“Ahhh,” Kihyun sighs, laying out on the entire L-half of the sectional. He doesn’t bother to say anything else, too exhausted to do so. He rubs at his face and turns his gaze towards the others as they sit down, each too tired to do much with their bags aside from setting them on the floor. They’ve just returned to Korea from the American leg of their world tour, and they couldn’t be happier to be home.

Not that they didn’t enjoy seeing so many Monbebe, mind you. The fans at every stop were more enthusiastic than they could’ve ever hoped. They only hope their fans enjoyed the shows at least half as much as they did.

“I feel like I just left,” Hyungwon mumbles to no one in particular. He sits closest to Kihyun, gently picking up the main vocalist’s head and placing it in his lap after he settles on the corner of the couch. Kihyun turns fully, hugging one of Hyungwon’s legs comfortingly. He knows the younger was heartbroken when he had to be left behind to recover from his condition, but in situations like this Kihyun likes to look at the positive. At least his dongsaeng was able to join them for their last stop in America, and that their fans understood why one of their own couldn’t be with them.

The outpouring of support from Monbebe was honestly very touching when it came to Hyungwon’s health.

“So,” Changkyun says, softly after a few moments of silence, “what’re we supposed to do until we go to Thailand? Practice?”

“If I dance another choreo before we leave,” Minhyuk replies without even bothering to open his eyes, “my legs are literally going to fall off.” Hoseok laughs at this, his airy yet deep chuckle bringing a smile to everyone’s worn-out expressions.

“I’m sure we could negotiate a free day with Hongsik-hyung,” Kihyun tells them. “I’d say we’ve earned it.”

“I’ll talk with him tomorrow about it,” Hyunwoo says softly. “Though, I do agree with Kihyunnie. We’ve definitely earned some free time back at home before we have to head off again.”

“I’d like to join in on that conversation if you don’t mind, hyung,” Minhyuk interjects. “You know, to make sure the job gets done.” Hyunwoo chuckles lowly at this, knowing full-well how great Minhyuk is at fighting for what they want with the company. He agrees easily, though he’s almost sure he won’t need such a strong defense.

Of course, you can never be too certain with Starship.

The boys don’t even have the energy to watch a movie that night as they typically would after a tiring schedule. Instead, they barely manage to pull themselves off the couch after an hour of sitting in total silence to crawl into bed. Changkyun follows Hyunwoo into the older’s room he’s supposed to share with Hyungwon and Hoseok, and Jooheon crawls into Minhyuk’s bed with the older in the room they share with the maknae and lead vocalist. Hoseok snuggles down into his own covers, just praying that all the couples are too exhausted to get up to any funny business. He’s too tired to be dealing with their noises tonight.

Hyungwon pads along with Kihyun to the older’s bunk, and snuggles close to him under the covers. He rests his head atop the older’s chest, his fingers drifting this way and that along the vocalist’s stomach. Even if it ended up taking Kihyun’s mother to intervene, he’s glad the older has finally put back on some weight. Ever since the Beautiful era, he’s been worried about his boyfriend’s thinning condition. He’s just sad it had taken him calling Kihyun’s mother and letting her know the situation for it to finally be put to an end.

“I think I’ll go practice during our free day, anyway,” Hyungwon finds himself saying. His voice is soft, a mere murmur in the dark amongst Jooheon’s rumbling snores. Kihyun pauses in petting the younger’s hair, which he’d been doing for the past few minutes. He moves away and bends his neck forward to watch Hyungwon as he explains such a ridiculous thought.

“I wasn’t with you and the others during the American tour,” Hyungwon goes on. “I haven’t been performing the stages as long as you all have, and I don’t know if I know them well enough to pass up the opportunity to practice when I can...”

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard all day,” Kihyun says without hesitation, “and I had to sit on the flight listening to the rappers’ pun war on the way back. Do you not realize how crazy they get when they’re as tired as they were? God, I felt like I was losing my mind with them…” He shakes his head, knowing full well that isn’t the point. “Look, Wonnie. Even if you don’t know the performances as well as you should, there’s no way I’m letting you spend one more day for the next month without me there. The past two weeks were so hard without you, and I’m not going through that again any time soon.”

Hyungwon chuckles at this, hugging the older closer to himself. Kihyun can be so sweet when he wants to be.

“Okay, hyung,” he relents all too easily. “I’ll hang out with you and the others.” Kihyun hums, a satisfied smile coming to him as his eyes drift closed once more. He resumes in petting Hyungwon’s hair affectionately, and this time they both manage to fall asleep with little difficulty.

“So, what’re we supposed to do today?” Hoseok asks curiously, looking around at the others. They’re all still a bit groggy from sleep, their hair and clothes an absolute mess from such a restful night. Hyunwoo and Minhyuk—but mostly Minhyuk—had managed to negotiate a free afternoon among their busy schedules whilst back home only a few minutes before, and they had called the others together to decided what to do. Jooheon glances up from his phone at the question, frowning thoughtfully.

“Why don’t we go to the aquarium again?” he suggests. “I was just looking at some of my old pictures from when we filmed X-Ray there the other day, and I want to see how Barya is doing.” Minhyuk coos at this, pulling Jooheon close for a tight embrace. He whines in protest, but that, as usual, only eggs the older on.

“I would like to see how ShaFo is getting along…” Hyungwon mumbles, his eyes drifting down to the floor in thought. Kihyun barks out a high-pitched laugh at this, remembering all too well the lemur his boyfriend is referring to. He had, after all, inspired the younger to dress up in a monkey onesie on national television without any provocation to recite a self-written poem. That’s certainly something Kihyun won’t be forgetting for many years to come.

“I don’t know…” Hyunwoo murmurs thoughtfully. “It’s kind of risky for us to go to such a public place. What if we get recognized? It’d create a fiasco for all the staff there.” Changkyun whines at this, and begins to pull at his boyfriend’s arm.

“I bet Lao and Haku miss us, though,” Changkyun says, his voice just dripping with cuteness as he pouts over pleadingly at Hyunwoo. “Please, hyung? It sounds like a great idea! Plus, we can go see the other animals this time, too.” Their leader’s pupils begin to shake at the adorable way their maknae pouts whenever he wants something, and Kihyun knows the youngest has won. Hyunwoo has never been able to say no to Changkyun when he’s got his bottom lip poked out so far and his eyes blown so wide. Changkyun giggles victoriously, clapping his hands and bouncing up and down in his seat.

“Why don’t we go later in the day?” Kihyun suggests. “There won’t be as many people there as there would be in the early afternoon, so we’d have more time to say hi to all the animals that way.” Hyunwoo nods in agreement, and the others begin to disperse from the couch to get ready. Kihyun and Hyungwon are the last to leave the couch, mostly because Hyungwon is still a bit out of it from sleeping for so long.

Kihyun doesn’t bother hurrying the younger, though. He’s too busy adoring the sight of his love to do much else but stare.

***********

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