Over the next few weeks, Key became a regular guest. At least three times a week he would come knocking on the door and end up staying the night. At first Heechul was rather hesitant about letting the boy over, but he gave him the benefit of the doubt and let him have a chance to redeem himself a good name. This didn’t mean that he let Key off that easily; Heechul watched him closely for quite awhile to see how he acted towards Kibum and Mir, who had been coming over more often. Putting his own children first, Heechul decided that the first time Key slipped up and bullied them in any way, there would be no more of him coming over, and he made that very clear to all four of the boys.

But more often than not, he couldn’t deny that Key was an interesting kid. The sixteen year old didn’t hesitate to put his opinion out there or hide anything; he was very open and talkative about the things in his life. From the beginning, he’d told Heechul about his family life and how he always tried to escape home by hanging out with his friends, which now included Donghae, Kibum, and Mir. Since his attitude seemed to have disappeared and everyone was getting along, Heechul didn’t mind so much now that Key came over so often, and he took it upon himself to fix the boy up when he came over covered in bruises or a bloody lip.

However, there was one person that wasn’t too fond of Key. Although he was the one that brought the boy into the family, Kibum was quite wary of him. While Key was very friendly everyone else, he sort of gave Kibum the cold shoulder. He didn’t understand why this was happening, because Key had been really nice to him for the first two weeks, but ever since then he’d slowly become cold. It made Kibum feel that Key didn’t like him, but he didn’t know what he’d done to deserve that. But he brushed it off, figuring it was just that Key was friendlier with Donghae and Mir because all three of them seemed to share the same optimistic, chatty personality and he did not. And it wasn’t like he was going to hate Key for that, because it was just part of life. But something seemed to change between them one evening, and Kibum didn’t know what to think of it.

It was nearing eight-thirty and the boys were in the backyard setting up a tent. As it was the end of summer, they’d decided to celebrate by camping outside. Of course, they’d wanted to have a bonfire but Heechul had point blank refused, so he was in the kitchen fixing a late dinner for them to eat outside. Overall, everyone was in cheery moods and having a grand time as they worked together to make tonight fun.

“Mir, are you sure this is how it goes? The poles through the little loops?” Key asked, frowning as he looked at the instruction booklet and then at the tent. There were thin poles sticking out all over the place and it just didn’t look right.

“Yes! I’ve done this a million times, Key,” Mir replied, pushing one of the stakes into the ground. It was a really nice evening, cool and relaxed. It wasn’t too hot but it wasn’t quite chilly yet, which meant all the loud bugs would come out at night to play a symphony for them.

“Well, a million times or not, this isn’t right. The poles don’t go there, stupid,” Donghae said, flicking Mir in the forehead playfully. Mir grinned sheepishly and began pulling everything apart, handing them over to Kibum who playfully used them to poke Donghae in the stomach.

“Kibum! If you poke me one more time I’m going to smack you!” Donghae exclaimed through giggles, holding his stomach protectively. Kibum looked at him innocent and lowered the pole, and Donghae gave him a look before turning his attention back to the tent. Once he did so, Kibum grinned and poked him one last time, resulting in Donghae whipping around and tackling him to the ground, tickling his sides cruelly.

“No! D-Don’t, I’ll st-stop!” Kibum cried out, laughing merrily as he tried to push his brother off of him. Donghae smirked and pinned Kibum’s arms above him.

“I’m warning you, Bummie, one more time and I’ll seriously get you,” He threatened mockingly. Slowly he got off and moved aside, allowing Kibum to sit up. The younger of the two smiled sweetly at his brother and batted his lashes.

“I love you,” He drawled lazily, picking himself up and brushing off his clothes.

“I love you more,” Donghae replied, going back to fixing the tent.

“Kibum, Umma’s calling you,” Mir pointed out, nodding towards the house. Kibum nodded and quickly scurried off, walking through the back door. He walked over to the kitchen where Heechul was finishing up with dinner.

“What, hyung?” He asked, leaning against the counter. Heechul used the spatula to scoop up a piece of beef and held it in front of Kibum’s mouth, who ate it happily.

“You need to take your medicine. And don’t stay up too late, you have to go see Jia in the morning,” Heechul told him. Kibum rolled his eyes and reached to open the cabinet where his meds were, dumping two onto his palm.

“Why do I have to take these still? It’s been five months and I’m better now,” He grumbled in annoyance as he filled himself a cup of orange juice. He tossed the small pill into his mouth and took a sip of the juice, swallowing quickly.

“Because you need it, that’s why. Go gather up everyone’s pillows and blankets so they don’t all have to come back in,” Heechul told him, ruffling his hair. Kibum swatted Heechul’s hand away and left the kitchen to do as he was told.

As he walked towards Mir’s door, he vaguely sensed that someone was behind him and when he turned to look he saw Key following him.

“What are you doing?” He asked, entering Mir’s room and flipping on the lights. To his surprise, Key shut the door behind them and smirked at him.

“Are you seriously taking anti-depressants? What’s so terrible about your life to make you depressed? I mean, compared to what I go through, you’re living in luxury,” He taunted, crossing his arms.

Kibum stared him, shocked at what he’d just said. He opened his mouth to reply, but no words came out. Not knowing what to say, he just lowered his head and didn’t answer. Key took this response as a cue to continue on.

“Whatever, I guess if you’re the type of person that needs that stuff…well, I think it’s kind of sad. Poor Kibummie,” Key said with a smile, reaching over to pat Kibum on the shoulder. The older boy jerked away from him, narrowing his eyes angrily.

“It’s none of your business,” He said quietly.

“Well, I’m surprised you’re actually spending the night with us anyway,” Key said, shrugging his shoulders as he walked over to Mir’s bed and pulled off his blankets, folding them up.

“Why wouldn’t I? God, if you don’t want me out there than just say so,” Kibum snapped, feeling his eyes water up as his emotions went out of range. He didn’t understand why Key was saying things like this all of a sudden. He could take it if Key just didn’t like him, but to act like this was just mean and it hurt.

“Well, it’s just that you always hang around Heechul as if you’ll die without him. I mean, you sleep with the hall light on and both your doors open. Yeah, I noticed that. What’s with you anyways? Or is it because you’re ‘several traumatized’ because of what happened to your sister? That’s what I read in an old newspaper article, when you tried to kill yourself at school,” Key replied in a neutral tone, as if they were talking about the weather.

Wordlessly, Kibum turned and stalked out of the room, stomping up the stairs to his own bedroom and slamming the door shut. He threw himself on his bed and took deep breaths to prevent himself from outright crying. The last thing he needed was for Key to know that his words got to him.

 He didn’t know how long he was up there trying to calm his emotions, but eventually there was a knock on his door and someone stepped in, and he instantly could tell that it was Heechul.

“Why aren’t you outside with the others?” Heechul asked him curiously, standing in the doorway. Kibum sat up and shrugged his shoulders, absentmindedly wiping away any tears that might still be lingering on his cheeks.

“I’d rather stay in with you, hyung,” Kibum said, sliding off his bed and walking over to Heechul, wrapping his arms around Heechul for a hug. He leaned his head against Heechul’s chest, listening to his heart beat. He didn’t care what Key said or thought of him, because as long as he had Heechul nothing else mattered.

Heechul smiled down at Kibum and kissed the top of his head.

“Alright, then how about we sneak out and go get frozen yogurt?” Heechul suggest with a grin. Kibum nodded enthusiastically and together they left the house.

 Happily buckling himself in the front seat of the car, Kibum glanced over at Heechul with a light heart. It’d been too long since the two of them had gone out together with no one else. Heechul always tried to take all of them out alone to give them the individual attention they all craved and it was always a treat.

“Hyung, can’t we get ice cream instead?” Kibum asked hopefully as Heechul pulled out of the driveway. He knew that since they were taking the car they were going to the intercity instead of the ice cream shop in town, which made everything so much more exciting.

“Not if you want to sleep with me tonight,” Heechul replied with a smile, and instantly Kibum agreed. A night out with Heechul, frozen yogurt, and sleeping together tonight? Life couldn’t get better.

It was a twenty minute drive to the city and by time they’d arrived at the ice cream parlor, which was ten times bigger than the one in town, the sun had gone down and the clear silk sky was filled with bright, shining stars. As they walked towards the parlor, Kibum felt his pocket vibrate. Thinking that it was Donghae texting, wanting to know where they’d gone, he quickly pulled his phone out to answer. However, it wasn’t Donghae who was texting him and Kibum was quite surprised to see that it was none other than Eunhyuk.