him.
Sunggyu was using Dongwoo’s shoulder as a solid object to punish his forehead on.
Dongwoo laughed, “No, we’re technically guinea pigs for our noonas… so I’m sure this was planned.”
“She’s evil…,” Sunggyu stated as he turned to face Woohyun, “Don’t ever get on her good side, or offer to be her practice subject.”
Woohyun only laughed at the grave tone the older male was using, “Don’t worry. I won’t.”
The red head sighed before looking around, “Where’s Myungsoo-yah?”
“He’s always a little late. I didn’t know he liked that computer class so much…,” Woohyun trailed off but quickly turned his attention back to Sunggyu. The line was moving at a moderate pace. Dongwoo was yelling across the cafeteria to another line and they turned to see the younger brother already in line. Sunggyu and Dongwoo waved to them, recognizing the people Myungsoo was with.
“Who are they?” Woohyun asked when they turned their attention back to their line.
He had seen that cluster of guys around before but he hadn’t really paid much attention to it. He wasn’t one to really care about the social classes at school. If he was comfortable, why would any of that matter?
“The abnormally popular guys in this school,” Sunggyu answered, “you know, those that for some reason, have large followings? The typical, ‘I wish they were my friends’ from all the guys? Even though they’re jerks and not all that good lookin-,” Sunggyu yelped when he felt Dongwoo poke his sensitive side.
“Jocks,” Dongwoo clarified.
“Oh,” he said knowingly as he turned to look at them again. He raised a brow when he saw one leaving the line. He wasn’t tall when standing next to the others but he had a strong built and a piercing gaze. He seemed to be heading in their direction. He watched as the guy leaned over the railing that guided the line and pulled on Sunggyu’s hair. A surprised yelp left his lips again as he turned, a scowl firmly in place.
“Hoya, what the hell!?” he asked as he soothed the patch of skin that was aggravated by the hair pulling.
The guy chuckled as he took a turn on pulling Dongwoo’s hair as well, albeit a bit more gently, “I was sure you guys were wearing wigs… what happened?”
“We lost a bet,” Dongwoo answered with a smile.
“You lost a bet?” he examined their hair for a moment longer before humming, “They kind of fit you though…”
“Really?” Dongwoo asked, his face brightening at the complement.
Sunggyu could only smile at his best friend’s reaction. He thanked Hoya in his mind for actually liking the new look and not saying anything mean to him.
“Yeah, I’ll see you guys later!” he said as his goodbye before jogging over to his friends.
Sunggyu resisted the urge to say anything but there was a big smile on his face that he directed to his friend. Dongwoo returned it and said nothing more, leaving Woohyun in the dark, unbeknown to him. It was a couple of more moments before they were carrying their trays back to their table and sitting down when Sunggyu decided to speak up again.
“So Woohyun,” the younger male looked up from his burger with a questioning gaze, Dongwoo doing the same, “What exactly are your intentions with Yeunja.”
The pink haired male cleared his throat and looked away, trying with all his might to keep the snicker from escaping his lips, “Uh, excuse me guys, I’ll be right back.”
“My intentions…?” he asked as he glanced at Dongwoo, hoping to catch his eyes and plead with his gaze for him not to leave him. Unfortunately for him, the happy senior didn’t even spare him a glance as he got up.
“I don’t have any. We’re just friends,” he tried when he figured there was no way out of it, giving Sunggyu his best, charming smile.
“Just friends…,” Sunggyu repeated.
“Yeah… by the way hyung,” he quickly said, hoping to change the older male’s attention from such matters, “How many sisters do you have? I think Yeunja mentioned that I haven’t really met two of them.”
“I have six sisters. The oldest is Aecha-noona and the second eldest is Eunae-noona. I believe those are the ones you haven’t met.”
“I’ve seen Aecha-ssi once. She was really pretty. Is… she really married?” he asked before taking a bite of the burger.
“She is. Happily married,” he added, not liking the interest he was showing in his eldest sister, before taking a sip of his drink.
But when did he see her? She hasn’t been over in a while… He thought for a second until he suddenly remembered. No, he definitely hadn’t seen Aecha at all… it was him he had seen that night they moved in. The drink nearly fell from his grip.
>> NEXT PART
Pairing/Focus: Sunggyu-centric, slight Woohyun/Sunggyu
Rating: PG (for cursing)
Word count: 16,637
Summary:
In a time when the modern family usually bore fruit to two children in a marriage, the Kim family seemed to be an abnormal exception. No, they didn’t have an only child (although maybe all of them sometimes wished they were), nor did they have three, nor four. The marriage brought on seven pregnancies of poor Mrs. Kim. She was blessed with many girls and only one son.
“Sunggyu, please? You’re not busy right?”
(Sunggyu, the fourth child of the Kim family and the only boy out of all seven children that their parents decided to have. He was only seventeen and in his last year of high school.)
“I’m not but-,” the excuse he was about to give was refuted without being said.
“You don’t want me to fail right? I have my mid-term tomorrow! Please! I just need to practice a little!”
Sunggyu groaned, making a face as he realized he had no other choice. His head lolled back in defeat.
“Okay,” he said, dragging out the word as if it would make him feel better.
It didn’t.
His sister squealed in delight, “Thank you so much Gyu!”
“He said yes?” a head popped from around the corner of the hallway, at the top of the stairs, to peek into the room that was at the end of the hall.
“Yeah!”
“Choonyei! Why don’t you do it instead?” Sunggyu yelled in annoyance at the sudden appearance of his younger sister.
(Choonyei was the sixth child of the Kim family and the fifth girl. She was only thirteen and very much into video games, sports, and whatever her brother, Sunggyu, happened to be into at the time.)
“No way! Me plus make-up equals hell no!” she yelled in return.
“Choonyei! Watch your mouth!” the sister that was currently in his room yelled, making Choonyei flinch before running away down the stairs.
“Haneul-noona, why is it always me?” he asked with a pout.
(Haneul, the third child of the Kim family and the third daughter. She was nineteen and studying cosmetology. Sunggyu always tended to be her live mannequin.)
“You should be grateful! All these things I apply on you make your skin look really nice and soft! Everyone loves that! Look at you, you don’t have a single blemish thanks to your sister,” she said proudly as she took hold of his chin and tilted his head, trying to emphasize her point.
He swatted her hand away, “Face creams and mud masks are fine, noona. I’m not okay with actually wearing make-up.”
“But you look really good! Almost like Aecha-unnie, but with smaller eyes.”
(Aecha, the first child of the Kim family and the very first daughter. She was twenty-two and already a high ranking employee in the company that their parents worked in.)
“It’s not fair that you guys got the better portion of that,” Sunggyu complained.
Haneul simply laughed as she disappeared into her room (which she shared with another sister) that was a little way down the hall. Haneul was studying cosmetology and was in a constant need of subjects to practice on. Sadly, Sunggyu was the only one that was sympathetic and free enough to be her live mannequin. Choonyei was only thirteen so she didn’t need any of the treatments and was nowhere near patient enough to sit through it. Not to mention that she’d rather be outside playing some kind of sport or a videogame.
“Oppa! Oppa! Is unnie gonna put make-up on you again?”
“Ah, Jinho,” Sunggyu groaned again, “Did Choonyei tell you?”
(Jinho, the seventh child of the Kim family and the sixth girl. She was ten and she tended to admire Haneul because of all the ‘pretty’ things she did.)
The younger girl nodded happily as she jumped on Sunggyu’s bed, “I wanna watch! It’ll be my turn next!”
“Mom will kill Haneul if she sees her putting any kind of make-up on you.”
Jinho whined as a slight pout adorned her lips.
“What are you doing here? Hanuel said you told her you were gonna go out,” Sunggyu questioned as he eyed the sudden newcomer.
“Unnie said that? I wonder why she never wants to use me as a guinea pig.”
“Because Gyu looks a lot better in make-up than you, Yeunja,” Haneul stated as she walked past her.
(Yeunja, the fifth child of the Kim family and the fourth daughter. She was sixteen years old and a junior in high school.)
She tried to dodge the smack that Yeunja threw but it was to no avail. Her hand landed pretty heavily on her butt, making her yelp in slight pain. She only turned and gave her a glare before placing the box, in which she had all of her supplies, on the male’s bed.
“You know, having 3 other sisters in the same house, why must it be the only brother that has to go through this? You like to torture me, don’t you?” he asked Hanuel.
Hanuel offered him a smile that only made Sunggyu sigh in annoyance.
“Is your unnie coming today?” Sunggyu asked.
“I don’t know. Probably not.”
Sunggyu sighed, resigning to the fact that he won’t be getting out of it, “Do your worst.”
“I’ll make you look gorgeous, just you wait.”
*
“Guys! Hey guys, we finally got new neighbors!” Choonyei yelled as she ran inside Sunggyu’s room.
“What? Really?” Yeunja asked.
She had been sitting in the room watching Haneul work her magic as she secretly stole the techniques from her. Her attention quickly diverted from it as she heard the news. She stood from the bed and made her way towards the balcony doors, pulling them open. Haneul and Jinho followed behind.
“Do they have any kids?” Haneul asked as she searched around the area of the house next door.
“Hey~ that guy is handsome! I gotta go greet the neighbors!”
Hanuel laughed at Yeunja’s eagerness, “Oh God, there’s two of them… and the other is hot too!”
Sunggyu rolled his eyes, letting his sisters gossip and fawn over the new guys as he studied the work his sister had started. She had skipped over the foundation, instead applying some BB cream to serve as the regular kind. She had applied the eyeliner neatly, thin towards the inner eye and slightly thicker towards the end. She had fanned the eyeliner out with a cotton-tip and it made his small eyes look bigger. He liked the effect a lot.
“Looking good, oppa,” Choonyei remarked as she admired him from behind his chair.
Sunggyu only gave her a dry look that made her laugh, “I’m serious! You look really good! You could be Aecha-unnie’s twin!”
Sunggyu could only sigh but he agreed. He could hardly recognize himself. It was almost like his oldest sister was staring right back at him, “Choonyei-yah, why do I have to suffer like this?”
The girl giggled, “You look good oppa, don’t worry too much.”
He continued to examine his reflection as his sisters gossip got loud enough for him to hear.
“Oh, he has a motorcycle!” Haneul exclaimed.
“Noona! I’m taking the make-up off,” Sunggyu called out and was pleased to have her finally turn around.
“Okay, okay! I’m sorry,” she turned to give the guys one last, longing, look before returning to her brother.
“Don’t worry. I’m sure one of them is bound to notice any one of you,” Sunggyu tried to re-assure.
“They sure will. Me,” Yeunja said with a cheeky smile, “I’ll see you two later. I’ve got something I need to go do.”
She received glares from both Haneul and Sunggyu. Haneul wanted to go out and make a good impression first (not to mention flirt with them too). Sunggyu just couldn’t believe how shameless his sister was.
“Don’t worry guys, I’ll leave one for you two,” she said as he quickly scurried out, very narrowly avoiding the brush her sister threw at her.
*
It was a matter of minutes before Haneul finished applying the finishing touches. She stepped back to examine her work thoroughly. The brunet stared at his reflection for a second before leaning forward and examining everything. His fingers gently brushed the area around his eyes. He had a slight complex because his sisters always teased him about his small eyes, so seeing them appear much bigger surprised him.
Jinho jumped from the bed and ran, tapping her brother’s arm in order to get his attention. He turned to her and she stared up at him.
“Oppa you look so pretty!” she said and smiled. He could only return her honest smile.
It was a little longer before Haneul prepared his hair to be covered by a wig. It was long and wavy, the color matching Sunggyu’s brunet hair. Sunggyu merely groaned when he saw her walk in with the other materials. She had applied make-up on him once before and had also practiced placing wigs properly on him, but she had never done both at the same time. He had tried to protest but when his older sister reiterated that it was for her midterm, he merely sighed and agreed half-heartedly.
The things he did for his sisters.
It seemed like an eternity until she finished fixing the bangs and perfecting the curls. Sunggyu was about ready to start complaining and whining (his butt had fallen asleep and he hadn’t been able to feel it for a while now) when they heard Yeunja’s voice come from outside.
“Unnie!”
Jinho was the first to run towards the open balcony windows, wondering what her older sister could be yelling about.
“What does this girl want now?” Hanuel muttered to herself as she set the brush down.
“Why can’t you come upstairs you lazy-eek,” she squealed before she could finish the sentence, freezing in place for a second before a laugh, an estranged one to Sunggyu’s ears, escaped her, “Hi…”
Sunggyu inched closer to his balcony, trying to get a view of what was going on but he couldn’t really see anything. He pouted lightly as he heard someone (a male) yell, you’re cute. Another weird laugh escaped Hanuel and he couldn’t just stand there anymore. The laugh was so fake, it gave Sunggyu goosebumps just hearing it.
He poked his head out and looked over his sister’s shoulder, immediately catching sight of what had his sister acting so stupidly. Yeunja was down there with some guy he hadn’t seen. The new neighbor perhaps? He raised his brow, unimpressed at his sibling’s reactions. Really, how old were they? He watched as the other guy turned to them before a handsome smile stretched his lips. He waved at them.
“Hey cutie!” he heard.
Cutie?
Cutie!?
“Oh shit,” Sunggyu panicked, before retreating back into his room and covering his face with his hands.
Someone had just seen him all dolled up and called him a cutie. Someone had seen him as a girl! And hit on him right off the bat! Was it supposed to boost his ego or embarrass him beyond belief? He didn’t even know what to feel at that moment but embarrassment so it had to be the latter.
Hanuel followed after him and promptly burst into laughter, “I told you I’d make you gorgeous!”
*
“Shy sister you got there,” the guy said as he lowered his arm.
He watched as the two girls, along with the little sister, disappeared into the house again.
“Uh, yeah,” Yeunja answered, unsure if she should give her brother away or not. She wasn’t sure what kind of impression they’d be giving if she went with the truth.
“What’s her name? She’s cute,” for some unknown reason, a smile took residence on her lips.
“Ah… her name is Aecha! She’s my unnie,” she answered.
Well, he did look like Aecha so there was no way the guy would know the difference. He only caught a glimpse of Sunggyu and it was pretty far anyway.
“How old is she?”
“17,” she answered without hesitation but mentally slapped her forehead as she realized what she said, “I mean 22! S-she’s 22…”
He looked at Yeunja strangely but accepted the correction, “So she’s a noona…,” he said as he looked up at the balcony again.
“Yeah… so um, whenever you guys are done organizing stuff, you should come over and meet everyone! I have a brother that’s a year older than me. I think you guys would get along just fine.”
*
It was later that night when they were all in Sunggyu’s room. Haneul and Yeunja were sitting on his bed while Sunggyu and Choonyei were playing some kind of shooter game. The two girls were busy talking about the new neighbors, Yeunja giving her the information that she had acquired with their first meeting. He wasn’t really paying much attention to the conversation the two were having. He was too busy trying to capture a flag in the game.
“Ya! Stop camping!” Choonyei yelled suddenly.
“Stop yelling at the TV,” Sunggyu stated flatly as he tried to shoot down a couple of guys.
“I was talking to you!”
“What?!” he asked, completely offended, “I do not camp! You’re just mad I keep killing you! It’s not my fault you’re not that good at this game yet!”
“Ahh!” Choonyei yelled in frustration as the last ten seconds of the game came to an end with the words in red spelling LOSER in all capitals on her half of the screen, “I hate this game.”
Sunggyu could only laugh.
“Can you believe he liked Sunggyu?? He was asking about all kinds of details but I made it clear that he was married.”
“You did what?!” Sunggyu asked as he heard Yeunja say that.
That made both of the girls that were gossiping laugh.
“I thought you weren’t listening,” Hanuel said after giggling at his expression and calming down.
“I wasn’t! But how the hell was I not supposed to hear that?” he accused.
“Oppa the game is starting!” Choonyei called as she pulled on his plain white tee.
“Here Jinho, play for me,” he handed the controller over to the youngest sister who had just walked in before crawling his way to his bed. He had been sitting on the floor.
“What did you tell him?”
“Why does it matter?” she asked.
“Because you’re spreading lies about me!”
“Well what did you want me to tell him? Oh, that girl you saw is not a girl, but my brother in drag? I lied and told him you were Aecha-unnie. You two look alike anyway!”
That seemed to ease Sunggyu’s mind a bit. If she had said that, then that meant she had told him Aecha was married, not Sunggyu. That was true. The oldest married right after college.
“Anyway, his name is Woohyun and his brother’s name is Myungsoo. They’re gonna be attending our school. Woohyun’s a junior and Myungsoo is a sophomore,” Yeunja continued to relay.
But Sunggyu’s attention had already strayed, returning to the game instead. He was glad Yeunja covered for him. It would have been embarrassing to face the guy afterward. They were neighbors now after all, and the last thing he wanted was for the new guy to spread questionable rumors about him at school.
*
When Sunggyu officially met this Woohyun guy, it was after school the following Friday. The popularity of the new guys had skyrocketed in no time. Sunggyu didn’t question why. It was actually pretty obvious. The brothers were handsome and they rode motorcycles to school. They had the girls swooning.
It was different with him. He was cute and smarter than average. The girls would fawn over how he looked like a child with his round face and his full cheeks. He was popular amongst the girls because he was always very kind and could hold conversations with them about almost anything. He was charming, gentle, considerate, and pleasant. He guessed it was because he grew up with nothing but girls so he knew how to mingle with them fairly well.
It was a lot harder to mingle with guys. They were rough, uncouth, annoying, stupid, and found amusement in the stupidest things. He had never been exposed to the things the other guys found as entertaining. It was even more uncomfortable when they started checking girls out. Not only was he not into girls in general, he was just not used to it and he tended to stay away from the guys. He had mostly guy acquaintances. It wasn’t that he didn’t have any guys that were actually his friends. He did, but they were very few.
Yeunja had introduced them that afternoon, “This is my oppa, the one I was telling you about the other day.”
Woohyun dismounted the bike and bowed politely, “I’m Nam Woohyun, your new neighbor.” Sunggyu returned the gesture, completely surprised by it. Myungsoo joined them and did the same.
“Do you mind if I call you hyung?” Woohyun asked, smiling at him.
“Uh, no, go ahead,” he liked the sound of it. He had almost no one to call him hyung so it was a nice change to hear it every once in a while.
“Me too, can I call you that?” It was Myungsoo who was asking now.
The kid looked cute despite the fact that he was taller than both Woohyun and him. Sunggyu only nodded.
“Are you guys heading home?” the oldest brother asked.
“Yeah,” Yeunja and Sunggyu answered simultaneously.
A small smirk made itself known on the handsome face, “Want a ride?” he pointed with his thumb over to his bike.
Sunggyu’s small eyes widened and he almost hit Yeunja for reacting so quickly to the offer, “Oh my God, that would be awesome! Right, oppa?” she asked but giggled when she saw the expression on his face.
He looked like he was thinking of a way to break it off with someone. It was so funny. He looked so conflicted. It amused Woohyun as well.
“It’s alright, we both have a license,” he tried to reassure the older brunet.
But it was spoken to deaf ears.
“Oppa!” Yeunja pushed the other forward and that snapped him out of it.
He had unknowingly begun to build all kind of scenarios of what could go wrong if he said yes. Not a single one of them were looking like he’d even make it home alive. He cleared his throat, suddenly aware that he was being stared at.
“Actually, I promised to walk home with some friends so… maybe next time?” He was really hoping there was never a next time.
“With who, oppa?” Yeunja asked, curious.
He hadn’t mentioned that earlier and she had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn’t true, until she heard someone call out for her brother.
“Sunggyu-yah!”
The brunet didn’t even get a chance to turn as he felt someone jump on his back. The intruder let out a little laugh as the brunet straightened up to get the male off him.
Sunggyu sighed as he pushed the other away, “How many times have I told you not to do that?”
“But it’s fun!” the dark haired male laughed before turning his attention to the younger guy, “Hey, what’s up man.”
Woohyun gave a quick nod of acknowledgement before clasping the offered hand and giving him a half hug.
“You guys know each other?” Sunggyu asked, startled.
“Yeah, we have Art together, right Dongwoo?”
Dongwoo…? He was already speaking to his best friend with no honorific? The guy sure moved fast.
“Yeah. Hi Yeunja! Hey Myung.”
The girl waved at him happily while Myungsoo only gave him a quick nod of acknowledgement.
“You have a class with him, too?”
“Nah, all three of us have lunch together,” he explained easily, “So what’s going on?” he asked.
“They were gonna give us a ride home, right Sunggyu-oppa?” Yeunja asked.
“Uh…right…”
“So you’re not walking home with me?” Dongwoo asked, a little accusingly.
Woohyun laughed, “He turned us down to walk with you.”
“Oh, really?” he asked, surprised.
“Yes, really,” Sunggyu said as he nudged him with his elbow, “Who do you take me for?”
“…”
“See you guys later,” Sunggyu said as he started walking away with a huff.
Dongwoo started laughing, “I’m sorry, I was just kidding!” he yelled before turning to the others, “Bye guys! Sunggyu! Wait for me!”
They returned the farewell before watching as the lively teen reached Sunggyu.
“I thought your brother was lying,” Woohyun said as he turned to Yeunja before mounting the bike.
“I thought so, too…,” she said, smiling at the guy before the roar of the engines startled her.
Myungsoo turned to her and handed her his helmet, “Wear this.”
“Don’t you have an extra one?” she asked as she took it.
“We do, but they’re at home and we’re not going very far anyway,” he explained before instructing her where to place her feet and telling her to hold on tight.
Woohyun watched them carefully and once he was sure she was secure enough, he revved his bike a bit before changing the gear and moving forward.
Sunggyu watched worriedly as they sped past them, hoping nothing bad would happen to Yeunja before returning his attention to Dongwoo.
“I didn’t know you guys were that close,” his friend stated.
“What do you mean by ‘that close’?” Sunggyu asked, raising a brow.
He had said it with a slight emphasis that he didn’t particularly like.
“You know, close enough to get them to offer you rides,” he clarified.
“We’re not. I just met them today,” Sunggyu defended.
“Then they must really like Yeunja if they were giving you both rides.”
Sunggyu sighed, “They’re our new neighbors, that’s why they offered.”
“Oh,” Dongwoo dragged out, “That makes sense now.”
There was a moment of silence as they kept walking before Dongwoo spoke again, “They’re really handsome.”
”That they are. They’ve even got Haneul-noona all stupid.”
“What about you?”
Sunggyu groaned in annoyance, “I just knew you were gonna say something like that.”
Dongwoo laughed, “Your noona has good taste at least.”
“She’s a cradle robber! Woohyun is a year younger than us and Myungsoo is a year younger than him!” Sunggyu exclaimed quietly, not wanting to draw attention to their conversation.
“Some people like them younger, others like ‘em older, what’s the deal?”
“…You’re right. We should invite them over to your place. From what I understand, they both seem to like noonas.”
“That’s not funny,” Dongwoo stated.
Dongwoo had two older sisters, Jinju and Kkotip. Jinju was a year older than they were and the other was Haneul’s age. He was the only guy and he was the youngest. As fate would have it, Haneul and Kkotip had been friends during their high school years as well.
“That’s what I’m saying.”
Perhaps they were both a bit overprotective over their sisters.
*
“Oh my God, oppa! That was really amazing! You don’t know what you missed!” Yeunja exclaimed later on in the day after they were all gathered in the living room.
The family usually set aside Friday nights to hang out. Mrs. Kim and Mr. Kim allowed the children to choose what they wanted to do. They’d usually pick a movie, play board or video games or go out to eat.
Hanuel was pouting. Yeunja had gotten home and had not shut up about how she had rode Myungsoo’s motorcycle with him on it. No she was not jealous, just annoyed. Sunggyu laughed at the obvious lie but left it at that.
“What are we doing tonight?” Choonyei asked excitedly.
Sunggyu’s phone started ringing and almost immediately the entire room started to sing along to the song, making the male laugh. The ringtone gave away the caller. It was his oldest sister, Aecha.
“Hello?” he answered as he covered one ear to try and keep the noise down despite the fact that his sisters were singing the song like their life depended on it.
“What’s going on? Sounds like you’re in trouble.”
Sunggyu laughed, “They’re singing your ringtone noona, what’s up?” he asked as he finally got up to walk into the kitchen in order to hear her better.
“Oh, really? They sound passionate back there. But anyway, I was calling to let you know that Mom and Dad aren’t making it tonight. We were invited to have dinner with the company reps,” she explained.
“Ah, well that’s okay. I’ll let the girls know.”
“Please do. I’ll talk to you later, Gyu!”
“Bye noona.”
The brunet stood in the kitchen for a couple of seconds, “We can probably do video games tonight since they won’t be here…,” before nodding and making his way towards the living room.
His phone rang again, this time signaling he had received a text message, “Wow, I’m popular today.”
It was Jinki, a friend of his. He was an only child but the guy was smart and really polite. Sunggyu really liked him.
Are we hanging out tomorrow?
He started typing a response in the little pop-up window, letting the song of the message play on before singing the last lines at the top of his lungs.
“Girls, Mom and Dad aren’t maki-” Sunggyu stopped in the middle of his sentence as he noticed two new faces.
He felt his face heat up in record time before he turned away and covered his face, hearing the living room erupt into laughter. Woohyun and Myungsoo were standing at the threshold of the room and had witnessed and heard Sunggyu’s impromptu performance. After a few moments he manned up and turned back around, avoiding both boys’ eyes.
“Mom and Dad aren’t making it tonight,” he said finally, smacking Yeunja who was still giggling as he passed her.
“So what are we doing then?” Choonyei, the second youngest, asked.
Yeunja quickly proceeded to sit the boys on the couch as she moved to sit on the armrest next to Sunggyu.
“I don’t know…” he said, forgetting his earlier thoughts.
“Let’s play Scrabble in teams!” Yeunja exclaimed.
He turned to glare at her, almost reading her mind before counting the people present. They were off by one person.
“Jinho can be in a group of three,” she continued to explain.
“I call Myungsoo-oppa!” Choonyei yelled suddenly, startling the occupants of the room.
After being looked at funny she turned to the boy, “That was your name right? Myungsoo?”
The younger brother nodded, “I’m Choonyei! Come sit over here!”
Myungsoo smiled, thinking the teen was rather cute before following her instructions as she went to go pull out the board game.
“I pick-”
“I’ll get Woohyun!”
It was Yeunja’s turn to glare at her brother. He had to have known that she wanted to pair up with one of the boys. Why was he being like that?
“But-”
“It’s okay, right?” the brunet asked the dark haired male, his eyes almost daring him to say no.
It was pretty clear that Sunggyu was being protective of his sisters so Woohyun really had no place to argue. What could he say? Besides he really wanted to befriend Sunggyu. He had to appeal to the male if he ever wanted to date his sisters. Wasn’t that the general rule?
“It’s fine,” he agreed.
Sunggyu moved to go sit on the other end of the coffee table, closer to Woohyun. Hanuel pulled the annoyed younger sister down to sit with her as well before calling Jinho over to join their team. Choonyei had already pulled out the board and had Myungsoo draw a tile before proceeding to go around the table.
The order was decided quickly. Sunggyu and Woohyun would be going first.
“I think there should be a punishment for the losers…,” Myungsoo spoke up.
“You’re pretty confident over there,” Woohyun said as he let Sunggyu set the tiles on the wooden rack.
“What kind of punishment?” Choonyei asked, excited.
She liked those kinds of things. Her friends always had those whenever they played a game (she usually only played with guys). Usually the worst punishment they could give each other was ttakbam. There was a moment of silence in which they thought.
“How about drinking a full glass of water?” the younger brother suggested.
Choonyei was the only one who made a face at that. That was so boring.
“Let’s do ttakbam!”
“No ttakbam,” Sunggyu said sternly, sending her a look, “You cried last time, remember?”
Her cheeks colored when she heard the distinct laughter of the two brothers and she pouted before deciding to keep her mouth shut. She was only embarrassing herself.
“How about loser sings?” That brought on more chuckles and this time Sunggyu’s cheeks were slightly dusted in pink.
Yeunja had said it with the intention of getting back at her brother. She really was annoyed that he was acting so protective over them. Hanuel had boyfriends before and Sunggyu seemed to make sure she didn’t get any. Although her thoughts were definitely an exaggeration. It wasn’t that the guys were falling all over her. She was pretty but not so much to have the entire population of boys tripping over themselves to ask her out. She just seemed a little too smart and a good girl to attract the idiots. That was okay with Sunggyu, but he definitely had no hand in any of it.
“Sure, they already heard me anyway…,” Sunggyu said, trying to act cool and unaffected.
It seemed to work but the laughter that erupted from Woohyun startled him. He turned to the male and saw him gesturing to his sisters and when the turned, he saw the look of disbelief on Yeunja’s face. It wasn’t extremely noticeable but the color had drained from her face and her teasing smirk had fallen.
“Call!” Woohyun said still laughing.
Her mouth opened at hearing that, “Woohyun!”
He wasn’t making things any better and the echoing consent from Myungsoo and Choonyei only made it worse.
“Unnie!” she called as she turned to Haneul who only shrugged.
“You dug your own grave.”
*
“So you like Nell?” Woohyun asked as the game slowly started building up.
Everyone had already taken three turns and they had just finished their fourth. They had gone by pretty quietly, finding themselves with not much to say after laughing so much. Sunggyu glanced up at the male next to him as he rearranged the tiles.
“Yeah.”
He nodded to himself, “I’d recognize those lines anywhere. Ocean of Light, right?”
The brunet chuckled lightly as he confirmed the question.
“You have good taste,” he said with a smile as he assessed the word that Myungsoo set down on the board.
“I know.”
Woohyun couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped him as well.
*
Sunggyu was lightly biting his thumbnail and it sounded pretty loud in the quiet room.
“Hyung, could you please stop that,” the older brother asked as he took the ‘R’ and placed it at the beginning of the remaining four tiles that they had. They had somehow unluckily acquired a Q on their last draw. The Q was worth 10 points, which would be deducted from their score if they still had it by the time someone placed their last tile on the board.
“Can’t we use IQ?” Woohyun asked secretively, taking hold of the tile.
“No!” the other nudged him to stop him.
“You’ve been staring at these for almost a minute! I don’t see any other way out of this!”
Sunggyu waved his hand away as his eyes darted from the board to the tiles.
“Oppa, you’re taking too long!” Choonyei complained.
Their team already had the perfect word to use and they had their heart set on the ‘I’ from the word TRAIN.
“Hold on…,” he said as he started to move the tiles to his liking on the rack.
He placed the ‘R’ towards the back again and placed the ‘F’ at the front followed by the ‘A’ and then the ‘Q’. He glanced up again at the board and it finally clicked. He snapped his fingers in victory as he began to set down the tiles as FAQIR.
“Is that even a word…?” Myungsoo asked as he stared at the odd word.
“Of course it is!” Sunggyu defended himself, “It’s a word for some kind of monk…” he didn’t sound so sure.
But just as everyone else was about to pull out their phones to check, Woohyun quickly piped up, “He’s right. It’s a Muslim or Hindu monk…”
*
“Your vocabulary sucks,” Sunggyu said as he leaned back against the couch.
The room had been filled with tension ever since Hanuel started counting the score.
“It doesn’t! It’s not my fault that the words I used happened to mostly have all one point letters…”
“Of course not…”
“At least we weren’t last?” Woohyun stated uncertainly.
“At least.”
They had avoided last place successfully and had claimed first place thanks to the odd word that Sunggyu had used.
*
That had been the last he had seen of them for the weekend. He had wondered why the brothers had randomly shown up and at the perfect time that Friday, but after hearing Hanuel and Yeunja talking about it in their room he quickly understood that Yeunja had invited them over when they dropped her off. She must have really liked them.
He must admit, both brothers were handsome, dashing, and really easy on the eyes. He didn’t blame her in the slightest. It did, however, shame him to see such obvious advances made by his sister. Had she no shame? At least Hanuel acted her age…mostly. She would squeal and turn into a fifteen year old whenever Yeunja told her about what Woohyun did or what Myungsoo said.
After another week, Sunggyu had found out that the only time his sister saw both brothers was after school. They didn’t share a single class. It made Sunggyu wonder how in the world she knew about their whereabouts and what they talked about, at least until he heard that it wasn’t only her but a majority of the girls in his classes as well.
“I have Woohyun for Physics. I don’t know how they expect me to concentrate on the lesson when he sits right in front of me.”
They were sitting in their English class working on an assignment. Sunggyu simply shook his head. He wondered what kind of witch craft Woohyun was using to affect the girls so much. He had the entire girl population swooning over him.
“But he tends to look out the window a lot, especially when we have problems assigned from the book. Oh my God, girls, he has the most perfect nose I’ve ever seen.”
Sunggyu couldn’t help the little stifled laugh that escaped him when he heard that. His nose? Even the nose had its own following?
“Yah, why are you laughing, Kim Sunggyu-ssi? Have you not seen it?”
“No, not really,” he responded, glancing up at the girl sitting in front of him before returning his attention to the work on the desk.
“Well you see him every day after school, take a closer look. Those brothers look like they came out of a magazine,” the girl huffed in slight annoyance, “Your sister is really lucky she gets to ride home with them.”
Sunggyu dismissed her with a shrug. It was starting to seem like every girl wanted to become his sister.
He would deny it later, if anyone asked, but he couldn’t help but to really survey Woohyun’s nose after school that same day. It was straight bridged, pointy, and just very nice looking. He noticed that his nose really was perfect. His face fell a little noticeably when he realized that.
The worst part had to be that the damned nose had gained another admirer.
*
“Are you okay?” Dongwoo asked once they were far enough away.
The older male didn’t look too happy.
“Fine,” he answered as he waved goodbye to the trio.
He had inspected Woohyun’s nose from a distance and had refused Dongwoo’s, ‘Let’s go say hi.’
“You’re rejecting us again?” Woohyun yelled after them.
He was mounted on the bike and was looking at the guys as they continued to walk. Sunggyu let another wave answer for him before clinging onto Dongwoo.
“I hate the girls at this school,” Sunggyu mumbled.
“Okay… when did hating the entire girl population at school start…?” Dongwoo asked uncertainly.
His friend had been a little upset for a while and this sudden declaration of hatred worried him.
“Since they started gushing over noses.”
“What?” the blond male asked.
Sunggyu then proceeded to explain his dilemma. Dongwoo could only laugh at his exaggerated misery. It wasn’t like such a thing was worth the attention, and it was proved as Sunggyu kept glancing up at his hair. He was positively sure that Dongwoo’s hair had been brown yesterday but looking at him now, it was lighter. A lot lighter. He was a little afraid to ask why he had bleached it. There could be only one reason to why his hair suddenly changed color.
“Kkotip-noona asked me to be her practice doll for dying hair…,” the short male finally stated as he noticed the wandering eyes.
“What?!” Sunggyu asked.
He groaned when he realized that Haneul was more than likely to ask him to do the same sooner or later.
*
It was definitely a lot sooner than he had expected.
Haneul had her hands clasped in front of her, pleading up at her brother, her best, pity-inducing pout on her lips.
“You’ll let me dye it, right? Right?” she asked desperately.
“Haneul, I can’t. I have homework I need to get to today,” Sunggyu tried to reason.
“I promise it won’t take long!” she continued.
“Dongwoo already had his hair dyed today, why hadn’t you even brought this up?” her only brother asked.
“Well… because I forgot… But you’d forget too if you got home to those neighbors!” she said as she pointed behind Sunggyu.
That was definitely the wrong thing to say.
“Well then ask them,” he said sternly before closing the door on her nose.
“Sunggyu-yah!” she whined behind the door as she practically glued herself to it.
“No.”
“What’s going on?” The brunet’s eyes widened in shock.
It was his mother.
“Mom! Sunggyu won’t let me practice on him! I really need to for tomorrow’s exam!” she continued with her whiny voice.
He could picture her pouting at her mother and draping herself over her dramatically. Things were not going to end well. He could feel it.
“Sunggyu!” the knocks came soon after and Sunggyu groaned, hanging his head in defeat before answering.
“Let your sister practice on you! Her grades are at stake here!”
And that was how Sunggyu was sitting in the middle of the master restroom, sulking as his sister hummed a tune to bring the mood up. It was safe to say it wasn’t working for the male. At all.
“Sometimes when I’m alone I wonder, is there a spell that I am under, keeping me from seeing the real thing,” she started singing, making Sunggyu raise a brow.
“How do you even know that song?”
“I practically live in your room, Sunggyu dearest,” she said teasingly as she gave a hard tug to his hair, making the other complain.
“You’re abusing me. I’m gonna call the CPS,” he threatened but it only made his sister laugh.
“Stop being such a baby. I’m almost done with your coloring,” she said as she continued to apply the last of the mixture on the back of his head.
Sunggyu had no idea as to what she was doing but he only sighed. He had tried to ask, on many occasions, about what color she was dying it, but Haneul had kept her mouth shut on the matter or she would tease him. First she had said green, then pink, then gray. Sunggyu was dying inside but he hoped his sister wasn’t as vengeful as she wanted to come off as. She was probably dying it a light brown.
Please let it be a light brown…
“Okay done!” she said as she placed a bag over his hair and tied it up, “You are free to attend to your homework! I’ll go get you in a little while in order to rinse the dye off your hair~,” she said happily as she shooed him out of the bathroom.
*
Sunggyu averted his gaze for what seemed to be the millionth time that day. It hadn’t failed.
You’ll be turning heads, Gyu-yah, his sister had exclaimed happily the night before. Of course, she hadn’t showed him the color his hair had been dyed until she had dried it and styled it accordingly.
It wasn’t horrible, he supposed, after staring at his reflection for a good half-hour, half horrified and half fascinated. There was no way he was going to blend into the crowd. He was gonna be the center of attention at their high school for a time to come. But at least the color complemented his pale skin really nicely.
He hated that he couldn’t entirely be mad at Haneul for that.
He looked around for his cheery friend and his jaw nearly dropped when he saw Dongwoo’s hair color. It was pink. Or was it purple…?
“Woah! Sunggyu, your hair looks awesome!” Dongwoo greeted the other as he waved him over.
Sunggyu’s lunch schedule had changed, hopefully for good (his teacher had a tendency of forgetting they had lunch in the middle of the period and decided to let the kids have the first lunch in order to not worry about it later).
“Kill me now,” he stated dramatically as he took a seat next to Dongwoo and draped himself over the lunch table.
“Nice hair, hyung,” he heard a deep voice say and he lightly tilted his head to the side to take a peek.
It was Woohyun, and he seemed amused by his behavior. Sunggyu only grunted in response. Dongwoo laughed at his best friend before patting his back reassuringly.
“What the heck are our sisters thinking? And why does that color look really good on you?” Sunggyu questioned, completely stunned that such colors were actually working for their appearance.
“It’s what they’re studying! It looks good Gyu, I promise. Now let’s get some lunch.”
“Was it a bad dye job or…?” Woohyun questioned as they made their way to the lunch line, staring intently at the pretty bright color on the other’s head as he walked ahead of him.
Sunggyu was using Dongwoo’s shoulder as a solid object to punish his forehead on.
Dongwoo laughed, “No, we’re technically guinea pigs for our noonas… so I’m sure this was planned.”
“She’s evil…,” Sunggyu stated as he turned to face Woohyun, “Don’t ever get on her good side, or offer to be her practice subject.”
Woohyun only laughed at the grave tone the older male was using, “Don’t worry. I won’t.”
The red head sighed before looking around, “Where’s Myungsoo-yah?”
“He’s always a little late. I didn’t know he liked that computer class so much…,” Woohyun trailed off but quickly turned his attention back to Sunggyu. The line was moving at a moderate pace. Dongwoo was yelling across the cafeteria to another line and they turned to see the younger brother already in line. Sunggyu and Dongwoo waved to them, recognizing the people Myungsoo was with.
“Who are they?” Woohyun asked when they turned their attention back to their line.
He had seen that cluster of guys around before but he hadn’t really paid much attention to it. He wasn’t one to really care about the social classes at school. If he was comfortable, why would any of that matter?
“The abnormally popular guys in this school,” Sunggyu answered, “you know, those that for some reason, have large followings? The typical, ‘I wish they were my friends’ from all the guys? Even though they’re jerks and not all that good lookin-,” Sunggyu yelped when he felt Dongwoo poke his sensitive side.
“Jocks,” Dongwoo clarified.
“Oh,” he said knowingly as he turned to look at them again. He raised a brow when he saw one leaving the line. He wasn’t tall when standing next to the others but he had a strong built and a piercing gaze. He seemed to be heading in their direction. He watched as the guy leaned over the railing that guided the line and pulled on Sunggyu’s hair. A surprised yelp left his lips again as he turned, a scowl firmly in place.
“Hoya, what the hell!?” he asked as he soothed the patch of skin that was aggravated by the hair pulling.
The guy chuckled as he took a turn on pulling Dongwoo’s hair as well, albeit a bit more gently, “I was sure you guys were wearing wigs… what happened?”
“We lost a bet,” Dongwoo answered with a smile.
“You lost a bet?” he examined their hair for a moment longer before humming, “They kind of fit you though…”
“Really?” Dongwoo asked, his face brightening at the complement.
Sunggyu could only smile at his best friend’s reaction. He thanked Hoya in his mind for actually liking the new look and not saying anything mean to him.
“Yeah, I’ll see you guys later!” he said as his goodbye before jogging over to his friends.
Sunggyu resisted the urge to say anything but there was a big smile on his face that he directed to his friend. Dongwoo returned it and said nothing more, leaving Woohyun in the dark, unbeknown to him. It was a couple of more moments before they were carrying their trays back to their table and sitting down when Sunggyu decided to speak up again.
“So Woohyun,” the younger male looked up from his burger with a questioning gaze, Dongwoo doing the same, “What exactly are your intentions with Yeunja.”
The pink haired male cleared his throat and looked away, trying with all his might to keep the snicker from escaping his lips, “Uh, excuse me guys, I’ll be right back.”
“My intentions…?” he asked as he glanced at Dongwoo, hoping to catch his eyes and plead with his gaze for him not to leave him. Unfortunately for him, the happy senior didn’t even spare him a glance as he got up.
“I don’t have any. We’re just friends,” he tried when he figured there was no way out of it, giving Sunggyu his best, charming smile.
“Just friends…,” Sunggyu repeated.
“Yeah… by the way hyung,” he quickly said, hoping to change the older male’s attention from such matters, “How many sisters do you have? I think Yeunja mentioned that I haven’t really met two of them.”
“I have six sisters. The oldest is Aecha-noona and the second eldest is Eunae-noona. I believe those are the ones you haven’t met.”
“I’ve seen Aecha-ssi once. She was really pretty. Is… she really married?” he asked before taking a bite of the burger.
“She is. Happily married,” he added, not liking the interest he was showing in his eldest sister, before taking a sip of his drink.
But when did he see her? She hasn’t been over in a while… He thought for a second until he suddenly remembered. No, he definitely hadn’t seen Aecha at all… it was him he had seen that night they moved in. The drink nearly fell from his grip.
>> NEXT PART