Jung and Eun sat cross-legged on the floor, their eyes wandering and their elbows tucked into their sides. Neither wanted to move for fear of touching something important or knocking something over. For the first time in a very long time, both stayed perfectly still.
They sat among stacked frames and canvases; scrolls and books. A black and white painting of the Korean landscape took up two meters of the wall and beside it was a framed image of a roaring tiger. There was a rack on the wall from which instruments and their accompanying parts hung as well as a small piano rammed into a corner.
"You really need to clean your apartment," Eun said as he pulled his knees to his chest. He nursed a glass of soju in one hand while keeping the other firmly rammed into the pocket of his jacket. "I'm going to suffocate and die here and no one will find my body." He cringed at an unfinished oil painting of a naked woman in a compromising position with the sketch of another woman beside her. The canvas sat on an easel that was held up with miles of duct tape and had seen better days. The cloying odor of drying paint, stale cigarettes, and ink wafted from various paintings as a breeze flew in from the open window, sending sheets of music fluttering off the piano.
Baek Ah shrugged from his position on the ground, a bottle of soju in his hand. "Hm, it annoys my mother that I don't clean, but honestly, I don't want to spend money on a studio until I absolutely have to." Shooing the flyaway sheet music away from himself, Baek Ah motioned to the paintings that littered his living room.
"You have enough money to buy any of the apartments in this building and yet you rent a one-bedroom flat that reeks of stale alcohol and paint," Jung grimaced, swatting away a sheet of music that slapped his cheek. The only sober person in the room, he sighed longingly toward the alcohol but refrained from touching it or the plethora of takeout Baek Ah had ordered on a whim. "I don't believe that you're a sex icon anymore. Where do you sleep with women? Your bedroom is literally a closet with a futon. Where on earth do you sleep? What do you eat?"
Shrugging his shoulders, Baek Ah leaned against the leg of his piano, his skinny legs protruding from baggy basketball shorts. He took his time answering all of his younger brother's questions. "I sleep with women at motels and when I'm not fulfilling my destiny as Seoul's most virile male, I'm here, painting and writing. When I'm tired, I'll sleep on the floor or on my lovely futon, and I subsist on alcohol and whatever gifts my fans give me."
"So you live on soju and macarons?" Eun questioned as he examined the painting behind his back. "Even I don't do that. Wook has me eating well these days. You should come to his house for meals."
Baek Ah shook his head and ran his hands through his long hair. "My old girlfriend used to cook for me and I'd eat at her place, but then her son got mad that I was sleeping with his mother. He was Won's age and had two kids that asked if I was being adopted into the family, so we cut it off. I'm too young to be a grandfather."
The brothers scoffed and laughed at Baek Ah as they killed the early hours of dawn. They were a strange group: three grown men sitting on the floor of a dirty apartment, each man dressed differently with different hairstyles. One had long hair and wore a sweatshirt and shorts. Another wore a Taekwondo uniform and had short, black hair. The other wore a metallic leather jacket with black pants and had pink hair. They sat in a triangle around a wooden folding table. With a tablecloth made of newspapers, the flat top was laden with bottles of soju and styrofoam plates of piping hot food.
"And you have no plans to leave this dump?" Jung asked, eyeing a half-finished sculpture in the garbage can.
"I'm not sure," Baek Ah sighed as he stretched his long legs out, taking a sip of soju straight from the bottle. "I might live with my mother, but I'm also considering renting a new apartment somewhere away from here. But no matter who I choose to board with, I'll have no choice but to rent an art studio to put all my pieces in. Do you want to make ramyeon?"
Lazily, the three stretched out in whatever ways they could without disturbing the clutter of artwork. Jung and Eun did their best to avoid the nude portraits and sketches that were piled in one corner, and Baek Ah looked at his phone as he pondered over what foods a model, a K-Pop star, and an athlete on a strict diet could share.
"So are any of you dating?" Baek Ah did not bother glancing at his brothers as he located the number for a store that made good jokbal. He would drown his sorrows in alcohol and overeating. He lit a cigarette before noticing Eun glaring at him. "Fine," Baek Ah sighed, tossing the stick into a can of opaque paint water.
"I'm still dating Soon Deok and still going strong." Eun chirped once the cigarette was out of Baek Ah's hand.
"I'm going to ask Hae Soo out," Jung said.
Both Eun and Baek Ah whipped their heads in the youngest's direction, but Jung seemed oblivious. "She's been living in Wook's house for a few months and we've chatted a couple times, so I think I want to take her out to dinner and a movie sometime." He gave a slight grin. "She's exactly my type too. Smart, cute, funny, and knows how to have fun. She's my age, and according to her Instagram, she's a fan of baseball. We're like, really good for each other."
Turning to his brothers, Jung raised his eyebrows. "What do you think? Think Soo and I would be a good couple?"
Baek Ah pursed his lips before nodding and drinking again. "I say go for it," he stated, raising his bottle to his younger brother. "I think you and Hae Soo might like each oth-"
"No," Eun cut in, more serious than his younger brothers had ever seen him. Jung's grin faded and he frowned at his older brother.
"Why not?" Jung and Baek Ah asked in unison.
Placing a hand on his youngest brother's shoulder, Eun sighed. "For reasons you won't understand yet," he nodded cryptically. "Also, because she has a…" Fiance? Lover? Eun had no idea what his brother and Hae Soo were. "She has a boyfriend." He did not miss the dejected sigh that came from Jung.
"All the pretty ones are taken, aren't they? My luck sucks." He seemed to deflate and Baek Ah scoffed, his words slurring from the effects of the mounting pile of empty bottles.
"You just found out a girl has a boyfriend. You know what I found out today? That my book is in second place behind some upstart author's fantasy novel. We're a walking example of first world problems, yeah?"
Jung glanced between his older brothers as one drowned his sorrows in alcohol and the other shook his head disapprovingly. He snapped his fingers, an idea in his mind. "Do you know who she's dating?" Jung asked. "Think I could beat him in a fight? He'd probably run for the hills if an Olympic champion asked for his girlfriend, right?"
So would beat you to a pulp and then tear you to shreds for even looking at Soo the wrong way, Eun thought his bottom lip trapped between his teeth. "I don't think he's the type you want to pick fights with- no matter how many gold medals you have."
A visibly deflated Jung sighed again before shaking his head. "Maybe I'll just move in with you once you get your new place," he muttered to Baek Ah, leaning against his older brother's shoulder. Baek Ah only smiled and reassuringly patted his brother's back.
"Hey, keep your mind open and maybe something really good will happen."
When the doorbell rang, the brothers sent confused looks toward each other before immediately holding their fists up.
"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!"
"Darn!"
It was Eun who went to answer the door. "In what goddamn universe is it okay to ring the damn doorbell at one in the godda-"
"Is that any way for a K-pop star to speak?" a cordial drawl came from the doorway. "Your fans must be disappointed that their oppa has such a foul mouth." Jung and Baek Ah exchanged glances as a disgruntled Yo stepped into the dirty apartment, a large paper bag in his hands. Their older brother wore a sweatshirt and jeans, his dark hair no longer styled the way it had been at work.
"Brother," Baek Ah said, standing to greet Yo. Jung did the same.
"You don't have to stand today. I know you've had a rough day," sighed Yo as he passed the bag over to Eun. He walked over to Baek Ah and wrapped his arms around the younger man, hugging him close. It was rare for Yo to show affection toward his brothers and Baek Ah's eyes widened momentarily before he reciprocated the action, returning the hug. He realized for the first time that his older brother smelled like lemon and pine. "You need to stop smoking when you're stressed. You smell like an ashtray."
"Did you really come here to tell me that?" Baek Ah scoffed between the hug his brother gave him. Yo was shorter than him, but Baek Ah always felt small when he was with his oldest brothers.
Yo cuffed the back of Baek Ah's head. "Of course I did, you ungrateful brat," he scowled before smirking and ruffling Baek Ah's hair. The four men sat down on the ground and Eun set the paper bag down before them.
"You bought us food," Jung was the first to notice. He raised his eyebrows when Yo tiredly shook his head.
"Correction," the older Wang brother snapped. "So bought you alcohol and my wife made you food because they both thought you kids would be drinking tonight. I'm just the messenger."
The bag was torn open and a bottle of whiskey was the first thing to tumble out. Beside it, glass containers of side dishes, scallion pancakes, and kimchi pancakes were still warm. Yo scoffed when a little package of bulgogi also fell out. "Does my wife think you're starving?"
"Will you stay and drink with us?" Jung asked Yo. He watched as his older brother reached for Baek Ah cigarettes and opened the pack, withdrawing one with his teeth. Yo beckoned toward Baek Ah for a lighter.
"I thought you quit smoking," Eun pointed out.
"Yeah," Jung piped up. "Didn't you quit when your wife was pregnant?"
"I'm telling Mun Seong." Eun' warning bounced off of Yo's cold exterior and for a moment, Jung and Eun grew cocky, their grins widening.
Slowly, Yo turned, his glower resting on the likes of his younger brothers. With dark circles rimming his gaunt eyes, he glared at Jung and Eun and sent them cowering against each other.
Shaking his head, Yo spat the cigarette into Baek Ah's ashtray and moved to stand. "Like I said," he groaned between yawns. "I'm the messenger. You kids have fun. I'm going back home. Oh-" Yo pointed to Baek Ah. "Before you get shitfaced, call So and annoy him for an hour or so. He's probably back at Wook's house by now."
"Why?"
"Because he knocked on my door at fuck knows in the morning and woke my kid."
Yo accepted the hugs his brothers offered him with only a few swears before nodding and patting each one on the head. "Don't get too drunk. Remember, you still have work tomorrow. Especially you, Eun."
And with that, Yo left his youngest brothers behind, yawning as he walked out the door.
Soo wondered just how Jung had gotten her phone number as she drove to the address he had texted her. At ten in the morning on a Thursday, there was little traffic between Seoul's districts and after borrowing Myung Hee's Range Rover, Soo drove with the bodyguard in the passenger's side. She almost wanted to laugh at his stoic pout, but Soo still resented that he was paid to follow her around.
They had had a heated argument over who would drive and after threatening to jump out of the car and run away from him, Soo had won and the guard had relinquished the keys without a change in expression.
"So, do you have a name, Mr. Stalker?" Soo asked as she stopped at a red light. The large car felt foreign and bulky beneath her hands and Soo preferred the sleek speed and agility of So's Ferrari whether she was driving or not. Speaking of So, Soo wondered if he had gotten to work okay. Wook had been giving So strange looks ever since an announcement that Myung Hee was pregnant had been sent throughout the family and Soo hoped So hadn't said anything too incriminating to his brother.
The guard's mellow expression was unperturbed beneath the nickname Soo had given him. "I don't think my name is wholly important, young mistress," the guard turned his head to look at her and Soo glared at him. This was the game they played.
hae soo, sorry 4 bothering u but can u secretly drive to this address? i'm really tired and need 2 get eun home but i can't drive right now and baek ah is really hungover, so please come? Thanx. - wang jung
The text had arrived while she was eating breakfast and Soo had frowned while reading it, wondering why Jung had called out to her for help and why he had asked for all the secrecy. She wondered if it had anything to do with Eun. Wook had asked where Eun was before he left, but the younger Wang had been nowhere to be seen. Myung Hee had assumed he was still sleeping, so Wook and So had left for work on their own.
"Where exactly are we going?" the bodyguard asked with what Soo assumed was a frown. His expression was too flat to actually tell and she had to focus on the road.
"We are headed to a fight club where I'm going to enter you into the lists and make you brawl for money," Soo replied sarcastically. She wondered if So's dry humor was rubbing off on her, but it felt good to mess with her bodyguard. "Don't be afraid; only two people died last ye- no!" Soo rammed her foot on the breaks as she noticed the metal knuckle guards the bodyguard had slipped onto his hands. "What the heck?!"
"Oh, you weren't serious," the guard sniffed, taking his fist cuffs off and slipping them into his pocket. He seemed disappointed beneath his mask of indifference. "Apologies, young mistress, I thought we were actually going to have fun today."
Soo could only nod as the guard sat by, acting as if nothing had happened. He and So would get along marvelously, she thought, continuing to drive. They both have weird senses of humor and are way too serious for their own good.
They arrived in front of a worn down building with ivy crawling up the exterior. The surrounding area was poorly maintained and there was an overgrowth of wild flowers that sprouted from any open plot of land around the brick building. Yet, with all of the mess and clutter of plants, Soo did not know if she had ever seen that many sport cars parked in one single lot.
She exhaled through her nose as she pulled into the parking lot, careful to avoid the hyper-expensive supercars parked amongst each other. If Soo had not been so stressed about avoiding touching the cars in the lot, she would have heard her bodyguard murmur, "I'd kill for a car like that," while staring at a glossy Maserati Spyder.
Among a jumble of BMWs and Benzs, there were Teslas and Audis. A Lamborghini slept between two Range Rovers and a Lykan rested beside a car with a black cover draped over it. Soo held her breath as she found a spot between a Lotus and a Rolls Royce. Where are we? Soo thought. What is Jung doing here?
She had never opened her door more carefully than the way she had in that moment, sweating as she deftly slid out from the driver's side and avoided touching the Lotus that seemed to mock her.
Stepping out of the car, Soo looked down at her phone and read an address from the text Jung had sent her. There was a six digit number beside it. Soo assumed that was the password to whoever's house she was about to barge into.
Her footsteps were soft as she stepped past cars and wondered which ones belonged to whom. There was one Hyundai amongst the plethora of money laden cars and Soo found herself wondering what that one's story was.
She walked into the old building, noting the interior was much better maintained than the exterior. Her bodyguard shadowed her with his hands clasped in his front, not removing his sunglasses in the dim lighting. Soo looked around and was surprised to see a very familiar face.
Dressed in a hoodie that was too tight for his muscles and a pair of jogging shorts that clung to his thighs, Wang Jung beamed as he waved to Soo and walked toward her to place a hand on her shoulder. Soo's mouth gently opened at the sight of her future brother-in-law in clothes that certainly did not fit him. "You came! Thank goodness, I thought you weren't going to and I'd have to send Eun home in a cab."
"What's going on?" Soo asked as they stepped into an elevator together. "Why are you dressed like…" she touched the soft gray material of his sweatshirt as the boarded an elevator.
Laughing, Jung shook his head, his dark hair shaggy over his eyes. "I slept over at Baek Ah's house and didn't have anything prepared, so I borrowed his clothes. Why, do I look too hot in this?"
Still a lovable punk, aren't you? Soo thought with a faint smile. She patted Jung's arm. Don't hit on me or So will hit you. She looked around at the glass paned elevator. So this is Baek Ah's apartment...
"Yesterday, Baek Ah got bad news, and so Eun and I decided to console him. We came over, they got drunk, and I pretended to be a designated driver, but I fell asleep," explained Jung as he pressed the button for the ninth storey.
Worried, Soo turned to face Jung. "What bad news?!" she demanded. "What's going on?"
A soft ding opened the elevator doors and Jung proceeded to unlock his brother's apartment, opening the door and allowing Soo in first. With a lowered voice, he leaned close to whisper Baek Ah's situation to her as well as a warning not to mention the "book incident."
Together, they walked into the apartment and Soo immediately paused when she almost stepped on a sleeping Eun.
Curled up together in the middle of what felt like an art gallery after an earthquake, Baek Ah and Eun slept peacefully, surrounded by empty green bottles. "Wow," Soo breathed as she took in some of the artwork that lined the walls. "Baek Ah has been busy."
"We're pretty sure he's been overworking because of his breakup," Jung stepped around his brothers and reached for the soju bottles and single bottle of whiskey, picking them up and attempting to give a semblance of tidiness to the apartment. "We Wangs tend to drown ourselves in alcohol and work after a breakup."
Eun was the first to wake, his pink hair flying away in countless directions and his bleary eyes taking in the silhouette of a woman. "Mm… Baek Ah," he nudged his sleeping brother with his foot. "Baek Ah, there's a woman in your apartment."
"Huh?" Baek Ah sat up instantly, his long hair tousling from sleeping on the floor. "What? Who?" he rubbed his eyes and sniffed, yawning.
The two squinted at Soo as she rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "Jung texted me and asked me to give him and Eun a ride," she said.
"Soo!" Eun's eyes burst open and he grinned, pushing Baek Ah off of his shoulder and scooting towards her, knocking into a painting. Eun ignored his younger brother's outburst and instead sat beside Soo, effectively blocking anyone else from getting close to her. His eyes flitted to Jung who drank water from a bottle in the kitchen, but Eun returned his focus to Soo.
In a matter of minutes, three of the country's most famous stars were showered and dressed in Baek Ah's clothes. On Jung, the clothes were too tight and they emphasized each of his muscles to the point that Soo noticed her bodyguard indignantly flexing his own arms. On Eun, Baek Ah's shirts were long enough to become a dress, but the popstar only shrugged. "I am a style icon," he declared before donning his jacket and flicking something off of his jeans.
She took them out for breakfast and sat each one down with a big bowl of mung bean stew and a plate of dumplings each. If there were fans, Soo's bodyguard kept them at bay and Soo crossed her arms and watched as each man dug into his food. Even Jung- whose diet allowed clear broth and vegetables- enjoyed his stew sans rice.
"Baek Ah, who owns that Hyundai in your parking lot?" Soo asked as she nibbled on a dumpling nabbed from Jung's plate. Due to the athlete's inability to have processed sustenance, Soo was tasked with dealing with his excess food.
"Oh, that's mine," Jung said as his brothers pointed at him. "I got it from a sponsorship. I'm required to drive it at least ten times a month."
Breakfast commenced and Soo sat back, wondering if So had gotten to work alright. He seemed more tired than usual and as much as Soo begged for him to sleep a few extra hours and stay in his bedroom, he ignored her protests and made a point to join her in bed every night.
"Hae Soo, are you free on Saturday?" Jung asked suddenly. "There's a new movie out- something about zombies and trains. Wanna watch it?"
Soo raised her eyebrows at Jung as Baek Ah's elbow tipped off of the table and Eun dropped his spoon. "What?" she asked. Oh God, he's asking me out. Oh God, not in this life.
"Do you want to watch a movie with me on Saturday?" Jung repeated his question with a smile. "My treat. We can also get lunch if you'd like."
Gently, she placed a hand on Jung's arm. I'm going to marry your older brother. "I have a boyfriend," she said with a pat to the muscle he flexed. "But thank you for the thought."
No one spoke when Baek Ah ordered a bottle of soju, declaring his sorrows had yet to pass. "I need to find out whoever this Baek Woo Hee is. How dare she take my spot on the bestseller list."
So, I'm considering making an Instagram account for my writing just to post updates, possible spoilers, previews, and whatnot. Since I live in Korea, I would also post pictures of the neighborhoods and scenery to show you guys a glimpse into the country. You could message me there and we'd all have a fun time.
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