It was bound to happen sooner than later and with all his realization, sooner turned out a day—or night. Whatever—after he found out the horrifying truth about his brothers and the Lus.

He had to postpone the unavoidable confrontation because Joonmyun was unexpectedly drowned in schoolwork and being the teacher pet that he is, he focused on them instead because pleasing his teachers is always first on his checklist.

But eventually it happened.

When all them schoolwork is finally done, when he is sure as hell that his teachers are pleased with his works and his scores are all shimmer and gold, Joonmyun set his plan—if you can even call it a plan lmao—and called his brothers and cousin to the Lus garden.

They just got home from school, Jongdae and Minseok are still in their school uniform wherein Zitao—being someone who brings five sets of clothing wherever he go—is already in his 'casual clothes'.

By 'casual', he meant a Gucci stripe t-shirt with wolf head, Gucci web cropped trouser, Gucci Ace high top sneakers with fur, and a Gucci round frame acetate sunglasses hanging by his shirt's collar which are all BRAND NEW because he had never seen them before: Joonmyun worriedly notes. Far as he know, Mr. Huang already froze Zitao's credit card and the boy dreads knowing where his cousin got the money to buy them.

Jongdae doesn't looked pleased; crossing his arms firmly on his chest and his eyebrows furrowed in a sense where it's basically cursing Joonmyun to drop somewhere. He seemed to be in a hurry to get to his room earlier and that itself isn't unusual the slightest but with how the younger blatantly lied to him by saying he's inside his room the other day and not in Yixing's, Joonmyun feels the suspicion demon creep on his back and whisper him about there's more to Jongdae's haste to get into his chamber than how the world—or he—sees it. Minseok looks disinterested as usual, quietly cooing and cuddling Chen who ran all the way downstairs upon hearing their arrival.

(To how he got out of Jongdae's room? Even that, Joonmyun dreads on knowing.

But he should. If he wants his father to stay sane, even though everyone knows he really isn't anymore, he should and he must.)

"Okay!" the boy starts with a nervous exhale. "I'm pretty sure you are all wondering what this is all about."

"Not really." then came Minseok's quick bored response which made Joonmyun's eye twitch.

"As I was saying, Kim Minseok, I called you three here for a reason." He says and puts an emphasis to his older brother's name. Minseok, if he noticed the annoyance in Joonmyun's words he didn't show it, instead he simply shrugs and let Chen fall off his lap and run to where Kandy is sitting. Zitao at this point had merely yawned while the annoyed expression on Jongdae's face is still present.

"Okay, first of all I don't really know where I'm going with this and I thought of approaching Kyungsoo first just to ask him if it is necessary or if I really should do this—" then he halts and takes a deep breath. "But anyway, I realized that I should."

"Can you just get on with the real thing?" Jongdae says with a roll of his eyes that would put Zitao's to shame.

"Okay," Joonmyun's on the verge of killing his youngest brother but he abstain and killing is bad and he don't want to go to jail. He's not worth it. "Let me ask you a question then: why were you in Yixing's room the other night?"

And the look on Jongdae's face is priceless together with the widening of Zitao's eyes and Minseok's confused blinking.

"You were in Yixing's room?!" Their cousin screeches followed by Minseok's "Who's Yixing?"

"Don't think you're off the hook, Huang Zitao. Why were you with Sehun the same night?" Joonmyun follows then turns to Minseok who only tilted his head to the side. "And why were you cuddling with Lu Han? When did all of you became so close with the Lus?"

Dramatically gasping in offence, Zitao places a hand on his chest. "Okay, first of all how did you know that? Second of all, are you like stalking me? Oh my God! Are you like obsessed with me?!" he screeches. A huge comparison to Jongdae who had kept quiet and is noticeably pale and Minseok who is still asking who Yixing is. 

Before Zitao could to even come to more conclusion, Joonmyun smacks him on the head—earning an over the top whine from the boy—and huffs. "I am not stalking you, let's get that straight. A concerned citizen sent me this picture and I can't thank them enough because if it weren't for them, I would continue on being clueless!" Joonmyun exclaims and shows the picture of Sehun and Zitao Hani sent him. Zitao simply frowns as if asking what's wrong with it. "And Mr. Huang already told me he froze your account, so how are you able to buy those clothes you are currently wearing, huh?"

"I don't think I am entitled to answer the last question because you're not my mom," cue a dramatic gasp from Joonmyun because how dare he?! "but to answer your first question, what is wrong with it? We were just drinking some bubble tea. Friends, like, do it all the time duh."

"That's the main issue here!" Joonmyun then exclaims. "When did you and Sehun became friends? And weren't you shivering weeks ago because you're afraid he's going to sell your soul to the devil and now you guys are suddenly friends?! Does that even makes sense?!"

"Well yeah, I did. But that was before I found out that his shingles whenever a knock off brand is around!" Zitao states and made Joonmyun's mouth fall on the floor.

"His what shingles?!" And the ever cultured, sheltered, conservative, whatever term you wanna use, Joonmyun exclaims; his face coloring in deep red with the word his cousin used.

"His ? His ? His hot rod full of white hot—"

"Okay, shut up! I get it!" his cousin interrupts before Zitao could use all descriptive words or any words synonymous to the male ia. Inhaling deeply, Joonmyun rubs his temples and groans. "I get it. You two are just friends, okay fine. But you haven't exactly answered my question on where you get the money to buy new Guccis." he grumbles and gave the other a pointed look.

"And I still ain't telling you ." then came Zitao's rude remark.

Joonmyun blankly stares at his cousin for awhile before he sighs in defeat with his shoulders slumping. "It's from Sehun, isn't it?" the way Zitao squeaks and then gulps is an enough answer for him.

"How did you do it, Zitao?" Joonmyun questions in defeat and ruffles his perfectly stuck-up hairstyle. "How did you made Sehun buy you all those Gucci items?" He adds.

"I... I, ugh—" he stammers then stands up and crosses his arms on his chest. "First of all, I want you to understand that I did not force him to give me his black card, okay? He presented to give it to me! And I have proof!" He exclaims and unlocks his phone to show the older the  video he took of Sehun.

The video itself, Joonmyun notes, isn't that long. It was less than twelve seconds but it's definitely Sehun admitting that he gave Zitao his black card. His ing black card! His ing black card which basically gives Zitao the power to buy as many Gucci that he want! Finding the nearest empty bench that he could—which magically appears behind him because it's convenient—he sits down.

Inhaling deep, Joonmyun gives his cousin a pleading look. "Jus... You said you're just friends, right? Please don't be more than that. Dad is going to lose his ." the boy pleads which is only responded by a snort, courtesy of his cousin.

"Ew, are you hearing yourself right now? Of course we're not going to be more than that duh! I ain't going to get in a relationship with any dumb dude, yo. I have my standards." Zitao says and wears a look of disgust. "And you know Uncle is already crazy, don't cover up his more."

"Dad is not crazy..." Minseok, who he almost forgot that is around, interjected. "He just hit his head when he was little. Uncle Siwon said so."

"That story is not true, Minseok and Uncle Siwon is twice as crazy as Dad so whatever he says is not something you should believe in." Joonmyun says while rubbing his neck. Remembering his father's half-brother is giving him headaches alongside the rumor Jongdae started when he was in middle school.

Speaking of Jongdae...

Joonmyun turns to his other brother who is so uncharacteristically quiet and opened his mouth to ask his next question.

"Oh."

Which of course didn't happened because when he's around his brothers, nothing really goes on plan.

Joonmyun turns his head to Minseok who is rapidly blinking and scratching his head. Giving him a questioning look, the eldest Kim furrows his eyebrows and takes the iPhone Lu Han bought for him. "I was supposed to stay back and wait for Lu Han to finish practice." He explains the blinks once again upon seeing the 11 missed calls notification all from the person in topic. Calls he wasn't able to take because he set his phone to silent upon finding the ringing sound annoying.

"Huh," he says then shrugs. "He'll live." then slides his phone back to his pocket like Lu Han getting mad at you isn't the slightest bit terrifying.

The only thing Joonmyun could do is to look at his brother in bewilderment. The question he want to ask is how their mother even pushed him out of her womb for him to be so fearless but instead it came out as: "Are you seriously dating Lu Han?"

Opening his mouth, Minseok immediately closes it then tilts his head to the side. "Dating? What's that?"

"Honey, it's when a person who is richer than you buys you branded stuffs, brings you to restaurants to feed you fine cuisines, and annoys the heck out of you." Zitao supplies as he takes a selfie on his phone then uploading it to Instagram with the caption "fam drama. ugh, my cousin is so annoying!"

"I see," Minseok nods in understanding. "Lu Han and I are dating then."

"No you're not. Stop giving him false information, Zitao." Joonmyun quickly interjected and sighs for whatever time that day. "Okay, right now it is clear to me that you have no idea what's the standing of your relationship with Lu Han as of the moment but I'm still curious about one thing: why were you cuddling with him the other night?" he ends with a squint of his eyes.

"He said he wants to read the book together." Is what Minseok says and simply blinks at his brother after.

"Who reads book toget—" the younger boy halts and again shakes his head. "My God. You know what? Just be careful for now, okay? Don't let him do stuffs to you and I will find a way for Mom and Dad to allow us to transfer schools." Zitao is then quick to react by saying "no way!" and Jongdae at this point even flinched and looked panicked, like he have no plan on transferring school unlike how he was when they first arrived in the mansion.

"Do stuffs?" Minseok starts. "Like what?"

"Like penetrating your with his for example but besides the point! We can't transfer! I just can't restart my social life, that's too much work!" Zitao screeches and is looking at Joonmyun like he just suggested that he buy fake Guccis to save money.

"Huang Zitao!" Joonmyun exclaims, horrified how his cousin can easily say those words like he didn't attend church and learned the words of our Lord Jesus Christ when he was younger. "How can you not understand that we should avoid the Lus at all cost? They're bad for us! They drink! They smoke weed and Baekhyun made it perfectly clear that we should stay away from them!"

"W-well Baekhyun was wrong about a lot of things! He was wrong about Yixing!" Jongdae, who had been so quiet all this time, suddenly exclaims then stands up from his seat. Joonmyun quickly recovers from his brother's sudden outburst and frowns.

"Why are you suddenly defending Yixing? Which brings us to my previous question, why were you in his room that night?" The elder boy questions with a challenging tone and ignores Minseok who is once again asking who this Yixing person is.

Jongdae noticeably swallows thickly and shifts his eyes from his brother to Minseok and Zitao, looking suddenly uncomfortable. "I..."

"Well? I'm waiting, Kim Jongdae." Joonmyun says and uses the tone Xue Fue uses when she wants her children to confess their sin. Jongdae flinches the his lips.

"I was... I was just..."

"Kim Jongdae..."

"Dude are you like ing Yixing or is Yixing ing you, just spill it out." Zitao then asks before his cousin could go on a cliché sweat breaking.

And with one last thick swallow, Jongdae bites his lower lip before letting out a shaky "yes." And Joonmyun swears his surrounding is starting to blur.

"T-to be fair though! It only happened once when he was intoxicated!" Jongdae squeaks and starts to panic with how his brother is turning paler with each passing moment. "I-I swear I wasn't gonna give in! But he was just so hot and his abs were so inviting and he kisses like he's going to rip your underwear off of you! And just happened!" he adds, like it's going to help calming down his brother.

"You're not a anymore?!" Zitao shrieks and it's like a punch in the gut on Joonmyun's part when his cousin says the words he's been dreading to hear.

"Oh my God." It came out in a whistle-sort of way and Joonmyun seriously is having trouble breathing. "Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God!" then halts and stares at Jongdae with wide eyes. "I failed as a brother."

"Yixing is not bad! If you could just talk to him you will—Joonmyun! Yoo, dude!" Jongdae shrieks when Joonmyun finally turns blue and his eyes roll back to his head and loses consciousness there and then.

", you killed Joonmyun!" Zitao shrieks back, takes a photo to add to his Snap and Instagram story, before rushing out to help Jongdae and Minseok slap the life back to Joonmyun's body.

 

---

 

Kim Joonmyun rarely thinks he fails in life. Aside from his idiocy throughout his years of growing up—cough like when he thought he had grown blind cough—there's really nothing that screams failure. Back in his old school, he was a straight laced student, he earned tons of academic awards, at one point he was the student body vice president, and overall Kim Joonmyun is a parents' wet dream.

But now, as he sits inside his room covered in his duvet while waiting for his video call to come through, he definitely thinks he failed. He regained consciousness five minutes after fainting and the first thing he does is run as fast as he could toward his room and slam his door shut. He ignores Jongdae's frantic calling and pleading to not tell their Dad but that's exactly he's about to do because he can't deal with this anymore.

The call is taking longer than it usually do.

During their first week in the Lus manor, Heechul would always take the call within five seconds, fretting and asking them if they're still alive or if their ity is still intact. But with each weeks and months that passes, he notices how longer his father takes in receiving his call: an indication that his father is slowly losing himself in their around the world vacation.

"Dad!" Joonmyun immediately exclaims when the call finally connects.

He is greeted by the sight of his father in a hammock, his Ray ban Aviator Large Metal RB3025 Sunglasses shielding his eyes from the Sun's UV lights, and a glass of Apple Martini in hand. Sure enough Kim Heechul looks like he's living his life to the fullest and Joonmyun is almost guilty because he's about to ruin it.

Almost.

"Oh, hi. Yes, I remember having a son." An obnoxious cackle from the man who is only in his floral printed beach shorts. "What seems to be the problem buddy? Need more money? Wanna buy Gucci? Just tell Daddy what you want and I will give it too. Daddy is really rich." a sip on his drink and Joonmyun couldn't help but think that his father is the epitome of those annoying people who loves to flaunt that they're rich.

"Dad, we have a problem." Joonmyun doesn't beat around the bush and gets on with the real thing.

Heechul on a different note doesn't seems to be that interested and simply takes more sips of his martini. "Fine, I will deposit a hundred dollars on your account later but check this out..." then he changes to his back camera and focuses on Xue Fue who is in her two piece red bikini and is talking to a white woman in her forties (one would not even dare think that she already has an eighteen years old and two more teenagers with how youthful she looks). "I'd tap that ..." Heechul comments. "Wait, I already did!" then cackles much to Joonmyun's distaste.

"Dad!" Joonmyun screams which only earns him a snort.

"You need to calm down, my son." Heechul says and finally reverts his phone back to its front camera.

"I'll see you try calming down once I tell you what's the problem." the boy says through gritted teeth before inhaling deeply. He watches as his father takes another sip of his drinks and how the white sand of the beach they're in is reflected on his sunglasses. Joonmyun wishes he is there too, lounging in some hammock, drinking juice because he can't drink alcoholic beverages just yet, living his life and not here nearly dying with his brothers and cousin's antics.

Thinking back, why is he the one who is suffering in the first place? It should be Minseok because he's the eldest or better yet, Heechul because he's their father and it's his responsibility! Not Joonmyun's!

"Growing up with those old ladies back in the village didn't do you good, son. I knew it," Heechul says and looks at something behind his phone then smirks dumbly. "You worry too much. You don't even party, now I wonder if you even have friends and—"

"Jongdae lost his ity to Zhang LU Yixing. I thought you'd like to know."

"—I'm kind of worried that you'd die lonely and, what did you just say?!" Heechul halts mid way and Joonmyun sees how his eyes widens behind his sunglasses.

Looking up the ceiling and gave a quick prayer, Joonmyun gives his father a firm look. "Your son, Kim Jongdae, just admitted that he lost his ity to Yixing. In case you don't know him, he's the third grandchild of Lu Ouyang: one of those boys who you were so afraid that would pounce on us. Well, he did." he says with a straight face and if it weren't for the sunglasses his father is wearing, he would've seen how his eye twitched with each words he said.

"Not only that, you remember Lu Han? Yeah? Uncle Fon's only son? That boy? The same boy who wrecked their mansion and had you on a mental breakdown? Him? Well, he had set his eyes on no other than Minseok." He continues, this time he notices how Heechul's cheek twitches alongside his eye. "He literally kidnapped him the other day and they went on a date. Also? They're wearing couple rings. God forbid, Minseok's probably on his way to losing his ity as well!"

Telling this all to Heechul is somewhat liberating, exhilarating even. Seeing his father losing his —and not seeing his self going crazy for once—is refreshing and he know he shouldn't but, he want to push his father on the edge.

"Lastly, Zitao is also on friendly terms with Oh Sehun, the youngest of the Lus." He informs to his already—in—the—verge—of—losing—his— father. "They went on a Bubble Tea date." And he ends it with a heavy huff.

Heechul keeps quiet in his hammock. The only thing that Joonmyun hears at this point is the soft sound of the seas, some screaming children, and a radio playing some sort of a Spanish music he can't understand.

After for what seems to be forever, Heechul finally sighs, places his martini on a nearby table, and removes his sunglasses. The man's expression is blank as he gazes far away and sighs heavily. At this point, Joonmyun starts to regret telling his father everything because he might have broken him.

Then after for a total of five minutes of silence—Joonmyun knows because he had been watching the clock ticks on his desk—Heechul screams, a scream that is the obvious origin of Jongdae's infamous dinosaur ones and throws his phone away.

"XUE FUUUUUUUUUEEEEE!" He hears his father screams until the phone stops rolling and all Joonmyun could see is the clear blue sky above.

 

---

 

Minseok couldn't help but to crave for cheese whenever he's watching Spongebob Squarepants. He blames it entirely on the fact that the obnoxious character looks a lot like cheese.

Back when he was little, he literally thought that Spongebob is a cheese (even though his name clearly indicates that he isn't) and wonders how had the fishes hasn't eaten him yet. To a young Minseok, he wouldn't last a day and he'd finish him in no time.

But of course that misunderstanding is already cleared over the course of time, but it doesn't mean that time cured his craving for the dairy product whenever he sees the cartoon character.

Minseok thinks that it would be nice to have a few slices of cheese to chew on but he's highly comfortable being underneath his covers and he don't want to get up.

So, he ignores his cravings and simply told himself to be contented with the bowl of strawberries beside him.

Spongebob fails another one of Mrs. Puff's boat exams when his door is slammed open, the wood loudly connects with the wall, and a very angry Lu Han comes in.

The boy is in his white shirt, black tight pants, and varsity jacket hanging on his shoulders. His platinum blonde hair is tousled and he is breathing rapidly. "You," he points at Minseok and marches his way to the side of the elder's bed. "Didn't I told you stay after school and wait for me? And why weren't you answering my calls?! I bought you that phone just so I can contact you anytime!"

Minseok owlishly blinks at the younger boy before he returns his eyes back to the television on his wall where a rerun of Spongebob Squarepants is airing. "Sorry," he starts, his word lacked the meaning it's supposed to have. "I forgot." and simply ends it like that and Lu Han is so close in throwing a chair out of his window.

"YAH!" he screams and successfully makes Minseok jump and look at him. "Why are you always like this, huh? Am I really that uninteresting?! Do I really have no appeal to you?! Why?!" he continues and all the elder could do is to stare in confusion. "You always do the opposite of what I tells you to! You're ing driving me mad, do you know that?! Of course you don't! You are so clueless and it's not even funny!"

Minseok wants to say sorry (again) because the other looks really mad but Lu Han doesn't look like he's finish and interrupting him doesn't really sounds ideal.

"Do you know how many people in and out of our school would want to have the attention that I'm giving you?! There's a lot! There's a ing huge number of people out there who would kill just so they can sit on the passenger seat of my car! But you—you—you don't even care!" he screeches and pulls on his hair which explains its tousled state. "You act like I'm nothing and that ing hurts my ego! You don't even care that I haven't kissed you yet when usually people would not shut up about it! Everybody want to taste this lips but you choose Yoda's instead! You choose to kiss Chanyeol instead of me and I want to throw him to the Pacific Ocean because of that!" he ends before screaming loudly that actually hurt Minseok's ears a bit.

Lu Han is breathing heavily by the time he finishes his rant and Minseok is left to digest his words.

Honestly, with all the words Lu Han screamed and all the stuffs he ed and moaned about is a blur. Maybe it's because he was talking so fast or Minseok was more concerned that he's missing so much of his show, but there is only one thing that he registered.

"Lu Han," he says. "Do you want a kiss?" then he ask with a tilt of his head.

At that, the younger quickly turns red and sputters words that even he did not understand.

Pushing the duvet off of his lower half, Minseok stretches and sighs as the tension leaves his body. "To be honest, Joonmyun told me to stay away from you." he informs which made Lu Han stop and frown. But before he could open his mouth and spit more angry words, Minseok continues. "Zitao said you are going to stick your in my if I don't stop hanging out with you but I don't really understand what he meant."

If he was red earlier, Lu Han finally evolved to full fledge ripe tomato with Minseok's words and how he had said them with a straight face.

He couldn't even say anything when Minseok crawls toward the edge of the bed until he's right in front of the other. The elder stands on his knees and barely reaches the younger boy's shoulder but their close proximity is enough to knock the breath off Lu Han's lungs.

He couldn't even say a single word at that point.

Not when Minseok reaches out one hand and places it behind his neck and the other on Lu Han's shoulder. The younger swears he forgot how to even breath when Minseok moves closer and closer and—

His gasp is quickly cut off when a pair of soft lips envelopes his. All Lu Han could do is to dumbly stand there, hands twitching on his side and his wide eyes staring straight into feline-like ones that he swears is  his soul off his body. The tip of his tongue vaguely registers the sweet taste of strawberry before the softness on his lips is gone and Minseok—he thought it was a smirk for one second—is smiling at him.

"Good?" The elder, ever so innocent, questions and Lu Han could die there and then.

It was nothing but a firm press of the lips, a far cry from the ones he had before which includes tongues and inappropriate touches but it is no doubt the only kiss that left him breathless and asking for more. Gasping, Lu Han places a hand on top of the one on his shoulder and looks down.

A curse left his mouth when he finally notices that his knees are shaking and he curses Minseok on the back of his head because goddamn it. Looking up, eyes interlocking with the same ones that nearly killed him moments ago, he exhales.

"I'm going to you one day." he growls as he feels what could only be desire creeping up on his spine.

And instead of getting flustered like how most people do, Minseok simply smiles his gummy smile and nods.

"Okay." Is all he says and Lu Han swears the elder is going to regret and love it when the time finally comes.

 

---

 

Somewhere in one of the beaches in Daegu, a man is seen leaning on his motorbike while he has his phone pressed to his ear. The soft sound of the waves clashing is quickly replaced by a loud obnoxious laughter when the person he's talking to informs something that no sane person would laugh at.

"So..." he says in between wheezing. "Is he still alive?"

"Yes," A woman's voice replies from the other line before a tired sigh follows. "the doctor said he should wake up any time soon and that we have nothing to worry about. Honestly, I thought he was over his fainting days." She adds, to which the man simply snickers at.

"Please, there's no way in hell that it's going to stop." he snickers once more and kicks a rock that he sees near. "So then? What do you want me to do about it? If what you're saying is true, shouldn't you talk to Jia instead?" the man questions and looks up, smiling at the stars that littered the sky. He remembered when he was so insistent on counting them but quickly gave up because he got bored.

"I know and I will. But right now, I want you to check on them and also check on our Seoul brand, I heard that they're slightly having problems with the financing." She informs to which the man simply hums at. "Frankly, this whole ordeal doesn't bother me much and I think your brother is simply over reacting." the woman admits and this time, the man smiles and displays his dimples. "but to save him from going crazy even further, I think it is best that you keep an eye on the boys. See that they don't do anything that would make my husband lose his head."

"I'd be honest with you, the last part doesn't sound so bad." He says with a grin. As expected, he hears his name in a scolding manner. "Alright." he finally agrees and pushes himself off his motorbike. "I'll do it. Only because I missed the boys and I think that we should bond again." the smirk on his lips is something she can't see but the woman guesses it's present.

"Thank you," the smile is evident on her voice as she says her gratitude. "I'll call you again when he regains consciousness." and then the line goes dead.

He slides his phone to his pocket before stretching then looking up the night sky. The last thing he thought is that he's going to miss the stars before he mounts his bike and wears his helmet then drives off.

But he can deal without them for a couple of weeks.

---

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

hELLO. 

 

i finished this at 11:11 pm. yas. 

(´ ▽｀).。ｏ♡

 

btw, thank your for the upvotes, subscription and comments guise! ilysm (╥﹏╥) i never expected for so many people to like this drunken mess lmao. than k you so much! ( TДT)