Leo was rudely awakened during math class by Ken throwing his hamburger-shaped eraser from two rows back and hitting Leo in the back of the head. When Leo looked over his shoulder to give him the stink eye, Ken pointed discreetly over at Hyuk sitting beside him.

"Wake the f up," Hyuk hissed. "I need to talk to you!"

The teacher cleared his throat, and Hyuk shut up.

After class, as Hyuk and Ravi sang Hello B+tches at the top of their lungs, Leo tried to pack his things up and make a break for it, an inkling in his mind of what Hyuk wanted to "talk about". At the door though, he ran into someone. That someone turning out to be none other than Hongbin, trying to come in for his class next period and freezing mid-step at the sight of Ken trying to strangle Ravi into silence.

There was a long, awkward pause before Hongbin ducked his head in greeting and slipped by, waving to the trio inside.

Leo watched Hongbin sit down at a desk, and turned away, the discomfort in his chest singificantly dulled.

Just as he was about to dash for the exit, Hyuk grabbed Leo's arm and dragged him into an empty conference room.

"I know you talk, and I know you're not stupid," Hyuk said, unusually serious. "And I know something's up with you and N."

"...so?"

The sophomore didn't seem the least bit surprised that Leo spoke. "Well, I'm guessing you don't know what N's been through."

"...of course I do."

"You know he had a service to go to last week?"

"Yeah."

"And you know his dad's a f -up?"

"I...wouldn't say that. Just a...well, you're right."

Hyuk nodded. "Okay. Ravi and Ken, and Hongbin, and BTOB, N loves all of them but...they don't know. So you must be special, if N told you."

Leo shrugged. "I...guess."

So you're special, too? 

As if Hyuk could read Leo's mind, he sighed. "N told me about it when it was just the two of us, before you other four. He was a mess back then. Only G-d knows how much better he's gotten." Hyuk deflated and sat down on the conference table, adjusting the sleeves of his uncomfortable-looking blazer. "Well, I guess...just, be careful with him."

"He's not fragile."

"And that's where you're wrong," Hyuk said, meeting Leo's eyes with an unfamiliar intensity. "Just be careful. He might not...always be around, you know."

Leo left wondering how much the sophomore actually knew.

N was putting pictures of turkeys up all throughout the third floor when Leo got back from class.

"Dr. Choi's wife is having a baby, so he let us go early today," N said, taping up another photo of a bulbous poultry and smushing an ant at the same time. "I told him to name the baby after me. He said it was a girl."

"...tell him to do it anyway." Leo studied one of the turkeys that N had already posted up on the door of their neighbor's room, and the grumpy bird seemed to stare back.

"I did." N nudged the stack of turkey pictures still left on the floor by his feet. "Let's go to the second floor next. Ken and Ravi already called dibs on this one for their room." N held up a picture of a particularly nasty-looking turkey. "They said it looked like ea--"

Before Leo even realized it himself, he had taken a step forward and was hugging N tight.

"Hey, you okay?" N patted Leo awkwardly. "Who died?"

"Dunno," Leo said. He heaved a deep breath out onto N's shoulder. "Are you always going to be around?" he asked, recalling Hyuk's words.

"I bet you were reading The Fault In Our Stars today." N chuckled. "Of course, kid."

Leo closed his eyes. "You're not lying?"

"Of course not."

That night, after thoroughly decorating the inside of the boy's dorms with turkey photos, N and Leo retired to their own room, contemplating the miles of tape they still had left.

"How much...did this cost?" Leo asked, holding the still-substantial roll of Thanksgiving-themed tape up for examination.

"I have no idea. My foster sister mailed it to me with the turkeys and told me to go crazy." N pointed at a box in the corner of the room. "She sent me some stuffed animals, too."

Leo's attention was immediately riveted to the box.

"Oh, no, I promise, you don't want them, they're really--"

Leo reached for the box and pulled out two horrific, hand-sewn burlap things with nightmarish black blots for eyes. He gave N a creeped look.

"I, uh, one of the kids my sister babysits made those." N facepalmed. "She drew on the eyes and hearts after."

"Hearts?" Leo looked down at the dolls, finally noticing the little red heart on the chest, clearly drawn in a not-meant-for-fabric marker. 

N snatched one of the dolls away. "One of them is for me, you know. I asked for two."

"How many did that kid make?"

"Fifteen."

Leo gaped, and N shrugged. "Kids these days."

"How did--what?"

N held up his phone to show his roommate the photographic proof--a pile of brown things on top of a bed.

"That looks a lot...more than fifteen."

"I don't know, she just texted this an hour ago. Who knows." N sighed and sat down on his bed. "They really look like voodoo dolls, huh?" He lifted one arm of the doll, and Leo did the same, pretending to be shocked.

"What's happening?" he said in mock fear.

N dropped the arm with a grin and Leo let his own fall back to his side.

"Well, this could be useful," N said.

Leo smiled faintly and shook his own doll in his hands. N did a strange vibrating dance on his bed, finally flopping over on his side, laughing. 

"I'm gonna tell my sister that she's started a war," he said, laying an arm over his eyes.

Leo sat down at his usual spot on the floor by N's head, smacking N's face with the arm of his voodoo doll. 

"Yah, that's rude," N said, trying for a frown and missing somewhere halfway. "You've got the arm of Superman, you know. Even that hurts."

"I doubt it." Leo poked N's forearm, and N pretended to fly into the wall. 

"Alack!" he managed, laughing too hard at his own failure.

"You're...such an idiot," Leo said, covering his face with his hands. 

N sighed. "You love me, I know it."

Leo glanced up. "...do I, though?"

"Rude. I demand reparations." N raised an eyebrow, making certain Leo knew exactly what he meant.

With a sigh to match N's, Leo got up to sit on the bed in the space vacated by N. "...do you deserve it?"

"Ouch." N put a hand over his heart. "That got me right in the sternum."

"That's not your sternum, dumba ."

"Oh, shut it." N wrapped his arms around Leo's neck and pulled him down hard. At the last moment, Leo hit the wall with his hand, stopping before he fell onto N completely.

"You're the one...who's being rude." Leo glanced down at N's stomach. "It'd be a pity...if I tickled...a certain someone right now."

"Oh G-d, no--"

Leo dove in, fingers working like caterpillars on N's stomach. The roommate near screamed, trying to hide from Leo's thorough tickling attack.

"Oh my G-d stop it, Leo, I command you!" N shouted, sentence blurring together into indecipherable noise. 

When Leo felt N had had enough torture, he leaned down to give his roommate a gentle kiss on the cheek. "Fine," he said.

N gave Leo a Stank Face^TM and curled up into a ball. "I'd give you a kiss back but you've been mean to me," he protested.

Leo pouted. "What kind of...reparations do you want?"

N squinted up at the other boy looming over him.

"I don't know, convince me to like you again," he said, pulling his upper lip back in a mock snarl.

Leo smiled and gave N a kiss to the lips, and he felt N smiling into it. When he pulled back, N smirked.

"Maybe I'll reconsider," he said quietly.