Once they arrived back home, Heechul ran into a problem. Kibum was worn out, drowsy from the sedative that the doctor had injected will setting his arm, and wanted to go to bed. The only problem was his room was upstairs. Quick thinking, Heechul gently pushed a passive Kibum towards the hallway, deciding that he would just have to sleep downstairs for a few days until he could attempt the stairs.

“I want my room,” Kibum slurred tiredly when he vaguely realized that they were not heading upstairs to his bed. Heechul said nothing and opened the door to Henry’s room, directing Kibum over to the bed. There were no more protests, and Kibum passed out the moment his head hit the pillow. Heechul tucked the blankets around him and the ceiling fan before leaving the room. Just as he was cracking the door, Donghae appeared behind him.

“Hyung, you need to come to the living room. Mir and Key have something they need to tell you,” The young boy said, a steely expression upon his face. Heechul frowned at the seriousness in Donghae’s voice and followed him over to the living room where he found the two others sitting quietly on the couch, Mir with his head down.

“Go on, tell him. And don’t give any excuses, you deserve whatever consequence hyung comes up with,” Donghae snapped at the two, and Heechul couldn’t help but be shocked at the tone of his voice. This was a side of Donghae that he’d never seen before; it was very stunning and made him realize that Donghae was growing up, no longer the goofy fourteen year old he’d found on the streets.  

“What’s going on?” He asked the three of them, looking at them one at a time. His eyes settled on his son who was visibly upset and had a look on his face that Heechul knew all too well, the look Mir got when he did something very bad and didn’t want to be in trouble.

Mir didn’t answer, but kept his head lowered and his eyes shut as tears streamed out. He knew that he was in huge trouble and that he was going to get yelled at. There was no doubt once his mother found out what had happened that his father was going to be involved in the punishment as well. Getting yelled at by one of them was bad enough, but when they both did it together…Mir choked back a sob as his shoulders shook slightly, but couldn’t find the strength to open his mouth and admit to what they’d done.

Key gave Mir a look, wandering why the boy was freaking out like this. Mentally rolling his eyes, he crossed his arms and looked at Heechul boldly, feeling strongly that he’d done nothing wrong.

“Well, we were in Kibum’s talking and I found this,” He said, holding up the pink blanket. He didn’t noticed that Heechul’s eyes had narrowed and his lips in a straight line. “And we thought it would be fund to mess with him, so we ran with it. So really, it wasn’t really our fault he fell down the stairs. Right?”

The atmosphere froze up.

Mir stared wide eyed at Key, unable to believe what he’d just said. Of course he understood that what they had done was wrong, but apparently Key didn’t seem to think so.

Donghae scoffed softly and shook his head. He liked Key; he was a fun person and had an exciting personality. Honestly, Donghae was sure he’d be able to forgive the two of them for what they caused, but now his level of respect for Key had just dropped to zero and he knew that this was not going to end well.

“Donghae, why don’t you go sit with Kibum for awhile?” Heechul said quietly, keeping his eyes glued to Key. Donghae got up and left without a word, knowing that the two were in a lot of trouble, and that it was not his place to sit there and watch them get yelled at. But he didn’t mind leaving, anyways. First off, he’d already yelled at the lot of them himself when Mir had confessed their actions. Secondly, he really didn’t like it when Heechul yelled, because even when he wasn’t the one getting in trouble he could still feel the pain of the words (not that Mir and Key didn’t deserve what was coming). But thirdly, he just didn’t like seeing Mir cry. Of course, he was leaning towards Kibum on this part, seeing as it was Mir’s fault this all happened. But still, he made his heart ache to see his brother cry, even if he had done something wrong.

After Heechul heard the door to Henry’s room close, he crossed his arms and looked expectantly at the two boys sitting in front of him. He held out his hand and Key stood up momentarily to hand him the blanket.

“It’s a cute blanket, isn’t it? Pink and purple with flowers on it, soft and fuzzy. But not something a seventeen year old boy would be expected to own, right? So, hmm, let’s think for a minute. Who would use a pink blanket?” Heechul said in a mocking voice. While Mir kept his head down and mouth shut, Key looked Heechul straight in the eyes and answered boldly.

“A little girl, obviously,” He replied.

“Exactly. Now, why would Kibum have a little girl’s blanket? It couldn’t be for the fact that his baby sister died a year ago and it’s one of the only things of hers that he has?” Heechul continued sarcastically.

“I d-didn’t me-mean to, u-umma! I-I forgot,” Mir wailed miserably, burying his face in his hands shamed. Heechul sighed softly and nodded his head. At least he knew that Mir understood what he did wrong and was accepting it.

“Mir, go to your room. I’ll talk to you later,” He said thinly. He surely was not letting Mir off by any means, but he needed to punish them separately because of Key. As Mir shuffled to his bed room, sobbing and hiccupping loudly, Heechul turned back to Key and continued on.

“What do you have to say for yourself, Key?”

Key shrugged irritably and looked away coolly.

“Nothing. I didn’t push Kibum down the stairs and I didn’t know that the blanket was his dumb sisters, and you have no right to lecture me,” He snapped, narrowing his eyes.

“Why do you think that you’re so damn special, Key? You walk around and act like nothing can touch you and you can get away with anything! I know most of the people in your life let you think you can do whatever the hell you want, but wake up and smell the coffee! You can’t! I know you get abused, Key, and I know it , but you have to deal with that. It doesn’t give you any right to act the way you do and it’s certainly no excuse! You think that you’re the only one that has had a hard life? Donghae has too! Did you know he almost died three years ago? And Kibum, he got abused too! By hundreds of people he didn’t know for something he didn’t even do! Mir gets bullied every day and comes home crying! They all have tough lives too but you don’t see them acting like pompous idiots with attitudes, do you? You need to grow the hell up because you are not special!”

Down the hall behind the closed door, Donghae sat on the bed next to Kibum with his eyes closed, silently listening to Heechul yelling at Key. It felt so surreal that Heechul could get that angry. Hyung didn’t even yell that badly at me when I was being mean to Kibum. I wonder what Key said, he mused silently.

Sighing softly, he reached his hand over and brushed some hair out of Kibum’s face and watched his brother sleep. As he retracted his arm, he heard a sudden thumping noise and the front door slammed closed, and he knew right then that he wouldn’t be seeing Key for a long, long time. But for some reason, he didn’t mind.

Friends are nice to have, but I’d rather have my family.

I'll be writing Mir's punishment in Extras tomorrow or something.