Happy Birthday, Hyung.
“Wait! Hyung.” Jiyong reached out to grab Seunghyun’s wrist, but the taller man pulled away, following Youngbae to the waiting taxi.
“Hey, hyung, I’m really sorry about this morning.” Youngbae apologized as he held the taxi door open for Seunghyun.
“It’s fine.” Seunghyun replied quietly, shrugging off the younger man’s apology and sitting in the vehicle. It doesn't really matter anymore, he thought as he leaned his head against the cold window. What did matter at this point? He had woken up to the ‘beautiful’ arguing of the other four members to eat a partial bowl of cereal, only to be disturbed by a headache from all the yelling.
He had then left to find some peace and quiet, only to run into Seungri and Daesung - who didn’t recognize him - and a large group of fans, who obviously recognized him. Then he was sent running, to hide.
Seunghyun huffed, and all this on his on his birthday too. Just wonderful. He felt Youngbae pull him out of the taxi and drag him back to the dorm, had the taxi ride been that quick? He pulled his hood up over his head again and silently went into his room before anyone could bother him. He dropped down on the bed, and let his body relax.
At least there was one place where he could have some peace and quiet.
“What in the?!” He heard Youngbae shriek from the kitchen. Seunghyun groaned. Or so he thought. He pulled his pillow over his ear as he heard the front door slam open, followed by multiple yells and footsteps.
Wow, he really loved his birthday…
~~~
“SEUNGRI, DAESUNG!” Youngbae yelled out in annoyance. “GET IN HERE RIGHT NOW!”
“What are you screaming about?” Seungri bounced down the hall, a half eaten ice cream cone in his hand. When he got to the kitchen, the smile was wiped off his face.
“Do you want to explain what happened to this?” Youngbae glared at the two youngest members and pointed at the table. The cake was still there, but not in one solid piece. The vanilla ice cream was in the process of melting, oozing out onto the table and dripping onto the tiled kitchen floor.
“Oh crap...” Daesung’s hand flew up to his mouth as he gaped at the mess in the kitchen.
“Hyung, I swear. We didn’t mean to do this at all,” Seungri pleaded, backing up from the sticky blob in the center of the room. “You know we wouldn’t try to ruin hyung’s birthday!”
“Ruin? Oh no, of course not. You didn’t ruin it. It’s more like it was destroyed, wrecked, shattered, spoiled, de-” Seungri winced at the words being spat at him.
“Okay, okay! I get it, hyung. I get it,” Seungri muttered and tossed the rest of his ice cream away. “Listen; I was going to go spend time with TOP hyung at the mall today, because I know he’d like that. While I keep him busy you can buy another cake, alright?”
Daesung snorted. “Spend time at the mall, Seungri? Did you really think that was the best idea?”
“Yah, it’s not like you have anything better!” Seungri huffed, glaring at him. “Since you obviously think you’re brilliant, why don’t you announce what you were going to do?”
Daesung pouted. “I’m not saying I’m brilliant or anything, but we go to the mall on weekends just to hang out. It’s not that special.”
“So you’re saying that you really didn’t have anything planned?” Seungri stared at him accusingly.
“So what if I didn’t have anything planned? If I did, I would have done something TOP hyung would have actually enjoyed!” Daesung shouted, walking closer to Seungri.
Youngbae slammed his hands down onto the table (the non goo-ified areas), causing the younger two to look at him. He pointed at the sticky, messy goo upon the kitchen table for emphasis.
“Look at what you guys have done to the cake! What are you going to do about it?” Seungri and Daesung opened their mouths at the same time, and Youngbae placed his hand up. “No, don’t answer. In fact, as punishment; we are all going to be making hyung’s birthday cake by hand. Homemade. From scratch. Goodness, you guys can’t even take care of cake.”
Seungri looked at the ground guiltily. “Sorry hyung…”
Youngbae sighed in exasperation and pointed at the fridge. “I don’t care if you’re sorry; I just want a new cake, alright?” The two nodded and started moving towards the fridge. “You guys start while I go find our leader who seems to have vanished into thin air.” He stuck his hand in his pocket to take out his cell phone, when he realized it wasn’t there. Where did he leave it? Didn’t he just have it earlier? He pondered the thought as he headed towards the living room where he dug around in the couch, in hopes of finding his phone. After a few minutes passed without finding it, he returned to the kitchen to use one of the other’s phones.
He saw that Seungri and Daesung were making slow progress on finding all the ingredients and materials needed for the cake making process. Youngbae sighed, deciding that he didn’t care; provided that it was finished by the end of the day. He spotted Seungri’s phone on the table and picked it up, quickly dialing Jiyong’s number and giving Seungri a look as he opened his mouth to complain.
Seungri, not now. Jiyong’s voice said, answering the phone.
“It’s me, Ji.” Youngbae said.
Oh.
Youngbae ignored the bitter sound in the younger’s voice.
“Where are you? We’re having major issues at home, and we actually need to do something for hyung’s birthday before the day is over.” He said, tapping his fingers on the counter.
Yeah. Youngbae heard Jiyong reply. I’ll… I’ll think of something.
“No you won’t. You’re gonna get yourself home right now, before I have to go out and look for you. Seungri and Daesung managed to let the cake melt, and now they’re making it from scratch. So you better get home right now.” Youngbae said, glancing behind himself at Seungri and Daesung as they started to shout. “I have to go; I think something’s going wrong,”
But you don’t-
~~~
“But you don’t-” Jiyong began to protest, but Youngbae had already hung up. He gave a slight scowl toward his phone as he mumbled out the last few words anyways. “Understand... Ugh, so much for trying to explain things…”
He sighed and dropped his phone into his pocket.
“Guess I might as well go buy some icing and toppings for TOP-hyung’s cake...” Jiyong mumbled out distastefully.
With that decided, he trudged his way to the nearest supermarket, pulling up his hood on the way there.
---
While Jiyong was out shopping for groceries, the other 4 members at home were busying themselves with either moping (Seunghyun) or attempting to bake the cake (everyone else).
Youngbae slammed the phone down onto the table - forgetting that it wasn’t his but ignoring the fact to address the issue at hand - and turned around to face Daesung and Seungri.
Both were looking like a pair of kicked puppies. Flour covered, kicked puppies…
“We’re sorry, hyung. We were trying to make it, honest to god we were. But... Somehow we ended up with… Well, that.” Seungri mumbled out, nervously motioning around the kitchen that was covered in flour and other cake mixtures.
“I don't even know how you guys managed to get so messed up so quickly when I was only on the phone for a minute. Ugh. You’re just lucky these are dry mixtures and not liquid.” Youngbae rubbed his temple tiredly. The things those two could accomplish in such short amounts of time. It was amazing, really. Not.
It had been only two hours since they all woke up, one since their hyung woke up and all this trouble had already occurred. Who knew so many things could go wrong in the span of one hour?
“You guys... Just... What do you want me to do? Make it for you?” Youngbae scoffed, but regretted suggesting something, even with such a sarcastic tone, when the younger two nodded, smiling brightly in appreciation. Why was this his life?
"You aren't getting out of it. Now go clean that up while I go check up on hyung."
Youngbae walked up the hallway and knocked on Seunghyun’s door, before poking his head in.
“Hyung?” he called out to the man whose head was buried under a pillow. “What are you doing?”
“Blocking out all the noise to find some peace and quiet in this world. It seems very impossible right now.” Seunghyun grumbled and pulled the blankets up over his head.
Youngbae sighed as he quietly left the room, making sure he didn’t make a sound as he shut the door.
“You two keep it down,” Youngbae warned the younger two who seemed to be having fun drawing stick figures in the flour scattered on the kitchen floor. "I'm gonna go find Jiyong, so behave while I'm gone."
The two pouted and stuck their tongues out at Youngbae before quickly going to work. Youngbae walked over to the front door, only making it to the kitchen doorway before being greeted by the sight of Jiyong.
“I’m back.” Jiyong’s voice floated into the kitchen as he walked up the hallway.
“Jiyong! Thank god, you’re finally back!” Youngbae exclaimed in relief. Jiyong forced a quick smile as he entered the kitchen, placing the plastic bags in his hands on the parts of the counter that were still reasonably clean. “What’d you buy?” Youngbae gestured toward the numerous grocery bags.
Jiyong shrugged. “Just... stuff. For the cake.” He clarified.
“Oh, cool!” Seungri shouted, reaching for one of the bags.
While Seungri, Daesung, and Youngbae emptied the contents of the bag out on the somewhat sticky table, Jiyong slipped off to his shared bedroom.
He pushed open the door to find his roommate under the thick blankets, staring up at the ceiling with a blank look.
“Hyung.” He called out softly, his feet padding quietly along the carpet as he walked closer to Seunghyun’s bed. Seunghyun turned his head towards him but returned to staring up at the ceiling again. Jiyong halted and opened his mouth to question further, but closed it again as he furrowed his eyebrows. He sighed. “Never mind, hyung. I’ll just leave you alone.”
“It’s fine, Ji. You can stay if you want.” Seunghyun mumbled out, almost too soft for Jiyong to hear, but somehow he heard it.
Seunghyun’s body now faced the opposite wall.
It brought the slightest of a smile on Jiyong’s face because it at least meant Seunghyun wasn’t too mad at him.
He silently made his way to his bed and flopped down on his stomach. He turned to face Seunghyun’s strong back and opened his mouth to speak.
“Hyung?” He called out, and saw the noticeable but small twitch that came from Seunghyun. Jiyong bit his lip to stop himself from speaking. It was obvious the elder man didn’t want to hear what he wanted to say. He opted to instead stay silent because whatever came out of his mouth seemed to make the situation worse. So… what was he going to do now?
“Yah, Jiyong! Get out here! We need your help!” Youngbae yelled out from the kitchen.
Jiyong sighed, his decision made up for him. “Yeah, I’m coming Bae!” Jiyong yelled back in response. He took one last lingering glance toward Seunghyun and then got off of his bed and exited the room, heading toward the kitchen.
Sighing, Seunghyun let his head drop to the pillow. He fixed exhausted eyes onto the wall in front of him. Why did nothing ever go as planned? Why did nothing ever go right for him? Bringing his knees up to his chest, he wrapped his arms around them.
“So much for a happy birthday...” He whispered into the darkness, closing his eyes. After what felt like an hour later, Seunghyun fell into a light slumber, mumbling incoherent sentences under his breath.
~~~
Jiyong stood at the doorway of the kitchen, his mouth hanging open. Daesung and Seungri were covered in flour, and Youngbae had something trickling down his face from his hair that looked suspiciously like egg.
“WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE?” Jiyong shouted, causing the others to turn to him in shock. “YOU DO KNOW WE DON’T LIVE HERE, RIGHT?”
“Umm... We can explain!” Seungri attempted to cover up the mess quickly with some lame random excuse. He always was good at making up on the spot. “We… We uh… We…” Seungri continued with lots of stalling. Only to be cut off by Daesung’s loud exclamation,
“IT’S ALL SEUNGRI’S FAULT!” Daesung pointed at Seungri. The younger bit at Daesung’s finger, annoyed by the fact that it was pointed in his face.
“Ow! What the hell, maknae?” Daesung whined.
“Grrr....” Seungri growled out in an attempted feral manner, only failing to do so and instead looking like a cute panda.
“Maknae...” Jiyong warned before diverting his attention to Youngbae. “So what really happened?”
“Long story short: Seungri tripped, bumped into Daesung who was holding the flour, dropping it, who in turn ran into me who made me drop the eggs I was carrying..”
“Yeah, and if you’d been more damn careful, this never would have-” Daesung began, glaring at Seungri.
Sensing another fight coming on, Jiyong stepped into the kitchen.
“SHUT UP! DAESUNG, SEUNGRI; GO GET WASHED UP! YOUNGBAE, HELP ME CLEAN UP THIS MESS!”
The dongsaengs pouted before scrambling out of the kitchen to skip merrily toward the shower, fighting over who got to take a shower first.
“I call shower first!” Seungri shouted as he raced toward the bathroom with Daesung right beside him.
“Hell no! I call it first!” They both reached the bathroom door a second later, fighting and shoving each other for dominance.
“I’m youngest! So I call dibbs!” Seungri yelled at Daesung
“I’m older than you! Listen to your hyung!” Seungri pouted. He paused for a short moment before replying.
“Fine.” He consented for Daesung to shower first, which took him by surprise before he smiled and ruffled his hair as he proceeded to enter the bathroom and take a shower. "See maknae, things would just go a lot smoother if you just cooperated. Although not nearly as fun... he he he.."
“And while you take a shower, I can go cheer up hyung without you messing things up.” Seungri finished after he heard the water begin to run, a smirk gracing his features as he mischievously sneaked to his hyung’s bedroom. Slowly sneaking toward the door, he softly pushed the ajar door to see his hyung’s back facing him.
“Hyung?” Seungri called out softly as he cautiously entered the room. Seunghyun made a noncommittal sound of acknowledgement but didn’t make any other noise or move any other muscle in response. “Hyung, what’s wrong? Why are you cooping yourself up in your bedroom?” Seungri asked bluntly in that careless way of his.
He just didn’t know how to leave people alone, did he? Seunghyun didn’t respond as the younger continued the questions. He had no obligation to answer. Seungri made his way over to the bed, sitting down beside his hyung as he stared at Seunghyun’s back.
“You know you can tell me anything, right hyung?” Seungri attempted to provoke Seunghyun into helping. Of course, it did nothing. He heard a deep sigh come from Seunghyun.
“Would you just leave me alone?” Seunghyun whispered out in a scratchy voice.
From what, Seungri didn’t know. But it gave Seungri a dull regret as he recalled the earlier events of the day.
“Hyung, if you’re mad at us, or me, because of what I, or we, did earlier today; then let me just say I’m sorry.” Seungri attempted to appease Seunghyun.
Another sigh, but this time an exasperated and tired one.
“Seungri, could you just leave me alone? It’s not because of that, so I forgive you okay?”
It was the most Seungri had heard him speak all day, and it worried him. Normally his hyung was overly talkative, but he had hardly spoken all day. However; at least he was talking to him, though. That meant that Seunghyun couldn’t be too angry at them, right? Seungri sure hoped so.
“O-okay, hyung.” Sensing that he wasn’t going to get an answer from the elder, he stood up from the bed. Reaching the door, he cast a look over his shoulder at Seunghyun. “Night, TOP-hyung.”
Opening the door, he went to step out.
“Get me Jiyong.”
Seungri considered it lucky that he heard that because Seunghyun was speaking so quietly.
After his brain processed the information, he grinned. “Okay, hyung! I’ll get Ji-hyung!” He ran out the room, closing the door softly behind him, and raced to find Jiyong. If anyone could cheer up Seunghyun, it was Jiyong, right?
---
Seunghyun rolls over on his bed as he heard his door open. Looking at the door, he saw Jiyong enter. Jiyong’s hands were fiddling with the fabric of his shirt, he looked nervous.
“So, you… You called for me?” Jiyong asked, still standing in the doorway.
Seunghyun bit his lip, contemplating whether or not he really wanted to say what he was going to. Sighing, he nodded and sat up on the bed. He slid over to one side of the bed and patted the spot next to him, wanting Jiyong to sit next to him.
Jiyong nods and moves through the room swiftly to settle down next to Seunghyun, strangely uncomfortable. He observes how Seunghyun picks at stray hairs on the bed; a habit that he had gotten into long ago for when he was nervous.
“Ji, I don’t…” He begins, but trails off and furrows his brows. He breathes in deeply a few seconds later, having finally formed a sentence. “I don’t know if I can do this anymore.”
“What do you mean hyung?” Jiyong asks, his brain trying to make sense of the words sprouted from Seunghyun’s mouth.
Seunghyun turns his head to stare into Jiyong’s eyes. Jiyong notices how bloodshot and red the elder’s eyes are.
“Us, Jiyong.” Jiyong cringes at his full name; what happened to ‘Ji’? “I don’t think we can work. Not anymore.” Jiyong blinked at Seunghyun a few times before the words registered. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped.
“HYUNG! How could you say something like that?” Jiyong exclaimed. “This is a joke, right?”
Seunghyun looked away from Jiyong. “Do you remember, Ji? What I told you earlier? About your time and mine.” Jiyong stayed silent, trying to remember. “Think about it, Jiyong. It was only an hour ago.”
Jiyong nodded. “Yeah, I remember.”
“What did I tell you?” Seunghyun asked bluntly, observing Jiyong.
“That I never have the time you anymore because of how much I work, and that you understand.”
“And?”
“And… And that somehow I can find time for everyone else.” Seunghyun nodded, encouraging Jiyong to continue.
“What else?”
Jiyong turned confused eyes onto the elder. “What?” Seunghyun looked to Jiyong. “What do you mean ‘what else’? That was it.”
Seunghyun sighed. “You were almost there, Ji…” He rubbed his eyes. “I’m tired Jiyong, can you leave now?”
Jiyong stood abruptly. “What? You called me in here, hyung! I want to know what is up with you! Why do you want to break up so suddenly?”
“You don’t get it, Ji, and until you do I don’t feel like talking about our relationship.”
“The hell? I ‘get it’, hyung! Everything you’ve said to me, I understand. But I don’t know why you want to break up!”
“THAT’S WHY!” Seunghyun exploded, as he too stood up from the bed. He turned to face Jiyong. “You understand the words, but not the meaning! Can you honestly say you knew that I was showing my true feelings to you earlier? It’s bad enough that I have to admit this, but even worse that it’s to you! You; who’s too busy to even care.”
“What? Of course I care, hyung! I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t care!”
Seunghyun huffed and ran a hand through his hair as he sat back down on the bed, his back turned away from Jiyong.
He’s sick and tired of this, of Jiyong. “Just leave, Jiyong. I’ve had enough. We’re over; I can’t deal with you anymore.”
Jiyong opened his mouth to shout, but stopped as Seunghyun’s words sunk in. ‘I can’t deal with you anymore.’
The younger swallowed, fighting back the tears that were springing forward because Seunghyun was serious. The elder rapper wanted out of their relationship.
“I thought you loved me…”
Seunghyun sighed and his shoulders sunk. “I think I do, Jiyong. But at the moment, I’m not so sure if I can say it anymore without lying through my teeth.” That was a lie, but he had to find some way to make Jiyong understand.
Jiyong squared his shoulders, squeezing his eyes shut to keep away the tears of anger, frustration and pain.
“Fine. We’re through, I’m gone.”
“Jiyong, I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Well it’s what it sounded like to me. But just remember hyung; I loved you, I still love you, and I will always love you. So you can stay here and decide for yourself whether or not you want to fix this relationship, because I’m tired of trying to work something out between us, between you and me, when you seem so unwilling to do so.”
Seunghyun dropped his head into his hands, voice quivering the slightest bit. “Whatever Jiyong, just leave.”
Wiping away the tears that have yet to fall, refusing to shed them as he had too much pride, Jiyong spun around on his heel with his head held high. ‘Well, I gave him the chance. It’s not my fault that he didn’t take it.’ were his thoughts as he tried to stay strong over what had just happened. But it was difficult. It hurt so much.
Opening the bedroom door, he came face to face with the youngest of their group. Sighing, Jiyong closed the door behind himself and started down the hallway.
“Jiyong hyung, what’s wrong?” Seungri questioned worriedly, his hand on Jiyong’s elbow, stopping him from walking away.
“Nothing maknae, now let me go. I need to go for a walk.” The elder breathed out sadly, avoiding eye contact with Seungri.
“Hyung… Did you guys just… Just break up?”
Jiyong looked at Seungri, his eyes still watery. “I think so maknae, I think so.” was his reply, his breath coming out in shaky breaths. The elder turned away quickly, walking briskly and fast down the hallway and out the front door, bangs covering his eyes to hide the tears that he refused to shed, but fell down slowly anyhow.
Looking at the bedroom door, Seungri hesitantly opened the door, afraid to see the state of their eldest member. He almost never cried, it was a rare occurrence, so when he did, Seungri knew something major and bad (or sometimes, once in a blue moon happy) had happened.
“Hyung, are you okay?” He whispered as he made his way over to Seunghyun’s bed.
“No, I’m not.” Seunghyun’s voice said, face down on his pillow.
Looking down at his hyung with sad and sympathetic eyes, Seungri layed down next to him and wrapped his arms around Seunghyun's shaking frame, tears falling out of Seungri's eyes though the situation did not involve him. If his hyung wasn't going to cry, he'll cry for him.
--
A/N: So what did you guys think? Comments would be nice (:
“Hey, hyung, I’m really sorry about this morning.” Youngbae apologized as he held the taxi door open for Seunghyun.
“It’s fine.” Seunghyun replied quietly, shrugging off the younger man’s apology and sitting in the vehicle. It doesn't really matter anymore, he thought as he leaned his head against the cold window. What did matter at this point? He had woken up to the ‘beautiful’ arguing of the other four members to eat a partial bowl of cereal, only to be disturbed by a headache from all the yelling.
He had then left to find some peace and quiet, only to run into Seungri and Daesung - who didn’t recognize him - and a large group of fans, who obviously recognized him. Then he was sent running, to hide.
Seunghyun huffed, and all this on his on his birthday too. Just wonderful. He felt Youngbae pull him out of the taxi and drag him back to the dorm, had the taxi ride been that quick? He pulled his hood up over his head again and silently went into his room before anyone could bother him. He dropped down on the bed, and let his body relax.
At least there was one place where he could have some peace and quiet.
“What in the?!” He heard Youngbae shriek from the kitchen. Seunghyun groaned. Or so he thought. He pulled his pillow over his ear as he heard the front door slam open, followed by multiple yells and footsteps.
Wow, he really loved his birthday…
~~~
“SEUNGRI, DAESUNG!” Youngbae yelled out in annoyance. “GET IN HERE RIGHT NOW!”
“What are you screaming about?” Seungri bounced down the hall, a half eaten ice cream cone in his hand. When he got to the kitchen, the smile was wiped off his face.
“Do you want to explain what happened to this?” Youngbae glared at the two youngest members and pointed at the table. The cake was still there, but not in one solid piece. The vanilla ice cream was in the process of melting, oozing out onto the table and dripping onto the tiled kitchen floor.
“Oh crap...” Daesung’s hand flew up to his mouth as he gaped at the mess in the kitchen.
“Hyung, I swear. We didn’t mean to do this at all,” Seungri pleaded, backing up from the sticky blob in the center of the room. “You know we wouldn’t try to ruin hyung’s birthday!”
“Ruin? Oh no, of course not. You didn’t ruin it. It’s more like it was destroyed, wrecked, shattered, spoiled, de-” Seungri winced at the words being spat at him.
“Okay, okay! I get it, hyung. I get it,” Seungri muttered and tossed the rest of his ice cream away. “Listen; I was going to go spend time with TOP hyung at the mall today, because I know he’d like that. While I keep him busy you can buy another cake, alright?”
Daesung snorted. “Spend time at the mall, Seungri? Did you really think that was the best idea?”
“Yah, it’s not like you have anything better!” Seungri huffed, glaring at him. “Since you obviously think you’re brilliant, why don’t you announce what you were going to do?”
Daesung pouted. “I’m not saying I’m brilliant or anything, but we go to the mall on weekends just to hang out. It’s not that special.”
“So you’re saying that you really didn’t have anything planned?” Seungri stared at him accusingly.
“So what if I didn’t have anything planned? If I did, I would have done something TOP hyung would have actually enjoyed!” Daesung shouted, walking closer to Seungri.
Youngbae slammed his hands down onto the table (the non goo-ified areas), causing the younger two to look at him. He pointed at the sticky, messy goo upon the kitchen table for emphasis.
“Look at what you guys have done to the cake! What are you going to do about it?” Seungri and Daesung opened their mouths at the same time, and Youngbae placed his hand up. “No, don’t answer. In fact, as punishment; we are all going to be making hyung’s birthday cake by hand. Homemade. From scratch. Goodness, you guys can’t even take care of cake.”
Seungri looked at the ground guiltily. “Sorry hyung…”
Youngbae sighed in exasperation and pointed at the fridge. “I don’t care if you’re sorry; I just want a new cake, alright?” The two nodded and started moving towards the fridge. “You guys start while I go find our leader who seems to have vanished into thin air.” He stuck his hand in his pocket to take out his cell phone, when he realized it wasn’t there. Where did he leave it? Didn’t he just have it earlier? He pondered the thought as he headed towards the living room where he dug around in the couch, in hopes of finding his phone. After a few minutes passed without finding it, he returned to the kitchen to use one of the other’s phones.
He saw that Seungri and Daesung were making slow progress on finding all the ingredients and materials needed for the cake making process. Youngbae sighed, deciding that he didn’t care; provided that it was finished by the end of the day. He spotted Seungri’s phone on the table and picked it up, quickly dialing Jiyong’s number and giving Seungri a look as he opened his mouth to complain.
Seungri, not now. Jiyong’s voice said, answering the phone.
“It’s me, Ji.” Youngbae said.
Oh.
Youngbae ignored the bitter sound in the younger’s voice.
“Where are you? We’re having major issues at home, and we actually need to do something for hyung’s birthday before the day is over.” He said, tapping his fingers on the counter.
Yeah. Youngbae heard Jiyong reply. I’ll… I’ll think of something.
“No you won’t. You’re gonna get yourself home right now, before I have to go out and look for you. Seungri and Daesung managed to let the cake melt, and now they’re making it from scratch. So you better get home right now.” Youngbae said, glancing behind himself at Seungri and Daesung as they started to shout. “I have to go; I think something’s going wrong,”
But you don’t-
~~~
“But you don’t-” Jiyong began to protest, but Youngbae had already hung up. He gave a slight scowl toward his phone as he mumbled out the last few words anyways. “Understand... Ugh, so much for trying to explain things…”
He sighed and dropped his phone into his pocket.
“Guess I might as well go buy some icing and toppings for TOP-hyung’s cake...” Jiyong mumbled out distastefully.
With that decided, he trudged his way to the nearest supermarket, pulling up his hood on the way there.
---
While Jiyong was out shopping for groceries, the other 4 members at home were busying themselves with either moping (Seunghyun) or attempting to bake the cake (everyone else).
Youngbae slammed the phone down onto the table - forgetting that it wasn’t his but ignoring the fact to address the issue at hand - and turned around to face Daesung and Seungri.
Both were looking like a pair of kicked puppies. Flour covered, kicked puppies…
“We’re sorry, hyung. We were trying to make it, honest to god we were. But... Somehow we ended up with… Well, that.” Seungri mumbled out, nervously motioning around the kitchen that was covered in flour and other cake mixtures.
“I don't even know how you guys managed to get so messed up so quickly when I was only on the phone for a minute. Ugh. You’re just lucky these are dry mixtures and not liquid.” Youngbae rubbed his temple tiredly. The things those two could accomplish in such short amounts of time. It was amazing, really. Not.
It had been only two hours since they all woke up, one since their hyung woke up and all this trouble had already occurred. Who knew so many things could go wrong in the span of one hour?
“You guys... Just... What do you want me to do? Make it for you?” Youngbae scoffed, but regretted suggesting something, even with such a sarcastic tone, when the younger two nodded, smiling brightly in appreciation. Why was this his life?
"You aren't getting out of it. Now go clean that up while I go check up on hyung."
Youngbae walked up the hallway and knocked on Seunghyun’s door, before poking his head in.
“Hyung?” he called out to the man whose head was buried under a pillow. “What are you doing?”
“Blocking out all the noise to find some peace and quiet in this world. It seems very impossible right now.” Seunghyun grumbled and pulled the blankets up over his head.
Youngbae sighed as he quietly left the room, making sure he didn’t make a sound as he shut the door.
“You two keep it down,” Youngbae warned the younger two who seemed to be having fun drawing stick figures in the flour scattered on the kitchen floor. "I'm gonna go find Jiyong, so behave while I'm gone."
The two pouted and stuck their tongues out at Youngbae before quickly going to work. Youngbae walked over to the front door, only making it to the kitchen doorway before being greeted by the sight of Jiyong.
“I’m back.” Jiyong’s voice floated into the kitchen as he walked up the hallway.
“Jiyong! Thank god, you’re finally back!” Youngbae exclaimed in relief. Jiyong forced a quick smile as he entered the kitchen, placing the plastic bags in his hands on the parts of the counter that were still reasonably clean. “What’d you buy?” Youngbae gestured toward the numerous grocery bags.
Jiyong shrugged. “Just... stuff. For the cake.” He clarified.
“Oh, cool!” Seungri shouted, reaching for one of the bags.
While Seungri, Daesung, and Youngbae emptied the contents of the bag out on the somewhat sticky table, Jiyong slipped off to his shared bedroom.
He pushed open the door to find his roommate under the thick blankets, staring up at the ceiling with a blank look.
“Hyung.” He called out softly, his feet padding quietly along the carpet as he walked closer to Seunghyun’s bed. Seunghyun turned his head towards him but returned to staring up at the ceiling again. Jiyong halted and opened his mouth to question further, but closed it again as he furrowed his eyebrows. He sighed. “Never mind, hyung. I’ll just leave you alone.”
“It’s fine, Ji. You can stay if you want.” Seunghyun mumbled out, almost too soft for Jiyong to hear, but somehow he heard it.
Seunghyun’s body now faced the opposite wall.
It brought the slightest of a smile on Jiyong’s face because it at least meant Seunghyun wasn’t too mad at him.
He silently made his way to his bed and flopped down on his stomach. He turned to face Seunghyun’s strong back and opened his mouth to speak.
“Hyung?” He called out, and saw the noticeable but small twitch that came from Seunghyun. Jiyong bit his lip to stop himself from speaking. It was obvious the elder man didn’t want to hear what he wanted to say. He opted to instead stay silent because whatever came out of his mouth seemed to make the situation worse. So… what was he going to do now?
“Yah, Jiyong! Get out here! We need your help!” Youngbae yelled out from the kitchen.
Jiyong sighed, his decision made up for him. “Yeah, I’m coming Bae!” Jiyong yelled back in response. He took one last lingering glance toward Seunghyun and then got off of his bed and exited the room, heading toward the kitchen.
Sighing, Seunghyun let his head drop to the pillow. He fixed exhausted eyes onto the wall in front of him. Why did nothing ever go as planned? Why did nothing ever go right for him? Bringing his knees up to his chest, he wrapped his arms around them.
“So much for a happy birthday...” He whispered into the darkness, closing his eyes. After what felt like an hour later, Seunghyun fell into a light slumber, mumbling incoherent sentences under his breath.
~~~
Jiyong stood at the doorway of the kitchen, his mouth hanging open. Daesung and Seungri were covered in flour, and Youngbae had something trickling down his face from his hair that looked suspiciously like egg.
“WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE?” Jiyong shouted, causing the others to turn to him in shock. “YOU DO KNOW WE DON’T LIVE HERE, RIGHT?”
“Umm... We can explain!” Seungri attempted to cover up the mess quickly with some lame random excuse. He always was good at making up on the spot. “We… We uh… We…” Seungri continued with lots of stalling. Only to be cut off by Daesung’s loud exclamation,
“IT’S ALL SEUNGRI’S FAULT!” Daesung pointed at Seungri. The younger bit at Daesung’s finger, annoyed by the fact that it was pointed in his face.
“Ow! What the hell, maknae?” Daesung whined.
“Grrr....” Seungri growled out in an attempted feral manner, only failing to do so and instead looking like a cute panda.
“Maknae...” Jiyong warned before diverting his attention to Youngbae. “So what really happened?”
“Long story short: Seungri tripped, bumped into Daesung who was holding the flour, dropping it, who in turn ran into me who made me drop the eggs I was carrying..”
“Yeah, and if you’d been more damn careful, this never would have-” Daesung began, glaring at Seungri.
Sensing another fight coming on, Jiyong stepped into the kitchen.
“SHUT UP! DAESUNG, SEUNGRI; GO GET WASHED UP! YOUNGBAE, HELP ME CLEAN UP THIS MESS!”
The dongsaengs pouted before scrambling out of the kitchen to skip merrily toward the shower, fighting over who got to take a shower first.
“I call shower first!” Seungri shouted as he raced toward the bathroom with Daesung right beside him.
“Hell no! I call it first!” They both reached the bathroom door a second later, fighting and shoving each other for dominance.
“I’m youngest! So I call dibbs!” Seungri yelled at Daesung
“I’m older than you! Listen to your hyung!” Seungri pouted. He paused for a short moment before replying.
“Fine.” He consented for Daesung to shower first, which took him by surprise before he smiled and ruffled his hair as he proceeded to enter the bathroom and take a shower. "See maknae, things would just go a lot smoother if you just cooperated. Although not nearly as fun... he he he.."
“And while you take a shower, I can go cheer up hyung without you messing things up.” Seungri finished after he heard the water begin to run, a smirk gracing his features as he mischievously sneaked to his hyung’s bedroom. Slowly sneaking toward the door, he softly pushed the ajar door to see his hyung’s back facing him.
“Hyung?” Seungri called out softly as he cautiously entered the room. Seunghyun made a noncommittal sound of acknowledgement but didn’t make any other noise or move any other muscle in response. “Hyung, what’s wrong? Why are you cooping yourself up in your bedroom?” Seungri asked bluntly in that careless way of his.
He just didn’t know how to leave people alone, did he? Seunghyun didn’t respond as the younger continued the questions. He had no obligation to answer. Seungri made his way over to the bed, sitting down beside his hyung as he stared at Seunghyun’s back.
“You know you can tell me anything, right hyung?” Seungri attempted to provoke Seunghyun into helping. Of course, it did nothing. He heard a deep sigh come from Seunghyun.
“Would you just leave me alone?” Seunghyun whispered out in a scratchy voice.
From what, Seungri didn’t know. But it gave Seungri a dull regret as he recalled the earlier events of the day.
“Hyung, if you’re mad at us, or me, because of what I, or we, did earlier today; then let me just say I’m sorry.” Seungri attempted to appease Seunghyun.
Another sigh, but this time an exasperated and tired one.
“Seungri, could you just leave me alone? It’s not because of that, so I forgive you okay?”
It was the most Seungri had heard him speak all day, and it worried him. Normally his hyung was overly talkative, but he had hardly spoken all day. However; at least he was talking to him, though. That meant that Seunghyun couldn’t be too angry at them, right? Seungri sure hoped so.
“O-okay, hyung.” Sensing that he wasn’t going to get an answer from the elder, he stood up from the bed. Reaching the door, he cast a look over his shoulder at Seunghyun. “Night, TOP-hyung.”
Opening the door, he went to step out.
“Get me Jiyong.”
Seungri considered it lucky that he heard that because Seunghyun was speaking so quietly.
After his brain processed the information, he grinned. “Okay, hyung! I’ll get Ji-hyung!” He ran out the room, closing the door softly behind him, and raced to find Jiyong. If anyone could cheer up Seunghyun, it was Jiyong, right?
---
Seunghyun rolls over on his bed as he heard his door open. Looking at the door, he saw Jiyong enter. Jiyong’s hands were fiddling with the fabric of his shirt, he looked nervous.
“So, you… You called for me?” Jiyong asked, still standing in the doorway.
Seunghyun bit his lip, contemplating whether or not he really wanted to say what he was going to. Sighing, he nodded and sat up on the bed. He slid over to one side of the bed and patted the spot next to him, wanting Jiyong to sit next to him.
Jiyong nods and moves through the room swiftly to settle down next to Seunghyun, strangely uncomfortable. He observes how Seunghyun picks at stray hairs on the bed; a habit that he had gotten into long ago for when he was nervous.
“Ji, I don’t…” He begins, but trails off and furrows his brows. He breathes in deeply a few seconds later, having finally formed a sentence. “I don’t know if I can do this anymore.”
“What do you mean hyung?” Jiyong asks, his brain trying to make sense of the words sprouted from Seunghyun’s mouth.
Seunghyun turns his head to stare into Jiyong’s eyes. Jiyong notices how bloodshot and red the elder’s eyes are.
“Us, Jiyong.” Jiyong cringes at his full name; what happened to ‘Ji’? “I don’t think we can work. Not anymore.” Jiyong blinked at Seunghyun a few times before the words registered. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped.
“HYUNG! How could you say something like that?” Jiyong exclaimed. “This is a joke, right?”
Seunghyun looked away from Jiyong. “Do you remember, Ji? What I told you earlier? About your time and mine.” Jiyong stayed silent, trying to remember. “Think about it, Jiyong. It was only an hour ago.”
Jiyong nodded. “Yeah, I remember.”
“What did I tell you?” Seunghyun asked bluntly, observing Jiyong.
“That I never have the time you anymore because of how much I work, and that you understand.”
“And?”
“And… And that somehow I can find time for everyone else.” Seunghyun nodded, encouraging Jiyong to continue.
“What else?”
Jiyong turned confused eyes onto the elder. “What?” Seunghyun looked to Jiyong. “What do you mean ‘what else’? That was it.”
Seunghyun sighed. “You were almost there, Ji…” He rubbed his eyes. “I’m tired Jiyong, can you leave now?”
Jiyong stood abruptly. “What? You called me in here, hyung! I want to know what is up with you! Why do you want to break up so suddenly?”
“You don’t get it, Ji, and until you do I don’t feel like talking about our relationship.”
“The hell? I ‘get it’, hyung! Everything you’ve said to me, I understand. But I don’t know why you want to break up!”
“THAT’S WHY!” Seunghyun exploded, as he too stood up from the bed. He turned to face Jiyong. “You understand the words, but not the meaning! Can you honestly say you knew that I was showing my true feelings to you earlier? It’s bad enough that I have to admit this, but even worse that it’s to you! You; who’s too busy to even care.”
“What? Of course I care, hyung! I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t care!”
Seunghyun huffed and ran a hand through his hair as he sat back down on the bed, his back turned away from Jiyong.
He’s sick and tired of this, of Jiyong. “Just leave, Jiyong. I’ve had enough. We’re over; I can’t deal with you anymore.”
Jiyong opened his mouth to shout, but stopped as Seunghyun’s words sunk in. ‘I can’t deal with you anymore.’
The younger swallowed, fighting back the tears that were springing forward because Seunghyun was serious. The elder rapper wanted out of their relationship.
“I thought you loved me…”
Seunghyun sighed and his shoulders sunk. “I think I do, Jiyong. But at the moment, I’m not so sure if I can say it anymore without lying through my teeth.” That was a lie, but he had to find some way to make Jiyong understand.
Jiyong squared his shoulders, squeezing his eyes shut to keep away the tears of anger, frustration and pain.
“Fine. We’re through, I’m gone.”
“Jiyong, I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Well it’s what it sounded like to me. But just remember hyung; I loved you, I still love you, and I will always love you. So you can stay here and decide for yourself whether or not you want to fix this relationship, because I’m tired of trying to work something out between us, between you and me, when you seem so unwilling to do so.”
Seunghyun dropped his head into his hands, voice quivering the slightest bit. “Whatever Jiyong, just leave.”
Wiping away the tears that have yet to fall, refusing to shed them as he had too much pride, Jiyong spun around on his heel with his head held high. ‘Well, I gave him the chance. It’s not my fault that he didn’t take it.’ were his thoughts as he tried to stay strong over what had just happened. But it was difficult. It hurt so much.
Opening the bedroom door, he came face to face with the youngest of their group. Sighing, Jiyong closed the door behind himself and started down the hallway.
“Jiyong hyung, what’s wrong?” Seungri questioned worriedly, his hand on Jiyong’s elbow, stopping him from walking away.
“Nothing maknae, now let me go. I need to go for a walk.” The elder breathed out sadly, avoiding eye contact with Seungri.
“Hyung… Did you guys just… Just break up?”
Jiyong looked at Seungri, his eyes still watery. “I think so maknae, I think so.” was his reply, his breath coming out in shaky breaths. The elder turned away quickly, walking briskly and fast down the hallway and out the front door, bangs covering his eyes to hide the tears that he refused to shed, but fell down slowly anyhow.
Looking at the bedroom door, Seungri hesitantly opened the door, afraid to see the state of their eldest member. He almost never cried, it was a rare occurrence, so when he did, Seungri knew something major and bad (or sometimes, once in a blue moon happy) had happened.
“Hyung, are you okay?” He whispered as he made his way over to Seunghyun’s bed.
“No, I’m not.” Seunghyun’s voice said, face down on his pillow.
Looking down at his hyung with sad and sympathetic eyes, Seungri layed down next to him and wrapped his arms around Seunghyun's shaking frame, tears falling out of Seungri's eyes though the situation did not involve him. If his hyung wasn't going to cry, he'll cry for him.
--
A/N: So what did you guys think? Comments would be nice (: