Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

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kim hongjoong

-age 14

-the leader of the group

-wants the best for his babies. he’s stressed mom 25/8. hongjoong’s bad with feelings and is strict with his little family but he cares for them a LOT

-discipline first

-astrology geek.

park seonghwa

-age 15

-the eldest, babies hongjoong when others aren’t looking

-loves his siblings, always stands up for them.

-comfort first

-he stress cleans a lot;  neat freak.

jeong yunho

-age 13

-an adorable child. helps hongjoong look after the others

-has a slightly inflated ego, but he always does what he thinks is best (did i mention that he’s really tall?)

-has an obsession with puppies

kang yeosang

-age 12

-gets embarrassed easily, shy boi ☺️

-always try to be independent, because his hyungs are busy, but seonghwa’s always here for him 🥺

-marbles champion (crowned by his hyungs)

choi san

-age 11

-the definition of a heartthrob (and a rascal)

-always in trouble with his hyungs but he’s just mischievous; a good boy at heart

-likes climbing trees, and pulling pranks

song mingi

-age 11

-bullied for his acne :(

-san’s best friend! the two of them are closer than two peas in a pod.

-likes reading fantasy books; has a vivid imagination

jung wooyoung

-age 10

-he’s really loud if he wants to be, hangs out with mingsan

-humble and good boy. he’s a baby who prefers to stay indoors rather than outside🥺

-teases people a lot

choi jongho

-age 8

-he’s very emotional and cries really easily, but he’s adorable

-hates people babying him, and absolutely despises kisses

-has a prized possesion; a bear that hongjoong gave him a while back

disclaimer: i do use the names of other idols (e.g. jin of bts) for other purposes and i used them because they were the first idols to come to mind. i didn’t really put much thought to it and i love and support all idols mentioned in the story with all my heart. <3 enjoy!

Chapter Text

“san! stop!”

san was kicking yeosang in the knees; kneecap deletion at it’s finest.

“nuh-uh! you stop stealing my food first!”

hongjoong stared at the two of them, an exasperated expression on his face.

“alright, calm down, both of you. san, these are yeosang’s only pair of semi-presentable trousers. i don’t want another patch in them, got it?”

“but hyung! he’s stealing my food at dinner!”

hongjoong turned to look at yeosang, who was going scarlet in the face.

“what? i’m hungry.”

“i’ll give you some of my food, okay? if you ever need more just come to me.”

both boys nodded.

“okay, so that’s settled. you two are sharing tonight.”

they groaned, but went to stake claim on a bed anyway.

this was how life was like here at the orphanage; everything was very routine. san and yeosang would get into a fight at least once a day, but they always made up in the end.

mingi would return to their room everyday with a new bruise or cut. seonghwa would be tending to his wounds.

wooyoung, jongho and yunho would always be chattering excitedly whenever they had the chance to; they were the optimists.

and hongjoong? well, hongjoong looked after everyone. the only person he could really talk to about his problems was seonghwa.

but he liked it this way.

“alright, everyone. time for sleeping arrangements.”

in the winter, the nights tended to get a lot colder. hongjoong had devised his master plan of having two kids share the same bed during winter a year ago, when seonghwa had snuggled up with him one particularly cold night.

“san with yeosang, mingi with yunho, jongho with wooyoung and seonghwa with me.”

they all scattered across their tiny room, and huddled up upon their chosen bunk.

“jongho? do you need your bedtime story, or are you okay?”

jongho shook his head. “im okay, hyung.”

how did eight year olds grow out of bedtime stories so quickly?

“everyone okay?”

his seven family members managed to mumble incoherent “yes”’s.

“okay, then. night, guys.”

and he blew the candles out.

Chapter Text

“hyung? it’s time to wake up.”

seonghwa gave a groan, and rolled over.

hongjoong sighed, and went for yunho and mingi instead.

“mingi, yunho? time to get up!”

mingi jumped out of bed, smiling. “morning, joongie hyung!”

“and good morning to you too. yunho, you awake?”

“mmmph.”

“i’ll take that as a yes.”

mingi didn’t have that many new bruises; he hadn’t had time to check on him last night. seonghwa, who had finally rolled out of bed, was currently waking san and yeosang.

he went around the room, waking jongho and wooyoung.

“okay. mingi, yunho, wooyoung and yeosang, go to the washroom to wash up, kay?”

he purposely put the younger kids with the older kids for their own safety. he put mingi with yunho (read tall, intimidating giant), too; just to make sure.

as the four trooped out of the room, hongjoong rushed around, helping jongho button up his shirt. san came running a minute later to get hongjoong to lace up his boots (not because he couldn't; just because he wanted attention), which had flappy soles. again.

“san! why are your boots broken again?”

he looked at hongjoong sheepishly. “i was playing with mingi yesterday. mean kids came over again and tried to beat mingi up, so i dragged mingi to a secret hideout. i scuffed my boots when i was runnin’. sorry hyung.”

hongjoong’s heart immediately softened. “it’s okay, sannie. thank you for protecting your brother.”

san beamed at him, and hongjoong finished lacing his boots up.  “we’ll need glue again”, he sighed. glue was not the cheapest thing in the world. nor were a new pair of boots.

“when wooyoung and the others come back, i’ll go with you to the washroom okay?”

“kay!”

and san ran off to help jongho find his only pair of non-holey socks.

hongjoong went over to the wardrobe that they all shared, and picked out a shirt and a pair of trousers that were a bit too small for him.

he went over to the door and grabbed his own pair of boots; they looked as if they had been through hell and back. the only person who had a pair of boots that looked brand-new was probably wooyoung, who preferred sitting in the grass over running around.

after they were all dressed, they waited for the four who had gone to the toilet to come back. they came back a minute later, yunho sporting a bloody nose. everyone but wooyoung was panting.

jongho started to sniffle, and san immediately shielded him from the sight, hugging him at the same time.

“quick!”, hongjoong yelled. “barricade!”

seonghwa leapt up from the bed and crammed a chair underneath the doorknob.

“yunho?! what the hell happened?”

“we got jumped when we were leavin’. they told us that if just left mingi with ‘em, they would stop bothering us. when we refused to give him up, he punched me in the nose. we ran all the way back here.”

hongjoong rubbed his temples. “we’re not gonna go to the washroom today. if you need to go, go in the pot.”

everyone nodded, except for mingi.

“i...i don’t like seeing everyone get hurt because of me. why don’t you guys just leave me with them?”

everyone gave mingi a hug. “look, hyung”, wooyoung said. “we love you. that’s why we don’t give ya to the meanies.”

mingi gave a half-smile. “sorry for all the trouble, guys.”

the breakfast bell rang, interrupting their moment. “c’mon. we needa go!”, hongjoong yelled. “quickly! out the door, formation.”

mingi and jongho walked in the center, while everyone else surrounded the two of them, to keep the two who needed the most protection safe.

when they reached the dining hall, they realised that the group of bullies were nowhere to be seen.

“let’s just go to our table. try not to make eye contact with them, okay?”

they ate their toast in silence, yunho lifting his shirt to his nose to stop the bleeding.

seeing everyone’s worried faces, yunho sighed.

“look, i’ll grab some ice from the kitchen later. the cook loves me.”

hongjoong snorted.

“yeah, we totally saw that when she gave you that gigantic lump on your head with her ladle.”

everyone laughed.

yeosang lightly tapped hongjoong on the shoulder. “hyung? i’m...uh...” he trailed off, scratching the side of his head.

“hey, it’s okay. you need to eat.”

“but...”

hongjoong ripped a chunk of his toast and handed it to yeosang. “here you go, sangie.”

“thanks, hyung.” poor yeosang’s face was red.

“you don’t need to be embarrassed, asking for food. it’s okay, kid.”

“it’s just... i’m not a kid anymore. shouldn’t  i suck it up and just wait it out?”

“hunger doesn’t disappear, sang. come ask me if you need anything. you’re a growing boy; you need to eat. it’s not your fault that they don’t give us seconds.”

yeosang sent him a look of pure gratitude, and continued chewing on his toast.

their short moment of peace was interrupted when they heard approaching footsteps. jongho immediately jumped into hongjoong’s lap, and sucked on his thumb to calm his nerves.

hongjoong didn’t blame him.

“song mingi. there you are.”

hongjoong gently put jongho into yunho’s waiting arms and got up.

“hello, seokjin.”

seokjin scoffed.

“i don’t remember your name being song mingi.”

“what do you want with him?”

seokjin shrugged. “he looks like he’d be fun to play with. look at his face; those red spots.”

mingi had buried himself into yeosang’s side, and he was trembling. yeosang was running his hand along mingi’s back, trying his hardest to calm him down.

“i’ll come for you, mingi. just you wait.”

and seokjin left.

hongjoong sat back down, and let out a sigh of relief.

“thank god he didn’t do anything.”

he turned to mingi.

“you okay, mingi?”

“mhm.” he didn’t sound okay, though.

“alright, then. talk to us if you need it.”

seonghwa and yeosang gave mingi a bear hug. “it’s okay, mingi. they’ll go away soon enough.”

he took jongho from yunho and gave him a hug.

“hyungie?”

“yeah, jongie?”

“that was scary. i don’t like seokjin.”

“me neither, baby. it’s okay to be scared, don’t worry.”

the bell rang again. one of the matrons sent the children to take their cutlery into the kitchen.

thankfully, yunho’s nose had stopped bleeding a minute ago. but that meant that his shirt was now stained with blood.

“yunho, go get a change of clothes before class.”

“roger that, hongjoong.”

they walked into the kitchen, and put their dishes into the soapy water.

“thank you, cook.”

“you’re welcome, hongjoong.”

yunho nervously approached cook.

“heavens, boy! what happened to you?”

“i got jumped.”

cook shook her head. “take some ice, and go bother someone else.”

“thank you!”

after yunho had taken his ice cubes, they left the kitchen.

they followed yunho up the stairs and gave him some privacy. he changed into a clean shirt, and they went to class.

Chapter Text

san walked through the halls of the orphanage, mingi next to him. class had finished for them a few minutes ago; they were heading to their dorm.

the soles of san’s boots were flapping with every step; they were going to break any minute now.

“uh, san? i think they’re coming.”

and indeed they were. seokjin and his friends were stalking towards them.

“i’ll talk to him. you run.”

mingi didn’t need to be told twice. he turned and ran, his boots thumping against the tiles.

“why’d he run away?” seokjin asked, when he approached. “he knows that i mean no harm.”

san shrugged, his eyes darting this way and that for an escape route. he felt his stomach drop when he realized that he was surrounded.

seokjin jabbed his finger into san’s chest accusingly. “you told him to run, didn’t you?”

san nodded, cocking his head to the side. “so what if i did?”

one of the boys shoved him against the wall, closing his finger around san’s throat. san spluttered, his lungs closing in on themselves.

“don’t kill him, yoongi.”

a few seconds later (they seemed like an eternity to san), yoongi let him go, and he fell to the ground, gasping for air.

then, seokjin did the unimaginable. he pulled at san’s boots, and the sole came right off. san stared at him in horror; he did not just do that.

san struggled to get up; hongjoong would kill him if he knew that he (well, someone) had broken his boots.

he tried to run, but another kid tripped him. as he landed face-first, seokjin yanked the other sole off , and took the ratty soles with him.

“these are going down the toilet”, seokjin smirked. “say bye.”

seeing that there was an opening for him to run, san struggled to his feet, and dashed down the hall, his feet meeting the tiles this time. he heard the cackles of the three bullies behind him; they weren’t even coming after him.

what was left of his boots bounced around on his calves. he made a beeline towards the room he shared with the others, where he knew that mingi would be waiting.

he opened the door, and burst in. san shoved the chair under the doorknob, panting hard.

mingi stared at him. “what happened to your boots?”

san sighed. “isn’t it obvious? he broke ‘em. ripped the soles right off.”

mingi gasped, eyes wide with horror. “hongjoong hyung is gonna kill you.”

“don’t tell him that seokjin did this. he’ll get himself hurt, screaming at that brick. hyung might think i’m lying, too. just tell him that i broke ‘em myself.”

“okay. i’ll make something up. i’m amazing at lying.”

“yeah, totally mingi.”

when hongjoong came back to their room fifteen minutes later, he saw san sitting on one of the upper bunks, the soles ripped off of his boots.

“choi san. did you break your shoes?” his voice and expression were both stern. san knew that he had fucked up, big time.

“sorry, hyung.” san gave hongjoong his meekest expression.

“why? how?” hongjoong didn’t even look surprised or angry; just disappointed.

“hyung climbed a tree. he got the soles stuck on some branches and the soles came off.” thank god for mingi; he was a natural liar.

hongjoong rubbed his temples.

“you’re going to have to walk around with those.”

san jumped off the bed, wincing a little as the balls of his feet hit the floor.

“but don’t we have extra boots? didn’t yunho hyung grow out of his a while back?”

“he did. that’s just part of your punishment for being so careless.”

san stood in the middle of the room, confused. part of his punishment?

“come here.”

san gingerly stepped over to hongjoong’s side. hongjoong sat down on a bed and pulled san over his knee.

tears immediately began to form at san’s eyes. “please, hyung i’m sorry-“

he didn’t even get to finish his sentence; hongjoong was already smacking away.

“for real, choi. you thought that you could just break your boots? do you know how hard it is to buy new pair?  don’t you know how to treasure your belongings?”

san said nothing. he could feel the tears rolling down his cheeks, but he kept quiet. he couldn’t believe that he was getting spanked for something he didn’t mean to happen.

he looked up and saw mingi leaning against the wall, his eyes closed. “head DOWN, choi san”, hongjoong hissed. san immediately jerked his head down, staring at the floor.

after a few long minutes, hongjoong finally let san up.

“sorry, hyung”, san whispered. “i’ll never do it again.”

hongjoong gave san a hug. san was a sucker for hugs, but he didn’t squeeze back as hard as he usually did.

did he go too hard on him?

when the others came back and saw a crying san with sole-less boots, they just gave him a hug. they all knew that he been spanked; crying face, evidence of a mishap, hongjoong staring blankly at the wall. yunho walked over and cuffed him over the head.

“just what shenanigans have you been up to again? you never learn, do you?”

“sorry, hyung.”

they went to dinner a few minutes later, san still rubbing his sore ass.

as they sat down on the wooden benches, they noticed san squirm around.

“take this as a lesson that you should always treasure your possessions, san”, hongjoong scolded.

san looked down at the floor, swinging his legs. he wasn’t going to say anything; he couldn’t talk.

hongjoong gave him a worried glance. “is there more to this than you’re letting on? you look like you’ve been wronged.”

san immediately shook his head. “no, hyung. it’s all my fault.”

they ate their dinner in silence. even yeosang didn’t ask anyone for extra food.

as they were about to leave, seokjin walked up to them, smirking.

san gulped; this was not going to end well. seokjin would either go at him or blow his cover; the latter being more painful.

“how’re your boots, san?”

san froze on the spot. “u..uh...”

hongjoong stepped up, and glared at seokjin with such a murderous gaze that the bully shrunk back, just a little. “just fine, seokjin. if you’ll excuse me.”

hongjoong took san by the arm and dragged him towards the stairs. san followed wordlessly, knowing that he was screwed. hongjoong stopped in front of their room, sitting san down on one of the beds.

“why didn’t you tell me?”

the two of them were staring at each other awkwardly. hongjoong was standing, and san was squirming around on the bed.

san couldn’t meet hongjoong’s gaze. “because i didn’t want you getting hurt. i thought that you were gonna talk to him, and i was scared that he was going to hurt you. i did it because...”

hongjoong saw san’s eyes water. “because i don’t want to see you getting hurt, hyung.”

hongjoong bent down and gave san a fierce hug. “i’m sorry for spanking you, san. i thought-“

“it’s okay, hyung. i lied to you.”

“correction: mingi did. you just played along.”

san blushed. “i got him to do that.”

hongjoong smacked san’s ass. san winced.

“never, ever lie to me again, got it?”

“yes, hyung.”

hongjoong went over to their cupboard, and pulled out yunho’s old shoes.

“here. we need to put some paper into the toes to make it fit, but you’ll have to make do with these for now.”

san gave hongjoong a hug, his smile so wide that his eyes smiled, too. “thank you, hyung!”

hongjoong grinned. “just don’t do it again, okay?”

san grinned mischievously. “no promises, hyung.”

the others came into the room, mingi immediately running to stand in front of san and hongjoong.

“i’m sorry, hyung! i lied to you about san’s shoes, and this was all my fault.”

hongjoong’s lips quirked upwards. “and how is it your fault?”

“seokjin was after me! san told me to run, and i did. he came back with the soles off his shoes. i have no idea what happened!”

hongjoong sighed. “you’re the most troublesome duo i’ve ever seen.”

seonghwa sat down next to san. “you could’ve just told us, you know.”

“i know. i didn’t want you guys to get hurt.”

yunho gave san an apologetic glance. “sorry for cuffing you earlier.”

“it’s okay.”

“do you want to share with me tonight?”

san’s eyes shone. “really, hongjoong hyung?”

“yeah. i’ll make it up to you.”

and that was how san spent the rest of the evening in hongjoong’s arms (after they gave him some ointment for his ass).

san regretted lying to hongjoong 100%, but he did it for his hyung. san admitted that this was his weakness; sacrificing himself in order to protect others.

as hongjoong cuddled san, he snuggled closer into his hyung.

“love you, hyungie.”

“love you too, san. night.”

Chapter Text

the mealtime bell rang in the middle of a saturday, to the surprise of everyone.

“okay, everyone! let’s go!”

the kids go into formation and sluggishly made their way down to the dining hall.

the headmaster of the orphanage stood on the stage and glared at a few of them pointedly.

this was the man who refused to buy yunho a new pair of boots a year ago. this was the man who decided that all of the orphans wouldn't be allowed to get second helps of anything.

this was the man who constantly made their lives a misery.

and here he was, decked out in a tuxedo and a monocle. hongjoong could feel his anger boil inside of him.

“hyung?”

“yes, wooyoung?”

“why do you look so angry?”

shit. “uhh... it’s nothing, wooyoungie. it’s not your fault.”

“okay, then, hyungie.”

the headmaster cleared his throat, and everyone quietened down.

“tomorrow, we are leaving the orphanage for town. it is a rare opportunity, so i would like all of you to treasure it. if you have detention scheduled for tomorrow, you will not be coming with us.”

the headmaster left the stage with a flourish, not even sparing us a second glance.

the hall bustled with excitement; they were going to have a day of freedom!

seonghwa ran over to hongjoong, beaming from ear to ear. “guess what? seokjin and his gang has detention tomorrow. it’s going to be the best day ever!”

hongjoong smiled weakly. maybe tomorrow was going to be a fun day. well, as loong as they weren’t going there.

“come on, back to the dorm. we need to set some ground rules for tomorrow.”

when they were back at their dorm, hongjoong told everyone to get comfortable. san, on the other hand, had resorted to lying on his stomach.

“there’s no better way to soothe a sore ass than sleeping on your stomach, san”, yunho had told him. he had obviously had his fair share of hongjoong’s spankings.

“alright, guys. tomorrow we’re going into town, probably on foot. make sure to avoid stones and sharp objects that might hurt your feet, okay?”

everyone nodded at hongjoong.

“next. please don’t try anything on the villagers. they already hate us enough. no pranks, no name-calling, no nothing. i’m looking at you, san.”

the boy glanced up at his hyung, and sighed. “okay, i promise to not pull anything on the villagers, and to stay on my best behaviour.” he gagged before digging his face into his pillow.

hongjoong landed another smack onto san’s ass. “show your hyung some respect, please.”

“okay. last but not least, please stay together. i don’t want to lose you guys in that village.”

yunho raised his hand. “hyung, can we make a buddy system? every hyung can take a younger kid, and look after them.”

hongjoong snapped his fingers. “thank you, yunho. that’s an excellent idea.”

hongjoong began organising the kids into groups of two. “seonghwa with jongho, yunho with mingi, yeosang with wooyoung, and i’ll go with the rascal of the group.”

“make sure that you stick with your buddies for the entire time! we’ll be going as a group, but the buddy system makes it safer.”

san sighed. “why do i needa go with you hyung?” he rolled over, wincing as his butt touched their mattress.

“because”, hongjoong said, “you’re the one who goes around pranking and causing trouble. mingi went with yunho, who i trust would keep him in line.”

“okay, fine then hyung.”

hongjoong went to bed that night with a knot in his stomach. were they going back to that village? after tossing and turning for most of the night, he finally fell asleep, dreading the day that came.

sunday morning dawned bright and early; all of them had been too excited to sleep. yeosang was surprisingly the first one up. hongjoong had asked for five more minutes; something that never happened.

they still refused to go to the washroom, in fear of being attacked again. after hongjoong’s reasoning, everyone ended up running to the toilet and doing their business in a record time of five minutes.

everyone had a quick breakfast of porridge, and the children of the orphanage marched towards the village.

yeosang was holding onto wooyoung’s hand. yeosang was excited; he had taken all of the pennies that he had saved over the years to buy some snacks to share with his dorm-mates.

san was jabbering with hongjoong excitedly, expressing just how excited he was to go out on this excursion.

hongjoong, on the other hand, was not so sure about this.

“san? i need to tell you something.”

“go ahead, hyung!”

“when i was your age, i was just like you. a rascal who wanted to have fun. we visited the village when i was younger, and with no one to set ground rules or take care of me, i stole something.”

“what? hongjoong hyung stealing? can’t see it.”

“well, that was me at age eleven, before seonghwa hyung gave me a talking-to. i started properly maturing at age twelve. seriously, no joke.”

“anyway, san, i just want you to be on your best behaviour. last time i was there, i left with a pair of red hands.”

san’s eyes widened. “what, did they-“

“yes, they did. they used a tree branch and whacked my hands. i stole a carrot, san. a carrot.”

“who did you steal for?”

“yeosang. he was hungry, so i got him a carrot.”

san stared at him, speechless. “no way. a carrot?”

“yes way, sannie. i’m just telling you to warn you. the people in this town are ruthless, san.”

all of the children arrived at the village half an hour later.

san was holding on to hongjoong’s clammy hand; the elder was sweating profusely. they had gone to the village that hongjoong feared so much.

san was unnerved of these villagers. the way hongjoong talked about them made him want to cry; he didn’t want to interact with the people who gave hongjoong the nasty scar on his hand.

yeosang, on the other hand, was very excited. “hey, look at that! are those carrots? i want one!”

hongjoong stiffened when he saw the  vegetable stand; the man who was behind the many crates was the very person who had inflicted so much pain on him. his scar throbbed, as if he was reliving the moment.

“joong hyung! is that the guy who...you know?”

“yes, san.”

yeosang was bounding over to the stand. “yeosang! stay together”, hongjoong called. the boy hesitantly ran back, tugging wooyoung with him.

seonghwa was telling jongho what the many things in the village were called. “see that ugly- looking purple thing? that’s an eggplant.”

seonghwa saw the vegetable stand, and gave hongjoong’s shoulder a little tap. the boy jumped; then realised that it was just his hyung.

“is this where...?”

“yeah.”

seonghwa winced. “let yeosang get his carrot and let’s go to the gardens. we’ll get to teach the kids what the flowers are called.”

hongjoong walked over to yeosang. “you can go grab your carrot, but leave wooyoung with us.”

yeosang bounded over to store, and asked for a carrot. when the stall owner told him the price, he counted his pennies.

crap. he was missing one. “uh, sorry, sir. i’m missing a dollar.”

“oh, i’ll give the carrot to you for free. orphan, yeah?”

yeosang nodded. “help yourself”, the man said.

yeosang took a carrot out of the crate, thanked the man, and walked back to where his friends were standing.

suddenly, the stall owner started yelling. “thief! he stole my carrot!”

hongjoong’s eyes widened in fear. “yeosang!” he screamed. no. he was too young to be exposed to the harshness of the real world.

seonghwa had hoisted jongho onto his hip, and the poor child was crying his eyes out.

yeosang stood in the middle of it all; his fight or flight senses were tingling. the stall owner was walking towards him, clutching a branch.

yeosang started backing away, bumping into hongjoong. “go, go, go!” hongjoong yelled. seonghwa pushed them all to an empty alleyway, rushing them out of the conflict. as the stall owner got closer to hongjoong, he snarled.

“you.”

hongjoong gulped. he tightened his grip on yeosang’s wrist.

“you’re teaching your kids to steal, aren’t you?”

the square had gone quiet. hongjoong felt the tears creep into his eyes; he had tried so hard to teach his siblings to be good people, and to not make the mistakes he had made four years ago.

“no”, he whispered. “i stole for yeosang. he was hungry, so i wanted to steal a carrot.”

“i’m sorry”, he whispered.

the stall owner scoffed at him. “lies!”

yeosang broke free from hongjoong’s grasp. “don’t go for him. i was the one who apparently stole. you told me that i could take a carrot from the crate after i told you i was missing a penny.” the fire in his eyes was blazing.

the stall owner’s face went red. he raised his hand, and smacked yeosang’s hand with the branch he had in his hand.

yeosang didn’t say anything. his hands shook so much, that the carrot rolled from his palm.

he ran towards where his family was waiting in an alley, tears flowing freely down his cheeks.

hongjoong was crying, too. he stared at the man for a long time, before running after his brother.

yeosang’s hand hurt so badly; he was bleeding profusely. he was crying, and so were hongjoong and jongho. hongjoong had his arms wrapped around yeosang, and he was whispering apologies over and over again.

“i’m sorry, yeosangie. i’m sorry that i was a bad hyung, i’m sorry that you had to get hurt, i’m sorry that i didn’t tell you earlier.”

yeosang was simply crying, too distressed to say anything. jongho was crying because his two hyungs were crying. san just stood there, speechless. since when did hongjoong cry?

seonghwa had his arms wrapped around three confused babies. “why’s hyung crying?”, yunho asked. “what happened to yeosang?”, wooyoung whispered. his voice was breaking; he was about to join the crying squad.

mingi just held onto seonghwa wordlessly.

hongjoong took a deep breath.

“i think it’s time i explained the situation to you all.”

and he told them about his previous experience with the stall owner.

when he was done, he bit his lip. nobody hesitated to give him a hug; even yeosang. “you guys aren’t mad at me?” surprise was evident in hongjoong’s voice. “i always teach you to be good people; i’m such a hypocrite.”

“why would we be?”, yeosang said, hiccuping a little. “it’s not your fault. it should be more of my issue; i was the one who was complaining about being hungry.”

“it’s okay, kid”, seonghwa murmured into hongjoong’s ear. “you changed, didn’t you?”

hongjoong smiled through his tears. “thank you for forgiving me, guys. we need to help you get that fixed up, yeosang. hyung, how did you deal with this back then?”

seonghwa took his shirt off, and ripped one of the sleeves off.  he handed the fabric strips to hongjoong, who wrapped them around yeosang’s hand.

“aren’t you cold, hyung?”, yeosang asked. “it’s okay”, seonghwa shrugged. “i don’t mind.”

“thanks, hyungs”, he said. “i still don’t get why he screamed at me”, he muttered. “he told me that the carrot was free.”

“the world is a cruel place, sangie,” hongjoong said, while running his fingers through yeosang’s hair.

they spent the rest of their time in town hiding in the alley, talking and playing games.

on the way back, the headmaster gave yeosang a lecture on stealing, but he let him off the hook. he got no punishments; maybe the headmaster knew that he wasn’t in the wrong.

jongho was fast asleep, and seonghwa had him on his hip. san was, for once, quiet. wooyoung kept asking if yeosang was okay, and yeosang said that he was fine every time.

he was okay; his hand didn’t hurt as much as it had this morning, but the cut still stung a little.

yunho and mingi were playing a quiet game of i-spy to pass the time.

hongjoong soon got sick of san’s silence and asked him what was wrong. san had looked up with teary eyes, and the sight broke hongjoong’s heart.

“i was scared, hyung, when you cried. i’ve never seen you cry before.”

“san, it’s okay to cry. crying is for strong people, people who are brave enough to show their emotions.”

“are you gonna ‘pank yeosang for stealing?”

“he didn’t steal.”

“okay. that’s good, because his hand looks really bad.”

hongjoong picked san up, and threw the eleven-year-old over his shoulder. he deserved it, after being such a considerate and caring person today.

“let me carry you for a bit, san.”

san was happy from his perch on top of his hyung’s shoulder; he could see lots of stuff he normally wouldn’t be able to see.

“too bad you’re not that tall, hyung”, he teased. hongjoong gave him a playful smack on the ass. “be respectful, san, or i’m putting you back down.”

san wrapped his arms around hongjoong’s neck, and sighed happily. the sun was just setting over the horizon; it was beautiful.

the orphans all made it back to the orphanage in one piece, but they were all battered and a little worse for wear.

they ended up taking their mattresses out of their bed frames, placed them onto the floor, and cuddled together. san still had to sleep on his stomach (hongjoong has a fucking hard hand) so they put him in the middle, next to yeosang (who they were all spoiling rotten).

hongjoong’s little family was the best thing that had ever happened to him, in his short fourteen years.

it was everything he had ever needed.

Chapter Text

“h-hyung?”

hongjoong shot up from his bed, almost bumping his head on the upper bunk.

“jongho? are you alright?”

“no, hyung... i’m really hot...”

hongjoong immediately pressed his hand to jongho’s forehead; he was burning.

“oh my, jongho. you’ve got a fever.”

jongho pointed at seonghwa. “hwahwa hyung is hot, too.”

hongjoong swung out of bed, careful not to wake san who was next to him.

“do you think that you caught this from the alley two days ago?”

jongho shrugged. hongjoong pressed his hand against seonghwa’s forehead. the boy was burning, too.

“wake up, hyung! you’ve got a fever!”

seonghwa groggily got out of bed. “god, i’m burning, joong.”

“i’m getting you to the nurse”, hongjoong announced. he quickly roused yunho, putting him in charge for now. everyone in the dorm had woken up by now, but yunho shushed them all.

“back to sleep, all of you. hongjoong is taking seonghwa and jongho to the nurse. i’ll tell you guys to wake up when it’s time.”

all of the others groaned, and went back to sleep. hongjoong had been cursed with a bunch of night owls; how fun for him.

he ushered seonghwa and jongho down the hall, towards the infirmary. when they arrived, hongjoong knocked (pounded) on the door.

“nurse seo! we need your help! my roommates are burning up!”

nurse seo opened the door a second later. “hongjoong? come in.”

when they entered the infirmary, jongho and seonghwa had thermometers stuck into their mouths.

“okay. do you two have rashes anywhere on your skin?”

seonghwa shook his head. jongho looked at nurse seo, confused.

“she’s asking if you have any itches on your body.”

“nope”, said jongho.

“thank you, hongjoong.”

she asked the two of them more questions; when they had started feeling sick.

“the day before”, jongho said. “that was why i slept on the way home.”

hongjoong bit his lip. how could he have been so careless? jongho never took naps. never.

“after i carried jongho back to the orphanage”, seonghwa said.

“okay! you two have the common cold. i’ll give you some medicine. you two are excused from classes today.”

she handed hongjoong a jar of pills. “give them one when they wake up and when they go to sleep, okay?”

hongjoong nodded. “thank you, nurse seo.”

they started to make their way back when they bumped into the headmaster.

“sir”, hongjoong said, and gave a quick bow. the others did the same.

“why are you up so early?”

“they were sick, so i brought them to the infirmary to get checked out.”

“go back to your dorm now, please.”

the three of them ran down the hallway, and back to their dorm room.

yunho opened the door for them. “the others are asleep, save for san. keeps saying how he needs to wait for you, joong.”

hongjoong goes over to the bed that he shares with san, and lands a smack on his ass. “listen to what yunho says, okay? i know that you want to wait up for me, but you need to get your sleep.”

san muttered something inaudible, before rolling over and slipping, once again, into dreamland.

hongjoong smiled down at him. yes, he was a troublemaker, but he was still a good kid at heart; san just wants to protect his brothers.

he gave both jongho and seonghwa a glass of water, and he taught jongho how to take the pill.

“put it in your mouth, then take a drink of water. swallow both the water and the pill at the same time; see if you can do that.”

when jongho opened his mouth a second later, the pill had disappeared.

“good job!”, hongjoong praised, ruffling his hair. “now go to sleep with seonghwa hyung, okay?”

the boy gave a nod, and turned to snuggle into seonghwa’s stomach.

hongjoong carefully climbed into his own bed, and tried not to wake a sleeping san; a sleepy san is a grumpy san (he learnt that from experience).

he felt san snuggle into him, and hongjoong wrapped an arm around san. he snatched a little bit of the blanket that san was hogging (again) and slowly drifted off to sleep.

the next day, the others found out what had happened last night.

“temporarily, i’m going to put yunho in charge today. well, i’ll still be coming down with you during mealtimes, but i’ll be up here for the rest of the day.”

“yunho, you need to fetch me some ice from the kitchen. also, ask cook if she can make these two some soup, okay?”

yunho nodded. “got it, hyung.”

hongjoong helped everyone get dressed, and they did what they had done yesterday; run to the bathroom and finish in record speed.

when they came back, san was nowhere to be seen.

hongjoong groaned. “i’ll go look for him. you guys stay here, okay?”

he was met with a chorus of “okay”s. “yunho, you’re in charge.”

he ran outside, and saw the bullies playing monkey in the middle with one of san’s new boots.

“stop!”, he yelled. seokjin turned, and gave his signature smirk when he noticed that it was hongjoong.

“what are you doing?”, hongjoong said. he was out of breath now. “just leave him alone!”

seokjin rolled his eyes. “fine, we’ll leave him alone, protective older brother.” he gestured to his lackeys, and they all left. maybe seokjin was scared of hongjoong? who knows.

hongjoong went over to san, who was rubbing at his eyes with his knuckles. “are you alright, san?”

“yeah, i’m okay.”

“were you crying?”

san looked away.

“san, it’s just a pair of boots.”

san bit his lower lip. “i didn’t want you to get mad at me. sorry hyung.”

hongjoong hoisted san into his arms, and gave him a hug. “nothing that you need to be apologising for.”

hongjoong picked up the abandoned boot. it looked exactly the same as when it had just come out of the cupboard, and onto san’s feet. obviously he had been careful with his new pair.

“i see that you’ve taken my lecture quite seriously”, he teased.

san’s face was bright red when they got back to their dorm.

the others had all gone to their lessons. san had thrown a mini-tantrum when he realized that hongjoong wouldn’t be coming with them. mingi had been worried that seokjin was going to jump them again.

it had taken hongjoong a good ten minutes to come up with something that they would both enjoy and look forward to when they came back at the end of the day.

“hey, i promise an hour’s worth of hugs and kisses. do we have a deal?”

the two of them had grudgingly nodded and were led away by yunho.

jongho had woken up just after everyone left for class. he had sat quietly on his bed, trying not to wake seonghwa, and tapped hongjoong on the shoulder.

“good morning, jongho. do you need the bathroom? anything?”

jongho shook his head no. “i’m hungry.”

hongjoong went downstairs to the dining hall for the second time that morning to get seonghwa and jongho some breakfast.

“cook? can i take two bowls of porridge upstairs to seonghwa and jongho? they’re sick and i don’t want them going around spreading germs.”

cook had wordlessly handed him the food. “yunho came for ice; did he bring it back to you?” hongjoong nodded. “yes, he did. thank you.”

“their soup will be ready in around four hours. come down when you’re ready.”

hongjoong thanked cook one last time before taking the two bowls of lukewarm porridge upstairs.

seonghwa was the one who had opened the door for him. hongjoong handed him the porridge, which he took with gratitude.

hongjoong fed jongho his breakfast. he missed the days when jongho still fully relied on him; how he had needed to be fed, how he needed hongjoong’s help to put his pants on.

hongjoong wrapped the ice he had gotten from cook in one of jongho’s old shirts (no one could fit in those) and put the ice pack on his forehead. he did the same for seonghwa, but his hyung put it on the side of his cheek instead of his forehead.

after they had eaten, jongho went back to sleep, and hongjoong and seonghwa talked about everything and nothing. it wasn’t every day that the two eldest would get time to themselves.

hongjoong went downstairs a few hours later to check on cook’s soup. it was ready, and he took it upstairs. he gently roused jongho, and fed him the soup. before he went back to sleep, he touched his forehead again. it had almost gone back to it’s usual heat; a sign that he was healing.

seonghwa’s body heat had completely gone back to normal. hongjoong was glad that his nursing had successfully gotten seonghwa healthy again.

jongho had slept away a majority of the day; seonghwa and hongjoong just talked. it was fun that the two of them had time to themselves today, even though seonghwa was slightly sick.

san and mingi had barged in when classes finished for the day, and they were exhausted.

“did they come after you?”

san and mingi shook their heads. “they didn’t even spare us a second glance. weird, huh?”

san had attached himself to hongjoong the second he came back.

for some reason, san had become really clingy after hongjoong had spanked him a while ago.

yunho, wooyoung and yeosang returned, equally breathless.

they all had time to catch up with each other. san was glued to hongjoong’s side the entire time, not willing to let go of him even if he was going to grab something.

san was sitting next to hongjoong at dinner (san even let yeosang take some of his food; something that never happened).

when they got back to the dorms, he fed jongho his dinner. he could practically feel the jealousy radiate off san; he was not impressed.

hongjoong had to take jongho and seonghwa to the infirmary again to get their temperatures taken. thankfully, both of them had made a speedy recovery.

that night, after he had given both mingi and san a kiss and cuddle attack, san was sleeping with hongjoong again. hongjoong decided to ask him something.

“sannie, why are you always with hyung? don’t you wanna have fun with mingi?”

san shook his head no. “i wanna be with hyung because...” he muttered the last three words before turning away from hongjoong.

“hey, just tell me. what’s bothering you?”

“you’re like the mom i never had. i like being with you. even if you ‘pank me.”

hongjoong couldn’t help but laugh. he hugged the boy. “i love you, sannie. do you know that?”

“yeah. love you too, mom.”

the next day, jongho and seonghwa were healthy enough to rejoin their classes. it was a miracle, really. they had gotten better in a day; record time.

all of it was courtesy of hongjoong’s care, and nurse seo’s pills.

Chapter Text

it was a wonderful thursday afternoon; the sun was shining for once, and everyone but wooyoung was outside.

wooyoung never really enjoyed the outdoors, for he was scared of bugs. he preferred reading a book, or playing a game indoors.

wooyoung was reading and walking, which was not a good choice. he bumped into the cupboard, and the jar of pills that hongjoong kept on top came toppling down.

it landed with a very loud CRASH. the bottle had broken, and pills were everywhere. wooyoung stared at the disaster with an open mouth. hongjoong was going to annihilate him for making such a mess.

at that moment, san burst in, whistling a tune. he stopped abruptly when he saw wooyoung standing before a broken pill bottle.

“wooyoungie, what happened? it looks like a tornado tore through.”

san gave a sigh, before starting to tidy the pills away.

he was almost done when hongjoong and the others returned.

“choi san, what happened in here? didn’t i tell you to take a shower?”

“yeah, bu-“

“san hyung broke the pill bottle!”

the look of utter betrayal that san gave wooyoung was something that he would never be able to forget.

hongjoong’s expression went from confused to angry.

“san, seriously? and you thought that you could just tidy it away without telling us? thank god wooyoung was telling truth.”

wooyoung felt his stomach churn; he had just gotten his hyung into deep trouble. san was going to hate him now.

seonghwa rushed everyone out the door; hongjoong and san were going to need some privacy.

“it wasn’t my fault, hyung! wooyoung broke the pill bottle and i came in and helped him tidy up! he lied!”

san was getting more and more worked up; he was pissed. pissed at hongjoong for believing wooyoung, pissed at wooyoung for lying.

pissed at himself for entering his dorm at the wrong time.

“san, please stop lying. i saw you trying to tidy it away and hide the evidence from us. just admit it.”

an angry hongjoong was a mean hongjoong, and san hated this side of him.

“fine, then. if you believe wooyoung, then go ahead and do whatever you wanted to do to me.”

hongjoong sighed. “i’ll take that you’ve accepted your punishment.”

and hongjoong yanked san over his knee for the second time this week.

san didn’t even bother thrashing this time. he just shut up and let his hyung inflict pain into him; pain that should’ve been wooyoung’s.

when the punishment was over, san bolted out of the room without a second thought. he hid in a bathroom stall, and cried.

hongjoong would never hurt him on purpose. maybe it was just an accident; a misunderstanding. he completely regretted opening up last night.

san was angry. and he made his decision right then and there.

“if hongjoong hyung doesn’t apologise, i’m not going to apologise. i’m gonna ignore him.”

he stepped out of the stall, and rubbed at his tears with his knuckles; a habit he couldn’t seem to get rid of.

hongjoong was waiting for him outside of the bathroom.

he landed a few more smacks onto san’s butt. “you never learn, do you?”

san wanted to scream at hongjoong. he had learnt his lesson last time. he had tried so hard to get into hongjoong’s good books; he didn’t want to be known as the rascal anymore.

however, he had also learnt another lesson today. sometimes, trying too hard to be someone you aren’t never works.

all through dinner, san ignored hongjoong and wooyoung. instead of sitting next to hongjoong as he usually did, he plopped down next to mingi, and started talking animatedly.

whenever hongjoong asked san something, he would just continue talking to mingi. hongjoong had made his choice, and so had he.

halfway through dinner, hongjoong had enough.

“choi san, drop the act. i know that you’re mad at me for spanking you, but you know that you did something wrong.”

san snorted.

“sure, i did something wrong. i shouldn’t have helped wooyoung.”

wooyoung could feel his stomach twist. he had never wanted to hurt his hyung; now he was being ignored. he shouldn’t have lied.

hongjoong simply gave an exasperated sigh, and didn’t even bother responding.

after dinner, san was the first one to get up and hand over his cutlery. he was the first one to go to bed that night.

instead of sleeping with hongjoong, he had chosen seonghwa instead.

“hyung?”

seonghwa rolled over. “yes, sannie?”

“i didn’t do it. it really wasn’t me.”

seonghwa’s brows furrowed. if san was insisting that he hadn’t done it after his punishment, then something was definitely wrong.

“are you sure?”

“yeah. wooyoung stayed in our room the entire time we were outside.”

seonghwa gave san a hug. “thank you for telling me, san. i’ll go talk to your hongjoong hyung, okay?”

“mkay. night hyung.”

seonghwa put a hand onto hongjoong’s shoulder.

“we need to talk.”

“so what you're saying is that wooyoung blamed everything on san?”

“pretty much. i think he was scared. that’s why san’s been ignoring you.”

hongjoong went over to where wooyoung was and knelt down to meet his gaze.

“jung wooyoung, i need you to be honest with me. did you blame san for something that you did?”

wooyoung gulped, his expression guilty. “sorry, hyung.”

hongjoong groaned internally. now he would have to spank wooyoung. he was already exhausted.

“wooyoung. you know what to do.”

hongjoong spanked him in front of everyone; the worst punishment of all. poor wooyoung was crying his eyes out. “i’m sorry hyung! i didn’t mean to!”

“not only did you break the pill bottle, you also lied to me. you broke my trust, wooyoung.”

san was fully awake now. he had drifted off to sleep a while ago but had woken up to wooyoung’s crying.

huh. so hongjoong had found out in the end.

a good five minutes later, hongjoong finally let wooyoung go. “you will go apologise to san. he took your punishment for you.”

wooyoung stumbled over to san. “sorry for blaming you, san hyung. i’m sorry.”

san gave wooyoung a smile. “it’s okay, wooyoungie. i forgive you. c’mere.” they hugged and made up; hongjoong watched the scene with a half-smile.

wooyoung and san ended up falling asleep in each other’s arms.

the next morning, it was hongjoong who woke san up. “sannie? it’s time to wake up.”

san had woken up immediately. “morning hyung.”

hongjoong looked down at the floor. “uh...sorry for hurting you yesterday. why do i always hurt you on accident? i’m just really sorry for not believing you. i hope you forgive hyung.”

san gave hongjoong a hug. “of course i’ll forgive you! sorry for being bratty yesterday.”

he noticed how hongjoong had winced when he sat down next to him.

san gave a cheeky smile. “how’s your ass?”

hongjoong’s face had gone red. “seonghwa hyung did it. he said that i should’ve been a responsible hyung, but i wasn’t. that’s why i got spanked. can you not tell the others...?”

“look, hyung. if you keep making that face when you sit down, everyone’s gonna know; it’s heckin’ obvious.”

“i will not hesitate to soap your mouth, choi.”

“fine. just don’t wince as much, and don’t rub your ass. it’s really obvious if you do; you’ll never hear the end of it.”

“thanks, sannie.”

wooyoung rolled over and smirked. “what’s this about hongjoong hyung being ‘panked?”

he was done for.

Chapter Text

hey! it's your favorite author (haha I'm probably not). anyway, y'all can drop requests for the book in the comments! i have a serious case of writer's block and i only have so many prewritten chapters, so it would really help if you guys could suggest some ideas!

also! i'll be dropping these drabbles or flashbacks that don't really fit well with the main story ADSHAKHDA. these will be titled differently and i hope that y'all like 'em!

alright that's enough talk I'm going back to trying to cure my writer's block. bye for now!!

Chapter Text

seongjoong drabble

hongjoong was about to blow his top.

“san, yeosang, apologize, now.”

“why should i?”, san argued, clutching what was left of his best shirt. “he started it first!”

“no, hyung!”, yeosang yelled, shooting san a dirty look. “he was teasing me!”

hongjoong bit his lower lip. first miss cho yells at him not teaching his brothers proper etiquette. now the two of them are getting into a fight over something stupid.

“you know what?”, hongjoong said, his tone dangerously low. “the two of you, sort it out yourselves.”

he ran out of the room, slamming the door behind him. hongjoong dashed down the hall and ducked into the washroom.

he slid down the door of the cubicle that he went in and started breaking down.

why had he even agreed to this “look after a whole family” thing when he was barely out of childhood himself?

hongjoong’s temper always got the best of him; he had no idea how to control it. whenever his brothers did something that enraged him in some way, he would always lash out at them.

he did nothing to stop the tears that flowed down his face and punched the wall in frustration.

“hongjoong? is that you?”

“seonghwa?”

hongjoong opened the washroom cubicle. seonghwa was standing by the sinks, his expression worried.

hongjoong ran toward seonghwa, and burrowed his face into seonghwa’s chest. seonghwa said nothing; just wrapped both of his arms around hongjoong.

“it’s okay”, he whispered. “i don’t know what happened, but it’s okay.”

the two of them stayed like that for a while, hongjoong pouring everything into seonghwa’s chest.

“h-hyung”, hongjoong hiccuped, his voice hoarse from crying. “i don’t think that i can do this anymore.”

“what makes you think that?”, seonghwa asked, stroking hongjoong’s hair.

“i can never manage to solve problems; i only make them worse. my temper gets in the way all the time.”

“so? you’re human, hongjoong. think about it; we’re more responsible than a majority of the adults here. we all have our flaws”, seonghwa said, rubbing his hand along hongjoong’s back.

hongjoong sniffled, rubbing his eyes. “but…i don’t know if i can deal with the stress anymore. it’s too much. everyone’s pressuring me to be the best role model for the kids but… i’m not exactly that.”

seonghwa laughed quietly. “i know, hongjoong. i get the feeling; everyone has such high hopes for us but we can never do anything but tell the kids to not do certain things.”

“hongjoong, you do so much for this little family. you don’t even know how much you’ve done, joong. other people will do nothing but find fault, but we know both know that you’re much stronger than that, don’t we?”

“you’re a diamond, hongjoong. you don’t crack under pressure; you flourish.”

hongjoong was only crying more now because he knew that seonghwa was right.

“thank you, hyung. thank you so much.”

seonghwa hugged hongjoong tight, and neither of them said anything for a few minutes. when hongjoong’s cries started to turn into sniffles, hongjoong broke from the embrace, a little embarassed for breaking his tough demeanor.

“do you want to go back, now? if you don’t it’s okay. we can go take a walk in the garden”, seonghwa suggested.

“it’s okay”, hongjoong says. “let’s go back. i’m ready.”

hongjoong took a moment to recompose himself. he washed his face, rubbing the tear stains from his cheeks. seonghwa was waiting for him, a warm smile dancing on his lips.

“joong, it’s okay to cry like that. you need to let your feelings out, every once in a while.”

“thank you, seonghwa hyung. thank you for always being there for me.”

Chapter Text

flashback: soup

hongjoong was trying to sneak up on seonghwa. the elder was holding a bowl of soup, and he was heading towards their table.

hongjoong tried to make his footsteps sound quieter; he was practically tiptoeing.

seonghwa was just about to turn around when hongjoong jumped on him.

the soup bowl in seonghwa’s hands dropped onto the floor with a clang. the soup had spilt everywhere on the floor. seonghwa turned around, and when he saw hongjoong laughing, seonghwa had enough.

“go up to our room, and wait there. i mean it.”

hongjoong, surprised at his hyung’s reaction, had run out the room and up the stairs, his boots thudding against the tile.

when seonghwa entered the room, his entire front drenched in soup, hongjoong couldn’t help but laugh again.

seonghwa’s expression had hardened. “i’ll see if you’re still laughing in a few.”

seonghwa had changed into a clean set of clothes before sitting down on one of the lower bunks. he had beckoned hongjoong with a flick of his hand, and he had yanked him over his lap.

hongjoong had no idea what was happening. “hyung, what are yo-“

seonghwa cut him off. “i’m giving you a spanking because you’ve been absolutely bratty for the past month. you’ve caused nothing but trouble since you turned eleven.”

hongjoong hated how seonghwa always knew how to make him cry. 

“hongjoong. i miss when you were still the innocent child who couldn’t get through the day without a hug.”

hongjoong was crying full on now, and the spanking hadn’t even started yet.

“i’m sorry! i just wanted to get attention. how can i make it up to you?”

“get through this spanking.”

seonghwa started smacking hongjoong’s ass, hard. every single smack rang in hongjoong’s ears and he was screaming internally.

“hyung, can you not hit as hard?”

“it’s supposed to hurt, joong.”

a few minutes later(they felt like years to hongjoong), seonghwa decided that he had spanked hongjoong enough.

he righted the younger boy, and sat him down next to him on the bed.

hongjoong hissed as his butt touched the mattress. “hyung, you didn’t tell me that it would hurt this much. it didn’t hurt like this when jae hyung did it.”

“sorry. i just wanted you to realise that you were being an absolute brat for the past month.”

hongjoong gave seonghwa a hug. “sorry for being a rascal, hyung.”

“it’s okay. i recommend sleeping on your stomach tonight, hongjoong.”

hongjoong smirked. “you sound like you know a lot about it.”

“both dad and beomseok hyung used to.”

“your dad? i’m sorry, hwa hyung.”

seonghwa gave a sad smile. “it’s okay. just know that i will not hesitate to spank you if you have any more mishaps.”

seonghwa and hongjoong fell asleep together; hongjoong squirming around like a fish.

“i told you to sleep on your stomach.”

“hmph.”

Chapter Text

“hyung! want to go outside and play?”

yunho looked down to see jongho tugging at his hand enthusiastically. “sure, let me ask hongjoong hyung.”

after hongjoong had given them the green light, they ran out the back door of the orphanage.

the orphanage had a vegetable garden and a grass field in their backyard. it was where the eight boys and the other children spent most of their free time.

“okay! let’s play hide and seek! i’ll go hide, and you’ll look for me, okay?”

yunho nodded. “sure, jongie. go hide.”

yunho made a big show of counting; he already knew where jongho was going to hide.

“...19, 20! ready or not, here i come!”

yunho went in the direction of a big oak tree. he could already hear jongho’s giggles coming from behind the oak; yunho had to use all of his self-control not to laugh.

he snuck up on him, and leapt in front of him. “gotcha!”, he yelled. jongho let out a shrill scream, and the two of them ended up rolling around in the grass, laughing.

“hyung! my turn to look for you!”

jongho ran off, and yunho decided to climb the oak tree that jongho had previously hidden behind.

he had just managed to scale the tree when jongho screamed “twenty!”.

jongho stealthily slipped past the tree that yunho was hiding in; he had to try so hard not to laugh.

ten minutes later, jongho was standing in the middle of the clearing, looking defeated. “hyung, i give up!”

yunho swung down from the tree, laughing. jongho groaned. “for real? i looked there already!”

“didn’t look high enough.”

it started to drizzle, but the boys decided to stay and jump in the puddles, drenching each other.

they only retreated when the drizzle escalated into a full-on thunderstorm (jongho was scared; yunho would’ve stayed).

hongjoong had given both of them a scolding. “yah, jeong yunho, choi jongho! why did you two stay in the rain? you could’ve gotten a cold!”

they both muttered quick apologies to hongjoong, before rushing off to the showers.

they ended up using all the hot water.

mingi, who went after them, screamed. “hyung! the water’s cold!”

yunho had immediately wrapped mingi in a towel and had taken him back to the dorm, where they all cuddled him until he was warm again.

it was a good day.

Chapter Text

mingi was breaking out.

spots were everywhere on his cheeks, and they were painful.

hongjoong had already asked nurse seo for a remedy, but she simply told mingi to wait it out.

“but they hurt, hyung.”

hongjoong had felt so powerless. he couldn’t even help his younger brother get our of his misery.

“sorry, mingi. it’ll get better, i promise.”

what was worse was that the bullies were taunting mingi more often now.

“hey, spot cheeks! what’s with you?”

mingi had looked down at his shoes, his grip on yunho’s hand tightening.

too bad hongjoong wasn’t here to save him.

yunho had quietly led mingi to his desk in the classroom, and gave him a kiss on the forehead.

“if they hurt, remember to tell the teacher. i’ll come get you, okay?”

“okay. thanks hyung.”

all through class, mingi’s skin felt like it was on fire. after english, he couldn’t take it anymore.

he raised his hand. “miss kim, may i please be excused?”

the teacher raised an eyebrow. “why?”

“my face hurts.”

“not a valid excuse.”

mingi sat there, dumbfounded. just great.

a few kids in the back snickered; yeosang gave san a nudge.

san raised his hand. “miss, yunho said that mingi could leave if he wanted to. his skin really hur-“

the teacher slammed her fist onto the desk. “quiet, choi, or i’ll kick you out of the class.”

san immediately shut up.

mingi gave san and yeosang a “thank you for trying” smile. “it’s okay”, he whispered. “i’m fine.”

mingi managed to get through the day, but he gave up on listening to whatever the teacher was talking about.

san and mingi ended up walking back to their dorm together, mingi’s hands on his cheeks. yeosang had some chores to do, so he had left class early.

“do we need to get some ice?”, san asked. “you look like you’re in pain.”

“ice sounds good.”

they made a detour for the kitchen, and asked cook for some ice.

“what is up with ice and you eight?”, cook said, shaking her head.

“dunno”, san shrugged.

as they made their way upstairs, mingi pressing the ice against his cheeks, they passed by yunho.

“hyung, i think that you need to talk to my teacher. she wouldn’t let me go! my cheeks were on fire, and she was like ‘oh, not a a valid excuse’. ugh.”

yunho gave him a sympathetic smile. “sorry mingi. i’ll go talk to her now.”

mingi and san continued their trek towards their dorm.

they were stopped by seokjin, who had pushed mingi against a wall in an instant.

“what’s happened to your face, mingi? you look you have a bad case of chicken pox, but even worse.”

seokjin and his lackeys all laughed.

mingi was trying to get under seokjin’s arm, but seokjin was clutching onto mingi’s arm with a death grip.

“i don’t think that you look any better, seokjin.”

seokjin turned, and was met with san trying to look older than he was.

seokjin guffawed. “you look ridiculous.”

san jutted his chin out. “you talking to your reflection?”

seokjin’s smile was slowly fading. “you think you’re so smart, kid?”

seokjin let go of mingi’s arm, and the younger boy used the opportunity to run and get a hyung.

“yeah, i am pretty smart.”

that was it. seokjin and yoongi launched themselves onto san. san tried his hardest to fight back, even landing a punch on seokjin’s nose, but most of the “fight” was just san curling himself into a ball and avoiding the kicks and punches.

he was quite good at that; he knew which vital organs he needed to protect, and which ones could withstand an assault.

san was about to pass out when he heard yunho yell “stop!”.

the bullies had looked up, and yunho had charged at them.

yunho ended up with a black eye, but the other two left with bloody noses and scratches on their faces.

the last thing san remembered before he passed out was yunho asking if he was okay.

~timeskip~

“san? san!”

san woke up to hongjoong’s worried face peering at him.

“where’s mingi?”, he asked, his eyes darting across the room.

“he’s okay. the main concern right now is you. do you know how much trouble you got yourself in? yunho has a black eye. you have bruises everywhere.”

“i thought i could take on him. he looked weak; i can break someone’s bones on an empty stomach, hyung.”

hongjoong and seonghwa groaned.

“san, that was before you came here. please stop throwing yourself in the direction of trouble.”

san glanced down at how shoes. “sorry. i was planning on distracting them before a hyung could get to the scene.”

hongjoong sighed. “san. we understand that you want the best for everyone, but sacrificing yourself isn’t the right choice.”

san pouted. “okay. where’s yunho hyung?”

“everyone but the three of us are at dinner.”

san immediately got off the bed. “what if they get mingi? how could you leave the kids with yunho? he’s got a black eye!” he kept rambling as he made his way to the door.

“san. hongjoong is going downstairs. you stay here.”

seonghwa pulled him into a back hug, and planted him back onto the bed.

san struggled against his hyung’s grasp. “let me go!”

“san, calm down.”

“i can’t!”, he yelled. he thrashed against seonghwa, but he suddenly went limp and started crying.

“i need to protect everyone. i...i made a promise.”

“to who?”

“to myself.”

seonghwa let out an exasperated exhale. “nobody appointed you as the leader, san. you’re not alone anymore. you have hyungs to take care of you now.”

san gave a hiccup. “i was scared when they beat me up. it was like...like when i was alone.”

seonghwa felt his heart break. san had been brought to the orphanage after some rich lady had found him with a broken arm, from a fight over a load of bread.

“your not alone anymore, san. you have us, don’t you?”

san gave a nod, sniffling. “i was being a rascal again. sorry.”

“at least we know why you’ve been so selfless.”

san sent seonghwa a smile. seonghwa felt his heart melt. “has anyone ever told you how cute your smile is, san?”

san beamed. “you have.”

seonghwa gave san a hug. when the others returned from dinner, mingi handed san a bowl of stew.

“thanks for saving me back there, san.”

“your welcome, mingi. don’t forget that you’re an amazing person, and that we love you!”

mingi smiled. “my cheeks still hurt, but the ice made most of the pain go away.”

“that’s good.”

mingi was about to continue their conversation, but hongjoong gently told mingi to let san finish his dinner.

after dinner, all eight of them coddled san, asking if he had hurt himself badly. he had shaken his head no every time; he was fine.

“it’s okay guys. i’ve seen worse.”

mingi and san talked in hushed whispers until they both fell asleep, clinging to each other for dear life.

mingi learned today that san was willing to sacrifice his life for him, and he was glad to have a brother like him.

Chapter Text

san was scared.

ever since his parents had disappeared from the house that they rented, he had had many life experiences.

he had been kicked out by his parent’s landlord, and he had been living on the streets ever since.

now, he was fighting a boy for a loaf of bread; something that he thought he would never have to do.

the boy was cornering him. “you thought that could win, kid? wrong.”

san wanted to run, but there was no way to run away now.

“i’m gonna win.”

san punched the boy in the nose. the boy had screamed in agony, before throwing san to the ground.

san heard a click, and he felt the pain that set in afterwards.

“you were so wrong, kid. good luck paying for a trip to the hospital.”

san had cried himself to sleep that night in an alley, the pain had been unbearable.

the next day, a rich-looking lady had found him clutching his right arm.

“are you okay, honey?”

san had shaken his head no.

the lady looked him up and down. san was in a torn shirt, and his pants had so many holes in them he couldn’t count.

he smelled really bad, too.

“i’ll take you somewhere safe. follow me.”

san had struggled to get up, but he followed the lady anyway.

was the nice-looking lady taking him to her home? was she adopting him?

san was helped into the lady’s carriage. even though he was in pain, he momentarily forgot it; it was a horse-drawn one, and the view from the carriage was amazing.

it was fascinating.

they rode in the carriage for a while, the lady asking for his name and age.

“i’m choi san! and i’m seven.”

“nice to meet you, san.”

they turned into a country road, and at the end of the path was a house.

it wasn’t shabby, but it wasn’t majestic, either.

“san, how do you feel about staying here?”

san’s eyes had lit up. “is this your house?”

the lady had shaken her head. “no, this isn’t. i know that they can take care of you, though.”

san’s expression flickered. “are you taking me to an orphanage?”

“yes.”

san stared at the window. of course she was.

“you have a broken arm, don’t you?” they were nearing the orphanage now.

“i think so.”

“they will treat it for you.”

they had arrived. the lady helped san out of the carriage, and he gave a hiss of pain when the lady accidentally touched his injured arm.

“my apologies.”

the lady knocked on the door, and a loud “coming!” was heard from inside the building. a series of locks were opened, and a man opened the door.

the lady explained san’s situation to the man at the door, and the man nodded. “welcome, san.”

the lady didn’t even have time to say goodbye before the door slammed, and all the locks clicked into place.

“kim hongjoong!”

a moment later, a boy of about eleven rushed down the stairs. “yes, sir?”

“this is your new ward. look after him. take him to the nurse, and give him a bath. he’s filthy.”

“yes, sir.”

hongjoong had looked a san with bright, inviting eyes. “hi. i’m hongjoong. what’s your name?”

“choi san. and my arm hurts.”

“i’ll take you to the nurse, okay? you’ll feel better afterwards.”

after san had been treated for his broken arm, hongjoong gave him a shower, using up all the hot water in the process. hongjoong was careful not to dirty his newly applied cast.

san learnt that hongjoong was eleven, and had been an orphan for a majority of his life. he looked and sounded nice, hongjoong.

he gave him a set of clean clothes and asked the headmaster for a new pair of boots. “do these fit?”, hongjoong said. “yeah”, san answered, smiling.

when hongjoong was done, san felt transformed. “thank you so much, hyung!”

“your welcome, sannie.”

hongjoong introduced san to the other members of the dorm, and they all gave san a warm welcome.

san decided that he liked it here.

Chapter Text

“come on! let’s gooooo!”, mingi whined. “my pirate ship awaits!”

yunho groaned internally. again? mingi has been pirate-obsessed lately.

“sannnn! wooyoung! jongho! c’mon, play with me!”

“five more minutes”, san murmured.

“san hyuuung!”

san gave a sigh. “okay, i’m up. give me five minutes.”

mingi waited patiently as san got dressed. “jongho, wooyoung, we’re going on an adventure today!”

“are we gonna meet scary pirates?”, jongho asked.

“nope! even if we do, i’ll blast them to smithereens!”

wooyoung smiled. “now all we have to do is wait for sannie hyung.”

san gave the three waiting by the door a thumbs-up. “coming!”

“who said that you four were allowed to go outside?”

whoops.

“uh, hi, hongjoong hyung! uh...”

hongjoong gave a teasing grin. “come back by twelve. it is sunday, after all. be careful.”

mingi beamed. “thank you hyung!”

he dragged the other three out the door, and they raced each other to the yard.

“c’mon,  pirates! let’s go! i’ll be the captain!”

“why can’t i be the captain?”, wooyoung whined.

“uh, you can be my deputy?”

wooyoung pouted, but said nothing.

they spent the entire morning running around, digging around aimlessly for treasure. mingi was waving a stick above his head; a sword, apparently.

san was climbing a tree, and shouted “land ho!”

everyone laughed at san’s imitation. the four youngest had so much fun that they forgot to go back to lunch; it was twelve past ten when jongho finally bothered to check the clock.

“san hyung? it’s time to go back”, jongho said, pointing to the clock on the space above the door.

“aww, can’t we stay a little longer? we’re having so much fuuuun!”

san wanted to stay too, but for his ass’s sake, he insisted on going back.

“we’re gonna get our asses whooped for being late.”

“fine! you three can go back, but i’m staying.”

“mingi, come on. maybe hyung will let us come ba-“

but mingi had already stormed off to the other side of the yard.

san lead the other two back into the house, where hongjoong was waiting.

“you three are late”, he scolded. he landed a smack on each of their butts. jongho was about to cry; it hurt.

“where’s mingi?”

“he’s still outside. i told him to come back but he insisted on staying out”, san admitted.

hongjoong sighed, exasperated. “let him stay out. when he comes back, he’s in for it.”

“don’t go hard on him, hyung”, san pleaded. “he just wants to have fun.”

hongjoong looked at san. “i understand that you hate seeing others in pain, but he broke a rule, san.”

san sighed; at least he had tried.

jongho hugged hongjoong on their way to the dining hall. “sorry for breaking your rule hyung.”

hongjoong gave a warm smile. “it’s okay. you were having fun, right?”

“yeah! we had so much fun!”

“i would’ve let you guys go out after lunch, but mingi didn’t cooperate, so maybe next week.”

jongho gave a pout. “okay hyung.”

after lunch, jongho, san and wooyoung went upstairs to play marbles. they had nothing else to do.

san glanced out the window. mingi was still running around in the yard, and he was playing with some of the kids from the other dorms.

he felt this ugly feeling bubble in his chest. who was he jealous of? mingi, or the other kids? he had always thought that mingi would prioritise him over anyone.

“san hyung?”, jongho asked, pulling san out of his thoughts. “are we related?”

san raised an eyebrow. “what do you mean? we’re already siblings, the eight of us.”

“no, not like that. are we like, blood-related? we’re both chois.”

san shrugged. “maybe. but we’re all changing our last name to kim when we’re old enough.”

wooyoung nodded in agreement. “hongjoong hyung is nice. i wanna have his last name.”

unbeknownst to them, hongjoong had been eavesdropping on the three, smugly smiling at seonghwa.

seonghwa rolled his eyes playfully. “i’ll change my name to kim, too. we are family, after all”, he whispered.

hongjoong smirked. “sure, hyung.”

it was just after six when mingi finally came back, drenched in sweat. he was grinning from ear to ear. “y’all shoulda stayed! it was so fun hanging out with hwanwoong and the guys.”

for once, san didn’t smile back. he just stared blankly at mingi, his expression hollow.

hongjoong directed his narrowed eyes at mingi.

“song mingi, do you know how much trouble you are in? you defied mine and san’s orders.”

mingi’s smile dropped. “sorry hongjoong hyung, san hyung.” he tried to go to their shared wardrobe to grab a shirt, but hongjoong caught him by the collar.

“you think that you’re going to be let off the hook so easily? these three got a smack for being late. not only were you late, mingi, you also refused to listen to what san and i told you.”

mingi gulped.

“come over here. everyone else out the room.”

san quickly tidied the marbles away, and seonghwa led them outside. yunho and yeosang were in the garden, probably chatting.

in a swift motion, hongjoong had pulled mingi over his knee and had also pulled his pants down.

“hyung! why do you have to bare me?”, mingi whined.

hongjoong started landing smack after smack, not even bothering to answer mingi’s question. “you were out for an additional six hours.”

mingi grunted softly, but he said nothing. hongjoong finished the punishment a few minutes later, and mingi apologised profusely.

“sorry for doing that hyung. i just wanted to have fun. i’ve never seen the ocean before so i though that it would be cool to pretend that we were pirates and i got so caught up.”

hongjoong ruffled his hair. “don’t forget us when you go out on your mighty sea expeditions, mingi. you can go out again next sunday, okay?”

when mingi approached san that evening, he noticed that the boy was a little distant at first. however, after mingi apologised, he warmed up again, and they resumed the conversation they had before.

“man”, mingi thought. “if san hyung ever ignores me for more than a day, i won’t be able to live.”

Chapter Text

jongho was lying in bed. he could hear and feel the monster that was stalking in from the open door. it was sneaking around hongjoong and wooyoung, and slipping past san and mingi.

it was almost at the bed he shared with seonghwa, hissing-

he woke up, drenched in sweat.

he glanced around the room. what if the monster was still there?

he snuggled closer to seonghwa, who was sleeping soundly.

jongho was about to go back to sleep when he heard a scream.

that was it; he couldn’t take it anymore. he shook seonghwa awake. “hyung... i’m scared.”

seonghwa had rubbed at his eyes and sat up, stroking jongho’s hair. “what’s wrong, baby? nightmare?” jongho didn’t say anything; just cried into seonghwa’s stomach.

seonghwa tried his hardest to shush him, but his cries only got louder.

soon, everyone had woken up, distressed by jongho’s crying.

yunho had rubbed his eyes and swung his lanky legs off of the lower bunk, heading towards the direction of the noise. “jongho, what’s up?”

“n-n-nightmare...”

yunho squished jongho’s cheeks. “it’s okay, we’ve got you, jongie.”

yunho was the hyung who was closest to jongho, so seonghwa reluctantly released the younger from his grasp.

grateful for his hyung, yunho gently took jongho and set him down on his lap, gently caressing his back.

hongjoong and seonghwa had stood beside the two awkwardly, as if unsure of what to do; nightmares had never been their strong suit.

san, mingi, yeosang and wooyoung had attached themselves to jongho, cuddling him and tickling him and making him feel safe again.

a while later, san plonked down next to jongho. “you ready to go back to bed?”

“no...monsters scary”, he whispered. jongho looked like he was about to have a second wave of tears.

hongjoong and seonghwa shot san a dirty look. san pouted but said nothing.

“how about we check for monsters?”, seonghwa suggested. “that way, we can be sure that the room is monster-free.”

jongho nodded in satisfaction, before snuggling into yunho’s arms once more.

seonghwa, hongjoong and yeosang made a big show of looking in every single nook and cranny for even a single hint of a monster. they peered into the wardrobe, looked into all of their shoes, aggressively slammed open all the drawers and cupboards.

the others (except for jongho) were all covering their mouths, trying to stifle their laughter. wooyoung let out a single squeak, and yeosang shot him a death glare. wooyoung shut up after that.

after the three had looked through every single inch of their room, they announced that there were no monsters, and that it was safe to go to bed.

it was at that moment that they heard the unmistakable sound of heels clacking down the hall. their eyes widened, and everyone scrambled to get to their bunk.

the door was slammed open, and there stood miss kim, san, mingi and yeosang’s teacher.

mingi, being the one who was scared easiest, let out a shrill scream.

“were you eight responsible for the ruckus that awoke half of the orphanage?!”

oops.

“w...what ruckus?”, hongjoong said, pretending to sound groggy. he rubbed his eyes, and stood up.

“don’t play dumb, kim hongjoong. if you all continue shouting and slamming, you’re going straight to the headmaster. he will not hesitate to punish you, do you hear me?”

“it wasn’t even us!”, san said, lowering his voice to sound like he had just woken up. he could hear mingi snort a little next to him.

“quiet, san. i am exhausted; it’s three in the morning. go to bed right now or i will rethink my decision of not punishing you all, yes?”

hongjoong and san both mumbled a quick “yes, miss” before lying down on their respective bunks. miss kim slammed the door behind her, and clacked down the hall.

when they were sure that she was gone, seven of them let out a huge sigh of relief. “guess we were too loud”, yunho joked.

“you okay, jongho?”, wooyoung asked, padding over to the younger. he received no response; jongho was already asleep, his thumb in his mouth.

wooyoung put his finger to his lips as he crept back to bed, and everyone went to sleep. they were all grateful that they had just escaped certain doom.

seonghwa ended up sharing with yeosang instead, as jongho had fallen into a deep slumber in yunho’s arms.

Chapter Text

“come on! it’s sunday! let’s goooo!”, mingi shouted.

hongjoong shook his head tiredly. “we stayed up last night. i’m not sure if we’re up for it, mingi.”

“but you promised!”, mingi said, his eyes losing a bit of their enthusiasm.

“i’m sorry mingi, we aren’t going out today.”

“hey, mingi, wanna play marbles?”, san asked, holding up the threadbare pouch.

“no! i’m not playing anything but pirates! come on, san! do you wanna go outside?”

san shrugged. “i’m tired, mingi. maybe tomorrow.”

as it turned out, everyone was exhausted after staying up until three last night.

mingi, in his frustration, flailed his arms.

he was so angry that hongjoong had broken his promise that he didn’t even notice that he had smacked the elder across the face. the older male flinched, and gave a groan of pain.

“SONG MINGI!”, hongjoong yelled. the dorm immediately went quiet. jongho and wooyoung were shaking; yeosang and san were cuddling them, for once agreeing on something (that they needed to protect the two youngest). yunho was too surprised to say anything.

hongjoong had never raised his voice to this level, ever.

seonghwa put a hand on his shoulder, and squeezed. “calm down, joong.”

hongjoong took a second to recompose himself. “song mingi. we are all exhausted, and do not have time to keep up with your childish antics, okay?!”

mingi stood there, tugging at his pants that were way too short. he felt the embarrassment take over the frustration he had felt seconds ago; he was slightly scared, too. scared of hongjoong.

“okay. sorry.”

he slouched back to his bunk, and lay down, staring at the bed above him. he pretended to sleep, rolling over to his side. he squeezed his eyes shut, trying not to let the others see the tears that had started to slip out of his eyelids.

“don’t think that this is it, mingi. i’m just too tired to deal with you now.”

mingi mumbled a barely audible “okay” before wrapping the quilt around himself.

he could not believe that hongjoong had just called him childish. didn’t hongjoong enjoy his games and ideas? he was just frustrated that they hadn’t gotten to go outside.

hongjoong had broken his promise, as well.

right now, mingi just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry, but he didn’t want to do that with everyone around.

mingi was scared that hongjoong had raised his voice to that level; something that he never did.

san kept shooting mingi’s sleeping figure worried glances. was he okay?

yunho and yeosang had joined their game of marbles, and they were all quietly playing, careful not to wake mingi, who they all thought was asleep.

they were tired; not up for a day in the sun. playing in the safety of their room was a different case.

san soon got enough of the silence and went over to mingi, who had wrapped the quilt around his shoulders.

san’s eyebrows creased; mingi never did that unless he was crying or distressed.

he lay down next to him and wrapped his arms around the slightly younger boy. his body was shaking, and he was sobbing very, very quietly.

“mingi? are you okay?”

the boy released his grip on the quilt, and draped half off the blanket over san. san snuggled closer to mingi, who whispered “no.”

“what happened?”, san whispered. “why are you crying, huh?”

“c-childish,” mingi sobbed out. “hyung broke promise.”

san squeezed mingi tightly. “he’s just frustrated, mingi. i’m sure that he doesn’t mean it. we did stay up late last night, and i pinky promise that we go out and play next week.”

mingi looked up. “swear on your life.”

“i swear on my life that i will take you outside next week.”

mingi put a smile onto his tear-stained face. “thank you sannie hyung.”

“anytime, song.”

the two of them stayed like that for the rest of the morning; san’s arms around mingi as mingi’s sobs reduced to sniffles.

the lunch bell rang, and all eight of the boys stood up and made their way for the door. mingi, taking san’s advice, dried his eyes with the hem of his shirt and made his way out.

hongjoong landed a few smacks on mingi’s butt as he left. san tightened his grip on mingi’s hand; the other boy was shaking, just a little.

“mingi, i’m giving you a spanking when you come back. what you did today was extremely rude. i apologise for raising my voice, though. sorry, kid.”

mingi was about to cry again. he was getting spanked? did hongjoong even know how hurt he was?

“hyung, you shouldn’t.”

hongjoong raised an eyebrow at san. “san, mingi hit my face. he was being a brat.”

“yeah, but do you know how hurt he was? you called him childish. and you broke your promise.”

hongjoong suddenly remembered that he had promised mingi to take him out today last week.

“i don’t think that he should be spanked. if you have to do it, spank me.”

mingi stared at san, mouth open wide. san was ready to take a bullet for him.

“you’re not taking it for him, san. i’m not going to spank you, mingi.” hongjoong’s voice had softened. “i’m sorry for calling you childish and breaking your promise. i like playing your games, but i was just tired. it’s not an excuse to be a bad hyung, either.”

“if you two want to, feel free to spank me.”

mingi was shocked. he was okay with hongjoong’s apology; why should he spank him? he was his hyung.

“but you’re our hyu-“

“your two ages combined makes you twenty-two. do it if you want to.”

“nah. we’ll get seonghwa hyung to do it instead.”

hongjoong paled a little, but agreed. “sorry for being a bad hyung mingi.”

“sorry for whacking you across the face. friends?”

hongjoong grinned. “friends.”

the other five boys were waiting impatiently downstairs. san went over to seonghwa and whispered to him what hongjoong had told him. seonghwa nodded and glared at hongjoong, who was shifting uncomfortably.

after lunch, they all returned to their room. hongjoong was wringing his hands nervously, occasionally glancing at seonghwa.

as they entered their dorm, seonghwa unceremoniously pulled hongjoong over his lap. hongjoong felt his face redden; in front of the kids? what would they think of him now?

“hyung, now?”

“yes.”

hongjoong felt his pants being pulled down, and he couldn’t help but shed a few tears of embarrassment.

jongho and wooyoung were horrified. wooyoung had overheard san and hongjoong’s conversation to know that hongjoong had been spanked before, but seeing it in person was another issue.

san, mingi, yeosang and yunho watched the scene unfold with open mouths.

“kim hongjoong, you will never, ever raise your voice at the kids. being older does not give you authority to bully, do you hear me?”

“yes, hyung.”

hongjoong was very, very embarrassed at being spanked and scolded in front of his younger siblings. would they defy him, knowing that he had been spanked too?

seonghwa ended his punishment on hongjoong after he knew that the younger had suffered enough. he had chosen to spank hongjoong in front of everyone because he wanted the lesson to be memorable.

when hongjoong’s pants were pulled up and he had reverted to flopping onto his stomach, his face, eyes, and ass were both beet red and stinging.

san had been the first one to run and hug his hyung; he knew how embarrassed hongjoong was feeling.

“it’s okay, hyung. i got you.”

hongjoong squeezed san. “i’m sorry, i’m sorry, i’m sorry.”

the others all broke from the trance and embraced hongjoong. “shh, it’s okay”, jongho soothed. hongjoong gave a small chuckle at that.

“why’re you laughing, hyung?” jongho pouted.

“normally i’m the one saying that to you. it’s weird hearing it come out of your mouth.”

the others didn’t find hongjoong’s spanking an abnormality. “it shows that you’re one of us”, yeosang had said when asked.

seonghwa ruffled hongjoong’s hair. “told you.”

they ended up spending their entire afternoon coddling their self-appointed leader; applying ointment, hugging him, seonghwa planting the occasional kiss.

hongjoong was glad that they didn’t find the whole affair weird. thank god they didn’t; it would’ve been awkward if they did.

hongjoong apologised to mingi at dinner. the boy had accepted his apology: “you already apologised, hyung.”

all of the members of their family hugged each other to sleep that night. none of the nightmarish monsters that had previously plagued jongho’s sleep last night came back.

Chapter Text

“hongjoong hyung, what’s fuck mean?”

hongjoong spat out the water that he was drinking. “what’s what mean?”

“fuck.”

hongjoong took a moment to take a deep breath.

“you don’t need to know, baby. it’s a bad word, you shouldn’t say it.”

jongho pouted. “why did no one tell me? i said it in class today and the teacher made me soap my mouth. blech.”

hongjoong internally face-palmed. “who taught you how to say that? the word, i mean.”

“nobody. i heard yeosang hyung and yunho hyung and san hyung and mingi hyung say it, so i thought that it was something cool.”

hongjoong was already designing a murder plan. “okay. never ever say that word again, jongho. it’s a very bad word.”

jongho nodded solemnly. “got it hyung.”

hongjoong asked seonghwa if he could take jongho and wooyoung outside for a walk; he said yes and took the two youngest outside. they did not want to see the display he was preparing.

when hongjoong got to the dorm, the remaining four boys were engrossed in a very heated game of rock paper scissors.

“okay. rock, paper, scissors, and go!”

the four boys shot out different hand gestures, and when yeosang realised that everyone else had won but him, he let slip a very loud “fuck”.

“kang yeosang, what was that?”

all four of them whirled around.

yeosang muttered a “sorry” before heading towards the toilet for the soap bar.

“cut an extra three pieces while your at it, yeosang. thank you.”

san, mingi and yunho started to protest. “we didn’t say anything! we did nothing wrong! why are you punishing us, too?!”

“jongho came up to me and asked me what fuck meant. he told me that he heard you four say it, and thought that it was cool vocabulary.”

“whoops”, san murmured.

yeosang had come back from the washroom, holding four cubes of soap. “here you go, hyung.”

hongjoong inserted the soap into their mouths. san gagged the second it entered, but kept it in. mingi and yunho’s eyes bulged, while yeosang just sucked on the soap. didn’t taste too bad.

hongjoong then proceeded to scold them for the next fifteen minutes. “jongho is too young to know these words. the teachers and adults will think that we’re bad influences on him and he might be taken away from us.”

“please, stop swearing around the younger kids. actually, simply stop swearing. it makes you seem like a bad person. i admit that i do swear occasionally, but i put a limit.”

ten excruciatingly long minutes later, hongjoong held his palm out. san was the first one to spit the soap out. “eurgh! that was disgusting! i’m going to throw up my dinner, hyung!”

san ran to the bathroom to rinse his mouth out, the bitter taste of carbolic radiating on his tongue.

mingi and yunho spat their soap out and apologised to hongjoong before running to the bathroom as well.

“yeosang?”

yeosang spat his out, a little reluctantly. “it tasted nice.”

hongjoong shook his head. “go rinse it out, kid.”

“i don’t want to! it tastes nice. kinda like carrots.”

“yeosang, rinse it out.”

the younger boy opened his mouth to protest, but hongjoong steered him out the door.

he disposed of the four cubes of soap before rubbing his temples.

“how am i not forty yet? these kids are a nightmare and a blessing at the same time.”

when the four of them returned to the room, they sputtered apologies and said that they would never, ever swear again.

hongjoong gave them each a hug, and the four resumed their game.

when seonghwa returned to their dorm with two very tired babies, hongjoong announced early bedtime and sent them all to bed.

when hongjoong was sure that all of the kids were asleep, seonghwa and hongjoong slipped out of the room and sat against the wall in the hallway.

“their all growing up so fast.”

seonghwa nodded in understanding. “i get it. jongho’s first swear word.” seonghwa wiped away an imaginary tear; hongjoong looked ready to burst into real ones.

“i sort of miss the san who would argue about nothing and everything with me, but he’s really changed.”

seonghwa put his arm around hongjoong’s shoulder. “they’ll leave us someday. it’s okay, joong. growing up is part of this entire parenting ordeal.”

“i feel like a forty year old man instead of a fourteen year old.”

“i know, i get the feeling.”

hongjoong gave a smile. “at least someone knows.”

“are you feeling better?”

“yeah, let’s go to bed. thanks for being there for me, hwahwa hyung.”

seonghwa blushed at the nickname. “no problem, rascal.”

when they re-entered their dorm, they found every single member of their family sitting awake.

“hyungs! what were you two doing outside?”, yunho asked, a smirk on his face.

both hongjoong and seonghwa flushed a bright red. “nothing. just talking about possibly spanking you for not going to bed when you were told to.”

there was the sound of rustling quilts, and there were a few “good night!”s as everyone scrambled to look like they were asleep.

seonghwa rolled his eyes before going to bed himself. “c’mon, i’m tired.”

hongjoong felt like his only safe space was with seonghwa; the only person who truly understood how he felt. 

“night, hyung.”

Chapter Text

yeosang was so fucking screwed. he had no idea how to spell the word that the teacher had just presented him with.

“uh... s-o-r-p-w-i-s-i? surprise?”

the class erupted into laughter. yeosang felt his face heat up.

“kang yeosang, do you even pay attention in classes?”

san and mingi looked up at their hyung with an expression of worry.

“yeah...i just can’t remember how to spell the words...sorry.”

miss kim gave a scoff.

“kang yeosang, if you don’t pick up on your studies, i’m informing seonghwa.”

“yes, miss. sorry miss.”

the class went in without a single interruption. both san and mingi passed the spelling test that the teacher threw at them; mingi barely made it.

after the lesson finished, one of seokjin’s younger lackeys cornered yeosang. miss kim pretended that she saw nothing, and swiftly left.

“you’re such an idiot, kang. can’t believe that you can’t spell surprise, huh? dumb fuck.”

yeosang felt a punch land on his ribcage, and he let out a grunt of pain. san and mingi immediately rushed to his aid, growling at the boy, jungheon.

jungheon scowled at the two, before walking off.

“you okay, hyung?”

“mhm. i’m good.”

san and mingi helped yeosang back to the dorm, yeosang hissing in pain when mingi accidentally touched the bruise on his ribs.

when they made it back, yeosang begged the two to not tell seonghwa and hongjoong. “i can do this. it’ll be a piece of cake; i’ll just study during free time.”

san and mingi had reluctantly agreed.

yeosang left that afternoon for the classroom, grabbing a few books. he practiced writing the words and spelling them out, but it wasn’t as easy as he thought it would be.

seonghwa had come over, and had been surprised when he saw the younger studying. “need help, sangie?”

yeosang had confidently rejected seonghwa’s offer. “it’s okay. i got this under control.”

“okay. tell me if you need help, got it?”

seonghwa had walked off, glad that yeosang was finally willing to take his studies seriously.

yeosang stayed in the classroom for a good two hours, until the dinner bell went off. all through dinner, he couldn’t stop thinking about the words he had just tried to learn.

he wanted to surprise his teacher, but he knew that he was doomed tomorrow; there was no way that he could suddenly remember that much vocabulary in a few hours.

he went to sleep that night with a knot in his stomach. all in all, he did not sleep well.

the next day, he attempted to fake being sick, but hongjoong saw right through it.

“try harder next time, yeosang. you’re going to class.” hongjoong had also landed a smack onto his butt for lying to him.

yeosang winced, and apologised. “sorry. i just don’t wanna go to class.”

“i get where your coming from, but school is important because you need knowledge to help you survive. i hate school too, but i remind myself everyday that school prepares me for the outer world.”

how was a spelling test supposed to ready him to pay his taxes? yeosang did not understand at all.

when it was time for class, yeosang was sweating profusely. god, if he failed miss kim’s test today, hongjoong and seonghwa would know just how bad of a student he was.

and then, they would have to help him. yeosang wanted his hyungs to trust him; he didn’t want to rely on them so frequently.

miss kim entered the room, holding a stack of papers.

“good morning, class. today we will be doing a spelling test. please try your hardest.” she said all of this while glaring pointedly at yeosang, who withered under her gaze.

yeosang really did try his hardest, but he just wasn’t that good at spelling. he was fine with math and science, but language was not his strong suit.

when yeosang handed in his test, miss kim stared at him. “if you don’t get a full score, i’m talking to seonghwa about this. seonghwa was a brilliant student when he was your age; the apple falls very far from the tree, i’m afraid.”

after all yeosang’s classes were over, he saw miss kim talking to seonghwa, waving a piece of paper in her hands.

yeosang felt his stomach drop. he must have failed his test.

seonghwa approached yeosang later that afternoon.

“are you having trouble with school, sangie?”

yeosang bit his lower lip. “yeah, sorta.”

“why didn’t you tell us? we could’ve helped you, y’know.”

“didn’t want to be dependent.”

seonghwa sighed. “you can always come to me if you need anything. you don’t always have to keep everything to yourself, yeosang. you have hyungs for a reason.”

yeosang gave seonghwa a hug. “thank you, hyung.”

seonghwa sent yeosang a warm smile. “do you want to work on those spellings now? i’ve got some ways for you to remember the proper way to spell a word.”

“yes, please. thank you seonghwa hyung!”

the two of them spent the rest of the afternoon working on yeosang’s spelling skills.

at class the next day, yeosang passed his spelling test. and it was all thanks to seonghwa, who had taught him both vocabulary and that it’s okay to ask for help.

Chapter Text

“i’m going out, dad!”

“don’t stay out too long, yunho. okay?”

“got it!”

yunho ran out of his house, a swing in his step. he was trying to get an apprenticeship at the local carpenter’s, in order to help support his family.

when he reached the door, yunho knocked gently.

“hello? anyone home?”

the carpenter opened the door, an apron draped over his shirt.

“you here to run an errand, kid?”

“nope. i’m here to apply for an apprenticeship.”

the carpenter looked yunho up and down. the boy was a little on the skinny side, with long, lanky arms that awkwardly hung at his sides. yunho’s hair was slightly wild, but his eyes were shining bright.

“sorry, kid. you’re too young, and you don’t look strong enough for the job.”

yunho’s face fell.

“can i apply for some other job? i could sweep the place! or-“

“slow down, kid. ain’t your father still here to work and make money?”

yunho gave a slow nod. “i want to be able to support my brother and my father. my mother, too.”

the carpenter shrugged. “sorry, kid. come back in a year; i promise i’ll give it to you then.”

yunho deflated a little, before shaking hands with the man. “thank you”, he whispered.

as he headed home, the smell of burning wood pierced his nostrils. curious, yunho started walking faster towards the source of the smell.

when he saw his own house burning to the ground, he screamed. he did not realize that the sound had come out of his mouth until he figured out that nobody else was here but him.

“geunho!”, he yelled. “mom! dad!”

no response.

yunho felt his knees buckle. he sat in a crumpled heap on the ground, watching as the flames hungrily licked at the house’s wooden frame.

what would he do now? his family was gone; he had nowhere to go. yunho had never really had any friends, as all he needed was his brother.

yunho could think of nowhere to go but the carpenter’s.

he knocked on the door again, much more urgently this time.

the carpenter opened the door. when he saw that it was him again, he sighed. “what do ya want, kid? i already told you, come back when you’re older.”

“my house...it’s gone.”

the man did a double-take before raising an eyebrow at yunho.

“are you sure? this better not be a prank.”

“i swear. it’s burning. my family is gone. geunho...”

he felt the tears stir in his eyes, but he attempted to blink them back.

“take me to your house. now.”

yunho lead the way to his burning residence. when the carpenter (yunho didn’t know what else to call him) saw the wooden house (what was left of it), he blinked long and hard.

“i can’t take care of you, kid. the least i can do is take you to an orphanage. it’s six hours away from here. do we have a deal?”

yunho, unsure of what else to do, gave a feeble nod.

“i’ll grab my wagon and horse, then.”

on yunho’s one-way ride away from everything that he has ever known, he couldn’t help but cry quietly as he sat in the wagon, lulling gently to sleep by the rhythmic sway of the cart.

every time he was about to fall asleep, images of fire licking at his brother’s skin jolted him awake.

he gave up on sleeping an hour later. instead, yunho decided to ask the carpenter as many questions as possible.

he learnt that the carpenter’s name was kennedy, and that he wasn’t married yet. “i do have my sights on a girl, though.”

they arrived at their destination a lot of conversation later. kennedy banged on the front door, yelling for someone to open up.

a man with a monocle opened the door a few moments later, studying kennedy.

“i have a child who i would like to entrust into your care”, kennedy said. he gently pushed yunho forward. the man took in yunho’s appearance.

“alright. thank you.”

the man was about to pull yunho through the door when kennedy stopped him.

“yunho. remember, my offer still stands. come back when you’re older, yeah?”

“thank you, mr. kennedy. i won’t let you down.”

yunho gave kennedy one last wave, before disappearing into the building with the monocle man.

the man closed the door behind him and sighed.

“i am the headmaster here. you’ll call me sir.”

yunho nodded. “yes, sir. i’m jeong yunho, and i’m thirteen.”

“follow me”, the headmaster said.

yunho trailed after the monocle man like a lost puppy, taking in his new surroundings.

the headmaster stopped in front of a door. he knocked, and a boy of about twelve opened the door. when he saw the man, he immediately bowed. “sir”, he said.

the headmaster walked into the room, and introduced yunho as their new roommate. “i’ll leave you to it”, sir said.

a boy stepped forward, giving him a warm smile. “i’m kim hongjoong. welcome to our humble abode.”

“jeong yunho, nice to meet you.”

“how old are you?”, one of the boys asked. his eyes were wide and sparkling with excitement.

“i’m thirteen.”

a chorus of oohs and ahhs echoed through the room.

“you’ve got competition, hongjoong hyung!”

yunho flushed. “actually, i just turned thirteen. i’ll think that you’re older than me.”

hongjoong nodded. “i’m turning fourteen in november, so yes, i’m your hyung.” hongjoong smirked; dominance was his once more.

hongjoong introduced every single member of his dorm room, gesturing at every single kid and talking about what they liked to do.

yunho felt his heart stop a little when he heard the name “jongho”. it was as if geunho’s spirit had lived on and transported itself into this tiny little boy that so happened to be his new roommate.

he would love this new, inviting family, just as he had loved his old one. he would treasure jongho and his new dongsaengs’s the same as he had treasured geunho.

this wasn’t that bad.

Chapter Text

“jongho, say ‘i’m baby’.”

“i’m baby?”

san and mingi burst out laughing.

“that was adorable. say it again.”

jongho frowned. “i’m not adorable!”

wooyoung, who had quietly slipped over, squealed.

“your little frown is so. damn. cute!”

“stop! i’m not cute!”

“look who’s talking”, san snickered.

jongho was getting worked up now. “stop treating me like a four year old! i’m telling hyung!”

“that’s a real threat, jongho. i want to squish those puffy cheeks right now, oh my god.”

jongho sniffed in frustration. “stop, hyungs!”

wooyoung continued gushing non-stop over how adorable jongho looked with that pout. san was squishing the younger’s cheeks, and mingi was snickering quietly.

“i’m not cute!”, jongho yelled, before bursting into tears.

“now look what you’ve done, wooyoung”, san chided.

“stop acting innocent, choi!”

“what’s going on?”

jongho ran into hongjoong’s outstretched arms, and pointed at the three.

“t-they keep calling me a b-baby. i’m not a kid, i’m a big boy!”

hongjoong laughed, to jongho’s face of pure betrayal. “hey, it’s okay, jongho.” he turned to the three other boys who were now gushing over jongho’s adorable sentence.

“you three should stop when he says that he’s uncomfortable, got it?”

hongjoong received three begrudging nods before letting jongho snuggle himself into his stomach.

“you feeling better now, jongie?”

“mmph.”

“wanna go lie down a little?”

hongjoong felt jongho nod. in one swift motion, the elder picked the boy up and gently brought him over to a bunk.

“i’ll cuddle with you, if you want.”

“yes please, hyung!”

jongho hugged hongjoong tight the second he felt hongjoong’s body lie down on the not-so-springy mattress.

“love you hyung.”

“love you too, baby boy.”

jongho whined in protest, but didn’t bother correcting hongjoong. he wasn’t their baby, but he was certainly hongjoong’s.

Chapter Text

“truth or dare, san?”

“dare.”

yeosang’s hand flew to his chin. “hmm”, he murmured.

“i got it! go up to hongjoong hyung and ask him for a snack.”

san rolled his eyes.

“that’s lame, yeosang. the snack obviously goes to you after i ask him for one.”

yeosang smiled. “go do it, san.”

san sighed, but stood up anyway.

“hyung!”, he yelled. “do you have a snack?”

hongjoong rummaged through a chest fo drawers before pulling out a stale cracker. “want this?”

san grimaced, but nodded anyway. “thank you.”

san bounded over to hongjoong, grabbed the cracker, and went over to the little circle that the five boys had made.

yeosang reached across the circle and snatched the biscuit, biting into it. “nom”, he muttered.

“anyway, it’s my turn. wooyoung! truth or dare?”, san asked.

wooyoung looked san in the eyes before proudly saying “dare”.

san smirked. “i dare you to climb the oak tree in the garden.”

wooyoung paled a little. he gave a feeble nod, but his heart was racing. he could not let san know that he was still scared of heights. if he knew, he would never hear the end of it.

“o-okay.”

wooyoung, san, mingi and yeosang went outside to see the dare get completed. jongho didn’t want to go out, because he was too tired.

when wooyoung stood in front of the tree, he could feel himself tremble. he took a deep breath, and gingerly scaled the tree.

he could feel his breathing hitch with every step, but he swallowed his fears and continued.

finally, finally, he made it to the top. as he stared down at his hyungs, he couldn’t believe how small they looked.

he was too scared to shimmy down the tree. he was simply too high up; it was terrifying.

“san! hyung! can you come get me? please...”

wooyoung felt the tears start to slip. san, panicking, immediately jumped up the tree, but he wasn’t fast enough.

wooyoung, in his terror, accidentally let go of the branch he was holding on to.

he could feel himself fall from the top branch. he remembered what hongjoong had told him about falling; always stretch your hands out so that they can break your fall.

he landed on the soft grass with a thud. wooyoung heard a crack, and he found one of his legs hanging in a crooked angle.

he screamed in pain and yeosang rushed over, immediately picking him up. “quick!”, yeosang yelled. “i’m getting him to the nurse. you guys tell the hyungs!”

san had leapt from the tree trunk, and he was now running in the direction of the orphanage. mingi trailed after him, panicking.

yeosang grunted as he heaved wooyoung over his shoulder, rushing to the infirmary. nurse seo tended to wooyoung’s broken leg, asking him how it had happened.

“climbed a tree”, wooyoung muttered. “got scared and lost grip.”

nurse seo sighed. “be more careful next time, okay buddy?”

wooyoung nodded miserably. yeosang squeezed wooyoung’s hand; the younger boy gave a faint smile.

a few moments later, hongjoong and seonghwa burst in, followed by yunho, jongho, san and mingi.

“wooyoung!”, hongjoong yelled. “are you okay? we were worried sick!”

“i’m fine, hyung. sorry for making you worry.”

hongjoong sighs before hugging wooyoung. “don’t do that again, okay? aren’t you scared of heights? why did you climb that tree?”

“i dared him to.”

seonghwa turned to look at san, who was guiltily scratching his ear.

the elder yanked san out of the infirmary and into their own room.

once they were inside, seonghwa sat down. san was rubbing his arm; seonghwa had gripped at his hand hard.

“choi san. why did you dare wooyoung to do such a thing? you knew that he was afraid of heights, didn’t you?”

san slowly nodded.

“then why did you dare him to?”

“i wasn’t thinking straight. i’m sorry hyung. please don’t-“

seonghwa rolled his eyes. “why does everyone think that i’ll not spank you for messing up? first hongjoong and now you.”

san laughed a little but allowed seonghwa to spank him anyway. it hurt, but san knew that it was (partially) his fault that wooyoung had climbed the tree.

when seonghwa let him up, san launched himself at his hyung. “i’m sorry! it’s all my fault!”

seonghwa gently smoothed out san’s rumpled hair. “it isn’t all your fault, san. wooyoung was the one who climbed the tree, yeah?”

san sniffled. “but i told him to do it...”

“does wooyoung have to everything that you tell him to do? no.”

san jutted out his lower lip. “so you’re saying that it’s not all my fault.”

seonghwa nodded.

“it was you who dared him to climb the tree, but wooyoung could’ve said no, right? he’s old enough to make his own decisions.”

“right. thanks for making me feel better.”

wooyoung was allowed to return to their dorm that night. every single member of their little family went up to him and peppered him with hugs, kisses and sweet nothings.

san had awkwardly stood to the side, rubbing his hands together as if trying to magic wooyoung’s cast away.

seonghwa gave his shoulder a nudge. san didn’t move, his mind whirring. how was he going to apologise to wooyoung for practically ruining his life?

seonghwa sighed, and squatted down to whisper into san’s ear. “i know how you feel”, he said. “you want to apologise but you don’t know how to. it’s easy, san. go up to him and give him a hug.”

san gingerly walked up to wooyoung and hugged him, trying his best not to hit his cast on accident. san apologised profusely.

“i’m sorry, wooyoung. i’m sorry for daring you to climb the tree, even though i knew that you’re afraid of heights. i’m sorry for not catching your fall, and i’m sorry for being a bad hyung. please, forgive me?”

wooyoung looked a little overwhelmed, but bobbed his head anyway.

“i forgive you, sannie hyung. i’m fine now, right?”

san pulled wooyoung into a bone-crushing hug. “thank you, wooyoungie.”

wooyoung smiles. “wanna bunk with me hyung?”

“i though you’d never ask.”

seonghwa and hongjoong watched from the side with a smile.

“those two can never stay mad at each other for more than ten minutes, i swear.”

seonghwa chuckled. “ha. same goes for pretty much every single person in this dorm. we’re all some sort of soulmate, yeah?”

hongjoong grins. “yeah.”

Chapter Text

“since you’re not supposed to be moving around, we’ll take turns looking after you for three days. how’s that sound?”

“great! i get to spend alone time with you guys!”

hongjoong snickered. “we’re not letting you out of bed, wooyoung. you need your rest.”

wooyoung frowned. “hmph.”

seonghwa swooped down and hugged him. “but you’ll be getting cuddle attacks every single minute, so don’t worry!”

wooyoung beamed at this. jongho, however, was not as impressed. “why does wooyoung hyung get to have alone time? i wanna stay with hyungs too! not fair.”

san and mingi didn’t say anything, but visibly voiced their agreement with sideways glances and wiggling eyebrows.

hongjoong shrugged. “look. i love all of you equally, but wooyoung is only allowed to skip school because he can’t move around properly yet. headmaster ordered some crutches that will be ready in a few days, so we need to wait a little before we can go back to normal.”

jongho scowled a little but kept quiet.

hongjoong turned to look at seonghwa. “seonghwa, is it okay if you stay with wooyoung today?”

“yeah, sure.”

after hongjoong and yunho had successfully gotten everyone to breakfast and class, seonghwa helped wooyoung sit upright, using a pillow to cushion his injured leg.

“are you comfortable, youngie?”

“uh-huh! thanks hyung.”

seonghwa smiled at wooyoung in satisfaction and sat down next to him.

“how are you feeling? does your leg still hurt?”

wooyoung thought about this for a moment. “i feel good because i can stay with you for a whole day! but i want to go to class with jongie…otherwise, i’m good!”

“so you’re conflicted?”, seonghwa asked.

“sorta.”

“i get how you feel, but you need your rest, wooyoung. try to get some sleep, okay? i’ll be here when you wake up.”

wooyoung smiled at seonghwa before closing his eyes and descending into sleep.

while wooyoung slept, seonghwa quietly cleaned the dorm. he swept the floors, tidied up the wardrobe that all eight of them shared, and made sure that their dorm was spotless.

seonghwa glanced down at wooyoung’s sleeping figure fondly. “aren’t you the cutest”, he murmured, hoping that the younger wouldn’t hear. if he did, seonghwa was going to have to look after a very grumpy wooyoung.

thankfully, wooyoung continued to snore quietly, to seonghwa’s delight. seeing that wooyoung wasn’t going to wake up in a while, seonghwa pulled out a dog-eared book from the chest of drawers.

seonghwa’s been meaning to read this for a while, but he never had the chance to. he was always either too busy looking after the others or cleaning.

it was rare that he had alone time.

when wooyoung did wake up, seonghwa had already finished the book and was re-reading it. he was halfway through his second read when wooyoung mumbled something about being hungry.

“wait here. i’ll go grab you something to eat. if anything happens, scream. got it?”

wooyoung muttered an affirmative before blinking the sleep away.

seonghwa hurriedly rushed down the corridor, and ran to the kitchen. he stealthily grabbed a loaf of bread and an apple before sneaking back to the dorm.

seonghwa handed wooyoung the food, and wooyoung tore a chunk of bread off the loaf. the two of them ate in happy silence.

“are you comfortable, wooyoungie?”, seonghwa asked.

wooyoung nodded, and seonghwa smiled. seonghwa handed wooyoung the apple, which he happily took a bite out of.

it was a wonderfully peaceful afternoon.

Chapter Text

“hongjoong hyung! please, can we go out and play today?”

hongjoong smiled at mingi. “yes, we can. everyone can go but wooyoung can’t run around; he’s still getting used to the crutches.”

mingi smiled, silently punching his fist into the air. finally! after two long weeks of waiting, he could finally play outside with his brothers!

“san hyung! come on, quickly!”

san was busy brushing his hair using his fingers, teasing the knots out. “i’m almost done! give me a bit!”

jongho was bouncing up and down by the door, excited. “YAY! hyungs are playing with us!”

yunho ruffled his hair. “yeah. you gotta be extra careful though, because that means that the tickle monster willl be more likely to attack!”

jongho giggled, batting yunho’s hands away. “not the tickle monster, hyung!”

seonghwa and yeosang were helping wooyoung up from the bed. wooyoung’s leg would have to stay in a cast for a while; according to nurse seo, for four weeks.

wooyoung was still getting used to the crutches that had arrived a day earlier. as he walked (well, limped) to the door, seonghwa stood behind him, ready to catch him if he fell.

yeosang threw the door open, and they all made their way down to the garden. “slow down!”, wooyoung yelled, trying his hardest to catch up with san.

hongjoong laughed. “it’s okay, wooyoung. i’ll walk with you.”

wooyoung stuck his tongue out at san, who was now complaining to seonghwa about how wooyoung was getting “special treatment”.

“sannie, wooyoung needs more attention right now because he’s hurt. i promise that i’ll give you extra cuddles later”, seoonghwa whispered, much to san’s delight.

yeosang and jongho were laughing about something that yeosang had said. jongho eagerly slipped his hand into yeosang’s, bounding down the stairs like an excited bunny. yunho had mingi on his shoulders, which hongjoong immediately called off.

“it’s too dangerous! mingi, get down from there.” the two of them were slightly down that hongjoong had ruined their fun (well, them being two tall people stacked atop of each other), but quickly brightened on the suggestion that they play a quick game of “i-spy” on their walk to the backyard.

when they finally reached the garden, all eight of them were in high spirits and in general, a good mood.

“mingi, you wanna show us how to play?”, hongjoong asked, his lips quirking upwards.

mingi’s eyes lit up and he immediately took the lead. “alright, so we’re pirates on the, uh, illusion! and we’re tryin’ to find the bad pirates and fight them and get treasure!”

“so who’s going to be the bad pirates?”, yunho questioned mischeiviously, his eyes twinkling.

“i’m kim hongjoong, renowned pirate king of the seven seas! and he’s park seonghwa, my first mate. that’s jeong yunho, my, uh, quartermaster!”, hongjoong declared loudly. seonghwa and yunho grinned; this was going to be fun.

“do you know what we’re here for? we’re here to eat all of you!”

thus ensued an epic chase between the eight of them; seonghwa, hongjoong and yunho chasing after the other five. “stop!”, jongho yelled, laughing as he stumbled away from seonghwa’s outstreched arms. wooyoung was trying to run away from honjgjoong, but he couldn’t really run, given the condition that he was in.

“hyung, stop!”, wooyoung whined, as hongjoong carefully tickled the living daylights out of him. yunho proceeded to attempt to bite san and mingi; yeosang was prying yunho off, giggling the whole time.

all eight of them collapsed (wooyoung carefully sat down) onto the grass, laughing. “that was fun”, hongjoong said, breathless. “i haven’t ran like that in years.”

jongho was currently being cuddled to death by yeosang. “i’ve got you!”, yeosang yelled, triumphanant. jongho screamed when yeosang planted a kiss on his cheek, much to the other’s amusement.

“jongho’s scared of kisses?”, san asked, feigning suprise. san crawled over to where jongho was being held captive by yeosang and started kissing him all over his face. mingi joined in, until the younger was almost crying from frustration. hongjoong stood up, pulling the two eleven-year-olds away from their youngest.

“what did i tell you? stop when he’s overwhelmed”, hongjoong scolded. jongho grinned devilishly at san and mingi, who were trying their hardest not to coo at how adorable jongho looked, smiling like that.

yeosang relucatantly released jongho from his grasp. jongho rolled over to wooyoung’s side, snuggling into the crook of his arm.

“hey, jongho”, wooyoung cooed, giving the youngest a head-pat. “what’s up?”

“wanna hug”, he muttered. wooyoung carefully put his crutches to the side and wrapped his arms around jongho. what started as a two-person hug ended up becoming a cuddle pile, with yunho ruffling jongho’s hair until it became a mess.

mingi sighed happily, staring up at the clear blue sky. “it’s so nice out today”, he whispered, enjoying the way the winter sunlight warmed his skin.

“today was fun”, mingi thought to himself, as he stared up at the clouds. “it was definitely worth the wait.”

Chapter Text

hi it's me again! so i am once again asking for requests as i have no idea how to continue the story and I'm drained of ideas :/

feel free to suggest ideas in the comments, please I'm desperate for prompts and requests ajdhsf

thank you! <3 i hope that you're all staying safe at home and are washing your hands <3

Chapter Text

“j-joongie hyung?”

hongjoong turned over in his sleep, huffing a little. “whatsthematter?”

a huge crack of lightning lit up the room before the thunder rolled in, making a huge booming sound. mingi whimpered, shrinking farther into the blanket that hongjoong was sharing with mingi.

“hey, are you okay?”, hongjoong asked, sitting up. he propped up mingi’s pillow and gently helped the boy sit up.

“are you scared, mingi? it’s okay. i know that you’re afraid of storms, yeah?”

hongjoong pulled mingi into a tight embrace, covering his ears and shushing him. mingi was shaking like a leaf, his breathing laboured.

“it’s okay, i’m right here, mingi. breathe for me, baby.”

a few painfully excruciating minutes later, mingi’s breathing had returned to normal. he was still clinging on to hongjoong tightly, his face buried into the older’s chest.

“s-s-scared”, mingi whispered, balling up hongjoong’s nightshirt in his fists. he was trying his hardest not to cry; he didn’t want to wake everyone up.

“mingi, i’m here. it’s okay, baby. go back to sleep.”

mingi was on the brink of falling asleep again when the thunder boomed much louder than before, waking almost everyone in the dorm; san was the only one still miraculously asleep.

mingi’s breathing hitched again, hongjoong stroking his back. “breathe, mingi. in, out, in out.”

this wasn’t the first time that mingi had one of these panic attacks. every single time, it happened during a thunderstorm. hongjoong was ninety percent sure that it was related to something that had happened before he came here, but hongjoong and the others never pried. if mingi was hiding something, then it was probably with good reason.

seonghwa walked across their tiny room in two quick strides, squeezing mingi firmly when he sat down on the bunk. they had learned that mingi calmed down faster when he was tightly restrained, and that he was more likely to start crying (a good sign, as it meant that the attacks were about to end) when they hugged him tight.

jongho was wringing his hands nervously, his lower lip wobbling. yunho, who had been sharing with him, had an arm over jongho’s shoulder. san was still asleep, but the second mingi started crying, his eyes fluttered open.

everyone knew that they had to stay clear from mingi and the hyungs whenever the former was having a panic attack, but san seemed to momentarily forget.

“mingi?”, he croaked, rolling over yeosang to get off the bed. wooyoung was now huddled up with jongho and yunho on their shared bunk; everyone was scared and worried for mingi. they had no idea why these things happened to him and when they would stop. yeosang padded over to where the other three were, cramming his thumb into his mouth (old habits die hard).

san wedged himself in between hongjoong and seonghwa, hugging mingi while whispering sweet nothings into his ear. hongjoong was about to scold him and pull him back to his bed when seonghwa put a hand on his shoulder. “don’t”, seonghwa whispered. “this might help.”

as if san’s eleven-year-old embrace was magical, mingi’s sniffles and breathing started to slow down. hongjoong noticed that the rise and fall of his chest became more rhythmic, and his sniffles subsided.

“s-sorry, hyungs”, mingi whispered, releasing hongjoong’s now crumpled nightshirt from his fists. hongjoong sighed for the twentieth time that day. “look, mingi. you don’t need to apologize for anything. this is your body’s way of responding to the storm outside, right? it doesn’t matter. we’ll be here for you always.”

san was stll holding on to mingi, squeezing him tight. hongjoong was contemplating on whether or not he should give him an earful for disobeying him (again. he never gets respect), but seonghwa convinced him not to.

“he just successfully did what took us fifteen minutes to do, joong. cut him some slack.”

san got up to leave and go back to yeosang, but mingi started whining. “nooo! want sannie hyung.”

san, smiling softly, slipped under the thin blanket again, cuddling mingi close. “night, mingming.”

“night, sannie.”

Chapter Text

“shh!”

yeosang shushed jongho, helping the younger out of bed. “quiet, jongie. we don’t want to wake the hyungs. we’ll probably get in trouble for that.”

“kinda late for that, hyung.”

yeosang felt his face flare; he had gotten in trouble with hongjoong before they went to sleep for ruining his only pair of semi-presentable pants.

“stop being sassy or i won’t help. you know that you’ll get embarassed”, yeosang warned. jongho immediately shut up, zipping his lips shut.

“okay. go to the closet and grab a new pair of pants”, he whispered into jongho’s ear. “i’ll get the sheets from the laundry room.”

jongho nodded and started tip-toeing towards their closet, pulling out a pair of pants that were a little too big for him. he slipped out of his old pair and handed them to yeosang, who balled the fabric up and slipped out of the room. jongho put on the new pair, ignoring how he felt like the pants were about to fall off.

jongho had an accident. this wasn’t the first time, but it was the first time that yeosang was changing his sheets at five in the morning.

yeosang snuck out of the room, quietly heading to the laundry room. he put jongho’s soiled pants into their laundry basket, and opened one of the cabinets. he grabbed new bedsheets and quietly closed the cabinet.

the boy silently ran back to their dorm, slipping throught the crack in the door. he spotted jongho sitting with his chin atop of his knees in front of the closet, hugging his knees to his chest.

“alright. get the pillows and the blanket off the bed”, yeosang hissed. “try not to make noise.”

jongho took the pillows and stacked them onto the floor, covering them with the threadbare blanket. he grabbed the teddy bear that hongjoong had given him a while back and tucked it under his arm.

yeosang then pulled the dirty sheets off the mattress, dumping them onto the floor in an entirely seperate pile. he might have been a little too loud, because yunho, who was next to them, stirred a little.

jongho’s eyes widened, his thumb instinctively going into his mouth. thankfully, yunho went back to sleep, snoring softly. yeosang spread the clean sheets onto the mattress, tucking the corners in.

“i’m done”, yeosang whispered. “everything back onto the bed; we’re going back to sleep.”

jongho put the pillows back onto the bed, wrapping the blanket around his shoulders. yeosang snatched at it, which managed to shake a pout out of jongho.

“i’m cold”, jongho whined, reaching for the blanket as yeosang flopped back onto the bed. yeosang reluctantly let go of half of the blanket, allowing jongho to snuggle underneath.

“next time, i’m just going to wake everyone up”, yeosang whispered, as jongho wrapped his arms around the stuffed bear. “or i’ll steal your bear.”

jongho stuck his tongue out at yeosang and closed his eyes, ready to go to sleep again. yeosang snuggled up to jongho (his version of a teddy bear), and drifted off to sleep.

the next morning, when hongjoong can over to wake the two, he glanced down at jongho. “jongho? why are you wearing my pants?”

jongho felt his face flush. “uh…had an accident”, he murmured, hugging bear closer to his chest.

“how did you manage to change the sheets? why didn’t you wake me up?”, hongjoong asked, sighing.

“i helped”, yeosang piped up from next to jongho, rubbing his eyes. “thank you, sangie”, hongjoong praised. “that was nice of you.”

hongjoong turned to jongho and bent down to kiss him on the forehead, which lead to a whine escaping jongho. “next time you need to go, go in the pot, okay? you can’t keep having accidents, baby.”

jongho nodded, red creeping up his cheeks. yeosang hugged the younger. “don’t be embarassed”, he whispered into his ear. “this happens to the best of us, got it? i’m telling you this once.”

hongjoong ruffled jongho’s hair and moved to wake the others. jongho muttered a quiet “thank you” to yeosang and got up to tuck bear into the closet. some time ago, wooyoung had teased him for still playing with a stuffed animal at his age and jongho had stopped taking bear everywhere he went.

jongho changed out of hongjoong’s pants and put on pants that actually fit him, cramming on his sweater. it was a fairly cold day, and the sweater made him feel like he was being hugged at all times.

yeosang walked over, and jongho shook his arm. “thanks for helping me last night, hyung. if you didn’t help, woo would’ve teased me so bad.”

“don’t mention it, jongie”, yeosang said, slightly embarassed.

jongho developed a newfound respect for yeosang that day. yeosang may seem cold and slightly socially awkward, but when you got to know him, yeosang was just shy; he was just as willing to help people as any other person.

Chapter Text

jongho tucked the stuffed brown bear under his arm, loving the way that the fur scraped gently against his skin.

hongjoong had given the bear to jongho as a birthday present. ever since he had gotten it, jongho had brought it everywhere he went.

jongho never really acknowledged the jealous glares that wooyoung and san occasionally shot him, thinking that they were just angry about something.

everyone but jongho and wooyoung had already left for morning classes. jongho was about to leave as well when wooyoung came over, a mean smile on his face.

“jongho, aren’t you a little too old to still be carrying that everywhere with you? you may still be a baby, but don’t you hate being called one?”

the younger boy looked up, confused. “huh? what do ya mean, woo?”

“you’re acting like a baby, carrying that bear”, wooyoung said, pointing at the brown stuffed animal that jongho was now clutching tightly with his right hand.

“‘m not a baby”, jongho muttered, looking down at the floor. “if you’re not a baby”, wooyoung said, his eyes hardening, “then you wouldn’t be carrying that.”

jongho glanced down at the bear in his right hand, sighed, and tucked it into the closet. “okay, i’m not carrying it no more. don’t call me a baby”, jongho said, before leaving the room.

wooyoung smirked before following the younger, closing the door behind him.

jongho felt an empty void next to him for the rest of the day; he missed bear, but he couldn’t go back and grab it. wooyoung was going to tease him if he did.

hongjoong looked at him funnily at lunch. “jongie, where’s bear? did you lose him?” jongho shook his head furiously. “no. i just stopped bringing him out with me.”

wooyoung, who was sitting across from jongho, smirked. “yeah, jongho’s not a baby anymore.”

hongjoong turned to look at wooyoung. “if i find out that you’ve been teasing him about bear again, rest assured that your not going to sleep on your back tonight.”

wooyoung huffed, and resumed conversation with san and mingi. yeosang, who was sitting next to jongho, pulled him aside after lunch.

“jongie, i know that woo said something. what happened? don’t give me that face, you know that i hate it when you cry.”

jongho’s lower lip was wobbling. “woo called me a baby for carrying bear around.”

yeosang sighed. “in no way are you a baby. if you like carrying bear around, then that’s your own preference. woo’s just jealous that you have a stuffed toy.”

jongho hugged yeosang, the older stumbling back at the unexpected embrace. “hey, what’s this?”, yeosang asked, running a hand through jongho’s hair.

“thanks for making me feel better, hyung”, jongho whispered, before running off to class.

yeosang’s never seen jongho running around with bear during the day again, but jongho’s only comfortable with taking the stuffed toy out either when he’s sleeping alone or with yeosang.

“hyung?”, yeosang asked hongjoong. “is it okay if i tell you a secret?”

“sure”, hongjoong said, closing the book that he was reading. “what’s up, sangie?”

“jongho told me that wooyoung was the one who teased him about carrying bear around. don’t tell anyone, okay?”

hongjoong groaned. “i won’t, but wooyoung... i could’ve guessed it. boy’s jealous of jongho’s bear.” hongjoong scolded wooyoung later on that day, but hongjoong didn’t tell the younger who had snitched. wooyoung apologized to jongho and all was well again.

yeosang claims that he doesn’t have a favorite younger brother, but he secretly has a soft spot for jongho. hence why he was always the one looking out for the youngest; he wanted him to keep that innocence of his.

yeosang made it his personal goal to protect and make sure that jongho was okay. later that night, yeosang handed bear to jongho.

“he missed you”, yeosang said, gesturing to the bear. “bear’s missed your cuddles, jongie.” jongho smiled at yeosang, grabbing at the toy. “thanks for everything, hyung.”

the two of them ended up falling asleep together, entwined in each other’s arms.  jongho stopped bringing bear out with him again because he didn’t feel like he needed to.

he had an entire yeosang who was willing to help him and comfort him; who needs a tiny little bear when you have a whole human with you?

Chapter Text

it was early morning, and hongjoong was not ready for this.

“hongjoong. how could you have been so careless yesterday? you should’ve at least asked wooyoung  if he was the one responsible.”

hongjoong bit his lip. “sorry, hyung. i was just really mad at san.”

seonghwa sighed. “i know that you love him. even though you punish him on a day-to-day basis, i know that you’re doing it out of love. you want him to be the best person he can be because he reminds you of when you were younger.”

hongjoong stood, stunned. how had seonghwa seen through him so easily?

“y-yeah”, hongjoong stammered. “i see my eleven year old self in him. i don’t want him to get hurt.”

“but you hurt him yesterday.”

“i’m sorry, hyung.”

seonghwa gave a grin. “i know that you are.”

“can you not?”

“nope. it’s not fair if i get to let you off the hook.”

hongjoong sighed, and allowed himself to be pulled over seonghwa’s knee.

it hurt more than he thought it would. he had to utilise all of his self control to not scream out loud, reminded that his family was still asleep.

apologising to san was the easiest thing in the world. san forgave him in a split second, just as he thought he would.

the reason why hongjoong was so hard on san was because he didn’t want san to end up with physical marks to remind him of his wrongdoings in the past.

he knew that deep down, san was the most caring and thoughtful person to ever grace god’s green earth. he just wanted other people to see it, too.

Chapter Text

“i’m not sure about this”, seonghwa said, crossing his arms. “it’s cold out and i know that you won’t come back until the wee hours of the morning.”

“i’ll be fine; i’ll just stay out for a couple more minutes”, hongjoong pleaded. “please, hwa hyung?”

“fine. but don’t stay out too late; you know that it’ll be freezing out there.”

hongjoong smiled, thanking seonghwa with a hug. “see you later, hyung!” hongjoong then proceeded to run out of the orphanage, rushing to the garden. he climbed the oak tree to get a better look at the night sky.

the stars were littered across the black cosmos like spilled milk on a chalkboard, and hongjoong could feel nothing but peace as he stared up at the shimmering night sky.

hongjoong ended up sneaking back to their dorm past midnight, only because the cold wind was biting at his skin and chilling his bones. he felt himself shiver once for way too long, but shook it off and slipped quietly into bed.

he awoke the next morning feeling like absolute crap. hongjoong’s head was pounding and he felt like he had descended into hell. “hyung”, he whined, as seonghwa peeled the blanket off of him. “hyung, i don’t feel so good.”

seonghwa looked down at the younger, concern and worry evident in his eyes. “hey, joong. are you okay?”

“noooo”, hongjoong groaned. “i feel like absolute shit. hyung, can you grab the pills from the cabinet?”

hongjoong stumbled off the bed, one hand on his temple. “you are not moving, kim hongjoong”, seonghwa scolded, gently pushing him back onto the bed.

seonghwa took out what was left of the bottle of pills, checking the half-broken label to see if it was safe to use them if you had a headache. after double-checking the label, he shook one of the pills out and handed it to hongjoong. “don’t swallow it yet”, seonghwa warned. “water first.”

seonghwa handed hongjoong a glass of water. hongjoong popped the pill into his mouth and gurgled the water, groaning when he was done.

hongjoong stood up, and made to move for the closet. “hongjoong”, seonghwa said, a firmness in his voice. “you’re staying in bed today.”

“but-“

“no. stay there.”

hongjoong sighed but said nothing. he knew that fighting against seonghwa was a fight that he would definitely lose, no matter what he did.

“fine, fine.”

hongjoong laid down on the bed, pulling the blanket over his head. his nose was running; he wiped at it with his sleeve, letting out a growl of annoyance.

he hated it when he got sick. that meant that the others would have to take care of him like he was some sort of baby; he always felt exposed and vulnerable during the few times that it’s happened.

he cursed himself for staying out late last night; if he had listened to seonghwa, then none of this would’ve happened.

“what’s up with hongjoong hyung?”, san asked, trying to get to hongjoong. “yeah, is he okay?”, wooyoung queried, trying to slide under seonghwa’s now outstretched arm.

“he’s sick, guys”, yunho said softly. “give him some space.” thank god for yunho; hongjoong was not ready for the others to see him all sick and tired like this.

san and wooyoung pouted before retreating to the closet, jostling each other as they tried to pick out an outfit. jongho was whining about something to yunho; hongjoong couldn’t make out the entire conversation but he heard “hyung”, “sick”, and “can’t”. probably something about jongho wanting to cuddle hongjoong, but not being able to as he wasn’t feeling well.

hongjoong hated feeling so powerless and having to depend on others. he wanted his family to be able to rely on him; he hated how the others were worrying about him.

“‘m...fine”, hongjoong croaked, drawing seonghwa’s attention. “shhh”, seonghwa hushed him. “quiet, joong. your going to worsen that sore throat if you keep talking, okay? i’ll tell nurse seo to come over later to check you out.”

“don’t need to!”, hongjoong whined. “i’m fine, hyung!” he was about to continue complaining, but one look from yeosang and he shut up.

“hyung, rest. we’ll be fine without you. and don’t bother trying to complain; you know what’s going to happen.“

hongjoong felt his face flare underneath the covers, but said nothing. yeosang, satisfied, smiled. “seonghwa hyung’s going to take real good care of you. relax.”

seonghwa gave yeosang a silent high-five, yunho grinning at him. yes, winning a fight against seonghwa was hard, but not impossible. winning a fight against yeosang? there was no way. the boy was simply too good at staring you down.

the others left the dorm, quietly muttering their goodbyes to hongjoong and seonghwa. “see you later”, hongjoong said huskily, clearing his throat once. seonghwa sighed, as the door slammed shut. “they’ll be fine, joong. stop worrying.”

“‘m not worrying! you stop worrying about me!”, hongjoong yelled, slamming his fist down onto the mattress.

“oh, right. i completely forgot how much of a brat sick hongjoong is”, seonghwa said. “you heard what yeosang said. behave, or else.”

hongjoong groaned before rolling over, muffling his screaming with his pillow. “hyung, it would really help if you talked about anything but me being sick. it’s making my headache worse.”

“i’m going to get the nurse to check you out. just wait here, joong.”

hongjoong sighed, watching as seonghwa left the dorm. he tried to get up and change out of his nightclothes, but a sudden throb immediately made him collapse onto the bed again. “fuck”, he hissed. “fuck, fuck-“

the door opened again, and seonghwa had nurse seo in tow. “he’s been complaining of headaches and he’s got a runny nose and a sore throat”, seonghwa explained.

“got it”, nurse seo said, gently pressing her hand to hongjoong’s forehead. the younger boy flinched, balling his fists together. “you’re hot”, the nurse mused. “hongjoong, you should be fine. just take the medicine i gave you last time.”

ah. the bottle that wooyoung accidentally knocked over. they had put the pills into what was left of the bottle; thank goodness that the fall really hadn’t shattered it much. just thinking about the incident was enough to summon another headache.

“thank you”, hongjoong said, staring at the floor. nurse seo smiled sympathetically. “hongjoong, no one likes being sick. you should be back on your feet soon, depending on how severe your condition is.”

hongjoong returned the smile weakly. nurse seo got up to leave, waving at the two before she left. “don’t forget to wash your hands, you two!”

seonghwa stared at hongjoong, an unreadable expression present on his face. “rest, hongjoong. it’s not going to kill you if you just take a fucking break and relax. you work too hard.”

the younger huffed, but seonghwa saw his eyes soften. “hyung, can you go grab me my book? it’s tucked inside my jacket.”

seonghwa didn’t move, staring at hongjoong with expectant eyes. the tiny male smiled. “please?”

“that’s more like it.”

seonghwa got up and grabbed hongjoong’s book. “where’d you get this from?”, seonghwa asked. “i’ve not seen this in the library.”

hongjoong blushed. “it’s mine. i got it as a donation before you came. i couldn’t understand it when i was younger so i’ve been keeping it safe. i just remembered about it recently and i’ve been reading it.”

seonghwa grinned. “glad to see that you’ve still been reading.” he handed the book to hongjoong, hongjoong immediately thanking him. he opened the book to where he had previously bookmarked the page and started reading again.

hongjoong tried his hardest to focus on the words, but with his constantly throbbing head and running nose, it was near impossible. two pages later, hongjoong slammed the book down, whining.

“i can’t do anything! this damned headache-“

he stopped when seonghwa slapped his arm, hard. “hongjoong”, seonghwa asked, annoyance evident in his voice. “i know that you’re in a mood because you’re sick but you can’t complain. just get some sleep, joong-ah.”

“cuddle with me?”, hongjoong asked, his voice softening. seonghwa ruffled his hair; how could he say no to that face?

“alright, then. scoot over”, seonghwa said, teasingly pushing hongjoong over. “and be careful of your book. you don’t want to accidentally damage it.”

hongjoong carefully stored it under the bed and felt seonghwa’s warm embrace go around his body. sleep came so easily when he was in the arms of his best friend; it was as if he was yanked off to sleep the second seonghwa’s hands went around him.

he woke up a few hours later, the headache throbbing much less than it had before. seonghwa was still hugging him, stroking his hair.

“hyungie?”, hongjoong asked, cringing at how naturally the old nickname had slipped. “what time is it?”

“it’s a little past twelve, joong”, seonghwa said. “you hungry? i can go grab you something real quick.”

“can you, please? thank you hyung”, hongjoong smiled, slowly sitting up. his head was still throbbing, but the pain had dialled down to a dull throb.

seonghwa padded outside for the second time that day, passing san, mingi and yeosang in the hall. “how’s hyung?”, all three of them asked simultaneously. “he’s fine. thanks for asking, guys”, seonghwa thanked.

he followed the three to the dining hall, smiling at the overly exaggerated movements his brothers were making. “so, we’re going to play with hongjoong hyung when we get back if he’s up for it! we’ll be doing marbles but we’re gonna give him the biggest taw, an’-“

“slow down, mingi”, yeosang said, a look of amusement in his eyes. “basically we’ll be letting hyung win at marbles to cheer him up; you know how bad he is at that game.”

seonghwa chuckled softly. “yeah, he sucks at marbles.” seonghwa got momentary flashbacks to the time when hongjoong (ten-year-old hongjoong, mind you) got into a fight with a kid from another dorm when said kid insulted his marbles skills. yeah, that was not a pleasant experience.

he dropped the three of them off at the dining hall, waving to the others as he jogged to the kitchen. he politely asked for food to take upstairs and the cook wordlessly handed him two bowls of whatever they were having for lunch (some kind of stew? seonghwa never had any idea). he quickly returned upstairs, hongjoong gratefully taking his bowl of food.

“can you eat? i know that that headache’s been annoying you, hasn’t it?”

hongjoong nodded blearily. “sore throat, too. can you please pass me a glass of water?”

seonghwa handed him the glass from earlier. hongjoong chugged the water down, sighing in relief as his throat momentarily stopped feeling as parched and dry.

hongjoong and seonghwa ate in silence, the only sounds being the occasional slurp coming from hongjoong (seonghwa shot him a death glare after the third one; hongjoong stopped slurping).

after the two of them had lunch, hongjoong picked up the book that he had abandoned a while back and starting reading again. this time, he could register the words and turn the page without having to wipe his running nose once every ten seconds.

seonghwa got out one of the rags that they had made from jongho’s old shirts and started wiping the dorm down, cleaning everything out of boredom.

around a peaceful hour later, the kids came bursting through the door. “hyung!”, san called, beaming. “we’re gonna play marbles! please, can you play with us?”

“well, only if you’re up for it”, yunho reassured. hongjoong raised an eyebrow at seonghwa, who was currently polishing his boots. he shrugged, winking once. “if you want to”, he mouthed.

hongjoong grinned. “alright. one game, and that’s it. you all know that i suck at marbles.”

hongjoong joined their circle, sitting cross-legged next to jongho and san. “let’s go by age order, youngest to oldest”, wooyoung yelled. hongjoong groaned, much to the amusement of seonghwa who was watching from afar.

what surprised hongjoong was that nobody chose the biggest, roundest marble as their taw; hongjoong was pretty sure that that damned marble was the cause of a majority of their arguments.

hongjoong, even with his absolutely horrific marbles skills, managed to win the game. he’d successfully knocked out san and wooyoung’s shooter marble, which wasn’t taken well by the two. “not fair!”, san whined.

“my first winning marble game!”, hongjoong yelled, triumphant. yeosang, who had gotten up during the match to go to the washroom, was now whispering into seonghwa’s ear. “did it work?”, he asked.

seonghwa looked at hongjoong’s smiling figure that was now demanding a rematch. “yeah, it worked.”

Chapter Text

“what do you mean voice change?”, yunho asked, confusion written across his face. hongjoong and seonghwa both shrugged fluidly. “honestly, yunnie. we don’t know why this happens either but it does.”

“so do you mean that my voice’ll keep cracking every time i try to say something?”, yunho demanded, a look of utter disbelief in his eyes.

hongjoong and seonghwa shared a look. “not neccesarily, yunho. this is all part of growing up and you shouldn’t be afraid of it. i went through this last year too, but you weren’t here yet. wooyoung tried his hardest to make my life a living hell.”

“i’m not afraid”, yunho mumbled, fiddling with his shirt. “i wouldn’t even give two shits about this if the others weren’t laughing at me for it.”

“come again, yunho?”, hongjoong asked. “their teasing you for it?” the tall boy muttured an affirmative before shrinking into the wall.

yunho was playing ball with the others earlier, after lunch. “over here!”, he yelled, his voice cracking; it sounded as if the “ver” in “over” was a decibel too high.

“oVer here!”, san mimicked, tossing yunho the ball. yunho rolled his eyes, before running towards the circle drawn in the dirt that they were using as the goal. he dropped the ball into the circle; goal.

yunho high-fived mingi and san, his teammates. yeosang and jongho were busy discussing a new tactic. “hyung”, wooyoung asked, hobbling over. “what happened to your voice back there?”

yunho shrugged. “how am i supposed to know? it’s only happened a couple of times.” the younger boy smirked. ‘it’s funny, though. oVer here!”, wooyoung shrieked, sticking his tongue out when yunho punched him lightly on the arm.

they played a few more rounds (all of them resulting in yunho’s team winning), and collapsed onto the grass. “hyung”, san asks, propping himself up with his arm. “why’s your voice sound higher than it normally does?”

“kinda girlish”, yeosang pipes up from where he’s lying down beside jongho. wooyoung laughed that squeaky laugh of his, shifting his non-injured leg.

“guys, please-“

“hyung, seriously! it’s weird, y’know. hwanwoong hyung mentioned it to me before. seoho hyung’s voice sounded like that too, for half a year! hwanwoong said that he sounded like a girl.” wooyoung was wheezing now, thumping his hand onto the grass.

“stop it. i’m serious”, yunho glared, daring any one of them to say something. all of the boys averted their eyes, looking away. yunho stormed back into the house, and went searching for seoho.

“seoho hyung?”, he asked, poking his head into seoho’s dorm. said boy was reading a book, but snapped it shut when he saw yunho. “hey, yunho”, seoho said, getting up from the floor. “yunho!”, youngjo yelled, ruffling the younger boy’s hair. “it’s been a while, hasn’t it.”

“yeah”, yunho admitted, grinning shyly. hwanwoong, dongju and keonhee were talking about something; the three waved. “let’s go outside”, seoho suggested. “hang with us soon!”, leedo yelled, waving him off with a smile. yunho always enjoyed hanging out with seoho’s dorm; almost all of them were older than him, and he felt like he was constantly looked after.

“mingi told me that hwanwoong told him that you got voice cracks too”, yunho started. “i wanna know how bad it was for you.” yunho cringed when his voice cracked the slightest bit, clearing his throat immediately.

“ah”, seoho said. “basically, those were the worst six months of my life. my voice was getting lower and it kept cracking and it kept sounding like i was a girl. i’m pretty sure that the brat known as woong mentioned that”, the older boy lamented. “i told them that it was eventually going to happen to them as well but they wouldn’t believe me; leedo’s going through it right now, and he came to me for help like, two weeks ago.”

“yikes”, yunho said. “so does that mean that my voice is going to keep cracking…?” he wanted to scream if the answer was yes. “well, not really”, seoho admitted, laughing when he saw yunho’s tense facial expression relax.

“but yunho”, seoho said, immediately drawing the younger’s attention. “it’s not going to end tomorrow. your vocal chords need to get used to the change that’s happening right now; it might take longer for you.”

yunho sighed. “the others are callling me a girl. it sucks.” seoho slung an arm over yunho’s shoulder, squeezing it tight. “just drink plenty of water. if you can get your hands on honey, even better. but it’s highly unlikely that we’ll find honey here”, he admitted.

“i know that it sucks. i was bullied plenty when i was your age. i’m sure that mingi also mentioned hwanwoong and leedo calling me a girl and mimicking my cracks all the time. youngjo hyung was on edge for weeks”, seoho chuckled. “i think that you should talk to your hyungs about this, yunho. they’ll understand.”

which was why yunho currently found himself talking with his hyungs, awkwardly scratching his ear.

“yunho, it’s okay. we’ll have a talk later, all eight of us. it’s about time that they learned about puberty, anyway”, seonghwa insisted, trying to get the boy from shrinking through the wall.

“where are the others?”, hongjoong asked, stopping seonghwa from tidying the marbles on the floor of their room. “and no, hwa. i’ll make them clean up themselves.”

“i think that their still playing ball”, yunho admitted. “i left to find seoho hyung.” hongjoong nodded, reaching for the doorknob. “i’m going to grab them. you guys get ready for a family discussion.”

hongjoong went downstairs, and herded his brothers over. “boys!”, he yelled, drawing the attention of his remaining five sweaty brothers. “come on! family discussion!”

the boys groaned but walked over to hongjoong anyway,  san tossing the ball back into the chest by the vegetable patch. “can we get a shower first?”, yeosang asked, wiping away the hair that was clinging to his forehead. “yes. but make it quick”, hongjoong agreed.

thirty minutes later, all of the boys were clean and changed. wooyoung’s shower had taken longer as hongjoong had to slip his cast into a pant leg to keep it dry. they were all seated on the floor, jongho sucking on his bear’s ear. san, the first one to come back from the showers, was the one who tidied the marbles away.

“so. yunho’s having a bit of a bodily change happen.” wooyoung smirked at this, laughing quietly. “yeah! he sounds like a-“

wooyoung was cut off with a yelp, as hongjoong had cuffed him on the ear. “you better stop, jung wooyoung”, hongjoong warned, slapping wooyoung on the arm.

“fine. sorry, hyungs”, wooyoung whispered, rubbing his arm embarrassedly.

“anyway”, hongjoong continues. “i would like to talk to all of you about this. yeosang, you’ve had this talk already, so can you please take jongho somewhere else?” yeosang nods in understanding; this was something that they didn’t want jongho to know about yet.

yeosang slips jongho’s hand into his and leading him out of the room. the remaining three kids looked at hongjoong, confused. yunho looked like he wanted to evaporate on the spot; he was getting flashbacks to his own when his parents had sat him down at their dinner table and exposed him to all the secrets of adulthood.

“so!”, seonghwa announces. “we’ll be talking about puberty.” mingi cocked his head, his eyes widening in curiosity. “puber-wha?”

“puberty. basically, it talks about the changes that your body will undergo as you get older.”

“so yunho hyung’s voice cracks are a part of puberty?”, san queried, trying the new word on his tongue. “is it natural?”

“yeah, san”, hongjoong said, surprised that the younger had latched on to the concept fairly quickly. “oh!”, san exclaimed. “keonhee hyung told me about it once! there’s also something where your-“

hongjoong clamped his hand over san’s mouth, muffling his words. “don’t say it”, hongjoong hissed, desperation in his voice. “they don’t need to know, san-ah.” yunho’s face was red, his head in his hands. seonghwa looked like he was about to burst into laughter.

“know what?”, mingi asked innocently, wide doe eyes now trained on san. “nothing you need to know about, mingi”, hongjoong said firmly. “i think that you all have something to say to yunho.”

the three boys sheepishly turned to look at yunho. “sorry, yunho hyung”, wooyoung apologised. “i was confused and didn’t know what was happening.” the other two followed suit, muttering apologies.

yunho shrugged. “it doesn’t matter, guys. as long as you know that it’ll happen to you too, i don’t really care.” he allowed mingi and san to hug him, scooting over to let wooyoung into the embrace.

“well, that went well”, hongjoong whispered to seonghwa. “thank god i shut san up before he could let anything slip.” seonghwa laughed, standing up. “dinnertime, come on”, he reminded, helping wooyoung up.

“last one to the dining room's a rotten egg!”, san yelled, taking off. “not fair!”, mingi called out, scrambling to his feet. yunho chased after the other two, yelling “wait for me, you two!”, the entire time. “it’s extremely unfair for me!”, wooyoung screeched, trying to catch up with the others.

“guess they're fine now”, hongjoong snickered, as he exited the room.

age of oneus members in this au!

youngjo: 16

seoho: 15

leedo: 13

keonhee: 13

hwanwoong: 12

dongju: 10

Chapter Text

“so, you guys wanna play with us?”, mingi asked hwanwoong and dongju. “we’re playing ball.”

“count us in, too!”, keonhee yelled, lugging a very confused leedo behind him. yunho jogged over to the two, exchanging a handshake. “hey, yunho!”, leedo grinned, prying keonhee’s fingers off his arm.

“i guess”, dongju answered, smiling shyly. “so how do you play? just throw the ball into the dirt circle?”, hwanwoong queried, pointing at yeosang and jongho. the two boys were tossing the ball back and forth, jongho chucking the ball into the circle drawn out on the dirt.

“technically, yeah”, san admitted. wooyoung was reading a book in the grass, lounging lazily in the sun.

keonhee grinned. “sounds fun to me. let’s split teams; our dorm versus yours! you guys game?” he was met with enthusiastic nods, wooyoung giving a thumbs-up. “i’ll overlook the game!”, wooyoung yelled, putting his book away.

once everyone had sorted out their teams and tactics, wooyoung called for everyone to go to the two sides of the field. other kids from the other dorms gathered around, curious about what was happening.

“ready…start!”

yunho rushed out to grab the ball positioned in the middle of the field, tossing it to san who was running towards the goal. san leapt into midair and snagged the leather ball, dodging past dongju and leedo and touching it down into the circle.

“1-nil!”, wooyoung yelled, the onlookers cheering. san high-fived yeosang, before returning the ball to the center of the field. the game started again, and keonhee tackled yeosang who had the ball. keonhee tossed it to hwanwoong, who tossed the ball to leedo. leedo ran for his life towards the goal and touched it down, collapsing onto the grass.

“i’m dying”, dongju groaned, sitting down for a moment to calm his breathing. “dongju, you suck at exercise”, hwanwoong snickered, ignoring the punch that dongju sent to his shoulder.

“you guys ready for another round?”, jongho asked, reaching down to help dongju up. “you okay, dongie hyung?”

“i’m good. thanks, jongho.” dongju dusted off his pants and fist-bumped the younger boy. “this is the closest game i’ve ever played”, keonhee admitted. “and your only one”, yunho quipped, running from keonhee’s grasp.

they started the game again. san wrestled hwanwoong for the ball, but leedo dived in at the last minute, ensuring hwanwoong an escape. hwanwoong slid under yeosang’s arms (perks of being short) and was about to touch down when jongho wrestled the ball from hwanwoong and tossed it into the circle.

“since when did you get so strong?”, hwanwoong asked, panting hard. jongho grinned smugly, flexing his arms. “since we started playin. i’m going to try to split an apple next time we get one!”

the onlooking crowd was absolutely shocked. how had an eight-year-old managed to wrestle a ball from hwanwoong? “holy”, someone muttered.

they played a few more games, all of them resulting in jongho’s team winning. “god, one last match”, keonhee panted. “before we turn in for the day.”

the others reluctantly agreed, readying themselves on their respective sides of the field. most of their onlookers had left, as the sun was slowly setting and it was almost time for dinner.

wooyoung ordered them to start, and they all charged for the ball. yunho dove for it, but dongju was quicker, snatching it from it’s place in the center. jongho wrestled dongju for the ball, and in the squabble, accidentally scratched the older boy on the face. dongju screamed and reared back, clutching his face.

hongjoong burst out of the house, calling for his brothers. “guys! come on! wait, dongju, are you okay?”

jongho dropped the ball into the circle, puffing out air. leedo and hwanwoong rushed over to pick dongju up, checking his face. there was a minor scrape, and it was bleeding slightly.

hongjoong bent down. “dongju, we’ll get you to the nurse. are you alright? what happened?”

“jongho scratched me when we were playing!”, dongju whimpered, pointing at the boy who was now being reprimanded by yunho. jongho was clutching the ball to his chest, staring down at his shoes.

hongjoong ruffled dongju’s hair. “i’ll talk to him later. thank you for being honest, dongju-ah. hwanwoong, keonhee, can you take him to the nurse? leedo can go get youngjo hyung and seoho hyung.”

the three boys nodded. hwanwoong helped dongju up, dongju’s right hand covering the bleeding scratch. keonhee had an arm over dongju’s shoulder, brushing the younger’s hair away from his forehead.

“jongho, you need to be careful next time. i’m serious”, yunho scolded. “dongju could’ve gotten seriously hurt.”

hongjoong cuffed jongho on the head, frowning. “what happened back there? you’re not the type of person to hurt to get what you want, jongho.” jongho winced, rubbing his head with a pout on his lips. if hongjoong wasn’t scolding him, he would’ve squished his cheeks.

“i wanted to win”, jongho said defiantly, crossing his tiny arms over his chest. hongjoong sighed. “jongho, knowing that you hurt someone while winning doesn’t give you the satisfaction.” jongho bit his lower lip.

“i didn’t mean to hurt dongie hyung. i was just frustrated. ‘m sorry”, jongho whispered. hongjoong patted jongho’s hair, sighing. “you’ll need to apologise to dongju after dinner. let’s go change, shall we?”

on their way upstairs, san and mingi animatedly described their epic wins against dongju’s team. “hwanwoong hyung literally slid under yeosang hyung’s arm! it was so crazy”, mingi exclaimed.

jongho apologised to dongju after dinner, when he ran into him in the washroom. “dongie hyung? ‘m sorry for scratching you on the face. i didn’t mean to. ‘m really sorry.”

dongju smiled. “’sokay. doesn’t matter much, so long as you apologised. it’s fine now, see?”, he said, gesturing to the bandage on his cheek. “it’ll be okay in a day or so.”

dongju walked jongho back to his dorm, dropping him off with a grin. he waved goodnight to san and yeosang, fist-bumping mingi who was in the hallway chatting with hwanwoong.

“i like having friends”, dongju thought, as he opened the door to his dorm. youngjo gave him a hug, seoho ruffling his hair. “and i like having family, too.”

“you sure that you’re fine, dongie?”, youngjo asked, tucking him in later that night. “that scratch looked pretty bad.”

“nah, i’m good”, he muttered. “night, hyung.”

Chapter Text

“fuck off, jin.”

seokjin turned to look at hongjoong, dropping mingi to the floor. “and who the fuck do you think you are, hongjoong?”

“y-your friend”, hongjoong stammered, staring seokjin dead in the eye. “what the fuck are you doing to mingi?”

seokjin’s shocked expression quickly hardened, sneering at hongjoong. “i think that you lost the privilege to call me your ‘friend’ years ago, hongjoong”, emphasizing the word ‘friend’ with air quotes.

“jin, what the fuck? why do you just have it in for us, huh? why can’t you go fuck with somebody else?”, hongjoong yelled, his eyes ablaze. seonghwa helped mingi off the tiled floor and piggybacked him all the way to their dorm. this was not something that the kids should be hearing.

“you know what?”, jin hissed, his eyes narrowing to slits. he slid over to stare down at hongjoong, their eyes meeting. “fucking forget it. i’m going to stop bothering your shitty ass family and let’s just fucking stop interacting, yeah?”

jin shoved past hongjoong and stormed down the hall, muttering curses the entire time.

hongjoong, shaken from the encounter, softly padded down the hall. he had just effectively snapped whatever strained strands of friendship that he had shared with jin; just great.

he opened the door to his dorm to see seonghwa expectantly sitting down on an upper bunk, his arms crossed. mingi, san and yeosang were all curled up on a bed together, the older two sandwiching the younger.

“hongjoong, i think that you have some explaining to do”, seonghwa whispered, helping the younger boy onto the bed. jongho, yunho and wooyoung were playing with dongju and hwanwoong, so the dorm was silent for now.

“is mingi okay?”, hongjoong asked, gesturing towards the boy. “he’s fine. just a few bruises, is all”, seonghwa replied. “now back to the main question. how are you and jin friends?”

hongjoong sighed, running a hand through his hair. “alright, then. before you came here, jin and i were closer than san and mingi; we practically completed each other.”

“everything changed when you came.”

seokjin and hongjoong were the closest duo in the orphanage; most would assume that the two of them were siblings. they bonded over their shared love for pranks and having fun, seokjin immediately becoming fond of the younger.

seven-year-old hongjoong was sitting on the steps with jin, laughing about a joke that the older boy had made. “jinnie hyung, did you hear? apparently a new kid’s here. beomseok hyung said that he saw a wagon pull up earlier.”

seokjin shook his head, tying up his shoelaces that had come undone earlier. “nah, where’d you hear that? doesn’t matter, though. it’s not like they’ll be special anyway. we only need each other, don’t we?”

“yeah!”

one of the bigger kids came over, telling seokjin and hongjoong to get inside. “come on. the new kid’s here, and he’s got this hair that covers one of his eyes; you’ll wanna see him”, jae explained.

curious, hongjoong took jin’s hand and bounded into the house. they turned into the dining room, and saw the headmaster standing with a boy next to him.

he had raven-black hair that covered his equally black eyes. the boy curiously looked around, smiling warmly at hongjoong.

the other children were crowding around him, asking him questions. he looked slightly overwhelmed but hid it well.

“everyone, this is park seonghwa, our new housemate. please give him a warm welcome.”

he assigned seonghwa to hongjoong’s dorm, much to his delight. “nice! a new kid!” seokjin, however, didn’t look as sure. “promise that you won’t get too close?”, seokjin asked. the two were in seperate dorms; they’d filed for dorm change multiple times but they got turned down every attempt.

“promise, hyung. whaddaya wanna do tomorrow? do you want to go carve something into the oak? i think that that’s fun”, hongjoong babbled, as seokjin carried both of their plates of food to the table. hongjoong quickly forgot about the conversation, describing what they wanted to do the next day.

later that evening, after seokjin kissed hongjoong good night and made his way to his dormitory, hongjoong crashes into his own dorm and goes to properly introduce himself to the new boy. “hey!”, he exclaims. “i’m kim hongjoong, and i’m seven!”

he extends his hand to the new boy, who grins and shakes it. “park seonghwa. i’m eight.” hongjoong pouts. “you’re also older than me? this isn’t fair!”

seonghwa chuckles. “so, what do you like doing, hongjoong?” hongjoong suddenly remembers seokjin’s words, and they replay in his mind, over and over. “don’t get too close”, he hears.

“i like hanging out with seokjin hyung”, he says, grinning. “what do you like?”, hongjoong asks, deflecting the question. “i like chocolate”, seonghwa said, in a dreamy voice.

“what’s chocolate?”, hongjoong asked, cocking his head to the side. “is it some kinda game that you play?”

seonghwa’s jaw dropped. “you’ve never, EVER had chocolate? no. way. basically, chocolate is this sweet brown candy that tastes like heaven. i think i have some in here.”

hongjoong watches excitedly as seonghwa rummages through his pants pocket. he pulls out a square of what looks like (in hongjoong’s opinion) horse dung, but it smells sweet.

seonghwa breaks the square and hands the bigger half to hongjoong. “try it!”, the older boy encourages. “if you don’t want it, i’ll take it.”

hongjoong nibbles on the corner, and his eyes lit up the second the sweet flavour entered his mouth. “this is some good stuff!”, hongjoong exclaimed.

“what’re you eating, new kid?”, beomseok asked, coming over. seonghwa immediately stuffed his hand behind his back, shaking his head furiously. “nothing, hyung.”

“joong?” beomseok turns to look at the younger, who’s hands are covered with melted chocolate and stashed behind his back. “uh, nothing”, hongjoong mutters.

beomseok raises a suspicious eyebrow but says nothing more. hongjoong let out a relieved sigh, glad that both seonghwa and himself had just escaped certain doom.

hongjoong turns away and licks at his sweet hands, smiling devilishly at seonghwa. the older boy smiles back, and seonghwa takes him to the washroom to clean his hands.

it takes some convincing, but hongjoong reluctantly rinses his hands under the tap, after he’s sure that all the salvagable chocolate has been successfully licked off his palms.

“thanks for the chocolate, hyung”, hongjoong thanks, hugging the older boy. “i really appreciate it. and it tasted so good!”

seonghwa grins. “your welcome.” the two of them return to their dorm, jae scolding and urging them to go to bed.

the next day, hongjoong brings seonghwa over to the table that seokjin’s at, introducing seonghwa to him. jin smiles warmly and jokes around with seonghwa, but hongjoong notes that it’s the strained grin that he uses for the teachers.

when their alone in the garden later, hongjoong decides to ask seokjin about it. “do you not like seonghwa hyung?”, he asks. seokjin’s expression shifts, his eyes dimming.

“yes, i don’t. i hate him, in fact. stop hanging out with him. he’s annoying.” hongjoong frowned. “that’s not nice, hyung.”

“i don’t care. just stop hanging out with him. please.” hongjoong notes how there’s a desperation in his voice. “hyung, you just can’t start limiting who i’m allowed to hang out with. i think that i’m just gonna go.”

hongjoong stood up from their secluded garden spot and ran all the way to his dorm, seokjin calling after him the whole time.

“we haven’t talked much after that”, hongjoong admitted. seonghwa sighs, fondly stroking hongjoong’s hair. “i mean, i get why he got all possesive and stuff but it’s just not right.”

“i did forget the chocolate incident, though”, seonghwa reminisces. “i kinda miss jae and beomseok sometimes. i wonder what their up to now.”

hongjoong’s taken back to the day that beomseok and jae decided to leave the orphanage together. the two of them are clutching their belongings in a tied-up sack, and he remembers how beomseok strokes his hair.

“stay out of trouble, you hear?”, beomseok reminds, wiping away the tears that are sliding down eight-year-old hongjoong’s cheeks. “be good for dongwon.”

“don’t go, hyung”, hongjoong wails, clutching at the older boy’s sleeve. “please don’t, i’ll miss you. please, hyung.”

beomseok bends down to hongjoong’s height, and pulls him into a hug. “hyung has to go. i’m sorry, hongjoong, but i have to go. i promise that i’ll visit you, okay?”

jae ruffles hongjoong’s hair. “hongjoong-ah, don’t make this harder for us, baby.” seonghwa’s biting his lip, obviously trying his hardest not to cry. beomseok wraps his arms around seonghwa, rubbing his back.

“hwa, be good to joong for me”, jae says. the two of them exchange one last goodbye before they disappear out the doors of the orphanage, hongjoong hiccuping as seonghwa rubbed his back. dongwon is stroking hongjoong’s hair, mumbling sweet nothings into his ear.

beomseok still hasn’t visited, and it’s been six years since they’ve last seen each other. hongjoong remembers how hard he cried into seonghwa’s arms that night, the tears never stopping.

“shh, hongjoong”, seonghwa soothes, rubbing his back. “it’s okay.”

“it’s not”, hongjoong wailed, digging his face into seonghwa’s shoulder. “it’s not, hyung.”

“i miss them”, hongjoong whispers, staring at san, mingi and yeosang’s sleeping figures. “dongwon, beomseok, and jae, i mean.”

“me too”, seonghwa murmurs. “even though jae probably increased my soap tolerance”, he grimaces, hongjoong giggling next to him.

“i’m going to talk it out with jin”, hongjoong whispers. “thank you for listening to that, hyung.” he slides off the bed and waves seonghwa farewell, the older male mouthing a “my pleasure”. hongjoong goes looking for seokjin all over the building, even checking his dormitory, knowing that yoongi would probably not welcome him(it was empty). he finally decided to go check out their private spot behind the bushes.

he spotted seokjin tracing his finger over the carving that the two of them had done so long ago. seokjin jumped a little when hongjoong sat down, his finger jumping back to his side.

“fuck off, hongjoong.”

“i’m sorry.”

“what?”, seokjin snaps. “the fuck?”

“i’m sorry for just ditching you seven years ago, jin hyung.”

“jin hyung, huh?”, seokjin says, sliding over a little. “i missed you, joong. and i have to admit, i was a lil’ bitch back then. way too possesive.”

“why, though? why did you bully my brothers instead of me?”, hongjoong asked, curious.

“i was jealous”, seokjin admitted. “jealous of your relationship with your roommates. i was mad that they had our thing, you know? looking back on it, i’m actually an idiot”, he laughed.

“friends, hyung?”, he asked, sticking his hand out. “friends”, seokjin agreed, shaking it. hongjoong didn’t know how much he had missed seokjin until now, and he was glad to have him back.

“do you want to give everything a second chance?”, hongjoong asks, holding out a hand for seokjin to take. “apologise to everyone in my dorm and we’re even.”

seokjin nods and takes hongjoong’s outstretched hand gratefully. they walk into their dorm, the boys immediately shrinking into hongjoong when they saw jin.

“i’m sorry”, jin stammers, much to the surprise of the boys in the room. “it’s okay if you don’t want to forgive me, but i’m sorry.” he turned to leave, but san stopped him. “we forgive you, don’t we?”, he asked, the others grudgingly nodding.

jin gives the kids a half-smile before leaving, feeling much lighter than before. “that was so, so weird”, jongho wonders aloud. “agreed”, mingi admits.

“nah, it wasn’t”, hongjoong pipes up. “y’all just saw the real jin hyung for the first time. it’s not the first time for me, though.”

Chapter Text

age of characters in this chapter ;)

hongjoong: eight

seonghwa: nine

beomseok: seventeen

“not fair, seonghwa!”, hongjoong whined, clutching onto seonghwa’s- no, his jacket. “‘m cold too! why’re you stealing my jacket?”

“i’m freezing, and i don’t have a jacket. you have a sweater, joong”, seonghwa huffed, gesturing to the dirt-stained jumper that hongjoong was wearing.

“‘s not my fault that you don’t got one!”, hongjoong yelled back, snatching onto his jacket. seonghwa tugged away, and hongjoong fell to the floor.

“yah, kim hongjoong! stop it!”, seonghwa hissed, wrapping the jacket around his shoulders. “we’re both cold and it’s not going to help if we fight.”

“you’re one to talk, aren’t you?”, hongjoong snapped. “just give it back! go hide under the covers if you want!”

seonghwa sighed. “look, joong. it’s not like i can just wear a blanket on my shoulders to dinner, can i? and i don’t wanna miss dinner, either, so there.”

hongjoong huffed. “give it!”, he yelled, trying to get seonghwa to take it off. “i said give it, hyung!”

hongjoong snatched at the jacket, and seonghwa pulled away. seonghwa heard a tiny RIP and hongjoong found himself holding a piece of fabric that used to be a part of his jacket.

“what’s going on?”, beomseok asked sternly, entering the room and pulling the two boys away from each other. “he stole my jacket!”, hongjoong yelled. “and broke it, too!”

“is that true, seonghwa?” beomseok turned to look at the boy, who was shaking his head no. “i was cold and i didn’t have a jacket so i borrowed his.”

“and why is there a gaping hole in the shoulder?”

both of the boys looked down at their shoes, embarassed. beomseok sighed. “pants off, over the bed.”

“what? no!”, hongjoong yelled, running to the far side of the room. “i didn’t even do anything wrong! this isn’t fair, hyung!” seonghwa, however, reluctantly pulled his pants off and folded them neatly before gently setting them down on his bed.

“kim hongjoong, behave”, beomseok warns. “i’m not telling you this again. pants off, over the bed.”

hongjoong scowled but didn’t dare say anything else, pulling his pants down. beomseok hardly ever uses his full name, but when he does, the situation’s either serious or deadly.

beomseok pulls hongjoong over and starts starts spanking him rhythmically, the younger trying to reach back to shield his butt the entire time. “hyung!”, he whines. “stop, it hurts!” beomseok pings the younger’s underwear elastic and hongjoong stops fighting beomseok immediately.

seonghwa’s sitting on the edge of the bunk, naked waist down except for his underwear. he flinches a little with every yelp that hongjoong lets out, biting his lip nervously.

“do you know why you’re being punished?”, beomseok asks. hongjoong doesn’t respond right away, but the older boy hits him hard once and hongjoong immediately answers with a whimper.

“fought with seonghwa hyung over something stupid and i broke my jacket”, he murmured, kicking hard when beomseok hits a particular sensitive spot.

“and you accused seonghwa for something that he didn’t exactly do”, he reminds. “both of you are cold. i get it. but can’t you layer your clothes? didn’t i teach you yesterday to wear an extra shirt underneath?”

hongjoong nods, desperately thrashing. “‘m sorry, hyung! please, just let me up!” beomseok sighs. “go to the corner, hongjoong.”

hongjoong jumps from beomseok’s lap and practically runs to the corner; anything to get away from beomseok.

seonghwa reluctantly lies across beomseok’s lap. this isn’t the first time he’s been punished like this; his dad used to do this before.

“‘m sorry for being mean”, seonghwa whispers, as beomseok peppers his butt with smacks. seonghwa whimpers a little as beomseok works his way down, seething with pain when the older male gets to his thighs.

“hwa, you weren’t mean. you shouldn’t have fought with hongjoong over a jacket. i’m just angry at the fact that you forgot about what i said yesterday, and the fact that you fought with him. i don’t tolerate violence, okay?” he says all this while continuing to redden seonghwa’s poor backside.

seonghwa knows better than to fight it, though. fighting the punishment gets you more; he’s learned that from his last spanking from jae. his poor ass didn’t last five seconds with the older boy’s belt, getting himself so worked up until he was an absolute sobbing mess. it’d taken him the better part of an hour to calm down from that.

seonghwa nodded miserably, beginning to cry softly into beomseok’s pant leg. “don’t cry”, beomseok coos, lifting him off his lap. “did it hurt, hwa?”

“mhm. ‘m sorry, hyung.”

“i never mean to hurt you on purpose, alright? i do this because i want to keep y’all in line, kid.”

seonghwa nods, beomseok hugging him softly. “i know. still hurts though”, he said, rubbing his ass with his hand. hongjoong pouts from the corner, whining and turning around.

“can i come out now?”, he asks. “please, hyungs?” beomseok nodded and hongjoong jumped into the hug, nuzzling into the crook of beomseok’s neck.

“sorry for fightin’, hwa hyung”, hongjoong apologised. “sorry for breaking your jacket”, seonghwa murmurs. “beomseok hyung, can you ask dongwon hyung to mend it later?”

“why can’t you ask him yourself?”, beomseok teases. seonghwa blushes, scratching his ear. “i asked dongwon hyung yesterday if he could fix that hole in my pants. he told me that if i broke another piece of clothing, he was gonna kill me.”

beomseok laughs. “okay, i’ll tell him that seonghwa told me to ask him to mend it”, the boy jokes, seonghwa paling a little. “no, hyung! please no! i’ve already died once today!”

“just kidding, drama king. let’s go eat now, shall we?”

seonghwa and hongjoong slipped into their pants and grinned. “friends?”, seonghwa asked. “friends”, hongjoong answered, fist-bumping the older boy.

Chapter Text

“why’s it colder than normal?”, yeosang complained, rubbing his hands together. yunho made a grunt of agreement, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his trousers.

“layer your clothes”, hongjoong instructed. “wear something that’ll keep you warm on top.” yeosang nodded, bounding towards the closet to pick out a few more shirts to wear underneath.

the door suddenly flings open, and a very excited jongho runs in, almost landing flat on his face. “visitor’s here!”, he yelled, panting hard. “an’ they brought something!”

hongjoong perked up, grinning. “clothes?”, yunho asked eagerly, completely forgetting about the jacket that he was going to get. “dunno, but there’s this ice thing and the man says that we can all try some. cool, huh?”

hongjoong leads them down the hall, yeosang shivering as a gust of wind blew in through the drafty windows. “brrr”, yeosang muttered. “hyung, do you have a spare jacket that i can use later? please?”

“we’ll see if the visitor’s got clothes”, hongjoong sighed. winter was much longer this year than it had been last year, and he was about to die from the amounts of complaints that he was getting. ”they probably do”, jongho piped up. “there was this huge box that they were lugging behind them.”

“we’re over here!”, seonghwa yelled, as the four of them entered the chaotic-looking dining room. san and mingi were sitting next to a giant pile of clothes and other stuff that they had managed to wrestle from the box of donations that the visitors had brought, and hongjoong let out a sigh of relief.

“thank god”, he murmured; they were safe for another winter. yeosang immediately snagged a jacket that was a little too big for him from the pile, practically burrowing into the pile of clothes. mingi jumped in, joining him. “we’ve got an igloo!”, mingi exclaimed. “wanna join us, wooyoungie?”

“don’t dirty the clothes”, hongjoong scolded, hefting mingi out from under his armpits. yeosang nimbly slid out, sliding on the dining room tile. “thank you for grabbing this much stuff, though. yeosang and yunho are finally going to stop complaining.” san and mingi glowed under the praise, hi-fiving each other. yunho playfully punched hongjoong in the arm, rolling his eyes while laughing.

“jongho!”, wooyoung said, digging through the pile. “i think that there’s something in here.” wooyoung rummaged through the pile of clothes, triumphantly pulling out another slightly battered bear.

“for you. i found it near the bottom and got it before anyone else could”, wooyoung said proudly. “almost broke my other leg for it.”

jongho’s eyes lit up, and he hugged wooyoung. “thanks, woo hyung! bear’s got a friend now!” hongjoong watched the encounter with a smile on his face; looks like that they had finally made up after what happened before.

the headmaster clapped his hands, and the entire hall descended into silence. “our genorous visitors here today have brought you something to try.”

hongjoong nudged seonghwa with his elbow. “chocolate?”, he whispered, expression full of nostalgia. seonghwa giggled, a smile teasing at his lips. “maybe it’s something that neither of us have had before.”

“ice cream!”

“told you”, seonghwa said. “i think that i’ve had this once but it was only a little.” san, mingi, wooyoung and jongho were running over to try it; yunho was chasing after them, trying to get them to stop jostling and to use their manners.

yeosang bit his lower lip, looking like he was trying not to cry. “sang-ah?”, hongjoong asked, brushing his hair. “are you okay, baby?” yeosang, who was sitting on the kitchen tile, shook his head, hugging his knees to his chest. seonghwa’s eyes widened in understanding; he knew what happened.

“remembered something that happened before. it’s nothing.” yeosang got up from the floor, and ran out of the room. “give him space, joong”, seonghwa said softly, as hongjoong tried to go after him. “we’ll talk to him about it later.”

the two of them joined the rest of their siblings who were now eating a whiteish, frozen treat. “god, this is freezing!”, yunho shivered. “tastes sweet, though. wanna try, hyungs?”

san, however, had successfully devoured the entire cone of ice cream. “delicious”, he moaned, licking the melted ice cream off his fingers. hongjoong laughed; he was reminded of his own stunt with the chocolate.

wooyoung was trying to steal a lick of jongho’s. the younger snatched his cone away, sucking off a little bit of the vanilla ice cream. “you like it, jongie?”, seonghwa asked, giggling when the youngest boy nodded eagerly. “you can have mine. i’ll have a little bit, and you can take the rest.”

“not fair!”, mingi huffed. like san, he was also finished and was licking the melted ice cream from his palms. “i want some extra, too!”

“where’s sangie hyung?”, san asked. “he loves sweet things. where’d he go?” hongjoong smiled; san’s always been the thoughtful one. “he went upstairs because he wasn’t feeling well. he’ll be fine”, he said, reassuring san.

“shouldn’t we grab him some to take upstairs?”, san whined. “he’ll hate me for not grabbing him one!” hongjoong grinned fondly. “i’m pretty sure that the reason why sangie went upstairs was the ice cream, san. it’s okay, he can grab some later if he’s up for it. thank you for being considerate, san.”

hongjoong and seonghwa grabbed their cones from the man and tried it themselves. hongjoong’s eyes bulged; “better than the chocolate”, he marvelled.

seonghwa agreed, sucking at the ice cream joyously. “i’ve had this once. when dad got enough money and had spare change, he’d tell me to go get something i wanted. i spent it on ice cream once, and that was the one time i had it. i  dropped it, though. dad got so mad”, he chuckles, reminiscing the memory.

they all finished the rest of their ice cream (seonghwa and hongjoong giving most of theirs to the others) and hongjoong instructed yunho and seonghwa to help him carry the rest of the clothes upstairs. they found yeosang curled up on the bed, clutching his stomach with his arms. hongjoong shot him an apologetic glance as he organised the new clothes by size, folding them all up and stacking them neatly.

when he completed the task, he slid across the room and sat down on the side of yeosang’s bed. “you okay, sangie?”, hongjoong asked softly. “you can tell me anything, baby.” yeosang shuffled over, sitting up. “b-before m-mom dropped me off, s-she gave me i-ice cream”, he whimpered. “bad memories is all.”

hongjoong made a sympathetic noise and squished yeosang into a hug. “aww, sangie”, he whispered. “it’ll be okay. you want to make new, better memories with us?” mingi and san stopped fighting over a new shirt momentarily to sneak downstairs and to ask for an extra ice cream.

“i can try, i guess”, yeosang mumbled, hugging the jacket closer to his shoulders. the two boys reappeared with a cone of ice cream, handing it over to yeosang. “i only had two licks”, san admitted. “sorry.”

yeosang shook his head. “sokay. it probably still tastes good, y’know.” yeosang timidly licked at the now-melting scoop of ice cream, closing his eyes blissfully as the flavour met his tongue. “mmm. tastes better than the one i had before.”

jongho beamed. “good! so now you’ve only got good memories when ya think of ice cream! can i have a bite?”

yeosang sticks the cone out and lets jongho lick a tiny bit from his ice cream. jongho, satisfied, goes back to brushing out his toy bear’s fur. hongjoong smiles, too; another cold, winter day, saved by ice cream, new clothes, and jongho.

Chapter Text

hi. so i’m in desperate need of prompts again. please drop more requests because my writing reserves are completely dry and i don’t know when the next update is gonna be. please drop requests it means a lot to me!

Chapter Text

“yeosang? wait here”, his mother said, roughly handing him a ice-cream cone. “eat this while you wait for me, you hear? i’ll be back by the time this finishes.”

“you sure?”, seven-year-old yeosang asks. “this stuff melts pretty fast, ma.”

his mother smacked him across the back of the head, yeosang flinching. “just do as your told. i’ll be back before you know it.” his mother hitches yeosang’s sister up her hip, and gets back onto the wagon that she’s ridden with yeosang and yeseul to get here.

yeosang watches blankly from the steps as his mother rides away with his youngest sister. his mom’s got her hands full with his two older and younger siblings, and yeosang’s used to feeling like he’s stuck in the middle. yeosang finds himself ignoring the pitying nod that the wagoner gave him; was he really that skinny?

he hardly ever gets to go run errands like these with his ma, which is why he was surprised when his mother woke him up this morning.

“yeosang, get up. we’re running an errand today.” he remembered jumping out of bed, throwing the quilted blanket off his shoulders. “for real?”

“yes. now go get ready.”

yeosang was disappointed that he wasn’t able to go wherever yeseul and his mother was going. he licked at the sweet treat that his mother had given him, savouring the taste.

he’s not given things like these often; most of the time, it either goes to yeoseul or his oldest brother, yongsun. yeosang feels the ice cream drip down from the cone and melt onto his hands, which causes him to eat the ice cream faster.

soon, yeosang’s finished the ice cream. he waits patiently for his mother and sister to return. the sun slowly starts to climb down the sky and yeosang is beginning to shiver in the cold night air.

an hour later, he’s gotten enough of the silence and decides to go knock on the door. “hello? anyone home?”

the door opens to reveal a dark-haired boy. “hey, you alone?”, the boy asks, glancing around. “my ma told me to wait here and that she was gon’ come back soon. she’s late. an’ it’s cold. you know where she is?”

the boy winces sympathetically. “uh, i’m gonna go get someone. come in. i’m seonghwa.” seonghwa tries to pull yeosang inside, but yeosang shakes free. “can’t! my ma’s gonna kill me if she knew that i ain’t waitin’ for her!”

seonghwa shifts uncomfortably. “you do know where you are, right?” yeosang cocks his head to the side, curious. “where?”

“uh...this is an orphanage.”

yeosang’s eyes widened. yes, he was the middle kid that his ma could care less about, but this? no way. “so you sayin’ that ma left me here on purpose? she ain’t late?”

“technically, yeah. ‘m sorry.” yeosang slips his sticky hand into seonghwa‘s. “take me inside, then. it’s cold.”

“what?”, seonghwa asks. “now? are you sure? you can still run ‘way if you want-“

“yeah. and the name’s yeosang.”

seonghwa grinned, taking yeosang inside and closing the heavy door. “i’m taking you to the headmaster’s office, kay?”

he leads yeosang through the building, taking him upstairs. seonghwa knocks on a mahogany door, opening the door when someone says “come in”.

“sir? i found someone on the steps.”

seonghwa steps aside and reveals yeosang. the boy was timidly hiding behind seonghwa’s back, and the old man sitting behind the desk gave a sigh.

“name?”, he asks. “yeosang”, yeosang answers shyly. “seonghwa, how many people are in your dorm?” seonghwa does a quick count of heads. “four, including me.”

“yeosang will be staying with you, then. run along now.”

seonghwa ushers yeosang out of the room and takes him down the hall. “why’re your hands sticky?”, he asks. “let me guess. ice cream?”

the thought of the treat that his mother gave him before she left was triggering the waterworks. seonghwa’s eyes widened when he saw the telltale glisten in yeosang’s eyes and quickly pushes him into his room.

“yeosang, it’s okay. cry if you wanna”, seonghwa soothes as he gently shuts the door behind him. hongjoong and dongwon look on with curious eyes from the floor.“who’s that, hwa hyung?”, hongjoong asks. daehwi, who’s reading on his bed, comes over and gently shushes hongjoong.

“give him some time, hongjoong. he’ll talk when he wants to.” seonghwa’s now holding a sobbing yeosang, the front of his shirt soaking wet by now.

“miss my family”, yeosang whispers. “miss yeseul.”

“i know, sang. but you have me now. and hongjoong and daehwi hyung and dongwon hyung.”

“who?”, yeosang asks shyly, sniffling. “hi! ‘m hongjoong!”, the boy enthusiastically introduces. “welcome! i’ll give ya the upper bunk if you want!”

yeosang feels his lips twitch, despite himself. “okay! but i wanna share with someone for tonight. thanks for asking though hyung.”

dongwon and daehwi introduce themselves as well, shaking their hands with yeosang. “uh, seonghwa hyung?”, he says bashfully. “can i share with you tonight?”

“if you want to”, seonghwa says. hongjoong grins. “so, you want to pick out some clothes?”, he asks, leading yeosang over to the wardrobe. soon, yeosang’s kitted out in a pair of loose overalls and a shirt. “thank you”, he shyly grins.

yeosang snuggled up with seonghwa that night, when all the lights were off. he imagined that he was back in the bed that he shared with yeseul when he was back home.

can he still call his old house a “home”? he didn’t know. but he certainly felt like he belonged here, thanks to seonghwa’s strong arms wrapped around his frame, and hongjoong’s enthusiasm.

Chapter Text

“hyung! hyung!”, jongho chirps, bounding over to hongjoong. “we got a chicken!” hongjoong cocks his head to the side, confused. “imaginary chicken or real chicken?”, he asks, absentmindedly ruffling jongho’s hair.

“real chicken!”, jongho giggles. “it’s got a pen and everything! we’ll get lotsa eggs now!” hongjoong grins. “show me, jongie.”

jongho slips his hand into hongjoong’a and takes off through the halls, hongjoong yelling for him to slow down. they crash through the back doors and jongho drags hongjoong over to the newly (read: crudely) constructed pen, with only one lonely chicken in it.

the sole chicken was walking around, pecking at the wired fence. “hi! i brought friends!”, jongho says enthusiastically, the hen clucking approvingly.

“jongho”, hongjoong said softly. “it can’t understand you.” jongho scrunched up his nose and glared at hongjoong in the cutest way possible. “course she can!” hongjoong decides to play along, nodding slowly; so it was a she.

“alright, then. what’re you naming her, jong?” jongho looked thoughtful for a moment, his tongue stuck out in concentration. “debby the chicken?”, he asked hongjoong, who nodded. “fair ‘nough. sounds good to me, jongie.”

“hi, debby”, hongjoong gently says, turning to the hen. “you gonna be a good girl and lay us some eggs?” the hen clucked once, trying to peck at hongjoong’s hand through the wires.

“she is”, jongho says proudly, touching debby’s beak fondly. one of the caretakers, miss kim, comes over and shoos the two of them away. jongho pouts, waving at the hen. “see you later, debby!”, he yells.

“hongjoong hyung! can we go talk to ‘er tomorrow?”, jongho asks, as their heading back to their room. “sure. if nobody’s against it, i’ll get the others to come, too.”

“no!”, jongho yells. “i want this to be our lil’ secret.” hongjoong nods in understanding. jongho wanted to make this a “them” thing, and he understood a hundred percent. “alright, then.”

jongho thinks excitedly about debby that night, as he’s snuggling up with bernard (the bear wooyoung got him) and yeosang. he knows that the others might find out about the hen sooner or later, but he wanted this to be between them for as long as it lasted.

“can we go visit debby now?”, jongho begs the next day. class had finished for both hongjoong and jongho and he was now asking that the elder take him to go visit the hen. “i brought some breadcrumbs from lunch to feed ‘er!”

as promised, the hen had lain an egg. along with their previous supply, all the orphans still had to split a single boiled egg between eight people. it was better than nothing, though.

hongjoong grinned. “alright, jongie. let’s go, yeah?” hongjoong hitches jongho onto his back, piggybacking the younger boy to the chicken coop. to jongho’s dismay, he sees yeosang and keonhee playing with the chicken.

“jong!”, keonhee cheers. “you come here for the hen too?” jongho nods, fishing around in his pocket for the breadcrumbs. he sprinkles them into the coop, debby pecking happily at them. “does she have a name, jongie?”, yeosang inquires. “she looks like a debby.”

“she is a debby”, jongho deadpans, rolling his eyes. “and the eggs that we had this mornin’ were delicious! dunno if you laid it or some other hen but good job!”, jongho praises, booping the hen on the beak. debby clucked once, much to jongho’s delight.

“she likes ya”, keonhee shares. “hens cluck like that when they find a person they like.” jongho looks up, eyes wide with curiosity. “how’d you know, hyung?” keonhee grins.

“used to look after a whole chicken coop with my old man, ‘fore he passed. we had a whole farm”, he says proudly, puffing his chest out. jongho’s eyes are filled with surprise and admiration. “cool! then can ya get us some baby chicks?”

“you need a rooster for that”, hongjoong reminds. “y’all call ‘em roosters?”, keonhee drawled, surprised. “we call ‘em cocks.”

“so do we needa get debby here a cock?”, jongho demands, bouncing up and down. “if we get debby a rooster, do we get more eggs?”

“maybe.”

“so when’s she gettin’ a rooster friend?”, jongho complains. yeosang shrugs. “maybe never.” hongjoong shoots him a dirty look, and yeosang sticks his tongue out at his hyung. “poor debby. you gotta be so lonely”, jongho sympathises.

debby clucks, walking around her pen aimlessly. “what’re you four doing?”, mr lee suddenly yells, startling the boys that were standing near the pen. “nothing, sir!”, hongjoong quickly responds, shielding jongho behind his back. if there’s one thing other than astrology that hongjoong’s good at, it’s playing scapegoat. as the man approaches them, yeosang feels the dread in his stomach run around in circles.

“don’t let me see you anywhere near that hen again, you hear? back to your rooms, brats. no dinner for all four of you tonight”, he berates. “you of all people should know better, kim hongjoong.” the boy in question now resembles a lost puppy, his shoulders folded in.

“yes, sir”, he whispers, mr lee now turning to go scold someone else. hongjoong gently herds the three younger boys back to their respective dorms, dropping keonhee off with a head-pat. yeosang sighs the second they re-enter their dorm and jongho’s lower lip is wobbling, while yunho and mingi look on, confused.

hongjoong awkwardly explains the situation to seonghwa, the older boy smirking. “isn’t that a punishment for little kids?”, seonghwa teases, hongjoong’s face a bright shade of red.

“stop it, hyung. see if you can get anything for jongie and sang.” seonghwa frowns. “not you?”, he quizzes, hongjoong shaking his head. “you’ll go through less trouble. get them bread or something, i don’t want them going to sleep hungry”, he pleads, seonghwa nodding resolutely.

“alright, then.” san and wooyoung then burst through the door, announcing: “there’s a chicken outside!”

“don’t go near her!” jongho, yeosang and hongjoong simultaneosly yelled. the two boys looked at them sheepishly, fiddling with their fingers. hongjoong sighs. “let me guess. y’all got no dinner too?”

“how’d ya know?”, wooyoung mumbles, scratching his head. “hyung, can you read minds?”, san gawked. “no. we’re in trouble too”, yeosang groans. “i’m hungry already.”

hongjoong winces. “hwa, we’re fucking doomed. how are you going to get that much food back?” yunho sighs. “i’ll try taking my toast back with me. one of us goes hungry, all of us do.”

mingi and seonghwa nod in a silent agreement. “we’ll grab something back for y’all, ‘kay? stop worrying, hyung”, mingi says, patting hongjoong’s arm. hongjoong’s glad that he’s raised a bunch of sweet, considering boys, and he’s proud.

“thank you, mingi-ah.”

the three boys leave with a wave, ready to take whatever they can from their dinners back to their brothers. while their waiting, hongjoong encourages jongho to sing a song.

“don’t wanna. i miss debby”, jongho laments, clutching bernard and bear closer to his chest. “and ‘m hungry.” yeosang and wooyoung try to distract jongho into playing with them, calling him pet names that they know he likes and wrapping him up into a blanket cocoon. wooyoung gently moves his injured leg onto the bed; he can take it off next week, and he can’t be happier.

jongho looks a little happier, hongjoong taking a blanket and huddling up with them. san rummages around the closet for jongho’s sweater, handing it to the boy wordlessly when he’s found it.

“thanks sannie hyung”, he whispers, slipping into the sweater. san slides next to hongjoong, the older boy squeezing his shoulder tightly. jongho’s stomach rumbled and he whined, drawing hongjoong’s attention. “you okay?”, hongjoong asks. “i have a few crackers in the drawer if you want them.” hongjoong gets up and opens the chest of drawers, taking out the slightly stale crackers and passing them out to the boys. he gives jongho an extra one and splits the last one between the other three, sitting back as he watches them eat.

“let’s pretend that we’re pirates!”, san suggests. “we’re eating hardtack ‘stead of crackers and we’re waitin’ for the rescue party.” yeosang smiles, wrapping the blanket fort closer around the boys huddled up on the one bunk. “when’s the rescue party coming? i’m getting cold”, wooyoung mock-shivers.

“why’re we here again?”, yeosang asks, trying to get jongho and hongjoong to play along. “cos’ of a chicken named debby”, jongho says, smiling. “and because of the bad pirates who attacked us when we were playing with ‘er”, hongjoong adds.

they were well into their little world when seonghwa, yunho and mingi come in, waving goodnight to youngjo and seoho. “we managed to grab so much”, seonghwa grins, opening his jacket to reveal a slice of bread and two strips of dried meat.

mingi has an apple in his cardigan pocket, yunho slipping another strip of meat from his sleeve. “woah!”, jongho yells, reaching for the meat. “can i have this?” mingi nods enthusiastically, handing the piece of food to their youngest.

unspoken rule number one; always make sure that jongho is healthy and happy. before bed, hongjoong’s only had one corner of the bread, on seonghwa’s insistence. he doesn’t mind, though. their rescue party has arrived, and he’s happy for that.

they all went to sleep with rumbling stomachs that night (save for jongho), but they were happy, and that was all hongjoong cared for. he loved his little family with every single inch of his being, and he could care less if he was starving, so long as his brothers were happy.

Chapter Text

“remember not to climb and fall off any more trees, wooyoung!”, nurse seo chirps, waving to wooyoung cheerfully. he’s abandoned his crutches and cast at the infirmary, and happily walks back to his room with hongjoong.

“you’re back, aren’t you?”, hongjoong cheers, ruffling wooyoung’s hair. “you excited to play with your brothers again?” wooyoung nods excitedly, and he’s bouncing up and down.

they return to their dorm and see san and mingi talking about something in hushed whispers in the corner of their room, grinning. “hey, hyungs!”, wooyoung yells, stumble-running over to the pair. san immediately shuts up, grinning when he sees that wooyoung’s cast is gone.

“finally. you can play ball with us instead of refereeing.” mingi grins from ear to ear, flicking wooyoung’s right leg for the first time in a month. “still feels ‘xactly as it did before your cast”, mingi deadpans.

“hyung!”, san asks. “can we go out and look at the stars tonight? miss kim says that it’s gon’ be a clear night today and we wanna see if we can spot constellations!”

hongjoong shakes his head. “sorry, kids, but no. it’s cold out and you know i can’t trust you two alone outside.”

“can’t you come with us?’, mingi pleads. “you can stay up, so why can’t we?” hongjoong sighs. “i can’t tonight. i promised seonghwa hyung that i wouldn’t go out today.”

san and mingi huff simultaneously and go back to talking quietly. hongjoong shrugs, going to fuss over jongho and yeosang who’ve just come back, their shirts dirty and riddled with holes.

“hyung”, mingi whispers to san, noting that hongjoong was busy scolding the two. “you wanna sneak out?” san smirks mischievously, nodding. “let’s do it. go from the door?”

“agreed.”

the duo plot silently, deciding to choose the bed closest to the door in order to make their temporary escape. their quiet all through dinner, eating their stew while sharing knowing smiles. “hey, san, pass the salt?”, yunho jokes. “i’m sorry, what?”, san says, jolting from his thoughts.

“nothing. just a joke i thought that you’d get. whatever.” seonghwa gets it a moment too late, choking on his water. “there is no salt-AH.”

yunho laughs along with seonghwa, jongho and yeosang staring blankly. “anyway, moving on. how was your day today, jong?” mingi pinches san on the leg, drawing his attention. they exchange one last secret smile before continuing to finish their food.

later, when everyone has showered and is in bed, san and mingi listen attentively to seonghwa and hongjoong’s soft snoring. they gave each other a steady nod before sliding across the floor, purposely stepping over the creaky plank. mingi cracked open the door wide enough just enough for the two of them to slip through.

once they were both outside, the two of them slipped through the halls. they knew every single nook and cranny of this orphanage like the back of their hand, navigating blindly through the dark. san’s about to slip out of the back door when a loud whimper from mingi stops him. he turns to see mingi being dangled by the collar by mr lee, and he can’t help but feel his eyes pop out of their sockets.

“i-i can explain!”, mingi squeaked, shaking in the caretaker’s grasp. “trying to run?”, mr lee asks, twisiting san’s ear. when he doesn’t respond, the older man twists harder, san letting out a yelp. “no. we wanted to see the stars”, he whimpers, the man releasing his ear at that.

“you’re staying the night in there, brats”, he says, pointing to a door with a lock on it that is down the hall. no, not there, san thinks. “please, we’re sorry. hyung is gonna kill us-“

“do i look like i care? i’ll let you out tomorrow morning. hope this teaches you to not go stargazing at midnight.” the “there” that mr lee was referring to was the isolation room. it keeps the troublemakers from the other orphans, but most people are let out after a night.

everyone’s been in there at least once, but that doesn’t stop the absolutely horrible rumors going around about that place. san and mingi have never been, and they believe that it’s more of a torture room than a place for the troublemakers to reflect on their actions.

mr lee throws the two of them into the room, locking the door. san and mingi hang on to each other for dear life, eyes wide as saucers as they curl up together on the floor. they knew very well that there were bunk beds, but the two of them were too terrified and exhausted to bother searching through the dark.

“are we gonna die?”, mingi asks, voice wavering. “we won’t, i’m sure of it”, san assures, though he doesn’t sound so sure. “we’re gonna die when hongjoong hyung and seonghwa hyung get their hands on us, though.”

mingi starts crying softly; he’s never been particularly fond of the dark. san, trying to calm him down, starts softly singing a lullaby that his mother used to sing to him before she left. mingi’s sobs turn to sniffles, and soon, he’s asleep.

the duo somehow manages to fall asleep on the floor, mr lee opening the door the next morning in surprise when he finds them on the floor instead of the bunk beds in the room. “there are beds for you to sleep in, you know”, he thunders, startling the two of them awake. “please sir, can we leave?”, mingi pleads, san giving the man his best puppy-dog eyes. “yes. but go to your dormmates first, their worried sick.” he opens the door wide, and san and mingi scramble to get out of the room.

hongjoong is standing impatiently outside of their dorm, opening his arms wide to hug the two of them when they run towards him from the end of the corridor.

“where the hell were you two? i was worried sick!”, hongjoong scolds, holding the two of them close to his chest. “we tried to go outside to go stargazing”, mingi mumbles sheepishly, which gets him a smack on the butt from hongjoong. “and we got caught and got thrown into the isolation room”, san adds.

“choi san, song mingi, what did we say about disobeying orders?” the two boys in question stare embarassedly at their shoes. “not to”, san mutters.

“i want you two inside. pants off when we’re alone, you hear? seonghwa can deal with sannie.” san makes noises of protest, but he’s immediately silenced by a glare from hongjoong. seonghwa may have a soft exterior, but don’t be fooled by his smile. he can spank you into tomorrow if he wants to.

hongjoong herded the two of them into the dorm, wooyoung leaping into san’s arms the second he comes back. “we thought that y’all went and did a runner!”, wooyoung exclaims. jongho heaves a sigh of relief from seonghwa’s lap, where the older boy is gently teasing the knots out of jongho’s hair with his fingers. “hyungs are back!”, he whispers to bear and bernard. “and their safe.”

“fuck you, mingi”, yeosang groans. “i got so scared last night. don’t do that again.” mingi nods, hugging yeosang softly. “sorry for scaring you, sangie hyung.”

“damn you too”, yunho adds, joining in on the embrace. “please don’t scare us like that again.” mingi feels ashamed now. san and him had worried their brothers and landed themselves into trouble just to stargaze, something that they could’ve done later when hongjoong was feeling it.

“we’ll go downstairs first”, yunho offers. “good luck”, he mouths to mingi and san, before pushing the others out the door to breakfast. “well?”, seonghwa asks, once the room is empty save for the remaining four. “pants off.”

hongjoong was greatly reminded of his fight with seonghwa when they were merely children; he decided to go softer today, because he knew how scared san and mingi probably were right now.

seonghwa seizes san by the shoulders after his pants are down, manhandling him until he’s lying across his lap. san doesn’t squirm around like he normally would. in fact, he’s as straight as a board across seonghwa’s lap, fingering the fabric of the older’s pants. hongjoong decides to get this over with quickly and motions for mingi to lie across his lap, wrapping his arm around the younger’s waist.

“do you know why you’re being spanked?’, hongjoong asks sternly, the sound of hand meeting flesh resonating in the room. “we didn’t listen to you and we snuck out!”, the two of them answer together. mingi whimpered once, shifting when hongjoong moved to his thighs. “ahh, ahh, AHH, ow”, san winces, squirming around like a worm as seonghwa hits a sensitive spot.

“hyung, not there!”, mingi sniffles, on the verge of crying. “hurts”, he whines, as hongjoong reddens his ass. seeing that the two of them have probably learned their lesson, hongjoong and seonghwa pull san and mingi’s pants up.

“sorry, hyung”, san apologises, rubbing his sore butt. “we shoulda listened to you instead of being disobedient.”

mingi sniffles as tears leak out of his eyes, snuggling into the warmth of hongjoong’s chest. “m sorry, i won’t do it again”, he promises. “mingi’s sorry for being bad. please, no more, hyung!” hongjoong wonders why he’s like this; he’s never seen mingi so worked up about a spanking before.

hongjoong strokes mingi’s hair softly, the younger melting into his touch. “don’t cry, ming”, hongjoong soothes. “it’s over. there’s no more, baby. calm down.” mingi snivels, hongjoong kissing him gently on top of his head.

“should we go to breakfast?”, seonghwa asks gently, helping the two boys up from the lower bunk. “you two have got to be hungry, yeah?” mingi nods, wiping his tears away and hugging hongjoong tightly.

“lets”, hongjoong agreed. as he watched san lock hands with mingi and bound out the door, the two boy’s sense of togetherness and mischief had him thinking back to his own childhood days spent with seonghwa, dodging in and out of spankings and punishments delivered by their hyungs.

so this was what it felt to parent. tiring, but not bad. not bad at all.

Chapter Text

hongjoong leaned on seonghwa’s shoulder, seonghwa’s arm around the tired younger. hongjoong, yunho, san and mingi have just spent the entire day pulling potatoes out of the ground.

hongjoong felt like he was going to die any minute now. san and yunho were cuddled up together, absolutely knocked out.  “mingi, are you alright?”, hongjoong asked, stroking the boy’s hair. “you tired?”

mingi groaned. “‘m not okay. i hurt all over.” yeosang winces sympathetically. “hey, mingi”, he suggests. “how about we do scary stories? that could take your mind off of things.”

“alright, then”, hongjoong agreed, moving mingi so that he was lying in his lap. “keep them child-friendly. no gore, you hear?”

jongho looks much more satisfied at that, sucking on his bear’s ear. “sannie hyung, yunho hyung, you two up for it?”

“nooo”, san groans. “we’re going to sleep.” yunho shushes him, hugging san closer to his chest as if the younger boy was a human teddy bear. hongjoong fixed their blanket and gently kissed them good night, watching as the two of them fell asleep at eight in the evening.

“suit yourselves”, wooyoung quipped. “so, who’s going first?” seonghwa raises his hand, to the surprise of the others. “i’ll start.”

“when hongjoong and i were kids, somebody told us about a ghost roaming the halls”, he said eerily. jongho looked spooked already, trying to hide under yeosang’s shirt. “it’s back again, apparently. well, at least that’s what youngjo hyung says. he said that he heard someone scream at night once, but no one was there.”

“i heard it too! when i had that nightmare a while back”, jongho exclaims, his eyes wide as saucers. “are we gonna get spooked by the ghost?”

“maybe”, yeosang whispers. “oh boy, hyung. this is giving me goosebumps.” mingi was shivering; what if there was a ghost here in the orphanage? and what would happen if it decided to eat one of them? ghosts ate people, right?

“stop scaring the kids”, hongjoong whisper-yelled to seonghwa. “i’m not ready to deal with iongho wetting the bed again because he’s too scared to get up and go at night.”

“sorry”, seonghwa mouthed back. “anyway, it’s just a story. not like it’s anything bad, am i right? let’s not do scary stories anymore.”

they spent the rest of the night talking about nothing in particular; hongjoong complained about how annoying potato harvesting was, mingi silently agreeing next to him. “like, hell. it’s so goddamn power consuming and it just sucks in general.”

“it’s our turn tomorrow”, seonghwa sighed. “jyeosang, you ready?” wooyoung was exempt this time, as he still wasn’t allowed to participate in events that took up too much of his strength. jongho, because he was too young.

“no”, yeosang whined. “i don’t wanna go.” seonghwa ruffles yeosang’s hair fondly. “i don’t, either. but we’ve got to, so why don’t you go to bed earlier?”

yeosang nods sleepily, stumbling to change into his worn pyjamas. mingi scoots over, letting yeosang go to sleep. “it’s time for you to sleep too”, hongjoong says, booping jongho on the nose.

jongho was hefted into hongjoong’s arm and carried to a bed, where he tucked in him in. hongjoong kissed the younger goodnight, ruffling jongho’s hair.

“seonghwa, you want to share with jong?”, hongjoog asks. seonghwa nods, sliding in next to younger boy who snuggles into the older’s warmth.

mingi and yeosang are curled up together. wooyoung is anxiously waiting for hongjoong, playing with the corner of his blanket. “hyung, come on!”, he whines. “coming!”, he says back.

all is well until morning dawns. jongho has wet the bed again, and seonghwa is not happy about it. “jongho, didn’t we tell you to go in the pot at night?”

“‘m sorry! got scared because i heard screaming and thought it was the ghost”, he apologises, hongjoong giving seonghwa a dirty look. “ i need to go with yeosang. i’ll talk to you later”, he yells, yeosang dragging seonghwa out the door and towards the vegetable patch for the inevitable potato harvest.

“jongho, stop being such a baby”, wooyoung teases, pointing at the wet spot on the mattress. “ghosts aren’t even scary.” jongho’s lower lip quivered; a telltale sign that he was going to start crying. san dragged wooyoung off somewhere, while yunho and mingi helped get the sheets off the bed.

“let’s go get you cleaned up, yeah?”, hongjoong sighs, taking a pair of pants from the wardrobe and directing jongho towards the washroom. jongho looked down at his shoes embarassedly, painfully aware of all the other orphans who were staring at the wet spot on his pants.

hongjoong had to deal with a bratty wooyoung for the rest of the day, alone. jongho didn’t talk much; the most hongjoong’s heard come out of his mouth was when they swung by to quickly check on debby.

seonghwa and yeosang collapsed onto the bed, exhausted. jongho hugs seonghwa and yeosang tightly, telling on wooyoung about how he was teasing him earlier.

“i was not!”, wooyoung yelled, though his eyes were flashing with guilt. yunho groaned. “yes you did. just apologise, wooyoung. it’s not that hard.”

“fine”, he muttered, staring at the ground. “sorry.” jongho didn’t look happy with his apology, but they shook on it anyway. “hyungs, are ghosts real?” was jongho’s next question. san and mingi shrugged. “their not. but the screaming really can’t be explained.”

“it’s probably nothing”, seonghwa said. “i mean, ghosts aren’t real. i’m sorry for scaring you last night, jong. ghost’s aren’t real, their only made up.” jongho looks reassured now, as if a weight has been lifted from his shoulders.

“so who’s been screaming?”, he asked. “somebody was probably having a nightmare”, wooyoung piped up. “musta been scary for them to yell like that.”

“dunno, don’t care. jongho, you know what to do if you want to pee tonight”, hongjoong reminds. jongho ducks his head, embarrassed. “mhm. go in the pot.”

“good boy”, san praised. “cuddle with me, jongie?” jongho nodded, jumping into san’s arms. “cuddle!”

“hongjoong, what do you think is screaming at night?”, seonghwa whispered that night, when all of the others were asleep save for them. “i don’t know. like wooyoung said, nightmare?”, hongjoong reasoned.

“maybe”, seonghwa shrugged. “kinda creepy at times, but it’s probably just someone getting scared, right? no ghosts.”

“no ghosts”, seonghwa repeated, reassuring himself. “r-right?”

“right”, hongjoong said firmly. “go to sleep, you big baby.” seonghwa scowled but went to sleep anyway, clinging to hongjoong like a koala.

Chapter Text

“just fucking shut up!”, yeosang growled, shoving keonhee harshly. “stop talking about things that you don’t even know are true! yes, i hate her but she’s not a, not a-“

“hey, don’t get all bristly with me”, keonhee said, throwing his hands up in defense. “i was just teasing, yeosang.”

yeosang scowled (a facial expression he hardly ever showed), flipping keonhee off before angrily storming away, ignoring yunho’s groaning as the taller boy chased after him. keonhee was staring at the ground; he obviously regretted calling yeosang’s mom a whore.

it wasn’t really keonhee’s fault; the farmer boy was just throwing around an insult that had been used multiple times on the farm. he was, well, confused; he didn’t know what i meant.

“keonhee, you idiot!”, hwanwoong snapped, elbowing the older boy in the ribs. “do you even know what a whore is?” keonhee shook his head, prompting a sigh to escape hwanwoong and leedo.

“a prostitute”, leedo finished. keonhee’s eyes widened; “fuck.” hwanwoong nodded, rolling his eyes. “now you realise the depth of the situation?”

keonhee nodded miserably. “i’ve been such an idiot. fuck, how do i apologise?”

~

yeosang was hiding in one of the bushes near the oak, curled up silently as he tried to avoid being spotted by yunho.

“yeosang-ah, you can’t hide forever”, yunho coaxed. “i know what he said was wrong but keonhee’s going to apologise.”

yeosang didn’t budge, not making a single noise. yunho sighed. “come back inside when you’re ready, sang-ah. you can always come talk to us about anything”, he promised.

the younger boy didn’t say a word. yunho waved before making his way back into the building, his loose shirt billowing in the wind.

yeosang shifted onto his butt to get into a comfortable position, his head resting on his knees. yes, his mother had abandoned him here, but that still didn’t give keonhee the right to call his mother a whore.

yeosang’s mother had tried her hardest to provide for them, juggling a few jobs while looking after her five children and yeosang’s good-for-nothing stepfather. yeosang’s father had died in a sea accident before he was born, hence why yeseul and yeonghwan were only his half siblings. that didn’t stop him from loving them with all his heart, though.

the only thing he didn’t miss about his old family was probably his stepfather. he lounged around all day, only leaving the house to get some more alcohol. yeosang hated him with a burning passion, especially after he had started hitting youngsun for no reason at all.

he bit his lip. he hasn’t thought about yeseul, yeonghwan, yena and youngsun in a while. yeosang misses them; yes, they had had their quarrels sometimes, but they were still his siblings. still the youngsun who had lied to their mother about who had smashed ma’s favourite cookie jar and taken the beating for it. still the yena who smothered him with kisses and hugs whenever he had a bad day. still the yeseul and yeonghwan who he had helped raise, and seen grow.

yeosang wondered how they were doing; yeseul and yeonghwan would be ten and eight respectively, now. he wondered if they were going to school, if they were eating well. had youngsun found an apprenticeship yet? was yena finally dating the boy two doors down who she had a crush on?

yeosang was so caught up in his memories and imagination that he didn’t notice the tears that ran down his face, the salty droplets of water leaving stains on his cheeks. yeosang tried to stop the tears from flowing, thinking about happy things, but to no avail.

yes, he had a new family here, but he desperately missed the ones that he was blood related to. yeosang was longing to hear youngsun tease him again, or yena gently scolding him for getting himself sweaty and dirty after playing in the sun with yeonghwan for hours.

“-yung! hyung! stop crying! jonggie’s gonna cry if you don’t stop!”

yeosang rubbed at his eyes, watching as jongho wrapped his tiny little arms around his waist. the younger had abandoned bernard and bear in the grass.

“it’s okay, jongho. hyung’ll stop.” yeosang put on a faint grin, sniffling once. “why’re you crying?”, jongho asked, tugging at yeosang’s sleeve. “you better tell me! or-“

“or what? you’ll never ask me to change your sheets again?”, yeosang teased. jongho pouted, crossing his arms. “ya better tell me”, jongho warned.

yeosang sighed. jongho really was a persistent child, wasn’t he? “fine. i was thinking about my family.” jongho cocked his head, confused. “why’re you crying over us? we didn’t do nothing to upset you”, jongho questioned.

“not this family. my old one”, yeosang murmured. jongho’s eyes widened in understanding. “uh, well, hyung? you miss ‘em, i know, but you can’t go back to them, right? i’m sure that they miss you too. maybe you can go visit them sometime!”

yeosang smiled, faintly. “you won’t get it, jongho. but thanks for trying.” jongho rolled his eyes. “what? i miss all the hyungs all the time. remember when you went potato harvesting? i was sad because i couldn’t see ya.”

yeosang laughed, ruffling jongho’s hair. “okay, so you do get it. whatever, jong. i’m feeling much better now. let’s go back?” jongho slipped his hand into yeosang’s, picked his bears up, and pulled the older boy inside the house. surprisingly, jongho was strong enough to literally drag yeosang by the hand.

jongho might not have ever had the experience of having blood-related siblings, but maybe it was for the best. that way, he wouldn’t have to worry about anyone other than the seven people who spent every single second of the day with him.

~

“i’m sorry for saying that earlier, yeosang. i didn’t know what it meant and it was wrong of me to call your mom that”, keonhee apologized, looking sheepishly at yeosang.

yeosang regarded keonhee with a stone-cold expression. “i accept your apology. don’t go throwing that word around again. it’s…harmful.” yeosang’s expression softened a little, his eyes glowing a little.

keonhee nodded, still too ashamed to look yeosang in the eye. “i got it. i’m sorry.” the two boys shook on it, yeosang patting keonhee on the shoulder as he walked away.

“i’m taking that you two made up”, yunho offered. “we did”, yeosang muttered. “i accepted his apology.” jongho then latched himself onto yeosang’s arm. “hyung, are you feeling better? please say yes!”

“i am, jongho-ah. thank you.”

jongho beamed, his smile showing all his teeth (well, he was missing a front tooth but that was okay). “good! now hyung can cuddle with me.” 

normally, it was yeosang comforting jongho. but today, the tables miraculously turned, and yeosang was being reassured by the boy. it reminded him of something that had happened long ago; something that he didn’t bother dwelling on.

it was…strange. but yeosang liked the feeling of being told that everything was okay, that everything was alright. he never expected to find comfort from jongho, but he did. and he liked it.

Chapter Text

“is that a fucking dog?”, seonghwa whispered, socking hongjoong in the arm. “why is there a fucking dog in the yard?”

“it’s a stray”, san piped up. “like us. it wandered here like, ten minutes ago. jongho’s worried that it’s going to eat debby.”

“it won’t”, hongjoong reassured firmly. seonghwa was warily glaring at the canine that was barking outside. he noticed hwanwoong and mingi poke at it with a stick, running away when it turned around and growled.

“fucking idiots!”, san cursed, running out of the room. “who pokes a stray dog in the flank?! it’ll bite!” seonghwa and hongjoong rush after him, the older boy trailing behind.

it’s no secret that seonghwa’s afraid of dogs. he was bitten by a wild dog once as a child and the fear stemmed from there; thankfully, seonghwa had taken a vaccine for it and he was okay.

mingi and hwanwoong ducked inside the house, the dog growling at the closed door. they both breathed out a sigh of relief, collapsing in the hall. “what the hell were you two thinking?”, san yelled. “it could have bitten your fingers off!”

“sorry”, mingi muttered. hwanwoong shrugged. “it was funny, though.” hongjoong glanced out of the window and saw that jongho was outside, warily eyeing the dog as he sat in the grass near debby’s coop. yeosang and yunho were playing ball with keonhee, while wooyoung was curiously inspecting the stray with dongju and jeongguk.

seonghwa firmly shook his head when hongjoong gestured towards the door. “understandable”, he sighed. “i’ll stay with these three. you go and play counselor for jongho.”

the youngest was directing his narrowed eyes at the dog that was currently prowling around the yard. hongjoong crouched down next to him, smiling.

“hey, what’s up?”, hongjoong asked.

“doggo’s mean”, he muttered. “growled at debby and scared her.” the hen was, for once, not pecking at the floor aimlessly. it was, well, subdued.

“it’ll be gone soon enough”, hongjoong reasoned. jongho poked his cheek with his tongue. “‘m not sure. i think that headmaster wants to keep it to stop us from running ‘way.”

“why would he do that?”, leedo asked, who had quietly slipped over during their conversation. “it makes no sense. some of us are good with dogs.”

the dog growled, wooyoung squawking like an indignant bird. “he’s moody”, jeongguk pointed out. “thanks, mr. obvious”, dongju quipped back.

“most of us aren’t. it’ll be gone by morning. relax, jongho”, hongjoong soothed. jongho didn’t look too happy about it, but he said nothing more.

seonghwa was noticbly jittery for the entire night, jumping whenever wooyoung snuck up on him (wooyoung and san had a field day). “stop it, you two!”, he finally snapped. “just get to sleep and go bother someone else.”

san huffed but did as he was told. the next day, the dog was still wagging his tail and running around the yard. one thing that changed was that it now had a collar round it’s neck.

seonghwa felt his stomach drop.

“they took it in?”, he asked, his face pale. hongjoong shrugged. “probably. the darn beast has a fucking collar.”

“yeah, it’s to keep you brats in line”, ms kim said, when hongjoong asked.

none of them were pleased with how things were going. jongho, seonghwa and mingi were scared shitless regarding the dog. san didn’t like interacting with it. hongjoong, yunho, wooyoung and yeosang were okay with dogs, but the others weren’t.

to hongjoong’s surprise, san and mingi didn’t go out to the yard today. they roughhoused in the safety of their room instead, san whacking mingi with a pillow after the latter had tickled him to half-death.

“stop!”, mingi laughed, rolling away from san’s incoming attacks. san smirked, smacking the pillow into mingi’s side. hongjoong groaned. “take this outside, you two?’

“no way. the dog’s gonna bite me!”, mingi stated, scrabbling up the bunk bed ladder to get away from san and his pillow.

“it won’t. see? yeosang and wooyoung are out, aren’t they? and jongho and yunho are… where are they?”

yunho was carrying jongho in his arms, the younger boy draped over his shoulder. “the wretched thing was barking and scared jongie’, yunho explained.

san winced. “jongho, you okay?” the boy in question shook his head, burying his face deeper into the crook of yunho’s neck. yunho gently set him down, ruffling his hair.

seonghwa, who had been quietly writing something before, shut his notebook and sighed. “jongho, c’mere.” the younger waddled over to seonghwa, jumping into his warm embrace.

“i’m going to get bitten”, jongho whispered, wiggling around in seonghwa’s arms. “‘m scared.” seonghwa caressed jongho’s cheek carefully. “i am, too. but it’ll warm up to us, yeah?’

“maybe”, jongho said, deep in thought. “it’ll probably be nicer later.”

hongjoong ended up dragging jongho outside to get himself acquainted with the dog. “hello”, jongho timidly said, stretching his hand out so that the dog could sniff it. “’m jongho.”

yeosang and wooyoung watched, interested. the dog licked jongho’s hand excitedly, much to the surprise and giddiness of the youngest.

“does it have a name?”, jongho asked, looking at it’s collar. “benedict”, he read. “okay, hi benedict!”

“cute!”, wooyoung gushed quietly, which lead to him be dragged back to the house by a very amused yeosang.

jongho ended up spending much more time with benedict than he did with debby. in hongjoong’s opinion, it was a big win. seonghwa, however, was still positively terrified.

wooyoung was teasing seonghwa about it. “hyung, you’re such a scaredy-cat”, he mocked, dodging the swipe that seonghwa directed at his shoulder.

“stop”, he muttered, his eyes shifting to look at his shoes. wooyoung didn’t take the hint, though.

“hwa hyung, it’s a dog. it’s not even that scary.” yeosang pinched wooyoung’s forearm as a warning to stop. “shut up!”, seonghwa hissed, wooyoung recoiling in surprise.

“f-fine.”

hongjoong shot seonghwa a concerned look, but said nothing about it. wooyoung never talked to seonghwa about dogs again, as far as hongjoong knew.

it was a well, unresolved matter but hongjoong didn’t want to sprinkle salt over seonghwa’s still very open wound when it came to dogs. hongjoong decided that if his hyung wanted to tell, he would. just not today.

Chapter Text

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Chapter Text

“how was everyone’s day today?”, hongjoong asked, smiling. it was so unusually quiet in their dorm that seonghwa swore he could hear a pin drop.

no response.

“c’mon, guys. was it really that bad?” hongjoong was used to the balance of good and bad days, he could say. there were good days and bad days. good days were when the sun shone, when they got visitors, when they got new clothes. good days were when they all laughed until they were crying, when jongho allowed them to kiss him.

to hongjoong, good days were like chocolate and ice cream; sweet and far in between.

bad days were when something happened. when someone wasn’t feeling their best or when someone was always in trouble with the teachers; hongjoong and seonghwa could care less for san and wooyoung’s endless screaming. hongjoong hated the way that the adults always dealt with things with physical punishment (he did, too, but he preferred scolding over everything else).

but he learned how to deal with these bad days. “let’s go, one by one. who wants to go first? yeosang?” yeosang shuffled forward from where he was standing, shrugging. “nothing bad. i don’t feel good. that’s it.”

seonghwa nodded in understanding. yeosang tended to have moments like these every once in a while; seonghwa would talk to him and swaddle him and cuddle him to death. yeosang normally felt much better after that.

“c’mere”, seonghwa said, opening his arms. yeosang jumped into the hug, jongho snuggling into seonghwa’s side.

“anyone else?”

san sniffled, and hongjoong took this as a sign of volunteering. “you wanna talk about it?”, hongjoong asked gently, to which san shook his head. “n-no. ask woo.” san then tumbled into hongjoong’s lap like a steam engine.

“it’s all my fault”, wooyoung muttered. “pardon?”, seonghwa pried, yeosang wriggling a little in his grasp. “i stepped on some of the pretty flowers outside when i was lookin’ and san hyung took the blame”, wooyoung mumbled, guilt stinging his face.

“and then?” hongjoong already knew what had happened. you didn’t have to be a world-class detective to notice the way san was jumping a little every time his back touched hongjoong’s chest.

“ouch”, san winced, whining when hongjoong flopped san onto his stomach and covered him with a blanket. hongjoong carefully peeked under san’s shirt and saw angry welts forming; the sight made his blood boil.

as predicted, san had gotten caned for it. hongjoong wanted to go straight up to who had done it and shout at them for hurting his brother, but he knew that it would do nothing.

“aww, sannie”, hongjoong sighed. jongho waddled over, handing san one of his bears. san took it with a tiny grin, pressing the fur against his face.

wooyoung was feeling very, very ashamed. he knew that he shouldn’t have told san; he should have been the one to get caned.

“‘m sorry, san hyung”, he blurted, moments away from tears. “‘m sorry!” yunho wrapped a blanket around wooyoung’s shaking shoulders, bundling him up before depositing him next to san.

“it’s okay. how many more times do i have to say that?” san smiles despite the searing pain on his back, pinching wooyoung’s arm. “just shut up, idiot. cuddle?”

wooyoung nodded miserably, shifting himself so that his head was tucked under san’s chin. “yunho? mingi? jongho? how was your day?”

“it was okay”, jongho said. “i had fun with jeongguk hyung!” hongjoong grinned; one pleasantry amidst a sea of tragedies. “my body hurts all over”, yunho complained.

“growth spurt”, seonghwa and hongjoong said in unison. yunho groaned, burying his head in his hands. “i swear. i’m not going to be able to fit in these beds anymore.”

mingi raised his hand. “sorry to interrupt but is it time for the ‘cuddle pile to make everyone feel better’ yet?” jongho nodded enthusiastically, launching himself at yunho’s lanky form. yunho stumbled backwards, catching jongho with strong hands. “hey, calm down.”

yunho carried jongho (mingi was hanging on to his back) over to where san and wooyoung were, careful not to position the two younger boys directly onto san’s back. “hyungs! yeosang! come on!”

that was how seonghwa and hongjoong solved every bad day that stumbled across their little family; a cuddle pile. it was quiet for a moment, everyone just enjoying the feeling of being loved and cuddled and kissed.

hongjoong closed his eyes, melting into yunho and wooyoung’s warm embrace. he was so close to sleep-

“hongjoong hyung! you’re hair is getting in my face!”

“stop kissing, hyung!”

“that tickles, mingi!”

“yeosang, don’t-ahh!”

his eyes snapped open. hongjoong brushed his hair so that it didn’t poke wooyoung in the eye, pulled san away from jongho with a reprimanding glare, and raised an eyebrow at mingi, who was tickling yeosang’s sides. seonghwa was shooting yeosang a death glare; the boy had kneed him in the balls on accident.

“what about me? now your hair’s in my eye!”, yunho whined. “can you tie it up?” hongjoong pulled the elastic band of his wrist and quickly pulled it up into a small ponytail, sighing as he did so.

seonghwa felt yeosang nuzzle under his chin and he rubbed yeosang’s arm gently. “are we feeling better?”, he asked. bright “yes!”’s were heard from the pile of boys and seonghwa smiled.

“we’ll continue later, but we need to get sannie cleaned up.” a chorus of groans were heard as jongho released san from his death grip of a hug, yunho and wooyoung rolling out of the way.

seonghwa picked san up, righted him so that he was standing, and took a threadbare towel from the closet. hongjoong distracted the others with more hugs (and a tickle attack), seonghwa rushing san out the door.

san sniffs once, his lower lip wobbling as he walked hand-in-hand with seonghwa. “hyungie? it hurts a lot.” seonghwa ruffled san’s hair, smiling sadly. “i know. that’s why we’re going to clean up with a towel, and hope that some cold water can make it feel better, yeah?”

“mn.”

seonghwa quickly got san seated on the bathroom tile, wetting the towel under the cold stream of water spouting from the sink.

“this might hurt a little”, seonghwa warned, as he rolled up san’s shirt. the angry welts on san’s back broke his heart, but he pressed the towel against the wounds anyway, grimacing as san flinched underneath his touch.

seonghwa tried to finish quickly, making quick work of the towel. san winced and groaned a few times during the process, but seonghwa’s soothing touch had him quieten down.

“we’re done”, seonghwa said (attempting to sound) brightly. he pulled san’s shirt down and wrung out the towel out in the sink. san hesitantly grasped seonghwa’s waist, hugging him as a silent way of thanks.

“your very welcome”, seonghwa said. when they went back to their dorm, the others were sprawled out on blankets that they had lain on the floor, having taken their cuddle pile to somewhere spacier.

jongho and yunho were asleep, wooyoung moving jongho’s foot away from his face. hongjoong and mingi were curled up together, yeosang gripping wooyoung to his chest like a stuffed animal. san and seonghwa carefully joined them, hongjoong gently moving certain bodies so that the two would be able to fit.

their cuddle party ended when it was time for light’s out, which meant that someone would come check on them. seonghwa carried jongho over to a bed, set him down, and pulled a blanket over his figure. it was getting warmer again, and they no longer needed to share with each other, but jongho still preferred having a body present next to him, which was why yeosang sleepily stumbled to flop down next to jongho.

yunho was woken by the sudden loss of body warmth next to him. he tucked san in, making sure that he didn’t roll onto his back (yunho was going to share with him, just for tonight).

to seonghwa, it was a successful cuddle party. and an even better day. even though the day had started our rough for a few members of his family, he was glad that he had made them feel better.

Chapter Text

“visitor!”, wooyoung yells, bursting through the door. hongjoong winces as wooyoung crashes into san, who’s just been recovering from the lashing he got two days ago.

“steady, woo”, san teased. hongjoong could see how the boy was maturing; he kept the kids in line more often than hongjoong did.

“h-he’s adopting!”

that made hongjoong stop in his tracks. adoption wasn’t good, nor was it bad. adoption meant getting out of this hellhole that hongjoong hated so much, but at the same time…

“who’s leaving? you know yet?” wooyoung shook his head, and san bit his lip, apprehensive.

yeah. someone would have to leave, and their dorm-mates would be heartbroken and sulky for the rest of the week (in hongjoong’s case, a month when junyoung was adopted). hongjoong decided to mess wooyoung and san’s hair up to look even more messy, telling the two of them to change into their dirtiest clothes.

he needed them as scruffy and disobidient as possible; he was not losing them today. so now, with wooyoung and san looking like slightly cleaner street urchins, he decided that it was safe and took the two of them downstairs.

yunho was standing with the others that he had managed to round up, seonghwa talking quietly with youngjo. as expected, jongho was scowling at the man who was looking to adopt, his face streaked with dirt. yeosang was reading and avoiding all eye contact. mingi and hwanwoong were play-fighting, hwanwoong pulling mingi into a loose headlock.

yunho and hwa have done well, hongjoong thinks. jongho’s going to need a good shower tonight. hongjoong joins them quietly, san messing mingi’s hair up as he giggled in hwanwoong’s grasp.

“you think it’s gonna be one o’ us?”, dongju asks hongjoong, eyes darting around nervously. none of them wanted to leave the familes they had; they knew the rules here. if they were to be adopted, they’d have to learn all over again.

“i don’t think so. where’s jeongguk?” dongju shakily points to where the visitor is talking with his jeonggukie, the boy chewing on his toy bunny’s ear.

hongjoong sees jin pacing in the corner, namjoon and yoongi consulting jimin and tae. hoseok was trying to get jin to stop and sit down, but to no avail.

jin met eye contact with hongjoong for a second. the elder’s eyes were filled with worry and anger; hongjoong couldn’t blame him.

the rest of the day happened in a blur. it was announced that when the visitor left that afternoon, he was leaving with jeongguk. wooyoung and jongho had been shocked; dongju instead clung to the bunny-loving boy when he was packing, refusing to leave his side.

if the tight-knit quadruplet had been sad, then jin would be the walking-talking example of the word “devastated”. he held jeongguk close to his chest when he had to leave, the younger mumuring things similar to “don’ cry, jin hyung”. that only made jin cry harder.

“guk”, jongho whispered, before he left. “you won’t forget us, will ya?” jeongguk shook his head firmly. “ne’er. you’re my best friend, jongie. i’d never forget you. or woo hyung. or dongju hyung.”

the four of them shared one last embrace before jeongguk moved on to yoongi, who’s usual mask of emotions had broken.

hongjoong couldn’t possibly imagine how much pain they were going through. if jongho and wooyoung, who were only close friends to jeongguk, were on the brink of tears, then how would seokjin possibly feel? the boy had practically raised jeongguk, only for him to be taken away.

wooyoung and jongho decided to go sit in the grass outside with dongju, something that jeongguk would’ve suggested that they go do if he was still here.

“he ain’t gonna forget us”, jongho said firmly, when wooyoung asked. “gguk’d never do that.” dongju yanked some of the grass out of the ground, crushing it in his palms. “i miss him already.”

“me too”, a new voice answered. all three of them whirled around, shocked to see seokjin standing, looking defeated.

“jin hyung?”, dongju tenatively asks. “are you okay?” the older male shook his head, sitting down next to them. “none of us are, dongju. that was a stupid question to ask.”

“sorry.”

so the four of them sit in the grass, watching the sun set. “i miss him”, jongho blurted. “all of us do”, wooyoung reminded, gently. jin awkwardly rests his hand atop of jongho’s head, patting it briefly. “he’s living a better life now, right? the brat’s rich”, jin murmured.

“it’ll be alright”, dongju added. “he won’t ever forget us. never.” the sun finally disappears behind the mountains in the distance as night falls. they lost a friend, but it was for his good. jeongguk would be happier there.

at least, that was what hongjoong told jongho. and jongho trusted hongjoong, so there.

Chapter Text

“are you sure that this is a good idea?”

wooyoung scoffed. “you’re mad at him for doing that to san, right?” mingi nodded. “and you want to get revenge for san, right?” another nod. “so stop being such a coward and do it.”

“but san hyung-“

“shut it, mingi. san hyung refused because his back is still on fire. now come on.” since the headmaster was out today, the two of them decided to wreak havoc in said man’s office to get revenge for their san hyung. it wasn’t hard; there wasn’t even a lock on the door. “so much for learning how to pick a lock”, wooyoung grumbled.

the office was filled with expensive-looking knicknacks. mingi tentatively reached out to smash the inkpot onto the ground; black ink spilled everywhere, causing him to jump back with a squeak. wooyoung scowled. “mingi, you’re such a sissy”, wooyoung hissed. “it’s just ink. get some more while you're at it; i want this place in chaos.” wooyoung slammed the journal on the headmaster’s table onto the ground, ripping pages out.

they continued to break things for another five minutes, only dashing out when there was nothing left to destroy. “wonderful”, wooyoung cackles. “now let’s go.”

the two of them run out like startled rabbits, darting down the hall at full speed. san raises an eyebrow at them when they come back but doesn’t say anything. “where have you two been?”, yunho asks, looking up from where he’s squinting over a book. both of them say “playing” at the same time; yunho sighs. “better not have been causing trouble”, he warns. “i’ve already got to deal with one pouty san.”

san pouts some more. “hyung, i’m not that pouty.” yunho chuckles. “says you, pout master. i’ll go back to trying to make sense of this gibberish”, he says, holding up hongjoong’s book.  “good luck”, mingi chirps. seonghwa comes in with jongho in his arms; said boy has fallen asleep. everything was fairly peaceful for the rest of the day, the boys making the most of their saturday.

it’s sometime near evening do things truly begin to escalate. mingi, wooyoung and yunho are in the yard, playing an animal game with each other when youngjo comes over. “hey, you three. sorry to interrupt your fun but everyone’s to report to the dining hall. something happened to the headmaster and he isn’t happy about it.”

to say that the headmaster was “not happy” would be an understatement. all of the orphans were lined up in the room, nervously fidgeting. wooyoung walked in, shoulders thrown back but terrified (poor boy had his ego to take care of). mingi was just sticking against yunho’s side as they navigated the crowd to get to where hongjoong was standing with the rest of them. “does this have anything to do with you three?”, he asked. wooyoung said nothing, simply shrugging. “don’t know, hyung.” hongjoong sighs and turns to seonghwa. “i can tell that it was you two”, seonghwa grumbles, pointing at wooyoung and mingi. “admit it”, he adds, when both of them protest.

“how’d you know?”, mingi eventually asks. “hyung’s intuition, and the fact that mingi looks like he’s about to die”, seonghwa replies. “i’ll take this for you. shut it, kim hongjoong”, he says, when hongjoong opens his mouth to protest. “i’ll say that it was me. quiet, all of you.” wooyoung feels even more guilty now; first san, and now seonghwa. he was such a brat, always causing trouble for his hyungs. yeosang looked at him with a sigh, but said nothing.

“which one of you hellspawn decided to wreck my office?!”, the headmaster yelled. he was met with silence; no one moved for a second. wooyoung locked his own guilty eyes with mingi’s, who was trying his hardest not to cry. san was shooting the pair of them dirty looks; he knew that it had been a bad idea.

“well?” more silence. “if one of you rats don’t own up, i’ll make sure that all of you get a hell of a beating from me!” at that, seonghwa moves forward. “it was me.” the words are said quietly, but it sounds as if he’s shouted. all of the fifty-two heads in the room swerve to look a him. “idiot”, youngjo mutters. “i know that it wasn’t him.”

the headmaster simply seizes seonghwa by the hair and drags him off to what is left of his office, ignoring seonghwa’s pleas. mingi bursts into tears, crumbling to the ground. “i-i’m sorry”, he wails into hongjoong’s leg (he’s grabbed onto the nearest thing he can hold). “i’m sorry for being such a brat and having seonghwa hyung take it. i was just mad at him for hurting san hyung…”

“come on”, hongjoong says gently. “our room. we’ll talk it out there.” they get to their tiny room in a few, jongho sniffling. “is hwa hyung okay?”

“he will be”, yunho reassures. yeosang has been strangely quiet, probably shocked from everything. “you two trashed his office?”, he asks. wooyoung nods miserably. to his surprise, yeosang actually smiles. “he deserved it. but hwa hyung didn’t.”

hongjoong ends up having to smack some sense into the two. “what possessed you to do that?”, he yelled, as he landed smack after smack. “we’re all angry that he did that to san but you didn’t have to trash his office! if seonghwa didn’t take it for you, you’d be a bloody mess.”

“i’m thankful that you risked everything for me”, san continued. “but that was really unnecessary, woo, mingi.” the two in question are currently sprawled out across a lower bunk, getting spanked to death by hongjoong. “i want you two to apologise to seonghwa when he gets back. it’s his choice if he wants to punish you.” hongjoong lands one last smack and pulls them up, holding them to his chest. “i’m proud of you two. but next time, think before you do anything.”

seonghwa stumbles back into the dorm, wincing with every step he takes. hongjoong rushes to stand up, catching his hyung before he falls to the ground. “fucking shit”, hongjoong curses. jongho is quickly distracted by san and yeosang, who pull the younger under the covers  and start singing to him; seonghwa didn’t look like he was okay.

wooyoung wails and immediately wraps his arms around seonghwa. “i’m sorry i’m sorry i’m sorry! i’m sorry for being such a brat and getting you in trouble!” mingi latches himself onto the older like a leech. “are you okay, hyung? i’m sorry for hurting you like that. i promise never to do that again.”

“you two are idiots”, seonghwa muses. “i willingly took it for you. i’m sure that hongjoong has already punished you, so we’re even, okay?” wooyoung and mingi squeeze harder, to which seonghwa hisses. “careful, mind my back, you two.”

“we’ll do your chores for you for a month”, mingi declares, to which wooyoung quickly nods. “yeah! we’re really sorry, hyung.” seonghwa smiles, despite himself. “alright, then. a month.” hongjoong then pries the two off of his hyung and takes him to the washroom to clean up.

“that was stupid of you”, he chides, as he observes the damage. seonghwa sighs good-naturedly. “if it could stop those two from hurting just for a bit, i’d do it. i’d risk everything for all of you, and you know that, joongie. now get my wounds clean and put me to bed. i’m tired.”

“yes, sir!”, hongjoong salutes.

Chapter Text

Hey, you guys! There's going to be a slight change to my update schedule. Apologies for not updating in an age, once again.

The problem is; I'm moving to a new country in a month, and I might now have as much time to write during this time. So, chapters may not be updated as regularly as before and may be updated once every week/two weeks. I'm super sorry for this arrangement, but I hope that you can all understand.

Thank you, my dear readers!

-Seonghwazz

Chapter Text

hongjoong checked to make sure that everyone was asleep before pulling out his ratty notebook from under his shirt. he pulled out a pencil from behind his ear and started sketching, adding an extra flower to a pair of leather pants.

hongjoong has developed a new love for fashion design. he’d found an empty notebook in one of the classrooms, and hongjoong had quickly claimed it as his. inside, he’s included sketches of the clothes that he wants to wear and design when he grows older.

none of his siblings know of this newfound hobby. fashion design was loved by a lot of the girls in the other wing of the orphanage; what if they teased him for it? which is why hongjoong has taken to sketching at night, when no one is awake to judge him. he hopes that he doesn’t wake the slumbering wooyoung, who’s snoring next to him.

he sketches well into the night, only stopping when dawn breaks. seonghwa has a hard time waking him up the next morning, as hongjoong has only gotten two hours of sleep.

“hyung”, hongjoong groans. “i’m up, just give me five more minutes...” seonghwa pulls hongjoong’s threadbare blanket back and pulls him up, ignoring hongjoong’s complaints as the older drags him towards the washstand.

“get yourself ready”, seonghwa sighs. “i don’t have the energy to deal with your bratty self today.” seonghwa looks exhausted; it’s seven a.m. in the morning and their dorm is already full of life, yunho and yeosang trying to restore order.

yeosang is currently trying to get jongho to put on a shirt, as the boy is running after mingi, naked waist up. hongjoong quickly puts a stop to it, taking jongho’s shirt from yeosang and pulling it over jongho’s misbehaving self with the promise of a spanking if he doesn’t behave.

sundays are always a nightmare. “go play with dongju and woongie”, seonghwa says. “don’t give youngjo and seoho any trouble, okay?” mingi and jongho nod before tugging yeosang along with them to go play. seonghwa sighs in relief; three down, three to go. “hyung, san hyung left to go be with namjoon hyung”, wooyoung informs.

hongjoong proceeds to usher the two of them to go play as well, groaning when everyone is gone but seonghwa and him. “let’s get started”, hongjoong grumbles. the two of them work in silence, seonghwa mopping the floor while hongjoong sorts through the wardrobe.

hongjoong wants desperately to continue sketching, but well, duty called. it was around noon when yunho and yeosang came back, looking determined. “hyung, we’ll help with the laundry”, yeosang said quietly. “you two can enjoy your afternoon.” seonghwa looked like he was about to protest, but hongjoong beat him to it. “that would be really nice of you two, yunho and sangie. thank you.”

yunho took the basket of laundry from seonghwa’s arms, grinning as he lead yeosang down the hall. once they were in the laundry room, yeosang grabbed one of the tubs, filling it with water and dunking the garments in.

a few minutes of dunking clothes later, yeosang looks up from his shirt and groans. “my hands feel waterlogged”, he complained. yunho sighed. “look. hongjoong hyung and hwa hyung do our laundry all the time. their hands probably hurt more than our’s do, so we’ll be actual good younger siblings for once and do it for them.” yunho knew how good it felt to be appreciated for doing everything as the eldest; geunho’s given him the feeling of euphoria multiple times, when he volunteered to do his chores.

seonghwa, who (along with hongjoong) has secretly trailed the pair to the laundry room and is watching outside, feels overwhelmed with emotion. “they’re all so grown up, joong”, seonghwa whispers, his eyes glistening. hongjoong can’t agree more, pulling seonghwa down the hall before he can start crying.

they appraoch their dorm to see san and jongho folding and clearing away some of the clothes that hongjoong had yet to fold. “so mean, jongho”, san whines. “why me? you could’ve gotten wooyoung or something.” jongho aims a punch in san’s direction, the older boy warily dodging it with the swiftness of a rabbit. “don’t”, san warns. “i’ll tell hyung and you know what’ll happen to your backside.” jongho purses his lips into a thin line and continues to fold the clothes on the bed, to san’s smugness. hongjoong is trying to hold back his laughter; the two of them look quite the pair. seonghwa, however, is absolutely livid.

“choi jongho, you get over here right now”, seonghwa scolds. jongho turns, fear evident is his eyes as he pads over to seonghwa, not daring to look up. “what did i say about any more misbehaviour?” jongho suddenly finds a spot on his shoe very interesting. “‘panking”, jongho murmurs, fiddling with his thumbs.

“i’ll leave it for later tonight”, seonghwa sighs. “thank you for doing this”, he adds, pulling san and jongho into a hug. “i appreciate it a lot, you two.” san beams. “jongho dragged me into this, but i didn’t wanna do it so i complained and he tried to punch me.” seonghwa ruffles jongho’s hair. “thank you, jongie, but we don’t tolerate violence, okay?”

jongho nods, looking every bit the chastised child. “sorry hyung, i won’t do it again!” seonghwa kisses jongho once before heading to the library, to “pick out some books for yunho”. jongho and san continue doing what they started, san helping jongho put the shirts into the closet after he was done folding. hongjoong pulled his notebook out, pulling his knees to his chest to use as an impromptu desk. he glanced over at jongho, sketching him a jacket furnished with an embroidered patch of a bear. perhaps he could show it to the younger later, when he was finished with what he was doing at the moment.

san peeked over hongjoong’s shoulder, his lips parting in surprise. “hyung, what’s that?” hongjoong snapped the notebook shut, jumping up in surprise. “i suppose it’s nothing”, san wittily remarks with a smirk, as hongjoong stammers and stutters. “sketch me something, and i won’t tell a soul”, san offers. hongjoong sighs; he’s raised a street-smart fox, hasn’t he? “what do you want, sannie?”

“a detective jacket! with pockets to put a magnifying glass in. and a hat to go with it too!” hongjoong grins; san’s been a little obsessed over sherlock holmes lately, ever since namjoon recommended the book to him. “alright then, little detective. i’ll see what i can do about it, san-ah.”

“thank you, hyung!” san gives hongjoong a thankful hug before dashing off to find his seonghwa hyung; probably begging the older to make up a story to keep him entertained. yunho and yeosang return with sore shoulders (well, yunho, at least) and a younger sibling on their backs. mingi was clinging on to yeosang’s neck, his gangly legs tucked under yeosang’s armpits. wooyoung, however, was hanging off yunho like a monkey, whooping with delight when the older hitched him higher onto his back.

“hey, you two monkeys”, hongjoong calls fondly. “give your hyungs a breather. they’ve been at it for a while.” wooyoung jumps off yunho, mingi hesitantly scaling down. “we’re bored, hyung! what’re you doing?”, wooyoung asked. hongjoong felt his notebook get snatched from his clutches. “hyung, this is cool!”, yunho remarks, looking over wooyoung’s shoulder to see what he was looking at; pages of fashion design. hongjoong cocked his head to the side. “you think?”

“yeah!”, mingi says. “draw me a shirt too, hyung!” soon, hongjoong has been overwhelmed with all of his brother’s requests to “draw something for them”. compared to being shunned, this is better. much better. seonghwa comes back with a stack of books, san bounding right behind him. “they had a new sherlock book today!”, he announces, showing wooyoung and mingi the cover. “and hyung! are you done with my jacket yet?” hongjoong chuckles, fondly, telling san to go wait in line.

seonghwa sets the books down next to the door and beckons jongho over, to the boy’s dismay. “later?”, jongho whines, pouting. “no”, seonghwa says sternly. “now.” jongho huffs but crawls over seonghwa’s lap anyway, his cheeks flushing in indignation. “we use our words, jongie”, seonghwa scolds, as he smacks jongho’s clothed backside. “not fists, okay?” jongho practically yells an affirmative as he wriggles around, his hands flying back to cover his butt. seonghwa pins the younger’s arm against his side and continued smacking, jongho thrashing angrily in his lap. “i’m sorry! now please let me up?” seonghwa lands a few more smacks for good measure, which ends up in jongho tearing up.

seonghwa pulls jongho up and into a hug. “alright, that’s over. hongjoong hyung’s drawing you something.” showing jongho the sketch of the bear jacket lifts his mood tremendously, the boy practically clapping like a seal. “thank you joongie hyung”, he says shyly.

“hyung! my jacket now!”, san demands.

hongjoong draws him a tweed jacket with pockets and a hat. san’s eyes light up with delight, bragging to yunho about his “detective gear.” “now i only need someone to donate it the next time someone comes round with clothes!”, he declared, slicking his hair back. “i’ll be a detective then!”

yunho ignores the other’s protests as he drags them all off to bed. “hongjoong hyung hasn’t made me anything yet!”, mingi whines. “me neither!”, yeosang supplies, grumbling as yunho manhandles him into bed. “wait ’til morning”, yunho retorts, silencing mingi with a finger to the younger’s lips. “no buts. sleep.” it takes a while to get everyone to bed, but it worked.

“so, fashion design, huh?”, seonghwa muses, sitting up against the frame of the bunk bed. “shut up”, hongjoong huffs. “not teasing, but that was good”, seonghwa says. “real good, joongie. you’ve got the makings of a designer.” hongjoong preens under the praise, smiling. “thank you. now go to sleep.” seonghwa rolls his eyes, gently shoving hongjoong. “yeah, okay. you’re such a mom, joong.”

Chapter Text

“are you sure that you didn’t eat the last cracker?”, san teased, poking wooyoung’s side. wooyoung’s ears reddened as he frantically yelled “no!”, causing san and yunho to cackle manically.

“look at his ears”, yeosang jabs, stroking the tips of wooyoung’s flaring hot ears. “they’re so red!” wooyoung huffs, a pout crossing his face. “you’re being mean, hyungs”, he whined, pulling his blanket so that it was draped over his legs.

“taste of your own medicine, woo”, mingi supplies. “you’re the one always teasing us when you find something funny.” wooyoung sighs, biting he inside of his cheek as he looks down at the threadbare blanket in his lap. “i shouldn’t have taken jongho’s bear”, he grumbles.

wooyoung doesn’t know what possessed him to think that stealing and hiding both bear and bernard was going to be a good idea, but here he was anyway, stashing the two toys under the wardrobe.

it wasn’t a good hiding place, but that wasn’t the point; he just wanted to cause trouble. it was well, kind of fun in his opinion. hongjoong and seonghwa disapproved of his tendency for mischeif, but wooyoung couldn’t live a day without a little chaos. san kept suggesting that he would “grow out of the phase” and become “normal again”; he had no idea what he was going at.

wooyoung skipped off to help hoseok and gunhak with chores after that, the events that happened in the past minute forgotten as he swept with the other two. “you’re smiling an awful lot”, gunhak remarked, poking wooyoung with the handle of his broom. “can’t i feel happy about random things, hyung?”, wooyoung retorts playfully, his grin widening at the thought of his little prank. hoseok comes over, smirking. “yeah, it’s pretty obvious that you’ve been pranking again, woo.” wooyoung huffed, pouting at his hyungs, who were chuckling.

he was reminded once again of his prank when wooyoung went back to the dorm, greeted by a frantic hongjoong who was tearing their room apart. jongho looked on the verge of hysterics as he clung on to mingi, san patting jongho on the head reassuringly.

“what’s wrong?”, wooyoung asked yeosang. “why’s hyung messing the room up? hwa hyung’s gonna kill him.” yeosang sighed, switching into kneeling position as he was peeking under one of the beds. “somebody thought that it was a good idea to hide jongho’s bears. i swear if it was you, woo-“

“it wasn’t!”, wooyoung quickly insisted. he didn’t feel the tips of his ears redden, or the way his eyes were darting around. “i was helping geonhak hyung sweep earlier. wasn’t me, sangie hyung.”

“yeah, right”, yeosang scoffed. “tell me where it is, young-ah.” wooyoung raised an eyebrow. “i said that it wasn’t me, yeosang hyu-“

“your ears are red. that always when you’re lying. when you blamed the pill thing on san hyung, your ears were red. yeah, don’t look at me like that, wooyoung.”

“fine”, wooyoung mumbled. “under the closet.” yeosang smirks. “thanks, wooyoung.” jongho’s bears are quickly returned to their owner, and jongho spends the rest of the afternoon cuddling them to his chest, refusing to let them out of sight.

wooyoung thought that’d be the end of it, after hongjoong scolded him. but the next day, it seemed like yeosang had told everyone about his little “habit” when it came to lying.

the rest is well, history.

“yeah, you shouldn’t have”, jongho sneered (was it possible for him to sneer? it had to be a very angry scowl). “bear and bernard are still very mad at you.” jongho flicked on of wooyoung’s ears with his bear, before snuggling next to him. “i forgive you though.” wooyoung snorts, but pats jongho on the head anyway.

yunho smacks his book down, huffing loudly. “i can’t read this”, he groans. “that’s a baby book”, wooyoung deadpans. “are you sure, hyung?”

“yes, woo. now shut your trap before we elaborate on your interesting custom when you lie”, yunho growls. wooyoung pouts at the mentioning of his, well, embarrassing habit. “fine, hyung. but you should talk to hwa hyung and joongie hyung ‘bout it.” yunho sighs. “i did. hong hyung reckons that i just see words differently compared to the rest of you. dad and mom consulted the doctor and he said what hong hyung said.”

yeosang tuts. “poor hyung. you can’t read.” yunho shrugs him off, glancing at the title which makes zero sense to him. “i mean, at least i can write my name”, he says hopefully. “carpentry doesn’t need any literacy skills.” jongho stops play-fighting with san at that, looking up. “you’re leaving?”

“no, jong”, yunho reassures. “not until a long time. i’ll be here until you feel like you can’t take me anymore, jongho.” jongho still looks unsure, but san quickly distracts him with a plush punch delivered by bear.

“you guys”, wooyoung says quietly. “let’s make an oath. swear that you’ll never leave us.” mingi nods, readily rolling his sleeve up. “do we need to get a knife? i read that people do blood-“

“no knife”, yunho and yeosang yell together, frantic. “just words, okay? that’s already strong enough”, yunho adds. “on the count of three; it’s “i swear that i will never leave a brother alone”, got it?”

“i swear that i will never leave a brother alone”, six voices chorus. “there”, san finishes. “we’ve sworn an oath now. we’re stuck with each other forever”, he elaborates, gagging at the thought of becoming an old, gnarly man with jongho. terrifying, truly.

Chapter Text

“hyung, can you read this to me? can you?”, san asked, kind of enjoying the way yunho was crinkling his eyebrows in anger as san shoved the book in front of his nose. “san, bugger off”, yeosang warned, poking san in the side.

yunho has had to deal with san’s annoying ass since the morning, and he’s getting tired of the younger boy’s nonstop comments about his inability to read properly. he desperately wants to get rid of him, but how?

then, it hits him. “hey, sannie. let’s play hide and seek? you go hide, and we’ll come look for you.” san thinks about this; it wasn’t really fair to have four people go after him, but it would be a challenge.

“okay, yunho hyung!” yunho nods, smirking. “alright, you can go hide now, san-ah.” san turns on his heel and dashes off, a hiding spot already in mind. yunho makes sure that san has turned the corner before gesturing for the others to move towards their room. “are you sure that this is a good idea?”, mingi asks quietly. “san hyung’d never would have done that to us. and besides, you could just ask him to apologise.”

“he’s being an ass”, wooyoung offers. “he’ll learn.” with that, the four trooped back towards their dorm, mingi still fighting the urge to go look for san and tell him that he was being an arse. “he’s been mean to yunho hyung”, mingi insisted to himself in his head. even so, he still felt unsure.

meanwhile, san has swung himself under one of the small spaces underneath the porch. it had been where he had dragged mingi whenever the latter had previously been chased by tormentors. san curled into himself, making himself seem as small as possible. the minutes slowly ticked by, san getting giddier with every second that passed. “ha!”, he said quietly. “it’s four against one and they still can’t win!”

minutes turned into an hour, and san was still hiding, his legs getting cramped from being in a fetal position for so long. have they seriously not found me yet?, san thinks. he was starting to get anxious; were they not finding him on purpose?

“another hour”, he murmurs. “another hour and if they still don’t come, i’ll leave.” judging by the color of the sky outside of his little hiding spot, it as probably nearing curfew; around five in the evening, san guessed. they would never do that to me, he thinks. we literally just swore an oath the other day.

the hour passes. san sniffles, his lower lip bleeding from how hard he had bit into it. i’m annoying and a bother, san drills into his mind. he’s heartbroken; how could they do this him? and he thought that wooyoung and mingi were his best friends, his confidants. the people that he could trust with all his heart. and yunho and yeosang; they were his brothers. how could all four of them betray him like this?

he hears miss kim come out from the house, her heels clacking over him as she made her way down the porch. “all of you, back inside for dinner!”, she yelled. san waited until he heard feet make their way into the house, wincing as someone stepped hard on one of the wooden planks. san sidled out from his hiding place, trying to sneak past miss kim, but he feels a hand land on the scruff of his neck.

“choi san? what on earth were you doing under the porch?” san wiped his lip with his sleeve. “playing hide and seek. ’s nothing, miss.” san runs off towards the house, hesitating in front of his room but enters anyway. “there you are, sannie”, hongjoong exclaims, ruffling his hair. “how’re you?” san doesn’t answer; he’s afraid that he’ll start crying the second he opens his mouth. instead, he shrugs, and flops down on one of the bunks.

“you okay?”, hongjoong asks again, sitting down next to him. san shakes his head; hongjoong sighs, running a thumb over san’s cheek. “we’re going to dinner in a few, sannie. we can bring you food if you’re not up for it.” hongjoong stands up from where he’s been kneeling next to san’s bunk, raising an eyebrow at mingi who looks like he’s on the brink of tears himself. jongho waddles over, and slides in next to san. “are you sad, hyung?”

“very”, san mumbles. “but you should go have dinner with the others, jongie. i’ll be fine after i have some alone time.” jongho frowned, and pushed something furry into san’s hands. “here, hyungie. take bernard; he’ll keep you safe an’ happy!” san smiled weakly at jongho, who bounded off after yunho and the others. seonghwa came over and pressed a kiss onto san’s temple. “i’ll talk to you about it later, sannie. you’re so brave for me.”

the door slammed shut and san slid under the blanket that seonghwa had thickened just yesterday by sewing old clothes on top, curling into a ball. how could they just have abandoned him like that? it’s because you’re a bother, a voice in his head yelled. san hugged bernard to his chest, biting on the front of his shirt to minimise the sound of his crying.

downstairs in the dining hall, mingi was looking very, very guilty, while yunho looked like he felt bad about himself. “what happened?”, seonghwa asked. “you all look as if you’ve killed someone.” he nodded towards wooyoung, yeosang, yunho and mingi, who all looked away. “do you all have something to do with the situation upstairs?”

seonghwa sighs when he’s met with silence. “if you guys aren’t explaining, i’ll go ask san.” he got up from his seat, went to the kitchen to get an extra plate of shepherd’s pie for san, and headed up the stairs to their room. “sannie?”, he asked softly, knocking gently on the door. “it’s your hwa hyung.”

seonghwa cracked open the door. when he saw the shaking form under the covers, he set down the plate and instantly went over to give san a hug. “oh, sannie”, seonghwa mumured. “what’s going on?” san sniffled loudly, burying his head into seonghwa’s chest as he clung on to the older’s shirt. bernard is nestled under san’s armpit and seonghwa smiles fondly at the bear; jongho was a saint.

“do you want to talk about it?”, seonghwa asks, stroking san’s hair. “n-not now”, san hiccuped, sniffling. “okay, then”, seonghwa agreed. “you can tell me about it when you want to.” san cuddled closer to seonghwa, his breathing slowly going back to normal.

“hide and seek”, he suddenly blurts. “i-it was hide and seek, hyung. i was annoying yunho hyung and then yunho told me that he would come find me but- but-“ seonghwa shushes him, ruffling san’s fluffy hair. “he never came, did he? and you stayed hidden.” san nods, amazed that seonghwa had known. “yeah! and he broke the oath…”

“what oath?”, seonghwa asked. “we swore n-never to leave each other…” seonghwa sighs, wrapping san closer to his chest. “aww, sannie. but you did annoy your yunho hyung, and that wasn’t right.” san nods miserably.

“hey are you guys-“ hongjoong starts, only to shut the door behind him when he sees san in such a vulnerable state. “explain”, he hisses, to the others. “we told san hyung that we were playing hide and seek but we didn’t go look for him!”, mingi wails. “he musta felt so lonely…”

“who’s idea was this?”

“mine”, yunho guiltily murmured. “i’m sorry.” hongjoong sighed. “all of you apologize to san. i’m serious.” they all barreled into the room, mingi immediately going to wrap his arms around san’s neck. “i’m sorry! i didn’t mean to, hyung! i’m sorry for leaving you alone!”

“’sokay, mingi. i forgive you.” yeosang and wooyoung apologized as well, squeezing san tightly. seonghwa raised an eyebrow at yunho who awkwardly stood to the side, as if he was unsure how he could apologise. “hey”, hongjoong murmured. “i know that you were really frustrated with san but you still gotta apologize, yun.”

“i’m sorry for that, san”, yunho mutters. “i was a bad hyung and didn’t act appropriately. forgive me?” san smiles. “yeah. just don’t do it again. we swore an oath, after all. brothers forever?”

“brothers forever!”

Chapter Text

seonghwa doesn’t know when if first started. perhaps it was the night after jongho’s most recent spanking. he had been curled up next to jongho’s tiny figure, caressing his fluffy hair.

“hurts, eomma”, jongho whines quietly, clutching his stuffed toys closer to his chest. “jongie hurts.” seonghwa drew in a sharp intake of breath; eomma?

“you know not to use your fists now, right?“, seonghwa says softly, making cooing noises as he wraps his arm around jongho. “mhm”, jongho mumbles, his voice muffled by seonghwa’s shirt. “shh, baby”, seonghwa whispers. “it’s bedtime now.” jongho’s eyes flutter shut as seonghwa sings him a simple lullaby from his own childhood. “sweet dreams, jongie”, he says, before falling asleep as well.

that was the first time that somebody called him “eomma”. it was a joke that ran through their little family, and a few of the caretakers; seonghwa was the mother, caring with an obsession for cleaning. hongjoong was more like a father; strict, but loving his “kids” in his own way.

jongho starts calling him that on a regular basis now, normally to get out of trouble or when he’s feeling really sad. not that seonghwa minded; he found it fairly adorable. wooyoung, however, was confused.

“jongie”, he asked one day, when they were both playing quietly in the corner of their room. “why’d you call hwa hyung eomma? he ain’t our mom.” jongho shrugs. “he acts like our mom, so that’s what i call him.”

wooyoung purses his lips together, confused. “but i had a mom. you didn’t.” jongho looks up from his bear and frowns. “i had a mom too! stop being mean, wooie hyung!” jongho stands up from the floor and storms off, probably to complain to dongju (they’ve been joined at the hip since kook was taken away). wooyoung goes pouting to seonghwa, confused and slightly hurt.

“hwa hyung”, he huffs. “jongie’s mad at me and i didn’t even do anything wrong.” seonghwa sighs, motioning for wooyoung to sit next to him. “what did you tell him before he got mad, woo?”

“that he didn’t have an eomma”, wooyoung murmurs. seonghwa groans loudly, flicking wooyoung on the forehead. “woo! you can’t say that!” wooyoung pouts, but nods anyway. “why does jongie call you eomma?”, wooyoung asks, confusion evidently plastered on his face.

“because jongie wants to”, seonghwa explains. “he sees me as his eomma, which is why. if you want to too, young, it’s fine, by the way.” wooyoung nods, accepting the hug that seonghwa gives him.

“jongie?”, wooyoung whispers during dinner. “‘m sorry for what i said earlier. hwa hyung is a pretty good eomma.” wooyoung offers a grinning jongho half of his pie, and their feud was settled.

Chapter Text

“another field trip?”, yunho groaned. ever since the events that had happened during the trip they had taken into town earlier that year, the eight of them had become wary of any mentions of carrots and sticks and market-men.

“yes”, hongjoong drawled. “i don’t want to go either, but the adults were…insistent. they want us to go an look for apprenticeships.” yunho frowns; he already has one. “even the kids, like jongho?” hongjoong shrugs. “i guess. i mean, if we do get apprenticeships, we’ll have to go to town at least once a week to learn. i’m going to flunk everything on purpose.”

yunho grinned. “what about seonghwa?” hongjoong smirks. “he told me to flunk.” yunho snorts; as expected of his eldest hyung. “we’re going to the same town as the last one?” hongjoong nods in affirmation. “yikes”, yunho teases. “looks like you can’t be getting a job as a grocer for that guy.” both of them burst out into a fit of giggles; the incident, as they has take to calling it, had happened so many months ago. 

“so…when’s it?”

“next week. i don’t want to go either, yunnie, don’t give me that face.” yunho sticks out his tongue at hongjoong, grimacing. the two of them sit down and hongjoong looks like he wants to tell yunho something, but he’s cut off when what sounds like a wild herd of buffalo barge through the door.

mingi is leading the charge, followed closely by wooyoung and jimin, who are talking animatedly. san is bringing up the rear, turning the pages of a book with his teeth as he’s holding a half-eaten apple in his left hand. “hi, hyungs”, san greets, taking a bite out of the yellowing apple. “don;t turn your book with your teeth. it’s disgusting”, yunho comments, his nose turned up in distaste when he sees the page covered in bits of apple and saliva.

“yeah, san”, hongjoong adds, gently folding the corner of the page san is on and taking the book from him. “finish your apple and you can continue.” san huffs, but complies anyway and sits down next to his hyungs. mingi, jimin and wooyoung stand triumphantly in the middle of the room, grins plastered onto their faces. “what did you guys do today?”, yunho asks, curious to see what the boys were gloating about.

“we fought off some bees today!”, mingi announces. “none of us got stung!” yunho nods, praising mingi by ruffling the boy’s hair. “where’s jongho?”, yunho asks. wooyoung shrugs. “dunno. jiminie saw him by the oak a while back.” yunho nods, and sets off to look for his baby brother. “jongho-yah!”, he calls. “c’mon, time to get inside!” hwanwoong runs up to him, his hair disheveled. “hey yunho”, he greets. “jongho’s not here. he went inside a few minutes ago.” yunho frowns; he didn’t see him on his way down. “alright, woong. thanks.”

“jongho?”, yunho yells. he turns the corner and soon find jongho being pushed into a corner by a few of the other boys. “go on”, jungheon urged, shoving the apple into jongho’s face. “split it, if you’re so strong!” jongho shoves the apple back into jungheon’s hands. “i can’t do it and you know that”, jongho growls. hyungjoon, jungheon’s friend, starts closing in on jongho.

“hey, what’re you doing?”, yunho hisses. the boys immediately jump from jongho, embarrassed to be caught in the act. “nothing, yunho”, jungheon muttered, the apple abandoned on the floor. jungheon and hyungjoon slinked away, hands stuffed into their pockets. yunho goes over to jongho, who’s picking the apple up from the floor. “you okay, jongie?”

“yeah, why wouldn’t i be okay?”, jongho snapped, his face flushed. “aww, you’re not embarassed to be seen being bullied, are you?”, yunho asked, pulling jongho into a hug. “mhm”, jongho mumbled, apple still in hand. “next time, jongie, you don’t have to something that you don’t want to do, okay? i’m glad you didn’t do it.” jongho grinned. “i can, though.” with some effort, jongho split the apple in half, offering yunho a bite. “that was amazing”, yunho breathed. he pet jongho on the head, ruffling his hair. jongho preened under the praise, a grin on his face

“let’s go back, little one.” jongho shook his head no, whining. “nooo”, jongho groaned. “‘m embarassed.” yunho smiled softly; of course jongho was embarassed. he was supposed to be the strong youngest brother who always got his way. “nobody has to know about this”, yunho reminded. “i’ll keep it a secret. c’mon, let’s go get some grub.” jongho reluctantly followed yunho, apple halves still in his hands. “take this”, jongho offered, sticking half of the fruit into yunho’s face. yunho takes the apple half and eats it, the juice running down his chin. “thanks, jongie.”

they enter the dining room and jongho finds himself glancing at jeongguk’s old seat next to jimin. instead of it being empty, his eyes widen when he sees the familiar mop of messy black hair. “kookie!”, jongho all but yells, dashing across the room. jeongguk looks up from his food and accepts jongho’s warm hug, both of them grinning wide. “why’re you back here?”, jongho asks.

“they didn’t wan’ me”, jeongguk replies, not sounding the least bit sad. “but it’s okay! because i’m back and y’all want me!” jongho squeezes his friend hard; he had his best friend back.

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Hey, my dear readers! It's me AGAIN. Okay, so I'm not going to lie, but I'm starting to lose motivation to write this. I'll be taking a two to four-week break from this story, just to kinda regroup and decide if this is really what I want to do. It's just going to be a break; I am in no way canceling or discontinuing this.

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding y'all!

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drabble: bear friends (or enemies)

“jonggie!”, san squealed. “look what i have!” san waved the battered dog toy that he had found in the baby room in front of jongho’s face, a wide grin on his face. jongho immediately takes the dog plushie and puts it next to his two teddies, a wide grin on his face. san’s face falls, just a little.

“uh, jong? it’s mine, not yours.” jongho looks up at san with confusion in his expression. “what do you mean that it’s yours, san hyung? all the toys always go to me. ’s rule.” san frowns. “but i want to play with toys sometime too! it’s not fair that everything always goes to you! anyways, finders keepers, so it’s my doggy!”

jongho’’s face scrunches up as san takes shiber- the name of his toy- from him. “hyung! give him back!” san shakes his head furiously, hugging shiber close to his chest. “no, jongho! shiber’s mine! not yours!”

“his name’s not shiber!”, jongho yelled. “it’s doggo and it’ll stay that way!” before leaving the room, san snarkily told jongho that he was “spoiled” and that it “wasn’t fair for him to always take the toys that the hyungs found”.

“don’t worry, shiber”, san assured his plush dog. “you’re safe with me! let’s go and play upstairs.” san stuffed the dog down the front of his shirt and raced to the attic, smiling as he sat down on a dusty armchair. he started imagining a world just for him and his new doggy friend, his imagination running wild as he ran around the attic. he hasn’t had this much fun in years; he missed playing like this.

“san?”, mingi asked. “where’ve you been? i’ve been looking for you everywhere!” san turned to mingi, smiling. “just hanging out here. what’s up?” mingi sighed. “hyungs are mad with you because you left jongie alone. he keeps saying that you snatched his toy or something and he’s crying. hongjoong hyung looks like he wants to murder someone; probably you.”

san scowls. “tell hyung that i did nothing wrong and that i ain’t coming down ’til jongho apologises.” mingi shrugged, mumbled a quick “okay!”, before sliding down the ladder again. san huffed, frowning. jongho wasn’t really spoiled, he was just used to being the center of attention. but it isn’t fair that he’s always the important one!, a voice in his mind told him. “i guess so”, san mumbled. he curled up on the armchair quietly. his peace was disturbed six minutes later (not that san was counting) by a slightly disheveled hongjoong.

“choi san”, hongjoong says tiredly. “come downstairs. jongho’s in hysterics.” san shakes his head from where he’s perched on the chair. “nope. ’s not fair that jongho always gets his way. i found the toy so i should get to keep it.” hongjoong climbed the rest of the ladder and walked over to where san was sitting, ruffling the kid’s hair. “you can keep your toy, san. jongho’s upset because you left him alone, kid. apologize and everything is gonna be fine, roger?”

san sighs. “okay, if it makes jongie happy.” san gets up from the chair, shiber tucked under his arm. it was stupid that he got into a fight with jongho over a stupid toy, anyways.

jongho and seonghwa were cuddled up together on a bed, jongho sniffing when he saw san. “sannie hyung’s mean”, he whined. “‘m not”, san retorted, crossing his arms over his chest. “i’m sorry for earlier and for calling you spoiled, jong. it’s stupid that we fought over something stupid like the toy.”

san held out the toy dog, his form of an olive branch. “friends?” jongho grinned. “brothers”, he corrected, jumping into san’s arms.

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HI! I'm now taking requests; comment requests below and I'll try to get some done by tomorrow! Sorry for going MIA.

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“hyung!” seonghwa turns towards the direction of the noise, raising an eyebrow when he sees san and wooyoung standing in the doorway. “what do you two want?” seonghwa asks exasperatedly.

“what, we can’t ask our favourite hyung if he wants to play anymore?” wooyoung pleads, walking in and plonking down on the floor next to seonghwa. “come play with us ‘steada helping yeosang! please?”

yeosang scowls at wooyoung over the top of his math work. “excuse me?” yeosang questioned, standing up. san snickers from the doorway as wooyoung tries to wheedle his way out of a potential grudge being held against him, to both yeosang and seonghwa’s amusement.

“you can go if you want, hyung,” yeosang suggests, as wooyoung and san didn’t look like they would leave without their seonghwa hyung. “i can deal with math equations without you, y’know.” seonghwa sighs, shaking his head at wooyoung and san. “yeosang needs help. i can’t come with you today, and that’s final.”

“idiot,” wooyoung mumbles, as the two of them leave the room. they’re stopped by two palms gripping onto the scruffs of their necks. “pardon?” there was an amused glint in seonghwa’s eyes as he looked down at the pair.

“you’re an idiot for not coming with us!” wooyoung declared, sticking his tongue out at seonghwa. “i see,” seonghwa sighed, dragging the two of them over to a bed. “this is war.” seonghwa reached out for wooyoung, the older boy’s fingers moving to tickle his younger brother.

“ah- ah- HYUNG, STOP!” wooyoung yelled, laughing as he tried to scramble away from seonghwa’s fingers. san, seeing this as his chance to escape, ducks under seonghwa’s arm and runs out of the room. “traitor!” wooyoung screeches at san’s disappearing form, dissolving into peals of laughter as seonghwa continued his merciless attack on his stomach.

“still gonna call me an idiot?” seonghwa asked, a teasing glint in his eyes. “n-no!” wooyoung screeched, his high-pitched shrieking resonating through their tiny room. yeosang was snickering quietly, watching as wooyoung got (figuratively) slaughtered.

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Hello, everyone!

It pains me to say that I'll be temporarily discontinuing this series. Due to school and all that jazz, I haven't been able to deliver the best that I can be. I know that a lot of you really enjoy reading this and I would like to thank you all for your unconditional support of this series. I'm not sure when I'll be back, but that will definitely happen sometime in the near future.

Thank you, and goodbye for now!