Chapter Text
She shrugs in response and checks her phone one more time. “No idea, but Wooyoung is coming over with chicken… and San and Yeosang.”
𓏲 ๋࣭ ࣪ ˖
“Kang Minyeo. What are you up to this time?” Your eyes are wide as you stare at her in disbelief.
“Nothing! I just want a chicken dinner with my best friend, my chicken-loving brother, and his best friends,” she shrugs nonchalantly, and you’re left dumbfounded sitting on the floor with your newly-painted nails. You didn’t really mind having those three around, even though your heart races at the idea of being in the same room as Yeosang again.
As usual, Minyeo finds amusement in the look of pure horror on your face, as best friends do, but she only manages a glance as she goes back to typing on her phone at hyperspeed with whatever plan she was hatching.
Three floors up, Jung Wooyoung has a wicked grin as he hides in his own bathroom, sending another message to his best friend’s sister.
> I’ve ordered the goods. And by goods, I mean the chicken.
“It’s my last night in Seoul, and who knows when I’ll get to see my brother again!” she lets out a dramatic sigh and props her head up on her cheeks, prompting you to playfully roll your eyes. “Anyway, they’ll be here in a couple of hours, I’ll do the tidying up, and you just sit your pretty ass down here and relax, alright?”
You nod your head gently and watch her get up from the floor, leaving you to your devices. Heaving a sigh, you start to put away your box of supplies, then settle onto the folded couch with a throw blanket for a nap. You figure it would be the best way to turn your brain off, as Minyeo had put it earlier in the day. It was easy to fall into a dreamless sleep, eyes fluttering close as soon as your head found rest on one of the soft pillows.
𓏲 ๋࣭ ࣪ ˖
Seonghwa woke up later than usual that day, and not willingly at that. He had planned to sleep off the hangover he had been nursing since the first time he opened his eyes, but there was a racket in the smallest bedroom in his shared apartment. Brows furrowed in annoyance, he opens the door to find the usual three suspects huddled on the bed: Wooyoung, San, and Yeosang.
“Oh, sorry, hyung. Did we wake you up?” Wooyoung blinked up at him with innocent eyes, but he couldn’t help but notice Yeosang looking away.
“It’s fine, it’s late anyway,” he sighs softly and shakes his head, making himself dizzy. Lifting his head, he clears his throat, mustering all the courage he can. “Can I talk to you, Yeosang?”
Yeosang is silent as he returns his hyung’s gaze, but nods anyway, following the older man out to the living room. It’s quiet, save for a small sigh sounding from Seonghwa’s lips as he drops onto the couch, running his fingers through his long hair.
“What did you want to talk about, hyung?”
“I think you know what I want to talk about.” Seonghwa’s gaze is piercing as he finally takes a good look at his younger member, but Yeosang is unshaken as he stares right back. “How long?”
How long? Yeosang nearly lets out a laugh as he looks away, the heat in his cheeks rising. He had no idea how long. It was long enough that he couldn’t remember a time when he didn’t have you on his mind, long enough that he could never picture a world without you waiting for him in his hometown. Now, you were three floors down and he was still wondering what you were doing all the time. There’s a pause as he tries to count the years.
“Since the eighth grade.”
It’s Seonghwa who lets out a bitter laugh as he leans against the backrest. “And you let me take her out on a date.”
Yeosang raises a brow. “You both have free will. What I want doesn’t matter. And you’re not going to push any blame on me, hyung.”
“I’m not,” Seonghwa sighs again, closing his eyes, “I just wish I’d known, so I could have stopped myself before I got in too deep. I do really like her.”
“I know.” Yeosang relaxes on the couch, and watches as Seonghwa contemplates on the seat opposite him.
“I know it’s not…,” Seonghwa sighs as he opens his eyes, not looking at him, “I think I knew for a while, that it wasn’t just me looking at her the way I did. And I really, really hoped she’d choose me, but Yunho and I both royally fucked up.” He couldn’t help the tear sliding down his cheeks as he closed his eyes again, his voice wavering slightly. “I think you deserve to be chosen, Yeosang.”
The younger man allows himself a small laugh, shaking his head. “That’s really not up to me.”
𓏲 ๋࣭ ࣪ ˖
You don’t know how long it’s been since you closed your eyes to take a nap, but there’s a presence in your room you can’t seem to place, and by the time you’ve opened your eyes again, you’re face to face with two cats personified.
“Good morning, noonim,” Wooyoung greets you in the sweetest voice he can, and San simply shakes his head at his friend before leaning back on his palms on the carpeted floor.
“It’s morning?” Your voice rises in panic as you sit up, and Wooyoung breaks into a fit of laughter.
“No, it’s like eight o’clock.”
“Oh…” I slept for nearly five hours.
“Yeah, everything’s laid out in the living room and we were sent to wake you up,” San’s eyes crinkle into crescents as he smiles sweetly at you, you couldn’t help but smile back.
“Okay,” you nod once and start to get up, yawning as you stand and try to smooth out your hair, following Wooyoung and San outside.
Just like they had said, everything was laid out on your coffee table; the lights were dimmed, the TV was on, and on the couch sat your best friend, and her younger brother.
You had to stop in your tracks for a moment, hands frozen behind your head in the middle of tying up your hair. You had forgotten entirely that he was coming, but his presence was… a welcome surprise. Yeosang really did exude comfort from where he sat, giving you a soft smile.
“Finally,” Minyeo feigned annoyance, smiling through her words. Despite the drumming in your chest, you smiled and finally wound the tie around your hair, chuckling as you sat by the floor right in front of her. “Yeosang was gonna complain about his chicken getting cold.”
“I was gonna but I already had one,” he shrugs, leaning over to take another piece from the box. Looking back at him, you gasp softly as your faces meet, merely inches apart, before he straightens up and clears his throat. “Well. Pick a movie and let’s eat.”
“No more Shrek,” San says before neither you nor Wooyoung could say a word, and you pout at each other as he takes the remote. “And nothing scary.”
“So nothing fun, then,” Wooyoung huffs and slides to the space beside you, taking a piece of chicken for himself.
The four minutes the two of them spent bickering felt like an eternity before everyone settled on an old Korean crime-comedy instead. All five of you were mostly quiet while eating your chicken, laughing at funny scenes and Wooyoung offering commentary from time to time.
“Oh, shit,” he hits San with the back of his hand at a particularly quiet scene, “We forgot the booze at my place.”
“Now you remember??” San’s voice seems to go up an octave as he whines in annoyance.
“We have to go get it! Pause the movie!”
Your group groans collectively as he gets up and turns on the lights, San getting up after him. “Right in middle, Woo-ya?” You frown up at him and lean back against Minyeo’s legs.
“We’ll be right back, noonim!” San pats your shoulder with a smile, and before you can even stop them, the two have raced out of the door, slippers nearly sliding off as they run. You shake your head to yourself, and hear a phone ring behind you.
“Perfect timing,” she sighs, taking her phone with her (as if the perfect timing wasn’t caused by Wooyoung calling her as soon as they were out in the hall). “It’s work, I’ll have to take this outside. Might be a while.” You open your mouth to protest, raising a finger, but your cries fall on deaf ears as she shuffles outside without another word.
Just like that, you and Yeosang are left alone. While you’re sitting there frozen in your spot, moments pass until he clears his throat, the realization dawning upon him.
“Our friends are truly simple-minded.” He chuckles softly, looking down at you.
Yeosang already had an inkling that his friends and sister were up to something when Wooyoung suddenly suggested going down to your place for dinner. Minyeo was not the sentimental type, at least not for him, so it was already suspicious that she wanted to spend her last night with her “beloved brother”. What was even more suspicious was the fact that Wooyoung suggested it. The plan as it unfolded seemed simple—leave the two of you alone together. He wasn’t sure what they thought would come out of it, but he had his guesses. After all, it was a long overdue conversation.
When you met his eyes with a small chuckle, you realized it, too.
“What are we supposed to be doing?” You ask softly, even though you know in your heart what Minyeo had been not-so-subtly wanting you to do. Yeosang holds your gaze for what seems like forever; you could drown yourself in those warm brown pools.
He hesitates for a moment, but rests his arms on his knee, leaning in a little. “I think this is the part where I tell you I’ve been in love with you for about eleven years.”
Your lips part in shock. Eleven?
“Yeah,” he chuckles, cheeks turning a shade of pink, and you realize you’ve spoken out loud. “Since the first time you stepped inside our house, Y/n-noonim.”
To Yeosang, the memory is clear as day. It was a Friday. He had just gotten home from soccer practice; his father had picked him up that day. In the car, he had been told there was a guest joining them for dinner, one of his sister’s friends. “A pretty noona is joining us” were his father’s exact words. As soon as he walked into the dining room, his hair still half wet, his shirt dirty, and his shoes muddy, he found you with his mother and sister setting up the table, still in your high school uniform, and he knew his father was right. A pretty noona was in his house.
“Y/n noona,” he’d breathed out after you told him your name, and gave him the sweetest smile. He liked the way it sounded from his lips, liked the way his name easily rolled off of yours. He decided he’d like to hear you say his name a few times more.
“Yeosang,” you call him back to the present. Tears are welling in your eyes as you stare back at his own, and he slides down to the floor beside you to wrap his arms around your frame. You melt in his arms, despite the awkward position, hiding your face on the crook of his neck. Your arm rests limply around his waist; you swear you could get dizzy off the scent of fabric softener clinging to his frame. Your voice is barely a whisper when you finally speak. “I’ve liked you for a long time, too.”
He chuckles softly and presses a kiss on the top of your head. “I know.”
Save for your little sniffles as the two of you hold each other, a comfortable silence surrounds the both of you. There are no butterflies in your stomach despite his closeness, only a warmth that engulfed your entire body in his presence. Your small sobs soon died down, and for a moment you wondered when your friends would finally burst through the door after pressing their ears on the other side. When you lift your head to look at Yeosang, he reaches up to tuck your hair behind your ear.
“What now?” You whisper softly.
“I think we just see where this goes. Do you trust me, noonim?”
“I think we’re well past the formalities, now, Kang Yeosang.” You roll your eyes up at him, unable to stop yourself, and you’re met with twinkling laughter as he rests his head on top of yours.
When he calls you by your name, you lift your head and finally look at him. Whatever fear or nervousness he had felt was long gone as he gazed deeply into your eyes, taking your hands into his. “Will you be my girlfriend, then?”
You mirror his smile, straightening yourself up on your knees and mustering all the courage you can to close the distance between you with a kiss.
“You can take that as a yes.”