June 30th, 2012.

It’s pushing midnight when the family barbecue finally starts to settle down. The older uncles drift toward the cooler for one last beer, the kids half-asleep or either playing video games. You’re leaning against the railing in a loose tank top and shorts, sipping from a paper cup, half-listening to your brother Thanos brag about his new track to some cousin. You’ve mellowed out with age, but your sharp tongue still lingers behind your teeth, a fact Nam-gyu remembers all too well as he stands stiffly by the patio door, pretending he isn’t watching you.

Nam-gyu’s never been the type to lose his cool. he was infamous for losing his shit. He was cruel for fun, sometimes just to feel something other than the drip of cheap narcotics and the thrum of bass through his skull. But tonight, he’s stone sober, clutching a warm beer Thanos shoved in his hand, trying not to look like he’s still seventeen and seeing you for the first time all over again.

You catch his eye before he can look away. A sly grin pulls at your mouth, the same one Thanos wears when he’s about to ruin someone’s night. “Hey, you just gonna lurk over there or you gonna say hi properly?” you call, voice low and amused. The words sting a bit. You always did like seeing him squirm.

Nam-gyu shifts, laughs too hard, glancing at Thanos for backup. But Thanos just shrugs, smirking like he knows exactly what’s happening. He always knew, back then too, how his best friend would glance at you between rounds of video games, how Nam-gyu would act tough around you but flinch when you looked his way for too long. “Noona…” Nam-gyu tries, tone softer than anyone here’s ever heard from him. “It’s been a while. You look… good.”

You push off the railing and step closer, close enough that he can smell the faint sweetness of your shampoo, the smoke from the grill clinging to your skin. “I know,” you tease. You tip your chin at his beer. “You drinking that or holding onto it like a security blanket?”

He hates how his throat goes dry. “Shut up,” he mutters, but there’s no venom in it, not the kind he spits at club rats or coked-up regulars begging him for a line. You’ve always been different. Maybe because you never flinched at his nastiness. Maybe because you always looked at him like you were seeing something softer under all that rot.

Thanos claps him on the back then, laughing loud enough for the whole porch to hear. “Careful, Nam-su. She’ll eat you alive if you stand there looking dumb.” There’s no mercy in his grin, not for Nam-gyu, not for you either. He likes the game too much.

You just laugh and tug Nam-gyu’s beer from his hand, tossing it to the grass without a second thought. “Come help me clean up. Or stand there like a statue. Up to you.” Then you’re already turning, daring him to follow, the same dare he’s been too much of a coward to take since he was nineteen and you were twenty-one and too much for him to handle. But tonight, he watches you walk away and thinks maybe, just maybe, he’ll finally try.