They all woke with multiple limbs numb from the pile they’d been in to fit in the bed, but everyone was happy so it didn’t matter.  It took only a couple days for Jackson and Bambam to adjust to the new norm of people disappearing into Jinyoung’s room.  The few times in the next weeks that it happened, they weren’t quite as keen to sit in the living room pretending to watch movies with whoever happened to be left over, but otherwise they were fine.

In a group setting Jackson and Bambam tended to stay to the side of the conversation, even if Jackson still managed to control the flow of both of them at once.  Mark missed them most of all, having the back up of having someone else who didn’t speak Korean as fluently as the natives, but one on one, and with just the three of them nothing had changed. 

There was a small break in the weird mood a few days later when Bambam rolled out of bed clearly disgruntled, though he tried to hide it by claiming he was tired.  It wasn’t until half way through lunch that Bambam confessed it was his mother’s birthday tomorrow.

When they got back to the dorm that night Jinyoung wasted no time in scooping the smallest member up on the couch.

“What do you usually do for Umma’s birthday?”

The frown that had been present on Bambam’s face lessened just slightly at Jinyoung calling his mother so familiarly; like because they were brothers of sorts they must all share mothers also.  “She doesn’t take the day off,” he sighed softly, “So we always get up before the sun to make her breakfast…” he shrugged a little, talking of home made him more homesick.

Jinyoung thought about that for a moment before he nodded, “What else?”

“After work we have a party.  We get a big cake and do presents and leftovers from the restaurant that night, so it’s a ton of food and all Umma’s friends come over.”

“Did you send her anything?” the elder asked with a small smile, nuzzling against his shoulder.

“Yeah… I mean, it’s not much, but I sent her some skin care stuff,” he nodded and picked at his jeans as he leaned back into Jinyoung.

“I’m sure she’ll love it,” he nodded.

Bambam nodded and settled himself against Jinyoung, watching the TV vaguely.  Jinyoung’s hands were rubbing gently over his arms and halfway through the show the smaller drifted off, a soft snore punctuating the quiet dialogue from the TV.

-

In the morning Bambam was woken up by a shake of his shoulder, Jinyoung leaning over him with a bright smile.

“Hyung, what time-“

“Shhhhh,” the elder grinned, gesturing to Yugyeom who was sleeping nearby in his bed.

Bambam’s eyebrows drew together, trying to decipher what might be happening.  If Jinyoung was waking him up, why wasn’t he waking Yugyeom up?  And hadn’t he been watching TV?  How did he get to his bed?

“Come on, come on,” Jinyoung urged him softly, pulling on his arms.

Bambam grumbled and had to remind himself for the millionth time that maknae did not curse their hyungdeul out.  He sat up in bed and sleepily stumbled after Jinyoung.  When they got out to the living room he immediately noticed the large pile of bags on the coffee table.

“You can tell me what to do, I got a bunch of stuff,” Jinyoung nodded, tugging the younger over to the bags.

“Hyung, what…” he trailed off as he noticed the mixing bowls on the coffee table, but stopped moving entirely when he heard other people talking.  His head turned to check the TV and finding it off, he glanced to Jinyoung uncertainly, were they speaking Thai…?

Jinyoung grinned and tugged the younger to sit in the middle of the couch where he’d set up his ipad on the table, hidden from the other side by the bags of food.  Staring back at him on the screen was his family.  His family in his kitchen.

When they saw the younger boy they erupted into a jumble of Thai and Jinyoung grinned, settling himself to the side to start unpacking some of the bags.

Bambam’s face got red as the shock of what he was seeing wore off and the homesickness set in.  He was crying before he even managed to say hello back, leaning forward to pick up the ipad so that he could see them all as closely as possible.

They were in the middle of preparing his mother’s breakfast and he laughed happily as it set in what all Jinyoung had spread out on the table in front of him.  There was a large assortment of snacks from Thailand, and all the foods they usually prepared for breakfast. 

Bambam was so busy speaking with them all that he barely had time to tell Jinyoung what he was supposed to be doing.  The elder seemed to have thought of that ahead of time though, a stack of papers in his hands as he worked his way through the food.

It took almost a half an hour for his family to finish preparing breakfast and in that time Jinyoung was barely done with two things, but he didn’t seem like he was in a rush.  In that time he’d gotten the whole story from his family.  That last night Jinyoung and the others had called his family and got the ingredients for the breakfast, letting them know that they would be calling through Skype so that Bambam could spend the important parts of the day at least back home with his family.

When they took the camera in to gather his mother from bed to come to the table he cried all over again as she cooed over how he’d grown since she’d seen him just the week before, and did his voice sound even deeper?  He could barely refute her claims before the next came about how he was becoming a man and how she was so proud of him.  It was all Bambam could do to remind her that it was her birthday not his own, and that he was supposed to be telling her how beautiful she was, that she hadn’t aged a day since he had left for Korea, and that he missed her and loved her more than all the stars in the sky.

When it was time for work for the family he finally said a tearful goodbye to them all, looking up to find that all of the hyungs and Yugyeom had gotten up by this point and were helping Jinyoung put breakfast together.  They were working so quietly he hadn’t even noticed, probably in an effort to make sure he could hear his family.

They didn’t make a big deal out of it when he joined in, wiping his cheeks with the back of his hands, and nobody commented when he might have gotten a few tears into the food he was making.

Instead, when they were done cooking they sat down and ate together, talking about the day to come and they ignored the way Bambam’s voice got hoarse when his throat tightened with emotion.  The food wasn’t nearly as good as his mother’s, or even the rest of the family’s when they were preparing it for her.  But it tasted delicious to all of them because they had made it as a family too, and Bambam didn’t think he’d ever had Thai food this good in Seoul. 

When he apologized for how late he knew their long breakfast would make them in the practice room, no one accepted it, waving him off with shrugs and smiles.  It wasn’t until well after dark when they were on their way home that he realized why they weren’t worried.  They stopped at the front desk on the way up to their dorm to pick up a cake box that had been delivered earlier and he was glad that Yugyeom was taller than him, because he started crying right there in the lobby. 

The back of the tall maknae was the perfect place for him to bury his face and save himself from further embarrassment.  Bambam clung to his back through the elevator ride and all the way until they’d sat him back down at the couch to wait for the video call from his family.

While he waited they all slapped on party hats and sat with him, Jaebum cutting the cake and passing it out.  Jinyoung stuck a candle in each piece so they could all ‘make a birthday wish for their Umma’ as he put it, so he was tearing up again before the call even came through. 

When it did come Bambam answered it and they all crowded in around him to see the party going on thousands of miles away.  His mother scolded him with a teary smile, asking him if he’d been crying all day and he had to laugh and explain it to the other boys before telling her that they’d been keeping him cheerful all day.  She thanked them and no one needed a translation when they sang happy birthday in Thai along with his family. 

They’d learned it for Bambam’s past birthdays and were all too happy to show off that little knowledge.  They all blew out their candles with wishes for his mother and ate their cake.  The rest of the conversation they left up to Bambam, letting him talk freely without asking for translations because no one wanted to slow down his communication with them when he barely had the time to talk to them nowadays. 

That night Bambam passed out once more on the couch, exhausted from all the draining emotions of the day and Jaebum and Jackson carried him to bed, Jinyoung tucked him in, and they cleaned up before heading to bed themselves.