17-year-old Kim Jongin was puzzled. No, he was downright confused. He was pretty sure he didn’t sign up for this. So when one angry Kim Jongdae stormed into the practice room he was currently using – for some alone time, he might add – he was startled less. No, he didn’t get a heart attack. But almost. The older Kim grunted and huffed and marched right up to the stereo playing Jongin’s dance practice track and switched the thing off.

“Hey, what gives?” Jongin frowned, forgetting for a moment that he was talking to someone older than him. Given that Kim Jongdae was only a year older but still.

Jongdae huffed again, glaring steel into the younger’s face.

For a moment, the main dancer panicked. He thought back to the past few days thinking maybe Sehun had him completely to blame for whatever prank they did together. Then, nah, it can’t be, he’s been good.

Jongdae throwing himself onto the only sofa in the room cut the younger’s thoughts short. He was huffing again and stomped the floor once before messing his hair up.

It almost looked like a bird nest. And that was Jongin thinking politely.

“Jongdae hyung,” Jongin decided to sit beside the elder, on the floor and cautious of Jongdae’s legs.

“What?” Jongdae snapped. But his face quickly fell and he apologised.

“It’s okay,” Jongin muttered and laid his arm across the other’s knees, just to still the obviously frustrated teen.  And they lapsed into silence.

The clock ticked silently forward.

Jongdae finally grunted and squirmed. “Jongin-ah.”

“Eo?”

“You… Have you- wait, no- thing is… that is… there’s this situation, okay?”

Jongin nodded. Although he had no idea what Jongdae was saying.

“So okay-okay, say… you have a friend… and this friend is someone you always hang out with…”

Jongin suddenly thought of Sehun and his Baekhyun hyung and nodded – this time signalling Jongdae to continue. What brought this on? He’s curious, despite not looking it.

He slapped Jongdae’s kneecap when it seemed like the older one lost track of what he was saying.

“This…friend…” Jongdae grimaced, “of mine is keeping a secret and let’s say, I accidentally know it, and this secret is, like, mind-blowingly big, and I don’t think anybody is even supposed to know! And now I did, I do, and I feel so angry and I don’t know what to think. What should I do…”

Jongin didn’t know if he was supposed to answer that or if that was Jongdae’s rhetorical question. So, let’s get this straight. Jongdae accidentally know his friend’s big big secret. And it’s apparently messing with the older Kim’s brain’s function.

Jongin frowned. Should he not bring Jongdae to a hospital or something?

Jongdae was actually still talking and the groans were far from solving anything. So it seemed like Jongdae was happy to just have someone to vent his frustration to, without any input. Yeah, Jongin could do that. He could be a good listener.

When he wanted to.

“What should I do, Jongin-ah?” Jongdae moaned pathetically. “I mean, I don’t know if I can keep it. I don’t even know if what I think about it is real. I don’t know if I should confront hi- my friend about it. What if, if I say something, I’ll ruin our friendship? What if I ruin everything? I don’t know what to do… I don’t know what to do…”

Jongin hoped his face showed his sympathy in Jongdae’s plight.

“There, there, hyung,” he patted Jongdae’s shin. “I’m sure everything’ll figure out in the end.”

He sure hoped so.

Whatever it was.

~~

Wu-Park Residence.

“What are you doing here?”

Kris asked the person currently occupying his spot on his couch. In his house.

Sehun craned his neck up and grinned cheekily at the older member as the latter made his way down the stairs.

“Hey, hyung!”

Kris snatched the basketball the other kept throwing up in the air and catching it, and put it beside the couch before snagging the remote control and the TV.

“I said, what are you doing here.” Kris stated as he sat down as a commercial advertised away on the muted screen. He turned up the volume. He didn’t mind actually. If Sehun was already in the house, it just meant he was invited in.

Sehun took the basketball again and spun it in his lap alternating with skating his fingers on it. “Yesterday, I managed to mangle your address from Chanyeol hyung so here I am! To visit! Aren’t you happy to see me?”

Kris eyed him critically. Did Sehun seriously want him to answer that?

Chanyeol walked out from the kitchen, “you mean you begged and pleaded and almost cried for it.”

Sehun yelped out an indignant defensive retort as Chanyeol snuggled up between Sehun and Kris, arranging his legs comfortably for the bowl of warm buttery popcorn to be stable in his hold.

Kris chuckled before peering at the bowl. “You made popcorn?”

“Yeah, I’m in the mood for it,” Chanyeol said through his chewing. His eyes already fixed on the opening theme song for whatever it was currently playing.

“I don’t even know we have popcorn,” Kris muttered and picked up one corn and threw it into his mouth. It’s salty-sweet - perfect. Chanyeol’s been eating a lot of sweet stuff for someone not really having a sweet tooth. That’s Kris’ are of expertise. Should he be worried?

“If you bother checking your cabinets, hyung, maybe you’ll be introduced to a world where we live in,” Sehun cheerfully piped in from Chanyeol’s right and was having a handful of popcorn himself. Chanyeol silently chastised the magnae for making a mess.

Kris flicked his wrist and hit Sehun at the back of his head. “Smartass.”

They were shushed by Chanyeol – already engrossed with the show. Kris didn’t even realise the remote was pried out of his hand.

So they watched along, slipping in a comment or two at some of the scenes, eating popcorn and a movie one normal afternoon.

It felt nice.

Despite the small thought niggling at the back of Kris’ mind. Trying to get at him.

~~~

Sehun ended up dragging both of them out of the house and just wandered around. To hunt for some bubble tea, the younger had said. Thankfully the weather was nice. Chanyeol almost squealed once he stepped out of the house and exaggeratedly breathed in a lungful of air. Kris did not get that.

It was a good thing that the shop streets were a walking distance. Kris had on his left earpiece, half paying attention to Sehun and Chanyeol squabbling and making plans. What’s the difference if they go right first or left first? If it were him…he’d just…roll. Let his feet take him to wherever they would lead. Tender footsteps. Destination unknown.

Hmm. He just came up with some really good material for a song. He’d jot them down later. That is if he’d remember them. Note that to self.

While Kris was busy with his internal monologue, Chanyeol’s cap stop triumphed over Sehun’s top-shopping suggestion. Knowing Kris was somewhere ‘not-there’, Chanyeol tugged at the older one’s arm and steered their crowd of three through the crowd of lazy strollers.

Snapped out of his musing, Kris unhooked his earpiece and asked, “Where we going?”

“Chanyeol hyung’s coolest cap store ever,” Sehun glanced around, clearly petulant.

Chanyeol flicked the magnae’s head, “Yah! I hear that sarcasm. You’re not as subtle as you think.”

“Didn’t you just buy some last week?” Kris asked and Chanyeol shrugged. The patented Park Chanyeol’s so-what shrug.

            Sehun groaned. “We should’ve gone with my suggestion first!”

            Kris pitied the teen and slung his free arm over the magnae’s shoulder. “I know how you feel, buddy.” To which Chanyeol thwacked him across the chest. And managed to backslapped Sehun along the way too.

            “We’ll be quick,” Chanyeol said.

            “Yeah,” Kris scoffed, “that’s what you said the last time too.”

            Then Kris smiled of a sudden, that leer-y sort of grin Chanyeol knew if he’d ask, the answer would only make him a blushing bride. Well, whatever dirty thought currently running through his spouse’s head, Chanyeol wanted no part in.

            ~~

            SM Building

            Byun Baekhyun wheezed. He let his head fell and bumped none too gently on the floor. His chest rose with each struggling breath and his neck damp, thinly covered in his sweat. His hands were bound and he was pretty sure the reason he couldn’t feel his leg has got to do with the body hovering over his. He narrowed his eyes and gulped. His throat felt so dry and the pounding in his ears wasn’t helping.

            “Zitao…” he panted.

            A door slammed somewhere above his head.

            “I leave you two for two minutes and you’re having on the floor now?”

            Baekhyun grunted. “I’m entitled not to answer that. Just…get him off me!”

            An almost painful pressure on his wrists that almost cut off his circulation got him hissing and managed to snag his opponent’s inner thigh with his foot. “Okay! Okay! I yield! Just get off!”

            Baekhyun moaned in relief when one Huang Zitao rolled off to the side and gave him some breathing space. The younger of the two had the decency to cackle like he didn’t just almost kill the vocal. Baekhyun could just imagine if that were to happen. Maybe he’d make the headline, ‘SM Trainee accidentally killed, crushed by SM’s ninja in-making’, ‘SM’s promising vocalist unfortunate end – death by wrestling’. Huh.

            He pursed his lips as he stood, holding his aching side. “Ah! Appeo! Appeo! Everywhere hurts!”

            Jongin, who entered, chuckled shortly. “You sore?”

            Baekhyun glared at the second youngest before kicking back Tao’s foot that nudged his. He lay down again to sooth the beating. He didn’t want any ‘comforting’. Zitao, for one, why didn’t he go easy on his poor, fragile body? Come to think of it, wrestling was Baekhyun’s idea to solve… wait, what were they fighting over this time? It was something they said and what was it?

            “Yah! You should’ve gone easy on me!” Baekhyun muttered to the wiggling body beside his.

            Tao lifted his head and stared down at Baekhyun’s flushed face. He snickered, “I did. Just admit that you’re weak.”

            Baekhyun huffed. “Not everybody grows up practising martial arts, you know?”

            Tao chuckled and lay down beside the older one.

            “I still say I let you off pretty easy, hyung.”

            And the resounding smack shut him off pretty quickly.

~~

            Their mouths moved against each other’s slowly before the younger one opened his mouth at his probing. His tongue wandered into the other’s mouth and touched the other’s tongue. It’s electrifying. He moaned and pulled away slowly. He rested his forehead against the younger’s. Before kissing the bitten-red lips again. It seems like he’s addicted as he pushed the other gently into the mattress.

            Chanyeol opened his eyes when Kris pulled away again. He wasn’t blind; he knew something was bothering his husband. But if Kris didn’t want to talk about it, he wasn’t going to push it. Let Kris talk on his own time. He looked at those hooded eyes and wondered what Kris was thinking that the older couldn’t even look at him in the eyes. And as Kris kissed his collarbone, his chest and his stomach, he couldn’t help feeling that Kris was saying goodbye to him.

            Before they slept, Chanyeol wrapped his arms around Kris’ waist and rested his head on the other’s shoulder with Kris’ fingers absently caressing his tailbone. He trapped Kris’ legs in his and thought that he wouldn’t let the other go - ever. 

And when he almost dozed off, the feeling that Kris was going to leave him lessened.