Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

The next morning they all woke with uncomfortable cramps and dead phones. At some point, Joshua had laid a big comforter over all three of them, but sleeping on the cold floor would take its toll on anyone.

Joshua got up to make them coffee and plug their phones into chargers. Jeonghan whined at the loss of warmth, turning over so he was half on top of Seungcheol and nuzzled his face into the crook between Seungcehol’s neck and shoulder.

Seungcheol giggled as his soft breathing tickled the side of his neck, which made Jeonghan whine again.

“Be considerate here, I’m trying to sleep,” He groaned with a huff, which made Seungcheol giggle all over again. Jeonghan peered up at him with mischievous eyes. “Your laugh is so fucking cute oh my god.”

Seungcheol’s eyes widened and he felt himself flush, “You can’t just say that!”

“I can’t compliment you? What if you deserve to be complicated because of how wonderful you are,” Jeonghan replied, obviously enjoying it as Seungcheol got redder and tried to hide his face in his hands. Jeonghan scrambled to pull the hands away from Seungcheol’s face with a bright laugh. “No don’t! I love it when I get you to blush.”

Joshua came back and crouched besides them with a fond smile, “Teasing Cheol again?”

“He’s just so cute Shua!”

“Shut up Jeonghan!”

Joshua chuckled and reached out, ruffling Jeonghan and then Seungcheol’s hair, “He is, isn’t he? So are you though, don’t forget.”

Seungcheol scoffed, “As if he could ever.” He teased.

Jeonghan ignored him in favor of reaching out and taking Joshua’s hand in his own, “You’re also cute Joshuji!”

“Thank you Hannie. You two ready for breakfast? I could make something or we could meet some of the others down at the diner on 4th street.” Joshua said. His voice was deeper than usual and his movements were sluggish, the telltale signs he was still sleepy.

“Let’s meet the others!” Jeonghan said, “Is it stupid that I already miss them? Cause I already miss those idiots.”

“Not stupid, I miss them too,” Seungcheol admitted, “Though I will never willingly tell them that.”

“Don’t you think it’s weird that you two don’t want our friends to know how much you love and care about them?” Joshua asked, helping Jeonghan to his feet before reaching out a hand and helping Seungcheol up as well.

“If they knew they could use it against me.” Jeonghan said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Joshua shook his head in exasperation, “They already use it against you, you blind idiot.”

“Am not!”

“Are too!”

“You’re the idiot!”

“This is a stupid argument.”

“You started it!” Jeonghan huffed and crossed his arms.

“ You started it!” Joshua was laughing, pushing at Jeonghan to go to the kitchen where the coffee pot was ready. “Coups who started it?”

“Does it matter?” Seungcheol absolutely did not want to be pulled into the middle of one of their stupid arguments.

Jeonghan and Joshua shared a look before rounding fully on Seungcheol.

“Are you saying our words don’t matter?”

“It’s like you don’t even pay attention to us anymore.”

Seungcheol buried his head in his hands with a pitiful groan, “Lord spare me.”

They all waited for their phones to charge a little while sipping languidly on the coffee. They were up earlier than normal due to the natural light coming in through the window they had fallen asleep in front of, but the peaceful morning made up for the early hours. Seungcheol was never the biggest fan of coffee, he usually defaulted to hot chocolate even though his friends gave him shit for it, but Joshua’s coffee was always sweeter and milkier, appealing to Seungcheol’s sweet tooth.

Joshua’s phone was the first to chime with a text from Jihoon about breakfast. The juniors had all spent the night at Wonwoo’s and were all trying to rally the rest of their friends for a breakfast date. Joshua confirmed that they would be there and relayed the information to Seungcheol and Jeonghan, who high fived at the news.

Seungcheol sometimes got concerned that they were too codependent, it wouldn’t fare well for any of them next year with the seniors graduated and off to college.

Then Seungcheol remembered how they were all Jeonghan had. How Joshua had no one else to rely on here. How Soonyoung’s parents were never appeased with their son’s accomplishments, how Jun wasn’t even on speaking terms with his birth parents. Wonwoo worked since he was 13 to support himself and his mom, Jihoon hid his music from his parents. Mingyu’s parents unintentionally favored his little sister, Minghao lived with his cousin to avoid his turbulent home, Seokmin’s parents loved him but lived vicariously through his life, and Seungkwan’s pressured him away from art. Hansol was the middle man to his parent’s fights and Chan had to lie about dancing to meet his parent’s expectations.

So what if they were codependent. It was better than being left on their own.

Joshua let them borrow some clean clothes which ended up being a tad too big on Jeonghan and a tad too small on Seungcheol, despite them all being relatively the same height. Jeonghan was blessed with a simple button up and cardigan combo while Seungcheol was left with one of Joshua’s hoodies that pulled a bit tight over his arms. Joshua had laughed behind his hand when he had seen his friends in his clothes, but complimented them nonetheless.

They slowly got more texts from their friends confirming that they would also be there. Seokmin, Mingyu, and Minghao were already together for a photography assignment that they were doing together and they were excited at the prospect of being able to put off their work a little longer. The freshmen were also all excited to just be able to get away from their homes and have an excuse to ignore their homework for a few hours.

At a quarter to nine, the three set off from Joshua’s. It was a brisk but sunny day and already the streets of the city were bustling with activity.

The diner wasn’t one that they necessarily frequented together, not like the coffee shop near school or the chinese place down the road from Wonwoo’s house, but they went there often enough to know everyone’s order and the staff knew them as “the rowdy but polite boys”. It was a quaint, tucked away spot that had been in the neighborhood for years. Down a back side street off the main road, it served breakfast all day and had a loyal group of regulars.

The bells above the door jingled as Joshua pushed it open, stepping inside and holding the door for Jeonghan and Seungcheol to follow. Seungkwan, Chan, Seokmin, Mingyu, and Minghao were already seated at their usual table by the side window, talking rather loudly for how quiet the rest of the restaurant was.

“Shua’s here! Let’s just ask him,” Seungkwan said, “Google translate is a little bitch anyways.”

Joshua glanced at Seungcheol and Jeonghan with a raised eyebrow but led the way to the others anyways, “Ask me what?”

“How to pronounce squirrel in english,” Chan said, “Mingyu-hyung claims he’s getting it right but it sounds different from how google translate is doing it.”

“Why are you guys talking about this anyways?” Jeonghan asked as he took the unclaimed seat besides Seokmin.

“Well Minghao was talking about how they saw a squirrel on the way over that was apparently really cute and reminded him of Seungkwan, which made Seungkwan mad because he doesn’t like squirrels after that one attacked him at the park-” Seokmin stopped to take a gasping breath of air before continuing, “- so then Minghao said it was supposed to be a compliment and they got in an argument and Mingyu was quiet for like, the longest time, before asking us how to say squirrel in english because he wanted to know how to piss Seungkwan off in multiple languages.”

Minghao made a grand gesture towards the table, “Thus began the stupidest argument I’ve ever been involved in.”

Seungcheol laughed at his dongsaengs antics and took a seat beside Seungkwan, across from Jeonghan. Joshua slid into the seat next to him a moment later and gave his shoulder a playful bump in greeting.

“Hey congrats hyungs!” Seokmin suddenly said with a wide grin, “We heard about the college admissions.”

“I called you, you dork.” Jeonghan said.

Seokmin shushed him urgently, “Let me look like a good dongsaeng for knowing something the rest don’t.”

“Sorry to tell you Seok, but we all knew. Soonyoung-hyung texted us.” Mingyu teased.

Seokmin gasped dramatically, “Who betrayed me in such a way. Who? Who dared take away my moment.”

“Shouldn’t it be our moment,” Seungcheol asked, “You know, since we were the ones who actually got into international colleges and everything.”

“I just wanted to show how good of a dongsaeng I was,” Seokmin pouted and Jeonghan placed a placating hand on the younger’s shoulder.

“The best dongsaeng, Seokminnie, don’t let meanie Cheol tell you differently.”

“Yah!” Minghao cried.

“What about us?” Chan asked, gesturing to the rest of the table.
Jeonghan waved them off, “Acquaintances, that’s all you guys are.”

“How did Soonyoung-hyung know anyways?” Seungkwan asked. “Oh, they’re here!”

The juniors were making their way to the table with tired smiles. Their clothes were all rumpled and they had dark circles beneath puffy eyes and instantly Seungcheol’s protective instinct kicked in.

“Did you stay up working on your project again?” Joshua asked, arm reaching out to pull Jihoon into his side. Jihoon, uncharacteristically, went willingly and slumped tiredly against the elder, “Jesus, I can feel the exhaustion coming off of you in waves.”

“We were up all night working on that dumb project,” Soonyoung complained as he slumped into the empty seat besides Chan.

“I’ve never hated school as much as I do right now,” Jun chimed in, sliding into the seat at the head of the table, “Seriously this project is going to be the death of me.”

Wonwoo had already claimed the seat besides Mingyu and was tucked into the younger’s side, “We’ve all been working on this for like a week already and we’re not even through the research. It’s impossible.” Wonwoo whined, another uncharacteristic thing. “I think I could fall asleep right here.”

“Is it the science project where you have to teach a class on your own?” Jeonghan asked. He had had the same class last year and knew of the torture of the project.

“Yes!” Soonyoung said, “We have to teach the class about sustainability by making a model of a house that is entirely sustainable.”

“We have to make a presentation about household sustainability, have a worksheet or other ‘engaging project’ for the class, prepare a home video to demonstrate it, and have a full model of the house we design and a final research paper.” Jihoon listed off.

“And it all has to fit in one class period.” Wonwoo added, “You can’t just teach sustainability in one class period. There’s a lot to it!”

Mingyu was frowning and looking down at the boy in his arms. Wonwoo’s glasses were slightly askew and his hair was sticking at odd angles. The other juniors were in a similar boat and Jun in particular looked ready to keel over and sleep for a week straight.

Seungcheol frowned as he looked at his tired dongsaengs, “When was the last time you guys got a good, full night’s rest.”

Jihoon scoffed at the idea and Soonyoung chuckled humorlessly, “Unless you call last Saturday at your house a ‘full night’s rest’ then I don’t think we’ve been sleeping properly since winter break.”

“Probably summer break if we’re being honest. God I hate junior year,” Wonwoo confessed. Mingyu’s hold on the older tightened and he shot Seungcheol a wide eyed look.

Jeonghan’s eyebrows were pulled together, “I know the feeling, but you guys should take a day off and rest, catch up on sleep, relax, take care of yourselves.”

“We did that last weekend,” Jun reminded him, “Our teachers are really dead set on torturing us with an unreasonable amount of work right now for some reason.”

“How about after breakfast you all go collect your school work and come over to my house. I can help you with your assignments and hopefully give you the afternoon off to just rest for a little.” Seungcheol offered, though he knew his tone was more demanding than questioning. He had noticed the juniors seeming more and more tired and worn down, but his own assignments and college issues were keeping him preoccupied. Now, it was a bit too much to ignore.

“I can come and help too!” Jeonghan offered, “I took most of your classes anyways, so I know what the teachers are looking for on the projects.”

“I’ll come too,” Joshua said, “I can’t help with the electives that you guys are taking because I had to take Korean, but the core classes were the same and I did fairly good in those.”

The juniors looked between each other and the seniors before Jun hesitantly agreed for all of them.

“Hello!” Hansol greeted them suddenly, “Sorry I’m so late. Parents were being stupid again.”

He plopped down in the final seat besides Jeonghan and looked between everyone with a gentle smile, “What’d I miss.”

Their breakfast flowed smoothly after the juniors had gotten some caffeine in them and looked more alive than dead. Seungcheol tried to talk to all the dongsaengs, but Seungkwan and Chan basically demanded his attention the entire time.

They ordered a lot of food and ended up just passing the dishes around for everyone to try. At one point, Soonyoung tried to hide the blueberry waffles for himself and ended up getting a piece of toast in his face from Minghao.

The freshmen decided to join the upperclassmen in their impromptu study date to get extra tutoring and the sophomores agreed to come over once they had finished taking pictures so they could edit the pictures at Seungcheol’s.

Which, of course, left Seungcheol scrambling to coordinate snacks and rides for everyone and trying to get a rough plan of how the whole day would go.

His fellow seniors swore to help him with everything, but Jeonghan dipped once he heard that Seungcheol needed to clean and Joshua excused himself when he realized he had to help with rides.

“Sorry, Cheol, I really would, but last time I drove our maknaes they played Doja Cat the entire time and spilled a giant pixie stick all over the back of my car.”

Seungcheol had rolled his eyes at the pair but let them go their own ways to collect their school supplies and get washed up and ready for the day. He did, somehow, manage to coerce Jeonghan into buying snacks and drinks from the market though, which was more than he expected of the other.

Seungcheol made his way home on the bus and was greeted by an empty house, once again. Besides his parents’ jobs requiring them to go away once a month, he also had a cousin who had just given birth three hours away. Seungcheol’s parents had been going to help the family take care of the newborn for the past few weeks, resulting in them being gone on odd weekends at a time. Not that Seungcheol really minded, he loved his parents and considered him one of the luckier kids of their friend group when it came to family relations, but his parents had gotten more overbearing about college and he needed the breather from them every now and again.

There wasn’t much work to be done and Seungcheol was quick in getting everything cleaned up. He shuffled the playlist that Hansol had made him and let himself get distracted in preparing everything.

It was just past 11 when Jeonghan and Seungkwan barged in together, each carrying two bags of groceries. Seungcheol startled so hard he dropped the towel he had been using to clean the windows and it covered his head.

“Yah, you klutz,” Jeonghan said around his laughter as he pulled the towel off of Seungcheol’s head.

“Hyung I knew you were easily startled but that-”

Seungcheol cut Seungkwan off, “Finish that sentence and see how you end up.”

Seungkwan mimed zipping his lips shut and throwing the key with such force he nearly toppled over himself.

“We brought chips, candy, juice boxes, some weird European snacks that are shaped like hippos that Seungkwan nearly cried when he saw, and cheese and crackers,” Jeonghan listed off, making his way to the kitchen with the other two trailing behind, “We tried to get something for everyone, but honestly I can’t keep up with Chan’s taste buds half the time and we decided it would be fun if we got some things that we don’t usually get. Y’know, to liven things up a little.”

“Whenever you say you want to liven things up, something bad happens,” Seungcheol said, starting to go through the bags with a bit of hesitancy. He should’ve known that Jeonghan would want to pull something like this. For all the maturity the boy held, he still couldn’t help but be playful when the chance arose.

“I tried to stop him, hyung, I swear.” Seungkwan said as Seungcheol pulled out anchovy chips with a frown. “Well I tried to stop him but really who am I to say no to my amazing hyung, so from the goodness of my heart I decided to help a poor soul in need.”

“I offered him coffee and he was all mine.” Jeonghan corrected. “Easiest dongsaeng to manipulate.”

“I’m right here.”

“I know. That’s how easy you are.”

Seungkwan pulled his hand back as if he were going to hit Jeonghan but stopped himself, probably knowing the repercussions would be much worse.

Seungcheol continued rifling through the first bag, which was full of mostly reasonable things besides the anchovy chips. There was a bottle of cranberry juice in there that none of the friends would like, but Seungcheol’s parents loved that crap so he assumed it was for them.

The second bag, however, was home to freeze dried sardines, wasabi covered banana chips, and some strange orange jelly candies that Seungcheol refused to even touch.

“Why must you find torture to be so fun?” Seungcheol asked Jeonghan with a shake of his head as he pulled the items from the bag.

“It’s not torture it’s just fun!” Jeonghan replied all too happily.

Seungkwan raised his hand, “As someone who has been both on the planning side and on the receiving side, I can confirm it is both fun and torture.”

Jeonghan rolled his eyes at that but didn’t protest. Jeonghan adored Seungkwan, anyone could see how much he coddled the kid, but Seungkwan was also one of Jeonghan’s most common targets for these ridiculous pranks.

“It’ll be fun and funny and it will lighten the mood. I can say for certain that it will give Jun and Soonyoung a good laugh,” Jeonghan explained himself in a slightly lower tone to Seungcheol.

As much as Seungcheol complained about Jeonghan’s pranking and jokes, the other boy did always know how to make the others laugh. The juniors could all use some light hearted teasing right now, and who better than their own Yoon Jeonghan to do it.

Seungcheol reached out and brushed at Jeonghan’s hair gently, “I know, it’s a good idea. And hey, at least now I know about it and can’t be a victim of whatever you’re plotting.”

Jeonghan smirked and Seungcheol felt his heart drop. That was never a good thing. 

“Well actually, my lovely Cheollie, we need you to taste test everything.” Jeonghan said, already dragging Seungcheol to sit at the counter. He gestured vaguely to Seungkwan, who seemed to take the hint and began opening up all the horrible snacks. “You see, I have such a poor, weak stomach that I can’t handle foods like these. And our little Kwannie has a vocal competition coming up, so we can’t risk anything by giving him questionable foods. Which of course, leaves only you to try these and tell us if they work.”

“No way. I can tell you now that they work! Please don’t make me.” Seungcheol pleaded, though it didn’t sound very sincere because of his laughing. “No no  no-”

“Say ah-” Jeonghan said, bringing one of the anchovy chips up to Seungcheol’s mouth. Seungcheol tried in vain to turn his head away, but he was laughing too much to close his mouth and the overly salty chip found its way in.

Seungcheol sputtered around it but Jeonghan kept a hand firmly over his mouth, urging him to chew. Seungcheol tried to send either of his friends pleading eyes, he had heard he was pretty good at them, but their laughter overruled any type of sympathy they might have had.

“It’s honestly not so bad,” Seungcheol confessed once Jeonghan had removed his hand, “Like I wouldn't go out and buy these on my own, but I would snack on them if someone offered them to me.”

Jeonghan’s face lit up and he looked to Seungkwan with a triumphant smile. “I told you, you owe me.”

“Goddamnit hyung, you couldn’t get annoyed with Jeonghan just this once?” Seungkwan whined, already reaching into his pocket to pull out the petty cash they had bet on.

“I always get annoyed… What’s going on?” Seungcheol asked.

Jeonghan snatched the bill from Seungkwan’s hand with a happy huff and flounced away into the living room, grabbing a juice box as he went.

Seungkwan rolled his eyes at his hyung’s behavior, “I bet that Jeonghannie-hyung couldn’t make you eat one of those and not get annoyed. He knew you wouldn’t get annoyed.”

“Sorry Cheol,” Jeonghan called, “There’s no way you would actually like anchovy chips, the sight of them makes you gag. And I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist me.”

“Jesus Han,” Seungcheol sighed but couldn’t help the small giggle that escaped him. Of course Jeonghan knew of his particular distaste in anchovies. And of course he used it in one of his ridiculous pranks, though with no ill intent meant. “At least I got you some money right.”

Jeonghan ruffled around in the living room for a second before appearing in the kitchen, laughing giddily as he made his way to Seungcheol. Once he was right in front of the older, he put his hands on either of Seungcheol’s cheeks and squished them together gently.

“You, Choi Seungcheol Junior-”

“- I hate that you continue to use that nickname-”

“- Just won me five hundred won from our dearest Boo, so thank you, you brilliant being.” 

And then he was gone again, Seungkwan trailing behind him and shouting an annoyed, “You two are so weird together.”

The rest of the group did not arrive with nearly as much gusto as Seungkwan and Jeonghan. Joshua dragged Hansol and Chan in who were complaining about not being able to stop for burgers on their way over. They shut up when Jeonghan procured sour cream and onion Pringles for Hansol and pizza Goldfish for Chan, their favorite snacks. Wonwoo, Jun, and Soonyoung all came in a sleepy, dazed heap, the morning coffee that they had had was already worn off. Wonwoo nearly fell asleep against Seungcheol’s side once he sat down, but Seungcheol roused the boy with some mini Oreos and a coffee drink. Jihoon arrived only minutes later, toting the model part of their project and calling frantically for help when the wind nearly blew it away.

Joshua herded the freshmen to the dining room table, still within eyeshot of the living room. He set them each up with whatever their most pressing assignment was and flitted between them, helping when he was needed. Hansol with his Korean literature, Chan with his English literature, and Seungkwan with his maths, predictably.

Seungcheol and Jeonghan took charge of the juniors. The pair got the weary foursome comfortable on pillows on the living room ground in a lopsided circle. First, they walked through the project guidelines with the group, Jeonghan clarifying vague directions and highlighting what the teacher focused on most. Jeonghan then took charge of going over what they had done for the project so far, fact checking research with them and offering suggestions for the powerpoint presentation. In the meantime, Seungcheol corrected their maths worksheets, making notes of what their most common mistakes were.

Study groups like this weren’t uncommon, perse, but they weren’t as common as any of them really liked. The seniors, who had been through these courses before, were happy to help. Joshua had once remarked that he hadn’t had such thorough guidance when he was struggling through his Korean courses, and was happy to offer what he could to Hansol. Jeonghan and Seungcheol had shared a knowing look. High school hadn’t been easy on either of them, socially or academically, and so they too, were happy to help their younger friends through the stressful ordeal.

Once Jeonghan felt as though they understood the directions and were on a good pace, he sent them off with different tasks, something that the overworked group hadn’t thought to do. Wonwoo and Jihoon, eternally good with words and language, began crafting the outline for their research essay that Jeonghan would edit in three days, the tentative due date that the senior had set up for them. Junhui and Soonyoung, ever the creative minds, began brainstorming ideas for the class worksheet that Jeonghan would go over in a few hours.

With the tasks set, Jeonghan settled besides Seungcheol, placing a bag of Sour Patch Kids at their feet and balancing his laptop on his knees. Seungcheol continued with the math worksheets, overwhelmed by how much the teacher had assigned, while Jeonghan began editing their Korean literature essays.

Time passed rather quickly after that. Joshua would come and check on them periodically, occasionally asking Seungcheol questions about Seungkwan’s math homework. He would bring them water and ruffle their hair affectionately before returning to the freshmen. Soon, the sun was dipping through the windows at a low angle as evening approached.

The sophomores arrived shortly after 4 that afternoon in a bustling group. Their arrival allowed for a short but welcome distraction from the work as they talked about their day photographing the city. Seungcheol managed to - miraculously - calm the three down and moved them to the living room couch where they began to download and edit their pictures.

For a moment, Seungcheol watched his friends move comfortably around his house, around each other. He felt warmth blossom as he surveyed everyone helping each other or welcoming the guidance. Even Chan, their coveted and protected youngest, was explaining the analysis of a passage to Hansol, doing his part to help.

Without meaning to, Seungcheol sighed happily, a soft smile gracing his lips. Through the kitchen doorway, Joshua met his eyes with a questioning gaze of his own. But Seungcheol couldn’t explain what he was feeling, and didn’t quite want to, so he just shook his head.

“I think we’re good for the day.” Jeonghan’s soft voice from besides him startled him from his reverie. “The juniors all got caught up in their classes and the freshmen have all their assignments done and ready to be turned in. We did good.”

Seungcheol turned to the other and smiled gratefully, “We did good.” He echoed, “Did your snacks work out okay?”

Jeonghan rolled his eyes just as Joshua came to sling an arm around his shoulders, “I managed to get Soonyoung, Junhui, Channie, and surprisingly Wonwoo. Jihoon knew right away, Mingyu took one look at it and threw it in my face, I didn’t try Seokminnie or Haohao cause I felt too bad, and Hansollie only took it because he felt bad for me. He said he didn’t want to hurt my feelings.”

Joshua laughed, a single, bright sound, “Sounds like our Sollie.”

“Can’t believe you got Wonwoo. Careful, you might invoke his and Mingyu’s wrath.” Seungcheol warned teasingly.

“I’d like to see them try.”

“No one’s invincible, Hannie, I thought you figured that out the last time you messed with Mingyu.” Joshua quipped.

Jeonghan huffed in mock irritation, “He’s a big baby, I didn’t even really do anything bad. He didn’t have to retaliate like that.”

“You convinced him he had written an essay for the wrong book. He deleted his entire essay and stayed up all night trying to write a new one for a book he never even read.” Seungcheol pointed out. It had been funny seeing Mingyu’s panicked texts in their groupchat as he tried to get someone to explain the plot of the book.

“ But ,” Jeonghan nudged at both of them, “but I saved his essay beforehand and I was the one who stayed with him while he ‘wrote’. The boy was talking too much to really be considered writing.”

“Han-” Joshua tried. Joshua had been the unfortunate receiver of a handful of calls that night from Mingyu freaking out and Jeonghan laughing his ass off.

“And I treated him to dinner the next night. I called it even.”

Seungcheol scoffed. As if that could make things even. “Sure it did. I still say he was justified in his revenge.”

“That’s because you’re a dumbass who hates me.” Jeonghan leaned closer into Joshua’s side with a pitiful whimper, “Joshuji hold me, Cheollie is attacking me again. He’s so cruel .”

Joshua gasped and pulled Jeonghan close before sticking his tongue out at Seungcheol, “You dare hurt my Hannie. Evil bastard.”

“Yeah! Evil bastard.” Jeonghan echoed, looking much too happy about this.

“How is it that I’m the oldest and yet the one who’s most picked on. Explain that to me.” Seungcheol complained.

“Bottom of the food chain,” Jeonghan singsonged.

“Age has nothing to do with teasing, young Cheol, you’re just too much fun to mess with.” Joshua explained in a placating tone, as if explaining something to a distressed child.

Seungcheol had the urge to hit them both. “You two need a different past time.”

Jeonghan laughed, “You flatter yourself Seungcheol, you’re not time consuming enough to be our past time.”

“I hate you both.”

Wonwoo scoffed as he moved around them into the kitchen, “That’s the biggest lie I’ve ever heard.”

“Shut up Woo. Go back to Mingyu.”

Wonwoo made a face but didn’t object. At this point, he knew better than to even try.

With Wonwoo gone, Seungcheol looked to the other two, still cuddled close, and asked, “Dinner?”

“Yes please.”

Seungcheol rolled his eyes. Jeonghan really knew how to avoid work. “I meant what should we make for dinner. Or should we order in?”

Seungcheol had to pick and choose his ‘battles’ with Jeonghan, especially if Joshua was by his side.

“Cooking might be fun.” Jeonghan easily let up on the teasing.

Joshua’s eyes widened, “ Not if you’re in the kitchen, it’s not.”

“Han can keep the, uh, less talented chefs away from the kitchen while the rest of us make something. How does that sound?” Seungcheol offered them. Instantly, Jeonghan frowned.

“What do you mean, less talented chefs? Are you implying that I can’t cook up a storm if I wanted to?” Jeonghan asked, sounding mildly offended, though Seugncheol was sure it was just for show.

“An inedible storm, sure.” Joshua replied drily, ducking just in time to dodge the fist that came at him.

“No one’s implying you’re a bad chef Jeonghan,” Seungcheol tried to appease, “We’re telling you outright that anything you make would give us all food poisoning.”

“Yah!”

“ But now you get out of extra work so why are you complaining?” Seungcheol pointed out. Years of dealing with Jeonghan’s dramatics had fine tuned him in how to go about convincing the boy. The only problem was, with someone like Jeonghan, he only got convinced if he wanted to. The boy could be incredibly stubborn if he wished to put the effort in.

“Oh,” Jeonghan stopped short of hitting Seungcheol’s shoulder and pulled back, snorting, “Idiots, now you have to do all the cooking and I can have my pick of which dongsaengs to hang out with.”

“No way, you’ll just take Seokmin and Junnie and leave us with Wonwoo and Soonyoung.” Joshua argued, “And there’s no way I’m dealing with those two in the kitchen.”

“And Chan.”

“What?”

“I want Junnie, Seokminnie, and Channie.” Jeonghan clarified with a coy shrug.

Joshua threw his hands up as Seungcheol buried his face in his hands, “Oh my god, you’re impossible!”

Jeonghan giggled, “I’m kidding I’m kidding,  I’ll take whoever you deem unfit for cooking and show them a good time.”

Seungcheol sighed, “Don’t… don’t say it like that, god Han.”

Jeonghan cackled, head thrown back and nose scrunched up, drawing the attention of the rest of the group. Seungcheol saw Jun beaming at his hyung, Mingyu sending him a confused but happy glance, Seokmin chuckling slightly. 

Joshua nudged Jeonghan, “You’re drawing attention to us you dork.”

“Your attention should always be on me.” Jeonghan pointed out, breathless from laughing.

“It’s hard for it not to be,” Seungcheol muttered, feeling himself flush right after once he realized what he had said.

Joshua scoffed at that and knocked his shoulder against Seungcheol. Jeonghan grinned at them. Seungcheol was struck, yet again, with just how fond he was of the pair. But, like the coward he was, curses, he gently pushed the two away.

“Off with you, we have work to do. Joshua, start getting the ingredients out, Hansol and Seungkwan can help with the chopping. Jeonghan, go get Soonyoung, Wonwoo, and Channie and keep them out of the kitchen. I do not want a repeat of the ramen incident.” Seungcheol commanded.

Jeonghan and Joshua let out matching whines, at being told what to do or being separated, Seungcheol wasn’t sure.

“But that night was so fun ,” Jeonghan whined in his high pitched, slightly raspy voice. “Maybe it wasn’t good but it made memories!”

“It was the hardest I’ve seen you laugh in a long time, Cheol.” Joshua was pouting , but the corners of his lips were twitching upwards in ill concealed amusement.

“I got assaulted by ramen noodles!”

“You lost the bet!”

“Because you two cheated and went behind my back!” Seungcheol argued. Jeonghan and Joshua were doubled over in laughter, likely remembering the incident with much more fondness than Seungcheol ever could. “You guys just wanted me to have the punishment.”

Joshua gasped, affronted, “You dare accuse us of fraud ?” He gestured between him and Jeonghan, his voice getting progressively higher, “ Us? Really?”

Jeonghan shook his head sadly, “It’s like you don’t even know us. We would never.”

“Oh my god, I can’t deal with this.” Seungcheol pushed them again, this time shoving Joshua into the kitchen and Jeonghan further into the living room. “Go, now, before I switch your jobs and force Jeonghan to work and Jisoo to eat his horrible food.”

“Damn I love it when you manhandle us,” Joshua said with a coy wink.

“Jesus Cheol, you can’t use that tone and push us around only to leave us high and dry,” Jeonghan teased, though his cheeks were turning a bright pink.

“Oh? You guys like when I tell you what to do?” Seungcheol replied in a low tone.

Joshua’s eyes widened, “Love it.”

“Well then get your asses going. Dinner’s not gonna cook itself.” Seungcheol said, before adding a rough, “ Now .”

“Good lord,” Joshua said, swallowing.

Jeonghan was smirking, cheeks flushed, “Damn Cheollie, if you’re gonna talk to us like that, you better be prepared to deal with the mess you make.”

Seungcheol cocked an eyebrow. Flirting like this was the only time he ever even remotely had an upper hand on the other two. “Oh trust me, angel, I know just how to make you a mess.”

Jeonghan squeaked, “Dear god, Cheol, when did you learn to talk like that.”

“Years of dealing with your bratty asses. Dinner. Go.”

“Yes sir.” Jeonghan replied, looking all too happy with himself as he meandered into the living room.

Joshua sent him a fake salute before turning to go to the kitchen, rallying the kids to help with dinner.

Seungcheol took a second to calm his , admittedly, wildly beating heart. Sure it was easy to act all unbothered and teasing, but it took as much of a toll on Seungcheol as - he guessed - it took on the other two.

Seungcheol’s mind began to whirl as he thought over their conversation, all the implications, the flirting, the obvious attraction. But was it so obvious? Jeonghan was open and flirty with most friends, only overly so with Joshua and Seungcheol, so Seungcheol was never sure if he was ministerpreting something with him. And Joshua was a whole other case. Though Joshua was never truly flirty with others, he still fed off of Jeonghan’s ministrations, so Seungcheol supposed that the flirting could be another level to their strange relationship.

There were times Seungcheol was near certain they were on the same page, that all his pining and adoration went both ways. But Seungcheol was a chronic overthinker and sometimes, like now, standing amidst his closest friends who were all in good spirits, he began to spiral and twist their interactions.

Seungcheol physically shook his head and plastered a smile on his face. These were thoughts for later, but for now, he had twelve hungry and tired boys to look after.

Unsurprisingly, several messes were made in the process of making dinner. For one, Seungkwan poured entirely too much salt at one point and they had to throw the entire mix out. Hansol and Seokmin managed to clog the garbage disposal, then proceeded to film it as chunks of vegetables and meat came flying out and landed on an unattractive glob on Jihoon. They were quickly banned from the kitchen afterwards and joined the group in the living room who were playing a lively round of Just Dance. 

And, of course, no one seemed to pay attention long enough to keep track of how long things had been in the oven or on the stove, resulting in over cooked rice and under cooked vegetables.

But, by the time everyone was dishing themselves dinner, everything seemed to have turned out fine.

Seungcheol subtly high fived Joshua when the others weren’t looking.

Dinner was always an eventful ordeal when all 13 of them were gathered, and this time was no different.

“I felt screwed in the pooch!” Chan finished his story with wide, earnest eyes.

Minghao snorted into his drink, choking slightly, “I’m sorry you felt what ?”

“Like I was screwed in the pooch.” Chan repeated, looking at his hyungs with furrowed brows, “It’s when-”

“Chan it’s not ‘screwed in the pooch’, it’s ‘screwed the pooch’.” Minghao clarified, laughing, “You thought the saying was screwed in the pooch?”

“That’s what…” Chan trailed off and his gaze whipped around to Seungkwan, who was close to tears as he held his laughter in, clutching at his stomach, “You little shit !”

Chan lunged towards Seungkwan, who scrambled from his seat and ran along the back of the couch, causing Wonwoo, Jihoon, Jun, and Seokmin to have to dive forwards to avoid being trampled on. Chan followed behind him, chasing him through the living room and into the kitchen, their shrieks echoing around the house.

“I’m sorry I’m sorry!” Seungkwan cried as he ducked underneath Chan’s outstretched arms and scurried back into the living room, all but throwing himself at Seungcheol in an attempt for safety, “I didn’t think you would ever really use the saying! I thought it would be funny.”

Seungcheol had just enough intuition to lift his drink up as Seungkwan barreled into his chest and knocked him backwards, his drink miraculously only spilling slightly.

“Hyung can’t save you now!” Chan declared.

“No no no Chan!” Seungcheol called uselessly as the youngest threw himself at the pair on the ground, landing with a loud oof . “Someone help .”

Very helpfully, Jeonghan took Seungcheol’s drink from his hand and took a sip, before returning it to Seungcheol’s grip.

There was a beat of silence before, “ Die you utter plebeian!” Chan shouted.

Seungkwan convulsed as Chan’s fingers dug into his sides and he writhed around, laughing.

“Chan I’m sorry,” He cried out uselessly, attempting, and completely failing, to get out from beneath the younger, “Please, please, I’m sorry, so so sorry, please oh god.”

“Take it! Take your punishment, you disgrace .”

Seungcheol let his head fall back on the ground and let the freshmen do as they pleased. He wouldn’t be getting anywhere anytime soon.

Once Chan was satisfied with his punishment and Seungkwan could barely breathe because of how hard he was laughing, Chan removed himself with a self appraising, “Good job.”

Joshua had to help Seungkwan up, who all but slumped into the elder’s arms as he wiped the tears from his eyes, still chuckling.

“Was it worth it?” Joshua asked.

Seungkwan’s eyes, despite the torture, were still alight with mirth, “So so worth it.”

Around them, the laughter subsided as everyone continued to eat. Jun took the lapse in conversation to start his own story

“So there I was, 11th grade washup-”

Their stories continued much like that. Mingyu and Minghao talked about the psychic they had visited earlier in the day who predicted they would have a baby within the year, only to hastily take it back when she learned they were still in high school.

Jihoon tried to top it by talking about the time someone misdialed him from the holding cell at the police station. The guy, distraught because he had used his one phone call on a complete stranger, tried to get Jihoon to bail him out in exchange for half a year’s supply of weed.

Which, of course, led to Jeonghan telling about the time that the police had shut down a party he had gone to in 11th grade. In his hurry to get away, him and a Japanese student named Yuta had climbed a tree, only to realize they were too drunk to work their way back down. By the morning, after having slept in a tree for 2 hours and exchanging their deepest, darkest secrets, they figured out they were only around 6 feet off the ground and there was a ladder leaning on the other side.

“An unbreakable bond was made that night.” Jeonghan lamented with a raise of his glass as their friends doubled over with laughter around them. “Though I admit, that wasn’t the worst ‘escaping the cops’ story I have.”

Instantly the younger kids, who hadn’t heard most of Jeonghan’s stories, perked up and leaned forward, eagerness painted across their faces.

“What is it! Tell us.”

Jeonghan merely winked eliciting groans from them.

“You keep too many stories to yourself,” Seungkwan griped, slumping backwards to lean against the couch.

“Hey! I gotta keep up my elusive, mysterious image,” Jeonghan defended himself, making several of them snort and Joshua outright laugh.

Joshua reached behind Seungcheol to pat Jeonghan’s upper arm, “Sorry, Yoon, but you’ve never had anything but a bothersome image.”

“Fuck you, toe sucker,” Jeonghan bit back, also reaching around Seungcheol to smack at Joshua. Joshua batted the hands away from him with a laugh and they began poking at each other, their arms continually hitting Seungcheol’s back and knocking him forward.

Seungcheol knew for a fact that the pair knew what they were doing and were just trying to annoy him. From the looks on his dongsaengs faces, they also knew and were trying in vain to keep from laughing

Seungcheol bit his lip and closed his eyes, willing away the annoyance and letting the two do as they pleased. But that only urged them on further, looking for any reaction from the eldest. Seungcheol tilted his head up and took a deep breath. Joshua elbowed him so hard between his shoulders blades he went tumbling forward.

“Asses!” Seungcheol whipped around and growled at them, much to the amusement of everyone else, if their laughter was any indication. Joshua and Jeonghan both threw up their hands in surrender, but their shit-eating grins told Seungcheol neither were actually sorry.

Seungcheol rolled his eyes but left it alone. Instead, he stood and stretched before beginning to collect plates from the table and ground, “Anyone who didn’t help with dinner has to help with the dishes instead.”

Instantly, whines and groans chorused around the room.

Seokmin raised his hand hesitantly, “What if you really wanted to help with dinner but got kicked out of the kitchen.”

“Jeonghan?” Seungcheol looked to the other for his decisions.

Jeonghan huffed and stood up, “If I have to do the dishes so do you.”

Seokmin and Hansol began complaining, only shutting up when Jeonghan snapped, “Complain anymore and I’ll tell the others they don’t have to help at all.”

Soonyoung helped Wonwoo up, the pair chuckling and making their way to the kitchen, Chan following behind trying to balance the dishes in his hands while yelling at them to help. Seokmin and Hansol trailed them, promising to get back at Jeonghan for his ‘unjust labor practices’.

Jeonghan grabbed the plates that Seungcheol had in his hands and made after the others before calling over his shoulder, “I’m not responsible for any broken dishes or crying kids that may occur.”

“Jeonghan-” Seungcheol tried to call after him, but the younger was already through the door frame and saying something excitedly about a game to make it go faster. That did not sound promising at all.

Before Seungcheol could follow them and provide some, semi responsible, supervision, Joshua was grabbing onto his ankle with a reassuring smile.

“Sit, Cheol. Jeonghan won’t let anything happen and he’ll make it more enjoyable for them to do the work at least.” He reasoned and Seungcheol nodded once. He lowered himself besides Joshua, who rested a lazy arm around him as he listened to Mingyu’s story about some incident that happened in class that week.

The group took a suspiciously long time in the kitchen to finish up, but judging from the loud laughter and the lack of shattering noises, Seungcheol didn’t have anything to worry about.

While the rest of them waited for the working group, they talked pleasantly about school and upcoming events they were looking forward to.

Soon, Jeonghan was poking his head around the doorway with a small smile. The others in the room turned to him, conversation dying as they waited to hear what the senior had to say.

“Hey so, all of us in here are pretty happy to just stay here tonight instead of going to that party we were planning on. If you guys still wanna go then obviously, like, go for it, I doubt I could stop you even if I wanted to, but yeah.” Jeonghan shot them a thumbs up before dipping back into the kitchen with a loud, “Mission accomplished!”

The group in the kitchen cheered loudly at the proclamation.

Seungcheol laughed at their antics before turning to the group with a raised eyebrow, “Well? How do you all feel about just staying here the night?”

Seungkwan crossed his arms with a huff, “It’s not like I was invited to that party anyways, so I’m happy.”

Joshua pulled Seungkwan close with a sugary coo, “Aw, is our Kwannie sad he didn’t get invited to the scary upperclassmen party?”

“It wasn’t even upperclassmen though,” Seungkwan argued around his pout, “The sophomores were allowed to go but Jun-hyung refused to let the freshmen along.”

Joshua and Seungcheol both sent Jun surprised looks, who managed to look both sheepish and defensive at the same time.

“You’re too young to be going out with us each weekend, Kwan, I told you that already,” Jun said. 

Which was definitely partly true. But, it also wasn’t characteristic of Jun to be the one to enforce the rule. Last year, when the rule was applied to the then freshmen, Jun tried to sneak them into several parties without Seungcheol knowing. But, Seungcheol could understand the heightened concern and need to protect the youngest after the events of last weekend. 

Seungcheol shifted slightly, ready to help Jun, when Minghao beat him to it.

“C’mon Boo, you know how it is, we have these, these rules - if you can call them that - for a reason.” He offered Seungkwan a small but knowing smile, “The freshmen last year were only allowed two parties a semester, they’re being soft with your grade.”

Seungkwan shrugged, not looking convinced but also not looking nearly as bitter as before, “I know I know, I just hate feeling left out. I want memories with the hyungs before they leave for college.”

Seungcheol and Joshua shared a gentle smile at that. Seungcheol scooched forward so he could grasp Seungkwan’s knee, urging the younger to look at him.

“We don’t need parties to make memories, Kwannie, having you all here will surely be just as eventful. Plus, technically once the school year is over you’re not a freshman anymore, so you’ll have more free reign during summer.”

Seungkwan smiled at Seungcheol, his shoulders relaxing, “I know. Sorry for making this a big deal, I just… yeah, I worry sometimes about, well, about you guys leaving next year. It’s stupid.”

Joshua crawled over and grabbed Seungkwan’s hand in his own, “That’s not stupid at all, Seungkwannie. It’s hard to leave friends, hard to see them leave, but we have time until then, and you better bet your ass we’re gonna be coming back to pester you guys constantly.”

“You can’t get rid of us so easily Seungkwan,” Jeonghan chimed in from where he was leaning against the door frame, the rest of the dishwashers watching from over his shoulder. “Plus, I need someone to prank Channie when I’m gone, so I’m expecting you to take up the duty.”

“Yah! Hyung .” Chan whined, smacking Jeonghan’s shoulder.

The light teasing broke the tension that had built in the room and everyone collectively relaxed.

“Does anyone else have anything they wanna talk about? If not, what’s the plan for the night.” Seungcheol broke the silence, smiling at the group in an attempt to reassure them that everything was okay.

It was quickly decided that tonight was the perfect night for board games and ice cream sundaes. They played rock paper scissors to see who would have to go to the store to get the supplies, then pooled cash together for the cost.

The ‘Ice Cream Sun-Baes’, as dubbed by Seokmin, were sent off to the closest convenience store. Mingyu drove, Minghao taking shotgun, with Seokmin and Hansol piled in the back. A small debate erupted whether one of the upperclassmen should go with them, but Minghao had scoffed in their faces and pointed out that yes they could handle driving 5 minutes to buy ice cream on their own.

Plus, the hyung that had lost rock paper scissors had been Jeonghan, and no one was itching to see what absurd ice cream flavors he would bring home.

Seungcheol took over coordinating the living room, directing the kids on moving furniture around to make space for them on the ground. Joshua got slips of paper and had everyone write down several games; board, video, or other, on them so they could draw from a hat, to ensure ‘optimal fairness’. Jeonghan set up the TV and speakers, shuffling their collective playlist so no one fought over the aux as well.

“Ever think about how music is just like, wiggly lines?” Jeonghan said. He was sitting with his legs slung over the back of an armchair, head hanging down as he watched Chan and Wonwoo pull out board games from a cabinet while upside down. “Like how fucking weird is that.”

“That’s… That’s not exactly how sound works.” Jihoon said as he walked back into the room, carrying extra blankets and pillows from the hall closet for people to sit on. He dumped them unceremoniously onto the ground. “Hyung didn’t you take physics? Shouldn’t you know this?”

Jeonghan waved him off lazily, “There’s a lot of shit I should know that, sadly, I don’t Hoonie.”

Seungcheol snorted, “If that doesn’t summarize my entire high school career-”

“Oh zip it Cheol, you learned all the capital cities of Europe for fun, you cannot talk about knowing things.” Joshua pointed out. He was sitting, leaning against the chair that Jeonghan was sat on, playing a game on his phone that Jeonghan was periodically reaching out to mess him up on. “Or lack of knowing things.”

Jun glanced over at him with furrowed eyes, “You did? Why ?”

“He also learned each country's flag and their primary language of use.” Jeonghan added, unhelpfully.

Seungcheol glowered over at the pair. They had a habit of exposing things like this to the others.

“And he learned what the capital names mean.” Joshua said, giggling loudly when Seungcheol threw a pillow at him, which missed and hit Jeonghan square in the face instead.

“That’s a lie.” Seungcheol grumbled. He stood and moved to the fellow seniors, settling down besides them. Jeonghan shoved at the back of his head playfully, no doubt payback for the face full of pillow he had just gotten.

“All of it?” Seungkwan asked. The freshman was reclining across the large sofa, feet propped up on Soonyoung’s thighs as the older absentmindedly drew patterns on his shins.

Seungcheol wished he could say no. Seungcheol wished he could tell his friends that, no , he wasn’t so hopeless as to learn all the information on the off chance that he ever got to travel around Europe with his two best friends and show off all his knowledge about the continent. But Seungcheol was a bit of a hopeless romantic and yes , he did in fact learn all of it for that very reason.

“What’s the capital of Belarus?” Jihoon asked curiously before Seungcheol could answer.

“Minsk. They speak Belarusian, very close to the Russian language, and their flag is red and green with some pretty red geometrical pattern on the side of it.” Seungcheol replied, resigned to his fate of inevitable teasing. As preemptive vengeance, Seungcheol hit both Jeonghan and Joshua on their closest available body part. Hard .

Jun snorted, “Jesus, hyung, why the hell would you bother with that.”

“I thought it would be useful at the time.”

“Awe, Cheollie, it is useful.” Joshua reassured him.

Jeonghan laughed, “Useful for teasing maybe.”

Jeonghan’s phone chimed loudly from the ground besides Seungcheol and he wordlessly handed it over to the other. Jeonghan took it and checked the notification, scrambling to sit properly on the chair and nearly falling head first on the ground in the process. Both Joshua and Seungcheol caught him before he could fall and he corrected himself, all the while still staring at his phone with narrowed eyes.

Seungcheol felt worry well up in him. If the ‘Ice Cream Sun-Baes’ had gotten into any trouble, they would probably mass text all the seniors, not just Jeonghan, but Seungcheol couldn’t help his mind from wandering to all the possible worst case scenarios.

“Minhyuk-hyung wants Jun and me to go to a party with him and Kihyun-hyung.” Jeonghan said, getting the attention of the entire room. Seungcheol and Joshua both sat upright and looked at each other. From the corner of his eyes, Seungcheol saw Jun doing the same.

“Another college one?” Joshua asked, his voice level despite the obvious distress on his face.

Seungcheol gave him a look. They had an audience now, there was no arguing with Jeonghan about this when the kids were around. 

“I’d rather stay here, hyung, if that’s okay with you.” Jun said somewhat pointedly. While the strained tone seemed to fly over Chan, Seungkwan, and Wonwoo’s heads, Jihoon and Soonyoung sat up straighter and exchanged telling looks.

Oh god.

“Yeah yeah, of course, I’d rather stay here too.” Jeonghan replied distractedly as his fingers danced across his phone, no doubt responding to his friend. “Shame though, we haven’t been able to go out with them in a while.”

“I guess but, I mean, they were there last weekend.” Jun replied, not quite snappish, but close to it. Close enough to have Jihoon and Soonyoung looking at him worriedly and Wonwoo glancing over in concern.

“If you don’t remember Junnie, we were a bit preoccupied last weekend,” Jeonghan retorted, irritation tainting his voice just enough for all the juniors to look at him in surprise.

“I know, Jeonghan-hyung,” Jun replied, his considerably softer now, sensing that he had hit a nerve. “We can go out with them another time, okay? They’re always a good group.”

Seungcheol glanced between the pair worriedly, not sure if it was his place to step in and diffuse the tension. Instead of trying to verbally, he nudged Jeonghan’s leg pointedly, urging him to apologize as well.

“Yeah, another time sounds great Junnie. Sorry for, well, y’know.” Jeonghan replied, gentler this time and with a small smile.

Everything was good between them again.

Still, Seungcheol saw the assessing looks that Soonyoung and Jihoon were sending them and couldn’t help the worry that gnawed at him. Jeonghan was adamant about not wanting the younger kids to know, but Seungcheol knew Jeonghan well, and knew that if two of his dongsaengs were to ask him outright, he would feel too guilty to deny them.

Seungcheol glanced at Joshua, who seemed to have caught on as well. He leaned over Seungcheol and whispered in his ear.

“We’ll worry about that when it comes, but for now it’s out of our control.”

Jeonghan pointedly kicked at them.

“What-” Seungkwan started, but Seungcheol quickly interjected.

“Well anyways, how about a Fifa tournament until the, uh, Ice Cream Sun-Baes come home?”

“Oh man, Jun get ready to get your ass beat!” Wonwoo exclaimed, “Revenge for that time you stuck ice down my shirt.”

“Oh my god Woo, that was weeks ago, get over it!” Jun scoffed good naturedly, standing to make his way to where Wonwoo was already seated in front of the TV, “You’re just a sore loser.”

“That was four nights ago.” Wonwoo deadpanned. He gave Jun a small shove to his shoulder as the elder lowered himself besides him. Jun shoved him right back, knocking Wonwoo onto his side with a gasp.

“Nothing Jun has done will ever compare to when Minghao was a NPC the entire game and didn’t tell me.” Chan grumbled, settling behind Wonwoo and Jun on a cushion. “I spent the entire game wondering how he was doing so good while barely pressing the buttons.”

“Best part about that was that he did that to Seokmin-hyung and Hansollie too.” Seungkwan added. “They all fell for it even though they could see him programming the characters.”

“He did it so fast!” Chan whined.

“Not the only thing he does fast.” Jun quipped.

“Not needed Jun.” Seungcheol said with a sigh as the rest of the room dissolved into laughter.

Jun threw his hands up in defense, “Hey I just call it as I see it.”

“And you’ve seen…” Jeonghan trailed off with a quirked eyebrow, “Moving a bit fast there Junnie.”

Jun smirked, “Hm, jealous hyungie?”

Jeonghan reeled backwards with a disgusted noise, “ God no!”

Everyone burst into peals of laughter anew.

Jun and Wonwoo finished a game of Fifa and were starting on their second when the group burst through the door so hard it hit the wall with a bang. Mingyu, in his excitement and hurry to get his shoes off, flicked a slipper off and down the hallway. He looked into the living room with guilty eyes.

“Sorry, we listened to Lizzo on the way home and got really hyped.” He exclaimed, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

Seokmin barrelled past him and held up two bags triumphantly, “I bring ice cream!”

Minghao smacked the back of his head, “ We bring ice cream.”

“And I bring news that I am never going to the store with the three of them again.” Hansol griped, though the smile on his face contradicted the words.

“Oh?” Jihoon asked with a quirked eyebrow, “And why is that?”

“When we got up to the register, the cashier gave Mingyu a receipt and he fucking signed it .”

“I thought it was a check!” Mingyu defended weakly, “I forgot you don’t sign receipts.”

The room erupted into laughter.

“Are they all asleep?” Joshua asked as Seungcheol entered his room after locking up the house. Joshua was reclining against the headboard, Jeonghan tucked under his arm, already half asleep.

Seungcheol turned off the lights as he replied, “All but the sophomores. They decided to try and squeeze into the guest bedroom together and last I saw they were up giggling away at something on Seokminnie’s phone.”

Seungcheol slid into bed besides Joshua, tucking himself into his friend’s side when Joshua lifted his arm in invitation.

“Mmmm,” Jeonghan hummed, “They’re so cute. I love when they get all comfortable with each other like that.”

“If you think that’s cute you should’ve seen Soonyoung and Wonwoo in the living room.” Seungcheol said with a small sigh. “Barely an inch between them. It’s the closest I think I’ve ever seen them.”

“Those poor kids,” Joshua said, “I can’t imagine how exhausted the juniors must be right now. It sounds like they haven’t had a proper rest in a long time.”

“That’s why I had lights out so early.” Seungcheol admitted.

Jeonghan snorted, “You sound like a dad when you say ‘lights out’”

Seungcheol didn’t bother to refute him, he knew it was true.

But he couldn’t help himself when it came to the kids, he felt the need to look out for them, at least to the best of his ability. The entire night he had watched carefully. Watched the juniors’ sluggish movements as the night wore on and the exhaustion crept in. He saw their eyes grow heavier and heavier, nights upon nights of all nighters or near all nighters finally catching up to them.

He watched the sophomores too as they saw their exhausted hyungs. Seungcheol gave Seokmin reassuring smiles when the younger boy watched Jihoon nod off in the middle of Scattergories. He ruffled Minghao’s hair when he urged Jun to drink more water, concern palpable. He offered Mingyu a hug when he laid a soft blanket over Soonyoung and Wonwoo as the pair fell asleep curled together.

Seungcheol did damage control where he could. It was what he was good at, it was what he knew how to do.

Joshua was able to keep the freshmen mostly clueless to it all. He kept them entertained and laughing, all the while never clueing them in on the weariness of the juniors.

Jeonghan did his part as well. He kept conversation flowing between everyone easily, prodding the kids to speak freely, as well as curse freely, much to Seungcheol’s dismay. When one game got old, he was suggesting another. He got them to play zombie tag, mafia, charades. He animated Soonyoung into playing Just Dance against him again and coerced Jihoon into a, rather competitive, game of Speed.

Together, the seniors made the night memorable for everyone and granted the tired students a reprieve from their hard schedules.

Joshua let his head tilt back to hit the headboard, “I wish we could do more for them.”

Seungcheol paused. Joshua could be talking about the juniors and their burden of school right now. Or, he could be talking about the collective them , the group that they had taken into their care because it seemed as though no one else would.

“We do what we can Shua,” Seungcheol replied, though his voice was a whisper, “And we hope it’s enough.”

“What do we do when we can’t be enough for them? When we’re gone and they’re on their own.” Joshua’s voice was lower now too, but it was choked. 

Seungcheol and Jeonghan both looked up to Joshua, who had his eyes firmly on the ceiling. He had always been tender-hearted. Not necessarily quick to tears, but quick to deep emotions. Joshua didn’t detach himself from hard feelings like Jeonghan did, or compartmentalize complicated emotions like Seungcheol did. Instead, he let his emotions wash over him, embraced them in their entirety and allowed himself to feel in ways that Jeonghan and Seungcheol never could.

“They’ll never be on their own Shua,” Jeonghan said, eyes fixed on Joshua, “We’ll always be there for them. And when we can’t give them a physical presence, they can rely on each other instead.”

“Even if we can’t always be here for them, they have each other.” Seungcheol reaffirmed.

Joshua sniffled but nodded, looking down at them with a grateful smile and watery eyes. “Watching them tonight, I just- it’s hard to think about next year.” He admitted, “Hard to think that I can’t be here to help them through issues like this.”

“They learn from us, Jisoo,” Seungcheol said. He flipped over so he was on his stomach, chin propped on Joshua’s ribs. On the other side, Jeonghan mirrored the movement. “They see how we deal with issues and complications and it gives them guidance on how they should go about it. We’re lucky we can offer them that.”

“It’s the best we can offer.” Jeonghan added. His hair was poking up oddly and before Seungcheol could reach over to smooth it out, Joshua was. His hand came up and carded gently through Jeonghan’s hair, a warm smile gracing his face. Seungcheol felt a hand settle on his head and was not at all surprised to feel it start brushing through the strands. Seungcheol leaned into the touch and Joshua turned his smile to Seungcheol instead.

“I wonder about life a lot.” Joshua murmured into the quiet.

The ceiling fan above them clicked with every revolution. Across the hall, giggles were coming from the sophomores.

“What do we work towards if we don’t care about leaving a mark? What do I work towards if I don’t care whether or not I’m remembered?” Joshua continued, “What is there to life except to work and die.”

Seungcheol closed his eyes. Joshua talked like this sometimes when he was overwhelmed. He talked of mortality and purposes, his own morals tinted by the existential outlook that Jeonghan believed. Joshua, in actuality, was more realistic about life, about building happiness for himself and making the people around him happy as well.

But on nights like these, he let the more sobering thoughts enter his mind and bring him down.

“Jisoo there’s so much more than that, you know that. So many adventures left, so many memories to make.” Seunghcheol tried, but Joshua didn’t look convinced. Seungcheol looked to Jeonghan for help, but the other boy was staring up at Joshua pensively. With a sigh, Seungcheol continued, “Maybe there isn’t more to life Shua, but that doesn’t mean we waste the life we have. We use that time, use it to better others, to guide and help, to support. To love.”

“The universe is so large, Joshuji, we aren’t even a speck of dust in the timeline of the universe. So what if we won’t leave a mark, neither will anyone else here. We will be forgotten, humans will be forgotten, Earth will die. So what, if no one remembers us, all the more reason to use every second we have. If no one remembers the decisions we make, then we make whatever decisions we want.” Jeonghan said.

They lapsed into silence once again as Jeonghan’s words settled with them. Seungcheol shied away from the idea of his own mortality, of the fragility of human life. He liked to believe that his actions and deeds would echo into the future, and even if no one would remember his name, his actions at least would continue to positively affect others.

Jeonghan liked to believe that there was no such thing as forever, so if there was no forever, you could do as you pleased with the finite time that humans had. He said that no one would remember them, so there was no use fretting over small decisions, no use worrying about social norms that were instilled in them.

Joshua found the happy middle between infinite and impermanence. Maybe there was a forever, maybe there wasn’t, he always argued. Neither of those ideals should affect the fact that you live on a planet with 7 billion other people. It shouldn’t matter if your actions will be remembered or forgotten, what mattered was the moment in time they lived in and their ability to cause good with the time they were given

“Ever wonder about why we’re only able to talk about shit like this at night?” Seungcheol wondered aloud. Distractedly, he noticed he hadn’t closed the blinds all the way and moon light filtered between the cracks, soft and serene.

“Social conditioning,” Jeonghan replied with a small shrug.

“Psychology,” Joshua corrected.

“Explain.” Seungcheol requested.

“Well think about it,” Jeonghan said, sitting up on his arms so he could look at Seungcheol as well as Joshua, “During the day, we’re expected to be a certain way. During the day, in the light, we are expected to act and behave a certain way, to follow the ideas of us that other people have.”

Seungcheol nodded, vaguely picking up on where Jeonghan was going with this.

“At night, we don’t need to meet those expectations, we’re not in front of a crowd, we’re not expected to be active and engaging. By being awake at night, we are already breaking the expectations of others, to sleep and rest. That feeling, the feeling of not doing as we’re supposed to, it loosens us up, makes us more prone to divulge our thoughts and feelings.”

Seungcheol thought about it for a moment. The idea made sense, and the logic seemed at least a little thought out, if not flimsy.

“Plus, I think it helps that it’s low light, that we have the cover of darkness.” Jeonghan added as an afterthought.

Joshua hummed in acknowledgement before explaining what he knew, “According to psychobiology, at night, our parasympathetic nervous system is more active, the part of the nervous system that is associated with healing and relaxation. Because of that relaxed state, our minds clear and it becomes easier to talk about thoughts and feelings.”

Jeonghan and Seungcheol shared a surprised look. They both knew that Joshua was fascinated by psychology - they often heard theories and ideas that psychologists had come up with because Joshua tended to ramble when he was excited - but neither had ever heard of just how much Joshua knew.

Joshua caught the look they shared and tugged gently on both of their hair, “Psychobiology is interesting, don’t judge.”

“It’s cute,” Jeonghan said, “It’s good that you have something you’re so passionate about.”

The giggles had died down now, and Mingyu’s light snoring reached the room.

Jeonghan sighed and flipped back onto his back, head cushioned on Joshua’s chest now.

“Oh, woah, I can hear your heart,” He whispered as he took Joshua’s arm and wrapped it around him, much to Joshua’s apparent amusement.

Seungcheol turned his head so his cheek was pressed against Joshua’s stomach. He watched Jeonghan’s eyes as they fluttered several times before remaining closed. They waited until his breathing was even and light before Seungcheol dared speak again.

“Did you notice he hasn’t been sleeping well?” Seungcheol said, one hand reaching out and resting on Jeonghan’s arm, who didn’t so much as move.

“Yeah, he’s been trying to cover the dark circles under his eyes with makeup but, well…” Joshua trailed off, though Seungcheol knew where he was going. The makeup had been half assed and not very convincing.

“Usually he sleeps great,” Seungcheol thought aloud, “Especially if his anxiety is peaking a little, as it has been.”

Joshua huffed out a small breath of agreement, “I noticed that too. He’s been spacier and did you see his fingers? He’s been picking at his nails again.”

“I think he’s been getting headaches and dizziness too.”

Besides them, Jeonghan barely stirred, sleep coming to him easier when he was with them.

“Cheol, don’t think we haven’t noticed your anxiety either.” Joshua said, his hand leaving Seungcheol’s hair in favor of moving to the nape of his neck to massage gently. “Your jaw has been constantly clenched, you’re constantly moving, you’re always checking in on the others.”

“I - I didn’t think you had noticed. I didn’t want to worry Hannie.” Seungcheol confessed, already feeling guilty. Both he and Jeonghan had made a pact when they talked about their anxiety for the first time to not hide it from each other when they weren’t feeling good. Joshua had, of course, also wanted in so he could help. But with everything going in, Seungcheol felt bad for bringing attention to himself, for struggling when Jeonghan was struggling with something much worse.

“Don’t do that Cheol,”Joshua chided gently, hand moving from his neck to his exposed cheek to tap at it lightly, “I can see your pretty little brain working. Don’t even think for a second of invalidating yourself. Your anxiety is real and it is very important, Cheol, and your struggles with it are valid.”

Seungcheol tilted his head in a minuscule nod, though he was sure Joshua caught the movement.

“I think going to the studio tomorrow with Jihoon will help. At least, so far it has been helping.”

“Even though Jeonghan isn’t in your immediate vicinity?” Joshua teased, though not without validity.

“Even though both of you aren’t in my immediate vicinity,” Seungcheol corrected, “And yes, I’ll admit, that is a problem, but the whole music aspect of it has helped calm me down I think.”

“That’s great Cheol, I’m glad you have music, that you’ve found something to be passionate about.”

They fell into silence again, though now, on top of the ceiling fan and Mingyu’s snoring, distant murmuring could be heard. Seungcheol shifted, intent on going to see who was awake and if they needed anything, but Joshua stopped him with a firm hand to his lower back.

“Let them be, Seungcheol, they’re fine. If anyone needed anything, they would come in here and ask.”

Seungcheol relaxed, his eyes finding Jeonghan’s sleeping face once again, relaxed with his lips just slightly parted and cheek squished against Joshua’s chest. Seungcheol continued to watch him as the sounds of the house lulled him to sleep.

Seungcheol was the first to wake up in the morning as the morning sun started to peek through the blinds. Sometime in the night, Chan had abandoned his place besides Hansol on the couch and was splayed across Joshua instead, arms wrapped tightly around the elder. Joshua’s arm that had been wrapped around Jeonghan was firmly around Chan’s waist now, holding the maknae in place against his chest as Jeonghan clung to the arm like a koala.

Carefully untangling himself from the mass of limbs, Seungcheol made his way out of the room. He checked the sophomores in the guest room first, finding Minghao being suffocated between Mingyu and Seokmin, though the small smile on his face reassured Seungcheol that no one needed to be moved. 

Leaving the sleeping trio, he checked the living room next. Hansol was sleeping on his stomach on the couch, one leg up over the back and the other hanging limply over the side. Below him on cushions on the ground was Jun, who had kicked the covers off of him at some point in the night. Seungkwan was curled besides the other, hand outstretched as though reaching for Jun. Jihoon was on the other side of Seungkwan, lazily scrolling through his phone with half lidded eyes. At the sound of Seungcheol, he looked up and nodded in greetings before pointing to the bay window with his chin.

From Seungcheol’s vantage point, he could see Soonyoung and Wonwoo curled close together below the window, comforter pulled over them as they shared a pillow. One of Wonwoo’s hands was fisted in Soonyoung’s shirt and Soonyoung’s hand laid on Wonwoo’s chest idly. Both were still fast asleep.

Wonwoo and Soonyoung had been friends since primary school and were especially close. Wonwoo tended to stick with Junhui, Minghao, and Mingyu where Soonyoung liked being with Seokmin and Chan, and Jihoon when they could coerce the boy into joining. It wasn’t necessarily because the groups were closer, but their energies seemed to match each other and as such, the friend group splintered off like that when conflicts in scheduling occurred.

However, Wonwoo and Soonyoung had a special type of friendship. Though it seemed like reluctant friendship on the surface, what laid below was closer to life long friends, platonic soulmates. Soonyoung had been with Wonwoo when his father left his mother and him, had supported him when Wonwoo had to give up his hobbies in order to work. Soonyoung turned in work with Wonwoo’s name on it when the other boy was to worn down to do his own, he harbored Wonwoo at his home when Wonwoo’s mom left for three months out of nowhere.

And in return, Wonwoo was Soonyoung’s biggest supporter. When Soonyoung’s parents refused to go to his dance recitals, Wonwoo was buying front row tickets and bringing the largest bouquet he could. No matter how far the recitals and competitions were, Wonwoo was sitting front and center with a wide, proud smile on his face. And when Soonyoung realized he had a knack for science, Wonwoo was finding projects to do with Soonyoung, helping him enroll in after school programs and showing him clubs he could find.

Though outwardly, Soonyoung and Wonwoo’s friendship seemed built on exasperation and heavy teasing, their real friendship was something beautiful.

Seungcheol turned away from the sleeping kids and made his way into the kitchen, hearing Jihoon follow him.

“Morning hyung, how’d you and the others sleep.” Jihoon asked, his voice quiet as he seated himself at the island and watched Seungcheol prepare coffee.

“We got an unexpected guest in the middle of the night,” Seungcheol replied, looking over his shoulder to smile at Jihoon, “Any idea why our lovely maknae is currently suffocating Shua?”

Jihoon shrugged with one shoulder, a habit he had picked up when he had used a - rather dorky - satchel bag for school, “No idea, I slept through the night. Hansollie might know, Chan was laying with him on the couch when I fell asleep.”

Seungcheol hummed in acknowledgement and hoisted himself to sit on the counter next to the coffee pot, watching as the coffee began dripping down. “I didn’t even wake up when he came in, so hopefully one of the other two did if he needed to talk about something.”

“Your anxiety has been bad hasn’t it?” Jihoon asked.

“Yeah, not- not like in the fall but,” Seungcheol paused to pick his words carefully. He loved Jihoon and would trust the younger with his life, but that didn’t stop Seungcheol’s innate fear of pushing his problems on others. Though he had been told that exact fear was most likely caused by his anxiety. “But it has been worse than normal. Don’t worry though, Hoonie, I’m going to start dealing with it better.”

“Okay hyung, but if you need anything or want to talk about whatever is going on in that brain of yours, you’ll always have me. I may not be Jeonghan-hyung or Joshua-hyung, but I care and I want to see you happy and healthy.” Jihoon said honestly, surprising Seungcheol a bit. Jihoon wasn’t one for obvious affection or words of affirmation. He usually showed through subtle actions, not outright voicing, like Jeonghan and Seokmin, so to hear him speak so bluntly both surprised and warmed Seungcheol.

Seungcheol shot Jihoon a small, grateful smile, “I’ll hold you to that, Hoon, but for now I think I can manage. Going to the studio today will help.”

Jihoon nodded, “I brought my stuff here yesterday, I figured we could go together, if that’s okay with you.”

“Course, saves us a trip anyways,” The coffee pot beeped and Seungcheol slid off the counter, “Coffee?”

“Are you asking me or the coffee pot?”

Seungcheol rolled his eyes and flipped the other off over his shoulder, “Smartass, you obviously.”

“The fact that you felt the need to clarif-”

“Would you like coffee or not, dearest dongsaeng.”

“Yes please, milk and honey.”

Seungcheol shook his head as he prepared the two cups. “You take your coffee so fucking weird-”

“Not the only thing I take weird if you wanted to know.”

Seungcheol let the spoon he was holding clatter to the counter top as he turned to shoot Jihoon an exasperated look. “You’re impossible.”

Jihoon ignored him and nodded his head towards the coffee, “You done with that yet.”

Seungcheol huffed but finished preparing the coffees, setting one down in front of Jihoon right as Seungkwan came through the doorway dazedly. His hair was impossibly messy and his eyes could barely be considered open. He murmured something that could’ve been considered a good morning, but could have also been some form of cursing them out, before sliding into the seat next to Jihoon and letting his head hit the counter. Seungcheol watched and after only a few seconds, the boy was asleep again.

Jihoon huffed out a laugh as he blew across the top of the coffee, “How many times has he done something like this?”

“Too many to be normal,” Seungcheol replied despairingly as he set the coffee he was holding down and went to rouse the sleeping boy. “He gets angry if I wake him up and gets angry if I leave him here.”

“Push him off the chair.”

“Wha-”

“Technically it’s neither.”

“I’m not pushing him off the chair.”

“Then suffer.”

Jihoon gave Seungcheol a lopsided shrug when the elder shot him a look, taking his coffee and leaving the kitchen.

Seungcheol weighed his options for about three seconds before picking up the coffee mug and leaving. Best to get coffee by Jeonghan’s side and then deal with Seungkwan if the others hadn’t woken him up yet.

Seungcheol passed through the living room, where Hansol and Jun were both waking up while Soonyoung and Wonwoo continued to sleep peacefully. Jihoon had returned to his small pile of blankets and, despite the warm coffee besides him, looked about ready to fall asleep again.

Voices filtered from the guest room as Seungcheol walked past, so Seungcheol figured the sophomores were waking up and wouldn’t appreciate an interruption.

Back in his own room, Joshua was sitting up again now wide awake with Chan laying on one side of him drooling into the covers and Jeonghan still tucked against him on the other side.

“Is that for me?” Joshua asked with a teasing smile, probably knowing that Seungcheol expected Jeonghan to be awake instead of him . “Oh Cheollie you treat me so well, coffee in bed while I look after the kid.”

“Bite it Shua, I thought you would sleep in,” Seungcheol grumbled but handed over the coffee nonetheless, “It’s not how you like it, Jeonghan doesn’t like as much sugar as you, but I’m sure our brave Shua can handle it.”

Joshua’s face screwed up as he took the first sip, but didn’t complain, just settled against the headboard again and watched as Seungcheol seated himself at the end of the bed.

“Did you wake up when Channie came in?” He asked as he stared down at the freshman curled against him.

“I was hoping you did,” Seungcheol confessed, “Hopefully Jeonghan had it handled. I guess that’s for the better anyways, Jeonghan the best of us at comforting the kids.”

“Only because he tricked them into liking him all those years ago.”

“It was no trick!” Jeonghan protested, though his eyes remained closed, “It was more like a threat.”

Joshua snorted, “Oh excuse me for thinking too highly of you and assuming you wouldn’t threaten our poor dongsaengs.”

Jeonghan peered up at him with narrowed eyes, before sighing happily, “You’re excused-”

“That was rhetorical-”

“-but you’re not excused from taking my coffee you absolute asswipe .”

“You were asleep!”

Jeonghan waved him off, “I’m hearing excuses and not solutions.”

“Why are you such a smartass.”

“Same reason you’re such a dumbass.”

Seungcheol decided it was about time to step in and remind them they have a sleeping dongsaeng right besides them, “Hannie I can go make you some coffee, don’t worry.”

Jeonghan frowned, “It won’t be the same, you made that one for me, not for the pig headed idiot who’s drinking it right now.”

“ Pig headed! ” Joshua said, sounding entirely too offended considering Jeonghan had definitely called him worse.

“Guys…” Seungcheol tried again.

“Yes, pig headed, Shua, what are you gonna do about it? Huh! Wai-”

Joshua took the arm that Jeonghan was still clinging to and began poking at Jeonghan’s side, tickling him mercilessly. Jeonghan erupted in high pitched giggles, trying to worm away from the attack while still staying on the bed.

“Say it again, I dare you! Say it to my face!” Joshua was unrelenting, even as the upper half of Jeonghan’s body slid off the top on the bed. The older shrieked and grabbed on to Joshua’s shoulder, trying to simultaneously get away from the tickles but also stay close to Joshua.

With a sigh, Seungcheol gracefully plucked the coffee mug from Joshua’s other hand, already expecting what Jeonghan would do next.

Jeonghan, just as Seungcheol thought, lunged with the rest of his strength at Joshua and knocked them both backwards on to the bed, jostling Chan in the process.

“Okay I’m gonna go deal with breakfast, you two wrap up whatever the hell this is.” Seungcheol said and he got up to leave.

He closed the doors as whines and complaints spilled from Joshua and Jeonghan as they tried to entice him to come back.

With an exasperated shake of his head, Seungcheol left to take care of the rest.

“Ah hyungs, hyungs! ” Hansol shouted behind them.

Seungcheol and Jihoon had just reached the sidewalk in front of Seungcheol’s house when the younger came barreling out the door, stumbling in his haste to get to them while putting on his flannel.

“Sollie? Everything okay?” Seungcheol asked, worry clouding his mind.

Most of the day had been dedicated to finishing up any leftover school assignments that the friends had. When everyone seemed mostly caught up on work, they had decided to go down to the river for an afternoon walk and a game of pick up soccer. Seungcheol and Jihoon had parted from the group as everyone gathered their things, heading to the studio for three hours before meeting their friends back at Seungcheol’s house.

Absently, Seungcheol noted that Hansol had put on the flannel inside out, he never seemed to notice, and he reached out to help the freshman correct it.

“Ah no, everything’s fine, I just,” Hansol stopped to slip his arms through the flannel as Seungcheol held it up for him, “Well I was wondering if I could join you guys at the studio today.”

Jihoon and Seungcheol shared a surprised look. Hansol had always seemed curious about their music production, but as far as Seungcheol knew, he hadn’t really ever tried his hand at it.

“ ‘Course Hansollie,” Seungcheol replied carefully, “Any reason you want to go with us though?”

“Is it okay if I explain it when we’re at the studio I-” Hansol cut himself off and waved towards the house. Their friends’ voices could still be heard so Seungcheol could understand Hansol’s desire for privacy.

The walk was pleasant, if not a little long. They wound through the nicer neighborhoods of the city and picked up some street food from a vendor on their way.

Once at the studio, Jihoon signed them in while Seungcheol showed Hansol around. The younger gawked at all the equipment they were granted access to and asked as many questions as he seemed to think of.

Jihoon met them again at their studio at the end of the hall and they connected their computers and got their programs up and running before sitting Hansol down on the couch and asking him once again why he had wanted to join.

“I see how music helps you.” He started. “I’ve watched you guys grow with your music and rely on it when you’ve gone through tough times. I always thought that music was to you what writing was to me, but I realized it isn’t. You guys make something you’re proud of, but I flounder. I tried writing stories, but the stories wouldn’t come to me. So I tried poetry and finally felt I was good at something, but it still lacked. I wanted more. I need more.”

“Sol…” Seungcheol trailed off. He brought his hand to Hansol’s and rubbed small circles on the boy’s wrist.

“My parents… Their fighting is getting worse. Like a lot worse. I’m scared of what will happen if I don’t find an escape, some way to really cope with their bullshit. If that makes sense.”

“Of course that makes sense.” Jihoon said. “And for what it’s worth, you’re welcome here any time.”

“Do you want us to teach you some of the basics?” Seungcheol offered. “We can teach you as we work.”

“And we could help you compose a song for your lyrics? If you wanted?” Jihoon added, seeming already excited about the prospect.

Hansol looked a bit overwhelmed, as though he hadn’t thought they would be so accepting of another person in their studio.

“I - yeah, yes . That would be awesome! You guys would really - yes please.” He stuttered out, cheeks dusting a bit.

“I’ll go get you a chair, Hoonie, show him some basic beat counts and structures.” Seungcheol stood and added, “I’m happy you’re joining us.”

Hansol quickly became enamored with music. He joined them at the studio the next Friday and Sunday as well and had shyly shown Seungcheol some of his lyrics at lunch. Seungcheol and Jihoon were both grateful for his easy going and kind presence. He asked the right questions, recorded the singing and rapping parts without complaint, and even made notes on the lessons they were giving him.

And Seungcheol was happy for the distraction that music was providing him. Though his classes had slowed down and he wasn’t receiving nearly as much work as he was used to, he was feeling the stress elsewhere in his life.

His parents, for one, had been ecstatic about UCLA and had taken him out for a fancy, celebratory dinner. The guilt of lying to them was keeping him up at night and he slowly felt his anxiety worsening as the days dragged on.

His jaw began to throb with how tightly he was clenching it and his body would be weary at the end of the day with the constant movement that he forced himself into. But his mind would turn over itself all night and Seungcheol began to lose sleep as dreadful thoughts kept him awake at night.

The last problem he found himself dealing with was his best friends. Jeonghan was getting worse at hiding his own anxiety, the boy had stopped applying makeup to the dark circles beneath his eyes and his fingers were turning red and raw from his picking at them. He was a bit more irritable than usual and sometimes even laying a hand on his shoulder made him huff in annoyance. 

Joshua and Jun had obviously picked up on Jeonghan’s state and were trying to help to the best of their abilities. Joshua would make sure Jeonghan was eating correctly, drinking water, distracting him after school and prompting him to keep up with his assignments. Jun had taken to staying with Jeonghan while the older’s parents were gone. While he didn’t tell Seungcheol much of what happened at night, it was obvious Jun was struggling to help.

That weekend, Jeonghan insisted on going out with Minhyuk and Kihyun, much to everyone else’s despair. Jun initially tried to get him to not go, saying he wasn’t up for it, but Jeonghan didn’t back down and went as far as saying he would go without Jun if the younger boy was so tired. 

“You should’ve seen it hyung, I’ve never seen Jeonghan act like that.” Jun’s voice came in through the phone on Sunday evening. “One second he was dancing and having a good time, the next he was insisting that we pour out our drinks and get new ones. It was like he was trying to convince me he was having a good time, but his protectiveness wouldn’t let him keep the act up.”

Seungcheol sighed and rubbed a tired hand over his face. He was sprawled across his bed, facing the ceiling, with Jun on speakerphone on the pillow besides him. 

“And, every time we replaced our drinks, he would try mine first. He claimed it was because he wanted to make sure I was making good mixes, but I’m certain he just wanted to make sure that there wasn’t anything in it.” Jun’s voice was getting more and more stressed as he talked. “I don’t want him feeling so unsafe , especially when he’s with me! I feel like I’ve failed him. Like I keep failing him.”

Further in the house, Seungcheol could hear his parents moving around the kitchen, making dinner amicably.

Seungcheol wondered what it was like for Jeonghan, Joshua, and occasionally Wonwoo and Minghao to not have the constant comfort of noise in their homes.

He rolled over on his stomach, “Junnie, trust me, I understand. Joshua had to talk me down from an anxiety attack when you told us you were going out last night. But we can’t push him to talk about it and we can’t start micromanaging him, he’ll just start pushing us away.”

“We have to be able to do something, anything, to help him. To just, get him out of whatever mindset he’s put himself in.” Jun audibly gulped as he rustled around on the other side of the phone. “I wanted to stay with him tonight but my foster parents wanted me home. He was, he was so forcibly happy today. I didn’t want to leave him.”

“It’s not your fault Junnie and I’m glad you’re getting along with your foster parents! They were really fun when we all went out to dinner.”

Jun chuckled, “I know, I really like them too. Now that my parent’s lost custody, they’ve been getting really involved in my life. It was like, before the court decision, they were taking care of me but keeping me at a little distance, so that it wouldn’t hurt either of us if my parents were given custody. But now, it’s like I’m actually their kid.”

Jun’s joy could be felt even over the phone. The court decision had been nearly a year ago, but Jun always began glowing when he talked about the family he was with now. Jeonghan and Minghao had been at the courthouse waiting for him the day of the trial and had been the ones to accompany him and his new family out to lunch that day. Jun took every opportunity he could to talk about the family he was with. No one ever complained though, everyone was just happy to see Junhui with a family who loved him as much as he deserved.

“I’m so glad Jun. Will you do me a favor and see if they want to get dinner again? I would love to spend some more time with them when your school schedule clears up a bit.” Seungcheol said, expecting the bright laugh that Jun let out a second later.

“Yeah of course, they would love that. They always call you the ‘charming, large-eyed boy’” Jun said.

“Better than camel.” Seungcheol grumbled, much to Junhui’s amusement.

“Awe hyungie, you’re such a cute camel though!”

“I’m hanging up.”

“Bye my little camel!”

The line cut before Seungcheol could scold the younger. Before Seungcheol could think twice about it, he was dialing Jeonghan’s number.

The younger answered on the fifth ring.

“And to what do I owe this pleasure, my dearest?”Jeonghan asked when he picked up.

“You purposefully made it ring didn’t you.”

“Of course I did, had to build the tension.”

“That’s stupid.”

“Oh sorry, are you talking about your face?”

Seungcheol laughed, “Yah! Idiot. Anyways, do you wanna know why I called?”

“If I didn’t wanna know I wouldn’t have picked up the phone.” Jeonghan pointed out. Seungcheol knew it was true, Jeonghan had done it to him several times, sometimes right in front of Seungcheol.

“Will you listen to me?” Seungcheol complained.

“Will you say something interesting?” Jeonghan whined back.

“Come over?” Seungcheol cut to the chase. It seemed that Jeonghan was in a teasing mood, so it was always better to keep him on track when he was like that.

“Oh! Sure, I would love to.” Jeonghan sounded genuinely surprised, “For dinner or…”

“Stay the night. Your parents aren’t home yet right? I don’t like it when you’re alone in that house.”

 Jeonghan huffed, “No they don’t come back until Wednesday. Okay, if you’re sure it’s okay with your parents I would love to.”

“Great, I’ll see you soon then. We’re having kimchi stew and scallion pancakes.” Seungcheol said.

“Oh man I think I just popped a boner." Jeonghan said. “My mouth is watering so much, that sounds so good. I’m literally gonna run to your house.”

“You don’t run.”

“I’m gonna take the subway in a hurried fashion.”

Seungcheol snorted, “Dinner is in 20 minutes, text me when you leave.”

“See you soon dearest.”

Seungcheol hung up with a smile on his face.