"it's gonna be winter break soon," Hobi mutters, looking down as his shoes play with the pebbles. He huffs out a shaky breath, it's getting cold.

Adora nods by his side, rubbing her gloved hands together. She has a small frown on her face and Hobi finds it odd since his friend loves winter breaks a lot, in fact, they both love winter a lot.

After all, winter breaks are the time where they can build a nice igloo and spend their nights there, doing a sleepover. It reminds him of the times they had stayed up late watching horror movies because they thought it'd be fun to try but then at night, both would scream their hearts out at the littlest of noises outside their igloo.

The days when they'd watch Disney movies with bowls of steaming ramen or gimbap or different kinds of jeons their mothers would make together.

He remembers how every time they spend in their little igloo, they'd take polaroids of their time spent, he promises to always keep those polaroids together with him, no matter where he goes.

But the frown on Adora's face this night worries Hobi. He wonders what has her so sad that she hasn't mentioned about their igloo dates too.

dates. friendly dates.

———

"Hyung!" A voice yells from Hoseok's bedroom and he looks up from the kitchen countertop where he is, again, doing his office work.

"Yes, Jeonggukie?"

"You didn't tell me you liked polaroids!" Hoseok hears the boy, his colleague but more like his little baby, whine and finds Jeongguk walk out of his bedroom with his hands holding a bunch of polaroids.

"Well— I stopped liking them that much recently, so..."

Jeongguk ignores his reply, too busy looking at the polaroids with his doe eyes. His sweater paws holding the polaroids delicately, the boy is gentle and careful, Hoseok loves that about him.

"Oh, did you have a girlfriend when you were little, Hyung?"

"HUH?" a bit perplexed, Hoseok jumps up and snatches the polaroids from Jeongguk to inspect them himself for the 'girlfriend', the younger boy mentioned. Those were just polaroids of him and Adora when they were little, their igloo dates; a blurry picture of Hoseok sucking icecream cone, bundled up in warm clothes during winter; a selfie they both took with Lilo and Snitch in the background; a few of Adora's which he secretly took; them eating food; them with their mothers; them feeding each other bites of their ice cream.

"No? I didn't have a girlfriend, Ggukie, where did you get the idea from?" He asks, hands brushing softly over the polaroids when they bring back memories of the igloo dates, horror movie sleepovers, feeding each other sweet pancakes, and waking up to their mom yelling. it felt like he was dating but also he wasn't dating at the same time. they were just fifth graders.

"This girl in the polaroids, and you. you both seem very close and I don't know but the polaroids seem like they are holding so much love, so I asked?"

"When did you start spending so much time with Namjoonie and Yoongi Hyung?" Hoseok laughs that off, but something stings inside his chest. A slight burn that Jeongguk noticed how the polaroids held so much love and adoration, maybe an unknown love, but it was warmth.

"Hehe, they said they wanted my help with a few of their tracks so, you know." Jeongguk sheepishly smiles, walking towards the kitchen chairs and plopping down on one.

"Hyung," he looks at Hoseok who is gazing at the polaroids with misty eyes. Maybe he sniffled, a little. "You ever liked someone?"

And as if Hoseok never knew the answer to that question, he shakes his head a no.