- angel ; kunyang

- nine

"are they here yet?" jian asks, looking around in the huge crowd on the boardwalk. mingli shakes his head, though his eyes were on his phone. yangyang, on the other hand, wasn't looking forward to it.

turns out, honghui had suggested that they all hang out together so he can get to know kun's best friends more. jian and mingli had only ever really heard of him themselves and they already didn't like him off of what yangyang told the two of them. though, it felt a bit strange almost that honghui never brought the idea up before. kun probably knows all his own friends at this point....

"oh! i see kun!" jian says, pointing with a finger. yangyang looks and smiles at the sight of their best friend waving in their direction, only to see honghui right beside him, holding onto his boyfriend's hand. yangyang's smile was quick to falter because of that.

honghui gave everyone a smile too, his brown eyes shining. but when his eyes landed on yangyang, his smile seemed to turn awfully fake in a way and the shine in his eyes were gone completely. yangyang felt uneasy when he put on a sickly sweet voice as he spoke.

"hello everyone!"

yangyang wasn't the only one who saw through his façade. jian did too and he seemed equally as fake when he said, "hello, kun's boyfriend."

"i know you know his name, but honghui doesn't exactly know any of yours," kun is quick to explain. he points, "that's lu jian."

jian waves his hand and keeps giving honghui is very fake smile. when kun introduced yang mingli, he whispered into yangyang's ear. "he's already giving me bitchy vibes."

yangyang holds back a giggle. "very funny, single jian."

as they start walking along the boardwalk, yangyang making sure mingli and jian were the barriers between the couple, their conversation went to things about each other. yangyang stayed mostly quiet, which wasn't hard since honghui did his darnest to exclude him entirely. every time kun tried to talk to him, honghui would quickly say something else to distract him.

yeah, yangyang wasn't going to get involved in the conversation anytime soon, he thinks sadly. jian and mingli catch on quick and say they were going to get pretzels for the three of them. but it also just allowed honghui to pull kun off to get food somewhere else.

when they entered the shop, yangyang still felt down, even if he didn't have to honghui constantly cling into kun's arm like some clingy child. the way he looked at yangyang with that little smirk. it's like he wanted him to see it just to rub it in. yangyang still feels the rocks at the end of the waterfall.

"which pretzel do you want?" jian asks his best friend, with a smile on his face.

"i'm not hungry," yangyang mumbles. jian frowns.

"forget about kun's bitch of a boyfriend and eat," jian says firmly. "we can share one. you like cinnamon, right?"

a very sad yangyang doesn't respond.

"cinnamon it is," jian says with a look at mingli, who has a frown on his face as well. yangyang hardly acknowledges the piece jian gives him from his own pretzel when he has it, the three of them sitting down at a table together.

"are you planning to do anything this weekend?" jian asks mingli. "i'm forced to take my brothers to the beach."

"i can come help you," mingli tells him. "my boss gave me a day off to give me a break. bless her, she's the literal best."

"yeah, she is really nice," jian smiles. "what about you, double yang?"

"nothing," yangyang retorts moodily, poking his piece of pretzel with a finger. he sees the bit of cinnamon on the digit and licks if off before continuing to frown.

"ah, just forget about honghui," jian groans. "be happy, double yang. be gay."

"be gay?" mingli snorts.

"hey, it also means happy," jian retorts and yangyang ends up smiling a little, although weakly. "you smiled!"

"i guess i did," yangyang's laugh is extremely brief. "i can come too, then. three of us can handle your triplet brothers."

"yes, i know we will," jian lets out a sigh of relief, letting mingli feed him a small piece of his simple salt pretzel. "anyways, let's head for the arcade place after. i want to beat that one game i keep losing at."

"that's because you suck," mingli mumbles with a grin only to get elbowed by jian in the ribs.

none of them notice kun entering the small shop, looking around before spotting the brown-haired head of yangyang. with a happy smile, he happily walks over to stand behind his flatmate, covering his eyes with his hands. "guess who it is."

jian and mingli fall silent with surprise before grinning at each other. yangyang, on the other hand, frowned briefly as he thought before realisation hit him. "gege?"

"that's not my name," kun laughs softly.

"well, you are my gege!" yangyang retorts with a pout. "kun!"

kun finally retracts his hands away with another laugh that's music to yangyang's ears. "that's all you had to say, yang."

yangyang turns around to face him, his cheeks going as light pink as he smiled too. "i know, but you are older than me. gege works just fine."

"but it's not my actual name, yang."

"still!" yangyang argues back playfully and kun just ends up hugging him from behind, his arms coming to rest on his shoulders. yangyang finds himself laughing along with him, forgetting about honghui entirely. it's amazing how quickly kun can lift his mood so easily. the angel just has that power.

"ehem, we're here too," jian cuts in through their dying laughter. "we don't want to third wheel."

"don't say that," yangyang snaps at him, though his cheeks go red. kun looked merely confused before realisation hits him, yet he doesn't pull away from his flatmate. instead, he just pulls him back against his chair so the back of his head touches kun's front.

"can i have a piece?" kun questions. "i'm hungry."

"have this," yangyang retorts, picking up his discarded pretzel piece and holding it up to kun, who bites onto it to hold on before pulling away a hand to allow him to properly eat it.

for yangyang, it makes his heart flutter. for jian and mingli, it makes them think it's adorable. for honghui, it makes him boil with rage.