When Leeteuk arrived at the house late in the afternoon, he noticed that there was only one car in the driveway: Donghae’s. He blipped his automatic car lock and headed up the front porch, pausing to wipe his shoes on the welcome mat before entering the house. It was unusually quiet and he wondered if there was anyone home, but his question was answered when a familiar face poke out of the kitchen.

“Leeteuk! I didn’t know you were coming over,” Donghae chirped happily, hugging him tightly. He pulled back and smiled up at him, his eyes bright and sparkling. “Heechul isn’t home right now; he left a little while ago to take Kibum to the doctor or something.”

“I thought he was going to take Kibum a couple hours ago,” Leeteuk said with a frown, walking further into the house. He looked around inspecting every little thing he could see. “Why did he wait so long to take him?”

Donghae shrugged, following Leeteuk around the house. “I don’t know. He was in his room for a long time and wouldn’t let me come in. It kind of sounded as if he’d been crying. Did you have a fight again?”

“No, Heechul’s just a little upset today. It’s nothing to be worried about,” Leeteuk answered, rounding through the kitchen back into the foyer. He began to walk up the stairs, noticing that the third step from the top still had a creak in it. He stuck his head in each room as he walked by and when he got to Kibum’s room a deep frown formed on his face.

Donghae leaned against the wall, looking around his brother’s bedroom as well. “Yeah, it’s kind of boring in here but Kibum hardly leaves his room anymore. I mean, I guess that might be my fault. I don’t think he’s comfortable being around me but there’s not much I can do about that.”

“Well you could apologize,” Leeteuk told him, giving him a stern look before walking further into the room. He looked over at the closet and shook his head, feeling a bit angry to see it completely vacant. “Donghae, why is this room still empty? Heechul was supposed to have ordered new furniture before Kibum even returned home, and then he was supposed to take him shopping for clothes.”

“I don’t know,” Donghae replied with a shrug, not understanding what the problem was.

“Unbelievable,” Leeteuk murmured under his breath, shaking his head again. He couldn’t believe that Heechul had thought it acceptable to allow one of their children to sleep on the floor with only a thin blanket. The room was freezing and he had no doubt that was the reason Kibum had developed a cough.

“What’s wrong?” Donghae pondered, glancing up at him.

“Nothing, Donghae,” Leeteuk told him, beckoning him to follow him back downstairs. “How about you pick up your brothers from school? I need you all to do me a favor.”

“Sure, what is it?” Donghae asked with a smile.

Leeteuk reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, handing the seventeen year old his credit card. “I want you to go to the store and buy some pillows, a thick down comforter, and pick out some clothes for Kibum. I don’t know what he has, but get him some basics.”

“Okay, but how come?” Donghae asked, accepting the card. “Kibum doesn’t seem to be bothered by it and neither does Heechul. I just figure that it would all get taken care of later on. Besides, it’s not as if Kibum cares; he’s always completely drugged out of his mind.”

“So you think that it’s alright to let him sleep on the floor and be so cold at night that it makes him sick? It’s okay to let him continue living in this house with not a single possession of his own?” Leeteuk lectured him sternly, giving him a hard look. Things in the household were not the way they were supposed to be. He knew that Heechul had only asked him to come over for a couple hours, but there was no way he could leave now. “I don’t know what’s been going on here but starting right now things are going to change. Now, go pick your brothers up from school and get to the store. If you come back with cheap items I’ll send you back out to try again.”

It infuriated him how no one seemed to see the problem with any of this. He didn’t understand why Heechul was being so slack about the household when so many chores needed to be done. The squeaky stair needed to be replaced because eventually someone was going to step on it and fall down the stairs because a nail was loose. All the windows in the house needed covered with protection for the winter to keep the cold air out and the warmth inside. The lawn needed mowed and the weeds pulled before it started snowing in a couple of weeks.

Leeteuk decided that until Heechul came home, he could at least start setting up the bed frame in their son’s room. He brought the pieces up from the basement and put them all together against the wall and he even managed to haul up the box spring too. Once the mattress was put on, he spread a mattress pad over it and a nice flannel sheet from the linen closet, setting the matching pillow cases aside until the boys returned from shopping. Just as he found a space heater and turned it on to warm the room up, he heard the front door open downstairs and as he headed out of the room he found that Heechul and Kibum had finally returned home.

“Hey, sorry that it took so long,” Heechul called up to him, waiting while Kibum slid out of his shoes before nudging him up the stairs. “There were a lot of people so the wait was kind of long. Good news though, the doctor said that it’s just a cough and will go away in a couple days.”

Leeteuk raised his eyebrows, putting a hand on Kibum’s shoulder and led the way into his bedroom. “Let me guess, the cause of this sudden chest cold is the fact that you’ve been letting him sleep on the floor in a freezing room. I guess that does make sense, now doesn’t it?”

“Okay, well it’s been a long week,” Heechul argued defensively. He noticed the new setup in Kibum’s room and the space heater in the corner, which made him feel a little guilty. In the span of two hours Leeteuk had managed to do what he had been putting off for a week.

Leeteuk ignored him, helping Kibum into the bed. “I sent your brothers out shopping to buy you some new pillows and a warmer blanket. It shouldn’t take them much longer, but try to rest until they get home. I told Donghae to pick out some clothes for you as well, so hopefully he gets some warm pajamas too. If you need anything, Heechul and I will be right across the hall, okay?”

Kibum nodded feebly, hugging the blanket to his chest as he closed his eyes and relished in the warmth provided. Knowing that he was more comfortable than he must have been for an entire week, Leeteuk grabbed Heechul’s hand and pulled him across the hall and closed the door behind them.

“What the hell, Heechul?” Leeteuk demanded, rounding on him. He put his hands on his hips and looked at his boyfriend angrily. “How could you let things get this out of hand? As soon as I walked through the door I found at least a dozen things that were supposed to be dealt with weeks ago.”