Heechul stared at Kibum in utter disbelief. The sixteen year old was sitting at the kitchen table, nodding off over his bowl of cereal. He didn’t know how it was possible for this kid to still be tired after he slept for damn near fourteen hours.

“Kibum, for the love of God, wake up,” Heechul said exasperatedly, whacking Kibum on the back of the head with a roll of paper towels. Across the table, Key snickered in amusement, but quit when Heechul shot him a look.

Groaning loudly, Kibum flopped back in his seat, abandoning his breakfast. “I can’t do this, hyung. It’s too early to be awake! I’m tired.”

“Give him some coffee again, Heechul. If I have to listen to him whine and complain all day I’ll kill him,” Key said, chewing on a piece of whole grain toast.

Heechul looked down at Kibum, who looked up at him with heavy lidded eyes. In all the time that Kibum had been with the family he’d never woken up before 8:00AM and now Heechul could see why. The kid was completely useless before sunrise! With a sigh, he walked over to the counter and poured a cup of hot coffee, adding in the sugar and cream before handing it to Kibum.

“I’d rather have Coca-Cola or Mountain Dew,” Kibum grumbled, sipping on the bitter drink. He grimaced at the taste and hoped that he would become immune to it and learn to enjoy it soon because he wasn’t sure he’d make it through the rest of the week without caffeine first thing in the morning.

“Just drink it and don’t complain,” Heechul told him, taking his bowl of uneaten cereal away. He dumped it in the sink and rinsed it out with water before setting it aside to dry. Wiping his hands on his pants, he left the kitchen in search of Donghae, who had yet to come out of his room.

He walked down the hall and softly knocked on the door but he got no answer. Worried that something might be wrong, he opened it up and stepped inside where he found Donghae sitting on the edge of his bed staring sullenly at the floor.

“Why are you pouting?” Heechul asked as he sat next to him.

“I’m not,” Donghae said quietly, looking away.

“Are you mad because I yelled at you?” Heechul asked, feeling a bit guilty. He hadn’t handled the conversation well at all, even though everything that he said had been true. There were a million different ways that he could have explained the situation in a way that Donghae could understand. He didn’t want to continue the conversation before school, but he felt that he had to. He couldn’t send Donghae off feeling upset or he’d be distracted all day.

He scoot closer, taking Donghae’s hand into his own.

“I don’t love Kibum more than I love you. I love you all equally,” Heechul explained to him slowly, wanting to address every subject that had been brought up. “You are all equal to each other, but there are aspects in your lives that aren’t. For instance, you have dyslexia and struggle with school. I spend hours helping you with homework until you feel confident that you understand everything.”

“I know that,” Donghae said lightly, staring down at their hands.

“On the other hand, Kibum suffers from depression and anxiety. I don’t give him more attention than I do you or anyone else. Just like I help you with your homework, I help him sort through all the things that cause him to feel badly until he feels confident,” Heechul continued on, hoping that this was all making sense.

“But he gets special attention,” Donghae argued softly.

“Please explain that, Donghae. What am I doing differently for him that I don’t do for anyone else?” Heechul queried without judgment.

“You baby him all the time and expect all of us to do the same,” Donghae told him, feeling a little annoyed. “Even when he’s not depressed, you still treat him like a china doll. He stays home with you all the time, too.”

“As I recall, I let you stay home with me to be homeschooled for two years until you felt confident enough to return to school,” Heechul reminded him, raising his eyebrows. “I do baby him because he is a china doll. He’s emotional and overly sensitive, just as you’ve been reminding him all summer. He can’t help being the way he is, just like you can’t help being dyslexic.”

“He’s annoying,” Donghae complained, crossing his arms.

Heechul sighed disappointedly. Donghae just wasn’t going to let this go, nor was he showing any remorse for what he’d been doing. If Donghae wanted to be mad at Kibum then he was going to have to let him.

“Finish getting ready and come eat breakfast,” Heechul told him, standing up to leave.

“Aren’t you going to punish me?” Donghae asked crossly, walking over to his closet to dig for clothes.

“I’m not going to punish you for having feelings,” Heechul told him, gently shutting the door behind him as he left. He would, however, punish him for acting on them but he’d do that later once they’d all left for school.

While they all finished with their morning routines, he busied himself making their lunches. He made turkey sandwiches for Donghae and Key, giving them bananas, celery sticks, and white milks. Key had told him last night at dinner that Kibum hadn’t eaten lunch yesterday and since he hadn’t eaten his breakfast this morning that made four meals he’d skipped; he never could eat when he was stressed out. Heechul decided to just pack him some apple slices and whole wheat pretzels to snack on; he’d give Key money to buy him another soda.

Half an hour later it was time to start heading out. He handed Donghae his lunch, kissing him goodbye and telling him that he loved him. Donghae merely shrugged his shoulders and left without a word.

“Kibum, Key! Let’s get a move on!” Heechul called up the stairs.

Key slowly descended down, running a hand through his blonde hair to make it lay right. When Kibum came down a minute later, Key stuck his foot out and tripped him, smirking haughtily. “That’s for using the bathroom when I called it first,” He said, brushing past Heechul out the front door.

Heechul sighed and helped Kibum to his feet, handing him his black bag. Kibum took it grudgingly, brushing the hair out of his face as he followed Heechul out of the house. When he got outside, huge gusts of wind swept through the area, making his hair fly all over the place. He grimaced irritable, running to the car and hopping inside.

Key turned around in his seat to look at him, frowning deeply.

“You should use some hair spray, or gel. If you’re going to have long hair you need to style it every day or you’ll look like a homeless person,” Key advised him as he dug through his backpack.

“Heechul doesn’t style his hair every day,” Kibum argued, trying to pick strands of hair out of his eyes.

“Well, Heechul has gorgeous amazing hair so he doesn’t have to style it every day because he’s so damn gorgeous,” Heechul replied, smiling cockily as he drove. Then, all of a sudden, Key unbuckled and climbed into the backseat, nearly kicking him in the face. “Key! Don’t do that! What if I hit the break so hard you flew out the window?”

“Then I would die with perfect hair and no regrets,” Key smirked, turning his attention to Kibum. He made quick work of running his comb through Kibum’s hair, parting half behind his ear and letting the other half partially hand in his face. When he was done, he smiled proudly and pulled out his mini can of hairspray so that his work wouldn’t be undone by the wind. “Ta-Dah! Taemin was so right. You’re totally the new ice prince.”

Heechul looked in the rearview mirror incredulously as he came to a red light. “What the hell is an ice prince? And why is Kibum one?”