Jinyoung slowly closed the door behind him until he heard it shut with a dull thud. He pulled out his phone to text JB as he walked towards the kitchen.

        It looks like the boys won’t need to be debriefed on Maknae Day after all! When I went to wake them up this morning I found them all sleeping in one bed! They were like that all night…

Well that was easy! Still, we should make sure to at least say something to the other boys in private before we’re too far into the day. Maybe a group text w everyone but Gyeom?

Ani, too risky. Someone might leave their phone lying around and he could see it. Besides, I think he and Bambam have their fingerprints programmed into each other’s phones :,D

Lol I forgot about that. Manager-hyung and I are almost back from the store. I explained to him a little bit about what’s going on and he’s cancelled everything but tonight’s dance practice from our schedule to get things right with Yugyeom. We bought him an iced choco and some junk food. I think he’s been losing too much weight lately…

Good thinking! I was about to attempt to make an iced choco so that’s a relief! See u soon…

See u.

Jinyoung grinned and clicked his phone off. He rifled through the back of the cabinets, searching for the matching set of plates and glasses that he knew they had somewhere. The boys were used to eating off of paper towels so that they wouldn’t have to do the dishes (yes, they were that lazy), but Jinyoung was proud of his breakfast and wanted to make it feel a little extra special, especially now that they didn’t have a schedule to rush off to. He finally located the simple cream-colored dishes and arranged them around the coffee-table-gone-dinner-table in the living room. Sadly, they didn’t have an actual dining room so this would have to make do. He set up a TV stand-up tray next to the table and arranged the plate of biscuits, orange juice, apple juice, and milk atop it. Next he plated his steaming piles of eggs and bacon onto separate dishes and managed to fit them onto the center of the coffee table between the place settings. He was feeling a little extravagant and the boys weren't out yet so he decided to grab a string of white Christmas lights from the top shelf of the pantry and string them over the living room windows. He drew the drapes and stood back to survey his handiwork as JB walked in the front door.

“Manager-hyung dropped me off so that he can get some work done at the company toda-wah Jinyoungie, you’ve really outdone yourself this time! I feel like I should go put on a suit for breakfast.”

Jinyoung blushed at the lavish compliment as JB caught sight of his breakfast setting. “It is a little much, isn’t it?” He asked, beginning to rethink the twinkling lights.

“Ani! Yugyeom will love it.” Jb reassured him, and patted him on the shoulder. “I’ll go get the boys. I’m starving!”

“Ne.” Jinyoung agreed. He suddenly felt very nervous and embarrassed as he heard all of the boys coming out at Jaebum’s request. He hoped they wouldn’t think that it was childish and stupid of him to decorate the living room….

“WAH IS IT CHRISTMAS?” Jackson asked, entering the living room first with sparkling eyes.

Jinyoung laughed apprehensively, and rubbed the back of his neck, glancing around at the room again. “I made breakfast and...may have gotten a bit carried away.”

By now the rest of the boys had piled into the room and were staring at Jinyoung’s arrangements. He felt the blush darkening and began to regret the whole thing.

“Wow, so amazing.” Jinyoung heard his maknae’s nasally voice and almost turned around to hit him until he saw the boy’s face and realised that for once, he hadn’t uttered his favorite English phrase sarcastically.

“You like it?” he asked. Yugyeom nodded enthusiastically, his yellow hair shaking so that it really did resemble a dandelion.

“It’s great, hyung. Thank you for making breakfast.”

Yugyeom’s grateful words brought the rest of the members back to reality and they all began to thank Jinyoung as well.

“Aish, stop it, it wasn’t hard.” he muttered, looking down at his shoes to hide his proud smile.

Thankfully the boys didn’t notice, or at least didn’t say anything, as the rushed to take their places at the table. Jinyoung smiled as he watched them laugh and gawk at the room and the food. Yugyeom had somehow ended up wedged in the middle instead of his usual spot on the end, and there was a light in his eyes and color in his cheeks. That could have been the early-morning glow of having just woken up, but Jinyoung chose to think otherwise. JB began asking everyone what they wanted to drink and pouring for them as the boys served themselves from the platters in the middle of the table.

Jinyoung felt the unease leave him as he watched the boys enjoy the breakfast he’s put so much work into preparing, and his heart felt very warm. The kind of warm when you are surrounded by your family at Christmas and there is good holiday music playing and everyone is joyful. He sighed happily and joined the boys at the last open place in time for Jb to press a cool glass of milk into his hands with a half smile. He smiled back and took a sip, happy to sit quietly and observe the others.

Youngjae was already digging into the food and making exaggerated noises of contentment with every bite, making the maknae line laugh. Mark and Jaebum were rolling their eyes but suppressing their own smiles. Jinyoung thought he could cry of happiness, but of course he would never show it. Actor Jinyoung never shows his cards. He glanced over at Yugyeom. His hair was sticking up in all directions and his shirt was at least three sizes too big and there was a bit of leftover eyeliner smeared under his eyes from his shower the night before, but Jinyoung didn’t think he had looked so good in a long time. Yugyeom caught his eyes and threw him a questioning half-smile. Jinyoung returned it confidently.

“Here, have some eggs hyung.” Yugyeom said, reaching across the table to serve a hearty helping of eggs onto Jinyoung’s plate. “And some bacon too, it’s really good.” Jinyoung’s eyebrows shot up. Not only was Yugyeom serving him, but he was complimenting him. He was about to point out how irregular this behavior was, but he bit his tongue when he remembered the events of the night before. “...Thank you.”

Yugyeom smiled candidly at his hyung and returned the tongs to the bacon platter.

“Ok, kids I have an announcement.” Jaebum said, clapping his hands together to silence the boys and draw their attention. “Because we’ve been working so hard lately,” he shot Jinyoung an almost imperceptible glance, “JYP has decided to cancel our schedules until dance practice tonight and give us the day off.”

 His announcement was met with cheers of the group and he smiled briefly before gesturing for them to quiet down again. “They specifically want us to work on our relationships with each other today and make sure that everyone is good before we start schedules tomorrow. So I expect everyone to take it seriously and cooperate. So that we can have a fun day off.” Scattered ‘ne!’s filled the room and the group returned happily to eating.

When everyone had finished with breakfast and were absolutely stuffed, Jinyoung began to move through the group of lazy, happy boys and gathered up their dirty dishes.

“Ani Jinyoung-hyung, I’ll do the dishes. You worked to put all of this together. It’s the least I can do.” a pure-hearted Youngjae offered. Jinyoung smiled gratefully and handed him the stack of plates.

“I’ll help you.” Mark said, pushing up from where he had been lounging on the floor with his back against the couch to stack the cups.

“Me too.” Bambam said, feeling a tad guilty at not offering sooner as he jumped up to clear napkins, silverware, and leftover food from the table.

Yugyeom began to stand to help too, but Jb pressed him back onto the couch with a hand on his shoulder. “The kitchen is too small for four people to do the dishes.” he said with a lopsided smile.

“Ah, ne.” Yugyeom responded, chuckling at the memory of the time all seven of them had tried to squeeze into the small kitchen to form an assembly line for the dishes because no one could remember whose night it was.

Jinyoung got up and ruffled the boy’s yellow hair before excusing himself to go to the restroom. When he was out of eyesight he snuck into the kitchen instead. The boys turned around from doing the dishes to acknowledge him, but he put a finger to his lips and gestured for them to gather around, looking over his shoulder to make sure that no one was coming. They tiptoed toward him with wide, mischievous eyes, wondering what the secret could be.

“Alright guys, we need to talk.” They all nodded. “The real reason that we have the day off today is because of Yugyeom.” He shushed them harder when they began to ask him why. “Sh! We are taking a day to specifically care for Yugyeom because he has been feeling neglected as our maknae lately. And for good reason. I appreciate you all sleeping with him last night, although I don’t know why you did it, but I want to ask you all to please continue to play special attention to him today. We need to make sure he understands that we love him and cherish him and that he is an important member of our group. Understand?”

The boys were all a bit taken aback by Jinyoung’s unusually sentimental words, but one by one they let the words sink in and nodded in agreement.

“Good” Jinyoung said, offering them as encouraging smile. “Thanks for doing the dishes, kids.” he said, loudly this time.

They exchanged glances before catching on and quickly responding loudly with variations of “Ah, ne, of course, anything for you hyung.”

He smiled at them again grabbed Yugyeom’s iced choco out of the fridge before returning to the living room with it hidden behind his back.

He plopped next to his maknae on the couch and revealed it with a small “ta-da!”

Yugyeom was shocked and accepted the gift after a moment. “Is it my birthday?” he asked with a genuinely puzzled expression. Jinyoung felt like he had been stabbed in the side. They really had been neglecting their baby. “No.” he said, forcing a smile onto his lips and managing a somewhat convincing laugh. “Can’t I give my maknae an iced choco?” he asked, slightly teasingly.

Yugyeom smiled, used to this familiar banter, and playfully swatted at his hyung. He exaggeratedly examined the cup, looking at the bottom of it and sniffing it. “Is it poisoned, then?” he asked, an over-the-top inquisitive expression on his face.

And there was the dagger turning in Jinyoung’s side. Now he knew how Yugyeom had felt this whole time. He wanted to hit himself. Instead he laughed again and lightly shoved back.

“Aish, chincha. Just drink it.” Jaebum said, rolling his eyes but allowing himself a grin.

Yugyeom grinned back and took a sip, blushing a little with this acceptance of the gift. “If it’s poison it’s really good...thank you.” he said, making his hyungs smile as the other boys returned from doing the dishes.

"So what should we do now?" Bambam asked the group.