“I should be in the middle,” Junmyeon says, already sitting in the middle.

“The youngest should be in the middle!” Sehun walks towards Junmyeon with a purpose, but finds himself walking on thin air when he’s lifted by his collar. Yelling in protest, he twists around to glare at the only person tall enough (and brave enough) to grab him like that.

“You’re arguing for the sake of arguing again,” Kris points out, Sehun dangling from his giant hand like a slab of meat.

“Put him down, Kris! You’re ruining his collar!”

“Nice to know you care about /me/,” Sehun huffs, still swinging mid-air. He thrashes around wildly until Kris drops him like a hot potato and he darts away.

Chanyeol is scratching himself wildly when he wanders over, Kyungsoo tailing behind him. His neck is covered in red patches as his hands struggle to stretch behind his back to reach another itch. Kyungsoo is smiling serenely.

“You’re shedding and scratching like a dog,” Jongin observes as he walks past. Sure enough, there’s a faint trail of sweater fuzz leading all the way to Chanyeol.

“The matching sweaters Junmyeon gave us all are uncomfortable and unfashionable,” Kyungsoo explains. “He’s probably allergic or whatever.”

Chanyeol pales at the thought of being allergic to sweaters.

“Does this mean I can never wear another sweater ever again? But they’re all I have!”

Kyungsoo falls silent in the face of his colleague’s massive stupidity and Chanyeol races away to find Junmyeon. Jongdae pops up behind Kyungsoo with an accusing tone.

“You put itching powder in his sweater, didn't you?”

“I don’t know what you're talking about,” he shrugs.

“I saw you ordering extra strength snake skin itching powder online like a week ago,” Jongdae hisses.

“So what?”

“So, stop trying to give everyone hives!”

“Hmm…hives..” Kyungsoo walks away, deep in thought, completely ignoring the yells for him to stop.

“Don’t you dare order live bees and mail them to our house again! That was ed up, man! Are you listening? Get back here!”

“Dude, chill. We can just hide his beekeeper suit,” Baekhyun chimes, catching the tail end of the conversation.

“Damn, you’re right. Let’s cover his eyebrows in honey too. The hunter will become the hunted.”

Before they can complete their preemptive plan against Kyungsoo, the photographer asks them all to return to the set, where Junmyeon has been sitting for the past half hour. Everyone reluctantly shuffles to the center, feeling extremely out of place in such an innocent setting.

“I don’t get why we’re taking a family photo? We’re a gang and none of us are related?”

“I bought these matching sweaters for us all with my blood, sweat, and tears! It’s for our one year anniversary as a successful group, and you will wear them regardless of how itchy they might be,” He glances at Chanyeol, who’s still scratching, “and you will participate in this family event.”

The photographer motions for them to scoot closer. Everyone is uncomfortably pressed up against each other.

“I don’t want to take a family photo,” Sehun whines.

“Smile for the ing camera so we can look like a happy ing family for once in our lives,” Junmyeon bites out through gritted teeth.

Yixing turns around in his seat to look up at Luhan, who’s standing behind him.

“Lu, your is against my shoulder.”

“Sorry. He said move closer.”

Zitao snorts and the photographer takes a photo at that exact moment. Junmyeon swivels to glare at Kris, who’s standing on the very edge of the group. Kris eventually meets his gaze blankly and Junmyeon gestures. Kris still has a blank look on his face.

“Control them!” Junmyeon throws his hands up in the air, exasperated. “Are you a leader or not?”

“I thought it was your turn today.”

***

Yixing has had his hand raised for five minutes now.

“Could you put your hand down? You’re blocking the person behind you.” The photographer lowers his camera, puzzled and a bit irritated.

“How many times have I told you that you don’t need to raise your hand to say something?” Kris heaves a sigh. “Yixing. What is it?”

“I don’t mean to be rude, but…” His gaze sweeps across the room. “Where’s Minseok?”

Silence falls as everyone turns their heads to look for him, and all hell breaks loose when he’s nowhere in sight. Kris flicks the top of Luhan’s head and raises his voice.

“How did you not notice? Why was Yixing the one to bring this up and not you?”

“Yeah,” Sehun scoffs, “So much for being Minseok’s number one fan.”

“Oh my god,” Junmyeon exclaims, a worried expression painted across his face, “How did no one notice?”

Kyungsoo shrugs. “I noticed.”

“Well, why didn't you say something?!” Junmyeon stands up.

Kyungsoo surveys his gang members. Luhan is curled on the floor, Kris and Yixing standing over him. Kris is lecturing and Yixing is counting the bumps in the popcorn ceiling. Zitao is on his phone texting Sehun, who’s sitting right next to him, and Chanyeol is telling them to call the police and file a missing person’s report. Kyungsoo crosses his arms.

“He deserves better, that’s why.”

Amidst all the chaos, Minseok strolls into the studio to catch sight of Jongdae and Baekhyun performing a strange dance and chanting, “O Minseok, return to us! Why have you forsaken us?!” while Jongin stands by their side, wringing his hands. He decides to approach the photographer instead.

“Sorry, am I late? Did we start already?”

“…You’re fine. You can go sit in the middle.”

Nodding his head, Minseok warily walks into the middle of the studio and sits down. The photographer raises his camera again.

***

“You can pinpoint the exact moment when Luhan starts crying,” Jongdae says gleefully. The photographs, now developed, are being reviewed by everyone.

“Look at this!” Baekhyun arranges three of the photos on the table. “The camera captured three frames of Luhan flying into Minseok’s lap once he realized he came back.”

“Yeah,” Zitao sneers, holding an ice pack to his nose, “It also captured him elbowing my face. Do you know how much my nose is insured for?”

Sure enough, Luhan’s elbow can be seen in front of Zitao’s face in one photo, and in the next his phone is smushed against his face.

“Make me a copy,” he snaps. “I’m going to sue him, and this is evidence.”

Kyungsoo nudges him over and points to the upper right corner of the photos. “I think the real question is, what the were Jongdae and Baekhyun doing?”

“Summoning Minseok,” comes the matter-of-fact reply.

“Okay. And why is Jongin there too, crying?”

“We needed his tears. Everyone knows nothing makes Minseok act faster than maknae tears!”

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes into the back of head and leaves the living room.

“Whoa,” Chanyeol says. “What’s going on with Yixing? He’s like…floating?”

Kris leans over to take a look.

“Oh. He’s just astral projecting.”

“…Holy .”

“Guys, can’t we just use the regular photos?” Junmyeon waves around a thin stack of photos in the air. “I’m going to frame these and put them up on the wall, you know.”

Jongdae boos him. “Stop forcing us to conform to normality!”

“Usurper!” Baekhyun screams, assuming a protective stance over the photos.

“Do you even know what that means?” Kyungsoo walks back into the room with a drink.

“No!”

“How about one normal photo and two silly ones?” Minseok pipes up from his spot on the couch. Jongin has his arm s around his shoulders, taking advantage of Luhan’s absence. He’s been confined to his room by Kris to reflect on his actions.

“Good idea,” Jongin chirps.

“But..but…” Junmyeon frowns, but Minseok continues before it turns into a full blown pout.

“We’ll use the one that has you in the middle. Don’t worry, ‘Myeonnie, we can pick them out together.” Minseok throws in a wink for good measure and Junmyeon relents.

“Foul!” Jongdae screeches.