OKAY I'M TRYING OUT A NEW STYLE SO BARE WITH ME HERE. If it looks really ugly omg please tell me and I'll figure something out. I'm a Virgo so its in my nature to want everything to be perfect ;) having this obsession.

The colors of the names are matching their thoughts so for example below Kai's thoughts will be green and D.O's will be red. I'll probably change the colors every chapter seeing as I won't be able to remember it but hopefully you'll be able to follow ^^ oh but Haneul/Your thoughts will always be the dreary grey it started as ;) 

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D.O and Kai lay awake in their room. 

'She's asleep, right?'

He's not asleep yet?

'Yeah, I can hear her breathing'

'Something on your mind, Kai?'

'Hmm? What do you mean?'

'Usually you'd want to go straight to sleep. Tonight, I guess it's just weird that you want to stay up even though its so late'

'...I guess I was just thinking'

'About?'

Something must be up

'About... Well about today and everything that's happened'

'Like what? Did something bad happen in the team today?'

'No no... Just well, that guy...'

Aish that guy gets me annoyed just thinking about him

It must be him.

'You mean the Daehyun guy Kris has been evil-eyeing all day?'

Kris has something on him too?

'He has?... Yeah, the blonde one. Friends with Shinyeong?'

'Yeah. Why? What about him?'

'I'm not sure. I just can't help feeling that Haneul is kind of getting close to him'

And it's just too close for my liking.

'And you're worried she'll drift away from us?'

I'm scared she'll for for him more like.

'Yeah, basically'

'Mmm... Well I'm sure that even if she does become good friends with him, she'll always have us. She's our family now, isn't she? With noona and Haneul, our weird family is complete, right?'

'Yeah... But-'

'Kai, I'm sure she's not planning on ditching us for some other random people. Haneul's a nice girl, have more faith in her loyalty'

'You sound like you've been observing her closely, D.O'

'It's because you're hardly ever around! That's why you haven't noticed anything. Trust me on this, ask any of the other guys and they'll all tell you that when she's with us she's completely different than when she's with that Daehyun person'

That's not a good thing to hear. 

'Don't think about it too much, okay? Lets just get some rest, Kai. You're bound to be exhausted after coming first in the swimming race'

'Yeah alright, let's sleep'

 

***

 

In the room next door, Lay and Luhan were also up and talking to each other in the dark bedroom. 

'You know, it's nice having you in this room. It's a good change to having Kris as my roommate'

'Hate him that much, Lay?'

'What? No!... It's just that I like to talk to other people besides Kris, you know?'

'Yeah, I get you'

'...It's a real hassle having this injury'

'Well it does limit your physical abilites. Like, I saw you fall today... Are you alright?'

I didn't mean it like that

'Yeah, I'm fine but that's not what I meant... It's a hassle to you guys. You know, having to look after me and all that...'

Not this again... I thought we'd reassured him enough already when he joined us

'Nonsense, Lay. Come on, do you remember when we first met?'

How could I forget?

'Yeah, Kris-hyung introduced me to you when he met me at the airport and you came and picked him up'

Kris was running away from Canada and fled to China before coming here. You saw my back when I took off my sweater in the terminal.

'Do you remember what I did to you when I saw those marks on your back?'

'You tried to help me heal them up'

'And what did I say to you?'

'... We'll be brothers forever, till we die'

I was being serious when I said those words. I had met you for 10 minutes but I still gave you my promise.

'Exactly. How could my brother ever be a burden to me? How could any of you be a burden? I admit I sometimes get angry like I did at Chanyeol on holiday but you all mean the world to me, you know that right?' 

'Yeah I know... I guess it's just that I'm so used to-'

'Forget what happened in the other school. Forget everything that happened with your fame in China. Those people who told you they'd stick with you forever lied but listen to me, Yi Xing. We'll never leave you or desert you or leave you for dead, ever. Just remember that and forget everything else'

Kris and I already feel so bad about not asking you to transfer sooner. When we met up with you every weekend to check how you were during those first few terms, we knew something was wrong by all those bruises but we still didn't say anything. I'm so sorry, Lay.

'You make it sound easy, Luhan'

'Just try your hardest. With us by your side, nothing can stop you, Yi Xing'

'You're using my real name...'

'Because I want you to realise that none of us will ever abandon you.'

'You promise me?'

'Of course. Remember, the 12 of you are my family too. Along with Haneul now, I'm the happiest ever and if I ever lost any of you, I don't know what I'd do'

'I feel the same way too. I-I'm just happy that I have the family I wanted now'

'That's right. We'll be together forever and nothing can change that, right?'

'Yeah... You know, I'm glad I could talk to you tonight Luhan. You've always helped me when I needed it'

'That's what brothers are for. That's what true brothers do'

True brothers- a phrase I will never get tired of.

 

***

 

Meanwhile, Sehun and Su Ho were having their weekly chat about things on their mind. With Su Ho being the main guardian and Sehun being the supposed youngest (not counting you, of course), Su Ho made it mandatory that he listened to everything Sehun said. 

'Sehun-ah, is there something bothering you? Too distraught from having to wear pink all day?'

'No hyung that's not it. There's nothing bothering me.'

'You know you can tell me what you're thinking, right?' 

'I know... Well, I was just thinking back to our holiday in Japan' 

'It was nice of Jiyoung-noona to give us that, wasn't it?' 

'Yeah. I enjoyed it and all but... it's afterwards when we came back here that keeps coming back to me' 

'You're thinking about who did this, aren't you?' 

'Mhmm... It was just really scary. I don't like seeing any of the hyungs hurt and with Lay hurt already, when you fainted it was just... so scary. I don't know how I felt b-but-' 

'Don't worry, Sehun. We'll always stick together, the 13 of us. We're strong, aren't we? No matter how many times we get beaten down, we always stand back up.'

'I was also wondering about the culprit...'

'Have you been trying to figure it out with Baekhyun too?' 

'Oh you know, hyung?!' 

Of course I know, silly maknae.

'Yeah, I saw a few of your plans and maps. You're really trying hard to figure out who it was, aren't you?' 

'It's because the person who did it obviously wants to get rid of Haneul' 

And I'm scared for her.

Wow, Sehun really cares about Haneul. Its good to see she's so special to him.

'You must be really happy she won that race today. It seems like everyone will get used to her now and hopefully accept her' 

'I was scared she wouldn't win... Because after saying that speech before the race, if she didn't win, she'd be dead meat' 

'I know. I was worried too but at least lets be happy that it worked out for the better, eh?' 

'Yeah, I'm happy it all turned out okay' 

'That's good. Come on, let's sleep now. We've got to go to the mart in the morning, nice and early' 

Oh God. Why, hyung?!

'Oh really, hyung? Can't you take Tao?' 

'Tao will probably kick my if I wake him up in the morning when he isn't expecting me to. Come on, Sehun-ah. Be a good dongseng, ne?' 

'Alright. Just for you, hyung' 

'I love you Sehun-ah' 

'I love you too, hyung' 

 

 

 

---

I apologise in advance for the lack of updates to come. If I'm being completely honest, please do not expect an update until Friday night... I'm really sorry and believe me, I'd love to write more chapters for hours and hours on end but oh my good lord, next week is SUICIDE WEEK. Literally, all my hardest exams are next week. HISTORY IS THE BANE OF MY LIFE. So yeah, I really need to pass these exams with A's or A*'s so just a pre-heads up: it's unlikely that I'll post anything new until Friday night simply because I'll be too busy trying to remember everything I should have learnt but never did... Oops. Author-nim used to fall asleep in all her lessons because she was tired out from swimming... And now I have to pay the consequences OTL 

Anyhow, did you like the way this was set out? In the next chapter I'll try it in a different setting just because I kind of feel like this makes the chapters super long and it looks very conversational. Virgo trying to be perfect here eurgh. After the next chapter, you can tell me which style you prefer and I'll see which one I think looks better and we'll work something out, yeah? ^_^ 

ALSO I NOW HAVE OVER 500 SUBSCRIBERS AND OMG, I AM SO HAPPY THAT I MOMENTARILY STOPPED STRESSING OVER EXAMS AND ACTUALLY FELT HAPPY. Aside from learning that EXO K are coming to London, this is one of the happiest moments for me this week :D I LOVE AL MY SUBBIES SO MUCH! Yes, that means you, you!!!