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“See, I had a feeling you'd like Misaki!”
It's another one of those days where Yuta decided that the weather was perfect to expose Doyoung to the wonderful world of anime. They've spent many afternoons like this, curled up on Yuta's bed with a laptop propped up on their thighs. Doyoung entertains him because he likes seeing the way Yuta lights up whenever he's explaining the plot and characters to him. It's cute.
“Why were you so certain?” he asks, amused.
Yuta gestures to the screen. “Bossy, hardworking, anti-capitalist class president who hates men. Sounds familiar?”
Doyoung rolls his eyes.
“Maybe you should try on a maid outfit sometime too,” Yuta adds with a cheeky glint in his eyes. “ Doie. ”
He yelps when Doyoung slaps his bare bicep. Yuta laughs it off and snuggles closer to Doyoung, holding his left hand between both of his own as they continue to watch the show.
“You're kind of like Takumi,” Doyoung notes. “Blonde, sporty, obnoxiously good at a lot of things.”
Handsome too , but he doesn't say that part out loud. It seems to please Yuta anyway, the Japanese boy sitting a little straighter.
“Funny you should say that, because in the end they get mar-”
“AUGH!”
Taeil groans loudly from his bed, and Doyoung pauses the anime to look over. He'd been working out quietly for the past hour, trying his best not to disturb the couple by doing leg lifts and crunches in silence. Yuta had done a valiant effort to mask the periodic grunts by turning the volume up, but they were still pretty distracting.
Doyoung clears his throat. “Are you okay, hyung?”
Taeil bends to put the weights down on the ground, but they slip from his fingers at the last second. Yuta winces at the thud it makes. ‘We're gonna get a noise complaint again,” he mumbles under his breath.
“I'm fine,” Taeil gasps, a little out of breath. He sits up and wipes his forehead with the hem of his shirt, exposing his toned stomach. Yuta whistles at the sight and Doyoung elbows him.
Taeil stretches his back as he checks the time on his phone. “Actually, I think I'll wash up now. Didn't realise i was exercising for too long.”
He stands up and takes his towel, and it's only when he's walking away does Doyoung notice the thin, braided string around his right ankle.
“Is that an anklet?” He asks. Yuta peers over to look at it too.
Taeil rarely wears accessories. Most of them are for photoshoot or stage performance purposes only, like the single earrings he wore during the Simon Says promotions and the occasional rings. So to see him wearing something new is definitely… interesting.
The eldest pauses in his step, and turns slowly to look at Doyoung. There's something odd in his expression, but Doyoung just passes it off as him feeling tired from his workout.
“Yeah, it's an anklet.”
“Where'd you get it?” Yuta pipes.
He smiles, a little strained. Doyoung cocks an eyebrow and doesn't miss the way Taeil's eyes avoid both of their gazes. Taeil scratches his neck, and Doyoung narrows his eyes. He knows Taeil’s habits well. He's nervous.
“I got it as a present.”
He shuffles out of the room after that, leaving no time for Yuta and Doyoung to ask any questions. Yuta shrugs, pulling Doyoung back to cuddle, but Doyoung can't help and wonder about Taeil's strange behaviour.
Is it a fan gift? Fans gave them stuff all the time, so it couldn't be. Maybe it's from his mother, then. Or a younger cousin. But why did he respond like that?
He’s overthinking things again. Doyoung leans back against the pillow and decides instead to focus on the smell of Yuta’s shampoo and how nicely their hands feel clasped together, immersing himself in the episode and leaving his thoughts about Taeil behind.
“You know,” Gongmyung says, placing two cups of juice on the coffee table, “I missed hanging out with you.”
It’s a cloudy Saturday afternoon, and Doyoung had decided to go visit his brother. They hadn’t seen each other since Christmas (their Facetime during the New Year didn’t count), so Doyoung took it upon himself to initiate the ‘I’m coming over’ conversation.
Doyoung takes the juice with a nod of his head and sips loudly. “Yeah, me too. The schedules of actors and idols don’t exactly leave time for brotherly bonding,” he jokes.
Gongmyung laughs, all handsome and charming in the afternoon sun. Doyoung's always thought that his brother was the more good-looking between the two. It's kind of unfair.
They turn on the TV and end up talking for hours, about Doyoung’s relationship with Yuta and Gongmyung’s potential dramas, gossiping about anything that crosses their minds, really. There's just something comforting about sitting on your elder brother's sofa and just chatting the hours away.
Once they're done talking, they stay quiet and watch the random action movie that's playing. About halfway through the last fight scene, Gongmyung decides that his feet are tired and lifts them so that they're resting on Doyoung's lap. Doyoung, who's used to this, doesn't pay them any mind until the movie is over and he needs to relieve his bladder.
He puts his hands on his brother's ankles to lift them when he feels something under his palm. Something thin and a bit scratchy.
Doyoung looks down to see a piece of dark blue string tied around his right ankle and his heart stops. He's seen that before.
Around Moon Taeil's leg.
Doyoung blinks. “Since when did you wear anklets?”
Gongmyung cranes his neck to see what he's talking about. His lips curl slightly and he says, “Oh, someone gave me that. I thought it was cute so I decided to wear it.”
His phone rings at that moment, and Gongmyung swings his legs off Doyoung so that he can grab it. Doyoung watches as his brother heads into the kitchen, and he can't seem to take his eyes off the anklet.
There are so many questions in Doyoung's head, and all of the conclusions that he jumps to seem absolutely absurd. Why the hell did Gongmyung and Taeil have nearly identical accessories? Perhaps they had a mutual friend who was lazy in gift giving. Maybe anklets were just some new fashion trend that he wasn't aware about. The last conclusion, the most ridiculous one of all, was something that Doyoung didn't even want to consider.
Gongmyung returns from his phone call, not seeming the tiniest bit fazed. He keeps his usual smile on and sets his phone on the table.
“It was just my manager asking about some appointments next week but I told him not to bother me tonight. Anyway, I'm gonna start on dinner so you can go watch whatever in the meantime, okay?”
“O-Okay,” Doyoung stutters, but his brother is already pulling a pot out from one of the kitchen cabinets.
Doyoung takes Gongmyung’s laptop from the seat by the window and opens up YouTube. Lately he’s been into silent cooking videos, so he clicks on one that’s suggested for him.
“Inkigayo sandwich, huh…”
He lets the videos autoplay, occasionally glancing over to see how the cooking situation is going. Gongmyung’s a pretty decent cook (yet another one of his endless talents, Doyoung notes), so it’s not long before the aroma reaches the living room. Doyoung’s in the middle of watching some baker ice a cake when the notifications begin.
The first time Gongmyung’s phone buzzes, Doyoung pays no heed to it.
At the second buzz, he shifts in his spot.
It becomes difficult to ignore as the notification light keeps blinking in his peripheral vision, and by the fifth vibration, Doyoung snatches the wretched device up. He’s about to stand and walk over to his brother when he sees the contact name and all the blood drains from his face.
From: Taeru <3
The phone nearly slips from Doyoung’s hand. He instantly sits back down so as to not draw any attention to himself. His eyes stay fixated on the screen, and he rubs his eyes to make sure that he’s not hallucinating.
Taeru.
Taeil.
Moon Taeil.
There’s no way it’s purely coincidental.
Doyoung thinks of the anklets. An image pops into his head of Taeil and Gongmyung buying them together and the mere of it makes him want to gag. Doyoung coughs - there’s bile rising in his throat already. A shudder runs down his spine at the idea of them kissing.
He doesn’t want to believe it.
“Doyoung? Dinner’s ready,” Gongmyung calls. He waves his spatula with a big grin on his face and Doyoung forces a smile. Perhaps this was all just one terrible dream and he’ll wake up tomorrow in his dorm bed to the smell of his very single eldest hyung cooking breakfast.
Yeah. That sounds good.
The food’s delicious and Gongmyung continues blabbering on for the rest of the night. Doyoung’s grateful that he’s feeling talkative tonight, otherwise they’d be sitting in awkward silence. Despite his efforts to keep the conversation, he can’t bring himself to look his brother in the eyes for the entire meal because every time he glances up, he sees Taeil sitting next to him and it freaks him out.
If Gongmyung feels nervous, he sure hides it well. He acts perfectly normal, which makes Doyoung doubt if there’s anything amiss in the first place. But then he remembers that his older brother is a whole professional at acting, and all of his suspicious come flooding in again.
He hates how the only thing he can think about during their goodbye hug is the fact that Taeil would fit so perfectly in his brother’s arms because of their height difference.
Doyoung doesn’t sleep well that night.
The next two days are jam-packed with schedules so Doyoung misses the timing to get Taeil alone so that he can interrogate him. Part of him urges to leave it alone (he’s lowkey afraid of confirming his suspicions) but he’s also stubborn and nosy as hell.
So when he and Yuta are making out on the couch at 10pm in the evening and he sees Taeil stealthily tiptoeing by to get his coat, Doyoung pulls away immediately and sits up. From beneath him, Yuta’s panting, a little breathless. His cheeks are flushed and he tries to pull Doyoung back in but he stops him with a hand on his chest.
“I’m so sorry about this,” he whispers, pressing an apologetic kiss to Yuta’s cheek before clambering off him. Doyoung marches up to Taeil, who freezes at the sound of his footsteps, and grabs his arm.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going, hyung?”
Taeil spins around, eyes wide, like a deer caught in the headlights. Jaehyun peeks out from the kitchen, where he has a carton of milk in one hand and an empty glass in the other.
“I’m… going to the convenience store.” He’s never been good at lying.
“Oh yeah?” Doyoung pokes at his shirt. “Then why are you dressed so nicely?” he glances down and sees the cursed piece of string around his ankle. Taeil notices this, cheeks turning red instantly.
Taeyong waddles out of his room at all the commotion. There’s a pregnant silence hanging over the room and everyone is staring at Taeil intently, waiting for an answer.
“Can you hurry up, hyung? Doyoung and I were kind of in the middle of something important,” Yuta sniffs.
Taeil looks at Doyoung and narrows his eyes. He suddenly moves forward and Doyoung takes a cautious step back. Something in the air shifts.
“Why are you so pushy tonight, Doyoung? Been prying into my love life or something?” Taeil’s tone is hard, laced with an edge that Doyoung’s never heard before. It ticks him off, and his pride can’t seem to back down.
“It’s kind of my business when you’re dating my own brother behind my back!”
Taeil’s eyes widen. “How-”
Doyoung waves him off. “When were you going to tell me, Taeru ? Was I supposed to find out via wedding invitation?”
Yuta snorts and Taeyong’s mouth hangs open. Jaehyun forgoes the glass and takes a swig straight from the milk carton.
“How long has this been going on for? When did it even happen?” Doyoung’s nearing hysterics. Taeil seems calm now, and he puts a hand on Doyoung’s shoulder.
“I’ll tell you everything tomorrow, I promise.” He glances at his watch. “I don’t want to keep Myungie waiting.”
Doyoung feels faint. Taeil grabs his coat and boots and slips out of the door faster than Doyoung can pull his sanity together.
“Myung...ie?”
There’s a muscled arm pulling him in for a hug, and Doyoung collapses onto Yuta, trying to comprehend what just happened. Yuta rocks him gently, rubbing reassuring circles into his back to calm him.
“Shh,” Yuta murmurs. Doyoung feels like crying for some reason. “It’s okay, baby.”
Jaehyun sighs wistfully, leaning against the kitchen doorframe like some bachelor in a romance novel. “I can’t believe Taeil hyung is dating that gorgeous specimen.”
“You literally have a boyfriend,” Taeyong deadpans.
“Still,” Jaehyun says.
“Moon Taeil one, Kim Doyoung zero.”