Chapter 4 (The Age Old Friendship)

Being with Jihoon, it was Junkyu's second time to wake up before him. The action was pretty unusual for him, but he got too excited to sleep. The four of his friends, who were the closest to him, would come over for the first time in their new apartment, for a whole day!

Junkyu quickly took a shower. While coming out of the washroom, he saw Jihoon sound asleep. Without disturbing his sleep, Junkyu decided to look at the other rooms and clean or organize them if needed.

Junkyu was glad that Jihoon became more tolerable and considerate. After the last fight they had, Jihoon had been really sweet with his words. He still maintained his personal space, but he stopped acting like Junkyu didn't exist. And it was Jihoon who suggested Junkyu to invite his friends over as the said boy was really gloomy living away from his loved ones.

Junkyu checked the rooms and arranged them a little. He even cleaned off some dust. Since Junkyu struggled to cook, Jihoon decided to cook for their meals, but in exchange, Junkyu had to do all the cleaning. They easily managed each one's jobs perfectly.

Once Junkyu was done cleaning, he went to the kitchen. Jihoon kept the kitchen neat and clean. He also had storage for necessary groceries all the time. No unclean dishes were seen in the sink.

'Jihoonie's such a husband material!' Junkyu thought. It was funny how he was indeed Jihoon's husband. But the older seemed to be reluctant to admit that.

Junkyu was cleaning the couches on the living room when he heard someone talking from behind, "Look at the excited boy, waking up this fast and cleaning the furniture!"

Jihoon was drying his hair with a towel as he said that. He had a cheeky smile on his face. Junkyu flashed a grin in return.

"What do you want for breakfast?" Jihoon asked. Since it was a day in Junkyu's favour, he wanted to make dishes of Junkyu's choice.

Junkyu thought a little. Since they would have heavy meal as lunch, Junkyu decided to make pancakes. But he wanted to help cooking it as well.

"Jihoonie, can I come help you?" he asked. Jihoon, who still didn't know what Junkyu wanted to have, allowed him.

"Let's go make pancakes for us!" Junkyu cheered.

Both of them started working smoothly. Junkyu kept bringing whatever's needed and Jihoon kept mixing them together. The cooking procedure would've ended without any chaos if Junkyu didn't think of an idea.

As he was handling the flour, he had some on his fingers. To Jihoon's surprise, Junkyu suddenly called him and touched Jihoon's tip of nose with his dirty index finger.

Once he saw the white tip of Jihoon's nose due to flour, he started laughing.

"You look like Rudolph, only white instead of red!"

Jihoon's mischievous self became awakened at that and he quickly brushed his dirty hand on Junkyu's cheeks, making it white with flour.

Junkyu tried to avoid it on reflex, but couldn't. Jihoon started laughing as well when he saw Junkyu's face.

"Haha, look at you now!" he joked. Junkyu smirked and took some flour in his hand. Jihoon started running when he saw that. Junkyu kept chasing him afterwards.

The two boys ran to and fro inside the kitchen and decorated each other's face with white flour. They were laughing and running to escape from each other but both were having too much fun.

They stopped when Jihoon tackled Junkyu in one corner, hovering on him. He was literally sitting on Junkyu's back, trying to access Junkyu's cheeks which were covered by the latter's arms.

"Ah sorry sorry sorry", Junkyu kept saying, to get free from Jihoon's grip. But Jihoon had one handful of flour to shower him with.

"Who started this??" Jihoon joked. Trying so hard, he finally accessed Junkyu's cheeks and dumped all the flour on them.

Junkyu whined. Jihoon laughed at how he looked, he almost looked like he had white beard. Jihoon himself was looking somewhat like Junkyu, so they both had another fit of laughter looking at each other.

"Let's go back to cooking!" Jihoon said after a while. To be honest, he wanted to avoid how his heart behaved watching the full on smiling Junkyu; because he looked too innocent.

"Umm, but the kitchen..." Junkyu said, looking back at the white mess they had created.

"oops!" Jihoon muttered.

"I'll clean it, you can go back to cooking." Junkyu offered.

"No, we made this mess together, so let's clean it together as well." Jihoon said, making Junkyu unconsciously happy.

It took them a good amount of time to clean the kitchen and to finally make breakfast. Junkyu was amazed at Jihoon's skills with making pancakes. When Jihoon flipped a cake, Junkyu kept exclaiming with words like, "whoa!", "This is awesome!", "You're a master chef!". Jihoon just flexed hard.

The apparent husbands finished breakfast. Junkyu washed the dishes. When he came back and sat on the living room, waiting for his friends, Jihoon took his leave by saying, "I'll be in our room. Call me when they arrive." Junkyu simply nodded.

But Junkyu didn't have to call Jihoon, the chaos downstairs gave Jihoon an idea when Junkyu's friends arrived.

Jihoon walked downstairs to greet them. He saw the four familiar faces he met on the wedding. The tallest one, or the youngest one, named Haruto, whom his younger brother had a crush on. The second tallest one was named Yoshi. He was the same age as both him and Junkyu. The quiet person was named Asahi, he barely talked and moved. The last one, Junkyu's best friend, was named Mashiho. He was short and cute, which made quite an impression to Jihoon.

"Oh hi, Jihoon!" Yoshi waved once he saw Jihoon on the stairs. Everyone's attention went to him at that.

Junkyu, who was busy hugging Mashiho, smiled.

"Jihoonie! Look my friends are already here!" he beamed.

Once everyone settled down on the couch, they started talking again.

"So, how are you holding on with this crackhead, Jihoonie hyung?" Haruto asked, pointing at Junkyu.

"Yah!" Junkyu scolded. But Jihoon just laughed.

"He's tough work!" Jihoon clicked his tongue. Junkyu looked at him in disbelief.

"We know, it's hard handling him as a friend, I can't imagine how it would feel like as a husband of this guy!" Yoshi prolonged the joke. Junkyu hit Yoshi's arm at that.

"I'm a nice person!" he sulked. Mashiho cooed at that sight.

"Kawai" he said. Jihoon looked at him and immediately felt a bit irritated. He wanted to change the topic soon.

"Asahi, why don't you say a single word?" He asked the guy who didn't open his mouth even for once.

"Don't provoke him, Jihoon ah! He'll start acting weird once he starts talking!" Junkyu spoke. Jihoon looked at him and saw him clinging on to Mashiho. He just said a small 'ah ok'.

"You guys must be hungry, let me bring some snacks." Jihoon stood up. Junkyu attempted to stand up as well.

"It's okay. You stay and talk to them." Jihoon smiled at Junkyu. Mashiho nudged Junkyu at that.

"He's so caring!" Haruto cooed once Jihoon's gone. Junkyu just awkwardly smiled. He didn't tell his friends about anything that happened between them. He felt bad keeping it from his friends, but he didn't want to disclose Jihoon yet.

When Jihoon returned, he felt glad that Mashiho stopped clinging on to Junkyu. They were randomly talking when Junkyu noticed Jihoon.

"Oh, he's back!" he helped Jihoon placing the snacks on the table. The six guys started munching on them.

"How about we play games??" Junkyu asked. Haruto immediately agreed. The other guys also agreed. They decided to divide in two teams.

"Husbands can't be in the same team!" Haruto declared. Both Jihoon and Junkyu laughed at that.

Junkyu, Mashiho and Yoshi were in a team, whereas the rest were in another team. The game started. Junkyu was an ace player, so they easily won round 1. The losing team sulked, maybe because they lost, or so Jihoon thought.

Because why would Jihoon sulk watching Mashiho hugging Junkyu tight in victory?

They played another round, where they beat the previously winning team. Jihoon beamed in victory. But his laughter died down soon, as he watched Junkyu babying a sulking Mashiho.

The two teams played several games. Ultimately, Junkyu's team won. While they were busy celebrating, hunger for food called them.

"Ahhh, it's time to make lunch!" Jihoon spoke. Junkyu detached himself from Mashiho at that.

"Let's go, I'll help you." Junkyu spoke, but Mashiho stopped him.

"Come on, you can't even cook!" Mashiho joked, "I'll go with you, Jihoonie hyung." He said. Jihoon nodded.

While the rest of them stayed in the living room, Jihoon and Mashiho walked towards the kitchen. A disturbing silence prevailed, which was broken by Jihoon's words.

"How long have you two been friends?" Jihoon asked Mashiho, who was cleaning the vegetables.

"Me and Junkyu?? Probably for years now." Mashiho said, "We have known each other since middle school. You know how shy and introverted he is! We had to break the wall for him to get close to him." He smiled.

"Oh," Jihoon said. He hesitated to ask what he wanted. But he gave in soon.

"Had he ever been in love with anyone before?"

Mashiho looked at Jihoon. He had creased brows and a slight pout on his face. Mashiho supressed a smile.

"He did crush on few guys, but none was as strong. The strongest was probably on a senior. But this boy didn't have the guts to go and confess to him."

"A senior?" Jihoon asked.

"Choi Hyunsuk." Mashiho said, "he was the captain of soccer club."

Jihoon nodded.

"You aren't worried about this, right?" Mashiho asked watching Jihoon's dark aura around him.

"What? No..." Jihoon said.

"Listen, hyung, you're probably aware of it by now, Junkyu is a very kind and loyal person. He won't ever look at anyone else other than you, now that he's married to you." Mashiho clarified.

Jihoon paused again before speaking, "Mashiho, you won't mind if I ask you something, right?"

Mashiho shook his head.

"Did you ever have feelings for Junkyu?"

Mashiho blinked a few times at that question. Then the realization hit him.

"Oh! You must be worried because of our clingy friendship!" He smiled, "Don't worry, even if I do love my best friend, it's not romantic. We just love hugging each other, in a brotherly way. You don't have to worry about this."

Jihoon didn't know when a small smile crept on his face. But Mashiho noticed it soon.

"You really love him, don't you?" Mashiho teased Jihoon. Jihoon was caught off guard.

Did he really?

Mashiho soon started talking about different other things and they ended up lightening the mood. The two were busy cooking when Junkyu arrived in the kitchen in order to help them.

But he felt hurt watching Jihoon laughing with Mashiho. He suddenly remembered the talk he had with Jihoon the first day.

'Jihoon's type is someone small and cute, someone like Mashiho...'

Pressing his lips together, Junkyu quietly left the kitchen.

'If Jihoon wants to be happy, even if I'm his husband, I have no right to stop him.'

Junkyu's mind was clouded with the sudden realization throughout the whole time his friends were there. He had noticed the jealous look Jihoon gave them before, when they were playing games and Junkyu was hugging Mashiho. Suddenly everything made sense to Junkyu.

'It wasn't because he liked me, rather, it was because I was hugging someone he likes.' Junkyu thought.

Thus, when the lunchtime came and the six boys were eating together, both Jihoon and Junkyu were deep in their own thoughts, both completely opposite.

Because one was trying to find his unconscious love, while the other was planning the let go of his conscious love.

*****

What do you think will happen next? Will Jihoon realize his true feelings for Junkyu?🤔