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“it feels like you guys are stealing our brothers away from us” doyoung complained one day, sitting on the bleachers “now jeno’s all ‘jaehyun hyung this’ ‘johnny hyung that’ and what did you do to deserve it? tell them to kick some balls around?”
jaehyun raised his eyebrows behind his sunglasses as johnny yelled something to the kids, who were doing drills around the field.
during summer break, all of their friends would flock to the field to watch their brothers play soccer under johnny and jaehyun’s coaching and gossip away like grandmas.
“i’m not complaining, as long as you keep paying for their ice cream, i’m ok” taeyong shrugs.
jaehyun watches as johnny scrunches his face, probably thinking of all the money they dropped on snacks for the kids. but it was all worth it when they would all yell their thanks and give them drawings of the team winning the cup with two tall figures next to a bunch of smaller ones.
as the tennagers complained around the bleachers, shotaro quietly made his way to jaehyun, pulling his sleeve. when the coach crouched, shotaro asked him in a jumbled mix of korean and japanese if he could go to the bathroom, jaehyun squished his cheek and responded in his limited japanese that he could go.
as he got up, watching shotaro run to the locker room, yuta was already dramatically wailing in taeyong’s arms “no, this is treason! that was your plan all along! i taught you japanese only for you to use it against me! and steal my own brother from me!”
jaehyun rolled his eyes at the boy, thinking of an answer to the nonsense, but johnny joined the conversation “dude, shotaro literally doesn’t let us teach him shit because he says the only person allowed to teach him soccer is you” the japanese smiles proudly at johnny’s words “in fact, you guys are being dramatic, we have to hear them go on about each of you as much as you do”
that seems to placate the complaints, shifting the conversation to ten and taeyong’s art club assignments, which sparks renjun’s attention. the kid doesn’t play soccer but all of his best friends do, so he comes to the practise along with his brother, sicheng, anyway.
as the practise progresses, jaehyun and johnny huddle the kids together to discuss their gameplays and organize a little match within the team. as they decide the captains with rock paper scissors, haechan raises his little hand to talk “mr coach suh”
“yeah, haechan?”
“since we are only one team, what if the hyungs play too?” and normally they would decline and explain that the hyungs weren’t on the team or whatever, but given their earlier conversation and all of the pleading eyes, johnny smirked at jaehyun who returned the smile and got up to talk to the adults.
“let’s ask them, then!” the kids cheered already running to the bleachers “since the kids asked us nicely, coach suh and i decided to allow a different game for today! so if you guys are up for it, we can make mixed teams so that you can play along with the kids”
before he could even finish speaking, the kids were already screaming pleas for their hyungs. jaehyun watched jaemin, who happened to not have a sibling in the bleachers as his sister worked the afternoons, as the boy drapped himself over renjun to ask sicheng if he’d join them.
the first ones in the field were, obviously, shotaro and yuta, as the older carried his brother in his shoulders to the middle point. doyoung glared at the coaches as jeno pushed him down the bleachers. in the end, all of them joined the game and the teams were divided with equal numbers of teenagers and kids.
johnny and jaehyun allowed them to play freely, laughing at the kids’ dirty plays of tackling their brothers to the ground or tickling them. the older ones let the kids have some advantages, purposefully missing kicks and belatedly saving goals, only to lift them off their feet in the next play.
as the coaches sat on the bleachers, watching the teams laughing freely, ten stopped on his tracks to look at them “and why the f- why don’t you guys play as well?”
and before any of them could reply, yangyang already yelled back “hyung we just let them be all lovey dovey and gross when we play”
jaehyun really loves yangyang, he does, but right now he feels like never giving the kid ice cream ever again. the game stops altogether as all of the teenagers turn to look at yangyang, who shrinks under jaehyun and johnny’s tired faces.
“yangyang, dear, what?” taeyong smiles his fakest smile ever, looking at the coaches.
his brother, ever the observant, sighs exasperated “hyung, it’s pretty simple, we play soccer and they sit there holding hands and whispering to each other, it’s quite boring, really”
“haechannie, am i understanding that right? all of you know it?” doyoung looks from haechan to all of the kids, who seem more frazzled that their game was interrupted than anything.
“i mean yeah, duh, look at them” jaemin points at the two, who share a look, a thousand word exchanged. it seems to dawn on their friends and all hell breaks loose.
“game cancelled, i need a moment” ten screams, making a scene of sitting in the grass
“i have never felt such betrayal” doyoung glares at both his brother and the coaches “you tell me about every single thing that happens in your day and you let THAT pass?
“i thought they would never… happen!” says, more to himself than anyone in particular, but sicheng pats him in the back anyway.
johnny sighs deeply and gets up, clapping “ok! since it looks like the hyungs need to have a talk, how about we pack up and go have some ice cream?”