“,” Ten whispers to himself as he turns back around to see who had opened the door, anticipating the sharp, chiseled face of Taeyong.

“Oh - hello there. I know you,” The tall, intimidating male says as he furrows his eyebrows, “You’re… Taeyong’s friend, right?”

“Y-Yes,” Ten blurts out as he feels his cheeks burning of embarrassment, “And you’re Taeyong’s dad right?”

The man smiled and nodded as he moved aside, “You remember this ancient face? Ha!”

“I-It’s nice to meet you, uh… Taeyong’s dad.” Ten mutters, mentally facepalming himself.

Taeyong’s father chuckled and shook his head, “No, please, call me Dad. “Mr. Lee” makes me feel like I’m at work - blegh! Well, I assume you want to see Taeyong, right? Come in!”

“Actually, uh, I -” Ten is tangled up by his own words that Taeyong’s father can’t tell it’s a cry for help. With his muscular hands, he reaches over to tug his shoulder towards the entrance, leading Ten inside his home.

He’s entered the unventured home of Taeyong and instantly backs away, “Actually, I should just go now —“

Taeyong’s father announces across the room about to climb a flight of stairs not hearing anything he said, “I’ll look for Taeyong…”

“I’m fine - I’m just going to —“ His stomach rumbles and interrupts him, filling the deafening silence in the room.

Taeyong’s dad turns to look at Ten, clearly hearing what sounded like a long hit of a bass drum, and chuckled, “Wow — where are my manners? Let me get you something to eat. Sit down, get comfortable!”

Ten feels his throat trap shut and all he could do is sit where Taeyong’s dad patted on their couches.

“We rarely have guests so I forget basic dad stuff like this. TV?” Taeyong’s dad lifts a remote up in the air.

Ten shakes his head at first, then glances up to see a doubtful face, then nods. His father chuckles and hands him the remote, rushing to the kitchen to give him something to eat. Ten sits stiffly on the couch, feeling his heart beat so hard his is twitching against the couch cushions. I can’t do this, but my legs are too weak to move. He thought of what Johnny; a rational, intelligent, young man would do in a situation like this. He had the opportunity of running away, but the aftermath wasn’t ideal. If Taeyong becomes my boyfriend, how will I face his father again after ditching him?!

He crossed out running away. He had to find the right time to tell Taeyong’s dad he was leaving - but naturally, as if he wasn’t having a mental breakdown while doing so. He had to leave before Taeyong came. Ten sighed and pinched his temples, what the hell was he not thinking? If Taeyong does find him here, what is he going to say? It’s not like he can lie and say he had a homework assignment for him!

“We just have pasta —is that fine?”

“U-Uh, yes.”

Taeyong’s father chuckled and entered the living room with a white plate of pasta, “Don’t worry, Taeyong didn’t inherit his bitter attitude from me. Relax. Anything you want to drink?”

“Water, please,” Ten choked out, not realizing how dry his mouth was.

Taeyong’s dad set his food down on the coffee table in front of Ten and excused himself. Ten grabbed the plate and examined it. It doesn’t look poisonous, he thinks. While twirling the pasta with a fork, he takes the opportunity to glance at his surroundings — just in case he does need to escape — and admires the interior design of the house. He looked at the paintings on the wall, how soft and comfortable the couches were, before Taeyong’s father returned.

“Sorry if it’s a bit cold — it’s leftovers. Taeyong hasn’t made dinner for today yet.”

He says that just as Ten shoves a whole fork of pasta into his mouth and almost gags. He doesn’t even get to chew it thoroughly before he swallows it and chugs the glass of water in one go to prevent a coughing mess in front of Taeyong’s dad who’s seated on the other couch.

“T-Taeyong made this…?” Ten mumbles as he takes another look down the platter of food.

Taeyong’s dad chuckles and nods, “Yeah, he cooks everything in the house. Pasta is his go-to when he doesn’t know what to make. He’s never let you tried it before?”

Ten shakes his head.

The older man furrows his brows confusedly, “Really? That’s strange. I thought he’d love cooking for his friends.”

Ten almost gags at the word ‘friends’ but stops himself by eating again. Knowing Taeyong made this, it suddenly tasted better,

No - no - no - it tastes worse, Ten corrects himself.

“Well, you should stay tonight for dinner. You can watch him cook and how much he gets in the zone,” His dad laughs as he cracks a can of Cola and drinks from it.

“I-I can’t,” Ten squeaks out, “B-BUT…. I would love to. One day.”

Maybe another day where I don’t want to him up and him at the same time.

Taeyong’s dad frowns and then digs in his pocket to pull out his phone, “Hmm… Taeyong hasn’t responded. I’m going to go upstairs - maybe he’s asleep.”

“You texted him?” Ten asks, suddenly feeling less anxious thanks to the comfort food.

His dad laughs and nods, “Yeaaahh, no one in this house responds if I just yell their names, so I spam them with texts like to come down stairs, pass the remote, or flush the toilet…”

Ten can’t help but giggle. Taeyong forgets to flush the toilet.

“I’ll be right back.”

Ten nods and watches him walk away. He listens to the light thuds of his footsteps as he walks upstairs. When he can’t hear them anymore, that’s when it hits him.

“ NO,” Ten jumps out of his seat and gently places his almost-empty plate of food back on the table and rushes over to the stairs to chase down Taeyong’s dad before he could wake up Taeyong.

Just as he does, he crashes right into a body coming down the stairs and stumbles back, falling back onto a light stand, tipping it over and his body as well. He crashes down on the floor with his head hitting the wall. He can hear the other body stumbling as well, possibly falling back from the jump scare and onto the stairs. Ten holds his throbbing head and tries to lift himself back up to try to reason himself to Taeyong why he just raided his household and almost died in it — but a feminine voice screams.

“DAD!!!!” The voice cries out as their legs tremble like a new born deer’s to lift themselves up, “HELP!!!! A BURGLARR!!”

“H-Huh?” Ten finally gets himself together, “N-No! I’m not a burglar!”

“Get out before I call the police!” A slipper is suddenly thrown at his face as the body runs back upstairs, where he could hear the voice sobbing and Taeyong’s dad trying to comfort her.

Ten rubs his throbbing nose now, finally standing up straight. He rushes to pick up the fallen light stand and about to run out when Taeyong’s dad comes back, clearly startled by the other person’s breakdown. Ten looks behind him to see the body hiding behind him, seeing a young woman in her mid 20s peeking over his shoulders.

“Sorry about my daughter…”

Daughter?!

“Like I said, we’re not used to guests…”

“Why didn’t you tell me someone was coming over? I would’ve gotten dressed!” Ten hears her hiss at her father, “Get my slipper, my feet are cold…”

I’m starting to see the resemblance…

“I think you owe an apology first,” His dad pushes her in front.

Ten gawks at her. Just around the same height as him and skin just as perfect as Taeyong’s. Goddamn it they resemble each other too much!

“Sorry I almost killed you. Who are you?” She bluntly asks afterwards, her composure quickly turning cool.

“Ten…”

“Ten?” She repeats.

“A friend of Taeyong’s.”

His sister snorts, “BAHAHA, friend?! Tae doesn’t have any ing friends…”

Ten can’t help but laugh as well, having a good feeling they could get along great.

“Well clearly he’s here for him, so go upstairs and get him!”

She furrows her eyebrows, “He’s not even here. He went to the hospital with mom.”

“What?” Ten and his father ask simultaneously, “Is he okay?!”

Taeyong’s sister giggles and shrugs, “Probably not if mom had to go, but man, I’m starving! Let’s get Chinese take out.”

Just as she says that, a baby’s cry could be heard fro, upstairs, and his sister excuses herself. Ten wonders, younger sibling?

“I-I’m sorry Ten, I wasted your time,” His dad sighs, “Why don’t I give you a ride home? It’s getting dark out.”

Ten hesitates to answer. He was being impulsive again, but who cares. He’s made it this far.

“A-Actually, if it’s okay, can I wait for when he comes back…?” Ten asks softly, as if he’s stepping on thin ice.

“Of course! Your parents know you’re here right?”

“Yeah,” Ten lies blatantly.

“I’ll call to see what time they’re coming, but for the meantime, make yourself at home.”

Just as his father is about to walk away to take the call, his phone rings. Ten reads the contact name and sees it as “Big Baby #1.” Ten guesses it’s Taeyong’s sister.

“You need help with your own baby?... I have to take a call first… Well, I can’t go now, young lady!... Yes, he’s still here… I’ll ask.”

Before he could ask, Ten nods his head, “I’ll help.”

“I think you’ll know what room she’s in.”

Ten nods and climbs up the stairs, thinking to himself…

What am I doing…

“You’re late.”

“Sorry, boss.”

Just as Johnny is about to exit the back room, the entrance door flings open.

“You’re BOTH late!” His boss snaps, “You think this job is a joke?! I should just fire you both on the spot, right now!”

“We won’t be late again,” Johnny speaks up, “There was just.. A lot of traffic, right, Sicheng?”

“... Yes.”

His boss rolls his eyes and shouts at them, “Hurry and go work!”

The two boys nod and rush to the front, Sicheng throwing his backpack off somewhere. As they walked to the front, Johnny sighed which prompted Sicheng to ask him what’s wrong,

“My friends are getting complicated than ever and I can’t stop worrying. It’s killing me that I have no idea how they’re doing ei️ther, because they won’t reply to me!”

Sicheng nodded, not knowing how to comfort him. To be honest, he was in the same situation. Kun and him haven’t spoken since… That night. He wanted to know how he was doing, but it felt like every time he locked eyes with his best friend, he’d act as if he never did and pretend he’s not there. He knew the boundaries and ways around Kun so he didn’t want to approach him when so many are attentive to him. He just wished he could only be visible to Kun and not anyone else — he didn’t understand why that suddenly changed.

“Me too…” Sicheng mumbled as the two took on cashier duty. Work was slow these past weeks, probably because people had better plans than karaoke on the week of homecoming. Slow work was good though, it gave the chance for Johnny and Sicheng to talk freely to each other without any interruptions or eavesdropping.

“Aw, why’s that?” Johnny asked.

Sicheng simply shrugged, “I don’t know… I think Kun is mad at me.”

“What? Why?” Johnny looked genuinely surprised, “You guys are inseparable. What happened?”

Sicheng hesitated to answer. He was clueless as to why either. But all he knew was that night — the last night they saw each other — was the last thing they did together.

“Maybe he didn’t like it… That night, with all the hickies.”

Johnny scoffed, “Oh, come on. Kun isn’t like that. Maybe it was terrible, but he wouldn’t avoid you because of it.”

“I don’t know… Its the last time we hung out, or even spoke to each other.”

Johnny sighed. This was a tough case to crack.

“How did that night even happen…?” Johnny asked, “Were you guys just curious bros or…?”

“I-I don’t know. All I remember is us suddenly kissing and yeah…”

Johnny shrugged, “It could just be that he’s embarrassed. Maybe he thinks it was terrible for you too? I think the best thing you could do is find a way to talk to him.”

“But he avoids me, I know he is…” Sicheng sighed, “And I’m scared, what if I do something wrong again?”

“Sicheng, it was just a one time thing, wasn’t it? Curiosity gets the best of us. I’m sure you guys will get back to normal — I know damn sure the wrestling team acts normal. Just don’t sweat it — he’s your best friend, remember? He’ll always hear you out.”

“I guess you’re right…” Sicheng suddenly sunk down on the chair, “But I’m so scared!”

Johnny laughed, “Oh come on! Nothing wrong can happen if... you’re just honest…”

Johnny’s voice drifted off when he finished that sentence. A sudden sting in his chest emerged and he didn’t know why. A wave of guilt flooded him and he excused himself to go to the bathroom, thinking maybe it was just super bad bowel burns or something. But when he got to the bathroom and glanced at the mirror, he knew what was wrong.

“Taeil…”

Taeil was dropped off at the downtown area of the city after a long nap after crying. He felt emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausted, but his bad habit of prioritizing school over health was getting the best of him. He had to get last minute supplies for Homecoming and he knew the other members wouldn’t be able to.

He popped in his earphones and glanced at his list on his phone, making his way through the crowd silently. His first stop: Michaels.

He grabbed a cart and rushed so that he can get home quickly, but just as he was making his way to the register, his eyes caught the aisle of corsages and boutonnieres. He paused for a moment, his feet hesitating. Then he decides to enter it, scanning all the flowers in stock. His heart stung, he felt himself biting his lip. It felt so terrible picking out only one for himself, dropping it with little care in the world into his cart.

“Taeil?”

Taeil glanced over to whoever’s voice he heard over his music. It was underclassman Kun, an acquaintance of his because of Chenle and Renjun. He popped out his earphones and waved hi at him.

“It’s so cool to meet you here,” Kun smiled, “I was so stressed out — I can’t figure out which to get for Renjun and Chenle on Saturday, since they have to volunteer. Mind helping?”

Taeil softly smiled and nodded, “I’ll help.”

“You’re a life saver,” Kun sighed, “I at making decisions like these. It always seems like I make the wrong choice…”

Taeil sensed the bitterness in his words and although curious, decided not to pry about it. Together, they walked down the aisle examining eac