Minho sighs before closing the door, hugging an empty tray to his chest.  He makes his way down the stairs of their two-storey house, intending to head to the kitchen to wash the dishes before going to school.  However, the sight of his Yunho-hyung slumped in one of the soft couches in their living room forces him to make a detour.  He flops beside the older man, wrinkles appearing on his forehead as he eyes his hyung.

“Hyung?”  Minho calls, earning the attention of the other man.  Yunho takes a deep breath before facing his dongsaeng.

“Good morning, Minho-yah.”  He replies, letting out a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes.  The use of his pet name surprises the younger, causing him to stare at his hyung. “Is Chanyeollie coming to school today?”

Minho shakes his head, a frown on his face.  “No, not today.  He’s still in their room.  I don’t think he’s been sleeping either.”  Minho replies, his frown deepening when he remembers the haunted look and the bags under their youngest’s eyes.

Yunho sighs before letting his head fall to the back of the couch.  “Minho-yah, I’m worried.  There’s something wrong.”

“Of course there’s something wrong!”  Minho exclaims while suddenly getting to his feet and causing the tray to crash to the floor, surprising the elder.  “Minseok-hyung’s been unconscious for two days and even Kyuhyun-hyung doesn’t know what’s wrong!  I mean, how can he not know when he’s one of the best doctors our country has?  And we don’t have money to admit Minseok-hyung to the hospital, so he just stays here and we don’t know—“

“I wasn’t talking about Minseokkie, Minho-yah.”  Yunho says, silencing the other.  “Do not get me wrong, I’m extremely worried about Minseokkie.  From what Chanyeollie said, he was having one of his episodes when he passed out and that has never happened before.”

“Then how come you’re more worried about Chanyeol?”  Minho asks, returning back to his seat.  He chances a glance at his hyung and feels his heart beat faster at the sight of the other with that painfully familiar faraway look.

“He’s extremely blue.”  Yunho replies, a frown set on his face as he recalls the numerous moments he had seen his dongsaeng over the past few days.  “He had always been blue ever since the first time we met, but it’s just different nowadays.”

“What do you mean?”  Minho chokes out, eyes not meeting his hyung’s.

“What I said means that we need Minseokkie to wake up, and fast.”

“—and then I’ll tell them how you’re really a big fan of pink and wear pink pajamas to sleep and pink underwear to class.  Isn’t that right?”  A cheerful voice says and Minho replies with a short nod.  The owner of the voice replies with a slap to the back of the head, finally capturing Minho’s attention.

“Yah! Hyung, what was that for?!”  Minho asks, frowning as he soothes the sting at the back of his head by repeatedly rubbing the area.  The other hides his face behind the latest volume of One Piece as he tries to hold in his laughter.

“You were spacing out so much that you didn’t even notice that I was telling you my ‘How-to-Get-Choi-Minho’s-fans’ plan!”  The other replies, doe eyes twinkling with mischief.  Minho rolls his eyes, already used to the other revealing his ‘plans’ to steal Minho’s non-existent fans.

“Luhan-hyung, I don’t even have fans!”  Minho replies, eyeing the stack of papers on his lap.

“Yes, you do!”  The other boy—Luhan—replies, arms flailing in all directions and almost hitting Minho’s face with an elbow.  “Don’t deny it when the entire team saw how many chocolates your locker in the shower room contained!  We’re still trying to figure out how they got in the shower room, you know.”

The sun has begun to set, and streaks of orange paint the otherwise light sky.  A gust of wind almost blows the papers from his lap, signifying the arrival of the bearer of the night’s extra chill.

Indistinct chatters could be heard from a distance, signifying the slowly decreasing amount of students in the campus as another university school day comes to a close.  Tired from a day of academics and from a scrimmage against their university’s female soccer team, the two males chose to cool down their adrenaline-high muscles at the front steps of their university’s theater. 

Armed with three of his One Piece volumes, Luhan expected the younger to excitedly grab one of the volumes and start reading while lending his iPod to the older.  What he got, however, is an unusually quiet Minho and a stack of papers on the other’s lap.

“What are those for, anyway?”  Luhan asks, pointing to the stack of papers using the top part of the spine of his One Piece manga volume.  “Did you neglect to inform me that you’re taking up Music Theory and Calculus?”

“Hm? Oh, these?”  Minho replies, smoothing out the page on top of the stack of papers.  “They’re handouts for Minseok-hyung and Chanyeol.”

“Your hyung and your dongsaeng?”  Luhan replies, jogging through his memory for anything regarding the two males.  “Hm… isn’t your dongsaeng the one who plays the double bass for the school orchestra?”

“Chanyeol? Yeah.”

“They didn’t come to school today?”  Luhan asks, his brows furrowed.  “I normally get to see Chanyeol-ssi when I pass by the music rooms after my Jazz Dance class.”

“Minseok-hyung is ill and Chanyeol’s—“

“MINHO-HYUNG!”  A high-pitched voice calls, cutting off Minho’s sentence.  A blond-haired boy soon stops in front of the two, a folder clutched in his left hand as he catches his breath.

“Baekhyun?  Byun Baekhyun, Post-modern Music major?”  Luhan asks, eyes wide at the scene before him.  “You two know each other?”

“Yes, Luhan-hyung.”  Beakhyun replies, putting the folder on top of the stack of papers on Minho’s lap.  “Minho-hyung, that’s from Kim-seonsaengnim; it’s the piece that the orchestra will play on Saturday’s event.  Kim-seonsaengnim told me to give that to you so that you can bring it home for Chanchan to study.”

“Hang on, you know Minho’s Chanyeol?!”  Luhan exclaims.

“Yeah.”  Baekhyun replies, frowning at the red haired boy’s reaction.  “We have the same Music Theory class.”

“Wait, how about you two?  How do you know each other?”  Minho asks, pointing at the two.

“Well, uhm…” Baekhyun begins, eyeing Luhan nervously.  The older looks away from his eyes, biting his lip.

“Baekhyun?”  Minho prompts.

“I live in the dorm right next to Oh Sehun’s.”  Baekhyun replies.  Minho straightens up at the reply, eyes darting to his hyung.

“Luhan-hyung!  You can’t possibly—wait, he lives alone?”  He asks, turning away from his hyung who won’t meet his eyes to his dongsaeng who’s nervously eyeing the two.

“Nope.”  Baekhyun replies, shaking his head with a pout.  “He’s roommates with Huang Zitao.”

A dark-haired man enters the apartment, turning on the lights before kicking off his shoes.  He takes off his jacket, leaving it on the armrest of the living room couch before starting to make his way to the kitchen.

“I just found out the most surprising thing today.”  A voice suddenly says, startling the man.  He whirls around to look for the source of the voice, and his eyes land on his housemate who’s standing by the entrance to their apartment’s terrace.

“Luhan!”  The man exclaims, trying to calm his racing heart.  “Didn’t I tell you not to do that?  You’re going to scare me to death sometime soon.  Besides, how long have you been waiting there?”

“I think it’s been an hour already.”  Luhan replies, approaching his housemate.  “I found out something today, Kris.”

The man—Kris—rolls his eyes at his housemate before checking his wristwatch.  6PM, about an hour before he had to call his Management class professor to set up a meeting.  He sighs before gesturing to the couch, inviting the other to sit down.  Once the two are settled, Kris asks the question that Luhan has been waiting for.

“So, what did you find out today?”

“Well, I was hanging out with Minnie after practice.  He seemed pretty distracted when we were doing our drills, so I figured I’d spend some time with him instead of heading back in here and sleeping.”  Luhan begins, earning an eye roll from his housemate.  “He was also carrying this stack of papers with him, and apparently it’s his hyung’s and dongsaeng’s handouts.  You know, Chanyeol-ssi the double bass player who majors in Traditional and Classical Music?  The one with the weird ears and the big eyes?”

“Luhan, that’s not very nice.”  Kris says, reprimanding the other.  “But I do know who you’re talking about.  I think Chanyeol-ssi and Minho-yah live with a classmate of mine in one of my math classes.  Kim Minseok?”

“Never heard of him.”  Luhan replies, shaking his head.  “Anyway, we were talking when Byun Baekhyun—you know, the one with the pretty hands—comes running to us.  It turns out, he knows Minnie because he’s friends with Chanyeol-ssi.  He was asked by Kim-seonsaengnim to give Chanyeol-ssi’s copy of the orchestra’s piece to Minnie so that he can give it to Chanyeol-ssi.  Because, you know—“

“Luhan,” Kris begins, interrupting the other, “can we move on to the point of the whole story?”  Although he’s already used to his housemates’ long rambles and stories—and the extremely long prologues to the main points of those stories—he still needs to fix his schedule to make way for any changes that can be brought upon by his meeting with his Management professor.

“Oh Sehun.”  Luhan replies, and Kris tenses at the mention of the name.  “Apparently, he’s roommates with Tao.”

“Hmm…” Kris says, nodding.  “Do you think he knows who Tao is?”

“I don’t think so.  How about Tao, do you think he knows who Oh Sehun is?”

“No; he was still in China two years ago, remember?  He only started living here last year.”  Kris replies earning a nod from the other.  “And full names, really?  That’s a new one, Luhan.”

“I think that calling someone by their full name denotes a sense of detachment.”  Luhan replies, a smug smile on his lips.

“And is that what you want?”  Kris replies, raising an eyebrow.  “Detachment?”

“You can’t even say his name.”  Luhan replies, shaking his head at his housemate.  “He’s still your family, Kris.  You can’t treat him like this!”

“Don’t change the subject, Lu.”  Kris replies, although he breaks any form of contact from his housemate.  “And besides, I thought you want detachment?”

“I do!  But this is your family, Kris.  Think about it!”  Luhan replies, eyes alight with anger.

“It’s none of your business.”  Kris replies, before standing up and heading to the kitchen.  Luhan knows that the other is going to start leafing through their collection of take-out menus before ordering dinner.  They would most probably be on good terms again after the meal.

“I think,” Luhan says, a few minutes after the other left for the kitchen, resting his head on the back of the couch, “that as of this moment, Oh Sehun sounds more pleasing to use than any other name I've called him with.”