Seungho opened the door to the darkened bedroom, and peered inside. A giant lump of blankets and pillows greeted him from Mir's bed, under which he could only assume was his youngest maknae, who was—as far as he could tell—deeper in Dream World than any of them had ever seen before. The pregnancy must have been the cause though, because even though he never wanted to get out of bed when they had to, and needed to be dragged, kicking and screaming (more like whining and crying), into the living room just to get him to open his eyes, he really didn't do too well with sleeping during the day. He could get to noon, one, even two o'clock just fine, but when he did, he was beyond cranky. Those were the days when Seungho had to just grab him by the shirt and give him the stare—long before he even threw a tantrum—just to make sure that he wouldn't act out like he so wanted to, whenever he got the chance.

And that was how Seungho just knew the pregnancy was the reasoning behind everything, because even at one-thirty, Mir was peacefully sleeping with the curtains open (which he always liked to shut when he was in there), letting all the sunlight leak in and warm his blankets; hopefully that meant he wouldn't be irritable (or too much so) when he was woken up.

"Yah, Mireu, wake up," Seungho pulled the blankets back from the maknae's head, and watched his face scrunch up in dislike. "Come on, just for a few minutes—I need to talk to you."

"Go away," whined Mir, rolling over and away from his leader in favor of pressing up to the wall alongside his bed frame.

"Come on, Cheolyong, I need to ask you just a few things, then you can go back to sleep. I know you're tired, but we really need to know these things so we can tell Bear-hyung about you when he gets here tomorrow."

"Fine… what do you want to know?" the maknae huffed, peeling back his blankets so his face could be seen. He threw a hand over his eyes though, to shield them from the light pouring in from the window, and groaned when all his aches and pains began to settle into his body once more.

"Thank you," Seungho smiled; he only received an irritated grunt in return. "First off, how far along are you? We should have asked you before, but the shock kind of made our minds… blank out a little."

"Six months," Mir replied. "And I was just around the three month mark when I went to go visit my family."

Seungho furrowed his eyebrows, and looked down to his fingers twitching and fidgeting in his lap. "How did miss we something like that? You had to have been gaining weight, and acting different…"

"Easy—I hid my stomach," the maknae pushed his hair back away from his face, and let his arms drop down above his head. His fingertips pressed to the wall behind him, before he arched his back up a little to help relieve the pain tingling in his spine. "I went to the gym a lot more, and even started working on my muscles here after dinners and practices. Just ask Joonie-hyung—he knows. He was kind of angry that I was eating more and more as time passed though, because he thought it was counterproductive to working out so much, but I was just so hungry…"

"Did you know at that time?" Seungho asked, letting his gaze wander to the more-than-obvious bump peeking out from beneath the blankets, but Mir covered himself up again quickly enough; he was just so timid about showing any sort of skin that wasn't his arms or legs, even in the safety of the dorm, where only the other four could see him. Seungho figured that he had a right to be nervous this time around though, considering his figure wasn't really all that great anymore. Still, he didn't think G.O. or Thunder would mind too much… nor would he. Joon maybe, because he was so crazy about his own body image, but the other three would be more than happy to slap him or scold him as a punishment, should he decide to be a heartless jerk (again) to their cute little maknae.

"No, I didn't find out until about a month and a half ago," replied Mir; he closed his eyes again then, and his breathing softened. "Umma took me to the local hospital once I told her about my weight gain, and about the month or so that I was bedridden sick. She had the doctors take my blood the second we got there too—which —and sure enough, the test results told me just what I didn't want to hear…"

"And so, instead of calling us up and telling us that you were like this…" Seungho began, sounding more serious and agitated than anything else (but he had a right to be, in a sense), "you decided to just keep this a big secret, and wait until you had to come back home to announce that you and Doongie are having a kid together?"

"My parents had told me I should wait until I had the four of you with me, since you'd have an easier time believing me if you saw me in person," Mir shrugged his shoulders and curled back up under the blankets, appearing about ready for sleep again. "And I didn't call Doongie-hyung because I knew he'd be busy with his shows and promotions, and I didn't want him skipping out on all of that and risking his career by being worried about me and the baby. And I was coming back here anyways soon enough, so I figured I'd just hold off until I saw you guys again to tell you."

"And what about Cheondoong?" Seungho asked, ignoring the fact that Mir had turned his back to him again in favor of staring at the wall… and appeared to be far too busy twirling his hair around his finger to really listen to him. "Was your plan all along to just leave him in the dark like the rest of us until you got back here?"

"That's what I just said, hyung," Mir huffed loudly. "I didn't want him fussing over us, or canceling his schedule just to go all the way out to my hometown to see us, so I decided to keep him oblivious—just like with you other three hyungs—until I could be back in his reach again. That way he could be with me and the baby, and continue doing his work without worrying too much."

"Wow, you're really serious about this, Cheolyong," murmured Seungho, before another smile graced his face. "Good then—you understand just how much this situation is going to affect us, and our careers," he chuckled. "You know, sometimes I forget just how mature you can be when you're put into the right kind of situation, Mireu, and I'm proud of you for wanting to step up and handle your mistake, instead of trying to run and hide."

"Are you my hyung, or my umma?" Mir grumbled to him in response, before he stood up from the bed and walked away; he knew he'd overstayed his welcome, and judging by the dark rings under the maknae's eyes, he needed at least two days of sleep before he'd be ready to get up and do something productive with the rest of them.

"Sleep well, maknae," he called as he stepped back out into the living room again; he then carefully shut the door behind him, and made his way back to his room to grab his pajamas (which really only consisted of an old t-shirt, and a pair of sweatpants) so he could shower. G.O. and Thunder were nowhere to be found when he passed by to head to the bathroom, meaning they'd both gone to their room to do… well, whatever really. He just shrugged and continued on, into the bathroom, and after stripping down, into the shower.

The water was better than usual, he noted, as miniscule droplets of the clear liquid ran down along his skin, warming him and relaxing his muscles, because thanks to his "old age"—as his dongsaengs liked to say—he wasn't in as good of shape as he'd been back when he'd first gone into training to be an idol. He used to be able to go days on end with nonstop dancing, singing, and just fooling around in general; but now… he'd be lucky to get through just one day without feeling something ache. Training to become an idol was completely different from actually performing as one, so he understood that his body was being pushed a lot harder than before… not that him having to watch over his dongsaengs all the time helped him to relax either. He was always chasing Mir around, scolding him for being so open about his affectionate tendencies (especially to other male idols); and Thunder, well, he wasn't nearly as bad as their youngest maknae, but he could be pretty evil when he wanted... he was just more discreet about it than the rest of them. And Joon could get pretty bad sometimes too, particularly when he and Mir were locked up in their room alone, where no one else could hear them conspiring against their bandmates in the hopes of making them suffer. And G.O.—he didn't really need much looking after. He was mature, kind, helpful, and just as good at being a leader as Seungho was. He got after the maknaes when they weren't listening, and he whacked Joon whenever he was being stupid and loud, which took more than a fair share of the hassle off of Seungho; and he was grateful for that, because looking after four dongsaengs all by himself probably would have proved to be too much for him.

But that was another thing that made him so upset about what they'd just learned, because not only had he missed the fact that Mir and Thunder had, one, become a couple (or something akin to that anyways), two, slept together, and three, conceived a child, but G.O. had as well. The two of them kept such a good eye on their maknaes (and G.O. even shared a room with one of them), that he couldn't really see any logical explanation as to how they could have overlooked something so important, and, well… kind of obvious, because surely neither maknae was really trying all that hard to cover up his affections for the other when they suddenly went from part-time friends, to full-on cuddle-buddies and food-sharing partners. And even the way they interacted verbally had changed too, since they'd gone from quiet exchanges of a few words, to pressing their foreheads together whenever they were close enough to, and talking to each other in weird high-pitched tones that Seungho had thought was only reserved for women.

But that was where he was wrong.

He let out a frustrated sigh and rested his arm against the shower wall, letting the water wash down over his face and chest until the tap ran cold. Then he stepped out and wrapped a towel around his waist—because his hair was short enough to dry within the next few minutes—before he padded his way out into the living room, and over to the fridge. He caught sight of Thunder as he journeyed by, and gave him a look that was meant to pass as greeting, but instead only seemed to reflect disappointment; he watched the visual maknae drop his head and disappear back into his bedroom.

"You're being too harsh on him," a voice stated from back behind him on his other side, near to where his own room lay. He turned to look at who stood there, and sure enough, just as he'd thought, G.O. was watching him rummage around on the refrigerator shelves for food, his arms folded over his chest like he was a stern parent talking to a mischievous child. "Sure, he's older than Cheolyong, and should have known better than to go around doing what he did, but he's probably just as shocked and confused as we are right now, and you acting like this is only bringing him down more... You should let him see him…"

Seungho stood up straight again and rolled his shoulders, before turning to stare at his singer… much in the same fashion as he'd done to Thunder. "Don't tell me what I should and shouldn't do, Byunghee. I'm the leader of this group, and your elder, and if I say that my sneaky, soon-to-be-parent maknaes shouldn't be interacting with each other, then I mean what I say, and not one of you should go against me for making that decision."

"You're only going to make things worse though," G.O. protested, taking a small step forward. "They've already been separated long enough, and now that Cheondoong knows about the baby… well, I just think that they need to work things out together, and think about what they're going to do."

Seungho shook his head. "You're pushing your boundaries, dongsaeng," he said, turning his attention back to the fridge and its array of rotten items. "Just leave me to my own devices, and go do what you have to before we go back to work in two days."

G.O. dropped his hands and sighed; there was just no getting past his leader, not even when he was outnumbered and put in public. "Fine, go ahead—do what you want, but when they hate you later on for being like this, don't say I didn't warn you."