“Well, I’m very glad you didn’t die from hypothermia out in that ridiculous storm. Remind me again, whatever made you go out and take a bath in that freezing rain again?”

Key’s voice was laced heavily with sarcasm. He spared not a single moment before yanking Minho and Taemin to his own dorm room. The two were swaddled up completely in mountains of towels. Their clothes were also stripped instantly, replaced with way too big matching sweaters.

“As much as I appreciate your help, why on earth do we have to wear these?” Minho mumbled, pulling at the sweater. It was comfortable, soft and probably quite an expensive one too. He could imagine sleeping very peacefully in it. But it was pink. The most horrifying color ever to exist in the world.

“I’d rather deal with you wearing something like that than to look after you for a week because of sickness, colds and sneezing. I’ve done that once before; both you and I know how absurdly slow it takes for you heal. And I trust your scrawny apprentice here won’t be any better than you.”

Key narrowed his eyes at Taemin, before whipping around to grab some warm mugs of milk.

“But he was trying to save a kitten…” Minho interrupted meekly, instantly shutting his mouth when Key glared at him once again.

“Come now, Key. Soften up a bit; they did save a life.” Jonghyun’s voice saved the two from Key’s death glare. For some reason, Jonghyun’s hair was dripping wet (had he went into the rain for a run too?) and in Jonghyun’s hands was the tiny kit, asleep and purring as it was wrapped in a small, soft towel. Key’s glare eased to one of affection, as he gave it a gentle .

“Fine. I will let you off the hook this once; don’t expect me to give you another chance, Choi Minho. You too, apprentice kid.” Key waggle his finger at the two, before whipping around, cooing at the kitten.

“Talk about being bipolar…” Minho muttered under his breath. The only response he got from Taemin was a tiny sneeze. The apprentice rubbed his nose with a slender finger, as if trying to get an itch to go away.

“Wait a second, where are your apprentices?”

At Minho’s question, the two sighed simultaneously.

“Well…” Jonghyun started.

“It’s a long story…” Key mumbled.

Minho raised an eyebrow at his friends, a smirk sneaking over his thin lips. “Well, whatever happened to our very capable and mature mentors who are perfect and make no mistakes? Please, do tell.”

Instantly, Key’s ferocity diminished, as he avoided Minho’s mocking gaze. Jonghyun chuckled awkwardly, opened his mouth, and narrated, “Well, it all started like this…”

**********

“Hello! So what would you like to do first, Chunji?” Key smiled cheerfully at his apprentice. The young boy had glossy burgundy and fawn hair. His eyes were lovely swirls of hazel and brown, almost as if they had been dipped in melted chocolate. Giving Key a large toothy smile, Chunji spoke.

“I’m hungry.”

Almost to emphasize that fact, his stomach growled in response. Key sighed. But those large eyes made his legs turn to jelly. He couldn’t help but give in to the apprentice’s first request.

“Where are you guys off to?”

Key looked up at Jonghyun. Next to his friend was a rather skinny boy, probably Jonghyun’s apprentice Niel. He had fluffy hair that looked soft as down, a deep shade of burnt sienna. His eyes matched Chunji’s, though there was a sparkle of mischief in those fawn depths. This child also had slightly thicker lips.

“To eat. Chunji’s stomach is growling so loudly he can rival thunder.” Key chuckled. Chunji rolled his eyes, pinching Key lightly in return.

“We can go together. Niel here just told me he skipped breakfast to get here; turns out he slept late.” Jonghyun sighed. Exchanging exasperated glances, they walked in direction of the cafeteria. As big as the school might be, the heavenly scent of cookies and chicken wafted from the kitchen; all people had to do was follow the smell, then they’d find their way.

The cafeteria was much more crowded than they thought. It seemed that everyone thought it a good idea to hit it off over coffee and cakes. Many tables were taken, some people even choosing to sit directly on the table since the couches were squeezed with so many boys it was close to toppling over.

“This tastes good.”

Key jumped when he saw Chunji already munching on a cookie the size of half his face. His mouth was stuffed full to the point he looked like a massive chipmunk. Crumbs lined his mouth, scattering on the ground for sparrows to peck at hungrily. He swore there was a parade of birds behind his apprentice.

“Quite the messy eater, ain’t he?” Jonghyun chuckled.

“Say for yourself, Jong.” Key retorted, pointing towards Niel. The poor kid had spilt juice all over the floor, staining it a shade of fuschia and scarlet; it was most probably the cranberry smoothie served today. Without a word, Jonghyun tossed a towel to the boy, before loping off in search of a mop.

Key sighed, ushering both of them to a table that was just left empty. But no sooner had he sat down, when the surroundings became a blur. Someone (or perhaps it was an accident) had rigged his chair. Very unceremoniously, he fell to the ground, the chair crumbling. Unfortunately, he fell against a brown-haired boy passing by. Losing his balance, the poor brunette’s salad went flying and onto some other dude’s lap.

“Oh, you are so on.” The dude growled, before tossing back a sticky jam sandwich. It wasn’t long before people were yelling, “FOOD FIGHT!” and flinging food in all directions. With a “meep” Key scooted under a table to avoid flying fruit float. He couldn’t even see his own apprentice among the sea of colors; even if he had peeped out he had to duck almost at once when a slice of pizza almost slapped him silly as it whizzed by, dropping strands of cheese and pepperoni in front of him.

The food fight went on for quite a while till there was a sudden period of silence. There was no longer cups, bunches of noodles or road kill ravioli flying past. Warily, Key crawled out to see what had stopped the full-fledged food fight.

He gulped when he spotted a smiling Jonghyun. On his head was a bowl of upturned soft pumpkin, the orange mush buried deep in his hair. Despite the cheerfulness Jonghyun’s face exuded, there was a clear feeling of malevolence behind that kind smile as he took slow steps towards the food-covered masses.

“Who. Started. This. Mess.” He spoke, a dark aura practically rolling off. Everyone shrunk back; Jonghyun was quite well known for his scorching temper, whenever he was in a bad mood people tended to skirt as far away as possible from him.

Thousands of pairs of eyes zoned on Key. He blinked up at his friend, to see those brown eyes now and enflamed amber.

“It wasn’t my fault! Someone rigged my chair!” Key protested before Jonghyun could open his mouth. At once, Jonghyun whipped his head around. One head of tousled brown hair visibly ducked down on cue, seeming to want to bury itself among the people.

Bad luck for that person since everyone parted for Jonghyun to walk over; when a person is cracking his knuckles loudly it can make quite the scary effect. Key sighed as people scattered to clean up, a few milling about to watch Jonghyun whack the kid over the head with a mop before snapping for him to fix the cafeteria.

When he was sure Jonghyun’s temper had cooled off somewhat, Key walked up very cautiously, and tapped Jonghyun’s shoulder. The boy seemed back to normal, happily hooking an arm under Key’s and yanking him in direction of the dorm, probably to clean the mess on his head. Chunji and Niel had remained at the cafeteria to wipe the fruit float; Key didn’t miss Niel spooning a bit from Chunji’s head and eating with a satisfied smile.

He shuddered slightly in disgust before finally exiting the mess hall.

***********

By then Minho was roaring with laughter at the thought of Jonghyun with pumpkin in his hair.

“…Y-you’ll look…haha…a-absolutely glamorous in…heh…orange hair…puhahaha…”

Poor boy was clutching his stomach out of pain while he repeatedly punched the floor with his other hand, laughing so hard he couldn’t breathe. Key was also chuckling slightly, Jonghyun frowning at the two with the look of a kicked puppy; it was enough to make anyone feel very guilty like they had just committed that forbidden act of utmost cruelty.

“I can almost imagine him…hehe…a-as Tigger…haha…with a spring f-for a tail, and giggling ‘hoo, hoo, hoo!’ and knocking Pooh over…heeheehee…”

Even Jonghyun was slowly giving way to the giggles that threatened to overwhelm him. Soon, the three elder mentors were collapsing in fits of laughter, spouting nonsense like a few drunk men. Taemin silently watched them, sitting cross-legged upon the nearest bed, his ears slightly pricked. His expression was unreadable as he observed the three out of those narrowed slits of eyes.

A knock on the door made all their laughing cease. Everyone watched as two slender shapes slipped in, covered in half-dried goop, salad and bread.

At once, Key’s arms folded over his chest as he glared sternly once more at the two. Minho held back a snicker at Key’s 360 degree change in attitude, while Jonghyun very conveniently went to hang up some wet towels, the clothesline trembling rather strongly as he struggled to keep it balanced while continuously dropping the clothespins.

“So…what do you have to say for yourselves?” Key tapped his foot on the ground demandingly, his tone akin to that of a mother’s.

“Um…” Niel began, but was interrupted by Chunji letting out quite a loud sneeze. Minho silently passed some tissue for the boy to wipe away his dangling snot.

With a deep sigh, Key ushered both straight to the bathrooms. He spared no time for them to even protest, locking them in, hollering at them to bath and dry up, and announcing that they smelled like a mix of fruit float, spaghetti and spoilt tuna. Minho held back the urge to throw up as they returned; even thinking of that mixture of smells made one nauseous.

“Alright, them aside…want to catch some dinner?” Jonghyun looked obviously hungrily, rubbing his stomach. Minho heard a loud growl from his poor belly, as Jonghyun stuck out his bottom lip at him.

“You know I hate it when you go all cutesy over me. Makes me question my masculinity.” Minho shuddered.

“Maybe pizza would be good? Or…pumpkin?” Key suggested, his excitement shining from his eyes, completely ignoring a certain frog.

Almost at once, Jonghyun’s eyes darkened, his head lowered as his bangs covered his face. Immediately, both Minho and Key froze up. Taemin watched them quietly, chewing on an apple that he’d gotten from who-knows-where.

“On second thought, I think fried chicken on-the-go sounds good.”