“Yah!! I told you to stay in your room!!” The man yelled at the boy cowering against the wall. The boy had been in his room for hours and desperately needed to go to the bathroom.

“I-I just h-had to g-go p-potty.” He whimpered from his place, hoping it would calm some of the anger exuding out of the adult. He spared a glance at the woman sitting on the couch behind where the man stood fuming, only to find she had an amused smile on her face. That was no surprise, however, since he had long given up on the hope that she would help him.

“DID I SAY YOU COULD SPEAK!?” He was brought back to the present issue when a hard slap to his face registered in his brain. Tears prickled in his eyes at the sting and he tasted blood in his mouth. The cut from the slap he received the other day not quite fully healed. “I’ll teach insolent rats like yourself what happens when they speak without permission.”

The boy’s eyes widened in fear as the man’s large hand circled his neck and squeezed. He clawed at the hand, trying to remove the pressure so he could breathe. Unfortunately this further angered the man and he slammed the boy into the wall, his head cracking painfully against it, and squeezed harder.

Hongbin jolted up in bed, startling Taekwoon who had been hovering above him, trying to wake him up. Leo looked into Hongbin’s eyes and saw they were wide with fear.

“Hongbin-ah.” Taekwoon’s voice was very soft so as not to scare Hongbin further. The younger turned his head to look at his boyfriend and tears started to pour out of his eyes. He hadn’t dreamt of his birth parents for years and remembering them now was absolutely terrifying. It wasn’t a second after the first tear fell that he was pressed against Taekwoon, long arms wrapped tightly around him.

Taekwoon didn’t say anything, he merely held Hongbin as silent sobs shook his entire body. He wondered what he had dreamt of that would reduce him to such a state, but recognized that that was not the priority at the moment. He held Hongbin until his sleep shirt was soaked and the younger had fallen asleep. Instead of returning to his own bed, he lied down on Hongbin’s bed, determined to keep the younger in his embrace and, hopefully, the nightmares away.

He was awoken the next morning by the feel of someone hugging the air out of him. At first he thought it was N or Ken coming to annoy him until he got up, but then he remembered what transpired in his room last night and he was completely awake almost immediately.

Hesitantly, he called out to the younger. “Hongbinnie?” The grip he was in tightened even further, although he thought that was impossible, and he took it as a sign that the younger was awake and listening. “Are you okay?” For a while, there was no movement and Leo thought the younger had fallen back asleep, but then here was a very tiny shake of his head, signifying that Hongbin was not okay. “Do you want to talk about it?” Another small, negative shake of the head answered his question.

“What can I do to make it better?” At that question, Hongbin relaxed his death-grip on Taekwoon and lifted his head to look him in the eye. He raised his hands so Taekwoon would watch what they were dong before signing one word.

Cuddles.

Taekwoon wasn’t sure how he knew what Hongbin said, but with that one word, they spent most of the day in each other’s embrace.

^ ^ ^

Ken was put out. Yesterday, Hyuk brought a new friend home. But that wasn’t the reason for his agitated mood. The agitation came from the fact that the younger wouldn’t play with him even after he had finished practicing his musical with Minah, which was excruciating with the hangover he had. He just continued to read his Naruto mangas and discuss them with the foreign boy. Even today, he was out with that kid, doing who knows what, when they could be playing video games together. There was no one else he could hang out with either. N and Ravi went out to see a movie and claimed that it was not a date and Leo and Hongbin were glued to each other and not talking to anyone.

He ruffled his hair in a frustrated manner before flopping on his bed. Because he spends so much time with Hyuk, he’s not sure what to do now that the younger is not around.

“Maybe I could call one of my friends from school.” Ken thought for a moment. “Nah, they’re probably all working on their college work or out with their girlfriends.” For a few more moments, he laid there dejectedly before he noticed his textbooks on his desk. He had a few essays due sooner than is reasonable for not having started them yet. With a heavy sigh, he heaved himself up and got his book bag, packing the textbooks he would need and his laptop.

“I’m going to the library!” He yelled to whoever was in the house before walking out. As he made his way to the library, his mind wandered to why Hyuk seemed to be avoiding him. Everything was fine until this morning. Because of his hangover, he didn’t really remember what happened yesterday. All he could recall was that he practiced some of his lines from an upcoming play, but that doesn’t seem like enough to make Hyuk behave like this. That was not his first time doing some of his college work on their video game day without telling Hyuk beforehand, so what was it that was bothering the maknae of their group?

The question haunted him even as he worked on his essays.

^ ^ ^

“Oh my gosh! That movie was so good!” N gushed as he and Ravi walked out of the theater after seeing Dracula Untold. “Luke Evans is so hot!”

“Yah, what about me?” Ravi looked at N incredulously.

“What about you?”

“Do you like me more or Luke Evans?”

“What kind of question is that? Luke Evans a glamorous Hollywood star who just so happens to be on legs. But he’s unattainable and I have no idea who he is.” N paused to gauge Ravi’s reaction and was pleased to see he was listening closely. “You, on the other hand, you’re sweet, attentive, and you have a body and a voice that screams god. The best part, however, is that you’re mine and have been for quite some time despite my constant running from our potential relationship. So I like you more, of course.” N ended with a peck to Ravi’s cheek and a blushing face.

“You cheese ball.” Despite his statement, Ravi was grinning out of the joy of winning over the actor. He boldly slipped his arm around N’s waist as they walked and his joy was doubled when N did nothing but blush even more. They both knew that they were on a date even if they told everyone that they were just hanging out as friends. “What should we do now?”

“Let’s go eat. All that excitement has made me hungry.” They walked until they came across a small café where they decided to eat. It had been a while since it was just the two of them, talking. Because of that, N forgot how comfortable he was with Ravi and how much he enjoyed being with the younger. He knew that he had no real reason to not just start dating Ravi, he was just scared that committing to the younger would get him to forget about everything and everyone else he took care of.

At that moment, N made a vow to himself. As soon as the issue surrounding Hyuk and Ken was taken care of, he would start to officially date Ravi. Unless that happened before his finals, he needed to focus on those. Thinking about his finals, N froze, realizing that he had yet to cast the last male for the performance he choreographed for his final. If he didn’t cast him quickly and integrate him into the group performance, he might not graduate. Ravi, who had been observing N as he was lost in his thoughts, noticed the change in body language.

“N? Are you okay?”

“Uh, no. Not really.” N’s voice was dazed as he started to have an internal breakdown. He had two weeks before the performance and he wasn’t sure how he managed to completely forget to recruit his final dancer.

“What’s wrong?”

“I forgot to cast another male dancer for my final…” Ravi watched as N teetered on the edge of a total panic attack before pulling the elder back over to the calm side.

“I’ll do it. I’ve almost finished my final, so I have some extra time. I also minor in dance in case you have forgotten.” Ravi continued to eat his food in a casual manner while N processed the words spoken to him.

“Really!?!?” N merely got a nod in response. “The performance is in two weeks, are you sure?”

“Yep. When do we start practicing?” Ravi looked up with a smile on his face to see that N had tears of relief in his eyes.

“After we let our food digest, I’ll start showing you the moves and we’ll come up with a schedule.” N fiddled with his fingers nervously before speaking once more, nervous about putting too much pressure on the younger. “Um, it would probably be best if you learned most of the choreography this week. Next week are the finalizing practices for the entire group.”

“Mmkay.”

“Ravi-ah.” The younger looked up to meet N’s eyes. “Thank you.” There was a lot of emotion Ravi could detect in those two words, but he couldn’t quit decipher all of them. All he knew was that he made his precious love happy and that was good enough for him.

“You are very welcome. Come, let’s walk around a little while we let our food digest.” Ravi offered his hand, which N took, and they strolled through shops and a park together.

* * *

“Come on! You can’t just read old ones! It’s not like I’m making you read some melodrama or something! Fairy Tail is full of action just like Naruto.” Jackson and Hyuk were currently in the manga store and Jackson was trying to get Hyuk to break out of his ‘I only like old mangas’ mentality. “I’ve read every volume that has come out. I promise you’ll like it.”

“I don’t know… Newer mangas aren’t as good as the old ones.” Hyuk made a face at the book in his new friend’s hand.

“It has an ongoing anime right now that you could watch with it. Would you just trust me!”

“Ugh, fine. I’ll read it.”

“ALRIGHT!” Jackson fist pumped in the air. “Wanna go back to your place so you can start reading this and I can continue reading Naruto?”

“Sure.” They checked out some of the volumes before leaving the store. The plan was to go right back to Hyuk’s house, but on their way back, they came across a costume store. Not just any costume store, but one that specialized in anime/manga cosplay.

“Jackson, let’s go in here.” Hyuk pulled on the other’s arm and they walked into heaven. The shop was a lot bigger than it appeared to be from the outside and all the costumes were organized in alphabetical order by anime. “Oh. My…”

“GOD!” Jackson made a strange squealing noise before pulling Hyuk to the Naruto section. “You have got to try on the costume for Naruto.” Before Hyuk could properly process what was happening, he found himself in the changing room with Naruto’s outfit.

“Okay then.” Quickly, he changed in to the costume and stepped out to see Jackson waiting for him with two outfits in his hands.

“I knew you would look perfect as Naruto! Now, should I be Tsunade or Sakura?” He held up the corresponding outfit for each as he said their name.

“Why did you choose two female characters?” There was amusement in his voice as Hyuk asked the question.

“Because I’m just too fabulous for the male characters.” They were both silent for a moment before bursting out in laughter.

“Sakura. Be Sakura.” Hyuk managed to choke out between laughter. Stumbling, Jackson made his way to the changing room to change, slightly dizzy from all the laughter. Their joy did not stop there, however, they tried on various costumes from various animes. They took pictures, laughed at each other, and even got into some role-play getting characters from different animes to interact with each other. Unbeknownst to the two in the store there was someone outside watching Hyuk’s face light up with happiness.

Ken had made good headway on his essays despite his distracted brain and decided that he had spent enough time in the library and should get home. He didn’t know what made him look into the window of the cosplay shop, but he did and felt himself grow even more depressed seeing his beloved dongsaeng happily playing with someone else.

He didn’t understand what was going on between them at the present time. There was a suspicion that he did something to push the younger away during Hongbin’s welcome party in his brain, but he could not remember because he was drunk off his that night. Heaving a sigh, Ken continued to walk home, away from his best friend.

^ ^ ^

In the house, Hongbin was lying on Taekwoon’s chest, having just fallen asleep. Leo smiled at the younger’s peaceful face before gently moving him off so he could get something to eat. While he was up, he heard a phone going off in their room. Investigating showed that it was Hongbin’s sister. Normally, Taekwoon would just let the phone ring and tell Hongbin about it later, but he was curious about the reason for Hongbin’s nightmare and figured that if anyone knew about the reason it would be his boyfriend’s noona.

He answered the video call after a small internal debate. “Uh hello.”

“You aren’t Hongbinnie. You’re his roommate, uh, Taekwoon, right?”

“Yes.” They were silent for a moment.

“Is there a reason you picked up the phone instead of Hongbin?”

“I wanted to ask you something and Hongbin is asleep.”

“Wait, Binnie is asleep right now? Did he have a nightmare last night? One where he woke up completely terrified?” Taekwoon could see the worry on her face.

“How did you know?”

A sigh left Mei. “He only sleeps during the day if he had a nightmare the previous night. I was worried this would happen.”

“Um, could you tell me why he had the nightmare?” Mei smiled at Taekwoon a little, seeing his feelings for Hongbin very clearly through the phone.

“Sorry, you’re going to have to wait until Binnie is ready to tell you. For now can you just take care of him and tell him to call me when he has a moment?” Taekwoon nodded. “Thank you. Goodbye.” The call ended and Leo returned to his spot on the couch with Hongbin just as the younger woke up.

Hyung. Where’d you go?

“Food. Also, your phone rang. Mei noona says to call her when you have a moment?” Hongbin nodded in acknowledgement. “Do you have classes on Tuesday?”

No.

“Would you like to hang out with me at my school while I work on my final?” Hongbin lifted his head and smiled at Taekwoon before answering.

I would love to.

Hey guys. So I'm not dead. I just had to focus on my school work because after my last update I kinda, sorta, maybe started to fail most of my classes.....so yeah, had to get my grades up.

Everyone is experiencing a shift in emotions now and you get a little peak into part of why Hongbin is no longer with his birth parents. We are going to pretend for this fic that Jackson and Hyuk are the same age. Yeah, well.

Comment, subscribe, enjoy!

PS: do you guys want some or something for Halloween like I did last year? If you do, suggest something because I don't have an idea at the moment.

I really like this picture....

This is perfect for SO many reasons!

THEY ARE ADORABLE AND WILL BE THE DEATH OF ME!......did I go overboard?.......