“Ouch!” Luhan exclaimed, cursing in Mandarin as he stubbed his toe on the edge of the sofa. Honestly, he was so clumsy sometimes. It was hard to believe he was one of the group’s principle dancers.

Kyungsoo looked up from his book, alarm written clearly on his face. “Shh!” he warned, panicked eyes flickering to the hallway and back. “You don’t want them to hear you.”

Luhan followed his friend’s gaze back to where the bedrooms were located, where loud music could be heard blasting from the one Yifan, Baekhyun, Jongin, and Sehun shared. “Who cares if they hear us,” he muttered bitterly, but he lowered his voice significantly to say so.

Kyungsoo sighed and returned to his book, but it was sort of hard to concentrate when there was an annoying burst of laughter from the “cool” room. Probably Jongin amusing everyone with another of his stories. Kyungsoo huffed in annoyance.

Luhan sank down onto the sofa, rubbing his hurt toe. His expression was dark, clouded.

Kyungsoo closed his book. “Maybe we should peace out for a while,” he suggested. “I think I saw Yifan with a couple bottles of soju earlier, and you know it never works out well for us when they drink.”

The elder’s eyes flashed for the briefest of moments. “We live here, too,” he pointed out. “Why should we have to leave?”

Kyungsoo gave him a level look; Luhan already knew why they should leave. Yifan and his cronies always seemed to despite Kyungsoo and Luhan – for reasons that had never been quite clear to the two – but it got especially bad when they were drinking. At times like that, it wasn’t all that uncommon for Yifan or Jongin or even Sehun to throw a punch or two. Kyungsoo had had his fair share of black eyes, and that was nothing compared to the times Luhan got on their bad side. He had a bit of a mouth on him and lacked Kyungsoo’s ability to fade into the background.

Luhan sighed. If the four of them were indeed drinking, it didn’t bode well for him and Kyungsoo. “Fine,” he muttered, getting to his feet despite his stubbed toe. “Let’s get out of here, then. We can go to barbecue. My treat.”

Kyungsoo grinned and tossed his book onto the coffee table, more than ready to escape their stuffy dorm.

Before they could even get their shoes on, however, the door to the back bedroom opened and several pairs of footsteps shuffled unevenly towards the living room.

“Go, go!” Luhan hissed, but they were too late.

“Well, well,” Baekhyun’s lazy voice drawled, and when Luhan and Kyungsoo looked up he was leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his sweatshirt. “What have we here? Where are you two little bugs running off to?”

“We were just going to eat some dinner, hyung,” Kyungsoo replied as respectfully as he could, looking down at his feet instead of up at the four that were currently cornering him and his friend as if they were about to be devoured.

“There’s plenty of food here,” Sehun pointed out, conveniently forgetting to use any sort of honorific. “Why don’t you just cook something?”

Jongin smirked, those too-perfect lips quirking up in a way that sent shivers of dread down Kyungsoo’s spine. “Yeah, Kyungsoo,” he said, and the way he purred Kyungsoo’s name was not at all pleasant. “Why don’t you cook us something?”

Yifan rested his elbow on Baekhyun’s shoulder. “I’m in the mood for pajeon, Kyungsoo,” he said decidedly. “You should make some right away. I’m hungry.”

Kyungsoo stared at him in dismay. “Pajeon?” he repeated. “But, hyung, we don’t have any ingredients for pajeon…”

“Then I suggest you go to the market,” Yifan replied coldly, and all traces of humor were gone now. This was when he was scariest, and Kyungsoo was too frightened to even look up from the floor at this point. He turned to go, but stopped before he disappeared entirely. “And, Kyungsoo, I want seafood. A seafood pajeon in half an hour.”

“Hyung, that’s impossible!” Kyungsoo protested, but Yifan and his three shadows had already disappeared back into their bedroom, where the sound of another bottle of soju opening could be heard.

Luhan sighed and finished putting on his shoes. “There’s some squid in the refrigerator, and I think there’s still some of that shrimp leftover from the other night. You get started on the pajeon and I’ll go to the market and get the rest of the ingredients we need.”

Kyungsoo bit his lip and nodded, heading for the kitchen while Luhan left the dorm in search of what they would need. Thirty minutes to make a pajeon was cutting it awfully close; Kyungsoo hoped that Luhan would hurry.

He was carefully dicing an onion in the kitchen when Junmyeon wandered in, probably in search of something to eat. “What are you doing?” he asked when he saw Kyungsoo at the counter, apron tied around his waist and knife in hand.

Kyungsoo gave his leader a flat sort of look over his shoulder. “Making seafood pajeon.”

“We don’t have the ingredients to make seafood pajeon,” Junmyeon stated the obvious.

The younger sighed. “Yes, I know that. But Yifan ordered me to make one so Luhan went to get the rest of the ingredients.”

Junmyeon nodded in understanding and went to the refrigerator, pulling out a bottle of water. He was about to head back to his bedroom, where no doubt a half- Yixing waited for him, when Kyungsoo spoke up again.

“Hyung,” he said, and his voice cracked. “Isn’t there something you can do about Yifan and them?”

Junmyeon seemed almost amused as he looked back over his shoulder at the younger. “What do you want me to do, Kyungsoo?” he demanded, and the tone in his voice made it clear that he was definitely amused by this.

Kyungsoo sighed and set the knife down. “I don’t know… can’t you make them stop treating Luhan and I like this? We’re not their slaves, and even the coordis get upset when we come in with bruises…”

Junmyeon barked out an unpleasant laugh. “This is your battle, Kyungsoo. Not mine. I’m staying out of it.” And he was gone.

Kyungsoo was crying by the time Luhan returned with the ingredients from the market, and it wasn’t because he was chopping onions.

Luhan set the plastic bag on the counter and stood behind Kyungsoo, wrapping his arms around the younger’s waist and resting his chin on Kyungsoo’s shoulder. “There, there,” he said gently, warm breath tickling the younger’s neck. “Don’t cry. Things can’t stay this bad forever.”

“Then how much longer do we have to put up with this?” Kyungsoo demanded, and he hated how his voice cracked with a choked back sob. “How much longer do we have to be punching bags for those guys? How much longer do we have to be slaves in our own home?”

Luhan didn’t reply. He didn’t have an answer anyway.

Kyungsoo managed to pull himself together after a few more minutes of silent sobbing, and Luhan helped him finish the pajeon. They were just taking it off the stove when Baekhyun ambled in, followed by Jongin, Sehun, and Yifan.

“Mm,” Baekhyun said, his lips. “I hope this tastes as good as it smells.”

“It better,” Yifan said, tone light but with a not-so-veiled threat hidden just under the surface. “You know what will happen if it doesn’t.”

Jongin grabbed the knife and cut the still-steaming pajeon into little squares while Baekhyun fetched the soy sauce from the cabinet. The four of them crowded around the table and took generous portions of the pancake. There wasn’t a lot left once they’d all filled their plates.

Kyungsoo took his fork and stabbed one of the pieces still in the pan. Yifan’s hand on his wrist stopped him from transferring the piece to his own plate.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded, and his voice was so low and frightening that Kyungsoo nearly dropped his fork.

But he bit his lip and forced himself to say, “I’m eating dinner. I couldn’t go out since you wanted pajeon, and, anyway, I made it. I’m going to eat some of it.”

“Did I tell you that you could have some?” Yifan demanded, torn between amusement and absolute fury. “I told you to make this for us. Not you.”

Kyungsoo had had about enough. “I don’t care what you say,” he replied defiantly. “I made it, so I get to eat it. And so does Luhan.” He was emboldened by the looks of utter shock and surprise on his bandmates’ faces. It was the first time he had ever stood up to them, after all. “In fact, now that I think about it, I didn’t make this for you. I made it for me and Luhan. So, if you don’t mind…” And, ignoring the splutters of protest, he grabbed all of the plates and dumped the portions of pajeon back into the pan. “Luhan and I are going to go eat our dinner.”

Yifan stood up so abruptly that his chair wobbled on two legs for a few seconds before crashing to the floor. “Stop right there,” he hissed, that dangerous edge in his voice that clearly meant that nothing good was going to happen.

Kyungsoo didn’t even turn around, instead scooping up the pajeon pan with an oven mitt. “Let’s go eat in our room, Luhan,” he suggested. “There’s a nasty smell in the kitchen that’s ruining my apetite.”

Luhan looked stunned for a moment, then quickly followed. “Y-yeah,” he agreed. “Maybe Yixing is hungry too.”

“Great idea,” Kyungsoo beamed. “We can see if Jongdae and Minseok are hungry as well. It’ll be fun.”

Yifan clapped a heavy hand down on Kyungsoo’s shoulder. “Stop right there,” he ordered darkly.

“ you, Wu Yifan,” Kyungsoo replied coldly, giving the elder a dark glare. “I’m sick and tired of being your . Don’t touch me again. Don’t talk to me. In fact, don’t even ing look at me unless we’re on a show.”

Yifan’s lip pulled back in a sneer. “Or else what?” he challenged, but it was obvious that he wasn’t sure how to handle this situation. It was probably the first time in his life that someone had stood up to him.

Kyungsoo only laughed darkly. “You don’t even want to know, Yifan.” He slipped his arm through Luhan’s. “Let’s go eat, hyung.” And they left the kitchen together. 

for: love_D

prompt: Baekhyun, Wufan, Jongin, and Sehun make a clique and don't want to interact with the others. And Suho just lets them. What's worse is that they treat Luhan and Kyungsoo like . 

The picture that you used in your application wouldn't load, so I didn't really know where to go with this. All I know is that I love Kyungsoo standing up for himself. 

Also, I didn't make Kris the bad guy because of all this drama that's going on right now, just so you guys know. It just ended up that way and would have whether the lawsuit drama was happening or not. Just FYI <3