Chapter 6

Luhan stares at the black letters on his book, praying that osmosis would do its job and force the words into his brain. He continues to read, memorizing the words and its sounds, knowing that even if he did not understand it, he would at least be able to give the textbook version of the answer.

“Princess Lulu. Whatcha up to?” The loud and obnoxious and very welcome voice of a certain Kim Jongdae sounds around him and Luhan feels hands wrap around his shoulders from behind.

“Are you blind, idiot-dae? What do you think he's up to?” Baekhyun's shrill voice rings out, puncturing the unwanted silence, yanking Luhan to his side.

Luhan offers Jongdae a small smile, accompanied by a wave, content to let Baekhyun fight with Jongdae, sharing a smile with Yixing who just crosses his eyes.

“I was asking Lulu. Should I start calling you that Baek?”

Yixing giggles, it seems like Baekhyun found a match for his sarcasm. Jongdae had made it his personal mission to make Luhan laugh, especially after seeing the doe eyed male cry when he thought he lost his ring. (It was actually on his bed). Baekhyun had briefed him on the events leading up to their arrival and Jongdae felt a slight pang of sadness, when he sees Luhan who still cries when he thinks no one is listening. Baekhyun would never admit it, but he was glad that Jongdae was here, for the simple fact that Luhan laughed when Jongdae was around, even if he did bring the abominable child with him.

“Studying, for the History test,” Luhan cuts in, before Baekhyun can begin his usual scream fest.

“History? I thought you were a dance major?” Jongdae’s confusion is apparent, as he yanks a chair closer to the group, wrapping an arm around Luhan's shoulder, practically forcing Baekhyun away from Luhan. He tickles the underside of Luhan's jaw, cooing at his pout.

“Dance minor. I'm majoring in business administration, you know. I have three classes with you, Jongdae,” Luhan has gotten used to Jongdae's weird little habits, having spent over six weeks sitting next to the boy, admonishing him when he became lazy, getting into verbal altercations alongside Baekhyun, cowering behind him as he endures the curious stares of the male population, trying to see if he was male or female. Luhan contemplates wearing a sign, the words 'I am a man' printed on them. Jongdae seems to relish his role in being Luhan's shield, walking him to all their shared classes, only letting him go when Jongin or Baekhyun comes and even then, he prefers to ensure that Luhan is safely on his way before even moving.

“Business administration is my minor, I'm a computer science baby! Though that still doesn't explain History. And how I don't know that. I should know everything about you, my precious Lulu,” Jongdae frowns, puffing his cheeks out, batting away Baekhyun's claws, hissing at Sehun who dares to laugh at him.

“It's an elective, hyung. Luhannie hyung and I are taking it together,” Jongin cuts in, saving Luhan from Jongdae's evil clutches. Baekhyun and Sehun both laugh at Jongdae's wounded expression, Baekhyun immediately turning to glare at Sehun, whose laughter trials off before diving for cover behind Jongdae, all while Jongin pulls Luhan into his lap. He rests his head on Luhan's shoulder, whilst Luhan's hand absentmindedly runs through Kai's hair.

Yixing looks at the duo, who had been connected at hip since their discovery of the other, and wonders, if they would be the ones to heal each other's wounds or rip new ones into their already shattered bodies. He supposes he can only watch and bandage the wounds the best he could until one of them ripped the other apart.

Jongin showers quickly, hoping to avoid the other housemates, before he can put on his foundation, a routine he goes through daily, something he forces himself to do, before he tumbles into the couch his new friend had put up for him. His roommate still has not shown up after three days and Jongin was beginning to wonder if he even existed or if he really was abducted by aliens. He works the kinks out in his body, the heat from the shower head, too good to let go. Kyungsoo had forbidden him from showering with hot water, tossing him out the first time when he realized his morning shower was only lukewarm instead of the roiling heat he preferred.

Jongin towels his hair, with Luhan’s towel, sweatpants clinging to his legs, and examines himself in the mirror. The fifth day was always the worst, the bruises highlighting his face and body. Jongin rummages through his bag, looking for his make up bag when he hears he door click open. Thinking nothing of it, Luhan liked to interrupt him in the shower, bringing with a variety of creams for Jongin to rub into his wounds. He continues to search, frowning as he pulls out an almost empty bottle of foundation. Jongin makes a mental note to buy some more, and to check his bank balance to see if his parents had deposited money. He had saved quite a bit, and needed to find his roommate to discuss the rent. Thank goodness, Kyungsoo had not taken that from him.

“Luhan, do you have a hair dryer?” Jongin looks up, expecting the caramel tones of the boy who mirrored him, not in life but in mind, and was greeted with jet black hair, with a hand pressed to his mouth in horror.

“Ah…um…hello?” Jongin begins, startled and half afraid. Was he going to be tossed out again? “I wasn't expecting you Baekhyun hyung,” Jongin subtly moves the towel to hide most of his bruises, regretting his decision to forego a shirt. “I tripped and…”

“Who on Earth did that to your face? You tell me now and I will bring Jongdae to his place and beat the living out of him,” the shrill voice that interrupts widens his eyes and Jongin gulps nervously.

“I..um..my…boyfriend?” Jongin stutters, terrified.

“Ex-boyfriend!” The shrill voice insists. “No one who does that to you gets to still be your boyfriend. Not while I'm around.”

The black haired boy turns back, raising his voice considerable, calling for the ones named Jongdae and Yixing and… a thing? Jongin had never been good with names, with faces that slid like water from his memory and two new ones are rarely good.

Jongin is introduced, his shy, “hello, my name is Kai,” met with a snort from Jongdae, who then demands his real name, to which Jongin responds with a feeble voice, making Yixing laugh. Jongin liked Yixing, with his sweet nature, able to soothe anyone.

Yixing begins dabbing at his face with cotton balls soaked in a liquid that burns his skin while Luhan holds his hands while Sehun distracts him with weird stories, half of which are clearly lies.

Baekhyun and Jongdae are sitting in corner, waiting for him to spill the details.

“Is the person who did this to you still contacting you?” Jongdae asks, his tone gentle. Jongin shakes his head.

“I got kicked out. He got someone new. For now. When he's bored with them, then…umm... He calls me to come back,” Jongin's tone wavers as he bites his lip, Luhan tightening his hold on Jongin's hand in reassurance.

“Can you tell me who it is?” Jongdae carries on, when Baekhyun looks to disgusted to even speak. Jongin hangs his head in shame. He really was a deplorable human being, when someone who has welcomed him into his home cannot even bear to look at him.

Jongin shakes his head again, trying to burn the tears back into his body, when Baekhyun lurches at him.

“Oh my poor baby. I didn't know you were going through such terrible things. You can stay here forever and be my son. I already have Hannie as a child, and Xingie is well…Xingie is someone. You can be my baby, okay? I'll look after you, don't you worry,” Baekhyun sobs as he nearly strangles Jongin.

Jongin is startled, surprised by the words pouring from Baekhyun's mouth. Luhan smiles at him, from the side, moving his arms, looking silly as he waves them around. Jongin mirrors his motions, finding that his arms rest quite nicely on Baekhyun's waist and squeezes gently.

Baekhyun immediately turns to Jongdae, “you, take your useless thing and go find out where my poor baby's roommate is. I'm going to kill him for leaving my baby out in the cold and stranding him without a place to live. Useless thing, you go find out if they have four room apartments here and if there are, are any one of them something I can take right now. If not, he's sleeping with me instead of this abysmal couch.”

Jongin, Jongdae and Sehun stare at Baekhyun as he continues to bark out orders, grabbing the cotton swab from Yixing, and attempting to apply the medicine for Jongin before Yixing elbows him and takes the swab back.

Jongin laughs and winces as the bruises stretch over his ribs, causing Baekhyun to gasp dramatically.

“You tell me who did this to you, so I can deal with them baby boy,” Baekhyun demands, and Jongin is half tempted to give, to let Baekhyun do as he wished, while he stayed curled up here, cuddled next to Luhan, warm and safe, but Jongin knew, he knew that Kyungsoo would simply find another to torture him. Jongin opts for his only option, hiding his face in Luhan's shoulder, as Luhan quietly his hair. Luhan who knows what it means to be stripped of everything you know and then set ablaze. Baekhyun who has to watch helplessly as his baby breaks, bites his lip and reaches out to wrap Jongin up again.

Jongdae sighs, pulling Baekhyun back, calming the diva before he bursts into tears. Jongin misses the mumbled “I'll find out, Baek,” Jongdae presses into Baekhyun’s ear, head still buried in Luhan's shoulder, muffling his hisses as Yixing tends to his wounds.

“Did you guys hear about the party at Tao’s frat house?” Sehun asks, his voice barely a whisper as he tries to overcome the bone crushing fear developed on the presence of Byun Baekhyun.

“I heard they were going all out, since they just got off the probation list. Granted, it's probably going to put them right back on but it should be pretty great,” Jongdae perks up at the mention of anything that is not related to studying. “What about it, Princess? Will you do your Knight the honor of escorting him to the frat party?”

Luhan grins, his eyes meeting Yixing's. At the nod, Luhan smiles. ‘New memories, new memories.’

“As long as you help me study, Jongdae ah,” Luhan teases.

Jongdae nods eagerly, shifting until he is sitting beside the two boys. Jongdae begins to go through the list of dates, making funny anecdotes and Luhan finds himself laughing at them, surprising himself when he actually remembers them. Jongin laughs with him, amused at Luhan's childish joy, all the members of their small group, laughing with him.

Jongin walks with Luhan as they leave their History class, both rejoicing over their test. Luhan feels fairly confident, especially since most of the material Jongdae insisted he study, most of which he disregarded had shown up on the test.

They wait, as per routine, for Jongdae and Baekhyun to get out of their vocal class. Jongdae having taken it as a stress reliever, while Baekhyun took it when he was recommended by the professor.

Baekhyun squeals as he catches sight of his babies, rushing over to envelope them in his arms. Jongdae strolls up next to them, a eating grin on his face as he asks, “how was the test, my darlings?”

“Everything you said would come out came out. Hyung, how did you know?” Jongin asks, the child like wonder in his eyes, only saved for the select few, causes Jongdae to ruffle his hair.

“Because I am a genius!” Jongdae announces, bending over in a bow, in a perfect position for Baekhyun to slap his head. With a wince, Jongdae rubs the back of his head, scowling at Baekhyun, who simply smiles at him.

Luhan giggles, while Jongin wraps his arms around Luhan's waist, resting his head on his shoulder.

“Hyung, I'm hungry. Let's go!” He whines, his voice husky against Luhan's ear. Luhan reaches backwards, as his habit has become, to run his fingers through Jongin's hair.

“Aigoo, Jonginne, my baby. You're going to grow to be such a big boy,” Baekhyun coos, squishing Jongin's and Luhan faces together, causing Jongdae to laugh.

“Let's get our other kids, before leaving, Jagiya,” Jongdae teases, one hand around Baekhyun's waist. He uses his chin to point at Sehun, who was apologizing to a group of girls he had stumbled into, bowing continuously, his face red, while the girls tittered. Baekhyun blinks before smiling mischievously.

“Yeobo, Xingie has practice til four, so I'll buy his food for him and deliver it to him after practice,” Baekhyun bats his eyelashes, as he leans his body against Jongdae's.

“What about Sehunnie?”

“Speak not to me of your love child with another man. He should be lucky I allow him into my presence!”

“I am not anyone's love child!” Sehun retaliates as soon as he reaches them, the insult the first thing he hears.

“It's better than being a thing,” Jongin reasons.

“Oh for the love of Fan, tell that thing that he should not speak in my presence and if he does decide to disregard my presence, to watch his tone!”

Luhan pats Jongin's head as he pouts from being ignored. “He’s just Sehun,” Luhan whispers reassuringly. He giggles when Baekhyun slaps Sehun in the back of his head, telling him off for looking at his children with those disgusting eyes. Sehun whimpers, before trying to glare at Luhan again, earning himself another slap.

“Listen to your mother, Sehun.”

“He…he’s not my mother! Why, of all people, does he get to be my mother? My mother is a very nice lady from Seoul!” Sehun whines.

“Look at this thing, disrespecting me…Is this what I get for raising you?” Baekhyun dramatically cries against Jongdae's shoulder.

“You never raised me! My mother did! And no, you are in no way my mother!”

Jongin bursts into laughter, his forehead pressed into Luhan's shoulder as he laughs, a cute laugh that wrinkles his nose and turns his eyes into crescents. Luhan, Baekhyun and Jongdae giggle beside him as they tease at the red faced Sehun, who continues his protests.

“You can't fight with your mother Sehunnie. Just accept your fate, and live with it,” Jongdae says reasonably.

Sehun simply drops his head into his hands and covers his ears. Baekhyun laughs, patting Sehun's shoulder.

Jongdae makes a show of opening the door for his ‘wife’, taking the liberty to order for his ‘family.’ Baekhyun with his two tight jeans and over sized button up, Luhan with his ever young face and doe eyes that gave anyone who looked at him the urge to cuddle close to him, Jong- ah no- Kai –rebellious phase, Jongdae waves his hand, and rolls his eyes- in his black jeans, wife beater and jacket, while Sehun who stares red faced at the lies his hyung sprouts. He tells anyone who was willing to listen, that his ‘wife’ is expecting another child, their first together. Three were from her previous marriages, the third was in class right now, one from his previous wife. Baekhyun plays the part of a bashful wife, blushing scarlet when necessary, batting his eyelashes, offering apologies for his ‘husband’s’ behavior.

“He's just excited,” Baekhyun excuses him, laughing delicately when patrons stare. The waiter plays along, used to the stories that Jongdae loves to cook up.

The five stumble out of the store, bursting into hysterics over Jongdae's actions. Jongin laughs and laughs and along with him, Luhan with his wrinkles galore, laughs just as hard.

“We can never go there again,” Luhan gasps.

“Are you kidding? This is our place, baby!” Jongdae shoots right back.

“You say that every week, don't you get tired of being wro…Ow!” Sehun winced as he rubs the sore spot on his head.

It is nightfall when Jongdae arrives at their door, with Sehun in tow.

“Are my darlings ready to party?” Jongdae exclaims, strolling through the door in his tight black jeans and equally tight wife beater, accompanied with a red jacket. Sehun scuttles in, behind him, dressed almost the same with red jeans and a black jacket. “Aren't my son and I cute? We match!”

Baekhyun peers out of the bathroom, eyeliner ringing his eyes, taking in Jongdae’s attire. “I suppose it's acceptable.” Baekhyun disappears into the bathroom again, presumably to finish his make up.

Jongin stares at them from the couch, a shy smile on his face. He was still wearing his clothes from earlier in the day, with Baekhyun's eyeliner around his eyes. Luhan blinks from the kitchen, his white figure hugging jeans and black shirt, his doe eyes complemented with eye shadow, painting a picture as he smiles, and goes over to give Jongdae his customary hug.

Jongdae grins, tugging Luhan tightly to him. “Now listen up, Lulu, Xingie, Jong- ah no- Kai, Sehun. Appa has something's you have to follow. Number one…”

“Hyung, you've already given me the speech, back at our apartment.”

“Byun Sehun, how dare you interrupt your father!”

“Why are you changing my last name?”

“Why does he get your last name when he's my love child!?”

“Kim Sehun, sit your on the couch and listen to your father.”

“Oh! My last name is Oh! Not Byun. Not Kim! But Oh!”

“Kim Sehun, shut up and sit down.”

Yixing yanks Sehun down, patting the space beside him. He smiles dreamily at Jongdae. “Do I have to call you appa too?”

“Only if you want to!” Jongdae squeals.

“Jongdae, back to the rules before you get distracted! Hannie, Jonginne! Listen carefully!”

“Yes, ah, as I was saying, number one, do not accept drinks from anyone other than myself or Baek. No one else. I don't care if Jongin was drinking out of the cup, Lulu, you can't drink it.”

“Why not? It's just Jonginne.”

“Because, well umm because…”

“Just don't drink it if it's a stranger, Hannie.”

“Back to me. As I was saying. Number two, if you get drinks, do not at any point, put them down! If you do, throw them away, do not drink from them again. Number three, make sure you have your phones on you and answer all calls from us. Call us if you lose sight of us, or if you feel sick. Number four, do not follow anyone into any other part of the house, stay in the living room at all times,” Jongdae turns to Baekhyun, “anything else you want to add, Baek?”

“Don't take anything anyone offers you, be it a cigarette or candy. Especially candy,” Baekhyun wiggles a finger in Yixing's face.

The four on the couch nod, and Baekhyun sighs in exasperation. He would have to look out for his babies quite carefully. Jongdae wraps his pinky around Baekhyun's and smiles.

“I'll look out for them, too don't worry.”

“You realize that I'm older than all of you, right? If anything, I should be the one looking after all of you,” Luhan sulks.

“You aren't even capable of looking after yourself.” Baekhyun's eyes bore holes into Luhan's head.

“That is an untrue statement. You take that back, Byun Baekhyun.”

“Says the man who locked himself in the bathroom and had a panic attack when he couldn't get out.”

Luhan stared at Baekhyun who simply grins at him.

“Let's just go.”

Author's note: Hello, my friends! I bring to you the latest installment! I quite like this one, took me all day to write! I decided to try developing their realtionships a bit more but if it is confusing, please tell me so I can fix it! Also, I don't know if you can tell but my BaekChen feels have been rising. At first, when I wrote them, I was wondering if I would find any pictures, but htere are so many and I'm having trouble choosing, So I'm just putting my favourites...Mwhaha

As always special thanks to my commentors: I'm so glad you are enjoying the story! and my subscribers: I hope you enjoy this chapter! I want to write your names but I'm on mobile and I can't switch tabs or it will refresh the page, effectively erasing everything! Sorry!

As always, I hope you like this chapter, and if you spot any mistakes, let me know so I can fix them. This is completely unbeta'd.

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