has anyone written inho developing a bitter agonising complex that gihun has replaced him as junhoâs hyung after the games end? he canât say it, obviously, because heâs inho and emotional honesty is illegal, but it just eats him alive how easily gihun slides into the space he used to occupy in junhoâs life.
like imagine being inho. your entire identity used to be âolder brother/parental figureâ and now youâre a trauma-riddled ex-frontman who canât walk ten steps without pain and canât look your brother in the eye without remembering what you became. and the guy who blew up your entire philosophyâgihunâis just⊠better at being a human than you. better at being a hyung than you.
and inho sees that and just quietly crumbles because itâs not even jealousy exactlyâitâs more like this awful realisation that this is what junho always needed. gihun takes care of him, and he does it well. like itâs second nature. and junho leans into it without even realising heâs doing it. like this is the kind of care heâs been starving for.
inhoâs just there. watching it happen. watching them fall into this rhythm where gihun becomes the emotional anchor, the person junho turns to first, the one he trusts with the scared parts.
and then it happens. the moment that breaks him. junho calls gihun âhyung.â like itâs nothing. like it hasnât just knocked the fucking air out of inhoâs chest. because that word used to mean something. it used to be the last piece of who he was. the only thing left that said, you were important to him. you mattered. you were his older brother.
and now itâs not his anymore.
and the worst part? gihun doesnât even flinch when he hears it. he just answers. like itâs normal. like itâs fine. because to him, it is. but for inho, itâs shattering. because it makes everything real. this quiet little shift heâs been trying not to notice. the way junho doesnât look at him the same. the way he flinches sometimes when inho comes close, not from fear, but from memory. the way he laughs freely with gihun, like the weightâs been lifted, like he can finally breathe.
and inho just stands there, heart in pieces, thinking: i was supposed to be that. i was supposed to be the one who kept him safe. but he wasnât. he didnât. he hurt him. and now someone else does it better. and without meaning to, without asking for it, gihun became the version of âhyungâ that junho always deserved. it doesnât belong to him. and the echo of it, floating casually from junhoâs mouth in someone elseâs direction, is worse than silence. itâs a replacement and it hurts like hell.
but he doesnât say a word. because what could he even say? he lost the right to that name the moment he stopped being the man who earned it.
(side note itâs a complex for a reason. junho still loves him to pieces and inho is too blind and traumatised to see it)