not what you think

xxi: n

"Get his graduation cap! He keeps forgetting it!"

"Did you wear a jacket? It's too cold out there, you'll freeze when you get on stage!"

"Here, have your breakfast quick, we're getting out in fifteen minutes," Wooyoung pushes a mammoth bowl onto Joonki's hands, brimming with milk and his beloved cereal he adored as a child.

"I have the graduation cap!", San shrieks in elation whilst grasping the black crown ensemble.

"Here, take this jacket. It's enough to keep you warm," Yeosang trudges in the living room, a profound jacket encased in his arms, fished out from the luggage.

Joonki stows the bowl on the center table and permits the jacket to encase him, his bodice immediately perceiving coziness. He strands a tight lipped smile to the other three males and resumes on chomping on his breakfast.

"We have the robe and cap here, so we're all done. San, bring our twin jackets, please? We want to look good on our baby brother's graduation."

"Ever since when he's your baby brother? He's my baby brother," Yeosang voices whilst creasing into a ball near Joonki's biceps, grasping onto his left hand, elbow to elbow.

"He became the second he started talking to us!", San yells whilst trudging to his cubicle, acquiring a giggle from Wooyoung on reciprocation.

"I'm sure people will think it's your graduation than mine," Joonki murmurs, sipping on the ceasing bit of milk.

"Hush. We just want to be happy for one day," Wooyoung says whilst San makes his entrance and passes him the jacket, coupled with a grateful look from the prior.

"Sure. Let's get going, the bus will be hectic today," Joonki voices whilst standing up, grasping the robe and cap on his way out, unyielding enough to manifest his hefty hands and veins.

"Calm down, young one, no one is taking your cap and robe from you," Wooyoung pats on Joonki's back tenderly, an emotive smile on his face at the rigidity of the younger's countenance.

"I can't risk losing it. They will ask for it to be given back," Joonki voices whilst San levers on the padlock and twirls the key in the joint to secure the apartment.

"Don't worry about it, I have paid for the cap and robe for you to keep."

Joonki views his sibling in astonishment, eyes magnifying in its circumference. The usual tender, slender viewing monolids appear to have more roundness in it, the ambers in his irises glistering in the morning sun.

"Wheein and Hyejin insisted on paying for it to your university. They gifted you, so keep it well," Yeosang says whilst patting on the youngest's bicep and initiating trudging down the stairs, Wooyoung and San tailing whilst Joonki views their retreating physique and the ensemble in his hand.

His lips conjure a miniscule smile upon the two older girls' discretion.

The boy tails for the older three who introduced themselves to the streets of Seoul. The earliness would usually entail tranquility, yet the bustle has forged its path in its artless rhythm. The overly jovial vocals of school going children, passersby forging their footings in hypervigilance at the prospect of making their entrance at the clocked time at the workplace, traffic police orchestrating the natural rules on transports. The four males view people around Joonki's age amassing around the bus stop, animated conversations in feverishness, some in dubiosity and some in detachment from the gravity of the moment, emblem of Incheon National embellished in the middle of the robes.

"That's our place to stand by," Yeosang voices in a jolly tone, Wooyoung and San tailing the said male in delirium. Joonki attunes the robe and cap in his hand and trudges for the other three companions.