It was a rainy Wednesday morning. Despite the rain, it was quite peaceful for almost everyone in South Korea, including the K-pop idols called VIXX. The peacefulness was then ought to be broken when the eldest, Hakyeon, came down the stairs and headed to the refrigerator. Humming in happiness, he opened the freezer where he kept his precious ice cream. It was a strawberry-flavored one. Sure, he was a legal aged man and sure, he was the eldest in the house but no one could blame him for having such a soft heart, right? Plus, what was there to judge? That’s ist! Putting that train of thoughts aside, he rummaged through the almost empty freezer but his ice cream was nowhere to be found.

“What are doing, hyung? The electricity would go up if you just stare at it with its door wide open.” Sanghyuk, the youngest who came to have a snack, reprimanded the eldest. “You’re old enough to realize that. The moment Taekwoon hyung sees the bill, he’ll nag at us again. And you do know how serious it is if it’s Taekwoon hyung who is nagging and not you.” He added, pinching the bridge of his nose to express his frustration as if his furrowed eyebrows didn’t already do the job.

Hakyeon sighed to let out his own frustration and closed the door of the fridge. “My strawberry ice cream! It’s worth two dollars and it’s now gone! Someone in this house ate it. No has left since this morning, right? That means that the culprit is still here!” He pointed out the obvious.

Sanghyuk gave the older guy a judging look. “Of course. Only the six of us are here. Can we just conclude that your ice cream evaporated again just like last time?” He asked.

Hakyeon shook his head. “No. I just thought about it earlier and it is impossible for an ice cream to melt and evaporate inside the fridge.”

“You just thought about it?” Sanghyuk looked at Hakyeon in disbelief. It had been five years since their group debuted and they lived together since then. They had seen each other in their best and worst moments. They had been there for each other in their saddest and happiest moments. But seriously, Hakyeon’s stupidity still baffled Sanghyuk. Do not get him wrong, Hakyeon was smart when he needed to but stupid when he was—well—being himself. Still, he was the very best leader that Sanghyuk and the rest could ask for.

“What are you doing?” Hongbin, the group’s visual, arrived in the kitchen to get himself a glass of water with Taekwoon tailing closely behind—his purpose was to grab something to eat.

“Someone ate my ice cream and ran away!” Hakyeon answered Hongbin’s question, flailing his arms in an exaggerated manner. For a 180 cm almost 27-year-old guy, he sure was childish. He was cute nonetheless but try dealing with him for five years, you would definitely love him but loathe him at the same time. He had that kind of charm.

Taekwoon gulped and wordlessly took out a bread from the fridge before casually trying to walk away only to be pulled back by Hongbin who was so judging him already. “What?” Taekwoon asked in his usual casual tone yet soft voice.

“You ate it, didn’t you?” Hongbin asked though it did not come out as a question. He was sure that he and the rest knew the answer all too well.

“I did not.” Taekwoon softly yet firmly denied. “All of us should get ready Mr. CEO said that he would buy us dinner, right? We should be leaving here in an hour.” With that said, he immediately left. He tried not to make it so obvious but he walked faster than usual—though not as fast as those times when he was trying to run away from both Jaehwan, that loud main vocalist, and Hakyeon. But that was a very different situation that Taekwoon wouldn’t want to recall.

“I still think that someone in this house ate it and Taekwoon is probably the main suspect.” Hakyeon firmly nodded his head. “I have to look for evidences because anyone might be the culprit. Including the two of you!” He pointed at the two not-so-innocent guys in front of him. “I’m gonna go and find the main evidence now.” And just like that, he also left the kitchen.

“But we could not be late for the appointment with Mr. CEO later!” Hongbin called out but received no response. “We’ll be late again and get scolded again. Why are we always late to all the meetings we have with the CEO, anyway? Shouldn’t we be more careful around him?”

Sanghyuk shook his head. “What do you expect? We have both Jaehwan hyung and Wonshik hyung with us. Wonshik hyung always falls asleep while Jaehwan hyung takes his time always. Where is Jaehwan hyung by the way? Should he start getting ready? It’s been five years but that trait of his never changed. Like Taekwoon hyung said, are we really an unchanging group?”

“Uh… except for the fact that you changed from an angel to a devil, I can say that we are pretty much not changing at all.” Hongbin shrugged his shoulders. He earned a playful glare from the youngest but he brushed it off with his bright smile. “Anyway, Jaehwan hyung should really be getting ready right now except that he’s nowhere to be found…” He trailed off. “Again...” He sighed.

A missing Lee Jaehwan was not something new. Sometimes, the members were even forced to leave him behind and just let him follow because they could not find him anywhere when he was literally just inside the house! He was that good in hide-and-seek game. He could hide all he wanted but it was so hard to find him. Maybe it was because of his absurd hiding place? Whatever it was, it wouldn’t be funny to explain it to their CEO. Neither Sanghyuk nor Hongbin would like to explain it. For sure, the older ones—including Jaehwan himself—would not explain the whole situation of one of their main vocalists missing because of playing hide-and-seek by himself or probably with someone no one could see—but the latter would surely scare the not-so-tough leader, Hakyeon.

“Have you tried looking at his closet? How about the shoe rack? Or in Hakyeon hyung’s washing machine?” Sanghyuk asked, suggesting some of the places that Jaehwan revealed to be his hiding spot. “He must be around here somewhere, right?”

Hongbin nodded his head. “Been to all those places, he’s nowhere to be found. I think Wonshik even checked Taekwoon hyung’s coffee machine. Wonshik is the one looking for Jaehwan hyung right now.” He said, referring to their rapper with a very, very deep voice that would surely scare a lot of kids around the neighborhood—the reason why they would always cover his mouth whenever they were taking a walk around the place.

“Oh… at least Wonshik hyung is actually doing something productive today rather than just composing—which is pretty productive but he always sleeps in the middle of it all.” Sanghyuk commented. “Let’s just hope that he does not fall asleep and forget his purpose though.” The moment he said that, they heard a loud snore coming from upstairs. The snore was too familiar that neither of the two of them had to think about whose snore was that. It would not take a genius to figure out that the almight Kim Wonshik had once again fallen asleep.

“Oh great heavens, what kind of group is this even?” Hongbin could only slap his own forehead. “How could he fall asleep whenever we need him to do something for us?”

Sanghyuk nodded his head in agreement. “Those two stick to each other like a glue since five years ago but how come Wonshik hyung always loses Jaehwan hyung?” He questioned. “Never mind, I know the answer. He falls asleep and when he wakes up, he will not see Jaehwan hyung anywhere.”

“Guys! Guys!” Hongbin was not even able to make another sassy remark when Hakyeon’s loud voice echoed all throughout the house. “Come up here!” The eldest added. Both shrugging their shoulders in defeat, Hongbin and Sanghyuk left the kitchen.

Hongbin and Sanghyuk were in no rush when they climbed the stairs. There were five possible reasons why they were summoned: 1.) Hakyeon found an evidence that wouldd lead them to the obvious culprit who stole his ice cream; 2.) He is feeling lazy so he needs someone to turn off the light for him; 3.) He needs someone to bring his ginseng over; 4.) He is being beaten up by Taekwoon; or 5.) He’s got a new weird reason. Knowing Cha Hakyeon, it was more likely to be the fifth reason.

Upon reaching the top of the stairs, they immediately saw Hakyeon in the small living room upstairs with a lot of photo albums around him. “I found our photo albums while I was trying to look for clues that would lead me to the culprit who stole my precious two dollars worth strawberry ice cream and it will be nice to look at them together.” He announced to the two guys. “Call the others for me.”

“But we have only around 45 minutes to prepare so that we can leave in an hour.” Hongbin, being the only one who actually cared about being late and leaving good impressions, pointed out. “Let’s not do that right now and just do it some other time.” He nicely suggested.

“Why not? It’s going to be fun. It’s okay to be late sometimes. It’s like showing off how unchanging we are.” Sanghyuk reasoned out, also finding the photo albums interesting. “But the problem, Hakyeon hyung, is that we don’t know where on Earth Jaehwan hyung is hiding, Wonshik hyung is busy snoring his soul out, while Taekwoon hyung is probably getting rid of the piece of evidence that would point at him as the culprit who have eaten your precious ice cream.”

“Our Taekwoon might not be the culprit because that is so obvious.” Hakyeon defended Taekwoon. “He had been stealing food for five years, this time, maybe he changed his ways. As for Jaehwan, maybe, he’s inside the oven? I found him hiding there the other day. But he complained about it being hot so… was it hot?” He asked, grinning like an idiot he was.

Sanghyuk slapped his own forehead upon hearing Hakyeon’s legendary question—was it hot? “Not that question again please.” He almost pleaded. He could clearly remember how Hakyeon started asking them that question on a reality show called Plan V Diary during a certain segment when they had to answers some questions regarding their childhood. Years passed since then but Hakyeon still would not let a day pass without asking that question that really had nothing to do with any of their conversations.

“We really should hurry and find Jaehwan hyung. Plus, Wonshik needs someone to wake him up.” Hongbin urged. He was just so done with this group. Even Sanghyuk who used to be the most normal one seemed to have adapted the attention span of the other members. “We’ll get scolded by Mr. CEO again. He said that he’s going to give us his credit card for a week, right? We should hurry up and get it. It’s fine showing that we’re an unchanging group just like how Taekwoon hyung desires but can we at least change our bad habit of being late?”

“Why do you care so much about what other people think?” Hakyeon asked Hongbin.

“He’s not other people, he’s our boss!” Hongbin pointed out. Their leader should know better but that wasn't something that someone should expect from VIXX’s leader. And he dare to question why he was being bullied?! “Never mind, I’ll look for Jaehwan hyung myself.” He sighed and left the scene. In the end, he still couldn't depend on any of the members so he had to do the normal things by himself. 

Author's Corner:

So, I am going to split the story into two chapters with 2012 words each just so it is symbolic OTL... I like making things hard for myself xD. I wasn't able to make it as funny as I want but I guess it is enough for the readers to feel nostalgic? I haven't been feeling all too well myself since as many of us know, the world is experiencing terror right now. As a Filipino, I am also scared for my country. Let's all hope for the best.

I hope that you enjoy it, anyway~ Part 2 coming later. ^-^

#LetsPrayForTheWorld  #PrayForMarawi