Zutter

[tophead]

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[tophead]

With thick sunglasses protecting his poor hungover eyes from the horrible light, Gyungho staggered over to the small kid sitting at the benches in the back of the playground and dropped down next to him. His back was against the table and he faced the opposite way of the boy, slowly tilting towards his personal space. Exhaling loudly, he happily slumped against the boy and placed his cheek on the other's shoulder.

This, of course, was his first introduction to... whoever this was.

"Hey, man." He slurred out, ruffling his wild hair. It had just sort of spiked itself up today and he was owning it. Not that the teacher at the front gate seemed happy but whatever. "You're new, right? That's cool. Let's talk."

[cuminjun]

"...huh?" Sometimes Minjun was eloquent. They had always really wanted him to join the debate team. Right now he wasn't sure what to say. He mostly just blinked. Huh indeed. He moved his head to look at the guy who was just suddenly there and then turned it the other way again quickly to avoid the smell.

All right then.

"Yeah. I'm new." This had to be the most dishevelled Korean he had seen since getting here. "What's up?"

Maybe he should have pushed him off. Somehow he didn't.

[tophead]

"I'm really late so they want my ass again. You wanna swap places? You be me and I be you." Gyungho laughed at the idea because of the body differences alone. He snorted, clearly amused, and then pressed his face even closer to the other's school uniform shirt, inhaling the fresh laundry smell. His uniform was stained, one sleeve was ripped and his tie was missing. Oh and the pants, the endlessly hated pants his teachers loathed.

He ripped the knees in his pants and told them he was too poor to replace them. He was given a deadline to fix it but... he was in no rush.

"Can I have your tie? I might get into less shit if I have one for class." Worth an ask. "I'm Gyungho, by the way. I'm not new. I'm old."

[cuminjun]

"Gotcha, hyung." Well, if he was old, he might as well. Minjun snorted, then shrugged. He reached for his tie and loosened the knot, grabbing it so he could pull it over his head and hand it to him. If they gave him shit over it, maybe he could just speak English until they got too awkward to bother him any longer.

"I'm Minjun." And this was kind of strange, because weird hungover guy here was the first one to actually come over to talk to him. Everyone else in this school seemed to be afraid that they'd have to talk English when he was clearly Korean and talked Korean. It was bizarre. "Guess you know where the party's at. Don't think anyone else here does."

[tophead]

"It's not the states, man. It's Korea. Finals are soon so everyone is freaking out over test scores." No one was having fun right now, all that pressure and the panic. Gyungho was proudly the lowest ranked of the school and he had little plans to actually graduate so he was mostly just having fun while he was young and free. He held the tie and slowly undid it, wrapping it lazily around his fist.

"You speak English, right? I speak a little, man. Check it." He cleared his voice and shot upright, putting on his best New York accent to do the only phrases he knows. "Oi, where's my money? I need money. Bitches and cash, yeah. Gotta get paaaaaid."

He smirked, proud of himself, and turned to Minjun. "Turn it up. Party, party. We gotta party."

[cuminjun]

"All I'm saying is that hygiene is relative." Minjun had mostly been having this discourse with himself, since Gyungho seemed mostly focused on making his lighter work in the damn windy and rainy weather and was therefore unable to contribute much more than the occasional grunt.

"Hygiene is relative," Minjun reiterated, while gesturing a lot. He was leaning against the wall, knees pulled up to his chest as he sat on the ground. Whatever, he was already wet anyway, "Like, historically and culturally and all. But this shit in there, that's not hygiene anywhere. That's not even hygienic to cockroaches. Cockroaches are grossed out by this place."

[tophead]

Finally lighting up, Gyungho took a desperate puff and exhaled, relieved and preciously guarding his cigarette from the wind that was blowing rain at him. Urgh, what shitty weather. "Did you see the fucking chicken they used today? In the container, no joking you, it was slimy. I fucking retched."

Unfortunately, Gyungho was trapped back there in the kitchen, cleaning plates and cleaning up after those shitty chiefs and he saw every horror story. It was fucking gross. "We need to call Ramsay ASAP." Hmm. "We should watch more kitchen nightmares today."

[cuminjun]

"There's our plans set then. Get some noodles from that place at the corner and then just watch Ramsay yell at the assholes that yell at us." Well, more or less. They worked well as stand-ins, anyway. Minjun leaned his head back and smiled up at Gyungho. "In positive news, that one table felt so bad that I got a decent tip, so I know what I'll use to pay for dinner."

Not exactly luxury stuff, but hey. Nice food was nice food. They didn't need fancy.

[tophead]

"Fuck yeah, let's get some noodles and go the fuck home. I doubt dinner service is lasting until ten today. Who the fuck wants to be out in this weather?" Almost as if he was asking for someone to defy him, a boy appeared at the edge of the alleyway, very wet by now and looking a bit confused. Gyungho looked at him for a few and exhaled smoke, not sure what to do. The kid seemed to be assessing them before he crept into the alleyway a little. They looked his age so it was worth a shot.

"Excuse me, do you speak English?"

Urgh, a tourist. No way was he giving tourist tips to some scrawny teenager trying to explore Seoul. Gyungho puffed out his cheeks, clearly annoyed. "Fuck off, fuckhead."

[cuminjun]

"Shut up." Well. Nine times out of ten that might be Minjun's mood too, at least when hanging out with Gyungho. But for one thing he was sober right now. And for another, very important factor... This boy was cute. And so he got up and nodded his head. "Sure, I speak English. Do you need something?"

He looked him over and smiled a little. "You aren't from here, huh?"

to Gyungho

[cuminjun]

where you at?

[tophead]

out

why?

[cuminjun]

i wanna be too

of it

[tophead]

I'm at the back of the arcade

i'm too high to stand

[cuminjun]

love it

u got stuff for me too

or do i need to get stuff

[tophead]

Going home and knowing eomma wasn't there, it was weird. Not that he saw this place as home, not really, not since he moved out to get away from his step dad and the crying baby back in high school. Even so, he came here for safety and love. He came for eomma's hugs and cooking, he came to get help and have his laundry done. He missed her so damn much.

He knocked the door at first but no one answers. His step dad's car was gone so he assumed they were probably out - that was some bad luck. Or good luck, either way.

Gyungho unlocked the door with his spare key and sighed, regretting that he didn't take up Minjun's offer to come with. He set aside the bag he had brought with Tae's gift and slipped off his shoes, just doing a quick check to make sure no one was around. "Hey? Anyone in?"

[vante]

Tae peeked around the corner, just to make sure it really was his hyung, for real. And then, once he was certain, he pinched himself. Maybe he was asleep! He had very vivid dreams at times. And then he pushed away from the wall and rushed to hug Gyungho, holding on to him as tightly as he could. "Hyung! Hyung, you are here!"

He had been sooo worried! "Appa said you'd gone forever too..." He didn't want to be all alone. Without eomma and without hyung, what did he have?

[tophead]

For fuck sake. The old bastard left the kid at home alone? What the fuck? Gyungho was so thrown, he didn't know what to do, he just let Tae hold his leg as he slowly let it all sink in. This place looked like a total mess, eomma never would have let it get this bad. There were cans and bottles all over the damn place, it smelled kinda bad and Tae didn't look clean. He reached down to ruffle his hair, idly wondering when it was last washed.

"Hey, TaeTae." Now he kind of wished he'd come to visit a bit sooner. "Hyung got really busy. Ignore what your appa says, he's a fucking idiot." Always had been. "How come you're home alone?"

[vante]

"Appa has to go and get money for the damn rent," Tae told him helpfully, still smiling, just because he was so happy that his hyung was here. He made a big heart with his arms above his head, beaming at Gyungho. "I missed you! Hyung!" His hyung. "Appa said you got sick of me cause I'm not your real brother."

It was all very confusing. He was too his real brother! Eomma had said so and eomma never, ever lied.

[tophead]

"He talks a lot of shit, doesn't he?" Gyungho had told his step dad, time and time again, that he wasn't his real father and it usually turned into a boxing match between them but he never said anything like that about Tae. His step dad tried to imply it but Gyungho always knocked him down. Tae was part of eomma so he was his real brother. End of.

Bending down, he lifted Tae up really high and set him down on top of his shoulders so Tae could be reaaally high up. "We need to clean in here so I'll open some windows and you poke the ceiling, let some air in." Well, the ceiling was covered in holes. Sadly. "Did you eat yet?"

[cuminjun]

"Yo, Joonie-bug! Come out here, stop studying." Minjun didn't come by that often, but his parents guilt-tripped him when he didn't drop by at least every now and then and, really, he didn't mind hanging out with Namjoon. Although obviously he felt a dose more anti-social than usual currently, but there was no need to burden his little brother with that.

Burden him with a lot of Ten's presents that he couldn't bear owning any more, that was a different matter.

Minjun pulled the heavy bag behind himself into the living room, finally dropping onto the sofa with a huge sigh. He was tired. Of course he was, he'd been partying too much to try and not think. It didn't work, for the record, not the way it seemed to for Gyungho.

[monie]

"I'm actually not studying, I'm reading for pleasure." Yes, he was reading a book on English grammar for funsies. Personally, he found it compelling but he knew that most people wouldn't. He got it, he was a weirdo, he was pretty okay with it too. He came over to his hyung, watching him carefully and eyeing up the big bag.

"I told you not to call me that too."

He liked Joonie-bug when he was like six. He was too old for freaking Joonie-bug! He was a grown man. Almost.

[cuminjun]

"What's wrong with Joonie-bug? Everyone thinks Joonie-bug is adorable." Minjun shook his head at his brother's disrespectful complaints, then he sat upright, regretted it due to how dizzy he got and reached for the bag. "You know, Gyungho's brother just adores him. No criticism. What's that all about with you?"

Very bad manners. He picked up the bag and held it out for Namjoon. "You can have that. That's clothes I don't need any more and stuff. Watch, phone case. That kinda stuff."

Ten liked to show his affection by acquiring things for him.

[monie]

"I have a phone case already. It's Ryan." Of course it was. Everything he got was Ryan. There wasn't enough Ryan in that bad to appease Namjoon. He was old enough to develop his own taste now, his own sense of style, and no longer did he crave to dress like Minjun. Which was a positive and a negative in some ways. Taking a peek inside the bag, he raised an eyebrow at some of the brands.

These were expensive. "Thanks, I guess."

Kinda weird but okay. He wasn't sure what to make of it. Sad at the lack of Ryans but happy anyway. "I don't much care for brands. I like certain designers though. I've recently spent a lot of time reading about Yohji Yamamoto, he has the coolest concepts."

[cuminjun]

"Yeah, I don't give a fuck about brands. You can sell all of this shit too, I don't really care." Just couldn't bring himself to do that, so... This was a good compromise. He didn't even want to look at most of that stuff ever again, made him feel funny. It had been nice, dressing up for Ten and seeing Ten's eyes light up when he looked hot. Seemed a bit pathetic now in retrospect. "Happy birthday or whatever. You like some designers? Ohh, fancy boy."

Little Joonie-bug really was growing up.