Sounds of people panting could be heard clearly from the end of the alley. A muscular and tall guy walks nonchalantly with cigarette between his lips. He makes a final blow before throwing it on the street. His right hand is full of blood. He picks his handkerchief using his left hand and wipes the blood away.

"How annoying." He wrinkles his nose at the smell of the blood.

His phone rings. He picks it up after looking at the called ID. "What is it, my little brother?"

"Onii-chan, where are you now?"

The tall guy grins, "Don't 'onii-chan' me, Ren. I thought I've taught you to use 'hyung'?"

"Don't be baka, Chanyeol. Mom keeps yelling the whole time because of you. Come back, ima!" And with that, the guy that he called Ren, ends the call.

Chanyeol, the tall and muscular guy, chuckles at the thought of his younger brother angry.

His younger brother waits outside the door once he's arrived. "Ren, do you miss me that much?"

Ren lifts his left eyebrow, "Yeah, keep dreaming." He sniffs and quickly makes a face when he smells something weird. "Onii-chan, you smell like cigarette, weird and dirty." He finally walks inside, not forgetting to call his mom. "Eomma, Chanyeol's home!"

Chanyeol sighs when he sees his mom running towards him. "Chanyeol! Where have you been? Have you been fighting again?" His protective mom keeps touching Chanyeol's face to check on her son.

"Eomma... I'm fine." He walks in after taking off his shoes. "I'm gonna take a shower."

Ren scoffs, "Please make sure you do it thoroughly."

Chanyeol laughs, "I thought we've known each other for 10 years. You know that I'll absolutely do that, Ren."

"Just making sure." Ren walks away, he's heading to the kitchen where his heaven is located.

Chanyeol is a 24-year-old unemployment. He graduated from university 2 years ago. He could be categorized as a lucky person. His dad is a lawyer and is working in Japan. His mom is an ex patissier. She stops working because of her body condition.

His younger brother, Ren, is a 16-year-old Japanese boy. He was adopted from the Kobayashi family when he was 6. His real parents weren't able to provide a proper life for Ren, so they put him in an orphanage. Chanyeol's dad was told by one of his friends that were working as a volunteer in the orphan. Back then, Chanyeol wanted a brother but his parents weren't able to give it a go. So they decided to adopt Ren Kobayashi.

To do the paperwork for adopting Ren was really complicated because his nationality is Japanese. But then Chanyeol's dad did what he had to do and he managed all of it.

At first, Ren doesn't understand even a single Korean word. Chanyeol's dad has taught him how to speak Korean as his Japanese is fluent. He was a shy and tiny boy. His body was so thin, his hair was jet black and thick.

Chanyeol has been learning Japanese since he was young, so he's able to talk to Ren at that moment. Chanyeol's mom was different, she doesn't understand a single Japanese word back then.

That's the story of Park Chanyeol and his family.

"Onii-chan, let's cook something for dinner!" Ren shouts from the kitchen while holding a cup of blueberry pudding that his mom made yesterday.

"Let's?" Chanyeol comes out from the bathroom, leaving a soft scent of his soap. "I never cook something together with you." Chanyeol rolls his eyes. "Did you mean 'onii-chan, please cook something for dinner'?"

Ren smiles widely, "You got me." He scoops his pudding, while munching he says "Please cook us something, onegai."

"Don't make that anime face, please." Chanyeol always loves to be racist to his own brother a lot of times.

"Eomma, Chanyeol's gonna cook us something!" Ren announces, bringing his pudding along to the living room. He loves to announce things, indeed.

"Really? What's today's dinner, Chan?" She points her index finger to his mouth, hoping that Ren will feed her the pudding. He scoops the pudding and gives it to his mom.

"Any input, maybe?" Chanyeol pours cold water into a glass.

"Hmm... What about jjajangmyeon?" Ren suggests, his eyes are sparkling.

"That's a good idea, honey." His mom gives him a light pat.

"Okay, jjajangmyeon it is." And with that, Chanyeol starts to cook for their dinner.

xxx

"I always enjoy your dish, onii-chan." Ren says while washing the dishes carefully. "Your dishes are always the best."

Chanyeol looks around, he sighs in relief when he finds out that their mom is not here. "Don't say that in front of eomma. She will be jealous."

Ren laughs, "Eomma is a genius in sweets, she doesn't need to be jealous of you." He puts the plate slowly, "Anyway, onii-chan, where were you this afternoon?"

Chanyeol ruffles his black hair, he doesn't want to lie to his brother. "Seojeong-Ri."

Ren frowns, "Is that where Dosam lives?"

Chanyeol looks down, uh-oh. "I don't know, I thought he's your friend?"

"Oh no.." Ren puts a horror look on his face. "Don't tell me that you punch him right on the face and leave him alone afterward?"

"It's not just him though.." he murmurs, still looking down to his feet.

"WHAT?" Ren stops his activity, his eyes are now fixed to Chanyeol's. "Who else?"

Chanyeol sighs in defense, "There are 3 people in total including that Dosam kid. They made fun and bullied you, so why I should be worried about that?"

Ren sighs, "But, hyung, what if they tell their parents and I have to deal with them at school?"

When Ren uses 'hyung' instead of 'onii-chan', it means that he's in a serious mode.

"Don't worry about that. I told them to keep their mouth shut. Don't think about it too much, okay?" Chanyeol smiles, hoping that the smaller will just give up.

Fortunately, Ren just nods and continues what he's been doing.

xxx

In front of a restaurant with 'The Byuns' written on the signboard, stand two little men, one of which is talking on his phone. "Right, okay. Thank you so much, ahjumma."

"So, how is it?" Kyungsoo asks carefully.

"I told them to rent it with terms and conditions days ago. I don't need it anyway." Baekhyun puts his phone into his pocket.

Kyungsoo sighs, "You sure about that? You can always learn to cook and carry on your family's business."

"Not interested." Baekhyun walks into his family's restaurant that has been closed for a week since his parents' death. "I told you I wanna be a painter."

Kyungsoo sighs, he doesn't even realize he does that all the time. "Look, I don't wanna be-"

"My decision has been made, and no one can stop me including you, Kyung." Baekhyun deadpans.

Kyungsoo follows him from behind. He knows that Baekhyun won't change his mind a bit if he already made a decision.

Baekhyun is a 22-year-old guy who just graduated a week ago. His family runs a restaurant business just below where they lived.

The restaurant was not that big, nor too small. They provided Korean homemade food since Baekhyun's mom and dad loved to cook.

They lived on the second floor of the same building as the restaurant. Now Baekhyun is alone all by himself, he doesn't know how to cook so he's not planning to continue the business.

His family was a typical simple family. He doesn't have any siblings. His life was pretty decent all along.

Baekhyun is now asking his aunt to promote his restaurant renting so he at least could earn something.

At the right part of the restaurant, there's a small door that leads to a staircase to his house.

Kyungsoo widens his eyes once they finally reach upstairs. "Byun Baekhyun, what on earth is this?!"

A pile of trash is spreading throughout the living room. Many of which are instant ramen cups and beer canned drinks, even some of them are bottles of soju. Clothes are scattered everywhere. Leftover acrylic paint tubes fill the coffee table. Canvases are lying on the floor, both used and unused.

"Yeah, yeah. I will clean it later." Baekhyun waves his hand while walking to his kitchen.

"I can barely even walk here!" Kyungsoo shakes his head in disbelief.

"You need more practice. Come here often then." He opens one of his canned drinks.

"Oh, now I feel completely relieved that you rent the restaurant to people." He says, matter-of-factly.

Baekhyun's phone suddenly rings, leaving the two to stop their conversation.

"Hello, ahjumma?"

Kyungsoo looks at him curiously, waiting for the other to end the call so he can ask him what's going on.

Baekhyun nods his head several times, straightens his glasses sometimes. When he finally ends the call, Kyungsoo abruptly asks him questions.

"So? Is that your ahjumma? What did she say? No one's gonna rent the place? Ha! I knew it-"

"There's actually a person who's interested in renting the place."

xxx