N could see his phone screen light up in the reflection of the mirror from his position on the floor. They were learning a new dance and their chorographer had called a 15 minute break, after which everyone dropped to the floor.  Even Hyuk who would normally lay on top of someone just to annoy them wasn’t moving.  N stood up and walked over to the couch. He grabbed everyone’s water bottles and semi rolled them towards their respective owners. After that he face planted into the couch and made a grab for his phone that was just slightly out of reach.

“You know Hyung,” Hyuk said after drinking a few large gulps of water, “Hongbin sits his on that.” Hongbin snickered from his position near the mirror and air-fived his boyfriend who was closer to the small table than the couch. Even Ravi chuckled a bit.

 N threw his shoe at Hyuk who didn’t have to dodge because the shoe didn’t even make it half way, “You know what he also sits his on?”

Hyuk’s face, which had been pink from exhaustion to begin with, turned a shade darker. Hongbin let out a noise that sounded like an angry yell mixed with disbelief. Leo had rolled over to put his back to Hongbin so he could giggle-laugh, while Ravi didn’t even bother to try and hide his amusement, laughing so loud that N was afraid he would hurt his throat.

“Now listen kids,” Ken started, sitting up so everyone could hear him better, “we all know about safe ri—”

“OH MY GOD HYUNG NO!” Hyuk screeched, quickly getting up from his spot on the floor to launch himself at Ken who then started screeching about being attacked by a rabid puppy.

When Hyuk had started squishing Ken, N turned his attention back to his phone, looking as if he was trying to use the Force to get his phone to come to him. Leo, who had stood up to move to the couch as well, took pity on him and brought it to N. Leo leaned over and looked down at N’s phone while N kept his eyes on s. “Look at our children playing with each other, so cute.”

Leo looked over and smiled as well, “They are the most rowdy group of children ever. Why we didn’t stop after Jaehwan I’ll never know.” N continued to nod his head even after Leo had finished speaking.

Leo elbowed N, “Stop teasing me and look at your messages before we have to start practicing again idiot.”

N huffed but looked down at his phone which had lit up once again, showing he had 7 unread messages from his girlfriend. “Oh NO! I hope she’s ok!!”

She never texted him that many times in a row when she knew he was working. Once she had called just to leave a funny voice mail when he was recording for running man and he had forgotten to turn his volume off. In the hands of his manager and right out of the camera range,  his phone had started playing Uptown Funk. The cast didn’t mind, Kwanghee had started belting out the lyrics while everyone else started doing crazy dance moves, each person trying to outdo the other. After that incident you two had decided that it would be better to not try and contact him during his schedules.

N quickly went to his Kakao, worry building up within him…..and saw that he had had a mini panic attack for nothing.

Leo started laughing, leaning over on N’s shoulder so he could look at all the pictures you had sent while flicking N in the ear. “You should really stop prematurely panicking so much, it will make you grow gray hair…well, more than you already have.”

N swatted as his friend’s head, “I’M 27, FIGHT ME!” Leo just continued to snicker while N scrolled up.

You had sent him 7 pictures of little candy hearts with different sayings on them in English. Your parents had sent you a silly valentine’s day care package, full of the classic valentines candies, these hearts (which N detested and said tasted like chalk) were among the other cute things they sent. 

There was a pink one at the very top that had “Kiss Me” on it in red writing. N started smiling and his smile only got bigger the farther down he went, seeing all of the silly sayings on the hearts in simple English. N sat up so him and Leo could both look at the pictures from a proper angle.

Ravi had walked over and sat down on the other side of N, taking huge gulps of his water.

N pushed the water bottle away from Ravi’s face, causing some of the water to spill onto his tank top, “If you keep drinking your water like that, you’ll feel sick as soon as we start dancing again.”

Ravi grumbled and grabbed N’s phone in retaliation. “What did  _____ send you this time?”

“Hey! What if those were private!?” N made to snatch his phone back but Leo grabbed his arms while Ravi held the phone farther and out of reach.

Ravi nudged N with his elbow and then brought the phone back down so all three of them could look at it, “Chill, she knows your phone isn’t super private and that anyone could see it, besides, she’s smarter than Hongbin, and she follows every rule that we’ve made.”

Leo turned red at the memory of Hyuk showing him some cat game on his phone when he had gotten a picture notification from Hongbin. Not thinking anything of it Hyuk had clicked ‘view’ which had lead to Leo seeing a picture that he should NOT have seen. Hyuk, who had turned a bright red, jumped up and flung his phone away from them and onto Ravi’s bed, where it landed face down. It led to a new family rule too. No nudes unless they want Leo to die of embarrassment.

It had been a few months after the incident when they had called you over to have a ‘family meeting’ about dating their mom and the dorm rules. Thankfully you had been sitting in between Ken and Ravi when they had the discussion about no nudes, which had caused you to choke on air. Hongbin had hid his face in his hands while Hyuk had his arm wrapped around him, rubbing his shoulder. Ken had to pat you on the back a few times before you had started breathing normally again. Ravi saved the moment by continuing on with rules like, always put the cap back on the toothpaste and always knock on the bathroom doors because sometimes it doesn’t lock all the way. He had tried his best to smooth the moment over and go on with the rest of the rules like it was a normal conversation.

N laughed at the memory while Leo tried to look like he had no memory of the event at all. Ravi started looking at the pictures with Leo and N. Ravi giggled as he read each one out loud, “Kiss me, Hug me, Cutie, Date me, So hot, oh Hyung! Finally, someone thinks you’re hot! It took a while didn’t it.”

N pinched Ravi’s ear and took his phone back muttering a “shut up cheeseball”.

Leo pointed to the picture of a purple heart, “LYMY? What does that even mean?”

Ken, who had walked over at some point, tired of messing with Hongbin and Hyuk, was now leaning over on top of Leo, looking at the phone as well. The dorky boyfriends had crowed around and on top of Ravi as well so they could all stare at N’s phone.

Pointing at the orange heart underneath the one that Leo had pointed out,  Hongbin said, “What does ILU mean? Is it a drug? Is it a thing? Is it slang or something?”

All the boys then took turns, trying to figure out what ILU meant in their limited knowledge of English.

ILU had become ‘I umbrellas’ thanks to Leo, ‘ice cream, legos, uranium’ from Hyuk, ‘I love underwear’ was thought up by Ken and ‘interesting ladybugs unite’  was Hongbin’s guess.

Ravi let them go on for a while, each guess getting more and more ridiculous than the one before it.  Ravi started laughing at N’s 4^th guess which was ‘in libraries, udon’ (which honestly made no sense to Ravi, why would you eat udon in a library), before stopping them. “ILU means I like you, you idiots.”

They all looked at him in amazement, surprise, and disbelief. “How do you know that?” Leo asked.

“Hey!” Hongbin fussed, “ If you knew what it meant, then why didn’t you tell us, instead of having us guess random English words?!”

Ravi shrugged, “I enjoyed everyone’s frustration too much. If you don’t believe me you can look it up. I can learn stuff too ya know. Besides, Microdot speaks English, if you’ve forgotten. He teaches me slang and such sometimes.”

They all looked at Wonshik for a while before Leo asked, “So then what does LYMY mean?”

Wonshik shrugged, “Not sure, I’ve never heard that one before.”

Just as Ken opened his mouth, their chorography instructor came back into the room, “I hope everyone rested up enough, because we aren’t taking another break for either nine hours, or till you can’t move, whichever comes first.”

Leo glared at the instructor, “They will both probably happen at the same time.”

Everyone else groaned and Hyuk rolled off from where he had been laying across Hongbin and Ravi’s laps and onto the floor. “But it’s only 2:20!!”

The instructor grinned, “Well then if you want to finish early, I suggest everyone work twice as hard to get this down.  If you do, I’ll let everyone go home early.”

They all jumped to their feet, ready to start again. If it meant getting to leave early, then they would probably have sold Ken to the highest bidder. A few months ago Ravi did try to trade Ken to their instructor in exchange for ordering jjajangmyeon, it didn’t work, but he had still tried.

N clicked the power button on his phone and dropped it back down on the couch, running to his position in the middle, ready to start.

~~~~

Meanwhile, you were out and about doing chores, picking up groceries and cleaning supplies that would be needed in the coming weeks. Even though it was the middle of February it looked like it was going to snow again in Seoul and you wanted to be prepared to not have to go out for food when it was freezing and snowing like crazy.  

You checked your kakao to see if Hakyeon had replied to your silly pictures. You sent them when you thought he would most likely be taking a break. It showed that he had seen them, but he didn’t respond. Hmmm, that was weird. He would normally reply as soon as he viewed a message of yours. Otherwise he would tell you he would reply later, just so you knew he wasn’t ignoring you. He was paranoid about you thinking he was ignoring you.

You shrugged your shoulders and continued onto the next store and your second to last stop, the convenience store. It was a tiny little store but you had found out early on that the little old lady who owned it was in love with Reese’s peanut butter cups and always purchased them for the store (and then ate them). Once she found out that other people liked them she started ordering more and it was your go-to store for you favourite kind of candy. It also had everything you needed snack wise; it had yours and Hakyeon’s favourite types of ramen and was always fully stocked with banana milk.

Your last stop was this cute little stand where a middle aged man and his wife sold the ingredients for kimchi. You had most of the ingredients, but needed a few specific things. They also sold their own kimchi in a little cooler to the side, and you always picked some up. Hakyeon had argued with you when he found out that you were having to buy kimchi, insisting that his mother could send you some. After a few hours of disagreeing with each other, and him nagging you to just let him take care of you, you had agreed on a compromise. The next time Hakyeon would go home, he would take you with him and his mom would teach the both of you how to make her kimchi.

You were worried that his mother would be annoyed, but she was happy and excited that not only had her son brought his girlfriend home to meet her, but that you both wanted to learn her recipe instead of just buying it from street vendors. Hakyeon had given you a smirk and when his mother wasn’t looking you had smacked his , making him yelp in surprise.

You smiled at the memory as you paid for your ingredients and the small bag of kimchi. They always gave you extra. You started your walk home, bags in tow, hoping that you could at least get the ingredients cut up before Hakyeon got home. He was supposed to come over after practice and you wanted to have a mini kimchi making party this weekend, complete with banana milk and healthy foods since he was on a strict diet for their comeback. Maybe some grilled chicken or something that would fill him up without being too high in fat? Honestly you would make whatever he wanted, he had been so tired recently that you couldn’t find it in you to say ‘no’ to any of his requests.

You got to your apartment and started taking everything out, it was going to be a long afternoon of cutting, so you might as well hop to it.

~~~~

N was on the floor, gasping for breath. The other five members weren’t in much better condition.

“Hyung,” Hongbin mumbled, “your hair is dripping red again, I don’t want to have to get red hair dye sweat out of white shirts again, no matter how much I love you.”

N smiled and used the towel that their dance instructor tossed on him to wipe the red sweat up. Ravi chuckled at Hyuk’s pout while N’s smile grew, “Aw, Hongbinnie, you love me?”   

Hongbin groaned as he rolled over and wacked Hyuk in the stomach with his arm, making Hyuk grunt, “Yeah, just not enough to take red stains out of white clothes.”

N scrunched up his nose and got to his knees, “_____ loves me enough to get stains out of my clothes. AND she always makes them smell like a fresh summers breeze too!!”

Leo’s sigh could be heard from where he was sitting on the couch. “Hakyeon, that’s just because _____ has the patients of a saint and takes pride in her laundry skills. Haven’t you ever heard her monologue about experimenting with fabric scents and softeners? It’s amazing she picked you instead of Hongbin.”

­Hyuk tugged on the arm that Hongbin had slung across him, pulling him just a bit closer till their sides were touching. “He was taken before they started dating, sorry.”

Hongbin groaned, he loved cuddling and all, but he was much too hot to be touching so much of Hyuk at this moment. Trying to put some space in-between them without fully pulling away, Hongbin attempted to scoot  away from Hyuk. “Actually, no. They started dating a few weeks before I confessed and asked you out. So technically, if she had confessed to me before I confessed to you then possibly, I would be the one who’s clothes ‘smell like a fresh summers breeze’ and Hyung would be learning how to get hair dye stains out of his own clothes.”

Before N could argue that no way in a million years would his girlfriend ever confess to Hongbin, Hyuk rolled on top of him, squishing the breath out of him and making him whine in protest from the weight that was on his chest as well as the heat that was now covering his front.

Hongbin protested, flailing his arms around, “You’re too heavy and I’m too hot! Get off you Hulk!”

Hyuk refused, pouting while snuggling down into his boyfriends chest, Hongbin’s protests now coming out in incoherent wheezes. “But you love me more, I’m totally cuter, look at this nose!”

“Hey now!” N leaned forward while on his knees and promptly fell over, catching himself with his hands right before he bashed his nose in.

“Yeah,” Ravi said, “but _____ is still cute too alright. No one is better than anyone else alright.”

“Isn’t she just!!!” N exclaimed brightly, much to brightly after an almost 7 hour dance practice. N had clearly stopped listening to Ravi after he had said his girlfriend was cute too. The more they talked about his girlfriend the more N was starting to miss her. N slowly stood up only to collapse on top of Leo, who had claimed the couch,  a few seconds later. N’s legs had decided that no, they didn’t want to move just yet.

Leo grabbed N’s phone from its spot beside him and hand it to N.”Did you ever figure out what LYMY means?”

N face planted into Leo’s thigh mumbling a small “no”. Leo pat his head for a while, like how you would pet an exhausted puppy.

Ken was watching N and Leo with an amused smile. He quickly elbowed Ravi, “Hey, I think mom and dad are going to give us another sibling.”

“Oh God not another kid! I can hardly keep up with Hyuk! He eats too much and I still don’t know where he gets all of his energy from. I can’t take another Hyuk!” Ravi faked a worried tone of voice while ending every sentence with a whack to Ken’s arm.

Ken gave Ravi a positively evil smirk and then turned his head towards the two eldest members. “Excuse me, lifelong friends, what’s going over there? You’re looking a bit cozy over there. Are you, perhaps, going to be giving us another sibling?”

After a few moments they could all hear N’s muffled yell of “Shut up!” seeming far less threatening than it was meant to be when it was coming from their half asleep leader.

Leo, on the other hand was much more awake and laughed at Ken’s joke. “Honey, leave the kids alone, I’m sure they don’t really want another kid. I mean, after Hyuk…..I don’t think we could handle another one.”

Hyuk turned his pout on Leo, ignoring his giggling boyfriend underneath him. Leo just smiled at Hyuk, as if asking him to argue.

With a loud groan N pulled himself up off of the couch and moved to the door. “I can’t take you kids anymore. Bye my annoying children who I sometimes love. Be nice to your father while I’m gone.” N walked out of the practice room and up the stairs. All that he needed to do now was make a quick stop by his dorm to grab his bag and then he would be on his way to see his girl.

N stopped short on the top step, faintly hearing high pitched screeching. He paused to see if he could catch the words that were sure to follow, “YA it’s not my fault dad left! Stop hitting me Wonshik!”  

~~~~

You had just finished setting out supper, Hakyeon’s favourite pizza from his favourite pizza place, when the man himself walked through your door.

“Ah there’s my girl!” Hakyeon walked straight to you, arms out stretched and ready for a hug, but veered off when he saw the boxes of pizza on the table.

He went and grabbed a slice and shoved it into his mouth, almost eating the whole slice in one bite, which was pretty impressive considering how many toppings were on the pizza. His face lit up as he chewed, savoring the taste.

You stood there with your arms still open, waiting for your hug. After giving the man a few more seconds to savor his pizza you coughed a couple of times and were eventually able to pull his attention away from the food. He walked over to you and gave you a huge hug, squishing your face into his chest.

“Thank you for the pizza love, you’re the best, you know that.”  You pulled away from him with a smile. Sweaty as he was, he always gave the best hugs and sweat or no sweat, you were never going to turn one down.  Your smile soon turned into a frown once you saw his shoulder.

“Cha Hakyeon!” You yelled, grabbing his shirt and pulling it closer to inspect it, to see if it really was what you were hoping it wasn’t.

Hakyeon visibly tensed, worried about what caused you to raise your voice, until he realized what part of his shirt you were staring at…..

He kissed you and pulled away quickly, trying to see if he could throw you off your game a bit before you ripped into him. “I’m sorry! I didn’t notice it! I swear I would have been more careful if I  had known….”

You heaved a sigh as he let you tug his shirt off, and walked over to your tiny laundry room. You had to specifically buy a special stain remover to get hair dye out of his clothes. Green, purple, orange, red, brown, you name it, he’s gotten it on his shirt.

Hakyeon hugged you from behind and didn’t let go as you put a pretreatment on the stain. He was trying to placate you while you were stationary and it was working. “Ugh fine, I forgive you. Go put a shirt on and finish your supper. Then take a shower.”

He whined when you pulled away from him. “You have to take a shower. You are not getting my bed dirty.” You walked to the kitchen table and sat down, finally getting to eat.

He smirked at you as he walked backward towards your room to grab another shirt. When he spoke next you could tell you were supposed to hear it, louder than a mumble but softer than his normal speaking voice, “Well I’ve gotten your bed dirty before, if you remember last ni—”

“Put a shirt on your and come eat the pizza!” You were starting to get flustered and you needed him to shut up before you became too embarrassed to function, let alone eat.

“I’m wearing jeans on my thank you very much,” was his lame retort from your bedroom. “Who taught you how to dress?”

You were about to reply when he walked into the room, wearing one of your shirts that was clearly too short for him, making the shirt look a bit like a long crop top. A pink mesh crop top.

You started giggling. “I don’t know who taught you how to dress either, but you should probably either wear a cami or a really cute bra under that shirt. I could lend you one, if you would like. But I don’t think we’re the same size.”

“Eat your supper or I will get pizza sauce on your shirt.” Hakyeon grabbed his abandoned, half eaten slice and started to eat again. Every once in a while you would make a smart remark and  he would put some sauce on his finger and hold it near your shirt, as if holding it captive.

After supper was finished you both stood up, only to see that he had accidentally gotten pizza sauce on the bottom rim of your shirt. You laughed as you pulled that shirt off of him too and went to put stain remover on it as well.

“Just remember, this weekend we are making kimchi, so wear a black shirt alright.”

He hummed in agreement as he latched onto your back again while you put the remover on your shirt. “Why am I even dating you, I swear Hakyeon.”

“Because you love me right,” was his answer, kissing your ear and making you laugh in embarrassment.

“I should have confessed to someone cleaner, like Hongbin. He’s good at cleaning the house and I’m good at laundry. We would have been the clean dream team.”

Hakyeon threw you a stank face and stomped off to take a shower. You laughed as you tossed the clothes into the washing machine. You made sure the front door was locked, put the left over pizza in the fridge for breakfast tomorrow, and walked into your room to change into your pajamas before Hakyeon got out of the shower.

When he opened the bathroom door, the strong smell of his body wash filled the small bedroom. It smelled warm and comforting. He quickly jumped into bed, the air in the bedroom being far too cold for his hot skin.

He cuddled up next to you, pulling you closer to him, which wouldn’t normally have been bad. However, Hakyeon’s hair was still very much wet.“Your wet hair is on me, you’re getting me wet, you’re getting my pillow wet,” he was such a cuddler.

He pulled you closer, “Shut up and hug me woman,” he mumbled into your hair. You sighed and obliged, it was his way or the highway, and you were quite content and warm where you were right now.

“I liked those pictures you sent me earlier. The boys and I had a time of trying to figure out what some of them said. Ravi thought our struggling was amusing.” He laughed at the memory, telling you how all of them had crowded around him and on top of each other so they could all see his phone during their break.

Then he remembered that there was still one they never figured out. “By the way babe, what does ‘LYMY’ mean?”

You had to think for a second, it wasn’t a normal abbreviation that you were used to, only seeing it once a year on the little heart candies. “Ah right! It means Love You, Miss You. Hmmm, yeah, that’s what it means.”

Hakyeon gave you a quick squeeze, “Ok. Well that’s completely adorable. I think I’ll try using that sometime.”

Hakyeon lay there after you had fallen asleep, listening as the hum of the washing machine eventually died off, leaving the apartment in a comfortable silence. He took in a deep breath, smelling your shampoo mingle with the scent of his body wash. Raising himself up on his arm, he looked over your body to the midnight blue alarm clock on the night stand. You had stuck tiny glow in the dark stars to it and claimed it was a starlight alarm clock. He smiled at the memory. He wasn’t quite sure how he had gotten a girlfriend who would not only send him silly pictures of candies, but was also able to put up with him and his knack for staining his clothes.

He sighed once more before closing his eyes. It was late, already past midnight, and he had to be back in the practice room by 6 am. Your apartment was farther than the dorm was, making the commute 10 minutes longer than if he had stayed at the dorm. But laying your bed, covered by the thick comforter, and wrapped around you, he couldn’t find it in him to care about anything else.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: I literally sat here and ate like 30 of these little hearts while I finished typing and uploading this.