Hung Up On The Stars • ChenJi

eighteen

When he goes to his house, Chenle greets him with a side hug and a smile from his mother, tender, gentle, and firm.

He understands where Chenle's features are inherited from.

They sit down in his room for some time as Chenle suggests playing video games because 'your serious expression that's bringing the whole mood down jisung, suck it up. Jisung tries to retort giving him a fist punch on his cheek but agrees later anyway.

They play for a little while, continuous courses of winning and losing for some time having their silly bets and challenges or punishments reminding them of the times when they were still kids, innocent and naive, very much uninformed of the world or much to think about.

After some time, they head to their brother's room to finally meet the center of attraction of the day. He sees the year-old infant crawling in the rooms from one corner to the order.

He refrained himself from carrying the baby at least for a while because 'once, I fucking dropped a three-month baby, Chenle, and that experience has been deadly'. Chenle laughs hitting his shoulder but the moment he takes the baby in his arms, he caresses his cheeks making funny faces trying his best to make the baby laugh.

To his surprise, the baby responds positively enjoying all the things Chenle did, and Jisung dissolves himself into their antics including himself playing with their baby nephew. He is surprised by the amount of normal interaction between them as the baby could move very fast and react briskly.

"Can he walk?" Jisung asks.

"Not yet, he can just crawl here and there."

Jisung hums and thinks he doesn't know much about how babies evolve with time, doesn't know when babies get started to walk or talk, and fully become grown.

"Jaemin Hyung and I have a difference of two years," Jisung says to nobody but Chenle, being there in the lesser distance that separated them, responds.

"Well, I guess, your mom would be struggling to grow two toddlers at a time."

Jisung nods.

"How much older is your brother than you?"

"Thirteen years."

Jisung gapes at him taking in the information. He knew his brother would be much older than them for getting married and having a year-old child but was shocked nonetheless.

"Wow- umm. That's a lot- fu- friking difference."

Chenle laughs and whispers into his ears, "Shall I tell you a secret of our family?"

"What?"

"Well, you see the law imposed in China about the single child policy, but later, it kinda got abolished due to obvious reasons so my father wanted to have another child."

"Oh."

"So, he asked my mom to- well, you know," and they laugh for about a longer time than they intended to with Jisung hitting his head in the process but Chenle's hearty laugh continues all over.

"Dude, keep your mouth on the watch," jisung says playfully.

Chenle laughs again, pressing his face into Jisung's face, hugging him from behind.