~~~~~~~~

The Yoosu couple anticipated breakfast as they occupied the sofa while watching TV, patiently waiting for Yunjae to make pizzas together, and leaving Changmin out of everything as he continued making muffled gagging sounds in the background and hardly restrained himself from complaining.

At some point Yunho and Jaejoong were really lost in it; there was simply something romantic about being covered in flour; they were lost in each other's eyes, and couldn't leave each other's arms.

While lightnings shot out of Changmin's eyes.

Then, after what seemed like a torturing eternity to the poor maknae, they had a nice picnic in the living room in the form of today's breakfast, with said person devouring the amount of food enough for three normal meals, and they collectively went out to buy more Christmas decorations.

They were completely satisfied only when the in- and outside of the house were practically covered in the newly bought stuff, and went back in to warm themselves up, all with red cheeks and noses. Although the image of the house did seem kind of brighter, they'd almost frozen to death.

Then they went out again, and also got a Christmas tree.

But as soon as they got home they discovered that it was quite a struggle to squeeze it through the door. Took them 10 minutes but when succeeded, they triumphantly walked over and set it on the floor. Then they gathered around it and stared.

"What now." Junsu blinked.

Yoochun stepped back.

"RISE UUUP!!!" He suddenly shouted as he kneeled and made a dramatic lifting motion as the other four actually lifted the tree to stand.

"Whoa, it's even taller than Changmin!" Junsu gawped as he walked around it in a circle.

"Ah, yes, we should've decorated him instead of going all the way to buy the tree." Yoochun glanced at the maknae as he noted amusedly.

"Are we going to decorate it now?" Jaejoong suggested while coming back with a big box. No one except Yunho had noticed that he was gone.

"Yah, let's do that later. I'm starving~" Changmin half-whined and walked away to the kitchen.

"Yeah, me too." Junsu agreed and took hold of his stomach. "Hyung..." He looked up with pleading eyes, which immediately stabbed Yoochun's heart, even though he was the wrong person to feel it.

"You're such babies." Jaejoong put the box down. "You wouldn't survive even a day on your own out there."

***

"..Hyung, tell this annoying creature to stop sticking to me!" Changmin pushed Jiji off with his foot repeatedly.

"Hm..? But I think he very much resembles you," Jaejoong absently noted as he mixed the freshly chopped vegetables. "You guys have lots in common, like he also eats a lot but gets skinnier instead of getting fat."

"Ugh, you know I can't stand cats." Everyone could feel the irritation in his voice as he dropped the honorifics.

"Oh, but Min is worse than that; he loves food so much that I strongly believe he sees the fridge as his girlfriend." Junsu revealed, his voice coming from the living room as it threw oil in the fire.

"At least I don't have the face of a newborn baby." Changmin retorted.

"I think you do, though." Yunho and Jaejoong remarked in unison.

Changmin sighed.

"Shut up, hyungs."

"Then how about vending machines, do you think of them as your kids? Height and all." Yoochun added in and cackled.

Changmin sighed again. He was destined to crawl along the very difficult life of the maknae, and to put up with everything his genius hyungs could possibly come up with. He pitied himself so.

"Yunho-yah~! Food's ready!" Jaejoong exclaimed as he swayed his body gracefully to serve the meal.

***

As soon as they were done eating, Jaejoong put some of the fitting (in his opinion) shiny decorations on his pet as well and held a long photo-shoot session, filling up almost 60% of his expensive camera's memory card with pictures of everything they'd made and done, and of course the usual ridiculous ones of his fellow members.

Later, when everyone had settled with going back to their hobbies, Changmin was nowhere to be found.

Jaejoong worriedly walked upstairs and knocked on his door.

"Min, are you okay?" He asked cautiously.

A pause.

"Come in, hyung."

Jaejoong entered and slid over to the bed, like a cat. Changmin sat up, the blanket sliding down his chest and uncovering his head.

"What's happened to you?!" Jaejoong cried and snapped his head up, fixing the youngest's face.

Changmin flinched at the loudness of his voice. His eyes were red and swaying left and right. He then pulled the blanket up and covered his face again.

"I might have caught a cold..," he mumbled through the fabric.

Jaejoong breathed out.

"My poor baby!" He jumped and hugged the maknae stiflingly. When he let go, he ran his fingers through Changmin's hair comfortingly.

"Wait, I'll get you some tea and prepare a soup." He rushed to leave but the maknae's hoarse voice stopped him.

"Hyung, wait..."

Jaejoong turned and Changmin tucked himself behind the blanket again.

"There's this girl..."

Jaejoong's worried expression softened and his lips formed a sweet smile. He returned to the bed and settled next to him again.

"Tell me everything."

***

Changmin remained silent for 3 torturing minutes, as if collecting his thoughts, and after sneezing loudly, he commenced.

"You know how I often go for a walk in the park? One afternoon, I met her there." His voice was strained and didn't sound like him at all. A hint of worried nestled in Jaejoong's stomach but he nonetheless listened attentively.

"Well, after seeing her so frequently I tried to talk to her, and she seemed very nice," he paused to cough powerfully a several times, "And recently...You know, I got this strange feeling in my stomach.. At first I thought it was hunger, but then it didn't go away and I realized it should be something else..." 

Jaejoong chuckled at the last remark and shifted his gaze out of the window; and after a pause he spoke.

"So you want to confess?" His gaze dropped back on Changmin's eyes (they were the only visible part of him at the moment) and he smiled.

"Kind of, yes..." The maknae avoided the curious eyes which were examining his reaction, and focused at the bump his feet were making from under the blanket.

"Well, the only advice I can give you is that you should be very honest." Jaejoong paused again and narrowed his eyes.

"Ah, but you also can't be too straightforward and go 'Roses are red, violets are blue, I like spaghetti, let's meet in bed.' or something."

"Hyung!"

"Well, there's more to that," Jaejoong chuckled once again at the maknae's varying adorable reactions.

"...I'll take it into consideration.." Changmin mumbled as Jaejoong left to prepare the soup and feed Jiji.

When he reached downstairs, he noticed that Yoosu was being unusually loud.

"It's not my fault that you placed your huge behind on that exact place!" Yoochun shouted in his defense, pointing with both hands to the ground.

"Well, you shouldn't have left it there on that exact spot in the first place!" Junsu argued fiercely. "God, I lost a precious controller once again!"

"Hey, last time was your own fault." Yoochun smiled greasily.

"You practically dragged me out of the house!" Junsu punched his friend on the arm and Yoochun whined.

Jaejoong shook his head, sighing; and called upon his pet. He closed the kitchen door when Jiji entered, and poured cat food on his bowl, petting him a few times affectionately. He glanced over at the corner, and the facts reminded him that the sand in the litter box urgently had to be changed.

He opened the door, walked over to Yoochun and asked him to go.

"But why should I, it's your cat!" Yoochun backed a few steps.

"I'm preparing soup for Changmin right now, as you can clearly see." He pointed to the red apron with both hands and his face became stiff.

"…Why, is he sick?"

"Yoochun, just go." Jaejoong pushed him to the door, then through it.

Then he returned to the kitchen, and Junsu picked up the only controller left and restarted the game, this time with a one player setting.

Jaejoong always wondered why they were arguing like an aged married couple every time over something so simple.

When Yoochun returned, he noted that Junsu refused to talk to him, so he hung his head down and went out again.

Jaejoong quickly replaced the sand of the litter box and hurried to take the soup upstairs and to hear the rest of Changmin's story.

***

It was already dark now, and after Changmin had gulped down 3 servings of hot soup and 2 mugs of tea and had a rich dinner, Jaejoong made sure he was properly wrapped up with three blankets and had a big stash of tissues on his nightstand. Then he went down, called Yoochun first to make sure he was alright, then warned Junsu to go to sleep and he himself dragged Yunho back to their own room.

By that time Junsu had felt that it had gotten pretty late, and glanced back at the door. No signs of Yoochun. The room felt so huge and a weird loneliness took over him as he slowly went up the stairs.

While walking in the corridor, he suddenly tripped over something. He looked down and noticed that it was Jiji, so he crouched and apologized, his back gently.

***

Yoochun entered the house with much difficulty as he couldn't remember on which side the doorknob was, and when he had found it it kept moving to the other side, like an endless game of the devil.

He then went to the bathroom (which was next to the staircase), turned the water on and splashed a generous amount on his face. That seemed to calm him down a bit.

He caught hold of the sink with both hands and fixed his gaze on his reflection in the mirror. He wondered why Junsu was being so stubborn and wouldn't even give the slightest chance to touch him. He frowned upon thinking of his bad luck, and decided to give up on it and just go to sleep for now.

He walked up the stairs, losing his balance on every 2 steps, but had the steel determination of definitely not waking his friend up, for the fear he'd get yelled at again.

Junsu was in front of the door of the room and was petting Jiji, while talking to him in a soft voice.

"I'm jealous, Jiji-yah...You know, I'm older than you and I've been longer on this planet, but you seem to know so much more... I mean, your instincts are very right, and you don't want other males to touch you... In fact, you would kill them if they did so-"

Suddenly, long arms wrapped around him and Junsu froze on place. The cat lifted his tail and walked down the stairs nonchalantly.

"You want other males to touch you?" A mild, provoking voice whispered and Junsu squawked.

"Yoochun!"

"Mhm~" Yoochun smirked misleadingly.

"Where have you been..?! Ugh- "

Junsu pushed his friend away but got pushed through the door into the room himself.

"Junsu-yah..." Yoochun's arms wrapped around him dangerously once again and when he felt them ghosting all over his body, Junsu grunted unpleased.

"Yoochun, are you drunk-?!" He tried to push him off, but failed.

"Come on, I know you want it too, Junsu-yah." Yoochun's hands slid down to his waist, and continued.

"What are you doing- ?" There was a hint of desperation in Junsu's voice as he struggled to free himself from the grip.

"Looks like you need a little help.. Let me lend you hand.." Yoochun turned him over so that they stood face to face.

That gave Junsu the chance to push him away towards the wall, and he took the next chance to pin his drunk friend to it.

"That's the spirit." Yoochun pressed himself to the wall and waited, with his hands held up in a knot by Junsu's hand.

"Yoochun, why did you drink." 

"I was depressed, so I did. What's wrong with that." Yoochun struggled with the pronunciation of his words, and felt Junsu's hot breath against his skin, which was not exactly helping the situation.

"It's because of me, isn't it." Junsu tightened the grip and stared in his friend's small eyes.

Yoochun shifted uncomfortably, then tumbled down slowly, his eyes losing their focus.

"No.."

Junsu held him up and dragged him towards the bed.

"My God, you are so heavy.." He grunted again as he banged his knee against the nightstand, in an attempt to flip the long legs onto the surface of the bed.

"Aish, stupid..."

Then Yoochun shifted on place.

"No.. Don't go-" He reached his hand and grabbed Junsu's belt. "C'mere," he jerked it back and Junsu landed on the bed next to him with a surprised 'oof'.

His eyes widened as this time both Yoochun's arms and legs wrapped around him steadily.

"Yoochun, wait-" Junsu took hold of Yoochun's arms and tried to turn over.

"I did long enough.." Yoochun whispered and his hands went under Junsu's shirt, sliding it up with slow and smooth movements.

Junsu's hands dropped on both sides and he drew his head back, resting it on Yoochun's shoulder. His gaze averted to the ceiling, and he bit his bottom lip nervously. Yoochun smiled at the submission of his friend and undid his belt, afterwards dipping his hands in his underwear. Junsu shuddered and let out tiny moans at the caresses he immediately registered. After the movements started getting more persistent he quickly pressed his hand against his mouth.

"Aw, don't do that~ I want to hear you," Yoochun protested and put his hand on Junsu's, trying to pry it away.

"No-" Junsu persisted, suppressing every sound.

And their night began.