Shoes | Kim Junkyu

♡ four

Junha

My grip on the shoe tightened as I tilted it and ran my fingers on the shiny white rubber shoe.

I have been staring at this shoe for, I guess, fifteen minutes now. I can't quite ponder why that guy would steal my phone.

This shoe.

This shoe proves that he's not a thief.

The brand of this shoe is known for high quality and high price. And this shoe looks like it just had been bought.

Why would he snatch my phone? And then why would Junghwan say that he found it by the bathroom window? Its impossible for it to just disappear from the thief's hands and then re-appear in our bathroom.

Should I appoint a check-up for my mental health?

I sighed.

Even though I have my phone back, I won't let this slide.

I know something fishy is going on.

I know my brother doesn't want me walking him to school because his classmates are teasing him about it. But maybe there's another reason behind it.

I don't usually check his phone and his things because I don't want to invade his privacy.

But what if Junghwan's involved in a gang? A syndicate?

"Hmm," I pressed my lips together in frustration.

And aside from that, he wanted to go home early. What should happen is that he would ask me if I could wait a couple more minutes until his friends get home and when they're gone we would go home too.

He's also not answering properly at my question about the phone.

The door opened and my eyes went up at Junghwan who's staring at me as if he saw a ghost. "Yah, noona, why are sitting there? Have you been staring at that shoe for several hours?"

I chuckled and scratched the back of my head as I stood up, still holding the shoe in my other hand. "How's school?"

"Its alright, I think I did pretty well today," he smiled at me.

I smiled back, adoring my cute baby brother. I walked up to him and pinched his cheek. "That's good."

I realized that I am looking up at him and I can't imagine how fast he grew taller. "Look at you now, you're so tall!"

He scratched the back of his head and giggled. "So I can protect you, noona."

I was taken back at what he said.

It surprised me and touched my heart. I feel like a mom right now. Having him say that makes me feel like all my hard work in taking care of him has paid off.

But I frowned as I remembered something. "Junghwanie, can I borrow your phone?"

His smile faded and he started stuttering. "W-why? What do you need it for? Y-you have your own phone."

He walked past me and went to fridge and started looking for something to eat there.

Hm, it looks like we need to do it the hard way.

I ran up to the fridge, closing it immediately and leaning on it with my back as I said, "my phone died and I really need to text the loan shark now."

He looked at me, probably thinking of what to do.

I know that he bought that lie. Its true that I took loans, but what he doesn't know is that I'm already done paying my debt.

It took him a few seconds before he walked to the cabinets and said, "my phone died too, you know."

Ahh, so you are hiding something from me.

Time to raise it to level three.

I sighed and opened the fridge and took the ice cream bars I've been keeping. I tore the wrapper and it caught Junghwan's attention.

In my peripheral vision I saw him staring at me so I turned to him and faked a surprised expression. "Oh, do you want some Junghwan?"

His gaze exchanged between me and the ice cream with his mouth slightly opened. He licked his lips and the look in his eyes are full of desire for the ice cream.

I tilted my head. "You can have it."

But of course there's an exchange, brother.

He pressed his lips tightly before walking away from me. "Its okay, I'm not in the mood for ice cream."

Wow.

Maybe that was the biggest lie he told me in his entire life.

Oh right, second biggest one. The first is about my phone.

I sighed and squinted my eyes.

This is getting hard.

I have no choice but to raise it to level four.

"Junghwan, invite your friends tomorrow night to have a sleep over here. I'm excited to get to know them."

He turned to me with wide eyes, absolutely shocked with what I said.

"W-why---"

"Am I not allowed to know the lovely friends of my dear baby brother?" I asked him with a sweet smile.

I saw his adam's apple move and he looked down at his feet before looking back up at me. "Okay... I'll tell them."

I smiled.

"Oh, bring all of them, okay? The more, the merrier!"

♡~♡~♡

A/N: I plan to make my fanfics for treasure short because I want to finish all of them by the end of the year. I really hope I can finish Junkyu's and Asahi's before our classes start... thank you for reading everyone! 💖