Hey, Elle.

What, Baekhyun?

Do you want to play a drinking game?

...What?

Ahhh... duh-ring-king...gaaaay-

I heard what you said, Baekhyun. You don't need to repeat it.

What's this about a drinking gay?

*Oh boy. Trust Junmyeon to walk in just when Baekhyun is in the middle of saying 'game'*

Look, there's Junmyeon, Baekhyun. Ask him if he wants to drink with you. Yuri and the others are around here somewhere, too. You can ask them to play the drinking game with you.

Actually, no, no, NO, wait. Don't ask them.

I remember the last time all of you got drunk...

***

The last time Yuri and the boys got drunk.

Sometime in September.

Classes had run late, and I'm rushing home frantically just in case Yuri is ripping someone's head off. I almost miss my stop and barely avoid breaking my foot on the way out of the bus, but I've made it in time for dinner.

I look up at the house, hoping to God that everyone is still alive and intact.

That's when I notice that some sort of music is floating out from the windows, which are open.

Strange. Tao hates having the windows open, and Kris hates having music on this loud and this late at night.

I start having doubts about entering the house, but I do so anyway, and the minute I swing the door open, someone's hands lock around my ankle.

Letting out the loudest scream I have ever made in my life, I back away, grabbing the door in defence, causing the person whose hands are around my ankle to bash their head on the door as they are dragged forward.

There's a groan, and I look down to see who it has come from.

Kai. His forehead is starting to redden and I almost feel guilty until I see that he is obviously out of his rational mind.

He's drunk, I think.

Wait, what? He's... drunk?

Oh no. An ominous feeling starts to grow in the pit of my stomach. I think I have an idea now of why the windows are open and the music is so loud.

Sure enough, as I step into the living room, someone rushes past me to stick their head out of the window. Moments later, there's a sound of retching and a splash as the contents of that person's stomach hit the concrete.

I know it's Kyungsoo. He always throws up when he drinks. I leave him to do his business.

Okay, two drunks down, eleven left to take care of.

The living room is filled with swaying bodies, and I realise just how crowded the place can feel when everyone is bunched up together like this. The whole place smells like sweat and I wrinkle my nose as I count the bodies.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

Tao, Jongdae, Luhan, Yixing, Sehun and Chanyeol.

That's eight now.

I know who's missing and where they'll be. My eyes wander around the room, resting on the dark shadows in the corner.

Sitting in the corner with his arms wrapped around his knees is Kris. His head is lowered in his arms and his shoulders are visibly shaking.

I sigh. Oh dear.

He's bawling by the time I get to him, muttering things under his breath that I can't understand because it's either in fast paced Mandarin or slurred ghetto English. Probably a mixture of both.

"Kris," I murmur, nudging his shoulder gently. "It's me, Elle. Everything's okay. You're just tired and drank a little too much. Let's get you to bed, yes?" I make my tone as slow as possible, like a mother talking to her 3 year old son, which isn't a far off comparison, considering the current emotional state of the blonde giant sitting in front of me.

"It's not fair!" Kris wails, slamming his fists on the ground. "The world hates me!" He shudders for a moment as another wave of tears takes over him. "A-all I wanted was to roll like a−"

"I know, Kris." I pinch the bridge of my nose with my thumb and forefinger. "Like a buffalo."

"No one understands me!"

"I do," I say.

He looks up with a sniffle. "You do?"

"Yeah, I really do," I tell him. "I understand that you're drunk and tired and Jongdae's probably been provoking you to piss you off. And right now, you really need to go to bed."

Crash!

My head whips up when I hear the sound of something shattering. I find the culprit immediately− Jongdae, his arms still raised in a throwing position, looks down at the broken plate at the same time that I do.

Luhan stands behind him with a stack of more plates−our only plates−, his jaw almost detached from his face due to his incessant laughter. "More, more, more, Jongdae!" he chants.

"Woooo!" Sehun yells, waving his arms around in the air like a spaghetti monster. "Break some more plates!"

"What the hell, guys!" I shout, snatching the stack of plates away from Luhan just as Jongdae moves to grab another plate. "These are our only plates!"

"Hey, look, it's Elle!" Chanyeol bursts into a huge grin and rushes over to envelope me in a bear hug, crushing me between his long arms. He smells like sweat and it takes a few moments for me to shove him off.

"Elle, join the partaaaay!" Yixing slurs, swaying his hips about in wide arcs. His pants look dangerously close to falling off.

"No, I−" I break off, pushing past everyone and launching myself at Tao, who looks like he's about to crash into the cabinet that houses all our photos. His eyes are closed and his arms are swinging about haphazardly, clipping Sehun's head.

I wrap my arms around Tao's and force him away from everything breakable. It's not easy, considering he puts up more resistance than a toddler being dragged away from the playground.

Somewhere along the way, Chanyeol picks up Tao's leg, thinking it's a game. I don't complain, though; it makes things a little easier for me and eventually, with Chanyeol's help, I manage to dump Tao onto the couch, who has fallen asleep.

I let out a huge sigh, putting my hands on my hips and looking around.

Kyungsoo is leaning against the wall, clutching his stomach, and Chanyeol, Jongdae, Luhan, Yixing and Sehun are still dancing, but far enough away from all the fragile objects that I don't care to speak up and tell them to calm down. Over in the corner, Kris is lying on his back and sobbing.

I hope the poor boy doesn't choke on his tongue.

After one last glance at the room, I make my way into the kitchen.

The pantry door is slightly ajar and I wrench it open.

Minseok looks up, his eyes wide. He's crouched on the floor of the pantry and in his hands is Jongdae's bag of cookies.

"Don't tell Jongdae," Minseok whispers, attempting to hide the bag behind him.

It's too late; I've already seen it. I lean forward and grab the bag, rolling it up and securing it with a rubber band. "You're not drunk, are you?" I sigh, raising my eyebrows.

He shakes his head. "You know how I am with alcohol."

I nod, pointing my head towards the stairs. "Go to bed."

 He shakes his head again, but frantically this time. "I can't," he says. "Junmyeon's up there."

Oh no.

I take a deep breath and steel my shoulders. This won't be easy.

 Minseok shields himself with my body and hides behind me as I creep up the stairs.

The sound of screams, muffled by the closed door of Junmyeon and Minseok's room, floats down to our ears even before I reach the top of the stairs.

I open the door of Junmyeon's room slowly. "Junnie..." I call, making sure my voice isn't too loud or sudden. "It's me, Elle−"

"Argh, piss off!"

I decide to risk it and enter the room. There's a floral scent lingering in the air; I look around for the source and spot shampoo bottles lying on the floor. And on the wall behind them, written in blue shampoo, are the words, 'LIFE IS CAT '.

...What?

Junmyeon stands in front of the wall, shoulders moving up and down rapidly. His fingers are covered in shampoo; he points them accusingly at me. "I told you to ing piss off!"

"Junmyeon." This time my tone is a little stricter. He may be drunk, but I'm not just going to let him speak to me like this. "Calm down."

"No!" He yells. "NO! I will not calm down, because no one ing understands me! They say behind my back, and I can hear them! The walls tell me what everyone says about me. No one ing appreciates me! I'm ing sick of it!"

"No one says..." I pause for a moment. "No one says stuff about you, Junmyeon. And you are appreciated."

"THAT'S CAT !"

"What..." Again with the cat . "Junmyeon, you have to calm down. Please."

He lets out an enraged scream and tugs on his hair, leaving streaks of shampoo through the tangled strands.

I turn to Minseok. "How many bottles did he drink?"

"Four and a half," he whispers back.

I slide my palm down my face with a groan. "Get the pepper spray."

Minseok rushes off and comes back a moment later. He sticks the bottle in my hand and whispers, "Good luck".

I nod, inching my way across the room to Junmyeon, who is bent over in the corner.

But before I can get close enough to use the spray, he yells, "ARGH, THERE'S ING SHAMPOO IN MY EYES!"

Oh, well that solved it.

I sigh, glancing over at Minseok. "Can you get him to the shower? He should be fine by the time he's all washed up."

Minseok looks at me with wide eyes before nodding. He gulps and walks over to Junmyeon, guiding him by the shoulders to the ensuite.

When they're both in the bathroom and I'm sure that Junmyeon isn't trying to kill Minseok, I exit the room.

There are two more people who are unaccounted for.

Baekhyun and Yuri.

Now that Junmyeon's screams have subsided, I can make out the sound of laughter coming from Baekhyun and Chanyeol's room.

Please, let them not be...

I stop saying my silent prayer when I see the two of them, Yuri and Baekhyun, sitting on the bed with a mobile phone between them, giggling like little children.

...prank calling people.

My shoulders deflate at the sight and I wonder who their poor victim is right now.

Yuri looks up and, seeing me in the doorway, puts a finger to , indicating that I should be quiet.

Baekhyun exchanges a glance with Yuri and the two of them burst out laughing again.

The phone, which is on speaker, finally gets a response and there's the sound of someone picking up the receiver on the other end. The two of them fall silent immediately. Baekhyun tries his hardest to put on a straight face.

"Hello?" the other person says.

"Hello," Baekhyun says, putting on a foreign accent. "This is Hongdae Circumcision Clinic. You flop it, we chop it!"

Yuri covers with her hands, laughing madly. After a few shaky breaths, she says, "We're just calling to confirm your appointment with us at 2:30 tomorrow."

"Uh..." The other person sounds confused. "I'm a female. And I didn't book anything."

"Oh, not to worry!" Baekhyun exclaims. "We have discounts for females! And it's never too late to book your appointment for a circ−"

The person on the other end hangs up.

Yuri and Baekhyun collapse in a fit of giggles.

"Oh... my... gosh..." Yuri gasps, in between breaths. "That was gold."

The two of them seem to have forgotten that I am there, and they don't even notice as I step out of the room, closing the door behind myself.

I walk across the hall to the room I share with Yuri and make sure the door is locked before I sink, face-first, onto my bed.

They're cleaning all of that up tomorrow, I tell myself. And they're never going to drink again. Not in this house.

***

Hey, this is Elle ^^ Thanks for reading!~ Sorry for any typos, I'll fix them later :)