In the morning, Hannie had found himself alone in Minnie's room and ventured off in search of his friend. He held his throbbing head in his hand as he made his way down the stairs, following the sound of voices until he was pulled into the kitchen opposed to the living room.

"For your headache," Minnie grinned, pushing a glass of water and a pill into Hannie's hand.

The boy wasted no time in downing the drink and swallowing the tablet, craving some kind of relief that could flush away the effects of the night before. He wiped the strayed droplets from around his mouth with the back of his hand and passed the glass back to Minnie, mumbling a groggy thank you as he rubbed at his temples.

"Try to act a little less like you're having the hangover from hell, my parents are in the living room."

Han nodded, the crease in his brows smoothening as he fought to hide the fact that it felt as though a tornado was crashing around his brain. Then, he greeted Minnie's parents, who seemed unaware of anything the two boys may or may not have been doing the night before, and left.

He took his time as he walked home, just enjoying the fresh air of the morning breeze. Although every passing car was like a flash of lightning bursting through his mind. He knew that he went a bit overboard the night before. He knew he really shouldn't have drunk that much. He also knew that he should have never kissed Minnie, but he didn't regret it. He wasn't sure why he couldn't go any further that night. Maybe he simply wasn't ready. Maybe he just didn't want to be like that with Minnie, not yet anyway. But maybe there was something else stopping him, he just didn't know what.

When he finally arrived at home, he ran upstairs for a shower before anyone could smell the stink of alcohol on him. He washed away any remnants of the night before and climbed out to brush his teeth, praying that the minty fragrance was enough to mask the strong scent that still lingered beneath it. 

He wrapped a towel around himself, having been in too much of a rush to grab a change of clothes first, and headed back towards his room. However, he soon found himself being stopped by a familiar face.

"Hannie?" Taebin had just come up the stairs to find the younger half-naked, dripping wet and littered in hickeys which Hannie obviously didn't yet know where there.

"What do you want?" The younger sighed, pulling his signature eye roll.

Hannie was never in the mood to talk to Taebin but more so when he was hungover and this hangover was his worst yet, he really didn't need the extra chore.

The elder hadn't said anything, he was just staring Hannie up and down and it had him growing nervous. Taebin took one step forwards, two steps, three and before Hannie knew what was happening, he was backing into the wall.

"Where did these come from?" Taebin, having completely invaded the boy's personal bubble by standing practically less than an inch away, prodded the hickeys on Hannie's chest.

Once he realised what the elder was asking about, he had to fight to keep his blush down and crossed his brows as he snapped back, "A girl, what does it matter to you?"

Taebin was losing patience. He hadn't broken eye contact with the younger even once as he brought his hand up, flicking Hannie's still red nipple as he grunted again, "And this?"

Hannie had broken the eye contact, ducking his head down to look anywhere else as he grew embarrassed, particularly about having to hold a moan back from that one little flick. He knew Taebin was only trying to make him uncomfortable, just trying to tease him.

"None of your business," he declared, gaining confidence again as he pushed the elder away and dashed into his room.

Taebin just stood there, utterly speechless. He couldn't believe what he had just done. He was never the jealous type, and I mean never, but something about Hannie had him wanting to pin the younger down and cover all of those marks with ones of his own. Hannie was different, really different, from the rest and he was only just now realising it.

"Fuck," he uttered under his breath before heading back downstairs, forgetting what he had initially come up to do in the first place.

That was the day Taebin realised he no longer cared that it was Jun's baby brother. The day he realised that he didn't want anyone else to have the boy who blushed at his touch. The day that he realised he was in deep shit because he was quite possibly falling in love with his best friend's little brother.

Hannie wasn't even into guys, he said it himself just then. A girl. That was all that ran through Taebin's head. It was a girl who did that, who touched Hannie, who was with Hannie. Except it wasn't, but Taebin didn't know that.

Hannie closed his bedroom door, leaning his head back against it as he tried to steady his racing heartbeat. It wasn't until he finally calmed down that he noticed the throbbing in his abdomen. Taebin, Moon Taebin, his brother's best friend had indeed just given him a boner.

"Fuck."

***

Later that day, Hannie finally emerged from his room. He told his parents he just stayed up too late at the sleepover and needed a nap to catch up on the sleep he had lost. They chuckled at their cute little boy, the one no one believed had grown up quite yet.

Taebin, thankfully, was nowhere to be seen. He had rushed home saying it was some kind of emergency. Jun just assumed it was to do with a girl. If only he knew it was really about his precious little brother.

The weekend went by smoothly after that. Haeun called Hannie, checking he was okay after the party. Minnie even messaged him, checking in on his hangover and reminding him to drink lots of water. By the time he was back at school, he was back to normal, well, kind of.

No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't get thoughts of Taebin out of his head. Well, more specifically, thoughts about that day. Those days. When Taebin offered an ear to listen to his problems but Hannie turned him down, ignored him so rudely. When the elder had confronted him about his hickeys, looking almost angry about the marks littering his body. How could he have gotten a hard-on from something Taebin did? It was stupid. As stupid as that stupid boy with his stupid hair.

Though the more he thought about it, maybe Taebin's hair wasn't so stupid. Maybe it even suited him a little. Maybe Hannie was just annoyed because he would have liked to have seen something a little bit more, a deep blue or an elegant silver. Taebin always suited shorter hair, but Hannie always thought it would look better in a different colour.

Why was he thinking about Taebin's hair of all things? He should have been focusing on the work, then he wouldn't have been called out, noticed by the teacher who ended up informing Hannie that he would be doing laps after school for not doing his work.

It was all Taebin's fault. If he wasn't stuck in Hannie's head, he would have never been called back after class to run those laps. His limbs wouldn't ache despite the teacher still going easy on him. He couldn't walk all the way back home like this and so, he collapsed to the floor, pulling his phone out to call his brother.

"Taebin will get you, I'm busy," Jun had said. Hannie was going to protest and walk but as he tried to stand, he found his legs giving way underneath him, too tired to go on.

It was a mere five minutes until Taebin arrived. It was already dark, already cold. Little Hannie was shivering slightly, he went to get up only to stumble a little. Taebin could see he was struggling; he was tired and cold. His legs felt numb, it wasn't really that bad though, Hannie just wasn't one for exercise.

"What did you do this time?" Taebin asked, wrapping his jacket around the younger, who reluctantly relished in the warmth of the clothing as he was engulfed in the scent of the elder.

"It was your fault," Hannie mumbled, thinking Taebin hadn't heard him when in fact the elder just ignored the comment, taking it for the normal snarky comeback the younger usually resorted to.

They got into the car, closing the doors and turning on the heating straight away to try and warm Hannie up. Taebin really did care, he wanted the younger to know that. 

They drove in absolute silence. Hannie stared out of the window, oblivious of the elder who couldn't help himself from glancing over every now and then. Taebin reached forwards, turning the radio on to help ease his nerves.

He had ended up ignoring Hannie for the rest of the weekend while he thought of what to do, this was the first time he had even spoken to him since the day he caught him out of the shower. As for what he was going to do, he still wasn't sure. All he knew was that he couldn't avoid the younger for the rest of his life.

The soft tune hummed through the empty space between them, a mellow melody strumming through the air. It was nice but as it played Hannie found himself thinking about those times again. A blush crept up his cheeks, something that had been happening much too often recently. Taebin had caught it, just out the corner of his eye, wondering what the younger was thinking about.

It was when Taebin started to hum along to the melody that Hannie found himself being pulled back into the moment at hand. He was beginning to feel comfortable in the elder's presence, no longer wishing to get away as soon as humanly possible. He even enjoyed the tone of his voice as he hummed along, it was nice. Hannie reminded himself never to take Taebin to karaoke because he would most certainly lose. Then he wondered why was he even thinking about that anyway? Take Taebin to karaoke, what a strange thought.

When the car pulled up outside of his house, he found himself wanting to stay. He sat there, hesitating slightly before opening the door. He didn't thank the elder, nor did he utter a word, but he did turn back, waving goodbye before heading inside.

Taebin smiled, then he realised what had just happened. They hadn't argued even once and, just as he thought he was getting the cold shoulder, the younger had turned back and waved. The little smile pulling at his lips as he waved showed that it wasn't sarcastic, nor was it forced. Generally, with Hannie, it would be a false act of kindness. He had always hated Taebin after all. But this was a genuine wave. It was friendly even.

He smiled to himself once again. He was getting somewhere; their relationship was indeed improving. He was going to make Hannie fall in love with him, that was what he wanted from the younger. He finally figured it out. He wanted him to wave him goodbye like that every single day. He wanted to see that cute little blush take over his features as often as he could, and he wanted to be the reason for it.

It was going to be difficult but then again, he knew it was never going to be easy.

He drove away with a smile on his face, humming along to the pleasant tune on the radio.

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