Joonmyun is on the verge of crying and it isn't even funny. He wants to rip his hair off, scream maybe, or throw a tantrum but he couldn't because he's supposed to be the responsible child.

He's supposed to be only normal one Kim Heechul managed to raise compared to the other two: with the eldest seemingly clueless of—of—nearly everything and the youngest being someone whose mind is littered with thoughts that would make Jesus Christ faint on the spot. Therefore, he should be composed and be aware of his surrounding to accommodate his brothers lack thereof.

But by God do he want to bawl his eyes out.

To say that Minseok is frightening is an understatement. While Joonmyun and the rest are shaking in fear for what's to come once they attend school the next day, his idiot of a big brother slept soundly (Joonmyun wasn't even-at least that's what he thinks-able to shut his eyes and sleep, much alone blink with how nervous he was for tomorrow). When it was finally time to step inside the school premises, Minseok held his chin high and like he has always been, he appears to be oblivious of the looks he's getting.

Joonmyun watched with hinged jaw as his brother walked through the hallway with half-lidded sleepy eyes, completely unaware of the expensive iPhones following his every move.

(His highly unattractive yawning was definitely caught on camera.)

Sometimes he thinks that Minseok could be faking it. That he's only pretending to be oblivious just to have everyone's in a bunch. At least that's what he wants to think because how can someone be that ing oblivious? But then again, he'd known Minseok since the start of time and his brother had always been like how he is: uncaring of anything unless it's his foods or cow.

To be honest though, Minseok's not his only problem.

Lately, he had been noticing how Jongdae disappears a lot on random times and God forbid, he would love to think that the bruise he accidentally saw on the younger's collarbone when his shirt riddled lower is not a hickey. He's praying that it really isn't because Kim Jongdae is going to get the worst whooping of his lifetime.

Zitao's being quite difficult too.

Like, his dad contacted Joonmyun the other day to relay a message saying that if Zitao doesn't stop his excessive spending on useless things, he have no choice but to freeze his account. Of course the younger simply scoffed at him and retorts that there's no way in hell that his dad could do that to him because he loves him so much. He then proceeded to buy the entire Gucci autumn collection from last year.

He also finds himself worrying about the on-going silent feud between Kyungsoo and Baekhyun, with the latter still absent from school since last week. Joonmyun checked his Instagram earlier and learns that the younger had been going to different high end bars every night. It worry him so because he considers Baekhyun as his son family and what if he gets into trouble?! There is no way in hell can Joonmyun live the rest of his life properly when that happens!

And then, most of all,  he's worried and stressed out to take the call he's currently getting. His knees are shaking uncontrollably and he could feel the accumulation of cold sweats on his forehead.

Hiding inside a bathroom stall (excusing himself from class with the pretense of emptying his bladder when in reality he panicked upon seeing a  familiar name flashing on his phone screen) Joonmyun inhales deep and finally, he answers it.

"JOONMYUN!" the screeching that follows definitely broke the boy's eardrums. "WHAT'S THE MEANING OF THIS?!"

Looking up to the ceiling—where a replica of Michael Angelo's The Creation of Adam is painted for some, possibly idiotic, reason. He mean, who the places an item that symbolizes a new beginning in a place where you takes a ?—Joonmyun prays that if ever dies that day, may his soul go straight to heaven. "I..." he starts and swallows the nervous lump in his throat. "It's as it is?" And he swears to God that he could feel the Hell's gate open with his response.

"What do you mean by 'it's as it is'?! Do you want to die, huh?!" Jimin screams from the other line and Joonmyun's visualizing her wearing a 80's gangster uniform while chewing tobacco and sitting on a desk surrounded by her gang members. Or she could be a lollipop because it's more suitable for reasons that could offend those easily triggered people in the internet. "WHERE THE DID LU HAN TOOK MY HUSBAND?!  AND WHAT'S ALL THESE RUMORS THAT THEY ARE WEARING COUPLE RINGS?! WHY IS THE INTERNET SCREAMING AT ME THAT THEY'RE GOING TO GET MARRIED SOON?! WHY?!"

Yup, Shin Jimin had officially went bat crazy. Not that she wasn't crazy to begin with but still.

"J-Jimin, calm down. I'm confused as well and I just—"

"I disappear for not more than two weeks and this is what happens?! I ing swear to God that Lu Han planned this! Why is he stealing the father of my future children?! Why?! Do something!" Jimin continues to scream and Joonmyun was a hair's breath from crying. Jimin might be a cute little lady, appearance wise, but he's a hundred percent sure that she can sell him off to the black market without any remorse. And she might: if this entire ordeal continues and Joonmyun doesn't do anything about it.

Swallowing thickly, the boy could only mutter a "I'll see what I can do" before Jimin threatens that he better do or else he was so going to regret the consequences and hangs up (he hears someone call her name to get ready—stopping her from verbally abusing him more—and Joonmyun could not thank them enough for saving him from Jimin's wrath).

Joonmyun sat there on top of the toilet bowl—with the lid closed of course because he ain't nasty—for a good five minute, eyes fixed on nothing and remembering his quiet life before he came to this huge school full of crazy people, where his only problem back then was how to avoid cow and other animal s and harvest the vegetables for dinner.

"Why?!" he cries loudly, stretching the word just how his little brother does. "Why don't you do it yourself? You're the one who has problems with Lu Han! Why drag me into this?! And who are you to boss me around? I'm older than you! Just because you're richer than me, that doesn't mean that you can order me around! We are all paying our fees in the same amount! You're nothing without your dad's riches!" Joonmyun and points at the maroon surface of the stall's door like Jimin's there and was actually cowering in fear. But then, the boy eventually gives up and let his head hang low.

"Why can't I say that earlier?" he dejectedly murmurs and stands up, ready to creep back to his classroom.

Only to nearly have a heart attack when he sees Yifan, who is washing his hands on the sink, the moment he got out of the stall. Their eyes meets on the mirror in front of the elder and Joonmyun wants to bury himself alive there and then. The taller had an amused smirk plastered on his lips, no doubt he heard Joonmyun and his tiny rant, probably even his pathetic responses to Jimin's screeches, and the younger flushed red at this.

The idea of Yifan hearing how Jimin scared him less fuels his want to dig a whole and hide there forever.

The boy didn't even let the elder say a single word and lose his remaining dignity—Yifan had already made Joonmyun lose a huge sum of his dignity when he told Amber the Do You Wanna Build A Snowman fiasco and he can't afford to lose it all to the same boy—he did a polite ninety degrees bow before running out of the bathroom.

Wu Yifan merely chuckles at his antics.

Oh Sehun thinks he definitely hit jackpot this time.

Skipping practice and following Jongin to some shady shop down the alley had been totally worth it. Sure Lu Han's going to bite his head off and maybe feed him to the sharks but who cares! Not when he got himself some authentic Baruffio's Brain Elixir which apparently increases your brain power and the greatest thing about it is it's made in no other than Hogwarts!

Sehun took a sip earlier and he's sure as hell got smarter than before. Now, Tao's not going to call him an idiot anymore!

(The love potion Jongin bought was kind of questionable but he don't really care about Jongin and his tendency to be weird.)

Grinning, he clutches the vial closer to his chest and made his way to his room. He briefly wonders if Tao is back, eyes flitting on the boy's room. The last time he had seen him was yesterday when he and Lu Han were on their way to the soccer field. He saw the boy grumbling about something before he disappears inside the school building. Sehun went home late last night, like two in the morning kind of late because Jongin dragged him to some newly opened bar, so he wasn't able to go to (invade) Tao's room and get his help for his homework.

Checking the time on his Paul Newman Ferrari Red Rolex Daytona 6565 watch, Sehun sees that it's already eight in the evening, meaning that if Tao isn't out with his friends then he's probably home.

Either way, Sehun's still going to invade his space just so he can play with Candy along with Vivi.

With that, the boy makes his way to Tao's door to either take Candy away or bother the boy to help him with his homework (he could always ask Yixing for help but the way he explains things is far too complicated for Sehun and Yifan and Lu Han are not really the type to help those who in need).

"HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?!"

But Sehun wasn't able to get close to the boy's door when he heard an agonized scream followed by a very pathetic sounding cry. The scream startled him and he nearly dropped the vial in his hand but he luckily regained his composure, saving the maids from cleaning the mess it's going to make on the floor.

Sehun sighed in relief at this before he eyes the door in confusion.

No doubt that was Tao's voice and it's definitely Tao that he's hearing cry behind that door. Worried about what might have happened, Sehun approaches the door and turns the knob. The receiving area is barren when he enters, noting that the television is off and no sign of any lifeforms within sight which only means that Tao's either in his bathroom or in his room. Opting for the latter, the younger boy makes his way for the black painted door and opens it without any regards for who's inside.

Sure enough, he finds the person he's been looking for sitting on the corner of his bed and black tears running down from his eyes to his cheeks courtesy of the eyeliner he'd been wearing. Tao had his phone clutched in his palm and is wailing uncontrollably at whatever reason Sehun could not fathom.

"Tao?" he calls out as he makes his way to the boy. Upon seeing him, the elder cries louder and even go as far as flailing his arms and feet around like a child throwing a tantrum. "Are you okay?" Sehun then asks when he's a feet away from the boy.

"No, idiot! Do I look like I'm okay to you?!" Came Zitao's response. On a normal day, Sehun would have been offended by being called an 'idiot' and maybe even knock a tooth off, but lately he finds himself uncaring so long as it's Zitao who's calling him that. So instead, he takes a sit in front of the elder and observes his face.

"What happened?" The younger asks.

Sniffing, Zitao takes a tissue from his table and blows his nose. "It's my dad." the boy starts. "he froze my bank account! Can you believe that? Like, how could he do this to me?! He sent me off to some foreign land five years ago and now he does this! Why is he doing this to me?!" he cries. "Is he telling me something?! Is this his way of saying that I'm adopted?! Why is he like this?!"

(A tiny voice in his head is replaying Joonmyun's  words about his dad relaying a message to him saying that he should stop his excessive spending cause it's getting out of hand. That his father would have no choice but to freeze his account if he still continues to do so. A message that the man himself texted Zitao, to which the younger completely ignored.

The entire message itself speaks to why Zitao's currently unable to buy Gucci but he opts to be a drama queen instead of admitting his faults.)

Sehun on the other hand couldn't help but think how ugly Tao look at the moment.

With how his face contorts as he cries and how the eyeliner is giving him the impression that he's crying black tears, is definitely not an attractive sight. Sehun thinks so.

He thinks Tao looks better when he's smiling. When his lips stretches and it shows canines as he do so or when his eyes squints and how happy he usually looks, Sehun thinks that he looks better like that. He do gives off an impression of a kitten when he smiles but the younger can live with that. The younger might like dogs more but he also likes cat.

And he likes Tao.

Swinging his bag forward, Sehun rummages through his belongings until he finally finds what he's been looking for. Meanwhile, Zitao is crying about how he can't live without buying Guccis as Sehun flips his wallet open. The younger takes a black rectangular object and takes Tao's  hand before placing the card on his palm. The elder then promptly stops crying at this. He eyes the thing the younger gave him in confusion.

"What's this?" he asks, sniffing loudly.

"Buy whatever you want with it." Sehun says before he leans forward and takes the tissue box from Tao's table. The younger then proceeds on dabbing the elder's tears away as he continue to sit there confused.

"A-are you serious?" Zitao asks incredulously, finding it hard to believe that Sehun is allowing him to use his black card. "Y-you, you're pranking me, are you? Where's the camera? Yah! If this is a joke, stop it now! Don't raise my hopes up! I'm genuinely depressed!"

"Take it or leave it." Is all Sehun says before making a motion of taking his card back. Zitao then gasps and hides his hand behind him.

"You're not going to get this back, I swear." The elder and scoots backwards until his back hits the headboard. To which Sehun merely shrugs at.

"I have two more of those so I don't really care." Sehun says before he breaks out into a grin. Seeing this, Zitao's expression lits up and crawls forward until the distance between them is almost nonexistent. 

"I'm seriously not going to give this back." The elder threatens but when Sehun rolls his eyes and says "whatever" , Zitao breaks into a full blown grin and bounces happily on his bed. "Wait, wait!" he stops and unlocks his phone. "I need a proof that you're seriously giving your card to me and that I didn't force you to do it." he says and presses the record button.

"I don't think this is necessary." Sehun grumbles but makes no motion of swatting Zitao's phone away.

"F-Y-I, this is necessary." Tao insists. "What if people starts to question why I have your card in the first place? Do you think they would believe me if I say that you willingly gave it to me without any proof? No! Now stop your eyerolls and start talking." The elder orders.

Exhaling, Sehun faces the camera and says "I willingly gave Tao my black card because he was being noisy and pathetic about his dad freezing his account. Happy?" to which the elder squints his eyes at in offence.

"Fine," he says and stops recording. "this will do, I guess." he grumbles knowing well that it's all what he can get from the boy. "What's that?" he asks upon noticing the vial the other is holding. Following his line of sight, Sehun breaks into a full grin and raises it for Tao to see.

"It's a Baruffio's Brain Elixir. Pretty sick, huh?" he boasts. "I only got this for fifty thousand won and it's made in Hogwarts! If I drink this, I'll be smarter than Yixing!" he grins wide, only to earn a smack on the head courtesy of Zitao.

"Fifty thousand won? Baruffio's Brain Elixir?! Hogwarts?!" the elder exclaims. "Can't you see you've been scammed?! Hogwarts is not real, honey." Zitao groans before standing up from his bed and holds his hand out for Sehun to take. "Where is this shop you're talking about? We need to get your money back and also, don't drink that . God knows what it's made of." He adds before taking the vial from the boy and putting it inside his pants.

Instead of following his command, Sehun pouts and sulks away, lying on Tao's bed before cuddling Candy who is sleeping in the middle.

Zitao thinks that you don't really need to be that smart to understand Oh Sehun. Despite his seemingly permanent poker face, the boy is actually quite simple. He likes to party, he likes dogs, he likes fashion, he follows after Lu Han (yes, of all the role models he could pick, he chooses the worst), and most importantly, he hates it when people points out just how stupid he is.

Which is basically what Zitao did.

Sighing deep, the elder pats Sehun on the back and smiles. "Fine, let's not return this, whatever this is." he says, successfully getting the other boy's attention. "But I still don't want you drinking this , okay? It looks suspicious." Zitao scrunches his nose at the green liquid inside the vial. Exhaling a breath, Sehun nods and sits with Candy still in his arms.

"Good." And there's that kitten-like smile again that Sehun really likes and try as he may, there's no way in hell that he can't reciprocate that and so he did.

"So..." Flashing his the black card he acquired, he grins wider. "How about I treat you to bubble tea?" Which kind of don't make sense because when you think about it, it's still Sehun who's going to do the treating.

 

 

 

 

 

Half way through hyperventilating, Joonmyun did a breathing exercise he found on the internet and hastily stands up. He is about to sprint to Jongdae's room when he remembers his milk and chugs it down in one go before he runs to his brother's room.

Only to find it empty.

Frowning, because where else could Jongdae go at this hour? Joonmyun steps out of his brother's room. He unlocks his phone then dials his younger brother's number, only to jump upon hearing it ring close by. By "close by", he means the room in front of Jongdae's aka Zhang Yixing's. The boy feels his gut churn and he eyes the door suspiciously.

When his great brother finally answers, he is greeted by a rude "what?".

"Where are you?" he questions and squints his eyes at the door, challenging Jongdae who he is more than sure is inside the room to lie.

And lie is what he does.

"In my room, where else?" came Jongdae's response, making Joonmyun's eye twitch. He is so close into ripping Yixing's door open until he remembers why he's panicking in the first place (although learning that his little brother is also in a sort of questionable friendly relationship with Yixing is not helping the least).

"You're in deep trouble." is all he says and hangs up to run to his last resort, aka Minseok. The elevator ride to the top floor where his brother's room is (and so as Lu Han's and Mr. and Mrs. Lu's) is filled with nerves and felt like forever even though it's only less than a minute. Joonmyun nearly fly out of the machine the moment the doors open. He rushes straight to his brother's room and didn't even knock when he did so.

Well maybe he should have.

Because he came to a screeching halt with the sight that greets him. Minseok is on the floor in front of his coffee table, reading a book AND Lu Han is behind him and has his arms wrapped around the elder's middle and his chin resting on top of Minseok's shoulder. Of course, with Joonmyun's sudden intrusion, Lu Han springs up to his feet like he has been burned. He eyes Joonmyun like a deer caught in the headlights and slowly, his face colors before he's back to his usual bossy brat self.

"Don't you know how to knock?!" The boy snarls, actually making the youngest of the three flinch.

"I-I'm sorry, I was just—I just, my brother... I..." Joonmyun stutters with his eyes rapidly fleeting from Minseok—who doesn't seems faze with the fact that he had been caught cuddling with Lu Ouyang's first grandchild—and to Lu Han who is literally killing him with his eyes. The last part actually terrified him so instead of calling for Minseok's help like how he planned, he squeaks an apology and ran back down, leaving a flustered Lu Han and confused Minseok.

He might as well ran a marathon with how he is catching his breath by the time he reaches the floor where his room is situated. He is so shaken by the sight he'd seen that he forgot about the existence of elevators and ran straight to the stairs.

Joonmyun slumps on the wall and tried to even out his breathing. He's getting dizzy both from the lack of oxygen in his brain and so as the realization that he came to tonight:

His brothers are closer to the Lus than he'd known.

The idea is definitely making him see stars in a bad way. He places a hand on his chest and did all kind of calming remedies he had searched for the past week of stressing out over—EVERYTHING! But alas, none of it works especially with the image of Lu Han cuddling Minseok, or Zitao and Sehun having a—god forbid—mini date, or or, Jongdae and Yixing doing something he hopes is not inside the latter's room, swirling through his mind.

He feels like he's failing at this whole being the responsible child thing, and that if he doesn't do anything now, everything might get worse and Heechul will completely loses his mind. Not that he isn't slowly losing it but he's his father and as his child, he must do everything for his father's well being.

But what exactly can he do?

Looking up, an idea comes to mind when he sees a door that is a replica of his.

Yifan is in the middle of sending an email to his parents about their latest joint movie when he hears a rapid knocking on his door. Groaning because it's probably Lu Han again going to order him to do odd jobs, he reluctantly leaves his velvet sofa. He grumbles a "coming, you asshat" before he swings his door open.

Only, he isn't greeted by his cousin's ugly face. Instead, he sees soft pretty eyes looking at him with determination and, is that anger?

"Huh," Yifan says and leans beside his door with his arms crossed on his chest. "You're not singing this time." he catches the way the boy's eyes flits to his biceps and how he swallows but he quickly regains his self and is back to glaring at Yifan for some reason. Although the blush remains when the taller mentioned about the infamous singing.

"I-I, shut up!" the boy says and made Yifan quirk one thick eyebrow because that's the first he'd seen him not cowering in fear and actually fought back. The taller then subtly wonders if it's the same boy who can't even look him in the eyes without shaking. "I need you to do something for me." He says as he puffs his chest for some unknown reason.

"Oh? And what is that?" Yifan decided to humor the boy since nothing interesting has been happening to him lately.

Joonmyun inhaled deeply and then states his "request" to the boy. "I want you to tell your cousins to stay away from my brothers." he says and Yifan, for some inexplicable reason, is seeing a single mother confronting him because Yifan's sons are bothering her kids.

He nearly let a chuckle out but stops himself before he could do so, as Joonmyun might look adorable right now, but he could tell that he's really distressed.

Yifan is just confused about one thing on the other hand.

"And I should do that because?" the taller stretches to which Joonmyun huffs at.

"Because you're the eldest and it should be your job to set your cousins straight! And I want our stay here to be as quiet and peaceful as it could and it's not going to happen with your cousins being friendly with my brothers!" Joonmyun exclaims and this time, Yifan didn't stop the small laugh that escapes his mouth.

"You think I'm the eldest?" Among the things Joonmyun rambled on, that's the thing that stood out the most to the boy.

Opening his mouth, Joonmyun closes it back and blinks his eyes. An action that Yifan is going to admit that is quite cute. "Yes! A-are you not?" and Joonmyun is back to his old stuttering self.

"Nope." Yifan says with a smirk. "That title is Han's. So if there's anyone here you should talk to about the whole peace and quiet stay, it's him." Or you could just approach Uncle Fon, is what he want to add but thought against it. "Ah, don't get me wrong though, I don't blame you for thinking so. People does that a lot." He grins even wider when Joonmyun starts to flush from his cheeks to his neck.

Joonmyun's lower lip quivers at the new information and Yifan can honestly see how the wires in his head starts to click in place and then, his body is now in full blown red as he realizes that once again, he embarrasses himself in front of the boy who resides next to his room.

Letting out a squeak, Joonmyun did a ninety degrees bow and just as fast as he came, he runs back to his room and disappears, leaving Yifan to stand there and shake his head in utter amusement.

What an idiot.

 

He's a cute idiot though.

 

---

 

Have some taohun and krisho ~ 

 

 

 

sorry for the late update.

school. life. has an attention span of a squirrel. the same old stuffs.

i did the math and realized that sehun's only 14 in this fic and i'm currently questioning my life decisions smh

 

unbeta'ed.

 

ps:

 

what a qt. v