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Parents; they care for you and protect you all throughout your lives. They want the best for their kids and will do anything to keep them safe—they put themselves through hell to make sure no harm comes to their child. Sometimes, they may be extreme but they love their children nonetheless. They raise their children to be good people, show them how to care for others, and when the time comes, they set them free in the wild to fend for themselves using the techniques they were taught while growing up.
Doyoung and Jeno’s parents were like any other parent; they made sure their kids were healthy and succeeding in school while also keeping up with family life. Sure they dragged Doyoung and Jeno everywhere they went even at Doyoung’s ripe old age of 18 when everyone else let their kids stay home instead of tagging along with their parents to a random relative’s house only to sit there staring at the wall for seven hours or playing with their five-year-old kid, but they were also a little less strict with enforcing punishments than other Asian parents though they still wanted the best for their kids and they want them to prosper.
Doyoung and Jeno’s parents were all those fancy things parents were but they also forgot that their kids aged past the age of five and are capable of living for one hour on their own. No amount of reassurance and proof would convince them otherwise.
This is how Jeno found himself squashed between his brother, Doyoung, and his brother’s friend, Taeyong, as he was forced to tag along on their trip to the cinema; Jeno could be hanging out with his friends at the park right now but his parents didn’t think he was old enough, at the age of 16, to go out alone with his friends who he had known for most of his life in case, you know, they kidnap and murder him.
Jeno has come to terms with his situation; he gets to hang out, and get free food, with his brother and it’s a plus that Doyoung’s friends are nice and he actually likes them. It’s not so bad. And he gets to see his friends in school and the occasional neighbourhood barbeque that they all get to go to because none of their parents trust them enough to leave them home alone for a few hours.
Also, phones were a great invention, thank you, phone inventor. Who needs to physically see their friends when they can just text them from the comfort of their bed, amiright, haha.
Jeno stared blankly at the big screen in front of him, watching the bad guy kick the shit out of the main guy and waiting for something interesting to happen in the movie as he stuffed his mouth with cinema bought popcorn—Doyoung was feeling pretty rich for a jobless university student.
(When Jeno voiced this in the line to get popcorn, Doyoung ruffled his hair and thanked him for thinking he was pretty.)
Throughout the movie, Doyoung leaned over to whisper in Jeno’s ear. Jeno hoped that no one could hear him—he hated when people talked in the cinema, gosh— but said fuck it and answered his questions when the movie remained uninteresting.
Somewhere near the end, Jeno felt himself getting drowsy. He continued shoving popcorn in his mouth but his mouth stopped moving and his eyes got heavier and heavier. His vision became black and his hearing was very… muffled, like he was listening with a 20 pound blanket over his head.
When he came to, his head was leaned back against his seat, his mouth full of popcorn and hanging open. He jolted upright and hastily swallowed the popcorn that was still in his mouth. Doyoung glanced at him and silently questioned if he was okay. He nodded, rubbing the back of his neck and lugged himself out of his seat. He followed his brother out to the bathroom but waited outside as the others “freshened up”, Taeyong’s words not his.
He took out his phone to message Donghyuck about the movie, recounting his disappointment over the lack of action and how both Doyoung and Taeyong had covered his eyes when the sex scene came on as if he hadn’t seen much worse elsewhere. Donghyuck was still typing out his response, which was most likely just Donghyuck laughing at Jeno, when Doyoung and his friends came out of the bathroom and he followed them out of the cinema as they went on a search for a good restaurant to have lunch at.
Jeno smiled fondly at the five bars that appeared at the top left corner of his phone screen as they exited the underground cinema, his notifications popping up in a flurry as his service returned to normal.
Lunch was mostly uneventful but who was Jeno to complain since his meal was free, thank you Doyoung!! However, he did find out juicy gossip about someone who attended Doyoung’s university and he listened in as they explained further that a teacher was unintentionally helping their students cheat in their assessments and one of the students found out and snitched. Yuta was upset about this particular happening and projected his anger at the student towards his plate of kebabs, mumbling fuck you, Annabelle each time he stabbed at the meat. He was supposed to take the professors class next semester and now he had to work hard.
“I mean, I would have aced that class!” Yuta sighed, sadly picking at his rice.
“You still will,” Taeyong pointed out because as much as Yuta would like to rely on academic help, he is fully capable of succeeding with high marks on his own merits.
“Is it even cheating?” Jeno asked and all eyes became trained on him. “I mean, you said she didn’t know it was cheating and some students performed poorly despite the help so technically she didn’t help them…” He trailed off, going back to his food as the others exchanged mumbles of agreement.
“Anyway,” Taeyong began in a successful attempt to change the subject. “What did you guys think of the movie?” he asked.
“Boring and so slow!” Jeno said before anyone else could answer.
“Really?” Taeyong questioned. “I thought it was quite nice—a good story.”
Jeno took a sip of his coke. “Sure, yeah. A good story but needed some action.”
“Huh, I guess…” Taeyong nodded and trailed off, going back to his food.
“Pretty people,” Yuta interjected in the silence that followed Taeyong and Jeno’s discussion and everyone expressed their agreement with Yuta’s statement, commenting about the attractive actors in the movie as they continued eating.
The fascinating lunch banter soon became boring again—Jeno was somewhat of a conversation killer, sometimes. Jeno took out his phone again to go back to texting his friends but Doyoung decided that was the moment they had to leave so Jeno dragged himself out of his seat and trudged behind the group as they made their way to the bus station which was thankfully only five minutes away from the restaurant. Jeno needed one of these grown men to learn how to drive so he wouldn’t be so tired at the end of a day hanging out with them.
“Stop glaring at my friends, Jeno.” Doyoung scolded from beside him.
Jeno cleared his throat and fixed his expression, smiling up at the eyes staring back at him and shooting a pointed glare at his brother.
In the newly renovated bus station, they happened upon a Starbucks and Doyoung bought Jeno a drink for his troubles and Jeno sipped happily on his iced coffee all the way home, texting his friends about the movie and planning how to convince their parents—his parents—to let them go on the school trip next month.
⚯
Three weeks later, Jeno got his park hangout.
Jeno trekked up the narrow path, following behind Doyoung as they passed by the basketball court where two boys were playing a game of horse. He kept his eyes trained to the ground to avoid the mud getting on his new shoes. He flicked a bug away from his face and tumbled through the gates, tripping on a rock sticking out of the ground and face planting into Doyoung’s back.
Straightening up, he glanced up and was met with a stern gaze from Doyoung. He smiled apologetically, mouthing sorry before they started walking again, this time towards Kun who was sat on a bench in front of the astroturf on the other side of the park. There were a few trees scattered next to the bench that provided some much needed shade on this surprisingly hot spring day. Today is not April 25th, Jeno thought, disappointed.
Kun waved at them, beaming as he spotted two familiar figures walking towards him.
“Hey!” he said once Doyoung and Jeno were seated on the bench, one on either side of him.
“Sup,” Doyoung greeted leaning back on the bench.
Jeno smiled at him and looked around the park. It was a little different than the last time he’d been here; the climbing logs in the middle of the park were removed and the boulders were repositioned in a diagonal line next to the astroturf, a couple of trees scattered on its other side next to the gate. There was another bench a few metres away in front of the seesaw where a mother sat watching her toddlers play on the roundabout. The two swing sets and slides were still the same, though the monkey bars had changed a bit, improved.
One major change Jeno was extremely sad about was the removal of the big swing on the astroturf. Jeno enjoyed laying on the swing on lazy summer days, staring up at the sky as Donghyuck rambled from next to him, when his parents occasionally let him meet up with Donghyuck—he called it their Annual Meeting.
Soon after their arrival, Yuta came sauntering in, most likely from the old stable next door where he attended boxing lessons a few times a month.
“What’s up, guys?” He greeted his friends, sitting down next to Doyoung and immediately digging through his bag.
“Here,” he tossed an ice lolly at Jeno from the box he had taken out of his bag. “Enjoy!”
Jeno graciously accepted the ice lolly thrown in his lap and unwrapping it, popping in his mouth happily.
Yuta took an ice lolly out for himself before passing the box along to Doyoung and Kun, when it reached Jeno, Yuta told him to keep it. Jeno bounced up in his seat, happy at the prospect of more ice lollies.
They sat on the bench for a while, watching traffic pass by as they enjoyed their ice lollies.
Doyoung and Yuta played on the roundabout for a while when the mother and her toddlers left the park. At first they were just sat in the tiny chairs, talking about Johnny’s exhibit next weekend but when that conversation died, Yuta had the genius idea of casually getting off of the roundabout to stretch before turning to face Doyoung, an evil smile that Doyoung knows all too well plastered on his face, and running around the roundabout as he spun Doyoung to his death.
Meanwhile, Kun and Jeno migrated to a giant mat which Kun had set up in the middle of the park, the ground was still slightly muddy from the rain a few days ago and lovely Kun, who had a brain, didn’t want anyone to get muddy. He noticed a beach bag lying next to Kun and furrowed his brows in confusion.
“What’s in there?” He asked, pointing to the object in question.
Kun looked over to his right and chuckled. “Oh, food.” He said, smiling.
Jeno nodded, excited at the prospect of food, then pulled out another ice lolly from the box. He considered saving some for Ten and Taeyong but then shrugged and unwrapped the ice lolly, their loss, he thought as he shoved the frozen treat in his mouth and heard Yuta’s cries for help as Doyoung took his revenge, punching him until he fell over.
A little while later, Jeno had relocated to the swing set—which was ready to collapse at any moment—and swung his legs back and forth, kicking at some loose rocks that lay beneath the swing set, as he swayed gently whenever the breeze was strong enough. He had one arm wrapped around the chain of the swing, ice lolly in hand—box resting on the swing next to him—as he scrolled through his messages, pouting sadly at the pictures Donghyuck had sent of his friends sleeping over at his house the previous night.
In the distance, five feet away, Doyoung lay on the mat Kun had thankfully laid out to recover from Yuta’s torture. He slowly sat up when he saw Ten and Taeyong arrive late to the gathering and waved the two over to join the rest of them on the mat. Yuta sat to his left at the edge of the mat, he absentmindedly rubbed his jaw as he picked at the grass. Kun sat to his right, hand in his bag as he retrieved a box of Capri Sun out and handed one to everyone. Donuts following soon after.
When the two latecomers reached them, Doyoung made Taeyong take a drink and a donut over to Jeno at the swings before he was allowed to sit down.
They sat and chatted about their favourite bands and their upcoming concerts. One of Taeyong’s new bands was having a concert that weekend Doyoung sighed, wishing them a fun night knowing he’d either be locked up in his room or having a Lord of the Rings marathon with Jeno. His friends looked at him sympathetically.
“Maybe ask our parents if you can go?” Ten suggested helpfully.
Doyoung sighed and fixed Ten with a knowing look. Ten nodded in understanding. “Right,” he said and went back to sipping on his drink.
Kun patted him on the shoulder, smiling kindly. “It’s okay, Doyoung.”
Doyoung shrugged and sipped his Capri Sun.
Yuta, who had remained quiet and turned away from the group throughout the conversation, cleared his throat, turning to face them once the attention was on him. He looked at everyone and extended his hands. Doyoung noticed they were clasped shut and furrowed his eyebrows in question at his friend. Yuta simply smiled and slowly unclasping his hands to reveal a sticky spider resting on his palm.
Suddenly everyone was up on their feet and backing away from Yuta who was also starting to get up.
“He’s just a little guy,” he insisted, following his friends around as they ran away from him. “Come on, say hi!”
Doyoung made a quick escape and started climbing the boulder situated in the very middle of the park, surrounded by a few smaller ones and two logs for climbing. He watched Yuta as he continued chasing the rest of his friends around the park before his eyes trained on Doyoung and a sly smile took over his face as he started walking towards Doyoung’s boulder.
Doyoung remained perched on top of the big boulder, shooing away a beaming Yuta as he came at him with the giant spider in his hands. Taeyong and Ten stood at the bottom of the boulder, laughing hysterically at their distressed friend while Kun tried—and failed—to hide his laughter as he slowly pried Yuta away from an almost wailing Doyoung.
(Jeno paused his texting activities to snap some blackmail pictures of Doyoung before going back to being sad about missing the sleepover.)
“DON’T FORGET I STILL HAVE YOUR COPY OF—” Doyoung didn’t get to finish his threat, the daggers he was shooting at Yuta was enough of a threat as Yuta gasped in shock, hands dropping immediately and releasing the captive spider onto the grassy patch of ground in the middle of the park.
“Don’t you even think about it, you monster!” Yuta shot back, spiderless hands instinctively clenching into fists at his side.
“Well, I won’t now,” Doyoung mumbled, making his way off of the boulder to stand in front of his friend, making sure to scan the ground for any lingering spiders. He cupped his hands around Yuta’s cheeks, giving them a firm squeeze as he said his next words, “Don’t ever do that again or I will beat you up and tell your parents where you really were last month when you said you were sleeping over at my house.” He smiled a final time at Yuta and walked over to Jeno, who was still swaying sadly on the swing.
“You suck, Doyoung!” Yuta screamed after him. Doyoung flipped him off, not bothering to turn back to look at him.
Doyoung took the box of ice lollies off of the swing seat and placed it next to Jeno’s bag at the side of the swing. He sat in the swing next to his brother and moved back as far as he could before he started to slip off the seat then lifted his legs up off of the ground, soaring up into the air then back again. He swung for a few minutes to calm down before sighing and slowing down. When he had stilled completely, he turned towards his brother, who had started to doze off, the poor thing, Doyoung thought as he brought his hand up to ruffle Jeno’s hair.
“Don’t,” he warned, eyes flying open and glaring holes into Doyoung, knowing well that it wasn’t going to do anything to stop his brother from messing up his perfectly styled hair.
Doyoung chuckled at the warning and proceeded to ruffle his brother’s soft, fluffy hair before grabbing his hands and pulling him out of the swing seat.
“You’re so annoying!” Jeno smacked at Doyoung, huffing in annoyance as he picked up his bag from next to the swing set.
“Come on, let’s get some food,” Doyoung said, dragging a sulking Jeno behind him. “Let’s go, losers,” he called out to his friends as they sauntered past the group of laughing boys trying to push each other down the slide.
Yuta jogged up next to them as they walked by the basketball court. “Are we going back to your house?” He asked, hope in his eyes. “Is your mum cooking?”
Doyoung glared at him. “Yes, she is, but you’re not getting anything when she finds out you tortured her favourite son.”
“Hey!” Jeno protested, freeing his arm from Doyoung’s grip to punch him. He didn’t get to continue his assault as Yuta switched sides and clung onto his arm, pouting up at him.
“Yes, Yuta, you can have some of my mum’s food because you weren’t mean to her actual favourite son.”
Doyoung rolled his eyes at his brother and interlinked his arm with Jeno’s again, looking over his shoulder to see where his other friends were.
“Hurry up, guys,” he yelled behind him. “Food’s getting cold!”
⚯
“Come on, Jeno, hurry up!” Doyoung screamed from the bottom of the stairs where he was stood, arms crossed and foot impatiently tapping on the doormat that their mother had placed on the floor in front of the door.
“Jeno, sweetie, you need to be prepared when you have plans,” he heard his mother say from the kitchen, plates clanging against each other as she dried and put away the dishes from breakfast. “You can’t keep people waiting.”
Doyoung made a noise of agreement.
Up in his room, Jeno ran his hands through his recently dyed, blond hair and the reason for this particular outing as he, rolled his eyes, knowing his lateness didn’t matter in this situation—he knew Ten would probably be late anyway so it didn’t matter if he took his time—not that he was late anyway.
Five minutes later, Jeno came tumbling down the stairs, missing the last step and crashing right into an already annoyed Doyoung. He straightened up and shot Doyoung an apologetic look as he hurriedly slipped on his shoes but before he could run out of the door, his mother appeared by his side with a glass of banana milk in her hand and a knowing look on her face. She held the glass out to Jeno and he took it, downing it as quickly as he could so Doyoung wouldn’t start complaining again.
When he finished his drink, he handed the glass back to his mother, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek and smiling at her in thanks before rushing out.
“Bye, mum!” Doyoung called behind him as he rushed out after Jeno.
“Text me where you are!” Their mother yelled back after them before the door slammed shut.
“Do you have enough money on your bus pass?” Doyoung asked as he jogged up next to Jeno and linked their arms together.
“I don’t know, maybe,” Jeno said, trying to remember how much he topped up and might have spent during his last trip out. “I’ve got my contactless card so if I don’t then I’ll just use that.”
“Cool,” Doyoung nodded in agreement. “Cool cool cool.”
They walked the annoyingly long ten minutes to Taeyong’s house to pick him up before waiting an astonishing 20 minutes for the bus—seriously this was a city that ran on public transport so why was the transport always late—to meet the others at the train station.
“Oh!” Taeyong said, suddenly remembering something. “Cool hair, Jeno!” he commented as they got off the bus, reaching his hand up to touch the icy strands.
Jeno beamed. “Thanks, man!”
“Okay, okay,” Doyoung said, ushering them to get moving when they got off the bus. “We gotta go, talk while you walk.”
They walked up to the entrance of the train station where Yuta and Jaehyun were already waiting for them.
Doyoung went straight into interrogating them on Ten’s whereabouts. However, before he could get a word out, the voice of the subject of the almost conversation popped up from somewhere behind him.
“I’m here, I’m here,” he said, taking a sip from the Starbucks cup in his hand. “I’m on time!”
“Barely,” muttered Doyoung under his breath before he yelled about there not being enough time for exchanging pleasantries and ushered everyone straight to the platform.
(The moment they were seated on the train, Jeno rested his head on Doyoung’s shoulder and drifted off to sleep to the sounds of The Killers and the rumbling of the train.)
The city was bustling with people, as expected for a Saturday afternoon. Doyoung led the group to the restaurant, everyone was adamant on fueling up before they proceeded with their touristy activities for the day.
“So, tour guide,” Yuta started. “What’s our first stop?”
Doyoung looked around, moving to the edge of the street so pedestrians wouldn’t keep running into the group.
Jeno softly nudged Doyoung’s arm to get his attention. Food, he mouthed and looked away, whistling as he looked around.
“Who’s up for food?”
Food was free so Jeno didn’t care about where they ate; he wasn’t Particular Yuta. He did, however, complain extensively about his terrible choice in drink. The virgin pina colada containing too much coconut cream for Jeno to handle which made him want to throw up every time he reluctantly took a sip of the drink. Thankfully, Doyoung being the kind and caring brother that he was, gave Jeno his own wisely chosen virgin apple mojito and took his brother’s disgusting coconut death.
“Thank you, Doyoung.” he clutched at Doyoung’s forearm, looking him dead in the eyes.
Doyoung smiled at his brother, comforting him with a quick side hug before going back to his food.
After lunch, the tourism began. The group walked out of the restaurant and walked across the street, directionless, hoping someone knew where they were going.
“You okay, kid?” Yuta asked, coming up next to Jeno and slinging an arm around his shoulders.
Jeno nodded, sighing dramatically. “Yes, but if it wasn’t for my brave, selfless brother then I think I might be dead right now.”
Yuta patted his hair soothingly to comfort him. “There there, kid.”
Jeno thanked him and the two linked arms as they walked through the crowded city streets.
The lion statues in the middle of the city and the castle, which was always crowded with actual tourists, were a big hit with Jaehyun who had never been to either attraction despite living in the city for his entire, sad life.
The group wandered through the city and Jeno captured his companions in every destination in the form of award-winning photographs as his brother and his friends laughed and enjoyed the day. Meanwhile, Doyoung took Britta Perry photographs of him in which he could barely identify himself… or anything else in the frame.
“So what’s this one supposed to be?” Jeno asked Doyoung as he looked over some pictures he had taken of Jeno posing in front of the fountain.
“That is an artistic shot of you looking sad next to the fountain,” Doyoung said like it was obvious.
Jeno zoomed in and out of the images to see if that would help him in identifying any feature of him or the fountain but it was to no avail, all he could see was random splotches of blue and white and some part of the fountain statue.
“Uh huh,” he said, putting his camera away.
(Later that night, while going through the mess of photos on his camera, Jeno cursed Johnny for being called into work and missing their trip to the city, leaving him with zero qualified people to take even one decent picture of him.)
Miraculously, Jeno’s body didn’t hate him that much today and he only needed to stop to rest three times!! That’s a new record, he might even be able to do Race For Life if he keeps this up!!
During his second rest, which he could tell everyone else needed too, Doyoung volunteered to get everyone ice cream and went off with Kun in search of some.
They came back ten minutes later with almost several small tubs of Ben and Jerry’s from a nearby cinema and they sat at the steps leading to the lions that overlooked the fountain below and silently ate their ice creams until Jeno thought he could walk again without breaking a bone.
“Where next?” Taeyong inquired.
Jeno was busy texting and missed the conversation, snapping back to reality when he felt Doyoung tug at his arm to get him moving.
“So, Jaehyun,” Jeno began, walking up next to him. “How did you like the castle?”
Jaehyun looked up from his phone, leveling Jeno with a curious look. “Um,” he started. “Good?”
“Cool,” Jeno nodded, satisfied. “Cool cool cool.” He let Jaehyun go back to his phone and turned his attention to Doyoung, clutching at his arm and letting him drag Jeno around because walking was so tiring.
He belatedly remembered something that had happened and chuckled as he looked back at Jaehyun sympathetically. “Sorry about the birds.”
Jaehyun’s face went red and his entire body shook trying to forget the traumatising event.
The day came to an end at the bridge when Doyoung received a scheduled call from their mother asking them where they were which translated to the brothers as come home right now.
“Well, fellas, time for us to go!” Doyoung was referring to himself and Jeno but the others followed them to the station, deciding to call it a day.
The group journeyed back to the train station where they all split off, Taeyong staying with Doyoung and Jeno as they lived in the same neighbourhood.
(Jeno dozed off on Doyoung’s shoulder on the train again and then on the bus as it lulled them to their neighbourhood. He was almost certain he was asleep during the walk home after they dropped off Taeyong at his house; it was a tiring day.)
“Text me when you get home!” Taeyong said as he opened his front door and slipped inside with a wave to Doyoung and Jeno.
“Will do!” Doyoung replied before they walked the rest of the way home.
When they got home, Doyoung informed Taeyong that they had arrived home safely so he wouldn’t spend the night worrying then recounted the events of the day to their parents over dinner, their dad nodding along to indicate he was listening as he continued watching TV while their mother asked questions and questioned them further, lovingly, of course, about their outing.
“Did you have fun?”
Jeno nodded, shoving rice into his mouth.
“Yeah, we did,” Doyoung replied, telling her about Ten almost falling into the fountain and Taeyong almost falling in after him when he went to grab his arms to stop him from falling in.
It took Doyoung a while to get through the story on account of his unstoppable laughter. Similarly, Jeno choked on his rice remembering their terrified faces as his brother eventually got through his story.
“Drink some water, my love.” His mother said.
“Be more careful!” His father scolded as his mother brought over a glass of water for her baby boy.
Jeno rolled his eyes before accepting the glass from his mother and smiling up at her in gratitude. He chugged down the water and shoved another spoonful of rice in his mouth as Doyoung continued telling stories of their day.
After dinner, the brothers happily retreated to their rooms and Jeno recounted his day once again to his friends. He shared some pictures he had taken of the lion statues and the fountain—and a hilarious picture of Jaehyun getting attacked by a bird outside the castle—before knocking out for the night.
(Jeno dreamt of more birds, so many of them as they attacked Jaehyun in the middle of the city square while he watched on with his friends and laughed at his cries for help. A smile was plastered on his for the rest of the night as he slept peacefully.)