One morning, while Miss Tiffany is writing out the alphabet on the white board, Daehyun suddenly announces that Youngjae did not come to school today. Startled, Jongin and Kyungsoo look up from their very intense game of tic-tac-toe and Kyungsoo asks him why.

“He has the chickenpox,” Daehyun replies, flapping his elbows like wings. “What’s that?” Jongin asks, puzzled, setting down his pencil. “No idea,” Daehyun shrugs, “but daddy won’t let us play with him so it’s gotta be bad.”

Worried, Kyungsoo loses interest in his and Jongin’s fierce battle of x’s and o’s and instead, opts for staring out the window while contemplating how to handle this situation.

When class is released for recess, Kyungsoo sets out in search of Luhan, who he is certain will know what it is that currently ails his best friend. He finds Luhan and Chanyeol in the bathroom, shoulders hunched over the very corner tap, filling up an assortment of colored water balloons. Kyungsoo walks over to them and taps Luhan on the shoulder. Luhan jumps in alarm and his fingers drop from the balloon he currently has attached to the water tap. The balloon bounces into the sink, squirting out all of the water right onto Luhan and Chanyeol’s clothes.

“Hey!” “What!” Chanyeol and Luhan shout, spinning around quickly. “Gah, you scared me!” Luhan gasps, hand over his heart, breathing heavily. Chanyeol twitches his nose,”hmph, ” brushes the water off his sweater, then returns his attention back to the balloon in the sink and resumes where Luhan had left off.

“What do you want?” Luhan asks, eyebrow raised.

Kyunsoo cuts straight to the chase and says, “what’s chickenpops?”

“What? You mean chickenpox? Why? Why do you wanna know?”

“Because Daehyun says Youngjae has chickenpox and he says it’s bad,” Kyungsoo frowns, eyebrows furrowed with worry.

Luhan and Chanyeol glance at each other for a brief second. Then Luhan turns back to Kyungsoo with the gravest expression and says, “well, Daehyun’s right. It’s really bad.”

Kyungsoo gasps and his eyes open so wide that Luhan is pretty sure he can see a whole new world in there.

“Yeah,” Luhan continues, “when you get the chickenpox, you start getting all these red dots on your skin and they get really itchy and all you wanna do is keep scratching.” Luhan makes scratching gestures all over his body. “But the thing is,” Luhan still and lowers his voice into a whisper, and Kyungsoo leans forwards to hear what his brother has to say. “If you scratch the red spots too hard, they’re gonna come off and every time the red spot comes off, feathers will pop out. And if too many feathers pop out, you’re gonna turn into a chicken!” Luhan shouts the last word, flinging his arms up into the air, and Kyungsoo yelps and stumbles backwards, falling onto the bathroom floor.

“No!” Kyungsoo shouts, scrambling back up, and bolts out the bathroom door.

Luhan and Chanyeol burst into laughter, stuffing water balloons into their sweater and jacket pockets.

--

For the remainder of the day, Kyungsoo strategizes his next course of action to prevent Youngjae from becoming a chicken. He must somehow meet up with Youngjae to see how bad his red spots are. Kyungsoo must warn him not to scratch at them, no matter how itchy they get. He refuses to have his best friend turn into a farm animal.

--

When the day is done, Kyungsoo walks silently beside Daehyun and Jongin toward the front entrance. Kyungsoo spots his daddy Junmyeon waiting with Yongguk by the door. When all the kids are accounted for, the parents guide their children to the parking lot where their cars are parked side by side. Kyungsoo tries to make himself as least noticeable as possible as Junmyeon herds their group toward the van.

As Junmyeon unlocks the doors, Daehyun and Kyungsoo make eye contact, and then Daehyun jumps into action. “Attack!” Daehyun shouts, pelting water balloons at the opposite car. Junmyeon becomes the first casualty of Daehyun’s water balloons as Luhan, who Kyungsoo had recruited during lunch time, joins in and catapults balloons back at Yongguk’s car.

“Oh my God. Stop! STOP!” “YEE!” “What the?” “Luhan!” “Daehyun!” “YEAH!” “What?!” “Chanyeol!” “YES!” “Oh my god.” “GOTCHA!” “Jongin!” “STOP!”

In the ensuing chaos, Kyungsoo jumps into Yongguk’s van and ducks down onto the floor. He waits with bated breath as his daddy and Yongguk manage to bring order amongst their children. About 10 minutes later, Kyungsoo is able to breathe a sigh of relief as a soaked and disheveled Yongguk starts the car and his daddy does not yet seem to realize he is missing.

--

Yongguk is definitely alarmed when he sees Kyungsoo launch himself out of the car and dash towards his house. Three seconds later, Yongguk’s pocket starts to ring and he sees Junmyeon’s name pop up on his phone.

“Oh my God Kyungsoo is missing I can’t find him I swear he was with me when I got to the car!” Yongguk flinches away from the phone as Junmyeon shouts in an uninterrupted stream of panic. Yongguk counts to ten, dragging his fingers through his tangled hair while walking to the door, then shouts into his phone, “Cease!” Junmyeon stutters into silence and Yongguk proceeds to explain what had happened and reassures Junmyeon not to worry and that he can drop him off as soon as he finds him.

--

Himchan, pulling off his suit jacket, locates Kyungsoo in Youngjae’s room, sitting on top of his struggling son, screaming “you can’t turn into a chicken!” Kyungsoo has managed to shove Youngjae’s hands into oven mitts and has finished wrapping duct tape around the boy’s left wrist when Himchan takes pity on his son and gently tries to pry Kyungsoo off, teaching him that chicken pox is not deadly and, no, Youngjae will not be turning into a chicken, that It is not possible for humans to even turn into animals in the first place. Kyungsoo huffs in response and swears vengeance against his brothers as he releases his hold on a very irritated Youngjae.

--

Two weeks later,

A disgruntled Kyungsoo is confined to bed rest due to chickenpox.

a/n: whywhywhywhywhywhywhy omg im so sorry this one is seriously a mess but the concept of chicken pox was just so appealing to me and before i knew it this word vomit happened T^T