I walked back to the stage where everyone was waiting.

"Psst.... JR...." Baekho whispered. "They had me change my shirt but they didn't tell me what it was.... Tell me if it looks dumb or not."

"Hmm.... Yup. Hideous. You look like a total tool now." I got smacked upside the head for that.

"Hey, did I actually get you?! Bullseye!!!" 

__________________________________________

The interview went...pretty well, actually. Baekho and Aron told their sides of the story. Then they told some pretty funny stories about Ren and Minhyun's antics, and the cameras rolled some prerecorded footage of them playing/napping backstage. The best part was when Baekho was asked to sing his "Happy Birthday" solo...and killed it. And somehow Aron managed to crack everyone up without saying a word.

After filming, we bowed and ran backstage laughing our asses off. We shut up in time to stumble into the dressing room, without waking the maknaes, and greeted Manager-Hyung.

"Boys, that was incredible! The CEO's gonna be so proud, and you should all be proud, too!" He clapped us all on the back. "Say, how about I take you all out to the mall? We can get icecream and shop around!"

"HELL YEAH!!!" Baekho cheered, and Aron fist pumped. But me.... Well, I was so damn TIRED. And the boys....

"JR, I see that look on your face. We're going. And trust me, you'll perk up once you get a little food in you."

I sighed; this day just went from 'long' to 'endless'. But I couldn't let everyone down. Plus manager was probably right about the food thing.

________________________________________________________________________________________

All six of us piled up in the minivan and drove off. Ren sat in his special car seat (which basically just kept him from standing up or trying to jump out the car door), while dully kicking the chair in front of him. He was totally zoned out, his jaw slack and eyes fixated in one spot. Minhyun kept glaring back at Ren, but he was too deep in his own little world to notice. By the time we arrived, Minhyun was practically seething. Ren, though...still didn't notice. 

I leaned towards the back seats. "Okay, Rennie.... Lemme unbuckle you.... Ow! Quit pinching!" I snapped. I heard Minhyun mutter something under his breath, but I tried to ignore it.  

We crossed the parking lot, Aron in his wheelchair, and Baekho with white cane in tow. Barely two steps inside, we heard a loud smack! I turned around to see Ren sprawled out on the floor.

"Rennie!" I pulled him off the ground quickly. "What happened, did you trip?!" I tried examining his head, but he kept fighting me, starting to cry. "Aww, c'mon Minki, no more meltdowns today, alright? Please just let me see!" Most of his skull was fiberglass held together by screws and surgical glue; I damn well better see if he was alright.

"Minhyun, did you push him?!" Manager yelled.

"No...cuz, cuz I was in FRONT of him! I couldn't push him!!!"

Ren just kept crying and wrestling me to let him go. I eyed Minhyun, and he eyed me back.

"He's just a klutz!!!"
______________________________________________________________________________________________

We eventually made it over to the icecream parlor, and I'm not gonna lie, it was a pretty good pick-me-up treat. Cookie dough icecream doused in M&M's....Score.... 

Minhyun gobbled down his icecream in less than five minutes, and I'm proud to say that at least half of it actually went in his mouth instead of on his face. Ren sat in Baekho's lap while a vanilla and sprinkles cone. Suddenly, Ren must've been bored with his treat because it wound up shoved onto Baekho's nose.

"COLD COLD COLD,JESUS CHRIST TAKE IT OFF!!!"

"Ren!!!" I yelled. He looked over at me, wide eyed and innocent. He then turned back to Baekho and peeled the cone off of his hyung's face.

"Thank you, Minki.... Hey, hey no!!! Do NOT eat it, Minki don't you DARE- Goddammit...." I nearly gagged. 

"Guys, can I get a napkin over here...?" Bakho called out. Ren, on the other hand, kissed his favorite hyung on the nose cutely.

After cleaning up, we hung out at the toy store for a while. Everyone panned off in their own directions while Manager and I just sat at a bench in the shop, watching them. 

Ren wandered around aimlessly, until he ran into Aron situated by a display table. Aron beckoned him over and pulled him into his lap. Ren tried wiggling out until Aron put his hand on something; a little blue box wit a crank on the side. Ren turned the crank warily.

Dun-dun....

Aron urged him to do it again.

Dun-dun....

Ren was intrigued.

Da dun-dun-dun-dun, dun-dun, dun-dun, da-dun-dun....

Ren got excited by the little tune and started cranking even faster.

Da-dun, da-dun, da-dun-dun-dun-dun, dun, dun, da-dun!

On the last dun! a little puppet on a spring jumped into the maknae's face, illiciting a scream from him. Aron had his arms wrapped around Ren's waist and was laughing his off. Ren was looking back and forth between the jack-in-the-box and his hyung trying to figure out what the hell just happened. Aron stopped laughing when he saw the younger's confusion. Did he go too far? Was Ren going to get upset with him?

Aron gingerly closed the lid of the box. Ren looked back at the weird little toy and put his hand on the crank. He started turning it again, slowly at first, then picking up speed. The quicker he turned, the more he started giggling, until BOING! and he started screaming and rocking back and forth in Aron's lap.

Aron smiled because Ren rarely laughed (and it was nice knowing he hadn't traumatized the poor kid). He reached over and closed the lid of the box once more to let Ren keep playing again and again. Eventually Ren got bored though, and decided to get up. Not without ripping the toy off the display stand it was glued to and bringing it over to us.

I almost thought this day was going to end on a good note; then barely ten minutes later, I heard that all too familiar wailing, and saw Minhyun running up to us.

"REN FELL DOWN!!! AGAIN!!!!!"

I automatically followed the sound of Ren crying until I found him lying on his back in the middle of the aisle, Baekho and Aron already with him. I felt myself heat up in rage.

"Minhyun...." I said through gritted teeth. "Tell me. The truth. Did you push him?"

"No!!! I didn't!!! I found him like that!!!"

"Are you SURE?!" Suddenly I felt my arm being tugged on; it was Aron. He looked up at me and nodded his head, pointing at Minhyun. 

"Minhyun.... Minhyun DID push Ren?" Aron nodded. He then pointed to his eyes. He must have seen it happen. MInhyun gave Aron a death glare. "He's... He's lying! He's-"

"Minhyun."

"No, I didn't do it!!!"

"Minhyun."

"No, JR, no, Ren just-"

"HWANG. MINHYUN. JUST GO SIT NEXT TO MANAGER HYUNG."

Minhyun stared at me.

"NOW."

He glared at me, eyes watering, waiting to see if I was serious. I was. Finally he stuck his tongue out, spun around on his heels, and left. Ren had, at some point, curled up into Baekho's lap for comfort. I sighed and sat down next to them, all my exhaustion from the day hitting me like a on of bricks.

"JR...."

"Save it Baekho." I petted Ren's head and tried to offer him a toy; he just smacked it out of my hands. He nuzzled even closer into Baekho, but at least he wasn't crying anymore.

We were finally ready for checkout. At first I wasn't going to let Minhyun get anything, but Baekho convinced me otherwise. He was having a pretty y day too, after all. He got a little trainset, and Ren got his jack-in-the-box. Then Aron suddenly wheeled up and flopped something on the checkout counter, looking at me. It was a book.

"...Sign Language For Kids...?" I read. I looked at him smiling at me. "You know, Aron.... Go grab another one of these books, for me." I smiled. He starting beaming and sped off.

"ALRIGHTY! We ready to go?" manager called. 

"Yup!"

"YESSS!"

"Please!!!"

We piled up into the van, finally, FINALLY, making our way home, THANK GOD. Baekho was taking a shower, Aron was pouring over the book he just bought, and the manager was cooking dinner. It was just me and the maknaes in the living room. Minhyun was setting up his train tracks on the carpet, and Ren sat in the corner screaming at his jack-in-the-box. I watched them both, lost in their own little worlds.

"Minhyun, c'mere...." I said. He looked up at me.

"W-why...?"

"Just come here, I wanna talk to you. No, you're not in trouble,"

He made his way over to me and sat on the couch, keeping his eyes lowered.

"Can I ask you something?"

"...Mm'kay...."

"Today you were kind of mean to him. Now I know he was mean to you first, but you're usually more patient. Is something the matter?"

Minhyun started tearing up. "He's...embarassing...."

"Hmm? How is he embarassing all of a sudden?"

"He's...he's a retard...."

"HWANG MINHYUN." I shouted. WHERE THE HELL DID HE EVEN LEARN THAT WORD?!

"NO, NO IT WASN'T ME!!! SOME GUY AT THE TV SHOW SAID IT!!!"

"WHAT?!"

"I-I was sitting on the stage and I was playing, and I tried showing this one guy my Transformers, but he told me to shut up and called me a retard!!! He said, 'Shut up, you ing retard!!!'"

I was fuming.

"And when I asked him what a retard was, he said it was me and my screaming idiot freak backstage!!! And-and I dunno.... I was mad and sad.... And when Ren pushed me we looked even more like retards and I got even madder and...And...." Minhyun was bawling. I pulled him into a hug and squeezed him.

"Oh, Minnie, why didn't you tell me?! You know I wouldn't let anyone say that to you!!!"

"C-Cuz I wanted to be on TV.... I didn't even get to be on TV...."

I held on to him and let him cryinto my shoulder. I rocked him back and forth, wishing I could get him to forget about this.

"Minnie.... Minnie, listen to me. You and Ren are NOT retards, okay?! There is nothing wrong. With any of us, alright? Alright?!"

Minhyun wouldn't stop crying. "I'm sorry JR.... I'm sorry Ren.... I'm sorry...." Ren was looking at Minhyun, clearly concerned.

"No, don't be sorry Minhyun.... You know what, I'll make this right. I'm gonna call the news station right now, alright? You tell me what that man looked like and I'll make sure he gets in so much trouble!!!And then I'll get them to come back to the apartment and interview you, and you'll be on TV just like us! Okay? Minnie, you hear me? Shh.... Don't worry, Hyung's gonna make everything all better....Shhh...."