"There's got to be something... wrong with it..." Yezi said as she continued to twist and turn one of the multi-faced rows of squares. She sat with her back to Jackson. BamBam occupied the space directly next to her while Jaebum, with his wider build, had taken up position in the loveseat.

Youngjae appeared at the kitchen's entryway. "You two," he managed to say before Yezi jumped out of her seat with a yelp of excitement. She turned to look at Youngjae. "I knew there was something wrong with the cube! We've been duped," she said as she turned to look down at BamBam with a grin.

The left-hand corner of Youngjae's lips turned upwards.

"Why?" BamBam and Jaebum asked in unison. Jaebum broke out into a smile and BamBam blushed.

Leaning down between the both of them, Yezi held the cube out before her. "Do you see how the squares on this side are a little more wobbly than the rest?" To demonstrate she twisted that particular line of squares around 360 degrees. The plastic cubes on that line shook with the movement unlike the other parts of the cube that held firm to their structure.

BamBam nodded while Jaebum kept his attentive gaze on the contraption before him.

"Well, at first, I thought it was nothing more than a loose screw but as it turns out,"—she flipped the cube over on its side—"someone pulled each square out and rearranged them so that the colors would never align!" She displayed her newfound observation to her two engrossed spectators.

Youngjae started clapping. "Great deduction, Yezi."

Startled, everyone turned to face Youngjae who had since walked over to the couch's armrest. Yezi shot him a disgruntled look. "So you did this."

"No." He frowned and yet, despite this, his whole demeanor dripped with a level of smugness. "I hadn't even realized." He turned and headed back into the kitchen.

"Than what's with the snide remark!" Yezi yelled after him. She turned to BamBam and handed him the cube. "You can have it."

"Oh. Um... Thank you." He tipped his head forward slightly before proceeding to stand up. Jackson was already on his feet, reaching for a number of cookies that sat before him on the glass table.

Youngjae reappeared with a glass container. "Take them home." He handed the container to Jackson who, for a moment, stood dumbfounded. Before he could shake the moment away, BamBam had already taken the container and was gingerly laying the cookies inside.

"We couldn't possibly eat them all so we'll leave some here," BamBam said as he took the plastic lid from Youngjae's hand. He sealed the container and Youngjae escorted them to the door. "Until next time, guys." Youngjae closed the door behind him.

As Jackson grabbed his bike, he fixed BamBam with a solidarity look. It was the most disillusioned BamBam had seen him in the days since he had gotten to know him.

"Seeing as how Yezi no longer wants me," he began, "will you still keep me at your side?" He offered BamBam a poor excuse of a sheepish smile.

BamBam's quizzical expression softened. His eyebrows relaxed and his lips closed in on themselves. "Oh, Jackson. Don't say that. If she isn't mad at me for doing what we did, than I'm sure she's not mad at you. I'm sure you guys are still friends."

"You think so?"

"Of course." BamBam reached over and draped his arm around Jackson's shoulder. "Now, that isn't to say an apology isn't in store for the both of us."

Jackson rolled his eyes while the thin, red line of his smile morphed into a smirk. Together, they headed back towards their temporary homes where the call of nature was nonexistent.

#

"Yezi, we have to go." Youngjae pressed a hand against the wall in the foyer to steady himself as he slipped on his shoes. "You know I shouldn't be the one telling you to hurry up."

"I'm coming," Yezi hollered as she made a beeline for the bathroom.

Youngjae sighed. He knew she was still worrying over whether or not she had done the better of things in ignoring Jackson and not BamBam. He knew that sometime in between having taken BamBam's arm and having been served the cookies, that Yezi had realized her anger towards the situation wasn't worth the hassle but by than she had already begun her vow of silence. And if there was one thing Youngjae knew best about silence was that once you started, finding your way out became impossible. There was comfort to be found in trusting you, yourself and only you.

Youngjae looked up to see Jaebum staring at him. "Can I come?" he asked.

Youngjae stood up straight. "You're your own person, aren't you?" He smoothed out one side of his track jacket before moving on towards the door. On his way there, he recalled the order in which his sentence had been composed. By the time he held the doorknob firm in his palm, Youngjae had come to realize that a person as kind and gentle as Jaebum had most likely not taken his words at face value. With a temperament like his, there was no way the words hadn't been mistrued to mean something else entirely than what Youngjae had originally intended. Letting his lashes brush up against the tops of his cheeks, Youngjae came to a decision.

Hand still on the doorknob, he turned around and said, "You can come," before quickly crossing over into the hazy blue sky's embrace.

#

At Yezi's middle school, she and seven other students—four singers and three theatre students—took up one half of the backstage while the orchestra took up the other half. Youngjae sat towards the back of the stage, his fingers flexing over the keys. If he was to get acquaintanted with the piano like one might a lover than he needed to be able to play both through the quickest and slowest of tempos with relative ease. So far, the keys hadn't needed any extra grease to help fuel their desire to be heard.

Jaebum, all-the-while, sat a few seats away from the mother who had arrived with her daughter in the dress attire for tomorrow. "To compliment the set," he had overheard her say to another mother. The persistent, almost deliberate sound of papers being rustled off to his side was not enough to draw his attention away from the stage; away from his sprite.

The mother drew in closer to Jaebum. She nudged him in the side with her sharp elbow. Her black hair flopped as she struggled to shove her way into Jaebum's line of vision. "You're awfully young. Can't imagine any one of those babies up there is your kid."

Jaebum didn't so much as glance down at the woman. "No. I'm not a dad, yet."

The woman smiled. "Than what is someone as handsome as you doing here?" She her lips.

Jaebum's mouth crinkled at the edges. "I'm watching someone very important to me open up to his sweetheart." His eyes brushed over Youngjae's concentrated face. His smile softened.

The woman's face burst into a bright swath of red. "I'll have the principal you out if you so much as look at any one of these children in an odd manner." She scoffed and hastily retreated to a seat two rows and some seats in front of the one she had originally been sitting in. Jaebum looked on with confusement. Had he said something wrong?

The lights cut off and the students, one by one, filed out onto the stage from both sides. A song of children who needn't be worried about the day's troubles escalated in volume until everyone was singing along, if not at least mouthing the lyrics. The song concluded and the children took one last synchronized bow as the projection screen beh