Jinyoung sips his latte as he scrolls through his instragram, relishing the peace as Sandeul is passed out on the couch from allergy meds. If he had known, Jinyoung would have started rubbing banana leaves on him years ago. JR is out running errands, leaving Jinyoung to babysit, but the rest of the guys are managing to entertain themselves.

                The only one he sees is Ren, who has been scurrying behind furniture, ducking behind houseplants, and opening and closing nearly every drawer in the house. When Ren silently dives into the recycling bin for plastic bottles, Jinyoung finally sets the phone down.

                “Ren?” Normally Ren gets tired of playing hide and seek by himself after half an hour. “What are you doing?” Ren straightens up and brushes some of his hair back away from his face.

                “I’m looking for Myeongwol,” Ren says.

                “Myeongwol?”

                “My caterpillar,” Ren explains. “It’s the caterpillar of a purple emperor butterfly. But Myeongwol’s only a baby, so she’s small and green. She looks like she has pointy ears and has really big eyes? I brought her some sap, but I can’t find her and I’m scared she might get hungry or thirsty. She’s just a baby, you know. It’s my job to take care of her.” As he speaks, Jinyoung suddenly feels a cold twist in his stomach.

                “She’s um…she’s green,” Jinyoung repeats.

                “Yeah. She looks like this.” Ren pulls out his phone and shows him a picture. “Have you seen her? I’ve looked everywhere.” Jinyoung swallows thickly, then hands Ren his mug. Ren thanks him and begins to drink the latte.

                “Um…well, um, there’s a chance I may have seen her earlier this morning,” Jinyoung begins. Ren’s staring at him with his usual blank expression, but Jinyoung’s better at identifying his emotions now. The faint glimmer of hope in Ren’s eyes is enough to make him want to throw himself off a bridge before JR has a chance to murder him himself.  “And…you see…Sandeul may have spotted it and gotten scared and I may have slayed it—on accident— with Baekho’s club that he made the one time we went LARPing and I didn’t know—”

                “My baby?” Ren says, his eyes widening.

                “Don’t say that,” Jinyoung says. “It’s a larva.”

                “Is my baby gone?”  Jinyoung moves to hug Ren, but Ren takes a step back, his eyes now obviously b with grief and betrayal. “My Myeongwol? With the pointy ears?”

                “Um, yeah…with the pointy ears.” Jinyoung says. Suddenly the cup crashes to the floor.

                “No,” Ren says, his voice still the calm tone it usually is. “No. Myeongwol can’t be dead. She’s my baby. She’s going to be an architect when she grows up. She wants to see the Taj Mahal and the Eiffel Tower. Myeongwol has many goals, you see.” Jinyoung doesn’t entirely see, but he knows now is not the time. “I sing her FACE before bed. It’s her favorite. She likes the dubstep breakdown. No…no….no!” He suddenly runs from the kitchen and thunders up the stairs. Jinyoung hears his bedroom door slam shut. He wanders to the wall and begins to lightly bang his forehead against it. And that’s when JR returns.

                “I’m home!” JR announces, carrying a bag of groceries. He freezes when he sees Jinyoung and the broken china. “Jinyoung What happened? Did you lose Sandeul?” Jinyoung shakes his head.

                “Oh, if only that was the problem,” Gongchan says with a wicked grin from where he has secretly been sitting by a power outlet with his tablet. Jinyoung shoots him a look of utter panic, his eyes pleading with Gongchan not to say anything. “Jinyoung slaughtered Myeongwol. Ren just found out.” JR’s fiery gaze snaps back to Jinyoung.

                “You. What.”

                “What?” Cnu is now wandering over, having just woken up from a nap. “You killed Myeongwol?”

                “What? Does everyone know about it?” Jinyoung asks.

                “Uh, she’s only Ren’s daughter,” Baro says, tagging not too far behind Cnu. “She was going to study to be an architect. Didn’t you know?” Jinyoung withers under their glares.

                “I need to be with Ren now,” JR says solemnly. “I can’t even stand to look at you. You disgust me. How could you be so heartless. She had pointy ears.” With that, he turns around and runs up to Ren’s room, leaving the others to continue to glare at Jinyoung.

                He opens the door to Ren’s room  and sees him curled up on his side, his head in Baekho’s lap as he sobs inconsolably. Baekho’s his hair and trying to comfort him.

                “I should have watched her better,” Ren sobs. “I know Sandeul’s scared of bugs, but I thought since she had pointy ears it would be ok. This is all my fault. And-and now I’ll never be able to take her to the Taj Mahal.” JR crawls onto the bed and Baekho allows him to draw Ren into his lap. JR rocks him back and forth as Ren cries.

                “It’s not your fault,” JR says. “You were a really good dad to her. She was the most loved caterpillar in the whole history of caterpillars.” He and Baekho continue to cuddle and coo over Ren until he finally falls asleep in JR’s arms. JR gingerly tucks Ren back under the covers and kisses him on the forehead. He glances over at Baekho, who nods and stretches out beside Ren, wrapping an arm around him. Reassured that Ren will be looked after, JR goes downstairs.

                Jinyoung is pacing in front of a couch, where all the rest of the boys are clumped together, each looking at Jinyoung in complete and utter mistrust. Except for Gongchan, who keeps smirking at him.

                “Look. I know the caterpillar had pointy ears, but I think there’s a chance you might be overreacting. You realize this is a larva. A larva. With, like, a million legs and a brain the size of a piece of dust. You do know that she couldn’t even speak human. Mimi or whatever her name is was never going to be an architect. Ever. Ever. She’s a bug!”

                “Ren’s baby,” Gongchan corrects.

                “Ren does not have a baby!”

                “Because you squashed it,” Baro mutters. The others nod in agreement, except Aron who has no idea of what all these scientific terms are. But he knows that A Bad Thing Happened and that Ren is sad. And when Ren is sad, JR is sad. And when JR is sad, everyone is sad. Ergo, Aron is also sad. Because Aron is good at logic.

                “Ok. I’m sorry I squashed the bu—the baby. It was very wrong of me and I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. Ok?” There’s a moment of stony silence.

                “Ok,” they all chirp, then get off the couch. Jinyoung blinks.

                “Wait, what? Ok? Just like that?”

                “Well, yeah…” Minhyun says, looking slightly confused. “We just wanted you to say you were sorry.”

                “And wrong,” Gongchan adds. “Mostly wrong.”

                “But also sorry,” Cnu says.

                “Yeah…just go get Ren a cookie and he’ll be fine,” JR says, clapping a hand on Jinyoung’s shoulder. “Maybe a cupcake? Oh, and that passionfruit juice he likes. You know how he gets thirsty. The cupcake should have green frosting so he can preserve her memory. Ask if there can be sprinkles.” Jinyoung sighs, but grabs his car keys anyway. He does not get paid enough for this.