Notorious ⊷ Haechan

40 ⊷ Family

It was easy to see now. 

"You are up?" Jungwoo asked as he came into the living room. He looked at the youngest, whose head suddenly snapped towards the room's entrance, with a smirk. "Did you sleep well?" 

Yet ere he got to respond, Ji-yoon spoke up. 

"Sunshine!" He turned his head, easily putting his attention on her again. There was a sparkle in her eyes as she rushed towards him, a kitchen towel in her hand that she dried her hands with. "You are awake!" 

He nodded, then looked at the sofa. "Sorry for falling asleep here." 

"What?" she questioned in disbelief. "It was so sweet to see you waiting for me, don't apologize!" 

She exhaled contently as she sat down on the coffee table while Jungwoo walked over to Taemin. The two boys stood next to each other, arms crossed as they watched the younger ones talk. 

"I can't lie, you surprise me time and time again." Then she pointed at the blanket that was lying on the sofa, now only partly covering Haechan anymore. "I was going to carry you up to my room bridal style you know? But it turns out I am too weak for that so I just gave you a blanket. Taemin said that should be fine." 

Haechan merely nodded, a soft hum crawling up to his closed lips. 

"Great." 

"You two uhm- sorry to interrupt," Taemin said awkwardly before nodding towards an already very full looking table. "Breakfast is pretty much ready, so if you would..." 

"Yep, just a second." As Haechan was about to get up, Ji-yoon put her hands on his shoulders and stopped him right there. She leaned closer to him, eyes jumping down to his lips for a moment. While Haechan himself didn't seem to mind, Taemin looked down. 

He took a deep breath. "Where did she get the confidence from? We can't even remotely compete with that," he mumbled. 

"Speak for yourself," Jungwoo retorted. 

Surprised the oldest grimaced. "Wow. Okay." 

"I have something to tell you," Ji-yoon began, keeping the proximity as if it was at all necessary for what she was about to say. "Jungwoo is--" 

"Your brother." Haechan nodded. "Yeah, I know."

Not a second passed before Ji-yoon smiled widely, happy that he had finally said it. Proud, that he had figured it out himself. 

Meanwhile, Taemin sighed with a heavy heart, attracting Haechan's attention who looked at the older ones just in time to see Taemin pull a banknote out of his wallet and place it in his younger brother's palm.  

The sight made Haechan frown at first, then caused him to ask, 

"You guys bet on whether or not I would figure it out?" 

He seemed shocked, while Jungwoo merely nodded proudly and Taemin smiled at the younger apologetically. 

However, his eyes soon jumped to Ji-yoon. "Did you bet too?" 

She shook her head. "I thought it might upset you if I would, so I didn't dare." 

"But she said that if she were to bet, she would bet that you would figure it out yourself," Jungwoo pointed out. 

"Yeah, I said I wasn't sure but Joon kept saying that you would certainly know," Taemin noted.  

"He is literally an agent," Ji-yoon pointed out. "How can he not figure it out? He knew about it at least since that night at the old office building if not earlier. He just didn't say anything."

Surprised, Haechan looked at her with wide eyes. "You knew that I knew?" 

"Sunshine," Ji-yoon said in slight confusion. "I will sound creepy saying this, but you already found out that I know a lot about you. I can't believe you are so surprised."

Clearing his throat awkwardly, Taemin felt the urge to ask,
"Joon, are you trying to flirt or scare him off? Cause that's... you know..." 

"I am just being honest," she said as she got up. She wordlessly took Haechan's hand and pulled him over to the table with her. He didn't mind, just went along with it. "Besides, I doubt he still gets caught off-guard by these things." 

Expectantly, she looked at Haechan as he sat down and she took a seat next to him. He quickly noticed her gaze on him and looked back at her.

"Hm?" 

"Do you?" she inquired. 

He shook his head. "I have gotten used to it. It's kind of endearing in a... weird way." 

"Naw~ Sunshine! Thank you!" 

She sounded so happy, meanwhile Jungwoo only muttered,
"She broke him." 

Taemin nodded in agreement before asking. "Should we support or condemn such behaviour?" 

"It's not like she will care about what we have to say about this," Jungwoo pointed out. 

"Guys, we can hear you," Haechan informed them as if they didn't know. However, Ji-yoon seemed unbothered by her brothers and just put food on Haechan's plate. 

"It's fine. If they are busy talking, there is more food for us," she told him calmly before adding some more food to his plate and then beginning to fill up her own. 

At this point, attracted by the prospect of food - or lack thereof - the two oldest quickly hurried over to the table and sat down. 

However, Haechan soon paused to ask, "What about Jeno and Shotaro?" 

"We are here," Jeno said as they walked into the room. Like Haechan, the two still seemed a little sleepy as Jungwoo had woken them mere minutes ago. 

"Woah! It looks so good!" Shotaro said excitedly as he sat down next to Ji-yoon while Jeno took a seat next to Jungwoo, and while they were guests, they didn't wait to be told to dig in. 

So soon the table and the room it was in filled with chatter and laughter, with light-hearted banter that dove through the smell of a fresh, self-made breakfast. 

Pausing for a second, Haechan felt the warmth in his heart as he watched the scene. Although only the three siblings were related, although technically Jeno and Shotaro were employees, this felt an awful lot like a meal with family. 

One that Haechan was ready to get used to. 

Family ⊶

excuse the long break 💚

but Haechan getting used to Ji-yoon being weird is kinda cute tho